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Cassia Potter lays tiredly on her bed in a dingy motel room, plans and ideas swirling in her head. She has been alone for a few months now; all her attempts at finding the friends she was separated from are in vain. It can’t go on like this; she needs to do something new, something unexpected. It’s just… she is so exhausted words can’t even describe correctly how she feels. She must find some safe place where rest is possible, at least in theory.
The peaceful years after what should have been the Final Battle at Hogwarts were just the calm before the storm. Cassia died, returned… and did not conquer. They should have known – when Voldemort escaped with his tail between his leg – that this war was far from over.
It took ten years for Voldemort to return, stronger and more cunning than ever. The loss of his Horcruxes – and the shock on his face when he realized that Cassia was one of them and he himself destroyed one of his soul shards was delicious – forced him to rethink his strategy. The numbers of his followers were reinforced with foreign recruits he met during his travels before his defeat. This time the leverage of capturing the students worked, forced magical oaths kept the adult population in check. Nobody can lift a wand –or a mundane weapon – against him on British soil.
The new Order of the Phoenix – reborn from the ashes of the old one – was just a few cells of guerrilla fighting witches and wizards, survivors and escapees; those who didn’t have children or relatives at Hogwarts at the time of the second attack. (Who would have thought that the family could be glad for an injury that needed St Mungo’s instead of the hospital wing? Teddy and Cassia has strange luck.)
Two years of deadly hide and seek begun.
The Girl Who Lived blames her situation on her sleep deprived brain coming up with weird ideas. Goblins. Did she really come for help to the Goblins? After robbing Gringotts the relationship between them was cold at best. Cassia really hopes that they still want the Sword of Gryffindor enough to negotiate. With the Horcruxes gone and Voldemort’s inability to create new ones she doesn’t need it anymore. (And the Goblins don’t have to know that she can call the sword and send it back to its storing place at will. It’s not just the wand that chooses the wizard or witch.)
The first few weeks spent in the States – reached through the American Gringotts branch – are unusual. Not counting the last months, for the first time in years she is absolutely alone. No friends, no family. Not even enemies hunting her.
Cassia tries to rest, but just as expected she can’t. Back home it was the constant fear of being found that made them vigilant. Here, if not nightmares, it’s the silence that chases away the sleep. The quiet gives way to worry and anxious assumptions of her family’s and friend’s fate. After the worst nights she can’t recognize herself when she looks in a mirror. Her black locks lost their shine, her eyes look old. The bags under her eyes seem to be permanent additions.
(At least they make her look more grown up, not like a teenager on the cusp of adulthood. Oh, yes. Since she collected those damn Hollows she hasn’t aged a day. Master of Death, what a shite. Cursed immortality is what it is. She literally can’t die, should have died a few times in the past two years of running and fighting, but she always wakes up unharmed at the closest safe place. There are times when she would welcome death, but you can’t always get what you want. Story of her life.)
She tries to come up with a way to find allies, but illegally traveling here from the magically quarantined Britain doesn’t help.
And that’s when the dementors appear.
Somehow, maybe because of her oh so fantastic life, the dementors find her regardless of where she hides; and the Aurors of MACUSA or even the muggles can’t see or sense them. Cassia travels through uninhabited places, sometimes touches small towns for supplies then disappears again, all the while pouring over piles and piles of tomes and grimoires to find a permanent solution against the demonic prison guards of Azkaban. Hermione would be so proud of her.
The runes she found in an old Black grimoire could possibly trap them, and if she uses that ritual… It might just work; she just needs to prepare the ritual site.
The weather is warm, even though it’s October, and the full moon bathes her magically hidden campsite in moonlight. Magic makes it easier for them to find her, but the muggles won’t be able to discover her. Cassia feels the chill in the air as they approach, so she packs the tent with a sigh and a flick of her wand; and stars to run the opposite direction.
She couldn’t have expected what she stumbles into half an hour later.
She sees the light of torches in the distance but the dementors are so close behind her, she can’t really change her route because of rocks and trees make it hard to run. She can’t die, as it turned out, but Cassia doesn’t wish to experience death by dementor soul sucking.
The scene before her startles her a little. There is a Wiccan circle on the ground, a male and a female stand in the middle. They are surrounded by three other males. The strangest thing of it all is that Cassia feels that all of them are undead, or should be dead. Like very long time ago dead. It’s a new sensation, and the Master of Death realizes that she was not near any vampires since she gained her title.
The Wiccan in the pentacle talks about vampires as abominations of nature (look who’s talking, she shouldn’t be here, alive) and killing her own children. Cassia shakes her head to wake from her stupor, she must continue to escape and not complicate her life with other (dead) people’s problem.
The decision is taken from her when she steps on a branch and the sound garners the attention of the vampires on the clearing; and at the same time the air chills, signing the advance of her pursuers. Cassia is close to tears in her frustration, then suddenly strong arms wind around her waist and with a speed surpassing the fastest racing broom she finds herself on the border of the circle.
“Is she one of your associates, Mother? This little witch doesn’t look like much help,” Cassia hears the mocking voice next to her ear.
“I don’t know what’s going on here, but if you know what’s good for you, you let me go! Unhand me! Now!” utters the captured girl with increasing volume as she casts worried glances toward the approaching dementors.
