The Last of the Blacks

Chapter 53: Truths and First Steps

It was all a mess of dreams and memories. Mess of memories about her father and her uncle Remus and dreams what the life could have been if she had stayed in Gryffindor.

Cassiopea Black knew she was dreaming when she saw her father's smile and heard Remus telling her how proud he was that she was in Slytherin, that she was controlling Voldemort himself... And that she was the key to winning this war.

But in the same time she wanted this mess to be true. That would mean that her dad was still alive and that she could talk to him, could hug him and never let him go.

But as she opened her eyes and felt the warm sheets under her body, she realized that it was all just a dream. Like those dreams she used to have for her birthday years ago.

She took a deep breath and looked around.

Cassie firstly looked down and she saw that most of her chest and her left arm was covered in bandage. She slightly remembered what had happened and how the werewolf attacked her.

Then she looked at the chair on her left.

She expected anyone, but him to be there. She expected Lestrange or Kol or Draco or Daphne or Narcissa or Andromeda or Bellatrix. Even Potter. But not the man, sitting in the chair, who almost jumped as he saw Cassie sitting in her bed.

He took a deep breath, tears in his eyes as he watched how she opened her mouth, then closed it.

And again.

"Hello, Cassiopea," Remus said, more relieved than happy. She wondered if he was relieved because she was alive or because she was OK. "Aren't you going to say something?" he asked.

"What do you want me to say?" her voice sounded rough from hours if not days without speaking.

She waited for an answer even though she knew that there wasn't one. She waited, staring at his eyes - red from crying.

"I am sorry," Remus said. "This time for real... Cassie, you have no idea how bad I am feeling about what I have done, what I have told you..."

Cassie nodded. He had to be sorry. He had to feel sorry, he had to feel guilty. Because he was. He gave up on her. He gave Potter a chance and not her.

Because Potter was always the important one.

Not her.

She learned to cover up the pain every time she realized that. She knew how to cover up the pain and denial behind a single smile and how her eyes would lit, but only because she didn't want the tears to show up.

She was the master of her face, her body and she controlled the things around here.

Not anyone else.

So she didn't let Remus' words to reach her. Because if they did, she would have to think that this time, this final time, he was coming to make things right.

Or he was here because of Dora.

Cassie stared at him for a little longer.

It was strange, wasn't it? He called her vain, stupid, ungrateful and now he was here. Here, crying because he hadn't known if she was going to wake up or not. He was here, half a world away and was asking her for forgiveness.

"Cassie. Say something. Please," he begged, his eyes filling with tears again as he watched how his once beloved goddaughter looked at him with face that showed no emotion and dead eyes. "Please," he begged the Dark Lady once more.

She almost laughed at the side of the man she once thought was like a father to her. She remembered all those moments filled with love and laughter, all those nights she couldn't sleep and Sunday mornings when they made pancake cakes and laughed as the ruined the kitchen again...