Chapter 38

Summer Days and Summer Nights

A/N: Before I start this chapter, I believe that I owe all of my readers a huge apology. I am so sorry for the long wait since my last chapter. Over the last couple of months, my life has been crazy involving: drama with nearly all of my friends, changing all of my college plans around (which included applying for a new university), getting my first apartment, going through the entire process of moving, finding a stable roommate/friend that I totally trust, setting up a new financial plan due to the bad economy in the U.S., huge amounts of schoolwork almost every night due to an intense summer class at the new university, tons of illness in my family, starting my first full-time semester at the new university (which is much more difficult than the community college I just graduated from), and taking a ten day trip to my hometown to visit my grandfather who is dying of lung cancer. This story was put on the back burner until I dealt with all of this. Now that I have, I should be able to start writing frequently again. I do want all of you to know that I have no intentions of abandoning this story. If, for some reason, I am unable to finish, I will at least write a final chapter telling all of you what would have happened. If I leave you hanging completely, either I have died or I am seriously ill because I hate when authors drop their stories completely. I will not do that.

A knock came at the apartment door, jerking Amber out of a deep sleep. She knew that the knock would not have woke the others as Brittany could most likely sleep through a tonado and Katie's room was on the opposite side of the apartment. She glanced at the clock on her nightstand: 6:27am. She felt that the situation had to be important as the knocking continued and she realized it was a Sunday morning. Her mind vaguely wandered toward the possibility of a prank, but she quickly remembered that the summer holidays were taking place. She leapt out of bed and performed magic to get herself dressed. She opened the door to reveal Dumbledore standing beside two strangers—a man and a woman.

"Hello, Amber," he smiled cheerily, "Is Katie awak yet?"

"No, she's still asleep," Amber answered.

"I doubted she would be," Dumbledore thought out loud, "Would you mind waking her for me? We have a few things to discuss."

"Sure," Amber said, "You all can come in if you want to."

"Thank you," Dumbledore said graciously.

Amber walked to Katie's room and opened the door quietly. She crpet almost silently to Katie's bed, laid her hand gently on Katie's shoulder, and whispered, "Katie, Dumbledore and some people are here to see you."

Katie jumped violently. "What? You scared me! Don't do that."

"What?"

"When you want to wake me up do it by knocking loudly on the door instead of being all quiet. I opened my eyes and saw you standing right by my head; it scared me."

"Ok, I'm sorry, come on."

"Come on? What do you mean?"

"Dumbledore and some people are here to see you," Amber repeated in exasperation, "I already told you."

"Yeah, well I was half asleep, so what do you expect?"

"Ok, just come on, get dressed."

"Who are the people with Dumbledore?" Katie asked as she ran her hands up and down in front of her body, making her nightgown change into jeans and a t-shirt.

"I don't know. I've never seen them before."

"Hmm," Katie mused, running her hands over her messy hair to make it smooth and shiny. They walked into the living room after Katie had cleaned her teeth.

"Good morning, Katie," Dumbledore said happily.

"Good morning," Katie replied sleepily, hating this expression as she never considered the first fifteen minutes after waking to be good.

"I have two people here who have told me that they know you," Dumbledore began to explain, "They say that they were two of your professors at your community college. Would you like to say hello to her?" Dumbledore asked the couple.

"Hi, Katie. It's nice ot see you again," the woman said.

"Mrs. Wicket?" Katie enquired.

"Yes, and Dr. Wicket is here too," she said smiling.

"Good," Dumbledore beamed, "You have clarified that they are indeed who they claim to be—John and Kayla Wicket. I have already tested them for traces of Polyjuice Potion, so I belive that these two are who they say they are."

"Um, ok," Katie replied, wondering why Dumbledore was being so blunt about magic in front of Muggles.

"They know that this is a school for magic," Dumbledore explained, "I have told them that much at least. Well, now that you've confirmed their identities, you can go back to sleep if you wish. I shall tell them all that has occurred, because I feel that they are in the same situation that you, Amber, and Brittany are—they are stuck here for awhile. Anyway, just go back to sleep and I shall speak with you later today."

