After practicing Occlumency with Severus twice more that weekend, Cassie was rather pleased with the results. She had been able to push him out of her mind in record time, and even he had given her the rare compliment afterward.
"I never would have thought you capable of such discipline, although I'm not confident it will last much longer than a fortnight," he told her.
They both went into the following week of lessons knowing they had given her the tools she needed to keep her would-be intruder out. Their agreed-upon plan was for Cassie to meditate before bed, clearing her mind of thoughts and emotions so there would be nothing for her attacker to prey upon. It was a daunting task at first, but Cassie was up for the challenge.
Sunday night, she sat on her bed, drew the canopy shut, cast a Silencing Charm, and did precisely that.
Monday morning, she didn't even have to ask the girls in her dormitory whether she had woken screaming. They told her immediately that she hadn't—and that they had all nearly overslept for classes because of it.
Cassie almost skipped to breakfast; she was so pleased.
When she reached the Great Hall, she deliberately caught Severus's eye and gave him a small smile and nod to communicate that all was well. He returned the gesture with a curt nod of his own.
Lessons were gloriously uneventful. Although Cassie was tempted to become distracted by her success—and by thoughts of Severus—she used her newly proficient skills to keep her mind focused on the tasks in front of her.
It wasn't until she was sitting at her usual spot in the library, ready to tutor, that she allowed her mind to wander freely again. And then she was quickly preoccupied with Hermione Granger.
"Granger, why don't we let Neville ask a few questions?" Cassie suggested after another round of trivia in which Hermione had failed to give a single incorrect answer.
"He's learning just by listening, aren't you, Neville?" Hermione replied quickly before returning to her Defense Against the Dark Arts textbook in search of another subject to be tested on.
Neville looked as though he was about to say something, but Hermione began speaking over him.
"Hold on, Granger." Cassie interrupted. She flicked her wrist, effectively closing the young girl's textbook and earning an annoyed 'hmph' from her. "Speak up, Neville."
"Well, it's just..." he began.
"Go on," Cassie encouraged. Hermione folded her arms across her chest impatiently.
Just then, Ron and Harry walked in and made their way toward Cassie's table. Neville seemed to gain newfound confidence at the sight of the other Gryffindor boys, and his voice finally found an audible volume.
"It's just... Potions," Neville said, then stopped.
"Yes? What about Potions?"
"It's terrifying!" Neville exclaimed. Ron and Harry, who had overheard him, nodded in agreement. Cassie laughed.
"The subject of Potions is terrifying, or the professor is terrifying?" she asked. The Gryffindors exchanged worried glances. Only Hermione appeared completely indifferent. "Well, what can I help you with?" Cassie continued. "Would you like to work on your essays together? Or we could go over the last potion you made in class and see where you went wrong."
"Can we make the potion we'll be making in this week's lesson?" Ron asked hopefully.
Cassie shook her head. She was about to explain that Professor Snape would consider it an unfair advantage over the rest of the class when Hermione suddenly cut in.
"That's cheating!" she screeched. Ron winced as though someone had dragged fingernails across a chalkboard.
"Calm down," Cassie said quickly, wanting to speak before Ron did. His ears were already turning the distinctive shade of pink that seemed to run in the Weasley family, and she suspected he was about to lose his temper. "It was only a suggestion, and we're not going to do it. How about we make last week's potion instead?" She stood. "I have to fetch the ingredients from the dungeons, but I'll be back as soon as I can."
Cassie left before anyone could argue, letting the students open their texts and get organized. She nearly jogged to the Potions classroom, determined to make the most of their limited time. She entered with barely a greeting for the Potions Master, who was seated at his desk as usual.
Two fourth-year Hufflepuffs stood at the worktables, chopping dung beetles and clearly serving detention.
"Miss Black," Severus said, raising an eyebrow as she began raiding his stores without explaining.
"Tutoring," she replied. He nodded in acknowledgment, watching closely as she selected her ingredients.
"Which first-year dunderhead?" he drawled, sounding distinctly uninterested. He had already deduced that she was collecting what she needed to make a boil-cure elixir.
"Granger, Longbottom, Weasley, and Potter," Cassie told him. She gathered the last of the ingredients and turned toward the door.
"Watch them carefully," Severus warned sharply. "Longbottom nearly melted off his skin on Friday."
"Good to know." Cassie hurried out, already deciding who she would make take the lead.
She had barely made it halfway back to the library when she felt it—a familiar tug at the edge of her mind.
