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THE DRAFT THAT USUALLY RESIDED WITHIN THE COLD SLYTHERIN DUNGEON WAS FURTHER EMPHASISED by the open windows, introducing the primary stages of Autumnal weather. The breeze, a strong current laced with slight warmth, billowed through the open windows in the dormitories, where the Slytherin students found themselves getting prepared for breakfast in a bid to arrive to their 9am classes for the first day of term.

     Cassia Greengrass found herself brushing her auburn hair perched upon her bed - of which was covered in cotton ivy green bedclothes, finished off by a silver bed-throw and supported by a large wooden four-poster frame, from which a deep green colour of curtain hung from it. The dorm itself was occupied by its five residents - Cassia herself, her two female best friends Eva Abercrombie Maryam , then their remaining two roommates Sadie and Ebony. Although it was situated in the dark, lowly dungeons, the dorm was filled with a nice shamrock tint reflecting through the morning daylight in the green stained-glass windows, illuminating the murky effect of the dark furniture. Occupying the room were the five four-poster beds all adorning the same duvets (though Eva brought her own pillows from home for added comfort) and there was a large shared bookcase in one corner of the room, filled by both study and leisure materials. At the foot of each bed laid the trunks of the girls', most of them ajar from sorting out their belongings for the first day of school.

     Cassia had been the last one still in the dorm - the four other roommates had left for breakfast earlier in a bid to satisfy their ever-increasing hunger, whereas Cassia told them she would join them later, after sleeping in for an extra 15 minutes. Because, why not? They had nearly two hours to eat their breakfast - it's not like it took Cassia an hour to eat a slice of toast. With a wide stretch of the arms from which her black robes expanded beneath, Cassia let out a sleepy groan before she extended her legs to aid her in removing herself from her bed. Adjusting the green-and-silver tie visible from beneath her black robes and slipping her feet into her polished black footwear, she began her trek towards the Great Hall, closing the oak door of her dorm behind her with care.

She entered the large doors of the Great Hall which were propped open to ensure people could enter. Her eyes travelled down each of the four tables, with plates of crumpets, toast, eggs of all forms, cereal, and whatever you could imagine scattered down the length of them, with jugs of tea, coffee, pumpkin juice and water complimenting them as the wax candles floated above the heads of the students fuelling themselves for the day amidst casual chatter with their neighbours. Cassia's eyes secured the Slytherin table - the one on the very far left, and she visibly made out Theo bent over a bowl of cereal and deep into eating it, while Blaise beside him had a mug of presumably coffee held up to his lips as he scanned over the tinted pages of the Daily Prophet.

"Morning." Says Cassia as she takes her seat opposite Blaise and Theo and began buttering a slice of toast.

"Morning," Blaise greeted, his eyes not wavering from the newspaper within his clutches.

"Hey. Good sleep?" Theo asked, wiping a drop of milk off of his chin.

"Uh - y-" Midway through answering, Cassia stopped in her tracks and rethought her reply. Something felt.. different. She did have a good sleep. Not brilliant - but good enough. Which differed to her usual sleep quality. And then she remembered what was different about last night - she'd had a late night meeting with the and only Harry Potter. In the Astronomy Tower. Completely by chance of course, but that's not to say how it left Cassia to her bed - she'd actually managed to have a decent sleep. Who knows; there's a good chance it may just have been her lucky night rather than her chat with Potter to do with it.

     "Hey - Cass?" Theo waves a hand in front of Cassia's frozen face, breaking her out of her trance.

     "What - oh, yeah." She answered with a shake of her head, her cheeks reddening. "I had a good night. Decent, actually."

     Theo gave Cassia a look, but let it go and looked towards Blaise, who was scanning an advert about bank Curse-Breakers in Argentina. He nudged Blaise, who set the article down and bit into a hash brown.

     "What's up?" Blaise asked Theo.

     "What's got you so interested in that article? Surely you're not thinking about what you want to do just yet?" Theo asked disbelievingly.

     Blaise shrugged casually. "Dunno. It's an idea."

     Theo furrowed his eyebrows, but released his curiosity. "Anyways Blaisey, what's on the cards for classes today?"

     Blaise shot a glare at Theo with his russet brown eyes. "Stop calling me Blaisey," he says, "Even Draco called me that yesterday."

     Theo chuckled contemptuously, "Okay, Blaisey." He shared a look with Cassia, before saying, "Speaking of you and Draco and yesterday..."

     "What? What about yesterday?" Blaise asked defiantly, holding both his hands out in front of his face to convey his obliviousness.

     "Nothing, nothing..." Cassia denied innocently, clicking her tongue as she did so. "It's just that, from the way it looked to us, you got real protective over Tori.." She began smirking.

