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Comma Joined: 4 September 2008 Posts: 14	Posted: Sunday 28 September 2008 08 44 26 pm    Post subject: Re: A Gaunt Tale in topic:A Gaunt Tale As I'm hopeful that maybe [i]someone[/i] might still be reading this, I'm going to post chapter 1 now. ------------ Chapter 1 Runaway Summer was the worst time of year for Katalina. She had grown accustomed to locking herself in her room and eating dinner when her father and brother were asleep, knowing she was bound to get hexed by someone if she came down durring the day. She had endured three summers of this madness so far and was just beginning her fourth, which she planned to be her last. After a bit of studying, she had learned about the Knight Bus, which she was going to take to the Leaky Cauldron in London and stay there. Her father might find her, but she had no intentions of going back. He had taught her more than enough to be able to stand up to him, which was – in her opinion, anyway – his one mistake. Once at the Leaky Cauldron, she would borrow an owl from someone and send a letter to Dumbledore explaining her situation. If abuse wasn’t enough to keep her father from getting her back out of school, she didn’t know what was, and the Cruciatus Curse could have been nothing short of abuse. If Dumbledore accepted, she would be sent a letter telling her what she needed for school. She had learned everything she was supposed to from her father up to that point; he had just decided to twist a few different things around. She suspected she knew plenty to come to Hogwarts for her fifth year. She did need money, however. In her will, her mother had left quite a large sum of money to Katalina alone. She had already taken the key to that vault and planned to use it to buy her school supplies. She planned to leave on the night of August 29, giving her a couple days to buy her school supplies and a few days to stay at the Leaky Cauldron before again catching the Knight Bus to King’s Cross Station to get on Platform Nine and Three Quarters. She knew that it cost money to ride the Knight Bus, so she had taken a bit of money from her brother’s stash (it wasn’t like he was going to miss it, he had plenty more and their father gave him whatever he wanted). She waited anxiously all day on August 28 – she planned to go out at midnight. She had all of her things packed and stowed away in her closet where her father couldn’t see them if he barged in. It was lucky, as he had chosen to barge in at around eight o’ clock on the evening of August 28, looking somewhere between livid and bemused. “Have you any idea what happened to the key to your mother’s Gringotts vault?” he asked her. “No.” She silently thanked whatever higher power there was for allowing her to inherit her father’s knack for lying. “Is it missing?” “Yes,” he said. “You’re sure you haven’t seen it?” “I haven’t. Lindy might’ve taken it, she seems to like taking Mum’s old things.” “I figured she probably had…” Grumbling about house-elves being ignorant creatures, he turned and walked out of the room, shutting the door behind him. Katalina picked up her wand from her bedside table and flicked it in the direction of the doorknob, which locked itself accordingly when a jet of purple and red sparks hit it. That was the good thing about living in a town that consisted much of witches and wizards: she could just blame any indication of underage sorcery coming from their area on the neighbors if the ministry came knocking, and they would never know the difference. She was safe as long as her father didn’t catch her at it. She jumped at the sound of a loud crack in her room and looked around. She jumped again when she turned her head and almost hit her nose on something else’s nose. She then shook her head, looking at the house elf that seemed to have taken a great liking to her. “Lindy,” she said, sitting up and grasping her chest to keep her heart from beating out of it. “Why in the world can’t you just knock on the door?” “Master Gaunt is looking for Lindy!” she whispered. Katalina couldn’t help but wonder how even her whisper was squeaky. “Can’t Mistress hide Lindy? He thinks Lindy stole Mistress Gaunt’s Gringotts key and Lindy didn’t, Lindy wouldn’t ever do such a thing!” “Well…” said Katalina, biting the corner of her lip, “it is sort of my fault… but if I hide you, you’ll owe me.” “Anything, Miss!” Lindy piped, her large ears twitching. “Shh, he’ll hear you if you keep squeaking!” She clasped both of her hands over her mouth and nodded obediently. “Hide in the closet behind the trunk. If he checks, he’ll see the trunk and overreact as it is, he’ll never notice you.” Lindy nodded. With a crack, she vanished, and Katalina heard another crack, indicating she had reappeared in the closet. Katalina lay back down on her bed and continued to stare up at the ceiling, counting the minutes until midnight. It wasn’t until a couple hours later that she heard two loud pops, and she looked over to see Lindy again. “Master Gaunt has stopped searching for Lindy,” she whispered. “What does young Mistress Gaunt wish for Lindy to do in return for letting Lindy hide in her closet?” “I would quite appreciate it if you would apparate me and my belongings to the next block over,” said Katalina, looking back up at the ceiling and tucking her hands behind her head. “Preferably near a road, but not near any Muggles.” “Of course!” She paused for a moment, her wide purplish eyes looking at Katalina curiously. “May Lindy ask why?” “I’m going back to Hogwarts. Keep it a secret from my father that you helped me, I don’t want you getting into any trouble.” “But young Mistress Gaunt’s mother left Lindy to Mistress!” Lindy said. “If Mistress Gaunt leaves, Lindy must as well.” Katalina looked at Lindy, blinking. “Did she? First an invisibility cloak, then thousands of galleons, now a house elf? Huh. I wonder if she really was that bad…” “She treated Lindy kindly,” Lindy said, nodding. “But she wasn’t nice to muggleborns.” “I figured as much…” Katalina said with a sigh. “It’s a couple more hours yet, anyway. If I can, I’ll figure out some arrangement that will allow you to go to Hogwarts with me. Maybe you can work there or something. If not, I’ll have to send you back here until I find somewhere to move to on my own.” “Where is Mistress Gaunt going from a block over?” “Catching a ride on the Knight Bus,” she said. “I don’t want you coming with me at first. I know you don’t want to come back here, but if Dumbledore is willing to let you work at Hogwarts, then I’ll let you know.” “May Lindy ask why Mistress is going by the Knight Bus? Lindy could apparate her there herself!” “I’m headed to the Leaky Cauldron in London. There are Muggles around that area who’ve probably never seen a house elf before.” “Oh, yes, of course.” Lindy nodded. “Should Lindy stay in here until Mistress Gaunt is ready to leave?” “If you want. Gets pretty dull, though.” Lindy gave a furtive glance at the door. “Lindy doesn’t want Master Gaunt to find her…” she whispered. “Master Gaunt is angry with Lindy even though Lindy didn’t take the key to the vault!” Katalina sat up on her rather lumpy and uncomfortable bed and looked at the house-elf, who still looked completely confused about the current situation with the key. “I took the key, Lindy. Mum left me her money and I’ll need some way to pay for my books, Father just thinks you did it. You have to admit, you do have an odd habit of taking Mum’s old things and stashing them away in my closet.” “No, no, no, Lindy is only giving things to their rightful owner! Mistress Gaunt’s mother left them to her and Master doesn’t want her to have them but Mistress Gaunt’s mother told Lindy to give them to Mistress Gaunt before she died.” “She – Lindy,” Katalina said, leaning forward, “are you saying she knew she was going to die?” Lindy’s eyes became impossibly wide at this question. “Lindy said too much. Lindy shan’t say another word.” Katalina gave a growl of frustration at the elf before lying down on her bed again. The house elf was the only resident at that house that knew anything about her mother that she might have been interested in. She imagined her father probably knew, but Lindy was the only one who might accidently let something slip on occasion. She always stopped herself before she said anything interesting, however. Katalina quickly seized her copy of Hogwarts, a History from Lindy, which she was attempting to use to beat herself over her head. That was the other thing: when Lindy did let something slip, she had a tendency to abuse herself as punishment. She had once fried her own fingers on a frying pan for telling Katalina that Voldemort had gone to Hogwarts at the same time as her father. The worst type of house elf was the type that liked to gossip, as they generally only heard secrets that they weren’t supposed to tell anyone. Katalina felt a little bad for Lindy; the poor little elf just couldn’t help herself half the time. –– [i]“What did I tell you about sneaking back into that school?” Katalina sat at the dining room table, her arms crossed, glaring at the wall defiantly. “I have selective hearing. Please feel free to refresh my memory at any time.” “I have told you about back talking me!” Katalina gave a yelp when the chair she was sitting in was turned around. She looked up at her father, who looked back down lividly. She managed to keep her composure, despite how scary her father could be when angry. He rather reminded her of many biblical depictions of Satan, particularly because of the black goatee. She didn’t flinch until she heard a squeaky voice from next to her. “But Master, she just wants to go to Hogwarts! Master went to Hogwarts when he was young!” “Be quiet, you stupid creature!” he snarled, glaring down at Lindy. She hid behind Katalina’s chair. “I’ll deal with you later.” “After you deal with me?” said Katalina indignantly. “Go ahead and try! You’ve used the Cruciatus Curse on me so many damn times it hardly hurts anymore!” “Shut up!” She jumped as she suddenly found his wand pointed between her eyes. She nearly went cross-eyed looking at it. “You’re never going to comprehend anything I’ve taught you, are you? The old ways –” “Are called ‘old’ because there are new, more acceptable ways to live by,” Katalina said through gritted teeth. She recoiled, however, when she remembered the wand. “Your great aunt was a good deal smarter than you, obviously. When she ran away, she didn’t get caught. Do you know what would have happened to her if her father had caught her? He’d have killed her.” “You didn’t even give me any time to answer!” “Do you know what’s going to happen to you now that you’ve been caught?” Katalina’s eyes widened. “A Gaunt who doesn’t accept their family names isn’t worth the space they take up. You’re not a Slytherin, you don’t believe in Dark Arts, you don’t believe in the old ways. You think Muggles are decent people, for God’s sake! I don’t blame you at all. It’s quite obvious that I’ve failed with you. There’s only one thing that I can see to do.” Katalina shook her head, her mouth hanging open. “You’re… you’ve gone mad! I’m your daughter, you can’t kill me! It’s both immoral and illegal. You’ll go to Azkaban!” “Would you be quiet?” he said through gritted teeth. “You’re insane –” “Avad–”[/i] “Mistress Gaunt!” Katalina sat straight up in her bed, looking around for the source of the voice. She fell back down on her bed upon spotting Lindy. She put her arm over her forehead and shut her eyes for a moment, hoping she would quit having that dream when she got out. Its reoccurrences were beginning to disturb her a little. “Mistress, it’s midnight and Mistress wanted to leave at midnight!” Katalina sat back up again quickly and looked at her room. All of her luggage was already out of the closet. She tilted her head as she looked at the pile, then she directed her attention to house elf looking completely pleased with herself seated atop the pile. “Lindy has already prepared Mistress’s luggage!” she whispered happily. “Is Mistress ready to leave?” “What about my Hogwarts –” “Lindy put Hogwarts, a History in a bag, too.” “Oh, good.” Katalina grabbed her wand and stuck it in her pocket, then pulled her invisibility cloak out from under her pillow and slung it over her shoulder. “How are you going to apparate me?” “Just touch the luggage. Lindy is apparating the luggage, so Mistress will also be apparated.” “Oh, good, then. I hope apparating isn’t nearly as unpleasant as Portkey travel…” Katalina walked over to the luggage and put her hand on her largest trunk. “Is Mistress ready?” “Definitely,” Katalina said, looking at Lindy. “Go on.” “Okay! Three… two… one… and go!” As it turned out, apparating was twice as unpleasant as Portkeys. Travelling by Portkey felt rather like spinning through the air. Floo Powder also felt like spinning, just through different fireplaces. This, however, felt like being sucked through a keyhole. However, seconds later, it stopped, and they were on an empty stretch of road, all of Katalina’s belongings still there. Katalina