Cassie skidded to a halt, nearly dropping her jar of snake fangs. The sensation was unmistakable.
Someone was trying to get in.
Almost as quickly as she felt the intrusion, she deliberately cleared her thoughts and pictured the door to her mind slamming shut. The pressure disappeared.
She stood there for several seconds, breathing hard, waiting for another attempt. Nothing. She looked around the corridor.
No one was nearby except two fifth-year Slytherin girls walking in the opposite direction, absorbed in conversation.
For a moment, she considered returning to Severus immediately. But what could he do? The important thing was that she had stopped the intrusion, and she had done it herself.
Cassie tightened her grip on the jar and continued toward the library.
"All right!" she announced cheerfully when she returned, setting the ingredients down and lighting a fire beneath the cauldron with a flick of her wand. "Whoever did the worst on Friday will be taking the lead on this." She already knew who that would be, and yet she had to stifle a laugh when the other three students simultaneously pointed at Neville.
Just as she had predicted, Neville did perfectly well when he wasn't in the presence of the menacing Professor Snape. Cassie complimented him at every step, and with encouragement from his fellow Gryffindors, he produced a perfect boil cure. She was genuinely pleased for the boy.
Once the potion was finished, Cassie settled the four students at the desks and had them begin working on their Muggle Studies essays. She had just pulled out her own homework when her cousin and his entourage strolled into the library.
Cassie hoped Draco would go over to Quartermaine, who had just dismissed the student he had been working with. She wasn't surprised when he came straight toward her instead.
"Draco," she said, not bothering to close her textbook. "What can I do for you?"
"Hello, cousin," he replied smugly. Cassie already wanted to wipe the smirk off his face.
"I've got some homework for you to do. Charms essay, two feet of parchment, and Muggle Studies—"
"I'm going to stop you right there," she said, sitting up straight. "I don't do homework for you, Draco. I'm a tutor. I help you when you need it. There's a difference."
"That's not what I've heard from the older students." Draco reached into his pocket and pulled out several Galleons, tossing them lazily onto the desk. "You pay the right price, and the tutors will write it for you."
"Draco." Cassie pushed the coins back toward him. "Do you see me doing any of these students' homework right now?"
Draco glanced toward the Gryffindors, who had all stopped writing and were now glaring at him. "Well, of course not. It's not as though any of them can afford to pay for it. Especially Weasley. He'd have to sell the robes off his back, and of course that would never be enough." Crabbe and Goyle began to guffaw. "He'd have to sell Potter's, too. And Potter's glasses. Perhaps even his stupid prefect brother's badge—"
Cassie flicked her wand beneath the desk. The movement went unnoticed.
The loud rip that followed did not go unnoticed as Draco's trousers split spectacularly across the backside.
Cassie was particularly delighted that he had abandoned his robes for the evening, leaving nothing between the torn fabric and his rather conspicuous white underwear.
His hands immediately flew behind him. Every student in the room except Crabbe and Goyle burst into laughter. "Mend it!" Draco shouted at his older cousin.
"You don't have enough Galleons," Cassie quipped. Draco glared at her, but even he wasn't stupid enough to believe Quartermaine would help him at that moment. He fled the library.
As Cassie had correctly predicted, she heard about the incident from Severus the following day.
She shouldn't bully her cousin. She shouldn't show favoritism toward Gryffindors over students in her own house. It was an argument they had had many times throughout her school career, particularly when house loyalty was concerned.
Days later, she received a Howler from Lucius at breakfast, imploring her to do right by her cousin and stop disgracing the family. It infuriated her.
Her mood, which had been excellent all week, was thoroughly dampened. Well, almost all week. The only other thing that had been bothering her was the increasingly persistent problem of pining after the Head of Slytherin.
Cassie was thrilled when she learned that Potter had been made Seeker of the Gryffindor Quidditch team. Not because she particularly cared about Quidditch, but because it made Draco so angry.
She had heard what Draco had done to Longbottom during their first flying lesson, and karma had delivered precisely the justice Cassie thought he deserved without her having to lift a finger. It was a sweet victory.
She only wished she could knock some of the vanity out of him permanently before it ruined him. Unfortunately, she knew that probably wasn't possible, and she hated it.
She expressed these concerns to Severus several weeks later, but he offered neither agreement nor disagreement. He merely took a sip of tea and continued grading papers.
It was a Saturday night, the first of October, and they had fallen back into their somewhat familiar routine from the previous school year: simply being in each other's company without doing anything of particular importance in his office. The only difference this year was that Cassie was constantly forcing certain thoughts out of her mind.
