Game of Survival [HARRY POTTER and SHADOWHUNTERS]

Kavya was the last person in her dorm to wake up.

Pansy had been the one to force her out of bed, already in her robes.

"You have fifteen minutes," she had hissed, and Kavya had raced to the shared bathrooms, only slightly disgusted by the staggering amount of hair stuck to the shower.

She had, after all, grown up with Magnus. Although they had separate bathrooms, there was a week where her pipes had burst and she shared with him. That was an experience she never wanted to revisit.

She made it out with her robes on, and only managed to trip over her the sheer abundance of cloth a handful of times.

Honestly, it was as though the founders of Hogwarts had gone through all possible clothing choices and chose the most impractical.

How, in Merlin's Ninth Circle of Hell, did they work in Potions without setting absolutely everything on fire?

The group of people she had sat with on the train waited for her to finish getting ready before going up to the Great Hall for breakfast.

"Do you guys know who Harry is?"

Theo stumbled and crashed into one of the suits of armor lining the corridor, filling Kaye with a strange sense of satisfaction, that it wasn't only her who was struggling with the hideous uniform.

"How do you not know who Harry is? Aren't you guys related?" Theo got up off the floor rather quickly, and waved his wand, setting the armor back in place.

Blaise slapped him upside the head. "Of course, they're related, you bloody git. Honestly, I don't know how you'll ever pass your O.W.L.s. with that magnificent brain of yours."

The O.W.L.s were important exams that they had to take in fifth year.

"I don't think I've met him since, like, our parents died. And we don't get the Prophet in America so I don't know what he looks like or anything."

Pansy snorted and slung an arm around Kaye's shoulders just as they entered the Great Hall. "Don't worry, you're not missing much. I'll point him out to you."

Sure enough, she gestured to the middle of the Gryffindor table where a boy with black hair and round glasses sat between a girl with bushy brown hair and another boy who looked like Fred and George Weasley.

How many of them were there? It seemed as though wherever she looked, there was another boy with carrot-orange hair and freckles. Sure enough, her eyes found the Gryffindor Head  Boy, another carbon copy of the twins, who sat at the end of the table.

She looked back to the boy with black hair, her twin, and her last living blood relative, at least, that she knew of, to find him looking at her. He raised his hand in a half-wave - he also must have not known what to do about her - but she turned away, and he dropped his hand.

Not a single eye in the entire Great Hall was not trained on her. Heat rose to her ears - for some reason, they were the parts of her that always blushed first - and she was glad she had worn her hair down. She sat next to Astoria - who she had learned was only a year younger than the rest of them -  and Pansy. everyone had turned to her for some kind of comment on Harry Potter.

She smiled, even as nerves twisted her stomach.

She had all the family she needed in Magnus. But, then, why did she want to talk to him?

"You're right, Pans. He doesn't look like much at all."

The table roared with laughter.

The conversations soon split the group into two, with the boys saying something about exactly what the significance of their wand sizes was with other body parts, whilst Pansy offered to show her around the school, seeing as they both had no classes for first period.

Just as Astoria began complaining about her lack of free periods, the mail arrived. Kavya jumped, startled at first by the hundreds of owls streaming into the room, circling the tables until they saw their owners, and dropping letters and packages onto their laps.

Snowy fluttered down between the fruit and the toast and dropped several notes onto Kaye's plate. Seven, to be exact.

Five were from her Ilvermony friends, asking how her day was going, if she was missing them yet, and updating her on everything that had changed within the past two days.

One was from Magnus Bane.

My dearest, my sweetest, my darling Kavya Lily Potter, greatest daughter of James F. Potter, and Lily J. Potter, and most prized treasure of the amazing, wondrous, and handsome High Warlock of Brooklyn, Magnus Bane,

With a sincere heart, I hope this letter finds you in utmost perfect health. Although, considering the enormous body of water, that separates us, there is not much I can do if you are not, apart from forcing the esteemed Albus Dumbledore to send you home urgently where you can wallow in your sadness like a tiny Victorian child dying of dysentery.

I fear that I might be dying. Since our tearful farewell (tearful on my part, I did notice that there were no waterworks on you at the prospect of spending half a year away from yours truly), I have felt as though a wretched creature has reached into my chest, and ripped out my heart.

Despite my darling Alexander's assurances, the burden of our goodbyes has not yet eased off my shoulders and our reluctant parting has left me metaphorically heavier as I go through our most joyful memories alone.

