Chapter Eleven

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The Easter holiday was fast approaching and Casselle grew anxious with every passing day. She didn't want to spend it at home, but she knew her father was going to demand that she spend the holiday at the house, especially since the stunt she pulled at Christmas. Just thinking about what would be waiting for her when she returned to her house made her sick with anxiety. No, she thought to herself, I can't go back there consequences be damned.

"Cass what are you doing for Easter?" Emma asked as they were sitting down at Breakfast a few days before break.

"I don't know. I might stay here…" Casselle said sadly.

"What? Alone?" Lily said shocked. "But Cass hardly anyone is going to be here. Won't you get lonely?"

"It'll be fine Lil. I can catch up on my OWL studying." She said trying to get off of the subject. She looked over and saw Sirius watching her intently, she quickly looked away.

"Why don't you go home?" Emma asked.

"Erm…" Casselle didn't know what to say, she still hadn't told her friends about what her father was like.

"What about if you stay with me?" Lily asked, "My parents wouldn't mind. They'd love to have you stay."

"I don't know…" Casselle said hesitantly. "I don't want to impose."

"Nonsense! They'd love you to come. I'll owl them right after breakfast."

"Okay, if you're sure." Casselle said giving up.

"Positive," Lily said with a smile.

Sure enough Lily's parents were ecstatic to have one of her friends stay with them, so it was decided Casselle would stay with Lily over Easter. Relief washed over her as she packed for the week.

Casselle headed down to the train with Lily a little nervous that she would run into her brother.

"Come on, I think this one's empty," Lily said hurrying toward and open door. As she walked in she saw James and Sirius sitting with their heads together. "Oh, never mind I'm sure we can find one somewhere else." Lily scoffed turning to leave.

"Sorry Evans, there aren't any open one's left." James said with a smirk.

"Well why don't you sit with your other friends, and leave this one open." She said putting her hands on her hips.

"Because Remus had to leave early, because he wasn't feeling well, and Peter decided to stay at school. So it's just us."

"But you are welcome to join us if you'd like," Sirius said with a cocky smirk.

"We probably should, I mean you don't want to get stuck with a bunch of Slytherins do you Lil?" Casselle asked.

"I guess." Lily said reluctantly pulling her trunk through the door.

"Casselle," Her jaw clenched at her brothers sneering tone. She took a deep breath and turned to see Nathaniel down the hall waiting for her.

"Hey could you put this away? I have to go to the loo really fast," Casselle said placing her trunk in the compartment, and turning back to the hall. She saw Sirius raise his eyebrows at her but she ignored him and walked toward her brother.

"What is it Nate?" She asked steeling herself off. She was not going to let him scare her this time, she was prepared for him.

"Father is very upset with you; he says you should sit with me to make sure you come home," Nathaniel said with a cold sneer.

"Well you can tell Father that I am not coming home for the holiday. I'm staying with a friend," She replied matching his cold tone.

"I'm afraid you don't have a choice little sister. Father didn't appreciate the display you caused at Christmas, and he wants you home."

"So he can punish me into submission? I don't think so. So why don't you tell father that I will see him during summer. Go be his little messenger boy and run along," She said turning to leave.

"I don't think so Casselle," He said grabbing her arm. "Father gave very specific instructions, you had to come home." He paused his lips tugging up into an ugly grin as he leaned down to whisper in her ear, "The rest you'll find out later, but I must say I'm eager to practice my wand work this holiday."

She winced at the feel of his breath on her ear and the pain that shot through her arm, but turned back with a cold stare. "Let go, Nathaniel. Leave me alone. Go back to Daddy your obviously great at taking orders so go."

"Why you," He increased the pressure on her wrist. It took all her strength not to wince, she knew it would only make him happy. "Father wants you home now. That's final."

"No what's final, is that you will take your hand off of me, and leave me alone." She said pulling out her wand and pointing it at him. "Now."

"Do we really have to go through this again? You remember how the last time went don't you? You're hardly a match for me little sister." He smirked flooding her mind with images of her flying through the air and crying out in pain. The higher stress she was under the harder it was to keep the barriers in her mind up. She could feel them cracking as Nathaniel increased the pressure on her wrist.

