Hey guys! Thanks to alycya and Rue for the reviews...made my day!
Another chapter...hopefully not too much of a let down to the cliffhanger from before (mwahaha!)
Enjoy! And review
"Catrin...? Hello? Can you hear me?"
Blurred faces swam above Catrin, looking as indistinct as clouds.
"Kitty-cat, wake up! Come on, you soft touch! It was only a stunner!"
"It slammed her into the wall, though. Should we get Madam Pomfrey?"
That was Fred's voice...she thought.
Catrin blinked, and the world suddenly shifted into focus. With the focus came the pain; aching all down her back like she'd spent a night in the gutter. She groaned.
"Can you hear us?"
She struggled to form words. "Yes...idiots."
There was a pause, and then she levered herself upright, ignoring the stiffness in her arms. Her ink bottle had smashed over everything, and soaked her robes in a residue of black shadow. Catrin stretched experimentally, taking an inventory of her various bruises, none of which she deemed too bad.
Then she looked up into the faces of her friends- well, Alice. Plus James and Fred.
"Hey guys." She croaked. "Thanks for saving me."
Alice sniffed. "We thought we were too late! Potter and Weasley only just spotted you in time and nabbed me on the way to come and get you!"
"It looked like Malfoy was having a bit too much fun, if you know what I mean." Fred tucked his wand behind his ear and grinned at James. "Sadly, we were there to deal with him."
"Lovely." Catrin stood up slowly, and picked up her bag- which had miraculously escaped the drenching- and the remains of her ink bottle. "Cheers, guys. I think Macnair was more wound up by the prank than I realised- who knew that vegetables could be so bad for you?"
James' face darkened. "I thought he was up to no good-I heard that his father taught him Dark Magic."
"There was someone talking about that on the train here." Catrin had only just remembered her brush with the mysterious stranger, and recounted the conversation to the others. Afterwards, there was silence.
"Death Eaters?" Alice had gone pale. "What? Why now? Dad hardly talks about them. He says-" she lowered her voice "-he says that's why my grandparents are...not all there. He won't tell me why though."
"The Death Eaters were disbanded, though." Fred mused, running a hand through his hair. "They're finished...so..."
"So where's the threat coming from?" James asked.
"Precisely, Jammy."
"Well, I'll keep my eyes open." Catrin said seriously. "But- oh no! I've got to go: extra Transfig."
"After slamming into the wall like a wrecking ball? I don't think so, Kitty-cat." James shook his head vigorously, causing his curls to perform little dances on top of his head.
"You really need to learn how to defend yourself." Alice grinned at her- a most unAlice-like grin.
"I can more than take care of myself." Catrin scoffed, stretching out the sore muscles in her body as she did so. "Though I'd like to learn some spells."
"No chance, Jones." James interjected hastily, walking towards her. "Trade secrets. Defending yourself without spells, though? Risky, risky...what happens if I was a kidnapper, and I did- this?"
He lunged forward, intending to put his wand at her throat, but she was too quick for him. Ducking out from under his lunge, she grabbed his outstretched wand hand, spun herself around, braced herself, then quickly and neatly heaved him over the shoulder and onto his back. She whipped out her wand and pointed it at him.
"Yes? What if you did that?"
James flushed; Fred stifled a guffaw. "Nice try, James."
"If they saw us fighting in the corridor..." Alice was back to her usual self, but neither Catrin, James nor Fred paid her any attention. All Catrin's attention was focussed on the potential threat, but she knew that when she looked back on the event she would feel scared by how she really felt alive at the times when her personal safety was in danger.
James got up again, slowly and- Catrin guessed- painfully. "Right. No wands this time, Jones. No cheating."
"Wouldn't dream of it."
He came at her again- again, Catrin sidestepped him, and efficiently swiped his legs out from under him, twisting his arms until he gasped.
"Had enough?" She asked. James groaned; his ego was probably as bruised as his body. Carefully, he stood, wincing as he did so, and then stared at her.
"Where the hell did you learn that?"
