GUESS WHAT....you might have read this story before and been like, hey...I remember this...but that stupid author took it down. Well, guys, I took it down so I could finish the story, and you wouldn't have to wait forever and a day for every part to come out!
A Muggle's Secret
a/n: this is my very first fanfiction! Yay for me!.This first part is all fluff, but I hope it gets better. I'm sorry if I spelled any of the names wrong, and I wasn't sure about the date either. Wasn't it 1992 when Harry was a first year? I think so... Anyways.....PLEASE REVIEW!!!
Disclaimer: Anything you recognize is J.K. Rowling's.
Chapter One: The unexpected letter
July 27th, 1997 was my sweet 16th birthday. It was also the day my life changed forever. I had been preparing for weeks for a huge party to celebrate. Everyone from school was supposed to be there. A few hours before my friends were scheduled to arrive, the weirdest thing happened.
I heard an odd sound at our front door, so I went our to investigate. My mom was already there with a letter in her hand.
"Where did that come from?" I asked incrediously.
"I'm not sure, Katie," she said, "It didn't come in the mail. Someone must have slipped it through the cat door, but I opened up the front door, and no one was around."
"Well, open the letter!" I said impatiently.
"It's for you, honey," she replied.
"Hmm...must be a birthday card." I took the letter, and realized with a start that it was written on this really weird yellow parchment, with emerald green lettering. Sitting down, I opened up my mail, and read it, growing increasingly suspicious with each sentence. Finishing it up, I silently handed it over to my mom. She took the letter from my hand and read it out loud.
"Dear Miss Olsen, This may come as a shock to you, but I am writing to inform you that witches and wizards really do exist. We are real, not just in children's tales. However, this is not the purpose of my letter, which is to ask for your assistance in aiding the wizard population (particularly those of England) to defeat the evil Lord Voldemort, and prevent him from controlling our population. I will arrive at 6:00pm on the 27th to discuss matters further. Thank you very much for your cooperation. Sincerely, Albus Dumbledore, Hogwarts Headmaster. P.S. Happy birthday."
Having finished the letter, my mom silently set it down on our coffee table and collapsed on the couch.
A million thoughts ran through my mind. Who wrote the letter? What was with all the nonsense about witches and wizards? Did they really write it from England? England was thousands of miles away from LA, California. How did they know it was my birthday? What was going on!?
"Well, this Albus Dumbledore should be here by now anyways," my mom said, "This is the strangest prank letter I have ever seen---holy shit Katie! There's someone behind you!"
I turned in my chair and with a gasp, realized that there was an extremely odd looking old man behind me. He had twinkling light blue eyes, and long, long white hair. Oddly enough, I wasn't scared at all. Instead, his appearance seemed to confirm one of two things: either I was going crazy, or this was all true. And I felt sane enough, so I had to believe the second thought.
"Good afternoon ladies," he said in a pleasant English accent. "As you have probably guessed, I am Albus Dumbledore, and you," he said, looking at me, "must be Katie." Stunned, my mother opened her mouth, trying to speak, yet failing miserably.
"Umm...p-please sit down Mr. Dumbledore," I stuttered.
""Proffessor, please." Sighing, he looked back and forth between my mom and me before saying, "You probably don't believe a word of this, do you?"
My mom slowly shook her head at the same time I nodded to show I did.
"Good then! At least one of you does. Maybe this won't be so hard after all. Mrs. Olsen, I'll try to offer you some proof." Professor Dumbledore stood up and reached inside of his funny looking clothes. He pulled out what I could only guess to be a wand, and proceeded to turn our coffee table into a chicken and back.
"H-how did you do that?" my mother asked in astonishment.
"Magic," he replied, as he flicked his wand again, sending a dozen pink bubbles floating through the air.
"I believe you, Professor, but I have to ask you, why on earth would you want help from a non-witch-"
"Muggle," he corrected.
"Muggle? Okay, from a muggle who lives so far away from England?!"
"Well, I'm not exactly sure yet as to why, but Professor Trewlany, our school divination Professor, has predicted you to be the key to the downfall of Lord Voldemort,"
"Well, how long will that take?" my mom asked, "you know she has school again in a month."
I would have no way of knowing," he replied, "It could take a month, a year, or more."
"A year!" My mom shrieked, "Tell me how, exactly is Katie supposed to continue her education surrounded by wizards in a strange country?
"If you will agree to come, Katie, I will modify your school district employees' memories so that they will believe you are involved in an exchange program. And you will also be able to keep up with your studies secretly at our school."
"Why secretly?" I asked.
"Well, our minister of magic won't believe that Voldemort is back in power again, and muggles aren't normally allowed to know about magic, so he would get pretty angry if he knew I was telling you all about our world."
I looked at my mom. "So... what do you think?" I asked.
I could tell it was hard for her to let go of her baby girl, but eventually my mom spoke.
"I think you should go if you really want to." That settled everything.
"If you are able to be ready by tomorrow morning, meet me at the main entrance to the airport at 9:00am. We will be taking a plane because you obviously can't apparate."
"Apparate?"
"Exactly. I wish you a good evening." And with a faint 'pop,' he vanished.
At my party that night, I said my 'goodbyes,' telling my friends about the awesome 'exchange program' I was allowed to take part in. Once everyone was gone, I quickly packed and tried to get some sleep.
The next day, my mom drove me to the airport where we met up with Professor Dumbledore.
"Bye honey. Take care and remember I love you." She handed me a wallet full of money.
"I will and I love you too." My mom kissed me on my cheek and slowly walked back to her car.
"Ready, Katie?" Professor Dumbledore asked.
I picked up my suitcase and replied in a remarkably calm voice, "As ready as I'll ever be."
During the plane ride, Dumbledore filled me in on Voldemort's history, and a boy named Harry Potter's life story. I learned that I would be working with Harry to try to figure out how to defeat Lord Voldemort.
He had just finished talking when our plane landed. We walked down the streets of London until Dumbledore stopped in front of a small alley, and motioned for me to go in. Skeptical, I raised my eyebrows, but walked forward and realized I was in some kind of bar.