fell over when she felt her feet land on the ground, which caused a giggle from the house elf still sitting atop her luggage. “Mistress isn’t used to apparating at all,” Lindy pointed out, jumping down off of the stack of luggage. “How do you get the Knight Bus here?” “Like so.” Katalina stuck out her right hand and waited a moment. She then heard something that sounded a bit like crashing and sputtering, and something large and purple was zooming into view from off in the distance. Lindy stared in interest as a purple triple-decker bus came to a screeching halt in front of them. Then the door opened and a conductor in a purple uniform stepped off with an index card in one hand and what appeared to be a ham sandwich in the other. He appeared to be reading off of the card as he spoke through a mouthful of sandwich. “’Elcoom ‘oo the Knigh’ Boosh, merg’ncy tr’nspert fer ‘a strand’d wish o’ wuzzard.” Katalina and Lindy were both struggling not to laugh, but he managed to swallow the sandwich and then continued. “Just stick out your wand hand, step on board, and we can take you anywhere you want to go. My name is ‘insert name here’ and I will be – wait, no – that’s… that’s not right… oh, ‘ell, I’m too tired for this anyway…” He shook his head and put the card in a pocket on the front of his purple shirt. He looked up. “Where’re you planning on going with all that mess?” He said, indicating the luggage. He pushed his round glasses up the bridge of his nose, and Katalina was sure she recognized him. She couldn’t put a name to him, but he had been in the same compartment as her on the Hogwarts Express for her first year… or first week, rather. “To the Leaky Cauldron,” she said. “How much would it cost?” “From here? ‘Round… nine sickles, probably.” “That’s good, I’ve got enough then…” she mumbled, reaching into her pocket and pulling out a handful of silver coins. She counted out nine and handed them to the conductor, then put the rest back in her pocket. “Lindy, you mind helping with the luggage?” “Of course, Mistress,” she said. Both she and the luggage were gone with a pop, and then Lindy was back by herself with another one. “It’s up near the front of the bus.” “Thanks.” Lindy gave a short bow in response. “Should Lindy go back home now?” asked Lindy in a whisper. “For now, yes,” said Katalina quietly as the conductor looked back on the bus in disbelief at the sudden transportation of the large pile of luggage. “I’ll let you know more as soon as I can, I’ll start working on the letter to Dumbledore as soon as I get on the bus.” “Lindy will go home for now and wait patiently then, Mistress. Goodbye!” She snapped her long fingers and disappeared. The conductor looked back at the sound of the snap and shook his head. “Wish I had one of those…. Come on then, we haven’t got all night… er… morning, actually, I think.” “I’m coming,” Katalina said through gritted teeth, pushing her way past the conductor of the bus. “Oi, watch it!” he said, stumbling out of the way before getting on the bus himself. “That wasn’t very polite!” Katalina rolled her eyes and sat down on one of the many beds situated across the bus that took the place of regular seats like there were on Muggle busses. It was rather interesting to look at, as she had only read about it before. She wondered how the beds stayed in place while the bus was moving. “Leaky Cauldron in London, Ernie,” the conductor said to the driver before taking a seat on an empty bed near the front of the bus. Katalina reached down next to her bed and opened one of her bags to pull out a roll of parchment, a quill, and a bottle of ink. She heard a laugh from the bed across the isle, behind the driver’s seat. “I wouldn’t suggest doing that while you’re on here,” said the conductor, picking up a copy of the Daily Prophet from next to him. “And why not?” Katalina asked indignantly. “You’ll probably end up spilling ink all over everything,” he said. Katalina found out quite quickly, when the bus jumped into motion at around a hundred miles per hour – maybe more – exactly why this wasn’t the best environment for writing letters.
DucksRMagical Joined: 28 December 2006 Posts: 2095 Location: Boycotting All Future Warner Brothers Films	Posted: Saturday 27 September 2008 08 42 06 am    Post subject: Re: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Fashion in topic:Harry Potter and the Chamber of Fashion Or Fawkes could just type it on the basement computer and then put it on a USB key and transfer it to the computer that's got Internet access. But I totally understand the homework thing, I'm in the same boat.
DucksRMagical Joined: 28 December 2006 Posts: 2095 Location: Boycotting All Future Warner Brothers Films	Posted: Monday 22 September 2008 12 06 49 pm    Post subject: Re: In Moonlight's Shadow in topic:In Moonlight's Shadow Disclaimer- I do not own Nintendo or Mario Kart. Chapter 12: Muggle Encyclopedias Life at home returned to normal as soon as I got back. Well, as normal as it had been since I wen home for the holidays after third year. I wouldn't have considered that normal a few months ago, but it was starting to feel normal now. Dad still hadn't elaborated on his issues at work and I had just given up on asking him. It would probably be better to focus my attention on weaseling information about the move out of them. I deserved to know what was going on with the move anyway, since it directly involved me. Mum and Dad didn't seem to pay any attention to that, though, since they just told me that they would tell me more about the move when they were ready to. I took this to meaning they still hadn't found a school that would accept Matt. The two of them still hadn't told me any new information when Matt's birthday arrived the following week. "Come on, Mum, you've got to know something else about it now," I said. "I've told you, we don't know anything new right now," Mum replied as she frosted Matt's cake. "Which schools have you written to?" I asked. "You already know which ones. One in New York, one in Massachusetts, one in Canada, one in Scotland." "That's it? There have got to be others." Mum sighed and set down the frosting. "All right. We've also written to schools in Pennsylvania and Illinois. Those are just to start. We'll write to every school in the States if it comes to that." "Illinois and Pennsylvania?" I repeated and stared at her, "The only place I might consider moving to in the States is New York and that's only because Uncle Jack lives there." "Well you don't really have a say in this, Amy," Mum shook her head, "Your father and I will be making this decision." "What are the schools like?" I asked, "I don't want to go to one I'll wind up hating." "We'll visit them, if they agree to let Matt attend. If there are a couple that will accept him, you might have a say in the decision." "They'd better all accept him, then," I muttered. "Haven't you gotten any response letters yet?" "Just that rejection one from New Zealand. I'll tell you when we get one," Mum said as she put the left-over frosting into the fridge. "I need you to watch your brother while I go get Richard and Cinda." I glanced at my watch. It was almost half-past five. "I thought Dad was getting them." "He was, but he sent an owl a little while ago to tell me that he had to stay late at work. He won't be back until six-thirty." "Oh," I replied. He was always staying late at work lately. "I'll be back soon," Mum replied, and with a crack, she was gone. I got up from the table and wandered into the hall. I didn't even know where Matt was. The house seemed empty with only the two of us there. I went upstairs and found Matt in his room. He was laying on his bed rifling through his collection of chocolate frog cards. "Mum's getting Richard and Cinda," I announced and walked into his room. "Ok," Matt replied without looking up, "Have you got any Dumbledores?" "Nope," I said as I sat down on the bed. I collected chocolate frog cards as well, but had never gotten Dumbledore. "Bugger," Matt replied, "I've got about twenty Merlins, but not a single Dumbledore." "You'll get one eventually," I assured him. "Yeah, probably. Hey, Mum said we might get to go to Hogwarts. That's where Dumbledore was headmaster. Wouldn't that be neat?" I honestly wouldn't care if Merlin himself was currently headmaster at that school, I still wouldn't want to go there. "I guess," I replied. There was a loud crack coming from downstairs and another one a few seconds later. "Richard or Cinda is here. Let's go downstairs," I suggested. Matt followed me as I went downstairs and into the kitchen. Cinda was standing next to the table in a lavender colored pants suit. She had been looking at the cake, but looked up when she heard us walk in. "Happy Birthday, Matt!" Cinda smiled and gave my brother a hug. "Ta," Matt grinned "Hi, Amy," Cinda kissed both of my cheeks once and gave me a hug. "Hey, Cinda," I replied. There was another crack and Mum and Richard Apparated into the room. Richard wished Matt a happy birthday and said hello to me. After that, Mum took my grandparents into the living room to talk before dinner. Matt and I followed them and settled down on the floor to play a few games of Exploding Snap. I listened to Mum and my grandparents talk as I played Exploding Snap. They really weren't talking about anything that interesting. Richard had immediately asked about the move, but Mum told him pretty much the same thing she told me: That they were still waiting for letters from schools. Cinda hadn't said a word about the party she was planning on throwing. I was sure she was still going to have it, though. Maybe she was thinking of having a surprise party. That would probably go over even worse than a regular party. I could only imagine Mum's reaction to showing up at Cinda's house one day to find a party going on. "What's so funny?" Matt asked. I stifled my laughter about the surprise party. "Nothing." Matt and I continued to play Exploding Snap while Mum talked to Richard and Cinda. I noticed that Mum kept glancing at the clock and then to the fireplace. "When's Dad coming home?" Matt asked after I beat him in yet another game of Exploding Snap. "Anytime now," Mum replied. "I'm hungry," he whined. "I know, honey. We'll eat as soon as Dad gets home," Mum said. Dad finally appeared in the floo a little after seven o'clock, a half hour later than he said he'd be. "Sorry I'm late," he said as he brushed ash off of his robes. "Dad!" Matt jumped up and ran over to the fireplace. "Hey!" Dad grinned and picked him up, "Happy Birthday!" "Let's eat now!" Matt announced. "All right," Dad smiled and let him down. Matt ran into the hall and Richard and Cinda followed him. I decided to hang back a bit because Dad had started whispering to Mum. I strained to listen in on what they were saying. "Everything ok at work?" Mum asked. Dad sighed, "Not really. Everything is just escalating. It's only a matter of time...." Until what? I thought. What was escalating? I took a step towards them, but both of them had gone silent. It didn't seem like Dad was going to elaborate on the topic. Probably since Mum obviously already knew what was escalating. I quietly followed them out of the room and into the formal dining room. Richard, Cinda, Matt, and Ellie were already sitting down. Ellie must have taken all the food out of the fridge and heated it up, since it was all on the table with steam wafting off of it. I took my seat in between Matt and Ellie while Mum and Dad took their seats on the opposite ends of the table. Dad said the prayer and then served everyone up heaping plates of food. I dug into my portion and nobody said much for a while. It was a bit strange being home for Matt's birthday dinner. For the past three years, I had been at school on his birthday, so I missed the celebration. Hell, I hadn't even been home on my own birthday for the past three years. My birthday is October 27, which is during the last term of the school year. I had been having my birthday dinner during the holiday in between the third and fourth terms for the past few years. Before I started going to school at the Australian School of Sorcery, Cinda would throw me a birthday party every year. I loved it when I was little, but by the time I was ten I was sick of them. The last one I had was when I turned eleven and I put up with it because I knew it was the last one. The parties just became too big and I hardly knew half the people who went to them. I would have been satisfied with having Kenzie over to my house to sleep over, but Cinda had other ideas. Matt used to have big parties at Cinda and Richard's house, too. His last one had been the year he turned six, which was only a month and a half after he got bit. I didn't go since I was in school, but Mum and Dad told me it was an absolute disaster. It was only a week after the full moon, which had been his first transformation ever. That transformation had gone terribly and Matt was still worn out and cranky from it when the day of the party arrived. Not to mention the fact that he was covered in fresh scars and partially