Chapter 5
The next morning Katherine was heading towards her DADA class. She felt considerably lighter today after being able to fly for a while last night. Though she had noticed the twins in the classroom, no doubt setting up a prank, she however wasn't aware that they had spotted her. Pushing the door open she headed to her usual seat at the back of the room and waited for the other students to join her, soon enough George flopped into the seat beside her, whilst Fred and Lee Jordan sat at the desk in front.
"Hey Kat, you will never guess what me and Fred saw last night!" George almost burst from the excitement he was holding in. However, she could hear lee audibly groan from in front of her. "We saw a dragon" Fred burst into the conversation with equal amounts of excitement.
"For the last time guys, there is no dragons at Hogwarts" Lee obviously sick of hearing about this finally snapped, but neither of the twins paid any attention.
"We are going to find proof and show the whole school, maybe Dumbledore knows, we should ask him" George continued, not noticing how stiff Katherine had become. Before she had time to dwell on it, Snape burst into the room, the door banging off the wall. He walked towards the front, closing the blinds as he went.
"Turn to page 394" Switching the projector on all the students began to whisper about the subject they were covering.
"Now can anyone tell me the difference between a werewolf and an Animagus?" Katherine pushed her hand into the air. She already knew as she had already read the book, cover to cover. "Yes Miss Willow" she put her hand down as everyone fell silent waiting for her answer.
"An Animagus is a wizard or witch who elect to turn into an animal, a werewolf has no choice, when they turn, they lose all control, he'd kill his best friend if they crossed paths. Furthermore, the werewolf only responds to the call of its own kind" Snape nodded, clearly satisfied with her answer.
"Ten points to Gryffindor" Katherine puffed out a bit with pride as snape droned on with the lesson. Nearly an hour later he dismissed the class telling them he wanted an essay of two rolls on parchment about werewolves. Standing up Katherine's mind finally came to the conclusion it had the other day in Lupins classroom.
Remus Lupin was definitely a werewolf.
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A day later it was time for the Gryffindor vs Hufflepuff game, and despite the awful weather the excitement in the air was almost suffocating. Katherine, deciding to go and support her friends, cast a charm to create an umbrella over her head and walked down to the stands. Finding a seat next to Hermione she exchanged pleasant hello's and settled in to watch the game.
Well, what they could see of it anyway, the rain was coming down so hard the players themselves could barely see what was happening, eventually Oliver wood had called for a time out, Hermione grabbed Katherine's hand and rushed down to the team, just in time to hear Harry going on about how he no hope of catching the snitch as he can't see anything.
"Harry pass me your glasses" He handed Hermione his glasses "Impervius, there, they will repel water" A chorus of thank you went around before the twins gave Katherine puppy dog eyes for her to do the same to their goggles. She laughed and cast the charm on their goggles before heading back to her seat.
The game began to get more intense before Katherine noticed Harry and Cedric Diggory both heading for the snitch, going so high that no one could see them. Katherine new what she did was stupid, but she tapped into her dragon senses just in time to see Harry fall from his broom. Without thinking she jumped over the side of the stands, unfurling her wings before hitting the ground and soaring through the air towards Harry. When she got close enough, she grabbed him and brought him down to the pitch so he could be sent to the hospital wing and be seen by Madam Pomfrey.
She ignored the whispers, she stopped using her heightened senses and followed Harry to the hospital wing, who was floating on a stretcher summoned by Dumbledore.
"Miss Willow, are you alright?" He had noticed how the quiet girl was extremely quiet.
"Yes sir, I am sorry about using my abilities, I acted on instinct and didn't think about the consequences" Dumbledore just smiled.
"You did nothing wrong Katherine..." She jumped slightly at being addressed by her name, Dumbledore has only ever called her 'Miss Willow'. "And do remember you don't have to answer any questions that you're not comfortable with. You don't owe anyone anything" He placed Harry on the bed and let Katherine sit on the chair beside him. A few minutes later, what sounded like a heard of elephants came stampeding into the hospital wing.
"Kat, is Harry, okay?" Fred looked at a very pale Harry.
"Yes, he's going to be fine, the dementors got to close and caused him to faint and fall off his broom." Katherine remained seated at the side of Harry, a boy she has grown to look at as a little brother.
"Good, now that's out of the way. What the bloody hell was that!" George turned his eyes onto Katherine, it was then he noticed the tension in her shoulders.
"George, can I talk to you about this later, I don't think this is the time nor the place." He nodded and flashed her a small smile.
"Lucky the ground was soft" Ron stated.
"I thought he was dead for sure" Katherine cringed.
"But he didn't even break his glasses" Katherine shushed them all, they were going to wake him up at this rate.