“Darling, I’m too handsome for you not to enjoy my closeness.”
“Kol, enough!”
Apparently, this magical breed of vampire is magical enough, because soon everyone else on the clearing notices the hovering creatures. The arm holding Cassia starts to tremble; this Kol (and his family judging by their pastry white faces) must have had a few centuries to accumulate bad memories.
The problem is the wand-wielding witch hasn’t been able to summon a Patronus in the weeks she was escaping from the dementors.
With a sudden inspiration she searches in her pockets frantically, grabs the chocolate bar she bought earlier this day, tears down the paper covering it, and pushes the sweets into the pale and shaking vampire’s mouth. (She almost laughs at his astonished expression.)
“Take me to the ritual circle! I need to hijack its power to get rid of them!”
Kol flashes them to the edge of the ring, all the while avoiding the wraith-like things that swarmed the whole place. Even the boundary lines of the ritual are overstepped (or over-hovered). When he puts Cassia down, she sends him away with a muttered “Help your brothers, the dementors’ kiss removes the soul from the body and destroys it.” Alarmed, the male disappears immediately.
She kneels down with the Elder wand in her hand and starts the incantation. Golden runes emerge around her, spreading out and emitting warmth around the whole clearing, negating the coldness. The dementors are motionless, frozen in place and the vampires watch with awe the chanting figure radiating power. The pressure is overwhelming; then finally a blast of magic centred on the witch knocks everyone down on the ground.
Cassia collapses, unconscious.
The silence is deafening as everyone tries to process what happened. Kol makes certain that none of his brothers lost their soul and gives them the leftover chocolate.
“Believe me brothers, it really helps.”
A sudden cry from Finn stops him from examining the little mounds of ashes that remained of the dementors.
“Mother,” Finn shouts again, embracing their mother’s body close to his chest. “I can’t wake her!” he looks at his brothers.
“Well, little witch here“ he points at the slumped form on the ground ” said that these… dementors suck out the soul of their victim and destroy it. Mother is dead.” Klaus and Elijah freeze for a moment, then continue toward Finn, who doesn’t seem inclined to flee.
Kol walks to the witch and picks her up; he really doesn’t want to see Finn grieving their murderous back-stabbing mother.
“Let’s go home.”
Cassia wakes up on the most comfortable bed she has ever laid upon in her life. Looking around groggily she can’t recognize her surroundings, but one thing is sure, it’s a huge, luxurious room. There are clothes in her size prepared on a chair next to the bed and one of the doors leads her to a well-stocked bathroom.
Her tent is equipped with everything she needs on the run, but this… this is paradise. In the end her rumbling stomach forces to leave the bathtub of fragrant water.
The scent of food shows her the way to the dining room, where five vampires are seated at the table. The one who stood in the circle with their mother seems lost and depressed. Cassia can sympathize with the feeling; it’s pretty much how she feels since Voldemort’s return. The only new face is a blonde teenager girl (and what is with this family and their genes?); Cassia would guess they are at the same age physically.
“Nice of you to finally join us, love” says curly-blonde male with a dimpled smile “I’m Klaus Mikaelson, and these are my siblings: Rebekah, Finn, Elijah, and Kol. Can I ask for the name of our guest?”
Cassia lifts her eyebrow in surprise, and answers “My name is Cassia Potter. And borrowing a phrase from a friend: I read about you in my history books.”
After an astonishingly fun lunch the time comes for the big talk. It takes time, and Cassia learns that in these vampire’s case the books were correct, and the Originals learn of a hidden community that escaped their attention.
“So, to sum up your side of the story: There was a war in Britain, those who kill new-blood magicals indiscriminately won; you fled here to gather your strength and search for allies, and in your run you accidentally helped us to escape our mother’s latest murder attempt.”
“Yes.”
“How about we make a deal, little witch? We help you to defeat your enemy, and you help us to get rid of this annoying bond linking our life-force together?”
“What do you think you are doing, Kol?” asked Klaus, angrily.
“Well, I’m irritated with this town and it’s plotting inhabitants; a little mayhem would help cheering me up, as would getting rid of the bond. While it is convenient in a way because you can’t dagger us, it’s still a risk.”
“You would help me, a whole country just for this?”
“I’d prefer lifelong servitude, but you wouldn’t accept it, would you?”
“Considering that I have other options – I could not contact anybody because of the dementors following me – and I’m probably immortal, it would be a little too long to my taste.”
(Cassia can almost feel the Marauders’ amusement and her mother’s exasperation at her offhanded announcement. Their faces…)
“An immortal witch? How?”
“Oh, you don’t believe me? That battle at the school I mentioned? That happened twelve years ago. I’m already thirty. So… What do you say to a call-on witch for like… ten or twenty years? Though I won’t harm innocents and won’t kill. These are my terms. ”
“I’m in” flashes Kol next to Cassia “What are we waiting for, sweetheart?”
“Supper?” comes the hopeful answer.
(In the end, all Mikaelson siblings agreed to help. Voldemort didn’t know what hit him, and the first time in their life the siblings were hailed as heroes. After being introduced to the Blood Pops, Finn swore to never leave.
The Mystic Falls gang never learned why the Originals left the town and never returned. Even when they would have needed them.)