From the night of the dinner party Cassiopeia started to spend time with Draco and she found that he wasn't all that insufferable.
"All's I'm saying is if you hit that tree I'll clean all the broom stuff by hand" Draco said holding a quaffle.
"Promise?" Cassie raised her brows.
Draco held out his little finger and Cassie wrapped her own around his.
"Okay throw it" Cassie held the bat firmly.
Draco took a step back and threw the quaffle into the air, Cassie was honestly shocked at how easy it was she positioned herself and then swung her bat it hit the ball straight away and the ball shot out straight at the tree. It hit the trunk of the tree so hard that it dinted and birds flew out of the branches.
"How- wait, how in merlins name have you just done that" Draco's jaw was lowered.
"Finally found something I'm good at I suppose" Cassie shrugged.
"You should make the quidditch team second year at hogwarts if you carry on like that" he ran a hand over his face.
The two of them put everything back in the broom shed and Cassie sat by patiently laughing whilst Draco cleaned up by hand. Then they made their way back for dinner which Cassie had actually started to join the family for which made Narcissa happy and Lucius seemed slightly infuriated although he always looked like that.
Over a week later Cassie lay on her bed with her eyes fixed on the ceiling, she was hurting again. All's she could think about was Voldemort, she needed to find him so she could take off the stupid cuff the ministry had saddled her with but every time she asked questions about him she was shushed and told the same thing
"The dark lord is dead"
She knew better, he was out there and he was waiting she could feel it.
Her incessant trance of thought was interrupted as she felt the bed shift in weight.
"You okay?" Draco said putting his head in her line of vision.
"Fine" she nodded.
"Well I was thinking today maybe we could invite Pansy and Theo over"
"They're your friends, do what you like" Cassie sat up meeting his eyes.
"Now they're your friends too, so get used to it come on let's go and eat" he jumped off the bed.
She grinned and followed him out of her room, whilst they ate he wrote out notes and gave them to an owl to be taken too Pansy and Theo and little over an hour later the owl returned with two notes that agreed so Draco and Cassie sat in the living room by the fireplace waiting.
"Will you sit still Draco they'll be her soon" Cassie groaned as she watched her nephew flitter about the room.
"I can't help it, nervous excitement"
"You'd think we were planning to break into gringotts" Cassie rolled her eyes.
"We're breaking into gringotts, someone could have told me I would have brought my ski mask" Theo joked as he came through the fireplace.
"So what are we doing today then" called Pansy who strolled in after Theo.
All three of them looked at Cassie with quizzing looks on their faces.
"I don't know why your all looking at me, my idea of fun before I took a 10 year nap was combat training" she shrugged.
"Well then that's what we'll do" Draco nodded to the group.
"You want me to teach you how to fight?" Cassie questioned.
"Sounds fun to me" Theo smiled .
"Oh a chance to beat you two up I'm definitely in" pansy folded her arms and laughed.
Cassiopeia was grateful, they wanted her to feel comfortable so they started with something she was used too and when Draco and Theo had thoroughly bruised egos and back sides they moved on. Pansy wanted to play aurors and dark wizards which led to them all sprinting round Malfoy manor chasing each other. For once in her life Cassie didn't feel the need to act mature or put on this hard faced facade, she could just be a kid. And she enjoyed it.
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"Cassie" a whisper echoed around the room.
"Cass" slightly louder.
"Cassiopeia wake up!" It was dracos voice and he was kneeling besides her on the bed.
"Have you prepared any last words" Cassie grumbled her face still in her pillow.
"What does that mean"
"Have you prepared any last words because I'm going to murder you! It's not even 7am yet what do you want" she hit him in the shoulder and looked at the clock on her bedside table.
"It's Christmas Eve" Draco had a big grin on his face.
"I should care why?" She sat herself up and rubbed her eyes.
"Well normally my Christmas eves are spent in the hospital ward with mum and your unconscious body but now your actually here" he chirped.
"Oh" Cassie felt the colour drain from her face as she thought of how much his life had been impacted by her coma.
"So what shall we do, we could go outside and have a snowball fight but the snow is quite crap. Or we could see if mum will take us to the theatre, maybe we could make Christmas cookies!" He was clearly excited.
Cassie studied his face as he spoke and her heart softened, she had been such a big part of his upbringing and she didn't even know him until a few months ago. As she sat listening to him talk about possibilities of what they could do she realised that she was what family was supposed to feel like, she loved her nephew and she would do anything for him.
"I have an idea" Cassie smiled.
"What is it"
She folded back the blankets and moved over to make room, "we are going to have a do nothing day, that starts with sleeping until at least 12 so get in" she patted the bed next to her.
"That sounds great" Draco climbed in the bed and then said, "can we still make cookies later, I do quite fancy them"
To which Cassie took a pillow and put it over his head. "Yes we can make cookies later now go back too sleep"
"Love you Cassie" Draco said quietly as he laid down and closed his eyes.
"Love you too Draco" she rolled her eyes and returned to her own sleep.
The Malfoy family Christmas was actually better than any Christmas cassie had ever had and she was surprised and actually had presents to open. She got three new sets of robes, some special textbooks that she could take to hogwarts and Draco had gotten her a journal and a bracelet with a charm on it.
"What is it" cassie asked inspecting the charm.
"It's a dragon." Draco said with a huge grin on his face.
"Like your name" Cassie threw her arms around him and gave him the biggest hug she could.
"I've always wanted a sister, I'm lucky I got you" Draco nudged her arm.
"Thank you" Cassie's tear filled eyes looked from him to Narcissa.
Narcissa was looking at them with a smile on her face, she knew that she had done the right thing taking in Cassie because the side of her son she was bringing out was what she needed to have hope that he wouldn't turn out like his father. He would make his own path.
"Okay both of you get cleaned up for dinner" Narcissa half gasped as she wiped tears from her eyes.
"Thanks mum this Christmas has been great" Draco said before grabbing hold of cassies hand and running towards the stairs.
"Yeah thanks Cissy" cassie called back.
The two of them ran upstairs and each got changed in their bedrooms and met up in the hall and they'd gotten matching outfits for the day both in deep green robes they laughed when they seen each other and then marched downstairs to have their Christmas dinner arm in arm.