The end of summer came quickly. On September 1st, Mimi took Cassandra and Cedric to platform nine and three quarters, and they caught the Hogwarts Express back to school. During the start-of-term feast, Cassandra sat between Adrian and the Bloody Baron, and ignored her little cousin rambling about Harry Potter's absence and the likelihood of his expulsion from Hogwarts. She heard later from a Slytherin prefect that instead of taking the train, the boy-who-lived had chosen to arrive by flying car with Fred and George Weasley's little brother, and vowed on the spot to find a spell to make herself temporarily deaf, in order to be spared from listening to Draco's envious whining.
When a Howler went off at the Gryffindor table in the middle of breakfast the next day, Cassandra decided to test out an idea she'd had the night before. She had spent hours in bed considering the possibility of getting an Imperturbable Charm to work on a human being. The charm was a simple one, conventionally used to create an invisible barrier around an object. The barrier could be penetrated by spells, but objects and sound would bounce off it. She believed a small change in the charm's incantation and a good amount of focus during casting might be enough to make it work. If so, she could use the spell on herself whenever she wanted silence. She checked to see if anyone was watching her, then as discreetly as she could, pointed her wand across the table at Adrian, and muttered the altered incantation.
It took only a second until Adrian started looking around, seeming confused. He started speaking to her, but she couldn't hear whatever he was saying - apparently, the charm muted sounds both ways. Seeing he was getting frantic, Cassandra raised her hand and silently told him to calm down. Once he did, she threw a bread roll at his face. He was so surprised by the action he didn't even try to duck, and watched, stunned, as the bread roll bounced off the invisible barrier around him and fell on the table. Cassandra annulled the spell, satisfied with her experiment.
"- in the bloody hell was that?" Adrian asked.
"Magic," Cassandra said. "I was trying something out. Could you hear anything?"
"No, just a faint murmur," Adrian said. "You could've given me a heads up."
She smiled, happy her idea had worked, and he scowled at her.
"You know what, I miss single Cassandra. Maybe she was dark and unhappy and also tested out her crazy ideas on me, but at least she didn't look so smug about it," Adrian complained.
"Aww, does Adrian miss single Cassandra?" She mimicked in a high-pitched, mocking tone. "Well, maybe Adrian needs to get some action, and that'll remove the stick that's currently lodged up his ass."
"Miss Lestrange," said an unmistakable cold voice behind her, "I encourage my students to refrain from using such vulgar language where they might be overheard. Our House has a reputation to uphold."
Cassandra held in an exasperated sigh, and turned around to face Professor Snape.
Severus Snape approached teaching with an abrasive and spiteful attitude that won him little regard from most students; the vocal minority being his Slytherin pupils, whom as Head of House, the Potions teacher favoured openly. However, despite benefiting from his preferential treatment, Cassandra detested the man as fiercely as any militant Gryffindor. But her animosity was founded on a knowledge she doubted any of them had.
Shortly after the Dark Lord's downfall, a captured Death Eater by the name of Igor Karkaroff appeared before the Wizengamot Council of Magical Law, offering information in a desperate attempt to stay out of Azkaban. He gave up the identity of many of his fellow Death Eaters, among them, Severus Snape. The only thing that kept Snape from sharing a cell block with Cassandra's family at the time was a testimony given by Albus Dumbledore, to the fact that Snape had acted as a valuable spy amongst the Dark Lord's ranks for the last year and a half of the war.
Maybe in another world, where the Lestranges had prioritized family over cause, and renounced the Dark Lord after his disappearance as so many had, Cassandra wouldn't have felt compelled to read smuggled transcripts of the Death Eater trials, in an attempt to understand the choices her parents had made. In that world, she might've respected or even liked Professor Snape. But in this world, the last thing Bellatrix Lestrange had ever told her daughter was to never trust a traitor. Cassandra's feelings about her family's acts in the name of pureblood supremacy aside, she had always heeded her mother's advice.
Cassandra met Snape's eyes with a look of open disinterest. He was her teacher, but in every way that mattered to the pureblood society he had fought for and eventually betrayed, she was his better. He silently handed her a piece of parchment, and she turned back around without acknowledging his reprimand, a clear dismissal. She felt him standing still behind her for a few seconds, and then he moved along the Slytherin table, handing out what she saw now were course schedules.
"You're insane," Adrian mouthed to her. She winked back at him.
Cassandra looked at her schedule and saw they had double Charms with the Hufflepuffs that morning.
The pair of Slytherins walked into Professor Flitwick's classroom to find Cedric already there, with a seat by his side reserved for his girlfriend. Cassandra basked in the envious looks she received when she sat down beside him.
Cedric leaned towards her, and she stood still as she felt his mouth close to her ear. "I missed you," he whispered.
