SO I HIT 500K READS! THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH, I LITERALLY CAN'T BELIEVE IT! I STILL REMEMBER THE DAY I HIT 1K SO THIS IS HONESTLY SURREAL. LOVE YOU ALL, ENJOY THE CHAPTER!!!
"Polyjuice Potion? I hope you don't think you're joining the Order with this little mission to move Potter," Joseph scoffed.
"That's exactly what I think I'm doing," Cassie replied.
"It's going to be an ambush, Cassie! With all the Death Eaters showing up, this won't be one where everyone comes out alive," he explained.
"And that's all the more reason to go. They will be outnumbered and need all the help they can get," she said stubbornly.
"This is too dangerous for you..." Regulus added softly. "You can't be unnecessarily risking your life, this was the only redo you will get."
"What's the point of being back if I'm just going to hide out in fear of dying again? I would be wasting this redo more by sitting around letting everyone else risk their lives instead," she argued.
"We understand that," Joseph began, "but this one is different. From what I know of, I'm almost certain there will be at least one death. Our point is that we don't want that one to be you."
"But it's perfectly fine for one of the other Order members to die instead, right? Like how about Remus, Tonks, my dad," she said the last part staring straight at Regulus.
Regulus sighed, "I don't want my brother hurt any more than you do, but they are all much more experienced. I have little doubt in their abilities going against a Death Eater."
"Might I remind you that I saved my father from death?" Cassie gloated.
For a moment Regulus simply stared back at his niece, blinking occasionally. He then fell back onto the couch letting out a deep sigh of frustration.
"She has a point," Regulus shrugged.
"What do you mean she has a point?! It's a death wish if she goes!" Joseph fumed.
"It might not even be as bad as you think it will be," he breathed.
"I know very well how bad it will be which is why I don't want her anywhere near there!" he growled.
"Care to share how you do know this, Uncle Joseph? Hm?" Cassie taunted.
"I have my ways which are none of your concern," he replied calmly.
"I think it is my concern when you're relaying this mysterious information that we have no idea to be true or not," she pointed out.
"So you think I'm lying then?" Joseph quipped with a raised eyebrow.
At this, Cassie rolled her eyes while letting out a deep, annoyed groan.
"Don't gaslight me! I don't think you're lying, it's just very curious how you could find out this information, which would usually be highly classified I'm guessing," she remarked.
"Maybe one of us could just go with her..." Regulus added hesitantly, attempting to diffuse the tension.
"NO!" he snapped. "You aren't going, Cassiopeia. I've lost you once and I'm not prepared to lose you again!"
The room went dangerously silent as Joseph lost his composure. It made sense now to Cassie how her kind, generous, and warm-hearted Uncle could ever play the role as a Death Eater. She never truly saw him in action as one, but if him snapping like he just did was anything similar, it added up.
Even Regulus flinched slightly at his lover's thundering voice. They both knew it was more of him being scared than angry, but it doesn't mean it bothered them any less.
At this point, Cassie didn't have much else to say. Instead of responding she stormed off to her room. She knew that nothing would change Joseph's mind, so she decided she would have to sneak out unfortunately. It made her feel guilty going behind both of their backs, but she felt this was the right thing to do. She had to be there for her family, even if they didn't know she was there.
-----
The next week was spent as though everything had gone back to normal between the trio. Joseph said some apologies while Cassie did the same, but little did he know she only did so to get him off her back.
The week passed by slow, none of them really knowing what to do now that the locket was finally destroyed. They had to start searching for more Horcruxes, but the problem was that they had no idea where to start. With the locket, Regulus only found out about it because Voldemort used Kreacher. They unfortunately don't have a lead like that now.
Nonetheless, it was finally the day Cassie was waiting for. By now it was pitch black out, with Regulus and Joseph having already gone to bed, so she began to make her way out of the cottage.
Sneaking her way down, she first went toward the wooden cabinet that she knew held all of Joseph and Regulus' potions they made. As softly as she could, she opened it up to try to search for the Polyjuice Potion.
"Lumos!" Cassie whispered to light up the vials of potions.
Her eyes darted across the ledges until finally, they landed on a small vial in the back corner with the correct identfication. Slowly she reached her hand through to grab the potion, but alas, her arm bumped some other glasses causing a loud clinking noise to be heard.
Almost instantly Cassie froze in her step, hoping she wouldn't hear any movement coming from her Uncle's room. After a few moments of silence, she let out a small sigh of relief, assuming they hadn't heard.
