As the first week of classes passed, Cassandra noticed a marked change in the behavior of the general student population towards her; namely, that no one seemed to be paying any attention to her at all. All everyone was talking about was Harry Potter. The boy-who-lived seemed to be the new celebrity student Hogwarts couldn't get enough of.
"This is brilliant, Klaus!" She said to the raven, who'd come to greet her as soon as she stepped foot outside the castle. The bird was now perched on her right shoulder as she made her way to Professor Silvanus Kettleburn's Care of Magical Creatures classroom, which had been transfigured from Hogwarts' former hippogriff stables, since the magical animals hadn't been bred at the school since the turn of the century. "No one cares about me! I haven't been approached by a single first year asking me if my parents were the ones who killed their uncle during the war or some other nonsense. As if they left me a list of everyone they hurt before being carted off to Azkaban."
The raven cooed in agreement, and Cassandra continued walking to class. Professor Kettleburn was a favorite among students of all Houses, and she was excited to study magical creatures under his tutelage. Her own grandfather was a renowned potion-maker, who insisted that growing the plants and keeping the animals from which the ingredients used in one's potions were harvested was the only way to properly ensure their quality. As a result, after moving into Lestrange Manor to take up the guardianship of his granddaughter when she was five, Cygnus Black III had had the property's aviary and stables upgraded, build a large greenhouse and moved all sorts of magical creatures into the woods that circled the property. Since she was a little girl, Cassandra's time away from her lessons had been occupied by taking care of plants and animals alongside the house-elves. She'd been able to continue her study of plants in Professor Sprout's Herbology class since first year, but it hadn't been until this year that, as a third year student, she'd been able to take Care of Magical Creatures as an elective class.
Klaus' menacing croak brought her out of her musings, and she whipped her head around to see who her familiar was threatening. The Weasley twins, Lee Jordan and Angelina Johnson apparently had also chosen to take this elective. Right, this was one of the Slytherin-Gryffindor classes. At least her year had been paired with Ravenclaw for Potions, otherwise her Head of House would've been unbearable in his classroom.
"No need to worry, boys," she said to the twins' benefit. "As long as you don't try anything, he won't attack you - unless I say so." She caught the eyes of one of the twins and winked. Both of them smiled widely, but Angelina Johnson scowled at her.
"We assure you, Lestrange, we have no intention of breaking our peace treaty with dear Klaus for now." George, or Fred said.
"We can't let him mangle us again, no matter how much fun it was the first time around," Fred, or George continued. "The female population of Hogwarts might riot against you if our handsome faces were scarred."
"Ah!" Professor Kettleburn, who'd suddenly appeared in front of them said loudly and rather enthusiastically, making the teenagers jump with surprise and Klaus croak in annoyance. "But what are scars but signs of a life well lived, my dears!"
If that was true then the teacher, with only one eye, half an arm and one leg, had to have lived the greatest life out of every wizard she'd ever met.
"Come on in!" He said, guiding the students into his classroom. The teacher turned to her, "I would never turn a familiar away from my classroom, my dear, but I hope you can keep him from eating the flobberworms I have in the back. We're going to need them for next week's class."
"Yes, sir," she said, then turned her head to Klaus. "Did you hear that? No eating the flobberworms. I'll feed you some cheese at dinner if you're good."
The bird bobbed his head down indicating his assent.
Cassandra took a seat besides Cassius Warrington, a Slytherin who'd played as reserve chaser in their House team last year. The boy looked pleased at having her sharing his table, and sat a bit straighter in his seat.
"Welcome, young wizards and witches, to the great world of Magical Creatures!" The professor started, addressing the classroom. "This course was first introduced by Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in 1927, with the goal of teaching students how to feed, maintain, breed and properly treat a wide range of magical creatures."
Cassandra took out her parchment and self-inking quill from her bookbag and started taking down notes.
"Can someone give me an example of a magical creature you've interacted with in your day-to-day lives?" Kettleburn asked.
"Gnomes," one of the Weasleys said.
"Kneazles," another Gryffindor offered.
"House-elves," a Slytherin said.
