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CHAPTER NINETY-SEVEN
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THE GREAT HALL WAS QUITER THAT night, despite all the chattering and the clatter of knives and forks on plates, a few distinct voices weren't heard.
For most of the students at Hogwarts, they didn't notice a difference. The hall was, to them, as loud as ever with everyone talking to their friends as they stuffed their faces.
But to Cassie, the absences of those few voices made the whole room feel half empty.
It had only been that morning when Alice had told Cassie that James was in the hospital wing, though it felt like so much longer than only seven or eight hours.
She was still yet to see any of the Marauders apart from Sirius.
She was still yet to see James.
Cassie's worry only grew with each tick of the clock, her mind creating more and more scenarios of what could happen and then starting new ones before she's had time to fully process the one before.
Just when she thought that she had come up with every possible scenario, her mind seemed to create more; as if it was retaliating at her for being so foolish to think that they had stopped.
Cassie was sitting at the Gryffindor table, Sirius was besides her.
Neither of them were speaking.
Cassie was pushing the peas that rested on her plate around with her fork, she didn't even wince when she missed the peas and her fork scraped along the bottom of her plate.
Regulus was sitting at the Hufflepuff table with a girl that Cassie assumed was Ellie, she was very pretty and had bright blonde hair with green eyes. Regulus had been hesitant to go and sit with her, but had when Cassie told him that she and Sirius would be fine if he did.
He kept glancing over in their direction, a frown on his face as he noticed that neither of them had moved since the last time he looked over.
Lily, Marlene and Alice were sitting a few seats down from the twins and they kept sending small looks in their direction too.
No-one else seemed to have realised that only one of the Marauders was present at dinner that night.
No-one else batted an eye in the direction of the twins in worry.
The Great Hall went quiet as Snape moved from his seat so that he was standing on the bench that he had previously been sitting on - people turned around to look at him as silence took over the hall.
Snape looked fine, he didn't have a scratch or bruise on him.
Cassie eyed him as he finally gathered the entire Halls attention, even the few teachers that had been sitting at the teachers table turned to look at him in silence.
Snape cut right to the chase.
"Remus Lupin is a werewolf!"
No-one said a word as they continued to stare at him, a few people shared looks or rolled their eyes at him.
"I saw it with my own eyes - he's a vicious, man eating beast!"
Cassie felt her hands shake in anger as she slammed them against the table, standing up from her seat but not onto the bench like Snape did.
Even if Remus was a werewolf, it wasn't Snape's place to tell anyone. He had no right to say something as personal as that to the entire school, no matter if it was true or not.
It was Remus' place to tell people if he ever wanted to, and the fact that no-one had heard what Snape was saying before told Cassie that he didn't want it to get out, and she didn't blame him.
Cassie knew the reputation around werewolves, everyone did.
They had all heard what was said about them in class as the teacher taught about them, they had all heard the stories the ministry put in the Daily Prophet when werewolves had attacked innocent people - the name Fenrir Greyback standing out in a paper more times than one.
But werewolves too were innocent people. Innocent people who had something awful happen to them. They never asked to be werewolves and when they were in the form of werewolves they couldn't help their actions - Cassie knew that as much, but it seemed that others were always too closed minded to realise that.
Remus Lupin was one of her friends and that wasn't going to change just because he might've been a werewolf.
Cassie spoke before any of the teachers began to interfere and before any students had began to gossip to each other.
"And you've washed your hair in the last decade." She spoke, the calmness of her tone not representing the way she felt inside at all. She didn't need to shout, the all was already quiet and the firmness of it was enough for everyone to hear.
Snape narrowed his eyebrows as he looked at the Slytherin and the look on her face, he opened his mouth to say something else but Cassie was quick to cut him off.
"Oh!" She exclaimed, forcing a hollow giggle as she continued speaking, a fake smile was her lips. "I thought we were stating the impossible."
Cassie let out another fake giggle and she pushed some hair behind her ear before then anger she felt showed on her face.
Her eyebrows were furrowed and her eyes held a fire that danced as if was in the wind and roared as loud as it could. Her mouth was set, no hint of amusement was in her face and no smile was on her lips like there was only seconds prior.
"Watch your fucking mouth Snape, because if I hear you talking crap about my friends one more time, you'll be fucking sorry."
