Work Text:
Cassandra’s heart raced, and the putrid catacomb air filled her lungs as she fought to catch her breath after dodging yet another one of Solomon’s fire tornadoes. She jumped back up, only to see the Inferi shuffling towards her and Sebastian steadily – an endless hoard.
“Confringo!”
She struck one square in the chest, and it flew backwards, the flames jumping to two others flanking it before it landed on the ground below. She glanced behind her as Sebastian launched the Severing Charm at them, and spotted Solomon across the room.
“You’re… you’re supposed to… protect us…” Sebastian said, panting as he spun back to face Solomon in turn.
“I am protecting you, boy,” Solomon said. He lifted his wand again and took aim at Cassandra. “Expulso!”
Sebastian gripped Cassandra’s arm tight and dived forward. The bright light of the curse flew over their heads as they landed on the cold, stone ground with a thud. They both let out a grunt before scrambling to their feet.
Sebastian let out a huff, and Cassandra glanced over at him. Her blood ran cold as she saw a shadow pass behind his dark eyes – it was only a moment, too brief for anyone who didn’t know him as she did to notice. And if she hadn’t seen it, she would have missed it. She wouldn’t have seen it the second he drew his arm back, that swift movement she’d seen him make at least a dozen times.
Selwyn. Harlow. Zhou. She could recall each and every one they’d felled together.
Solomon.
Cassandra understood why. She didn’t disagree – he was trying to kill her, after all. Every last one of her instincts urged her to cast it. But she'd resisted all of them for Sebastian. Because she didn’t think he could cross that line. Not with Solomon. Not with his uncle.
But now he was going to do it himself. To protect her. Like he always did. No… She couldn’t let Sebastian be the one. He would regret it the second he cast the curse. She reached inside herself for the surge as she raised her wand, and aimed it directly at Solomon. Without a word, she channelled the force, her will, at him.
He stumbled forward for half a moment, a flicker of confusion crossing his face as a blue glow appeared around his midsection. It spread within milliseconds, lighting the rest of his body before he imploded.
The catacombs fell silent then, but for the eerie moans of the remaining Inferi.
Sebastian dropped his arm and spun to face her, eyes wide. His mouth opened, but no words formed. Still, she knew.
What did you do?
What I had to. As she always did. As she always would.
“Depulso!”
Cassandra’s feet flew from the ground and she hit the left wall with a thud. White, hot pain ran up her side, and she shook her head, glancing up to see Anne standing on the other side of the catacomb.
Anne’s chest rose and fell rapidly. Though Cassandra couldn’t see the whites of her eyes, she knew that if she were closer, she would see a pure, unbridled hatred within them.
She opened her mouth to speak, but as she inhaled, fire erupted in her lungs. She closed her eyes, gritting her teeth and taking shallow breaths as she dived a trembling hand into her pocket for a Wiggenweld Potion.
“Anne…” Sebastian said, his voice barely above a whisper.
She remained silent for a moment as Cassandra uncorked her Potion and took a deep swig.
“Incendio!”
The Inferi shrieked, their outlines blurred through the tears Cassandra blinked away. She could just make out Anne turning in a circle, a ring of fire around her, with Sebastian a few feet away.
“Anne…” he tried again in a hoarse voice and moved towards her as the last of the Inferi fell.
Cassandra blinked again and wiped at her eyes. Their shapes came into focus. Anne took a step back, one hand held up in the air.
“Make your choice…”
She turned on the spot. A crack echoed through the Catacombs and reverberated off the walls as she disapparated.
Sebastian turned back towards Cassandra as she got to her feet, and stared at her once more with his silent question.
Because I love you too much to let you carry this.
“Because I couldn’t let her hate you.”
He breathed in and out, and then swallowed, giving a slow nod.
“Thank you,” he croaked.
Sebastian’s footsteps were heavy as he and Cassandra slowly made their way out of the catacombs. He could scarcely breathe, and his stomach was weighed down as though with stones.
