[Spitfire : Chapter Forty-Three]

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30 October, 1994

With the help of Isaac Deehan and his extensive familiarity with Hogwarts escape routes, on the thirtieth of October Cassie Snow managed to sneak into Hogsmeade wizarding village during the arrival of the Beauxbatons students and Durmstrang students for the Triwizard Tournament.

A small part of her wanted to be there during the historical arrival, to see the differences of the other wizarding schools in Europe. But she had more important matters to take care of, ones concerning B.S backwards and a cup of tea at Wanda Lovingstone's Brewery hidden in the middle of the village. Cassie wouldn't have found it unless she hadn't chugged her entire bottle of pumpkin juice. Once she spotted a small muggle-like porta-potty beside two large shops, she found herself walking into a dimly-lit brewery with an even stronger urge to pee. Out of nerves.

After hovering over a drunken-piss covered toilet and doing her business, taking twice as long as possible out of nerves, Cassie made her way to an empty table inside the brewery. She couldn't decide how she wanted to look, whether she wanted to keep her natural color of hair or to make it blue, to reflect her true personality. Would B.S backwards consider changing it blue an insult? That she doesn't like the silky black that runs in his and therefore her blood? Or will he like the blue, her control over her ability.

Would she look too much like her mum and scare him away with the black hair?

    A waitress stopped in front her table. "Hello Ms . . ." She paused, inquiring. "How old are you?"

    "Old enough to drink a coke, no ice." Cassie replied, pulling out two sickles. The waitress smiled unsurely and nodded, leaving Cassie alone to suffer through her anxious silence. Another waiter came over with a basket of baked bread and Cassie quickly buttered herself a piece, then panicked at the crumb-covered table.

She noticed she didn't have any utensils, meaning she didn't have a napkin either. Cassie stood up and stole some from an empty table and began wiping everything down, instead of sticking to the napkin like she hoped it only brushed off onto the seats.

At moments like those Cassie wished she was above age, she could easily magic everything clean in seconds.

    Cassie was awkwardly bent over her side of the booth trying to reach the edges with her cloth when she heard someone cough. Cassie quickly whipped up and turned to see a figure towering over her. Her mouth opened to screech but nothing came out, then her eyebrows scrunched at the person in front of her.

    Rather than a prison-uniformed black-haired Azkaban fugitive standing in front of her, a nicely-clothed scar-riddled former Hogwarts professor stood in front of her; Professor Lupin. Also known as Uncle Lupin, but they weren't on that level yet. Cassie peeked around him and found no one else, he was there alone. Was he going to bring her somewhere more secluded to officially meet her father?

    "Cassie." He smiled, dimples forming into his cheeks and the corners of his eyes crinkling.

"Ah, Professor Lupin!" Cassie greeted cheerily, masking her confusion with the cheerful greeting. Did she misinterpret the letter? After a second of wondering what was happening, Cassie eventually realized the man's hand hovering towards her was waiting for a shake.

    She went to shake as he put his hand down, resulting in her putting her hand back down and him putting his up.

    Lupin laughed, shaking his own hand. "Pleasure to see you after all this time, how has summer treated you?"

    "Odd, but not terrible." She replied as they sat across from each other. "And yours?"

     "Ditto." He stated, the waitress came back to give Cassie her soda. She exchanged a weary look between the older man and obvious Hogwarts-student before asking for his drink. After placing his order of a fresh glass of lemonade, he turned all his attention back towards Cassie.

"You're not going crazy." Remus stated in amusement.

Cassie chuckled nervously. "Pardon?"

"I'm guessing I wasn't the one you expected to see." Remus blankly stated, buttering himself a roll. "You're not crazy, there's been a bit of a . . . mishap."

"A mishap." Cassie calmly repeated. In her brain flashes of her re-incarcerated father swept through her mind, also with images of him laying dead on the ground with Professor Moody pointing his wand at him. "What kind of mishap?"

"The flu." Remus said, his eyes widening a bit for dramatics. "Attacked the entire home, coughing and sneezing humans everywhere."

