Chapter 4

The Christmas break was refreshing after a semester of hard work for Cassandra and she enjoyed the winter days with her family. They were given a bit of homework over the break but nothing she couldn't handle. Herbology perhaps had the toughest task out of the few given. It was an optional task but Cassandra was determined to finish it.

However, as the days dragged on, she still hadn't managed to find the rare plant professor Sprout had asked them to look out for. After asking her mother about it she confirmed that the plant she was looking for didn't grow around their town, so Cassandra started looking for ways to visit some other forests and towns in hopes to find the mysterious plant.

Sadly, her father got caught up in some work, and her mother had to help him out so they couldn't travel to any location, until after February which would be too late, of course.

Defeated, the girl took her jacket and went into the forest, around their house, on her own. In the quiet forest the girl rummaged and searched, but to no avail. The plant was never there to begin with. However she did manage to find dittany, a bushy plant that she read about in one of the books. Sadly, she forgot the properties of the plant so she decided to leave it without touching it. Hesitating for a bit, Cassandra took off the ribbon from her hat and tied it to the nearby tree.

Perhaps she might need it sometime in the future.

Coming home she overheard her mother and father arguing about something, however their voices were muffled so she managed to understand just a couple of words.

"...becoming stronger… join…" her father whispered something fervently.

"...dangerous, Cassie… too young!" Her mother's voice hitched, before it went back to it's usual unintelligible whisper.

Cassandra tried to open the door but that only halted their conversation as they paid attention to the locked door with the turning knob. After several more tries she finally gave up hurrying to her room. She still had to pack her suitcase for the second semester. As the girl packed up her books and clothes she couldn't help but wonder what they were arguing about. Maybe they wanted to get a pet dragon but thought she was too young to take care of it? Her mind thought of the possible dangerous situations which could involve her, none quite close to the actual reality of things.

The next day her father entered her room, and gently woke up the sleeping girl from her slumber.

"Time to get up, don't want to miss the Hogwarts express!" He ruffled her hair. Standing up Leo tossed some clothes to her bed and left her room. "Breakfast is on the table, don't be late or you'll regret!"

Jumping up, the girl got dressed quickly and yawning started going downstairs for breakfast. Her mother had made french toast with pomegranate, and by the looks of it half was gone already.

"Dad, why do you always eat everything?" Whined Cassie as she sat down at the table.

"No wands at the table." Eileen warned her husband who had placed his wand there after getting the food on the table.

Cassie had made sure that her wand was neatly placed back inside of it's box, and safely tucked away in to her suitcase. It was an 11 inches, Unicorn hair, Cedar tree with great flexibility and unique vine like carvings alongside the handle reaching up to the tip of the wand. At first glance the carvings were unintelligible but when looked up closely they would pop out and have a faint glow each time she cast a spell.

After breakfast, the young family apparated to King's Cross, and in the old fashioned way ran through the wall dividing the platforms 9 and 10, and in a matter of minutes Cassandra was boarding the train and saying goodbye to her parents.

On the train she found Lisa and Regulus in their compartment, and as per usual neither of them was talking. Just as she entered the compartment Isaac bumped in to her and toppled her over Lisa.

"Hey! Watch where you're going!" Cassandra growled at the boy as she got up and adjusted her hair and clothes.

"Sorry Cassie, it was my fault." Said Isaac as he picked up his suitcase and lifted it to the suitcase compartment. On the side his pet owl hooted disapprovingly as he watched the boy fumble with his cage.

"So how was your Christmas break?" Cassie asked hoping to break the tension between them.

"Oh nothing special. Mom wanted us to visit her family so we spent almost the entire time in the south, with my grandpa and grandma." Isaac smiled meekly.

"What about you Lisa? How do muggles celebrate Christmas?"

"Oh there's an entire tradition behind it. We had to go to church on Christmas eve cause mom never missed any sermons before she found out she was a witch." Lisa giggled. "But there's this huge dinner for Christmas and everyone brings presents and we all open them together. It was really nice."

"So except the church it's pretty similar you'd say?"

Lisa nodded and then conversation soon died out again.

After several minutes they discussed presents they had received, and everyone except Regulus engaged into conversation. Cassandra tried several times to get the gloomy boy to speak up but he shook his head and sunk deeper in to his seat. Cassandra found that odd, but didn't want to push him any further and the conversation died out once again. Cassie was pretty sure Regulus had fallen asleep, so she hushed down Lisa and Isaac and leaned back resting her head against the headrest. She had dozed off for about two minutes when suddenly she got woken up by a loud bang as someone barged in to their compartment.

"There you are!" Amy's voice echoed as Cassandra scowled at the brunette. And she wasn't the only one, Regulus looked extra annoyed at the newcomer.

Rosemary was right behind her and rolled her eyes at the extravagant girl. "C'mon Amy let's go back to our compartment, we don't wanna intrude on their little sleepover here."

Cassandra darted her confused eyes over to Rosemary and the sudden coldness in her voice towards their group. With a giggle Amy left the compartment not bothering to close the door behind her and Rosemary quietly judging everyone inside of it left without uttering any other word.

"Okay, what was all that about and why in the name of Merlin was Rosemary so cold to us?" Lisa whispered several seconds later as Isaac got up and closed the door.

"They've been friends for as long as they've been alive. I guess they got tired of playing with you guys." Isaac shrugged and sat back down.

"Wait they've known each other from before?" Cassie interrupted.

"Yeah, my mom's a good friend with Rosemary's mom, and the two of them were practically raised together as they're neighbors… did they not tell you that?"

Cassandra shook her head. "I thought Rosemary's a half-blood?"

"She is, just both of her parents are half-bloods, and neither is connected with the muggle world in any way…"

"So they were just messing with us for half a year? Acting as if they hated each other? Why? What was the point?" Lisa shook her head full of disdain.

Agreeing it made no sense at all, Cassandra sighed and slouched back to her seat. The rest of the journey was spent contemplating possible motives for such a stupid decision. Finally Cassandra concluded that the girls might have been arguing for real but decided to play them when they showed up, and weren't brave enough to admit they were just teasing them.

Either way, each kid made a mental note to be wary of the two girls.

Arriving back to Hogwarts, they were given a day to settle in and then classes started again and the castle livened up once more.

As the seasons changed so did the kids' opinion about Rosemary and Amy change. At first they were just wary about them but as time passed by it was more than obvious Amy had gotten Rosemary wrapped around her finger and the two of them turned against Lisa. Their disdain seemed to be caused by the fact that her parent was a mudblood as they called her. Cassandra often had to restrain herself from jumping at them, both figuratively and literally.

Finally the school year was coming to an end. Their tests were finished and the kids spent their time lounging underneath the tree next to the lake. Cassandra wanted to rest but something bugged her so she decided to stretch her legs and walk around a bit.

Soon she found herself strolling next to Hagrid's hut and through the open window she overheard a conversation.

"I just don't want to live with them anymore, Regulus this, Regulus that, oh Sirius you're such a disappointment."

"I'm sure they'll eventually get used…"

"No they won't James! They're not your parents, they believe in this pureblood craze this Lord Voldemort is spreading…"

"Don't ya utter the name of that beast in my house." Hagrid warned Sirius through gritted teeth.

"Just… uh whatever let's get out of here…" And without missing a beat the distressed boy jumped out of the hut and ran back towards the castle, as Cassandra stood there thinking she finally understood why Regulus was always so gloomy.