Kate continued to excel at her classes. The teachers often commented on how rare it was to see so dedicated a student at such a young age.

Only Mrs. McGonagall was worried about Kate. She wasn't sure what had happened, but Kate was talking to her less and less. Pulling into somewhere deep inside her self. Mrs. McGonagall supposed it was bound to happen, a child can only be hurt so many times before they guard against it. It looked like Kate had, had enough.

*******************

As Kate yet again sat on bus to the Salem Witches' Institute, she felt relieved the summer was finally over. It had been difficult hiding things from her parents, especially in the warm summer.

Kate's secret was now of monstrous proportions.

In the spring of last year she had heard of a potion in he Dark Arts Prevention class, which dark wizards used when torturing their victims. After the potion was taken any injuries received could not be healed by magic, and took three times as long to heal. (A/N : Borrowed from animalcrazy10102's If all Hope were Lost. Hope you don't mind.) For Kate's purposes this seemed ideal. The added penalty, was the potion caused excessive scarring. But Kate didn't mind, after all it only showed the damage that was in heart, on her body.

Her summer had been spent indoors, in the air-conditioning. It gave her an excuse to continue wearing the long sleeved shirts, and dark stockings. For she had no choice, by the end of the school year, her body had been covered in scars. From her neck to her knees, and down her arms to her wrists, anywhere she could see was a solid spider webs of pale lines.

She'd managed no to cut much over summer. She'd just bought extra schoolbooks and continued studying. It kept her busy so she didn't have to talk to her parents. And without the stress caused by other people she could keep control.

When they'd gone to buy her school supplies Kate was careful to by plenty of ingredients for her Dark potion, so she wouldn't have to risk nicking them from the student store cabinet. She knew she was treading a fine line, that eventually she would get caught, but she truly couldn't stop herself.

************************

Kate's third year seemed even worse than all the previous.

She was tired. She wasn't willing to face this for the rest of her life. She knew no one here would miss her, and her parents were used to her being gone now. She though about ending it all the time…but she was still scared. Partially because she couldn't bare anyone to know her secret, even after she were dead. She was ashamed. What would her parents say?

And then one day in Potions, they were being taught a variation on the Pepper-up Potion. The Pepper-Warm-Up Potion contained firewelk, and could be used for people who were suffering hypothermia. The firewelk caused the patient's temperature to increase steadily, till returning to normal.

Mr. Taylor their absent-minded teacher warned them, "Now be careful, and only use a tiny bit. Firewelk is very strong! There is one poison in which it actually causes the victim's temperature to increase until they combust!" At this Kate's head snapped up. 'A poison that destroys the body!' she quickly made a note and continued with her potion.

At the end of class Kate virtually ran to the library. After a few hours searching while everyone else was a dinner she found it the 'Victimless Poison'. Obviously a Dark Wizard's idea of a joke, if there was no body, there was no crime.

Kate closely examined the directions. It was pretty straightforward. Only two problems, both the firewelk and the kregal moss would need to come from Mr. Taylor's cupboard. That and she'd need a fare bit of the firewelk.

Kate was patient. She knew that for once her reputation would be useful. She was Kate. Kate who had the highest marks, Kate who never got in trouble, Kate who wouldn't say Boo to a mouse. She was sure it wouldn't be long before she had an opportunity to raid the store cupboard.

After two weeks of waiting it finally arrived. Mr. Taylor had yet again forgotten one of the necessary ingredients for the day's potions lesson. He looked around at a loss, suddenly jolted out of his train of thought.

"I could go get it for you, Sir." Kate quickly offered. After being given so easy a solution Mr. Taylor agreed. And so Kate walked to the back of the room, as Mr. Taylor continued his lecture. All of the ingredients were kept in large glass jars, with smaller jars on the counter to take what you needed to your desk. Kate quickly grabbed three small jars. First she found the kregal moss, which she quickly filled a quarter of the jar with. Then she found the Slipwort for today's potion and filled the small jar three quarters full.

Suddenly Mr. Taylor called back "Have you got it yet Kate?"

Kate's heart jumped into her throat. "Um, Almost," she stuttered "I got the wrong jar at first."

"OK" Mr. Taylor replied.

With a quick look over her shoulder, so make sure no one was watching, she quickly grabbed the firewelk, and filled her third jar to the brim. With another glance back, she quickly stuffed her stolen materials in her robe, and began walking to the front of the room.

Her heart pounded in her chest. Had he noticed? Would she be caught? She quietly placed the jar of Slipwort on the demonstration table. Mr. Taylor suddenly looked up…and smiled. "Thank-you Kate."

Kate returned to her desk and closed her eyes, her goal was within reach.

