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Chapter Twenty-Two

The Escape

In all of Cassie's years taking the Hogwarts Express, she thought that she had never been subjected to such a painfully awkward train journey as the one she was experiencing at that moment.

She sat in a compartment with the Marauders, and all five Gryffindors were steadfastly avoiding eye contact with each other, not speaking and making no attempts to alter the stifling situation. Cassie herself sat between James and Remus; the latter stared broodingly out the window to the flickering landscape beyond as the train sped toward Hogwarts, while the former fidgeted in his seat and pretended to be very interested in the corridor outside their compartment. This left Cassie to either keep her eyes on her lap or continue meeting Sirius's gaze across from her, but considering she hadn't spoken to him since the night of the Potters' gala and had no clue how to proceed from there with her ex-boyfriend, her lap was increasingly becoming her favored option. (Peter, in all his subtlety, had chosen to stare at the same Chocolate Frog card for the past fifteen minutes, but his eyes had since glazed over a long time ago.)

After nearly an hour of this, it was James, unsurprisingly, who finally cleaved through the tension with his usual lack of tact.

"So," he said, forcing himself to grin, "friends again?"

His question caused all of them to groan, and he stared. "What? What'd I do wrong?"

"Once again, your shrewd intellect prevails," said Remus sarcastically.

James pouted. "Just trying to make things normal again."

"Well, you being an idiot is certainly normal enough," Cassie quipped.

He turned on her, affronted. "You take that back."

"No."

"She has a point," Remus said, amused.

"There you go, taking her side again. Whatever. Keep her. I have Pete."

Peter made a face. "Who said I was on your side?"

Before James could answer, Sirius began chuckling quietly in his seat, his arms crossed. James raised an eyebrow. "What's so funny, Padfoot?"

"All of you," Sirius said, lifting his head to meet everyone's eyes. He grinned awkwardly and rubbed the back of his neck. "I just...missed this. The bantering and the bickering." He dropped his hand. "I missed being with everyone."

He stared down at his lap, and Cassie exchanged glances with the other boys, their faces all faintly red. At their look, Remus sighed and raked a hand through his hair.

"We missed you too, Pads," he said. He cleared his throat. "I said I would try to trust you again, and I meant it. I think we're all ready to start building that trust back."

Sirius nodded. "And I appreciate it. Thank you. All of you." He met Cassie's gaze, and she gave him a small smile. "I promise that I'll never do anything like that again. And I promise to be better from now on."

James pretended to wipe his eyes. "I'm feeling very emotional on this train today."

Cassie scoffed. "Way to ruin the moment."

Sirius just shook his head. "I wouldn't expect anything less, honestly."

"So…" Peter said, echoing James from earlier. "Friends again?"

Remus nodded. "Friends again."

"Friends again," James agreed.

"Friends again," said Cassie quietly.

Peter sat back with a heavy sigh. "Thank Godric. I missed my Exploding Snap partner." He turned to Sirius and dug in his pocket for the pack of playing cards. "Speaking of, you ready for me to kick your ass again?"

Sirius gave him a wolfish grin. "Last time I recall, I kicked your ass, Wormtail."

Remus got to his feet as the two boys began to heckle each other. James looked up at him. "Where are you off to?"

"Prefects' meeting," he said. "I'll be back by three."

"Say hi to Evans for me," James said, but Remus only rolled his eyes before leaving the compartment. He turned to Cassie once the other boy was gone. "Reckon we could hunt down the witch with the food trolley? I skipped breakfast this morning and I'm starving."

Cassie shrugged. "Sure. I could go for some pumpkin pasties."

"We're headed to the food trolley," James said to Sirius and Peter. "Want anything?"

"Chocolate Frogs," Peter said, his eyes never leaving his cards.

Sirius threw down a smoking card on their pile. "Bertie Bott's for me."

James saluted, and Cassie followed him out into the corridor. People were beginning to trickle out of their own compartments now that the train had left London, and they kept close together as they traversed the length of the train looking for the familiar food trolley.

