Starry Nights

Familial Ties

Everything moved in slow motion. She couldn't tell what spell Ivy had cast, she was too far away for them to hear the incantation leave her lips. But she knew exactly what it was when her Blazer was ripped open, her skirt torn almost to shreds, and her undergarments exposed to everyone in the entrance hall.

Everyone is frozen for a few seconds, no one in the hall moves, and at the very least no one laughs. Then Cathleen looks and up and Ivy's gone, disappeared through the dungeon portrait hole with a bunch of other Slytherins and the rest of them standing on the staircase gawking, much like everyone else in the entrance hall.

Then her friends move into action, Izzy grabs her by the arm and starts to pull her along. Her other friends surround her in attempt to shield her from everyone else's gaze. Cleo and Erin in front of her, where the severing charm torn her clothes the most. The boys on either side of her and Nora's 4'5" frame following behind her.

She can hear conversations start again as her friends take her from the entrance hall and into a room on the right-hand side of the hall. It was where they had to wait before they were taken to be sorted, two months ago. Cathleen falls to the floor and curls into a ball trying to save what little dignity she has left.

"Okay think," Cleo says, "the charm Ivy used was a severing charm, one we aren't set to learn for another month. She must've been studying ahead, can't see why this spell though, it's not very useful in dueling."

Cathleen's face falls into her lap, still mortified that her friends are seeing her like this.

"Isn't it obvious? She's sick and twisted, this was probably her exact intent for learning it!" Izzy exclaims.

"Guys, it doesn't matter why she learned the damn spell. She's already used it and since I'm sure none of you know Reparo, we need to find someone who does." Joseph interjects.

Cathleen lifts her head, "My older cousin, Tonks, she's in Hufflepuff and she's a metamorphmagus, she usually has pink or purple hair. And Bill or Charlie Weasley, they're in Gryffindor. Bill's headboy as well. I don't want anybody else to see me like this."

"Okay so Nora, Hufflepuff common room, Izzy, Gryffindor common room, Ollie, the courtyard, Cleo, the library, and Erin, check the Great Hall. I'll stay here with you Cathy."

Everyone looks back at Cathleen for confirmation and when she nods, they rush out the room.

As soon as everyone is gone Cathleen immediately starts sobbing.

"Hey, it's alright," Joseph says sitting down beside her and wrapping an arm around her. "It's okay."

She sobs into his shoulder, "Why would anyone do that? How am I supposed to ever show my face after that?"

"Shhh, don't worry about it. We'll figure it all out, I promise."

Erin comes back then, "None of them were in the Great Hall," she says but when she notices her friends tears she goes to sit on the other side of her and adds, "But don't worry, they've got to be somewhere, I'm sure someone else will find them."

Cathleen nods and starts breathing heavily trying to get her crying under control. Oliver comes back next and he sits down in front of Cathleen. "They weren't in the courtyard."

Nora comes in a minute later, "She wasn't in the Hufflepuff common room, and I knocked on the fifth year girls dorm, there were like four girls in there, but they said Tonks and someone named Penny hadn't came back to the dorm after lunch. I don't know."

They sit there in silence for a while, Erin takes her jacket off and sits it on Cathleen's lap at one point while they wait.

And then finally, Izzy returns with Bill by her side. He looks around the room and takes in the sight of Cathleen on floor, eyes red from crying. He approaches her slowly and then kneels in front of her and softly asks, "Cathy, what happened?"

She tries to explain, but no words come out, instead she starts crying again. Bill raises an eyebrow and looks around the room imploring someone else to answer him.

"It was a girl in our year, she used the severing charm on Cathleen's clothes," Erin answers rubbing circles into Cathleen's back.

At that time Cleo runs in followed by Tonks and Charlie. Tonks comes to sit down next to her, Joseph moving out the way.

Charlie turns towards her friends "Thanks for coming and finding us, but we can take it from here okay?"

They all nod and start for the door, "Yo mataré esa punta," Izzy mutters as she stalks out of the room.

Cathleen laughs through her sobs as she tries to get her tear ducts back in her control.

"Here, let's go ahead and fix you up," Bill says pointing his wand at her and nonverbally repairing the tears.

"Thank you," she says looking down at the mended skirt and blazer.

"Who did that to you?" Charlie asks coming to sit on the other side of her.

"Ivy Jugson, but there's no way we could prove that. She was surrounded by other Slytherin first years. Nobody in the Hall would've been able to see who cast the spell, besides my friends and me. And the Slytherins won't snitch on her."

"I'm not against dueling first years, tell me what the little bitch looks like and I'll do it. I'll do it disguised as someone else so she won't even know it's me-"

"Hey, plausible deniability," Charlie yells covering his ears. Cathleen giggles.

Tonks rolls her eyes, "Well that was way too far. She could get detention for at month if you brought this to McGonagall's attention. I'm sure there's someone who saw her do it with an objective stance." Tonks says, hair and eyes red with anger.

Cathleen shakes her head but before she can speak against it Bill does, "How about I just take 100 points from Slytherin, since multiple people saw it come from a group of Slytherins and because it might give her housemates an incentive to call out the bad behavior, so it doesn't cost them more points."

Cathleen smiles immediately, "Dumbledore definitely picked the right person to be headboy."

"Don't act so shocked, someone's gotta keep Tonks from being expelled for a attacking a first year."

They all have a good laugh about that before they tell her, she should probably go rejoin her friends.  "But let us know if things escalate again, at a certain point I'll be obligated to report it," Bill reminds her, eyebrows narrowed.

"I will, thanks for having my back you guys."

Charlie smiles, "We're family, we'll always have your back." Tonks nods protectively.

She smiles and heads in the direction of Gryffindor tower, where she knows her friends are waiting for her, at their spot.

(A/N)
Haven't proof read it lol, but here you guys go, I really wanted to get this chapter out.