Run! The road curves now… follow, follow… a fork…

"Choose…."

Naked, why am I naked? When did my hair grow so long? How am I so slender and tall?

"Choose…."

RUN!

Kate gasped as she sat bolt-upright in bed. She couldn't see a thing. She reached blindly to her nightstand for her glasses and shoved them on with trembling fingers. Cautiously, she reached for her hair to see that it was still as short as she remembered. It was just a dream. Why did it frighten her so? There wasn't anything… really… frightening in it.

Shaking her head, Kate stood and remembered vaguely that she was in a new environment. She changed into shorts and a t-shirt and wondered where she could go. She quietly left the bedroom and softly descended the steps. The common room was devoid of life except for the crackling fire. She stared into it and wondered how to get outside without getting caught.

"Psst!"

Kate jumped. She saw the Gryffindor ghost smiling at her. "Good morning, Sir Nicholas."

The ghost beamed at her. "What are you doing up so early, Ms. Slate?"

"I have crazy legs." She lied. She just wanted to continue her running. It also helped her forget her bizarre dreams. "I dunno if you have one of these here, but is there somewhere I could jog?"

The ghost sighed dolefully. "No, students are not allowed outside of their dormitories past ten o'clock."

"Oh." Kate was put-out.

"But," he smiled, a light flickering in his translucent eyes, "I know a way to the grounds from here, if you are interested. You just aren't to get caught."

Kate lit up. "Really? Oh thank you, Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington."

"Oh, it's my pleasure. It's well-worth it for a lady who can remember my name without slaughtering it." He glowed. Then he pointed to the wall. "See the stone with a chip in the center? If you poke it while saying the incantation 'descendo' it will momentarily transform into a tunnel, allowing you passage outside. When you are ready to return you must say 'ascendo' from where you came out. There will be a stone patch on the ground so you shan't miss it."

"Thank you! Thank you so much!"

"My pleasure. I shall leave you to your jog, Ms. Slate." He nodded solemnly at her and drifted off through a portrait of a phoenix.

Kate poked the hole with her index finger and said the spell. A jet of light surrounded it momentarily before the hole opened into a small tunnel, just large enough for her to squeeze through. She fell down the hole, just stopping herself from screaming in fear. She floated slowly down to the ground and landed gingerly on her feet. Kate stared up and silently thanked the hole.

The sky was still dark, but the stars were beginning to vanish. Kate knew that she had at least another hour and a half before it would be time to go to breakfast. Looking quickly around the grounds, she chose a spot that would be her goal and she ran towards it as fast as she could, eventually slowing to a jog and breathing heavily. About halfway there, she considered turning back but, with a spurt of determination, she ran the rest of the way and collapsed, panting noisily. She took her glasses off and wiped her forehead. She had run at least half a mile. The castle looked very distant. She stood next to the lake and looked into its murky depths. Jumping, Kate stood quickly. She could have sworn she had seen a face in the water. And it hadn't been her own.

With more vigor than before, she ran back to the castle, never looking back for fear of the strange face pursuing her. It was only once she reached the castle, short of breath, sweating, and feeling nauseous, that she remembered that there were merfolk in the lake. They certainly wouldn't harm her unless she greatly offended them. Lacking breath to laugh at her stupidity, Kate stretched while she waited for her lungs to refill. Finally she was able to speak the incantation and was soon sucked back up the hole.

Still, nobody was in the common room, so Kate took time to do her crunches and push-ups and thigh-exercise. After all was done, she went to her dormitory, grabbed her clothes and wand, and went to the showers. Once she was clean and dry, she went back into the common room and the students began their morning regiment.

Breakfast was a sleepy affair, except for Kate, who was wide awake, and Hermione, who was chattering away madly about their course schedule. Kate just smiled and ate her toast. Her stomach continued to growl, but she ignored it stubbornly, washing her meal down with a glass of milk.

Harry, Ron and she walked from class to class together, Harry always blushing because of all of the stares and pointing. Kate began to think about wandering away from her friends just because she didn't want to be seen. Luckily for her, she got to know Parvati, Lavender, Neville, Seamus, and Dean a bit better as the week wore on.

Parvati and Lavender were very pretty girls who were girly in every way. They spoke mainly of boys, make-up, clothing and hair. Kate liked them anyway and in turn they enjoyed her company. She was a good listener and despite a few of her wisecracks, they liked her comments.

Dean and Seamus were best of friends from the off. Dean had been Muggle-born and Seamus was half-and half. Both boys were very much into sports. Dean, being British and Muggle-born was a football (soccer) fan, but Seamus couldn't understand this fascination, what with Quidditch being his sport of choice. Kate was a tennis person, but liked both soccer and Quidditch, though she had never watched a Quidditch match. Seamus took this as an advantage to tell her about practically every game he'd ever seen. Dean would interrupt to tell her about a soccer match that she had missed, what with having lived in America. She knew better than to bore them with details of tennis and dutifully avoided this. The boys were goofy and so was she.

