Chapter 10

"That is awesome."

"Wow"

"I'm invisible."

"I know what that is, that's an invisibility cloak. They're really rare, I wonder who gave it you." Ron scrambled over himself and nearly tripped in his discarded wrapping paper in his attempt to seize the packaging of the cloak. Cat continued to stare in wide-eyed awe at Harry's disembodied head as it floated round the common room. That Slytherin part of her brain which the sorting hat had whispered to her about was busy weighing the possibilities of such an item. Thoughts of the library restricted section or the third floor corridor teemed in her mind as Harry pulled on the hood of the cloak in front of the mirror and vanished.

The note was unsigned and despite some speculation as to the sender they decided to leave it be. It was too early for lunch and far too late for breakfast so the trio contented themselves with lounging in the common room for an hour or two snacking on their sweets and chatting amiably, although Ron still largely ignored Cat. The topic inevitably returned to reminiscence of past Christmas's spent with family. Harry did not speak of his own experiences and Cat remembered too late his living situation when she asked the boys what their favourite Christmas present was. Harry's quiet reply of he couldn't remember his only Christmas presents, made her flush with embarrassment and cast an awkward silence for a moment. Thankfully Ron broke it by telling them that two years ago he received a Chudley Cannons Quidditch jersey. Harry returned her question in a quiet voice. He was surprised when she jumped up and ran up into her dormitory. He and Ron exchanged a puzzled frown before she came bounding down the stone steps once more, blonde hair flying as she raced over to them. In her hands she held a violin and bow.

"Ta Dah." She smiled before repeating her exclamation on the strings.

"What the bloody hell is that?" Ron had slammed his hands over his ears as she bowed the strings. He stared with a look of utter bewilderment at the strange objects in her hand.

"It's a violin. Don't you have violins in the wizarding world?" She asked mirroring his puzzlement.

"What's it for?" he asked frowning and looking suspiciously at the object which produced the squeaky scratchy noise.

"It's for playing music. Listen." She again shouldered the violin and launched into the start of 'In the bleak midwinter.'

Harry had heard the song before from carol singers and thought it sounded quite beautiful, the clear pure notes seemed to swell and flow around them in the vaulted tower, conjuring images of snow-covered streets and families around nativity scenes.

"For Merlin's sake will you stop already!" Ron yelled over her playing, in her shock the bow slipped and produced a horrible discordant shriek from the instrument. "Thankyou, we get it already it's makes scary noises, now please stop torturing the cat that's trapped inside. Cat stared aghast at Ron for a moment and then dropped the violin, her most prized possession on the sofa and ran to the portrait opening.

"Ron that was really mean." Harry scowled at Ron, picked up the violin and ran after her. Cat ran fast streaming down her cheeks, ignoring Harry's calls, she took turns and secret passages in an attempt to shake off Harry, but years of Harry hunting by Dudley had made him fast and she was never quite able to lose him, until she ducked behind the tapestry of a white hart next to the door to the astronomy tower. After Harry had run past down the corridor still calling for her, she snuck out and went up the stairs to the observatory. She'd never been up here during the day. As she ascended the slippery steps to the only open tower, she regretted not getting a warm coat before she ran out of the common room. She was shivering and was ready to turn round and risk Ron and Harry's teasing when she came round the corner and beheld the view. The astronomy tower stood above the front doors of the castle and the view she beheld was breathtaking. Before her the mountains and the lake shone in the morning sunlight, a dazzling expanse of virgin snow covering the sloping lawns down to the lake and forest, it's normally dark trees now dusted with white, the lake normally a green or silver expanse now shone a pale blue as the ice reflected the sky. It was almost blinding and she forgot to blink until a small eddy of snow blew into her face. Forgetting the freezing temperatures she walked to the edge of the parapet and stared out at the beauty of Hogwarts under snow. Harry found her nearly ten minutes later, she turned to him and he saw that while her eyes were red she was no longer crying.

"I'm sorry about Ron; I thought your playing was nice."

"Feeling guilty Potter?" She sneered, an ice queen in the frozen landscape, tendrils of her hair shining silver in the harsh light floated out in the gentle breeze giving her an ethereal look, somewhat spoilt by the Arsenal football shirt.

