A large chunk of dark chocolate was being shoved in Cassie's hands. Ordinarily, that was not something she would object to. Tonight, so far, had been far from ordinary.
"Eat," Madam Pomfrey instructed.
"I'm fine," Cassie said.
"You're not!"
"Lupin already gave me some."
"And I'm giving you more!"
"Give it to them!" Cassie gestured to the occupied beds beside her containing Darla Trunk and Kevin Culkin. Both students were looking exceptionally pale, but otherwise unperturbed. They were whispering to each other with smiles on their faces. Even after that harrowing ordeal, they just seemed giddy to be spending time with one another.
"You are in much worse shape than they are - "
"I'm fine!" Cassie repeated. Madam Pomfrey ripped the chocolate from her hands and stormed away, her lips pursed so tightly together they were turning white. The poor nurse had her hands full, as the group of drunk students were on the other side of the wing waiting for their doses of sobering tonic.
"Are you always this stubborn?" Lupin quipped lightly. He was sitting on a bed on her other side, running a hand through his sandy hair as he spoke.
"I told you I didn't need to come here," she insisted, and wanting to make her point, stood on two shaky legs. As if on cue, the door to the ward was flung open so hard that the handle banged off the wall, and a flurry of black robes crossed the threshold. Flitwick, Fernsby, and Dankworth weren't far behind the Potions Master, although all of them were nearly jogging to stay caught up to his pace.
"Sit back down," Severus growled at Cassie, shooting her a menacing glare as he walked toward the students, "and listen to Poppy!" He hadn't even looked at Culkin yet, but the Slytherin seventh year's smile had disappeared at the appearance of his irked head of house. He was suddenly sitting up much straighter in his hospital bed.
Cassie sighed wearily as she sat back, her exhaustion winning the battle of mind over matter. As Severus went to berate his pupil for his imbecilic behavior, a whoop followed by laughter came from the group of sloshed students. Lupin stood to deal with the commotion.
She hadn't realized that her eyes had closed until a gentle hand was on her shoulder. When she opened them, she was greeted with the kind face of Flitwick.
"Cassie," he said softly, "I wanted to thank you for your part in keeping not just my Ravenclaws, but all of the students safe."
"No problem," she replied stupidly.
"Here," the Head of Ravenclaw said, offering her a piece of chocolate, "Please eat this so you'll feel better."
Cassie sighed, glancing over Flitwick's shoulder. Madam Pomfrey was watching them intently. "Yes, Filius. I will." As he turned to walk away, Cassie locked eyes with the nurse. She raised the chocolate as if to toast her before taking a bite.
She had nearly finished the block when Lupin made his way back over. He was watching her, a faint smirk on his tired features as he sat on the bed next to hers. "So I see it takes a group effort to guilt you into compliance," he said in a deliberating tone. Cassie's eyes automatically shot over to Severus, who was still preoccupied with his students.
"Thank you for your help tonight," she told Lupin in a hushed tone. "I just want to crawl into bed and get some rest." She stood again, and this time her legs felt much more capable of supporting her weight.
"Of course," Lupin said, "But don't you think you should spend the night here?"
"No."
"Then at least wait until Severus is done so he can help you walk back," he said, and she knew he was right. But at the moment all she cared about was the fact that Severus had looked over at them for a fleeting second, and now she was worried about what he would think about the two of them talking in near whispers on the other side of the room. So she walked out of the ward.
She barely made it more than ten feet before the doors opened behind her, making her swear under her breath. "Being stubborn again, I see," came Lupin's voice as he caught up to her.
"I'm capable of walking to my quarters alone."
"Perhaps, but maybe I would like some company," bantered the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor.
"What if Poppy still needs help with the students?" she said, trying to walk faster. This situation was making her increasingly irritated.
"Why Cassie, if I didn't know any better, I would think you're trying to get rid of me!"
She stopped short, making sure she had the werewolf's full attention before speaking. He looked surprised at what must have been a very grievous look on her face as she faced him. "You just don't get it, do you, Remus?"
At that moment, the hospital wing's doors swung open again. Cassie's breath hitched as she realized she was standing awkwardly close to Lupin. She took a tentative step backward as she saw a tall, dark figure approach them from the corner of her eye. She hoped with everything in her that Severus hadn't heard her use of his nemesis's first name.
"Is everything alright?" came his baritone drawl. When she dared to look at him, he appeared rather inquisitive.
"Yes, Sev."
"I was just making sure Miss Black was feeling up to walking back to her quarters alone," Lupin said steadily.
