XXXIV

Cassiopeia woke up a bit confused, looking around trying to piece together her environment when George's hand – still tightly holding her – brought back the memory of just hours earlier.

"You're awake," the girl heard, instantly jumping and bumping into George when doing so.

Standing up beside the other bed in the room, Tonks was looking at in couples' direction. "Dinner is ready."

The blonde ran a hand on her hair, yawning.

"Thank you."

George was shaken awake by his girlfriend's moving, and just a couple of minutes later – after some teeth and hair brushing – they joined the others in the dining room.

Cassiopeia could feel some stares but chose to ignore them, and silently thanked Fred when he pointed to the seats he'd saved for his twin and his girl.

After everyone served themselves and some awkward silence the conversation started flowing, she finally took a moment to glance at Mr Weasley. He looked very pale and debilitated, the girl could see clearly, but probably better than ever before.

The next morning, everyone started putting up Christmas decorations and Cas felt a bit of a lift on her spirit. She has always loved putting things together for the celebration and it seemed to be something the other people present shared just as well.

Later, even Potter – who'd been hiding in his room, apparently – came out to see what they'd done, and the Malfoy girl felt a bit of pride when his eyes gazed for a while at the fairy lights she'd spread on the wall carefully. When the day ended, the house was unrecognisable. George kissed his girlfriend goodnight, something the others were getting used to and kinda ignored by now – and when she finished getting ready to sleep, the bed beside hers finally had someone laying in it.

"Good night," Tonks said politely, tucking herself while Cas did the same.

"Good night."

But 15 minutes later, she couldn't sleep. Her greyish eyes were wide open, and her mind was running fast.

"Are you awake?" the girl heard from the other side of the bedroom.

"Yeah," Cassiopeia muttered. "Can't stop thinking of some stuff."

She remained silent for a moment, but soon spoke.

"Like what?"

"Like how we've never even talked to each other," the blonde pointed out. "And I was never interested enough to try and find out what happened to my aunt. I mean… we went to the same school together at a point and I didn't even know we were cousins."

"I did," she said, to her surprise. "I knew a bit about your mother and Bellatrix, and that included you and your brother."

The Slytherin felt embarrassed.

"So," she cleared her throat. "Do you resemble your mother a lot? Physically, I mean?"

Tonks stayed silent, and Cassiopeia finally realised what she'd just said, and the two cousins just started laughing together.

"I mean, I can change into her if you want it, but I'm more like a changing individual depending on the moment."

Cassiopeia covered her own blushing face with her hands for a moment in pure embarrassment.

"What about you?" she questioned.

Cassiopeia nodded to herself.

"I hear that I look a lot like my mother," the young girl confessed. "Some people say it's like watching the past through a window."

Silence filled the air for a moment.

"That must be a bit haunting."

The young Malfoy shifted on her mattress.

"My grandmother… our grandmother always called me Cissa," she told in a low voice after correcting herself. "She forgot a lot of things as she got older. No one even thought of correcting her, so I just went along with it."

"Really?"

"Yeah," Cassiopeia sighed. "She made the elves cook my mum's favourite dishes and we even played her favourite games."

Suddenly, she heard Tonks moving.

"Did you play 'Little green hiding witch'?" her cousin exclaimed.

"If I catch you, you turn lime green!" the girl did the same. "Oh, Merlin, I loved it! Sometimes mum played with me and Draco, she always let us win."

Tonks chuckled.

"I wanted to play it at Hogwarts," she told Cas. "But I didn't know the spell to turn people green, I just knew how to undo it."

Cassiopeia moved her head to the direction of her cousin's voice, frowning a bit, but smiling.

"It's the same spell," she said with a small smile. "Cast it on the first person and clean it off of the last."

"Really?" the Hufflepuff sounded surprised.

"Really."

The woman embraced silence for a moment, and she heard as she fell back on her bed.

"I could have had a cousin like you as a kid," she muttered. "It would have been nice."

"Yeah," Cassiopeia sighed, laying back down. "I think so too."