"Welcome to the Leaky Cauldron. This is where you will be staying until the school term starts. I will send Hagrid, our games keeper and teacher, to take you out to buy supplies tomorrow. You're in room 16. Get some rest." With that, Dumbledore vanished, leaving me to my thoughts.
Chapter 2: The magical world
The next morning I awoke, and went downstairs to find Tom, the bartender, had prepared me breakfast. He then pointed out a giant of a man walking through the door as Hagrid.
"Katie, good, yer done!" he said cheerfully. "We have a busy day fer us."
Thanking Tom for breakfast, I got up and followed Hagrid out the door. Our first stop was to Gringotts, a bank run by goblins, where I traded in my 'muggle' money for wizard money. Hagrid showed me the difference between Galleons, Sickles, and Knuts. I felt is was much easier to deal with ones, tens, and twenties.
"Now we've go to make yeh look like a witch," Hagrid said.
"You know what I am?!" I asked, astonished.
"Sure. All the teachers do. I happen ter have a supplies list for sixth years somewhere in this coat, ah, here it is. Yeh will need some robes an' books...I don' think yeh should go to Ollivander's for a wand. He could tell yeh aren' a witch."
We walked to Madam Malkin's Robes for all Occasions, and bought some stylish trim black robes for school, and an extremely pretty pale blue dress for formal wear, with a purse, shoes, and jewelry to match.
I then loaded up on spellbooks, a cauldron, and potion ingredients, before heading over to the owl emporium to buy a pet owl. I found it fascinating that they could be mail carriers. I found a perfect snowy white owl with sparkling green eyes. I had a sudden urge to call her, 'Lily,' and when I told Hagrid this, he went all misty-eyed.
Once I had bought everything I needed for school, including stacks and stacks of more oddly looking parchment, and strangely enough, not pencils and gel pens, but quills and bottles of ink. There was scented ink, changing color ink, and ink that would keep changing from visible to invisible and back again.
Hagrid gave me a map of London which showed the way to King's Cross station, and gave me my ticket for the Hogwarts Express, which set out of September 1st.
"If yeh have any problems, jest send Lily with a note fer me an' I'll come an' help."
"Thanks a lot Hagrid," I said. See you at Hogwarts.
I spent the next month pouring through my schoolbooks, learning so many fascinating facts. In my history of magic book, there was a whole chapter on the famous Harry Potter!
I also spent my days wandering through the various shops. Inside a shop called, "Quality Quidditch Supplies" I bought a book on the popular wizard sport, and almost screamed out loud when I realized the pictures were actually smiling and waving at me. The thing that got my attention the most, however, was the aisle of brooms. A salesperson saw me staring at them, and offered to let me take a "test drive" on one of them. I chose a Nimbus 2000, because it looked pretty cool, and I wasn't about to spend all of my money on a 2001 or a Firebolt.
I followed him out the back of the shop, and on to an expansive lawn.
"First," he said, "In a clear voice, say 'up.'"
"Oh no," I thought, "magic." But I said 'up' anyway, and the broom flew up waist high, ready for me to climb aboard. I did so, and suddenly felt like I knew what to do. I brought the broom in the sky, and did loops and spirals for about ten minutes, before landing and buying it.
Before I knew it, the month was up, and I was outside the Leaky Cauldron, calling a cab to take me to King's Cross, because there was no way I was going to walk with all of my luggage. (A/N: are there taxis in London? I wouldn't know, I've never been there.).
At the station, I pulled out my ticket for the first time and saw that I was supposed to leave from platform 9 3/4. I walked over to platform nine, then to ten, and back to nine, but I couldn't see a 9 3/4. I looked back down at my ticket, thinking I had read it wrong.
"Need some help?" a voice asked. Raising my head, I saw that I was looking into the sparkling green eyes of a teenage boy, who had the most awesome looking crazy black hair I had ever seen. (Of course, living in California, I had seen a lot, but this looked so...natural.)
"Yes, thank you," I replied gratefully, "I can't find platform 9 3/4." Smiling, he walked to the barrier between the two platforms and motioned for me to follow. We leaned against them, and the craziest thing happened: we fell through, and I gasped as I saw a scarlet train labeled, 'Hogwarts Express' in front of me.
"Wow. Thanks, umm..." I started.
"Harry Potter," he supplied, smiling. So this was the famous Harry Potter. I could get used to this guy..
"Hi, I'm Katie Olsen."
"Are you from America?" he asked.
"Yeah, California, how did you-oh." I felt pretty stupid. I was the only one there without an accent. Or did that mean I had an accent?
"So why are you going to Hogwarts?" Harry asked.
"I'm in an exchange program."
"Wow. I didn't know we did that. Let's go get seats."
Almost all of the compartments were full, except one in the back, where we sat down. As soon as we did so, however, two more people walked in: an extremely tall boy with flaming red hair, and a girl with huge bushy brown hair. They were arguing about something, and obviously didn't see us.
"We're just FRIENDS Ron!" She was yelling, "You do know what that means, don't you?"
"Yeah, friends who spend every summer together."
"You and Harry spend your summers together, why can't Victor and I?"
"Harry is a-Oh, hi Harry, I didn't see you."
"Hey guys, this is Katie. She is an exchange student from the states,"
"Hi! I'm Hermione, and this is Ron." The girl said, smiling.
They sat down, and we immediately began having a deep conversation about the differences between America and England, when the compartment door slid open. In stepped a pale, blond boy, with two huge thuggish looking boys behind him.
"Hello Potter. Did you have a good vacation with your family?" From what Dumbledore told me about Harry's relatives, there were less than kind, so I figured the boy wasn't friendly with Harry.
"And Weasley, how has your summer been? I heard your brother got a promotion, maybe he'll start sending money so you can afford some decent rags. And mudblood, you're still alive?" He seemed to be taking a stab at everyone in the compartment, so I braced myself for what he might have to say about me.
"Get out of here Malfoy," Harry quietly growled.
"Oh, you have a new friend!" Malfoy exclaimed. (Crap, he saw me.)
"My name is Draco Malfoy, and you are...?" He asked, offering his hand.