"Yes," She raised an eyebrow. "Ron was really mean, your playing was really good, I don't know why he said that. I'd really like to hear more to be honest." He looked at her with such an open honest expression that she couldn't help but soften. Taking her slight change in demeanour as a good sign he offered her the violin and bow. "Do you know any more Christmas songs? The Dursley's didn't tend to listen to music."

She relented and carefully took the violin from Harry who smiled at her. She tentatively smiled in return and then looked back out over the parapet. "Go on. Please." He urged her stepping closer. The blonde girl before him raised her bow and began to quietly play Away in a Manger, the notes strengthened as she got into it and the clear sweet tones drifted out on the winter wind. As soon as she finished she began The Holly and the Ivy. Harry stood staring oblivious to the chill air, watching her play, her eye's closed and her fingers dancing over the strings. Her whole body swayed with the movement of the bow and melody. Her face was scrunched up in concentration her milky white skin now flushed from the wind, her eyes firmly closed with her mouth a compressed line. When she finished the silence seemed oppressive on the top of the tower.

"Beautiful." Harry whispered. His breath misting in the air with the words.

"Not bad but it-"

"Lacked refinement in our-"

"Opinion."

The two eleven year olds looked up to see a truly unexpected sight. Fred and George Weasley speaking in unison and finishing each other's sentences, were lounging, smirks affixed on a pair of broom sticks hovering a little way above the parapet.

"Ready Fred?"

"Ready George"

"Oppugno!" They both flicked their wands and five snow men hovering hundreds of feet in the air rose above the level of the parapet and detached their heads before throwing them at the pair of first years. Harry unsuccessfully attempted to dodge the freezing projectiles, skidding across the frozen stone. Cat dived beneath the crenulation as if a soldier in a besieged castle under fire. She thought she'd escaped until the final snowman floated over the parapet and dropped it's head directly on top of the unsuspecting girl.

"What the hell guys?" Harry was spitting snow out of his mouth and shivering, soaked from head to toe in his jeans and Weasley knit jumper.

"What do you reckon, George?" One of them turned to his brother. "Will they accept our challenge?"

"You know brother of mine, I'm not sure. Perhaps a second gauntlet should be thrown down." He grinned evilly at the two freezing first years."

"Oppug – "

"Run!" Harry yelled grabbing Cat's hand and pulling her towards the stairs. The headless snowmen chased them until they shut the door on them. They collapsed onto the floor behind the door after the snowmen stopped hammering on it. A laugh worked its way out from the depths of his chest, until he was roaring with mirth on the door next to Cat. He's mad, wonderful I'm stuck in a castle all winter with no one but sour face, the crazy twins and Mr Mad over here.

"What's wrong with you, what's wrong with them?" She asked, he turned to see a look of bewilderment and anger on her flushed face. It just made him laugh harder, with snow melting in his hair dripping down his nose, and pooling on the flagstones. Cat next to him in her soaked red shirt and dark tendrils of her hair falling across her forehead and cheekbones as she similarly dripped.

"They wanted a snowball fight." He gasped out as she continued to stare at him. "Ron said they always have a snowball fight at Christmas. That's what they meant by a challenge."

He turned to see a serious frown mask her features. She was inspecting her violin and bow with a steely gaze. She stroked the fine horsehairs lovingly, plucking out a broken one. After several long moments in which Harry watched her quietly, she turned to look at her companion.

"They want a snowball fight? I'll give them a bloody snowball fight." Harry stared into the deep violet eyes which were ablaze with the light of cold fury as she said those words. Harry audibly gulped before replying.

"Yes ma'am."

They made their way back to the Gryffindor common room where they found Ron napping in front of the fire. A quick dousing with a water pitcher, brought him round and Harry explained the situation quickly. Then they began to devise a plan.

So it was that Ron found himself trudging, albeit warmly wrapped up in winter cloaks, through the frozen waste land outside the front gate of Hogwarts, waving in his hand a white flag, fashioned from a chalk board pointer and a school shirt. After a few moments he saw two figures come swooping down from above on their brooms wands at the ready.

"Parlay" Ron's voice was muffled by two scarfs.

"Pardon?" both twins asked.

"I said, Parlay, it means to talk terms," said Ron, desperately trying to remember his lines.

"Terms?" Came the reply in unison.

