Hermione Granger linked arms with her best friend, dragging her down to the bookshop where one Gilderoy Lockhart was holding an interview. "Of course, your father was completely out of line calling you the things he did, I suppose flying a car to go rescue Harry could be an act of rebellion as a repercussion of that, but I have to say I'm not surprised Mrs Weasley got mad" Hermione spoke rapidly as always. She had just been informed of everything that had happened in the last few days, from what John Winchester said to Katherine to Mrs Weasleys shouting match with her kids, to the rescue of one Harry Potter.

"Yeah well, my dads always has had a problem accepting that his kids aren't the perfect little clones of himself that he wants. Good thing too." Katherine-Mai Winchester said spitefully "Oh come-on Hermione, it's all cramped in here and we already got our books. I've already have to deal with a summer of Mrs Weasley crushing on this fool of a man, not you too" Katherine said.

"He isn't a fool Katherine, I mean, just look at all the things he's done in his books" Hermione countered

"Anybody can say something and claim it to be true, my brother does it all the time when trying to pick up chicks" Katherine shrugged.

"Don't you find the term chicks demeaning?" Hermione asked

"Not really, it's babe I have a problem with, look, I'm going to go wait outside. I can't deal with all this… fangirling" Katherine shuddered. She left the shop and wandered down the street a little, approaching somebody she knew quite well "Heya Neville" she smiled at the fellow Gryffindor who jumped in surprise at her sudden presence.

"Oh uh, hiya Katherine" Neville replied. "Good summer?" He wondered.

"It was alright, what about you?" She asked in return.

"It was good, I saw a lot of my family" he nodded and she smiled.

"That's nice" she said kindly before looking up and noticing the Weasleys leaving the bookstore, finally. "Well I got to go, I'll see you at Hogwarts" she smiled and waved as she returned to the group of redheads and Harry. "Wow, people look angry. Why do people look angry?" the American wondered.

"Lucius Malfoy" The twins said in unison.

"Oh, that snot nose git. Did somebody punch him? I'll do it. Think I'm tall enough to break his nose as well if I put enough force behind it" She eagerly said to which the Twins both grinned, Arthur Weasley however, declined her proposal, telling them it was best to just move on and forget that it happened. As if they could, Katherine exchanged looks with Harry as they walked; this meant war between Malfoy and the Weasleys when they returned to Hogwarts.

~ 0 ~

"Hermione is mad at us all" Katherine stated on the first evening back at Hogwarts as she approached Harry and Ron the Gryffindor common room after the applause for the tow boys had gone down.

"Why this time?" Harry wondered curiously as the girl plopped herself down beside him like a large lump.

"She's mad at you for missing the train, stealing the car, getting caught, getting detention on the first day and for hurting the tree outside" the girl summarised for her friends. "She's mad at me because I said Gilderoy Lockhart was a vain, egotistical, joke of a man and under proper medical examination would be discovered for the pathological liar he is" she added. The two boys started roaring with laughter. "Come on, we all know those books of his are a load of codswallop" she added seriously and they both agreed with her. "Plus, Lavender brown and Pravati Patil are both crushing on him as well. I have to share a dorm with those lunatics. You're right, girls are weird. I exclude myself from that obviously" she added with a wink.

"Obviously" the two boys repeated in unison. "Well, I'm gong to go bed" Harry commented.

"I'll come" Ron added.

"Fine, I suppose I should go bed now as well" the final member of there small trio sighed, waving goodbye to the boys as they parted way to go up separate staircases.

~ 0 ~

"Shut up Kathy, it wasn't that funny" Ron Weasley said moodily as his friend continued to laugh about the howler he had relieved that morning. To make matters worse. There first lesson was with Lockhart. The girls, minus one or two, were hanging onto his ever word whilst the boys mocked him hilariously. They were all shiftily eyeing the rattling cage at the front of the desk. The new DADA teacher stood in front of the class with a smug smiled, smoothing back his over hair sprayed hair with a hand, flying his half-cloak over his shoulder and dramatically jumping down the stairs whilst the moving portrait of himself winked at the class.

"Allow me to introduce you to your new defence against the dark arts professor. Me" the blond man started cockily. So far bad start in Katherine's books. "Gilderoy Lockhart, order of Merlin, third class, honorary member of the defence league and five times winner of witch weekly's most charming smile award. But I didn't get rid of the Bandon Banshee simply by smiling at it" he said, he waited for laughs but didn't get anything more than a few weak smiles. And a raised hand form Katherine-Mai Winchester, the last person anybody would think would be contributing in this class "Ahh yes young lady, what's your names?" he asked her with a smile.

"Katherine-Mai Winchester. I have a comment about the Banshee you 'banished" she said, putting the word banish in quotation marks with her fingers.

Ron turned to Harry with a smirk whilst girls glared at Katherine. "This should be good" he heard Seamus Finnegan whisper to Dean Thomas, Katherine was known with fellow Gryffindor for speaking her mind. Gilderoys smile faltered a little.

