Chapter One

"BLOODY HELL, CATIE! FOR CRYIN' OUT LOUD, WATCH YOUR BACK!" a familiar red-head shouted to Catie Wrecker; she had just missed a giant iron ball smashing into the side of her head by inches.

"BLOODY HELL YOURSELF, GEORGE! I THOUGHT IT WAS YOUR JOB IN THE FIRST PLACE TO MAKE SURE THE OTHER PLAYERS DON'T GET HIT BY THOSE DAMNED BLUDGERS!" she screamed back, getting a nasty smirk and a rolling of the eyes in responce.

It was the opening day for the Quidditch season, and Catie wasn't quite herself today, to the disappointment of the team. She was always the first one on the field, the first Chaser to score a goal, the one who kept pepping up the Gryffindor Team. For some unknown reason, though, she seemed depressed, and wasn't acting like her normal self.

Catie jumped as yet another Bludger missed her right shoulder by mere centimeters. She glared over at Fred and George Weasley, the two Gryffindor Beaters, and her good friends. They gave her a weak smile, and flew away to make sure the rest of the team was out of harm's way.

But George stopped a only few feet from Catie and looked into her eyes. Those deep, dark eyes. Something was wrong. Something happened. But what was it? George of all people could always tell whenever something was bothering her, and today, it wasn't making her right to play.

That's fine, George thought to himself. I'll stay close to her and make sure she doesn't get hit. Let's just pray Harry cathches that Golden Snitch soon...

Catie looked around. Yes, it was true that something was bothering her, but she refused to let it show this time. She won't let it interfere with the Quidditch game. Especialy on opening day. Catie searched around for where the Quaffle was. There! Katie Bell had it. She was zooming in to the opposite goal post. The Slytherin goal post: the enemy. Catie couldn't let them win. She wouldn't.

"KATIE! OVER HERE!" she bellowed over the roar of the crowd. Katie turned and saw her caller. She tossed the ball over every head in the pitch, and the Quaffle was caught in return by the other Catie. Then she was off.

Catie zoomed down the pitch, towards the goal post. Slytherin had positioned one of their Chasers to stay behind.

So that's how they wanna play, thought Catie. Fine with me. I can play hard, too.

She zoomed around the opposing Chaser, inches from the post. She noticed another one of her own Chasers, Angelina, a few feet away from her.

"ANGELINA! PASSBACK!" Catie shouted to her teammate, who nodded back to her. Catie tossed the Quaffle to her, flew over to the middle goal post, left unguarded, and waited for the return.

George watched in amusement. The old Catie was coming back. He smiled.

The Quaffle was in the air, heading back to Wrecker. It was all up to this moment. She would get a goal, and the score would be tied at 120. Then they only needed Harry to catch the Snitch, which wasn't hard, considering the Slytherin Seeker was slower than a house-elf in the kitches on Christmas day...

Catie wound up her arm, tossed the Quaffle, and it was going, going...

Everything went black. Everything went quiet. Catie sat up in the warmness of the dark, confused, with a pounding headache.

"Where am I?" Catie said out loud to no one in particular, considering she was the only one there.

Catie got off of her feet and began to search around. There had to be a way out of here. Something other than all this darkness...

Then she saw it. A tiny, little glimmer, but it was enough. Catie ran towards it, desperate to know what it was. She slowed down as she neared it, fear slowing her down, eagerness forcing her to move forward. Catie walked until she was a good two feet away from it. Even though she was right next to it, she still couldn't tell exactly what it was. Well... she knew what it was, but why was it here?

Catie glanced through the tiny glass square in the darkness, and found herself staring at another Catie Wrecker, though this one was tinier, more petite.

"It's like a window... but a window into the past... And I thought that was just a figure of speech," Catie whispered into the black night, her voice carrying out to the empty space.

She glanced back to the window, and watched the other side, playing her entire life out before her eyes...

"Catie... This is Mr. Vernon Dursley. Mommy has to go to work today, so he'll be watching you for awhile, while Daddy is at the doctor," a lady said to a little girl standing in front of a rather large man, looking rather impatient, leaning cooly against his doorframe. The lady bent down and kissed her daughter on the forehead, before heading back down the drivewar, and into her car.

The little girl looked up to the man, who glanced back down at her with little, beady eyes.

"Now," he said to her. "You are staying here not on my word, but my wife's. You are going to be a good child for me today, and if you aren't, don't you think that just because you are a child and not at your own home you will not be punished."

Vernon grabbed the girl's wrist and threw her into the living room, where there were two other little boys arguing on the carpet. You would assume they were brothers, but after even first glance, you could tell that assumption was very wrong indeed: One of the boys was rather large in size. He was neat, brown hair, and the same bead eyes that he shared with the man of this house, probably his father. The second boy, though, was very scrawny, but tall. He had messy black hair, piercing green eyes, and glasses perched atop his nose.

