It took a long time for her to wake up.

Even Potter woke before her.

And all of them, even Poppy, were gathered round his bed, to her left, by the time she came to.

Well, apart from Ron, she soon realised, as she turned her head sideways to see that he was on her right side, on a different bed, his bitten leg all wrapped up and elevated.

"Cassia-" he spluttered as he saw she was awake. "Cassia- she's awake!"

"Mmmh," Cassia made a muffled noise, her head spinning as Hermione and Poppy came rushing over to her.

"Cass! Oh thank god!" Poppy said, practically jumping on her best friend as she hugged her.

Cassia let out a small, hoarse laugh. "Hey, Poppy."

"We were so scared when they told us you and Harry passed out," Poppy said, pulling back.

Cassia frowned. "But what about Sirius?"

Hermione and Poppy fell silent, and Cassia frowned. "What's going on?"

"Listen, Harry, Cassia," Hermione took a step back from the girl's bed so she could address them both. "They captured Sirius, the dementors are going to perform the kiss on him any second."

"What?!"

Cassia felt more alive than she had in weeks as she jumped out of bed, not even caring that a couple of seconds ago she was lifeless. Potter, too, seemed the same. He had been lying down before, but now the both of them were standing up, looking at Hermione and Poppy with anger, confusion and a beg for an answer.

"No, no, that's- he's innocent!" Cassia burst out.

"Wait, are they going to kill him?" Harry demanded.

"No, Potter, they're going to suck out his fucking soul!"

It wasn't the gentlest way to put it, but it was true, and now wasn't the time for sugarcoating.

In the silence that followed this, the doors to the hospital wing opened, and in them walked Dumbledore before he shut them firmly behind him.

"Headmaster, you've got to stop them!" Hermione protested. "They've got the wrong man!"

"It's true, sir, Sirius is innocent," Harry added, as Dumbledore came closer to them.

"It was Scabbers who did it!" Ron put in from across the hospital.

"Scabbers?" Dumbledore frowned, looking past the four before him to the redhead on the bed.

"My rat, sir," Ron explained. "He's not really a rat- well, he was a rat, he was my brother Percy's rat, then they gave him an owl and I got-"

"The point is we know the truth," Poppy cut across him with an eye roll. "Please believe us."

"I do, Miss Patil, but I'm sorry to say the word of five thirteen year old students will convince few others," Dumbledore sighed, beginning to pace around the hospital. "A child's voice, however honest and true, is meaningless, to those who have forgotten to listen."

As he finished, a sound started.

The strike of the clock. The big one, up in the tower looking onto the courtyard. With a glance down at her watch, Cassia saw it was now half past ten. In actual time, she had only punched her brother about three hours ago, but it felt like a lifetime. The revelations and confessions in the past three hours had made time drag on in a way that twisted it, and Cassia wasn't quite sure what to make of it only having been three hours since her whole world changed.

Dumbledore, as if mirroring her thoughts, said. "Mysterious thing, time. Powerful... and when meddled with, dangerous."

He paused, his back turned to them, and raised his voice.

"Sirius Black is in the topmost cell of the dark tower," he declared, turning around to face them. "You know the laws, Miss Granger - you must not be seen. And you would do well, I feel, to return before this last chime. If not, the consequences are too ghastly to discuss. If you succeed tonight... more than one innocent life will be spared," he made to leave, but then turned back, saying directly to Hermione. "Three turns should do it, I think."

He gave them all a sweeping glance as he made to leave, then turned, almost shutting the doors before turning back one last time to deposit more wise advice.

"Oh, and by the way, when in doubt, I find retracing my steps a wise way to begin. Good luck."

And then he was gone.

Cassia turned to Hermione instantly, saying. "Can you please tell me what all that crap was about?"

Hermione said. "Not right now - Cassia, Poppy, you need to understand that this'll be dangerous, and you don't have to go if you don't want to-"

"What are you-"

"Ron, I'm sorry but you can't walk," Hermione finished, turning back from her best friend to Cassia and Poppy. "Are you coming?"

"Where are you going?" Cassia folded her arms, raising her eyebrows.

"That's what I'd like to know," Harry said.

"I can't tell you right now, I'm sorry," Hermione sighed. "Just, come on, are you coming?"

Cassia looked to Poppy, who shrugged.

"I'm happy to sit this one out," she announced, holding her hands up. "I'll stay here with Ron and we'll wait together. You- you should go, Cass."

"Go where-?"

