Fan Fiction ❯ Old Friends, New Friends ❯ Harry meets Cat ( Chapter 4 )

Ok first of all, I don't own anything except for Catherine, and two characters I am adding at the request of my friends, who are now named Isabella and Jennifer.

Ok, I'm gonna try to make this longer; please don't hurt me!

Chapter 4

"Catherine? May I speak to you?" Dumbledore asked the next day over breakfast in the Great Hall.

"Headmaster if it's about-"Catherine began, fidgeting in her chair.

"Oh don't worry! I wasn't going to ask you about that!" He exclaimed. "Instead, I wanted to ask if you could help me with a little problem."

"Really? What kind of problem?" Catherine asked while secretly letting out the air she had been holding in her stomach.

"Well," Dumbledore began, "it would seem we have a problem. You see, one of our students, ah-hem, accidentally blew up their aunt. And I was wondering if you would go with the Minister of Magic and retrieve him, and maybe have him stay at the Leaky Cauldron?"

"Wow, he must have been really mad or something to have done that!" Catherine thought.

"Don't worry Headmaster, I'll go. But why me exactly?" she inquired as she started standing to get on her way.

"Well, actually, the student's name is Harry; Harry Potter."

"WHAT!?"

Diagon Alley

"Well, bye then!" said Harry as he stepped off the Knight Bus. Wondering why Stan wasn't looking at him, Harry turned around as someone called his name.

"There you are Harry!"

"Oh no…"

There in front of the entrance to the Leaky Cauldron, stood the Minister of magic himself, Cornelius Fudge, along with a very pretty lady around her 30's he guessed.

With a hasty explanation to Stan and Ern as to why he wasn't a boy named Neville, Harry, Fudge, and the new woman entered the Cauldron and sat down in a private parlor inside.

"Go ahead and sit down Harry. My name is Cornelius Fudge, and this is Miss Catherine Hunter. She's going to be your new teacher."

Stealing a look at her, Harry wondered if she would be teaching the Defense Against the Dark Arts class or the new classes that Dumbledore had mentioned in his letter.

"Well Harry," Miss Hunter started, "You had us all downright scared for awhile, running from your Aunt and Uncle like that! Who knows what could have happened! Oh, go ahead and eat Harry, you look as if you could use it. Now as to what I was saying, I'm sure you'll be glad to hear that your Aunt has been brought back to normal size, and that your Uncle and Aunt have decided that as long as you spend the other holiday breaks at Hogwarts, you can come spend the summer with them!"

As she said this, Harry snorted into the tea cup he was holding, and he could have sworn that she gave him a wink as he did.

"I always stay at Hogwarts over the other holidays, and I personally wouldn't care if I ever went back to Privet Drive again."

"Now Harry," said Fudge, "I'm sure that once you calm down, you'll see that they are your family and that you love each other~~~~er~~~~very deep down."

At this, both Harry and Miss Hunter snorted, but Harry couldn't say content for long; Fudge was about to tell him what was going to happen to him.

"Now then," Fudge started, "All that's left to do is get you're things back to your house and then-"

"Wait! What about my punishment!?"

"Fudge! You're not really going to send him back!?"

"Now hold on a minute!" Fudge exclaimed. "Now Harry, what's this about a punishment?"

"I broke a law! I used magic outside of Hogwarts underage! Aren't I going to get into trouble? Last year I got a notice that I would be expelled if I did it again, and that wasn't even me!"

"Well, surely you don't want to be expelled do you?"

"Well, no but-!"

"Then it's settled! We'll just send you on your way and-`

"Cornelius!" Catherine exclaimed," You are not sending him back there! Those muggles are horrible to him!"

"Well then, Catherine, what would you have me do?"

"Have him stay here of course!"

"Really?!" Harry asked excitedly. Staying in the Cauldron would be far better than living at the Dursleys any day!

"Well….." Fudge said.

"It would benefit everyone, Minister, I'm sure the ministry would love the fact that you managed to keep Harry safe and happy at the same time." Catherine whispered into his ear, as Fudge started thinking of all the praise he would receive.

"Baka." She thought.

"Well, I guess it's wouldn't hurt to have you stay here." Fudge finally said. "Catherine, if you would be so kind as to reserve a room for Harry? I'll be on my way; I must tell the ministry that everything is ok."

"Of course Minister. Would you follow me Harry?" Catherine said as she turned towards the door. "Good day, Minister."

Fudge didn't hear her, as he was too busy trying to find his green bowler hat.

