Through The Holidays Challenge: Halloween - prompts: black cat, ghost, pumpkin (written for Katie Bell)

The Gigantic Harry Potter Collectables Challenge - Spines of Lionfish: (pairing) Marcus/Katie

Word Count: 1363

Katie's gaze swept over the neighborhood as she walked up the street, looking for any sign of a black cat in the area. Not even the sight of hanging ghosts fluttering in the breeze and pumpkins carved into jack-o-lanterns distracted her, even though Halloween was her favorite holiday. It had been five days with no sign of Serendipity, her four year old black cat, and Katie was starting to fear the worst. She had stayed up all night making up posters to hang all around the area, hoping that someone would find her precious cat or had possibly seen her somewhere.

Katie still hated herself for leaving that window open while she was gone for the weekend. It had been unusually warm for mid-October and she had opened the window in her bedroom to keep the room cool at night while she slept. Unfortunately, she hadn't closed it before leaving to visit friends in the north, and Serendipity, being overly curious, had somehow pushed the screen out and escaped. Katie had frantically searched up and down the street for hours once she'd arrived home and discovered the cat was gone, but with no success.

Katie had gone several blocks since hanging a sign and decided that the wooden pole up ahead would be a good spot to hang another. There was a young dark haired man already there, hanging a sign of his own. He started walking her way once he was finished, smiling at her as he passed. Katie smiled politely back and continued on her way.

"Excuse me." The voice behind her made Katie flinch just as she was about to hang her sign. Turning, she saw the young man she'd just passed a few moments ago standing a few feet away. "Is that your cat you're looking for?" He indicated the sign with a tilt of his head.

Katie nodded. "Have you seen her? She's all black and has a red collar with a bell and a gold tag with her name on it."

The young man's eyes widened. "Is her name Serendipity?"

Katie felt hope rising within her. "Yes, yes it is! What do you know about her? Where did you see her?"

"I found her," he said. "Four days ago. She was meowing at my door that morning and I took her in. She seemed hungry and a little scared, but she was fine otherwise. I've been wanting a cat and thought I might keep her, but since she had a collar and a name tag, I figured someone must be missing her." He handed her a paper from the stack held in his hand. "I made these up and started posting them around in the hopes that I could find her owner."

Katie read the sheet with some difficulty as her eyes were filling with tears. The picture accompanying the information on the paper was definitely her Serendipity. "You said she's fine? She wasn't hurt? Have you been taking good care of her?" Her words came out in a rush.

The young man smiled again. "She's just fine. I took her to my friend, who's a veterinarian, and he said she's perfectly healthy. And she's been eating like a queen." He chuckled. "There's not going to be any milk or tuna left in the house pretty soon at the rate she's going."
Katie laughed, the first time she had done so in days. She couldn't believe that she had found her cat, much less that she had been so well cared for after her disappearance. "Thank you so much," she said, wiping at her tears. "I'm sorry, I feel like I've been a bit rude. My name's Katie Bell."
The man shook his head. "I did walk up and start talking to you without introducing myself, so it's I who've been rude. My name is Marcus Flint." He extended his hand, which Katie shook. "I just live a few blocks away. We can go to my house right now and have a little reunion if you'd like."
"Please," Katie agreed enthusiastically. She was ready to have her best friend back. She had spent too many sleepless nights without her already. Katie followed him back in the direction from which she'd just come. "Thank you again for taking such good care of her. I wasn't sure I was going to find her again, so I'm glad that I did and that she wasn't lonely and hungry this whole time. I can pay you back for anything you needed for her care."
Marcus waved away her suggestion. "Don't even think about it. She's been such a sweet cat while she's been with me and she's kept me company. It was no trouble at all having her around."

Katie felt guilty about not being able to pay him back, but not wanting to be rude, she let the subject drop. They walked the remaining distance to his house in silence. Katie realized that they were quite close to her street when Marcus pointed out the place he called home. It looked much like most of the other houses in the neighborhood. It was a small, two story house, done in a pleasing shade of light green with grey shutters on the windows. "This is a nice house," Katie commented as he turned the key in the lock.

"I grew up here," Marcus said. "My parents decided they wanted to do some traveling after Dad retired, so they sold it to me and bought a flat in London to come back to between trips." The door opened and Marcus stepped aside, letting Katie enter first. The house was simply furnished, the rooms that she could see from the entryway neat and tidy. "I let her roam the house while I'm gone, but she usually comes running when I open the door." Katie heard the door click closed behind her and Marcus stood beside her, waiting.

Katie heard Serendipity on the stairs before she saw her, the bell on her collar tinkling as she ran up to them. Her vision blurred as tears filled her eyes once again at the sight of her cat. "Look who I found, Serendipity," Marcus said as he stooped to pick up the cat. He scratched behind her ears and she leaned into his hand. Katie could hear her purring loudly. Marcus deposited the cat into Katie's outstretched arms.

"I've missed you," Katie said, kissing Serendipity's head and hugging her close. Her tears wet the soft fur pressed against her cheek. She glanced back up at Marcus, who was smiling as he watched them. "Thank you," she said again. "I really do want to repay you if you'll let me."

Marcus looked thoughtfully at her for a few moments before answering. "Maybe you and Serendipity could pay me a visit sometime. I could make us dinner and we could just spend some time together."
"You making me dinner doesn't sound like me repaying you," Katie said. "And it sounds suspiciously like a date." Although she didn't know him very well, Katie already liked Marcus and couldn't say that she disliked the idea of a date with him.

"Getting to see the two of you again is repayment enough," Marcus said. "And it's only a date if that's what you want it to be." His gaze was locked onto her, his dark eyes conveying exactly how he felt about seeing her again.

Katie felt a blush creep over her cheeks. "Then it's a date." She opened the door, anxious to return home now that she'd found her missing cat. "What about this Saturday?" She turned back to him once she'd stepped outside.

"I'll be looking forward to it," Marcus said, his eyes never leaving hers as he closed the door.

Katie smiled all the way home, Serendipity still purring loudly in her arms. Not only did she have her cat back, now she had a date with a rather handsome new acquaintance in just a few days. Most people thought black cats only brought bad luck, but hers didn't. In fact, Katie thought now that she had named the cat rather appropriately.