Author's Note: It's not like there will be a public announcement that Snape gave Necia a detention, and even if Lucius did manage to discover that Necia received a detention at all, it wouldn't really matter. He already has his plans set and he intends to put them into action no matter what the Hogwarts staff does to interfere. As for the twins, the licorice wouldn't have had the right effect on them. After all, it was intended for women. Imagine the side effects of that kind of magic on a man. Of course, they would find it hilarious if they miraculously sprouted breasts, among other things. Hmm, a new fic idea.
Haunted
By Be Boring
Chapter 11: The Truth Shall Set You Free
Snape looked down at yet another miserable essay in disgust. Did kids really think they could get by with writing rubbish like this? It was clear that no one had been paying attention.
Glancing up from his papers, he watched Necia fine-tuning the heat of the fire beneath her cauldron, biting her lip gently in concentration as she worked. He had hardly spoken a word to any of the group that had been present at the disastrous Weasley Christmas dinner. Even nearly a month later, it was hard to think about that evening without the burn of humiliation in his stomach. He hated being made a fool of, and someone had been out to completely ruin his night. At first he had thought that it was Potter or the youngest Weasley brother, but every now and then he suspected Necia. He didn't really believe she had done it, but he would love the opportunity to punish her more with the satisfaction that she knew she deserved it. And speaking of punishment…
"Your detention will be at 10:00 a.m. tomorrow," he announced casually, making Necia jump at the sudden disturbance to the silence she had grown so used to in his classroom lately. It took her a moment to process what he had said, then suddenly her eyes grew wide with realization. He watched as the anger built behind her eyes. More than likely she had made plans with Potter for her Hogsmeade weekend. "Did you think I forgot?"
She obviously had to hold back something much more spiteful and instead replied, "I just didn't think it was standard procedure to wait so long before doling out a punishment. After all, you're only just punishing me now for something that happened on the first day of school."
As though he hadn't heard her, he added, "You will be helping me grade some potions from the first year class. They're simple truth potions, so I will need a live subject to test them on. I have a rather large first year class this year, so it may take several hours." Much less potent than Veritaserum, the potions that his first year class had brewed only lasted a matter of five or six minutes, and their side effects were much less severe if they were made incorrectly. Veritaserum could last hours, and if not perfectly created, could have permanent psychological side effects. With the simpler potions the most you were in danger of was a migraine.
She didn't say anything, she simply glared furiously down into her cauldron and continued changing the heat until it suited her. A brief smile crossed his face at her quietly boiling rage and he returned to grading his papers in much better spirits than before.
A detention on Hogsmeade weekend for something that had happened months ago? Necia had to use every ounce of willpower she had to keep from lunging across the room and strangling Snape until that smug smile slipped off his face forever. Why had he waited so long? Why hadn't he pulled this stunt at the last Hogsmeade weekend? It just didn't make sense to her. As the minutes ticked away, her indignation only seemed to feed off itself and swell until it filled every cell in her body.
As she reached onto the desk behind her to measure out the correct amount of beetle wings, she saw a platinum blonde head whip back around the doorway into the hallway. 'What is that git doing here?' she wondered with a distinct lack of interest. She was too angry about Snape's cruelty to care what Malfoy was up to.
As she continued to work on her potion, however, his head began to pop into the room with more frequency until finally her curiosity overrode her anger. When she finally finished everything she was able to do that night, she packed up her materials and hurried out of the room before Snape could rub it in that he was stealing her Hogsmeade weekend from her. The moment she was in the corridor, she grabbed Draco's arm and dragged him out of earshot of Snape's classroom. She had taken him by surprise, he hadn't expected her to come out of the room at that moment, and as a result his face was still returning to its normal color as she asked, "Why have you been hanging around outside that room for the past half hour? If you had wanted to talk to Snape, my being there wouldn't have stopped you, so what do you want?"
He smirked at her. "I wonder just what Snape would think if he knew who you really are."
If she had expected him to say anything of value, it certainly wasn't that. "Excuse me? You don't know anything about me, and why does anything Snape thinks matter?"
"Well, it's not just Snape I'm curious about. I'd love to see Potter's face when he finds out everything about you."
She didn't see what he was getting at. "What could Harry ever find out that would make you want to watch his reaction? Are you giving up magic and turning to a Muggle life-style?"
Now he tilted his head to the side and smiled with a look of mock gentleness on his face. "No, I just think he would be interested in knowing that we're family."
