"What is the worst that could happen?" – those were Marquis Carsilion Egbert's exact words when trying to persuade Duke Edward McMahon to send his sweet, innocent baby daughter to Hogwarts. This thought passed through his mind while he was watching from the High Table how the said innocent girl drew out her wand in front of the face of Severus Snape who already had his own wand in hand and was trembling with rage.
The Marquis swiftly left the table and reached the group of first-years at the same time as Minerva McGonagall.
"Miss Plantier, Mr Snape, what is the meaning of this?" – shouted the Transfiguration teacher, her beady eyes darting between the two culprits.
"Apparently, Miss Plantier is determined to break the record for the most house points deducted in a single day." – said Carsilion, flicking his wand towards the students, causing both Catherine's and Snape's wands to fly into his open hand.
"Isn't it rather unfair to place the blame solely on me…sir?" – asked Catherine, her voice tinged with irritation, as she looked at her teacher.
"This is not the case, Miss Plantier," – said the DADA professor and smiled at McGonagall – "if the Head of your House doesn't object, I believe both you and Mr Snape should lose another 15 points each. Since you, Miss, were personally involved in a very dangerous situation this afternoon, I'll give you detention for the next two weeks. I believe Madame Pince would appreciate your assistance with some tasks. Report to her tomorrow, after dinner."
"What?!" – shouted Sirius – "What about Snape? He was the one who attacked her first during the flying lesson?"
"That's quite enough, Mr Black!" – interjected McGonagall – "I completely agree with Professor Thorne. I hope this helps Miss Plantier reflect on her behaviour and observe the high standards that the students of Gryffindor are held to. I will speak with Professor Slughorn, so he could deal with Mr Snape accordingly."
"This is so unfair!" – complained Sirius, looking at the two teachers as they returned to their seats at the High Table.
"Slughorn is just going to wag his finger at him." – frowned James, glancing towards the Slytherin table where the first-years were laughing.
"Catherine, are you crying?" – whispered Remus anxiously, looking at the young witch. Two big teardrops fell in Catherine's plate. She frantically wiped her face, stood up and left the Great Hall.
"Flame, wait!" – shouted Sirius trying to follow her.
"Don't!"- said Remus, grabbing his friend's sleeve – "I think she might need some alone time."
Marquis Carsilion Egbert sighed deeply and reclined in his chair, closing his eyes. At first, the idea of coming to Hogwarts and teaching Defence against the Dark Arts had sounded like so much fun. The main goal was, of course, to protect and guide his best friend's daughter, but he couldn't deny that there was also the thrill of working incognito in a place where nobody knew anything about him. It felt surprisingly liberating.
However, he hadn't envisioned that his lack of patience in dealing with kids would prove so problematic. In addition, the calm and collected child who had been living in isolation for almost 11 years, turned into walking mayhem, the moment she set foot in Hogwarts. In all honesty, Carsilion was astonished at how quickly Catherine had managed to make both friends and enemies. For some reason, her male classmates were absolutely fascinated by her to the point that if he were to punish the girl, Potter, Black, or both would have to be punished too.
On the other hand, she was already rising to the top of the Slytherin's enemy list, which was unexpected, especially since Edward had confined in the Marquis that he had anticipated his daughter would be sorted into Slytherin. While the rivalry between Gryffindor and Slytherin was nothing new, Carsilion suspected that this level of animosity was not normal. Lately, he had been constantly busy breaking up fights and investigating weird incidents, and every time, Catherine McMahon and Severus Snape were involved in one way or another.
This evening was not an exception. He had to admit that the young witch was quick with both her tongue and wand. He was certain that Snape was ready to send her to the Hospital Wing and he couldn't exactly blame him. Snivellus sounded like a truly nasty alias, and judging from the ecstatic faces of the Gryffindors, it would stick to the boy.
Carsilion slowly exhaled and looked at the parchment in front of him. If dealing with Edward's daughter was not tiresome enough, he wasn't even halfway through the second-years' essays on the Disillusionment Charm, and the one in front of him was already giving the Marquis a headache.
A knock on the office door interrupted the professor's train of thoughts.
"Come in!" – said Carsilion.
A tall blond boy entered the room and closed the door behind him. He looked at the DADA teacher with a solemn expression that reminded the Marquis of his own childhood when his best friend used to make exactly the same face before scolding him.
"Speak freely, my boy," – he chuckled – "there are several layers of Privacy Spells around my office; nobody would be able to eavesdrop."
"My Lord," – bowed Greg formally – "I wanted to talk to you about my sister."
"I guessed as much." – smiled Carsilion – "Have a seat, and please drop the titles; I am your father's brother in everything but name."
"Right,"- said Greg, sitting in one of the chairs in front of the professor's desk – "then why are you so mean to Catherine?"
