Disclaimer: All materials native to Ms. Rowling's books belong to her, all others belong to me. Please don't sue. I'm in japan and overseas stuff gets complicated. ;
The Morenians
By Kira Jackson
Chapter One
Diagonalley
Living on Diagonalley had its advantages. You can getcheap living above some shops, and you know where every thing is when school shopping comes around. Autumn Trader wandered out of the bookshop, her arms laden with books she had received in exchange for handling the Monster Book of Monsters supply, a copy of which she also required.
The girl was entering her 3rd year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft And Wizardry, in the house of Ravenclaw. Her situation was an odd one. Her parents were dead, and had been so since before she could remember, along with any relatives she might have had. The Ministry of magic had been keeping her at foster family after foster family. Ordinarily they would place her in one and leave it at that. But hers was a special situation. She failed some sort of contamination test when she was younger and now the Ministry was forbidden to keep her with a single family for more than 4 months. No one would give her a straight answer when she asked about the test though, usually pretending they hadn't heard and commenting on the weather or some other ubsurd topic.
Currently, Autumn was living with a family that ran a specialty bookshop on Diagonalley, Todder's Magical Guidebooks and Encyclopedias. She worked for them during the summer in exchange for staying there. Whenever she did extra work she was rewarded with a book of her choosing. Her little room in the attic was nearly stuffed full with books on magical creatures, maps and spells.
For the past few months, Autumn had been working at Ollivanders, fetching wands for the ancient man that ran the place. Every summer she worked at various shops in Diagonalley for money for her school supplies, usually reaping extra due to the before-school rush. In fact, that was how she had gotten her want. She had worked for Ollivander for five months straight during the year before she started school, earning her way to her wand. It was a lovely thing, fashioned of ebony and centered with a dragon heartstring. It was the perfect blend for more powerful spells, but still able to exercise delicacy.
Autumn struggled to balance all the books she had purchased that day as she walked the short distance across the bookstore front to the little door at the side, which lead up to the actual living area.
Her room, oddly enough, was the area above the ceiling and below the roof. The family had run off the ghoul that had lived there so she could stay. Depositing the new books on her bed, Autumn kneeled to pull her trunk from the clutches of the dust bunnies beneath her bed. Plucking the rabbit-like fluff balls from the trunk, much to their squeaking displeasure, she worked the latches open. After a few moments of struggling, she gave the rusty latches a good shot with her fist and tried again, this time the locks opening without difficulty. 'Just gotta bully it a little.' She thought with a smile.
Autumn settled her new books in a lower corner. She grabbed a few books from her shelves, sorting through which ones she wanted to take. "Magical Creatures and Their Ways," "Fliers of the Magical World," "Myths, Not Quite So," "The Spell Book Mummy Told You Not To Read" and various others all went in her trunk. Autumn got up and went over to the far corner of her room. She pushed aside one of the taller shelves of books, wincing slightly as it toppled over. Sighing, she went about her previous task, retrieving her cauldron from behind the book stacks. She moved a few more books aside, these somewhat less noisily, and finally procured her cauldron from the recesses of the book-fortress. Not much bigger than a large cooking pot and fashioned of plain, undecorated pewter, the thing wasn't much to look at.
Setting it down by her trunk, Autumn noticed that it was filled with bits of what looked like her sheets. 'And I thought the last family had mice.' She thought and rooted gently through the fluff. Her surprise reached it's maximum when she found a starved black and blue kitten, mewling in protest at its relocation. Pulling her hands back into her sleeves, Autumn picked up the kitten with her makeshift gloves the fabric of her sweater cushioning the kitten's weak little body. She crooned softly, cradling it against her chest.
"Hush kit. You're all right. You're okay, little Nightmare." Autumn said, naming the kitten on impulse. She sat down on her bad and examined the little thing. It looked as though the poor baby hadn't eaten in a week or two. Its ribs showed through its fur. She carefully set the little thing down on her pillow, laying it on its back. Deducing that her new charge was male, she grabbed a ruined old book bag, filling it with a few handkerchiefs and some pigeon feathers. As soon as the kitten was settled, Autumn turned to her little library, searching for Nightmare's species.