Anne wouldn't survive this… Cassandra couldn’t yet heal her with Ancient magic, thanks to those sanctimonious bastards that had refused outright to tell her how she could help Anne, who had destroyed the very possibility of them speaking to Isadora.
And then Solomon… he’d come in and without a single word, had disintegrated the relic. Anne’s last hope. He ruined it. Just as he ruined everything in Sebastian’s life.
(Sebastian ducked as the plate that Solomon threw flew over his head. It hit the wall above, and he raised his arms to shield himself from the glass shards that rained down.)
Solomon deserved what he’d gotten. He’d attacked them – he’d tried to kill Cassandra. He’d used a fire tornado against them.
(“We’re outnumbered…” Cassandra said, her back pressed against his as the Ashwinders circled them, twirling their wands and laughing.
“How unfortunate for them,” Sebastian said with a smile.
He glanced over at the bald Ashwinder in the centre, who’d begun to turn his wand in a circular fashion above his head. Any moment now, the flames would erupt beneath their feet. Sebastian took aim.
“Imperio!”)
But Anne… the way she looked at him. The way she looked at Cassandra. She couldn’t understand… she didn’t see it. Solomon had always been that way. Always angry. He’d always seen Sebastian as nothing but a waste of food. Solomon would have been relieved if he’d died. If he hadn’t had to be burdened with him anymore.
(Sebastian gasped, kicking his feet furiously as he struggled to keep his head above water. He spit out another mouthful.
“H-h-help,” he croaked. The salt burned his throat as he swallowed more, and in the distance he could just make out the shadow of his uncle running towards him, bellowing his name in a tone that he’d never heard from him before. A tone that betrayed worry. Concern. Fear.)
He’d only wanted to heal Anne… to make the hurt go away. He never meant to…
(Sebastian glared at Selwyn as Cassandra lay trembling on the ground before him, moaning and trying to get to her feet. The aftershocks of the Cruciatus Curse continued to coarse through her, a pain he’d never wanted her to know. One she’d blessedly never had to. Until today.
He pulled his arm back, the incantation on his lips.
“Avada-”)
It was instinct… that’s all it had been. How many times had he and Cassandra had to bury their enemies? Countless loyalists. Dozens of Ashwinders… Lives snuffed out like a candle doused with water. When Solomon started to use their techniques… Sebastian responded the only way his body knew how to anymore.
(“Make your choice.”)
Sebastian swallowed as he and Cassandra stepped outside. He blinked and shielded his eyes from the bright, early spring sun. It shone down upon his hand, and though it was warmer than the catacombs, he remained cold, as though he still held the relic tight.
He knew what Anne was asking of him. But he couldn’t turn Cassandra in. He couldn’t bear it. Not her. Never her. He had to convince Anne… he had to make her see. He spun back towards Cassandra.
“I… I need to see Anne…” he choked out. “I need to speak to her…”
She played with the end of her blonde plait, twisting it to and fro in her hands as the wind blew at the loose wisps that framed her face. She gave a nod.
“A-alright,” she said in a shaky voice.
He took a step towards her and grabbed her arms.
“We’ll get through this,” he insisted, forcing a strength and surety into his voice. He had to be strong. She’d done this for him. And he wouldn’t let that be in vain. “We will. I give you my word.”
“I… I should go… head back to school…”
“I’ll meet you there. In the Undercroft.”
They stayed silent for another moment, and then he pulled her into a hug. He tilted his face into the top of her hair, and breathed in the scent of her lovely lavender pomade.
He held tight to Cassandra for another minute, hesitating to let go as she tried to pull out. Tried to pull away. But he did. And he watched as she turned on the spot and disapparated. As she left his side.
I will stand by you, he vowed. No matter what.
He spun on his heel, and took deep breaths as he trudged onwards to Feldcroft. To where he hoped he would find her. In the yard behind their house, the beginnings of a hole had been dug and abandoned. He stepped into the house, but she wasn’t there. Nor had she taken refuge within the shed where he’d slept many a night when Solomon was in one of his moods.
