Phase one of her research, the biggest clue she had. The chamber of secrets. She would need to find out what that was to have a greater lead on what caused the petrifaction. So as she sat in Transfiguration class, quill in hand, she raised her hand. Not even bothering to attempt the spell to turn a an animal into a goblet. "Yes miss Winchester" Professor McGonagall said. Katherine-Mai considered McGonagall to be her favourite professor, she was a fair lady. Sure she didn't show too much emotion but she cared deeply for all her student's that was evident.
"I was wondering if you could tell us anything about the chamber of secrets. As well as the supposed thing inside" she added. The head of Gryffindor house raised an eyebrow, looking around at the curious faces of all her students and sighing. She had expected this question of course especially from somebody as inquisitive as the young Winchester girl.
Katherine took note of everything that McGonagall said. The short notes were that Salazar Slytherin, annoyed with the fact he was over ruled when wanting to make Hogwarts and entirely pureblood school, supposedly built a chamber, locking inside a beast. It could only be opened by the heir of Slytherin and when that happened, it is said that the heir will finish the job started by Salazar. "Of course the castle has been searched many time and no such chamber has been found" McGonagall finished but Katherine knew better. She knew there could be truth in even the smallest of legends.
~ 0 ~
"She's been in the library more that Hermione lately" Ron commented as there friend entered the great hall, picked up and apple and left again, clutching a notebook to her chest where she had all her notes written down.
"She barely sleeps anymore" Hermione cut in, ignoring the dig at her and her love for reading. They didn't see her very much out of lessons either. She knew all about there plan to use polyjuice potion to turn themselves into Slytherin members and interrogate Malfoy, convinced it was him. When telling her about it all it all the received was a distracted "Don't be stupid it isn't Malfoy" before she returned to her notes. They didn't know what she was doing, and she didn't seem to be in any hurry to tell them either.
The first time she showed any normality was the first quidditch game of the season. "Decided to join us have you?" Harry teased and she chuckled.
"But of course, any chance to see Draco humiliated at something he thinks he's superior in" she shrugged and the surrounding people laughed with her. She linked her arms with Hermione as they walked down to the quidditch pitch. Like when watching all sports game's both Hermione and Katherine tuned out, instead talking to one another about homework that Hermione had already done and Katherine was procrastinating. That was until there was a gasp. Both girls looked up and examined what was happening. The situation was obvious. Somebody had cursed a bludger to attack Harry.
"I'll sort it" Ron said, standing proudly, but Hermione stopped him.
"No, even with a functioning wand, it's too risky. You might hit Harry" Hermione said. Katherine smirked.
"Lucky for us. I never miss" She said and before Hermione can protest, she raised her wand "Bombarda" she yelled, hitting the bludger head on, causing it to explode in the air. She looked at the pair smugly. "Like I said, I never miss" she shrugged.
"Yeah yeah, whatever" Ron replied "Wait… the other one. The other bludger is after him now" she cried out. Unfortunately, Katherine could hit this one, because it had gone under the stadium. It seemed even quicker than the first. This one got a ht in on the boy, breaking his arm. Of course when the match was over and this time Hermione blew up the bludger, it wasn't helped by Lockhart wanting to get in on the action.
"You removed all the bones from his body you imbecile" She said to the man, locking greatly disturbed whilst Hagrid decided to chime in, because the alternative was clobbering the man.
Colin Creevy was the next person to be attacked. That very night he was found petrified outside of the hospital wing, his camera destroyed. Katherine looked at all her notes. Deciding the best thing to do would be to contact bobby. The letter she wrote to him said Dear Bobby, first, how are you? Sorry I haven't wrote to you yet. But things at Hogwarts are weird. I think something supernatural is going on. I've done my research, so far there had been one cat and a eleven year old boy that have been petrified, like frozen solid. All the spiders in the castle are leaving. But in a straight line, like they became spider soldiers or something. There was a message on the wall written in blood that said the chamber of secrets ahs been opened. By legend this is a chamber hidden in the school by one of the founders, inside is suppose to be this terrifying beast. The heir of Slytherin is suppose to be the one that opens it and in doing so will kill all the muggleborns. That's the name for people who parents don't have magic. Like me for example, only other thing I can think of is Harry is hearing voices in the walls, ones nobody else can hear, and all the roosters have been murdered. So far I haven't been able to find what it could be. Do you have any idea? Reply quickly if possible. Love Mai
~ 0 ~
"Can you all hear me? Can you all see me?" The pretentious voice of Gilderoy Lockhart asked as the people entering the defence club.