The Marquis sighed again and raked his hand through his auburn hair.
"You are a smart and responsible young man, Greg."- he said eventually – "You understand the stakes of your sister being here and all the preparation that has been done to allow her to have a normal life. I cannot just shower her with attention and guidance. This is also the reason why she had never seen me in the past. It would have been so dangerous if my cover were to get exposed at some point. Several pure-blood families have connections to aristocrats, and they would do anything to be praised and recognised by the respective main families. The last thing we want is someone to associate Catherine and me if it is revealed that I teach at Hogwarts. Same goes for you and her. You should really keep your distance."
Greg pursed his lips and frowned.
"It's not as if she likes or wants to have me around.'- he said bitterly – 'At home, I didn't mind it that much because I had always thought that she was just a solitary person, and that's why she was always so sarcastic and abrupt when I tried to talk to her or do something with her. But now I see her with Potter, Black and Lupin, and even with Evans, and she is so different. She is still sarcastic, but she is also funny and insightful, and she looks like she cares about these people… She smiles at them."
The boy was looking at his feet and felt confused and emotional. He had come with a completely different idea and ended up pouring his frustration and disappointment in front of Marquis Egbert. Suddenly, he felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up at Carsilion's sky blue eyes, filled with sympathy.
"I know this is hard on you, my boy." – he said in a low voice – "We entrusted you with way too big of a responsibility. You should know, however, that you are an amazing big brother, and Catherine will see it one day. You should try to understand that for her, you are still a link to her prison, and her rage and frustration naturally reflect on you."
"I did everything I could!" – Greg choked out – "It's not my fault."
"Of course, it's not your fault," – said Carsilion – "That's why you should concentrate on your own studies, on your own life, and stop being so overprotective towards your sister. She is going to be fine even if I need to give her detentions for the rest of her time in Hogwarts."
"She'll give you a run for your Galleons for sure." – Greg said smiling.
"I have no doubt this will be the case." – the Marquis smiled back – "She is indeed your parents' child. With the inheritance of your mother's rage and your father's recklessness, hardly anyone stands a chance against her."
"You are joking, right?" – asked Greg with a slight concern.
"I wish I was!" – Carsilion exhaled dramatically – 'Do you know that the first time I met your mother she turned me into a capybara?'
Two weeks had almost passed - two weeks during which Catherine spent a good amount of time under the sharp supervision of the school librarian Madame Pince. These two weeks saw the girl carrying around countless old books, dusted them, filled in old registers, and rearranged volumes in every section of the Library, constantly thinking about how much she hated both Severus Snape and Carter Thorne. On top of everything, Remus was sick again and Sirius and James, even though great company, made working impossible.
The last day of Catherine's detention started with the Enchanted Ceiling of the Great Hall being filled with dark, grey clouds. She was sipping her orange juice, thinking gloomily about the upcoming cold and drenched morning to be spent outside during Herbology when the post arrived. Hundreds of owls flew in and started landing among the students. To Catherine's surprise, Orion dropped an envelope in her lap and proudly hooted, comfortably nested between a milk jug and a platter of scrambled eggs. The young witch fed him a piece of bacon and gently caressed his beautiful feathers.
'I wonder who that is from.' – she thought with curiosity. Her mother had warned her that they would not send her mail to avoid any interception of the messages. She knew that if there was anything really important, Greg would pass the message. Therefore, Orion was only used for occasional mail orders, and it was a mystery where from he got that letter in the first place.
Catherine took the envelope, which was decorated with painted red roses, and opened it. Inside, she found a sheet of beautiful silk-like paper. At the top of it was a coat of arms representing a white shield engulfed by red roses. Below the shield, golden letters formed the words Éternelles Beauté et Élégance.
'Eternal Beauty and Elegance,' – the girl thought and smiled, recognising the motto of the Plantier family. Her eyes quickly scanned the few lines written in calligraphic handwriting.
Chère Marguerite,
Joyeux anniversaire! Ma belle fleur a un an de plus et s'épanouit de plus en plus magnifiquement. Je t'aime tellement!
Avec tout mon amour,
Papy
PS: Tu as une chouette très persévérante.[1]
Catherine froze. Was it her birthday today? She had completely forgotten, especially because it had never been a very important day to her. Growing up, she didn't have any friends, so it was only her family celebrating, and it was not that special - probably because she felt more and more frustrated with every passing year. The only good memories she had from her birthdays were the times her grandfather came to visit from France. She had always been his favourite, and it gave her a dark satisfaction that someone liked her better than Greg.
The witch smiled and fed Orion another piece of bacon. 'He must have known and went all the way to Grandpa in order to get me something for my birthday.' – she thought and took her school bag, carefully placing the letter between the pages of her Standard Book of Spells, Grade 1.
