The atmosphere was tense in the Tonks household. Nymphadora and Cassiopeia refused to be in the same room as each other, when they were a fight was inevitable. Ted and Andromeda put Cassiopeia's punishment for lying to them about her whereabouts on hold until they felt she could manage it. As it stood Cassiopeia found it difficult to find the energy to do everything. She stayed in her bedroom most the day, her headphones in place and firmly under the covers. She had to be coerced to join them for meals, and eventually they gave up, simply brining up small plates for her periodically through the day.
She was unusually quiet, only engaging with Ted to hear the latest rumours that the Gambols' were spreading. Ted had been reluctant to comment on the unfolding scandal, but she had reasoned that she might as well be kept abreast so she wouldn't be caught by surprise later. Ted also informed her of the few moves he was aware of that Lucius Malfoy was taking to handle the situation. She took in the news numbly, a reaction that worried Ted greatly. She found it strange, she had felt so strongly about Glynn when they were together and now she found it hard to feel anything about the drama he was causing. So far no mention of her dabbling in curses had come up in his rumours and she distantly understood that she would have to see him again to have a conversation about what he did and did not say. She wondered how much she would have to bodily threaten him to keep quiet, or if her knowledge of his law breaking would be enough.
Part of her relished the thought of threatening him with bodily harm. In her lowest depths of depression she imagined what she would do, what tools she would use, and how satisfying it would be.
Ted and Andromeda had tried everything to get her to leave her room. They tried her favourite foods, luring her to the arcade, to the record store, and to the library. But nothing worked, she didn't particularly want to go out into public, she didn't want to pretend that Glynn wasn't actively ruining her life and her future. She had worked so hard to keep her head down in school, and now the whole wizarding world not only knew who she was, they knew all sorts of salacious details about her personal life.
She wanted to delay facing their judgement; she just wanted to hide under her covers for as long as humanly possible. She ignored the few owls that arrived from the Malfoys, tossing them aside unopened. She reluctantly opened a correspondence from Hogwarts, from Professor Snape, confirming her course load changes. Professor Quirrell was taking a sabbatical to go on a grand tour, so she decided to drop muggle studies from her schedule and her O.W.L.S. examination list. The course provided her with little new knowledge, and she only stuck with the elective because she had such a fondness for Quirrell. A new professor did not interest her enough to keep the subject.
And so time passed, Cassiopeia read and she listened to music, and she almost never left her room, despite all efforts of her guardians. Eventually she relented to leave the house with Ted, not because she particularly wanted to help the man run errands, but because he had made the most pitiful face at her when he asked.
Cassiopeia had many bad qualities, but saying no to Ted Tonks when he gave what Andromeda called his 'kicked puppy' look was not something she was able to do. It was Ted's secret weapon, one he only brought out when he was seriously in trouble, or very desperate. Andromeda later told her that it was how Ted convinced her to give him a shot on their first date.
And so Cassiopeia found herself reluctantly traipsing around the muggle world with Ted Tonks, who seemed to find many excuses to take breaks from their errands that she suspected were made up, to stop in at various cafes for a 'revitalising cuppa' as Ted would say. So she dutifully drank her tea, ate the offered ice cream, and kept quiet, pointedly ignoring any of Ted's attempts to steer the conversation from meaningless prattle to something more serious. She appreciated the attempt and she knew it was from the bottom of that man's hear, but she just wasn't ready to talk because she didn't know what to say.
Yes, of course she was livid at Glynn, for many reasons, not least being the rumours he and his father were spreading. She couldn't forgive Nymphadora for telling the whole bloody school about her real parents. She was angry at herself for staying with Glynn and putting up with so much rubbish from him for years. And she was hurt; her heart ached as she mourned the prick that was her ex boyfriend.
Her problem was that she had too many feelings, she felt so full of them that it was suffocating, stifling, and if she acknowledged them verbally she worried they would erode what little control she still had. She didn't have to words to let them out, nor did she have the strength. So she remained under the weight of them, preferring to endure their crushing weight in bed, with music to blot out the worst of it.
Finally Ted admitted defeat and they slowly meandered back to the Tonks household at the edge of the village, in an almost amicable silence. Cassiopeia sighed in relief as the man grew quiet, and passed the pleasant walk taking in the few rays of sunshine and the sound of the birds.
Her brief spell of contentment lasted for a total of five minutes upon entering the house. The whole living room had been overrun with laundry, with Andromeda at the centre of it, folding and organising the load.
"Oh Cassiopeia dear!" she called happily, moving a pile of folded clothes off her lap before grabbing a basket of rumpled clothes.
"I just sent Nymphadora up to gather your washing, I figured we could take advantage of the dry weather and get the lot of it done today. Then we wont have to rush when you both go back to school next month." She gestured to a set of uniforms, conspicuously marked in yellow next to the sofa.
Cassiopeia froze, her brain slowly processing the woman's words. Uniforms, she was washing their school clothes. She sent Nymphadora, to her room, to grab her washing. Dread crept up her spine as she spun to run up to her room, yelling her adopted sisters name all the way up, warning her to not touch anything. Because hidden amongst her school clothes was a box, a box filled with objects that she had placed minor curses on, curses that would be transferred to her if she touched them, curses that Cassiopeia wasn't quite certain she could break.
"Oh sod off Cass, mum's… what the..?" Dora spun, holding a few crumpled up clothes in her hands to face her sister. The motion dislodged the box that was half caught up in the clothing, sending it tumbling to the floor, its contents spilling across the room.
"Don't move." Cassiopeia's voice was sharp as she drew her wand as a precaution, watching the artefacts closely to see whether any of the curses were activated. She had designed them to be inert until touched by a witch or wizard, but she was also very keenly aware of how easy it would have been for her to make a mistake in the creation of these objects.
