The Marauders Era

"Rabastan?" A voice called out. At first, it seemed so strange. It was like she had heard it before, yet she couldn't place it. The voice called out, again and again. It was only by the third time that Cassie noticed it was her, the voice she was hearing, the one she couldn't manage to recognize. It was her own voice. She called out again. However, there was no response. Turning around, she tried to make sense of her surroundings. At first, Cassie couldn't see anything as the dark was so overpowering she could barely locate her own hand. Suddenly a single light appeared above her. It was a lamp, an old, expensive-looking lamp that hung high up on a dark wall clad in a rather familiar wallpaper.

With each step Cassie took down the hallway, lamp after lamp lit up, and it wasn't until she was in the middle of the hallway when she heard it. What started as a muffled sound of music grew the longer she heard it, as did the voices, the small but many voices talking above each other. Some were laughing, while others were simply just talking. It was almost like where ever the music came from, it was the presence of a ball or a party.

Cassie walked a few steps before she suddenly halted. It felt as if her feet were glued to the floor, and no matter how much she wanted to move, she couldn’t. At first, she didn't notice it. However, the longer she stood still, the longer the music played in her ears, the more apparent it became. It was like a shadow, weaving through words and music, making a swift appearance before disappearing, almost like it was teasing her.

It was a whisper, a dark whisper that brought a chill to her spine. It grew and grew until it felt as if it was surrounding her completely, yet still, it remained nothing more than a whisper.

"Join us... Join us... Join us..." it kept repeating like a record that was stuck. Suddenly a dark door appeared to her right, and as she studied it, it almost felt like the whispers got louder. Against her better judgment, she reached for the doorknob feeling the cool handle in her hand before giving it a flick of her wrist, letting the door slowly fall open.

Cassie felt her shoulders lower in relief as the whispering disappeared, though it wasn't long until they tensed up again as a wicked laugh rang through her ears. The room was entirely dark, almost as if she was staring into an endless pit of blackness, until suddenly a figure appeared. Then another, they kept appearing until there were several of them, their faces hidden by a cloak, making it impossible for her to see any of them.

A pale dimmed light appeared, and the room lighted up enough, so she was able to recognize it. She felt her entire body freeze. A shiver reached her spine as the hair on her arms rose. The scene in front of her was so familiar she could feel her stomach starting to turn dangerously.

Once again, the wicked laugh appeared as the figure standing in the middle of the group rose their hands to their hood and lowered it slowly, causing Cassie to clench her hands tightly as striking fear started to appear.

"Well Well Well, If it isn't my darling little cousin." Bellatrix grinned deviously. "You know it will happen, so why fight it? Why bother tiring yourself out, trying to fight the inevitable? Nothing you do will ever be able to change anything." Her voice rang as it was filled with taunting and nothing more than a promise of eternal misery.

One by one, the hoods disappeared, and suddenly she was back at the night of the ball. The night she had stumbled upon something so dark and dangerous that she wasn't sure if she wanted to tell anyone in fear of them getting hurt. Her eyes flew over the familiar faces she had seen the last time, Antonin Dolohov, Lucius Malfoy, Rodolphus, and Bellatrix, along with a few others she couldn't quite remember the name of. But this time, there was another figure with them, a figure still clad in the dark cloak, but somehow even without seeing their faces, she knew who it was, and it terrified her.

"You think you can resist us? He couldn't." She taunted, her wicked smile widening at the pale, terrified expression on her cousin's face. "Why don't you try? She'll listen to you."

The cloaked figure raised his hands and slowly pulled down his hood, baring his face to her. A striking pain filled her, and a feeling, a horrible feeling as if someone had torn her heart out and was squeezing the life out of it in front of her, appeared. His warm eyes that usually shone with happiness whenever he laughed seemed lifeless and dull, as if someone had sucked all happiness out of him. His face was paler than normal, and there was no trace of the amused grin she was so used to seeing. It was like she was looking at a completely different person. Whatever part of him that had made Rabastan who he was had all but disappeared, and he seemed like a shell of the person he used to be.

