"Cassiopeia!" Came a shrill voice from the kitchen. "Get down here, now!"

"I'm coming!" I screamed back, huffing as I moved my duvet to one side. "I can't find my wand!"

Yes, I had indeed lost my wand and rushing around at 10:45am on September 1st, having only just packed my trunk, looking for the thing I'm supposed to have on me at all times, seemed to be stressing my Mum out, but only slightly.

"You've what?!" Cassandra Hayes, once again, shouted through the walls.

Okay, so maybe I was stressing her out quite a lot, but she should know that I lose things really easily.

I don't think it helped that she knew I was going to miss the train if I didn't hurry up.

Which would be why she was making her way down the hallway, her heels clicking, like a warning that the devil itself was on its way.

Oh, crap, she's coming down the hallway.

Fuck, what do I do?

Act natural?

I didn't get the chance to think up any more ideas as my Mother appeared in my doorway, clad in a long sleeved navy blouse, matched with black jeggings, a grey scarf was wrapped round her neck, hanging loosely. Her deep brown, almost red, hair was pulled back into her signature knotted bun, 'no hair tie required darling' was what she had said to me when she'd shown me how to do it, back when I was a kid. Her feet, unsurprisingly, wore matching navy stiletto heels and her face bore no make up, not that she needed it, her features looking natural and perfect, as always. She had bright, piercing, crystal blue eyes and her cheeks were soft and round, she looked young, which she was.

My Mum had been very young, only sixteen, when she'd given birth to me and I was everything to her, her world.

And she was everything to me.

She had told my Dad when she fell pregnant, but he'd told her that he wanted nothing to do with us.

Charming right?

That, however, he came to regret, as when I was four years old, he had tracked down my Mum and begged for forgiveness, claiming that he'd been a naive teenager back then.

To be fair to him, he had been a naive teenager back then.

So, from then on I saw him every Tuesday after school, Mum sent me to a Muggle Primary School, every other weekend I went to stay with him and if I wanted to, I could pick and choose when I wanted to see him.

I loved my Dad and he loved me.

I had a great childhood.

Until I was nine, when my Dad died, leaving the world too early, as Mum has always said.

Turns out that even though they never got back together, she still loved him, so his death hit her just as hard as it had me, leaving a permanent hole in our hearts.

But we mourned and moved on, together, since then things have been okay, but not completely smooth sailing.

Just after I'd started Hogwarts, my Grandma, Mum's Mum, passed away, and shortly after that her dad passed on too.

It wasn't especially saddening for me as I had never met them before.

But for Mum, it was hard and I mean really hard, it broke her, she was so upset about how she had left things with them.

They had kicked Mum out when they found out that she was with child, ceasing all contact until a few months after I was born when they reached out and demanded that they meet their Granddaughter, Mum had flat out refused and I think that was the last time she spoke to either of them.

Hence why she developed Depression after they died.

Her emotions had been all over the place, I couldn't tell whether she was angry or sad, sometimes it was both. Every time I had to leave to go back to school I hated it, because I had no idea if she would be okay and didn't like leaving her all on her own. She didn't like when I left either, she'd beg me to stay and then tell me go, she was a real mess. She'd break down about the littlest things, like that Christmas when the oven broke or when she couldn't open a jar of jam.

But she's better now, she's on tablets.

My Mum was brave and a hero, she had been homeless and pregnant at just sixteen years old, until she found a way to turn her life around, getting a job, making loyal friends that have stuck around all these years, and raising me, not entirely on her own, but with less support than she deserved.

I looked up to her, I wanted to be like her, strong, independent and beautiful.

But, I was about to get a scolding from her, so I restrained from saying something that would sound stupid at this moment in time, which was a habit of mine.

"Why, pray tell, have you lost your wand?" She said, raising one newly plucked eyebrow and looking at me.

"I don't know! One minute it was in my hand and the next...poof! It was gone!" I exclaimed, waving my arms about in a manner of gestures.

Did I mention that I could be a tad dramatic at times?

