Chapter 8

Christmas day had now reached Hogwarts. When everyone woke up, presents filled the end of their beds. Excitedly, they ripped off the wrappings, greeted everyone else, and headed down to the Great Hall for breakfast.

One table sat in the middle of the hall. Professor's Dumbledore, McGonagall, Beckinsale, Sprout, and Hagrid sat there, along with four other students. Ginny, Ron, Harry, Hermione and Catherine (whose cheek was bruised, and arm marked) approached the table, sitting down.

"Good morning and Happy Christmas to you all." Dumbledore greeted joyfully. A few students smiled in return. The golden platters infront of them then filled with delicious food. The table ate in silence for the first while. This silence was broken when Cate brushed her hair back with her left hand.

"Catherine!" Minerva shrieked, causing near everyone to jump in their seats, "Where did you get that mark from?" Cate whipped her arm out of sight before anyone else could see it.

"I...hit my arm on the door yesterday." She replied quickly. McGonagall raised an eyebrow at the young woman. Cate gave her a hard glare back. The matter was left at that when a barn owl flew into the Hall, dropping a letter at Cate's place, and flew off. Hurriedly, she ripped it open, her eyes tearing across the parchment. It read:

'I am deeply sorry to be the one to tell you this, but your black cocker spaniel, 'Bella', was killed last night.'

It was unsigned, and the writing was only vaguely familiar, but Catherine knew who it was from, and what it meant.

"No!" She gasped, dropping the letter and fleeing from the hall. Hermione reached over, picking it up, muttering to herself.

"I am deeply sorry to be the one to tell you this, but your black cocker spaniel 'Bella' was killed last night." She lowered the parchment, Snape's head snapped up, "I don't get it." She muttered. The letter then flew from her hand to Snape's, he read it for himself, then folded it, placing it down on the table.

"It obviously means that her dog was killed." He replied cooly. Professor Dumbledore glanced over at him, a sympathetic look in his eyes.

"You may want to go find her Severus, she might want to speak with you. My guess is that Miss Catherine is on her way to Minerva's office." Snape nodded, then left the Hall.

Around the table, eight blank faces stared back at Dumbledore and McGonagall as the teachers continued to eat.

Catherine however, was too far away for her father to catch her, she had already left Hogwarts.

The first person Cate saw when she emerged at Grimmauld Place was Charlie Weasley. As she needed comfort, she latched onto him in a hug, and cried into his shoulder. Sympathetically, the young man rubbed her back, he had been with Lupin when he wrote the letter the letter to Cate, and half knew the pain she was going through. As The Order knew what had happened to Elena, Lupin and Charlie had volunteered to spend their Christmas day at Grimmauld Place.

Close to a minute had passed when Catherine raised her tear stained face.

"Thank-you Charlie." She said quietly.

"No problem." He smiled as she softly pulled away. "Do you want to sit down?" He asked.

"Sure." Cate replied weakly, following Charlie into the kitchen. Reamus Lupin turned around from the counter when the two entered.

"Ah . . . Catherine. I expected to see you today." He greeted, smiling. "How are you?"

"Not the greatest." She replied dully, plopping herself down in a chair at the table. Charlie flicked his wand as he sat down beside her, two mugs of coffee appeared infront of them. "Thanks." The young woman picked up the mug in both hands, sipping it slowly. Lupin sat down opposite of the two.

"So . . . " He began, "How have things been?" He asked.

"Pretty good." Cate brushed her hair off her face, forgetting about the bruise. Charlie immediately noticed.

"What the bloody hell happened to you?" He raised his hand up to the fist-sized purple mark.

"Oh it's nothing." She waved it off, "I just got in another fight with Severus." Lupin dropped his fork, wide eyed.

"What do you mean, another?"

"We've been in many fights so far. Three of which were physical. The bruise came from class yesterday." She paused, "But I have a feeling that this, might interest you more." Catherine raised her left arm onto the table, showing her two companions the hand print bruise on her forearm. Charlie's jaw dropped, he froze, mug halfway to his mouth. Lupin was still wide eyed.

"Severus did this to you?" Reamus asked.

"No one else can."

"True . . . very true. Did he know what he was doing?"

"I don't think he had the slightest idea."

"I'd better go alert the rest of the crowd. You're the first child to be marked that we know of." Reamus hurried from the kitchen, grabbed his cloak, and left Grimmauld Place.

Charlie turned to face Catherine, his mouth now closed, even though he was still in shock.

"You're related to Snape?"

"Unfortunately, yes. I'm his daughter. Me and . . . " She stopped, not wanting to think about her deceased mother. "I grew up without him." She finished. However, the young man could sense the pain in her eyes. He placed an arm around her, hugging her tightly. Cate hugged him back just as tightly.