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Chapter Four: Cassidy
It was Halloween, and a buzz was about the castle just like any holiday. It was the first Hogsmeade visit, which I had just returned from. I had stocked up on butterbeer, sweets and some books and had actually enjoyed the visit. The bird kids had been here for three weeks now, and we didn't see much of them. A lot of rumours had gone around but Wolfie had told me it was because they needed to catch up on a lot of stuff. It also meant that Wolfie didn't get to go to Hogsmeade, so I ventured out myself. Felicity, my cousin, had gone into Hogsmeade with Pansy Parkinson, Daphne Greengrass, Millicent Blustrode and Tracey Davis. So of course, I wasn't invited. It didn't bother me too much, the idea of spending a day with Pansy Parkinson seemed as fun eating Hippogriff dung.
"Is that a cat?" Brown said as I walked into the dorm. I had stumbled across an injured cat on my travels and I didn't have the heart to just leave it there to die.
"No, it's clearly a dog," Wolfie said rolling her eyes. She was surrounded by a bunch of books and looked rather frazzled. I didn't envy the bird kids for what they had to catch up on.
"Oh, ha ha," Brown pouted and went back to doing her own homework. I held the cat in my arms. The cat was a gingery colour, with tiger like markings on its legs, black splodges on its back and a white belly. Its golden eyes looked around the room and she meowed as if she completely unimpressed by the whole situation. I sat her on my bed and she continued to not put any weight on her right paw.
"What's even up it?" Wolfie asked, frowning and moving away from my bed slightly.
"I think she's damaged her paw, she refused to move when I tried to help so I had to pick her up and bring her here," I shrugged. I scratched behind her ear and she purred slightly.
"What's her name?" Brown asked, looking up from her books.
"She's a stray cat, she doesn't have a name," I rolled my eyes.
"Well…you could name her," Brown suggested. She for once had a point, but what do people even name cats?
"How about Bagheera," Wolfie piped up. Both Brown and I stared blankly at her, "You know…the Jungle Book?"
"The jungle what?" Brown said, completely confused, "Since when does the jungle have a book?" Wolfie sighed in exasperation.
"It's a Disney film," She shrugged.
"Is that a muggle thing?" I asked,
"Muggle?" It was Wolfie's turn to be confused.
"A non-magical being," I explained.
"Oh..I guess so.." Wolfie added.
"Oh well, we don't watch muggle things." I explained as the cat (now named Bagheera) made herself comfortable on my bed.
"We should go down to the feast," Wolfie piped up, she had a habit of changing the subject randomly. Also, the girl was constantly hungry. And as if her stomach had read my thoughts, it gave a spectacular growl. "Yep, let's go get food!"
-oOo-
I sat next to Wolfie at the feast, although I was holding Bagheera in my arms and she was making it hard to eat anything. I'd been afraid to leave her up in the room encase (A) she destroyed it and (B) she injured herself further. Bagheera didn't seem overly pleased, but she seemed a little bit happier when Hermione, who was sitting across from me, started to feed her bits of the feast. I looked around, the Halloween feast was always grand at Hogwarts. The candles had been replaced with floating pumpkins and there was way too much food to name. The House elves had out done themselves. Wolfie was on her third plate, and looking at the other bird kids, she was being pretty tame. I mean, she could rival Sidekick-Weasley and that was saying something. I scanned the Great Hall and spotted Felicity in among the Slytherins. My cousin wasn't hard to find with her thick dark curly hair and her medium dark skin tone. She was with Parkinson, Greengrass, Davis and Bulstrode again and the four girls were talking to one of the bird kids, I had spoken to Wolfie and she had told me his name was Fang. I could tell by their body language and the way they were twirling their hair that they liked him. I also noted Fang wasn't returning the other girls advances and was currently eating as fast as humanly possible. I still had to discuss with her the message our Aunt Isabelle had sent me, apparently I was the more trusted one. I stood up, holding Bagheera in my arms and Wolfie looked up,
"Where are you going?" She asked, thankfully she had better manners than Sidekick-Weasley.
"I'm just going to discuss something with my cousin," I replied.
"Is that the one about to sit in Fang's lap?" Wolfie said, making a face of disgust. I had to admit, Fang looked pretty uncomfortable.
"Unfortunately, yes," I wanted nothing more to groan at my cousin's actions.
"Good, because I think Max is about to kill her," Wolfie added. We both cast our eyes toward Max who was glaring at Fang across the hall.
"Okay, I'm on it," I nodded and walked across the hall to Felicity. The other Slytherins didn't so much as cast me a second glance, we had many discussions before in the great hall. Although I noted Parkinson rolling her eyes and turned to talk to Malfoy, who was still complaining about the injury that had happened in a Care of Magical Creature's class. "May I speak with you a bit more privately?" I asked. Felicity frowned and looked at Bagheera, she didn't comment but she knew if I was asking her for a private chat it was important.