"She'll be taken care of," replied Severus placidly. He slipped an arm under her shoulders and drew her closer to him.
"Of course," Lupin said, nodding once. "Good night, Professor Snape. Miss Black." All signs of jocundity now absent from his disposition, the lone wolf left them.
Severus was true to his word. He kept a steady hand on Cassie's arm the entire walk down to his quarters, even after her insistence that she felt fine. Not wanting to stress her further, he didn't start to question her on the details of what happened on her patrol until she was soaking beneath hot bath water and fragrant, soothing oils. But once he started, he didn't let up.
"There were five dementors?"
"For the third time, yes, Sev."
"And they weren't attacking the group at the lake, they were going after the couple - "
"Yes." Her persistence only made him press harder.
"And you and Lupin were able to drive them away without issue," he continued slowly.
She didn't answer him, not bringing herself to be able to tell him a bald-faced lie, but not willing to admit that she hadn't been capable of producing a Patronus. It was a spell she had been able to perform with ease at a young age, and tonight she felt like a dunce. "Mmm," was all she could muster as she laid her head back and closed her eyes, hoping that he would see her fatigue and let her be for the time being.
"Cassie, you seem much more drained than when you faced the dementors on the train. Even than when you spent hours with hundreds of them in Azkaban."
Damn his all-too-accurate observations about her. She had half a thought to close off her mind in case he tried to push into hers unexpectedly, but she knew he wouldn't dare without asking first. "None of them attacked me in Azkaban."
He drew in a sharp breath in disapproval. "The Headmaster needs to deal with them straight away! Clearly, the students aren't going to stay off the grounds, they're as idiotic as always!"
"I'm sure he's doing all he can. But if Fudge has the dementors stationed here - "
"Fudge is an imbecile!"
"The statement of the century," she muttered. Finally, the Head of Slytherin was silent as he massaged the back of her neck and shoulders. She felt guilty, letting him fawn over her like he always did. She didn't deserve it, not when she was keeping the full truth from him.
The next week was filled with trivialities that Cassie would never have imagined she would endure as a staff member of Hogwarts. If Severus was bothered by seeing her and Lupin together outside the hospital wing, he wasn't showing it. Nonetheless, she avoided the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor as much as she could in an effort to remunerate his confidence in her. But Lupin wasn't making it easy on her. He had asked for her assistance twice in teaching the seventh years, and twice she had managed to come up with somewhat valid excuses not to. On that Thursday when he asked for her help in grading essays later that night, he finally seemed suspicious at her reaction.
"I'm helping Hagrid prep for his lessons," Cassie said quickly. She was trying to make her way from McGonagall's classroom to the dungeons. She needed to tend to the Wolfsbane potion while Severus was in a lesson, and the irony wasn't lost on her that she was currently trying to avoid the very werewolf they were brewing it for.
"You need to help him tend to his flobberworms? Isn't that what the students are doing in their lessons?" Lupin pressed. Cassie debated leading him somewhere else in the castle, somewhere Severus wasn't likely to find them speaking. But the ingredients she needed to add were time-sensitive, and it wasn't worth screwing up the batch just to avoid the Head of Slytherin's wrath.
"He's going to be teaching on something else."
"Really? That's good news. What is it?"
"He hasn't told me."
"Ah," replied Lupin, and Cassie could tell that he was playing along, "Hagrid has suddenly decided to be mysterious, has he? That's rather unlike him." Cassie shrugged in response. "Alright, so you're too busy to help me grade tonight. What about tomorrow after lunch?"
"I'm booked."
"With what?"
Cassie huffed, annoyed at the professor's blatant attempt to get her to fess up. The knowing smirk that appeared on his tired features only irritated her further. "Helping another professor."
"Who?"
"Would it satisfy your curiosity if I said it's not really any of your business?" she snapped. They had made it down to the dungeons, every step bringing them closer to where the potions lesson was currently in session. She needed to get to Severus's quarters where the cauldron of Wolfsbane was waiting, and there was no way she was letting Lupin follow her in there.
"I'll let it be," Lupin said lightly, "As soon as you admit that you're actually avoiding me."
She let a quartet of Slytherins pass them and get out of earshot before she replied. "I am. Now, if you'd kindly head back upstairs - "
"Because of what I am?" he suddenly blurted, and Cassie looked around to make sure there weren't any other students around to hear.
"Merlin's beard!" Cassie hissed. She grabbed the werewolf's sleeve and yanked him towards an empty chamber that used to be used for Filch's detentions many years ago. After slamming the door shut, she shoved him away from her. "You really don't get it, do you?"
