Rebel Without a Cause

1.

"I want you to cut my hair," Kathryn declared to Marianne when the older girl walked into the living room. "And do something outrageous with the color."

Marianne eyed Kathryn and her suspiciously. Obviously hair grew back, but she couldn’t believe that Kathryn really wanted to chop and color her gorgeous just-past-the-shoulders auburn curls. What Marianne wouldn’t do to have natural hair like that! But the look in the twelve year-olds eyes meant there was no mistaking that determination. This was something that Kathryn would do herself if Marianne did not. Petunia Dursley was going to kill her. Sighing, Mari took her wand out of her back pocket and with a wave, Kathryn's perfect loose curls were cut. Her hair hung just below her chin and had only a slight wave. Another wave, and it was perfectly straight. A third tap, and the one-auburn locks were now a vibrant, mermaid blue. Hopefully, thought Marianne, it would be a phase.

A quick glance in the mirror and Kathryn’s face was a bright, gleaming smile. If Marianne had to guess by the slightest look of mischief in the younger girl’s eyes, there was more to the change than just preteen whatever and the desire for change. Well, as long as she didn’t have to be in the neighborhood when Petunia saw it.

2.

Ever since Harry had returned to 4 Privet Drive for the summer, Kathryn’s Uncle Vernon treated him like a bomb that could go off at any moment. The other day, he’d let loose on her brother because he’d tried to make a joke about ‘please’ being the magic word, only to have the entire household to go white as a ghost (well, purple as a grape in Uncle Vernon’s case) before her uncle began tirade about “using the M word” in his house. It was exhausting.

Kathryn was still...bitter about being left behind with the Dursleys all year while Harry got to go and galavant about at Hogwarts. Of course, on her eleventh birthday, just in May, she’d received a letter as well. The good part about having an older brother was that he got to be the guinea pig. Her aunt and uncle had simply been waiting for Kathryn’s school-for-the-freaks acceptance letter to come, biding their time until they could send her away for the school year too.

Of course, the best part about getting her letter was when her best friend May burst unceremoniously into the Dursley house demanding to see it. It had caught Kathryn off guard -- how did May know? Wasn’t this stuff supposed to be a secret or something? And that was when May finally got to tell her best friend she was a witch too. Though, as Kathryn remembered after the fact, she was pretty sure May had blabbed the very first time they met. Good thing she hadn’t actually been listening then.

“Kathryn!” her aunt’s shrill voice interrupted her day-dreaming. “What did your uncle just ask you?”

“Uh,” was the only word she could come up with, inwardly cringing at the glare she was given.

“I said, we are in position at eight ‘o clock. Where will you be?” her uncle demanded, face turning the tell-tale shade of purple that meant she’d better get her act together.

“I will be in the kitchen, helping Aunt Petunia with dinner like the good, obedient niece that I am,” she replied, resisting the urge to roll her eyes. Harry was all pouty about having to sit in his room pretending he didn’t exist. Fortunately for him, since Harry had been away at school all year, to the Masons he didn’t actually exist. Well, what Kathryn would give not to have to exist for the stupid dinner party they were hosting, As her aunt was constantly reminding her, she spent too much time with “those shameful Journey sisters” who were “a terrible influence” and who had caused Kathryn to develop “an unnecessarily smart mouth and disrespectful disposition.”

Ugh.

3.

“I’m telling you Kathy, there was a house-elf in our room! He’s the one who dumped the cake on the Masons!”

Kathryn still was a bit mad that it had gone from her room to “our” room every since Harry got back. It was like her aunt and uncle were all afraid to keep Harry in the cupboard anymore. Clearly it was spoiling him. Or he was just crazy after a year at that Hogwarts place.
“House elf or not, I can’t get caught talking to you! I’m only allowed to be in the room to sleep, remember?” she whispered impatiently, glancing down the hallway every few seconds to make sure no one was coming. “And now thanks to you they’ve put bloody bars on the windows! Thanks for that!”

“Kathy--” but she quickly slammed the door in his face when she heard footstep at the bottom of the steps, making their way up, and she backpedaled so it looked like she was coming out of the bathroom.

“What are you up to?” Dudley asked, suspicious. “I’m going to tell my mum!”

“Dudley, I wasn’t up to anything!” Kathryn tried to protest, but not five minutes later she found herself locked in the room with Harry.

“Thanks a lot,” she huffed, going to sit on the bed. Maybe if she just slept for lots and lots of hours the boredom would pass more quickly?

4.

