Beauxbatons Academy of Magic
The next morning Cassie awoke just as the sun was peeking above the horizon, her room was bathed in soft orange light, a slight breeze came through her open window. She’d struggled to pull herself away from the warmth of her duvet, wanting to stay cocooned under the soft down for as long as possible. Rolling onto her side she spotted her periwinkle blue trunk sat open on her bedroom floor and her silk school dress hanging on the door of her wardrobe, reminding her why she needed to be awake so early. It was the beginning of a new school year.
Swinging her legs over the edge of her bed and stretching, she slowly made her way to the bathroom. Stepping under the warm spray from the shower she felt her muscles instantly begin to relax. Squirting a generous amount of lime and vanilla scented shampoo into the palm of her hand she gently began to massage it into her scalp, humming a tune under her breath. Once she had done washing her body and conditioning her hair she grabbed her pink fluffy towel and wrapped it around her slender body. Cleaning the condensation of the mirror, Cassie looked at her reflection, noticing the light purple circles that seemed to constantly ring her eyes at the moment. Huffing slightly she set about getting ready, brushing her teeth and using a small amount of makeup, hoping it would make her look a little less tired.
Cautiously she turned around so her back was facing the mirror staring at the burn still clear on her left shoulder. Red and pink lightning shaped marks appeared to shoot from a deep red circular epicentre all the way down to her lower back. All of her other injuries from the World Cup had healed, her arm and leg only causing her some slight pain when they became stiff, however the burn on her shoulder refused to heal no matter how many healing spells and salves they had applied. Tearing her eyes away and brushing the tears from her cheeks she opened the medicine cabinet, grabbed a large gauze bandage and set about covering the ugly mark so that no one would be able to see it.
Returning quickly to her bedroom she pulled on some dark wash denim jeans and a cream chunky knit jumper. Just as she began to brush her hair she heard a light knock on her bedroom door.
“Come in!” she said, not taking her eyes off of her face in the reflection of the mirror as she continued to brush her hair.
“I’m glad to see you up and ready, I didn’t hear a peep this morning,” Maya chuckled. “I bought you these to pack, a box of bandages and some more of the salve prescribed from the hospital,” Maya said, placing them carefully on her bed and turning so she could see Cassie in the mirror.
“Do you want some help styling your hair?” she questioned.
“Could you maybe dry it and curl it for me? It's so annoying we aren’t allowed to use magic outside of school. I would be ready in 2 minutes if we could!” replied Cassie, a frown causing a deep wrinkle between her arched eyebrows.
Maya laughed, “We both know that’s a lie, you love your half hour showers!”
Cassie turned, trying to keep the offended look on her face before she quickly cracked showing a cheeky smile. Maya sat on the end of her bed motioning for Cassie to take a seat on the floor in front of her. With a small flick of her wand and a blast of warm air, Cassie’s dry hair created glossy curtains around her face. Maya then began to take small sections of Cassie’s hair, making a corkscrew-like motion with her wand and creating gentle waves. The pair sat in silence whilst Maya was curling her hair, taking in the limited time they had together and not wanting to break the stillness of the early morning. Once Maya had finished she began to gently brush her fingers through Cassie’s hair, causing the young girl to close her eyes and lean slightly into her touch.
“Promise me you’ll be good and stay safe, Cas,” Maya mumbled. Cassie was slightly offended, she prided herself in being a conscientious student, always trying her hardest and achieving the best marks.
“I always am,” Cassie replied.
“I know, but please just promise me that this year you won’t go looking for trouble,” Maya begged, there was an obvious tone of worry in her voice.
Before Cassie could ask what she meant another knock on the door interrupted them. Kingsley gently pushed the door open, popping his head around it. He took in the sight of his wife and daughter, smiling slightly as he was reminded of the hundreds of times Maya had helped Cassie get ready when she was a little girl.
“I just wanted to see how we were doing, we’ve got an hour and fifteen minutes before the portkey leaves,” Kingsley informed them.
“I’m ready to go, I just need to shove some last minute bits into my trunk and grab some breakfast,” Cassie mumbled, standing up from her crossed legged position in front of Maya.
