Summer 1992
When Cassiopeia and Draco arrived back at Malfoy manor for the summer Cassie felt instantly relieved, the irritation in her chest was almost gone and she had nothing at all to do for the next six weeks. Of course the first stop the girl made was to the kitchen to find dobby and give him a hug that was definitely too tight for his small frame, she told him all about the events that had happened since she had last updated him and the little elf insisted that he make her some chocolate chip cookies and ushered her off.
Draco was lying on his bed staring at the ceiling when Cassie found him, she dived onto the bed next to him and gave him a giant smile.
"I'm bored already, we haven't even been home a full day" Draco pouted.
"Quidditch?" The girl raised her eyebrows with a smirk.
"Quidditch" he nodded and the two of them hurried out of the room.
The rest of the day was spent with the two of them running practice drills that Cassie had picked up watching all of the quidditch teams at hogwarts practice. They were eventually chased inside by Narcissa who complained that they needed to eat and get ready for bed.
When Cassie finally settled in her own bed she took a deep breath and wrapped the duvet around her, pushing her thoughts and fears to the back of her mind she closed her eyes and fell asleep.
It was cold, it was always cold. She was standing in the darkness with a door infront of her with a warm glow coming from the crack at the bottom. Walking up to and opening the door made the coldness fade away. When the door was open and she walked through it she wanted to turn around, swinging her body back around her heart dropped because the door she'd just came through was gone replaced with the same thing that was encasing the rest of the room. Flames.
Then that pesky little voice filled her head again, it made her panic as she tried to find away out of the fire searching every inch of the room.
'Your stronger than you think' Voldemort's words echoed through her head.
Cassie dropped to her knees when the screaming started, Draco screaming to be specific. She squeezed her eyes and shouted at herself to wake up, when her eyes opened again Draco was in the room too screaming as the fire burned him. No no no she thought as tears flooded her face. Then came Pansy, she was screaming too. Then Theo, Neville, Blaise, all of them burning and screaming. All while she remained unharmed by the flames, she moved through the room not effected by the fire that was engulfing her aswell.
When she turned to see her once screaming now still friends, he was there. Lord Voldemort laughed as he pushed the lifeless bodies of her friends to the side, he knelt beside her and ran a hand across her cheek.
Suddenly she shot up and took in her surroundings, her sister behind her obviously attempting to comfort her. The room was dark and clammy with only the lamp on her desk emitting a dim light. It wasn't real, just a dream she assured herself as she sat back into her sisters arms. Narcissa stroked Cassie's damp hair.
"You okay Cass?" She asked quietly.
Cassiopeia just nodded not having the strength to talk, she didn't want to cry infront of Narcissa but when she started humming a lullaby Cassie couldn't help but sob in her sisters arms.
Her nightmares always seemed to make her the villain, she knew that the fire in that room was caused by her and it was her fault that all of her friends were burnt alive. So when Draco strolled into her room the morning after she pouted and pushed Narcissa out of the bed to make room for him, she clung to him and didn't let go until dobby brought them some breakfast.
From then on it was best to play it safe and Cassie stayed in Dracos bed every night, it was strange that whenever Cassie shared a bed with someone it was like she tapped in on their dreams. There had been countless times where Draco or Pansy had been telling the gang of a dream they'd had and Cassie immediately knew what they were talking about because she'd had the same one.
Around two weeks into the summer Cassie finally put the pieces together in her head and realised that the dream situation was linked to her legilimency. Blaise and Theo were over for the day and Cassie had broke off from the boys and was curled up on the couch with Holstein and a book, her and Draco didn't get much sleep the night before because they were excited about seeing their friends. So Cassie fell asleep halfway through her book, her dream was definitely unusual. She wasn't human, she was low down to the floor and chasing a mouse around the hogwarts castle. When Theo woke her up she frowned and looked at Holstein who was starting to wake up on her stomach.
She was basically stealing other peoples dreams. Great she thought as Theo pulled her of the couch and into the gardens.
"So what was it like being a cat" Blaise questioned as he stretched out on the grass.
"I don't think I'd like being a cat, the fear of being stepped on and all that" Draco shrugged.
"It was actually quite good, being that little is obviously a bit strange. But I was insanely fast" Cassie nodded and picked up a strawberry from the platter of fruit in front of her.
They had a picnic and messed about some more before it started to get dark and Blaise and Theo both had to go home, they all said there goodbyes and then Draco and Cassie were left in the living room.
"When does Pansy come home again?" Draco asked as the two of them were getting ready for bed.
"6 days, I feel like it's been about 6 months" Cassie stuck out her bottom lip.
