For most students, the Hogwarts Express was a symbol of freedom—the final chime that heralded warm fires, home-cooked meals, and a blissful break from homework.
For Cassius?
It was the start of something far more chaotic.
Because this year, for the first time, he'd done something deeply, catastrophically unwise:
He invited all six girls of Draconis House... to spend Christmas at Grimmauld Place with him.
Their reaction was as expected, glee!
At first he figured to only invite the senior girls but the minute he had that thought a chill came down his spine, the competition for his heart had already begun, and even as Master of the house, and keeper of their vows equality was the mainstay.
Given any one party or individual a step up on the others quickly needed to be replicated on the others so as to not lead to true disaster.
So when he was bringing the topic up with Cho, Daphne and Hermione at first, the offer was quickly also extended to Ginny, Astoria, and Luna who had overheard across the room.
Surprisingly everyone of them secured permission to attend.
Hermione's folks kind of made sense seeing as how Cassius was a known person even if they might be uneasy about her staying over at a boys house for an entire week.
As for Cho, well she was almost entirely grown up and played one of her strongest cards against her folks to secure their approval.
Luna barely had to ask, just like Daphne and Astoria.
The Lord of Black was a well respected person within the wizarding world, especially after his innocence was proven during the previous year aquital.
And then there was Ginny, she was her families sole female child, but given the disaster caused and her reasoning behind the action Molly Weasley finally relented and agreed to let her darling daughter stay away from a family gathering.
The reason being she could use this chance to apologize to Black on behalf of the family, the Weasley family had been struggling more than usual, thanks to the trial followed by the Muggle Car incident brought about by the lowest point the weasley family had been since the Prewitt family almost drove the family to ruin due to Molly's own elopement into the family.
~
Number Twelve Grimmauld Place had been cleaned, scrubbed, renovated, and decidedly un-haunted ever since Sirius reclaimed it.
But even still, its bones were old and creaky, like the house itself was watching the newcomers enter.
The girls arrived first:
Daphne: elegant and perfectly dressed for cold weather, looking around with an appraising Slytherin eye, at a bastion of her house, the blacks were a famous Slytherin Alumni house with all members save for Sirius himself being Slytherins.
Hermione was greeted and quickly shown to the Black family library and all the rare texts contained within.
Cho was polite even bowing upon greeting him, before joining Kreature in the kitchen to whip up some snacks.
Luna: waving at the mounted troll skull on the wall. "Oh good! He's still here."
Astoria: clinging shyly to her sister.
Ginny: dragging a trunk that looked suspiciously like it contained contraband fireworks.
Sirius leaned against the banister with the grin of a man reborn.
"Well, well, well," he said, sweeping into a dramatic bow that made Daphne roll her eyes. "Welcome, ladies, to the ancestral den of House Black. Please ignore the lingering curses and the occasional homicidal doorknob."
Hermione blanched.
Ginny looked excited.
Cassius stepped in after them, raising a brow. "Sirius, you removed the homicidal doorknob last month."
"Ah," Sirius said, "but the legend adds charm."
The old man went away cackling as he did.
"Don't mind him... Sirius... well he loves a joke almost as much as Fred and George."
"Not to mention yourself?" Daphne answered smirkingly
"I used to be serious-" Cassius started only to get cut off.
"You're not serious, I am sirius! and dont you forget that Pup!" From across the house came the most common joke to spill forth from the wizards mouth.
Cassius could only shake his head in disappointment watching as the image the girls had built up in their heads about Sirius when not at school was shattered in an instant.
He's a fool there, and he's an even bigger fool here as well.
~
A pop sounded at the door, and Remus Lupin stepped inside carrying wrapped packages and wearing the soft, tired smile of a man genuinely happy to be included.
"Sirius," he sighed fondly, "you allowed your godson to invite so many girls, and you dont intend to help him out in the slightest do you?"
"Exactly!" Sirius clapped him on the shoulder. "Isn't it brilliant?"