"Very good, very good. Two points for Gryffindor and one for Slytherin for the answers," the professor continued. "Now, can someone tell me what a gnome has in common with a kneazle, that it doesn't with a house-elf?"
Seeing no one else could answer the question, Cassandra did. "Although all three are magical creatures, gnomes and kneazles are classified as beasts, while house-elves are classified as beings."
"Very good…"
"Cassandra Lestrange," she offered, wincing internally. She never knew how a teacher might react to her last name. Kettleburn did not react at all, much to her relief.
"Five points to Slytherin for Cassandra's answer. In 1811, Minister Grogan Stump settled a long and troubled debate by defining Being as 'any creature that has sufficient intelligence to understand the laws of the magical community and to bear part of the responsibility in shaping those laws'. There are two other recognized classifications of magical creatures other than Beings - Beasts and Spirits. We will study and interact with some of the creatures classified by the Ministry as Beasts. Spirits and Beings are covered by either History of Magic or Defense Against the Dark Arts, depending on the specific creature." The professor paused, waiting for the students to catch up on their notes. "Now, according to Stump's classification of magical creatures, Beasts can be loosely defined as a magical creature that does not have sufficient intelligence to understand the laws of the magic community or help bear part of the responsibility of shaping those laws. Essentially, magical creatures that do not possess sapience. But there are exceptions. Despite being quite intelligent creatures organized in their own societies, centaurs and merpeople both requested to be classified as Beasts, refusing the Being status because they objected to some of the creatures they would have shared that status with, such as hags and vampires. Other creatures such as acromantulas, manticores and sphinxes qualified for Being status based on their capability for intelligent speech, but were not offered that classification, and instead classified as Beasts, because of their extremely violent and occasionally lethal tendencies. Although, if you ever come across a Sphinx, under no circumstance call her a Beast to her face. A friend of mine made that mistake once, and I lost three fingers from my right hand saving that prat. Not that you can tell now!" The professor said merrily, lifting the magical prosthetic that stood in place of his right arm up to the elbow. The class shared an awkward laugh at the joke.
"We've gone over what qualifies a magical creature as a Beast, according to Stump's Classification. There's one other way in which magical creatures are classified that's going to be relevant to our classes, and that is the X Classification." The teacher continued. "Depending on the level of danger they pose to a human being's life, magical creatures are classified on a scale of one to five Xs. Category X creatures, such as horklumps and flobberworms, which we will cover in next week's class, are boring and pose no threat to anyone. Category XX creatures are harmless and may be domesticated; owls are a good example. Category XXX creatures include those that should be no trouble to competent wizards, although I've seen plenty of wizards who'd call themselves competent be bested by a couple of stubborn pixies." The professor said with a chuckle. "To avoid any disasters, the ownership of some category XXX beasts is regulated by the Ministry. So if you want to legally own a fwooper or a cute kneazle come next term, you gotta head down to the Department for Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures and get yourself a licence. Now, category XXXX is where things start to get hairy. Category XXXX creatures are dangerous, require special knowledge and should only be handled by trained wizards, or under the supervision of one. It also includes creatures that are endangered, or just too difficult to capture, rather than being dangerous per se, like the golden snidget. Category XXXXX creatures are known wizard killers, and are impossible to train or domesticate. Can anyone name a category XXXXX creature for me? Just think of the most dangerous creatures you can think of."
"Nundus?" Warrington offered from her side.
"Yes, very good. 3 points to Slytherin for…"
"Cassius Warrington," the boy answered.
"Cassius' answer. Any other guesses?" The teacher asked.
"Dementors?" Angelina Johnson said.
"Good guess, dementors are in fact known wizard killers and impossible to domesticate. One point for Gryffindor for the good use of logic. But I'm afraid dementors are not considered magical creatures, and thus, do not fall under the X Classification. They're classified as non-beings, although I would personally classify them as scary as hell." Kettleburn said, and the class laughed again.
By the end of class, Cassandra knew she'd made the right choice in electives. Kettleburn was a great teacher, and the material was engaging. She was also taking Arithmancy and Ancient Runes, both useful in the understanding and mastering of the old rituals now almost exclusively performed by the traditional pureblood families, passed down by family members through generations.
