Chapter Two: Cool Girl
A/N: It's technically Boxing Day here in Australia, but Merry Christmas to all of those for whom it's still Christmas Day! I hope y'all enjoy this update.
I'm a, I'm a, I'm a cool girl, I'm a, I'm a cool girl
Ice cold, I roll my eyes at you, boy
~ Cool Girl, Tove
Cass sighed deeply as she leaned against the frosted panes of the greenhouse window. Michael was attempting to flirt with Zacharias to get some stuff for cheap again. She didn't have the heart to tell him that Zacharias seemed more interested in Lisa, who could not have been less attracted to the blonde Hufflepuff boy. Cass was just on the periphery, observing the jumbled mess of chaos that was...well, whatever was unfolding in front of her.
"Can we get a move on? We've got class tomorrow, you know."
Zacharias threw her an irritated look. "What, is it bedtime, Barbie?"
Cass ground her teeth. Merlin's beard, she hated that nickname. Theodore Nott and some of his Slytherins had coined the term back in first year, purely because of Cass's blonde hair. It seemed it had caught on. Michael threw her a meaningful look, and she held her hands up, keeping her mouth shut. It was Lisa he should have been worried about.
"Is this...weed?" She sounded almost unimpressed. "This whole time you've been calling it 'happy herbs' and it's just weed."
"We love weed," Michael spluttered as Zacharias's brow creased into a frown. He pressed several Sickles into the boy's hand, and Zacharias sighed and handed over a small plastic bag. Cass didn't know exactly what 'weed' was, and thought it must be some kind of Muggle drug. Sometimes, growing up pure-blood had its drawbacks.
The trio headed away from the greenhouse, parting ways with Zacharias and heading back to the dorm. Michael had a spring in his step, and Cass didn't know if she should attribute it to being back at Hogwarts or his crush on Zacharias. Honestly, Michael had a terrible taste in boys. Girls, not so much.
"We're not smoking that tonight." Cass shook her head. "We've got class tomorrow. Defence Against Dark Arts is up first."
"Ahh, worried you won't be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed for daddy dearest?" Lisa threw her a wicked grin and nudged her in the side.
"Cass," Michael piped up, "I have to say something and you can't be mad at me."
Her eyes narrowed. "Depends what it is."
"Your dad is attractive. Like...nerd attractive but still."
Cass mimed retching. "If it's not my mum, it's my dad. What's wrong with you lot?"
"Your mum is a babe," Lisa agreed, "Look, all we're saying is that your parents were real young when they had you, so they're still relatively young and not at all bad looking."
"Disgusting, all of you." Cass shook her head, ponytail swishing from side to side. "Anyway, what electives did you pick?"
"Muggle Studies and Care of Magical Creatures." Lisa shrugged, rolling her eyes at Michael's raised eyebrows. "Yes, I know my parents are Muggles but it's interesting to learn about them from a wizarding perspective."
"Ancient Runes and Divination." Michael smirked. "Soon, my friends, you will be begging me to tell you your futures. Will you meet a tall, dark and handsome stranger?"
Cass snorted. "Divination's bullshit. But I picked it too. Care of Magical Creatures as well."
They headed into the common room, Michael and Lisa quietly discussing the best place for them to do the weed discreetly. They were interrupted by someone waving enthusiastically from across the common room, drawing their attention.
"Hey, Cass!"
It was Roger Davies, a fifth-year fellow Ravenclaw who had just become Captain of the Quidditch team. It also didn't hurt that he was extremely good-looking with warm brown skin, dark eyes and hair. Cass didn't know why he was calling her, considering she didn't know him overly well. Lisa and Michael were both wearing smug smiles. She ignored them and headed over to Roger, trying her best to play it cool.
"Erm, hi Roger."
"We're looking for some new blood for the team this year." He leaned against the wall, folding his arms over his chest. "Your parents both played for the Slytherin team. Seems like Quidditch is in your blood. Wanna give it a go?"
"Oh." Cass hadn't known that Evan played Quidditch. Of course she hadn't known, of course Phoenix hadn't told her. She knew that Phoenix had played as a Chaser on the Slytherin Quidditch team, but that was about all.
"Are you in?" Roger persisted.
"Uh, I'll give it a shot." Cass couldn't help but smile. In what world did hot fifth-years like Roger pay attention to her? "When are try-outs?"
