C. M. Black: Eyes of an Owl

Chapter II: The Order

The Sun was hideously bright. It shone through the thin curtains, illuminating every single corner of Cassy's room. A tiny clock on the bedside table read half-seven. Just as quickly as the light emerged, it vanished again behind a thin, drifting cloud, but the damage was done; Cassy was wide awake. Her eyes protested, stinging from lack of sleep and the rude awakening four hours after her mind had finally shut down. The book she had been reading was still resting beside her head and the lamp was still shining. She lay there for a time, blankly, fiercely willing her body to submit her mind to sleep once more. It did not work and the longer she lay awake the more active her thoughts became, until eventually she slunk out of the thin covers to rummage in the little wardrobe wedged in the space at the end of her bed.

She wore a thin, dark green loose fitting jumper with her skinny jeans. It was warm outside, but overcast and Cassy did not have the effort to make herself presentable enough to warrant one of her pretty dresses. She wrangled her thick hair into a messy bun without much thought as she padded out and across the cool laminate.

'Slept rough, did you?' teased Tonks. Her hair was blonde today. 'You look like you have just crawled out of bed.'

Cassy does not laugh. Instead, she shifted from foot to foot, eyeing her shoes that Tonks had placed under the desk in the living room.

'May I go out?' she asked.

'Don't you want to eat something first? You hardly ate last night.'

Cassy did not have to look at Tonks to know she was frowning. She slipped her hands into her pockets and shook her head. She said, 'I am fine. I will eat when I am out. I just feel a bit restless.'

'You are always feeling restless,' muttered Tonks. She sighed and nodded. 'Just remember to take your wand and stay away from anyone who looks like a witch or wizard, all right?'

The warning had been the same the last few times Cassy had left the flat. There seemed to be some sort of vague worry that Cassy would be taken from the streets, which she found amusing. For someone not much older than her to be worried about things she would clearly remember not being concerned of at her age was bizarre. When she had first said it, Cassy had held her stare, watching her face for little changes, the small quirk of the lip that indicated Tonks was upset, or the twitch in her eye she always did when angry. Tonks held her stare entirely; Cassy noted that as meaning Tonks was not telling her something. She had been forced into enough conversations that summer to know that Tonks held eye-contact briefly before gesticulating wildly and staring off around the room in keen curiosity in case something more interesting happened to be occurring elsewhere. She had held her gaze. It had to be serious.

The next conclusion, recalled Cassy as she slipped her wand and a few Muggle currency notes into her pocket, was that Tonks was aware of something more sinister occurring. If Voldemort was back, which Cassy had yet to doubt he was, then Tonks may suspect she was a target of sorts for being so close to Harry. Tonks had no reason to believe he had returned though, with the Ministry of Magic taking every opportunity to discredit Harry through snide comments about his fame and state of mind in the Daily Prophet frequently. She had listened to Cassy's retelling and nodded along. She had said nothing else on it though and Cassy was at a loss as to whether she believed her or put it down to a thought cultivated by grief.

Cassy made sure not to touch the railings of the communal staircase as she descended. There was an odd smell that constantly lingered and more than once small groups of teenagers had been caught gathering suspiciously, cigarettes in their hands and watchful eyes. Tonks would always stride past them and they would greet her each time with a level of respect that made Cassy think Tonks had probably punched one of them for daring to talk back to her, because they appeared to be very careful of what they said in her presence. By default, they left Cassy alone too.

If Cassy had thought it was bright in her room, she had to consider outside blinding. Light reflected off the tall, metal buildings, shining down on the roads and cars in a maze of furious white light. She put her hand up to her forehead. There was a slight bit of regret that she had not bothered to find her sunglasses in the boxes, but that would require unpacking and she frankly did not want to, even after almost a month of living there.

The traffic was building to peak rush hour. Cars and buses swerved around one another, squeezing in and out of gaps they could hardly fit through in an effort to be the first vehicle moving. Careless Muggles on bicycles did the same and even more precariously, riding high on their seats as they turned out into traffic, ignoring the red lights and the oncoming cars.

