Cassie Black (Sirius Black Sister)

Calm before the storm

I collected Masie from school on her last day and dragged her to headquarters, I had locked up my house for the summer and probably the year. I had gone into my job and taken the summer off as normal as I would be staying in England. My excuse to them was that I needed to sort out family affairs in England for the summer as I was now head of the family by default as my brother Sirius wasn't available to be head so I was acting head until he could give up that right. The house was crazy with many different people coming and going wearing muggle and wizarding clothing as they were attending meetings for the Order.

The first night we were in this house was weird as I attended the first meeting hoping that I would be left alone for the entire thing which my wish was granted. I was wearing a summer dress as we ate dinner in the kitchen where the centre of all occasions happened. Dinner was quiet as nobody really knew each other. I suddenly started to laugh as I remembered the exact spot that a knife had been thrown at my head by Sirius, the mark was still on the wall. "Siri, do you remember the knife throwing incident." He started to laugh along with me as we both had tears streaming down our cheeks as we remembered what had happened. I started to explain that I had made him very angry at one point and he thought the only way to shut up a six-year-old was to through a sharp object at her head thankfully he missed and hit the wall. I pointed at the spot where there was a chunk missing of the wall. Laughing to one another we carried on eating our dinner. I had apparently disturbed the peace as the twins had launched into a bunch of questions to me. They were quick fire questions which I answered without a worry or care. They weren't very personal but got quite deep into my life which I didn't mind at all.

The next morning molly decided that cleaning was something that we needed to do so we started to clean each room. I called my house elf to help after a while because it was becoming too much hard work for me to complete on our own. A meeting was starting the kitchen with what seemed like more members than the night before. A few stayed behind for lunch including one and only Kingsley Shacklebolt. I started to laugh to myself shaking my head as he noticed me and recognise me from the interview session we had. I sat down to eat dinner but not before Sirius introduced me to Tonks who turned out to be my cousin from Andy. I smiled brightly at her and asked if I could visit her mother, she nodded and told me stories of her. In return I told her stories of her mother's childhood and the thing she would teach me to do. We became good friends as we exchanged memories and I told her things that happened in the kitchen and all of the little marks on the walls had stories. Sirius chipped in the correct areas telling his side of the stories. We had the attention of the entire kitchen as Remus looked on in amusement as he listened into parts of his childhood which were otherwise hidden.

I met Harrys two best friends in the correct way as they thanked me for being there for harry over the last year. They started telling me stories of what he was like at school which enlightened all of us including Sirius who loved him very much. We laughed and joked until Molly decided that it was time to start cleaning again, I on the other hand went with Tonks back to her home so could meet my cousin Andy for the first time since I was almost 3. The nerves had set in as we walked towards the front door and I suddenly froze. I stared at the house in front of me, it looked nothing like the house of black which we had grew up around. Seeing the house that looked like a happy family lived there was difficult to see especially since I remember Andy being quiet short tempered and angry all the time.

Tonks smiled at me as she took my hand and pulled me into the hallway of the house. I heard the familiar voice of my cousin shout to her daughter about how she didn't get any breakfast this morning and how she was late home again. We walked into the kitchen and there standing by the stove stood my cousin who was making some sort of cake as she was taking it out of the oven. As she looked up she saw me standing there, shock my evident on her face. I don't remember her much as I was so young but Sirius always told me stories and took me to visit her when he could of course. She wasn't official disowned until I was 5 since she had a baby at the same time that I was born and wouldn't tell anyone that it was a muggleborns baby.

She placed down her cakes on top of the oven and looked at me with an odd expression with a questioning glance at her daughter. "Sorry, for intruding like this ma'am but my name is Cassiopeia." I introduced myself carefully not wanting her to get the wrong idea. She gasped at my name. "Little Cassie." She smiled brightly as I nodded hugging me so tightly that I could barely breath. We spent the afternoon talking and with me telling her about myself and where I grew up. Tonks listen closing but also kept me in check as her mother didn't know anything about Sirius being as innocent as he is. At 5 o'clock Tonks dragged me away from her mother and took me back to headquarters where there was another Order meeting apparently new information had come to light. Sitting through another meeting an idea came to me as I interrupted the meeting to ask about Harry and when he was coming here. That caused a deathly silence as everyone mumbled some sort of excuse. I fought and argued with Professor Dumbledore about the importance of Harry being here in safety. I never felt so strongly about something before but this is what was right. He reluctantly agreed that Harry will be collected in a week and brought to headquarters. I wasn't able to hide my smirk as I had won the argument again.

A week passed quickly, when the night of Harry's collection rolled around the atmosphere was tense seeing as members of the order were going. I had fought greatly about the right for me to go and collect him but Dumbledore was adamant that I wouldn't be able to go with them. I have fought for the last week at every single meeting to let me go with them to collect Harry but he wasn't moving in his decision. Giving in I let them go and collect him, I quietly spoke to Remus to make sure that he took evidence of the abuse that he was subjected to in that house. I hoped that he understood my concern for the boy I had looked after for a short period of time. During the afternoon meeting the others set of to collect him. I waited patiently through the meetings even though I really didn't want to be in the room. At 6 o'clock the door opened with squeak of protest I looked up watching the door as Mrs Weasley walked to greet them. Sirius gave me a look instructing me to stay seated as harry would be okay as Masie was sat up there waiting.

The meeting dragged on for what seemed like a life time when it ended I was so excited to finally see harry that I could hardly contain my excitement. I watched the door for the kids to come down as I heard them thunder down the stairs. I waited for them to come through the door watching and waiting as Sirius and I stared at the door in suspense. Sirius stood up and walked to the door and opened it as harry was last down. Masie came skipping behind and sat down in her usual seat. Harry hugged Sirius and then in turn me, smiling as he saw us both sitting at the table. I took in his appearance smiling at him. The dinner conversation turned sour and an argument was created between Molly and Sirius. It was a daily occurrence for them to argue but today it was over the parental guardianship of Harry. I naturally defended Sirius but then she said something unforgivable. It was about my family and my dead son. That caused an uproar in the kitchen mainly from me shouting at her and there was a lot of threatening as Some of the adults removed the kids from the situation. I'm glad they did as it ended with me having Molly against the wall and my wand to her throat when Sirius pulled me off her, I was still screaming at her when they pulled me out of the room.

Sometime you try and hide your heritage but other days it turned into a fight between them and your nature. I was carried into the bedroom I was sharing with Masie and I started packing my stuff up getting ready to leave. I knew that running from your problems was cowardly but sometimes that was the only way to live. Tonks came into the room offering her house for us to stay for a few days while things here cooled down. I accepted the offer as I packed us a small bag taking Masie with me. I pulled her with me as we left the house and apparated to the Tonks residence. Andy stared at me in the hallway of her house as I apologised for inviting myself into her home. She took my daughter upstairs and into bed as it was getting late and Tonks took me to the kitchen. I explained to Andy the version of what had happened over at Headquarters. It caused tears to fall slightly as the emotions in my body were running pretty high. Andy sent me to bed afterwards as I was falling asleep. I slipped into bed beside Masie curling up into a ball as I fell into an uneasy sleep.