Then there was Neville. He was always forgetting something and looked constantly on the edge of whimpering. Kate had taken to talking to him about other things than school because she knew that made him jittery to think he'd forgotten something. She soon learned that his family thought he was a "squib" or a non-magical person born into a magical family. It was miraculous that he'd been accepted into Hogwarts at all. He had once survived falling off of a roof when his great uncle dropped him, bouncing all the way across the ground. That was the only sign of his magical abilities.

Hermione was the toughest nut for Kate to crack. All she ever wanted to talk about was school, and Kate found this very difficult. Hermione only wanted to compare their knowledge and Kate wasn't one to show off. Eventually she got Hermione to talk about her family and Kate was able to take it from there, getting to slowly know Hermione better, though it was far from an easy task.

Harry and Ron, though, were Kate's favorite of the Gryffindor friends, she soon discovered. They spoke about almost anything. She enjoyed their company and frequently walked and talked with them. They talked about classes mostly during the first week to compare their thoughts.

There were over a hundred staircases in Hogwarts, and most of them had a step somewhere around the middle that was a trick step. After constant warnings from senior students to jump them, the first years began to get into the habit. Not only were there trick steps, but some doors were also false. What was worse, some of them seemed fake but were in fact just waiting to be asked politely to open or properly tickled. At least most of the ghosts were willing to show new first years the way, but Peeves was a vicious poltergeist who was more trouble than anything else they had experienced. Always present, Peeves liked to rip carpet up from underfoot, jam wastepaper baskets on student's head, grab their robes and trip them up and all sorts of stunts that were painful and time-wasting.

The caretaker, Argus Filch, was certainly not a pleasant fellow. Most students would have loved nothing more than to kick him, or his cat, Mrs. Norris. Kate, always-friendly, said hello to the greasy old caretaker every day, and was usually rewarded with a mumble of response.

So, once one found a class, there was the fact that the classes weren't easy either. The most boring class, by far, was History of Magic. Firstly, Kate had already read the textbook as it was, secondly, all Professor Binns did was read aloud and sometimes add comments, which were painfully dull. Professor Binns was a ghost and the most exciting part of his class was when he'd drift through the chalkboard. Kate spent most of the class trying to see how long her fellow students stayed alert. Hermione was by far the most diligent, which Kate couldn't understand.

Every Wednesday, the Gryffindors had astronomy with Professor Sinistra. She was a kind teacher with great love for the stars above. Kate couldn't believe the views of the sky that they got. She wished her father could see. He was the one who had influenced her love for the heavens so much. Kate got on rather well with Professor Sinistra, asking most of the questions, always waiting after class so as not to interrupt the lessons. Then three times a week there was Herbology with a messy witch named Professor Sprout. Always smiling, this teacher knew how to make Herbology interesting for all of the students. The study of what plants and fungi were used for and how to take care of them was fascinating in itself to Kate.

Charms was taught by a small little old man named Professor Flitwick. Good-natured always, his classes tended to be amusing because he had to stand on a pile of books to see over his desk. It brightened the atmosphere of the room. Kate was very much looking forward to learning charms. The first class the students learned the swish and flick motion, which was the most basic. Kate and her classmates soon learned that charms weren't just a word and a wave, but much more complex.

Professor McGonagall was a bit frightening in all of her strictness. She had a gift for keeping a class silent with her mere presence. The first thing she said to the class aside from good morning was a lecture on what and what not to do in her class.

"Transfiguration is some of the most complex and dangerous magic you will learn at Hogwarts. Anyone messing around in my class," she scanned the room with flashing eyes, "will leave and not come back. You have been warned."

Almost as if to brighten the mood, she changed her desk into a pig and back again. Kate and Ron exchanged excited looks and then found out that it would be a long time before they would be changing furniture into animals. Their notes nearly gave the students hand-cramps, but were worthwhile.

"I wish my handwriting weren't such crap." Kate sighed after she had finished her notes.

Ron looked at his own chicken scratch and grinned.

McGonagall passed around matches to each of the students.

"I don't expect much, but I would like you to try to transfigure your match into a needle." She looked sternly at them. "And just because it's difficult doesn't mean I don't expect an effort to be made. I will know if you are trying."

Kate couldn't manage, not that anyone else could either. She read her notes quite a few times before giving it another shot. Her match changed to a silver color. She stared but didn't speak and continued concentrating. It was grating work and finally she had turned it into a passable needle.

"I think I've done something, Professor!" Hermione Granger cried out from the front of the classroom. Professor McGonagall strode over and took a look at what Hermione had done. She showed the class how her match had gone all silver and pointy and smiled at Hermione, who beamed in return.

