Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I do not own Harry Potter or anything else that is owned by someone else that I put into this story.
Chapter 8
Being an Arsehole
Katharine and James walked back to the castle in complete silence. She had no idea where to go from here. James had feelings for her, and she could no longer deny to herself that she was developing feelings for him... How had it gone this far already?
She couldn't let herself do this to Harry. She didn't deserve him one bit anymore. She had fallen for his father, and she wasn't even sure if she really liked James for "James", or if she liked him because he was so much like Harry. How on earth would she ever be able to look Harry in the face again and hide her secret? That is, if he would even be alive now...
Okay, she was just completely overreacting. That's all. Nothing had even happened yet! They weren't "in love" or anything. They just fancied each other. He still could go back to Lily, no problem. Maybe if she found a way to get back home soon, he would go back to Lily all on his own.
They approached the castle at last, still not speaking. Katharine wondered what he could be thinking about. She hated that she might have hurt him, but there was no way she could tell him the truth! "I'm sorry I can't be with you, James, because I'm already with your son- whom, by the way, must be born in order to defeat Voldemort." Yeah, Kat could see that going perfectly well. Not to mention, James was dead in her time! She couldn't tell him a thing. That would be awful if he found out he was dead in the future. Not only him, but his wife, Lily, whom he apparently loathed now. Oh, what else could go wrong...
"So, I guess I'll run to my dormitory and meet you in the Gryffindor common room with the others, then?" James suddenly said as the two teens headed up the grand staircase.
"Yeah, sure," Katharine mumbled.
They parted ways after James gave her the Gryffindor Common Room password at the end of the corridor without another word. Katharine arrived to meet the other three Marauder's taking over the couch and chairs by the fireplace. The common room was mostly empty, and she expected it was due to everyone going to Hogsmeade.
"Hey, look who it finally is! You two sure were gone a long time." Sirius teased from the couch, which he had complete reign over, all sprawled out with his hands behind his head and feet sat upon the arm rest.
"Yeah, sorry guys..." Katharine mumbled again. She was a bit down and wasn't really in the mood to chat. "I think you all should just go to Hogsmeade without me. I'm a bit tired and-"
"Oh no you don't, you're coming with us, Kat." Sirius said as he sat up straight on the couch and pointed a finger at her. "You had enough energy to go on a broomstick ride, I think you can spare a couple more hours with the rest of us." He glared up at her while she stood there with her hands in her pockets.
"Okay fine... But I'm gonna go to my dorm real quick and change into something else to wear..." Katharine quickly ran up the staircase to the girls dormitory before they could ask her more questions.
She walked down the long hallway that was lined with several doors to different rooms. Each plaque on the doors labeled the students that occupied each room. She found her name halfway down the hall, along with three other names including: Renee Morris, Laura Hunter, and Jordan Baham.
She opened the door and was flooded with memories of her previous dorm room at Hogwarts. The circular room was very cluttered with many things such as shoes, clothes, and books and parchment scattered everywhere. The walls were decorated with many posters and most of them Katharine didn't recognize because of the time difference. None of the other girls' beds were made, which were all lined up against the wall and pointing towards the center of the room, just the way they were positioned in her time. Each bed had a small dresser and night stand on either side of it with an oil lamp upon the night stand.
Katharine walked over to the only neatly made bed with a huge trunk laid upon it. There was a folded note on top of her trunk that appeared to be from her roommates. It mostly said that they loaned her some of their own "cute" clothes and such and that they were looking forward to meeting her.
She pulled out all of the trunk's contents which included: several Gryffindor robes and other uniform attire, skirts, shoes, flannel shirts, some hoodies and T-shirts, a few jeans, socks, underwear- basically all of the necessities that were all somehow in her size. She was quite shocked about the huge wardrobe selection and picked out a T-shirt, black hoodie, and jeans- her favorite everyday attire even though it wasn't too cool outside yet. She threw the rest of her new clothes into the dresser by her bed and quickly got dressed, brushed her tangled hair, and headed back down to the common room.
Her stomach fluttered involuntarily when she saw James standing with the rest of the Marauders, and she mentally slapped herself for the unconscious movement her body made.
Stop with the butterflies already, you don't like him. She argued with herself as she approached the men, who were now joined by an unfamiliar girl standing next to Sirius.
"Hey," Kat said.
"Hey!" Sirius greeted her again and held out his hand towards the new girl, "I wanna introduce you to Renee Morris, she says she is rooming with you. She's kinda my, you know-"
"Yeah, uhuh," Renee said, beeming at Katharine as they shook hands. "We're kind of the "on-and-off" couple around here," she said as she winked at Katharine. She had pretty light green eyes and straight, brunette and blonde highlighted hair. She was at least two inches taller than Katharine, almost the height of Sirius. She reminded Katharine of what a stereotypical muggle cheerleader might look like- basically perfect.
