Disclaimer: All rights go to JK Rowling. Anything you don't recognize is mine.

Updated as of 8/20/2019.

Chapter Twenty-Three

The Book

The rest of the holiday passed far too quickly for Cassie. The days at Potter Manor blurred together in a haze of Quidditch scrimmages between the boys (which she always readily refereed, as she much preferred the ground to a broomstick), hot cocoa and warm butterbeer in the mornings before the fireplace, and spending dinner at the table with the Potters, whom Cassie realized were perhaps the nicest people in the world, and now understood why Sirius was so fond of them.

However, after dinner, their carefree attitude was replaced by an air of seriousness as the five of them would all congregate in James's room once his parents had gone to bed, dressed in pajamas and surrounded by stacks of parchment and loose quills as they talked well into the morning.

Their second day at Potter Manor, when their first meeting had taken place, Cassie and Sirius had decided to broach the subject of breaking into Carlisle's office once more to the others, which had been met with mixed emotions.

"I would like to point out that this was my idea first," James said immediately after they were done speaking.

Sirius rolled his eyes.

"Does that mean you're still in, Prongs?" he said.

James gave him a wicked grin. "'Course, Pads. How could I ever pass up such a grand opportunity?"

Remus looked dubious.

"I dunno," he said slowly, rubbing his chin with his hand. "I still think we should tell Dumbledore."

"No!" Cassie said too quickly, and she flushed when they all turned to stare at her. She hadn't forgotten You-Know-Who's warning; she knew she couldn't let them tell Dumbledore. It was too dangerous.

"Cassie, it's for the best," Remus said. She crossed her arms and looked away when she realized he was trying to use his reasonable voice with her, the one that always seemed to make her do what he said. "This is far too serious for us—we're just kids! Dumbledore will know what to do. Maybe he can help take some of the pressure off you—"

"No," she repeated, setting her jaw stubbornly. "Will gave the locket to me. I was the one who found out about Carlisle's maps. And I'm not a kid anymore!"

"I knew you were gonna say something like that," Remus said, looking pained, "but this could be dangerous, Cassie. We have no idea what we're getting into! Carlisle could actually be a Death Eater, and if so—"

"Then I'm going to expose her to the world," she cut in. "Dumbledore was the one who hired her in the first place! How well would he take it if we suddenly accused her of being a Death Eater? He'd laugh us out of his office if he didn't expel us first!"

Remus still seemed upset, but he didn't immediately answer, scrubbing a hand through his hair in frustration.

"Can't we just compromise?" Peter spoke up for the first time since they'd sat down. They looked over at the small boy picking his hangnails anxiously, his watery blue eyes beseeching them. "Remus is right, but Cassie is, too. Let's just find a way to meet in the middle."

James nodded thoughtfully. "Wormtail has a point."

"Then how about we do this?" Sirius placed his hands on his knees, leaning forward intently as he spoke. "When we get back to school, we break into Carlisle's office." Remus opened his mouth to protest, but Sirius gave him a sharp look. The other boy huffed, propping his back against James's bed. "If we don't find anything, then nothing happens, end of story. But if we find something dodgy, then we all agree to go to Dumbledore, yeah?"

Cassie kept her arms crossed, adamant in her decision to not get the Headmaster involved, but when she saw Remus nodding reluctantly, she threw up her hands in surrender. "Yes, fine, whatever! Now, can we move on to the actual breaking-in part?"

So, for the next several nights, they would reconvene in James's room to discuss strategies for getting in, while also making sure they could keep Carlisle away from her office long enough for them to get in and out. It was a lot to work through, considering how many things that could go wrong they had to account for, but by the time their final day at Potter Manor came around, they had a rough plan in store for when they went back to Hogwarts the next day.

Their last night at Potter Manor fell on New Year's Eve, and Cassie was invited to join the Marauders' tradition they'd had since third year, where one of the requirements apparently involved certain death.

"I'm not getting on the roof," she said, standing in the attic window that led onto the shingled roof of Potter Manor and glaring at the three boys who were already out the window and roaming about, several floors above the ground.

"Cassie, would we ever do something that would put you in harm's way?" James asked.

Peter snorted from where he was pretending to walk a tightrope beyond him. "Don't answer that, Cassie," he said.

She raised a pointed brow at James, who just rolled his eyes.

"Fine, stay there, be boring," he said, swaggering away. "We'll have fun without you, right, Moony?"