When she looked between the two adults it was clear they were having a silent conversation. Kingsley’s eye brows were furrowed, his lips in a tight line whilst Maya’s eyes were wide swimming with unshed tears.
“What is going on?” Cassie asked, her heart rate increasing and her stomach dropping.
“Nothing is going on sweetheart, we’re just emotional because you’re leaving to go off to school that’s all,” Maya replied trying to plaster a smile on her devastated face.
“Stop lying to me!” Cassie shouted, her own anger taking her by surprise.
“All you have done since the Quidditch World Cup is whisper behind closed doors, you have completely ignored every question that I have asked you. Whenever you look at me it’s like you’re waiting for me to drop dead! It was me who experienced it, me who was injured and me who is having to deal with the repercussions!” Cassie said, her voice becoming more hysterical as she went on.
She looked between the faces of her parents, waiting for one of them to respond. She could feel hot tears of anger and resentment running down her cheeks but quickly brushed them away with the back of her hand.
Kingsley slowly walked forward, gently grabbing her shoulders and making her look up at him. His face looked like it had aged a decade, there were dark circles matching her own under his sunken eyes. He had deep lines of worry carving their way across his face.
“We aren’t lying to you Bug, we’re just as scared and worried as you are. What happened to you at the World Cup was horrific. I think that is the most scared I have ever been in my entire life, when I couldn’t find you and no one knew where you were, I thought we’d lost you forever.” Kingsley said, getting choked up as he spoke.
“This isn’t something we want you worrying about over the school year, that’s all,” Maya quickly added.
“Of course I’m worried! I was attacked! And everyone wants to brush it under the carpet and ignore it!” Cassie snapped back.
“We aren’t ignoring it Cas, we’re just trying to protect you,” Kingsley tried to reason, gently brushing his hands up and down her shoulders to try and calm her down.
“Protect me from what? Who would want to hurt me!” Cassie yelled.
“I’m going to answer some of your questions in as much detail as I can, you cannot tell anyone what I am about to tell you, do you understand?” Kingsley questioned his tone becoming more serious.
Cassie brushed more tears off of her cheeks and began to nod her head. Kingsley appeared deep in thought before he began to speak.
“I worked with your biological father, Caleb, when we were younger. We were partners in the Auror department and when the first Wizarding War began we joined a small group of resistance fighters; we all had a common goal, defeating He Who Must Not Be Named and restoring the wizarding world to the place we knew and loved. The whole group was young and naive, we thought that the light would always win, but slowly more and more of our friends began to die and hope began to fade. Some of our friends couldn’t handle the trauma, they changed, fear and loss warped their minds and turned them against us. They joined him and betrayed us.”
Cassie was staring into the broken man's face, his eyes were glassy staring into the distance as if he were reliving the past. He was trembling slightly, his whole body beginning to curl in on itself, as if trying to squash the broken pieces back into place. Cassie had never seen Kingsley look so broken, so vulnerable before. She was beginning to regret her little outburst, her parents had never spoken of the war or the part they played in it and Cassie had never thought to ask.
“Which leads us back to the mystery woman that attacked you. I’m still trying to figure out how all of the pieces fit, so this is only a hypothesis.” he mumbled.
“I believe that the woman that attacked you may have been a traitor to the resistance. Someone who knew your biological father and assumed that you had met the same fate as him all those years ago.”
Cassie felt her heart drop. She had known about the circumstances of her fathers death since the age of 10, after she had accidently found his obituary in a box of Maya’s things. In the early hours of the 1st of November, the day after her 1st birthday and more importantly the day after the fall of He Who Must Not Be Named, her father, Caleb Vaughn, had been murdered on the steps of the Ministry of Magic. His death was widely reported as the last death of the war, perpetrated by followers of You Know Who. As her mother had tragically died in childbirth the parental responsibility fell to her godparents Maya and Kingsley .
Kingsley gently cupped her chin, turning her face slightly so that she could look into his eyes, “I promise you Cassandra, nobody is going to hurt you. My office is looking into the attack at the World Cup, we will find the criminals.”
