moon cycles and raven feathers [r. lupin]

| 3 |

august 26th, 1976

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suddenly, cath had realized that her world was a lot bigger than salem.

a lot.

"finally, i know it's not the manor but it's our new home sweet... erm- apartment? flat? to be honest kitty cat i'm not sure what they call it here."
"i'm not sure either, but i am sure that you should've stopped calling me kitty cat when i turned 10."

cath chuckled at her fathers silly nickname, he had been calling her it for as long as she could remember, unlike her mother who had dropped names like that a long time ago.

"nonsense, what else would i call you? catherine? then i'd sound like your mother." her father said with a warm smile.

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alister nightshade, though equally as cutthroat as othella, was significantly nicer to cath than his ex-wife. he had been over the moon when cath had decided to move to london with him, though deep down she knew it was probably just because he felt guilty that they had never really spent any quality time together but it was still a welcome change from living in salem with her mother.

her mother had always kept cath close to her, to groom into her perfect image or just to pull out and prod at whenever she felt like, so her father had spent much more time with her older brother. while they played catch in the yard or bonded over some old family secret she was subject to her mother's critical eye and harsh nature. she didn't blame her father for staying out of his wife's way though, othella webster was not someone who's toes you wanted to step on and taking cath away from her for 'meaningless tasks' would just be poking the bear.

"so-" her father looked at her, wringing his hands while making an awkward attempt at conversion, the pair had never really talked much, even less so once cath got old enough to really hold a conversation.
"are you nervous?"
"about what?" she asked while absent mindedly unpacking some boxes, her father seemed to have just thrown everything in without any rhyme or reason, something her mother would've pitched a fit over.
"about school kitty cat, are you worried about school?"
"i supp-"
"because you shouldn't be, everyone always loves a new girl, it'll work at great!"
cath knew her father meant well so she smiled at his admittedly quite awkward enthusiasm, though she did wonder if her parents were getting paid everytime they cut her off given how often they do it.
"i'm not just the new girl though, i'm the new foreign girl."
"even better, you're exotic!"
cath snorted, "i'd hardly call massachusetts exotic."

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while sorting through and unpacking the rest of her boxes she let the title 'new girl' bounce around in her head. she had never been the new girl, even during her first year. coming from the family she did, having the mother she had, people already knew her. she was never 'new', but now she most definitely would be. and not only that, she would be foreign, she'd have an accent and use different words and-

"do you need any help?" her father called out from down the hall, noticing her struggle with a stack of books and interrupting her train of thought.
"no, i think i've got this." she said back with a smile as if to wordlessly thank him for asking.

as he made his way to her door frame he spoke again, "bet you're glad you got sorted already, wouldn't want to have to ruin your reputation by kicking it with some first years, would you?" cath snickered at his use of 'kicking it'.
"i'm sure no one would judge me for 'kicking it' with first years during their sorting dad, but i am glad it's already done and over with."

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a week ago she, along with her father, had met hogwarts' headmaster albus dumbledore so that she could be sorted. she was quite bewildered when she noticed that it was a hat that sorted students into their houses but she supposed that this would just be the first in a long string of culture shocks that were sure to come.

the sorting hat had taken all of 6 minutes to decide on her house, picking between ravenclaw and gryfindor before finally landing on gryfindor. she honestly couldn't have cared less about what it chose though, she hadn't listened to dumbledore explain the houses and she knew that nothing would feel quite as homey and accurate as horned serpent did.

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she pulled the last thing out of her box before turning to her father, who was still standing in the doorway watching her put away her things.
"you know, i think i'm going to turn in early tonight. i have a lot to do these next couple of days."
her father smiled, his eyes crinkling you when he did "you sure do kitty cat, there's a whole new world out there for you."