C. M. Black: Eyes of an Owl

Chapter XXVI: News and the new professor

March brought in clearer weather, a slight breeze and new buds on the early sprouting flowers of spring. The snow had fully melted and the fresh green grass pushed stubbornly through the trampled mud that surrounded the cobbled courtyard. On one of the stone benches perched Cassy and Hermione, a jar of gently flickering blue flames between them. They were inclined to one another, their voices quiet as they discussed Harry's latest vision. For once it was not in the Department of Mysteries, but rather an unspecified space. Rookwood had informed Voldemort that Bode had resisted Lucius' Imperious curse, he knew he would not be able to collect whatever was inside the department.

There was still no hint of what it was they were after; it merely confirmed that Bode had been acting against his will.

'He needs to be careful,' sighed Hermione. 'I know it's useful, but he can't let him in his head.'

'I go over Occulmency nearly every night with him, but when I think we might have improved, he has a lesson with Professor Snape and he seems to reset again. He tramples over whatever defences Harry does possess,' said Cassy.

'If Professor Dumbledore trusts him – '

'That does not mean he is a good teacher,' interrupted Cassy flatly. 'He might not be a Death Eater, but he is an appalling teacher. He should not even work here as it is, let alone teaching Harry such a difficult art. He has no patience.'

The doors of the castle shook. They were thrown open and a sharp shriek echoed through the stone halls. Cassy and Hermione stood quickly. Two trunks skidded across the uneven paving. Professor Trelawney scurried out after them, sobbing, an empty bottle of sherry in one hand and the other clasping her shawl tightly. She turned, her ridiculous glasses magnifying her tears.

'You can't do this!' she cried.

'Umbridge,' muttered Hermione.

People gathered in the doorway, loud whispers and excited stares. They were pushed aside by Professor McGonagall, who hurried to Professor Trelawney's side. She gripped her shoulders tightly as the other sobbed loudly.

'This cannot be happening. I've worked here for years, I served this school with everything I had! You can't repay me this way!' she wailed.

Professor McGonagall muttered something in her ear, but Cassy's attention shifted to the sudden pink mass that emerged through the sea of black. Professor Umbridge stood proudly in the doorway, a wide grin on her face. She wrung her hands together in excitement.

'Your pitiful performance over the year is what lead to this. Surely you understand?' she said, sweetly.

'This is my home,' protested Trelawney.

'Was,' corrected Professor Umbridge. 'Now, get your things off the grounds and be gone with you.'

Professor McGonagall pushed Trelawney behind her. 'She will not be going anywhere because she is not leaving.'

'On whose authority?' asked Professor Umbridge, tartly.

'Mine,' came a low, calm voice.

Behind Professor McGonagall was the Headmaster. His arms were folded in front of him, perfectly pleasant in appearance. He was drawn to his full height, dwarfing Professor Umbridge, although she did not seem to notice.

'Need I remind you that the Ministry had decreed that the dismissal and appointment of the staff are to be dictated by the Ministry through the High Inquisitor,' she said sweetly.

'Yes,' said Professor Dumbledore, 'but the power to banish individuals from the premises remains with me. Minerva, please escort Sybil back inside.'

Hermione laughed quietly under her breath, 'Serves her right.'

'In fact, I have already found a replacement teacher. Her lodgings will not be required.' The Headmaster held out a hand to the far side of the courtyard. 'May I introduce Firenze.'

Following the motion, Cassy turned behind her and set eyes on a handsome face, leading down to a bare chest and, oddly, a horse body. The name was familiar, although the white-blond hair was not and the brightest, blue-eyes stared at them uncertainly. He was centaur Harry had met in first-year that had saved him in the Forbidden Forest, she realised. She remembered how obscure they had been when responding to Hagrid's questions, furthermore, he was not human and would not bow to the Ministry's demands.

'I think Professor Dumbledore has done this to spite her,' she muttered and Hermione giggled.

'I hope you find him most suitable,' said Professor Dumbledore, smiling, before returning inside with Firenze at his side.

Whispers and laughs broke out amongst the students. A figure pushed through the crowd and ran over to Cassy and Hermione just as Professor McGonagall and Trelawney passed Professor Umbridge, who stood stunned and alone.

Harry skidded to a halt, demanding to know what had happened. When they had explained, the conversation quickly turned to his latest Occulmency lesson. He grimaced.

