The Final Wall is Breaking Down

Lyssa was in her room reading when she heard a knock on her door. Instead of calling for the person to come in, she got up to open it, needing to stretch her legs. Lyssa opened the door to see her aunt Bellatrix. Lyssa looked at her confused, seeing as the woman never had anything to do with her. "The Dark Lord wishes to see you," she said, answering Lyssa's confused look.

Lyssa gave a wry laugh and tried to shut her door back, but Bella stopped it and grabbed her niece's arm. Lyssa's tried to yank it back, but failed. Bellatrix grabbed her other arm as well, pinning them behind her where she couldn't get free. Then she marched Lyssa down the stairs to the drawing room.

Once there, Lyssa looked at Voldemort with narrowed eyes. He didn't seem to notice the expression, instead speaking. "Your brother failed to accomplish as he was order, and he needs to be punished thusly." Lyssa gritted her teeth as Voldemort smiled, the expression all too creepy.

"Now, I suppose you wonder what this has to do with you," he went on. "It's simple really. For dear Draco's punish, I'm taking the person he cares about the most and I'm making them mine."

Lyssa nearly laughed. "I'll never be on your side. Not in a million years!" she protested.

Voldemort smirked. "You don't have to be. You just have to bear my Mark, and then everyone will think you are."

Lyssa looked at his, eyes going wide, and she renewed her struggling to get free of Bellatrix's clutches to no avail.

----

Thirty minutes later, Lyssa was back in her room, sweater on despite the summer-y temperature. Tears dripped from her eyes and down her chin as she sat at her desk, writing a letter to Cassie, taking care that none of them hit the page.

Cassie,

I've reconsidered not coming over this summer. I've realized now that I can't stand the Manor enough anymore to stay here all summer. Would your parents mind horribly if I came for the rest of the summer? I just really need to get away. Write back soon.

Lyssa

Cassie was sitting at the table eating dinner when the owl tapped on the window. Sam sighed, Henry frowned and Lizzie took a lot of care not to even look at the bird. Cassie's family had an odd assortment of ways how they reacted to the use of magic. She got up from the table, putting her fork down and going over to the owl. She recognised it as Lyssa's owl. Cassie let the owl in and it hooted. She looked warily at her family, before turning back to the owl and untying the message.

"Mum," Cassie said reading through it. "Lyssa wants to come over and stay, is that fine?" "It's perfectly fine dear," Sam replied. "Tell her she's welcome whenever she wants to come over." "Alright," Cassie said grabbing a pen and paper, her quill and ink was in her room and Cassie much prefered using pen and paper anyway.

Lyssa,

Mum says it's fine. And that you can come over whenever you want.

Cassie.

The letter was short, but Cassie didn't really have much to say. What she did have to say could wait until Lyssa got there. Giving the letter back to the owl, she fed it a peice of her dinner before it flew back out the window. Cassie sat back down glancing at Lizzie who was still pointedly not looking away from her dinner. Cassie sighed.

Lyssa was relieved when she got Cassie's return owl. So much that she wanted to cry again. She got up, petting Persephone on the head and giving her a note to take back to say she'd be at the Evans's house that night, and going to tell her mum where she was going, so as to not worry her. Then Lyssa went back to her room to get her things together. She got it all together, taking a number of sweaters and shirts with long sleeves. Sure, Cassie and her family would probably wonder why, but now Lyssa didn't have any choice. She had something to hide now.

Once all of her things were together, she magicked them smaller, insanely glad she was of age now, and put it all in her pocket. Then she walked through the Manor to get outside to get out of the anti-Apparation wards. As much as she hated the action, it was the quickest way out.

Cassie told her parents that Lyssa was going to be there that night and then proceded to get the extra bed ready. Which took some effort as it was on the other side of the house. Though she managed in the end. While she waited for Lyssa to come Cassie played Lizzie in chess on the computer. As they couldn't find the normal chess board and Lizzie refused to play with the wizard chess board.

The doorbell rang. "Be back," Cassie told Lizzie getting up from the chair and going to answering the door. She opened it and stood back to let Lyssa in. "Hey," Cassie said as she entered.