Cassie sat back down on her seat and crossed her arms over her chest, Sirius was silently thanking her for speaking up when he knew that he would've broken down into tears if he was to try and do so.
The hall stayed silent as Professor Slughorn hurried over to Snape and pulled him down from the bench with so much force that he almost fell over.
Everyone watched as Slughorn marched Snape from the Great Hall, a look of anger on his face that no-one had ever seen before.
It took no less than five minuets for the Great Hall to return to its normal liveliness - people joking with their friends about things that no-one else would find funny; people yelling across the hall to siblings or cousins that were in other houses; people laughing loudly as they ate their dinner.
It was as if Snape had never talked about Remus in the first place.
Cassie assumed that no-one believed him and she wouldn't have been surprised if that was the case. Everyone with eyes could tell that Snape had hated the marauders for as long as they could remember and vice versa, they all knew that Snape would make up lies about them just to get his own back.
Cassie had never been more grateful that Snape was such a dick before.
Cassie turned to face Sirius and they both let out shaky breaths of relief.
Sirius moved so that his head was resting on Cassie's shoulder and she rested her head on top of his in return, closing her eyes to desperately try and drown out the thoughts that were still filling her mind.
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"Please Madam Pomfrey-"
"No, you need to rest."
James blinked at the medi-witch a few times.
James was sitting up in one of the Hospital Wing beds, there were a couple of pillows supporting his back and keeping him upright. One of his arms was in a sling, bruises and scratches littered his face, a practically large gash went through his eyebrow and along the left hand side of his face and he kept wincing slightly as he breathed.
"What am I doing now then? Because I'm hardly practicing for a circus."
Madam Pomfrey didn't look amused as Remus let out a soft snort from his bed besides James'.
Remus looked slightly better than James, he too was littered in cuts and bruises but they didn't look as deep as James', one of his arms had a nasty scratch that went from his shoulder to the middle of his forearm and it didn't look as if it had healed at all, a large bruise rested at the bottom of his neck and he looked as if he had slept in weeks.
Both of them looked as if they had been dropped of the Astronomy Tower.
"That is besides the point Mr Potter-"
"Oh, go on Poppy," James grinned. "You know you love Cassie."
Madam Pomfrey looked at James for a moment before she nodded once.
James let out a 'Yes!' and fist-pumped the air with his unbandaged arm while Remus grinned at the woman.
"Knew there was a reason why you were the best." James said as Madam Pomfrey walked away from James and Remus' beds and towards the entrance to the hospital wing. She returned a few moments later followed by Cassie.
"Holy shit - shiver me timbers." Cassie quickly changed what she was saying when Madam Pomfrey sent her a sharp look before walking into her office and shutting the door behind her.
A small smile appeared on her face when she noticed that James was wearing the quidditch jumper that she had gotten him for his birthday, but it quickly vanished the more her eyes scanned over the pair and noticed the cuts and bruises on them.
"You two look peachy." Cassie said, but the worry she felt was evident in her voice by the way it quivered as she spoke.
"I feel as if I could do a million backflips and then do more." James said with a small grin, but it quickly faded as he noticed the frown on his girlfriends face.
"Hey, Cass, what's wrong?" James shuffled over in his bed and patted the spot next to him. Cassie hesitantly made her way over to James and say down besides him, James wrapped his good arm around her and pulled her close to him.
"I was just worried." Cassie admitted in a mutter.
James pulled Cassie slightly closer to him and pressed a kiss to her temple.
"Awe, you sap."
Cassie blinked up at James and Remus rolled his eyes with a small smirk.
"I'm joking - and no need to worry anymore, love, we're both fine. Maybe a few cuts and what not but other than that we're tip top and ready to go."
Cassie looked unsure as she glanced over at Remus before she looked back up at James.
"And Madam Pomfrey said we'll be okay before we can spell medicine, I can't spell it yet but Remus can so that's a start."
Cassie let out a soft laugh as Remus rolled his eyes once again.
"It's not hard to spell." Remus said and James was quick to stick his middle finger up at his friend.
"I'm glad to see you're both okay - but what the fuck happened?" Cassie inquired, curiosity getting the better of her.
James and Remus shared a look before Remus took a deep breath.
He looked away from Cassie and towards the wall directly opposite him.
Remus let out the breath he had took in shakily as he blinked away the few tears that had appeared in the corners of his eyes.