"Oh," Cassie mumbled, didn't the wizarding world have a cure for influenza? "that sucks."

"Yes, it sure sucks." Remus chuckled, taking a bite of the roll as the waitress dropped off the lemonade. "As I haven't yet to show symptoms, we decided to send me rather than sticking you up."

"So I waited nearly a month and a half to see my fa—friend, only to not see him because he's sick?" Cassie asked, her face molded into an expression of annoyance and sorrow. Mainly sorrow because she knew she sounded horrible towards her uncle, who wasn't close enough to be called uncle; so Professor Lupin.

"The stars never seem to align for Sirius Black." He whispered, a chill went down Cassie's spine. She pretended such a thing didn't happen by taking a large chug of her cola.

"Wait," Cassie said, her head tilting like a curious pup. "didn't you say humans, as in plural? Who else is with you and . . . B.S backwards?"

"Just a friend, from school." Remus said, finally he started to express anxiousness. Now Cassie wasn't alone. "Don't worry, she's trustworthy."

"She's . . ." Cassie's brow scrunched. A photo from the yearbook she received a year or so before magnified in her mind. Aspen Lee was . . . gone. Lily Evans was gone. All the boys weren't she's, at least she didn't think so. Plus, one was dead, one was a traitor, one was her fugitive father, and one was in front of her. The last person in the photo wasn't either dead or a traitor, she was actually the former lover of Remus Lupin. "woah, wait."

"What did you just connect?" Remus asked, panic now in his eyes.

"That photo, the one of you and your whole 70s posse!" Cassie said, Remus' face contributed to a disgusted expression at the word 'posse.' "The one who you were dating, what was her name? The really short girl . . . why am I trying to explain her, you know who I'm talking about!"

Remus cringed. "Wendy Collins?"

"Yes!" Cassie grinned. "The girl with the Disney name. "I-Is it her?"

Remus' eyes trailed toward the window, and then the table before him. He gave a small curt nod and Cassie huffed, sitting back glad that she connected everything so easily.

    Cassie leaned back against the seat of the booth. "Was she a friend of my mum's?"

    "Oh yeah." Remus chuckled. "We wouldn't have known her if it weren't for Aspen. She and your mum were the best of friends, along with another girl but . . . she wasn't the type of person you'd want to make friends with."

    Evelyn Reid. The expelled teen who killed Cassie's mum in a Death Eater attack. Cassie knew of the girl after all the research she did, she knew what she looked like, what she did to become expelled, and how she died on the early hours of Christmas day in 1978. Cassie knew it was a sore subject, it hurt her greatly whenever she thought about it. But Remus and everyone else from that group grew up with her mum, they had actual memories with her. She decided to not bring the estranged girl up.

    "You know, I'm sorry for keeping everything from you." Remus said after a short silence. "No one ever meant to hurt you, just protect you."

    "I know," Cassie replied, she looked towards the closed blinds and then played with the twister that opened and closed them. "t-that day was too chaotic for me to form grudges."

    "Are you sure?" Remus asked, although relieved. "I wouldn't mind becoming a punching bag. Neither would our friend when you finally see him."

    "I won't punch either of you unless I get a genuine reason too." Cassie smirked. Her expression then fell into a frown. "I was kind of looking forward to today. The excitement was to equal length with my unrelenting anxiety."

    "Like mother like daughter." Remus sighed. "Believe me, Cassie, he was equally as excited and nervous. He's been waiting for today for over a decade. But he didn't want to get you sick on your first meeting, or even have you officially meet him while he's sniffling into a tissue."

    "I get that," Cassie said, still wondering if there was a cure or not for influenza. Was she just making up the idea to make him the bad guy? "I'm just disappointed."

    "Oh, the disappointment card." Remus said, dramatically clutching his head. Cassie's lips quirked in amusement, she was then reminded her professor was once a troublemaker at her own very school. "It took me a year and a half to pull mine out, and here you are doing it before even seeing him. I'm quite impressed."

