"Harry, Cassia!" Hermione repeated as she reached them, pointing in front of them, at the tree. "Look, here we come!"

Cassia hurriedly got up, wiping her cheeks with her sleeve and her eyes with the heels of her hands as she stood, legs wobbling slightly, knees knocking.

Harry noticed, but he didn't say anything. He didn't want to upset Cassia any further, but most of all, he didn't want to say a bad thing about her again, especially considering he had been insulting her this year whilst she had been dealing with all- all that!

She sighed as she watched the conversation about Pippa unfold between Sirius, Lupin and Poppy.

Hermione sighed, tapping Cassia on the shoulder.

"Is Poppy okay? Is she... handling it all okay?"

Cassia nodded, saying weakly. "We... we talked about it a bit. She seemed fine, just... a bit shaken, but that's hardly a surprise."

Hermione nodded. "She's strong, though," she observed. "You both are."

Cassia had no idea how to respond to this, but luckily she didn't have to.

Looking at the scene, she saw Poppy and her go away from the group with guilt clawing at her. She knew everything, every detail about Poppy.

In return, Poppy knew almost nothing of her. Well, of course she knew Cassia, but that... that was Hogwarts-Cassia. Poppy knew nothing of home-Cassia, and even though the latter didn't want her to, she knew she had to tell her.

She had told Potter, after all.

"You see Sirius talking to me over there?" Harry was talking to Hermione but Cassia listened in, frowning as she turned round.

She had just been focusing on Poppy in that moment three hours ago.

But now... now she saw that theirs wasn't the only conversation happening. Harry and Sirius had also talked, stood round the other side of the group, looking out upon the castle and all its twinkling lights.

"Yeah?" Hermione said to Harry, frowning slightly.

"He's asking me to come live with him," Harry disclosed. "He said I was his godson, and that meant he could do it... well, once his name is cleared, of course."

For some reason, this made Cassia's heart ache. She wanted that to happen to her. For someone to come and rescue her from her family and give her the love she was supposed to get.

But she didn't have that, because to be honest, godparents were never really that big of a thing in the Malfoy family. Narcissa had wanted both her sisters to be them, but look how that ended up. Aunt Andromeda, who was Cassia's, was now disowned for marrying a muggle, and Aunt Bellatrix (Draco's) was in Azkaban.

"When we free him, I'll never have to go back to the Dursley's," Harry said in a low voice, as if he was trying to stop her listening. She didn't. "It'll just be me and him."

Don't cry, don't cry, don't cry-

"Harry! Cassia! Poppy!"

Hermione's (past-Hermione's) cry made Cassia stop again, even though she had already lived through this, and she knew what was about to happen.

She didn't want to watch it again, as Lupin turned his gaze to the moon and started to transform. Didn't want to watch Pettigrew escape. Didn't want to watch Sirius almost get killed.

"Let's go," Potter made the decision for her, running off. Hermione took off after him, and Cassia brought up the rear. They would go back for Buckbeak later, after Harry, Cassia and Sirius had blacked out.

For now, they had to get to the lake. Because that's where they knew past-Harry and past-Cassia were headed.

But-

"Oh shit," Cassia let out a groan as the fog started to appear, and the air grew colder.

Past-Harry-and-Cassia were already at the lake, clearly.

Because it was the dementors that were headed there, flying up above the trees, right over Harry, Hermione and Cassia's heads, all one hundred of them.

"Sirius," Harry uttered. "Come on!"

They tore through the woods towards the lake, Cassia sprinting harder than she thought she ever had.

When they got there, however, she wasn't sure how to feel.

They were standing, concealed by the darkness of the trees so they wouldn't be spotted, but there was no need to. Cassia knew first hand that the three people on the other side of the lake were too out of it to even speak, let alone notice themselves watching them.

"This is horrible," Hermione commented, as she watched Harry and Cassia fall to the ground, yelling.

"Don't worry," Harry said. "He'll be here any second. My dad will come."

But more and more dementors were swooping in, and more and more meant the likelihood of a kiss was increasing. And even though Cassia knew what happened - had lived through it, in fact - it didn't make it any easier.

"Any minute now."

But he wasn't coming. It was abundantly clear.

"Right there - you'll see!"

"Potter!" Cassia yelled. "There's no one coming!"

"Don't worry, he will! He will come."

But he wasn't.

"You're dying..." Hermione observed. "All three of you."

But that's not what should happen-

"Harry!"

Then, before either Hermione or Cassia could stop him, Harry was sprinting down to the lake edge, raising his wand.

And Cassia was so confused; what was he doing? But then suddenly everything slotted into place as he raised his wand and yelled the incantation.

"EXPECTO PATRONUM!"

It started off gradual, just a small amount of bright light coming from his wand.

Then it grew, and grew, and grew. And soon there was a whole shield of it, repelling the dementors, sending them away.

And Cassia was passing out across the lake, and Harry wasn't far behind her, but it didn't matter, because Harry had saved them both.

And it hadn't been his dad.

It had been him all along.

❦︎❦︎❦︎

They very quickly worked out what Dumbledore had intended them to do.

Together, on Buckbeak, the three of them would fly up to the topmost tower. From there, they would free Sirius and then he and the hippogriff would fly away, going on the run together.

The idea appealed to Cassia. She liked that Sirius would get away with his soul, and Buckbeak with his head. But even better was the idea that they would be free, and have company.

