Cassidy honestly wasn't quite sure what happened next. One moment she was staring into the green eyes of her former professor and fellow Order member, the next she was flying through the bars of the cell that she presumably opened, and crushing him in a fierce hug.
Suddenly, a though hit her and she scrambled back, flying from his arms and pressing her back against the door to his cell. She had her wand pointed directly at him and he was still frozen in place, having not moved since he turned to first look at her.
"Tell me," her voice held the slightest edge of a tremor to it as a new sort of terror coursed through her veins. It was the fear of hope, the terrible dread of frost that may come to destroy a seed of faith that has been newly planted. "Tell me what you said to Dumbledore right before my final mission."
Remus' eyes grew full of sorrow as he slowly shifted into a more comfortable sitting position. He sighed heavily.
"I said... I told him that he was sending a child to her doom," Remus paused and broke eye contact with Cassidy for a moment. "And I told him to stop using his 'greater good' as an excuse to turn children into soldiers to be sacrificed like lambs." Remus turned to look at Cassidy once more. "And what did you tell me in return?"
"I said," she stiffened slightly at the memory, but continued nevertheless. "I said that I haven't been a child since my parents were murdered... and that my doom has been a long time coming."
They both relaxed and Cassidy once more launched herself at Remus, holding him as tightly as if her life depended on it. For weeks, she believed herself to be alone... she thought that she was trapped in a new world without a trace of home... but now she had a friend. Faintly, she could hear the sounds of both Aragorn and Legolas pounding on the door and demanding to be let in, but she ignored them. She had more important things to be concerned with.
"How did you..." he voice trailed off as she pulled back to look at Remus. It was obvious that although he had not been deliberately mistreated... his transformations had not been kind to him. Before she could begin her interrogation of him, Cassidy swept her wand in a simple charm to check his injuries. Remus smiled bemusedly and chuckled as he watched her categorize his various scrapes and bruises.
"I'm starting to think you've spent too much time with Madam Pomfrey," he murmured as Cassidy made quick work of a few of the nastier gashes with healing charms. She then dug through her bag and pulled out a bottle of Murtlap essence which she made Remus apply to any remaining injuries.
"Cassidy," his voice suddenly took a warning tone as if he just remembered a very important thought. "You must know that-"
"Malfoy is already in custody. I talked to the elves and... well we're not friends per say, but they believed me after I showed them his Dark Mark."
Remus visibly relaxed at those words and clutched Cassidy's hands again.
"Cassidy," she knew what was coming by the look in his eyes. "I- I followed you to the Manor, I guided the Fletkins to the portkey and I went back to help you... but then I saw the tower... explode." He said the last word with no small amount go reluctance, as if not speaking it would make it any less real. "I barely had time to think before I woke up in the forest... but please," the bags beneath his deep set eyes and heavy scarring across his face became more prominent in the flickering candlelight of the cell as his entire countenance was taken by sorrow. "What happened?"
Cassidy readjusted herself, crossing her legs to sit more comfortably as she settled in. She spent a little while with her eyes roaming the cell that Remus had been locked in for, how long? Two... maybe three months? She could see the deep gouge marks on the stone walls where the beast inside Remus tried to break free and there was evidence of teeth marks in the metal bars. It was a horrid place and a small, smoldering ball of fury settled in the pit of her stomach at the treatment of one who was already so often ill used. She pushed it down for the moment though, to tell her tale.
"I got the Fletkins out, but I needed a distraction to help them get away... it wasn't hard to convince the Death Eaters to give chase." She took a deep breath, still looking anywhere but Remus. "And well... there's not much to say. I ran, they followed, and eventually I was dumb enough to get stuck at the top of the tower. There was nowhere to go and they were about to break open the door so... I blew it up."
"You... you blew it up? Oh Cassidy," the grief was audible in Remus' voice, but she stood quickly, finally turning to face him with a look pf pure determination in her eyes.
"Yes, I used the Blasting Curse because I figured that if I was going to go that I would take as many of them with me as possible."
