"You're sure you want to go to Hogsmede today?" Noah asked, surveying Cass anxiously.

"Positive." Cass said. She had told Noah about the envelope of photographs and he had become increasingly worried at how untroubled Cass seemed to be about the whole thing. Cass hummed quietly to herself as they descended the stairs into the entrance hall.

"What's up losers?" Will said, slinging an arm around Noah. "I have decided to grace you with my presence today." Grace giggled from beside him.

"We'll pass, thanks." Noah said. Will pouted.

"Cassiopeia, tell my darling brother here that you would love my company." Will said.

"Aw Will, see I would." Cass said. "But I'm trying to be more honest with people, and I don't think saying that would be the way to go." Grace and Noah laughed, Will scowled.

"Well, I know where I'm not wanted." He said, sticking his nose in the air. "Gracie, darling, we will find others to spend out time with."

"We never said we didn't want Grace here." Noah said. Will looked deeply offended as he flounced off.

"Noah! That was mean." Grace said, lightly shoving him.

"I was only joking." Noah huffed. "God, why does he have to be such a drama queen?"

"It runs in the family, I think." Cass said. Noah gasped and clutched his chest.

"How could you!" He said. "Betrayal! Upmost betrayal!"

"Point proven." Cass muttered. Grace laughed at the shocked expression on Noah's face.

"I'd better go I er- kind of have a date." She said.

"A date?" Cass asked, quirking an eyebrow. "Who's the lucky guy?"

"None of your business, nosey." Grace said, poking Cass' cheek. "Bye!"

"Hmm, who could it be?" Cass turned to Noah, who looked up at the ceiling.

"I'm not speaking to you." He informed her. Cass raised her eyebrows.

"Well then, I suppose I'll have to go and find myself a new boyfriend, who isn't so fucking dramatic." Cass teased.

"Puh-lease, no one can top me." Noah scoffed. Cass smirked slightly and stood on her tiptoes, taking a hold of his shoulder.

"Cocky is a good look on you." Cass whispered in his ear. Noah's jaw slackened slightly. "It's very sexy." She pulled away from him, rushing ahead to the carriages. Noah regained his composure and hurried after her.

•••

Hogsmede was as crowded as it usually was. Noah kept a firm hold on Cass' hand as they weaved through the crowd. Cass peered around anxiously, worried she would see Avery. They ended up in the three broomsticks, tucked into a small booth at the side.

"I'll get us drinks, shall I?" Noah said.

"Okay." Cass said. Noah stood up from the table, joining the queue for the bar.

"Well, look who it is!" Sirius said, sliding into the booth, James in tow.

"Are you following me?" Cass asked.

"Of course not." Sirius said, but he did not meet Cass' eye.

"We're following Evans actually." James said, nodding his head to where Lily was sitting with Marlene and Dorcas. Cass narrowed her eyes.

"Go and talk to her then. I'm busy." She said. Sirius frowned.

"We were just keeping you company whilst Noah got your drinks." He said. "It's dangerous for you to be alone right now."

"Meaning what exactly?" Cass snapped.

"Meaning you're being watched by A-"

"Don't say his fucking name." Cass hissed.

"-so we, and probably Noah, are worried he's going to try something." Cass snorted.

"He's not stupid enough to try something in broad daylight, in the middle of a busy pub." She said. "That's not how he does things."

"I'm just being careful." Sirius said.

"Everything alright?" Noah said nervously, handing Cass her butterbeer.

"Yes." Cass said shortly. "They were just leaving." Sirius pursed his lips but stood up. James gave Cass a sad smile before following him out of the pub.

"What was that about?" Noah asked. Cass sipped her butterbeer.

"The usual." Cass muttered. "He thinks I shouldn't be alone right now."

"He's not wrong." Noah said quietly. "You never know what could-"

"For fucks sake!" Cass shouted, slamming the glass bottle down on the table. A few people glanced their way. "I am not a child, and I am sure as hell capable of looking after myself!"

"I-" Noah began, his eyes wide.

"I'll see you later." Cass said, swinging her bag over her shoulder and knocking over her butterbeer as she left. Noah sighed, picking the bottle up and getting rid of the liquid that had spilled.

