Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter any more than I own a single brain cell devoted to thinking about anything other than fanfiction :)
A/N: Only a few more chapters to go! I am so excited to finally finish this fanfiction, both for you all and myself. Please have fun reading!
OoOoO
"—warts is . . . protected . . ."
". .. nix headquarters . . . number of . . . too difficult"
". . . ly place . . .no guards…"
"—dle of no—"
Pocket. Something slipped into a pocket.
"strike there . . ."
"No harm . . . girl . . . if . . . my wrath . . ."
"and . . . tter?"
". . . ing him to me . . ."
The Seer found Herself amidst a cloudy room, dark mist obscuring most everything. Bits of conversation reached her, but they were cut short, incomplete, almost useless. A pale figure stood before . . . something, perhaps a gathering of other figures. Vileness poured from him, toxifying the chamber of darkness. A spot of pain pressed in from the corner—the Seer thought this must be the source of the obscurity, the reason behind her limited eavesdropping. Awareness of the spot caused a flare of agony for the Seer—it turned to searing pain—burning—screaming—
Cass lurched from slumber with a screech. Darkness—like before—like the vision—pressurized her. She lunged for the lamp.
Light bloomed in her dormitory and she could use her lungs again.
Pauline glared at her from her bed, hair tuffed with sleep and eyes thin with annoyance. Cass grimaced in apology. It was a mark of Pauline's improving attitude towards life that she simply scowled, gestured to ascertain Cass was alright, then plopped back down in her bed. A couple months ago, Cass would have for sure gotten at least a few nasty words thrown her way, if not an actual physical object.
Her old friend, a headache, was growing by the second as Cass stared into the slumbering dormitory. The vision had been vital, she was sure. Despite the murkiness of the images, there was no misunderstanding the Dark Lord, not with the wickedness that seemed to exude from him. And anything the Dark Lord had a hand in was certain trouble for at the very least Harry and her, if not the rest of the school with them.
Cass held her eyes closed for a long moment before leaving the dorm room, flicking the lamp off on her way out.
In the common room, she wrote down everything she could scrounge up in her memory from the vision. After considerable thinking, the parchment very pathetically contained only:
~" No guards"
~" strike there"
~Voldemort + Death Eaters
Fléau de Lecteurs (blocked the vision, headache and can't See now)
~" No harm girl"? Me?
~Pocket? Check people's pockets in case they smuggle something into HQ?
Cass also drew a sketchy, ill-defined outline of Voldemort standing before—and above—his devoted followers, however that particular addition to the parchment was less useful and more an artful distraction.
She would take it to McGonagall in the morning. Cass still held to her heart a concrete dislike of McGonagall for not telling her and Harry the truth, but despite this, she couldn't not let her know about something like this. The Transfiguration professor was the only member of the Order at Hogwarts and therefore the best chance to actually get the information to someone who can use it.
She had to give it to her.
Especially considering school would end in just a week and after that, during the summer, she and Harry would no longer have the wards of Hogwarts to keep them safe.
Still, looking at the parchment, Cass almost believed it wasn't quite worth the effort. She could not make any sense of it and she was the one with the vision for tarts' sake.
OoOoO
The last week of Hogwarts passed in a blending of events. Cass did not quite comprehend how she managed to pass her end-of-course exams with as good marks as she had. She was constantly on the verge of a vision that would tell her what Voldemort was planning, but the Fléau de Lecteurs shielded his plot. The result was Cass's body experiencing a vision—pricking eyes, stiffening, inability to speak or even think much—but Seeing only darkness and feeling only a searing flash of pain from the cursed necklace. The first-years were tested in a sweltering hot room for their written exams, and Cass swore to Harry later on that she "felt" a vision eight times during the History of Magic test. It was an enormous distraction considering Cass could barely remember the names of goblin warriors on a good day.
Potions exams, of course, were cancelled for the first-years since their Potions class had ended when Snape left. Professor Flitwick called each of the first-years one at a time into his classroom to test their ability to make a pineapple dance across the table. McGonagall, whom Cass had explained her vision to after all, watched them critically as they turned mice into snuffboxes. Cass's snuffbox had the tiniest bit of a whisker on the left side, so that was a deduction, but the snuffbox overall ended up very pretty.
