As Harry and company neared the ground floor, Harry got out his silvery cloak and put it on.
"Well you'd follow me then" said Cassiopeia "Down to dungeon level two isn't it?"
"You're not surprised by an invisibility cloak?" asked Hermione.
"Potter family magic," said Cassiopeia, shrugging, "so no business of anyone that's not family."
"It was my dad's," said Harry's disembodied voice, "Left at the bottom of the stairs, the stairs down."
"We'll um… hide using disillusionment," said Hermione, and cast it on Ron, and he partially vanished.
"You can disillusion, and you're only a fifth year?" asked Cassiopeia "You really are as clever as people make out."
Hermione tapped herself on the head and her blush faded to a Hermione-shaped blurriness.
Cassiopeia Black went down into the dungeons and got to the door, following Harry's whispered hints.
"Now I'll just get the password" said Harry's voice, and a bit later he said "I solemnly swear I'm up to no good."
Then he eventually said "The password is Cynopterus sphinx," followed by a quiet "mischief managed."
The stone wall between derelict two stone bookcases opened inwards silently, into a green-lit room.
"Come on," said Cassiopeia Black.
Once she got into the common room she turned and started along a hallway, passing several doors, opening one labelled "Fifth year girls."
Two blurry shapes stayed in the hallway.
"No boy-stopping charm. Blimey" said Ron's voice.
"Shut up!" said Hermione angrily.
Cassiopeia Black entered a girls' dorm room, a row of four-poster beds with green hangings occupied by girls in Hogwarts school uniform robes.
"Who are you" asked Pansy sharply.
"Cassiopeia Black visiting from France." said Cassiopeia "I'm here to see a relative… Daphne Greengrass?"
At that, a blonde girl looked up from a parchment she was writing on, surrounded by open textbooks "Who are you?" she asked, her blue eyes narrowing. She looked rather annoyed.
Cassiopeia turned her head "Come in," she said, and turned back "Cassiopeia Black. I … um ... attend Beauxbatons. You're a relative, though we've not met. I'm visiting to see about transferring to Hogwarts." she said, sounding a lot less confident, "And I ran into Harry Potter and friends, you know the famous ones, and they didn't believe I wasn't you, just because I'm blonde."
"You wear glasses" said Daphne Greengrass stiffly "My vision is perfect."
Cassiopeia nodded "And I've got green eyes, and yours are blue."
Daphne got up and walked over, looking closely at the now quite fidgety girl.
"You're definitely a relative" said Daphne "On the Bathory side. You've got the same eyes as mummy and I."
At this, Cassiopeia nodded with a small smile "I get that from mummy. Daddy's a Black."
"With Green eyes?" asked Daphne. "Not silvery grey?"
"He's… special" said Cassiopeia, looking around the room where fifth-year Slytherin girls stared at her curiously. "Get visible" she hissed.
Harry Potter appeared from under an invisibility cloak, and Ron and Hermione appeared from being blurry blobs.
"Um hi" Harry said "It's just Cassiopeia looked like Daphne, and then she um… went on about how Daphne was the smart and pretty member of the family, and obviously we suspected a disguise."
"I'm not disguised" said Cassiopeia.
"I'm calling Professor Snape!" said Pansy stridently, "Boys shouldn't be in our dorm room. And the mud-blood will leave a stain."
Hermione drew her wand "Say that again Pansy, and I'll hex your hair off," she said.
Ron looked at Daphne and Cassiopeia "They look very similar" he said "You could mistake one for the other, it's mostly eye colour and glasses."
A brown haired witch got up from an adjacent bedside desk and walked over and looked at Cassiopeia and Daphne.
"You two could be sisters." she said "Except you look more like Daphne than her sister does."
"Tracey" said Daphne with a touch of annoyance.
"Daph's shorter than her little sister" said Tracey.
"Not everyone's a beanpole" snapped Daphne.
Harry was looking back and forth between Daphne and Cassiopeia.
"You two have the same eyes, apart from colour, and noses..." he said.