"Okay. I'm out of here" Katherine said.
"Oh come on Kathy. It could be fun" Fred Weasley said, since the girl had been forced to come to the club by the twins, as they peeled her away from her research.
"Even if it's just to spend some time in our company" George winked.
"Fine" she sighed heavily "But only for your company" she added with a wink, making them chuckle. "After all. How bad can it be" she shrugged.
"Allow me to introduce you to my assistant. Professor Snape" the blond teacher said. Katherine raised and eyebrow.
"Nope" she declared and walked out of the hall, hearing the laughter of the twins following her. She entered the library with a sigh "Hey Madam Prince" she said to the glaring librarian. Katherine chuckled to herself, sitting cross legged at one of the tables, pulling out her notes. She looked up when hearing an owl hoot and smiled when recognising Bobby Singers handwriting. Katherine- You're dealing with a basilisk. Nasty as anything, don't try to do this by yourself, alert when of them teachers of yours. Don't look it directly in the eyes, only via reflection.. Its the best chance of surviving if you can't escape it.
Katherine stood up suddenly, ignoring the shouts of the librarian who seemed to hate her as she sprinted through the hall. Now she knew what she was listening for, she could hear it. The clear hissing in the walls. "Come on out then you mother trucker" She yelled in her strong American accent. "Oh crap it's coming" she then said, startled. She ran down the hall, twisting and turned through all the corners. She was sure by this point she was lost. She didn't even notice the person turning the corner at the same time as her. The two body's slammed into one another, She looked up at the Hufflepuff. "We got to go, it's coming" She said to the confused boy, grabbing him by the hand and pulling him down the hallway, the hissing noise getting louder and angrier until she made her mistake. She was looking into a window, seeing her reflection and the bright yellow eyes.
~ 0 ~
Hermione Granger, Harry Potter, and Ron Weasley all stood around the bed of one Katherine-Mai Winchester. The way her body was frozen made it look like she was running, the expression on her face wasn't one of fear like on all the other's but off determination. "She was clutching this" McGonagall said, holding out the note pad. In her hand was also a ripped note. At the bottom of the note, was small sentence about only look into something's reflection. "We believe, Miss Winchester may have worked out what was causing these attacks" She said solemnly.
"We knew she was looking into it" Hermione said softly, stocking the hair of her friend. "If anybody was stubborn enough to figure it out" she added, tears falling down her face. They were soon escorted to the Gryffindor common room where news of the latest victim had already reached them. It was a very morbid atmosphere in there. Most people in the house, heck most people in the school knew Katherine-Mai, she was a loud mouth who stood up for what she believed in. Especially this year, her defiance to learn, and love of contradicting the DADA professor had gone down a storm and even the other professors did nothing to stop it when hearing her mocking him. On top of that, she had punched Malfoy, and despite spending over a year in the wizarding school did everything she could the muggle way. Of course there was plenty of people who disliked the girl, thinking she was too big for her boots and had a bad attitude, the second one Katherine would agree with. But nobody wanted these attacks to happen to anybody.
Surprisingly the most affected by the news of her petrifaction was the Weasley twins. Both thinking they could have prevented it. If they had just let her stay in the library rather than making her come tot eh defence club, then perhaps she wouldn't' have been in that hallway, the same if they had made her stay for the entirety of the club rather than letting her leave. Although staying sad for a week or so. They decided to double there efforts in the time where people were in need of laughs.
