Chapter One
Kate Johnson was an attractive, intelligent and talented sixth-year in Gryffindor house at Hogwarts. This meant, naturally, that she had several enemies, all in Slytherin. She was also a Prefect- which meant that her enemies had to be careful about where and when they conducted their continuous campaign against her. Oh, and her father was Walt Johnson, the Minister for Magic.
"Good bye, Katharine, have a good year at school. Take care of yourself." Walt hugged his daughter goodbye at the entrance to platform nine-and-three-quarters. "Behave yourself this year, alright? I don't want you getting into any more trouble..."
Kate grinned guiltily, remembering the incident last year which involved a number of fellow Gryffindors, a number of Slytherins and some cleverly-enchanted desserts and sweets. "I'll try, dad. Now, get to work, you're supposed to be the Minister..." She turned her trolley towards the wall, securing the cage that contained Sunflower, her beautiful tawny owl. "Bye dad!"
"Bye darling!" called Walt Johnson as Kate ran through the barrier.
Bursting onto the platform, Kate grinned at the sight of the gleaming scarlet Hogwarts Express. She delivered her luggage to the correct carriage, and then waited for the rest of her friends to turn up. It was only a quarter past ten, and most of her friends wouldn't arrive until at least half past.
"Hey, Kate!" She looked up as someone shouted her name, and grinned.
"Beverly! Great to see you. I've already saved us that eight person compartment. How was your summer?"
"It was alright..." Beverly York didn't mention Kate's summer, thinking that it would probably be a topic of discussion on the train. Kate noticed Beverly's hesitance.
"Bev, we'll discuss it on the train. All of us."
Adam Hill, Christopher Arnold and Hermione arrived, and by a quarter to eleven, they were waiting for Ginny, Ron and Harry. They were always later than the others, but Kate grinned when they burst from the barrier. Molly Weasley made sure the luggage got put on the train, and then hugged the group of eight friends goodbye.
"Good bye, Katharine. You be very careful this year, alright?" Kate blushed slightly at Molly's over-protective hug.
"I'll be careful, I promise." The whistle on the train blew, and they rushed onto the train. Despite the fact that it was now their sixth year at Hogwarts, they always managed to get on to the train at the last moment. After waving out of the window, they retreated into their large compartment, shutting the door securely.
Kate sat by the window, Harry opposite her. The girls sat on one side, the boys on the other. Kate looked around at her friends in the compartment. "I know you want to ask me about the summer, guys. Just say it. I'll be alright."
There was a moment of strange silence, before Harry spoke up. "Kate, what did happen? All we know is what's been in the Daily Prophet, and Dumbledore must've controlled that."
"He did, Harry. There were some big arguments between him and the editor. I think that Dumbledore was on the brink of duelling with him before the editor saw sense and backed down." Kate smiled, but inside she was glad that Dumbledore had stopped certain facts from being printed. "All of you must promise not to tell anyone this, alright?"
"Tell anyone what?" drawled a familiar male voice somewhat scathingly. They looked up. Draco Malfoy and Melanie Smith, the archenemies of the group, were standing in the doorway, smirks on their faces. Crabbe and Goyle, Malfoy's cronies, were hovering gormlessly behind them.
"None of your business, Malfoy." With a wave of her wand, Kate shut the door, and put a soundproof charm on the compartment – and resisted the temptation to hex them into the middle of next week. "We can hear what's going on outside, but they can't hear what we talk about."
"Nice one, Kate." Ron grinned.
"When you've all quite finished," tutted Hermione from next to Kate. "We won't tell anyone, Kate. We promise." Nods came from all around.
"You remember that my sisters' funeral was at the beginning of the summer, yes?" More nods. "She didn't die in an accident. She was murdered. I was standing right next to her when it happened. I can only assume that there was someone in the bushes behind us, or they were wearing their invisibility cloak. It was horribly simple, really, horribly easy. A simple Stupefy, and she fell off the edge... two hundred feet, she fell." Kate broke off, and looked around at the shocked faces around her.
"That's disgustingly cowardly," muttered Adam.
"I think the spell was meant for me- my sister and I look the same from behind, and we were facing out to the sea. Whoever did it must have gotten confused and hit Lizzy instead of me. I think they intended to stun me, then abduct me- of course, they succeeded with that plan only a week later. Whoever it was didn't realise we were standing so close to the edge."
There was a silence. Kate gathered her thoughts, and tried to disentangle the flood of emotions in her mind. She glanced at her companions, slightly taken aback at the rapt expressions on their faces. Kate realised the she had a unique opportunity to tell her story to those who really mattered- well, most of her story anyway. Certain facts she still didn't want to tell anyone. There were certain things that even her father didn't know everything about, and she had the word of Dumbledore that no one would be told unless she gave her permission. She knew that it wasn't going to be easy, but all the same, she spoke again.
"It was the day after the funeral. I was out walking, without my wand of course- I was mixing with Muggles so it wasn't safe to take it out with me. I was taking a short cut through an alley on my way home. I didn't have time to react. Someone apparated in front of me and stunned me, and when I came round I was lying on a thin mattress, with ropes tied tightly around my wrists and ankles..." The memory suddenly resurfaced, playing irrepressibly in Kate's mind.