"Katie Olsen," I lightly shook his hand.
"Are you from the states?" he asked.
"Yes. Exchange program."
"Well, watch who you make friends with. You don't want to associate with the wrong sort of people. Potter wouldn't listen to me, but I hope you will."
"I see nothing wrong with the people I'm associating with, thank you very much." Now I was starting to get ticked off.
"Suit yourself." And with that, he left.
"Don't listen to Draco," Hermione said, "he's just mean."
We chatted pleasantly for the rest of the trip, (eating the oddest candies) and before I knew it, we were in our robes, riding in horseless carriages, making the short journey to the magnificent Hogwarts castle.
I'm sorry that I Americanized it, but I don't know how to sound British.
A Muggle's Secret part 3
Chapter Three: Hogwarts
A/N: I know I spelled Fleur's name wrong, but I was too lazy to look it up, and I'm very very sorry for it now. I feel bad, but you know who I am talking about.
"Miss Olsen, Mr. Potter, please follow me." We had just walked up the steps to Hogwarts when a very stern looking witch stopped Harry and me, and led us to her office.
"This will only take a minute, don't worry, you won't miss the feast. Katie, I am Professor McGonagall, the Deputy Headmistress and Head of the House for Gryffindor. You know what you are here for, but Harry doesn't. You see Harry, Professor Trewlany actually made another real prediction, which was that Katie would be the downfall of...I hate to say it, but Dumbledore insists...Voldemort. So we sent for her to work with the teachers and you to try and stop him. The giants are already out there, battling the Death Eaters. That is all. We now have to sort Katie. Follow me."
Professor McGonagall briskly wacked into the Great Hall, and we entered after her, just as the last first year was being sorted. I noticed the ceiling was filled with stars. (I read about it in Hogwarts, a History, as well as there was a sorting ceremony of some kind..) Harry left us and took his place at the Gryffindor table. With all eyes on me, I slowly followed Professor McGonagall up to a stool in front of all of the students.
Dumbledore stood up and began to speak.
"Before you all begin eating, I have some announcements to make. First, for the first years to note, the forest on the school grounds is forbidden. Secondly, the defense against the Dark Arts teacher this year is none other than Fluer Declour." There was a lot of cheering for this, and I could have sworn that most of it was coming from the guys.
"And lastly," he continued, "We have an exchange student coming to us from California. Her name is Katie Olsen, and I hope you all make her feel welcome." At that, they started cheering again. Maybe this school just liked to cheer.
"At this time she will be sorted." Dumbledore motioned for me to sit down, and I did. McGonagall gave me an old hat, and told me to put it on my head. The had was so big that it covered my eyes. After a second it started whispering in my ear.
"Ah, so you're the muggle Dumbledore told me about. Well, since I can't go on any witch characteristics, I'll go with what I see. Hmm...Slytherin would be a good choice. I see a huge drive to be the best in everything. Let me guess, you are top of your class, varsity sports..."
"How does it know that?" I wondered.
"So she can think! I told you, I can read your mind...Very smart, hard worker, but the courage is hard to avoid, so I'll say...GRYFFINDOR!!"
I took of the hat, rubbing my ears, as the farthest table started cheering wildly. I caught sight of Harry, Hermione and Ron, and they waved me over to them. I slid in next to Harry, and exclaimed, "The hat talked to me!"
Ron smiled, and said, "You were up there even longer than Harry was when he was being sorted."
"It kept going on about my 'desire to be the best.' How does it pick what house you'll be in?" I seemed to have missed that part in the book, Hogwarts, a History.
Hermione cleared her throat, eyes shining. "Well, it all started back when Hogwarts was founded; there were-"
"Hermione! She doesn't need to be lectured on the entire history of this school!" Ron interjected. "There are four houses. Hufflepuff is for the hard workers, Ravenclaw-brains, Gryffindor-brave, and Slytherin-power hungry, and eager to be the best. You're lucky you weren't put in Slytherin, it turns out all evil witches and wizards."
"That's reassuring," I said, as I helped myself to some mashed potatoes, "Since it wanted to put me there at first."
"Don't worry," said Harry, "It wanted to put me in Slytherin too."
"You never told us that, Harry," said Hermione.
"That's because I thought you guys would think I was evil or something. But if it did the same to Katie, and," (Looking at me), "She's not evil, so I feel more confident now."
I couldn't help but blush when I saw the way Harry was looking at me. I saw Hermione noticed too, because she was looking back and forth between the two of us, which made me blush even redder.
"Umm...Katie?" she asked.
"Yeah?"
"I hate to sound rude, but...are you part Veela?"
Luckily, I didn't have to try to answer that, because Professor McGonagall was walking by just then. "Of course she isn't, Hermione!" she snapped, "But Katie, we do need a word with you."
"Of course," I said as I followed her to the head table. There, Dumbledore introduced me to all of the teachers.
"This is Professor Snape, the potions master. He will be giving you your chemistry homework." Dumbledore pointed out a very sallow and greasy looking man, who appeared to be trying to smile. Proffesor Decluer will be handing out your math homework. Professor Binns will be in charge of your history." I looked up at him, and gasped. It was almost as if he was a...
"Yes, he is a ghost, but still a very fine teacher. Professor Flitwick of the Charms Department will handle English. You know Professor McGonagall, she will be in charge of your foreign language. Professor Trewlany will be in charge of health, though she is not here at the moment for you to meet her. You can attend Hagrid's Care of Magical Creatures classes for fun or a study hall. I think that's everyone. You should head back to the Gryffindors before they all leave for the tower.:
"Thank you," I said, as I left. How was I supposed to remember all of that?
On the way back to my friends, I was stopped by two extremely giggle-ish girls.
"Hi! I'm Lavender! And this is Parvati. We're in Gryffindor too. It's really great that you came! Last year nothing exciting happened."
"I know! And we were wondering, where did you get those stylish robes?" said Parvati.
The girls were so annoying!
"Umm... I've forgotten. Somewhere in Daigon Alley." I looked over Lavender's shoulder and made eye signals to Hermione, who saw what was happening, and rushed to my aid.
