As days passed, Cassie became increasingly anxious about the cursed transportation cabinet. She and Draco had conducted the first test with a living being, and the result was catastrophic. More adjustments were needed.
She was also extremely disturbed when she learned from Kreacher that Narcissa was spending more hours in her potions room than she should, often forgetting to eat. Cassi instructed Kreacher to take care of Narcissa, ensuring she didn't skip any meals. Kreacher provided weekly updates and always expressed his happiness in serving Cassie and looking after Narcissa.
Kreacher appeared healthier. Well-dressed, he took care of his attire. It was a much more pleasant sight.
Cassi persuaded Draco to set up more frequent guards when they went to the Room of Requirement. She stole an entire batch of Polyjuice Potion and made Crabbe and Goyle take it each time they needed to stand watch. The boys weren't thrilled about being forced into a feminine transformation, but they were too dense to question it.
She noticed that Dobby was spying, and although she found the elf adorable, he was essentially Harry's lackey. She didn't tell Draco about this to avoid further complications. However, she may or may not have convinced Peeves to cause more than one distraction to deceive the elf. Given Peeves' affinity for chaos, he was more than willing.
Cassi had just sent another small bird into the cabinet for testing when a shrill noise was heard from outside the room. This was the signal that they couldn't exit through that door. They had to circle the room to throw off whoever was on the other side.
"Cassie?" She turned abruptly, and there, to her absolute astonishment, was Tonks walking toward her as if she regularly frequented that corridor.
"What are you doing here?" Cassiopeia asked, excitedly rushing to hug her.
Draco stood stunned as he observed.
"I came to see Dumbledore."
Cassiopeia paused to assess her. She looked awful-thinner than usual, bags under her eyes.
"How are you?" Cassi asked, concerned, gently touching her cheek.
Tonks shivered and looked down at her own feet. "Tired," she simply said with a sigh. Then she looked at Draco, surprised.
"Hello there," she awkwardly smiled. "Tonks, pleasure to meet you," extending her hand.
Draco stood there awkwardly, before eventually accepting her hand and giving her a sheepish smile. "Draco Malfoy."
Tonks blinked, surprised, before smiling and trying to compose herself. "I believe we're cousins."
Draco blinked, seeming conflicted about how to respond. "Well, well, a family reunion," Cassie teased, playfully nudging her shoulder.
Tonks appeared somber for a moment. Something flickered behind her eyes. "I have to go. Nice to meet you, Draco," she said with a shy smile.
"See you around, Cassie," she waved and was about to turn away before Cassiopeia called out to her.
She gave her a hug, a tight one. "You're not alone, alright?" she whispered softly. "Write to me. I miss hearing your mission stories. How am I supposed to brag about an amazing Auror cousin if she doesn't tell me her stories?" she joked with a laugh.
Tonks blinked, seeming on the verge of tears, but then she laughed. "Thank you, Cassie," she said softly with a smile before leaving.
"What happened to her?" Draco asked thoughtfully.
Cassiopeia didn't have the answer.
(...)
She had received a note from Hagrid. Apparently, one of his arachnid friends had passed away, and he invited her and the Gryffindor trio to a sort of ceremony. It would take place at twilight, which meant breaking the school safety rule just for this occasion. Of course, Cassiopeia agreed. Ron had been talking non-stop about this giant spider for quite some time, and she needed to see it with her own eyes.
She sneaked out at dusk in her Animagus form to Hagrid's cabin.
"You came!" Hagrid exclaimed hoarsely as he opened the door and saw Cassie transfiguring back into her human form. "Of course, dear Hagrid," Cassiopeia smiled gently.
Already seated inside the cabin, looking oddly cheerful, was Harry. "Well, hello, scatterbrain," he greeted.
"Cassie!" Harry exclaimed happily.
She raised an eyebrow at the boy but didn't comment on his behavior. "Where's Ron and Hermione?" she asked as she entered the cabin.
"Ron and Hermione couldn't make it," Harry said.
"Where are we going to bury him?" she asked. "In the Forbidden Forest?"
"Blimey, no!" Hagrid protested, wiping his eyes that kept watering through his shirt sleeve. "The other spiders won't let me anywhere near their webs now that Aragog's gone. I heard only his orders stopped 'em from eating me. Can you believe that?"
