~*~*~ Chapter Nine ~*~*~

E-Day

He was in the newspaper the next morning. It didn't even surprise him now. He flicked his gaze over it, barely taking in the information about Lu Tze, which was the main focus for this article, and how Harry had 'befriended' him. He couldn't even be bothered to get worked up about it, it seemed to be a hazard of his life these days.

*

Harry and Sirius were sat in the kitchen at the table both 'working' diligently, ears pricked for the sound of the fireplace roaring to life. They had expected Remus back an hour ago, with the all important exam results. Harry had been back from Lu Tze's second day of lessons for hours, and Remus had been gone since the evening before.

According to Sirius, the Auror tests are a number of practical and theoretical exams. He had refused to tell Harry what his and his dad's practical exam had been, but he had that haunted look in his eyes that he still sometimes had. Apparently they were harrowing to say the least.

They were both glancing at the clock every few minutes, and when they heard a figure walk into the kitchen they looked up nervously.

Remus however, instead of answering the expectant gazes, walked over to the cupboard and pulled out a packet of food. He began to make his dinner in silence while Harry and Sirius fidgeted in their seat.

"Well?" asked Sirius eventually when Remus sat down with his bowl of instant Chinese noodles.

"Well what?" he asked, wielding his chopsticks like a pro.

"How did you do?" asked Sirius impatiently.

"Well you know, it's hard to judge, parts went well, others not so good…" he said.

"What are you talking about? They tell you straight away!" whined Sirius, "come on, just tell me!"

"Well," he said, steepling his fingers and looking at them in a solemn way, "I passed."

"Wohoo!" yelled Sirius, dancing around the kitchen excitedly, as Remus continued to eat his noodles, looking completely unimpressed.

"That's fantastic Remus, well done!" said Harry happily, "I think I should be safe here now eh? With two trained Auror's to protect me."

He nodded happily, and after a while Sirius detached himself from the kitchen ceiling.

"We could work together now!" he said excitedly, "the marauders re-united!"

Remus raised his eyebrows at Harry who smiled in appreciation.

"God help the Death Eaters, that's all I can say," said Harry with a laugh, "with you two around."

*

Harry sat on the couch in the living room, waiting for Hermione to step out of the flames. She was due any minute now, as was Ron, but due to what Harry called 'Weasley time' meant he'd be about half an hour late – it was always the way. A few seconds later the fire leapt up in he grate and Hermione stumbled through, a mass of soot and loud coughs as she banged her knees on the couch Harry was sitting on and tripped over.

"Enjoy your trip?" Harry asked, looking over the arm of the couch with a grin.

"Fantastic," she said dryly.

"Bring me back any rock?" he asked with mock-hopefulness.

"They don't sell that in France," she said laughing.

"How was your holiday then?" asked Harry excitedly, he hadn't seen Hermione for what seemed like ages.

"Pretty good, I was a bit worried about being abroad but there was no need to worry. Weather was good, food was good, what can I say?" she said, dropping into the couch next to him.

The weather certainly must have been good, she was so tanned, and her hair had gone about two shades lighter from the sun – and this was coming from Harry who never noticed anything. He looked at her hair again, there was something different about it.

"What you done to your hair?" asked Harry peering at it closer.

Hermione sighed and pulled out a few colourful little things from her hair, "Someone on the beech braided it for me," she said simply.

Harry looked at the pieces of hair wrapped in brightly coloured cloth, which were all, Harry noted smugly, Gryffindor colours of red and gold.

"Looks cool," he said, "want a drink?"

"Sure, when's Ron turning up?" she asked casually.

Harry gave her a small grin, "about 10 minutes ago. He'll be here within the hour I expect."

After they had retrieved drinks, they went and sat outside in the sun, picking the least dense patch of weeds to set up camp and await Ron's arrival. They chatted for a few minutes about France, before conversations started turning towards the inevitable.

"You've been busy then," she said giving him a sympathetic look, "according to the Daily Prophet."

Harry rolled his eyes emphatically.

"I swear to God they must have some kind of tracking device on me, they always know when I'm just about to visit – it's weird!"

"Ah well, you're famous aren't you," she said with a small grin, "you both are."

"Don't remind me," said Harry sulkily, "they've been picking on me this year."