“I just don’t understand,” whispered Cassie.
“I know bug,” Maya said from behind her, standing and slowly walking over to rub small circles on her back, “we don’t quite have all the answers ourselves, but we promise to keep you safe.”
The tense atmosphere was broken by soft footfalls on the landing outside. Two heads popped around the door, two young boys with mops of curly dark brown hair and bright smiles rushed into the room launching themselves at Cassie.
“We thought you were gone!” mumbled Theo, his voice muffled where his head was buried in Cassie’s jumper.
“I wouldn’t ever leave without saying goodbye,” Cassie replied, squeezing the two young boys a little bit tighter.
Bending down so that she was at the twins eye level Cassie explained, “I’ve just got to throw a couple of things in my trunk then I’ll come down for breakfast, okay?”
The twins nodded excitedly, turning to grab ahold of Maya’s hands and drag her from the room. Throwing a small smile over her shoulder towards her daughter she followed the young boys, who were animatedly discussing what they wanted for breakfast.
“Can I help you with anything?” Kingsely asked, he stood straighter now, as though a weight had been lifted off of his shoulders, all remnants of their emotional encounter wiped away or disguised with an easy grin.
“Would you mind putting the bandages in my trunk and folding my uniform whilst I grab my toiletries?” Cassie asked somewhat timidly. She began to feel guilty and slightly embarrassed about her outburst. She hadn’t intended to ruin their last couple of hours together.
Rushing towards the bathroom she grabbed her wash bag and her makeup bag. Glancing in the mirror above the bathroom sink, she paused to quickly fix the makeup that had run slightly around her eyes. When she reentered her bedroom she found Kingsley looking puzzled. Throwing her wash bags into her truck she stood beside him staring at the school dresses he had placed on her bed.
“They’re so slippery! Everytime I fold them they seem to slip apart and turn into a ball. We can’t have you showing up at school with a creased uniform!” he sighed. Cassie couldn’t help her snort of laughter.
“I knew I should have asked mum,” she chuckled, “but you seem to have forgotten a very important piece of information Dad, you’re a wizard remember,” she laughed, nudging his shoulder with her own.
Kingsleys cheeks flushed with embarrassment as his hand went to awkwardly scratch his neck, “I didn’t think of that,” he responded sheepishly.
Once her blue silk dresses, cape, blazer and hat were all placed safely inside her trunk she slammed the lid closed, flicking the locks shut with a click. Standing up and blowing a piece of wayward hair out of her face she turned around, scanning her bedroom for anything she had forgotten. Gasping suddenly and rushing over to the jewellery box on her dresser, she carefully opened the fragile glass front and pulled out a broach. Two tiny hands were holding two crossed wands, shooting out the top of both of the wands held on by thin wire were three stars, hanging from from the wrists on a delicate chain was a plaque with the words ‘head of year’. Pinning it carefully to her jumper she turned and nodded her head towards Kingsley.
“Ready,” she said. Kingsley turned and began to haul the heavy trunk out of the room and down the stairs. Cassie grabbed her handbag that was hanging from a hook on the back of her door and cast one last sweeping look around her small bedroom, with a satisfied nod she walked out of the room and softly closed the door behind her.
Out in the hallway Cassie was instantly hit with the smell of freshly frying bacon, rushing down the stairs she came to a skidding stop on the hardwood floor of the kitchen. Jasper appeared to be helping Kingsley make a pot of coffee whilst Theo was helping Maya stir some eggs in a pan. Cassie rushed to the cupboard grabbing out a stack of plates and some glasses, placing them around the table.
