Ginger

1

Cassiopeia Lestrange had a vague memory of her parents, usually their faces were blurry and their voices were distorted, she knew however that her mother had untamable black locks, that she had nearly inherited, and a shrill cackle that was undeniably unmistakable, while her father had a deep and rough voice, his tall stature made her wonder if he could reach the night skies and collect stars, of course that was her childish mind reacting.

After her parents demise and sentence to Azkaban, the young and remaining Lestrange was raised by one of her maternal aunts, Narcissa Malfoy née Black and her uncle Lucius Malfoy alongside her 2 year younger cousin Draco Malfoy. She was raised to be the proper lady and not some traitorous pureblood that mingled with those who were beneath her, raised as the woman her mother and father would have wanted her to be, the prime example of pureblood elite.

Most people when they met her feared her for her name but as she grew older they began to fear her for who she was, there was always a constant cold sneering glare on her face, her lips were most of the time pulled back in a snarl like motion and her arms constantly crossed making it seems as if the young Lestrange was silently judging everyone, which she usually was.

The relationship between Draco and Cassiopeia was a close one, Cassiopeia usually playing the role of second mother, sister and cousin in a heartbeat, always protecting him from the fights his parents had, the mood swings his father had, the vile and cold words that spewed from his mother's lips when she was drunk, she was always there to tend to the few wounds that his father had been able to inflict on him, while she had received the larger and stronger wounds, she soothed him when he woke up screaming from his nightmares and made a small heaven in the hell that they lived in.

The relationship between Narcissa and Cassiopeia was strained, mostly because Narcissa couldn't hold her liquor and every time she drank, her lips seemed to contradict her usual reserved  poise, talked about the past with such anger and conviction yet at the same time there was longing and passion, always saying that her mother had been the strongest woman she'd ever known because no one, and no one really became the lieutenant of the Dark Lord, if they weren't resilient, dangerous, cunning and above perfect, exceptional even, and that even though she had raised the young Lestrange, she would never be like her mother, and that hurt Cassiopeia, however she was loyal to those who raised her, even if they hurt her, because every time the matriarch of the Malfoy family drank a cup too much, the young Lestrange girl would give her a detoxification potion to make her wake up before her husband arrived, because everyone knew that he wasn't one to tolerate drunk shenanigans.

And last but not least the relationship between Lucius and Cassiopeia, well there wasn't one, unless if it counted for the fear and hatred that Lucius Malfoy felt for the young girl he raised and taught, and the hatred that Cassiopeia felt for the blonde man who had dared lay a hand on her over and over and over again, most of the times without reason.

But then it arrived, the day that the young Lestrange received the acceptance letter for Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry on October 31st, 1988.