Chapter One
1 September, 1975
Two teenagers made their way warily through the usual crowd of Muggles at King's Cross Station, apparently heading toward Platforms nine and ten, both dragging heavy trunks in their wake. The girl carried a large cage containing a grey owl in one hand. As the pair reached the barrier between the platforms, she asked the boy rather sharply to check his watch, and upon hearing the time, swore mildly under her breath.
"We'd better go at the same time, then," she muttered anxiously to the short, dirty blonde boy who accompanied her in a slight accent that might have been Irish.
"Alright, Cass, don't bite me 'ead off," the boy muttered back exasperatedly, with an accent much more pronounced than his sister's. With that, the pair leaned against the barrier and vanished, trunks, owl, and all.
On the other side of the ticket barrier, the boy, who was called John, was hailed by one of his friends among the huge crowd of students and families boarding the Hogwarts Express. As he left, his sister shoved the cage into his arms and shouted to his retreating back that she would write to their mother if she heard that he'd put so much as one toe out of line. She then set out to find a compartment, dragging her trunk and muttering to herself.
"Oi! Cassandra Gabrielle Olivia O'Brien! Anyone in there?" A girl's voice cut through Cassie's musings, and she looked up. She was greeted with the sight of three girls, the black haired one to whom the voice belonged waving furiously at her. At the sight of her friends, Cassie smiled brilliantly, bringing light to her already bright blue eyes.
"'Morning, Chris, and no, I am not having an out of body experience at the moment," she said before turning to the tall blonde and the redhead. "Have a nice summer, Lu, Lily?"
"Great. Lu was over, so I didn't have to be around Petunia as much as usual," Lily answered cheerfully.
"Her sister's quite unbearable, you know," the blonde put in, indicating Lily as she spoke, "and her parents-" she pointed her thumb casually at Chris, who had taken her usual place on Lu's left- "have already got her and James. I couldn't expect them to take me as well, since doing so would mean having three fifteen-year-olds in the house, two of them hell-bent on destruction." The other three girls laughed appreciatively at Lu's last remark. Chris looked as if she was about to defend herself and her twin, so Lily cut in.
"Honestly, Petunia's not that bad-"Lily started, but Chris headed her off.
"Yeah, and Severus Snape's about to be nominated for sainthood-"
"Once you get to know her," Lily continued determinedly.
"Which she'll never let 'freaks' like us do," Chris finished for her friend. The girls laughed again, happy to be back together after two months' separation.
As the conversation lapsed into a comfortable silence, Cassie looked at her watch.
"Ten forty-five! We'd better find a compartment before they're all taken."
"You go ahead," Lily said, looking a little annoyed, "I have to go to the prefects' carriage. Can you get my trunk?"
"'Course we can," Chris reassured her, "Or my brother can, at any rate. The prat's got to be good for something. Oi! James!" she called over the heads of the crowd as Lily hugged all her friends and hurried off.
Fifteen minutes later, the three girls had stowed their trunks safely in a compartment at the end of the train and were settling in for the long train ride to Hogwarts. This meant that Cassie was engrossed in her divination textbook, Lu had unearthed a mirror from her handbag and was examining her reflection critically, and that Chris was just starting on a Charms essay they'd been assigned at the end of last term.
"You know, I can never understand why people think I'm lucky with my looks," Lu mused, examining her pale face and grey eyes. "I have to wear a coat of makeup about an inch thick if I don't want to look like a ghost."
"Oh, come off it, Lu, you're the prettiest girl in the year," Chris said without looking up.
Lu just got on with touching up her makeup. When she finished, she pulled out Intermediate Transfiguration and proceded to teach herself how to perform a vanishing spell.
The girls worked in companionable silence, disturbed only by other students running up and down the corridor outside their compartment and the scratching of Chris's quill, for ten minutes or so before Lily joined them, looking slightly irritated.
"So who else do we have to avoid when we're out of bed after hours, then?" Chris asked as Lily threw herself down into a seat by the window.
"Well, the other Gryffindor prefect is Remus Lupin-"
"So that's not what's bothering you. He actually deserves it. Well, more than my brother or Sirius, at any rate. Go on."