Now with the vial of Polyjuice Potion, she made her way toward the door so she could finally leave to Privet Drive.
By now, the only sounds that could be heard at this time of night were the soft chirping of grasshoppers and the rush of flowing water. As she pulled the creaky front door shut behind her, she couldn't help but appreciate how calm it truly was.
Things were peaceful at the cottage, and in all honesty, it made her almost want to turn back around to be in the safety of her new home. She almost wanted to abandon ship, but deep down Cassie knew this was the right decision. Not only would she possibly save a life, but it would also to be of her personal benefit seeing some of her family once again.
Thinking about everything that may happen during this night was terrifying, but she forced herself to shake it off. With one large, deep breath, Cassie took out her wand and in a snap, she found herself standing outside of Harry Potter's childhood home.
The darkness around his house seemed to be rippling, the air itself quivering. It was almost as if the universe knew something was about to happen, but Cassie wouldn't allow herself to think like that. Instead, she made her way over to a small window that was perched open allowing her to hear what was going on and also to peer into the room which was made up with many Order members who had just arrived shortly before she had.
Inside, Cassie found many members of the Order, along with some others that must have volunteered. She recognized Ron, Hermione, Fred and George, Serena, Bill Weasley, Mr. Weasley, Moody, Tonks, Remus, Fleur, Hagrid, Kingsley, Mundungus Fletcher, and finally, her dad. It was painful to see people like Fred and Serena among the group as she hadn't seen them in so long. She expected them to be present, but it didn't make it any less difficult knowing they were risking their lives.
"Harry, guess what?" Cassie recognized Tonks voice, causing her to look over and listen in to what was going on.
She watched as her cousin sat on top of the washing machine, wiggling her left finger at Harry; a ring glittered there.
"You got married?" Harry yelped, looking from her to Remus.
"I'm sorry you couldn't be there, Harry, it was very quiet," Remus confirmed.
Cassie let out an involuntary gasp causing the person nearest to the window, which happened to be her dad, look over suspiciously. Quickly ducking down, she took a moment to process the information she just heard.
It was painful to say the least to hear that the people she considered to be like parents finally got married and she couldn't be there. Every day that passes it becomes more difficult for Cassie to go on in hiding away from them all, this was just another thing to add to the list.
Cassie barely registered the warm tears that flowed down her face until she heard Harry yell out, "No! No way!"
Sneaking her way back up, she watched the situation unfold.
"I told them you'd take it like this," said Hermione with a hint of complacency.
"If you think I'm going to let six people risk their lives --!"
"-- because it's the first time for all of us," said Ron sarcastically.
"This is different, pretending to be me --"
"Well, none of us really fancy it, Harry," said Fred earnestly. "Imagine if something went wrong and we were stuck as specky, scrawny gits forever."
Harry did not smile, but Cassie sure did. She forgot how much she missed Fred, and the twins in general. They never failed in making her smile, even in her darkest of days.
"You can't do it if I don't cooperate, you need me to give you some hair." Harry retorted, causing Cassie to roll her eyes at his dramatics.
"If it has to come to force, then it will," growled Moody, his magical eye now quivering a little in its socket as he glared at Harry. "Everyone here's overage, Potter, and they're all prepared to take the risk. Let's have no more arguments. Time's wearing on. I want a few of your hairs, boy, now."
Noticing that Harry was making no movements toward his head, Hermione began to walk forward to catch him off guard which Cassie noticed. She quickly plucked a few hairs off the top of his head, while Cassie wordlessly made the incantation for the levitation spell to bring a hair for herself.
Sirius seemed to eye the mysterious hair that flew across the room and out the window, but he shook it off assuming it was just the air blowing.
Once Cassie had the hair, she opened her vial of Polyjuice Potion and dropped it into the mudlike liquid. The moment it made contact with its surface, the potion began to froth and smoke, then, all at once, it turned a clear, bright gold.
"Right then, fake Potters line up over here, please," she heard Moody say, which made her lean up to watch in curiosity of who would be under the potion.
Ron, Hermione, Fred, George, and Fleur all lined up in front of the gleaming sink.
"We're one short," Remus noted.
"Here," said Hagrid gruffly, and he lifted Mundungus by the scruff of the neck and dropped him down beside Fleur, who wrinkled her nose pointedly and moved along to stand between Fred and George instead.
"I've toldjer, I'd sooner be a protector," said Mundungus.