Tonight was different in another way. The previous night, she hadn't dreamed about Severus in any inappropriate way at all.
Instead, she had dreamed of something remarkably simple. The two of them sitting together, cuddling and huggling and being close without anything complicated about it.
Now, sitting across from him, she found herself imagining the same thing. What would his reaction be if she got up, walked around his desk, and wrapped her arms around his shoulders? The thought made her heart beat faster.
Severus raised an eyebrow, and only then did she realize he'd been speaking to her.
"What?" she asked stupidly. He repeated himself with obvious irritation.
"If you would care to pay attention, I said that if the boy is anything like his father, then he's a lost cause," he said silkily.
Cassie blinked. "Oh. Yes."
Severus sighed as though the entire conversation had become an inconvenience. He returned to his grading.
For several moments, the only sound in the office was the scratching of his quill.
"Severus?"
"Hmm."
"If that's how you feel about the Malfoys, why do you work so hard to stay on their good side?"
"I don't."
Cassie snorted at his response. "You don't? Well, pardon me. I must have been confused for my entire life."
Severus stopped writing and looked up at her. "Don't speak about what you don't understand, you stupid girl."
There it was. She had hit a nerve, and that only confirmed that she was onto something. "Why not just tell Lucius to fuck off?" Cassie demanded. "We both know you want to. He's a fucking pustule. You're so much better than him."
"I'd ask you the same—" Severus's voice had taken on the defensive edge she knew so well.
"Ha! You know I've told him to fuck off! Over and over!" Cassie stood, heat rising in her chest.
"The only reason I stayed with the Malfoys this summer was that it would've been awkward with the Weasleys after Charlie and I broke up. Aunt Dromeda won't have me for more than a few days at a time, of course, because Merlin forbid I draw too much negative attention to the family," she said, her words punctuated and rapid-fire. She began pacing.
Her frustration had been building for years, and now it was spilling out faster than she could contain it. "Do you know what Lucius told me this summer? Do you?"
"No." Severus's low voice followed her across the room. His black eyes never left her.
Cassie turned toward him. "He told me that if I wanted to start an uprising, he'd fund it. He'd back me up. He reminded me—again—that if I wanted to be the next Lord freaking Voldemort, he'd be my fucking campaign manager." She threw her hands up. "What a thrilling summer that was! And that creep has his hand up the Minister's arse!"
"Why are you just telling me this now?"
Cassie shook her head. "Because it never does any good, does it? That man has so many political connections, so many ways of protecting himself. The slimy git. No one can ever touch him." She stopped pacing. "But you know that." Her eyes fixed on Severus. "So I'm going to ask you again, knowing what you know. Why don't you just tell him to fuck off?"
"Because the next time your father comes to power, I intend to spy," Severus said. Cassie went still. "I have to play the part."
She stared at him for a moment before stepping toward his desk. "Are you fucking kidding me?"
"No."
"Why?"
"Because that is how I will be most valuable when the time comes."
Cassie shook her head again. "What if he never comes back? You're just going to keep playing the part?"
"Yes."
"That sounds incredibly dangerous."
"Being involved in any part of a war is dangerous, Cassie." He stacked the parchment he had been grading into a neat pile and stood, carrying it to one of the shelves before retrieving another stack.
Cassie watched him in silence. Her anger had begun to give way to something else. Fear, perhaps. Or simply the realization that there were parts of Severus's life she still didn't understand.
"Severus?"
"Hmm?"
"What about you?"
He turned. "What?"
"Why didn't I just stay with you this summer?" She straightened, folding her arms across her chest. "That would've been nice, wouldn't it?"
Severus remained near the shelves for a moment. Then he turned toward her. "I think we would have killed each other within a week." Cassie smiled faintly. "And besides that, it would've been inappropriate."
"I'm eighteen. I'm of age. Why would it have been inappropriate?"
"Because you're a student and I'm your professor, Cassie." He spoke slowly, as though he wanted to make certain she understood. "People would have... inferred something."
Her smile returned. "Oh, what people? My nonexistent parents?"
Severus didn't answer. Instead, he looked at her with an apprehension she couldn't quite decipher.
For some reason, Cassie suddenly found herself moving around the desk. She wasn't entirely sure why. Perhaps she wanted to test the boundary he'd just drawn. Perhaps she simply wanted to be closer to him.
Either way, when Severus turned fully toward her and saw her standing beside his chair, he stopped. The room seemed to become very quiet.
Cassie took another step. He didn't move.
Another.
