Cassia wasn't sure how to feel as she walked with Harry through the courtyard. The first day back in classes had been rough, with more crap from both Snape and Umbitch and even some homework.

Harry and Cassia were just headed back to the common room when Hermione ran up to them.

"Harry, Cassia!" She smiled, breathless. "Hagrid's back."

And these two words alone had the three of them, and Poppy and Ron, hurtling down the hill towards Hagrid's hut, which had been empty for the past six months.

However, when they got there, it wasn't a nice sight they saw. Or heard.

"I will say this one last time," Umbitch's voice commanded loudly inside the hut. "I'm ordering you to tell me where you've been!"

As the five of them quickly went to the window and looked inside, what they saw shocked them.

Umbitch was just the same as usual, her stupid clipboard in hand and pink cardigan as frilly as ever. Hagrid was facing her, back turned to them.

"I've told you," he said exasperatedly. "I've been away for my health."

"Your health?" Umbitch frowned.

"Yeah," Hagrid nodded. "Bit of fresh air, you know?"

"Oh, yes," Umbitch gave him a crude smirk. "As gameskeeper, fresh air must be hard to come by."

As Hagrid was silent, she continued. "If I were you, I wouldn't get too comfortable. In fact, I mightn't bother unpacking at all."

"Bitch," Cassia muttered venemously, as Umbridge's footsteps were heard walking towards the door.

The five of them clung to the wall as she walked out, spritzing herself in perfume before striding back up to the castle. Cassia death glared her as she went, wishing looks could kill.

❦︎❦︎❦︎

Once they were inside and settled, Hagrid had given them cups of tea and established Cassia knew about the Order.

But the five of them were speechless. They hadn't actually seen Hagrid's face in the window, and when they saw it in real life... Cassia's insides crawled.

His face was beaten and bloody, his eye puffed and bloodshot. He looked rather bedraggled, but also hurt, as he held a raw steak to his eye.

But Cassia didn't get a chance to ask about his face, because soon, he got into the stuff they really wanted to know.

"This is top secret, okay?" He told then firmly. "Dumbledore sent me to parlay... with the giants."

"Giants?!" Hermione gasped.

"Shh!" Hagrid said, finger to his lips.

"You found them?" Poppy frowned.

"Well, they're not that hard to find, to be perfectly honest," Hagrid shrugged. "They're so big, see? I tried to convince them, to join the cause. But I wasn't the only one trying to win them over."

Ron sighed. "Death eaters?"

"Yeah, trying to convince them to join You-Know-Who," Hagrid rolled his eyes.

"And... did they?" Cassia asked hesitantly.

"Well, I gave them Dumbledore's message," shrugged Hagrid. "Suppose some of them remember he was friendly to them... I suppose..."

"And- they did this to you?" Harry raised his eyebrows.

"Well, not exactly, no," Hagrid said evasively, looking down. Cassia did too, just in time to see some straw brought in on their boots, blowing across the floor.

"It's happening," Hagrid's voice became hard as he got up, heading over to the window. "Just like last time.

"There's a storm coming, Harry," he said, his voice hard and ready. "And we'd all best be ready when she does."

And Cassia didn't know what to say to that.

What could she say?

❦︎❦︎❦︎

MASS BREAKOUT FROM AZKABAN

"What the f-?"

Cassia was absolutely shocked by the headline of the Daily Prophet that morning, snatching it and getting the gist straight away.

Ten high security prisoners (death eaters) had escaped Azkaban that morning, and Fudge was blaming it all on one man. Sirius Black.

"That son of an absolute bitch," Cassia snarled, almost ripping up the paper on the spot as Poppy read it next to her, gasping too. "What the fuck is he doing, blaming it on Sirius?"

"Well, what else can he do?" Hermione, who was sitting with Harry and Ron across from them, asked hopelessly. "He can hardly say 'sorry everyone, I was wrong about Voldemort, and now the dementors have joined him'."

"He would if he had any common sense," snarled Cassia.

"Dumbledore warned Fudge this could happen," Hermione said, just as angrily. "He's gonna get us all killed just cause he can't face the truth."

Cassia let out a low sigh. "No truer words have ever been spoke-"

"Harry?"

Harry looked up at the same time as Cassia and Hermione, all of them seeing Seamus and all of them sighing.

But all Seamus said was. "I... I wanted to apologise. Now even my mum says the Prophet's version of events don't add up. So... what I'm really trying to say is that... I believe you."

And despite the mass breakout, and Fudge and Umbridge being fucked up, and everything else that was going on, Harry couldn't help but smile.

And Cassia too.

❦︎❦︎❦︎

The next DA meeting was a few days after that, and this time, Seamus was attending.

However, this lesson was different than before, because of what they were learning. It wasn't jinxes or curses or hexes or even charms.

It was patronuses.

Everyone was beyond excited when they found this out, Cassia probably the most. Ever since she'd seen Potter cast his two years ago, she'd been entranced by them, and had wanted to learn how to cast hers.

And tonight, Harry was finally teaching them.

"Make it a powerful memory, the happiest you can remember," Harry instructed in a loud voice to all the attempting people around the room. "Allow it to fill you up. Keep trying, Seamus!" He added to the boy, who was on the back foot with this.

Cassia, who was standing next to Poppy and Hermione, was in the middle of thinking of a memory.

"Expecto Patronum!" Hermione said from beside her, producing her patronus. An otter. It swam around her, and she grinned.

