Chapter 6

Sorority

This story is based off of a passage in the story Detained by the most wondrous se1ge. She has given me permission to do this. While reading Detained is not necessary to understand this story, I would greatly recommend it to anyone who likes snark, or great writing, or hot romance. So I encourage the reader-ly consumption of se1ge's fic especially since it is now on this site.

"Would you call these robes Slytherin green or grass green?" Anastasia asked while pulling yet more sets of dress robes off the massive pile on the settee in their shared parlour. The three girls were clustered around a magically enlarged mirror that they had pulled out of Morgaine's bedroom. The divan closest to the mirror was now stacked high with dress robes of every colour and style. Morgaine and Anastasia had both started piles of "maybes" on a second settee; Katie had yet to even try on one set of robes.

"Don't ask me," Katie exclaimed, eyes wide. "I can just tell you they are green. If you want more detail you are going to have to ask someone who pays a bit more attention to fashion."

Morgaine tut-tutted as she pawed through the pile of dress robes herself. "Come now, Katie. Despite being hopeless at the fit and form of dress robes even you know what grass looks like. And since you have been saturated in the colours of Slytherin for the last four years you have no excuse for not recognising it either. Anastasia at least has the excuse of knowing English only as a second language. Or is it your third?"

"If my oldest sister is to be believed, English is my forth language." Anastasia responded with a mischievous smile.

"Your family just sounds far too complicated for me." Katie cringed as she poked at the pile of dress robes.

"Katharine," Morgaine shrilled, "firstly, stop acting like those robes are going to attack you. Secondly, you are only intimidated by Anastasia's family because you are an only child."

"Says the girl with only one brother." Anastasia muttered to Katie as she pulled out a soft blue robe and handed it to the other girl.

"Anyone in their right mind would be intimidated by Stasia's family." Katie cautiously ran her fingers over the plush velvet of the robes that Anastasia had just handed her. "She has 10 brothers and sisters! Any family that can populate their own Quidditch team, complete with reserves, should be treated with caution."

"I only have 9 brothers and sisters. There are 10 of us in total." Anastasia corrected as she dug into the pile again and came out with heavily embroidered red robes and shook them out.

Katie rolled her eyes. "Greatest apologies." She continued to fidget with the blue robes in her hands.

"Made all the more complicated by the fact that none of you were born in the same country." Morgaine sniffed. She then dropped her dressing gown to the floor and started pulling on a set of black dress robes with silver sleeves.

Anastasia had gone back to the green robe and was holding it up to the light. "The twins were born in the same country."

"Obviously," Morgaine drawled as she admired herself in the mirror, twisting the form fitting robes so that they fell perfectly off of her angular body.

"And Carey and Rhys are both born in Wales." Stasia told them distractedly as she continued to try to discern the exact shade of green she was holding. "This is one of the few times that it bothers me that our dormitories are underneath the lake. It makes for great ambiance but there are some days that bright sunlight would not be amiss."

"Lumos maxima." Brutus intoned from his previously forgotten about position reclined on a chaise longue across from them. A great ball of light shot out his wand, bathing the room in bright, almost clinical, light. It moved and settled itself above the mirror that the three girls were all standing around.

Anastasia beamed. "Thank you so much, Brutus! I can now say with certainty that these robes are grass green."

Brutus muttered some sort of demurring comment and went back to reading his History of Magic textbook.

Morgaine would not be distracted. "I thought the only reason why you had two brothers from Wales was that Rhys was the only one of your family's children that they didn't try to hide that it was an appropriation adoption."

Morgaine was of course referring to the controversial practice that had been instated by the British wizarding community in the post-Grindewald era. Taking children with magical promise from muggle families and giving the children to old pureblood families with thinning bloodlines. It was a well-known fact that Anastasia's family had spearheaded the bill originally. And it was very hard not to notice that the children in Anastasia's family all had a strange resemblance to the people of the country of their birth. Especially when you compared her Scottish eldest brother's auburn hair and green eyes to her youngest brother, born in Germany, who had white blonde hair and bright blue eyes.

"Rhys is adopted but no one has ever tried to hide that." Stasia shrugged. "He is the son of my mother's best friend and when she and her husband died, Rhys became our brother. His mother died right after I was born, I don't ever remember a time when he wasn't my brother."