“...I can’t magic myself out, because the Ministry’ll think that’s the second spell I’ve done in three days, so-”
“Stop gibbering, we’ve come to take you home with us.”
“But you can’t magic me out either--”

Eleven year-old Kathryn Potter was woken in the middle of the night by the sound of not-so-quiet whispering. She peeked her head out from underneath her blanket to see her brother Harry with his head practically mashed between the stupid iron bars that had been put on them. Softly, she got out of bed to go over and make Harry shut his gob before he woke somebody else up and got her in even more trouble.

“Harry James Potter, I am going to kill--” was all she managed to angrily whisper before her eyes flew wide open at the sight of three redheaded boys floating in a car outside the window. Momentarily, she was speechless.

“Oh, Kathy this is my friend from school, Ron, and his brothers, Fred and George--”

“Hello there!” said one of them, waving brightly, while one of the others threw a rope at them and told Harry to tie it around the end of the bar. “We’re busting Harry out!”

“Hi...” she said, still processing exactly what was in front of her. They were telling Harry to get in -- wait was he going without her? Leaving her again? Oh no, that would not do.

“You are not leaving me here again,” she turned to him and explained while one of the twins (? it was hard to tell in the dark) picked their lock. Kathryn wished she knew how to do that. Maybe they’d teach her?

“Hurry up, then,” Harry said, distracted as he rushed to gather his things and pass them out the window.

For a minute, Kathryn wondered what it would be like to have a normal brother. Not as exciting, probably...

5.

The Weasleys were annoying, loud, and too many in number. Being stuck in the Burrow with them for the rest of the summer was NOT going to be a fun experience. When they first arrived, a redheaded woman whom she assumed to be Ron, George, and Fred’s mum started shouting really loudly, enough to wake the entire countryside in Kathryn’s opinion. Not even Uncle Vernon was that loud. She’d been nice enough to her and Harry, though. There were lots of them, though, and it was hard to keep track of all the people living in the house. The only two she could stand so far were the twins, who seemed to be pretty funny. And who had promised to teach her how to pick a lock.

But she didn’t get to share a room with the cool ones, now did she? Nope, Kathryn was stuck with the youngest of them all, a girl who was her age and about to start Hogwarts as well. The same girl who had seen her brother sitting at the breakfast table their first morning, gaped like a fish, and ran in the other direction with squeal. Brilliant.

"Hi, I'm Ginny," said the young girl, the only girl, introducing herself with a smile now that it was just the two of them.

"Kathryn," she replied simply, not particularly keen on making friends, especially not with Harry's friends. That was weird. This whole thing was weird. Urrghh. Why, again, did she feel the need to ask Harry to drag her along to stay with people she'd never met? That's what May's house was for.

6.

"That looks seriously stupid," Kathryn whispered to May as the two stood in line, waiting their turn with the Sorting Hat.

"It's magic," May shrugged.

"Journey, May!" the scary-looking woman announced, and with her trademark grin, the best friend hopped up to the stool and sat down. After a few short minutes, the Hat declared 'Slytherin!' for May, and Kathryn couldn't help that she didn't care what house as long as she wasn't with Harry. After much fidgeting and waiting impatiently, finally "Potter, Kathyrn" was called. It was kind of creepy how everyone got quiet, watching her, and she guessed it was even worse for Harry during his, being that boy who just wouldn't die and all.

"Very curious," the Hat mused, it's voice loud and clear deep inside her mind. "Anywhere but Gryffindor, then? So keen to be the opposite of your brother. Thankfully I don't think you'd do well there anyway...you know what you want, no questions about that, and certainly aren't the type to care who gets in the way. And what a chip you’ve got on your shoulder. Something to prove, eh?"

"Would you hurry up already? Please?" Kathryn responded silently, nervously biting her lip.

"Well, I'd say it's close, but...SLYTHERIN!"

Taking the hat off slowly, Kathryn felt relieved to be in the same house as her best friend. That is, until she saw the looks on all of the faces in the crowd. Harry Potter's sister, in Slytherin? We don't want that Potter brat here... And the whisperings were not quite whispers, so she heard every word, but walked to the far table with her head held high and took a seat next to May.

"This is gonna be fun," the redhead joked with a smile, trying to show the world that she was so much more than some 'Potter brat.'

"Oh look, food!" May declared happily.

7.

