Chapter 1

Star Gazing

7 September 1976

I love the stars. I love the way they glow. I love the shapes they make. I love everything about them. I love looking up at the night sky and finding the different constellations. Every night for as long as I can remember, which honestly isn't that long, I've gone outside and just stared up at the sky. Tonight was no different. I stood, on the viewing deck of the Astronomy Tower, with my advanced telescope, star gazing once again.

You may be curious as to why I said I haven't been remembering things for that long. I'm sixteen years old, and even though in the span of things that's not very old, that's not what I meant. You see, I can't remember most of my childhood, though I'm not really sure I'd want to. I can only remember about the last seven or so years of my life. To be honest, I don't even know if I'm really sixteen. I can't remember when my birthday actually is. But my "family" and I celebrate it on the day that I joined their already existing family of three.

My name is Kate and about seven years ago my adoptive father Fleamont rescued me from the ashes of my home. Somehow, when the fire broke out, I managed to escape and crawl to the edge of the forest. That's where Fleamont found me. He took me to Saint Mungo's Hospital, but when I regained consciousness I could remember nothing about my former life. No family member ever came by the hospital to claim me; I was alone. It's like life had just started anew for me. Several old men tried and tried, with no avail, to discover the truth. But even today it remains a mystery.

I said I joined Fleamont's family of three. The other two members of our family are his wife, Euphemia, and his son, James. James and I are now the same age and we attend school together. We share most of the same classes and James hardly ever lets me out of his sight. He promised Fleamont that he would look after me and not let anything harm me, and he's been true to his word. Though I daresay I can take care of myself. Nevertheless, I let James do his thing. Things are just a little easier that way.

As you may have guessed, my favorite subject is Astronomy. I would have said it was my best as well, but to be honest I make an 'Outstanding' in all my classes, except for History of Magic. It seems I'm not very good with history; I can't even remember my own. James' favorite subject is Defense Against the Dark Arts but, like me he is good at all his subjects. We also both really like Transfiguration. I imagine these may sound like strange classes to you, but you see, James and I are wizards. Well he's a wizard and I'm a witch. And we are students at the finest magic school around, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, under the finest headmaster around, Albus Dumbledore.

Headmaster Dumbledore was one of the old men I mentioned earlier. You know, one of the ones who visited me in the hospital to try and figure out what was wrong with me. A handful of those men wanted to strip me of my powers because they thought that I was dangerous and that I'd caused the fire. But Fleamont and Headmaster Dumbledore vouched for me and said that even if I had started the fire then I wasn't the one to blame, because I was only about nine or ten at the time and couldn't be expected to control my magic. Headmaster Dumbledore seemed to think that if I was the cause for the fire, then I must have been under extreme pressure or stress in order for my magic to get so out of hand. Sometimes I wish I knew what really happened, and other times I'm grateful that I don't.

I took one last look at the star I was studying through my telescope. It was getting close to curfew and I had to get back to the Gryffindor common room. I smiled as a slight breeze rustled my hair. I packed up my telescope carefully and turned to leave. Before stepping back inside, I looked up at the sky again, and smiled. It was so beautiful.

It seemed only minutes later that I walked through the portrait hole into the common room. It was nearly empty. A few seventh year students were sitting around the fire doing a pile of homework. School had barely been in session for a week and already they had a pile of homework; I was not looking forward to next year. Hardly anyone noticed that I had entered, and that was fine with me. I never liked too much attention. That's probably why I didn't have too many friends, only James and his crew, the Marauders as they liked to call themselves.

"There you are Kate," Lily Evans said as she approached me. Lily was a beautiful red headed girl that shared a dorm with me, and James had a huge crush on her. "James has been badgering the hell out of me. Well, more so than usual anyways. He's been worried about you. He didn't know where you were. And he thinks I should know. He's such a prat."

"I'm sorry Lily," I apologized. "Where is he now?"

"He's in his dorm."

"Thanks, I'll take care of him." I walked past her and headed for the stairs that led up to the boys' dormitories.

"Right. And can you send Remus down; we need to start our rounds," Lily added before I had completely left.

I nodded my 'yes' and continued on my way. Thankfully the stairs were empty. When I reached the door labeled Sixth Year Boys, I stopped and pressed my ear against it. I could hear muffled voices on the other side; they were all there. I knocked lightly and a moment later there was a shuffle as someone rushed to the door.