Do write back if there's anything you need. I will slave away to ensure that you are never in want of anything.

With all my love,

The joy to your soul.

Kavya stared at the letter, for a good few good seconds, before laughter bubbled in her throat. She slapped her right hand to her mouth, tears leaking from the corners of her eyes.

"What happened?" Theo moved to see the note. She let him take it and hold it out so the others could read.

"Is he always this... much?" Blaise asked and she nodded. "Who's Alexander?"

"His almost-boyfriend," Kaye answered. She looked toward the Gryffindor table to find Harry staring at her again, whispering to the two people sitting next to him.

"Your dad has a boyfriend?"

She looked at Draco, her eyes hardening. "Yes. He is a guy and he has a boyfriend." Her eyes darted around the group. "Do any of you have a problem with that?"

A chorus of nos, and an 'as long as he gives me fashion advice' from Theo made her relax.

After a short silence, Pansy spoke up. "What's a High Warlock?"

Oh shit. "Um, that's just, well, a joke between my dad and I. Because, you know, I'm magic and he's not."

"How is he your dad? He barely looks older than us. I'd say twenty-three at most."

Kaye grinned at Pansy, especially considering Magnus had stopped aging when he was nineteen. "He'll absolutely adore you if you told him he looked twenty-three. I guess it's just good genes."

She opened the last scroll, to see the words 'COMPETITION FOR THE CHOSEN ONE' printed on the front page of The Prophet. Beneath it were two moving pictures of her. In one, she was climbing the train behind Pansy, her head tilting back to wave bye to her dad, and in the other, she was sitting under the Sorting Hat, just as it yelled out 'SLYTHERIN'.

She could feel herself flush, as she read the rest of the article that detailed more about her life than anyone here had any right of knowing. It was three pages long and said everything, from where she was born, to what she had been doing, to who her first bloody kiss was. How the hell had the author, Rita Skeeter, gotten that information?

"Are you alright?"

Kavya blinked. She hadn't realized that her hands were shaking, and the paper had crumpled beneath her grip. She let go, and smoothed it out on the table, taking a deep breath.

There were still so many people looking at her. And now, they knew so much more than they should have.

"I'm fine." She took a sip of her orange juice. "I guess I'm just not used to the attention."

Everyone here knew what damn bookstore she liked visiting, her favorite foods, the marks she had gotten at Ilvermony.

Pansy placed her hand over one of Kaye's clenched fists. Her nails were painted a pretty red. "Enjoy the spotlight." She eyed her meaningfully, "they'll forget about it within a few days. No one blinks twice at Harry anymore, and I'm sure it'll be faster for you."

Kavya released a low breath. "Okay."

After breakfast was done, Pansy and Kavya were going to start their tour with the Whomping Willow, when three people approached them. She looked up to see Harry standing in front of her with the two people he had been sitting with.

"Do you think we could talk?"

Everyone was staring at them. Staring and eavesdropping, like they had a right to this conversation.

"Just not here." She turned back to Pansy, "I'll meet you in the common room when I'm done?"

She nodded, and Kavya followed Harry and his friends through a random set of hallways. She realized, rather belatedly, that she had no idea how to get back to her common room. None of the other Houses were supposed to know where it was, so she'd either have to find another Slytherin or a teacher.

"So," Harry turned to her, when they were a suitable distance away from everything else. "If you ask Dumbledore to switch to Gryffindor, he might let you, considering who you are and since, well, it's Slytherin."

Kaye's eyebrows darted further up than she had thought humanely possible. "What?"

"We mean-" The brunette began, before cutting herself off. "Since, of course, you wouldn't want to be in Slytherin, if you requested for a change, that-"

"Why wouldn't I want to be in Slytherin?" She didn't know what she had expected from the conversation, but it wasn't this. Maybe more of a 'Hello. You're my sister even though neither of us remembers the other. Can I ask you what your favorite color is, while I pretend I didn't read the information from The Prophet a few minutes ago?'

"I mean-" Harry trailed off, helplessly. "Why would you want to be?"

"Because it's my House? Because my values or whatever it is the Sorting Hat uses to choose, aligns with Slytherins?" She was so confused. She hadn't wanted much interaction with her brother before coming to Hogwarts, and the way the entitled ass was acting, she didn't want any at all.