It was by the River’s edge where he found her. The place where the early spring flowers peaked through the melting snow, where they always went to forage for mushrooms and roots. Their quiet meadow, where they’d lain many a summer, watching clouds overhead with Ominis.
Her shoulders shook as she knelt on the ground, palms flat against the muddy earth where she’d collapsed – from the curse or grief, he didn’t know. He swallowed. He only wished he could have saved her from either.
“Anne…” he croaked.
“She… she des-destroyed… there’s n-nothing…”
Anne brought her hands to her face and tried to control her breathing as Sebastian dropped to his knees beside her.
“Anne, please…”
“What… what kind of m-magic was that?” Anne asked through her tears. “I can’t… I can’t even b-b-bury…”
“Anne…”
“We… we have to… to tell someone.” She lowered her trembling hands, her eyes red, cheeks tearstained. “Make them s-stop her before she… k-kills someone else like that…”
Sebastian swallowed the lump in his throat and reached for her.
“Anne… she reacted… people have tried to kill her many times before… just like Solomon tried-”
“No!” She pulled away. “No, he’d never… He must have been trying to disarm-”
“He did, Anne, he used the-”
“You were never like this!” Anne cried, drowning his words out. “You never used the Imperius Curse before she came into your life. You never would have looked for a dark relic if you hadn’t met her!”
“Anne-”
“She’s changed you…” Anne said with a shake of her head. “She’s made you… you’ve chosen her.”
“She didn’t make me do anything.”
They’d been in it together from the start. Kindred spirits who understood that sometimes, to bring back the light, you had to be willing to face the dark. And they had. Side by side, back to back. She’d been there for him through it all. And he would for her. Until the end. Always.
In the beat of silence that passed between them, he knew Anne was right, in a way. He was never going to let anything happen to Cassandra. He wouldn’t allow Anne to send her to Azkaban. He would have to stop her, if she pressed.
I could make her forget.
A wave of nausea roiled through Sebastian at the very thought. Even if it would save her from her grief, even if it meant he could keep both of them… how could he raise his wand against his own twin? How could he even consider it?
He couldn’t fix this like that… but he had to find a way. He needed a way to save Cassandra. There was only one person who might be able to help him do so now.
Ominis’s footsteps echoed off the Undercroft walls as he paced to and fro, listening to Cassandra and Sebastian. Part of him wanted to berate them, to tell them… this was precisely the price one paid when meddling with the Dark Arts! If only they had listened to him!
“He was trying to kill us,” Cassandra said quietly. “I… I did what I h-had to do.”
“You killed him so Sebastian wouldn’t be responsible.”
“That’s not… I didn’t…”
“Don’t lie to me.”
They fell quiet then. He stopped walking and let out a breath as a knot of guilt festered within him. Ominis had failed too. He should have done more, should have refused to let Sebastian leave with that damned relic in the first place. But he hadn’t been able to bear the thought of turning his wand against them. Fighting them. Forcing the issue.
Instead he’d permitted Cassandra to use the Imperius Curse on him, to order him aside and preserve what remained of their friendship… He’d thought maybe… maybe she couldn’t have done it. Maybe Sebastian wouldn’t have been able to leave that way. That they’d have understood just what one gives up when one falls prey to the dark.
(“What did you do?” Sebastian asked in a horrified tone.
Ominis wasn’t sure why he sounded so afraid, so upset. Everything was lovely, really.
“What I had to,” Cassandra said in a morose whisper. “Come on, Sebastian, let’s… we have to go.”
“I… Ominis… I’m sorry…” Sebastian said.)
But wasn’t that as good as simply standing aside? As merely letting them leave with it? Yes… Ominis had lacked conviction. And now, Solomon was dead. Some of his blood was on Ominis’s hands, too.
“Ominis…” Sebastian said, his voice barely above a whisper. And within it, he heard the unspoken plea. She did it for me, Ominis… don’t let her pay for it.
He swallowed. Part of him agreed with Anne… Cassandra had taken a life. Oh, she could pretend it was self-defence all she wanted. Mere instinct. But the three of them knew the truth.
