Catharine
By Gaz
Rated: PG-13 for dark stuff
A tall dark violet haired/eyed girl walks out onto Platform ¾.
Woman: Hello, my name is Gaz. I'm writing this story. This is a redoing of another story I did called Catharine. This time I'm doing it so that the ending I had previously chosen will work out. Now I know that only two people ever read that one, so I expect every one to leave a review. If I don't get one I'll be very mad and never on Earth finish this story. Oh, one last thing. Any and all flamers will be used to charge the batteries of my Game Slave 3000 under advise from a friend of mine. ^_^
Gaz suddenly vanishes from her spot.
"Hey, Black, look," James Potter said grabbing Sirius Black's arm and turning him towards the gateway to Platform 9 ¾.
The two fifth years were happy to get back to school, and even happier that their parents had let them come to the station alone for some very stupid reason. They were standing outside the scarlet train waiting for their friends Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew.
"What?" Sirius asked as a tall (like 5 foot 9 inches) girl walked through the barrier with a woman that looked to be in her mid twenties pushing a cart with her trunk and a large birdcage on top of it. "I don't see them."
The girl had long silvery blue hair that reached down about a foot from the ground. She turned looking in their direction as if she was looking for someone, then said something to the lady with her who instantly went onto the train with the girl's trunk and cage. When she turned towards them, they saw that her eyes were a also a silvery blue color. She wasn't like any other normal witch or anything from the magical/muggle world. She was a light tan color as if she spent a lot of time in the sun, yet she still strangely looked pale as if she put off a sliver light.
"No, the girl, she doesn't go to our school," James said hitting the top of his friend's head semi-hard. "And she can't be a first year, she looks a LITTLE too old for that."
"It is kind of strange," Sirius said as they watched the girl go onto the train.
"Hey, guys," Peter said as he and Remus walked over to where Sirius and James were standing.
"Hey," the two said simultaneously.
"Did you see that girl?" James asked noticing that Remus was looking over at the train as if he had seen a ghost.
"Who the tall girl?" Remus asked.
"Yeah," James said looking over at the gateway to see that Lucas Malfoy was coming through.
"Come on, let's get on before the train leaves us behind," Sirius said pulling the others in the direction of the train.
"Her name's Catharine," Remus said as they went into an empty compartment in the back of the train. "I met her once, my parents were having a dinner party or something, she came with the Malfoys. She's from France I think."
"She's related to the Malfoys?" Sirius asked/stated unbelievingly.
"No," Remus quickly said. "They said that her parents had been good friends of the family before they died and she was spending the week with them while her guardians were in Egypt or somewhere near that."
"Wow, and she looks so nice too," James said with a soft laugh.
"She is, she's very nice, kind of didn't fit in with the picture you get when you see the Malfoy's and the people they're connected with," Remus said right before a lot of noise outside their compartment attracted their attention.
Sirius poked his head out the compartment door only to see that there was a large crowd trying to get into the back compartment, it was the biggest, but there certainly wasn't enough room for everyone that was trying to get in. Amazingly it wasn't only the Slytherins that were trying to get in, though they had been the ones to take the compartment over for them selves years ago.
"There's a big crowd around the Slytherin compartment," Sirius said as the others came towards the door. "I'm getting kind of bored. Let's go check it out."
The others quickly agreed with only a little hesitation from Peter. Slowly they made their way past the last few compartments and through the crowd. They easily made it into the doorway. Once there they saw that Catharine was sitting in the center of the large room surrounded by practically everyone on the bus, a large black owl covered in jewels that were part of it's feathers was flying around out side the window a large package attached to it's feet.
"Oh, my," Catharine said loudly just barely heard by Sirius before she got up and walked over to the window and let the elegant owl in.
As soon as the owl came in Catharine put her hand out and the owl landed on it waiting patiently as Catharine lowered him down to a bench and untied the package. Silently it flew up to one of the luggage racks in the compartments and settled itself down showing no interest in the many people that were watching it.
Catharine carefully un-wrapped the package and pulled a card off the top. As she read it her face became pale white, as if she had seen something she had never wanted to see. Sirius was pushed out of the way by Lucas as he pushed into the compartment. He went straight over to Catharine, instantly her face changed back to the tan color it had been, and a smile replaced the small frown that had formed on her face that seemed to always laugh.
"Bonjour, Lucas," Catharine said in a soft French accent.
"Hello, Rena," Lucas said giving her a hug as everyone started to go back to whatever they had been doing before they went to the back compartment, except for Sirius, James, Peter, and Remus who stayed behind the doorway where no one could see them from inside. (A/N: when I refer to them all together from now on I'm going to call them the Marauders, and I'm also going to call Catharine "Rena" from now on.)
"It's been such a long time," Rena said her smile small and tiny but still sweet and sincere.
"Yes, it has," Lucas said sitting down on the bench next to her. "So what are you doing here? I thought you went to Bauxbattons."
"I did, but since I'm able to go and live with my brozer now in Hogsmead, 'e thought it might be better if I came 'ere instead. So 'e talked to Dumbledore, and 'ere I am," Rena said with a small laugh.
"Did you find out what house you're in?" Lucas asked obviously hoping that she was in Slytherin.
"Oh, yes, I vas pleased when they called me up to Hogwarts tis summer to sort me into the appropriate house," Rena said with a smile.
"You were obviously put into Slytherin, right?" Lucas stated more than asked.
"Acsually, dey put me in Griffindor," Rena said obviously, but not to Lucas who was totally messed up by this point, trying to keep from laughing in Lucas's face.