Cassandra closed her eyes, enjoying the shiver that went down her spine. She interlaced her fingers with his under the table and turned her head so he could hear what she whispered back. "I missed you too."
Their first lesson of the year was on Summoning Charms. Professor Flitwick went over the theory, then had them attempt to summon objects across the room. Cassandra and Cedric did it accurately on their first attempts; some students failed to make the objects move the whole distance and others, in a more entertaining display, couldn't catch the summoned objects in time, and ended up being hit in the face.
"What do you have this afternoon?" Cedric asked as they traipsed back to the Great Hall for lunch.
"History of Magic with Binns. I'm going to see if there's anything interesting on the extra books Professor Flitwick assigned. What about you?" Cassandra said.
"Transfiguration with Professor McGonagall. I'll see you later?" Cedric replied. Cassandra squeezed his hand, and he gave her a smile filled with affection before heading to the Hufflepuff table.
Professor Binns' class was as dull as ever; the ghost managed to lull half of his students to sleep with a monotonous lecture on the first goblin rebellion of the eighteenth century. By the end of it, however, Cassandra knew what project she would be spending her days on for the foreseeable future. Ivanovich had long ago drilled into her mind that she couldn't claim to have truly mastered a spell until she was able to cast it nonverbally, with the same effectiveness. Nonverbal casting demanded a fair amount of concentration and mental discipline, but wasn't beyond her capabilities. But a passing mention of something that she'd never considered before on one of Flitwick's books had intrigued her - wandless summoning. With few notable exceptions, having their wand taken immediately rendered most wizards defenseless. But if a disarmed wizard were able to perform a wandless summoning charm, they could simply order their wand back to them. Even if wandless magic was supposed to be difficult to perform and could have volatile results if not done properly, it seemed to her that every witch and wizard ought to do their very best to learn at least this one spell.
"What are you doing?" Adrian asked her. It was a cold, overcast morning, and she sitting on a stone bench in the windy courtyard, with her wand drawn and Klaus flying in tight circles above her head.
"Watch this," Cassandra said. She cleared her mind and focused on picturing one single worm. She visualized its brown, cylindrical, slimy body. Once satisfied with the image, she moved her wand in a half-circle motion and willed the creature to come to her, voicing the incantation in her mind. At once, an earthworm shot up from the ground and zoomed in her direction, only to be snatched mid-air by Klaus before it could reach her. They had been playing this game for about thirty minutes now.
"Did you just summon that nonverbally?" Adrian asked, his eyebrows raised. "Wait, I thought it wasn't possible to summon live creatures."
"Doesn't apply to worms, according to Miranda Goshawk," Cassandra said. She had read that while he was snoring by her side on Binns' class.
"I read the chapter on Summoning Charms last night and I'm pretty sure it didn't say anything about worms," Adrian said.
"It's in The Wonderbook of Spells, not The Standard Book of Spells," Cassandra replied.
"You already did Flitwick's extra reading? You know what, don't answer that. I'd rather not know," Adrian groaned. "We should go, I don't want to be late to Professor Lockhart's class."
"Oooh right, we wouldn't want to disappoint Professor Lockhart, would we?" Cassandra said. "But if we did, maybe he would punish us…"
"You are not going to ruin this for me," Adrian said, wagging his finger at her. "I mean it, Lestrange. You have Diggory looking better than ever at your beck and call, and all I have is my right hand. I intend to stack up on as many dirty fantasies featuring Lockhart as I can before the curse gets him, and you will not ruin that for me."
"Fine," Cassandra said, throwing up her hands in surrender.
"Say it. Say you will not ruin Gilderoy Lockhart for me," Adrian demanded.
"I will not ruin Gilderoy Lockhart for you," Cassandra repeated.
They took a table front and center and waited for Lockhart to arrive. He swept into the classroom wearing perfectly tailored indigo robes, his golden hair shining under a perfectly positioned indigo hat with gold trimming.
"Hello, class," Lockhart started. "I'm sure you all already know who I am. Gilderoy Lockhart, Order of Merlin, Third Class, Honorary Member of the Dark Force Defense League, and five - yes, I said FIVE - time winner of Witch Weekly's Most Charming Smile Award. But let's not delve too deeply into that. I didn't defeat the Bandon Banshee by smiling at her!"
There was a rehearsed pause, and quite a few students laughed. Cassandra smirked to herself. One could always trust Slytherins to know how to play an authority figure.
"I see you've all bought a complete set of my books, very well done. I thought we'd start today with a little quiz. Nothing to worry about, just to check how well you've read them, how much you've taken in."
He handed out the test papers and returned to the front of the class. "You have thirty minutes starting now!"
