WINSLOW, Casey T.

It wasn’t long before an old friend was to show up on the doorstep of the school, scared and on the run. Not long behind her would follow the start of their problems. It turned out that Serena Riley, whom they hadn’t seen since only months after their wedding, had spent the past couple of years in a far less mirthful manner than her friends. Casey ushered her to the Great Hall and found out her tale. She had run out of resources, so back to Hogwarts it was for her. It wasn’t as though she had much of a choice, after all.

She quickly made herself useful, helping Casey out around the classroom at first until she replaced McGonagall as professor of transfiguration, the elderly woman keeping only her position as headmistress. It seemed things were starting to settle down into a groove that, in any other year or situation, might have been considered comfortable. For him and (though unnoticed by him as he dealt with his own problems and bottled things in) his wife, it wasn’t comfortable.

A battle was soon in the making, this time upon the soil of the Forbidden Forest. The Death Eaters seemingly winning, Voldemort decided to test Casey’s loyalty, commanding he kill his wife. Casey injured her, and had it not been for his ability to manage to wordlessly remove Petrificus Totalus from Mrs. Weasley, he would have had to kill her or be killed himself. The move undetected by the Dark Lord, Mrs. Weasley managed to rescue Evie just as Casey uttered the killing curse and he managed to get by unsuspected.

About a month later, the toll it had been having on Evie evidenced itself before Casey when he came to her office, finding the office in shambles and Evie broken down in tears. Finding out she was unable to do magic well, if at all, he comforted her the best way he knew how to do and took her home. Once she was calm enough, he went and took a shower to try to clear his head of the guilt he felt. However, he only came to the conclusion that he was right. He was bad for her to be around, dangerous even. He had caused her this problem. The best way was to leave her, to try the only thing that he hadn’t tried the time before, cruel though it may be.

After getting out of the shower, the man went to their bedroom and got dressed. He sat down and wrote a letter with the potential to ruin everything they had fought so hard to earn and keep only a couple years ago. It was all lies, stating that all of this had been a sham: all the time together, the marriage, the relationship, his love for her. All of it had been the result of a dare. She came to the room just as he had finished writing it, and he quickly set it on the pillow and apparated out.

What hurt him was that she believed him so easily, especially with all the double meanings he had left her within his words. She should have known him, should have known he wouldn’t leave her like this, that he’d have the guts to tell her to her face. Why else would he have tried to do so only a month or so before? If she had read it carefully...

About a week or so later, he went to retrieve his journal, something that could validate “needing” to see her and that was actually true. Once inside, Evie attempted to get him back, but Casey forced on the cold persona he had around Death Eaters. However, as she began to grow ill, that was all it took. He got her to the hospital wing and quickly left her there, feeling that staying would only weaken his demeanor more and make her believe she had a chance when he didn’t want her to know she did anymore than she already knew.

Somehow she manages to convince him to start from the beginning, to try to give them another chance. However, Serena, believing that they hadn’t yet reconciled, came storming into his classroom as he was disciplining Ravenclaw student Zeke Tylor. Her comments made him upset, and he left the classroom rather quickly since she had dismissed his class for him when she’d come in. Despite his protests, the students had, naturally, took advantage of Professor Riley’s words and left.

Having found out she was going to leave the school to go to her parents’, Casey made his way over to Evie, managing her just as she was working on getting out of the school’s gates. She admits to being pregnant, a fact which catches Casey off guard. He obviously didn’t want her to go to her parents after that and persuaded her to spend a day out with him, which they did. She needed to get some things for her owl, Saleel, anyway. They ended up coming back to the school plus one that night, a black kitten named Felix meeting them as they’d had the pet store deliver him to the school. The night didn’t quite end the way Casey wanted, the two getting worked up only to have Evie freak out over the baby right as he felt like he was getting somewhere with her, and he left the room to cool down for a while but did end up coming back later, asking if he could stay with her.

Things progressed from there, things seemingly getting better between them, though Evie still lacked her magic and Casey was still stuffing. Christmas break came, and they went home for the holidays as usual, deciding to take a holiday instead of spend Christmas with the family. Unfortunately, Christmas Eve apparently wasn’t an unthinkable time in Voldemort’s eyes to call a meeting, and Casey had to leave, coming home rather upset. He didn’t want to talk about it and shut himself off to Evie who was concerned about him, her plans to help relax him abandoned to find out what had happened. He didn’t vent, refused. Eventually they ended up in a lip lock, only to have Evie shut him down as he tried to go further.

