AN: I don't own Harry Potter and am also looking for someone to do a companion series detailing the events of the year that Harry spent in the past so shoot me a PM if you're interested and I still don't own Harry Potter. Also, punctuation is hard. I don't wanna use correct punctuation. That, and I was gonna go to Tosche Station to pick up some power converters!
It took all of three seconds for the Great Hall to devolve into chaos, rather ruining the quiet moment Harry and Kathleen had been enjoying. Students were calling out questions (and shouting over each other to make themselves heard, resulting in the questions getting progressively louder) ranging from "who's that?" to "where's Potter been the past year that resulted in him having a girlfriend?" (though it was usually voiced less politely than that) while the teachers tried, and largely failed, to regain order.
Harry's eyes scanned the crowds to land on Ron and Hermione, who were shooting him confused looks, although the latter's had some definite irritation in it (Harry couldn't imagine why). Before finding either of his friends, he noted that several girls around the Hall looked absolutely crushed, which Harry figured could only be a bad thing for them: any perceived threat (no matter how small) would likely not be treated kindly by Kathleen.
Poor sods had no idea what was in store for them.
"Silence!" Dumbledore shouted, shooting several fireworks out of his wand. He waited a few seconds for the students to settle down before beginning again. "If everyone could please be seated?" Harry and Kathleen made their way back to the Gryffindor table and took seats across from Ron and Hermione. The three Gryffindors held a silent conversation while Kathleen watched on in mild interest and Dumbledore continued his speech.
"As I was saying, and as you have no doubt noticed," even from across the room, Harry could see the slight twinkling in Dumbledore's eyes at this, "Mr Potter has returned from his year-long absence. I hope that you all welcome him back with open arms and ask that you all respect his privacy by not prying into what exactly it is he was doing during this year.
"Well, I think that's enough chatter for one night. Tuck in!" Dumbledore retook his seat and the plates in front of the students filled.
Harry was both flattered and a little alarmed to see that his return evidently warranted a feast, but he had more pressing matters at the moment. Namely, two highly inquisitive friends.
Hermione was staring at him expectantly while Ron was giving Kat a look that Harry couldn't quite place: it seemed to straddle the line between several different emotions.
"Err," Harry began uncomfortably, "so this is Kathleen . . ."
Ron nodded as Hermione said, "hello." Both turned to look at Harry, who was fidgeting uncomfortably under their gazes.
"So . . . what have I missed?" he asked, hoping to distract their thoughts from Kat. Ron, in particular, likely wouldn't be overly pleased to find out who she was, given what had happened to Ginny during her first year. "What's Voldemort doing?"
Ron shuddered at the mention of the name and Hermione shot Harry a look that told him quite plainly that their conversation was far from over, though she was evidently willing to humor him. "Malfoy was on a mission to kill Dumbledore last year," she told him.
Harry gagged. "Seriously? Malfoy? Why'd Voldemort-"
"Dumbledore reckons it was to punish Malfoy, err, Lucius Malfoy, I mean," Ron cut in. "Since he messed up at the Ministry last year and all."
"Yeah, what happened there? People seem to know he's back now."
"He and Dumbledore dueled in the atrium that night," Hermione answered immediately. "Fudge walked in along with half the Ministry right in the middle of it all."
"So he's not the Minister, anymore, then?" Harry asked hopefully. Surely he would have been replaced in the past year?
"Oh, yes, he 'resigned' last summer. As if he had a choice," Hermione said, rather more derisively than Harry had expected.
"What has the Ministry said about Harry's disappearance?" Kat asked.
"I'm sorry, who are you, exactly?" Hermione asked rather than answering the question.
"Kathleen. Didn't Harry already say?"
"Kathleen who?"
Harry chuckled weakly at what sounded like the setup for a knock-knock joke, though Hermione studiously ignored him. This conversation had the potential to go very wrong, very fast, and Harry wasn't remotely comfortable with it.
