Click. The door slid open. Behind it, the gleaming wood floor of the kitchen appeared. The lights were extinguished and the only sound was the drumming of rain on the windows. Catherine Campbell stepped quietly over the threshold and closed the door quietly. The wizarding family (the Potters if the sign on the walkway could be trusted) who owned the home appeared to be out and there was no sign of a house elf. Catherine sighed and leaned heavily against the door.
Two weeks had passed since she had run away from her parent's house. They were the most vile, inhumane people she had ever known. They judged everyone based on blood-status and lineage. Women and girls meant next to nothing to them, and all they wanted were sons. Three years after Catherine was born, they got their wish; her brother, Aiden, was born. From that day, Catherine was kept shut up in the basement of their grand estate and forbidden contact with anyone but the house elf, Iggy. While treats and gifts were piled onto the new baby boy, who was to inherit everything, Catherine was kept to the cellar. When her letter from Hogwarts arrived, her parents ripped it to pieces and ignored it. After several more showed up, they wrote to the headmaster, telling him they preferred to homeschool Catherine. When Aiden's letter arrived however, all the school supplies were bought and he was sent off to the most prestigious school in the country. Catherine, however, was still kept home. Iggy negotiated various "treats" for Catherine during this time, which included actually allowing her a wand.
Catherine clutched the wand that had chosen her (twelve inches, dragon heartstring, holly) in her hand and sighed again. On the last "little treat" Iggy had negotiated for her, (a walk around the moor) she'd run for it. Now, a fifteen year old runaway, Catherine had been sleeping in barns and breaking into houses for food. Desperate for a bath, Catherine had broken into the house where she stood now.
Over the four years that she had owned her wand, Catherine had taught herself how to do most of the magic she knew. She convinced Iggy to steal Aiden's old school books for her, and she spent day after day studying out of them. She learned early on, (from an overheard conversation between her parents) that the ministry couldn't really keep track of who was doing magic. Since she lived in a house with two full grown wizards, the magic she performed in the cellar was assumed to be her parents'. Given the circumstances, Catherine considered herself pretty well off with her magic. She could very well not know anything.
Taking a deep breath, she tip-toed through the kitchen in search of a bathroom with a shower or bathtub. She came to a staircase, and after a moment's hesitation she climbed it. Four doors stood at the top of the first landing, one of them ajar. It was a bathroom with a shower! Grinning at her luck, Catherine slipped inside and closed the door behind her. She turned the shower on, quickly stripped down and stepped inside. After fifteen minutes (she hadn't meant to take such a long shower, marveling at the cucumber-melon scented soap) she stepped out again and patted herself dry with a towel from the rack next to the shower. The mirror over the sink wasn't quite fogged up so she could still see her reflection. A skinny girl with waist length dark brown hair stared back at her with wide green eyes. She sighed and looked down at her small pile of clothes. She'd been wearing the same pair of dirty blue jeans and ratty green T-shirt for two weeks. Screwing up her nose at the smell, she slipped back into them. At the next house she came to, she'd wash them.
After listening with her ear pressed against the door for any sound within the house, she opened the door to sneak back down the stairs to leave. The only problem was that there was some one already standing on the landing.
"Um, I definitely don't know you. What the bloody hell are you doing in my house?" The boy on the landing said.
Catherine could do nothing but stand frozen with eyes wide, smelling of a mixture of cucumber-melon soap and dirty laundry. She'd been caught. She hadn't anticipated the Potter's returning while she was still in the house. The boy didn't really seem angry. On the contrary, he seemed surprised. His eyebrows had shot up when he saw Catherine and disappeared into his incredibly messy black hair. Glasses were perched on the bridge of his nose and from behind, brown eyes were staring curiously at her. He took a step forward and Catherine automatically took a step back.
"It's alright. I'm not mad. How did you get in here?" He asked, taking another step forward.
"Came in through the kitchen." Catherine mumbled with a glance sideways. Maybe one of the other rooms had a window she could jump through. She was only on the first story-it wouldn't be too far of a drop.
"Did you really? You'll have to show me a thing or two about picking locks. It might come handy at Hogwarts!" He grinned at her and Catherine's stomach gave an awful lurch. This boy went to Hogwarts! He might know Aiden, and if he did, he would be sure to tell her parents. Catherine wasn't sure what her parents would do to her if they ever found her, but she wasn't keen to find out. She pulled her wand out of her back pocket and pointed it at the boy.
"Don't make me jinx you! All I want to do is leave!" She said, in what she hoped was a menacing voice.
"Pfft. Don't be ridiculous. Do you know who you're talking to?" The boy laughed and drew his wand as well. Catherine stared fearfully at his wand tip. She'd never been in a duel with someone and wasn't sure if she would survive. Luckily, at that point, the boy turned his head over his shoulder and bellowed, "DAD! HEY, DAD!" She tried to take advantage of him looking away and make a run for it, but as if he anticipated this, he stuck out his foot and Catherine tripped.
"What is it?" A man's voice called from below. Catherine sat bolt upright. Adults made her nervous, and who could blame her really, with who she had for parents?
"There's a girl up here!" The boy called. He looked down at Catherine and saw that she was too stunned to move. He pocketed his wand and sat on the floor next to her. "What's your name?" He asked innocently as his father bounded up the stairs.
"A girl? Are you playing some sort of joke—" The man stopped when he saw Catherine. He looked remarkably like his son, just with more gray in his hair (which wasn't as messy). Catherine looked between the father and son and stood up.
