Unexpected

Cat's POV

"HERMIONE!! Are you ok?" I yelled as Mollie and I ran over to her when she entered the common room. It was Halloween and we had been informed that there was troll in the dungeons before we were sent out to our common rooms to finish the feast. We knew Hermione was in the girls’ bathroom crying because of Ron and his smart ass-ness during class. However we didn't know if she was ok after we heard about the troll. We were so worried that we sat there watching the porthole entrance waiting for her to return.

"Yeah I'm fine, Harry and Ron rescued me from the troll." We hugged her tighter and she hugged us back. The boys walked in and Hermione ran over with the two of us to thank them.

"No problem." Harry told us.

"Yeah, what are friends for?" Ron said smiling as Mollie and I hugged them both. There are just some things that happen that force the worst of enemies, or in this case the assiest of guys, to become your friends.

After the party was over we all went up to bed. When Mollie and I reached the top of the stairs and entered my room there was a blue feather attached to a scroll sitting on my bed. I walked over and picked it up and examined it. I recognized the feather as one of Artemis's.

"Who is that from?" Mollie asked looking over my shoulder.

"I don't know yet smart one I haven't opened it yet."

Although I do have a good idea of who it could be from. I pulled the string holding it all together off and then opened the parchment. All there was on it was a short question and an initial.

"Are you safe? D. Who is this D person and why do they want to know if you're safe?" Mollie asked me.

"I don't know. They didn't put their name now did they." I told her shrugging. I couldn't tell her the truth, I wanted to. She was getting so mad at me for not telling her about who I was sneaking off to go and see and why I kept the 'mysterious' blanket. I wanted to tell her so that I could get it out in the open but if she knew I was friends with Draco she would probably never speak to me again.

"I know you know who it's from, that's one of Artemis's tail feathers. She wouldn't send you a note from a stranger." she fumed. "I understand that you don't what to tell me, what I don't get is why. Is this the same person that gave you the blanket, that you sneak off to see every night, that you disappear all day for a day of the weekend every once in a while? Tell me Cat because frankly I'm getting worried about you."

"Mollie I want to tell you really I do, but I can't. Besides that's hardly fair, you have two guys that are in love with you and you can be open about it all you want because you don't have to worry about your sister’s reaction. Me, I have to worry that if I told you you would never talk to me again. Also, I sleep for three hours maybe most nights and you never worried a bit about it, but now I disappear for a few hours and you can't see me and all of a sudden you're worried about me. What do you want, a tracking device on me that can tell you exactly where I am at all times every day? Mollie, I'm the big sister I should be worried about you, but no, you're the one worried about me and I'm fine. I know it's just been you and me all our lives. Trust me I never expected to be a witch, I never expected to be 'royalty', I never dreamed we would ever have any friends besides each other. All of this is new to the both of us. I'm a big girl and I have my own life, I just happen to share half of it with you. I am allowed to do some things on my own. I mean I don't worry about you when you're up to all hours with George or Neville, or when you go for a quiet walk around the lake with them. Why do you have to worry about me? Besides when you and your lover boys walk around the lake you've almost caught me a couple of times, but I've been out there enough that I knew a few good hiding places. You know what though, we haven't even gone out to the lake in a week because you and George or you and Neville are almost always out there." I yelled at her venting my frustration. I felt the tears in my eyes but I refused to let them fall.

"Is that really what you think? Cat, there is no way that I would never talk to you again because of some person you hang out with unless it's someone I hate, and you don't have to worry about that anyway, you never talk to the people I hate because you're afraid that I'll hate you for liking them. So unless it's Dorkfoy or one of his cronies I'm fine. You can tell me." she told me with a smile.

"I'm not afraid of you or you hating me. I am perfectly free to talk to whomever I choose."

"Of course you are, just as long as I approve of them first, I don't want to see you get hurt. I mean you may be the oldest but you're the weaker of the two of us." she stated matter-of-factually.

I looked at her in shock as the tears I was holding back wanting to fall. Too late she realized what she had said and threw her hands over her mouth and her eyes got wide.

"I'm so sorry! I didn't mean that."

"Yes you did or you wouldn't have said it." I whispered menacingly before I ran out of the room, down the stair, threw the common room, out the portrait hole, down to the entrance hall and out onto the grounds. I ran all the way to the far side of the lake and sat down crying. A moment later there was a flash of blue fire and a groggy looking Draco stood ten feet from me looking around. He spotted me and ran to my side.

"Cat, what's wrong?" he asked pulling me into his chest in a tight hug. I looked up at him and he saw my tears and was shocked. "What happened?"

"Mollie and I went up to our room and I saw your note on my bed and so did Mollie. She asked me who it was from and why this D person cared about me. I told her I didn't know but she knew better because she recognized Artemis's feather. Then we got in a fight and I yelled at her, then she told me I could talk to anyone as long as she approved of them first. Then she told me that I was weak." Draco held me close to him and rocked me back and forth stroking my hair.

