Welcome Back 44 Years Later
The rest of the summer passed quite uneventful for Maggie. She learned more and more about the time and everything that had changed in the past 44 years, especially Katie, which was Maggie's nickname for Kathrin, was quite adamant about getting her cousin up to date. At least when it came to the people at Hogwarts.
To her mother's, slight, displeasure and her fathers amusement, Katie was rather fond of three pupils often referred to as the 'Golden Trio'. This trio, consisting of the involuntarily famous Harry Potter and his best friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, had, according to Minerva, the strange talent to always get themselves into trouble. But Minerva admitted that the three were still one of her favourite students despite their problem of getting themselves nearly killed once a year.
There were only two pupils who were worse than the three friends. The names were Fred and George Weasley and from what Maggie had heard from Kathrin, those two were the biggest troublemakers and pranksters she had ever heard of. And also one of the nicest persons at the school. The older brothers of Ron Weasley were by no means stupid, they managed to get acceptable, yes even good marks, but their affection and interest simply laid in pranks. Minerva also swore Aidan's prankster tendencies were only the fault of those two when he and his sister had spent a weekend at the burrow.
Maggie noticed that whenever Kathrin spoke of those five, it was like she was talking of her biggest idols. Living at Hogwarts since she was six, had been a curse and a blessing at the same time. There were only a few people who knew their way around the Castle better than her and she got to know many things about the school before attending. The problem was, the students were all several years older than her and Kathrin was a shy child who wouldn't make any friends and she was only attending the meals with everyone or occasionally a class of her mother. Of course later she had her brother to play but that was something different.
"That only changed a little when the Weasley Twins came to school," Kathrin told Maggie when they were sitting on the beach by the house on a warm August evening, enjoying the last warm hours of the day, watching Aidan play in the sand. "They were on the run from Filch after one of their first pranks and I saved them by pulling them into a secret passage I had found a few days earlier. They were really thankful and we kinda befriended. They got me to open up a bit and sometimes I was even sitting with them at meals instead of next to Mum and Da at the staff table."
"But they were still four years older than me and we had quite a few different interests, which made our friendship a bit complicated. I knew that it wasn't cool for 11 year old boys to hang out with a seven year old girl and though they never said or did anything, I felt like the fifth wheel and started to hang out with them less and less." Kathrin said while she drew an owl into the sand beside her.
"We're still friends, I think I'm the only person beside Ma whom they never pranked. And that means something!" Maggie smiled at the girl beside her and continued to listen to the people who seemed to be quite important to her.
"But when Harry, Ron and Hermione came to Hogwarts, I found my first real friends even though they are also two years older, I have something in common with all three of them. I love books like Hermione, I'm interested in Chess and Quidditch like Ron and being the daughter of the most powerful witch and wizard of this century and Headmaster and Deputy as well as Professor I know what it is like when people stare at you wherever you go like Harry does." Kathrin continued but then something changed in her voice, suddenly she sounded sad.
"Actually...what made me become friends with them was a cruel 'joke' by their fellow Gryffindor Lavender Brown." Maggie knew that what ever happened back then was still hurting her little cousin.
"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to Katie." Maggie said but Kathrin shook her head.
"No, it's okay, I'm not thinking about it every often. Another disadvantage of being the daughter of them, many students think it would give them an advantage if they are my friends. But they don't really mean it and only want to be friends because I'm 'famous' or they think they will get better marks from Mum, they don't really care about me." Kathrin focused on the owl she was drawing and continued a little quieter, obviously embarrassed and hurt.
"Lavender pretended to be my friend once she found out I was the daughter of the Transfiguration Professor and the Headmaster. When she realized that it wasn't for her benefits, she decided to pull a little prank on me. Knowing I didn't have many friends she invited me to her birthday party and said that there would be a sleepover, as it was a weekend, she told me how we would put the mattresses to the floor and sleep on it together and do other girls stuff." Kathrin who had now finished the owl brushed her hand over the sand and erased her work, leaving no evidence of it's existences behind.
"I have never been to a girls only birthday or a sleepover party and I was excited beyond measure. I begged to be allowed to go and it took me a week to get Mama to agree to it, as I have never been allowed into a common room as nobody knew in which house I would end up in. I made her a gift and even bought one from my own allowance I had saved."
