The Girl Everybody Forgot
By Raekitty13
Disclaimer: Lalalalalalalalala… oh. Am I supposed to put something important here?
Author's Notes: I have a couple of comments to make here for KRP's benefit. While the owl in the last chapter was indeed very intelligent, the first couple of lines were in bold on my computer, but when it was transferred to it changed it and I didn't catch it. A couple of Blaze's lines were that way too. I'm sorry for that. Don't you just love techology? lol. I can tell you that Cali is two years older than Harry but you'll have to learn the past at the same time as Cali for the rest of your questions to be answered. And lastly… I don't know how an owl makes meowing noises… it's a fan fic… right? Plus it's also somewhat of a AU… so… lol. I hope the rest of you enjoy the chapter!!! I'm having fun writing this story. As I said before it's really starting to grow on me!
Other notes of importance:
---: Indicates passing time.
Bold lettering is Cat Speak if not an Author's Note or title.
Thank yous: Luna32 and KRP. I'm so glad you all took the time to review! I really enjoyed reading what you had to say. I hope you have fun comparing your predictions to my latest chapter!!! Thank you ever so much guys!!!
Chapter Four- Shopping Spree
"Wow. You're a quick little owl." I remarked as the owl that had delivered my letter earlier returned.
"Not that fast. It's ten thirty PM."
"You still got it here in the same day, right?"
If owls could smile, that's what I would call this owl's facial expression.
"Open your letter, Cat Speaker. You've waited long enough for answers." The owl gave another one of its "smiles". "See you around, Cat Speaker."
I nodded. Taking the letter and reopening the window for the owl. I let the cool breeze of the on coming fall brush my long red hair across my face before closing it again.
Opening the envelope I glanced at it nervously. What was I going to see? Was this really all just a joke?
Looking at the parchment it had the same color and handwriting. I read it silently by the light of the full moon:
Dear Cali Cat Speaker,
We understand that you are an Orphan. We have a financial program for the poor, Orphans and Muggles. As for transportation and your Orphanage Mistress that is all planed out. On August 31st Miss Kelsey Brawning's aunt, Mrs. Fewer, will take you shopping and then pick you up again on September 1st to take you King's Crossing where you will board the Hogwarts Express from Platform 9 ¾. While Mrs. Fewer is there she will explain both you and Kelsey's absence. You have nothing to worry about. I hope you will enjoy your first year at Hogwarts. If you have any other questions, feel free to ask.
Yours sincerely,
Minerva McGonagall
Minerva McGonagall, Deputy Headmistress
I felt so excited as I went to bed that night. I had happy thoughts on the brain. I was going to a new school, one for Witches and Wizards. I was going to get answers, ones that I could share with everybody else.
The excitement had clouded my mind. I wasn't thinking of the impending darkness. I wasn't thinking about Blaze being taken away. I wasn't even curious about how Professor McGonagall knew I was a Witch, or if Kelsey Brawning was the same Kelsey that was here in my Orphanage. If she was happy that I was a witch because she too, was a witch.
That was the first night I had gotten any real sleep for nine years. Although I didn't have any scary dreams, I did dream about my family again. This time it was different from all of the other times.
"Daddy. What is that word?" I asked pointing to the newspaper in front of us.
We were sitting at the kitchen table, me in his lap, coffee in his hand. He was reading the newspaper and I was trying to find words I recognized. So far I had found three.
"Well," Daddy said following my finger. "What letter does it start with?"
"A t?" I asked.
"Yes, that's a t." He praised. "What's the next letter?"
"An h?"
"Yes. Good job!"
"The next one is an… e… right, Daddy?"
"Yes. Now sound it out."
"T…h…e…" I stumbled with the pronunciation a bit. "The?"
"The! Very good, Lori!" Daddy said happily. "Lily, your daughter is a genius just like you."
"What was that, James?" Mummy called from the kitchen.
"I said your daughter is as smart as you." Daddy had a proud expression on his face.
Mummy came out to the table and kissed my forehead. "Looks like Lori takes after me, meaning Harry's going to be a Quidditch star like you."
"Quidditch?" I asked.
"Best not to get your father started, Sweety." Mummy said lifting me off of Daddy's lap. "Want to help me with the toast, Lori?"
"Yeah!"
---------------
Over the remaining days until August thirty-first I was so excited. I couldn't wait to go shopping. I was no longer worried about if this was some sort of joke, but whether or not I was going to understand anything they tried to teach me. So really I was nervously excited…
"Kelsey," I asked one day. I was tired of waiting for her aunt. I wanted to ask her. "Have you been to Hogwarts before?"
"No." Kelsey said with a smile. "This is my first year as well, but I'm not a Muggle-born either."
"A Muggle-born?" I asked rather confused.
"A Muggle is a person who is non-magical. There for a Muggle-Born is a Witch or Wizard born to non-magical parents." She explained.
"I don't think that's the case for me." I said. "Blaze said to find answers I needed to take the letter seriously, I needed to go to Hogwarts. That means at least one of my parents had to be Witch or Wizard, right?"
Kelsey nodded, "Either that or they were related to a Witch or Wizard."
"The other girls," I started.
"If you feel your past is really as much theirs as it is yours, you can tell them, I guess. But I don't think they'll believe you. Plus, I have no clue what story my aunt is going to feed the Orphanage Mistress."
"If you have an aunt, why do you live here?" I asked. "Why don't you live with her?"
"My aunt doesn't live the life of a caring guardian. She's training to become a travel agent, and so she needs to travel a lot. But when my parents got arrested for been present at the crime scene, she agreed to take me shopping. But Dumbledore must have known you were going to be attending as well."
