Malfoy's Twin

Cassia Malfoy was prepared to breeze through Hogwarts and come out on the other side with the same esteem as her parents. On her first day, it dawns on her that her time at school isn't going to be so easy. Cassia learns the hard way that winning a war means sacrificing all else. Not everyone gets to be a hero.

Author Note: I tried writing something with the same (very similar) premise under a different account a few years ago. It was bad. I don't remember if I deleted it or not lol whatever.

Today is 19 years later! We'eve reached the end of canon! All was well!

Chapter One - Cliff's Edge

Cassia Malfoy jolted awake to a tapping on her window. She scrambled to get out of bed, throwing off her duvet and sprinting across the room. She forced open her window and an unfamiliar owl fluttered inside, dropping a thick envelope with a familiar purple seal onto her desk. Jittery with excitement, Cassia opened the letter.

HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY

Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore

(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock,

Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)

Dear Ms. Malfoy,

We are pleased to inform you that you have a place at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

That was all she needed to read. Cassia raced down the hall and burst into her brother's bedroom where he, to her dismay, was still asleep. A peeved looking owl sat outside of his window.

"Wake up idiot!" Cassia shouted as she let the bird in. "Our letters have arrived."

The owl dropped the envelope onto Draco's head, forcing him awake. He shot up out of bed and tore open his letter. The two exchanged an identical smile and hurried downstairs to where their parents were having a quiet morning. Cassia and Draco nearly fell over each other in the archway leading into the dining room.

"Mum! Dad!" They shouted in unison as they showed their parents the letters.

Cassia almost knocked over her mother's tea as she waved the parchment in her face.

"They came! They finally came!"

It took a moment for Lucius and Narcissa to get their children seated for breakfast. Cassia looked down at her eggs and toast, wondering what the food would be like at school. What if she didn't like it?

"Cassia, please don't just stare at your breakfast." Her father said, his eyes not leaving his newspaper.

As Cassia and Draco ate, their parents reminisced about their time at Hogwarts. They'd both been in Slytherin, the whole family had been.

"Your father was a prefect." Narcissa said proudly.

Cassia and Draco already knew that. It came up every time they talked about Hogwarts, which was often.

"Our family has quite the legacy at that school." Lucius said, glancing over the paper to look at his children. "I would have been Head Boy had it not been for Fabian Prewett."

Narcissa had a look on her face that said she doubted that, but she hid it behind her tea.

"We could be Head Boy and Girl." Draco said.

"I don't think they'd pick them from the same house." Narcissa said, looking to her husband.

"The Potters." He answered in a low voice.

Cassia stared at her half-eaten meal, suddenly not very hungry. They were just talking, she knew that, nobody expected her to be Head Girl. She frowned, should she want to be Head Girl? If they didn't choose prefects until fifth year, than, realistically, she shouldn't have to think about that until third year. She bit into her eggs. She didn't have to worry about it now.

"When can we get our wands?" Cassia asked.

"We'll go into Diagon Alley next week." Narcissa answered.

"Next week?" Draco complained. "Why can't we go today?"

Lucius stood up from the table, squeezing Narcissa's hand as he did.

"Because I have business today." He said as he left the room.

Narcissa picked up his newspaper and began to leaf through it.

"We could go without him." Cassia offered. "He doesn't like crowds anyway."

"Or noise." Draco added.

"I can still hear you." Lucius called out from the foyer.

Narcissa gave her children a wry look. "Go get dressed."

Draco furrowed his brow. "Where are we going?"

Narcissa smiled, "To visit my mother."

Draco and Cassia exchanged a look of horror.

Narcissa rolled her eyes at her children, "She is not that bad."

"The last time we were there she told me my eyes should be bluer." Cassia said, crossing her arms over her chest.

Narcissa stood up, "Then don't let her look at them."

Cassia watched her mother leave the room. "I'm going to tell Druella that my eyes are blue and that she's losing her vision in her old age."