After a few minutes of searching, she came up with one of her first books, "The Other Side of Cats, A Magical Feline Encyclopedia." Flipping through its pages she landed on a topic that looked promising. Black Cats Worthy of Superstition. She scanned down the description listing. Black and red, black with red eyes, there! Black and blue.
"The Kudun, among the rarer breed of magical cats, is not unlike the average domestic cat at first glance. Upon closer examination, one would find that their coats, while appearing to be black, are laced with dark blue, being most prominent around the eyes. The eyes themselves are considered their most beautiful features. Usually, they are red, laced with silver and black. Other colors may include green, purple and gold. On very rare occasions, the eyes are blue. Details are sketchy, but it is said that only one of these blue eyed Kudun are born every decade. Kudun live to be approximately fifty years of age, but are known to outlive their owners at times, and mature at three years. In some wizarding communities, a Kudun living in or near one's house is a sign of good luck. Little is known about the magical properties and abilities of the Kudun. However, it is rumored that they possess the telepathic capabilities and are able to perform magic. By some, they are even considered sentient."
Storing that information for a later date, Autumn scanned for that the Kudun eat, finding their diet to be the same as an ordinary cat. Gathering Nightmare in her arms, Autumn went down the ladder and into the kitchen.
"Mrs. Todder?" She said, finding the woman scouring a pan at the sink. "I found this little guy sleeping in my cauldron. Is there any chance I can keep him?" She asked, giving the matronic woman her best puppy face. "I'm leaving tomorrow so he'd only bother you for a little while. And he'll get rid of mice once he's bigger.
"Oh hush you! You needn't have souped it up that much. Of course you can keep him." The woman took a moment to examine the little kitten. "Well, let's get this little fellow some milk. He looks starved Even better, I'll ad some butter to it."
"Do cats like butter?"
Apparently this one did. Nightmare drank the entire bottle that had been given him. The little mite cage a rather large yawn and promptly fell asleep in Autumn's arms.
"Oh dear, the poor thing's exhausted. You take him upstairs and I'll make him some more of that mixture for your trip." Mrs. Todder said, shooing her back upstairs.
Autumn settled Nightmare back into his little nest, going back to her packing.
Not too long after, she discovered she needed new quills, robes and several other items of necessity. Tossing the "The Other Side Of Cats" into her case, she dumped her cauldron out behind the stack of books she got it from, then crammed her boots and a couple pairs of shoes in it, turning it upside down over the books within her trunk. Autumn tucked her wand in the front pocket of hear oversized, deep blue sweater which had been made for her by the grandmother of the previous foster family. She pulled the soft fluffy material over her head and struggled to get her arms through the sleeves. Despite the fact that it was summer, Autumn was always at least a little bit cold. The catch however, was that she felt that temperature year round. It was almost like she was permanently stuck in autumn, however ironic it may seem.
Standing to go, Autumn's eyes fell on Nightmare, sleeping sweetly in his little bed. In an unexpected surge of estrogen, Autumn decided to take him with her. Carefully she cradled his warm little body in her hands, removing the wand from her front pocket and sliding the kitten in it's place, relocating the wand in the belt of her jeans.
An insistent tapping on the circular little window stopped before she had descended the ladder. She crawled onto her bed and popped the window from is frame, holding it by the wooden edging around it and setting it on a nearby pile of books. Immediately after the window was gone, a black bundle of feathers darted past her, barely braking before it reached the other side of the little room. The little owl finally managed to steady itself, flapping over to her and extending its leg, waiting for her to untie the letter attached. Autumn worked the strings and free and broke the wax seal on the envelope, which was the same as the front door of the Gringotts Bank. Autumn's eyebrows rose. She had no account at Gringotts. Why would they be writing her? She unfolded the letter, scanning it quickly.
Miss Autumn Trader,
In accordance with your parent's wishes, their previous funds are now listed in your name. You are to be allotted 100 galleons every year before the start of the school year. In addition, several of their more valuable possessions are now in your custody to do with what you please.