The toddler form of Catie Wrecker stumbled over the carpet, uneasily headed to the other children.

They looked up at the sound of tiny footsteps on the rug. The larger one stared at her in amazement, and suddenly lunged at her, full force.

"H-Hi! M-My name is Du-Dudley. My fa-favorite color is b-blue, and I like cake!" Dudley chuckled nervously, as Catie stared at him, bewildered and frightened.

Dudley could tell that he was scaring her at her reaction, so he backed down and sat next to his father on the coach, watching television.

The second boy looked over at her and smiled, which made her feel less uneasy about being here.

He walked over to her, and Catie was lost in his mesmorizing eyes. "Sorry about him. He isn't much of a nutcase once you get to know him. Actually..." he looked up at her and laughed, "I lied. He really doesn't get all too much better even after living with him."

This made Catie giggle, and she looked over at the child and smiled. "My name's Catie," she said to the boy. Catie held out her tiny hand, and the other child took it and gave it a tiny shake.

"Harry," he answered. "Harry Potter."

Suddenly, there was a jerk in the floor beneath her, and the present day Catie was falling through the nothingness, until she landed once again on her back. She got back up and looked around, but it was the same here as it was where ever she had just fallen from.

Catie searched around, and found yet another window floating half-heartedly in the air. She glanced through this one and a look of depsair entered her face. If there was any moment in time she would have chosen to erase from her thoughts, it was this one...

An adolescent Catie sat perched atop a swing in what seemed like an abandoned park.

She was wearing a black tank top and her favorite pair of grey shorts, swinging back and forth with a gigantic smile on her face, the cool summer breeze blowing the long, black hair out of her face.

Catie was lost in her own thoughts, thinking of the future months, so she didn't even notice her best friend approach her from behind.

"What's got you so happy?" said a voice from behind her, startling her, making Catie fall out of her trance and off of the swing.

She was caught in mid-air, and looked up into the eyes of Harry Potter once again.

"Why don't you just try and kill me on the most wonderful day of my life?" she chuckled as Harry blushed and placed her straight on the ground.

"And here I thought the the most wonderful day of yours would be the day when you met me," he laughed back.

Harry's responce was met with a rolling of Catie's eyes and, "It would have been, too, if ickle Dudleykins hadn't gone and scared me half to death by charging me like a rampaging elephant."

"Yeah..." sighed Harry. "He does have that effect on people." At this, the two pre-teens burst into a fit of laughter. After a few moments, both were lying in the grass next to each other, tears coming out of their eyes.

"So," said Harry, breaking the silence of the past few minutes. "What has made you so happy today, Catie?"

Catie sprang up at Harry's question, and looked over at him, and it seemed as though all the joy in the world was contained in her eyes. And that was deffinitely a first for her.

"Harry!" Catie exclaimed, lying back down on the ground next to him, this time on her stomach, facing her best friend. "Remember when you told me about what has been happening to you? Like, with the snake at the zoo, and all of the owls that keep coming to your house?" Harry replied with a short nod, and drove Catie on with her story. "Okay, well... today we were eating breakfast and... something happened."

Harry glanced over at Catie and expected her to go on, but she stopped, as if uneasy about continuing. "Well?! Out with it, Catie!"

She turned her head away from him, got off of her stomach, onto her feet, and began to pace; she only did that when she was extremely nervous. Harry thought something was wrong at first, but then Catie turned on the spot, the biggest grin on her face that Harry had ever seen.

"Well," she continued. "I'll just come out with it then. We were in the middle of eating and something started to tap on our window. I was the first one to hear it, but then my sister did too, and my dad. He got up, opened the window, and an owl flew in. An owl Harry! It was carrying a letter, like the ones at your house do. My Mum opened it, all worried like, and-" She turned again, making her back face Harry. "I learned something. My parents did, too. Harry... I'm a witch."

Catie turned around again, this time facing Harry directly. He looked up at her, bewilderment and sadness filled his face.

Harry slowly shook his head, struggling to get up. When he did, he took one last look at his best friend, then walked down the opposite way, back towards his house.

"Harry..." Catie whispered to the phantom of her friend.

A silent tear came down Catie's cheek as this window shattered.

"Why..." Catie said to the darkness again. "Why would that play? I never want to relive that day aga-"

Her speech was interrupted as yet again the floor disappeared from beneathe her, and Catie was falling through the nothingness again. But, this time she was ready, and landed right on her feet when the ground appeared once again.

Catie looked around her, in search for the next window.

Aha! she thought triumphantly, nearing the next glass pane.