Bobby Singer read the letter he had received. He had just finished up a hunt and on the way back popped into the Harvelle's Roadhouse for a drink. The owl had dropped the letter into the front of his car but it wasn't until he got a drink in him did he read it. "Bad news Bobby?" Ellen Harvelle asked the man.
"Girl in my care, she's in trouble" Bobby said "Katherine-Mai Winchester" he added and Ellen nodded at the name, Bobby had spoke about her before the fact she goes to a boarding school and lives with him during the holidays. "She's got a basilisk problem in her school, she worked most of it out, but I gave her the name of the thing. Just got a letter from the school, telling me she's been petrified" he said. Ellen leaned across the bar concerned.
"What they gonna do?" she asked.
"Got a few experts up there" Bobby replied, not wanting to talk about the whole witch deal. "Said it'll be a few months until they can undo it. Damn girl, always getting herself into trouble" Bobby sighed. Ellen handed the man another drink. On the house of course.
"Yeah well. Look who her influence are" Ellen shrugged.
~ 0 ~
Being petrified wasn't a pleasant experience. Part of you, somewhere deep in your subconscious knows that you should wake up, but there majority of you is shut down, non responsive. Occasionally, although, although not waking up, your brain will have a sudden thought such as 'I could really go for a sandwich' but the rest of the time it was just static like a TV that had no signal.
When you wake up from this coma like experience, as Katherine discovered, you have no conscious thought about any time passing. In fact your first thought when you wake is the last thought before you went over. This was proven when the mandrake solution was administered to her and she sat up, yelling "IT'S A BASILISK" at the momentarily stunned herbology professor and school nurse. "Oh. I was petrified wasn't I?" the two adults nodded and she sighed before getting out of bed, stretching her aching muscles. She had a feeling she would be doing a lot of training this summer.
She joined with Hermione, the two girls hugging each other tightly. "I can't believe you worked it out" Hermione said "I suppose this proves to you that doing your homework is useful" She added smugly and Katherine laughed.
"Only when it's interesting. And no, Bobby worked it out, I just gave him the information. You did it all by yourself." she said as they turned into the great hall where there two other best friends both stood and smiled at them. The two girls went running down the idle, Hermione hugging Harry and Katherine claiming the ginger. As Harry and Katherine hugged, she noticed Ron and Hermione simply shaking hands "Give it a few year's they're totally going to date each other" She murmured into Harry's ears.
"Oh I know" He nodded and they smirked at one another. Everything was good. Hagrid was back from prison ("You got arrested? And I wasn't invited. How very dare they!" Katherine teased as she hugged the giant man) all exams were cancelled and Gryffindor had one the house cup again.
"You know, I think this year flew by. Felt like it was only two months, not a year" Katherine joked.
"Not funny Kathy, we were really worried about you" Hermione glared.
"That's what makes it funny" the girl shrugged with a smirked
"You have a twisted humour" Ron declared and she laughed
"Oh I know"
The group all parted ways at the train station. Harry went of with his aunt and uncle, Ron with his mother and siblings, Hermione with her parents and Katherine into a taxi to the airport. Another year had quickly passed. Despite the holidays just beginning, they were already looking forward to next year, after all. Why wouldn't you when your learning magic?
So I know I skipped like all of chamber of secrets but I want tog et to the good stuff. Prisoner of Azkaban is more detailed.
To the question I'm asked on every chapter. When will her brothers be in it. Okay, so admittedly, they weren't going to be in it until the final story, deathly hallows. But not I've made it so they will both appear in order of phoenix in one way or another, one with a bigger role than another and I know that your going to hate what I did there.
Also, I kind of want Sirius and Kathy to get along really well, so he's kind of like and uncle to her as well as a father figure to Harry. The will obviously ship the two) which leads nicely to the next point,
I have decided with the help of dream lighting on that this will be a Harry Potter/OC romance that will start mid goblet of fire. I hope you don't mind that.
I already have the majority of this fic planned out, minus half-blood prince which I would be thankful for any suggestions there because I'm not sure.