Tracey walked around the two girls, frowning "She bloody well looks like Daph, except for the cheekbones, and the eye colour." She looked around, and giggled "Is she related to Potter too? Cos his eye-colour is a perfect match for hers, and if you imagine him with better glasses, you can see the cheekbones too.?"
"He is um related" admitted Cassiopeia.
Tracey guffawed "Oy, stand in a row!" she said and pushed the confused blondes and Harry about using the power of bubbliness.
"Look, Frenchie looks like their kid!" said Tracey, grinning.
Ron goggled "Blimey, that's disturbing" he said.
Pansy walked around and looked "That" said Pansy slowly "Is very disturbing, thanks Davis. I'll have nightmares about Potter and Greengrass now."
"I would Never!" exclaimed Daphne "He's a half-blood."
"No he's not" said Cassiopeia. "And I can prove it." with that, she went to Tracey's desk, swiped a piece of parchment and a quill and scribbled something.
She took the parchment over to Harry and looking at it, suddenly hissed instead of speaking,"$Well, look surprised, you're the heir of Slytherin!$"
Harry startled, pulled his wand and accidentally hissed "$No I'm not!$"
"Oh my god" said Pansy "Another Parselmouth!"
Cassiopeia lowered the parchment and said "He's a Slytherin descendant. His Mother was … till she was … was murdered by … her uncle Tom."
Harry's hands stiffened into fists and his forearms shook, and the muscles of his neck stood out as he shook. "I am Not!" he said loudly "That's all Tom Riddle. Not me. It's just a bit of his power in my scar, that's all!"
Cassiopeia nodded "Of course your Uncle Tom's head of the family… till you get rid of him."
Hermione looked terribly excited, and got a notebook out of her book-bag, and a self-inking quill and made some notes hurriedly, stopped, thought for a bit and wrote some more.
A girl with long dark hair and a white face spoke up "Miss Black, you claim the current head of a house executed an heir, and tried to execute Harry Potter, also an heir?" she said in a loaded tone. "Because that would make someone a parricide. Just saying..."
"Moon, shut it" said Pansy.
"Doesn't matter who he calls himself" said Lily Moon, standing "That makes you-know-who parricidal."
"Moon, if you keep talking, I'll get Millie to flush your head. With hair as long as yours, you'll be in there a long, long time" said Pansy.
"What the hell?" asked Harry.
"Killing your heirs makes you a parricide" said Lily "And therefore a blood traitor. You can't deal with blood traitors, which is what's wrong with Weasleys. Their great-grandfather was declared a blood traitor for welshing on a debt to the Malfoys."
Hermione was writing furiously.
"Oh yeah, I remember that one, they went broke a year later" said Daphne. "Calling Weasleys blood-traitors these days is being a bit rude. It's been three generations, and Miss Quick's Guide to Malicious Manners says three generations is the limit."
Ron's face and ears had gone bright red "It's not our fault!" he exclaimed.
"I'm getting the Professor!" said Pansy, running out of the room.
"Bugger" said Harry "I'm so getting expelled for this." he said morosely, slumping.
"Just go invisible." said Cassiopeia "It's what I'd do."
Daphne put her hands on her hips and raised one eyebrow "Well, vanish Potter!"
Harry disappeared under the cloak and Hermione disillusioned Ron then herself.
Professor Snape arrived with Pansy in tow a few minutes later.
"What is going on here?" he asked.
"Cassiopeia Black" said Cassiopeia "I'm visiting to see if I'd like to transfer to Hogwarts next year. I came to meet my relative, Daphne Greengrass."
"Potter came with her, and he was invisible" said Pansy.
"Disillusionment from a dolt like Potter, Hardly Likely" said Professor Snape. "Miss Black, I was not informed you were visiting, or that other Blacks even existed."
"Well, Professor Snape," said Cassiopeia, drawing herself up "I hardly wanted to see only what the head of my most likely house wanted me to see."
"You... look like Miss Greengrass?" said Professor Snape.