Flash Back
"Are you ready sweetheart?" asked her mother as she, her father and Kathrin herself stood in her parents quarters, about to let their daughter go to her first birthday party with a sleepover.
"Yes, I'm ready!" Kathrin answered excited and grinned up widely at her mother, before she shouldered her bag and took the present she was going to give to Lavender. It was a music box that played a Phoenix Song which Fawkes had been kind enough to sing for her and a Muggle dream catcher she had made herself and which her Ma had charmed a little, so it would float over the owners bed.
"Alright, if you don't like it or anything happens just come back, we'll be here okay?" her mum said and cupped Kathrin's face in er hands and gave her a kiss.
"Mum I'll be fine! I'm a big girl!" Kathrin told her mother and kissed her cheek before she wormed out of her mothers arms to say goodbye to her father.
"Sure you are kitten." said Dumbledore as he embraced his daughter and kissed her forehead.
"See you tomorrow!" with that Kathrin practically floated out of the room, so excited for her first sleepover with her friends. Her parents, namely her mother, weren't that excited, Albus took his wife's hand and gently pulled her away from the door she had been watching, as if she was hoping her daughter would change her mind.
"Calm down Love, she's going to be alright, nothing can happen to her." he said before he sat down at the couch and pulled her into his arms.
"I know...but she said she is a big girl...I don't want her to be a big girl just now!" she murmured and continued before her husband could open his mouth, "Don't tell me any of this nonsense about us having to let her go sometime and everything, she is nine and still our little girl!" Dumbledore chuckled at his wife's words and kissed the top of her head.
"I would never dare to say anything like that! It'll be my job to tell her that she is my little girl until I take my last breath." Minerva smiled and snuggled closer to he husband. Then she frowned.
"Have you seen Aidan?" she asked and looked at Albus who blinked at her.
"No...not since we fed Fawkes, I left him playing with him." seeing the look his wife gave him, Albus knew he was in trouble. Aidan often imitated people or what they did often with accidental magic.
"Fawkes won't hurt him and he can't possibly do something Fawkes can do." realizing he had a phoenix that could set himself on fire and knowing their little trouble maker they jumped up, but before either of them could say or do anything else, they heard their son giggling above them. Looking up the two could see their one and a half year old son holding his own feet and turning around himself in every angle while flying maybe two meters above them, giggling madly and having the most fun ever.
"Aidan!"both parents exclaimed shocked.
"Accio Aidan!" Minerva said and Aidan squeaked with delight as he flew into his mothers arms where he buried his face in his mothers neck as she hugged him close. Who also glared at his father who grinned sheepishly.
"I guess we should watch him when he is with Fawkes."
"Oh you think so?" his wife answered sarcastically.
When Kathrin stood in front of the Fat Lady she had to take a deep breath, before she looked at the painted face of the woman who smiled at her.
"Caput Draconis?" Kathrin was so excited and nervous that she feared she may had forgoten the password.
"Correct Miss McGonagall get in, get in." the Fat Lady said with a small wink as she swung aside so Kathrin could climb through the portrait hole.
Inside she was greeted by an amazing sight, the whole room was held in different shades of red and gold, there were comfortable looking couches and armchairs, tables to study and a quite big fire place. At the moment the common room was full of students and nobody really noticed her as all were quite busy with enjoying the free weekend or learning.
Kathrin walked through the crowd and up the flight of stairs to the girls dormitories. Unknown to her, six pairs of eyes had followed her every step through the common room and three friends were wondering what the daughter of the Headmaster and their Transfiguration Professor was doing here. The girl knocked on the door Lavender had told her knock on and only seconds later it was opened by said girl, who was gloating knowing what would happen.
"Happy Birthday!" Kathrin said happily and send a big smile her friends way and Lavender giggled.
"Thanks," she didn't say anything else and turned around to her friends, the rest of the first year girls except Hermione and two second year girls Kathrin didn't even know the name of. "See I told you it would work!" she said while Kathrin closed the door behind her, not realizing what was going on. All the girls were staring at her and giggling, feeling a bit uncomfortable she handed Lavender her gift.