Because of the way their schedules played out, Cass and Brooke finished a day earlier than their friends from different Houses. The two of them decided it would be hilarious to plant a mini Dungbomb on Umbridge with their spare time, so that Harry and the others would get a comedic surprise while they were taking their O.W.L. exams and Umbridge was proctoring. Brooke, who was better at wandless Levitation Charms than Cass was (a sore topic for the Seer), floated the Dungbomb right onto Umbridge's ugly little hair clip. It would go off in approximately an hour if Cass had set the instructions right. She grinned at Brooke, clapping her hands in applause of her skills.
That night, Umbridge delivered a scathing speech to the student body at dinner. Pranks had been going on for weeks since the Weasleys left, the Terror Twins having completely wrecked Umbridge's authority with their legendary exit, but someone planting a mini Dungbomb in her hair, in front of O.W.L. Ministry officials, to the tune of the entire fifth-year class's laughter—
Well, it took the cake.
As Umbridge promised "extreme discipline and unrecoverable damage to your school record" to whomever was responsible, Cass and Brooke discretely high-fived under the table. It was an understatement to say that Harry and Ron were proud that night when the two first-years told them about it in the common room. Just as disappointed as they were proud was Hermione, who had given a brief (if half-hearted because, really, it's Umbridge) lecture on responsibility and staying under the radar, et cetera, et cetera.
The evening before their departure from Hogwarts, Cass was summoned from her dormitory, where she was busy frantically gathering all her things, to Professor McGonagall's office. Frowning—and additionally praying that she wasn't about to receive horrible, heartbreaking news yet again—Cass bade goodbye to Brooke and Pauline.
"We'll all be down by the lake if you finish early enough," Brooke said with a cheery wave.
Cass grinned at the prospect and replied, "Then hopefully this won't take long!"
In the common room, she met Harry with a similar note. The brother and sister met eyes, each clutching the note, but Cass continued right on by. She waited outside the portrait for a minute or two, until Harry emerged. They couldn't, after all, leave the common room at the same time for no apparent reason.
It was funny. Her whole life consisted of being an only child and now, even with the coolest elder brother in the world, she still had to act like the only child.
The two of them entered McGonagall's office a few moments later. The Animagus witch looked harried, glasses slightly askew and her usually-taut hair having exactly two flyaway strands sticking out.
"Good, you two are here," she said by way of greeting. "I've called you in to discuss you're traveling situation."
Cass and Harry took their seats.
"So, as you're aware, Cassandra, you can't return to your grandparents' house. For that, I am sorry, but we have been forced to come up with an alternative. Tomorrow, you will take the Hogwarts Express to Platform 9 ¾ . We would have arranged for a Floo transport however Umbridge has, as you know, blocked Floo travel for most of the school. Even her office cannot be accessed anymore thanks to . . . well, you both know what happened with Professor Snape."
Cass and Harry exchanged sheepish glances.
"None the matter, Cassandra, you will be staying with your godfather over the summer. For obvious reasons, he cannot pick you two up from the station. You will go with Auror Shacklebolt and Lupin from the station to Grimmauld Place. Several of the other Order members will be hidden along the way to ensure both of your safety. Cass, you have the task of leaving the platform first and then finding your escorts and your brother. We can't have all of the students see you leaving with Potter, is that clear?"
"Yes, Professor," answered Cass.
McGonagall held out a vermillion ballpoint pen. "Potter, I am giving you this Portkey in case of emergency. Since I am not the headmaster, I don't have the power to make it work on school grounds, however it is there for once you leave in case anything should go . . . awry during the journey," she finished with a pointed look at Cass.
"Just say 'Portus' and it will take you straight to Grimmauld Place," said McGonagall as Harry took the pen from her. "Cassandra, stick near him on the train tomorrow so you can use the Portkey, too, if need be."
