The last instalment, guys. Woah...Enjoy!
The weeks after the battle flew past in a blur of schoolwork, and before anyone knew it, exam time had arrived in sync with the first burst of good weather. The mountain of schoolwork detracted the school's attention very effectively from the first year's involvement in the downfall of Rodolphus, but Mary and Slimy Creep kept getting suspicious looks from the Gryffindors who had run down to the Common Room after Alice, James, Fred and Catrin had left, and found them with an unconscious Victoire. Catrin noticed that McLaggen had quietly disappeared from school life, and she strongly suspected that he had been expelled. What a shame. At least he wouldn't ever bother her again.
The two first-year groups had bonded slightly more over the events in the Room of Requirement and she found that more time was being spent in the company of the boys- whilst she didn't have too much trouble about Fred and James, Slimy Creep was as annoying and obnoxious as ever, especially after her mini-outburst before Mary's 'confession'. She had been seriously tempted to 'accidentally' jinx him, but thought that, whilst their Head of House, Professor Longbottom was extremely nice, he just might not encourage the attacking of fellow students.
She'd also thought about telling the others about her newly discovered heritage, but then thought the better of it. She wouldn't lie, but she wouldn't advertise it either. She'd tell Harry Potter, maybe- some part of her suspected that he'd guessed it anyway- but only because he'd known Sirius better than anyone else. And from scouring old newspapers in the library- something which was rapidly becoming a habit- she'd found out, to her shock, that Sirius Black had been a wanted man or a criminal for at least fifteen years of his life before his mysterious death. Strong opinions were probably rife, and she didn't want to invite any of them onto her.
But now she had to get down to some serious schoolwork, and many hours were spent in the Common Room, under the glare of suspicious portraits, and under the shade of the large beech tree in the grounds, practising spells on each other (with dubious results- this had stopped after Alice had given Fred two black eyes and a massive peacock's tail) and looking over their notes. Catrin took this especially seriously after Fred had told her that she could be kicked out if she didn't pass the tests with enough marks.
Surprisingly, though, with all her fretting, the exams passed without any hitches, and she was pleasantly surprised to find that her excellent Defence Against the Dark Arts marks made up for her abysmal Potions grade -the only interesting thing she had ever succeeded in making in that lesson was an explosion. All her friends made it through, with James scraping some of the highest marks despite foregoing much studying in favour of playing tricks on Teddy and Victoire as they strolled through the corridors, hand in hand. Apparently, after the third water balloon, Teddy's yelling managed to shatter some panes of glass a floor below them. Scorpius wasn't going home prematurely either- their lessons were still going strong, and Catrin was pleased to find that she had a) a better grasp of spellwork and b)a really good friend in the Slytherin. Sadly, his self-defence skills were also improving, and she was suffering from many more bruises than she used to.
The end of June arrived all too soon, and the group took to passing much of their time in the grounds, in the sweltering sun, as all lessons had finished.
"I'll say this, Kitcat," James said lazily from his sprawled position amongst the roots of a shady tree. "You haven't started bragging about your amazing Lestrange stunning yet- I'm impressed."
Catrin cracked open an eyelid from her sun-lulled doze on the grass. It was a few hours before the feast in the Great Hall, and she was trying not to think about the fact that she was leaving Hogwarts the day afterwards, and starting a completely new life with her aunt and her family .
"We don't all have your hugely inflated ego, Potter." She didn't know what had happened to Lestrange's body- he was alive, she thought, but massively injured- but she did know that all of the accompanying Death Eaters had been captured and sent back to Azkaban, to her great relief. One less problem in the world couldn't be a bad thing. Though she was trying not to dwell on the fact that she had quite possibly caused the madman's death. Whilst he had most definitely deserved it- Fred had a white line on his cheek that bore testimony to that- mutilating someone was not something anybody did lightly.
"Shut up." James grumbled, causing Fred to try and unsuccessfully disguise his snort. Everyone stared as something like a grurk came out of his mouth instead, and he shrugged innocently. "Wasn't me!"
"Yeah, right." Mary called from her seat next to Catrin, lifting her head only barely out of her book. "That's coming from George Weasley's son!"
"Hey! False impressions!" Fred protested. "Don't bully the poor invalid." She motioned towards the scar on his cheek, which Madam Pomfrey could have removed, but he'd chosen to keep. Catrin strongly suspected that this was to milk it as much as possible.
"Huh." Alice was idly levitating a beech leaf with her wand. "Hey, what do you reckon McGonagall's going to say in her speech tonight?"
"Nothing about us." Slimy Creep sniffed. "And I deserve a medal as well, for taking part in The Battle!"
He most definitely hadn't, but Catrin was tactful enough to keep quiet about it. Instead, she stretched out on the grass, willing the sun to warm as much of her as possible, and wished that this peaceful moment, here with her friends, would last forever. Or maybe only another couple of hours; she was really hungry.
The feast did come, though, once it was too dark for them to see properly, even with the aid of Lumos, and they traipsed back indoors to hear McGonagall's speech (which didn't include medals or battles), and stuff themselves silly with the delicacies on offer. Catrin, for one, had grown particularly attached to the chicken drumsticks and cherry trifle, and the way it materialised on the tables, readymade. Did that happen in most wizarding households? Well, she'd soon find out.
The Gryffindors went to bed stuffed that night, and Catrin's friends fell asleep almost instantly, but she stared at the ceiling, unable to drop off. Tomorrow she'd be leaving here for good...the place that had given her her first home after a year of starving, fear and stealing. She was sure that Hestia's house would be just as nice...but Hogwarts had more security, and a sense of safeness. It wasn't anyone's particular job to care for her, she thought. Gryffindor House was more like a huge family.
At least she'd be coming back in September.
And with that thought, she was out like a light.