Morgaine pulled the black robes off and tossed them haphazardly to the "maybe" pile. She donned her dressing gown once more to ward off the ever-present chill in their dormitory, regardless of how highly stoked you kept the fire. She gave Brutus a wink when she noticed that he had let his book drop a few inches to allow him view of his girlfriend's scantily clad body. As she walked back over to the large pile of as yet untried on dress robes and gowns, she refocused on the conversation. "While it was very saintly of your family to adopt yet one more child, I suppose the appropriation adoptions aren't the worst thing that your family could have done to shore up the blood lines. They could have taken the Flint route and interbred with trolls."

"That is all codswallop and you know it, Morgaine." Brutus entered the conversation for the first time, his voice sharp with anger. "All rumours and figments of fancy made up by unsavoury wizards who were hoping to damage the Flint's standing in the community and prevent the marriage of Ursula Flint to Phineas Nigellus Black."

Katie and Anastasia both looked a bit startled by Brutus' abrupt entrance into their conversation but Morgaine shrugged delicately, apparently unperturbed. "I would expect no less loyalty from Marcus Flint's best friend. I am only saying that it is worthy of note that all descendants on the Flint line from Ursula's generation and from that point on have been unusually tall and swarthy skinned for a family of supposedly all British wizards."

"There are plenty more realistic reasons for why that is the case. Interbreeding with trolls being at the bottom of the list." Brutus scowled.

Katie let the blue robes in her hands fall back onto the big messy pile on the settee. "Also, Marcus's family relocated their main family holdings from Suffolk to Yorkshire at around that time and intermarried with the more local wizarding families. And after the long Viking presence in that area, they are more than a bit taller than your average Brit up in Yorkshire." Katie rambled as she cautiously poked at the pile again.

Brutus nodded and harrumphed his approval of this theory before pulling his book back up and resuming his reading.

"Is that not where your mother was born, Katie?" Anastasia asked as she eyed Brutus for a moment and, deeming it was safe, dropped her dressing gown and quickly shimmied into the grass green dress robes.

Morgaine studied Anastasia in grass green robes. "Katie's mother was from Somerset, everyone knows that is where the Hepplewaite's are from." She then shook her head and declared. "Anastasia, that green doesn't suit you. Try on the embroidered red ones you were fiddling with earlier."

As Anastasia began to pull off the grass green robes, Katie was picking at the pile again trying to find something appropriate that she might also find comfortable. "Actually Morgaine, Stasia is right. I'm surprised you didn't know that my mother was an appropriation adoption. It was never hidden but as with most of the old pureblood families, we just don't talk about it much. She was born to muggle's in Wigginton just outside of the city of York. From what we know of them they were locals and as such probably had some relation to the Vikings who claimed the area for so many years. Hence the reason why my mother is tall, blonde and blue eyed and her parents are both of average height and dark haired."

"Really?" Morgaine asked stiffly, obviously a bit put out that Anastasia knew this piece of gossip but not her. "I have never met your grandparents, I had no idea that was the case. Having read Nature's Nobility: A Wizarding Genealogy, I knew that your mother's pure-blood family has been based in Somerset, near Bath, for centuries."

"Guh," Katie choked in disgust. "You have actually read that book on purpose? I have only ever picked it up to figure out if I am distantly related to someone."

"All proper pureblood girls should have read and memorised the entire contents before attending Hogwarts. Therefore they know who is acceptable to associate with." Morgaine spoke with great haughtiness then snatched the grass green dress that Stasia had been trying.

"I have never picked up this book of which you speak." Anastasia muttered as she tried to extract the heavily embroidered red gown from under the mess Katie was making by picking through the robes. "If I ever need to know how anyone is related to anyone else, I send an owl to my mother and she will happily tell me. She also does research into the muggleborn lines of our family; she is half-blood so she finds muggle genealogy just as important as the pureblood lines."

Morgaine made a sickened noise as she dropped her dressing gown again and then quickly pulled the grass green robes over her head. She might have muttered something unkind about Anastasia's mother's muggle fertility but thankfully it was muffled by the velvet of her robes.