healed cuts. Dad told me that everyone was asking about them and that in itself was exhausting. Apparently Matt fell asleep shortly into the party and he and my parents were the first ones to leave. Mum told Cinda flat out no more big birthday parties after that. Ever since then, Matt had been having small birthday dinners like I had. Usually they were a bit more fun than tonight's, though. Tonight, everyone was quiet. Even Matt was kind of subdued, which was a bit strange since he had been hyper all day. He must have been picking up on Mum and Dad's stress. I certainly was. Richard and Cinda weren't saying much either. Richard was a normally quiet person but it was rare to see Cinda not talking. Just when I thought I wouldn't be able to stand the silence any longer, Cinda finally decided to say something. "Any idea when you're moving?" Cinda asked. I groaned inwardly. The only reason she was asking was so she could plan that goodbye party, that was now destined to be a surprise party. "I've told you, Cinda, I really don't know," Mum said. "Where are we moving?" Matt asked for what must have been the hundredth time since Mum and Dad told us we were leaving the country. "I don't know," Mum told him. "Can we move to where Uncle Jack lives?" "I really don't know," Mum sighed. "I've been meaning to ask you, Walter," Richard began, "What about your job?" Dad and Mum exchanged another one of those glances and Dad didn't say anything for a few moments. This just confirmed what I'd already been thinking. Something was going on at Dad's work and whatever it was, it wasn't good. "I'll find something wherever we go," Dad finally said, "The number one priority is finding a school for Amy and Matt." Finding a school for Matt, I thought to myself. I could get an education anywhere. "Are you going to sell the house?" Richard asked. "We're not exactly sure," Dad replied, "I've got to talk to my brother before we do anything with the house." I stared at Dad, "Wait, we're not selling it?" "I didn't say that," Dad said, "I said we're not sure what we're doing with it." "So there's a chance we'll keep it?" I asked eagerly. I thought it was a given that we'd sell the house, but maybe I'd guessed wrong. Maybe they would keep it and I could move back after I graduated! "We don't know, Amy," Dad replied adamantly, "I'm not promising anything." "Can we have cake now?" Matt asked loudly. "Good idea," Mum hastily got up from the table and returned moments later with a large cake. She set it down on the table and I looked at it. It was a two-layer chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. Atop it was a green dragon made out of frosting that was breathing red frosting fire. It said 'Happy 8th Birthday, Matt!' on it and had eight green candles. "Wow!" Matt grinned at Mum, "Cool cake!" It was somewhat of a tradition in my family for the birthday person not to see the cake before dessert. We all liked to be surprised on our birthdays. "Thanks," Mum smiled back and pointed her wand at the candles. Flames erupted on each candle and with another flick of Mum's wand, the lights dimmed and only the candlelight remained. We all broke out into an off-key rendition of 'Happy Birthday', which we all sang in different tunes. Dad's ended last and once he was finished, Matt took a deep breath and blew out all the candles at once. "What'd you wish for?" I asked as Dad cut slices of cake. "Can't tell you," Matt said, "Or it won't come true." "I know," I grinned, "Just asking anyway." Dad passed Matt a piece of cake and he immediately stopped talking and took a bite. He gave Mum a wide grin after swallowing it, but didn't say anything. Another one of our traditions. The birthday person was not allowed to talk from the moment they took their first bite of cake until they finished the last bite. Then everyone else would try and get them to talk. No one ever managed to convince me to talk, but I had Matt talking before he was halfway done with his cake on his fourth birthday. That was the last one I had been home for. Of course, now he was twice that age and it would probably be harder to get him to talk. I took a bite of my cake and thought about what to ask him as I chewed. I figured I might as well start with what had gotten him to talk when he turned four. "So, Matt," I smirked, "I know what Mum and Dad got you." He completely ignored me and continued eating his cake. I actually saw Dad crack a bit of a smile at this. I hadn't seen him smile in weeks. "Yeah," I continued, "They got you a nice set of encyclopedias." Matt snorted into his cake and started coughing. He took a gulp of milk and then shook his head. Bugger, I thought, this was harder than it was four years ago. "They're Muggle encyclopedias." Mum and Dad were trying to stifle their laughter. Richard and Cinda were smiling a bit, but didn't seem quite as amused as Mum and Dad. Matt took another bite of cake and I could tell he was trying hard not to laugh. His face was bright red. "They're quite nice, really. All of them have a nice blue cover and gold edged pages." "Everyone needs a good set of encyclopedias," Dad chimed in, "Amy got some when she turned eight." This time it was my turn to laugh into my cake. "Mine are purple. They're upstairs in my potions room. Yours are in that closet upstairs that's always locked." "Tradition in the family, to get encyclopedias on your eighth birthday," Mum commented. Matt was beetroot red now and shoveling in his last bite of cake. He looked ready to burst with laughter. I knew he didn't actually believe the encyclopedia thing, but it was still funny. Plus, it had gotten my parents laughing a bit, which was great. Matt took a large gulp of milk and slammed down his glass. "All right, where are my encyclopedias? I've always wanted a set of them." Everyone, including Matt, burst out laughing. We laughed for what must have been five minutes before we all calmed down. "Where's my real prezzie?" Matt asked, grinning, "It's not in that closet, is it?" "No," Mum laughed, "Not in that closet. I'll be right back." Mum got up from the table and left the room. My present for Matt was already sitting on the counter in the kitchen, so I got it and returned to the table before Mum did. Mum came back with a rectangular box wrapped in shiny green wrapping paper and a gold bow. "This is from Dad and I," Mum said as she set the box down in front of Matt. He tore into the wrapping and pulled out a box. I leaned over and saw that it was a gobstones set. The board was oak and the gobstones were green and red. "Wow!" Matt grinned, "Thanks Mum and Dad." "You're welcome," Mum and Dad said at the same time. "Here's one from me," I handed Matt a small box wrapped in the same green paper. I had had no idea what to get him for his birthday, so I just went with something I knew he'd like. Matt took the box and unwrapped a box of Chocolate Frogs. "This is great, Amy! Thanks!" I smiled at him, "You're welcome." I knew he'd like those, due to his chocolate addiction. Only my own chocolate addiction could top his. There were twelve Chocolate Frogs in that box and I hoped one of them had Dumbledore in it. Cinda excused herself from the table and returned a few moments later with another box. This one was smaller than the gobstones set, but bigger than the Chocolate Frogs. It was wrapped in blue paper. "This is from Richard and I," Cinda said as she handed Matt the box. Matt quickly unwrapped the box and then stared at it. "What's this?" he asked. I looked at the box and started laughing. "What's so funny?" "It's a Nintendo DS. A gaming system," I explained. Kenzie had one and I'd played it a few times. It was pretty fun. "What does it do?" Matt asked. "You can play virtual games on it," I told him, "What game did you get with it?" Matt picked up another box that had come with it. "Mario Kart 7." "Oh, Kenzie's got that one. It's a car racing game. You'll like it." "You got him a Muggle electronic game system?" Dad asked. "Yes. All the kids like them," Cinda said. "First the music thing and now this," Dad muttered. "I like it," Matt announced, "It looks fun. Thanks Richard and Cinda." "All right, if you say so," Dad shook his head. He often seemed reluctant about the Muggle devices. He didn't even like to use the microwave. Matt opened the box and pulled out the red DS. "How does it work?" "You've got to charge it first," I told him and reached over to grab the box. I pulled the charger out and unwrapped it. "See this plug? One end goes into the DS and the other into the socket in the wall." I got up and went over to the socket that was near the kitchen counter. Our house doesn't have many electrical outlets, but there were a couple in the kitchen. I plugged the DS in and set it down on the counter. "Can I play it now?" Matt asked. "It's not charged yet. It takes a lot longer than with magic." "Oh. Do you want to play gobstones, then?" "Sure," I said. The rest of the evening was quite relaxing. Matt and I played match after match of gobstones, most of which I won. Matt didn't really care, though, since Mum would vanish all the slime off of him whenever he got squirted. Mum, Dad, Richard, and Cinda talked more about the move, but none of them said anything I didn't already know. Cinda still hadn't said anything about the party, which confirmed my suspicions that it would be a surprise party. At least she had dropped the idea of me helping her with it. Richard and Cinda spent the night, since it was already late when we finished dinner. I went up to my room when Mum and Dad told Matt it was time to go to bed. I decided to spend the night on my balcony. I dragged a blanket out there and laid on my back, looking up at the stars. It was a clear night and I could see loads of constellations. It was a good end to what had turned out to be a great evening. Once Dad had come home, the evening had been fun. Him and Mum were a bit tense, but that seemed to dissipate a bit once I started joking around during the cake. I should do more of that, I thought. My family was in dire need of more humor in our lives.
Comma Joined: 4 September 2008 Posts: 14	Posted: Friday 5 September 2008 10 24 23 pm    Post subject: The House of the Rising Sun in topic:The House of the Rising Sun [i]I started working on this about a year ago and I haven't gotten much farther than this. My inspiration actually came from the song "The House of the Rising Sun," made famous by The Animals but a folk song in America for God knows how long. The story is based around an old house in New Orleans, Louisiana (yep, just like in the song!) with a curse put upon it that draws people in and basically drives anyone who enters insane by altering their personality to the exact oposite of what it was before they entered the house, a curse that always leads to tragedy. I'd like a few opinions on it before I go any further with it. This is only a prelude, regarding the family that moved in before the main family that the story will be based around. [b]Minor warnings[/b]: Abuse, blood, descriptions of violence, character death[/i] ------ The early morning air was damp and dark as it leaked into what appeared to be, from the outsider’s point of view, an old, abandoned house in New Orleans, Louisiana. All of the sheets of glass in all of the windows were gone, and a rotting wooden door on the front of the house was boarded off from the inside and out with durable, near unbreakable lumber. The window openings where there had once been glass were high up on the house and tiny, which would have made it a hard task to look through any of them, save for one. There was one window on the back of the house, a large window that still had glass covering its opening. This window faced to the East, with a beautiful view of the horizon visible through it. On that early morning, no one would have seen anything but the reverse side of thick, black curtains if they had attempted to look through that back window, to spy upon that strange middle-aged man that lived in the house. However, it would have been more than easy enough for the passing eavesdropper to gain a rough mental picture of what was inside the house at the time, just by listening to the faint sounds issuing from the highest windows. An old turntable played a scratchy, faint tune, which the man in the house was humming along to. The sound of slow, heavy footsteps could be heard by the living room windows, as could the sound of another person, most likely a young woman, whimpering in fear and pain. "I told you I’d find you," Edward Harper’s voice said quietly as he paced slowly around and around a chair in the living room. In one of his hands, he held an old gun, and there was a cigarette hanging from the corner of his mouth. The chair in the living room was a wooden dining chair. A girl in her early twenties was bound to the chair, which was nailed to the floor. That floor was made of splintering wood, and there was an abundance of scarlet liquid dripping down from the chair onto it. The chair was the last piece of furniture other than the small table that Harper’s record player, still singing