"Well you're both sixteen now aren't you? The rules on press coverage are different now," said Hermione simply while Harry turned and stared at her.

"One question: How the hell did you know that?"

Hermione just gave a shrug and tapped her nose conspiratorially.

"Well, laws or no laws, its not exactly what she needs right now…she's not very well at all," said Harry worriedly, wondering if Catalina had found out yet.

"No, she doesn't look to good does she?" said Hermione thoughtfully.

"How do you know?" asked Harry suspiciously.

"I went to visit her yesterday," said Hermione simply.

"What! Why didn't you tell me?" he asked, looking scandalised.

"Harry, you don't have monopoly on who visits her…and I just told you."

Harry mouthed like a goldfish for a few seconds, before snapping his mouth shut – of course Hermione was right, it had just surprised him that's all.

"Was she ok?" he finally managed to splutter out.

"Well," shrugged Hermione half-heartedly, "I suppose so, it took a while for me to actually understand her…"

"She wasn't speaking English to you?" he asked curiously.

"Not at the beginning, it seemed to take her a while to figure out whether I should be understanding Chinese or whatever it is…" said Hermione with a helpful smile towards Harry, "but I must say, she's a lot better than I thought she would be – depressed maybe, but she's getting there."

"Do you really think so?" he asked happily, grinning in relief.

"Really."

Hermione tugged at another weed and threw it in the small pile she was creating, while Harry itched to find out more news, he forced himself however, to be cool and as nonchalant as possible.

"So…what did you guys talk about?" he carefully.

Hermione gave him a sidelong glance and smirked slightly, while Harry carefully maintained his gaze on a point a few inches above her ear. She gave a small laugh and Harry couldn't stop his cheeks from turning red.

"Oh, you know, girl talk," said Hermione innocently, much to the infuriation of Harry who glared at her.

"Is that all?" he pressed.

"She wasn't really very forthcoming with information Harry. Anyway you know what she was like last year, it's very hard to get her to tell you anything she doesn't want you to know," said Hermione thoughtfully, "like her father for example. I knew she was odds with him when she came back from her Christmas break – you didn't see, but she'd been crying the whole train ride home."

Harry cast his mind back to that time – he knew she'd felt a little down, but they'd kept their hoods up all the way home, and he doubted he would have realised anyway.

"Did she say anything about him?" asked Harry, unable to keep the distaste from lacing his voice.

"No, but then again do you expect her too? If she won't open up to you, then she sure as hell won't open up to me…give her time, things have a way of sorting themselves out."

Harry couldn't help but laugh at this statement – surely Hermione didn't believe in that? After everything that happened, Azkabam emptying, Death Eaters abroad, the rebirth of Voldemort….surely she didn't believe it would all work out for the best.

"Sometimes Harry, all you have is hope," said Hermione quietly, obviously earning more points in divination then than she had in the entire third year.

"I didn't say anything," said Harry, face impassive.

"You didn't need too."

Hermione gave him a look and Harry looked away sheepishly, maybe she was right? What was keeping him going at the moment? Hope…hope that Catalina would be alright, that the auror's could do something, that anything would happen to break the uncertain times they were living in at the moment.

"It's all Ron seems to have left…that or sheer stubbornness," she said sadly, "Poor Percy."

"Do you think he still might be ok…?" asked Harry in a small voice.

"No," she said firmly, "but…all pervading hope tells me he's ok until we see the body, he's not gone until we know it."

Harry could tell Hermione's logical side was trying to overpower her emotions, but he could tell in her eyes that she didn't believe a word she'd just said. Harry gave a heavy sigh, it seemed they didn't have anything exciting or happy to talk about, and they were rewarded a few seconds later by a shadow across his path. They both looked up to see a lanky looking Ron towering over them.

"Ron!" said Hermione excitedly, jumping up and hugged him, which he returned whole-heartedly.

Harry stifled a laugh as they both went very red and suddenly very embarrassed – something's never changed.

"Hey mate," said Harry from his spot on the grass, "I would get up, but you know…I can't really be bothered."

Ron laughed and dropped down ono the grass beside him, followed by Hermione.

"Hey, what are these?" asked Ron suspiciously, picking up one of Hermione's braids.

