Chapter 2: Train Ride
Harry and I are staying at the Leaky Cauldron until September first. Hagrid left yesterday so I just grabbed the potion to lead us to Harry's parents. I take a bit of hair from Harry and drop it into the potion. It glows a bit before an arrow appears in the bottle. Harry and I follow it to a nice looking house in a quiet muggle area. I walk up to the front door and knock on it. A second later it's answered by a girl with bushy brown hair, buck teeth, and pretty brown eyes.
I smile and say, "Hello, my name is Cassiopeia Lestrange, this is Harry Potter, we were hoping to speak to your parents."
"Uh, sure." she says, "I'm Hermione Granger."
"Nice to meet you." I say before she calls her parents. They come to the door and see Harry, blinking for a second before ushering us inside. Once we're in the living room they hug Harry tightly and explain to Hermione what's going on. She quickly hugs Harry as well before I look at James and say, "Prongs, I am irritated."
He gives me a wide eyed look before asking, "How do you know that nickname?"
"Same way that I know that Sirius is Padfoot, Remus is Moony, and Lily is Tiger Lily." I say with a scowl, "I took a past life remembrance potion." the adults glance at each other and I roll my eyes before saying, "It's me, Cass."
Their eyes go wide before they pull me into a tight hug. I return the gesture and we spend some time catching up and getting to know everyone before Harry and I return to the Leaky Cauldron. The next several days pass by uneventfully and now we're arriving on the platform to get on the Hogwarts Express. Neville Longbottom sent his wand wood and core in and I crafted it before coming here.
Hagrid dropped us off on the station, not telling us how to get onto the platform. I roll my eyes slightly at that before leading Harry to the entrance of the platform we actually need to be on. I give him instructions and we head through the barrier. I smile when I see the train before nudging Harry towards it. We board it and quickly find a compartment. As we're struggling with Harry's luggage a set of twins enter our compartment and say, "Let us help you with that."
I turn to them as soon as they get Harry's trunk up into the luggage racks before saying, "Thanks for the help. What's your names?"
'They are pack.' I hear my wolf side, which I've taken to calling Silver, say.
"I'm Fred–" says the one on the right
"and I'm George–" the one on the left says.
"We're the Weasley twins!" they say together.
"Nice to meet you, I have three different names, which one do you want to hear?" I ask them.
"Can we–" Fred starts
"Hear all of them?" George finishes.
"Sure. I am Cassiopeia Lestrange, Cassiopeia Lupin, and Cass Black." I tell them, "This is Harry."
"Nice to meet you." Harry says shyly while taking a seat, book in hand.
"Nice to–" Fred starts
"meet you–" George continues
"too. So, you're that girl that–" Fred says while looking at me
"made our little brother cry like a girl!" they both say happily. "That was great!"
I smirk and bow as I say, "In the flesh." I straighten up and add, "I should tell you that you are both members of my pack. I'm the alpha, Neville is also a member."
The twins share a confused look before asking, "Neville Longbottom?"
I sit down and pull out Harry's unfinished wand to complete as I nod. I bought some books on wand crafting, so I know more about my ability. I finish the wand and pass it to Harry before saying, "I suppose your brother conveniently forgot to mention the fact that he was bullying him when we first met." I pull out Neville's wand and begin adding a focus stone, which mainly just boosts the magical control of the wands master. "If you see Neville, could you send him this way? His wand is ready."
"Sure thing." they say before looking down the hall and adding, "We're gonna go now. We heard that Lee Jordan brought a spider this year and we want to check it out. See you later, Alpha Lady."
I chuckle at the nickname as they leave. The next five minutes pass silently with us reading some books. The peace is broken by someone barging in and loudly saying, "Can I sit here? Everyone else is full. Thanks."
I scowl before looking up, finding Ron Weasley sitting across from me. I raise an eyebrow before saying, "That was rude, and the answer is no."
"What? What do you mean no?" he asks, looking confused before seeming to notice who I am and becoming quite pail.
"I mean that you cannot sit here." I tell him in an emotionless tone, "The compartment across from this one is empty, if you'd care to notice. Now, please leave before your presence lowers my IQ."