"Yeah, lets walk you off the astronomy tower Ron and see how you come out looking" George finished, however all but Katherine had failed to noticed Harry waking up.
"A damn sight better than he normal does" Harry reached over a placed his glasses on, everyone around him coming into focus. His eyes then landed on Katherine.
"Harry, how are you feeling?" Fred asked. Harry pushed himself up into a sitting position.
"What happened" harry inquired, he wasn't liking the looks on his teammates faces.
"You fell off" Fred began, " Must have been what, fifty feet, that's if Kat hadn't caught you, however you were unconscious before she caught you" Everyone looked at Katherine.
"We thought you had died" Katherine again cringed at Angelina's words as Hermione let out a small squeak. Harry looked at the faces of his teammates.
"But the match, what happened? Are we having a replay?" Harry again looked at his teammates. "We didn't – lose?".
"Diggory caught the snitch, just after you fell, He didn't realise what happened. When he looked back and saw you being lay on the ground, he tried to call it off. Wanted a rematch – but they won fair and square, even Wood admits it." Fred told him.
"Where is wood" Harry had noticed he wasn't there.
"Still in the showers- "George started.
"We think he's trying to drown himself." Fred finished. Katherine could see Harry getting frustrated.
"Maybe we should let Harry get some rest" Katherine stood up to usher everyone out of the hospital wing, but they still hadn't told him about his broom stick. Harry however and placed his hand on his head and began to pull at his hair.
"Come on Harry, you've never missed the snitch before, there had to be one time you didn't get it" Katherine gave George a flat look, he wasn't helping the situation, even though she knew that's all he was trying to do. Katherine again tried to get them out so Harry could rest but they started talk about point margins, so she sat back down and let out a loud sigh. Thankfully this caught the attention of the twins, who saw Katherines pleading look to leave Harry alone, so they said their goodbyes and everyone, but Hermione and Ron, left. Harry waved everyone off. When they got back to the common room Katherine tried to sneak away to her dorm, however, George was faster.
"Katherine Willow, you stay right there" She cringed at the use of her full name. "You have answers to questions we need answering" Sighing she nodded her head towards the portrait hole, her, Fred and George headed up to the astronomy tower. She knew it would be empty because it was a weekend.
"What do you want to know" She faced the twins and sat on the floor cross legged, the boys copying her.
"You have wings!" George exclaimed, it coming out more of a statement than a question.
"Yes" They both seemed taken aback by Katherines Honesty.
"How, and also do you know anything about what we saw the other night? The dragon? I saw how you tensed up when we mentioned it" Fred fired questions at her in quick succession. Taking a deep breath, she prepared herself. This could either make or break their friendship, after all, she is dangerous.
"Well to tell you how I need to answer your second question. Yes, it was a dragon you saw the other night and yes, I do know something about it. The dragon you saw the other night was me." she rose from the ground and started to pace. "I am a shifter, and I have two known shifts, one is a dragon, the other a siren, both are extremely dangerous, but I do have control over them" She carried on pacing, hating the quiet. "I managed to save Harry because I can do a partial shift, I can unfurl my wings on command." Her voice had gotten quieter towards the end of her statement. She looked at the twins, she saw the shock on their faces, along with excitement. However, the one emotion she expected to see, fear, wasn't there.
"Can we see?" George asked. Katherine was taken aback.
"You're not scared of me?" it was her turn to be shocked.
"No, why would we be? You have never given us a reason to be scared of you" Fred shrugged his shoulders, also excited to see Katherines wings. "So can we see?".
Katherine took a deep breath and unfurled her wings. She was glad she had made modifications to her uniform otherwise she would be replacing it. As she stood there, she stretched them as far as she could letting them flap a little before pulling them back in.
"That-"George said
"was" Fred joined in.
"wicked" they both said together. Katherine smiled a little before realising something.
"I have to swear you both to secrecy, no one can know about me being able to shift into a dragon or a siren. The wings are the only thing anyone knows about and that's the way it needs to stay, do you understand me?" Both boys nodded eagerly. Katherine stood up and held her hands out to help the boys off the floor.
"So, who else knows apart from us two?" George was curious. Dumbledore must know, there's no way he couldn't.
"Dumbledore, Hagrid and Minnie, that's it, besides my parents that is" She spat the last part out bitterly, the twins glanced at one another, they had never heard such a hard tone come out of her mouth. Deciding not to ask her about it they acted as if they hadn't heard the venom in her voice.
"Well, we are honoured, now lets go prank Lupin" The trio ran off down the stairs and towards Lupins classroom.
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I know that Katherine is supposed to be kind of a loner but I thought it was nice to finally give her friends she can trust, so let me know what you guys think.
Love you x