"How's the other Avery?" James asked her after they'd passed a herd of Hufflepuffs blocking half the corridor. Cassie had written the other Marauders after Evangeline Avery had arrived at her aunt's house, and though they had reluctantly agreed that keeping Evangeline safe from the Death Eaters was a good motive, she wasn't surprised that they had their doubts. "Settling in all right?"

Cassie nodded. "Ben and Mia adore her. I think she's happy to have some friends around her own age. And Liv absolutely dotes on her."

"Good." He frowned. "Avery's always been a git, but he's a right bastard for getting you involved like this. Especially since his own father just got axed."

She shrugged, uncomfortable. "I hate to say it, but I think a part of me is always going to be involved where Avery is concerned."

James scowled. "And that's what I don't like."

"You don't have to like it," she said tiredly.

He sniffed but didn't reply. They made their way through another carriage before spotting the food trolley, and they eagerly joined the queue. They had just slid into place when Cassie heard her name called, and she turned to find Marlene and Alice walking toward her, their coin purses in hand.

"Hey!" she said, exchanging hugs with the two girls. "Lily at the prefects' meeting?"

"Yeah," Alice said. "I think she has rounds after, too."

"We were going to come and find you after getting some snacks," Marlene said, gesturing to the food trolley. "Oh, hi, James."

James grinned. "First-name basis now, ladies? I'm flattered."

Marlene rolled her eyes. "You and Lily are the only ones who still insist on referring to each other by last names. It's creepy. We're all friends now, right? Sort of?"

Alice nodded. "I'd say we're friends."

"I guess solving mysteries together tends to bring people closer," James said.

Cassie pretended to curtsy. "I'm glad I could assist."

"Well?" Marlene said, slinging an arm across Cassie's shoulders. "Anything else we've been assigned over the holiday?"

Cassie thought back to her agreement with Professor Dumbledore to work with the Order of the Phoenix, but she kept her expression neutral as she shook her head. "Same old, same old."

Marlene scoffed. "At least I can say you keep things interesting for us, Cass."

"I'm just glad you guys are all right," Alice said, beseeching them with wide eyes. "When we heard about the Death Eaters crashing your parents' gala, James…"

James forced a smile. "Nothing the Order couldn't handle. Don't worry."

They fell silent and shuffled forward to buy their treats. After they had paid the young witch running the trolley, they started back down the train to their compartments. Cassie promised Alice and Marlene that she would sit with them at dinner before she and James continued on, walking in comfortable silence.

Cassie munched on one of her pumpkin pasties, lost in thought. Her entire world had been upheaved again over the course of a few short days, and yet she had to marvel at the simple normalcy of being on the Hogwarts Express, still chatting and laughing with her friends as if she was still so utterly normal, as if she wasn't harboring the daughter of a Death Eater or was secretly a member of the Order of the Phoenix, or cursed with the mystery of the clockwork locket. There was a war outside of this train and she was a part of it, yet she still walked side-by-side with James, eating pumpkin pasties and returning to school.

She finished her pasty and crumpled the wrapper in her hand, wondering just how much longer the charade could last before the war truly swept in and changed it all.

Their first day of lessons after their return from the holiday break was a bleak and cold Tuesday. The grounds were still powdered with white from the barrage of winter storms that had pelted them for weeks, and the temperature in the castle had plummeted so thoroughly that it wasn't unusual that morning to look around and spot multiple heads adorned with mufflers and students bundled in layers of robes in the Great Hall or the corridors.

The teachers, thankfully, kept their classrooms warm with either blazing fires or Heating Charms. (However, Cassie had to wonder how the younger years were faring with Professor Binns, Hogwarts' History of Magic teacher who just so happened to be a ghost.) The only downside to these warm classrooms was that the heat made them so cozy, and Cassie felt her eyes drooping in more than one lesson that day, particularly after lunch.

It was this groggy sense of complacency that had her moving as slow as molasses when she arrived at Defense Against the Dark Arts and took her seat with Marlene in the fourth row. She placed her bag on the floor and slumped against her desk, her fatigue overriding any tension she may have had regarding Professor Staghart again.