When no one was around, Kathryn pulled the little black journal out of her trunk. She hadn't a chance to look at it properly, certainly not over the summer with that stupid Ginny girl nosing around (she was a Gryffindor, go figure), and now was the perfect chance. Actually, it was pretty strange that it mysteriously appeared among her things. A miracle, maybe. Curiosity killed the cat, warned a voice in her head. Satisfaction brought it back! she retorted, arguing with herself and feeling rather stupid. But she opened it anyway, and began to scribble:

This is a blank journal. So I am writing in it.

Hello, I am Tom Riddle. Who are you?

Kathryn Potter.

Simply put, it was a disaster waiting to happen.

8.

Kathryn sat in her bed, late at night, writing furiously in her journal. Tom had become a very close friend. A fellow Slytherin, he understood her-- unlike her idiot brother.

-He's so infuriating! I'm perfectly capable of defending myself against Draco, who by the way, is a total prat, but he has to barge in and cause even more trouble for me. Doesn't he get it? I already have a hard enough time getting them to like me with Harry Potter as my brother.

-What do you mean, 'with Harry Potter as my brother'? What is significant about his name?

-As a baby, he defeated a Dark Lord and survived the killing curse or something. Nobody really know how. I was a baby too, so it's not like I can remember, but he came in, killed our parents, and tried to kill Harry. Proof that Harry’s been ruining my life since day one!

-A Dark Lord...as an infant?

-One of the meanest, too! Lord Voldemort's what he called himself. So now Harry thinks he has free reign to be a “pompous idiot” as my head of house put it.

-I'm sorry that your brother doesn't understand you like I do. I also am sad to hear that Slytherins do not stick together any more, as they should. You deserve a real friend like me...you know, Kathryn, although now I am only a memory, it wouldn't take much to make me a living person. I just need you to do me a favor.

-Anything!

-I need you to find me someone...someone weak, and I will do the rest.

-If I do this, will you promise to still be my friend?

-Of course, Kathryn.

-If I don't like them, it's not so bad. I'll do it.

9.

"Are you alright? You've seemed a bit off lately," May observed one morning at they sat and ate breakfast in the Great Hall.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she replied, absently playing with the syrup she had smothered her pancakes with.

"Then why the heck have you been nice to Ginny Weasley lately?" she asked, suspicious. Kathryn sighed. As much as she loved May, she couldn't tell her about Tom and what they were planning. It was supposed to be their secret. Tom promised her that if they worked together, things would be so much better. But there was no room for a third. And May was her first friend, her best friend for such a long time, but how could Kathryn say her new best friend was a boy who lives in a diary? She was sure that once it was all over and Tom was real, May would love him as much as Kathryn did. Magic really was the coolest thing ever.

"Knowing Harry, I'm going to have to spend a lot of time with the Weasleys over the summers," Kathryn explained, making it up as she went. "So I should learn how to not want to punch her in the face every time I see her, right?"

"Oh, okay," May said, laughing a bit and going back to her breakfast with a shrug.

"So if your brother is a parselmouth, are you one too?" said the voice of none other than Draco Malfoy, who was unfortunately sitting across the table from her. "Because you would make more sense as the Heir of Slytherin than that bumbling Gryffindor."

"Don't be stupid," she scoffed, almost scared how close to the truth he was.

10.

Sometimes Kathryn wasn't sure what to think about Professor Snape. The first time she entered his classroom, he tried not to look as though he'd seen a ghost. When she handed in her first potion, it was almost like he was proud. One day he asked her to stay after class.

"Miss Potter," he began. "I must admit I was surprised to see you sorted into my house. I mistakenly assumed you would be like your brother, though I must admit I am pleasantly surprised to find myself mistaken."

"Thank you, sir," she said, confused as to where the conversation was going.

"As Head of Slytherin House, I like to keep a close eye on all of my students, enough to notice when something isn't right. A few of your classmates have noticed you acting oddly, and I too have noticed. It is a cause for concern," he explained.

"I'm still doing well in all my classes," Kathryn pointed out. "And I don't know why you say friends, because we both know nobody in Slytherin likes me besides May, and we grew up together so she doesn’t count.”

“You are not answering the question,” Professor Snape sighed, and pinched the bridge of his nose.

“You didn’t ask me a question, Professor,” she said, acting confused. “I’m still getting used to having a celebrity as a brother and trying to make new friends. But everything is going to be fine, Professor Snape. You’ll see.”

How could he argue with that?

11.

-I would very much like to meet your brother, Kathryn.

She stared at the words on the page, biting her lip. Kathryn Potter did not want to share Tom Riddle with anyone, least of all her brother. It was bad enough that she’d had to share him with Ginny Weasley, but now this? So she put down the only thing she could think of, even though afterwards it made her feel like more of a child than she already was.

