Thanks to some careful eavesdropping in the Three Broomsticks during his third year of school, Harry Potter came to realize that his godfather was none other than Sirius Black, a famous murderer and Death Eater who over the summer had claimed the title of the first person to escape Azkaban. With that information also came the fact that Sirius had betrayed his parents to Voldemort, and the realization that his godmother, Cassie Black, who no longer used her maiden name of Rencher as she had told him,had known it all along, yet she still withheld the information from him for nearly three years.
Cassie had received a rather disturbing letter from Harry right before Sirius had somehow found his way into Gryffindor Tower and slashed the curtains that surrounded Ronald Weasley's bed, an event that worried her to no end. What if Sirius really was a Death Eater and was now bent on killing their godson? Nothing seemed to make sense in to her. She would've given just about anything for a look inside Sirius' mind, just to see what was really going on.
Harry's letter, that was messily addressed to Mrs. C. Black, had a terribly hostile air and mainly had one point: Why hadn't she told him any of this before? Did she think that he was too immature to deal with such information? Cassie wrote back as quickly as she could, apologizing for keeping him in the dark about his godfather, and that no, she did not think he was too young to know the truth. She told him that it was a dark time, and that she merely did not wish to recall it, and in turn she never informed him about it. But while that was all she wrote, that wasn't all she wanted to tell him. How could she possibly tell him, against all facts, that it was still difficult for her to believe that Sirius was the evil man that the media and the Ministry claimed him to be? How could she possibly explain on paper, or even in person for that matter, the unbreakable bond of friendship that Sirius and James had shared, and how unbelievable it was for Sirius to have betrayed his best friend rather than to have taken the secret of the Potters' location to his grave?
Harry gave no reply to her letter, leaving her rather downtrodden. Thinking him angry and unwilling to talk, Cassie didn't bother to travel to Platform 9 ¾ to see him off the train, and it wasn't until a week into July that she heard from him again, this time with Remus Lupin as his messenger. Remus appeared at her doorstep around noon on a unusually warm, muggy Saturday afternoon, an envelope clasped in his left hand. He looked considerably worse from the last time Cassie had seen him, with his hair showing much more gray and the only decent thing he was wearing being his smile. His robes looked just about ready for the garbage heap.
Cassie sat him down at the kitchen table, placing a cup of tea in front of him as she asked to what occasion she owed the pleasure of his company. As she sat down, he slid the envelope to her from across the table, his grin momentarily disappearing into his teacup. As she picked it up and turned it over in her hands, she saw that it's backside was blank, bearing neither her name nor a return address.
"It's from Harry," said Remus, putting his cup down in its saucer, "He was going to owl it to you, but I offered to deliver it personally. I told him since I had to speak with you anyway, I might as well take it."
Sliding her red-nailed index finger under the sealed flap, Cassie opened the envelope and removed the letter. She read it over twice, but both times the last lines of the first paragraph left her completely stumped.
I'm sorry for not answering your last letter. I was mad, and I guess I overreacted a little. But it's fine now. In fact, it's better than it was. I know the truth now, and I guess soon you will, too.
The rest of the letter was a recap on the school year, telling her of his accomplishment of producing a corporeal Patronus, the Quidditch final, how most of the school was in agreement that Professor R.J. Lupin was the best Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher they had ever had, and so on.
"Remus, do you know what he's talking about? I--I don't understand." she said, folding the letter back up along its creases.
Remus smiled sagely, surfacing the forming wrinkles around his tired eyes. "Yes, in fact I do. That's why I've come to see you."
As Remus told her of the truths that had been revealed to Harry and his friends in the Shrieking Shack, Cassie felt as though her world had been completely turned upside down. After all of these years, it had been Peter Pettigrew who had joined the Death Eaters and betrayed the Potters' to Voldemort. Peter had been the one to murder thirteen people on a crowded London Street and fake his own death, leaving nothing behind but his severed finger. Knowing what no one but he and Peter knew after Lily and James' death, Sirius had tracked Peter down and was forced to take the blame for deaths he was not cause of.
"And all this while he was hiding as a Weasley family pet," said Remus.
