Kathryn Winchester and the Goblet of Fire

by Lady Dawson

Chapter One: A Death and a Reunion

As she stood upon the small cemetery and stared down at the grave that now contained her dead father, Kathryn Winchester couldn't help but shiver despite the warm Floridian air. It had been a month since the death of her beloved father and still, she couldn't seem to accept the fact that this wasn't just a horrible dream that she was going to wake up from.

Kat slowly sank down onto the ground, tracing her father's name on the headstone, sadness weighing down upon her.

She was supposed to be back home, packing all of her belongs so that she could move all the way across the sea with her long forgotten mother, the woman who had divorced Jack Winchester when she had been all of six months old and returned to England, never to be head from again . . . at least, until her father was killed in an car accident. And now, Kat was being forced to travel all the way around the world to live with a woman that she hadn't had contact with since she was an infant.

And worst of all, she was going to have to leave her school, the Lerion Academy of Magic, and all of her friends to attend the Britain school, Hogwarts. It wasn't that Kat hadn't heard very nice things about it; in fact, some of the things they said were nicer than Lerion. But it was the principal of the thing.

Curling up against the grave, Kat wished that she could do something to change that. She would do anything to have her father back.

"Hi, Daddy," she said in a small voice as she sat there with her arms wrapped around her. "It's me. I'm not really supposed to be here, but . . ." She trailed off. "But I just wanted to talk to you. I wish that there was some way that you could talk to me too, instead of having these one-ended conversations." Kat gave a small sniffle. "I'm scared, Dad. Ever since . . . I just feel so lost and like I don't really have a place anymore. And we both know that Mom doesn't really want me. Sure, she might have travelled all the way around the world just to come and pack me up and ship me back there, but she doesn't want me. She's never wanted me, not even when I was a kid." She sighed. "I just wish that I could go back to the way things used to be."

Even as she said the words, Kat could already see her father giving her his usual cocky and wry smile and knew what he would say if he were here. "Change is like the wind, Kitty. It's constantly changing and no one knows which way it's going to blow next."

And Kat knew that he was right.

While she didn't want to go, destiny might have something else in mind for her, something that she might only find at Hogwarts. So even though her mother would probably rather dump her off at a cousin's or something, she wasn't going to turn her back on this.

Suppressing a sigh, Kat glanced skyward. "I know, you're right, Dad," she said, shaking her head. "You're always right." She gave a small smile towards the grave as she stood up, brushing the dirt off of her jeans. "I love you, Daddy," she whispered. "Thanks for the talk."

With one last look at the grave, Kat walked away from the final resting place of Jack Winchester, her sandy locks already brushing against her shoulders as she walked away. In looks and manner, she was the exact image of her father, but she had her mother's tiny form, her slim stature, and her quiet nature. But from the sandy-blonde hair to the bright blue-green eyes, she was made in Jack Winchester's image.

All the way back to her house, Kat kept imagining what her mother was going to say when she came back after disappearing for hours on end. Ever since Rose Carlyle had come back to the Winchester home, she had tried to control Kat, tried desperately to put her on a leash and tighten the collar, but Kat kept managing to break the chain and run free.

Kat, more than anything else, did not want to be controlled. She just wanted to be left alone. The last thing that she wanted was to be in the same house with the same woman that had broken her father's heart and had abandoned her.

Rose had proved fourteen years ago that she wanted nothing to do with her daughter. And as far as that daughter was concerned, the only reason that she was even going with her mother was because she didn't have anywhere else to go.

As she finally came walking up the pathway leading up to the small cottage that had been her home for the past fourteen years, Kat could see her mother's small silhouette pacing back and forth across the living room floor. Suppressing a sigh, she decided to make the quick entrance and climb up the tree in the back, climbing onto the roof and sliding into the bedroom through her window.

Unfortunately, there was no avoiding the quarrel that was undoubtedly going to come as her mother came barging into her room less than second later.

"Where have you been?" she demanded, her red hair coming out of its perfect braid and her dark blue eyes were filled with fury and anger. "Do you have any idea what time it is, young lady? You were supposed to stay up in this room to pack, you understand? I suppose your father just let you run wild all over the place at all hours, but I am not going to stand for it, do you hear me?"

Kat met her mother's gaze evenly without showing any fear. "Yes, ma'am," she said flatly. By now, she had learned that it didn't do any good to argue with the woman; she just said yes now and then went behind her back and did the exact opposite anyway.

Her mother's eyes narrowed dangerously. "Don't you use that tone with me, girl," she said flatly. "This might not be the acceptable situation to either of us, but no daughter of me is going to go around gallivanting at all hours! When you are in my house, you obey my rules."

Yeah, well, you're not in your house, you're in mine, Kat wanted desperately to say. Her father had left her everything that he owned, which included the house and every cent that he had, which was considerable. But she wasn't going to have access to it until she turned seventeen.

Of course, her father was also very smart. He made sure that her mother couldn't get her greedy hands on it. Under no conditions was Rose going to be able to get even a Sickle out of the account.

Rose gave a huff when Kat didn't even argue with her and turned around, heading back out the door. "I want your things packed up and ready to go by tomorrow morning. If you have to stay up all night, then do it, but we are leaving tomorrow morning, whether you are ready to go or not."

Without another word, she walked out the door, slamming it behind her.

