A/N: Hey everyone! I kept my promise, didn't I? Again I would like to apologize for all who have kept faith and waited for me all this time. *bows low* Gomen nasai. And like I said before RL has not been my friend. But enough with it all! Let's get this bad boy going! Also my sister Drea was supposed to beta this but she didn't. So let me know of any mistakes. Thx!
My friends have demanded I lengthen the first chapter so here it is! So don't blame them! THEM!
Enjoy!
Disclaimer: Ok this is the first last and ONLY disclaimer for this fic! I do not own HP nor any familiar characters that are not my own. I am merely using them for my own personal amusement. Also I do not own myspace.
Unexpected Reunion
By LostGryffindorFoundSlytherin
Chapter One ~ Forgotten Memories? Childhood Mementos
"You can't catch me! You can't catch me!" a young girl sang as she raced away from a raven haired little boy. The boy stomped his small foot and glared at the retreating back of the girl, though it was obvious he wasn't angry.
"Yes I can! Yes I can!" the boy sang back, he broke into a grin as his best friend hid behind a tree.
The girl giggled, as her sky blue eyes peeked back at her playmate, from behind the tree. Once she was sure he hadn't moved she shook her head vigorously. "Nuh-uh! Can't catch me, Harry James Potter!"
The boy grimaced and gave a true glare to the girl, pouting, "Don't call me by my whole name!" Then the young wizard grinned evilly and added, "Katherine Winters." His grin grew wider as her eyes narrowed and an indignant noise escaped the girl. 'Now's my chance!' he thought happily as he hurried forward to, hopefully, catch his now distracted playmate.
"Katherine Emera, Harry! It's Katherine Emera!" She huffed, her small hands on her hips as she stomped her foot for emphasis. "Ka-" she shrieked when she noticed how close Harry gotten and realized that she had been tricked. She dodged Harry's reaching fingers and raced away from her hiding place, her sky blue hair fluttering behind her.
"Nyah, nyah nyah nyah nyah!" she taunted.
"I'll get you!" Harry shouted, leaning against the tree to catch his breath and grumbled now that his plan had been foiled.
"Prove it!" the bright eyed girl turned back to her best friend, running backwards, as her face showed her mirth. "Come on, Harryberry! Catch me if you can!"
"Don't call me Harryberry!" the little boy scowled.
"Harry's a berry! Harry's a berry! Blueberry! Mulberry! Raspberry!" A rather loud raspberry followed the last retort, causing Harry to giggle and return one back. "See? You're a berry! MY Harryberry!"
"Get back here!" Harry cried. His only response was Katherine Emeras' laughter echoing across the playground as he hurried in pursuit.
"Come on, Harryberry! Ya have to be faster than that!"
Harry's eyes snapped open and he sat up, looking about dazed as he scratched his head. He found himself in the room he and Ron were sharing in Grimmauld Place, Sirius' home, and not in his primary schools playground, playing tag with a little girl. The-Boy-Who-Lived blinked his bleary eyes as remnants of the dream (as he now realized what the whole episode was) continued to drift about in his mind; the laughter, the playful teasing, the simple joy left Harry with an oddly familiar warmth, as if it had been merely stored away….or forgotten.
For a time Harry basked in the dream, until all too soon the faint noise and the visions began to dissolve; everything but the girl.
Her pale blue hair and eyes remained steadfast in his mind as if they were demanding acknowledgement. And then Harry remembered.
Katherine Winters.
Then as though the mere thought was enough, a host of forgotten memories were stirred to life. Memories of his friend of old.
"Katherine Emera Winters," Harry laughed quietly to himself, shaking his head. He hadn't thought of that of name in years; not since he was eight or nine. The young wizard had completely forgotten about the little girl whom had been his best friend in his muggle primary; whom had been his only friend. The raven haired boy winced slightly, how could he have forgotten about his KitKat?
'Because she wasn't real,' a voice that sounded frighteningly like Dudley whispered. But the voice was right, no matter how frightening the voice was.