The honest answer would be "yes." Acromantulas are carnivores.
"I've never had an area in the Forest I couldn't access," Hagrid commented, shaking his head. "Wasn't easy getting Aragog's body out of there, believe me... they usually eat the dead, you see... but I wanted to give him a proper burial... a dignified farewell..."
He broke into sobs, and Cassi started patting his elbow to comfort him. Harry was also patting his shoulder to calm him down.
"We'll bury Aragog right here, Hagrid, in your garden?" Cassie suggested, noticing a huge spider with its legs twisted through the window.
"Just beyond the pumpkin patch, I thought," he replied, his voice choked. "I've already dug the... grave. So we can say something nice about him... happy memories, you know..." His voice trembled and faltered. There was a knock on the door, and he turned to answer it, blowing his nose on a large stained handkerchief.
Slughorn hurried in, carrying several bottles in his arms and wearing a somber black scarf around his neck. Cassie raised an eyebrow, confused to see the professor.
"Hagrid," he said in a deep, solemn voice. "I'm terribly sorry for your loss."
"That's very kind of you," Hagrid replied. "Thank you very much. And thank you for not giving Harry detention..."
"I wouldn't dream of it. Sad night, sad night... where's the poor creature?"
"Outside," Hagrid informed, his voice trembling. "Let's... let's begin then?"
The professor paused for a moment, surprised to see Cassie. "You too, Miss Gaunt?" he asked with a smile and a nod.
Cassi just smiled as the four of them headed out to the backyard.
The moon shone faintly through the trees, its light mingling with the glow from Hagrid's window to illuminate Aragog's corpse. It lay beside a massive freshly dug three-meter-deep hole. A fantastic creature, Cassie thought in contemplation.
"Magnificent," Slughorn said, approaching the spider's head where eight milky eyes stared unseeingly at the sky and two enormous curved pincers glistened motionless in the moonlight. Cassi heard the clinking of vials as Slughorn leaned over the pincers, apparently examining the massive hairy head. "Not everyone can appreciate how beautiful they are," commented Hagrid from behind Slughorn, tears streaming down his wrinkled eyes. "I didn't know you had an interest in creatures like Aragog, Horace."
"Interest? My dear Hagrid, I have reverence for them," the professor replied, stepping away from the body. Cassie saw the reflection of a vial disappearing under his cloak, though Hagrid, wiping his eyes once more, seemed oblivious. Ah, the venom of a spider like this is extremely rare. The professor undoubtedly desires to obtain some for himself, and if his satisfied smile was any indication, he seemed to have succeeded.
Sly serpent...
"Shall we proceed with the burial, then?" Hagrid nodded in agreement and moved forward. He lifted the gigantic spider in his arms and, with a tremendous groan, dropped it into the dark grave. The body hit the bottom with a sickening thud and crunch. Hagrid started crying again.
"Of course, it's hard for you who knew him better," said Slughorn. "But may I offer a few words?"
He approached the grave and, placing his hand over his heart, spoke with a touching voice, "Farewell, Aragog, king of arachnids, whose long and faithful friendship those who knew you will never forget! Though your body may disintegrate, your spirit will remain in the peaceful webs of your native Forest. May your multi-eyed descendants prosper, and may your human friends find solace for the loss they have suffered."
"It was... it was... beautiful!" Hagrid sobbed, collapsing onto the dung heap.
"Come on, come on," said Slughorn, waving his wand and causing a large amount of earth to rise and fall with a muffled thud onto the dead spider, forming a smooth mound. "Let's go inside and have a drink. Help him up, Harry... like that, Hagrid, stand up... very good..."
Harry and Slughorn helped Hagrid to a chair at the table. Fang, who had been hidden in his basket during the burial, now padded softly over and rested his heavy head in Harry's lap.
Slughorn uncorked one of the bottles he had brought. "I've tested them all for poison," he assured Harry and Cassie, pouring most of the first bottle into one of Hagrid's enormous bucket-sized mugs and handing it to him. "I had a house-elf taste each bottle after what happened to your friend Rupert."
Cassiopeia imagined Hermione's expression if she ever found out about this abuse against house-elves, deciding she would never mention it to her friend. Harry seemed to have the same thought as he stared at her wide-eyed.
