Disclaimer: J.K. Rowling owns Harry Potter and all that pertains to it.
Summary: The story of Katie Prickit's time at Hogwarts. There is no romance and the only Mary Sue is intentional. This takes place during Harry's fifth year.
Author Notes: This is the first time I've used an OC as a main character for a Harry Potter story. I don't think she's a Mary Sue and am trying to keep her that way. I imagine her having mousy brown hair, freckles, and being a little on the plump side. My other OC is an intentional Mary Sue. I've gone for the 'Classic Sue' look. She's going to be annoyingly perfect, annoyingly persistent, and just annoying in general. But, I'm going to make sure no one falls under her Sue spell.
More Author Notes: I feel like a bloody idiot. I was writing the second chapter of this story when I remembered that Hagrid was in the middle of nowhere with Madam Maxime when all of this was happening. I fixed this up a bit so it follows canon. I'm extremely sorry to anyone who noticed this mistake. My profuse apologies are offered to all.
The Story of Katie Prickit: Year One
Chapter One
On a clear, warm summer evening, an eleven year old girl named Katie Prickit was sitting down to eat dinner. She was fairly normal in appearance and dressed alike to the next girl her age in London, England. The only thing that was different about her was what she was.
Katie was currently sitting at her seat at the dinner table with her parents, practically bouncing in excitement. "Mum! Dad! When will it get here?" she asked for the fifth time that hour as her joy over what was finally going to happen took hold of her once more. Her mother, Amelia, sighed; this was beginning to get annoying.
"Dear, it will get here soon enough. Please calm down and eat your dinner," her father, David, replied.
"But Dad! I want it to be here now," his daughter whined. In a moment of over zealousness, she jumped up and fell off her chair. The young girl grumbled as her mother reprimanded her.
Suddenly, a scratching sound filled the room. Katie scrambled to her feet and tore over to open the window. In flew an owl with an official looking letter clamped in its beak. It was addressed to Katie with an odd purple seal on the back. She tore open the thick parchment envelope and read through its contents. She squealed in pure delight even though the contents of the letter were no surprise. In her opinion, there was no greater joy or honor than attending Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
An hour later, Amelia sent her daughter to bed with promises of a visit to Diagon Alley the next day. She groaned as she shut the door. She almost pitied Hogwarts. Her daughter could be a bit of a pest when she was excited over anything.
Early the next morning, Katie bounded into her parents room to wake them. They both grumbled and moaned about not getting enough sleep. When they were finally up, they all ate a big breakfast. Then they headed for the Leaky Cauldron.
It took them a rather uneventful ten-minute walk to reach the famous pub. They strode in and headed toward the concealed entryway into Diagon Alley. Katie's father tapped the bricks three up and two over to open the archway into the most famous district in the wizarding world.
Katie tore down the alley, dragging her parents behind her, to Gringotts Wizarding Bank. She waited impatiently for one of the goblins to take them down to her parents' vault. A goblin named Griphook took them down to vault number 293 where Amelia gathered some of their gold in a leather pouch.
After leaving the goblin run bank, they headed to Flourish and Blotts, the bookstore, and bought Katie's schoolbooks. She happily looked through A Beginners Guide to Transfiguration by Emeric Switchwhile her parents paid for her books.
Next, they headed to Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions. Their stop there was brief and uneventful. Soon enough, they were leaving along with a new set of black robes, a black hat, a black cloak with silver clasps, and a pair of dragon hide gloves.
Next, they stopped at the Apothecary to get Katie's potion supplies. They bought a pewter cauldron and all the supplies she would need. Before they left, Katie looked around at all of the items for sale. "Mum?? She questioned, "Can I have a unicorn horn?"
"No sweetie, you don't need one," Amelia replied evenly.
As they were leaving, they ran into a strict looking witch leading around a beautiful young girl. She had long, golden blonde hair, shimmering violet eyes, and a perfect figure covered in pale translucent skin. She introduced herself as Psyche (1).
The witch was Professor Minerva McGonagall. She was apparently, the Transfiguration teacher of Hogwarts along with being the Deputy Headmistress and Head of Gryffindor House. She was strict and hawk-like with green eyes, black hair that was pulled back into a tight bun, and square spectacles.
Katie quickly decided that she disliked Psyche, who although she was an abused orphan, was extremely stuck up. She had a strong urge to call her a stuck up prig and then leave but her parents seemed to like this girl.
"So...er...Psyche, how's your erm life?" she asked awkwardly.
"It's horrible! The owner of the orphanage absolutely hates me and treats me like a slave. I have to do all of the work around there. I get beaten and abused as well. I was completely surprised to find out that my parents were a witch and wizard. I can't wait to go to Hogwarts!" Psyche replied in a tragically beautiful sounding voice.
"Erm...ok...I'm er sorry about your erm...life then," Katie answered. It was getting rather difficult to take this girl seriously.
While the two girls talked, Professor McGonagall was speaking with Katie's parents. "I found her being beat up so I naturally put an end to it. I then gave her letter to her. Today I took her out here to buy her school supplies. Normally this would be Hagrid's job but he is currently...indisposed. Anyway, all that we have left to buy is a wand and she would like an owl."