The Herbology class was as bad as Catherine had imagined, and when she went to lunch, her shoes were full of water. She ate quickly and hurried to the Gryffindor Tower to change before the afternoon classes. Taking a shortcut, she moved an old tapestry of a Common Welsh Green Dragon sleeping on top of a hill and ended up in a rather deserted corridor on the fourth floor. The echo of her steps made her heart clinch with unease. Something was wrong, but she couldn't quite figure it out.
"Soporivita!" – she heard before the corridor went dark before her eyes, and she lost consciousness.
Catherine opened her eyes and stared in confusion at the dark, unfamiliar ceiling. She tried to get up, but her body felt heavy and exhausted.
"Hey, don't move! Madame Pomfrey said it would take you at least 12 hours to recover from the hex." – Catherine heard Lily's voice from beside her bed.
"What happened? Is it night already? And what are you doing here?"- Catherine asked in one breath.
"Um, you didn't attend the Charms class, so we alerted Professor Flitwick, and started looking for you." – Lily said quietly – "Eventually, we found you unconscious on the fourth floor. It looked like someone had hexed you because we also found you clutching your wand under the robes, and all your school stuff was on the ground. It's past 10 already, and I snuck in here when Madame Pomfrey went to the greenhouse for some herbs."
Catherine looked at Lily in disbelief.
"You snuck in here after curfew?" – she asked in astonishment.
"You don't need to sound so surprised." – said Lily, frowning. – "I couldn't just leave you alone on your birthday, could I?"
"How do you know it's my birthday?" – asked Catherine, surprised.
"While I was collecting your books from the ground, the letter from your grandfather fell from in between the pages of your Charms textbook. I studied some French in the Muggle school I went to. But why does he call you Marguerite?" – asked the red-haired girl.
"His family is kind of obsessed with flowers, so he was very displeased with my mom naming me Catherine. Therefore, they compromised and added a middle name." – explained Catherine.
"Then your middle name is Marguerite?" – inquired Lily.
"No, it's Margaret, but Grandpa likes to 'French' it up" – giggled the black-haired girl in the bed. – "That's nothing; he still can't forgive my grandmother for naming my mother without asking him first."
Lily laughed too and put her hand inside her robes. She took out a single red rose and handed it to Catherine.
"Then, happy birthday, Daisy! I'm sorry I was so cold after the issue with the explosive elixir. It was indeed nothing compared to what happened to you now, and I promise I'm not going to allow something like this to affect our friendship again. Can you forgive me?"
Catherine took the rose and smiled at Lily.
"It's okay; I might have also overreacted a bit, but it's hard to do the right thing when being angry. I missed you, Lily! Oh, and thank you for the rose; they are my favourite."
Lily blushed and took the empty vase from the nightstand.
"I'm going to get some water to put the flower in." – she said and swiftly left the room.
"She must have stolen it from the greenhouse." – thought Catherine in amusement – "She keeps surprising me."
At this moment, Lily returned with the vase, and she was just about to place it back on the nightstand when a sudden noise made both girls jump.
"The fuck, Sirius, why didn't you stop when I told you to? Madame Pomfrey's gonna hear us." – whispered James as three figures appeared from behind the portrait of Damocles Belby.
"Obviously, because I didn't see you standing there for no reason, James!" – snapped Sirius, trying to strengthen a package he was carrying.
"Oh, Flame! You're awake!" – said James in surprise, noticing the two girls staring at them – "Happy birthday!"
"Happy birthday, Catherine!"- smiled Remus whose voice was a little hoarse.
"Remus!" – exclaimed Catherine – "Have you recovered already?"
"Yeah, yeah, he's all fine now." – intervened Sirius – "I have good and bad news, Flame. Which one do you want to hear first?"
"Um, the good one?" – said Catherine cautiously.
"We found where the kitchens are." – he grinned, getting a big cake out of the package that he had been carrying – "The bad news is that they didn't have the éclair cake you like, so this is chocolate, but we do have candles! Happy birthday, Flame!"
"Thanks!" – said Catherine, blushing – "But how did all of you find I had a birthday today?"
"Evans told us." – answered James, adjusting the candles on the cake.
"I thought it was only right if your friends are with you today." – said Lily, looking at the floor.
"Thanks!" - mumbled Catherine, sitting up in her bed.
"That's enough melodramatics for one day!" – said Sirius and waved his wand – "Incendio!"
The stream of fire, though a tad too strong, lit the candles on the cake, and Catherine was able to see the smiling faces of the Gryffindors around her bed.
"Make a wish before you blow them out!"- warned Remus.
"I wish I never, ever hurt any of you!" – thought Catherine and blew out the candles.
[1] Dear Margaret, happy birthday! My beautiful flower is one year older and blooming more and more beautifully. I love you so much! Grandpa
PS: You have one very persistent owl