"It's nice to meet you, Renee. I'm Katharine Parker. Hey, it was really nice of you guys to give me some clothes."
"Oh, you're so welcome! We want you to feel as comfortable as possible," Renee smiled.
"Renee is gonna join us. I'm sure you wouldn't mind not being the only girl," Remus said.
"Yes, that makes this trip loads better!" Katharine exclaimed. She could have sworn she saw a little disappointment on James' face when she made the comment. She didn't mean to sound rude...
"Well, we'd better get going or we're going to miss the last carriage," Peter announced.
The six of them headed out of the portrait hole and walked down to the grounds, meeting up with other students that were all heading the same way. Out on the grounds, there were at least a dozen carriages that were all being pulled by Thestrals. As students were piling into them, Katharine wondered how many of the other students were able to see them...
The six of them piled into one carriage, three people sitting on either side. It was still a beautiful day outside and so the tops of the carriages had been taken off, letting the sun shine in and making everyone squint there eyes.
Katharine was sitting between Remus and James on one side of the carriage, while Peter sat next to Sirius and Renee, who were holding hands. Katharine tried to relax as best as she could while sitting next to James, because this was going to be at least a thirty minute ride; but she found it very difficult to ignore him when she was squished between him and Remus.
The carriage began to roll forward as Renee spoke, "So, Katharine, you will be needing some books and parchment and quills and such, so I thought it'd be nice to do some shopping while we're there? After we grab lunch, that is."
"Well, that'd be nice, but I don't have any money..." Katharine wasn't quite sure how she should explain why she didn't have any money, and she was about to say some made-up excuse when James intervened.
"Kat, I told you, don't worry bout it. I have you covered," he said as he patted her knee, and then quickly pulled his hand away and looked toward the sky.
"James, that's very nice of you, but I can't let you do that."
"Sure you can, mate. James comes from a pretty wealthy family. You don't have to worry about a thing," Sirius explained.
Katharine turned and looked up at James, whom shrugged nonchalantly.
"Yes, you have quite a lot to catch up on since you transfered right in the middle of the semester; but if we are able to find all of your things, I'm sure you'll be fine." Renee smiled.
"Thanks guys, I really appreciate it," Kat said. Her heart swelled up at their generosity and she made a mental note to pray for them all before she went to sleep.
The rest of the way to Hogsmeade, Katharine stayed mostly silent and watched the clouds in the sky while the others talked about pranks the Marauders had done or were planning to do. Apparently Renee was pretty involved in their little schemes and rather enjoyed hearing about them. Katharine was indifferent. They were teenage boys, she didn't really care what they did as long as she didn't get in trouble and they didn't play the pranks on her. She started listening more clearly though when she heard Lily and Snape's names come up in the conversation.
"Yeah, it was always hard to play a prank on Snivellus when Evans was always around him. It became rather annoying really..." James was saying.
"Sorry, what did you say?" Katharine asked, knowing full well who Snivellus was but was wondering why Lily was involved.
"Severus Snape is his name, but I prefer to call the dope Snivellus," James answered as he wrinkled his nose in disgust.
"What could a guy possibly have done to deserve a name like that?" She asked.
"Oh, nothing really, I just despise him." He shrugged.
"Please, are you really that insensitive, James?" Katharine asked, exasperating him.
"Well, he's just a know-it-all prick! He's slimey, irritating, you know, everything that a normal Slytherin is! He's just annoying and tries to get us in trouble all of the time. Plus he and Evans were always close until he called her a mudblood during our fifth year. Then she finally came to her senses-"
"Oh, so you don't like him because him and Evans were close friends?"
"No, that's not it at all."
"Yes it is." Remus, Peter, and Sirius all chimed in.
"What? You guys are such arseholes! That's not true at all!"
"Come on, Prongs, we're only pulling your antlers!" Sirius exclaimed as everyone on the carriage busted out laughing.
"Prongs?" Katharine asked. Again, she knew what he was talking about but she decided to play dumb and see how much they would really share with her.
"That's just a nickname, we can tell you about it later," Remus said. Katharine nodded and supposed it was due to Renee being with them.
"Look, there it is!" Peter announced.
They rounded a corner and down the valley was Hogsmeade. It looked different somehow than the way Katharine had remembered it. Maybe it was because it was so sunny out; maybe it looked slightly younger in this time, even though that sounded a bit silly once she really thought about that.
"I say we go to Honeydukes first!" Peter exclaimed.
