Forever Young

Two chapters in two days! How did you guys get so lucky! Sorry if ya'll got a notification about a new chapter earlier, I was fixing something and had to repost chapter 26. I was just fixing a minor detail so no worries! I hope you all enjoyed last chapter and I hope you enjoy this one even more. Beware of the intenseness coming your way in this chapter! Enjoy!

Also shout out to siriusfanno1 who guess correctly that Mr. Gold from last chapter was a doppelganger for Rumplestiltskin/Mr. Gold from Once Upon a Time! That show is one of my new found loves and I can't wait until it comes back in March! So close but yet so far!

Chapter 33: Making Up is Hard to Do

Cassidy's POV:

"How could you be so stupid?! Completely and utterly stupid! How could you get yourselves tangled up into this mess?! You know what don't answer that. I need a pain potion my head is killing me. You two see that? You're causing me actual physical pain from your antics!"

Let's just say when we got back to the castle that evening we were in for an earful. I had forgotten my scarf on the couch in Spencer's hospital room and Grace knew right away it was mine. She and Chris had floo'd to Dumbledore's office and requested James, Sirius, and my presence. Sirius was dismissed when James and I told them he had nothing to do with it.

That's when the yelling had started.

"Do you understand how dangerous this could have been?" she asked us her face red with fury. "You could have killed him!"

"So what if we did," I heard myself saying. Shit…this wasn't going to go well.

"Excuse me?" she said quietly daring me to say more. Stupid me took this as a challenge and continued speaking.

"They were going to kill him anyways right? Give him the Death-Cap draught and have him die instantly? What would it have mattered if we had done the job for them?"

"Well one it would be considered murder and you could go to Azkaban for it and two would you really want to be the cause of your brother's death Cassidy?" she said stepping closer to me.

"Mom," James said intervening. "Is that really necessary?"

"Yes James," she snapped. "It was very necessary. You both broke a lot of rules and laws as a matter of fact. You're lucky you're both minors or else we'd be here hauling your asses to Azkaban instead of having this conversation."

"Then take me to Azkaban," I said standing up. "I'm already going to hell, Azkaban will be great practice."

"I'd watch your mouth young lady," Grace said pointing a finger at me. "Or we might take you up on that offer."

"Whatever," I grumbled grabbing my bag. "Sorry I saved my brother's life if that's what you wanted to hear. I'm sorry he's not dead. I'll go pack my bags for Azkaban then." I began walking towards the door.

"You get back here this instant Cassidy Anastasia," she called after me.

"Okay no!" I shouted. "No I will not stay in here and have you belittle me! You are not my mother and you will not tell me what I did today was wrong! Sure I should have told someone about it but no one would have done anything! I did what had to be done and if that's a crime I don't know what's good anymore." With that I opened the door and slammed it shut behind me and ran to the Gryffindor common room my boots click-clacking away.

"Is she okay?"

"How should we know she won't talk or show emotion? I sometimes worry she's not breathing."

"She's breathing you idiot or else she wouldn't be moving!"

"Watch it Padfoot,"

"Sorry but it's true,"

"You guys know I can hear you right?" I finally spoke up. It had been almost a month since my show down with Grace in Dumbledore's office. James and I got off with only two weeks detention but it was with Hagrid so really it was just a social hour with minor chores.

"Sorry Cassidy," they all mumbled. I rolled my eyes and continued poking at my breakfast. I was too nervous to eat. I was meeting with Grace today to apologize. I had sent a letter last week asking her to meet me at Madam Puddifoots. She had thankfully agreed and I was now nervous as hell.

"I better get going," I said after about 15 minutes. "I've gotta finish getting ready."

"You meeting with mom today?" James asked. I nodded my head and tried to ignore the empty feeling in my stomach despite just eating breakfast.

