Chapter thirteen

A scream. A high pitched, blood curling scream woke Cassio up from his sleep and had him shoot up into a sitting position. The scream was familiar. He had heard that kind of scream many times before. His thoughts immediately went to his wife, but with a turn of his head he found her sleeping peacefully next to him in the middle of their ridiculously big bed that Bianca had insisted they get. If it had been up to him they would have gotten a queen or one even smaller, anything that allowed him to lay close to her. His wife was his safe haven, in her presence he forgot all about his worries and lying in bed with her was a favourite past time of his. But no, not having a king was not an option according to his wife.

"You are a grown man, and a lord at that, then you have a bed worthy of your stature."

If he had learned something over the years it was that his wife was almost always annoyingly right. So they got a king, but the only time actually took advantage of its size was when they made love. Otherwise he did not let his wife stray too far from his side.

The scream rang loudly again and it was coming from inside the manor, but his wife was still asleep next to him. As it sounded a third time, it also woke up his wife and that is when it dawned on him, their daughter. Cassio was out of bed and running down the hallway before the next scream rang or his wife had comprehended what was happening. But he wasn't the only one who had awoken. Blaise and Draco stuck their heads out of Blaise's door and both Lucius and Severus were coming down the other end of the hall. They had all stayed over last night to continue the celebration of the return of their daughter. And they were all now moving towards said daughter's room.

The sight that met him when he opened her door would break any father's heart. His daughter was withering and turning in her bed as she moaned in pain. It didn't take him long, or very much consideration, before he was by her side. At first, he did not know what to do, he did not know the girl and he had no idea how to comfort her, so he did what he had done to Blaise when he was a little boy. He got on to the bed with her and gathered her up in his arms. The girl struggled at first and fought against his hold, it was clear that whatever terrors haunted her in her sleep was very real to her, but slowly he managed to break through to her.

"Hush sweetheart, it's time to wake up. Open your eyes for me."

Cassio could hear Bianca's sobs from over where she stood in the doorway and from the corner of his eye he could see how Blaise but his arm around his mother to comfort her. It was in that moment that Cassio got to see for himself what a good man his son had grown up to be. The boy had tears of his own in his eyes and Cassio could tell that he wanted nothing more than to help his sister, yet he stayed behind with his mother. It made him proud.

"Sch, open your eyes sweetheart."

It took a few moments but eventually he could feel how the girl in his arms started to gradually relax. Her arms stopped trying to break free from his embrace and her body stopped trashing. Seconds later her eyelids started to flutter open and when her chocolate brown orbs met his they widened in shock.

"Shit." she muttered. Her cheeks flushed bright red and she tried to hide her face in his chest.

"Shit indeed." Severus drawled from his position across the room. "You gave us quiet the scare little girl."

The girl jumped slightly at the sound of the second voice, Severus speaking up made her suddenly aware of the other people that were present in the room and the fact that they were not alone.

"I forgot about the silencing charm, didn't I?" she whispered.

"Is this a regular occurrence?" Cassio asked tensely. The thought of his daughter in destress like this when she was alone made his blood boil.

"It has gotten better."

She was still whispering and refusing to meet his, or anyone else's, inquiring eyes. Cassio felt at a loss, he didn't know what to do except for hugging her closer. And to be honest it wasn't just to be a comfort to her, it was also a comfort to him to finally be able to hold his daughter after all these years.

"Can I ask what the dreams are about?" he inquired gently, but she tensed up immediately

"I can't." this time she did look up at him, with eyes brimming with tears.

"It's about what happened with her, isn't it?" it was young Draco who spoke.

His voice was deadly calm, but his face told a completely different story. The boy was clenching his jaw so hard that Cassio worried his teeth might break and his eyes were so dark that they were almost pitch black. Judging by the girl's sharp intake of breath though, he was right and Cassio knew exactly of whom they were speaking of.

All three of the Malfoy's had taken to call the woman who had tortured his daughter on their ballroom floor as her. They never spoke her name out loud and not once had he heard of Cissa mourning her sister. They had all been glad to see her gone. But she wasn't gone though. His daughter was being haunted by the woman in her dreams, she could not rest without being reminded of the horrible things that awful woman had put her through. It was no wonder she had looked so skinny and had dark marks under her eyes when they first saw her.

"Isn't it." Draco pressed. It was like he needed to hear a verbal confirmation that the woman who had been his aunt was the reason for her pain.

"Yes!"

Along with her acceptance, a dam opened up inside of her. The tears brimming in her eyes spilled over and her body shock with sobs. She cried and cried and she wouldn't, or couldn't, stop. It didn't matter what Cassio said or did, she just clung to him and let the tears fall. He knew that she would be mortified in the morning if she realised that she had broken down in front of everyone, so Cassio waved the others out. Bianca and Blaise was the last to go, they lingered for as long as they could before they left as well.

He knew that Bianca really wanted to stay behind, every single bone in her body was maternal and it most likely pained her just as much to see their daughter like this like it hurt him. But sadly Aria wasn't really comfortable around them yet, he had just been fortunate to arrive first to land in this position, and they had to but her first right now.

"Do you want to talk about it?" he asked quietly after the door closed.

"It feels as if I am right back there again." she whimpered. "I can practically feel the pain and see her standing there over me. It hurts and I see faces. I see Harry, Ron, Luna and Ginny all in pain and I can't escape it, it keeps playing over and over. I-I just want it to stop."

The tears kept coming and Cassio could feel how a wet spot started to form on his shoulder. But he did not mind. He let her talk herself to sleep and then stayed with her long after she fell asleep to make sure there was no more nightmares. It also felt really nice to be able to hold his little girl, so he might have stayed behind a little longer than necessary. It felt really nice to hold his little girl and he had a really hard time to break away when it was time.

When he returned to the bedroom Bianca was lying wide awake in their bed and he knew she was waiting for answers. He moved to the bed and moved back the covers to climb in. Immediately he had Bianca in his arms and he buried his face in her hair to draw some strength from her familiar scent.

"Is she okay?"

"She will be fine, Cara." he would make damn sure of it.