They say time heals everything. But I'm still waiting.

Cassie snorted. "Of course she doesn't, she succesfully locked away all her emotions when she became a Death Eater, and If you don't mind me. I am going to go see if my son is alright and when I come back. I want you out of my house." Cassie spun on her foot and entered the first bedroom, where Severus was sitting on the floor and pushing a few cars around. "You alright Sev?" Cassie asked him softly sitting down next to him. The little boy pushed away his cars and went to sit on his mother's lap leaning back into her. Cassie frowned, running a hand through his hair.

Nicole looked really confused. "What's a Death Eater?" she asked, looking at her mum. Lyssa shook her head. "I'll explain at home." "I want to know now." Nicole frowned. But Lyssa wasn't going to tell her 'now'. So she waited until Cassie came back. "What's a Death Eater?" she asked again. "Mum won't tell me."

Cassie got Severus a cookie and then went back to the door, where the two Malfoys and Laurie still were. Cassie frowned slightly as Laurie asked her, she wans't too sure if she could tell her. "Err..I'm guessing you don't know who Voldemort is either I suppose?" Laurie shook her head at her mother, she was also curious as to what Death Eaters were.

"We haven't learned about it in school yet, not set to for a few years," Nicole said. She had heard the name a few times, but didn't know the full meaning behind it and now she really wanted to know, since it seemed to be about to effect her life in a way. If her mum was involved in it....

"Err.." Cassie said running a hand through her hair. "Well he was a dark wizard years ago, who was trying to take over the world. And getting rid of those with unpure blood so muggles, muggle borns ect." Cassie decided that she was failing at explaining Voldemort but she didn't care. "He had a group of followers who were called Death Eaters. Who were in the same boat about the whole "blood superiorty" thing as well. They were known for their liking to hurt people.."

Nicole looked at Cassie, her eyes going wide than normal, but not too wide. "And my mum....?" she said. She couldn't seem to properly process the information. Cassie had said her mum was a Death Eater, but Death Eaters were evil, and Nicole didn't think that Lyssa was evil at all.

"Was a Death Eater," Cassie said nodding slightly, she felt slightly awkward telling a twelve year old about Voldemort and saying that her mother was a Death Eater. When said mother was standing right next to them.

Nicole looked away from Cassie, turning her eyes to her mum, who was frowning. But she wasn't denying anything and that concerned Nic. "Mum, you..." But Lyssa cut her off. "We'll talk about it at home," she said, "where we should be getting, because I have work I need to do and standing here is just wasting time." Nicole rolled her eyes and looked back at Cassie. "Is that why you hate her? Because she was a....a Death Eater?"

Cassie frowned at her. "Sort of," She said. She'd had enough of answering the girls questions but she supposed that she was just going to keep asking them, and Cassie would probably end up answering them anyway. "What do you mean sort of?" Laurie asked, who had been silently watching the conversation. Cassie frowned at her daughter. "It's not that she was a Death Eater, it's what she did..."

Nicole frowned at Cassie's answer. She was almost scared to ask her next question but it was going to bother her until she knew, and Nicole was sure her mum wasn't going to tell her. Lyssa didn't seem keen to talk about this topic. "What did she do...?"

Cassie looked at the girl. "I'm not answering that," She said quietly.

"Please?" Nicole said softly. "I need to know, so that I can know why people have problems with me, even though I'm not her, and yeah..."

Cassie sighed looking at the girl. "Fine," She muttered rather grouchily. She glanced at Lyssa, wondering if the girl was going to stop hersaying what she was about to. Apparently she wasn't. When we were your age we became best freinds and stayed like that till seventh year. Or at least seemed that way to me. I'm supposing you're mother would have a different view of that matter. In seventh year, when Voldemort was taking over the school, she started to act different. Like a syterotypical pureblood, acting like she was above everyone and that." Cassie swallowed, this was where the story got slightly painful. "She cruioed me, which is the torture spell which is an unforgiveable which will usually end up wth the caster in Askaban. She's the reason that I was taken captive by Death Eaters, nearly got tortured to Death. And why my parents and sister got murdered. Because I had to chose between saving them and killing Lyssa." Cassie looked at the wall above the girls' heads. Brushing at her eyes.

Nicole was in shock, and that was putting things lightly. She looked at Cassie for a moment before shifting her eyes to Lyssa. "Mum?" she said, basically asking Lyssa to say that it was all a lie, even though she was quite sure it wasn't. Lyssa didn't say a word, looking like she didn't care that Cassie had just told practically her darkest secret to her daughter.