"Yes, but it takes your opinions into consideration!" The Weasely was pleading. "If you ask for a redo and tell the House that you don't want to be in Slytherin, but that you want Gryffindor instead-"

"Why the hell would I not want to be in Slytherin? What's so great about Gryffindor?"

"Slytherin's full of evil people! Every single person in the history of Hogwarts who has gone evil, had been in Slytherin! If you're in Gryffindor, Harry, Ron, and I can-"

"Why the hell would I switch Houses just to talk to a complete stranger?" Did they truly think she would change everything, to be close to Harry? "I'm not a Gryffindor. I'm a Slytherin. And you can shove any idea of the opposite up your ass, like the fucking Mudblood you are."

She didn't even know what Mudbloods meant, but given the way all three of them had flinched simultaneously, her words had hit their mark.

She shook her head, and walked away.

It had taken her almost all of her first period to find her way back to the common room. Pansy wasn't too upset and didn't ask what happened, which Kaye appreciated.

Draco had been assigned, by Pansy's insistence, to take her to their next class - Care of Magical Creatures. They walked down to a small hut on the edge of the Forbidden Forest, which was exactly like the name suggested - forbidden.

Hagrid, the half-giant who had led her from the train to the castle, was waiting for his class at the door of his hut. He stood in his moleskin overcoat, with a boarhound at his heels, looking impatient to start.

"C'mon, now, get a move on!" he called as everyone approached. "Got a real treat for yeh today! Great lesson comin' up! Everyone here? Right, follow me!"

Kaye turned back and bit back a groan at seeing three unfortunately familiar figures behind her - Harry, the Weasley whose name she had learned was Ron, and a muggle, Hermione Granger.

Hagrid strolled off around the edge of the trees, and five minutes later, she found herself outside a kind of paddock. There was nothing in there.

"Everyone gather 'round the fence here!" he called. "That's it - make sure yeh can see - now, firs' thing yeh'll want ter do is open yer books-"

"How?" Draco drawled from where he was standing next to her.

"Eh?" said Hagrid.

"How do we open our books?" He repeated. He took out his copy of The Monster Book of Monsters, which he had bound shut with a length of rope. Other people took theirs out too; some, had belted their book shut; others had crammed them inside tight bags or clamped them together with binder clips.

"Hasn' - hasn' anyone bin able ter open their books?" said Hagrid, looking crestfallen.

Kaye had. She had opened her book in the store itself and had asked the owner of Flourish and Botts for help. But she wasn't going to single herself out on the first day.

The class all shook their heads.

"Yeh've got ter stroke 'em," said Hagrid, as though this was the most obvious thing in the world. "Look-"

He took Granger's copy and ripped off the Spellotape that bound it. The book tried to bite, but Hagrid ran a giant forefinger down its spine, and the book shivered, and then fell open and lay quiet in his hand.

"Oh, how silly we've all been!" Draco sneered. "We should have stroked them! Why didn't we guess!"

"I - I thought they were funny," Hagrid said uncertainly to everyone.

"Oh, tremendously funny!" said Malfoy. "Really witty, giving us books that try and rip our hands off!"

"Calm down, Draco." Kaye rolled her eyes, and then turned to him, raising an eyebrow. "It's a book. Unless the great Draco Malfoy was bested by a few bound pieces of paper?" The half-giant looked downcast, and she rather liked him.

She turned around to see Harry looking at her and scowled at him.

"Righ' then," said Hagrid, who seemed to have lost his thread, "so yeh've got yer books an' - an' - now yeh need the Magical Creatures. Yeah. So I'll go an' get 'em. Hang on..."

He strode away from them into the forest and out of sight.

"God, this place is going to the dogs," said Draco loudly. "That oaf teaching classes, my father'll have a fit when I tell him-"

"Shut up, Malfoy," Harry stated.

"Careful, Potter, there's a dementor behind you." Kavya hid her snicker at Draco's remark quite well.

"Oooooooh!" squealed Lavender Brown, pointing toward the opposite side of the paddock.

Trotting toward them were a dozen of the most bizarre creatures she had ever seen. They had the bodies, hind legs, and tails of horses, but the front legs, wings, and heads of what seemed to be giant eagles, with cruel, steel-colored beaks and large, brilliantly orange eyes. The talons on their front legs were half a foot long and deadly looking. Each of the beasts had a thick leather collar around its neck, which was attached to a long chain, and the ends of all of these were held in the vast hands of Hagrid, who came jogging into the paddock behind the creatures. Behind the hippogriffs.