'He's angry with me. He found out about the dream,' he said, just as the girls had suspected he would. He looked to Cassy seriously. 'He was repulsed when he found out we were dating.'

Cassy stared for a moment, before the pair of them grinned and began to laugh loudly.

Firenze was much more popular than anyone had anticipated. Since he had been appointed two days ago, he was the talk of the school, although he was hardly ever seen outside of his classroom. He did not attend meals and as he did not sleep in the castle, he was occasionally seen retreating to the Forbidden Forrest. It raised questions of his herd. They were known to be quite unfriendly to humans at the best of times and loathed anything seen to be subservience and Cassy was certain employment came under that category. They had a tendency to be violent when displeased with a herd member and Cassy spent the first evening reading about their culture. No one else seemed to mind his unusual heritage. Most of the girls did not even bother to hide their attraction to him; Hermione, however, took issue with him having four legs.

'You know,' said Ron idly, 'I wonder if everyone would still fancy him if he had the face of a horse and the lower end of a man? I mean, that has what counts, right?'

Hermione snorted loudly; she blushed when several heads turned to her in the corridor. Ron grinned down at her.

Cassy rolled her eyes, but before she could sarcastically respond a firm hand grasped her upper arm and she was hauled in another direction. She made a noise of surprise and Harry rounded instantly. Quickly, she waved her hand to assure him it was fine, though he did not look pleased to let her go, his wand half-way out his pocket. Several curious eyes followed her down the hall. She allowed herself to be pulled backwards down until they rounded into a darkened corner and she sharply tugged her arm from Draco Malfoy's vice-like grip.

His grey-eyes glared down at her, his teeth grinding harshly like a washer woman scrubbing at a stubborn stain. He had grown since she had last stood that close to him. He was not as tall as Harry, but taller than he had been by several inches; his skin was still pale and his hair was slightly longer than it was once deemed acceptable to be.

'I did not think you would sink low enough to spread rumours,' he hissed, undeterred by her critical stare.

Cassy grinned lazily. 'I'm not the only one though, am I? There were some lovely rumours about my mother going around in first term.'

He sneered. 'Heard that from Astoria Greengrass, did you? Don't think I have failed to notice how she follows you like a lost puppy. Since when have you two been so close?'

The image of Astoria trailing after anyone like a puppy was laughable, let alone for her focus to be Cassy. Astoria was more like a peacock, proud and ostentatious, or like a lion, watchful and prowling. Still, Cassy did not let her amusement show and kept her casual grin fixed in place.

'I don't believe that is any of your business anymore, Draco, dear. You made that quite clear,' she commented. 'I must say, I thought you would appreciate the battle to be fought on the terms you set, lies and all, rather than a sharp hex and being forcibly dragged through the grounds and drowned in the lake until you gain some sense about you. All that Death Eater nonsense might wash out, you see.'

'What do you want, Black?' he bit out.

Cassy surveyed him with unfeeling eyes. 'What did your parents tell you about me this summer that made you see me so differently?'

'This again? My parents did nothing,' he sneered. 'They said nothing.'

'Do not lie to me,' she hissed, barely above a whisper.

'They told me nothing,' he said again, more forcefully.

'Do not lie to me,' she growled.

'They did not – ' he shouted.

'Do not lie to me!' she roared. The sound echoed down the silent corridor, her command echoing back to them with force. 'For Merlin's sake, Draco! You are my cousin, the closest person I have to a brother. We were raised together, we learnt together, we played together. For a long time you were my only friend!'

'That's the problem, isn't it?' he snapped, fanning his arms out by his side. 'Your friends have changed you. Mother told me how she noticed you were not yourself anymore. You never had time for us anymore, too busy off saving Potter and Mudbloods to bother to write anymore. When was the last time you wrote to her? When Uncle Alphard was sick, how often did you just want to know how my parents were? What they had done? You used to care.'

Cassy clenched her fists. 'I always cared. Your mother is the one who never visited him in hospital. She never went out of choice after their fight and you know what they fought over? Me. Alphard knew, he knew the Dark Lord would return, he had read the signs and he was unwilling to give Narcissa custody of me because he knew your parents would crawl back to their master.

'I knew that and yet I still hoped you would all at least be there for his funeral. I left three seats open at the front, even when Andromeda told me you were not going to appear I made the other guests stand just in case. I always believed you would be there.'

