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"She was born from darkness itself, it was woven in her bones and carved in her heart. She was the Light born from Darkness, because all stars are born in the dark. She was Cassiopeia Lestrange."
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"Hi, I'm Cassiopeia, call me Cassi. My friends...
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THE CASTLE GROUNDS were gleaming in the sunlight as though freshly painted; the cloudless sky smiled at itself in the smoothly sparkling lake, the satin-green lawns rippled occasionally in a gentle breeze: June had arrived, but to the fifth years this meant only one thing: Their O.W.L.s were upon them at last.
Their teachers were no longer setting them homework; lessons were devoted to reviewing those topics their teachers thought most likely to come up in the exams. The purposeful, feverish atmosphere drove nearly everything but the O.W.L.s from Cassi's mind.
Meanwhile Draco had found a different way to induce panic in other
"Of course, it's not what you know," he was heard to tell Crabbe and Goyle loudly outside Potions a few days before the exams were to start, "it's who you know. Now, Father's been friendly with the head of the Wizarding Examinations Authority for years — old Griselda Marchbanks — we've had her round for dinner and everything. . . ."
"Liar," Cassi whispered to him, before entering the Potions class. she knew Draco was lying, because Griselda Marchbanks wasn't in any contact with the Malfoys.
Meanwhile a flourishing black-market trade in aids to concentration, mental agility, and wakefulness had sprung up among the fifth and seventh years. Two Slytherin fifth years girls, Helena McNair and Lancy Clair, were much tempted by the bottle of Baruffio's Brain Elixir offered to them by Ravenclaw sixth year Eddie Carmichael, who swore it was solely responsible for the nine "Outstanding" O.W.L.s he had gained the previous summer and was offering the whole pint for a mere twelve Galleons. But before they could close the deal, Cassi had confiscated the bottle from Carmichael and poured the contents down a toilet.
"Hey, we wanted to buy that!" One of them, named Helena McNair, said.
"Don't be stupid." Cassi snarled. "You might as well take Harold Dingle's powdered dragon claw and have done with it."
"Dingle's got powdered dragon claw?" said other one, who name was Lancy Clair, eagerly.
"Have you even got your own brains?" Cassi said very bemused. "None of these things actually works you know."
"Dragon claw does work!" said Helena. "It's supposed to be incredible, really gives your brain a boost, you come over all cunning for a few hours."
"This stuff can't," said Cassi grimly. "I've had a look at it, and it's actually dried doxy droppings."
This information took the edge off both the girls' desire for brain stimulants.
They received their examination schedules and details of the procedure for O.W.L.s during their next Potions lesson.