"Sounds good to me!" Kat agreed. "What about you, James?" She asked.
"Whatever... I might just go somewhere by myself," he said through gritted teeth as he crossed his arms over his chest.
Suddenly, Remus leaped right over Katharine and began punching James in the arm and stomach or whatever else he could reach. James began pushing and shoving him back. Next thing Kat knew, they were fighting around her as she tried to slide under and out of the way while everyone yelled and swore at the top of their lungs. And to make things worse, they were riding downhill and it was very hard to stay in the seat.
"You-better-snap-the-bloody-hell-out-of-it!" Remus hollered as James tried to block his punch.
"What-the-hell's-wrong-with-you?" James shouted while trying to protect his face and get another punch in.
"Hey, hey, HEY! Knock it off, you two! You're gonna knock Kat out if you don't watch it!" Sirius shouted over the yelling boys as he tried to save Katharine.
Finally, Kat decided to take things into her own hands and she shot her elbows out at each side of her and nailed the two idiots in the ribs. This momentarily made them stop.
"You both are absolute idiots," she said as she tried to sound serious, but couldn't help but join in Renee and Peter's laughter.
"You're insane, Remus! Bloody hell insane." James puffed as he corrected his glasses onto both ears and tried to catch his breath.
"Well, you're being ridiculous. Everybody knows you have an insane crush on Evans, and the fact that you both are fighting right now is just crazy. And you know yourself that you hate Snape's guts because he was practically in love with her as well. You hate competition. Face it." Remus said, triumph written all over his face.
"Wrong again, Remus, I told you. I'm done with Evans. I've chased her for too long, I don't deserve being treated like this anymore. Sure, I may have over done it the way that I've been trying to impress her lately, but she's beat me down like a piece of shit. Sorry to disappoint you, Moony."
"James, I think you're overreacting just slightly-" Katharine attempted to reason with him.
He then leaned over and whispered very seriously into her ear, "Why are you treating me like this? You of all people should know how I feel."
Katharine didn't reply before Sirius said, "Okay guys, let's just drop this now. We're here."
Murmurs came from all around the carriage in agreement.
"Alrighty! Honeydukes, here we come!" Renee exclaimed as they all hopped out of the carriage and strolled along the streets of Hogsmeade.
The six of them went into Honeydukes and spent way too much money and ate way too much candy. As they were all starting to feel sick after all of the candy and no actual food in their stomachs, they decided to go grab some lunch and butterbeer at the Three Broomsticks.
After lunch, Renee, James, and Katharine headed to the small store called Scrivenshaft's Quill Shop while the other three boys went to some toy shop that they apparently were going to buy some prank traps from... Or devices that they could disassemble and rebuild into their own masterpieces.
The bookstore was very limited in their selection, but Katharine and Renee found the bare essentials and decided they would just share the rest of the books that Renee already owned.
"Well, I'm gonna go find Sirius and see if we can uh, hang out a bit. See you guys later!" Renee waved goodbye as they were walking out of the bookstore.
"Yeah, I'm sure all that they are going to do is hang out..." James chuckled to Kat as they watched her trot away.
Kat sighed, "James, thank you again for buying my things..."
"You don't have to thank me, Kat." James smiled. Naturally, she blushed.
"Well, um, I guess we should go find the others then?" She offered as she rearranged her now extremely heavy satchel across her shoulder.
"What? No come on, lets walk around a bit. I mean, maybe we'll find them along the way..."
"James, I don't think we should be alone for too long."
James grinned his crooked smile at her, "I promise I'm not going to make any moves on you, okay?"
"I... Okay, fine." Katharine gave in.
He grinned wildly. "Come on, I wanna show you something," he said as he grabbed her hand and drug her down the street.
"Hey, slow down, I'm carrying like four huge books and other junk in this bag!"
"Oh, sorry." He apologized as he reached for her satchel, "Here, let me carry it." And he took it off her shoulder and placed it across his.
"Thanks..." Katharine replied slowly. For some reason at that precise time, as she watched him grab her satchel, she noticed significant differences between him and Harry. He was definitely not as skinny and scrawny as poor Harry was. Harry hadn't been quite as skinny as he used to be due to being fed well at Hogwarts, but he wasn't muscular by all means. She could tell that James for sure worked out or something by the way his T-shirt showed off his- well- biceps. He was also taller than Harry was, and his facial features were much broader- stronger. Course, his eyes weren't as breath taking as Harry's were, but they definitely weren't bad to look at. His hair was longer and messier than Harry's- which is hard to imagine- but the glasses he wore were practically identical to Harry's... How odd...
She didn't realize she'd been staring until James started laughing.