It felt as though her stomach had charged back into the classroom and come back with something foul from Snape's shelves, because it was currently twisting around in agony. "H-How…?"
His expression was growing more condescending by the moment. "Mother was the one who covered up for you when you went here. Did you really think I wouldn't find out?"
At least that meant that he hadn't known all along. Some of his actions would have been made twice as detestable by his knowledge of their connection. She still vividly remembered his lips on her during the train ride to Hogwarts. "How long have you known?" she asked weakly. If he knew, that meant a world of trouble for her.
"Mother told me over Christmas vacation. Your mother and my father were cousins, so that makes us second cousins."
She really didn't like the way he was looking at her. "Why are you just letting me know now that you found out? I thought you would have rubbed it in my face right after Christmas break ended."
"I was deciding when the right time was to tell you, but I just couldn't hold it in anymore. Be thankful I decided to talk to you about it in private rather than in front of all your friends."
Oh no, her friends. How would they react when they found out she was really a Malfoy? Trying to keep her face as passive as possible, she asked, "So what are you planning to do about it? You couldn't possibly just want to rub it in my face."
"I'll think of something. I don't think you understand just what kind of effect this will have on your reputation here. The Malfoy name doesn't exactly inspire respect anymore. True, your mother wasn't a prime example of a Malfoy, but I don't think anyone will care. Potter will drop you like a hot rock."
"That shows how much you know," she growled at him. "Harry's better than that. He doesn't just judge people because of their name. Telling him won't change anything."
Once again, that damned smirk took its natural position on his face. "I wouldn't be so sure."
As he stalked off, leaving her completely unnerved, only one thought managed to lodge itself in her mind. She had to talk to her friends first and make them understand why she hadn't told them from the very beginning that she was a Malfoy. Waiting until Draco had disappeared from sight down the corridor, she took off for Gryffindor Tower.
Severus looked up as he heard footsteps heading down the corridor, surprised when Draco Malfoy walked past looking very pleased with himself. A few minutes later, Necia Holt passed by as well, looking rather pale. Had they just been talking? He didn't like the idea of that, Lucius had made it sound as though he had a plan for making sure Necia went on her Hogsmeade weekend, as well as separating her from Potter. It hadn't really occurred to him that Draco could be part of this plan. What other reason would Draco have for talking to her? She hadn't looked angry when she passed by his room, just a little panicky, which wasn't her usual reaction to conversations with the Slytherin terror. He, as well as the rest of the teachers, had seen them fight multiple times, never with good results. If their conversation had taken a different turn this time, then maybe whatever plan Lucius had was being put into action. 'But I gave her a detention. Hopefully she won't be stupid enough to skip it.' Of course, he wouldn't put anything past someone associated with Harry Potter.
He sighed and began putting the essays away. He just wasn't in the mood to look at them anymore, and besides, it would probably be prudent to tell Dumbledore what he suspected.
As he entered the brilliantly glittering office, his eyes landed on the headmaster, who was stroking Fawkes. The phoenix was apparently about to burst into flames again, he looked positively ancient. He cleared his throat, but Dumbledore didn't turn. Instead, he asked quietly, "Do you have news for me, Severus?"
How did that man always know what was going on? "It's not so much news as a concern. I told Ms. Holt about her detention, but shortly after she left my room I believe she had a conversation with Draco Malfoy. Lucius may be planning to use the boy to make sure that she goes to Hogsmeade this weekend. What are we going to do if she decides to skip my detention? You said it yourself, it's very hard to keep an eye on someone in Hogsmeade when all the students are there, but if for some reason she's with young Mr. Malfoy, it will be easier for Lucius to get to her."
Dumbledore nodded gravely, never removing his eyes from Fawkes, who was looking older by the minute. "Ms. Holt seems like an upstanding girl, I would hope that nothing Mr. Malfoy could say would deter her from going to detention, and from there I will leave her to you. You know best how to keep a student occupied for quite some time."
Severus was sure that was a light jab at his tendency to make students' lives miserable, but he didn't really mind. After all, that was his intention, there was no point denying it. "She's a headstrong girl. If I push her too far, she's liable to just leave the room before the detention is over and get herself kidnapped anyway."
"Then be creative," Dumbledore suggested with a slight twinkle in his eye. "Normally I don't approve of how you deal with my students, you know that, but I'm giving you permission to be as harsh as you like. Better for Ms. Holt to have a depressing day than for Lucius to get to her."