"Good luck," he said giving me an encouraging smile. I tried to smile back but it didn't work. I mumbled a good-bye and went up to the dorms. I braided my hair and pulled on a pair of jeans, a floral tank top, and a white cardigan with brown knee high boots. I grabbed my black pea coat and bag before heading out of the dorm and towards the entrance hall.

"Here goes nothing," I said to myself buttoning my jacket and facing the cold winter weather outside. I made it into Hogsmeade by half past 12pm and started going in the direction of Madam Puddifoots Tea Shop. I wanted to throw up at the sight of all the pink but I somehow managed to keep my breakfast down. I opened the door and let the warm overtake me. I began to unbutton my coat as I looked around for Grace. I saw her in a back corner sipping tea from a pink tea cup.

She looked over at me and gave a warm smile and waved me over. I breathed a sigh of relieve that she wasn't as angry now and started walking over.

"Good morning sweetheart," she said standing up and hugging me.

"Morning," I said placing my jacket around the back of my chair and sitting down. As soon as I sat down a flying cupid thing came to take my order. They almost immediately brought my tea back to me.

"Wow," I commented mixing some sugar into my tea. "The service here is great. Creepy, but great."

"You took the words right out of my mouth," Grace said smiling. We were both silent for a moment before I cleared my throat and began to speak.

"Look Grace," I started. "I wanted to apologize for the way I acted that day in Dumbledore's office. I had no right to yell at you like that and I'm sorry if I hurt your feelings for what I said."

"Cassidy," she said giving me an apologetic smile. "I'm sorry as well. What you did for you brother was very brave and noble of you, a true Gryffindor act. But why didn't you come to someone for help?"

"I thought that I would be able to do it on my own," I admitted. "But I did need some help and that's why I roped James into helping me."

"Well at least Spencer is alive and healthy now," she said smiling again.

"Have you seen him much since he's been out of the hospital?" I asked curious We had exchanged a few letters since he got out of the hospital but he's been avoiding the 'How are you doing' question.

"He seems like he's doing okay," she told me. "He actually just came over for dinner the other night. He's gone back to work and seems to be doing fine getting a lot of good cases."

"Good, that's good," I said happy for my brother. We continued to talk and drink tea for the next hour or so. That's when she get a weird look on her face and finished off her tea.

"I'm afraid I have to go now dear," she said standing up pulling her coat on. "Something's come up."

"What? How do you know?" I asked. She pulled out a coin from her pocket and explained how it heated up when they were needed in the Auror HQ.

"Alright then Grace," I said standing and hugging her. "I'll see you in a month or so for Easter."

"By dear," she said going over to the floo. She threw down the powder and then she was gone. I stared at the empty fireplace in utter shock and amazement at how well that had went considering we were both practically spitting fire last time we were in each other's presence.

"Cassidy?" a voice said from behind me. I turned and smiled when I saw Andrew.

"Andrew," I said. "How are you?"

"I'm good, and yourself? How's the Potions research going?" he asked. I looked at him confused but then realized what he meant.

"Amazing," I told him. "I accomplished everything that needed to be accomplished."

"That's great Cassidy really," he said opening his arms and moving towards me. Suddenly he moved back and had a strange look on my face.

"Friends can hug right?" he asked. I laughed and wrapped my arms around his back.

"Of course they do stupid," I joked.

"Well good," he laughed back.

"Ummm Andrew," another voice piped in from behind him. "What's going on?" We released each other and I saw Mary Macdonald standing behind him looking worried.

"Mary," I smiled. "Hi, sorry we were just chatting did you need him for something."

"Well we kinda had a date planned but if you're busy we can reschedule Andrew," she said shyly.

"No," I cut in. "I was just leaving. Have fun you two, but if I could put in a suggestion I'd skip this place and head into the Three Broomsticks. Less sickening atmosphere." I winked and grabbed my things before leaving. I pulled on my jacket and adjusted my bag. I walked down the street to the bookshop to see if anything interesting had come in since my last visit. As I was browsing the shelves I found three very familiar faces.

