Cassandra went back to Hogwarts the day before winter term started. Once she arrived and put her things away, she set out to meet the Weasley twins.
She had struggled picking out Yule gifts for the brothers at first, but once she remembered they were teenage boys almost single-mindedly dedicated to driving authority figures into an early grave, the task had become a lot easier. In the end, she decided on two vials of Polyjuice Potion, taken from her grandfather's stores, which she knew would go a long way in helping them cause chaos and mayhem around the castle.
"We can turn ourselves into Snape," Fred said with glee once he opened the parcel she handed them. "Or Filch. Or Dumbledore. Or- Imagine what we can do with this, George."
"I am, Fred. Cassandra, I could kiss you right now," George replied. When Fred jokingly launched himself at her, she made him lick a patch of wall instead.
After talking to the twins, she headed towards Hufflepuff Basement to see Cedric. They had corresponded during the break, him describing Christmas with his family and her speaking of the traditional Yule rites she and her grandfather observed. She was unreasonably excited to see him again. She realized that in some unconscious level, she'd been holding back in their budding relationship before she could talk to her grandfather about it. Knowing now that pursuing it wouldn't drive an edge between her and the only person she considered family made her almost giddy.
Once she reached the entrance to the basement, she waited outside until a first year showed up, then paid the boy a galeon to fetch the older student.
"That looks so undignified," she said with a laugh as Cedric made his way out of the passageway that led to the Hufflepuff common room. It was tall enough for the average eleven year old to be able to walk through, barely. Anyone taller had to either hunch or crawl their way through. What if there was an emergency and they had to leave at once? Were all the Hufflepuffs supposed to crawl orderly one behind another? If they tried that in her House, the Slytherins would probably trample each other to death.
"Yeah, I don't know why they didn't make it tall enough to walk through. But it's not that bad. It's fun for the firsties," Cedric said good-naturedly. His eyes traveled over Cassandra's face and body, as if he wanted to make sure she looked the same as the last time they had seen each other. When he noticed her watching him look at her, his cheeks pinked slightly, but he had a small, happy smile on his face. "I missed you."
"I missed you too," Cassandra replied with a smile of her own, and they both moved in for a hug. She closed her eyes, and for a moment, all that existed was Cedric. Cedric's arms around her waist, Cedric's hands splayed on her back, his scent where her face was pressed against his throat, the delicate way his nose touched the skin behind her ear, sending a shiver down her spine. Merlin, they hadn't even kissed yet. Could someone die from being kissed?
Once they separated, Cedric laced his fingers with hers. He seemed as reluctant to stop touching her as she was to get away from him. "Come on," she said. "I have a place we can talk."
She took him to her meditation spot, under the open sky at the top of the Astronomy tower. Cedric cast a warming spell around them, and they sat down facing each other, their knees touching.
"You're wearing it," Cedric said, and moved to touch the pendant resting on her breastbone, at the end of a delicate silver chain. He touched the small, silver raven for a few moments, until the silver bird woke and took flight, and they both watched the charmed pendant fly around Cassandra at a leisurely pace. After a while, the raven came back to rest on his place on her chest.
"I am," she said with a smile. "I have been since I got it. It's perfect. How are you enjoying your new broom?"
Cedric threw his head back in frustration. "You are unbelievable, you know that? There I was on Christmas morning, thinking I had gotten the girl I like the perfect gift and that she would be so impressed with how thoughtful I am, and then I open her gift to me, and it's a Nimbus Two Thousand."
Cassandra laughed. "I wouldn't worry about it," she said. "I have it on good authority that the girl you like thinks you're very thoughtful. And that she loved the gift you got her. She just happens to have a large budget, and not that many people to buy presents for."
"It's way too expensive. My parents were insistent that I shouldn't accept it," Cedric said. He sounded conflicted.
"You should accept it," Cassandra said. She reached forward, and smoothed out the small frown that had formed between his eyebrows with the pad of her finger. "If not because you want to, then because it would make me happy."
That's all it took to convince him. Cassandra remembered what he'd said to her at the Hospital Wing, about not minding her teasing if it made her happy. She laid in bed that night and replayed their conversation in her head. She'd never had anyone voluntarily put her happiness above their comfort before. Above their family's express wishes. Her own parents had considered their cause more important than their daughter. A part of her felt warm and cherished by Cedric's actions. And another part, dark and unhealthy, wanted to know just how far she could push him. How much she could ask of him before he walked away from her. She went over that thought again and again, like pressing on a bruise to feel it hurt, until she fell asleep.
