"Hello, Katherine."
"Kat."
"If you're too dumb to realize you're a girl, it'll be easy to defeat you. And your brother."
"You're a sixty-something balding man who's attempting to kill a child for no real reason, and your secret was discovered in less than two months. You're not really in a position to insult my intelligence."
"Expelliamus!" I love my brother, and as far as older siblings go, he's not too annoying, but godddamn do I wish he would use a different spell occasionally.
"Stupefy!" At least my favorite spell does something other than making wands almost stab someone in the eye.
There's a low hissing sound, but I can understand.
Go, Basil. Go kill them. Do whatever it takes.
"Basil? That's what the Basilisk's name is?" I give a short laugh, mocking and cold.
"Avada Kedavra!" Okay, okay, you don't like me insulting Basil's name.
I don't exactly like the slow sound of scales scraping along the rough ground. I don't exactly like the way the statue's mouth opens. I definitely don't like the way that Basil emerges.
"Close your eyes and run. Towards the pipes. Now." It's almost scary how Emma's voice becomes like the center of a hurricane. Calm. But very dangerous. She's switched into survival mode. Willing to kill to survive. I admire that.
We form a chain again, and this time I don't hesitate to grab Emma's hand. We run, faster, faster. We're still not there, but there's a whistling sound. A hat drops from the tunnel, and lands directly on Harry's head. A hat. But not just any hat. The sorting hat. Harry pulls out a sword, from inside the hat.
A Phoenix falls gracefully onto Basil's head, casually and politely plucking out their eyes. We can now open our eyes.
Basil thrashes around, clearly in pain. Unfortunately, they thrash towards me. Their fang hits my hand, hard.
"Ow!"
"Kat! Are you ok?"
"I-I don't know." Everything's going foggy. I fall, catching myself on my hand. I bite back a whimper of pain. I lift my head in time to see Harry stab the sword through Basil.
YOU ARE READING
Kat, Not Katherine
FanfictionWhen Katherine Potter came out as non-binary and changed her name to Kat, their brother, Harry, supported them. But this is 1990, and their foster family, the Dursleys, did not support them at all. Read along as Kat makes new friends, learns difficu...