"Hey guys," I said as 3 out of the 4 marauders entered the store. A chorus of 'hey Cassidy's' rang through the store. Remus and James went in one direction and Sirius joined me on my exploration.

"What do you want Sirius," I asked looking through books.

"Just your company," he admitted. "I enjoy just being in your presence."

"Not now Sirius," I told him quietly. "I'm not ready yet."

"I know that," he said following me around the store. "I'm not asking anything of you. I just want you to know that I've got your back, whenever you need me I'm there."

"Thanks," I said smiling.

"Anytime," he winked.

The next few weeks were fairly normal. Well normal for a wizarding school. We kept getting more and more homework for NEWT's coming up in the spring. Plus we kept up on our search for Wendell Carlisle. We hadn't found much other than he was fighting for muggle's and muggleborns from his youth up until his death in 1971.

"So he must have been a friend of Ellie's family or something," I said one night while Sirius and I were looking through books in the library. "I mean she wouldn't have gone to his grave if she hadn't known him."

"If he was a friend then why did she burn the flowers left at his grave plus the ones she brought," Sirius pointed out.

"Damn it," I growled slamming a book shut. "I give up. I am all out of ideas."

"Calm down Cassidy," Sirius said placing a hand over mine. "I'm sure we'll find something."

"I'm calm, I'm calm," I said rubbing my temple. I reopened the book in front of me and began to read.

"Oh my god," I gasped at what I had just read. "Sirius look at this!" I pushed the book over to him and his eyes widened at the picture in the book. It was a picture of a 10 or 11 year old Ellie and people who I'm guessing are her family.

"What the bloody hell," he asked looking at it.

"Yeah," I said pointing at the caption below it. "Read that."

"The Carlisle Family. (Left to right) Robert, Kendell, Emma, Elizabeth, Christopher, Wendell," he read. "So wait Ellie Smith's real name s Elizabeth Carlisle? What the hell!"

"Right!" I exclaimed taking the book back reading more.

Wendell Carlisle with his son, daughter-in-law, and three grandchildren. The picture at the left was taken days before Carlisle and the rest of his family were murdered. All of their throats had been slit in their sleep. The only body that wasn't recovered was the youngest child Elizabeth Carlisle. Aurors attempted tracking the child down but they were unsuccessful. After a month they called off the search and pronounced the youngest Carlisle child dead.

The Carlisle family was a large part of the wizarding community. They however didn't follow normal pureblood traditions. They were large supporters of Muggleborn and Muggle rights. Wendell Carlisle pushed for Muggleborns to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. In the year 1935 he was successful.

The Carlisle family was the first family to be killed on the Dark Lords actions. Their deaths mark the first deaths of the Dark Lords war against muggle's, muggleborns, and anyone not of the pureblood nature.

"Do you think he took her away?" I asked. "That he promised her safety if she did what he said? Then he took her to America to train her to be deadly."

"Possibly," Sirius responded. "But I don't understand why she's targeting you specifically. Why not James, or me? Or even Lily, she's the only Muggleborn of us."

"Maybe she had some sort of grudge against me and my family. Or maybe he did," I said. I went through my family history in my head. No one had died from his attacks. Both my parents had been an only child and both sets of grandparents had died when I was young. What could my family had done?

"Oh my god," I whispered my eyes going wide. "Lizzie."

"Lizzie? Who the hell is Lizzie?" Sirius asked.

"Lizzie. Elizabeth! Ellie, Oh my god!" I hissed. I could feel the blood draining from my face. "When I was around 5 or 6 years old my grandmother would watch me and Spencer in the summers because my dad had work and my mom had just died. She also watched her neighbor's daughter Elizabeth. I always called her Lizzie and we had been best friends since. But when I started to hang out with James and Marlene more and more I stopped going over to my grandmothers.

"Then once she died and we went to her funeral I saw Lizzie there and when I went to say hi she just ignored me, she was rude and cruel and I never knew why. I still don't but that's beside the point," I said shaking my head. "The point is that I knew Ellie when I was younger, I knew her when she was Lizzie, Elizabeth."

