Oh boy, oh boy. This is the chapter where the kids meet formally, and I'm so happy to finally publish it! As usual, welcome maddykarpinski, dallas1990, zerarose, TheMidnightwolf15, AtheneNoctua21, redbuttrfly, ninja-of-twilight and sweethoneybee229! Thanks for following and adding the story to your favorites!
vampirela69, SPARKELS77, ClearasDarkness and Clisaaaa:you guys are the best. Your reviews always make my days! Thank you so much!
II
Introduction
The room was completely silent; the air feeling like could've easily been sliced with a knife. Once the realization of this new discovery fully hit the teenagers, they could only stare with their mouths agape.
"Close your mouths." Severus said in his usual monotonous tone. "I am inclined to believe that by now you have understood the gravity of this situation."
"Bloody hell!" Ron screamed suddenly as he pulled his hair with both hands, the reality of the situation having just hit him.
"RONALD!" Molly scolded him, but he wasn't paying attention to her.
"How is that even—? The— you don't have a ring!" He squealed suddenly as if he had made the discovery of the century, waving at Severus and Juliana's hands general direction.
Severus' expression didn't falter once. "Don't I, Mr. Weasley?" Ron's eyes opened so wide that Juliana could barely contain her smile at his reaction. The other kids seemed to be doing much better than him in digesting the news; no one had spoken yet and even if they looked slightly doubtful of them, at least they weren't acting like Ron.
"That was not there! THOSE RINGS WERE NOT THERE A MOMENT AGO!" Ron said desperately looking around for someone to support him, but the others remained quiet.
"Perception spell." Hermione said in a small voice and every head turned to look at her.
Albus smiled. "You are quite right, Miss Granger. Their rings, Severus' especially, have a complicated spell that allows them to be worn without anyone noticing. I'm sure you know that Perception Spells are very common and easy, but as they are simple they are also easily broken. For this particular one to work the casting of the spell was very difficult, since we needed to be able to fool You Know Who himself. It also has a bonding spell that has allowed us to help both Severus and Juliana more than once; sometimes when it was much needed. I'm sure you were wondering why don't they just not wear any rings, and I hope that answers your doubts."
"So, what are you doing here exactly? Why are you telling us this?" Ginny asked with a small frown.
"Long story short, If word gets out that my father is married—and not only married, but married to Juliana Souza—" She stopped for a moment. "Okay, you don't know what I mean by that yet, but you will soon. The thing is, if they know he has a wife and a child, they'll kill us both and him. And you don't want the only spy you have on Voldemort's side to get killed, do you?" She raised her eyebrows but no one missed the fact that the question was rhetorical, and she wasn't expecting any answers.
"Okay... I can understand that. But that doesn't really answer my question." Ginny pressed, still frowning.
"Well, I'll also be staying here for a week. Just me." Cassie said casually, figuring there was no time like the present to put that out there; and she figured that once she did, someone else would take over and explain both hers and her mother's roles in this matter.
"Really? Why?" Ginny questioned, not rudely. She was genuinely curious. Molly stood up from her place and looked at her daughter as well as the others, just as Cassie had expected.
"We thought that was the best way for you and Cassandra to get to know each other, and this is the only chance you'll get before you all go back to school." She took a deep breath. "Juliana— and Cassandra once she's of age— will be joining the Order. They will be helping us by recruiting in South America—that's where they live— and they decided that the only way for them to be able to do that was to tell us the truth about who they were. I trust you to see how serious this is. The Unbreakable Vow we and some other Order members did was to promise that we would keep this secret for as long as it needed keeping, which would be determined by Severus and Juliana. Now, we ask you— trust you to make the same Vow as we did. Are you willing? If not, your memories of these past few moments will have to be erased. No one will force you to do anything you don't want." There was a hard silence after Molly finished speaking, but neither Juliana nor Cassandra were worried. They felt deep inside them that they would take a leap of faith and do this for them.
"Okay." George was the first one to speak. "I'll do it. Merlin knows we need all the help we can get." Fred followed instantly, and one by one they all agreed, and one by one they made their Vows.
Once they were done, Cassie took a deep breath and coughed. "Is there somewhere with an open window here? Not to be rude or anything but I'm sort of…uh… suffocating." She said with a pained smile, her face slightly red.
Molly gasped in horror. "Oh dear, yes, of course. This old houses are always filled with dust, you see…" She trailed off with a soft and lovely smile. Cassie wanted to hug this woman all the time. "Ginny, Hermione, would you take Cassandra to your room? She'll be staying with you."