"Gee up, there!" he roared, shaking the chains and urging the creatures toward the fence where the class stood. Everyone drew back slightly as Hagrid reached them and tethered the creatures to the fence.

"Hippogriffs!" Hagrid roared happily, waving a hand at them. "Beau'iful, aren' they?"

Their gleaming coats changed smoothly from feather to hair, each of them a different color: stormy gray, bronze, pinkish roan, gleaming chestnut, and inky black.

"So," said Hagrid, rubbing his hands together and beaming around, "if yeh wan' ter come a bit nearer-" No one seemed to want to. "Now, firs' thing yeh gotta know abou' hippogriffs is, they're proud," said Hagrid. "Easily offended, hippogriffs are. Don't never insult one, 'cause it might be the last thing yeh do. Yeh always wait fer the hippogriff ter make the firs' move," Hagrid continued. "It's polite, see? Yeh walk toward him, and yeh bow, an' yeh wait. If he bows back, yeh're allowed ter touch him. If he doesn' bow, then get away from him sharpish, 'cause those talons hurt." He paused. "Right - who wants ter go first?"

Most of the class backed farther away in answer. The hippogriffs were tossing their fierce heads and flexing their powerful wings; they didn't like being tethered like this.

"No one?" said Hagrid, with a pleading look.

"I'll do it," said Kaye. "I've ridden them before."

"Really?" Hagrid's eyes were wide. "Was it back in Iler- Ilter..."

"Ilvermony," She supplied, climbing over the paddock fence. "And, yes, I did a similar class last year."

"Right then- let's see how yeh get on with Buckbeak." Hagrid untied one of the chains, pulled the gray hippogriff away from his fellows, and slipped off his leather collar. "Easy, now, Ms Potter," said Hagrid quietly. "I'm sure you know but now yeh've got eye contact, try not ter blink... . . . Hippogriffs don' trust yeh if yeh blink too much. . . ."

Kaye's eyes immediately began to water, but she didn't shut them. Buckbeak had turned his great, sharp head and was staring at her with one fierce orange eye.

"Tha's it," said Hagrid. "Tha's it, Ms Potter. . . now, bow..."

She sunk down, giving a slow and exaggerated bow, before looking up. The hippogriff bent his scaly front knees and sank into what was an unmistakable bow.

"Well done, Potter!" said Hagrid, ecstatic. "Right - yeh can touch him! Pat his beak, go on!"

She reached out, and stepped closer, rubbing Buckbeak's, well, beak. He closed his eyes lazily, as though enjoying it.

The class broke into applause.

"Righ' then, Potter," said Hagrid. "I reckon he might' let yeh ride him!"

She was slightly uneasy. She hadn't ridden a hippogriff during her earlier encounters. She was used to a broomstick, but a hippogriff wouldn't be quite the same.

"Yeh climb up there, jus' behind the wing joint," said Hagrid, "an' mind yeh don' pull any of his feathers out, he won' like that."

Kaye put her foot on the top of Buckbeak's wing and hoisted herself onto his back. Buckbeak stood up. She wasn't sure where to hold on; everything in front of her was covered with feathers.

"Go on, then!" roared Hagrid, slapping the hippogriff's hindquarters.

Without warning, twelve-foot wings flapped open on either side of Kavya; she just had time to seize the hippogriff around the neck before he was soaring upward.

It was nothing like a broomstick, and she knew which one she preferred; the hippogriff's wings beat uncomfortably on either side of her, catching her under her legs, and making her feel she was about to be thrown off; the glossy feathers slipped under her fingers and she didn't dare get a stronger grip. She now felt herself rocking backward and forward as the hindquarters of the hippogriff rose and fell with his wings.

Buckbeak flew her once around the paddock and then headed back to the ground. She leaned back as the smooth neck lowered, feeling she was going to slip off over the beak, then felt a heavy thud as the four ill-assorted feet hit the ground.

“Good work, Potter!” roared Hagrid as almost everyone cheered. "Okay, who else wants a go?"

Emboldened by her success, the rest of the class climbed cautiously into the paddock. Hagrid untied the hippogriffs one by one, and soon people were bowing nervously, all over the paddock. Someone was running repeatedly backward from his, which didn't seem to want to bend its knees. Draco practiced on the chestnut, and Weasley was working on Buckbeak.