"I am a daughter of the house Bathory, like Daphne Greengrass, Professor Snape" said Cassiopeia in an icily formal tone. Professor Snape rolled his eyes. "Well, what a treat you'll be" he said grimly, sighed and left, followed by a plaintively complaining Pansy.
"Potter" said Daphne Greengrass "You can get out now, I don't care if my cousin is here."
"He's related to me too" said Cassiopeia "And Daddy said that in nineteen-ninety five, Sirius Black. Head of the family will adopt Harry Potter, making him heir to the Potter and Black fortunes, though he's already related to me."
"Through the Slytherins" said Sally-Anne enthusiastically, taking her glasses off and wiping them, and putting them back on. Hermione started scribbling again.
"Through his Mothers family, who are distantly related to the Slytherins, as are the Gaunts, and therefore Uncle Tom." said Cassiopeia.
"You're related to my mum's family" said Harry's voice.
"Yes" said Cassiopeia, nodding.
"Damn!" said Tracey "She looks exactly like Daphne when she does that. That and the looking down her nose bit."
"I do not!" said Daphne, and she lifted her chin to look down her nose, then giggled.
Cassiopeia relaxed "And I didn't even get to be really rude to Professor Snape."
Harry partially reappeared, just his head "It's great fun" said Harry "He really hates me."
"Well you look like your father" said Cassiopeia.
"With my mothers eyes" said Harry in a half sigh. Cassiopeia nodded "Everyone said." she added.
"That" said Lily thoughtfully "Must drive Professor Snape up the wall. Mum said Potter's mum was Professor Snape's friend for ages at school, and Potter's dad hated Professor Snape when they were at school."
"So he hates me…. Because of stuff with my parents from when he was at school?" asked Harry "What a prick." All the Slytherin girls looked thoughtful at that.
"Where did Harry Potter, orphan get an invisibility cloak?" asked Sally-Anne.
"Family magic" said Cassiopeia instantly.
"It was my fathers" said Harry, taking it off completely, and folding it into one robe pocket.
"I'd better get out of here before anything goes wrong" said Harry.
Harry was trying to leave when a boy in robes with messy black hair and green eyes burst into the room.
"Has anyone seen my…. Oh crap" he said, his glasses glinting in the lamplights.
"Oh everyone, this is my brother Altair Black" said Cassiopeia blandly.
"Caph, you are in SO much trouble. Dad's getting flack from about you pinching it from Uncle Tee!" he said urgently. "And visiting here, of all places!"
"I was trying to do them a favour." said Cassiopeia. "He's Harry Potter, our relative."
"Altair?" said Harry, staring at the boy, who looked… weirdly like Harry, except… not. He had crazy Potter hair, and glasses and green eyes… but the nose was… nothing like his, and he had a quite different build. Stockier.
"Blacks are traditionally named after stars, Mister Potter" said Altair. "Caph, we have to get out of here. You can't do this. This isn't our place."
"I told them I'd come from Beauxbatons to look at Hogwarts, looking to transfer next year." said Cassiopeia Black.
"Caph!" Altair said urgently "Dad's actually cross."
"Daddy never gets cross" said Cassiopeia dismissively, shaking her head.
"When the Death Eaters attacked, before we were born, dad blew up all fifteen of them, and he was angry all the time. Mummy … he sent mummy away with the staff, to keep her safe." said Altair.
"Why did he tell you?" asked Cassiopeia, hands on hips.
"Because he caught me getting angry about stuff and gave me one of his 'I'm so disappointed in you lectures." said Altair, both hands waving urgently. "You're the most spoilt little princess on earth!"
"I am not spoilt!" said Cassiopeia, stamping her foot.
"They're twins, right?" asked Lily.
Harry nodded "It was mentioned."
"How could I be spoiled!" said Cassiopeia.
"You seem a bit spoilt actually" said Daphne, and Cassiopeia froze "You… you just met me, and you think I'm spoilt?" she asked, bottom lip quivering.
"She's worse than your sister" said Tracey.
"Everyone loves me!" said Cassiopeia plaintively.
"She is really spoilt," said Altair, fiddling with the acromantula silk cuffs of his robes.