-Why? So you can be convinced of how wonderful he is too?

-Kathryn, you know that I’m on your side, don’t you? I’m not going to choose between you. There is no choice.

-Then why do you want to meet him at all?

-It’s only fair to let him tell his side of the story. I would just like to form my own opinion. Is that really so horrible?

-No, I suppose not...everyone just thinks he’s so special, even the people who don’t like him because of it. I don’t want you to like him better than you like me.

-It’s he who should be jealous of you, not the other way around.

-I’m not jealous!

-Good, because there’s no need to be. I’m doing this for you, because I care about you, not about your brother. He should know how lucky he is. Let me show him.

12.

So that was how Ginny and Kathryn got in an argument. Ginny was starting to feel suspicious about the diary. She confided to Kathryn that ever since October she’d been having these blank moments where she couldn’t remember where she’d been or where she was going. Would wake up with rooster feathers on her clothes. Kathryn, not knowing what to do, said she’d been having the same sorts of experiences. They’d been fighting about it since Christmas, really. Ginny was sure there was something bad about the diary. That meant she wasn’t as stupid as Kathryn originally thought.

“I’m sure it’s not the diary, Ginny,” she told her one January afternoon, as they argued in the empty girl’s toilets on the second floor.

“What else would explain it, then?” Ginny asked, arms crossed.

“Here’s a better question: why would Tom do anything like that to us? He cares about me -- about you. Don’t you believe him?”

Ginny seemed to struggle after that. The girl was (rightly) convinced that she was causing the attacks that were happening to people all over the castle. Kathryn thought, for a second, that she had placated the fellow redhead with her words, only to be caught off guard as Ginny violently grabbed the diary and chucked it into Moaning Myrtle’s toilet.

“I hate you, Ginny Weasley and I will never forgive you!”

13.

Kathryn and May giggled as they watched a disgruntled gnome struggle with her brother as it tried to deliver the musical valentine they’d sent to him. She missed Tom, a lot, but at the same time it was nice to have more time to have fun with May, whom she’d missed. This was just the sort of thing the two of them liked to do together. They’d stayed up all night writing to most horrifying valentine poem to send to Harry, but watching it happen before her eyes just took the cake. It was incredibly difficult not to completely bust up with laughter. It was especially funny when Harry’s bag ripped and all his things tumbled onto the floor. There was no one better to pick on and terrorize than your own sibling, clearly. But that was when something familiar caught her eye. A little black book which she knew to be the diary of one Tom Marvolo Riddle had dropped to the floor along with everything else he was carrying. Kathryn froze and the diary was all she could focus on. Even after Harry had scooped up all of his things, she felt distracted.

His eyes are as green as a fresh-pickled toad,
His hair is as dark as a blackboard.
I wish he was mine, he’s really divine,
the hero who conquered the Dark Lord.

Malfoy stumbling upon him and hearing the embarrassing poem her and May wrote the night before and making fun of both Harry and Ginny at once couldn’t even bring her back into focus. She needed to get that diary back; she needed to finish what she and Tom had started. Ugh, and then Malfoy got his grimy paws all over it. If her brother hadn’t beaten her to it, Kathryn would have tried to disarm the git herself. She watched Ginny rush into class, face covered, and knew that she was going to make that stupid little Gryffindor get Tom back if it was the last thing she did.

“I think your brother’s got a not-so-secret admirer,” Malfoy sniggered as she walked past him to be late for class. At any other time, she might have laughed with him, but instead she fixed him with a glare that could raise the dead.

“Give it up, Malfoy. We all know you secretly idolize him,” she sneered, and turned to walk away in the opposite direction, ignoring his loud protests.

14.

The same day as the Valentine, she’d cornered Ginny and told her that if they didn’t get Tom back, Harry would learn all their secrets. And that Kathryn would spend the rest of their next six years at Hogwarts making Ginny’s life an absolute hell. She could tell that Ginny was already nervous and scared, and somehow she’d managed to strike a nerve.

Which was how, a few days later, Kathryn finally had the diary back between her fingers. She was finally going to see the resolution of her and Tom’s plan. That very night there was another attack. Kathryn usually didn’t go with Tom when he...well, you know’d with Ginny’s body (it was a bit weird), but she’d been so giddy to have Tom back that she didn’t care if he was in Ginny’s body. He could have been in her Aunt Petunia’s body and she would have followed him until the ends of the earth.

