Cassiopeia tiredly rubbed her eyes and once again, she tried to focus on the text in front of her. For some reason, the Defence Against the Dark Arts was her worst subject and therefore, the text didn't make much sense to her. However, it ought to make sense since it was only few weeks until the exams. Cass wasn't very sure how had she managed to pass the exams in her first and second years and the subject seemed even worse in her third year. Sighing, she looked at Lily, who was sitting in the armchair next to her and diligently writing her Potions essay. Cassiopeia knew that Lily would gladly explain the matter to her, but she didn't want to disturb her friend. With a frown, she bored her eyes into the book once again. However, she was soon rescued by her other friend. Mary all but skipped into the common room and immediately stopped in front of their place. While Lily was so immersed in her work that she didn't even look up, Cassiopeia smiled at their friend.
"Look what I found!" Mary exclaimed and hearing her excited voice, Lily finally raised her eyes from her essay.
"What is it?" she asked curiously
"I was in the library this afternoon. You must see what book I found. It's amazing." she said with a giggle and thrust the book under Lily's nose.
Grasping the book cautiously, Lily read the title and then opened it.
"Rites of Celtic Magic?" she asked dubiously.
"Yes! Isn't it wonderful? Look what is inside! I don't know why they don't teach us these things here."
"They don't teach it for a reason, Mary." Cassiopeia said slowly. "This kind of magic can get out of hand."
"And are you saying the magic we learn here can't? Look here – there's nothing wrong with this ritual." she said, yanking the book from Lily's hands and finding a particular page. "See? Blood-relation ritual." she read and both Lily and Cass frowned.
"What does that mean?" Lily asked.
"It creates a blood bond between two people. It means that from then on, there is a very strong bond between the involved people."
"Like a marriage?" Cass asked
"Not really. According to the book, they are more like siblings afterwards, like twins. You know, how sometimes twins can share feelings and so on? After this ritual, the people really do. They share strong feelings of happiness or fear or grief, not all of the feelings, of course. But they can know when the other is in danger, for instance." Mary explained.
"From your voice I guess you want to do it." Lily said dryly.
"Why not? We're best friends, we would be blood sisters afterwards. Wouldn't it be great?"
"Isn't it dangerous?" Lily asked.
"I don't think so. The book doesn't say anything about side effects. What do you say?"
"Well…I'm in. Merlin knows you're already better sisters to me than my own." Lily said with a shrug.
"And you, Cass?"
"I don't know. I think we shouldn't play with such things. One of my tutors warned me against underestimating forgotten magic."
"Come on, nothing will happen. Besides, what's life without a bit of excitement?" Mary grinned and Cass rolled her eyes. Somehow, she suspected that her agreement would get them in trouble but her friend's excitement was infectious.
"Alright, then."
"Great!" Mary chirped. "The ritual needs to be done on the day of the Spring Equinox. This is this weekend."
"How convenient." Cass said sarcastically.
"What else is in the book?" Lily asked and Mary handed her the book again.
"Oh, many things. I was especially intrigued by the potion and ritual that is supposed to charm men." she said with a giggle.
At that moment, the portrait of the Fat Lady opened and the Marauders strode inside. Immediately, Lily grabbed the book and hid her face behind it. "Isn't there something for repelling them instead?" she hissed and both Cass and Mary laughed. They both were rather amused by James Potter's constant advances on their friend who, needless to say, couldn't stand the sight of him.
"Well, not that I know of. The Celtic magic is all about love and friendship."
"Hippies would have liked it." Cass, who was now very interested and intrigued by muggle culture, commented. "But who would you like to charm, Mary?" she smirked
"David Wood." Mary said immediately. "He's so-"
"-strong and handsome and has such muscles from Quidditch. Not to mention he's smart." Lily and Cass said swooned in unison, knowing already their friend's crush on the fifth year Gryffindor, but couldn't help teasing her.
"Right." Mary nodded enthusiastically. "So, we all know about Lily's undying love for James Potter." she teased. Lily scowled at her but Mary paid her no mind. "But who would you charm?" she asked Cassiopeia.
"I don't know...I don't want to date someone just for his looks, you know? He needs to have some...charm. And brains." she said thoughtfully with a small smile. Lily and Mary exchanged looks.
