Severus, who had been afforded almost the full night's rest Cassie had intended for him, was now very much awake.
He had roused from his blissful slumber with a start around five in the morning, not entirely sure what had awakened him. He had immediately taken to the castle corridors to resume his neurotic guarding of the Stone.
There, he had swiftly encountered an uncharacteristically purposeful-looking Dumbledore, who beckoned him toward his office to discuss what Cassie had seen in the Mirror of Erised.
Severus, naturally, was not thrilled with the events of the night—particularly because he had been hearing about them only after the fact.
"What were you thinking, Dumbledore?" he demanded. "You cannot tell me that you thought the girl was going to see something good in that blasted mirror, or you would never have brought her there in the first place!"
"I was merely inquisitive, Severus. As she was already out for a stroll in the middle of the night, I thought it might prove a curious experiment," Dumbledore said casually. The Headmaster's placid demeanor only enraged him further.
"You speak to me as though I'm a buffoon, Dumbledore!" Severus growled, pacing once again in front of the grand desk where his silver-haired companion sat.
"I am well aware that you are not," the older wizard replied. "And I think it wise that you calm yourself, so that we may keep this discussion as advantageous as possible."
"I am calm!" Severus shouted. Dumbledore merely raised an eyebrow. "How could I not be, knowing that you ambushed my student in the middle of the night and took her to a mirror that showed her overthrowing the moronic government alongside her heinous, murdering parents—the very people who have fueled her nightmares since she was a child!"
"Severus." Dumbledore continued calmly, but something changed ever so slightly in the delivery of his words. The two wizards shared a fragile but practiced dynamic whenever Severus lost control of his emotions. It didn't happen often, particularly in front of the Headmaster. Still, when it did, Dumbledore was an expert at the intricate steps needed to maintain the younger man's confidence without letting his temper dictate the conversation. "I did not predict, nor could I have predicted, what Cassiopeia would see in that mirror. But I find it highly beneficial that we now have that information. We know what is going on in her mind."
"Why?" Severus barked the word as he turned toward the Headmaster, his black eyes filled with fury and his lips curled into a menacing snarl. "Because now you've finally confirmed what you've always suspected? That she's dangerous? That she's always been destined to do the Dark Lord's bidding, whether she realizes it or not?"
"I will not speak that truth into existence," Dumbledore countered. His delivery was firmer now, though still composed and even. "You are putting words into my mouth. But you know as well as I do, Severus, that Sybill made a rather ominous prediction about her. One we cannot simply ignore because we have watched her grow into a rather likable young woman."
"So what do you suggest we do, Dumbledore?" Severus's features were wild now, his hands itching to seize one of Dumbledore's personal possessions and send it crashing against the wall. "Shall we put her down like a rabid dog?"
"You misunderstand me completely," Dumbledore replied. His voice had become quiet, almost meek. "Severus, my intent was not to confirm my own suspicions that she is untrustworthy or that she is plotting anything—"
"WHAT, THEN?" Severus shouted the words, then took several seconds to force himself to calm down, just as the Headmaster had requested earlier. He finally came to a stop in front of the desk, halting his incessant pacing, and leaned forward, meeting Dumbledore's gaze. "What was your intent, Dumbledore? Because I am at a loss!"
"Sybill's revelations about the girl aside," Dumbledore explained, "I wanted to determine whether whoever has been attempting to enter her mind and sift through her memories had somehow influenced her. While it is possible that, subconsciously, she longs for the fall of the Ministry, I believe her mental intruder may be responsible for what she saw."
Severus fell silent. Dumbledore's words stewed in his mind, and gradually, the fury in his features began to subside. "And what if that's not the case?" he asked finally. "What if that's actually what she desires?"
"Then perhaps becoming an Auror and working for the Ministry is not the best choice for her," the Headmaster replied quietly. "But as her most recent interactions with our dear Minister have demonstrated, that decision may very well be made for her."
"Training to become an Auror is everything she's dreamed of for such a long time." Severus shook his head, looking thoroughly disgusted. "If the Ministry denies that to her for no reason other than her parentage, it will only fuel whatever animosity she already has toward them. They might be inciting their own demise if their downfall is what that prophecy was referring to."
"So, in either direction, we fear the same outcome," Dumbledore said. "Which is why I encourage viewing Sybill's predictions through a lens of skepticism, lest we abandon all logic."
The two wizards fell silent. For several minutes, neither spoke. For the first time in the young Slytherin witch's life, both men were seriously considering the prophecy regarding her future—and whether they should finally tell her that it existed.
Severus was the first to say it aloud. "Should we tell her?"
