It was another week until Cassia returned to her old self.

And it took a considerable amount of tears to do it.

The past week had gone by with no news from the outside, no big things happening inside, and a lot of boring work. Of course, Alecto was still slandering muggles, and McGonagall was still offering lots of cryptic help, as well as Flitwick and Sprout.

It was none of them, however, that reignited Cassia.

It was Amycus.

Because today was the day that defence against the dark arts got practical.

Amycus stood at the front, practically grinning, as he told them. "Today, I will be choosing one of you to... demonstrate on, as it were."

Wait a second, what the fuck?

"D-demonstrate what?" Pansy asked from the front.

"The cruciatus curse," Amycus smirked. "I think it's time you saw it... first hand."

Poppy was sat there, mouth half open. Cassia knew it was only a matter of time.

"Now, now, we need a willing, or unwilling, volunteer," Amycus said, fat smirk on his face. "How about... you? Miss... Patil."

And it was like Cassia jerked awake.

Amycus was stood at the front, staring straight at Poppy with a huge smirk. Poppy looked more terrified than Cassia thought she'd ever seen her, and she'd seen her fight death eaters.

Now, her best friend would have to fight the cruciatus curse. In front of their entire class.

No.

Because a part of Cassia was finally fighting back.

No.

Because she was finally seeing what her friends had been telling her all this time.

No.

It wasn't okay, no matter how expected, what the Carrows were doing. None of it was.

And she wasn't going to let her best friend fall victim to it.

"Come on, Miss Patil, we haven't got all day!"

So, as Poppy slowly pushed her chair back, Cassia opened her mouth. "No."

Everything went deathly silent.

"No?" Amycus echoed, raising his eyebrows at the girl. "And why not?"

Cassia swallowed. Here goes nothing.

"Because I'll do it."

Now, Cassia had endured the cruciatus curse before, way back in second year, when Tom Riddle had stolen her down into the Chamber of Secrets. It didn't mean she wanted to do it again, but she was willing to do anything to keep Poppy safe.

Her best friend, however, was hissing. "Cass, no-"

"I'll do it," Cassia only repeated, standing up.

"Very well, then, Miss Malfoy," Amycus relented, still smirking. "Come on down."

Each foot felt like it was encased in concrete as Cassia made her way down to the pulpit at the front of the class. She could feel all the eyes on her as she passed, but she willed herself to stay quiet and calm. She couldn't bail now.

When she got to the front, she stood opposite Amycus, trying to ignore all the eyes on her, some terrified, some confused, some happy.

"Alright, then," Amycus smirked, raising his wand. "Crucio!"

"AAAARRRGGGHH!"

As soon as the red light hit her, the pain came. Cassia collapsed to the floor with a gut wrenching shriek, tears suddenly streaming down her face. The pain was hot, and searing, and it was absolute fucking torture.

Then, it stopped.

Cassia lay on the ground in front of the class, her face hot with sweat and tears, her whole body aching. She had never felt more pain than what that curse gave her.

"Do you see the pain the curse creates?' Amycus was telling the class above her. "The way the victim immediately becomes helpless? This curse is a most useful one. Crucio!"

And then again, the pain came. This time it was worse, and the scream tore from her throat before she even properly felt the pain. But then the bursts of it came, like thousands of tiny knives were stabbing at her, and she screamed louder.

When it stopped, she was sure Amycus was smirking.

"Well done, Miss Malfoy," he told her. "Most don't even have the strength for that."

I hate you, Cassia thought, as she lay on her side on the ground. I absolutely fucking hate you.

"You can go back to your seat now," her professor smirked. "Come on, get up."

I. FUCKING. HATE. Y-

And there was nothing, another thought interrupted, as she dragged herself up, that she could do about it.

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How Cassia managed to get up and get back to her seat, she didn't know. How she managed to continue with the rest of the lesson, she didn't know.

What she did know was that as soon as it was over, Poppy, Cassia, Neville and Seamus all gathered in a small cupboard off the entrance hall, all looking grave.

