Heyyyy! Sorry that I haven't updated in a while but school has kept me busy so I really hadn't much time to write :(( But anyway I hope you can forgive me and now that I have a few weeks which are not so stressful I will get the opportunity to update more frequently...

As always, read and review! XD

Love

watercave

Chapter 3

Strange events

Katerina sat on a bed in the Hospital wing and was sobbing uncontrollably. "Now now, dear!" Madam Gordon patted her shoulder comfortingly and gave her a huge mug filled with an orange – red potion: "This will calm you down!" Katerina looked up at the matron with a timid look in her reddened eyes. Madam Gordon said: "Don't worry. That's just a harmless healing potion. Now drink and you will see that you are going to feel better in no time!" The petite fourth year hesitated for one more moment but then she started drinking the hot liquid. The matron sighed before she sat down on the bed next to the Gryffindor girl. For a few minutes they sat in silence which was interrupted now and then by Katerina sipping at the mug. "And…", started Madam Gordon. "Do you want to tell me what happened this time?"

Katerina shrugged weakly with her slender shoulders and said noting. The elderly woman next to her lifted Katerina's chin and whipped her tear stained cheeks. "Do you want me to guess?" After there came no answer for the second time she continued: "Well, some particular Slytherin boys got hold of you again. Am I right?"

While she said that she felt Katerina tense and immediately knew that she was right. Sighing, Madam Gordon got up, sat the now empty mug on a table next to the bed and was just about to open her registration book in which she wrote down the names of her patients, the time they were in the Hospital wing and with what injury when Katerina said, her voice quivering: "It were Malfoy and Avery, Madam Gordon..." As usual, the matron thought and waited for the girl to continue: "They started insulting me… a-and then-", she stopped and whipped away the new tears that had began to run down her cheeks because of the memory: "T-Then they used curses on me… Curses I've never heard of before… Oh Madam Gordon, it was horrible! One of the spells made me feel like hot knifes were piercing my skin… It hurt so terribly!"

Madam Gordon was shocked. She knew that Katerina Petrova was a very popular target for bullying among the Slytherins but their attacks were usually not very serious… But this time the matron was worried. Very worried… As she watched the girl return to her common room she felt that there would be a more violent attack on her soon. And she wouldn't be able to cure the wounds from that attack with her potions, salves and spells.

Madam Gordon's sense of forboding came true a few weeks later. The Slytherins that had attacked Katerina Petrova used a very nasty curse on her: her whole back looked like someone had cut her flesh with a huge knife. Blood ran down her body and she was slowly loosing consciousness. The matron's eyes widened as she saw that the Ravenclaw prefect Anthony Howard was bringing her into the Hospital wing. "Dear Merlin!", the woman cried as she saw the incredible wound on the girl's back: "Mr. Howard, lie her down on that bed!" And with that she quickly grabbed her medical utilities and started washing out the cuts and tried to stop the bleeding with a spell. Meanwhile the blonde prefect told her how he had found Katerina in a deserted corridor on the 6th floor.

"Thank you very much for bringing her here Mr. Howard! Would you please leave now? I need to concentrate!" The mediwitch didn't look at him but she could hear his footsteps leave the Hospital wing. When she was absolutely sure that the prefect had left Madam Gordon reached inside her robes and grabbed a little vial filled with a dark red, almost brown liquid. After she had checked again that nobody was around she made Katerina drink the unpleasant tasting content of the vial. Almost immediately her wounds stopped bleeding and healed into large bruises.

Madam Gordon exhaled relieved and continued to clean the girl who was now unconscious. Thank god Mr. Howard found her!, she thought: I don't want to think about what would have happened if nobody had brought her here…

Katerina had no idea why she was in the Hospital wing. The last thing she remembered was that she had been walking down this corridor on the 6th floor and suddenly there were some Slytherin boys standing in her way. After that she must have blacked out because she could not recall anything else.

When she asked Madam Gordon why she was here, the witch looked at her with wide eyes and told her that her whole back had been bleeding. Katerina shoock her head in wonderment. She couldn't remember any of that and as the Mediwitch showed her the many large bruises on her back she was very confused.

Because she felt fine and Madam Gordon didn't find anything else that was out of the ordinary she could leave.

And then the day had arrived Katerina's life would be turned upside down. It was a Wednesday afternoon in 1943 and the 4th year's potion lesson had finished and all students literally fled the dungeons to get outside and to relax from the exhausting day. As usual Katerina was the last student to leave Professor Slughorn's classroom and to her dismay she was awaited outside by Olive Hornby a 4th year Slytherin who belonged to Riddle's inner circle.

"Look who's here!", the girl grinned evilly. "The filthy Gryffindor mudblood that had the guts to insult Tom Riddle!" Her voice trembling with fear Katerina tried to defend herself: "I did not insult him Olive! I just told him that his behavior-" The slithery Slytherin didn't wait for the Bulgarian to finish her sentence; she cut in right away: "Don't you dare to question what he tells us!" Her tone was sharp and cold as steel and with that she made Katerina stop dead in her tracks.

With a wicked smile Olive stepped closer and the Gryffindor felt like she constantly shrinked with every step the Slytherin took. As they were only inches apart Olive Hornby aimed and slapped her hand across the Bulgarian's face.

Katerina felt like her head was ripped off her neck and for a split second she saw only stars. She stumbled back because of the force of the pouch and as she could finally see clear again she saw Olive's fist coming once more at her face and hit her nose.

Blood was running down Katerina's face and the collar of her white shirt turned red. The 4th year had struggled to hold back the tears but the pain that was spreading from her nose was too much for her and she started to cry uncontrollably.

As she ran away from the hallway in the dungeons she could hear Olive Hornby's shrieking voice echo from the stone dungeon walls: "Serves you right! You hear me? After today you will wish that you never had been born!"

Still with tears streaming down her cheeks Katerina burst through the door of the girl's bathroom on the 2nd floor, rushed to a toilet cabin and locked the door. She then broke down and cried for dear life. Like she had did so many times now Katerina asked herself why in Merlin's name did all Slytherins and mostly of all Riddle and his friends hate her so much that they had to do these horrible things to her. She couldn't recall to have upset one of them once so there was no reason for them to bully her. And they called her mudblood… Even though she was a pureblood!

Suddenly Katerina heard a strange noise from outside the cabin. Like a low hiss or something of that sort. As she listened closer she could make out that the voice must belong to a boy because it was much deeper than a girl's voice could ever be. What was a boy doing in a girl's bathroom? Pissed off because of the whole situation Katerina decided to open her cabin and tell the intruder to go away.

She had just opened the door and stepped outside to speak when she looked up and found a pair of piercing yellow eyes staring back at her. A strange pain rippled through her body and the last thing she remembered was how a piercing cry escaped her lips. Then Katerina's dead body fell onto the marble floor.

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