"Friday, 4:30pm sharp." Roger gave an answering smile, his pearly white teeth gleaming. "Hope I see you there."
Cass nodded vigorously, glancing over at the foot of the stairs where Michael and Lisa were giving her the thumbs up. She rolled her eyes and tried to brush it off as she approached them, noting their smirks.
"Cut it out."
"Come off it, I didn't know you were mates with Roger Davies." Michael's gaze followed the fifth-year as he returned to sit with his friends. "He's so fit, and he asked you to try out for the Quidditch team."
"He's just being nice," Cass insisted, though she could feel a flush creeping into her cheeks. She hoped it was more than just Roger being nice, but why would he take her seriously? She was thirteen and he was fifteen. She was probably a stupid little kid to him.
"So, are you gonna do the weed with us?" Lisa waved the small bag under Cass's nose, making her snatch it from her friend's grasp. Her uncle was on the run and her dad was teaching at school. Maybe a little weed wouldn't hurt anyone. After all, what was the worst that could happen?
"I can't believe I agreed to let you pierce my nose," Cass wailed as she and Lisa headed down to the Great Hall for breakfast. It was their first day of class, and of course they had Defence Against the Dark Arts first. While they'd been high, Michael and Lisa had convinced Cass she would look great with a stud in her nose, and one impulsive decision later, Cass had a glittering silver stud in her left nostril.
"Relax, you can barely even tell it's there," Lisa assured her.
"Hey, Cass! Nice piercing!" Terry called from where he and Anthony were scoffing down eggs and toast. When Cass gave Lisa a pointed glare, her friend held up her hands.
"Okay, it's a little obvious. But it looks great, I swear."
Cass knew she was going to get in so much shit from Remus about this, especially as she certainly had possessed a nose piercing before she'd started third year. As she sat down to breakfast, someone swatted her on the shoulder, making her turn with a scowl. It was Malfoy, backed by his usual cronies and holding a rolled-up copy of the Daily Prophet.
"Thought you might want to read this, Rosier." He deposited the newspaper on her lap. "Looks like your blood traitor mother's under fire."
"Get lost, Malfoy," Lisa barked, while Cass stared down at the headline blaring up from the newspaper.
BLACK'S SISTER UNDER INVESTIGATION
Cass snatched up the Daily Prophet, doing her best to stop herself from gaping at the article. This was referring to her mum. There was a moving picture of Phoenix on the cover, scowling as she exited St Mungo's in her mediwitch robes. Did they think Phoenix had something to do with Sirius escaping Azkaban? She started reading.
Following the escape of notorious mass-murderer Sirius Black, attention has shifted to Mr Black's younger sister and sole surviving immediate family member, Phoenix. Ms Black, 32, as she firmly insists on being referred to by her maiden name, is married to one of her older brother's friends, Remus Lupin. Mr Lupin, 33, has recently gained a teaching position at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He and Ms Black share one child, 11, who has started at Hogwarts this year.
One cannot help but wonder, however, whether they are innocent in Mr Black's escape. Mr Lupin is also the adoptive father of Ms Black's daughter, 13, from her first marriage to known Death Eater, the late Evan Rosier. Ms Black and Rosier were married from 1978 until his death in 1980. Though there is speculation as to whether Ms Black knew of her husband's Death Eater status or not, it remains unlikely that she was entirely ignorant.
Following the arrest of Mr Black, Ms Black launched an appeal to his conviction by the Wizengamot, although this was overturned due to a lack of evidence. It seems more than coincidental that Ms Black has many connections to Lord Voldemort's supporters, and investigation continues into whether she may have had a role in Mr Black's escape from Azkaban.
"What a load of rubbish," Lisa scoffed from where she had been reading the article over Cass's shoulder, "Anyone who knows Phoenix would be aware she wouldn't have anything to do with that sort of nonsense."
Cass bit her lip, determined not to voice her doubts. She'd heard Remus and Phoenix arguing over whether Sirius was guilty. What if Phoenix did have something to do with his escape? Suddenly, she didn't have an appetite at all, and she pushed her plate across to Michael as he joined them at the table.
There was so much about Phoenix that Cass didn't know, so much about her past that she kept hidden. Before she'd gotten together with Remus, Phoenix had been married to a known Death Eater for two years. She had known exactly what Evan was. Cass, however, knew very little about her biological dad other than what she'd read in the newspaper, or what Remus and Phoenix had told her.