Of course, she was quite suddenly jerked to attention when Peggy Sloane, one of the Slytherins working with Carlisle the year before, walked by Cassie's desk and purposefully kicked Cassie's bag with a ridiculously false, "Oops!"

Cassie's bag skidded down the aisle, spilling all of her books and parchment and shattering her inkpot. Black ink splattered the cobblestones, and several people sitting nearby leaped away with yelps and cries to avoid being splashed with ink themselves.

The Slytherins openly laughed as Sloane took her seat next to Kanin Mulciber, who looked back at Cassie and leered. Marlene tensed next to Cassie, but Cassie put her hand over her friend's.

"Don't," she said quietly. "It's not worth it."

She extracted her wand and muttered a few cleaning spells before Summoning her belongings back to her side while Marlene scowled at the Slytherins. Avery, Cassie noticed, kept his eyes forward. She held back a sigh.

"They really have nothing better to do, eh?" Marlene said angrily. "Bunch of gits."

Cassie half-smiled. "Just be glad they're back to being regular gits instead of cornering us in the bathroom again."

Marlene sat back with a huff. "I wish they would try. I know a few more spells now to fix that ugly mug of Sloane's-or make it worse."

Cassie laughed as Professor Staghart entered the classroom, the tolling of the bell following on his heels. The class settled down, and the professor gave them all a charming smile as he leaned against his desk. Cassie averted her eyes.

"Good afternoon, and welcome back," he said in his deep, rich voice. "I hope you're all rested after a nice holiday?"

The class murmured their assent, and he smiled, the scars on his face stretching wide. "Excellent, because from here on, this term is going to be a grueling one. I know, I know," he said to the looks on their faces, "some of it can be tedious, but I have a few treats in store for you all, as well. N.E.W.T.s may be upon us soon, but that doesn't mean we still can't learn some exciting new things."

In front of Cassie and Marlene, Lily put her hand up. "Like what, Professor?"

Professor Staghart gave her an indulgent smile. "Well, Miss Evans, we'll be continuing work on nonverbal spellcasting, and depending on where you all stand before N.E.W.T.s, perhaps I'll begin teaching wandless magic to you all as well." An excited murmur rippled through the class at this. "For creatures, we'll be learning about dementors and Inferi, and once we've completed the year's review, you'll all be due for your first demonstration of the Unforgivable Curses. Of course, they won't be taught in explicit detail until your seventh year," he said when the class collectively shuddered, "but sixth year is when the school deems you all mature enough to receive instruction on how to identify Unforgivables."

Ice coated Cassie's insides. The Aurors had reported that Will had used an Unforgivable on their parents-the Killing Curse, the most unforgivable of all. She didn't know if she had the stomach to sit through a demonstration of it, although it was highly unlikely that Professor Staghart would be using an actual human being. Still, the thought did not sit well with her.

"Now, then," Professor Staghart said, clapping his hands. "If there are no more questions, let's get cracking."

They continued work on their nonverbal spells for the next two hours, and by the end of the lesson, Cassie's jaw was sore from how tightly she had been holding it shut in order not to accidentally cast her spell aloud. The lesson had harkened back to their first year when they had tried to make objects float using the spell "Wingardium Leviosa", except this lesson had required them to make their feathers levitate without saying anything. Cassie's feather had moved only once in the whole two hours, but her excitement had been squashed immediately when Marlene pointed out that Cassie had actually sighed a bit too hard. Cassie hadn't the energy to retort that Marlene was technically still whispering the spell under her breath, and the lesson ended with only Lily, Remus, and Avery being able to shift their feathers nonverbally by a few inches.

"Don't be discouraged!" Professor Staghart concluded as they packed their things. "Practice makes perfect! In fact, your homework is to keep practicing nonverbal magic. No essays, but I will bring them back if I find out you aren't practicing your spellwork. I'll see you all on Thursday."

Cassie shouldered her bag and made for the door before Professor Staghart called her back. "Miss Alderfair, could you stay behind for a moment? I'd like to discuss last term's project with you."

Cassie froze. She knew Professor Staghart would have confronted her eventually, but the notion still made her stomach twist into uneasy knots. She exchanged a wary look with the Marauders and the girls.