"Cassia, you just have to trust me, okay?" Hermione exclaimed, sounding very stressed. "If you're coming, come here."

Well, Cassia had never turned down an adventure before.

She sighed. "I'm coming."

So, giving Poppy a slight smile, she headed over to beside Harry and Hermione, still fully confused about what she had signed up for.

She was slightly less confused, however, when Hermione took a gold chain out from under her hoodie, slinging it round Harry and Cassia's necks as well. Then she held up what was on that chain, and Cassia saw it was a bunch of turning circles with a small hourglass inside the smallest one.

Oh my god.

"Is that-?"

"Not now, Cassia!"

Hermione looked even more stressed as she slowly turned the middle circle back thrice.

Then the whole thing started to spin.

And so did the whole world.

Cassia didn't really remember most of it, she just knew that five seconds later, there they were, standing in the hospital wing. Except this time, the hospital wing was empty apart from them. Poppy and Ron were not present.

Hermione hurriedly removed the chain from Harry and Cassia and stuffed it back into her hoodie.

"What just happened?" Harry asked bemusedly, looking around in shock. "Where's Ron and Poppy?"

"Seven thirty," was all Hermione said back to him. "Where were we at seven thirty?"

"Going down to Hargid's," Cassia answered, because she had been thinking the very same thought only moments ago.

Hermione nodded. "Come on, and we can't be seen."

Cassia had a pretty good idea of what was going on now.

They ran through the empty corridors, down the stairs, out through the courtyard and across the bridge.

It was when they got to the end of it that they started to hear a voice.

Cassia's voice.

"You fucking slimy git! You don't deserve friends, or a family! You're a fucking coward! You KNOW Buckbeak's done nothing wrong!"

Harry and Cassia's eyes widened as they got into the small stone building at the end of the bridge and heard the girl who was beside them yet not.

"That's us," Harry said as they peeked round the edge. "This is not normal-"

Hermione had had enough, turning round and shoving both Harry and Cassia back into the cold stone behind them.

She took out the chain again.

"This is a time turner," she explained. "McGonagall got it for me first term. I've been using it to get to my lessons all year."

Harry's eyes went wide.

"You mean we've gone back in time?"

"Yes," Hermione nodded. "Dumbledore obviously wanted us to return to this moment."

She peeked back round the stone again.

"Clearly something happened that he wants us to change."

Harry and Cassia also looked round behind her as the rest of the scene played out just below them.

"I hate you."

"C- Cassia-"

"I HATE you!"

As past-Cassia decked him square in the face, present-Cassia watched the scene with a small, triumphant smirk on her's.

"Draco, come on, let's get out of here!"

"Quick, run-!"

"Let's get out of here!"

"Don't breathe a word to anyone, understand-?"

"Malfoy's coming!" Hermione said, turning and shoving the other two back, causing them all to run out the other exit and hide round the side of the stone building as Draco and his stupid friends ran up.

"That was my sister, my blood!" He was yelling. "How dare she do that to me! I'm gonna get her!"

By 'get her', Cassia knew he meant 'tell father about this'. She shivered slightly at the thought. She was still yet to tell her father about Oswald, her owl, and had also not faced him since leaving halfway through the holidays last year, so this would not go well.

"Brat!"

She flinched as she thought about more beatings. She could still physically feel her father's hand slapping her cheek, and she hated to think what else could happen to her at those hands-

"Cassia, you okay?"

Hermione was frowning at her, and as Cassia jolted out her trance, she saw that she and Harry were both stood up.

"Yeah," she nodded, getting up with them. "Fine."

And she was.

She. Was.

Looking down the hill, she saw that the group of five had reached Hagrid's door, leaving their group of three to slowly advance down the hill in their wake.

But when they got to the stones Cassia punched Malfoy against a while ago - no, just a moment ago - Harry gasped.

"Look, Buckbeak's still alive!"

These words instilled Cassia with a happiness, as she knew her father hadn't won yet, but then she realised that Buckbeak would just get executed all over again in this reality, and-

"Of course," Hermione was ahead of her, though. "Didn't you hear what Dumbledore said? If we succeed tonight, more than one innocent life will be spared."

"We aren't just saving Sirius," Cassia realised with a gasp. "We're going to save Buckbeak, too."

She was so relieved at this, but it was also satisfying.

Because if they did succeed, she would've gotten one over on her father.

It's not like he would know it was her, or that she would ever tell him, but it would still be a victory. A silent victory, yes, but a victory nonetheless.

