About a week later, Cass sighed as she stared tiredly into her DADA textbook. Some time ago, they had started with the nonverbal spells and considering she had problems even with the verbal spells, the outlooks of her final mark from DADA looked rather glum already. She could only thank Merlin that DADA wasn't required for the application for the Healer apprenticeship.

Next to her, Mary finished her essay for the same class with a final flourish and blew the stray strands of her hair away from her face.

"Finally, it would be a shame to spend the last nice day of the year on this." she commented as she packed away her own textbook.

"Mary? Could I take a look?" Cassiopeia asked and pointed at her friend's essay.

"Sure." Mary said kindly and handed Cass the parchment. She then looked at Cass' unfinished essay and shook her head. "You know, I know that you suck at the Defence in practice, but writing an essay about it is not that difficult." she said. Cassiopeia didn't even roll her eyes at Mary's bluntness; she was already used to it. She merely shrugged.

"I know. I just can't really grasp this part." she pointed at a paragraph in her textbook. "You explain it much better." she said after reading Mary's essay.

Just as Mary put her finished essay into her bag, Lily entered the Common room, obviously in a good mood. She had just spent the hour with other prefects, apparently talking about the patrol schedule.

"Hi." she smiled at her friends and sat down next to Cassiopeia.

"Hi. How was the meeting?" Mary asked as she relaxed in her armchair.

"Good. A bit of an argument with the Slytherins, nothing new." she shrugged with a smile that, however, froze when she glanced at Cass' sad attempts for the essay. She sighed. "Cass, maybe it's time Mary and I started tutoring you again." she suggested kindly and Cass closed her eyes in embarrassment. Of course, both Lily and Mary may be good at DADA but both of them had weak subjects as well. Mary was horrible at Ancient Runes and although Lily excelled at Charms, Transfiguration was sometimes a real challenge for the redheaded witch. But none of the girls took their fails lightly; there was the time when Mary had thrown her Runes textbook out of the window of their dormitory in anger, and once in their fifth year, Lily had broken down crying right during their Transfiguration lesson when the rabbit she had been supposed to transfigure ended up headless. And Cassiopeia's failures during DADA often brought the whole class into fits of laughter.

"I guess." she mumbled.

"You know what?" Lily suddenly said with determination and closed Cassiopeia's textbook. "I think you've had enough of this for today. Let's go outside, the weather is quite nice." the redhead suggested and Cass gave her a grateful look.

"That's the best idea I've heard today." Mary joined, sounding relieved they would get outside for a while. "Let's go." she said, ushering both of her friends into their dormitory to get their coats. Cass had just a second to grab her book and parchment before Mary dragged her upstairs.

The girls were right; it was a beautiful day considering it was the autumn already. But the sun was shining and although the air was a bit chilly, it was nothing coats and light scarves couldn't fix. The sky was icy blue and the air felt fresh. The ground was covered by bright red and yellow leaves and the trees in the Forbidden Forrest were so colorful it was almost hurting one's eyes. Immediately, the schoolwork was forgotten and the girls chatted happily as they were passing through the yard. Obviously, they weren't the only ones to have the idea to spend the day outside; there was quite a few students sitting outside, either studying or just chatting. Even the Gryffindor boys from their year were present; as always, James Potter was fooling around with the Snitch while he was laughing at something with Remus Lupin. And of course, Cassiopeia noticed that Sirius was missing again. However, she didn't have much time to dwell on this fact, since she heard her name being said behind her.

"Cassiopeia?" the deep voice asked and all three girls stopped in their tracks. Of course, she knew the owner of the voice even before she turned around.

"Ian? Uhm, hi." she smiled feebly since she wasn't quite sure what her reaction at seeing her boyfriend after such a long time should be. They hadn't talked since the incident and she wasn't even sure if calling him her boyfriend was still the right term.

"Can I talk to you for a minute?" he asked, taking hold of her arm and leading her a bit away from her friends. Cass only managed to shoot an apologetic look towards Lily and Mary.