     "Really? Didn't seem like that to me. What - what are you getting at, Cass?" Blaise renounced again. Cassia and Theo shared another knowing look, before thowing their heads back and erupting into unrestrained laughter.

     "Blaisey, you can give up the act," Theo quipped after recovering from his bout of laughter.

     "We already know, you dumbass." Cassia added, an amused grin splayed across her face.

     "Know what?" Blaise asked, still trying to hide the fact.

     "We just told you to give up the act, you idiot." Theo rolled his eyes. He lowered his voice. "We know about you and Mini Greengrass."

     Blaise's dark eyes widened. "Wait - what - how - ?"

     "Are you kidding me? She's my sister, you twat. Why wouldn't she tell me? And here I was thinking you were smart." Cassia said.

     Blaise quietened his voice, glancing over at Daphne who was deep into a conversation with Millicent Bulstrode a few seats along. "Does - does Daphne know?"

     Cassia shook her head, looking dismayed. "Do you really think we'd tell her? She'd never be able to keep it quiet. Bloody hell, she's trying to set me and Theo up!"

     The dark-skinned Slytherin raised his eyebrow in disbelief, shifting his gaze multiple times between Cassia and Theo. "Is she mad?"

     Cassia shrugged, her auburn hair falling off her shoulders. "Maybe. And the more pressing matter is, she's trying to set up Astoria with Draco."

     A spray of hot liquid fanned across the surface as Blaise, who was in the middle of sipping his coffee, spat out his coffee at the idiocy within the revelation.

     "WHAT?" He yelled, eyes wide open, as he began to wipe clean the surface and Theo's robe with a tissue, both of which were covered in coffee. He took a look at the few people who turned their heads in his direction at the loud sound of his voice, before repeating, "What?"

     Theo scrunched up his nose in distate, examining the sleeve of his black robe that Blaise was pat-drying. "Wow Blaisey, guess you're not the elegant swan everyone thought you were."

     Briefly glaring at Theo, Blaise looked back over at Cassia. "Well?"

     Cassia sighed. "She thinks Draco and Astoria are meant for each other. Which I told her was terribly off -"

     "You have to tell her to stop! You -"

     "Do you think I have any control over my twin?" Cassia retorted, holding her hands up in desperation. "If I did, then she would stop trying to make me and Theo date each other, which, by the way, still disgusts me -"

     "Hey!" Theo yelled. "I'm a fair snog!"

     Ignoring Theo, Cassia continued, "Point is, I have no control. Sorry, Blaisey."

     Blaise hunched his broad shoulders with crossed eyebrows.

     Theo, who'd now filled his mouth with more cereal, suggested, "Yuu ho wha yuu cou do?" He gulped the cereal down, after seeing the disgusted and confused faces of Blaise and Cassia staring back at him. "You know what you could do? Just tell everyone you two are dating."

     "Um - no. No way." Blaise answered sharply.

     "Why not?"

     "Because!" Blaise exclaims. "We're not ready for that yet."

      Theo held his arms up helplessly, "Your loss, pal - don't blame us when some other guy starts trailing after Mini Greengrass."

     "Can we just move on from this? You asked about the classes we have today, yeah?"

     Theo nodded. "About a century ago, correct." He exaggerated, as Blaise pulled out his new timetable that the prefects had dished out earlier with a lazy roll of the eyes.

     "Let's see... Transfiguration, Care of Magical Creatures in the morning... then History of Magic and Charms in the afternoon. Lovely." He declared swiftly, folding up the parchment again.

     By the time Transfiguration with Professor McGonagall had ended, Cassia's arm had grown exhausted with the prospect of repeatedly and tirelessly casting the spell to Transfigure her miniature hairclip into a hairbrush. What was even more exhausting was that in the beginning Theo had made a silly fuss about not wanting to contract lice from the hairclip given to him. McGonagall had grown so frustrated with his childish mannerisms that she threatened to take house points away from Slytherin - on the first day - that it managed to coax Theo into doing his work, quite successfully too; he was one of the first ones to master the spell. So Cassia could only hope that what Hagrid had in store for that lesson was something... simple. Or more clearly, something safe.

     Cassia's hopes were relinquished. When she arrived to Hagrid's hut with Theo by her side, they found him standing proudly by a series of large wooden crates, brandishing what he said were called Blast-Ended Skrewts. In Cassia's opinion, calling them disgusting was an understatement. The lobster-like creatures had no shell and were exposed to reveal a misshaped, gruesome, slimy-backed body and it appeared to have no head, to make matters even worse. There were a lot of them poking out of the crates and it gave off a horrible smell when she walked past.

