Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, etc etc etc . . .
Authors Note: REVIEW!! If you can't possibly think of anything to tell me about, tell me about the gryphon. Just a suggestion if you're stuck. But even if you force me to bring marshmallows, REVIEW!!!!!
Pwease?
Chapter II
It was happening again. The nightmares. The tortures that took her while she slept. She was chained to the chair. She couldn't help but think, mighty wizards reduced to chains. Such a mediaeval, Muggle idea, chains. A spotlight hit her face, and she blinked, wishing she could shield her eyes against it. She didn't dare to close them . . . not while He was present. One could never show weakness to evil, not even when one feels most weak. One must never show fear. One must never show any emotion besides haughty reason, and logic, and all the things Muggles had used for so long to get on without magic.
And He was there, hidden in the darkness around her. There was a sea of black around her, and she could have been atop a lonely island in the middle of the ocean, or in her own bedroom, and she'd never know. Then she would feel it, around her legs, a long, scaly body, legless and helpless in the face of her Master. The parseltongue who could speak to her could also use her, and use her he did . . . though he loved her so.
Then a hand would come out of the darkness, a pale, eerily graceful and yet graceless hand, and she fear it's touch. But touch her it did, running pointed nails gently down her cheek. The hand brushed back a bit of hair that had fallen into her eyes, almost lovingly, but Kathryn was no fool. The only love in that ones heart was for power, power over man and beast alike.
"Oh, my little toy . . ." the being attached to the hand whispered. "Little Kat. What would your Muggle psychiatrists call me, hmm? I would be willing to bet they would adore pulling me apart, bit by bit, and examining my very interesting psyche. That is what they call it, isn't it? Little Kathryn, dear little Muggle . . . You have so many uses," the voice sighed, playing with her. "Foolish, foolish Dumbledore, who taught me when I was young. Tell me, young Kathryn - what often happens when student outstrips teacher?"
Kathryn gasped as she sat up in bed, covered in sweat and panting. Her ebony hair glistened in the scant moonlight that came in through the window. She never pulled back the curtains around her bed - they reminded her of a cage.
It was only a dream, dear God, it was only a dream, she though frantically. "Voldemort can't get me here, and the Death Eaters can't touch me," she said firmly into the soft darkness, trying to calm her wildly beating heart. To prove it to herself, she pulled back the collar of her nightgown, and looked just below her right collarbone.
It was the vividly colored tattoo of a King Cobra, poised to strike.
Lord Voldemort himself had given her that, all the pain of a tattoo in a single minute as the design drew itself on her skin. When Voldemort came near, it was flushed of color, reduced to black, white, and shades of gray.
Satisfied, her heart resumed it's normal rate, and Kat looked about her. The darkness around her bed was soft, and almost feathery, so different from the shadows in her dream. The dream-darkness had been hard, and cold, and held evil, masked and obscured.
Kat settled quietly back into her pillows and watched dawn come, sleeping at last when light banished the darkness.
The singing hat was a surprise.
Kat had discreetly joined the Gryffindor table, and though a few eyes turned in her direction, no one said anything. As soon as the first-years were seated, Dumbledore stood. Kat spotted the new Defense against the Dark Arts teacher, Ravynn Crowe, the first woman to hold the position in some years.
"Now, this announcement will shock some of you. Because of the unusual circumstances surrounding this situation, I would require that no one ask about it," this inspired some nervous twittering, and Dumbledore waited until it died down to continue. "There is a Muggle in Hogwarts." This time, Dumbledore waited a full minute before the furor calmed down. "Kathryn Doves is to be considered a fifth-year member of Gryffindor House, and will be participating in what classes she can. If I hear of anyone harassing her, the matter will be handled personally by me."
Though stated simply, that set a few eyes a-blinking. Most of them had never thought of Dumbledore as anything besides a kindly old man. Meanwhile, Kat was desperately trying to Disapperate without the magical means to do so. The black-haired boy next to her turned and asked, "Are you -"
Kat gave him a long look, and answered, "Are ye? Yes. Kat Doves."
The boy sighed, and his red-haired neighbor poked him in the ribs. "I suppose I deserve that. I should know better." Harry Potter, for that's who it was, shook his head. "Good luck. You're going to need it."
"I know," Kat answered as the food for the Feast appeared on the table.
Kat ate as much Feast as she could, and left Ron staring when she scooped her sixth helping onto her plate. He was long since finished at three helpings. And dessert was like nothing she'd ever tasted!
The Gryffindors trooped back to the tower, everyone trying to get a look at the Muggle in their midst. When Kat stepped through the portrait hole, she was faced with a wall of students, all trying to hold back their questions. She rolled her eyes and stalked right past them and down the stairs, to the girls dormitory.
She heard anxious twittering from the common room behind her, and seconds later several girls followed her down the stairs. Kat growled, but she had figured on this happening. She lifted up the edge of her bed, and slipped under it. There was a trapdoor there, and she closed the lid above her just as a horde of girls raced into her dorm room.
