( chapter ninety )
"NEVER, IN ALL MY TIME, HAVE I SEEN such despicable behaviour from Sixth Years - and a prefect included."
McGonagall had been lecturing the group of students for what felt like hours, only getting angrier as they opened their mouths to say anything that would help them to be in less trouble.
Her arms were folded across her chest and she was standing up tall, her back as straight as it could be. She was looking down her nose at the five Gryffindors and Slytherin. Her voice was stern and this time, there wasn't even an undertone of humour.
Cassie was rather worried that if she carried on the way she was, she was going to pop a vein in her forehead. She didn't know how old McGonagall was.
Lily stared down at her floor, her red hair framing her face and blocking her professors disappointed face from view. Lily had been told off before, but it had never been as severe as this. Her hands were shaking as she gripped onto her pyjamas, trying to steady them.
Sirius was staring at McGonagall, a rather bored expression on his face as he did so. But he was nodding along with what she was saying, vigorously nodding when she told them off particularly harshly.
Alice's cheeks were flushed a bright red and her eyes were brimming with tears, but she refused to let them fall. She bit her bottom lip and kept her hands clasped in front of her as she stared at the wall just behind the professor.
Marlene looked a mix of scared and bored, her eyebrows were furrowed slightly and she looked as if she was desperately trying to suppress a yawn. Marlene was more used to being told off than Alice and Lily, but that didn't mean that she liked it, so she was paying close attention to what McGonagall was saying.
James was doing what he normally did when he was getting told off - not paying any attention to what he was being told. Instead, he was staring at McGonagall as she spoke, closely looking at her for no reason in particular.
Cassie was about one more "Never in all my days. . ." away from falling asleep. Her eyes were less than a millimetre from being fully closed and she was pretty certain that the rest of her body was asleep apart from her ears, that rung rather a lot due to McGonagall talking loudly and quickly for the past hour.
"You should all be ashamed of yourselves-"
"I thought it was cool." Cassie spoke up before she could stop herself.
Her eyes widened as she quickly met James' eyes, who looked as if he was deciding whether he should be worried or laugh.
"And we weren't breaking any rules Professor."
If looks could kill, the others in the room would have had to start planning Cassie's funeral.
McGonagalls eyes were now piercing through Cassie's skull, there was a fire inside of them that Cassie would have been impressed with - if she was in any other situation.
"Miss Black, you will not speak when you're not spoken too-"
Cassie furrowed her eyebrows together, if she wasn't being spoken to by McGonagall then why was she still in her office at stupid hours in the morning?
"- and what i'm Godric's name do you mean you didn't break any rules. I can name one of the biggest rules at Hogwarts that you broke."
"By all means Professor," Cassie said, rubbing her eye with a closed fist, trying to wake herself up a little bit more.
"The rule is that 'Students must not leave their beds after 10 p.m.', from what I recall we didn't leave our beds."
She gestured between herself and the others, who were now all wide eyed and paying a lot more attention.
The smallest hint of amusement flashed through McGonagalls eyes, but it was gone so quickly that Cassie would have thought she was just imagining things if it wasn't for the professors tone and face softening moments later.
"You all have detention with Hagrid every Friday night for a month."
All six students looked rather content with that response, the smallest hints of smiles making their way onto each individual face.
"And 10 points will be taken from both Gryffindor and Slytherin."
That was deserved, Cassie wasn't going to lie.
They all stood in McGonagalls office for a moment longer, before she shooed them away, letting a laugh once she knew they were all away from ear shot.
"That could have gone worse." Cassie admitted, grabbing one end of a mattress while James did the same with the other.
Lily and Marlene grabbed their mattress and Alice and Sirius grabbed theirs.
"I'm never listening to you again Cassiopeia Black." Lily stated, her face held a look of relief.
･・･☽✥☾･・･
The Potter Cottage had always been quieter when James and Sirius went back to school, leaving the house with a slight feeling of emptiness for days afterwards.
This time, Regulus and Cassie had also gone back to Hogwarts, making the Potter Cottage feel more empty than it ever had before.
There was something about the Black children that meant they could make anyone love them within moments of meeting them, wether that was because of their charm of humour Euphemia and Fleamont just couldn't tell.
But they had come to adore the two children that they had welcomed into their family in the short time that they were there.
