BEGIN BEFORE THE END | WTM | R.A.B

20

"What does she mean non-ghost?" Orion Black wondered.

"How can you tell that I ain't no ghost?"

"You're not grey." Cathy pointed out.

"Oh right." The man chuckled sheepishly.

"Does he sort of remind you of Cathy a bit?" Severus enquired.

Cathy gave him a confused look. "What?"

"Yeah." Regulus nodded.

"In what way?"

"Just the way you sort of dismiss things and try to simply very important things." Fleamont told his daughter.

"So who are you?" Cathy asked.

"You can call me Sal." The young man smiled. "That's what my friends called me."

"Alright than Sal," Cathy spoke angrily, "who are and why have you brought me here."

"There's no need to be defensive." Sal smiled. "I'm helping you because you and I are alike."

"In what way?" Cathy asked. In response Sal's eyes lit up just like hers did except they glowed a dark emerald green color. "You're like me."

"Holy shit he's a Chaos Castor!" Sirius exclaimed.

"He's like me." Cathy breathed in wonder as she focused on the film.

"Yes." Sal said having his eyes return to their normal state. "Only I've been dead for almost a thousand years."

"A thousand years!" James repeated in shock as others joined him.

"How are you here?"

"The World Gate." Sal answered. "Although these days I think you call it the Veil."

"The Veil?" Minchum looked to Dumbledore in surprise.

The Headmaster just held up a hand as he continued to watch the events unfold.

"You mean that thing in the Department of Mysteries? I've read about it, people say is the gate to the Land of the Dead." Cathy enquired.

"It only functions at the behest of a Chaos Castor." Sal explains. "Which is why for anyone else it'll take them to the Land of the Dead."

"It can only be used by Chaos Castors." Amelia Bones realized. "No wonder none of the Unspeakables could understand it or get it to function.

"Only people like Catherine can use it." Regulus concluded.

"How are you here if you're dead though?"

"I said you have to be a Chaos Castor to use it, not alive." Sal said. "Although since I'm dead my uses of the World Gate are confined to its general vicinity."

"So why are you here?" Cathy enquired.

"Becuase your future is too important for you to just die here. I'm here to tell you how to defeat Voldemort." Sal answered. "And the answer is quite simple. Let go."

"That's rather vague." Professor Flitwick said.

"What?" Cathy looked at the young man strangely. "If I stop right now people will die."

"Don't stop, let go." Sal said. "Even now with the threat of so many lives at risk you still hold back." Cathy stayed silent as she watched Sal continue. "I understand that you held your power in for so many years to protect your family but now...the only way to save everyone is to become what you've always meant to be."