a faint tune, was perched upon. The woman was incapable of speech. Even if she had been physically capable, she wasn’t too sure she would have been able to formulate the words in her mind into plain English. There was a red bandana gagging her, preventing her from even an attempt at speech. She whimpered yet again, and a tear rolled down her cheek as Harper continued pacing, staring down at her. The tear stung her cheek as it reached a small, bleeding hole that Harper had driven a needle through only a few minutes ago. Harper stopped in front of the girl and bent over her, his face barely an inch from hers. His face had been a kind one at one time, and for many years. However, when he picked up his unquenchable thirst for alcohol and gambling about ten years ago, that kindness began ebbing away. Now, his face was deranged and insane as he smiled a crooked smile with wide, wild eyes. Those eyes had been bright blue at one time, just like her eyes were, but it seemed as though someone had pulled the plug that lit them. She saw they were a pale gray as she stared up into them. Harper’s hair had also grown since she’d last seen him. It was now quite a bit lengthier, down past his shoulders. That dirty blond color was now streaked with grey and white, and it was horribly matted and greasy. It had been six, maybe seven years since she’d last seen him, and he looked more crazed than ever. "You left," Harper said, pointing at her with a slightly shaky index finger. "I told you, Mary, I [i]told [/i]you I’d be angry if you left me in this godforsaken place alone." She shook her head no rapidly, her youthful, bright blue eyes wide and shimmering with tears. She had felt the gun against her head. Upon her reaction, he lowered the gun. "You still wanna stay sittin' there?" he said. He laughed a cold laugh. "I never did understand you, child." Harper comenced his pacing again, examining her, remembering her as she had been when he last saw her in person. She was sixteen when she left him there, and she hadn't changed much in the six years he'd spent looking for her. She was still young, blonde, beautiful, and still the child of the devil. He had brought her up to be a good, honest Christian girl, but still, she had left. He had given her everything she ever asked for while she was with him, and still – still, she had left him. There was no mercy in her heart, and not enough of a sense of kindness to have helped him through his hardest times. She deserved every bit of suffering she had been through that night; she'd deserved every needle driven into her smooth flesh, every razor blade slash across her skin, every removed fingernail, and every broken limb. It made her just as ugly on the outside as she was within. She deserved to suffer for having made him suffer as much as he had over the past six years without anyone there with him to help him hold onto his last threads of sanity. What he was doing wasn't at all wrong. It wasn't sin, it was justice in the name of the Lord. She whimpered helplessly again, as he continued pacing and humming, and looking down at her. He walked over to the record player in the corner of the room and turned its volume up. The song played more clearly now, and he restarted the record. He set his gun down next to the turntable on the stand it was on, and picked up a knife from the floor next to the stand. He took the knife out of its cloth case and walked back over to Mary at a leisurely pace, examining it all at the same time. "Why postpone what’s certain to come anyway, sweetheart?" Harper said as he stopped in front of Mary. "You [i]left[/i] me [i]here[/i], alone. This house drove me insane and [i]you[/i] wouldn’t help me. I told you that you’d die if you ever left me alone, I [i]told[/i] you." She seemed to be trying to say something through the bandana. Her lips were definitely moving, and it seemed as though her vocal chords were working harder than ever in an attempt to get her point across. "You got somethin’ to say?" She nodded fervently. Tears were rolling down her cheeks and stinging her wounds worse than ever, but she didn’t care. He reached forward as though to remove the bandana, but he instead smacked her sharply across the face. "Betrayers don’t get any second chances," he said. "And you’re a betrayer. Your mother died givin’ birth to you, and I raised you alone for sixteen years, and the payment I got was you leavin’ me here to rot to death in this hell? You don’t get any second chances, there ain’t no excuse for abandoning someone who gave their life to you, little girl." He held the knife to her throat. She whimpered again, but he wasn’t at all hesitant. In a swift motion, he slashed the knife across her throat, immediately severing her jugular. "[i]No[/i] second chances," he said again through gritted teeth. He dropped the knife on the floor as she bled dry from her neck, the liquid dying her long, light blonde hair red. The darkness that had covered his heart ever since she left him seemed to have left him, but it was replaced with an entirely new feeling: guilt. He shouldn't have felt guilty. He knew what he had done was right. Then again, was it right? If it were right, his conciousness wouldn't have been scolding him for his actions. His daughter, his only child, was dead, after hours of suffering. Her hands were now limp against the chair arms they were nailed to, needles sticking out from each of her remaining fingernails. There were still needles left in her cheek, three on only the right side, and blood dripping down from each of them, as well as tears clearing tracks through the redness. The cuts across her wrists and arms, made by razor blades and small knives, were still bleeding, dripping onto the growing puddle of scarlet on the floor. The sight now not only sickened him, but also gave him that horrible feeling of guilt he had never thought he'd feel after this justice had been done. He looked down at his white shirt, which was now also bloodstained. He walked over to the record player again and turned it up a little louder, still humming along to the song, though his voice had grown shaky. He picked up his gun from next to it and walked to the back room. He opened the curtains and looked out at the horizon as the sun was creeping up over it, listening to the song still. [i]Well, I got one foot on the platform The other foot on the train I’m goin’ back to New Orleans To wear that ball and chain There is a house in New Orleans They call the Rising Sun And it’s been the ruin of many a poor boy[/i] His hand was shaking as he watched the sun rise up. The gun’s barrel was at his ear as he silently mouthed the last line of the song. "[i]'And God, I know, I'm one...'[/i]" The song ended with the deafening shot of a gun and the thump of a body falling down onto the splintering wooden floor. A pool of scarlet fluid grew under Edward Harper’s body as he lay staring up at the ceiling. The record player shut off. Just as his vision was blurring and his hearing was growing fuzzy, he heard footsteps moving closer to him, and he saw the fuzzy outline of a person standing over him. He could faintly distinguish some sort of colorful garb wrapped around the figure's head, but little more than that. As a cold hand - the hand of death, maybe? - touched his forehead, he shut his eyes and breathed out his last breath. ---- [i]That's it so far. If anyone has any criticism, opinions, anything, let me have it. If you think I should continue, let me know. Whatever. Doesn't matter what it is, just any opinions you have to offer, please do so.[/i]
Comma Joined: 4 September 2008 Posts: 14	Posted: Thursday 4 September 2008 08 43 39 pm    Post subject: A Gaunt Tale in topic:A Gaunt Tale [i]I've been working at this fic for a while. I've got about seventeen chapers posted up on fanfiction.net on my account. It's Marauder era, but it contains spoilers regarding the horcruxes and the deathly hallows themselves, so I figured I'd do best to post it here. It's centered around an original character of the Gaunt family (yep, Voldy's family), the Marauders, Lily, Snape, Voldy himself, and a few of his Hogwarts-bound followers (Bellatrix and Narcissa Black included). [b]There [u]will[/u] be a few grammatical errors within the first chapters that I never got around to fixing.[/b] [b]Genres[/b]: Fantasy, Romance, somewhat Suspense (as far as people have told me...) [b]The summary:[/b] Katalina Gaunt entered Hogwarts in her first year, only to be withdrawn from the school by her father immediately after she is sorted into Gryffindor, for homeschooling that he feels is more appropriate to someone of a herritage as "noble" as hers. She runs away at the age of fifteen to make it into Hogwarts for her fifth year, where she meets one troublemaker she would like nothing more than to hex, one she starts to develop a rather perturbing love/hate relationship with, a few new friends, and a few mortal enemies. Personal relationships turn out to be the least of her worries when she realizes there is a murderer on the loose within the school grounds and nothing she can do to prevent it without anyone close to her becoming the next victims. I think I'll post up the first two chapters to start with.[/i] ------------------------- [b]Chapter 1 Dementor's Search[/b] Katalina Gaunt was to be starting her fifth year at Hogwarts. She knew it would be a hard year, having never actually been to Hogwarts before. She was a member of the Gaunt family, a strictly pureblood family, a family that had been sorted into the Slytherin house for years, who was in Gryffindor. She was most definitely afraid. Had she not been homeschooled her whole life, she would have been alright with entering her fifth year at Hogwarts. However, since her fifth year was the equivalent of her first, it was impossible for her to feel at all comfortable with it. True, Katalina had come to Hogwarts when she was eleven, just like most other eleven year old witches and wizards. Then, a week after being sorted into Gryffindor, her father pulled her out of the school to teach her his own courses. The History of Magic became The History of the Dark Arts. Defense against the Dark Arts was just the Dark Arts. Potions included how to make undetectable poisons, and how to detect them. She still had Transfiguration, but the course was twisted to her father's style. The standard Charms course was a course for learning curses and hexes. She also had to study her family history and learn the connection of the dark arts with her ancestors. It just went back and back and back, right on back to Salazar Slytherin himself and further back even than him. Katalina had come from a long line of dark witches and wizards, most certainly. She herself was a break in the chain, and her father was attempting to mold her back into the chain. Her brother was perfectly okay with the dark arts. He was in his seventh year at Hogwarts, a Slytherin prefect. He was always willing to help discipline his disobedient sibling at home. There was only one method of discipline, and that was the Cruciatus Curse, the Torture Curse, one of the three Unforgivable Curses. Summer was a time she dreaded, for her brother and her father to be in the same house as her both at once was a nightmare. She definitely wasn't going to miss that at all. Now, here she stood, at Platform Nine and Three Quarters, just looking at the steam engine train. It was a sight that represented both her freedom from her father and her fear of the unknown. It gave her a scared feeling of relief that she could have never explained if she had tried to with all her might. Seeing all the loving families bidding their children goodbye was the one thing that seemed to damage her the most. Where was her caring family? Why couldn't she, just a fifteen year old with a hard life to put behind her, have what everyone else had? Was she not worthy of a family? Maybe she wasn't worthy of even having friends. She was a Gaunt in Gryffindor, after all, the rival house of Slytherin at Hogwarts. That didn't say much for her. Her last name said she was an evil, dark witch, but her house said that she wasn't even good at that. Who could ever befriend someone like her? Her question was answered in little more than a few seconds later, when a girl about her age stopped in front of her. She was about the same height as Katalina, and had a medium auburn hair color, and bright green eyes. The boy that was with her looked somewhat unsociable. His eyes were dark, his black hair was shoulder length and greasy, and he had a rather large nose and pale complexion that made him appear rather sinister. "Hi. I'm Lily Evans; this is my friend Severus Snape." She offered her hand, and they shook hands. Severus nodded in acknowledgement, so Katalina did the same. "Katalina... Gaunt..." she said, a little reluctant to release her surname. "Have you been to Hogwarts before?" Lily asked curiously. "We didn't recognize you." "I --" Katalina started, a little panicked about the question. She didn't think anyone would have asked it. Nonetheless, she managed a simple reply. "My father