(A/N) - Sorry about any problems with the tenses. I typed this out late at night, and was too tired to try and sort it out.
I wandered the corridors and hallways, early morning sun starting to warm my cold skin. It was September 3rd, the second day of classes back at school, and I was already wandering again.
Normally my early morning walks didn't start until the second week, when I started to feel really lonely. They are the few times when I can truly appreciate the castle's beauty. Without the noise, the people, or the pressure.
I don't have many friends here. Correction. I don't have any friends here. I get the occasional person who sits next to me in class and acknowledges my presence for that brief moment, but then the bell rings and they are gone, back to their real friends, back to the laughter and the fun.
I turn the corner and pause. I can see a red-headed boy, Percy Weasley, sitting by the window that looks out over the lake. My window. I've come here nearly every morning since my first year, and now I'm in my fifth. I ducked behind a statue of Sebastian the Subdued, hoping he hadn't seen me. I knew there were evening curfews, but I didn't know about mornings, and Percy was Head Boy.
I nearly died when he spoke.
"Katherine?" Huh? He remembered my name. He knew who I was!
I stepped out from behind Sebastian cautiously. "It's Kate. Only my grandmother and Professor McGonagall call me Katherine."
He smiled. I had never noticed how cute his smile was. Then again, I had never really seen him smile up close before. I had seen him in the library a few times, another hide-out of mine. I knew his name because it was in the back of a lot of the books I borrowed, and one time in third year when I was hiding from Marcus Flint's taunts, he found me curled up in a corner reading 'The Creatures of the Deep: From Bunyips to Merpeople'. Turns out he needed it for a Potions assignment on the magical properties of grindylow spleens. We had talked then, briefly, until I saw Marcus and his cronies walk through the door. I hastily shoved the book into his hands and fled.
And now he was sitting in my windowsill, the rising sun illuminating the back of his head, turning his hair blood red.
"Well Kate, you took your time." He cleared his throat, blushing. "I was waiting for you," he said, in response to my puzzled look.
"Waiting for me? Why? What do you mean?"
"Well," he paused, giving me a bashful smile "Professor Flitwick told me last year when I was beginning my prefect rounds to avoid this corridor in the mornings, as a troubled student had taken to walking here, and he thought it best if she were left alone. I had a sneaking suspicion it might have been you, so I took to swinging past this corridor at varying times before breakfast, in the hope of stealing a glance of this mysterious student. I saw you once, one morning in December. It was freezing cold, and you had on a beautiful green cloak, covered in embroidery."
"It took me until the beginning of March to get the courage up to talk to you, but I had missed me chance," he continued. "They changed my rounds. I was still rostered on in the mornings, but I was moved to the dungeons. The next time I got to talk to you was on the train home."
I remembered that train ride as if it were yesterday. I was sitting in a compartment with another Ravenclaw girl, blonde, in her first year. We were both reading. I was reading a book of my fathers that my aunt had sent me for Christmas, and the other girl was reading the latest edition of The Quibbler.
The compartment door slid open to reveal that arrogant second year Slytherin, Draco Malfoy and his two thugs.
"Well, well, well. If it isn't the loner and the loony." He gave us an evil smirk. "I think we could have a little fun here, don't you agree Goyle?"
One of his sidekicks nodded, his little piggy eyes filling with glee as he pointed his wand at my companion, and his partner shut the sliding door, casting a silencing charm.
"What do we have here?" Malfoy sneered, yanking my book out of my hands.
"A filthy muggle book. Now, we can't have that disgusting article in my presence, can we?" Ignoring my protests, he held his wand to the cover and muttered "Incendio"
The precious pages burst into flames as I stifled a cry, not noticing the girl draw her wand as a shadow past the door.
"Expelliarmus!"
Malfoy's wand went flying out of his hand and smacked into the window. His pale face started to turn red as Crabbe and Goyle grabbed her arms. He advanced on her as I cowered in the corner.
"I really aught to teach you a lesson, you dirty whore!" He pointed his wand to her throat. "You need to learn your place," he whispered threateningly.
Suddenly the door burst open, and there stood a furious Percy Weasley, and The Boy Who Lived.
"Needless to say, it wasn't the best opportunity to tell you I thought you were the most beautiful creature I'd ever seen. By the time I'd dealt with that little slime ball, you had disappeared. I spent all holidays thinking about Hogwarts, wanting to get back. I was here all yesterday morning waiting for you."
I didn't know what to say. What could I? So I did what I do best. I ran.