XLV

The fact that she took flight on a Thestral – an animal she couldn't even see – was probably the weirdest part of Cassiopeia's day, but in the end, the girl had ended up not thinking much of it. According to Luna Lovegood, they could only be seen by those who had seen death and taken it as reality, something she'd never quite experienced in her life. Cassiopeia had never held onto something as hard as she did to the invisible animals. They were fast, flying over the castle and onto the country in a matter of minutes.

Their group landed in London, and even if the girl could hide it, her legs were showing the fear still in her veins. Merlin, she would never fly in those things again in her life. Never.

The teens squeezed themselves into a telephone box to get into the Ministry, holding their breaths to try and make everyone fit. Ronald pressed the numbers and Potter announced their intentions just for them to receive badges of identification with their names over 'Rescue Mission'.

They followed Potter silently. While he'd protested bringing the others in the journey to rescue Sirius, he hadn't dared to say a word about Cassiopeia going. She was part of Sirius' family, one of the few blood relatives he still had, and he respected that.

Inside the Department of Mysteries, things were as quiet as at the entrance of the Ministry. There wasn't a single living soul there. Maybe Potter was wrong. Maybe Sirius was safe.

They walked and walked, searching for anything that could help.

"Maybe he isn't here," Cassiopeia finally voiced her concerns, and Potter only glanced at her.

"He is here. I know he is."

"Harry," Ronald called, and all of the teens turned to him.

They were inside a room filled with shelves, and he had apparently taken time to snoop around.

"Come see this. It has your name on it."

The blonde girl watched in silence as he walked to his friend's side, finally identifying a glass orb. Once Potter grabbed it, however, a voice behind the group made all the hairs on Cassiopeia's body raise in an almost painful shiver.

"Very well, Potter. Now, turn around and give it to me."

The girl knew the shadows well enough to quickly recognize what was happening.

"Shit," she whispered under her breath.

The man behind her was wearing a mask, but if years of living with him didn't give her knowledge enough to recognize his voice, standing posture and even speech and breathing patterns, she'd be damned.

The Slytherin girl hadn't turned around completely, too scared to do so. Maybe the cat wasn't out of the bag yet. If she walked away very silently, he wouldn't recognize her and everything would be alright.

"To me, Potter," he repeated. "And Cassiopeia,"

The girl felt her legs shaking. However, she kept her face cold and blank and turned to stare at her father's direction.

"I want to know exactly what are you doing here with them."

She eyed the skinny figure behind him, recognizing her Aunt Bella, and held her wand tightly in her hand.

"I want to know where Sirius is," Potter said, completely ignorant to the very tense family moment between Lucius and his daughter.

"I want to know where Sirius is," her aunt mimicked in a childish way.

This wasn't good. This wasn't good at all.

The group of Death Eaters was so big that they could make a large circle around theirs if they wanted to.

"Give it to me, Potter," Lucius insisted. "Or we're going to start a real fight here."

"Start it, then."

With no choice, Cassiopeia raised her wand and her Aunt pulled her own wand out, uncovering her head. Her face couldn't be worse.

"I always knew you would be a weird one," Bellatrix noticed, looking at her niece's face. "Lucius, don't you ever discipline your daughter?"

Cassiopeia didn't need to see his face to know that her father's lips had twitched.

The girl felt Ginevra's hand on her wrist, taking her attention away from her father.

"Reducto," the redhead whispered. "Wait for the signal."

So Cassiopeia waited. Her father's eyes were moving from her to Potter and back while he talked to the boy, and his daughter felt like she was about to vomit. When Cas thought about confronting her parents, this wasn't exactly what she had in mind.

"Now!" Potter yelled.

Every single one of the teens bellowed the spell, cursing random sides of the room and watching and more and more prophecies became shattered glass onto the floor. The six of them ran and fought, throwing curses and protecting themselves.

Cassiopeia was just under a desk, trying not to have a panic attack and feeling blood pouring from somewhere in her body when the idea finally occurred to her.

Squeezing her wand tightly in her hand, she closed her eyes.

The blonde girl tried to remember everything good she'd ever had. Everything that had made her life change for the good. George's actions, the way he cared for her and made her feel like the only girl in the world.

'I love you, Cassiopeia Black Malfoy', were his words, so she repeated them in her mind. Again and again and again.

"Expecto Patronum."

The Siberian Husky emerging from the young Malfoy's wand was probably the most beautiful thing she had ever laid her bluish-grey eyes on. She sent it away to contact the order, to help and save all of them.

It was Mr Nott who found her and caught her after some fight. Honestly, Cassiopeia was hurt. She had been hit by more spells than she could count, she had fallen down and hit her head twice and could feel blood dripping from her forehead, soaking her blonde hair and pale face while he handed her over to her father.

"When we're done here, the two of us are going to sit and talk. No more trips, no more boyfriends, do you hear me?" he hissed. "I didn't give you limits when I was supposed to, I won't commit that mistake twice."

As soon as he was done speaking, the girl saw as figures appeared in front of them. Sirius, Lupin, Mad-Eye, Tonks, and Kingsley. Before her father could raise his wand, Tonks stunned him, and Potter's voice caught her.

"Go get Ron," he yelled, and Cassiopeia crawled to where she knew her boyfriend's brother was.

She couldn't, however, complete the path. She was hit in the middle of the way with something she couldn't even identify, banging her head against the floor for the third time.

This time, however, darkness came for her, and everything went black.