wouldn't let me come to Hogwarts, I was homeschooled." "Really?" Lily said. "With Albus Dumbledore headmaster?" She seemed a bit intrigued, and Katalina found herself walking onto the train with them. "He's been the best thing to happen to Hogwarts since it was founded, according to most." "Some don't believe..." she said evasively. "My dad doesn't like him... I didn't know why... mind if I hold onto that?" she asked one of the prefects, what was putting her larger luggage into one of the side compartments of the train; she grabbed her guitar case from him and continued in with Lily and Severus. Lily seemed nice enough, definitely, but the boy with her seemed distant; she, however, couldn't say much more for herself. "What about your mum?" Lily asked as the three of them found a compartment to sit in; an empty one. They all seemed larger inside than they were outside, clearly enough for eight people to easily fit into, four people per bench. The three of them took one bench, as Katalina's kitten jumped into her lap and mewed. "She couldn't have very well said with her current state..." Katalina said. "Our old house burned when I was a baby, her body was never even found. We still don't know what caused the fire… or who, if that's the case." She evaded any more questions on the subject of her mother’s death by continuing onto a different subject matter. "I just ran away from my dad, stayed in the Leaky Cauldron all summer. I took the key to my mum's account at Gringott’s; she'd left it all to me anyway. Got tired of being cooped up all day." "What year're you in? We're both in fifth." "Me too... and Gryffindor," she added. "Drove me dad nuts, he wanted another Slytherin in the family, we had all been for ages." "I can't believe parents get broken up over things so silly..." she said. "Muggleborn?" Katalina asked. "Yes," she said. "I never had to worry about it. Sev did..." she added, looking over a little cautiously -- he could apparently be rather touchy on this subject. "Mum kept saying I was a filthy half-breed and didn't deserve to be put in Slytherin," he said. "So I wanted to just to prove I did deserve it, and I did. Put her in her place, but she still doesn't like me very much. Nor does my dad, but he didn't know he was marrying a witch at the time." "My family had apparently been a long line of pure blood Slytherins that claimed to be descended from Salazar Slytherin himself... so, naturally, me being the first to break this cycle, my dad wanted me dead... I wouldn't doubt we did descend from him..." she added. "Been rumors about different bits of the Gaunt family everywhere..." "Gaunt..." Lily said, remembering something. "Are you related to Alfred Gaunt?" "Yes..." she said, quite grudgingly. "My brother... different mum than me, according to my dad. I don't really... get along with him." She sounded as though she were trying to put their feelings towards each other lightly. "Me and Dad had a huge row before I left, he told me I was just like my great aunt, running off against her father's wishes." She laughed slightly. "I told him if her dad was anything like him, then I couldn't blame her." "Why don't you try to find her?" "Couldn't if I wanted to," she said. "She died an hour after having a baby, turns out she'd given the muggle she'd run off with a love potion, but eventually stopped, and he left her, but she was already pregnant. She had the baby in an orphanage, it's possible whoever the child is now doesn't even have a clue who their parents are, so I couldn't track them down very well, and wouldn't be mentioned in our family history, being a... what was it my dad said... a 'filthy tainted half blood with an ungrateful blood traitor of a mother'." She sighed. "He really is quite a wonderful person," she added with sarcastic admiration; Lily and Severus both laughed. "Have you heard your brother's theory on the child?" Lily asked. "I try to avoid him and my dad during summer, them together is a nightmare." "He took a different view on it than your father, apparently," Severus said. "He claims that the child grew up to be Voldemort." "Really?" Katalina said, a little stunned at this. "He's always taken sides with my dad at home. Probably just looking to impress his friends. But then..." "What?" Lily said, a little fearful -- Voldemort was the wizard slowly working his way towards being the most feared dark wizard of all time. Most people didn't even dare speak his name aloud. She thought about it for a moment, then shook her head. "No, he's just being an arsehead, my brother's always been known for coming up with stories that benefit his own status." She shrugged it off, and as Severus appeared to be about to speak again, they were interrupted with guffaws of laughter outside, probably a few feet from the door. "God, not already." Lily gave an exasperated sigh. She got up and looked out the window, as did Severus. "What?" Katalina asked. She did the same, and managed to get a decent look out the window at a growing crowd. "The local baboons have broken out of their cage." Lily was scowling towards the front of the crowd. "James Potter and Sirius Black. The short chunkier one is Peter Pettigrew, follows the other two around worshipping them like Gods. Don't know who the fourth is, he must be new." She saw someone who was clearly a Slytherin prefect dangling upside down from his ankle in midair, a boy with shoulder length black hair controlling this, three of his friends with him, and a crowd of people around them, laughing. Katalina recognized this prefect, clearly, as her brother. She followed the other two out the door. She nearly laughed a little herself, but kindly decided not to. Alfred was most likely older than the boy and his friends, and begging to be put down. It was, however, a bit cruel. Katalina, who'd mastered silent spells extremely early and extremely well, was deciding between spells to use to kindly help out her brother. She took her time deciding, and Lily pushed her way to the front of the crowd. Katalina heard her speaking from the back. "Can't you idiots at least save it until you get off the train?" she snapped at the four in front. "No," said the one using the spell. "Gaunt here was mouthing off at us for being outside our compartment while the train's moving." "Well, it's dangerous!" she said. "And prefects're supposed to," she added. "You're not supposed to be out here." "And you are?" asked another, the one with black messy hair and glasses. "Or did you come out here just to tell us off? Not wise, you see what happened to Al. You're lucky, I'm too polite to hex a girl, and Sirius is occupied at the moment." "I could do two at once," Sirius said. "Just let me use your wand, James." "Nah, then I'd practically be doing it." Lily was pulling out her own wand now. "Oh, look, she's nice enough to let me use her own wand!" Sirius said with sarcastic enthusiasm. She pointed it at him. "Like you'll do anything," Sirius scoffed at her. Suddenly, he was being hoisted up by his ankle, but Lily wasn't doing it. Katalina made it to the front of the crowd, as he dropped his own wand and her brother fell with a small thud! on the carpet. Katalina had her own wand pointed at Sirius. "She's too polite," Katalina said. The crowed Oooohed at the sudden intervention. "Let me down!" Sirius said, trying and failing to reach his wand. Alfred stood up and grabbed his own wand. He put Sirius down, and Katalina directed her focus to him. "Look at this," Alfred said. "Two of the people I dislike most getting detentions before school's even started. Report to Filch at eight o' clock on Monday night." He grinned maliciously, then, grin fading, turned focus to Katalina. "I don't need help from any filthy blood traitors." Rather than glower at him, as most would have done, she grabbed his collar and pushed him into the wall, wand pointed in between his eyes. "And I don't need lip from people who's arses I've just saved by choice," she snarled back. Then, with a grin, she added, "And it didn't seem like you were about to get out of it yourself, you know." She put on a high pitched, mocking voice. "'Please, please put me down! I won't give you detention, I won't take points away from your house, please, please, please, I'm sorry! I'll never bother you again, I promise!' Yeah," she said, over guffaws of laughter at her impersonation, even from the boy she'd just used his own spell on. "I'm sure you had the situation completely under your control." She lowered her wand, then, as she'd expected, had to dodge a jet of red light; it could have easily been mistaken as a stunning spell, but she knew otherwise. She glanced over her shoulder. "You'd have been getting a lot worse than detention if that had hit me, Al," she said coldly. Her and Lily made their ways to the back of the crowd, followed by quite a few Ooooooo's at her last statement, from those who'd taken it as a threat. She, Lily, and Severus made their way back into their compartment, as the crowd faded. However, the other four, lingered for a moment, even as everyone else filed back into their compartments. The four of them; Sirius Black, James Potter, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew, waited until the rest of them were gone, except themselves and Al Gaunt, and Sirius spoke. "She doesn't get two detentions for that, at least?" he asked, a little disappointed. "Shut up!" Al snapped at him, walking off. "Alright, then..." James said, a bit confused, as they watched him walk away to his own compartment, then slam the door after him. "That's a little odd..." ------------------------------------------------- Inside their compartment, Severus and Lily were both questioning her as to how she'd known that spell. "What's the big deal?" she asked. "It's pretty much the same as Wingardium Leviosa, only directed exactly at an ankle. And besides, I could've learned it out of one of my spell books, for all you know." "That wouldn't be possible," he assured her. "Why not?" "Because I made that spell," he said. "Levicorpus. It was designed as you said, Wingardium Leviosa directed at an ankle, but it's easier just to have one incantation without worrying about where to direct the spell, as long as it's directed at a person in general. It's Libertacorpus to let them down, and it's usually used as a silent spell, so no one ever knows when they're going to be hoisted up by their ankle in the middle of a corridor at school." "How come you didn't get another detention when you threatened your brother like that? And twice, for that matter," Lily asked. "Deep down inside that cold exterior, I think he's afraid of what I'll do to him when I'm not under the watch of his daddy," she said, grinning. "And the second time wasn't a threat..." she added, both coldly and a little nervously. "Anyone who's dumb enough to do that under such close watch is dangerous..." "But it was just a Stunning spell," Lily said, confused. "No," Katalina said. "I assure you it wasn't. Stunning spells don't feel hot when they pass the side of your neck." She lifted her hair and pointed to a red mark that would most likely turn into a burn blister within the next hour. "Also, the shape they're fired in is a spiral of red sparks, not a straight jet." "Then what was it?" she asked. "The Cruciatus Curse..." she said. Lily gasped and clasped her hands over her mouth. Severus looked surprised as well. "The Cruciatus Curse?" he repeated. "On the Hogwarts Express?" "Like I said," she sighed. "Anyone to do that is stupid and dangerous. I wasn't threatening him, I was stating the facts..." "He could easily get arrested for it," Lily agreed. "Could you both do me a favor and not mention to anyone I'm related to him yet?" she asked. "People'll figure it out eventually, but I'd like to delay people knowing my relation to him for as long as possible..." They both agreed. At that time, they heard voices close to their door, one of them quite angry, the others amused. They burst into the compartment, Sirius with his wand out. He stopped in front of Katalina and pointed it at her. "How the bloody hell did you get out of that?" he demanded, while the other three laughed. Lily looked ready to chop off Sirius's arm, and Severus glared in the opposite direction. "Out of what?" she said incredulously, standing up as well. She pulled out her own wand and pushed him down onto the other bench-like seat unexpectedly; he dropped his wand next to him, staring crosseyed at the one now pointed between his own eyes. "In case you didn't notice, I've got a detention as well, and I for one hope we've got them with different teachers, or I'll end up hexing you halfway through and getting another!" "I'm talking about from threatening a school prefect twice in under a minute!" he shot back, but recoiled when he remembered he wasn't in the best position to mouth off. "He figured on using his own methods of punishment rather than detention," she said. "I suppose you didn't notice that that wasn't a normal Stunning spell he fired?" "Wha...?" She sighed and lowered her wand. She sat back down, as the other three came in