"Imaginary, Potter. Not real," he whispered. "She was someone you made up so you wouldn't be alone. Someone you made up who wasn't afraid of Dudley."
The green eyed teen slid out of bed to sit at the window as he continued to tell himself that Katherine Emera had been nothing more than a figment of his imagination, though his head and heart told him otherwise.
Memories began to float from the deepest parts of his mind, as if to prove the young man that his friendship with the blue haired girl was real. One memory came forward the strongest and he smiled, it was the memory of when he and Katherine Emera first met. They had been six at the time, but everything was crystal clear.
Flashback
It had been the first day of spring term and Harry was sitting alone in the rear of the class, as usual, listening to the teacher as he spoke of that days math lesson when the door opened. A secretary from the front office walked in, followed closely by a little girl. Harry, along with the rest of the class, stared at the girl, and for very good reason. The small girl had the strangest hair that Harry had ever seen. It was blue! It was a pretty pale blue but no one's hair grew that color/
As the adults spoke quietly, the children began to whisper to one another, wondering if the girl was a new student, and said girl was eyeing the class nervously, avoiding all eye contact.
'Look this way,' Harry thought desperately, wanting to give the girl at least some reassurance. 'Look this way.'
Then, as if hearing his thoughts, the little girl looked up at Harry….sort of, as she wouldn't meet his eyes, Harry just giggled slightly at her and gave her a big smile, hoping it was friendly and kind. The green eyed boy judged by her behavior that this girl was painfully shy, and was more than likely terrified, so he wanted to show some kind of friendliness, even if after today he would never call her friend. 'Dudley wouldn't let her, anyway,' he thought bitterly.
The girl met his eyes briefly, returning a shy smile to him, before ducking her head to study the floor; a blush creeping across her face. Harry grinned.
The secretary soon left, leaving the girl with a smile and a friendly squeeze on the shoulder. Harry's teacher introduced the girl as Katherine Winters, only to be corrected by the six-year-old (in a lisp ridden voice), "Its Katherine Emera, sir." The man took the correction with a smile; and seated her next to Harry, asking if the lonely boy to share his books with her until she received her own. When she was settled, the raven haired boy scooted closer to her with his math book and whispered, "My names Harry Potter. Harry James Potter."
When he received no response the little boy feared she didn't like him, but then he watched her peek at him with a small smile and whispered, "K-katherine Emera W-winters."
They became friends ever since.
End of Flashback
Harry smiled as he remembered the shock he got the next day, when the other children tried to tell Katherine Emera to stay away from him, the "weird Harry Potter kid", and that Dudley and his gang wouldn't like it. Katherine Emera had only ran, as tears welled up in her eyes, and hid behind Harry, begging him, if they could go play somewhere away from everyone. More and more memories flooded his brain as if desperate to prove that Katherine Emera had been a real living person.
The first confrontation between Dudley and Katherine Emera after the young girl witnessed a round of 'Harry Hunting' and the beating that had occurred afterward they had caught Harry…
…….Katherine Emera coming out of her shell temporarily in a fit of rage and declaring herself Harry's bodyguard to Dudley….
…….Katherine Emera protecting Harry from Dudley's gang….
…….Katherine Emera getting in trouble for the fights that resulted from said protecting…
……Katherine Emeras' shy, bordering on phobic, demeanor to strangers, new places and especially to public situations that involved her being alone (with the obvious exception of fighting, as it seemed when the girl lost her temper, all shyness went out the window….)
……playing tag during recess………on rainy days relaxing in the classroom, listening to Katherine Emeras' stuttering lisp, as she read to him as they resided in a small corner, with Harry's head in her lap……sharing lunches……the day they had given each other those ridiculous nicknames….them sharing silly little secrets………and especially the way he gradually got his best friend to come out of her shell, though not by much……….
Simple things that all childhood friends did, it had been a cheery part of Harry's otherwise miserable childhood. His smile faltered after a minute. 'But even she left after awhile.' The thought sobered him from his memory high instantly.
