'Dolan, Cassiopeia' there was a muttering through the Great Hall as McGonagall read it out. She wasn't quite Potter but this was near enough, most years they had no one known- now they had the boy who lived and Cassiopeia Dolan. She was taller than most of the eleven year olds she stood with, her dark hair long and lightly curly. She had light eyes, pale skin and deeply red lips, and she was one of the few new students who wasn't totally swamped by huge robes and swept up the stairs with clear confidence. She muttered to McGonagall 'It's just Cass…' but was ignored as the sorting hat was dropped onto her head. The hat took a few minutes to make a decision, the muttering from the seated students continuing until it bellowed it's decision 'GRYFFINDOR'. The table of red and gold stood up and applauded her as she made her way over, looking more than a little relieved.
The list of names was slowly worked through and Cass felt a lot of eyes on her as she watched without much interest. She was aware why everyone watched, why they whispered, and why they were staring and gossiping. Eleven years previously a tiny baby had been left on the steps of St. Mungo's Hospital with a note attached to the swaddling cloth she was wrapped in 'This child cannot be raised by us. If we win the war then we will return for her. Name her Cassiopeia Dolan'. There had been no name of the parents, not even an initial, there hadn't been a single clue about who the baby belonged to.
The abandoned baby had been plastered all over the Prophet at the time, happening not long before the Potter's were killed. In living memory no magical child had ever been left like this, and she had been shipped around from house to house until she was eight, when the Diggory family had taken her in for good. Their only other child Cedric was fiercely protective of her and the family had taken her in as their own, though she had kept the 'Dolan' name. Every few years some nosy reporter- normally that bloody Rita Skeeter- had tried to write an article, looking for who had left her on the steps. The only thing everyone agreed on was clear- Either her parents had been on the good side and had died, or they had been Death Eaters, and had lost the war.
Lost in her own thoughts about the whispers and mutterings around her Cass glanced around and met the eyes of the chubby boy opposite her with his prominent ears and wide smile. He looked bright and happy, grinning at her, she found herself smiling back and tried hard to remember his name from the sorting. Neville was it? She couldn't remember but smiled back, neither realising what they were at the beginning of.