Chapter 22

Sad but True

Throughout the next week everyone's life continued as normal. Except it involved no heavy drinking. It seemed that everyone needed to recover. Seb avoided no one. Ron tried, with little success, to avoid Parvati mostly because it terrified him how much he enjoyed her company lately. Cat tried, and succeeded, in avoiding Seb. Hermione ran away whenever she sighted Draco without a word of explanation.

As for Harry and Ginny they managed to somehow come back and were punished by McGonagall with a whole month of detention. They were happy the weren't expelled, however they were also banned from every event the school held and had to be in bed before everyone else. Ginny received a holler from her mother. It seemed, however that they paid a small price for their escapade.

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The letter was signed 'Mum'. Cat slowly and delicately folded it back and put it away on her bedside table. She was looking out the window and contemplating her life, her choices and her feelings which only a few years ago she thought was not capable of having. Hermione slowly came up to her friend and put her hand on Cat's shoulder. The room was dark as the window was the only source of light. Cat turned around tears running down her face. Hermione gasped.

„Are you ok.?"

„Yes sweetie" Cat answered "I just…." she was shivering

"Want to tell me about it?" Hermione asked sweetly

"Are you sure you want to be told?"

CAT'S STORY

The only friend I remember from my childhood or, one might say, teenage years was this boy down my street. We used to spend hours together. Either talking constantly or sitting in silence. It didn't matter that we were friends for such a long time we always found topics for conversations. We always had time to sit quietly. Actually we just always had time for each other. Whether we were in a relationship or alone. Whenever we felt like fooling around with someone we knew where to go. Some people treated us as couple. To theme we were simply on and of. But we knew that even when we were, as they saw it, 'of' or with someone else we were always together. We never had a single fight. But he moved when I turned 15. That was it. Since then no one found a place in my heart that was so used to loneliness it no longer felt empty.

It was raining. Haze street was almost empty. My watch showed 5 o'clock in the morning. I was wearing my long boots and black coat. The night was over. One more Saturday night became history. For such a long time my life was so uneventful: I studied at Durmstrang for a whole year, again, I came back to London only to work my ass of at the local pub and to wander the clubs at night. Meeting people that meant nothing to me and having pointless conversations.

I lit a cigarette. I was thinking of how I'll be getting home and of my warm but empty bed. The thing is I wasn't sad. I just didn't care anymore. I never had anyone close to me. My parents were away since I was 12 so each year I came back to an empty house and a new crazy nanny that paid absolutely no attention to me . I guess it was all my father's fault. He never felt the need to see me and my mother never disobeyed him. Not because he was a scary man, which he was, but because somehow he was always more important to her then I was. I always used to say that no one has their home as far away as I do as I felt I never had one.

So it was another night in the club for me and I was standing outside 'Sunshine Underground' smoking my fag and hiding from the rain. I looked up and saw a bloke running in my direction clearly looking for a hiding place as well. He stopped right beside me. He said 'Hey' and smoked up himself. But to me it was as if someone has hit the mute button. Something was very disturbingly beautiful about the way he appeared. I didn't know it then but I was in for quite a summer.

"Wow it's a bloody nightmare this rain is" He spoke. I looked at him and I didn't want to say anything. Somehow I just wanted o keep standing there and looking at him although I couldn't see his face as he wasn't looking at me.

"It's not that bad" I spoke turning my gaze towards the street as well.

"You obviously don't have a long way home then" he took a drag of his cigarette

"Longer then anyone else" I didn't mean to say it but obviously I did. It didn't matter anyway. He paused and slowly turned around to look at me in surprise as if he just realised I was actually there. I turned around and put my fag out on my shoe. "I got to go." I said. This meant nothing anymore. The mute button was off now. I wanted to move on to another experience as this magical moment was over.

"C?" My heart sunk. Only one person in the world ever called me that. That person was the little boy from down the street where I used to live. I couldn't turn around. I didn't have to. He caught my shoulders and did it for me. "I looked for you everywhere" he called out with happiness. That was 3 years ago. I was 16. Truly I was a lot older than that.

You see this needs to be explained. At that time Seb, who was that boy as you might of figured out, was nothing like he is today. I mean he was very false towards others, he never believed in love, he never trusted anyone, but he was never so cold as he is now, especially towards me. I guess I'm the one to blame. As he is the one to blame for most of my issues.

That night we went for a coffee. Once again we talked until the morning. Then we walked to my place where we sat in silence once again only looking at each other. I was thrilled to see him. His smile hasn't changed. His big brown eyes were still smiling when he looked at me. No one ever really looked at me like that. Ever. In the afternoon he said he had to go. I spent the whole night and day up but I didn't feel tired so I asked:

"Where you going now? Disappearing from my life again?" I asked. I didn't want him to leave. I didn't want to loose him ever again. "Can I come?"

He nodded.

