The next morning Cassiopeia entered the staff room of the School for Muggle-born Witchcraft and Wizardry with a feeling of anxiety. The last time she had been here things hadn't turned out very pleasantly. She remembered Lestrange's burly form towering threateningly in the doorway, Rosier, slightly slimmer but yet no less intimidating, following close behind. She quickly shook her head, trying to get the unsettling image out of her head and concentrated on the present.
The room was almost empty. Only Percival was sitting at the table, a cup of tea in his hand and the Daily Prophet on the table in front of him. When she entered the room, he glanced up from the newspaper and a smile crossed his features.
"Morning," he greeted. "How was your weekend?"
"Morning," Cassiopeia replied, pouring herself a cup of coffee and taking a sip. "Oh, well, my weekend wasn't quite the way I had planned. It was packed with surprises. But it surely could have been even worse. What about yours?" She eyed him closely.
Percival looked back at her. "Mine was rather uneventful. I mainly prepared classes, nothing too exciting. But I had this unbelievable inspiration for a potions test I'm going to try today."
Cassiopeia's lip twitched slightly. That sounded just like Tom. He had always had a talent for planting false memories, and he had always liked tampering with other people's minds. She could still recall the satisfied grin on his face, that morning in Slughorn's double Potions so long ago, when he had altered the memories of Yaxley, Nott and Malfoy.
Obviously, he had taken the chance to play his little game again.
Refocusing on Percival, she said, "Sounds great." After a moment she asked, following on a sudden impulse, "Are you teaching Ben, Anna and Livia today?"
Percival threw her a confused glance. "Why the three of them? Obviously, I'm teaching their respective classes, though not the fourth years today." He looked at his timetable. "Fourth year tomorrow." He gazed up again. "Why?"
Cassiopeia shook her head. "Never mind. Just asking."
She sat down as well and drank her coffee in silence. If she were honest, it wasn't unexpected that Tom had taken the opportunity to end their extra lessons quite unceremoniously. After all, that was exactly what had been the purpose of Lestrange's and Rosier's mission, even if it wasn't the way they had had intended to take, of course.
"There have been several arrests and disappearances again." Percival's voice broke the silence. He kept his gaze on the Daily Prophet, reading the headlines. "People are so stupid."
Cassiopeia eyed him wordlessly. Tom had really made a good job of it.
She snorted lowly, pressing her lips together. Of course he had. Why did he always have to do everything so damn perfectly? It was frustrating.
Finally, Cassiopeia got up. "I have to get going. See you later."
Percival nodded without looking up. "See you."
Still feeling slightly annoyed, Cassiopeia went to her classroom. She had Ben's class first. The students were already waiting in front of the door. When they filed into the room, Cassiopeia scanned the faces for Ben but he wasn't there. The students took their seats and turned to look at her expectantly.
"Good morning. I hope you are all well," Cassiopeia said, rearranging some sheets of parchment on the desk.
"Good morning, professor," the class replied in unison.
"Where's Ben?" Cassiopeia tried to keep her voice calm despite the gloomy sense of foreboding in her stomach.
A girl in the second row got up. "He didn't feel well, professor. I heard the matron had to send him to the hospital."
"Thank you, Stella." Cassiopeia forced a smile on her face although she didn't feel like smiling at all.
So this was how Tom was going to pay her back. She exhaled, trying to stay calm. She had anticipated that he wouldn't just leave well enough alone. After all, it was Tom. He never yielded. He might not have been able to cast the Cruciatus Curse on her but that didn't mean he wasn't just as proficient in a lot of far more refined ways of cruelty. And he had known exactly how to get back at her.
While she set the class the task for today's lesson, her thoughts kept revolving around Ben. What had Tom done to the poor boy? And why him of all people? It simply wasn't fair, making the boy pay for her decisions. But then again, when had Tom ever cared about fairness?
The morning of classes seemed to drag on endlessly. When Cassiopeia finally ended the last lesson, she hurried to the matron. Upon entering the office, the matron threw her a surprised glance.
"Professor Houlton. How can I help you?"
"Madam McLarn. I was wondering if you could tell me where Ben Miller is? He wasn't in class."
A look of concern appeared on the matron's face. "Oh, Ben, the poor boy. I had to take him to the hospital. He was hurting so badly and I couldn't detect anything. I've never seen anything similar." She shook her head, a haunted look in her eyes. "I really hope it's nothing contagious. I absolutely don't want to see any other students suffer the same."
Cassiopeia nodded absentmindedly. "Thanks."
She left the matron's office and without thinking twice she apparated to St. Mungo's. At the reception she asked for Ben Miller and was sent to the ward on the fourth floor. When she got there, the corridor was empty. Cassiopeia strode along the hallway, looking for a healer, until she finally found a woman in her late fifties.
