The cloaked figure — Voldemort — was gliding steadily towards her. It outstretched one long, white hand, so pale it appeared to have never seen the light of day.
"Rise with me, rise with me, rise with me..."
"Wait, what?" a clear voice said in the back of Katie's mind.
Voldemort froze momentarily, before continuing to pursue Katie, though he sounded uneasy now as he called out, "Rise with me, rise with me..."
"No," the voice inside Katie's head said again. "No, I don't think I want to."
"JOIN ME!" Voldemort shrieked.
"GET OUT OF MY HEAD!"
Katie awoke suddenly, panting slightly, drenched in a cold sweat, but was relieved to see that the other Slytherin girls were asleep, meaning that she had not been screaming in her sleep. She rolled over, feeling strangely calm, which was never a sensation she got after one of her dreams or nightmares. Rolling over in her bed, Katie tucked her arms underneath the pillow and was asleep within minutes. This time, her sleep was undisturbed.
"You did what?" Hermione asked Katie later that day as they left Defence Against the Dark Arts.
"I pushed him out."
All of a sudden, Harry turned sharply on his heel, looking vaguely alarmed.
"Oh, I almost forgot," he said quickly. "I have to go!"
Harry turned and had just began to make his way in the opposite direction when Katie called after him.
"Hang on, where exactly are you going?"
Harry's cheeks lit up bright red.
"Remedial Potions..." he said timidly, looking very embarrassed.
Quirking an eyebrow, Katie crossed her arms and stared at Harry calculatingly.
"Remedial Potions?" she repeated. Harry nodded diffidently. "Potter, I'm no Ravenclaw, but I'm not stupid. Snape doesn't do extra lessons, and even if he did, you're not that terrible at Potions. If anyone needs to take extra Potions classes, it's Ron — no offence." she added. Ron merely shrugged fairly.
Harry looked stunned. He gazed crazily at Hermione as though begging her for help, but her expression remained passive.
"I — I really have to go," Harry stammered, beginning to walk backwards. "Don't want to be late or Snape might give me a detention."
Katie watched Harry dart down the corridor until he disappeared behind a corner. Arms still folded, she rounded on Ron and Hermione.
"He's not doing remedial Potions, is he?" she asked. Ron glanced fearfully at Hermione, who let out a heavy sigh.
"No," she admitted with a frown. "He's not, but I thought he would've told you."
The three of them began walking steadily through the hallway towards the Great Hall for dinner. Katie's stomach was rumbling violently. She had skipped lunch because Crabbe and Goyle needed some extra Quidditch training. Despite the fact that they had won their last game against Ravenclaw, Crabbe and Goyle were still quite awful players and needed added training sessions.
"So, what's he up to, then?" Katie asked casually. Ron and Hermione, however, did not respond, and Katie cast a sceptical look at the pair of them. "Well?"
Hermione gulped harshly. "Well, it's not really our place to say... Can we talk about your dream?" Hermione added hastily upon seeing the piercing flare in Katie's eyes. Although she wanted to express her anger about the trio suddenly keeping secrets from her, Katie also desperately wanted an explanation as to why she had been able to not only recognise that Voldemort was obstructing her dream, but also push him out of her head.
"Right," Katie muttered bitterly. "What is it, then? Why could I block him out?"
"Isn't it obvious?" Hermione said, dropping her voice to a whisper. "You're an Occlumens, Katie."
"An Occlu-what?" Katie repeated, her brain suddenly throbbing with dull confusion.
"An Occlumens," Hermione repeated slowly, as though the pronunciation of each individual letter would help Katie to understand what an Occlumens was. Truth be told, she had never heard that word in her life. Hermione let out a disgruntled sigh. "Oh, for goodness sake," she snapped. "Occlumency, Katie, it's what Harry's been studying with Snape, he's not taking remedial Potions. It helps to protect your mind from external penetration."