Anastasia rolled her eyes as she too dropped her dressing gown and pulled the embroidered red robes on. "By all means please, disallow my family coming to your parties and stop doing business with us. Just keep in mind that my family will take all of Wizarding Wales and the Outer Hebrides with us and with it all the dragons of Britain. You see how long your economy will last without domestic dragons." She began pulling on the laces on the sides and back of the robes to adjust the fit.

"Didn't you know, Morgaine?" Katie said with a forced innocence in her voice. "Do not meddle in affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup."

Morgaine grumbled as her face emerged from the velvet neckline. She then bustled over to the mirror to admire her reflection in the green robes. "This is by far the most suitable of all that I have tried on. Brutus, what do you think?" She turned expectantly to her boyfriend.

He obligingly dropped his book and regarded her seriously. "They are definitely grass green robes."

"Ugh!" Morgaine stamped her foot. "Men can be so useless. What do you think of how the robes fit me?" She stressed the words as she flitted her hands down her body once more, ironing out invisible wrinkles.

"I agree they are the best of the robes. You looked stunning in all of the previous robes as well but these robes bring out more of you. Your personality shines through them." Brutus dutifully intoned.

Morgaine beamed at him and for a moment Katie saw her as just a happy teenage girl, flattered and pleased with her boyfriend's compliments. But as she spun around to face the mirror again, the haughty superior Slytherin returned to her demeanour. With a final sweep of her hands down her robes, she rounded on Katie. "Why have you tried nothing on yet?"

"I wanted to make sure that you got the robes you wanted before I chose mine." Katie lied weakly.

"Bah! Don't give me such of a Hufflepuff answer." Morgaine then started tearing through the pile of robes, discarding them pell-mell on the floor when they didn't meet her fancy. She stopped when she found a midnight blue set of robes with silver stars embroidered over the bodice. "Try these on. Your father was a Ravenclaw so it won't be too heretical."

Katie cautiously took the dark blue velvet from Morgaine and tried not to cringe when she saw that it had the long tight sleeves that she hated so much about traditional dress robes. As a chaser, she always found that her arms looked too big and muscled; these stupid monstrosities of fashion highlighted one of her least favourite features. Mind you: her hair, her face and her long lanky body were also on her least favourite list but it was best not to dwell on that now.

Thankfully Anastasia decided sweep between Katie and Morgaine at that moment, somehow managing to knock Morgaine over, who gave an undignified squawk as she went down onto the massive pile of robes and gowns. The embroidery on the robes suited her well, or as Brutus had put it "made her personality shine." The complex patterns of the embroidered center placard of the bodice contrasted against the bold red satin that constituted the rest of the dress. She had always had more colour to her skin than the average British girl and the rich red of the robes highlighted that rosy complexion beautifully. She did a final turn in the mirror, enjoying the short train of her skirt, and clapped her hands together in satisfaction. "Harosho!"

"God bless you." Katie muttered back in response.

Still beaming, Anastasia rolled her eyes at her roommates attempt at humour. "You try to deflect the conversation from your lack of dress robes. It won't work."

"I have done nothing of the sort!" Katie drew herself up and pulled a set of dress robes from the pile at random. It was an unfortunate cerise and teal combination that would have been popular while her mother was going to school.

"Yes, you have." Brutus glanced up from his textbook. "And those are horrendous."

"You are such of a wonderful presence to have, Brutus!" Anastasia was still smiling broadly. "So many petty squabbles are being solved before they can even become issues!"

Morgaine had picked herself up out of the messy pile of robes with as much dignity as she could muster. She flipped her hair over her shoulder and shot a quick succession of glares at everyone in the room. "Anastasia, is there a reason why you have been so full of praise for my boyfriend today?" She pulled the fluorescent robes out of Katie's unresisting fingers. "Because your desperation at finding and securing your own boyfriend is becoming painfully obvious."

After a sardonically arched eyebrow, Stasia went to work unlacing the sides of her robes, a long stream of mumbled language tumbled from her lips as she worked. While Katie could not tell if the language she was speaking was Russian or Welsh, she was fairly certain that it translated along the lines of: "Who's calling who desperate?"