"We'll be right outside," said James without missing a beat, and her shoulders relaxed a little.

"Thanks," she said. "I won't be long."

They nodded and filed out of the room. Remus shut the door behind him, leaving her alone with Professor Staghart. She sucked in a deep breath and met his tawny eyes. "Yes?"

He leaned against his desk and crossed his muscular arms, swathed in robes of jade that day. "I noticed you made no use of my own resources for your paper on the Seven Elders."

She gripped her bag strap. "I found some information in the library, so I didn't feel the need to ask you."

"So, you're content with only receiving an 'Acceptable' for your paper?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

She nodded. "Yep."

He hunched his shoulders and sighed. "You don't have to be afraid of me, Cassie."

"I'm not," she said, too quickly. "I'm not," she insisted at his look. "I just don't trust you."

"Even though we're on the same side?"

The locket thumped against her chest. "I'm not interested in whatever magical bloodline cult you're trying to resurrect."

He chuckled. "It's not a cult. Just common ancestry."

"Still." She shook her head. "I want nothing to do with it. I want nothing to do with you."

"Even if we could win this war singlehandedly?"

She gripped her bag tighter. "No one is that powerful. Not even Professor Dumbledore."

He sighed. "What can I do to get you to trust me, then? Name it, Cassie, and I will do my best to prove to you that I'm your ally."

She'd thought long and hard over the holiday about what she would ask him if she ever had the opportunity-and now it had presented itself. So it was with little hesitation that she said, "Tell me what my brother could possibly want from Erebus Kane."

He seemed surprised. "You mean you haven't figured it out already?"

She waited until he sighed again, spreading his hands. "The Spellbook of the Seven. The one that's sealed away in your locket right now."

"What?" Her other hand reached up to clutch at the collar of her robes. "But-why? I mean, how did he not know? He was the one who gave me the locket in the first place!"

"My guess is that he suspected," Staghart said with a shrug. "But if your brother has made contact with Kane, then he certainly knows what the spellbook is disguised as now, and knows exactly where it's at."

"But how does Kane know? How do you know?" she asked.

"The witch's tomb that I broke into years ago when I started out as a Curse-Breaker-the one that gave me these scars" -he said, indicating the warped flesh of his left side- "was actually my own ancestor's tomb. It belonged to Farrow Staghart, one of the Seven Elder Witches, as you now know. Her tomb had been heavily cursed with wards-I suspect I only lived because I shared her blood." He leaned forward and braced his elbows on his knees. "Inside it was a locket that looked precisely like yours. It wasn't until later that Kane and I learned it was a decoy, and that the spellbook was still hidden amongst the other Seven.

"Eventually, it was Kane who discovered that the true bearer of the spellbook was your ancestor, Norvina Alderfair. He told me he'd found a way to communicate with his own ancestor, Grimhilde Kane, and she'd shared her knowledge with him." His tawny eyes flickered. "I didn't make the connection until his arrest. He'd used the lifeblood of each of his sisters to communicate with Grimhilde. And when he'd gotten the information he needed, he continued to experiment and torture them to death."

"And now my brother knows what Kane knows," she said softly.

Staghart nodded. "If they choose to ally and take the spellbook for themselves, the results will be catastrophic. They'll make You-Know-Who and Grindelwald look like children playing at war."

A heavy feeling was settling deep in Cassie's gut. Staghart was right; she'd seen the glimmer of lust in Will's eyes when he talked about creating a new world. Her brother craved power-and with someone as sadistic as Kane by his side…

"We can't let them have it," she said finally, meeting her professor's gaze.

His haunted eyes brightened. "Does this mean you're accepting me as an ally, Miss Alderfair?"

"Not quite." She spoke to his confused expression. "Will and Kane are in the most high-security prison in the world. They're going to spend the rest of their lives rotting in there. They pose no threat. But if there are other descendants out there who know about the spellbook…"

"I've been researching them," Staghart said, nodding. "I don't have much on the other three, but I've come to learn that there's a wizard within the Death Eaters' ranks who goes by the name Amarion Bloodbane. He could be another possible descendant."