So much for leaving me alone, Kat thought wryly. She opened another door in the floor to her right, and slipped out and into the hallway.
There, she found one very lost Gryffindor.
"Oh, no, not again," he muttered.
"Who are ye?" Kat asked. "Aren't all the students supposed to be in our Houses?"
He looked up, startled. He had a round face with nondescript brown hair and brown eyes. Neither tall nor short, fat nor thin, he would have easily slipped into a crowd if it weren't for the fact that he practically screamed 'worthless!'. He looked like the kind of person who was always worried about something.
"Um, w-well, yes, but I'm l-l-looking for Headm-master Dumbledore," he stammered.
"What's your name?" she asked.
"Neville," he muttered.
"C'mon," she gestured. He looked at her, startled. "Ye do want ta see Dumbledore, don't ye?"
"Y-yes," Neville said slowly. "Y-you know where his office is?"
Kat gave Neville a strange look. "O' course. Doesn't everyone? Or - not?"
Now it was Neville's turn to stare at Kat. "N-no one I talked to knew," he admitted.
"How long have ye been wandering around?" she shook her head. "Never mind. C'mon. Why're ye looking for Dumbledore anyway?"
"N-n-n-nothing," Neville stammered as best he could, and flushed. Kat shrugged.
"I was trying ta get away from me 'fan club' in the tower," she muttered. "So much for leaving me alone."
As they walked towards Dumbledores study, Neville looked askance at his guide. "W-why would you have a fan club?"
Kat blinked. "Well, I guess I can thank Dumbledore for not pointing me out, but I figured everyone would realize by now. Are ye a fifth-year Gryffindor?"
"Yes."
Kat threw out her arms in exasperation. "Meet your newest classmate - I'm the Muggle. Kathryn Doves."
"And y-you know where Dumbledore's office is?"
"What is this about my office?" Dumbledore stepped out of the gargoyle, and looked back and forth between Neville and Kat.
"I had ta get out of Gryffindor ta escape being interrogated, and I found Neville here wandering around, looking for ye. So I figured I might as well bring him here," Kat shrugged, her sable hair bouncing.
"Thank you. Now, if you'd return to Gryffindor . . ." Dumbledore motioned towards the tower House.
"To tell the truth, Headmaster, I don't know how to get there," Kat laughed. "This place is screwy enough as it is, without everything moving around."
Dumbledore sighed, and massaged his temples. "Can you get back to Gryffindor?"
"Eventually."
"Go," he motioned her away, and Kat turned and left. She didn't know what she and Neville had interrupted, but she hoped that Dumbledore didn't frighten Neville. The poor boy seemed anxious enough as it was.
Although Kathryn had less trouble when she snuck back into Gryffindor House than when she snuck out, there were still quite a few students who just had to talk to her. Finally, against her will, she shut the drapes around her bed and yelled, "GOOD NIGHT!!"
Not even the Death Eaters were this annoying. At least they knew the whole of - or most of - what was going on! Kat thought as she slipped into her nightgown. And I'm not allowed to tell them what's going on!
"Oh, go away!" came a thoroughly annoyed voice from outside the bed. "We start classes tomorrow, you know!" Kat silently blessed her unknown savior. "You can come out now," this last was obvious directed to Kat.
She peeked out of the heavy drapes, and saw that her neighbor to the left (for to her right was the window) had bushy brown hair and rational brown eyes. Kat blinked a few times; rationality was something that she had not expected in this wild world of moving staircases. "Thank ye. Vultures," she muttered.
The girl laughed. "I sort of know how you feel. Hermione Granger, at your service."
One of the other girls snorted. "She'd better be! She's the only one likely able to undo the various jinxes you'll probably get hit by."
Hermione glared at her. "True enough. I'm sure a whole flock of Slytherins are planning exactly what spells to use as we speak," Hermione sighed. "I suppose you're going to keep me on my toes, magically speaking."
Kat stared at Hermione Granger. "Ye mean that ye'd be willing ta get rid of the curses that I'm sure will hmm . . . magically attack me?"
Hermione stared at her. "Of course. Why not? After that stupid tournament last year, I probably know more than most students anyway."
"That damn thing ruined me life, ye know that? That thing gave Voldemort what he needed ta come back," she muttered darkly. "I'm not sure I should thank or condemn Harry Potter."
"What?!" Hermione exclaimed.
"Oh, what was it - "Blood o' the enemy, forcibly taken, ye will resurrect your foe"," Kat glared. Hermione stared at her. "What, did ye think I spent all that time with me fingers in me ears? How could I not have known, with all the Death Eaters trying to remember what exactly went into the spell, so that they might be able to use it. Now, as Hermione pointed out, we start classes in the morning. Good night ta ye," Kat nodded, then turned off the light (it was magical, but didn't require any magic to actually use it).