It was a cold night, but thankfully, the sky was clear and full of stars as Cassie made her way across the grounds toward the Forbidden Forest.
The stars provided enough light to guide her across the snow-covered ground without requiring her to pull out her wand and illuminate her path. Doing so might alert the Hogwarts staff to her journey, and she was in no mood to explain why she was heading toward the out-of-bounds forest when the moon was high, and its dangers were likely at their most vicious.
When she'd initially run from the classroom containing the Mirror of Erised and Dumbledore, she hadn't been entirely sure where she was going. But even before she reached the hallway, her mind had already begun to settle on a path. She wanted answers.
Questions she'd barely been conscious of having until that night had suddenly been dragged screaming to the surface.
So here she was, entering the trees at the same familiar spot she'd used so many times before. Usually, she'd come during daylight to find her favorite clearing with the jagged boulder. In those moments, the forest had always seemed inviting—a place of solitude and solace.
Tonight, even with determination driving her forward, the darkness seemed different. The crooked branches looked as though they might swallow her whole the moment she stepped beneath them.
Moving through the Forbidden Forest was difficult. The ground was covered with rotting stumps and tangled roots, and at night, it was nearly impossible to see what lurked beneath the snow. Cassie followed the familiar path she'd traveled so many times during the day, stumbling more than once over obstacles she normally would have noticed.
Once she was certain she had reached her favorite, cherished spot, she stopped to gather her thoughts and make a plan.
She hadn't taken the time to return to her dormitory for extra layers of clothing, so she needed to conjure some form of warmth. She did so quickly, using her wand to create a small blue flame that she cupped between her hands.
The bright light would alert the forest's inhabitants to her presence. But that was part of her plan. She only hoped she'd find the friendlier ones before the more sinister ones found her.
Cassie moved away from the clearing and deeper into the trees. Apprehension made her turn and look back, and for a moment she wondered whether this really was a good idea.
Then the fresh memory of Lord Voldemort staring back at her from the mirror flashed through her mind. His expression had been conceited, triumphant. He had looked as though he had won something.
Something she couldn't understand. Whatever it was, she was determined not to let it happen.
What she sought in the forest during those early hours was not something. It was someone.
She was looking for the local herd of centaurs, and more specifically, Firenze.
In the past, her encounters with centaurs had never been intentional, and their interactions had usually been less than amiable. Still, if she remained polite and assured them she would leave the forest, they generally went about their business, and she went about hers.
That was until she'd met the younger, blond centaur. He had immediately taken an interest in her presence in his habitat.
It had been during her fifth year, when she'd been in her usual spot with Charlie. The two had gone there after a particularly grueling Quidditch match, and Charlie had simply wanted to escape everyone's constant stares and criticisms about how he'd played.
They had been sitting together on the rock, talking about everything and nothing, kissing and cuddling, when they'd heard hoofbeats nearby. A group of four centaurs came into view, looking rather restless when they spotted the two Hogwarts students.
Cassie, who had interacted with them several times before, greeted them immediately and explained that she and Charlie would be on their way back to the castle.
Then Firenze, who had been staring at her without blinking, spoke. "Heir of the Dark Lord."
Cassie had been stunned. Being referred to as Lord Voldemort's successor was not something she took kindly to, and even Charlie, who was usually slow to anger, had begun to flush at the brazen way the centaur had referred to his girlfriend.
"I'm no heir," Cassie replied swiftly, climbing down from the large boulder. She usually bowed slightly to the centaurs, but agitation had made her forget herself.
"Potentially," Firenze said. There was a knowing look on his pale features, and the other centaurs began to grow anxious, stamping their hooves and rearing slightly.
"Firenze!" Bane boomed. "We do not speak of the future in front of humans. You know this!"
"But this young one's future is not set in the stars," Firenze replied. His blue eyes broke from Cassie's and moved toward the sky. "It is imperative that she knows that decisions will be thrust into her path—ones that will impact the carnage that she brings."
"Enough," Ronan interjected sadly, cutting off his younger companion, although not nearly as impudently as Bane had.
By then, Cassie had heard plenty. Her Gryffindor beau knew it without her having to say anything. He had already grabbed her hand, muttered some civilized goodbyes to the centaurs, and begun pulling her away from the clearing toward the castle as quickly as they could manage through the trees.
Those haunting words replayed in her mind over and over again for the next year or so, until she'd gradually convinced herself there was no way they could be true. Divination—and anything related to it—was unreliable and frivolous.
It was the only thing, along with Charlie's reassurance that there was no way she was going to bring carnage upon anyone, that kept her from losing her mind.