"If you are okay with it, of course." Cassie added quickly and Molly turned to her and then back to the girls, who just smiled and nodded.
"It's just up the stairs." Ginny said and motioned for Cassie to follow them.
Molly turned to the twins and Ron, who hadn't even bothered to sit up. "Now why don't you with them so you can properly introduce yourselves to Cassandra, I don't think you've noticed that you haven't yet." She said with a smile and ushered them out of the room. They reached the stairs just in time to see Cassie leaning back against the railing, an expression of pure horror etched on her face.
"What the fuck is that?" She breathed out. There, hanging in the wall as if they were hunted animals, were the dead heads of what she was sure were house elves. "What the hell?" She mumbled, her face contorted with displeasure.
"Those are the previous house elves of the Black Family. Sirius told us his aunt Elladora was the one who had started the tradition of cutting off house elves heads once they got too old to carry a tea tray." Fred said from the bottom of the stairs and Cassie's head turned impossibly fast to him. By now she looked pale enough to be sick, and she started to lose her balance.
"They were…" She barely managed to get out, her voice small and hoarse. "Still alive when their heads were cut off?"
"Well, yeah. I reckon they were. I don't think they cared, though, I'm pretty sure they waited their whole lives for it." Fred answered, looking slightly worried at her appearance. Cassie's eyes opened wide at his detached tone.
"You can't be serious." Fred didn't give her any indication that he wasn't. "Oh Jesus, you are serious. I think I'm going to be sick." She mumbled and Ginny steadied her when her body swayed.
"Let's go upstairs and forget about this for a moment, yeah?" Ginny said, pulling Cassie with her. Once they reached their room Ginny had to help Cassie sit down because she really looked like she was going to faint at any moment. Hermione made sure to open the window, and Cassie managed to give her a grateful smile.
"I'm sorry." Cassie apologized once she was able to gather herself; everyone was waiting for her to say something, it seemed. "It's just—I'd never seen something like that before. I mean, I know about house elves but seeing it like this is just so— so—"
"Barbaric?" Hermione supplied and Ron rolled her eyes at her, because he could see what was coming.
"Yes!" Cassie responded with an eager nod, looking at Hermione. "Barbaric. That's exactly it. I can't believe how your people can… use elves like that. Groom them into servitude from the moment they are born. It's just— it's disgusting." She looked down and shook her head, and when she looked up, Hermione looked like she was about to explode with excitement. She began speaking before Cassie could even ask what was going on with her.
"I absolutely agree with you. That's why I've created this group, see, it's called Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare, or S.P.E.W. for short. I've only just begun so there isn't much that has been done yet, but I suspect—"
"Oh no, now you've made her start talking about spew." Ron complained and Cassie turned to him with an annoyed frown.
"Shh. I'm listening to Hermione." She scolded him and Ron looked genuinely taken aback, but Cassie didn't even notice because she was busy paying attention to Hermione, who hadn't stopped talking when Ron had interrupted her. Ron looked at Ginny who was smiling smugly at him and then to the twins, who looked surprised but amused. He rolled his eyes and opted for sulking on his chair.
When Hermione was done talking, Cassie had an astounded expression on her face. "Okay, first of all: that is so awesome. Second of all: I am so in. We don't have house elves in Brazil and I know that if I talked with people about how they treat elves in England they would be outraged. Imagine if I could do an interview or something and you could, I don't know, publish it somewhere, just to show how people in other places of the world feel about it. And I'm going to Ilvermorny this year, so I could also spread information about it there! Oh my God, do you want us to mail each other? I'm sure you'll have this all figured out once you go back to school, and maybe I could start some sort of… delegation in America for S.P.E.W. Oh my God this is so good because no one has ever done it before. Hermione, you are so brilliant."
Hermione looked like she was about to burst into tears. "Yes, yes, of course. I'm sure we'd have to sort out some details but yes, it would be great." Cassie grinned. She felt truly excited about this, and it made her feel much better about what she'd just seen hanging in the wall.
"Oh!" Hermione suddenly said. "Sorry, I stole your attention for myself, and the boys haven't even introduced themselves."
"Don't worry, I gave my attention willingly." Cassie answered quickly with a wink, making Hermione blush. "So…" she trailed off, looking at Ron and the twins.