Her knees went weak as the last of her barriers fell away and she was assaulted with Nathaniel's thoughts. Her family knew about her gift, and Nathaniel knew she struggled at controlling it. He forced memories on her, and she relived their father's anger at her absence at Christmas through her brother's eyes. She felt dizzy as she got sucked further into her brother's mind she couldn't handle that many images at once, it overworked her and he knew it.

She gasped out in pain, as she relived the Cruciatus curse he had used on her earlier that year through his memory. "Stop," She begged hating him for it.

"Had enough Casselle?" He sneered. "Ready to cooperate?"

She tried to close her mind, but he kept pushing the memories on her.

"Casselle?" She heard Sirius call behind her, his voice was strained.

Nathaniel looked up and let go of Casselle's wrist glaring at Sirius, and Casselle opened her eyes breathing heavily quickly throwing the barriers around her mind up again. She took a few breaths to steady herself, and glared at her brother.

"Go home Nathaniel, tell Father whatever you like but I won't be there." She turned and walked away from him.

"You'll regret it Casselle, you know you will." Nathaniel spat before turning and walking back down the corridor.

Casselle shook from the strain of the confrontation. She felt unsteady and a little nauseous; her head was pounding relentlessly against her skull. Her brother's threats resonated with her and for the first time Casselle felt a pang of fear for what her father was capable of. After all Lily's family lived in the muggle world and would be vulnerable to her father's influence.

"Cass?" Sirius asked putting his hand on her shoulder. "You okay?"

Casselle shook the feeling hoping Nathaniel was just trying to scare her. "Yeah I'm fine. Let's get back to the compartment." She said heading back to it quickly.

The train ride went by quickly, she knew Sirius was watching her but she ignored him. She already had too much to think about.

"Come on, my parents are over there!" Lily said excitedly. Casselle blew a sigh of relief as she realized her parents weren't anywhere near Lily's. She thought she saw them on the far side of the platform, but she wasn't sure.

"Mom, Dad this is Casselle Dawson." Lily said introducing her.

She smiled at Lily's parents. They had such kind faces, her mother had the same dark red hair as Lily and her father seemed to share her eye color. "Thank you so much for letting me stay with you this week." Casselle said.

"It is no problem, it's a pleasure to meet you and have you stay with us." Mrs. Evans beamed. "Did Lily say Dawson as in Henry Dawson the senator?"

Casselle's smile grew strained, "Erm yes actually he's my father."

"Really? I never would have guessed his daughter was a witch," He said contemplating it.

"Yeah, well it's not really something he could go around talking about," Casselle said quickly hoping they wouldn't linger on the subject of her father.

"Well we should get going. We told Petunia we would be back before dinner." Mrs. Evans said as Mr. Evans took the girls trunks and led them toward the entrance to platform 9 ¾. Fortunately her father didn't seem to have seen her so she was in the clear for now.

Casselle loved staying with Lily's family; they were great, except for Petunia. She was a nightmare. She hardly talked or looked at Casselle or Lily and when she did she glared and sneered at them.

"Well your sisters a treat, isn't she," Casselle said that night as they were getting ready for bed.

Lily sighed, "Yeah."

"Lil," Casselle said sitting on Lily's bed. "I'm sorry you have to deal with her. It must be really hard."

Lily sat down next to Casselle, "Yeah. It can be. But I'm used to it by now; I mean she's been treating me like that for six years now."

"Don't worry; she's just jealous of you. You're awesome and a witch. She's just a muggle." Casselle said putting her arm around Lily.

"Yeah, I guess." Lily said. "Thanks for coming Cass, I'm glad you're here."

"Me too." Casselle said smiling.

The week passed quickly, Casselle and Lily went to the movies and shopped around London to get away from Petunia. Casselle loved spending time with Lily's parents, it was so obvious how much they loved her.

"This has been the best," Casselle said as they were packing the night before they had to go back to school.

"It has, usually holidays are spent in silence, because me and Petunia are arguing. I think my parents are glad that you came too. Me and Petunia have hardly fought while we were here."

"Well I'm glad to have helped," Casselle said laughing and getting into bed.

The next morning they ate breakfast early and headed into London with Lily's parents to Kings Cross station. Lily said goodbye to her parents, and Casselle thanked them again for letting her stay with them.

