The dance was only one week away from happening and all the girls were visibly very excited about it. Cassie however was a bit indiferent.

"So girls, I bought this dress and I wanted your opinion on it" Said Marlene while showing off the dress.

"Oh it is gorgeous!" Said Lily. "I wish mine were as beautiful as yours!"

"What are you talking about Lils? Yours is really pretty!" Said Alice.

"Yours too! Actually all of our dresses are great! But I still didn't see yours Cassie."

"What? Sorry, I wasn't paying attention…" said Cassie while looking up from the book she was reading.

"Your dress! You're going to the ball with Sirius right?"

"Oh, well yes, but my dress is no big deal, it's really simple."

"By the way, you still didn't explain to us how this happened…" said Marlene.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, first you're suddenly going to the ball and second with Sirius Black?"

"Yeah Cas, it was quite a shock to us." Said Alice.

"Why? We are friends… How did you guys know about it by the way?" Cas asked.

"All the girls are talking about it. Saying a lot of mean stuff about you and well, at first we thought it wasn't true, but Potter said you agreed…"

"Oh, we are only going as friends… besides, it could be fun to do something different once in a while, why not?"

"Yeah, that's true… "

"And Lily what about you? Do you have a partner yet?" Marlene asked. Cas and Alice exchanged excited looks waiting for her to asnwer.

"…Yes, I decided to go with… Potter."

"WHAT? But you hate him? Why the sudden change of plans?" Marlene asked. Alice and Cassie just grinned to each other.

"Because I think he deserves a chance to prove if he has really changed like he says, and besides, he is a fun guy."

Marlene was left with a mouth wide open while Lily went to the bathroom to take her shower. Alice and Cassie continued talking about the ball and Alice told her how excited she was about going with Frank. Cassie was happy because she felt really close to Alice and she was a very sweet girl, it was a rather nice feeling interacting with her new friends.

The next day while Cassie was going to her classroom she noticed that a lot of girls kept bumbping into her. During the whole day they had been pushing her and saying sorries that were obviously meaningless. Then a group of girls pushed her so hard she fell down.

"Alright that's it! What the hell do you girls want?" She looked up angry at them.

"What do you mean? Do you want some help getting up?" Said one of the girls while the others giggled.

"I want to know why you keep bumbping into me! And no I don't want your help." Cassie said while she picked up her books that had scattered around the floor.

"It was an accident, don't be so conceited!"

"Yeah! The world doesn't turn around you!"

"Conceited? It is obvious you girls have been doing this on purpose! I'm not a fool!" Cassie said, finally getting up to face them.

"Well, you sure look like one." The girls laughed.

"You're really making me angry! If you girls bump into me again I promise you I won't be the only one falling down!" Cassie said and turned around to leave.

"Is that a threat?"

"Nope, just a warning."

"Well aren't we cocky?! Just because Sirius is taking you to the ball doesn't mean you're THAT special!" As soon as she heard that Cassie turned around to look at them again.

"So that's what this is about! You're from Sirius' fan club! Well, I sorry to break it to you, but bumbping into me or pushing me around won't make he ask you instead!"

"You're so ugly! Why did he pick you anyway?" A very pretty blonde girls said.

"I don't know, maybe because he enjoys my company more than yours… either way, we are only going as friends, so stop pushing me around because I can assure you, he won't start liking you if you keep bullying his friends!"

Cassie left the girls with the only expectation of being left alone, but her advice to the girls had the oposite effect. Since the girls found out she was a friend of Sirius Black they interpreted it as a way to get close to him, through her. And since then, instead of being pushed around, she was greeted by almost every girl in Hogwarts, and everyday they came up with a different gift for her. And along the gifts came letters talking about the girl who had sent it and how she would love to date Sirius.

"This is starting to get ridiculous!" Said Tom one morning while they were having breakfast and five owls came in Cassie's direction.

"It has been ridiculous since the start! This is really annoying!" Said Cass.

"At least now you're popular!" Said Grace.

"Who says I want to be popular? I miss having time to think! Now everytime I'm alone, some girl comes and starts talking to me! The worst part is that I know they don't even like me!"

"Lisa said that some girls in her dorm were saying you were so weird that maybe you would end up dating the giant squid… That doesn't even make any sense! She protected you by the way." Said Joshua.

"Say my thanks to her Josh, and ask her to tell them to bugger off!"

"Calm down Cass, this will probably end in a week or two, when they get tired of it." Said Grace.

"It's easy for you to say! You don't have a bunch of girls with second intentions folowing you around!"

"Why don't you talk to Sirius about it?" Asked Tom.

"And what exactly could he do about it? He doesn't have any power over them! Actually I'm the one who he asked for help! He must be in heaven now! Now I get why he didn't mind buying me that much chocolate frogs!"

"By the way, I want one!" Said Tom.

"Dream on! These frogs are the only light in the darkness of my life right now."

"Whoa, that was deep!" Said Josh.

"But it's the truth… Anyways, I'm gonna go and think of something to make these girls leave me alone, bye!"

"Good luck Cas!" Said Grace and Josh.

"And don't forget my chocolate frogs!" Said Tom.

