And now the story really begins...

Disclaimer- Of course I own nothing except Cassi and my original plot twists- everything else belongs to Rowlings.

13 years later

Chapter One

"Cassiopeia Young! Get down here this minute!"

Cassi groaned and pushed aside the book she was writing in. Why did the baby always need to be feed when she was in the middle of writing a climax? She put the cap on her pen and scurried down the stairs to the kitchen.

Her mother, a thick-boned woman with a rather flat face and graying hair passed her the baby. She gave Cassi a quick smile before turning back to the stovetop. "I'm sorry to pull you away again," she said. "But the little ones just seem to be getting into more and more trouble these days, and with a daughter your age I can't be expected to do it all myself."

"Of course not, Mum," Cassie agreed with a sigh. She took the baby, Willy, and began feeding him his bottle. He sucked on it greedily, staring up at her with wide blue eyes as he did so. All of her siblings had blue eyes. She was the only hazel-eyed one among them. Her father always said it must be because she was the only one born in the summer. The rest were winter children.

Nine of them. The rest of the neighborhood thought her parents were a bit daft. Who'd want to have nine children? Mum said that they'd planned on stopping when Cassi, their third, was born, but after she came along there seemed to be no stopping them. Whether or not baby Willy would be the last remained to be seen.

"So what were you writing about this time?" her mother asked, beginning to chop up the carrots in the sink.

"Oh, it's a unicorn story."

"Unicorns?"

"Yes. Well, sort of. There are these magical flowers that they eat, that let them fly, and anyone who eats the flowers-"

"Flowers let them fly?"

"Yes, magical ones."

"Ones?"

"Yes, Magical flowers."

"Flowers?"

Cassi stared at her mother. This wasn't the first time it had happened. Any time she brought up one of her magical stories, her parents always seemed to blank out slightly. She couldn't' tell if they were pulling her leg, or really confused. She usually just brushed it off.

"Um..yeah…well, anyhow-"

"Sorry, Cassi, could you call your brothers in?"

Still holding Willy, Cassi went to the front door. As usual for this time of day, all six of her brothers were across the road, playing football in the park. Her one sister, Melanie, was watching them. Neither Mel nor Cassie were good at sports, but they never tired of watching their brothers. There was a particularily good game going today. The boys were being rather rougher than usual and Al was kicking the ball with unusual gusto- the little ones were having troubling keeping up.

And suddenly Cassi realized that she and Mel were not the only ones watching the game. On the far side of the field was a tall, weather-beaten man, one of his legs rather thinner than the other, and one of his eyes moving rather strangely. She looked again and realized that the thinner leg was actually made of wood. As she squinted at him, he seemed to stiffen, and turned towards her. Startled she gave a little jump, which made Willy hiccup. She quickly flung him against her shoulder and began patting him on the back. The strange man was coming closer. She hesitated, one hand on the doorknob, ready to flee inside if he did anything…odd.

"Your brothers?" he asked, gesturing towards the park.

She nodded mutely.

"Any of them about fourteen years old?"

She blinked. "Fourteen? No- uh, the only one who is fourteen is me."

"You!" The strange man looked surprised. The odd eye- which obviously wasn't his real one, seemed to zoom in on her, scanning her quickly from head to toe. She felt her face growing warm. "It can't be you." He muttered. "You're a girl. Still- what is your name?"

"Cassi? What's the delay?" to her relief her mother came up behind her. As soon as she saw the situation, she stepped between Cassi and the stranger. "Who are you?"

The man made a sort of half bow with his head and leaned against the porch railing. "My name is Alastar Moody, ma'am. I've come to offer one of your children a free scholarship to a rather exclusive school in Scotland."

Exclusive school? Cassi felt her interest rising, in spite of natural caution. What kind of things did they teach at exclusive schools?

"You'll be wanting one of the boys, I assume?"

Moody shook his head. "The scholarship is only open to those who are fourteen. As this young lady tells me, she is your only child of that age."

"Well, er, yes," said Mrs. Young. "That's true. What did you say your name was?"

