Chapter 20
Cassidy and the rest scrambled to their feet as the three animals wrestled, Snape shielding them all once more. Cassidy watched in fear, her eyes wide as Sirius and Joshua tried to subdue Remus.
But despite the combined strength of the bear and the dog, Remus still managed to throw them off. They got back up quickly, protecting the group. Cassidy watched as her father and Sirius growled at Lupin, and Lupin growled back, charging at them both as they started fighting again. It was visceral, Lupin hitting and biting both the bear and the dog, and throwing them off yet again.
He turned back to Snape and the students, advancing slowly as the other two struggled to get up, but Joshua suddenly got up again and bit Remus's arm, causing Remus to get distracted and chase the two.
"Sirius!" Harry yelled, running off.
"Dad!" Cassidy yelled, running with him.
"Come back here, Potter and Sweet!" Snape yelled after them. Ron stood there with eyes wide, watching Cassidy run away. He felt the urge to go after her, but he couldn't.
Cassidy and Harry came to a clearing, and saw Remus throwing Sirius off, while Joshua bit him from behind. He threw Joshua off as well, though he came back up quickly. Cassidy saw the wounds on his arm, and screamed when Lupin scratched him. Joshua roared in pain, and staggered backwards before falling in a heap.
"DAD!" She screamed, stumbling forwards with Harry, ignoring the pain in her ankle, ignoring the cut on her cheek.
When they got closer, Harry threw a stone at Remus, catching his attention. He turned to the two, roaring at them. Just as he was about to strike....
"Awoooo!"
Cassidy furrowed her brow, looking to the direction of the sound at the same time as Lupin.
"What the hell...?" She breathed.
"Awooooooooooo!"
Cassidy and Harry looked at each other in utter confusion, but Remus seemed to be entranced. He bound off, chasing after the sound.
Cassidy and Harry heard a whining sound, and turned to see Sirius the dog struggling to stand. Joshua, the bear, was seemingly trying to help him up, nudging him with his snout gently despite his own wounds.
Just then, Sirius turned into his human form, trying to stagger away. Joshua swiftly turned to his human form as well, though his formerly pristine suit was now ripped and stained with blood. Joshua held his arm, but Sirius shrugged him off, running away. Joshua ran after him.
"Dad!" Cassidy yelled, making to run, but wincing at the pain in her ankle. Harry didn't hesitate, holding her up as the two made after Joshua and Sirius, stumbling along the way.
They made it to a clearing with a lake, where Sirius Black lay, unconscious. Joshua kneeled over him, and it looked like he'd been crying.
"Sirius!" Harry said, running to the two. "Sirius!" He crashed to his knees beside Joshua, who, upon closer inspection, was bleeding from his arm profusely.
"Dad!" Cassidy yelled, turning him towards her. She touched his arm with her hand, but blood dripped out of the cracks between her fingers. He smiled at her gently, and, without a word, dropped unconscious.
"Dad! No, no, no, this can't be happening." She remembered her Boggart, the one from Lupin's first class, the one that was her father's dead body, and began to cry silently. "No, dad, you can't die, you can't."
Harry stared at Sirius's unconscious body, barely registering anything around him. The clearing was silent, the only thing being heard being Cassidy's sobs.
"I-I'm so stupid," she choked out, tears dripping onto Joshua's face. "I-if I had listened to you..."
Harry slowly wrapped an arm around her shoulder, drawing her closer as she cried into his sweater. Her shaky breaths became puffs, despite it being early June, and Harry looked up slowly.
The lake's water slowly turned into ice, and the air became deathly cold. Cassidy stopped sobbing, looking up from Harry's sweater as she felt that sinking feeling of dread. She reached into her pocket for her necklace, draping it around her neck as she saw the Dementors circling above them.
Just like the last time, it was pitch black, and stone cold.
One swooped down, and fed on Sirius briefly before flying back up. Cassidy started hearing the voices again....
"My baby! Leave him alone! I said, LEAVE HIM ALONE!"
She faintly registered Harry getting up and saying something... there was a bright light... but...
"It's becoming a part of you."
No.
No, she wouldn't let it. She wouldn't let the memories consume her, because her father was lying there almost dead good as dead and she couldn't let the evil things win so she got up, wiping the blood from her nose there's BLOOD again and then she remembered how her mother told her she needed to learn wandless magic and how she knew she'd go back and learn it because she'd make it home, she'd make it home.
Harry had cast a spell she didn't know, and it was shielding them from the Dementors. He looked like he was struggling.
"Harry?" She said. "What spell is it?!"
"The Patronus spell!" He yelled back. "It's a spell Lupin taught me! It repels the Dementors!"
Cassidy would've helped, but she didn't have her wand. She looked around frantically as the Dementors came swooping down, feeding on all of them, one by one.
"Argh!" She screamed, holding her sides as she and Harry staggered. For one horrifying moment, she saw a ball of light ascend from Sirius's mouth.
She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to remember anything that her mother had told her about wandless magic.
Then it came to her. One day, as they'd been cooking in the kitchen, a remark.
"It's truly powerful, you know. It's raw. You pull it from inside yourself, it's from your very essence."
Cassidy tried to block out the screams from Harry and Sirius, tried to block out the screams that were coming from within, and held up her hand.
"Expecto Patronum!"
A medium sized stream of silver light burst from her hand, repelling only a few Dementors. Cassidy dropped her hand, panting. She hadn't expected much more. This was a type of magic for the very skilled, but she'd done something, nonetheless.
The Dementors were closing in. Cassidy fell to her knees beside Harry, holding her father's cold hand.
She closed her eyes. It was over, it was the end—
A figure from the other side of the lake caught Harry's attention. He shook Cassidy's shoulder, and she opened her eyes.
Before she could make out who, or what, it was, a burst of light enveloped them all. Her necklace glowed once more, and all the Dementors shrieked and flew away.
The light was blinding, but it filled Cassidy with such a warmth that she felt like she could do anything, be anyone, and everything good that had ever happened to her flashed through her mind : Her opening her toy broomstick at the age of two, her mother playing with her in the kitchen, her father teaching her about sweets a year before Hogwarts, her punching Draco Malfoy for the first time, Ron holding her hand the night of the Sorting, Hermione giggling with her late at night, Harry playing wizard's chess with her, the twins singing something off key with her, her dancing to Muggle music at night with her mother in the living room, her getting her wand, her lessons with Lupin, eating Chocolate Frogs with him in his office, her family, her friends, herself; everything, everywhere, all at once.
She distantly heard her father and Sirius inhale sharply, and Cassidy had one last, feeble thought before she fell to the ground.
They're alright.
And everything went black.