The Clockwork Locket || SIRIUS BLACK

The Worst Birthday Part I

Cassie walked through the trees of the Forbidden Forest, the air damp and cool and musty. She shivered despite the jacket she wore, the hair on her arms rising the farther she went.

The trees were packed so tightly together that the grey daylight was blocked out completely, lending the scene an eerie twilit backdrop as she pushed on, determined to keep moving. She didn't know why she was in the forest, or what her ultimate goal was, but an insistent force kept prodding her along, whispering, Close...so close...

Unknown creatures rustled in the undergrowth around her. Eyes peered out amongst the leaves, some curious and some hungry, but she didn't slow. Oddly, the creatures were not the root of her fear – it was what she was going toward that gave her a sense of danger, warning her away. But whatever she did, she could not turn and flee. She just kept going forward.

Eventually, the trees thinned and she found herself standing in a dark, empty clearing. She paused, confused, and blinked. When she opened her eyes, she was no longer alone. A stone well sat before her. It appeared to be very old; the stones were cracked, moss and weeds choked the base of it, twisting up its sides, and the chain used to lower the water pail was rusty and ancient.

She stepped closer, almost against her will, and placed her hands on the rim, looking down into the yawning darkness. She couldn't see the bottom of it, but the smell of stagnant water and fetid air reached for her nostrils, making her recoil. And then someone else was there.

"Cassie."

The voice was hoarse, choked. She looked up, the blood draining from her face when she saw her brother standing across from her, clutching the other side of the well with white knuckles and, strangely, wearing the locket he had given her in Hogsmeade.

Will seemed to be in severe pain; his muscles tensed and coiled, and the veins in his neck and temples stood out harshly, twitching beneath his ghostly pale skin. His dark eyes bored into her, glassy with fear and something like regret. She gaped at him.

"Will, what's wrong? What's happening?" she asked frantically. She tried to move to his side, but her body would not obey her. "Will?"

"Cassie," he rasped. One of his hands reached for the locket, and that was when she realized how tightly the chain was wound around his neck, biting into his skin with a raw and angry burn.

"Will, please, what's happening?" she cried, on the verge of hysteric tears when his lips started turning blue. "Will!"

"I'm sorry."

The words were released in a breathless whisper before his body pitched forward, and he tumbled down into the darkness of the well.

"WILL!"

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!"

Cassie was ripped violently from her dream, her cry lost in the shouts of Lily, Marlene, and Alice as they all crowded around her on her bed, smiling and holding wrapped parcels. She sat up quickly, her heart racing like mad, and she breathed heavily, feeling feverish.

"Sorry we scared you, bedhead," Marlene laughed, her eyes sparkling. "Bad dream?"

Cassie rubbed at her chest, her skin sticky with sweat, and gave a weak smile. "Something like it."

"Well, get up!" Alice said, shifting closer and practically bouncing on the mattress. "We have presents!"

"You really didn't have to get me anything," she said hastily, kicking off the covers and trying to calm herself down from the dream.

"We get you something every year, Cass, whether you want us to or not," Lily reminded her, giving her a warm smile that told her she held no grudge for her eating with the Marauders the other morning. Cassie smiled back.