What was it about Tom that inspired such devotion in Kathryn Potter? It wasn’t as though she’d never had friends or anything like that, so what was so special about Tom Riddle? She hadn’t always hated her brother so much. He used to be her favorite person, along with May and Marianne. Growing up with the Dursleys, Harry had always been there. But something changed between them after he got his Hogwarts letter and left her. He hadn’t even come home to see her for Christmas, he was having such a great time with his new life at Hogwarts. And that had hurt. Suddenly, it seemed, he wasn’t just her older brother Harry anymore, he was HARRY POTTER: BOY-WHO-LIVED. And then Kathryn had gotten to Hogwarts and people looked at her differently. They whispered about her, just like they whispered about Harry. People didn’t like her because they didn’t like her brother. Harry made her life complicated and now she couldn’t just be herself anymore. The 15th of May would mark her twelfth birthday and when it came down to it, Kathryn was still just a girl whose parents were murdered, whose aunt and uncle didn’t like her, and whose brother was famous. Tom Riddle was an impossibly perfect boy who understood her, who took her side, who wanted to be her friend. And somehow that made all the difference.

15.

THEIR SKELETONS WILL LIE IN THE CHAMBER FOREVER

The words dripped from the wall as Kathryn watched Tom-Ginny write them carefully and with a smile that seemed out of place on the Gryffindor girl’s face. It was almost time for everything to come together. Kathryn could barely contain her excitement. Tom Riddle would be real. Flesh and blood. And she could finally stop having to spend time with Ginny Weasley. Needless to say, she was in the best mood anybody had seen her in since she started Hogwarts. The night ahead was going to be everything she’d waited for all term.

“My chamber won’t really lie in the Chamber forever, right?” she asked, somewhat nervous.

“Of course not, Kathryn,” Tom-Ginny’s voice said. “I have much greater plans for you and I.”

That made Kathryn beam at him. He had plans for her and him. She didn’t know what they were, but it didn’t matter. Impossibly perfect Tom Riddle had specials plans just for her -- plans that didn’t involve her brother and marked her as more special than Ginny or anyone else -- and that was enough. It was enough to get her to follow him down the tunnel and into none other than the Chamber of Secrets, where she’d so desperately wanted him to take her for so long. She just didn’t expect her brother to come and rescue her.

“Tom -- Tom Riddle? Wait, Kathryn?!” Harry asked, surprised to see her and Tom standing together as he knelt beside Ginny Weasley’s barely-breathing body. Kathryn was too upset with Harry for, once again, ruining everything to even listen to the exchange between him and Tom. He just couldn’t resist putting his nose where it didn’t belong, could he? Merlin her brother was so thick. Not only couldn’t he keep from minding his own business but he just didn’t get it. Couldn’t put any of the pieces of the puzzle together even when they were laying right in front of him.

“What d’you mean I won’t be--?”

“I’ve waited a long time for this, Harry Potter. For the chance to see you. To speak to you.”

“How did Ginny get like this?” Harry asked slowly.

“Well that’s an interesting question,” Tom drawled, as if he were answering a question about if blue and yellow made green. “And quite a long story. I suppose the real reason Ginny Weasley’s like this is standing right next to me. It’s all thanks to your sister that Ginny spilled her secrets to a stranger, to my diary, and that this came to pass.”

“Kathy, what is he saying? What did you do?” Harry asked, and his turned to her like a hawk and immediately Kathryn felt nauseous.

“You know she hates it when you call her Kathy,” Tom answered for her, voice smooth like silk. “I would know. All year I’ve been listening to her the way you never have. Isn’t that right, Kathryn?”

“Yes, it is right,” she said, suddenly able to find her voice, although it was a bit shaky. “Tom cares about me. He understands me. Don’t you see?”

The look on Harry’s face was a mix of horror and “no, I do not see.” Tom smiled, an almost oily kind of smile, and wrapped his nearly-corporeal arm around Kathryn’s shoulders. She didn’t see the look of delight that passed his features in reaction to the one of hatred that was on Harry’s.

“Get your hands off my sister, Tom,” he said, calmer than he looked.

“No, I don’t think I will. She likes it this way. You should respect her decisions,” he continued. “That’s how this all happened. Because I was patient, sympathetic, and kind as I listened to two eleven year-old girls tell me their troubles. Kathryn confided in me and when I told her there was a way for us to be more than...pen pals, as it were, she jumped at the chance and provided me with dear Ginny. Poor little Ginny, with her hand me down clothes and fears that the heroic Harry Potter would never like her, poured out her soul to me on paper, not realizing that the more she did, the more powerful I grew. Powerful enough to start feeding Miss Weasley a few of my secrets, to start pouring a little of my soul back into her...”