His lips drew slowly up in a smile, a smile quite similar to the wicked ones that rested on Bellatrix and Rodolphus. The warm, gentle smile that had graced him earlier was nowhere to be seen. There was nothing to be seen except for the wicked smile growing on his emotionless face. "Join us. You know it's the right thing to do." He stretched a hand towards her, waiting for her to take it. "Join us, and we can be together. We can create a world where we won't ever have to hide who we are, where we will rule over those who are less, just like we were meant to do. Join us,"

As if knowing just what to do, his eyes soften, and his voice became so gentle that for a moment, he looked like himself, and Cassie wanted nothing more than to burst out in tears. "Join me, Cassia."

A sharp intake of breath filled the bedroom as Cassie abruptly woke from her dream. Running her fingers through her dark hair, she couldn't help but sigh in relief at the sight of her light surroundings. As the low sun peaked between the lace curtains, it couldn't have been more than a few hours after dawn.

"It was just a dream, it was just a dream, it was just a dream." She mumbled over and over to herself, trying to calm her shaken body. It had felt so real, the way they looked at her, the way he looked at her. It was as if she had been paralyzed when she stood there. Taking a deep breath, she exhaled slowly, repeating it a few times in the hope of calming her frantic heart. That wasn't a dream, she thought. That was a nightmare.

Ever since the ball, what Cassie had seen had been a lingering thought that she had pushed so far back in her mind, hoping with everything she had that she would be able to forget it. But with no luck, it seemed.

What scared her the most wasn't her cousin or any of the other people or members or whatever they were that was there. But it was him. It was Rabastan. The way he looked at her, it wasn't the Rabastan she knew. Whoever that had been was a whole different person, so different that she almost didn't recognize him, and that's what scared her. The chance that one day he might end up like that was terrifying.

As she sat in her bed, she laid her arms around her knees and pulled them closer, resting her forehead on them. There were still a few hours until what Cassie deemed was an appropriate time to wake up, but she knew that there was no way she would be able to fall asleep again after that dream.

For a while, she just sat there, sitting with her head on her knees, trying to distract herself by making up different scenarios in her head, imagining how life would have been if she had been someone else. It seemed to work for a while; however, as time went by, her worries grew. What if it really happened? She had seen her cousin as well as Rodolphus in that room that night, so she supposed there might be a chance that the two really were death eaters. Which made her worries grow significantly.

 She had no doubts that they would want Rabastan to join, but what made her worry the most was Regulus. Though she loved him more than anything, she knew that he was a follower. When they were younger, instead of charging ahead like Sirius and her used to do, he would follow the two, going along with whatever they had planned, as long as he didn't get into too much trouble.

After sitting like that for almost an hour, Cassie decided that she had had enough and threw the covers off her body, swinging her legs, planting them on the cold floor. Quietly she sneaked out of her bedroom, threading lightly over to the bathroom, careful not to make too much noise. She would have hated to wake Rabastan.

A deep sigh left her as she laid back in the tub, letting the warm water surround her body, causing her to relax properly. She had pulled her messy hair into a bun letting it rest on top of her head, though a few rogue strands had escaped curling themselves around her face from the damp. Just by the bathtub was a small window, placed perfectly, so she was able to lay and admire the view she had of the colorful sky outside. The sun was ascending slowly from behind a mountain, causing the sky to be filled with warm, beautiful colors.

How long had it been since she was so relaxed? Her mind felt completely empty as she laid basking in the warm water, with no thoughts about the dream she had or the wedding set in the summer. The only thing that mattered was the feeling of being completely weightless, along with the beautiful pink and orange colors that tinted the sky.

A few hours later, Rabastan had woken up and went downstairs to get a fire going in the living room, only to be met with the sight of Cassie, who was bundled up in blankets while she sat on the couch with a book in her hands.

"How long have you been up?" He asked curiously, casting a quick glance at the burning fireplace.

Having been so engrossed with her book, Cassie hadn't even noticed that he had entered the room until he spoke. She looked up from her book and smiled sheepishly at him. "I didn't hear you enter." She turned her wrist, catching the view of her watch. "An hour maybe.. " She lied smoothly.

Not catching her lie, Rabastan only smiled in return before turning towards the opening to the kitchen. "I'm going to start on breakfast."

"Do you need any help?"

His smile only widened as he heard her. "No, it's okay, just continue with your book."

