Sorry it took me so long to update with this second chapter! I was having computer issues but I got everything figured out! It just gave me an excuse to make this chapter even longer! Enjoy!

Kat woke with a start the next morning. It took her a while to remember where she was but the thick curtains hanging around her bed quickly told her that she was at Hogwarts. She pushed back the curtains and winced as the light from the window came pouring in. By the slow breathing she heard around the room, she figured that she was the only one awake. She yawned widely and stretched. She had been having a pretty intense dream about playing Quidditch and the reason that she had woken up was because, in her dream, she had been knocked off her broom and crashed into one of the goal posts. I hope that isn't foreshadowing anything, thought Kat. She slipped on her robes, slipped Mr. Snowy a carrot, and quietly slipped out of the dormitory.

She climbed down the tower stairs and entered the common room. A tall, black seventh year boy named Kingsley was sitting in front of the fire when she entered and a small, ginger second year girl was reading a book in the corner. Other than them, the common room was empty. Kat gave Kingsley a wide berth (he was known to be exceptionally good at non-verbal spells and made Kat extremely nervous) and shuffled out of the common room. Luckily, Kingsley showed no interest in her whatsoever and Kat made it out into the corridor without any confrontation. Taking a deep breath of the familiar, musty castle smell, Kat marched down to the Great Hall for breakfast.

There were only a few students in the Hall for breakfast. Kat munched on sausage and toast while it gradually filled up. Peter and Sirius showed up about ten minutes after she did and they sat happily on a bench next to her.

"Are you ready for our first day back, Kat?" asked Peter.

Kat nodded. "I still can't believe I passed all of my exams!"

"Me too! I thought for sure—"

"Oh, hush, both of you," said Sirius. He was pouring ketchup onto his sausages. "As if me or James would let you fail! And what would Moony've done? Na, we had you guys covered."

Kat scowled a bit, but found that she couldn't be mad at him this morning. It was their first day back and she was going to try her hardest to enjoy it! She waved happily at Lily and Eileen when they walked by and even smiled at Snape. He looked at her like she was something slimy under a rock and sped past. Sirius' lip curled, but he calmed down once Snape had gone by.

James and Remus showed up just as Professor McGonagall was passing out schedules. James had his glasses pushed up on top of his head so all of his hair was sticking out even crazier than usual. He scratched the tip of his nose and his glasses slid back onto his face so he could read his schedule.

"We got lucky! We don't have to deal with Slughorn until Wednesday!"

"And looks like we get to start every Monday with Herbology…" Peter said, rather gloomily. "That means we'll be gross and covered in dirt all day."

"That's what showers are for Pete!" Sirius chimed.

"And we don't have Professor Prewett until this afternoon," Kat sighed, glancing at the parchment McGonagall had just handed her.

"What's the matter, Kat? Is that too long of a wait for the new handsome professor?" James said, wiggling his eyebrows.

Kat flushed slightly. "Don't be ridiculous."

After breakfast, they joined the other Sixth Year Gryffindors on their trek down to the green houses. Professor Sprout met them all there happily and soon they were busy replanting last year's Fanged Geraniums. Then, smelling strongly of dragon dung, they trooped back up into Gryffindor Tower for a quick wash before Defense Against the Dark Arts. They chatted excitedly about their new teacher once they heard one of the third years exclaim "He's amazing!"

The classroom was brightly lit with half of the windows thrown open so there was a pleasant cross-breeze flowing through. The desks were all pushed against the back wall to leave a wide open space in the center of the room. Their fellow Gryffindors and Ravenclaws were milling about whispering in excited voices. There was a bang and the door to Professor Prewett's office flew open. Prewett stood, grinning at the lot of them with his red hair flaming shining in the sunlight.

"Hello, everybody!" He said cheerfully.

"Hello, Professor Prewett," the class chimed back.

"My name is Gideon Prewett and I am your new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. I understand that there was an unfortunate occurrence between your last teacher in this class and a student—"

"'Unfortunate occurrence? She was almost drained," said James.

Prewett flinched slightly. "I have been instructed not to discuss the particulars of the…er...issue, Mr.-?"

"Potter, Professor," said James.

"But on to a much more comfortable topic! Let's talk about hexing each other."

