Hi! Huge apology for the long wait, but when working on a Bachelor's thesis, writing in your free time is the last thing you feel like. I'm back now, though. Enjoy the chapter:]
Ever since Cassiopeia had ended up in the Hospital wing with a concussion after a rather bad encounter with one of Sirius and James' pranks, she admired Madame Pomfrey. Of course, the school nurse was very strict and often fussed over little things, but Cassie admired how quickly had she been able to make her headache go away. Therefore, in her fifth year, when she had talked with the Ministry counselor about her future profession, she expressed a wish to become a Healer. She wanted to be able to help people, to help them from pain just as quickly as the nurse had helped from hers. Since she had passed all of her OWL's but the one from Defence with flying colours, she felt hopeful to be admitted to the St. Mungo's programme after Hogwarts. However, she felt that simple studying for her NEWT's was not enough; after all, healing was a very prominent job, everyone wanted to become a Healer and every year, there were many applicants for the study. Therefore, Cassie came with an idea: perhaps she could learn and prepare for the future job even now while she was at Hogwarts! It would surely increase her chances to be admitted. That is why she had written both to Professor Dumbledore and Madame Pomfrey during the summer, and to her joy, they had allowed – she was now the apprentice and assistant of the school nurse, under the condition that the additional work won't interfere with her studies.
Cassie told Lily about her success as soon as the girls met on the platform 9 ¾ before the start of their sixth year. Lily was, of course, thrilled, although she seemed also a bit disappointed since she also intended to become a Healer and would welcome the practice as well.
"That's amazing! No one will have as much practice as you! But are you sure you will manage it with so much of school work?"
"I think I'll be fine" Cassie nodded. "After all, it's just two days a week."
"And when are you starting?"
"Right the first week. Or, at least, Madame Pomfrey told me she would tell me more about what I am and am not supposed to do and so on. I can't wait." she smiled.
"I'll bet." Lily returned the smile.
"Talking about me, I hope?" a voice sounded from behind Cassie and when she turned around, she saw Sirius and James.
"Hi, Sirius." she grinned and gave him a short welcome-hug. "Hi, James." she said to his friend then, a little more coldly since he still did not belong among her favorite people. "You got taller." she grinned at Sirius, who was indeed about a few inches taller than he had been the last time she saw him.
"Must be from Mrs. Potter's cooking." he smirked and Cassie nodded. Later in the summer, just when she had been visiting Lily, to her utmost surprise she had received a letter from Sirius, telling her he had finally escaped his home and was now living at the Potters. From then on, they were exchanging letters every now and then.
"But you're still skinny." her smile dropped a bit, thinking about the implications. Sirius did obviously as well, since he just shrugged and looked away.
"Sure he is, he must keep fit for Quidditch, right, Pads?" James interjected and Sirius smirked.
"Sure thing, Prongs. Now, ladies, are you looking forward to the new term?
"Yeah, Lily-flower, are you? This year is going to be brilliant, I reckon. Mainly because you will finally go out with me." James told Lily, who glowered at him.
"Keep dreaming, Potter." she scowled, although there was not as much hatred in her voice as usually.
"Nothing much changed, did it?" Sirius told Cassie quietly, so his friend would not hear.
"I swear I talked to her, as promised." she said just as quietly.
"I didn't say I doubted it. But she seems to be more stubborn than we thought."
"Maybe more than you thought. I know her well." Cassie grinned.
"Well, then-" however, before he was able to finish the sentence, a new voice interrupted him.
"What the hell are you doing with my girlfriend, Black?"
Both Sirius and Cassie turned around abruptly just to see a blonde boy with a scowl on his face.
"Ian." Cassie smiled, although she hesitated when she saw her boyfriend's expression. "It's so good to see you."
"Indeed." he said, still glaring at Sirius while he wrapped his arm around Cassie's waist and steered her away from the group of her friends, she just managed to send Lily an apologetic look. "What were you doing with Black?" he asked angrily when they stopped next to a pillar at a sufficient distance from her friends.
"We were just talking. We're friends. I thought you two are as well?" she asked naively.
"Friends? With Black? I sure hope not." Ian said, finally giving her his full attention.
"Why not? What's wrong with Sirius? I saw you two talking quite often…"
Ian snorted. "Sure. Talking. But we're nowhere near being friends, thanks very much. And I don't like you getting friendly with him too." Right now, it was Cassie's turn to glower.
"I will decide who I'm friends with." she said darkly. "And I don't appreciate your tone. You see me now after two months and that's all you can tell me?"
"That's just it! I have not see you two whole months and then I find you and Black flirting right here on the platform!"
"We were not flirting! I told you, we were just talking." she said angrily. Cassie could see that Ian was fuming. Truthfully, she did not know this side of him. She knew he could be slightly possessive, but this was bordering on ridiculous! Besides, there was a glint in his eyes that she just did not recognize and did not like one bit. However, a moment later, he seemed to calm down.
"Right then. Let's not talk about this anymore. How did you enjoy your summer?"
"It was not too bad. I even got to see Lily for a week." she said with a small smile, glad to see her old boyfriend was back.
"Good, good. Now come on, let's find a compartment. You'll be sitting with me and my friends, won't you?" he asked, wrapping his arm around her waist again.
"Well I- I thought I would sit with Lily and Mary…." she protested.
"Now, don't be silly. You see them every day." he said, leading her towards the train. Resigned, she sighed and followed him, telling him about her apprenticeship at Madame Pomfrey.
Two hours later, Cassiopeia was making her way through the train in search for her friends. She had endured whole two hours in the company of her boyfriend and his friends and she felt it was as long as she could take. Truthfully, she did not understand what was the point of him asking her to sit in the compartment with him when all he did was bantering with his friends who Cassie didn't even like very much. Honestly, Ian hadn't even noticed her mumbled explanation that she wanted to find her friends nor her leaving the compartment! And now, she had to go through the whole train and still, there was no sign of Lily or Mary.