"Who's there?" someone asked. I recognized the voice as Sirius Black's.

"A cat as dark as the night," I responded with a smile. The door opened instantly and I stepped inside.

"Kate! It's about time! Where have you been?" James asked as he jumped off his bed to greet me with a bone crushing hug.

I winced and held up the box which contained my telescope. "Where do you think James?"

"I told you she would be star gazing, Prongs," Remus said from his bed.

"Oh piss off Moony," James said as he threw a dirty sock at him. Remus blocked the sock with his wand and sent it flying back to smack James in the face.

Ah, Boys.

"Lily is looking for you Remus. She says it's time to start your rounds," I said as I moved further into the room.

"Right, well, I was just waiting for you to get back. We wouldn't want our Leo to get in trouble for breaking curfew," Remus replied as he laid a hand on my shoulder. "I'll be back in about an hour." He smiled sweetly, he always smiled sweetly, and walked out.

"Well, as you can see James, I'm back and I'm unscathed. You can stop worrying now," I said after Remus had left.

"I'll never stop worrying about you Kate. You know that."

"Yeah, I know." I sighed as I sat down on the now vacant bed. Of the four boys who stayed in the dorm, Remus was by far the cleanest; although, he still wasn't as clean as the girls and I had to brush aside one of his shirts.

I knew James and Fleamont would never let up. They had made it their personal, life-long goal to keep me out of harm's way. James had even roped his friends, Sirius, Remus, and Peter into looking after me as well. At least I knew they cared. I don't think The Man or The Woman who cared for me before cared much about me at all. The scars that spotted my body told me that much about my past.

Ah, the scars. There were many scars. I was never quite sure if someone was looking at me or the scars. There were scars on my back, my stomach, my legs, my arms, my right hand, and my face. And for all these scars I had no recollection of how they came to be. Some scars looked like knife cuts, others looked like table corners. Some scars looked like jewelry indentions, and some looked like burns. They were many and varied. And try as I might, I could never hide them all.

"Ugh," Peter grunted miserably. I looked across the way at him to see that he was struggling profusely over his homework.

"What are you working on, Pete?" I asked.

He looked at me with his beady eyes. "Astronomy," he said helplessly.

I sighed. "Bring it here, Pete."

"Really? You'll help me?"

"Bring it here," I said again and held out my hand. He quickly gathered his charts and rushed over. I took one glance at the assignment and set to work. The things I do for these boys. Five minutes later I handed the assignment back, completed.

"Ah thanks!" Peter said enthusiastically. "James, have I ever told you how amazing your sister is? I could kiss her."

"No funny business, Wormtail. Kate is off limits!" James declared quickly.

"As if Wormtail has a chance with a girl as beautiful as Kate, James," Sirius laughed.

Sirius' remarks about my beauty had little effect on me anymore; I knew he was only being nice. I wasn't pretty; in fact I was nowhere near it. My dull, charcoal grey-brown hair hung in loose waves midway down my arms. My pale pink lips were flat and thin. I was sleek and slender with very little curves. If a guy was interested in me, it was only because I was "off limits;" I was the unattainable girl who was constantly surrounded by the four Marauders. There was nothing attractive or remarkable about me, except maybe my eyes. They were a light sapphire blue that contrasted against my pale skin. But even then you'd have to look beyond all the scars, and not even I could do that.

"Piss off. I can get any girl just as well you can," Peter defended himself without missing a beat.

I continued to sit there on Remus' bed while the guys went back to discussing… whatever it was they were discussing before I came in. I'd tell you what they talked about, but I tuned them out. I found myself doing that a lot lately, more so than usual anyways, ever since I started having those nightmares…

Oh well, it was probably just more 'top-secret, for-Marauders-ears-only' stuff. You know, 'who was the biggest git today and what can we do for pay back,' or 'what prank to pull next and whom to pull it on.' Or perhaps even, where to go on the next full moon. The only reason I was allowed to sit in on these 'top-secret' meetings was because I was James' sister and, as I said earlier, James hardly ever let me out of his sight; only to use the bathroom, sleep, star gaze (which he didn't particularly like but couldn't stop), and every full moon when he and the guys would go out with Remus.

