Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, the Next Generation, or any of the characters mentioned in the Deathly Hallows. I do, however, own frank and Alice Longbottom II, as well as Cassie Malfoy and any other characters that were not mentioned or named by J.K. Rowling.
Summer - Age Thirteen
Cassiopeia's Point of View
I made it to the train station with a grin on my face as I thought about what Roxy would look like when she realized that she had a new kitten. The kitten had been hidden throughout the trainride with Fred, who was in a different compartment than any of us, and would be going to stay with Rose's family until Roxy's birthday.
"Cassie!"
A grin lit up my face as my mum and dad ran over to me, my mum's face stretched into a grin as her arms reached out to hug me. I ran forward toward her and hugged her tightly, my head coming almost up to her ears. "Hi mum," I said happily.
My mum looked down at me and grinned, chuckling. "It's nice to see you Cassie," she said after a moment as I pulled away, her grin still firmly in place. As I was about to respond, however, two arms wrapping around me prevented it and I turned around to see my dad, a grin lighting up his own sharp features.
"Daddy!" I jumped and hugged him tightly, the top of my head only coming to his collar, and he laughed.
"Bonjour ma reine," dad said back. See, he'd been calling me "ma reine" since I was born, in reference to the origin behind my name.
See, Cassiopeia was the vain wife of King Cepheus of Ethiopia, whose constellation stands next to hers in the sky, and they're the only husband-and-wife couple among the constellations. According to legend, when Cassiopeia was brushing her hair one day she dared to say that she was more beautiful even than the sea Nereids. There were fifty Nereids and one of them was Amphitrite, who was married to Poseidon and implored him to punish Cassiopeia. In reply, the sea god sent the monster depicted in the constellation Cetus to ravage the coast of Ethiopia. In order to make te monster go away, Cassiopeia and Cepheus sent their daughter, Andromeda, to be chained to a rock in sacrifice. The constellation Cassiopeia is depicted in a throne, sometimes upright and sometimes upside-down as though she's about to fall out.
I dont know why, but apparently since naming me after the terrible queen, dad has called me "my queen" in french my whole life. I personally don't know why he would name me after such a tale, but there's not much I could do about it anyway, so que sera sera.
I grinned back at dad. "Bonjour, papa," I said back in French.
"Ready to go?" he asked me with a twinkle in his grey eyes.
I shook my head. "Gimme one second," I said.
Dad nodded and I turned and ran toward the Wotters. "Lily," I yelled. She looked at me from where she had been talking to the others. "I have to go!"
Instantly she ran and jumped into my arms, hugging me, and we fell, giggling. The way we fell, she was sitting on my legs, me lying flat on the ground. Just as I was getting up, though, suddenly another weight bounced onto my legs. "Dog pile!" my other best friend, Roxanne, yelled.
And thus, five minutes later, stomach hurting with my giggles, I finally managed to get the horde of Weasleys that had jumped on me off. I sat up again as the last one got off and brushed myself off. Before i could lift myself up, suddenly a hand came into my line of vision, trying to help me up. I looked up and stopped.
Albus was looking at me with his signature smirk. "Care for some help up?" he offered.
I nodded curtly and grabbed his hand, and he pulled me up as though I weighed nothing. As a matter of fact, because I was pushing myself up at the same time he was pulling, when I finally stood, I stumbled forward slightly and found myself falling facefirst into his chest. He caught me just before I did so and put me back upright. His smirk widened as he looked down at me, a good six inches over my 5'1 frame.. "I know girls usually fall for me pretty quick," he quipped, "But usually when they do it they're at least standing upright. Clumsy Cass."
I could feel my ears burn red, not in embarrassment, but in anger. "Stop calling me Cass!" I said. I punched his arm.
He didn't even seem like he felt it. Jerk.
"Sure thing, Cass," he answered with another smirk before turning on his heel, placing his hands in his pockets, and walking away. I stared after him for a moment with a glare before turning to the rest of the family, who were packing up. "Bye guys!" I called as I walked back to my parents. "See you soon!"
"See ya!" Lily yelled back. She blew me a kiss, which I caught. I laughed.
When I finally got back to mum and dad, Scorpius was already there from where he'd been saying goodbye to Rose - who he still hadn't gotten the guts to ask out. Apparently, even after Christmas he thought that she might not like him, that asking her would ruin their friendship or whatever.
My brother is the biggest idiot in the world.
"Done flirting then?" I asked him with my most innocent smile.
He glared at me and his usually pale cheeks turned a light shade of pink. "Shut up, Cassie," he answered.
Mum cut in. "Hush, both of you," she answered goodnaturedly. "Now, Cassie, grab you're brother's hand."
I looked at my brother and we exchanged glares, holding eye contact for a moment before dissolving into grins and taking eachother's hand. I took my mum's hand as well and just like that, a tugging at my navel that made me slightly nauseous alerted me to my being home.
