3: delightful departure

Two years in the Leaky Cauldron had slugged by, Kate was now fourteen and finally leaving for Hogwarts.

However, that was not the only thrilling news of today. When the Daily Prophet landed in that morning, she was shocked to see the front news.

None other than her uncle, Sirius Black, had just escaped from Azkaban the night before. Kate who only knew him through what her aunt had told her; she was only two years old when he was imprisoned and she was terrified yet delighted that he had escaped. Terrified of what would happen if he was caught or where would he be. With a swell in her chest, she went down the stairs. The Leaky Cauldron was crowded than usual today, everyone held the Daily Prophet and posters showing Sirius Black's gaunt face, stuck on every wall. She followed down the steps and noticed a long table in the middle of the pub where sat a family of redheads, talking and laughing, she smiled at their cheerful sight wondering how it would have been if her mum and dad were here.

She was so busy looking into their direction, walking mindlessly that she bumped into someone. A boy with messy black hair, around the age of thirteen who wore glasses. 

"I'm so sorry", she quickly apologised.

"It's all right" said the boy and smiled, "sorry, er, I'm Harry Potter". He held out his hand for Kate to shake.

"I'm-"

But before she could answer one of the redhead boys loudly called onto Harry.

"Harry, c'mere!"

"Uh...sorry. See you around."

Kate smiled at him as he left, his name did ring a bell though and it was only seconds after she had realised that his father used to be her Uncle Sirius's best mate.

At 10:15, Kate almost downed her breakfast and rushed up the stairs to carry her trunk when one of the workers saw her struggling and walked over to her.

"Miss Black, let me help you" he said kindly.

"Thank you", Kate replied hastily while she held onto Archimedes' cage and her guitar. At exactly 10:50, she arrived at King's Cross Station and hurried towards the barrier between platforms 9 and 10.

The scarlet Hogwarts Express violently blew smoke out of it, students older and younger than her were all huddled around. From the corner of her eye she even spotted Harry with his friends. Everyone began to file in when the whistle blew and Kate joined them.

Strumming head to toe from excitement yet anxiety, Kate, frantically, searched for a compartment even after ten minutes the train had started to move. And came to a stop when she saw one where two redheaded boys were sitting across from each other, she inhaled a deep breath and slowly slid the compartment door open.

'Um, hello' she said nervously. Both the boys turned their attention towards her and she realised that they were identical. While one of them just stared at her which made her look at the other one as she felt a light blush creep up to her cheeks.

"Uh - would you guys mind if I joined you because everywhere else seems to be full and...I don't know anyone", Kate's voice trailed off.

"Ahem, of course" one of them said. And she sat down beside one of the redhead whose name she didn't yet catch.

"Fred-"

"And George"

"Weasley", they said in unison, making her giggle.

The one sitting beside her was George, the same one who was staring at her when she entered.

"I'm Kate...Black" she said, lowering her voice on Black and their eyes widened.

"Wicked", they said together.

"We never knew Sirius Black had a daughter!", Fred exclaimed fascinatingly.

"Oh no, he's my uncle" Kate told them.

"Tell us then, did you help him escape?" he asked, wiggling his eyebrows.

"Oh, yes, of course. Escaping from Azkaban, piece of cake" she joked that made the boys laugh airily.

"Amazing sense of humour" said Fred.

"So, Kate, what year are you in? We haven't really seen you before" Fred went on.

"I'm in fourth year now" Kate told him.

"We're just a year above you and we're in Gryffindor. What house are you in?" George asked enthusiastically. Kate had then launched into an explanation of her untimely arrival at Hogwarts, the twins listened to her with their full attention, nodding when necessary.

"But I reckon I'd be in Slytherin. Would you guys still be my friends? I hear the Gryffindors aren't at all in particular...with Slytherin" she added lamely.

"Of course, we will!" Fred and George said in unison.

They spent the rest of the ride, talking and laughing. Fred and George showed her their pranking supplies, and Kate was delighted that she had already made friends but their conversations were soon put to a pause when the train came to an abrupt halt and the lights overhead flickered.

"Are we there yet?", Kate asked.

"Too soon, can't be" Fred replied as he tried to peer through the glass but it had begun to frost, the train then rattled violently and Kate grabbed onto George's sleeve. Their breaths came out as steam, the temperature was dropping and an unwelcoming shiver ran down Kate's spine.

She then saw something dark glide outside their compartment door, she clutched her wand in her hand and aimed it at the sliding door ready to throw a spell at whoever or whatever it was, only then did a hooded figure glide in and closed in on her, and before realising she held up her wand and loudly said, "Expecto Patronum!"

A wisp of light had erupted from the end of her wand, enough to back away the Dementor and then everything blacked out.

She opened her eyes to someone lightly shaking her shoulder and a very familiar face came into view, Remus Lupin, another one of her uncle's best friend.

"Uncle Re-"

She was about to continue but he had touched a light finger to his lips as he helped her get up.

"Are you feeling all right?", he asked softly.

