Always By Your Side
Chapter 6: A Haunting Past
DISCLAIMER: I do not own J. K. Rowling's work, only my new characters.
A/N: One thing, I've changed the separation things again, because the asterisks were not showing up. Please, read and review! Thank you to all who did!
Katarina's PoV
Christmas break ended in the middle of January and although the air was nippy, the weather was gorgeous. The sun continued to shine and the last remnants of winter drained away, making room for the beautiful spring.
I sat in the Astronomy Tower with one elbow propped up on the windowsill, gazing dreamily out the window, feasting my eyes to the glorious sunrise. The sun was just peeking past the horizon and was a glowing circle, lighting up the sapphire sky. My gaze wandered down to the beautiful view I had of most of Hogwarts. The thing that held my gaze, however, was not the green grass ruffled from the wind, or the dark rippling lake. My eyes were drawn immediately, instead, to a tiny patch of white violets.
My mind was swirling with confusing colors and distant memories, as one memory in particular was dredged up from the back of my mind where I had forcefully thrust it. It was one memory from my life before Hogwarts had become my refuge. One memory that – as much as I tried to suppress it – kept coming back to haunt me, and to haunt my dreams. However, before I could delve deeper into my mind to search for all the dim recollections of my past, a knock sounded at the door.
The door creaked open, and I was relieved to see Sirius standing there. The sound of the door opening had almost sounded like…No, don't think of it, I told myself firmly. I pushed the last of my lingering thoughts out of my head, and riveted all my attention to Sirius' face.
"Do you want to go to Hogsmeade with me and Remus this afternoon? We're purchasing things for the start of classes on Monday," asked Sirius. His eyes were simply begging me to go, and had the same mysteriously persuasive look as one might find in a Labrador's eyes.
"All right," I agreed.
We set off to go find Remus in his office, finishing grading the last of his papers. Remus collected Harry from Professor McGonagall, who looked sorely reluctant to let the adorable baby go, and the four of us went on our way to Hogsmeade.
We spent the day there, meandering around the streets, peeking in the shops. We purchased the necessary textbooks and supplies we would need as teachers.
"It's a simply lovely day," I sighed in contentment as the sun continued to shine down on us as we stepped out of Flourish and Blott's. We were all holding a bag each, and Sirius had Harry on his hip also.
"It is," Remus agreed.
"Why don't we stop by Florean Fortescue's and pick up some ice cream?" suggested Sirius, as we were passing the ice cream parlor along the cobbled street. We decided that was a good idea, so we stepped into the shade of the small building and ordered: a strawberry cone with whipped cream for Remus, a caramel sundae for Sirius, one chocolate swirl for me, and a small cup of rainbow sherbet for Harry. We decided later that this probably wasn't the best idea.
Harry's PoV (A/N: Harry's PoVs are not first person, but show what Harry's thinking)
Harry looked at the cup of sherbet with sheer delight. It looked so delicious, that Harry simply sat looking at it with glee. He finally lifted his spoon off the table after about five minutes of staring at it in wonder and dug it into the little plastic cup. He was just about to put it into his mouth, when something distracted him.
Since it was such a nice day, "Uncle Siwius" had carried Harry outside and they had all sat down at an outdoor table with a shading umbrella over it. A big family was sitting at the table next to them. There was a small boy Harry's age sitting with his back turned to Harry, and he was protesting loudly because he didn't get any ice cream. Harry felt sorry for him and wanted to share his wonderful sherbet with him.
Honestly, that was all.
From all the fuss the grown-ups were making, you would think that Harry had done a horrible thing by sharing his sherbet. The only person who understood was the boy sitting by Harry. He was shrieking loudly in delight at having rainbow-colored hair. Harry hadn't meant to put it in his hair, but instead of landing in front of the boy, the spoon had caught on the table's edge and landed neatly in the boy's hair. Actually, studying him, Harry thought the boy looked much better with blue and yellow dotting his red.
Katarina's PoV
When we heard a shriek from the other table, we turned around and saw the little boy sitting next to us laughing – with sherbet in his hair. Immediately, we looked to Harry who had his head tilted and was studying the boy so seriously, as if he were admiring his work of art. The mother looked over and laughed at her son and started cleaning out the sherbet.
Sirius and Remus jumped up and started apologizing profusely, but the parents just waved and laughed it off. They joined us shortly hereafter and we chatted amiably. The couple's names were Arthur and Molly Weasley, and they had been the Head Girl and Boy while Sirius and Remus had entered their second year. They were very pleasant people, and I was very glad to have met them.
We said good-bye to the Weasleys a few hours later and went back to Hogwarts.
Still Katarina's PoV
The world was spinning, bright colors and shadowy outlines flashing before my eyes. I opened my eyes and found myself in a dark graveyard. High, cold laughter sounded behind me and I turned to see slits of red eyes boring into me. Hundreds of hooded figures gathered around me, and encircled me. My mother's voice in the distance, calling out to me, screaming in pain…
I sat upright in bed, gasping for breath. Cold sweat was breaking out on my forehead, and I was shivering despite my charmed blankets. Before sleeping that evening, I knew I was not about to get a lot of sleep; I had been remembering my past this morning, and it had stirred up a lot of chilling memories. I recollected myself, and then decided to go get a Dreamless Sleeping Potion.
Putting my slippers and robe on, I trudged out my door. However, I walked straight past the Hospital Wing, and set off toward the dungeons instead.
Knocking at the door, I heard the shuffling of feet and a muttered password. The door swung open to reveal Severus, looking at me concernedly. Without asking, he invited me in and told me to sit in the armchair next to the fire. Then, he started rummaging through his storage cupboard and pulled out a vial of purple potion. He sat across from me in another armchair, and silently gave me the potion.
"How did you know what I needed?" I asked him in confusion.
"I knew you would be having nightmares so as soon as Dumbledore informed me you were coming, I mixed up a couple batches for you," he replied offhandedly. However, I had taken Potions enough to know that a Dreamless Sleep Potion took at least seven hours to make one batch. I went over to him and pulled him in a tight hug, my throat too tight to express my gratitude with words.
When I drew back from him, Severus gazed at me with a tender look in his eyes, his normally cold eyes softened to a deep, warm brown. "You should be heading off now, and getting some sleep."
I stood up and walked to his door. I glanced back at him over my shoulder and said, "Good night, Severus," before slipping out the door and shutting it softly behind me.
A/N: I'm really sorry. This is such a short chapter! I just wanted to separate this chapter from the rest, so I can properly name the chapters accordingly. The next chapter will probably won't be coming all that soon, so be prepared for a long wait. Sorry again!
tenniStar514
