Author's Note: I do not own the Harry Potter world or the characters created to live in that world, they belong to J.K. Rowling. Nor am I making any profit off of this story. However, I will try to portray them to the best of my abilities.
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Katherine was distressed. She'd been sitting quietly in her favorite window seat, reading fairy tales. She noticed that there were a great deal of stories where parents abused their children, gave them up at the drop of a hat, or locked them in some weird tower…
Would her parents do that?
She took hold of her book and ran to the sitting room where she knew they were. When she got there though, they were smiling at each other and holding each other's hand.
No use trying to talk to them now… they never noticed their children when they were wrapped up in one another, which was most of the time. When they deemed to pay attention to their children, they were absolutely doting in their affections. But most of the time it was a pat on the head and being told to run along and play.
She missed William.
Still, maybe this time would be different. Maybe because William was off at school they'd pay more attention to her! Maybe she wouldn't just be their little princess, maybe she'd know why the other kids complained about their parents never leaving them alone!
She walked up to them and said, "Mummy? Daddy?"
They looked at her, annoyed as usual. "Is this an emergency Katherine?" Her Daddy asked.
She shook her head, "No… but I was wondering…"
"Here love, have some sweets," Her Mummy smiled, holding out the tray of her favorite chocolates.
Katherine frowned. She had no idea why her parents thought that sweets were the answer to all children's problems… because they never seemed to help her any.
"Go on," Her Daddy said pressingly.
Katherine sighed and took some chocolates, knowing what would happen next.
Her Daddy patted her on the head and her Mummy smiled, "There you go, now run along Katherine."
"Alright…" Katherine said. But as she walked away, she realized that she really was a princess… not a Cinderella type princess… more like that Rapunzel princess who had the long beautiful hair and her doting mother locked her up in the tower for her 'protection'. She wondered if parents realized that all the doting in the world doesn't make up for feeling all alone, locked away inside a tower. And that's exactly how she felt. She had friends at school, but they never came over to play because her parents didn't like children that weren't their own. She couldn't have a pet because her parents found them distasteful… whatever that meant. And now William, who was her entire world, was going to be gone for months at school. It just wasn't fair.
She plopped down on the grass in the gardens and threw the chocolates far away. Chocolate never solved anything, EVER! The big poopie heads…
She looked up at the sky and let herself be carried away. Suddenly she was thinking about her own little fairy tale.
Once upon a time there was a little kingdom that had a handsome King and a beautiful Queen who loved each other very much. So much that they rarely had time to pay attention to their sweet daughter and very smart son. They doted on them, certainly, but the gifts never amounted to their company. So the Prince looked after the little Princess, his sister, and together they were very happy. Then one day the Prince was called away to slay some really mean dragons and he had to go away, though the little Princess was very upset to see him go. After he left, the little Princess was all alone and didn't know what to do.
So she went to her Uncle, the greatest, smartest, strongest wizard I the whole wide world and asked him what she had to do to never be lonely ever again.
He smiled at the little Princess and said, "Why, that's easy my little Princess. I'll just help you find your one true love. He'll stay with you and love you forever and ever, and you'll never have to be alone ever again."
She gasped and said, "Who is my one true love? How do I find him?"
Katherine sat up and wondered at the answer to that question. Who WAS her one true love? Or at least someone who'd do for the story? Then she thought about the boy she'd seen when she'd been visiting Uncle Albus. The black haired boy with black eyes… the one who she immediately liked… the one who was so very beautiful. She didn't know his name though, although she knew it must be something wonderful, and so she just decided to call him the beautiful Prince.
He chuckled and said, "Why, the beautiful Prince of course. Who else would be worthy of a sweet little Princess like you? You'll find him in the castle at the end of the world, in the tallest tower…." Uhm, he had to be doing something, right? Her beloved would never just sit around doing nothing… oh! He'd be brewing a potion! She couldn't have a beloved who wasn't good with potions, oh no, potions were much too wonderful. "Brewing a potion most likely. You must go to there and tell him that you love him. And remember, no matter what you shouldn't give up on him, love doesn't come easy for anybody." Or at least that was what William always said.
"Alright!" The little Princess said, running off to find the beautiful Prince.
She went past fields and mountains, water and rocks, and eventually found the castle. It was stormy there and the castle was, big and dark with mold and vines growing on it. The little Princess liked it very much indeed. She went to the tallest tower and indeed found him brewing a potion. When she walked into the room he frowned at her, but that didn't stop her from grinning at him and saying, "I love you!"
He stared at her for a moment, and then laughed, "Please! You don't love me! You're just here to steal my potion. Be off with you, I don't have time for thieves."
She shook her head, "Oh no, I really do love you."
He sighed and looked at her, "I'm an ugly, lonely Prince who lives in an ugly, lonely castle. Why would a sweet little Princess like you love me?"
She grinned, "I don't think you or your castle are ugly, I think you're both beautiful and interesting. I love you."
He snorted and said, "Fine, if you love me, then come over here and slice up these roots for my potion. But I warn you, if you cut them wrong then I'll know that you don't love me and you'll have to go away."