Morgaine tossed the teal and cerise robes aside and considered the massive pile of robes remaining on the settee, conveniently choosing to let the argument with Anastasia die. She then began to pull robes out of the mess, no rhyme or reason to their order at least in Katie's opinion. A deep green (potentially Slytherin green) set of robes was considered briefly before joining the cerise and teal robes on the floor. Black robes with purple sleeves soon joined them. Robes of scarlet and gold were immediately thrown on the floor without a second glance. Midnight blue robes were held carefully to Brutus' created light but were then placed on the floor with a bit more reverence than the rest. This pattern continued through robes of every colour that Katie had ever seen including a few that she hadn't.

Anastasia had finished untying the stays on her robe and quickly pulled it over her head and put her quilted dressing gown back on, apparently deciding that she would be warmer in that over the thin satin robes. She seemed to understand what Morgaine was doing and began to sift through the robes as well. Anastasia also seemed to be discarding every robe that she found.

They were both so intent on their mission that Katie was beginning to feel uncomfortable and was considering how to start a conversation with Brutus just to better pass the time. After glancing at the textbook propped up in his lap, she decided on using History of Magic as her icebreaker.

As she started to shuffle back towards Brutus' chaise, Morgaine snapped her head around before beckoning at her with an imperious hand. "Katherine stop skulking away. You must try these on at once."

The silver silk robes flowed like water in Morgaine's hands. The colour was that of moonlight. Katie was delighted to see that the misty coloured silver brocade sleeves were cut in the more ancient style of dress robes, shaped like a bell. True, nowadays, it was only the very old that wore sleeves like that, Dumbledore being the first that sprung to mind, but Katie had always preferred this style. When she was a young girl she had always felt that princesses would wear sleeves like this. Reverently, she took the robes from Morgaine's outstretched hands, luxuriating in the cool smoothness of the silk. Carefully she held the robes up to check the length. Katie released a breath of disappointment when she saw that the beautiful robes appeared too short for her long legs.

"They don't fit." She tried to keep the tremor of sorrow out of her voice.

"You do not know that for sure until you have tried them on." Anastasia told her in a brisk voice, coming over to fuss at the bottom hem of the robes.

There was an expectant pause where Morgaine and Stasia looked at Katie, waiting for her to move.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Katie asked, eyes wide.

"Change into the silver robes already." Morgaine snapped.

Katie felt her jaw drop. "I'm not getting changed in front of everyone!"

Anastasia quirked an eyebrow at her friend. "You are on the Slytherin Quidditch team, one would assume that you would have to change in front of a much more varied audience than your roommates plus a boyfriend."

"I never change in front of anyone!" Katie clutched the top of her thick dressing gown in defence. "I change into my Quidditch gear in the castle and after a game or a practice Marcus makes all the boys shower quickly and leave for the common room before I shower and change myself."

Stasia and Morgaine shared a look that spoke volumes.

"How kind of Marcus." Anastasia's lips quivered.

"Touching really." Morgaine added with an arched eyebrow. "Tell me, does Marcus guard the door of the changing room while you shower? Or does he barricade himself in the captain's office, which is just adjacent to the showers – if memory serves, and wait for you to request his help? Maybe to get something you can't reach all by yourself"

"Enough." Brutus muttered with a sharp look at Morgaine.

"I have no idea what you are implying Brutus darling." Morgaine replied airily.

Brutus raised his eyebrow in return. "No, of course not."

The tense atmosphere was interrupted by the rustling scrabbling of a post owl falling down the chimney and into the parlour. Impressively avoiding landing in the fire, the little barn owl fell with an unceremonious thud to the stone flagged floor, his brown paper wrapped package making an ominous and expensive sounding tinkling. With a shake of his wings he soared over to the pile of robes in a plume of soot before landing closest to Morgaine and divesting his package. It was clearly marked to Morgaine Montague from a well-known and expensive owl-order company based out of Diagon Alley. The little owl hopped back before flapping out his sooty wings and gliding over to Brutus, searching for a tip or at least some owl treats.

While Brutus rummaged in his schoolbag for the owl, Morgaine was carefully unwrapping first the brown-paper wrapping and then the elegant hand stencilled gift-wrap that surrounded a blue velvet jewellery box. Katie noticed that Morgaine was wearing a sweeter smile than her normal Machiavellian personality would allow. With reverent fingers, Morgaine undid the silver bow and opened the case to admire the most stunning pair of hair combs Katie had ever seen. The silver spine of the combs was inlayed by the most delicate of filigree, the teeth of the comb appeared to be made out of bone that was as decorated as the spine and the whole piece seemed to emanate the pearlescent glow of moonlight. As Morgaine carefully removed the combs from their case a small shift of parchment fell out and Anastasia immediately snatched it off the floor.

