Katy's footsteps were slow and measured.  Each one echoed off the walls of the empty hallway, causing a trill of nervous energy to jitter up her spine.  She'd received a summons to come to the counselor's office during lunch and her mind rolled over and over the possibilities.  What had she done to deserve this?  Katy couldn't think of anything in specific.  She lived under the radar and never made trouble.  She didn't get involved in things.  What could it be?  The only thing she'd done that she felt even remotely guilty about was not telling a professor about Sasha's keen interest in Necromancy.  Had Mr. Morgan seen them?  Had he been suspicious? 

Katy stopped in front of the counselor's office door and rubbed her sweating hands on her skirt.  She wouldn't lie if they asked.  It wasn't her problem and she wouldn't fall on any kind of sword for an upperclassman she didn't even know.  She raised her hand and knocked, waiting to admitted so she could find out why she had to miss lunch.

Relaying poor news from home to a student didn’t feel quite right, but it was a responsibility that Mai would not have wanted anybody else to have. She called a young Hufflepuff to her office. She was seated seriously in one of her comfortable chairs. Usually, she would have been cheerful, offering treats to anybody who walked into her office—but not now. This was a very serious, somber situation. There was no way she expected young Katy to be comfortable.

She heard a distinct knocking on the door and tilted her head towards it before standing up to answer. “Come in.” She said softly, closing the door behind the other girl. Mai looked the student over—her sweaty palms were a sign of anxiety. The girl was nervous about coming here, though Maiko didn’t really blame her. It seemed that many students did not exactly want to be in her office.  “Sit down, please.” Mai said simply, sitting back down in the chair she had been waiting in. 

The counselor silently waited for Katy to be seated; there was no good way to say it.

The counselor was quiet and subdued. Her voice was soft and there was a weariness in her eyes.  All of a sudden, Katy couldn't imagine that she was here because someone found out about her and Sasha's conversation.   That would surely result in stern disapproval, not this hesitancy.

So Katy sat in the chair opposite the counselor and looked around the interior of the office.  She chewed on the inside of her lip and waited nervously.   Finaaly she took a deep breath and asked "Why am I here? What did I do wrong?"  She met the counselor's eyes firmly at last with hard eyes.  She was determined to defend her innocence, even if she was confronted about that dratted necromancy thing.

"I'll have to eat before going back to class, so..." she trailed off, willing the woman to hurry up.

Her eyes softened, though they were still very serious. “You did not do anything wrong, dear.” Maiko said calmly, “I ‘ave some awful news.” It was best at this point, to get right to the point. “Katy, your mother died in a car accident.” She said gently, “We received the letter today.” She pulled a piece of paper off her desk, and it felt heavier than any piece of paper she had ever held. It was as if it held the weight of the news. Mai looked at Katy, not with pity, but with a silent sadness mixed with a solid, stubborn strength. When her own parents had died, it was awful—but she imagined that for Katy, it was almost more awful.

She was being told by an adult that was familiar only in name and in passing. An adult that never knew her parents, that never had any sort of personal connection to her family. In some ways, hearing from someone else was worse.

The alternative wasn’t exactly a pretty option either.

“Do you need anything, or do you ‘ave any questions?”

Katy stared, uncomprehendingly, at Madame Biladeau.  She didn't understand the words, although she heard them clearly in the quiet office.  Her mother?  In a car?  Accident?  What...  She didn't understand.  She leaped up so suddenly that her chair fell over behind her.  It smacked the floor viciously but not as viciously as Katy snatched the paper from the counselor's hand.  It was wrinkled in her clenching fist but the words were clear when she turned away from the desk and spread it out with trembling fingers.

To Whom it May Concern,

On the evening of October 21st, Alice Smith nee Bevans was in an automobile accident at 17:34.  A truck sideswiped her blue sedan, forcing a collision with a concrete divider.  She suffered from a sever concussion, several contusions, and internal bleeding.  She was taken to the hospital but died before appropriate aid could be rendered.  As per prior arrangements, the Ministry was notified of this incident. 

Alice Smith is survived by her daughter, Katy Bevans, who attends Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizadry.  Until her closest relatives can be contacted, Miss Bevans is to remain at school during the holidays.  We will be in further contact regarding Miss Bevans' summer living situation.

Please inform Miss Bevans of this horrible tragedy and convey our deepest sympathies for her loss. We will...

Katy stopped reading and squeezed her burning eyes shut tightly.  When she opened them again she'd pushed the tears back but  now there was a roaring sound in her ears. "This can't be," she whispered.  Her voice was dry and leathery, but she didn't hear herself speak over the rushing in her mind.  The words just kept  rolling over and over in her mind, slipping out of her mouth unawares, over and over again.

The last thing that people going through a loss needed to hear was, “I understand this because so and so died.” Katy’s relationship with her mother had evidently been very special, and every relationship was unique. It was rude, inconsiderate, insensitive, and inaccurate to assume that you could understand perfectly what she was going through. Yes, the girl would be grieving—and everybody understood grief to an extent. Different people expressed it differently.

“It seems impossible, but there’s nothing anybody can do to change this. I’m sorry for your loss.” The counselor replied, considering for a moment if she should touch the girl’s shoulder, but decided against it. Katy had no control over this situation; the least that Maiko could do was respect her space and have some sort of control over who may and may not enter her personal space. “Is there anything that I can do to ‘elp?” Maiko said softly, “I can write a note excusing you from class for the week, and my office is open to you at any time.”

The roaring in her ears cut off as promptly as her words upon hearing the sickening words coming from the school counselor.  She looked over her shoulder with an angry, withering glare and hissed, "You're not sorry about my loss.  You didn't even know who I was before today." 

Rage sparked in her brown eyes just as it sparked within her chest.  Who did this woman think she was?  How did she ever become a school counselor with her stilted and awkward combination of harsh reality and comforting platitudes, which were ultimately empty and ineffective. 

However, beneath the ire lurked a traitorous doubt, hope even, that none of this was true.  That is couldn't be true.  The thought of having to go through life without her mother, who had always been there for Katy just as Katy had always been there for her left her nearly catatonic with fear and grief.  Nearly, not completely.

A sudden sensation swamped Katy.  She gasped and curled into herself once more, her eyes burning with tears she dared not shed because allowing them to fall was like admitting the most important person left in her life had been taken away from her for good.  Her feet were moving before she even realized it.  The door handle there and gone again that she barely recognized it.

She ran through the hallways in blind panic, as fleet of foot as she'd never been before in her life.  The only sound she made as she raced unseen down one hallway after the next was the rap of her hard-soled uniform shoes against the flagstones.  Soon she had left the heavily traveled portions of the castle behind and vanished into its unused spaces.  There she remained until she could begin process the worst news a girl like her could ever have been given.