Although the other girls soon followed suit, it was Kat who tossed and turned, trying to find a comfortable position and try to deny that it wasn't sleeplessness that was keeping her awake. It was the dreams that she'd been having that were keeping her up.
Finally, though her subconscious protested, she fell asleep, and if she dreamed, she didn't remember.
Another fifth-year Gryffindor who was having considerable trouble sleeping was Neville Longbottom. His conversation with Dumbledore had been rather - disastrous. It had taken him forever to screw up the nerve to talk to the Headmaster and now . . .
What was her name - it was two animals - cat dove! That was it, Kat Doves, his encounter with the newest Hogwarts oddity had left him rather more surprised than usual, and although he had been quickly distracted by Dumbledore, she had remained lodged in his mind.
Then Neville remembered his schedule.
Potions right after double Divination! Oh, no . . . he groaned, and with the strange girl banished from his mind, he quickly fell asleep. Had he not been so worried about today and tomorrow, he might have noticed that one of his roommates was also up late thinking.
Kat dragged herself out of her dorm room, followed closely by an annoyingly cheerful Hermione. "Are you always like this in the morning?" Kat demanded after following the bushy-haired Gryffindor halfway to the Great Hall.
Hermione, her new Arithmancy book tucked under her arm, smiled brightly at her. "Nope. You're just lucky, I guess!"
Kat growled a little and rolled her eyes. "You are an insufferable morning person, you know that?"
Hermione quirked an eyebrow at the Muggle as they continued towards the Great Hall. "Oh, not usually! I'm just happy to be back here, what with classes staring again, and . . ." Hermione's voice trailed off.
"And the Death Eater scares, I know. Trust me, I probably know better than anyone else in this entire school. And there's the Great Hall!" Kat pointed to the huge double doors.
As soon as they entered the Great Hall, Hermione was waved over by Harry Potter and a redheaded boy whose name Kat didn't know yet. She sighed, and plopped down in the closest seat. It was a good thing the food was reasonable; otherwise Kat would have been very lonely.
What with those two empty seats on either side of her.
The first day of classes was interesting. Their very first subject was Care of Magical Creatures with the Slytherins. As soon as Kat walked onto the grounds, every eye was on her. She spotted Harry, Ron, and Hermione shaking their heads at the folly of their classmates, and Neville was still looking skeptically at her, as if she wasn't quite natural. Or in this case, supernatural.
Kat was just beginning to worry about jinxes, hexes, and curses, when Hagrid came trotting across the grounds, a magical creature next to him.
The creature was magnificent. There was no other word for it. Swept-back, well-cleaned feathers were shimmering, although how tawny brown could shimmer Kat hadn't quite figured out. Piercing, raptorial yellow eyes gleamed with intelligence, and she got the creepiest feeling that there was someone there, behind those eyes.
"This is a gryphon," Hagrid introduced, although Kat already well knew what it was. What she was, although Kat couldn't have said how she knew. Though the gryphon could have snapped Hagrid's head off in less time than it took to blink, the mythological avian walked freely next to him. Feathers covered the gryphon's entire form, and despite the legends that gryphons were half eagle and half lion, this graceful creature was no cobbled-together magical mistake. She was a single, flowing beast, one sleek, impossibly beautiful creature. She was probably a full twenty feet long from beak to rump, her feather-ended tail adding another five feet or more. "Gryphons, now, gryphons're smart. Related t' the hippogriff, gryphons're nothin' like t' hippogriff."
"Oh, good," Malfoy muttered. "Maybe this one won't bite my arm off." Kat glared at the blond boy. His arm was still there, and she saw no reason to disrespect this creature. The gryphon was very smart, and she respected it for both that and the fact that she was a large predator.
"Now, gryphons're telepathic, but they're more empathic than anythin' else. If yeh think yeh're not afraid t' come near Windbreath 'ere, come on up. If yeh're scared, don' come any closer."
The entire class stayed put.
Then, to everyone surprise (including hers), Kat pushed her way to the front. The huge, unimaginably elegant predator looked down her hooked beak at the painfully thin Muggle approaching. Then she, too, did something unexpected.
~Don't worry, Hagrid. Muggle though she may be, this one is special. Even my lesser cousin could feel it. Your name, Muggle-who-flies-with-wizards?~
"Uh - Kat, Lady Windbreath," Kat slowly came closer to the gryphon. Windbreath cocked her head, and the flexible corners of her beak turned upwards in a slight smile.
She flooded Kat's mind with everything she sensed, her empathic ability conveying more, much more, than even her telepathy. Kat ran the rest of the way forward, and reached out, scratching the gryphons neck-ruff. "Oh, ye are a gorgeous creature!" she whispered for Windbreath's tufted ears only. A low, pleasant rumbling filled the air, and Windbreath vibrated under Kat's hand.
She was purring.