Down the street, she watched as people hurried to descend below the earth to the underground trains, ignoring their frequent arrivals in favour of blind panic that missing one would set them back an hour instead of a mere two minutes. Turning, Cassy wandered off in the opposite direction. She had made the mistake of passing through the tunnels to see what the fuss was about once before and in a tangle of limbs and flailing briefcases, she had regretted every moment of it, even if it had been fascinating to watch them all struggle to get on and off the train in time.

She wandered to a quieter part of London. While it was nothing compared to her home streets of Canterbury, she found it easier to navigate the winding roads and oncoming pedestrians as she moved away from the main roads and into a distant shopping district. It was not too far from Diagon Alley, she noted, passing by a familiar bakery that sold questionable sweet goods in a range of wizarding flavours to anyone who entered. For a moment, she considered spending her day wandering through the district, but Tonks' warning echoed in her mind. She was not supposed to approach anyone who appeared to be remotely wizard-like.

Not that Tonks would know if I did, she thought slyly and then her expression flattened. Tonks was an Auror, she probably would and then Cassy would certainly not be allowed out of the tiny flat again.

She sighed and doubled back round. There was no harm in going to the bakery at any rate.

Soon, Cassy sat on a bench opposite a park. A pastry with a bright orange centre was in one hand and a coffee was held in the other. She watched the traffic pass and eyed those walking critically, trying to work out their occupation and where they were heading so early for the sake of amusement. It did not work as well as it had guessing how people had died with Harry and Neville, but it kept her occupied enough as she waited for her food to cool.

'Hello,' came a voice from beside her.

Cassy had been careful not to initiate eye-contact with the boy who had sat beside her some time ago. Slowly, she turned to him, wearing her best face of surprise and trying to appear as if his greeting had come as a shock.

'Good morning,' she returned.

'Are you from around her?' he asked, moving his dark hair from his eyes.

'I have lived here for a while, but I am originally from Canterbury,' she said. Slowly, she squeezed the filling from her pastry.

'Why did you move?'

Nosey boy, she thought bitterly.

'Change of scenery,' she said simply.

He nodded. 'You parents fancied a move?'

'Something like that.'

There was a dull silence and Cassy resumed people watching. She hoped if she was aloof enough then he would lose interest and leave. Instead, he leant a bit closer.

'What is that, in your pasty?' he asked.

Cassy looked down at it and replied, 'Pumpkin.'

'They do those?' His nose scrunched and his lips curled in distaste.

'They sell everything in London,' she replied with a hint of a smirk. The boy was certainly a muggle and Cassy could almost have smiled with the disgusted alarm that he looked down at the orange centre with.

'And the coffee?' he asked warily.

'Java.'

He looked considerably relieved at the normal flavour.

Cassy raised the polystyrene cup to her lips and took a long sip of the hot drink. She hated coffee. It was bitter and it all tasted the same to her, as much as she had been told by the cashier they were very different. She always brought the same blend and the regular workers always made it up for her before she had even got to order. It was vile, burning her mouth and infecting it with the taste for hours each day, but she never stopped ordering it. It smelt like home. Alphard would make the same kind each morning and have a different one for each time of the day. There was something comforting about being able to smell the familiar bitterness when she awoke and on some days it was the only thing preventing her from crawling back into bed. The coffee Tonks had was not the right sort, but the scent woke Cassy up each morning none the less, always a little calmer than on the days she had skipped that stage of her routine.

Across the road was a small newspaper vendor. While it would certainly not stock the Daily Prophet, Cassy had toyed with the idea of buying a paper when she sat down. The noise would only be obscured by the traffic and Cassy had limited interest in the ongoing Muggle Sri Lankan Civil War.

She took another sip of her coffee. Her nose crinkled slightly as she found where all the sugar she had put in it had gone to, apparently congregating in a single mouthful of vile bitter-sweetness that almost made her gag. The boy beside her did not notice. He began speaking of his own life. He was waiting to meet a friend who lived in London, but his train in had been early and he had left the station to find a payphone to let him know. He was from Surrey himself, like Harry, and Cassy considered asking him if they had met, but Surrey was a large place and not many people there appeared to like him. She swirled the drink in the cup. She would probably just throw it over him and leave if he said anything bad; she was not in a mood for a fight.

'You're very pretty, you know,' said the boy, suddenly.