"As if we don't know who you mean." Lily gave her a sly smile and Cass gave her a confused look.
"Who do I mean?"
"Is that a coincidence that your description just perfectly matches Remus Lupin?" Mary asked innocently.
"I don't know, maybe." she shrugged. "Well, you have to admit he has a certain charm about him."
"He sure does." Lily nodded.
"Come on, Cass, use this ritual." Mary urged her.
"I will not! I said he has a charm, not that I want to marry him. Besides, it was your idea, so it will be you doing it. Unless Lily has somebody in mind?" she looked at her other friend.
"Perhaps I have but I will rather wait what will happen with Mary." Lily said and Cass chuckled.
"You guys are mean." Mary pouted but recovered almost immediately. "Alright, let's see what we need for the rituals."
When Cassiopeia was sitting in Professor McGonagall's office, she was thinking she should have known that nothing good could have come from their little idea. And needless to say, she would be right. None of the girls had ever been in so much trouble before. To say that Professor McGonagall was furious was an understatement. She had even sent for Professor Dumbledore and Cass felt that they were doomed. Nervously, she brushed stray hair out of her face while hiding her other hand behind her back, so that the professor wouldn't notice the long cut on her palm.
That night the girls had decided to do the rituals since it was the vernal equinox. To gather the ingrediences for the potions had not been a bit difficult and the potions were fairly easy to brew, especially for Lily who was an ace at Potions. They had started with the blood ritual, making cuts on their palms and bringing them together. The tricky part had been the incantation since it was in the language they had no idea about. But apparently, they had done everything well since they palms were glowing afterwards and all of them had felt a surge of energy. Right now, Cass did not feel any different though, but when once in McGonagall's office Lily had given her a pointed look, she at once knew it meant not to tell anyone about the blood ritual. She wondered if it was because of the ritual or just because of knowing her friend too well.
However, the reason why they were in their professor's office now was their second ritual. Lily had made the potion, into which they had added David Wood's hair (Cass did not even want to know how Mary had managed to get it) while saying another incantation. Afterwards, Mary had drained a cup of the potion, both Lily and Cass making faces at drinking something with Wood's hair in it. Mary hadn't felt any different and after going once again through the book to check they had done everything correctly, they headed back into the castle. It was easy to sneak back into the Gryffindor Tower, however, when they arrived, there was a commotion inside. The lights in the common room were lit and it seemed as if everyone from Gryffindor was in there. A hysterical David Wood had just been being led out of the common room, presumably into the Hospital Wing, where he would be given a Calming Draught and an antidote soon after. However. the most frightening sight was an angry Professor McGonagall, standing in her dressing gown in the middle of the common room, her lips as tight as ever as she stabbed the three girls with her look.
"Miss MacDonald, Miss Evans and Miss Elderidge, where have you been!" she yelled and flinching, the girls immediately shoved their still-bleeding hands behind her backs or into the pocket (in Lily's case).
"I-in the kitchens, Professor." Cassiopeia said weakly. "we were hungry."
"Don't insult me with your lies, Miss Elderidge! Kindly explain to me then why Mr. Wood clearly shows signs of having been spellbound! He was repeating your name, Miss MacDonald." she said and the girls blanched, only staring into the ground. The common room buzzed with whisper of their classmates. "Follow me into my office, all three of you." McGonagall said and that is where they were now, waiting for Professor Dumbledore.
Suddenly, the door opened, interrupting Cassiopeia's thoughts, and inside came Professor Dumbledore. "Good evening, Minerva. Miss MacDonald, Miss Elderidge, Miss Evans," he gave them all a small nod as he sat down behind McGonagall's desk. "Now, you all surely will be very pleased to hear that Mr. Wood will make a full recovery soon." he said but raised his hand to stop the girls from interrupting him. "I am, however, very disappointed that our academy does not teach its students not to underestimate magic, especially the long-forgotten magic of our ancestors." he said and Cass felt her cheeks burning up. Dumbledore's disappointment was ten times worse than McGonagall's angry lecture. "Now, do you have anything to say?"
