New Bloods

Chapter 1: The Wards of Steadworth

Cass felt lonely. Not that that was anything new.

Cass would never have admitted it but before she met Nick she had pretty much always felt lonely. Growing up a half-blood witch in Slytherin meant one of two things; either you ignore most of the pure-blooded students' cruel games or try to stand up against it and be ostracized for your folly. Cassandra Powell had pretty much been the poster girl for the latter, making her Hogwarts years, "Educational?" Yes. "Fun?" No. Cass' parents had been the only people she was really close to so she had lived a mostly solitary school life, doing homework alone and keeping to herself until her 7th year.

Her last year at Hogwarts was when she had found her best friend; the day Nick, quite literally, fell into her life.

It was the day before most of the students would board the Hogwarts express home for Winter Hols and the day of the biggest quidditch match of the year between Slytherin and Gryffindor. She had received the customary invitation to watch the match from her dorm mates and had, for once, agreed. It was her last year, and quite possibly the last game of that year (unless somebody caught the snitch before anyone could score) so she had finally said yes. Although they had invited her out she had immediately began to drift away from the group of girls who had a group dynamic that just didn't have room for her. Between Andromeda and Catherine's lively potions chatter and Anathema's ceaseless flirting with one of the Slytherin beaters, Cass was thrown for a loop as to how to act in this admittedly common social setting. This is how she found herself sitting alone at the furthest row of bleachers about two rows away from anyone else.

Despite all of that she had to admit that she had enjoyed herself immensely seeing the players in action even with Gryffindor securing a solid lead, but then again she just couldn't feel herself rooting for the Slytherin team, a team that she had seen was bringing out every dirty trick in the books to stay a few points behind the Gryffs.

Two hours into the match, 7th year, James Potter the Gryffindor Seeker, who had been working the hardest out of the rest of his team what with seemingly being Slytherin's Beaters' only target, had subbed out due to fatigue. From where she sat (which was the closest one might get to the Gryffindor players' holding bay from the Slytherin bleachers) she could hear raised voices among the Gryffindor players.

Their usual reserve Seeker, a 7th year girl named Alice had recently been injured from an "accidental" potions incident and although she was expected to fully recover she just couldn't play. This created some argument about how their lineup would proceed. One thing though was clear they had obviously decided that the Seeker's job was just much too important to put just anyone to the task. They put their Captain, a Chaser with a talent for dives and catches, on the search for the golden snitch. He was tall and handsome and talented enough so that the rest of the team could trust in him to perform well even as a Seeker. Nick then filled in the vacated chaser position. The game continued much as it had before despite the change in lineup, much to the disappointment of the Slytherin team. Gryffindor had extended their lead to 140 when the snakes decided to step up their game, or rather, their tricks. An illegal beater swipe at the Gryffindor captain's broom tail had sent him spinning out of control.

Seeing his captain in peril, Nick raced over to help steady him only to get hit by a bludger to the chest that sent him flying off his broom and down into the Slytherin bleachers. Cass' hastily cast Levitation charm wasn't able to stop him completely but was able to slow his fall just enough to send them both tumbling instead of being turned into bloody splats as he plowed into her.

She had yelped very indignantly.

Nick had sat up groggily afterwards while muttering his thanks until he finally saw just who he'd landed on. His mouth had then stopped moving.

Looking at her, His eyes had seemed to see only her and she blushed at the dazed expression (she had later blamed it on the fall he had recently had) on his face. They sat, limbs tangled, just staring at each other until they both heard a great shout sound throughout the whole stadium. Angry yells from those in green and triumphant cheering from all those in red.

Simultaneously realizing that Gryffindor had won, Cass and Nick disentangled themselves. Luckily, no one noticed them since everyone's attention had been on the match and the golden snitch in the Captain's hand. To counter the momentum of his spinning fall he pulled off a roll turning the opposite way. He had miraculously grabbed the snitch mid-roll, ending the game and pretty much the whole tournament.

They saw the Gryffindor students celebrating their way off the pitch and few Slytherin had lingered after that defeat. Nick and Cass were some of the last few people there.

"Well...Hi?" She had said. "I'm Cassie Silveira." At her words he had caught himself staring and shook his head before replying.

"Nick," he had said with an apologetic grin. "Nick Adolfsen." He had then offered to walk her up to the castle which she accepted.

The rest was history.

She now sat on one of the benches feeling that same loneliness she had once been used to feeling since the moment Nick had left her at the ward chamber with strict instructions not to leave the chamber or touch anything. This was a problem because it seemed to Cass that the whole chamber was filled with magic. He had left her with almost nothing to do, and while she was no stranger to having to work alone, she had not expected boredom. At first, it was bearable. In between chores, she busied herself with studying the large chamber that which she was stuck in. She'd inspected everything that she thought could be worth inspecting, observed the Wardstone for hours, and arranged her supplies so many times that she had lost count.