The platform was packed with families, and Casselle and Lily pushed their way through to the train, and collapsed into an empty compartment. The train was about to leave when they heard a commotion outside their compartment.

Casselle got up to see what was going on, She saw James glaring at a bunch of people around him.

"Will you get out of my way!" He yelled trying to push past the people, but there was too many of them. "He doesn't want to talk to any of you, so MOVE!" He pulled out his wand threatening the people around him with a deadly look in his eye.

They started to part slowly, and that's when Casselle noticed Sirius behind James. "James," She called to him.

He looked up at her thankfully, "Hey can we crash in your compartment?" he pleaded still pushing people out of his way.

"Uh…Sure." Casselle said moving out of the way.

"SIRIUS!" She heard a girl screech behind them. "You poor baby, do you want to talk about it in our compartment?" She called.

James flipped around pointing his wand at the girl, "Stay away, I'm warning you." He threatened coldly.

The girl stopped in her tracks, and eyed the wand warily. Sirius didn't even look at the girl; he had his eyes pointed at the floor.

"James," Casselle said nervously. "Come on, leave her alone." She pulled him into the compartment, and closed the door in the girls face.

"What's going on?" Lily asked looking from James to Sirius to Casselle. Sirius sat down on the empty seat across from Lily.

"Erm…" James said looking at Sirius cautiously.

Casselle sat down next to Sirius hesitantly, "Sirius?" She asked softly.

It was quiet for a moment, but then he finally looked towards her and she gasped in surprise. He had a black eye, and cuts covering his face, and down his neck, she was sure there were more hiding under his robes.

"What happened?" She breathed.

He was trying to run away and his parents weren't too happy about it. They kept him locked up for most of the week and were beating him. He was lucky to have gotten out of his room, much left leave the house. It could have been a lot worse." James said angrily. "He showed up at my place last night…mom's not to great at healing so we figured it was best to let Madame Lemoore do it…"

"Oh Merlin," Casselle said, she had never seen Sirius look this broken. His eyes usually a glittering gray, just looked dead. "At least you got a way," She whispered.

"Cass…" He whispered so softly she hardly heard him.

"It's okay," She said putting her arm around him; she didn't know what else she should do. She had never seen Sirius like this, she hated to admit it but she missed the arrogant Sirius. This Sirius scared her.

He leaned into her, resting his head on her shoulder. She looked over at James nervously; he just shrugged and looked at his friend with a sad expression. Casselle rubbed Sirius's arm hoping he would snap out of it. But he stayed like that the entire ride to Hogwarts.

"Hey, Padfoot mate we're here," James said nudging him. Sirius moved his head off of Casselle's shoulder but didn't make any move to get up.

James pulled down the trunks, and pulled Sirius up, "Come on mate," He said softly.

Lily and Casselle walked in front of them trying to keep the crowd at bay. Remus, Peter and Emma showed up on the platform.

"Is he alright?" Remus asked standing to Sirius's side.

"Not really, let's just get him to a carriage." James said leading him on. "Will you go away!" James turned to yell at the girls crowding them. His anger flaring, Casselle had never seen him so angry.

They all climbed into a horseless carriage, and headed to the castle in silence. Sirius stared off into the woods surrounding them, and Casselle watched him. She had never seen this side to him before, everyone knew he didn't get along with his family, but this was different. He didn't show any emotion at all.

Over the next few weeks, Sirius hardly left the common room. Whenever Casselle would leave, she would find a hoard of girls waiting outside hoping to get a glimpse of him. They bombarded her with questions, about whether he was okay.

"Will you all just go back to your own damn common rooms!" Casselle yelled as she walked out and they started pelting her with questions. "He obviously doesn't want to see you, and you're being pathetic sitting out here for him! He can't eat, because you all attack him when he steps out! Just leave! He doesn't even bloody know any of your names and the last thing he needs is a bunch of gits offering petty forms of comfort! Now clear off!" She couldn't help it, the anger she felt toward them had been building since they started forming there.

She walked back through the portrait hole, deciding to go to the library later. When she stepped into the common room she saw Sirius sitting by the fire alone, with a small smile on his face.

"Thanks for that."

