Behind These Eyes – Chapter 10
Disclaimer – I own nothing! Apart from Kat, but if you offer me enough money you can have her.
Laughter.
That was all Kat heard everywhere she went for the next week. She couldn't be certain that they were laughing at her, but it certainly felt that way. She kept to herself as much as possible, but up in the dorm there was no getting away.
It was Thursday night, and Kat was sat with her back against the smooth wood of the headboard reading one of her Braille textbooks. She liked to read sat on her bed. The thick blankets were velvety soft under her hands, and she could squidge down into the pillows.
She was a little surprised however when she felt her mattress dip and the slight clink of springs as someone sat down. She could smell a slightly too musky perfume and barely dried nail polish. Rita.
Rita didn't speak straight away though. She was breathing deeply as though getting herself psyched up for something.
"Are you alright Rita?" Kat said finally when she couldn't take the tension anymore.
"I want…I want to know the truth…about you and Sirius."
"Me and Sirius?" Kat wanted to laugh, but she knew how seriously Rita took herself and knew the other girl wouldn't see the funny side. "Honestly Rita, there is nothing to tell you. Sirius pitied me, he doesn't anymore…"
"But he…when you ran out of Honeydukes…he was so mad at Lucy…and then…"
Kat frowned. Suddenly more than ever she wished that she could see Rita's face, because clearly the other girl wasn't telling her something. "Then what?"
"It…it doesn't matter. But you're sure there's nothing going on between you?"
This time Kat didn't want to laugh. There was something about Rita's voice. Kat had always assumed that Rita just had a crush on Sirius just like every other girl in school, but now she realised that to Rita at least it was far, far more than that.
"I promise, Rita. I am the last girl in the world that Sirius Black would ever be interested in."
*
The weeks seemed to slip past at Hogwarts, although for Kat life was never quite the same as it had been. Her mask of invisibility had been stripped away, and it left her feeling more vulnerable than ever before in her life.
The only thing that kept her going was the fact that Christmas was fast approaching and that meant that most of the school would be going home, and she wouldn't have to endure the whispers much longer.
"Did you hear?"
It was dinner and Kat had been sat on her own as usual when Lucy's voice made her jump. The bench beside her creaked at Lucy thumped down beside her.
"Did you hear?" Her voice was breathless and excited.
"What?"
"Slughorn's having one of his Christmas parties again this year. Apparently invitations are going out in the next few days."
Kat had never taken potions, measuring out ingredients would have been impossible for her, and so she had never met the Potions Master. But she'd heard about his 'Slug Club', a group of the best and brightest students in the school, the ones everyone expected to go far. Kat had never been invited before, no one really expected much of her at all.
"I think I might get an invite this year…"
"From Slughorn?" Kat had never had the impression that Lucy, other than being one of the nicest girls in school, had any great expectations of success.
"Oh god no. Slughorn would never invite me. But everyone is allowed to take a guest…"
Kat smiled at the breathless note back in Lucy's voice. "Who…"
There was a sudden awkward silence, and Kat felt someone step up behind her.
"Alright Lucy…you heading back up to the common room?"
"Oh, yes. I am…" That breathlessness was even more pronounced. Kat heard Lucy jump to her feet and then footsteps walking away.
Kat felt as though her insides had turned to ice. Sirius…Sirius and Lucy? No wonder Lucy had thought it so funny that he might be interested in Kat.
Kat wanted to be happy for her friend, but she just couldn't seem to get rid of the sick feeling in her stomach.