"And she used to say we have co-dependency issues" Draco rolled his eyes.
Pansy's mum booked them a holiday for the start of summer and surprised her, they were going to Italy for three weeks which to a normal kid would have been great but Pansy spent most of her time sulking because things reminded her of Cassie.
Mrs Parkinson had actually started to tune her daughter out by the time they were on there way home. The final straw for her was when Pansy had quite literally burst into tears because the waiter in a five star restaurant told her the specials and the dessert happened to be homemade pistachio ice cream, that was five days into their holiday.
Pansy waited anxiously in her living room her knee bouncing up and down.
"They'll be here soon love, stop it with the leg" Mrs Parkinson said with a glass of wine in one hand her other pinching the bridge of her nose.
When Cassie and Draco came through the fire place the girls ended up on the floor because they both tried to run at eachother, Mrs Parkinson stood and shook her head as the girls laughed and Draco rolled his eyes as he helped them up.
"No more pining" the older witch pointed at her daughter and left the room.
Soon enough they were joined by Blaise, Theo and Neville. Pansy told them everything about her time in Italy leaving out the fact that as her mother put it she spent most of the time pining for her best friend. Then they decided to take a walk down to the park that was near Pansy's house. The summer breeze made them all giddy so they practically sprinted halfway there.
The park was usually only occupied by smaller kids with their parents but as the gang got closer they could see people their age.
"Hey guys! Fancy seeing you here" Daphne Greengrass half shouted as she slid down the slide.
"Hi daph" Pansy greeted her.
Daphne was accompanied by her younger sister that would be joining them at hogwarts in September Astoria, Cho Chang and Tracey Davis.
Cho was a very introverted girl at school and even now you could tell she was rather uncomfortable with the big group they were in, Neville however knew how she was feeling being the only Gryffindor in a group of Slytherins. It can be quite nerve wracking so he went out of his way to make sure she didn't exclude herself from the group.
Tracey was staying with the Greengrass' for a week she had told Cassie who was surprised to see her. Cassiopeia enjoyed Tracey's company more than the other girls in her year, excluding Pansy of course. She was more fun, an example being when Theo and Blaise thought it would be hysterical to throw mud at the girls while they were sunbathing. Daphne screamed Astoria started to tear up and Pansy yelped as she brushed the mud of. Tracey simply laughed, picked up a hand full of mud and chased after the boys successfully hitting Blaise in the back of the head with it.
Eventually Daphne and Astorias dad come to get them from the park so the gang decided to head back to Pansy's too. On the walk back Pansy had convinced Cassie to spend the night, not that it took much convincing Cassie was pining just as much for Pansy as she was for her.
All the boys went home and Mrs Parkinson made the girls some snacks so they could indulge before bed. Cassiopeia always felt safe when she was with Pansy, obviously she loved Draco but he was always a little anxious and it rubbed off on Cassie. That night was the first night of sleep that Cassie had actually relaxed and got a decent sleep.
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Lucius Malfoy was the soul bane of Cassiopeia Black's existence. He was a horrible horrible man, to the family house elf dobby, to Narcissa, to Draco, and to her. The majority of the summer he spent avoiding the family, Cassie preferred it that way.
Around halfway through the summer Lucius seemed to become fixiated on something in his office and would spend all his time locked away in his office like a hermit only seeing dobby when he needed something. Narcissa clearly didn't care in the slightest almost like she had forgotten that he was there, whenever he walked into a room she had a surprised look on her face that read as 'oh right I have a husband that lives here' and then she'd go back to whatever she was doing.
Something else Cassie had noticed was that dobby seemed to be disappearing for small periods of time, she didn't think nothing off it but she thought it was strange. One night Lucius had left his office unlocked and she talked Draco into sneaking in and looking around so they could try and figure out what he was up to.
It was all going rather well up until Cassie opened up a leather bound black diary on his desk. All the pages were blank but the longer she held onto it the sharper that pain in her chest came back, she threw the diary back onto the desk causing Draco to jump.
"What is it Cass?" He walked over to the desk.
"Nothing" she lied and walked around the desk, "come on let's go to bed"
The two of them didn't bring it up again, though Cassie now noticed how her chest stung a lot more than it had been at the start of summer, she also picked up on how drained Lucius looked. His eyes had heavy bags beneath and his skin looked translucent, the same way hers looked.
She chose to ignore the strange occurrence after a week of trying to figure out what was going on because the whole gang was coming for a sleepover, besides Neville. Hanging out at Pansy's was one thing but Lucius had known ties to dark magic and Voldemort so Neville thought it would be best to stay away from the manor.