His eyes remained fixed on hers. The distance between them disappeared until she had to tilt her head back to maintain eye contact.
Neither of them spoke as Cassie reached out and took the stack of parchment from his hand, placing it on the desk beside them.
"Miss Black," Severus said quietly, "what are you doing?"
Cassie swallowed. "I don't know."
For one suspended moment, neither of them moved. Then she reached up. His hand came up instinctively, catching hers before either of them could go any further.
The contact was brief, but it was enough to send tingles up her extremity again. Cassie's heart hammered.
Severus released her hand and stepped back. "No." She stared at him. "No, Cassie. You need to leave."
Her face fell. "Severus—"
"Now."
She stood there for another second, wounded pride and confusion warring inside her. Then she nodded stiffly.
Without another word, Cassie turned and walked out of the office. The door shut behind her.
Severus remained perfectly still. Only when he was certain she was gone did his gaze fall toward the stack of parchment she had moved.
One essay lay exposed, the name at the top of the page unmistakable.
Potter.
And suddenly, he wasn't in his office anymore. He was somewhere years ago, pulled into the memories of a red-haired girl with emerald-green eyes.
A promise he had made and failed to keep. The guilt came rushing in with such force that it nearly stole his breath.
Whatever feelings he had been struggling to suppress for Cassie, he could not allow himself to indulge them.
Not now, not like this. Not when the sight of Potter's name had reminded him exactly what his weakness could cost.
He closed his eyes. For the first time that evening, Severus understood that keeping Cassie at a distance might be the only way to keep her safe.
And, perhaps more importantly, the only way to keep himself from becoming the sort of man he had spent his entire life trying not to be.
-------------------------
The next few weeks were miserable for Cassie. What she had feared had come to fruition, and after that Saturday night in Severus's office, it seemed she had lost him. He had never offered her an explanation for banishing her from his office, and now it seemed he was doing everything in his power to avoid her, save for the bare minimum of interaction required in class.
In an act of desperation, she had even purposefully ruined a potion to give him a reason to keep her after class or assign her detention. He hadn't taken the bait, instead sending her to Professor Flitwick to deal with the punishment.
She tried spending more time with Alpit and Juniper, although she found their constant worries about grades rather trivial, and lately, she seemed to be losing her temper with them far too easily. She wanted desperately to speak with Tonks, but she still hadn't received a response to her first letter and knew there was little point in sending another. Charlie's letter, though pleasant, had been incredibly formal and full of empty pleasantries, and Cassie was convinced he had only written to her after being guilt-tripped by Molly.
She had never felt more alone.
It was almost pathetic that her favorite part of the week had become her tutoring sessions with the first years. Cassie was becoming increasingly disgusted with herself and her situation, and she wished the school year would end so she could graduate and leave Hogwarts behind.
There was, however, one little glimmer of excitement on the horizon. The first scheduled Hogsmeade trip was approaching.
Cassie had been there countless times over the years and wasn't expecting to find anything particularly new or exciting, but she welcomed the chance to get off the school grounds for an afternoon. At this point, she was more than willing to go by herself and meander around the village, but she was pleasantly surprised when Quartermaine offered to accompany her. They hadn't spent much time together outside of their tutoring sessions, so she was somewhat curious to get to know him better.
The Saturday of the trip was bitterly cold, with snow drifting lazily from the sky in large, fluffy flakes. Cassie and Theodore went to the Three Broomsticks for butterbeer, where she learned more about his upbringing. His mother was a Muggle, his father a half-blood. He had a younger sister in Ravenclaw and a younger brother who was a Squib. He hoped to become a journalist for the Daily Prophet someday.
He was nice. Not particularly funny or interesting, but Cassie appreciated his company.
They browsed around Zonko's before eventually finding themselves in front of the Shrieking Shack. Cassie had noticed the Weasley twins nearby, setting off a particularly large load of horse-shaped firecrackers that were now galloping down the street and causing chaos among the Hogwarts students and residents alike.
After Cassie ordered them to go round up their escaped Zonko's products, she found herself alone with Theodore. Then the street seemed eerily quiet.
"We should head back," Cassie said, rubbing her gloved hands together. "It's getting dark."
"Yeah," Theodore agreed. They had only made it a short distance toward the center of the village when a wizard seemed to step out of nowhere.
Cassie couldn't explain why, but she immediately disliked the look of him. There was something determined in his expression, something cruel in his beady eyes that made the hairs on the back of her neck rise.