"I- I haven't seen you for a while." she said, if only because she didn't know what to say.

"Yes, I'm sorry. Really, I am, Cass." he said, pushing his blonde hair out of his eyes. He had let it grow a bit longer and his fringe was falling into his eyes.

"You're sorry. For what exactly?" Cass asked. Truthfully, she was at a loss at what to say. She didn't want to sound angry at their first meeting after such a long time. And she didn't want to drive him away because if he was still continuing with the drugs, than he needed as much help as Sirius Black did.

"For everything, I guess. For treating you the way I did. I didn't mean to act so harshly the last time. And for not coming to talk to you sooner. I guess I chickened out." he said awkwardly and Cass arched her eyebrows.

"You did?" she asked, not quite believing that the always so outgoing person would be afraid to talk to her. Ian was anything but shy.

"Yeah. I don't want to lose you and I was afraid you would kick my arse, which I would definitely deserve, by the way. I was being a jerk. Can you forgive me?" he asked, flashing her a small smile and puppy eyes.

"I don't know." she bit her lip to hide her smile, knowing she would, of course, forgive him.

"I promise I'll make it up to you. How about a date tomorrow?" he suggested and Cass had to admit she gave him a coy smile.

"Tomorrow?"

"Yeah. Say, at seven? Our spot?" he suggested and Cass nodded.

"Alright." she agreed and grinned at him. Truthfully, she was glad their situation seemed to resolve after so many days of uncertainty. "I'm looking forward to it."

"So am I, sweetheart." he flashed her another smile and after a second of hesitation he kissed her for the first time in many weeks.

"I have to go." Cassiopeia said after they broke the kiss, her cheeks reddening a bit.

"Yeah, your friends are waiting." Ian said and with a wink he headed back to his group of friends with the usual spring in his step. Sighing, Cassiopeia joined Lily and Mary, who were waiting patiently for her, talking so that it didn't seem like they were snooping but still, Cass knew they were checking them the whole time.

"Can we go?" she smiled at her friends and when both of them nodded, she headed towards the school grounds.

"So…" Lily started hesitantly after a while. "You and Ian seem to have patched things up."

"Well, yes, it seems so. Finally, at least." Cass said happily.

"Then you could finally tell us what happened between you two." Mary said and Cass could see Lily give the other witch a warning look. Truthfully, she wasn't sure she was ready to talk about the fight any more than before but it seemed unfair towards her friends. They had always told everything to each other. Therefore, she decided to tell them what had happened a few weeks ago.

"What!" Lily exclaimed when Cass told them about the whole incident as they walked over the grounds so no one could hear their conversation.

"You're joking!" Mary joined, horrified.

"Cass, you should have reported him immediately, not forgive him and date him again!" Lily continued. "He was being aggressive and don't let me even begin on the drug addiction! This is a serious stuff-"

"I know!" Cassiopeia interrupted her. "Believe me, I know that."

"Then why don't you-"

"And do you think it would help in any way?! He needs help, not getting into even more trouble!"

"You're not helping him by not reporting him. You're just letting him continue, Cass."

"Oh come on, why couldn't I help him myself?" Cassiopeia tried to reason with her friends. "He needs someone to make him realize first and then support him on the way."

"Cass, we both love you and think you are brilliant, but Lily's right. How can you be so sure you can be the one to help him? Don't you think it's quite a heavy burden? He needs professional help."

"Yes, but someone needs to make him find that help first."

"And do you think it will work out? Because his first reaction to your helping didn't seem so positive." Lily said and Cass sighed angrily. It was too easy for the two of them to talk when they weren't emotionally involved.

"I have to try, alright? And I don't want to talk about this anymore." she bit back and since both of her friends could see Cass was angry, they let the matter pass, although Cass couldn't see them change worried looks.

"You know what? How about we go see Hagrid?" Mary suggested, trying to change the topic since there was still tension between the three witches. Cassiopeia gave her a grateful look.

"That's a brilliant idea." she said and Lily agreed, therefore they headed towards the gamekeeper's cottage. They knocked on the door but no one was responding.