He leaves quickly so Harry and I continue reading. A while passes before I hear a voice at the door say, "Anything off the trolley, dears?"
I look up and smile at the trolley lady before politely saying, "We'll take a bit of everything, please ma'am. My friend here has never had any wizarding sweets. How are you today?"
"Oh, I'm doing wonderful. Thank you for asking." she says in a surprised tone, "Not many bother to ask me that, you know."
"That's so sad. I'm sorry to hear that, Miss." Harry says, speaking up for the first time since we met the Weasley twins.
"Think nothing of it, dear." she tells him as we pay for our sweets. She leaves and we continue reading. After a while, the door opens, making us look up to reveal Hermione, who looks a bit miffed.
"Has anyone seen a toad? A boy named Neville's lost one." she says in an irritated tone, I frown and think, 'She must've spoken to Ron."
"Neville Longbottom?" I ask and she blinks before smiling.
"Hello Cassiopeia, Harry. Yes, that's him." she tells us.
"Excellent, could you tell him that his wand is done?" I say as I gently close my book, "After that you can have an upper year summon Neville's toad." She nods before turning to go get Neville, who she comes back with a minute later. He looks excited as I hold out the red orange wand and say, "Here you go. Eleven and a half inches, rigid, made with Acacia wood with a Phoenix wing feather and an emerald focus stone, which will make your control of the wand stronger." he takes it and it glows, "If you'd like too you both could sit with Harry and I for the rest of the ride. After getting your toad back, of course."
"I'd like that." Neville says while nervously smiling at me.
"The offer goes out to you as well, Hermione." I say as I look over at her.
She smiles and says, "I'd be happy to sit with you. The compartment I was in was full of noisy people who wouldn't let me read."
"Well, you're more than welcome to read in here. That's what Harry and I were doing, in fact." I say and they leave. I lean back in my seat and turn to open my book back to the page I was on when the door opened again, and I sigh in frustration. I turn to see a boy with blond hair.
"So, it's true." he says, voice holding an arrogant tone, "Harry Potter has come to Hogwarts. This is Crabbe and Goyle, and I'm Malfoy. Draco Malfoy." he holds his hand out to Harry, who gives me an unsure look. I nod so he shakes the boys hand before Draco turns to me and asks, "And you are?"
"I have many names." I say with a slight smirk, "However, knowing who your mother is, you would likely know me best by the name Cassiopeia Lestrange, a pleasure to meet you, dear cousin."
His eyes widen and he takes a step back before asking, "Are you really?"
"Last I checked." I say as Silver tells me, 'He's another member of the pack.' I tilt my head and smirk a bit, "Why do you ask?"
"You're my cousin? The one that was kidnapped as a baby?" he asks with a wide eyed look.
"Yes." I say while looking him in the eyes, "I should inform you that you are in my pack."
"What?" he asks in a confused tone.
"I am a true born werewolf. I have yet to transform, which is why I haven't gotten the ears and tail yet." I tell him, which eases his confusion. "Those will likely come in as soon as I transform for the first time."
"Ah...that makes sense." he says with a small nod.
"So long as you do not disturb our reading and do not mind a muggleborn sitting with us, you are welcome to join us in this compartment." I tell him and he tilts his head a bit.
"Vary well, I think I would enjoy some reading as well. Crabbe, Goyle why don't you go sit with Pansy?" he says to his two friends, who grunt before lumbering away.
"Those two aren't the sharpest tools in the shed, are they?" I ask him, "I mean no offense intended, of course, but..."
"No, they aren't. I know, they're idiots. They know too, so they don't take offense to things like someone insulting their intelligence. In fact, they don't take offense to many things." he says as he sits near the door once he's done grabbing a book from his bag. We continue reading for a while until Hermione and Neville both walk in, looking mad about something.
I look up at them and say, "You seem upset. May I know why?"
"The idiot red headed boy from across the hall." Hermione says as she takes a seat between Harry and Draco, before seeming to notice Draco and blinking, "Oh, I'm sorry. I was so upset that I didn't see you there."
"Perfectly understandable, I assure you." Draco tells them.