    "Thank you, I'm here all day." Cassie grinned. "Well, not actually. The whole Triwizard thing is happening today. I wanna get back before the feast, so no one expects anything. You know?"

    "I understand," Remus nodded. "and I'm sorry today hasn't gone to as planned. You don't know how sorry he is too."

Cassie nodded, standing up out of her side of the booth. Rather than being frozen with nerves like how she did when she had entered, her body was now nearly slumped as all her adrenaline ran through. Plus, she was sort of disappointed. But she couldn't show that, not to Remus. He was surely going to report back to B.S backwards and Cassie didn't want him feeling bad.

    Then again, she did have a reason to guilt the man.

    No, she wasn't that evil.

Remus stood up in front of her, placing down his glass of lemonade that was gone except for a drop. "I guess this is where we part?"

"I suppose," Cassie said, adverting her eyes toward the door. "when will—"

"You'll get the information in a post," Remus smiled. "Frankenstein likes peaches, by the way. Apples stop him up."

    "Good to know," she giggled. Giggling? Is that what she did now? "it was lovely seeing you, everything was just so crazy last year . . . we never got to properly say goodbye."

"Ah, it's alright." Remus said, waving his hand. "I didn't want to stay too long after everything was outed. Dumbledore already had enough on his plate, he didn't need any angry parents ambushing him in his office."

    "Can they do that?"

    "Not legally."

    "O-okay," Cassie chuckled. "it was nice seeing you." Before anymore awkwardness could be shared between the two, Cassie began to make her way towards the exit of the cafe.

"Hey, Cassie." Remus called as her hand was on the handle. She stopped and dramatically turned on her heels, placing on a cheerful face to greet Lupin once more.

"Yeeeeees?"

"Have you, by any chance, talked to Harry recently?" He asked.

Cassie's heart lurched. She hadn't spoken to the boy since the last day of her fifth year when she got out of her way to say goodbye to the boy only to receive a grunt in response. "I haven't, no. Have you?"

    Remus scratched his neck, looking at the floor. "No, I-I haven't. Alright, enjoy the feast."

    Cassie left the cafe, the door loudly creaking as it closed. Remus was left at the table with two unpaid for drinks and a basket of bread. He laughed silently to himself. "Leaving me to pay, eh?"

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    Upon entering the school, Cassie found herself in an empty hallway. Of course it would be empty, everyone else was too busy meeting the other schools in the Great Hall. Cassie readied herself to enter the enormous expanse, making sure her tie was perfectly imperfect and even shortening her hair a bit. She wanted to make her utter-most best impression with the other schools.

Cassie was the only metamorphmagus out of all three schools, her blood type was more common with American witches and wizards. Even latin, too. Only rarely was it passed down in European families. Cassie's thoughts were ambushed by the second with more questions and curiosities as she stood outside the ten-foot long doors of the Great Hall. Which side of her blood-family did her ability come from? The Blacks or Lee's?

Would she even be accepted by the Black's due to her oddity? Or would she be treated the same as she was in third year when the idiotic Ravenclaw's chopped off an inch of her hair?

"Excuse me," Said a voice, startling Cassie out of her daze. "are you going in?"

Cassie turned to see a dark-skinned boy with shiny black hair wearing a long baby-blue trench coat. A foreigner. Cassie placed a smile on her face, "I am, are you?"

"Oui," He grinned. "I'm Avante Mauss, you?"

    "Cassie Snow," Cassie said, shaking the boys hands. "from your uniform I'm guessing you're not from around here?"

    "You are correct," he grinned. "I go to Beauxbatons, w-we've just arrived. Were you . . . absent?"

    "Aye," Cassie nodded, quickly thinking for her excuse. "D-Dumbledore called for me."

    "Dumbledore . . . that is your headmaster, oui?" Avonte inquired. "Wasn't he there to introduce our arrival?"

    "You didn't let me finish." Cassie nervously coughed, placing on a grin. "He called me to, er, finish up some of his, um, filing. Yes, filing. A detention of sorts, I'm not a key student, per say."