"Half an hour, only snow projectiles, no going crying to McGonagall when we kick your asses." Said Ron who had removed the scarf from his face. "Oh and you can't touch me until I put down this flag."

"Who's we?" Fred and George both asked.

"Me, Harry and Cat."

"When are you going to drop the flag?"

"On 3, 1…2…3!" He yelled the final number and dropped to the ground as a barrage of a hundred and thirteen snowballs struck the twins from behind Ron. Cat suddenly appeared as if from nowhere and ran off to the side while the twins recovering from the unexpected broadside, gave chase on foot forgetting their brooms.

Ron grabbed one and ascended a few meters where he was met by Harry. He tossed Ron a large sack which contained a large pile of snowballs. They tracked the rapidly retreating figures of Fred and George who were following Cat out onto the lake. Cat flicked her wand as she reached the shore, transfiguring her boots into ice-skates, another wave and a sack materialised in her left hand. She poked her wand into the neck of the sack and flicked it at the twins who were gingerly making their way towards across the ice.

"Volito Repetere", she yelled and snowballs began flying from her bag as she skated round the twins. She rapidly ran out within a few seconds as they flew thick and fast smacking with unerring accuracy into the twins. As she ran out and they managed to regain their footing resembling living snow men, Ron and Harry swooped down on their brooms and began throwing snowballs at the twins. The twins chose to retreat to the lake shore and gather snow to fight back. Directing it with their wands they sent it flying much as Cat had at their brother and Harry. Cat snuck behind them and began gathering snow into a huge ball with a wave of her wand when it was over ten feet tall, she sent it hurtling at the twins who were hiding behind a tree. It crashed into them and as she directed kept on rolling up hill. First up the path and then up the steps and through the front doors of Hogwarts, the three first years followed the giant boulder which had grown larger as it gathered snow from the hill on its way. They dashed into the entrance hall and found a hilarious sight. The twins and three members of staff were struggling under an enormous pile of snow. Upon realising who the members of staff were however, the three ceased their laughter and ran for it as first, Professor Quirrell's unmistakable turban, followed by Snape and Filch struggled free of the snow.

They ran practically wetting themselves with laughter all the way to the common room.

"Nice one Edward's" Said Ron, giving her a thumbs up before going to his dorm to change out of his wet clothes before lunch.

"That was brilliant." Harry grinned at her while pulling his jumper off. He gave her a quick hug, before following Ron up the stairs.

Cat found herself blushing slightly and caught herself grinning in the mirror as she went up her own staircase. That was until she saw the sticker on her back saying hug me I'm lonely. No doubt put their by the Weasley twins. Still that was fun.

The Christmas feast was fantastic, she sat between Harry and Professor McGonagall around a single round table in the middle of the Great Hall, there were only a handful of students and around half the faculty so it no doubt seemed silly to use the house tables. As it was she spent the meal talking to Harry and her head of house while glancing across the table at Professor Snape who was alternating glaring at the Weasley twins and Harry. The food was delicious but she decided not to go for the Turkey instead taking some slices of duck. While she would admit she was having fun she didn't want to forget that Christmas was a family tradition. They always had turkey at Christmas. Her dad had a small love affair with it every year, going to the farmers market and choosing the one he wanted while it was still walking around minding its own turkey business. Then he would take it to his favourite butcher, and then he would read endless recipe books on how to cook the giant bird and what to do with the nine-tenths of the bird which didn't get eaten on Christmas day. Eating turkey at Hogwarts would be like pretending that she was at home for Christmas when she was actually at school with people who were tolerating her for want of better company. Rather than with her family who loved her unconditionally. Alright Harry was being nice to her, like he always was when she thought about it, but as soon as Hermione was back when term started he would stop being her friend and she would go back to being Cat, you know the blonde first year Gryffindor, not Cat Harry Potter's friend.

Harry wondered why Cat seemed so downhearted all of a sudden and pressed her to pull a cracker with him. He won and pocketed the little gobstones set, but insisted she wear the hat which was a bearskin "like the ones the Buckingham palace guards wear." She said looking at it sceptically. Soon however everyone around the table was wearing a silly hat (except for Snape and Quirrell).

After the feast ended and Harry, Ron and Cat wandered, or perhaps waddled out of the hall and to their common room, they lounged around the fire and Cat decided to bring up something that she knew she probably shouldn't.

