Chapter 8
When the 5th year Ravenclaw had raced into her classroom without warning, Minerva had been furious, she did not tolerate anyone barging into her classroom without good reason. Once Miss Greenleaf had opened her mouth however, all thoughts of anger were replaced with trepidation. "Professor McGonagall, Kathy's been hurt in Potions, James saw her being carried into the Hospital wing...she was unconscious and looks really badly injured. James thinks she looks nearly dead."
Minerva had raced from the room, shouting at Charlie Weasley to oversee packing up of the class room and called Peri.
"Mistress called Peri?" the house elf enquired.
"Peri, Tell Albus Kathy had been injured, and I expect him to meet me at the hospital wing."
Somehow, Albus had met her at the end of the corridor; he explained he'd asked Peri to apperate him there. "What happened?" he quizzed as he hurried to keep up with the somewhat distraught witch.
"Miss Greenleaf, the student who watched Kathy for me at weekends last year came to tell me that her friend had seen Kathy being carried to the hospital wing. If Severus could have prevented this I'll transfigure his hair into serpents and he'll wear pink forever more." Minerva ploughed into some first years but didn't care, she just needed to see Kathy, to reassure herself that she was ok. She heard Albus send the children away and he followed her in, shutting the doors behind him.
"Kathy," Minerva gasped, looking at the child who was covered in potion, "Oh darling, what happened?"
"George made a mistake with the potion, but it wasn't his fault, it was an accident. I'm fine."
"Kathy, why don't you tell Minerva what you just told me?" Poppy suggested quietly, Minerva and Albus exchanged glances.
"Why don't you just tell her? You tell her everything else!" Kathy snapped at the mediwitch.
"Kathleen Lily Potter, don't you dare take that tone with Poppy." Minerva snapped, Poppy shock her head at Minerva, indicating to leave it.
"Kathy, you need to take these potions. You should be as right as rain by this evening." Kathy sighed, and took the potions off poppy, apologising quietly to the mediwitch. What a way to start her time at Hogwarts she thought, before she downed the potions and drifted off to sleep.
"What was all that about?" Albus asked.
"Let's go into my office," Poppy said, "and I'll fill you in." The three headed into the office, and Poppy pulled the door shut behind her. "Ok, I think we need to start going back about 20 years, when James Potter arrived at the school."
Minerva and Albus exchanged confused looks, but didn't interrupt.
"Do you happen to remember his dorm mates?"
"Yes, Remus Lupin, Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew." Albus answered.
"And Ian Stimpson." Minerva added, "although in the fourth year he moved to the year below's dorm room."
Poppy nodded, and continued, "Well it seems he still harbours a grudge against James, and his daughter has spent every moment in she finds herself in the company of Kathy telling her that she's worthless because she's a Potter. Kathy was rather upset about her attitude, but doesn't want to say anything for fear of getting more unwanted attention because you two are her guardians. She also has expressed a desire to be 'normal' and I'm not sure how we can do this for her."
There was silence in the office. "How did she get hurt?" Albus asked eventually.
"Mr Jordan helped her up here, Mr Lucas aided her when he came across the two of them. Mister Jordan said something about Mr Weasley putting the quills into the potion while it was still on the heat, but Kathy also said the Professor Snape had seen him do it and made no attempt to stop him."
Already foreseeing the danger to his Potions professor, and really not wanting to have to deal with another round of interviews for another open position on the staff team, Albus physically restrained Minerva until Poppy had locked the door. "Minerva, we need to hear Severus's side to the story before we charm him to look like a..." Albus paused, searching for the word he was looking for, "Aha Muggle Barbie doll."
Poppy said nothing, but raised her eyebrows in amusement at the thought of Severus Snape wearing pink.
Minerva was slowly calming down. "I want to know why he allowed her to get hurt."
"Minerva, we have only student's claims for that. I myself cannot believe Severus would consciously allow a student to be harmed, especially not a student whose guardian he is terrified of."
"And what about Miss Stimpson? She can't be allowed to keep making digs at Kathleen, but who will be able to talk to her?"
"Minerva, as her Head of House you should be able to deal with that." Albus replied. "Lunch will nearly be over, I wish to see Severus before his next class, if you ladies will excuse me." Albus bowed as Poppy waved her wand, unlocking the door.
"How can I help her Poppy? Maybe we should have sent her to Bauxbatons?" Minerva said, looking over the sleeping form of her young charge.
