Chapter 5
HARRY POTTER
Harry's third year at Hogwarts had begun as rife with problems as his first and second years. It was as if he was truly cursed and could hardly have a normal year for once.
In the first year, he had come face to face with the dark lord who had killed his parents as he tried to prevent his rise once more. And in the second year, the school had found itself as the victim of a series of attacks that remained unexplained to this day.
And now, in his third year, there were dementors. Ghostly creatures that guarded the Azkaban prison were now stationed across each and every entrance to the castle. They affected him worse than they affected any other student, making him fall down on the train until Professor Lupin had to rescue him.
Thankfully, they were not allowed inside the school, and as Harry rushed into the common room, he tried to push all the dark thoughts away, as he tried to lose himself in the excitement of their upcoming first Quidditch Match.
"Harry," a familiar voice called out his name. He looked up and saw his friend Ron running towards him, his face full of surprise and rage.
He had thought that Ron would have gone to Dinner by now, and yet it seemed like he had waited for him.
"I will be do..."
"Do you know what I just saw in the library?" he asked, and harry frowned, a bit surprised that Ron had gone to the library.
"What?" he asked as he rushed to his bed and began to take off his Quidditch gear and uniform.
"Hermione," he spoke her name with such disgust that Harry was surprised. It reminded him of Aunt Petunia talking of their neighbours.
But Hermione was in the library, and there was nothing strange about that. Their friend spent most of her time there, it was why she was the top of their class.
"She was sitting there with him, Malfoy," and that took him by surprise.
"Draco?" he asked, and Ron shook his head.
"No. The other one," and Harry understood who he was talking of.
Whenever someone took the name Malfoy, he was reminded of Draco Malfoy, with his blonde hair and blue eyes. Though, he was not the only Malfoy in the castle.
Cassius Malfoy was the black-haired twin of Draco Malfoy, and yet was not nearly as infamous, unlike his brother, who was disliked by nearly everyone, especially in Gryffindor.
Cassius Malfoy, on the other hand, was the quieter one and was not a Slytherin, much to the school's surprise, but was a Ravenclaw. He was quiet and famous among some girls, even their House, for some reason, but he usually stayed out of Harry's radar.
That was until recently.
"She was there, with those two snakes, sitting with them. I saw it. I saw it with my own eyes," Ron added, as if he would not believe them.
"What's wrong with that?" Cassius had ever been polite to him the few times they had come face to face, and he had even made Draco apologize to their friend for his words.
"Wrong! She has betrayed us! Afterall, we have done for her. She goes and joins that git," Ron whispered, and he understood his friend's concerns.
The Malfoys were dangerous, and he had a hard time trusting them. Draco had been awful to him, much like Dudley, but Cassius. Harry did not know what to think of him, and if he did manage to help Hagrid save Buckbeak, then the better.
"She must have been there to talk about Hagrid and Buckbeak," and they both rushed out of the common room towards the Great Hall for the dinner as Ron shook his head.
"No. She was there for hours, sitting with them and doing homework with them. I even saw her eat something he gave her," and Harry did not know what to do. He was really tired and still had homework to do.
"You should have joined her, you know, to protect her," he spotted her sitting there, eating mashed potatoes with vigor, and he sat beside her.
He was hungry after practice.
"Harry, how was practise?" she asked and Harry smiled as he began to pile up food on his plate.
"It was good," and it was. Wood was sure that this would be their year. They had been robbed of the cup for the last two years, but this year they would win it all.
He was sure of it.
Ron quieted down, his eyes narrowing as he sat opposite to him, yet his gaze kept following Hermione's. Their little quarrel from earlier, yet unsettled.
Harry had long learned not to get between them when they became like this, and she busied himself with eating.
"Where were you earlier, Hermione?" Ron questioned as Hermione perked up beside him.
"I was in the library," she answered without looking as Ron's nostrils flared.
"With Malfoy and his snakes," he whispered strongly as Hermione looked up, noticing the hint of anger in Ron's tone.
"And why should it matter to you?" she asked sharply.
"Have you lost your mind, talking and sitting with Malfoy of all people?" and he saw Ron look behind at the Ravenclaw table, and Harry saw him as well.
The Black haired boy sat at the Ravenclaw table beside a blonde junior as he ate his dinner.
"He is evil!" Ron added.