"I'm sorry Cat, I should have found someone with an owl in the dormitory to send the letter but I had to know you were ok because I heard that a Gryffindor girl was attached up on the second floor in the bathroom and I had to know if it was you and if you were ok."

"I'm fine, it was Hermione that was attacked but she was rescued by Harry and Ron. Besides it's not your fault, this has been coming for eleven years."

"Wait, you two have never fought before?"

"Only over little things, like who gets to lick the bowl when mom is baking sweets, or who gets to ride up front in the car, or who washes the dishes while the other dries."

"Those are strange things to fight about, why don't you do side along or flew powder to get to places, why does your mom bake sweets when she has several servants to do it for her, and why do you have to wash the dishes when you could have a servant magic them clean?"

I laughed at him wiping the last of my tears away.

"What? Is there something on my face?"

"No. Draco, we don't have servants in our house, and I have no clue what side along and flew powder are. Our mom is a squib and our dad is a muggle. We were raised as muggles until we got our letters from school. We never knew that all the crazy stuff we could do was magic or that there was another world than the one we lived in and that in that world we were practically princesses. Mom never told us until the day we got our letters."

"So you're a mud, I mean muggle born?"

"Not quite. A muggle born is someone with no magical ancestors at all. We have a very long, very distinguished magical bloodline. You see, my mom was supposed to marry your dad."

"WHAT?"

"Yes, now shush, let me explain. Your dad had a thing for our mom but he never knew that she was a squib. Grandma Ashling kept that a secret from everyone until the day she married our dad. Your dad was promised to our mom, I mean really the most powerful and influential family in the wizarding world marrying the son of another old magical family, a power hungry family's dream come true. I mean face it, both of our families are power hungry even though our mom and the two of us aren't. Mom told me that your dad had a thing for her but she didn't like him. I only found out they were promised to each other when I was researching my family in the library. Anyway when mom was 17 and of legal age in the wizarding world she ran away from home and no one knew where she went. The two years later she comes home and she's married to a muggle and pregnant with the two of us. Grandma Ashling was furious I guess and told her that she couldn't ever inherit the estate and only the next person born in her line with magic would she also exposed mom as being a squib. Well five months later two red headed little witches were born and Grandma Ashling was ecstatic. She was so happy in fact that she forgave mom and told her that she had been released from her vow of marrying your dad because after she left he met Narcissa Black and had begged to be free of his promise so that he could marry her instead."

"WOW! That's crazy. So we would have been brother and sister?"

"No, if your dad had married my mom then you, Mollie, and I would never have existed."

"Oh. Well then in that case I'm glad things ended up the way they did." I smiled and hugged him tightly.

"Me too."

"So do you feel better now?" he asked looking down at me.

"Yeah I do, thank you Draco."

"It's no problem. We should go back to our rooms and get some sleep though. First match of the season is tomorrow. I hope you bring a shovel to scoop your team off the pitch." He challenged.

"Yeah right, I hope you have medical witches on call for your house team cause we're gonna pound them into next year." I challenged right back.

"You want to bet?"

"Yeah I do, what are the stakes?" I demanded getting up in his face, well sort of; he is taller than me after all.

"Alright, if your house wins I'll walk around school all day on Monday in a, oh what are they called? Muggle toe dancers wear them on stage."

"Leotard, tights, and a tutu with toe shoes. And there called ballerinas."

"Yeah that, and if my house wins you'll have to walk around school all day Monday dressed as a black cat." I thought about it a moment and nodded.

"Deal, and it just so happens that I have a pair of tights, a tutu, a leotard, and I know where I can get some toe shoes." I told him winking with a smile.

"I really doubt you'll have to find the shoes, you better be looking for a cat costume to wear instead." He smirked.

"Oh, I have one of those too, I was gonna dress up as a black cat this year for Halloween but Hogwarts doesn't do costumes. By the way, it's a really sexy costume too." I told him as I walked past him to where Artemis was sitting on a tree branch watching us in amusement. Well it's as sexy as an eleven year old would dare to own let alone wear. I glanced back over my shoulder and saw the look on his face. It was so priceless, I wish I had a camera! I looked at Artemis, “Can you take me to the common room and them come back and take Draco to his?" She made musical sound that I had started to lean meant yes. A moment later I was engulfed in cold blue fire and then in the common room. I ran up the stairs and into Hermione’s room and I crawled into her bed with her to sleep so I didn't have you worry about wanting to hit my sister for calling me weak. I do know one thing though, I'm not talking to her again until she apologizes for real and not just because she saw the hurt in my eyes from what she had said. She had meant what she told me and I knew it, I could always tell when she meant her words and when she didn't. That was something she was dead set about and until she realized that I wasn't weak and apologized for it, as well as pissing me off in other ways during our fight, I wasn't going to even acknowledge that she existed. I can hold a grudge if I REALLY want to.