Cassie shuddered. "Yeah, I've met him. Real charming bloke."

"So, if not allies," Staghart said, "then how about partners? I'm willing to share my information with you if you're willing to do the same."

She hesitated. "I don't have much information."

He gave her a grim smile and held out his hand. "Neither do I. But we have to start somewhere, hm?"

She still held out, staring at his hand reluctantly. Then, very slowly, she reached out and grasped it. It enveloped hers instantly, trapping it like a delicate bird in a steel cage.

She shook his hand.

"It always comes back to that bloody thing, doesn't it?" James said at once, pointing to Cassie's chest where the clockwork locket hung beneath her robes, ticking in time with her heart.

Cassie stabbed her fork into her steak-and-kidney pie with a grunt. "Guess so."

It was dinner that night after her talk with Professor Staghart, and she sat at the end of the Gryffindor table flanked by the Marauders, Lily, Alice, and Marlene. She had just finished relaying the conversation to her friends, and now they all stared at her with varying levels of shock and concern.

"I don't trust him," Lily declared, setting down her pumpkin juice. "It's too calculated to be coincidental. Staghart comes to teach at Hogwarts where Cassie is at the same time that Will goes to Azkaban to find Erebus Kane? It smells fishy to me."

"There was no guarantee that Staghart would've gotten the post, though," Alice said reluctantly.

"I'm sure he had a backup plan to get close to Cassie," said Lily stubbornly.

Cassie tucked into her pie as her friends argued and speculated around her. She appreciated their help and support, but sometimes, the endless back-and-forth exhausted her. It almost made her wish that she had never enlisted their assistance in the first place.

She glanced up to the staff table where Professor Dumbledore ate in his great winged chair, speaking to Professor Sprout on his left. The sight of the headmaster let guilt sweep in like a wave. There was still one secret she was keeping from her friends, anyway.

She drained her pumpkin juice and interrupted Lily and James's heated discussion that had somehow devolved into whether Staghart and Kane were Voldemort sympathizers. "Can we give it a rest for one night? Please?"

"You're the one who brought it up," Marlene pointed out.

"And now I'm putting it back down," Casse replied, annoyed. "All of us haven't eaten together in weeks. Can't we just be, I dunno...normal for once? And talk about the next Quidditch match, or how unfair Professor McGonagall's homework load is, or how Karen Hartley and Justin Grause are so clearly dating even though they deny it?"

Marlene slammed down her spoon. "Yes! I knew it! You noticed it, too?!"

"Guess that answers that," Sirius said in amusement as Marlene started yammering excitedly. "Welcome back to normalcy. Cheers."

As dinner went on and the conversation turned to ordinary, mundane things, Cassie began to relax. She didn't realize how much she had missed having all of her friends together until the girls had slowly started to migrate toward sitting with the Marauders at meals and in the common room, and how whole everything felt again now that Sirius was back within the fold. She found her gaze straying to him often, taking in how comfortable he was, how happy he looked as if he had never been cast out at all. Though the other boys were less quick to laugh, more guarded, the relief on their faces showed just how much they had missed their fourth Marauder.

Surrounded by her chattering and laughing friends, Cassie didn't realize tears had brimmed in her eyes until she sniffed rather loudly, capturing everyone's attention.

"Cassie?" Remus asked, putting a hand on her shoulder. "Are you all right?"

She laughed shakily, wiping her eyes. "Yes. Really," she added to their skeptical looks. She looked down at her empty plate and smiled, fighting off the blush that stained her cheeks. "I was just thinking...how happy I am to know you all, and to be here with you right now."

"Oh, Cass!" Alice said, flinging her arms around her neck. "You're going to make me cry too!"

"Seconded," James said, pretending to blow his nose into his napkin.

Lily rolled her eyes. "Stop that, Potter."

"Yeah," Marlene said. "We're having a moment."

Peter looked highly uncomfortable. "Er, all right."

Sirius cuffed his ear and ignored the smaller boy's cry of protest. "Stuff it, you."

"No, it's fine," Cassie said, finally managing to disentangle herself from Alice. "Sorry. I didn't mean for all that to suddenly come out like that."