"Just Kathleen," she answered smoothly. "I am mononymous."
"Mono-what?" Ron thankfully interupted.
"Mononymous," Hermione said irritably. "It means that she only has one name."
Ron frowned. "But people don't do that anymore. Haven't since-"
"We know that," Hermione snapped before turning to Harry. "Who is she?" she demanded.
Harry looked from Kat to Hermione to Ron and back again, trying to think of the best way to handle the situation. He took a deep breath and gave a weak smile. "Well, you two know where I was this past year, right?" Both Ron and Hermione nodded, the latter a little impatiently. "Well, it wasn't exactly how I thought it would be: some stuff was different from how it should have been."
"What d'you mean?" Ron asked, confusion evident.
"Well," Harry said slowly, "where I was I . . . I met Riddle." Ron stiffened slightly while Hermione narrowed her eyes. "The Riddle here was a sociopath, but the Riddle there is normal. Well, kinda controlling, I guess. And a bit of a prodigy, and sort of rude, and pretty arrogant, and generally obnoxious, and doesn't really get the point of treacle tart, but basically a decent enough person. If you look hard enough, I suppose. Anyways," Harry hastened to add, seeing the look Hermione was giving him: one that told him that he was rambling and had best get to the point if he had any particular attachment to his ability to speak at all. He took a deep breath (he hadn't been expecting to go on like that), gave each of his friends one last nervous glance, and plowed on. "Andisalsoagirl," he finished in a rush.
"And is what?" Hermione asked, sounding appalled.
"And is also a girl?" Harry answered, his body tensed.
Explosion in three, two, one.
"Harry Potter!"
"And we have liftoff," Harry muttered unenthusiastically.
"Well," Harry said uncomfortably as dinner was winding down, "That went about as well as could be expected. I'm not sure they really needed to storm out, but . . ."
"They'll come around eventually," Kat assured him. "If you could figure it out, I'm sure they'll get there sooner or later."
"Thank you for your unconditional support and acceptance," Harry muttered, smiling slightly. "You're right, though, even if you are being a prat about it," he conceded at normal volume. "I mean, thinking about it logically-"
"If I was born a girl in one universe and a boy in another, I could be completely different in every other way, too. We've discussed this."
"At great length," Harry agreed. "It's just . . ." he trailed off, looking into the distance.
"Just that you're worried that they'll take as long as you did to come around."
Harry nodded. "Yeah. I mean, Hermione's alright about this stuff, she'll probably be fine with you in a few days, but Ron's even thicker than I am. I don't want to have to wait all year for him to figure out that you're alright." He shook his head to clear it. "Anyways," he said, his voice stronger now, "I need to meet Dumbledore after dinner. You should probably come, too . . ."
"But you don't want to have the same conversation over again?"
"Never again, if I can help it," Harry replied with a shrug. "Of course, that probably just means that it'll happen more. Anyways, we do need to figure out what you're doing now."
"Do we?" Kathleen asked, eyebrows raised in mock surprise. "I thought it was rather obvious: I'm staying at the castle at attending classes."
Harry rolled his eyes. "You do realise that that's dependent upon Dumbledore's agreement, right? You can't just unilaterally decide to transfer to Hogwarts."
"Most people couldn't," she agreed, standing as she did so and stretching casually. "Luckily for you, I'm not most people."
Harry stood as well and began to walk to Dumbledore's office, Kathleen falling into step next to him. He looked at her apprehensively as they walked. "I don't have to remind you that threatening Dumbledore is a bad idea, do I?"
"Just because you Gryffindors lack any subtlety, it doesn't mean we all do," she replied haughtily, turning her head away and sticking her nose into the air.
Harry snorted and wrapped an arm around her shoulder, gently moving her face back towards his own with his index finger. She gave a theatrical sigh before leaning down slightly to kiss him.