She shrugged, not wanting to go into the details of going to judo until she was ten, and then how her living rough had forced her to have to defend herself against people of all sizes. "I just...picked it up, I guess."
"Picked it..." Alice, James and Fred gaped at her, and she shuffled self-consciously. "What?"
"Right, Jones." Fred announced. "Remind me never to get on your bad side."
This reminded her of something.
"Er...I don't suppose you know about a 'room of reflections', do you?"
"A what?" Fred frowned, James scoffed. "Has all the fighting addled your brains?"
"I was only wondering because Macnair said something about it, in the letter to his parents..." She trailed off, cursing herself for letting that slip.
"Woah. You really are ahead of us in the prank stakes, Jones! Pick pocketing Macnair? You're a regular Fagin." Fred grinned widely. "Next time, count us in!"
James, however, wasn't interested in that. "Room of reflections..." he mused, stroking his chin. "That, plus disappearances, plus secret kidnappers... the plot thickens. Catrin Jones, I'll keep my eyes open to see if anything comes up. I'm not having some idiot trying to bring back Voldemort."
"Sit down, sit down."
Professor Dawlish gestured impatiently at the class. There was the usual scraping and clunking as people put inkpots, books and quills down in front of them. They were in the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom, a handsome stone room with interesting artifacts- a skull, a pixie skeleton, and, oddly, a framed picture of a smiling, blond wizard who was pointing at himself and grinning. Catrin was sitting near the back, with her friends, and chewing absent-mindedly on the end of her quill. She was still feeling stiff from earlier events, but that was nothing compared to now...butterflies were doing the rounds in her stomach; today was the day that she got her essay back. Make or break...it wasn't just the humiliating prospect of handwriting lessons. She liked DADA- this was one lesson that she didn't want to screw up completely.
"Here-" Dawlish waved his wand and the pile of scrolls on his desk zoomed back to their various owners. Hopefully, Catrin risked a peek at top of her essay- and felt her heart zoom to her feet. Written on it was a neat, curlicued 5/20 with a comment see to your handwriting before attempting this again.
"What did you get?" Valerie said in Catrin's ear. Catrin jumped and guiltily stashed the scroll in her bag. "Erm...what did you get?"
"Sixteen." Came the proud reply. Damn!
"Good for you!" Catrin said with forced cheerfulness, banging Valerie so hard on the back that she choked. She glanced around the wood-panelled room- James and Fred were looking extremely smug, so were many of the Slytherins. Even Michael Thomas had allowed a small smile to cross his lips.
Mary was also looking smug, although, Catrin suspected, for an entirely different reason. Shaking out her dark braids, she leant across to Catrin and whispered "I'll talk to Lupin tonight."
"Attention, class." Dawlish called. "Today we're going to be studying vampires. Now, I know that your mothers might swear by a certain man called 'Lockhart'-" here Dawlish's mouth twisted slightly "-but I might have to inform you that he is still recovering from a backfired Memory Charm placed upon him 25 years ago. So, we'll all be starting anew..."
"Three, two, one...go!"
Catrin let go of the bushywig bean. It rose into the air, shivered a little- and then took off like a bat out of hell down the length of the table, slamming into Mary. Judging by the sudden bulge of her eyes, Catrin noted, it must have hurt a little.
"Merlin's beard, Cat! I believe Longbottom said 'let go slowly'!" Mary gasped.
"Sorry, sorry." Catrin noted the results of the bean's bid for freedom on the chart beneath her, and then slid the chart over to Mary to copy from.
They were sitting in the library, starting on the reams of homework that the teachers had given them over the half-term to do. Catrin didn't see how she was going to get it all done- much less the defence against the dark arts, unless someone helped her.
"How's the investigation going?" Mary asked, scribbling furiously. "And by the way, I talked to Teddy Lupin, and he said he'd be 'more than happy' to help. He's free Wednesday, so I booked you in for lunchtime."
"Awh." Catrin groaned- she'd half-hoped that Mary had forgotten about their pact. "Why Lupin? And what investigation?"