"So. Damn. Boring!" She shouted to no one in particular as she slumped across the bench, her head resting on her travel pack.

"This sucks." she muttered shifting an arm over her eyes and another over her stomach. It just wasn't right. Nick had already been the one who had kept watch every night while they had been traveling and now he had left her there to head out for supplies. He had to stop coddling her. She was just a few weeks pregnant. That was far from being an invalid, and what the hell did he even mean by "read a book, maybe."?

"I haven't brought any books!"

Shouting angrily, she had flung her arms out in the process.

With her now unobstructed view of the ceiling, the sight that met her eyes had her sitting back up immediately. Looking straight up towards the ceiling, she slowly got to her feet. Her eyes widened and she quickly summoned her wand to her hand as a whisper escaped her lips.

"Oh, bugger me." How the hell could I have missed this?

Swarming above her and numbering in the thousands was what she thought was a hurricane of Dementors…but that couldn't be right.

Where was the chilling cold and the great wave of despair that came with them? No, these weren't Dementors. She'd fought enough of them off to know just how screwed she was if they were. At closer inspection, she could see that the spectral images were not black but were in fact a deep purple and hadn't donned the tattered black cowls the Dementors always wore. Also, unlike dementors, each figure seemed to actually have skin, or whatever a ghost might have instead of skin and wore clothes from different eras. Each and every one of them could very well have been mistaken for purple, semitransparent, human beings...You know what I mean. Some, she could see, were even chatting with each other.

They're all just whirling about up there without a care! she thought. Adrenaline and fear had turned into bewildered crossness

"Oi, you lot!" She yelled before her brain even thought to filter her mouth. "What's all this then?"

Thousands of ghostly faces seemed to all turn towards her at the same time. A quiet had filled the entire chamber. It was at this point that she abruptly became quite painfully aware of how ridiculously rude she had just been. What happened next had her eyes widening into saucers.

They all laughed at her.

"I...uhmm, Oh! Ahh. That is-" she stammered out over their laughter before her mouth clamped shut in red faced embarrassment.

She bent her head down as the ghosts continued to laugh. She'd wait till they were done and had composed themselves.

"Alrigh'! Alrigh'! Tha's enuff wi' tha'!" A voice rang out above the rest. "Gi' the lass a break!"

She looked up in the direction of the voice to see one of the larger "purple ghosts" floating towards her. He was a large barrel chested man with strong, hard features but looked to be one of the younger specters. He wore what might've been worn by an actor on the set of Macbeth and had the beard and mustache to go with it.

"Gree'ings, Li'l mistress!" He said as the others looked on in amusement and curiosity.

"I am Sir Archibald McCallum and t' answer your question we..." He actually paused for dramatic effect. "-are the castle wards!" She stared blankly at him, mentally willing him to keep talking while she tried to find her voice. He happily obliged.

"We were wonderin' if you'd ever notice us. Why, your eyes would shut the moment you'd lie down." He said with a grin. "At first we'd all been waiting patiently, but after a while we'd kind of got bored and started chatting with each other. It surprised us all when your first words were not so much spoken as it was yelled." He laughed again.

"Sorry. I don't have much of a filter. I didnt mean to be so rude." Cassie said, still embarrassed.

"Oh none o' tha' now lass." He said, putting her at ease. "You're the mistress here. You can talk' to us any way ye please."

"I dunnae abou' tha' Archie!" A young female ward had cut in from above.

"Ligh'en up my dear." Sir Archibald called to her from where he floated. "I'm sure the lass meant no harm."

Cassie smiled apologetically up at the woman who was eyeing her a bit more curiously than the others.

"Well, we're all really glad you're here. If ye have any questions, just ask anyone." Sir Archibald said and lowering his voice so he wouldn't be heard by anyone else, he added, "Don't mind Mildred. She just gets jealous if I pay attention to any woman besides her."

Cassie giggled. She guessed wards must be people too.

"Actually, I do have a few questions." She began, "What do you mean by 'I'm the mistress'? Mistress of what?" "Well," Archibald said, not missing a beat, "of us."

"You," he said with an almost ceremonial tone, "are the Mistress of the Wards"

After that, she didn't run out of questions for such a long time that Archibald took to taking shifts with some of the other wards just to keep up. Suffice it to say that she had well and truly found a way to occupy her time and meeting all of these new people had made her immensely happy. The wards had just been glad that they had such a curious new mistress and friend.

Next Chapter: We meet Nick, we see James, and some of our Heroes reunite.

Reviews are welcome. :)