Cassia was sat, doing her homework, at the Gryffindor table, trying to ignore Pansy Parkinson simpering over her brother, who now had a whole load of bandages on his arm when Madam Pomfrey could've just fixed it in seconds.

"Does it hurt terribly, Draco?" Pansy asked him.

"It comes and it goes," Draco shrugged, putting on a grimace. "Still, I consider myself lucky. Madam Pomfrey said another minute and I could've lost my arm."

"He should consider himself lucky that I haven't punched him in the face yet," Cassia snarled. "He's faking it."

But she knew it was worse. Draco had written to their father and told him all about Buckbeak, and now Lucius was trying to get Hagrid sacked and Buckbeak... well, she didn't really know yet.

"Of course he's faking it, Cass," Poppy said. "But you know why? Because he wants Parkinson to kiss his ass, so just put up with it."

"Um, hello Pops?" Cassia raised her eyebrows. "He's trying to get Hagrid sacked-"

"He's been sighted! He's been sighted!"

The two girls turned to see Seamus, slamming a newspaper down on the table next to them.

"Who?" Ron asked, as he, Harry and Hermione ran up to the crowd.

"Hmm, I wonder?" Cassia asked, turning to Poppy and both of them laughing.

"Sirius Black!" Seamus shouted to avoid confusion.

Hermione read the paper with interest exclaiming. "Dufftown? That's not far from here!"

"Y-you don't think he'd come to Hogwarts, do you?" Neville stuttered.

"With dementors at every entrance? Not likely."

"Dementors didn't seem to phase him the first time," Cassia pointed out.

"That's right, Black could be anywhere," said another guy in the crowd. "It's like trying to catch smoke. Like trying to catch smoke with your bare hands."

Then Cassia felt a sharp intake of breath behind her, and she turned with a frown to see Harry Potter, a... scared look on his face.

She turned back to see Sirius Black on the paper, screaming and shouting, struggling. The same picture she had seen at the beginning of the holidays.

Sirius Black was technically related to her.

But even she didn't look as worried as Potter did.

♥︎♥︎♥︎

Defence Against the Dark Arts was turning out to be interesting. The class were standing, Professor Lupin at the fore, looking at a mirrored wardrobe, that was shaking and wobbling.

"Intruiging, isn't it?" Lupin asked. "Would anyone like to venture a guess as to what is inside?"

"That's a boggart, that is," said Dean.

"Very good, Mr Thomas," said Lupin, as another rattle shook the wardrobe. "Now can anybody tell me what a boggart looks like?"

"No one knows," answered Hermione promptly, even though Cassia couldn't remember her even entering the classroom. "Boggarts are shapeshifters. They take the shape of whatever a person fears most. That's what makes them so-"

"-so terrifying, yes," nodded Lupin. "Luckily, a very simple charm exists to repel a boggart. Let's practice it now. Erm- without wands, first," he added, as many, including Cassia and Poppy, took their wands out.

"After me," said Lupin. "Ridikulus!"

"Ridikulus!" Chanted the class after him.

"Very good," Lupin smiled slightly. "A little louder and very clear. Ridikulus!"

"Ridikulus!"

"This class is ridiculous," Cassia could hear her brother roll his eyes.

So are you, she thought. But for once, she didn't say what she was thinking.

"Well, so much for the easy part," sighed Lupin. "But the incantation doesn't work alone. What really finishes a Boggart is laughter. You need to force it to assume a shape you find truly amusing. Let me explain, uh, Neville, would you join me, please?"

As Neville hesitated, Cassia, who was near him, whispered. "Come on, Neville, be brave."

And so Neville slowly walked forward, eventually reaching Lupin.

"Hello," Lupin said. "Now, Neville, what frightens you most of all?"

"Premene Snmme..."

"Sorry?" Lupin asked.

"Professor Snape," said Neville, speaking up.

"Professor Sn- yes, frightens us all," chuckled Lupin along with the class. "And I believe you live with your grandmother, right, Neville?"

"Y-yes, but I don't want that boggart to turn into her, either," Neville stuttered.

"No..." Lupin shook her head. "No, you misunderstand me Neville. It won't. I want you to picture her clothes. Only her clothes, very clearly, in your mind."

"Sh- she carries a red handbag-"

"We don't need to hear," Lupin shook his head. "As long as you see it, we'll see it."

Cassia was interested now.

"Now, when I open that wardrobe..." Lupin moved forward and whispered something in Neville's ear. As he finished, he drew back and asked the boy. "Can you do that?"

Neville looked at him, a look of amusement and fear and bewilderment all over his face, and nodded.

The wardrobe shook again and he jumped, turning round to face it.

"Right, wand at the ready!" Lupin raised his voice, drawing his own wand as everyone behind Neville shuffled back a bit.

"One, two, three," Lupin opened the wardrobe door.

And out of it stepped Professor Snape.

He wasn't speaking, nor was he real, but he definitely was Snape. He had the same greasy hair, same glowering look, same pale and sickly skin.

"Think, Neville, think," Lupin said from behind the boy. Neville appeared to have frozen in fear, eyes wide.

