Cassia Malfoy arrived at Hogwarts at around half past six on that Saturday night. Dumbledore had arranged her luggage to be sent on ahead, and assured her it would be in the dorm by the time she got up there.

They were stood in the entrance hall when the headmaster said. "And this is where I leave you, Cassia. I trust you will find your friends from here."

He gestured inexplicably to the great hall, which was just ahead of them. Peeking inside, Cassia saw dinner had just been served.

Oh great, it's gonna be a big entrance.

"Professor Dumbledore?" She frowned, just before the man went to go.

Dumbledore turned back. "Yes, Cassia?"

"Just- thank you," Cassia smiled at him. "Thank you so much."

"It's no problem, Cassia," Dumbledore said back. "You belong here, after all."

And that was soon clear.

Cassia was unsure of how her friends would react, as she walked into the great hall.

But she was barely a step in before Poppy came running at her.

"CASSIA!"

It hurt as Poppy embraced her. Hurt on her arms, on her body, everywhere with bruises. But Cassia only hugged tighter, not caring that everyone was staring at them.

"I've missed you so much!" Poppy grinned, pulling back. "The end of last year- we didn't know-"

"I got taken home early," Cassia said. "Just... because of everything that happened."

She'd tell Poppy later, she promised herself. In fact, her best friend had probably already guessed. But it wasn't safe to discuss it here, around so many people.

As Poppy lead her down the bench to where everyone was sat, Cassia caught a glimpse of Draco's face from the Slytherin table. He looked shocked, and gobsmacked, and everything else. Cassia didn't blame him, but she did have to shove the impulse to smirk down.

"Cassia! I've missed you!" Hermione said, hugging the girl tightly.

"It's been a while!" Ron agreed, also giving her a quick hug.

"Yeah," Cassia agreed with a tight lipped smile, turning to the only person in the group that hadn't yet hugged her. She knew this was it, it was coming, she was getting yelled at-

But Harry Potter was smiling, saying. "It's been a while, Malfoy."

Cassia nodded. "I could say the same, Potter."

Then he did something unexpected. He got up from the bench, and gave Cassia a hug bigger than the ones from Ron and Hermione, and maybe even from Poppy.

The girl was so stunned it took her a couple of seconds to hug back. Harry Potter was hugging her?!

As he pulled back, Cassia smiled slightly. "I missed you all too," she said, looking round at them.

"Cassia..." Poppy lowered her voice. "What happened?"

"I'll tell you later," Cassia muttered. "What happened with all you?"

They looked between themselves. Cassia frowned. Had they all been... together?

"We'll tell you later," Harry finally said, looking at her seriously.

Cassia sighed, sinking into a seat in between Harry and Poppy and staring to eat.

She had been so caught up in everything that she had forgotten about the Hogwarts food. She hadn't had a proper, nutritional, fully fledged meal in months, so to her, anything was amazing, but Hogwarts food? Oh, it was glorious.

"So, changing the subject," Poppy said, tucking into her own food. "Take a look at the teacher's table."

Cassia frowned, looking up at it. There was McGonagall, and Snape, and Flitwick and Trelawney and Sprout. Hagrid was mysteriously absent, but he was the only one. Dumbledore was also now there, chatting with-

Oh, right.

He was chatting with a woman, who Cassia presumed was the new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher. The weird thing was, she didn't look like she'd be good at teaching, or DADA, specifically.

She was dressed from head to toe in pink, and her face had a rather toad-like quality to it. She even had a little pink bonnet on, to match her pink dress and flowery cardigan, which was disgusting.

"Ew," Cassia commented. "Who the fuck is that?"

Hermione sighed. "Professor Dolores Umbridge. Our new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher."

Cassia shook her head, scoffing. "Hermione, I know you're always right, but there's no way she-"

"No, she is," Poppy said. "Gave us a horse crap speech last night, as well."

"I thought Dumbledore-?"

"Yeah, she interrupted him," Poppy said sarcastically. "Gave us a load of big words and phrases, which basically just told us that the Ministry's now interfering at Hogwarts."

"What-?!"

"Yeah," Hermione nodded. "The problem is, and I don't know if you know this, Cassia, but Fudge is-"

"Determined Voldemort isn't back," Cassia nodded. "I saw the newspapers, I-I saw them talking about Cedr-"

"It's okay, Cass," Poppy interrupted her, laying a hand on her best friend's arm. "We know who he was. We know how he died."