"We appreciate you telling us," Remus said, giving her a warm smile.

She was about to respond when suddenly the golden light from behind James, Sirius, Peter, and Lily dimmed, and they all looked up to see Hagrid, the huge groundskeeper, lumbering toward the staff table.

"Hi, Hagrid!" James greeted cheerfully. "I was wondering why you weren't at dinner yet."

Hagrid blinked and slowly swiveled his great, hairy head toward James, seeming as if he had just been pulled abruptly from his thoughts. "Ah, 'ello, James. Er, was busy tendin' to somethin'...if you'll 'scuse me…"

He continued toward the staff table. Cassie scrunched her brows at James. "I didn't know you and Hagrid were such good friends."

James shrugged as Hagrid approached Professors McGonagall and Dumbledore at the staff table and began conversing in low tones to them.

"Hagrid's great," said James. "We've gotten to know him a lot better this past year. He caught us out by the Forbidden Forest loads of times-"

"Imagine that," Lily interjected with a scoff.

"-But he always let it slide. Luckily, he didn't see us in our Ani - OUCH!"

Remus had sent James a swift kick under the table.

"I mean," James said, fighting back tears, "uh, he didn't see us in our skivvies that one time…"

Peter buried his face in his palm.

Sirius clapped James's shoulder. "Yeah, that was just you in your skivvies, mate."

"Miss Alderfair."

No one had noticed Professor McGonagall sidle up to their group until she was standing right behind James where Hagrid had been moments before. She looked grim - or perhaps Cassie was so used to dreadful things happening that she was imagining it. Either way, the sight of her stern professor had her gulping. "Yes?"

"Are you finished eating?" At Cassie's wary nod, her professor gestured for her. "Good. Come. I'd like to speak with you for a moment about your grade in my class."

"Oh." Cassie's shoulders sagged. "Right."

"I'll be waiting for you outside of the Hall," McGonagall said. Without waiting for Cassie's answer, she swept away in a blur of bottle-green robes.

Cassie stood from the bench and shouldered her bag, trying for a reassuring smile. "Don't wait for me. I'll see you all back in the common room."

Ignoring her friends' confused looks, she exited the Hall and found Professor McGonagall just beyond the wide-open doors.

"This way, Miss Alderfair."

She was led toward the grand marble staircase and up the steps, but instead of proceeding down the corridor where Professor McGonagall's office was located, the professor continued to climb the steps. Suddenly seized by a deep foreboding, Cassie followed her, her heart only sinking further when they came upon the third floor and McGonagall led her to a familiar corridor barricaded by gargoyles, and a door sealed behind a golden griffin.

"Sugarplums," McGonagall said to the statue with great distaste, and it leaped aside, revealing a spiral stone staircase. McGonagall gestured at Cassie. "The Headmaster has instructed you to wait in his office. We will join you shortly."

Cassie simply nodded and climbed the stairs, ignoring the pinch in her gut as the statue slid back into place, sealing Cassie inside the Headmaster's Tower. She came to the door with the golden knocker and entered, not bothering to knock. She was alone in Dumbledore's office now, and she looked around anxiously, meeting the curious stares of previous headmasters and headmistresses in their portraits above Dumbledore's large desk. She averted her eyes quickly.

The familiar silver instruments decorating the room sighed and whistled as she padded over the plush carpeting. Books and strange little gadgets filled every available space, yet the office was still meticulous and immaculate. She had always been absorbed in other things whenever she had visited the office, so she took the time to study it closer now, her eyes traveling around the large, circular room.

Behind the headmaster's desk perched a large latticed window, illuminated by the soft glow of the golden lamps within the room and the stars and half-moon outside. She spotted the tattered, rumpled shape of the Sorting Hat, deep within whatever hibernation it went into until the next Sorting Ceremony, and the enormous, ruby-studded, golden sword of Godric Gryffindor, her own ancestor. Beside the desk was a metal stand of some sort that seemed made for birds, but when she looked, there was no sign of any such creature in the office.

