The next weekend Cathy made her way down to Hogsmade for the first time in months. It was curiosity more than anything that made her go. Cathy may have been an outcast but she shared a deep and meaningful hate for Umbridge just like the rest of the school.

Somewhere off the beaten track, she found the Hogs Head, (it smelt a bit like mothballs).

Deciding not to order anything, sat down near three Hogwarts students who she assumed were there for the same reason she was. Among them was Harry Potter, the clever Granger girl and Ron Weasley.

"We're still waiting for a few people," Granger informed her," so if you want to get a drink or anything…"

"I'm fine."

Letting her mind drift she found that she was thinking about how much of a fool she looked when she rubbed her face all over George Weasleys shirt. Soaking, bloody nose, make up smeared all over her face and laughing away like a hyena, nice. Then Cathy started to question why she was worrying about what he thought of her. She had never cared about other peoples opinions before, why now?

A few minutes later Luna, the Patil twins, a lot of Gryffindors, a few Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws, Ginny Weasley, Lee Jordan and the person she wanted to see least arrived in. Fred and George waved at Harry and sat down at the other side of the room. Cathy had been avoiding both of them since her encounter the previous week. George especially as she was sure that blood doesn't come out. Her way of telling them apart was that Fred has a small scar on his left eyebrow, whereas George doesn't. She was surprised that the teachers hadn't worked this out, as they were always switching places to confuse the professors.

She tried to avoid looking in their direction, but it was very difficult as the sun shining through the window was hitting is red hair in a way that made it shimmer so it was sort of hypnotising like-

" Well, er…hi." Grangers voice interrupted her thoughts. "Well…erm…well, you know why you're here. Erm…well, Harry here had the idea – I mean, I had the idea that it might be good if people who wanted to study Defence Against the Dark Arts – and I mean, really study it, you know, not the rubbish that Umbridge is doing with us – because nobody could call that Defence Against the Dark Arts…"

"Hear, hear." Someone shouted.

"Well I thought that it would be good if we, well, took matters into our own hands."

A lot of stuff about Harry and his adventure kicked off, then someone mentioned Cedric Diggory and she thought that she was going to vomit over Susan Bones. This was stopped when Harry blew a fuse. THEN they all started on about how amazing he was and listed all the shit he had done over that past year, it was amazing, but it gave Cathy the feeling that anyone could really do it if they put their minds to it. One boy wouldn't let things drop though,

"Are you trying to weasel out of showing us any of this stuff?" he inquired

Ron went pink, "Here's an idea, why don't you shut your mouth?"

The boy paused before opening his gob again, "Well, we've all turned up to learn from him and now he's telling us he can't really do any of it."

"That's not what he said," Fred snapped.

"Would you like us to clean out your ears for you?" George pulled out a long metal spike from a bag he was holding; Cathy stifled a snort of laughter.

They finally came to the conclusion that if you wanted to join this club thing then you'd sign this parchment.

Although she didn't entirely agree with what was going to happen, Cathy signed. Scribbling her signature onto the piece of parchment, she gave Potter a quick nod and after stepping on a few people's toes and walking into a hag that was entering the pub, she was able to leave.

The whole time Potter and his friends had been talking, Cathy made a decision. This decision would return things between her and George Weasley back to normal, she could go back to scuttling around everyone like a cockroach, if no one bothered her she didn't bothered them, that's the way she liked it.

After twelve glasses of pumpkin juice, Cathy decided to go to bed, Making her way up the stairs and along the corridors to Ravenclaw tower she paused outside Moody's classroom, maybe she should stop in to say goodnight and maybe mention her plans of becoming a vampire hunter in Russia. Going into the classroom she noticed that the light in his office was still on and walking quietly she could hear voices, neither of them recognisable as Moody's.

Peeking through the door into the room, a young man in Moody's clothing with thick, dark hair and white, shallow skin stood talking to the fat face of a man in the fire.

"You do understand the Dark Lord grows impatient." the face said

The man started to pace, "I'm doing the best I can with what I've got, it isn't easy you know; the tournament's security is tight."

