A/N: So here is the second chapter. Bear with me. This is the first fanfic that I have ever written.
Disclaimer: I do NOT own anything belonging to Harry Potter or Castle. They belong to J.K. Rowling and ABC respectively.
CHAPTER 2- Confusion
On the morning of August 25, Kate got up way too early for even her own liking. When she looked at her alarm clock, the emerald numbers read 4:59. Why was she up so early? She wondered to herself as she crawled out of bed. Then, a minute later, the alarm actually sounded. At five in the morning! The gall of it. She quickly made her way back to the night table to turn off the alarm. She pressed the small button, then turned around and headed to the door. On her way to the door, so she could get a drink of water from the kitchen, Kate stumbled over a large something. Her toe exploded in pain. She kept quiet though, knowing that a scream louder than her alarm would wake her parents for sure. And if there was no apparent reason for them to be awake, why wake them?
When she reached the doorway, Kate flicked the lightswitch. When she turned around, she realized why she had gotten up so early. There was a large antique looking trunk in the middle of the floor with the initials "K.B." engraved on the side. The lid was wide open and clothes, papers and books were overflowing the edges of the trunk like her own personal waterfall- minus the water.
The past few weeks suddenly came flooding back to Kate. All the reading she did in her mom's study. The preparations to leave the United States and New York. And all the bottled up excitement on her part. Today was the day that she was going to catch the flight from JFK airport and land in London. She was finally going to start the trip to Hogwarts!
Kate whirled around and raced to her parents room. She knew they would be awake. Why wouldn't they be? They were always up by now anyways. And didn't they say last night that the flight was at 7 o'clock? As she burst through their door, light flooded her. For a few seconds she had to blink furiously to get used to it. When her vision properly returned to her, she saw that both of her parents were indeed awake.
"Katie! Why aren't you dressed?" asked her mother. Johanna Beckett was dressed in tennis shoes, jeans, and a red blouse that buttoned up just far enough to make the men wonder. Her father on the other hand was wearing jeans and a white T-shirt, with no shoes at the moment. As a matter of fact, he seemed to have lost them.
"Ummm. I just got up?" answered Kate, wondering why on Earth she had to be dressed so early.
"Well go get dressed." Johanna answered. "We are supposed to be at the airport right now!" she explained in an exasperated tone as she pulled one of her husbands shoes out from under the bed sheets. He gave her an apologetic look, and put the shoe on. He then continued to look for the other shoe as Kate shuffled back down the hall to her room.
Kate stood in her doorway a moment before deciding to get dressed. For nine months she wouldn't be seeing this room. Instead she would be in a castle dormitory. She imagined a roaring fireplace with bunks and dressers. The windows would be big, but not let a draft in.
All of a sudden there was a tapping on the window. Kate awoke from her reverie, and strode around her trunk and everything around it, to open the window. She kneeled on the bench in front of it, unlatched the window, and her owl Bertie flew in and landed on the open trunk lid. In her beak was a mouse. A dead mouse. Taking it from Bertie's beak with her index finger and thumb, Kate tossed it in the garbage can. Bertie hooted and Kate took out one of the treats from the bag that was on top of her dresser.
Once Bertie was content, Kate pulled out a Yankees T-shirt and her favorite pair of jeans and put them on. She then grabbed all the stuff lying around her trunk and attempted to stuff it into the trunk. Kate could have sworn it had all fit yesterday-until she needed her extra inhaler. For some reason she couldn't find her first one, so she needed the extra- which just happened to be at the bottom of the trunk!
Johanna watched from the doorway as Kate closed the lid of the trunk, and jumped on it to make it clasp shut. Unfortunately, all she seemed to be able to do is fall and bruise even more of her body, this time her rear end. "Organizio" she whispered. Almost as quiet as a whisper, the trunk organized itself, and clasped shut. As Kate jumped up and down because she had got her trunk to cooperate, Johanna, with a small smile upon her lips, turned around to make sure the house was ready to be left.