A lump formed in his throat as he recalled that day, the day, two years later when his KitKat came to school in tears, with parents in tow. When he asked what was wrong, the little girl had merely thrown her arms around his neck and cried harder into his shoulder. Her mother had knelt before him and pulled them both into a tight hug, then told him in a sad voice that they were moving away in a week. That Mr. Winters, Katherine's father, had been transferred again. It was the most miserable day in Harry's young life that he could remember.
He refused to speak for hours, Katherine Emera had finally calmed down and had begun to try to cheer her best friend up, only to have him explode at her, making her dissolve into tears again and relapse back into her silent, frightened self. She, once again, would not look anyone in the face, nor did she speak for two days.
Harry remembered feeling extremely guilty afterward as he watched Katherine Emera; silent tears fell continuously down her face. And while he remained angry and hurt, he decided that he didn't want his best friends last week to be this way; he actually didn't want this to be her last week period. Harry had apologized the third day and the duo remained inseparable as possible. When the day finally came for Katherine Emera and her family to leave, Harry and presented her with a little card and a necklace made of sky blue ribbon woven into two white heart shaped buttons with a tiny silver bell hanging between them. Harry had made both himself with help from their first teacher from years before.
The little girl had burst into tears when he gave them to her, and after having Harry place the necklace on her, she latched onto her best friend as if her life depended on it, while Harry did the same. The two had cried until neither could get another tear out and simply held each other until Katherine Emeras' parents said it was time. The two had whimpered and pulled apart only to clasp hands one last time.
Flashback
"Don't forget me, okay?" the little girl sniffled.
"I won't," Harry whimpered. "Never ever. I promise."
"Promise promise?"
"I promise as you Harryberry, KitKat," Harry smiled weakly.
End of Flashback
"But I did forget about her," Harry sighed. He felt a pang of guilt but pushed it aside, why was he feeling guilt? After all he had broken a promise to an imaginary person, not an actual one.
"Katherine Emera wasn't real," he stated firmly.
"Harry? Who you talkin' to?" Ron mumbled as he sat up blearily.
"No one, Ron. Just thinking aloud," Harry retreated back to his bed. "Go back to sleep."
Ron just nodded sleepily, and laid back down, soon his snores resounded within the room, leaving Harry alone shaking his head in amusement and his thoughts scattered.
Laying back in bed, the raven haired wizard stared at his ceiling, wondering about the strange little girl that was once the most important person in his life. He shook his head and sighed as he turned to his side.
"She isn't real," he whispered. "Never was."
As he drifted off to sleep, his mind gave on last thought….. 'Who would let their little girl have blue hair?'
^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^
Fifteen-year-old Katherine Emera Winters scurried about her room searching, checking that all her belongings that were accompanying her on her trip were packed. Looking at her watch she sighed, it was nearly eight. She had to hurry, her parents were waiting and they were not a patient pair, actually revoke that last remark. It was her father that was the impatient one. As she found things she thought she might need she'd then toss the items into bags or stuff them into her pockets, though in reality she longed to just chuck it all into one big bag and be done with it, but noooooooooooooo she couldn't do that! She had to pack properly, as it should be as a military brat, it was either do that or get two weeks in the guest room a.k.a. the brig for grounding. So here she was….packing…ugh.
"Graaah! Goddess above! Why did I wait for the last minute to pack?" she moaned. 'Cause you're an idiot and the queen of the procrastination.' Her brain stated.
"Shut up, brain! It was a rhetorical question!" the young woman growled. "If I wanted your opinion I'd ask."
Her brain remained silent though it decided to pout.
All in all, despite the evils of packing, headaches caused by evil packing and arguments with her brain, the teen was excited. It had been nearly seven years since she and her family had left Great Britain for Japan, from there to Mexico and back to America where her father finally retired, thank Goddess, and worked as a librarian of all things.