Euphemia was sitting in the kitchen, her fingers rubbing the mixture of butter and flour in the bowl in front of her as she tried to create a breadcrumb like substance from them.
There was an open pie dish on the side next to her, cherry's coated in a syrup in the dish, attracting a few bees to the window that was opened just a little.
The sun was shining down on the Cottage, warming up the areas that hid in the shadows and making areas in the sun warmer than usual.
Fleamont sat at the table behind his wife, his glasses perched on the edge of his nose and his hand tapping the table as he leant over the crossword that was found in a muggle newspaper.
The Cottage was peaceful, the birds chirping away as they played in a birdbath that Euphemia had set up years before, the cows in the field next to them were mooing loudly as they lay lazily in the green grass.
The tapping of talons on glass startled both of the Potters, Euphemia nearly split her mixture everywhere and Fleamont dotted an i rather violently.
They both looked over to the window above the sink to see one of Hogwarts owls resting on the windowsill.
Euphemia wiped her hands on her apron as she walked over to the window and opened it, the owl raised one of its legs to show a letter attached to it. The woman's eyebrows furrowed as she took the note from the owl, who flew away before she could get it a treat.
"What is it dear?" Fleamont asked from the table as Euphemia looked at the letter and turned it over.
"It's a letter, from Hogwarts." She said, "But it's not from Professor McGonagall, the writing is different."
Fleamont let out a small chuckle.
"Only we would know our sons Professors handwriting odd by heart."
Euphemia followed his chucked, but hers was more light hearted, as she ran her finger under the wax seal that was on the back of the envelope.
She took out the parchment and scanned her eyes over the words, a frown making its way onto her face as she read them.
"It's from Madam Pomfrey." She said which caused Fleamont to set down his glasses and furrow his eyebrows as well.
"And it's about Cassie- my deary me." Euphemia moved so that she was resting her back against the counter as she continued to read.
"What?" Fleamont asked, worry and urgency evident in his tone of voice. "What does it say?"
Euphemia took a slight breath as she began to read the letter aloud to her husband.
"'I recently had a very worrying netting with Miss Black and Mister Potter, the latter bringing Miss Black into the hospital wing to say that he was extremely worried about her and how she was, in his words 'Loosing her marbles.' I asked into it more and found out that recently Miss Black has been forgetting things that people wouldn't normally forget - like where she was going and the fact that she was dating her son'." Euphemia's eyes scanned on a little bit more, before she shook her head and continued reading.
" 'I did some test's and came to the conclusion that her past, and her parents, were the cause. Due to the time she was under the torture curse, her mind has become slightly jumbled up, meaning that she will forget things easier than others at times. I informed her and Mister Potter and Mister Black and gave the three of them some tips on how to reduce it as much as possible.'"
"Oh Godric." Fleamont muttered, running a hand through his hair while his other hand removed his glasses from his nose.
"That young girl is already such an inspiration," Euphemia spoke, her eyes staring down at the letter without reading anything, just staring at the words on the page and hoping that the cruelest ones would start to merge together to form a blur.
"We've seen the damage it caused to her body - and her mind, but after all of that she still wears a smile that anyone around could tell was genuine."
Fleamont stood up and walked over to his wife, engulfing her in a tight hug as she wrapped her arms around him in return.
Fleamont pressed a kiss to Euphemia's forehead, his lips lingering in her skin for a second or two.
"It's alright Mia-"
"No it's not, she's 17 Fleamont, no one should go through that, but especially not so young."
"Mia, that's not what I meant dear, of course it's not alright. They should be locked up and the key to their cell thrown away for heavens sake."
Euphemia nodded against her husbands chest.
"But I mean it's alright because now she's under our care, and we're going to give her the best possible life we can."
･・･☽✥☾･・･
The sun was peering down on the Black Lake, warming the water so that it was just warm enough for the Giant Squid to raise its tentacles above the water to cool them off.
The sun reflected off the water, the ripples of the soft waves making the light shimmer like a mass of glitter was resting in the top of it.
It was the first hot day of the year, seeing as it was still only February, and the heat was unexpected.
There was a cold breeze in the air, that ruffled the brown leaves on the floor and blew the remaining leaves on trees or bushes off of them and far away.
Cassie was resting under a tree, the branches shading her face slightly but her body laying in the sun.