"Oh… yeah." George said, shaking his head when he realized she was waiting for one of them to speak. "Sorry we didn't introduce ourselves earlier, but you need to understand that— well, this was the biggest shock we could possibly get." Cassie shrugged and nodded in agreement. She knew about her father's reputation, and was one hundred percent sure that if all of his students suddenly knew about her and her mother, at least half of them would probably lose consciousness. "And it's all happening so fast. An hour ago we didn't even know you existed and now you're staying with us." He winced at his own words. "Merlin… that came out really rude. Forget it, sorry. I'm George." The redhead extended her hand and Cassandra shook it with a smile. "These are my brothers Fred and Ron." Fred gave her a guilty smile and a small wave— she guessed because she nearly fainted at his words earlier— and Ron just nodded at her with a frown.
No one talked for a few moments after that and she looked around the room. "Well… this is…definitely not awkward." She said to herself with a small laugh. "So you all go to Hogwarts, right?" When they nodded, she continued. "You know, there was a point in my life where I thought I was going to go Hogwarts in my last year, like my mom did. But it would've been too complicated, not to mention dangerous. Especially now. So I'm just going to Ilvermorny."
"Your mum went to Hogwarts? Really?" Ginny asked, one eyebrow raised. "When?"
"1977, same as my dad. That's how they met." She sighed. "And I guess this is where we get into that story, if you feel like you're ready for it."
"Well, there's no time like the present." Hermione offered with a small smile. "Tell us whatever you feel comfortable with."
"Well, I think you should know the full story because after what you just did, I don't feel like I could give you any less than that." She ran a hand through her hair and stayed silent for some time, searching for the best way to tell the story. She'd only told one other person about this before— her best friend Rosa— and that had been years ago.
"Well...okay. So... my mom got into this exchange program and decided to go to Hogwarts for her last year. She got sorted into Hufflepuff. One day she met my dad on one of the greenhouses, and after that they ended up becoming friends. And then, they became a couple. They both decided to keep it a secret because if some Slytherins knew what he was doing, it was possible that they would try to kill her and him. And I mean it literally. Many of my father's classmates had one foot inside Voldemort's ranks already." She stopped and took a deep breath. "Okay, well, my father is your teacher but the truth is that both of my parents are exceptional at making potions. So, they were both able to brew a contraceptive potion that had to be drunk after having sex. This potion was the easier and fastest to make, not to mention the most effective, even though it's mostly unused now." They scrunched up their faces at that bit of information. "I know." She said with a nod. "Bear with me, I'm sure you can make out why that piece of information might be important in the future." She said with a sharp look and motioned at herself with her hand. "Well... one day, about two months before the school year ended, word got out that my mom really liked my dad, enough to be in love with him. But it was just that, so they didn't know it wasn't unrequited. Many Slytherins already despised Hufflepuffs, and hated my mom even more. So one night when she was going back to her dorm, they attacked her, and she spent a week unconscious on the infirmary." They looked horrified at this, but no one interrupted her. "By the time my mother woke up, my father was feeling pretty damn guilty about the whole thing and told her that they couldn't see each other again because it was too dangerous." She decided a half truth was better than a lie, because she didn't feel like that part of the story was for her to share. "A couple of months later my mom realized she was pregnant. It was a hard choice she had to make because she was a teenager, but she had our whole family by her side to help her whenever she needed it, so she decided to have me. Then something bad happened," her tone left no room for them to ask what it was, "and my dad joined the Death Eaters, completely ignoring her until Voldemort's downfall. That's when Dumbledore helped her and she was finally able to tell him that he had a daughter. And the rest is history." She finished, feeling pleased with the way she'd managed to tell the story. Everyone was quiet for a while.
"I'm sorry if I look like an idiot but this is so hard to believe, Snape is actually married..." She rolled her eyes at Fred, or maybe George. She didn't remember which one was which yet.
"So, Ilvermorny? That sound interesting." Hermione said with an encouraging smile and Cassie grinned back.
"Yes, it's very exciting. I really need the experience. Apart from my father and very rarely my mother I barely know people who actually use wands." She smiled at them.
"People who use wands? What do you mean?" Hermione said with a frown. She raised her eyebrows.
"You know... people who use wooden sticks to channel magic. You do use wands... right? Everyone here uses wands as far as I know." Cassie asked looking around the room, confused.
"Ah, yes, people don't use wands in Brazil, right?" One twin asked and she shook her head. "I think I remember Charlie saying something about it when he was talking about that friend he had years ago." He shook his head. "Why don't you use wands?"