"That's what you said to me outside the hospital wing," Lupin muttered, running a hand through his sand-colored hair.
"Do you really think I give a fuck that you're a werewolf?" she snarled.
"It makes sense - "
"It doesn't!"
"If not, then what?" he challenged, his blue eyes flooded with regard. "Because I thought you and I actually enjoyed each other's company, and after the dementors - "
"It's because of Severus, you dolt!"
Lupin sank back against a cobweb-covered chair, looking sincerely astonished. "You and I can't have a friendship because he won't let go of a grudge?"
Cassie let out a harsh guffaw in disbelief, shaking her head at the wizard's choice of words. "A grudge! That's what everything that you and your stupid little friends did to him boils down to in your mind?"
He stood back to full height then, true intensity finally taking over his poise. "You dare to insult them in front of me - "
She took a step toward him. Being smaller than an opponent never phased her. "Ha! You think that was an insult, do you, Remus? Shall we take a headcount? You seem to have forgotten that one of them, a mass murderer, currently has the wizarding world at a stand-still because he broke out of Azkaban!"
"And he's your cousin!"
"Oh, petty jab," she seethed. "I suppose I might've forgotten that my entire family is filled with murdering psychopaths!"
"Sirius aside, James was nothing but a true friend, an amazing husband and father - "
"James was an egotistical bully!"
"You're off your rocker! What if Harry heard you speak ill of his father?"
"Then he would be hearing the truth! And don't you bring Harry into this, you haven't even bothered to introduce yourself to him before the school year!" They were both smoldering with fury, glaring at each other with such tension that Cassie resisted the urge to magically throw a few rotting desks across the room just to release some of her anger. She was just glad that Machado had trained her to control her power last year.
After a few strained, silent moments, Lupin spoke. "So that's it, then? Even though you and I both understand what it's like to be shunned by our society, not because of our choices, but because of what we are, you're choosing to hate me. Because Severus dislikes me. He's not perfect either - "
"Don't start!" she snapped, and Lupin didn't try to continue, sensing that she wouldn't tolerate him saying any further on the matter.
And then she swallowed hard. At that moment she realized that he was right, that they could have a true connection in their shared lifelong experiences of being ostracized. Pity for the man before her welled in her chest when she thought of the many people that she had in her life despite it. Lupin had no one, not since her father had killed the Potters.
"I don't hate you, Remus. But Severus is everything to me, and being friendly with you would only cause him pain."
Lupin nodded, his eyes trailing to the dungeon floor. The two were silent again, and then the professor slowly made his way to the door. With his hand on the knob, he said softly, "I'm truly sorry that we - I - cut him so deeply that he cannot heal." When he disappeared into the corridor, Cassie bit back the sob of sorrow that threatened to leave her throat.
The days passed. Severus continued to work hard on making sure every step of the Wolfsbane potion was executed perfectly, occasionally delegating small tasks to Cassie if he had lessons to teach. Soon enough the week of the term's first full moon was upon them, meaning that Lupin would have to drink his first dose of Severus's brew.
"Lupin needs to drink every night up until his transformation," Severus was saying as he used his wand to siphon some of the smoking liquid from the cauldron into a goblet.
"Yes, Sev. You've said it more than a few times," Cassie reminded him, throwing another graded Charms essay onto her growing stack.
"It's very important."
"Yes, Professor Snape, sir."
"Always with that cheek," he commented silkily, the glow of the fire beneath his elixir accentuating the darkness of his eyes against his pale skin. She cast him a look that communicated her fervor for him. The corner of his mouth curled up just slightly when he noticed.
"And with that," she said, putting the papers she was working on into her bag and slinging it over her shoulder, "my cheek and I are off to my classroom."
"Tutoring hours again?"
"Neville and I are working on Doxycide."
"Perhaps I should make an appearance tonight," the Potions Master said nonchalantly.
"Oh," Cassie said uncertainly at the door, "I don't know that he's ready - "
"If we wait until he says he's ready, the boy never will be. He's not making any progress in my classroom. He nearly melted off his hands making Doxycide the other day."
She bit her lower lip, conveying her hesitancy. Those dark eyes flitted down to her mouth as they always did when she did that, and she couldn't help but smile. "Fine. But you can't talk to him. Just let him work."
He nodded once. "I'll be there after I make sure the werewolf drinks every last drop of this," he said, raising the goblet slightly.