"Come on, you lot." Padma called as she passed them by. "We've got DADA first. With the Slytherins, can you believe it?"
Cass eased herself to her feet, abandoning the newspaper at the table. Suddenly, her getting a nose piercing seemed like it would be the least of Remus's concerns.
"Good morning, class." Remus's gaze raked over the assembled group of Ravenclaws and Slytherins as they filed into the classroom. "No need to take a seat. We're going to be going to one of the staff rooms. There's a creature there that we're going to be dealing with for today's lesson."
Excited murmurs rose amongst the students, and Lisa tossed Cass a wicked grin. She kept in a huddle with the rest of her friends to avoid Remus seeing her piercing and grilling her about it, meanwhile wondering what her dad was going to be teaching them about. As he led them into the staff room, Cass lingered at the back of the class with her friends.
"In today's lesson, I'm going to be introducing you all to a Boggart." Remus's green eyes swept over the class. "Can anyone tell me what a Boggart is?"
Cass recognised the name, but resisted the urge to raise her hand to avoid drawing attention to herself. Instead she let Pansy Parkinson throw her hand in the air, and Remus gestured to her to answer.
"Isn't it a shapeshifter?"
"Correct. What does it represent?"
Terry put his hand up this time. "The worst fear of the person observing it."
An uneasy silence settled over the class. A few of the Slytherin boys, Malfoy and Theodore Nott, were joking amongst each other to break the tension. Cass swallowed and lifted her chin, realising she had no idea what her worst fear even was. She had been so young when the First Wizarding War ended, so she had no experience with untold horrors.
"What we're going to do today is practise the Boggart-Banishing Spell." Remus examined the class with his hands clasped behind his back. "You will confront the Boggart in turn, and in your mind I want you to picture something funny that your worst fear might change into. When you utter the spell, 'Riddikulus', the Boggart will change into something amusing."
Cass felt someone's hand brush against her own and realised that Lisa had reached for her hand. Her friend's expression was worried. Cass took Lisa's hand and gave it a gentle squeeze, offering her a reassuring smile. She trusted her dad, as a person and as a teacher. When Remus called for a volunteer to go first, Cass released Lisa's hand and stepped forward. She had to prove to the class, to everyone, that Remus was someone to be taken seriously.
"I'll go first."
Remus's brow furrowed briefly as he noticed the stud in Cass's nose, but he just nodded and gestured for her to move forward. She took a deep breath and held her wand steady as he crossed over to open the cabinet, where the Boggart was banging around frantically. Whatever came out of that cabinet, she would face it. She would handle it.
"Ready, Cass?"
She nodded. Remus opened the cupboard and the rattling stopped. Heart hammering in her chest, Cass braced herself. What did she fear? How could she not even know? A cloaked figure in black stepped out of the cabinet, and when they raised their head, her stomach twisted when she recognised the shining silver mask of a Death Eater. Swallowing hard, Cass's fingers trembling around her wand.
The Death Eater reached up to remove their mask, and for a moment of pure horror, she thought that it might be her father's face behind the mask. Instead, it was her own face, smirking back at her. She felt like she had been punched in the gut, the wind knocked out of her. It was her, as a Death Eater.
"Riddikulus," she choked out, waving her wand at the other version of her. Immediately, the Death Eater Cass started doing cartwheels, earning crows of laughter from her classmates. Cass wanted to think it was funny, but there was something horrifying about the realisation of her fear, and she fled the room.
Pressing herself against the wall outside the room, she drew in several shaky breaths in an attempt to calm herself. She didn't know what she'd anticipated, but it hadn't been that. Was that what she would have become, had Evan survived? She could hear the chorus of laughter from inside the room, which only made tears of frustration well in her eyes. Why couldn't she get her shit together?
"Cass?" Remus walked out of the staff room, concern etched across his features. "Are you okay?"
"I don't know," she said in a small voice, tears threatening to blur her vision once again, "I guess...I didn't think that was how it was going to go."
Remus reached into his robes and drew out a half-eaten block of chocolate. When he offered her a few pieces, Cass gratefully accepted and nibbled on it. Here at Hogwarts, she was his student, and he had to behave in a professional manner. He sighed and rested a hand on her shoulder.
"It's always hard the first time."
"I saw the article in the Daily Prophet," Cass murmured, "About Mum, and how they think she had something to do with Sirius escaping Azkaban. Is that what you think too?"