"Cassidy, you could've-"
"I could've what? Let myself be captured and wait for more Order members to risk their lives to save me?" She began pacing back and forth as the fury and frustration of her weeks alone grew. "I could've given in... let myself be tortured until I broke? I know what their torture looks like Remus, I know because I've seen how it breaks a witch or wizard down until they are nothing. We all knew that it was a suicide mission, that's why Dumbledore would only let me do it... because we all knew that I wouldn't be coming back but I'd be damned before I give a sliver of information to Voldemort and his cronies. I know how much you value life Remus, and I know you've never been as much of a soldier as Dumbledore sometimes demands but-"
She was cut off as Remus wrapped her in a hug. For a moment, Cassidy was stunned. Remus had never been fond of touch. Although their relationship at Hogwarts was of course that of a professor and student, they were also at war together. In the Order of the Phoenix, they were soldiers who shared the battlefield and the grieving that came after. Cassidy had stopped calling him professor after a particularly brutal battle where she prevented a Death Eater from taking his head off and he caught Cassidy when she was tossed from her broomstick. She was proud to call him a friend, and he seemed to think himself something of an older brother to her... always fighting with Dumbledore about the danger she was in by fighting with the Order.
"It's done," he whispered. "Let us move on." Cassidy nodded, but chuckled at Remus' next words. "But, I think your friends are going to want an explanation."
Now that he mentioned it, the angry shouts of both Aragorn and Legolas were getting louder. They seemed to think that she might be in some sort of trouble, a thought that made Cassidy role her eyes a little. She flicked her wand to wordlessly unlock the door and watched in amusement at Aragorn very nearly fell through the newly opened door. Both the elf and man had their weapons drawn and were pointing them at Remus who now had an arm thrown protectively around Cassidy's shoulder.
"Relax," she cut them off before either could speak. "I was mistaken when you described your 'prisoner.' He's a friend. Legolas, Aragorn, this is Remus Lupin... he was a professor at my magic school and... well he and I fought together in the war in our world."
"He is a beast-" Legolas began, but was cut off my Cassidy whose words came out perhaps a bit too forcefully.
"He is a good man. It isn't his fault that a curse causes him to transform on the full moon. For the rest of the time, he is completely in control of his mental facilities and is one of the best men I've ever met."
"A curse?" Legolas tilted his head with the question.
"Yes," Cassidy only now noticed how strained Remus' voice was. "It's call Lycanthropy and I've been plagued with it since childhood. I- I can never quite remember what happens during it and so I apologize for any harm that I've caused."
"I'll have to speak with the King on this, but if what you say is true then I should be the one to apologize for judging you so harshly and not investigating further than what the liar told." Legolas' reply was diplomatic enough as he lead them to speak with King Thranduil who was less than thrilled to be seeing Cassidy again so soon... and with one of his prisoners walking unchained.
"So," the King's voice drawled almost lazily, but his eye shone with sharpness that gave the distinct impression that he was indeed listening closely. "You come here to claim that my prisoner, who nearly ate a patrol of my guards, is another wizard from your realm... who is good?"
"Yes," Cassidy was done marveling at the arctiecture and this time, she had her eyes fixed to the elven King.
"She claims," Legolas stepped forward and Cassidy resisted the urge to whip her head backwards in shock. "That it is a curse, inflicted on him against his will."
"What say you?" Thranduil raised an inquisitive eyebrow as he fixed his gaze on Remus. "Let us hear your story."
"Your Majesty," Remus bowed politely before speaking. "It is true. My name is Remus Lupin and I am wizard, although I am also... cursed with Lycanthropy. It makes me a creature known as a werewolf for the full moon forces me to transform into said beast. During that time, I am unable to control the creature and I apologize deeply for any pain or sorrow that I may have caused."
A look of contemplation crossed Thranduil's face before he leaned forward a bit, still locking his eyes to Remus.
"Tell me then, Wizard," the title dropped from his tongue with no small amount of distain. "Why have I not seen you perform magic?"
"My wand was destroyed when I arrived. Without my wand there is little I can do," Remus shrugged good naturally, but Cassidy couldn't hold back the wince. A wizard's wand was like a piece of their soul... having it broken must have hurt him deeply.
In an effort to prove that he was indeed a wizard, Remus then performed a simple accio on a nearby vase. The porcelain item flew through the air and landed neatly in his hand before he handed it off to the rather peeved looking elf who Aragorn later identified as Galion, Thranduil's butler.
The little show seemed to convince Thranduil who offered the lamest of half apologies to Remus for his treatment, and like usual Remus brushed it off as an honest mistake, claiming that he had been treated worse. Cassidy bristled a bit at Remus' words, but she forced herself to remain quiet. While she didn't necessarily agree with the way Remus so easily forgave the thoughtless actions of the elven King, his forgiveness was his to give. It wasn't her place to interject.
"So now we have two of your race who have been wronged by the traitor," Thranduil now sat up in his throne, suddenly far more serious than moments before. "Bring him forth."
Legolas disappeared and returned with Lucius Malfoy, bound in chains and spitting curses left and right. He was not so skilled in wandless magic as Remus and thus, was little threat without his wand which Remus informed them had broken just as his. Malfoy was pushed to his knees at the base of the throne. He turned and glared fiercely at Remus.