The weeks that followed were some of the calmest and happiest of Cassandra's life. She studied, hung out with Adrian, and grew closer to Cedric. They went on their first official date on a Hogsmeade trip, and she consoled him after Hufflepuff lost the first match of the term to Gryffindor. She hexed the Weasleys when their teasing over Gryffindor overtaking Slytherin in the house championship for the first time in seven years became too annoying, and made fun of them when her team beat Ravenclaw and her House took its rightful position back again.
Her respite ended when her cousin was caught sneaking around the castle after curfew, and assigned detention by Professor McGonagall as punishment.
"It's not fair!" Draco cried out to her in the common room. She had been practicing a hair-growth spell on a few first-year girls excited by the opportunity to learn advanced beauty spells from an older student when the boy marched into the room and shooed the young witches away. Cassandra had scowled at his presumptuousness, and was now looking at him passively as he complained. "Potter and Weasley were smuggling a dragon out of the castle, and I'm punished for trying to do the right thing."
She rolled her eyes. "It's just the two of us here, Draco, you don't have to lie to me."
"I'm not lying!" The blonde boy protested. "I overheard them talking about it, and saw the dragon in Hagrid's hut through the window, I swear!"
"I don't doubt that part. A few students smuggling a dragon would not be the most outrageous thing to ever have happened in this school, not by a long stretch. And it makes sense that Weasley would be involved, since his brother works with them. It's the whole 'doing the right thing' I'm skeptical about." Cassandra replied.
Draco huffed, and sat down besides her, sullen. "At least they got detention as well. Longbottom and that know-it-all Granger too. Does Weasley really have a brother who works with dragons?"
Cassandra tensed at the mention of Neville Longbottom. "Yes," she answered. "Charlie, graduated last year. Everyone thought he'd play Quidditch professionally, but he went to work at a dragon reserve in Romania."
"Typical Weasley," Draco scoffed. "They have no sense."
She didn't protest. Even if she was friends with the twins, no one could accuse them of being particularly sensible. She turned to her cousin. "Look, Draco, it's just detention. Maybe you'll write lines, or polish a few trophies, but it's hardly the end of the world. I've done plenty of them."
But she'd been wrong. The morning after his detention, Draco told her the tale of a hooded figure drinking the blood of a slain unicorn in the Forbidden Forest, and Harry Potter being rescued by the same centaur that had saved her. Cassandra's blood went cold.
"I can't believe this," she muttered to herself as she marched to Professor Kettleburn's office. She didn't know where her fear ended and her rage begun. Knowing that not one, but two unicorns had been killed in the Forbidden Forest within the week, someone had still made the decision to send a group of first years into those woods with nothing but a half-giant and a scared dog. As a result, those first years had almost been attacked by the dark wizard responsible for the butchering happening so close to the castle.
Agitated as she was, Cassandra drew her wand as soon as she felt a hand grabbing her arm from behind her. She was halfway through casting a blasting curse when she realized it was Cedric trying to get her attention.
"What do you think you're doing?" She snapped at him, freeing her arm from his hold. "I almost cursed you!"
"I noticed," Cedric said. He was breathing deeply, as if he'd been running. "Klaus flew into the common room and wouldn't stop pecking me until I came with him. I have no idea how he even got into the basement. I was worried something had happened to you."
"Is that why you're bleeding?" Cassandra asked, noticing the blood smeared on Cedric's ears, and the wizard nodded, swiping at them distractedly.
"What's going on?" He asked. "You seem upset."
"I don't have time to explain now," she answered. "I need to go talk to Kettleburn. It has to do with the dead unicorns in the Forbidden Forest."
"Unicorns? As in more than the one you saved?" Cedric said, his eyebrows going up.
"Yes," Cassandra said.
"Alright. Lead the way," he replied. Cassandra looked at him for a moment. She didn't really mind him coming with her. She didn't trust many people to have her back, but she did trust Cedric. What she didn't trust was that he would still like her after he saw what she was going to do. She took a deep breath. If that was going to happen, it might as well happen now, before she became too attached to him.
"Cassandra!" Professor Kettleburn exclaimed once he saw her entering his office. "It's good to see you, my dear! And who is your friend?"
"This is Cedric Diggory, my boyfriend," she said. She felt him jerk in surprise at the qualifier before stepping forward and introducing himself to the eccentric Care of Magical Creatures teacher. She and Cedric hadn't defined their relationship yet, but she preferred her rejection to come from a boyfriend rather than a friend who had confessed his feelings for her. Hating him would be easier that way.
"How can I assist the two of you today?" Kettleburn asked jovially.
"How many unicorns have been found dead in the Forbidden Forest since the beginning of the school year?" She asked, going straight to the point.
