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Chapter 20

HERMIONE GRANGER

A few days had passed since the news about Sirius's innocence had come out, and along with it had come the news of Lucius Malfoy's fleeing. Since then, the Daily Prophet had given many details pertaining to both cases, as the man in question remained on the run.

The accusations against him brought her back to the reality that the wizarding world had just gone through a war, one in which Lucius Malfoy had been part of the Death Eaters, people who had no qualms about murdering or killing people like her.

And if the DMLE was to be believed, Lucius Malfoy's had been involved in the murder of Edgar and Eina Bones, parents of her classmate Susan Bones, from Hufflepuff. His accomplices, named to the DMLE by now dead, Peter Pettigrew, Crabbe, and Goyle Snr, had been arrested, even as Lucius Malfoy remained on the run.

She had known Susan and was even friendly with the girl who could often be seen sobbing by herself these days. This news reopened some old wounds that many of them had chosen to forget and forego.

"He is not here again," she whispered as she glanced at the empty seat beside her in the library, and the two girls sitting infront of her shook their faces again as they had forever since the news regarding Lucius Malfoy had come out.

"No," and Cassius had been absent from their study sessions since that day, and had not come today as well. He had been coming to the lessons but would sit alone and leave as soon as the lesson would finish, giving no one any time to approach him.

"He has been missing the meals as well," she added worriedly. She had talked to both Luna and his friend Terry Boot, but neither of them had seen much of him either.

"Where even is he?" she asked. The three of them had searched the entire school yesterday but had found no trace of him anywhere.

"I don't know," Daphne Greengrass added, and the girl was worried about him as well.

"He has had this habbit of vanishing into thin air since the first year, but neither of us ever asked him where he went," Tracey added, as Hermione's fists balled up.

"Have you asked Draco?" given that he was his brother, he might know something, and she saw them both look at each other before Tracey slowly added.

"Draco is not having a good time in the House," and she seemed to hesitate.

"Why?" she asked as Tracey bit his lip.

"Because of his father, while he was able to run away, you must have read that Crabbe and Goyle's parents were caught," and she had read so indeed.

"Yes," she said.

"So, Crabbe and Goyle are rather angry with Draco and they and their families all blame him for their arrest. They are saying he abandoned them and ran away like a coward," and she seemed to want to say more but closed her mouth many times until it was the blonde beside her who added.

"Slytherin House is much different than the rest of the Houses, and Draco relied much on his father's money and reputation, and with all that gone, he is realising his mistakes," and she nodded, even though she understood but a gist of it.

Cassius had tried to teach her a bit about Pure Blood politics, but she had understood the bare minimum, and this all was a bit beyond her.

"But Cassius is not in Slytherin, and he is not..." she seemed to hesitate but still continued.

"...like Draco?" she added as Tracey nodded.

"Yes, but Lucius Malfoy was still his father, and these accusations against him. They are not going to go away so easily," she added.

"Why? What is so special about them?" she asked knowing well that he had gotten away from such allegations after the end of the war.

"Because the current head of the DMLE is Amelia Bones," and she found the last name rather familiar.

"Bones?" she made the connection as Daphne nodded and intervened.

"Yes, she is Susan's aunt and was the sister of Edgar Bones," and she had out down her book and began a full explanation as she saw her helpless expression.

"The Bones. They are an Old House and have much influence in the Ministry. She will not let this go, even if the Minister tries to interfere," and Hermione nodded in a bit of understanding, realizing just how big of a case this was.

A part of her wanted to ask them both about Cassius's father, ask them both if he really was guilty of this crime, but she did not, for she did not wish to think how such a thing could affect her opinion of Cassius.

She wanted to talk to him, for of everyone in this castle, she knew just what he was going through, for this whole thing had started with the capture of Peter Pettigrew, and the person who had done that was Cassius.

She could not even imagine what he must be going through.

Ron was gloating around, constantly telling her how he was right about the Malfoy all along. Harry had been quiet, and far more engrossed in the revelation that Professor Lupin was friends with his parents.

Apparently, the man had been friends with them and Sirius Black and had told Harry a few stories of their time together at Hogwarts. He had thought Sirius to be guilty as well, and was rather embarrassed and apologetic for the whole affair.

"It's Saturday tomorrow, right?" she suddenly remembered, and both Tracey and Daphne nodded.

"He has a match tomorrow against Gryffindor," she added as Tracey and Daphne nodded.

"He will be there, we can confront him then," Tracey added, realizing her point.

"Yes, but will he even play, or will his Housemates..." she hesitated to ask the question.

"He will play," and it was Daphne who added, and the blonde's eyes were glinting with determination.