“What do you mean?” Harry asked, and Kathryn knew her brother well enough to tell when he was nervous.

“Ginny opened the Chamber, Harry,” she piped in, impatient. “She strangled the roosters, wrote the messages on the walls. She’s the one who set Slytherin’s snake on the school. Tom...just helped her.”

“She didn’t know what she was doing at first, of course. Her diary entries were very amusing. And it took such a long time for silly little Ginny to stop trusting her diary,” Tom continued, and Kathryn thought he might have tried to pat her on the back, but it was hard to tell. “Her and Kathryn got in a terrible row and Ginny tried to dispose of it. Ah, but that was where you came in. How convenient, that you of all people found me when that’s exactly where I was trying to end up.”

“Why me? And what about Kathryn?” Harry asked, voice wavering, though out of fear or anger, Kathryn couldn’t tell. She knew Tom’s answer to that question, of course. He’d explained it all to her himself before stupid Ginny threw the diary into Moaning Myrtle’s toilet.

“Ah, my dear Kathryn. She was the first one to find my diary and write to me, and she wrote to me about you. Her aggravating, life-ruining older brother who, as an infant, defeated the Dark Lord. And so, over the past months, you’ve become my new target. Killing mudbloods doesn’t matter to me anymore,” Tom explained. “So I made Ginny write her own farewell on the wall and bring Kathryn down as well. I knew you’d come for them from what they told me about you. I have many questions for you, Harry Potter. And Kathryn, well, she’s a very special part of my plan. A real personal touch, I think.”

This was it, Kathryn thought. This was when Tom was going to stand up for her, make things right for her. But instead...he asked about how Harry managed to escape with nothing but his scar the night he’d vanquished You-Know-Who. Biting her lip, Kathryn turned to look at Tom, but he wasn’t looking at her; his eyes were trained on her brother and nothing else.

“Why do you care how I escaped? Voldemort was after your time...” her brother said slowly, eyeing Tom strangely. Kathryn just felt confused.

“Voldemort,” Tom said softly. “Is my past, present, and future.”

Kathryn watched, eyes wide, as Tom used her brother’s wand to rearrange the letters of his name. I am Lord Voldemort. Wait, she thought...that couldn’t be right. This was her Tom, after all. Not Lord Voldemort, the man who murdered her parents twelve years ago. ...Right? But the more he continued to talk, about his filthy muggle mother... it made her blood run cold. All of a sudden, Kathryn felt very, very dizzy. Everything was spinning. What did Tom mean he’d been waiting a long time for Harry? He had plans for her, Kathryn Potter, not her brother. He was on her side, wasn’t he? She felt the panic rise but remained rooted to the ground.

What had she done?

And then her brother had to go and tell him Dumbledore was the greatest sorcerer in the world. Oh great, she thought; I am standing next a sixteen year-old version of the Dark Lord and Harry decides to antagonize him! What a Gryffindor. In the moment of distraction by the arrival of Dumbledore’s phoenix, Kathryn attempted to free herself from the arm that had gone from casually slung around her shoulder to gripping it. When had his form gotten so solid? She told herself to stay calm and to not hyperventilate, even when the phoenix dropped the sorting hat on Harry. The Sorting Hat! Of all the useless things!

“Look, Kathryn, at what Dumbledore sends his defender! A songbird and an old hat!” Tom addressed her, laughing, and a look that might have made her happy now made her scared. “So down to business, Harry? Twice in my future and your past I have failed to kill you. How? The longer you talk, the longer your sister stays alive.”

That’s when Kathryn realized exactly what an idiot she’d been. How stupid to even think this was ever actually about her and not about Harry! In the world of magic, it was always going to be about Harry. She’d been so caught up in herself...and she’d ended up working to bring Voldemort back to life of all the people...she deserved Sister of the Year Award for sure. But right then, her brother was being just as big an idiot as Kathryn had been. Only he would have the guts/stupidity to tell the Dark Lord to his sixteen year-old face that he turned into something foul, ugly, and weak; to assert the fact that their muggle-born mother was the source of whatever had kept him alive. It was like Harry wanted her to die.

“Harry, shut up!” Kathryn exclaimed, and both boys looked at her sharply. “You survived out of sheer, dumb luck and we both know it. Don’t make things up just because you’re angry.”

