*Yeesh! It's been awhile! I needed to take a step back from writing to make sure writer's block didn't rear its ugly head once again... So I promise I will make an effort to churn out a couple more chapters in the near future... If I don't, then feel free to inbox me to nag. I guess now that that's out of the way, it's time for a DISCLAIMER: I don't own Harry Potter or anything to do with its characters and such!*
Harry lounged around the following day after having been released. He spent the entire morning sprawled across the armrests of one of the chairs in the kitchen, staring blankly at the kitchen ceiling, before sliding into a sitting position and welcoming the stacked plate of pasta that Kreacher had made him. He seemingly inhaled the pasta and proceeded to walk aimlessly around the house, barefoot and still sporting his baggy pyjamas (courtesy of the Dursleys), stopping occasionally to lean his head against the wall for awhile. He tuned out everything that happened around him as he spent the greater part of the day contemplating the position he now found himself in with Katie.
"Five: you've got a body shape that would definitely catch the eye of certain males," he'd said.
"Did it catch yours?" she asked suddenly, her eyebrows raised.
Truth be told, it had caught his eyes many times over the six years he had known her at Hogwarts. Sure, back then he dismissed it as some boyhood fantasy that he suppressed by simply thinking of her as a sister of some sorts as the bond their Quidditch team shared could only be defined as familial. Harry felt the ghost of a smile tug at his contemplatively blank features. He could see it now: Oliver and Angelina were like the parents, whilst Katie and Alicia were his older sisters and the twins were the clowns of the family that always got in trouble.
Yet here he was, realizing that the way he felt towards Katie were definitely more than some cheap imitation of sibling love, but rather a love that put all of his school-time crushes to utter shame. He could take the plunge and admit his feelings to Katie, but her assertion that despite the lip-lock they'd shared on the pitch, that all this relationship was smoke and mirrors to distract the media and detract any potential glory-hunting members of the opposite gender.
With that last thought, Harry began to wonder why a fake relationship was even needed to serve this purpose. Why make up a whole charade instead of simply saying 'no' to people who approached them with a view to a relationship. After spending over two hours with his head leaning up against the charred hole where Sirius' name should be on the family tree, Harry straightened.
Staring at the charred hole, Harry sighed: "I wish you were here, Padfoot. Heck, I wish my parents were here. I'm making a mess of my life. So much is going through my mind at the moment, I can't keep track of it all."
Somewhere in Manchester...
Katie was pacing through her flat, passing from room to room and doing a 180 and taking the same route and repeating the process. All the while, she was playing over that moment at the end of hers and Harry's conversation.
Why did I have to ask that? The way that he scrambled after that just made things awkward! Well done Katie Bell, you've really done a terrific job now!
She left her flat to go grab a bite to eat at a local restaurant, not even grabbing her coat and not seeming to care about the ever-present downpour that soaked her to the bone after the five minute walk to the restaurant. She could've apparated. She could have flooed. But she simply didn't bother.
Her voice was hollow as she ordered her usual meal from the place. She spent most of the meal pushing around the food with her fork with her left hand jammed into the left side of her face and propped up on the table. After awhile, she asked to have it packed up to take home and soon walked through the rain back to her flat, the falling drops making a rapid drum roll off of the Styrofoam container that held her meal.
Instead of sitting down to finish it, she tucked it away in her fridge, shutting the door with a backwards kick of her foot. She whipped up a mug of coffee and sat on her couch, occasionally taking a sip whilst never breaking her sight of the now-functional fireplace that even now contained a pleasant fire in it. Her eyes flitted to the pot beside it that was simply brimming with Floo powder, and back to the fireplace.
Many times, she tensed her muscles as if to get up, grab a handful of floo and launch herself away to Number 12, Grimmauld Place; but it wasn't to be. Much as her mind was screaming for her to go and her body raring to go, some unknown force held her in place, simply staring bleakly at the flames as they danced and jumped within the stone walls of the fireplace.
The next day, Practice...