"What the hell just happened?" Lily demanded, her hands on her hips. Noah ignored her, pushing past everyone to follow Cass.

Cass hurried down the main road of Hogsmede, in the direction of the castle. She held her wand tightly in her hand, just in case. If she was being honest, a part of her was scared, no, terrified that Avery would show up in the village. Cass' eyes darted about anxiously, skimming the crowd for the psychopath she called an ex. She turned down a sidestreet, trying to decide if she should go back and apologise to Noah. She jumped as someone tapped her shoulder, spinning around and pointing her wand at them without a second thought. Remus held up his hands in surrender. Cass let out a breath she didn't even realise she'd been holding.

"Don't scare me like that." She said shakily, lowering her wand. Remus smiled sheepishly.

"I'm sorry." He said. "I didn't mean to scare you."

"It's fine." Cass said dismissively. "I'm just on edge."

"Because of the photographs?" Remus asked. Cass narrowed her eyes.

"How did you know about them?" Her fingers found her wand again. She had not told anyone but Sirius and Noah about the contents of the envelope she had received.

"Sirius told me." Remus said, not missing a beat. He had an unusually cheery grin on his face.

"Where's Peter?" Cass said. "I thought you were with him." She took a few steps backward away from Remus. If it even was Remus.

"Oh you know Pete, he got sidetracked by Honeydukes." Remus said airily.

"Oh, I could really go for some chocolate right now." Cass said, knowing that the real Remus always had a bar or two on him. The smile on Remus' face faltered slightly.

"I'm afraid I don't have any. We could always go to Honeydukes and get some?" Remus offered his arm out. Cass' heart was pounding, this was not Remus.

"Let's go and find Sirius, James and Peter." She said quickly. "I'm sure they want some too."

"They've already got some." 'Remus' said impatiently. "Let's just go ourselves."

"Okay." Cass said, she did not take 'Remus'' arm.

"Take my arm Cassiopeia." He said. Cass blinked a few times. Her suspicions were confirmed, Remus had never called her Cassiopeia in her life.

"Why?"

"That's what friends do, right?" 'Remus' said. Cass hesitated. If she took this mans arm, she could be apparated anywhere.

"Er- no I'm okay. I should probably get back to Noah." Cass said. What was left of the grin on 'Remus'' face disappeared and he looked furious.

"I said, take my arm." He said angrily. Cass drew her wand.

"Who are you?" She demanded. "You are not Remus." The face of Remus morphed into a grin once more.

"Course I am." He said. "Now, lets just go to fucking Honeydukes and get some fucking food."

"Expelliarmus!" Cass shouted. 'Remus' deflected it with a wave of his wand.

"Okay, you caught me." He cackled. "I'm not your precious Lupin."

"Who the hell are you?" Cass shouted, blocking the spells he was firing at her.

"Your worst nightmare." His face morphed into someone Cass didn't recognise.

"Did Avery send you?" Cass asked, still dodging spells and firing back her own.

"I'll let you figure that one out." He said. "Now, lets just go and-"

"Stupefy!" Noah's voice came from behind her. 'Remus' fell to the ground, knocked out. Cass pointed her wand at Noah.

"Are you alright?" Noah asked worriedly.

"Stay back!" Cass warned. "I don't know if you're really you."

"Ask me a question, I swear it's me." Noah said. He met Cass' eyes and saw the pure fear behind them. "Please Cass, I promise."

"W-what did we eat when I came to your house for dinner?" Cass asked shakily.

"Lasagne." Noah said easily. Cass lowered her wand.

"I'm sorry, I- I had to check." She said, flinging her arms around him.

"Don't worry about it love." Noah said, stroking her hair. "I'm just glad you're alright."

"What do we do with him?" Cass asked, nodding her head at the unconscious man on the ground.

"I'll go and get a shop owner, they can call someone." Noah said. "I'll be back in a moment."

"No! Don't leave." Cass said, clinging on to his arm. "Please." Noah nodded in understanding.

"I'll levitate him then, we can take him to someone." He said. Cass nodded weakly. Noah put one arm around her waist and held his wand in the other, pointing it at the unconscious man on the ground. Cass waited outside Dervish and Bangs as Noah went in and explained what had happened. He emerged a few minutes later, wrapping his arms around his girlfriend immediately.
"He's gone. It's all okay." He soothed as she cried into his chest. "Let's get you back to school, okay?"