"You were very good," she said to Klaus as she walked out of class and back to the castle. She moved him from her shoulder to her forearm, so she could look at him while talking. "You must be bored by now, so you can fly around and do whatever it is you do at the Forest until dinner. I'll save some cheese for you." She ran her nose affectionately through the raven's feathers, imitating the preening ritual his species used to indicate love and care. The bird ran his beak through her hair in a gesture mirror to hers, and flew away.
The next morning, Adrian sat across from her during breakfast, and Klaus stayed perched on her head, talons resting on her scalp, occasionally bending down to be fed pieces of bacon. She sat ramrod straight, holding her head up as she ate as to not dislodge him. If Mrs. Monterey, the grouchy manners tutor from her childhood, caught wind of how a bird could be used to keep someone from slouching, Cassandra was sure the woman would have little girls all over Great Britain sitting with birds of prey on their heads while they pretend-ate.
"Do you have any idea how creepy you look?" Adrian asked her as she ate another spoonful of porridge, savoring the taste of cinnamon and brown sugar in her tongue.
"Mind how you talk to your betters, Pucey," her little cousin intervened from down the table. She turned her head to him, glaring.
"Thank you, Draco," she said harshly, not thankful at all. "But had I any need of defending, I would've been perfectly capable of doing it myself. Do not presume to intrude my conversations." Klaus cawed from atop her echoing the sentiment, and Draco blushed, turning back to his friends without saying anything else. She'd been told before that being at the receiving end of identical glares from her and an onyx black raven twice the length of her head was an unnerving experience, and apparently the eleven year old Malfoy agreed. She turned back to Adrian, still scowling.
"See what you made me do?" She mouthed at her friend. He rolled his eyes at her.
"Sorry," he said insincerely.
"I'm sure no one who's ever met you doubts your ability to defend yourself, Lestrange," Cassius Warrington, the boy she'd sat by on Care of Magical Creatures said from where he was seating near Adrian. "But for whatever's worth, I think you look beautiful with your raven on you. He was very well-behaved in class yesterday."
She looked at him. Even though the boy had been sitting near her friend, she hadn't noticed him until he spoke up. Now he had a slight blush on his cheeks, but did not twitch under her scrutiny, which counted as a point in his favor. In their two years having classes together, they hadn't spoken much more than a handful of words to each other, only interacting during quidditch training, and in the rare games he'd been taken out of the bench for after another chaser's injury. He was good looking and clean-cut, from a pureblood family, and had never asked her stupid questions about her parents, so she didn't see any harm in accepting his compliment.
"Thank you, Cassius," she said finally, and the boy nodded at her before continuing his breakfast.
Adrian raised an eyebrow at her speculatively, and this time she was the one who rolled her eyes.
"So, what have you got today?" Cassandra asked her friend.
"Divination with the Hufflepuffs." Adrian said.
"What are you taking Divination for?" She scoffed. "Unless you're a Seer, that class is useless. And given you haven't managed to win a single quidditch cup bet in two years, we both know that's not the case."
Besides their annual Defense of The Dark Arts wager, students also ran illegal bets on the outcome of every official quidditch game played during the year's cup, as well as on the overall winner of the Quidditch and House Cup, the later which was won by whoever guessed which House won and by how many points. If quidditch was the official pastime of Hogwarts students, gambling was the unofficial one.
"It's an easy class," Adrian shrugged. "The more O.W.L.s I get, the better my resume looks, and there's no way I could get an O.W.L. in bloody Arithmancy or Ancient Runes"
"Right," Cassandra said. Even if it was an easy O.W.L., Divination was still a rubbish class.
She picked up the paper, which had just been delivered by owl, and looked over the front page. "Ask the teacher if they can divine who broke into Gringotts," she said, showing Adrian the Daily Prophet headline. "I bet the goblins would pay a pretty galleon for that."
"What do you think they were after?" Adrian asked.