"Shut it," growled Moody. "As I've already told you, you spineless worm, any Death Eaters we run into will be aiming to capture Potter, not kill him. Dumbledore always said You-Know-Who would want to finish Potter in person. It'll be the protectors who have got the most to worry about, the Death Eaters'll want to kill them."
Mundungus did not look particularly reassured, but Cassie did. At least posing as Harry would get her a tiny amount of safety.
Meanwhile, Moody began pulling half a dozen eggcup-sized glasses from inside his cloak, which he handed out, before pouring a little Polyjuice Potion into each one.
"Altogether, then..."
Ron, Hermione, Fred, George, Serena, Fleur, Mundungus, and unknowingly to them all, Cassie drank. All of them gasped and grimaced as the potion hit their throats which she chuckled at, for some reason it was never difficult to choke down vile substances.
At once, all of their features began to bubble and distort like hot wax. Cassie and Mundungus were shooting upward; Ron, Fred, and George were shrinking; their hair was darkening, Hermione's, Serena's, Cassie's, and Fleur's appearing to shoot backward into their skulls.
Moody, quite unconcerned, was now loosening the ties of the large sacks he had brought with him. When he straightened up again, there were six Harry Potters gasping and panting in front of him.
Fred and George turned to each other and said together, "Wow -- we're identical!" eliciting a chuckle from Cassie.
She then watched as many different sized clothing were dropped in a pile among the group. Seeing that this was identical clothing for the Potter's to wear made her curse internally, unsure of how she was going to get some for herself. Unfortunately, it wasn't as though she could subtly levitate clothing out the window.
"Cassie would have gotten a kick out of this," she heard Serena say lowly to Fred.
"Reckon she would have been the first to volunteer?" Fred laughed.
"Definitely. And she would have kicked Mundungus' arse for complaining," she chuckled.
"I would have loved to see that," he sighed sadly
"She's here in spirit, I know she is..." Serena trailed off.
A pang of guilt struck Cassie in the chest. Here her friends and family were, mourning over her, yet she was standing outside hidden away from everyone. It made her feel beyond terrible, but she knew it was for the greater good.
"Good," said Moody, as at last eight dressed, bespectacled, and luggage-laden Harrys faced him. "The pairs will be as follows: Mundungus will be traveling with me, by broom, Arthur and Fred, George and Remus, Miss Delacour --"
"I'm taking Fleur on a thestral," said Bill. "She's not that fond of brooms."
"Miss Granger with Kingsley, again by thestral, Ron with Tonks, and finally, Sirius with Serena," he finished as they began to walk out the door.
What Cassie noticed, however, was that Moody left the extra clothes in the bag that went unused. They were unnecessary now, so they didn't bother to bring them along which she used to her advantage.
As quickly as possible she snuck in to change into the clothes before the Order could leave. It was weird being in a boys body, especially her god-brother's, but she tried not to think of that as she pulled on the pants.
Once finished, Cassie ran out to see everyone preparing alongside their mode of transportation, but happened to overhear the last bit of a conversation between her dad and Harry.
"So this is it? Your motorbike, Sirius?" Harry asked.
"The very same," he sighed. "Passed it along to Hagrid all those years ago."
"Cassie would probably want to steal it from Hagrid if she was here," Harry noted.
Hearing this, Cassie shrugged in agreement to herself. He wasn't wrong, she did really like that bike and probably would fight Hagrid for it.
Sirius chuckled sadly, "I wouldn't doubt it, she's always been so much like me..."
Cassie watched as Harry smiled at his god-father before bringing him into a hug and climbing into the motorbike's sidecar. They all missed her so much, sometimes it was really difficult to convince herself why this was all worth it.
"All right then," said Moody. "Everyone ready, please; I want us all to leave at exactly the same time or the whole point of the diversion's lost."
Cassie pulled out the broom from her extendable bag and mounted it along with everyone else.
"Good luck, everyone," shouted Moody. "See you all in about an hour at the Burrow. On the count of three. One... two... THREE."
There was a great roar from Hagrid's motorbike as it rose from the air with the many brooms and thestrals following closely behind.
Cassie stayed toward the back out of the eyes of the others, but still close enough to where she was a part of the mission. Higher and higher they climbed into the sky —
And then, out of nowhere, out of nothing, but as she expected, they were surrounded. At least thirty hooded figures, suspended in midair, formed a vast circle in the midst of which the Order members had risen, oblivious —
Screams, a blaze of green light on every side: Cassie was rolling all over the place, finally realizing just how true her Uncle had been. They were ambushed, and horribly outnumbered.