She frowned and said, "That's a stupid test, but if it'll get you to know that I love you then so be it." She walked over to the cutting board and found bunches of really strangely shaped roots and a big knife. She had no idea how she was going to cut all of them without hurting herself, but she had to try. So one by one she carefully cut each one, miraculously not ruining the roots, knife, or her fingers.
When she was done the beautiful Prince came over and frowned at her work, "You got lucky, this doesn't prove anything though. Next, I want you to go down and give my dog a bath. If I come down there and he's still smelly and ugly then I'll know that you don't love me."
She sighed and said, "Yet another really stupid test, but if that will get you to know that I love you ten so be it." She went down and found the dog, and it was definitely stinky but she thought that it's fangs and troubled grey eyes were kind of enduring in an upsetting sort of way.
She sat down a little ways from it and smiled, saying, "If you want to come over and play, I'm here."
It just growled at her for a long time, then, slowly but surely it came over at sat in front of her.
She smiled and asked politely, "Can I pat your head?"
It stared at her for a long moment, then lowered its head and let her pat it.
She smiled and said, "Thank you. Do you want to come and play with me by the lake? It'll be lots of fun, I promise. I'll even throw a stick for you."
The dog blinked but stood up along with her and they went to the lake. She threw a stick for it and eventually one went into the lake and the dog went after it. She ran after it and started petting and rubbing it a great deal. When it was all clean she ran out of the lake, the dog close behind.
As soon as they came out, the beautiful Prince came over and frowned. "He's still ugly."
She gasped and hugged the dog around it's neck, "It is NOT! It was never ugly, it just was left in a yard full of dirt and nothing can look pretty while left in that."
The beautiful Prince raised and eyebrow but said, "Alright, so be it. But that still doesn't prove anything. I have one more test for you. If you really love me, then you need to climb up into my potions tower without falling. Then, and only then will I know that you love me."
The little Princess growled and said, "That's it! I'm not doing any more of your stupid tests. I love you, and I'll show it to you myself!" She grabbed his shirt and pulled him down to kiss him sweetly on the nose. "Now stop being so stupid." She smiled at him.
He blinked at her, then slowly smiled too. "Alright, I guess you do love me. I suppose I love you too… after all, it's not every day that I find someone who likes me, my castle, AND my dog. Not to mention can cut up roots without mucking it up."
She grinned and hugged him, and he hugged back. They were soon married and when her brother came back from slaying the mean dragons he came to live with them and they all really DID live happily ever after…
Katherine was aware that this wasn't completely a memory of her childhood, that a great deal of it was a mixture of her feelings and wants (as dreams tended to be). But why was she dreaming still? Why did she feel so tired… so tired. She couldn't wake up. Why couldn't she wake up?
"Professor Tingstrom?" A familiar voice said, "It's me, Neville. I'm sorry but… I kind of… read your diary. I wasn't trying to invade your privacy or anything, I just wanted to know what happened to you so that maybe I could help." She could feel him resting a hand on hers, "I'm sorry about what happened to you, to your family… I lost my parents too, to death eaters as well. Now I have to live with my Grandmother… she scares me though. You think… you think when you wake up, that maybe we could take care of each other? I don't think you should be alone anymore, and I know I'd be much happier if I could stay with you. You could tell my Grandmother that you wanted to tutor me or something, she'd agree to that. We could live in a nice house in the country, and I'd make a garden for you and you could help me not be afraid anymore. You think we could?"
Katherine wasn't quite sure how to react to that, and was surprisingly glad that she couldn't have reacted at the moment if she'd wanted to… which she didn't.
He sighed and said, "Anyway… I miss you Professor. We all miss you. Please come back to us?"
Katherine felt her heart start to hurt. Once again people that she cared about were getting hurt, and there was nothing that she could do about it.
---------------------------------------------
"Katherine? Katherine, can you hear me?" Snape sighed and said, "Of course you can't, you're in a coma… this was foolish of me." He looked down at her beautiful, sleeping face and wished with all that he was that she would wake up. "Katherine, I know you weren't trying to manipulate me. Although you do have your similarities at times, you're not your uncle. I should have seen that. I also should not have left you as I did, and I hope that you can… well, that we can move on from that if you ever have the decency to wake up. Honestly, the Headmaster is looking older and being more paternal than ever, and Lupin is walking around looking like a kicked puppy. It's all very vexing and I really wish you would just wake up so we could be done with all of this. And why the hell did you let yourself get so bad, anyway? You should have told your Uncle, or Lupin, or one of your many other admirers… ANYONE. You should have gotten help you stupid, foolish, petulant woman instead of letting yourself be destroyed so thoroughly. Why would you even do that? I always knew you were stubborn, but I had no idea you had lowered yourself to being a downright ass! Honestly Tingstrom, you really are the most infuriating…!!!!"
He stopped and took a deep breath, trying to calm himelf.
"Katherine… wake up. Things are far less tolerable without you around…" He said, brushing some hair away from her face. Then he sighed, turned, and walked out of the hospital wing. He could only hope that he was wrong, that somehow she had heard him.