"So I see they let the wolf out of his cage," he spat. "A pity. See that he doesn't get mange all over the furniture," he spat in the direction of no elf in particular. One of the guards being him stuck him at the back of the head with the base of his spear, quickly silencing the angry wizard.
"Lucius Malfoy," somehow, the elven King managed to say Malfoy's name with even more venom than the man himself used on "mudblood" and Cassidy was admittedly impressed. "You stand accused of lying to the King of the Woodland Realm and of great war crimes against your own kin."
"You are not my Lord," he spat. It seemed that the time in a cell was enough for Lucius to regain some of his signature superiority complex. "When my Lord's rise is complete, your petty woods will burn and you filthy creatures will be brought under the rule of your superiors."
Cassidy noticed how the King's nostrils flared briefly at Malfoy's words, but instead of responding he turned to Cassidy. If possible, his gaze intensified as he seemed to be searching Cassidy's very soul. "So tell me then, Cassidy of Oleander, what would your verdict be to his crime."
"Me?" Her voice came out high pitched in her surprise. She immediately turned to look at Remus. "Why me, why not Remus?"
"You are the one who captured him, you are the one who identified him, and you are the one who was most wronged by him. Consult who you will, but the decision I shall leave in your hands."
Cassidy looked to Remus, but he was shaking his head slowly with a deep frown on his face.
"At home... it would be the decision of the Wizengamot. They would likely sentence him to Azkaban and the Dementors to punish him and keep him from ever harming a living soul again." He supplied.
"But you are not home," Thranduil pressed on in that level and eerily calm voice. He turned to Cassidy. "Here you must be judge, jury, and if you so choose- executioner."
"Executioner?" Cassidy asked, though Remus' frown deepened. He never thought that Cassidy should be a part of the Order to begin with, he certainly was not fond of the idea of her killing.
"If your penalty is one of blood then it will be your hands to spill it... I will not ask it of my people. If you wish him imprisoned I will allow him to remain in my dungeons. If you wish him exiled my soldiers will ensure that he never enters our borders again, though he is not welcome either way." Thranduil's voice had an amount of finality to it and she knew that he wouldn't be swayed.
Cassidy was torn, her eyes flickered between Malfoy, Remus, the King, and Aragorn who stood to the side, silently watching it all.
"Cassidy-" Remus' voice held a warning tone to it.
"Oh, so Dumbledore's little soldier is revealed at last," Malfoy spat, a semi manic chuckle spilling forth. "Go on then, tell your pet wolf how dirty you've gotten your hands, what sort of missions your precious Dumbledore has sent you on. This won't be your first kill will it? How old were you when you cast your first Avada Kedavra? I was sixteen, did you beat me?"
"Cassidy-" Remus tried again, but was cut off my Malfoy who continued to struggle in the hold of the elven soldiers.
"Go on then, tell him, tell him all the dirty little secrets that your precious Headmaster has made you keep. Tell him about how you're-" Lucius suddenly choked. He strained for a bit, but found himself unable to speak and thus settled with a fierce glare.
"Cassidy," Remus' voice was firm as he gripped her arm, forcing her to look at him. "Listen to me. You are better than this. You aren't a killer. Don't stoop down to his level or you run the risk of becoming just as bad as him."
"If I let him go, who knows what trouble he'll cause. Look at what he's done here... now imagine if he somehow got his hands on a wand. Imagine what he could do to this world!" Cassidy was angry and frustrated and when she looked at Lucius, all she could see were those Death Eater robes as her parents were tortured in front of her.
"And you think killing him will solve anything? Cassidy, remember what Dumbledore always says... 'It is our choices that show what we truly are.' Show who you truly are Cassidy."
"He's not wrong," she flickered her eyes downward, unable to meet Remus' gaze. "It wouldn't be my first."
A flicker of something emerged on Remus' face: Fear? Doubt? Betrayal? Disappointment?
Cassidy wasn't sure what it was, but it quickly vanished and was replaced by his ever patient, ever kind gaze that held that hidden steel behind.
"That won't make it any easier, or any more right."
He slowly allowed Cassidy's arm to slip from his grasp as she walked up to Malfoy till her toes nearly touched his knees where they were planted on the stone floor.
She raised her wand slowly. Neither her arm nor her voice trembled.
"I, Cassidy Oleander, Daughter of the Squib Ameline Otake and the Muggle Vincent Oleander, two great people murdered by your Death Eater brethren, do hereby sentence you, Lucius Malfoy..."