Kat's focus shifted from Professor Prewett to her peers. She didn't like the sound of that much. The Ravenclaws here were the smartest in the school and all of the Gryffindors there really knew their stuff. She hoped that she was paired up with Peter if that was what it came down to…

"We're going to start something new today, something that will certainly come in handy for any sort of foolishness that you want to accomplish during your remaining time here at Hogwarts," Professor Prewett said with a grin. He descended the stairs from his office and moved into the center of the room. Kat looked next to her and saw that James and Sirius were fixated on every word that Prewett was saying. "We'll be practicing non-verbal spells."

There was an outburst of excited chatter. Professor Prewett waved a hand for silence. "I know some of you have been looking forward to this for a while, so why not get started right away? Mr. Potter, if you would be so kind as to step forward." Grinning widely, James stepped into the center of the room with Professor Prewett and pulled his wand out from his waistband. "Now I want you to disarm me, Mr. Potter, but without saying the incantation. Do you think you can do that for me?"

James raised an eyebrow. "I got it, Professor."

Prewett swept his hair out of his face and smiled. Kat heard several of the girls titter. He really was quite handsome… "Just shout the incantation in your mind…" he was saying.

James shot a glance over his shoulder, saw Kat and Sirius and smirked. Then he turned toward Professor Prewett…pointed his wand and…nothing happened. After several awkward seconds, Prewett spread his arms wide.

"What's the matter, Mr. Potter? Can't do it?" Sirius and Kat sniggered loudly and even Remus smiled. James' hair seemed to deflate along with his confidence. "Don't be too mean over there! You're going to be doing the same thing! I want to see some dueling!"

Professor Prewett then paired everyone up (unfortunately, he put Kat with Sirius) and soon everyone was awkwardly pointing their wands with nothing happening. Peter—who was teamed up with Remus—had his face screwed up so hard for concentration that he was turning purple, while Kat pointed her wand rather nervously at Sirius. Naturally, nothing happened for any of the students and Professor Prewett patrolled through the pairs. James was paired up with Lily and was trying simultaneously to disarm her and not disarm her. Several people were made fun of by Professor Prewett for whispering Expelliarmus under their breath, and for homework they were all assigned to practice non-verbal spells.

"We'll be dueling a lot this year, and I want to see sparks but hear nothing!" Prewett said as they left his class.

James was in a surly mood at lunch. He didn't say much, but stared moodily at his food. When Sirius started to tease him about embarrassing himself in front of the entire class, James glared at him. Kat was rather surprised; she had never seen James so angry except for when he was dealing with Snape or Aiden.

"Don't worry about it, mate," said Remus calmly. "None of us got it either, and neither did anyone from Ravenclaw. It was our first time and we have to work on it."

James didn't respond, but after that his mood did seem to improve. After they finished eating they headed back up to the common room where they saw something that improved James' mood even more. A small crowd was packed in front of the bulletin board. Since Kat was the smallest and skinniest of the group, she shouldered her way through to the front, accidently knocking a first year boy to the floor. She apologized and tried to help him up, but the small boy flushed scarlet and fled. Confused, Kat turned to look at the board again. Amelia Bishop, the Gryffindor Quidditch captain had posted that tryouts were scheduled for that Saturday. Kat shoved her way back through the small crowd and told the guys. James let out a whoop when she announced what all the hubbub was about.

"You'll try out for the team, right Kat?" He asked happily, his mood doing a complete one-eighty. "It'll be so much fun!"

Kat looked from James' excited face to Sirius' nonchalant face to Peter and Remus' happy faces. When Sirius gave a slight smile, Kat answered. "Of course I'll try out for the team!"

Kat began to regret her rash decision over the rest of the week. James was bothering her incessantly about the tryouts and even dragged her away from dinner early to practice. She had to admit that it was a pretty good setup since James was a Chaser and she was a Keeper, but he was beginning to interfere with her studies. Even though it was only their first week back, all of their teachers seemed to be assigning way more homework this year than they had last year, and, it was way more difficult. Professor Prewett was not the only one who wanted them working on non-verbal spells, now they were expected to practice for Transfiguration and Charms. The plants in Herbology were become more worrisome (Peter was attacked by a strange, orange colored bush during one class period), and Professor Slughorn had them researching Everlasting Elixirs. And on top of it all, Kat also had to deal with Lily.

Since they had spent the last week of the summer holidays together, Lily seemed to think that she needed to tell Kat everything. She let Kat know how her classes had gone, specific things that the other girls had said to her, and other pointless things. Since Kat had never really had a best girlfriend before, she wasn't sure what she was supposed to do. Lily's favorite thing to do, however, was talk about James. Since their first Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson, she had hardly ceased talking about him.