"In remembrance of all that we've shared. Thinking of you." Stasia read, her hand fluttering to her chest. "That is so sweet for you to send that, Brutus!" She passed the note to Morgaine.

Katie was once more pleased to see that Morgaine was a blissfully happy teenage girl. Staring between her new exquisite hair combs, the note and her boyfriend, who was still searching for owl treats in the depths of his overstuffed schoolbag, completely chuffed to bits. She tucked the note into the bodice of her robes, over her heart, and then carefully pulled her long black hair back away from her face using the combs. Too pleased to remember to walk seductively, Morgaine strode over to Brutus (who had finally produced an owl treat) and kissed him hard before he even knew what was happening. He didn't protest to his girlfriend leaning over his chaise, in low cut robes, kissing him aggressively. Apparently deciding that their audience wouldn't mind, Brutus pulled Morgaine down onto his lap and slid one hand into her hair.

Brutus' eyes flew open and he pushed Morgaine away from him, staring desperately at her hair. Before Morgaine could even complain at the sudden change of pace, Brutus had pulled the combs out of her hair. They seemed to snag while pulling out of her hair and Morgaine made an undignified squeak of pain. In an unexpectedly coordinated move for someone so sickly-looking, Brutus had extricated himself from the chaise while miraculously leaving Morgaine still on it. Holding the hair combs at arms length, as if they were toxic, Brutus tried to explain but it only came out as incomprehensible jabber.

"So sorry, darling. No it isn't you! They aren't for you… Well they are for you but not as you think they are. Yes they are beautiful and made in the Han dynasty but you can't have them. Not that you don't deserve such beautiful things! You do! Just not these, these just can't be worn. I will make it up to you, sorry. I'll be right back!" And with that Brutus turned tail and ran out of the room.

With Morgaine still shell-shocked on the chaise, it was left up to Anastasia to give a long whistle. "That was unexpected. Do either of you have any idea why Brutus wants Morgaine's hair jewellery for himself?"

"While I agree that Brutus would look stunning with those hair combs, I would posit a guess that runs more towards other boys in Slytherin." Katie's mouth quirked in satisfaction.

"Brutus bought those hair combs for Terry?" Anastasia asked, aghast.

Katie couldn't help but snort with laughter.

It seemed to bring Morgaine back to reality and with a violent movement she launched herself from the chaise towards the door to the hall. "Marcus Flint! I will pull your entrails through your nostril for this!" She screeched as she stalked out.

Suppressing a grin, Katie quickly crossed the room and shut the door. Still believing that time was of the essence, she dropped her dressing gown and shimmed into the silver robes.

As she walked over to the mirror, Katie braced herself for disappointment as she could already feel her feet sticking out from the bottom of the robes. She watched her reflection's frame collapse under the heavy weight of her sigh. Her purple unicorn slippers were perfectly visible below the bottom of the hem. To add insult to injury, the sleeves that Katie was so taken with ended a hand-span above her wrist. "Back to the drawing board, I guess."

"Don't be hasty." Admonished Stasia as she inexplicably began rummaging through the robes. After pulling the scarlet and gold robe from the floor, where Morgaine had so quickly discounted it, she knelt by Katie in front of the mirror. "I have 4 sisters, all the gold in Gringotts cannot prevent hand-me-downs from happening."

With that declaration, she pulled her russet coloured maple wand from the pocket of her dressing gown. The scarlet robes had a 6-inch silver embroidered gold-cloth trim along the bottom hem of the skirt and with a quick muttered "diffindo" Anastasia was carefully severing it off of the robes. After the long band of gold-cloth was in her hands, Stasia then matched the middle of Katie's robes with the middle of the embroidered band and began to mend the 2 disparate objects together with the "reparo" charm. Making quick work of the bottom hem, Anastasia began to severe the gold trim off of the sleeves of the scarlet robes and then she stood and magicked it onto Katie's silver sleeves. After what seemed like ages for Katie, Stasia stepped back and admired her work critically. "Not perfect." She muttered. "But if you ask my sister Mercedes she would make it so seamless that no one would ever guess that it came from two different robes."

