Week later, two days before the first task, Kreacher got her one of Regulus' diaries. As her father told both his daughter and the house elf, Cassiopea couldn't go into his brother's room. But he did not said that Kreacher couldn't.
And as a member of the Black family, Cassiopea could order him whatever she wanted.
"Thank you, Kreacher," she said after the elf gave her the diary. "Um... I found this," she gave him a photo of Bellatrix, Narcissa and Regulus after her father and aunt left the family. "My father said that you collected family photos and things. This is for you."
At first the elf looked at her suspiciously, but as he looked at the picture of master Regulus, Miss Bella, and Miss Cissa, he smiled. Then he turned to Cassie and bowed deeply in gratitude. "If the Mistress needs something else, Kreacher will be happy to help."
And then he left. Cassie stayed at the edge of the Forbidden Forest alone. She was holding her uncle's diary as she walked to the Slytherin common room where she sat down and opened it.
"Property of Regulus Arcturus Black. Now in the hands of his niece - Cassiopea Andromeda Black."
********
Fleur Delacour was a great friend. That was the first thing Cassie thought about her. She was talking funny, but she was so helpful when it came to boys. And then she started to talk about the Triwizard Tournament and the first task.
"Zere are going to be dragons!" she complained. "And we are going to fight zem for some egg! Can you imagine?!"
"How do you know that?"
"Oh, Madame Maxime told me !" Fleur smiled. "She wants us to know everyzing about the tasks..."
"I thought that even they don't know what the tasks are."
"Zey make zem. Of course, zey would know."
Cassie thought for a minute. She knew more than Harry about the task now. She could tell him and then ask for a favor. Or she could tell Cedric.
"You aren't going to tell zat 'Arry boy, are you?"
"I am not."
She thought about Regulus's diary. At that moment, Cassie could look more than the first page, more than their names.
She hadn't told anyone about the diary. Even Kol and Daphne. If she knew, Duph would have made her give her father's diary, and Kol... Kol maybe would support her, but 'maybe' wasn't enough for her.
Cassie sent Fleur to the castle and headed for the library, where she assumed she would find Cedric. She had left the Map in her room.
"Cedric!" she smiled and sat on the table with the 7th-year Hufflepuff. "Hi. I am..."
"Cassiopea Black," Cedric said. "I know. How can I help you?"
"Well... The news reaches me that the first task will be to take a golden dragon egg from a dragon," Cassie said, smiling at him.
She really wanted him to win, but if her dad understood that she helped Cedric and not Harry, he would get mad. And Cassie had a plan. She always had a plan.
Because she was a snake. And a snake always finds a way to get away from trouble.
"How do you know?" Cedric asked.
"Never mind how I know it," she said. "Just... Trust me with this."
And she walked away. She found Harry almost five minutes later. The Golden trio was sitting in the Great Hall. Cassie sighed. Then she put a smile on her face.
"Harry!" she exclaimed. "I want to apologize for my behavior a few days ago."
Potter looked at her suspiciously, "Do you want something?"
"Well, you know, I'm kind of like a friend of Fleur's, and I heard something about the first task ... But if you don't need it ..."
"Wait!" Hermione said. "What information do you have?"
"There are going to be dragons. Maybe you will fight them."
She shrugged. He looked at Ron and his old clothes. She knew very well, of course, about his dress robe, but despite everything he wanted to tell them, he smiled.
"It was nice talking to you," Cassie said, turning around. It was finally time to look at the diary.
*******
Property of Regulus Arcturus Black. Now in the hands of his niece - Cassiopea Andromeda Black
Cassie had been looking at the page for five minutes when she that it was a bad idea. She thought about Ginny and Tom Riddle's diary two years ago. The Weasley girl almost died for Merlin's sake.
But this was Cassie's uncle, her father's brother. He would hurt her... Right?
Finally, Cassiopea Black decided to turn the page.
"18th October, 1979
My brother is getting married today.
I never thought that Sirius would get married to a pureblood witch. For Merlin's sake, I never thought that he would ever get married.
I believe he is happy. Happier than he was in our home. Emma makes him happy and I feel that I had to do something to make him feel like that. After he got into Gryffindor, all my parents ever did was to judge him and make sure that I was having pureblood friends, then pureblood girlfriend and of course that I was in Slytherin. I could have helped my brother.
But all of that doesn't matter now. The important thing is that I have found Voldemort secret. Last week Bellatrix said something about horcruxes. When she realized what she had just told me, Bella threatened me and disappeared. I knew I had red something about horcruxes. And I was right. A few days ago I found my father's old book about Dark Magic.