"Did you see the way he was trying so hard not to disarm me? I thought that was really stupid and pigheaded. Why should he worry about disarming me? But then it was also kind of nice, you know? It was like he didn't want to hurt me or something…I don't know. Kat, what do you think?"

"Er…"

"Because I don't really know what that's supposed to mean or what I'm supposed to do…"

Lily would continue like this for a while, whether they were walking to class together, sitting by the lake, on their way to the bathroom, or lounging about in the common room. Kat had learned to just smile, nod, or make little interjections like "Oh, yeah" and "Seriously." She knew that James would want to know that Lily kept talking about him (especially since James seemed to have remembered Kat predicting that he and Lily would begin dating soon) and had hardly stopped talking about her, but she was too tuckered out from the pair of them.

When Saturday dawned, Kat woke up feeling nervous. She hadn't flown in front of anyone except James, Sirius, and her father, and she wasn't sure how the Gryffindors who showed up at tryouts would react. Lily and Eileen were the only ones awake in the dorm when she woke up, and they both smiled encouragingly at her.

"I'll be at tryouts today, Kat," whispered Lily as they quietly left the room together, Eileen and Kat clutching their brooms.

"You're going out for Keeper, right?" asked Eileen. Kat nodded. "I heard Sirius and James talking about it. I'll be going out for Chaser again," she said cheerfully. She certainly had the proper build for it—she was tall and athletic, where Kat was small and skinny. "I still don't see how you aren't a good Seeker, but I guess we'll see."

The rest of the Quidditch team hopefuls were in the Great Hall eating breakfast when Kat, Eileen, and Lily arrived. James was sitting with Sirius and Amelia Bishop. Kat and the girls joined them.

"Are you trying out for the team too, Sirius?" Eileen asked, spreading cream cheese on a bagel.

"Na, I'm just here to support Kat and James," said Sirius. "Make sure you eat something," he added, seeing Kat eyeing the food rather queasily.

"I feel sick. I don't think I can eat anything."

"Try at least some toast, Kat," said Amelia. She was a small, dark headed girl with bright blue eyes and played Seeker for the team. "You'll be grateful you did later when you're up on your broom."

In the end, Kat nibbled on some toast and swallowed a few pieces of bacon. Amelia stood up and announced that it was time to begin and the Gryffindors headed out to the Qudditch pitch. Kat had only been up in the stands, but that was nothing compared to actually stepping out onto the field. The stands soared up around the bright green field and the goal posts looked way larger and more intimidating from ground level than they did from stand level. Amelia organized the hopefuls into groups. Since she, James, and Eileen were the only returning members, she split the hopefuls into three groups and assigned James and Eileen one each. She took the third group for herself.

First, Amelia tested out how well they could fly. A pair of second year girls were sent off the pitch when they asked how they were supposed to get the broom off the ground, and a third year was taken to the hospital wing when his crashed straight into one of the poles supporting the stands. After that, they were categorized by what position they were trying out for.

Kat was one of six people trying out for Keeper, and all of them were significantly bigger than she was and all but one were boys. For her tryout, Kat had to hover in front of the goal posts and block the shots that were thrown at her. She dove and shot up and shot sideways and zigzagged and caught and punched and blocked the quaffle and when she touched back down on the ground, she felt elated. She could hear Lily cheering for her up in the stands and even heard Sirius whistle. James landed beside her and wrapped her in a bear hug.

"That was bloody brilliant! You even blocked my trick shot!" He shouted in her ear.

Of the others trying out for Keeper, only a fourth year boy named Zachary Fletcher did as well as her and Amelia was thrilled with their performances.

"I'll post the new team assignments on the bulletin board tomorrow morning!" Amelia announced when all of the tryouts were complete.

Exhausted, Kat followed James out of the stadium and back up to the school. They found Lily and Sirius waiting for them.

"Kat, you were amazing!" Lily squealed, pulling her into a tight hug.

"Thanks, Lil."

"Not too bad, Kat," Sirius said, throwing his arm across her shoulder and squeezing it.

"Hey, what about me? I tried out too!" said James.

"Oh, you did fine, mate," said Sirius. James smiled and looked at Lily, but quickly looked away. Lily actually smiled. Kat watched the exchange with interest.

