Cassia Malfoy had always been tossed aside compared to her brother. Her family had looked after her, yes, but it wasn't exactly as though they wanted her to be there.

She had her mother and father, Lucius and Narcissa, who were often cold towards her. She had her brother, Draco, who was probably the most annoying person to ever walk the earth, but also who was always favoured to her.

She had only seen her Aunt Bellatrix once before she had been locked in Azkaban. And she had screamed.

Probably about the only decent people in her family was her Aunt Andromeda, and cousin, Nymphadora Tonks. However, she had never seen those two since she was young. Her aunt had married a muggle, so her two sisters had isolated themselves from her, and hadn't spoken to her in years.

Anyway, on her eleventh birthday, all of that changed. She received a letter from Hogwarts. It invited her to join the school and gave her a list of everything she would need.

It was the first time in ages that she could remember feeling excited about something.

❦︎❦︎❦︎

12th August 1991

Diagon Alley was buzzing the week Cassia and Draco wandered the streets without their parents, who were taking a 'break from them' in the Leaky Cauldron.

But Cassia and Draco had managed.

"Well, that's money, robes, cauldron, books, of course, and all the other stuff on this list ticked off," Cassia said, looking at her list. "It's just a wand and a pet-"

"No, Cass," her brother interrupted. "Father would go crazy-"

"I don't really care what father thinks," Cassia shrugged. "Come on, Draco, let's go get an owl-"

"Let's not," he told her. "Besides, we need to get wands."

That turned out to be an affair.

Draco got off easily; the second wand that he tried was the right one.

Cassia was slightly different. She tore the shop apart with her second wand, and it was only her fifth that worked.

And it turned out that the fifth wand was strange in itself. Apparently, it was one of only two wands in the world with an owl feather core.

"Of course, it may have other specialties, as well," Ollivander had told her. "But you will have to figure those out yourself, Miss Malfoy. I can only tell you so much. After all, this wand didn't choose me. It chose you."

Cassia gasped. She could help herself.

She and Draco left the shop not soon after, Draco with his wand, and Cassia with her one.

Holding it in her hand, she felt a power that none could vanquish.

Or so she thought.

❦︎❦︎❦︎

1st September 1991

"Goodbye, Cassia," Lucius told his daughter hurriedly, not even giving her a hug, as she got on the bright red steam engine, the Hogwarts Express, for the first time.

"Goodbye father," Cassia knew not to expect a hug from him. Her mother had just given her a hold. And it didn't contain much emotion.

"Make sure to get into Slytherin, and make your family proud," Lucius told both of his kids.

Cassia tensed. She had already been told the consequences for not being in Slytherin.

After she watched her brother get a hug from her father, into which he put the same emotion as he did with Cassia (a.k.a. none) and then Draco boarded the train next to her and they walked along it.

"Oh, I see Theo and Crabbe and Goyle! And Blaise!" Draco immediately shouted as they walked down the train. He was referring to his 'friends' which he had met during the past year. More like thugs, Cassia thought bitterly. She had met them too and she did not like them one bit.

So needless to say, when Draco went off to be with them in their train compartment, Cassia did not go with him.

She wandered down the train, trying to find somewhere to sit. Like, why did everywhere have to be full-

"Ouch!" Cassia shouted as she smashed headlong into someone in the small corridor, falling straight over.

"Oh, sorry!" Came back a very happy voice. Cassia looked up to see a girl with shoulder length brown hair, brown eyes, slightly darker skin and a bright smile on her face. She looked happy.

"I didn't mean to bump into you!" The girl continued, holding her hand out and helping Cassia up.

"It's okay," Cassia said. "Erm- thanks for that."

"Oh, it's no problem," the girl said. "Do you wanna get a compartment or do you have someone you're waiting on?"

So, at long last, the two girls found a compartment and started to talk.

"I'm Poppy," the girl smiled. "Poppy Patil. I've got two sisters in this year, actually. I'm a triplet."

Cassia was interested in this as she said. "I'm Cassia Malfoy. I've got a brother in this year but I'm ten months younger than him."

Poppy grinned. "Well, it's nice to meet you, Cassia. I mean, I just met you five minutes ago and I can already tell that we're gonna be besties!"

Cassia giggled. It had been years since that had happened.

So she and Poppy started to talk, and soon, they were good friends. They bought sweets from the trolley and ate them all, laughing and talking.

Cassia had done, so far, the unimaginable. She had made a friend.