Katie carefully ran her hand over the new gold trim of her sleeves. "It's perfect now, thank you."

Anastasia shrugged off her praise. "Ask Mercedes anyway, she would be happy to help you."

Katie took in her appearance in the mirror. The silver silk of the bodice highlighted her pale décolletage without making her skin look ghastly and washed out. The gold-cloth embroidered trim set off her blonde hair perfectly, bringing a new lustrous quality to her long honey tresses that she had never seen before. As she took in all of her beautifully showcased attributes, Katie could see herself standing taller and with more confidence. It was the first time since she had come to Hogwarts that she could genuinely say that she felt that she could call herself attractive. With that knowledge came a relaxing, warm tingling feeling that ran down her body. She smiled at herself in the mirror. "I look amazing."

Hearing the slight incredulity of her friend's voice, Stasia ran a hand down Katie's sleeve. "But of course, darling." She then wrapped an arm around Katie's waist and caught her eye in the mirror, despite the top of Stasia head only reaching her friend's chin. "Are you ready to go with Marcus to Samhain now?"

"I'm not going with Marcus, I'm going with my family." Katie insisted while she ran her hands over the smooth silk of the robes.

Anastasia's eyebrow came up at that but she nodded and smiled for her friend's benefit. "Of course." She stepped away from Katie and pulled out her wand again to begin packing away all of the robes scattered over their parlour.

Katie continued to stare at her image in the mirror until Stasia shrunk the mirror back to its original size some time latter. Startled from her reverie, she pulled the beautiful silver robes off and carefully folded them on the chaise before she remembered to pull her dressing gown back on.

"I have one requirement of you before you go to Samhain." Anastasia told her as she was levitating the original sized mirror back into Morgaine's room.

"Really? What is that?" Katie's gaze sharpened on the back of her roommate. "If this is about Marcus, I don't want to hear it."

"Nothing to do with Marcus." She said as she closed Morgaine's door with a snap. "You need to wear more appropriate footwear than your purple unicorn slippers. Understand?"

hr

Author's note:

To my readers of many years, I need to apologise for the time it has taken me to write and then upload this chapter. For those who have come on since my hiatus, I am sorry to you as well. One of the most frustrating experiences I find on is those stories that are trapped on a precipice by an author who refuses to update. I feel horrible that I have been such a person to you all. I want to try to give some context for my lengthy absence.

I alluded to in the previous chapter that I moved to Britain and that took a lot of time and effort. What took even more out of me was the world recession that made it very difficult to find a job in a foreign country even though I had what amounted to a citizen-born-abroad passport. And what made finding a job completely impossible was the depression that I have had issues with since I was 11. I lost all enthusiasm and ability to do anything productive while I lived there isolated and without my family for the first time in my life. The great and wonderful Elandria (go read her Labyrinth fics!) and her absolutely marvellous fiancé took me in. They were everything I could have possibly asked for but if I am honest I was too far gone in my own depression to actually resurrect the situation and be able to find a way to live in England.

So I shipped myself home on the very last of my life's savings. After I got back to Canada my depression, which had been bad while in Britain, turned into a black pit and I honestly did nothing but sleep and read for the next few months after I came back. Eventually my mum had enough of me sleeping in her basement and doing nothing that she got me to a doctor and I started taking some anti-depressants. I started being a more functional member of society at that point. After some manhandling by my aunt, I started working again. Around this time I started trying other medications to see if I could start feeling like a real person again.

The medications caused me to lose a lot of weight and I started getting way more attention than I was used to. Especially since my job at the airport put me in the public eye way more than I had ever been before. I'll admit to it being flattering at first but it soon grew irritating because I knew that none of these guys would have talked to me if I had been heavier and that made it all seem very superficial. I had several relationships with guys that I met either at or through the airport and I'd be lying if that didn't keep my attention far away from writing stories.