"Why do you have a box of junk in your dirty clothes?" she was mystified, completely unaware of the danger she was in.
"Dora, I am serious, don't move." Something in her voice must've caught the older girls attention, it sharpened when she noticed the wand clutched firmly in her hand. "Merlin Cass, overreacting much? Mum told me to get your stuff, I didn't mean to toss all your junk around." Even as she said it, she plopped the school clothes back into the trunk and made a move to help clear up the mess she made.
Cassiopeia lunged forward, intending to push her sister away from the dangerous spread to safety. She heard both Ted and Andromeda pounding up the stairs behind them, Andromeda's voice echoing down the hallway, "I can't believe you two are already fighting!"
She was too late; the Tonks' arrived just in time to see their daughter collapse as her hands clasped an old butterbeer bottle cap and Cassiopeia looming over her.
The girl was in hysterics, her whole body shaking as laughter erupted out of her mouth. It was a curse of hysteria, a modified version of it at least. Cassiopeia turned it into a laughing curse. It was one of her newer creations, and she had hoped the nondescript face of the object would keep anyone from ever touching it before she had a chance to break the curse, but unfortunately that hadn't been enough.
She did note with a grim satisfaction that the curse worked exactly the way she intended. The victim was struck useless, unable to stop laughing, it was rather eerie seeing it in person, her eyes were wide with tears and fear, and yet her face was transformed with mirth.
"Dora?!" Andromeda began to rush to her daughters side, "Dora, what's wrong?" she could hear the terror in her voice, Ted was silent, his face pale, his hands clutching the door frame as he tried to process the scene in front of him.
"Don't, those objects. They're cursed." Cassiopeia pushed Andromeda back towards the doorway, before squatting down to gather up the objects.
"Cursed?!" she sounded weak as she tried to understand what had happened.
"Yes, minor ones. This one is predictable but I am not sure how it would interact with another curse." She gingerly used a piece of cloth to place the objects back into their box.
"Where did this curse come from?" Ted asked quietly, his arm wrapping around his wife tightly.
Cassiopeia was silent, carefully setting the box out of the way. She stayed silent as the Tonks rushed passed her to their daughter, still laughing manically on the ground. It was all she could do to breathe, and Cassiopeia wondered if she would pass out from hypoxia.
Andromeda fussed over her daughter, tears of fear and frustration at her inability to help falling form her eyes. Ted had a hand on his wife's shoulder and clutched his daughter's hand tightly in his other, but his gaze was on his fifteen year old ward who was far calmer than the situation called far.
"We need to get her to St Mungos." Andromeda said, searching for her wand, trying to make sense of what was happening still.
Ted's eyes narrowed as he saw the fear flash across Cassiopeia's face. "What did you do Cassiopeia?" his voice was low and cold, and she flinched slightly, she had never heard Ted speak that way.
Andromeda looked between her husband and her niece, finally noticing the girl frantically digging through a pile of notebooks.
"I can fix it, honest. I just need to find my notes."
"No. You will not be going anywhere near my daughter. I will fix this, and you will tell me how."
Cassiopeia was chilled by the change that had come over Ted. Ted who was also so jovial, so light hearted, who was always the first to try and break a tense situation Ted who had spent the whole day trying to cheer her up, Ted who now looked at her with anger and suspicion.
"I told you, it's a curse. I er, well I think I can break it." She held up her
"None of that. Can you break it or do we need to get the authorities involved?"
Cassiopeia swallowed, her eyes scanning her notes, Nymphadora's cursed laughter ringing in her ears. She nodded, slowly at first; she had been close to breaking this particular creation.
"It will take me a little bit to clean up the counter curse, but I should be able to do it before any adverse effects kick in." she said quietly, not quite able to meet anyone's eyes.
"Is it deadly? This curse of yours?" Andromeda's voice was quiet and she looked at Cassiopeia as if she were a complete stranger. In a lot of ways, she was a stranger to them.
Cassiopeia shook her head, "Its premise is simple, laughter." She swallowed thickly, "I supposed dehydration would be the ultimate cause of death. But that's days away. I can break it well before then."
"You have an hour. If there is no improvement we will take her and all of your notes to St Mungos, and contact the authorities." Ted said woodenly, carefully picking up his daughter and moving her out of the room, tears falling down his face.
And so it began, Cassiopeia grabbed a pen and began her work finishing the counter curse, the maniacal laughter echoing through the house.
She focussed; half wondering if this would be the last thing she ever did in the wizarding world. If Ted did contact the authorities she knew with a cold certainty that they wouldn't just expel her and destroy her wand. They would try and lock her up.
She would take that as it came, Merlin knew she deserved the punishment. But she wouldn't let anything else happen to Nymphadora. She may not like the girl very much, but her stomach clenched when she thought of anything bad happening to her.
She presented the counter curse to Ted, still unable to meet his eyes directly. He accepted it silently, closing the door to Nymphadora's room in her face. She took the message and perched at the top of the staircase, hugging her knees to her chest.
She listened closely, hearing only the cursed laughter at first, and murmuring from the Tonks as they deciphered her notes. Finally with some relief she the eerie laughs changed into choking sobs as the curse was broken and the girl returned to normal.
The sobs continued for some time, Cassiopeia buried her head in her knees as guilt gripped her soul. Nymphadora sounded terrified, crying so hard she found it hard to breathe. Eventually the sobs grew less pronounced, and soon they quieted all together.
The Tonks stayed with her that night, tucking her into bed and kept vigil. Cassiopeia fell asleep at the top of the stairs, waiting for any news or any acknowledgement from the Tonks. None came.