And yet another part of him couldn’t bear the thought of never hearing her laugh again. Of never listening to the quiet breathing next to him as Professor Binns droned on and lulled them both to sleep. Of never losing another Chess match to her.
She murdered someone. She might not have used the Killing Curse, but the laws were clear. How could Ominis permit someone, even a friend, to simply walk free?
I did.
He swallowed and nearly stumbled as the screams haunted him anew. He may not have been the one to take their lives in the end… but he’d participated in his family’s perverse tradition… he was as guilty as the worst of them. And simply because of his surname, of who he was, he would never be convicted. Never sit a single day behind bars.
It wasn’t justice. He couldn’t do anything about that, but this… he could do this. He could keep her safe.
Ominis turned back towards Sebastian and Cassandra.
“I’ll talk to Anne. I’ll convince her.”
Tears streamed down Anne’s face, past her quivering lips as she placed the bouquet atop the fresh dirt behind the house. The empty grave and its marker would have to do. That… that monster had left Anne with nothing.
In the trees around her, the small songbirds let out a melody. Though she knew that they were merely waking up, calling to one another, she let herself pretend that it was his funeral procession. That it was a melancholy chorus just for him.
The roar of flames erupted somewhere behind her and sent the birds flying from their trees, their songs carried away with them, as the sun crept over the horizon.
“Anne?” Ominis’s voice called out.
She let out an exhale. Thank Merlin it was him…
“I’m here.”
The mud squelched beneath his feet as he walked towards her, and she turned to face him just as his shadow cast upon her. She blinked, the sun around his blond head gave him a glowing halo, and she smiled.
“I’m glad you’re here,” she said with a hiccough.
He knelt down beside her, the usual breadth of distance between them, and lay his own bouquet atop the grave. They were quiet for a moment before he broke the silence.
“Did you know he was the first person outside my family to yell at me?”
Anne stared at him. A single tear rolled down his cheek and he nodded, lips twitching with an odd fondness.
“I’d left the porridge bowl on the table. I didn’t know he expected me to clean it myself, and-”
Anne bowed her head and let out a small chuckle.
(“Boy!” Solomon bellowed, throwing the tea towel down on the table as Anne, Sebastian, and Ominis neared the front door.
Sebastian jumped and twisted towards him, a frightened, but defiant look in his eyes.
“Now what?” he asked, crossing his arms.
“Not you! Ominis! You think this is your own fancy manor, boy? Clean up after yourself! We don’t have house-elves to lick our boots here!”
Ominis’s eyes widened and he hurried forwards. He took his bowl over to the sink and then hesitated as he lowered it into the basin. Anne rushed to his side.
“What do I do?” Ominis whispered.
“He’s our guest!” Sebastian protested.
“Take the rag, wet it,” Anne instructed. “And then use the soap there- yes, like that-”
“Guests can clean up after themselves! Or else they won’t be welcome back!”
“You don’t know what it’s like at home for him-”)
Anne's heart pinched. Never again would any of them hear Solomon’s voice. Argue with him. He was… she didn’t always like him. Sometimes she resented him. Not quite as Sebastian did, but… but Solomon hadn’t deserved that. To be reduced to nothing. Not even ash. She clenched her fists.
“Anne…”
She closed her eyes and let out an exhale. “That’s why you’re here, isn’t it?” She bit her tongue and paused for a moment to find the words. “She’s gotten her hooks into you, too, then.”
Cassandra. When Sebastian first wrote of her… his whole demeanour had changed. He’d been happy, for the first time since Anne had been cursed. She was glad he’d met her. Glad that there was someone to bring the light back to him. Someone who could convince him that it was futile to search for a cure. To let Anne live out the last few months as well as she could. She only wanted Sebastian to be there with her. To hold her hand as she went into that gentle night. But Anne was wrong. Cassandra had been no light in the dark. She’d played her for a fool…
(Anne sat at the kitchen table, peeling potatoes while Solomon rummaged about in the root cellar for carrots. She heard a soft tapping, and turned her head towards the window, where she saw Mercury, Cassandra’s barn owl.