He punched the sandy-haired boy on the arm lightly. Remus started, tearing his gaze away from the clear starry night and the waxing sliver of the moon to look at James, who was nodding encouragingly. "Er, yeah. Whatever you said."

Cassie rolled her eyes and crossed her arms, the winter air reaching for her through the window and making her shiver. She was just about to retreat into the warmth of the house when a sudden hand gripped her around the waist and yanked her out onto the roof. She tripped with a startled yelp while Sirius dragged her along by his side, a bottle that looked suspiciously like firewhiskey in his other hand.

"What—are you mental?" Cassie spluttered, gazing around at them rather than looking over the edge and seeing the ground below. She unconsciously gripped Sirius's sleeve as they picked their way over the roof. "Not only are you going to prance around on the roof, but you're going to be doing it while you're drunk?"

"Relax, Princess. It's a sacred tradition, old as time itself," James said, and she shook her head.

"Mental," she repeated, attempting to pull away from Sirius, but he only drew her closer into his side, and she tried not to be aware of his cold fingers pressing into the hollow just above her hip.

"Here," he said, passing off the bottle to James before standing behind her and putting both his hands on her waist, which only increased her nervousness, for whatever reason. "Sit in front of me."

"What?" she said, keeping her eyes on the horizon and not anywhere below that.

Sirius sighed. She felt his breath on the back of her neck, and she involuntarily shivered. "Just follow my lead."

He slowly lowered himself to sit down on the roof, and his hands at her waist guided her along with him until she was seated before him, her knees curled up to her chin and her arms locked across them.

"Lean back," Sirius instructed.

She did, reluctantly, only stopping when her back pressed into his chest. Despite trying to focus on something else, her face flushed, anyway, and she was glad that it was dark so the others couldn't see how red she was. Once she was secure, his right arm snaked around her stomach and anchored her against him, his legs spreading out on either side of her, and she realized that he was doing it so she felt protected against pitching herself off the roof by accident.

"Y'know, Sirius, you're not too shabby of a mate," she said, reaching back and patting the top of his head.

"Why, Cassie, I had no idea you felt that way about me," he purred, his arm wrapping around her tighter, but a swift elbow to his stomach made him stop that.

"Don't push it, Black," she said, adjusting herself against him as he grunted and rubbed at his ribs.

"Remus, would you hold me like that?" Peter asked, batting his eyes up at the other boy as they all sat down, James cracking open the bottle that was definitely firewhiskey and taking a hearty gulp.

Remus gave the mousy boy a disgusted look. "Pete, I'd rather snuggle a Snargaluff."

Peter pouted, flopping back dramatically on the shingles. "I'm so unloved."

"Nah, Wormtail, you're Mummy's darling angel, remember?" James mimicked in a horrible impression of what must've been Peter's mother as he handed the bottle off to Remus.

Remus took a swig of the drink, shuddering at the taste before grinning at Peter. "And let's not forget Daddy's little princess—"

"—And Auntie's pumpkin pasty—"

"—And Granny's sugar lumpkin—"

"Sod off!" Peter groaned, sitting back up and glaring at all their grins with pink ears. "Stop taking the piss out of me, you always do!"

Cassie's smirk faltered at his harsh tone, but the others didn't seem to pick up on it, simply shrugging and chuckling under their breath as the firewhiskey continued to get passed around.

"I can't believe we're getting drunk the night before we go back to Hogwarts," she said after her fifth drink, giggling at the thought as the now half-empty bottle kept exchanging hands.

"Being hungover the day before lessons isn't bad," James said sagely, though the effect was somewhat marred by his slurred words. "It's if you're still hungover when you go to class that it's bad."

"I'm a Prefect," Remus moaned, holding his head in his hands as if he just realized this. "I'm s'posed to be the good example for you lot!"

"Fuck the establishment, Moony," Sirius said, raising the bottle. "Just pretend it's Emma Vanity and fuck it."

Remus burst out laughing as the bottle swapped to Cassie. "Is that what you think of every time we break the rules? Is fucking some poor girl like McKinnon?"

Cassie's grin vanished at the mention of Marlene. She gripped the bottle in her hand tighter before taking another swig, the liquid scorching her throat and settling to simmer with the buzzing feeling that had started up inside her.

Sirius laughed, though Cassie wondered if it sounded strained somehow. "Not anymore, mate. I plan on calling it quits when we get back to school."