Cassia shook her head, looking down. "But the world doesn't," she murmured. "And Fudge is just making everyone believe his bullshit."

She shook her head, eyes angled down.

"We're fighting back, Cass," Hermione whispered to her. "We can't tell you here, but we are. We'll explain everything later."

Cassia nodded, tucking into her food.

She had no idea what she was about to be told.

But if they were fighting back, she wanted in.

❦︎❦︎❦︎

The ended up in the fifth year boys' dormitory. The reason for this being this was where they were least likely to get over head, and boys weren't allowed in the girls'.

"Right," Cassia said. "Tell me what's going on."

She was sitting next to Poppy and Hermione on Neville's bed, and Harry and Ron were opposite them on Ron's. All four of the group looked between each other, not sure where to start.

"Listen, about two hours after Harry got out the maze, Dumbledore reformed this secret society they'd used for fighting You-Know-Who before, when he was powerful," Hermione started.

"Secret society?" Cassia frowned.

"It's called the Order of the Phoenix," Poppy explained.

"And you're in it?"

"No, but all our parents are," Ron explained. "And all four of us have been living at Headquarters since the start of the summer. Well, except for Harry."

"What happened to you, Potter?" Cassia frowned.

"I was at my aunt and uncle's until about half way through the summer," Harry explained. "Well, that is until two dementors attacked me and my cousin and I got expelled for casting a patronus to get rid of them."

"What the hell?" Cassia exclaimed.

"Wha-? Your father was at the hearing!" Harry exclaimed.

Cassia flinched slightly at the mention of her father, but recovered.

"Yeah, but he wouldn't tell me shit," she lied quickly. "So clearly they let you off, Potter, cause you're here, but if Fudge was running that hearing, how?"

"Because they put it to a vote, and I was let off with no charges," Harry shrugged. "That Umbridge woman was there too, though, and she was convinced I was making up the two dementors."

"Great, so we've got another shit teacher," Cassia complained. "Snape's enough!"

"Well, back to the Order of the Phoenix," Hermione said quickly. "Ron's parents are in it, and so are Poppy's, and Sirius and Lupin and Dumbledore and McGonagall and Snape-"

"Wait, Snape? He's in it?" Cassia raised her eyebrows. "Seriously?"

"Yeah, I had the same reaction," Harry rolled his eyes.

"Changing the subject again, you should've seen my mum's reaction to Sirius coming back," Poppy smirked slightly. "Funniest part of our summer."

"What happened?" Cassia leaned forward in amusement.

"Well, mum sort of froze at first, and Parvati and Padma were all confused and scared, cause they still thought he was a mass murderer, but then we explained and now they're like best friends again," Poppy chuckled. "Now we're out the house they'll probably be kissing twenty four seven."

"They're together, then?" Cassia raised her eyebrows.

"No, not yet," Poppy rolled her eyes. "We've been betting on it."

Cassia chuckled slightly before saying. "So the Order's basically made up of a load of people who believe Voldemort's back?"

"Yeah," Hermione nodded. "And we weren't let in on what they actually did, until the night Harry came."

"Because of course," Cassia looked to Potter. "Of course you were the one that got them to open up."

Harry chuckled.

"So, what do they do?" Cassia asked.

"Well, some of them are recruiting, and trying to convince others that Voldemort's back," Poppy explained. "Others are doing work on Voldemort's whereabouts and some are working inside the ministry. But the one thing we didn't know until Harry came is that... Voldemort's... after something."

The silence that followed this made Cassia frown.

"After... what?" She asked.

Silence.

"We- we don't exactly know," Hermione admitted.

"Yeah, cause mum stopped Sirius and Pippa from telling us anymore," Ron rolled his eyes.

"So we know Voldemort's after something, but we don't know what," Cassia said, summing it up.

"Yeah, and we've been trying to figure it out, discussing it," shrugged Ron. "But we've not really progressed."

"Wait, so who's 'we'?" Cassia frowned. "Who's all been there?"

"Well, Fred, George, Ron and Ginny," said Hermione. "Me, Harry, Poppy, Padma and Parvati."