That was when Hogwarts was filled with a weird brassy tone.
"Oh bother," said Cassiopeia Black, "Daddy's come."
"What?" asked Daphne.
"Whenever Daddy comes to Hogwarts this happens" said Cassiopeia. "It's weird, and nobody knows why. In my defence I didn't lie, and I'm just trying to help."
Harry yelped as a piece of parchment was ripped out of his robe pocket and vanished.
"He's summoned my bloody map!" yelled Harry "How Dare he! Who the hell does he think he is!"
Cassiopeia cringed "Oh… maybe I might have gone a bit far today" she said in a small voice.
Altair put his hands on his face and took deep breaths. "Not again" he whined.
Moments later, there was a loud crack and a tall man in dressy dark robes with messy black hair and glasses appeared, wand out, map in one hand. "Caph, what the hell are you… oh Caph!" he said, stopping talking, his glasses glinting.
"Harry Potter, I presume" asked the tall green-eyed stranger, regarding Harry.
"You've got my bloody map" said Harry, wand shaking, pointed at the man.
"Put the wand down, and I'll give you your map" said the man sternly, handing over the map, to a confused Harry.
"Caph, I assume you've got your brother's map." said Cassiopeia's father.
"It's mine!" said Cassiopeia "I'm the eldest!"
"Caph, I was there when you were born. You're the younger." said her father, and saw the blonde next to her, and smiled "Ohh… she's so cute." he added.
Harry Potter looked at the apparating parent and shook his head. What a weirdo. Also, that definitely was apparation at Hogwarts and Hermione hadn't mentioned it yet.
"Cute!" said Daphne Greengrass, loudly "Mr Black I presume" the man nodded, in a sort of bow Then he said, in a funny formal tone "Miss Greengrass, I'm surprised to meet you. Considering my daughter has come here, it's hardly surprising. And you contrived to bring Harry Potter to the Slytherin girls dorms?"
Cassiopeia nodded "I just wanted to help" she said plaintively.
"And who did you say you were?" asked Mr Black.
"Cassiopeia Black, a relation, of Beauxbatons," said Cassiopeia.
"When we get home, I will talk to your mother about transferring you." said Caph's father "And I'll be persuasive."
"But Daddy" whined Cassiopeia, "I'll miss all my friends at school."
"Considering what you're trying to do with these poor unfortunates." said her father, who turned to Harry "Mister Potter. I have one piece of life advice for you. If you have a vision of peril, always check twice that it's not a trap, oh, and also Bathory women are the most wonderful on earth." he said with a wry smile.
"You married an aunt of mine?" asked Daphne, blushing slightly.
"Something like that" said the man, looking over at Greengrass, with another crooked smile "Something like that."
"Now you, Cassiopeia, you're going to be grounded when we get home" said her father.
"Considering you spent time in Nurmengard, Daddy, you're hardly one to talk." said Cassiopeia.
"That was half misunderstanding, and half beat-up" said her father levelly "Which is why we got released and compensation."
"After breaking out" said Altair.
"Friends were merely helping us out." said Caph's father blandly. Harry sympathised; he'd been broken out once too.
"Nurmengard" said Daphne hollowly "You were in Nurmengard. Grindelwald went to Nurmengard!"
"Well" said Caph's father "They did need a prison that could hold me. Though, that was only while I was badly injured."
"Badly injured?" asked Tracey curiously, which for some reason made the man smile crookedly "Both legs and both hands blown off by a derelict sea-mine" he said, nodding, "And before anyone asks, yes it hurt a lot, and took ages to grow back. Missing my children was the hardest part."
"Yes father, we all missed you. And Edward was going to rescue you." said Altair.
Cassiopeia mouthed 'suck-up' at Altair.
"Once I got home we vowed to never go to Spain again" said the adult.
"And daddy won't let me have a pony either. He's a monster" said Cassiopeia, to a fairly incredulous crowd of Slytherin girls. About half of them frowned at that.
"Hand over the jumper, Caph" said her father, who looked pained.