Cass would have done that anyway, but she nodded her compliance.
"And finally, Cassandra has had a vision about You-Know-Who planning something. There is no way for certain to tell when this plot will come to be, whether that be on the train tomorrow, on the journey to Grimmauld Place, or some other time in the future. Whatever time it is, though, I need you both to swear to stay out the trouble."
"I swear," said Cass earnestly.
". . . I swear," said Harry, a little less earnestly. Cass gave him a side-eye glance.
"Potter, I mean it," said McGonagall in a scarily strict voice. "You especially have to promise me to stay out of it. You have a horrible habit of being exactly where the danger is most prevalent, often of your own free will."
Harry winced abashedly.
"I promise to . . . try to . . . keep out of it," said Harry.
McGonagall formed her lips into a thin line.
"Harry," Cass stressed.
"I will stay out of it," he said, this time sounding at least a little more believable.
McGonagall sighed tiredly but moved on. "Pass along the plans for tomorrow to the Weasleys and Miss Granger, if you please. They too are to use the Portkey if something goes awry."
Harry nodded.
"Alright, that settles it for tonight," said the Transfiguration professor. "Congratulations to you both for finishing out your term strongly, despite . . . everything that occurred," she put delicately.
Cass snorted up her nose audibly.
She and Harry thanked the professor before wishing her a good night and exiting the office. As they walked, Cass muttered, " 'Everything that occurred', said McGonagall."
"As if she wasn't part of keeping the secret from us," said Harry with a shake of his head.
"Honestly, the nerve."
Harry chuckled quietly.
"Well then, I'm going to meet up with my friends around the lake," said Cass with a smile and a wave goodbye.
Harry beamed back and hollered, "I've got to pack my things!"
"Procrastinator!" Cass yelled back, as if she hadn't been packing her things before McGonagall summoned them.
The day was happily sunny. Light glinted off the lake and into her retinas as Cass made her way down to her friends. Brooke and Rose sat with their toes in the warm lake water, having a very serious discussion about which Ravenclaw boys they thought were the cutest. Marcell and Sarah, the only two Slytherins and therefore the only students left with any exams, sat together, pouring over their Astronomy textbook, clearly not enjoying themselves. Bello was left kind of to the side, distractedly drawing in the mud with a twig.
Cass made a beeline for him.
"Hey, Bello!" she greeted cheerfully.
"Cass! Brooke said you had a meeting with McGonagall."
"Yeah, she wanted to—er—just ask if I had anything to do with Umbridge's very unfortunate mishap in the fifth-years' O.W.L. exams."
"Huh," said Bello. Cass and Brooke had already informed their friends of their heroic, brave efforts against the wicked toad Umbridge, so Bello knew very well that Cass very much had everything to do with Umbridge's "unfortunate mishap".
"Yeah," said Cass with a guilty shrug.
"You lied, right?"
For a second, Cass thought he had found out she was being dishonest, but then logic caught up with her and she figured out he was asking if she had lied to McGonagall.
"Nope, I admitted it. For being such an amazing student who made Hogwarts look so great in front of the O.W.L. examiners, McGonagall gave Gryffindor a hundred points!"
Bello gave a doubtful snort.
"Of course I lied! And let me tell you, it is absolutely no fun lying to that woman. Completely nerve-wracking."
Bello shook his head frantically. "I would have been caught in an instant."
"Nah, if you're friends were on the line, you could pull it off," said Cass with a nod of certainty.
Bello shook his head, but he still beamed at her.
"Alright first-year delinquents!" shouted Brooke, making a dig at their illegal exploits with Dumbledore's Army. "One last round of hide-and-seek—oh, hi Cass, McGonagall clearly didn't murder you, good to see—one last round of hide-and-seek to end the year off with a bang."
"Miller, some of us don't have the privilege of having no more exams," said Marcell sarcastically.
"Cry about it, Marcell, this is our tradition and you're not wriggling out of it."
Cass glanced sideways at Bello, saw he was doing the same to her, and then they both proceeded to snort audibly.