"Don't be daft Min," Poppy answered, "She wanted to attend Hogwarts, she's 11 and got a lot going on in her world right now. You know what she's like, very like her father in the sense of loving to over dramatise everything, and like Lily, she is very sensitive although doesn't like to show it. Things will settle down."
As the evening drew on, 5 first years sat in the corner of the common room, three of which were working, the other two were plotting when the portrait door opened, and a flash of dark red hair was seen entering the room.
"All right Kath?" Charlie Weasley called from the coveted spot by the fire.
"Hey Charlie, Yeah all good as new now." Kathy grinned. "Guess I survived my first encounter with Sniv...Snape. Wonder if he'll survive Aunt Minnie," She cheekily smirked (not many people can make a smirk cheeky and lovable, but Kathy had perfected the art many years before) "Not going psyche out on the Quiddich pitch yet?"
"Well you see, I figured best to keep my eye on those who are most likely to cause trouble, and as I know there three new trouble makers in Gryffindor I think my time's best spent here." Charlie replied grinning, really he had wanted to check that Kathy was ok.
Kathy simply rolled her eyes at Charlie before bouncing over to her friends. "Hey guys! Did I miss much in class this afternoon?"
"Charms was good, we looked at the hover charm today, but Professor Flitwick said you didn't have to worry, most people hadn't got the charm by the end of class. History of Magic was interesting..." Alicia's comments were drowned in a roar of laughter from the boys, and Angelina glanced up before shaking her head and continuing with her work.
Kathy was surprised, she knew Binns was boring, something was up here. "What happened?" She asked, directing her gaze at George, "What did you do?"
"I'm hurt you suspect me of more than taking notes and paying full attention to Professor seethrough." George answered, mock hurt.
"Nah it was dear Leelee that started it Kathy." Fred added, his grin wicked.
"Oh Piss off. I knocked over my ink. Thats how I started it. Fred got this great idea to flick an Ink ball at some Hufflepuff chick, who in turn threw her quill at George. George then blamed Ange saying it was her who started it, she the threw a piece of parchment at him which hit him on the nose, bloody good shot by the way" Lee added as an aside to Angelina, who blushed slightly, "and the ghost just kept talking. I'm never gonna pass that class."
Kathy roared with laughter at the tales of what had happened, dearly wishing she had been able to take part in the fight.
"Oh, and Snape didn't give us homework." Fred said, so you were wrong on that count.
Before Kathy could process this fact, and third year turned to the small group, "How in the name of Merlin did that happen? It's unheard of that he doesn't give homework."
"He was probably worried that he was never gonna be able to mark it after Kathy got hurt Oliver," Charlie shouted over from the other side of the common room.
The next few weeks passed quickly, Kathy spent no more time in the hospital wing, although She, Fred and Leelee also ended up in detention on the first Friday after trying to use Wingardium Leviosa on Mrs Norris to put her down a toilet in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. They has had to spend the evening cleaning aforementioned bathroom, whilst George was in his detention with Snape.
Kathy's meeting with Minerva went surprisingly well, and by the end, certain ground rules had been set, such as during term time Kathy would Owl Minerva regularly as other students did their own parents, and in return Minerva would not insist on regular meetings. Kathy would be treated as any other student to the best of Minerva's ability, however, Minerva would not agree to if Kathy ended up in the Hospital wing again that she would not rush down to see her.
Overall, things were looking up.
AN - Please don't shout at me for not updating sooner! Life went from hectic (exams 3 years ago) to mental and is only just calming down. A brief overview: Since last updating I have moved house 5 times, have broken my pelvis due to a car accident, changed my vocation at least 3 times, now trying to make things work on a part time salary (which would be fine if the boss actually paid me on time) and am struggling with some pretty nasty health problems - possibly as a fall out from the accident, possibly completely unrelated but just bad timing. Add in to this that my Beta died just over 2 years ago and you get a messed up few years. I am also writing my first Original Fiction Novel so I have quite a bit on my late at the moment.
However, that aside I have found that I had written far more of this story than actually got published, so I shouldn't keep you waiting too long!
Please forgive me this time!
And send many thanks and cookies to emmettcullenlover7 for sending me a PM and causing me to reopen the file on the computer!
Tigs x
(Oh yeah, I only own Kathy and anything you don't recognise, the characters and Hogwarts et al. are all belonging to JK. I just dabble in her world)