"Come on, let's go," she said eagerly to her two- friends? No, no Potter wasn't her friend. Two accomplices, shall we say.

They almost sprinted down the hill, anticipation and adrenaline kindling their passion for this mission. Their passion for saving Sirius and Buckbeak. Cassia's passion for beating Lucius.

But instead of just following their past selves into the hut, they split off from them once on the flat and ran down to duck behind the pile of large pumpkins in the small garden. Buckbeak was lying just beside them, looking as dejected and sad as he had been three hours ago.

Internally, Cassia rolled her eyes at herself. That's because this was three hours ago, and Buckbeak was looking like that now.

"This isn't fair, Hagrid! You know it isn't!"

Her voice coming from inside the hut startled her as she, Harry and Hermione peeked out from behind the pumpkins, looking in the window.

"Oh hell, this is weird," present-Cassia muttered as past-Cassia ranted on.

"It's my arsehole father and brother controlling everything and you shouldn't be suffering from it!"

It was true, she knew it was. But that didn't make it any easier to hear a second time.

She slipped down the pumpkin slightly, her side turned to it so her back was to Hermione and her front was to-

Potter.

Who was looking at her.

And she felt snapping, she felt like swearing, just as she heard past-her do the same thing inside. But then she saw his look. It wasn't angry, or sarcastic, or confused or even pitying.

It was something that Cassia had never seen from Harry Potter before.

It was empathy.

Then, slowly, he muttered to her. "I'm- I'm sorry, Cassia. This must've been hard on you."

Hold up, what?

Harry Potter was being nice to her.

And he didn't even have a reason to be. After all, it wasn't him that had orchestrated Buckbeak's execution, or him that had slapped her (even though she hadn't told anyone about that) yet he was still sorry.

But why?

"Er- thanks, Potter," she said quietly, her voice still a bit hoarse. "That-"

Voices behind them made all three look up, seeing Dumbledore, Fudge and the executioner walking down to Hagrid's. Again.

"They're coming," Harry said, eyes stuck to them, following their movement. He made to move. "We'd better go-"

Cassia, however, grabbed his arm, forcing him to stay put.

"Same rules apply in the past, Potter. Fudge has to see Buckbeak before we steal him, otherwise he'll think Hagrid set him free."

Harry sighed, slumping against the pumpkins. "That's not going to give us much time."

"Well, we'll have to make do with that-"

"Scabbers! You're alive!"

Ron's cry of relief and joy made them turn back towards the hut and look in the window, seeing the rat get placed into the boy's hands.

A feeling of spite and deep anger surged inside Cassia. Because now she knew that wasn't a rat, it was a man, and that man was a traitor-

However, from the look on Potter's face, he was feeling worse.

"That's Pettigrew," he said bitterly, spitting out the name spitefully.

Before Cassia knew what was happening, Hermione was launching behind her and grabbing her best friend's arm.

"Harry, you can't!" She hissed.

"Hermione, that's the man who betrayed my parents, you can't expect me to just sit here-"

"Yes- you must!"

Harry had tried to run round the other side of the pumpkins but he didn't get very far before Hermione got a better hold on him, Cassia crouching on his other side as they sat against the pair of largest pumpkins.

"Harry, you're in Hagrid's Hut now, if you just go bursting in, you'll think you've gone mad!" Hermione explained with as level a head as she could manage. "Awful things happen to wizards who meddle with time, Harry, we can't be seen."

"I remember the old headmaster..." a snippet of Dumbledore's speech reached their ears as he, Fudge and the executioner neared the hut.

Cassia frowned heavily as she cast a glance towards the hut, where Hermione and Ron were now arguing.

"We aren't leaving," she said, as the trio climbing down got nearer and nearer- "Why aren't we leaving?"

She couldn't remember what happened next. She tried to, her face scrunched up in deep concentration, but she couldn't. What made us leave? She tried to think. What happened n-?

Her thoughts were interrupted as something on the pumpkin suddenly caught her eye.

A small stone, with a spiral shape on it.

She took it in her hand, her thumb tracing over the spiral. She remembered this stone. She had held it in her hand earlier tonight.

Actually, no. She was just about to hold it in her hand.

With a small grunt, she raised her arm and hurled the stone with as much force as possible in through the window, hearing herself shout.

"Argh!"

Present-Cassia only winced, however, lightly touching her side where she had hit.

"Are you mad?!" Harry demanded in a hiss.