Caph rummaged in her pocket and retrieved a silvery gimbal with a purple rod inside, covered in tiny knurled brass wheels with numbers on them. It looked, Harry thought like a magical idea of a combination bike lock crossed with a … silver gimbally thing.
Mr Black took the jumper, rolled their eyes "And don't steal it from your Uncle again, Caph."
"Caph?" asked Daphne.
"The second, and brightest star in Cassiopeia" said her father, with a little smile.
"You are the most romantically sentimental man ever born" said Daphne Greengrass "Where are there boys like that?"
Cassiopeia's father glanced over at Harry, his eyes crinkled, and he shook his head. "Teenage boys need to get a lot older, marry, and have children before they feel like that" he said, with a wry smile.
Harry's brow furrowed "There's no way any boy could ever be that soppy" said Harry surely. Cassiopeia's father snorted "You keep telling yourself that kid. Just..." , and he looked around the room, gazing at Hermione and Ron. Inexplicably, the older man's eyes grew wet, and he started to sniffle, standing silently staring. At Ron, of all people. He really was mental, thought Harry.
"Oh no" said Cassiopeia "Daddy's having a thing." she said and wrapped her arms around her father, and Altair hugged him too.
"What's wrong with him?" asked Daphne.
"He's… he's had a difficult life, and … today's reminding him of some very bad things." said Cassiopeia. "Lots of Daddy's friends and family died in the war."
Cassiopeia's father took out a jewelled locket with a shaking hand and hissed at it "$Peshaa$!" and it opened, and the man looked at the pictures inside and slowly calmed down, finally getting a soft look in his eyes, and kissing at the main picture and closing the locket, looking up and cleaning off his glasses, with a few wand taps. Daphne Greengrass for some inexplicable girl reason, had wide eyes and wasn't moving at all. Girls were just strange, thought Harry.
Cassiopeia's father spoke up "Harry, I'll go visit Sirius. He's family after all, Haven't seen him since… long before these two were born. He's at the 'old house' right?"
Harry stared at Cassiopeia's father, and he pursed his lips "You know he's on the run from the ministry, right?" asked Harry. Daphne Greengrass bit her lip and closed her eyes, murmuring something to herself. Girls really were weird, thought Harry.
"Sirius is innocent of everything but going insane with grief at losing his best friend, being betrayed" said Cassiopeia's father, and he sighed. "I'll go check in on the old dog after these two have been put back where they belong. I can keep an eye on him all year, or have someone from the family do so. I expect he's not quite well?"
"As good as you, frankly" said Harry bluntly.
Cassiopeia's father chuckled and blinked "Yeah, well, maybe. You keep … hell, I'll give you a letter, so you can get some help when you need it. You're a relation anyway" he said somewhat sternly "Someone let me use a desk and write a little letter for Mr Potter here." he called out.
"You may use mine Mr Black" said Tracey. Daphne smiled at her friend, and went back to looking brooding.
"Thank you miss Davis" said Cassiopeia's father, and sat down and wrote a letter, with lots of scratching. Tracey casually walked over and snooped hten exclaimed "But… it's not even words!"
"Oh well, it's safer this way, family magic" said Cassiopeia's father, who handed over the letter to Harry and spoke
"Now, Harry, you may have some trouble from uncle Tom. He can be a real Headache if you know what I mean. This letter explains where his favourite things are, and if you happened to break them, he'd leave and not come back" said Cassiopeia's father "I won't be reachable by owl, but there'll be good people looking out for you and Sirius."
"It's all just squiggles" said Tracey "his handwriting is beyond atrocious."
Harry unfolded the letter and glanced at it, his eyes widening.
Cassiopeia's father reached over and shut the letter, and spoke up "You save that for when Uncle Alby has a chat. You'll have to read it for him, as he's not family. Don't for your own sake let Uncle Tom see it, or any of his friends. And… cut Snape a little slack. He's an arse, and hates you for looking like your father, but he was your mothers friend."
"Should I tell … Uncle Alby sooner rather than later?" asked Harry.
"Use your judgement, but I think it would be wise." said Cassiopeia's father.