•••

Cass did not leave Noah's side for the rest of the day. When dinner rolled around, she decided to sit at the Ravenclaw table. She hadn't bothered to seek Sirius out after everyone returned from Hogsmede, not wanting to admit that he was right. Cass tuned out the general hubbub of dinner, picking at her chicken pie. Noah nudged her gently.

"Are you okay?" He whispered.

"Fine." Cass said. Noah slipped his hand through hers and squeezed it under the table.

"Oh, Grace how was your date?" Noah said. Grace went pink, taking a large swig off juice.

"Oh yeah Gracie, do tell." Emmeline Vance chimed in from beside Grace.

"It was nice." Grace said.

"Just nice?" Emmeline said.

"Who is your mystery man then?" Noah asked.

"I told you earlier, it's none of your buisness." Grace said. "Remus."

"Remus is your mystery man?" Noah said, raising his eyebrows.

"No, I mean hello Remus." Grace said, nodding her head behind Noah. Cass spun around and found herself face to face, well more like face to waist, with Remus. Cass drew her wand immediately and pointed it at a bewildered Remus' chest.

"Hello to you too Cass." Remus said, he went to push her wand away but Cass held her ground.

"What is the nickname that you call James and why do you do so?" Cass demanded. Remus stared at her.

"I beg your pardon?"

"Answer the question." Cass spat. "I'm not falling for it again."

"Falling for what?" Remus asked, completely confused.

"Just answer the question mate, she's had some trouble today." Noah said.

"Okay, James' nickname is Prongs and we call him that because his patronus is a stag." Remus said. Cass lowered her wand.

"It's really you." She said, throwing her arms around his waist. Remus slipped into the seat beside her.

"It's actually because his animagus is a stag." He whispered so that only Cass could hear. Cass gave him a small smile. "What was the trouble today?"

"Did Sirius send you?" Cass said wearily.

"No." Remus said. "I was worried, we hadn't seen you since Hogsmede."

"I had an unfortunate run in." Cass muttered, leaning against Noah. Noah wrapped an arm around her so she could bury further into his chest.

"What sort of run in?" Remus asked. "Are you alright?"

"Now I am." Cass said. "Someone was pretending to be you, I didn't recognise them."

"Pretending to be me?" Remus said, his eyebrows knitting together with concern.

"Yes. I thought it was you, until you didn't have any chocolate and called me Cassiopeia." Cass said.

"Are those really my identifying factors? Carrying chocolate and calling you Cass?" Remus laughed.

"Well, you're never without fucking chocolate and I've never heard you call me Cassiopeia." Cass shrugged. "He tipped me off when he knew something that you didn't."

"Oh." Remus frowned. When Cass did not continue the story, Noah did, telling Remus what Cass had told him.

"So that is why I had to check it was you." Cass said after he had finished. "I'm not taking any chances."

"I don't blame you." Remus said. "I can't believe that happened in Hogsmede, you'd think there'd be a little more protection."

"Sirius warned me not to be alone there." Cass said. "It's my own fault."

"It is not your fault." Noah said sharply.

"But if I hadn't stormed off because you were trying to help me then-"

"Well, if I hadn't upset you then you wouldn't have stormed off." Noah pointed out.

"I was being overdramatic." Cass said.

"It's not your fault." Noah insisted.

"Whatever you say love." Cass said. "I need a cigarette."

"I'll come with you." Remus, Noah and Grace said immediately. Cass sighed.

"No, I'll be fine. Remus, go and find Sirius and make sure he's not fucking dying without us. Grace, go and find your boyfriend. Noah, I won't be long, if I'm not back in fifteen minutes come and find me, okay? I just need to be alone for a bit." Remus nodded and disappeared to the Gryffindor table.

"We're keeping a low profile." Grace muttered. "I'll go find Will."

"Noah, I promise you I won't be long." Cass said. Noah nodded reluctantly.

"Seriously, if you aren't back in fifteen minutes I'm sending a search party." He said. Cass laughed, giving him a quick kiss on the cheek.

"Au revoir ma chérie."

"Ooo french?" Noah said. "Sexy." Cass rolled her eyes.

"Back soon."

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