"Wouldn't it almost be easier just to tell her what's happening? That way she would understand why we're doing all of this, and she'd be much less likely to go to Hogsmeade even if she did skip detention."
Dumbledore shook his head, now finally turning to face the younger man. "It would be too dangerous. You said yourself that Lucius used a Memory Charm on her, which was actually a very good thing, because that means she doesn't remember the details of her mother's death. If we were to tell her about Lucius, it could have serious repercussions if it were to jog her memory. She would fight to remember everything, and with that powerful Memory Charm in place, it could do more damage than good. I am not willing to risk her health over that possibility."
Risking her health didn't really bother Severus, but he would never go against Dumbledore's wishes. He simply had too much respect for the man. Dumbledore had earned his fervent admiration on his very first day of school, when he had stopped a sixth year Slytherin from hexing young Snape with a wave of his hand, reversing the hex back onto its creator. Of course he had then cleared the problem up right away, unwilling to make any student suffer no matter how badly they were behaving, but it had made a deep impression on eleven-year-old Severus Snape. That was the first time anyone had stood up for him.
The night that Voldemort ordered him to poison Albus Dumbledore had been one of the worst of his life. He couldn't sleep for days beforehand, hardly able to bear the thought of harming the one man who had never treated him like some greasy-haired rat of a boy, but rather as someone who was his equal, someone he deeply respected. If they passed in the hallway, he would do more than just say hello, he would actually stop and talk to him if there was time. Dumbledore had granted him permission to use the Potions classroom after hours, as well as giving him access to the teacher's private stores so that he could practice extremely complicated potions. He would never forget the older man's contribution to his life. Without him, Severus may never have become as proficient in potion-making as he was today.
When he finally showed up outside Dumbledore's door, he received the shock of his life. Dumbledore had been calmly waiting for him in the front hall of his house, holding a cup for Severus to pour the poison in. He even remembered the exact words the other man had spoken. "If this is what you want, I could think of no finer way to go than at your hands." After those words, Severus had broken down. He simply couldn't do it. He hadn't lost his composure, he simply muttered that he had no intention of doing any such thing. He spent nearly an hour in Dumbledore's house, talking to him about everything, and it became undoubtedly clear to him during that time that while he possessed the cruelty inside of him to follow Voldemort, he could never be happy that way. True, he wasn't particularly happy now, but he could hold his head high, which was something that meant a lot to him after a long childhood of watching his father beat his mother into submission. At the end of the visit, Dumbledore had proposed the idea of him becoming a spy, which he accepted a week later. He had lied to Voldemort, telling him that Dumbledore was too well protected for him to infiltrate his house, and although he had been tortured grievously for failing to follow his master's orders, Voldemort then let him focus on other projects. After all, Severus was the only one of his Death Eaters who was capable of brewing a working potion.
While the stress of being a double agent was almost more than he could bear, he couldn't make one choice completely over the other. His fear of Voldemort nearly matched his respect for Dumbledore, and only when the Dark Lord disappeared after attacking Harry Potter was he given a rest. Although he had desperately needed the chance to get his life back together without Voldemort's interference, it was another debt to be repaid to the Potter family. By now, however, he felt that debt had been erased.
"What are you thinking about, Severus?"
He looked up, startled to find Dumbledore staring at him pensively, quietly watching his face as the memories washed over him. He shook his head slightly to clear his thoughts and answered, "Nothing important, I just lost my train of thought for a moment."
Albus smiled gently. "It's late, you should be getting into bed at this very moment. Thank you for your suspicions, it's something else we can now keep an eye on, but I think we're done for tonight. Goodnight, Severus."
"Goodnight, Headmaster." With a polite nod, he swept out of the room, relieved that now much of the responsibility had been taken off his shoulders. If Necia decided to do something foolish, it was out of his hands, and he wouldn't be blamed. At least now he could get a peaceful night's rest.
Necia was shaking as she climbed through the portrait hole into the Gryffindor common room. She had sincerely hoped that she would be able to make it through the school year without anyone finding out her true surname, and the prospect of having to share that information much earlier than she had planned terrified her.