Laurie blinked, she would have never expected that. She'd wondered how her grandparents had died but Cassie had nevertold her how, and she'd never known that she had had an aunt. Or would have had an aunt if things had turned out differently.

Nicole was quiet for a moment, thinking. There was no way this could be true, and perhaps Lyssa wasn't reacting because she knew that Nicole didn't believe it. No need to react and make it absolutely true. Nicole looked at Cassie. "How do I know you're not lying to me about all of this just because you don't like my family and want to make them look bad?"

Cassie looked at her for a moment, turned around and went tothe locked room room. She disapeared inside it for a moment and came back holding a picture frame. Of her and Lyssa when they were about fifteen,smiling happily. She passed it to Nicole. "Check her left arm if you want proof on being a Death Eater," She added her tone still soft.

Lyssa got a glimpse of the picture from where she was standing before Nicole took it. "I still have that picture as well," she said, speaking for the first time in a minutes. Nicole looked at it with a frown. Then she looked at her mum again. "What did she mean by proof?" she asked. Lyssa supposed there was no point in hiding it now. Nicole was already curious, and she wouldn't let up until she knew. "Voldemort marked all of his followers," Lyssa replied. "Which admittedly wasn't smart to do, because then everyone knew who they were." Nicole just nodded, not wanting to ask the question that was on the top of her tongue. But she did anyway. "Do you have one?" Lyssa was quiet for a moment before she nodded.

Laurie took the photo off Nicole and looked at it, thinking that their mothers had looked quite a lot like the two girls did now. Laurie was finding this extreamly weird, he whole thing. Cassie sighed and put her arm around her daughter.

Nicole wasn't quite sure how she should react to all of this. one part of her was in shock while the other part was somewhat angry. And what she really wanted to do was just run off for a while and disappear, but that wuoldn't be good for anyone.

Cj:

Cassie wasn't sure whether telling the girls that was was a smart idea. Especially Nicole because she'd just learned that her mother had been a Death Eater, which wouldn't be a nice thing to find out. That your parent had been one of Voldemort's follower,who weren't a pleasant lot. She was slightly less worried for Laurie, because she only needed to live with the fact that her mother had been through a hard time as a child, not that her mother had ever done anything like Lyssa had.

She was slightly surprised at what Lyssa said, both for the fact that she was talking, which she hadn't been doing a lot of. It was weird her being so quiet, years ago Lyssa would have flipped if Cassie had told someone she was a Death Eater, especially her daughter.

And secondly with what she had said, Cassie knew that Lyssa had had a copy of the photo but she was surprised that she still did. (Which is what Cassie thinks she was implying, and Cj isn't sure because she doesn't remember what the post said exactly) She'd have figured that Lyssa would have gotten rid of all the memorabilia.Cassie nearly had herself, but hadn't. Even though she kept the stuff in the locked room and didn't like seeing a lot of them she was happy she had kept it.

Cassie looked at Lyssa who wasn't denying anything Cassie had been saying, though she could see on the look of Nicole's face that she fervently wished that Cassie was lying and that her mother hadn't done anything.

The longer Nicole stood in the hallway thinking about what had been said, the more upset about it she became. So much in fact that she felt the need to leave. "If you all will just excuse me for a moment," she muttered, turning and walking down the hall, heading for the house's back door.

Cj:

Laurie watched her friend disappear out the back door, waited a few moments and then followed her. She shut the back door behind her and then walked over to where her friend was. "Are you alright?" Laurie asked her quietly.

Cassie watched the two girls disappear outside, frowning. She'd probably just given the girl nightmares for a year or something. She sighed running a hand through her hair and wondering when Lyssa was going to decide to leave.

Nicole looked up from the random tree stump she was sitting on when she heard Laurie's voice. Her chin was rested in her hands. "Not really," she muttered in reply. "Would you be if it were your mum?"

Lyssa frowned and sighed, looking at Cassie. "That wasn't quite how I would have elected for her find out about that, but I suppose better you than a total stranger," she said. "Although, she was bound to find out eventually..."

Laurie frowned, sitting down on the ground next to her freind. "Sorry," She said still talking quietly. "Stupid question." Laurie wasn't quite sure what to say, so she settled for silence instead of blubbering about and making a fool of herself and making no sense.

"You should have told her yourself," Cassie said leaning against the wall next to the door. "She was bound to find out eventually and well telling herself yourself would have been better then hearing it from someone else." Cassie shrugged, she still felt somewhat awkward with Lyssa being in her house.