"Oh, there you are Katie!" She said, "Can I talk to you about the various temperatures for Dragon blood?"
"Sure," I replied gratefully, "Look, it was really nice to meet you guys! Bye!" And we quickly walked back to Harry and Ron.
"Thank you so much! You're a real lifesaver!" I exclaimed.
"No problem. They can get a little annoying. In fact, that's one of the reasons I'm so glad you're in Gryffindor. Having just the two of them in my room was so boring!"
"Hey guys, can we head up to the common room now?" Interrupted Harry, "I wanted to send Sirius an owl."
"Yeah, let's go," said Ron. "It's so comfortable in there, Katie, you are going to love it."
I spent my evening talking with the three of them, and learning about the castle and the teachers. Ron taught me how to play wizard chess, or I should say, tried to teach me how to play chess. The pieces actually started yelling at me!
Later that night, Hermione brought me up to our dormitory, and I saw I had the bed and dresser next to her's.
Falling asleep, I couldn't help but think this was all unreal, and I would wake up the next morning back in California.
P A Muggle's Secret: chapter 4
Fun in potions
I woke up the next morning to see Hermione's face hovering over me.
"Wake up Katie! We have to go down to the Great Hall and get our schedules!"
Groaning, I managed to mumble, "I'm up, I'm up," before I saw Hermione was back sitting on her bead, reading.
"How can you concentrate this early?" I exclaimed, rubbing my eyes. I fumbled around on my night stand before I found my contacts case, and popped them in. "Ahh, that's better." Wrinkling my nose, I said, "Now what I need is a nice, long shower." Tripping over my pajama pants, I stumbled to the bathroom door, only to find that it was already occupied by either Lavender or Parvatti, who sounded like she was singing in the shower. I grew up with two bathrooms for just my mom and me, so I wasn't used to waiting to take a shower.
After what seemed like an eternity, Lavender came out, and I gratefully went in and took a shower. But it wasn't an ordinary shower. The water kept changing colors, and it sang to me. Whenever I changed the temperature, it would also change the song.
After I was totally ready, I went down to the Great Hall, where they were passing out schedules. First up, we had "potions," or chemistry, with the Slytherins, and in the afternoon, "divination."
Harry, who was sitting next to me, groaned and said, "Are we ever going to get a break from them?!"
"Oh, it can't be that bad." I replied.
"Just wait," he said, "Snape hates Gryffindors, and does everything he can to make us look terrible, and them awesome.
"At least he has to be fair," I said stubbornly. I don't know why, but I've always had this idea of teachers being perfectly fair and not showing favoritism at all. How wrong I was.
After breakfast, we grabbed our books, and walked down to the dungeons, where potions was held. The four of us settled into seats toward the back, on the Gryffindor side. Once everyone was seated, Professor Snape looked around, and caught site of the four of us.
"Ah, I see the dream team has a new addition," he said, "Well, if it wouldn't cause you too much grievance to be separated, I must ask Katie to come forward and talk to me about the extent of which she fell behind last year." I felt my face burning. Everyone was staring at me. For a second, Hermione looked appalled, then quickly returned to normal. Why did he have to make such a mean lie!? Now everyone thought I was either stupid, or a slacker. He could have just said my old school had a different curriculum. I felt a hand on my shoulder and looked up. It was Harry.
"Don't worry about Snape." He said quietly, "He's like that to all of us."
Giving Harry a small smile, I gather myself together, and walked up to Snape's desk.
"Here is your chemistry textbook." He said, "For your homework, read chapters one through five, write a summary, and answer all of the questions. I see no reason why you can't make a potion with the rest, so get back to your seat and get to work."
I hurried back to my friends.
"So, what are we making?" I asked.
"Some stupid potion to make things water resistant." Said Ron. "Fun. Why can't we just use a charm?"
The rest of the potions lesson seemed to last forever. Finally, the bell rang, and we hurried out.
"So Potter," drawled Malfoy as we left, "Finally got tired of the mudblood's brains, and went for a stupid girlfriend?"
"Malfoy, you-"
"Careful what you say, Potter, Snape might here you and give you another detention."
I was fuming as we headed back to Gryffindor tower. It took me a moment to realize what he said, though.
"Hermione, you and Harry went out?" I asked.
"No! The only thing that was even close to that was two years ago in a magazine article. The article said we were boyfriend and girlfriend and that I dumped him...long story. Not a word of it was true. Frog Spawn." She said the password and the fat lady swung open for us to enter.
After a twenty minute break, we went down to eat, and then hurried up to divinations. Hermione left Harry, Ron and me, and headed off to her ancient runes class.
This was unlike any classroom I had been in. For starters, we had to climb a ladder to get in. I got to the top of the ladder and looked around,. It was a dimly lit, heavily perfumed room, with tiny rooms. The room itself was that big. In fact, the more I looked, the smaller it got. I grabbed hold of the top rung firmly as the cramped little attic space swirled around and around my head. I tried to take a deep breath and calm down, but pretty soon I was hyperventilating. Harry, who had gone in before me, looked back and saw I wasn't up yet.
"What's wrong Katie?" He asked.
Yeah right. How did he expect me to answer that?! I couldn't breath, let alone make a coherent sentence. Harry bent down to give me a hand up, but my hands were clamped too tightly to the ladder to let go. Somehow I thought that to let go would mean I would drown or something. Managing to loosen my grip, Harry pulled my unwilling body up into the room. I fell into a crumpled heap of the floor, crying and hyperventilating, which isn't a pretty combination. I could vaguely hear someone say, "Get her to a window."
I felt Harry's hands pick me up and drag me to the window. This was just in time, because I leaned out and puked as soon as he let go. Staring out the window for a few minutes, I managed to control my breathing and turn around to face the many pairs of eyes staring back at me. The only word I managed to choke out before collapsing into an empty chair was, "claustrophobic."
Once everybody went back to their chairs, Professor Trewlany began with a roll call. She paused at Olsen, Katie, and said, "Ah, yes, you're the one."
