Cassiopeia Lily Malfoy (Harry X Draco)

Chapter 3

Over the next week, Harry left work early every day so that he could pick Cassie up from her muggle state school,

Usually, when I come home, I do two more hours of school with Father every day, even on weekends," she said. "He's a slave-driver."

"What does he teach you?"

"Potions and History of Magic and Latin and French and magical groundwork for Charms and Transfiguration."

"Blimey."

"He was homeschooled by his mother when he was my age, so he's worried I'll be a dunce when I get to Hogwarts."

"Doesn't seem likely."

"No." agreed Cassie. "I'm very clever, But you know Father, he always wants to be the best. So he wants me to be the best, too."

"Sounds like a lot of pressure," said Harry. "I just want you to be happy."

She gave him a funny look.

"You can't aim for happiness," she said. "Happiness is a side effect. Father and I studied that in class. Clotworthy Skeffington, the Minister for Magic in the 1640s, he tried to be happy, and look what happened to him!"

Harry stared at her. You can't aim for happiness. He realised that it was exactly what he had been doing, since Hogwarts: trying desperately to be happy.

"What did happen to him?"

"He spontaneously combusted," said Cassie.

"Right. So what are you supposed to aim for instead?" he asked.

"To be good," said Cassie. "Happiness is a side effect of goodness. That's what Clotworthy's son, Clothaffle, discovered. Honestly, Dad, did you not listen in History of Magic?"

"I don't think they taught us about Clotworthy Skeffington at Hogwarts."

"Hmm," said Cassie thoughtfully. "I guess you're right, because otherwise Father wouldn't have joined the Death Eaters. Unless he thought they were good, I suppose."

Harry quickly changed the subject. Whenever he remembered Malfoy's past, it was harder for him to make his peace with everything.

Malfoy hadn't lied when he said that Harry would soon become intimately familiar with the Imperial War Museum. Cassie rarely seemed to want to go anywhere else. She liked the trenches in the WWI exhibit, and the planes in the WWII exhibit. She knew the names of all the ranks in the British Army.

"Wizards don't have armies," she explained to Harry.

"I don't understand. Why are you so into wars?"

Cassie looked at him as if he was an idiot. It was a very Malfoyish expression.

"Because my parents fell in love through a war, obviously."

Harry did not correct her.

"The Second Wizarding War wasn't really like the world wars, though," he said.

"No." said Cassie. "Father says it was more like the Spanish Civil War."

"Does he talk about war much?"

"He talks about what you did, all the time."

Harry frowned, pausing in front of a glass case explaining about rationing.

"Why?"

Cassie shrugged.

"He's proud of you," she said.

Harry grimaced and moved on.

"What about his own actions in the war? Does he talk about that?"

"No." said Cassie. "Never. But I've picked up on it from people who come into the shop. I think it's so romantic, that you fell in love despite being on opposite sides! Like Romeo and Juliet. Do you have a boyfriend or girlfriend, now? The newspapers don't say."