I didn't?

Well, I can and I am, some of the time, a little bit overdramatic.

My Mum just stood there, hands on her hips, and chuckled, before reaching out towards my head. I felt my hair loosen and fall out of the bun I'd put it in earlier that morning as she held out her hand, my wand laying calmly in her palm. I facepalmed.

Seriously, all this time and it was in my hair!

Ugh, I really need to get my life together.

"Yes, you do, now come on, or you will miss the train." She said, answering a statement I thought I'd said internally, before turning around and making her way out my room and back towards the kitchen.

I huffed, picking up my wand that she'd placed on my desk, which sat awkwardly by the door.

My Mum and I lived in a small flat in East London, where the cheaper housing was. We didn't have much money, but we got on alright, it helped that I was gone nearly the entire year, so Mum only really had to provide for herself. It was good having little money, it made me appreciate the finer things in life a lot more than I think I would've done had we been filthy rich.

My room was small, but I liked it like that, after all, I had to spend most of the year at Hogwarts and it was a big castle, so it was nice to come home to something smaller, besides it was cosy and homey. My single bed was pushed up against the wall where the window was, which looked down onto the bustling streets below, meaning I could people watch if I wanted to. My wardrobe was mismatched in the fact that the dark, mahogany wood didn't quite match with the light oak of my bed and desk, not that I was fussed. I had a Beatles poster, a Muggle band, above my head board and a long, full length mirror glued onto the right door of my wardrobe that I was currently using to check that I didn't look ridiculous.

I twisted my hair around my wand and put it in place in a messy bun atop my head, an action I had been doing for so long that it was now second nature. My hair was a light blonde that, if let down, fell in loose waves down my back, reaching my bum. I had the same blue eyes as my Mother and my soft features were often described as a 'spitting image' to hers, which in my books is a compliment, my Mum was gorgeous. I was short, standing at 5'2 and I was probably not going to get any taller, but my small stature meant that I had curves, which I personally loved.

I have a temper too, so I would't piss me off if I were you.

I was currently wearing a pair of light short denim dungarees with a white t-shirt that had little lilac stars on it underneath. A long, thin and oversized navy cardigan covered my arms and on my feet I wore my tattered purple lace up boots, the rope that was tied in a bow, keeping them attached to my feet was bright yellow, matching my small, dangly sunflower earrings.

My entire outfit was a last effort to keep summer going, just for a little bit longer.

Summer was my favourite season, I don't know why, it just was. There was something about the warmth of the sun on my skin, the sandy beaches and flowers in full bloom that I loved.

"Cassiopeia! Come on, we have have to go!" My Mum called, sounding even more inpatient than she had two minutes ago.

"Coming!" I replied, grabbing my trunk from where it stood at the foot of my bed and dragging it down the hallway and into the kitchen, where she was waiting for me.

"Grab my hand." She said as she held out her slender fingers.

I did as I was told, taking her hand and bracing myself for what was to come.

The sensation that I was being sucked into an air tight tube was still as uncomfortable as it had always been, but as I was so used to side-along apparating at this point, it felt normal, sort of. It was gone as quickly as it had appeared and we were no longer stood in our tiny kitchen but in an alley, just outside Kings Cross Train Station.

Mum checked her watch and cursed.

"Fuck! You got five minutes, come on!" She said as she grabbed my hand and began to run.

We, literally, ran through the entire train station, weaving in and out of Muggles, careful not to bump into anyone. To everyone around us, we must've of looked rather normal, just a Mother and a Daughter running to make it to their train, instead of a Mother and Daughter running to catch a train that takes the daughter to a magical school for Witches and Wizards in the Scottish Highlands.

When we reached the wall between platforms nine and ten, which acted as a barrier between the Magical and the Muggle worlds, we didn't bother stopping, we just ran straight through it. On the other side, it was as busy as the rest of King Cross had been, but there were no students on Platform 9 3/4, due to the time. We stopped to breathe.

"I love you," Mum said giving me a quick hug and kissing my forehead. "And remember, don't do anything I wouldn't do."