Because of her preoccupation, it took her a few minutes of searching the room for her friends before she realized that people were staring at her very strangely. Some first years nearby had leaned away from her and were gazing up at her as though they were expecting her to launch an attack on them. Lavender and Parvati both looked away quickly when her eyes landed on them, looking very uncomfortable, and the expression on Neville Longbottom's face was indiscernible. She couldn't tell if he was angry, sad, or a little bit frightened. After standing there uneasily for a moment, she turned to him.
"What's going on? Why is everyone looking at me like that?"
Neville couldn't bring himself to say anything. Instead, he gestured towards the table in front of the fire. Confused, she headed for it, realizing as she drew closer that two photographs were lying on the rich mahogany surface. She reached down and picked the first one up. At a glance it was easy to see that it was an old Malfoy family portrait. Her mother, in her late teens at the time, was in the front row, next to a boy that looked remarkably like Draco. When she flipped it over, she found a list of names that labeled him as Lucius Malfoy. 'That's the cousin that Mum went to school with,' she realized. Then her eyes fell on the second picture.
It was a photo taken nearly three years ago of her mother standing with her in their garden, laughing with her arm around her daughter's shoulder. Like the first, their names were on the back, and she was clearly listed as Necia Malfoy. Studying the two pictures, there was no doubt that her mother was indeed a Malfoy, and that she was undoubtedly Necia's mother.
At first she didn't know how to react. The immediate feeling that washed over her was of panic at the realization that her friends now knew everything and she hadn't been the one to tell them. It was soon followed by molten fury at the fact that Draco had probably done this even before he had come to talk to her. Had he done that just to give her hope of settling the situation before he could make it worse, only to pull that hope out from underneath her? She whirled on Neville, the pictures trembling along with her fingers.
"How did these get here?"
He glared up at her. "So you're not even going to try to deny it?"
"What's the point? You've seen them already, they speak for themselves pretty clearly. Now I want to know how you all ended up seeing them!"
His eyes burned into hers for a while before he replied, "Malfoy's owl brought them to the window and didn't stop beating on it until we let it in."
"Where is Harry?" Wherever Harry was, the others were sure to be.
"Up in our dormitory, but he's really pissed o—" He didn't even get the chance to finish before Necia tore up the stairs to the boys' dormitory, stuffing the pictures into her robes as she ran. As long as the information was still fresh, she stood a chance of getting them to understand why she had done it.
Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny were all sitting on Harry's bed in a small circle, talking feverishly. When she flung the door open, everything went dead silent as they all stared at her. Her heart felt like it had frozen in her chest at the sight of their cold glares. Harry was the first to speak.
"How could you keep something like that from us?"
"I—"
Ron cut her off. "Are you here as some sort of spy for the Malfoy family? What have you told Draco?"
Indignation was practically sparking from her. "Nothing, I—"
Now Hermione interrupted her, looking more hurt than angry. "There was no reason for you to keep it from us unless you were doing something that required secrecy, and I can't think of much else than what Ron said."
It was hard to make out the expression on Ginny's face as she said quietly, "How closely related are you to Draco?"
Necia was thankful for a question that at least didn't sound like an accusation, no matter how much Ginny's tone of voice threatened it. "We're second cousins. My mother and his father are — were — cousins."
"What else have you kept from us?" Harry hissed fiercely, his eyes chilling her to the bone. "How do we know your mother isn't alive and helping Lucius Malfoy hide from the Aurors, and that's why she couldn't home school you anymore?"
Now her eyes matched his glare for glare. "Unfortunately, my mother is really dead, and even if she were alive, she wouldn't be helping Lucius. They were hardly on speaking terms."
"Really? All Malfoys are alike, I'm surprised you're not out there helping him right now. Was your mother a Death Eater too?"
It was one thing for them to blame her, but to say anything so hateful about her mother was unbearable. "Fine, have it your way. I'm a spy for Slytherin, my mother was You-Know-Who's right hand, and she's hiding Lucius Malfoy in some far away country and sent me here to gather information so that Lucius could come and kill the whole lot of you. I'm actually best friends with my second cousin and I'm dating Goyle and Crabbe at the same time. Are you happy?" Before they could react, she stalked out of the room, not spending more than two seconds in the common room as she crossed to the girls' dormitories. She understood that they were angry, but why didn't they use some common sense? Did they really think she was such a cruel person? Of course, everything was fresh and emotions were running high. Hopefully in the morning things would be better once they had had a chance to think things over.
One thing was for sure. Draco would undoubtedly be going to Hogsmeade tomorrow, and she was going to meet him there. Snape and his detention be damned, she needed to tear her cousin limb from limb.