As practice progressed, Harry and Katie shot furtive, nervous, longing glances at each other, but still kept their distance throughout the whole gruelling process. They had no real cause to communicate throughout: he was a Seeker, she was a Chaser. They were from two completely different worlds on the pitch.
Not just on the pitch, Harry thought ruefully as he flew through a reflex and focus-demanding obstacle course Simon had set up.
While Harry was famous, Katie was popular. Harry made a clear distinction between the two. Harry was known and reputed around the school for obvious reasons, whereas Katie was well-liked and had lots of friends because of her personality and not events in her past that shaped everyone's opinion of her.
As Harry was thinking this, he didn't notice the bar that appeared at head level and clothes-lined him and he fell the short distance to the ground, rubbing his forehead ruefully.
He was dazed as Simon hoisted him up by the scruff of his practice robes.
"Pay attention for Merlin's sake Potter! You're supposed to be our best flyer and right now Weasley's flying rings around you!" Simon yelled into Harry's ear as the latter flinched. Simon then turned apologetically to Ron: "No, offence."
The keeper shrugged as the team returned to the drill, leaving the manager and Harry alone.
Simon sighed softly: "Listen, Harry. Is everything alright? If something's going on that's getting you off your game, you can take a week or two off, go somewhere nice and get back into the right state of mind. It would be dangerous towards all of us if you're not completely focused. You could get clobbered by a stray Bludger, or you could let the opposition seeker get the best of you. Either or both simply won't do for us, I'm sorry. And I hope your ears haven't suffered from that rocket there. I just have to make sure everyone gets the impression that you won't be escaping my supposed wrath just because you're the captain. So, do you need some time off?"
Harry thought it over before replying: "I do need some time, but I think it might be a couple of days as opposed to weeks. I should be back and better in time for the Cannons game."
Simon nodded: "Alright, go hit the showers and get out of here. And I mean it, Harry. If you're not 100% focused, mentally, you're going to be on the bench."
Harry showed his recognition of Simon's point, before summoning his broom and stalking off into the change rooms.
He stood under the jet of the shower a few minutes later, simply letting the searing droplets trace their patterns on his skin. He still stood there as the warm water switched to cold. He even stayed beyond the time when his teammates came in for their own showers. He ignored the hubbub among them that alternated with an assessment of the drills they had been assigned today and the gossip about his departure and supposed bust-up with Simon.
He only left when his skin was beginning to wrinkle up, changing into jeans and a plain red t-shirt, packing up his training gear and apparating back to his room in Grimmauld Place.
Kreacher, sensing his master's distracted state of mind, discreetly grabbed his training gear and brought it away for cleaning before returning and depositing a nice, fresh, hot meal in front of Harry, who began absentmindedly poking and prodding at it, occasionally bringing some up to his mouth to eat.
The house elf was even more disturbed by this behaviour and decided to take action, going to the one person he knew could potentially shake his master from this mood which he felt could be detrimental to his health.
"Master Weasley, sir! You must help Master Harry!" Kreacher croaked sonorously, rousing Ron from his slumber.
"Whuzgoinon!" Ron bellowed, before focusing his vision on the house elf standing at the foot of his bed. "Kreacher, what are you doing here?"
"You must help Master Harry!" Kreacher repeated.
"What's wrong with Harry?"
"He is depressed! Hardly eats, he does. Spends hours just staring blankly at one wall, then finally moves to another room... only to stare at a wall in there for hours."
"Does he sigh every once in a while?" Ron asked suddenly.
"Yes, very wistful sighing if Kreacher must say," the elf replied.
"Harry's realized he's in love with someone he can't be with, despite how much he'd like to. And he realizes this certainty and is letting out all of his angst as a result of it," Ron recited. Then added, as a response to Kreacher's questioning look: "What? He went through it before getting together with Ginny."
"Then what must be done?" Kreacher asked, eager to help his master.
"You go keep Harry from doing anything dangerous, and I'll go see Katie about this," Ron replied, and with that, both of them Apparated to their different destinations.
Katie's Apartment, Manchester...