He prepared to leave rather quickly. He couldn’t stick around here with her like this. He’d lose it. She tried to get him to stay to talk, and when he wouldn’t, she began to take off her negligee, practically throwing herself at him since she didn’t know how else to get him to stay and not go out and do something completely stupid. However, he pulled away, throwing her argument back in her face and saying he didn’t want to use her like that. He was gone for hours, drinking, and Evie was furious with him when he finally got back, doing everything to annoy him in his state.

At an Order meeting that followed not long after, Casey and Evie tried to convince the Order that he needed to get out, to stage his death so he didn’t have to keep up this double life since it was having too much of a toll on him and them. Most everybody was for it except for Moody, who thought Casey was being a wuss and copping out. Nevertheless, eventually it was agreed, and plans commenced on how to fake his death. Evie had to leave the room, not wanting to think about her husband dying at all even if it wouldn’t be real, and Casey couldn’t blame her, leaving himself to go up to the room she’d gone to and talk with her.

However, even the best-laid plans go wrong. There was an element to the battle Casey hadn’t known about: portkeys. The Order members were scattered, seemingly paired off by Voldemort’s sheer will to undermine love and reveal it as a weakness. Casey and his cousin Sam ended up paired off with Derrin White, former friend of Evie, and Voldemort. Casey fought with Derrin, who nearly killed him with Sectumsempra. Sam barely managed to get them away before collapsing himself in the hospital wing where Lucy and Evie waited anxiously with Poppy for people to return.

Both men were in a coma, but Casey awoke before his cousin and long before his friend Serena. After he woke up, a secondary plan was put in motion, and Casey’s seemingly lifeless body was removed from the hospital room at Mungo’s and his bed rest was continued at the Order’s headquarters.

Of course, being bedridden didn’t go over well with Casey. Evie would hardly touch him or cuddle with him when asked, afraid she would hurt him, but he saw it as she was disgusted with him and his newly disfigured body. He hated being waited on and treated as an invalid. He hated not being able to get out of bed to go to the bathroom on his own, but he refused to use a catheter. He hated not being able to leave the room or the house. He hated the small confines. He hated the feel of the sheets and the bedside manner of Mrs. Weasley. He hated not being able to go with Evie to well-care check-up on progress with the baby. He hated not being able to be what he had been up ‘til now, and the worst part was that he didn’t have anyone to blame. However, that didn’t stop him from pegging it on other people in his mind. If Moody hadn’t said they needed someone on the inside... If only Moody hadn’t looked down on him and made him feel like a child... If only he had been stronger, better, faster, less vulnerable emotionally to Derrin’s taunts... If only Derrin had fought fairly...

The worst part with it all was the first day when Evie was supposed to tell his parents that he was dead but couldn’t go through with it and brought his sister Millicent and his mother back with her to HQ. Naturally, they wanted to wait on him, and he’d have none of that. He was already feeling inadequate enough without his mother babying him. Eventually Moody caught wind a few hours later and kicked them out, removing their knowledge of his status still being with the living.

The next several weeks were difficult. Being stubborn as he was, he insisted on trying to move around the place on his own when he thought everyone was away but only ended up hurting himself all over again. Yet, he still refused his cousin’s help when Sam found him lying there on the ground. Sam was frustrated, and Evie was furious when she found out. Casey didn’t care. He just wanted to get better. He just wanted to be his old self, to be able to help Evie care for the baby when he was born. And of course, he couldn’t stand being kept out of the battle that ensued only a number of weeks later right before the school year ended. Old sit ‘n’ spin found his way there, however, much to Evie’s dismay and dislike (and oh how he paid dearly for it around her). He managed to take down Fenrir and Umbridge, but afterwards, he was severely winded.

However, the fact that he was now alive was known, his cover blown. He slowly readapted back to life in the real world outside the Order HQ, though the Ministry gave him hell to revoke his death certificate, giving him piles upon piles of paperwork, and his family rushed to see him while ignoring Evie and giving her the cold shoulder for knowing but not saying anything to them. It was lose-lose for him and Evie both, however, for Casey found no pleasure in being flocked even if it did gain him a number of good meals of his favorite things as a child.

A few months down the road, Casey was functioning again with the aid of a cane—aid that was seldom utilized by the twenty-year-old young man. Shortly before the new school year began, he tried out as seeker for Puddlemere United and won the position, much to his delight. Eager and glad to see a non-brooding husband again, the very pregnant Evie encouraged him, attending his first game and trying to be there for him as much as was possible in her condition, which, admittedly, wasn’t all that much, but he understood.