Harry and I glanced at each other, hoping she wouldn't tell everyone why I was here. The last thing we needed was for the whole school to know Voldemort was so close to us. I also had a bigger reason: I was praying she wouldn't accidentally let it spill that I was a muggle.
"The prediction." Once again, everyone in the class was staring at me. Professor Trewlany gazed into my eyes for a moment longer, then looked over at Harry.
"Watch out for her Harry. It will be up to you whether she lives or dies.. Now, on to our study of the ancient tarot cards. I will give each group of three a pack of cards. Take turns deciphering each other's futures using page 78 of Unfogging the Future. Begin."
First, following the directions, I laid out the cards for Ron.
"Okay, let's see here. Umm...I think this funny looking King of Cups means wealth, oh wait, nevermind, that's the Queen. Umm..I think that means something about a secret love. Okay, anyways, and this is the Ace of Swords, right? Yeah, oh, that's bad, terrible suffering, but look at this one, happiness, and wealth."
"How strange," Remarked Ron. "I'll suffer but be happy. Hey, I've got money. I hope it's not Leprechaun gold."
Next, Ron did Harry's fortune. Professor Trewlany chose that moment to walk by us. Looking at Harry's cards, she gasped.
"What now?" Ron asked.
"Death, my dears," she replied.
My eyes opening wide, I stuttered, "D-death?"
"Yes, Katie. That could be his decision about your life. He could die for you." Turning back to Harry, who didn't seem fazed by this news, she said, "Harry, lay out Katie's cards now."
He did so, and surprisingly enough, they were the exact same as his. Professor Trewlany let out a small shriek.
"Two identical futures? Two deaths? My dears, you share the same fortune. Be careful. Poor dears, and yet so young." Professor Trewlany shook her head and glided away.
I was pretty shaken up, but I saw Harry had a small smile playing at his lips.
"What could you possibly have to smile about?!" I asked. "We're both going to die.
"At least she'll quit bugging me about it. You're a new victim to annoy."
"Huh?"
Ron laughed as he picked up all of the cards and took out the best looking ones. "Don't worry, Katie, you're not going to die. Professor Trewlany has been obsessed with the idea of Harry dying since we first entered this room three years ago. Although I admit, it was pretty weird for you guys to have identical cards."
Ron laid out his cards and admired his handiwork. "There, looks like I'm going to have a perfect life."
I smiled at Ron, but couldn't get over the thought that the cards were right.
Later that evening in the common room, Harry, Ron, and I told Hermione about everything that happened in divination.
"What prediction is she talking about?" she asked.
Harry looked at me. "Should we tell them?" He asked me.
I thought for a moment. "Yes, they deserve to know." So Harry and I explained the real reason I was there to Hermione and Ron.
"Are you trying to tell me that Katie is supposed to kill You-Know-Who?" Ron asked skeptically.
"Who?" I asked.
"You-Know-Who." he said, a bit irritated.
"No, I don't...Ohhh! Voldemort!"
Ron shuddered, Hermione's jaw dropped, and Harry smiled at me.
"Don't say that name!" Ron scolded.
"Why not? I asked, "It's better than what was that? Oh yeah, You-Know-Who. That just sounds creepy."
"Katie," Harry said, "He's a 'creepy' guy. But I'm glad you have enough sense to call Voldemort by his real name." He said this while glaring at Hermione and Ron.
The four of us sat and talked about what could happen for a while before we all headed off to bed.
CHAPTER 5
More fun at Hogwarts(I'm running out of title ideas)
The first week of school really flew by. Before I knew it, I had attended the first lesson of each of my classes. I loved Hogwarts and it was beginning to feel like my home away from home. One day during Transfiguration, Professor McGonagall announced that Quidditch try-outs would be held the following Friday. There would be only four openings: two beaters and two chasers. We were supposed to sign up with the new captain of the team, Harry.
Harry smiled slightly and blushed when she said this. I couldn't believe that he hadn't told me, and from the looks on Ron and Hermione's faces, he hadn't told them either. The bell rang, and everyone rushed out, glad to be going down to lunch. I stayed back, however, and handed in my Spanish essay.
"Professor," I started, "Do you think I would be able to try out for Quidditch even if I'm not a..."
"En Espanol, por favor," she replied.
I sighed, cleared my throat, and tried again, "?Puedo jugar Quidditch tambien, por favor?" She smiled at me, and replied, "The fact that you are not a...would have nothing to do with your ability to play Quidditch, so I see no reason why you could not try out."
"Thanks!" I said smiling, as I left her classroom.
When I caught site of my friends down in the Great Hall, I excitedly sat down and told them about my desision to try out.
"That's great!" said Ron, "If Hermione would just try out, we would all be on the team together."
"No thanks. I'd rather cheer you on."
"So what position are you thinking of trying out for?" Harry asked me.
"Well, since I can't throw worth crap, probably beater. I played midfield in soccer, and you need a lot of strength to shove people around, so I think I could use that strength for the position."
"Did you say you played football?"
I turned to see who asked that, and was met with the eager face of Dean Thomas.
"No, actually, I don't." I replied, somewhat confused. "Unless you count t he one week of powderpuff football last spring-ohhh...soccer! Yep, I've played since I was seven."
"Wow! No one else plays around here. They all think I'm nutters for liking it more than Quidditch."
"That's because there's no point to it. You are nutters." Interrupted Ron. "You don't even get to fly."
"No, but you can run!" I said. Run. That reminded me: I hadn't been running since Dumbledore had come to my house weeks ago. How was I supposed to keep in shape for soccer?! Then it finally hit me. There would be no school soccer team. There would be no homecoming. There wouldn't even be a Thanksgiving! How on earth could I let myself leave all of my friends and everything I had grown up with to try and kill this unstoppable man that everyone feared. I mean, everyone even feared to say his name out loud. Why did I let myself do this!? Why did my mother let me do this!?
"Hello? Katie? Are you alright?"
I snapped out of my thoughts and saw Harry looking at me with concern in his eyes.
"Wha-oh. Hi Harry."
"Are you all right?" he repeated.
"Yeah. You know what? I'm going for a run." With that, I got up and grabbed my backpack.