"Fine, but," said Sarah pointedly, "We're playing in teams. Marcell and I can continue studying while you dolts waste hours trying to find us."
Brooke gasped, affronted. "I call Cass!"
Cass frowned indignantly. "Nuh-uh, you can't call me, especially because you just want to cheat and use my Sight to find Marcell and Sarah."
Brooke tsked and shook her head but had no argument to that because, naturally, Cass was right.
"I'm going with Bello," Cass said smugly.
"So . . . Rose," said Brooke with a winning smile at Rose.
Rose shook her head but smiled back.
"Cass, you are so not seeking," said Sarah.
Cass shrugged. "That's fair."
"Brooke and I will go first," said Rose. "Starting . . . now."
Cass and Bello scampered away, Sarah and Marcell running the opposite direction. Cass led Bello over to a tall, thick-leaved pine tree on the complete other end of the lake. Both of them paused to catch their breaths, red-faced and panting.
"Okay—"Cass panted"—up we go," she said with a gesture to the tree.
Bello took a single glance and very quickly said, "I . . . don't feel comfortable with that."
"Oh, you'll be fine."
"Rose literally almost fell to her death one time."
"That was one time, first of all" said Cass. "Second of all, she might've broken a leg but death is a bit extreme. And, third of all, I Saw it before it happened. I don't See you falling."
"Well that's because currently I don't plan on climbing in the first place," said Bello. "And besides, I could get poison ivy!"
Cass pursed her lips.
"That's why it's perfect! Brooke's the one seeking. She'll take one look at this tree and go, 'No way Bello climbs that'. They'll never find us!" she explained.
"So your plan depends on Brooke thinking I'm a coward?" said Bello, his eyebrows scrunched in an endearing way.
"My plan depends on you unlocking your Gryffindor heart, Bello!" said Cass grandly, gesturing at the tree importantly.
Bello sighed.
"And I didn't even bring my poison ivy cream," he said forlornly.
Cass grinned. "I'm sure you can stop by Madam Pomfrey if we find some."
It took five whole minutes of pep-talking to get Bello to even pull himself onto the first branch that was about half a meter off the ground. From there, it took another minute to convince him to continue. But eventually, Cass got the both of them up to an acceptable height. She took a moment to applaud her efforts as she gazed over the serene lake, wind in her hair.
She glanced over to see Bello squeezing his eyes shut. Cass shook her head fondly.
"Bello, opening your eyes will not make you fall," she told him, chuckling.
"I heard you're not supposed to look down from extreme heights."
"Bello, we're not even seven meters up. And you don't have to look down—just open your eyes a little. It's a beautiful view."
He shook his head tightly, eyes still pinched closed.
Cass tsked but didn't press.
A few minutes passed and she spotted Brooke and Rose in the area. She was just about to tell Bello when she noticed a bug crawling up his arm. She winced.
Bello's eyes flashed open and he gave a shrill shriek. He smacked the bug, killing it, but then he had bug juice on his palm. He let out a high-pitched, "Eeeeh!" and frantically wiped his palm on the bark.
Cass couldn't help it; she guffawed for a single second before clamping a hand over her mouth. Bello still looked traumatized, but he finally looked around to see Rose and Brooke glancing back and forth questioningly. His mouth opened in a little 'o' and he grimaced in apology for his outburst.
Cass smiled and shook her head, hinting that he listen.
Rose and Brooke passed under the tree.
"No chance Bello climbed that. He'd probably be too scared about poison ivy to even consider it."
Rose laughed.
Cass raised her eyebrows at Bello pointedly. He silently harrumphed.
The two witches continued on their way, completely oblivious that their friends were hiding above them.
After about half an hour, Brooke was clearly screaming, "I give up!" She looked right sour about it, too. Cass and Bello began making their way down the pine tree. It was certainly an experience. Bello was nervous the entire time, Cass was laughing at his nervousness, then Bello became indignant because she was laughing at him, which made Cass laugh even more. Then, about two meters up, a green-ish, brown-ish bird squawked above their heads, and the next second Bello had a dallop of white poop on his shoulder.
