bruises - james potter

eighty-five

Instead, their eyes were soft as they looked down at their daughter, their eyes were filled with love and worry, their mouths holding soft frowns that Cassie knew were due to worry and not because they were angry at her for one reason or another.

They were looking at her with love and care.

It scared her more than anything had scared her before, but it also confused her more.

She had never seen her parents hold expressions like that, not even when she, Regulus and Sirius were only very young.

"Cassie?" Now it was her father speaking.

His voice was just as different as her mothers, both of them holding a warmth that she had never heard in their voices before.

Walburga took a few more steps towards Cassie while Orion stayed just inside the door, watching the two.

Walburga kneeled down in front of Cassie, placing one of her hands on top of her knee.

Her touch made Cassie shiver slightly, despite how warm the hand was.

"Are you okay, dear?"

Cassie, still not having moved an inch since her mother had spoken for the first time, tried to give a nod but it was more of a twitch of her head.

Walburga's frown grew as she noticed the fear in Cassie's eyes.

"Take a few deep breaths for me lovely, can you do that?"

Cassie didn't want to do anything her parents told her to do, but she was still so scared. She have her head another slight twitch before taking a few deep breaths and even though it did nothing to calm the pool of nerves in her stomach that was slowly beginning to overflow, her mother seemed satisfied.

"There we go." Walburga said, a small smile making its way onto her lips. "All better."

Cassie gave her head another small twitch, still too scared to move.

"You want to tell me what's wrong, lovely?" Walburga asked, her tone still sweet and caring.

It was unsettling for Cassie, to say the least.

Cassie shook her head, but it only moved slightly.

Fear paralysed her body and mind, she wasn't sure what she would say if she opened her mouth.

Walburga frowned slightly again, but she nodded.

"Okay, but I'm here when you're ready to talk to me, but you don't have to when you're not comfortable doing so."

Cassie gave another small jerk of her head.

She then stared in shock as Walburga opened her arms and beckoned the girl in for a hug.

An unreadable expression made its way onto Cassie's face as she stared at her mothers open arms.

All the times she had wished that her mother would hold her, just open her arms wide and give the girl a hug, whether it was for a second of for an hour, all the times she had been stupidly hopeful for hoping that her mother would hug her suddenly felt odd, but she'd rather feel that than have this version of her mother in front of her.

When Cassie made no means to move, Walburga shuffled forwards and wrapped the girl in a hug.

Cassie sat there for a moment, wrapped in her mothers arms, before she slowly wrapped her arms back around Walburga.

This wasn't Cassie thinking about ever forgiving them for what they did, it wasn't her thinking that this was all reality and this was going to be her life from now on, one big, happy family where she would feel safe and where she could be herself.