Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter… still, working on it though, I'm not making money off this, only the characters you don't recognize from anywhere else and the plot are mine… you know the drill..

The month flew by and it was now the end of December, there was a ball the night before all the students going home for the holidays left, and one Juliet Callista was looking excitedly for her best friend. She darted into the common room, where she was pretty sure she'd find Kat, and sure enough there was her best friend, and Severus… Kat was always hanging around with Severus, since he told her he loved her that time… well, she needed to talk to Kat… NOW, so Sev would just have to let her steal her best friend for a few minutes.

"Kat! I got to talk to you, now!" Juliet said, interrupting her best friend in the middle of saying something, yep, she really, really wanted to tell Kat about this. Kat seemed a bit amused at her friend's sudden entrance and interruption, she realized this must be important to Jules.

Sev seemed amused too, and stood up "I'll see you later then" he said to Kat, giving her hand a squeeze before letting it go, they had been holding hands when Jules had rushed in. Severus was beginning to be somewhat of a regular in the GCR, it wasn't his common room, but it was one place they could go where they would get the least amount of stares from people. He exited the room and headed to the library, he had a Herbology essay to finish, so he might as well do that.

"So what's up?" Kat asked Jules with a smirk, but somehow feeling a bit, well, sad that Sev wasn't there… let's just say she was getting a bit attached. But anyway, she looked at Jules inquiringly as, now calm, she sat down in the seat Severus had vacated.

"Well… you know the dance in a couple days?" she asked, now choosing to keep her friend waiting to hear her news.. Because, well, Kat would probably want to hear it now.

"Yeah?" Kat asked, wondering what the hell this was about.

"Well… someone… asked me, and I have a date with… someone" Jules said cryptically.

"And who is that someone?" Kat replied with another question, now getting a bit annoyed.

"Well, I've liked him since this summer…" Jules started, and then Kat let out a bit of a squeak, which was very un-Kat-like, but Jules had said that they didn't have a chance.

"Your going with Remus?? I told you you should go for it!" Kat said, going with the 'I told you so' way of saying you were right all along, she HAD told Jules that all along after all. Juliet turned as red as a quaffle, which made Kat burst out laughing and the girls chatted for a while, talking about what they would wear, how they would have their hair, and all that girly stuff that came with dressing up and going to a ball.

They both settled on completely different things, Kat decided that she'd wear her hair down all in separate small braids with her blood red dress robes and red high healed sandals. Jules however was putting her hair up into a bun and wearing light blue dress robes, and white open-toe high heals. When they came down from the girl's dorms to meat their dates both Severus and Remus looked like they were in awe.

They had a great time, the only thing that could have spoiled the evening for Severus and Kat was the fact that they kept getting stares from the other people there, with was sort of understandable as Kat used to participate in "Weakly Snape Torture" and Severus used to claim to despise all Gryffindors, but by the end of the night Kat had yelled at a few Slytherins, and flicked off a group of Ravenclaws, which Severus seemed to find highly amusing.

Severus walked Kat back to the common room after another highly enjoyable date, they separated with a quick hug and as Kat entered the common room she saw Juliet, crimson colored, give Remus a swift kiss on the cheek before darting up the girl's dorm stairs. Kat smirked at Remus, whom also was a deep shade of red, as she crossed the GCR, before heading up the girl's dorm stairs to go find Juliet, she wanted to know EVERYTHING.

The two girls chatted late into the night, since Kat was leaving the next day it would be the last chance they would get for two weeks, while she was away with her family for the holidays. Apparently Juliet and Remus were now an item, Juliet had hit a stroke of luck, Remus was the only guy she had ever liked, and she was hoping this would go somewhere, because she confided in Kat that as the night went on, the more she talked with him the more she liked him, upon hearing this information Kat confessed that it was the same with how she felt about Severus.

The next day Kat was very grateful that there weren't that many people going home for the holidays, because no one was gawking at them as she and Severus shared a long good-bye hug. Kat had said good bye to Jules at the school, but Severus had come with her to the train platform in Hogsmead to say good bye to her just before she boarded the Hogwarts Express. "Well, I'll see you in two weeks…" Kat said quietly once the whistle to the train blew, signaling that it was about to leave the station. She picked up her book bag, she didn't have to bring that much home, and slung it over her shoulder, Diablo took this opportunity to jump up and sit on her head.

Severus smirked at the kitten and said "Yeah, in two weeks then," he stood there and watched her walk away and board the train, then hand out an open window, waving good bye to him as the train disappeared into the distance.