"But I'm not studying Occlu-thingy," Katie voiced. Hermione's intricate explanation had somehow only made the Slytherin more confused. Protection of the mind from external penetration — Occlumency sounded very difficult indeed, and Katie had no idea how she could've possibly mastered it without ever having heard of it at all. "How could I use it?"
Hermione rubbed her palm against the top of her forehead, which was wrinkled in agitation.
"Don't you see?" Hermione pressed. "You're a natural born Occlumens."
Katie blinked stupidly at her. "Is that a thing?"
"Of course it's a thing," Hermione snapped irritably. "You can be a natural born Legilimens, right? But a natural born Occlumens is very rare, more so than a Legilimens, there hasn't been one recorded for decades."
"Why me?" Katie blurted out. Of course, Katie would never wish anything she was going through on Chris — she would much rather suffer than let him suffer — but she couldn't help but wonder why she was an Occlumens and why she was a Parselmouth and why Voldemort was trying to recruit her. "Why does Voldemort — oh, relax Ron — want me? Why not Chris? Not that I wish any of this on him, but..."
"Well, it comes down to your personalities, doesn't it?" Ron shrugged, joining the conversation for the first time. "You're a Slytherin. He knew you'd be one."
"What Ron means," Hermione intervened sharply, with a glare towards Ron, upon seeing Katie's offended expression, "is that you possess many qualities that Voldemort himself praises. You're ambitious, clever, self-preserved—"
"I'm not selfish." Katie snapped.
"There's a fine line between being self-preserved and selfish," Hermione cut in firmly. "All I'm saying is that you're very like Voldemort — not that you're evil! Oh, no, this is coming out wrong..."
"You're just a great big Slytherin," Ron stated simply. "A nice one, mind you, but very Slytheriny."
Katie didn't feel that Ron and Hermione had quite understood her question.
"But why am I an Occlumens?" she asked tentatively. "Why am I a Parselmouth?"
"As I said," Hermione answered. "They're rare gifts. Maybe your biological father possessed them and they just skipped over Chris, but whatever the reason, at least now you know that you can keep Voldemort out of your head."
All of a sudden, Ron let out a loud groan, much to Hermione's displeasure.
"My best friend and my adoptive sister are both an Occlumens?" he said.
"Hey," Katie grinned, "I'm not your adoptive sister yet."
"Yet." Ron repeated cheerfully.
They had just entered the Great Hall and were separating to go and sit at their own house tables.
"Hey!" Ron called out to Katie. "You'll be the first Weasley to not have red hair!"
If there was ever a time that Katie so desperately wanted to sit with the Gryffindors for dinner, it was then. Pansy and Draco had essentially been her only Slytherin friends, and she and Draco hadn't spoken since their argument in the common room, and Katie had since found out that Pansy was also a member of the Inquisitorial Squad. Members of Dumbledore's Army had, of course, been punished by Umbridge, and Katie had the scar cut into her left hand to prove it: I must not break the rules.
Of course, Katie and Draco's sudden dislike towards each other went both ways. Apparently, the line "Like father, like son, right?" had really struck a nerve with Draco, and he too avoided Katie. Pansy, however, made every effort she could to get Katie back on her good side. It was much harder for Katie to ignore Pansy, because, well, their beds were next to each other.
***
During the last week of the Easter holidays, a batch of pamphlets, leaflets and notices concerning various wizarding careers appeared along the tables in the Slytherin common room, along with yet another notice on the board, which read:
CAREERS ADVICE
All fifth years are required to attend a short meeting with their Head of House during the first week of the summer term to discuss future careers. Times of individual appointments are listed below.
Katie looked down the list and found that she was expected in Professor Snape's office at half past three on Monday, meaning that she would miss most of Defence Against the Dark Arts. After reading the notice, Katie picked up a stack of career pamphlets and spent the afternoon reading through them to see if she could come across any career that interested her.
Straight away, she knew that Healing was not the job for her; it required at least 'E' at N.E.W.T level Potions, Herbology, Transfiguration, Charms and Defence Against the Dark Arts, and really, Katie was dead awful at Transfiguration.