On October 18, 2000, Casey and Evie’s firstborn was born. Julian Thomas Winslow was a cute little thing in Casey’s opinion. The loving father doted on him as much as possible those first few hours. They slipped away to somewhere quiet after both mother and baby were released from the hospital, and Casey only left when necessary for practice or a game.

His Quidditch career was short-lived, however, as only a few months after his son’s birth he found distance growing between himself and Evie since when he was home it seemed the focus was on Julian and not them. So, due to the desires to be there for his son and wife and to repair the distance between himself and his wife, he quit the team. Oliver Wood and the rest of the gang weren’t happy with him at all.

He replaced the Defense teacher the following school year, and the young family took up residence in the professors’ dormitory. About two years later, Evie reclaimed her role as Charms mistress and head of Gryffindor, and only a year after that, everything started to go down the drain. First off was Headmaster Trey Hunter’s (Trevor Williams) sudden interest in Evie unnerving Casey. Despite Evie’s ignorance to the fact, he knew the man was after his wife. Second? Second was perhaps worst of all. It revealed a weakness in the marriage. Evie didn’t completely trust Casey not to hurt her.

Voldemort found Evie in the forest, and naturally, Evie was afraid—afraid for her life, afraid for her son’s life, and afraid for her husband’s. She gave into joining Voldemort’s cause when he managed to reveal her biggest fear and convince her that Casey had had an affair even though he hadn’t. Without a doubt, the twenty-two-year-old was angered by this when he found out. She didn’t trust him. What else did she think he was capable of? Did she really have that little faith in him? She’d made it clear that there were only two things that were unforgivable in her eyes, and those were to have an affair or to hurt her. Of course he was going to avoid those like the plague! He’d be crazy to risk losing her. He loved her more deeply than he could ever remember loving anyone else.

He revealed to her all the things that he’d been exposed to and done as a Death Eater and begged and pleaded with her to not go to the meeting and to instead run with him and Julian. Evie was affected by his words, and she promised she would come back and they would leave, but that she needed to buy them some time, so she was going to the meeting. Despite Casey’s supplication, she went. And they never left.

Arguments began, and Casey swallowed his pride to ask for outside help. However, Serena didn’t manage to make things better. He eventually turned to the bottle. Even if he didn’t have a taste for the beverage, at least it gave him a buzz if he drank enough and he could escape inhibitions for a while. Morgana Calloway seemed a sympathetic, understanding young barmaid, and Casey took advantage of this over the next while, telling her everything, not really thinking she could ever be interested in him. He had too many problems, and besides, he wasn’t thinking of her in that way...or at least he wasn’t trying to. There was something about her, a sort of veela charm to her, that drew him to her, though he did his best to resist it.
The bottle seemed to work for a short while, and he was able to keep drinking to a bare minimum. However, nightmares began to occur. Their content was more than disturbing. There was a blonde woman, a pretty thing, who wished to sleep with him, and whom Casey in the dream felt highly attracted to. They were going to have a baby. And there Evie came with a man named Tom behind her. He reminded him so much of Voldemort, but at the same time of someone else. She left him in the dream. She was so angry. The others weren’t much better. Some were quite erotic, others just plain disturbing.

This only drove him deeper into drinking. Instead of telling Evie, he chose to drink his problems away, which really didn’t work since, come morning, they were still there. Because of the drinking, the arguments worsened, and it was becoming more and more unbearable to handle the stress on his own. He was afraid that telling her the dreams would be just the little push she needed to justify marching out on him. He couldn’t understand why he was still having the unwanted nightmares, but he did.

Eventually, he hesitantly spoke with Hermione about the nightmares, and she started to deduce what was happening to drive these nightmares, all generally involving the same people, into his mind when they weren’t something he wanted to have.

The Yule Ball comes around and he and Evie play it nice and manage to seem to be making progress. He let her know just how much she meant to him and how much he loved her and that he would try his best to overlook the Voldemort thing because he didn’t want to lose her. The night was much lighter than usual, and it was good for the couple.

However, trouble brewed in paradise overnight. Despite the evening they had had, the nightmares still came—only, this one was far worse than any before. Forgetting he was supposed to go with Evie and Trey to The Three Broomsticks that morning, he left early and began drinking. However, his drinks were spiked with a temporary amnesiac potion with something that weakened his will and removed his inhibitions. Evie and Trey walked in on Casey and Morgana snogging rather passionately on the bar countertop.

