A Meeting By Chance

Margaret was sitting at her usual table at The Three Broomsticks, without company. She had come into Hogsmeade to pick up some sweets from Honeydukes, and her bag was full to bursing with chocolate frogs, Bertie Bott's beans, and other various treats. She glanced around the crowded inn and observed the people there. Some were laughing and enjoying cold drinks, and others were engaged in serious conversation. She seemed to be the only one by herself. All of her friends were busy today, so she decided she'd come out alone. She was severely craving those chocolate frogs. She noticed someone new coming into the room, and then quickly noticed that the only seats open were the ones at her table. She decided she'd let them sit with her, whoever they were, as long as they seemed decent. Hey, maybe she could make a new friend. She was always up for that.

Ah the weekend! No work, no problems! Katie was itching to get out of the house, not to mention Chase was, and Calvin had to work today.. sooo she decided to go out by herself! After a long debating period, and a scrawled note taped to the fridge, she was packing up Katie's diaper bag and pondering where to go. She couldn't exactly apparate with Katie.. so her choices were pretty limited, instead she decided it would be fun to see the countryside! Take Katie somewhere special.. somewhere that meant a lot to her! And then it hit her... Hosmeade! A nice trip across country on the train, and some quality time with her daughter would be perfect! So grabbing Katie up, and strapping her into her seat, she drove to the train station.

The countryside was beautiful during the summertime. School had just gotten out, so there was barely anyone on the train, and Chase enjoyed a wonderful game of peek-a-boo with Katie. Who kept giggling and squirming in her seat. She was growing up so quickly! Her red hair was coming in quickly now, and Chase could almost pull it back into a pony tail! Obviously this girl had some magical powers about her if she was growing hair that quickly... Chase ran her fingers through her own choppy short hair, she must have gotten that from Elijah, because Chase's refused to get ANY longer after it had been chopped off by Felix's Barkers knife.

Chase was a pretty girl in all aspects, weathered, and much to wise in her eyes, but her face was pretty, and she had a model like quality about the way she walked and her figure was petite and slender. There were only a few things that really distracted from this these days.. and that was the scars. Scars that crossed her face, shoulders, neck, chest, arms, legs, and just about every part of her body was speckled with scars. From large ones across her stomach and back, to slightly swollen wrists, to a scar that crossed her eye that resembled the one Scar had in the muggle movie the Lion King. Which also made it hard for her to see out of that eye. Her hair was slowly getting longer, reaching a shaggy looking length around her ears, but she was growing it back out, for it had used to be long, and beautiful.. and now it just wouldn't grow. She wasn't sure why.

Katie on the other hand, looked exactly like her mother. Red hair, green eyes, a pretty face. Her father wasn't Chase's current... interest, in fact, her father was relatively famous. Elijah Krum, Viktor Krum's son. He had seduced her at the beginning of her last year at Hogwarts, and had accidentally gotten her pregnant when Chase had been at her lowest point in life. After that he proceeded to cheat on her, after telling her he would be with her, and help her... she had broken up with him multiple times, and right after Katie was born, she caught him cheating.. and she had left the house, taking the children with her. But after a struggle, he had gotten two of them back.. leaving Chase with her only natural daughter, and a mess to clean up.

Then she had gotten kidnapped and tortured by Felix Barker.. and well.. here she was today... in love with a man who acted more like a child then a five year old, and had the sweetest temperament of anyone she had ever met. She wasn't really sure just WHAT their relationship was at the moment, seeing as the only reason she knew they had anything, was because she lived with him.. and she had kissed him after he had spent an entire night, saving her life from Felix Barker. And she had kissed him, and now.. they were fine, she just didn't know what to do.

Finally the train stopped, and Chase got off with Katie. Letting Katie see around, and walking the streets of Hogsmeade. Finally though, she grew tired, and decided to take up an old haunt of hers. The Three Broomsticks, this place was riddled with history as well... But.. she didn't want to think about that kind.. instead she pushed open the door, and carefully squeezed Katie's carrier in as well, looking around. No open tables.. in fact, it was so crowded there was only one table that even HAD a space, and a Hogwarts student was sitting at it. So.. taking her chances at her being nice and not a Slytherin. She made her way through the crowded bar, and stood by the table. "May I sit down?" She asked, smiling at the girl, lifting up the baby carrier slightly, to show that she had a child and there was no other place for her to go.

