You thought I was James, didn't you?
The summer went by faster than Cassie would have expected. Even though her mother was still going on about the wedding details, it wasn't nearly as bad as the first months. She thanked her father, who, one night, had had enough of her mother's nagging. She remembered him slamming his copy of the daily prophet at the dinner table and told her mother that he could care less of where the guests would sit and that if she didn't stop with all this wedding talk, he would lock her in their bedroom the day of the wedding and not let her out until it was over. Walburga looked at him, eyes wide, and just nodded her head, and after that, any talk about the wedding happened while her father was away.
A rattle broke Cassie out of her thoughts as she met the eyes of her owl Nova who looked almost insulted, having been put in her cage while her owner finished packing for Hogwarts. "Look, I know how much you hate being restricted, Nova, but you have to stay in there at least until we get to Hogsmeade." The owl gave what looked like to be a glare and then turned away. The girl let out a sigh as she closed her trunk, grabbed the handle, and made her way downstairs. At the bottom of the staircase, she saw a trunk with the letters R.A.B on it and instantly recognized it as her brothers. She sat down her trunk next to his and saw that they were pretty much identical except hers bore the letters C.H.B on it.
"Mother? When are we leaving?" A dark-haired boy said as he entered the hallway where his sister stood, giving her a small smile before grabbing his jacket and started to put one of his arms through the sleeves. The family's matriarch came walking out of a room that Cassie instantly recognized as her father's office. She walked towards the two siblings, got her dark green cloak, and proceeded to put it on.
"Right now." As the words left her mouth, her husband, who was putting on his dark cloak, walked out of his office and stopped giving them all a disinterested look.
"Regulus, you go with me, and Cassiopeia," Orion looked at his youngest son before moving the gaze to his daughter. " You will go with your mother."
Regulus grabbed the handle of his trunk and stood next to his father before putting his hand on the elder's arm. And then in a blink of an eye, they disapparated. The older woman grabbed her daughter's arm before giving her a look that the younger registered as grab your trunk now, or we'll leave it behind. She just managed to take the handle of the trunk before the hallway disappeared before her eyes, and the familiar feeling of apparation appeared.
When Cassie finally opened her eyes again, she was meet with the sight of hundreds of people. Most of them were standing with their families, saying their goodbyes, and that they would see each other again at Christmas. Others desperately tried to either find their friends or get on the train to find a compartment before they were all taken. Cassie's eyes traveled around the platform, searching for any familiar faces, when she saw a flash of red hair to her left.
Turning around, she saw both of her parents standing with Regulus, looking at him with a look of pride on their faces, as Regulus himself was busy talking to Crabbe and Rosier. When Regulus looked over to his sister, he gave her a slight nod as if signaling to go on. He knew that the less time his sister spend with their parents, the better it was.And from the looks of it, one would think that the heads of the black family had already forgotten about their only daughter, as they were currently in an intense conversation with Crabbe and Rosier's parents. It was quite obvious what they were talking about, as Cassie noticed the look of disgust that the group gave the other families.
Caching her brother's nod, She sent a smile towards him before turning around and ran to the person she had noticed not too long ago. Sprouting out a few apologizes here and there as she tried to manage her way through the crowd, it didn't take long before she caught the sight of her friend.
"Oy! Evans!!"
The red-haired girl turned away from her parents, with a look of alarm covering her face. However, as soon as she saw her dark-haired friend, her face relaxed, and a smile appeared.
"Oy! Black!"
As Cassie came closer, Lily threw herself at her friend and hugged her so tight that the older girl almost had trouble breathing. Pulling away, Lily let out a laugh, happy to see her friend again. She waved at her parents before pulling her friend closer to the train.
As soon as they walked through the door, they started searching for an unoccupied compartment. While walking, they passed a second year Ravenclaw who, if Cassie remembered correctly, was Gilderoy Lockhart. He was currently trying to impress a fourth year student with his charms. However, the girl looked absolutely not interested. After passing Frank along the way, who was looking for Alice, they managed to find one available. Lily closed the compartment door while the dark-haired girl started lifting their trunks to place them on the racks over their seats.
"Thank merlin that these trunks are charmed. Can you imagine how heavy they would have been if not?"
The red-haired gave her friend a smile before sitting down by the window.
"Actually, I can. Remember first year?"
Laughter filled the small room.
"I had almost forgotten. You looked like you were seconds away from being crushed by the trunk. Had not Ted walked by when he did, who knows what would have happened to you."
After Cassie put the last trunk on the racks and made sure that they would not fall, a small laugh escaped her lips as she remembered the start of their first year. When she sat down, she gave her friend a specific look and smiled teasingly at her.
"You thought I was James, didn't you?" Lily went red, and Cassie almost wanted to tease her but decided against it. "N-No, of course not." Another look was given to the girl.