"This is big, this is huge!" Sirius said. He began to close all our books and put them away. "We have to go, we have to tell the others." I nodded and helped him put our books away. We gathered our things and raced to the common room. None of our friends were there so he went up to the boys and I went to get the girls. I brought them into the boy's dorm and we told them what we knew.

"Are you sure it's the same person?" Marlene had asked. "I mean she has an entirely different name."

"It's defiantly her," I assured her. "The picture in the book look's exactly like Ellie. She probably just changed her name so we wouldn't recognize her."

"But why would she just have this newfound hatred for you?" Lily asked. "It just doesn't make sense."

"I don't know," I said shrugging my shoulders. "Maybe I stole her toys or something, I have no clue. But what I do know is that whatever it did to her was enough to get her to hate me and to want to kill me."

"Do you think it's because you ditched her for McKinnon and I?" James asked. "I mean you guys were friends for years and then we all started to hang out and you just abandoned her."

"Maybe," I said. "But is that enough for her to want to kill me?"

"I don't think she wants to kill you," Remus spoke up. "I mean she hasn't tried at all to kill you. She's only hurt the people around you. First she took out Peter, then your brother. And from what you heard last month she wants to take out one of us."

"She's jealous," I realized. "I ditched her for you guys and I've gone and done it again. God I am such a bitch."

"You aren't a bitch," Marlene said. "You were like 8. It's not your fault you wanted other friends. Don't feel bad for the girl who tried to kill your brother."

"Right," I said shaking my head. "You're right I'm being stupid."

"We still haven't figured out the major connection with Carlisle," James pointed out. "Why did Ellie burn flowers on his grave? Why did she abandon her family to work with You-Know-Who?"

"She didn't abandon them," Lily said. "He killed them and she didn't want to die. For a little kid it seems like the most reasonable thing to do. If it kept me safe I would have done the same. And You-Know-Who probably has the 'anything to do with muggle's is bad' factor drilled pretty far into her head. And her grandfather fought pretty hard for muggle's and muggleborns, she had learn to hate him and the rest of her family."

"Ok to make sure I've got this all down someone read this over," Marlene said handing over a piece of parchment paper. "I just wanted to make sure we had all our facts straight before we do anything rash."

"Ok, I'll read it," I said clearing my throat.

Lived next-door to Cassidy's Grandmother

Cassi and 'Lizzie' were best friends

Cassi ditches 'Lizzie' for Marlene and James

Cassi's Grandmother dies

'Lizzie' is rude and cruel towards Cassi at Funeral

Carlisle family brutally murdered; 'Lizzie' nowhere to be found

'Lizzie' comes to Hogwarts from America and changes name from Elizabeth Carlisle to Ellie Smith

Ellie befriends Cassi and friends

Ellie goes into full on bitch mode

Ellie takes over Peter

Ellie and Peter try to kill Spencer

"Sounds about right," Lily said nodding.

"Great," I said. "We have all this information and accusations. Now what do we do? We can't turn her into the Aurors, they'll think we've gone mad!"

"Well then what do we do!" James shouted. "We can't just wait until she tries to kill one of us."

"And we won't," I told him. "Make sure you are with someone at all times. Never go off alone, don't eat or drink anything suspicious, and don't be alone with Peter or Ellie. Just be safe and don't die."

"Great we're all bloody inspired," James mumbled.

I glared at him."That's all I've got unless you've got something better," I said crossing my arms.

"Fine," he said. "Everyone stay safe and don't do anything stupid. Got it covered."

"Good," I said. "I'm glad we're all on the same page.

"Yeah, yeah," he muttered. "Let's go Lily. We've got rounds."

Did anyone get the Maze Runner reference in there? Another one of my new found loves! Newt is one of my favorite characters! It's a shame James Dashner didn't feel the same way...Until next time my friends!

XOXO,

SophieElizabeth630