"Of course not." Remus shook his head vehemently. "There's a lot of history that your mum has, with her brother and with the Death Eaters. It's not my place to disclose all of it. But I don't for a single moment believe that she's responsible for any of this."
A small smile curved the corners of Cass's lips. If Remus thought that Phoenix didn't have anything to do with it, then he was probably right. One of the infuriating things that Cass had found throughout her childhood was that Remus was almost always right. He inspected her closely, shaking his head slowly.
"Cass, what in the name of Merlin is that in your nose?"
Cass showed up for Ravenclaw Quidditch tryouts as promised, deciding she wanted to go for a position as Keeper. Or maybe she'd just rocked up because she was hoping to chat with Roger again. Michael wasn't wrong, he definitely was fit. She watched as he laughed with Cho Chang, the team's fourth-year Seeker. When he noticed her, a grin crossed his lips and he jogged across the pitch toward her.
"Ah, Cass! You made it."
She fought back the urge to blush, tossing her blonde braid over her shoulder. "Of course I did."
Michael and Lisa were in the stands, sharing an assortment of snacks. Neither of them were the type to try for the Quidditch team. Cass considered what she did know about the team. Last year's Keeper and the previous Captain, Grant Page, had just graduated. They were a fairly tight-knit bunch who didn't often change their set-up unless there was an opening, though they would hold try-outs to be fair and to see if there was room to add new blood to the team.
Cass tapped her fingers against the broom she'd been given to use for the try-out—an old Cleansweep model. It would do the job, although Cass couldn't say she'd ever played before. Her past two years at Hogwarts she'd been content in the stands. First-years weren't allowed to play, unless of course they happened to be Harry Potter.
When it was her turn, Cass tried to ignore her jumble of nerves, climbing onto the Cleansweep and whizzing over to the goalposts. She concentrated as Roger and his two buddies headed down the pitch toward her, tossing the Quaffle between them. When one of them—Randolph Burrow, in the year above her—hurled the Quaffle toward the middle hoop, Cass sped over and kicked it out of the way.
"Come on, Randolph!" The other Chaser, a sixth-year student called Jeremy Stretton, chastised him. "You're gonna get your ass kicked by a little girl?"
"Hey, don't be rude," Roger responded, and Cass couldn't help but smile at the fact that he was defending her, "Doesn't matter what year she is, if she's a good Keeper, she's a good Keeper."
"Yeah, okay." Jeremy streaked down toward the other end of the pitch. The Chasers came for her five times, and Cass managed to save four goals. She thought it was a fluke thing, and fully expected them all to brush it off. It was only after the Keeper try-outs finished that Roger headed over to where she was sitting on the bench with Michael and Lisa.
"Guess what, Cass? You made the cut. You're our official new Keeper!"
"What?" Cass laughed aloud as she scrambled to her feet, almost tripping over Lisa's boots in the process. "That's...wow, that's fantastic!"
"You did great out there." Roger touched her arm, his smile warm and his brown eyes glimmering with joy. "Glad to have you on the team."
Cass didn't think anything could burst her bubble of euphoria. "Thanks."
"Nice stud," Roger said, and she must have looked perplexed because he laughed, "Your nose piercing. I like it. It suits you."
He headed back down the pitch to talk to the others, but Cass couldn't quite overcome the feeling of pride. She wouldn't overthink the fact that he'd said he liked her nose piercing, or that he touched her arm. He was just being friendly. Nonetheless, colour rose in her cheeks, and she found herself watching Roger's every move.
"Aw, you're blushing," Michael teased, his eyes flicking to Lisa, "I think someone might have a crush on Roger Davies."
"Shut up, you're absurd," Cass retorted, but she couldn't quite fight back her smile, "What a ridiculous idea."
"Speaking of Riddikulus." Lisa draped a casual arm around Cass's shoulders. "That was an awesome class your dad had today. I think he's got to be the best DADA professor we've had so far!"
Michael scoffed. "Considering Quirrell was a You-Know-Who fanatic and Lockhart was a lunatic, that's not saying much."
"Come on." Lisa practically jumped to her feet. "We need to go back to the common room and have a butterbeer to celebrate our little Keeper here."
With her arms linked through those of her friends, with Roger waving goodbye to her from across the pitch, Cass couldn't help but feel like she was on top of the world. Her Boggart and Sirius on the run forgotten, she accompanied the pair back to the Ravenclaw common room, thrilled by the promise of butterbeer.