Disclaimer: All characters from the original Harry Potter series belong to J.K. Rowling

Chapter 1

Cassiopeia walked the cold stone steps of Malfoy Manor. Her Aunt Cissy had called her down to the sitting room. Cassia had no idea why she was being summoned, but it usually wasn't a good thing. Her Aunt had always treated her fairly well, but when Cissy was tense, they were both hostile towards each other.

Entering the sitting room, Cassia found Cissy drinking tea on a larger, green velvet couch. Walking over slowly, Cassia curtsied and whispered, "You wished to see me Aunt?" Cassia didn't know who her parents were, or even if Cissy and Lucius were her real aunt and uncle.

Cissy turned and whispered, "Have a seat. We need to talk." Cassia nodded, taking a seat across from her aunt in a black velvet chair. Cissy passed a cup of steaming tea to Cassia, who eagerly took the cup in her hands.

"Cassia, I want you to answer a very important question for me," Cissy began," I want you to speak truthfully, no matter what the answer." Cassia nodded slowly, not really understanding what Cissy was getting at.

Her aunt took a deep breath, and quietly asked her,"Has anyone ever said anything to you about being a Black?"

Cassia didn't answer, instead thinking back to her first day at Hogwarts six years ago.

"Cassiopeia Black!" McGonnal shouted. Cassia slowly walked to the sorting hat stool, trying to ignore the whispers around her. "Black…can't be one…thought they were all dead…not another Black." Cassia sat down gently on the stool, trying not to draw as much attentionto herself. Before the sorting hat had touched her head, it yelled "Slytherin!" Few people clapped for her, still whispering about her name. Cassia quickly walked over to the Slytherin table and sat down beside a small blonde girl, who she had saw on the train. "Why are they whispering about me?" Cassia spoke more to herself than the other girl, but the blonde answered the question. "It's your name, many people fear it. Your ancestors did terrible things to most of our parents." The blonde girl looked around the Great Hall, her eyes ghost like. "I won't judge you though. If you don't know anything about your history, then we don't have anything to hold against each other." Cassia nodded, happy that the girl had accepted her. "I don't know anything about my past; I don't even know my parents," Cassia explained to the blonde. "What's your name? I'm Cassiopeia, but called Cassia." The blonde turned to face Cassia, smiling. "I'm Lizzie. I'm in my first year too." Cassia tuned back the table and started eating her food, still wondering why everyone was making a big deal of her name.

Cassia looked at her aunt, replying "no, not really. They whisper and point. Why does it matter?" Cissy sighed, taking a look deep into her niece's eyes. "Has anyone ever said something weird about your name; something that didn't make sense." Cassia didn't know what her aunt meant, but did her best to try and remember if someone had ever said something to her.

Three years ago…

Cassia and Lizzie were serving detention with Filch cleaning the trophy room. Cassia sat down and began to polish the Quidditch Cup, reading all the names as she careful wiped each nameplate. About half way down the cup, she came across a plate that read Slytherin. "Curious," she whispered reading the names of the team members. Caption: Tom Riddle, Seeker: Regulus Black, Beaters: Bellatrix Black, Barty Crouch Jr., Chasers: Alecto Carrow, Walden Mcnair, Antonin Dolohov. "Hey Lizzie, can you come here for a minute. Read this." Lizzie skipped over and read the names engraved in the golden plate. "Regulus and Bellatrix Black," Cassia read, asking Lizzie. "Do you know anything about them?" Lizzie shook her head. "Nope, but I do know one name. Tom Riddle." Lizzie stared at Cassia, who was still rereading the plate. "If they have the name Black, then I must be related to them… and why do you know the name Tom Riddle?" Cassia looked at her friend, curious for her answer. "Well," she began, "I asked Professor Longbottom about the Wizarding wars because no other teacher would tell me what I wanted to know. I asked him who started the group that called themselves 'Death Eater.' I had heard some other kid mention them. All Longbottom told me was they were a group of evil wizards who thought that mudbloods and muggles should not have magic. They were led by a man called Voldemort, whose real name was Tom Riddle. I'm guessing this was the man. He was in Slytherin house when he was at school here." Cassia thought for a minute and then whispered to Lizzie, "Filtch isn't here, so let's ditch this and go to the library. I want to know more about these Blacks."