Here was yet another person he was going to tell about his Fury Little Problem and it was another person who could judge him for reasons he couldn't help.
"I-I'm a we-werewolf Cassie." Remus said with a quivering voice, a single tear fell from his eye.
Cassie looked towards James with furrowed eyebrows and James shrugged, wincing as he did so.
"Okay - and?"
Remus' head shot towards the direction that Cassie and James were sitting in, his eyes wide and his mouth slightly agape.
"B-but I'm a monster, you know what werewolves are, you know who I am."
"I mean, I guess." Cassie said frowning.
"I know what werewolves are, and I know that you can't help it. It's hardly like you willing turn into once each full-moon."
"But you- you aren't scared?"
Cassie let out a small snort that made a sense of reassurance settle in Remus' stomach. James grinned down at his girlfriend and pulled her a little closer to him.
"Hardly. Remus you literally cooed over a panda at the zoo for an hour, excuse me if I'm not quaking in my robes."
Remus smiled and a few more tears fell from his eyes, tears of happiness rather than tears of fear.
"But, what happened?" Cassie raised an eyebrow as she looked between James and Remus.
So they began to explain.
They explained from the beginning, when the Marauders had found out about Remus' being a werewolf and how he had expected them to end their friendship before he realised that they couldn't have cared less about it.
They explained about how in their fifth year, James, Sirius and Peter had become animagi to help him after they had read up on how having animal companions helped a werewolf during their transformation; how Peter was a rat, Sirius was a dog and James was a stag ("A stag?" Cassie sniggered as she looked at James with raised eyebrows, "I knew there was another reason why the name Bambi suited you so much.") and they explained how for the last two years the three of them helped Remus every full-moon without fail.
Cassie couldn't stop looking at James in admiration with a smile on her face, though that smile faded as they continued to explain the events of two night prior.
"Snape figured it out." James said, running his good hand over his face, "He figured out that Remus was a werewolf and confronted Sirius about it - Sirius being Sirius told Snape to meet him at the Whomping Willow, and Snape being Snape came. I don't know if Sirius actually expected Snape to turn up or not, but he did and when he did, Remus was around the Whomping Willow."
Cassie glanced over at Remus, who was looking down at his hands.
"I pushed Snape out of the way of Remus and he ran away, but wolf Remmy was annoyed. So he kept attacking, Peter ran up to the hospital wing to get Madam Pomfrey and Sirius was trying to stop Remus, but he couldn't. I wasn't in my animagi form then and I couldn't transform back because of the pain, and eventually, when Wormy came back, they averted Remus before Madam Pomfrey came along."
Silence settled over the three for a few minuets, none of them uttered a word.
Cassie was processing everything in her mind.
She knew that Sirius wouldn't have meant for it to end the way it did, but she never knew that he was stupid enough to risk something like that in the first place.
She loved Sirius more than she loved herself, but he could be so thick sometimes.
Another ten minuets of small talk between the three passed and Madam Pomfrey came out of her office and ordered Cassie to leave, but she did say that the Slytherin could come back the day after.
Cassie nodded and pressed a kiss to James head before she left.
At the door she turned around and faced Remus, who was already looking at her as if he knew she was going to say something else on the matter.
"I know your pissed off now." Cassie said, her voice was calm and soft. "And I completely understand why, I do. But just know that you'll never blame Sirius as much he blames himself - and trust me, that is a lot. He is thick as fuck a lot of the time, but he loves you more than I've seen him love anyone."
Remus was nodding as he listened to Cassie.
"I'm not telling you to forgive him right away, you can wait as long as you want to forgive him because that is your call to make. But just keep in mind that he's going to hate himself for a long time with what he did." Cassie waved once as she shut the door behind her.
Remus turned to look at James.
"There's a lot I don't understand in the world. But how you started dating someone as smart as Cassie is probably top of that list."
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HII
TOLD YOU THERE
WAS GONNA BE A
DOUBLE UPDATE TONIGHT
((:
CASSIE IS LITERALLY THE
BEST AND IK IM BIAST BC
IM TECHNICALLY HER MOTHER
BUT SUE ME, IDC
PEGGY CARTER >>>
thank you for coming
to my ted talk
I HOPE YOU ENJOYED THIS
CHAPTER, IF YOU DID FEEL FREE
TO TELL ME WHAT YOU THOUGHT
AND WHAT YOU WANT TO
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Emily xx