Draco looked at her in disbelief, "Please don't."

Cassia downed the rest of her orange juice and stood up. She wasn't going to say that. Her grandmother wasn't even that old. She could say it though, if she really wanted, that's what mattered.

The week leading up to their trip to Diagon Alley passed at an agonizing pace. Cassia found that she had nothing to do except stare at books she'd already read and wonder what her schoolwork were going to be like. It was doing that, or spending hours talking with Draco about what their lives were going to be like at school. He had already begun to plan how they would train next summer for Quidditch tryouts, so that they would make the team. There were others ways to assure they would get the positions they wanted, but Cassia didn't like to think about them. She wasn't even sure if she wanted to be on the team at all.

"I was a chaser." Narcissa said as they approached the brick wall in the back of the Leaky Cauldron.

"Father, you didn't play did you?" Draco asked.

"I preferred to focus on my studies." He said.

"Your father was in the top of his class." Narcissa said. "So was I." She added, tapping her wand on the wall.

Cassia watched as the bricks moved away to reveal the bustling cobblestone street. She had been to Diagon Alley dozens of times but it didn't matter, there was always something new. A bored looking witch stood behind a cart with a sign that read, "So you want to be an Animagus?"

"Mandrake leaves! Get your mandrake leaves here!" She shouted. "Cheap and the highest quality there is!"

Cassia doubted that. She followed closely behind her family as they strode through the crowd.

"We should start with robes." Narcissa said, glancing over the list of items they needed for school.

Cassia sighed, she wanted to get her wand.

"Or perhaps quills?" Lucius suggested.

"Potage's Cauldron Shop is just up ahead." Narcissa pointed out.

Draco frowned. "We know you're listing all the boring stuff on purpose."

"There's nothing boring about a nice quill." Narcissa told him.

Lucius nodded. "You could have it for the whole year, wouldn't that be nice?"

"No." Cassia said petulantly. "I could have my wand for my whole life, wouldn't that be nice?"

Narcissa exchanged a look with Lucius that Cassia couldn't read.

"So what you would like is for us to purchase all the things you've decided are boring, while you two go get your wands?" Narcissa asked, smirking.

"Yes." Cassia said bluntly, looking hopefully up at her mother.

"They have to get measured for robes." Lucius pointed out.

Narcissa placed a hand on each of her children's backs, steering them towards Madam Malkin's. Reluctantly, Cassia and Draco went inside.

"Hogwarts?" A woman, presumably Madam Malkin, asked them.

Narcissa nodded and let Madam Malkin lead them deeper into the shop. Madam Malkin was short and smiling and dressed in a hideous shade of purple. She stood them each on a stool and slipped a long black robe over each of their heads. She fitted Cassia first, pinning the robe to the right length.

"You're going to be quite tall, aren't you?" Madam Malkin said brightly.

Cassis stared at herself in the mirror. She looked like a floating head, her body hidden beneath the massive robe.

"I guess." She said, not sure what Madam Malkin expected her to say.

Draco opened his mouth to say something as the doorbell chimed.

"I'll be right back." Madam Malkin said as she hurried to the front of the store.

Cassia watched as the robe she wore began to cut and sew itself, Draco's was doing the same. Madam Malkin returned and stood a boy on the stool next to Draco. He was a slight boy with jet black hair falling over his forehead. His clothes were ill-fitting and tattered. He looked rather nervous. She waved at him, before he could respond Draco turned to him, looking more than a little bored.

"Hullo," He said. "Hogwarts too?"

"Yes." Said the boy.

"Our father's next door buying our books and our mother's up the street looking at cauldrons." Draco told him.

"Afterwards we're getting our wands." Cassia added excitedly, her robe swishing around her feet as she turned towards them.

Draco smirked at her, "Then I'm going to drag them off to look at racing grooms. I don't see why first years can't have their own. I think I'll bully my father into getting my one and I'll smuggle it in somehow." He said.

