September 6, 1975 - Hogwarts

The overwhelming noise of the Great Hall at meal time had been difficult to get used to again. All around him, the Slytherins blathered on endlessly, and he only caught snippets of their various conversations as they discussed their correspondence excitedly. Coming from the silence of Malfoy Manor, the clamor was exhausting.

Yet another owl descended over their table, and Severus raised his brow at it as it ended its flight in front of him. Intrigued, he reached over to it and flicked open the letter, his eyes roving over the scrawled text.

Severus,

I hope you're settling in well at school, and that Cassiopeia is as well. You might wish to share this letter with her as well.

Two days ago, I received correspondence from your grandparents, for the first time in months. They have informed me of threats they received to their life, at the beginning of the summer, forced them to flee from their home. They have only now managed to inform us, however, they are still keeping their location undisclosed.

I will attempt to correspond with them further, but for now they ask us not to worry, as they are safe.

Please don't respond; this owl is my mother's and will return to her once it delivers this letter.

Love,

Eileen

"Anything interesting, Severus?" Avery drawled, leaning over across the table. Instinctively, Severus drew the letter closer to him, hiding it from view. He shook his head at his Housemate, who quickly lost interest and returned to his previous conversation.

Severus turned to Cassie, who was turned away from him and absorbed in a thick tome on Transfiguration, oblivious to the world around her.

"Cassiopeia?" he asked, perhaps slightly louder than was necessary. She turned to him with wide eyes, relaxing when he only passed her the letter in his hands.

She read it over, a furrow slowly appearing across her brow before she handed it back.

September 7, 1975 - Hogwarts

The next day, Cassiopeia settled into one of the common room's opulent sofas, glancing at the giant, ornate clock that hung on the wall opposite her.

Already, she'd been waiting more than fifteen minutes, and Dolores still had not shown up. Five more minutes and then I'm leaving, she promised herself with a sigh, arranging the notes that she'd brought over for what felt like the hundredth time.

"Nazyalensky?"

Finally.

"Hey, Dolores. How was your summer?" she asked pleasantly, moving over so the older girl could sit.

Looking her over while she answered, it was clear that Dolores had changed, somewhat, over the past few months. Gone were the bows and bright colors that used to adorn her hair, and in their place was a simple black headband, making her indistinguishable from most of her female Housemates. Had someone told her that such attire was usually frowned upon in the pureblood circles?

"... and McGonagall still hates me, so unless I polish up my skills, I'll keep barely passing the class." Dolores finished her rambling speech with a sigh. "It's so unfair how biased she is against us."

Cassiopeia bit her tongue in an effort to stop herself from berating her, and instead made a vague noise of agreement before pushing the rolls of parchment over to her. Dolores picked them up uninterestedly, glancing them over before tossing them back to the table.

She sighed dramatically, leaning back against the leather. "I wish she'd just piss off and stop acting so high-and-mighty. I mean, when are we ever going to use Transfiguration after we leave here?"

"It's probably necessary for some jobs," Cassie added half-heartedly. Honestly, she didn't much care that they weren't studying - she was being paid for her time, not her effort - but it seemed that at least one thing hadn't changed over the summer: Dolores was as whiny as ever.

The older girl rolled her eyes, smirking condescendingly. "I don't think that's something most of us will have to take into consideration."

"You don't want a job once you're married?" she asked, taking back the notes and reading them over herself. She'd had to research some advanced material to compile them, and it'd be a shame not to commit every single point to memory.

"And you do?" she responded with a slightly scornful laugh. "Well, of course you do… hanging out with people like him."

Cassiopeia stilled, looking up at her slowly. "Severus, you mean?"

"What did you think? He's the only one whose simple presence is degrading to our House."

"Because he's a half-blood," she replied flatly.

Dory nodded, as if it were obvious. "And poor, and ugly. It's honestly quite sad how hard he tries to fit in, when it's so obvious he doesn't belong here."

She'd had enough. "And you do?" she bit out angrily, meeting the older girl's eyes.

"Of course. Slytherin is the house of the great."

"You do seem to have an undeservedly high view of yourself," Cassiopeia retorted, standing up and snatching her notes. "And if you have a problem with who I'm – friendly with, then I guess there's no reason for us to associate anymore."

She strode out of the common room, her eyes burning, and her precious parchment clutched in her arms. She needed to get away, to calm down, before she said something worse.

Irrevocably, she was brought back to a similar incident, a month past.

It's not the same, she reminded herself angrily, hastening up the next set of stairs, unsure where she was really going. This time it's not -

"Cassie?"

"Severus – what the hell?" she asked, almost tripping as she spun around to face him. Standing a few metres in front of her, Severus ran his hand through his limp hair awkwardly.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you."