"So don't do anything sensible then, got it." I said returning her gesture. "I love you too."

"That's my girl," She said as she released me. "And I know you do."

She said nothing more before shoeing me off as the final whistle went, I hopped onto the train, pulling my trunk with me, just in time as the scarlet steam engine started move.

The journey to Hogwarts was officially underway as I hauled my, what I'd only now just realised was really heavy, trunk down the corridor of The Hogwarts Express, trying to find an empty compartment, which was highly unlikely, or one with a certain redhead in it. Sadly, I found neither, but I heard someone call my name, so I turned around to tell them to piss off.

"Cassi!"

It had been James Potter who had shouted, his head poking out of a compartment I had walked past mere moments ago.

"James, thank Merlin I found somebody, " I said exasperated. "You haven't seen Lily anywhere, have you?"

"Yeah, she's at the prefects meeting with Remus." He answered, seemingly a bit peeved off that Remus got to spend time with Lily.

You see, the thing is that, James Potter had an unhealthy obsession with Lily Evans, my Best Friend, which had been going on since third year, he had asked her out many a time and her answer was always the same, no. Despite the constant rejection, James always seemed to think he still had a chance, even when Lily had said she'd rather date the Giant Squid, the sea creature that resides in the Black Lake at Hogwarts.

To Lily, James was an arrogant toerag that had nothing better to do than annoy and patronize anyone he pleased, she so happened to be on the receiving end of his antics more than most others and it irritated her, greatly. She despised him and he was completely and utterly in love with her, it was tragic really. Even though she had said, on multiple occasions, that she hated him, I would always catch her scowling whenever a girl was flirting with James, though she would never admit it, not in a million years.

The thing with James was, he was good looking, charming, smart and Captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, which was a pretty brilliant thing considering he was only a sixth year and that there was currently a seventh year on the team. James was a chaser, not only on the Quidditch pitch but in life too, he's chased after Lily for years, never making any progress, except for maybe a small smile.

All I'm going to say, is that Gryffindor is lucky that he was better at scoring points than he was at getting girls.

One of the, many, reasons that Lily didn't like James was because every time he asked her out or complimented her, she thought he was making fun. Which was bullshit in my opinion, James was extremely fit with his blue eyes and brown, messy, fluffy hair and Quidditch toned body, meaning, he could get any girl he wanted, whenever he wanted. But that was the thing, he didn't want anybody else, he wanted Lily and only her, it was really sweet. Besides, everyone could tell just by looking at him that he was completely besotted with her, everyone except Lily that was.

"Oh yeah." I said dumbly.

Truthfully, I had actually forgotten that Lily was a prefect, Remus too, apparently.

"Wanna sit with us?" He asked, running a hand through his already untidy hair, a habit of his.

"Sure." I smiled.

He moved away from the door and back into the compartment, allowing me to enter, I placed my trunk on the rack above and looked around for a spare seat, there was one by the window but I was not at all happy about who sat next to it. I sighed, subjecting myself for four hours of pure annoyance, and sat down next to him.

He smirked at me.

Merlin, I hate that smirk.

"You're later than usual." He said, still bloody smirking.

"And you're uglier than usual, but you don't hear me complaining, do you?" I snapped at him, he raised his eyebrows.

"Woah, for such a small person, you sure hold a lot of anger." He jeered, making fun of my size, again.

Honestly, that was all he ever did, mock me about my height.

Where was the originality?

"Alright, Sirius just chill, mate." James interjected, earning a thankful look from me.

I did not want to talk to Sirius Black, of all people.

Just sitting next to him was enough to put me in a bad mood.

So, in case you hadn't already noticed, I dislike Sirius Black, strongly. He is a pure, constant annoyance in my life, one that I had yet to master the art of how to get rid of him. He was a big headed git that thought he was Merlin's gift to Wizard-kind, he's not. He also isn't the hottest boy to ever walk the earth, which is what he seemed to think.

I know, arrogant much.