     "Yuck - this - is - gross," says Cassia as she tries her best not to get too close - she could've sworn she saw a spark fly out of its' apparent tail.

     "Only jus' hatched. Though' we'd be able ter raise 'em for our own. Make a good lasting project out of it!" Hagrid said, standing tall beneath his massive beard and grinning, seemingly pleased with himself.

     "And why would we want to raise them?" Malfoy came around, followed by Crabbe and Goyle who were laughing mindlessly at his question. "I mean, what do they do? What's the point of them?"

     Hagrid dismissed his question. "Tha's for next lesson, Malfoy. Fer today I brought some ant eggs, frog livers an' a bit o' grass-snake to feed 'em with. Have fun!"

     "Hippogriffs last year and now these disgusting creatures, what is wrong with this school," Cassia heard Malfoy mumble as he fished a reluctant hand within the pile of frog liver.

     Turning back to her own Skrewt, Cassia began to lower some grass-snake into the crate, although it didn't seem to have a mouth to eat it with. Her scepticisms were interrupted when Theo let out a massive yelp, jumping away from his Skrewt and clutching his hand painfully.

     "The bloody thing stung me!" He cried out, and at that point when he was about to call Hagrid over, he saw Hagrid was actually addressing the same issue to Dean Thomas.

     "Ah, yeah, that can happen when they blast off. Some of 'em have got stings. I reckon they're the males... the females have got sorta sucker things on their bellies.. I think they might be ter suck blood."

     At that, Cassia found herself backing away from her crate with wishful thinking that the lesson would be over soon. Thankfully to her, by the time the class ended, she still had every body part intact, apart from a pinch-mark on her hand where the mouth that she had no idea existed had bitten her.

     She spotted Potter at the outset of Hagrid's cabin with his two best friends Weasley and Granger. At her gaze, Harry looked up and made eye contact with her, giving her a neutral smile. She returned it, feeling no remorse in the action until she felt a budge from beside her and turned to see Theo looking at her solemnly.

     Oh, shit, she thought. I should not have smiled at Potter. I shouldn't have looked at Potter. What if someone else saw? What if that's why Theo is looking at me so deeply for right now? Big mistake. People cannot know that I met Potter last night.

     "Are we going to lunch?" Theo asked. Cassia felt a sense of relief overcome her, breathing out with her eyes closed.

     "I - yeah, sure." She spoke, shaking her head to get out of her absent state. "Let's go."

     But then again.. when have I ever cared about anyone else's opinion? Cassia continued to contemplate. It's not like being friendly to Potter is a sin. (Well, to many Slytherins it would be deemed so) Oh, who am I kidding. I'm already changing. What's wrong with me?

     Once the final classes took place - History of Magic and Charms - Cassia was so hungry she felt she could demolish the entire food available. So, it was only to her own chagrin that there was a large queue awaiting her when she went to the Great Hall with Theo. However, her attention got drawn to a familiar voice ringing throughout the queue in the Entrance Hall, and peered over a few heads to see Malfoy facing off against Ron Weasley, a copy of the daily Prophet in his hand aimed in his face. Moving closer, Cassia was able to hear the conversation occupying them.

     "What now?" Blaise sighed as he found a place beside Cassia and Theo.

     "And there's a picture, Weasley! A picture of your parents outside their house - if you can even call it a house! Your mother could do with losing a bit of weight, couldn't she?" Malfoy sneered.

     It was clear to see the way Ron's face was turning as vivid as his famous hair - and before he could retaliate, Potter came forward and grabbed him by the shoulder, leading him away.

     "Oh yeah, you were staying with them this summer, weren't you, Potter? So tell me - is his mother really that porky, or is it just the picture?"

     Fucking hell, Malfoy.

     As if it was done in the speed of lightning, Weasley surged back towards Malfoy, the only thing stopping him from making contact being the combined strength of Potter and Granger yanking him back by the collar.

     "You know your mother, Malfoy?" says Potter vindictively, "That expression she's got, like she's got dung under her nose? Has she always looked like that, or was it just because she was with you?" Nice one. It's what he deserved, Cassia thought.

     "Don't you dare insult my mother, Potter!" says Malfoy, his face growing redder with fury.

     "You better keep your fat mouth shut, then."

      Before Potter could completely turn away from the scene, Malfoy surged forwards and attempted to attack Potter, although his fist barely managed to connect. But right after, while Potter was scavenging through his robes for his wand, he found that where Malfoy once stood was now replaced by a sleek, white-blond, ferret, cowering on the floor.