"You did a good job too, Potter," Lily said before excusing herself and heading up into the castle alone.

James stared after her for a while before letting out a loud whoop and jumping in the air. "Did you hear that?" he shouted, excitedly. "Lily Evans said that I did a good job!" James practically flew up the front steps, he was so excited. Kat and Sirius followed at a more leisurely pace.

"Do you think I'll make the team, Sirius?" Kat asked quietly as they started their ascent to Gryffindor Tower.

"I don't know," he said honestly. "That boy Zachary did a pretty good job too, and he's bigger than you so he can block more of the goals easier."

Kat's good mood shrunk rapidly as she jumped the trick stair. As if sensing her sadness, Sirius said, "C'mon, cheer up! I think that Amelia would have to be bonkers not to stick you on the team."

"Really?"

"Yeah, sure. You're new talent, and that's some good stuff! Besides, I hear that Fletcher is a total dingbat."

Kat giggled a bit. "I guess even I'm better than a dingbat, huh?"

"Of course you're better than a dingbat!" said Sirius with some emotion.

Kat stopped walking and stared at him. "Sirius Black," she said, "are you complementing me?"

His face turned a slight shade of pink. "That's exactly what I'm doing. Now accept it before I change my mind." He continued walking and pushed aside a tapestry that hid a passageway.

"Thanks," Kat said cheerfully. She was happy that Sirius was being kind again. Since last Christmas when he had given her her rabbit, Mr. Snowy, Sirius had been rather distant with her. Even though they spent the whole summer together, he hadn't really spoken to her alone until now. She felt like they were finally making progress in their friendship.

They continued the rest of the journey back to the common room in silence. Upon crawling through the portrait hole, Kat found James, Peter, and Remus waiting for them at one of the tables by a window.

"I believe some congratulations are in order for your tryout, Kat," said Remus, smiling at her. Kat smiled right back. Everything between her and Remus seemed to have smoothed out (she hoped) and she felt comfortable being perfectly friendly with him again. He had grown a bit over the summer, and there was a new scar on the left side of his neck.

"So now will you tell me what did you two did all day while we were at tryouts?" James asked.

"We wanted to wait until you were all here," said Peter. "It's pretty exciting."

"So what is it?" asked James eagerly.

"We figured out how to do it," said Remus softly.

"Do what?" Sirius asked, obviously getting a little annoyed.

"We figured out how to make the map of the school. It's going to take a while, but I think Pete and I finally figured out how to do it."

"WHAT?!" said Sirius and Kat at the same time.

"No way!" exclaimed James.

They huddled close around the table while Remus went into the details about making their map. When he was done explaining, Kat stepped back, impressed.

"Wow," she breathed. "That sounds like some pretty complicated magic. I don't know how we're going to pull that off."

"That's why all of us are working together! Between the five of us we should be able to figure out how to do it," said Remus.

"And with the four of us running around at night—" said Peter.

"It should be the five of us," said James, fixing Kat with an appraising stare. "What do you think Kat? One more pair of eyes could do wonders with this plan."

Kat chewed her lip as she thought over it. Her school work was harder than last year, there was a possibility that she would be on the Quidditch team, she had Lily confiding in her daily, and now she was expected to work on the map every day. Did she really want to add becoming an Animagus to the list? Who am I trying to kid? She thought to herself.

"Sure, why not?"

James and Sirius' faces split into identical grins. "Excellent."

Kat went to bed that night more excited and nervous than when she had woken up that morning. The anticipation of learning to turn into an animal and creating a map of Hogwarts that showed everything kept her up later than she would have liked. She woke up the next morning groggy and everything felt fuzzy. She jumped as something heavy hit her bed.

"Kat, wake up! The results are up!" Eileen said excitedly before racing out of the dorm room.

"Wassamater?" Arabella said from her bed. She blinked sleepily before turning over and going back to sleep.

"C'mon, Kat! I'll go down with you," Lily said as she climbed out of bed. Mouth dry, Kat followed.

Even though it was still relatively early for a Sunday morning, a lot of Gryffindors were already awake and crowding around where Amelia had posted the team results on the bulletin board. James was dancing a jig with Eileen in front of the fireplace when Kat showed up. She nervously edged her way through the crowd and took a look at the list…

Chaser: James Potter

Chaser: Eileen O'Reiley

Chaser: Zachary Fletcher

Beater: Jonathon Smith

Beater: Magnus Mildenhall

Keeper: Catherine Potter

Seeker: Amelia Bishop

Kat's jaw dropped. I MADE IT. She turned around and was immediately swept into a hug by Lily.