"Well, because it's too dangerous to rely on a wand, of course. If they take it from you, you are basically defenseless."
"You mean your magic is wandless?" Hermione said, stunned, and they all looked at her.
"Well, yes."
"I didn't know some people didn't need wands at all..." Hermione began to say but she was cut off by Cassie.
"No one needs wands, actually." Hermione raised her eyebrows in disbelief. "I mean... uh..." She struggled to find the right words. "You know when you are a kid and you start blowing things up or making things float, your first signs of being a witch or a wizard?" They nodded. "Well, you're not using a wand then, and yet you still can do it. Now, in your culture, it's stated that you absolutely need a wand to channel your magic so you can avoid making mistakes. In my culture, we are taught control since the first time we start showing any signs of magic. If you begin teaching kids how to control their magic at a very young age, they will end up able to fully control their powers without needing to use a wand in the future." Everyone looked at her as if she'd told them she had the entire universe in her pocket. "But of course there are disadvantages. I mean, my magic is more... elemental, so to speak. I can make a glass shatter but I can't fix it without a wand, for example. And I still don't know what my patronus is— well, at least for now. But when you need to say incendio, I can do this." She extended her hand and a small flame erupted from it, floating above her open palm. She smiled at their shocked expressions and closed her hand, the flame dying instantly.
"I've been taught how to control my magic since I was five. Our school lets us choose to be part of an exchange program to go to a magic school in Europe or North America to familiarize with their customs for our last year. Sometimes they send one of their students to familiarize with ours as well, but that's not necessary."
"I can't believe how much I didn't know about the way other people practice magic, I feel like I always assumed that maybe in other places it was slightly different than how we do, but I never thought it could be like that." Hermione said, and Cassie knew that she was going to do a lot of research as soon as she got a chance.
"Well, not to be rude but... Europeans have assumed that the way they live is the right one and that the people who don't live like that are wrong or inferior for centuries. Christopher Columbus, anyone?" Hermione nodded immediately, but the others were looking at each other, perplexed.
"Who?" Ron dared to ask. Cassie's mouth hung wide open. She turned to Hermione.
"They don't know who he was?" Hermione shook her head with a sympathetic smile.
"Okay, okay. Um... how about Adolf Hitler? Do you know who he was?" The Weasleys shook their heads and Hermione looked slightly embarrassed. Cassie turned to her with a serious face. "None of you took Muggle Studies?" She asked, her tone doing nothing to hide her bewilderment.
"Only I did, and just for a year. But they don't teach anything about that. It's about muggles' domestic life, mostly." Hermione looked slightly uncomfortable as she spoke, mostly because she somehow felt responsible for the fact that the Weasleys knew so little about muggle history.
"I can't even—" Cassie began to say but closed her mouth and lifted her hands in surrender. "You know what? I'm not going to say anything now. My parents will be leaving soon and I'm just going to say goodbye while I pretend you did not just tell me you don't know who Columbus and Hitler are." With that she stood up and exited the room, leaving them alone. She also did it because she knew they would want to talk about her in private, and the perfect moment had just presented itself.
She was right, because as soon as she was gone, everyone started talking.
"Ohhh, I'm so embarrassed. You don't understand why she's so surprised that you don't know who those men are, but believe me, she has every right to be. I should've told you more about muggle History. I know I shoud've." Hermione shook her head, frowning.
"Eh, don't worry about it, Hermione." Fred said casually. "Muggles don't know about our history, we don't know about theirs. It's always been that way." Hermione shot him a disbelieving look before rolling her eyes. "So, what did you think about her?" He said a little while later, letting the question hang in the air for whomever was ready to answer it.
"All I can think is how can that person be related to Snape. It just doesn't make sense." Ron said with determination, crossing his arms.
"And you get that from knowing her for a total of an hour?" Ginny retorted with a roll of her eyes. "I agree that she doesn't seem to be like her father but she also has a mother, you know. And by the way, she might be just like her father in ways we haven't seen yet."
"Yeah, that's true. We'll just have to wait and see, I suppose." Fred nodded, scratching his chin. George nodded and Ron just shrugged his shoulders noncommittally.
"Well, to me she seemed lovely. And she agrees with S.P.E.W." Hermione supplied looking affronted, proudly exposing her biased opinion of Cassie. "I'm glad we got to meet her, and that she'll be staying with us for a week." She then stood up and exited the room, leaving the Weasleys to think about the new guest all alone.
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