Disclaimer: Please note that the Kathlin, her family, the DADA teacher, his species, Tril and her friends, the phoenix, and the dragons bane all belong to ME, not Rowling. =P
Chapter 1: First Day Feathers
"Mow!"
Kathlin opened her electric green eyes to come face to face with an identical pair.
"Mow," she replied back and the cat jumped off her chest and sat beside her head. Kathlin sat up in her royal blue bed and pushed back the dark velvet blue curtains. Her roommates were already up and walking out of the room in their uniforms and talking about what not.
Kathlin got dressed in her own black robes and whistled to her cat to follow her down the spiral stairs of her dormitory.
She passed the Ravenclaw common room and went through the hole leading into the Hogwarts halls. She waved at the statue that guarded their house and started to hop down the stairs, her longhaired yellow cat following.
Kathlin was an odd person. She had dark brown skin and shortly cropped flaming red hair with a small braid in the back. She was always happy and silly, and would usually tease the teachers a bit. Expressly Professor Snape.
Kathlin snickered as she remembered the first day she had entered his classroom 6 years ago.
"Miss Rit. What is this beast you have brought into my classroom?"
"Azkim!"
"I will not ask him what he is doing here."
"But I told you who he is, he's Azkim."
"Ten points from Ravenclaw," he growled and got back to his teachings.
Kat beamed and entered the great hall.
"Going to annoy Snape this year too, Kat?" asked one of the boys across from her as she sat down.
"But of course," she said with a smile. "That old stick needs to loosen up! I've only got a year left to fix him." The boy and his friends laughed and started to talk amongst themselves.
Her cat Azkim hopped up onto the bench beside her and put his front paws on the table. He meowed loudly for food and Kathlin quickly poured some milk into a bowl and placed it in front of him.
"Your breakfast is served, your highness," she teased as she placed a small plate beside the bowl with bacon and ham on it. He swished his tail at her and started to drink the milk.
Kathlin got out a book she had been reading over the summer and placed it in front of her to read while she ate her blueberry muffin.
"That's not very nice," she mumbled to no one with a glint in her eyes as she read.
The bell rung and Kathlin snapped her book closed and stood up.
"C'mon, Azkim!" said Kathlin cheerfully. Her face became serious and she said in a mocking serious voice, "The teachings of old await us."
If a cat could role his eyes, Azkim did. He grabbed his last piece of bacon and jumped to the stone floor. Kathlin scratched the fat cat's head and started to walk with her eyes on her class schedule.
"We have Defense Against the Dark Arts first, Az," she said to her cat and she took the stairs two at a time.
When she reached the top, she turned around in a complete circle and pointed to the east wing. "That way!" she cried and started to march down the corridor as all the other students laughed or said, "How stupid."
They reached the Dark Arts classroom and before Kathlin could enter, she was pushed aside by Olin Trill, but known to Kathlin as "The Snot."
"Oh, didn't see you there," she said with a false smile. Her friends started to shove pass Kathlin and they laughed.
"I see you're the same, Miss Snot," said Kathlin as she picked up her school bag. She stopped in front of Trill's desk and leaned in close to say, "But I have a present for you." She stepped out of the way and Azkim jumped up.
"AH! Get that filthy thing away from me!" screamed Trill and she swatted at the cat. Azkim growled at her and sat down, staring at her with his green eyes.
"I can assure you, that Mr. Azkim isn't filthy," said Kathlin with a smile and she retreated to the back of the room. She sat in her corner and called, "Come here, Azkim. Miss Trill doesn't appreciate your company."
Azkim turned around, swished his tail at Trill and jumped off the desk. He smirked as the girl realized the smell he had left there and trotted smuggle over to Kathlin.
"EW! What is that smell?" she screeched and jumped out of her seat.
"Clever, Azkim," cooed Kathlin and she picked up her fat cat and hugged him. She placed him on her desk and got out her Defense Against the Dark Arts Book for seventh years.
"I see you all know each other," said an amused voice from above them. The class looked up to see their new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher and gasped. He was flying with two large brown wings.
He smiled with more amusement as the class stared at him and he flew back to the ground.
Kathlin stood up and started to clap, saying, "Bravo, bravo, old chap."
The teacher gave her a wry smile and asked, "And you are?"
"Kathlin Rit, my good sir," she said and bowed to him.
"And this fine gentleman?" he asked as he came over and scratched Azkim behind the ear.
"Azkim."
"Pardon?"
"Azkim, sir."
"The brown skinned man shrugged and leaned forward to become eye to the cat. "What is your name, fine sir?"
"Mow!"
"Mow, hmm, interesting name," said the teacher with a glint of amusement in the brown bird like eyes that lay behind his brass glasses.
Kathlin beamed at this teacher and said, "I'm sorry, sir, but Azkim isn't named 'Mow'."
"So his name is Azkim? Very amusing." The teacher stood to his full six and a half feet and said, "Five points to Ravenclaw."
He walked back to the front of the room and said with open arms, "Today is a new day for you all, so I won't keep you waiting from the new world. I am Professor Jack Killin and today we shall learn about, birins. Does anyone know what they are?"