The look on Harry’s face was a mixture of betrayal and disbelief, but the look on Tom’s face was approving. More than anything, Kathryn wanted to try and make it out of the situation alive, and insulting Tom/Voldemort was not the way to do that. If possible, she also wanted to get her brother out of there, and ugh, yes, Ginny Weasley as well. But to do that the diary had to be destroyed somehow.

“Your sister is much smarter than you, Harry,” Tom intoned, still gripping her arm. “You know, I think I might keep her after all this is over, which it will be very soon, don’t worry. I’m going to teach you a lesson -- let’s match the powers of Lord Voldemort, Heir of Salazar Slytherin, against Harry Potter, Dumbledore’s little pet. What do you think, Kathryn?”

“My brother had better hope he gets lucky again,” she said, feeling totally out of control of her mouth and totally in control of it at the same time. Kathryn, she told herself, You are just acting. This is not you. She only hoped her brother could see that, or he might never forgive her.

16.

At the moment when Kathryn saw the snake’s fang sink into Harry’s arm, her heart dropped to her stomach and she tried desperately to wrench herself from Tom’s grip. He watched her struggle against him, amused, but held her tighter. She watched her brother pull the loosened fang out of his arm and slowly sink to the floor, and pulled harder.

“This isn’t what I wanted,” she said, weakly.

“No, but it’s what I wanted,” Tom replied smoothly. “Don’t worry Kathryn, there’s nothing you can do for him.”

“What are you going to do with me?” Kathryn asked, sounding as small as she felt.

“Personally, the sweetest revenge isn’t Harry Potter’s death. It’s his little sister next to me as I rise to power again,” he explained. “But it’s up to you whether you die here or not.”

Kathryn didn’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that he meant she could tell him she was still willing to follow him to the ends of the earth, no matter who got in the way...or she could die here with Harry. Neither seemed to be a very good option. But what could she do?

“Just...just let me go to him. I don’t care if everyone else in the world thinks he died with me hating him, but...” she pleaded with him, even if puppy-dog eyes were probably the last thing anyone would try and use on the boy who became Lord Voldemort. “I’ll do whatever you want, just...please, Tom.”

For a moment, he eyed her, as if deciding whether or not he had a good enough hold on her, she guessed. But what did it matter if Harry was near dead? Every second she had to wait for him to give her the go-ahead was another one wasted. Without saying a word, his hand slipped down so it was loosely holding her hand and he led her her brother’s side. Tom let go of her and decided that while she cried and choked out “I’m sorry’s” he would taunt Harry. Dumbledore’s stupid phoenix was in the way though, crying all over him as if it were the idiot sister.

“You’re dead, Harry Potter,” Tom’s voice echoed victoriously throughout the chamber. “The bird knows it, even your sister knows it. How does it feel to know she did this to you?”

Something inside Kathryn Potter snapped.

“No I didn’t!” she protested angrily. “You did! Your snake did! Not me!”

“Now, now, Kathryn,” Tom tisked. “Take credit for what you’ve done. None of this would have been possible without you.”

She was so blinded by how furious she felt that Kathryn didn’t even notice her brother’s wound beginning to close or the way he was able to begin to move a little bit. The only thing she could see was Tom -- no, Lord Voldemort. And suddenly, the phoenix had dropped something in her brother’s lap and the world clicked into place. A gear switched on and she became aware of the diary and the basilisk fang next to each other and within arm’s reach. The world seemed to be moving in slow motion as she reached out, grabbed the fang, and raised it over the diary before either of the boys could even blink.

“Kathryn, what are you doing, you silly girl? Put that down--”

“No! You don’t own me, Tom Riddle!”

With those final words, faster than Tom could draw her brother’s wand, Kathryn slammed the fang straight through the heart of the book. There was a long, dreadful and piercing scream. For a moment she wasn’t sure if it had come from her or the figure that was now writing as ink spurted out of the diary and all over her and Harry. And then, as if he had never been there, Tom Riddle was...gone. She couldn’t help it and started to cry. No, outright sob. She’d killed Ginny Weasley, killed her brother, killed Tom. They’d never let her come back to Hogwarts and she wasn’t sure what was worse, prison or living with the Dursleys the rest of her life. She cried so hard that she couldn’t hear the faint moan coming from Ginny or the sound of her brother’s rustling.

“Kathy, it’s going to be alright,” she heard her brother’s soft and soothing voice fill her ears, and it, as always, had the ability to calm her gulping breaths and ease her tears. “Fawkes healed me, Ginny seems like she’s about to wake up. We’re gonna get out of here, okay? It’s going to be alright.”

17.