"Minster? It's on the rack outside." Harry said as he pointed outside the room.

"Oh! Well, thank you very much Harry. I'll be on my way then, I hope you'll have a good day then Harry? If you ever need anything, Ms. Hunter is always available."

"Thank you Minister." Harry said as they exited the room and parted ways, Fudge toward the door, while Harry and Catherine traveled to the bar.

"Tom? Do you have any rooms available? Harry needs a place to stay until the school year starts again." Catherine asked as she slid into a stool, Harry mimicking her and taking a seat.

"Sure thing Cat," said Tom. "In fact, we just now had an opening in room eleven."

"That would be fine Tom. While you're at it, can you get Harry a butterbeer and a strawberry daiquiri for me? I'm a pit parched."

"Of course." Tom said, bringing the drinks to them before heading up the stairs to fix up Harry's new room.

"Well Harry, I'm sure you'll agree with me when I say that you're almost as troublesome as your father." Cat said as she sipped on her drink, noting the way Harry's face blanched in his drink before he answered with a shaky voice.

"You knew my father?"

Cat smiled and took her time to answer, remembering all of the things they had done together.

"Oh yes, James and I were great friends. It wasn't like that at first though. We were in the same house, but we would always try to outdo each other in pranks until we went too far and both hit Professor Snape with the same color-switching charm. We were aiming at each other, but Severus stepped right into the line of fire when he heard all of the noise we were making, and tried to get us into detention. Severus never got over the fact that his hair was red and pink for two weeks straight."

Harry almost gagged on the drink he was holding, trying not to laugh hysterically at the thought of Snape having red and pink hair!

"Of course, we were both sent to detention, but we got over our little rivalry and were best friends from then on."

Gaining control of himself, Harry finally caught his breath so that he could ask another question.

"What about my mom? Did you know her too?"

"Oh now there's a story!" she said as she started shaking with laughter.

"Well if you must know Harry, even though it was love at first sight for your father, your Mom was an entirely different story. On accident, your father ran into your mother and both fell to the floor, all of their things spilled everywhere. Well, I helped your mom up, but then James started acting like a git by saying that she needed to watch where she was going or just stay in the swamp she came from, and that got Lily into a righteous bout of fury. Oooohhh, she let off words I didn't even know, and poor James was shocked, but of course, he got over it, and continued his, I'll-act-like-an-idiot-and-hope-she-likes-me façade while lily just kept on ignoring or hexing him with ice!"

At this, both Harry and Cat almost fell off their respective stools with laughter.

"That's great Ms. Hunter! I have another question though. What about his friends? He defiantly had a lot right? I mean, Hagrid gave me an album full of pictures, and they all had a bunch of people in them…."

Harry's word died on his lips as he saw the look of sadness suddenly rush across Catherine's face.

"…Ms. Hunter?"

"Oy! Catherine! I've got the room ready now if you want to come have a look!" Tom called down from the stairs. Hastily, Cat wiped her eyes for tears as she stiffly got up from her seat.

"I'm sorry Harry, but why don't you go see your room now. I'm sure you're very tired, and I do need to get back to Hogwarts. The weapons haven't come in yet, and I must see that they arrive before school starts, or else I won't have much of a class. We can finish this conversation another time."

"So that's what she's teaching…"

"Uhh, sure Ms. Hunter. Thanks for the drink and the stories." Harry said as he too got up and headed towards the stairs.

"I'll see you soon Harry, if you ever need anything, just ask Tom and he or I can get it for you. Goodbye then." And a second later, she had hastily donned her cloak and left the bar.

"Your things are already in your room Mr. Potter." Tom informed him as they made their way up the wooden staircase to a door with a number eleven on it and opened the door.

"Hedwig!" Harry exclaimed.

"I'll leave you two alone then. If you need anything, please don't hesitate to ask." Tom said as he left the room.

Harry sat on the bed, stroking Hedwig as he thought about all that had happened today. He had blown up his Aunt, ran away from home, boarded the Knight Bus, meet the Minister of Magic, not gotten expelled, and best of all, he had met someone that knew his Mum and Dad!

"It's been a very weird night, Hedwig." He said, and with that said, he fell asleep, shoes and all.

Outside

"That was close" Cat thought as she made her way thought the streets of Diagon Alley. "I almost told him about Sirius! It's not as if he doesn't have enough already on his mind…"

With that thought, she continued walking, until she disappeared into the crowd of wizards and witches lining the streets.

OMG that was Hard!

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