and did the same, on the bench seat Sirius was on rather than the other. "That was the Cruciatus Curse, idiot. A Stunning spell can't burn your skin, and I've got one hell of a nasty burn mark on my neck, I'm lucky I dodged it when I did. And a stunning spell is spiraled, the Cruciatus Curse is a straight jet of sparks." "Get real," James said. "With all the guard around here he wouldn't have dared use that on another student." "Look it up," she said. "You'll see I'm one hundred percent correct, whether you like it or not. He's apparently not the brightest person in the world." "Apparently..." James said. "There're teachers on the train, we've seen a few of them, its surprising none of them came out to see what was going on." Their attention turned as Sirius spotted Severus. "Snivellus!" he said, in a mock friendly voice. He didn't turn his head from the window out into the hallway. "Didn't see you in our crowd of fans and admirers." "He was too scared he'd be next," James said, laughing. He appeared to be trying to ignore James's and Sirius's taunts. "Cut it out," Lily said. "Make us," James said. She and Katalina both, at the same time, pulled out their wands and stood. Lily pointed her wand at James, and Katalina pointed hers at Sirius. "I'm perfectly willing to," Katalina shot at both of them. "You, Lily?" she asked. "Definitely," she said, jabbing it into James's forehead. He winced. "That hurt!" he said. "It'll hurt even worse if you keep on with this nonsense!" she said. "Now stop it!" "I wasn't thinking of hurting, really," Katalina said, looking over at Lily. "I was thinking a good strong Confundus charm. Make them think they're baboons. They must have gotten Confunded in the past, too, seeing as they're under the illusion that they're people at the moment." Sirius had taken the opportunity in which she'd looked away to grab his own wand; when she turned back, he was pointing his at her. She sat down, and the both continued pointing and glaring. Lily looked down at them, shook her head, and sat down herself, putting her own wand away. ----------------------------------------- "Would you two call a truce already or something?" she said to Sirius and Katalina after half an hour of them still silently pointing their wands at each other and glaring. "You know, before you become mortal enemies?" "She's a Slytherin, I'm guessing?" Sirius asked spitefully. "Funny, I thought you'd be one," Katalina said. "Dangling people from their ankle in the middle of the hall, honestly!" "She's a Gryffindor," Lily said. "Wish I had been a Slytherin," Katalina said, a little thoughtfully, a little grudgingly. "I'm glad I'm in Gryffindor, I didn't want to be in Slytherin at first.... My dad had doubts I would be, and he wanted me to be, so he decided to home school me for the first year, just to see. When I was sorted, they send the Sorting Hat with a Hogwarts employee to houses of children who may be in Hogwarts the next year, I was put in Gryffindor." "How'd you get out of being homeschooled if it pissed him off that bad?" James asked. "Ran away," she said happily. "And I'm never going back to that place again. I don't care if I have to stay at inns for all my summers. I'd rather be alone. I've got inheritance money from my mum, stole the key to her vault, she left it all to me anyway, so I don't need financial support and I can easily pay for costs of inns and hotels." "Inheritance?" Sirius said, lowering his wand without realizing he had. "She died in a fire when I was about six months old," she said. "No big deal. If my dad was married to her, God only knows how horrible she was... I know that's no way to talk about your dead parents that you've never met, but it's the truth. He'd've never married a blood traitor muggle lover. Curious, they never found her body in the fire, but with the amount of her blood they found, it's been figured out she wouldn't have lasted long even if she had gotten out." "If it was a fire..." James said slowly, "... then how was there blood?" "The hell if I know," she said with a shrug. "My dad never gave me the full set of details of everything that happened; he didn't like talking about it. Only thing that ever got to him." James had started to speak again, but was distracted by the luggage rack. "Is that a guitar?" he asked, pointing. "Go near it and you'll regret that you were ever born," she said. Everyone looked over at her, even Severus, who'd been so keen on looking out the window. "Sorry," she said. "It's just that it's the last thing I have to remind me of how much my dad despised me. He always hated it. The fact I used electricity in his house. I purposely didn't bewitch the amplifier to run by magic until I left. Annoyed the hell out of him, but I'd hex him if he ever set a foot near it," she said relishingly. "Good times." "There aren't even any electrical outlets in my house..." Sirius said. She laughed. "I put one in my room myself. Without magic. Bought the tools to do it at the local hardware store. Annoyed him even more that I did that when I could have just conjured everything out of the air." Slowly, as they continued talking, the train began to come to a halt. By the time they were all properly introduced, the train had stopped. They noticed this. "We can't be there yet..." Sirius said, looking out the window, his hands pressed against it. "No," he said. "Someone's getting on, it looks like," he told them. As though burned or shocked, he pulled his hands back. "What the..." The window started to freeze and crack. "Dementors?" "Dementors?" Katalina repeated, disbelieving, and looked out the window herself. "There's been a rumor going around that Voldemort --" there were shudders within the compartment, except from Katalina, who was used to the name in her household, Severus, and Sirius. "-- tried to get a teaching job at Hogwarts," Severus said. "I heard that," Katalina said. "Then again, maybe they're coming to take away that prefect," she added hopefully. There were a few nervous laughs around the compartment; dementors were nearly as feared as Voldemort himself. Dementors were creatures that guarded the wizard prison, Azkaban. They were tall, hooded, and faceless, except for a gaping hole that was their mouth. They didn't see people, they felt fear. They went towards the source of the fear and would feed off of all the happy thoughts within the mind of that person, until nothing was left but the bad memories. They had once been people themselves, some of them, but had since had their own souls sucked from their bodies. They couldn't kill, but their finishing move was the Dementor's Kiss, where they'd clamp their jaws down on their victem's jaws and proceed to suck out their soul, leaving them a shell with a beating heart, but no will to live, and, eventually, they'd either waste away or become dementors themselves. "Still, to search Hogwarts and the train..." James said. "There've been plenty cases of dementors going bad," Lily said. "Especially lately, You-Know-Who's been persuading them over to his side. It's awfully risky bussiness..." "I suppose they'll search... all the compartments?" Katalina asked nervously, her grip tightening on her wand. "Yeah..." Lily said. "Probably..." They all sat silently in wait, and then, the lights in their compartment went out, and they could see their breath in little puffs of fog. "They're getting closer..." she said quietly, more to herself than the others. She tried to muster up an overpoweringly happy memory. Nothing seemed to do; the dementors seemed to be leaking fear and sorrow into their compartment already. A scabbed, black, skeletal hand reached over the window of their compartment. She was ready; she was remembering the moment she stepped onto Diagon Alley; the feeling of being freed. It opened the door, and there were at least five there. And no teachers keeping an eye on them? That was risky. The door opened, and they started to swoop in. Katalina stood, pointed her wand, and said the incantation clearly: "Expecto Patronum." She thought of nothing but that thought, and maintained focus on it, even as a silver phoenix burst out of the end of her wand and darted at the dementors. They turned quickly and left, making odd screaching noises that had to be their form of a scream. She flicked her wand, and the phoenix vanished, then the compartment door closed. The lights flicked back on; she had apparently scared the dementors off the train altogether. Lily hit her. "You could have said you knew how to do that!" she said loudly, hitting her in the arm again with her own wand. The four on the other bench were laughing at her reaction. "I didn't know if I'd be able to or not -- careful with that thing, you're about to catch my bleedin' arm on fire!" Lily made a noise of frustration, glared at Katalina for a moment as she put her wand away, then decided to stare at the bottom of the luggage rack over her head. "At least they're gone..." Katalina said sheepishly with a shrug. They heard someone running down the hall of the train. An old, stern looking witch stopped at the door of their compartment and opened it. Her hair was black and drawn back in a tight bun. She looked completely astounded. "Which of you conjured it?" she demanded of them. Sirius, James, Remus, and Peter stopped laughing immediately. "Which of you conjured the Patronus?" "The Pa-what-us?" Sirius said blankly, voicing what the rest of them were definitely thinking, except Katalina. She looked a little scared. She sheepishly raised her hand, her eyes even wider than usual. This made them laugh again. "Come with me," she said. Katalina got up and walked out of the compartment slowly with whomever the witch was that was standing there in emerald green robes. ----------------------------------- [i]Side info: -I have teachers placed on the train due to the fact that this is around the time that Voldemort would be at a height of power, and I figured Hogwarts would want to have more than train workers and prefects there in case anyone on Voldemorts side has been stationed on the train. -Lupin is a "new student" for reasons involving future things in this story that I can't give away -- I know it's not how it happened in the books or anything, but that's my story and I'm sticking to it.[/i] --------------------------------------------- [b]Chapter 2: Veritaserum[/b] "Please don't send me home..." Katalina begged the witch sheepishly. "That's not what we're concerned with right now," she said. She most certainly looked concerned about something. Katalina followed her down the hallway after she shut the door. They stopped at a teacher's compartment, and the woman opened the door, and indicated for Katalina to go in first. She did so, and the woman closed the door after her. Three other people who were apparently teachers sat in the room. This witch took a seat behind a desk. "Sit," she said, indicating the chair in front of her desk. Katalina did as told. "I'm assuming you're Katalina Gaunt?" She grimaced a little. "I prefer Smith..." she mumbled. The woman looked at her oddly. "... Katalina Smith?" she asked. "I don't like my family very much..." "I'll address you as Gaunt for the time being, it's your enrollment name. "Now, Katalina, I am Professor McGonagall, the head of Gryffindor House and Transfiguration teacher. This --" She indicated a wizard with ginger hair, balding and graying, and a little on the chubby side. "-- is our potions master and head of Slytherin House, Professor Slughorn. This is Professor Sprout, your Herbology teacher and head of Hufflepuff. This is Professor Flitwick, Charms teacher and head of Ravenclaw." She nodded in turn to each of them as she was introduced to them. "Now, Miss Gaunt here," McGonagall said, resulting in another slight grimace on Katalina's part, "has produced a Patronus Charm. She is in only her fifth year. A Patronus Charm is seventh year level magic, and most of them have trouble with it. The dementors detected a presence in her compartment that they recognized to be in relation to what they were searching for, whether in family ties or personality, they could not say." Katalina was horribly afraid. "Professor Slughorn, you have the Veritaserum, I believe?" Slughorn handed over a tiny bottle of a clear liquid. "Katalina," Professor McGonagall said. "You seem quite sincere, but, by Ministry orders, we must use Veritaserum to interrogate you." She nodded, gulping. "Wh... what does... V-veritaserum do...?" she asked. "It forces the drinker to tell the truth at all costs." She nodded. "It is tasteless, scentless, and clear, as you can see. It'll be like water to you, but you will tell the truth upon drinking it, as it will force you to without thinking about your answer first." She nodded, yet again, taking the bottle. She uncorked it, and drank it. It did, indeed, seem like water. She didn't feel any difference in herself. "State your true name," Professor McGonagall said. "Katalina Arianna Gaunt," she said. "Why are you here?" "To go to Hogwarts." "For what reasons?" "To learn." "Learn what?" "Whatever the classes I have chosen