"Perhaps he's working somewhere on the grounds." Lily suggested when it was clear there was no one inside. But then, they heard barking and a huge gray dog ran from the back garden, happily running around the three girls.

"Fuzzy!" Mary squealed upon seeing the dog and hugged the huge beast. After giving Mary's face a few licks, the dog greeted Cass and Lily in the same way before leading them around the cottage. There, they found his owner.

"Hello, Hagrid." Lily greeted him happily. The half-giant, who had been taking care of the pumpkin garden, straightened up when he noticed his guests and his face broke into a wide smile.

"'ello! If it ain't my favourite ladies!" Hagrid said happily and all three girls smiled brightly at their friend.

"How are you, Hagrid?" Cass asked, already forgetting the argument with her friends.

"Ah, well enough, Cassiopeia. Do ye three want to go inside fer a cup o' tea?" he offered and all three girls agreed, though they knew they would have to suffer through Hagrid's mediocre cooking skills. Once inside Hagrid's hut, the girls shrugged off their coats and scarves and settled down around the table while Fuzzy curled up at their feet.

"I can only offer ye a few muffins with the tea, I'm afraid." Hagrid said as he put the kettle on the fire and the three witches assured him it was fine.

"Have you had a visit, Hagrid?" Lily asked when she noticed two empty mugs on the table in front of them.

"Aye. Young Sirius visited me this afternoon." the giant said and then he shook his head. "Didn't look well, that boy. All pale an' skinny. And sad, if ye ask me. Doesn't seem right to seem 'im this way after all that mischief he 'ad caused with James Potter." Hagrid commented as he served tea.

"Cass talked him into spending some time with us." Mary said. "So he wouldn't be alone all the time."

"And right ye are." Hagrid agreed. "He shouldn't be this lonely. I don't know what 'appened between the lads but none of them are the same anymore." Hagrid shook his head sadly. Cass sighed. She knew exactly what was happening with the boy but she couldn't possibly tell. But the fact that even Hagrid noticed something was up with Sirius was not reassuring.

The girls were talking to Hagrid for a few hours while drinking tea and apart from the conversation about Sirius Black, it was a nice afternoon. Of course, they all had to pretend to eat the muffins but since they were so hard they would have broken their teeth on them, they had to hide the cakes away so Hagrid wouldn't notice.

"So, were those the pumpkins for the Halloween feast?" Lily asked, pointing her thumb in the direction of Hagrid's garden.

"Aye. They're almost ready. And a nice few of them, this year. Come on, ye can take a look." Hagrid said and with that, he lead them through the back garden to show them the pumpkins. And the girls had to admit, they were huge. They couldn't wait to see them floating above the Great Hall during the Halloween feast.

"They're great, Hagrid." Mary agreed with the giant.

"Hagrid? What's in the cages over there?" Cass asked when she noticed wooden boxes with cages right next to Hagrid's hut.

"The ferrets' cages. 'ad to move them 'ere, there was some beast feasting on them." he explained and the girls curiously approached the cages. Sure enough, in the cages there was a great number of ferrets, differing in colour and age. Some of them were curiously sniffing at the door upon seeing them, while others were sleeping as if there was no disturbance. The girls were looking at them with mixed feelings. The animals were cute but they knew Hagrid didn't have them for pets.

"Oh, look here! There's a little one!" Lily exclaimed at one of the cages.

"Aye, the last young one left. 'is mother died yesterday." Hagrid informed them.

"Poor baby! What will happen with him?" Lily asked but even before Hagrid answered, Cass had the feeling they wouldn't like the answer.

"Why, I feet 'im to the 'ippogryffs, of course." Hagrid looked at her as if Lily had two heads. But the girls looked at him in astonishment.

"What?!" Lily gasped and Hagrid shrugged.

"That's what they're fer."

"But he's a baby! You can't feed a baby to those…beasts!" Mary said, while Lily looked affronted.

