The Last of the Blacks

Chapter 52: Cassiopea Andromeda Black

A week later Cassiopea Black found herself walking through the woods in the middle of the night, while the fullmoon was shining on the sky - its light warming the whole world beneath it. Lestrange was walking next to Cassie, ready to protect her the way her family was ready to. She felt how every time when she stepped on a tree branch or they heard something far away from them Lestrange tensed behind her back.

After all there was a werewolf in the woods with them.

The two tattoos burned on her wrists as her hand tightened around her wand. She had witnessed many fullmoons and she had been with werewolf during them. That werewolf had drunk a potion to keep both of them safe, but...

The girls had said that the headmaster didn't drink any potion when Kol and Daphne gave them both alcohol and truth potion. They had said some other things like how hot Kol was from Mor and that Daphne's skirt made her ass look so good that Anastasia could eat her all night from the other Sayre twin.

She was going to be OK, Cassiopea told herself. Again. And again...

"He is near," Lestrange told her. "What exactly are we doing, Black?"

Cassie took a deep breath and said calmly, "There is a prisoner down that hill. We have to take the wolf to him..."

"To kill him?"

"Grief and guilt make incredible things," she said. "Don't worry about it."

And then they heard the holw.

It was nearer than Cassie expected. It was so near that she wasn't sure if she was going to make it out alive.

Yet it was all for them. Her, her friends, her family.

And she was ready to risk it all.

So ready that she didn't even hear the werewolf running towards her back. The only thing Cassiopea Andromeda Black saw before she closed her eyes (maybe for now, maybe forever) was Lestrange casting some spell and the light coming out of the wand.

*********
Christmas, 1993

Sirius Orion Black was watching a Christmas movie, dressed in so called Christmas sweater and wearing socks with a deer with a red nose. He looked ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous.

But so did Cassie.

Well, she didn't look identically to him because : 1. She was a girl. 2. She had red ribbons in her hair (the typical Gryffindor while watching the Gryffindor team on the Pitch) and 3. She was wearing black shorts.

He told her once or twice that she should dress up more warmly, but she said that her aunt allowed her to wear whatever she wanted.

Sirius had that little thought that he was going to be in a big trouble with his cousin.

The front door opened and his heart skipped a beat.

"Hi, uncle Ted!" Cassie called out. "Hi, aunt Andromeda!"

"Hello, love," her aunt said, kissing the top of her braided head. "Sirius."

She sounded suspiciously. She sounded as she was asking him what they had done all day. He felt the question 'You did not give her anything wrong, did you?'. And by anything wrong Andromeda would mean cigarettes, alcohol and tattoos.

And Sirius' answer would be no. He hadn't let her do anything wrong. He hadn't smoke in 12 years. His tattoos were only a few... Well, not exactly a few. And he didn't drink... Not in Azkaban at least. Then Remus said not to drink in front of Cassie for no reason.

"We have been here all day," Sirius said. "This movie 'Home Alone'... Why is that kid so neglected that his parents don't even notice that he is gone?"