"So why are you guys looking for Nicolas Flamel?" She affected a casual manner while fiddling with a loose thread on her sleeve, while in reality she was peering from underneath her eyelashes at the two boys who had stiffened at her question and were now casting worried looks at each other and her.

"Who?" asked Ron after a lengthy pause. He seemed quite impressed with his cleverness at that and Cat could not help but roll her eyes.

"Did Hermione tell you?" Harry asked looking intently at her. Cat shrank away a little under his penetrating stare.

"Yeah, I've been helping her." Cat admitted.

"Look Cat, I'm sorry she got you involved but we can't tell you. People's jobs could be at stake if any more people know about this." He gave her a serious look but Cat wasn't ready to give up just yet.

"Does this have to do with the three-headed dog on the third floor corridor?"

The stunned silence which followed her question was finally broken by Ron attempting his original ploy of "What three-headed dog."

Cat huffed before standing up and ascending to her dormitory. Turning back to the boys she said "Well Hermione and I have looked in just about every book in the library so unless he's in the restricted section I don't think we're going to find him. She looked pointedly at Harry who was staring into the fire as she said those words and then went up to bed. He watched her disappear out of the corner of his eye and pondered her words. He also wondered whether he should trust her with their secret. Ron also watched her leave and let out a great sigh when he thought she was out of ear shot.

"Thank Merlin. I thought we'd never get rid of her. Hey Harry why don't we use the cloak to sneak down to Hogsmeade. Charlie told me about this sweet shop, called Honeydukes…

Ron's voice faded as Cat climbed the stairs. It had been nice to hang out with Harry and Ron today, pretending to have friends. She had genuinely enjoyed spending time with them, particularly Harry who seemed genuinely nice. The problem was Ron who seemed to be absent a single emphatic bone in his entire body. He was rude, ill-mannered, self-conscious and she thought he was also jealous. Jealous of Harry in fact. While she would be the first to admit that the invisibility cloak was a very cool possession, and it was nice that he had got permission to own the fastest racing broom in the world. He also had to wake up every morning with no family. Ron she had learned had a large and successful family. Neither she nor Ron would ever know the emptiness of a life without the unconditional love of their families. Cat felt really sorry for Harry, and was so embarrassed when she realised that Harry had never known the kind of familial affection like receiving a Christmas present. How could Ron be so insensitive as to feel jealous of the first Christmas present he had ever received? How could he be that callous? Why on earth would Harry willingly be his friend? 'Why can't I be his friend?' was the thought circling around in her head as she drifted off to sleep. Like a shark around a mariner on a raft the loneliness circled her mind as she closed the drapes around her bed and wished that poor boy was her friend. "Merry Christmas" She whispered before closing her eyes.

She was stood atop of a great height looking down on a great expanse of nothing. As she watched the darkness resolved itself into a great flat plain of brown as a pale sun rose to her right. The rays touched the ground and everywhere she looked the surface teemed with people. Small as ants they surged and shattered like waves on a sea-shore. A great battle was taking place with thousands of combatants locked in deathly struggle. Flashes of green and red-spotted the surface. She leaned forward to gaze at an area where giant figures charged into a mass of smaller ones. As she stared the sound finally reached, roaring and scream, shrieking and explosions, rose from the plain up to the height from which she stood. From out of the sky more figures descended of different shape and size varying from figures the size of a person to enormous creatures as large as hills. A great booming rocked her vision and she turned to the darkness to her left, as yet untouched by the light of dawn.

Boom, Boom, Boom. She could not see what caused the terrifying cacophony, but it invoked even greater terror in her heart than even the screams of the wounded and dying below her. Boom, Boom, Boom. The sound struck her like a hammer blow, robbing her breath and casting her down from her high perch. Down she fell in a hurricane of sound and swirling light. The world rotated and rose to meet her. Figures dancing and rushing, light, clashing with shining steel. Giant and tiny figures, rising towards her. Faster and faster, down and down, the great flat expanse of the earth in all its solid magnitude, rushing up to meet her as she fell. Every bone and cell in her body screamed for air. Every bone and blood vessel sent messages to her brain that they were mortal and fragile. He tiny, soft form hurtling towards the solid, hard ground at incalculable speed. It was coming towards her and she scrunched her eyes tight as if that would defy her certain end. If she could not see her death then it might not happen. Here it comes, three. I don't want to die. Two. Oh god. One.