"We- we didn't want to harm anyone, sir," Mary said immediately. "I just found this book and we were curious. It sounded harmless enough; it wasn't supposed to have such a result. But anyway, I'm the one who should be punished, both Lily and Cass didn't want to do it, I just talked them into it." she said quietly, looking down.
"That's not truth!" Lily exclaimed. "Professor, we agreed to join Mary. She didn't even have to try hard to talk us into it, we were just as curious. Whatever you decide should apply to all of us." Lily said and Cassiopeia nodded.
"I appreciate your honesty, Miss Evans. I believe you meant no harm. I will however have to punish you for your incredibly thoughtless actions and I'm afraid I will have to write letters to your parents." he said grimly and Cass paled. She did not care about her parents' opinions but she was worried they would take her away from Hogwarts. "Any further punishments will be up to Professor McGonagall. And I hope that next time, you will be much more careful before using magic you don't know." he said and all of the girls nodded. "Now, I wish you good night." Dumbledore said and left but none of the girls dared to move before their Head of the House released them. She gave them all a stern look, but she didn't seem as angry as she had before.
"All of you girls broke several rules today and I feel I have to punish you according to your actions, as I would with any other student. Two weeks of detentions starting tomorrow and fifty points from Gryffindor for each of you is accurate, I think. Although it pains me to take Gryffindor all chances to win the Cup this year." she added grimly. "Now go to your dormitory."
As they walked the quiet corridors back to the Gryffindor tower, none of the girls spoke. They hadn't protested against the punishment, although having detention just before the exam period would be hard and everyone in Gryffindor would hate them now. When they arrived into their dormitory both Hestia and Alice were already asleep, their curtains drawn shut. While Lily sank heavily onto her bed, not even caring she was still clothed in her school robes, Mary went wordlessly into the bathroom and quietly shut the door after herself. Cassiopeia sighed, not really knowing what to do.
"What will we do?" Lily said suddenly in a quiet whisper. Cass sat down on Lily's bad, facing her, and shrugged.
"What do you mean? We will just survive through the detentions and perhaps apologize to David. What else is there to do?"
"But...everyone in Gryffindor is going to hate us! We have to do something." Lily said desperately.
"There's nothing. You can't very well get 150 points in a few weeks, Lil. The only chance to catch up is winning the Quidditch Cup, and considering none of us is on the team, we can't do anything about it either."
"How could we have been so stupid?" Lily groaned, grabbing her hair in both fists.
"Easy there, Lils." Cass said but Lily already snapped out of her despair and looked up with a new determination.
"I will get the points back, somehow. You will see. There are about three months left. If I get at least ten or maybe twenty points in every class, we must catch up again, mustn't we?" she said fiercely and Cass gave her a sceptical look.
"How are you gonna do that? Don't be crazy, Lils, you'd have to study beforehand for every class. That's not possible with the amount of homework."
"I will get the points back, you will see." Lily said but suddenly, they were interrupted by a loud sob coming from the bathroom. They exchanged looks, immediately knowing what to do. While Lily cast a Silencing spell on both Hestia's and Alice's curtains, Cassiopeia knocked on the bathroom door.
"Mary? Are you alright?"
"Leave me alone!" Mary sobbed
"We can't do that." Lily said "Because we can't just let our friend...our sister...cry alone in the loo." she said and Cass pushed the door open.
"Come on, Mare, talk to us." she said as she sat down on the floor besides Mary, Lilly sitting on her other side.
"I wonder you both are still t-talking to me." she sniffed. "When it's all my fault. I shouldn't have persuaded you to join me. And now everyone will hate you too, even when it should be only me... I'm sorry."
"Hey, I don't know about Lily but I, for one, can think and decide with my own head. I wouldn't have joined you if I hadn't really wanted to. But I did. I was just as curious about it. And you couldn't have known it would end up this way."
"She's right. You didn't push us into anything." Lily added.
"And what about David? He will hate me now." Mary whined, burying her face into her hands and Lily and Cassiopeia exchanged worried looks.
"Well, at least he now knows you fancy him." Cass said tentatively but Mary gave her a glare.
"Yea, but I will now seem like creep to him."
"You don't know that. Perhaps he will be flattered." Lily tried but Mary looked at her as if she was crazy.
