Rebel, Seemingly Without a Cause

Summary: Kathryn knows nothing but the small, suburban household in which her Aunt and Uncle raised her in hatred. Then, on her brother's eleventh birthday, Kathryn's world is tossed upside-down. AU!

Disclaimer: I own nothing you recognize.

Thanks to "Cat's Magic" for your review! You're the first reviewer, so you are automatically special. Also, I'm glad you like this so far!

Just a request!

When you leave reviews for me I would appreciate it if you use correct spelling/grammar/punctuation to the best of your knowledge. I'm a freak, I admit it.

Now, on with the story!

Chapter One: Rock-On-The-Sea

Kathryn spent the next few days locked in the basement. Aunt Petunia never brought her any food, but she made due. Maybe somewhere along the line she'd feel lucky for this (when she wasn't a fat tub of lard, possibly). The basement wasn't bad; it was actually sort of comfortable. It had a bathroom, a nice cot, it was spacious, and on top of all that, sometimes Harry could send her food down the laundry chute. On the downside, it was dark, dreary, damp, and smelled like moldy cheese.

Kathryn, at that particular moment, was standing in front of the mirror, looking at herself in the dim light. She wondered why Aunt Petunia hated her so much. She wasn't ugly, so that couldn't be it. Kathryn has pretty, curly auburn hair that reached her shoulder blades. She absentmindedly tugged on one of her curls at this thought. She moved her hand to her chin, critiquing her pale skin tone and her nose that appeared too small for her face. Sighing, she looked straight into the eyes of the girl in the mirror. Her eyes were a dark, dusky green. Harry had told her that her eyes used to be brighter, just like his. She hadn't believed him.

"Girl!" shouted the voice of Aunt Petunia down the stairwell. "Upstairs, now!"

Kathryn bit her lower lip in frustration with her aunt, and reluctantly headed upstairs at her request. She ran upstairs to a frightening sight: the entire entrance way and what she could see of the living room was covered in envelopes! She picked one up of the ground; it was addressed to a "Mister H. Potter" of the "Cupboard Under the Stairs, Number Three Privet Drive". Kathryn gasped, how had they known Harry lived in the cupboard?

"Go upstairs and pack your things, girl." Aunt Petunia hissed at her. "We're leaving for a while."

"So why do I have to go?" Kathryn retorted. "You always left me here before."

"I said go!" Aunt Petunia repeated viciously, slapping Kathryn across the face. "Do what you are told!"

Without tears in her eyes, Kathryn walked dejectedly up the stairs to her room. You would think that by now she would have learned to 'do as she was told,' but no. Harry was the good one, the one who did what was expected of him silently. Kathryn, on the other hand, was considered the wild, senseless child. Of course, Dudley was perfect in the eyes of Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon. Kathryn scoffed at the very idea of Dudley being perfect, and snorted as she thought of it.

She entered her room, unsure of what to take with her. Tucking a lock of hair behind her ear, Kathryn grabbed a new notebook and a few pens. These were all she needed. Being locked in the basement had been torture not for lack of food or water, but because she hadn't been allowed any paper, pencils, pens, or anything. Kathryn was a born writer; it was her thing, and the thing no one could take from her.

"Hurry up!" shouted the impatient voice of Petunia Dursley. "We're leaving now!"

Kathryn ran down the steps, notebook and pens in hand. Her aunt gave her a nasty look, like how you look at something gross that's attached itself to the bottom of your shoe. What is so wrong with me? Kathryn wondered with sorrow burrowing in her heart. She just didn't understand! The only conclusion she had ever come to was that she must be bad, but how she did not know. Aunt Petunia always had this deep-set hatred for her, ever since she could remember and probably before that too.

Dudley, Harry, and Kathryn were all stuffed in the back of the van as Uncle Vernon pulled out of the drive. The whole way to wherever they were going Dudley whined about being next to Kathryn and Harry.

"Mummy!" Dudley complained. "I don't wanna be next to these freaks!"

"Shush, Dudders." Petunia scolded. "Daddy wants it quiet."

She was quite right about that, Uncle Vernon had seemingly gone mad, thrown right off his trolley. He had been that purple color ever since Kathryn had seen him that day, so she knew something was seriously wrong. Kathryn knew something was very seriously wrong though, when they had been driving for much longer than even, even to London! She tried to peek around Dudley to see the scenery, but he was too fat, so she looked past Harry. They were at the coast. Kathryn gasped as they pulled into a parking lot next to the sea, where the waves were crashing into the sharp jagged rocks that were everywhere.

Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon hoarded the three children out of the car and they rented a boat. Kathryn trembled, a boat in this weather? Kathryn and the others all gathered in the boat and they set off. The destination was apparently a little rock that they called an island and stuck a house on it. She had no idea why they were doing any of this; she was completely in the dark about the whole thing. Kathryn decided she would ask Harry when they got settled in.