She smiled and lay down the peeler, and wiped the starch from her hands on her apron as she rose. She headed for the window and opened it.
“You have something for me?” she asked, offering her arm.
Mercury ruffled his brown wings and carefully stepped onto her arm – he had three envelopes tied to his leg, and she chuffed a laugh.
“They’re working you too hard,” she said, shaking her head. “I can go more than a few days without a letter!”
She plucked the letters from Sebastian, Cassandra, and Ominis from him, placed them atop the copy of Northanger Abbey that Cassandra had sent her last week, then made her way towards the sink.
“What are we looking for?” she asked as Mercury surveyed the options before him.
He let out a gentle hoot as her hand passed over a small cube of salted pork. So, Sebastian had been feeding him his breakfast bacon again, then. She’d have to start sending Mercury back with her answers later in the day to be sure that they fed the poor owl something proper.
She passed Mercury the cube of pork, and he happily gobbled it up.
“You go rest now. I’ll read the letters after supper.”
Mercury let out another hoot, then flew out the open window to find a tree to roost in.)
She’d seemed a gentle, sweet soul… but she had corrupted Sebastian. Sent him hurtling down a dark path that he’d never have gone down otherwise. And now here was Ominis to play knight for her too.
“Anne, there’s some things about Cassandra you don’t know. She… she’s been hunted by Ranrok and Rookwood, nearly been killed at least a dozen times-”
“Of course she has, meddling with Dark Arts like that-”
“No, listen to me, Anne, please… It’s because she can see traces of an Ancient magic that few others can. She can wield it. They’ve been pursuing her all year. She didn’t make the right choice but… she made the one that she thought she had to.”
Anne sputtered a laugh. “You can’t be serious.”
“I am.”
She searched his face, but it remained impassive. He truly believed it. Truly thought that Cassandra should walk free. And perhaps… perhaps he was right. Perhaps the guilt would be enough, as it had been for him…
And if Anne loved Cassandra as Sebastian did, if she was close to her as Ominis was, then perhaps that might have been enough for her to let it go. Enough for her to believe that Cassandra did regret it. That the bloodshed would end there. But it wasn’t. If Cassandra was constantly pursued as Ominis said… if that had been her instinct… then she was a danger to everyone. There was no other way.
“I can’t, Ominis. She’s too dangerous… I have to turn her in.”
Sebastian’s heart ripped in two as Ominis finished telling them. Anne was going to the Aurors, then… there was no other choice. No other option. He let out a shaky breath. He could scarcely bear the thought of it… but the very idea of Cassandra being expelled, being taken away from him… locked away where the Dementors would prey on her, force her to relive every horrid memory… no, that was worse than anything.
“Ominis…” he croaked. “Ominis you… you have to court her.”
“What?” Cassandra asked.
“Sebastian-” Ominis began, his voice a quiet ache.
Sebastian shook his head, lip quivering. “She’ll be free… she’ll be…”
“I’m not going to-”
“I can’t do that, Sebastian, not…”
“I won’t let her suffer!” Sebastian said, stomping a foot on the ground.
The two of them fell quiet, and he let out a shuddering breath. “I won’t let her suffer…” he repeated. “I won’t let her go to Azkaban, I can’t…”
It was all his fault. She’d done it for him, and he couldn’t even save her. But Ominis…
“Shield her with your name…”
Even if it meant that Sebastian would never know her kiss. Even if it meant that he’d feel as though he’d be kissing the dementors every day for the rest of his life. Even if he had to watch, be best man at the wedding where the girl he loved married the only person who could save her now. It might kill him. But Sebastian didn’t care. The only thing that mattered now was that Cassandra didn’t pay the price for his mistakes.
“It wouldn’t work, Sebastian…” Ominis said slowly. “She’d be… my father would insist on using Legilimency to make sure that she’s suitable. And it took me years to master keeping him from my mind. He’d learn about Ancient magic. She would never be free.”