"Not everyone is evil, Ron, and you have no right to concern yourself with who I sit with," and Hermione's patience was running thin.
"Of course I do," Ron cut in.
"And why is that?"
"Because we are your only friends," and that was a mistake as Ron turned towards him.
"Come on, Harry, tell her? How can she betray us like that, after everything we have done for her," Harry was quiet as he saw Hermione flush in rage as she picked up her plate.
"You are a git, Ronald Weasley!" The words made the Gryffindor table turn towards them, and Ron's face flushed in embarrassment. Hermione walked past them and plopped down away from them all, as Ron turned to him.
"She...."
"Just let her be," Harry added tiredly, not knowing what to say to Ron.
"Let her go! She will come back crying to us when Malfoy humiliates her," he said as he pushed his fork into the chicken.
"Sitting and eating with a Malfoy," and then suddenly, Ron's eyes widened as he looked up.
"That's it!" he spoke as everyone got busy with their meals. Harry saw Hermione eating her meal all alone, her eyes turning red.
"He must have put something in the food," Harry shook his head, realizing that this was becoming a bit of a problem.
"I don't think..."
"It makes perfect sense. It has to!" Ron added, and Harry sighed.
"You should apologize to her," he added, and Ron scowled.
"Why?" he asked as Harry shook his head.
"Because you were wrong," and Ron scoffed.
"No. I was not. I was just trying to save her from Malfoy, and she is the one who should apologize," he added haughtily and Harry chose to busy himself with his food, too tired and spent to say anything.
Ron was his closest friend, and his family had been very kind to him. He did not wish to see himself put between Ron and Hermione. They argued a lot each year but usually made up.
He hoped that the same would happen this year.
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CASSIUS MALFOY
Cassius Malfoy, the twin to Draco Malfoy. It had taken him a few years to get used to that name and all that it entailed, the sheer breadth of wealth and influence, and the associated bigotry and pride that came along with it.
However, he often wondered how long he would be allowed to keep that name with his behaviors. He had gotten used to it now, it would not be good for him lose it again so easily.
Thankfully, he was the younger son, born minuted after his brother and the heir to this massive fortune, Draco.
And they were born different in ways more than one. Draco, his twin, was born with Malfoy's blonde hair, while he had black hair, associated with his mother's Black lineage.
They were loved equally at first, though the equality would dwindle over the years as his parents realized the futility of trying to impose their own worldviews on him, more so his father than his mother. And yet, he could hardly say that he was not loved.
Cruel and flawed as they were, Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy were his parents, and they had hardly neglected their duties. They had raised him. Fed him, and provided him nearly all the same luxuries as their golden child.
And yet they had a past, especially his father. And nothing could change that; there was a subtle understanding there that neither of us would ever truly come to terms with the other, and yet they passed their time as Cassius hoped that the change that he had seen in them would come sooner rather than later.
Such a time would never come when he would have to choose between his principles, for to this day, he did not know what choice he would make.
"You have wrack-spurts around your head," the doozy voice of Luna Lovegood broke him out of his reverie as he turned to look at the blonde, who was watching him rather intently.
"More than usual?" he questioned. She was amongst his few friends here at Hogwarts; her strangeness had made it difficult for her to adjust to the school, even in the varied and self-centered House of Ravenclaw.
And in his avoidance of the usual cabal of girls, he had found camaraderie and friendship in her, where both of them benefitted as Luna's strangeness drove away the hoard of girls trying to chase after him. In contrast, he chased after the girls trying to bully her.
It was a perfectly symbiotic relationship.
"A bit," she nodded before turning towards the plate again as she began eating the peach pie that had been served for her.
"Now, what should I do to make them leave me?" he asked as he began to tear into the chicken leg, Luna frowned.
"That thing you do with your brain. It usually makes them leave you," and there it was, the uncanny and abnormal perception of the girl that sat beside her as she looked into his eyes.
The blue of her eyes was bluer than even Draco's, as she added.
"It is also why they leave Professor Snape all alone," and he wondered if the girl knew just what she was talking about. And yet he took a small, deep breath to clear his mind, letting all his worries and emotions fade away.
"You did it!" she celebrated with a clap as he opened his eyes again.
"You have gotten better," she added as she began eating again, and he hoped so. He had been working on it for nearly half a decade.
Yet Occlumency was something that took years to learn, and decades to master. It was one of the hardest magical disciplines for a reason.