"All those who know him even a little bit know that Cassius is nothing like his father, and I know that many people from Ravenclaw are worried about him as well. He will have to be there," she added as Hermione nodded.

"Good, then we will go to the locker room together then..."

0000

CASSIUS MALFOY

"Relashio," he screamed angrily as he slashed his wand as a massive blast rippled across the space and cleaved the training dummy infront of him two, adding on to the massive pile of broken dummies that now littered the room of requirement, before Cassius was forced to spin around as he saw a spell rushing towards him.

A saner Cassius would simply move aside to counterattack, but this was not that saner Cassius, as he raised his wand and blasted away in his rage.

"Bombarda!" and such was the force behind the attack that he was pushed back as a massive ball of magic erupted from the tip of his wand and hit the spell aimed at him as a massive explosion shook the room.

BOOM!

And even as the dust covered the room, Cassius ran forward cutting through the dust cloud as he slid under the next barrage of spells from the dummy and came right below it as he raised his wand and shouted once more.

"Tempest!" and with one single flick, a bolt of lightning rushed out of his wand straight at the wooden dummy and tore it into pieces.

BOOM!

And the wood splintered and flew in all directions as Cassius shielded his face with his arm, before he finally came to a halt and stood up and looked around himself and saw that all the training dummies were now decimated.

The entire room was now piled up with around a hundred destroyed dummies, and a part of him wanted to face a hundred more just to relieved his anger. Still, he had a match tomorrow and he knew that any more of this would tire him out too much, to make a good appearance in the match tomorrow.

He sighed, as he looked at all the destruction before he plopped down on the chair infront of the study table in the corner of the room, and began to stare at the damned diary infront of him.

And it was all because of him.

All of this, it was all because of this one bastard.

Cassius had always known that magic worked in mysterious ways and that trying to change things would have consequences. Despite his attempts to minimize these consequences, the fates had struck.

When he had captured Pettigrew and had handed him off to Dumbledore and the Ministry to save Sirius, it was all as a result of around a year of proper planning and so forth, and this act of kindness had now broken his own family.

Peter Pettigrew was now dead, yet before his death, he had implicated his father in a very old and heinous crime. Cassius had always known that his father had done some rather questionable things in the past. And in a way, he had avoided thinking about them, but now he was forced to confront it all without any preparation.

He was horrified at the crime itself, and yet their family name had been destroyed, their properties confiscated, his father was now a fugitive on the run, and somehow his mother knew that it was all his doing.

Or at least she suspected his involvement in the whole affair for some reason.

And it was the last part which affected him the most.

She had not blamed him, at least not yet, or even chastised him, yet she had stopped writing to him after that one letter in which she had asked him not to come back home for Christmas.

He tried not to think much of it, but the intentions were clear, especially as he probed Draco about it, and much to his surprise, Draco had received no such letter. This meant only one thing.

She was suspicious about his involvement in this affair somehow.

Draco was suffering as well. Unlike him, it was not guilt that ate away at his twin.

Draco had always looked up to their father, and the Slytherin House was far more cruel and political than any other. Without the backing and protection of the Malfoy name, he was learning the reality of this world rather quickly.

Cassius himself was torn about the issue, for the more he read about his father's crimes, the more it pained him to realize just how heinous the entire idealogy of blood supremacy was and how brutal and gruesome the war had been, and yet what troubled him most was the conflict inside his heart. The question is whether he should feel some remorse for the Bones or his own family.

He was much troubled by it all, for he had felt how the gazes of the people around him had shifted ever since the news had come out, how they had grown judgemental, angry, distrusting, and hateful.

And at the root cause of it all lay this one person.

Voldemort, or rather yet, Tom Riddle.

And now, Cassius was more driven than ever, never to let him return. Not again.

And so, he put down his wand and began clearing his mind for one final conversation with this diary, for it was time to take care of this.

And so, with his Occlumency shields up, he opened the diary.

"So do you have an answer?" he wrote, and the answer came.

"I have told you before, it is impossible to teach someone Parseltongue," and Cassius's eyes narrowed as he hesitated for a second before he wrote the next words.

"Then I am afraid our time together must come to an end. And since you are quite useless to me, I think it is time for me to dest...."

"WAIT! WAIT!" and the ink was splattered, the words clearly pushed out in a rush, as if sensing his rage and displeasure.

"Why?" he wrote.

"I am telling the truth. I do not know how one can teach the magic of Parseltongue, but I do know someone who can," Cassius raised a brow, finally having made a breakthrough.

"Who?"

"Who other than the first wizard to converse with the snakes, the first Dark Lord," and Cassius took a guess.

"Herpo," he wrote the name.