Narcissa cleared out one of the many rooms that were unused in the manor and set up a little makeshift camp for them. It was like being back at hogwarts with all of them laughing and joking at the most random things, they were all talking about what they thought the coming year at hogwarts would be like and arranging when they'd be going to get their school supplies so they could all meet up. It was lovely.
Blaise had brought Pixie to the sleepover with him so she and Holstein were having a great time roaming about the house together, no doubt getting on Lucius' nerves which Cassie loved. When it was well into the night and they decided to try and get some sleep they all ended up piled around one another. Pansy and Cassie had tight hold of eachothers hands whilst Cassie had her head on Theo's stomach, Draco had some how manger to wriggle his legs so they weaved between both Cassie and Pansy's and Blaise was tucked underneath Theo's arm with Draco's head on his legs. It was all rather confusing and looked like they'd fallen asleep playing twister.
When the last weeks of summer were upon them Theo had practically moved in to Malfoy manor, his dad was travelling apparently looking for something on Lucius' behalf so naturally he couldn't take his twelve year old son with him.
At first it was amazing and the fun was non stop, but after a week of living with two boys Cassie was at her wits end, she was ready to murder the both of them. Theo and Draco both watched Cassie absolutely explode at them in slow motion. They thought it would be hysterical to put fish paste in her toothpaste, safe to say they both thought they were going to die.
She had stormed into the spare bedroom were Theo was staying, still trying to get the taste of fish out of her mouth and then she threw a lamp at Draco's head which missed and the two boys made a run for it. It was lucky enough that they made it outside because when Cassie caught up to them she lunged at them and the anger she was feeling must have been the cause but all of a sudden the cuff that was around her wrist shot out a strange ball of pitch black smoke that went right passed the boys and put a hole in a tree.
Cassiopeia stood staring at the tree with her mouth wide open.
"Bloody hell Cass that would have killed us!" Draco shouted with his hand on his chest.
"That was fucking brilliant! Do it again" Theo looked to the girl with admiration.
Cassie stared down at her wrist witch a confused look on her face, that was new she thought. "I have no idea how I did that" her eyes were wide as she looked from Draco to Theo.
"Well that settles it." Draco ran a hand over his hair, "no more pranks on Cassie" he nodded to Theo.
"Agreed" Theo nodded in return.
Due to the fact that Theo was staying with them, Lucius had actually started to eat meals with them. Usually they'd go quite smoothly, everyone would eat, there'd be some polite conversation and then everyone would leave. But that would have been too good to be true.
The five of them were enjoying there meal when Draco brought up the topic of quidditch.
"I'm just worried someone will beat me to the seeker position" Draco frowned.
"It's lucky I'm trying out for beater, not a chance you would beat me" Cassie shrugged causing Theo to laugh.
"Don't worry Draco, if that school knows what's good for it. You'll be seeker without a doubt" Lucius said smuggly, "tell me do the slytherin quidditch team need new brooms by any chance?" He asked as he was finishing his food.
"Everyone's sort of just using what they've got" Draco looked at his dad confused.
"Well I was thinking about buying all new nimbus 2001's for the whole team, how about that" he gave his son what could be considered a smile.
"That would be great dad" Draco had a giant grin on his face.
"I'll buy my own broom, but thanks anyway bro" Cassie rolled her eyes as she spoke to her brother in law.
"Cassie" Narcissa shot her a look telling her not too.
"What" cassie sipped on her water and looked at the two adults, "just saying he's not buying my way onto the team, I can do it on my own" she snapped. "Draco can too you just don't want to give him the chance" she smirked at Lucius.
You could practically see the smoke billowing out of Lucius' ears as he snarled at the girl. "You ungrateful little..." he started but was cut off.
"LUCIUS!" Narcissa scolded her husband.
"No go on Cissy let him finish" she propped her head on her fist and sent another smirk to the man.
"Both of you! Enough!" Narcissa stood sending her chair backwards, "behaving like children when we have a guest! I'm so sorry Theodore" Narcissa sent him an apologetic look but Cassie and Draco knew that Theo loved the drama.
"Well I actually am a child in case you didn't notice, what's your sad excuse of a husbands explanation" the girl stood from her seat and gave them all a smile. "Goodnight everyone"
She strolled back to her room and changed into her pyjamas, they were going to diagon alley in a few days so Cassie knew she could get her own broom then. Being the soul heir to the black family fortune had its perks, it was just a shame that the broom she'd had her eye on since it was announced was the nimbus 2001. About twenty minutes later Draco and Theo interrupted her both laughing away.
"Oh you should have seen his face when you walked out" Theo wiped a tear away from his eye as he lounged onto Cassie's bed.