"Braids, Ron," said Hermione, cheeks flushing for no reason Harry could tell.

"They're pretty. Gryffindor colours as well," said Ron casually.

Harry squirmed – it was one thing for your best friends to be maybe 'going out', maybe not, but it was another thing to have to witness their flirting.

"I bet those are against school rules," said Harry, purposely baiting her.

"Oh gosh, do you really think so?" she asked in actual horror, while Harry and Ron fought to fix their faces to look stern and serious.

"Yeah, you don't want to get in trouble with McGonagall do you?" asked Ron worriedly.

Hermione looked positively stricken until the two boys began laughing. She gave them a glare and treated them for the silent treatment for about three seconds. It was boiling hot outside and the air was unnaturally still, and it was all the energy the three had to talk, let alone move from their sunbathing spot on the garden weeds.

"How's you're dad?" asked Harry almost hesitantly.

"Getting better," said Ron with a grin, "I think all that screaming by Gin finally got her name into his head. A lot less confused."

"Really?" asked Harry happily, thrown off track by this almost happy turn of events, "that's great!"

"Yeah, that's fantastic Ron," said Hermione warmly, "I thought for a while back then it would all turn out differently…"

Ron nodded his head in agreement, and Harry had to remind himself that immediately after the Riddle Manor Attack , it was Hermione and Ron who stuck together, it was Hermione and Ron who sat with Mr Weasley, who shared their grief together. Harry had been running around trying to find out what had happened to Wormtail, where Catalina was, when Catalina was getting out, trying to tell everyone what had really happened.

"He's going to be going back to his job at the end of the summer," he said proudly, "nothing can keep him away from muggles and their gadgets."

Harry and Hermione laughed along with Ron, and it was a genuine moment of light relief which they were all glad for. They chatted for a while about meaningless things, then their conversation turned to Lu Tze, and Harry filled them in on everything he had done with the monk since they'd met.

"He sounds very…mystic," said Ron with a grin.

"Yeah, he's a bit strange," laughed Harry, "but he's cool. He's really smart as well…not book smart, but smart of life if you know what I mean."

"What do you mean?" asked Hermione with a slight frown, maybe she hadn't liked the reference to being 'book smart'.

"Well he's got a saying for everything, and he's always calm and unfazed," said Harry with a shrug, "it must be all that meditating."

"So what are you doing at the moment?" asked Ron curiously, eyeing Harry fingers warily.

"Well, he's been teaching me to set things on fire the past few days, but he's going to be doing some defensive stuff again soon…"

"So what's it like? Is it hard to do?" asked Hermione curiously and Harry grinned at her.

"It's hard to do it the first time, but after that it's just easy…like riding a bike, you never seen to forget," said Harry.

Although he'd actually never learned to ride a bike, Lu Tze's use of metaphors had rubbed off on him slightly. Hermione continued to quiz him for some time all about the magus's power and eventually it was only when Ron pretended to fake snore that she shut up.

"How about some dinner?" asked Harry hastily as she glared at Ron.

That's was enough, he'd said the magic words and soon they were trooping into the kitchen. Sirius and Remus were sitting at the kitchen table having a cup of tea, and looked up and grinned as the trio walked in.

"Hello Ron, Hermione," said Sirius with a wave.

"Hello Sirius!" the chorused, followed by a small wave in Remus's direction, "Hello Professor!"

"How many times to I have to tell you two?" he asked with a sigh, "I'm not your teacher anymore, you can call me Remus if you want."

They nodded with a grin as Harry began to root around in the cupboards for food. But in true nursery rhyme style, the cupboards were bare and he gave a sigh and looked over at the two men.

"Have you not been shopping yet?" he asked in a long-suffering sigh.

"No," said Sirius happily, "have you?"

Remus gave a chuckle and Harry rolled his eyes, "fancy going into town and getting fish and chips?"

"For lunch?" asked Hermione, looking scandalised.

"Yeah cool!" said Ron happily.

"Right," said Harry with a nod as if this sorted it, "is it ok if we go into town?"

"Hey, could we get in the way of the consumption of greasy chips?" asked Sirius with a laugh.

"Come on guys," said Harry happily.

