Next thing I know, I'm waking up in a comfortable bed, feeling better than ever, not a scratch on me. Wow! What a nightmare! Well, at least I'm safe now, here in the Hogwarts hospital wing... Hogwarts?? No!! How did I get here? I get up and run out the door.

"Kat! You're alive! You had me so worried! You looked bloody awful when your friends dragged you in, I thought for sure you were gone forever." said Ron, the moment he saw me. He ran to me and embraced me. "A lot has happened since you left..." He went on to tell me about a dueling club where everyone learned that Harry could speak to snakes, a Quidditch game where Lockhart had removed all the bones in Harry's arm, and that there had been another attack. That puny little first year that wanted Harry's picture. But why? Why would Rovolra still attack if I wasn't even here anymore? What did she want? Maybe Kirstis lied and she wasn't really the heir after all... but then who was? And why were they attacking the innocent students of Hogwarts? Students! Could it be a student that was causing the attacks? Ah-ha! I'll bet it's Malfoy. I never did trust that scum...

"ATTACK! ATTACK! ANOTHER ATTACK! NO MORTAL OR GHOST IS SAFE! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES! ATTAAAACK!!" Ron gabbed my hand and ran toward the voice. So did the entire school. It was Peeves. What was going on this time? "ATTACK! NO MORTAL OR GHOST IS SAFE! ATTAAAACK!!" Peeves kept repeating. No mortal or ghost? What on earth can hurt a ghost? I wish I had never been put in Slytherin... and I really shouldn't have punched Malfoy in the face. A boy was laying on the ground, stiff, like Mrs. Norris had been, and a black and smokey mass was hovering over it. I'd never seen anything like it before. What could have done that to a ghost?

"Thery're after every muggle-born in the school," said Ron, holding me close. "But I won't let them get you."

McGonagall ordered everyone back to their classes. We were forced to break away from each other and go our separate ways.

John insisted that I spend the winter holidays with him. The holidays were rather uneventful, and I wanted desperately to get back to Hogwarts; back to Ron. The only major thing to happen over the holidays occurred on Christmas Eve...

John and I were out on the hill behind his house, gazing at the stars like we love to do, when he said, "I want to give you your present early."

Excited, I said, "Ok."

"Meana, you know I love you, right? I never want anything to happen to you, or to us."

Us? What was he talking about? Sure, I like him, but I don't want to get all serious in a relationship or anything...

"I was hoping, someday, you might give me the honor of becoming my wife?" He got a small black box out of his pocket, and opened it to reveal a small silver ring.

Whoa! Rewind. What? Did he just say "wife"? I'm only 14 and still in my 3rd year at school, and he wants me to think about marriage? What, does he think he's going to get a little something-something if he promises to marry me later? Who does he think I am? and what about Ron? and Luke? but mostly Ron? This seems like a whole other world out here compared to my life at school. At school there is only Ron, but here, in the real world, there is John, his twin brother Jakub, their sister Belle, Joe, and his brother Luke. It's just that Ron was the first person -the only person- to accept me for who I was, knowing what I was, the rouge muggle that somehow landed herself in Slytherin, ridiculed and hated by all. All but Ron. I didn't fit in anywhere, but he accepted me anyway; protected me. He is-

"Kat?" asked John, bringing me back to the present and making me loose my train of thought.

"What? Oh. Um... I just don't know what to say Johnnie."

"Just say yes, my love." he smiled at me.

"I...I can't. I'm way too young to be thinking about all that." and with that, I get up and walk back to the house.

The rest of the holidays were kind of awkward between us, and I was grateful to return back to school.