I do not own anything apart from Kat Metcalf

Kat Metcalf was blind, she had been since birth, and it's always set her apart. For five years at Hogwarts she's managed to be invisible, no one even knew she existed. Now the one person she doesn't want to pay attention to her can't seem to stay away. OC/SB. My first fic on here, so PLEASE go easy on me.

A/N – Just a quick word to any readers. This is more of a writing exercise than anything else. Far too often in my fics I find myself relying far too much on visuals. This is a challenge to myself to not use any visuals at all. I want to use other senses to describe. That's the sole reason for the OC's blindness. I want to see if I can write a whole fic without ever actually telling the reader what the characters look like etc. This opening chapter is just me getting the feel of it. I'm hoping it's going to get better.

Light and shadow. That's all she could see. It was all she could really remember having seen. Her father once asked her if she wished they could find a cure. Kat had shrugged and replied that you couldn't miss what you'd never had. It had reassured her father, but of course it wasn't strictly true. Kat wished more than anything that she could see again, but she was resigned to it now. Fate, her mother always said, gave no choices.

The sharp sound of grating metal to her left interrupted her quiet reflection and she turned her head towards the sound.

"Oh, didn't realise someone was already in here…" a voice spoke from where she knew the door to the compartment lay. It was familiar to her, but the timbre had changed, deepened over the summer holidays and it took a moment for her to realise who had spoken. There was an awkward moment of silence, and she could hear his feet shuffle on the floor. "Everywhere else is kind of full…do you mind…"

She laughed to herself at his discomfort, it gave her a sick sort of amusement to know how uncomfortable she made people. Here was the popular, confident Sirius Black, stuttering and asking for her permission to sit. Of course he wouldn't be alone for long, his little sidekicks would join him soon. She nodded her head finally and heard his sigh of relief, and then his voice echoing down the corridor of the Hogwarts Express.

"Hey Prongs, down here. Moony! Wormtail!"

She heard the tramping of feet and the movement around her as three more people came into her previously peaceful compartment. There was a great deal of banging and thudding as trunks and cages were thrown up onto the luggage racks. She turned her head and pressed her cheek against the cool glass of the window, closing her eyes.

After a few minutes the noise died down and Kat felt a thump beside her as one of the boys sat on her side of the compartment.

"So Prongs…"came the drawling voice of Sirius Black. "You seen Evans yet?"

Kat grimaced. This was the only problem with being invisible, she always heard things she didn't want to hear.

"Yeah," was James's reply. "She's looking good…" He drew out the last word.

There was a soft chuckle next to her, "Come on you two, I'm pretty sure that Katherine doesn't need to hear this."

Kat smiled in the direction of the voice. Remus Lupin, trust him to be the voice of reason. Of course he was one of the few to whom she wasn't invisible. In five years he'd taken the time to know her. Soft, oddly fluffy, yet musky and deep, that was how she saw him in her mind. Smell, touch and sound that was how she identified all her classmates.

There were muttered apologies from the two other boys and she settled her cheek back against the glass.

The train journey past comfortably enough for her. She let her mind wander as she always did, brought back to reality every so often by raised voices or exclamations as the four boys played first a few rounds of Exploding Snap and then a few pranks on unsuspecting first-years.

"We're nearly at Hogwarts," it was Remus who brought her back finally, touching her shoulder with two gentle fingers. She turned her head towards his voice and smiled. Of course, she knew she was probably looking over his shoulder or something, but it seemed to make people more comfortable when she at least pretended to look at them.

"Thanks, I know."

"How do you know?" That was Potter, his voice tinged as always with a hint of belligerence. She knew she made him nervous and that it was his natural defence, but it still annoyed her.

"I can feel the train slowing down," she replied, injecting as much superiority into her voice as possible. Did he think she was stupid as well as blind? Cold, hard and rough, that was how she saw James Potter. "And the vibrations are changing…"

"Well that told you," Black said, his voice coloured with amusement.

"Shut up Padfoot!"

Kat couldn't stop the giggle from passing her lips. Oh how she wished she could see the look on Potter's face.

The warmth of the Great Hall was the first thing that hit her, like suddenly plunging into a hot bath, the heat going straight to the bone. Then it was the smell. Not of food, not yet, but of all the different soaps, deodorant, perfumes and colognes they all used. Sometimes it turned her stomach and she found it difficult to eat, but today it was like a welcome home.

She made her way to the end of the Gryffindor table closest to the door and found her usual seat right at the edge. Her fingers strayed across the table as she waited for it to fill up around her. The wood was so smooth under her touch, worn down by generations of students hands. She brushed the cold metal of her plate and goblet and then lowered her hands to her lap waiting for the sorting to begin.

The food as usual was magnificent. She helped herself to slices of roast beef and potatoes, her favourite, and ate quietly and neatly, with the care of someone who can't see what they're stabbing their fork into.

"Don't you ever worry that someone's going to put something really disgusting on your plate without you noticing?"

She groaned. When did Potter sit down next to her? "Not really no. Or at least…I didn't until you just said that…" She laid down her fork feeling a little queasy.

"Don't worry," Remus said from opposite her. "I wouldn't let either of them do that."

"Who said you'd catch us?" Black said with an evil sort of chuckle.

She pushed her plate away from her with a disgusted groan, she really didn't feel hungry any more.

As she sunk into her soft, warm bed later that night, she wondered how she had finally fallen victim to the school's biggest troublemakers, and just how was she going to get them back.