She sighed in irritation at the childish antics taking place before her. A year ago, she would've been amused by her cousin's nonsensical need to tease and taunt Potter, but she'd changed in some way she couldn't quite comprehend. She'd been freer then, lighter of heart, yet something had altered her state of thought, and with an indifferent glance towards the muggleborn at Potter's side, she had a rather good idea where the tainting of her soft spirit truly began.
"Draco," she quietly said, a warning carried clear within her demure voice.
But her cousin didn't hear what should've been heard or seemingly care that she'd spoken at all, and, instead, he waggled his fingers at Potter with his robe's hood covering his head, imitating, rather poorly, the appearance of a deadly dementor.
Granger sent the obnoxious brat a sneer as she grabbed her friend's shoulder, turning him away from her immature cousin, but before she'd joined Potter in looking away, her brown orbs briefly met Cassiopeia's own light-blue ones, and there was something within them that the pureblood didn't appreciate one bit.
'What do you want now, Granger?' the girl wondered, giving the muggleborn a frostily polite smile.
A throat being cleared caused her head to turn, and she found the giant of a man who'd led them into the Forbidden Forest, albeit not deeply, and had left the class of third years alone for a minute or two, evaporating any doubt she'd held that the man was fit to teach them anything at all.
"Da-da-da-da!" he cried, imitating an instrument she'd heard many a time, but couldn't quite place.
Pivoting upon one massive foot, he stepped aside and rapidly waved his giant, robust arms, revealing a feathered horse that had been well-hidden behind his gargantuan frame.
"Isn't he beautiful?" the giant man asked, awe clear as day upon his bearded lips, and Cassiopeia would silently admit she too felt quite amazed by the sight of the majestic avian-steed.
Unlatching a dead rodent from a bandolier attached to his chest, he tossed it towards the creature, which caught the morsel from the air with a snap of its large beak-snout, giving a satisfied chirp as it gobbled down its unliving treat.
"Say hello to Buckbeak," the man continued, and Cassiopeia, against her better judgement, smiled and gave the beast a small wave, hoping to herself that none had seen her silly display.
"Hagrid…" Weasley quietly began, his voice unnaturally nervous to Cassiopeia's well-shaped ears. "Exactly what is that?!"
"That, Ron, is a hippogriff," he replied with a small chortle, then, before Cassiopeia's keen eyes, the giant man's expression lost all lightness and became entirely solemn, which rather alarmed her. "First thing you want to know about hippogriffs is that they're very proud creatures, very easily offended. You do not want to insult a hippogriff. It just may be the last thing you ever do…"
'And why, precisely, are you introducing us, a gaggle of immature, defenceless children, to a creature who has strong inclination for slaughter upon perceived insult?!' Cassiopeia silently wondered, more alarmed than ever by the giant of a man's grim warning.
"Now," he continued on, clapping his large hands together as his tone returned to something more light, which the girl found as disturbing as his previous statement had been. "Who'd like to come and say hello?"
Her eyes bulged at the offer, and she, along with the entirety of her assembled classmates, took a large step back, only for her to note that one individual had foolishly not.
"Well done, Harry! Well done!"
"Does Potter have a death wish?!" Zabini quietly hissed from behind the girl, and she too found herself wondering the same.
The way he turned and glanced at his yearmates in shock, however, made her wonder if he instead simply had no concept of fear, as though the desire of not wanting to be murdered was something entirely unknown to him.
"This ought to be good," her cousin whispered, his tone eager, speaking of his desire to witness his rival mauled by the beautiful beast.
She ignored his quiet quip and watched with bated breath as the scarred boy approached Buckbeak, showing manners that one would normally reserve for only the purest of pure, although Cassiopeia wouldn't be above making such an exception herself for a creature that could so simply sunder her in two with a single snap of its perilous beak.
She gasped as the beast spread its large wings and gave out a mighty squawk, showing obvious sign of imminent attack, and even Hagrid, for what little credit she gave to the giant man, seemed to understand its lethal intent, hissing at Potter to make a swift retreat.
The boy made his move, but he didn't make it far, as with a single, sloppy backpedaling step, he snapped a branch in two, and Cassiopeia watched in fascinated horror as the beautiful beast prepared its deadly descent upon his helpless form.
"Merlin…" she breathlessly hissed, grasping her cousin's right hand within her left, giving it a firm enough squeeze so as to cause him to groan in pained distress.
"Keep still," the giant man muttered, barely loud enough for her to hear despite his voice's booming nature. "Keep…still."