Remus and James let out collective "oooh's." Peter remained silent, but Cassie sat up against his chest, craning her head back to look at him with a frown. "What?"

Sirius grimaced at her accusing tone, shrugging one shoulder half-heartedly. "I'm just not feeling it anymore, y'know?"

Cassie snorted, facing forward once more. "That doesn't surprise me."

"What's that s'pposed to mean?"

She rolled her eyes. "Nothing, Sirius."

He shifted her in his arms so she faced him, and she cocked a brow at his annoyed gaze. "Just spit it out, Cass."

"Fine. You, Sirius Black," —she jabbed a finger into his chest to emphasize— "are a complete and utter player who disregards all feelings unless they're yours." She didn't know why she was saying this, but the effects of the firewhiskey and her indignation on Marlene's behalf seemed to be goading her into speech. "And I told you not to hurt Mar's feelings, yet here you are."

She shrugged, splaying out across his legs until she was laying on the roof, staring up at the stars while the boys all snickered at the look on Sirius's face.

"She's got a point, Pads," James said. "You're a heartbreaker."

"And a berk," Remus added.

"The bloody hell am I supposed to say to that?" he demanded. "I don't have to defend who I spend my time with and why. That's my personal life."

"Just be careful, Sirius," Cassie said. "And stop being insensitive to others."

He seemed on the verge of arguing, but Cassie gasped, pointing up. "A shooting star!" The others followed her finger just in time to see the star wink out of existence. "Make a wish," she whispered, though the star was long gone. She closed her eyes, seeing nothing but the darkness behind her eyelids.

If I can't wish that none of this had happened to me, then at least let me wish for the power to put a stop to it, she thought.

She opened her eyes to see the boys with their own eyes closed, and she smiled slightly to herself, glad that she wasn't alone in all of this. She had them and Lily, Alice, and Marlene. And that, she thought with a rush of warmth, was enough.

"I think I'm going to be sick," James moaned for the tenth time. Cassie rolled her eyes (also for the tenth time) as the bespectacled boy slumped in his seat, rubbing his stomach like a pregnant mother.

They were on their way to King's Cross along with Mrs. Potter; Mr. Potter had had to be at work early that morning, but due to his Auror connections, he was able to get them a Ministry car to take them to the station.

Despite her father being a prominent Ministry employee himself, she had never ridden in a Ministry car before—probably because he thought it too Muggle for his tastes, but she had to admit that he was missing out. The car had been Charmed to accommodate all six of them, including the two Ministry officials who sat in the front. The backseat had been transformed into something resembling a park bench, with Sirius, James, and Mrs. Potter seated on one side and Cassie, Remus, and Peter opposite them, all of them fitting comfortably along with their trunks and owls stashed in the rear of the car.

The only downside was that nearly all of them were nursing hangovers from their night of drinking—except Mrs. Potter, of course, and to everyone's anger and disgust, Sirius—who looked as bright-eyed and alert as ever as he tapped his fingers on his knee, humming to himself and staring out the window while James looked ready to pass out beside him.

Cassie wasn't feeling nearly as unwell as James, but she had a nasty headache and her mouth tasted like cotton. Remus wasn't much better off. His skin had been pale and clammy when they'd gotten into the car, but after attempting to read a few pages from his book, he'd shut it and leaned his head back on the seat, his face now tinged a light shade of green. She edged away from him, sitting closer to Peter, who was already snoring with his face pressed into the window, a little circle of fog appearing on the glass every time he exhaled from his lolling mouth.

Mrs. Potter seemed oblivious to their plight, or perhaps she was used to it by now as the car weaved through Muggle traffic much like the Knight Bus had, though a lot smoother and less vertigo-inducing than the latter. She was flipping idly through the pages of that morning's Daily Prophet, and Cassie stared at the front page, a moving black-and-white photograph depicting the scowling Minister of Magic, Harold Minchum, glowering out at her.

MINISTER APPROVES BILL ALLOCATING ONE HUNDRED MORE DEMENTORS TO GUARD AZKABAN PRISON the headline blared.

She tried to read more, but the words were too small. Mrs. Potter must have sensed her staring, for she looked up from her reading and sighed, turning back to the front page.

"Scary, isn't it?" she said. "Dementors are terrible creatures; I almost feel sorry for the people locked up there, but I have to agree with the Minister's decision."