This might seem a totally morbid situation but we went to his mother's funeral. He shed a few tears. I shed a few tears. However the whole thing seemed completely natural and normal. We came back to my place only to find out that I'll have to go to another funeral very soon. My father was killed in a plane crash. To most people a day like that would seem like a nightmare. To me it was one of the greatest days in my life. It didn't matter that I had to pick my mum up from the airport along side with my father's body. It didn't matter that she was devastated. All that mattered to me was that Seb was right there beside me. He was there again. To me my mother's presence meant nothing compared to his. And I never shed a single tear over my father.

From then on things theoretically went from bad to worse. However practically I was happier then ever.

It turned out my father was in debt. My mother left for the states where she found a well paid job, however I didn't want any money from her anymore. So I had to move out of my nice flat. I had to work more shifts. At one point I had nowhere to live. Seb forced me to move in with him and that's when we became an official couple. It was crazy. We were in heaven. At least for the first two months. Life had colours again. Until we started fighting. We fought over everything. Money, work, girl, boys, life, politics, me, him. Everything. I won't bore you with the things we did to each other. I won't give the details of our psychological war where it no longer was about love but about destroying the other person. I won't tell you what things that I've done have lead him to become who he is now. I won't get into the stuff he did to me. Let me tell you that it was awful and absolutely disgusting. We hated each other. However we still had sex. We still lived with each other. We still couldn't let go. For such a long time we have been all we knew. The time came to go back to school. I left for Durmstarng. He left for Beauxbattons.

Through out that school year we learnt how to live without one another. Believe me I learnt it a harder way then he did. During that time I kept in touch with my mother and we became close. She filled a little bit of the loss my heart felt. She's still a very important part of my life and if it wasn't for her I would probably have killed myself by now. My life changed drastically but that's a totally different story. It deserves to be told at another time.

As for me and Seb next year he moved to Durmstrang. I don't know why. I never asked. I tried to stay away but I guess I'll never manage to do that. I still keep hoping someday …

Hermione?

Hermione stood there completely shocked.

"Now you're not really sure you did want to be told?" Cat smiled "It doesn't matter. I knew you had questions. The truth is I haven't felt close to anyone for a long time. Then I met you. You are an extraordinary girl H. I just thought this will answer some of your questions."

"Cat" she swallowed hard "I… I don't know what to say. What was in that letter then?" Hermione asked

"The story that deserves to be told at a different time, but what's the big deal ? Let's not dwell on this. I think you need to tell me why you've been avoiding Draco lately. Let's talk about you" Cat smiled again. She looked absolutely happy and fine as if the story she has just told was regular pointless gossip.

"I think we should talk about this …" Hermione paused "Me avoiding Draco?" she asked totally thrown of track.

"Yes. You avoiding Draco. Another reason why I have said all these things to you. You have taken your time to know me but I bet you never expected that Seb could have been a caring and loving person to the one he loves. You never know what is standing behind Draco Malfoy. Maybe, just maybe he's worth your time. At leas get to know him before you cross him of." Cat finished.

Hermione almost believed her. However her gaze went very cold and she spoke:

"Seb used to be caring and loving. Maybe Malfoy was caring and loving once too. Now Seb is an emotionless bastard. Don't get me wrong I like him but it's true. You see Seb Hall is just Seb Hall and Draco Malfoy today is just the bastard Draco Malfoy" Hermione riposted

"Sad but true. Maybe you're right about Seb but I wouldn't cross of Draco just yet. Maybe you will see in your own time that all Draco is good at is acting. Maybe." Cat answered calmly and with one wave of her wand she change into her pyjamas "Goodnight"

Notes:

I don't know what those screaming letters are called so I called it a holler because that's what I think they were/should be called

I don't know how to spell that second school name so feel free to correct me

Even if you want to criticise please do… I love it. :D (doesn't mean I don't love the lovely great reviews you guys usually used to write me :)

Ah another chapter is up. I promise Draco and Hermione will have their time next. I have something new planned there. I hope you like this enough to review as I really put my heart into it. I personally love dialogues and can't stand a lot of writing. I hope you will forgive me that. I mean the lack of dialogues. This sets up Seb and Cat a little bit better. If you want to know more please tell me as I love writing about the two as well but as this is a DM HG fic I feel guilty when I do.

Hopefully this is all good and makes sense to you guys. You must really hate me as I have absolutely no new reviews. It really makes me feel sad but I hope this chapter will generate a few. If it won't I guess I'll probably just quit. I know it's harsh if someone is actually reading but I just don't see the point as all my old readers hate me now :D and I'm doing this just for them :D

Do have in mind I have less time then I used to have so the updates will be less often. Also can someone please tell me how to write: use or used to be? I never know if it's one or the other. What else? I really wanted to put Draco and Hermione in here too but it would be 1) to long 2) mess with the mood of this chapter 3) more interesting if you get a chapter just on them.

If I make really short sentences in this chapter it's because of a fic I'm reading that has really short sentences (I don't like that but the fic is nice and the short sentences are not there all the time) and I'm sorry if they're hard to get into.

Now that I've got some of the Seb Cat story out of the way once again I will repeat this "stay tuned for Draco and Hermione. Next"

LIST: Just one song when I was writing this and it will probably show up a lot again. You probably all know it: Damien Rice – The Blower's Daughter

PLEASE REVIEW or I will die of depression.