"Enervate." A soft voice whispered the spell, and Kate was snapped into reality. She recognised the effects of the spell at once. The first thing that she noticed was the painfully tight ropes, cutting into her. She also felt a pain in her head- she supposed she had hit it at some point. A snap of fingers, and the ropes fell away. "Get up," hissed the voice.
Kate struggled to her feet, her head spinning with the sudden movement. She stumbled, and found the wall for support. "Oh, don't be so pathetic." Rough hands grabbed her and pulled her along.
"Wh- what do you w- want?" Kate cursed herself for sounding scared. She flushed as the man holding her cruelly mimicked her voice. Her vision was blurry, her head was hurting even more now, and she didn't register what was going on. "Pl-please don't hurt me."
"We won't hurt you as long as you do everything we say." The rough hands let go of her for a moment, and Kate sagged against the wall, her mind reeling. She heard the jangle of keys, a creaky door... The rough hands suddenly grabbed her, and threw her into the corner of a small cell. Kate's head crashed against the wall, and her world went black.
"Kate?" Hermione's hand was on her shoulder. She blinked, and saw Hermione's face inches from her own. "Are you alright?"
Kate brushed back a tear. "I'm fine." A few deep breaths calmed her slightly. "The next few days are a complete blur; I spent most of them unconscious. I think they kept moving me from room to room, but apart from that, I remember nothing. One day I came round, woke up- I don't remember which, but my head was clear and I could think. It was then that it hit me, what was going on. I started crying, and I couldn't stop. A hooded Wizard appeared- they were always hooded- and unlocked the door. He pulled me to my feet, and slammed me hard against the wall."
"What did he want?" asked Ginny, in a scared voice.
"He wanted to know about the Ministry's plans now that Voldemort had risen again." Kate ignored the flinching around her. "My father doesn't tell us much at home, and he hadn't said anything about them, obviously, it's all been completely top-secret stuff. I told him this, but he didn't like it. He pulled me out of the cell, and along a maze of dark corridors to a large, darkened room. The second he let go of me, I stupidly tried to make a run for it, but he grabbed me back easily." She shivered at the memory.
"What did he do to you, Katie?" Chris spoke gently and worriedly, even though he knew it was all over. Kate couldn't help but feel slightly warmed at Chris using the version of her name that she hadn't heard much since she was little. Chris seemed to pick up on this, and he blushed ever-so-slightly.
"He raised his wand, and there was a blinding flash of pink light. I fell to the floor, and all I could feel was intense pain. He levitated me into the room, and out of the shadows loads of other hooded witches and wizards appeared. Someone conjured a sort of spotlight in the middle of the room, and I was levitated into it, and dropped to the floor. They circled me, and I knew that they were smiling behind their hoods." Kate sighed deeply. "Then, it began. They tried the Imperius curse first of all, but I can throw that one off easily. Next, came the Cruciatus curse. That... God, that was utterly awful. I screamed myself hoarse. I don't know how long that went on for, but it felt like hours, I kept blacking out. The only thing that stopped me from going insane was the knowledge that I wasn't hiding anything."
"Oh my God, Katie, that's awful!" exclaimed Chris, a shocked expression on his face. Everyone else looked much the same.
"Then I was levitated in the circle. I was floating above their heads, and they started firing spells at me. My clothes were ripped, and they 'dropped' me several times to the floor. By the end of it, I was so cut and bruised, and in so much pain, that it was all I could do to crawl into the corner. They just left me there, curled up crying the corner. They left the room, laughing. I must have drifted off to sleep at some point; the next thing that I remember is someone drenching me in cold water. I lay there, shivering, as they fired more spells at me. I could feel myself get weaker. I couldn't move anymore and I was barely conscious. I was covered in blood as well."
Kate paused again, needing to calm herself before going on. She looked around at her friends in the compartment, and all of them were wearing an expression of genuine compassion. It warmed her inside, strengthening her in a way nothing else could.
"That's when the door burst open. It was members of the Order, as well as a few from the Ministry. Someone, dressed all in black, came running over to me. He raised his wand and cast healing spells, and then somehow he got me to St. Mungo's. I was in St. Mungo's a week, and during that time Dumbledore came to see me everyday. I later found out that he'd cast wards around my room so no one could harm me." Kate was finally able to smile. Dumbledore's visits had always cheered her up greatly. The best part had been being able to spill out everything about what had happened to him. He had also allowed her to cry out her fears, and managed to calm her down even when she had been ragingly angry. He made a promise to her that he would make sure she would be safe at Hogwarts. "And... well, that's it."
A silence fell. "Thank you, Katie," said Adam quietly. "Thank you."
"You're so brave, Kate," said Ginny.
"Hey, Kate, can I have a quick word? Outside?"
"Sure, Harry." Kate lifted the spells on the door, and they left the compartment. "What do you want, Harry?"
"I know how much that took, Kate. That wasn't easy, was it?"
"Not at all, Harry. I mean, I know what happened to me in the summer isn't nearly as bad as what's happened to you with Voldemort..."
"Telling anyone about something bad is hard. It doesn't matter what it is, and things affect us all in different ways."
"You're beginning to sound like Dumbledore, Harry." Kate grinned. "Come on. Let's get back and enjoy the rest of our journey."