To her right stood a wall of ornate, gilded iron cabinets-the only wall in the room not dedicated to any bookshelves. One of the doors stood slightly ajar, emanating a soft, silvery-blue light from within. She stared hard at the door, wondering what sort of thing could possibly be behind it, but she started and moved quickly to sit in one of the chairs in front of the headmaster's desk when the telltale groan of stone grinding against stone alerted her that someone was coming up the stairs.

A moment later, the door to the office swung open, and Professor Dumbledore swept in with a flutter of his silver hair and beard and a swish of his velvet-blue robes. He led in a wizard Cassie vaguely recognized, with short, slicked-back black hair threaded with grey, hollow dark eyes, and sunken cheekbones. Trailing him was Alastor Moody, the grizzled, grumpy Auror that Cassie had met before, and a tight-lipped Professor McGonagall. Cassie swallowed nervously.

Professor Dumbledore had just taken the seat behind his desk when the man Cassie didn't know spoke.

"Well, Albus?" he demanded. "This is her?"

"Yes," said Professor Dumbledore mildly. "Cassie Alderfair, it is my pleasure to introduce you to Britain's Minister of Magic, Harold Minchum."

Cassie's eyes widened. No wonder the man had seemed familiar. How many times had she seen his moving picture splashed across the front pages of the Daily Prophet?

"M-Minister," Cassie stammered, shooting to her feet. "It's an honor-"

He ignored her outstretched hand. "No need for 'Minister', Miss Alderfair. By this time tomorrow, I will have resigned my post."

Cassie dropped her hand. Dumbledore sighed.

"Minister, perhaps now is not the time-"

"It is precisely the right time," said the irate Minchum. "This child's brother - the whole country will know the news come morning, Albus! The people will be clamoring for my head!"

Cassie glanced between Dumbledore and McGonagall, unsure of what to do. Dumbledore avoided her gaze, but McGonagall shook her head once, urging Cassie not to speak. She remained silent and watched.

"Resigning your post in the midst of such turmoil will only serve to further embitter and panic the public," Dumbledore said calmly. "Why don't you have a seat, Minister? We can discuss this further once our business with Miss Alderfair is finished."

"We came here to deliver news, Minister," said Moody. "Lamenting the end of your career can wait."

Minchum looked outraged, but he flung himself into the seat next to Cassie's. She sat down again herself, waiting for someone to tell her what the hell was going on.

"I apologize for this abrupt summons, Miss Alderfair," Dumbledore said, threading his fingers together before him. "I hope this has not intruded on anything important?"

She shook her head, mute. The dread in her gut had returned, churning rapidly, and she began to regret eating so much pie at dinner.

"Good. Well, then." Dumbledore fixed her with his piercing blue gaze. "Miss Alderfair, Minister Minchum and Mr. Moody are here tonight to share some grave news. It seems that in the early hours of this morning, there was a breakout from Azkaban. Two prisoners escaped. One of them was your brother, William Alderfair."

Cassie's breath left her in a rush. "What? B-but that's not possible. Azkaban is the most secure wizarding prison in the world!"

"Was," Moody corrected. He stared down his nose at her, appearing even more sinister from the chunk of flesh missing from it. "Not anymore."

"The dementors guarding the prison defected," Minchum said, his voice hollow. Now that he was seated, he looked haggard, pale, and defeated. "A hundred of them decided to join forces with He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. In the chaos, William Alderfair and another prisoner managed to escape from Azkaban and flee with the help of one or more Death Eaters. As of right now, they are both at large."

Cassie stared. "Who was the other prisoner?"

"Erebus Kane," answered Dumbledore.

Her mouth went dry, and her hands fisted in her lap. "But Will betrayed the Death Eaters. Why would they bust him out, along with Erebus Kane? What are they to Voldemort now?"

Minchum and McGonagall flinched at the utterance of the Dark Lord's name. Dumbledore only watched her coolly.

"You know of Erebus Kane, Miss Alderfair?" he asked.

She nodded. "He tortured his three sisters to death. My father spoke of his case once," she said, the lie slipping easily from her tongue.

Dumbledore's eyes narrowed behind his half-moon spectacles, but he didn't comment. Instead, it was Moody who answered her.