Cassandra started shaking with silent laughter around question thirteen - 'What is Gilderoy Lockhart's favorite style of sleepwear?' The sheer impropriety of a teacher quizzing his teenage students about his nightclothes was enough to throw her into hysterics. But having promised Adrian she wouldn't mess with his Lockhart fantasies, she tried her best to be silent, and not call attention to herself. By the time the clearly deranged man collected their papers, Cassandra's face was streaked with tears, and bright red from her effort to stay quiet. She risked a glance at Adrian, and completely lost it at the look of disappointment in his face.
"Yes?" Lockhart smiled at her when he heard the high-pitched noise she let out.
Cassandra took a deep breath, wiping the corner of her eyes with her robes in an attempt to buy some time.
"I'm sorry, Professor," she said. "I'm just… such a big fan."
She heard a snort behind her and pressed her lips shut to hold in another fit.
"A fan, how wonderful!" Lockhart beamed. "I'm sure you'll get full marks!"
She was sure she wouldn't.
Lockhart went over a few of the incorrect responses on the quizzes, at one point clarifying his secret ambition was not to father the first half-wizard half-yeti creature, as one student had answered question number two.
"Now let's get down to business! I see from your tests many of you consider Wanderings with Werewolves to be your favorite book of mine - I'll confess, my intrepid defeat of the Wagga Wagga Werewolf was the stuff of legends - so I thought I might recreate the final duel right here for you. Isn't that brilliant?"
A few people nodded.
"Alright, so who would like to assist me in this task? Now, I must warn you I am quite a gifted actor."
Before anyone else could volunteer, Cassandra elbowed Adrian's side hard. He jumped in his chair with a startled yelp, and Lockhart clapped his hands with glee.
"I see we have a volunteer!"
A few minutes later, Lockhart had Adrian pinned down on the ground. "Nice loud howl, Mr. Pucey—exactly—and then, if you'll believe it, I pounced—like this—slammed him to the floor—thus with one hand, I managed to hold him down—with my other, I put my wand to his throat—I then screwed up my remaining strength and performed the Homorphus Charm—he let out a piteous moan—go on, higher than that—good—the fur vanished—the fangs shrank—and he turned back into a man. Simple, yet effective—and another village will remember me forever as the hero who delivered them from the monthly terror of werewolf attacks."
The teacher got up to his feet, then gallantly offered a hand to assist Adrian, who seemed a little stiff as he walked back to his seat.
"Any questions?" Lockhart asked.
Someone's hand shot up at the back. "Professor Lockhart, you say on page 97 that you were actually able to cure the Wagga Wagga Werewolf. If there is a known cure for lycanthropy, then why doesn't the Ministry use it, instead of letting them run rabid?"
"Oh yes, very good question. The Homorphus Charm is an immensely complex spell. I am able to cast it perfectly of course, but most wizards are only able to use it to temporarily return a werewolf to human form. Not everyone is as gifted as me, I'm afraid."
The bell rang, and Lockhart assigned them a poem on his defeat of the Wagga Wagga Werewolf for homework before dismissing the class.
"So," Cassandra said to her friend as they walked out of the classroom. "Are you coming down for lunch, or are you hurrying to your room to get some use out of that right hand?"
"There is nothing you can say to me right now that will make me mad at you, Lestrange," Adrian said. "By Merlin, he might be an idiot, but when he grabbed my throat I thought I was going to-"
"That's quite enough information, thank you," Cassandra laughed. "And you're welcome for the spank material, by the way. I know it can be hard to be around someone who has everything, but besides being brilliant, beautiful, obscenely rich and having the world's greatest boyfriend, I also happen to be an amazing friend."
"I'm not even denying that right now, that's how much I just enjoyed myself," Adrian sighed.
That afternoon, an hour before dinner, Cassandra and Adrian headed to the Quidditch field for a meeting called by Marcus Flint, Captain of the Slytherin Quidditch team. He was a tall and brawny sixth year; a gifted chaser and solid captain.
"I have some news," Flint said. "We won the Quidditch Cup last year, as we've done every year since this team has been together-"
"Yeah!" cheered Miles Bletchley, their Keeper.
"But it was a near thing. We were lucky Potter couldn't play the last game of the season, otherwise things might have ended differently. So I think it's time for some change. I've already talked to Higgs, and he's agreed to be our reserve seeker for the year. We're bringing in someone new."
"Are we holding tryouts, then?" Adrian asked.
"No. Our new seeker has already been selected; it's going to be Draco Malfoy," Flint answered.
"Why?" Cassandra asked. "I mean, I'm all for change if it means winning the Cup, but I've seen Draco play. He's solid, but so is Higgs. If we're going for a fresh player, why not hold an open tryout, see who does best."
"I'm going to level with you all," Flint said. "In exchange for Malfoy coming in as our seeker, his father has offered to buy our entire team Nimbus 2001s."
Adrian whistled.
