Status: «in the writing, new chapter twice a week»

A Mind Gone Astray

Chapter XII – An Unexpected Friend

Christmas drew close and the Friday before those who wanted to go home would leave the castle to the Hogsmeade station, time seemed frozen. Classes went by so slowly that Cathy caught herself looking at her watch every twenty seconds. Usually every teacher would be in a Christmasy mood around this time of the year but since the OWLs got closer by each day passing they kept on with their normal teaching. The confusing thing about that Friday was though that none of the Weasleys was at school and harry Potter had left, too. She couldn't explain why a whole family was missing from the grounds unless there was a death of a family member. Deep inside she hoped this was not the case so that none of them had to experience that ever in their lives. When their last lessons, double History of Magic, was finally over, she walked out of the room with a deep sigh.
‘I always liked Christmas but now it seems like we got so much on our to-do-list that I will spend the two weeks with ink, quill and a pile of books,’ she mumbled rather to herself than to the others.
‘Why would you waste your time off with that?’ Draco asked scornfully and looked at her.
‘Because I like to have good marks? Everything might fall into your lap, love, but it's much more difficult for me.’
‘If that's what you want. But marks won't matter to me when we have dinner parties and show off our mansion to the envious,’ he winked and put an arm around her shoulders while they walked down the stairs to the dungeon.
‘Ahh you mean because I will be your housewife with no need for a job?’ she smiled through gritted teeth.
‘Exactly. Sounds like a good life, doesn't it?’ All Cathy could do was nod slowly and once they walked into the common room she excused herself because she had to go and pack her luggage for tomorrow when she would leave for London.