"That's all we've left as well. Why don't we go to Ollivanders together?" Amelia replied, obviously delighted to see the strict woman once more.
"I do not see why not. I shall have to ask Psyche if she wishes to. Psyche, do you wish to continue on to Ollivanders with them?"
"Ok Professor," the girl replied. "Now, as I was saying, she was blathering on about some kid named Harry Potter and how he was—"
"Wait...the Harry Potter?" Katie asked excitedly.
"What? Oh yes...I suppose so...but what's so important about this Harry Potter?"
"Harry Potter caused You-know-who to fall! He's a hero!"
"You-know-who? You mean Voldemort?"
"Don't say that name!"
"Why not? This...Dark Lord doesn't sound that frightening..." Psyche claimed snottily.
He is that frightening! You-know-who nearly won. That's why Harry Potter is a hero. Fully-grown witches and wizards fell trying to fight You-know-who and died and Harry Potter defeated him and he was only a little baby," Katie explained in exasperation. "Although, recently the Daily Prophet has been accusing him of being a nutter and saying that he lies about everything and is dangerous. But dad says that's a load of rubbish. They've been saying the same things about Professor Dumbledore as well you see.
The group entered Ollivanders a few minutes later. Katie felt a little nervous with the imposing silence that filled the shop. Even Psyche had stopped talking. It felt almost wrong to break the silence of this magical place.
"Good afternoon," a soft voice reverberated throughout the room. Katie started and looked up to see a pallid elderly man with voluminous silvery eyes. He introduced himself as Mr. Ollivander. "Who shall go first?" He questioned.
"I shall," Psyche answered confidently. Katie was actually glad that she had volunteered. As much as she wanted a wand, she needed time to gather her wits before she faced this strange man.
Katie looked up to see a silvery tape measure floating around Psyche. She was delighted to see how unnerved the annoyingly perfect girl was. Psyche ended up going through about fifty wands before she finally found the right one. It was a twelve-inch willow wand with a phoenix tail feather for a core.
Katie shivered. It was her turn to get a wand. She marched forward and closed her eyes so she would not see the tape measure. She may have grown up in a wizarding household but everything about this place seemed strange. Mr. Ollivander brought a wand out for her to try. She held it up and waved it around a bit but nothing happened. He handed her a new wand but snatched it away before she could do anything. The third one given to her was different. It felt warm in her hand and shot a shower of sparks out when she held it up. Her wand was ash, ten and a half inches, and had a dragon heartstring in it.
Her parents paid seventeen galleons for the wand and then they left the dusty shop. They wandered over to Florean Fortescue's for a quick treat. Then, they headed towards Eyelops Owl Emporium. As a going-to-school present, her family brought her a brown tawny owl, which she promptly named Arachne (2) for no apparent reason. Psyche bought a large snowy owl that she named Elemmire (3). This left Katie to wonder why she had named her owl after a star in the greatest muggle book that had ever been written, the Lord of the Rings.
When Katie and her family got home in the early evening, she dragged her packages up to her room to pack in the large mahogany chest they had purchased to hold all of her belongings in. She spent around an hour packing and then went to eat the dinner her mother had prepared.
"Are you all ready dear?" her mother asked her.
"Yes Mum, I packed all of my stuff," she answered duly.
"It's almost hard to believe that in one week's time, you'll be off to Hogwarts. Just as a warning, watch out for the caretaker, Argus Filch, and his cat, Mrs. Norris. They can both be rather evil at times," her father mused.
"Ok, thanks Dad," she replied weakly. She was beginning to get a bit nervous about this.
"And read your schoolbooks a bit before the start of classes. Most teachers tend to assume you've read into them a bit," Amelia informed her daughter. "Now, off to bed with you!"
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(1) Psyche is a figure in Greek mythology. She was said to be the most beautiful of mortals and everyone who saw her stopped worshipping Aphrodite to worship her instead. Naturally Aphrodite wasn't to pleased so she sent her son Eros to make Psyche fall in love with a monster. Eros saw her and accidentally hit himself with his own arrows and fell in love with her. He kidnapped her to protect her from his mother and they lived happily together for a while. Unfortunately, he couldn't show Psyche his face and one night she became curious over this. She lit a candle to see his face and discovered his identity. He woke and fled from her. She returned home, Aphrodite found her, and made Psyche her slave. She forced Psyche to complete impossible tasks but someone always seemed to help Psyche. She finally sent Psyche down to Hades to get some of Persephone's beauty in a box. She did this but she opened the box after she got out and collapsed. Eros took her to Olympus where she drank Ambrosia and became the goddess of the soul. I chose this name because Sues often chose names from Greek mythology.
(2) Arachne is the name of the Greek maiden who challenged Athena to a weaving contest and won. Athena turned her into the first spider. The name just kind of popped into my head.
(3) Elemmire is the name of one of the seven stars of the Sickle of the Valar in Lord of the Rings. I'm just making the Sue a bit on the inane side here.