"You're kidding, right? I've just embarrassed him in front of the whole Gryffindor. Tomorrow the whole school will know."
"You're right. But maybe if you apologize to him, he will accept it. Before, he didn't even know you exist."
"I would be perfectly alright if he didn't know that instead of this fiasco. At least then I would have had a tiny chance for him to like me some time in the future."
"Come on, now. It's not that bad. You don't know what he will say. Lily might be right, maybe he will forget it quickly and perhaps even find it funny. At least he will remember you now."
"Yes, as 'the Psycho-girl'" Mary said grimly.
It took another half an hour to for Lily and Cassiopeia to console their friend and make her go to bed. However, the next day they found out that things were as bad as they had imagined. The whole Gryffindor was now giving them glares and whispering as they walked by. Even Hestia and Alice didn't speak to them. Instead, the Slytherins, who were now on the best way to win the Cup, were applauding them everywhere they went. The Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws did not really care about the House points, but many of the girls in both houses found it outrageous that the girls tried to bewitch their idol and threw insults at them as well.
On their way to the Great Hall the next morning, the girls were holding their heads down, trying to be as inconspicuous as possible but still receiving several insults form their housemates. The only exception was, surprisingly, the Marauders. Instead of being upset about the house points (of which they had lost a considerable amount themselves), they found the whole matter incredibly funny.
"Hey, Evans!" James Potter called as the girls were sneaking down the corridor. Hearing the familiar voice, Lily groaned, but still kept her head down. However, they soon found out that once spotted, they couldn't really get away from the boys. Soon enough, Lily felt someone's arm wrapping around her shoulders. "I heard about your little prank the night before. Who would have thought, the Saint Evans, out of the castle after curfew and pranking people." he said with a snicker. Immediately, Lily's face went red with anger as she shook his arm off her shoulders.
"Leave me alone, you jerk!" she barked at him and James raised his hands in defence.
"No need to get so violent, Lily-flower. I was merely admiring your perfectly done prank. "
"That's right," Sirius said as fell in the step with the girls on the other side and Cass jumped slightly with fright. "We have never thought of pranking someone with ancient magic." he said and saluted them.
"Shut up, Sirius." Cassiopeia rolled her eyes with annoyance.
"What? I was only making a compliment. What a better way to embarrass someone than this?"
"Moreover, you chose the wanker Wood. Good for you, I don't know more annoying git in Gryffindor. You should have seen him in Quidditch training, the way he is showing off on his broom and bossing everyone around." James shook his head at their Quidditch Captain.
"Sounds like someone else I know." Lily snapped at him.
"Really? Who?" James asked innocently but Lily only huffed with annoyance.
"Why don't you leave us alone? We really are not in mood right now." Cass said to Sirius who raised his eyebrows.
"Why? Because of the points? Screw it, we will get it back during the last match, Elderidge."
"What if you won't?"
"We will, don't worry your head about it."
"Of course we will," James seconded. "That reminds me, we are your only hope now to catch up the lost points, Evans. Which means, you should really be treating me nicely, shouldn't you? Perhaps going on a date with me?" he said, putting his arm around her shoulders again. And once again, Lily shook his arm off.
"Don't touch me, you scumbag! I wouldn't go out with you even if it should have cost me even more points! Let's go, girls, I don't want to lose more time with this jerk." she said and quickly strode away.
"Hey! That's not very nice way to talk to the only people who don't hate you right now!" James called after her and both Mary and Cass scowled.
"Shut up, James, you're only embarrassing yourself." she glared at him and together with Mary they went after their friend.
That year, even despite the victory of Gryffindor in Quidditch Cup, the House Cup was won by the Slytherins. No one was disappointed more than Lily, Mary and Cassiopeia. Even though all of them were desperately trying to get as much points as possible back, their house ended up second behind Slytherin. Even though, the little adventure brought at least one advantage. The blood bond they managed to create, worked perfectly. They didn't feel emotions of each other on daily basis, but once one of them was experiencing strong feelings, the other two were sharing them as well. They thought it only made their friendship so much stronger, but they had no idea what impact on their futures would it have.
A rather short fill-out chapter, I'm afraid. The ones coming will be hopefully more interesting. Review please;)