"And then Edmund Prewett and Dawn Meredith from Ravenclaw-"
"Still not it."
"Shut up, Chris. I could've finished by now."
"Okay, I'm listening."
"Connor Jones and Yvonne Taylor from Huffelpuff, and Ernest Travers and Alexandria Black from Slytherin," Lily finished quickly, injecting as much disgust into the last name as she possibly could.
"Her?" Lu inquired a note of disbelief in her voice.
"I didn't think it was possible either, but they did make your brother Head Boy two years ago," Lily replied, sounding very much like she'd planned that explanation on her way back to the compartment. "I mean, everyone knows that she's deeper in the Dark Arts than anyone else in the year, but I suppose she doesn't get into trouble all that often, unlike the rest of the Slytherins."
"Unfortunately," Cassie muttered darkly. "She and Snape deserve to get chucked out for everything they do without getting caught. Death Eaters in training, those two."
"Don't be so negative, Cass," Chris said cheerfully, "they could be little You-Know-Who's."
"Funny, Chris, now shut up and do your homework. I'm not letting you copy this year," Lu snapped, signaling the end of the discussion. The mere mention of You-Know-Who had set Lucia Malfoy off ever since her brother had expressed agreement with his plans to purify the wizarding world a few years before.
By the time the lunch trolley came around, Chris had finished her Charms homework and the four girls were engaged in a game of Exploding Snap. As she paid for her dozen chocolate frogs, Cassie noticed that the witch who pushed the trolley looked nearly as edgy as Lu did whenever You-Know-Who was mentioned, so as her friends turned back to their game, she walked over to the door. Cassie brushed aside their questions by saying that she was off to the bathroom and set off down the train in search of the newly appointed Ravenclaw Prefects. Sure enough, the two of them were sharing a compartment half way down the train with their fellow Ravenclaw fifth years, a discarded newspaper sitting on the seat beside tall, thin Edmund Prewett.
When Cassie stuck her head into the compartment to ask if he was finished with his paper, Prewett looked up from his copy of Transfiguration Today for just long enough to toss the paper in her general direction.
"Thanks, Ed," Cassie called out as she caught the paper, and turned to leave the Ravenclaws in peace when an athletic looking girl with cinnamon brown hair greeted her from the floor, where she sat playing chess with the other new Prefect, Dawn Meredith.
"Hullo, Charlotte," Cassie answered, trying not to sound as on edge as she'd been feeling since she'd left her friends' compartment. "Had a good summer?"
"Yeah, great! Mum and Dad took Dawn and me to Spain on holiday, and Puddlemere beat the Catapults. Couldn't have been better. And you?"
Cassie reflected briefly that Muggle-born Charlotte Adams was one of the last people whose happiness one would expect to depend on the fortunes of a professional Qudditch team before answering.
"Well, my brother Paul's family moved to France so Mary could teach at Beauxbatons this year, Mark's been living in London for Auror training, John spent the summer with friends, and my friends were all busy or out of the country, so it was just Mum, Dad, and me, which made for a rather dull summer."
"Something like Ed's then. He spent the entire time locked up in his room with his textbooks," put in Dawn Meredith as Charlotte looked back down at the chessboard.
"Yeah, pretty much. My parents don't really let me go out on my own, so I was confined to the house. Anyway, I'd better get back. I told the others I'd just be a minute, and Lily's probably insisting that they don't continue their game of Exploding Snap until I take my turn. See you lot at school."
When she returned to her compartment, Cassie found that Chris had become bored in her absence and was now building a castle with the Exploding Snap cards while Lily and Lu chatted happily about boys.
"What took you?"
"Oh, I met a few people."
"Who?"
"What d'you care, Chris?"
"Well, if you've been off snogging my brother-"
"What would possess me to do that?"
"Well, you were avoiding the question-"
"Fine, I was talking to Charlotte Adams and Dawn Meredith."
"What about?"
"D'you think you're my mum or something?"
"'Course not. Just wondering."
"Did I ever tell you you're unbearably nosy?"
"That's why you love me."
