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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It's been a few weeks since Cassandra came home, if you could call it that. At first, it was difficult not to run out into the hallway whenever she heard her sister, Aurelia pass by her door. She wanted to go out and hug the girl, she missed so deeply, but then she thought back to what her father had wrote in the letter, he had said that Aurelia was now scared to become her and even scared to come near her. Yes her father explained, that what he said about thinking she was a disgrace wasn't true, but she got the feeling, that that didn't go for the rest of her family.
Cassandra followed all of 'the rules', but it proved much more difficult than she thought. She ate in her room, she would never be able to talk to anyone, she couldn't send letters to any of her Gryffindor friends and she hasn't even got a glance at her mother or sister.
Oswald would only allow Cass to come out at night, when everyone else had gone to sleep, sadly, this was one of the best parts of her day. She would dance and run around the hallways, moonlight shining down on her through the large, grand windows, like a spotlight. Once or twice, she had to catch things from falling and smashing onto the hard floors, but other than that, she was very careful. Cassie wasn't sure what exactly qualified as a 'severe punishment', but she wasn't ready to find out.
Over time, Cass began to get very lonely and felt isolated from the world. Sometimes she would think about what she would have been doing, if she stayed at the Weasleys. Normally it was just playing quidditch, pranking with the twins, or playing with Ginny and Ron. No matter how many times she imagined the same scenario over again, the warmth in her heart when she first thought of it, never faded.
She has attempted many times, to convince herself that she was happy here, that she was home. But no matter how hard to tired, there was no such luck.
One night in particular, Cassie was feeling completely care free and reckless. She ran down the long corridors at full speed, after her father had informed her it was ok to go out. She ran and ran, feeling as if she was running away from all the loneliness, the shame, and the emptiness. As she was racing away, energy and excitement, rushed through her veins, a smile began spreading across her lips. But just as the smile was reaching her eyes, her hip banged into a small table, placed at the side of one of the window sills, a dark blue vase sat on top.
The table tilted at the sudden force and the vase swayed. Cassie wanted to reach out and grab it before it was too late, but she was frozen. She urged her body to move, but her arms suddenly felt heavy, her legs felt as if they were glued to the ground. Everything went in slow motion, the table slowly tipping over, the vase flying through the air. Everything fell silent.
Then, like the world had pressed play again, the vase shattered onto the ground before her. At that moment, Cassie forgot how to breathe, all the air was sucked out of her lungs, her stomach churned and she began shaking her head side to side, repeatedly.
"No," she mumbled to herself, "no, no, no." The floor seemed to sway under her feet, nausea taking over her head.
Not even one minute later, a door from the end of the hallway, blasted open. Cassies blood turned cold, and she couldn't bring herself to glance at whoever was there. But when she built up enough courage, she slowly turned her head, and what she seen, she sent cool shiver down her spine.
Akilah stood in the doorway, a disgusted look on her face, she had hatred buried in her eyes, a hatred Cassie was all to familiar with. But Cass saw something new, her mother held herself in a powerful stance, not the elegant, fragile posture she once had, before Cass went to Hogwarts.
"Mother." Cass managed to croak out. Akilah snarled at her daughter.
"Disgrace." Her mother answered shortly. She stormed up to Cassie and grabbed her aggressively on the shoulder, dragging her down the hallway and in through the door she had just stormed out of.
Cassie began hyperventilating, as her breaths became quick and shallow. She knew her mother wasn't the same, something changed and she got the feeling, that this change of hers, was not going to compliment Cassies personality.
When Akilah reached the large sitting room, she roughly threw Cassie to the ground. On the way down, Cass whacked her eye off the corner of the small coffee table. Cassie groaned, sitting up a bit and when she lifted her hand to her eye, she could feel a warm substance, running down her face, the girl swore she heard her mother giggle at this.
Suddenly a boot came crashing down on her back and Cassie fell forward once more. Letting out a whimper, Cass curled up slightly, one hand still holding her now bleeding eye.
Akilahs breaths came out shaky, as she stared down at her daughter, her wand was tightly gripped in her unstable hand.
"How dare you." She hissed quietly, then her voice got louder. "How dare you!" She boomed. "I let you back into my home and this is how you repay me?! I shouldn't have let you back in in the first place, your a disappointment to the family, a failure, a mistake!" She screamed.
Footsteps were heard outside the door, they seemed fast and frantic. "Akilah dear, what's happening?" Oswald called out.
Akilah waved her wand at the door and murmured a, "colloporturs," and the lock switched shut. Cassies father began knocking at the door desperately. "I'm just showing our little misfortune here, how things are done around here now." The knocking stopped, as Akilah carried on, in an innocent tone. "Surely you don't have a problem with that, do you?"
Cassies heartbeat slammed in her ears, waiting for her father to burst in the door any second to save her. But to her astonishment, a weak voice sounded instead.
"Just don't-, just-," he sounded broken and torn, Cassie listened with tears welling up in the eyes, mouth parted slightly, "-don't-, don't stay up too long." With that, footsteps were heard retreating back, Cassie screamed out to him.
"Dad! No dad please! She gonna hurt me! Please!" The words ripped at her throat, as she began sobbing, now terrified of what the night will bring.
"Pathetic." Akilah scoffed, "both you and your weak father. That's right, I know," she crackled, "I know everything. I knew from the moment we read that you were in Gryffindor, he was proud. It was disgusting, the way his face swelled up with pride." She spat the venomous words out, as if the were causing her physical pain to do so.
Cassie sobbed, "dad!" She screamed out once more.
"He's not coming back." Akilah taunted, she peered down at her wand cautiously and took a deep breath, turning her gaze to her daughter, who was trying to hobble back onto her feet, a mix or blood and tears pouring down her face.
"Just like he taught you Akilah, ok? Just like Lucius said." She whispered to herself, before pointing the wand out in front of her.
"Cruico."
Cassandras screams echoed of every corner of the manor. Akailah furrowed her eyebrows, but then a smile began creeping up on her face, and soon she was crackling away at the sight of her own flesh and blood withering in pain before her.