"'E won't survive without 'is mother anyway, lass." The giant commented. Lily seemed to be suppressing tears, while Cassiopeia looked away from the ferrets. Sure, she had guessed what their fate was, but it was hard to hear it from someone else.

"Could anything be done to save him?" she asked Hagrid, who sighed.

"Aye, but it would be too much work fer nothing. 'e might not survive anyway and even then 'e would become one of the meals for other animals. It's not worth it, lass." Hagrid said, putting his huge hand on Lily's shoulder.

"And couldn't you…couldn't we keep him, Hagrid?" Mary asked then.

"I'd give 'im to ye, girls, but ye know it's against the school rules." he said and Mary bit her lip.

"To hell with the rules. We could hide him in our room." Lily said suddenly, gaining two astonished looks from her friends. Sure, they knew Lily had temper but this was not something they heard her say very often. "Please, Hagrid, just tell us what to do." she pleaded with the giant.

"Ye girls are gonna get in trouble fer this." he sighed.

Half an hour later, the girls were making their way back to the castle, taking turns in carrying the tiny ferret wrapped in a blanket, so it wouldn't get cold. The small animal was sniffing at them with curiosity.

"What are we going to name him?" Cassiopeia asked as the small critter licked her wrist.

"Please, not anything too weird or, no offence, star-related." Mary said and Cass chuckled.

"Do you mean star as in constellation, or star as a celebrity?" she looked at her friend, who rolled her eyes.

"Constellation, of course. Just look at the poor creature, would you want to call him Aries, for example?" Mary said and took the animal from Cassiopeia's hands to carry him for a while. "You wouldn't want to be called anything like this, would you?" she babbled to the critter in her hands.

"But maybe we could name him after some celebrity. Who do we like?" Lily suggested and it was Cass' turn to roll her eyes.

"We're not naming him Ringo." she deadpanned and Mary chuckled as Lily huffed.

"I wasn't about to name him Ringo. Although it wouldn't be such a bad name. What else do you suggest? And we're not calling him Mick either." Lily warned her and Cass rolled her eyes.

"And you tell everyone that you actually know me." she said in mock-annoyance.

"How about Bob?" Mary interjected.

"Bob?" Lily looked at her questioningly.

"You know, as in-"

"Bob Dylan" Cass finished for Mary. "I say we give him the full name. How original is it to have a ferret named Bob Dylan?"

"Bob Dylan it is." Lily nodded, taking the ferret from Mary for a while.

Once in the castle, Cass hid him in the pocket of her coat and they smuggled the animal into their dorm. Luckily, Hestia and Alice were not in there, though the girls weren't naïve enough to think they could hide the ferret from them. They would have to talk their roommates into keeping the animal there and not saying anything. But at least they had more time to accommodate the ferret in the room. Lily immediately found a small basket and Mary sacrificed one of her sweatshirts to put inside so the ferret would stay warm.

"Hagrid said we need to feed him with milk every few hours." Lily reminded them.

"So, one of us better go to the kitchens for some milk." Mary said resolutely.

"I'll go." Cass offered. "In the meantime, the two of you can figure out how to feed it to him and talk Hestia and Alice into this." she said and put on her shoes again.

The walk to the kitchens wasn't a short one but since it was almost curfew, the corridors were almost empty and Cassiopeia managed to make it rather quickly. Luckily, the girls knew where the kitchens were and how to get inside, they had found out in their fourth year by accident. Once they had been walking into the Dungeons and Mary's shoelace was undone, so she had leaned against the wall to tie it, without noticing the painting there. And as she had touched the pear in the painting, it had suddenly transformed into a door handle, thus letting the girls into the kitchens. Needless to say, they had made use of it quite a few times, especially when they studied late and missed dinner.

The elves were very eager to help and they promised Cassiopeia that someone would deliver a whole bottle of milk into their dorm right away. They also offered her some cookies and afterwards, she was on her way back into the Gryffindor tower. However, as she walked through the empty corridors, she suddenly stopped dead in her tracks. There was an alcove with a window in the third floor corridor and a lone person was sitting there, motionless. As she looked at the person closer, her breath caught in her throat.