"Dumbledore?"
"Actually it's Professor Dumbledore, he's the Headmaster."
"Oh! I see. When did you get your letter."
"On my birthday, May 17th." Kelsey said with a smile. "Make sure to mark it because you and I are going to stick together."
I nodded. "You can count on it. I have no clue what it is I'm getting into."
"Me neither for the most part." Kelsey admitted. "It's not like I have any older siblings."
"But your parents?"
"They're American." Kelsey replied.
"Oh…" I smiled. "It's still better to get lost with someone else than to get lost all on your own!"
"True." She agreed with a smile.
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"Do you girls have your lists?" Mrs. Fewer asked.
She was a lot younger than I thought she would be. "We're newly weds. I told Ted to wait until after I'm done with my training, but he said that he wanted to be with me forever, starting now." She had such a lovely smile whenever she talked about Ted. They must really love each other, that's the only thought that entered my head whenever she talked about him.
"Yeah." We replied together.
We were so excited. It was great, tomorrow we would be on our way to Hogwarts. Tomorrow we would start the rest of our lives. Tomorrow it wouldn't matter for me that I was an orphan, for her it wouldn't matter that her parents were arrested for something they didn't do, we had the chance to start over and we were going to take it. We couldn't wait.
"You want to read it to me? That way I can think of all the stores we need to enter before we go into all the others?" she smiled brightly.
"Okay." Kelsey said. "For our uniforms we need three sets of plain black work robes, one plain, black pointed hat for day wear, one pair of protective gloves of dragon hide or similar, and one black winter cloak with silver fastenings."
"Okay," Mrs. Fewer said. "We'll have to stop at Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions. What's next on your list?"
"Next is the book list!" I replied excitedly. We were sitting on the subway on our way to Diagon Alley. I was excited, my first Wizarding community, what clues would I find there?
"We need The Standard Book of Spells Grade One, By Miranda Goshawk."
"Got two of them." Kelsey said grabbing two books off the shelf. We had gotten our uniform stuff taken care of. "Next?"
We were in Flourish and Blot's bookstore. "A History of Magic, by Bathilda Bagshot."
"Got them here." Replied the store clerk.
"Next?" Mrs. Fewer asked.
" Magical Theory, by Adalbert Waffling." I said looking up, "Oh, here they are."
I pulled two books off the shelf and added them to our pile. "Next is A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration, by Emeric Switch."
"Okay," Kelsey said. "The next one is One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi, by Phyllisa Spore, right?"
"Yeah. And then we need Magical Drafts and Potions, by Arsenius Jigger."
"Is that it?" Kelsey asked.
"Nope. We still need Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, by Newt Scamander and-"
"The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection."
I whirled around to find a guy with sandy brown hair and intense blue eyes standing behind me. When I turned around he ran his hand through his hair nervously reminding me of someone…
"How'd you know that?" I asked.
He smiled. "I'm in my Second year at Hogwarts. I think I still have a good copy of that one if you want to save your galleons."
"Gallons?" I asked.
"Um, yeah. You know the money you're paying with. Those are Knuts, Sickles, and Galleons." He pulled out three coins as he said there names he showed me the different ones. The Knut was a bronze color, the Sickle a silver and the Galleon was gold-ish. "There's seventeen Sickles to a Galleon and twenty-nine Knuts to a Sickle."
"So there's four hundred and ninety-three Knuts to a Galleon?" I asked.
He took a couple of minutes, "Yeah, that's right. That was a pretty quick calculation."
I smiled but he seemed a little discouraged. "What's wrong?"
"Huh?" he asked looking up at me again suddenly. "Oh, I was just thinking about how you were most likely going to end up in Ravenclaw."
"Is that bad?" I asked.
"Uh," I watched him blush and felt my cheeks warm at the thought of why he was blushing… "No. It's just that my house is Gryffindor."
"House?" I asked.
"Um… Mr.…." Mrs. Fewer stumbled and I realized we hadn't swapped names yet.
"Wood. I'm Oliver Wood." He said suddenly offering me his hand.
I took it but what was I supposed to say? What was my name again?
"Right, we'll leave you here to explain to Cali a little more in depth about Hogwarts." Mrs. Fewer saved me.
"Uh, okay." He said awkwardly. I really couldn't blame him…
"Cali, we'll get the rest of your stuff on the supply list but your wand." I nodded and she turned to Oliver. "Can I trust you to bring her to Ollivander's in an hour?"
"She'll be there." Oliver say blushing.
Kelsey pulled me away from Oliver as she took my list and whispered, "My aunt just set you up on a date with that guy. Have fun lucky duck."
Kelsey winked at me as she and her aunt left. I felt so confused. What the heck was I to do on my "date"? What if I messed this up?
I mean Oliver was really good looking and he was really nice as far as I knew. But I had known him for a total of what? Seven minutes? And what was I supposed to do if he was a murderer or something?
I turned back towards Oliver smiling nervously, trying to convince my imagination to settle down…
Oliver returned my quivering smile. "So do you want to continue this conversation over an ice-cream Sunday, Cali?"
A true smile touched my lips. "I'd like that very much, Oliver."
He took my arm gently and led me to the ice cream shop down the street. I liked the way he said my name… my hand in his felt safe… his shy smile was really cute… his blue eyes were so intelligent and kind … Oliver. But we weren't even friends yet, right?
Author's Notes: Yay fluff! I love fluff! But the fluff is just beginning, plus he's twelve and she's eleven, not much fluff for pre-teens… sighs… we'll all just have to wait… Okay so what do you think? What are your predictions? What do you like, dislike or think should be added? Please review!!! I love your opinions!