After locating his wallet they set off down the small moorland road towards the village. Harry was feeling particularly happy, he felt really stupidly important at being allowed to just walk off like this on his own, the new found freedom was still hard to get used to. He was also a little bit happy to be able to pay back all the hospitality Ron had shown him over the years.

It was another swelteringly hot day and Harry was glad he had a tee shirt on and no jumper. Ron was walking next to Hermione who were laughing and chatting together, flirting shamelessly. He rolled his eyes and let his thoughts wander, and as usual they turned to Catalina. He felt sorry for her, being stuck inside that windowless room when it was so nice outside. He made a firm resolution that on his last visit to her he'd try and get her to go to the hospital gardens for a bit of sunshine…she was pale as a ghost all the time.

In no time at all they were in the village and the ever so familiar team of footballers were on the village green. Ron was watching them interestingly and nudged Harry in the ribs.

"They're playing football aren't they Harry," he said importantly, looking pleased he got the name right.

"Yes they are Ron," said Harry with a grin.

Harry watched the boys for a few minutes, before they spotted him and ran over.

"Hey Harry!" said Greg with a wave.

"Hey Greg, Jack, Nick," acknowledged Harry as Ron looked at the ball curiously.

"Having a good holiday? We haven't seen you for a while," said Jack, eyeing Ron and Hermione curiously.

"Yeah it's going ok," shrugged Harry, "been a bit busy."

"I know what you mean, coursework is the pits isn't it?" said Greg rolling his eyes as Ron looked at him blankly, "I can't wait to get GCSE's out of the way."

Harry agreed noncommittally and they turned to Ron and Hermione, "and who are your friends?"

"Oh, this is Ron and Hermione," introduced Harry as the two of them gave a shy smile and a couple of quiet 'hellos'.

"Another Londoner? " asked Nick with a grin in Hermione's direction, "you guys will be running the place over soon."

The three boys chuckled and Greg held the ball out to them, "How about that game you promised us Harry? Three on three?"

Harry was about to decline before Ron jumped in, "sure!"

Harry grinned, Ron looked excited at the prospect of playing the muggle game and Hermione frowned.

Ten minutes later and Ron had devolved into the typical teenage footballer, yelling defensively and tackling quite fiercely the opposite team. Harry swore if he let him stay there for another half an hour he soon have all the football chants down as well as the infamous offside rule. Hermione however was being a right girl about it all, playing goalkeeper and shrieking and jumping out of the way whenever the ball was kicked at the net.

"Hermione!" yelled Ron, "you're supposed to stop the ball going in, not give it a clear path!"

"I know that Ron!" she shouted back irritably, "But you're kicking it too hard!"

Ron merely shook his head and muttered under his breath before charging off down the pitch like a rampaging bull. Harry grinned for what felt like the first time in ages, it was so nice to have a nice normal afternoon, he felt like any other school kid on holiday right at that moment. He even had a laugh when Ron tried to pick up the ball and make a run for it, much to the disgust of the boys around them.

"Hand ball!" they yelled, "We're playing football not Rugby!"

Ron quickly dropped it and looked in confusion at Harry.

No hands allowed he mouthed across and Ron nodded, before getting on with a sliding tackle for the ball.

Needless to say they lost, Hermione managed to duck every single one of their 13 goals, while Ron and Harry battled to even get their 3 in. After a while they gave a cheerful wave goodbye and headed to the chip shop, muddy, sweaty and a lot more tired than when they left.

"Hello darling," came the voice from behind the counter when they walked in, "the usual?"

"No Mrs Bell, I've got friends over today," said Harry importantly as Ron and Hermione gave a wave.

"Oh my," she said looking flustered and putting on her most welcoming smile, "and where are you two from?"

"Ottery St. Catchpole," said Ron with a grin towards Harry as the woman nodded and screwed up her face in concentration.

"Does old Dennis Barker still run the post office there?"

"I wouldn't be able to tell you," said Ron, trying to hide a grin.

"Oh well, probably not, went to have his hernia done didn't he?" she said with a bright smile, "and what about you dearie?"

"Oh, I'm from London," said Hermione, in her best prefect-voice.

"Really?" asked the woman with a cold eye and suspicious glare, "We don't hold with your type around here."

"My type?" began Hermione angrily before Harry cut in.

