A Mind Gone Astray

A fresh breeze hit the mansion in Monmouth Shire so that one could forget that it was the beginning of August. Catherine turned away from her balcony and walked over to her trunk to shut the lid of it and by that it somehow made it real that she would leave the house today. Mindlessly she crossed her arms over her chest and looked around one last time to make sure she didn't forget anything.
‘Wand, books, school equipment, traveling cloak, other clothing – I think I got everything,’ she muttered while pointing at the empty places the things had been before. After that was done, she grabbed her luggage and walked down the big curved stairs into the entrance hall. The black marble made silent clonk noises as she walked over to the sitting room. The house was completely empty and that was very much to her liking. Her father had taken her brother to a “boys night out” over at the Malfoy's mansion. When she had told her father that she would spend the rest of the holidays away from home, he just grunted in his usual manner and then kept on eating the dinner she had cooked. The only thing he would miss is being pampered and cooked for. In the end they had house-elves to do it for them. A sly smirk stole itself across her usually straight face. The idea of high-born Timmothy Goyle eating food cooked by house-elves, which he hated so much, instead of just cooking things for himself was highly amusing to her.
Her thoughts were interrupted by emerald green flames coming from the chimney on the opposite side of the room. A tall man with thick, greasy hair framing his face stepped out of it, straightening his black traveling cloak while his black eyes checked out the room before they were fixed on the other person in the room.
‘They're gone, as you should know. The Malfoy's invited them. He tried convincing me it's just an evening for the males in the family but I am not that naïve,’ she said coolly while walking up to Severus Snape. He was the head of her house and her favourite teacher at Hogwarts. Also he was the only one understanding Catherine at the moment.
‘Good. We will apparate from here and then walk a little,’ he simply said.
‘OK then. We'll have to do it outside of the house though. Seems like my Timmothy was too afraid that mam would run away so he made it impossible to disapparate out of the house.’ A moment later she put on her black cloak and walked out into the backyard with Snape. There she held onto his left arm just in time. Side-to-side apparation was not the most comfortable feeling in the world but the advantage of traveling far distances through it made her ignore the gross pressure that came down from every side. He held her breath mainly because she felt like breathing was impossible and as they landed smoothly on the ground, she breathed it deeply a few times before opening her eyes to the new scenery. They stood in a dark alleyway between what looked like two old townhouses. She did not have a lot of time to figure out where exactly they were when Severus started walking ahead. With quick steps they both walked out of the alley and turned left to hurry their way down a small street. It looked like one of these typical English cities: town houses stuck together, each in a different colour and instead of being big in width, each had at least three levels. The street was decorated with birch trees and Catherine smiled a little about the beauty of this that shone even brighter in the sunset.
They didn't walk for long until Snape handed his student a little piece of parchment. She looked at it and in the handwriting of an old man, she thought it possibly was the one of Albus Dumbledore, it said



She read the two lines twice before she looked at Snape, nodding shortly to tell him she understood whereat the man took the piece and burnt it instantly. They made just a few more steps and then stopped. Cathy looked at number eleven and number thirteen before she looked at Snape. He gave her an impatient nod and quickly she looked back at the missing house number recalling what was written by Professor Dumbledore's hand. Seconds later, the houses of number eleven and thirteen moved aside to make room for another townhouse, grey of its façade and with white frames around the windows. The door was black as the night and somehow this house seemed more appealing than the mansion she lived in ever since she was born.
Snape and Catherine stepped up to the door and he rang the doorbell. Just a little later, a woman with shining red hair opened the door and looked at the two new arrivals. Without a word she stepped aside to make room and suddenly they were drowned in shrieking screams of things the blonde couldn't understand and also didn't try to. She covered her ears under the hood of her cloak and walked into the direction, the woman pointed at. At the end of the corridor she found herself in a dining room with a long table that had room for at least fourteen people. Catherine was sure that if only a little of the dust and dirt would be taken off, she would love it in here and it would stop having a rather forlorn atmosphere.
She was so distracted by taking in the decoration that was obviously put up by a pure-blood family. Someone cleared his throat next to her which made her jump a little. At the far end of the table there sat a man with long black hair and a worn-out face that told Cathy he was a very beautiful man before his time in Azkaban. His feet were on the table ahead of him and he looked at the new person from head to toe, obviously trying judge if she was friend of foe. Slowly she walked over to a chair and sat down, willing to make no noise whatsoever, before she slid back the hood to reveal her face. Instantly her long and silver-shining hair slipped free over her shoulders and just then she realised another two people in the room, adding to Snape and the woman who just entered as well.
One man was having red hair just like the woman and about a head taller than her. They stood together and whispered animatedly. Both of them stood so close together that she figured they could only be man and wife and just like that she realised who they were. One of her children was in the same year in Gryffindor: Ronald Weasley. The corners of her lips twitched into a smile for a moment before she turned to look at the other person. A penetrating smell came from him and his clothes looked more like old rugs and used cleaning rags stuffed together. His face had an untidy two-day-old beard and under his hood it was clear to see he was bald. His dirty eyes were fixed on Catherine and wouldn't she know that there was no thread from him, especially not in here, she had already gone out of the room. Sirius Black just opened his mouth to speak, taking his feet off the table but the other man beat him to it.
‘Is tha Veela 'air you 'ave?’ His horrible Bristol accent nearly made her shudder as she took in a deep breath. ‘I 'eard i's a good ingredient for wandmakin',’ he continued and Cathy just let out a silent snort.
‘If you think that you will get just one hair from my head, I will have to disappoint you, Mister,’ she said coldly and then turned to Black with a polite smile. ‘I figured you wanted to say something just before … I was eyed like some kind of tree?’
Black, who was seemingly startled by that approach, cleared his throat again and nodded for a moment.
‘Yeah… well. I just was going to tell you that this is my house and anyone who lives here follows my rules. I know your kind very well and it's no secret I don't trust your lot so if you do any harm to my godson or any of my guests, then I will hear about it and you can leave immediately. Also you better be as trustworthy as Dumbledore thinks you are,’ he snarled while looking at Severus who stood behind her chair. Catherine just rolled her eyes and looked up at the man behind her and for a moment she knew they both thought that Black was just a little too ridiculous to be true. ‘Also you should go to your room now. The Order has a meeting any moment now and a fourteen-years old is not supposed to hear any of this.’
‘I am fifteen and even though arrogance comes with being in Slytherin, I am not as arrogant as to think I could sit here and listen to what you have to say. All I was asking for was a shelter to stay the rest of the holidays and people who … might understand me,’ she snapped and slowly got up again. Mrs. Weasley stepped up to her, having a warm and motherly smile gracing her lips now to then lead her out into the entrance hall. Catherine said a quick thank you to Snape and looked at the woman next to her then.
‘We have to remain quiet in the hall or else the portrait of Sirius's mother starts her rampage again. You will be in the same room as my daughter Ginny and our family friend Hermione Granger,’ she whispered and the blonde just then realised that the screams from earlier had stopped. ‘It's up the third level, first to the right. They know that somebody else is coming so they won't be too surprised. I would bring you upstairs but as you heard there is a meeting soon and I am in the Order so …’
‘Oh never mind. It's fine. Thank you, Mrs. Weasley,’ Cathy replied with a serene smile. With that, the woman turned around and left for the dining room again. It took some time to until the blonde moved again. She slowly took her luggage and looked up, feeling as if more than one pair of eyes are watching her but she ignored that feeling and slowly and silently went upstairs and into the room she had been told. Once she opened the door, two girls and three boys looked at her with a mix of disgust and horror.