Quietly, Cassia put down her cloth, and tiptoed over to the door. Lizzie followed, and they both snuck out the door, heading down the corridor towards the library. Finally entering, both girls sighed, and went over to the head desk. An older witch stood hunched over a book, writing down names with a dull quill. Cassia looked at the witch, trying to get some help, finally asking "Um, could we please get a book of family trees and some newspaper archives?" The old witch stood up, looked at the girls and whispered, "Follow me." She led the girls over to a large wall over books and left them to find the ones they wanted.

Staring at the shelves, Lizzie scanned the books. "I'll find the Profit that we want, and you find a book with your family tree in it." Hurrying away, Lizzie headed over to where a number of other girls were, leaving Cassia to find her own book. Scanning the shelves, she pulled out a book titled, The Most Noble and Ancient Wizarding Houses. Walking over to a small table, she flipped open the book. Reading down the table of contents, she mumbled the names until she finally found what she wanted, "Longbottom…Gaunt…Peverall…Lestrange…Riddle!" Flipping to the page, Cassia began reading down the long list of names. Lizzie came back, and sat down beside Cassia, throwing a file folder down on the table. "I got anything with the name Black in it. Also, some from the first and second Wars. Something weird came up from 's so I also got it." She began flipping through the papers, pulling out a clipping. "Mass Breakout from Azkaban," she read, flipping the clipping over. "It was in 1996. Escapee Bellatrix Lestrange along with 10 other high security prisoners escaped. Sirius Black was blamed for engineering the escape of his cousin Bellatrix." Lizzie stopped reading, and looked up to see Cassia looking at the family tree. "I don't know," she stated, eyes searching her book. "This book stops at 1921. It doesn't have anything forwards from this date. She could be related, or not. Anything else?" She closed her book, and leafed through the folder with Lizzie. "Not much," she stated. "There's some stuff from the first wizarding war…wait!" She pulled out a report from the Ministry of Magic. "During the war, Alice and Frank Longbottom were tortured into insanity by Bellatrix and Rodolphus Lestrange. They are still in St. Mungo's to this day. The Lestranges were sentenced to Azkaban for life. But they broke out in 1996 and 1997. Do you think this means anything?" Cassia shook her head. "It might proof that she was a Death Eater, but it doesn't show that we're related. Lizzie nodded and picked up another piece of paper. "This is just details about Bellatrix's cousin Sirius Black's escape from Azkaban." She handed the paper to Cassia. She nodded her head, reading the paper. "This might be something," she whispered. "There were a couple Sirius' in the family tree. We might be related." Closing the book, Cassia got up and put the book back on the shelf. Lizzie put the folder back together and left it on the table. "We'd better get back, it's almost dinner," Cassia said, picking up her bag. As they walked towards the Great Hall, Cassia finally answered Lizzie's haunting question. "When I get home at Christmas," she said," I'm gonna ask Aunt Cissy who these people are, and why I haven't been told of this before."

"Yes they have," Cassia responded. "It started when I first got on the train, and it's never really stopped." Cassia looked into her Aunt's eyes, the question from three years ago still haunting her.

Before her Aunt could ask her another question, Cassia blurted out "who was Bellatrix Black or Lestrange and Sirius Balck." Cissy was taken aback by the question, not really sure of what to say back to her niece. "Well, I guess you've already found out a piece of the puzzle." Cassia stared at Cissy, wanting to know the answer to her question.

"Sit down Cassia," Cissy whispered, patting a seat beside her on the velvet couch. "It's time I told you the complete truth."