Summary*

It's a story about a witch, a cat and a destiny. What is her destiny, you ask? Saving the world of course. A young brilliant wealthy American witch, last of the Ravenclaw lineage must survive a horrible experience. While she is healing, she tries to develop relationships with others. It is difficult in this Wizard UK world and eventually the coming war. Anything could happen, or anything can cause things to alter or change, but sometimes things can't. (Begins during Prisoner of Azkaban.)

CHAPTER 1

January 26, 1994 (Day 1)

'The pain, all she could feel was the pain…..' She lumbered on, not knowing how far or how long she did it. She had one shoe and one sock and half dragging herself across the light snowy street into the dark alley. It smelled of rotten food trash. She heard a little mewl low and muffled. She looked behind a pile of rags on the ground behind a bin, a newborn tiny kitten. It was smaller than her uninjured petite small hand's palm. She gathered it up to her chest. A tarp was laying in a pile. She put the kitten in her injured hand and held it with the two unbroken fingers to her chest. She wrapped herself in the tarp from head to toe. It blocked the frigid wind but did not give much warmth. She could smell and taste the metallic blood. 'Pain… pain… Oh God, please help me…..'

This town was dark, no lights on at all, like it was dead. 'No hope….. no hope…..' all she could hear repeatedly in her brain droning on and on….'No hope …..' she saw a light faintly at a distance in a window down a path. She headed to it like a beacon. She dragged herself out of the small town, down the cobbled street towards the little light. The kitten huddled in her broken hand as it was curled to her chest for protection. 'No hope … no hope ……'

After a long while, she saw a round thatched roofed hut with lights in the front window. She huddled down on the side of the steps, in a corner, next to the door. She reached her hand up, foregoing the tarp and banged on the bottom corner of the door. She banged again. Her strength was gone. She closed the tarp and let the darkness come for her. Before she went out completely, she heard loud..."Woof!"

She felt pain, pain everywhere, she didn't want to open her eyes. 'Safety in the darkness.' She listened, talking.

"Whatcha think appen' ter her? She's such a wee lil' thing. Who could hurt such an innocent girl?" A man's voice

"I don't know Hagrid. Where could she have come from? How did you even hear her this late at night?"Another man's voice.

"I would think she came from Hogsmeade, but walking tha' far in her condition, I don' know. Fang eard' her. She had a newborn kit in her broken hand curled to her chest. I pried it loose and fed it. Ifin' them poor lil' things, both of em', makes it to mornin', it'll be a miracle, it will."

"I think it is a night of miracles, Hagrid. I will hurry and get Madam Pomfrey and Severus quickly."

'Silence. Pain.' Darkness came again.

--

'Pain.'

Voices. 'Darkness. There is safety in the darkness.'

A woman spoke, "Professor, I healed her as much as I dare do without being able to administer potions. Her jaw was broken, cranial fractures, left leg fractured, right wrist and two fingers and thumb, multiple knife cuts and stabbings. The bruising on her extremities, back and abdomen are extensive. The internal organs and bone bruising,..." A pause. "I just don't know how she got from Hogsmeade to Hagrid's. She was internally bleeding to death and some of the stab wounds were very deep nicking the artery. Maybe the cold slowed that down? I was able to save her fingers and toes from frostbite. Until she is conscious, I can't give her anything for pain, blood replenishing or skele gro. She is in excruciating pain."

At that moment the girl moaned. She couldn't listen to it anymore. It hurt so badly. She could hear someone come near.

The woman said softly, "I need you to drink a little bit for the pain. It will help you." It felt like a vial was tipped in her mouth. She swallowed three or four different times. Darkness enveloped her again.

-- 1-28-94 (3 Days)

She woke up screaming. 'The men were chasing her, beating her, stabbing her, repeatedly punching her, ripping her clothes, and breaking her bones. She had to fight, she had to get out of that dirty basement and run.'

She launched up out of the bed screaming,"HELP ME!!! PLEASE, HELP ME!!!!" She ran to a corner in the room curling up in the corner whimpering and crying.

Madam Pomfrey hurried to the woman. "It's ok. It's ok. You're safe now. You're ok. Nobody will hurt you ever again while you're here." She patted the girl's long dark brown hair. She hoped the bones would be knitted enough and didn't rebreak her leg. "Come on, let's get you back to bed, little one. It's ok. Let me help you." She said calmly. Coaxing the girl to get up to go back to bed. The girl's mind broke from the nightmare and she let her guide her back to the bed.

"I'm going to give you a few potions to drink so you will sleep without dreaming of all those terrible things." She got four potions from the cabinet and tipped them to her mouth. She laid down and let darkness take her.

-- 2-4-94 (10 Days)

After a week had gone by since the nightmare, the girl lay in the bed just staring off looking at everything. She hadn't said a word to anyone, no matter how they tried to get her to talk. She ate in very small portions. Took her potions, but was afraid of everything, especially men.

That evening, Hagrid came into the infirmary and slowly sat down by the girl. She looked at him with her emerald green wary eyes and backed up into the top corner of her bed like a frightened rabbit.

"Now, don' be scared of old Agrid'. I brought ye someon' ye brought with ya to me hut the night I found ya. Looky her'?" He put out his hand with a tiny little bit of a black in his huge hand. He held it out to her and said,"Here now, take em'. He belongs ta ya after all." She timidly picked the kitten up from his hand trying not to touch him.

"I brought ye a few things to take care of em'. He's a little mite still, so he needs someon' ta elp' em' now." He took a little baby blanket, a tiny little bottle with a rubber tip like for a child's doll, a little bottle of milk and a little wood tray with a jar of sand in it.

