Harry Potter and the Malfoy Next Door

"Harry you have to see the girl next door!" his fat cousin squealed excitedly, momentarily forgetting his hatred for his wizard cousin.

Harry hauled his trunk through the door.

"Thanks for the help!" he said sarcastically.

Dudley seemed to miss the sarcasm and continued.

"She moved in yesterday," he babbled, "she's short with long, long black hair and shockingly green eyes!"

"Dudley, are you sure you're not describing me?"

Dudley stood looking stupid then replied,

"No!" he said it very firmly, as though confirming her existence to himself. "Her name's Cassandra!"

After lugging his luggage up the stairs to his room Harry decided to take Dudley's advice (something he'd never done before) and go to meet this girl called Cassandra.

He wandered over to her front door and rapped loudly on it.

"Hello!" said a beautiful girl gliding up the pathway. "Are you here to see me?"

She smiled and Harry thought his insides would melt.

"Ummmm... yeah I am if you're Cassandra," he said recovering his composure.

"Oh good," said the girl, "come inside and I'll make you a cup of butterbeer! I'm dreadfully sorry but I'm clean out of tea!"

"Butterbeer?" exclaimed Harry as he moved in through the door. "Are you a witch?"

"No, I'm a toad Harry!" she said sarcastically.

"How do you know my name?" asked Harry ignoring the sarcasm.

"That's a stupid question coming from the boy-who-continues-to-live!" she said without a hint of mockery in her voice.

"You aren't related to Luna Lovegood by any chance are you?" enquired the boy-who-continued-to-live.

"No, who's Luna Lovegood?" she set down a pitcher of butterbeer on a coffee table and invited Harry to sit down.

"She's a girl who goes to my school," he replied.

They continued to talk for a while. The conversation moved from school friends, to family.

"I understand that your parents have been dead all your life?" said Cassandra.

"Yeah," said Harry slightly taken aback by this forwardness. "What about yours?"

"Oh they died when I was eight! Can't say I missed them though! Bloody egotistical purebloods!" she said angrily.

"You didn't get on then?"

"No my bloody father was more interested in his brother Lucius and becoming a deatheater than bringing up children! In the end all that that little obsession did for him was get him and his wife killed!"

"Hold on," said Harry, "are you telling me that you're related to the Malfoys?"

"Well yes, I guess I am!" she said nonchalantly. "Not only related, I am a Malfoy."

Harry looked shocked. Cassandra burst into fits of laughter.

"Am I to take it from the look on your face that you don't like them very much?"

Harry nodded still looking as though someone had hit him with a particularly nasty Cruacius curse.

"Oh Harry," she said wiping away tears, "I didn't know you hated him that much!"

"To think I was about to ask out a Malfoy!" exclaimed Harry.

"What's so bad about that?" enquired Cassandra. "I'll bet I'm better looking than anyone your friend Ron's ever pulled! That's got to count for something!"

Harry smiled,

"I guess that's right and anyway I've always complained about Draco discriminating against Weasleys, so it would be kind of hypocritical of me to discriminate against Malfoys!"

"Too right!" laughed Kestrel. "So I'll see you in Diagon alley on Thursday then?"

"Can't wait!" laughed Harry. "Ron will flip when he finds out you're a Malfoy."

"Draco will flip when he discovers that I'm fraternising with the 'enemy'!" giggled Cassandra.

It was dark before Harry arrived back at the Dursleys'. He wore a smug look on his face and his hair was more ruffled than usual. But the look didn't last long, for his foot had barely crossed the threshold of the door when he was bombarded with a list of chores and notification of his grounding on account of his lateness.

Oh well, thought Harry, it was worth it. He rubbed away a smudge of lipstick from his top lip before heading upstairs for bed.