Hi again, looks like this took less time then expected. Thank you to all who reviewed the first chapter. Enjoy.

A New Dawn-

Chapter two:

Cora sat quietly in the small room, shaking uncontrollably, but that was nothing new to her. For the biggest part of her life, she had lived in fear; fear that he would run out of Muggles to experiment on and turn to her. She knew that she was special; he saved her for his more complicated, and "ingenious" ideas. However, he was not the reason for her current fear, it was the men in black robes that had taken her away from that God awful house. She didn't know them and she didn't trust them; they were kind to her, but she had learned years ago that you simply could not trust kindness. Byron had been kind to her at times; it was then that the worst things happened to her. Why would they be kind to her anyway? Probably just so she would go along with whatever they wanted her to do. They would just hurt her too.

She felt eyelids getting heavy, and shook herself awake, she could not afford to be asleep when they came, and she knew they would come.

Her instincts had taken over when they had tried to coax out of her cell in Byron's basement. She had attacked the first one that tried to touch her; they had to knock her out before they could remove her without injuring her.

Her eyelids came down again and it tool longer for her to shake herself awake. Then again… and she slept.

"Mama, look what I found!" A small girl came running up to the trio of adult gathered around a table, holding a ladybug in her hands.

"That's nice, Cora, why don't you be a sweetheart and take her outside and put her in the garden."

"Alright, Mama, but can I play with her for a while longer?"

"As long as you play with her outside, and be gentle with her."

The little girl, who had incredibly dark red hair and stunning blue eyes, nodded and ran out the front door. Susan watched her daughter go with a smile on her face before turning back to the conversation at the table.

Outside, she played for a while in the sunshine before heading into the house once again. She noticed her uncle sitting quietly on one of the kitchen chairs, apparently deep in thought. She climbed into his lap without saying a word, startling him back to reality. She giggled at he look on his face, a mixture of surprise and delight.

"What are you thinking about Uncle Sev?" She asked him sweetly.

"Just what I am going to do with all those other kids when you come to Hogwarts, my sweet. I don't think that I would be able to be the bad guy when you are in the room." He said seriously.

"What do you mean?" 

He chuckled, "Don't you worry about it, Cora. What do you say we sneak into the sweets drawer?"

Cora twitched in her sleep, and a small smile showed on her face. Followed by a small frown and a whimper.

She stepped out on to the small porch, it was a wonderfully warm summer night and she gazed up at the stars. Lord how she loved to watch the stars; they had always drawn her out into the night. She smiled as she found Ursa Major and Orion, then Draco, and Leo the Lion.

Then, her sense of calm vanished and she tore her eyes from the heavens to scan the area. Something was very wrong, she had no idea what it was, she only knew it was wrong. The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end as she looked around. Slowly she backed up towards the front door, a movement out of the corner of her eyes caught her attention. She screamed as she was hit with a silencing charm and was picked up in strong hands as her captor took off on a broomstick. Kicking fiercely, Cora tried to bite down on his hand, but a leather glove protected him. Then a flash of light lit up the sky and she looked down to see two people standing on the porch. A woman with black hair and eyes, and a man with strawberry blonde hair and dark blue eyes looked up at her with fear and anger. Both lifted their wands, but they acted to late.

"Avada Kedavra!" Screamed the stranger who held her; she watched in horror as her parents slump to the ground and didn't move. She was too stunned to notice what happened next, but she snapped out of it in time to notice, as she was flown away, that her house was going up in flames.

"I am glad you could get here so quickly, Professor Dumbledore, and you Professor Snape." Said the young mediwitch. "None of us can get near her, and I am not sure that I can do anything for her anyway. Not without much more extensive training in potions and transfiguration." She led them down a long stone hallway. "I've looked at the records of what happed and I simply cannot figure out how to reverse it."  They came to a door, she stopped, "You need to brace yourselves, she is really messed up; the Aurors didn't even know if she was human at first. We gave her a sleeping draught earlier in her water, so we should be able to go inside without a ruckus." Glancing through a small window in the door, and nodding to herself, she opened it.