Deeply hurt, Evie spoke to him, and when Casey didn’t recognize her and denied that they had a son together, she stormed out. Morgana calmed his mind and pulled him back to their snogging session. Though he had no way of knowing it, she planted memories in his mind so he thought they had actually copulated.

His father was less than sympathetic when his son showed up at his doorstep a few days later. The Daily Prophet, Witch Weekly, and even the Quidditch magazine hadn’t missed a beat. Photographs of Morgana and Casey snogging were all over the front page.

Casey tried to see her at the school before Christmas break, but the encounters never got him very far. However, he tracked her down to her parents’ manor on Christmas Day. He had a son, and he wasn’t going to miss Christmas. It was already bad enough that he hadn’t seen him in a few days.

The next few months that remained in the school year were tense. Anytime Casey tried to near Evie to explain what happened, Trey would cut him off, and Evie refused to let him see Julian or know where he was. What confused Casey most was the mixed message. Where were the divorce papers?

The week before the end of the school year, Casey finally managed to see Evie. He explained that he was leaving the school for good and was going back to Quidditch and asked if he could spend some time with Julian before he went. She agreed reluctantly. However, she was sure to drive home the point that she and Trey were going to spend the weekend together, even wearing a small number that she might have sported for him at one point not too long before.

The day with Jules went well. The two had a good time bonding, and they were asleep already at the house that had once been a home when Evie apparated in, crashing into things in her frantic effort to find him. Casey awoke to the clatter and went to the living room to find his likely soon-to-be ex-wife dressed in nothing but a negligee but looking worse for wear. Despite his feelings towards her after seeing her leave with the headmaster, he quickly went to help her, finding out that she had been attacked by Trevor and Morgana, uttering something about the affair that he didn’t understand or care about right then. He had just enough to hide Evie and a sleeping Julian in the master bathroom and fortify it magically and toss himself on the ground where he could see the door beneath the hem of the bed skirt before “Trey” and Morgana could be heard trying to get in.

Morgana entered first and Casey quickly used Petrificus Totalus, taking her out of the equation for the time being. “Trey” didn’t seem to have an issue with that as it was Casey he wanted. They fought ‘til “Trey” felt cornered and removed the spell from Morgana, which Casey didn’t expect, so he ended up being slammed back into the wall with Morgana’s well-aimed Stupefy, and the duo of evil escaped.

Once he was certain they were gone and not hiding out somewhere in the house, Casey made his way to the bedroom and disabled the spells he had on the bathroom, going in to find Evie holding onto an obviously confused and upset Julian. The reasons that mother and boy were upset were different. Julian didn’t like that his mum had come to pick him up and took him from his dad while he was asleep and couldn’t tell daddy bye and was confused why they were staying hidden in the bathroom and why his mother seemed so scared and was holding on so tightly and forcing him to be quiet and not try to open the door. Evie, of course, was scared for rather obvious reasons. Casey had no clue as to the full extent of what “Trey” had done to Evie, but she had said something in her initial flurry of sentences that implied rape and Merlin only knew what else. He rushed with her and Julian to his parents’ home, leaving Julian with them and heading off to St. Mungo’s with Evie. She was quickly imprisoned admitted as her rapidly declining mental state and awareness was obvious.

The next day news of “Trey’s” capture hit the headlines of the front page of the Daily Prophet, and why wouldn’t it have? The Headmaster of Hogwarts being carted off to Azkaban was big news, especially being caught within the care of magical creatures professor’s (John Kenneth) house with Genevieve Aurelle, herbology professor and John’s girlfriend, being held as his captive. Nevertheless, Mark and Gladys Winslow, who happened to be on duty in the auror’s office that day, were on the scene after John disabled the Death Eater. Of course, the Ministry was unwilling to acknowledge the man was a Death Eater, and the Order just did what they normally did.

Casey stayed faithfully in Evie’s hospital room with at least one Order member standing guard outside the door at all times around the clock. The healers knew it wasn’t worth arguing with him and provided him with a cot. Evie soon had a violent outbreak towards him when he touched her hand. It was almost as though she didn’t see him, and when the healers and nurses tried to put an IV in since she was refusing to eat, it was hell to pay, so her wrists and ankles were placed in shackles with a restraint around her midsection to keep her from thrashing.