"But Katie," Harry protested, "You haven't even touched your sandwich."
"You can have it. I'm not that hungry anymore." I raced up to the common room and into my dormitory. I opened my dresser, and after a few minutes searching, pulled out a running outfit. Thankfully, I had brought my entire wardrobe with me to Hogwarts. I was just about to change, when I heard a timid knock on the door. I waked over and opened it, and was met with none other than Harry Potter.
"Is everything okay?" He asked.
"Of course it is!" I responded sharply. Actually, it was a little sharper than I had intended. Okay, a lot.
"I'm sorry!" He quickly said, "I was just wondering, and I didn't think you would want to miss Defense Against the Dark Arts." I smacked my hand to my forehead. How could I have forgotten!?
"Look," I started, "I'm really sorry. I didn't meant to just jump all over you like that."
"Hey, it's okay. I'm sure we're all a little stressed right now."
I sat down on the closest thing I could find, which happened to be Lavender Brown's bed.
"I know, but there's just so much pressure. I mean what do they expect us to do? We're just kids." Leaning back against the wall, I brought my knees up to my chest and hugged them. "I don't want anything to happen to anyone....It's just so scary."
Slowly, my eyes welled up with tears, and event though they were unwelcome, soon I had fat teardrops rolling down my cheeks and off my chin. Harry sat down next to me and tentatively put his arm around me. "It's okay," he said, "I'm scared too, but we can get through this. I know we can."
I sniffed, and leaned up against Harry, just for a second to regain my composure. But a second turned to a minute, which turned to two, and soon I was peacefully drifting off to sleep, but not before I vaguely realized that Harry's head had dropped, and was now resting on top of my own.
"Katie? Are you in here?"
My eyes snapped open to the sound of the voice. It was Hermione's.
"Oh, there you are. Why weren't you in Defense Against th-Harry?!"
I realized with a start that I was still in Harry's arms. I guess he did too at the same time, because we both jumped up and off the bed. I could feel my face burning, but I hoped it wasn't as red as Harry's.
Ron came in behind Hermione, and said, "Harry wasn't in our dormitory." Then, when he saw what was going on, with a sly grin, said, "Come on, Hermione. I think we're interrupting something." I could feel my face blushing even more furiously.
"Ron!" I cried, "We weren't doing anything!"
Harry spoke up. "What time is it anyway?"
"Four thirty," said Hermione briskly. "You missed Defense Against the Dark Arts, and from the looks of it, if we hadn't come in here, dinner too."
Harry groaned. "What was it on?"
"Ghouls," said Ron, "Fleur's not only a good looking-"At a glare from Hermione, he corrected himself, "Average looking, but a good teacher as well."
"I should go get my assignment from her." I said.
"Don't worry Katie." Harry replied, "I'm sure Hermione and Ron copied it down." They both nodded.
"Oh, well, I want to apologize anyway."
"I'll come with you."
So we set off for the DADA room.
As soon as we apologized to Fleur, Harry started walking out the door. But stopped when he saw I wasn't following.
"Go on up to the Common Room." I said, "I'll be right there."
Harry shrugged and went out the door.
I quickly got my math assignment and left too. Then, I realized something. Since it was only my second week at Hogwarts, I had no idea how to get back to the Gryffindor Common Room from the DADA room.
"Harry?" I called. No answer. I slowly began to walk up and down the corridors, looking for something familiar. Finally, the faculty room came into sight, which was close the Great Hall. I was about to pass it, when I heard my name.
"Katie has to be told!" I recognized the voice; is was Snape's. "Voldemort knows she's a muggle and why she's here. He's coming. And he won't stop until he gets her out of his way."
"I don't think we need to worry the girl any further at the moment, Severus." This was McGonagall's. "Later on, when he's closer, maybe, but for now, she's just trying to blend in."
I could hear their footsteps coming towards the door, so I quickly ran out of the hall, and back to the common room. Halfway there, I changed my mind. I needed to go somewhere where I could think. I needed to figure out what I was going to do. I couldn't just let Voldemort come and kill me. I thought of what Harry would do. Knowing Harry, he'd probably set off to go find Voldemort and try to take him on. Yeah, right. I wasn't about the do that. Ron would just, well, I didn't know what Ron would do. And Hermione would probably head straight to the Library. Exactly! That's the one thing I could do. Without a second thought, I turned and ran to the library.
A MUGGLE"S SECRET~PART SIX
Even MORE fun at Hogwarts
I spent hours holed up in the library, pulling books off of the shelves, searching for something, anything, that could help. I had grabbed every single book that had anything to do with the rise and fall of dark wizards, and piled them onto a table. I skipped dinner, and instead spent my time looking for some kind of clue on how I could beat Voldemort.
At around seven thirty-ish, Hermione came into the library and walked over to me.
"Oh, hi Hermione," I said, looking up.
"Hi Katie. We missed you at dinner."
"I've just been stuck in here, reading, trying to figure out how to defeat Voldemort. Where are the guys?"
"At a quidditch meeting with McGonagall, trying to figure out how to run tryouts this year. Do you want some help? The library is my home away from home."
I smiled. "Sure, thanks. I've gone through most of the books that could contain any information, but nothing is really helping me."
Hermione looked thoughtful. "You know what we could do..."she said slowly, "We could ask Dumbledore to sign a paper letting us into the restricted section. I'm sure he would do that considering the situation..."
"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go!"
The two of us quickly headed for Dumbledore's office. Hermione stopped me in front of a large statue of a gargoyle.
"Harry said the password was always a type of candy," Hermione mused, "Hmm...Chocolate Frog? Cauldron Cake..." Hermione started naming every kind of candy she could think of, ticking them off on her fingers.
I was just about to become exasperated, when the statue turned, and out stepped Dumbledore himself.
"Hello girls," he said smiling, "What brings you two here?"
"Actually sir, we were trying to get in to talk to you, but we didn't know the password." I answered.
"I named off every candy I could think of," said Hermione, "Oh! Except pepper imps." The gargoyle opened once more.
"I see you have found out my password," Dumbledore said, with a twinkle in his eye, "Now, tell me, why were you so eager to visit me in the first place?"