Next, she picked up a pamphlet on wizard banking. It read: 'Are you seeking a challenging career involving travel, adventure and substantial, danger-related treasure bonuses? Then consider a position with Gringotts Wizarding Bank, who are currently recruiting Curse-Breakers for thrilling opportunities abroad...'
After reading a particularly boring pamphlet about a job in Muggle Relations, Katie threw it down on the table with a huff and slumped back into her seat.
"This is so stupid!" she grumbled loudly to herself. "I don't want to do any of this stuff."
"Professional Quidditch really is the right area for you, huh?" said a familiar voice from behind her. Katie did not even have to look around to find out who it was.
"Go away, Draco."
But the couch dipped, meaning that Draco had sat down beside her. Out of the corner of her eye, Katie glared at him, before facing away from him once more and folding her arms.
"When are you going to talk to us?" Pansy said and she sat down across from Katie, trying desperately to meet her eyes, but Katie stared off at the ceiling.
"When you find a way to go back in time and decide not to join the Inquisitorial Squad." Katie shot back coolly.
"Oh, come on," Draco sighed exasperatedly. "We didn't know what we were getting ourselves into! Umbridge came to us and asked if we wanted some extra credit for helping her to catch some rule-breakers, so obviously we agreed, but we didn't know that you—"
"Pansy, hey, Pansy!" Daphne Greengrass called from across the common room. "Come look at this!"
Pansy's eyes flicked between Katie and Daphne then, frowning, she got to her feet and made her way across the room, leaving Katie and Draco alone, while she still refused to look at him.
"You don't believe me, do you?" Draco asked sadly.
"Vaguely." Katie replied stiffly.
Draco stretched across to the table and picked up a leaflet advertising the Montrose Magpies.
"You could play for them, you know." he said rather cheerfully.
"Complimenting me isn't going to earn my friendship back." Katie scoffed.
"I'm just saying," Draco went on, handing her the leaflet. "You want to play Quidditch professionally, right?"
"I don't know," Katie huffed, eyeing the Magpies advertisement but not taking it. "I'm sort of losing my edge with Quidditch lately."
Draco gave her a quibbling look. "Katerina, you scored eight goals against Ravenclaw the other week."
"Yes, well, I also dropped the Quaffle." she countered, still not looking at him.
"Because you got hit with a Bludger!"
"I should've seen it coming."
"Merlin's Beard," Draco cried in exasperation, "you really have no clue how good you are at Quidditch, do you?"
"I'm all right."
"You're one of the youngest captains Slytherin has ever had!"
"Well, all the best players have left school."
"You're really difficult, you know that?"
Katie snorted. "Oh, I'm difficult."
"Terribly."
For the first time since Draco had sat down, Katie looked at him, and they both laughed, but when Katie moved her hand to run it through her hair (which was very straggly, and she realised then that she had not yet brushed it that day), Draco's grin faltered.
"Hey, what's that on your hand?" he asked apprehensively.
With a jolt of panic, Katie shuffled her cut hand inside the sleeve of her robe. "Nothing." she said quickly, but Draco was too fast, and he reached out and seized her hand.
"I must not break the rules..." he read out loud. "What—?"
"Umbridge," Katie told him gruffly. "She did it to all of the DA. We had to write lines, but she gave us these quills, so whatever you write is cut into your skin."
As Katie's sentence drawled on, Draco's face twisted in horror.
"I — I had no idea she..." Draco breathed. "I'm really sorry."
Katie wasn't quite sure what made her do it, but before she could stop herself, a small smile was forming on her face and she softly said, "I know you are."
They fell into silence after this -- one that was much more comfortable than the tense quietness that had been following them around for weeks.
"Why are we like this?" Katie said at last, keeping her slightly dreamy gaze focused on the school of glittering fish that was bobbing along outside the enormous window.
Draco tilted his head. "What do you mean?"
"Ever since first year, we go through phases of getting along, and then one of us screws up and..." Katie trailed off. A heavy frown settled on Draco's face.
