Harry Potter 1. Prologue

"Ha! Hufflepuffs standing up to you? That's a joke, mate!"

"Yeah, but it's funny, right?"

Two third-year Gryffindors were walking to Charms when a dark shape whistled past them and landed on the floor in front of them. It was some odd girl wearing a cape. She was pretty average, really, but for the cape, the black pants, the black long-sleeved T-shirt, the black Converse, and the black fedora she was wearing on top of her brown hair.

"Were you just _dissing_ Hufflepuff?" the odd girl with the cape asked dangerously.

"N-n-nooo!" one of the boys squeaked.

The odd girl's eyes flashed. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a Recorder, a magical tape recorder. She hit a button on it and played back the conversation.

"_Ha! Hufflepuffs standing up to you? That's a joke, mate!"_

"_Yeah, but it's funny, right?"_

"Would you like to change your answer?" the odd girl asked softly.

The boys nodded.

"Now, you should know, I don't like Gryffindorks. They're annoying and they smell funny. But I _especially_ dislike Gryffindorks who mess with my House. Do you know who I am?"

The Gryffindors shook their heads.

"I am Cassiopeia Rodgers! My mother is the daughter of Bellatrix Lestrange and You-Know-Who! And my father is even more dangerous. My father is a Dementor who guarded Azkaban. And you know what that makes me?"

The two boys gulped simultaneously.

"Dangerous." She reached into her pocket again and pulled out a dark gray rectangle with rounded sides. "This is made of a Dementor's cloak. It sucks happiness out of you. It sucks out your soul." She grabbed a girl walking down the hallway and brought it down on the girl's wrist. With a crash, the rectangle formed to fit around the girl's wrist.

The girl screamed. Then Cassiopeia pulled the rectangle off of her wrist and unrolled it. With a snap, it reverted to its original state. The girl who had just been tortured looked at Cassiopeia, and asked in a shaky voice, "Who are you?" The girl ran down the hallway, her sobs echoing off of the stone walls.

The two Gryffindors took a step back.

Cassiopeia slapped the rectangle around her wrist. "This doesn't bother me, because I've killed before. That's the way to gain immunity to things like this. And I'm not afraid to do it again. Now, before you run off like the cowards you are, just remember something: I'm a Hufflepuff. And I'm not the most dangerous one."

The two boys turned around and ran back to the Gryffindor common room. Cassiopeia stood there for a second, and then called out, "Okay, Penny, you can come out now!"

The girl who had been tortured, Penny, walked around the corner, doubled over in laughter. "Did you see their faces, Cassandra? I think one of them peed himself!"

Cassandra laughed too. "If I'd known that all it took to get even with the Gryffindors was a Recorder, a cape, and a slap bracelet with the paper ripped off, I would have done this years ago!"


	2. Spreading

The next day, when Davy Higgens and Hugo Weasley went down to breakfast, they eyed the Hufflepuff table warily. They saw Cassiopeia Rodgers sitting and laughing with a group of her friends. One of them, a pretty blonde, was wearing the rectangle that sucked out your soul, and she was laughing.

_Laughing._

Hugo walked up to the blonde and asked, his voice betraying how scared he was, "Who did _you_ kill? Murderer!" He then ran very fast over to Davy.

The blonde, whose name was Kate Macmillan, stared at him oddly. Cassandra snickered. "What did you do?" Kate asked.

"I told him that the only way not to have your soul sucked out by that bracelet, which, incidentally, he believes is made out of a Dementor's cloak, is if you've killed." Cassandra responded, laughing.

"You told _Hugo Weasley_ that my slap bracelet sucked out your soul?"

Cassandra swore. "How was I supposed to know he was a Weasley? Now wouldn't be a good time to tell you he thinks my grandparents are Bellatrix Lestrange and You-Know-Who, would it? And my dad's a Dementor."

"You did? Oh, Cassie…why?"

"I just wanted them to respect Hufflepuffs. Penny helped!" she added.

Kate turned around to face the Ravenclaw table and tapped Penny on the shoulder. "You weren't supposed to let her scare the Gryffindors!"

Penny shrugged. "It was this or kidnapping the first-years and ransom them off."

"Couldn't you have picked better targets?"

Penny looked at Kate oddly. 'What do you mean?"