"Just two fish and a scampi please!" he said in a loud voice elbowing Hermione sharply in the ribs.

"Coming right up," she said with a parting glare at Hermione.

They finally managed to get away from 'Mad Bell' as Harry had termed her and Hermione Was still spluttering indignantly.

"What did she mean your type?" she demanded angrily.

"You know…Londoners in general, tourists…they're a bit of a local community here," explained Harry consolingly.

"Well," huffed Hermione, "You're a Londoner!"

"Yes, but I live here now," pointed out Harry before adding conscientiously, "sort of."

Hermione nodded and they sat on the benches and pulled open their bags.

"Mines twice as small as yours!" shouted Hermione a few seconds later as Ron sniggered to himself.

"You should have said you was from the next village then," he said, pointing to Harry's bag, which was overflowing.

"Hmmf," was all Hermione had to say to that, and continued to be in a foul mood until the boys shared out some of their chips with her, if anything for a quiet evening.

*

After another 'morning' of exhausting Magus training, Sirius took him to the hospital for his last ever visit. He wandered off to a local pub, telling him to not wander off and be in and out of the hospital quickly. Catalina was due out that day, her grandparents were picking her up in a little under an hour and when he and Remus approached her room, he was surprised to see her already up and about. She was sitting on the edge of the bed, waiting in uncomfortable silence when he entered the room.

He was surprised to see she was wearing muggle clothes and he wondered where she'd got them from – he'd certainly never seen her in anything other than robes. She was wearing baggy jeans and a heavy muggle jumper, with a sports logo across it.

"Hey Harry," she said softly before turning around.

"Alright?" he asked, walking around the bed.

"Well what do you think?" she asked spreading her arms so he could see her clothes better, "would I pass as a muggle?"

"Definitely," he said, "where did you get the clothes from?"

"One of the nurses bought them for me, apparently they live in a muggle village so I guess I need to fit in."

"Your grandparents?" he asked, sitting on the seat opposite her bed.

"Yeah," she said with a shrug, Harry could feel the worry radiating off her.

"Are you nervous about meeting them?" he asked her.

"Yeah," she said with a shaky laugh, "what if they don't like me?"

"I'm sure they'll love you," said Harry awkwardly, "they're family."

This didn't seem to help any and he suddenly realised maybe that wasn't the best thing to say, taking in her past record.

"How long until they get here?" he asked hastily, trying to change the subject.

"About half an hour…and then I'm out of here forever…" she said, feeling light-hearted for a moment.

"Well you needn't worry if you don't like them," said Harry consolingly, "it's only a week until we're back at school."

"And what a joy that's going to be," she said with a sarcastic look.

Harry shrugged. There was a silence and he looked around the stuffy windowless room for a few moments.

"I know what everyone's saying about me," she said flatly looking at him steadily in the eye.

"What about?" asked Harry, trying to buy time.

"About me. About how I really wasn't under the curse and how I switched sides as soon as I could see they were loosing."

"How do you know they're saying that?" he asked simply.

She gave him a look, slightly characteristic of her old self and gave him a grim smile, "The magazines you bought me…they had some interesting articles in them."

"Oh," said Harry dumbly, how did he not think about looking in that first when every other publication seemed to be running the story of their lives?

"It was quite interesting really," she said with a smile that didn't quite meet her eyes, "did you know Witch Weekly has voted you the second most fanciable wizard in England?"

"No way! Really?" he asked in a shocked voice, before turning to her looking slightly put out, "who was number one?"

Catalina looked at him in surprise before laughing. It was a strange sound, but it escaped her lips before she had time to censor it. She hadn't laughed for so long it was so unfamiliar. Harry laughed as well and it was an almost normal few seconds of conversation. Harry couldn't remember the last time they had laughed…

"Its someone called Kirley McCormack, a guitarist in some band or other," she said eventually, sobering up slightly.

Harry grinned, it was a strange thought that all these people thought stuff like that when they'd never even met any of them. Catalina gave a sigh, and Harry found himself almost happy for the first time in a long while.

"Yeah," she sighed, sobering up, "apparently, 'Catalina has sunk her claws into the Boy-Who-Lived, but watch his space, their rocky relationship has been a qualified disaster since the beginning and its only time until her true colours shine through.'"