It was a scary experience for Casey to see his wife in the state she was, and it didn’t help that she wouldn’t talk. In fact, she rarely seemed to be present in the room, and touching her to get her attention only seemed to scare her back to where she was after she tried fruitlessly to defend herself against what she viewed as a threat. He couldn’t understand it. Why did she want to hurt him? Didn’t she trust he wouldn’t hurt her? He wouldn’t find out the reason until months down the road.

Eventually, however, he managed to have a brief conversation with her and decided that keeping her in the hospital was doing her more harm than good. White walls had always irked her. She was in a constant position, which put her at risk for bedsores. He was her husband. Perhaps taking her home where she’d never been harmed and had always felt safe was the best bet. Plus, it would be easier to keep an eye on Julian himself then. The healers didn’t want to release her, but with Thomas Price’s backing, it was a done deal, and Evie was returned home.

She made little progress. In fact, she refused to go out, refused to let him share a bed with her, refused to eat, and she continued her violent outbursts. One day when Casey felt his wife could handle watching Julian as he was sick and probably going to sleep an hour, he went outside to try to move around and clear his head and just be Casey and not have to be Casey Winslow, Mr. Mum—or Casey Winslow, unlicensed healer and Ministry work-at-home clerk. He met a scary sight when he returned in to check on Evie. She’d got her hands on a knife and cut into her left wrist. It being the location of such a delicate, vital blood vessel made him more than amply worried.

Nevertheless, he didn’t take her to the hospital. Instead, he called his cousin’s fiancée, Lucy Anderson, who worked at Mungo’s. She advised psychiatric treatment after healing the wound, but Casey said it would do no good. She wouldn’t say anything aside from the fact that she was trying to get rid of the Dark Mark, and if she said that to a therapist, it would get her time in the looney bin, and he was not going to allow his wife to be placed in there. It would be ten steps backwards from what little progress he’d made with her. She was at least eating a little on her own and had taken a shower that morning. Against her better judgment but understanding that Evie had issues she couldn’t just talk about with a normal psychologist, Lucy left after peeking in on Julian, who had slept through the whole ordeal.

Of course, the fact that “Trey” had escaped from Azkaban just that morning in an unprecedented and unknown fashion, had perhaps lead to the outburst after a seeming start towards the right path to recovery. Casey didn’t know, but he moved his desk to the room so he could work in there and make sure she didn’t try something like that again. He didn’t want to walk in when it was too late the next time.

Mrs. Weasley’s visit one day after bringing them some much-needed groceries, insisted that he and Evie get away together—take a cruise or something. She felt that Evie would do better if she just got away from the general area of the world where it had all happened. Casey said he’d consider it, and he observed Evie the next few days, deciding that since she seemed to be doing better at home, perhaps it was time to get her to venture out into a place where there was only a select number of people around and things should generally be safe. So, he booked the cruise, and the morning of, he told her, deciding as she let him cuddle with her for the first time in ages that morning. He’d bought her two dresses, one for if she kept up the whole need to cover every inch thing and one for if she decided to be a little more modern and less proper.

She was hesitant, but she agreed to try it. They went. Evie took a while to get used to the new surroundings, but soon she allowed Casey to kiss her. However, eager for more, he began to forget herself. But, he still noticed that she’d gone stiff beneath him and quickly removed himself from her general area with an apology. After a while, they went swimming, and the rest of the cruise went on pretty mundanely.

Evie’s progress continued upward from there with a few small deviations, but eventually things were very much back to normal in the couple’s relationship, much to Casey’s relief and joy. However, she was still wary about going outside, so after going to the fair with Julian one night, he suggested that the two of them go the next night together and spend some time alone. He won her a huge stuffed animal, rode rides with her, and pretty much went along at the pace she set doing whatever she wanted. He was very glad to do that. It distracted the two of them from the argument the night before over his decision to go work as an auror. He’d had the proper classes, so while he’d be on training, he just wanted to be able to get out there and do something about the “Trey” situation, figuring if he was captured once and for all, things would get completely back to normal.

So, he applied, and he got the job. With his father head of the department and half his family as references, it was sort of difficult not to. Of course, this meant being away from home for periods of time, and that was a bit of a strain, considering Evie tended to worry when he was gone. One return home was more memorable than all but one other. Evie was more “friendly” than usual, and while perhaps it was odd to get home and go straight to the bedroom, he didn’t question it, just enjoyed it. Soon, she couldn’t hold the news in any longer. They were going to have a baby. He didn’t react how she’d hoped. He was sort of shocked and quiet. Sure, he was happy, but when they’d brought Julian into the world, there weren’t Death Eaters to still deal with. True, Voldemort was once again gone, but what if he were to come back again? They’d thought they’d got all the horcruxes before but they’d been wrong then. What if they were again? Of course, he didn’t even let Evie know this, and he quickly lightened up, which relieved the expectant mother.