"Always, Potter," she responded, picking up another of the stones and hurling it in, this time to hit Harry on the back of the head.

"Ow!"

"Ow," both Potters said the same thing, their hands on the back of their neck. "That hurt."

Cassia rolled her eyes. "Sorry, Potter. I'm out of dummies for you to suck."

Ignoring whatever mutters were said under his breath after this, they looked around the pumpkins to see Fudge knock, loudly and clearly, three times on Hagrid's front door.

They watched as Hagrid came to open it, and also as their group of five came out the back door, peeking round it.

"Oh god, here we come," Cassia said under her breath, as Hermione nodded, leading their smaller group into the trees just behind the pumpkins as their bigger group snuck into where they had been not two seconds ago.

They ducked behind two trees, Hermione behind one and Harry and Cassia behind the other, trying to stick behind it, to camouflage.

However, they were Cassia Malfoy and Harry Potter, so they were bound to argue.

"Potter, move!" Cassia snapped, nudging the boy hard as she tried to get behind and hidden.

"No, then they'll be able to see me-"

"You mean we'll be able to see you-"

"Who cares about specifics-"

"I care, Potter-"

Snap!

Cassia froze and Harry suddenly grabbed her, pulling her into him as they hid.

And as past-them all turned round.

"What?" Past-Potter's voice rang out.

"I thought I just saw-" past-Hermione started, before sighing. "Never mind."

"Let's go!" Ron put in.

As Cassia's thumping heart started to slow down, she started to become aware of her surroundings.

Started to become aware of Potter's hand squeezing her's, of her body, her back squished against his front in order to hide them both behind the tree. He was almost a whole head taller than her, she realised, as she felt his chin pressing the back of her head.

As the group of five ran up the hill, Cassia shoved herself away from Harry, cheeks flushing despite her best efforts to make them not.

Once they were back in beside the pumpkins, Cassia snuck a look in the window, seeing Dumbledore still chatting away whilst Fudge organised the paperwork.

Hermione, who was also watching, eventually hissed. "Okay, go Harry, go!"

Potter wasted no time. He almost ran out from behind the pumpkins, getting to Buckbeak quickly and bowing, receiving a nod back.

Then, undid the chain, hissing when a crow pecked his hand but not letting go and getting it out.

He tugged on it, saying in a lowered voice. "Okay, Buckbeak, come quickly, come with us now. Come on!"

He pulled on the chain, Hermione and Cassia sneaking in behind him to help him, but this only seemed to anger the creature as he raised his head, squaking slightly before laying it back down.

"Buckbeak, quickly, hurry up!" Potter went on.

Cassia, meanwhile, had spotted something across the grass.

Hagrid's massive waistcoat he used for feeding Buckbeak, with dead ferrets chained on loops by the pockets.

Snatching a loop, she ran back, unhooking a ferret and holding it out towards the creature. "Come on, Buckbeak!" She whisper-yelled. "Come and get some nice dead ferret!"

Or as I like to call it, my brother.

However, this roused Buckbeak immediately and he jumped up, knocking Potter over with the force on the chain. Cassia threw the ferret upwards with as much force as she could manage and Buckbeak caught it in his mouth, comping loudly.

Cassia resisited the urge to laugh as Hermione helped Harry up, unhooking a second ferret and waving it in Buckbeak's direction. "It's here! Follow it! Come on, Beaky!"

Slowly but surely, they led Buckbeak out the garden and away from the hut, but at the sound of Hagrid's voice from inside, he pulled back.

"Come on-" Cassia said, leaning forward with the ferret and gasping as it was pulled from her hands, snatching them back.

"Come on, Buckbeak!" Hermione whispered encouragingly. "Come on!"

With another ferret from Cassia, they got Buckbeak into the trees, Harry still holding the chain, albeit loose, and Hermione whispering encouragingly.

From the trees, they watched on as the four adults came out the hut.

"But- but where is it?" Fudge spluttered. "I saw the beast, just now! Not a moment ago!"

Cassia wanted to grin. Hagrid was completely clear in this, owing to the fact that he had been with them the whole time, so no matter what shit her father would say if (no, when) they got Sirius and Buckbeak free, he couldn't say anything about Hagrid helping.

If only he knew his daughter's role in the whole thing.

"How extraordinary," Dumbledore was saying.

"Buckbeak..." Hagrid said under his breath, not believing.