The years had changed the girl that Harry befriended, and the coaxing on Harry's part hadn't hurt either. Gone was the insecure, frightened, painfully shy little girl, though she did have a tendency to be quiet in large crowds, lest it a concert, a was still a bit shy about strangers. The teen was now friendly and outgoing, she brought a smile to peoples faces through her odd antics and peaceful and calm demeanor. She was the ultimate listener due to her quiet habits and bookworm tendencies, was very protective of her friends, she kept them from doing anything highly illegal, though she was continuously n trouble for a number of things. Yes, the little girl of old was gone and this sweet wild child of sorts was her replacement. So it shouldn't have but Katherine Emera had been very surprised when her parents had told her that she was going away for the next year or so, and to pack her things.
Flashback
"What for?!" Katherine shouted. "I've been good!"
Both her parents had snorted at this statement.
"Well, I have been! I haven't gotten in trouble for awhile now."
"You mean you haven't gotten caught in a while." Her father teased.
"I plead the fifth on that matter, father."
Her mother shook her head, "Whatever, meja, we all know you haven't got a place to ditch to now that Aubrey graduated. He was the only one with a car and his parents were never home, so you all went there to hang out."
"And since you were caught smoking on campus, the security have been watching you all like hawk-"
"Okay! Okay! I get the point. No allies equals Kat good girl. I admit it! I'm a delinquent! I need help! I can't stop!" Katherine dropped to her knees and clasped her hands before her, crawling to her parents. "I need help!"
"Enough." Her father stated and the blue eyed girl popped back to her feet and stood before her parents.
"But I have been being good. So why send me away?" she asked.
"Your godfather wants you to spend the remainder of summer with him and we decided that sending you to another school will do you some good. You're always whining that you miss Britain, so you'll be going to Hogwarts come September. Your godfather already arranged it."
"Hogwarts? Isn't that a boarding school? As in uniforms? Damn." Katherine buried her head in her hands.
"You are allowed to wear what you want under your robes." Her mother reassured.
"As long as it's somewhat dressy, I guess." Her father added.
Katherine perked up at the information. "The uniform is wizarding robes? With whatever we want underneath? I could live with that!"
"And you can spend time with that godfather of yours."
"Hey! What's wrong with Tio?"
"Nothing! He' just…unique," her mother sighed.
"You mean he's weird and all. Well,…you're the ones who picked him as my nino. If you didn't want him influencing me you shouldn't have picked him. It's your fault and no one else."
"Yeah, yeah." Her father grumbled. "Well, your mother picked him." Smack. "So, you will go and join him and plan devious schemes and such. At your mothers and my expense more than likely."
"Have no idea what you're talking about…" Katherine looked about the room with hands clasped behind her back.
"And maybe…he can fix what that wand of his did, and get your hair back to normal?" her mother added off handedly.
The blue haired girl looked at her mother in horror and clutched a clump of the hair in question in her hands and cried, "Mama no! I like my hair just the way it is! No way am I letting tio change it back. I'll bite him first!"
Her mother shook her head and sighed, "It was just a thought…"
End of Flashback
The teen touched her pale blue locks and shuddered at the pure evil thought of losing them. After twelve years of seeing them in the mirror, she could rightly say she was quite attached to them thank you.
No one in her family, herself, or her beloved godfather knew what happened that day…..all Katherine Emera remembered of that day was that she somehow got her Nino's wand, that she played with it, a big boom, and voila!
Not that she minded of course. She had seen pictures of what she had looked like before….¡Dios Mio! She was most grateful to be no longer cursed with the dull brown mop that had once been her hair; how she gotten her tio's wand was anyone's guess. Her father often said that she had the makings of a great pickpocket, and had teased her by asking where she had been practicing; his teasing almost always resulted in him getting swatted by her mother.
The young witch smiled and packed her care products and her various hair ties; then after pausing, she packed her MP3 player, CD's, CD player, laptop and cell phone, though she didn't know why. Her godfather had informed her of the horrific news that while she resided in Hogwarts, her muggle devices would not work. The new info had sunk the teen into a depression, how was she supposed to function without her stuff?!! How was she going to keep touch with everyone? How was she to survive without texting anyone?! Hell, how was she gonna connect check her myspace?!!!
Despite it all, she packed her things. They would at least keep her company on the plane, and at her Nino's place when she wasn't with him, oh, and on the train ride to King's Cross, maybe on the Express to school, and when she could get away from the oppressing…Goddess she was pathetic.