Harry gaped at her unceremoniously, before his mouth stuttered into action, "It doesn't say that does it?"

She gave a bitter laugh, before pulling a stack of magazines from her side table, "oh that's just this one, Witch Weekly…then there's this one, and this one, this one was particularly uplifting, then there's this one…"

"I get the picture," said Harry sourly.

She gave a laugh which was humourless and Harry gave an uncomfortable squirm at the article she'd quoted. Relationship? Had their rocky relationship been a qualified disaster since the beginning he wondered, not particularly. I mean they'd had more ups and downs that anyone could count, but it wasn't exactly rocky…

"I don't think the country likes me very much any more."

"Yeah well, screw them," said Harry simply, "you know the truth, and I know the truth…everyone that matters knows. Leave those who are too stupid to see to their own devices."

She nodded slowly, studying her hands carefully before giving a dry laugh, "the world must be a very simple place for you."

"What do you mean?" he asked frowning slightly, it didn't sound like a compliment.

"Well…you can shut out what everyone says about you, even when its bad, even when nearly everyone around you is against you…you still manage to shut them out," she said with difficulty, before turning to him, "how do you do that?"

Harry frowned even deeper, he didn't remember doing that at all, she seemed to sense this and gave a heavy sigh.

"Its just…everything seems to run off your back, if you don't like it you ignore, I just wondered…if it was something you could, you known, learn to do."

Harry felt unbelievably sorry for her, but didn't know what to say. She seemed to understand him better than he did.

"If your waiting for everyone support you'll be waiting a long time," he said finally, the words echoing from his distant memory, "Whenever all the attention got to much for me…I just you know, tried to get on. The people that really mattered knew the truth."

"The people that matter?" she asked him.

"My friends," shrugged Harry, "You know, Ron, Hermione and you…"

"Right," she said, staring at her hands again, as if trying to understand what this meant.

Obviously Catalina wanted a quick solution to her problem.

"Harry, I think owe you an apology," she said awkwardly, absentmindedly ripping little pieces from one page of a magazine.

"What for?"

"For being so…so like I have been lately," she said, feeling her heart beating far to fast.

"Don't worry," said Harry, looking down at his hands, "I understand."

She flashed him a grateful look and proceeded to peel off another page, shredding it into thousands of tiny pieces. She looked slightly emotional and Harry let her continue with her own thoughts, she'd talk when she'd talk.

"Its just…its so hard," she burst out angrily, throwing the magazine on the floor, "I don't know what I should be thinking, feeling, doing. I just feel so lost, so suffocated by this place."

"St Mungo's?" asked Harry quietly.

She gave him a slight nod, "but not just that…this whole place…England. I thought coming back here would finally give me a real home you know, somewhere where I really belonged."

"You do belong here," said Harry worriedly.

"But I don't!" she cried, "that's just the point. You speak my language and you act like me but we're different you and me Harry."

"We're not as different as you may think," said Harry feeling hurt.

"But we are. You know where you come from, where you belong, but all I ever feel is like I'm not quite understanding what's happening or what I should be doing…I don't even know what language to think in for Merlin's sake!"

Harry didn't say anything…what could he say? At that moment he did feel completely different to Catalina, sometimes she just seemed so foreign to him.

"That's why I've decided…once I finish Hogwarts, or maybe before…I'm going to leave."

The statement came out of the blue for Harry and caught him completely off-guard. He felt like he'd been punched in the gut and turned to her in shock.

"You can't do that!" he exclaimed looking scandalised.

"Why not?" she asked sadly while he spluttered indignantly, "What's keeping me here?"

Me, thought Harry desperately, I'm keeping you here.

In some corner of his mind he'd always thought that once she was ok, that maybe they would…but no.

Obviously not.

She obviously didn't like him enough to think he was anything important, and he felt crushed. What was keeping her in England anyway? Certainly not family, not friends, not her school, but most of all not him…He was too busy feeling hurt and rejected that he didn't even notice the look in her eyes, pleading with him to give her a reason. He didn't even feel the sense of hope that was radiating from her.

"Where would you go?" he asked the floor in a dull voice.

She sighed heavily and Harry looked across to see her tugging on the sleeve of her robe again, the same ritualised way she had been since he'd visited her this summer.