"Scabbers?" she asked, getting a nod in response. "Oh my God…after---after all this time he was right under our noses…I--I can't believe it! Well what happened to him! Did you get the bastard!" Cassie's tone was steadily increasing in anger, anger that a person who she once called her friend was the cause of her friends' deaths and the reason her husband had been in prison for twelve years.
"Well--" said Remus, averting his eyes and squirming in his seat, "at first we were going to kill him…but Harry didn't think that was right. So we bound him up and were going to turn him in…but…" he said uncomfortably, his face flushing, " I forgot it was a full moon that night…I transformed, and he got away in the confusion. I'm sorry, Cassie."
" Don't apologize," she said, bringing her hand to her face, trying unsuccessfully to hide the fact that her eyes were beginning to overflow with tears. " I thought I was crazy all these years," she continued, her voice squeaking through her sobs, " I thought I was insane for thinking that there was no way in Hell Sirius could have ever betrayed them. I thought I was mad for still caring about him…"
Remus rose from his chair to kneel down at her side, taking her hand in his. " It's all right, Cassie. You're not mad. If anything, you were the only sane one." she looked down at him curiously, wiping dry her eyes with the back of her hand, " We were all mad for thinking he would have ever betrayed James and Lily."
Scooting her chair back, Cassie rose to her feet, and Remus did the same. Managing to smile, she pulled him into a friendly hug. " Thank you, Remus."
" Don't thank me." he said, putting his hands in his pockets. " You know Cassie, he still loves you, too."
" He does?" Cassie said, her eyes starting to water again.
" Yes. He asked me about you. Asked if you were all right. He said he'd give anything to see you."
" I'd give anything to see him."
Remus nodded, smiling. " I can talk to him for you. He's hiding in the mountains on Dumbledore's advice. I'll tell him you miss him and that he should visit."
" Oh, thank you, Remus." she said, once again pulling him into a hug, "Thank you so much."
And as she saw him out the door, Cassie felt a strong sense of relief. Her gut-feelings had been right all along. The man she loved was not a murderer, but merely a victim. It felt wonderful to finally know the truth about what had happened all those years ago, but she supposed that knowing that Sirius still cared for her was even more of a wonderful thing.
"Sirius," Remus Lupin said harshly, looking down at his long-time friend who was sitting in the corner of the cave with his back to the wall, his held low, embracing his bent knees. " Didn't you hear a word I said?"
" I heard you, Remus." Sirius replied lazily, closing his eyes and throwing back his head. "But I'm not sure anymore...I mean, after all these years, what do I do? Just waltz up to her doorstep like nothing happened? Like twelve years haven't passed?"
"Sirius, I don't think she'd like anything more than that. You should've seen her face, you should have seen her cry. Even after all of this, after all these years, she loves you. Loves you, Sirius. She never lost hope in you. She didn't believe, even when the rest of us did, that you had joined the Dark Side. You have to go see her. You know you want to. You still love her, don't you?"
Sirius shot Remus a look of pure poison. The question he presented was not one that he should have ever thought to ask. There was no question about whether or not Sirius loved Cassiopeia Rencher-Black, the girl he had fallen in love with when he was just a boy, and the woman he married when he became a man. Not a day went by when he was in prison that he didn't turn his thoughts to her, hoping that she was living a good life, and hoping beyond hope that somehow he would see her again.
How could it be that after all these years she still felt the same love for him? No second husband, no children, and still married to the man who left her on their front step without so much as saying goodbye, the man she had not seen or heard from in twelve years. Even after all of the terrible misgivings about him being a malignant plague on society and his abandonment of her she never thought ill of him. In a way he could not believe it, that Remus must be deceiving him for some twisted reason. But he wanted to believe it, and did believe it, because wasn't it true that neither had felt truly complete when they were not with the other? Hadn't they promised they would always be there for each other, no matter what?
" I love her more than anything else in this world." said Sirius, finally cracking a smile.
"And…?" Remus pressed, gesturing for him to continue.
"And, I'm going to pay her a visit. Now where did you say she lives again?"
A/N: Next chappie soon as I get a chance to post it...