"You mean I screw up and you realise why Potter, Granger and Weasley don't like me." he finished dully.
Katie kept her eyes firmly fixed on the window and gulped thickly. "I didn't say that..." she said quietly, shaking her head.
"But you wanted to."
Katie turned her head to face Draco again, whose expression was quite blank and unfathomable — as it often was, he was never one to express his emotions, especially if they were hurt or sadness, but his eyes were his tell. They were sort of like a silver storm, Katie thought, that darkened when he was angry, shimmered when he was happy, swirled when he was elated and became motionless when he was upset. Right now, they were motionless.
"Sometimes I just think you're different," the words rolled off her tongue involuntarily, "but then other times I think..."
"That I'm like my father." he finished once more, his countenance still blank.
A large, painful lump formed in Katie's throat.
"I didn't mean to say that," she said quietly, shaking her head in dismay. "I felt terrible."
Draco merely shrugged. "Well, you weren't wrong, it just kind of stung to hear someone say it, you know?"
"I'm sorry." Katie confessed, and she meant it.
Draco smiled softly. "So, there's a Hogsmeade trip in a few weeks..." he said, playing idly with his nails. "Want to come with me? I'll buy you a Butterbeer."
"I'm not going to snog you." Katie smirked.
Draco's eyes flashed. "Yet." he said smugly, making her roll her eyes.
"Sure, yeah, I'll go."
"Does this mean we're good?" he asked hopefully while getting to his feet.
"Moderately."
Draco chuckled. "Works for me."
***
It was a great relief to Katie to be leaving Defence Against the Dark Arts early on Monday afternoon, and although Umbridge was not at all pleased to find that a student would be missing her class, she could not stop Katie — the Careers Advice Meeting was mandatory.
Katie arrived at the dungeons and knocked on the door to Professor Snape's office.
"Come in."
She pushed the door open and stepped inside. The office was exactly the way she remembered it. It had a shallow atmosphere and was full of eerie green light. The walls and floor were made of dark, grey stone, and the walls were lined with shelves bared home to several jars full of different coloured potions, inside which floated various parts of rotting plants and animals.
"Sit down, Blair." Snape said tersely. He was already seated on one side of his desk. As instructed, Katie sat down across from him and awaited him to further the conversation.
"As I am sure you know," Snape began in his usual scathing tones, "this meeting is to talk over any career ideas you might have, and to help you decide which subjects you should continue into the sixth and seventh years."
Snape did not ask Katie what her preferred career path would be. Instead, he opened a drawer in his desk, pulled out a file that bore Katerina's name, and took out a slip of parchment. His narrow black eyes scanned the page and his lips curled shrewdly.
"Well, I was going to suggest that you join the Aurors, but now as I see your previous exam results..." he said scornfully.
Katie was very affronted by this statement but managed to keep her composure.
"Forgive me, Professor, but I actually think my grades were quite good."
A sneer played at Snape's face and he raised one, glossy black eyebrow.
"Oh, you do, do you?" he seethed. Katie nodded swiftly. "Are you aware, Miss Blair, that you barely passed your end-of-the-year exams last year, having only scraped pass grades in four out of nine subjects."
"Yes, but—"
Snape gave her a withering look. She let out a small sigh.
"Yes, sir."
Snape smoothed out the piece of parchment that he was holding and began to read what was written on it.
"In order from best to worst results, the subjects that you passed were Potions, Herbology, Charms and Care of Magical Creatures," Katie was about to intrude, but Snape continued on, a little louder than before. "You almost passed Defence Against the Dark Arts and Astronomy, emphasis on 'almost', but your results in History of Magic, Transfiguration and Divination are shocking. I, for one, do not understand how you could fail Defence Against the Dark Arts when you are gifted — extraordinarily gifted, in fact — with Charms."
"In my defence, Professor," Katie piped up, earning herself a hint of a glare from Snape, "we haven't exactly had the best Defence teachers, have we?"
Snape peered threateningly at her through his shining eyes, and Katie knew at once that what she had said was a mistake.