The next day the house was silent, Nymphadora staying in bed and Ted called out from work. They stayed near their daughter, checking to see whether her health had worsened and whether any new side effects of the curse lingered. They did not acknowledge Cassiopeia beyond a few sharp glances; they had eyes only for Nymphadora.
That night Cassiopeia sat in her room, staring morosely at her piles of notebooks outlining her curses. She wanted to blame this on Glynn; it was him that gave her the idea to actual start crafting cursed objects, in the beginning. But ultimately it was her who was at fault. She kept making more and more, and she was thankful that Dora had at least picked up an object that had an almost fully fleshed out counter curse. She shuddered to think what would have happened if she hadn't have been so fortunate.
That night she overheard Ted and Andromeda, they had carefully shut Nymphadora's bedroom door, safe with the knowledge that she had fallen asleep and had moved downstairs for a strong drink.
"Maybe we made a mistake taking her in Ted," Andromeda muttered through her tears. "I never would have dreamed…" she trailed off, staring hard at the window. "Maybe we were naïve, we thought that with some love, some stability, that she could brush off years of influence from my sister. We were blind to all the signs, the fighting, the lies, and now this? She cursed our daughter, and it is all my fault." She sniffed loudly.
"Now Dromeda, of course its not your fault. I convinced you to give her a chance—"
"But she's my family. I should've known that nothing good could ever come from that family…She's like a miniature Bella…"
Cassiopeia's eyes burned as she eavesdropped on the conversation in the next room. She felt hollow, betrayal lancing through her whole body. She should've known really, it was foolish of her to trust these people to love her. She had deluded herself that they would be different, that they genuinely cared and wouldn't abandon her. She believed their promises, and yet when it came down to it, they were just the same as everyone else. And didn't she deserve it? She had almost killed their daughter, their blood.
She was better off on her own, away from people. At least if she was alone there was no one for her to hurt, even accidentally. And didn't they know? That it was an accident? Not that it really mattered now; they had already made up their mind.
She didn't need anyone, she could take care of herself, and she had done it before hadn't she? She didn't need Hogwarts, she didn't need the magical world, and she certainly didn't need her so-called family who were happy to throw her away after her admittedly rather large mistake. She reckoned it was only a matter of time before they reported her to the Aurors, she was as good as expelled from Hogwarts as it stood, this would only finalise things.
She crept back to her room, her temporary sanctuary in the world. The walls, which once had felt so welcoming, now felt like a shallow illusion of comfort. She grabbed one of her larger rucksacks, a remnant of one of her past lives, and started packing it with essentials.
She needed a few pairs of clothes, her tapes, maybe a book or two to keep her company. She fought back angry tears and she processed the Tonks conversation. They weren't wrong, and that was the worst part. They had deluded themselves into thinking she was someone that she wasn't. And wasn't she guilty of that too? She tried so hard to be someone else; someone worthy of their love and admiration, but the reality was that she wasn't someone worth loving, or even liking. She was dangerous, she hurt people, whether she wanted to or not, and she was no better than Bellatrix and Rudolphus Lestrange. Maybe that man, Crouch, had been right all those years ago. Maybe she deserved to be in Azkaban.
It was best for everyone that she left. Save them the awkward conversation that was bound to happen in the morning. The 'we are sorry but we made a mistake and have to send you back to where you came from' conversation. The one she secretly had been half expecting all this time at the Tonks'. Well, they weren't going to send her back to the muggle orphanage and she sure wasn't going to Azkaban. She'd make her own way.
A cough startled her, and she spun with her wand in her hand to face to sudden sound. It was a dreadful looking Nymphadora; her eyes were red and her skin grey as she stared silently at the packing girl from the doorway. "So that's it then. You're leaving." It wasn't a question; it was a dull statement of fact. Her eyes shone with anger, resentment, Cassiopeia's stomach clenched unpleasantly as she saw another emotion, one she recognised very well, disgust.
"What's it to you?" she shoved her Walkman into the bag with some back up batteries. She grabbed one of her knives, deftly flicking it open to test the sharpness against her nail. Razor.
Nymphadora watched silently, before turning around and leaving without another word. Cassiopeia grabbed a pair of sturdy boots and slipped them on, throwing spare socks into her bulging bag. She grabbed her potions knife, a small delicate thing that had been a nice gift from Nymphadora and carefully ran an old shoelace through the loop on the knife sheath before slipping it around her neck and tucking it under her shirt. It was good to have multiple weapons, to always have something up her sleeve. Her mother had taught her that. Remaining unpredictable kept one out of sticky situations.
Nymphadora returned, holding a jacket and a wad of muggle money. It was Ted's private stash of muggle money, stuff he kept for emergency situations. Dora must have raided his not so hidden hiding spot. Cassiopeia accepted the gift wordlessly, stuffing the money into her pocket and shrugging on the jacket. Cassiopeia tucked her wand carefully away.
"You know you cant do magic outside of school." Dora said hollowly, watching the girl gather her things.
"Do you know how many aurors it took to take down my parents?" She asked lowly, averting her eyes, and giving her bag a final check over. Dora remained silent. "Nine. They took on nine aurors and nearly won. It will take more than that to take me down. I don't give a damn what the ministry says, they'll have to pry my wand off my dead body." Her eyes burned as she thought about what she was leaving behind. She wouldn't be going back to Hogwarts. She was leaving everything behind; the wizarding world had brought her nothing but pain.
She was done. She was ready to go. Dora stared at her for a minute, anger still simmering behind her eyes, before turning around to head back to her room. The door shut with a very solid click and suddenly Cassiopeia was left alone.