One of these relationships was ending at about the same time that I had a brilliant idea that I should buy a house at the ripe old age of 23. I should mention that while I was preparing to move to England and while I was trying to get everything in order to buy a house, I convinced myself that any time that I had to write stories was time that I could have spent researching and applying for jobs in Britain or working out how I was going to afford a house on my measly budget. So I wrote nothing at all during this time. This marks the least creative time of my life. I was very obsessed with the commerce of the world and how I was going to survive in it. At the time of me jumping through all the hoops to buy my house, truly unbeknownst to me, I was having very strong reactions to one of the medications I was taking. I was borderline psychotic to the guy I was going out with at the time and the fact that he found it in him to keep up a friendship with me afterwards was just mind blowing.

In the year waiting for my house to be built and trying to get off the medication that made me such a crazy person, I had a lot of ups and downs. I think it was in that time that I did my first writing since coming back to Canada. I had a few more failed relationships and in that time discovered how not fun it can be to be admired for your looks and nothing more. Suffice to say I got out of there but it completely changed how I interacted with men and how safe I felt around them.

After this unsettling time, I moved into my brand new house that I had bought and things were looking up again. I started up a romantic relationship with a guy who had been a very good friend to me. Perhaps another title for this author's note is that Kat spent 1 year being unemployed and 3 years interacting with men. In all honesty though, this was the best relationship I had ever been in. Which made it all the more difficult when it ended very abruptly for reasons that I still can't fully understand. It limped on in a quasi-relationship for months because neither of us were healthy enough individuals to stop being a daily part of each other's lives. Eventually after an argument that I wasn't trying to make into an argument we more completely broke it off and it became a time of radio-silence between us. Which was so much more healthy than we had been but that isn't saying much.

Shockingly, this did nothing for my ongoing troubles with depression. I had huge problems before I had a complicated guy issues thrown in. And while we both adhered to radio-silence, through our shared friends and obligations we spent far too much time interacting than any two exes ever should. So I lost six more months to complicated depression issues rather than writing a story for you guys.

Somewhere near when I could see the light at the end of the tunnel and I was starting to feel better and think about moving on with my life (and ergo start writing again) my blood dad had a mini-stroke. I became responsible for him until he got to a better place and was able to live on his own again but still it took yet more out of me emotionally and limited how much time I had to think about writing. I was ordered by my dad's doctors to move him out of my house before my brother and I developed substance abuse issues – which was really funny by the way – and my mum then insisted that I get out of my house and get out of the province for a little while.

While I was gone my sister approached me and told me that she had been thinking very hard and wanted to become an editor as a profession. I was really proud and then asked if maybe she wanted to look at my stories (Fantasieve in particular) and see what she could make of them. So began the process of her subtly and not-so-subtly poking me to get me to start writing again.

Working at the airport also gave me some unexpected inspiration. I saw a couple that look exactly the way that I have always imagined Marcus and Katie to look like as adults. It was astonishing to watch people that looked so much like people who I have been imagining for over 10 years now. They moved the way I thought they would, they interacted the way I thought they would and they had the most beautiful daughter that I could have possibly imagined. Yes, this is all a lot of fantasy work on my part but honestly that is how I felt observing these people. Yes, I know that they are everyday humans who have much more mundane jobs than playing quidditch and I doubt they have magic wands. But in that moment of seeing them, I could only see them as Marcus and Katie who were FINALLY together as pre-ordained by the sacred text of Detained.

That vision of an alternate reality (in our reality) of Marcus and Katie, my blood dad being in a better state, my relationship with my ex being at it's least strange since we broke up and my sister's encouragements: I started writing again. Nowhere near how much I wrote while I went to university but after coming off of a four-year drought let's look at any writing as a good starting point.

I can't promise you that I am going to update this every month until it is finished. I still have ongoing issues with my depression and I need to do paying work to support my expensive hobby of owning a house. All I can tell you is that I know where I need to go in this story, my sister also knows and she won't let me forget.

Much love in this author's note going out to the beautiful Elandria and my amazing in every way sister! Everyone who has favourited and reviewed, I am honoured!

Hopefully it won't be quite as big a gap between chapters as this last one. ;-P

Vôtre toujours,

Katterrena

Disclaimer: The characters and many of the locations described herein are the property of J. K. Rowling and all of her varied associates. The situations are based on passages by se1ge. I own whatever creative licence is leftover.