These worries were a constant worry for Casey throughout the pregnancy, but he kept them to himself and focused on work. A month or so before Lydia’s birth, he was out on a mission with his father, and “Trey” appeared. He was so close, but the man killed his father, and he was torn between going after “Trey” or checking on his father. That moment of hesitance gave “Trey” the opportunity to escape, and the man took it.

Casey was given time off to deal with the death of his father but refused to accept the offered therapy, knowing he had underlying unresolved issues that he couldn’t let out unless he wanted to be taken to Azkaban. He soon decided to quit that job, and he went a few months jobless helping Evie with their newborn daughter Lydia. That helped him perhaps more than therapy could have, just spending time with his family and having people relying on him. About a year later, he was able to return to Quidditch, and he snatched up the opportunity, hoping to find stimulation to fight off his budding depression. That didn’t last more than two years, however.

After he quit, he petitioned to regain his prior position at the school and regained it. After three years teaching with his family living in the castle with him, he was assigned Deputy Headmaster duties under Jamie Carter. Everything should have been fine at that point. He should have been happy. Everything was going right, better than it had in quite some time. He and Evie were still together, he had two beautiful young children, and he had a job he genuinely enjoyed. Despite it all, he was unsatisfied and unhappy despite trying to be. His memory was going. He was losing interest in absolutely everything, even an activity with his wife that used to be not only fun but great stress relief for him. He was finding self-harm more and more alluring, but he didn’t want to be labeled as crazy and be locked up, so he “took care of himself.”

Two years later, the 2008 school year began. He was completely paranoid by this point, and things were beginning to fall apart for him even further. He couldn’t hide it much longer, though he continued to try. Evie was getting more and more concerned and researching her suspicions and everything seemed to match up, but she didn’t know how to approach Casey about it, afraid that it would cause him to become defensive. But fate had plans of it own to out Casey’s issues and force him to admit to them. One night, early in the morning, he woke up from a nightmare and headed for the bathroom. He locked the door, and Evie got up to check on him. However, when he wouldn’t answer her, she forced her way in, and in a rush to try to hide his blade, he cut himself fairly deep.

Immediately spotting the blood and the other scars—some fresh and others halfway healed, Evie was appalled, disappointed, and concerned all at once. She tried to snatch the blade from him, but he sunk down into the tub to keep her from being able to grab it from his hand. All he saw was the disappointment and perceived anger and shut himself off from talking. He pushed her out of the way after an emotionally charged outburst and headed down to the common room, not caring how he was dressed. He flooed out of the place and quickly made his way to Diagon Alley after transfiguring his clothing so he appeared to be a bum so no one would notice it was him.

However, he spotted Derrin White, Evie’s old friend who had transferred to Durmstrang for his final year and known Death Eater who had nearly killed him, and he followed him into Knockturn Alley, knowing the boundaries of the other’s parole. Of course, Derrin was cocky as ever.

Casey left the encounter even more disturbed. His fears that he’d been bottling in and the memories were all coming to the forefront of his mind, and now that Evie knew about the cutting and the depression and how he couldn’t handle anything, he knew there was no way to just push them away. Evie would try to force him to deal with his issues immediately.

When he returned to their dorm later in the day, he found himself unable to pick up knives or other sharp/blunt objects he could harm himself with, and Evie demanded he hand over his wand when he refused to talk and had an outburst because he couldn’t believe she was treating him like a child—even worse than a child! It took some arguing and a bit of physical and magical force before she could get his wand. She told him that she would hand it to him for class but that immediately after she would be there to collect it and him. Instead of making things better for her husband, Evie had effectively made it worse for her husband and herself by forcing him to view her as a annoying control freak of a bitch.

A talk with Kyle only a handful of days later in the common room left him feeling even more alienated, as Kyle practically dismissed his fear of a Death Eater revival with what Casey viewed as little to no thought. And soon, Bridget, an old Quidditch team mate who had come to teach at the beginning of the 2008-2009 school year, tried to offer her help, but by then he was too wary of other people, too afraid of being judged, and he let out his frustration on her, which left him with no one to talk to or be around, and it really was his own fault, but he blamed it on Evie for worsening his paranoia and depression. Didn’t she understand he needed the cutting? It was the only way he could release his emotions. But stupid people. Stupid people judging based on a stupid, false stigma. Stupid Evie for not leaving it known she was willing to listen and leave it to him to come to her when he got used to the idea. He hated her. He hated them.