I couldn't deny that he was pleasing to the eye and I would have to be blind not to notice that he was fit.

He was.

He had ebony black hair that reached just above his shoulders, his features were sharp and aristocratic, his nose pointed and shaped well and his jawline was defined. He, like James, was on the Quidditch team, but he was a beater, which explains all the muscle that was so obviously hiding under his mundane school uniform.

Not that I'd thought about it.

But to me, it was his eyes, they weren't blue, but grey and they held so many emotions, including the ones that he refused to let anyone see. They say that 'eyes are the windows to the soul' and in Sirius's case, it was true, if you ever wanted to find out what he was really feeling, all you had to do was look into his steely silver irises and the answer had been there all along.

I realised that I was actually staring at him, so I turned my head to face the blur that was the outside world, ignoring the curious look he'd given me as I did so.

About an hour later, I was still staring out the window, when the compartment door opened to reveal Lily and Remus returning from their oddly long prefects meeting. Lily spotted me and beamed, making her way over, kicking Sirius out of his seat so she could sit next to me, to which I stuck my tongue out at him and he flipped me the bird.

"Cassi! Where have you been? I looked everywhere for you, but then I had to go to the prefects meeting." Lily said with only a little annoyance in her tone.

"I was running late." I replied, shrugging.

"As always." Sirius chipped in.

"For once in your life, could you shut the fuck up." I said, glaring at him.

"Oh sorry, I'm scared." His voice was laced with sarcasm as he put his hands up in mock surrender.

"You bloody should be." I muttered, turning back to Lily.

"What was that? I couldn't hear you." Sirius said putting a hand to his ear.

I elected to ignore his stupidity, carrying on Lily and I's conversation, talking all about the summer and what we did, then Lily went on to tell me that the prefects meeting had been, rather interesting, but she refused to tell me why.

"All I'm saying is that there's a surprise." She said, smiling triumphantly because she knew how much not knowing would irritate me.

"Why can't you just tell me?" I pleaded, attempting to charm her with my puppy dog eyes.

Which, in past experiences, usually worked.

Lily covered her gorgeous green eyes with her hands, claiming that she would not fall pray to my 'evil eyes' as she liked to call them.

I could see, looking at her now, why James was so infatuated with her. She had flaming red hair, that she hated because it never went with anything, she was tall, around about 5'8 and her figure was lean, but in the subtle shape of an hourglass. She worked hard at everything, getting straight Os in most of her OWLs and she was adored by everyone, except maybe the Slytherins. Lily was Muggleborn as her parents were Muggles, but that had never stopped her from doing anything, ever.

And I was proud of her for that.

"No. Uh uh." She refused, shaking her head at me.

I huffed and sat back in my seat, annoyed.

There seems to be a lot of annoyance in the air today, I blame Black's presence.

"Aw, did itty bitty Cassi not get her way," The aforementioned boy spoke up, smirking, again. "What a shame."

"Piss off." I snapped, glaring at him, again.

"You know, I don't think I will, me being here frustrates you." When he spoke it must've sounded as though he was only poking fun at me, but there was a deeper meaning behind it.

I hated that he was bringing that up, now, in front of everyone.

Besides, that night wasn't just my fault, he was there too.

He was also as drunk as I was.

But that's a story for another day.

"Where's Alice, Eli and Mary? I haven't seen any of them yet." I asked Lily, completely ignoring Sirius's existence now.

"Well, Alice is probably off eating Frank's face and I've yet to see either Eli or Mary." She answered.

"Lovely mental image, Lils." I said scrunching my nose in disgust.

"I know right." Was the, surprisingly, sarcastic reply.

'Speak of the Devil and he shall appear', is a very accurate saying for this moment, as Alice appeared in the doorway, looking somewhat dishevelled. Her dirty blonde hair was a little messy and her cherry red lips looked swollen, seems as though Lily had been right. Frank, Alice's long-term Boyfriend, stood behind, his appearance as equally untidy but he looked content with Alice's hand in his.