"Moody," he replied. "That is-"

And then Cassi felt something rather warm come over her, and for a moment her vision went a bit fuzzy. She could hear the rise and fall of their voices, but had no idea what was being said. And then she came back to herself and her mother was hustling her upstairs. "Yes, yes, we'll get her packed at once. Tomorrow, you say? Platform 9 and ¾? Of course. She'll be there."

"Mum- Mum-" Cassi protested as her mother pulled a trunk out from the hall closet and began piling her clothes inside of it. "Mum- what is going on?"

"You, Cassi, are going to school. Tomorrow."

"What school?"

"Um, it's a school for talented young people like yourself."

Cassi had always thought she was a good writer- but not otherwise particularily talented. This whole situation was getting odder by the minute.

"What about books?"

"Professor Moody said that your things would be waiting at the school for you."

"But Mum-"

"No more questions, Cassi. Go along, spend some time with your siblings. It's the last you'll be seeing of them until Christmas holidays, I expect."

Christmas holidays?

Cassi had expected her father, at least, to protest against the abrupt change of affairs. But neither he nor any of Cassi's siblings made any sort of comment other than that they would miss her very much, but expected her to have a wonderful time. They all dutifully brought her down to the King's Cross station, kissed her goodbye next to an archway standing between platform 9 and platform 10, then trouped off to visit the zoo for the rest of the afternoon. Cassi was too surprised to make any sort of protest to any of this.

So that was why she found herself sitting down under the archway, staring at her ticket which had the strange departure location of "Platform 9 and ¾" and tapping her fingers restlessly against the side of her purse.

Suddenly, she heard a voice quite close to her head. A young man about her age was standing there, holding a rather large green toad in his hand. He looked completely confused to see Cassi sitting there.

"Um…er…is the gate shut?"

She blinked. "What?"

"Oh- are you from- well- are you…" His voice trailed off. "I've never seen you before."

She snorted. "I've never seen you either."

Footsteps echoed on the cobblestones, and another young man appeared next to them. He was a bit thinner than the first one, a good deal-better looking, and at least a year older. A bright scarf of black and yellow was flung carelessly around his neck, and he was pushing a luggage trolley. "What's the matter, Longbottom? Gate closed?"

"Er- um, I don't know," Longbottom seemed even more confused at the newcomer's appearance. "She was sitting here."

The newcomer looked down at Cassi. "What's your name?"

"Cassi- er, Cassiopeia Young." Somehow she didn't feel nearly as reluctant to tell her name to this young man as she had to the eerie Professor Moody.

"Young…Young…" he shook his head. "Nope, she's not in Hufflepuff. Ravenclaw, maybe? She looks a bit like a Ravenclaw to me…"

Somehow she didn't want to admit that she had no idea what Ravenclaw was.

Two redheads appeared on the scene. "Good grief, Diggory!" said one of them (they were identical). "What are you blocking the way for?"

"Oh, I'm not," said Diggory. "Longbottom was just trying to figure out who this girl was."

"Well, why don't you ask her?"

The first redhead banged the other's head. "Because we don't know if she's one of us, idiot!"

"So she's not Gryffindor?" asked Diggory.

"Nope, definitely not Gryffindor."

"Ravenclaw?"

"No idea. Why don't you ask your girlfriend?"

Diggory's face went red, and for some unexplainable reason, Cassi felt her stomach sinking. Yet another person had appeared on the scene (where were they coming from anyhow?) and she was one of the most beautiful Asian girls Cassie had ever seen.

"Oh, Cho," said one of the redheads. "Is she in your house?"

Cho glanced at Cassi and shook her head. "No, I've never seen her before." Then she turned and gave Diggory a smile. "Hello, Cedric."

Cedric? Wasn't his name Diggory? Cassi was now hopelessly confused.

"Hello, Cho," said Cedric –or Diggory- or maybe it was Cedric Diggory? Boys did tend to use last names more frequently than girls did. Especially if this Cho was his girlfriend…

Cassi found herself glancing back to the first boy- Longbottom. He was still holding his toad and looking more uncomfortable than ever. She decided that he was probably the least risk. She stood up and held out her train ticket. "Um…do you think you could help me with this?"

Longbottom glanced at it and his face immediately brightened. "You are from Hogwarts!"

"She is?" one of the redheaded twins snatched the ticket. "Cassiopeia Young. Sounds like one of the Blacks, doesn't it George?"