"Why?" Cassie asked, recalling a lesson they'd had fourth year about dementors and suppressing a shudder at the memory. "If they're so horrible, then why is the Ministry using more of them?"

Mrs. Potter glanced around the car, noticing that their conversation had attracted the attention of the other boys—save for Peter, who still snored away until James kicked him in the shin. The blond boy started, snapping awake and gazing blearily around the car. Cassie surreptitiously gestured to the drool on his chin, which he wiped off on his sweater sleeve quickly before tuning in with the rest.

Mrs. Potter cast an uncomfortable look to the Ministry officials sitting in the front before she waved her wand. The Ministry officials stuck their fingers in their ears as if trying to clear them, and Cassie guessed that Mrs. Potter had cast the same Silencing Charm Sirius had at Grimmauld Place while James stared at her in awe.

"Mum," he said, impressed, "I didn't know you were that cool."

Mrs. Potter rolled her eyes, though a slight grin tugged at her lips before it was replaced by a grave expression.

"Children, if I tell you this, it is because I think you are old enough to know the truth, or at least parts of it," she said. "You've known there has been…unrest in the wizarding world." A dark look clouded her lined face. "You're too young to remember Grindelwald, but what's happening out there is much the same as before.

"This Dark wizard, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, is believed to have started recruiting elsewhere than the wizarding community." She nodded to James. "Your father has had reports of attacks from giants, dementors, werewolves, and even Inferi who are suspected of being allied with the Death Eaters, which leads us back to your question, Cassie. The reason why the Ministry is using so many dementors is to keep them on our side. Dementors are very dangerous, and if the Death Eaters have an army of them at their disposal…"

She trailed off, that dark look shadowing her face once more.

"The Ministry is making alliances left and right, trying to keep the threat contained, but He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is growing stronger. I'm warning you all of this because at this point I think a war is inevitable, and I want you to be prepared as best you can. Be diligent in your lessons, be aware of what is happening outside of Hogwarts, but most of all, be loyal to each other and those around you. The wizarding world needs unity now more than ever, and you can be an example for others to do the same in school."

Cassie and the Marauders shared a look, and she knew they were all thinking the same thing. Sirius had said it when Cassie arrived at Potter Manor, but now they needed to believe it: they had to be ready to fight.

"Ah, here we are," Mrs. Potter said, her cheery disposition returning when they looked out the window and saw King's Cross before them. She waved her wand and the Silencing Charm was broken as the car parked and they filed out.

"Have a good term, dears," Mrs. Potter said, kissing them each on the cheek while one of the Ministry officials flagged down trolleys for them. "Study hard, and try your best for your O.W.L.s—they're important!"

"I think you just made me ill again," James groaned as she smothered him in another hug. Cassie and Peter snickered at him before gasping and pretending to faint when he shot them a rude hand gesture behind his mother's back.

After their many good-byes and thanks were said, the five ventured into King's Cross in search of Platform 9 ¾, taking their time getting to the barrier, as they had arrived about twenty minutes early.

James, Remus, and Peter wandered off at one point in search of food, the worst of their nausea apparently subsided, while Cassie and Sirius hung back to guard their trolleys. The two received many odd looks from Muggles while they stood there with their trunks and three owls tittering in their cages, but they ignored them, Sirius flipping through a magazine he'd found abandoned on a seat and Cassie rubbing her temples after his owl screeched bloody murder.

"Will you stop making so much noise?" he growled at his owl. Perseus glared at him with yellow eyes, ruffling his feathers indignantly and hooting. Sirius groaned. "He's hopeless."

Cassie didn't respond to his lamentations, her fingers moving to fiddle with the locket at her neck as she mulled over their conversation with Mrs. Potter in the car. Her need to find out what Carlisle was doing had only heightened, and she was now more determined than ever to solve the witch's mystery.

"Cass, are you even listening to me?"

She was pulled out of her thoughts at Sirius's voice. He stared at her, obviously having been saying something to her that she completely ignored.

"Oh, sorry, Sirius. What were you saying?"

"Nothing important, apparently," he said, giving her a dry look.

"I didn't mean to ignore you," she said hastily. "I just…have a lot on my mind."

"I know what you mean," he said, sighing and seating himself on top of Peter's trunk. He raked a hand through his dark hair, a few strands falling back into his face in defiance, but he didn't seem to care, only putting his elbows on his knees and sighing again. "You all right?" he asked her.