Kat simply sat in an empty compartment and stared out the window she had been previously waving out of. The only reason she was even going home for "Christmas" (She's wiccan, the only reason she celebrates it is because the rest of her family does) was because she needed to talk to her dad, he had an important job at the ministry of magic, because of this job the Willows family was rich, even richer than the Malfoys, but not as well known. His job also prevented him from being around… at all, he was always working, and Kat barely ever saw him, he saw her so little that there was the rare occasion when he would forget her name, yes, that's happened to her.

But he was always home on Christmas, and she was looking to become an auror, he might be able to help her with that, and she wanted this settled now, not when she was actually done with school and had to come crawling back. She was planning to move out right after seventh year was over, she didn't have it worked out completely, and she'd probably live in the Willows mansion for about a month after, but she was defiantly going to move out.

Why was she so interested in moving out you ask? Well, you see, Kat's biological mother died while Kat herself was being born, so now she had a step mother… Carol. Carol had made Kat a slave in her own home from the time she could walk, Kat now had a half brother, Jake, whom was one year younger than her, and a half sister, Mattie, who was six years younger than her. She hated Carol, but of course, loved her siblings, Mattie could get annoying, and sometimes Jake was obnoxious, but she still loved them.

Speaking of her siblings, Jake was staying at Hogwarts, he was a sixth year, but Mattie too was coming home, having just come to Hogwarts this year. The 'little midget' as Kat liked to call her found her older sister about mid train ride, and they managed to have a conversation that didn't give Kat a headache, which was a surprise, because Kat usually found Mattie so annoying that she couldn't stay in the same room with her for over five minutes.

Once they got off the train, Diablo having had enough of sitting on Kat's head, they heard an unmistakable voice… Carol.

"Mattie! Welcome back!" She called as Mattie ran into her mother's arms. Kat stood beside them, bored, Diablo sitting by her feet. "Well? Take Mattie's things to the car" Her step mother hissed at her, Kat rolled her eyes and grabbed Mattie's trunk, apparently she found it necessary to bring everything she had at Hogwarts home with her. She loaded the things in the car and took a seat on the passenger's side in the front, Diablo on her lap, just as Carol and Mattie were getting in the car.

Once they reached the mansion Kat pretty much locked herself in her wing of the building, she had the whole east wing to herself, so it was comfortable to be locked away from the rest of the family, she didn't see any of them until Christmas day arrived, aside from a glimpse of carol glaring at her as she performed a ritual for Yule in the back yard. But she was woken up Christmas morning by Mattie jumping on her bed and yelling something about presents and a beautiful eagle owl with a package for her.

She wondered who the package could be from because she had been under the impression that all of her presents came the night before, on Christmas eve, they had been sent down from the school since she wasn't there to get her presents from her friends. She got out of bed and went down the grand stair case into the entrance hall and through the grand door way, with no door, that lead from the entrance hall to the main living room, where there was a huge tree, loads of presents (Most for Mattie) and an eagle owl, a letter and a small package tied to it's leg. There was, also, of course, her sister, step mother, and father.

She crossed the room, nodding to her father in greeting and ignoring her step mother, and took the letter from the owl and the package, The owl hooted and took off again, flying out of the living room and to an open window where it took off in the general direction of Scotland. She immediately recognized the hand writing, it was from Severus, she had seen his hand writing on his potions notes when he had been tutoring her an awful lot after all. She smiled as she opened the letter and began to read.

Dear Kat,

Happy Christmas, I know you've only been gone a few days, but I already miss you. Everything's pretty much the same here, except the other Slytherins are being a bit more civil and I've been able to move back into the Slytherin dorms. I hope you're having a great vacation so far, and I hope you like your gift, it took me forever to decide on. Oh, and I figured you might want to know that Juliet has been spending increasing amounts of time with Lupin, and that dunderhead, Black, has finally stopped trying to make my life living hell. I hope you're getting along well with your family, though I know that may be acting too much on your step mother's part, but anyway, I'll see you after the new year has begun.

Love,

Severus

Kat grinned at it, seeing the 'Love' a slight blush came to her cheeks, she put down the letter and unwrapped the package, to find a velvet covered box, which she snapped open and gasped, it was… beautiful. A charm necklace basically, with a pendant that was a heart with diamonds outlining it,, the middle was cut out in a heart shape, there were a few charms already on it, a snitch, for quiddich, a guitar, for the type of music she enjoyed, rock, a gold star that held Amethyst, her birth stone since she was born on Valentine's day, and a silver symbol she knew meant Aquarius, once again, thanks to her birthday.

It was beautiful, she loved it, and she immediately put it on, the diamonds on the heart gave off a blue tint right away, she realized that it was to go with her mood, amazing, Severus was amazing, this was too much, it must have cost a lot, she really hoped he liked what she got HIM… She was unaware that Mattie, Carol, and her father were staring at her until she finally looked away from the mirror hanging on the wall she had been looking in to stare at her necklace some more, her step mother was obviously envious of her for getting such a gift, and her father seemed to be questioning silently who it was from, she realized that none of her family know about Severus.