Cassia rolled her eyes at him but said nothing, she couldn't see any way that plan was going to work.

"Have you got your own broom?" Draco continued.

"No." Said the boy.

"Play Quidditch at all?" Cassia asked him.

"No." Said the boy.

It crossed her mind that he might not know what Quidditch is, she may be talking to a muggleborn. She looked him over. Her parents said it was easy to tell the difference between real wizards and muggleborns.

"I do - Father says it's a crime if I'm not picked to play for my house, and I must say, I agree. Know what house you'll be in yet?" Draco asked him.

Cassia could remember if their father had ever said that to Draco, maybe in private. Not that Draco was a bad flyer, both of them were quite good.

"No." Said the boy.

"Well, no one really knows until they get there." Cassia said, trying to be of some kind of assurance.

"I know we'll be in Slytherin, all our family have been - imagine being in Hufflepuff, I think I'd leave, wouldn't you?" Draco said, speaking mostly to Cassia.

She scoffed at the idea of either of them being sorted into Hufflepuff. The boy made a noise of contemplation. Draco turned to something in the window.

"I say, look at that man!" He exclaimed.

Cassia whipped around to see. A large man with a wild beard and a mane of hair was standing there grinning at the boy. He was holding two large ice-creams. Cassia wondered if their parents would let them get some later.

"That's Hagrid," said the boy, sounding a little more animated. "He works at Hogwarts."

"Oh." Draco said. "I've heard of him. He's sort of a servant, isn't he?"

"He's the gamekeeper." The boy answered curtly.

Draco didn't seem to notice the boy's impatience and he kept talking. "Yes, exactly. I heard he's a sort of savage - lives in a hut in the school grounds and every now and then he gets drunk, tries to do magic and ends up setting fire to his bed."

"I think he's brilliant." The boy said coldly.

Draco regarded the boy with a sour look.

"All we know are rumours." Cassia interjected.

"Why is he with you? Where are your parents?" Draco asked without any tact at all.

"They're dead." The boy said shortly.

Cassia stared at the boy, shocked. It must have happened a long time ago, for him to be able to be so frank about it.

"Oh, sorry." Draco said. He didn't sound sorry.

"That's terrible." Cassia added, trying to be a little more sympathetic. The boy just looked at her.

"They were our kind, weren't they?" Draco asked him.

Cassia shot her brother a look of disbelief, of course that's what he was most interested in. She wanted to know too, but it wouldn't be the first thing she asked after finding out that his parents were dead. That, she thought, was a little insensitive.

"They were a witch and a wizard, if that's what you mean." He answered.

"I really don't think they should let the other sort in, do you? They're just not the same, they've never even heard of Hogwarts until they get the letter, imagine. I think they should keep it in the old wizarding families. What's your surname, anyway?" Draco said, speaking quickly.

Cassia was tempted to smack her brother upside his head. Wizarding parents or not, if he was being escorted through Diagon Alley by Hogwarts faculty, he had grown up with muggles. But before the boy could say anything Madam Malkin dismissed him, and he seemed eager to leave.

"Well, we'll see you at Hogwarts, I suppose." Draco said as he walked away.

Cassia sighed.

"What?"

She shook her head. "Nothing."

Ollivanders, for a store Cassia had heard so much about, didn't look like much. A bell chimed somewhere deep in the shop as they stepped inside. Cassia stared at the rows upon rows of wands, she suddenly felt quite intimidated. There was a large pile of wands on the counter, tested but not bought. She furrowed her brow, how long could she be in here for? Her mouth went dry as an unpleasant thought wormed its way into her head. What if there was no right wand for her? Cassia took a breath. There was no reason for that to happen to anyone, let alone her, a Malfoy.

A man appeared from between the stacks of wands, Ollivander.

"Ah," he said, "I was wondering when I'd be seeing the Malfoy twins."