"Hey guys." Alice greeted, moving to sit next to Lily, Sirius again being kicked out of his seat.

"Why?!" He exclaimed, raising his arms in exasperation as he plonked himself on the floor in front of James.

Nobody paid him any attention as we continued our conversations.

"Alice, tell Lily that she has to tell me what the Prefect's surprise is?" I whined.

"Prefects surprise? What's that?" Alice inquired.

Lily scowled at me, because now she'd have two people wanting to know the big secret, meaning she'd have to keep saying no, as Alice was as nosy as I was.

"It's nothing," The redhead said, giving me a pointed look. "You'll find out when we get to school."

I huffed, slouching back into my seat, annoyed.

"Aw, did Cassiopeia not get her way, again?" Sirius asked, mockingly.

"It's Cassi." I stated, correcting him.

Another thing he like to do is call me by my full name, which is something nobody asides from my Mum does.

And there's a bloody good reason, too.

It's what my Dad had always referred to me as.

He used to say 'why call should I call you anything but, it is your name isn't it, and it's a beautiful one at that', whenever I would ask why he didn't have a nickname for me like everybody else did. So, from then on, when I was asked for my name, my answer was always Cassi, so that my real name was reserved for his use only. My Mum called me it too, but only because it reminded both of us of him and she really liked it. My Dad had once said that he was glad I was named after a constellation, because I was his little star.

That was the only other thing he called me.

He'd always felt really bad for not being there for my Mum and I, but we both always reassured him that it was okay and that he'd made up for it by appearing in our lives and making us smile everyday for five years.

But Sirius couldn't respect the fact that I was Cassi.

Not Cassiopeia.

"I prefer Cassiopeia." He spoke, smirking again.

"And I don't care what you prefer." I spat, standing up in front of him. "You either call me Cassi, or don't talk to me at all."

James put a hand on his shoulder and gave him a look that Sirius paid heed to, he'd realised that I wasn't kidding around as he relaxed back in his seat, defeat etched on his handsome features.

"Cassi, sweetie, sit down." Lily spoke softly, ever the referee.

Lily and the girls were the only ones who were semi-aware that I only really had one parent figure in my life, though they were in the dark as to why that was.

There was five of us in the Gryffindor sixth year girls dorm, myself, Lily, Alice, Mary and Eli.

Lily and I met on the train ride in first year, when she and her, now ex, friend Severus Snape kindly allowed me to sit with them in their compartment, as there wasn't any others left, due to the fact that I had been late, as usual. We had both then befriended the other girls when we met in our dorm that same night and we had been inseparable since.

Alice was the out going one, she was nice to everybody and would always make time for pleasant conversation, she was also the gossip, she loved to know what went on in every house. Although she didn't go around telling the entire Hogwarts population about the secrets she'd found, it did make for good entertainment during our frequent girl's nights. She was extremely pretty too, her blue-green eyes being one of her prominent features. She and Frank had been going strong for a good two, nearly three, years, making the rest of us singles a little depressed with their adorableness. The boy was also completely besotted with her, he was whipped, not that he seemed to mind.

All of a sudden, the compartment door slid open again and in the doorway stood two brunettes we had yet to see.

"There you are, where have you two been?" Alice asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Looking for you lot, where else would we be." The taller one, Eli, said as she plopped down into Remus's lap, he let out a humph as she did so.

"A little warning next time please, Beth." He said as he moved to a more comfortable position.

Ah yes, the really irritating case of Remus and Eli's extreme obliviousness.

AKA, the fact that they are both completely in love with each other, though both refuse to admit it and can't see how the other would even like them, whilst everybody else around them got fed up with their idiocy. Despite this, they were the best of friends, it was all very cliche, you know, falling in love with your best friend.