With rumbling stomachs the family all sat around the table, stacking their plates with toast, eggs and bacon. To Cassie’s relief the atmosphere was light and happy, a complete contrast to the feeling upstairs. The family spoke excitedly about Cassie’s upcoming school year and all of the things she was going to learn, they spoke about school holiday plans and Maya repeatedly checked if Cassie had packed everything. As the clock slowly ticked towards 9.30, Cassie’s departure time, the family made their way towards the front door. A silver watering can was sitting oddly atop her trunk. First she pulled her brothers into a bone crushing hug, much to their dismay, each pulled back grumbling. Laughing at their reaction, Cassie ruffled each of their hair, telling them to be good whilst she was gone. She then turned around to face her parents, looking at them tears pricked her eyes, although she loved school and couldn’t wait to go back and see her friends, she always cried when she left home, she had done since her first year. Kingsley stepped forward, chuckling slightly and pulling her into a hug.
“We’ll see you soon, Bug,” Kingsley whispered in her ear.
“I’m sorry about earlier, I didn’t mean to shout at you,” she whispered back, her voice muffled against his chest. Kingsley responded with a small squeeze of recognition.
“We love you Bug, so much,” he replied. Cassie smiled and snuggled in closer, making the most of the last moments spent with her father, enjoying the feeling of safety. A light brush across her shoulders made her turn around, she was instantly engulfed in a tight hug from Maya. The soft wool of her jumper was pressed hard against Cassie's cheek, the floral smell of Maya perfume surrounded her.
“I love you Cassie Bug,” Maya whispered into the young girl's hair. Pulling away slightly Maya continued “write to us every week, tell us everything, okay?”
Through a watery smile Cassie managed to choke out, “promise.”
The watering can atop her trunk began to rattle, a soft blue glow began emitting from it.
“Quick, quick Cas, we don’t want the portkey leaving without you!” Maya said, her voice now full of concern.
Cassie grabbed her handbag and then the handle on top of her trunk. In her other hand she grabbed ahold of the watering can. Turning her head she managed to shout out “I love you!” before she felt an uncomfortable pulling sensation behind her navel and the feeling of being pulled into a tight swirling tube. Cassie clamped her eyes closed, trying to breath through her nose to stop the ever growing wave of nausea. Around a minute later she slammed into the hard ground, stumbling forward slightly, her foot caught a tree trunk causing her to trip forward, throwing her hand out she managed to grab ahold of her trunk to right herself. Taking in a deep breath she opened her eyes and looked around her. She had landed between two towering aspen trees, in front of her the wide golden gravel drive of Beauxbatons School began winding up a hill. Huffing slightly in annoyance she pulled her wand out of her bag, and muttered the incantation “wingardium leviosa,” causing her trunk to hover a couple of inches off the ground. Blowing hair out of her face and pulling her bag strap higher onto her shoulder she began to trudge up the driveway muttering under her breath about the inconvenience of being dropped off so far away.
The air was still warm with the last hint of summer, golden morning light was peeking through the canopy of trees above her creating a pattern on the ground much like stained glass. The slight incline of the drive caused precipitation to form on her brow, making her hair stick slightly to her forehead and the back of her neck. Ahead the allee of trees opened up, perfectly framing the palace in front of her. In the middle of the forecourt stood a large marble fountain, in the centre of the fountain stood a beautifully carved marble witch and wizard, the were facing each other with a serene look on each of their faces, their wand arms were held up above their heads, their arms were crossed and out of the tip of each of their wands shot a stream of water. To the left of the fountain a high stone wall stood, creating the walled garden that then led to the formal gardens and Cassie’s favourite rose garden. To the right a sheer cliff face dropped off, giving a clear view for miles of the valley below; vineyards were entangled with dense woodland and flowing streams, on the horizon the mountains of the pyrenees rose up towering over the landscape, their colossal peaks covered by fluffy white clouds. Directly in front of her stood the palatial building that was home to Beauxbatons Academy of Magic.
The palace was made of creamy white marble inlaid with veins of midnight black and cool grey. Along the facade of the 3 storey building massive white framed windows reflected the bright courtyard below. To her right stood the towering turret of the astronomy classrooms, its powder blue roof almost disappeared against the sky. In the very centre of the building two grand, metallic blue double doors stood open welcoming Cassie back to school.