"You'll stop right there, you will," the wizard said, pulling out his wand. To Cassie's right, a woman appeared. Then another. A second man stepped out behind them.
The street was deserted except for the four strangers and the two students. She and Quartermaine were surrounded.
"We were just heading back to Hogwarts," Cassie said, narrowing her eyes as she turned her head slightly, taking note of each person's position. "Students, you see."
"We can't let you go back there," one of the witches said. Cassie ever so slowly began inching her hand toward her wand.
"Yeah? And why's that?" she asked. Her mind was already racing. Should she strike first? Would Theodore be useful in a duel, or would trying to protect him only put him in greater danger?
"Because we've got to protect the Boy Who Lived," one of the wizards explained. And there it was.
Cassie couldn't pretend she was surprised. She had suspected as much from the moment they had appeared. Unfortunately, her patience had been in short supply lately, and her nerves had been stretched dangerously thin.
"Theodore," she said calmly, though there was an unmistakable firmness in her voice. "Get out of here. Now." The Hufflepuff looked at her grimly, all the color draining from his face. He opened his mouth to speak, but no words came.
"Listen to her, boy. We don't have any issue with you," said one of the witches. Theodore hesitated only a moment longer before taking off toward the heart of the village.
Cassie breathed a quiet sigh of relief. At least he was out of danger.
Her heart thudded hard in her chest, but its rhythm remained slow and steady. In the few moments these strangers allowed Theodore to escape, she had managed to close her hand around her wand.
Despite being emotionally exhausted and on edge for weeks, Cassie was completely calm now. Because this? This was what she had been born to do. She knew she could take them down in a matter of seconds, assuming they were merely average witches and wizards.
One. Two. Three. Four. As quickly as she could count them. That wouldn't be a problem.
But these weren't Death Eaters. They were ordinary members of the magical community, people who genuinely believed they were doing the right thing. They were probably parents of students she went to Hogwarts with. Perhaps some of them had children sitting in her own classes.
So she couldn't simply destroy them. She had to remain restrained. She had to wait for them to make the first move.
And move first they did.
"Diffindo!"
Cassie grunted in pain as the red-haired witch's spell sliced into her just beneath the collarbone and across her chest. She staggered backward, pressing her free hand against the wound. When she pulled it away, blood stained her glove. Instantly, every sense in her body sharpened.
"Incendio!"
Cassie deflected the spell with ease. The second witch immediately attempted the same thing. Skilled, this bunch was not.
But it didn't take long for Cassie to realize they weren't merely trying to prevent her from returning to Hogwarts. They were trying to kill her.
She spun on her heel, becoming a blur of black robes and dark hair as she blocked spell after spell. The four attackers continued their assault, attempting to slice, burn, and scald her.
And as their courage grew, so did her rage. Then one of the wizards shouted the word that changed everything.
"Crucio!"
Cassie deflected the curse. Something inside her snapped. With a furious bellow, she pointed her wand toward the ground and drove it downward.
A shock wave exploded outward, and all four attackers were thrown from their feet in an instant.
Three lay motionless.
Cassie's eyes immediately settled on the fourth—the wizard who had attempted to use the Unforgivable Curse against her. He was still moving.
Still lying face down on the ground, he weakly raised his wand toward her.
"Avad—Avada—"
Cassie thrust out her free hand and clenched it into a fist. The wizard was violently dragged to his feet. An invisible force tightened around his throat, choking him as she yanked him toward her.
Fear spread across his face. And Cassie found herself immensely satisfied by it. "No, no," she said, echoing words her father had once told her when she was six years old. "You have to mean it."
The wizard was directly in front of her now. Cassie raised her wand, not even sure what she intended to do to him. But he was turning blue.
And all she knew was that she was furious. Furious that they had tried to kill her. Furious that they had decided she deserved to die simply for existing.
"CASSIE! STOP!"
The voice broke through her fury. Cassie turned sharply and saw Professors McGonagall, Quirrell, and Sprout running toward her. The sight of those familiar faces seemed to drag her back into herself.
Her fingers slowly unclenched, and the wizard dropped heavily to the ground.
"What happened?!" McGonagall shrieked as she rushed toward her. Her eyes widened when she caught sight of the blood. "The blood?"
Cassie looked down. Only then did she realize just how much of her own blood had spilled onto the snow, pooling around her boots.
She opened her mouth to explain—to tell them that she and Theodore had been ambushed, that the four of them had attacked her, that they had tried to kill her.
But before she could get a single word out, the world around her began to darken. Cassie's knees buckled before she crumpled to the ground.