"Like what you see, huh?" He smirked.
"I-uh-I... What?" She was completely baffled like a little git.
"You've been gaping at me for ages!" He laughed dramatically again. "I know, I'm irresistible, but come on, you can't make it so obvious."
"I wasn't gaping at you."
"Yes you were! Totally gaping."
"Was not."
"Kat, you were. Now come on, lets go." He grabbed her hand again, which sent shivers up her whole arm. Great...
He led her down the main aisle that was filled with lots of passerby students and some teachers. They weaved in and out all the way to the end of the road and then stepped into the forest. Kat was becoming very skeptical of James, but soon realized where they were heading when she saw it through the trees. They came to a clearing where a wooden fence surrounded a creepy looking shack, the Shrieking Shack.
"Katharine, this is the-"
"The Shrieking Shack, I know."
"How do you know?" He sounded disappointed and shocked all at the same time.
"It's in my time too. Remember?" She looked at him with a raised eyebrow.
"Oh, right... Well, do you know why it was built?" He tilted his head to the side with an inquisitive expression.
"I-uh-no-well-maybe..."
"Now how would you know THAT?" He exclaimed.
Katharine giggled. "James, why don't you just tell me the story if you're so eager to?"
"Well, it wouldn't be as fun if you already knew..."
"Just tell me."
"Okay, well... The whole nickname thing in the carriage when Sirius called me Prongs is because I am an unregistered Animagus. We all are except for Remus. I am a stag, Sirius is a black dog named Padfoot, and Peter is a rat named Wormtail. See, we all wanted to become one because Remus... He's, well... He's a werewolf and we call him Moony... This shack was built by Dumbledore so that Remus has a place to run off to once a month..." James paused to let Katharine take all of this in. He noticed her facial expression had shown no sign of amazement from when he had started, to when he had finished.
His eyes narrowed, "You already knew all of this, didn't you?"
"Yep!" Katharine proclaimed.
"Gah, how much more do you know about us? This is crazy! You MUST know me in the future then!"
"Well, I told you, I don't know you personally... But I know a lot about you, James."
"You're such a smart ass, Kat," he grinned.
She laughed, "I know."
There was silence for a moment as they both stared at the shack.
"It's always strange seeing it during daylight, since we always visit it in the middle of the night." James said.
"I'm sure," Kat understood. She paused and then asked, "James, what's it like to be an Animagus?"
"What, you don't know the answer to that as well?"
"No..." Katharine said gloomily as she stared at her feet.
"I'm just joking..." He laid a hand on her shoulder to lighten the mood, "I don't know how to explain it, really... It's almost... Exhilarating. Almost as much as Quidditch. Almost." He added as he winked at her. "It's nice to be something that I don't have to pretend to be something I'm not. I mean, when I'm me, I sometimes feel like I have to put on a show being head of the Marauders and Head Boy. But when I'm a stag and hanging out with my best friends, I don't have to worry about that. Sometimes I wish I could stay like that..."
"James, I don't know who you're having to put a show on for, but I know for sure you don't have to put a show on for your friends, or for me."
"I know that, believe me... Well, I know that now, at least," he said. He gave Katharine a sort of half smile, half frown look.
"Something wrong?" She asked.
"I was just thinking... I wish you really were a transfer student... Not someone who dropped out of the sky and then I find out she's from the future and can't stay here forever."
"Well, we don't know if I will be able to go back for sure or not," Katharine said without thinking.
"So you don't want to go back, do you?" James' expression completely changed and he had such joy and hope in his eyes.
"Oh, no, James. I didn't..." She sighed. "I didn't mean it like that, I'm sorry. Don't get your hopes up, please."
"Yeah, yeah. I knew it was too good to be true anyway." He sighed and turned around, "We should head back now. It's been a long day."
Katharine grabbed his wrist and he turned around to face her. "James, I'm really, truly sorry this has happened to you. I never meant to hurt you. But, I need you to be strong with me in this. If you are weak, then I will be weak. We can't slip up. Time is a dangerous thing to play with. You have no idea what's going on in the future. But I do, and I can't let us be the reason we mess it up because we are a couple of teenagers that can't handle their emotions. Okay? Are you hearing me at all on this?"
"Yes, Kat. I hear you." He said flatly.
Katharine did not feel like she had gotten through to him, but she released his wrist anyway and they sulked back towards Hogsmeade.
A/N:
Thank you to anyone that has been keeping up with my story! I'd love some reviews, please! Hope this one was a bit amusing and that the title didn't offend anyone. Believe it or not, it's more difficult to come up with a chapter title than it is to write the story! ;)
Horselover77