"But…but…" Lucas never could finish that sentence.
"Oh, Lucas, could 'ou do a little favor for me?" Rena asked jacking up the French accent so that she sounded even cuter than before.
"Anything, just name it," Lucas said even more messed up than before.
"Could 'ou go up front and see if the snack cart weel be coming soon," Rena said flashing this sweet innocent princess look and batting her eyelashes.
"Sure," Lucas said totally falling for it.
"Oh, and could 'ou take this up to Maria, she's up in the front," Rena said taking the package that she had received and handing it to him. "She'll know ezactly what to do wiz it."
"Ok," Lucas said taking the package before running at full speed towards the front of the train.
"Goodness, I thought 'e'd never leave," Rena said just loud enough for the Marauders to hear, but no one else as she stood up. Then, she turned to the elegant owl, and said, "Créstal let's go."
The owl flew down and landed on her shoulder as she grabbed her backpack from the rack and started to leave the room.
"Sirius, Remus, James, Peter, I'm very sorry for not stopping and talking, but I prefer to get away before Lucas gets back," Rena said as she passed the Marauders and started walking down the train.
"Let us be of assistance," Sirius said coming up beside her as the others, not including Peter who was cowering at the moment, followed suit.
"Are you sure you're up to the challenge?" Rena said slyly only a hint of the formally thick accent left. "I mean it can be very tricky hiding from one's enemies."
"Don't worry, Potter here has an invisibility cloak," Sirius said as the group walked up the train looking for an empty compartment, closely followed by Peter.
"Hey, so do you," James said jabbing his friend in the chest.
"Ah, but if you recall, mine was confiscated the summer by my parents cause I wouldn't practice my violin," Sirius said jabbing his friend back.
"Do not worry boys, I have one of my own," Rena said with a devious grin as the group poured into an empty compartment near the front.
Remus and Peter sat on one side, Peter squishing himself into the corner. And James, Sirius, and Rena sat on the other side, Rena near the corner next to Sirius who sat in the middle with James guarding the door, wand ready for anything.
"Does Hogwarts have anything interesting, besides dodging love struck Lucas?" Rena asked after a few moments of awkward silence.
"Yeah, playing practical jokes," Sirius said with a wide grin.
"And bugging Malfoy," James added with the same grin as Sirius.
"Don't forget the Hogsmead trips," Remus added with a grin that wasn't as big as the other's but was still big.
"Or the Yule Ball at Christmas," Sirius said trying to put in the last word.
"Or Quiditch," James said as Rena started backing away from the two as they yelled out random things as they tried to out do each other just for the hell of it.
"Ok, ok, I get the point," Rena said laughing uncontrollably at how funny the two were. Suddenly she became perfectly still, eyes wide open, "What was that?" she asked.
"Probably Lucas looking for you, you may want to hide about now," James said putting is ear to the door, hearing people outside, then removing his ear.
"Ok," Rena said pulling her invisibility cloak out of her backpack and putting it over herself just before Lucas opened the door.
"You guys seen-," Lucas stopped when he realized who it was. Then, sneering he said, "Nah, she wouldn't be hanging out with riff raff like you."
"I call upon the element of wind, blow this moron right out the door," Rena whispered from under the invisibility cloak, loud enough for only Sirius to hear her.
Suddenly a large gust of wind blew Lucas into the door of the compartment across the train. James shut the door before Lucas had the chance to charge in there looking for the one who did it. Carefully, Rena slipped out from under the invisibility cloak, a satisfied look on her face.
"How did you do that?" Sirius asked seeing that her wand was in her backpack.
"Elemental chanting," Rena said with a smile before holding her hand out in front of her face. Then, chanting she said, "Earth turning, Fire burning, Spirit bring to me, a snack so very tasty."
In her hand appeared five chocolate frogs.
"Want one?" she asked offering them to the others.
~*~
"Why are we stopping?" Rena asked as the train came to a stop a few hours later.
Quickly she looked out side; it was a dark as midnight. Suddenly, several shadows started moving in the darkness.
"Shit," Rena said softly. Then louder she said, "I need two of you to come with me. There is something I need to destroy out there."
Just then, there was a scream that filled the whole train. Then, there was complete silence for about two minutes, before Rena stood up.
"Fine, I'll go by myself," she said looking a LITTLE pissed. "If you hear more screaming just hide."
"We'll come," James said pulling Sirius up both a little reluctant to go.
"Ok," Rena said grabbing her invisibility cloak and throwing it to Sirius. "You will need to use this."
Quickly, James grabbed his, before Rena had a chance to leave, pulling them behind without his. Silently they crept down the train towards the train doors. When they got near, Rena motioned for them to put the invisibility cloaks on, and told them to say quiet.
There in the doorway were three full-grown vampires, somehow they had been able to stop the train and break on. Rena crept closer staying in the shadows.
"Fire burning," Rena chanted a fire appeared in her out stretched hand. "Wind blowing," with that the fire slowly started moving side to side. "Water fogging," a fog filled the hall. "Earth growing," a piece of wood appeared in the fire just floating there. "Balance of all elements, Spirit, give me the tools I need to stop the evil," the piece of wood took the shape of a stake.
Carefully Rena held the stake as she crept closer to the vampires, the burning stake lighting her way.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Yes. I live for cliffhangers. This is not the meanest cliffhanger I will do during the period of the story. Actually the last chapter will be one major cliffhanger, turning this story into something that leads up to Happiness…something that I DO NOT do well. ^_^
Gaz