( chapter )
five
JAMES POTTER LOOKED UP FROM his parchment and over at the dark-haired girl who was sitting besides him.
Cassie was silently writing besides him, her bottom lip stuck out as she scribbled on the parchment.
James noticed that her handwriting was horribly messy considering how fast she wrote, it looked like a slug was dipped in ink and placed on the page.
He then realised that everything else about Cassie was rather neat, her hair looked perfect, as if it had tonnes of hair-spray holding it together, apart from the odd strand, her makeup done to perfection, not a smudge of foundation too much.
His eyes were dancing over her as she wrote, just looking at her.
James had never really paid attention to his best-friends sister, because that's all she was, his best friends sister, nothing more.
To be honest, he wouldn't even know her name if it wasn't for Sirius.
Sirius loved his sister more than he loved himself, and that's saying a lot. However, none of The Marauders ever knew why.
He always talked about his family like they were rats; and that's how the other three all though they were, but with Cassie it was different.
Sirius wouldn't say a horrid word towards his sister, as if she had ears everywhere and would hear him. It confused the boys to say the least, but they just went with it, but to be honest, the all thought that she was just another Slytherin Pure-blood.
But like James did with Sirius, he didn't want to judge her before knowing her. So he didn't say anything as he turned his attention back to his work, writing more lines.
A few minuets passed, and James found himself looking at Cassie again, however this time she was looking directly back at him.
He was shocked by how similar her eyes were to Sirius'. He knew that they were twins but he didn't know someone's eyes could be so similar to others, they looked like someone had stolen his best-friends eyes and placed them in someone else's.
However, her eyes were more tired looking than Sirius', they looked like they held more secrets then they were letting on.
Cassie was staring at James brown eyes, they were dark like the night, yet you could see that they were brown by the lighter colour as they reached the outside of the pupil.
She furrowed her eyebrows at the boy after a few moments, causing James to quickly look away and Cassie to roll her eyes, placing her chin in the palm of her hand and putting her quill down, she wiggled her fingers slightly, causing the sleeve of her hoodie to fall down.
James was carefully watching Cassie out of the corner of his eye, he was watching as she put both of her hands underneath her chin. Cassie slowly closed her eyes. James then took it was a chance to look at her again. He wasn't being creepy, he just wanted to know if she resembled Sirius more than just the eyes.
His eyes made their way to her face, which was now covered by her hands. Cassie's nails were bitten short, traces of green paint left on them. Then he saw a small brown and blue mark poking out at the top of her sleeve.
It was a bruise.
It looked old, yet new. It was very nasty. It wasn't a bruise that you got from falling down the stairs, James knew that because of how often he had fallen down them, you only got a small bruise and it faded quickly.
James kept looking at the bruise, wondering how it had happened. He didn't notice when Cassie turned to look at him, then where his eyes were.
He only snapped out of it when she pulled her sleeve back up to hide the bruise completely. Silently cursing herself under her breath.
"How did you get it?" James asked, meeting her eyes.
"I fell down the stairs." Cassie replied quickly, as if she had rehearsed the line many times before. James wasn't convinced.
"I mean, really how did you get it?" He asked, after a few moments, his eyes still connected with the dark-haired girls. He was still watching them as she squinted at him, furrowing her eyebrows.
"I told you, Potter, I fell down the stairs." Cassiopeia snapped furiously. James then realised that the girl had the same short temper as her brother, not waiting a moment before snapping at people.
James frowned and looked away, not bothering to press the matter anymore. The boy started back down at his parchment. It was silent for a few more minutes, the only sound being Cassie's quill scribbling across her page, before the girl quickly looked over at James, a small frown on her lips. She shook her head before looking back at her parchment, finishing the lines.
She was wondering why James was asking in the first place, it wasn't like he would actually care. She rolled her eyes at the boy, even though right now, he wasn't doing anything wrong.
They sat in silence for a while more, waiting for Professor Smith to return and let them off the detention.
They only had around an hour left before the detention ended when Professor Smith walked back into the room. He looked at the two students in surprise, like he had forgotten that they were there, which would surprise the two.
"Oh," he said with a small frown, looking between the two.
"You two can go." Cassiopeia wasted no time standing up and grabbing her bag, placing her quill and ink inside of it.
She didn't say a word before she reached the door and turned around to see James slowly putting his things away,
"Thank you, by the way." Cassie spoke up, causing James to look at her with a confused look on his face.
"For what?" The boy asked, placing his bag on the table and standing up.
"For looking after Sirius, being the family we couldn't be." And with that she left, leaving James behind, surprised by her words.
•••
Cassie groaned as she sat down at the house table besides Nova. The blonde girl only smirked at her best friend as she placed some peas on her plate, Cassie following her actions.
"That," The dark-haired girl said with a frown.
"Was the worst detention of my life. Potter was there." Nova chuckled at her friends over-dramatics, shaking her head slightly.
"Even worse then the time Madam Pomfrey made you clean out the chamber pots under the beds?"
Cassie suddenly froze, then shuddered, turning to look at Nova.
"We promised never to speak of that again." She said with a raised eyebrow, pointing her fork at the girl with every words that she said. Nova chuckled at her friend yet again and held up her hands up in a mock surrender. Cassie rolled her yes before placing her fork in her mouth.
"Why was it so bad?" Cassiopeia frowned and looked over at Nova.
"It just was, Potter wouldn't stop staring at me." The blonde was slightly surprised by this. James hadn't ever spared the two a glance, never mind actually looking at her.
"Why?" The dark-haired girl only shrugged her shoulders, eating more peas.
"I dunno, he just was." Nova nodded, then the two sat in silence for a few minutes.
"How was your day?" Cassie asked after a few moments. The blonde-haired girl quickly looked up from the table and at Cassie with a goofy grin on her face. The dark-haired girl titled her head to the side, confused.
"Evan Rosier talked to me today," That quickly explained the grin.
Evan Rosier was Nova's long term crush, he was only a year older than the two, and that made Nova fall even harder. Evan has helped the two in their third year, they had gotten lost in their way to Divination and he had helped them find their way, Nova was a blushing mess the whole time while Cassie was just standing there, wondering what shower gel to use that night. Ever since, Nova had been faring over the boy, feeling heartbroken when he got a girlfriend, then over the moon when they broke up.
"What did he say?" The dark-haired girl asked, looking down the table at where the older boy was sitting, along with seventh year Lucius Malfoy. Nova began to blush as she looked down at her food.
"He said, and I quote, 'your hair looks okay, I guess'." Cassie stared at her friend, her eyebrows furrowed.
"What did you say to him?" Nova smiled widely yet again.
"I said, 'Do you like my hair?'" Cassie mentally face palmed at her friend, shaking her head.
"Nova." She said and the blonde girl looked at her.
"Just no."
•••