September 2nd 1971
Katherine woke the next day to find that her plain grey uniform was now adorned with red & gold accents. Standing up to look at them, she heard rustling from the bathroom as a young girl with red hair walked out the door.
"Good morning," the girl said walking over to one of the middle beds.
Katherine nodded, yawning sleepily.
"Most of the girls went down for breakfast, it's just you and Marlene who are still in bed" the redhead explained, folding her pyjamas neatly and tucking them back into her closet.
"You know Marls?" Katherine pried.
The girl nodded, "My friend Sev and I sat with them after some jerks made us leave another compartment".
"Oh, who were they?" Katherine asked grabbing her uniform off the coathangers.
"Some kid named James Potter and another called-".
"Sirius Black?" Katherine finished her sentence.
The girl nodded, "Yeah?".
"I'm a friend of Sirius's, don't worry they can be real mean at first but they're good people, truly".
"They didn't seem it, anyway, I'm Lily Evans".
"Katherine".
Lily nodded, "Yeah, I saw your sorting, everyone seemed quite surprised".
Katherine smiled, "Yeah, my family comes from a long line of Slytherins".
"The sacred families? Sev told me about them" Lily pondered.
The two were interrupted by a loud yawn, coming from Marlene's messy bed.
"Agh!" she said rolling out of bed, "you two are so loud" she complained.
"Whatever," Lily said rolling her eyes, "if you two don't get ready you'll miss breakfast".
Katherine glanced at Marlene who seemed to have woken at the mention of missing the meal, "if we aren't there can you save me a hashbrown?" Marlene pleaded with Lily, rushing over to her closet.
Lily hummed as if mulling it over, "Maybe, but I can't guarantee I won't eat it while waiting for you".
This seemed to frighten Marlene as she grabbed a bundle of clothes in a flurry and dashed into the bathroom.
Katherine pouted at the lack of a bathroom as Lily smiled, walking out of the dorm room.
~~~
The Girls rushed down to the great hall feverishly, hoping that they hadn't missed breakfast.
They were in luck as when they reached the great hall it was barely full, clearly Lily had exaggerated the time that breakfast finished. Katherine smiled at the two Vacant seats Lily had left, tucking in her white shirt she sat down next to Lily.
"I thought you said that breakfast ended soon?" Katherine complained.
Lily shrugged, "20 minutes is soon".
Marlene shook her head, "I could've had 10 more minutes to finish my hair" she grumbled.
"Your hair looks fine" Lily protested.
Katherine frowned, "and I could've done my tie properly!".
Scoffing Marlene grabbed a scone, "Your tie looks perfect! It's almost scary how good you got it".
Katherine shook her head, reaching for one of the large jugs of orange juice, "My parents made me learn how to tie one when I was young, in preparation".
Marlene laughed, "It's scary how your family acts! They treat you like you're 60 or something".
Katherine shrugged, grabbing a piece of toast from the large pile.
The tables were now mostly full, and the teachers were handing out the timetables to all of the students, ready for their first classes.
"Look!" Lily said excitedly pointing up towards the large open windows that now had hundreds of owls flying through, "It's the post!".
Katherine shifted uncomfortably in her seat, glancing towards Sirius who was unaware of the terror that was about to be unleashed.
"Marlene give me your roll," Katherine said reaching over to the girls' plate.
Once Katherine had finally secured a roll in her grip she threw it over towards Sirius, hitting him in the shoulder.
"What the hell?" He asked turning around to look at who had thrown the bread at him. When he caught Katherine's eye he was surprised to see the girl pointing up towards the owl, terror written on her face.
Sirius paled as well, getting up from his seat he quickly jumped over the table, despite the yells of several students sitting near him.
When he finally reached Katherine he pushed the boy next to her, sitting down in his spot.
"You don't think they would've?" He asked warily.
"Howlers?" Katherine clarified, "Oh I think they did".
Sirius breathed deeply, glancing up at the owls that were descending on the students closest to them. Then, suddenly a deep green envelope was dropped in front of Katherine, the seal on it had a T in the center surrounded by florals.
"Well," she said her breathing getting rapid, "I'd say they did".
Then a dark black envelope dropped in front of Sirius who reached a shaky hand out to pick it up, "yup, they definitely did".
"What do we do?" Katherine asked as her envelope began shaking rapidly.
Sirius turned to her, "We face it, take the heat" he said confidently.
Katherine smiled weakly, "like true Gryffindors".
"Yeah, true Gryffindors".
Sirius's letter broke open first, and the screaming voice of his mother filled the room.
"SIRIUS ORION BLACK" The letter yelled, "YOU ARE SCUM, THE BANE OF MY EXCISTANCE".
Katherine's eventually exploded too, except her mother's voice didn't scream out to the great hall, instead, it spoke to them.
"Katherine Travers" the letter's voice wavered, "I am heavily disappointed in your lack of loyalty, it seems you do not obtain the very essence that is of a Slytherin, Self-preservation".
" HOW DARE YOU DO THIS TO ME AND YOUR FATHER? WE GAVE YOU EVERYTHING, THE DAMAGE YOU CAUSED IS IRREVERSIBLE".
"Your father and I have resolved to deal with this more personally at a later date, I will say, however, that you'll be seeing us sooner than expected".
"ALL WE ASKED WAS ONE THING, AND YET, EVEN THAT YOU FAILED TO COMPLY WITH".
"Your foolish mistake is a product of your surroundings, we should have never trusted you with that boy".
"PERHAPS IF YOU HAD SPENT MORE TIME BETTERING YOURSELF INSTEAD OF FOOLING AROUND YOU WOULD HAVE TURNED OUT RIGHT".
"And as such, you should expect to be taken out of that situation soon".
"YOUR FATHER AND I WISH YOU A HORRIBLE TIME AT HOGWARTS".
"Sincerely, Elithyia Travers".
"KIND REGARDS, WALBURGA BLACK"
Katherine and Sirius turned to eachother, matching looks on their faces as the rest of the hall stared at them.
The silence was broken when Katherine pushed her seat out, getting up from the table and making a beeline for the door, Sirius followed closely after, rushing to catch up with her through the empty corridors.
"Kate! KATE!" He called out as he ran after the girl.
When he finally caught up he saw tears running down Katherine's face, her entire body shaking as she sobbed.
"Hey? Katey?' Sirius said quietly, trying to comfort her.
"Did- did you hear the letter?" she asked, tears clouding her eyes.
Sirius shook his head, he had been preoccupied with his own, which was undoubtedly much louder.
"She..." Katherine wiped the tears that were streaming down her face, "she said I should expect to be taken out of this situation".
Sirius frowned, "this situation?".
Katherine nodded, "Sirius, they're going to take me away".
The boy's face fell as he looked at the girl's tear-stained face, "take- take you away?".
Katherine nodded, "remove me from the situation".
Sirius's mind started turning as he thought, "but they cant! Your here, were here! We made it out!".
Katherine sniffled, "they had been talking about it before, something happening, in France" Katherine felt sure that was were she would go, "or someone".
Sirius looked at her, realization dawning on him, "the... the dark lord?" he had heard the name before.
Katherine nodded.
Sirius blinked furiously, looking at the depressed girl, "You cant give up while your their kate".
Katherine looked up, "give up?".
"Put up with the bullshit pureblood crap".
Katherine frowned, "I dont know if i-".
Sirius stopped her, "you have to Katherine, dont let them break you".
Katherine nodded weakly, "okay... I promise they wont break me".
1.2k words