Enter Kara Viridian, a young auror he vaguely remembered from his short time as an auror. The young, beautiful woman reminded him a lot of Evie when she was younger. She was well, as he’d already noted, beautiful, talkative, happy, seemingly relatively carefree... He was attracted to her from the get go, and her need for help figuring out why she had received the journal of Sirius Black and a photo of the old Order of the Phoenix from back in the ‘70s made him feel like he could actually do something worthwhile that no one would be able to judge him on.

He soon found himself spending as much time with the younger woman as possible, liking that she was for the most part unaware of his mental instability and that she made him feel needed and useful and like he was worth something—even if it was something as trivial as helping her with this. She entered the Order under his referral, though it was, for the most part disbanded and had next to no meetings at all. He was closing in on the reason she had received the journal and photograph as December neared, and by the night of the Yule Ball, he had fully figured it out. He was planning on telling her in the morning on the train to London, yet another way to avoid Evie and having to sit there feeling like her prisoner. She couldn’t say, “No,” after all, as he was with another person, and she wouldn’t dare try to accuse him of an affair—not with his mental status being rocky at best.

However, that wasn’t meant to come to pass. That night, 19 December 2008, was the last night any of them were to see the interior of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Only those of half-blood or greater descent would find themselves reentering in a matter of months as Death Eaters stormed the castle, taking everyone by surprise.

Casey was cornered by Derrin White, who was determined to finish the job he’d begun back when they were nineteen. As self-proclaimed leader of the Death Eaters, he couldn’t afford any loose ends. Unfortunately for him, Casey’s will to live, if only to make sure his family got out alive and well, kicked in, and he soon escaped, fleeing to find Evie as he heard from Derrin’s own mouth that this man, Trevor, whom they had known as Headmaster Trey Hunter, was apparently with his wife with the intent to kill.

Desperately, he searched everywhere until he finally found the open Room of Requirement, blasting his way in and right away searching for her with a sinking feeling in his heart. Why else would the man not be here when he had left Evie a note—signed, William Travis, their squib janitor, he noted—and flowers. He had obviously been here. He wouldn’t just leave her here alive, not after that failure he’d made. Finding a heavily secured room in the center of the maze, Casey’s breath caught. What if he was in here with her right now? What if he was raping her as he had before? He couldn’t handle having to help her emotionally when he wasn’t well mentally either.

Finally, he got in, and Evie rushed at him, expecting it to be Trevor, but it wasn’t. Casey felt more relieved than he had in a long time.

Since the Takeover

The aftermath of the battle left heavy losses on both sides. Nearly all of the professors had been killed except those who had been part of the Order, and students had not been left untouched. However, Derrin White’s body was amongst the counted dead. Angry as hell, Casey was quick to call an Order meeting in the common room. He made known his thoughts and feelings that they should fight fire with fire. He hated how all this time they had only defended. They needed to defend, but at the same time they needed to give them a taste of their own brand of medicine. No one else seemed to share his feelings, too caught up by the fact that it was morally questionable. At this point, the man had no care in the world for morals. Children had died, his wife had nearly been killed, and his colleagues had been caught in the crossfire as well, and they were worried about morals? Fuck that.

The next morning all students were returned home, and Casey and his family returned to their house. They tried to calm the kids and act like everything was just like any other winter break. However, they were hard-pressed to do so when a strange owl flew to their windowsill while the children were decorating Christmas cookies with Evie at the kitchen table. Casey opened the letter, noting who it was addressed to and how familiar the writing looked.

It was from “Trey.” Trevor apparently knew where they lived and had an ultimatum. He had taken control of the Death Eaters, and if Evie came and helped him take out Callid Warren, her family would be spared, but if she ignored this warning, Casey would die. He shooed the kids out to talk with his wife, and after much debate, it was decided they would go to a safe house. They attempted to convince his family to go, but they wouldn’t. Oddly enough, despite his prestigious position as ambassador to France with the Ministry, Thomas Price agreed that he and his wife would go into hiding with them. However, neither thought much of it. It was unusual but certainly not impossible.