"I'm sorry, sir. I was just looking for somewhere to take a shower and get cleaned up before I moved on to somewhere else." She bowed slightly to the boy's father, who looked surprised.
"Where are you headed?"
"Erm…I don't really know, sir."
"On the run, are you?" Mr. Potter asked, earning a startled look from Catherine. He smiled sadly. "Why don't you come downstairs and you can meet my wife. You've already met my son, James." The boy stood up and grinned at Catherine.
"That was my bathroom you were using! You'd better not've used all my soap!" He said teasingly, leading the way downstairs with Catherine following slowly, entirely speechless. She had expected the boy's father to be furious that some homeless girl had broken into his home. Instead, he was polite and even seemed a bit sympathetic. Beginning to hope for a positive outcome, Catherine looked around at the room they had just entered.
It was a spacious parlor with a baby grand piano sitting in a corner and numerous armchairs. A kindly woman with blonde hair was curled up in one of these armchairs across from the piano, reading a novel. She looked up in surprise when she saw Catherine enter the room with her husband and son.
"Dear, what-?" She said, looking at Catherine.
"This young lady—" Mr. Potter began.
"Catherine." Interjected Catherine quietly. Mr. Potter glanced at her, and then continued.
"This young lady, Catherine, broke into our house to use James' shower. It appears as though she's run away from an awful place and has been wandering the country side."
"Oh, dear, come here and let me have a look at you!" Mrs. Potter called, gesturing Catherine to come stand by her armchair. Catherine nervously answered her summons and Mrs. Potter took both her hands in hers. "You do look severely underfed. How long have you been running around?"
"For about two weeks." Catherine answered quietly. She couldn't seem to look Mrs. Potter in the eye. Instead she contented herself with staring at the top of her head.
"Would you like to stay here for a little while?" Mrs. Potter asked, letting go of Catherine's hands.
"What? Stay here?" Catherine asked, bewildered. "But I broke in! You should be furious with me and turn me over to the ministry or something!" She looked at all three of the Potters' faces. She couldn't believe it.
"We might find ourselves in a similar position here in a few more months," said Mr. Potter while looking at James. James just shrugged and looked at Catherine.
"So how about it, Catherine? Would you like to stay with us?" Mrs. Potter asked again. "We won't ask you about your home if you are uncomfortable talking about it."
Catherine looked at the people standing around her. They were the first friendly people she'd ever met. "I guess one night wouldn't be too bad." She said quietly.
"Excellent." Said James, grinning broadly. "Wait until I tell my friends."
Catherine stared around at the room she would be staying in. It was spacious, much like every other room in the house, and was dominated by a large, canopy queen sized bed. James had informed her a few minutes ago that it was one of the guest bedrooms and he'd called it the "purple room". Catherine could see why. The walls were painted a lavender color and the curtains that hung over the windows were a deep, royal purple. The bed spread was purple as well. A chest of drawers stood next to the largest window in the room and a bureau with a mirror stood opposite of it. She'd poked her head into both of the doors that branched off her room and discovered a closet and bathroom. She sank down at the end of the bed and stared at the purple wall. Two weeks ago she was still stuck in the basement of her parent's mansion, and now here she was, staying in a house full of complete strangers who were kind enough to let her stay they night.
"This is seriously weird." She thought out loud.
"You're telling me!" Catherine jumped as James burst in through the door. "We just got back from the match and all I wanted to do was take a shower and there was some girl standing in my bathroom!" He grinned and plopped down on the bed next to her.
"Match?"
James' jaw dropped. "Don't tell me you don't know about Qudditch! Where have you been living all your life? Under a rock?"
"You're closer than you would think." Catherine said with a twisted smile. James then commenced explaining the rules of Quidditch and she hung onto his every word. It sounded fascinating. When she told James she'd never ridden a broom, he nearly exploded.
"Well we have to go! Right now, c'mon!" He jumped up and grabbed her hand, trying to pull her off the bed.
"James, it's still raining outside and it's dark."
"Oh." James sat back down beside her. "Y'know Mum and Dad are probably going to make you stay for a while. At least until you stop looking starved. Want some food?"
Catherine's stomach gave a large gurgle and answered James' question. After a quick trip to the kitchen for a snack of cheese and crackers and James chattering away about his friends and Catherine listening, she headed back up to her room. Mrs. Potter was sitting on the bed holding a pile of what looked like her old clothes. She smiled when she saw Catherine walk in.
"I thought you might need some clothes." She said, leaving the clothes in a pile on the bed and standing up to leave.
"Wait, don't go." Catherine stared at her feet shyly. "Thank you. Thanks for letting me stay." Mrs. Potter just smiled and headed for the door. Before she left, however she told Catherine to lock her door.
"James likes to pull pranks sometimes on people while they're sleeping."
Fantastic. Catherine rummaged through the stack of clothes and found that they were mostly dresses and skirts, with one pair of pants. She supposed that once she washed her jeans she'd be able to use them again.
A few minutes later, Catherine was under the covers of the bed in a set of borrowed pajamas, staring at the canvas over the bed. This morning she had woken up in a barn, and now she was staying in this huge purple room wearing some woman's clothes. It had been a very strange day indeed. And she wasn't at all sure if she liked the mischievous glint in James' eye every time he mentioned his friends and Hogwarts. But, she told herself just before she fell asleep, she could always just leave tomorrow.