"Yes..."

"But he is dead," and the diary was quiet for a second before some words appeared.

"But his words still remain. There are tomes and scrolls that have been passed down through generations and are now held by a certain family in the wizarding world. The Black Library has some of them. If there is any chance that you could learn about them, please let me know."

As he felt the timer ring beside him, Cassius closed the diary instantly and backed away, his mind racing as he thought of an opportunity.

"Interesting," he whispered as he looked at the clock beside him and saw that it had gotten quite late.

"Well, them it seems like you get to live for a few more days...."

.

.

.

And so, the next morning came. Today was the day of the match between Ravenclaw and Gryffindor, and the news cycle had eaten away much of the hype. However, with several days having passed, students were all getting rather excited for the match.

Cassius walked towards the changing rooms and saw the Ravenclaw team gathered there, and as soon as he walked into the room, he felt a dozen eyes land on him, but most of them averted them back as Roger Davies, the captain, stepped forward.

"Cassius," he greeted him as he gave him a nod.

"You are okay, right?" he asked, and Cassius nodded, giving the man a small smile.

"Yes, I am fine," and he wrapped an arm around his shoulder.

"I know that you must be troubled about this whole affair with your family," he began slowly as Cassius's lips thinned.

"I..." but the man did not let him finish.

"But I want you to know that it doesn't matter to us," and the words did take him by surprise, especially given they were coming out of the mouth of a rather pretentious person.

"We have known you for three years and know just the kind of person you are. So, just ignore everyone, and know that we don't care about your family," he said, and he saw everyone in the room giving him a thumbs-up.

"Thank you," Cassius said as he walked towards his cabin and began to change.

"There are a few people here who wanted to see you," he suddenly began.

"They are waiting for you in the side room," and Cassius nodded, having an idea about just who they might be.

The few days had been enough for him to come to terms with himself and his actions, so before changing his clothes, he made his way to the side room. As he opened the door, three bodies immediately slammed it on him.

"Where the hell have you been?" Tracey's voice was the loudest as the brunette wrapped her arms around his neck.

"Do you have any idea how worried we have been?" she added as Cassius smiled, feeling his worry and anguish wash away as he felt the familiar warmth of his friends.

"I am fine," he assured them all as he pushed Tracey away and saw Daphne kick him in the shin.

"If you vanish like that again, I am killing you," and he rubbed his leg as he chuckled.

"I won't, I just needed a few days," he added and saw her face shift, as she nodded.

"Are you fine now?" This time, it was the only Gryffindor in the room who spoke up, and his eyes met Hermione's. He saw little of the judgment that had irked him and found only concern and worry.

"Yes," he answered. They talked for a few minutes, and he apologized for his behavior. Tracey and Daphne ran out to secure the seats while Hermione chose to stay back for a few more seconds.

And she was looking rather intensely at him.

"Do you regret it?" she asked, and he frowned.

"What?" he asked, and she seemed to hesitate as she asked again.

"Do you regret turning in Pettigrew?" he was a bit taken aback by her words, and yet, despite the insinuation, she was serious as she continued.

"What if you could change it?" she added, the words not making sense at first.

"What if you could go back in time...."

And suddenly, it clicked together.

The Time Turner, she was offering him a chance to use it. To change the past.

And it was a bit tempting. He could drum up a new plan, one that would not put his family in danger, and yet after but a few seconds, he shook his head as Hermione's eyes widened.

"No," he answered.

"I don't regret it," he said with a heavy heart.

Her eyes shifted, and he saw her hesitate as she looked at him intensely before she held his hand and spoke softly.

"I thought as much," she began slowly, looking into his eyes.

"I cannot imagine what you must be going through, but I want you to know that it does not matter to me what the Prophet or everyone else says or writes about you," she

"Because you are as much a death eater as I am," and with that, he leaned forward as her lips touched his cheek, and she hurriedly backed away with a flushed face.

"Good luck," and with those lasting words, she ran away as Cassius sighed and walked out of the room.

00000

As the students settled down for the match, Hermione walked towards Daphne and Tracey and plopped down beside them.

"Why are you so flushed?" Tracey asked the brown-haired girl, who waved away.

"Probably because of the cold," she said as she sat down beside them and suddenly removed the Gryffindor scarf around her neck and replaced it with a Ravenclaw one, much to the surprise of the two Slytherin girls, who exchanged glances as they saw the bushy brown haired girl cheer loudly for Cassius as his name was called out.

And though no words were spoken, there was a subtle exchange of words between Tracey and Daphne as they both raised a brow and gave each other subtle nods before smirking.

"Do tell us, Granger, what did you and Cassius just talk about..."