Katherine Keaton looked at the letter and sighed sadly. It had been a week since she had gotten it, and a week since her mother had flat-out refused to let her go. Didn't she understand? This explained everything about her that was so strange, why she was the school's freak and why she broke her mother's favorite china cup, without touching it, when she told her that she couldn't go. But the cup incident is the reason that she was in her room right now, grounded, and staring at the piece of parchment that was beginning to wear on the creases that she kept folding and unfolding. Finally deciding not to dream anymore, she folded the letter up 'for the last time' (as she had been telling herself for five days now) and carefully placed it in the small drawer of her night-table.
Rolling over, her dark-brown eyes stared out the window at the perfectly manicured lawns and perfectly groomed people. Why, oh why, had her mother chosen to move to this desolate suburb? The people were fake, their smiles were half-hearted, their families were only there for show. They didn't belong here, her especially. She didn't belong in a school with those prats, whose only concern seemed to be humiliating her and others that they found below themselves. She had tried to explain that to her mother, but of course she didn't listen. She would just have to suffer through years of boarding school with said prats and fake smilers until she graduated and had to get a job and work with them instead.
There was a knock at the door; Katherine simply grunted a response. The door opened and her older brother walked in.
"Y'okay, kid?" He asked as he sat on the foot of her bed.
"What do you think?" She asked in a monotone voice.
"Don't let it get you down, I'll talk to her, we can figure something out."
"What is there to figure out? She's not going to let me go."
"I said I'll take care of it."
"Fine, but I really don't see what you're hoping to accomplish here, Jake."
"I got to go, dad went," He ruffled her hair, like her father did when she was little, before he died, before she could remember. "I'll make sure you get to go."
"You went?" She looked at him with her big brown eyes full of hope, wonder and confusion. "How come I can't remember?"
"You were born when I was in my second year, you were only five when I graduated, so it makes sense that you wouldn't remember."
"Wow."
"Yeah, it's pretty amazing to some people. Got to go, kid, work and all that."
He got to his feet and checked his wrist watch. They said their good-byes and farewells and he went back down the stairs, presumably to talk her mother into allowing her to go to the school of her dreams.
Katherine resisted the urge to look at the letter again; she had it memorized anyhow. She rolled over and fell into a deep sleep. There, she dreamt that she was flying. Someone's hands were holding her as she flew over the clouds and below the stars. She looked up and saw the face of a man that she knew; though at the same time she didn't. She had his coloring, his brown eyes and dark-chestnut hair, as well as his slightly bronzed skin. He looked down at her and smiled.
"See, Lovey? Flying isn't so bad, is it?"
She was about to say something - to tell him that he was right, that she was having the time of her life, that she missed him so much - but the image started to fade away. She started to call out to him, but he couldn't hear her as he slowly faded to black.
She shot up-right in bed and searched the room frantically with those eyes.
"Father." She whispered. "I'm going to learn to fly someday. I'm going to Hogwarts. You'll see."
It was six years later, and she was standing on the platform for the...thirteenth time? Just about. This time she was alone, Jake had an important job thing to go to and her mom was busy acting like her daughter went to some snobby muggle boarding school.
She gathered her courage and stepped through the barrier, holding her head high. On the other side she saw another platform and the Hogwarts Express (and once again she wondered how such wizarding geniuses couldn't come up with a better name for the steam-engine). This platform was different then the last though; there was more excitement in the air, some sort of electricity, almost...magical.
She smiled for the first time since June. This beautiful (though poorly named) train was going to take her to the best place on earth. She mentally cheered for Hogwarts. (Hurrah!)
"Kate!" Someone called from across the way. "Kate!" She ignored it again. "Katherine Faith Keaton! Get over here!" Katherine turned toward the voice and almost laughed out loud when she saw her best friend, Lily Evans, pushing and elbowing her way through the crowd.
"Hey Lily." Katherine said once they met up. She was going to ask her how her summer was but she was cut-off by a very tight hug.
"Oh, Katie, it's wonderful to see you again! Absolutely marvelous! I've amazing news, oh you'll never guess, but try anyway!" She sputtered.