"Thank you so much," Poppy breathed, hugging Cassia and whispering in her ear. "I love you, Cass. You're amazing."

"It's- it's fine," Cassia said, as Poppy pulled back. "I'm okay."

She was going to pass out if she stayed standing, however, so she sat down, sliding down the wall and sitting in a heap at the bottom. Her three friends wasted no time in joining her, all four of them sitting down in the small cupboard.

"But that's not okay," Neville said, shaking his head as he looked across at Cassia. "None of that was okay. We shouldn't be learning about that curse, let alone watching him use it on a classmate!"

"Yeah," Poppy nodded.

"Yeah," Seamus agreed.

"Yeah," said Cassia, finally. "We need to do something. Help ourselves and everyone else."

All three of them looked at her.

"What?" She frowned.

Poppy smirked. "You're back."

Cassia thought about it for a second. Yesterday, she'd been accepting the fact that the Carrows were here, and were taking over. She was just going to lay low and accept it.

Today, she realised she wanted to do anything but. She could've watched Poppy get tortured today, had she not stepped up, and now, sitting here, she realised she never wanted that to happen again.

"Yeah," she smirked back at Poppy. "I mean, I guess if my boyfriend's breaking into the ministry, and all of you are insighting rebellion, then I can't help but tag along."

Poppy giggled slightly.

"So, how are we going to do it?" Seamus asked. "It's not like we can just publicly say we're against them, they'll torture us."

"And our loved ones on the outside," agreed Poppy.

"So, we don't do it publicly," smirked Neville. "We do it all in the shadows. We can- we can recruit people, and graffiti walls, and- and refuse to take part in things like what happened today. We don't have to fight them to stop them."

Cassia smirked back at him, because he was right. They didn't have to fight anyone, and best of all, she could be part of this rebellion without letting her family know. It was like she was a part of something, like a- a secret gr-

"Wait," Cassia said, interrupting whatever plan Poppy and Neville and Seamus were hatching as they all looked at her. "We're forgetting something."

"What?" All three of her friends frowned at her.

"We already have a secret group, a society," Cassia smirked. "It's ready formed and waiting. We're all part of it."

And around her, her friends were smiling too.

So when she said the name, it wasn't just her, it was all four of them.

"The DA."

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"Are you serious?"

"Yeah, and-"

"We're getting the DA back toge-"

"Shut up, or there will be no one to do i-"

"Sorry, it's just-"

"Shut up, Parv-"

"I'm-"

"Right," Cassia, who had been observing the conversation between Parvati, Padma and Poppy, stepped in. "Yes, Parvati, Padma, we are restarting the DA. We're meeting tonight at seven pm in the Room of Requirement, don't be late."

It'd been like this all day. Poppy and Cassia, Neville and Seamus and Ginny and Luna (who had been the first two to agree to the plan, and the first two asked) had gone around in pairs, telling past DA members about the plan. They'd made a list, only telling the most trusted people, the ones they knew wouldn't say no.

Right now, Cassia and Poppy were speaking to the latter's two triplet sisters, who were more than happy to join.

"We'll do it," Padma said, a bright smirk on her face. "I mean... after what happened yesterday, we... we can't do nothing."

"Exactly," Cassia nodded. "And this is the perfect way to start."

Five minutes later, she crossed Parv and Pads off the list she and Poppy had made. The two of them were now alone in their dorm, not speaking, but not awkward, either.

Then Poppy said. "I know this isn't your reason for doing this, but he'd be really proud of you."

Cassia stilled, holding the piece of parchment tighter.

"Yeah, well," she sighed, avoiding Poppy's gaze. "If he were here, he'd probably do it a lot better than me, so..."

"You know that's not true," Poppy rolled her eyes. "He'd be proud of you, Cass. He'd want to punch the shit out of Amycus for what he did to you, but he'd be proud of you."

Cassia sighed, lying back on her bed and closing her eyes. "I want to see him again."

Poppy nodded. "I can assure you, he wants the same. He mooned about all summer, thinking of you."

Cassia sighed, a smile twitching her lips. "I still can't believe he forgives me."