One of the students raised his hand and Professor Killin pointed to him saying, "Name first please."
"Henry Kolen, professor. A birin is a creature half man, half bird, like yourself."
"Very good, five more points to Ravenclaw." The teacher beamed at them all and said, "Your first lesson will be about birins, and you get to do your research with me as your test subject."
"Don't worry, sir," said Kathlin with a grin. "We won't turn you pink."
"I dearly hope so," said the teacher gravely. "Pink doesn't soot me."
Professor Killin talked about his species for the remainder of the class and when the bell rung said, "No homework tonight. You just arrived."
"I think, Mr. Azkim, that this is the weirdest teacher we have ever had," said Kathlin as they exited the class room and made their way back to the stairs to get to Herbology.
"Mow."
"Too right," she said and sat on the stair banister. She waved to Azkim and skidded down the wavy rail with a loud shout of enjoyment. Students holding onto the banister quickly got out of her way and she waved at them.
The banister ended and she flew into the sky and landed up right on her feet. She didn't need to stop to regain balance as she walked out the front doors, not waiting for Azkim as he made his way down the stairs his own way.
The sun was shining brightly down on her as the clouds whipped by it in the strong wind. The same wind soared past Kathlin and made her robes billow out. She let out another yell of enjoyment and started to run down to the greenhouses as the wind blew in her face.
"There goes the Kat," said a group of seventh years as she passed them screaming, "WHEE!"
She ran into the seventh year greenhouse and stopped instantly in front of Professor Sprout with her hand raised to her head like a solider. "Ready for learning, Ma'am!"
"I can see," said Professor Sprout with a smile and she patted Kathlin on the shoulder before putting the plant she was holding down into a new pot. Kathlin took her hand down and entered the group of waiting Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff kids.
"Okay, class," said Professor Sprout as she clapped her dirt covered hands together. "Today we shall learn about a plant that is deadly," she picked up pot with a red and purple flower in it and finished, "too dragons."
Azkim hissed at the flower and the teacher said, "Oh hush, we aren't going to use it on a dragon. We're just going to study it." The cat growled at the flowerpot and trotted out of the greenhouse with his tail puffed up large then usual.
"Dragon lover," teased Kathlin before he left. He clawed her leg and left.
"Ouch, deserved that," she said and sat down on the floor and started to whip the blood away with her handkerchief.
"May I continue?" asked Professor Sprout as she looked down at Kathlin.
"By all means, ma'am," she said and stood to bow to her. Professor Sprout 'humphed' at her and continued with her lesson.
"Now, dragons bane is only deadly to dragons. If they eat it they will die and if they touch it will burn them badly."
"But I thought dragons couldn't be burned," said one of the Hufflepuffs.
"By fire they can't, but by dragons bane they can. If a dragon catches someone with dragons bane, they will kill that person and leave the dragons bane behind. They won't burn it because the ashes would still kill them if they were blown up by the wind into their face and mouth."
"Poor dragons," said Kathlin as she wrote this all down.
As the class left with their assignment of writing one role of parchment of the uses of dragons bane and it's history, Azkim jumped down from a tree outside the greenhouse and trotted up to Kathlin.
"Hello, Az," said Kathlin as they fell into step. "What have you been doing for the past hour?"
"Mow," said the cat and Kathlin smiled and rolled her eyes.
They entered the Great Hall for lunch and Kathlin looked at her schedule again.
Monday:
Defense Against the Dark Arts
Herbology
Lunch
Care of Magical Creatures
History of Magic
Tuesday:
Charms
Charms
Lunch
Study of Ancient Runes
Transfiguration
Wednesday:
Potions
Potions
Lunch
Care of Magical Creatures
Herbology
Thursday:
Transfiguration
History of Magic
Lunch
Charms
Study of Ancient Runes
Friday:
Defense Against the Dark Arts
Herbology
Lunch
Free Afternoon
"MWAHA," she laughed as she saw double potions. "We get to annoy Snape double time Wednesday, Az."
Azkim opened his mouth and showed his fangs and tongue and Kathlin giggled.
"Nice scary face, Az," she said and stood up and walked out of the Great Hall to the school grounds. She sat under a tree near the large lake where the giant squid swam and started to read Howl's Moving Castle, by Diana Wynne Jones, from where she had stopped off at breakfast.
As she read, Azkim walked around the lake and sometimes scooted pebbles into it. He trotted away when a gigantic tentacle came out of the water and decided not to push pebbles into the lake anymore.
The clock tower rung it's bell and Kathlin stood up with her book bag on and walked towards the Forbidden Forest with her nose still in her book.
She reached Hagrid's hut and snapped the book closed and got out her Care of Magical Creatures book.
"Hello there, Kat," said Hagrid in his strong accent. "Have a good summ'r?"
"Same old, same old," said Kathlin with a wave of her hand. "You?"
"Got some new creatures for you to see in class," he said and Kathlin's eyes opened wide.
"Ooo, gimmie, gimmie," she cried excitedly and Hagrid laughed.