George, his brother, nodded. "Oh yes, constellation name. Probably Malfoy's cousin or something. No wonder we didn't recognize her. She's probably in Slytherin."

Instantly Longbottom looked as though Cassi had sprouted horns and a purple nose, and something like malice came into the eyes of the redheaded twins. Cedric and Cho were so engrossed with each other that they didn't seem to notice. Cassi wasn't sure to be glad about that or not.

"Sly-Slytherin?" Longbottom stuttered. "Malfoy?" He glanced around nervously. "Is he here?"

Annoyance rose up in Cassi. Obviously these were somehow her schoolmates, and she had somehow gained some sort of unpleasant status with them- over names she had no familiarity with. "Look," she said, gathering up her courage and letting her anger fuel it. "I've never heard of anyone called Malfoy- or Black. And I have no idea what house I'm in. I'm new, you see."

"New?" George looked surprised. "But that's not possible- is it, Fred?"

Fred shook his head. "Nope. Everyone enters when they're eleven."

It was Cassi's turn to be surprised. "Professor Moody said it was fourteen."

"Moody?" Now the twins looked simply skeptical. "Well, Moody's half-cracked."

"Yes, but George, if Moody sent her…"

"Yeah, she's probably some sort of defense against you-know-who."

"Or a detection against night-invaders."

"Better than exploding dustbins, don't you think?"

"Oh yes! Pretty girls are much better!"

They both went off into roars of laughter, then, casually, as if it were the sort of thing they did every day, they leaned against the archway and-

Vanished.

"Wha-" Cassie stared at the space where they had slipped through. It looked exactly like a brick wall to her. "Where did they go? How did they do that?"

Now Cedric and Cho, still talking animatedly to each other, had also gone up to the archway. Cho was holding onto Cedric's arm, and Cedric had added her trunk to his trolley. He was grinning at her as they walked straight through the wall.

Cassi whirled around on Longbottom. "What the heck is going on here? How are they doing that?"

He frowned at her. "Didn't anyone tell you? It's magic, of course."

Magic. The invisible word.

"But- that's not possible!"

"Yes it is. We're wizards, aren't we?"

Her lips moved to form an O, but no sound came out. She simply stared at him in shock.

"Didn't Moody tell you?"

"No. He didn't tell me anything. He just talked to my mum and then they dropped me off here with this useless ticket…"

"It's not useless," said Longbottom. "Here, you just walk through, like the Weasleys did. Come on, Trevor and I will go first. Er- Trevor is my toad."

She glanced down at the toad, nodded, then picked up her purse. "Um, all right then. I'm probably going mad but-"

"You're not. See?" He leaned against the side of the wall and disappeared.

"Says who?" muttered Cassi. Taking a deep breath, she put her hand in front of her and stepped forwards-

Into a hustling bustling platform far brighter than the one she left behind. She blinked. In front of her was an old-fashioned red train, smoke billowing out of its stack. Teenagers of all years and sizes were hugging their parents goodbye, picking up cages holding – owls? – and stepping onto the train.

Longbottom was staring at her expectantly. "Well? Shall we go?"

"Don't you have someone to say goodbye to?"

He looked a bit ashamed. "No. Gran dropped me off at the station. She- she had an errand to do. It's my first time going through alone." Suddenly his face brightened. "Oh! It's Harry!"

"Who?"

"Harry Potter! See? He's with Ron! Come on, let's go find them." He began running down towards the far end of the platform.

She had to trot to keep up with him. "Who is Harry Potter?"

"Who is Harry Potter?" he looked over at her incredulously. "Don't you know?"

"Um, no."

"Oh, I forgot. You're Muggle-born, aren't you?"

"Muggle-born?"

"Your family aren't Wizards?"

"I should think not!"

"Well, Harry Potter is the boy-that-lived. The only person ever to defeat Voldemort. You know him by his glasses and his lightning-shaped scar. But he's also a great friend. We're in the same dorm at school. Gryffindor, of course."

Cassi slowed down, her head reeling with too much information, as Longbottom rushed off to greet the famous boy. He did have weird glasses, and a lighting shaped scar. She'd never seen anyone with a scar like that. There was another boy with him- he looked somewhat familiar. Probably (judging by his ginger-colored hair) the younger brother of Fred and George.