"Ay! How am I supposed to survive this year without technology?!" she agonized. Months on end with no internet!?!! No text messaging?! The thought was barbaric!
"Katherine Emera! Hurry up!" her father yelled up the stairs.
"Hai! Almost done!" Katherine Emera yelled back, hurrying to gather her bags.
The teen reached for her journal and promptly knocked over her old jewelry box, causing all its contents to spill across her floor.
"Dammit!" she sighed. "I swear, I must have killed a Murphy in a past life."
She crammed her journal into her bag, and then got on her hands and knees to proceed to gather her childhood trinkets. Soon the majority of her things were back in their box when she spotted a length of sky blue ribbon peeking from under the remaining objects.
"Oh, my…"the teenage witch breathed as she carefully extracted the item and cradled it in the palm of her hand; as if afraid it would disintegrate. She heard the distinct yet tiny chiming of a little bell as it moved, striking the heart shaped buttons on either side of it.
"My ribbon necklace," she whispered. "I thought I lost this."
The girl cuddled the little necklace as if it were a treasured toy and automatically raised her arms to tie it only to find it was too be a necklace but was now a choker. The teen laughed and secured the trinket with a safety pin and smiled as she petted the new addition, then rearranged her other necklaces to accommodate the choker.
"It seems now our little Kat now has a collar," Katherine turned to her mother and grinned.
"I was just thinking that, too," she smirked and then posed for her. "How do I look?"
"Múy buénìta, méjita," her mother stated with a laugh, but frowned, "Mì vída, please hurry up. You know your dad gets, and you haven't even finished packing!"
"Not true! I was just about to bring my stuff downstairs but I knocked down my box and I had to clean up the mess I made and I saw my ribbon necklace Harry made me…"
"Harry? OH! Oh, si, si that little boy from Britain. He really was a sweet boy."
"Harry was the best! Is the best and always will be the best!" the girl retorted childishly.
"Ay, meja…what am I going to do with you?"
"Love me forever and ever! Either that or sell me to the circus freak show….actually that would be bad…the acrobats maybe???" Katherine Emera shook her head and grabbed her old memory book from her years in Britain with Harry and flipped through it as she gathered the last of her things. "Ah! Found it! I knew it would be here!'
"¿Que?" her mother stepped into the room to look over her daughters shoulder. There on the pages was the little construction paper card that the young Harry Potter made with all his love; the cover was decorated with two stick figures, a boy and a girl with names 'Harry' and 'Katherine' respectively scrawled above them. Glitter sparkled all over the paper and bits fell as the teen opened the old card, she winced but her mother said, "I'll gather the fallen bits later."
Katherine nodded and looked at the cards contents; inside was a wrapper to a KitKat bar and a magazine cut out of a strawberries and blueberries taped to the paper, below that was a photo of Harry and Katherine Emera in front of the school taken by their teacher. Written below the photo, in Harry's scrawl was: "KitKat and Harryberry-best friends forever and ever!"
"Harry…." Katherine ran her hand over the writing and smiled sadly. "Mama, I miss him so much."
"I know, mì vída, but enough daydreaming! You have a plane to catch!" her mother proceeded to grab Katherine's things and hurried downstairs.
Katherine watched her mom leave then stuff the memory book into her carry on, there was no way in Hades she was going to leave this behind now that she had it. She touched her necklace and whispered, "Do you miss me, Harry? Cause I sure miss you."
"Katherine! Hurry up! That plane isn't going to wait for you!" boomed the irritated voice of her father.
"Coming, papí!" Katherine yelled as she grabbed her remaining bags and raced downstairs to the car and to the airport.
"Crap! I forgot my wand!"
As I said, after a return trip to the house, headed to the airport.
A/N: Okay! Was it good…bad…should I be locked in a closet? *shudders violently*
Katherine Emeras brain: She really hates enclosed spaces. Especially closets and car trunks. Claustrophobia at it's best ppl.
LGFS:I really do….*shudder* They are all completely evil things. Anyway R&R! PLZ!