Sebastian ran his fingers through his hair and kicked a stone column. The pain reverberated up his foot and he hopped on the spot, a litany of oaths spewing forth from his mouth.
Cassandra stared at the ground, playing with her plait, lost in thought, as Sebastian breathed through his teeth.
“Then we find another way,” he said.
He didn’t know how, he didn’t know what. But they would. Together. Because he would not, under any circumstances, lose her.
Cassandra played with her plait, fighting back the nausea that threatened to overwhelm her as she stared at her wand. It sat only inches from Rookwood’s atop the middle of his desk. She opened her mouth to try and speak again.
“I…I didn’t know where else to go…it’s… I need protection. From the Aurors.”
Her own voice sounded hollow, foreign to her ears. They weren’t her words, they were those of a scared, desperate girl. Not her. Never her… And yet. There was nothing else for it. Anne had told. She’d only just gotten out of the castle. There were only two men who could help her now. Better it be the devil she knew.
She lifted her eyes and stared into his. The bright blue flashed with a voracity, and he grinned.
“Protection… My, my, what have you done now, Little Hellion?” he asked with a chuckle.
She clenched her fists.
“I know you can grant it to me.”
“That I can.” He leaned back in his chair, the leather squeaking beneath him, and rubbed a hand over his beard. “And I look forward to our newfound partnership, but first… we will need to come to an agreement.”
He unbuttoned his cuffs and rolled up his right sleeve as Llewellyn, his sandy-haired Ashwinder lieutenant, walked up to them, twirling his wand in one hand. A cold shiver ran down Cassandra’s spine. She rolled her sleeve up and stood, reaching across the desk to take Rookwood’s outstretched hand. Llewellyn flicked his wand over their arms.
“Do you, Lord Victor Rookwood, promise to protect Cassandra Moore from the Aurors and any other Ministry official who might attempt to arrest or imprison her?”
“I shall make every effort to keep her free.”
A thin, red light encircled their joined arms.
“And do you, Cassandra Moore, swear your absolute loyalty to Lord Victor Rookwood and the syndicate?”
She swallowed. I have to. Stopping Ranrok was her responsibility. And she couldn’t do that if she went to Azkaban. She couldn’t stop Ranrok from finding the repository pieces, couldn’t help Sebastian to cure Anne… She needed to be free. And though subjecting herself to Rookwood wasn’t liberty… it would save her from a worse fate. And this way, her heart could still be hers. She could still, perhaps, court Sebastian one day.
“I so pledge.”
A second flash of light forked around their arms.
“And will you engage in any task that His Lordship might ask of you, without hesitation or question?”
She bit her lip and took a deep breath. Sebastian could stop her. She could tell him everything, he could prevent her from doing any real harm on Rookwood’s behalf until they figured a way out of this. A way to break free. It would work. It had to.
“I will,” she croaked, and watched as a third light weaved about their interlocked hands. It glowed hot for a few seconds before fading.
Cassandra let go of Rookwood’s hand and slowly retracted it, wanting nothing more than to scrub her skin raw.
“There’s a woman in Hogsmeade, a Mrs Daisy Rabe,” Rookwood said as he rebuttoned his cuffs and straightened his jacket. “She works for Gringotts. I think it’s time we made a withdrawal from a few accounts. Go speak with her and present my request.” He picked up a piece of parchment with his wax seal on it - four birds, one each in each space of the quadrant, separated by knotted branches, and passed it to her. “And if she refuses, give her a demonstration of your power.”
Tears sprung forth in Cassandra’s eyes, and her lip quivered. She didn’t want to do it. But she couldn’t refuse. Deep within her being, the compulsion bade her to obey him.
“It will be done.”
She stood up, twisted on her heel, opened the office door, and began the long walk down the corridor, holding a hand to her mouth to muffle her sob. She couldn’t even warn Sebastian of what she must do. He couldn’t stop her. No one could. She was Rookwood’s most valuable weapon now.