𝐒𝐄𝐂𝐑𝐄𝐓𝐒 𝐎𝐅 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐅𝐔𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐄 || 𝐟𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐰𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐥𝐞𝐲

13. off to the castle

song of the chapter:
We're Off To See The Wizard
by: Judy Garland and Ray Bolger
•••

September first brought families with slight winds, the fall season approaching slowly. Children boarded platform 9 ¾ with their families weeping as they let their children board the train. 

The last month of summer passed by rather quickly.  Cass and Iris met up thrice at an arcade and the mall while also sending letters to each other every week.  Tonks and Cass kept Cass's newfound lycanthropy a secret, however, Charlie ended up figuring it out when Nymphadora was acting stranger than normal.  Fortunately,  the Weasley agreed to keep it a secret as well and he didn't treat Cass any differently, which the upcoming fourth-year was thankful to.  Nymphadora met up with Charlie a few more times and Cass saw them thrice again.  Another thing Cass filled her time with was researching taekwondo schools for her to practice at.  As the summer extended that was something she missed greatly which she could get back. 

    Once Cass and Tonks received their letters from Hogwarts they both went down to Diagon Alley and Cathleen was able to purchase her first wand which was quite an exciting experience.  Eight-and-a-half-inch apple wood wand with dragon heartstring.  Cass could feel the difference in the control over her magic now that she had a wand that chose her rather  than a hand-me-down from her mother. 

    With baggage packed in their trunks and wands in hand, the Weasley family ran late up to the last minute before the train left and the passage locked like most years.  However, this time so was the Tonks family. The morning was quite hectic for both families, even more so in the absence of Ted and Arthur, both of whom had been called in due to an emergency at the Ministry.  The family of gingers woke up but didn't find Charlie in his bed.  The opposite was for the Tonks family, as they found Charlie hiding behind Tonks's pull-out. Cass was in her own mind, not paying attention to the commotion happening around her in favor of keeping the spark of excitement she held while awaiting her first in-person views of the magical castle.  Every once in a while Cass was saddened by the reminder that she wouldn't be able to see her old friends on the first day of school and wondered what had happened to her in her old world. Did she disappear with search parties on the look for her or did she simply erase from the minds of all her former acquaintances?

Besides the fact that Cass was unable to keep her same friends from years past, she was thrilled to meet witches and wizards whom she could befriend.  Cathleen had never been the "New Girl" because she and her mom had stayed in the same apartment complex for as long as she could remember. Still, now she has pulled the entire story of growing up at Ilvermorny and joining Hogwarts in the middle of her education.  Many would see this as a challenge and ignoring the prominent butterflies flapping around in Cass's stomach, she was up for it. Knowing what was to happen in the next years also put her at an advantage and she planned to save as many of the innocents as she could.   

Cass decided after playing Quidditch with Charlie on a couple more occasions that she is more than acceptable at the sport and will join her house team if there is an opening for Chaser.

    "Girls!" Andromeda called up the stairs to Tonks's bedroom.  "And Charlie '' whom she added as an afterthought once she remembered that he slept in her daughter's room last night while they did god knows what.  "Bring your trunks down, We need to meet Molly at the station!"

    "Coming, mum!"  Tonks threw her trunk down the stairs right where Cass was standing. 

    "Yo! That could have hit me!"