"One for the lovely Cassiopeia," said Slughorn, dividing a second bottle into three. "Another for Harry," he handed the mug to the boy. "And one for me. Well..." He raised his mug to Aragog. "Aragog."
"Aragog," they repeated in unison.
Slughorn and Hagrid took a big gulp. Cassi took only a sip, preferring to stay sober.
"I raised him from an egg, you know," Hagrid said somberly. "A tiny little thing when he hatched. About the size of a Pekingese."
"How charming," commented Slughorn.
"I used to keep Aragog in a cupboard at the school until... well..." A shadow passed over Hagrid's face.
Slughorn, however, didn't seem to be listening; he was gazing at the ceiling where several brass cauldrons hung, along with a silky tuft of very white hair.
"That couldn't be unicorn hair, Hagrid, could it?"
"Oh, it is," he replied nonchalantly. "Pulled from their tails, it gets caught on branches and plants in the Forest, you see..."
"But, my dear fellow, do you know how valuable this is?"
"Use it to tie up bandages and things when some creature gets hurt," Hagrid said, shrugging his shoulders. "It's right useful... very strong, it is."
Slughorn took another big gulp from his mug, his eyes now scanning the cabin attentively, looking for more treasures, Cassiopeia noticed, that he could convert into a copious supply of oak-matured mead, crystallized pineapple, and velvet smoking jackets. Crafty little man, she thought, suppressing a laugh.
The professor refilled Hagrid's and his own mug again and started questioning him about the creatures currently living in the Forest, how they lived, and if he managed to take care of all of them. Hagrid, becoming more expansive under the influence of drink and Slughorn's flattering interest, stopped wiping his eyes and happily launched into a lengthy explanation of raising Blast-Ended Skrewts.
As the first bottles emptied, Cassie watched Harry extend his wand and cast a nonverbal refilling charm. She observed him closely.
Why would he be trying to get the professors drunk?
After about an hour had passed, the two professors began making extravagant toasts to Hogwarts, to Dumbledore, to elf-made wine, and to...
"Harry Potter!" Hagrid bellowed, a bit of wine dribbling down his chin, as he emptied his fourteenth mug.
"Indeed!" Slughorn exclaimed with a slightly slurred voice. "Harry... Harry Potter, the Chosen One Who... well... something like that," he mumbled as he emptied his own mug.
"And Gaunt! Who will be as extraordinary as her mother!" Hagrid hiccuped, clearly intoxicated.
"Indeed!" Hagrid echoed with a hiccup.
It didn't take long before Hagrid started crying again and insisted that Slughorn take the whole unicorn tail, which the professor pocketed amidst cries of "Friendship! Generosity! Ten Galleons a hair!"
For a while, Hagrid and Slughorn sat side by side, hugging, and singing a slow, mournful song about a dying wizard named Odo. "Arre, the good die young," Hagrid murmured, leaning over the table, a bit cross-eyed, while Slughorn continued warbling the refrain:
"My father was not old when he died... nor your mother, Harry. Nor your father, Cassi..." Huge tears welled up in the corners of Hagrid's wrinkled eyes, and he grabbed Harry's arm and shook it.
"A tragedy... a tragedy..." he begged.
"Young Regulus... So young..." he mumbled, collapsing into tears.
Slughorn sang with melancholy:
"And Odo the hero was carried to rest,
To the place that he knew as a lad,
And buried in his hat inside out,
And the wand snapped in two, how sad."
"A tragedy," Hagrid grumbled, his massive, unkempt head falling to the side on his crossed arms, and he fell asleep, snoring deeply.
"Sorry," Slughorn said with a hiccup. "I can't sing in tune to save my life."
"Hagrid wasn't talking about your singing," Cassi explained, barely suppressing a laugh. "He was talking about our parents' deaths." Harry explained quietly.
"Ah!" Slughorn exclaimed, stifling a belch. "Oh, my. That was... a terrible event. Terrible... terrible..."
He seemed to struggle to find the right words and opted to refill their mugs. "I suppose neither of you... remembers, do you?" he asked awkwardly.
"No... well, I was only one year old when they died," Harry answered, his eyes fixed on Hagrid.
"I never meet my father," Cassi said softly. "He died before he even got to see me," she sighed, looking at her fingers.
