The first years were gathered outside in two lines, facing each other, as they waited for Madam Hooch's arrival to start their first flying lesson.
None of the kids noticed the hawk-like woman approach the group, "Don't just stand there!" She yelled as she walked down the center of the two lines, "Put your hand over your broom and say 'up'!"
Draco was the first to speak up, "But Madam Hooch, I don't think it's fair that the mute would have to do this," Draco glared mockingly at Cassie over on the Gryffindor side, causing his goonies to laugh.
Hermione gave Cassie's arm a gentle squeeze as the shorter girl frowned.
Draco has been teasing her since the sorting ceremony, her sorting had literally scared Cassie speechless. Her every thought was plagued with 'what ifs' and 'what wills' for when her family finds out.
Just to spite her cousin, Cassie held her hand over her broom, and wordlessly summoned it to her head with a taunting tilt of her head. The smack to her hand from the broom caused the skin to burn. Just to stir the pot with Draco, she smirked when his face reddened.
A thin line of ruby red blood dripped from Cassie's nose, but she didn't seem to notice and her gaze never wavered.
"Well done, Miss Lestrange, but I don't want you to tire yourself out too much," Madam Hooch complimented the young witch with a swift motion to Cassie's, still bleeding, nose.
Cassie's hand snapped to her nose, she pulled her hand away to examine to ruby liquid on her fingers.
"Are you okay?" Concern was laced through Hermione's voice as she pulled a tissue from her robe pocket to hold to Cassie's nose.
Cassie gave a shallow nod, and a gentle squeeze to the girls hand.
With Cassie's nose cleaned, the lesson continued, almost without a hitch. Poor Neville, almost immediately after Hooch bid them to mount their brooms and hover did the boy lose control over his broom.
Cassie had to claw Hermione's tight grip off her arm. The nervous girl beside her had tightened the grip on Cassie's arm the moment Hooch told them to mount the out of date brooms. The moment Cassie was free from her new friend's grip, she shot into the sky to help the distressed boy.
It only took Cassie a few seconds to reach the distressed boy. "Neville, hold on!" She yelled trying to position herself to help Neville. Her voice was hoarse from not using it since September.
"Cassie, how can I make it stop?!" Neville cried out.
"Take a deep breath, you're going to be okay," Cassie tried to reassure him.
Just then Neville's already fragile grip slipped, causing the young Gryffindor to fall a few feet until his robes caught on a statue. Only a second later, Neville's robes ripped and he began to fall again.
"Neville!" Cassie darter forward on her broom and barely caught Neville by the back of his tattered robes with both hands, locking her knees to keep the broom level.
"Ah!" Neville shreeked.
"Neville, I need you to reach up and grab my wrist," Cassie gritted through her teeth.
Neville tried to reach up, but when Cassie's grip was almost lost, he froze, "I-I-I can't," he stuttered.
"You have to try, I can't hold on much longer," Cassie hissed, "Neville, please!"
Neville tried to grab one or both of Cassie's wrists as his robes slowly slipped from Cassie's fingers.
"Neville!" Cassie cried out, flipping herself upside in a flash, and narrowly catching Neville's right wrist. Cassie grunted, her jaw locked and her teeth clenched.
"Miss Lestrange, get down here this instant!" Hooch called out.
"I'm kinda busy right now," Cassie hissed, using all the strength in her arms to pull Neville's hands to her broom. "I need you to hold on so I can land us," Cassie gritted.
Neville eagerly nodded as he adjusted his grip on the wooden broom handle.
Cassie swiftly righted herself on the flying cleaning instrument, and tightened her hands around Neville's. She slowly guided the broom to a little patch of roof that was relatively flat. She leveled herself off, so Neville could hop on.
Neville stared at the broom with eyes as he shook his head vigorously.
"Come on Neville, how else are you going to get down there?" Cassie asked, "I'm the one flying so it'll be safe."
Neville shook his head again.
"Do you trust me?"
"I- it's not that," Neville stammer.
Cassie held out here hand, "It's the only way down Neville, you can close your eyes the whole time," she offered, "I've got you."
Neville looked between Cassie and her outreached hand. "Um, Cassie," he nodded towards Cassie's hand.
Cassie looked down to see blood pooling on her palm from a large gash. "Um, sorry," she said rubbing her bloody hand on her robes, "just hop on okay? We'll be on the ground in a few."
Neville reluctantly joined Cassie on the broom. He clenched his eyes shut and held onto Cassie tightly.
"Hold on tight, it'll be over before you know it," Cassie whispered over her shoulder before slowly hovering her way to the ground. "You can open your eyes now," Cassie told him.
Neville opened his eyes to see them hovering less than a foot above the ground.
"Miss Lestrange! Mr. Longbottom!" Hooch shrieked as she stomped her way over to the two first years.
Cassie gently landed and they dismounted.
"What did you think you were doing?" Hooch hissed.
Cassie shrugged with her head hung low, only looking up when a blur of bushy brown hair ran into her arms.
"She saved me, Madam Hooch," Neville spoke quietly.
"Speak up boy," Hooch demanded.
"Cassie saved me at risk to herself," Neville bravely said., "I could have gone so much worse if she didn't."
"Are either of you injured?" Hooch asked.
"I have a few scratches, Cassie's hand is cut," Neville said.