     Professor Moody came limping down the staircase, his peg leg clunking against the stone grounds with his wand aimed at the ferret, and he checked if Potter was okay.

     "Leave it!" He yelled at Crabbe from the view of his swivelling eye at the back of his head. Crabbe and Goyle immediately made to sprint down to the dungeons and so did the ferret, though Moody stopped the ferret in its tracks and waved his wand up and down as the ferret began to make bounce-like movements. Everyone couldn't help but come to a standstill, making no noise because.. What the hell were they witnessing?

     "I don't like people who attack when their opponents back is turned!" He seethed, finding amusement in the punishment he was giving. "Never - do - that - again!" Moody says as he continues to make the ferret clash against the ground and float upwards in the least elegant way possible.

     "Professor Moody!"

     Everyone's heads turned to see Professor McGonagall descending the staircase with a most perplexed look on her face.

     "Go - go!" Blaise hurried, pushing at the back of Theo and Cassia's robes - both of which finally came to terms with what happened and burst into laughter because Malfoy the Ferret! - to rush them into he Great Hall, as they vaguely managed to catch the conversation between Moody and McGonagall. Teach - is that a student? They couldn't bear to be caught in whatever antics Malfoy wished to pursue.

    "Oh. My. Goodness." Theo breathed, falling out of his large intervals of laughter. "My day has just been blessed. I don't think it can get better than that - Malfoy the Ferret!" He wasn't the only one - the majority of students who were just walking into the Great Hall after the scene in the Entrance Hall were finding it difficult to contain their sniggers - even few Slytherins such as Cassia, Theo and Blaise, who were close friends so it was only ritual to male fun of your friend for such a thing. And like it hasn't already been mentioned - Malfoy the Ferret!

     "Oh, poor Draco." says Cassia, piling her plate with food as she calmed her laughter, "You think he'll come in to the Hall after that?"

     "No chance," says Blaise, grinning.

———

CASSIA WAS CONFLICTED, to say the least. She'd managed to escape up to her dormroom from her chatting with Theo and Maryam in the common room at around half eight after claiming she had unpacking to do. Which was a lie. A blatant, wholesome lie. Who in their right minds makes a fuss of unpacking when at Hogwarts? Really, she'd just seen Daphne entering the common room with Parkinson and knowing that Daphne would interrogate her on how her courtship of Theo was coming along (as Daphne had mentioned she would do before), she knew she had to get out of there. Bless her twin for caring this much about her happiness but goodness, Cassia wished she would just stop.

     Which leads back onto Cassia's perturbed mind. She thought it annoying that her inner conflicts had already started to bug her when she still had yet to be properly bombarded by her school doings. But, no. This inner conflict took the form of a certain Boy Who Lived. Harry Potter, to be exact. It was half ten, her roommates had fallen asleep, and customary to habit, Cassia was still awake. Which reminded her of last night, and realising that Potter was awake yesterday too. Which spurred on an absurd, irrational thought of hers, before any other could prevent it.

     Would he be there again tonight?

Surely it wouldn't hurt to go? After all, even if he wouldn't be there it's not like Cassia's legs couldn't use a good trek if she wasn't even able to sleep. Perhaps the walk last night was what cleared her mind enough for her to have a good nights' sleep?

Before she was able to register what she was doing, Cassia had managed to slip out of the empty common room having been able to exit her dorm without waking her sound-asleep roommates. She walked up the eerily quiet staircases with extra care, having grown immune to the chilly draft passing through the castle that she'd gotten so used to while living in the Slytherin dungeons. Cassia continued to creep up through the marble stairwells leading towards the Astronomy Tower, a weird feeling of anticipation lying within her gut.

It wasn't like she wanted to see Potter again - Cassia was merely... curious. Because although most Slytherins were meant to hate the Gryffindor Golden Boy, Cassia couldn't really muster the ability to be anything other than neutral to the boy. As bad as it seemed, he was a decent person. And Cassia was interested to see if he would show up, because then that might mean something. She wasn't going there to see him, no, she just wanted to see if he would go there - there was no way she could back out now, though - her adrenaline had gotten her this far with intention. And besides, the most prominent though within those auburn waves of Cassia's was that the chances were he most definitely wasn't going to be there, waiting for her - chances were that he'd probably be snuggled up in his bed in Gryffindor Tower, warm and –

"Potter?"

So she was right. Well, that small part of her that gambled on Potter being there was right. Because there Harry Potter was, leaning against the cold railing of the Astronomy Tower and gazing outwards, the side of his face illuminated by the rays of moonlight.

"Greengrass," says Potter, his eyebrows shooting up momentarily before smiling. "I wasn't sure you'd come back again."