But now, as she pushed onward through the chilled night air, searching for tracks and straining to hear any sound that might alert her to their presence, she wasn't nearly as certain. The image of a fallen Ministry of Magic seemed as though it could easily go hand in hand with bloodshed and despair.
And while Dumbledore had told her that the Mirror of Erised did not necessarily show the future, she couldn't help but think it was more than coincidence that Firenze's words and what she had seen in the mirror were so similar.
It seemed as though she walked for endless hours, yet the sun still hadn't begun to rise. She knew it was still very early morning.
She couldn't possibly know how far into the forest she'd traveled. She was beginning to wonder whether she would end up lost in there for days, shivering and despondent, when she heard hoofbeats muffled by the frozen ground.
But nearby.
Cassie's heart soared even as it began beating wildly. She knew she had trespassed deep into their territory.
"Offspring of the Terrible One." She recognized Bane's deep voice. Then six centaurs surrounded her.
Cassie kept the flame burning between her hands, desperately needing its warmth, but she didn't dare raise her wand in a way that might make them believe she intended to threaten them.
Instead, she bowed deeply.
"You are unexpected in our forest, especially at this time, and alone," Bane said.
"She is lost," Ronan added in his same melodramatic tone.
"I am lost," Cassie admitted, "but I was also searching for you. You can't begin to imagine how pleased I am to have found you—"
"You found us!" Bane exclaimed. "The very concept is absurd. Had we not come across you, you would have been walking in circles for a week and perished in this harsh cold."
"You're right," Cassie said, keeping her eyes cast toward the ground and hoping her submissive demeanor appeared sincere. "You're absolutely right."
"What reason would a student from the castle have for seeking us out?" Ronan asked. Cassie breathed a small sigh of relief, glad they had moved away from the subject of Bane's pride.
"I know I have nothing to offer you in return," she began, carefully choosing her words so as not to offend them. "But I was wishing to speak with Firenze, if he is agreeable."
Bane, Ronan, and the other centaurs began speaking quietly among themselves. Cassie grew increasingly nervous. Her instinct was to reach for her wand, but she knew it would be an incredibly stupid move, so she kept her hand at her side and took slow, deep breaths.
If they attacked, she'd simply have to reach for it as quickly as her frozen fingers would allow.
Bane began taking steps toward her. Cassie kept her eyes fixed on the ground, focusing on a tree stump.
"For what purpose, young human?" Cassie inhaled deeply, hoping she could find the right words. Before she could speak, Bane suddenly commanded, "Look at me, human!"
Cassie obeyed. She raised her head and met his stern gaze.
His large hand shot forward and closed around her throat.
He lifted her from the ground by her neck as though she weighed no more than a feather, raising her just high enough that their eyes were level. Her shoes dangled several feet above the forest floor, and her hands instinctively clawed at the one choking her.
"You seek out the prognostication made by Firenze all those years ago," he said, his dark eyes narrowing as Cassie sputtered, desperately trying to draw breath. "The one you ran from." Still, she forced herself not to reach for her wand. He could crush her windpipe before she ever managed to cast a proper curse. She couldn't speak. She couldn't even nod. She could only hang helplessly in the centaur's enraged grip. "We owe no humans the knowledge of our predictions!"
"We might not owe the humans..." Another voice sounded from the darkness. A pale, white-blond centaur stepped into view. Cassie would have been thrilled to see him if the lack of oxygen weren't threatening to make her slip into unconsciousness. "...but we owe it to our species to allow this one to choose the most righteous path."
Firenze approached Bane and gently placed a hand on the arm holding Cassie. "Bane, that's enough. She's no good to either side if you kill her now."
Bane suddenly loosened his grip. Cassie fell to the ground in a heap, dragging in her first uninhibited breath with a rattling wheeze.
"Perhaps we'd all be better off knowing she can't choose either path," Bane murmured, "for humans have poor insight into what is righteous and what is not."
But Firenze had apparently convinced him not to kill her. Bane slowly turned and walked away, the other centaurs following him until they disappeared into the darkness.
"Please forgive Bane's brutality," Firenze said quietly, offering Cassie a hand. She took it tentatively, rubbing her bruised neck as he helped her to her feet.
"He's just being careful," she said. "I can hardly blame him."
"You are patient, for a human."
"Depends on the day."
"What changed, young witch?" Firenze watched her as Cassie folded her arms around herself, trying desperately to retain what little warmth she had left. His pale features almost seemed angelic against the snow-covered branches surrounding them. "Why seek out the foretold now, after this much time?"
"I learned something...distressing about myself." Cassie hesitated. "Are you familiar with the Mirror of Erised?"
"I am not."
