little miss black

-56-

"Sirius? Sirius? No!" Cass stared at the dead body of her brother, shaking him to try and get him to wake up. Sirius' eyes lay open and unblinking. Cass screamed. She cowered as Orion stood over her.
"He got what he deserved." He sneered. "And it's all your fault!" Orion morphed into Avery. He raised his wand and—

Cass felt herself shaken awake by Lily. She sat up with a jolt, holding her head.

"Are you okay?" Lily said anxiously. "You were screaming." Cass was as white as a sheet.

"Yeah." She said shakily. "I'm sorry." Lily sat down next to her.

"It's okay, don't worry about it." Lily sighed. "You'd think that lot would have been woken up too but no, it's like living with logs." Cass giggled feebly. Marlene, Dorcas and Alice were all still fast asleep.

"I'm going to get some air. You can go back to sleep." Cass said, standing up. Lily nodded.

"Okay, see you at breakfast." Cass nodded and went into the bathroom. She heard Lily get back onto bed. Cass clutched onto the sink for support and breathed heavily. It was just a dream. Cass pulled on her robes and shoved her hair into a ponytail. She splashed some water on her face and looked at herself in the mirror. She hoped Lily had been too tired to look at her properly as her concealment charms had stopped in her sleep. She muttered them under her breath and her face now looked as if no one had touched it. Grabbing her bag on the way, she exited the dormitory. It was barely six o'clock, meaning breakfast would only just have started. The great hall was completely empty, not even a teacher was at the table. Cass said down and took her book out, sighing.

"Hi." Cass jumped violently and spilled a water jug. Noah was standing in front of her. He muttered a few spells and the water vanished. "Can I sit?"

"This is the wrong table." Cass said coldly. Noah didn't seem phased and sat down anyway.

"How was your summer?" He asked. "Good results?"

"What do you want? I assume you didn't come over here to make small talk." Cass said, rolling her eyes. Noah sighed.

"No, I suppose not." He looked down at his feet. "I missed you."

"Sure didn't look like it when you were being dragged away from my compartment by a random girl." Cass said coolly.

"I came to see if you're okay, I know how your family can get..." He trailed off. Cass turned so she was looking him in the eye. She let the concealment charms slip for a minute and watched the colour drain from Noah's face.

"Happy now?" Cass asked bitterly. Noah took her hand.

"I'm sorry Cass. I was being selfish, I just wanted to show the world how much I loved you. How much I love you." Noah said.

"Unfortunately for you, it's too late." Cass said bluntly. "I have bigger things to worry about."

"Please, just give me another chance." Noah pleaded.

"I can't Noah." She said. "I wish I could but... we barley got away with it before. It's worse now."

"We can make it work!" Noah said.

"No we can't." Cass said, taking her hand out of his grasp. "Now please, go to your own table."

"Cass-"

"Noah. Please." Cass whispered. Noah didn't move. Cass put her head in her hands.

"I think Cass asked you to go." Remus' quiet voice came from behind Noah. Noah nodded and moved towards his own table. "Are you alright?" Remus asked softly. Cass shook herself roughly.