to take this year offer me as learning material." "Do you have any relation to He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named?" "I do not know." "That's interesting..." Katalina heard Slughorn say. "Have you met him?" McGonagall continued. "No." "Do you have a family connection with him?" "Yes." "Very interesting, indeed," McGonagall said. "Who?" "My father is one of his most devoted and important followers, some have called him Voldemort's right-hand-man." "And how do you feel about you father's connection with He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named?" "It sickens me to the very pit of my stomach." "That's good... "Did you produce the Patronus charm that scared off the Death Eaters?" "Yes." "What form was it in?" "A phoenix." Everyone in the room gasped, except McGonagall, though she did appear astounded. "Could... could you show us?" Katalina took her wand from her pocket. She stood, walked behind the chair, and pointed it at the chair seat. "Expecto Patronum," she said aloud. The phoenix burst from her wand again, and it perched on the edge of the chair. "How long can you hold it there?" Professor McGonagall asked. Katalina pocketed her wand, and the bird was still there. "Until I tell her to go." "How long have you been able to make a Patronus?" "A few weeks," she said. "How did you learn?" "From a seventh year course book that I bought at Flourish and Blotts’ in Diagon Alley for a bit of light reading." "How long did it take to learn?" "Around five minutes." McGonagall swallowed nervously, looking around at the rest of the teachers. "How long does it normally take to learn for most students?" she asked them. "Weeks," Flitwick piped; his voice was as high as he was low; he was only tall enough to come up just past Katalina's knee. "And most of them give up before producing a true Patronus." "Is it true you were homeschooled by your father?" McGonagall asked Katalina. "Sort of." "What did he teach you?" "Nothing in the course books," she said. "He taught me dark magic, against my will, and of the history of it, and of my own family history." "And he did not include the Dark Lord in this family history?" "He did not," she said. "Was there anyone in particular that stuck out?" "Yes... an unknown halfblood child, and I heard that my brother is suspicious about it." "Does he know about the child’s parents?" "Yes. Its mother is my great-great aunt, Merope Gaunt. Its father was a muggle she made like her by love potions." "Do you know anything about the child's mother?" “According to my father, she 'disgraced our family name' when she ran off with him. She became pregnant by him, and stopped giving him the potion, thinking he'd still love her. He didn't, he left to live with his parents. She was broken, scared, and distraught, and had the baby at a muggle orphanage, where she herself died an hour after its birth." "The father," McGonagall choked out. "Did you know his name?" "Tom Riddle." McGonagall and Slughorn seemed to be particularly worried by this. "Do you know the Dark Lord's real name?" "No." "Good," McGonagall said. "And you won't until the time is right..." She raised her wand and pointed it at Katalina. "Obliviate," she said quietly. A blue beam of light hit Katalina, and she stared blankly ahead. "You are to forget this conversation. You will remember being here, but the conversation will be a complete blank. You will figure out that I Confunded you while you still are here." Katalina, still looking blankly ahead, nodded. McGonagall flicked her wand at Katalina again, who snapped back. "Why am I here?" she asked. "What do you mean, Miss Gaunt?" "I mean, aren't you going to interrogate me?" she asked. She looked down. Her phoenix was still there. "How'd my Patronus get there?" she demanded. She looked up at McGonagall. "You've Confunded my memory of the interrogation," she said accusingly, pointing at her. "I have," McGonagall agreed. "It's the only way to keep you safe." "Did you use anything that might make me tell you anything I didn't want to...?" she asked, suddenly noticing the miniature flask in her hand. She set it on the table. "Yes, Veritaserum, only a small dosage. It makes the drinker tell the complete truth about everything." "I want to know what I said!" "I cannot tell you that until another time, Miss Gaunt." "But if I said something I didn't know I knew or that incriminates someone --" "You didn't." "But I don't know what I said, how can I believe that?!" "You'll have to believe it for now, Miss Gaunt. You did say you learned the Patronus in around five minutes." "I did," she said. "I know. It was weird; the book said it could take up to a year, sometimes more, to get your Patronus to have a true form. It was extremely difficult magic. But I didn't find it to be, really. I can teleport it, too." She looked at the Patronus, as though communicating with it silently, and it disappeared, reappearing in front of Professor McGonagall, atop her desk, gazing at her. "And..." she said, and, focusing quite hard on the Patronus, it spoke with her voice, "I can make it speak for me." Professor McGonagall was astounded, as were the rest of the teachers. She looked almost afraid of this. "Is it... bad that I can...?" "No," McGonagall assured her. "Anything but bad. It's... it's amazing magic, we don't even teach that. Very few of the staff can do it, even. Out of curiosity, how far can you teleport it?" "As far as I want. As it is a piece of my memory, I can see through its eyes or my own when I teleport it. I can only teleport it to places I have an address for or places I've been before, though." "It's impossible to do otherwise," she assured her. "I thought it was impossible for a fifth year student to do at all, honestly, to make a perfect Patronus charm... but I've been proven wrong, I suppose. You may head back to your friends now. But, if James Potter and Sirius Black are still there, you may want to be careful not to tell them we've used Veritaserum. The effects won't wear off for the next hour." "Yes', ma'am," she said. She looked at her Patronus, and it dissolved on the desk in a puff of silvery smoke. Katalina turned and walked to the door. She opened it, stepped out, and, as she was closing it, heard Professor McGonagall's voice, speaking to another teacher, one word: "Amazing..." She shut the door and headed back to her compartment. She opened the door silently, shut it behind her, and took her seat next to the window outside. "So how long will they be letting you stay at the school?" James asked brightly. She glared at him. "I'd smack you if you were closer," she assured him coldly. "I'm not being chucked out, thank you; they only wanted to question me." "About what?" Remus asked. "I have no idea," she said. "What kind of questions? About the Patronus?" Sirius asked. "I really don't know," she said. "McGonagall Confunded me after the questioning." "Did they use Veritaserum?" James asked. "Yes," she said, though she really hadn't wanted to. She could tell it was working. "Has it worn off?" Sirius asked. "Professor McGonagall said it would stay for another hour." "Don't even think about it, you two," Lily said warningly. "Oh, why not?" James asked pleadingly. "It just seems like it would be so much fun! If she hadn't meant for us to question her ourselves, then she would have made her wait back in the teacher's compartment." "She told me not to mention I was under the influence of Veritaserum," she said. "Then why did you?" Lily demanded. "They asked me," she said. "You could've lie -- oh, right... never mind..." "Please don't ask me about my family," she said. "I really don't want to talk about them. I didn't want to say yes, but the effect is that it makes you tell the truth without giving you time to think and it doesn't let you lie after saying the true statement." "May we ask what your surname is, since you conveniently forgot to mention it earlier?" James asked. "You can…. Meaning you're capable of doing so. But I wish you wouldn't." "What if we do anyway?" "Then I'd tell the truth unwillingly." "Then what's --" "Don't!" Lily yelled at them. She pulled out her wand and pointed it at him. "She told me not to tell anyone, so her telling you unwillingly while I'm here is practically the same thing! Stop it! I will do it!" She stood up, still pointing it at him. "Thank you," Katalina said gratefully. "Is it that embarrassing?" Sirius asked. "Is to me." "Sounds funny?" James asked. "Not really, I guess." "She's ashamed of her family, alright?" Lily said. "Do you really need to know anything else?" "It's not because they're muggles? Or one of her parents was a muggle or a muggle born?" James said. "Because then I'd have to hex her." "No," Katalina said. "That's not why. I'd rather it be that way in fact." "Insufferable purebloods, I'll bet," Sirius said to James. "You would be one to know," James said to Sirius, nodding. “Alright, before we run out of time," James continued, Lily lowering her wand and sitting back down. "Un-family related shit. What to ask first..." "Where the bloody hell did you learn to do a Pa... Pa-thing-a-ma-what's-it-called?" Sirius asked. "Patronus." Lily corrected, laughing. "Oh, shut up, it's not my problem your brain's getting too bloody big for your skull..." "A seventh year course book," she said. "I bought it to read and see what the hardest things I'd learn would be, and I thought Patronuses sounded cool, so I gave it a go." "How long did it take to learn?" Lily asked. "About five minutes," she said. "They said it was a year before it would take actual form," she said. "But I didn't find it very hard at all. I can also make mine teleport and I can talk through it." "What kind of bird was it?" Lily asked. "It looked like a phoenix," she said. "It was a phoenix." "Wow..." she said. "Is the veritaserum still working?" James said. "Yes." "Thought it would be a good idea to double-check..." "Have you ever seen a dragon?" Sirius asked. They all looked at him oddly. "Hey, we're asking random questions now," he said. "I don't know anyone who's seen a dragon before." "No," she said. "Do you have any abilities that're rare to the wizarding world?" She didn't want to answer. She resisted. She resisted for nearly a minute. But she couldn't. "I can do magic without a wand," she breathed out. "And... and..." her voice quavered. "Is it wearing off already?" James asked. "No..." she strained. "I think she's trying to resist telling you something," Lily said. "I can talk to..." she said. "To... to..." She gulped. "I can talk to snakes." They were all quiet, staring at her oddly. She looked at the floor. It was exactly why she had resisted telling them. "When did you find out?" Lily asked. "I was two..." she said. "Two years old... I remember. My dad decided to test it... common in my family... I could already speak perfect English, he'd said, I remember, so we should see if I could speak Parseltongue like most of the rest of my family... and I could... I hate him for making me realize I could... I hate him..." "Don't all the Parselmouths end up in Slytherin?" Remus asked. "It's hard to track," Sev said. "I'd bet at least 99% had. But there's always odd cases in everything...." "Why did he want to know if you could?" Lily asked. "To... to... to make sure I really was his daughter..." she said. "Because his hatred of muggles wasn't reflected by me... or of muggleborns... halfbloods... he didn't understand why, so he tested... that... to see if I was truly a member of his family..." "So your entire family is?" Sirius asked. "Yes," she said. "As far back as we can trace it... all Parselmouths... all Slytherins... except me, and he doesn't like it, he tried to turn me into a Slytherin himself... please don't ask me any more about them..." she said. "I think I told McGonagall something about them that I hadn't put together myself and she managed to... she wouldn't tell me, but I think she did, and she wasn't telling me because she said it wasn't the right time to yet..." "But --" James started. "No," Lily said, amazingly at the same time as Sirius. Both of them looked at Sirius. "I'm ashamed of my family, and I know I'd be pissed as hell if someone force fed me Veritaserum and started asking me about them,” Sirius said. "If any of you tell anyone I'm a Parselmouth, I'll kill you," she said. "Literally?" James said. "Could be, depending on how upset I am," she said. "Okay," he said. "I value my life, I'm not going to. "Do you have an invisibility cloak?" "Yes," she said. "Yes, actually. Amazing thing, really, even when my dad tried to summon it, it would never come off me unless I physically pulled it off of myself. You could hide from Death himself under that cloak. And most of them, the charms wear off after a while; this one'd been in my mom's family for forever, according to her will. I thought it was amazing when I read about it. Reminded me of that one story in a collection of Beedle the Bard stories I read when I was young, the three brothers. My dad had that page marked and some symbol over it circled, it was weird." "I didn't ask her, in my