Linebreak!

Later that night, Kathryn was lying on the lumpy couch in the only room on the ground floor. Harry was sitting on the floor, drawing pictures in the dirt (or was it dust?) that was on the floor.

"Harry?" she asked quietly. He looked up at her through his round glasses. He made a 'hmmm' sound, signaling for her to ask her question. "Why are we here? What's the matter with Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon?"

"Oh gosh, it's a long story Kathy." Harry sighed. "Those letters, did you see them? They were the problem. Aunt Petunia told Uncle Vernon that they were from some people and he turned purple and started mumbling and he burned my letter! Then, there came another and another, they just kept coming! It drove him crazy."

"What do you think was in those letters?" She inquired curiously.

"I have no idea." Harry replied, and went back to the dust on the floor. (She had concluded it was dust when some had settled in her nose a few seconds earlier.) Kathryn then noticed that Harry was drawing a birthday cake when all of a sudden her watch hit midnight, and began making annoying beeping sounds. As she was trying to disable the alarm, Harry blew out the 'candles', spreading dust everywhere. Everywhere included right into Kathryn's face and up her nasal passage. She erupted in a fit of sneezes.

Suddenly, the door flew open (well, more like it was knocked down) with a loud thump. Kathryn and Harry both looked up, startled. Where the door once was, stood a large, burly man with an unruly black beard. All three of the Dursley's romped down the stairs, Uncle Vernon holding a shotgun in his hands.

"You're trespassing!" Uncle Vernon proclaimed, pointing the barrel of the gun at the man. He grunted, and bent the barrel of the gun upwards.

"Dursley, yeh' great prune." Kathryn wasn't sure what he had said exactly, his beard was muffling his words. He said he was looking for Harry, and mistaked Dudley for Harry. Really, Kathryn thought. What a stupid mistake. With all the conversation going around her, Kathryn soon lost interest. That is, until the incredible happened.

"Harry, yer' a wizard." The man, who called himself Hagrid, announced.

"I'm a what?" Harry exclaimed, eyes wide in surprise. Kathryn's head turned sharply to stare at her brother, and then her eyes traveled to Hagrid, green eyes locking with muddy brown.

"And you, Kathryn, I know yer' a brilliant witch like yer' Mum." He commented, and a smile graced Kathryn's pale face. She couldn't believe it, a witch, a girl like her? When she got home she couldn't wait to tell her best friend, May Journey. She could only imagine what May would say about all that was happening! Suddenly, shouts from Aunt Petunia tugged Kathryn's thoughts elsewhere.

"Of course I knew!" Aunt Petunia scoffed. "How could I not? When she got that letter from that – that school, only I knew that it made her a freak! Mum and Dad were so proud to have a little witch in the family! I knew her for what she was – disgusting, a freak, a shame on the family! She'd come home every summer with her pockets full of frogspawn and turning rats into teacups! And then she met that horrid Potter boy! When we took them in we swore to stamp the magic right out of them!"

Kathryn could feel the familiar tingle of anger swelling in her heart. She called it her fire dragon, and it was rearing its head at that particular moment.

"How dare you!" Kathryn shouted, her teeth clenched. "How dare you do such a thing! You lied to me all these years; don't you have a conscious at all? You kept this from me, my heritage: my only right! This would be the only thing I've ever wanted and thought I knew! THIS WAS NOT YOUR CHOICE! You were so content to live life like they never existed with your pigs that you call your husband and son, but we ruined it, didn't we Aunt Petunia? So you thought maybe you could just make this whole 'magic' thing go away, eh? You disgust me."

Kathryn said those last few words with utter contempt, like they were venom on her tongue. Her eyes were narrowed.

"Be quiet!" her aunt hissed, grabbing her shoulder tightly. Kathryn bit her tongue to keep quiet. She knew now was not the time to speak.

"He's not going!" Uncle Vernon proclaimed. "I'm not going to pay for some crackpot old fool to teach him magic tricks!"

"Never insult Albus Dumbledore in front of me!" The man, Hagrid, brandished his umbrella and pointed it a Dudley, who suddenly grew a pig's tail! Kathryn gasped and turned to gape at her cousin, and Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon began to fuss about the poor boy. Kathryn looked back to see Harry and that Hagrid man walk out the door. Kathryn's dragon burned inside once again at the thought of her brother's betrayal. He was leaving her here with them, the horrible Dursleys.

Well, on the bright side, at least she still had a few weeks of summer left to go. May and Kathryn would have plenty of time to relax before school started up once again. On the downside, who knew where Harry was going… and Kathryn would have to travel on the stupid little boat again in the storm.

Days like these made poor Kathryn Potter abso-bloody-lutely furious.

Kathryn could have sworn she growled.