His voice was soft, but it carried in the eerie silence of his shop.

"Well, here we are." Draco said.

Ollivander eyed them both. "Yes, there you are."

A measuring tape, seemingly with a mind of its own, zipped around them taking any measurement it could. Cassia watched it.

"We're both right-handed." She said to it.

The measuring tape paid her no mind as Ollivander disappeared back into the store. He came back holding several boxes in his arms, he held one out to Draco.

"Oak and dragon heartstring, give it a try."

Eagerly, Draco took the wand out of the box. Cassia watched in anticipation as nothing happened.

"Hmmm." Ollivander said. "It's the same wand core as your mother so I would have thought… Ms. Malfoy, give it a try."

Cassia took the wand in her hand, like with her brother, nothing happened. Ollivander didn't seem to notice, he handed another box to Draco.

"Dragon heartstring can be tricky, perhaps…"

He trailed off as he watched Draco. Her brother certainly looked more pleased with that wand. His face lit up as silver sparks danced out of the end of the wand.

"What is it?" He asked, pleased with himself.

"Hawthorn and unicorn hair." Ollivander answered. "Good for curses, though, not so easily swayed to the dark arts." He added, studying her brother.

Draco wasn't looking at him, he was admiring his wand. Ollivander disappeared back into the stacks.

"Second try." He muttered to Cassia.

She scowled at him. "You're being especially annoying today." She hissed.

Ollivander came back, his focus now on Cassia. She felt small under the scrutiny of his silvery eyes. She wondered for a moment, how well he could see.

"Dragon heartstring and holly." He said, passing her a box.

Carefully she picked up the wand and waved it. A potted plant toppled from a shelf. Cassia let out a small scream and dropped the wand. Quickly she picked it up, feeling her face redden. Draco snickered. Ollivander didn't seem to care as he waded deeper into the back of his shop.

"Interesting." She heard him mutter.

Her heart crawled up into her throat.

Ollivander held out a worn looking box. Cassia took it, not meeting his eyes.

"That's a strange wand, a strange combination." He mused.

She could feel him watching her as she took it in her wand. A feeling of warmth crawled up her arm and suddenly she was being showered with silver sparks. Cassia let out a smile break out onto her face. It faded as soon as she saw Ollivander's look of interest. She cleared her throat.

"And what kind of wand is this?" She asked.

"Dragon heartstring and rowan." He said. "That wand may be a bit temperamental." Draco snickered, covering it up poorly with a cough.

"Like you." He muttered.

"Dragon heartstring is a powerful weapon for whichever witch or wizard that yields it. But-" He paused, looking her right in the eyes, "there's never been a dark witch or wizard with a rowan wand."

Cassia shifted her weight, trying to ignore his gaze.

The door to the shop swung open, making Cassia nearly jump out of her skin. She spun around. It was just their parents.

"Have you found your wands?" Narcissa asked as Lucius placed fourteen galleons on Ollivander's desk.

Cassia and Draco nodded. She looked down at the wand in her hand, it didn't look like much more than a stick. Cassia thought she would feel better about having her wand, especially after being so excited to get it, instead she felt a little sick. Silently, she followed her family out of the store.

Draco nudged her, "What's with your face? You look upset." He whispered.

Cassia watched the crowd part for their family as they made their way back towards the Leaky Cauldron. People's conversations would fall to whispers as they passed, their eyes following them darkly. Cassia had a bitter taste in her mouth. These people didn't know her, and they didn't like her.

"I'm not upset." She said, forcing a smile onto her face. "I just don't like crowds."

Draco shrugged and looked away from her, his eyes flicking to each shop as they passed. She hadn't lied, she wasn't upset, but she was unnerved. Hogwarts was always made out to be the best seven years of one's life. But Cassia didn't feel like she was at the beginning of a great adventure, she felt like she was standing on the edge of a cliff.

Any feedback (as long as it's worded so that you're, like, not being a dick) is super welcome :)