"Oh my, she really bought what you said Lav!" said Parvati and Kathrin didn't understand while all the girls were laughing, what was going on? Had she done something wrong?
"Let's see if we are not only getting a good laugh but some cool stuff too." with that Lavender ripped of the paper Kathrin had so carefully wrapped her gift in. Suddenly Kathrin got a feeling that something was not alright and she had the urge to go, but telling herself to not be such a baby she stayed. The girl in charge raised an eyebrow at the music box.
"What in Merlin's name is this? You bought me an old, ugly box?"she asked unbelievingly and eyed the box and then Kathrin like she had a disease. The young girl was completely taken aback, not knowing what to say, she had been so sure that Lavender would like it. She had spent hours trying to find a present for her friend and know she felt like an idiot. The other girls started to laugh again, or had they ever really stopped laughing at her?
"Y-you have to o-open it..." stuttered Kathrin and blushed. Lavender did as she was told and Fawkes Song could be heard, but this only caused the girls to laugh harder and the girl beside Parvati even fell over with laughter.
"Merlin I'm not a baby! I don't need a lullaby to fall asleep. Thanks for some completely useless old, ugly box!" Kathrin blushed harder and tears started to burn in her eyes, she had only wanted a small, nice present for Lavender but know she felt so stupid. Had this really been such a bad idea?
Just as Lavender wanted to close the box, Parvati who had watched over her friend shoulder stopped her.
"Wait Lav, there is something inside!" the girl pulled out the dream catcher and closed the box before throwing it to the side.
"What's this stupid thing?" Kathrin who had flinched when the box hit the ground, looked to the ground as the tears threatened to fall.
"I-it's a d-dream catcher." whispered Kathrin.
"A what?" asked the girl who had fallen over laughing.
"A dream catcher I made it myself...it's a Muggle thing, t-they hang it o-over their beds and say that-that it will only let...good dreams come to the one s-sleeping and...catch the bad ones." Kathrin couldn't hold back the tears any more as they laughed again.
"I don't know what's funnier you making this stupid thing or believing I would like it!"
"I-I thought..."
"You better stop thinking if this is all you can come up with." Kathrin looked up only to see how Lavender took the dream catcher in both hands and pushed.
"No! Wait plea-" but it was too late, with a crack the first year with the blonde locks had broken the gift made by the young girl, pulled the two pieces apart and threw them at Kathrin's feet.
"Oh look the stupid little girl is crying over that dump thing!"
"Merlin I hope she won't be in Gryffindor."
"I bet she won't, I heard she can't even do magic, looks like McDumble is a Squib." one of the second years said.
"No wonder they hide her, are probably ashamed of her." the other second year girl added and with that Kathrin gathered the broken pieces of the dream catcher and ran from the room crying, while the laugher of the girls echoed behind her. She ran past the other students and out of the common room. She was so stupid, of course Lavender wasn't her friend, nobody wanted to be her friend, Kathrin was so embarrassed and sad. What if what the girls had said was true? What if she was a Squib? What were her parents going to say and think? Were they really ashamed of her?
Kathrin was so deep in her thoughts that she didn't care were she was going and the tears that were still flowing made it even more difficult for her to see, so it didn't take long for her to fall down. Feeling a pain at her knee she sat up and saw that she had a hole in her pants and scraped her knee. Leaning against the wall of the corridor Kathrin pulled her knees up to her chest and cried her eyes out.
"Hey there, Kathrin right?" someone said next to her and she saw three Gryffindor students two boys and a girl, who kneeled next to her. Kathrin immediately knew who they were Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger.
"Yes?" the girl sniffed and wiped the tears off her face with the sleeve of her sweater.
"We saw you run a way crying, what happened?" asked Harry as he and Ron kneeled down by he other side.
"L-Lavender pretended to be friends with me and-and invited me to her birthday...but she and the others only made fun of me...calling me a-a Squib." Kathrin started to cry again and clutched the remains of the dream catcher to her chest.
Hermione laid an arm around her and pulled Kathrin close, feeling fury towards her fellow Gryffindors for hurting this little girl. Harry saw that the daughter of his Professor held something tightly in her hands.