"As Lestrange said, Malfoy is a solid seeker, I've seen him fly myself. Whatever adjustments we have to make to account for his inexperience will be more than offset by the extra speed and maneuverability we'll get on those brooms. We'll be flying on the fastest racing brooms in the world, against a bunch of slugs on Comets and Cleansweeps. The Cup will be ours for the taking!" Flint shouted.
Confident in their abilities and excited by the prospect of being gifted a Nimbus 2001, most of his players shouted back.
"Now, I want to start practicing as soon as possible. The field is booked for the weekend, but I'll get Professor Snape to give us a special authorization or something. I'll see you all here on Saturday, at eight o'clock sharp."
Cassandra waited for her fellow players to leave to speak with Flint privately.
"Are you sure about this, captain? I know the offer of the 2001s is enticing, but Draco's not a team player. If you'd asked for my opinion, I would've told you Higgs is the better choice," Cassandra said.
"You're a good player, Lestrange, and you know I respect you, but it's my job to do what's best for the team, regardless of any player's personal animosities," Flint said.
"What's that supposed to mean?" She asked.
"Mr. Malfoy warned me you kept your distance from Draco because of some unresolved family business. Said you might try to convince me not to put him on the team because of it," Flint replied.
Cassandra was too incredulous to even come up with a response. She distrusted Lucius and her aunt Narcissa because of their actions during the war and its aftermath, but that didn't extend to Draco. She didn't like her little cousin simply because he was a pompous git. Nonetheless, she had been raised to believe that family matters should be handled behind closed doors. It rankled her that Lucius would level such an accusation against her behind her back, instead of broaching the issue personally.
"Do you really believe Draco's the best choice for the team?" She asked finally.
"I do," Flint answered without hesitation.
She hoped he was right.
It only took her three days to conclude he definitely wasn't. Just as they'd been instructed, the team had met at the edge of the Quidditch field at eight a.m. on Saturday, with their new broomsticks in hand and Draco in tow. Cassandra had stood stoically while Flint exchanged unpleasantries with the Gryffindor Captain, tuning out their bickering over scheduling in favour of thinking about the time she and Cedric had spent together in an empty classroom the day before. But even distracted, she had known things were going to get out of hand when the argument between the two captains was interrupted by Harry Potter's two best friends - small Weasley and bushy-haired girl.
"At least no one on the Gryffindor team had to buy their way in," bushy-haired girl said to Draco after a few pointed exchanges. "They got in on pure talent."
It was obvious she struck a nerve by Draco's hateful reply, "No one asked your opinion, you filthy little mudblood."
There was an instant uproar. Flint had to dive in front of Draco to stop the twins from jumping on him, Alicia Spinnet was shrieking; and small Weasley pointed his wand at Draco, yelling, "You'll pay for that one, Malfoy!"
Before she could decide if she was going to cast a shield or let her cousin pay for his idiocy, Fred and George's little brother - Ron, apparently, was on the floor vomiting slugs. Cassandra looked on disapprovingly as her teammates were doubled up with laughter. As soon as Ron was taken away by his friends, she cut off the argument she knew was going to start over what had just happened.
"Fred, George," she called out. The twins turned to her, along with everyone else. "If the muggleborn girl-"
"Her name is Hermione," Alicia Spinnet spat at her.
"If Hermione wants to lodge a complaint against Draco, I'll back her up with Professor Snape," she said evenly. The Gryffindors looked at her in astonishment, Draco started to yell his indignation. She drew her wand and silenced him with the Imperturbable Charm she'd tested on Adrian. "And I'm sorry about your brother," she continued. Everyone was looking between her and Draco, who at this point seemed to be yelling at the top of his lungs, even though they couldn't hear anything. "I'd concede the field to your team, but I don't think you'll be continuing practice without your seeker."
"No need," Oliver Wood said awkwardly. "That's alright, we'll leave."
She waited until they were out of sight to ask her team to step away so she could speak with her cousin.
"What did you do to me? You can't do that!" Draco said angrily once she cancelled the Imperturbable Charm.
"But I just did," she said calmly, her head cocked to the side. "I can do it again right now if I want to."
"You won't," Draco said, but his voice was wobbling. "I- I'll tell my father."
"And what exactly do you think he's going to do to me, Draco?" Cassandra asked. "Your father is just as pathetic as you are."
Draco drew in a sharp breath at her words.
"You think throwing that word around makes you a proper wizard? That it makes you powerful? That muggleborn girl is right. You're a pureblood; your existence is owed to centuries of selective breeding, and you still couldn't even make a school Quidditch team without having to buy your way in. You should be ashamed. But that's the problem with you Malfoys; you fail to realize money can't buy you everything. It can't buy you talent on that broom," Cassandra said, then got close enough to the boy that their noses were nearly touching. "And you tell your gutless father, it won't buy his way back into the Dark Lord's good graces, either."