As the girl got closer to her, Margaret could see that she was very pretty. And was carrying something... Is that a baby..? she thought to herself as she approached the table. She determined that it was. She didn't want to seem creepy and stare at them the whole time they were walking up to her table, so she glanced around some more. The place had not cleared out one bit, if anything it had gotten even more crowded. She wondered what she looked like sitting there all by herself. She hoped no one would think she was just some random lonely loser passing time at a busy place to try and talk to random strangers.

The girl with her child reached her table and asked if she could sit. Of course, Margaret told her she could, being the kind person she was. She helped the girl get her baby's carrier situated into the chair between them. The child was so adorable. She looked just like her mother.

She decided she'd better actually talk to this person, so she didn't think she was strange or something of that nature. "Hi, I'm Margaret Chase. What's your name?"

Chase smiled at the girl happily. "Thanks so much, I didn't realize it would be so crowded here! The train was so empty, and nothing else was really full, I guess everyone was here, so I didn't see!" She smiled at the girl happily, and pulled a bottle out of her diaper bag. She moved the chair they had put Katie on a bit closer to her, and held the bottle for the baby to drink from, Katie's tiny fingers closing around the sides, as though trying to hold it, but she was not nearly strong enough yet. "Oh, I'm Chase Moor, and this is Katie." She said smiling. "You're last name is the same as my first name! That's really cool." She grinned and ran her free hand through her short hair, before smiling at the girl.

"Let me guess... you go to Hogwarts right? Well.. you went to Hogwarts, it's summer vacation now." She smiled at her and pulled the bottle away from Katie's lips so she could wipe her chin with a rag before holding it back up for Katie to drink from. "I just graduated this past fall... but.. you look familiar, you in Hufflepuff?" She asked her eyes lighting up with excitement. Hufflepuff had been Chase's old house, so the possibility of them knowing each other was great.. odd that Chase didn't remember the girl. Not that Chase remembered much of the past couple years.. and any time before that the girl would have been to young for Chase to know very well. So it really wasn't that big of a surprise that Chase didn't know who the girl was. She grinned at her and tilted her head to the side. "It's probably a good thing I didn't know you, meant you weren't in a lot of trouble." She said, "I hung with a pretty tough crowd." She looked at the girl, judging her reaction before she laughed. "I'm just kidding, it's nice to meet you Margaret!"

"Haha, don't mention it!" Margaret said back to her. Her natural good-samaritan attitude made it pretty easy for her to open up to people, especially people who needed some kind of help.

DUDE! Her name is Chase! Haha, that's my last name! she thought to herself.

As the girl went on, she kept up with what she was saying (or tried to). "Yeah, I go to Hogwarts. I'm going to be a 5th year next year, yes, Hufflepuff... I think I might have passed you in the commons sometime."

She listened to Chase about how her time at Hogwarts was, guessing that she hung around some sketchy people, maybe. Oh, well. Margaret wasn't too picky when it came to friends. She had some problems of her own, and since no one really knew about any of hers, she didn't think it was right to discriminate based on problems. She heard a 'nice to meet you.'

After pulling out of her random thoughts, she put on her sweet Margaret voice and replied "Nice to meet you too, Chase!" with a smile.

Chase laughed when the girl seemed to take her seriously about hanging out with a sketchy crowd. "I don't really hang out with weird people Honest! I mean.. I guess.. you can call my friends weird.. but we all graduated so you probably wouldn't know them!" She said grinning. "And yeah, the Common Room seems like a pretty good place that we passed each other. I didn't go to school for most of the end of the year.. except to do my finals.. so there wasn't really any way we could have met then either!" She said grinning at her. "I got pregnant at the beginning of the year.. and Katie was born towards the end! So there was a lot of time out of school that I had to take! "She said smiling at the girl. "If you call that sketchy I can understand, specially because me and the guy aren't together anymore! Oh I'm sorry, I talk to much." she said giggling and putting her hand over her mouth.

