Marauders And Dragons.

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Finally the train wearily drifted into its station. The marauders plus Charlie filed out of their carriage, dressed in scarlet Gryffindor robes. Suitcases had vanished into the allocated dorms, but Sherlock had chosen to remain with the group, twisting through the stream of black shoes. The owls had flown to the owlry, no doubt being well fed while the students made their way to the carriages. Thestrals were warm presences in the night, nickering happily to see their passengers. McGonagall waved down first year's, ushering them onto the small boats to travel across the lake. The giant squid appeared to be in a considerably worse mood than the thestrals and was busy causing chaos, the whole lake rioled in retaliation.

The carriages rapidly moved off, towards the castle. Whilst they were still inside, the woman driving the thestrals informed them that they would be immediately taken to their dorms, and food would be delivered. Breakfast was to be open until 11am and classes for the day were cancelled. The sorting ceremony would be postponed until that evening.

Soon enough they arrived, and made their way to the Gryffindor common room. Cassi spotted several classrooms being transformed to be filled with comfortable beds for the first years.

They navigated the stairs, almost too tired to hop over the trick steps. When the group had nearly reached the front of the sea of Gryffindors - due to Sirius's unnaturally fast walking - Charlie cursed.

"We don't know the password," he said in dismay, "how are we going to get in?" But as the words left his lips they rounded the last corner and spotted an overtired prefect chatting with the fat lady.

"Hello, the password is 'beetlejuice' as in the star, not the movie. Have a good night." He said with a yawn, waving them through.

"Goodness, I'd hate to be a prefect right now." Remus mumbled, "G'night Cassi." The marauders said their goodnights and Cassi headed towards the girls dorms when Charlie grabbed her arm.

"Tomorrow we need to see Darcy asap alright?"

Cassi nodded "Not until after breakfast." She replied firmly.

"Fair enough. Night." He gave her a quick hug and disappeared towards his own bed.

***

"It's 10:30am Cassi, time to get up." Dorcas said cheerily from her bed, where she'd already unpacked. The sun was a little too bright as it filtered into the room. Cassi grumpily dislodged her nest of pillows and blankets.

"Morning." She rubbed the sleep from her eyes and took stock of the new dormroom they'd been allocated for fifth year. Large curved windows overlooked the castle grounds, revealing the sun high in the sky. Unlit fairylights laced the walls and bedframes, of which there were six, to no one's surprise. The girls had been in the same room since first year. Lily had also unpacked, but Marlene was still asleep, as was Alice. Mary could be heard in the bathroom, brushing her teeth.

Cassi - notoriously unorganised - usually took 3 to 5 business days to unpack, so she just grabbed some casual robes, got changed, and headed downstairs. She spotted Peeves, the castle poltergeist, and dramatically saluted. He paused his endeavour to muddy the first years to salute back.

"Good to have you back, Captain." He said, casually dropping another mud bomb, which nearly landed on a first year's gaping jaw.

"Good to be back." Cassi grinned.

The great hall was decked out with food, candles floating high above the students heads. The boys were easy to spot, entertaining first years with stories about the Bloody Baron, who appeared to be preening under the fear.

"It took twenty Aurors to come even close to catching him, y'know. They stood quivering around him, wands shaking in the wind as they politely asked him to stop his mindless slaughter of eleven year-olds. But of course he was too power hungry, and so he-" James was interrupted by Cassi plopping onto the seat next to him. "Why, Cassi dear, hello. I'm glad you've rejoined the land of the living, unlike some people." He added with a wink at the first years. Sirius shooed them away, and the small wizards and witches hastily scrambled off.

"We've got your timetable," Sirius handed her a slip of paper. "Tuesday evenings are for Quidditch practice." Both James and Sirius were Beaters this year, Cassi a Chaser, and Charlie the Seeker and Captain. Remus rolled his eyes, he didn't understand the fascination surrounding Quidditch. But he still came along for practices, perched in the grandstands studying. He'd got pretty good at simple healing spells after the years of collisions and various injuries on the field. Cassi nodded her thanks at Sirius. She layed out the timetable and pulled out a quill to mark the practices, but saw that it had already been done by no other than Charlie's neat scrawl. She smiled slightly and rerolled it.

At that moment, a hand alighted on her shoulder. A familiar freckled face grinned at her.

"Alright alright, I'm coming," Cassi groaned as she got up, grabbing a slice of blueberry jam toast as she did so.

"Great," Charlie said. "I've got your tea in a thermos, let's go." Cassi grabbed another slice and waved a sorrowful farewell to the trio who remained comfortably seated, enjoying their late breakfast.

"See you at lunch." James said through a spoonful of musli. Cassi simply sighed and turned away from the delicious feast.

"Let's be quick." She muttered. Charlie nodded his acquiescence, and they set off at a brisk jog down the hill, towards the Forbidden Forest.