And it was only the first day.

❦︎❦︎❦︎

"So it's true then, what they were saying on the train. Harry Potter has come to Hogwarts."

Could he be any more of an IDIOT?! Cassia slammed her palm to her head when, as soon as Professor McGonagall left the small room, her brother went straight into terrible mode.

Harry Potter... the name rung a bell. She remembered hearing about the boy. He was famous for being able to survive the killing curse when he was just a baby. His parents got killed, but he didn't.

Anyway, as the crowd cleared with much whispering, a boy with raven black hair that stuck up at the back, bright green eyes and an expression of confusion on his face, looked at Draco.

"This is Crabbe, and Goyle," Draco nodded to his two henchmen. "And I'm Malfoy. Draco Malfoy."

A redheaded boy behind Harry Potter snorted. Cassia didn't blame him.

Draco did. "Think my name's funny, do you?" He rounded on the red head. "Well, there's no need to ask yours! Red hair, and a hand me down robe! You must be a Weasley."

The Weasley's were known very well in the wizarding world. The Malfoys were not friends with them, but they knew of eachother. The big family of seven kids were all red headed and almost all of them were at Hogwarts, with the exception of one younger who was yet to come and two older who had already left.

Cassia, meanwhile, stood next to Poppy, flabbergasted. How dare Draco say that to someone? The Weasley's were also known for being slightly low on money. It was something Lucius had mocked them countlessly for before, and something that Draco had clearly picked up on.

But her brother wasn't finished. He turned back towards Harry. "You'll soon find out that some wizarding families are better than others, Potter. You don't want to go making friends with the wrong sort. I can help you there," he extended his hand.

Harry Potter looked at it, then at Malfoy. "I think I can tell the wrong sort for myself, thanks."

Then he walked away.

Cassia observed the scene.

"Not gonna lie, he turned that down with sass," Poppy whispered in her ear.

Cassia shrugged. "Just... give me a minute."

She headed over to Harry Potter, who was standing with the Weasley.

"Hey, I'm sorry about all that-" she started.

"And who're you?" The Weasley asked.

Meanwhile, Harry Potter's mouth dropped open.

"Erm-" Cassia saw no point in lying, so she answered the redhead's question. "I'm Cassia. Cassia... Malfoy."

Harry Potter's mouth shut quickly.

"Yeah, I'm sorry, I don't know what sort of game you're playing, but we're not interested in being friends with you," he retorted back to her.

Cassia frowned. "Actually, Potter, I was coming over here to apologise for my brother having a head the size of the castle. But now I see that yours is obviously the size of a turnip, so I don't think I will!"

Harry just looked at her. "Y-y-you- excuse me-"

"Yeah, excuse you," Cassia retorted, before turning her back on the boy, her blonde hair flying.

And so began the start of Harry Potter and Cassia Malfoy's feud.

❦︎❦︎❦︎

"Ah, you're brave..." the Sorting Hat told her as she sat under it, the whole school watching her. "And stubborn... and courageous... of course, with all these qualities it is only natural for you to be placed in Gryffindor..."

He chuckled. "...a Malfoy in Gryffindor, dear me... the whole lot of you have been in Slytherin for centuries..."

Cassia clenched the small stool she was sat on so hard that her knuckles turned white.

She had just witnessed both Harry Potter and Ron Weasley get into Gryffindor. Poppy, too, had got into the red house, making Cassia yearn more for the thing that just could not be.

No, no please, if I get Gryffindor-

"Yes, your father will be disappointed," the hat read her thoughts. "But I can see greatness in you, Cassia... and I can see that in-

"GRYFFINDOR!"

Shit.

Shit.

Shit.

Oh no, oh no no no no.

Cassia tensed up. Every bone in her body froze. Everyone in her family had been in Slytherin for years. And even if it wasn't Slytherin, it was always Ravenclaw, or very rarely Hufflepuff.

But never Gryffindor.

Oh shit. She could see her father's face already.

❦︎❦︎❦︎

2nd September 1991

She didn't have to see his face at all. But she got to hear his voice.

The sound of the Howler she got at the Gryffindor table at breakfast the next day... well, it wasn't as though she was surprised. She had always been the defiant one.

"YOU ARE A DISGRACE TO THIS FAMILY!" The bright red envelope yelled at the scared girl in her father's voice. "HOW DARE YOU BE IN GRYFFINDOR! I GOT THE NEWS THIS MORNING FROM DRACO AND I HAVE NEVER BEEN SO INSULTED! I CAN'T BELIEVE-"

And on and on it went. By the time it ended and the letter ripped itself to shreds, Cassia was red in the face and biting her lip.