The wardrobe door banged shut as Snape walked out of it, striding towards Neville.

Come on, Cassia thought, as Neville raised his wand. Come on-

"Ridikulus!"

'Snape' stumbled back, and laughter filled the room. Cassia guffawed at what she saw, Poppy doing the same beside her.

Snape was wearing the red handbag, and an emerald green tweed dress, and an extravagant hat with a stuffed vulture on top of it. He was wearing Neville's grandmother's clothes.

Oh shit, this is hilarious-

"Wonderful, Neville! Wonderful!" Lupin, who was laughing as well, exclaimed. "Incredible! Okay, to the back, Neville, everyone, form a line!"

Of course, everyone rushed to get to the front, Cassia and Poppy included.

"Oh, fuck off, Potter," the blonde girl muttered as said boy tried to get in before her and her best friend, managing to sidestep Poppy but not getting past Cassia.

"Let me though," Harry told her. "I'm trying to find Ron."

"Try harder, then."

She was not letting him have this one.

It wasn't until she was turning round, leaving Potter where he should be, that she fully contemplated what her boggart might be.

"Right, I want everyone to picture the thing they fear the most, then turn it into something funny!" Lupin announced, heading over to the edge of the room where a record player was sat.

As a jazzy song started to play, the person at the front of the line - Ron, as fate would have it - got shoved forward, facing Professor Snape.

However, it wasn't Snape for much longer. When faced with a new person, a new fear, it soon turned into something else.

For Ron, that was a spider.

It was massive. Even Cassia, who thought spiders were the shittiest fear in the world, had to admit she would be scared if going up against that in real life.

But to Ron, who cowered at tiny little things, this was hell on earth.

He fumbled his wand at the spider, stuttering. "R-ridikulus!"

Rollerskates appeared on the spider's eight legs, making it skate and skid across the slippy floor.

"Yes!" Lupin cried gleefully at the class' mirth. "You see? Very good, very good! Marvelous! Parvati, you're up next!"

It transpired that Parvati's biggest fear was snakes.

"She almost got bit by one when we were little," Poppy murmured to Cassia, who nodded.

But Parvati fought the snake by turning it into a jack in the box, which looked particularly funny and cracked everyone up once again.

Another cry of glee from Lupin. Another person to the back.

Cassia was beginning to worry now. There were three people between her and the front and she still had no idea what her fear would be, let alone how to fight it by making it funny.

This thought process went on for those three turns until Cassia was at the front, worried, still wondering what this boggart was going to come. Or rather, what her worst fear was.

She stood in front of it, her legs feeling like jelly, as the mummy without bandages from Dean's shot before her started to shift.

However, she would never have suspected what it would turn into.

Several people in the room gasped.

More started whispering.

Even Lupin was stock still.

But Cassia was the worst, stood there frozen, not sure what to do.

No.

She felt dazed. Her ears started to ring and her body started to sway. Her eyes blurred slightly, but not enough to block the sight in front of her.

Lucius Malfoy.

Her father.

He was her boggart.

He was her worst fear.

Oh fuck, fuck fuck fuck-

"All you had to do was get into Slytherin," the boggart of her father hissed. "And you couldn't even do that."

"Brat!"

His hand on her face- the red, angry mark- he had slapped her-

Tears pricked her eyes.

"N-no-"

Was she supposed to be doing something? All she could feel was hot tears on her face, and the shaking of her body.

Something in her brain clicked. She was supposed to be making him funny. But how could she do that when she was standing here, crying because of him.

"You dare speak back to me?" Her father had stopped, anger written all over his face. "You-"

Cassia flinched heavily, stumbling back into someone as Lupin darted in front of her throwing his arms up.

The boggart quickly switched into a- what was that? A moon?

"Ridikulus!"

And then the moon became a balloon that fle⅞w round the room, until Lupin managing to get it back into the wardrobe and slammed the door, locking it magically.

"Right, uh- sorry about that," Lupin said. "That's enough for today, if you'd all like to collect your books from the back, that's the end of the lesson, thank you!"

As the class started to move about, getting their books and chatting about the amazing lesson, Cassia snapped to life. She quickly turned to see who she had fallen into, only to be met with Harry Potter's stupid bright green eyes. He held her gaze as she frowned.

She was going to tell him to avert his eyes but he was looking at her weirdly. It wasn't his usual loathing look it was... it was a look of confusion, and of hurt, and of pity.

Well, great. Potter pitied her. Amazing.

"Fuck off, Potter," she told him, repeating her words from earlier. She looked down, wiping her eyes hastily and praying her mascara wasn't running.

"Cassia-"

"Fuck off," she said firmly, shoving past him to get to Poppy.

"Hey, girl," her best friend muttered as she opened her arms, Cassia happily accepting the hug and gripping tightly.

"I'm sorry," she murmured into Poppy's shoulder.

"You don't need to be," Poppy said. "I know your home life's shit, you don't have to explain yourself to me."

Cassia took a deep breath. "What did I do to deserve a best friend as amazing as you?"

Poppy grinned, smirk forming. "Just lucky, I guess."