She squared her shoulders, reigning her emotions back in just as her voice began to rise again. Malfoy's face was unreadable, emotions flickered across it but never lingered long enough for Cassy not note them, or perhaps she simply did not care enough to. She could always read him like a book, so perhaps she merely did not care what he thought anymore, it is not like it mattered anyway; their relationship was dead and buried.

'If you had been there for the funeral and then never spoke to me again, I would have understood. You and your parents have a side in this war and mine is the opposite, but to disregard your uncle simply because I was there is appalling and I can never forgive you for it.'

'Stop lying,' he commanded. 'You didn't invite us. Do not make it look as though we abandoned you! You cut ties to be with Potter.' He spat the 'p', his face shrivelled unpleasantly and he could not even look at her. He could not even look at her; it made her blood seer in her veins in a quiet anger she had rarely felt before.

'You know I did. You are not a fool, Draco, you know this is more than that. If your parents wanted to be there, invitation or not they would have been. They chose to stay away to keep up appearances of not associating with obvious Muggle-Lovers like myself.' She considered his shaking head for a moment, before her voice dropped an octave and become smooth, almost a whisper. 'Their philosophy is wrong, you know. One can teach an opinion, force a way of life, cultivate the Arts into something magnificent and revered, find a million ways to teach people to embrace traditional wizarding culture instead of a bastardised modernist approach enforced now, but killing children will not bring such change. To kill children and adults, to rip away the birthrights of anyone because of where they might have come from is unforgivable. To remove speech and choice will not bring order. To enslave will not bring freedom. You will not stand by his side as his equal, there will only be the Dark Lord, those who serve him, and those who oppose him and I assure you, there will be many of us. And when he forces you to your knees in the end, you might find the world is a cold place when you have no one left.'

'You don't know what you are talking about,' he said faintly.

'I will fight you, if I have to, but for Merlin's sake Draco, please do not take His mark. He will not let you go again once you do. You are like a brother to me, whether you want to be or not, and I would gladly put my life out there to save yours tomorrow if needed. You have to know that,' she said and for everything that had happened, she meant it. He was stupid, arrogant, and spiteful, but he could also be kind, thoughtful, and protective. He had been the only one to stand by her when the rest of their peers jeered, to laugh at her jokes, to turn his socks into puppets when she was sad, or sneak her chocolate when she was grounded.

It seemed impossible that such resentment and love could co-exist for one person, but he was her family, the closest she had ever been before she had found her friends and he had remained elevated in her heart because of it. Even when he had tried to pull away, he had always secretly stayed by her side, watchful of her misery, even if he had an odd way of showing it at times. It was because of that that Cassy was unwilling to simply stand by and allow his inevitable descent. His parents had never fully taken her in, she had realised. When she was a child, she had always felt a little special that a family as esteemed as the Malfoys would take her in as they did - help her, teach her, play and laugh with her as though there was nothing to be ashamed of – because it was no secret they detested everything improper. As she got older, she realised they had noticed she was not quite right, that something by all correct standards was horribly wrong with her, but they worked around it and she remained grateful. After Alphard had died, she was left to conclude she had always been alone in reality.

The Malfoys were not the type of family to defy tradition for her and she supposed she always knew it to some extent. She felt no surge of surprise at the thought, but rather an old itch of guilt that they would even have to. Generously, they had forgiven her House placement, ignored her associations, remained on good terms with her, speaking and caring, until it really mattered. Everyone but Draco. Draco did not know any better than what his parents had told him. He had long since closed off his emotions to everyone in an imitation of his father, cold and sadistic, a bully to those unfavourable. Yet, Cassy could always break through and force him to forgive her because regardless of what he said, he did care for her as she cared for him. This year, or the next, the one after that, or in a decade, she was determined to break through his skull and show him his ideology was wrong. She just hoped her connection was enough.

'I should have written to you directly,' she admitted, 'although I do not expect you would have received it, given the success rate of my other post. My world crashed down and you did not write to me once. I really needed someone who knew him, but I managed without that in the end.'

'Do not try and turn this on me,' he spat, icily. 'I wrote to you and they always came back unopened. If you cared that much you would have looked at them.'

Cassy sneered back at him. 'I told you before, I never received any letters from you.'

Malfoy turned his head to the side and made a short, sharp hiss. His eyes were cold and distant, as though reliving some far-off memory. He then turned to her, expressionless. 'You gave up on us. You chose Blood-Traitors and Mudblood over your family and you have become someone unrecognisable to me.'