"Aah," the teacher said. "I see you've been informed of the creatures found this week. Not counting the one you saved, four, I believe."
"After all the censure I got for doing that, professor, you can imagine my surprise when I found out someone saw fit for the groundskeeper to take a group of first years that included my eleven year old cousin, into the forest at the dead of night yesterday to find the latest one," Cassandra said with steel in her voice. "Apparently it's fine for students to get themselves killed in the Forbidden Forest, as long as it's during a detention."
Kettleburn looked deeply uncomfortable. "My dear, I believe all Rubeus was trying to do was give the students a valuable learning opportunity. I am sure no one was hurt."
Cassandra felt Klaus landing on her shoulder, and focused on the feeling of him to calm herself down. She was not going to scream, or hex her teacher. "There is a dark wizard butchering unicorns in the forest to drink their blood," she said calmly. "Any wizard worth their wand would have figured that out months ago. And instead of calling the Aurors, it was decided that a bunch of children should be put in harm's way?"
"My dear-" The teacher started.
"Professor Kettleburn," she interrupted him, "I understand you are not to blame for this. That's not why I'm here. I would very much appreciate, however, if you could call Mr. - what is the half-giant's name?"
"Hagrid," Cedric said.
"Mr. Hagrid here so we can talk. I'm strongly considering encouraging my grandfather and my uncle Lucius Malfoy to lodge formal complaints against Mr. Hagrid and whoever else approved yesterday's little excursion with the Board of Governors, unless someone explains to me what on Merlin's name is going on in this school. I'm sure you understand the gravity of the consequences that can arise from the opening of such a complaint."
"Rubeus is a good man, Ms. Lestrange," Kettleburn protested. "He's brilliant with animals, and a great asset to this school."
Cassandra raised one eyebrow skeptically, and said nothing.
Twenty minutes later, she was facing Rubeus Hagrid. The half-giant squirmed in his seat, trying to make himself comfortable on the too-small chair.
"I have heard from people whose opinions I hold in high regard, Mr. Hagrid, that you are very passionate about the well-being of magical creatures," she started.
"Aye, that I am. An' ye can call me Hagrid. Mr. Hagrid was me father, may he rest in peace," the large man said.
Cassandra nodded. "I only wished your nurturing nature extended itself to human children, Hagrid."
The man stiffened. "I dinna ken what yer implying, but I'd never hurt a child!"
"Yet, you saw fit to take five eleven year olds into the Forbidden Forest last night, when there's someone in there dangerous and unhinged enough to have been killing unicorns for months!" Cassandra said angrily.
"The children were safe with me and Fang!" Hagrid replied defensively. "I would'na have let Harry an' the others get hurt."
"Except you weren't with all of the students throughout your visit to forest, were you? You separated them. And your cowardly dog took off as soon as the dark wizard who's been drinking the blood of those unicorns tried to attack Harry Potter and my cousin Draco," Cassandra shot back.
"Harry was fine!" Hagrid replied shakily. "Firenze stepped in an' got 'im to safety."
"Yes, I heard that. The same centaur who carried me out of the forest months ago. He must be the designated rescuer of students in life-threatening danger among his heard. What if he hadn't gotten there in time? The death of the boy-who-lived would've been on you," she said heatedly.
Hagrid paled. "Professor Dumbledore told me nothing bad would happen! That Harry would be fine."
Cassandra sat back, having gotten part of the information she wanted. "So it was Professor Dumbledore who approved yesterday's excursion? That makes sense, since as groundskeeper it isn't within your purview to decide how students are to serve detentions."
"Professor Dumbledore is a great wizard!" Hagrid exclaimed. "He would never put students in real danger!"
"Hmm," she replied noncommittally. Cassandra had no idea what Professor Dumbledore would or would not do. She hardly knew the headmaster. "I assume Professor Kettleburn told you of my intention to have mine and Draco's grandfather, as well as Draco's father, lodge complaints with the Board of Governors against the people involved in last night's mess?"
"I dinna care how much money yer lot have, ye can't touch Professor Dumbledore," Hagrid said.
"That's true," she conceded, "but the same can't be said for you."
Hagrid looked terrified at the threat. Kettleburn looked appalled. Cassandra didn't risk looking at Cedric at all.
"Unless," she said.
"Unless?" Hagrid asked, his booming voice sounding small and hopeful.
"You help me understand exactly what is going on. Tell me everything you know about what's happening in the forest," Cassandra replied. "I put my own life in jeopardy to save one of those unicorns, Hagrid. I don't understand why the school is allowing this to go on. I imagine it must hurt you to see them harmed as well."