I found that if the horcruxes are destroyed, Voldemort will be just some wizard who can be defeated.
Last night, after his mission with Voldemort, Kreacher told me about a cave where he and Voldemort went. He told me everything that happened and I thing that locket is a horcrux.
I made a copy of it and I am taking the real horcrux tomorrow night. I don't know if I am going to survive, but I want to see my brother once again.
I am going to his wedding. "
By the end of this Cassie was trying so hard to hold back her tears. And then she remembered that strange word. Horcruxes. These horcruxes were going to be the end of Voldemort.
She jumped on her feet and then she saw another pack of words appearing on the page.
"And I am asking my niece to
continue with my mission.
Destroy Voldemort and his army for me and be there for your father.
You are the only thing he has now."
Reading that words, Cassiopea took a deep breath. She was holding the answer to destroying Voldemort in her hands. She was holding the answer to Kol's question in her hands.
How are we going to kill a man who was no body, he had asked her in one of the DADA classes.
But Voldemort was dead. Harry killed him... well, not exactly Harry, but something killed him. Could the horcruxes actually be destroyed before 31th October, 1981 ?
"Kreacher!" Cassie said and the elf appeared next to her immediately. "I don't have anything to give you now, but I can..."
"Mistress doesn't have to give Kreacher anything," Kreacher said. "Kreacher is glad to help the Mistress now that she had proven that she is from the Most Ancient and Noble House of Black. What can Kreacher do for his mistress today?"
"I want to know if my uncle had a locket which he..." Kreacher stopped her with a sob. Like he truly missed Regulus Black.
Cassie felt down on her knees, looking straight into the eyes of the house elf. They were filled with tears. For the first time, the Black girl thought that she could hurt someone in the process of finding out the truth.
"Master Regulus did have a locker," Kreacher nodded. "Is that what is the Mistress looking for? Does the Mistress want Kreacher to give it to her?"
Cassie shooked her head. Not now, she wanted to say, but she saw a shadow, coming from the castle. "Kreacher, I want you to come into the Slytherin common room at midnight with the locket of Master Regulus. I want to talk about him. And no word to my father about all of this."
"Yes, miss Cassiopea," and he bowed down. Cassie could swear that before Kreacher disappeared he had smiled at her.
"There you are," her father said when he came next to her. "I've been looking for you. What's going on?"
Cassie just realized that she was still on her knees like she was praying or something. Her uncle's diary was laying next to her.
"Nothing," she lied and got up. Cassie took the diary and looked at her dad. "I've... Um... Just studying..."
"Oh, and if I ask professor McGonagall why did she give you the diary of my brother, what would she say to me?"
Cassie's face paled. She looked down at the diary, finding nothing more than R.A.B. Her uncle's initials.
Her father took it from her and opened it. "Property of Regulus Arcturus Black. Now in the hands of his brother - Sirius Orion Black," he read. "How did you get this?"
Cassie didn't answer.
"You know, I had a really nice talk with Daphne Greengrass. She was worried about you," Sirius said. "She told me what happened in front of Regulus' room and she told me about some lessons you have with her cousin. What have you learned?"
Cassie didn't say anything again. She had to listen to him and promise not to do anything dangerous... And then learn more about Regulus.
"Do I need to ask you again?" Sirius asked her. "I don't know how did your aunt and uncle raised you, but I believe they don't want you to practice Dark Magic..."
"I am not practicing Dark Magic!" Cassie hissed at her father. "I wanted to be able to protect myself when the whole world believed that you and I were Death-Eaters! How easily you forgot about that time! How easily you forgot about your brother!"
"I never forgot my brother!" For a moment Cassiopea thought that he was talking about Regulus. But then Sirius disappointed her. "I will never be able to forget James."
"James?" Cassie asked. "What about your real brother? Regulus?"
When the anger and hatred burned in Sirius' eyes Cassiopea finally realized why her aunt wanted to turn her back on him. Once Sirius left his little brother who needed him for James Potter. What was keeping him from leaving his own daughter for James' son?
Cassie saw the way Sirius looked at Harry. So much love and understanding. And when he asked what had happened back then in his office... He wasn't asking because he wanted to protect his daughter. He asked like a father ready to tear his son and daughter apart while fighting. She realized that after a month or so Harry Potter would have moved with them, he would have a room in her home. And Cassie. Cassie wouldn't be a daughter to her dad. She would be just another student to professor Sirius Black.
"Regulus," he hissed at his daughter, "wasn't my brother!"
"And who was? James?"