"Who loves you, exactly?"
"Everyone. You're all just in denial."
"Whatever you say, Chris."
"You know I'm right. Where'd you get that paper, anyway?" Chris asked as Cassie sat down and vanished behind Prewitt's Daily Prophet.
"Ed Prewett. He has a full subscription to just about every periodical in existence."
"Typical. Anything interesting in there?"
"How would I know? You won't shut-"Cassie gasped as she finally got a good look at the photograph on the front page.
"What's up, Cass?" Lily asked, noticing her friend's pale face.
"Well, You-Know-Who has stopped limiting his attacks to Muggles," Cassie answered shakily.
"What?"
"Who?"
"'At ten O'clock last night, Aurors were called to number seven Snowberry Lane in Glasgow by Mrs. Vera Hampton when Mrs. Hampton saw the Dark Mark, symbol of the wizard calling himself, well, You-Know-Who, hovering over her neighbor's house. This morning, the Ministry of Magic has confirmed the bodies found in the house to be those of Mr. Jonas Bennett, sixty-seven, and his wife, Sofia Bennett, sixty-four,'" Lu read aloud, taking the paper from Cassie. "So he's finally come into the open, then. 'St. Mungo's experts believe the cause of death to be the Unforgivable Avada Kedavra Curse…. Alastor Moody, head of the Auror Office, declines comment on any potential suspects….' This looks bad. Bennett was pureblood, I met him at one of my parents' parties…." Lu trailed off nervously.
"So basically, no non-Death Eater is safe?" Chris summarized, her usual cheery air replaced by worry.
"Why Bennett?" Cassie asked. "Did the Prophet say?"
"Nah, Moody's refusing to say anything, so they have no idea," came Chris's answer.
"Well, I'll bet that he probably refused to help You-Know-Who. He was in the Ministry, after all…." Lu guessed, sounding more uncertain with each word.
The conversation continued in this vein for a while, but by the time the girls saw fit to change into their school robes, the discussion had drifted back to happier topics, including, when the train came to a stop in Hogsmeade station, why on earth James Potter had just wasted fifty galleons buying a full set of Appleby Arrows robes. They continued to argue about this as they found their way into a carriage and to their seats at the Gryffindor table, Lily dashing off every so often to prevent fights between the boys in their year.
Their happy chatter stopped abruptly when the Sorting Ceremony began, and Lily shushed Chris several times when she tried to start it up again after the Hat finished singing.
The feast finished uneventfully, unless one counted James Potter asking Lily out and being declined at least half a dozen times as eventful, and after the deserts vanished from the tables, Professor Dumbledore stood up to introduce new staff members.
"Welcome, students, to another year at Hogwarts. First Years please note that the forest on the grounds is off limits…" at this point. Cassie tuned out the usual beginning-of-term notices, waiting for the introduction of the unfamiliar gaunt man sitting at the far end of the staff table and speaking to no one. After a minute, the headmaster introduced the new professor:
"After the resignation last year of Professor Aimes due to a sudden fear of students," James Potter and Sirius Black sniggered at this, confirming Cassie's suspicions that the two of them had a great deal to do with the old teacher's early retirement, "please welcome our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Gordon." Up at the staff table, Professor Gordon waved a hand idly and scowled at the students. "Now off to bed, since I'm certain you all want to be well rested for your first day."
"That Gordon bloke looks happy to be here," Chris commented sarcastically as she, Cassie, and Lu made their way up to Gryffindor Tower, Lily having run off to escort the first years.
"Well, given what your brother and Sirius did to Aimes, I wouldn't want to be in his place," said Lu matter-of-factly. Cassie laughed, remembering one particular incident in which someone had decided midway through a lesson to throw a bag of cockroaches in the general direction of a particularly prissy Ravenclaw girl. No one had ever proven that James and Sirius had been responsible for the incident, but everyone on their side of the classroom had been given detentions over it.
Cassie was startled out of her reverie after a moment by her friends asking her why she wasn't getting ready for bed. She sheepishly hurried off to the bathroom to remove her makeup and put on her pajamas, and was sound asleep within ten minutes.