"Oh my- that's amazing, Hermione!" Poppy said as both she and Cassia congratulated their friend.

"A full-bodied patronus is the most difficult to produce, but shield forms can also be equally useful against a variety of opponents," Harry called out, as Ginny managed to get her horse patronus to form. "Fantastic, Ginny!"

All across the room, people were getting theirs, and it was amazing to watch.

"Expecto Patronum!" Poppy said from beside Cassia. This was her third or fourth attempt, and this time, she managed it. A white fox burst forth from her wand, preening and pawing all across the room.

Cassia grinned.

"Just remember, your patronus can only protect you so long as you stay focused, so focus!" Harry shouted.

As Ron's dog paraded round the room, complete with Poppy's fox, Ginny's horse, Hermione's otter, Luna's hare, Fred and George's magpie and more white smoke from people's failed attempts, Harry arrived at Cassia.

"Cass," he said, drawing to a stop next to her. "I- I've not seen you do yours yet."

"That's cause I haven't done it yet, Potter," Cassia informed him. "I... happy memories aren't my strong suit."

Harry deliberately avoided her eyes, now knowing about what had happened to her in the holidays.

"Think about... about Poppy," Harry said in a low voice. "Your first best friend, first person you met going to Hogwarts."

Cassia sighed, looking at him.

"Okay, Potter."

She turned, closing her eyes and visualising her and Poppy, a mere eleven years old, sitting opposite each other on the Hogwarts Express.

"I'm Poppy. Poppy Patil. I've got two sisters in this year, actually. I'm a triplet."

"I'm Cassia Malfoy. I've got a brother in this year but I'm ten months younger than him."

"Well, it's nice to meet you, Cassia. I mean, I just met you five minutes ago and I can already tell that we're gonna be besties!"

Cassia took a deep breath. "Expecto Patronum!"

She opened her eyes, visualising that memory, letting it fill her, waving her wand-

And nothing happened.

Well, that was a lie, a small amount of white smoke came from her wand, but not a corporeal patronus, and not even a shield form.

"Urgh!" Cassia grunted. "That was shit, and it was the best fucking memory I've got!"

Harry was stood back from her, a small smile forming on his face.

"If you laugh right now, Potter, I'll turn you into a ferret, like Moody did to Draco last time."

"Sorry," Harry looked at her. "It's just- we should all be offended."

"What?" Cassia demanded.

"Well, you're acting like you've had zero good memories," Harry shrugged, as Ron's dog dashed in between them. "But I know for a fact that's not true, Cass."

Cassia rolled her eyes. "Fine. Fine, Potter, fine."

Harry raised his eyebrows. "You got a new memory in mind?"

Cassia studied him for a second.

"Yeah. Yeah, I do."

But this time, she wasn't telling him.

Or anybody. If it worked.

So she closed her eyes, and visualised it.

"You've always been so headstrong, and so synical, and so smart. And I've always admired that about you, even when I hated you. And you're brave, Cassia, braver than me, and you never give up. And even though you're upset and crying right now, you're still the most beautiful thing I've ever seen."

"Harry, that's... that's the nicest thing anyone's ever said to me."

"You- you called me Harry."

"Don't count on hearing it again."

A beat of her heart. A quick breath.

"Expecto Patronum!"

And this time, when she opened her eyes, she didn't see white smoke. She didn't even see a shield.

She saw a white, corporeal animal, bursting forth from her wand.

"Amazing, Cassia!" Harry was yelling, many gasping at how majestic and strong her patronus was.

But Cassia was still staring at the galloping animal, trying to figure out what it was.

It was a mammal. It had four legs, and a round nose, and bright eyes. It moved with purpose and intent around the room, head held high.

It was a doe.

Cassia was dimly aware of gasping, but she was too gobsmacked to notice much else.

Because it was a doe. It was a doe, and Potter's patronus was a stag.

And Harry seemed to have picked up on this, because as he stared at the doe patronus, he was speechless. His mouth was hanging half open and his eyes were wide.

"It's a doe," Cassia was dimly aware of Poppy murmuring. "Now I know you and Harry are meant for each oth-"

Boom

She stopped talking as a loud sound echoed round the room, rattling the chandeliers above and causing the lights to flicker off for a second.

Cassia frowned, looking round and only seeing confused faces echoing in her expression.

Somehow, a formation was formed. Her and Harry at the front, Nigel slightly behind him, and everyone else clutching each other, terrified, behind him.

Then one of the mirrors on the wall directly opposite them shattered, all the pieces clattering to the ground. Cassia jumped, moving closer to Harry. Close enough their arms were touching.

Most people had raised her wands by now, but Cassia was too busy looking at something else. A small hole in the brick, about two thirds of the way up the wall.

And slowly, Cassia and Harry approached it, bending down slightly to see.

The second Cassia saw pink, alarm bells went off in her head.

Because Umbitch was standing, wand raised, just outside the room, Filch and all the members of the Inquisitorial squad around her.

"I'll make short work of this," Umbitch said warningly, smirking. "Bombarda... Maxima."

"CASSIA-!"

BOOM.

Next thing Cassia knew, Harry was seizing the back of her robes and wrenching her backwards as the whole wall got blasted down in an explosion of dust and rubble.

Cassia stood frozen, whole body shaking, as the DA stood in a line.

When the dust cleared, Umbitch advanced slowly, prowling towards them.

That was when Draco appeared.

And with him, he was dragging Cho.

Well, Cassia thought, absolutely fucking livid. At least now we know who betrayed us.