Harry gave a contented sigh when they separated a few moments later and set off again, Kat now leaning her head on top of Harry's.
"Are you humming 'We're Off to See The Wizard?'" she asked incredulously a few moments later.
"Nope," Harry lied before going right back to doing so.
"You're hopeless," Kat muttered, giving her wand a small flick. The floor instantly turned yellow, much to Harry's amusement.
"You're the one aiding and abetting me," he said smugly.
"Only because I know it'll drive Dumbledore absolutely mad," she countered.
"Not many people would find that something to aspire to," Harry observed. They were silent for a moment before Harry dropped his arm from around Kathleen's shoulder, stepped forward, and turned to face her, his expression serious. "Why'd you follow me back? You could've had a good life back . . . wherever we were. No war or anything . . . You could've been Minister in ten years, maybe fifteen. Here though . . ."
Kathleen took a moment to consider before answering. "I'm not sure why I did it," she began slowly. "Part of it was a spur of the moment decision: I didn't know how long I would have to follow you if I wanted to. But I guess . . . Being the Minister, or even the Headmaster, doesn't appeal to me as much as it used to."
"Guess I've been a bad influence on you," Harry said, smirking slightly.
"It really is all your fault," she agreed conversationally. "If you weren't so brazenly Gryffindorish, your idiocy wouldn't have rubbed off on me."
Harry grinned as Kat walked up to him again. He wrapped an arm around her waist and rested his head against her's as they walked, silently rejoicing at her answer. "I'm just glad none of your Slytherin-ness has rubbed off on me."
"Of course it hasn't," Kathleen replied, rolling her eyes. "Not in the slightest."
AN: Fluff! Relationship drama! (Albeit drama surrounding platonic relationships.) More fluff! Don't worry, next chapter will have some plot, guys. Anyways, like I said, I'm lookin' for someone to do a companion series about Harry and Kat's sixth year. I have a rough idea of what it looked like, as well as a general idea of what was happening back in the original timeline, but I don't have any interest in writing either story, soooo . . . yeah. Anyways, I'm kinda (well, okay, really) surprised that this story seems to be as popular as it does: tonnes of views, comments, follows, favourites, reviews, etc, for which I'm incredibly grateful. Like, seriously, you guys. Super-duper grateful. I'll be honest, I'm still not really sure where I should go with this story at the moment, but I'll hopefully make it interesting, regardless; I'd really feel like I was letting a lot of people down if I did anything different. (Of course, if you have suggestions, I'd love to hear 'em, 'cause I haven't got a whole lot of experience with this sort of plotting.)
On another note, what happened during the year that Harry was away is (in very general terms) this: Dumbledore found the Peverell Ring in the Gaunt Shack (and didn't put it on like a dumbass), he and Snape got the fake locket from the lake without either of them drinking the potion, Malfoy finally got the Vanishing Cabinets to work, which resulted in a similar Death Eater raid to the one in canon: the difference is that Dumbledore wasn't disarmed and was able to defend himself from Snape. The Death Eaters fled, since Dumbledore's pretty strong and everything, and the Order hid the Malfoy family to protect them as per Dumbledore's offer from canon. So now we have Slughorn as the Potions professor while Snape, the Defense Professor, has run off, ne'er to return. Probably. The Death Eater attack was about two weeks before Harry got back, and the Vanishing Cabinet has since been destroyed, thus repairing the breach in security. Future chapters' ANs may include more information if it becomes relevant, but I doubt it'll happen anytime soon.
Anyways, thank you as always for reading! Until next Wednesday, folks!
PS: In case you missed it, I did a minor revamp of the previous chapter, since it was pretty awkward in places. Hopefully it's better now, although I wouldn't swear to it on me mum's grave, or nuffin'. Part of that is that my mom's still alive, but whatever.
PPS: Ooh, ooooh! Before I forget, I'm not overly fond of this cover image, so if anyone has any suggestions for a better picture, please let me know!