"You look into it, and it shows you your deepest desires." The centaur began to walk, and Cassie followed, hoping he was leading her toward the castle grounds. "I saw the Ministry of Magic fall, and the Dark Lord returned, along with my mother. I was with them."
"I don't understand," Firenze said, ducking beneath a low branch without even looking at it. He knew the forest too well to need to. "If it is your deepest desire, then what is so upsetting?"
"It's not my deepest desire," Cassie insisted. "Or my desire at all! At least, I don't think so. Him returning is sickening to even think about." She swallowed, wincing from the recent trauma. "But after seeing that in the mirror, and remembering what you said to me that day...I can't help but wonder."
"If you are destined for that future?" Firenze asked. Cassie nodded slowly. "You are worried that you will be unable to change it."
"Yes."
"But I told you, young one. Your future is not set."
"But you said that I will bring carnage," Cassie pointed out.
"And you will," Firenze said simply. Cassie's heart dropped. "In what I have seen and read in the stars, you will lead a great legion in the upcoming war. But it is not determined for which side."
"So you know there will be a war," Cassie said quietly. "My father...he'll return?"
"Oh, yes," Firenze replied. "Bane and the others would not like me telling a human, of course." Cassie felt as though she were going to vomit.
"So he'll come back, and then what? He'll convince me to go to him?"
"I do not know anything of the sort," Firenze replied. "That is what you must decide for yourself." Cassie nearly tripped over a root, and Firenze caught her, steadying her before she fell into the snow. "Your power, young human, lies in your choices."
"But what if I choose not to help either side?" she asked quietly. "What if I don't want to lead an army or massacre people?"
Firenze suddenly stopped walking. They had reached a clearing. He looked up toward the night sky again. There were still no clouds, and the stars shone brilliantly overhead. Cassie hoped that because they were so dazzling, he would be able to pluck a clear answer from them. Something comforting.
"I have not accounted for that choice," he muttered after several minutes. Cassie was so cold she was certain her toes were blue by now. "But I am sure no power lies within it."
Firenze helped her find her familiar clearing and then bid her farewell.
Cassie was more than grateful for the centaur's cooperation, although she didn't feel any more at peace with what he'd told her than when she'd entered the forest.
Before they parted ways, she told him several times that if there was ever anything she could help him with, he only needed to tell Hagrid, and she would return to the forest to help in any way she could. She couldn't tell whether he would ever take her up on the offer.
She was so exhausted by the time she reached the edge of the forest that she hadn't even considered whether anyone might see her crossing the grounds. So when Hagrid suddenly burst from his hut as soon as she emerged from the trees, she was startled.
"Cass!" he bellowed, lumbering toward her with a large, cozy-looking blanket that he must have pulled from his hut. "What are ya doin', coming out o' the forest, 'specially at this time o' mornin'?"
"Oh, Hagrid." Cassie was so grateful for the blanket's warmth and softness that she nearly sagged with relief as he wrapped her in it and scooped her up, carrying her straight toward his home. "I'm so happy to see you!"
"I'd get you back to the castle straightaway, 'cept it looks like you need a bit o' warmin' up," Hagrid muttered. He burst through his door and placed her in a chair in front of the fireplace. "Yer lips are blue!"
"Yeah," Cassie said, realizing for the first time that her entire body was shivering. "And probably my toes."
"What were ya doin'?"
"Visiting the centaurs." She saw no reason to lie to the half-giant, especially since the creatures would probably tell him about their encounter the next time they saw him. Hagrid was flabbergasted.
Cassie gave him a few vague answers, but she was so tired that she soon began to doze in front of the fire.
He must have allowed her to sleep for a while, because when she woke again, it was completely light outside.
Hagrid carried her partway across the grounds before making her walk the rest of the way. After thanking Hagrid profusely, Cassie parted ways with him in the entrance hall and began making her way toward the dungeons.
Breakfast was long over, and classes had already begun, as most of the corridors were deserted. She intended to return to her dormitory and change her clothes, but her plans were immediately interrupted by a rather panicked-looking Potions Master.
"Cassie!" He hissed the word as he nearly jogged toward her, despite there being no one else around. "Where in the hell were you?"
"Don't you have class?" she countered calmly. He looked as though he were about to answer—and rather angrily, at that—but his eyes landed on the fresh bruises around her pale neck.
Without another word, he placed a hand between her shoulder blades and guided her toward one of the unused chambers. "I hadn't realized you were gone," Severus growled after settling her into a rickety wooden chair and closing the door. "Not until McGonagall noticed you hadn't shown up to class. Then I spoke to your dormmates, and they told me you hadn't been to bed all night!"
"Yeah," Cassie replied, sinking into the chair. All she wanted was to sleep.