"Wake up!"
"Oh my god!" Catrin jolted upright instantly, stunned awake by the yell in her ear, only to have the top of her head hit something very hard. She fell back down against the pillows again, not ready for such an onslaught on her sense this early in the morning.
"Ahhh...Cadrin!"
"Mary?" She croaked, rubbing her head. "What the hell are you doing?"
"Waking you up!" Mary glared balefully at her. "Breakfast in five! I dink I bit by dongue..."
"Don't wake me up so early then! When's the Express go?"
"About an hour, I think."
"What!" Catrin jumped out of bed to see her friend already fully dressed. "Okay, okay, better be quick."
She got dressed in record time- in her own clothes, for once, not school uniform- and lugged her trunk down to the Entrance Hall to be collected by the invisible porters, or whoever they were. The Great Hall was almost deserted; she hurtled down the Gryffindor table to encounter Alice and Valerie, who were munching their way through a huge stack of marmaladey toast- one of which she promptly grabbed and jammed in her mouth, ignoring Valerie's mumbled protests.
"Come on, we have to go!"
As they left, Catrin snuck one last glance at the ceiling- it was clear blue, misted in places with fluffy white clouds. Kind of like an inside al-fresco dining room, but on a massive scale. She'd miss this place, as well. She saw Scorpius at the Slytherin table, and waved at him, before walking to the last of the carriages.
The Hogwarts Express greeted them, scarlet as a postbox and puffing smoke into the morning air. Hagrid was there, ushering the students on board. He saw Mary staring and tipped her a wink, as they got on board and fought to find themselves a free compartment.
"Time to go again." Mary sighed. "My brother always says this is the hardest part, leaving."
"You have a brother?" Catrin asked, surprised. Mary had never said anything at Hogwarts- he wasn't a student, then?
"Yeah." She sighed. "He left a year early- didn't want to take his NEWTS. Waste of time, apparently. Now he's helping Charlie Weasley with dragons, or something, in Romania."
"Dragons?"
"Either them, or huge fire-breathing lizards." Mary said sarcastically, and flopped down in her seat with a sigh. "Exploding Snap, anyone?"
"Yeah, go on then." Alice took the pack from her friend's hands. "I'll shuffle; you never do it properly."
"Where's Val?" Catrin asked as she sat down opposite them, to be answered with Mary's shrug.
"With her Hufflepuff friends. She likes to hang around with Nicole Macmillan, apparently."
"What's wrong with us?"
"Dunno. Too adventurous. Our amazingness is too intimidating." Alice bit her lip as she shuffled the cards, deep in concentration.
"Can you transfer houses?"
"I've never heard of it. You can get Hat Stalls at the Sorting, but that's it."
They looked around as the door to the compartment slid open and the sea-blue head of Teddy peeked around the door, followed by Victoire's reddish-blonde one.
"Mind if we join?" He asked, as the Express tooted up to the sky, and with a jolt, the train jerked into motion. They all nodded, and as they sat down, Catrin pressed her nose to the window, watching the spires and turrets of Hogwarts disappearing from view, swallowed up by azure sky and emerald forest. She turned around to see Teddy smiling sympathetically. "I know how you're feeling." He said quietly. "This was my last year. Never coming back, apart from as a teacher."
"Really?" Catrin's eyes opened wide with something approaching horror. She knew Teddy had been fairly old, but not old enough to leave! She was going to miss his calm presence and brotherly affection next year, that was for sure.
"Don't worry, I'll write." Teddy smiled gently. Catrin flushed. She half-smiled at the now ex-seventh-year: she would miss him, but she was sure that Victoire was going to miss him more.
The journey passed quickly after that- Catrin hadn't spoken much to Teddy's beau, but she got on well with the others, in between five-minute patrols of the corridors. Exploding Snap was apparently an excellent thing to bond over. The countryside passed from forests to rolling hills as the day wore on, and when the trolley came, they all stuffed themselves silly on Bertie Bott's, Sugar Quills, and Chocolate Frogs (they used the cards for Exploding Snap winnings afterwards, leaving Catrin with an impressive starting collection).
"I still haven't got Calypso." Mary sighed as the train finally pulled into the station. "Catrin, couldn't you trade for Merlin?"
"I've already got five of him. Nobody else wanted him." Catrin protested, as the platform of smiling parents and siblings chugged into view. Her stomach lurched unpleasantly; Hestia was in that crowd somewhere, waiting to welcome her to her new life.
The others left quickly, laughing and chatting and promising to exchange news, leaving Catrin alone in the compartment with Teddy and Victoire, who quickly left as well.
"You alright?" Teddy asked gently, watching her closely.
She nodded. "Just a bit nervous."
To her surprise, Teddy stepped forwards and grasped her shoulders. "You can do it. It's a new life out there, Catrin. A new family."
"It's...I don't want to replace my old one."
"That'll never happen- trust me, I know. You can be part of two families." Teddy smiled at her, eyes gentle. "Now go out there, and for both of us, live the life that our parents weren't able to give us."
Catrin managed a watery smile, looking up at a strangely blurred image of her friend. "Will I see you September?"
"Count on it." Teddy winked, and pulled her in for a quick hug, before leaving as well. Catrin cautiously went to the carriage door, looking out onto the platform. Her trunk was already there, waiting on the platform with the rest of the students' luggage.
"Catrin!" Suddenly, Hestia was there, smiling and waving. "Come on, let's take you home."
She conjured up a trolley seemingly out of nowhere, and skilfully levitated the trunk on it. Catrin glanced around the platform. Fred Weasley grinned at her from amidst his red-headed family, and James Potter tipped her a wink. They were all happy with their families; she could be happy with hers.
Catrin took a deep breath, and stepped on to the platform, into her new life.