"It's yer job to feed em' every few hours. The bottle as' been charmed so it won' spoil. I put a line on the lil' bottle fer how much. In two more weeks we'll see how he's doing,ok?". She nodded her head, with the kitten held up under her chin in her hand cuddling it. He nodded,"Ok then, I'll leave ya be." He stood and walked out the door.

The girl wrapped the kitten in the blanket and put the milk bottle in the little bag Hagrid left with her. She put a little sand in the tray, but slid it under the bed for now and put the jar back in the bag by her head at the top of the bed. She lay down with the kitten snuggled up to her in the blanket petting it and went to sleep.

-- 2-5-94 (11 Days)

The next day, Snape sat at Professor Dumbledore's desk. "Severus, I want you to find quarters for the young lady and take her there when she is ready. She hasn't spoken yet, but she has an extremely strong magical aura. She must be trained once she starts talking again."

"What makes you think she may not already be trained?" Snape said suspiciously.

"She may be very well, but we won't know that until she talks first. Madam Pomfrey hopes she will be ok to leave soon, but is hesitant until she can speak " Dumbledore said.

"Perhaps she's a mute.", Snape said blase'.

"I don't think so, Madam Pomfrey, said she screamed for help in her nightmares. I had Hagrid bring her the week old newborn kitten she was clutching the night she turned up at his hut. Perhaps that will help to get her talking.", Dumbledore stated.

Snape rolled his eyes,"Perhaps, she just needs to be taken to task and not coddled. If she's put in a situation she has to deal with can get her talking." Snape sneered.

"I don't think forcing her will help her, Severus. She has been traumatized." Dumbledore warned.

"She's a child and made to be told what to do. Why does everyone else coddle her? It isn't going to get her talking anytime soon. I'll handle her and take care of it." Snape got up and stormed out, closing the door behind him.

Dumbledore muttered,"You'll learn, boy, the hard way for this."

Snape walked briskly down the hall towards the infirmary. He flung the doors open banging them. The girl gathered the kitten up and crawled to the corner of the bed curled in a small ball. He marched up to her bed, flung the blanket and sheet back.

"I want you out of this bed and come with me!" He said forcefully. She cringed, shaking her head no. "I said now! I'm taking you to your room and you will not waste my time here, girl." The girl didn't move. He reached out and grabbed her by the recently broken wrist so hard, it bruised her, once rehealed wrist and a bone snapped. He tried to drag her out of the bed and to her feet.

The girl started screaming repeatedly in a loud shrill way, like a wounded animal. The kitten started mewling loudly frightened. She projected a burst of wild magic at him through the broken hand he had a hold of, that flung him all the way across the room into a metal table and a chair, knocking him out cold.

Madam Pomfrey ran into the room and hollered,"What on earth is happening here!?"

She looked at the terrified girl favoring her now freshly dark bruised hand and wrist. She was screaming, whimpering and crying. The kitten was terrified, clawing her neck up. Then she heard a moan from the other side of the room. She saw Snape lying on the floor tangled in the dumped over table and chair. She checked him to see if he was injured. He had several bruises and a sprained ankle and knot on the side of his head. She levitated him into a bed. She went to the girl and started calming her down.

"It's ok, he won't be doing that to anyone else again, the idiotic man. You're ok, let's look at your wrist and neck, my dear." She conjured a wet cloth and was wiping the blood off her neck that had several deep tiny needle scratches. She left the cloth on her neck and waved her wand analyzing her wrist damage. The wrist was rebroken and severely bruised being it wasn't fully healed from before. Now she had a hand fracture of the index finger's metatarsal bone.

"Stupid, stupid man." She muttered. The girl was hiccuping and shaking and starting to calm down. Madam Pomfrey got up and got a calming draught and skele gro and had the girl drink them down.

She then went over to Severus and healed his head, as well as, his ankle to the best she could and said,"How could you be such an intelligent person, and be the stupidest man alive, how could you do that to a trauma patient? You're lucky she didn't kill you out of sheer fear."

He muttered,"Stop calling me stupid."

"Well it sure wasn't very smart. You broke her wrist again, and now her hand too. You severely bruised it all again and thoroughly retraumatized her. The damage you've done has set her back at least another week or more here. We'll be lucky if she ever talks again because of what you have done. You should be ashamed of yourself, Severus. I want you to take a headache potion and stay off that foot for a couple days. Now, get out of my infirmary and don't come back! I'm furious with you Severus Snape! I don't want you anywhere near that girl until she starts talking to someone!"

He felt like a scorched cat when she yelled at him. He glared at the girl, but felt bad he hurt her so badly and lumbered out of the infirmary, headed to his rooms. He thought, 'I guess, I botched that up. Funny, she is strong for something so small. The force she used bruised my chest from the impact of her magic. I'm probably lucky my brains are still inside my head. I won't be pushing her like that again. I would say intimidation physically was not smart on my part, ok, perhaps the verbal as well.'

Even as he thought about it and knew it was rather mean of him to have done it to her. He was thinking that nobody gave a damn about his traumas and just expected him to get over it. They forced him to do what was required of him anyway. He didn't know what happened to her and just assumed it was no different than his own. He guessed he could be wrong. He went into his quarters, poured a glass of fire whiskey, sat in front of the fireplace and wondered what could have been done to her to react like that. The possibilities became more and more apparent that he was way out of his depth and the horrible things he had seen others do made the list extensive. 'Damn it!'