Selina Kyle – Big Red Stone
Summary: Selina Kyle is a curious person with some major secrets. First, because of her upbringing she had contracted kleptomania. Second, intimidating people always want to kill her. Third, she's a witch. Lastly, she was secretly Daisy Potter.
Thanks to Captain Moroni who has corresponded with me via PM this idea got stuck in my head.
Selina
Pain was the first thing she knew when she woke up. Stiffly sitting up the young girl looked around. There was no-one, so at least her virtue remained in tact for another night. Her mouth was dry because of the sea breeze. It snapped suddenly, her mother had recently committed suicide. Her father, Brian, had driven her to it with his violent drunken fits. Brian himself was currently in the hospital after crashing the car into the bay. The outlook wasn't good for his survival. This gave her the courage to finally escape form the cesspool of criminals, Gotham City.
She was on her way back to England. The first place she remembered. When she was seven years old she had received a heavy blow from something and couldn't remember anything about herself. Later she remembered a whisper of a name and, for some reason, it fit at the time. However as she grew over the last four years the name just didn't feel right anymore. At one time she may have been Daisy Potter, now however she was Selina Kyle.
"England inbound." A scruffy voice said from across the deck. This man found the stowaway with the cargo and took pity on her. She gave the man a wad of cash, too, to ensure her safety.
"Thank you," Selina chocked out.
The man helped Selina sneak out and returned her money to her, once she was in the clear. He told her that she would need it more. Selina accepted the offer and found her way inland. It was late afternoon when she bumped into someone, too tired to look where she was going. The woman was wearing robes of emerald green.
"Sorry, I didn't look where I was going." Selina then heard a low buzz. She frowned as the lady suddenly smiled.
"It is no problem Ms. Kyle I was expecting you." Selina arched her brow. "Ilvermorny has corresponded with us when you arrived in America four years ago and once you arrived in English waters this appeared on my desk waiting to be signed." The woman gave Pamela an envelope made of parchment.
"Who are you?" Selina asked.
"Minerva McGonagall. I am the deputy headmistress of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry." Selina nodded and read the parchment.
S. Kyle
Right side of the Road
Deepdale Lane
Lea Town
Blackpool
Selina looked about and nodded the envelope's address checked out. She opened the envelope and took out the two pieces of parchment. The first featured the headmaster's many titles along with her acceptance to the school and was signed by the woman who met with her. The second contained a list of books and supplies.
"Professor, I am afraid I would have to decline this offer, I hardly have enough money in my pocket to live with, much less pay to go to school." Selina stuffed the letter into her pocket and aimed to move again.
"We have a scholarship program, Ms. Kyle, and you qualify for it." The woman smiled down at Selina.
"Okay, I accept, but if schools here are like they are in the states, then it is summer holidays now, where will I stay in the meantime?"
"I offer my cottage as a temporary abode for you, should you accept the offer to join Hogwarts." McGonagall seemed nice. Weighing her options between a warm bed and the cold ground Selina chose the former.
"I accept," She stated. She took the offered arm and in mere moments she was being squeezed from all sides. If she had eaten that morning she would have lost it. "What just happened?"
"We just apparated to my cottage, here we will get you a robe before we go to Diagon Alley to buy your school supplies." Selina looked down and noticed that her attire might be considered less that appropriate.
Selina wore leggings that were torn at the knee exposing the pantyhose she wore underneath, knee high black boots and that was only about a size too large. Her dark shirt was torn in multiple places, expertly hidden behind the zip up leather jacket she found in the charity bin back in Gotham, in fact all the clothes she wore was snagged out of one charity bin or another, people should really learn to lock those. Perched on top of her head was a pair of goggles. The shades of the goggles tinged the world in a reddish color allowing her to access stuff she couldn't see without them. The goggles might've been used for something else, but Selina called them useful.
"Okay, but I ain't taking off my goggles." Selina ended up in a lovely purple robe, it really brought out her green, cat-like eyes.
The trip to Diagon Alley was less unpleasant than the one to the cottage. Selina had the feeling that it would get better with each passing time. While in the cottage, she spied some things that struck her as odd. Odd since it was kind of how she felt at times. There were several shelves with an array of knick-knacks that seemed unrelated.
They headed towards the large white building at the end of the cobbled street. Once there the creatures standing by the door, goblins, eyed them and asked McGonagall to wait outside, they would escort Selina inside and give her the stipend she would need. McGonagall reluctantly allowed it.
"Ms. Potter," an especially nasty looking goblin in a back office greeted the girl. "I am Grippull, the guardian of the Potter family vaults.
"I prefer Kyle. I haven't been a Potter since moving to America."
"We are aware of that, as such, we offer you a compromise." The goblin took out a goblin made trinket that looked like a ball off yarn. Selina smiled at the irony, people who know her best always called her Cat. "You need only touch the trinket on the store parchment, and the funds will be transferred to their vault. I assume you wish to remain hidden, so your true name shall never be revealed by Gringott's. Furthermore here is a pouch containing the correct amount of currency for all the equipment you would need."
"Thank you, Grippull, I appreciate your silence." Selina took put the coat of arms back on the table against her better wishes. It took all her will power to do so. She didn't want to disrespect the goblins that kept her secret.
"My son, Griphook, shall escort you out." Grippull nodded at the gesture. He had heard tale of Selina's problem and set a test for her. She passed.
Just before leaving, Selina took the wad of cash she brought over from America and asked Griphook if she could convert it to galleons. Griphook counted the notes and called one of the tellers. He spoke in a strange language then returned with forty golden coins and seven silver ones. He told her about the current exchange rate between galleons and dollars and nodded her out the door.