The large man sighed with resignation. "I dinna ken much. I asked Professor Dumbledore about it every time I found one of 'em hurt, an' he told me we could'na act yet. Dinna tell me why. When I told him 'bout the blood I found yesterday, he told me to take Harry and the other kids with me to find the poor thing. I asked the centaurs if they'd seen anything, but gettin' a straight answer from one of 'em is like pulling teeth."
"What did the centaurs say? Exactly?" She asked.
"Summat 'bout how Mars was bright. That the innocents are always the first to be harmed. An' that they could'na interfere in wizarding folks affairs. That's all I remember, I swear." Hagrid said.
Cassandra believed him. Centaurs were notorious for their ability to predict the future by reading the movement of the stars, as well as for their contempt for humans, muggles and wizards alike.
Apparently, the responsibility for the mishandling of the situation in the Forbidden Forest could be laid at the headmaster's feet. Unfortunately, there truly wasn't anything she or her grandfather could do about that. She couldn't think of anyone with the courage to censure the powerful wizard, even for such harebrained actions.
She thanked Hagrid for his cooperation, assuring him she would make sure her family didn't move against him or Professor Dumbledore for the matter, then left Kettleburn's office with Klaus on her shoulder and Cedric behind her. She felt bone-deep weariness all throughout her body. She kept walking until she found a bench far away from prying ears, and sat down. Cedric stood still in front of her, silent.
"Just say it," she said. She sounded tired, and her words had none of the fire they had had in her previous conversation.
"That was… I don't want to use the world cruel," Cedric said, looking at her. He ran his hand through his hair and rubbed his eyes, seeming troubled.
"Harsh. It was harsh," Cassandra offered. "Cruelty requires enjoyment, and I assure you there was nothing about what I just did that I enjoyed."
"Then why did you do it?" Cedric asked.
"What I said is true. I figured out months ago that the unicorn we found had been attacked by a dark wizard for its blood. The blood of a unicorn can be used to keep someone alive, when nothing else will. But hurting the animal corrupts the soul of the wizard. It's foul and unconscionable dark magic. Only someone deeply disturbed would try it," she answered.
"Why didn't you tell anyone? Why didn't you tell me?" Cedric said.
"I didn't know whoever did it was still in the Forbidden Forest," Cassandra said. "Until this morning, I didn't even know any other unicorns had been harmed. I looked into what could've injured the one I helped because I was curious. And since it wasn't particularly obscure information, I thought Dumbledore and the other teachers already knew, and had handled the whole thing quietly. As they should have."
Cedric sighed, and sat down beside her. "So when your cousin told you about what happened last night, you… lost it?"
"I wouldn't say I lost it, but I was furious, yes. I wanted to know why he was sent there, and by whom. And I figured scaring the groundskeeper would be the easiest way to get that information. He's not exactly known for his genius," she said honestly.
Cassandra thought about the pitiful noises the bleeding unicorn Klaus had led her and Cedric to had made, and how scared the dying creature had been of them. "Do you remember how vile it was? How we cried when we saw it? The one we found?"
"Yes," Cedric said quietly. "It was the saddest thing I've ever seen."
"Whoever did that is still out there. They're just kids, Cedric. Eleven year olds. They should not under any circumstances have been sent into that forest. They could've died. Harry Potter and his friends aren't my responsibility, but Draco is my cousin. My grandfather would mourn him just as he would mourn me," Cassandra said. "And Neville Longbottom-" Cedric was looking at her attentively. Her hands were shaking, and forming fists so tight her nails were cutting into her palms. "I've been keeping an eye on him since the beginning of the year. The boy can barely tie his shoes, and they still sent him into those woods."
"Why do you care about what happens to Neville Longbottom?" Cedric asked softly.
Cassandra let out an incredulous laugh. "Are you serious? Everyone keeps asking me that, why do I care about him. How could I not care about him?" She asked intensely. "I owe him an incalculable debt. If it were the other way around, and his family had tortured my parents until they went insane, he would be dead by now."
Cedric looked stricken. "You don't mean that."
"I do. I would have killed him, and his grandmother, and anyone else his parents loved. If anyone did something like that to my grandfather, or to Adrian, or to you, I would kill them, Cedric. I would destroy them and everything they care about, because they took something of mine. That's who I am. The girl you thought you had feelings for doesn't exist. You made her up in your head. This is the real me. I'm harsh, and vengeful, and I'll go to unthinkable extremes for the people I love. You decide now if that's someone you want in your life." Cassandra said, angry and unwavering, and walked away before Cedric could see her cry.