"Why are they here though? And what exactly-"

"I will talk with you about it all later. For now, you need to sleep. I know for a fact that you weren't in bed until around three o'clock in the morning. You need more sleep before you can adequately process all of this. Now, off to bed with you."

"Ok," Katie relented, wondering how Dumbledore knew when she had gone to bed in the first place.

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Katie awoke at 11:48am, feeling much better than she had when Amber had come to her room earlier that morning. She stayed in bed for a few minutes, thinking about what would happen now that the Wickets were at Hogwarts. She prayed that they would not be involved in anything having to do with Voldemort, as she was sure that they didn't develop magical powers. She stretched and yawned lazily, basking in the wonderful feeling of having no schedule. Just as she was considering falling back to sleep, she remembered that Dumbledore wanted to speak with her. "Damn it," she muttered as she rolled out of bed. She quicly made herself presentable with magic, said goodbye to Brittany and Amber, and made her way to Dumbledore's office.

"Enter," came the usual greeting to Katie's ears. She opened the office door to show Dumbledore sitting with his feet upon his desk.

"Ms. Insche," he said cheerily, "I was expecting you." He slowly took his feet down. "I want you to know that I have told the Wickets everything that has been going on with you, and they both have taken Unbreakable Vows to keep the matters secret."

"So they know that I'm a Sorceress?"

"Yes."

"Why did you tell them that, sir?" Katie asked respectfully.

"I just have a feeling that they will need to know it at one point," Dumbledore answered, "You and I both know the powers that strong intuition holds."

"Absolutely," Katie confirmed, and left the matter at that.

"The Wickets will be moving into your apartment. They will not act as parental figures, but I do not know where they would be better suited. I have explained to them that they technically do not have authority over the three of you, and that they should therefore treat you like adults. You, however, will not be seeing them much during the day."

"Why?" Katie asked.

"During the afternoon, I have made arrangements for Professor Snape to come to the castle. He will be teaching you different lying techniques."

"Lying techniques?"

"Yes, since you are unable to perform Occlumency, you must become an extremely skilled liar. He will also be teaching you how to use your logic and intuition to get inside others' heads. This will aid you in later times, but I cannot fully explain it now."

"Lying is one thing, but I don't want to learn how to get into others' heads and manipulate them. It's not the kind of person I want to be."

"You are a bit afraid of this aren't you?" Dumbledore asked sympathetically, "You fear that you might become too good at it?"

"Yes," Katie admitted, "I don't want it to become a habit. For me, habits are formed when I first learn how to do something, realize I like it, and repeat the action again and again."

"But you have just told me that you don't like it."

"I said that I don't like the idea of it. I've never tried it, so I don't know if I will like doing it or not. That's why I don't want to try it. It's not morally right."

"As long as you keep that attitude going, you will never have to fear it becoming a habit. You are a good person, and this will stop you from using this power to your advantage."

"But should the power be used at all?" Katie asked, "If I have logic and intuition like you say I do, why do I need to use them in this way?"

"As I've told you, I cannot explain this to you yet."

"Well, either you need to explain it to me, or I will refuse to learn it," Katie replied decisibely, a cold note in her voice, arms folded firmly across her chest.

"I cannot explain it to you," Dumbledore said impatiently, "I will not make you learn it, but if you refuse to, I believe it will make your future that much harder."

"That's ok with me," Katie said, "I'd rather be a good person with a hard future than a person who turns towards evil just to make my life easier."

"If it is for the greater good, would you still call it evil?"

"Yes, because it might start out as working for the greater good, but I may not want to stop when the greater good is accomplished."

"Very well," Dumbledore sighed, "I see that you will not be persuaded in this. You may return to your apartment."

"He is becoming so obsessed with making the Wizarding World good that he isn't seeing his own flaws and faults," Katie thought as she left the office, "I wonder if he even realized that he used Grindelwald's phraise 'for the greater good'. Hopefully he will understand all of this someday. Maybe when he's dead he'll see how much of a negative impact his need for power has had on his life and why I refused to be susceptible to that need."