Cassy kept her face neutral, yet an uncomfortable tingling ran over her skin. It felt odd to be complimented by a stranger in an informal setting. During a dance or a ball was something else entirely, not uncommon and frequent enough that many years ago Cassy had come to believe the words held some truth, but always they were said for politeness more than genuine thought. This time, Cassy felt the slightest bit flattered.

'Thank-you,' she said, with a short side-long glance.

Less than ten minutes later, the boy rose. He waved to a group of people walking towards them and they waved back enthusiastically. Then, he turned to her and said, 'You can come too if you like. It might be more interesting that eating that gross pasty of yours and staring at traffic.'

Part of her wanted to go. The boy was attractive and nice. It could be interesting, a break from the monotony that she had led herself into, but they would soon find her strange when she did not understand their references and their colloquialisms. She had two years of Muggle Studies behind her, which was not nearly enough and besides, she reminded herself, Tonks had explicitly told her not to wander off with strangers of any sort.

Cassy offered him a meagre half-smile and shook her head. 'No, thank-you, but it was kind of you to offer.'

He tilted his head and squinted at her. 'I bet you live in a nice part of London. You speak like you would.'

Cassy lifted and eyebrow and smirked. She watched him run to his friends. They chatted and looked back at her. She quickly ducked her head to her drink that she clasped with both hands. It was becoming cold and cold coffee was worse than hot coffee. Quickly, she down the rest of it and threw it into the nearest bin. She set off walking aimlessly, stopping occasionally to buy drinks or to sit, but she travelled a wide berth with no purpose. The underground was stuff, even with a lack of people after the lunch hour, and she sweltered in her woollen top for only a few stops before deciding she best get off. She had stopped stupidly to wait for the machine to give her back her ticket and a woman had nudged her sharply in the back, telling her to hurry along. Cassy strode passed the same woman on the stairs later when all of her bags had split and her things scattered. Apparently, she had bumped into another person for moving too slowly once more.

The sun was beginning to set when Cassy thought to begin the return journey to Tonks' flat. She had spent several hours in a war museum and had been caught marvelling at each item on display. They had never covered warfare in Muggle Studies and she had easily spent hours roaming the same exhibits. She bit her lip as she climbed the stairs of the apartment block. The lock clicked so gently that it was almost silent, but the flat was deathly quiet. It was shut just as softly, barely audible over the ticking of the large clock in the living room. Gingerly, she peered in the kitchen. There was no note on the counter to state Tonks had been called into work. A sweet scent flowed from the room and saucepans rested, cooling on the side and in the sink.

'Where have you been?' barked a voice from behind her.

Cassy jumped. 'Of all the times for you to be stealthy!' she breathed.

'You were supposed to be back over two hours ago!' snapped Tonks.

'It is not even dark yet,' protested Cassy. 'I would bet you hardly returned on time when you were my age.'

'I wasn't fifteen when You-Know-Who was running around somewhere unchecked, was I?'

There was an overwhelming desire to say that she was, actually, only Voldemort had not had a body, but she squashed it down quickly. She had never seen Tonks so angry and more importantly, Tonks was very serious about Voldemort having returned.

'I am sorry,' said Cassy quietly. 'Time just ran away with me.'

'Stop doing that – apologising all the time. You used to bicker back constantly and now you just cave and apologise to me. It's weird,' mumbled Tonks. She sighed and folded her arms. 'Look, I know it's boring and I know you hate being indoors, but we live in the centre of London. There are hundreds of witches and wizards who live and work around here and you will be easily recognisable as one of Harry's friends. Voldemort has been lurking around and we think he has a few contacts within the Ministry, so I am just trying to make sure you don't accidentally wind up somewhere one of them thinks it would be a good idea to hurt you.'

'You think he has infiltrated the Ministry?' repeated Cassy seriously. 'How would you know that?'

'You don't really think we've been doing nothing, do you?' came a second voice from the living room. It was low and roughish, belonging only to Alistair Moody.

Cassy pushed passed Tonks and stood in the entrance to the living room. In the wide armchair, he sat. His wooden leg protruded from beneath his dark trousers and his magical eye flittered madly before settling squarely on her. His hair was as wild, but his face was gaunter than the imposter that had taught them the year before from having been kept barely alive in a trunk for almost a year.

'Mister Moody,' she said curtly.

