The Harper household has always been a strict one, one with firm words and sharp eyes. Yet like every other story, there's always one person who can burn it down with a single flick of their wrist. In this fanfic of Harry Potter, that person is Cass...
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The prank had been a success, all of the Slytherins, either ran out of the hall, to avoid anymore embarrassment, or just squealed. It fluttered Fred's heart to see Cassandra so happy, when she had come into the great hall with dead eyes, Cat beside her with red and puffy ones. He had asked them if they were alright and Cassie looked him straight in the eyes and simply answered.
"We will be."
Fred hardly registered the words, as he was to busy staring at the light blue eyes that seemed to pierce his soul, but nodded along anyways, with a blush across his checks.
After they had all laughed their arses off at the Slytherins, Cassandra was feeling confident in herself. So, she decided to send the letter she had been putting off, since her second day at Hogwarts.
***
Cassandra, had been sitting with the twins under a tree in the courtyard, a few weeks later, when Angelina stormed out, you could practically see the steam coming out of her ears.
"You gave Lee advice on how to 'woo' me!?" She screamed at her dorm mate.
"So it didn't work then?"
Angelinas eyes went wide with rage and charged at the girl.
That's how Cass ended up running halfway across the school and hiding behind one of the many bookshelf's in the library. She was out of breath and practically sweating. She got a couple weird looks, but didn't bother pay attention to them.
While catching her breath, she spotted her blonde, Hufflepuff friend, sitting down at one of the desks. Cassie furrowed her eyebrows in confusion, normally Caterina would be reading or knitting peacefully, this time Cat was empty handed and had a gloomy expression. Cass walked over.
"Hey Cat, what you doing?" She asked softly, as if the girl could break at any moment. When she didn't get a reply, she turned around to see what Cat was looking at. Cassies body tensed when she saw the Slytherin, she once thought of as a friend.
When Fred, George and Lee found out what he had said, they made a list of pranks just for him, well Fred first wrote down 'ways to kill him and get away with it', but George changed it. Cass herself, found the list and she had to admit, the pranks were harsh, but she didn't say anything.
Cassandra sucked her lips in and took a quick inhale. She spun around back to Cat.
"Whatever happened to that green hat you were knitting?" She questioned while rooting around Cats bag in search of the dark green material. "Why don't you do a bit of that, yeah, you know take your mind off- stuff." Cass seemed as if she was about to shove her head into the bag trying to find it, when Cat spoke up for the first time that day.
"There's a reason the hat was green," Cass glanced up. "I- I was getting a head start on making all of your Christmas gifts. That was Chances." Cat whispered.
Cassies heart broke a little and she bit her lip thinking of ways to cheer Cat up.
***
Across the library, Chance yearned to go over to the two girls. He knew he messed up, his chest ached at the thought of hurting them. It seems silly but in the three months of knowing them, he had never laughed so hard or smiled so much.
Chance lived in a home where you don't speak unless spoken to, or you don't show emotions, as it is seen as weak, only the occasional coy smile or laugh when someone joked about muggle borns or blood traitors, etc. He still remembers the day, where he fell over some steps outside. There was blood running down his leg and tears running down his cheeks, his father came over and scolded him for crying and for making him look stupid, Chance had turned seven that very week.
So hanging out with Cassandra and Caterina was weird at first, but he quickly got used to it and began looking forward to his time with them. But now, it was back to only forced laughs and fake smiles.
Just as Chance was getting up to walk over and apologize for the damage he had done, not caring who saw, Cass stood up and softly dragged Cat out of the library with her.
"Shit." He whispered to himself. Miles turned to him.
"What was that?"
"Huh, nothing."
***
A few minutes later, the girls arrived at the small lake. When they were settled down, Cat began doing spins out on the ice and Cassie took out the charms book, she had grabbed from the library on the way out, to help her figure out the piece of parchment.
Cassandra would look up at Caterina from time to time to check if she was doing alright, each time she glanced up, Cat had her signature soft smile planted back on her face, as she skated around.
Soon enough it began to get dark and Cass glanced up at Cat once more, but when she looked back down, something in the book caught her eye.
"Holy shit, I know what to do."
***
The next morning Cassie strutted into the Great Hall with pride and confidence radiating off of her. As she sat down at the Gryffindor table, she leaned in close to the twins and Lee.
"You'll never guess-" she didn't get to finish her sentence though, as someone from down the table announced,
"Posts here!"
Cassandra never got any post, so when she saw Aria, the Harper's family bird, her stomach sunk. Thinking back to the letter she had sent a few weeks prior, it felt like ages ago and Cass had already forgotten about it.
As the letter was dropped into her hands, she stared at it blankly. She hardly heard the boys around her chatting away about what Ms Weasley had sent them all.
"-and of course she didn't forgot one for you to Love, look- what's the matter?" Fred asked.
Cassandra opened the letter slowly, the first thing she noticed was her father had written, dear my little raven, and then crossed it out, instead wrote,
Dear Cassandra
I don't have a lot to say to you, so I'm going to keep this short. You are not to come home this Christmas, we all need some time to think about what went wrong, so we don't make the same mistakes with your younger sister.
You broke years of tradition, years, you caused your mother to go into hysterics once again, you've broken your sister, she's now terrified that's she's going to end up like you. A disgrace to the Harper name, a disappointment.
All this time, I thought you were intelligent, but I was wrong, I thought you were special, but obviously I was just to blinded to see you as the stupid, young girl you are.
Maybe it was my fault, I got you into quidditch, what was I thinking, your mother was right when she said you should never step foot near a broom. So I took the liberty of destroying yours. Maybe if I had done that sooner, you would have spend your time studying or reading, like your sister.
Maybe one day we will learn to expect our failures, but I believe that will take a while.