Cassie wasn't surprised to see that Hermione was outside of her room with Neville, as she had accompanied him to the last three practice sessions so she could observe and take notes. Like the rest of the staff, Cassie knew about the Gryffindor witch's Time-Turner and couldn't fathom how she had enough energy to get her assigned course work done, let alone doing something unnecessarily extra like this. Having little reason to turn her away, she let her in along with Neville. At least she was making sure that her peer was getting to the lessons on time.
"You brewed Doxycide in Professor Snape's lesson this week?" Cassie asked as Neville headed to the desk in front. Hermione sat down nearby, taking out a quill, parchment, and a textbook.
"Yes Miss Black," the boy muttered. "Didn't go very well."
"For the tenth time, call me Cassie," she said as kindly as she could. She anticipated that Neville would brew the potion without much issue as he usually did in her classroom. For the first half-hour, she was right. It was just the right shade of robin egg's blue at the right stage, and he seemed calm and focused. She just hoped that he couldn't somehow sense her own anxiety as she expected Severus's arrival.
Hearing footsteps, she glanced up only to see Ron, Harry, Fred, and George enter the room. No sign of a brooding older wizard yet.
"Hey, Cass!" Ron said enthusiastically in greeting, and she threw her pointer finger over her mouth to silence him. "Blimey, if I didn't know better I would think you were Madam Pince in disguise," he muttered in exasperation, plopping down in a chair.
"People are working!" Hermione whispered, pointing to Neville and then continuing to scratch on her parchment.
"You're always working! Take a breather, will you?" Ron countered.
"If you're going to be here, you need to be working on homework or studying," Cassie said, shaking her head with a small smile on her face. Harry sat down and pulled out his Transfiguration book, but Fred rounded Cassie's desk and took a seat on top of the essays she was trying to grade while George went to peer into Neville's cauldron.
"Neville doesn't mind us being here, isn't that right Neville?" Fred said, taking an essay from beneath his bottom and starting to read it. Cassie snatched it away and rolled it up.
"I don't mind," Neville said as he stirred, a shy grin forming when George ruffled his hair, who then meandered over to Hermione's desk and peeked over her shoulder.
"Weren't you just bragging in the common room that you had written one foot over what Professor Vector assigned? Why are you rewriting it?" George asked.
Hermione snorted, clapping her textbook shut. "I'm going to the library!" she said hotly, beginning to pack her things away. All three Weasley boys sarcastically begged her to stay, and she shot them an annoyed glare as she left the room. Harry sniggered from his seat. Fine, Cassie thought. One less person to distract Neville.
Her attention went to the door again when it creaked open slightly. No Severus. This time it was Luna Lovegood, a second-year Ravenclaw that Cassie had yet to have in her open hours. She had a rather large orange clip in her hair in the shape of a moth, and she had charmed it to flap its wings. The fleeting thought that the young witch might start floating through the air went through Cassie's mind.
"Can I help you?" Cassie asked as the blonde girl approached her desk. Ron, who had been opening a chocolate frog, caught sight of the enormous moth on her head and scrunched up his nose in revulsion. The enchanted candy hopped from his desk and onto the floor without him noticing.
"I have a detention to serve from Madam Pince," Luna told her calmly, handing Cassie the slip. She read it over twice, confused as to why this girl was in her classroom.
"It says she wrote this up ten minutes ago."
"Yes."
"What did she give you detention for?"
"I was sitting in a chair upside down," said Luna dreamily, "and reading a library book sideways."
"Right..." Unsure as to why the librarian was so offended, Cassie scribbled on the slip and handed it back to Luna. "That's an absurd reason for assigning detention. Consider it served."
Luna studied Cassie's writing for a few moments and then looked around the room. "Do you always allow sweets in here, Miss Black?" she asked as Ron opened another chocolate frog. Scabbers poked his face out from Ron's pocket and sniffed.
"Be my guest," Cassie said absent-mindedly as she stood to see how Neville's potion was coming along. He only had a few more steps to complete, and it needed to be simmered and stirred the right number of times. Luna found a chair near the back of the room, sitting on it upside down and pulling a lollipop from her robes. George approached her, likely to charm her out of any other candy she might have in her pockets. Maybe Severus had decided not to come tonight after all.
Just as the thought went through her head, another person came into her room. She was slightly startled to see that it was her younger cousin, who had been either avoiding her or throwing her nasty looks ever since she had approached him in the courtyard. The state of the classroom seemed to catch him off guard, however. She watched as he looked around the room from just inside the doorway, surveying the students that were dispersed among the desks. Then he locked eyes with Harry.