"Do you want to learn as well?" he asked her, and she shook her head.
"They don't bother me as much. Plus, it seems too hard," she added nonchalantly, and he shrugged.
"You are smart. You could learn," and she could. She was in Ravenclaw for a reason.
"I don't want to," and then suddenly, she turned and looked up at the sky.
"Tomorrow there will be a full moon," she whispered, and his eyes instinctively turned towards the teacher's table, where a pale and fidgety Remus Lupis sat eating his meal, his eyes often landing on one Harry Potter in the Gryffindor table.
No one apart from his should know his secret—that Remus Lupin was a werewolf, and yet Luna knew. It was just a quirk of her, something that he had long gotten used to.
"A shame, you would have liked his lesson," he answered, as she nodded, her lips turning down.
"I would have," and the man was a good teacher. Cassius had had his first DADA lesson of the year, and it was indeed the boggart.
A creature that both puzzled and fascinated him, much like the Dementors that guarded Hogwarts these days.
A part of him had wondered what would appear if he faced the boggart, though the opportunity had not come with only a few students getting to face it.
Though he did have an inkling of just what it might be. And it was his plan to make sure that such a thing never becomes a reality.
Cassius had hoped that his presence would change much, bring a change for the better, and in a way, he had, yet it was not enough. But still, the best thing he could do for them was to make sure that the Dark Lord would never ever return to life, and this year he planned to make a major leap in that direction.
He could not save Draco from the influence and bigotry of his father, even though he hoped that Draco would not be as blinded by the ideals of blood purity as he had been.
He could do little to curb his little feud with Potter and his Golden Trio, having missed his chance to smoothen out their first interaction, the feud had begun as in his dreams and while not as severe, they were both quite antagonistic about to one another.
After much peril, success had come, and he was able to wrestle away the cursed diary of one 'Tom Riddle' from the grasp of one Ginny Weasley, though he had needed much time to prepare himself for the task.
And now, he was faced with the greatest and most important challenge yet.
And his eyes landed on one Ronald Weasley, who seemed to be talking heatedly to Granger, who suddenly rose up and burst angrily.
"You are a git, Ron!" he saw the redhead's face flush as the brown-haired girl walked away, clearly holding back her tears.
The commotion lasted for a few seconds as the redhead looked towards him, making him turn away, as his eyes landed on the brown-haired girl eating dinner all by herself.
"They have come for her now," Luna's words made him smile as always.
"The wrack-spurts?" he asked, and she nodded.
"You should teach her that mind thing you do," she suggested as he raised a brow.
"It will help her keep them away," and he shook her head as he answered.
"Maybe I will," he did not know what had changed and what not? But he knew that he had to stop Ronald Weasley's little rat from making his escape, and while he had thought of going to the adults, he knew that they would not believe the word of a thirteen-year-old.
Especially one bearing the name of Malfoy.
And even if they did, he was a rat. He was slippery and cunning, he could scurry away, spin a tale. So, he had to take every precaution he could. To make sure that he did not fail.
For if it ever got out, that he had tried to get Pettigrew captured, then it could backfire on his family, and he did not want that.
So, he had to do it himself. And he had to do it discreetly and cautiously.
And as he saw his brother standing up from his seat to leave the Hall, he pushed back his plate and chased after him.
"Go on ahead without me. I will be late today," he said as he walked towards his so-called brother.
"Draco," he called out as lovingly as a brother as the blonde stopped. His brother loved the attention, and with his arm injured, he was getting it more than ever.
Alas. He was going to have to end it sooner rather than later.
"Cassius," he greeted him warmly. Their relationship was rather good despite the circumstances, more so because Draco loved their father and was his golden child. Cassius never competed or felt jealous of the attention he got from the man.
"We need to talk alone," he added as he pointed toward his two henchmen. Pansy, who preened as Draco, asked them to go ahead.
"What do you want?" he asked, and Cassius placed a hand on his heart and feigned pain.
"You wound me, Draco. Do you think so lowly of my love for you?" he asked as Draco rolled his eyes at his antics.
"No, but I know you better than anyone else. You want something," and indeed, Draco did know him more than anyone else, and just as Cassius accepted him for what he was, Draco did the same.
He was not a bad person. He just had a bad ideal.
"Yes, I do," he began as they both walked towards the edge of the hallway, for some privacy.