She blamed the sorting hat.

But the only person that was more unhappy than her that she was in Gryffindor, had been sitting down the table at that point, just a couple of seats from her and Poppy.

Of course, that was Harry Potter.

❦︎❦︎❦︎

21st September 1991

"I hate you," Harry Potter hissed to Cassia Malfoy as the two of them followed McGonagall through the corridor.

"Well, the feeling's mutual," Cassia hissed back venomously.

They had just got into a literal fist fight in the air during their first ever flying lesson. It had all started when Neville Longbottom, an accident prone boy in Gryffindor, had landed on a broken wrist. Harry had laughed at him with Ron and Cassia had called them out on it, telling them that they were being bullies.

She had taken Neville's rememberall, with every intention of giving it back.

But Harry had stolen it off her. He wasn't trying to be mean to Neville this time, he was just trying to annoy Cassia.

Cassia, however, obviously didn't stand for this, and long story short, she and Harry had a very angry fly in the air, the small glass ball going between them.

Now, however, as their head of house Professor McGonagall led them through corridors they hadn't yet roamed.

Finally she stopped outside a door, and pulled a boy called Oliver Wood out of his class.

"Wood, this is Harry Potter, and Cassia Malfoy," McGonagall introduced them. "I've found you your new seeker and chaser."

Cassia gasped audibly.

"Oh my Godric!" Poppy had squealed when she had found out. "You're on the quidditch team, Cass! This is amazing!"

And Cassia couldn't help but think it was too.

❦︎❦︎❦︎

31st October 1991

"Cassia!" Hermione Granger shouted as the girl awoke to see Harry, Ron and Hermione. Her head was throbbing and the last thing she remembered was a troll's club coming down on her head, Harry having levitated it-

"Argh!" Cassia snarled as she wrestled the pain in her head, Hermione tried to keep her lying down so she yelled. "I am going to kill you, Potter! You dropped the stupid club on my head!"

Harry just laughed.

Needless to say, he got a slap the second that Hermione's holding-down ability lapsed.

❦︎❦︎❦︎

25th December 1991

"Just open it, Cass!" Poppy insisted, as they lay on Cassia's bed in the Gryffindor first year girl's dormitory.

At long last, Poppy had convinced her parents to let her stay for the holidays. Draco had gone home for them. Cassia hadn't. She was too afraid to face her father. She didn't know what would happen.

"Oh this is amazing!" Cassia spoke up, as she opened Poppy's present and saw two necklaces. One said Cassia. The other said Poppy.

"Thanks so much, Pops," Cassia grinned, calling the girl the affectionate nickname as they hugged.

❦︎❦︎❦︎

21st March 1992

"Okay so now you got me into a detention, what else do you want, Potter?" Cassia demanded.

She had just been having a good time in the common room when Harry and Hermione had come along and begged her to help them. Long story short, they had ended up in detention from McGonagall along with Draco, who had tried and failed to snitch.

"I don't want to do anything else to you! Do you think I want to share a common room with you?" Harry asked her.

"I don't even want to share a country with you Potter, let alone a school-"

"You're absolutely insufferable-"

"Right back at you, Potter-"

Hermione desperately tried to get them to stop but eventually, she just gave up, because she had no idea how to stop them.

The truth was, as she would learn over the years, that nothing would stop them.

Because when something got Harry Potter and Cassia Malfoy arguing, they argued.

❦︎❦︎❦︎

"And finally," Dumbledore addressed the room. "We have one more person that is worthy of points."

At that moment, with Harry, Ron and Hermione all getting fifty points and Neville getting ten, Gryffindor was tied with Slytherin.

But Dumbledore wasn't done.

"This girl has shown that she's brave, courageous, and isn't afraid to show her true self despite what people think of her," Dumbledore said. "So, to Cassia Malfoy, I give twenty points."

Instant cheering. Cassia looked around in absolute shock as all the Gryffindors clapped her, and the other four who got extra points.

"Well," she turned around to see Poppy, grinning at her. "It hasn't been a bad year all round, has it?"

Cassia grinned too, something that, she knew, she wouldn't be doing for a while. This year had been good, though. She had gained a few friends, earned a nemesis, and was probably going to get killed as soon as she got home.

But she grinned in that moment.

It was all she could do.