"Sure," She said and turned to her friends, "Shouldn't be too long, girls. If you finish before I'm back, I'll meet you in the common room." Her Slytherin gang just gave a nod and with that Felicity and I were out into the corridor. "So, what is it? And where'd you get the cat?"
"The cat isn't important," I said, Bagheera seemed to disagree and let out an annoyed meow. "Isabelle owled me," I said.
"She owls us all the time. You didn't leave anything at home, did you?" Felicity said.
"No," I was getting frustrated with her. "Black is out. You know that right?" I added.
"Sirius is all over the news, Cass," She added, "It's pretty hard not to know."
"I'm talking about Alohomora," I growled. Felicity went quiet for a moment, a look of pain crossed over her face.
"Look, I don't want to talk about her and I don't imagine Aunt Isabelle does either," she said it harshly, but I knew it wasn't directed at me. "So, what did she say?"
"Connor, he's had a relapse," I said. Approaching the subject of our uncle was a tricky one, he'd never been the same after what had happened.
"St Mungos?"
"Yeah," I said quietly, "St Mungos." A pause happened again, she looked down at her feet. Bagheera meowed again and rubbed her cheek against my arms…if cats had cheeks. She was a little bit of comfort although I'd never admit that out loud.
"Well, when we visit him, we'll be strong," Felicity said determined, "For Isabelle."
"For Isabelle."
-oOo-
I took the familiar path back to Gryffindor tower, Wolfie beside me. Potter, Granger and Sidekick-Weasley were in front. Max and Iggy were trailing behind us. Despite my semi-crazy uncle and Alohomora being out and about I was full and happy, although I was tired and ready to go to bed. Bagheera had fallen asleep in my arms and for once I wished I was a cat. However, when we got to the corridor with The Fat Lady, the corridor was jammed full of students.
"Why isn't anyone going in?" Sidekick-Weasley asked, for once he'd asked a vaild question. Wolfie next to me frowned and turned to look behind her at Max and Iggy.
"Let me through, please," Came Percy Weasley's annoying voice. He somehow managed to worm his way through the crowd, making himself seem all important and noble. "What's the hold up? You can't all have forgotten the password-" that comment made me want to hex him, "-Excuse me-I'm Head boy-"
And then silence fell over the crowd, from the front first and then a chill seemed to spread down the corridor. I heard Percy take a sharp intake of breath and then in a sharp voice "Someone get Professor Dumbledore. Quick!"
Naturally, everyone suddenly went back to standing on their tip toes and trying to get a look at The Fat Lady.
"What's going on?" Girl-Weasley asked.
Next moment, Professor Dumbledore was there, sweeping toward The Fat Lady, all the Gryffindors squeezed together and somehow Potter, Granger and Sidekick-Weasley managed to make it to the front.
"Oh, my-" Hermione exclaimed and grabbed Harry's arm. I needed to see it now and Wolfie and I together managed to move forward. Both of us gasped in unison,
"What is it? What's going on!" Iggy said and I heard Max whisper to him.
The Fat Lady, had vanished. Her portrait had been slashed so horribly that strips of canvas littered the floor and great chunks of it had been torn off completely. I heard Bagheera hiss, she'd woken up during the noise. Dumbledore turned, a sombre look in his eyes and three Professors were hurrying down the corridor, but from where I was standing I couldn't see who they were.
"We need to find her," Dumbledore said, "Professor McGonagall, please go to Mr Filch at once and ask him to search every painting in the castle for the Fat Lady."
"You'll be lucky!" Came a cackling voice. Everyone knew the owner of it. Peeves. He was bobbing over us in delight as he often did with wreckage and worry.
"What do you mean, Peeves?" Dumbledore asked calmly, and Peeves's grin faded a little. He didn't dare taunt Dumbledore, instead he adopted a voice that was only slightly better than his cackling.
"Ashamed, your Headship sir. Doesn't want to be seen. She's a horrible mess. Saw her running through the landscape on the fourth floor, sir, dodging between the trees. Crying something dreadful," he said happily. "Poor thing," he added, unconvincingly.
"Did she say who did it?" Said Dumbledore quietly.
"Oh, yes, Professorhead," Said Peeves. With the air of one cradling a bombshell in his arms, I felt a pit of dread building in my stomach. "He got very angry when she wouldn't let him in, you see." Peeves flipped over, and grinned at Dumbledore from between his own legs, "Nasty temper he's got, Sirius Black." Those words sent a chain reaction through the crowds. I was so stunned I almost dropped Bagheera who hissed again, sounding shocked herself. I turned to Wolfie, Max and Iggy all of whom looked to be confused rather than shocked.
I knew what everyone was thinking, which was: Oh my god! Sirius Black was here.
What I was thinking: If Sirius Black was in the castle, where was Alohomora?