"Draco," Cassie breathed, stepping away from Neville's cauldron. At the sound of her voice, his silver eyes ripped away from his Gryffindor nemesis and shot to her for a moment. Then he turned and left. "Fred, keep an eye on things!" she called as she trotted out into the entrance hall, not knowing if he had heard her or not.
She gripped Draco's arm when she caught up to him, and he turned to sneer at her. "Let go of me!" he demanded, ripping away from her.
"Just wait a minute," she pleaded. "What did you come to see me for?"
"What does it matter, Cassie? Look at the company you keep, it's disgusting!" he hissed. She opened her mouth to argue, and then she noticed Severus come down the grand staircase. She glanced from him to the classroom, and then he raised his eyebrows at her, ignoring the fact that she and Draco were clearly in a disagreement.
"Is Longbottom working on that potion right now, unsupervised?" Severus fumed, brushing past them.
"Wait!" Cassie said, not wanting Neville to be caught by surprise at the Potions Master's sudden appearance. She turned back to her cousin, who was shaking his head and turning away. "Draco, I'm sorry, I have to go - "
"Of course you do, cousin. Because every Gryffindor and mudblood and half-breed in this place matters more to you than me," he scoffed, and she had no choice but to let him go down to the dungeons alone. She rushed back to the classroom, hoping that she could intervene and keep Neville calm, make sure Severus didn't startle him too much with his unannounced arrival -
BOOM!
An explosion rattled through the classroom just as Cassie crossed the threshold. Her heart stopped at the knowledge that so many students were in the near vicinity. Waving her hand to force the smoke to swirl up to the enchanted ceiling, she could breathe again when she saw that Severus had contained the blast with a shield charm. Blue elixir had coated the magical sphere, and her floor beneath the cauldron had been scalded, but at first glance, everyone looked unscathed.
"Neville," Cassie croaked, walking up to the petrified boy and grabbing his shoulders. "What happened? Are you okay?"
"Fine," Neville said, clearly shaken. "Not sure, I don't know - "
Severus grabbed an empty vial off the desk labeled 'cowbane' and sniffed. "This ingredient was deliberately switched with shrivelfig," he murmured lowly. "That's the only thing that would cause such a reaction with Doxycide at this stage."
Cassie turned to Fred, then to George. Each twin wore a matching forced grin.
After Fred and George were assigned an appropriate amount of detention with Filch and the other students were dismissed to their common rooms, Cassie and Severus spent the next few minutes in a heated match. He berated her for allowing additional students in Neville's lessons, and especially for leaving them all unsupervised, even if it had been for a very small amount of time. Even though she knew Severus had valid points, her pride was still bruised.
"No more potions lessons with Longbottom!" Severus declared as he turned away from her living room fireplace to glower at her.
"Oh, really? And you think you have the authority to decide what I tutor?" she challenged.
"I am the Potions Master. If you think you can just rummage through my cupboards without my permission - "
"Your permission!" she huffed, standing up from her spot on the loveseat. "If you think I can't handle teaching a bunch of school-children some magic, then what am I doing here?"
"You certainly made a spectacle of yourself tonight, Cassie!"
"I made a mistake! It was a momentary lapse in judgment!"
"And if I hadn't been there, what would have happened to Potter and the rest of those students?" he countered.
Cassie looked at him, suddenly feeling deflated. Seconds ago she had jumped to her feet, ready to continue defending her choices and ability to teach. Now, she let out a long breath and sat back down, her eyes unfocused on the dwindling flames in her fireplace. "You're right. You're right, Sev." She sat forward, her face in her hands.
"I don't mean to be disparaging."
She looked up at him, running a hand through her raven locks as she considered his words. "And what if Lupin hadn't been there with the dementors?" she whispered.
His expression hardened. "What do you mean?"
"Honestly, I'm surprised that he hasn't said anything to anyone."
"Cassie," he breathed. It was rare that Severus Snape was at a loss for words.
"I couldn't produce a Patronus that night, Severus. I wasn't even in the right state of mind to try. If he hadn't been there, I would have been Kissed. And Merlin knows what would have happened to those students," she told him quietly. He looked dumbfounded, and she knew that he didn't want to think about owing Lupin any favors. But she couldn't avoid the topic forever. "Think of everything I've done in the past year. Now I can't handle supervising third years and patrolling the castle?"
"I didn't say - "
"I know you didn't. I'm saying it, Severus. I need help." She said it with disdain in her voice, and when her lover's pale complexion went even ashier, it made her feel even worse. "I need to figure out how to face the dementors."