"Excuse me. I came to see one of your patients, Ben Miller. He's a student of mine." Her voice trailed away as she saw the expression on the elderly witch's face.
"Ben, yes. He's in the room over there. But I'm afraid he's in no good condition. We have been trying everything we could think of, but obviously he has come in contact with something really rare. We haven't been able to help him so far, so now we've given him some really strong pain relievers. I don't think it's of much use, visiting him."
Cassiopeia bit her lip. "The boy has no family to look after him. Please, couldn't you just let me see him, if only for a moment?"
The healer shrugged. "If you want to see him, I don't mind. We've had the contagion specialists in and they say whatever it is he suffers from, it's at least not contagious. So you can go and see him if you like."
Cassiopeia nodded and the healer hurried on, leaving her standing alone in the corridor. Cassiopeia carefully opened the door to Ben's room. It was dimly lit and she could see the boy's sleeping form in the bed close to the window. She noiselessly closed the door behind her and walked over to him.
He was sleeping but it was obvious that he was still in pain. He was breathing hard and his forehead was sweaty. His fingers were twitching restlessly in his sleep.
Cassiopeia moved closer and lightly brushed his dark brown hair out of his pale face, wondering if Tom had seen anything when he had looked at the boy's features. Why had he chosen him and left Livia and Anna unharmed? After all, they had all been taught extra lessons, and he surely had known that. Yet he had only gone for the boy.
While Cassiopeia kept looking at Ben, his eyes suddenly fluttered open.
"Professor," he breathed hoarsely, his voice pained.
"Shhh, I'm with you."
"Am I dying?" he asked weakly, fear evident in his tone. "Nobody seems to know what happened to me. And I don't know either." He coughed, gasping for air.
Cassiopeia swallowed. "No, you aren't going to die. I will find a way to help you." She tried to sound soothing.
Ben looked at her, his pain showing in his eyes. "But how? I have never seen so many healers in my life and yet they can't help me."
"I know." Cassiopeia pressed her lips together and tried to keep her rising temper in check. At least, contrary to the healers she knew how Ben had ended up being in this state. She knew who was responsible but, unfortunately, she couldn't tell anyone.
She glanced at Ben's trembling hands and his scared eyes and took a deep breath. This time Tom had taken it too far. She wondered what he had been aiming at. Was he expecting her to come crawling back to him, begging him to save Ben's life?
She clenched her teeth. That wasn't going to happen. She didn't need him. She would figure out how to help Ben on her own. She tried to suppress the wave of panic that was involuntarily sweeping through her when she thought about the countless Dark Curses Tom knew, making it nearly impossible to determine which one he had used.
Yet she had to do something, and she had to do it quickly. She drew her wand. "I'm going to help you, Ben. But I have to know what happened to you. Will you help me?"
Ben nodded. "But I don't remember anything."
"Just focus on the last memory you have, the last one before the pain started, can you try that?"
He nodded again. Cassiopeia gripped her wand firmly. In order to find out what Tom had done to the boy, she had to get past Tom's memory charm, trying to uncover the real memory or at least fragments thereof, hidden somewhere underneath the fake story. She pursed her lips. Tom's charm would doubtlessly be extremely well done and certainly nearly impossible to circumvent. Yet she had to focus on the possibility that she could achieve this against all odds if she wanted to help Ben.
"Ok. Then concentrate on this last memory." She brandished her wand with a slow fluid movement and muttered, "Memoriam deponere, memoriam prodere." Cassiopeia watched Ben closely and kept brandishing her wand, repeating the murmured incantation over and over again. Slowly she felt something change in Ben's eyes. Cassiopeia tightened her grip on her wand once again, carefully pouring more of her magic into the curse until she sensed that Ben couldn't take anymore.
With a swift movement she flicked her wand at his head and carefully removed a silvery strand of memory, stowing it in a small vial.
Ben looked exhausted. "I'm sorry, professor, I'm of no help."
Cassiopeia gently touched the boy's arm. "On the contrary. You've been doing this very well. Don't worry, we'll get you back on your feet again," she said soothingly and his lips twitched into a small smile in response.
"Thank you, professor. Thank you so much for caring."
"Now you have to rest, you're too exhausted. I'll figure out what happened to you and then I'll be back, I promise." Cassiopeia squeezed his hand lightly and waved her wand at him once again, silently casting a curse on him that would prevent him from waking before she returned.
She exhaled slowly, watching his unconscious form sadly. So it had finally happened. After all those years she finally hadn't been able to avoid using curses belonging to the Dark Arts intentionally on another human being any longer. A bitter smirk formed on her face. Surely, Tom would be proud that he had finally succeeded in making her stoop so low.
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Author's note: Thanks so much for reading! I'd love if you left a vote or a comment, or maybe even both :-)