"Yeah, Kane's a right murderin' bastard," he said. "We don't know what Voldemort wants with him, or what he gains by allying with William Alderfair, but it can't be good."

"So, what? What are you doing to catch them?" When the adults remained silent, her heart plummeted. "Is there even a plan? A lead?"

"There is one lead," Dumbledore said heavily. He met Cassie's bewildered gaze. "You."

She blanched. "You think Will and Kane are going to come after me?"

"Albus," McGonagall warned, but the headmaster held up his hand. "Yes, Minerva, I remember what you told me."

Dumbledore turned back to Cassie. "I don't claim to be certain, but it is a possibility, Miss Alderfair. Your brother was once a Death Eater in service to Voldemort, and it is clear after the invasion of the Potters' gala that Voldemort covets you. We could be witnessing your brother trying to get back into the good graces of Voldemort through you."

She wanted to object, but the words turned to ash on her tongue. She didn't know Will anymore. She had never known him at all. Who was she to say what he would or wouldn't do now?

"For now," Dumbledore continued, "we do nothing." He held up a slender, crooked finger when Cassie opened her mouth. "Hogwarts is still the safest place for you right now, Miss Alderfair. If your brother and Kane have not been apprehended by the Easter holidays, then we will speak more on what measures to take. But as of now, all we can do is be on our guard and wait to see what their next move will be."

"My family," she said immediately. "My aunt and uncle, my cousins-"

"They will be protected by members of the Order," he assured.

She snuck a wary glance at Minchum, but the man was so lost within his own head that he did not even stir. She wondered if he had always been so spineless, or if he simply didn't care anymore.

"So, I'm the bait," she said quietly.

Behind her, Moody snorted.

"Reckon she saw through that one, eh, Albus?" he said, amused.

Dumbledore frowned. "I would not think to sacrifice one of my students' lives that way, Miss Alderfair. As I said earlier, there is no safer place for you to be than Hogwarts."

She wanted nothing more than to point out that that was essentially her role for enlisting in the Order of the Phoenix anyway, but she stopped when McGonagall suddenly placed a hand on her shoulder.

"I think that's enough, Albus," she said firmly. Her grip on Cassie's shoulder tightened. "All that matters is that you're safe, Miss Alderfair. And so is your family."

Still, Cassie could not bite back the jab she threw at her headmaster. "This time."

Without another word, she grabbed her bag and stormed from the office, shaking off McGonagall as she went. She was halfway down the staircase when she heard footsteps behind her. "Miss Alderfair!"

She paused with her hand on the railing, looking up furiously at Professor McGonagall. "What?"

The dark-haired witch looked pained, wringing her hands. Through her angry gaze, Cassie realized that she had never seen her teacher look so uncertain before. It was jarring.

McGonagall's mouth worked for a moment before she said, "I'll escort you back to Gryffindor Tower. Curfew is soon."

Cassie said nothing. She stomped down the rest of the stairs with McGonagall right behind her, and the two walked in silence to the seventh floor. It was stiff and uncomfortable, and Cassie silently celebrated when they reached the portrait of the Fat Lady.

Not suicidal enough to forget her manners again, Cassie grudgingly turned to her teacher. "Thanks for walking me back, Professor. Have a good night."

"Miss Alderfair," McGonagall said before Cassie could give the password to the common room. She glanced back over her shoulder to find the professor watching her with something akin to worry. She wrung her hands again. "I told you once in my office that war does a great many things to people; it changes them."

Cassie waited, wondering what on earth her professor was getting at.

McGonagall looked her up and down, not critically, like usual, but as if she was seeing Cassie for the very first time.

"Whatever may come," she said, "I beg of you. Don't lose sight of who you are." She stepped back and turned. "Goodnight, Miss Alderfair."

She swept back down the corridor, and Cassie watched her until the hem of her robes had whipped out of sight, a strange, full feeling clogging her throat.

Alone in the corridor now, Cassie reflected upon her professor's words and only wished she could have heard them sooner.

A chapter of reconciliations and revelations.

Next Chapter: The Truths and Lies of Regulus Black

Until next time!