Casselle smiled slightly embarrassed, "They were irritating me, and I couldn't deal with it anymore," She said sitting down next to him. "How are you doing?" She asked cautiously, usually when anyone asked him he closed up again.

"Better I guess, I should have known it would come to this. It's just different when you really do it," He said looking into the fire.

"Yeah I can imagine. It's really brave that you did run away though."

"Yeah that's what Mrs. Potter said too."

"She's right."

He turned to her and smiled, it was almost too it's normal shine. And Casselle couldn't help but smile in return.

Sirius's mood started to finally break, and he was back to pranking people with James again in a week. Though there wasn't much time for them to rejoice, because OWLS were coming up and Remus was cracking down on them, forcing them to study.

The next few months, Sirius didn't have time to try and convince Casselle to go out with him, because she was too busy studying for their OWLS with Lily.

"Lily do we really have to study today?" Casselle complained throwing herself down on her bed. "We haven't had a break all week. Studying nonstop is not good for the brain."

"Like you would know," Lily scoffed not taking her eyes off her Transfigurations book. "You hardly ever study."

"Exactly! Because my brain can't handle all of that. Come on just a walk around the lake?" Casselle pleaded sitting up. "And then I will study for hours without a word."

"I guess we could squeeze in a little walk." Lily said sadly closing her Transfiguration book.

"She said yes!" Emma exclaimed throwing her Transfiguration book across the room.

"But after we have to crack down on Defense Against the Dark Arts," Lily added with a small frown at Emma.

"Fine as long as I can use someone to practice on," Casselle said with a smile.

"How about Potter and Black?"

"Oh, good idea!" Emma replied jumping toward the door, so glad to be able to release some pent up energy. "Come on, daylight is a wasting."

Casselle bounced down the stairs after Emma the pair of them singing, "We get to go for a walk! We get to go for a walk! No studying for us! No studying for us!"

"We are still studying! Just taking a break!" Lily called after them, her amusement clear in her voice.

"Aw seriously!" They heard someone complain. They both turned to see Sirius look up at them from the circle of Marauders in the corner of the common room. "Come on Moony, even Evans is taking a break! I haven't seen a broom in two weeks much less the outside world! I need to be able to stretch my legs or I'll die!" Sirius yelled throwing his book down.

"Stop being so dramatic Padfoot. Studying will do you some good." Remus said smiling over at his friend.

"No it won't, my brain isn't used to this. I haven't even been paying attention to this book, I've just been counting the number of times Wormtail bites his nails in agitation, which is by now 1,945, and the number of times Potter writes Evans' name across his notebook, which is 174. I can't take it!" Sirius said standing up.

"Yeah Remus, can we please go for a walk, fly a broom, something. This is killing me," James said pleading with Remus.

"Fine," He sighed turning to the girls. "Do you mind if we join you?"

Casselle's eyes flashed to Sirius who smirked at her. "No that's fine. Come on before Lily changes her mind," Casselle said turning toward the portrait hole.

"By the way Sirius was lying. I haven't written your name that many times in my notebook," James said to Lily as they followed Casselle.

"Oh really, would you like me to get your notebook?" Sirius called grinning from ear to ear.

"No." James said shortly glaring at Sirius.

"It doesn't matter," Lily said blushing slightly. "Hey Casselle wait up!" She called hurrying after her to get away from the two boys. "Why did you have to agree to letting them come?" Lily asked annoyed.

"Sorry Lil, but I felt their pain. It won't be that bad."

"Oh you slackers always have to stick together," Lily scoffed.

"Yep pretty much," Emma chimed in with a grin.

"Hey Dawson, wait up!" Sirius called. Casselle ignored him, but he raced up next to them. "We are going to play a quick game of Quidditch, you guys want to join?" He asked.

"Sure, you up for it Lily?" Casselle asked knowing Lily wasn't that great on a broom.

"I guess," Lily said looking over at the field.

"Great! I'll tell the rest of them." Sirius said running back to the marauders.

"Are you sure you want to play? We don't have to play; it's not a big deal."

"Yeah, it'll be fun." Lily said walking over to the field. Casselle watched her friend, wondering what she was thinking about.

"So it'll be three on three, no keepers. Two chasers and a seeker. And Emma's graciously decided to be the ref, though I would hope we wouldn't need one," James explained as the girls walked up. "Sirius and I will be captains, since we have the most experience with Quidditch."

