Their Second Chance - Part One

"Hi," I said to Professor McGonagall with a smile. "I'm Cassie. This is my Brother Harry. You must be Professor McGonagall."

"Yes, I am," Professor McGonagall said with a smile. She frowned when we exited the house. "Are your relatives not coming with us?" Harry locked the door.

"They aren't home, Professor. They hate Magic or 'freakiness' as they call it so Harry and I thought it'd be best for us if they weren't here for this. They'd refuse to come anyway." She frowned even more before smiling at us.

"Well, in that case, we can apparate once we get to the park. It's a lot faster." We started walking the little way to the park.

"Harry?"

"Yes, Cassie?"

"Should we mention our cupboard but not mention we sleep in it just to raise her suspicions a little more?"

"Maybe but we'd have to do it carefully, Sis."

"Right."

"Professor?" Harry asked.

"Yes, Mr Potter?" Professor McGonagall responded.

"Is there a way of making our supplies smaller because the list in our letter was a lot, especially with a cauldron each."

"Oh, yeah, Harry," I said. "It won't all be able to fit in our cupboard. It's already small enough."

"Your cupboard? You put your stuff in a cupboard?" Professor McGonagall asked.

"Oh, er, erm," Harry stuttered. "Yeah, yeah, totally, er, just our, er, stuff." I gently elbowed Harry. He pretended it really hurt and Professor McGonagall's eyebrow rose.

"Harry!" I hissed before I quickly and obviously changed the topic. "We're here!" Professor McGonagall looked around to ensure no one was looking.

"She's so cautious and it's really attractive," I thought.

"Good to see your hero-worship crush is still there," Harry chuckled and V chuckled too.

"Cassiopeia has a crush on McGonagall?" V asked.

"Has since she first saw her on our first day at Hogwarts. Drove Hermione crazy how Cassie always beat out her Transfiguration scores because Cassie insisted on doing everything she could to impress McGonagall."

"Professor McGonagall, Harry," I thought as I blushed. Professor McGonagall looked at us.

"Okay, we're alone," she said and Harry and V chuckled in my head as I blushed harder. "Take my arms so I can apparate us to Diagon Alley." She held out her arms and we took them.

"At least we won't be going through The Leaky again," I thought before we apparated to an empty side alley connected to Diagon.

"It's quite empty now," Professor McGonagall said as we entered Diagon Alley. "Because of how early it is. It'll get a lot busier later. We have until lunchtime and then I have to go to another family."

"Are you going to show them around too, Professor?" I asked with an innocent smile.

"Yes. The child, Miss Granger, will be in your year and she's a Muggleborn. Her parents are Muggles, non-Magic folk, and she's quite smart. Probably end up in Ravenclaw."

"What's Ravenclaw?" Harry asked as he pretended to know nothing about the Wizarding World.

"Didn't your Aunt tell you about Hogwarts?"

"We didn't know about Magic until we got our letter, Professor," I said. "How does our Aunt know? We suspected after finding out about our Magic that she and our Uncle know but hate it because every time we've done something we think is Magical, like that time we ended up on the school roof from the ground in a second when we wanted to get away from Dudley and his gang, they've been... Unpleasant. However, how do they know?"

"Did our Parents know?" Harry asked after giving Professor McGonagall enough time to let my words about us running from Dudley and his gang sink in. "Would they have told us if they hadn't died in that car crash?"

"Car crash?" Professor McGonagall asked, paling. "What...?"

"Aunt Petunia told us about how our Parents died in a car crash 'cause our Dad was a drunken layabout," I said and Professor McGonagall looked pissed.

"Okay, you two will be coming with me later to collect the Grangers as there's something we'll have to talk to someone about but Ravenclaw is one of four of the Hogwarts Houses. Ravenclaw's Head of House is Filius Flitwick, the Charms Professor. I am the Deputy Headmistress, Transfiguration Professor and Head of Gryffindor House. The Potions Professor, Severus Snape, is the Head of Slytherin House and the Head of Hufflepuff House is Pomona Sprout, the Herbology Professor. On the first day of term, you'll be Sorted into your House. You'll live in your House's dorms, spend time in your House's Common Room and attend classes with your House yearmates. By doing things right, like answering a question correctly, you can gain House points, and by rule-breaking, you can lose House points. The House with the most points at the end of the school year is awarded the House Cup. The House Cup is taken very seriously and your Housemates won't take kindly to lost points."

"What's the difference between the Houses?" I asked.

"Slytherin's House animal is a Serpent and Slytherin House values ambition, resourcefulness and cunning. Ravenclaw's House animal is an eagle and Ravenclaw House values wit, wisdom and learning."

"Wait, so Ravenclaw has an eagle and not a Raven?" Harry asked and Professor McGonagall chuckled.

"Yes. No one knows why Rowena Ravenclaw, the Founder of Ravenclaw House, chose an eagle but her Familiar was an eagle so that may've factored into it," she teasingly said. "Slytherin was Founded by Salazar Slytherin and Hufflepuff by Helga Hufflepuff. Hufflepuff's House animal is a badger and Hufflepuff House values loyalty, patience and hard work. Gryffindor was founded by Godric Gryffindor. Gryffindor's House animal is a lion and Gryffindor House values bravery, courage and determination."

"Patience for Hufflepuff? Okay, so I won't be a Hufflepuff then," I said and Harry and Professor McGonagall chuckled. "I don't know what you're chuckling at, Harry, you won't be either."