"Oh, come now, Dumbledore!" Fudge protested. "Someone's obviously released him-"

"Urgh!" Cassia grunted in surprise and fear as Buckbeak tried to grab a ferret off the loop in her hand. She gave him another before tuning back in.

"I don't think the Minister's suggesting that you had anything to do with this, Hagrid," Dumbledore said sensibly. "After all, how could you? You've been with us the whole time."

"Well, right," Hagrid seemed surprised.

"Well, we must search the grounds!" Fudge declared.

"Oh, search the skies if you must, Minister!" Dumbledore cried. "In the meantime, I could do with a nice cup of tea. Or a large brandy."

Cassia snorted.

"Oh, executioner," Dumbledore added as he headed inside the hut. "Your services are no longer required."

Cassia hadn't been paying attention to the executioner, but as she finally did, all she saw was anger from underneath his mask, and to take that out on something, he brought his axe down on a pumpkin, spraying orange guts and large seeds everywhere.

"Prick," Cassia muttered venemously under her breath. Did he seriously seek to kill so much that he had to kill a plant because he couldn't behead an animal?

"Never mind that, come on!" Hermione said, pulling her deeper into the woods along with Harry and Buckbeak.

"Here," Cassia said, feeding him another ferret as she ran in front, leading the way with Hermione.

Eventually, when they knew they weren't going to be caught, they stopped.

"Now what?" Harry asked, panting slightly.

"We save Sirius," Cassia said, shrugging.

"How?"

"Not a clue."

After tying Buckbeak to a tree, deep enough in the woods so he couldn't be heard or seen, they ran back to the edge of the woods, further along the grounds.

This was to catch up with themselves again.

There, however, they didn't see themselves. Cassia sighed, it must've been past the time when they went in, now. The tree was still moving, but the sky was dark, and it'd been a while since they had split off.

"Look, it's Lupin!" Hermione said, a gasp in her voice.

The man in question was striding up to the tree, raising his wand and shouting. "Immobolus!"

For the first time since Cassia had seen it, the tree stopped completely, allowing Lupin to walk to the tunnel entrance and slip inside.

"Now Snape's coming," Hermione added.

The man had obviously been following Lupin, because he came out of the bushes as soon as the former had gone into the tunnel, and was now going towards it, pausing for a second to check he was alone and undetected, before going inside himself.

"So now we're all in," Cassia exhaled shakily. "We just have to wait until we come back out."

They sat down right there, knowing it wasn't a particularly bad spot. The ground was soft and their clothes were all dirty anyway, and the trees were good to sit against.

Birds came flying down from the trees and almost hit them, and Buckbeak could be heard chomping on them even from there.

"At least someone's enjoying himself," Cassia sighed, resting her head against the tree and closing her eyes slightly.

Harry sighed, sounding even more tired than her.

"Hermione, Cassia?"

Cassia looked up, saying. "Yeah?" At the same time as Hermione.

Harry looked down. "Before, down by the lake with Sirius... I did see someone."

"Who?" Cassia frowned, propping her chin up on her knees, which were balled up to her chest. "Was it that light thing?"

"That was a patronus," Hermione said. "I heard Snape telling Dumbledore. According to him, only a really powerful wizard could've conjured it."

"Wait, a whatonus?" Cassia frowned. "I think I missed a chapter slash plot point in this story."

"A patronus," Hermione repeated. "It's a spell that repells a dementor. Lupin's been teaching Harry to do one this year."

Cassia, despite growing up in a household where magic prevailed and anything muggle was laughed upon, had never heard of a patronus.

"Oh," was all that came out her mouth. "But... who could've conjured it? The only people there were us three."

Harry shook his head. "It was my dad."

Cassia frowned, not having the energy to take the piss out of him but also very confused. "Potter, your- your dad's-"

"Dead, I know," Harry sighed. "I'm just telling you what I saw."

"Did you hit your head when you fell back there?" Cassia asked, even though there was no real heat behind her comment.

Hermione sighed, looking behind them.

"I'm gonna go feed Buckbeak," she finally said, holding her hand out to Cassia for the ferrets.

Cassia sighed, handing them to her as she looked on at Potter.

He seemed... different. Like, not sad, but also a bit, but kinda mad as well.

She breathed out, muttering but making sure it was loud enough so he could hear.

"If it makes you feel better, I'd rather have a dead dad than the one I have right now," she said, blowing her cheeks out.

Harry didn't turn around to look at her, and he didn't move either.

But he did say something.

"You think?"

Cassia nodded, even though he wasn't looking. "Not everyone gets good parents, Potter."