defense," James said to Lily and Sirius. "I only --" "I know," Lily said. "It means the potion's starting to wear off. She can say things other than the answers now, but she tells the complete truth about them anyway." "What did the symbol look like?" Sirius asked. "Looked like a rune, but it isn't one," she said. "A triangle with a circle and a line in it. Book said something about the deathly hallows under there, where my dad had written in it, but I couldn’t make anything of it.” "The deathly hallows..." Lily said. "I've never heard of that before..." "Where’s the cloak?" James asked. She reached into her pocket and commenced to pulling something long and silvery out, that looked almost fluid-like, except that it couldn't have been, or it would have made the pocket of her skirt wet, or wouldn't have stayed in her pocket. She finished pulling it out; it was big enough to fit a fully grown adult. "There's no way that could have fit in your pocket without shrinking," Lily said. "I've read about invisibility cloaks --" "And everything else on God's green earth," James added. She kicked him in the knee. "I've read about them, none of them do that." "Do you know summoning spells?" she asked Lily. "You seem to be the smartest person in the compartment." "Yes," Lily said, laughing at the glares Katalina was getting from James and Sirius. "I'll put the cloak on, you summon something else first to prove you can, then try the cloak." "I know summoning spells too," Sirius said. "And so does James." "Alright," Lily said. Katalina threw the cloak over herself. Lily thought for a moment, then decided. "Accio wand," she said, pointing at James, whose wand flew out of his pocket and into her hand. "Hey!" he said. She handed it back, laughing. "Alright, now try the cloak," Katalina's apparently disembodied voice said. "Shall I put my hands out to prove I'm not holding it?" "Sure." Her hands appeared out of nowhere. "Accio invisibility cloak!" she said, clearly determined to make the spell work. The cloak didn't budge. She took it off, straightening out her hair. "Wish mine did that..." James said, admiring the cloak. "Mine doesn't even look the same..." "She just wasn't trying hard enough," Sirius said, pulling out his own wand. "It doesn't nescisarily have to be on," she said, folding it and placing it in her lap. "Try." "Accio invisibility cloak!" he said. It didn't budge. "Accio invisibility cloak!" he said, a little more forceful. "Careful," James said. "I don't want mine thinking it's being called and springing out of my luggage." "I don't get it..." he said, looking at the cloak, frowning. "Maybe it really is the cloak from the story," James said. "Yeah," Katalina said with a laugh. "And maybe a female Hungarian Horntail would give you her eggs without a fight if you asked her nicely. Kids stories," she concluded quite firmly. "They're made to entertain and teach a lesson. In this one, the lesson is actually the motto of the Ravenclaw House," she said. "'Wit beyond measure is a man's greatest treasure.' While the older brothers asked for material things that could be stolen or misused, the youngest, smartest brother decided to think of something that would fool Death, and hide him and his gift from the rest of the world so it couldn't be stolen." "You mean there're people out there who can actually decipher the hidden lessons?" James said, amazed. She kicked him in the knee this time. "That does hurt," he said, glaring at her and rubbing his knee. "There's a lesson here, too. If it hurts, you shouldn't do it again." "Is the potion still working?" Lily asked. "I don't know," she said, frowning. "Ask me something you've already asked me and I'll try to lie." "What form does your Patronus take?" "A cactus," she said, with no effort. "Wow," Lily said. "I don't think I've gotten that dumb of a sarcastic answer ever before. Even from the idiots." The "idiots" were too busy laughing at the thought of a cactus chasing after a dementor and sticking it in the arse to have heard what Lily had said. After around ten minutes, as they were about done laughing, Sirius said, "I hope my Patronus is a cactus..." That set them off again for another five minutes. "The things they'll laugh at..." Katalina said in amused disbelief to Lily, who was shaking her head at them. "And I thought maybe the new one might be somewhat intelligent. Maybe set them in line," Lily said. She sighed. "Wishful thinking," she said. "No one'll ever be able to set them straight..." ---------- [i]That's the first two chapters. Like I said, I've got about seventeen done so far. At this point, it's not into the true storyline yet, but it's getting there. I will post up more, but I don't want to post up too much at once, I figure two chapters is a decent start, right?[/i]
Hermione1981 Joined: 19 July 2008 Posts: 14 Location: USA	Posted: Friday 22 August 2008 04 50 04 pm    Post subject: Staying strong for all my family and friends! in topic:Staying strong for all my family and friends! [img]http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n281/shannonrosewiley/Harry%20Potter/Stayingstrongforallmyfamilyandfrien.jpg[/img] Full Title: Staying strong for all my family and friends! Summary: This story takes place during Harry, Ron, Hermione along with Bethany (I made up) Sixth year at Hogwarts school of witchcraft and Wizards. Bethany is balance going to school, Being a slayer and raise her and Fred Weasley daughter Lily-May Eileen Weasley and son James Sirius Weasley. Why she is at school and take care of the babies Fred and his twin Brother George are running Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes joke shop at number ninety Three-Diagon Alley. Disclaimer: I do not owner Harry potter characters, there are own by J.K. Rowling, I did make up Bethany and her parents. I also made up The Tonks next door neighbor Mr. and Mrs. Smith’s and their daughters’ Terri. I also made up Luikin wand shop and owner Mrs. And Mr. Luikin. I made up two stores in Knockturn Alley so far there names are Rocks Dark arts creatures store and David’s Dangerous Dark Art Potions shop. Chapter one: Reaching out to Draco Malfoy It is August 3, 1996 at Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes joke shop and the store is packed full of past, currently and future Hogwarts students, so Fred and George are busy helping customers out, Meanwhile Bethany is upstairs in the apartment above the store getting her and Fred two month old (born May 1, 1996) daughter and son Lily-May and James Sirius dress. She can hear the voices of all the customers yelling to eachother downstairs in the stores. She has finish changing James diaper and is takes off his yellow robe. She has just reaches for his orange light weight long sleeve onies t-shirt that has a seahorse on it, when she hears a knock on the apartment door and then the door opening. She looks up to see her cousin Tonks, Remus Lupin, Ginny, Hermione, Harry, Ron, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley standing in the open doorway. Bethany takes a good look at the eight people standing by the door and she notices that Tonks hair is still a mouse brown color instead of the normal purple, which means that she and Lupin are still not seeing eye to eye. Remus Lupin: You should keep the door locked! Tonks: Give her a break, besides Bethany know that the two of us were coming over. Remus Lupin: But with he who must not be named back she needs to be careful. Mr. Weasley: And I am sure she will for now on. Bethany: I could hear you coming and Fred’s forget to lock the door on his way out. Mrs. Weasley: We come in through the door at the back of the building because Ginny, Hermione, Harry and Ron wanting to stop in and see Lily-May and James Sirius before going into the joke shop. Ginny: Mom we wanting to go to the shop first, but you want to come up here first and see you grandchildren! Ron: Yeah, don’t blame us! Hermione: Lilly-May and James Sirius has getting so big since the last time I sew them before going home for the summer. Bethany: I know James Sirius wight seven and half lbs now and Lilly-May weights eight and half lbs. Ron: And look Bethany even get back into her pre-pregnancy clothing. Mrs. Weasley: Ron that the wrong way to say it, you should have say Bethany you look great and I notice you lost the baby weight, which you did Bethany. Bethany: Thanks Mr. Weasley: Is that a muggle double stroller over by the chair Bethany? Bethany: Yes. Mr. Weasley runs over to the double stroller and starts to look it over, as Hermione, Ginny and Harry walk over to Bethany and the babies and the three of them seat down on the floor around the babies and Bethany. Ginny, Hermione has taken over getting Lily-May dress. Ginny pulls in her pink shirt over Lily -May head and the little girl laughs . Hermione then pulls Lily Skirt that is pink, green and white with pink and green polka dot skirt on. Once the skirt is on her niece Ginny puts on Lily socks which are pink, white and green shock that has pink, orange and red flowers on them. Harry turns James Sirius towards him and then button up his long sleeve onies t-shirts. Harry then picks up the tan pants and puts them on James Sirius . Harry then puts James Sirius tan and orange booties on his feet and then Ron pick James Sirius up off the floor and is now holding his nephew. Tonks walk over to the couch and set down, why Remus Lupin stays standing and walking around the room. Mrs. Weasley stands by the door till the babies are dress then goes over and set down next to Ginny. Just in time for Lily-May to need a diaper change. Ron: What is that smell, that come from by Hermione, Ginny and mom? Mr. Weasley: I believe that Lily-May has bowel movement Ron! Mrs. Weasley: Mind if I change her diaper Bethany? Bethany: No, you can change her diaper. Mrs. Weasley take off Lily-May Skirt then takes the dirty diaper off and clean Lily-May up, she then puts a clean diaper on her and Ginny outs her niece skirt back on. After a few minutes of playing with the babies all four Weasley’s, along with Harry and Hermione leave the apartment and heads down to the joke shop. As Ron is walking out of the apartment, he hands James Sirius to Remus Lupin and Harry heads Lilly-May to Tonks, who still setting on the couch and Remus Lupin is walking around the room with James to claim him down because he has starts to cry as soon as Ron stop holding him. Bethany walk passes the stroller and over to the door for her and Fred room which on the wall that the couch is up against and the door is just after the Antique chair that the strollers up against. Bethany walks into the room and grabs the diaper bag. She walks out of the room and starts to pack up the diaper bag with a couple changes of clothing for both babies. She also puts diaper and baby wipes. Remus Lupin: I see you still plan on taken James Sirius and Lilly-May with you to Borgin and Burkes to talk with Draco! Tonks: You don’t have to taken them we could watch them for you Beth. Bethany: I know, but I thought it might help to soften Draco up some, if the smallest members of the family are with me. Tonks: But aren’t you worry about what other witches and Wizards are going to thinks about you going into Knockturn Alley with them and for they safe once there? Bethany: I going to be careful, so not too many people see us and no one will touch them because they know I beat them up if they lay a hand on either one of my babies. Remus Lupin: At lest let me or Tonks come with you! Bethany: No, the two of you need to talk, so stay here in the apartment since no one going to be empty for a couple hours and talk to eachother. Remus Lupin: It will not solve anything, Bethany! Bethany: Tonks love you Lupin and I know that you love for Tonks too. Remus Lupin: You need to get going. Bethany: Not to you and my cousin agree to talk to eachother, Let Tonks no what you worry about and let Tonks share her feeling with you Lupin. Remus Lupin: Fine, but for now on you stay out of my personal life Bethany, I am your watcher and ex -teacher! Bethany: Fine, I have to grab some baby items out of the kitchen. Bethany then walks past the love seat and into the kitchen with the diaper bag and walks over to the shelves on that on the wall to the right as you enter the kitchen. Tonks carrying Lily-May and Lupin carrying James Sirius fellow Bethany into the kitchen where Bethany takes three twenty-oz bottles of water of the top shelf and puts them into the diaper bag. Bethany then puts baby Formula into each of the six bottles and puts the nipples onto the bottles. Then Lupin puts on the screw ring to hold the nipples in places, as he finishes screwing on ring Tonks puts the cup on the bottle. After all six bottles are ready Bethany puts them into the diaper bag. Remus Lupin: Bethany are you going to go and get your school supplies why you are out? Bethany: Yeah Remus Lupin: Ok, I will be here when you get back, that way you can tell me how it went with Draco. Bethany: Ok The three of them head into the living room and Remus Lupin walks over to the double stroller and lays James Sir