Everyone went off different ways to avoid the Death Eaters, but she found herself following closely behind where Sirius and Serena tore off to.
Loud yells surrounded her senses, barely able to keep up with the madness, but somehow she was still able to defend herself against the Death Eaters that dared to send jets of green light anywhere close to her or the others.
"We've got to check on the others!" she heard Serena yell.
"No can do!" Sirius screamed. "We all have orders to get to the safe house without stopping!"
At this point Cassie was right on their tail, but luckily they were too busy with all the commotion to notice.
As the curses came shooting across the intervening space, she swerved and zigzagged, avoiding being hit at all costs. Cassie sent Stunning Spell after Stunning Spell back at their pursuers, barely holding them off even with Sirius and Serena unknowingly helping her. She shot another blocking jinx at them: The closest Death Eater swerved to avoid it and her hood slipped, and by the red light of her next Stunning Spell, Cassie saw the face of Lucius Malfoy, whom she had the pleasure of getting to know so well during her time as a spy.
Thinking about her younger cousin, Draco, she instantly saw the red eye of vengeance when looking into his pale face. Cassie immediately began firing as many nasty curses as she could toward him until he finally began to fall back due to feeling threatened.
He had started to go toward another Order member to fire at, but Lucius instantly turned back with wide eyes to the "Harry Potter" he was fighting. Cassie felt a surge of fear as she realized what was happening along with him. Her face and body began to contort back to her normal form, much earlier than it should have been.
In a matter of seconds Cassie was herself once more, and she came to the conclusion much too late that she must have taken an older vial of Polyjuice Potion that wares off quicker than the fresh ones.
"She's here! The girl came to help them!" Lucius shouted to the nearest Death Eaters.
The Death Eaters that were just attacking Sirius and Serena automatically fell back to see for themselves that Cassiopeia Black has truly returned and was present. Sirius had turned around to see why they were finally left alone, only to find a glimpse of someone.
Black, shoulder length hair that eerily reminded him of his daughter's was the first thing he noticed. She was already darting away from them, but he managed to see the slightest glance at a section of her face.
The moon shined down in that moment in the perfectly worst way. Her shiny hair remained illuminated, while every part of her face was hidden in the shadows. Every part except one place. A scar across the woman's cheek was clearly visible to Sirius, but only for that split second.
It all happened so fast, but so slow at the same time. One minute there's a mysterious girl in the duplicate Harry Potter's clothing, and the next she's off to god knows where with four Death Eater's pursuing her specifically, forgetting all about Sirius and Serena.
Cassie began flying every which way, avoiding the many Death Eaters that were trailing close to her. At some point she noticed another group of Order members - Remus and George. Despite being very overwhelmed, she managed to send a Stunning Spell toward someone who was about to catch Remus off guard.
Remus had heard and somewhat saw what just happened, but when he looked over, he found the back head of a girl who was being chased by as many Death Eaters you would expect to be after Harry Potter himself.
He attempted to follow the girl who was clearly going in the right direction toward the Burrow, despite her being unknown to the man. Although, as soon as he came upon the house, all he heard was a loud crash with the girl nowhere in sight.
Meanwhile, Cassie finally recognized her surroundings. The high grasses of the land around where the Weasley's lived was all too familiar, which gave her hope to escape the mad chase. It seemed that she gathered hope far too soon though, since as soon as the Burrow was visible, a Death Eater shot a spell that broke her broom in half.
Somehow she had managed to mutter a spell to break her fall slightly, but in all honesty, it didn't do much. She tumbled down to the ground from at least 30 feet, feeling an immense amount of pain as soon as she felt the dirt and grass around her.
Cassie attempted to get up, but it was no use. It was obvious her leg was broken along with a rib or two. She knew she wouldn't be able to walk, so the only thing she could do was apparate back to the cottage despite knowing how angry her Uncle's would be.
And in a snap, Cassiopeia Black was gone as if she was never there in the first place, while the last of the group turned up at the Burrow.
"Who the fuck was that, Sirius?!" Serena screeched bitterly while slamming the Burrow's front door closed, alerting everyone to their presence.
"What are you talking about, Serena?" Remus asked suspiciously.
"There was a girl out there helping us. Neither of us knew who she was though," Sirius explained.
"How would that be possible? No one knew about this mission except us, and apparently the Death Eaters... maybe she was one of them," Mr. Weasley added.