"Okay, so maybe I did. But that's only because I was terrified that he would meet my parents again. Do you know what mum told me when we got home after picking me up for the summer holiday?" She cleared her throat for a moment before mimicking her mother to her best abilities. "Oh Lily, how come you've never introduced us to that lovely boy earlier? Such a shame. Then she asked dad if they should invite him and his parents over for tea. He was all for it. However, I manage to convince them that James and his parents were traveling for the summer."
At the end of her rabble, Lily's face matched the color of her hair. She would deny it if anyone ever mentioned it, but she couldn't help feel her face heat up as her friend mention the boy she had sworn to never see as anything but a bullying toerag.
"Lils come on," Cassie gave her friend a smug look. "Let's be serious for a moment."
A glare was given to her, and Cassie let out a sigh before running her fingers through her hair, a habit she had picked up from being too much with James. "No pun intended, okay?" She looked away before muttering under her breath. "They think it's funny anyway."
The next thing she knew, a chocolate bar came flying at her, hitting her in the head. Her eyes instantly moved towards the only other person in the compartment who didn't have a single bit of guilt masked on her face. Turning her gaze down at her lap, she was meet with the sight of her favorite muggle chocolate bar. Before Lily could even register it, her friend had ripped off the paper and started munching on it.
"You're lucky I even remembered stopping by the store for that. Petunia refused to go with us, saying that we had to drop her off at Vernon's house first. Thank merlin that there wasn't too much traffic." She said while pulling out a book. As the hour went by, the two Gryffindors occupied themselves with the new books they had gotten over the summer while discussing the different story lines and plots.
Just as Cassie finished tying her tie, the door to the compartment opened. And in came a mop of dark hair, with a big smile.
"Ello ladies."
The two girls looked at the intruder, or more like the intruders, as in came two boys. However, it didn't take long before there was only one standing. As soon as the oldest boy came in, he was tackled to the ground by the dark-haired girl, who was clinging on to him, holding on so tight he nearly had trouble breathing.
Even with the nearly blue face, he managed to get out a few words.
"I've missed you too, Cas, but if you hug me any tighter, you might not have an older brother to miss."
Sensing the urgency in his voice, his sister pulled away at once before standing up and reaching out her hand for him to take. Sirius took his sister's hand and swiftly got on his feet. Still holding her hand, he pulled it towards him in such a force that it sent Cassie flying into her brother's chest.
Lily looked at the two siblings, and she couldn't help but let a smile grace her lips. Sensing a gaze at her, she turned her head quickly to her left and met the hazel eyes of the boy she had been blushing over not 2 hours ago. James could feel his heart race slightly as Lily moved her head and met his gaze. He couldn't help but admire her beautiful red hair that had grown longer during the summer, or the way her emerald green eyes widened slightly when they meet his. However, he didn't notice the light blush that covered her face.
Pulling away from her brother, Cassie smiled at him before turning around and hugging the Potter boy as well. Having been best friends ever since first year, Sirius wasn't the only Black that was considered a part of the Potter family.
"Where's Remus and Peter?"
James sat down by the window and gave his two friends plus Lily a smile as he ran his fingers through his hair.
"Peter forgot to buy something from the trolly, so he went chasing after it. Remus followed him, just to make sure that the old lady wouldn't be too scared by the 16-year boy trying to chase her down."
The compartment was filled with the laughter of the two siblings, who drowned out the small giggle that slip out of Lily.
"You sure he wasn't going just to get more chocolate?" Their eyes widened as if they just now realized what Remus's real reason for following Peter was: the girls burst out laughing at the boys' ignorance regarding their friend.
"Anyway, where have you guys been?" Sirius looked at his sister with a look that might as well had said, 'are you serious' his eyes met James for a split second before going back to the girl who was sitting right in front of him.
"Well.. you could say that we paid a little visit to some Slytherins." A mischievous look gleamed in his eyes. "Thanks for making sure no one took our compartment Cas. Otherwise, Prongs here would have had a breakdown".
"I would have not." James shot his best friend a glare before crossing his arms. "It would be like breaking tradition."
"This is our compartment."
Sirius nodded as if just to satisfy his friend, but mostly because he had already heard this speech probably about 20 times over the years.
" We've had it every single year since first year."
Lily gave the messy-haired boy a skeptical look.
"We even have our initials engraved right here!"
He pointed to the wall underneath the window. When Lily leaned in closer, she could indeed see the initials of five people. She gave her friend a look that said, 'i can't believe you did that,' though Cassie just shrugged back as if signalizing that she really didn't care that much.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Wouldn't want to bore Evans with all this talk about tradition, now would you?"
Sirius said when he noticed that James was about to open his mouth yet again. The boy's face went red, and he quickly turned his gaze towards the window, looking at the passing scenery. Raising his eyebrow, Sirius sent a knowing smile to his younger sister, who cracked a laugh in return. After being apart for a few months, it was funny how quickly the two siblings got back into routine. One would almost think that they hadn't been apart at all.