Who was that? Katherine thought as she dreamed. Suddenly Ms. Evans was shaking her, begging her to wake up. Katherine finally woke up.
“What is it?” she said groggily.
“It’s him! He’s here. Get up, now,” Ms. Evans whispered before shouting, “Remus! Remus!”
“Who in the world is…” but she was cut short by a man Apparating into her room.
“What is it, Virginia?” the man asked quietly.
“He’s here. You take Katherine and Apparate somewhere safe.”
“I can’t leave you Virginia. Dumbl…”
“No,” she interrupted calmly. “I don’t have enough strength. Just go.”
“But I…”
“Just GO!” She was tired of arguing. The man grabbed Katherine’s arm and Katherine took his shoulder.
“Goodbye, my angel,” Ms. Evans said to Katherine softly, with a tear in her old eyes. “Be good.”
“I will. Goodbye Auntie,” Katherine said, trembling, and held up her right hand to wave.
Before another word was said, she and the man called Remus Disapparated. She tightened her grip as everything turned black. Apparition, at least Side-Along Apparition, was very uncomfortable, but she was used to it from some of her trips with Ms. Evans. Soon they appeared on a street somewhere on the outskirts of a city. The man showed her a slip of paper that said,
“#12 Grimmauld Place,
The Headquarters for the Order of the Phoenix”
Katherine glanced up at him with a confused look on her face. He grinned and pointed up at the house numbers. She turned her head to look at them: on one side, the house number read eleven, and on the other, thirteen. She thought about it for a second and then looked directly in between them. A few seconds later, there stood number Twelve Grimmauld Place. The man led her to the front door and straight inside. He walked her down the entrance hall and down some stairs into a kitchen. In the middle of a long table sat two very red-headed people, a man and a woman, talking to each other in worried voices. At the far end of the table sat an older woman, very stern looking. The man who had been leading her pulled a chair out for her and she sat down.
“My name is Remus Lupin,” he began, as the plump red-haired woman sat a glass of milk in front of her. “This is Arthur and Molly Weasley, and this is Minerva McGonagall,” he said, introducing the others at the table. “This is the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix…”
“Yes, I know that. It said it on that piece of paper,” she interrupted, more out of nervousness than impatience.
“We fight against Voldemort. Virginia was also a member, though she played a more out-of-sight role for us,” he continued, watching her face carefully to make sure she understood. “A few months ago Albus Dumbledore, our leader, was killed. He knew Virginia quite well. He was the one who sent you to live there.”
“Why would he have to? She was my closest living relative. Wouldn’t I have gone there anyway?” Katherine asked, getting confused for the first time by his explaination.
“You see, there is something you don’t know…”
“There are many things I don’t know, but don’t you think I know where I came from?” she asked, her temper and voice rising.
“No,” Remus said calmly, smiling comfortingly at her as she sat back down in her chair, which she didn’t remember leaving. Speechless from shock and she could only stare blankly at this man. He must be crazy, she thought and turned to the other people at the table expecting” no, hoping” that they would tell her he was joking. However when she found no answers in their eyes, she turned back to Remus all of her questions written on her face.
“There is no way I can successfully tell you the whole thing. That is why I am so thankful for Dumbledore’s forethought in this matter,” he continued as he pulled out a shallow stone basin with carvings around the edge. It was giving off a silvery light.
“That’s a Pensieve,” she said, glad for something familiar.
“That’s right. And in this Pensieve is a specific memory Dumbledore gave himself, telling you about your past, your real past.” He touched his wand to the contents of the Pensieve and moved it around for a second.
“Ahh, here it is. Do you mind? Just come over her and stick your head in.”
Katherine did as he asked and dunked her head in the Pensieve. She fell forward into a fairly large room filled with odd silver instruments. The walls were covered with pictures of sleeping people. She scanned the room for a second, but stopped when she saw an old man sitting behind an enormous desk. He had long white hair, and an equally long beard. He was wearing half-moon spectacles, behind which his eyes twinkled kindly at her.
“Katherine,” he said. “I am Professor Albus Dumbledore, and I’m afraid to say that if you are seeing this, I must be dead. Please make yourself comfortable, as I have a lot to explain to you.”
She went over to sit at the chair in front of the desk and faced Dumbledore. She could see why those people in the kitchen would want him as their leader. He looked wise and, though he was old, had a look of strength.
“Katherine, it was very hard for me to decide whether to begin at the beginning or begin at the end.” He chuckled and smiled. “You see it is a very strange story and hard to begin, but I suppose I shall begin at the beginning, for most stories do.
“You were born on September first almost eighteen years ago. How do I know if I am just a memory? Well, I change this memory every now and then to account for such things. Now where was I, ah yes, you were born to Lily and James Potter. At St. Mungo’s, unfortunately, the Medi-Wizard who delivered you was a Death Eater, who was placed there by Lord Voldemort himself. Right after you were born, the Death Eater switched you with a body that appeared to be you, only dead. He told your parents you were still born and rushed you away to Lord Voldemort.