"Because Lupin gets stellar marks in his lessons, and he's a seventh-year. Less likely to laugh at you." Mary said seriously. "And, anyway, what do you mean 'what investigation'? I thought you wanted to figure out all about Macnair, Death Eaters reborn, all that stuff."
"Oh yeah...well, I haven't exactly had time. I was hoping to talk to Michael Thomas, see what he knows."
"Be careful..." Mary raised worried brown eyes from the parchment to Catrin. "His mothers' just vanished, it's almost like You-Know-Who's back. Though that's not true." She shuddered. "Go easy, yeah?"
"Yeah...look! There he comes now!"
Indeed, Michael Thomas had just walked into the library –and, Catrin noted thankfully- alone.
"Be back in a min."
She leapt up, not wanting to startle him- or bring the wrath of the ancient, wrinkled librarian Madam Pince down on her head. Quietly, she tiptoed over to where he'd disappeared, and found him between two shelves, staring blankly at the bookcase in front of him.
Hesitantly, she cleared her throat. "Umm...Michael?"
He jumped violently, almost upsetting a large stack of books next to him. Together, he and Catrin raced to steady the pile before it toppled down on them, and, afterwards, turned to face her, wide eyes puffy and sleepless.
"What d'you want?" He asked bluntly.
Catrin stared at the Ravenclaw crest on his robes, wishing she could make this easier.
"To...talk to you. About your mother's disappearance. If that's...I mean, if you don't mind..."
"What?" This didn't seem to register in his mind for a while. When it did, about ten seconds later, his eyes darkened. "No. No way!"
"Please...I only want to figure out what's going on! Creepy things have been happening. I could...talk to Harry Potter, see if he could help."
"Why don't you go and do that."
Catrin tried again. "Only with your information. What you say could help save her life!"
"Why don't you talk to my father?" Michael's voice twisted. "He can tell you everything. Leave me alone! Don't you think people haven't asked me about this?" His voice was rising steadily; Catrin glanced over her shoulder for fear of being caught by Pince.
Right, tough tactics were needed.
She leant forward, voice low and fierce. "God help me, Michael Thomas, I've been in your position myself, and my mother ended up dead. It's hard, I know it's hard, but don't you think any information, given to anyone, increases the chance that she could be saved?"
For a minute she thought Michael was going to scream at her, and felt a stab of guilt for her words. She hadn't meant them to be so hard-hitting...
But then he deflated, and sat down abruptly, as though his knees were giving way. Perhaps they had.
Catrin sat down next to him, as carefully as if there was someone sleeping and she didn't want to wake them, and stared at the books in front of her, counting the embossed spines. He wouldn't talk to her if she were staring at him like he was in a freak show.
"I got a letter from her, the day she...disappeared." Michael started talking suddenly, head resting on his hands. Catrin sat very still, trying not to disturb him.
"She said that I had to be careful, there was something happening in Hogwarts and the Wizarding World. She...she said she'd heard rumours, of old Death Eaters, that they wanted to get something important- she didn't say what, just that it was important, and that it was essential that they were stopped. She said..." The boy's voice broke momentarily, and he squeezed his eyelids tight, holding back his grief.
"She said I had to leave Hogwarts. But the very next day...she disappeared."
"I'm sorry." Catrin said as gently as she could. "It'll get easier..."
"I don't want it to get easier! My mother...she's gone! You're making it sound like she's gone forever! Go...go away!" Michael had shot to his feet, hysterical, tears running down his face and mixing with the snot from his nose.
Catrin stood up too, and quickly. It was no point talking to him further like this; he wouldn't even listen to comfort at this point. She spared him one last look, then beat a hasty retreat before Madam Pomfrey came and chucked her out.
"Any luck? Not much, judging by the sound." Mary grimaced sympathetically as she slid into her seat opposite. Catrin didn't reply: what with reflecting rooms, missing mothers and creepy Slytherins, she felt that she had a lot more on her hands than she'd bargained for.