Moody snorted, 'I haven't heard anyone call me that for many, many years. I believe we've met before?'

'You cursed me in a cupboard, yes,' said Cassy frankly and he laughed loudly.

Tonks pushed by and settled herself down on the sofa, taking the seat nearest her mentor.

'You gave those Aurors a good fright when you befuddled them and hid. I don't think they would have thought to look there again if I hadn't spotted you through the wall,' he said with a wide smile, contorting his all ready mangled face. 'They thought they were cursed by the house.'

'That was the plan,' she said lowly, sinking into the seat beside Tonks at her incessant patting of the cushion.

'I am going to go and re-heat dinner,' announced Tonks. 'Then we can all have a chat during the meal.'

Cassy wondered what kind of a conversation she was supposed to have with the two Aurors. Tonks had mentioned that they knew something was happening and Moody had clearly stated there was some sort of counter movement, so Cassy's earlier suspicions of Tonks knowing more than she let on was correct. She dearly wanted to ask, but she forced herself to wait to hear what they had to say. There was no way that they could avoid it and if they tried then she had all ready begun plotting ways to extract information from Tonks, slowly but surely.

'I am sorry for your uncle's death.'

Cassy turned to Moody.

'He was a good man,' he continued soberly. 'I knew him from school and even though we were in opposite houses, I had to give him respect. He was very good at what he did and he was always very civil, even when you knew he didn't want to be.'

'Thank-you,' replied Cassy quietly. She was still not fond of people offering their condolences.

'Well, you might as well stay around to hear what we were discussing now. You will find out soon enough anyway,' he said, taking a sip from his hip flask. His magical eye roamed over the wall opposite and followed around as Tonks came through the doorway, hovering three bowls of stew.

'Since you have just got back, I thought you might like some too. I always make too much,' said Tonks, handing him a bowl. He sniffed it.

'Hasn't been poisoned, has it?' he asked gruffly.

'Not unless you failed to notice someone break into my house while you were here,' responded Tonks cheerfully. She handed the next bowl to Cassy before taking her own seat.

Moody hummed and took a sip. 'I was just telling Cassy here that we might as well fill her in on what's going on. She'll know soon enough anyway.'

'Do you think Dumbledore will mind?'

'She's going to have to be told sooner of later and in this block of Muggles is probably the best place for it.'

Cassy dismissed how they spoke about her as if she was not there. The stew was warm, refreshing against the cooled air of the flat. Tonks had obviously not meant they would be discussing the ongoings she had thrown at her when she walked in. Cassy was silently very thankful for Moody.

'We're going to be moving.'

Cassy turned to Tonks in surprise. 'Where?'

'Elsewhere in London. Well, I won't be there all the time, but I will come and go. I have a lot to do, so it will be more difficult to keep coming back here. It is easier if you are somewhere were you won't be alone all the time.'

'Somewhere I am not in the way,' offered Cassy, unable to keep her voice from becoming flat.

'You're not in the way,' frowned Tonks.

'You're going to be going to the heart of the action, actually,' interjected Moody. 'You will be staying at Headquarters.'

Cassy wondered how well the wards on the flat would have to be charmed for him to be able to admit that.

'Dumbledore is on the move. He has been making little excursions and building support for a while. That's why I haven't been around so much lately. Moody approached me about the Order and I have been doing a few tasks for them as well as working,' explained Tonks.

'The Order?' repeated Cassy.

'The Order of the Phoenix,' answered Moody. He dropped his spoon back into his stew and set it on the coffee table. 'It is an old organisation that Albus set up in the first war to fight You-Know-Who. He's reformed it after the incident last month. We're just getting back onto out feet.'

'And a resistance is mounting? How well? The Government are not keen to publicise Voldemort's return,' said Cassy warily.

Moody stared at her with widened eyes and Cassy stared back. He began nodding with a bit of a smile and said, 'Not many people dare to use his name. I suppose you hear it a lot from Potter?'

'You glorify him further if afraid to even speak his name,' she said calmly.

'Too right,' said Moody.

'Anyway, progress is slow at the Ministry. We have to be very careful who we speak to. We could lose our jobs if the Ministry thinks we're stirring things up,' said Tonks lightly. 'We are making some headway though.'