"Did they break your dream catcher?" he asked and Kathrin nodded.
"I-I made it for Lavender but...she said it was stupid and broke it." Kathrin confessed and now the three friends were all furious with Lavender.
"Can I see it?" Hermione asked gently and Kathrin showed her what remained of the dream catcher. "I think it's beautiful, you really made that yourself?" the young witch nodded and Hermione pulled out her wand.
"Reparo." she murmured and the dream catcher repaired itself, handing it back to Kathrin she noticed the sad look of the girl.
"You can keep it" Kathrin whispered and pushed the present back to Hermione.
"Thank you that's really nice of you." Hermione said with a smile and even Kathrin managed a small smile.
"You know, don't listen to what Brown said, my older brother Bill never did any magic until he was nearly eleven and now he is a Curse-Breaker at Gringotts! You're just a late bloomer" Ron said with a smile and Kathrin stared at them.
"Really?"
"Sure and we'll talk to Fred and George about what happened, I think Brown needs to know what it's like to be picked on by older ones!" Ron said.
"Yeah and if you want then we can be friends." Harry added and Kathrin looked happy for a second before she realized they probably only offered their friendship out of pity.
"You don't have to-"
"But we want to, don't we?" Harry asked the other two who nodded.
"You want us to walk you back to your parents?" Harry said and Kathrin nodded, Harry and Ron helped her up and together the four of them walked back Kathrin back to her parents quarters.
"Familia." Kathrin said to the Gargoyle that not only leaded to her fathers office but to their quarters as well. Before they could step inside her mother appeared in the door way and was surprised to not only see her daughter but, three of her first years students.
When she saw her mother Kathrin stared to cry again and threw herself into her mothers arms. Quite surprised by her daughters tears Minerva blinked confused.
"What happened sweetheart?" in a gentle voice neither of the three students had heard or ever expected to hear, but Kathrin couldn't answer, so she looked at Harry, Ron and Hermione.
"Hello Professor, we found your daughter in a corridor after she ran away from Lavender Browns Birthday party, er...Kathrin said she was only invited so they could make fun of her." Harry explained feeling a little uncomfortable. Minerva embraced Kathrin a little tighter and swallowed down a rather unprofessional remark regarding Lavender Brown.
"Thank you, can you make it back to your dormitory alone?" Minerva asked and the three nodded.
"Cheer up Kathrin you have real friends now." said Harry
"Yeah and don't think about what they said." Ron added and Hermione even laid a hand on Kathrin's shaking shoulder.
"Goodnight and remember you are fine just the way you are." with that the three friends left to go back to their dormitories and talk to some certain redhead twins for a little payback on the behalf of their new friend.
End Flash Back
Kathrin quickly wiped away the tears that had fallen from her eyes and Maggie put her arm around her. Harry and his friends seemed to be really nice and she would certainly make sure to stay away from Lavender Brown.
"I sorry you had to go through that but I'm glad you found real friends in them." Maggie said and Kathrin smiled.
"Yeah, I'm happy too, well not really about the prank but everything else that followed. And Brown got what she deserved and Mum hates her." Kathrin said grinning and Maggie chuckled.
"I can't wait to go to Hogwarts with you." Maggie said and watched how the orange sunbeams of the sinking sun glistened in the sea. Kathrin leaned closer to Maggie and grinned.
"Wait until you have lessons with Mum."
"What do you mean?" Minerva suddenly said from behind them and Kathrin chuckled nervously.
"N-nothing Mum!" she quickly said as Minerva sat down on the other side of her daughter. Maggie laughed and Kathrin grinned up at her mother who playfully nudged her in the side and then kissed her cheek.
"Oh I can't wait to finally teach again and have you actually listen to what I say!" Maggie then looked towards Aidan again and stared laughing too.
"What's so funny?" asked Katie but in the next moment Aidan ran over and threw himself at his mother who caught him but then noticed something wasn't alright while Kathrin also started to laugh as her brother was completely stark naked.
"Aidan where are your clothes?" asked Minerva while the two girls were still giggling beside her, while Aidan grinned cheekily at his mother.
"I traded them." his Mother blinked at him confused.
"For what and with whom?"