"It's fine – " she replied distractedly, glancing around to ensure they were alone. "How did you know I was here?"

He glanced back downstairs. "There was a lot of commotion in the common room, and I came down only to see you leaving." He shrugged bashfully.

"Wonderful," she sighed, turning to walk further. Unprompted, he fell into step beside her, but kept some distance between them. "I got into a fight with Dolores," she answered his unasked question.

"What about?"

She waved her hand dismissively. "It doesn't matter; some blood purity stuff."

Severus huffed in surprise, his stride faltering for a half-second. "That's daring."

"What – Why?"

"Did I never tell you? She's a half-blood."

"Oh," she answered simply, unsure what more could be said. Because if Dolores Umbridge wanted to insult herself, then who was Cassie to stop her?

September 10, 1975 - Hogwarts

The routine of school had been fairly easy to settle back into. So far, the new material that'd been introduced was fairly simple, although she knew it wouldn't last.

It is O.W.L. year, after all.

Gods, she was getting sick of hearing that phrase. It was an ever-present reminder from their professors to stop slacking off, as if the kids who never did any work would suddenly be motivated by a test hanging over their heads.

She refocused on the parchment in front of her, and her ink-spattered fingertips. Her mind was at once filled with distracting thoughts, and frustratingly empty when it came time to put them to paper.

Flitwick liked her well enough, although she doubted he'd be pleased if a scrawled, disjointed paragraph was all she turned in.

She was interrupted by Severus, who hovered above her reading place awkwardly, holding a couple of books against his chest.

"Yes, Severus?" she asked distractedly, barely glancing up before returning to her work.

"I – thought you'd like some of these. For the Charms essay," he explained, setting them on the table beside her. "I marked the best pages."

"Thank you," she smiled genuinely. Severus huffed, but the faintest of blushes began to appear on his pale cheekbones. "Of course."

A couple of hours later - it was difficult to tell time once the sun had set - she had exhausted her capabilities. It wasn't her best work, she surmised, gathering up her things, but it wasn't horrible. And for subjects she wasn't all that passionate about, that was usually good enough.

"Ten minutes 'till curfew, Miss Nazyalensky," Madam Pince reminded her none-too-gently as she locked the library doors behind the two of them. Cassiopeia gave her a small smile, unfazed by her surly attitude, and Pince waved her away.

She walked through the castle quietly, hearing every step echo across the hall. Outside, the sky was dark and clear; the fiercely shining stars only adding to the allure. It would be so easy to get lost in admiring all of it, she thought, if only Slytherin didn't reside in the dungeons, cutting all of them off from the sight.

"Silencio!"

The spell seemed to come from nowhere, hitting her calf before she could have time to react. Heart leaping from her chest, she took off running towards the common room entrance, not daring to waste even a second to see who had attacked her.

Strong arms grabbed her from behind before she was even close, closing over her arms in a bruising grip. She thrashed in the embrace, kicking wildly at her assailant, who only held on tighter.

She tried to scream, but the spell had done it's work and no noise was uttered from her throat.

"Stop fighting," the voice spoke close to her ear. "If you do, I won't hurt you."

Terrified, she stilled, and his grip on her slackened. It was only then that she noticed the shaking of her attacker's hands, as if he were just as scared of what was taking place as she was.

"What do you want?" she tried to ask, but in the end all that happened were her lips moving uselessly.

"If you scream - " the man holding her threatened, before performing the counterspell. For a few seconds afterwards, all she could do was breathe.

"What do you want from me?" Cassiopeia asked quietly several moments later, when it became clear that the man wouldn't speak. There was a tremor in her voice, and she hoped he wouldn't notice.

"You refused me."

"What – ?" she responded in complete confusion, and immediately regretted it as the hands tightened over her wrists once more. Apparently, that had been the wrong thing to say.

"Don't play dumb," he answered, his nails digging into her skin. "You refused me - my proposals, and – you're going to regret it. He – " her attacker broke off, his voice becoming high-pitched and panicked as he continued to speak. " – He is angry. You shouldn't have refused him."

"I – I haven't refused anyone."

'Yes, you have," he hissed into her ear. "Your guardian has. And you'll both regret it. He's going to kill you - he's going to kill me –"

Finally he released her, fleeing from the scene. He disappeared out of sight seconds later, his green-trimmed robes swishing against the wall.

Shell-shocked, she stood in the quiet hall for some time, simply tracing the bruises that had blossomed across her wrists.

Hogwarts wasn't supposed to be like this, was it?

Seconds later, she heard another set of footsteps, running the opposite way.

•••

Thank you everyone for reading, and to Silent Mayhem especially. I'd love to hear your thoughts about this chapter; it's amazing to me how close we are to having just as many reviews as chapters. See you soon, and I hope you all have a lovely week.