"The Potters cared for me while my own parents thought of me as nothing more but a mistake," he said. "Why do you care for him? In his whole life that piece of shit never actually cared enough for me to call me brother after I ran away! He didn't even to my wedding!" he was yelling. "And he died as the filthy Death-Eater he was."
Cassie remembered the words in Regulus' diary. "He loved you. But you," she laughed a little. "You wanted James Potter's love and you. Left. Your. Brother when he..."
But she could not finish the sentence. Sirius slapped her. Her cheek burned with pain, her eyes filled with tears. Her lower lip quivered.
Without caring about her uncle's diary or her father's, Cassie ran to the common room.
******
Sirius was looking for his daughter in the Great Hall that evening. The thoughts in his head were a mess. After he slapped her, he immediately ran after her. The fact that he was becoming his mother scared him. But not as much as the fact that Cassie was going to be just like Regulus. The way she had looked at him, the way she said so calmly that he left his little brother... Merlin! He saw himself in her eyes. He saw himself in her behavior. And there, there was Emma - small group of friends, curious, vengeful. His wife was beautiful and smart... And dead before her time.
He wanted to talk to her so badly, to apologize, to make things right, but Cassie didn't show up at dinner. Sirius saw that the Greengrass cousins were fighting for something, but didn't walk to them. Instead he would walk to Harry.
At least, he could help his godson.
Regulus' diary was resting on the desk in Sirius' office ever since he left it there- untouched, unopened. The older brother did not want to read it, but in the same time he was curious. What had Cassie read? Why did she said that Regulus loved Sirius? And most importantly how did she get the diary?
"Sirius?"
He turned to professor McGonagall who was looking at him, expecting an answer to some question.
"I'm sorry, professor. Can you repeat?"
"I asked you if Cassiopea is alright. I can't see her."
"We had our first father-daughter fight today," Sirius said jokingly. "She was really..."
"Upset, I know," Minnie nodded. "She came into my office earlier to talk about something. It was a really strange word, actually. I must say I haven't heard it before."
"What was it?"
"Horcrux."
Sirius frowned. It really was a strange and unusual word. And most likely it was taken from Regulus' diary. And luckily Sirius had locked his office with at least five spells (one of which would inform him if anyone tried to break into his office).
"I have no idea what this might mean, professor..."
"And she asked me how to become an animagus..."
Sirius choked.
His daughter had definitely trying to make him have a heart attack. Animagus! He had tried to ask Professor McGonagall in his fifth year after he had become close to her. But Cassiopeia ... Merlin! Just get to his daughter and he would ground her until she finished Hogwarts.
"And what did you tell her?" Sirius asked.
"Well, that I can't tell her..." Sirius leaned back in his chair, finally calm. Not knowing the password for Gryffindor's common room, Cassiopeia could not take the Invisiblity Cloak. There was no way to get to the book. "I also told her that there is a book called 'True Animagus' in the restricted section. And I may or may not forgot a signed permission on my desk when a left my office, leaving her there."
Sirius got up and ran out of the Great Hall, trying to get there before Cassiopea could learn the spell... As he was running, he bummed into his daughter.
"Tell me you're not an animagus!" he yelled at her. "You haven't done the spell yet, have you?! Merlin, what would your aunt do with me?!"
At first Cassie looked confused. But then she suddenly remembered something. "No, I realized that I don't want to be an animal. Can I go to the common room or you want to know where I got my books from." She started to pick her books up.
"Aren't you going to dinner?" Sirius asked.
"No. Kreacher came. It appears that I have forgotten my Potions book in the house last weekend and he brought me some soup."
Sirius rolled his eyes with a smile. Kreacher never made good soup for him. Maybe it was because Sirius never was as kind as Cassie to him.
"We have to talk about the fight we had..."
"It's OK, Sirius..."
"Sirius? Not dad?"
Cassie looked at his eyes. "It's OK, dad," she corrected herself with no emotion in her voice. "I had no right to look into un... Regulus' things and... I was wrong when I told you you left him."
She wasn't sorry. She had talked to Andromeda. And Andy had made her apologize. Sirius wanted to earn her trust like Andromeda had. He thought what a life it would be if Cassie can come to him whenever she needed help.
"And I was wrong when I slapped you. I'm sorry. And before you say that you were wrong... No, you weren't. I am your father and I should be as respectful as you are. I am sorry. Now. Tell me what a horcrux is."
Cassie paled. "Um... You know, I have to go to the common room. Can we talk tomorrow? Perfect."
And she ran away from him. Sirius laughed. His daughter would be the death of him.