Elizabeth Carter, Eli, or as Remus calls her, Beth, is a Muggleborn witch with a love for magical creatures and has known and been friends with Remus since they were little, having grown up in the same small Muggle village. She could always be found near the edge of the Forbidden Forest, helping Hagrid tend to the magical animals that reside there, or in the library, studying with Remus. She loved to read and was bordering on crazy, though she was rather fun to be around, especially after she'd consumed either caffeine or alcohol. Anybody could see why Remus was head over heels for her, she was beautiful with her straight, shoulder length, maroon hair and icy eyes.

The smaller of the brown haired beauties was Mary McDonald, a quiet, timid and sweet girl, who was always making sure everybody was happy and if they weren't she would stay with you until you cheered up. She, like me, was small, though she was around about 5'3. She was petite and modest, with her long wavy locks that matched her coco eyes and her subtle curves, which was one of the many things that made her gorgeous. Mary was also very smart and, like Lily, got amazing in grades in most of her subjects.

"You didn't miss much." Alice stated, before continuing. "Except, that there is a surprise to be announced when we get there."

"Surprise? What surprise?" James spoke up, his voice laced with excitement over the news he'd just eavesdropped on.

Lily groaned and put her head in her hands.

"I hate you Cassi." She muttered.

"Me?! It was Alice who brought it up." I protested, folding my arms over my chest.

"Yes, but it was you who told her." She sighed.

"And it was you, who told me." I retorted, a triumphant look on my face.

"Oh, sod off." She said, flipping me the bird.

Nobody except James, Sirius and Peter, seemed shocked by Lily's use of a curse word, or that she'd even thought about doing a gesture like that. The girls and Remus seemed unfazed, like myself they had been on the receiving end of Lily's swear words before. They were, to be fair, very rare these moments, when Lily would use such language, but it wasn't as if she hadn't called James something rude to his face before.

The initial shock seemed to be replaced quickly with pride, James's face lighting up, a huge smile spreading from one ear to the other and Sirius looked as though he now had a new found respect for the redhead, Peter just sat back, mumbling to himself.

The rest of the journey went smoothly and one giant game of exploding snap, several sweets and a few swear words later and we were pulling into Hogsmeade Station, having finally arrived at our destination. When the train had stopped completely, we made our way to platform, ducking and moving out of the way of the hundreds of students that filled the space, all of which were in little groups catching up with their friends, the biggest of them being the gaggle of little first years, all staring up in awe of the half giant stood in front of them.

I remembered that feeling of excitement and nervous anticipation when I was a first year, I'm a pureblood, a very unknown fact amongst people, I wasn't unaware of Hogwarts or anything in the Wizarding World, but the bedtime stories that my Mum had relaid over the years had been nothing compared to the real thing. I just hoped that those tiny children savoured the first moments, memories and friends that they were bound to make, because before you know it, it's fifth year and you're sat, taking your OWLs.

The ten of us walked over to the carriages, the ones that most people believed were pulled by themselves, when they were were actually powered by skeletal horses that were called Thestrals. The were beautiful creatures, not in the normal way, they looked like the reincarnation of death itself, but that was the beauty of it. On the outside they were unusual and frightening, but if you took the time to get to know one, they were delicate, gentle animals, who were just as scared of you, if not more so, than you are of it. I supposed that it also didn't help that you could only see them if you'd seen death, though sometimes it was more like a reminder of what, or who'd, you'd lost.

I never let on that I could see them, though.

I didn't need to retell that story to anybody.

During the ride up to the castle, our carriage was filled with laughter and jokes, as the boys began to plan their 'back to school bash', an event which they held every year, and the girls and I chatted about what delicious foods would be at the feast tonight.

That was what I loved about these guys, they had the power to distract me and bring me back from the horrible path that was memory lane, without even knowing it. I would die protecting these angels.

AN:

Hello! It has certainly been a while since Ii have uploaded anything. It probably wasn't smart to start another story, but I have never been known for my intelligence, or common sense. For those of you that have read my ongoing stories, I promise I'm trying to find the motivation to continue them, but I have a serious case of writers block when comes to those stories. For now, enjoy a fresh batch of creativity. Stay safe and sane!

Until next time, happy reading,

Sincerely.

Purpleslytherin xx