"I don't know," she said in a choked sort of voice, "I've not been to many Eastern European countries, I always liked my year in Russia…or South America, maybe I could go to Brazil, its hot there."

"On your own?" he asked, in the same monotone voice.

"Who would go with me?"

Harry frowned at his hands, as the answer arrived at his head faster than he could check it.

He would.

He would if she asked him. He turned to tell her this, opening his mouth, trying to find a way to tell her without sounding corny. She looked at him expectantly, black eyes looking more alive than they had in months.

" Maybe-" he began awkwardly before the door was opened unexpectedly, and a figure strode in.

"Its time to go Catalina," came the warm voice of Dr Rahn, "oh, sorry, hope I wasn't interrupting anything."

"No, you weren't," said Harry, jumping from his seat, beet red.

"Nay?" said Catalina, although it came out more of question as she looked at Harry curiously.

"Your grandparents are here," he said, smiling at her familiar reversion to another language when around him, "do you want to follow me?"

She gave a nod and got up stiffly, again holding the sleeve of her robe down. Harry watched her gloomily, maybe he had just missed his chance of a lifetime. Whatever it was, he could sense the two directions his life had just split into, and wished he was on the other fork.

However, he had more important things to think about, Catalina was packing all her stuff into a small bag given to her by the hospital. There were only a few things, magazines mostly and things Harry had bought to brighten the place up. She shouldered the bag as Harry checked the drawers, hearing something rattling inside it. Out he pulled a small silver bangle, the one he'd given Catalina for Christmas, their snake eyes glittering in the light.

"You forgot this," he said, holding it out towards her.

She frowned down at it before she recognised it, as her face lit up in recognition. She summoned it and it was pulled out of Harry's fingers, zooming directly into her hand. Harry couldn't help but frown at this, would it have been too much bother to merely take it out of his hand?

He didn't say anything however and followed her down the corridor to where two elderly people were standing, both with dark grey hair and the now familiar black eyes. They looked like any normal couple of old age pensioners and they smiled warmly as Catalina came into view, who merely stared back at them defiantly.

"Catalina, this is Rose and Derek Cotard," said Dr Rahn warmly, "Mr and Mrs Cotard, this is your granddaughter Catalina."

It would have been a strange sight to behold, the reunion of a family, who had never even seen Catalina. The old couple held out a hand for her to shake, but she merely stared at it and back up to them. The old man hastily dropped his hand and fixed her with a warm, yet nervous smile.

"Its very nice to meet you Catalina," he said in a kind Irish lilt, as though speaking to a five year old, "we've waited a long time to see our granddaughter."

She gave them a suspicious stare, and then looked over to Harry, who gave her an encouraging smile.

"Its nice…to meet you…too…" she said brokenly, looking thoroughly confused at how to speak again.

The old woman cast a worried look at Catalina before smiling firmly and looking across to Harry, "Of course we've heard all about you," she said not unkindly.

Harry gave a shrug, "it's nice to meet you Mr and Mrs Cotard."

There was s silence and her grandmother turned to the Dr Rahn briskly, "Thank you for everything you've done doctor."

"Its not a problem," said Dr Rahn with a smile before turning to Catalina, "thank you for making my rounds more interesting."

Harry hid a smile and Catalina looked at him blankly. He sighed, he obviously wasn't expected any thanks from the girl he'd only just heard speak his language. Catalina seemed to be fighting some kind of internal battle and finally blurted out in a weak voice, "Thank you."

The doctor looked at her in surprise, before breaking into a large grin. Obviously that had just made his day.

"It's no problem at all Catalina, and in this circumstance I wish I never seen you again."

She gave a nod and turned to her grandparents again.

"Let's go then Catalina," said the man in his strong accent, "we've got dinner waiting for you back home, so we have."

With one final wave to Dr Rahn, Harry followed Catalina and her grandparents out of the building. It was a bright summer's day and Catalina looked up at the sun and squinted. Her grandparents were walking in front and she fell back in step with Harry some distance behind. No one seemed to be taking any notice of them Harry thought gratefully.

Suddenly however, Catalina turned to him with a panicky look in her eyes. They darted towards the two people ahead and then back to him.

"Harry," she whispered fearfully, "Someone's watching us."