"How… do you know?" asked Harry, and Cassiopeia's father walked over, knelt down a little and stared Harry in the eyes, face to face "I have a trustworthy face Harry."
Harry stared at Cassiopeia's fathers' face, finally glancing at his forehead, where a faded scar was partly hidden by his fringe.
Harry's eyes widened again.
"Caph wanted it to be Just like Buckbeak, only bigger and grander" said Cassiopeia's father quietly, and he leaned forward and whispered in Harry's ear, and Harry blushed, and looked away into the corner of the room. Then the weird parent stood up.
"Now, you two, with me, we're leaving!" said Cassiopeia's father to his children. "We've been here far too long already"
"Are you very cross daddy?" asked Cassiopeia.
"You're grounded till you're thirty" he replied. "And you, Al, should have got me sooner."
Then he tapped both of his children on the head with his wand, and they disappeared completely.
"And don't think I won't use the map to find you if you run off" said Cassiopeia's father, who simply walked out of the girls dorms.
"That" said Lily "was a very complicated man."
"Shame he's mad" said Sally-Anne "Such a romantic man, his wife must be very lucky." she sniffled.
Daphne sat down on her bed and said loudly "Potter, get out!"
Harry pulled out his invisibility cloak and vanished under it.
"Has he even left?" asked Sally-Anne.
"Someone take off their robes, that'll flush him out" suggested Tracey, unbuttoning her collar, and starting on the buttons down her robe-front.
Daphne's head sank onto her raised hands, and she sighed. "This has been a thoroughly awful, terrible day" she complained.
Cassiopeia's father walked out through the Slytherin dorm, shoving Draco Malfoy down into a chair "Sit down boy, and pray for peace. Because in a war you will lose, and I'll see you die in Azkaban."
"My father will hear of this!" said Draco loudly.
The man turned and looked at Draco, and tilted his head, and hissed awfully "$hesh hsehs shesh shesh$. Our family motto. We bow to no one. Not even Tommy. You Malfoys might emulate us. You're in my house, at least try not to act like a bloody Gryffindor" he said, and left through the entrance. A moment later, Draco, who was sitting looking petulant, yelped in pain "Ow!" he said clutching his shin, "Someone kicked me!"
The other Slytherin students looked over, and looked away. There was nothing to see here.
Cassiopeia's father walked out of Hogwarts and started down the path, accompanied by two sets of scrunching gravels sounds. "Caph, Al that better be you two" he said.
"It is daddy" said Caph. "Yes dad" said Al.
"We'll go to the three broomsticks, get the back room and go home." said Cassiopeia's father. "Honestly, trying to set up this Harry Potter with this Daphne Greengrass. What did you think would happen?"
"They'd fall in love, and we'd be born a few years earlier in this universe" said Cassiopeia. "Without those years mummy won't talk about."
"The thing" said older Harry awkwardly, "Is that your mother and I love each over very much… but when we married… we had a lot of problems, least of which was the arranged marriage."
"Doesn't the old Mrs Malfoy sign it soon anyway?" asked Caph.
"Caph, have you been sneaking into the vault and peeking at that thing, it's dangerous" said Harry.
"But Daddy!" she whined "It's so Romantic."
"It wasn't romantic at all for years, Caph" said Harry. "At his age I'd never even spoken to your mum. Did you tell him?"
"No" said Caph "He was so different to you."
"Time does that" said Harry. "And your mother."
"So the sooner this Harry Potter kisses this Daphne Greengrass the better!" said Caph.
"The only reason," said Harry, shaking his head as he walked, "That this isn't a crime is nobody knows dimension jumpers are even possible. Except Uncle Theo. And I suspect Uncle Michael put him up to it. Aunt Tori has a lot of money, and poor judgement."
"Oh… we should have gone to see aunty Tori as a teenager." said Caph "Can we please daddy?"
"She wasn't well, she wouldn't want you seeing her like that" said Harry.
"Says my father who had a break-down in front of a bunch of girls" said Al.
"Oh you're so grounded too" said Harry "I don't know which of us you get that from."
-==0==-