Kate considered saying something, but thought better of it and shoved her needle quickly into her pocket without a word to anyone. She caught Harry watching her with a frown on his face and she shrugged.

Defense Against the Dark Arts was a smelly classroom. It was a potent mixture of garlic cloves and some unidentifiable rotting smell. Professor Quirrell, the quivering and stuttering teacher, explained away his bizarre turban by saying that an African prince had given it to him as a gift for getting rid of a troublesome zombie.

Seamus raised his hand.

"Ye- yes Mr. Finnigan?"

"How did you do it?" The entire class watched their professor eagerly, only to see him turn a violent shade of pink and start talking about the weather. Kate gave Dean a sideways glance and bit back a grin. Their teacher was a coward, or so it seemed.

By Thursday evening, Kate was beginning to feel a bit more at ease with her schedule. Early rising and running, sitting down with friends in the common room, doing her homework thoroughly and quickly as possible, and intentionally dieting. It seemed to her that she was constantly hungry, but refused to eat until satisfied even.

The next morning she ran just a bit further before returning, feeling the sting and ache in her thighs and calves. The one good thing that had occurred over the course of her consistent running was that she wasn't having as much trouble breathing anymore. She stretched her calves against the wall and cracked her neck. Looking back as she arched her back, she saw the gigantic figure of a man watching her from a hut on the grounds. Her heart leapt and she immediately ascended into the common room.

She'd been caught! What would happen to her? She didn't want to stop her running… or get expelled! If that was an issue… her parents would be so disappointed!

No, she had to stop thinking like that. There was no reason to be so worried. Obviously the large-man had been watching her for awhile and hadn't come out to say anything. She had to calm down. Breathing in a controlled manner, Kate diligently did her sit-ups and push-ups, occasionally stopping to look out the window. She got her shower a little later than usual, but wasn't hindered by this.

"Morning," she stifled a yawn as Harry and Ron said good-morning to her.

"Yup. That's what it is." Ron said grumpily.

"It's a pity the staff doesn't know that." Kate grinned wryly, replacing a quill in her bag. She had just finished the essay that Professor McGonagall had assigned. It had been trying work and a lot of rereading. Kate left her bag haphazardly on the sofa as she walked with Ron and Harry to breakfast. They got to the great hall without getting lost and were proud of it.

"Morning, Kate!" Hannah Abbott, a Hufflepuff first year, said kindly as she passed.

"Good morning, Hannah." She grinned at the blonde-haired girl as she waved and bustled off to join Susan at the Hufflepuff table. Lisa Turpin walked by with Padma Patil, and they said a brief hello before going to the Ravenclaw table.

Kate sat next to Ron and across from Harry. She took a small portion of oatmeal and ate it plain, not that it needed anything, for the food was so delicious.

"What have we got today?" Harry asked them as he poured sugar onto his own warm cereal.

"Double potions with the Slytherins," Ron grimaced. "Snape's Head of Slytherin House. They say he always favors them- we'll be able to see if it's true."

"Wish McGonagall favored us." Harry said glumly.

"Blaise Zabini is a Slytherin and he's not a bad guy." Kate commented.

"Give him time." Fred Weasley sat next to Kate. "And believe me, he'll come out like the rest of 'em: evil."

"They can't all be like that." Kate frowned. "That's just stupid."

George sat across from Fred and faked a gawp. "Can you believe the nerve of this wee ickle first year?"

"You question our knowledge?"

"Shameful, shameful."

"Bah." Kate waved a hand, forcing back a grin.

Lee Jordan, a black boy with dreadlocks summoned the twins off to look at something he'd found, barely glancing at Kate or Ron but giving an interested look to Harry, who definitely seemed to sense it.

There was a fluttering of wings and the owls swooped down to deliver the morning mail. Kate was planning on sending a letter to her parents the next week to inform them of her progress. She remembered vaguely her fears of the morning before.

"Harry, what is the name of that man who took us on the boats across the lake?"

"Hagrid." Harry became distracted as his snowy white owl fluttered down to drop a note onto Harry's plate. Harry wasted no time in opening it. He looked up at Kate. "He just sent me a letter actually."

Kate's eyebrows shot up. "Really? As if on queue…."

"Why d'you ask, anyway?" Ron asked through a mouthful of sausage.

"I just couldn't remember his name, it was bothering me." Kate shrugged, and downed some orange juice.

"Can I borrow your quill?" Harry asked Ron.

"Hold on,"

"I've got one," Kate said, not needing to put mounds of food down.

"Thanks." Harry scribbled a note on the back of Hagrid's and sent it off with Hedwig. He handed the quill back to Kate, who stuffed it in her pocket. She leaned over for a quick word to Dean about his recent belch.

"It lacked depth." She whispered.

"And what would you know about it?"

"I do have a father, who taught me well." She winked and Dean and Seamus laughed.