"Yeah but Hufflepuff doesn't sound as... Enticing... As the others. Bravery? Cool. Ambition? Good for future careers. Ravenclaw doesn't sound much fun either," Harry said. "I mean, they all sound great but Gryffindor and Slytherin sound the best so I'd be okay with those two, I guess."

"Me too, I suppose. Hufflepuff sounds... Too sociable for me. Gryffindor sounds loud. People who are brave are, most of the time, quite boastful about it. They sound like they'd be full of mischievous pranksters... No offence, Professor!" Professor McGonagall chuckled.

"None taken, Miss Potter. The biggest pranksters do tend to come from Gryffindor like your Father and his friends and the current Weasley twins. However, luckily for us staff, a big prankster graduated over the summer. Her name is Nymphadora Tonks. She's a Metamorphmagus, a Shape-Shifter, and she loved using her abilities to prank people and helped out the Weasley twins sometimes. She was a Hufflepuff."

"She was? But she helped the Gryffindor Weasley twins? But spending so much time with their own Houses and being in different years, wouldn't that have been hard?" I asked, trying to hide how much it hurt to talk about Dora after having watched her die only a few months ago. Harry squeezed my hand.

"Yes but Tonks always made time for pranks even with how naturally clumsy she is. We encourage inter-House friendships and relationships but, unfortunately, with Quidditch and the House Cup and the prejudice against Slytherins because of the Wizarding War and most of the prejudice Slytherins and a few others have against Muggleborns, inter-House unity doesn't get very far. Most of the Quidditch games are three Houses versus Slytherin in the stands unless Slytherin needs to win to get their House back in the running for the Quidditch Cup. Of course, the House and Quidditch Cup have both been won by Slytherin for the last 6 years in a row..."

"What is Quidditch?" I asked, hoping to talk about anything but Dora again.

"Oh, it's a worldwide Wizarding sport that's played on brooms." We talked about Quidditch as we made our way up to the Head Goblin. I only noticed we were in Gringotts as we stopped in front of the Head Goblin. Our Gringotts trip went mainly the way it did the first time only without getting the Philosopher's Stone. We quickly got all of our school supplies, including our Wands (which went the same as last time only with Professor McGonagall starting to get impatient about how long it took. Harry and I have the same wands, which is great 'cause I love my eleven-inch, Blackthorn, Dragon Heartstring, unyielding wand.) and the only things left on the list were robes and pets. The trip went by much faster than the first time and we decided, since we were gonna come back with the Grangers, to do pets and robes then. Harry grinned at this because we'd run into Draco the first time in the robes shop around three and he was excited to meet Draco again.

"Yes, she is very efficient," V thought. "However, I'm not surprised given she does this every year and has for a while." We made our way back to the side alley with our shrunken stuff and Professor McGonagall apparated us to another park. We walked for a few minutes before stopping in front of a house. Professor McGonagall knocked on the door and a few moments later the door was opened by Hermione. Hermione's eyes lit up when she saw Professor McGonagall and she smiled.

"Hi, Professor," Hermione said before noticing me and Harry. Her smile dropped and she looked a little nervous. "Hi. I'm Hermione Granger and you are?"

"I'm Cassiopeia Potter and this is my twin, Harry," I said. "You can call me Cassie though."

"Hi," Harry said.

"Miss Granger, can we come in?" Professor McGonagall asked and Hermione hesitantly nodded. That's weird. Hermione's hardly ever not confident unless it's about her looks. We went into the house and Hermione took a deep breath after shutting the door.

"Harry, something's wrong. Look at how Hermione's acting," I thought.

"I know, Sis. Do you think something's wrong with her Parents? We've never been to her house before and other than the summer before second year, we haven't met her Parents either."

"Yeah, they seemed overwhelmed at first but now thinking about it they also seemed to be trying to hide their distaste too. Like how Andromeda tried around Remus that one time right after we found out Dora was dating him." I frowned and Hermione noticed. She blushed a little before quickly moving into another room. The three of us followed.

"Are your Parents joining us soon?" Professor McGonagall asked and Hermione winced.

"Oh, er, they're kind of busy right now but erm I can go get them if it's really important that they come," Hermione said, reluctantly.

"Yeah, bring them! I'm sure your Parents are looking forward to Magic too!" Harry said with fake enthusiasm and Harry, Professor McGonagall and I all noticed Hermione's flinch.

"Er, okay, sure." Hermione quickly left the room.

"Professor?"

"Yes, Miss Potter?" Professor McGonagall asked.

"Er, is Hermione okay? 'Cause she's acting like Harry and I do when we're asked questions our Aunt and Uncle tell us to lie when we're asked them."

"Which kind of questions are those, Miss Potter?" I stared at her wide-eyed.

"Er, I, er, is Hermione okay, Professor?" I asked in a fake worried tone. Pretending I accidentally slipped up is so easy.

"I'm not sure, Miss Potter. Let's just keep an eye on her, hmm?"

"Yes, Professor," I said, concerned. I actually am worried about Hermione. After we met her Parents, she never really mentioned them and after our third year, she stopped going home for Christmas and spent as much of the holidays at the Weasleys as Harry and I did, except the summer before our sixth year when she spent more time there than we did! The three of us tensed when we heard Hermione's Parents yelling. I've no idea what they're saying but it doesn't sound good.