The Girl Who Had No Escape [1]

Year 1- 12

The following day, being Sunday, was spent socialising. Cassiopeia got closer to the Slytherins, but couldn't find Ron and Harry when she looked for them. She also made a best friend out of Amelia, together they seemed that they had known each other for longer than a day. The school enjoyed a delicious meal and then a calming walk back to the common rooms. Upon arrival Cassiopeia and Amelia got into their pjs and got into bed, placing a self-waking charm on themselves.

However, that night Cassiopeia got no sleep at all, just nightmares. She had the familiar nightmare- of her parents' murder- but at the end it twisted into something else, she saw a man with his hood up. They were both surrounded by fire, which made Cassiopeia feel as though she was burning. When the man turned to her, she couldn't see the man's face but he proceeded to pull down his hood, as he did this Cassiopeia saw that there was a face on the back of his head. She was shocked as the face then turned to her. "Evangeline, we meet again." His voice was cold like the one that killed her parents- she then realised that this was Voldemort- but before she could do anything, she felt a pain coming from the scar on her forearm, she screamed at the pain. She awoke panting and covered in cold sweat- she looked around to see her friends staring at her along with Professor Snape, Professor Dumbledore and Madame Pomfrey, they looked worried. But she couldn't understand why.

"What?" None of them responded for a moment until Professor Dumbledore sighed and answered the question.

"You were screaming in your sleep, and when we tried to touch you to wake you, you screamed as if we were hurting you. When we did touch you, you felt as if you were on fire." He paused and looked to Cassiopeia, expecting an answer.

"I'm sorry, sirs and madam. I am sorry that I woke you. It was just a nightmare." They all looked at the girl in pity and shock- as none of them had expected her words to be an apology. However, Professor Snape wasn't focusing on the conversation he was focusing on her visible scars on her wrists. He then wondered what had this girl been through.

"Do you remember the dream?" Professor Snape had asked. Cassiopeia wondered whether to answer truthfully or not, however she knew that she wasn't a great liar after her nightmares, so she decided not to tell them, as she feared that if she told the school that her parents were dead then she would receive pity- which was one thing that she hated- and then there would be William's wrath.

"It was my usual nightmare, which I don't really want to share." While Cassiopeia said this, they looked to her understandingly, all but one. Which was Professor Snape. He looked to Cassiopeia and went to use legitimacy to gain an insight, but before he could see anything Cassiopeia use occlumency and blocked him out- she gave him a cold glare, it was at this point that he understood her skill and also knew that she was hiding something and he would get it from her.

"Well alright, we will leave you to get some rest. You have four hours until lessons start. Nighty night." Professor Dumbledore said as he left the room with the others.

Cassiopeia then looked around to her friends and realised that behind them was almost all of the Slytherin girls, she looked to them and apologised for waking them up- they nodded to her wishing her goodnight. Little did Cassiopeia know that over in the boys' dormitory were many worrying boys- as they had heard the screams but could not go up into the room (due to a step on the stairs that threw boys back), their thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the door. Draco walked to the door to see who it was, and there stood Cassiopeia.

"Is everything alright over there? We heard a scream but haven't been told anything. Who was hurt? Is it a nightmare or something? What happened?" Draco launched many questions in Cassiopeia's direction, not knowing that it was her scream.

"Ummm." All the boys were now looking to Cassiopeia, awaiting answers. "Everything is okay over there now. It was me who screamed, I wasn't hurt. But I was having a nightmare and apparently the teachers couldn't wake me- and if they touched me, I would scream even more. Ummm. I came to apologise for waking you up." Cassiopeia replied in a small voice, which none of the boys had heard before, as even though they have only been together for a short while they could tell that she was usually strong and confident. The boys looked to her in shock and the first to break the silence was Marcus Flint.

"Are you okay?" Cassiopeia was shocked by this, as she was told many stories about how rude Slytherins were, but right now they seemed caring.

"Yeah." However, all of the boys knew that this wasn't the case, as her voice broke at the end, and Marcus was the first to respond. He walked over to her and gave her a big hug; all the boys then joined the group hug and soon it was all the boys surrounding a small first-year.

"Guys, love the hug. But can't breathe." Cassiopeia said with a small laugh. They were all happy to hear her laugh. They let her go and smiled at her, she smiled back and looked happy- rather than her normal emotionless façade. "I'm sorry, again, for waking you." She replied with a nod and walked out of the room. The boys then went back to their beds and prepared for sleep, however, Cassiopeia couldn't bring herself to sleep again so she made her way into the common room and sat in front of the fire. She was just staring into the flames when she heard movement around her, she turned to see Professor Snape standing there. Cassiopeia quickly stood up and curtseyed, "Sir."

"Why aren't you in bed?" He asked.

"I couldn't bring myself to sleep again." She replied with a small voice, she then smirked and looked to the Professor. "Why aren't you in bed?"

He laughed at her sass and this shocked Cassiopeia, as he didn't seem like the laughing type.

"I came to see if the boys had returned to sleep, as they woke up worried and then I remembered that no one had been in to tell them that no one was injured."

"Oh, don't worry about that. I told them all that all was well."

He then rose and eyebrow at her, "You were in the boys' dormitory?"

She chuckled and replied "It's fine they all had their shirts on."

They both laughed at this and Professor Snape bid Cassiopeia good night and he left through the porthole, leaving Cassiopeia to her thoughts. She looked at the clock and saw that it was three hours and a half till lessons, meaning two hours and a half till breakfast. So, she decided to go to her room and grab her clothes and all and got ready for the day ahead. Once she was showered and dressed Cassiopeia cast a drying spell on her black hair and put it in a half-pony-tail and she grabbed her book and reading glasses and journeyed to the common room and sat on an armchair in front of the fire. 

-----***-----

Thanks for reading

-Zoe