"Congratulation, Kat!" she squealed.

James and Eileen appeared. Together, they whisked Kat into a hug and danced around the room with her. "We're on the team, we're on the team!" They chanted.

Amelia eventually made her way over to where Kat was dancing with James and Eileen and congratulated her on a spectacular tryout. "Practice starts on Tuesday," she said before drifting off to talk to her friends in Seventh Year.

Sirius, Remus, and Peter arrived in the common room a few minutes later and together they trooped down to the kitchens to celebrate. Gigi the house elf met them just after they climb through the portrait and offered them a massive plate of pancakes. They wolfed them down two at a time and then leaned back, complacent.

"I'm glad we did this," Kat said with a burp. Surprised, she quickly covered her mouth with her hand and turned beat red.

James laughed and clapped her on the back. "Don't worry about it, sis. And I'm glad we did this too. It's been too long since we've been in here!"

"James, it's only the first weekend of school," said Remus as he drenched another pancake in syrup. He had grown pale and his appetite had increased tremendously with the approaching full moon.

James said, "I know, but still."

They spent the rest of the day lazing around in the kitchens, celebrating James and Kat's success by feasting on the food that the house elves brought them. Once they were completely stuffed, they practically rolled themselves up to the Entrance Hall and trooped out the front doors and down the lawn. They finally stopped beneath their beach tree and finished out the rest of the day lazing beneath it. By the time it was time for dinner, James and Sirius had made it through four wrestling matches, Peter had taken a two hour nap, Remus made significant progress in Confronting the Faceless for Defense Against the Dark Arts, and Kat built a sizable fort out of the twigs and rocks she found around the lake.

After dinner, however, things turned a little ugly.

Kat was just finishing up her Yorkshire pudding when she heard a raspy voice behind her say, "So, you made the Quidditch team, did you? I never would have thought that you would go so far as to think you could possibly achieve something like that." Kat turned around and her scummy birth brother, Aiden was standing behind her, backed by his friend Dolohov.

Taken by surprise, the only thing Kat could think of to say was "Err…" James and Sirius

Luckily, before anything else could happen, Professor McGonagall swooped down from the teacher's table; she could smell trouble quicker than any other teacher at school.

"What's going on here, Mr. Campbell?" she asked.

"Just congratulating my sister on her new placement on the Quidditch team, Professor," Aiden said oily.

"Yes, I had heard of that. Congratulations, Kat," she said to Kat with a smile. She turned to Aiden. "Now I seem to remember that Professor Slughorn spoke to you about staying away from Miss Potter here and her friends."

Aiden smiled nastily. "Of course, Professor." With one last sneer at Kat, he turned at slinked back to the Slytherin table.

McGonagall turned to Kat. "Now Miss Potter, if he bothers you again please tell either myself or another teacher and we'll take care of it."

"Alright, Professor."

McGonagall turned to James and Sirius. "And remember boys, I gave you the first week of term off, but you start the remainder of your detentions from last year tomorrow evening. Be at my office at eight o'clock," she said before leaving.

James gaped after her. "I completely forgot that we still had detention! Why can't they just let it go?"

"You did set a corridor on fire, James," said Remus.

"It wasn't the whole corridor! It was just a tapestry!" whined James.

Recovering from the encounter, Kat laughed a bit. "James, you know you have to serve out all your detentions. You'll end up getting more if you don't."

"Yeah, I guess you're right."

It was a slightly melancholy group that headed back to the common room that night. Kat was a little shaken still from her encounter with Aiden. Even though he couldn't really hurt her, she was still afraid of him. What Professor McGonagall had said about the other teachers, though made her feel a little better.

By the time they made it back to the common room, the amount of food they had eaten that day began to take its toll. Their steps were dragging and their eyelids were drooping when they finally called it quits and headed to bed. Kat was so worn-out that she almost didn't change into her pajamas. Changing her mind at the last minute, she slipped out of her robes and pulled on her pajamas. After checking to make sure that Mr. Snowy had enough hay and celery to last him until the morning, Kat flopped into bed and didn't move until the next morning.

And so it ends! Did you think that Aiden was gone for good? Mwahaha! Not to mention all of those detentions that James and Sirius still have to serve! Please review if you liked it, or even if you didn't!

~neelie