She frowned, touching her fingers to her forehead. "Er, yeah. I just have this massive headache, but otherwise—"

"I'm not talking about physically," he said, rolling his eyes but shooting her a grin. "I meant mentally."

She shrugged, messing with the zipper on her jacket.

"I guess," she said. "Still kicking, you know?"

He grinned. "Just remember what James's mum said. We have to stick together, now more than ever."

Cassie chuckled, shaking her head and looking to Sirius.

He gazed at her, bemused. "What's so funny?"

"You," she said simply, smirking when his eyebrows knitted. "It's just funny to me, how before this year you didn't know me at all. I was invisible." She smiled ruefully, scuffing her shoe on the shiny floor. "And then when you did find out who I was, you hated my guts. And now…" She lifted her shoulders. "Here we are, friends promising to stick together. Who knew, right?"

"It is funny now that I think about it," he said, his confusion replaced with amusement. "I never thought we'd get along, even after you became friends with Remus. I just took you for a Slytherin disguised as a Gryffindor."

"Can't blame you," she said, not at all bothered by his admission. "Will chose such an unexpected path, and I can't be upset that people thought I would follow in his footsteps, or if they still do. I know who I am, though, and that's enough for me."

Her words surprised her, but she was happy to realize that she was right. She'd been so afraid of other people judging her by her brother's mistakes that she'd forgotten she was her own person, too.

Sirius gazed at her with an indecipherable expression, and she raised her brows at him. "What?"

"You," he said, smirking as he copied her from earlier.

Her brows rose further when he didn't elaborate. "Me, what?"

He shook his head, still smirking, and her heart skipped a couple beats when she met his silver gaze, staring at her as if he could see everything about her.

"Just you," he replied, but she didn't get a chance to coerce an answer from him before the three boys ambled back over to them, each with a cone filled with roasted almonds in their hands.

"Let's go catch the train," James said around a mouthful of nuts, and Cassie refrained from making an inappropriate joke as they grabbed their trolleys and wheeled them to the platform, checking to see if any Muggles were watching before they passed through the barrier.

The scarlet steam engine sat before them, belching out smoke over the small crowd that waited to go back to Hogwarts. Most students tended to Floo to the school from their family's house, leaving a smaller group who took the train back, most of them Muggle-borns or groups of friends who wanted to catch up on all the holiday gossip before returning to the rumor mill of Hogwarts.

They boarded the train near the end, searching for a compartment that wasn't already taken. Cassie followed at the rear, allowing the boys to do most of the scouting while she puffed along behind them, her trunk in one hand and Ozzy's cage in the other.

She eventually had to stop and catch her breath, setting down the trunk and cage and flexing her fingers, trying to get some feeling back into them while the Marauders continued without her, not noticing she had fallen behind.

She rubbed her palms, hoping she wasn't going to get blisters as a compartment door opened to her right and she heard a familiar voice say, "Er, Cassie?"

She turned to see Bertram Aubrey standing in the compartment opening, staring at her with a slight grimace that she returned, her face flushing when she realized this was the first time he had spoken to her since Sirius had decided to sabotage him asking her to Hogsmeade.

"Er, hi, Bertram…Aubrey," she said, inwardly cringing at herself for not even knowing what to call him. "Good holiday?"

"Yeah, it was all right," he said, scraping some of his golden hair out of his face, his sea-green eyes studying her carefully. "You?"

She shrugged. "Nothing too extravagant, unless you count my brother hosting a Christmas party for all his murder pals."

To her shock and some dismay, he actually laughed at this, obviously thinking she'd been joking, and she forced a smile of her own despite mentally berating herself for letting something like that slip out so casually.

"I'm sure it must've been fun," he said wryly, stepping out of his compartment and shutting the door behind him, where she could see a few of his mates staring at them with wide eyes.

"Oh, yeah, playing charades with the Death Eaters was a real treat," she said, and he laughed again, much to her pleasure. He had a nice laugh, deep and throaty, and his smile was so bright she almost felt blinded by it.

"Hey," he said as if a sudden thought had occurred to him, "d'you want to sit in my compartment? Er, I feel like we got off on the wrong foot, but if you'd rather not, that's okay."

"Oh," she said, startled, but not unpleasantly so. "Er…"

"Ah, no worries," he said with an easy smile. "I saw your friends pass by earlier, so you must want to sit with them. At least let me help you with your luggage."