Dropping her trunk and handbag down on the cobblestone foreground Cassie began flexing and stretching, trying to get rid of the ache in her shoulders and arm. Looking around she realised that the area was completely deserted, there were no laughing shrieks of first year students playing in the fountain or the excited chatter of older students sitting around, enjoying the beautiful morning. Anxiously she looked down at the gold wristwatch, she couldn’t be so late that the welcoming feast had already begun she thought, that would be an awful way to start her first year being Head of Year. Letting out a small sigh of relief Cassie realised that she was in fact 20 minutes early. Dragging her belonging over to the fountain she sat at the water's edge looking across the valley, taking in her last day of freedom before the school year started.
Cassie was brought out of her day dream by a loud flapping noise behind her and a series of popping noises from the wooded driveway. Suddenly the school's front courtyard was alive with the sounds of excited students- chatting, laughing and shouting. Droves of students were walking up the gravel drive, having just appirated or caught a port key, laden with heavy trunks, school bags and pet cages. In front of the immense double doors of the school, a powder blue horse drawn carriage, the size of a large house, came to a bouncing halt. As to be expected with a magical horse drawn carriage the horses were not regular horses, rather twelve 15 feet tall winged horses, pearlescent white in colour with manes of shimmering silver. Cassie couldn’t draw her eyes away from the majestic creatures as they whinnied and stomped their hooves harshly against the cobblestones. Although she was enamoured with the creatures, Cassie was always glad that she didn’t have to take the school carriage from Paris with her classmates (as she was an international student) almost certain that it would set her intense motion sickness off. She watched as the tall willowy figure of the school's groundskeeper, Monsieur Durand, stepped forward grabbing the reins of the enormous horses, affectionately scratching their mussels and feeding them sugar cubes. Once the horses had been secured and calmed Monsieur Durand walked around to the side of the carriage and muttered an incarnation under his breath that made a golden step and periwinkle blue carpet spring from the underside of the carriage. Grasping the small golden handle, the door of the carriage was opened and out came the enormous frame of their principle Madame Maxime. Cassie had never seen anyone as tall as Madame Maxime; in her second year rumours had flown around the school that the headmistress was a giant, hiding in the wizarding world away from her more bloodthirsty and cruel relations. However this rumour had been immediately squashed by a very formal assembly in which a tearful Madame Maxime had hysterically proclaimed she was just big boned. Nobody in the school dared to ever mention the rumour again.
Once the headmistress had elegantly dismounted the carriage, fixed her shimmering lavender robes and ran her long bony fingers through her sharp bobbed hair she stood up to her full height casting a gaze around the courtyard. All of the students present instantly stopped what they were doing, stood straight and slightly nodded their heads out of respect. Cassie watched the towering figure retreat inside the castle, her robes billowing behind her as she spoke loudly to Monsieur Durand in quick French. Once the headmistress was back inside the palace the courtyard sprang back to life, the students disembarking the carriage ran to find their squealing and shouting friends, laughing joyfully as they caught up after the long summer break. Cassie was trying to find the looming mop of curly, brown hair that would indicate where Fabian was and in turn the rest of her friendship group, being best friends with the 6ft 1 boy had its perks she supposed; However due to her petite 5ft 1 stature she found herself hopping up and down, trying to get a glimpse over the tops of the heads of the hundreds of students that where now milling around the courtyard. Huffing slightly in exasperation she looked around, she knew it would take forever to find anyone in such a dense crowd. Hopping up on to the edge of the fountain she began spinning around looking for the white blonde hair of the Carlisle twins, Libby’s waist length strawberry blonde curls, Bonnie’s midnight black braids or Fabian’s caramel curls. Cassie was desperate to see her friends, all of her plans to see them after the Quidditch World Cup had been cancelled after Kingsleys strict house arrest, she hadn’t even been able to have visitors; if she was being completely honest with herself she probably hadn’t been mentally or physically capable of seeing her friends but she had missed them all the same.
She was pulled out of her thoughts by strong arms wrapping around her waist, pulling her gently off the edge of the fountain. Before she could even process what was happening she was pulled hard into a strong chest, breathing in the musky scent of pine that she knew belonged to Fabian.