"He does not think that you are making much progress, maybe you aren't up to the task at all."

"Are you questioning the Dark Lord's actions Wormtail?"

Suddenly the fat man looked nervous, "No! No, I'm just….. Look Barty, as long as you get to Potter-"

"I know, just tell him I'm making progress for the final task and-"the man stared wildly around the room, "hear that?"

"What?"

"Breathing, someone is listening."

Cathy put her hand over her mouth and took a step backwards.

The door swung open and the man pulled her inside "Hello, girlie." He said pressing his wand to her throat.

On Monday at breakfast, she approached the Gryffindor table, the twins where messing around flicking porridge at each other.

Ignoring the looks she was getting, Cathy coughed to get George's attention. They both stopped, George looked nervous and Fred smirked slightly.

"Hello." She greeted them

"Err…hi" they said together

There was a long pause.

"Can I help you?" asked George

"I'm sorry."

"It's ok, the blood came out after a few washes."

"No, I'm apologising for being so rude to you when you offered me the chocolate, I didn't mean to, it's just that I'm not used to it, the offer not the chocolate, I eat that all the time, but anyway, I thought it was out of charity, though it probably wasn't, and we've all heard the rumours that I'm a bit mad so maybe-"

George put his hand up to stop her. "Seriously, it's ok."

"Really?" she looked shocked.

"Yeah"

Another pause followed.

"How's the nose?"

"Still a bit sore"

Fred studied her face, "Where did you get the split lip from?"

"I fell down the stairs this morning."

"Would you like some porridge?" George asked, offering her a half filled bowl, with what looked suspiciously looked like a ginger hair floating in it.

"I'm fine thank you. I better go"

Turning away and feeling slightly better that she had fixed everything, Cathy started towards Potions.

"'Ere Cathy!" came a shout from the table she had just left, it was Fred, "Want to sit with us on the train home at Christmas?" She saw George kick Fred under the table.

She just stared at him.

"Excellent. See you then."

Not wanting to hang around a moment longer, she ran off. "Crap" she thought, "I had just fixed everything and now he has to go and unfix it."

It was also obvious that George wanted noting to do with her, like she with him, she had not declined the invitation, she had just stood there looking gormless.

But Christmas is a long way off so maybe he'll forget, she hoped whilst chopping up some crows feet, getting so distracted she started to chop her knuckle too."

"Miss Williams, do you intend to continue chopping until you reach your elbow or are you going to complete this minimising potion properly." Snape said loudly so the whole class heard.

"Sorry Professor."

"Other teachers have been saying that you have become uncharacteristically absent minded, are you ill?" he asked with mock concern.

"No Professor."

"Then I suggest you get on with it!"

"C'mon mate, you could cut the sexual tension with a knife!" Fred laughed later in the common room

"What sexual tension?" George bristled, "it's no secret that she likes her own company, what made you think that she'd want to sit with us?"

"I didn't see her say no."

"I didn't see her say yes." George flicked a Bertie Botts Every Flavoured Bean at him. "You can really be a git at times, y'know that?"

Fred took a bow,"Thank you, Thank you."

Later George lay in bed thinking, he was 95 per cent sure that he wanted to stay away from Creepy Cathy, the girl was demented! But the other 5 per cent was curious and wanted to find out more about her, and the train journey would be a perfect opportunity. Getting up to take a piss, he decided that it was nothing worth worrying about, she'd probably find a compartment to herself and keep away until she got to King's Cross.

Her little ramble at breakfast had been quite funny and part of it was true, although he had not meant his offer of chocolate to be an act of charity, he did pity her that day in Charms when she arrived in late and someone tripped her up sending her books flying and her face slamming into a desk. It was a wonder that her face wasn't all disfigured and fucked up with the amount of abuse it takes, partly to her own clumsiness and partly to people picking on her. She also looked pathetic when she was trying to apologise for her behaviour, the big yellowing bruise on her cheek had made her eye partly close over. George had forgotten why everyone either avoided her or picked on her so.

He was to be reminded that Friday.