She heard Andromeda and Ted arguing and crying in the kitchen, she saw Dora flick off her light and Cassiopeia crept downstairs and out the front door into the cool night.
The Tonks household was in the suburbs of a muggle town. It was only a few miles to the train and bus station. With the money Dora gave her she figured the best thing to do was to take the first train or bus out of town. It was still early, before midnight, so services would be in operation to the big cities.
Despite what she said to Dora she knew better than to use magic, understanding the concept of a trace. She wanted to disappear, so she had to do it the muggle way. Getting lost in a city was much easier than the countryside, so she knew she wanted to head somewhere urban, preferably far away. She thought about trying to get back up to the Midlands where she had spent some time in orphanages, or even going to the West Country. She quickly counted her cash, a little over a hundred quid and some change. Enough for a ticket to almost anywhere.
Her decision ultimately was made when she arrived at the bus station after nearly forty minutes of walking and scheming. Sitting in the bus depot outside the train station was a coach heading to London Victoria station. London was the largest city in the UK, if she could get lost anywhere, it would be there. And if she didn't like London, she could easily go anywhere in the world, as a major transportation hub.
Xxx
It took Andromeda far longer than it should have to realise Cassiopeia was missing. She checked in on her daughter early the next morning, and seeing her nieces door closed she decided to let her stew some more, finding that choice easier than dealing with the inevitable talk that they were going to have. She put it off until Ted was back from work; it was best that they do it together, as they did everything else. Though Nymphadora, who was in an unusually jubilant mood, lightened the severity of the situation in what was a rather remarkable improvement and one that relaxed her slightly.
She didn't grow worried until dinnertime when she still didn't leave her room. "Ted, why don't you take a plate up to Cass, she hasn't eaten all day." Andromeda suggested.
"I wouldn't bother." Dora said into her plate cheerfully eating her dinner.
"Dora, everyone's gotta eat, even if they are in a rotten mood. She's probably been beating herself up all day. All that brain power burns some mean calories." Ted said, attempting to lighten the mood.
Nymphadora snorted and rolled her eyes, "I mean I wouldn't bother because she isn't up there." She skewered another piece of meat and chewed it happily, uncaring to her parents surprised and worried looks.
"What do you mean she's not up there Dora?" Andromeda asked dumbstruck.
"I mean she left, last night. Buggered off after stealing a load of money from dad." Ted was already standing up, squeezing his wife's hand before bustling out of the room to check his stash, and the veracity of his daughters claims. His pale face was all the information Andromeda needed to confirm her growing fears.
"Where did she go?" she asked, her mind racing, her niece had been missing for nearly a day without her noticing.
Dora shrugged, uncaring, "is there any pudding?"
"Nymphadora Tonks you listen here. Did she say where she might be headed? Or why she would decide to leave?" Ted asked.
Dora rolled her eyes, "oh come off it you two, like you weren't going to get rid of her anyhow after what happened. We both heard what you said, about her being beyond redemption and too much like her parents. She just saved everyone the trouble and took herself out of the picture."
Her parents paled, speechless, "What—when? That was a private conversation, how much did you hear?"
Her daughter shrugged, her hair changing to a bright pink as she took another bite, "enough I suppose. She said some rubbish about taking down some aurors if they went after her, and then left out the front door."
Ted was already grabbing the landline, his mind racing, should he call the police? The school? The ministry? The press? The girl was alone and he had no idea how to help her.
"Around what time did she leave?"
Nymphadora shrugged once more, "dunno. It was late."
"Ill call the public transport services, you go to her room and look for anything that might hint where she has gone." Ted said, patting his wife on the shoulder, reaching for a phone book.
Andromeda searched her room, her feeling of despair increasing with every moment. A day. It took a full day for her to notice her niece's absence. The longer she spent in her room the more she realised she really didn't know much about the girl, sure she knew she enjoyed listening to music and playing arcade games, but what child doesn't like that? Her room was bare, especially in comparison to Nymphadora's room, which was a riot of colour and a mess. Cassiopeia's room was orderly, filled with books and notebooks, each stacked carefully, organised according to some mental template.
She balked at the books, it was all right there, in front of them, books about dark magic, curses, and curses breaking, mixed in with her regular school books. Atop her desk was her box of her experiments, labelled clearly with a bold letters,
DANGER-DO NOT TOUCH. CURSED OBJECTS WITHIN.
Andromeda picked up a notebook near the top of the pile; it was labelled schematics-bracelet, frowning as she flipped through it. Page after page of writing, diagrams and thoughts, ideas hastily scrawled and scribbled out in frustration. It was a whole world she was completely ignorant of.
She dutifully checked all of the usual hiding spots, uncertain what she was really looking for, and dreading what she would find. Cassiopeia didn't seem to hide her interest in dark magic given the very public way she organised her reading, she never needed to since they clearly never paid attention. She checked under the mattress, in the bottoms of her drawers, hoping to find a journal, or anything to give any indication of where she might have gone.
She found a curious pile of vials, several dozen in fact stacked neatly under her bed, dates carefully written on each one. She frowned as she examined the pile, noticing scores along the side indicating some type of dosage. She opened one vial and took a very hesitant sniff, the smell of peppermint overwhelming her. It was a pepper up potion, an odd thing to have under her bed. Her eyes caught another vial, filled with a different liquid, and swirled it carefully, trying to remember her potions from school.
"I called down the station, they said they'd review the CCTV and get back to us." Ted called from the doorway. "Find something 'dromeda?"
"What do you think this is?" she asked, looking at it the substance against the light. Ted took the vial from her, popping it open and sniffing it delicately.