Smack.

Tap, tap, tap. Cat looked up from the cold flagstones she was pressed against. Wrapped in the hangings of her bed she lay on the floor beside her bed. She breathed in ragged gasps and hiccups. Tears sprang unbidden to her eyes in relief. She was not dead. She wasn't falling from a mile up. She had only fallen out of bed. It was just a dream. A weird, realistic dream. Tap, tap, tap.

She raised her head higher to see Hedwig rattling the window to the girls dormitory. It took Cat a few moments to extricate herself from the curtain and shuffle, heart pounding and still breathing heavily she opened the latch to the window and allowed Hedwig to alight upon her arm.

"Hey Hedwig, what's that?" She whispered, her voice rough like sandpaper, she didn't realise she must have screamed. Thank goodness there was no one else in the girl's side of the tower. Hedwig nipped her finger as she reached for the letter clasped in her beak. She grabbed an owl treat from Rodney's empty cage before unfolding the single piece of parchment. It simply said:

Cat meet me in the common room. There's something you've got to see.

Harry

"What on earth does he want?" Cat grumbled to herself while kneeling and searching for her second slipper under the bed. Eventually she made it, dressed in her gown and both slippers to the common room. At first she thought it was a prank, but then the otherwise empty room was inhabited by Harry also in pyjamas removing the invisibility cloak. In a whisper he told her how he had gone to the library to look in the restricted section, but the book was alarmed. Dodging Filch and Snape he told her he had found something in an abandoned class room that he wanted her to see.

"Has Ron seen it?" She asked looking completely nonplussed. Harry admitted that he had attempted to wake Ron but he was too deeply asleep, but he needed someone else to see it. Harry did not admit but Cat guessed that he wasn't sure he hadn't dreamt up the experience. She was even less sure about it when he told her to get under the cloak with him but she didn't want to get caught by Filch and get loads of detentions. The portrait of the fat lady, swung open but continued to snore, oblivious of nobody leaving the open portal. Harry retraced his steps to the fourth floor and led her silently with only a limited amount of bumping into each other and stepping on each other's feet, to the correct class room. On his fourth attempt he found the right one and led her inside. By this point much to each other's embarrassment, they resolved to walk with one hand around the others waist so as to stay covered but without constantly getting in each other's way under the cloak.

"Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi" Cat whispered reading the strange words along the ornate frame of a large mirror. Spotted with age the glass was canted slightly away from where they stood so she could not see her reflection. Harry immediately removed the cloak and ran to stand in front of the mirror.

"Come and see." He beckoned to her to come and stand next to him. When she was too slow to respond he ran forward and grabbed her hand pulling her out from under the cloak and taking her over to the mirror. "Can you see them?" Harry turned to look at her his face shining. She stared into the mirror in confusion.

"Can I see what?" She looked at their reflections in the old glass. But they were off she realised. Instead of gazing with serious expressions, she and Harry were smiling at her, the ghost of a laugh at a recent joke. Instead of her hand in his, their fingers were interlaced and swinging gently. She looked at herself and Harry and then back to the mirror in confusion. Then she noticed a third figure who she realised had been there at first but she had not noticed. Hermione in all her bushy haired glory had an arm round Cat's shoulder on her other side and smiled as well. They all wore the same easy smiles as if recovering from a hilarious laugh. Easy, contented. Friends. Cat's heart ached at the sight. Cat finally tore her gaze away from the scene after several long moments.

"What do you see in the mirror Harry?"

"Lots of people." He turned back to the mirror and spoke as if in a dream, "There's a woman with red hair and a man who looks a bit like me. They're smiling and waving. I think they're my parents. What do you see?" He did not stop looking into the mirror but tightened his grip on her hand to the point where it almost hurt.

"I see you, me and Hermione. Just smiling, having fun." She said turning to look at Harry. "Friends."

I had fun writing this. I hope it shows. It's a bit longer than normal I think. Do you guys prefer longer chapters? I read somewhere that 3000 was the optimal length but that always feels too small to me. Review and let me know your thoughts on that and how the story is going. As usual I still don't own any of the myriad of copyrights I abuse in every paragraph. Enjoy.