Kathryn stood awkwardly in the doorway of the Headmaster’s office, arms crossed against her chest and head dropped as Mrs. Weasley and her daughter were reunited, hugging her brother, Ron, and Ginny to her chest.

“You saved her. You saved her! How did you do it?” the shrill voice of the mother of seven was unmistakable and hurt Kathryn’s ears.

“I think we’d all like to know that,” added Professor McGonnagall.

She listened, still as a rock, as her brother recounted how he’d been hearing the voice of the basilisk the whole time. About giant spiders in the forest and that disastrous blue Ford Anglia and Moaning Myrtle. When McGonnagall probed further, she saw her brother hesitate and she felt terrified. So far he hadn’t said anything about the diary, Kathryn, or Ginny.

“What interests me most,” said the voice of Dumbledore, previously so quiet. “Is how Lord Voldemort managed to enchant these two girls when my sources tell me he is currently hiding in the forests of Albania.”

Kathryn’s eyes flicked to Harry, as he held up the torn and bruised diary that had previously been her most prized possession. She felt like she was watching outside of her body while Dumbledore gently explained that Tom Riddle was the most brilliant student ever to attend Hogwarts. But then came the question she was dreading. What did Ginny, wondered Mrs. Weasley, have to do with any of it. And here was where she had to speak up or let everyone else try and tell the story for her.

“I found it in my things at the beginning of the year,” Kathryn said, speaking for the first time since she’d driven the fang through the diary. “I started writing in it and it wrote back. I--it asked me--I showed it to Ginny. We started sharing it.”

“Ginny!” exclaimed Mr. Weasley, flabbergasted. “Kathryn didn’t know better, but you did. How many times have I told you to never trust anything that can think for itself if you can’t see where it keeps its brain! Why didn’t you tell anyone?”

“I told her not to tell anyone. It was supposed to be our secret, something special just for the two of us,” Kathryn explained.

“I didn’t know!” cried Ginny, and Kathryn felt a desire rise in her to stuff a sock in the other’s girl’s mouth.

“Miss Weasley and Miss Potter should go up to the hospital wing right away,” Dumbledore insisted. “This has clearly been a traumatic experience for them both, and there will be no punishment for either of them. Bed rest and perhaps a large mug of hot chocolate, perhaps. I always find that cheers me up.”

A mug of hot chocolate, really? Ginny’s mouth wasn’t the only one she wanted to put a sock in. Which was how how Kathryn found herself being taken to the hospital wing, flanked by Weasleys, and praying her brother didn’t tell Dumbledore what really happened. She wished she could make him forget the whole thing. But she was glad that she didn’t have to attend the feast that night; Kathryn didn’t know how she would face her brother ever again. She also didn’t want to listen to Draco Malfoy’s obnoxious rambling about the Chamber of Secrets, which she was sure he’d bombard her with. A few days of peace would be appreciated.

18.

It wasn’t until they were back at the Durlseys that Harry really spoke to her. He’d come to see her and Ginny in the Hospital Wing for the few days they were there, but Kathryn hadn’t known what to say. On the one hand it was nice because her and Ginny did not so much as look at each other, forget talk to one another, but...the way he looked at her made her squirm.

“Hey Kathy,” her brother greeted her, sitting on the edge of her bed in their shared room full of Dudley’s clutter.

“Yeah?” she asked, distracted.

“I need to talk to you about Riddle,” he said slowly, knowing he was breaching what she wished to be a forbidden topic.

“Harry, I don’t really want to talk about him--”

“The way he talked to you and about you...He didn’t possess you like he did Ginny, did he?”

At that, her mouth slammed shut and her whole body stiffened. No, she definitely did not want to talk about it. She fidgeted and squirmed, betraying just how nervous and uncomfortable she was. Harry, knowing his sister well enough, took her silence as an answer.

“Why? Do you hate me so much or something? I know you were mad when I left for Hogwarts but...I don’t get it,” he admitted, schooching so that he was sitting closer to her.

“That’s the problem!” she exclaimed suddenly, after a few minutes of awkward silence. “Yes I was mad at you for leaving me, but that’s not it. That would be a dumb thing to hold a grudge about for that long. Everything’s always got to be about you! From like the first second I stepped onto the train to Hogwarts, everybody is always measuring me against you. My house hates me because I’m your sister. Don’t you get it?”

But Kathryn wasn’t interested in anything he had to say to her after that. She promptly got up and stormed out of the room. Forget this, she thought. I’m going to May’s. If there was one person in the world who was always going to be on her side, it was May Journey. And Kathryn had a lot of making up to do because over the past year she’d forgotten.