As the mediwitch stepped back, Severus felt his throat go dry, and through the roaring in his ears he heard Dumbledore take in a sharp breath. What lay before him was barely a shadow of the Cora he remembered.

The small figure was curled up in a corner of the floor, lying like there like she was used to the position, which oddly enough reminded him of a cat. That wasn't all that was cat like, as he walked closer he noticed that she was covered in short hair, it was somewhere between thick human body hair and thin cat hair. She was mostly white with dark red and black stripes, wrapping around her limbs, and he assumed that they covered the rest of her body as well. Her face was striped too, stripes coming down from her hairline to end after a few inches, except for the ones the wrapped around her eyes, giving her an Egyptian look. Her hair was still the same dark red, so dark that without the light one would think it was black. It was her hair that proved to him that this was his niece; he bit back a groan of pure grief. Although now it was streaked with white and black stripes, he knew it was Cora.

Running a hand tenderly through her hair brought his attention to her ears, they were pointed and set high. Her small hands had pointed fingernails, almost like claws; she twitched in her sleep and he noticed a frown form on her face; and then something hit his side. Glancing down toward her feet he noticed what had been hidden behind her before, a long fluffy tail, complete with red and black stripes. A strange fury flowed over him, and he thought it was good thing that Byron was already dead, because for the first time since came back to the light side, he had the urge to kill something, Byron being the most prominent thing on his mind.

Then she started to stir, and he hastily turned back to her head, and looked in to her beautiful blue eyes for the first time in eight years. But even those had changed, the pupils were slit like a cats. That was all he could register before she tucked her body up and sprang at him, striking out with her "claws" and dodging out of his way. She darted quickly towards the door where a still calm looking Dumbledore stood with the quickly panicking mediwitch. Just as she leaped at them Severus snapped out of his shock, Dumbledore caught her in his arms as she attacked him and barely managed to grab her wrists before the claws reached him. Showing considerable strength for his age, he deftly twisted her in his arms and held her tight, she let loose a loud shriek and began struggling. Despite being able to his impressive maneuver, Severus didn't think that Dumbledore could hold her for long

His years as a teacher took over and he said in his strictest voice. "CORA! That's enough!"

Years of fear and cruel training took over and she stilled instantly. Instinct telling her that if she didn't it would only get worse.

Severus walked quietly over to her and looked into her strange eyes. He could tell by their glazed look that she didn't really see him; she was too caught up in her fear. He smiled sadly, and gently placed a hand on her cheek, struggling not to break down when he saw her flinch under his touch.

"Cora, calm down. Everything is going to be all right, I will never let anyone hurt you again. I am hear to take care of you, Cora, you are safe." He crooned quietly, letting his gentle touch and soothing voice work its way through her fear.

Cora was paralyzed with absolute fear, what was happening? Why was this person who had just yelled at her touching her so gently? Then some of the words began to penetrate the haze that the fear had put around her. She discounted the words at first, but that voice kept nagging at her brain, as she struggled up out of the haze, the memories of her dreams began to surface and she found herself looking into the very familiar face of her Uncle.

Severus instantly noticed the change, as her eyes became clearer, and her breathing less ragged. Then those blue eyes hit his black ones and he saw the slightest bit of recognition in them, it grew until he was sure that she knew who he was.

A strangled breath escaped her as she stared at him unbelieving; her eyes began to water with the first signs of tears.

"Uncle Sev?" was all she managed to get out before Dumbledore gently handed her over to Severus.

He held his niece tightly in his arms and nodded at her, since he couldn't find a voice to speak with. She threw her arms around his neck and began to sob deep, heart wrenching sobs. 

Smiling Severus turned to Dumbledore and looked at him meaningfully.

Dumbledore nodded and turned to the mediwitch, "I think it's time we took her home."

So, how am I doing? Is it worth continuing? If you are confused about the way she looks then look up a Cats (the musical) web page and check out the costumes. That is what I was basing her looks off- not an exact replica of the cats- but that's what gave me the idea. Until next time! Calicat.