She was sad that Sirius wouldn't get his name cleared, but oh well. One day, they would do find Pettigrew, force him to transform and offer the Ministry irrefutable proof of his innocent.

Today wasn't that day, though.

"You were right, Hermione!" Potter's voice pulled her out her thoughts. He was sitting in front of her, and Hermione behind, all three of them balanced carefully. "It wasn't my dad I saw! It was me!"

He sounded so happy, so gleeful, that Cassia couldn't take it away from him.

"I saw myself conjuring the patronus before!" He clarified. "I knew I could do it this time because I'd already done it! Does that make sense?"

"No!" Hermione yelled back humorously.

Cassia didn't get a chance to reply, because next second, Buckbeak was swooping down, and Hermione was screaming and Harry was laughing and even though Cassia felt like absolute shit, she was laughing too.

They reached the topmost turret soon enough, and ran to the cell that Sirius was in, quickly seeing the lock.

But before Hermione could get in, Cassia raised her wand, yelling. "Bombarda!"

BOOM!

In a splinteringly loud bang the lock was busted off the door and the cell was opened.

Fitting four people on a hippogriff was not the most comfortable, but it had to happen. Sirius laughed the whole way, a huge grin still on his face as they landed in the courtyard, which was empty, to say their goodbyes.

The soft trickling of the fountains and the noises of Buckbeak fluffing his feathers were the two things that serenaded the scene. Cassia sighed, climbing down from the hippogriff and walking to a nearby bench where Harry and his godfather sat.

"I'll be forever grateful for this," Sirius announced. "To all three of you."

Harry just faced him, saying. "I want to go with you."

Black nodded. "One day, perhaps. For some time, my life may be unpredictable. And besides... you belong here."

"But- you're innocent," Harry said helplessly.

"And you know it," Sirius smirked slightly. "And for now, that'll do."

As they looked at each other, Hermione murmured something to Cassia and led her away from them, going back to check on Buckbeak.

"Sorry boy, we're out of ferrets," she sighed, patting him. "Sirius'll get you something better, though. When you get to... wherever you're going."

Hermione nodded, turning to Cassia. "He really likes you."

"Buckbeak or Sirius?" Cassia joked weakly, not really feeling it.

"Both," Hermione shrugged. "But I was talking about Buckbeak."

"Ironic, isn't it?" Cassia pressed her lips together in a sarcastic, closed smile. "Considering it was my family that got him into this shit."

She gave a short, breathy laugh, but Hermione didn't laugh with her. The girl stared at her, eyes not quite readable.

"I know you joke about it a lot," she said, finally. "But... it really hurts you, doesn't it? How your family..."

"Act?" Cassia raised an eyebrow.

Hermione nodded, biting her lip nervously.

"It used to," Cassia admitted. "It used to really get to me, but as I got older... I suppose I just stopped caring as much. I guess I just thought that if I could be different from them, then people would stop grouping me in with them as much."

Hermione nodded, listening intently.

"I think... I think that's maybe why the sorting hat put me in Gryffindor," she sighed, looking down. "Because even though on the outside, I was begging to fit in, on the inside... I guess I wanted to stand out more."

Hermione nodded. "Cassia, that's... that's really brave of you. And listen-"

"Right!"

Sirius looked excited as he came back over to them, bowing to Buckbeak before climbing astride the hippogriff and looking down at the two girls below him.

He spoke to Cassia first. "You know, I didn't think a kid of Lucius Malfoy's could be anything less than irritating, but you've proven me wrong, kid."

Cassia gave a slight smile, saying. "Well, I didn't think there was any chance you couldn't be a murderer, so I guess we're even."

Sirius chuckled as he turned to Hermione. "And you," he said. "You really are the brightest witch of your age."

Hermione practically glowed as she and Cassia stepped back and Buckbeak prepared himself, running down the courtyard before leaping into the air, wings flapping like mad.

Two innocent lives, Cassia thought with a small smile. Two innocent lives saved.

They watched Sirius and Buckbeak until they were just a speck in the sky, lit by the milky light from the full moon.

Then the clock started to chime.

"We have to go," Hermione said urgently, grabbing both Harry and Cassia's arms. "Come on!"

They ran the same way they had come three hours ago. Back through the courtyard, up the stairs, and down the corridor towards the hospital wing.

As they rounded the corner, Dumbledore's voice filled their ears and they heard him talking to them in the room.

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

As the door swung shut, he turned to see them and they ran up to him, breathless and panting.

"Well?" He asked them.

"He's free, they both are," Cassia panted. "We did it."

"Did what?" Dumbledore frowned, walking past them. "Goodnight."

Inside the hospital wing, they could hear Cassia.

"Is that-?"

"Not now, Cassia!"

Cassia turned to her friends, knowing they would disappear in a matter of seconds.

"One..." she mouthed. "Two... three!"

They shoved the doors open, watching themselves fade away as the three of them marched into the hospital wing.

"How did you get there?" Ron asked, from his bed.

"You were just- you were just there!" Poppy was also confused. "And now you're there!"

"What are they talking about, Harry, Cassia?" Hermione smirked slightly.

"I don't know," Harry shrugged.

Cassia grinned. "Honestly, guys, how could somebody be in two places at once?"

The laughs created from this made Cassia probably the happiest she'd been all year.

She didn't care that Potter was there, in that moment.

She only cared about her friends.

And maybe, just maybe, he was one of them.