"What?" Hermione exclaimed, she unraveled herself from Cassie's arms to look at the other girls hands. Cassie a right hand, the one she summoned the broom with, was slightly swollen with a large bleeding gash diagonally the center. Hermione gently ran one of her fingers along the edge of the inflamed flesh, "What happened?"
Cassie shrugged, "when I summoned my broom, maybe? It doesn't hurt," she said softly. Her words were directed to only Hermione.
Hermione gasped, "You're talking?" Her eyes widened as a smile spread across her face.
Cassie, once again, shrugged, "I guess I realized there's no need to live your life afraid of something that you can't control, but rather what you can."
Hermione shook her head, "don't scare me like that again," she said, pulling Cassie into another hug.
Cassie tightened her grip on her best friend, and she whispered into Hermione's hair, "I'll try."
"Miss Lestrange, Mr. Longbottom, to the hospital wing, now!"
-HP-
"You've got to be kidding me!" Ron exclaimed as he trailed behind Harry.
On the right side of Harry was Cassie and Hermione, waking arm in arm.
"You didn't get into bloody trouble!" Ron continued.
Cassie just shook her head at the boy's ridiculous actions. Both she and Harry had made the quidditch team; Harry being the new seeker, and Cassie being a reserve chaser. The school wasn't supposed to know, and the idiotic red headed boy was broadcasting it around the halls.
Ron kept babbling on about quidditch all the way to the dungeons for potions. Only stopping to glare at Cassie when Neville took the last chair close to Harry.
"Mute," Ron growled when Cassie stuck out her tongue at him, before taking the only remaining seat at the back.
Hermione elbowed Cassie in the side, "Don't," she grumbled.
Cassie just mocked offence, only snapping our of it when an enchanted scrap of parchment landed directly in front of her. Unfolding the scrap, Cassie read:
Meet me in the trophy room after dinner. -D
Cassie quickly stuffed the note into her robes pocket. Luckily Professor Snape came into the room with a bang, so Hermione didn't get a chance to question the girl
"Open to page 144," Snape began in his droning, motioned voice.
-HP-
After dinner Cassie made her way to the trophy room; she leaned against the case as she waited for her cousin.
It didn't take long for the blond Slytherin to show.
"Cass, please talk to me," he softly said. He moved to place a pale hand on her arm, but she moved away sharply. "Please," he whispered.
"Why," Cassie's voice was barely audible.
Draco tilted his head in confusion, "what?"
"Why? Why must you continue to terrorize me with your stupid jokes? Why must you pretend not to be my friend, when you're supposed to be my best friend? What have me, Harry, and Hermione ever done to you?"
Draco remained unmoving and silent.
"Just like I thought…," Cassie trailed off, "Your just like your father."
Cassie went to bed leave, but she was stopped in her tracks when she heard Draco whisper, "I am not my father, just like you're not your mother."
Cassie felt a pang in her chest as she whipped around on her heel, "Well, then stop acting like him, Draco, be your own bloody person for once in your life! I thought you were my friend; I thought you were kind, selfless, and true. Clearly I was wrong," Cassie used the sleeve of her robes to wipe the single tear that managed to escape her glossy eyes."Just leave me alone," she whispered.
"Cassie, please…."
Cassie shook her head with her jaw clenched. She turned back around and left Draco without another word.
-HP-
Time seemed to fly by for all the students, other than Cassie, and soon it was Halloween. Cassie counted the days it took for her family to send word of her in Gryffindor, each day that passed she became more distant and reserved, even going back to not saying a word unless completely dire. She sat with Neville at end of Gryffindor table with her plate loaded with untouched food.
A few feet down the table sat Harry, Hermione, and the seemingly unshakeable Ron.
"Have you talked to Cassie, Hermione?" Harry asked as they watched Cassie push around the pasta on her plate.
"I've tried, she won't talk to me," Hermione explained, "She hasn't said anything since she disappeared that night after dinner. She keeps avoiding me too, and she was supposed to meet me in the library a couple times to study, but she never showed."
"Who cares, she's just a useless mute," Ron hissed between overly large mouthfuls of mashed potatoes that would but Dudley Dursley to shame.
Loud tweets and hoots interrupted Hermione from saying anything to Ron.
"Looks like the mail is here," Harry mumbled as he took a bite of his salad.
Down the table, Cassie's eyes widened as a pure black owl dove towards where she was sitting with a blood red envelope in its beak.
"Cassie," Neville said in sympathy.
The Great Hall went quiet as they all watched as Cassie opened the envelope with a grimace on her face.
The envelope came to life immediately after the seal was broken. "You ungrateful brat," a deep hiss that belonged to Draco's father came from the enchanted envelope, "How dare you be a Gryffindor! I had to hear it from someone at work! You are a disgrace to the Lestrange name, and I hope you never forget that! You are lucky I cannot expel you from the family, imagine what your mother would think if she ever found out! If you take one step out of line, even one toe, you'll be Cassie no-name so fast you wouldn't be able to blink! Expect reprimandation when you get home for the summer! Don't expect to join us for Christmas."
The envelope promptly ripped itself to shreds all over Cassie's uneaten food. The terrified young Gryffindor launched from her seat and out of the silent hall.
"I should go after her," Hermione observed. She grabbed a few dinner rolls, wrapped them in a napkin and stuffed them in her robe piket., Before following Cassie.
On her way out, Hermione smacked Ron in the back of the head when the boy said, "Haha the mutes in trouble."
-HP-