"Umm...some bloke finally announced their undying love for you and now you're engaged?"
"No, silly! I'm head girl! Can you imagine? Isn't it exciting?" She almost squealed in delight. "The only problem is that we won't get to ride together on the way to school, because of my new duties."
"And we won't be able to hang out as much this year because of said duties." Katie said dryly. "And your charms club, and my extra studies. Don't worry about it, Lils, there's plenty of other...fish in the sea? Birds of a feather?" She smirked as she received a light punch in the arm. "Fine, fine, I forgive you. It's not like you're the only person on the planet that I can hang out with, right?"
The whistle blew and the two girls scrambled to grab their things, say their good-byes, and go in their separate directions.
Kate was looking for a compartment, but they were all just about full, or the empty seats were saved. She would have preferred to sit alone, but knew that wasn't going to happen any time soon. She looked in another compartment, this one was full of giggling third year girls. They seriously made her want to gag. Who could giggle that much? What on this green earth was that funny? Nothing, that's what.
She was down to the last three. Boisterous laugher and very loud cursing (of the non-magical kind) could be heard coming from the ones further back, but the closest one seemed pretty quiet. She took a chance and slid the door open.
Her eyes fell on a pudgy boy with small watery eyes and thin hair. She knew that he was in her house, probably her year too, but she couldn't remember her name. Katherine was horrible with names. She thought it was Patrick Piddlediddle or something like that, but it didn't really sound right. Maybe it was Percivel?...No.
"Hey," She said once she became tired of the staring, "can I sit here?"
He just looked at her as a rabbit would while being swooped down upon by a hawk. She felt her irritation rising. She disliked having people stare at her, and she hated it when people ignored her questions. Her fists clenched. She was about to open her mouth to give him a sound verbal thrashing, but...
"I think she asked you a question, Pete." A semi-familiar voice said from behind her left shoulder. (Peter! His name was Peter Pettigrew!) "Best not to keep a lady waiting." Peter looked past her expectantly, begging with his eyes for help of some kind from the disembodied voice.
She heard the voice sigh at the awkward silence that ensued. Kate was about to leave, but when she turned she noticed two boys were blocking her way. It was none other then Sirius Black and his friend, Remus Lupin. She found it rather amusing that she knew their names right off.
"You're in my way." She said rather bluntly. It was the first day, her best friend was elsewhere coddling first-years with home-sickness, some creep kept staring at her, her cats were mewling pathetically from their basket and she just knew that there was something that was going to surprise her (probably in a bad way) once she got to school. Katherine was not in a good mood.
"Way to state the obvious." Black said as he arrogantly rolled his eyes.
"You can sit with us." Lupin chimed as he saw her giving his friend a glare that would rival that of Lysander when Dimitrius was still in love with Hermia (A Midsummer Night's Dream...Shakespeare). "There's loads of room, right Padfoot?" He looked over to his friend, almost silently asking for approval. Once Black nodded they all moved into the compartment and tried to store their luggage in the already moving train.
Katherine sat down and lifted the lid off the basket to peer inside. Her two tabby cats looked at her with big yellow-green eyes and started to mew pathetically once again. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a small bag of cat treats. After tossing the kitties their snack, she closed the lid and saw Pettigrew staring at her. She was about to saw something, but was, once again, interrupted.
"Don't mind Peter, he's just a bit...ah...edgy around new people." Lupin said softly.
"Please," Sirius barked out a laugh, "Wormtail only gets this weird around one certain person and-"
"How was your summer, Keaton?" Lupin interrupted.
"Fine...you guys?" She was confused.
Apparently, Lupin has some kind of "furry little problem" that Katherine really didn't want to know about, (but that could just be her dirty mind) Pettigrew can't speak in coherent sentences and Black ran away from his pure-blood-muggle-borns-must-die family and went to Potter's place. Oh, and Potter has somehow managed to become head-boy and that was why he wasn't in the compartment with them. Katherine could just hear Lily's rants about that one. In fact, she thought she could almost hear her yelling at him from where she was seated right now.