'There are a few of you within the Ministry then? You said 'we' and you cannot be referring to Moody because he is retired. Who else is there?' she asked curiously.

'Ah, you got me,' said Tonks. 'I can't tell you though. We don't want it getting out.'

Cassy hardly considered it likely she was going to string the names from the window in a great banner of betrayal, but she nodded along anyway. It never hurt to be cautious.

'Are you all right with moving? I know you've only just got here, but it will only be for this summer and if you would rather stay here then that is fine, but some of your friends will be moving into soon too,' said Tonks, when Cassy failed to respond.

'Who?'

'Arthur and Molly Weasley and their kids will be there by late July,' said Moody.

Harry had mentioned the Weasleys had been asked to take immediate action, but Cassy was surprised that they were willing to uproot all of their children. Cassy's eyebrow began to drift upwards as she wondered how large the Headquarters was.

The conversation did not continue much after that. All the information she had been told was what they had deemed necessary. Any further questions she had were rebuffed with 'Order only', or 'You can know when you're of age'. Tonks had giggled at Cassy's flat expression and told her how she knew it was irritating, but they were on Dumbledore's orders. It was the same man who had asked them to alienate Harry for the summer and as soon as Tonks collected the bowls and Moody dismissed himself, Cassy was in her room, rummaging beneath her pillow for the two-way mirror. She jumped up again to lock the door and turned on the radio on the desk beside it, letting the Weird Sister's fill the room.

'Harry,' she hissed, turning the mirror. 'Harry!'

'Evening,' came the low response. Harry's bottle green eyes popped into view and his eyebrows suddenly rose. 'Been in the sun today?'

'A little,' said Cassy, checking for pink patches on her arms. 'Anyway, you will never guess what I have just been told.'

Without missing a beat, Harry brought the mirror closer to his face and Cassy launched into an explanation of everything she knew. She might not know where Headquarters was, but she knew that there was one and that had Harry sighing in relief. The news had been a long time coming and the sound of it seemed to calm his fraying nerves greatly. He had just as many questions as Cassy had and she rebuffed him just the same as she had been, laughing under her breath as his eyes narrowed before grinning.

'This is great, but it would be nice if Dumbledore actually came here and told me himself,' he said.

'By the sounds of it, Professor Dumbledore has not been around much at all. He is very heavily involved with the Ministry and is getting into a lot of trouble for spreading your story,' said Cassy. 'The Order seems to operate on a needs basis. I only know because Tonks cannot handle having me and her work. She needs me out of the way.'

'I'm sure it's not like that,' assured Harry with a slight frown. 'Besides, you get to be at the heart of it!'

'I am not sure I can find out too much, actually. They seem to be reluctant to mention anything they thought I was too young for. It does not seem to matter to them that when war breaks out I will be fighting, all they see is my current age,' she said irritably.

'Well, they better not try and hide things from me later – assuming I ever get out of here... Dumbledore certainly wants me kept in the dark.'

'I will try and change some minds when I am there. I go next week. It should be an experience.'

'I wish I was there,' he said quietly.

'I will tell you everything I find, I promise you that much,' she said.

'Not because of that – I mean, it will be great, but I all ready know that. I just mean so you aren't stuck in another house by yourself. I can tell how much you hate being where you are and to move twice in a month must be hard, especially to one filled with people you probably won't know,' he explained, frowning slightly.

That is really sweet, Cassy thought instantly and ducked her head. She smiled slightly at him and said, 'Thank-you, Harry. I am sure it will be fine, though. It has to be more interesting than being here.'

'You're really sunburnt, you know. You should do something about that.'

Cassy was not sure it was the sunburn making her face red.

Well, here is chapter two. Introduction of the Order and some more general life of Cassy mulling around in London. It has only been about three weeks since Alphard died, if anyone wants a timeline.

I think Tonks would be a bit snappy because she worries and Cassy is moping around in a dangerous city instead of doing as she's told. I feel as though irritation would rise with the pressure she has at work, with the Order, and with being responsible for Cassy, but she means well. I know in the explanation Rowling released of Tonks and Remus' confession, she was angry with Remus for not realising she liked him and was pretty snappy then, so I am basing it off that. I don't really recall seeing her angry in the book, to be honest.

Hope you enjoyed it. Please review!

Thanks!