**A/N** Hey guys! The picture above is the face of a new character named Theseus Avery! You meet him near the end of the chapter so don't be confused lol. I want to thank one of my readers, SunshineAroma for giving me the idea of adding a new person into Cassie's life.
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"Avis."
A flock of small birds fly out of the tip of my wand and flutter to the ground. I watch them for a second before raising my wand again, "Redactum Skullus." I mutter. The bird that I had my wand aimed at shutters and its head shrinks four times the size of the rest of them.
"Wicked," I whisper to myself smiling.
For the past week, I have been locked in the Room of Requirement instead of studying for my exams, practicing as many spells that I can find. If I'm not in the Room of Requirement then I'm in the restricted section of the library skimming the shelves for different potions and hexes to try out. One of the perks of being a student tutor is that I have full access to the library, which isn't the smartest policy for obvious reasons but I'm not one to complain.
Practicing dark magic has been fun. And I know I shouldn't say that... But I just shrunk the head of a bird and it's struggling to walk in a straight line right now and it's so much fun having that power. I would never use it on a person I don't think. No, I know I will never use this sort of stuff on a person. Getting injured by dark magic is irreversible, just look at my Dad and his ear.
The poor bird with a very small head falls over and struggles to get back up. I banish the rest of the birds before pointing my wand at the injured one. "Wait," I say to myself.
I tuck my wand into my boot for safekeeping and go over to the desk where my little notebook is. I flip through the pages and pages of notes and other hexes till I find one that I haven't used yet, "praepostero." I say to myself. I run my finger down my page of notes, if I do it correctly, bright purple light should hit my target and its insides and outside are reversed. Its skin would now be inside of its body and its innards will be outside, causing near-instant death.
"Couldn't hurt to try," I say before taking my wand out of my boot again and walking back to the center of the room and pointing it back at the sad excuse of a bird flopping around on the ground. I do what I always do before trying a new spell. Relax my shoulders, roll my neck, close my eyes, take a few deep breaths, then perform, "Praepostero!" I say as I slash my wand downwards.
Blinding purple light soars out of my wand and hits the bird. Instantly it changes from the dark brown colour that it was into a sickening red and pink blob on the floor. It takes me a minute to realize that it worked.
I walk towards it and bend down so I can take a proper look. Sure enough, there isn't a feather in sight, just internal organs and a lot of blood and bones. I take my phone out of my back pocket and take a picture of what was once a bird before casting evanesco and vanishing what was left of the bird.
The dinner bell rings throughout the castle. I gather my things and straighten my tie, making sure that I haven't got any debris or bird blood on my clothes before leaving the room and heading down the stairs towards the Great Hall.
"Tell your brother to stop being such an arse!" Lily says coming up beside me.
"What did he do now?" I say to her.
She huffs, "He and his gang of idiots have done nearly everything except set this bloody castle on fire! I can't move two feet without being hit by one of their dumb pranks."
"I can't do anything about it," I say coldly.
Lily groans but leaves me alone after that. She hops down the stairs and meets up with Hugo who is by the entrance of the Great Hall.
"Students! Please sit with your houses! All students please sit at your house tables!" Professor McGonagall keeps saying from her spot at the podium.
I sit down with the rest of the Slytherins at the far left table like we normally do for all of the big feasts. Domonique passes by me and flicks the back of my neck as she does, her way of showing affection.
"Please everyone take your seats! There are a few announcements to get through before tonight's meal!" McGonagall says again.
That's when you hear it. The screams and laughs of my idiot brother, my idiot cousin, and their idiot friends. The Great Hall doors fly open and the four of them come flying through the air on their brooms. Uncle Fred and Peeves following close behind them.
"HAPPY BIRTHDAY MCGONAGALL!" Fred screams at the top of his lungs. He and his friends point their wands to the ceiling and in a flash of red light, thousands and thousands of balloons come toppling out of the ceiling, covering every inch of the floor and tables below.
The look on McGonagall's face says it all. She is not amused in the slightest. Course everyone else in the Great Hall is acting like it is the best thing to happen at Hogwarts since Uncle Harry killing Voldemort. I watch as McGonagall touches her wand to her neck so that she can amplify her voice, "My birthday, Mister Weasley. Is in October. And since you are six months off, I think that sixty points from each of your houses are fair. Now please, Take. Your. Seats." Our Headmasters voice cuts through all of the laughter and cheering from the people around me. Freddie, Louis, Amar, and Evie all sink down to the ground and go in opposite directs, to their respective house tables. Evie comes over to where I am sitting but apparently, I give her a look because she second-guesses herself and goes to sit with the girls in her year instead.
Flitwick goes to work clearing the balloons out of the hall as McGonagall composes herself and begins her list of announcements.
"Mister Filch would like everyone to be reminded that the use of the summoning charm in classrooms and corridors is strictly forbidden. Any student that is caught using this charm will be awarded detention. Furthermore, I would like to remind everyone that curfew is at ten at night. Curfew means that heads should be on pillows, not lounging in your common rooms, not heading to your common rooms, heads on pillows. Prefects, please make sure that your housemates are following this rule and enforce it to the best of your ability. If there is someone who is proving difficult, let either the Head Boy or Head Girl know and they will take it from there."
