A/N: Oh my gosh guys I am so sorry that it took this long to post this, but I have had the most hectic couple of months of my life. Honestly I have no idea what the time zone between chapters will look like from now on, but hopefully it'll not be as long as it took this time. Anyway, I hope you all like the seventh chapter of Cassie! Please review, flame, critique, whatever you want. See ya!

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, the Next Generation, or any of the characters mentioned in Deathly Hallows. I do, however, own Frank Longbottom II and Alice Longbottom II, as well as Cassie Malfoy and any other characters that were not mentioned or named by J.K. Rowling.

Second Year – Age Twelve

Cassiopeia's Point of View

September first came by faster than I would have thought. Come eleven o' clock that morning, I found myself on the Hogwarts Express, sitting in a compartment with James, Fred, Lily, Roxy, Hugo, and Lucy. About halfway through the trip, however, I decided to go and see my brother before school started.

"I'm gonna go find Scorp," I told Lily. She nodded before turning back to talk to James.

I walked out of the compartment and toward the back of the train, where the Slytherins sat. After about five minutes of searching, I finally found my brother, accompanied by Albus Potter as always.

See, the thing about me and Potter is that we still aren't exactly the best of friends. We don't hate, hate each other anymore, but we definitely don't like each other. It seemed that that moment during Christmas months before was just that; a moment.

"Hey Scorp," I said as I walked into the compartment, "Potter."

Scorp grinned at me and Albus just nodded once in acknowledgement. "How are you, Cassie?" asked my brother.

I rolled my eyes. "No worse than I was two hours ago when we split up," I said. "Where are the other Slytherins?"

See, since starting school Scorpius had made friends with more than one other Slytherin. Before he met Potter he was friends with Desiree Zabini, Vincent Goyle, and Jeanine Parkinson. Well, not really friends, perhaps, but he was friendly with them. He wasn't anywhere near as close to them as to Potter, though.

"They're in a different compartment," said Scorpius with a shrug. "Something about some new first year, I believe."

"Oh," I said. "Well, then why are you two in here alone? Why not find a new compartment with more people in it?"

Scorpius coughed. "Well," he said. "Actually, we're not alone. Our, erm, companions will be here soon."

It took me a moment before I realized what he was talking about. When I did, my mouth fell open. "Eww!" I said. "I did not need to know that."

"That's not what I meant," said Scorpius, smirking. "But close enough. Geez, you would think that I was talking about having sex or something. Just because a guy snogs a fit girl doesn't mean they're gonna shag, Cassie."

"Ew," I said. "Just ew. I'm gonna leave now before I start to throw up at the fact that my brother is talking to me about his non-existent sex life."

My brother and his friend laughed at me as I walked out of the compartment, blushing and wishing I hadn't gone to see him. As I was walking back to the compartment that I was sharing with the Wotters, I accidentally found myself bumping into someone quite a bit taller than me; probably about Scorpius' size.

"Sorry," I said as I looked up at the boy. He was wearing Gryffindor robes and he looked familiar; I thought I had seen him talking to the older Wotters at some point. "Hi," I said. "I don't think we've met. My name is Cassie Malfoy."

"Nice to meet you," the boy said, smiling. I liked how his brown eyes shone when he did that. "My name is Frank Longbottom."

I smiled at him. "I think I've seen you around somewhere," I said, "Do you know the Weasley/Potters?"

"Yeah," said Frank. "My dad's their parent's friend. I've known them since we were in diapers. You're Scorpius' sister, right?"

"Uh-huh," I said. "Why? Does he talk about me? I haven't met many of his friends aside from the Wotters yet."

"No," said Frank, "He doesn't talk about anybody much. Al, though... He's pretty much always talking about you. You wouldn't believe how much. I know that he had you and Scorp over for the summer. Did he annoy you as much as he did me by talking about it?"

"Probably twice as much," I answered, trying to cover up my surprise at learning that Albus talked about me that much. "I will never understand what Scorpius saw in him when you guys were little. Personally, I like Lily better."

"Me too," said Frank with a grin. He winked. "But don't tell him that."

I laughed with him for a moment before we both stopped. There was a comfortable silence before he spoke again. "So," he said, "I take it you're on your way back from talking to your brother and Al then?"

"No," I said, shaking my head. "I'm on my way back from visiting my brother. The fact that Potter's there is entirely coincidental."

Frank nodded. "Yeah," he said, "I know you and him don't have the greatest track record. That's okay, though. Not many girls like him as a friend. Unfortunately I got lucky and my sister likes him as more than that."

He cringed a bit. "I heard about that," I said, "Is your sister alright, by the way? He wasn't exactly nice about that, according to Rose."

