"She made broken look beautiful
And strong look invincible.
She walked with the universe on her shoulders
And made it look like a pair of wings."
Cassiopeia Alula Black was the pride and joy of Walburga and Orion Black. She had beautiful dark hair and piercing grey eyes, she never spoke out of turn, and held the same beliefs as her parents. Toujours Pur. Always pure. She was proud to be apart of the Sacred Twenty-Eight, just as she had been raised to believe. Muggles, Muggle-Borns, and Half-Bloods were all supposed to be beneath her. The association with any of their kind would bring shame upon the Black name. And If Cassiopeia was anything, it wasn't shameful.
For as long as she could remember, she had always longed to go to Hogwarts. Cassiopeia's cousins, Bellatrix, Narcissa and Andromeda always had riveting stories of Hogwarts and the fun they had in their Slytherin common room. That is, until Andromeda got disowned for fraternizing with a Muggle-Born Hufflepuff by the name of Ted Tonks. Cassiopeia's parents talked about Andromeda like she was dirt on the bottom of their shoe. But Cassiopeia still saw her as Andromeda, her fun loving adventurous cousin. That's when she began to question her parents beliefs, but never aloud, for that would lead to the Unforgivable, and as Cassiopeia knew, it wasn't pleasant.
In 1970, Cassiopeia finally got her Hogwarts acceptance letter. She held her head high as she sat on the stool. She was positive she would get Sorted into Slytherin. But when the word 'Gryffindor,' rang out, Cassiopeia knew she was in for a world of trouble.
That Christmas when she returned home, she was drug inside by her hair and thrown onto the floor. That was the day that Cassiopeia learned that a parents love was purely conditional.
You can only come to the morning through the shadows. ~J.R.R Tolkien
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