"No idea," she answered. "Not gold, though. There are easier places to steal galleons from without risking the wrath of the goblins. They sent a letter to everyone with a vault to their name that day informing nothing had been taken and no other vaults had been breached, and they sounded pissed. My best guess, it was an heirloom or something one of a kind. I wouldn't risk my neck storming Gringotts for anything I could find literally anywhere else. Another thing you can ask your teacher."
Adrian ignored her barb. "What about you? Anything today?" He asked. By a stroke of luck, Slytherin third years had all their core classes scheduled between Monday and Thursday this year, leaving Fridays free, with the exception of a couple electives
"Nothing. I have some assignments to finish but I have no Friday classes, by Circe's merciful hand. So would you, if you were taking Arithmancy or Ancient Runes with me."
Her friend flipped her off, and she laughed.
"All right, see you later, Lestrange. I gotta head off to class," he said, getting up.
Later that day, after she finished her class assignments, bickered with Adrian during lunch and did the meditation exercises that were a part of the Occlumency training her grandfather had insisted her start the summer before her first year at Hogwarts, Cassandra headed to her dorm for a visit from her favorite being, the only one who'd been a part of her life consistently since she was born.
"Mimi," she called out after drawing the curtains around her bed closed, and the house-elf apparated in front of her with a loud crack.
"Oh Mistress!" The elf exclaimed, throwing herself at Cassandra. The witch hugged the elf back. "Mimi missed her Mistress Cassandra so much! Mimi is taking care of all her Mistress' plants and animals like she was told but she misses taking care of her Mistress most of all."
"I miss you too, Mimi. Silence the area around the canopy so no one can hear us, please." Cassandra replied, and had the elf sit down on the bed to chat with her. After they talked about their weeks and she let Mimi intricately braid and magically pin up her hair in a pretty updo, which made the elf unreasonably happy, she handed Mimi a small list of items she'd decided on during the week.
"Would you please bring these items for me from the house, Mimi? It should take an hour or so for everything to be ready, so I'll wait for you here," Cassandra said.
The elf scanned the list, and threw herself at her owner again, this time in tears. "Mistress Cassandra wants Mimi's special chocolate coconut cookies, Mimi knew her Mistress missed her too! Mimi will make the cookies and get the plants and everything her Mistress wants." The elf said, and immediately disappeared with another crack.
A few weeks into her first year, Cassandra had silently cried through the night, overwhelmed by how much she missed her home, and by how hostile some of the other students were towards her. In the following morning, not entirely awake and under the effects of the headache that she usually got after a long crying session, she'd called out for Mimi like she was used to doing at home, asking for the elf to bring her a headache relief potion. When Mimi apparated by her bedside with the potion in her hands, the two had cried at the joy of finding out that unlike wizards, house-elves could apparate in and out of the school. Ever since, she'd gotten used to calling for Mimi a few times a week, occasionally asking her to perform small tasks, much to the elf's delight.
Exactly an hour later, Mimi delivered the items Cassandra had requested. After thanking her elf, the witch gathered some of the items and made her way out of her dorm room.
"Pucey," she called out, nudging the wizard napping on one of the Slytherin common room leather couches with her knee.
"What?" The boy called out sleepily.
"For you," she replied, dropping a box on his stomach. Adrian opened it and sat up once he saw its contents.
"Are these Mimi's?" He asked. When Cassandra said yes, he pretended to swoon. "You magnificent witch. Have I told you how amazing you are lately? These are incredible." The boy said, an entire cookie already in his mouth. She gave him another playful nudge and made her way out of the common room.
Cassandra walked out of the castle to the greenhouse Professor Sprout used as her office. She waited outside, knowing the teacher only closed her door when talking to a student. A few minutes later, Cedric Diggory, a handsome Hufflepuff third year half the girls in Hogwarts seemed to be infantuated with, walked out of the office, putting a book in his bag absent-mindedly. When he looked up and noticed her, his face broke into a brilliant smile.
"Hey!" The Hufflepuff said warmly. Cassandra hesitated, unsure if the wizard was talking to her even if they were the only two people there. The only person who broke into a smile when they saw her was Mimi, and she wasn't even a person. "I'm Cedric," he offered when she didn't reply, seemingly unfazed by her silence. "We have a few classes together."
"Yes, of course. Hello. I'm Cassandra," she answered.
