FIRST SIGHT - TRACK LIST ⇩
love like ghosts - lord huron
iris - the goo goo dolls
end of a beginning - djo
falling - harry styles
i could hear my mother downstairs rushing me so she could get me and james onto the platform for my second year and james' 3rd year at hogwarts. my first year was amazing and all but i still felt nervous for my first day back, i hadnt made a lot of friends in my first year, of course i still had my friends in slytherin like dorcas meadows and evan rosier, and pandora lestrange who was a ravenclaw but i never kept contact over this summer, if im being honest i helped my dad alot making potions but no complaints about that from me i enjoyed potions, i enjoyed doing that stuff especially with my father.
although me and lily evans kept in contact this summer, shes an incredible girl in james' year who he is raging inlove with, i cant tell you the amount of stunts ive seen and shes told me about he has pulled to win her over which seems like it never works, speaking of keeping in contact the last thing i needed to throw in my bag was a quill and some ink and im ready.
"cassandara come down now, please!" id heard my mother yell it had been countless times and i knew it was a matter of when she sent james up here to get me, so grabbing my final bag from my bed i dragged all my luggage down the stairs and as im reaching the bottom of the flight my older brother ruffled my hair "that took you long enough cass" "shut it" as much as i love james i can say he gets on my nerves a lot faster than i would care to admit too.
"quit the bickering whos through the floo first now" said my father, i hated floo it made me feel light headed after i was on the other side as ive only been through a small amount of times. and of course with no discussion james insited he was first and stepped into the living room fireplace, than my mother, than me, and lastly my father. suddenley just like that im back on this platform and i was a lot less nervous and anxious about going back.
i embraced both of my parents my father slightly longer and tighter than my mother only because i spent so much time with him over the summer. "we love you both make the best choices remember minerva has her eye on you, james you especially if by the end of the day if there is a owl at my window from her you will be recieving a howler in the morning and im sure thats not how you are wanting your third year to start off?" my mother lectured. both of us laughing her off "dont worry mom that wont be nessacary" my brother responded i don't know about that one. but i kept that thought to myself. as we walked away, "soo you should expect a howler tommorow morning id assume?" i asked, "if mcgonagall writes mom tonight than definitely." i laughed a little to myself as me and my brother parted ways.
walking past all the compartments and down the train seemed so nostalgic i really missed being away from home and being with my friends. i especially missed hogwarts meals
eventually i ended up in a compartment by myself i was looking out the window with my knees to my chest until a very familiar red head opened the door, lily evans. she definetly matured over the summer, she got slightly taller her baby face was no longer her freckles complimenting her face better rather than just looking splatter of dots. of course other features as well but i practically jumped into her arms. "lily! oh my goodness its so amazing to finally see you again, tell me every detail about your summer you didn't write me about" i exclaimed, "slow your roll cass! i missed you just as much but you should sit back down so i really can tell you everything'
me and lily got into discussing parts of our summer we didnt write about, i told her how much i learned about potions this summer she told me about her muggle friends and how difficult not talking about hogwarts was, i couldnt imagine living a day let alone a summer with no magic.
suddenly the compartment door swung open revealing my brother and his ridiculous friends, peter, sirius and remus. they all looked alot different from the previous year id seen them, peter visited over the summer remus lived with his muggle mom who wasnt too sure about letting him come and sirius is well, orion and walburga's son. they were not okay with him visiting
speaking of sirius he seemed really tired rather than his upbeat self i would always see last year, remus appeared with a new scar across his cheek and peter grew slightly taller than james who seemed to have not hit his growth spurt just yet.
"cas, lily" my brother said, "james, can i help you?" "no just coming to vist my favourite sister" he said as they all sat in the compartment james next to lily, remus across from me and sirius next to me with peter next to him.
"how was ur summer lily?" james asked her, they fell into conversation , peter was eating sweets and remus pulled a book out, "how are you doing sirius?" i asked the boy, looking closer he really looked tired he had bags and his hair was slicked back last year and now he just has it flying around although it fits him more. "been better, thanks though cassandra, how was ur summer?" clearly, i thought. "it was really good, i helped my dad make his potion and i really learned alot, it looks like you could use some of it." my dad had a business of selling all types of hair potions and it was truly fun to help him with.
"what you dont like the look" sirius responded, "the shaggy dog look? somehow it suits you sirius." "oi james told you it looked good" he yelled over at my brother, "absolutely nobody doubted you" remus peeped in not looking away from his book once.
eventually james stepped out to go get more stuff from the trolly and it fell almost silent so i also started reading a book and me and sirius fell in conversation about it and i read it to him silently outloud.
"hows reg?" i whispered, "you know, classic mommas boy. does no wrong." he rolled his eyes. "seriously, how are both of you i know its hard being home" "it is but we manage, it dosent help that i hangout with these blokes and im not apart of their slytherin tradition unlike reg." sirius had responded, i couldnt imagine how it felt to constantly compete with your sibling dont get me wrong sometimes i cannot stand james but i love him and i couldnt ever do that all of the time.
suddenly all of our heads snapped up as the train came to a stop hearing the rails clink. we all collected our bags and exited the compartment, the boys went off to find james, me and lily said our goodbyes and parted ways as im not in gryffindor like my brother, im a slytherin so i went to find pandora before we would wind up at separate tables for the sorting.
i seen her from behind on the platform and practically ran to her and just as she turned around and saw me i was crashing her into a hug. "cas! i love you but you are seriously crushing me" i laughed and let go and as we walked over to the wagons we discussed our summers and what we did beyond them.
turns out she spent alot of time in the black house, i always knew she was a lestrange of course but similar to sirius shes the outcast.
i was currently sitting at the slytherin table with regulus black and dorcas meadows. i grew close with regulus after winter break of last year, id found him sitting in a empty hallway one night when i was wondering the corridors it turns out there was alot more going on in the black manor than most anticipated. we spent that whole night sitting in the astronomy tower just talking about anything and everything. goes to say we had not gone to our classes the next day and winded up in weeks detention together.
we were all just talking about our summers regulus looked just as tired as sirius just slightly more put together, shoulders and back straight hair looked put together. dorcas had spent her summer in france and was telling me all about it
"me and dee should get going we told evan we would meet him. ill talk to you after yeah?" the younger boy explained, "yeah course' bye reg" i responded looking up from my muggle studies book shooting the 2 a smile before looking back down at my book.