"Would you like to elaborate on that statement?" Snape said slowly.
Katie swallowed harshly and, voice trembling ever-so-slightly, went on. "Well, Professor Quirrell was possessed by... You-Know-Who, wasn't he? Professor Lockhart was — please excuse my vulgarity, sir — a git. As for Professor Lupin, he was actually a good teacher, I learned a lot from him, but last year, well, our teacher ended up being a Death Eater, didn't he?"
Snape stared calculatingly at Katie for many moments. Feeling anxious that he was going to whip out his wand and hex her, she stared at the smooth black wood of the desk in front of her.
"Indeed," Snape said, and Katie felt herself let out a small breath of relief. "But other students have managed to receive top marks in Defence Against the Dark Arts, so I ask you, Blair, why can you not?"
"I don't know, sir." Katie said quickly but quietly. Professor Snape let out a hum of distaste but interrogated her no further on the matter, instead returning to reading slips of parchment from her file.
"Have you ever considered becoming a Curse-Breaker?" Snape inquired.
"I can't. I don't take Arithmancy."
Snape's lips curled into a taunting smirk. "That, you do not, instead you chose to waste your time with the woolly subjects of Divination and Care of Magical Creatures."
"I don't deny that choosing to study Divination is a regret of mine," Katie voiced, trying very hard to sound formal to give Snape one less reason to ridicule her. "But I find Care of Magical Creatures quite useful. It helps me take care of my Ni— cat." she caught herself just before she could confess to owning a Niffler illegally. Snape, however, was not going to let her off the hook smoothly.
"Your cat?" he questioned. "Please tell me that you are not daft enough to believe that an animal as common as a cat is a magical creature?"
"No, no, of course not," Katie said hastily, racking her brains for an excuse as to why Care of Magical Creatures would help her take care of a cat. "But we studied Kneazles last year, sir, and they're very like cats, aren't they?"
Snape's nostrils flared. He re-directed his gaze to the parchment once more and, without looking at Katie, he said, "What about Alchemy?"
Katie blinked. She was sure she had misheard him. "I'm sorry?"
"Alchemy," Snape repeated with the tone of a person who was explaining something very simple to a small child. "A branch of ancient magic concerned with the composition, structure and magical properties of the four basic elements and the transmutation of substances."
Snape had lost Katie when he said, "ancient magic concerned with the composition..." but she nodded along nonetheless.
"It is intimately connected with potion-making and transformation magic, so, to become an Alchemist, you would need to improve your Transfiguration."
Katie almost laughed. Transfiguration, along with Divination, was by far her worst subject, and there was not a hope that she would receive a higher mark than "Dreadful" in the subject during her O.W.L examination.
"What other subjects would I need to become an Alchemist?" Katie questioned.
Snape raised his eyebrows astutely. "Alchemy."
Katie felt heat rising to her cheeks. She supposed that was quite a stupid question, but she hadn't known that Alchemy was a subject at Hogwarts. Snape seemed to have read her mind, because he said, "It is quite an obscure subject and can be studied in sixth year if enough students are willing to take the class."
"OK — er — yeah, I'll think about it."
What Katie had really wanted to discuss with Professor Snape was the educational requirements she would need to become a Professional Quidditch player. She expected she wouldn't need much more than skill in the sport, but perhaps there were certain subject requirements, such as Potions to create remedies in the case of a serious injury on the pitch, or Charms to slow your fall if you were knocked from your broomstick.
"Professor?"
"Yes?"
"What subjects would I need to become a Quidditch player?"
A horrible, twisted, sagacious expression made it's way onto Snape's face, making Katie's stomach lurch uncomfortably.
"You want to be a Professional Quidditch player?" he said coldly, almost laughing.
Katie's face flushed pink again. Once more, she tore her eyes away from Snape's face, instead choosing to stare at a frog leg that was floating idly in a jar of purple liquid on a shelf over his shoulder.
"Er — yes." she replied timidly.