But this one was different. It wasn't focusing on only one memory. There were multiple scence racing before her, and she tried to catch up with them...

Catie was standing on her back porch, crying her eyes out, and her older sister, Sara, was there, hugging her, comforting her tears away.

"If it means losing Harry, then I don't wanna go to Hogwarts!" sobbed Catie, as her Mum brought out a box of tissues, ordered by Sara.

"If he hates you for something like this, then obviously he is not a true friend," Sara countered. This only made Catie start crying even harder...

"BUT DAD! YOU CAN'T MAKE ME STAY HERE! I WANT TO GO!!" Catie yelled at her father, who was putting her trunk down in the basement.

"No daughter of mine will make a freak out of this family," he snarled back at her, as her Mum came running down the stairs, and grabbed Catie's shoulder.

"Don't worry," she whispered to her daughter. "I'll make sure you get to Hogwarts. I promise."

She DID promise...

Now Catie was standing in the middle of a train station, amazed at what she saw before her eyes. There were millions of people around her, and she was only a tiny speck of life in this building.

Catie glanced down at her train ticket. "Platform Nine and Three Quarters." She looked upward. Catie was standing directly between platforms Nine and Ten, but there was no "Three Quarters" in sight.

"Right this way, boys!" shouted a lady behind her. It was a plump, red-headed woman, being followed by a whole line of other carrot-tops.

Catie backed up to allow them to pass, but they didn't walk by her. Two identical freckled faces ran full speed towards one of the pillars. She was about to shout out to them, but they had vanished.

It took Catie a few minutes to understand what had happened, but then it hit her: they had walked right though the beam to the other side...

Catie was walking down the corridor of a train, The Hogwarts Express, to be exact. She was in search of an empty compartment, but there were none to be found.

Catie made a right hand turn into another section of the train, and found that all but one was crowded. And that one even had a boy in it, but he was looking the other way, so she couldn't see his face.

"Oh well..." Catie sighed and grabbed her bag, turned her face to the side a little bit so she wouldn't have to talk to him, and entered the compartment.

"I hope you don't mind if I sit with you. Everywhere else is fu-" Catie was cut short as she was pulled into a deep hug. She knew that hug. She would recognize it anywhere. But... here?

"Surprised to see me here?" laughed Harry as he brushed away Catie's tears and embraced her in another hug...

Catie laughed as a silent tear crept down her real cheek; she had almost forgotten about that fight with Harry. As she was smiling, a tiny box popped up next to the window. It looked like a recording device, and it was playing familiar voices for Catie. In the blink of an eye, a tiny silver orb came flying out and before she could stop it, the tiny ball flew into Catie's ear, and she was hearing the familiar voices right inside her brain...

"Hmmm... this is a tough one, a tough one indeed. You shall be placed in... GRYFFINDOR!"

"That was some amazing flying! How would you like to be one of the Chasers on the Gryffindor Quidditch Team? We could use someone with your flying talents."

"My name is Hermione Granger, and this rude, non-introducing boy beside me is Ron Weasley."

"Fine Oliver, just don't introduce us to the new team mate."

"Well, George, do you really think she would be able to remember which one of us is which anyway?"

"Probably, Fred. There are two ways she would be able to do that. One: Mum always forces us to where those dreadful sweaters."

"And two?"

"Why, I'm the better looking one of course."

"Idiots," Catie chuckled to herself as she watched the tiny silver sphere float back into the box. She closed her eyes and braced herself for the next fall, thinking that she was about to go into a never ending cycle, when suddenly, there was a blinding light ahead of her that forced her to open her eyes.

Catie rolled her dark eyes over and glanced towards the direction of the light. It began to smell slightly familiar, like the Skell-E-Grow that Harry had to use back in year two when that goof Lockhart turned his arm into rubber...

"Hey, George, maybe Catie needs mouth to mouth."

"Oh stuff it, Ron. Why don't you give Harry mouth to mouth. Looks like he needs it more."

Catie laughed as she opened her eyes, saying, "Well, if you both really want to snog so much, I think there's a broom closet over there."

George looked up, beaming at the sight of Catie's open eyes. She sat up and analyzed her surroundings. The entire Gryffindor Quidditch team was standing by her bed, and a few others, including Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, Luna Lovegood, and Elizabeth Worthington.

Catie stared at them, and realized someone was missing. She remembered what George had said... 'Harry looks like he needs it more...' Catie turned her head and saw Harry lying in the bed next to hers. It seemed as though he was unconscience.

So that's what happened to me, thought Catie. But what happened?

She looked back over at Harry and saw his toher injuries. His arm was lying in a sling, obviously healing from some sort of incident. His glasses lay on the table next to him, and there was a big bruise on the side of his face.