See, Remus is a werewolf and so to help him we all became Animagi. I'd begged and pleaded James to let me go with them but he positively refused; even though it was my idea in the first place, I found all the right books to study, and I was the first one of the group to pull off the transformation successfully. 'It's too dangerous Kate. What if something happened to you, Mum and Dad would have my head on a platter, next to Remus',' James had said. Sirius was James double, they were practically brothers, and so of course he agreed with James. Peter sided with me and we almost had James convinced. But then Remus found out what we were up to and had personally asked me not to come along and being that it was Remus who asked I couldn't bring myself to say no. But even though I wasn't allowed to wander out with them on full moons, I still kept my Animagus form, a cat as dark as the night: the black leopard.

After a few minutes of just sitting there on the bed I became bored. So I summoned a piece of parchment from James' desk, a quill, and a bottle of ink and I began to doodle. Before long I noticed that I was sketching Remus' face.

Ah, Remus. Of the four Marauders he's the clean, sensitive, intellectual, quiet one. He's always got a book in his hands and he always has a few words of wisdom to share. He's also the one with the dark secret. Only the four of us and the professors know of his 'furry friend,' as James and Sirius like to call it.

Sirius, there's another character. As I said, he and James are just alike, so alike that they became instant best friends when they first met, several years ago now. They are both highly popular, skilled Quidditch players—even though Sirius doesn't play for the house team—and brilliant; though not as brilliant as Remus or I. All the girls want to be with them, and all the guys want to be them. And they always know how to make me laugh, whether it be at one of their pranks or just at them.

Then there's Peter. My little Pete. There's nothing really particularly attractive or special about him; not that he's unattractive though, I mean girls look at him like they do the other Marauders just to a slightly lesser degree. Many people seem to think that Peter is only a Marauder because he shares a dorm room with James; but I know that's not true. The fact of the matter is, James caught Peter delivering some pretty nasty insults to one particular Slytherin that James didn't like. Peter impressed James, and so James befriended him. The rest is, as they say, history.

My drawing was complete. Now, I wasn't a particularly talented artist, but sketching so many star charts had left me with marginal talent at least. I gazed at the drawing as a yawn escaped my lips.

"It's past your bedtime Missy," a gentle voice said from beside me.

I smiled and looked up at Remus.

"I was just waiting for you," I responded, in what I hoped was a clam manner. "Lily seemed pretty aggravated when I got back. So I was just making sure you returned in one piece."

"Ah." Remus smiled and sat on his bed beside me. "What's that?" he asked, pointing to the parchment that had his face drawn on it.

"Uh— it's yours," I said quickly. "I got bored so I drew it for you." I handed him the sketch.

"For me? Hmm." He studied it for a while. "Who's it supposed to be?"

"You of course," I laughed. "See there's the little indent you have above your left eye, and the scar on your left cheek, and I even added the dimple you get when you smile," I explained as I pointed out each feature.

"I have a dimple?" he asked skeptically.

Oh boy, I was noticing things about him that even he didn't know.

"Er—yeah," I said unsurely. "It's nothing weird or anything. I'm just exceptionally observant."

He chuckled softly. "Here," he handed the parchment back.

"Oh no, it's yours. Keep it," I said.

"I want you to sign it, Kate. It's a piece of artwork. All the great artists sign their names on their work."

"Right. I knew that." I signed and dated the drawing before handing it back.

"Thanks." He smiled sweetly at me again.

"Hey Moony you're back!" Sirius exclaimed, noticing Remus' return for the first time. I looked over at the guys and noticed James watching us carefully. I swallowed roughly, remembering that I wasn't allowed to fancy any boy.

"I should be going," I said to no one in particular. "It's getting late and I'm getting tired." James nodded and I hurriedly got off the bed.

"Night Kate," Sirius and Peter said.

"Night boys," I said back. "Good night James."

"Good night Kate," James replied as he continued to carefully eye Remus, who had lowered his head and sunk back on his bed. I turned and walked out of their dorm with my telescope in hand.

Ah, James.


Cast of Characters:

Kate Potter: Zooey Deschanel / James Potter: Aaron Johnson / Remus Lupin: Andrew Garfield / Sirius Black: Ezra Miller / Peter Pettigrew: Michael Cera

Lily Evans: Sophie Turner