Cass utterly lost it.
Bello screeched and pulled the most hilarious face the Seer had ever seen. She cackled impudently, shaking her head and clutching her sides.
And then she tensed a second before the branch she was leaning against snapped.
With a swoop of her gut, Cass tumbled straight down, landing with a huff on her back.
"CASS!" Bello screamed. Forgoing all caution, he pushed his legs off the branch he was sitting on. For a second, he simply hung with his hands gripping a branch. Then, his face pinched with nerves, he let go, dropping to the ground and landing right next to Cass.
"Are you okay?" he hollered at her. "Do. You. Need. The. Hospital. Wing?"
Cass had lost her breath, but as soon as it returned, she just started laughing more. She laughed so hard that Bello actually grew more concerned for her.
"Hey—I'm—okay," she said between guffaws. "A bird—oh, tarts—a bird just pooped on you!"
Bello opened his mouth, closed it, then opened it again. "You—argh! I risked my life jumping down here for you! And you're going to laugh about a bird pooping on me! I could contract all sorts of diseases! I'm going to have to go to Madam Pomfrey and explain how I became diseased with splattergoit!"
Cass just could not take him seriously for the life of her. "Bello, it's barely even two meters. It won't kill you! Tarts, I fell, I didn't even let go on purpose, and I'm fine!"
Bello still looked at her grumpily, however Cass could see a smile just beneath his frown. She grinned again before getting up and suggesting they walk back over to the others.
Brooke could not believe her ears when Bello told her where he and Cass had hidden.
OoOoO
A black-haired boy with glasses was sprinting. Suddenly, something punched into his stomach—he collapsed—his eyes went white, dark crimson leaking from the corners—he screamed in agony and the Seer would do anything, anything, to spare him, to never hear that scream again—
Flicker.
Pocket.
Flicker.
A witch hollered, "Avada Kedavra!"
A girl screamed.
Flicker.
Pocket. Something bloodred slipped into a pocket.
A menacing, pale figure strode towards a cowering, sniffling girl. The figure carried a wand in his hand, a silver wand—
The Seer's wand.
He formed his long fingers into a claw, palm up, and the girl whimpered as she rose, forced to uncurl, and became level with the monstrous man.
"Your wand," he said, "is very rare. Very suited to your Sight. Made perfect for you."
The girl said nothing, could not form words, could only grunt in pain and terror.
The pale man snapped her wand in half. The sound of wood cracking echoed in the Seer's vision.
"I have asked you to cooperate, little Seer," he said in a high voice. "You defy me. No matter. I'm sure having once your mind is broken, that defiance will be no more. You don't have to be sane to See things."
The man clutched the side of the girl's face, staring her in the eye. The Seer could nearly feel the cold grip of the pale fingers, the unnatural frigidness of the monster's skin.
The screaming began, shrill and awful.
Flicker. Screams. Colors bounced and twisted.
Pocket. Something bloodred slipped into a pocket. A dash of blood dripped into her pocket—
Flicker.
The cruel pale figure left the girl a shivering mess. Her vocal cords were scratched raw. She could not even remember her own name. She was no longer herself.
She was his.
OoOoO
Minerva McGonagall had a most surprising visitor in the middle of the night. Cassandra Potter woke the professor up by pounding on her old wooden door. The young Seer was frantic, her eyes bloodshot, her hands shaking.
When she told McGonagall of her vision, the Animagus nodded seriously, her lips wan.
"I will contact the Headmaster immediately, Cassandra. Anyone coming into Grimmauld Place will have their pockets searched. You and your brother might need to stay at the Weasleys' home for a few days while we investigate the matter."
The professor sized the young first-year up, her normally strict gaze melting a bit. "You have nothing to worry about. Aurors will be on the train tomorrow. Order members will be waiting in the station and around it. I promise, we will keep you safe."
Professor McGonagall watched the young Seer go, the usually bright girl subdued.
Merlin, she hoped the Potter and his sister would not face another tragedy so soon.
OoOoO
Edited 03/10/23: Fixed formatting