She only smiled gratefully as he stooped to lift her trunk, and she grabbed ahold of Ozzy's cage again as they set off down the corridor, looking for where the Marauders went and keeping up easy conversation as they went. It seemed as if the horrible disaster from before Hogsmeade had never happened, and Cassie found she was quite enjoying herself until they entered another train car and were met with a scene that made her groan aloud.

"Leave him alone, Potter! And—Severus, put away your wand right now!"

Lily stood in between James and Severus Snape, who both glared balefully at each other with their wands raised, Sirius, Remus, and Peter extracting their own while Lily waved her hands frantically, her face almost as red as her hair.

"Both of you, enough! Just walk away from each other! It's not that hard!"

"Stay out of it, Evans," James said, his eyes narrowing behind his glasses. "If Snivellus wants a fight, then he's going to get one."

"Gallant little Potter, so brave," Snape sneered, his greasy hair hanging in his sallow face. "I bet you wouldn't be so cocky if your mates weren't around—"

"Sev, please, don't stoop to their level," Lily pleaded, her green eyes wide. Snape glanced to her, his face softening and his hand dipping for a fraction of a second, but that was all James needed.

"James, don't!" Cassie cried, but it was too late; James's hex soared over Lily's shoulder and hit Snape directly in the face. His pale skin erupted with red bumps as if he had been attacked by a swarm of hornets. He slumped to his knees, clutching his face while Lily was near hysterics, alternating between trying to fix his face and yelling at James, who was laughing with Sirius and Peter while Remus looked on indifferently, though Cassie could still see the faint smirk on his lips.

"I'm sorry," Cassie said, turning to Aubrey. "You shouldn't have had to see this."

"It's fine," he said, looking quite flabbergasted at the whole ordeal, but she admired him for being so calm. "Do you need any help?"

She looked around the train car. Lily had stopped screaming at James long enough to work the counter-curse on Snape, and his face now deflated like a balloon as he still huddled on the floor. The Marauders collected their things, ignoring Lily's threats to tell Professor McGonagall as they turned and disappeared to look for another compartment.

Cassie just shook her head, stifling a sigh. "No, I think they have it handled. Thanks, though."

He gave her another brilliant smile. "Of course. If anything else happens, you know where I am."

She nodded, turning toward Lily and Snape before his voice held her back. "And Cassie?" He grinned at her, his green eyes hopeful. "If you ever, er, want to talk or hang out sometime, I'd be more than happy to."

She felt a strange lurch in her gut, but she smiled at him all the same. "I'll keep that in mind."

He gave her another grin before departing with a wave. Once he was gone, her smile dropped from her face, and she followed Lily into the compartment she had helped Snape into to see what the damage was.

The redhaired witch spun around when the door snapped shut behind her, her eyes sparking before she realized it was just Cassie.

"Oh, Cass," she said, sounding exhausted as she wrapped the taller girl into her arms. "How are you? I barely heard from you over the holidays!"

"Sorry, Lils," she said, hugging the other girl back. "Things got pretty rough. I'm sure you can understand."

She gave Lily a significant look that said she'd tell her everything later, and Lily nodded, turning back to Snape with a frown.

"Did you see what Potter did to Sev?" she said, and Cassie winced, nodding.

"I'm, er, sorry about your face," she said to Snape. He scowled at her, his black eyes flashing dangerously, and she guessed he wasn't keen on receiving any apologies from someone who hung around with the Marauders. "What happened?" she asked, turning back to Lily and ignoring Snape's hiss of annoyance.

"Potter happened," she said, nearly spitting out the other boy's name. "We were just sitting in here, waiting for the train to start, and he decided to have a go at Sev for no other reason than boredom, I suppose." She shook her head quickly, her red hair flying. "I know you're friends with him, Cass, but I really don't understand how someone could be so arrogant and immature."

Cassie shrugged, uncomfortable. "I'll try talking to him, Lily."

Snape let out a derisive snort, and both girls turned to stare at him, his still-mottled face flushed with anger and embarrassment.

"I don't need you to defend me, Alderfair!" he snapped. Cassie blinked while Lily gaped. "They'll get what's coming to them!"

"Sev!" Lily said, aghast. He cowed a bit at Lily's tone, but his eyes were still full of anger when he stared at Cassie.