**********************

After her classes finished for the day, Kate snuck up to her hiding place. There were some empty classrooms in the old wing, on the 6th floor. No one went there, as they couldn't face the long hike up the stairs, but Kate didn't mind. It was here that she brewed her dark potion, and made her cuts in private. Tonight though she was starting something much more important.

She had carefully copied the poison's directions from the book. If she started immediately her poison should be ready by Thanksgiving. Kate carefully began measuring her ingredients.

*****************

Unbeknownst to Kate, Mr. Taylor was quite as absent-minded as he seemed. He was obsessive about monitoring his potion ingredients. He'd failed his 4th grade potion exam when he was 14, when he'd run out of beetle eyes. He quickly had learned never to make that mistake again.

So during his weekly stock count, he was shocked to find significant discrepancies in the kregal moss, and firewelk. He quickly checked his lesson plan to confirm they hadn't been used this week. He became very concerned. The amount firewelk missing would have made enough Pepper-Warm-Up Potion to treat the whole school.

He immediately went to his Encyclopaedia of Magical Plants. Firewelk was only used in three potions: the Pepper-Warm-Up, the Victimless Poison, and the Pascel Poison. The Pascel Poison uses the firewelk to cause an innocent appearing fever, which does not break until death. The Victimless poison uses the firewelk to increase the victims body temperature to the point where it burnt up, leaving no corpse.

Quickly grabbing a copy of Dark Potions, Mr. Taylor quickly checked the ingredients listed for both poisons. The kregal moss confirmed it, someone was trying to brew the Victimless Poison.

Mr. Taylor quickly began taking counter measures. He knew to simply find the firewelk would not solve the problem. Somewhere in the Institute, there was a person planning murder. He needed to know both who the intended victim was, and who the culprit was. After much careful deliberation, he made a plan. He modified a simple thermometer charm to monitor the whole school. It was set to alarm him when a person's temperature reached 107 degrees. That should prevent any false alarms while giving him time to reach the victim. After saving the victim, they should be able to identify their assailant. Mr. Taylor immediately began brewing the antidote.

******************

As it grew closer and closer to Thanksgiving, Kate became a caldron of mixed feelings. She clung to the hope she found brewing in her hideaway, the peace that it offered. But, she also became more and more stressed by those around her, even simple things calling tears to her eyes. She found herself cutting, not deeper, but more often.

Finally her brew was finished. In her hand she held a warm fiery red test tube. Kate slipped the vial in her pocket and headed down to dinner. Kate was calm, now she had an answer for everything.

**********************

Kate held on to the poison for over a week. Whenever she felt she was losing her grip, she slid her hand in her pocket and felt a calm settle over her.

Mrs. McGonagall felt relieved to see Kate returning to normal. She had looked very pale the last few weeks, but now colour was returning to her face. She also seemed better at ignoring her classmates again. It had been several days since she had seen tears in Kate's eyes.

*******************

Kate was quickly walking into the cafeteria. She quietly grabbed a tray and chose her food, and headed to the farthest darkest corner. Unfortunately she never got that far. Without warning Kate had tripped and fallen on the floor, her lunch spilling on her robes and face. She looked behind her to see Heather Fredrick smirking at her with her foot still in the isle.

"Freak, can't you look where you are going?" Heather demanded as she stood up. " I don't know what you're doing here anyway. You'd think they'd be more selective, than to let a Mudblood like you in." Heather was by this time leaning over Kate, spitting her words in her face.

Kate just looked down at the floor silently.

"Can you even talk? Is that why you have no friends? Or do they see you ugly face and run to hide?"

With that Kate reached up and shoved Heather off balance, knocking her to the floor. Kate quickly took advantage of the frozen expressions on her classmates' faces, to pick her self up and run to her dorm.

As Kate slammed her dorm door behind her she collapsed on the floor in tears. She had, had enough. Kate reached in her pocket and felt for the vial, relieved it hadn't broken in her fall. She removed the stopper, and paused to steel herself. With one quick motion she tipped the poison down her throat. She dropped to her knees and waited for the silence.

************************

Mr. Taylor was lecturing his 5th grade on how to properly wash out test tube, after they left their last lab a state. Suddenly a loud alarm sounded across the Institute. With no word to his 5th graders, he grabbed his wand and ran from the room.

In the hall, Mr. Taylor cast the complimenting charm, to his alarm. It guided him by wand to the location of distress. He madly ran down the corridors, and skidded through the girls' dormitory door. He ran up the several flights of stairs to the end room, there he found the door locked. He screamed the teacher password to the door and it swung open. He easily found the victim of the poison, for the poison had turned her hair a fiery dark red.

Mr, Taylor dropped to the ground beside the girl. He quickly uncorked his antidote and poured it down her open mouth. When he was sure she had taken all of it he looked at her face.

"Kate!" and with that he dropped back to the floor in exhaustion.