Chapter 17 The Truth May Not Set You Free… At First

The next couple of days, George and Fred would walk with me to class when Harry and Ron would run off. Hermione was coming and going in all sorts of directions but she seemed to have a handle on her classes. I knew she was going to get overwhelmed as the school year passed. I was collecting chocolate frogs and pumpkin pasties for the nights we were going to spend in the common room together.

I hadn't seen Malfoy, even when I would pass the Hospital Wing. Madam Promfrey was the best we could ever ask for and Harry and I both knew that Malfoy must be faking it if he's still acting like he's about to die.

I was brought out of my thought process when Snape stood over me.

"Yes Professor?" I asked, looking up and trying to remember if he had asked me a question.

"We are brewing a potion today called 'Metamorphas Magigas' it calls for the nail clippings or hair of a metamorphmagus." He said in his slow voice.

"Do you need more for your personal cupboard as well, sir?" I asked.

He blinked slowly at me.

"Come with me." He turned around and walked back to the front of his classroom.

I stood up. Harry and Ron were looking at me quizzically as I walked past their table. I followed Snape to a cupboard full of empty vials. He pulled out two decent sized vials and put them on his desk, he conjured scissors and I turned around so that he could cut what he needs.

"Please, don't give me a terrible haircut." I said quietly.

He didn't respond from what I could see, or hear from how even his breathing was. He just quietly started to snip the ends of my hair and I hoped he wouldn't "accidentally" slip. The scissors disappeared with a quiet pop and when I turned around he was placing some of my hairs in little vials and sending them off with a wave of his wand towards the tables.

When he cut my hair, they had turned black. I assumed it was because they weren't attached to me anymore, because my hair was still the color pink.

"You may sit." He said quietly.

"Yes sir." I nodded and turned around to walk back to my seat.

Just as I was about to sit down, Malfoy strutted in. He had his arm in a sling and when he saw me, he had a smirk on his lips. His light eyes flashed at me as he sat down in his usual spot.

"How is it, Draco?" Pansy Parkinson was quick to act like the sympathetic school girl. "Does it hurt much?"

"Yeah," Draco put on a brave sort of grimace.

I rolled my eyes at him.

"Settle down, settle down." Snape said coolly.

I rolled my eyes again. If any of us had walked in late we would have gotten detentions and points taken away.

"Today we will be brewing the 'Metamorphas Magigas'. You will have all of class to prepare it, the instructions are on the board." Snape waved his wand and the chalk sitting at the bottom of the board started to write.

"Sir," Malfoy spoke up. "Sir, I'll need help cutting up-"

"I'll help him."

Malfoy looked over at me in shock. I gave him a grin and gestured to the empty seat next to me.

"I've got the room, and I don't mind helping a fellow classmate." I said.

Snape stared at me but I held his gaze. I really didn't have any ill intentions. I just wanted to make sure he didn't get shoveled onto Harry or Ron.

"Fine." Snape nodded.

Malfoy gave a bit of a huff but I walked over to help him move his cauldron and any of his materials he would need. We sat down and class continued, there were more mutterings around the class than usual but they died down soon enough.

"You called me cousin." I said quietly as I started to grind a bicorn horn into a powder for our potions.

The 'Metamorphas Magigas' had several of the same ingredients as the 'Polyjuice Potion' Hermione brewed up for us our second year.

Malfoy froze when I said this and sneered, "yeah?"

"Why?"

It took him a few moments to answer.

"Do you really not know?"

"If I knew, would I really be asking?" I rolled my eyes at him.

He paused.

"Father has been making generous donations to the Ministry of Magic, and he got word that Black has a daughter. He managed to find out that it was you." Malfoy explained as I sprinkled some powder into his potion first.

Snape was walking around, inspecting the different cauldrons and their progress.

"So why did you call me cousin?" I asked.

Malfoy blinked at me like I was stupid.

"I grew up muggle." My eyes were getting sore from how hard I was rolling them.

"All of the pureblood families are related distantly. The Black's and Malfoy's are of closer relations though, some of my aunts and uncles were born as Black's but married out of the name."

"Oh. So that's how we're cousins, by default." I nodded slowly.

"Yeah. I honestly thought you knew?" Malfoy was staring at me.

"I found out my father's name a little over a year ago. I found out what he did a little under a year ago. I didn't reach out to him until just before he broke out. I haven't gone exploring that side of my -" I paused here.

"Family?" Malfoy asked quietly.

He was staring at me thoughtfully.

"I didn't grow up with any family. I've been living in an orphanage. To find out that I had a living relative, and now finding out that there's more out there…" I shook my head.

"I'm jealous of you, you know." I chuckled dryly.

"What?" Malfoy was shocked.