"Yes", Kate murmured as she tried to sit up. He nodded and handed her some chocolate which she didn't hesitate to take, she took only a bite and a warming sensation spread through her body bringing some colour to her face. Lupin then excused himself and left their compartment.

"Kate, you okay?" George asked while patting her shoulder, Kate nodded and got up to follow Lupin.

"Uncle Remus...", she said as she placed a hand on his shoulder which made him turn around, her instinctive move was to hug him and he hugged her back.

"How are you? I've heard all about you!"

"I've been so very desperate to see you myself, Kate", he said warmly while stroking her hair.

"Uncle Sirius..."

"Shh, not here. Go back to your friends, we'll talk at Hogwarts."

With that, she went back to sitting with Fred and George who were laughing their butts off over something, her confusion was evident all over her face when the twins beckoned her to sit, wiping tears off of their faces.

"What's so funny?", she asked looking at the two.

"This boy..." said Fred in between breaths, "Malfoy...h-he came into our compartment. His face!"

Fred finally finished making the most hideous, dramatic, face with his arms flailing as he yelled "Dementor! Dementor!" which made even Kate erupt into a fit of laughter.

The others filed out of the train when it had reached Hogwarts, Kate was now regretting her decision of having sent Fred and George ahead when they had asked to help. The same chill ran down her spine as it did in the train, she looked up in the sky and it was swarming with Dementors. No sooner was she joined by Lupin, to her relief, and followed him towards the castle.

It was beautiful, Kate stared at it completely awestruck. The rain pelted down as they quickly made their way towards the entrance of the castle and all eyes swivelled towards her when she entered the enormous Great Hall, lined with four, long, House tables all of which were occupied by students. Another table at the end of the Hall had all the teachers seated, who were also eyeing Kate suspiciously out of whom only Dumbledore seemed to be beaming at.

She reached them and Dumbledore got up to make his last and final announcement that was quite obviously concerning Kate.

"Now as you all can see here, Miss Black—" a sudden murmur had broken out at the mention of her last name, Kate tried very hard to ignore them. "SILENCE!"

Dumbledore shouted and the Hall had quiet down, "she will be joining fellow fourth years. It is my request to treat her with utmost hospitality, and let Hogwarts be her home like it has been yours."

She had expected it, she knew that she'd be Sorted into Slytherin.

She sat down on the stool while Professor McGonagall placed an old, worn out and dusty Hat on her head. She looked around anxiously and saw Fred and George waving at her from the Gryffindor table to whom she returned a rather nervous smile. She waited eagerly for what was to happen next and the Sorting Hat began to talk.

"Minerva, I see you've got me another Black" the old Hat said, "you could fit in any house, ah you're just like the last Black, very mischievous. There's a lot of bravery, intelligence and slyness... hm let me see. SLYTHERIN!" the Hat shouted at last after what felt like hours. The Slytherin table erupted into cheers and applauded as she stood up to join them. She glanced over at Fred and George who also seemed to be cheering for her indistinctly.

"I met her at the Leaky Cauldron!" Harry told Fred, George, Hermione and Ron.

"She was in our compartment, mate" said Fred.

"You better be careful, she's in Slytherin now. And, a Black" said Hermione warningly.

"No, she's actually really nice" said George.

Kate sat down at the Slytherin table between a girl named Arabella Hawkwood and a boy named Graham Montague, who both looked around her age.

"Hullo, my name's Graham Montague" said the boy, kindly, and shook hands with Kate.

"Nice to meet you. I'm Kate" she said.

"Caught that. So, tell me, are you really Sirius Black's daughter?" he questioned and everyone sitting close was now focused on Kate.

"Er - he's actually my uncle", she replied, wringing her fingers together.

"Right. Well, tell you what, you look a lot like Sirius" he stated it like a fact.

During the feast, Graham Montague had introduced her to almost half of the Slytherin table. Kate had befriended a couple of people by now but was still having a hard time remembering their names.

And after the feast had ended, she held back, waiting for Fred and George. Although, she had noticed the Slytherin Quidditch team Captain, Marcus Flint, eyeing her down but she decided to not pay mind to it and ignored him.

"Oy, Black!", someone called out which made Kate turn around swiftly but had resented it the moment she did it because the voice belonged to Marcus Flint who was advancing on her.

"What?" Kate said irkly.

"Ooooh, no need to get feisty now, love" he snickered as he moved closer to her.

"Get away from me!"

"Oy, shove off Flint!", came an angry voice from behind and Kate heaved a sigh of relief when she saw Fred and George. George grabbed Flint by the scruff of his neck and pulled him away, threateningly who left with his friends trotting behind him.

"You okay?" George asked.

"Yeah, thank you" said Kate, gratefully.

"What kept you back, anyway?" Fred said airily. Kate, embarrassedly, scratched the back of her neck and mumbled so low that it wasn't even audible, and Fred and George had to move in closer.

"Come again?"

"I was just waiting...for you guys" she said sheepishly, the twins cooed at her till they made sure her cheeks had started burning and after a small chat, all three of them proceeded back to their dormitories.