"Dreamless Sleep if I'm not mistaken." He was as confused as she was, taking in the pile of glass she had pulled from under the bed.
Together they searched the room, finding more and more discarded potions, and receipts from a seller in Knockturn Alley.
"This goes back years Ted." Her voice was hoarse and her stomach turned with guilt. She had been evidently dosing herself for years and they didn't even notice. She turned over her memories, looking for any hint, any sign that they could have missed.
The phone rang, shocking them out of their despondency.
"She got on a bus to London Victoria last night, paid cash." He returned holding her coat and his car keys. "Come on, we can drop Dora off at mum's and we can go see if we can find her. It's only been a day and it seems she spent most of her money on that ticket. We'll find her, I promise."
Andromeda nodded numbly, accepting the offered coat and went to help Nymphadora pack her things.
A few days passed before they went to the muggle police, reporting her officially missing. They had early success in finding her trail, she had tried sleeping in bus shelters and train stations initially, but was always run off by security. A few shopkeepers remembered chasing her off in the morning, and a few rough sleepers remembered seeing her. The way they described made Andromeda sick with anxiety; they said she was in a bad way, drying out as one man put it.
A few weeks passed, Ted reluctantly went back to work having used up all of his sick and holiday leave. He and Nymphadora went back their house while Andromeda stayed with her mother in law, spending each day searching for her niece, speaking to people and handing out missing person posters around London. The weather turned, rain and cold swept across the city and she followed her niece's trail north, out of the city centre and into the suburbs.
People offered tantalising hints, leads that all ultimately led to dead ends. They had seen her, out in the rain. She was sick they said, skinny with deep bags under her eyes and deathly pale. She had a cough another woman said.
A severe looking woman approached her looking livid, dragging her son by the scruff of his jumper. "Tell the woman what you told me." She demanded. The boy kicked the ground, and was beet red, refusing to look at anyone. The woman smacked the boy in the back of head, and the boy sheepishly admitted to seeing Cassiopeia.
"Yeah we saw her up by the park on mill road. She was sleeping where we normally played footy, all curled up like. We ran her off, only roughing her up a little bit before she pulled a knife on us. She ran up to the canal, into them trees. Ow! What was that for?" The boy scowled up at his mother who had given him another smack on the head.
"Nothing but a juvenile delinquent you are. Wait until your father hears about this." The woman warned her son before turning back to Andromeda, "I am so sorry about your daughter, I'll ask around the ladies and see if anyone has seen her. I promise my son will be punished for hurting the girl." She smacked him again for good measure.
Andromeda smile weakly, thanking the lady, glaring at the boy as they left, her heart breaking more and more as she digested his words. She was alone, sick, and had been roughed up by some kids.
A full month had passed and her trail had gone cold. They still hadn't informed the ministry or the school that she had run away, worried about the measures the ministry might take to find her. She had taken her wand, and though she had yet to perform any underage magic, she worried about what she would do if she felt cornered by aurors. Attacking an auror was against the law, and she doubted she would receive any sympathy for her circumstances at the ministry. Not with the stories that were still going about from the Gambols.
They would give it one more week before they made it public that she was missing. Term was starting soon and they were running out of time. Andromeda had grown accustomed to the 'sorry's and 'cant help you's that when she found her next lead, her first in nearly three weeks, she was taken aback.
It was the owner of a corner shop, a kind sikh man who became outraged when Andromeda showed him a picture of Cassiopeia.
"You know her?" he demanded, jabbing his finger into the poster angrily. "You looking for her? She robbed me three weeks ago, I'll tell you where she went when you pay for what she stole."
"Are you sure?" she asked, completely taken aback.
The man scoffed, shaking his finger at her, oscillating between pointing at the poster and Andromeda, "I know who I saw. It was her. Her hair is different now, but it was her, look." He stomped to his counter, grabbing a black videotape and shoving it into a muggle device. Andromeda watched in numb shock as there, clear was day, was Cassiopeia wandering through the shop, pretending to browse while keeping a careful eye on the shop keeper. The shop owner was busy with a customer when she started stuffing random items into her bag. The man paused the tape when she looked directly at the camera, and Andromeda leaned forward eagerly, taking in her face.
She was pale and far too thin. She didn't recognize the clothes she was wearing, a too large leather jacket with painted slogans and silvery studs all over it and in clothes filled with holes and poorly patched. The most shocking thing however was her hair, or her lack of it. The sides of her head had been cut short, tight against her head, and the remaining hair on the top of her head had been chopped into a shorter, more contained pile of messy curls. Cassiopeia always had a habit of hiding behind her hair, letting it fall into her face, shielding her from the world. The girl in the security footage was hiding from no one. She smirked, holding two fingers up at the camera before running out of the shop, chased by the very man in front of her.
"You pay for what she stole, and I wont call the police." He said firmly, now pointing at the screen.
"Can I have a copy of that picture?"
"You buy something and ill give you a copy. Buy many things ill tell you which direction she ran in."
"Wait, you said earlier I pay for what she stole and you'll tell me where she went." Andromeda complained, bristling with irritation.
The shopkeeper smirked and shrugged, crossing his arms. Mumbling obscenities Andromeda reluctantly handed over what she was sure was far more than what was stolen for the information. She angrily shoved the overpriced muggle snacks into her purse, wondering just how badly she had been swindled. Her understanding of how much muggle money was worth was limited at best, but even she knew paying a fiver for a packet of crisps was ludicrous.
But she had a lead, and an updated photo. The man pointed her down the street, saying she had run off to the industrial estate at the edge of the town. It took her another two days before she narrowed down exactly where the girl was hiding.