"Yeah right." Said Cass before turning away and going towards the owlery.

While she walked around the castle she kept thinking of what she could say to those girls that would make them forget her existence. 'Maybe I could tell them that I will not say anything good about them to Sirius if they keep bothering me…' She thought, but as usual those days, she was interrupted. Someone was poking her from behind.

"OH MY GOD! Leave me alone for a second! I NEED PEACE!" Cassie turned around to see a shocked Sirius Black. "Oh, Sorry, I thoght you were someone else." He grinned.

"They came after you right?"

"You could have warned me about them!"

"I did! I told you what they did to me!"

"Yeah… but you didn't tell me what they would do to me!"

"I thought you would assume such a thing would happen."

"Nope! Didn't assume anything! Anyways, what do you want? I'm trying to figure a way of dealing with them and you're distracting me."

"I was walking around the castle and saw you, so I thought we could spend some time together, where are you going?"

"To the owlery, send a letter to my mom."

"You are very close to your mom right?"

"Yeah, she's the best. I'm very thankful to her, and the way she raised me, letting me be free to choose what I wanted to do… What about you? How's your mom?"

"… I don't really like to talk about my family."

"Hm, so you have family problems… It's ok, some people were born in the wrong families aparently… I mean… sorry! I don't even know what's the deal with your family, I shouldn't have said that."

"It's okay, I agree with you actually… You see, I'm a Black, and my family is a huge suppoter of Voldemort and his ideas about muggle-borns… I don't agree with them, and I actually like muggles, and also, my whole family has been sorted in Slytherin, I was the first one to change that… Mother was pissed! She sent me a howler on my second day of school… And now I'm considered a blood traitor."

"Oh… I didn't know about that…" Cassie stoped walking and turned around to face him. "But you know, I really meant what I said earlier, some people seam to have been born in the wrong family, and you should be proud of the person you turned out to be even though you only had bad influences in your house!" Cassie reached out her hands to touch his. "You turned out to be a good person, a great friend, and a loyal guy! That's not something anyone can teach you to be, so you should be proud of yourself and move foward without thinking of the bad things the Black household has done, because that's not you!"

"Well, I know that! But thanks Cas! And also, I'm not living with my mother anymore, I left the house and I'm staying at James' for a while."

"Oh! That's great then! I really didn't know that! So I'm glad you know who you are and well, if you need anything, just ask. And for the right amount of chocolate frogs I might help you!" She winked at him and resumed walking to the owlery.

"You're a very greedy girl you know that?"

"It's called business my friend!"

They continued talking about random things until they reached the owlery. There he helped her write her mother a letter and even wrote a few messages to her as well. 'Well, she will be happy to see I have made more friends' Cassie thought while Sirius wrote another message in her letter.

Hi mom, how's it going over there? Remember the ball they announced in the beginning of the year and that I told you I wasn't going? Yeah, I changed my mind and I'm gonna go with a friend of mine. A very handsome one by the way. He is Sirius Black! And he is very nosy writing stuff in my letter! Anyways, thanks for putting the dress secretly back into my luggage, it was very helpful. Miss, I hope you have a good sense of fashion because my partner MUST look awesome. Ignore that mother and don't worry, I'll take a few pictures! Love you! Byee

"You're really gonna send it like that?" Sirius asked while she put the letter in her owls leg.

"Sure, she will be happy to see I've made even more friends. She's aways worried thinking I'm too lonely."

"Your mom sounds great!"

"Well, she is one of a kind… You're really ok with this kind of family talk?"

"Oh, I'm not an emotional guy! I don't really mind that. Besides, I consider James and my friends in the Gryffindor house more as a family than my own actual family."

"So that would make me your sister!"

"I guess that's why I can stand you!"

"Stand me?! I'm the one who's standing you sir!"

"Whatever, we should go before one of these owls decide to poop in our heads."

"Oh that's right, I still need to go and talk to those girls…"

"So this is where we say good bye!" He reached out his hand do shake hers but she avoided it.

"Wait, and why is that?"

"You just want to avoid any more trouble with those girls, and being with me, alone in the owlery isn't a good start…"

"…I guess I understand your point... But it is stupid!"

"What?"

"So you are suggesting we can't ever be alone anywhere, even if it is just talking, because people might think we are up to no good?"

"Well, I guess that was the suggestion…"

"But if we are friends wouldn't that be stupid? I mean, we are pretendind to ne distant with each other, but we are friends. And also, we are doing things like this on others behalf? That's stupid! So I say we walk out of here together because we are friends who went to the owlery to send a letter to my mom!" She reached his hand and pulled him out along with her. "And don't worry about the girls, I'll deal with them myself."

The only thing Sirius could think about at that moment was how Cass was an awesome person. He already liked her as a friend, but as he grew to know her better he was beginning to admire her as a person. He also felt like spending more and more time with her, but he didn't quite think about the reason, he just thought it was a friendly interest, at least that's how it began.


And here it is, the beginning of feelings! I get super excited and a bit shy writing these parts! I think, if everythig goes as planned, next chapter will already be the ball! Crazy things happen at balls... just saying. ;)