4: the new Black

A new day, a new beginning to a new life at her new home: Hogwarts. Kate, excitedly, got out of bed, showered and changed into her Slytherin robes then went down her dormitory.

The Slytherin common room was in one of the dungeons, where it was always cold but the coolness was calming. It was covered in the emerald and silver of the house colour, the common room had dark leather couches and in front of them was a polished, dark wood, fireplace. It had a shelf in the corner where there were books to read.

As she reached the common room, a series of muttering broke out and a few observant looks were shot in her direction, some of the students even held the Prophet in their hands.

Kate decided to leave but was stopped when a gentle hand wrapped around her shoulder, she turned around to see Graham Montague with a couple of other girls and boys around their age.

"Good morning, Graham", Kate chimed.

"Morning, let's go for breakfast, shall we?" Montague said and the group made their way out of the dungeons towards the Great Hall.

The Great Hall was no better than the Slytherin common room because a frantic muttering had broken out there too at Kate's arrival who was beginning to feel even more anxious but with Montague keeping her close to his side, nobody did much.

During breakfast, Kate had learned almost everyone's names and a boy with bleach blonde hair called  Draco Malfoy happened to be her second cousin, his mother Narcissa Malfoy turned out to be Regulus and Sirius's cousin.

The Slytherins were really not as bad as it was rumoured, Kate was thoroughly enjoying their company but that was put to a pause when she realised that she hadn't had the opportunity to greet Fred and George and before she could even do that, the bell for her first lesson had already rung so she filed out with her fellow fourth years and made her way to the first class of the year.

Kate's first lesson was Charms which she enjoyed very much during which they practiced the Summoning Charm, and she earned herself thirty points for making not just various objects zoom towards her but to her delight tiny, little, Professor Flitwick had zoomed right next to her when she tried it on him earning chuckles.

Her second lesson was Potions, in the dungeons with their Head of House, Professor Snape. 

Potions went on robotically as Kate was quietly noting down everything that Professor Snape was saying.

"Miss Black, do you care to explain what is so important that you're doing during my class?" Professor Snape said monotonously.

"Sir, I'm only noting down what you're saying" Kate said a little defensively.

"Talking back to your teachers is unacceptable. Perhaps, you have decided to join Potter in his little celebrity club", he sneered.

"Professor, I-"

"Performing a Patronus Charm doesn't impress me, Black" said Snape bitterly.

"I never did it to impress anyone" she replied hotly, emphasising on the word 'impress'.

"Detention!" Snape seethed.

"But I haven't even-" she stopped abruptly, standing up from her seat while Montague lightly tugged on the sleeves of her robe.

Kate, angrily sat down, thinking it useless to argue further for now she had got herself detention on the very first day.

Throughout Potions, she only glared at Snape and spoke when Montague asked her something related to the antidote that they were supposed to be preparing on which she received an 'E', which stands for "Exceeds Expectations", when Snape came to observe her cauldron full of transparent potion.

She then headed with the others to the third floor for their first Defence Against the Dark Arts class with Professor Lupin, which was with the Gryffindors. She had only just reached the door when she was stopped by Snape who came striding towards her.

"Black, your detention starts at eight" he sneered and before he could leave, Lupin had stepped out of his classroom.

"Severus, where are you taking my student?", he said coolly.

"Ah, Lupin. Our famous Miss Black has landed herself in detention on her first day", said Snape silkily, his mouth curled and he glided back to where he came from. Lupin gave Kate a meaningful look before escorting her inside the classroom and telling her that he'd speak to her properly later.

Professor Lupin had told them that in today's class they would be facing a boggart and perhaps their worse fears. Kate could already feel herself getting nervous as she stood in the corner of the room with Montague. She hadn't even thought about what her worse fear really was or maybe she did know but she wasn't willing to accept it.

Lupin called her to the front of the class, she stepped in front of the closet, clutching her wand tightly in her right hand as she waited for whatever the Boggart might shape into.

And then it happened, it turned into Regulus moving closer to Kate, while she continued to stumble backwards, wanting to scar her with the Dark Mark.

"Kate, this is not real!" Lupin said loudly over the chatter that snapped her out of her thoughts, she lifted her wand and cried, "Riddikulus!"

The Boggart Regulus then turned into Sirius who was smiling at her rather fondly, looking like his young self and not like the one that she had seen in three weeks ago's Daily Prophet. Highly embarrassed of what had happened, Kate moved away from the line.

"Kate, it's okay" Lupin reassured her.

She headed to the Great Hall for lunch where she spotted Fred and George at the door, looking for someone, so she quietly stalked up from behind them.

"Hello boys, who are you looking for?", she said making the twins turn around.

"You, of course" they said together, Kate smiled at them and then the three of them sat down to have lunch.

"So, Kate, how was your first day?" Fred asked.

"Well uh, not bad" Kate shrugged.

"Hey, want to help us prank Filch?" George smirked from beside her whose eyes, instantly, lit up when he said prank but as soon as they did, her smile faltered when she realised that she had detention with Snape at eight.

"Can't, I have detention with Professor Snape at eight" Kate said, sighing loudly. George placed an arm around her shoulder and smiled mischievously.