"We were in the library doing research on the rise and fall of dark wizards to see if there might be anything helpful in there. The only problem is, there isn't anything. So, Katie and I were wondering if you could sign a pass allowing us into the restricted area of the library, because there might be something useful." Hermione finished, and we both looked pleadingly at Dumbledore.
"All right girls, but be careful with what you look at." He pulled a paper and pen out of the air, and signed a note.
We both thanked him, and headed back to the library. There, we showed Madam Pince our note, who pursed her lips, but didn't say anything, and headed straight for the back.
Hermione and I sat on the floor in between the bookshelves. I looked around at the books. No wonder this was the restricted section. The books had the most morbid titles, and some were covered in a red, gooey substance that resembled blood just a little too much for my taste.
"Well, we better get started sometime!" I said with false cheerfulness.
Carefully, I pulled a book out from the bottom row and skimmed through it. This was the most revolting thing I had ever seen. It had step by step instructions on turning yourself into a demon. I quickly put it back, and picked up another book. This was perhaps worse than the first, because this one, labeled, 'One Hundred Hexes and Curses,' actually had graphic pictures about what each of the curses did. There were pictures with people's heads on their stomachs, pictures of a man with a dog's head, and pictures of people that had multiple eyes on various parts of their bodies. It was sooo disgusting, and I had the worst urge to throw up.
After about an hour of searching, I heard Hermione say, "This is interesting."
"What???" I asked, eager for any information that could be of use.
"Well, this book has a chapter on the spell Voldemort is most famous for, Avada Kedavra. That's the spell that killed Harry's parents. Well, I guess there are limitations for it."
I sat up, intrigued by this news.
"Like...Oh! You can't kill someone you love if you would honestly rather die yourself...Umm, you can't kill someone if someone else has died to save them. That's what happened with Harry. Let's see, oh! Weird, you can't commit suicide using this spell, because that's not what it was meant for. Wow. And there's a whole lot more. I wonder if You-Know-Who knows about these."
"Probably not, because he would have prepared for that when he was going to kill Harry. Hey, I was wondering, why did Voldemort want to kill Harry anyway?"
"Dumbledore told Harry that at the end of last year. See, the Potter family are descendants of Godric Gryffindor, which means that they had the potential for the same power and magic ability as You-Know-Who, who is a direct descendant of Slazar Slytherin. You-Know-Who knew about this, and attempted to kill them all to rid himself of any competition. Well, you know, the spell backfired, and poor Harry was left with Gryffindor and Slytherin blood. That's why You-Know-Who wants to kill him so badly now. If Harry becomes fully trained, he could have double the power of You-Know-Who."
"Wow." Was all I could say. I sat there, stunned, for a few moments, then, yawning, I looked at my watch. "Maybe we should continue this search another day. Right now, I just want to relax in the common room.
"Yeah, you're right," said Hermione.
So we gathered our stuff, and headed back to the Gryffindor Tower.
Friday afternoon came way too quickly. I couldn't find much more time to go to the library what with running, and my huge pile of homework for all of my classes, not to mention still trying to find my way around the castle. I don't know if it was my imagination or what, but it seemed like the hallways and staircases were constantly moving around behind my back.
Ron, Harry, and I grabbed our broomsticks that afternoon, and headed down to the quidditch field. I glanced down at the brooms that they were carrying. Ron had an old cleansweep 5, with the name, Fred Weasley, etched into the side, and Harry had a firebolt. He must have some really good friends, I thought, because when I went to buy my broom, the firebolt cost more than everything I had bought together!
When we got there, I noticed there were a ton of people I was trying out against. I was starting to feel nervous, because I was probably the only one who had never played a game of quidditch in her life.
Once everyone was on the field, Madam Hooch, who was overseeing the tryouts, separated the people trying out for beater from those trying out for chaser. We got in two lines, and, four at a time, joined an ongoing quidditch game that the rest of the team was playing. These other players consisted of: Harry as seeker; Ron as keeper; and surprisingly enough, this really annoying guy that followed Harry around, as a chaser. I couldn't remember his name, but Colin or Kyle sounded familiar.
By the time it was my turn, I couldn't wait to start playing. I hadn't been on my broom since the day I had bought it in Diagon Alley. I mounted my broomstick, and flew into the air. The practice game we were having was against the Hufflepuff team, which had been chosen the day before. They were supposed to be pretty easy, but from what I had been watching, they looked pretty tough. The other beater I was trying out with looked really young, probably second or third year.
As soon as I got up into the air, I remembered the thrill of flying. This time, however, I was not as free as before. I clutched my baseball bat-type club, and looked around for any beaters. Whenever I spotted one flying in the general direction of our team, I tore after it and slammed it in the other direction. I was having so much fun, and was sad when we had to switch places with the next four hopefuls.
I had only just landed when Professor McGonagall came rushing out onto the field. She immediately called the players to the ground and took Ron aside. I was the closest to them, so I heard McGonagall say, in a sad voice, "Ron, if you could come with me to Dumbledore's office,"
Harry came up to her, and said, "Professor, what's going on?"
"You two better come too," she replied, after looking at us for a moment.
Harry and I followed the two of them up and into the school. She motioned for Harry and me to stay at the stone gargoyle, and led Ron to Dumbledore's office. The two of us sat with our backs against the wall, barely talking, for about ten minutes.
Finally, the statue moved, and out raced Ron, eyes bloodshot, head in his hands.
I scrambled to my feet. "Ron?" I called.
Harry, too, was standing, a look of shock on his face. "Ron was crying," he said, "Ron never cries."
"I think you should give him some time alone." said a somber voice behind us. It was Dumbledore's, and for the first time since I had met him, his eyes weren't twinkling.
"What happened, Professor?" I asked.
"Come into my office, and I'll explain it to you two."
We silently followed him up the winding staircase, and through the door into his office. When everyone was seated, Dumbledore started to talk. He told us about how the Weasleys had been working endlessly since Voldemort had returned to power, to get people in the Ministry of Magic (where Arthur worked) to realize that Voldemort was back. He told us how Voldemort had spies in the Ministry who had seen what was going on. They reported this to Voldemort, and one day, Molly Weasley had come home to find the Black Mark hovering over their house. She raced inside, and found Arthur laying in the middle of the living room, dead.