"Hermione, Neville, this is my cousin, Draco Malfoy. Draco, this is Hermione Granger and Neville Longbottom." I say before we all begin reading again. The ride falls silent and after a while I yawn before telling Harry to wake me up when we get there and putting my book away.
I lean against the window of the compartment and quickly fall asleep.
Dream
I'm standing on a hill, looking down at a small village and watching as the villagers burn my parents. My sister is in my arms, her head buried in my shoulder as she cries. I am angry, yes, but I just stand here. Silently comforting her as I look on. I was ten, she was only five.
Five Years Later
I'm looking for my sister. We got separated in a crowd while in town to buy some food and I'm panicked as I search. It's dark by the time I find her...she was tortured and killed by Mundanes. I get angry, so angry that I shift into my wolf form for the first time. Once I was done tracking down and killing her murderers, I take the body and bury it in a family crypt near a castle owned by my family, above the door of the tomb are the words 'Usque Semper' which, in Latin, means 'Until Forever'
Two Years Later
I sit with my three friends around a campfire, discussing plans to make a school for magical creatures. A safe haven for all who need it. We're just missing a name and location for it, however we already know that nothing will stop us from building our school
Godric, a tall man with bright red hair and soft features, is drunk and slurs his words as he looks around at us and asks, "How about we name it something strange like Crows Hat?"
"Owlnoise?" Helga, a muscular woman with blonde hair and gray eyes suggests.
"Eaglecry." Rowena, a proud looking woman with long black hair and bright green eyes, says.
"Hogwarts?" I suggest, using a word that always used to make my sister, Sapphire, laugh.
"Hey, that's a good one! Let's go with that!" Godric happily exclaims.
"Well, Hogwarts is as good a name for a school as any." Rowena says with a small shrug.
"The it's decided. The name is Hogwarts." Helga says while laughing a bit, "Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry! I like the sound of that."
For the first time in two years, I almost felt happy. In the end I offer to let us use the castle near Sapphires grave as the school building. That way, I would always be near her.
Reality
I wake up to Harry shaking my shoulder and saying, "Cassie, we're here. Wake up."
I open my eyes and yawn as I stand up. I then look around and add, "That was some dream."
"Come on Cassie! Let's go!" Harry says excitedly.
I laugh a bit before saying, "I'm coming! I'm coming! Alright?" I follow him off the train and follow the sound of Hagrid calling for the first years. When we arrive in front of him I look up and smile before saying, "Hello, Hagrid."
"Hi Hagrid." Harry says from next to me.
"Ello' Harry. Ello' Cassiopeia. Nice to see you again." Hagrid says happily before leading us to some boats. "No more than four to a boat."
Draco goes off to sit with his other friends while me, Harry, Neville and Hermione all climb into one. Ron tries to board out boat, but I block him and say, "No more than for to a boat. Find somewhere else to sit."
"No, I want to sit here." he says snobbishly before sneering at Hermione and adding, "Make the mudblood move."
I slowly stand as if I'm about to move to another boat and he steps closer, only to be at the receiving end of a punch that I have no doubt broken his nose with. He falls to the ground and I angrily yell, "If you ever utter that word within my hearing range again, I will feed you to the giant squid you entitled brat! Do you understand me?"
Harry grabs my arm and says, "Calm down, Cassie. I'm sure he understands and will be finding another boat now."
Ron quickly follows the suggestion and I sit down with a sigh before calling out, "Sorry about that, Hagrid. He called my mun-uh, I mean muggleborn friend here a name that I refuse to repeat."
"Right then, I'll heave ter' tell Professor McGonagall about this." he says, mainly to himself, before clearing his throat and calling in a louder tone, "Onward!"
The boats begin moving and I smile when I see the beautiful castle we will be attending school in, looking around at my friends awed faces and laughing as I say, "Yeah," I look up at the castle again, "it doesn't matter which lifetime you are in, that first look at the castle will always be one of my most treasured memories."
The others, minus Harry, give me confused looks before looking at the castle again.
A/N: Sorry theses are taking so long. In the next chapter Cassiopeia almost drowns. Review please.