"I always have.. some people say it's my downfall.. other's don't mind to much.. but still, I catch myself every so often I can't believe how much I talk! Opps there I go again!" She laughed and waved to a passing waiter. "Can I get a butterbeer?" She asked and watched him walk away. "Hmm.. I wonder how bad it is for Katie to be in here.. it's kinda smokey from people smoking.. and I only smoke when Katie isn't around.." Chase said worriedly. "Oh well! So what do you want to do after school Margaret? There are some great jobs out there now! Which are really looking to hire kids right out of school! That's how I got my job! We all got sent a letter, I sent one back, and BAM! I had a job! It was amazing!" She laughed and moved Katie's blanket away from her. It was getting stuffy in the room, and she didn't want Katie getting to hot.. not that it wasn't Hot outside, but with the cover over Katie, and the spells she put on the basket, it could get pretty chilly in that basket, but now that she wasn't in the sun, it was getting stuffy.

"What classes are you taking? What kind of friends do you have? I'm sorry! I must seem like a creepy person don't I! Asking all these questions! If it helps my boyfriend is an auror!" She laughed happily, throwing her head back to chuckle at the sky, before looking back at the girl and grinning. It wasn't very often Chase was happy enough to throw back her head like that.. in fact it had been since before she had Katie that she had done that.. and it felt good.. it really did. The only one who could get her to do it without her forcing it was Calvin though.. and for that she loved him all the more.

Margaret chuckled. Chase did talk an awful lot. She was one of those people who truly didn't mind much, though.

"It must have been really hard being pregnant during school. How did you balance all of the stuff? I'm sorry you're not still together with Katie's father anymore, that's got to be hard." Margaret trulyl felt sorry for Chase. She had really been through a lot.

"I'm not sure what I want to do after school. I really love creatures, I might look for a job in that field. I've still got a couple of years to think about it, though. And most of my friends are people I've known since my 1st year. I'm really not too picky on friends, so I've got friends from all four houses with every background you could think of." She laughed.

Chase laughed. "Yeah, it was really hard, but I managed to pass with pretty good marks! I missed a few classes, but it was okay! I had friends who helped catch me up, and I spent some time after classes getting the stuff I missed!" She grinned at the girl and smiled when the waiter came back with her drink. "Thanks!" She took a swig of it, and then looked back at the girl. "Hey! Creatures really? That's what I'm in! I'm a Magical Creature healer! They get pretty feisty, but you get to work with so many different creatures, and it's really rewarding!" She grinned and took another sip of her drink before setting it down on the table.

"But there is so much more you can do! I mean, you could be an auror, like my boyfriend, or in the Wizangamot.. or in any one of the specialties in the Department of Creatures! It's really neat everything you can do, I like my job the most though, because with the other ones, you stick to one kinda thing.. like the beast specialty, you work with beasts like Werewolves, and Centaurs, and Dragons and stuff, and the Beings you work with Hags, and Vampires! Or the spirit specialty you work with ghosts! But when your a healer for them, One day I work to fix a tooth that was broken in a Dragon's mouth, the next day I'm trying to patch up a Vampire's fang!" She giggled. "One day I even had to help a poltergeist can you believe it! There aren't many around, and they aren't to happy, but one of them was really hurt!" She grinned at Margaret and stretched her arms back, before reaching down to rub Katie's tummy.

"Katie's dad was a Slytherin, and my best friend is a Gryffindor, and one of the most popular people in our school, who I never really got to know, but she was super smart was a Ravenclaw! Her name was Amelia.. she was sooo smart, you could listen to her for like two seconds and learn ten new things!" She giggled. "So yeah, I guess I was the same! I never really just stuck to Hufflepuff house.. I dated a lot of Gryffindors before I met Elijah... haha you probably know him too! Elijah Krum is her daddy, so I guess you'd say my baby should be popular, but I don't want her around him at all!" She laughed and took another drink of her butterbeer. "Word of advice, don't get messed up with the Krums! They will suck away every bit of happiness you have until you get kidnapped by raving lunatics and tortured for days!"

The way she said it, nearly made it sound like she was just joking around. But at the same time she kind of rubbed her hurt eye, and ran a hand through her shortened hair, and even though she said it light heartedly, it was obvious that what she had said was a lot closer to the truth. Seeing as she HAD been kidnapped by a raving lunatic, and tortured for days... but she said it so happily it was nearly impossible to realize that she was being completely serious. Though she said it that could have been mistaken for her own surge of relative insanity, and she took a quick gulp of her butterbeer to hide it. She tried to play it off.. but there it was... she was sure the girl must have been wondering deep down somewhere why her appearance was all messed up, it was up to Margaret to put what she said in a joking manner, to apply it to the picture before her.