The boy still bowed, and Buckbeak still showed sign of agitation, but as though Merlin himself had smiled upon the occasion, the beast bent at the neck, returning the bow with such formality that Cassiopeia found herself wondering if the creature had some higher sentience that defied what she knew.
"Oh-ho-ho!" the giant man laughed, not a shred of amusement tinging his tone, but instead relief that Cassiopeia understood with uncomfortable ease. "Well done, Harry. Well done."
"Cass!" Draco hissed, yanking at her tight grasp, and without a thought to it, she let him go, never taking her eyes or her focus off the bold boy and the beautiful beast before him.
In the next moment, Potter slowly began to approach the creature, and she knew then and there that he did, in fact, have a concept of fear, as he twitched and jerked and trembled with every minuscule movement the thing made. He was brave, however, and she understood that now, although she'd never admit this realization to her cousin, as the scarred child continued his approach, obvious fear weighing down his every step, until, at long last, he gave it a cautious pat upon its finely-feathered head.
'Amazing,' she thought to herself, giving her fingers a twitch and a curl in an attempt to imagine what it felt like to stroke the flighted steed. 'Truly so. Truly.'
"I think he may let you ride him now."
"What?!" Potter choked out, sending their giant teacher, who'd spoken those utterly insane words, an alarmed look.
"What?!" Cassiopeia quietly queried, doing much the same.
The giant man picked him up by the waist without a shred of hesitation or visible effort, ignoring Potter's protests with nary a thought, depositing the boy onto the hippogriff's massive back, then giving it a good swat upon its large hindquarters, which caused it to rear up on two legs and take off at sprint.
'He…did not just do that…' the girl bemusedly told herself, blinking through her shocked disbelief as Potter screamed for his life atop the galloping beast.
And then the two were airborne, and her jaw dropped open wide, only to realize what manner of face she was making, clicking her bright-white teeth shut with an audible clack.
"He's…a madman…" she muttered, sending the Care of Magical Creatures professor a wary, distrustful glance, and wondering to herself if Professor Snape could switch her elective over to anything else or if it was simply too late.
"Perfect Potter at it again," her cousin spitefully murmured, which caused Cassiopeia to shift her wary sight from their giant teacher to Draco himself.
The next few minutes crawled by in a slow drawl, and whilst her class, mostly the Gryffindors, chatted amongst themselves concerning their own turn at flight abroad, Cassiopeia spent the time eyeing her cousin's growing displeasure.
'Don't,' she silently warned, watching anger and jealousy burn bright within his gray orbs as Buckbeak and Potter made their belated return.
The class cheered and celebrated, clapping and clamoring in thoughtless excitement, but her eyes never lost sight upon her cousin's, and they never retracted their silent, unacknowledged warning.
Shoving aside Crabbe and Goyle, he attempted to make his way towards the beast as he opened his mouth and began to spew utter foolishness from it.
"Yes, you're not ack-!"
She was upon him before he'd traversed more than three paces, grabbing the scruff of his green robe and giving it a good, hard yank, effectively pulling him away from the deadly animal with all the strength she could muster.
"Wha-" he began, turning outraged eyes upon her, showing Cassiopeia a sneer usually reserved for Potter, and Potter alone.
"Draco, do not think less of that beast in spite of Potter or blind yourself to the danger it represents!" she quietly hissed, begging him to regain his senses through her terrified, pleading eyes. "Please, Draco, do not allow this silly agitation to lead you to death before my very sight!"
"Cass-" he began, his outrage and sneer leaving him as her horrified, heartfelt plea washed over his fine features.
"Please, Draco, you know I speak true when I state you may very well perish for taunting that thing!" she quietly continued, grasping at his delicate hands using her own, desperate to keep his egotistical, blind self away from the creature even at risk of schoolwide embarrassment for her emotional display.
"A…all right, Cass, all right!" he hissed, glancing about the crowd, no doubt checking to see if any had caught what he'd been on the verge of rather foolheartedly doing.
He may have conceded her point, but she would not release her grasp until another student stepped forward to try their own, less foolish hand at hippogriff taming. She kept her eyes averted from the crowd, who didn't seem collectively aware of what had nearly occurred and what, in fact, had.
"Thank you," he suddenly murmured, his quiet reply speaking of embarrassment and hesitation, but appreciative all the same.
"I would find myself within a pit of eternal night should you leave my side, dear cousin," she whispered, grasping, once more, his right hand within her left. "Please, Draco, do keep that in mind and cease worrying me so."
He didn't part his lips to reply, but her smaller hand grasped within his larger own became a little more tight and a little more firm, and she decided that was entirely enough for her to know what needed be known.