Lyssa Apparated to just outside of Cassie's house, walking up the walk and ringing the bell. She smiled slightly when Cassie opened the door. "Hey," she replied, almost nervously tugging at the sleeve of her sweater. She was paranoid that it would slide up, and then she'd be screwed. Lyssa walked in the house when Cassie moved to let her. She saw the rest of Cassie's family and so greeted them.

"Isn't it a little hot to be wearing a long sleeve shirt?" Sam asking after greeting the girl and noticing that she was wearing a long sleeve shirt. Cassie herself hadn't noticed that, though frowned slightly. Lizzie came out of the computer room then. "Hey Lyssa," She said walking over to the fridge and getting herself something to drink.

Lyssa momentarily panicked, when Sam mentioned her sleeve length. Then she shook her head. "No," she answered. "I'm just fine with it. I'm always been a bit on the cold side, so it doesn't bother me any." Her first lie told to keep her secret.

Cassie frowned at Lyssa, she could tell that Lyssa wasn't exactly being truthful. But she let it go, as Cassie's parents and sister was around. "Wanna go upstairs?" Cassie asked her.

Lyssa nodded at Cassie. And so, the two headed up the stairs to Cassie's room.

Cassie sat down on her bed and looked at Lyssa. "So..." She said.

Lyssa sat on the window sill, looking out over the yard. "What do you mean so...?" she asked.

Cassie shrugged. "I dunno, you just seem jittery. And I don't know." Cassie shrugged again.

Lyssa frowned. "It's nothing," she said, looking down and fidgeting with the edge of her sleeve. She had the odd feeling that that was going to become a habit if she wasn't careful. She had a feeling that Cassie was about to protest so she said, "Really, it's nothing. Promise."

Cassie sighed and frowned. "If you say so," She said. Though she didn't believe it, not for a moment. She knew Lyssa better then that.

Lyssa sighed, looking back out the window, still playing with her sleeve. Definitely going to become a habit at this rate.

"So what do you want to do?" Cassie said dropping the subject, though she wanted to persue it, but she knew that Lyssa would just get annoyed if she did and that wasn't something she wanted. The two girls wasted away the rest of the day doing stuff. The next day was boiling and Cassie woke up with a groan, throwing her cover off of her. "WAnt to go swimming?" Cassie asked Lyssa once the girl had woken up, she for some odd reason was still wearing a long sleeve shirt.

Lyssa sighed internally. She wanted to do nothing more than to replace her long sleeve shirt in favor of one with short sleeves. How the hell did her dad and aunt handle wearing black year-round? Lyssa looked at Cassie as the girl asked her a question. She shook her head in response.

"What do you want to do then?" Cassie asked getting out of bed and going into the hallway to turn on the air conditioner. she had some trouble getting it to start, but it started. Eventually.

Lyssa thought for a moment, while Cassie was off turning on the air conditioner. When the other girl came back she said, "You know, I've been here most summers since we met, and yet I don't anything about the neighborhood. We've always just stayed around the house or went places in the car, horrid contraptions those things."

"Well they're better then walking for two hours just to get somewhere that it takes you twnety minutes to get to in a car." Cassie replied with a shrug. "Do you want to go for a walk about the place?"

"Guess you have a point, and yes I do, seeing as that's what I was suggesting at in the first place," Lyssa said.

"Alright," Cassie said. "Lets get changed, get some food and go off."

Lyssa nodded, getting up and walking over to where she'd placed her stuff, still unpacked. She dug around slightly, until she found the lightest made shirt she could (aka lightest material to avoid getting too hot) since they would be outside.

Cj

Lyssa went off to get changed and Cassie frowned as she walked out of the room. Because they shared a dorm at Hogwarts, the girls weren't that awkward changing in front of eachother. Her frown deepened as Lyssa reentered the room wearing a long sleeve. In Cassies opinion it was not suitble weather for long sleeves. She personally wanted to get out of the heat and into the pool.

Lyssa left the room to the bathroom across the hall to change into the pink cami and the light sweater she'd grabbed from her stuff, along with some cargo shorts. She was trying to keep her outfit as cool as possible, since it was crazy hot right now. She finished up changing and returned to Cassie's room to put away her pajamas. She noticed that Cassie was frowning. "What's up?" she asked, as she pulled her hair up.