The night of January first, Thomas told Casey he needed to speak with him, so the two stayed up with a drink for each of them talking for a while before Thomas pulled his wand. Alarmed, Casey set his drink aside, sat up, and pulled out his own wand. He inquired what the older man was doing, but Thomas fought ‘til Casey was disarmed. The rest of the house slept through it due to the spell Evie’s father had placed on the room. However, he hesitated, finally lowering his wand with a quiet, “I can’t do it.”

Casey quickly stood and repossessed his own wand, warily eyeing his father-in-law. Thomas explained the situation. Trevor had come to him wanting him to kill him and that if he did, he would spare Evelyn, Evie, Julian, and Lydia. They quickly worked on a plan to make it look as though Thomas had killed him while he was asleep next to Evie in bed and then Casey set up a portkey and rushed to get Julian out of the place since Evie was reading to Lydia since she still hadn’t been able to sleep. He set the bear in with the explanation that Lydia forgot it in the living room, and he thought perhaps it would help since it was her favorite.

Thomas soon appeared to retire after his daughter went to bed and went to the screen only minutes later to let Trevor in. His dead body was present when Casey returned for Lydia and Evie, and Casey was overwhelmed with shock when he found Lydia’s dead body there but no bear. It had left without her. However, he quickly went to the room he and Evie had claimed and found his wife missing. In fact, he just heard the pop of disapparition. He allowed himself time to grieve briefly before he heard Sam calling out for them, having come with groceries apparently. Casey quickly rushed to grab a few things from the boxes that he wanted for memory’s sake before leaving quickly to find Julian.

Life since that night has been difficult to weather. He heard the news of the massacre of the Weasleys and many other Order members he had known quite well. It grieved him, but bitterly, he thought it was their own fault. He stumbled upon his old Quidditch teammate as he was being mugged in a dingy alleyway. He chased the mugger, but it was too late to save Kevin. Seizing the opportunity, he stole a good deal of his hair from his head and disposed of the body in such a way that no one could easily find it.

Since that night in January 2009, he’s been masquerading as his friend. At first, he simply remained a Quidditch player. On 14 February 2009, he stumbled across Evie, but his inhibitions were severely lowered by the fact that he was quite drunk, and he lost his chance to tell her the truth, having decided to wait a few days to gain her trust since she thought Casey was a bad ex who had beat her for trying to leave him.

He soon found the world under complete, or announced, Death Eater control on 14 February 2010 with Minister of Magic Walter Crane’s revelation that he was in reality the believed dead Death Eater Harold Masters. He was shocked with everyone else but not truly if he was honest with himself. He found opportunity to become an Imperium Guard and a Death Eater, and he took it, hoping that it would somehow get him closer to Evie and regain him a chance to take back his wife. It worked. He quickly befriended Evie under his alias, but he prematurely told her who he was, and he abandoned his role (and thereby his unlikely allies, Callid Warren and Fierro Darque, in the take down of Trevor Williams), fleeing the wizarding world in case Evie ratted him out.

Obsessed with revenge, Casey deposited Julian at the Order Safe House for a few months while he tried to devise a plan to kill Trevor. Unfortunately, resources eventually petered out and Evie was believed dead, murdered in her and Trevor's home. Discouraged by the lack of results from his individual efforts, he was left with no choice but to return to the Order Safe House himself and attempt to rally the troops in the right direction despite their seeming unwillingness to do anything more than sit on their asses. Shortly after his return, Julian ran off and was kidnapped by Trevor.

Following a meeting to attempt to get the Order in on a plot that would lead towards Trevor's take-down, Casey came to the conclusion they were worthless, too afraid to take the Williams girls themselves despite the fact they would be well cared for. He had to wonder if that was the very reason why they were sitting on chances to kill Trevor themselves. So, he sought out a lead he had heard whispers of, and following a meeting, the Syndicate was brought in on the plan. Currently, he awaits the fruits of their efforts to be borne.

On Halloween 2011, Casey decided to visit Evie's grave. There, he met the most unexpected person: Evie herself. She explained she had faked her own death to get away from Trevor and, believing her son and him both dead, she had left the country to seek help. In the time since, she had formed cells of a group called Isis in various countries unaffected by Trevor's rule. He has decided to join her in her efforts in a hope that one day Trevor will be taken down and his iron grip removed from the wizarding world.

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NAME: Jen
EXPERIENCE: 6 years, 3 mos.
CONTACT: Here on the site by PM or YIM (which connects with Windows Live/MSN), AIM, or Skype.
HOW'D YOU FIND US? I made it!

CHARACTERS: Trevor, Milo, Justin, Eric, Anne, Isis, Delilah, Addison