Ron teetered a bit following his landing in Katie's apartment. He had never been, but he knew the address because one of the things of being on the team was knowing where everyone else lived in case one needed to check up on a teammate in case of illness or to wake them when they slept in on the day of a practice. He looked around, cautious so as to avoid any awkward encounters with the former Gryffindor Chaser.
Katie, clad in a hooded sweatshirt and sweat pants whipped around the corner and into the living room, wand held out and a spell half formed when she saw who it was. Her arm plopped down to her side in relief: "Alright, Ron? What are you doing here?"
"I'm not bad, Katie. I came here to talk to you about Harry," he replied somewhat gravely.
Her face instantly saddened and she plopped down on the nearest couch, setting her wand down on the coffee table.
"How is he? I hope nothing I've said or done has upset him," she asked.
"The state he's in now is partly due to you but mostly him," Ron replied, only to see Katie's crestfallen face drop into despair. "Trust me, when I mean that, it's because he's put himself into that state because of... what he thinks of you," Ron said, treading as lightly as possible.
Katie's sad face shifted rapidly into puzzlement: "What do you mean by that?"
"What I mean by that is that Harry's fallen into a pattern of moping that he falls into," Ron paused at the brink of no return, before pressing on: "when he loves a girl, but is deluded into thinking that he can't be with her in any alteration of reality and goes into a state of depression as a result of it. I can base this off of a precedent that involved Ginny in our Sixth Year, and also off of the fact that if anybody knows Harry Potter by this point in time, it's me."
Katie sat in shock for a good minute. Ron was about to break the silence and hopefully shake her out of the shock, when she spoke: "Harry loves me?" she asked Ron.
The redhead nodded.
"And he seems to think that we can't be together?" Katie queried.
"If you're just going to repeat what I said, don't bother," Ron joked, only to earn a glare from her. "From what I gather, he seems to think that your assertion that your 'relationship' was merely a ploy to keep guys away from you and that you were to stay friends, which really bummed him."
"And all this is why he was so unfocused at practice today?" she demanded.
Ron nodded again.
Katie groaned: "Ugh! I messed things up! The whole point of the fake relationship was so that I could get close to Harry and all it's done is push him away!" she swung her foot back, poised to give the coffee table a swift upending kick, but thought better of it.
"Wait!" Ron interjected, frowning. "So, you like Harry?"
Katie nodded: "Ever since my seventh year. I mean, that's when I noticed my feelings, but I'm sure that they had budded a few years prior, I'm not sure when. When he began talking to me a lot more than he would've with Quidditch and the DA, I was suddenly aware of the butterflies I got when he had asked about how I was once I got back from St. Mungo's and asked me what I knew about the attack. I know in the end, he was trying to find out who the insider for You-Know-Who was, but for that short amount of time, it really seemed as if he had taken it upon himself to catch my attacker."
Ron had to suppress the massive, childish grin that was threatening to break surface and betray his thoughts. This is turning out better than I had expected, he thought giddily.
"So, that being said, isn't there somewhere you should be?" Ron asked, with an eyebrow raised.
Katie's eyes widened as she snatched up her wand, preparing to Apparate, then stopped.
"He's at Grimmauld Place, right?" she asked, and Ron nodded. She once again went to Apparate, then again stopped herself, this time running up to Ron and giving him a kiss on the cheek, before finally Apparating out.
Ron sat around for a bit, grinning at his repair work, before jumping up and realizing how awkward it was to be lounging around someone else's apartment. He was extremely tempted to Apparate to Grimmauld Place and capture the (hopefully) magical moment, but he realized how perverse that seemed, and decided to ask Harry about it next time they met up.
*There you go, Chapter 4! I'm sososososososoooooo sorry about the delay on this! I had kind of left it hanging, half done and forgotten about it with a new school year starting up and have been keeping busy with that, but finally found a moment to finish this. Hopefully, I'll get the chance to churn out Chapter 5 soon, so as to not keep you guys hanging too much on this cliff hanger (sorry, can't help it, cliff hangers are an addiction :P)... Anyways, keep the reading and subscriptions up and PLEASE comment so as to let me know how I'm doing on this! Thanks guys so much for bearing with me and for the support! :D*