"You terrorized Hugo Weasley. You know, the one whose dad and uncle are Aurors, whose mom and uncle run the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, whose _granddad_ is in charge of the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts. Every Gryffindor will believe him, everyone will know of the encounter by lunch, and you two could go to Azkaban." With that, Kate turned around to face her fellow Hufflepuffs. "Cassie, I'm very disappointed in you," she said reprovingly.

"Yes, _mother_." Cassandra said moodily.

When breakfast was over, Kate, Cassandra, Penny, and another Hufflepuff, Erica, went off to Transfiguration. They were stopped by a first-year, who glared at the four of them, before saying, "Are all of you murderers?"

"First off, the correct term is 'murderesses'. Second off, you should know that my Dementor father is the reason I was born without a soul. And in order to feed the black hole where my soul should be, I must feast upon _innocent _souls." Cassandra said, as if she were commenting on the rainy weather. Then she lunged at the first-year, who screamed and ran away.

"Cassie, stop tormenting the Weasleys." Kate admonished. Penny and Erica were trying to maintain a straight face, and were failing miserably at the task.

Cassandra groaned. "Another Weasley? Why are there so many?" Cassandra suddenly snapped her fingers. "That was Lucy Weasley! Did you see her face?" she snorted. "Looking at her, you'd think I was about to eat her."

"It's not funny!" Kate said, exasperated.

Cassandra gave her an odd look. "Yes it is."

Kate laughed. "You're right, it is funny." They walked the rest of the way to Transfiguration recounting Lucy's face and the faces of the students who had overheard the exchange.

In Transfiguration, they were practicing human transfiguration, turning their eyebrows different colors.

"You know," Kate said to Erica. "I really think magenta suits me."

Erica glanced over at Kate's magenta eyebrows and shook her head. "Go black, to match your soul."

Penny turned around, one eyebrow plaid. "Or lack of one." They laughed.

The other students started to whisper among themselves.

"Quiet!" Professor Hanes yelled over the students' whispers.

The class resumed practicing the spell, although Erica saw many, many small balls of parchment being tossed around the room. The bell rang and Cassandra went to the Hufflepuff common room while Penny headed off to Ancient Runes, Kate went to Arithmancy, and Erica ran to Care of Magical Creatures.

Cassandra was almost to the statue that guarded the Hufflepuff corridor when James Sirius Potter blocked her path. _The _James Sirius Potter. As in, the son of Harry Potter and Ginny Weasley. The very attractive son of Harry Potter and Ginny Weasley.

"Hi," he said, with that trademark grin of his. "You're Cassiopeia? Cassiopeia Rodgers?"

Cassandra nodded. "Can you please move? I have to get in."

He didn't move. "Can I talk to you?"

"We are, aren't we?"

James Potter laughs a nervous laugh. "Well, since you seem to tell my cousins everything about yourself, I figured if I came to talk to you, you would tell me more."

"About what?" Cassandra asked warily.

"About like how you told my cousin Lucy about how you have no soul, but you told Hugo that the only way to prevent your soul from being sucked out was murder. Which one is true?" he asked seriously.

Cassandra toyed with the idea of telling the truth. _No,_ she decided. _It's probably a prank. I mean, what harm can this one little lie do?_

"Well, both," Cassandra said nonchalantly. Then she realized that she had to make a lie up to go with that. "I mean, I have to feast upon innocent souls every so often, otherwise my lack of soul will consume me and turn me into a Dementor, but the bracelet would suck out the souls right out of me, turning me straight into a Dementor." She shuddered. "And I can't let that happen."

James Potter was looking visibly uncomfortable. "Your friend, Kate, Kate Macmillan, who'd she kill?"

_Yeah, Cassandra,_ she mentally chided herself._ Who'd_ _your best friend, who can't kill a cockroach, kill?_ "I can't tell you that. It would betray her trust. And Hufflepuffs are loyal. Now, will you please move? I'm kind of…_hungry_."

James Potter practically leapt out of the way of the statue, but instead of leaving, stood there, leaning against the wall. "How do you get in?"

"Why does it matter?" Cassandra asked, mildly confused.

"It doesn't. Just curious."

"I hate curiosity," Cassandra said, baring her teeth in a malignant smile. "How innocent is your soul?"

James Potter nearly killed himself running down the stairs.


End file.

Harry Potter, Humor, Romance