I never knew much about the muggle world growing up, not because my parents forbid us from it but just because i had no reason to. my parents grew up with magic therefore so did me and james. I found it fascinating last year after id met two muggle borns lily evans and mary macdonald who id grown awfully close with. i often owled lily over the summer, despite i might be a slytherin i still loved everything about muggles how they live without knowing magic exists.
i felt eyes on me from across the great hall, looking up id met eyes with remus lupin. im familiar with him yet we have only had a handful of conversations. He was one of james and sirius bestfriends, also peter pettigrew. peter spent a few days at our summer house with us and we was nice but being in different houses meant we never had a reason to interact unless we were in a group of mutual people, which is exactly how i ended up in the situation of my first real interaction with remus lupin.
sometime in 3rd year.
id just been partnered with remus lupin in potions. i had grown a slight crush on the man. could you blame me? his eyes were like the sun, his soft spoken voice, his constant kindness, laughter.
he also grew slightly taller this summer id guess he'd grown at-least 4 inches. "mind if i sit?" a voice asked, lupin. right i was to busy day dreaming about the boy to realize we actually had to work together "yes no course' sorry, zoned out." i offered him a small smile he returned.
i pulled out my book of potions flipping to page 73. Shrinking Solution. causes everyone and everything to drink or touch it to shrink for up to 8 hours, 3 hours or 1 1/2 hours depending on the portions used.
"ill prep if you grab the ingredients?" The golden eyes boy beside me suggested. "got it" i responded standing up and walking with a hop in my footing to grab everything nessacary. hairy catipilars..daisy roots..shrivelfigs..cowbane essence..rat spleens..leeches and finally infusion of wormwood.
After I collected the nessacary ingredients id walked back up to the station we would be working at.
Lupins eyes scanned over my potions book, he looked focused. His tounge was slightly out at the side of his mouth but quicky went back in as he began speaking, "ill start slicing the rat spleens if you will thinly cut the daisy roots?" "as long as i dont need to touch the rat organ." i joked, though i was quiet serious.
and so i did, i chopped the roots into small pieces "shit." i heard someone mumble, looking up id seen remus had cut his finger, i grabbed him a nearby cloth and handed it to him "here, ill take you down to pomfry to get it wrapped." "you dont have to do that cassandara ill just go later" "nope! already decided lupin. plus gives me an excuse to get out of slughorns class" his lips twitched for a second before wrapping his finger in the cloth.
and we walked down to the infirmary, together. mostly in silence but still together.
i was reading a muggle book id taken from my fathers study in the library. it was about witches and werewolves, its weird that muggles think they know so much about it that they wrote fictional books on it. muggleborns must have been so shocked to know its all real.
just as id been thinking about muggle-borns one of my favourite of the lot happen to sit next to me. mary macdonald
"watcha working on drea?" drea was a nickname given to me by james when i was younger, after him calling me the name for the past 3 years it stuck with everybody else. i didnt mind the nickname, better than the one who it came from
"not working for once actually, just reading." "same thing id say" i just shook my head and laughed at her.
"hey mary?" she responded with a small hm as she kicked her feet on top the table we were sitting at, "when you first came to hogwarts, did you believe in the whole magic thing?" i asked her out of curiosity. "i mean i believed it was just some fake witch craft before i really saw it, before i fell inlove with it, when we grow up i wanna live in a old structured house in the muggle world but i wanna use magic for everything. need a glass of water? accio and agumenti. i think its so fascinating how it works. sure i heard tales of magic as a kid but everyone knows its just myths and stories you tell kids, until it isnt." she explained to me, i smiled at her and her enthusiasm about magic.
id been sitting at the black lake with james just catching up, its rare i get to spend time with him. hes been crazy obsessed over lily lately, more than regular. 'james, i know you always liked lily but why have you been so fixated on her recently?' i asked my brother; its not that i cared much about his love life but its been weird recently. "oh, am i? didnt realize." he responded, not making eye contact. i knew he'd be lying but we tell eachother everything so if this was something he didnt want to share with me i respected that.
"what about your non existent love life hm? you and evan are close no?" james asked me, over excited if you ask me. "not really, im normally just with him because of cas and regulus. nothing with me and him" i noticed james stiffen slightly, upset? annoyed? hard to read his current expression despite him being directly across me and close enough my knee had been pushed slightly between his making our feet form a pattern.
"what about someone from my house? anyone you'd shag?" he raised an eyebrow at me. "ew jamie. im not discussing that with you" a layer of blush formed over my cheeks, not out of embarrassment.
"what about anybody from slytherin? anyone you would shag?" i mimicked my elder brother. "shut up drea you know id never consider anyone from your house. no offence" he responded with a look on his face looking out into the water. i guess thats the end of that conversation
only authors note ill have but sorry for the short chapter i just wanted some background stories, the rest of the book will be year 3 to post hogwarts.