"Alright, I'll pick first," Sirius said before Casselle could protest the decision. "Casselle," He said.

Casselle walked over to him, "Don't even think about trying any funny business." Casselle whispered.

"Love; do you even know who I am? Funny business is my middle name," he whispered back.

"Lily," James called. Lily looked over at Casselle, anxiously then walked over to James.

"I'll take Moony," Sirius said.

"Alright Peter, you're with me." James said a little regrettably. "Let's go grab our brooms."

After they all mounted their brooms, Sirius immediately got the quaffle, tossing it easily to Remus who threw it into the goal with ease, while Casselle watched around for the snitch.

Lily grabbed the quaffle and headed toward the goal, while Sirius trapped her, she tossed it to Peter who missed it and Remus scored again.

Casselle could see James getting annoyed while he scanned the area for the snitch; he was not fond of losing.

It went on for another half hour; Emma awarded two penalty shots to Lily after Sirius bumped into her in his attempt to get the quaffle Lily managed to make both of them, without the help of Peter. Casselle could see she was actually enjoying herself. Sirius and Remus scored another five goals. When finally Casselle saw the glint of gold near the ground on James's side.

She steered her broom towards it, watching as James followed suit. He was close behind her, but he wouldn't reach it before her. She made a decision in the split second before she grabbed the snitch, kicking her broom another two feet causing her broom to wobble and she skidded to the ground with minimal injuries. She looked up to see James grab the snitch and run towards her, Sirius close behind him.

"Casselle are you alright!" James called kneeling down next to her.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just put a little too much pressure on the broom." She said smiling sheepishly. "Congratulations you guys won!"

"Yeah. Didn't think we would for a while," James said looking at the snitch in his hand.

"Cass!" Lily called running up to her. "Are you okay? That looked like a bad fall."

"I'm fine. It was nothing." She winced slightly at the bruises on her back and her leg, but other than that nothing else hurt. She looked up to see Sirius looking at her with a weird expression that she couldn't place, she looked away quickly. "But you guys won!" Casselle said throwing her arm around Lily. "I told you Quidditch wasn't a terrible game and that you'd get the hang of it."

"Yeah, it's not too bad. But I thought for sure you were going to catch the snitch. You almost did."

"Yeah, but James was way better at Broom control, so he deserved it."

"Lily, those were some great shots!" James said all his attention on Lily again.

Lily blushed at the compliment, "Thanks."

"Some of those would have been hard for even an experienced player." He gushed. Casselle let go of Lily's shoulders and stepped back letting James take her attention.

She limped a little from the bruises but it wasn't that difficult to walk back.

"Do you need a crutch Dawson?" She heard Sirius whisper in her ear. She shivered at the proximity of him.

"No, just a little sore is all. Good game, sorry we didn't win."

"You should be, you cost us the game, you little cheater," He accused.

"Excuse me?" She asked shocked.

"You had that snitch at the tips of her fingers, but you felt bad and let James catch it. Was it worth it?" He asked.

"Yes it was. James deserved to win. Peter was losing him the game. It was unfair," She whispered making sure no one could hear them. Remus was chatting happily with Emma and Peter a little further ahead of them, and Lily and James were chatting away.

"And I didn't deserve to win? I played my butt off and you threw that away," He said pretending to be offended.

"Please you can benefit from losing a few times in your life." She said patting his shoulder.

"You seem to really like deflating my ego, I don't know if I want you around anymore," Sirius said sadly.

"Oh please, stop being a drama queen. It is not a big deal," She said as they entered the castle.

"It is a big deal, first you assume that I am gay with one of my best mates, and now you make me lose a Quidditch game. I can't take much more of these antics," Sirius pouted. "Maybe if I had a girlfriend, it wouldn't be so bad."

"Better luck next time Black, besides this side of you isn't attractive at all. I'm not sure I would ever want to date it," She said walking ahead of him.

"Please I am never unattractive, I've even found that I'm attractive when I cry, which few people can accomplish." He said with a smirk. "You being one of them."

Casselle blushed, "Please, don't bring that up. I'd just like to forget about every time I cried in front of you."

"Alright," Sirius agreed softly.

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