“I’m sorry Cass, God I’m so sorry, I shouldn’t have let go of your hand. It's all my fault. I’m so sorry,” he kept murmuring into her ear, emotion making his voice sound thick and distorted.
Cassie pulled away from his embrace slightly, peering up at the boy's face. Tears were welling in his deep brown eyes, threatening to spill over at any minute.
“I completely understand if you’re upset or angry with me. But you have to know how sorry I am. I shouldn’t have dropped your hand. I shouldn’t have left you alone. I was a coward running away, I should have stayed back to find you. God I’m so sorry,” Fabian kept rambling.
Cassie had to cut him off. She couldn’t stand his guilty chatter any longer.
“Fabian,” she interrupted, tightly wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling him down into a tight embrace. She began whispering soothing words into the boy's ear as his head rested on her shoulder, attempting to calm him down.
“None of what happened to me was your fault. Of course you had to run, I couldn’t live with myself if you got hurt trying to find me. I’m so glad you were all safe. I don’t blame you for anything.” she murmured, feeling a wet patch begin to form on her shoulder as the boy continued to sniffle.
Slowly Cassie pulled away, brushing her thumbs under Fabian’s eyes to wipe away any stray tears. Looking behind Fabian's tall frame she saw the rest of the friendship group staring at the pair, all glassy eyed. Libby had pulled Bonnie into a tight hug as the girl shook, muffled cries tumbling from her lips. Hugo had placed a tentative arm around Odette’s shoulders trying to comfort his twin sister who was harshly chewing on her bottom lip. Cassie couldn’t help but let out a small chuckle at the group's dramatics. She had never really considered how the events at the World Cup had affected them all.
“Honestly guys, I’m fine,” Cassie smiled. “Still a bit stiff and sore, but at least I have a healer's note that excuses me from flying practice,” she joked, trying to lighten the mood.
The small group all looked at her wide eyed, before bursting into fits of laughter. Cassie’s inability to fly had been a group joke since first year, when she’d managed to give herself a black eye and sprained wrist tripping over her broom. Ever since she had tried to use every excuse under the sun to try and skive off the class.
“I can’t believe you’re abandoning me!” shrieked Odette dramatically, pulling Cassie into a one armed hug whilst tugging at her hair jokily.
“At least when I abandon you, I know you’re not being attacked by dark wizards,” Cassie shot back sassily.
“Too soon,” both Bonnie and Fabian muttered, both wiping their eyes and noses, trying to gain their composure.
Cassie snorted loudly and pulled Bonnie into a hug, running a soothing hand through the girl's braided hair. “I’m okay,” she kept muttering in the girl’s ear.
Bonnie snaked her arms around Cassie’s waist, engulfing the smaller girl and squeezing her so tightly all of the air left Cassie’s lungs.
“Bon, broken ribs, ow,” Cassie managed to splutter out.
“Oh, gob stones, I completely forgot. I’m so sorry Cass. Are you okay?” Bonnie stammered, pulling away from the girl and looking at her through damp lashes. Cassie just rolled her eyes and patted her hand in reassurance.
“I’m not a china doll guys, I’m fine.” Cassie said, making eye contact with each of them, trying to get her point across. She hated people babying her, it made her feel weak and pathetic.
“Whatever you say princess,” Fabian said, chuckling and swinging his arm around her shoulder, “none of us are going to let you out of our sight ever again.” Cassie rolled her eyes at the boy and stuck her tongue out at him. Cassie and Fabian had always had a special relationship, never romantic, more of a protective older brother kind of relationship, and as much as Cassie moaned about his possessive overprotective streak, she secretly loved the fact that he was always looking out for her.
“I’m not a princess,” she grumbled, starting to walk over to her abandoned possession.
Before she even had time to reach for the handle of her bags, they were snatched up. Hugo swung her handbag over his shoulder, striking a ridiculous pose with his hands on his hips which had everyone laughing; whilst Fabian, refusing to drop the arm he had around her shoulders, grabbed the handle of her heavy trunk. As they walked towards the school's double doors, Cassie began to quiz each of them about the rest of their summer, thankful for the sense of normality she finally began to feel.