Cassie's gaze lingered on his back as he entered the kitchen, and she almost felt tempted to take another bath as the dream from earlier started to make its way into her mind. She took a deep breath and told herself that everything was fine, everything was okay, and she felt herself relax while picturing the smile he had just given her. That was real, he was real, and he wasn't going anywhere. It was only a dream.

When Cassie was younger, she sometimes had dreams and nightmares that felt so vividly real that she wasn't sure what was real and what was just a dream when she woke up. Over the years, as she grew up, those lifelike dreams lessened, though they would somehow always find her once in a while. It had been several months since the last time, and she truly hoped that it would be several months until next time.

As she heard Rabastan rummaging through the kitchen cabinets, a smile crept on her lips as a sudden thud was heard, followed by several strands of curses.

"Are you okay in there?"

Silence lingered in the air as he didn't give a response, and just as she placed her bookmark in her book and was about to find a way out of her bundled blanket mess, a voice spoke.

"Eh.. yeah, I'm fine..." He paused. "But the eggs, however, are not so fine."

Cassie bit back a giggle as she could imagine him standing with either both hands on his waist or one hand on his waist while his face was buried in the other as he looked down at a mess of eggshells and egg yolks laying on the floor.

"Do you want some help?" She called out.

"If you don't mind,"

Cassie smiled while softly shaking her head to herself as she put away her book and made her way into the kitchen, where a mess of smashed eggs laid on the floor. At first glance, she knew that there was no way that he had dropped only one egg.

"Did you drop the entire carton or something?" His face flushed as she asked, "You did, didn't you?" Cassie nibbled her lower lip to contain the laughter she so very much wanted to release.

"Whether it was one egg or a whole carton, it doesn't matter."

"I think that alone is an answer." She grinned, kneeling down beside him, and started to gather eggshells in her palms. Glancing up, she couldn't help but add. "I wasn't feeling eggs anyway."

He looked up from the mess, wide-eyed as he met her eyes, looking as if he was holding his breath. "Really?" She nodded, causing him to breathe out in relief.

"Thank god, because it was the entire carton," he confessed with a chuckle.

Cassie looked at him speechless for a moment before bursting out in laughter. He was stunned, but as he watched her leaning her head forward while laughing, several eggshells laying in her palm, he couldn't help but join her. Any trace of the embarrassment that had lingered on his face was gone as he smiled at her.

"I'm going to miss this place," Cassie uttered lowly as her eyes wandered through the kitchen, trying to brand it into her mind.

"We'll be back. It's not like it's going anywhere." Rabastan chuckled, leaning against the door frame with his arms crossed. "Well, our trunks are down, and everything's packed." He huffed slightly, catching the amusement lingering on Cassie's features. "What?"

She looked away, wondering if she should tell him the one thought that had circled her mind as she watched him carrying their trunks down the stairs, placing them beside the wardrobe in the foyer. "You do know that instead of carrying the heavy trunks up and down the stairs, you could have simply used a levitation charm?"

He froze for a moment, thinking over what she had just said. It embarrassed him to no end to admit that he had honestly forgotten about that option, but he wasn't going to tell her. Instead, he replied as smoothly as he could. "Of course i know that. What do you take me for? I just figured a little exercise could never hurt."

"Aha.." Cassie raised a brow at him, giving him a look that told him that she didn't believe one word of what he was saying.

"Anyway.." Rabastan started. "Are you ready to go?"

Giving the kitchen a final glance, she turned towards him and nodded. After they had put on their shoes and coats, made sure they had everything with them, Rabastan went and opened the door carrying his trunk with him as he stepped outside. Giving a final look, Cassie smiled softly at the little cottage she had come to see as a home for the short time they were here. Gripping her handle, she turned around, stepped outside in the cold, and placed her trunk next to his. 

Letting her eyes wander over the snowy scenery, she suddenly remembered a thought she had a week ago on the train back from Hogwarts. It was funny how fate worked. The view she had from the bathtub this morning was beautiful enough to take her breath away. There were no neighbours for miles, and their parents were hundreds of miles away. It was almost as if someone had given her exactly what she wished for, though she doubted that she could be that lucky.