She had first noticed it when she was going shop to shop, flashing around the updated picture of the girl. The reactions she got were different; she saw the recognition in their eyes, and the suspicion when they looked her. They smiled at her when they said they didn't recognise her, or that they'd never seen her before walking away. Most people were apologetic that they couldn't help; these people seemed a touch too jovial.
She got this reaction the further she walked near the industrial estate. The estate itself was filled with crumbling tenement buildings that had seen better days, each overflowing with people of all different races, speaking different languages. There was graffiti everywhere, ranging from artwork or messages about someone named Maggie, and something about pigs. Everywhere she looked she saw poverty, and she also saw community. Children played in the streets, running in and out of the different flats in the tenements, all the doors unlocked. Neighbours chatted with each other, shouting out windows across narrow alleyways, and groups of youths sat together out front of the buildings, smoking and laughing. She heard music coming out of different windows and people greeting one another as they walked.
She also felt their eyes on her. Watching and whispering, the kids running between the buildings, spread the message, translated in what seemed to be at least a dozen languages, that someone not from there was poking around. It finally got to the point where people wouldn't even look at her picture; they just smirked and said they knew nothing.
She returned the next day with Ted in tow, and he agreed that they were definitely in the right place. If she wasn't there, she had been there very recently they thought.
They walked into the last shop on the high street, past two rough looking men, covered in leather with brightly coloured hair into a charity shop. Both Ted and Andromeda gave each other a shocked glanced as they took in the men, as they had never seen anyone dressed so outlandish in their lives. She almost thought they might have been wizards in poor disguise their fashion was so garish. They sneered at her, as they entered the shop, arm and arm and were met by a keeper who made the men outside the shop look average.
She was a young woman with pale blonde hair, tall and skinny, dressed in similarly torn and patched clothes that Cassiopeia was wearing the in the shop video, she also had a leather vest that was painted in bright colours and adorned with studs. What made her so shocking to the Tonks were her tattoos. She was covered; they started on her hands and crawled up her neck, ending just below her chin, brightly coloured and running together, she was a walking tapestry. Her face was covered with silvery piercings, and two big holes gaped in her ears where most would have small studs. She smiled kindly at them, and Andromeda winced as she watched the multitude of piercings move.
"Alright." She greeted.
"Hi, I wondered if you could help us," Ted started, pulling out the folded piece of paper from his jacket. Distantly he heard the shop bell ring as the two men who had been sitting outside came into the store.
"We are looking for this girl and wondered if you had seen her?"
The shorter of the two men, wearing a bowler hat with thick glasses that magnified his eyes took a heavy seat in one of the chairs set off to the side of the shop, letting out a contented sigh and stared straight at the Tonks'. He was a thin lad, with a narrow face with sharp features; he smirked at them before picking up a magazine and promptly burying his nose in it. Ted eyed him uncertainly before turning back to the shopkeeper.
She was still smiling at them, leaning across the counter on her elbows, her eyes flicking briefly to the paper and back to them.
"Cassiopeia huh? Interesting name. You her parents?" she asked kindly
"Her guardians. She's our niece, she's been missing for six weeks now." Andromeda said
"Was she kidnapped?" the man sitting in the chair asked, never looking away from his magazine.
"Er no." Ted said, looking at the man closely, hope blooming in his chest.
"Then maybe she aint wanna be found." The taller of the two men said while perusing a rack that was clearly filled with clothes for elderly women.
Now that he was standing Ted realised just how big he was, standing well over six feet, covered in lean muscle emphasised by his too small shirt that were cut off at the arms. Unlike the other two, he wore no leather jacket and his bright red hair was styled into long sharp spikes. His face was rough, his nose bent in several directions and Ted noticed nervously that his knuckles were swollen and scabbed; he was a man who was no stranger to fights.
"We just want to talk to her, to make sure she is alright." Ted said, pulling his wife closer to him as he carefully watched the other man.
"And if we say she's alrigh' will you leave?" the woman's smile sharpened, her tone still pleasant. The larger of the two men crossed his arms and scowled down at them.
"Well, er…no. We need to hear it from her." Ted's hand slowly crept into his pocket, his eyes flicking between the three muggles.
"I wouldn' do tha' if I was you mate." The man holding the magazine said in a thick Yorkshire accent, his eyes flicking meaningfully to the larger of the two men, who now stood holding a sturdy looking wooden umbrella meaningfully, weighing it carefully, baring his teeth at Ted.
"Now look here, we are not looking for trouble—" Ted started, now pushing Andromeda behind him slightly, away from the perceived danger.
"You come into my town, asking about folks that don' wannae be found, and you say you aint lookin' for trouble mate?"
The woman looked amused, her eyes flicking back and forth between Ted and the red haired man. Her eyes flicked out to the street briefly as well, and for the first time her smile faltered slightly, her eyebrows dropping as the shop bell rang again.
"Subhas was out of veg samosas, so you lot are gonna have to live with pakora, but he threw in a little extra as thanks fer—what the fuck Mouse."
It was Cassiopeia, standing in the middle of the shop holding a large white plastic bag that was exuding exotic spices. She froze, paling slightly as her eyes briefly lingered on her family before turning to the large man holding the umbrella.
Andromeda didn't give her a chance to say anything else, wrapping the girl up in her arms and crying slightly in relief. They had finally found her, she was safe, whole, and only a little worse for wear.
Cassiopeia stiffened; holding her food laden arms out of the way, and didn't return the hug. Instead she stared suspiciously at Ted before flicking her eyes to the red haired man.
The larger man snarled, raising his umbrella threateningly, only stopping when she shook her head slightly. She then turned her gaze to the tattooed woman, completely ignoring the worried prattle from Andromeda.