"We can help you out of it", George said and Kate lifted her head.

"How?"

"Leave that to us" Fred said and winked.

Lunch ended and Kate went up for Transfiguration where they learned how to transform a skunk into a pin striped cushion which she had done gracefully, and earned Slytherin another twenty points for. While still being patted on the back, she made her way to History of Magic and then to her last class Astronomy in the tallest tower with her fellow house mates and Hufflepuffs.

Fred and George immediately caught sight of Kate when they saw her leave Astronomy class, they pulled her aside and filled her in about how they would pull her out of detention as they walked towards the Great Hall for dinner.

"Hey, Miles, when do you all have Quidditch?" Kate asked the boy with black hair, sitting across her.

"Tomorrow we have training" he said while taking a bite of his chicken.

"Graham, can I come too? I want to play Quidditch as well" Kate said to Montague who sat beside her.

"I won't deny you but you'll have to ask Marcus" Montague said while jerking his head in Flint's direction, Kate rolled her eyes in exasperation but then decided to ask Draco if he would ask for her.

"Hey, Draco" she called across the table and Draco's head immediately turned towards her, "can you please ask Marcus if I can play Quidditch tomorrow?"

"Just because you asked nicely" Draco joked and Kate grinned at him.

Then, at exactly five to eight she dashed to Snape's office, who asked Filch to escort her to Hagrid so they could go to the Forbidden Forest. Kate swallowed hard when she realised that there were Dementors swimming in the sky as she stepped out of the castle, now following Hagrid towards his hut. They had almost reached the edge of the Forest when Kate looked around but there was no sign of Fred and George.

"Hagrid", called a voice from behind, Kate whipped her head, so fast that her neck was almost about to come off clean, to see Fred walking towards them and exhaled heavily.

"Professor Snape wants Kate to go back" Fred said, plainly, Kate could tell he was lying but Hagrid didn't have the foggiest because without questioning Fred further, he let her off muttering something about, "ruddy righ', he does".

Fred and Kate strode back towards the castle, and she hugged him once they were inside while repeatedly thanking him.

"Um...where's George?" she asked while looking around.

"Any minute now", Fred smirked, looking at his watch, and suddenly, George came sprinting towards the two and dragged them with him so that the three of them were sprinting down the corridors, shoes clicking madly against the silent concrete floor as the three of them hid in a tiny broom cupboard, crammed up against each other, breathing heavily. They then heard Filch furiously cursing under his breath, Kate peered through the small opening to see Filch's face covered in painful boils, she silently laughed with Fred and George, and waited till Filch was completely out of sight and burst out of the broom cupboard; toppling over one another and walked back to their own dormitories.

Kate entered her dormitory to find the others still awake, Montague sat at the table completing his Astronomy chart and looked up to see Kate with utter astonishment, like he was seeing her for the first time.

"Kate? Weren't you supposed to be in detention?" He asked with bewilderment as Kate slopped down beside him and pulled out her own chart.

"Yes, but I got out", she smiled at him and continued working.

The next day was much better, Kate's first class was Herbology also with Hufflepuff and she was paired with a Hufflepuff boy named Cedric Diggory, who Kate had instantly befriended and learned that he had a line of girls swooning over him (well of course there were, he was quite handsome after all, she thought to herself).

The following afternoon, the Slytherin team had their first Quidditch training, Kate followed them out in the ground and noticed that there were only boys on the team. She got changed into the green and white Quidditch robes of Slytherin and walked out into the field to find that there was a good number of people in the stands, amongst whom she spotted two specks of ginger. She then mounted her broom and kicked off the ground.

"All right, Kate, show us what you got!" Draco called out.

"Go easy on her boys", Cassius Warrington joked.

"Oh please, Cassius. We'll see who to go easy on after the game" Kate replied smugly. She had had a fair share of Quidditch practise, all right, and wanted to prove the boys wrong.

The team practised for several hours and Kate was a natural at Quidditch just like her father was, except that she would be playing Chaser because Draco was already the Seeker of the team and the boys were left in complete awe when training was over.

"Hmm, so who should we go easy on?" Kate grinned and Warrington ruffled her hair making her chuckle.

"You're a natural", Miles Bletchley complimented. After lots of compliments and appreciation and of course, consideration. Kate was, finally, made the Slytherin Chaser and the only girl on the team which she didn't really mind because all she wanted to do was play Quidditch.

Wet and muddy, and still dressed in her Quidditch robes, Kate dashed to the Great Hall towards Fred and George who stood up when they saw her running towards them.

"I'm a Chaser on the team!" she told them cheerfully.

"That's brilliant", George said while high-fiving her.

"What's more brilliant is that you'll be playing against us and we're Beaters" Fred told her with a hint of sarcasm.

"Oh, ohh...well. Guess, I'll have to let you win" Kate shrugged.

"What?" Fred and George said in unison.

"Exceptions can be made for my...favourite boys" she winked and scuttled off when she heard Filch shouting after her for spreading murk everywhere.

"Did she just say-"

"-favourite boys?"

Kate changed and decided to visit Lupin's office since she didn't spot him in the Great Hall, she followed the steps to the third floor and entered his classroom.