The next morning, Severus walked down to breakfast with a slight spring in his step. What could be better than Dumbledore giving him permission to be as foul as he wanted? However, his uncharacteristic cheerfulness faded away very quickly once he entered the Great Hall.
The first thing he noticed was that Draco Malfoy was wolfing down his food at almost inhuman speeds, all the while staring across the hall to the Gryffindor table. There he realized that Necia was doing the same, and there was a whole new glint in her eye that he didn't like; he strongly suspected that her mind was on something other than being a good student and actually completing her punishment. 'Looks like Dumbledore was wrong.' Of course, just because she looked like she was trying to ignite Malfoy with her eyes didn't necessarily mean that she would be skipping, but he had never seen her looking so livid, and he felt pretty secure in his first judgment that her mind was focused only on Malfoy.
Malfoy finished his meal first and strode purposefully towards the entrance hall where Filch was checking people off his list so that they could go to Hogsmeade. Sure enough, as soon as she had choked down enough food to get her through the morning, she took off after him, not even glancing back at the teachers' table where she knew perfectly well he was sitting. 'Great, she really is going to get herself caught,' he thought with frustration. The last thing he needed to be doing was chasing down some teenage girl, and did it really matter if Lucius got her? He wasn't planning on hurting her, not at first anyway, and Severus was in the perfect position to get her away from Lucius if he needed to. Still, Dumbledore would be furious if he knew that he had been in a position to stop Necia from leaving and hadn't done so.
As he crossed the hall to catch Necia before Filch let her go out the door, he overheard something that made him stop in his tracks. Two Gryffindor second years were whispering excitedly, and he clearly heard the words "lying all this time" and "Necia Malfoy." He turned his withering gaze onto them and asked quickly, "What did you say?"
Both kids looked up at him in sheer horror, then as though she couldn't stop her mouth, one of them babbled quickly, "That Necia Holt girl has been lying about her name. She's actually a Malfoy."
This was certainly news to him. "When did you find this out?"
"L-Last night," the other girl stuttered, both of them looking as though they wished they could just disappear on the spot.
So that was what they had been talking about last night. He was completely caught off guard about the fact that Necia was a Malfoy, which meant Lucius was going after one of his own family members, but now he could see why Lucius had been so confident about being able to capture her. There was no doubt that Draco had actually been the one to let the information slip to the Gryffindors, so that's why she was after him, and it would easily separate her from Potter, who wouldn't forgive her. At least not this soon. But why hadn't Lucius shared this little tidbit of information with him?
Just before Necia managed to step out the doors, he reached out and grabbed her arm. "Aren't you forgetting something?" he said in his quiet, deadly tone of voice. The fierceness in her eyes took him by surprise, but she finally wrenched her arm from his grip and stormed off in the direction of the dungeons. As he followed, it occurred to him that he had never seen a Malfoy that wasn't blonde. Now that he knew, he could certainly see the resemblance, especially in her eyes, and now it made sense to him why he had seen some similarities to Cassandra when Necia had first entered the Three Broomsticks before school. They were related, of course they would look somewhat alike. Malfoys were an easy group to pick out of a crowd.
When he entered his classroom, she was already seated huffily in one of the front seats, apparently waiting for him to get everything over with. He took his time bringing out the tumblers for her to sample each potion, making sure he had antidotes on hand if anything went wrong. When she took a quick swallow of the first sample, he wasted no time in ruining her morning worse than it already was, although he decided to start in with a few lighter questions first.
"Which Hogwarts house are you in?"
"Gryffindor."
"What year are you?"
"Seventh."
"When is your birthday?"
"March 1st."
"What is your name?"
"Necia," she said quickly, obviously working hard to hold back from saying the entire thing. After all, it wasn't a lie, so the potion couldn't stop her.
"Your full name?" he asked snidely, enjoying the flare that once again rose in her eyes.
"Necia Elena Malfoy," she snapped, her eyes now searching his face for a reaction. He didn't give her the satisfaction, he just nodded and scribbled something down on his grade sheet. He had all day to piss her off more, but he didn't feel like holding back right now.
"Why did you say your surname was Holt?"
"Because I was aware of how Malfoys are thought of in the wizarding world and I didn't want to deal with that."
"But it's rather difficult to just lie about your name, especially when signing up for school. You would have needed papers stating that you were indeed a Holt. How did you manage to do it?"