Cregan reached for his wand and quickly cast a silencing charm before he began.
"I need you to stop this drama," he pleaded as Draco scoffed.
"It's not a drama," he said, and Cassius was not impressed as he raised a brow, looking at his proverbially injured arm.
"You have had worse injuries while playing Quidditch with me," he added. As a matter of fact, they both had gotten injured quite a lot as kids, especially with how Draco was a nutter for anything and everything Quidditch.
"Why put both yourself and father in all this trouble?" and the lie of calling Lucius Malfoy, his father had become second nature now.
"To get back at that half-breed who humiliated me," he raged, and he shook his head.
"His name is Hagrid, and you have already done enough to the poor man. He barely kept his job, and he has been sobbing for days because you had Father make a petition to kill that Hippogriff," Draco preened as he replied.
"How do you know that?" and Cassius shook his head.
"Father may have agreed to this, but think of all the trouble and time this must have cost him. You were injured, you could have asked for anything else, and yet you wasted this precious opportunity just for the sake of petty revenge," and he could see his brother's mind racing.
Both Narcissa and Lucius Malfoy loved their son. They loved him more than anything else. He knew that Lucius's vendetta against Hagrid and Buckbeak all began with a single letter from his brother and would end with just that as well, one single letter.
"Just think how impressed Father will be if you show him how mature you have become. Why must you force him to spend gold bribing those idiots at the ministry just for that one animal when you can have him spend it all on you," he added, and it was almost done.
He could see Draco was nearly there, and then he looked into his eyes and smirked.
"What's in it for me?" he asked, and that was the thing he had learned from him.
"And why are you so interested in that Hippogrif..." and as he said those words, his eyes widened.
"I cannot be," he gasped as Cassius raised a brow.
"It's her again, isn't it!" he raged and Cassius shook his head.
"Actually, no," and it was true. Hermione's intervention was an added bonus, he would say, one that allowed him to get his hands on the Marauder's map, something he sorely needed.
"Plus, even if it was her, my earlier points still stand," he added, and Draco shook his head.
"Why do you do this? You even made me apologi..."
"That was different," Cassius cut in sharply.
"Even you know that," and while his years had done little to lower the influence of Lucius's bigoted ways, he had made some progress. Little, but it was something.
And Draco was still growing, and he believed there was hope for him still, to grow and unlearn the idiocy of blood purity that he had been taught all his life.
"I was," and that was good.
"So, what do you want?" Cassius asked as he leaned back against the wall as Draco eyed him with a widening smile that had a shiver running down his spine.
"You know that already," he suggested, and he had hoped that Draco would ask for something else.
"Really, can I not just do your homework for the year?" he asked hopefully, and Draco shook his head.
"No, I want that," and Cassius sighed.
"I don't have enough mone..."
"You are lying," he cut in as he slapped his shoulder.
"I know that you have the money," and he did, but what he was asking for was no normal purchase. It would whittle down even his vast fortune, at least the one he had access to until he was seventeen.
"You can get me a Firebolt, or I can simply ask Father to continue with the execution..."
"Ok," Draco put forward his left hand, and Cassius shook it reluctantly as he whispered.
"I will remember this, brother mine," and yet Draco was not perturbed, having long gotten used to his threats.
"See that you do," and now he would have to go and write a letter to Gringotts for this little bribe. Add this to the one he had given to Daphne, and Cassius's fortune was not in a good place.
However, it could suffer, especially after he added the money from the Room of Requirement to it last year.
That had been a substantial sum.
"But you need to write the letter tonight. You do that, and I get the confirmation from Mother. Only then will you get the broom," he added, and Draco shrugged.
"As long as it is before the Slytherin and Gryffindor match, it won't matter."
"Have you had it rescheduled?" he asked, and Draco seemed surprised by that question.
"I had planned to, but now I don't think I will need to do that," he said as he removed the sling from his shoulder, as Cassius shook his head.
"You tease me about my behavior, but have you ever looked in the mirror?" Draco frowned as Cassius smiled clarifying,
"You and Potter, you both pine after one another like an old married cou...." and that was a little too low as Draco made to kick him, but Cassius was long gone by then.
"Remember to write the letter tonight, or your little surprise will fail," and Draco cursed him as Cassius trotted out of the hallway and towards his own dormitory.
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