"Funny you should say that," spoke Cassia, leaning against the railing and grinning lightly, "because I was thinking the exact same. Although it looks like you got here before me."

"What can I say," he shrugged casually, leaning an elbow on the railing and directing his body onwards towards Cassia, "a Seeker has to be quick in reaching out for a new prospect."

Cassia's eyebrows shot up. "Meaning?" Me? A prospect? What's that supposed to mean?

Potter laughed to himself, before shaking his head and grazing his teeth over his bottom lip. "I... should stop talking." To stop the red rising up his cheeks, he asked, "Had a good first day?"

Cassia shrugged, moving her hands in a so-and-so kind of way. "To sum it up; Blast-Ended Skrewts are disgusting, History of Magic is boring, and Charms and Transfiguration are exhausting." Potter chuckled along with Cassia, before focusing his eyes on a ripple of water in the distance. "Although.." she began to smirk cheekily, "seeing Draco get turned into a ferret was very entertaining."

Potter couldn't help the laugh escaping him as he remembered the sight. He would never forget it, most likely. Seeing your nemesis as a bouncing Ferret? Who could forget that?

"That was absolutely golden," says Potter, grinning widely.

"Nice insult, by the way." Cassia complimented, smiling. "Draco totally got what he deserved."

Laughing, Potter says, "Thanks. Wait - are you and Malfoy not... friends?"

Cassia grimaced, raising an eyebrow. "Friends... is one way to put it. We're mutual - since Theo and Blaise are his closest friends when he's not with them two zombies, we find ourselves in each other's company... mostly he just tries to flirt with me. He fails horribly, and he knows it. He just loves to annoy me."

Potter nodded in reply.

"Just so you know.." says Cassia, "I don't enjoy seeing Malfoy constantly tormenting you guys for no reason other than house rivalry. It's pretty pathetic, if you ask me. He goes out of his way to push the buttons of those in other houses. It's different for me - I'm in his house, we keep a natural platform of respect with each other. He needs to get a grip sometimes."

Potter raised an eyebrow, surprised by her statement. "You really are different compared to the others, aren't you?"

Cassia chuckled. "It's not so much the differences. It just wasn't the way I was raised - same for Daphne and Astoria. Sure, we're Slytherins, but that doesn't mean we have to be horrible like some. I see Daphne hanging out with Parkinson and wish she'd find someone else but she knows herself the right way to act - she may be a tad rude at times, but she's not the bully Parkinson is. I mean, me and Parkinson are on pretty good terms - but anyone can see that she's a right bully sometimes."

Potter nods his head again, glancing over Cassia's face once before resting his gaze back onto the shimmering Lake. He noticed a few light, very faint freckle marks dotted on the bridge of her nose, and that there was a scar underneath her left eye - really small, so it'd be likely from a popped spot or something. Apart from that, her skin was mostly unmarked and clear (thanks to the unofficially prescribed skincare routine from Daphne). A vague ray of moonlight illuminated the side of her face, revealing her eyes to be of a misty, cloudy blue colour, twinkling in the little light that passed it. Her auburn hair was braided in a tail going down the back of her neck, stopping short above her shoulder blades. From what Harry estimated in his vision, it was that Cassia's hair was lighter than Daphne's - not that he'd ever been up close to Daphne before, or even this close to Cassia in his life before now, but from what he'd already observed, it just seemed that Daphne's hair was a more darker brown, rather than the slight reddish tint that was visible in Cassia's.

The two continued talking, like mutuals, like friends, as the next half hour bore on. Or was it an hour? They'd lost track, what with the transfixing glow of the moonlight entrancing them as they chatted casually. Before Cassia returned to her dormitory, like she'd done last night, she faced Potter and asked the question that had been plaguing her the duration of their time together this night, and perhaps even before that.

     "Is this going to become a regular thing? You and me, meeting here every night?" She asked, turning at the top of the stairs.

Potter thought to himself, before a small smile spread across his bespectacled face. "Would that really be such a bad thing?"

Cassia chuckled, shaking her head. "Not at all."

Potter grinned.

"Night, Potter." says Cassia, pausing at the top of the stairs.

Potter gave a mock salute. "See you, Greengrass. Sweet dreams."

***

oooh how was that lemme know please!! your support and feedback means a whole LOT to me uno. i'm really looking forward to developing the relationship between harry and cassia, at this point for me i'm just tryna make them more comfortable with each other and make them have some sort of friendship. i won't make them fall for each other just yet cos like i said it's gonna be a very longwinded journey for my babies!! but i can't wait tbh. anyways!!
hope you're all doing amazing and staying safe in this tough time!! thank u for reading<3
— saar xx