"Ah," Avonte smiled, dimples carved in his cheeks. "I suppose we shall go in now?"

"Yes, great idea." Cassie went to push the enormous doors open but faltered. "wait, what were you doing? Shouldn't you be in the Great Hall with everyone else?"

"I was," He said. "I was curious as to how your school looked, it's much larger than mine."

    "Well, I hope your observation was, er, exceptional." Cassie said, opening the door. The Great Hall was full of excited chatter and students of all different uniform were sitting at each houses table. Gryffindor and Ravenclaw holding most of the outsiders. Though, at Slytherin there was an influx of girls and boys wearing Russian-like uniforms with canes leaning against the wall behind them. Durmstrung, most likely.

    "You wouldn't mind if I sat with you, would you?" The boy asked as Cassie began her way to her table. Rose and Fiona were taking to a blonde-haired beauty from Beauxbatons and Kennedy was at the Hufflepuff table playing solitaire with a Durmstrang student. Isaac was being bombarded by a group of Beauxbaton girls who weren't trying to hide the fact they were trying to suck up any ounce of attention the socially-anxious boy gave.

"Er, no. I guess not." Cassie shrugged. It wasn't her first thought but she didn't have a reason to not want him there. Rose noticed her first and waved her over frantically, Cassie grabbed Avonte's wrist and drug him behind her as she went to her blonde-haired friend.

    Cassie sucked in a deep breath as she passed a familiar red-haired boy, purposely making sure she didn't suck in his cinnamon body-scents while passing by. She kept her eyes straight ahead to show how angry she was, though she knew he watched her as they passed by. Startling her out of her determined facade, there was an enormous tug on her arm and then a slam as Avonte fell to the floor, nearly on top of her.

     Fred was standing there behind them, a mischievous grin on his face morphing to surprise when he noticed Cassie's glare. "Oh, my bad, kid!" He held out a hand. "Here, let me help you up."

    Avonte, not noticing that Fred was only acting nice, gladly took the arm and brushed himself up once back on his feet. Not many students noticed the incident other than the ones close by, including both Cassie and Fred's friends. "Merci. Merci. Ex-cuse me, I am clumsy."

    "It's my fault," Fred said. "I'm Fred Weasley, I see you've met Spitfire here." 

    "Spitfire?" The French-native questioned curiously. Unfamiliar with the nickname . . . or word.

    "It's a stupid nickname created by an idiot a long time ago." Cassie glared. "Call me Cassie, just Cassie. Or Cas."

    "Okay, Cas." Avonte smiled, he turned to Fred. "I'm Avonte Mauss."

    "Pleasure to meet you, Mauss."

     "And you."

     "Okay, chat times over." Cassie said, grabbing Avonte's wrist again. "I'm sure my friends are waiting ever-so patiently to meet you, Avonte. Bye, Weasel."

    Before he could respond, Cassie pulled Avonte to her friends. They ate the rest of dinner chattering amongst each other, Avonte wasn't as bad as company as Cassie thought he'd be. He and Rose had most in common, due to both being French-born, but he seemed most comfortable talking to Cassie. Cassie liked that, it made her feel important. Once dinner was over, the goblet of fire was introduced to the Great Hall. It was where they'd enter their names to join the Triwizard Tournament.

     Only seventeen and above were allowed to enter, Cassie was amongst the many who shouted negatively at the announcement. Rose and Fiona were mocking her with laughs, especially Rose who had just turned seventeen a few weeks before. Once that was all set and done they returned to the dorms where Avonte and Cassie split for the first time since meeting.

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     It was around four in the morning when Cassie woke up drenched in a cold sweat. She had dreamt that Mayhem, her chaotic owl, was shot by a hunter and then bled on a hook by Professor Moody. It was scarring and she decided she didn't need to sleep the rest of the night, if she really needed sleep she could just take a medicated nap later in the day.