Cassia hesitated.

"Got room for one more?"

In the silence that followed this, Cassia knew the answer would be no. Because she was a rival. Her parents were death eaters, and if Cassia saw the plans to find and destroy Voldemort... then she could betray them.

"Listen, Cassia, Headquarters is very secret," Hermione finally said. "The fidellius charm's been put on it. You can only get in if Dumbledore, who's secret keeper, tells you where it is."

Cassia looked down, biting her lip.

"And why would he tell me?" She murmured bitterly.

"We'll make him, okay, Cass?" Poppy said firmly. "But first, you have to tell us what's happened to you this summer, so we know."

But as Cassia looked around at all of them, all their innocent faces, she decided that she couldn't.

Her eyes filled with tears as she looked down. "I-I'm sorry," she murmured. "It's just- it's not something I want to tell a group of people, you know?"

"Then tell me," Poppy pleaded, looking up at Hermione, Harry and Ron. "Is that okay?"

They all nodded, Hermione saying. "We're here for you, Cassia, for anything you need."

Cassia silently thanked her as they sidled out the room.

"Cass..." Poppy said, putting a soft hand on Cassia's shoulder and squeezing it gently. "Talk to me, just look at me, please."

Cassia shook her head, looking up at her and saying. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Poppy, I'm so, so sorry..."

Poppy hugged her gently. "You don't have to be sorry," she murmured into her ear. "I love you, silly. Just tell me what happened."

Cassia pulled away from the hug, looking down at her hands, which were shaking. "Well, the night before the last day of term McGonagall found me, and said I was needed in Professor Dumbledore's office..."

Once she started, she just couldn't stop. She spoke of how her father had put on the sob story for Dumbledore, had dragged her down the corridor and out the school, how she had been put to work and punched, slapped and abused multiple times, how she'd had to steal newspapers to get information, how her father had forbidden her to go to school and how Dumbledore had made the visit to their house.

She went on and on, and Poppy's face got paler and paler as she went, tears forming in her eyes.

"... and then I got apparated here, and I saw you almost as soon as I got in," Cassia finished, looking down at her nails, which had been bitten into the quick over the summer. "And then... this happened, and I decided that there's bigger shit in this world than mine, so we can just move o-"

"Cassia..." Poppy said earnestly, taking her best friend's hands in her's. She looked into her eyes, both girls teary, and said. "Yes, there is bigger shit, okay? But there's always bigger shit in this world, and going through what you have this summer... if that had happened to me, I don't think I'd be alive to talk about it!"

Cassia looked down.

"You're making me seem strong," she murmured. "But you have no idea, Poppy, how weak I've bee-"

"Cassia, you were getting beaten up!" Poppy protested. Cassia winced slightly, and she quickly recovered. "I'm sorry, but I need you to understand. You were fucking strong, given the situation, okay?"

Cassia looked down. "Okay," she murmured.

"So listen," Poppy said, looking into her eyes. "We're gonna try and enjoy this term, given everything that's happening. At Christmas, I'm dragging you to Headquarters, and Dumbledore is agreeing to let you in, okay? Then, at the end of this year, you're going to tell Dumbledore or McGonagall, or somebody, everything. Every single little detail. Then they can decide what happens to you, but you are not going back to that house."

"P- Poppy, I can't," Cassia shook her head. "I can't, because then my family'll tear itself apart and my father will come for me. I can't do it."

"Then you're coming to live with me," Poppy said firmly. "But listen to me. You. Are not. Going back to that house."

Cassia considered it. She had hated this summer, and it had been terrible for her, but she still didn't really want to sell her family out.

However, she did eventually look down, muttering. "Okay."

Poppy smiled slightly, saying. "And you don't have to tell anyone else, okay? You can if you feel comfortable with it, but I'll help you cover your face."

Cassia almost cried again at this.

"I don't deserve you," she told her.

"Cassia-"

"No, I seriously fucking don't," Cassia said, though her voice displayed no malice. "You're amazing, Poppy. You always know what to say."

Poppy smiled gently. "I am pretty amazing, Cass."

Then she poked her best friend in the side and resumed the mentality they'd had before the summer, before Cedric's death, before Voldemort's return.

"Now, when were we gonna discuss you and Potter hugging in the hall in front of everyone?!"