Frank shrugged. "He wasn't mean about it, either, though. I was pretty mad at him for making Ally sad for the first bit, but he really wasn't mean about it and I understand his reasoning. Ally's fine now. Al and I are good, too. I honestly didn't think they would last, anyway."

Frank laughed. "Anyway, let's talk about something other than my baby sister's dating life, shall we?"

I laughed a bit with him. "Sure," I said. "So, where were you on your way to when I bumped into you?"

"I was heading to go see a few of my friends in Ravenclaw," said Frank. "But if you'd like I can take you back to whatever compartment you're going to and then go."

"No," I said, shrugging, "You don't have to do that. I've actually gotta change into my school clothes anyway, and then I can walk myself back."

Frank nodded. "Well it was nice meeting you," he said, "I'll see you around."

I smiled. "You too," I said. "See you."

We walked our separate ways at that and I made my way to an empty compartment to change. After the Sorting, I found myself sitting again with the Wotters, stuffing my face with the amazing food that the houselves seemed to have had patented.

"So has anyone else noticed," said James suddenly, "Or am I just seeing things?"

James and Fred shared a look for a moment; I swear that those two have some secret language that they use to talk using just their eyes. Finally Fred grinned. "No," he said with a wolfish grin. "I noticed too."

"I'm sorry," said Hugo, "But, um, what exactly have you guys noticed?"

"Why, my darling cousin," said James with a smirk, "Fred and I have both noticed that a certain fourth year that we all know and love seems to have found his eyes permanently stuck to Cassie since we got off of the train."

I looked to the other side of the table, toward where they were pointing, and I saw what they were looking at. However, they were wrong. Frank wasn't looking at me; he was looking at the space next to me, where a certain green-eyed redhead that happened to be my best friend sat. His eyes met mine after a moment and I tilted my head slightly toward James in warning, to which Frank's eyes widened and he turned away, much to the glee of James and Fred, who chuckled.

"Hey," said Lily suddenly, "Is that Dean Finnegan down there?"

I looked where she was pointing - to the very end of the table on the other side - and saw what she was talking about - as well as the not-so-subtle change of subject. The boy that had been so rude to me on my first night the year before was sitting over there, seeming in a very bad mood, if his glare at the boy sitting across from him was any indication. They boy he was glaring at was one of the two that were with him that night; but I couldn't find the other one.

"Where's the other one?" I asked. "There were two with him last year."

"Oh," said Lucy, "Well, the one that's still there is Dean's brother Christopher, and the one missing is their friend Caleb Thomas. His dad, Dean Thomas, was Dean and Christopher's dad's best friend, and he moved the family to America for a couple of years this summer. They moved right before school started. Apparently their dad was pretty upset about it."

"Dang," I said, "That sucks." Something hit me. "So," I said, "I never did figure out last year what year they were in; they look a lot older than us."

"They're a year older than Freddy and James," supplied Roxanne. "But Dean can hardly cast a spell without blowing something up and Christopher isn't much better."

"Oh," I said. The conversation fizzled out to something else. Apparently Roxy wanted to try out for the Quidditch team this year and be a Chaser; personally, the idea appealed to me, too. The only problem was that, while mum and dad had given up pureblood prejudices, they hadn't given up everything. Dad was perfectly fine with me being in Quidditch, but mum wanted me to be a proper lady. I knew that to be allowed on the team I would have to ask dad to do some real buttering-up of mom.

Eventually the feast ended, like always, and I found myself walking up to the Gryffindor common room with the others, the conversation at the table earlier still on my mind. I pulled Lily aside quietly and quickly, taking her up to the dorm. "Frank likes you," I said quickly when the door had shut. "And you know it."

"What?" Lily tried to play stupid.

"You know what I mean," I said. "He was staring at you today, at the table. And when I saw him at the train earlier he kind of hinted that he liked you. And then you tried to change the subject earlier when James said something. You like him back."

"Yes," said Lily, "Okay? I like Frank. But that doesn't mean anything. James would kill us, let alone what Al would do. And besides, he's two years older than me! He and I have talked about it, at the Christmas party. We both agreed to wait a few years and then if we still had feelings, then and only then would we do something about it."

I frowned. "Fine," I said, "But I swear, this conversation isn't over."

"Bloody right, it's not," said a voice from the door.

In my haste to talk to Lily, I had sat us on the door closest to the bathroom - on the other side of the room from the door. Because of this, I had completely missed the sound of the door opening, and as I turned around, I realized the severity of my mistake as I was met with two pairs of brown eyes.

A/N: Sorry to bother you again but... Seriously review and tell me who you think came up! I wanna hear what y'all think before I go on. See you soon, guys!

-Cara