"I believe everything you need to know is in the book" He replied simply.

"Except it isn't though is it? Because you don't simply banish a banshee unless you chose that word simply because you thought you were being cleaver by rhyming. As for the whole 'she was a danger to the town thing' what a pile of crap. If you had any sort of wit about you, you would know all a Banshee is, is a woman who screams alert people that death is about to happen. They don't hurt anybody, I mean sure your eardrums will be busted a little. Hence their other name the wailing woman. Actually Banshee's are incredibly useful because they also alert of demons coming as well, plus they can control their scream. I'm just saying, that what you wrote was a bunch of superstitious nonsense and half-told myths." Katherine said matter of factly, watching the man go red. Whether with embarrassment of anger she didn't know but several people were sniggering now and even Hermione looked down at her book doubtfully.

"Well miss Winchester, thank you for you thoughts on the subject, but I think you'll find I'm the one that battle the banshee here so I think I know a little more than you do on the subject" Lockhart said stubbornly and smugly, thinking he had one whilst Katherine just laughed.

"Well Mister Lockhart, I have met a Banshee, her name is Linda, she lives just outside a small town in Texas and she saved my live with her scream when I was nine years old. If ya'll want to meet her I'm sure she'll be glad to come visit. Course her husband is a bit of an ass but her sons a real sweetheart, went to school with my brother for a while" she smiled sweetly. As she spoke her American accent was getting stronger and stronger, just like Lockhart was getting redder and redder. He was quick to swiftly move one, passing out a quiz where the questions were all about him. "I think I won that" she whispered to Harry and Ron who were sat in front of her. The boys sniggered.

"Remind me to get you an extra good Christmas present this year" Ron replied. The girl smiled in satisfaction, and nodded.

"I will" she confirmed.

~ 0 ~

"You shouldn't have done that Kathy" Hermione said softly that night in there dormitories "He isn't worth it" She added.

"No, but you are, and he totally deserved it. so what if have detention for the next month. I broke Draco Malfoy's nose. do you know how long I've wanted to do that?" She said to the frizzy haired friend. of course they were discussing the events that unfurled that morning during what was suppose to be Gryffindor quidditch practise which both Ron, Hermione and Katherine-Mai attended. It ended with Hermione outsmarting the greasy haired Slytherin, and Hermione being called a mudblood. Whilst Ron ended up eating slug die to a charm backfiring, Katherine -ever the one to go for the direct route- punched the boy, in the end breaking his nose and earning herself a month worth of detentions from Snape.

Her first detention took place the next day, it was simply cleaning out all the cauldrons in the potions classroom. It wasn't too hard for the twelve year old who was used to being stuck with the cleaning chores. She was dismissed after an hour, told to return the following day. She joined with Ron and Hermione, wondering where Harry was. Before she could voice her query, the boy himself turned the corner, looking filled with panic. "Did you hear it?" he asked them. "The voice?" he added

"What voice?" they all replied and watching as Harry stiffened.

"That voice." he said but none of the three had heard what he was hearing. Nonetheless the three followed him as he ran down the hallway. "I think it's going to kill" he said and they all starting sprinting until they felt water under there feet. It was Hermione that saw it first but it made them all gasp. the writing on the wall written clearly in blood that said the chamber of secrets has been open. enemy of the heir… beware.

"What's that hanging there… is that… Mrs Norris?" she wondered looking at the cat she and Ron had threatened to kick so many times. The cat was frozen like a statue. Crowds had gathered around the horrified group of four, teachers and students alike all pushing to get forward. It was when Filch came forward that Katherine cursed under her breath "Oh crap. this does not look good does it?" she said.

"My cat… you killed my cat. I'll get you. I'LL KILL YOU" The angry caretaker screamed, mostly at Harry since his vendetta against him had always been bigger than the others. he strode forward, all prepared to lash out at the young student, but was stopped by the calling of his name.

Stood amongst the commotion was Albus Dumbledore, calm expression on his face as always. "Everyone will proceed to there dormitories immediately" he said and people started walking away, nobody daring to defy the great man. "Everybody. except, you four" He finished as Katherine sighed she should have seen that coming. She always did badly at listening to talks that should have been disciplinary. She didn't like being talked at rather than talked to. and the majority of the conversation was taken up by Filch demanding punishment, Snape demanding to know why the four weren't at lunch (Katherine had a clear alibi since she was serving his detention) and of course, the idiotic Lockhart saying he could have prevented whatever the attack was.

Whatever was happening, whether it can be cured by some Mandrakes or not, it wasn't good and this wouldn't be the last attack. Katherine knew that for sure, it wasn't a pleasant thought but it was a drive to sort whatever was happening. Katherine-Mai knew all about doing research for a case. she knew where to start and she knew it was necessary. She would get to the bottom of this.