"Hold yer horses," chortled Hagrid and he went off into the forest to get the newest creature for the students' class.
They heard a loud screech and everyone but Kathlin shrank back. She beamed at the forest and kept on shifting from foot to foot impatiently.
When Hagrid came back, everyone gasped in amazement.
Sitting on Hagrid's arm, was a beautiful large bird. Flames of red, orange, yellow and an occasional blue seemed to dance all over it's feathers and it was four feet tall. Sky blue eyes gazed at the students in front of it and it gave out another cry from it's yellow beak. It looked like a large hawk, but on fire.
"Oh, you beautiful, beautiful phoenix," cooed Kathlin and she reached out to touch it.
"Careful, Kat, if you touch a phoenix with yer bare hands, even a young one like this one, you'd get burned badly." Kat pouted and took a large step backwards to stand in her spot again.
"Now phoenixes can get to about seven feet tall and have a wings span of about fourteen to sixteen feet. When they get older, you can't stand as near to them as I am to this little fella here." He scratched the young phoenix under the chin with his other dragon skin gloved hand and it gave out a soft coo.
"Now, if any of you want to touch her, put on your dragon skin gloves and form a line."
Kathlin quickly shoved on her gloves and was first in line.
"Walk up slowly now," said Hagrid softly and Kathlin walked slowly up to the half giant and put her fingers out to the phoenix. She sniffed the human's fingers and hopped onto her gloved arm. Kathlin smiled and scratched her under the chin like Hagrid had done. The phoenix smiled with pleasure and cooed.
"Very good, Kat," said Hagrid and he called the phoenix back. "Next."
Kathlin walked past the large line and watched the phoenix adoringly. Sometimes she went onto the students' arms, but other times she screeched and tried to bite them.
"Phoenixes are always female and can live up to 700 years before making a pyre and falling to ashes. A few hours or days later, the phoenix comes out of the ashes reborn." Hagrid held up the phoenix and said, "This fella is only about forty years old."
When the class was over, Kathlin rushed back to the phoenix, gave her one last pet, and rushed up to the castle to get to History of Magic.
She sat at the back of History of Magic as Professor Binns, the only ghost teacher in Hogwarts, and fiddled around with Azkim or doodled on parchment. She listened with half an ear though and jotted down anything she thought would be needed. She and the whole class ground when Professor Binns told them to write two pieces of parchment on the war with the goblins.
"We've been learning about them since the first year," she grumbled to Azkim as she gathered her books and rushed down the stairs with the other students to the Great Hall for dinner.
"Hey, it's crazy girl," jeered Trill as Kathlin passed. "Hey, crazy, you run into any trees today?" Her friends sniggered beside her.
"Nearly did," said Kathlin with a smile. "But I decided stupid should be the ones to run into them, so I left it nice and fresh for you."
Trill scowled at Kathlin and she smiled and waved at her. Finding a place farthest from Trill, Kathlin got her book out again and started to read while Azkim jumped up beside her.
Soon the feast popped up in front of the hungry students and they started to fill their plates. Kathlin filled Azkim's first and then her own.
Kathlin looked up at the high table and saw Professor Killin at the end with his large wings folded on his back. He was talking to the Charms teacher, Professor Flitwick, and Professor Sprout. She looked at Snape and saw he was glaring at Killin like he always did to the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. He saw Kathlin looking at him and glared down at her. She smiled, waved and went back to her food.
Same old Snape, she thought and stood up to go to Ravenclaw house.
The portal to Ravenclaw's dorm was a large statue of a turtle. He talked to only those of Ravenclaw, and when Kathlin came up to him he said in a an old grave voice, "Good evening, lady."
"Good evening Mister turtle," replied Kathlin. "Jabberwocky."
The turtle stood up and walked to the side to let Kathlin in, when she and Azkim were in, he got back onto his stand and closed his eyes.
Kathlin picked one of the blue chairs nearest the fire and started to work on her report on the goblin wars.
Azkim lay down on the arm of her large chair and folded his front legs under him so he just looked like a fat fluff ball with ears, a pink nose, a mouth, and closed eyes.
The clock struck nine and Kathlin put her quill down with a sigh. She had finished her homework and decided to go up to her room and read Howl's Moving Castle for a while. She nudged Azkim awake and gathered her work. She passed Trill and her posy and walked up the spiral stairs up to the girl's half of the dorm.
She threw her book bag into her trunk and changed from her uniform into white cotton pajamas. She jumped into her bed ad opened her book to read.
Azkim jumped onto the bed lazily and curled up beside Kathlin. He never left her alone while in the dorms, because Trill and her friends slept in here too. Their first year at Hogwarts, Trill picked on her and after an incident involving whip cream and water balloons, Azkim would screech at the girls if they came near her bed and would bite and scratch them if they came closer.
Thirty minutes passed and Kathlin yawned. Her eyes were getting heavy and she decided that staying up really late wouldn't be a wise choice. So she put her book down on her bedside table, blew out her candle and pulled the warm blankets over her.
"Night, Azkim," she whispered.
"Mow," he said softly and Kathlin smiled.