"You may be an only child, but you have your parents. They taught you everything you know. How to act, what to think. They love you. And the one person who I thought could be a mother figure in my life, turned on me the minute she found out who my father is." I didn't mean to sound bitter but it came off that way.

Malfoy, for once, didn't have anything to say.

I was stirring his potion as I waited for mine to catch up. When he needed to let his sit I would throw in the last couple of steps into mine. If I was willing to help my 'injured' classmate, I would hope that Snape was willing to let my potion slide if it wasn't up to his standards.

"Do you know what he did to get into Azkaban?" Malfoy asked suddenly.

"I do." I gave a quick glance up to Harry's back.

He wasn't paying attention to my conversation, thankfully. But Malfoy didn't seem to think that was appropriate. Just as he opened his mouth, Snape was over my potion.

"And why is your potion still green, miss Zwart?" Snape said in drawl.

"I have been focusing on Draco's so that he doesn't lose his house any points." I was quick to answer.

Snape took a moment to look at Malfoy's potion. I just needed to add the hair of a Metamorphmagus and it would need to sit for five minutes and it was done. My potion was still waiting to be stirred, but by the time I get to it, it may be burnt at the bottom.

"Since you did volunteer to help him with his potion, you both will get marks based on that one." With a flick of his wrist, his wand cleaned up my potion and my things that were scattered along.

"Thank you, sir." I said.

I felt incredibly relieved when he walked away. Malfoy had a little bit of a sour look to his face but he didn't say anything for the rest of class.

"You should have finished adding your ingredients by now; this potion needs to stew before it can be drunk, so clear away while it simmers." Snape spoke up.

There was a rustle as everyone moved around. Malfoy stayed in his seat but he started talking to Harry as Ron put their things away.

"I've got it, go make sure Harry doesn't kill Malfoy." I took his things and gestured back to his seat.

Ron nodded with a grim look on his face.

"Wait to drink it." Snape said to me.

I looked up at him, "what?"

"The potion, wait to drink it." He said.

I nodded and walked back to my seat. Harry was looking angry and Malfoy smug while Ron was confused.

"What -"

"This is the potion we have brewed. I normally would have you drink your own, but I doubt some of you would have the same effect as I would like." Snape gestured to his cauldron on his desk.

He waved his wand and the potion started to fill up small cups and float to various students.

"As many of you know, some of us are born as Metamorphagi. Those who have the ability to change their forms at will." Snape started to walk around the class.

I flashed my pink hair to a red and back to pink.

"As you drink, you will gain these abilities. The effects will last for a couple of days to a week." Snape said.

Pansy was the first to take a drink. She grew her hair long and turned it into a silvery blonde color before changing it rapidly. All of the girls oohed and also took their cups.

I watched with a grin on my face and my classmates drank the potion and started to change their appearance.

Pansy raised her hand.

"What happens if a metamorphmagus takes the potion?" She asked when Snape pointed at her.

"When a metamorphmagus -" he paused as a cup of the potion floated to me.

I grabbed it from the air and turned to look at Snape. He gestured for me to drink up.

"Bottoms up." I said, putting my glass in the air and then drinking its content.

It had the same consistency as water, but it tasted unpleasant. I gave an involuntary shiver and then I felt a little bit of electricity run over my skin. I heard several people gasp as my hand turned black to show the flames from my first year.

I shook my body to get rid of the rest of the electricity feeling off and looked up at Snape.

"When a metamorphmagus takes the potion, it reveals what they truly look like." He said his face was as stoic as ever, but I saw his eyebrows were narrowed at me.

"Cassie?" Harry asked.

The first thing he had done when he had the potion was to turn his hair as red as Ron's, while Ron had black hair.

"I can't see. What do I look like?" I asked.

"You look like Black."

Sorry it's a short one! Gotta set the tone for the school year and I want to leave the cliffhangers because I feel like it's important to make you wait the week to get them settled. And I thought Boyfriend and I were going to leave yesterday for the Big City for his surgery, but I got my dates mixed up so this is on time!

Shout out to symonator for following this story!

Shout out to Pamela Hutchins and katie owl for reviewing!

Pamela Hutchins: I'm so glad!

katie owl: Thank you! I tried starting to write again in a different notebook, but that one is actually packed away somewhere and I don't remember what it was about. BUT I KNOW WHERE IT IS and that's what matters! As for when they find out about Sirius 'betraying' the Potters, I have actually been struggling with that chapter. I wrote out a whole two chapters before realizing that how Harry discovered the 'truth' was not going to help my story line so I had to scrap everything. And then I realized I could have still used some parts in those chapters so that was a whole mess in itself LOL. But you'll find out when it all happens. We've still got Quidditch and Lupin's class to go through!