She grinned sheepishly and muttered "It's from my boyfriend," scooping up the letter and pocketing it before Mattie had a chance to take it and read it. She went back to her other presents, getting a load of pranks stuff from her other friends, and a brand new broom from her father. She got a chance around mid-day to talk to her father, and he said that he would put in a good word for her at the auror's department.

Soon enough she was requested to watch Mattie by her step mother, Carol was choosing to ignore the fact that Mattie had outgrown needing to be watched years ago. She and her father were going out for Christmas dinner with some friends, she knew that meant that they'd be drunk when they came home, it was the same every year. She reluctantly agreed, not really wanting to spend that much time around the little midget, but she realized that Mattie might just do something like use magic out of school and get expelled without her supervision.

Her "Parents" left around seven and everything went fine for a while, she was playing poker with Mattie for chocolate frog cards around eight, when someone all of a sudden burst through the door, making a lot of noise doing so. Well, a few someones, three people in black cloaks, wearing masks, she couldn't see who they were, but knew this wasn't good "MATTIE, HIDE!" she yelled to her sister, taking out her wand, Kat wasn't in Gryffindor for nothing, these were older wizards who most likely knew a whole lot more spells than her, but she pulled out her wand and stood strong anyway.

She only hoped that Mattie had hidden herself as she cast the full body bind on one of them, only to have it rebound and hit her with full force, making her land with a gruesome crash on the floor, and the robed men, she could tell they were men, started searching for something. Horror struck her as she heard Mattie protesting, and she was dragged right in front of Kat's rigid form, she watched as her little sister writhed in agony from the crutatious curse.

The last thing she saw before all went black, two hours later, was her now insane sister being killed by a simple twist of a wrist, having her neck snapped in half, that image was burned into her brain, as were the images of little Mattie, the eleven year old, screaming and twitching on the floor, being tortured, not her sister, not Mattie.

When she woke up all she saw was white light, then she started to be able to distinguish shapes, and she sat bolt upright, she was in a hospital, she recognized this room… St. Mungo's. She looked around, realizing she had a pounding head ache, and the events of Christmas night come back to her, she lets herself fall back on the bed again… Mattie…. But, why was she here? Surly after Mattie they would have moved on to her.. But no, she was alive.. Why had they not killed her? She saw that her father was sitting in the chair next to her asleep, and her step mother was in a bed next to her, apparently having chosen not to be polite and sit in the chair, Carol had always hated her anyway, she wasn't surprised, in Carol's mind Kat was the mistake.

She looked at her father again though, since when did he care about HER? He always ignored her, forgot her name, he knew some of his assistants better than he knew her. She let herself drift off into sleep again, where she was greeted by night mares of Mattie screaming for help. She was shaken awake and then given some sort of potion, and she fell into sleep, this time she dreamt of nothing.

A day later Kat was aloud out of the Hospital and she attended Mattie's wake and funeral, Jake had come home, and she was asked to speak, she didn't, she couldn't stand it, she didn't even cry. She wouldn't cry, she wouldn't grieve, she wasn't going to allow herself to. She knew she was still in shock from seeing it, she had learned from her father that they had been sent by a rising dark wizard named Voldemort, and that he was an enemy of Voldemort, that had been all she needed to know.

Dumbledore made a personal house call, said she and Jake could stay home away from Hogwarts for a while if they needed to, said he understood, but how could he? Kat needed a way to get her mind off of what she saw, so she was able to see for the first time in her like Albus Dumbledore completely bewildered, when she told him she intended to return to Hogwarts at the appointed time, Jake opted to stay home and comfort his devastated mother. She had reached a decision that no one was to know she saw Mattie die, no one was to know Mattie even was dead, she wouldn't talk about it.

She returned to school with the other students coming back from Holidays, and intended to just go to the girl's dorms and go to sleep, not talk to anyone, she wasn't exactly ready for friendly human contact at the moment, she made her way toward Gryffindor tower, grateful that her friends hadn't been waiting on the train platform, but ice hit her stomach and she froze on the spot a she saw that Severus was waiting by the portrait hole to the common room, probably waiting to welcome her home, and… ask how things went.

a/n: You have my friend Luna to tank for this chapter, she's one of my two crazed fans, hope you like it Luna, hope it's up to my usual standards, oh, did I mention how much I love reviews? I really do! They make my day and inspire me to write more! Oh, and if you have constructive criticism, or didn't like it, let me know, IF you don't like my story, tell me why and I might be able to become a better writer for it! In short… REVIEW!!! Lolz