Remus gave Cassius a knowing look.
Cassius inclined his head. "Professor. Glad you could join us."
"I'm here," Remus said with a sigh, "to prevent Sirius from setting to bad an example."
Sirius scoffed. "I'm excellent at examples."
Cassius muttered, "Bad ones."
Deciding to let the two friends catch up, Cassius shifted to help the assembled guest go and settle in, Sirius took Remus with him as they ascended the staircase to the uppermost floors which were reserved for the Black family itself, housing Sirius's room, a lounge, and his brothers own sealed room.
Cassius on the other hand, provided quick instructions to the remaining girls, guiding them to places of interest or to rooms selected for their own accomodations.
~
After the last of the girls had moved on to exploring the magical abode there was a knock.
A polite, crisp, soft knock.
Sirius froze mid-sentence.
Remus slowly lowered his tea.
The knock itself had resounded throught the entire, house, enhanced magically such that anyone inside would know if there were guests at the door.
Though for this pair, they knew there was only one remaining guest who'd yet to arrive and it was the one guest they least wanted to see actually accept the invitation.
Down on the mainfloor.
Cassius calmly opened the door.
Only to see standing on the landing was a man dressed all in black, his long hair covering almost all of his face, but surprisingly the eternal scowl etched on his face was replaced with a sense of calm perhaps even acceptance.
As Severus Snape stepped into the entryway, black cloak swirling behind him like a cloud of irritation made manifest.
The Professor within those robes had a warm gaze in his eye as he looked down at Cassius, but that gaze turned cold after Cassius took his outer cloak and indicated where he could find the other adults.
Feeling no need to hangout with children, Severus indeed ascended the stairs and located the room in question, stepping into the inner most sanctum of the black family home.
Sirius dropped his mug.
Spilling firewhiskey all over the floor, meanwhile just a floor below Cassius and Daphne hearing the falling glass burst into laughter, having pictured Sirius's face falling to the floor at seeing the man himself in his home.
~
Once the initial introductions were out of the way, when the assembled host all collected together on the mainfloor in the dining room.
Luna waved with serene obliviousness. "Hello, Professor Batty."
Snape blinked at that. "…Lovegood."
Severus wanting to extract house points for the remark, only to realize he wasnt at school nor did he want to harm his own son's house.
Then looking further at the girl she wasn't teasing him or even stating so with malicious intent, she was being geniune
Cassius gestured to him upon arrival. "Welcome, Father."
The room froze.
Snape stiffened. "Cassius—must you call me that so publicly—"
Sirius burst out laughing so hard he had to lean against the wall.
"I cannot—Snivellus—your... kid calls you father—oh Merlin—this is the BEST CHRISTMAS EVER—"
Snape's eye twitched.
Remus dragged Sirius back by the collar. "Behave."
"I AM behaving—badly!"
Cassius remained unbothered.
~
The dining table could barely contain the mixture of personalities:
Sirius animated, loud, dramatic
Remus patient, dryly amused
Snape stiff, quiet, judging everything
Six girls vying for Cassius' attention, even going so far as to attempt serving him bites of food
Cassius himself, serene in the center, enjoying the show
Sirius and Snape glared at each other over the mashed potatoes.
Remus attempted to mediate.
Hermione tried to start "a civilized discussion" about magical ethics.
Cho politely praised the décor.
Daphne, Astoria and Ginny gossiped like queens.
Luna complimented the soup for "having good emotional resonance."
As the dinner went on and catching the shifting eyes of Severus
Sirius pretended to dab his eyes dramatically. "I never thought it'd see the day. Stone Cold Sni-Severus actually caring about someone other than himself."
"I do not," Snape hissed.
Cassius watched, quietly satisfied.
This was going far better than expected.
Honestly he was expecting a full blow duel to break out right after Snapes arrival, but instead shockingly enough the adults were being... well reasonable for a change.