"With the sand monster, for these great shells." he told her and then showed her a hand full of shells. He than kissed his Mum and ran away giggling.
"Aidan!" Minerva jumped up and chased after her son, Maggie and Katie looked at each other before they also jumped up and helped chasing the naked boy. Soon though, it turned into a game, though Minerva conjured some pants on her son, and this was how Albus found his wife and daughter as well as niece chase after his half naked son. The headmaster only shrugged his shoulders and with a swiftness no one would expect him to have, he joined them.
When Harry, Ron and Hermione finally made it into the Great Hall they sat down at the Gryffindor Table and Harry took off his shoes to get rid of the water inside as it came down in buckets outside. Even inside Peeves waited on the arriving students to throw water balloons at them.
"Merlin I'm starving! I hope they hurry with the sorting!" Ron whined and held his stomach.
"I know something you don't know!" someone familiar said in a sing song voice beside them and the three looked up to see Kathrin McGonagall standing beside them and then flop down next to Harry.
"Hey mini McG, what do you mean?" Harry asked.
"Well I can't tell you about the big secret, Mum would actually put me into detention for weeks, you gonna find out tonight anyway, but my cousin will start at Hogwarts today!" the auburn haired girl said excited.
"Really? Cool you never said anything about your cousin" answered Ron.
"Well yeah we weren't that close she used to live in the States and only came back to live here in the summer. She's actually a transfer student from Ilvermony, Maggie will be in your class."
"Transfer Student? There are other schools?" asked Harry.
"Of course there are, there are three big schools in Europe I know of apart from Hogwarts, Durmstrang Institute in Scandinavia, Beauxbatons Academy of Magic in France and the Alpine Wizard Academy in Germany. Then we have Ilvermony in the United States and there is a school in Japan I know of." explained Hermione.
"There is also a school in Brazil, Bill had a penfriend there, she got really angry when he couldn't visit and send him a cursed hat." added Ron.
"Oh I would love to get to know more about another wizarding school!" Hermione said dreamingly and Kathrin had to bite her tongue so she wouldn't say something that would indicate what was going on this year.
"Well I-" but just in this Moment the door to the Great Hall opened and Professor McGonagall stepped inside followed by the new first years, who looked like they had swam across the lake. And then everyone turned their attention to the last girl that walked inside the Great Hall, nearly everyone in the Hall around Harry began to whisper, but all he could do was stare at the most beautiful girl he had ever seen in his entire life.
Harry couldn't take his eyes off her, Kathrin's cousin had ebony, wavy hair that was up in a high ponytail and light skin that seemed to be flawless to Harry. When she turned to look around the hall, rather uncomfortable with all the attention on her, he saw that she had beautiful green eyes that sparkled with kindness and intelligence. She looked to be a slightly smaller than him and had a slim build, that was partly hidden by her school robes. Harry couldn't focus on the sorting he only had eyes for her, for him only seconds passed before Professor McGonagall called out her name.
"Maggie McGonagall!" the whole hall went silent as the niece of the Headmaster and the Transfiguration Professor stepped forward and placed the hat on her head. They waited for a few minutes and it seemed like the hat had it's difficulty sorting the teenager.
"What's taking him so long?" whispered Ron to Hermione who whispered back an explanation but Harry wasn't listening to what his friend was saying. Out of the nowhere Maggie look him straight in the eyes and Harry's heart started to beat faster, still looking into each others eyes the Head shouted out his decision.
"Gryffindor!"
Hello my lovely readers! Wow I really wasn't expecting to be able to update so soon, but the muse was kicking in :)
I know it wasn't really what you probably wanted to read, but I guess I wanted to give Kathrin one big screen time and used it so she could give Maggie a small idea of what Harry, Ron and Hermione are like. I also wanted you to know what she went through, sadly I got the idea from my little cousin who went through something familiar.
I still hope you liked the chapter!
I'm sorry if you wanted more Harry, but I promise in the next chapter he and Maggie will meet properly! And from then on we'll see what this year will bing them. If you want to know what the Sorting Hat said to Maggie you will have to wait for the next chapter.
Thanks to everyone who reviewed, favourite and followed the story! You're great! Thank you!
Until next time
Patti