She was wearing one of James' quidditch hoodies, the sleeves of it hanging over her hands slightly, so that just the tips of her fingers were shown. It was around two sizes too big on her, protecting her from the cold wind but letting just enough air in to cool her down.
She was also wearing a pair of 'mom' jeans that Marlene had introduced her to the last time they went to Hogsmeade, and to say she loved them would be a understatement.
Cassie was just basking in the sun, the jumper that James' was wearing only minuets before under her head after he had insisted she took it to use as a pillow.
The stray rays of sun that weren't blocked by the tree were suddenly blocked, causing Cassie to open her eyes and see Regulus standing above her, a small smile on his face.
"Holy shit you scared me for a moment there Reggie."
The smile vanished from Regulus' face for a split second, before he noticed the smile on Cassie's face that showed she was okay, and it returned to his face.
Cassie sat up as Regulus sat down besides her.
The sibling duo sat and stared at the lake for a moment, not needing to say anything.
The two hadn't hung out since they went back to school, both of them having been a mixture of busy and just needing time to themselves for a while - they both needed to work on themselves without feeling as if they needed to worry about the other constantly.
"I've been making some new friends." Regulus admitted after a few minutes, still looking over at the lake.
Cassie raised her eyebrows as she turned to look at him, the smile on her face only growing.
"Really?"
"Really."
"Reg, that's great!" Regulus turned to look at his sister to see the genuine smile on her face, he moved slightly so that he could rest his head on her shoulder, which meant his neck was at a very sharp angle due to their height difference.
"It's a small group of Hufflepuffs and Slytherins, there's only 3 others. They honestly welcomed me even though they know who mother and father are. There's two Hufflepuffs, Harry Lachlan and Eleanor - Ellie - Macmillan, and then there's Mark Flint, whose a Slytherin."
Cassie listened intently as Regulus spoke, adding random comments here and there, the odd one causing Regulus to shove her shoulder gently as he laughed.
"You seem very close with this Ellie girl. I'll have to meet her before the two of you declare your marriage to the world."
Regulus blinked at his sister.
"Ew-" Regulus turned slightly red as he realised what he said, and he was quick to raise a hand to his mouth as Cassie laughed besides him. "I mean, Ellie's great and all but I couldn't date her. Ew."
They spoke about random things for a little while long.
"Oh! I forgot to tell you." Cassie exclaimed, turning to face Regulus with wide eyes.
"Is this your way of telling me you're pregnant?"
"Why the fuck does everyone keep thinking I'm pregnant, we use protection."
Regulus was quick to cover his ears, pressing his hands firmly over them.
Cassie realised what she said a moment too late and let out a small, yet awkward, laugh.
"I did not need to know about your sex life, and I'd rather you not talk about it in front of me again."
"Sorry Reggie," Cassie replied, awkwardly rubbing the back of her neck as a slight blush made its way onto the apples of her cheeks.
"But no, I'm not pregnant. Went to the doctors and found out that my mind is as fucked up as my life."
There was a moments silence between the two of them, before Regulus spoke.
"What-?"
Cassie explained everything to Regulus, whose smile faded after each word was spoken.
Cassie wasn't looking at him, but Regulus was glad that was the case as he was almost certain that his eyes would have been showing the pain that he felt inside.
"And after all that, my mind is fucked up."
Regulus rested his head on Cassie's shoulder again and she wrapped her arm around his waist in turn.
"We live an easy life, don't we Reggie?"
Regulus nodded, but didn't answer with another word.
HEYYY
ME AGAIN (:
HOW HAVE YOUR DAYS
BEEN TODAY? I HOPE
THAT THEY ARE ALL GOOD
I GOT MY HISTORY TEST BACK
AND GOT 92%, WHICH WAS THE HIGHEST MARK SO IM VERYYYYY GOOD (:
ANYWAYS
I WANTED TO GIVE A LIGHT
HEARTED CHAPTER, SO HERE IT
IS, THERE'S A LOT MORE
LIGHT HEARTED CHAPTERS
TO COME WHICH I HOPE
YOU'LL ENJOY
I HOPE YOU ENJOYED THIS CHAPTER AND AS USUAL PLEASE TELL ME WHAT YOU THOUGHT AND WHAT YOU WANT TO SEE NEXT
Lots of love
- Emily xx