"I just don't get why," I say. We are all—me and the Weasleys—sitting downstairs at the Burrow and the subject has come to Katrixie. We haven't talked about her like this in a while.
"Harry, you can't be so hard on her," says Mr. Weasley with a sort of sad smile. Don't be hard on her? I think. She hurt us. She's one of them.
"Why shouldn't we be hard on her?" Ginny retorts, voicing my thoughts. "She went back to her abusive family and future arranged marriage just to get away from us."
"Don't speak of what you don't know," Mr. Weasley says sternly. We all—at least me, Ron, and Ginny—look at him like he's gone mad. Why is he defending her? "She is doing what she thinks best, if you would—"
"Arthur," Mrs. Weasley hisses, silencing him. Ron, Ginny, and I are very confused about all of it. "What your father is trying to say is that you shouldn't judge when you don't know the details. Katrixie had a very rough childhood—when she came to me she had just been beaten—and still probably has struggles of her own. We don't know the reason she has gone back to her parents," Mrs. Weasley sneaks a glance at Mr. Weasley, and I seem to be the only one who notices. "So it is not our place to judge the situation."
This does its intended job of shutting us up, because it leaves the three of us in deep thought. Ron makes an uncomfortable grunt before stalking off to his room, and Mr. and Mrs. Weasley went out to the kitchen. Ginny and I are left sitting in silence, both of us reliving memories of Katrixie.
"How do you reckon we are going to sneak into Hogsmeade?" Trixie asks as we sit in the common room. Ron and Hermione have both left to Hogsmeade and Trixie and I, both not being able to get our guardians to sign for us to go to Hogsmeade, are moping about. "I don't think we'll be able to get past the teachers."
"We have just the solution, Kiddies," Fred and George say, barreling through the portrait.
"Since we know you are in need—"
"And we of course have practically memorized it by now—"
"We believe that you should have this," the twins finish, handing over a folded piece of parchment.
"What is it?" Trixie asks. Fred and George laugh.
"Well you see, dear little Trixter," Fred says, Kat chuckles at their nickname for her. "You tap your wand to it and mutter 'I solemnly swear I am up to no good'. And then it shows as a map of Hogwarts in its full glory."
"How will it help us get into Hogsmeade?" I question. The twins exchange a glass before explaining to us all of the secret passages of Hogwarts.
"There's Malfoy," I say to Katrixie. We are under the invisibility cloak and we are in Hogsmeade on our way to the Shrieking Shack—where we think Ron and Hermione are—when we see Malfoy. Trixie squirms a little bit. Since she left her parents, she has been trying to avoid seeing him. She is afraid he will want her to come home. "Right. Well, he can't see us, so do you want to throw snowballs at him?"
"Sure," she giggles as we both crouch to roll snowballs.
I snap out of the memory quickly and shake it out of my head. No, I can't miss her. She betrayed us. She broke my nose for Merlin's sake. Even worse, she's a Death Eater.
When we got back to Hogwarts, everyone in our year seemed to be taking Apparition lessons. However, neither Draco nor I were old enough to partake. Both of us have summer birthdays, which were after the next apparition test.
Since most of our peers were consumed with learning to apparate, it made it somewhat easier to get into and out of the Room of Requirement to mend the cabinet. The pressure was majorly put on us. Especially with the engagement. Luckily, not a lot of people knew about our engagement yet and I would like to keep it that way. If word got out, we would have swarms around us nonstop asking questions about the wedding.
Time went by slowly but surely. Lavender and Ron were still going together, and seemed to be going strong. Daphne and Olivia tried their best to distract me from Ron's love life, but it was hard given that they had a tendency to snog in the hallway.
Even though being a double agent was weighing on me before, it hurt a lot more to know that what I was doing was no longer justified by working for the order. I couldn't hide behind that anymore. All there was was me. And I was a Death Eater. Just a death eater.
It didn't help at all that Harry was more suspicious of us than ever. It seemed like every time I turned, there was a brief flash of him. As if he were following us. I did not like it.
"What's happened?" in rushes Lavender Brown, running straight to Ron Weasley's bedside. He has just been poisoned and is in a bed at the Hospital Wing, Harry, Ginny, and Hermione standing near. When Lavender arrives, the three exchange a sort of disgusted look. None of them cared for her very much. "How is my Won-Won?"
Lavender grabs his hand and starts muttering, and she seems flattered, "See, he's asking for me. I'm here, Won-Won."
"Ka-x-y…" he starts, Lavender's confidence in her boyfriend falters a bit, but is crushed when he continues. "Katrixie….Trixie…."
Lavender squeals in tears before running from the wing. Harry, Ginny, and Hermione are all surprised to say the least. Ginny huffs, crosses her arms, and angrily storms off. She had sworn herself to hatred of Katrixie Kassidy the first day of classes in Ginny's fourth year. She made an effort to get Katrixie back, but she blew her off. Treated her like dirt.
Not to mention, Katrixie used to be her best friend. She used to date Ron, they were happy. All of them—Ginny, Ron, Katrixie, Harry, Hermione—happy as a patchwork family. When Katrixie left, she took a part of all of them with her. No matter how much they tried to hate her, she would always hold part of them, and they would all always hold a piece of her too. For Hermione, that meant hope. But for Ginny, it pissed her off greatly.
And now, her own brother, still in love with her? After all she has done to them? How could he?
Hermione and Harry weren't as peeved at Ron's unconscious confession as Ginny was—in fact, it kind of set it in perspective how much she still meant to all of them.
"Do you think that Mrs. Weasley was right in saying Trixie thinks she is doing what's best for everyone?" Harry asks, sitting down on the bed next to Ron. Hermione follows, taking a seat next to him.
"I don't know. For a long time I thought it was because she couldn't handle what happened to Cedric, but," Hermione pauses, looking off in thought, before continuing. "Now, knowing her, I think that it's more than that. I think that if it were her being upset about Cedric, she would have come to us. The fact that she left just tells me that she probably feels this is best. I'm not saying I approve of all of her actions, but I am saying that she probably feels that the end justifies the means."
And the tears come streaming down your face
When you lose something you can't replace
When you love someone but it goes to waste
Could it be worse?
The lights will guide you home
And ignite your bones
And I will try to fix you.