A Bright Star

Chapter 20: Losing a Friend

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Cassiopeia Doe was an interesting little girl.

She, in equal parts, amused and confused him. Blaise prided himself on his networking system, lording information and knowing all there was about everything around him, which is why Cassiopeia infuriated him at times.

It was hard not to like the girl, the tiny poppet with a dazzling smile blinding everyone.

Blaise's first impression of the whirlwind child one year his younger was that she was amusing. Her reaction to his accent (not that Blaise thought he had an accent, it was everyone else who had an accent) and bubbly personality was endearing.

But things didn't always add up.

Cassiopeia had a habit of eating the bare minimum of food, she always took her meal last and ate the most bland of foods. Theo and himself had made it their duty to sit near the first year and pile more food onto her plate. It helped - that much was evident by the way Cassiopeia's skin glowed healthily and she began to look more than like a stick figure.

Her house placement had been a surprise, mostly because Cassiopeia didn't seem to harbor the cold-cut aloofness that most Slytherin's held.

Or so he thought.

Blaise was an observer, it was what he did best. He was invisible until he wasn't and many people overlooked him as he stuck close to the back or sidelines. It's how he got most of his information after all.

Blaise saw the behaviors Cassiopeia displayed when she thought no one was looking. She was always the first to initiate contact, if any one else did so outside of her line of vision she'd flinch, miniscule, but it was there.

Cassiopeia also had a fascination with her uniform and even the clothes she wore outside of classes. She, unconsciously so, ran her hands down the material, fingers tracing patterns as if she couldn't quite comprehend the softness of the material she wore.

She also hoarded. Not that it was necessarily bad, but Blaise had caught sight of the younger girl on more than one occasion stashing bread in a napkin and pocketing it.

Cassiopeia never spoke of the muggle world, never breathed a word of her living situation outside of being an orphan. It prickled Blaise's nerves because he knew something wasn't right.

But Cassiopeia hid the truth well.

She was a Slytherin through and through, displaying what she wanted the world to see and wrapping all her secrets up and burying them deep.

There was also her relationship with the Gryffindor Boy-Wonder. How the hell did that work? Cassiopeia gave them insight to a Potter they never knew. Not the shining hero ready to save the day nor the Light mascot stomping on their traditions.

No.

Because Potter didn't know of their traditions. Didn't know of his part in their society. He didn't bloody know.

That changes everything.

And Blaise had caught Cassiopeia's slight smirk as she announced she and Potter were trying to learn more about his House duties in the common room. If she truly didn't want the entire House to know she wouldn't have spoken of it so openly. Cassiopeia knowingly did so anyway because now the entire House knew Potter couldn't be faulted for any slights made in the last year. None of them had even bothered to ask if he knew of his place as Heir.