Giving the key in his hand a swift flick, Rabastan turned the handle a few times to ensure that the door was locked before putting the key in his pocket. As he turned around, he was faced with Cassie's back, as she stood staring at the mountain where he would usually go on his hike.

Hearing his steps in the snow, she turned around with her hands buried in her pockets.

"So.. wherever we are going now, that's my Christmas present?" she asked uncertainly.

"It is."

"But isn't it a bit too much? I feel as if I should have gotten you something more special than a mirror."

His lips tilted upwards as he cocked his head slightly. "What you got me was more than a mirror. You gave me an opportunity to see you... to talk to you even when you are in school. I mean, it won't be long until you have to study for your exams, and I don't know how much my mother will let me hide from the wedding things, so I doubt we'll be able to meet often. It's perfect." He stretched his hand out and smiled. "And I know you will feel the same way when you see your present."

Cassie let her eyes linger on his smile for a moment before looking down at his outstretched hand. She gripped the handle of her trunk tightly as she placed her hand in his and felt the view disappear around her.

Cassie leaned slightly into Rabastan as they landed in hopes of regaining her balance. Though she enjoyed being able to apparate to different places, she wasn't quite fond of the trip itself. However, she supposed with some training, she would hopefully get more used to it before she would be taking her apparition certificate.

Opening her eyes, a sharp intake of breath was heard, and Cassie couldn't do anything but stare at the sight in front of her. "No..." She whispered, unable to wrap her head around what she was seeing. "Is this real?"

Rabastan looked down at her stunned face and smiled. "Why don't you go and see."

She looked at him with wide eyes before letting go of the hand she had been holding on to while apparating. Her feet moved slowly as she maneuvered through the snow. Cassie was almost afraid to breathe, as if somehow that would take away the sight in front of her. She sent him a nervous but happy smile before lifting her hand, knocking it against the door three times.

As the door opened, Cassie knew she wasn't dreaming as she locked eyes with a brown-haired woman bearing a warm smile. She was almost tempted to pinch herself to see if it was real. The two looked at each other before the older woman wrapped her arms around her younger cousin.

"I've missed you, Cassie."

Feeling her cousin's warm embrace, Cassie couldn't help but close her eyes, wrapping her arms around the older girl's waist as she hugged back. "I've missed you too, Dromeda." she smiled brightly, trying to fight back the tears that were starting to gather in her eyes.

It had to be at least a year since the last time she had seen her cousin, sure they wrote letters, but it wasn't the same as seeing her, Ted, or the twins. Cassie had hoped and longed to visit them during the holidays before being informed that the Lestrange's had invited them. After the news, she was worried that she wouldn't be able to see them at all until... well, merlin knows how long. But the fact that she was here now, in her cousin's arms, felt like a dream come true.

"Is that her?" An eager voice appeared somewhere behind Andromeda, who pulled away at the sound of it.

"There is someone who wants to see you. He hasn't been able to shut up all day." She laughed.

Curiosity and slight confusion filled Cassie for a moment before a dark mop of hair appeared behind Andromeda, and suddenly she was wrapped tightly in a pair of strong arms that held on so tightly as if she might disappear in his hands.

"Sirius..." She breathed out before wrapping her arms around him, burying her face in his chest. Though they had only been apart for a week, she had missed him terribly. The tears she was fighting back suddenly overflood and started trailing down her cheeks. This was too much, it couldn't possibly be real, but as Sirius squeezed her tighter and gently kissed her head, she knew this was real. He was here. She was here.

As they pulled away, Sirius couldn't help but chuckle softly at the sight of her teary eyes and gently raised his thumbs to her cheeks and dried her tears. "Crybaby." He teased lightly.

"Shut up." Cassie snuffled, causing them to laugh. As she looked at the two, her brother and the cousin she had always seen as a big sister, her heart felt so light and filled with happiness that it could have burst. Turning to Rabastan, the warm smile on his face made her feel even lighter, and she couldn't help but throw her arms around his waist.

Feeling his strong arms wrap around her smaller body, she whispered softly to him. "This is the most perfect present I have ever gotten. Thank you... thank you so much." He pulled her closer, letting her head settle perfectly under his chin.

"Anything for you." He said and meant it.