"I didn't, another relative did."
"Which relative?"
"Narcissa Malfoy."
That made sense, Lucius would have had his wife keep their connection a secret. Then something else occurred to him. Lucius had killed this girl's mother, so had he actually killed one of his own relatives, or had Necia's mother married into the family? "What else has Mrs. Malfoy done for you?"
"She paid for me to get into Hogwarts, she arranged for me to stay at the White Charm Inn before school started, and she wrote a note giving me permission to go to Hogsmeade."
Of course, otherwise Necia would never have been in a position to be captured. Then again, perhaps it was just something to earn her gratitude. After all, they couldn't have possibly known at the time how they would be using her Hogsmeade weekends. "Why were you planning on skipping this detention today?"
If looks could kill… "I was going to talk to Draco Malfoy."
"Why?"
"Because he told everyone my real last name."
"And how did he do it? It would have taken more than just his word to convince everyone."
"He had pictures of my mother and I and of the Malfoy family with our names on the back. There's really no room for doubt."
Now he was fighting away a smile. "How did Potter react?"
She was obviously struggling not to answer, but even refusing to reply was considered lying under a truth serum, so she finally mumbled, "He wasn't very pleased."
"Just how close were you to Potter?" That question wasn't entirely appropriate, but he couldn't help himself. Anything to make her more uncomfortable than she already was.
She apparently agreed with him about how unnecessary his question was, but as she couldn't lie, she was forced to spit out, "We've been dating." Once again, not a lie, but evidently not the entire truth.
He really didn't think he could get away with asking much more on the subject. "How have you become as good with potions as you are? Your mother apparently learned a great deal after finishing at Hogwarts, if this is indeed where she went."
"Yes, she went to Hogwarts, and she studied Potions afterwards when she went to a private university."
"What did she do for a living?"
"She made potions for the Ministry, and I believe she worked against You-Know-Who."
Strange, a Malfoy working against Voldemort. He didn't remember hearing anything about that. Then again, Lucius had said that her mother was providing antidotes for his poisons. "Was it common knowledge that she was working for the Ministry?"
"No, she always remained anonymous. With the rest of the family supporting the Death Eaters, she couldn't very well make her position public, could she?"
The potion would be wearing off soon, and he could see her becoming fidgety in her seat. It would take a long time to get through all the potions. She apparently was just appreciating how much time it would take. That's why it didn't really surprise him when, as he was reaching for the second tumbler, she pulled out her wand and snapped, "Reducto!" at the vials on the desk. As he threw up his arms to protect his face from the shards of glass, Necia jumped to her feet and fled out the door before he could do anything.
Something flew out of her robes as she ran, landing just before the doorway. He quickly strode after her, stopping only to reach down and pick up what appeared to be two pictures from the floor. As he held up the first, it was easy to see that this was a Malfoy family portrait, with Lucius standing in the front row. His breath caught in his throat briefly as his eyes landed on Cassandra, forcing a smile while looking as though she'd like to stand next to anyone but her arrogant cousin. Then his eyes fell on the second picture.
Necia was very easily recognizable, although slightly younger, but it was the older witch who caught his eye. Even after so many years of aging he could tell who she was without having to think about it. Both pictures fluttered to the ground as his grip went slack, his gaunt face even paler than usual and his wide eyes focusing blankly on the opposite wall. Necia wasn't just related to Cassandra, she was her daughter! He leaned heavily against the door frame, very quickly doing the math in his head. Necia was in her seventh year and she had said herself that her birthday was the first of March, which meant she would be turning eighteen in just over a month. Eighteen years ago was 1979, which placed her conception somewhere around June of 1978. He still remembered the witch's words from the Three Broomsticks. "Actually, she reminds me slightly of that Sirius Black, with all of her dark hair. She has a bit of that lean build as well." Yes, Necia certainly did resemble Sirius. No wonder she had made such an instant connection with Harry Potter, he may have sensed her connection to his godfather. He knew there was a slight possibility that Necia wasn't actually Sirius's daughter, but just one look at her picture told him otherwise.
When he had finally collected himself enough to once again take in his surroundings and impress upon himself just what was happening, he knew he had to get to Hogsmeade at once. Now his mind wasn't on Necia. Lucius's face loomed in his mind, and he knew he had to confront the other man. Everything he had learned made one fact very clear: Cassandra was dead, and Lucius had killed her. He wasn't going to let that slide by.