    She grabbed her wand and then made her way to the common room. It was completely barren, as estimated, and Cassie sighed. She may had been hoping there was company. Cassie jumped over the back of the couch and laid on her back, staring at the misty ceiling that twinkled in the moon light. Her eyes drooped every few seconds and she had to remind herself of her bloody owl to widen them again.

    The rattling of hooks sounded in her ears and then a stomp caused her to jump up, wand held readily to hex any butcher that came near her. Instead, she found the one and only Harry Potter with his back facing her, he was standing above the fire place. He didn't even know she was there. That made her uncomfortable, as he crouched down in front of the fire she called his name. He jumped and his hand landed directly on the flames.

     "Holy shite!" Cassie screeched, standing up and yanking the shocked boy back from the fireplace. "I'm so sorry, Harry. I didn't know you'd leap like that!"

    He panicked, looking between her and the fireplace under his spectacled eyes. "I-It's okay, I'm alright. I've had worse. I-I need to go."

    "Ha-ha, funny." Cassie sarcastically laughed, bringing him to sit on the couch. "Let me mend that for you. Merlin, this is bad. How are you not crying? I would be."

"I'm used to it," Harry mumbled, nervously glancing towards the fire. Cassie peeked over for a moments and spotted nothing but the still-crackling fire, she didn't even know what else she would have been expecting. "I'm fine, I can fix it mys—"

"Nonsense," Cassie dismissed. "let me go fetch my burn paste."

Cassie ran up the dorm stairs as quickly as she could to retrieve the paste, she didn't want Harry to leave. She grabbed it from a box under her bed and ran back down, nearly sliding down the steps in her fuzzy socks. When she arrived back to Harry her hair was a blondish-white due to the scare she had on the steps. He was there, thankfully. He also seemed to be shushing himself, or her. Either or. She silently sat down and held his palm, he seemed distant as she rubbed the orange paste on.

She didn't blame him, he probably knew by then the relation between the both of them.

"So . . ." Cassie mumbled. "have you, er, spoken to You-Know-Who recently?"

Harry's eyes widened and he finally looked at her, she also heard a scoffing noise but shook it off after spotting no one. "You mean, Voldemort?"

Cassie's own eyes widened. "Merlin, no! I mean, him. Black."

"Oh." Harry said, his mouth forming an 'O.' "I-Ive spoken to him, yes."

"Do you speak to him often?"

Harry stayed silent.

"I'm not trying to interrogate you," Cassie said, wiping off the excess paste from his hand with the side of the sofa. "I'm only curious."

"We try to talk weekly." Harry stated, his eyes peering away.

"Hm." Cassie nodded. Speaks to Harry weekly and her non-weekly? Rude. "Next time you talk to him tell him I hope he gets better soon."

"Pardon?"

"You know," Cassie said, scooting back a bit so the space between them was less awkward. "he's got the flu. I hope he's better soon."

"O-Okay, yeah, sure. I'll do that." He nodded. Cassie nodded softly to herself. "How do you know that he's, er, sick?"

"A magician never shares her secret." Cassie grinned. "So, Harry, may I ask a question?"

"Asking this time?"

"Ha-ha, very funny." Cassie rolled her eyes. "Do you know the relationship between Sirius and I?"

Harry sat silent for a moment and then nodded his head.

"So you know the relationship between us?"

This time, he peered his eyes and shook his head.

Cassie's eyebrows scrunched. Could he not connect the dots between godfather and god sister? "Altogether, what do you know?"

"You're Professor Lupin's niece." Harry stated confidently. Cassie's eyes widened a bit but she quickly relaxed herself. "and since Professor Lupin and Sirius are friends, you were like a niece to him too. God-niece. So I guess that'd make me your god-cousin?"

"I suppose . . ." Cassie said, cracking her knuckles. "I-I'm going to try and sleep now. It was nice talking to you, Harry, you should try to sleep too. Tomorrow's a big day."

"A-Alright, bye." Harry waved, rubbing his formerly-burnt hand.