Ron's dad was killed.
I sat, stunned in my chair. Did Dumbledore just say what I thought he had? Poor Ron, his father was...dead. I glanced over at Harry, who too was looking shocked.
"Oh-my-God," was all I managed to utter.
Harry stood up. "We have to find Ron," he said.
"Don't you think you two should give him some time with his family," Dumbledore responded.
"The Weasleys are like my family. They accepted me before anyone else did. Ron has been as close to a brother to me since I was eleven. I am going to go talk to him." With that, Harry stood up, and grabbed my hand, leading me out of the office and towards the common room.
When we got there, the Fat Lady smiled down at us and said with a smile, "Ooh, young love is so sweet."
With a start, I realized I was still holding on to Harry's hand, and apparently he did as well, because we both let go at once, and backed away from each other.
"Ummm...frog spawn," I mumbled, and crawled through the portrait, with Harry following. We both looked around the room, searching for Ron.
"There he is!" whispered Harry, pointing to the corner of the room. But that didn't look like the Ron I knew. He was embracing a girl, I couldn't tell who she was from the back, VERY tightly.
"No," I whispered back, "Ron doesn't have a girlfriend."
"Don't be silly, that's not his girlfriend, that's Hermione. He probably just told her. Come on, let's go see how he is."
But I pulled Harry back to our corner, because at that moment, Hermione and Ron both lifted their faces. Hermione lifted her hands to Ron's face, and gently wiped off his tears.
"Somehow, Harry," I said, "I don't think Hermione needs our help comforting him."
"That's for sure. Wow, I feel kind of weird watching this."
I snapped my head back to Harry just as they were about to begin something a little more than hugging. "Agreed. It is kind of cute that they're together, though."
"I know, I've been waiting for this for a few years." He looked down at the ground, and traced the carpet pattern with his shoe. "There is one thing that's bugging me, though."
"What is it?"
"Well, I didn't know you'd be so happy about it. I mean, I thought you-you gave me the impression that you-well, I thought you liked Ron."
"What would give you that idea?" I asked, amazed.
"Well, I don't know, I didn't want-I mean, I hoped that you didn't-I thought maybe Ron was more your type than..."
He suddenly became very interested in the floor, while I was dragging the cross on my necklace up and down the chain, having nothing better to do with my hands. Slowly, I looked up at him, and managed to speak.
"You mean, more my type than...you?" I asked hesitantly. If that wasn't what he meant, I was about ready to go crawl into a ditch.
He smiled slowly, "Yes...me."
There was a short pause, and then Harry hesitantly asked, "Was...was I right?"
I looked into his bright green eyes, and knew the answer. I smiled slightly and said, "Not at all."
He leaned forward; we were inches away from each other, and the gap was rapidly closing.
"Hi Harry! Hi Katie! What are you two doing?" We were interrupted by the kid that had been trying out for quidditch.
"Hi Colin," said Harry, exasperated, "We're fine. How are you?"
Colin! That was his name!
"Good! Guess what?! Madam Hooch put up the quidditch team roster for this year, and guess what?!/! My brother's going to be on it with us!!!!! Isn't that going to be so much fun?!?!?! You're on it too, Katie!!!"
"That's great, Colin," I said smiling. Looking over at Harry, I saw he was frowning slightly. "What's wrong, Harry," I asked.
"I wonder why she didn't wait for me to come back. I thought I was going to help with the decision."
"I'm sure she didn't think you were coming back," I pointed out, " I didn't think you were planning going back anytime soon."
Harry grinned, "Actually, neither did I. Look! I think Hermione has finished comforting Ron, let's go see how he's doing. Excuse us, Colin."
"Sure Harry!" Colin scampered off in the other direction.
The two of us were making our way over to the couple in the corner, (who were now just talking) but I stopped dead in my tracks as we passed the fire. It must have been my imagination, but I thought I saw a-a head in the fire. Slowly, I looked back, and sure enough, there it was: a plump lady with hair the color to mach the flames. She was blowing her nose into a kleenex at the moment. I backed up, and called out for Harry to come back, in a shaking voice.
"What is it, Katie?" He asked, "Oh, hello Mrs. Weasley, are you okay?"
"I've been better, dear."
When she spoke, I let out a small shriek, an jumped behind Harry.
"Is she-dead?" I whispered in his ear.
"No, no! It's like using a muggle telephone. This is Mrs. Weasley. Mrs. Weasley, this is Katie Olsen, a transfer student from the states."
"Hello dear. Have you two seen Ron? Professor Dumbledore told me that he would probably be in here."
"I'll go get him for you, Mrs. Weasley," I said, and walked over to Ron and Hermione.
"How are you doing, Ron?" I asked, giving him a small hug.
"Better, thanks," he replied.
"Well, your mother would like to talk to you. She's in the fire." I shuddered thinking about that. I didn't mind the ghosts, I didn't mind the moving pictures, but people using fires like telephones? That was just a little much. Ron walked over to Mrs. Weasley, and Harry came over to Hermione and me.
"So, Hermione," he said, with a mischievous twinkle in his eye, "Did you have fun with Ron?"
Her face reddened, but she smiled as well. "Actually, I feel kind of bad, now that I think about it. I hope Ron doesn't think that I was just taking advantage of his poor state of mind."
"Don't worry, Hermione," I said, "Ron looked just as happy about the fact of you two being together as you did."
"Oh my gosh, look at the time! We should start doing our homework!"
"Hermi, it's only Friday," said Harry.
"But you know as well as I do that if we get it over with now, we'll have the whole weekend to goof off."
I shook my head. "You guys can do it if you want, but as for me, I'm going up to my dormitory to go sleep."
"Okay, good night, Katie"
"Night, Katie"
"Night, guys." I went up the stairs and into my room. There, instead of sleeping, I set to work on my chemistry homework.
Now it's time for you to go review this piece of crap, and then frolic on over to the next part!