"A few students also seem to need a reminder, that snogging in the corridors will lose you house points. No one wants to see that." McGonagall pauses and looks around the room slowly, "I'm surprised that I have to repeat these rules so close to our exam season but here we are." She clasps her hands together and rests them on the podium. "Speaking of things that do not normally happen this close to our exam season, we have a new student joining our class of third years tonight."
The room erupts into murmurs. We haven't had a transfer student this late in the year before. Sure we've had a few that happen in the first couple months of the year, most of them being muggle-born first years that had an issue with their Hogwarts acceptance but never someone this late in the year, and never someone in the higher years.
McGonagall raises her hand and the room falls quiet again, "I know that it is very exciting to get a new student, especially so late in the term but I must remind you that he is here for the same reason that all of you are here, to learn, to be educated. To become the best wizard that he can. And you will do well not to disrupt his studies." McGonagall nods towards the back door and Professor Longbottom opens it.
The room is dead silent as a young boy walks through the door. He looks tall from over here. He has a dark olive skin tone like he's spent the majority of his life outside under the sun. His hair is a dark brown, curly like Freddie's but a lot neater and actually taken care of. Even from here, I can tell that his eyes are a striking blue colour that pops off his tanned face. He walks up to McGonagall carefully but powerful. His head held high, his shoulders pushed back, perfect posture. But you can tell that he isn't putting on a show. That it's just how he walks at all times.
I hate to admit it, but I'm attracted to him.
So are about fifty other girls in the room because I can see them swoon as he walks past them. He stands beside McGonagall on the teacher's stage, and for a second no one says anything. I've never seen anyone like him before. Tall, dark, wearing a perfectly tailored suit... something about him draws me in. Like I'm desperate to know more. I catch myself physically leaning forward trying to get closer to him but I stop myself and clear my head. I have a different thing that I have to focus on. I have my magic. I can't be distracted by some mysterious new boy.
"Please, give a warm Hogwarts welcome to Theseus Avery," McGonagall says proudly. Everyone breaks into polite applause, a few girls swoon just hearing his name.
I clap along with the rest of them. Something about him... I can't put my finger on it but something about him... never mind.
"Professor Longbottom, if you will," McGonagall says.
We all watch in complete silence as Professor Longbottom comes up the stage holding an old wooden stool and a big leather box that contains the sorting hat. He sets the stool down and takes the hat out of the box.
Theseus looks at Professor Longbottom with a scowl. If he says something I can't hear it from here. It takes a second before Theseus sits down on the stool. Professor Longbottom has lost the smile that was on his face. He puts the hat on Theseus's head and we wait.
And wait.
And wait.
"Better be... SLYTHERIN!" The hat shouts.
No one but the Slytherins seems to clap and even then it's awkward and forced. McGonagall points Theseus in the direction of the Slytherin table and no one moves but Theseus. He walks with the same power that he was walking with before. Right up to me.
He sits down across from me on the bench. A little bit of me wants to think that he sat here because I am here but I know better than that. No one sits with me at meals anymore which means that the space around me is empty.
McGonagall says something else but I don't hear her. I shamelessly am staring at Theseus and he is staring right back at me. Neither of us blinking. If I thought he was attractive from far away, then he's absolutely perfect up close. His brow is in a constant furrow like he's always mad. I have the same look about me so I've been told. Only when the food appears on the table in front of us does he speak.
"What is your name." He says it like a demand rather than a question. His eyes piercing holes into my skull. He's got an accent, definitely not from England.
"Cassiopeia Weasley." I say to him with the same attitude that he is using with me."
He snorts, "I've heard many things about the Weasley family. You do not look like one." Again, he says it like he's demanding something from me. I'm slowly losing the attraction I had to him, instead, his face makes anger bubble up inside me.
"I've been told I take after my mother. Violet LeStrange. Have you heard of her too?" I make sure that my posture is perfect, not like it isn't already. I don't dare reach for any food quite yet.
Theseus thinks for a moment, "Not Violet LeStrange. But I am familiar with a Bellatrix LeStrange. Are you related."
"She's my grandmother."
"So you have pure blood."
I'm taken aback. The only time someone has brought up my blood status is when Mum took us to Lucius's funeral. That and getting into the common room. But no one cares about all of it. He does though, I can't tell how I know that he cares, but he does. It radiates off of him, blood privilege.
"Yes," I say shortly. "But I don't see why that matters."
Theseus reaches for a bun, "Why wouldn't it matter." He rips the bun open and looks at me, "Are you saying that you speak to Mudbloods."
Now I'm right pissed off, "Not only do I speak to muggle-born and half-blood wizards. I am related to some. You'd do good and not use that word in my presence."
"A shame. A face like that attached to a blood traitor. A Mudblood lover." He says. The way he speaks sends chills down my spine. Like his voice is laced with ice. He doesn't say anything else to me, but for the rest of dinner he stares at me, and I stare right back. Anger threatening to bubble over. All I want to do is take my wand out and show him the spell that I was practicing earlier today.
I'm not certain about many things, but there's one thing that I can say for sure,
I fucking hate this guy.