Half Blood

What Cat Was Up To

Catrina Grey's first year at Waxburts was all she had hoped it to be. The red bricked buildings formed a protective enclosure about their students. On sunny mornings, the school grounds felt rather like an old villa. Sunlight flooded the Central Square, causing the fountain's water to sparkle as it babbled gently, bathing itself in warmth. Right next to the Central Square stood a stone church with spiralling stairways, its East Wall built against the rising of the Sun. The students marched under rounded church arches on Sundays—very C of E of them, though few truly believed the songs they sang on Sabbath. Cat held no interest for the church itself. It was the undercroft that sent her heart racing. On her first Friday night in Waxburts, Cat was woken half an hour past lights out by a shock of dark hair blocking her vision.

"Get up, Grey," Ella D'uver, one of her five roommates, whispered in the darkness. 

"Why?" Cat asked, still shaking sleep from her legs. "What's happened?"

"Nothing yet," Mary Catherine Brie said, pulling Cat by her legs. "And nothing at all if you don't get out of bed."

The thrill of breaking the rules sent sparks down Cat's bones, and she scrambled out of her sheets as quickly as she could. Already, Ella was rousing Vivian Li and Anke Berg, who both got up without being told twice. 

Mary Catherine went first, her light purple hair catching wisps of moonlight as they snuck out from the dormitories to the courtyard. A small electric torch hung from a twine braid she'd wrapped about her hips. Their bare feet made little noise as they treaded the sprinkler-soaked grass beneath them. Not one of the girls spoke as they made their way through the high stone archway that welcomed them into the small church garden. The girls followed Mary Catherine down an invisible path through the perfectly manicured shrubbery, holding up their night gowns as twigs clawed at their fair legs.

Mary Catherine's moonlit hair reminded Cat of mermaids, and she actively pushed angry thoughts of her sister from her mind. Waxburts, after all, was where Cat belonged—just as Laurie belonged at that strange Hogwarts place.

The ground beneath Cat turned hard ever so suddenly, and Mary Catherine stooped down before her. She wedged her hands into the ground, and pulled a thick round, green wooden slab out to reveal a deep tunnel. She lit the torch sheathed to her hip, flashing the beam of light this and that way into the tunnel.

"How on earth did you find this, Mary Catherine?" Anke whispered, her light eyes wide in awe.

"Went exploring while everyone else was settling into their rooms," she shrugged. "Hardly anyone was paying any attention."

"What now?" Vivian asked, still rubbing sleep from her eyes.

"Down the hatch," Mary Catherine said, lighting the way with her torch. Cat descended the ladder first, feeling the cold wooden rungs with her bare feet. Fortunately, the wood had smoothened out over time, and Cat's feet were devoid of splinters by the time she reached the bottom. The Autumn wind failed to penetrate down into the ground, leaving the air stale and still reminiscent of last year's Winter. The faint scent of dew-drenched grass drifted into Cat's nose as the others fell into step beside her.

"The walls are covered in moss," Vivian pointed out, pressing her hands against the damp stone walls. "Do you reckon these are the catacombs?"

"It's called an undercroft," Anke said absently. "More commonly referred to as the church basement."

"Why would the basement have a completely separate entrance?" Ella asked, pulling the hatch shut behind her as she descended last of all.

"Even churches have their secrets," Mary Catherine pointed out, waving her torch wildly, making it impossible to see anything properly.

"Do stop that, Mary Catherine," Ella said. "Anyone have matches? The old fire torches would be much more helpful than Brie here."

Vivian produced a lighter from her pocket and lit up the medieval torches. It was quite strange that the medieval inventions were better at illuminating the room than their modern contraptions. The little underground chamber's low hanging ceiling was covered in creeping vines that seemed to radiate from the room's edges. In the very centre of the place stood seven tree stumps that seemed to function as stools gathered around a six-legged black bench, on top of which perched a pile of thick books buried under cobwebs and dust. The girls could do nothing but stare for a moment, presumably deciding whether or not they should be fascinated or irked by the scene which lay before them. 

Ella, it seemed, was first to decide: "How marvellous!" Her rich, dark skin glowed under the torch light, lighting her eyes up like fire. "It's just like the shows on telly! The ones with secret societies? Oh, lovely! How wonderful for you to have found such a place, Mary Catherine! A church basement!" 

"Undercroft," Anke corrected, gravitating towards the bench like a moth attracted to the flame. "Who do you reckon used to meet here?"

"A bunch of very strict nuns, probably," Vivian shrugged. "The real question is whether or not we're going to make it ours."

"That's no question. Not a difficult one, at least," Mary Catherine smirked, pushing her hair from her face. "It's fate. We've found it, so we can hardly let a discovery like this go to waste, can we?"

The girls nodded their heads in unison, all agreeing to keep the little chamber to themselves until they found out what to do with it. The excitement had left them quite tired. They crept back up to their dormitories in sleepy silence, and fell asleep without any fuss. The next morning, all five of them missed breakfast, but none of their classmates were too concerned. It was, after all, their first week into the term, and the habits of sleeping in during the Summer months were rather difficult to break. 

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Hullo!

I'm sure you're all wondering what I'm up to leaving the Rogues and following Cat in her journeys. Rest assured, all the dots (however unrelated) will connect in time.

Thoughts on the chapter? And what do you think of the girls?