Margaret listened aa Chase explained how she managed to finish all of her finals even though she had Katie. She was pretty impressed with Chase's dedication to finishing school. She did pretty well in school herself, but she could never do all of that with a child. She didn't figure she had any risk of ending up the same way, seeing as she didn't really talk to guys all that much.

"Wow, you work with creatures? That's so cool!" she exclaimed. She loved magical creatures. Being a muggleborn, the most exciting creatures really got for her at home were at the London Zoo. She chuckled to herself. She took a drink of her butterbeer and listened to Chase go on about how the department she was jn worked. It sounded like she had a pretty cool job. "I'm still thinking about what I really want to do." she said, kind of thinking otherwise. She was almost absolutely sure she wanted to do something like what Chase did.

She started talking about Katie again. It was pretty interesting to hear about how she went through with all of that. Hm, Katie's dad was a Slytherin. Typical, really. Margaret wasn't friends with too many Slytherin's. She wasn't really interested in getting to know any. But, not that they would be interested in her. After all, she was a 'mudblood' anyway. She wished people wouldn't call her that.

Elijah Krum, huh? She'd heard of him. Classic heartbreaker was all she heard, really. She knew a couple of Krums from earlier on. She wasn't sure what to make of all of Chase's 'raving lunatic' stuff.

"Yeah I know right! Just the other day, I had to heal this Dragon with a sore tooth! Can you imagine that? A DRAGON! With a sore tooth! I had to get all in his mouth.. and it was SCARY, but awesome! After I was done he was fine, and was able to eat properly again, turned out he had a bunch of gunk stuck between his teeth, and it was hurting him so he couldn't eat!" She giggled, and took another drink of her butterbeer. What she didn't mention was that the Dragon had nearly eaten her twice, woken up just as she was pulling the gunk out, but then stared at her after it was out, and she had gotten the coolest experience ever, of it staring right into her eyes, and blowing out a puff of smoke, before turning away from her.

"You have time to figure things out though, it's fine, you have a lot of time actually, and don't worry, school isn't that hard.. I just had to make it harder on myself by getting pregnant.." she sighed shaking her head, but looking at Katie adoringly. "I'm not upset I did though.. otherwise I wouldn't have been able to meet this charming little girl, who will grow up and be whoever she wants to be..." She smiled at her girl, almost sadly, and looked at Margaret again. "Sorry! I trailed off there!" She smiled, but it was troubled now. Her whole life she had been pressured to be a model, to act, to sing, to do what her PARENTS wanted.. she had even almost been forced to get married to a man she didn't know.

It was one of her favorite sayings, that perfectly described her life.. "Just because I have a pretty face, doesn't mean I have a pretty past.." She looked at Margaret, and realized she had said that aloud. "opps! Sorry, that was just.. something I was thinking! I didn't mean to say it aloud.. it's just.. I guess it's true!" She smiled at her sadly, and gently rubbed Katie's belly. "My parents were pretty mean to me when I was a kid! So I want Katie to be perfectly happy when she grows up.. I never want her to be upset.. but I want her to know what upset is.. so that when she goes out into the real world.. she won't get shattered.. she won't grow up rich.. or totally spoiled.. she won't grow up like my family, and her father's family did... rotten because they are pureblooded... Everyone puts us down.. but there are some of us who don't care! It just so happens.. her father.. ended up being one of the purest bloodlines still intact.. and mine.. well mine was going extinct.. and the fact that we had a baby together... it not only saved my family name... but continued our line.. I'm the only one left.." She sighed and ran her hand through her short hair, forgetting it was so short, and looking momentarily shocked before letting her hand fall back down.

"Sorry! I know I talk to much.. and sometimes I get sad! Probably why I"m here I guess! I just don't ever keep anything inside! I speak my mind.. and that has gotten me into trouble way to much! haha, but now I bet you think I'm crazy.. and I should just shut up.. so I will.." Chase finished helplessly, and looked down at Katie again, her cheeks nearly as red as her hair.