"Blimey Lucas, were you just gonna let him have a go at my uncle?"
The woman shrugged, "I hadn't decided. I guess we'll never know. You alright?" she said, looking pointedly at Andromeda who was still squeezing her in relief.
"Dromeda darling," Ted intervened, carefully pulling his wife away from his niece, looking at Cassiopeia as if he wanted to be doing the same thing. Both of them wore expressions of naked relief and exhaustion, the toll of their hunt for her finally hitting them.
Cassiopeia nodded at Ted and carefully passed the food to the man holding the umbrella, jigging it impatiently when he hesitated between grabbing the food and keeping a hold on his makeshift weapon.
"I figured it would be the Aurors who picked me up." She said softly to the couple, ignoring the strange looks from her friends.
Though the relief remained on their faces, pleased to finally see her, the room began to fill with an awkward tension.
"We never called them." Ted replied. He was frowning in worry, his eyes flicking over her person, his brow wrinkling the longer he looked.
She had lost a lot of weight, something that was emphasised by the too large leather jacket she was wearing. She was also pale, like someone who had been very recently quite ill. Most noticeably were her hands, each fist was wrapped carefully with some torn pieces of cloth, held together with a safety pin, and she had scratches on her face, surrounded by angry bruises, evidence of a rough situation.
She pursed her lips, snorting softly, "You would've done it soon enough I reckon, term is about to start."
Ted nodded slowly, "the school would have."
The room grew quiet, the only sound coming from the rustling of the plastic bag as the large man dug through it, munching on a deep fried patty.
"So wha'" he said through a mouthful of food, "yeh've seen 'er now feck off." He gestured to the door rudely.
She smiled fondly at the man, her shoulders slumped in defeat, "its not that simple Mouse." She said dejectedly.
She had been trying to prepare herself for this conversation for a few days, ever since she caught wind of Andromeda poking around the village. She wasn't certain what direction the conversation would go, and she was truthfully terrified to talk to the Tonks. She didn't want to face their rejection, she had already heard what they truly thought of her, and she didn't really want to repeat that experience.
"Right. Well this is awkward. Why don't you lot head into the back, seems like you have a lot of baggage to unpack." The tattooed woman, Lucas exclaimed, breaking the tension once more.
Mouse scowled at the Tonks, pulling his lips back from his teeth and stood tall, an effect that might have been intimidating if his hands weren't full of takeaway.
"Take yer food. Shout if you need nowt." The man said, staring down Ted.
She kept her distance from the Tonks, gesturing them forward into the back room of the shop, following shortly into the little kitchenette taking a seat that put the furthest amount of distance between her and her family.
"Mind if I.." Ted trailed off, holding his wand and gesturing pointedly to the doorway. Cassiopeia eyed him carefully before nodding slowly.
Despite the appropriate warding in place to allow them to speak freely, suddenly everyone in the room found themselves awkwardly silent. Andromeda had rehearsed all of the things she wanted to tell the girl in her over the previous six weeks, and Ted had practiced balancing apologies with a stern conversation about keeping secrets.
"That big fellow there seemed very protective." Ted remarked, trying to break the tension.
"Yes." Cassiopeia agreed, offering no more explanation.
"Are you alright? What happened to your face?" Andromeda asked softly, her face full of concern.
Cassiopeia ran her hand across the scrape, gently probing the yellowing bruise surrounding it. "I got kicked in the head." She said bluntly, dropping her hands back to her lap. She stared at the Tonks defiantly, daring them to continue.
"And your hands?" Ted asked, already fearing the answer.
"Punched a bloke in the face."
The Tonks gaped, glancing at each other nervously. Silence filled the room again, Cassiopeia not bothering to clarify her statement.
"You look thin." Andromeda stated, trying to move on, "Are you eating."
She shrugged, "I am now."
"They said you were sick. When we were looking for you, the few people who had seen you mentioned it."
She glanced away, her face colouring, "I was uh" she coughed uncomfortably, "drying out." Her voice was low and she studiously avoided their eye contact once more.
"We saw the potions vials." Ted said softly, trying to catch her eye. She remained stubbornly silent.
"We've been looking for you, since the day you left. I've probably spoken to half of the muggles in London with your picture." Andromeda smoothed out the missing persons poster and showed it to her.
Cassiopeia glanced at it, eyeing the updated picture briefly before flicking back to them. "Doubt it. There's a lot of muggles in London." She said petulantly, reaching for a fork and popping open her food.
Ted sighed in frustration, running his hands over his face tiredly, "It's been six weeks Cass. We've been worried sick, your aunt has run herself ragged looking for you, and now that we've finally found you, this is how you greet us?"
She shrugged again, taking a bite of her curry. "You were looking for me, I was not looking for you. So it seems to me that that's your problem."
They lapsed into silence once more. Cassiopeia ate her curry, her eyes never leaving the Tonks, as she fidgeted in irritation.
"So do I need to sign some type of paperwork or something?" she finally asked, breaking the silence.
"What? Why?" Asked Ted, utterly confused.
"For my name change. An incident report? An adoption annulment? There are many things I could imagine you need my signature for." She bit out, speaking into her food, her shoulders dropping as she curled into herself.
"What are you talking about?" Andromeda asked, utterly mystified.
"Well that's why you've gone through all this trouble in finding me." She was glaring into her food now.
"What, why would you think that? We've been looking for you because we were worried about you. You just disappeared, without a note, any warning, stealing some money and wandering off into the night. What were you thinking? And then we hear all sorts of things, about how you were sick, attacked by a group of boys in a park, that you pulled a knife on someone? You robbed a corner shop, and now that we find you, you tell us that you were kicked in the face. Merlin Cassiopeia, I hope this is just a phase because I don't think my nerves can take much more of this." Ted was almost shouting at her, pulling anxiously at his hair and he let out his irritation.
