Disclaimer: I own nothing except for Catherine. JK Rowling owns everything else.

Warning: As usual my sexuality warnings.

Chapter 13

They all arrived at King's Cross station with ten minutes to spare. They said goodbye to Mr. and Mrs. Potter and jumped on the train. Mrs. Potter stopped Catherine and looked at her, "Just please be careful honey, I don't want anything to happen to you. You may think otherwise, but I do care for you honey, you're the daughter I never had." She said. Catherine was shocked at the tenderness in her voice. "I promise Mrs. Potter, I will be careful." She said as they hugged.

"You have a good year, I'm very proud of your marks by the way." She said with a smile. Catherine smiled back and jumped onto the train.

The ride to Hogwarts passed uneventful, Catherine didn't see Severus and she was happy for that small blessing. She was actually still quite wounded by what had happened. She won't admit it to anyone, but she still loved him. She cared for Sirius, a lot, and she may even love him, but a part of her heart still belonged to Severus, and she wondered if it always would. They arrived at the castle in the evening. It was already dark outside as Catherine, Lily, James and Sirius left the train together. Sirius took Catherine's hand and she gave his hand an affectionate squeeze as she took it. Smiling at her he leaned over and gave her a kiss before stepping into the carriage that would take them up to the castle.

Once at the castle they made their way into the Great Hall where they were surprised to see a lot of people were not there. Catherine stood in the doorway contemplating this while she waited for Sirius, who had run off to greet people. Tired of waiting she made her way towards the Gryffindor table, staring at the ceiling not paying attention where she was going. She snapped back to earth when she walked into something tall and hard.

"Oh, sorry, wasn't paying attention," she said. The person turned around and she saw that it was Severus. She gasped quietly. He had grown what looked like a foot over the summer and she saw some stubble on his face and he also looked like he had bulked up a bit over the summer. All in all, he looked pretty damn good!

"Hey Cat." He said quietly. His voice had also changed a bit. It had gotten deeper and velvety, and it was quite sexy! She thought to her herself.

"Hi." She said in a monotone.

"I…um…" he started, but was interrupted as Sirius came over and put his arms around Catherine and kissed her on the neck.

"There you are love, thought I lost you." He said with a grin, "All right, Snivellus?" he continued nastily.

Severus looked from Cat to Sirius and glared at Sirius as he turned and made his way to the Slytherin table. Catherine looked at Severus as she took her seat at the Gryffindor table with James, Lily and the rest of the gang.

"It's pretty empty," Lily said sounding a little worried. "You don't think that everyone has been…killed, do you?" Catherine shook her head,

"Zat ees not some'zing zat could be 'idden very easily. Not all of d'ose deaths. Plus eets mostly sevent' years anyways." She said. Lily took a look around.

"You're right, that's weird." She said, and then fell silent as Dumbledore stood up.

"Good evening everyone, to our first years welcome and to everyone else, welcome back! I know I usually save my speech until after our feast, but I have something of grave importance I wish to discuss with you. As you may or may not have noticed, most of our seventh year students are gone. This is because, as you all know, there are dark times among us. Lord Voldemort and his followers are wreaking havoc everywhere. They are committing unheard of crimes and murders. The ministry has a short of trained Aurors. Therefore, those of our seventh year students who were deemed capable left school a year early to begin training as Aurors."

Several students looked around at eachother shocked and started murmuring to eachother, while others looked scared. Catherine caught Lily's eye and saw she was shocked. Dumbledore held up his hand for silence and everyone stopped talking at once.

"Now, the ministry is going to need more Aurors, Healers, Curse Breakers and such. This will pose a problem seeing as I have no more seventh years left, so I have therefore decided that some of sixth years will be skipping the year and begin a specialized training program, so that this coming June, they will be prepared to join the ministry. About three quarters of you were up to standards. I have sent letters home to the parents or guardians of the students I have chosen. I have heard back from almost everyone's parents, I am just waiting for a couple more responses and once I get them I shall be informing the students that I have chosen. The student has the right to refuse if they so wish. If not, I will be explaining to you the responsibilities you will have. That is all I have to say on that subject, I shall give you the notices once we are fed and watered. For now, tuck in!" and the plates in front of them magically appeared with food.

"So Cat, I guess you'll be leaving us." James said grinning at her as he helped himself to some chicken.

"What do you mean?" she asked filling her own plate with food.

"Well it's obvious you've been chosen to move up, your grades were brilliant and you've always been ahead of everyone else." He said.

"I am not going anywhere wit'out you guys." Catherine said defiantly.

"Oh yes you will! You need to fight you-know-who. He's after you Cat, it's important you learn this." Lily said as she swallowed her chicken.

"Well, I'm sure you guys will be going as well. You all did very good." Catherine said.

"Maybe," Sirius said with a smile on his face as he began eating.

Once everyone was fed and watered, Dumbledore gave his notices, and then he dismissed them. They made their way to the front of the hall slowly; chatting about who in their grade they think is going to be asked to skip.

A/N: Hope you're still enjoying, thanks everyone for reading and reviewing, your reviews mean a lot wether they are good or bad!