Nobody Knew

Cassius woke up screaming. The emptiness that surrounded him was almost materializing and threatened to suffocate him. There was something wrong with reality itself, something that should be but wasn't; something that was but shouldn't be. What was going on? Something was missing, yet not missing, something he couldn't put a finger on... It was unfamiliar, terrifying...

Then it struck him.

Caia was not with him. Despite the fact he still felt her presence out there, she was no longer a part of the continuum he was tied to.

"Caaaaiaaaa!!!"

He barely felt the hands that forced him back into the lying position. His eyes couldn’t see; his ears didn't register any sound. He struggled to get free, but his own body prevented him. He was helpless, so helpless, he couldn't get up and help her...

Madam Pomfrey didn't know what to do. Cassius has been tossing in bed for over an hour now, crying incoherent words. Was it his physical state that caused the delirium or was it a crippled mind? She feared the latter. A child subjected to the Cruciatus for so long... could it have ended any other way?

She had no choice but to send for the Headmaster. She had no idea what he could do, but wasn't he supposed to be the most powerful wizard alive? His mere presence was sometimes enough to calm her patients down.

"And?" she asked. "Perhaps a presence of somebody familiar... Severus hasn't visited visit for a couple of hours. Maybe he could..."

Dumbledore shook his head. "He's not available right now. He had... another matter to attend to."

"Another matter? More important than his son?" Poppy couldn't keep a certain measure of disdain from her voice, but felt strangely ashamed when Dumbledore gave her stern look.

"Not more important. Equally important." He watched Cassius for a moment. The boy's black eyes were staring blankly ahead, his hands were clutching the bed sheet, his lips were moving in a random pattern as if he was trying to say something but didn't know what.

"Somebody familiar, you say, Poppy? She should have had enough sleep..."

Aurelia was still rubbing sleep off her eyes when she followed Headmaster Dumbledore to the hospital wing and, yet again, had no chance to admire Hogwarts, the place she longed to see for so long.

The Headmaster was such a nice man. He was all she had imagined her grandfather would look like, if she had a grandfather. Dad never talked about his parents, he just said once she wouldn't like his father, and Mum only mentioned that hers were a combination of a Gryffindor and a Hufflepuff.

She was a little frightened waking up to see an old bearded wizard instead of her father. She didn't let it show though; she immediately took her wand from under the pillow and pointed it at the old man. Mum and Dad would be proud of her. The man, however, gave her a chocolate frog and told her that Dad brought Cassius yesterday night. That stopped her from asking any questions. If Dad brought Cassius, he would bring Mum and Caia too. She was more than willing to jump from the bed and go to see Cassius.

What she saw, however, was not something she expected. Cassius looked... almost like then. Like when the men in gray robes where standing over him and he was screaming with pain. He didn't scream now, but his body jerked every now and then, his fingers were twitching, trying to get a hold on something that wasn't there, his words were not making any sense.

When the initial shock of seeing her smart ass brother in such state passed, she went to his bed and took his hand.

"Cassius?" she whispered inquiringly.

Her touch and voice worked small miracles. Cassius stopped tossing and squeezed her hand painfully. Words formed on his lips and Aurelia had to lean forward to understand what he was saying.

"Where... what... Caia..."

"Dad will bring her," replied Aurelia soothingly, "He went for her, and for Mum."

His eyes were still blank. "No, Caia... what is it... I can't..." His breath quickened and Madam Pomfrey came closer, concerned. Cassius seemed calmer, but his mind was still lost somewhere out of their reach.

"Could you stay with him, child?" asked Dumbledore. "Will you wait for your father with him?"

Aurelia nodded nervously. "When is he going to be back?" She didn't feel very well staying with Cassius like that. Dad should come and make him come to his senses.

"Soon, child, soon. He went to look for your Mum."

That made perfect sense. Just when she thought about asking about Caia, Dumbledore was out and she was left alone with her brother.

"Don't worry, Cassius," she said comfortingly; it looked like speaking to him was making him better. "When Caia comes back, we’ll all go to study together. Dad said he's not mad at me that I sneaked into Hogwarts. He said I was very brave and very clever. If you talk Caia into saying that you two want me to stay with you, Mum will have to agree. And I met three Gryffindors on the train..."

She talked for hours. When Madam Pomfrey tried to get her to the Hall for dinner, Cassius condition worsened in an instant. So food was brought to Aurelia and she talked till her throat was hoarse. For hours and hours.

She refused to go to sleep, making a huge scene when Madam Pomfrey ordered her to bed. She shocked the nurse taking the vicious tone, like her Dad’s, and telling her that since she was no good at her job she shouldn't be bossing around people who made her patients better. Mum wouldn't be pleased, was Aurelia's nervous thought, but she suppressed it without much remorse.

She was holding Cassius' hand for almost two days, desperately hoping his eyes would clear, wishing Mum and Dad were there and could tell her what to do. All she could do was just sit around and talk.

The voice was distant but it was the only thing that was keeping him from jumping into the vast emptiness in search for Caia.

It was so strange... Caia was there but not quite yet; she seemed to have been stopped halfway by something... somebody. If he followed her he wasn't sure he would find her. It was safer to stay with the voice for now... Aurelia's voice.

He lingered there for what was infinity to him. Not feeling her with him anymore, but not being able to sense her out there either.

It lasted and lasted.

And then came that moment... The moment she left for good. The moment whatever was stopping her withdrew.

"Caaaaiaaaa!!!" It was not a scream that escaped Cassius mouth; it was a howl of the most abandoned kind.

No, the new impressions were worse; he preferred the previous uncertainty a thousand times more over this heartbreaking reality that he was completely alone now, so utterly alone... Tears spilled from his eyes.

"Caia..."

He broke into sobs. He didn't want to hold on to Aurelia's voice anymore, he wanted to go and join Caia... half of his soul was slipping away and he was staying? Alone?

"Alone!" Cassius cried. "I don't want to stay here alone...!"

"Not alone, I'm here," he registered Aurelia's imploring voice. "Mum, and Dad, and Caia will be coming..."

Cassius opened his eyes, his vision blurred with tears. Aurelia looked like she had been given a moon upon seeing him conscious. His darling little pest, but she wasn't Caia. Total abnormality of the world without Caia was like a horrible nightmare he would never awaken from.

"Caia will not be coming," he clarified Aurelia's mistake tightly. "Ever."