"If you want to talk to Professor Sprout, you can go in. We just finished up," Cedric said, and grabbed the door to hold it open for her.
"Right," Cassandra replied uncertainly. "Thank you."
"No problem," he answered, and smiled again. "It's good seeing you, outside of class."
Cassandra had no idea how to handle this conversation. Slytherins respected her, and some Ravenclaws acknowledged due to her grades, but whenever Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs weren't throwing accusations or hexes her way, they tended to avoid her entirely. She'd never had an interaction this… friendly with anyone outside her House. Or inside her House, as a matter of fact. Slytherins did not do friendly.
"Sure, it's good seeing you too," she tried. "I should head in."
"Of course. Goodbye, Cassandra," the wizard said as she walked into the greenhouse. She was still trying to figure out what their interaction had been about when Professor Sprout noticed her.
"Cassandra! Please, come in. To what do I owe the pleasure?" The older witch asked her from behind her desk.
"Hello, Professor. I wanted to thank you again for the Wiggentree branch you sent me over the summer. It's rooted quite nicely, and I'm expecting it will have grown a bit by the holidays. Grandfather had been trying to procure a sapling for the longest time, but you know how hard those can be to find," Cassandra said.
"Oh, that was no bother at all! I'm always glad to encourage young herbology enthusiasts. I'm glad to hear you've been successful with the planting. The bowtruckles were very hesitant to part with that branch, it took a lot of cajoling and a few fairy eggs to convince them to let me cut it," Sprout said with a chuckle, sounding as if she was fond of the small creatures that were prone to gouging out the eyes of anyone who threatened their home trees. From what Cassandra knew of the witch, she probably was.
"Well, regardless, I brought you a couple tokens of gratitude I believe you'll like," Cassandra said, depositing two boxes on the table.
"Truly, Cassandra, these are completely unnecessary. But if one of those boxes has what I think it does, I won't turn it away."
Most of the Slytherin students were in the habit of sending their favorite teachers small gifts on their birthdays, and Mimi's cookies had been a success with Professor Sprout. The teacher opened the first box, which did, in fact, contain a portion of the sweets, and smiled at her student.
"Well, thank you. I will be enjoying these after dinner tonight."
But it was the other box that contained the gift Cassandra knew would truly please the Herbology teacher. When she opened it, the woman let out a startled gasp, covering her mouth with her hand. "Cassandra! These are…"
"Niffler's Fancy seedlings, yes," the young witch said with a sincere smile. She truly liked the teacher, who'd been open and nonjudgmental towards her from her first year, and would let her help out in the greenhouses after the afternoon classes ended, whenever Cassandra needed a distraction, or to feel close to home for a while.
"But these are so rare," Sprout said, holding the box to her chest. Cassandra figured the witch would hesitate to accept the gift at first, but with how passionate she was about plants, specially the rare magical ones, Cassandra suspected she would have to fight the woman for the seedlings of the rare copper-colored plant if she truly wanted them back.
"Yes, that's why I chose them," Cassandra answered. "It would be meaningless to give you a plant you already grow here, and Merlin knows the list of specimens you don't have is a short one. Grandfather is interested in studying the potential uses of Niffler's Fancy in potions, so he had a shipment of seedlings delivered during the summer. I saved those for you."
"This is so exciting!" Sprout cried. "I was a student the last time I even saw one of these. Their leaves look so pretty when they're bigger. Oh and the color, it's going to look so nice in the Hufflepuff common room."
"I'm glad you like it, Professor," Cassandra said. "I should go. Thank you again, and have a nice evening."
"Oh thank you, my girl. These are wonderful gifts. If you ever need any other specimen for your greenhouse, just let me know."
Cassandra nodded at the teacher as she made her way to the door. She froze in shock when she opened it and saw who'd been waiting outside for their turn to talk to the Herbology teacher. Standing in front of her was small, awkward Neville Longbottom, holding a copy of 'One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi' to his chest like a child might hold a favorite stuffed animal. They stared at each other for a while, until Cassandra noticed the boy's entire body was trembling. When she opened her mouth to say something, he took off running.