She woke up with sticky eyes and her dark hair covered her face in a black dome. It was only 6 o'clock but she was up and dressing into her best clothes, that is, her only clothes: the drab Wool's orphanage uniform.
She didn't bother much with her hair, she hated tying it up. A quick brush here and there, and her hair was done.
Splashing some water in her eyes, she waited impatiently for the new visitor.
Suddenly, Mrs Benchworth opened the door and said that an old man wished to see her. Cassandra was now jumping up and down unconsciously. But when the 'old man' did come in, it didn't feel like he had anything to do with Hogwarts.
"Good morning, Professor Dumbledore!" Cassandra beamed politely.
Dumbledore looked slightly confused but his eyes soon lightened, "you know me then. There is no need to explain who I am. We shall now go to Diagon Alley..."
There was a cloud of green dust, and they were in Diagon Alley. Cassandra was mesmerised by this.
"How did you-" Cassandra began.
"It was only Floo powder, there are more magical things in Hogwarts," Dumbledore smiled understandingly.
They were at Ollivander's, the most renowned wand shop in the area.
She went through many wands, but none of the wands were good enough. They didn't feel right. Finally, she came across 'the' wand. It was bordered with brown-green vines, mini camellia flowers adorning them and a moonstone on the tip. Its core was a single Phoenix feather.
"This is the one!" Cassandra exclaimed as she thought how special her wand must be to be one of the only three Phoenix core wands, being one of her favourite birds in the world.
"What's that?!" she suddenly exclaimed, "Those are the most beautiful owls I've ever seen!"
And without another word, she marched in confidently and dropped to her knees as she peered into the small cages where the owls were resting. Poor birds, she thought, they're trapped in those terribly cramped cages.
Suddenly, she heard a small fluttering noise from the corner of the shop and as she turned, she saw the smallest owl peeping for the bars of its humongous cage. Its coat shone with a tinge of silver over its milk white plume. Its eyes stared into her own, dangerously yellow in its entirety. Amber. That will be her name, she thought decisively.
Carefully in latching the cage from its hook, she carried all the way to the shopkeeper, before setting it down on the desk and saying with the utmost dignity, "I'll have her, please."
"This little runt? Alright, and yes, it is a she! Well, that would be 7 galleons, seeing that you're so intent on getting it!" the shopkeeper said.
And suddenly, it struck her. She had no money. But before she could say anything, Dumbledore, who had been watching her for a while swooped in to save her.
"It's on me," he said, smiling kindly down at her, with watery eyes and an emotion she couldn't quite place.
***
There were only a few people around. A ginger-haired boy was munching on a pumpkin pasty when he bumped into Cassandra.
"Oh hello there! What's your name? I'm Ronald but you can call me Ron if you like," he held out a free hand.
Cassandra touched his tentatively, "oh, I'm Cassandra. I'm afraid I don't have a shorter name."
"That's alright, I'll call you Cassy!" and they were instant friends. (I miss the days when you could just ask someone to be your best friend and then you were best friends with them)
A woman came bustling over from a nearby shop. She must be Ron's mum, Cassandra thought.
"Who's this lovely lady?" but without letting anyone speak, she continued, "oh, stop buying all those pasties, will you, Ron? You'll explode with all that food. Why, I'm being awfully rude, I haven't been introduced to this friend of yours." she told Cassandra now as she still glared at Ron from the corner of her eye.
"Errr...yes, this is Cassy, I-I mean Cassandra," Ron stuttered nervously.
"Ah, well, nice to meet you, Cassy. I'm Mrs Weasley." Mrs Weasley immediately shook her hand, "well, shouldn't you be with anyone? Oh well, I can plainly see you're not, so why don't you come and stay with us?"
Seeing that Professor Dumbledore had suddenly disappeared, Cassandra agreed readily. If only everyone was as friendly as the Weasleys, she would've thought the world to be an ideal place to live in, but, of course, it was not a perfect world.
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Meh that was a rubbish chapter but oh well...it gets better, I promise...
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The Golden One
Fanfic"The moon stared back at her, pearly white in its fullness. She felt a change coming over her. She was growing...and something new was happening. Gold. Purple. Scarlet. Her room was a sea of colours. The moon looked bigger, brighter and gold. Gold...