"Mum just had to take him out the room to calm him down" Draco snickered shaking his head.
"No offence, but your dad is the biggest prat I've ever met" cassie furrowed her brows, "and I've met Harry Potter" she started giggling.
Narcissa had bitten off more than she could chew when it came to corralling excited kids, they had been at diagon alley for ten minutes and she was already regretting the decision to take Cassie, Draco and Theo alone. They managed to get the basics before they ran into Mrs Parkinson and Ms Zabini, Narcissa was so happy to see them she almost hugged them. An interesting new fact for Blaise was that over the summer his mum had married a wealthy man who was parading her around like a trophy.
They all settled in the leaky couldren so the kids could talk, Blaise however looked rather uncomfortable given the two people following him. A girl who looked around the same age as them and a boy who looked a couple of years younger.
"Well are you going to introduce us or do you want us to take turns guessing?" Pansy raised an eyebrow at Blaise.
"Ugh fine." Blaise stropped, "these are my new step siblings, Rowan and Dominic" he pointed to the two people beside him.
"Don't mind him he's being a moody prat, I'm Cassiopeia but you can call me Cassie" the girl held out her hand so they could both shake it.
"I'm Pansy, this is Draco and that's Theo" Pansy smiled and pointed the boys out.
"So how old are you guys?" Cassie asked while Blaise sulked.
"we're eleven, starting hogwarts this year" the girl Rowan replied brightly.
"Oh so your twins?" Theo asked with his head tilted to the side.
"Yep, fraternal obviously" the girl gestured to her brother.
"So do you have a house your hoping to get into" cassie asked.
"I think I'd like ravenclaw" Rowan answered and elbowed her brother in the side.
"I don't really care to be honest" Dominic shrugged.
They carried on talking about the different houses just as Neville made his way over to them.
"Ah this is Neville our resident Gryffindor" Draco called out as he pulled Neville into the seat next to him.
"Nev these are Blaise's new step-siblings, Rowan and Dominic" Cassie introduced them.
The rest of the day was spent with the gang trying to get Blaise's head out his own arse and getting too know Rowan and Dominic. Rowan was absolutely lovely and Dominic was nice too but it was obvious the boy liked to keep to himself.
By the next day Blaise had sent them a letter ranting about how having siblings was not for him and how he'd give anything to be an only child again. Cassie just rolled her eyes while Draco and Theo sympathised with him because Draco was an only child who had a sibling figure thrust upon him and Theo loved being an only child.
Everyone was actually relieved when Blaise had a smile on his face when they met up on the Hogwarts express, noticeably without Rowan and Dominic. When he was asked about them he told everyone the truth.
"I told them to piss off and find their own compartment" The boy shrugged.
"Blaise your supposed to be the welcoming one out of the group" Cassie kicked his shin lightly.
"I'm still welcoming" he folded his arms, "I just happen to be opposed to them worming their way into my friend group"
"Grow up you idiot" Pansy swatted him with a rolled up copy of the daily prophet.
"It's bad enough them and their dad have to live in our house, did you know that he actually agreed to a double barrel name because my mother always gets her way" he huffed.
"Oh merlin do we have to start using a new name for you?" Neville asked looking shocked.
"Not a chance! My name's stayed Zabini, theirs is now Baxter-Zabini" He frowned and shook his head.
"I actually quite like it, it sounds all fancy" Pansy complimented.
They spent most of the train ride playing card games until they all had to change into their uniforms due to the train being close to the castle. Being second years this time around the way they travelled from the station to the castle had changed. They were now to follow the rest of the students and take the carriages that pulled themselves, though when they reached the carriage point.
Cassiopeia was utterly confused at why all the other students were completely oblivious to the bat like horses that were strapped to the front of the carriage. The young witch frowned and walked over to one running a hand over it. This time people were giving her confused looks.
"I'll have to grab a copy of fantastic beasts, these are absolutely beautiful" she grinned as the creature leaned forward so she could stroke its nose.
"What the bloody hell is she on about?" Blaise watched as she stroked the air.
"Maybe we should take her to see Pomfrey" Neville tilted his head as if he was trying to look under something.
"Pack it in will you, are you all blind or something?" Cassie rejoined her friends as they loaded into the carriage.
"No Cass there was nothing there" Draco gave her a funny look.
"Your all having me on" she widened her eyes, "is this another prank that you two have got everyone else in on?" she pointed at Draco and Theo.
Theo looked taken back and slightly hurt, "Cassie i'd never lie to you, there wasn't anything there" He said trying to look casual leaning back in his seat.
Cassie shook her head and leaned it against Theo's shoulder sighing as she did so.