Catie turned again and saw that everyone in front of her was talking.

Fred and George turned and looked at Catie, realizing that her face was full of confusion.

"Malfoy," they said in unison. "We're gonna get revenge on that slimy git."

Catie continued to look at them in confusion when Ron finally said, "You see, Malfoy saw that you were about to score, and he also saw that Harry there was about to catch the Snitch. So, being the idiot he is, he decided to grab the Beater's bat from Crabbe. He looked at Goyle, and it was like they had planned out something. They both cornered each Bludger and hit them at the same time, one towards you, and one towards Harry. And seeing as our Beaters were apparently preoccupied-" he broke off for a nasty look at his brothers. "and... well... as you can tell, Malfoy succeeded in his plan."

They all looked to Catie, awaiting her reaction, and were greatly surprised when she burst out laughing. "I knew Slytherin needed to cheat to win," she said, wiping tears from her eyes. "So what are we gonna do to get back at that git?"

"Yeah! That's the best friend I know!" shouted Lizz. Other than Harry, she was Catie's utmost best friend who she confided everything in. Even though she was in Ravenclaw, which disappointed both, they were always together, not to mention completely crazy and loud whenever that was. They had only met in their first year, and since it was their third year now, they hadn't known each other for too long, but that didn't stop them from having a great time togther. "We'll hex his ass back through the hole he crawled out of, just like you did on the train back on day one," Lizz finished with a wink and a smile, which earned a chuckle from everyone.

"Then I suggest we do that as soon as possible," said a voice to the right of Catie. She turned her head to see that now Harry, too, was awake, which made everyone twice as happy. "I could use a laugh, Catie. Why don't you tell us all what happened on the train with Malfoy?"

"Yeah," agreed Fred. "Don't think I've heard this one before."

"Well," started Catie. "I saw some dorky, weird looking girl-" she turned and winked at Lizz. "Just kidding Lizz. Anyway, I saw Lizz, and Malfoy was picking on her, saying his dorky 'Look at the ickle Mudblood' jokes, because he has nothing better to do with his life. When McGonnagle came to my house a few months before, she told me the basic spells, so I thought 'What a splendid way to try them out.' So I did, using Malfoy as my testing dummy of course, which earned me a detention. But oh boy, was it worth it." Catie laughed as she remembered the sight of Malfoy being attacked by a giant flock of birds.

"Well, kids," Madame Ponce said once she heard that Catie had finished. "I have cured your injuries, and since you are now awake, you may leave whenever you would like to."

"Works for me!" shouted both Catie and Harry, jumping out of their beds, still in their Quidditch uniforms.

Everyone made their way out of the Hospital Wing, Catie falling into the back with George.

"If I am remembering correctly," said George with a smirk on his face. "It was in that detention that you first met me, correct?"

"Yeah... I was in there for standing up for my friend. You were there for putting Itching Potion in the Sorting Hat, correct?" laughed Catie.

"Hey," countered George with a wink. "Any prank's a good one if it's done by me."

They both laughed as they walked out of the room, joined the others, and set off in search of Malfoy.

They finally found him standing by himself -how stupid of him- by the lake, throwing rocks into it. At the sound of footsteps he turned, and a big grin spread acrost his pale face.

"Well well well," he sneered. "If it isn't the ickle Mudblood-Blood Traitor Quiddtich Team. And guests! How wonderfu-"

Malfoy didn't even get the chance to finish, because he was cut off with a shrill shout of "AVIS!!!."

As a giant flock of birds attacked him, Lizz laughed and said, "Bring back memories, Bird Brain?"

Everyone watched in amusement as Malfoy clambered up the hill back towards the castle, trying deperately to get away from the crows attacking him.

"Avis..." said a voice from behind them. "Why, I haven't seen that one since a certain pair of teens released a flock of eagles on a Severus Snape..."

Everybody turned on the spot to become face to face with Remus Lupin, the new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, who was also close with Harry, teaching him spells for extra protection.

"Erm..." started Catie. Lupin just held up his hand.

"I think he deserved it," Lupin winked. "If Slytherin still won, at least one of them if not all of them deserve everything they have coming to them. And, by the way Harry. If you are feeling up to it, I'm available for a lesson right now. Care to join me?"

Harry looked at everyone, gave them a wave, and trotted off after Lupin up the hill.

Catie turned to face Lizz, who had a huge grin on her face.

"Once a bird-magnet, always a bird magnet," laughed Catie as she gave her best friend a high five.

They turned to everyone else, who were still laughing from the sight of Malfoy almost wetting himself. Catie joined in the chuckles, and walked back up to the castle with her friends, arm-in-arm with Fred, George, and Lizz, curious as to what their next adventure would be.