"Sirius?" she asked when she recognized her friend. He was looking outside into the darkness with a strange dark smile and it seemed he didn't hear her, for he didn't even move. "Sirius." she tried again but he didn't react at all. Finally, she made her way towards him and snapped her fingers in front of his eyes. "Sirius!"

Only then, he slowly looked at her, the smile still on his face and Cassiopeia's heart sank when she noticed his bloodshot eyes with unnaturally small pupils.

"Hey." he mumbled. "What you- what you're doin' here?" he asked quietly, slurring the words. And not even for a while did Cass think he was only drunk.

"What am I doing here? What are you doing here? It's almost curfew." she said, rather pointlessly. Sirius only moaned.

"Ugh, stop shouting." he mumbled, hiding his face away from her. It seemed he was falling asleep.

"Sirius, come on, you can't stay here." she tried to coax him and touched his arm but he feebly swatted her hand away.

"Why not?" he smiled at her. "It's nice in here."

Cass rolled her eyes. "Yes, but it won't be when Filch or McGonagall find you here like this. Come on, get up." she said, pulling him up onto his feet. Surprisingly to her, he could stand just fine, so she grabbed his arm and let him towards the Gryffindor tower. Needless to say, the trip to the dorms didn't go without accidents. They had to walk really slowly, since Sirius couldn't catch his breath after a while. Several times, he tried to go a different direction, just for the heck of it. And although he could walk, his orientation was rather messed up and several times, he tripped and stumbled. Once Cass didn't manage to catch him on time and therefore Sirius' face was marked with a few nasty scratches. Afterwards, she decided not to take a chance and just wrapped his arm around her shoulders and walked him into the Gryffindor tower. She had to literally dragged him into the boy's dormitory; a task which was rather difficult due to the fact that Sirius towered over her and was quite heavy.

Finally, she managed to find his dormitory and banged on the door impatiently. Sirius was beginning to fall asleep again and he was getting heavier. After a minute, the door was opened by Remus Lupin. Upon seeing the pair, Remus' jaw fell to the floor, and his two friends were no better. All the three boys were staring as Cassiopeia dragged Sirius into the room.

"Which bed is his?" she asked, already getting annoyed with all four of them. James Potter only mutely pointed at the bed nearest to the window without even taking his eyes of them. Therefore, Cassiopeia managed to drag the motionless boy to his bed and dropped him there rather unceremoniously. "Thanks for the help, by the way." she gave the three of them a withering look. Figures, three boys in the room and they let her drag Sirius all the way there.

"What's wrong with him?" Remus asked and came to stand next to Sirius' bed.

"Why would you even care, Remus?" she asked without even looking at him while taking off Sirius' shoes, she healed the scratches on his face with a few simple waves of her wand and then she threw the covers over him, leaving him sleep it off. Remus just exchanged looks with James and both of them shrugged, settling on their respective beds. At that, Cassiopeia just rolled her eyes at them and left the room in a hurry. She couldn't wait to be back at her dorm.

"Where have you been?" Lily asked when Cassiopeia just about ran into the dorm.

"I took a little detour." she said cryptically as she kicked off her shoes and immediately joined the girls, who were (together with Alice) all sitting around the small basket with Bob. "Has he drunk anything?"

"Mary has transfigured a bottle for him. He's eating just fine." Lily smiled.

"How's he doing?" Hestia, who had just came out of the bathroom, asked curiously. Obviously, Mary and Lily had managed to convince the girls to let the ferret stay and judging by Hestia's smile when she looked at the animal, they hadn't had much work with it.

"He seems ok, now. I think he likes it here." Mary commented.

"But we should get some things for him. Like bowl and other things for when he gets bigger." Cass said and the girls nodded.

"We should head to bed. We have potions in the morning." Lily said.

Before Cass fell asleep, she couldn't help but think about the whole incident with Sirius. She knew it was his way to cope with everything but it still filled with incredible sadness to see him like this. She wandered if he would remember the encounter the next day but no matter what, she decided to confront him about it once again.