Cassiopeia's Tale

And then it was over. Seven years of trying to stay awake in class and remember all they've learned, and now it was all over. On the last day, while everyone was outside enjoying their free time in the sunshine, Cass went to say goodbye to all her teachers, and to thank them for at least trying to teach her something. Her gratitude was met with varying degrees of weirdness. McGonagall was gracious and pretended to forget that Cass did almost nothing in her class. Flitwick squeaked proudly about Ravenclaws and how they are going to rule the world. A joke, obviously, but nevertheless lost on Cass, since she never once supported her house in anything, nor won any points for it. Snape just glowered at her, and she kept talking in order to fill the hideously awkward silence that was threatening to engulf them. His silence made her say a lot of rubbish that she would normally have kept to herself. After a while she forced herself to shut up, and waited, rather lamely, for a reply. But she was met with only more glowering. He sighed and picked up a quill, idly turning it over in his fingers. Then he finally spoke.

"Miss Sommers, you are strange and lazy, but you have a brain, which is a rather rare commodity."

Cass raised her eyebrows, trying to separate the compliments from the insults, which was always necessary when talking to him. She opened her mouth to speak but he cut across her.

"Don't let it rot."

Cass didn't know how to react, so compromised by sounding stupid. "Oh?"

"I'm afraid that's the only advice I'm in any position to give you."

Cass continued to stare dumbly for a while, but Snape gave a little shrug. "That's all."

With that, luckily, Cass recognised her cue to go, and left his office as fast as she could without running. She wondered vaguely why meetings with him always made her feel like she wanted the earth to swallow her on the spot, but outside Mara and Art caught up with her and made her hang out with them under a tree by the lake.

That evening the Hogwarts Express took them away. Cass was relieved to be done with school, but felt a pang of sadness as the castle disappeared from view. She couldn't help thinking of all that she left behind.

-oOo-

The noise was unbearable, and so was the smell. After spending half an hour staring at a brick wall in a dodgy alley, trying to figure out how to get in, Cass had finally managed to enter Chemic Alley. What she saw there was at the same time impressive and depressing. Rows of brick buildings crowded and towered over the cobbled street, their chimneys rising toward the sky. One was emitting large billows of heavy, purple smoke, which sank to the ground instead of floating away. Some of the buildings had huge wheels and gears attached to them, turning and grinding and making a lot of noise. It was ugly, but at the same time it looked like a place where things happened. A place where things were invented.

Cass waded through the purple haze towards a building with a large sign hanging over the entrance. Unfortunately, the sign was covered in soot, and she had no idea of knowing whether it was the right place or not. She pushed open the stubborn door, and a rather stunted little bell rang above her head. Once the door was closed the noise form outside seemed to dim, but was only replaced by a cacophony of others. Somewhere a siren went off and a lot of people screamed. Or was it whooping? Cass couldn't tell.

She looked around. The reception area was small and dingy, with a scrawny boy behind the desk. "Can I help you?"

"Er, yes. I'm here to see Mister Macer." When the boy raised an eyebrow she hastily added: "I have an appointment."

This seemed to satisfy him and he pulled one of the many little levers on the wall behind him. Almost immediately a large man in dark robes and a pointed cap appeared through a door in the far wall.

"Aha!" he boomed. "You must be Snape's girl!"

"What?" Cass asked, feeling the blood rushing to her face.

"You know, the one he wrote such a shining recommendation for."

"Oh...that. Yes, I suppose..."

"Come now, don't be modest! Old Severus never seems to think that any of his students are worth employing. If he thinks you're a fine student, you must be beyond our wildest dreams!"

With that he ushered her through the door and up a narrow, wooden staircase. Cass told herself that she probably did receive the recommendation on the merit of her work, since she didn't think Snape was the type to be won over by turquoise underwear.

After going over some sketchy details of what is being expected of an alchemist's apprentice, Macer stuffed a leather apron into her arms and chased her out of his cramped office, telling her to go down the stairs and take a sharp right. Then he slammed the door in a jovial fashion and left Cass standing on the landing feeling utterly bewildered.

The suggested route led her to an open area filled with wooden workbenches. It was deserted except for a witch and a wizard lounging in a corner under the stairs.

"Are you the newbie?" The man asked, straightening up and taking his feet off his workbench. He had lank, dirty-blonde hair that hung onto his back.

"No, Xandie, she's here to deliver the ice cream," the witch next to him said with such a straight face that he seemed to be convinced for a second. Then he sighed and threw a handful of peanuts at her.

"Anyway," the witch said, standing up and brushing nuts form her hair. "Welcome to the Alchemist's Guild, the place where people come to lose fingers, and possibly get blown up. I'm Sian."

She held out a thin hand, and Cass shook it. Sian had very shiny black hair that was cut in a short and rather severe bob that ended just above her jaw.

"And I'm Alexander, Xandie for short," the wizard said also holding out his hand.

The rest was easy. They told her that this was the open-area for all apprentices, and that everyone had their own workbench for general projects. Then they took her on a tour of the buildings. They visited the general smelting room, the gem room and the glass storage cupboard, which was more like a small ballroom. The metal storeroom was much smaller, but far more cramped. The yard was just an open area with a few empty boxes, and the sleeping quarters was resembled by another narrow staircase, that led, presumably, to even more narrow rooms.

Back in the apprentice open-area (also called the hell-hole), they set about finding Cass a workbench. This proved to be quite a difficult task, since those that weren't already occupied, were probably broken or damaged in some way. The damage, however, was usually hidden or disguised, and it took quite some time to figure out whether a workbench was indeed safe to use. In the end they managed to find an unoccupied workbench that seemed to be intact in all the areas that mattered. The only problem was that it was next to the door, or to be more precise, in the way of the door that led to the yard. This meant that it would constantly be in danger of getting hit by the door, and when working with alchemical substances, that could be catastrophic.

Cass was beginning to think that she should have gotten herself work in a bar or something. Even that seemed to pose less of a threat than working here.

"Oh well, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger," Sian said, sounding utterly unconvinced.

"With my luck I'd probably not die, but only get badly maimed," Cass said darkly.

"That's the spirit!" Xandie said sarcastically and patted her on the back. "I think you'll make a great alchemist."

"So, have you decided where you're going to live?" Sian asked, biting her fingernails.

"Er, I thought I'd just lodge here... I don't have any money..." Cass answered, feeling stupid.

"No!" Xandie said loudly, thumping the workbench.

"Absolutely not," Sain agreed.

"What? Why?" Cass wondered vaguely whether these two were really on her side, or whether they had their own agenda.

"Well, you don't really want to live in this smelly noise, do you?" Sian asked, pointing towards the purple smoke that was making it's way across the floor.

"Well, I can't really afford to live anywhere else, I mean, the Guild lodgings are by far the cheapest..."

"But that's brilliant!" Xandie suddenly yelled. "Cass can live with us! She can rent the open room, and then we'd finally be able to make rent!"

"Yeeess!" Sian said slowly. "How about it Cassie, want to come live in our creepy old house? We won't charge you more than the Guild does, and you'd be helping us out."

"Well, okay..."

"It's done then!"