Healing // d.m.

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• Flashback •

Catherine Ariendra 13 Years Old

  PROFESSOR Lupin hovered above her, gently helping her to sit up. Catherine forgot for a moment what she was doing in his office, the room still spinning and her vision blurry. When her bearings were restored, she remembered falling down.

  "You're okay, don't worry." Lupin assured her.

  She was practicing the patronus charm. She could feel it in her fingertips, the end of her wand emitting a faint blue silver light but then it got hard to breath before everything went black. Lupin gave her a few bars of chocolate and asked her to take a short break. Catherine had made quite a progress since she started early this year, but she would get so frustrated when she couldn't get things right.

  Lupin had taught her many things this year. She luckily had Defence Against the Dark Arts as her final subject on Fridays, so she would stay back and he would teach her some spells. She mostly mastered blocking and protective charms, a few stunning spells and now she wanted to try and cast a patronus.

  "It's a ridiculously hard spell Catherine. Don't beat yourself up. Some people take years to even cast a simple incorporeal patronus, let alone a corporeal one." Lupin leaned over his desk looking at her. "Why don't we call it day?"

  Catherine stood up quickly, her head still a little light but she stood her ground. "No, I would like to try again. What did I do wrong Professor?"

  "You concentrated too much on channeling the memory rather than clinging onto the power the memory possesses. Sometimes the exertion can make a wizard faint, it's completely normal." Lupin explained. "Are you sure you want to try again?"

  Catherine smoothed the wrinkles in her robes and held her head high. "Yes, I really want to get it right."

  Lupin looked at her and his eyes softened. "You remind me of your father."

  "You say that often, Sir. May I ask why?" Catherine really did wonder.

  She knew her parents were once close with Professor Lupin. Her mother had told her, sharing stories of when they were in Hogwarts. How her Papa would play pranks on her with their help. Lupin too remembered them, it was during her first class with him when he immediately recognised her.

  "You're Henry Ariendra's daughter." He smiled at her when she volunteered to help him rearrange the class after a Bogart lesson.

  He asked her about her Mama. Catherine told him as best she could. It was after Christmas break where she felt the need to learn more spells to help defend her mother. She approached him about it, telling him briefly about the situation at home but also not wanting to reveal too much. Gladly, Professor Lupin agreed.

  Lupin gave her another chocolate bar to eat, telling her to finish the piece before starting again. "Well first of all your eyes, they're Henry's. Your quietness that speaks volumes. Your nature to protect others. But your determination and resilience... perfectly identical."

  Catherine blushed a little. "I was never close to my Papa, I kind of regretted it."

  Lupin moved to search for something in his drawer. He took a piece of photograph and placed it in her hands. It was a picture of her father wearing his Gryffindor Quidditch jersey with a broom in his hand. To his right was Professor Lupin and James Potter, with some other students she did not recognise.

  "Life has never been fair for your father, but he was always a good man." He placed another photograph this time it was a candid shot of her father hugging her mother from behind, then they smiled at each other. "He loved your mother with all his heart really. Can hardly get his hands off her."