Cassie made her way back to her dorm and sat criss-crossed on top her bed. God-niece? Did Sirius tell him that or Remus? Was she supposed to be upset, betrayed, or fine with it? Was she herself even comfortable with the idea of Harry knowing she's his god-sister and the actual daughter of Sirius? After a while of thoughts swarming her mind she finally laid back in exhaustion and got her final moments of sleep before Halloween day.

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Before arriving back to Wendy's household, Remus stopped by a pub he would frequently visit during his youth. He took three shots of whiskey and then made his way back, accidentally apparating three blocks away the first time due to his fuzzy mind. He took a quick swing of a canteen of water he held in his magically-extended pocket and then made his way inside. Like the dog he was, Sirius greeted him at the door.

"How did it go?" The ruffled man asked. His shoulder-length hair was poking in all different ways and he followed behind Remus barely a foot away.

"Fine," Remus said, entering the kitchen where Wendy sat reading the Daily Prophet. On the cover was Sirius' maniacal mugshot screaming to be released. "everything went well."

"Was she angry that I didn't go?" Sirius asked, sitting on a seat across from his stressed friend.

"More sad than angry." Remus answered, taking a sip of Wendy's coffee. Wendy glared at him and took it back, sipping it after to show her dominance. "But she didn't try to show it, I could tell by her hair. I don't think she noticed it was changing."

"Damn it," Sirius grunting, his head collapsing into his arms. "I suck."

"No doubt about that." Wendy said, sipping her coffee. "There was no sign of betrayal? Or anyone watching."

"Nope, we were practically the only ones there." Remus answered. "And if anyone was watching from outside I would've noticed."

"So she's safe." Wendy nodded, her lips twitching a bit into a smile. "I knew she wasn't a traitor, like her mother she is."

"And her father." Remus said, patting Sirius on the back.

"And her father." Wendy mumbled softly. "Sirius, you need to understand. This was a must, we never know what a teenager is thinking. Especially after learning life-changing news. But now we know she wouldn't betray you, you can see her now without the fear of aurors."

"I shouldn't even have to question her loyalty." Sirius muffled. "I'm a horrible father."

"Let's not forget I'm the one who came up with the idea." Remus said. "If you're a horrible father than I'm a god-awful uncle."

Sirius' body jumped a bit, Remus smirked at the movement. He just made his friend laugh. Sirius lifted his head and rubbed his face. "I hate this."

    "We know you do, Padfoot." Remus said, "But we can never be too careful anymore. Besides, now you can meet her without any worry whatsoever. Other than meeting her, of course."

    "And worrying about your appearance," Wendy said, grabbing a small bag of crisps from her cabinet. "you've been pretty ragged recently, Black."

    "I'm going to ignore the 'ragged' part and focus on the pretty." Sirius responded, taking a sip of Wendy's coffee.

    "What, is this coffee for everyone now?" Wendy asked, snatching her coffee away from the boys and placing it on the table behind her. "Paws off, both of you."

    "Yes, love." Sirius said, his nose held high in a way to swirl her heart. A technique he used to use on Euphemia Potter, Merlin rest her pleasant soul.

    "Call me love again and—"

    "Calm it, you two." Remus said, using his professor voice to get both their attention. "Before I get the spray bottle."

    Sirius humphed and sat back in his seat. Wendy held up a finger, regretting the fact she ever told the boys her patronus was a white snow-leopard.

Authors Note:

Crazy stuff guys. I began writing this chapter very happily around Thursday and planned to finish it Friday but then guess what. At a doctors appointment I apparently had blood sugar in the 200s and now i'm on day 3 in the hospital with a diagnosis of type 1 diabetes. I get to leave tomorrow but ay at least while trapped in this hell hole i got to write (when i wasn't suffering a stress-induced migraine.) Pray for me (to the harry potter gods above) because now I can't binge eat like how I oh-so love. Otherwise, I hope you enjoyed this many-perspectived chapter. Vote and comment if you liked, or if you just want to be nice, it'd be appreciated. (:

February 2, 2020
4,593 words