He had bowed to the ginger, who was now patting his beak, looking disdainful. "This is very easy,” He drawled, loud enough for Kaye to hear him. “I knew it must have been, if Potter could do it. I bet you're not dangerous at all, are you?” he said to the hippogriff. “Are you, you great ugly brute?"

It happened in a flash of steely talons; Weasely let out a high-pitched scream and next moment, Hagrid was wrestling Buckbeak back into his collar as he strained to get at Weasely, who lay curled in the grass, blood blossoming over his robes.

Kaye was at Buckbeak's side in an instant, running her hands over his feathered coat, murmuring whispered soothes to him. He relaxed almost as soon as she reached him, although he still snapped his beak at Weasley and glared at him.

“I'm dying!” Weasely yelled as the class panicked. “I'm dying, look at me! It's killed me!"

"Yer not dyin'!" said Hagrid, who had gone very white. "Someone help me gotta get him outta here-"

Granger ran to hold open the gate as Hagrid lifted Weasily easily. There was a long, deep gash on his arm and blood splattered on the grass as Hagrid ran with him, up the slope toward the castle, with Harry following close behind.

Kavya made eye contact with Draco and immediately started laughing. That was possibly one of the best things she had seen in, well, ever.

"Stop laughing! That was awful!” said Dean Thomas, another Gryffindor.

"It was Weasely's fault!" She snapped back. "If he hadn't made the brilliant decision to insult a hippogriff because of whatever dislike he has toward me, none of this would have happened!"

They all climbed the stone steps into the deserted entrance hall.

“I'm going to see if he's okay!” said Lavender Brown, another Gryffindor, and they all watched her run up the marble staircase. 

Draco huffed and turned to her, Crabbe, and Goyle. "Lunch?"

She nodded. Class was to be over in seven minutes, anyways.

>>>

"So," Blaise began, peering at her over some pot roast. "What exactly did Potter and his posse say to you in the morning?"

"What?" Kaye asked, chewing a piece of bread. "Oh. They expected me to switch Houses to Gryffindor. Just so I could have some 'family bonding' time." The last three words were a sneer.

Everyone at the table went still.

"And what did you say?"

She rolled her eyes. "What would I have said? I told the Mudbloods to go screw themselves."

They all laughed, and Pansy had tears. Daphne caught her eye and gave her a small smile. It seemed like a monumental moment, where her friendship with these people had been cemented, as though in stone.

"You actually said that?"

"I mean - yeah. I didn't want to switch Houses."

"No," Theo clarified, "The bit about you calling them Mudbloods."

"Yeah, I did," She eyed them as they all began laughing again. Something was off. "Why? What does it mean?"

"Merlin," Enzo wiped tears from his eyes. "It just a term used to refer to muggle-borns. To remind them of their place as beneath the rest of us."

She froze. "What?"

"It's an insult," Draco sighed. "What I wouldn't have given to see Potter's face when you said it."

Mudblood was a slur.

Shit. She didn't know.

>>>

Kavya Potter stood outside the Gryffindor common room, wringing her hands together.

"Please," She pleaded with the Fat Lady. "If you can't let me in, can you ask them to come out?"

The woman in the portrait glared at her. "I think you've done enough damage, Ms Potter."

She winced. "I know. I just want to apologize."

The pink silk dress the woman was wearing ruffled, as she leaned down to peer at her. "Alright. I'll ask them, but no promises that they'll say yes."

Kaye nodded. "That's all I ask."

She disappeared.

It had been fifteen minutes, and Kaye was about to take the hint and leave, when the empty portrait swung forward to reveal a round hole in the wall.

Harry, Weasely, and Granger crawled through, wands drawn as though they thought she was going to hex them.

"You wanted to talk to us." Harry began and she nodded.

"Well, I just wanted to apologize for calling you... that word. I didn't actually know what it meant. I thought it was just an insult."

They all looked stunned.

Granger was the first to recover. "You didn't know what it meant? Mudblood quite  literally means dirty blood."

She winced, "Clearly, I'm not getting any marks for critical thinking skills. Anyways, I just wanted to apologize. You don't have to accept it, but I shouldn't have said that word. I'm really sorry."

"Alright," Granger nodded once. "We're fine."

Kaye looked relieved. "Okay. Great. Um, I'll see you in class tomorrow."

She practically ran back to her dorm, leaving behind three very confused Gryffindors.