"I've learned quite accurately what happened to mine," Harry said, gazing into the fireplace flames. "My father died first. Did you know?"
"No... I didn't know," Slughorn replied with a muffled voice.
"Yes... Voldemort killed him and then stepped over his body toward my mother."
Slughorn shuddered violently but couldn't seem to tear his horrified gaze away from Harry's face.
"He told her to move out of the way," Harry continued, mercilessly. "Voldemort told me that my mother didn't need to die. He only wanted me. She could have fled."
"Oh my," Slughorn murmured. "She could have... she didn't need to... how dreadful..."
Cassi nodded in agreement. She felt a pang of melancholy; her mother would have done the same for her.
"Indeed?" agreed Harry in a whisper, barely audible. "But she didn't move. My dad was already dead, but she didn't want me to die too. She tried to beg Voldemort... but he just laughed..."
"Enough!" exclaimed Slughorn suddenly, raising a trembling hand. "Truly, my young man, enough... I'm an old man... I don't need to hear... I don't want to hear..."
"I forgot," Harry said softly. "You liked her, didn't you?"
"Like her?" Slughorn repeated, his eyes filling with tears again. "I can't imagine anyone who knew her and didn't like her... very courageous... very funny... it was horrifying."
"But you don't want to help her son," Harry continued. "She gave her life for me, but you don't want to give me a memory."
Cassiopeia raised an eyebrow at Harry. He was trying to manipulate the professor into something, in an extremely cunning way. How is Harry not in Slytherin?
Hagrid's thunderous snores echoed through the cabin. Harry steadfastly met Slughorn's teary gaze. The Potions professor seemed unable to look away.
"Don't say that," he whispered. "It's not a matter... if it were to help you, of course... but it won't do any good..."
"It will," Harry said loudly and clearly. "Dumbledore needs information. I need information."
Well, this is surprising.
"Don't say that," he whispered. "It's not a matter... if it were to help you, of course... but it won't do any good..."
"It will," Harry said loudly and clearly.
"Dumbledore needs information. I need information."
Ah... That's surprising.
"I am the Chosen One. I have to kill him. I need that memory," Slughorn became even paler than before, sweat shining on his smooth forehead. Cassie blinked. Damned prophecy. And hers was about protecting the Chosen One.
"Are you the Chosen One?"
"Of course, I am," Harry responded calmly.
"But then... my dear boy... you're asking a lot from me... you're asking me, in fact, to aid you in your attempt to destroy..."
"Don't you want to rid the world of the wizard who killed Lily Evans?"
"Harry, Harry, of course I do, but..."
"Are you afraid he'll find out you helped me?"
Slughorn didn't answer; he was terrified.
"Be as brave as my mother, professor..."
Slughorn raised his chubby hand and brought his trembling fingers to his lips, for a moment looking like an overgrown baby.
"My father defied Voldemort," she said softly. "He risked everything he had."
Slughorn looked at her with watery eyes.
"Please, professor. Whatever Harry needs. Don't let our parents' deaths be in vain."
"I'm not proud," he whispered between his fingers. "I'm ashamed of what... of what that memory shows... I think I might have caused a lot of damage that day..."
"You could make up for it by handing over that memory. It would be an act of great courage and nobility," Cassiopeia said softly.
Hagrid, asleep, shifted and continued snoring. Slughorn stared at them intently. An extremely long silence ensued.
Harry held his hand and squeezed it. Then, very slowly, Slughorn reached into his pocket and pulled out his wand. He slipped his other hand inside his cloak and retrieved an empty vial. Still holding the gaze between the two, Slughorn tapped his temple with the tip of his wand and withdrew it, causing the long silvery thread of memory to follow suit, attached to the wand's tip. The memory stretched and stretched until it broke, dangling luminous and silver from the wand.
The professor placed it in the vial where it coiled up, then expanded spirally like gas. He corked the glass with a trembling hand and slid it across the table to Harry.
"Thank you very much, professor." Harry gave him a nod.
"You're a good boy," Slughorn said, tears streaming down his cheeks. "And you," he looked at Cassiopeia, "one of the greatest promises of this century... Please... Don't think too ill of me after you see it..."
And he, too, rested his head on his arms, let out a deep sigh, and fell asleep.
Cassi looked at Harry for a few moments."Would you mind explaining?"