"Fine," she said coolly, raising a brow at the Slytherin. "I'll get out of your greasy hair, Snivellus."

Lily nearly whimpered. "Cass—"

"I'll see you at the castle, Lily," she said, cutting off the other girl and exiting the compartment, slamming the door behind her. She didn't need Snape's scorn, and if he was too proud to admit that he needed her help, then so be it.

She grabbed her trunk and Ozzy's cage once more, quickly finding the Marauders' compartment and hauling her things in. Remus stood up wordlessly to help her stash them away, and when she sat down next to Peter, she sighed, rubbing at her temples.

"Care to explain what just happened?" she asked the compartment at large. When no one answered, she looked to James. "James?"

"The git was asking for it," he mumbled, staring darkly out the window as the train trundled out of the station, the view soon opening into a grey and dreary landscape laden with rainclouds.

"By what, existing?" she asked.

"Well, you're not wrong," Sirius muttered from beside James, but she shut him up with a severe look.

James groaned, leaning his head against the window as the first drops of rain pelted the glass, more ice than water considering the season.

"I don't know why I did it," he admitted miserably. "I just get so angry whenever I see him with Evans. And that talk with my mum had me riled up…"

Cassie arched a brow. "You mean the talk about unity?"

He glared at her. "I'm not cozying up to anyone who practices the Dark Arts. Hell, Snape's probably already been recruited into the Death Eaters—"

"James, you have to stop making assumptions about him," she said, shaking her head. "Lily's known him since they were kids; there's no way he could be a Death Eater without her knowing."

James opened his mouth, looking ready to argue, but they all started when there was a sudden lurch from the train. Cassie slammed back into her seat as a groaning sound came from beneath their feet, and she exchanged a worried glance with Peter.

"The bloody hell was that?" Sirius demanded.

"Probably an engine malfunction," Remus said, though he looked uneasy. "The train may be magic, but it's still a Muggle machine at heart."

Cassie looked up when Ozzy tittered, and she let out an exasperated noise when she noticed that the train's movement had caused the lid of her trunk to open; she must've forgotten to lock it.

"Bugger it all," she said, standing up on her seat to close it, but she yelped when the train lurched again. Her foot slipped from the seat, her trunk tipping dangerously and spilling the topmost layer of contents onto the floor while she grabbed the rack to keep herself from falling.

"What in Godric's name is going on?" Sirius said, but just then an announcement came from the conductor.

"We are terribly sorry for the previous issues you experienced, and we are now working to get those issues resolved. The Hogwarts Express will be delayed by a few hours. To accommodate this inconvenience, the food trolley will be around shortly with reduced prices on whatever goods you should choose. Thank you for your cooperation, and we hope to be on our way again shortly."

"Great," Cassie muttered, hopping down to pick up whatever items had fallen from her trunk.

"Cassie…" Remus said uncertainly, and she rolled her eyes as she picked up a pair of underwear from the floor.

"Yes, Remus, I'm terribly sorry your virgin eyes had the misfortune to glance upon my frilly knickers."

"Cassie," he said sharply.

She stopped, turning to stare at him, but his eyes weren't on her. She followed his gaze to see where he was looking, noticing with some bafflement that the other boys were all staring at the same thing.

The book Will had given her had apparently fallen out of the trunk, as well, and now laid open on the floor, the yellowed pages peering up at her as she tried to make sense of what she was seeing.

"What are you lot looking at?" she said, picking up the book and glancing over the page it had fallen open upon, which was decorated with a moving portrait of some dark-haired woman. "I'm sure it's not that fascinating—"

She sucked in a sharp breath as she saw the picture clearly for the first time. The woman depicted was fair and willowy, with dark hair that spilled around her shoulders and down her back in rivulets, clashing handsomely with her rich red robes. Her face was oval-shaped and had an imperious air about it, and her eyes were a deep brown, so dark they appeared almost black.

Staring at the picture, Cassie realized that she had a problem. However, the problem was not the certainty in her gut that she had seen this woman before, for she knew she had: her dream about the locket and the lovers, the man and the woman—this was the same woman she had seen. Though her face had been hazy at the time, Cassie knew that this was her, the woman who had once owned the clockwork locket. But that was not the problem.

No, the problem was eerier than that, and she finally understood why the Marauders were staring at her as if they had seen a ghost. It was because they had.

The problem was that the woman in the book looked exactly like Cassie.

Next Chapter: The Heist and the Heart

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