Harry immediately looked around the densely packed courtyard. It was bustling with people, but none that he could see looking particularly suspicious. Nevertheless he slipped his wand into his wand silently, he may not be able to use magic outside school but he could still threaten someone with it. Catalina was also looking around quickly, panic etched across her face and becoming more and more agitated as time went on.

"Can you see them?" he murmured to her, scanning the crowd again.

"No," she whispered fearfully, her eyes glistening slightly, "but I can feel them looking at me."

The hairs of the back of Harry's neck stood on end and he whipped around, seeing a dark green robe swish into the crowd. He contemplated going after the person, but decided that maybe it wasn't such a good idea. Catalina was looking pale faced and panicky and he turned to her with a fake, confident smile.

"It was probably nothing," he said reaching out and grabbing her arm, "come on."

She gave a huge start when Harry touched her and reached out and pushed him away violently. He stumbled backwards and looked at her steadily.

"Don't," she said harshly, tugging on her sleeve tightly.

"I'm sorry-" he stuttered, feeling a little taken aback, before recovering a taking a deep breath, "we better catch your grandparents back up."

She gave him a sorrowful look, as if she was about to apologise before shaking it and walking away. Harry watched her walk off and shook his head, he'd really thought he was getting somewhere with her. He told himself she was just worried about being followed, and he couldn't blame her, there was rumour to be a price on her head now, Dumbledore had told him that much. Firelight needed to get rid of her.

He jogged and caught up with them, turning to the grandparents with a slight smile.

"It's been very nice to meet you but I've got to go and find my godparent," he said shaking their hands before turning to Catalina.

"Will I see you before Hogwarts?" he asked slightly nervously.

"Maybe," she shrugged, "see you later."

"Yeah," he said slightly disappointed, "see you later."

He watched as the three of them walked into the floo station, Catalina keeping a wary distance from the two people in front of her, but not getting to far away. She didn't even look back.

Harry gave a sigh before walking off to find 'The Union'. He soon located it in the main square, and soon found Sirius chatting to the barmaid with a pint in hand.

"Ready," said Harry, sliding into the stool next to him.

"Alright Harry, how'd it go?" asked Sirius, looking genuinely interested.

He gave a noncommittal shrug and remarked to himself the difference in Sirius's approach to her now. Last he had practically forbidden him from seeing her, and now he was always asking after her…It was strange since he'd never actually met her, which was a maybe a good thing now, she'd probably drop kick him if he insulted her in any way.

"Well, home we go," said Sirius, draining his drink and giving a cheeky grin and wave at the barmaid.

Harry rolled his eyes, doesn't the man ever get tired of flirting?

*

AN/ Praise the God of Bank Holiday Weekends for giving me this opportunity to write some more to this story! So we finally met Hermione again, and got to see Ron again.

What did you think of the Catalina/Harry scene? Poor sod, he's fallen hard for her now and doesn't even really realise it! What do you think, it is mutual?

Reviews as always are welcome!

BloodRedSword - What's this about triple gems blessing me? Lol. Thanks for the review, I haven't actually started my exams yet…they begin on the 14th, so I may not be able to post as often as I would like. But I like to sneakily do a bit of writing after my revision, a nice bit of escapism!

Emilia - Yes the first chapter of this fanfiction is a reworking of the Prologue to Romeo and Juliet, with a slight twist on some parts to make it applicable to the story. The reason I chose it is not only because of the years I was torturously exposed to it at school, but because I LOVE Baz Lhurmans movie "Romeo and Juliet", and thought it fitted into my story! I do like all of Shakespeare's stuff, he was a right clever fellow! Lol.

Esperanza - Once again thanks for the review! I am attempting to lighten the mood, we had the happy scene before of them playing a bit of footie! Was that good enough for the moment? Anyway, its nearly back to Hogwarts now so it'll all become more interesting (and I may even introduce a plot!)

tokfia - Thanks for the review, and yes I can completely sympathise with him as well having tog et up that early, its too late to be night, but too early to be morning, poor guy. He'll get used to it, or have a psychotic episode! I'm actually studying archaeology, history and geography at the moment, but archaeology is my real passion and prospective career (yes I know I'm weird)

Thanks all! Please review and tell me what you think! Any ideas would be MOST WELCOME!