"I saw her too, but she saved me from a Death Eater and was being chased by many of them, so she couldn't be one," Remus inputted.
"None of you have the slightest idea of who she is?" Kingsley inquired.
"Not at all, didn't see much of her," Sirius lied as he gave Remus a look.
Mr. Weasley sighed, "Nothing we can do then. Maybe she'll turn up eventually. Let's all get cleaned up..."
With some mutters of agreement, the group cleared out besides Remus, Tonks, and Sirius who stuck around.
"I saw that look, Padfoot," Remus acknowledged. "What is it?"
"I lied back there. I did see some of the girl, but I didn't want to say it because it makes me sound insane," Sirius rambled.
"What are you going on about?" Tonks inquired.
"The girl. She had black, shoulder length hair and I saw a scar across her cheek," he spit out quickly.
"Sirius... you can't be suggesting what I think you are," Remus breathed out.
"I know! It makes me sound crazy, but it's just what I saw! There's only one person that fits that description, but it's utterly impossible," he blurted.
"Cassie has been dead for a year as much as we all hate it... maybe you just wanted to see her?" Tonks suggested hesitantly.
"I know what I saw," Sirius said through gritted teeth.
"I saw black hair too, but the scar might have been the light playing tricks on you," Remus interjected. "Remember there was a lot going on, we all saw a lot of crazy stuff."
Sirius sighed, "Maybe you're right, I just can't seem to get the image out of my head..."
With that, Sirius agreed to drop the matter, but it's worth mentioning that he was reluctant to do so. It felt too real looking at the girl, he was finding a hard time believing it was just a 'trick of the light'. He wished he could find her, find the truth of who she was, but there was nothing he could do. Instead, he could only go on with time eventually believing his friends that it most likely was, just his imagination.
In the meantime, Cassie had apparated back to the cottage with a deep groan of pain. Cuts scatted across her face while bruises littered her body - she was an utter mess, everything hurt.
She had attempted to crawl inside, but she was only able to get as far as the porch steps. With her ribs cracked, Cassie couldn't bring herself to pull up, so she unfortunately had to resort to calling her Uncle's for help.
"JOSEPH! REGULUS!" she screamed hoarsely repeatedly until she heard stomping of feet toward the door.
Instantly the door was ripped open with Joseph and Regulus standing before her, wands in hand. Upon seeing it was actually her though, their hard glare became one of concern and worry.
"What the fuck, Cassie!" Regulus exclaimed while rushing over.
"What the hell did you do!" Joseph hissed. "Don't tell me you went after I explicitly told you not to..."
"I'm sorry!" she cried, tears streaming down her face from the pain. "I wanted to help them. They're my family, I had to! I know it was stupid and I'm suffering because of it now."
"Don't do this right now, Joseph," Regulus snapped. "She's clearly injured, you can criticize her actions later. Right now she needs us."
Joseph nodded slowly while gulping before levitating Cassie inside. As she was placed down, she let out a cry of pain, causing the two men to choke up.
"This is going to hurt, Cassie, but it'll make you feel better by morning," Regulus warned.
"Brackium Emendo!"
Cassie's eyes rolled to the back of her head as she let out another deep sob. Her ragged breaths only increased by the minute as she felt her bones being mended together stitch by stitch in the most painful way.
"It hurts," she wailed while gripping onto Joseph's shirt for comfort.
"I know it does," Joseph said softly. "It'll be okay, you're alright. I'm going to give you a little sleeping potion and by the time you wake up you'll feel much better."
As Joseph went to fetch the potion, Cassie continued to cry while gripping Regulus' hand tightly. It pained him to see her like this, it reminded him of seeing Sirius tortured time and time again by their father. Seeing his family members suffering was worse than suffering himself, in Regulus' opinion. It was his curse for caring too deeply.
"Alright, Cassie," Joseph said upon arriving back with a small, pink vial. "Drink this all up and you won't feel anything anymore."
With a small sniffle, Cassie shot the potion back and choked it down. She sat there for a few moments longer, thinking about nothing and everything. So much happened that night, and she wasn't sure if it was even worth it that she was there. If anything, all it did was blow her cover.
And before she eventually fell unconscious into a dreamless sleep, the last thing that remained on Cassie's mind was how much of a failure she considered herself to be.
This was a much longer chapter than I expected it to be, yet somehow I wrote it quicker than many of my shorter ones, like alright.
Hope y'all enjoyed!
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