Disclaimer: I own nothing, etc. etc.

Chapter 1

It had all started with Katherine. Though, in Irma's mind everything started with Katherine- everything in everyday somehow related to the girl. She had mostly forgotten life before the girl had come crashing down amongst her precious books.

It had been a Tuesday sometime in the summer of 1968 when it had happened. Irma was behind her desk, filling out forms for new books when a pop of something sounding suspiciously like apparition sounded. This was immediately followed by the thumping of books falling from their places on the shelf and ultimately the sound of a bookcase pounding against the ground with a resounding crash.

Swears against Peeves on the tip of her tongue, she went to investigate the damage. The Astronomy section was overturned and the fallen bookcase was on its side, the books on the floor before it. In the very center of the book chaos, which was nearly too much for Irma, lay a teenage girl. Her face was pressed against the ground and one arm was strewn over her stomach, the other at her side. Her skin was a ghastly shade of grey, her dark hair was a tangled mess and her paled blue jeans and soft white sweater were torn in many places thought not a trace of blood could be found. A brown rucksack was next to her, the strap falling over her arm. There was a clearly defined circle of floor around her where the books hadn't fallen.

Standing at the feet of the girls bent legs, Irma merely stared, finding something grotesque and almost insulting about the way the colors all looked so harsh against each other. The girl's face bothered her especially, as the lips were slightly red, and her particularly long and thick eyelashes were very black against the rim of her grey eye socket.

Irma's mind whirred, and she couldn't help but stare for a long moment, wondering what on earth to do. There was no such protocol for "girls falling from no where" filed away neatly in her analytical mind. Don't move her, Irma heard a voice in her head that sounded suspiciously like her mother's tell her. She turned on her heel and ran to the doors of the library, and made straight for the Great Hall. There most of the staff was preparing for lunch. She made a beeline for Albus, tapping his shoulder and breathing a bit more harshly than was normal for her.

"Albus, there's a girl in the library- Poppy, you'll need to come as well." Irma murmured to both of them. Poppy looked at her quizzically, the mediwitch's hazel eyes losing a bit of their mirth as Albus rose to his feet and quickly preceded both of them out of the Great Hall. He hadn't paused to ask questions to Irma's surprise, as Poppy drilled her on their swift pace after him.

He already bowed over the girl when Irma and Poppy entered the library, breathing hard from their rush to keep pace with him. The Headmaster was spry, still very limber for his age- 128. Poppy peered at the girl in horror as Albus gently moved the bag off her arm and levitated her into the air.

"Poppy I believe she will need immediate medical attention. She appears to have lost a great deal of blood." Albus said calmly, indicating to one of the long thin holes in the girl's sweater.

"But there's no blood!" Irma protested immediately. She was confused, which vexed her as she rather prided herself on her ability to be knowledgeable in most situations. Albus picked up a strand of the girls hair and Irma gaped as drops of blood fell off it. Her hair was not naturally dark; it was sopping wet with blood. Irma took a step back as Poppy simultaneously took a step forward; being a mediwitch had given her an uncanny lack of squeamishness.

"I imagine you'll want to fix your library, Irma," Albus was grim faced, with out the usual sparkle in his eye. Irma did indeed wish to fix the library promptly. Disorder simply would not do, and despite her curiosity at this girl, her mind nagged at her to organize her books again. Albus dropped the piece of hair and he and Poppy strode out, leaving Irma to gaze after them and the girl they levitated with them for a long moment. When she came back to herself, she pulled out her wand and preformed a scouring charm and a second for good measure on the floor.

Her eyes fell on all the books and she hesitated a moment, debating on weather or not she should pick up the bag or fix her books first. Of course the first thing she did was wave her wand at the bookshelf to set it right again before waving her wand at the books which all rose into the air and gently reinstated themselves on the shelf. She then picked up the rucksack warily and made her way down to the Hospital Wing. It was brown, not dirty, but Irma would rather not touch it. It certainly wasn't hers, and the girls appearance certainly wasn't natural, even in the magical sense of the word.

That girl was grey. A grey girl, like the Grey Lady. Irma quite liked the Grey Lady, pleasant to chat with. Perhaps this girl was like that- she had that look about her. As if she were quiet. Though perhaps that was only her face while unconscious.

"Albus-" Irma stopped him in the doorway. "Who- how did she get here?" Albus had been on his way out the door and seemed to have stopped mid-step, looking at her with a rather grim expression.

"I do not know how she got here. Very powerful magic, perhaps." He paused, blue eyes meeting Irma's dark ones.

"What? But no one can apparate into Hogwarts- Albus!" she stopped him again as he had taken another step. "What happened- who is she?" Irma's mind was whirring with scenarios, and questions.