To obtain your key please present this note to a staff member at Gringotts Bank.
The letter was not signed. First Autumn thought the letter was bogus. Then she remembered the seal. She reached into a particularly tall stack of books, grabbing her emaciated money sack and shoving it into the pocket of her baggy pants and, finally, climbed down the ladder. Mrs. Todder gave her another bottle of mix for Nightmare Justas she left.
At Gringotts, it turned out that the letter was not bogus in the least. The girl, who had lived in near poverty all her life nearly fell over when her vault was opened. One corner as filled with eggs, all in a frozen sate. Another was pile with magical doohickeys. In the center was what looked like some rich guy's life savings. A wrapped box was leaning against the wall. Curious, Autumn went in and kneeled next to the package, her fingers, made deft from handling the Monster Books, quickly removed the plain brown wrapping and opened the box.
She did fall over this time. In the box was a sleep, blue-black broomstick with elegant handwritten script on the handle. NightMyth. Lifting the broomstick reverently from the box, Autumn found it to be unbelievably lightweight. She had been allowed to handle a Firebolt when she worked at the broom shop, but it didn't even begin to compare with the workmanship of the NightMyth. The tail did not appear to be of sticks, but of a sinew-like material, like refined willow switches made to bend and taper into a fine point. The neck was long, smooth and jet-black, the fine grains leading Autumn to the conclusion that it was made of ebony. Her fingers trembling, she set the broom back in its case, lifting a small note from the bottom. She unfolded it pausing for a moment before taking the note from the envelope. She began to unfold it then stopped. 'Too much, too much. I'll save this for later.' She quickly refolded the letter stowing it back in the box. Autumn grabbed the string and retied it, tucking the box under her arm as well as snagging a few galleons before leaving.
A soft pawing at her belly caused Autumn to release Nightmare, who had woken up during the cart ride out of Gringotts. The little kitten clung to the knit of the shoulder of Autumn's sweater, staring out at Diagonalley.
Autumn quickly dropped her broom off at home, finding the little black owl to be helping himself to the large population of dust bunnies in her room. Thinking of something, Autumn grabbed a sheet of notepaper and her last quill, quickly writing a note to the Gringotts Bank, to send one of the magical items to her every month, and sending it out with the little fluff ball owl. She quickly replaced her window, helping Nightmare back onto her shoulder as he had fallen down her front with the give of the fabric.
Later it was almost 16:00 and Autumn was feeling a little pressed for time. Tomorrow she left for school and she still had to get quills, robes and regular clothes. The quills and regular clothes were easy. It was the robes she was having trouble with. Like her first year, the tape measures wouldn't work with her and the seamstress had to do it all herself, which, ordinarily, she never did and was terribly out of practice. After about six… or nine wrong measurements and incorrect robes, Autumn went with a slightly too big size. During the entire escapade, Nightmare insisted on getting himself tangled in the tape measures.
"What a sweet little kitten." Said the woman, releasing him from the tape measures. "Did you do those markings with dye or magic?"
"Neither, I found him like that." Autumn said, scooping up the little kitten.
"Well, as word of warning, blue eyed cats tend to get sick a lot." The lady said as Autumn purchased her robes.
"Thanks." She said picking up her bag and placing Nightmare on her shoulder. About halfway down the street, Autumn stopped. Blue eyes? She took Nightmare off her should. He did indeed have blue eyes, twinkling like gems as he looked at her as though she was crazy.
"I am not crazy." Autumn told him, feeling kind of odd for talking to a cat, or what looked like a cat anyway. She stopped at a little café, just outside Diagonalley to have dinner. A sub (also known as a subway, grinder, torpedo, etc) and iced tea satisfied her; the meat from the sub were donated to the Feed-Nightmare fund. When she had finished hers she gathered up Nightmare, who had been playing with the salt, and gave him his dinner. She settled him in her lap and gave him his dinner, much more basic than hers but he seemed satisfied with it nonetheless.
Author's Corner
This story is based soley on the realm of Harry Potter. The various characters are only mentioned in passing etc. Autumn is in the same year as Harry Potter and company, but has very little to do with them.