XLIV

Cassiopeia stretched her arms above her head, hearing her bones popping, just as she stood in front of the Great Hall. The girl was all done with the tests and felt like she had had a pretty good result. Without George around, things were boring and she felt very lonely, but it gave her lots of time to study and she couldn't deny it.

She was just on her way to the dungeons when Ginevra bumped onto her, very distressed and looking around to check if anyone had seen the two of them.

"We need your help right now. Come on."

Cassiopeia didn't think much, only following her to somewhere safe.

"What is it?" she enquired.

"You know who," she whispered in a fast pace. "We think he has Sirius, but we don't know yet so we need to try and communicate with him, but we need to get to Umbridge's fireplace without her knowing we're there."

The blonde girl frowned, a bit lost.

"I just finished the worst test period of my whole life," she pointed. "Can you please just say the resumed version?"

Her boyfriend's sister sighed and rolled her eyes.

"Sirius might be in danger and you need to distract Umbridge."

Finally, the blue-eyed teen nodded, running after her in the corridors just to find Umbridge in the turn of a corner. She hid behind a wall, fixing her hair for a moment and taking a breath before turning in her direction with the calmest face she could find.

"Ma'am," she tried to smile. "Good day."

Umbridge's eyebrows shot up for a short moment when her eyes fell on the lean girl's figure, but her expression quickly became pleased.

"Miss Malfoy," she smiled, stopping on the tracks. "Aren't you doing your tests?"

"I'm done with them," the Slytherin approached her. "I was wondering if we could talk a bit. I'm almost finished with schools and now that I've finished my NEWT's, we can spend some time together."

She smiled, looking quite happy with the idea.

"You never told me what you aim to do after school," she noticed.

"I was thinking of applying to work with Improper Use of Magic," she confessed. It wasn't a lie, that was one of her favourite options.

The woman's face changed in surprise.

"Oh, is that it?" she took her hand to her heart. "Oh, my dearest, I joined the Ministry straight out of school in that very department!"

The girl's blue eyes went wide. Merlin, out of all possibilities…

"I can find you a position as an intern as soon as you leave Hogwarts. I'll be talking to my colleagues when I get to my office. They'll love to hear that someone as intelligent and ambitious as you has her eyes on us."

Cassiopeia almost panicked. She couldn't get to her office, not now.

"But ma'am," the blonde teen jumped in front of the headmistress. "You can mail them any time. Hogwarts is so empty and silent with the tests happening, we can have such a pleasant and lovely conversation while walking to the gardens."

When Cassiopeia finished talking, something seemed to have clicked in Umbridge, and the woman turned to her.

"You must excuse me, Miss Malfoy, someone is in my office."

She ran after her, but it was of no help. The inquisitorial squad arrived just as fast as the short was walking, grabbing the members of Dumbledore's Army as they found them trying to fight or even speak. When Cassiopeia herself arrived at the room, her brother was already holding Potter and the members of the squad had everyone else in their grasps.

"It's good that you're here, Cassiopeia," Umbridge straightened her back. "You'll see what discipline is first hand."

Draco gave his sister a smile and the blue eyed girl could feel everyone's eyes glued to her in panic, begging for her to do something and help them, but she couldn't. In the current situation, unless she managed to get Umbridge out of the room for some reason, she couldn't do a thing.

The blonde girl looked around the room, however, trying to find something to distract the headmistress and at least one of the members of the Inquisitorial Squad. With another D.A. member free, she'd probably be able to take the woman down and free the others. Thinking didn't help a lot, though, and when Snape arrived, she calmed down a bit. He was a member of the Order of the Phoenix. He could help Sirius.

"He's got Padfoot!" Potter shouted, and the Slytherin girl slowly walked to her brother's side, close to the door.

Snape turned to the boy, and Cassiopeia reached her hand, snitching Potter's wand from Draco's robes and hiding it in hers before he could have a chance of catching her. Years of childish teasing had given the older sister quite an advantage over him when the situation asked for intense measures.

Granger was the one who broke down, and for a second Cas was as confused as everyone else in the room, but her words quickly made sense to the girl.

"It's ready," the bushy-haired girl stuttered, and Cassiopeia raised her wand, using it to slowly using it to retrieve the brunette's wand from the pocket of the other Slytherin girl in the room, who was holding her. Cas did it again and again and quickly had her own pocket filled with the wands the members of the squad had taken away.

"You, me and Potter are going there. Right now," the headmistress decided. "Cassiopeia, dearest," she called your name. "Do I trust you and the squad to the care of these rule breakers?"

You nodded.

"Of course, ma'am."

She walked past you with Potter in front of her and Granger by her side, and Cassiopeia used the situation to bump into the Gryffindor girl and put their wands in her pocket.

Once they were out, Draco grinned.

"We get to do whatever we want to you now."

His sister let out a sigh. The time was now.

"Draco," she called, and the boy turned to his sister. "I'm really sorry."

He frowned, his face filled with confusion.

"For what?"

"I really didn't want you to find about it this way."

Before he or anyone else could react, you pulled your wand right from your pocket.

"Stupefy!" you pointed at the girl holding Ginevra and the teen was sent to the other side of the room, giving her boyfriend's sister enough time to run to the teen and retrieve her own wand, fighting the rest of the group and freeing her friends from their grasps. Before Draco could react to his sister, she stunned him, and all five of the D.A. members locked the door behind themselves, leaving their wands outside.

"Hey," the redhead girl stopped his brother's girlfriend from running. "That was really smart."

"Thanks. I think before I jump."

She chuckled, but Cassiopeia couldn't mirror her. Her own brother was stunned, locked inside a room after she'd betrayed his trust. Her mood wasn't the best.

"Come on. We need to help Potter and Granger."