Finally, when she was nearing the end of the train, she thought she heard Lily's voice. To her surprise, she was yelling at someone and a male voice yelled back. For a while, Cassiopeia thought that James Potter was in the compartment trying to make a move on Lily again, but then it occurred to her that James would never yell at his 'Lily-flower'. However, when Cassie entered the compartment, she stared in shock at the scene before her.
Lily, her face deep red from anger, stood in the middle of the compartment and her fists were clenched as she was yelled at by no one other than Sirius Black.
"-have you ever thought before speaking, Evans?"
"Shut up, Black! I'm not some thoughtless goose! It's you who always acts before thinking!"
"We're not speaking about me! We're speaking about you! You and your hypocrisy!" Sirius said angrily and Lily gave a derisive laugh.
"Hypocrisy?"
"YES! You waltz the castle, looking all saint and perfect, but you can't even once admit that you were wrong! So you just have to go and hurt people because of your silly grudge!"
"It's not a silly grudge! And hurting people? I did not say anything that wasn't truth! He's hurt only because you're both too arrogant to ever admit that you're nothing but bullying show-offs!" she yelled and Sirius clenched his jaw in anger. "What? Can't stand criticism, Black?"
"I don't care what you say about myself because truthfully, I don't give a damn about you, Evans! But James is my best friend and for some reason he's in love with you and you always only crush him under your heel! So whose arrogant when you can't admit that you are wrong about him? Always so perfect and polite to everyone, but not once have you been at least civil to James, not even when he changed just because of you! Maybe you're not a thoughtless goose but you're a cold, stuck-up bitch!"
"HOW DARE YOU!" Lily screeched. Truthfully, Cassiopeia had never seen her so angry.
"OH, I DO!" Sirius yelled, equally loud. "SOMEBODY HAD TO TELL YOU THE TRUTH FOR ONCE IN YOUR LIFE! GO ON, JUST GIVE ME A DETENTION LIKE THE GOODY TWO-SHOES PREFECT YOU ARE!" To say that Sirius was livid was an understatement. His voice was loud enough to rattle the windows, his eyes held a strange glint and his hands were shaking. Not waiting for an answer, Sirius threw last glare at Lily before pushing past Cassiopeia without giving her as much as a glance. On his way out he slammed the door with such a force the glass shattered and spilled onto the floor.
For a while, Lily was just standing, staring at the broken door and breathing hard before taking her wand and wordlessly repairing the glass door. Then she headed back to her seat and sat down, looking rather shaky. Cass and Mary exchanged hesitant looks since neither of them knew what to do in such an awkward situation. To be honest, neither even knew what side to take.
"Are you alright?" Cass asked awkwardly as she sat down next to Lily. For a short moment, Lily seemed to be lost in thoughts but then she quickly shook her head as if to clear her head from whatever she was thinking and sighed.
"I'm fine. I suppose I shouldn't have gotten myself so worked up. By Black no less." she scowled at the mention of Sirius' name.
"Well, but you must admit that he looks rather dashing when angry." Mary said with a small smile, trying to lighten the situation. "I've never noticed he's got such a deep voice." she said rather dreamily but immediately sobered up when Lily gave her a glare.
"Shut up, MacDonald"
"Stop it, both of you! There's no point in arguing even among ourselves. What happened, anyway?" Cassie asked and Lily snorted.
"What do you think? Potter was bothering me again."
"Actually, at first he asked if he can sit down next to you and then asked you about your summer." Mary said.
"It's about how he said it!" Lily said quickly. "Besides, he wouldn't stop calling me 'Lily-flower'!" she exclaimed. When neither Cass nor Mary said anything, she sighed. "Alright, so maybe I overreacted a bit."
"A bit?" Mary laughed. "You called him a piece of dragon dung and promised to castrate him if he ever came closer to you."
"Lily!" Cass gasped.
"Okay, fine, I admit I was rather harsh. But I just can't help it! Every time he's around, he's so…annoying"
"Yes, but you really ought to learn how to control it, Lily. He might have been an arrogant bully but during the summer you even exchanged one or two letters. Perhaps you need to accept that James Potter really changed."
"Oh, I see. Now that you and Black are all chummy you are taking his side." Lily frowned and Cassie shot Mary an exasperated look.
"This isn't about sides. I'm just saying my opinion of the situation. I refuse to take any side in this argument since I see the point of both of you. I agree that you have a right to turn him down and he should respect that. On the other hand, Potter may be arrogant and a show-off but Sirius is right that you don't have to put on a sour face every time you see him. And by the way, since when do you say 'chummy'?" Cassie furrowed her eyebrows.
"That's not the point right now." Lily rolled her eyes.
"You're right. The point is, that you really should apologize to Potter."
"What!"
"Cass is right. It was rather rude from you." Mary added. Lily only buried her face into her hands.
"Am I really such a bitch?"
"You're not a bitch." Mary put her hand on to Lily's shoulder.
"No, you're just a little stubborn."
Lily groaned. "Black was right. I am a stuck up bitch."
It took Cass and Mary over half an hour to calm Lily down. Finally, she reluctantly agreed she would be more tolerant to James Potter. However, although Cass was glad the problem between the two Gryffindors was averted, she wondered what the situation between herself and Sirius was right now. When he fled from the compartment, he had not even glanced at her. Could it be that he was angry with her as well? After all, the conversation with Ian was anything but pleasant. Cassie knew that right now it would be pointless and bordering on dangerous to seek Sirius out to talk since he was the most hot headed person she knew, but later she would find him and ask him outright.