"How, Miss Blair, do you expect to play Quidditch professionally when you can barely play smoothly for a school team?"
If Katie hadn't been offended when Snape insulted her grades, she certainly was now. Only for the fact that Snape's towering figure and brooding brows intimidated her, Katie would have shouted at him angrily right then and there.
"Professor," she rebuked, trying very hard to keep her voice calm, "I scored eight goals against Ravenclaw—"
"And a member of your own team hit himself in the face with his own bat, did he not?" Snape said scornfully.
Katie's heart was beating very hard now. She could feel the blood pulsing violently through her veins.
"But that was on him, not me!"
"You are meant to coach your team to victory, Blair," Snape bit coldly. "You understand that if your team's performance doesn't improve drastically for the final game against Hufflepuff, you will be revoked as captain next season, don't you?"
Katie was not at all shocked by Snape's threat to strip her of her title if Slytherin didn't win the Quidditch Cup. In fact, she was surprised that he hadn't already given her this particular warning before. She was, however, marginally aggravated that she had come to Snape's office to receive career advice, only to get ridiculed for her grades and Quidditch performance.
"Even if your Quidditch skills were up to scratch," Snape continued disdainfully, "do you really think a professional team would accept someone with a record such as yours?"
Katie cocked her head aside in bewilderment. "I'm sorry, sir, I don't understand."
"Well," Snape said, retrieving yet another piece of parchment from Katie's folder. "While your behaviour is relatively good in classes, excluding the time when you shouted at Professor Umbridge," Katie scowled as she remembered the time when Umbridge had docked Slytherin house fifty points because she had defended Harry, "I doubt a team would want a player who broke into the Chamber of Secrets, was caught red-handed in affiliation with a werewolf and escaped mass murderer, and was a member of an illegal Defence league."
Snape seemed to be enjoying shaming Katie, because a wicked smile tugged at his lips when he saw her cheeks grow scarlet for a third time.
"Perhaps," Snape pursued as though he had not just greatly humiliated the girl, "you will consider a career as a Potions Master? Potions is, after all, your best subject and you are top of my class," Snape reached into his drawer once more, pulled out two pieces of parchment and crisply handed them to Katie. "Here is a list of subjects you will need to become an Alchemist or a Potions Master. Dismissed."
Before Katie had the chance to tell Snape that she had no desire to be either an Alchemist or a Potions Master, he had left his seat and promptly turned his back on her, signalling that their meeting had come to a definite end. Katie left Snape's office feeling thoroughly disheartened and startled when she saw someone standing outside the door waiting for her.
"You took your time."
"Don't scare me like that!" Katie scolded, clutching her chest.
Draco sniggered. "My deepest apologies, princess." he said mockingly.
"And don't call me that." she snapped, shoving the subject lists into her bag and she and Draco began to walk up from the dungeons.
"I'm sorry." he chortled.
"No, you're not."
"You're right, I'm not. You're cute when you're angry."
Katie elbowed him sharply in the ribs.
"So, what job did he recommend?" Draco asked, massaging the area that Katie had struck.
"Alchemy and Potions." Katie rolled her eyes.
Draco let out an audible snort. "Did you tell him you wanted to play Quidditch?"
"Yep." Katie sighed out as they started climbing the stairs to the Entrance Hall.
"And?"
"And he said, and I quote, 'How, Miss Blair, do you expect to play Quidditch professionally when you can barely play smoothly for a school team?'." Katie said in her Snape impression that was scarily identical to his actual voice.
Draco himself appeared highly insulted and he wasn't even the one who had been on the receiving end of the snide comment.
"No he didn't!" Draco gasped.
Katie hummed. "Oh yes he did."
"So, are you going to become an Alchemist?" Draco questioned. They had just entered into the Great Hall for dinner.
"No, you twat," Katie almost laughed. "I'm trying out for the Montrose Magpies as soon as I finish school."
.
.
A/N: I don't think a natural born Occlumens is actually a thing in the Harry Potter books, but look, this is a fanfiction so whatever, leave me alone.