"Do you think I don't know that?" Harry demanded, his eyes flashing with anger as he turned to face her. "Twelve years with the Dursley's showed me that! If you saw what I had to endure there, you wouldn't be able to say anything!"

The Dursley's. She had never heard Potter talk about them before, but, like everyone else who had heard Harry Potter's story, she knew of them. Petunia Dursley had been Lily Potter's sister, and so she and her husband Vernon had taken Harry in when he was a child, raising him with their son, Dudley.

She had known Potter's life wasn't perfect, of course, but she hadn't ever really compared it to her's. Now she was, she was suddenly a whole load less confident.

Cassia looked at him, her lip wobbling.

Potter looked back at her, his anger suddenly falling from his face and a frown replacing it.

"What?" He asked.

"D-" Cassia wasn't sure how to put this. "D- do the Dursley's ever... do they ever hurt you?"

Confusion, then denial, then fear were on his face.

When he finally spoke, it was in a small voice.

"No," he said. "Why? Do- do yo-"

He stopped at the sight of Cassia.

The girl couldn't remember starting to cry, but soon she was fucking sobbing, her cheeks shining in the (full) moonlight, tears streaming down her face.

"Wha-" he started, as Cassia continued to cry. She was crazy, she was out of her mind, she was crying in front of Potter, Potter, of all people, and she was so close to telling him her secret, the one she had clutched to her chest this whole year and that she hadn't even told her best friend about.

"I'm sorry," she said, wiping her cheeks furiously. "Fucking hell- I don't know what's wrong with me..."

She trailed off as she wiped her eyes, realising that her stupid mascara was probably coming off but not able to find the energy to care about it.

"Cassia," Harry was just looking at her, his face unreadable. "Cassia, did- did something happen?"

She wasn't sure how to answer that, so she just kept wiping her eyes.

"Cassia."

Harry had gently grabbed her wrists, bringing her hands away from her eyes. She blinked the remaining tears away rapidly and looked at him, into his emerald green eyes.

"Potter," she said back, because she wasn't sure what else to say. It wasn't like this happened everyday. Let alone with her sworn enemy.

"What happened?"

The look on his stupid face, the look of pure conern in his eyes, it just set her off again.

"Nothing," she lied as her eyes filled with tears.

"Cassia-"

"I said nothing, Potter, why won't you understand-"

"But something's wrong-"

"No, nothing's wrong, you're just being fucking nosy-"

"No I'm not! I just want to find out because I-"

"Fine! Fine!" Cassia was delirious, crazy, as she hissed in his face. "My father hit me, Potter! No, slapped me! Fucking struck my cheek and yelled that I was a brat! And this whole year I've been having fucking flashbacks and nightmares and I don't know what's going to happen to when I get home! Probably something worse, so I've been frightened out of my wits about that too! But what about you, Potter? You happy now?"

Harry was looking at her in pure shock. He had never, ever, ever in his life predicted this.

He was so stunned that when he first spoke it sounded muffled, but Cassia could hear him just fine.

"How- how many-?"

"Once," Cassia snapped. "I left right after, went to Poppy's."

"Does she-?"

"No, Potter, she fucking doesn't! Only three people know, and that's me, my father, and you!" She was threateningly close now.

"Cassia, we- we have to tell somebody-"

"No!" Cassia shouted.

It was the first time during the whole confrontation that she had sounded anything but pissed, and it startled Harry. Because now, she sounded scared rather than angry, and he wasn't sure what to do with that.

But he didn't get a chance to do anything, because she was speaking again.

"I said no, Potter!" She snapped. "God, I don't even know why I told you this..."

She ran a hand over her hair, digging her fingers into her bleach blonde, tangled, greasy locks of hair.

"Listen," she finally said, forcing herself to meet Harry's eyes. "You are not going to tell anyone, okay? Because my father's already terrorised my home life, and it he's found out I've told someone at school..." she trailed off, biting her lip hard to stop herself from crying and clenching her fists so hard her nails pressed half crescent shapes into her hands. She looked back up at Potter. "No one finds out, okay?"

Harry looked at her. "Cassia-"

"Harry, Cassia!"

Hermione's voice was heard behind them, calling them. Cassia felt relief wash over her, as well as fear.

She had told someone. She had actually told someone.

However, as she looked sideways at Potter, trying to say with her eyes "you can't tell anyone" before Hermione got there, she wondered if she had made the right decision after all.