Meanwhile, Kate had finished celebrating, and started to finish cleaning her room so it would look presentable. She swept up the owl droppings and spare pieces of paper. Once that was done she put Bertie into the cage. As she pulled her hand out, it knocked against something metal and plastic. It was her inhaler. So that's where it went, Kate wondered as she pocketed the inhaler.
Kate took one last look around her room. For nine months it would essentially be empty. Then she grabbed one end of the trunk and dragged it across the floor and through the door onto the landing. She then walked over to the dresser, picked up the cage with Bertie in it, along with her treats. With a last wistful look into her room, Kate closed the door to her old life, and opened the door to her new one. The one that would lead her eventually to love, pain, and the greatest adventure of her life.
The Beckett's arrived at JFK Airport with an hour to spare. Unfortunately an hour to check in and go through security at JFK wasn't much time. For some reason, even though they were in a rush, everytime Kate looked at her mother, she was on the thing the muggles called a "sell fone". Kate couldn't get it. Why would her mother be on that thing when she was so anxious to not be last. If she was on that thing any longer they were going to miss the plane.
But they did make it on time. Actually nearly fifteen minutes early. Slowly they boarded the plane- "boarding pass please", up the hall, "welcome!", "have a good flight". Kate finally sank into the navy blue seat and buckled the belt. She could now catch up on the sleep she missed this morning. Kate stuffed the airplane pillow behind her neck and settled in for a nice nap.
Not even five minutes before they were supposed to take flight, Kate heard a squeaky annoying voice "Excuse me. I think you're in my spot."
It took her an effort just to open her eyes. She woke up soooo early that morning. Couldn't this annoying nine year old just leave her alone! But, inevitably she did look up at the stranger. Well, maybe not nine… he had brown hair that fell into his sapphire eyes. Though admittedly he was kind of scrawny. "Um. No. My ticket says 25C. That's the aisle-my seat" she said pointedly, even pointing at the seat she was sitting in.
"Uh, no you're wrong. That's my seat." Said the stranger pulling a look of determination onto his face.
"Fine then. Prove it," replied Kate, starting to get fed up with this twerp.
"I don't want to prove it. And I shouldn't have to." Answered the stranger indignantly. Kate noticed that his eyebrows furroughed, and his nose scrunched when he got mad. A smile appeared on her face. "What are you laughing at?" the stranger huffed?
"Well…" Kate started to answer. But a woman who seemed to match the boy in appearance, except for the hair- hers was red- came up to him.
"Ricky? What are you up to?" she said, condescendingly to him.
"Nothing." He said, looking crest-fallen. Suddenly he lost his determination, and his demeanor started to match his voice. "She's in my seat." Kate heard him, in almost a whisper.
"Oh dear. No she didn't. Yours is 25A. By the window." The woman said, pointing to the window-side seat. The boy gave her a look of disgust then looked at Kate. She got the point, and, not wanting to cross the woman, got up so the kid could go to his seat.
"I'm sorry Kate that he is causing so much trouble." The woman said to Kate. It took her a moment to realize that the stern woman was actually talking to her- and she knew her name…
"How…how…how do you know who I am?" she said incredulously. The look on the Kate's face was enough to put the boy into a fit of giggles.
"Oh, your parents and I go way back," she responded with an air of importance. She then bent over and whispered to Kate "longer than I care to admit". She then stood up and squeezed past Kate to get to her seat between Kate and her son. "Oh," she suddenly said turning around suddenly to look at Kate. She sat down and motioned for Kate to sit down as well. Kate cautiously sat down and looked at the woman with hesitation. The woman then spoke so quietly that only Kate could hear her. "My name is Martha Rodgers and this little rascal is Richard Castle. He'll be joining you for your first year at Hogwarts." And with that she leaned back, and Kate didn't hear from her for the rest of the flight.
The boy on the other had had other ideas. "It's Rick actually." He said, leaning on the arm of the chair between himself and his mother. Suddenly he jumped back like he was electrocuted. The seat back screen in front of him had turned on. He stared at it, then became engrossed in the TV. Typical boy, thought Kate as she adjusted the pillow behind her neck. If she was stuck with him the whole flight, then she would need to be asleep to live though it.