She was looking at them now, her eyes blazing in anger. "Oh come off it Ted, you can quit giving me the dragon dung and just come out in say it. I heard you that night, both of you, talking about how it was a mistake bringing me into the house, how I was a danger to everyone around me. I saved us all a load of trouble and left, removing my burden from your lives. I didn't ask you to come and find me, I just assumed you'd call the aurors, and they'd place me back, well somewhere, depending on how much you told them. So let's just get straight to the point, where do you want me to sign or what do I have to say so you can feel better about yourselves about this failed experiment."
She angrily pushed her curry away in frustration, no longer hungry.
"What we said Cassiopeia, you were never supposed to hear. Merlin, we never should have said it. I wish I could take it back, truly. We were angry, worried sick about Dora, and confused."
Cassiopeia eyed them suspiciously, her lip curled in anger. "So what, are we supposed to go back and play happy family again? Are we going to forgive and forget until next time? Look, its been grand, truly. Thank you for everything you've done, but I think its best if we go our own ways, I'm almost of age—"
"Oh rubbish! You're 15. You are still a child," Ted snapped, "and look at what happens when you go your own way. Getting into fights, hanging out with those—" he gestured towards the door.
Cassiopeia bared her teeth, glaring fiercely at him, "Those people are my friends. They've looked out for me."
"Clearly." Ted said drily, gesturing to her face. "Some friends. let a 15 year old get kicked in the face." Cassiopeia flushed red, Ted continued on, talking over any retort she may have had, "You are young, clearly rebellious, and angry. You've always been independent and we have always given you a lot of leeway. That has clearly been a mistake. How long has this been going on Cass? The potions, the curses, the fighting and Merlin knows what else you've been up to. Talk to us; help us understand so we can help you. Because whether or not you choose to believe me, we do love you, and we care about your well being."
Cassiopeia sighed, throwing herself onto a chair and sulked, scowling in frustration. "Look." She started, her voice low, "I tried ok. I really tried to be a good person. I—" she ran her hand across her face and her shoulder slumped in resignation.
It all came out then, once she started she found she couldn't stop, she explained to the Tonks about her struggle with potions, her interest in curses, and she touched a little on her issues with Glynn, leaving out the most incriminating information. That was a secret she was saving as potential leverage against him.
The Tonks listened quietly, letting her speak without interruptions and she felt a great relief when she finally laid most of her cards out on the table, the burden of keeping track of her half truths mostly lifted.
"So what now?" she asked, feeling exhausted. Ever since her potions withdrawal she found she was nearly always drained, but so far her nightmares had not come back to plague her.
"Well, we picked up all of your school supplies, and term starts in a week. I had hoped to bring you home, but it appears you have some loose ends to tie up around here," Ted glanced at the door.
"I can be back in a few days, if that's alright." She said hesitantly, still uncertain whether they still wanted to continue their Lestrange rehabilitation experiment.
"That sounds grand, we'll get your room all set up." Andromeda briefly rested her hand on top of hers, giving it an encouraging squeeze. Cassiopeia twitched, allowing the touch to happen, but not quite ready to return it.
"You are not off the hook of course. You are grounded for the next year, no arcade visits, no pizza deliveries, and no new records. I am confiscating your bicycle and when you are home I expect you to pay us back for all the money we spent paying for the things you stole from that corner shop, with interest. And I expect you do this with your own money and not money from the Lestrange vault. And all this business with curses is done. If we so much as suspect you are dabbling in dark magic we will be having a chat with the proper authorities. If I hear that you have so much as gotten into one fight while at school, we will cancel Christmas. I mean it; I will be in contact with Professor Snape periodically to make sure you are behaving. I expect you to do nothing this year but to study for your exams, no Hogsmeade trips and no attending quidditch matches. We are also informing Professor Snape about your potions habit, so he will be watching you carefully. I think that about covers it, right 'Dromeda?"
Cassiopeia didn't have much choice but to reluctantly accept those conditions.
She returned home a few days later, having said her goodbyes to her friends, promising that she would write them and stay in touch. She spent her final two days of the summer locked in her room, packing away her stuff for another school year. It seemed like a long time since she left, the summer dragging on from one crisis to another, and she dreaded facing her classmates, but there was nothing she could do but to hope that she would be strong enough to ignore the gossip and the rumours. She had O.W.L.s to study for and at least she was blissfully free of distractions, with no boyfriend and no friends to speak of.
Nymphadora was icy to her at first before settling into a routine of just plain not acknowledging that she existed. She was still angry with the girl, but she couldn't fault her. Cassiopeia did genuinely deserve her wrath, so she took it as punishment for her accidental cursing incident. It wasn't long before she was back on the Hogwarts express, stuck sitting in the luggage cart after she was unable to find any compartments that would take her, listening to music and reading a book.
She just hoped the next year passed quickly, without any major problems.
A/N So i hope you enjoyed this chapter, I tried to keep it brief, feeling like spending too much time on her journey to the muggle world would detract a little from the story, so I thought id tell it from the Tonks point of view. I would also like to remind everyone that Cassiopeia is 15, and therefore filled with all sorts of hormones and teenage angst. It might be a little overwhelming sometimes, but she is just a kid still, a teenager trying to figure everything out and stubbornly refusing to see help. Is it cringey to read and to write? Perhaps a little... but arent we all cringey people at 15? Thinking we were all grown up and capable? We will be going a little quicker through the next year and as ever reviews are appreciated.