“You may ask why your parents didn’t suspect anything. The truth is they were devastated and no one even imagined that the Medi-Wizard was working for Lord Voldemort. Maybe later the Potters would have investigated further, but in a few months they discovered they were expecting again. This was Harry Potter, your brother. Do you understand everything so far? If not, yell for someone outside and you can come back in and hear it again. If you are ready, I will now continue.
“Sadly, Lily and James would never see you again. However, they were able to make the first decision about you; for as you were being taken away by the infiltrator, your mother called out a name, ‘Katherine Anastasia.’ I believe it may have been the only time you ever heard your mother’s voice. The Death Eater, being very un-imaginative, let you keep the name, introducing you to Voldemort with that very name when you were given to him. It’s very funny that they would let you keep the something so obvious that tied you to the people they were taking you from.
“Then you were taken to Lord Voldemort himself. That night, he performed a blood right charm on you, passing some of his traits to you and by doing so literally became your second father.
“You may be asking yourself, why did he want to have you as his daughter? Why didn’t he just kill you? Many of his Death Eaters wondered the same thing. I think it was because he wanted to raise an heir. I believe he thought that by raising you as his own, you would be more loyal. He wanted a second in command that would be most unlikely to betray him. Are you still with me?”
She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. She was a Potter, as well as Voldemort’s heir. She was beginning to feel a little numb from shock, but before she could dwell on her thought anymore, Dumbledore was continuing.
“Voldemort was often busy with other things, so you were not with him all the time. When he was… detained elsewhere, you would stay at the home of one of his Death Eaters. Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy cared for you on many occasions. From the information I have gathered, Narcissa and Draco, the Malfoys’ young son, became quite fond of you. You lived like this until you were two, when Lord Voldemort was reduced to almost nothing by none other than your little brother. The night it happened, Narcissa went and got you, deciding to raise you until the Dark Lord returned and ordered otherwise. There you received another set of parents and another brother.
“Do you understand all I have told you? I realize that it is hard to take all this in at once and wish that I could have told you in person. It would have made it much easier for you to ask questions and, of course, easier for me to offer you tea. Are you ready to continue?”
“Let’s see, where were we? Ahh yes, you were living as part of the Malfoy family. Now, it is important for you to know, of course, that I had known for a long time about what had really happened to you. As soon as I was sure of your situation, around the time Harry was born, I told Lily and James, making them promise not to let anyone know because I was sure that Voldemort believed that I was oblivious to your existence. I told Lily and James to continue their life as normal, hoping to someday reunite you with them. I was constantly looking for an opportunity to save you, but I didn’t know where you were all the time. You see, like Voldemort, you kept disappearing. In fact, you were even more elusive. Then, when Voldemort was nearly destroyed and the Death Eaters’ power waned, I searched for you. In six months I found you, but it took two years before the opportunity came for me to take you. And so I did, but what was I to do with a four year old? I knew I couldn’t raise you, so I began to search for a place to send you to live. But unlike your brother, Harry, you could not be sent to the Dursleys‘, Lily’s sister’s family, who had no idea that you existed. Nor could you live with any ordinary Wizarding family, for what had happened to you would have to be explained. And though I hate to say it, if I told a family that you were like a daughter to Lord Voldemort, they would most likely decline the offer to raise you.
“Finally, I decided to send you to be raised by an old friend of mine, Virginia Evans. Virginia was an older woman, but was very wise. In fact she used to be a professor at Hogwarts. We decided that you should have as little contact with the Wizarding world as possible. You would be able to know about it, but would not be able to know or talk to other witches and wizards your age. This was to protect you, but now looking back, maybe we that wasn’t the best solution. Also, in order to protect you, you were given Evans as a last name. We decided that the story we would tell you and everyone else was that your father and mother died when you were very young and that Ms. Evans, your father’s cousin, took you in to raise you.
“From there, you know the rest. You went to a Muggle school until you were twelve. Virginia and I had decided earlier that it would be best if she taught you magic at home. You were a year late starting because of, as you remember, Virginia’s health problems. Do you understand all I have told you? I am so sorry that I cannot be there to console you, for I am afraid that you shall be in great need of it. Please try to understand that everything we did, we did for you and it was what we thought was best. Whether it was or not, we are yet to find out. Goodbye Katherine, I regret never having the chance to have met you.” He finished with a comforting smile and tipped his wizards hat then began to twiddle with his beard. His eyes twinkled behind those half moon spectacles, but she saw a tear fall down his cheek just before he began again, “There are many people who love you, Katherine. Without knowing it, they love you. Your parents loved you. And I believe you may have been the only person, other than himself, that Tom Riddle, excuse me you probably do not know him by that name, Voldemort ever cared for. Remember who you are, Katherine. Remember who you are.” He smiled again before fading as she reappeared in the kitchen.
Everyone was staring at her, waiting for her to express her feelings about the whole thing to them. But she couldn’t, because truthfully she didn’t feel anything. She had just found out that all she had ever known was a lie. There was nothing from her reality left to cling to. Her life would never be the same again. She was empty.