"Oh, he does more than that," Poppy chuckled. "He was all 'I wanna kiss her so much' and 'I wanna hold her' and 'I wanna run my fingers through her hair'-"

"Shut up," Cassia couldn't help but smile as she sat up, sniggering slightly, her cheeks very, very red. "He was not like that-"

"I can tell you first hand, he was," Poppy grinned. "He was even gonna describe what it felt like to kiss you, but I drew the line there. You hardly wanna hear everything about your best friend's snogging habits."

Cassia rolled her eyes, looking down at the ground and muttering. "Harry Potter, you're an idiot."

Poppy grinned back at her, saying. "And I can guarantee he'll be reading your letter every night. It's what kept him alive, I swear."

"This conversation is over," Cassia told her best friend.

"Oh come on, Cass-"

"Over!" Cassia repeated with a sigh, looking down at her list, which one contained one name that wasn't scored off.

Cho Chang?????????

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Oh shit, this was awkward.

Cassia and Poppy stood opposite Cho in the small confinements of a broom cupboard, which, since she was a Ravenclaw, was one of the only places they could all go without getting in trouble.

The last time Cassia had spoken with Cho, she'd yelled at her for outing the DA.

The very same group she was just about to ask her to join.

But things were different now. Cassia was dating Harry and if Cho was still after him (which there was a good chance of) then this was going to be difficult. Why on earth did Cassia write the girl's name on her list?

"So, er... what did you want to talk to me about?" Cho asked. "Is it, I mean... is it about Harry?"

Cassia's body tensed. It was in that moment that she realised Cho didn't know she and Harry were dating, so this could in fact get very, very fucking awkward.

"Sorry," Cho said, at the look on Cassia's face. "It's just... well, this is kind of awkward, but... well, you guys are friends, right? And I... I kinda still like him."

Oh, fuck.

Poppy and Cassia exchanged glances, which Cho thankfully didn't catch, and then Poppy said. "No, actually, this isn't about Harry."

"Oh," Cho seemed disappointed. "Sorry for telling you all that then," she said with a nervous giggle. "What's this about, then?"

Cassia hadn't expected to feel as jealous as she was right now. But Harry was hers. He was the only thing in her whole, fucked up world that was just hers, and she wanted to keep it that way.

However, she couldn't tell Cho they were dating. Because she story was too complicated, and it took a long time.

So she just sighed, and explained the other story. "Right, so... I don't know if you heard what happened the other day in defence against the dark arts, but-"

"Yeah, I- um... I heard about that," Cho nodded, looking down. "I'm... I'm sorry, Cassia."

Cassia gave her a slight smile. "Thanks. But anyway, um... because of what happened, we're... we're gonna restart the DA again."

If she tells, we're dead, ran through her mind as she watched Cho react to this news. First, her eyes widened, then her mouth fell open, then she caught herself, and gasped slightly before righting herself.

"We need to do something about this, and we're gonna try," said Poppy. "First meeting's tonight in the Room of Requirement at- Cho, are you okay?"

"Yeah," Cho, who was looking sad all of a sudden, nodded.

"What's wrong?" Cassia frowned.

"It's... I'm fine, I just-" Cho looked up at them. "Why would you ask me to join? I... I betrayed all of you last time."

"Well," Cassia shrugged. "We're giving you a second chance. If you sell us out this time, we'll never forgive you, but you deserve this."

Cho smiled at both of them. "Thank you," she told them. "And of course I'll join. There's a meeting tonight?"

Cassia nodded. "At seven o'clock in the Room of Requirement."

Cho smiled slightly, and then before Cassia could think, she was hugging her, and then Poppy.

"Thank you," she whispered into both their shoulders, before pulling back, looking at them. "See you tonight."

"See you," Cassia and Poppy smiled, as Cho headed out the cupboard.

As soon as the door shut, Poppy said. "Well, that's gonna be an awkward conversation."

"Shut up," Cassia sighed. "She's not telling on us, that's what matters."

But deep down, jealousy was stirring in her stomach.

And she absolutely hated it.