I put a hand to my stomach, which hurt slightly, but the pain faded away soon after. I looked around myself, where my family was brushing themselves off. "Well then," said mum as she put away her coat and shoes. "How long do we have you this year?"
I felt a slight pang in my chest. I always left them so I could see Lily and the others, but I didn't mean to. "I can stay home this year," I answered. "I mean, I still want to see Lily and Roxanne and Lucy, but they can come over, can't they?"
"Hey!" said Scorpius. "If this house is being bombarded with girls, I want to invite my friends too."
"Tell you what," my father offered. "If both of you can make it through the first month, after all the birthdays are over you can each have your friends over for the rest of the summer if their parents agree. Deal?"
My mother nodded her head in agreement. "Sounds fair," I said.
"Deal," my brother answered.
My father smiled again. "Now that that's settled," he said, "Who wants to go to the cenima?"
All of the birthdays passed quickly. They were amazing, and our parties were extremely fun. Roxanne loved the kitten, having thought I'd sold it already, and upon recieving it she took hardly a second to hug me tightly, along with the others, and squeal happily into my ear. I giggled at her enthusiasm.
True to their word, my parents talked to the Wotter parents and not only did Lily, Roxanne, and Lucy come over, but Scorpius was allowed to invite - who else? - Albus, but he also invited Desiree Zabini's brother, Daniel, and Vincent Goyle. Neither boy was a particularly nasty person, so I didn't have a problem with them. Potter, on the other hand? He was an evil that unfortunately it seemed I would have to endure.
The day that they all started to arrive came quickly. As the floo went off for the first time, I was up in my room getting dressed for the day. As I walked out to greet the others, I inspected myself one more time in the mirror.
My hair had grown since the beginning of the year, and it had started forming curls. Right then, it was up in a high ponytail that reached a couple inches under my midback and it was curling into small, loose ringlets toward the middle and bottom. I'd grown in height since getting off the train, and now I was a couple of inches taller than I was. I was wearing a pair of jean shorts that went to my mid-thigh and a Bulgarian National Quidditch Team jersey that was slightly oversized and went to a couple inches under my waist.
I walked down the stairs to the living room and saw Lucy and Roxy already standing there, along with Vincent Goyle and my brother. "Lucy!" I said with a grin. "Roxy!" They ran over to me and we all hugged tightly and laughed. Even though we'd seen each other only a couple of weeks before, it was still good to see them again.
The floo went off again and out stepped another redhead - Lily. I didn't even register the floo going off a second time as I quickly walked over to her and hugged her tightly before bringing her and the others to the stairs, helping them grab their bags. "Scorpius," I called as we startedwalking upstairs. "We'll be up here for a bit! Call if you want to see us!"
"Fat chance of that!" Scorpius called back.
I ignored my brother and ran upstairs with the girls, where we all sat on the bed in a circle, cross-legged. "So," I said, "Updates?"
"Nothing much on this end," said Lily. "Everything's pretty much the same."
"Same here," said Roxy.
"I've got something," Lucy said with a small, secretive smile. "But you can't tell anyone. It's supposed to be a secret."
"We won't tell," Lily, Roxy, and I all said in unison.
"Good," said Lucy. She leaned toward us and we did the same. "Alright... my mum's having another baby!"
All of us stood still for a moment, and Lucy leaned back with a satisfied almost-smirk on her face.
"Oh my gosh," I said after a moment. "Congratulations!"
"Thanks," Lucy said. "I'm really excited."
"This is gonna be great!" Roxy said.
"I can't wait!" Lily added.
"Me neither," admitted Lucy. "But it's really early on, and mum and dad think it's best to keep it a secret for now."
"Smart," I said. "So what's she like?"
"She's sick all the time," admitted Lucy. "But only in the mornings usually, and sometimes the afternoons. She can't eat a lot of her favorite foods anymore, and she gets cranky a bit easier. But she's happy, so I am too, you know?"
"I know what you mean," I said.
I looked outside, and the sky was still bright with the light of midday. I suddenly got an idea and grinned. "What do you say we celebrate with a game of Quidditch?" I suggest.
The girls grin and reach into their bags, which must have been put an undetectable extension charm on, since they pulled out their brooms from inside. "Let's do it," said Roxy. "But let's change first, yeah?"
The other girls agreed, and they left for a minute to change their clothes, agreeing to meet in the back yard.
The impromtu Quidditch game was played a few minutes later. Because there were so few of us, we decided to just split into teams of two - one chaser per team, one seeker. Lily and I were on a team and she decided to be seeker since she's got more talent at it.
We played until it got dark and our stomachs demanded to have nourishment. We came inside then, just in time for mum to tell me to wash up and get ready for dinner.
The rest of the summer was amazing. I loved being with my friends at my house, though I loved theirs, and I hardly saw the boys except for at meals. By the time it was time to go back to school, I was happy to go, but also sad to leave. The girls and I got our school things quickly and the morning of September 1 came with the promise of a good year.
