"Who do you have in mind."
Sirius for all his abilities was keen to see what his mischevious little godson had in mind.
If only to divert the little tykes attention away from him for a moment so he could recover from the endless stream of superior pranks that had his eyes spinning.
"Why old Lucius Malfoy for starters!"
Cassius sneered as he spoke out the name causing Sirius to scowl at first before a devilous smiled replaced it.
"Oh ho! Brat, just what do you have planned for him?"
Sirius was greatly intrigued hearing Cassius was preparing to strike out at a known follower of the dark lord, one who only escaped a sentance in azkaban thanks to a substantial bribe payed to the ministry to have his involvement in the uprising be declared as actions taken under the influence of the imperious curse.
Cassius meanwhile was pleased to see Sirius's excitement.
Thanks to the change in the timeline, the dark lords horcrux's did not exist which meant the Ginny weasley would not have Tom Riddles diary... at least one hopes he didnt cause that would be... really weird.
So instead, he planned to create a sudo Horcrux, mostly just a book that was implanted with a simple AI like program that could respond to your inquiries and then have a few fabricated memories and the like inserted as well which could be activated under specific conditions.
Then would come the time to slip the book into Lucius's possessions with the thought of striking another blow at the weasley family by making sure another artifact of the dark lord was found in their possession.
Casting even greater doubt about their innocence into the eyes of the public.
With his experience creating the maurauders map the task of creating the book itself was fairly simple.
Should Lucius or for that matter draco use the device, it would insult them endlessly about being cowards, or weak.
Telling them to act as a true death eater and strike out at the dark lords enemies inciting them to follow the plan of getting the book to Ginny.
The really hard part would be getting a chance to confundus Lucius, though Sirius himself managed that task easily enough.
Teaching Cassius basic alchemy to insert a confundus charm into an object such as a gold coin.
Next what came was a meeting between the Black and the Malfoy house.
As Sirius called in debts owed to house black by the malfoys.
these of course were magically binding and so Lucius had not means to resist the repayment albeit begrudgingly.
But when the matter concluded, Cassius using polyjuice potion once more, stood as the assistant to Sirius during the proceedings, and mockingly tossed a single gold galleon to the defeated dark wizard as a 'consolation prize' never knowing that the coin tossed to him had caused inception upon his mind.
Dropping the thought that he should take the book on the desk as his own property, and not only that but when he gets the chance give it to the youngest weasley sibling.
Cassius planned for events to occur as close to those of the story he knew as he could, even if Riddle was so incompetant to have failed in the creation of multiple horcrux's this go around.
So instead he needed to not only get the book to Ginny somehow, but then use that same book to effectively cause brainwashing or possession to have her unleash the horror that is the Basilisk upon the student body.
Of course only after Cassius himself had gotten a chance to converse with the beast, to ensure no deaths occured on his watch.
The blame would fall to Voldemort of course, while the actual blame fell to Lucius since Harry and his masterful deductive skills would simply peg anyone he viewed to be a villain as the culprit for causing the sweet and innocent ginny to have become to corrupted as she would be.
However Cassius did kind of wish he could be present at Diagon alley during the upcoming altercation, since in the origional Lucius was the one on the backfoot having just barely survived the ministry raid for illegal muggle goods, but this go around it was Arthur Weasley who was reeling after finding out his family had been harbouring a fugitive for over a decade.
For Sirius the plan itself was nothing more than a simple prank, as a means to cut loose after having been set free.
A way for Cassius's own pranking powers to be directed at others giving him a moment to catch his breath.
Though for Cassius the prank war with Sirius was simply a means to pass the time, his whole goal for the summer had already been completed with the rescue of Sirius, and thanks to the simple minded nature of the man, his allegience had been secured just from this.
Though in the discussions that followed while black was on Cassius's side there was always the nagging will to protect Harry as well.
Though that to faded after Sirius was visited by Lupin who congratulated his friend on his release, while the other upon hearing of his friends improved condition was quick to also congratulate him on controlling or rather evolving his own issues.
Cassius simply enjoyed the break, spending most of his time at the black dwelling pouring over the tome within, most of which comprised some pretty in depth knowledge on Dark magic, but was useful knowledge none the less even if he never planned to use most of it.
The other important thing that happened was towards the end of the summer, as the coming school year was fast approaching, Cassius declared his intent to go shopping for his school supplies after reciving his list for the year.
And excitedly Sirius was quick to offer taking him over.
He'd travelled around a fair bit with his new found freedom but getting to go shopping with his godson was... well something he dreamed up ever since he heard about James's death from the papers, and now *sniff* now it was actually coming true.