Kathy spent the rest of the summer between Hogwarts and the Weasley's home, The Burrow. Little did she know that over the next 7 years, this would become the norm, and soon enough, her brother would also fall into the same routine.
She loved the freedom that being at the burrow offered, and the sense of family, which though she couldn't complain about Minerva and Albus, she always wondered what a 'normal' home would feel like. The Burrow seemed to meet all her expectations and then some. She loved racing around with the Weasley brood, especially Fred and George, and Molly just accepted her as part of the family.
Of course, there was one person not overly happy that Kathy was hanging around the house so much and that was Percy. Of all the Weasley's, he was the one who seemed devoid of a sense of humour, so Kathy quite agreed with Fred and George, that he was the one who most deserved to get pranked. And of course, he gave the best reaction, well aside from Molly who Kathy didn't like to prank because she was so kind her.
On August 31st, Kathy was escorted to the Burrow by Minerva with a small bag containing her school robes she would have to change into on the train, and her pyjamas.
"Thank you for this Molly." Minerva said, "It's so nice that she gets to take the train for her first term. And thank you for all summer, I do feel for her as the only child in Hogwarts for the summer."
"It's no problem at all," Molly smiled as Kathy disappeared off to find Fred and George, "It's nice to have another girl around her, Ginny and I get a bit outnumbered at times. I will make sure she gets on the train on time tomorrow, and I do hope my boys behave when they get to Hogwarts."
"Fred! George! Where are you?" Kathy ran up to their bedroom finding no one.
"Shhhhh...come here," George hissed.
Kathy followed the noise and found him in the Broom closet giggling. "What've you done now? Where's Fred?"
Suddenly there was a terrified scream from upstairs. "Mummy! Mummy! Help! GET IT OFF!!!"
Molly came rushing upstairs, "Ronnie? Ronnie? What's wrong baby?" followed by "FREDRICK WEASLEY HOW DARE YOU DO SUCH A TERRIBLE THING!!! YOU SHOULD KNOW BETTER THEN TO TURN YOUR BROTHER'S TEDDY INTO A SPIDER. FRONT GARDEN NOW YOUNG MAN!" Molly's voice faded out as she tried to comfort her youngest son.
Kathy and George slowly extricated themselves from the broom closet and followed Fred downstairs. "So what had Ron done to deserve this?" Kathy whispered to George.
"He told Charlie that Fred was responsible for his Dragon Care book going missing."
"And was he?"
"No, well not technically..."
"Oi! You gonna help me de-gnome this garden?" Fred interrupted their conversation.
"How?" Kathy asked.
"Watch and learn Potter." George said, picking up a gnome and swinging it around his head, finally firing it over the hedge.
Kathy picked one up, span it and threw it as hard as she could, out-shooting Fred and George's Gnomes by 15 foot.
"Nice shot Kiddo." Charlie came outside, "Looking forward to the sorting?"
Kathy grinned "yeah, should be a breeze...it's only a hippogriff we have to pass, not like it's a mountain troll or anything."
Fred and George stared with mouths agape at their friend. She didn't look like she was joking, and she'd lived at Hogwarts so she must know the score, but how on earth did you deal with a hippogriff?
At the dinner table later that evening, the usual hubbub of the Weasley household was multiplied 10-fold by the twins excitement to finally be going to Hogwarts. Kathy joined in the exuberant party mood, trying to ignore the nagging worry: What if she didn't make Gryffindor? What if she didn't turn out to be as clever as everyone expected her to be? It was at times like this she wished her mother was still alive to be able to talk too about these worries. She loved Minerva, but Minerva wasn't blessed with a motherly persona, and Kathy didn't like to disturb her for no reason.
Molly noticed Kathy was quieter at the dinner table than usual, and when the boys and Arthur retired to the lounge, she asked Kathy to help her clear up. "Is there anything wrong dear?" Molly asked Kathy gently.
Kathy looked up at Molly, and eventually decided to share her fear. "It's just well, whathappensifi'mnotingryffindor?"
Molly smiled, having had enough children she understood Kathy's garbled sentence. "Kathy sweetheart, if you're not placed if Gryffindor it doesn't matter. I know for a fact your mother was nearly a Ravenclaw, and at the end of the day, what does a house matter? You can still be friends with other people even if you're in different houses."
Kathy smiled, maybe Molly was right. Maybe she'd just threaten to feed the sorting hat to Fang unless it put her in Gryffindor. Yes that's what she'd do. "Thank you Mrs Weasley. "
"Any time dear, now why don't you run along and tell Fred and George it's time for bed?"
Molly collapsed onto the scruffy couch next to Arthur, exhausted after a day of chasing the kids around, making sure everything had been packed. Arthur smiled at his wife, put down his paper and wrapped his arm around her shoulder. "She's such a lovely little girl Arthur. No angel by far, but she's so happy. It's such a shame everything that happened, especially that she couldn't grow up with Harry. Look at how she is with Ronnie...she'd have made a great big sister." With this, Molly burst into tears.
"shhh," Arthur comforted, "It's ok. We can give her a family now, and she'll be reunited with Harry one day. Our boys will look out for her, and she is loved by the staff at Hogwarts."
Molly smiled weakly, "I'm just so glad I met Minerva in Diagon Ally that day."
A/N - Thank you to those who have reviewed, I do promise to update once a week (well as much as I'm able - computers come to me to die!!!)
anyways, on the train next chapter. i hope the grammer and spellings are passable, that was never my strong point!