"So?" Severus said irritably. "And I repeat: Where were you?"
"The Forbidden Forest," she muttered. Severus looked as though his black eyes might pop out of his head.
"Doing what?"
She sighed. The anger on his features intensified, and Cassie reluctantly recounted the entire story. He sat across from her, leaning forward in concentration, by the time she reached the first time Firenze had spoken his prediction. By the time she finished explaining what she'd learned only hours ago, Severus looked as though he'd seen a ghost.
"Well?" Cassie asked, already knowing her next words would only infuriate him. "Can I go to bed now?"
"Cassie," he growled lowly, "stop acting as though this is all a game!"
"I'm not." She rolled her eyes. "I'm just exhausted, all right? I traipsed through the cold, dark forest all night—"
"Like a damn idiot!"
"Thanks for that," she said with a grimace. "And I'm trying to take all of this in. I just need to process it."
"Do you realize," Severus said, his voice quiet and dangerous, "what those centaurs could have done to you? How stupid it was to simply run into that forest alone? Without telling anyone?"
"It was stupid, I admit," Cassie said lightly. "But I'm fine—"
"Look at your damn neck!" He looked absolutely livid. "You're lucky we're not out there searching for your cold, dead body!"
"Severus!" Cassie countered, feeling increasingly awake the more annoyed she became. "Me going into the forest is completely beside the point!"
"Oh, really? Then what, besides the fact that you're a reckless, harebrained risk-taker, is the point? I have enough to worry about around here, and then you go off doing something this dangerous!"
Cassie abruptly stood, thoroughly exasperated by the older wizard and his temper tantrums. "I realize you're stressed out, Severus, but this is not about you! At all! This is about the fact that I'm supposed to, I don't know, lead a fucking army that kills a whole shitload of people!" She began pacing. Severus remained seated, suddenly falling silent at her outburst. "And the best thing is, I don't even know who I'm going to be killing! Isn't that great?" She turned toward him. "Maybe I'm going to turn to the other side when the time comes, and I'll be murdering all of my classmates and their loved ones. Won't that be something?"
"Cassie." His rich voice reverberated through the abandoned dungeon, but she barely registered it. "Why would you ever think that's what will happen?"
She glared at him. "Don't do that. Don't pretend like you didn't talk to Dumbledore. Like you don't know what I saw in that fucking mirror!"
"Cassie, just because you saw something in the Mirror of Erised doesn't mean any of it will come true. It doesn't show the future—"
"No, but it showed me something that I want! Something I didn't realize I did!" She shrieked the words. Severus was suddenly on his feet, crossing the distance between them and taking her face gently but firmly between his hands. He tried to lock his eyes onto hers, grounding her before she could spiral any further.
"Cassie!" His voice was firm. After several seconds, her blue eyes finally found his, and he knew she was listening to him—at least for the moment. "Dumbledore and I think that your nighttime intruder may have planted that image in your mind. It might not be your desire at all."
Tears poured down her face, blurring her vision as she tried to focus on the man in front of her. The man she loved so deeply. Even now, he was trying to keep her from completely losing herself. "But what if it is?" she asked, sobbing now. "What if, when my father comes back, I go to him?"
"You won't."
"But it would be so much easier," she hissed, her expression darkening as she said it. "Everyone already expects it of me, and so many people already hate me. Why not just do what they believe I will?"
"Cassie," Severus said again, but this time he sounded almost sorrowful. He planted soft kisses against her tear-stained face as he continued to hold her cheeks in his hands. "You've never been someone who simply does something because it's easy."
"But what if I do?" Cassie asked weakly. "What if I do, and then I lead an army that slaughters innocent people?"
"I won't let that happen." Severus said it with such resolve that, for the moment, he almost believed it himself. He was certain now that someone had intended to get into her head—and had succeeded far more thoroughly than either he or Dumbledore had realized.
The girl was a shaking, weeping mess. When he knew that Sprout, who had covered his lesson, had dismissed the students from his Potions classroom, he led Cassie through it. They walked through his office and into his quarters.
He settled her into his bed, made sure she was comfortable, and waited until she fell asleep before leaving to teach the rest of his classes for the day.
He hadn't told her, but his intention that morning had been to reveal the prophecy Sybill Trelawney had made about her years ago.
He knew Dumbledore might be displeased with his decision not to go through with it. But Cassie had already discovered the basis of the prediction for herself through the centaurs, and Severus saw little value in upsetting her further by having her hear it from another source.
Still, he knew it was only a matter of time before she discovered that he and Dumbledore had known about the prophecy all along. And when she did, he feared it would be far more damaging than the prophecy itself.