Kat closed her eyes, sitting down on her bed and pulling her photo album to her, curling up onto her bed and opening it, looking down at pictures of her and her father over the years, watching herself as she grew up. Tears flooded her eyes as her father waved happily up at his grown daughter, totally unaware that she, at that moment, was grieving his death.

--

Only a few short days later, Kat found herself sitting in her new room, safely out of her mother, stepfather, and half-brothers' way. She had barely even arrived in this prison when her mother started laying out the rules, which other than mealtimes, she was to stay out of the rest of the family's way.

This was fine by her, because it only took one look at the rest of them to know that they weren't interested in making friends with her.

Her half-brothers, Gilbert and Matthew, had only exchanged a few snobbish remarks to her and it didn't take long for Kat to discover the real reason behind why they were so cruel to her.

Because she was half-blood.

Kat, of course, knew that her mother had been pure-blood and her father had been Muggle-born, but she hadn't realised that her mother had been part of one of those families who prided themselves on having no Muggle blood in their systems. The fact that her father had come from Muggle background meant, in their terms anyway, that her blood was tainted and had completely destroyed their pure, noble blood.

After a few days of the remarks, Kat finally chose to remain in her room, the only solitude that she had access to, or else roaming around the village until she deemed it safe to go home.

For the first time in her entire academic career, she was actually looking forward to going to school. She sincerely hoped that whatever house she was in at Hogwarts, it was as far away from her brothers' as she could get. If she had to sleep in the same house as them, then she was going to run away and go straight back to Lerion, thus putting an entire ocean between them.

Hey, it might be a little extreme, but when it came to those two, Kat didn't think that another planet was going to be far enough away.

Suppressing a sigh, Kat walked over to her window, staring out of it dully, her heart paining as she looked down at the picture of her father that she kept on her desk.

A knock came on her door, startling her, and she looked around, completely puzzled, as she got to her feet, walking over to it and pulling it open, revealing a girl of fourteen standing behind it.

She was a very pretty girl, with a bushel of dark curls crowding her face and blue-green eyes. Something of Rose Carlyle was bore into her face, but she was much taller than the Carlyle matriarch and instead of the permanent scowl that was placed upon her face, there was a nice smile on this girl's.

"Hi, you must be Kathryn," she said, showing off a perfect smile and nice, even teeth. "I'm Faith."

"Kat," she corrected automatically. Anyone who called her Kathryn always made her feel like she was in trouble somewhat, which was why, she was sure, her mother insisted on calling her that. "It's Kat."

Faith grinned. "Sorry. Can I come in?" she asked. Kat shrugged and opened the door wider to admit her. "Wow, cool room. I'm thinking that the parents probably won't approve if they saw this."

"Well, it's probably a good thing that they're never in here," Kat said, shrugging. "Uh . . . sorry, not trying to be rude here, but who exactly are you?" she wanted to know, looking at the dark-haired girl curiously. Other than her name, she hadn't exactly given her much information.

Faith actually looked surprised. "You're telling me that you don't know?" she asked, bemused. Kat shook her head. "Wow, sorry, I assumed that you already knew. I, uh . . . well, I'm your sister," she explained. "Rose is my mom, too."

Kat stared. In all of the conversations she'd had since her arrival here, she hadn't heard one thing about a sister. "They didn't mention a single thing about you," she said.

"Oh, they don't often mention me," Faith said, grinning. "Dear old Mom is still embarrassed by me. Of course, she did a better job with me than she did with you, I guess." She was still grinning, but realised that Kat still didn't have a single clue about what she was talking about. "Look, you might want to sit down for this," she requested.

"I'm good standing," Kat said firmly. "How is it possible that you could be my sister? You look the same age as me and as far as I know, it's not possible to be pregnant by two different men at the same time—"

"Yeah, that's kind of why I want you to sit down," Faith explained. Kat shook her head, a sudden nagging forming in the back of her head. "Okay, look, three things that you need to know. First is that you need to know is that your mother is a complete and total wack job. Second, when she left your dad, she didn't exactly leave on her own. She had me with her."

"And what's the third?"

Faith actually grinned at that. "Well, I just kind of happen to be your twin," she said pleasantly.

For a long minute, Kat just stared at her, completely stunned and disbelief flooding through her faster than a firecracker exploding into the sky. She thought that she had understood Faith correctly, but that just wasn't possible. More than that, it wasn't even probable.

She would know if she had a twin. Her father would have told her if he had two daughters. They told each other everything. They had no secrets from one another, so the only other logical situation was that he had lied.

And the problem with that was that Jack Winchester did not lie or shade the truth or anything.

"Yeah, right," she said flatly.

"It's true," Faith insisted. "When Mom and Dad divorced, they decided to split us up, each taking one of us, instead of being forced to see each other when we went to go live with one of them and then the other. Then Mom met Willard and they got married and had Gil and Matt. I'm not joking about this, Kat," she added upon seeing the sceptical look on her face. "You don't know how long I've waited to see my sis again."

Kat stared at her, straight into her blue-green eyes—her own eyes. Her father's eyes. The Winchester eyes, she thought in shock. She never thought that she would see something like that.

"You really aren't joking, are you?" she asked after a long, tense moment and Faith shook her head, a grin slipping across her face.

"Nope."

Another long moment passed and then Kat moved forward straight into her sister's arms, hugging her tightly and holding her against her.

Sister, she thought happily as they hugged each other. I have a sister.