Potter's Girl / Butterfly Effect.

105. The Werewolf And His Daughter

CHAPTER ONE-HUNDRED AND FIVE;

THE WEREWOLF AND HIS DAUGHTER.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

On their third morning in Shell Cottage, Cassie sat at the breakfast table, her head low whilst the others seated around the meal quietly updated each other on recent events; deaths, captures, et cetera. It was a glum conversation, and one that Cassie did not feel as though she had to participate in.

Bill and Harry were the main conversationalists, while Ron, Fleur, and Luna would occasionally chip in their two Sickles — Luna's, usually, were a bit less down-to-earth than the others. Atticus, Cassie, and Hermione sat in silence, none touching the croissants Fleur had made.

After almost a quarter of an hour of this, Atticus stood without a word, interrupting Bill's tangent on Gringotts' heightened security, and stalked up the stairs to his bedroom. A moment later, a door swung shut.

   The others took a brief pause of surprise, sharing befuddled glances between the lot of them, but Cassie merely kept her head down, now picking apart small pieces of her bread.

   The conversation did not pick up afterwards, and the group sat in silence for a while longer. Cassie had just made the decision to stand and head back to her bedroom when a loud knock came from the front door. Bill, Harry, Ron, Fleur, and Hermione all stood, Cassie having already drawn her wand.

"Who is it?" Bill called, his pale fingers reaching across the table for his wand; Fleur handed it to him without a word, pulling from her flowery gown a wand of her own.

The voice from the door spoke: "It is I, Remus John Lupin!"

Cassie's wand arm was suddenly slack against her chest. She could feel Harry's eyes dart to her, but she herself felt as if she could do nothing beyond just stand there, paralyzed.

"I am a werewolf, godfather to Cassiopeia Black, married to Nymphadora Tonks, and you, the Secret-Keeper of Shell Cottage, told me the address and bade me come in an emergency!"

"It's him," Bill confirmed quietly, nodding to Cassie as if for either permission or forgiveness as he made toward the door; he wrenched it open and Remus spilled over the threshold.

The werewolf was white-faced and wrapped in a traveling cloak, his peppered hair windswept. His eyes landed swiftly on Harry, then moved to Bill.

"It's a boy!" Remus announced. "We've named him Ted, after Dora's father."

   "Congratulations!" rang out through the small kitchen; Fleur and Hermione gasped; Ron clapped, a grin shadowing his lips; Cassie watched as even Harry's face morphed into a sort of shocked smile.

   "Brilliant!" he said, though the smile melted from his face as he turned back to Cassie to see her stoney expression.

"You've had the baby?" she asked Remus quietly, and his eyes moved to her for the first time since he had arrived.

The silence in the kitchen of Shell Cottage was only describable as deafening as Remus and Cassie stared at each other, both wordlessly taking in the other; everybody else watched, none daring to make a move.

"Cassie," Remus said finally, and stared at her with such grief-stricken shock that Cassie nearly burst into tears on the spot.

She didn't, though, and forced herself to remain emotionless as she said, "Hi, Remus."