Author's notes: See below.
Chapter 6: More nightmares
Brushing her teeth in front of the bathroom mirror Kate almost choked trying to stifle a laughter. I'm a witch. I can do magic. When after waking up she had remembered what she had done the previous evening, it had felt like being born a second time. She had floated in the air. And, most important, all of a sudden everything seemed real. Thinking for a moment – many moments, actually – that she was going to die hadn't been pleasant, definitely not. But it had made her realize, that it all was real. If receding cliffs exist, if you can die from them, magic also does. And she could do it. She was a witch, which was – hilarious.
She grinned at her toothpaste-smeared reflection. "Accio towel" she said and it came flown to her. Then she danced into her bedroom. "Accio pants!" Accio shirt!" – and it always worked!. Do witches have to bow down to tie their boots ? "Right foot leviosa!" Not a good idea, she thought, rubbing the little of her back that was hurting from the rough contact with the floor, after she had lost her balance. Kate pulled herself together and completed her dressing the conventional way, but unable to stop smiling, and then set out to find breakfast and an amiable soul willing to share her happiness.
"Isn't it wonderful to do magic?" she asked the fortune-teller on her way up. "It's good to see you like it." was the unusually thoughtful answer, but Kate was already halfway up the stair. Neither did she hear the potion master's "Not a good morning !" – reply to her cheerful greeting, happy as she was.
Only when she entered the Great Hall she noticed that something was wrong. The professors at the table – Dumbledore, Mc Gonnegal, Snape (He actually comes to meals, who would have thought) and Professor Binns seemed to be immersed in an animated discussion, their faces looking grave. Mc Gonnegal even seemed to be close to tears – a sight Kate never would have expected on the stern woman.
"But I can't believe that there shouldn't be a plan behind it. You must have heard something …" she heard the Gryffindor Head of House, before she interrupted her with her own, a bit subdued by their grave faces but still cheerful, "Good Morning."
Kate never had really enjoyed teaching, but she knew that it had taught her a lot about reading people's minds behind a quickly put up face. Three of the teachers turned towards her, looking as if she had just interrupted an animated exchange of recipes for Christmas cookies. One stayed as unmovable as ever. "What happened ?" she asked.
MacGonnegal and Dumbledore looked at each other. For a moment nobody said a word. "Well, dear, …" the woman finally started, but Snape grabbed the newspaper that was lying on the table and handed it over to her, wordless.
Kate looked at the headlines, trying to figure out, what it all was about. "Family of five killed in purposeless raid" she read. The picture showed the ruins of a crumbled house, flying over it a shaped black cloud in the form of a skull with a snake protruding from its mouth. As it was swaying in the wind, it looked like a horrible kite. "What is …" she asked and immediately the answer came from Snape: "Death Eaters !" and then "She has a right to know what she's getting herself into !" as the other teachers looked at him disapprovingly.
Death Eaters. She had read about them. They had been the followers of a dark wizard, sort of a Nazi-gang, who had inflicted death and destruction upon the wizarding society until their leader had been killed by a little boy – a baby – not that many years ago. Still she didn't understand.
"But how come they are still there ?" she asked. "This Voldemort has been killed years ago." She noticed that MacGonnegal and Professor Binns flinched when she said this.
"He never really died", Dumbledore finally started explaining, his blue eyes fixed on her. "He disappeared after he had tried to kill a small boy, for reasons we still don't understand. Somehow his death-curse reflected, and instead of killing the baby, it hit him. But he didn't die from it, as some of us always suspected. He was bereft of his human body, but somehow he survived. And now, it seems, he has come back and wants his revenge."
"And somehow he hasn't had any problems to find followers, even though after his last disappearance, the country was full of people who sweared by their most cherished possessionk including their wives and children, that they had only be forced to be part of his dark reign by use of the Imperius Curse." MacGonnegal couldn't hide her fury.
Kate felt the cold rise in her body. The happiness from the early morning was gone entirely. For her, there was no doubt, that all this was true. So, this was being a witch. "And what are you doing about it ?" she asked.
Snape just snorted. Dumbledore looked at her with a sorrowful face. "We are trying to provide a safe haven for those who are ours." he said.
"Yes, but I mean, how do you fight him ?" Kate asked.