The next morning she found herself in the train with a big group of other students, a handful of them being other fifth-years, and the rest being from year one to four. There weren't many Slytherins among them. Draco, Crabbe and Goyle always stayed at Hogwarts and wherever Draco was, there was the group of girls around Pansy – including her herself of course. The blonde walked around the train and found an empty compartment into which she settled herself, lying down on the seats and enjoying traveling alone. She slowly dozed off into a cozy sleep ten minutes after they had left the station. Recently her nights have been full of nightmares which made it hard for her to have an easy sleep. Her dreams were always full of dark things but now there were different. Nowadays they involved her future a lot. It was always a normal situation at first where she found herself in a big mansion with tasteful decoration and a little child without a face. At some point Draco came home from his job at the Ministry of Magic where he always had a high-positioned job and everything was full of warmth and he treated his child with love and respect. It always changed suddenly once the child was out of sight and Draco got violent, abusive and full of hatred. He mentioned that he knew she cheated on him with Fred but that it won't happen anymore because he killed him and his whole family. And, as shocking as those nightmares were, she couldn't help but keep on liking Fred more than she should.
The sound of her compartment door being pushed aside woke her up and when she opened her eyes, Neville Longbottom stood there, shaking in nervosity and having his wand raised. Slowly and with a frown Catherine sat up and peeked around to check if others watched the situation somehow. When she was sure that nobody was there, she looked into the hazel eyes of the Gryffindor.
‘How about … you sit down and lower your wand, Neville? It's Neville, isn't it? You look like you want to get something off your chest,’ she said with a smile and knew that her charm once more ignited. For a moment he looked like a fish, opening his mouth and closing it again twice or three times in a row but then he sat down on the opposite side of her. ‘So speak up. What is it you wanted to threat me with?’
‘N– Nothing like that, no. I just … I heard you talking to Hagrid one day and I thought it was strange of you to be like that. You are a Slytherin! And then … then I heard Ginny and Hermione talking about you and … I wanted to say that what you are doing is great.’ His words were confusing Cathy and she looked at him while she tried to figure out what exactly he was trying to say but she saw nothing. It must be that he actually supports what she was doing.
‘So you were eavesdropping?’ she smirked and leaned back with a relieved sigh. ‘I already thought you wanted to jinx something on me when you walked in with your wand raised, mun.’ Wildly Neville shook his head and laughed helplessly.
‘The only thing I can do with concentration is disarming someone,’ he mumbled a little helplessly and somehow the blonde fell pity for him.
‘Don't worry about that. Time will come where you will do your jinxes and counter jinxes because you know it matters,’ she said encouragingly. A little while they sat there in silence before the girl spoke again. ‘I would ask you to… um… not say anything to anyone about my situation, okay? I would be of no use if the Dark Lord or his followers found out I am not really supporting and working for him but for Dumbledore.’ Longbottom looked at her and nodded then before he got up. ‘Oh and Neville? Thanks for telling me. It's always good not to be alone,’ she said honestly and watched him walk off.
When the train stopped and everyone flooded out of the room, the blonde made sure to be the last one out since nobody expected her and every other child was picked up. With a gloomy smile she walked off platform 9 3/4 and hurried her way through the crowded station. Once outside, she breathed in cold air and admired the look of the snowy inner city of London. She turned right to get on her way to the Grimmauld Place when suddenly someone walked right next to her left and also to her right. Mad-Eye Moody and Tonks had joined her like an escort.
‘I can find he way on my own, you know?’ she said but kept looking straight ahead. Moody let out a little grunt and Tonks chuckled.
‘We know. It's for your safety. Professor Snape asked us to,’ the woman said and even though it surprised Cathy more than anything, it also made her smile. They walked about half an hour because through the heavy snowfall that apparently had happened just moments before, nobody had yet been snow shovelling. When they entered the freshly appeared building, a certain warmth flooded her and the smell of dinner made Catherine realise how hungry she really was. The little group of three walked into the dining room and before she could greet anyone, Ginny already came up to her to pull her into a tight hug. After a little round of hellos she sat down at the table, her mind racing at the view of the exhausted Weasley family and she wished she could be alone with her redheaded friends just to ask the one question that bothered her since she saw them all missing yesterday morning. Silence filled the room at dinner and when they all were done eating, Catherine slowly got up after thanking everyone for dinner and headed upstairs to get into the room she shared with the other two girls, who followed just a few minutes later.
‘Ladies, I'm sorry but I have to ask this now: What happened that made you and your brothers go home a day earlier?’ she sputtered out and looked at Ginny while she sat down on her little bed. Both girls looked at each other for a moment and then the redhead started talking about her father who was attacked by a large snake and how Harry saw everything in a somewhat forecasting dream. While she spoke Catherine's eyes got big and in the end she shook her head slowly.
‘That's horrible.’ It was all she could say at first and looked at the girls.
‘I know. We've been at St. Mungo's early in the morning and he looks good. He was saved last minute but there is some kind of poison that keeps the wounds from closing up.’ Ginny explained and sighed deeply.
‘Oh yeah … that's Nagini's poison,’ the blonde muttered and when the other two looked at her with a frown she added silently, ‘I heard people speaking about her strength and I've seen her already. She is incredibly huge and eerie.’ There was a moment of silence when the Veela suddenly remembered her train ride and she thought it might be a nice change of topic. They accepted it happily and they talked a while about meaningless things. A little while later, the rest of the Golden Trio walked inside because they heard that the girls are still up and for the first time, Catherine experienced Ron and Harry outside of Hogwarts which was a nice change and amusing from time to time. At around midnight Sirius poked his head in with a smirk, entering the room with some butterbeers.
‘But no word to Molly. She thinks you're all already asleep,’ he whispered and everyone nodded before they happily opened their beers.
‘So tell us, what's it like to be around Malfoy twenty-four-seven!’ Ronald asked then all nosily. Cathy bit her lip for a moment to think of what to say and shrugged lightly then.
‘It isn't that bad. Luckily he knows not to drive me up the wall because it can end quite nastily. Most of the time he is just prancing to make himself look good and what's better for his reputation than to have a Veela as a future wife and current girlfriend? He's already showing off with me a little and I can imagine it getting worse potentially to his prominence,’ she smiled and took a sip of her drink. ‘But I can live with that. What I cannot live with is the fact that he wants to make me a little house maid when I just fled from the house that made me into one.’
‘Just stay with us then!’ Ron said and Cathy laughed for a moment which made his ears turn scarlet.
‘Ohhh no, don't get me wrong. I am not laughing at you but at the fact that you're so enthusiastic when you barely know me. Which is nice … and awkward. Anyhow, that's not manageable at the moment. I am too young to hex outside of school so there would be no defence against my father and his buddies. May sound like I am a little chicken but there is a reason I am in Slytherin after all.’ The innocence and nonchalance made the other laugh a little. Slowly the butterbeer was empty and the boys got back up to head to bed. The girls got ready for bed as well and when Cathy felt the rough sheets and the soft mattress underneath her, it was as if she was finally back home.
♠ ♠ ♠
Oh Jolly,
I am late, I know! I am very sorry but I fell asleep before I was able to post the chapter!
Anyhow, I want to thank every loyal reader once more for sticking with the story!

Next update will be on Friday 19th September.