"Ms. Kyle, I hope the goblins treated you well." McGonagall eyed her up and down to make sure there weren't any cuts on her.
"They did, I also opened an account with the money I brought over and got this lovely trinket for my vault. I also have some extra coins in her from the stipend they gave me for my school supplies." Selina held up the trinket and money pouch.
"I should have known. Goblins can sense money, they took you to a vault manager I presume." Selina nodded. "Right, how much extra did you get with the stipend?"
"About twenty gold ones and seven silver ones, Griphook said the gold coins were the top ones and the copper the lowest." Selina recounted.
"Right, so we won't have to traverse to the second hand shops then. I won't ask where you got the money. I would only suggest that you leave it behind should it be illegal." Selina nodded.
Their first stop was to Madam Malkin's Robes for all Occasions. The lady who helped them was a plump woman dressed in mauve. She asked about the Selina was wearing and shook her head. A transfigured robe can't be used to gauge size. That was how Selina found herself in her underwear with a tape measure floating about measuring every bit of her body. Madam Malkin then cast a spell and her chest swelled up a bit. According to the witch this was to determine her growth over the next year. It would allow her to add the necessary charms to the fabric. This had Selina frowning, she thought that she would have slightly larger assets. She shrugged she was only ten so there was more time, no she was eleven, today was her birthday.
Ollivander's Quality Wands was the next stop, since it was nearing lunch time. Mr. Ollivander was a man with fairy kissed eyes that shone in silver. He prided himself that he could place anyone and everyone down their lineage. Selina Kyle was an oddity to him. She seemed to radiate multiple possibilities. The enchanted measuring tape would not work for her.
"Ms. Kyle which hand would you prefer?" Selina thought about it, she favored her left hand more often, although she could use both equally.
"I more often use my left hand, but I can use both equally." Selina answered truthfully.
"Ah," Ollivander mused. He went to the very back of the shop and returned with several multicolored boxes. Selina noticed that they differed from the three basic colors in the front.
The largest box held an assortment of gemstones. Selina resisted the urge to grab one, that was until Ollivander told her to take the one that pulled her in the strongest. That stone ended up being a round tiger's eye. Ollivander fixed it into a fixture and gave Selina the first of many wands from the multicolored boxes. It was just before noon that she found her match, ivy with a mermaid scale core. This particular wand was made abroad in Gotham, Selina's home town. Ollivander remembered the mermaid might have been largely temperamental until she knew why the weird man wanted a bit of her scales.
The rest of the shopping trip went surprisingly quick. After getting her books, Selina picked up a few more, she slipped in an amazing book about transforming into animals. She always wanted to be a cat, a real cat, not just cat-like, like she is now.
That night Selina lay down reading in the guest room of the cottage. The entire room, like the other, was located that it received the maximum sunlight available during the day. The book she was reading was about Animagus transformations, the book she slipped into her pile. Going over the steps the book had she found that she was already nine tenths of the way there. Before receiving her wand, she was about three quarters there.
Closing her eyes, Selina cleared her mind and focused on her inner animal. She ended up in a cottage, much like this one, and there lying on the carpet before the warm fire was a pitch black cat with piercing green eyes. Selina smiled. Doing as the book instructed, Selina mimicked the cat and before long the cat ceased to exist next to her, and as she looked herself over she smiled. There was only one more step left.
Exiting her mind she called for McGonagall. Seeing that the woman was the transfiguration teacher, she might just be able to assist, should Selina mess up the next step. McGonagall listened to Selina's reasoning and gave her a rare smile while she turned into a tabby cat and back again.
"Now Ms. Kyle, I will give you only three chances to perform the task, if you do not succeed, I will ask you to not attempt it again until at least your fourth year." Selina agreed to the terms, finding them fair.
Holding her wand like the book illustrated, Selina envisioned the black cat fully in her mind. She exhaled slowly and pushed her magic into the shape of the cat. The first attempt was a great one, but it wasn't the small cat that lay on the carpet, but a human sized one that stood in her feet. The second attempt had Selina shrink to the size of the cat but still very much human. The third attempt was the tipping point, were Selina once sat was a beautiful pitch black cat with only a chip out of her right ear, the same place Selina had an earring ripped out. It never healed, but was expertly hidden under her hair. McGonagall picked her up and looked over every inch of the body and found nothing out of place or distinguished.
"I am afraid you would have to keep this ability a secret, Ms. Kyle." McGonagall said a strange glint in her eye.
"Why Professor?" Selina was confused.
"Simple Ms. Kyle, you have no definitive marks anywhere on your body, you cannot register this form on the Animagus board. They would pick up an alley cat and spend hours trying to undo the transformation. Therefore they will lock the ability away in the recesses of your mind, barring you from ever using it again."
"So I should remain unregistered?" Selina had her own glint.
"I am afraid so, besides who would believe that an eleven year old girl, unfamiliar with magic in general, could be an Animagus?" McGonagall suddenly turned serious. "As an Animagus you are prone to animalistic behavior. As a cat you would have to fight certain urges, like collecting items that doesn't belong to you. I would suggest if you do that, is to keep the items out in the open and informing your dorm mates that you are a kleptomaniac. If they ask what it means, tell them it is an uncontrollable urge to pick up stuff and carry it around to another location. If they are missing something they can ask, politely, if you took it by accident."
"Is that why you have the assorted knick-knacks on the shelves?" Selina asked. "No one told you about the side effects of turning into a cat."
"That is unfortunately true, before I got a grip of my obsession, I found myself collecting many different things. They line the walls to remind me to keep my urges under control."
====SKTRS====
This is basically the pilot chapter for this story, I won't be returning to it until after I finished my Pamela Potter series.
I would still love to read your reviews, please review.