Irma would never remember his exact words when he had tried to tell her gently what had happened. All she knew was that Albus had questioned her 'Grey Girl' with veritaserum. The girl did now know how she came to Hogwarts. Nor did she know of magic except that her captor used a wand- though she did possess magic of her own. Someone unknown to Irma's Grey Girl had tormented her for and unknown length of time. She'd been raped, tortured, experimented on and psychologically damaged. Irma would never forget it, for in years to come she would be witness to the memories herself.

Albus looked at Irma with sadness in his light yet still bright eyes. Irma stared at him a long moment, opening her mouth to speak. "But- but…" she stopped. He smiled a small tired smile and patted her arm.

"We will know in good time Irma. I have things to get about." He went off down the hall, spry as ever though Irma had a suspicion that he was nearing a hundred-and-thirty. She went into the Hospital Wing and stared at Poppy who had obviously dropped onto the chair she sat in completely exhausted.

The mediwitch's eyes swiveled around to view Irma. "She's a asleep." Poppy said rather brusquely, conveying to Irma that Poppy did not want the girl seen, though when Irma thought about it perhaps Albus did not want her seen. "She lost a lot of blood." Poppy continued.

"How?" Irma asked, still confused at this as she had not seen a cut on the girl. Poppy shuddered, something the other woman had never expected to see her do.

"From what I gather of Albus' questioning," at this she looked slightly disgruntled that her patient had been questioned despite her state. "Whoever had- kidnapped her, was a very… well a nutter! Cut her to pieces, healed her, and then tried to drown her in her own blood. That's all she could remember." Irma hadn't even realized her mouth hung open with her face frozen in a look of disgust until Poppy told her to wipe it off.

"I have her bag…" Irma trailed off, glancing at the curtained bed. Poppy looked at the bag, then at Irma and gestured to her office. They went in silently, Irma placing the bag and Poppy's desk and sitting across from her. Irma pulled back the brass zipper along the top of the crescent shaped bag. She gently took each object out, one by one as Poppy watched.

A small blue hairbrush came out with a tube of black mascara, worn gold tube of lipstick which she opened to find a reddish-gold color curved in on one side from use. Along with those came a small disc of multiple colors of eye shadow, after Poppy had looked at it a moment to determine what it was. A small bottle of perfume came next which Poppy took from Irma and sprayed into the air between them. They both leaned in instinctively and sniffed the air. It was vanilla tinged with something flowery. A few colorful pens and a small notebook, which was empty, also came out of the bag, along with multiple packets of sugar which Irma and Poppy both raised eyebrows at. Almost last came a small paperback copy of Wuthering Heights, which to Irma's horror looked rather well worn. She pulled out her wand to attempt to clean the cover of the book and mend the tears but Poppy stopped her.

"It's not your book, Irma," she said softly. "I don't think she should know we've gone through her things.

Poppy reached in next and pulled out a black wallet, which was decorated with pink hearts along the spine. She did not hesitate to open it. 40 pounds fell out immediately, and as her long fingers probed into a pocket 4 American dollars and assorted other faded bills followed, including some South African rand, Russian rubles and Japanese yen. The two women mused over this for a while, questioning why the girl carried so much foreign currency in her wallet. They came up with few scenarios, but dismissed them as they continued in the wallet. There were pictures inside plastic casings, which Poppy thumbed through and studied before handing it to Irma.

The grey girl she had found was actually quite tan, and in the picture held a dazzling smile as she and a girl who looked almost identical to her save a bit smaller sat atop an elephant. An elephant. What on earth was she doing with an elephant? Perhaps that would explain the rand. Next was a school picture of the younger girl, and a picture of a black and white cat sprawled against a lime green shag carpet. Another picture was Irma's girl in a formal gown of vivid green standing with an older woman- both who were looking at each other with what Irma would come to call 'the look of love'. The last picture was a family picture with the two girls, a man and a woman, presumably the parents. All four of them looked as if they had been posed, and neither of the girls looked very happy. She has a family.

It was an ironic twist to Irma's thought process. She had imagined the girl to be some not-quite-human-being, when she apparently had a family, perhaps a little sister. Irma was struck by the cord this struck in her. She herself had an younger sister. They were as different as night and day, but if anything had ever happened to her sister, Irma might have very well panicked.

She glanced at Poppy, who was silent, pensive. In the pocket on the opposite side from the foreign currency was a library card, which Irma removed. It read "Redding Library" across the top. Along the bottom in a place obviously meant for signatures where a bubbly handwriting had written out a first and last name.

Katherine Rowsch.