"My dear, there's not much we can do. We try and protect those who are threatened by him. We keep warning the Ministry of Magic about the danger, but there is no real protection we have against a wizard like this."
Kate stared at Dumbledore in disbelief. He's not telling me everything, she thought. There must be more. They are not sitting around, waiting for everybody to get killed. She nodded. "And this family that was killed last night ... ?"
"A wizarding family. Two of their children attended Hogwarts. The mother was working for the Ministry, the father was a muggle apothecary."
Kate remembered that the Death Eaters had a poor-blood ideology. God, they really were like the Nazis, but they were now. "Excuse me, please!" she said, her appetite completely gone.
She left the Hall and directly went to the library, where, she remembered, all issues of the Daily Prophet were kept.
It was around three o'clock, when she knocked at the potion master's door, after having spend half of the day reading up on Voldemort's first rise, his demise and all the events of the last months that indicated his resurrection.
No answer.
She knocked again.
The same.
Alohamora!
Pink sparks. A firmly closed door.
Finally she pulled the knob, and to her amazement the door opened.
It opened to an empty room, a desk filled with papers, book-shelves but no potion master. Kate stepped in. "Professor Snape!" she called, but without avail.
She ventured further and tried the opposite door. Once more she called, but not expecting anybody to answer she opened the door and found Snape reading himself to go out.
"Go away !" he hissed, when he saw her. "It's my lesson time, I'm sorry, …" Kate stammered.
"Come back tomorrow! And now, leave!" Snape answered impatiently. Kate didn't need another invitation. She turned and left.
Knock!Knock!
Surely she was dreaming.
Knock!Knock!
After a day like this, it was understandable that she was confused.
Knock!Knock!
The news in the Daily Prophet. Reading about Death Eaters all day. The memories of her nightmare coming back. Snape's odd behaviour. Hearing a knock on the door at 4 o'clock in the morning was an understandable reaction.
Knock!Knock!
Well, this did sound real. Like somebody wanting to be let in. Urgently.
Knock!Knock!
Kate could have sweared, that she wasn't dreaming right now. She slowly rose to answer the door. At this time ? she stopped herself. But the knocking was insistent. She took her wand from the table next to her bed and ventured towards the door.
Darkness there, and nothing more. Bloody quote.
Kate felt cold. She wanted to close the door and retreat to the safety – or at least warmth – of her bed. Coward! she scolded herself.
Finally she pulled over her jacket and decided to find out about the knocking. "Anybody here?" she ventured as she closed the door behind her. But no answer came.
She walked towards the steps. Apparently I'm making a habit of walking around this castle at night. she thought, but she couldn't help felling, that something was different. And no Bloody-Baron showed up.
"What's going on here ?" she asked the fortune-teller's portrain, but didn't receive an answer. The old lady seemed to be sleeping, her movements caused by the flicker of the candles in the hallway. It could have been an ordinary painting.
Kate accelerated her steps. She almost ran up the stairs, followed the hallway to the entrance hall. It was, as if she was alone in the castle. Nothing stirred, not even the portraits or the armours. But who has knocked at my doors ?
She felt the fear creeping over her. Suddenly she had enough. "Let me out of this!" she yelled, wanting only to return to a world without dark wizards, black nights in a castle full of ghosts, everything. The happy feeling of the morning was completely gone, she only felt fear, and the desperate need to get away.
There was the hall. Over there were the doors, the way out into a world she knew. Kate started to run.
The hall was only a few yards away. She ran, but she was still so far away and she never seemed to get closer. "Wait!" she heard a voice behind her, that sounded like the old fortune-teller's. "Stop!" the commanding voice of the potion master in the portrait up the stairs.
"No!" Kate screamed. This was like her nightmare. She pushed on, escape now the only thing on her mind. "Let me out!" Then she tripped over something, stumbled and fell to her knees.
Before her lay a person, envolved in a black coat. Kate didn't need to see his face to recognize him from all her nightmares.
Author's notes: After a long time – a very long time – finally the story moves on. The only good thing about this delay is, that you probably have forgotten about chapter 6, which is good, because I changed it. For the better, hopefully.
I honestly regret, that it took me so long to update. Here my list of excuses (all of them true, but I still accept honest anger): mundane job interfering in writing + deep unhappiness with some parts of the story by part of the author. Hope, this makes up for it.