Healing // d.m.

| 10 |

"LEAVE." Catherine gritted her teeth.

The feeling of dread crept from the pit of Catherine's stomach. Her muscles tense. Her heart was throbbing in her ears, loud and irregular but she barely heard it for her mind was clouded with fear. It was like the years of terrors she tried to escape came rushing back slamming into her mind. She wondered how on earth would Harold know where she lived or who the hell tipped him off.

She purposely tried to bang the door on his face, but Harold was much stronger. He held the door open with his hand, smacking it hard creating a loud thud which made Smalls bark loudly. He ran towards Catherine's side now growling at Harold. 

"Not so fast." He pushed the door open, quickly stepping inside the house sending Catherine stumbling backwards. Harold looked completely worn out. His black hair now long down to his shoulders, his forehead crease very visible and the wrinkles around his eyes prominent without movement. He no longer used the piercings on his nose but still one on his lower lip. He still scared Catherine like he did when she was 13, but she was still determined not to let him see her fears.

Smalls' barking intensified, gnarling, showing his teeth. His tail held erect and rigid with his ears directed forward. His eyes fixed on Harold like the threat he was.

"Shut the dog up, Catherine. It's starting to annoy me."

"It's my dog not yours." Catherine was glad her wand was in her back pocket and she could easily reach it. "Tell me what you want and leave."

"I don't -" Harold started but stopped, still looking at an aggressive Smalls now stepping forward closing in on him. He lifted his wand pointing it at him and Catherine saw it.

"Expelliarmus!" sending Harold's wand flying in the air landing on the ground. He gave her a cold smirk and put both of his hands up as if he was surrendering.

"I was only going shut him up." The light from the charm seems to have shut Smalls up anyway. Catherine commanded him to go upstairs and stay there which he thankfully obliged.

With her wand still pointed towards him, she asked again "What do you want, Harold?"

He stepped forward and Catherine peddled back. "Does a Healer really have no time for chit chat?"

He started to walk further into the house and Catherine was getting impatient. She wanted him to leave immediately. She casted an invisible magical shield that surrounded Harold, stopping him from moving.

"Your skills have surely improved, cherry."

"Do not call me that." He does not deserve to call her mother's nickname for her. Not in a million years. "Now tell me what you want and get the hell out of my house!"

"You know what I want. You still owe me a lot of things Catherine." He banged the invisible shield with his fist, like he's testing its strength. Catherine learnt from Professor Lupin that the more hatred you channel into the spell, the stronger it becomes and the longer it lasts. Harold's not going anywhere anytime soon unless she lifted the charm herself.

"I owe you nothing."

"Not you, your mother did. Since now she's six feet under, by proxy, you owe me."

"You don't deserve anything from the woman you murdered." She emphasises.

He gave her a sinister laugh, tilting his head back and shaking his head. "I didn't kill her, she did it to herself. She got what she deserved."

Catherine wanted to break his neck.

"It's not money I'm after. Your mother still has some of my possessions. I'd like it back."