That's not true, she thought, if I had he would not be wasting his time talking to me now.

'I cannot kill people because their blood does not coincide with the Dark Lord's vision of a utopia. I will not. I have met too many good people to think like that,' she said calmly, but confidently. 'Hundreds will be killed for having done nothing wrong.'

'They did something wrong,' said Draco evenly. 'They were born Mudbloods.'

Silence. For a brief moment, Cassy considered punching him. Her entire body tensed for a split second, impossible to detect, before she regained control and relaxed herself forcefully. She stared placidly instead. The quiet stretched on and on, until she took a step, then another and another and before a single word was exchanged, Cassy had walked passed him and back towards the main corridor again. As she went to turn the corner, she looked back at him, still stood where she had left him.

'I have not given up on you, not yet,' she said.

The journey to the common room was enveloped by a bizarre sense of calm. All the tension that had built for months at her simple need to speak with Malfoy had dispersed the moment the conversation ended. It had accomplished little really, they were no closer together and he did not seem to understand his parents must have tampered with the post, but she felt much better for it. The crackling of the fire and the low chatter calmed her further, distancing the argument from her mind further, but not quite enough for it not to drift back into focus when she allowed her mind to wander a step too far. It might be naive of her, she knew, to think she could change Malfoy's mind, but she had to try.

She did not look up as the portrait hole opened, nor when a figure planted themselves on the arm of her chair.

'How did your little chat go?' asked Harry.

'How was your Divination lesson?' countered Cassy.

'That good then?'

She sighed and closed the textbook she had been reading and peered up at him unhappily. She shook her head slowly. 'I cannot expect him to change for me any more than I would change my beliefs for him, but I have to try.'

Harry kissed the top of her head. 'I think you give him too much credit.'

'Perhaps,' she conceded. 'How was Divination?'

'Well,' he began, leaning on her head with his elbow, 'Firenze told us human divination is pointless and we can barely read the stars right at the best of times. He also said that nothing is ever certain even in the stars.' Harry's weight had begun to slip from the arm and slowly onto the seat, squashing Cassy inch by inch as he spoke. 'He also gave me a message for Hagrid. He said, "his attempt is not working, he would be better to abandon it", whatever that means.'

Cassy raised a questioning eyebrow, but Harry was unable to see it, having squashed her into the opposite arm. His legs dangled over the arm he had previously been sitting on and it left Cassy defeated and trapped beneath him at a strange angle where she had tried to shuffle out of the way and had only made the position worse. His back leant against her arm and side and she felt him sigh heavily.

'Did you notice his new bruises yesterday?' he asked.

'I think we need to have a serious conversation with him soon,' said Cassy. 'It is not as though Hagrid can keep a secret for long under pressure.'

'What are you two doing?' asked Neville in amusement as he wandered through the portrait hole holding a potted plant. 'Can you breathe, Cassy?'

'Debateable,' she said and Harry reached behind him to flick her face.

'Harry, have you seen my Potions homework? I think I've lost it again,' said Neville, anxiously.

'I think you put it on your bedside table,' said Harry and Neville hurried upstairs. He groaned at the thought of his least favourite class after lunch. 'I'll have another 'P' on my homework this week, I bet. I've been doing terribly this year.'

'I can tutor you if you get off me, that is,' suggested Cassy, somewhat wheezily.

Harry slipped back onto the arm.

'Although, you do not really need it. I saw what you can do at the beginning of the year,' she said. 'Why was that anyway?'

'Use that big head of yours,' he said.

She frowned and said pedantically, 'My head is not that large.'

'That's not what I meant!' he protested and she laughed.

'Well, I have a theory, if you must know. I think you were jealous of me praising Stephen's intelligence,' she said cheekily.

'I would appreciate it if you tutored me. I need all the help I can get,' he said.

'You are avoiding it,' she said.

'There's still three months until exams though.'

'Still avoiding it.'

Neville hurried down the stairs again, his homework in hand and his arms free of the potted plant he had undoubtedly been given on a detour to Professor Sprout's office as usual. He beamed at them both.

'You're still here. Great. Going to lunch then?' he asked.

Short chapter no.2. I like this one a little better. Please make sure you read the chapter before this too. This is a double update. Many people seem to miss the first one when I do this for some reason.

Please review and what not if you have the time.

Thanks!