What had she fallen into? Who were these people that seemed to know so much about this place and school that she had never heard of? Wizards! In modern Britain! Who had ever heard of such a thing?

"You might want to get on the train, you know."

She turned around to see yet another new face staring at her. "Um-"

"It's almost 11:00, and the express leaves on the hour, you know."

"Well…"

"Oh do come on!" The girl took her hand and pulled her towards the nearest car. Quickly they scrambled up the steps and into the nearest compartment. There was another girl there, with flame-colored hair (what a popular color that seemed to be!) but other than that it was empty.

"There, sit down. The train has a bit of a jerk when it leaves."

"How do you know that I'm new?"

"Oh, Cedric told me. He's not as dense as you'd think, being a Hufflepuff."

"Don't be silly, Hannah," said the girl with the flame-colored hair. "You Hufflepuffs are perfectly bright."

"I know Ginny, but when Cedric is staring at Cho…" Hannah shook her head in mock despair. "If he wasn't so good looking and the best Quidditch player in the school, he wouldn't get along nearly so well."

Ginny frowned. "He's not the best in the school."

"Oh, well, you'd say that, what with your brothers and Potter-"

"What about Potter?"

"Isn't it true, then, that you like him?"

Ginny went quite red and shook her head. But she didn't answer aloud.

Hannah turned to Cassi. "Sorry. Schoolgirl gossip, you know. So who are you? How is this your first year at Hogwarts?"

Starting to feel a bit more relaxed (schoolgirl gossip, at least, was a familiar subject to Cassi, even if Quidditch wasn't), she quickly told the two girls all that had happened over the last twenty-four hours.

"Whew!" said Hannah, when she had finished. "That is some story!"

"Professor Moody was at your house yesterday?" asked Ginny, a frown on her face.

Cassi nodded. "Yes. Is his eye magical, then?"

"Oh yes," said Hannah. "It can see through doors and brick walls and all that stuff. Perfect for an Auror. Well, Aurors are sort of like evil-hunters- they track down Death-Eaters and throw them in Azkaban. Azkaban is the prison, it's guarded by-"

"Moody got in trouble yesterday," said Ginny, breaking Hannah off. "Dad had to go down and sort it out. Something about thieves and magical exploding dustbins."

Cassi hesitated. "Is Moody- is he all right, though?"

"Oh yes," said Ginny quickly. "He's the best of the Aurors and completely loyal to Dumbledore-"

"-the headmaster-" Hannah interjected.

"-But he's a bit too…cautious. He sees a Death-Eater behind every bush and you-know-who behind every shadow."

"You-know-who?"

The two girls exchanged wary glances.

"You-know-who," said Hannah. "The greatest Dark Wizard of all time. The one who was destroyed by Harry Potter."

"Longbottom mentioned that…"

"Longbottom?" Ginny raised her eyebrows. "You mean Neville?"

"Er, I suppose. He was carrying a pet toad."

"That would be Trevor. He takes it everywhere. I've asked Ron if he lets it sleep on his bed, but Ron won't tell me." Ginny grinned at Hannah. "He's quite nice, isn't he?"

Now it was Hannah's turn to turn red. "Oh, well, he should have been in Hufflepuff. I don't know why the sorting hat put him in Gryffindor."

"Explain that to me," asked Cassi. "Are those the different houses?"

Ginny nodded. "Yes. There are four, you know, one for each of the four founders of Hogwarts. Those who are bold and brave and true of heart usually go to Gryffindor. The clever, cunning and power-hungry go to Slytherin- most of the dark wizards were in there. The smart and wise go to Ravenclaw and, er-"

"The loyal and loving ones go to Hufflepuff," finished Hannah, a bit defensively. "Some people will say we're the rejects-"

"But it isn't true, of course," said Ginny. "As Cedric clearly shows."

Cassi felt her face growing warm and was glad that the other girls were too busy laughing to notice.

Stay tuned! The next chapter will include an official description of the Hufflepuff common room, as described by Rowlings, so if you haven't heard about it yet, you should enjoy! Plus, of course, more plot twists...

Oh- and I would appreciate reviews!