Potter's Girl / Butterfly Effect.

65. The Ancestral Tapestry

CHAPTER SIXTY-FIVE;

THE ANCESTRAL TAPESTRY

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Cassiopeia was not doing well.

   Everywhere she went inside of Grimmauld Place brought back rushing memories of the little amount of time she'd spent there over the summer with her father and Atticus. Instead of feeling the pain of remembrance, though, all she felt was veritable incandescence. White-hot anger that surged through her veins like poison and tainted every word that left her mouth with a venomous tone. She'd snapped at every single person living in Grimmauld at least once, and it had only been a week since she arrived.

   Perhaps the prominence of her anger was directed at her mother. She hadn't so much as hugged Cassie when the girl first arrived; Adelaide only offered a faint smile before spinning around and sulking back to her room.

   Cassie had never been more conflicted.

   Yes, she was angry at her mum. Who wouldn't be? Cassie had lost a father and a cousin, and Adelaide wasn't very much for comforting – but, on the other hand, Cassie forced herself to remember that Adelaide had lost a lover and a nephew. Hell, Adelaide and Sirius hadn't even gotten married. It had to have stung every time Adelaide looked into Cassie's eyes... So Cassie gave her mother her sympathy. As much of it as she could, anyway.

Cassie busied herself with attempting to charm her aunt's portrait on the ancestral tapestry just like Walburga Black had done. Every day, Cassie shut herself in the drawing room and attempted a multitude of different jinxes and spells to burn off the portrait of Bellatrix Lestrange, but all of her attempts were in vain. Once she even ventured into burning the entire tapestry in itself, but there must have been some sort of protective enchantments that cause the flames to flicker out within only a moment of being lit.

   The girl was in the middle of studying the wrist motion for Bombarda when a knock on the door pulled her back from her mind. She looked up as Remus entered the room. A pang of guilt struck her upon sight of Moony. For some reason, she associated Remus with being absolutely bulletproof; nothing could get to him, ever. With a sharp inhale, she realized something.

   Why had she been so selfish to think that she was the only one affected by these losses?

Remus and Sirius were best friends; Remus had grown fond of Atticus. Adelaide loved Sirius, possibly more than life itself; she had also lost her one last connection to her sister. Harry had lost the last connection he had to his parents... It hit Cassie too hard and she felt the tears begin to pool in her eyes.

Remus wordlessly moved to her side and allowed her to curl up against his body. The pair sat in silence for Godric knew how long. Occasionally a small sniff would sound from each party, but Cassie didn't mind. She didn't have to look up to see Remus to know he was crying.

After a few moments, she inhaled softly. "Did you need something?" she asked. "Why'd you come in?"

"I needed to talk to you about Atticus," he said quietly. "I know you don't like you talk about him, but it's important that you know what happened and why he was targeted by the Death Eaters."

   "Because he's fighting for our side," said Cassie, looking to Remus through her bloodshot eyes as though this were the most obvious thing in the world. "I thought that was.. I mean, don't they want all of us?"

   Remus drew in a shuddering breath. "Atticus's father, Thomas.. Well, the Forbes family is one of the oldest pure-blooded families in English Wizarding history, second only to the Blacks. Er – was a pure-blood family. Thomas Forbes, the only Forbes heir and last of the pure-blooded family tree, married your aunt, Angelica, who was a half-blood. His family was alright with it – not too upset, but not too happy, either. Angelica died in the first Wizarding war–"