Same disclaimers apply! I've gotten too lazy to type out that I don't own Harry Potter.
Ahh my winter break is over! *sad face* And now my busy schedule commences. I will warn you that I won't be able to update as quickly as I have been so far, but I will try to get a chapter up once a week or once every two weeks or something. Anyways, this chapter's like twice as long as the others. I tried to split it somewhere but I couldn't figure a good place, so I just made it all one chapter. Enjoy!
"So." Angelina was now glaring at both of her teammates. "You want to tell me what's going on now, since I'm obviously not in on this?"
"Well," Katie stood up to face Angelina, "I was the last to know about Warrington, so we're even."
"You told her?" Her glare was now directed at Alicia.
"It might've slipped," she shrugged. "Sorry."
"Ugh, whatever," she shook her head. "So what's your story then, Katie? I'm assuming it's a boy too?"
"Yes, it's Flint."
"MARCUS FLINT?" she shouted.
"I knew you'd react that way," Katie said nonchalantly.
"That troll for a Slytherin captain who knocked you off your broom first match, last year?"
"He apologized for that. And he's not a troll," She crossed her arms. "He just needs braces, that's all."
"Braces?" Angelina tilted her head in confusion.
"It's a Muggle thing," Alicia explained. "They fix crooked teeth and make them look better. My cousin wears them." Katie knew what braces were from one of her friends from her old Muggle school, who had them at the time.
"Alright then," Angelina nodded. "Keep going, Katie. I want to know everything."
"Uh, where do you want me to start?"
"Well, I already knew that you and Flint know each other, so how about that night earlier this week where you didn't show up after Quidditch practice?" She now sat on the edge of the four-poster bed next to Katie's. "I hope this person doesn't mind," she muttered to herself.
Katie sighed. She had just told the whole thing to Alicia. "Flint took me out to dinner at the Three Broomsticks in Hogsmeade. We lost track of the time and didn't get back till nine-thirty. There were so many teachers around because of the attack on Mrs. Norris, so he brought me down to the Slytherin dungeon instead to save me from detention, and I spent the night there."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Angelina put her hands up to stop her from continuing. "You spent the night with Slytherins?"
She nodded, pursing her lips.
"Now I really want to know what happened. Details, please!" She went from suspicious to curious in a heartbeat, and the three of them were now gossiping on Katie's four-poster bed.
"Flint has his own room?" Angelina raised her eyebrows in surprise. "Interesting. I wonder if Wood does, too."
"You won't say anything, will you?" Katie was worried now. If Wood found out, she would be undoubtedly kicked off the team.
"Of course not," she shook her head. "I'm just curious if it's a Slytherin thing or if all Quidditch captains have the privilege." She stopped to process everything that Katie witnessed in the Slytherin common room. "But I still can't believe my Warrington would do that to you."
"Your Warrington?" Katie and Alicia chimed in unison with identical reactions.
"I don't even call Flint mine," said Katie.
"Alright, you guys caught me," Angelina admitted. She turned to the small blonde next to her. "I'm sorry for freaking out about Flint. I still don't like him very much, but I can't entirely disapprove. I guess you two would be alright, but isn't he a little old for you?"
"Don't worry," she assured her friend, "we haven't even kissed yet." Technically, that was still true. He had only kissed her on the cheek and vice versa. They hadn't done any real snogging yet.
"I can't imagine you two kissing," Alicia finally spoke again. "He's just so much bigger and older. It'd be like a seventh-year snogging Professor Snape or something."
"Ew, Ali!"
"I'm just kidding," she laughed. "Really though, wait a couple years, or even three. Do you want to be branded as the Quidditch slut by the Slytherins and the rest of the school?"
"Excuse me, but I plan on staying a virgin until I'm ready!" Katie exclaimed indignantly.
"Doesn't matter," Angelina said, siding with Alicia. "It has nothing to do with whether you've actually done it. Once people hear of an older student having an affair with a younger student, they talk, and it gets ugly. Rumor has it that Roger Davies – one of the Ravenclaw Chasers – has snogged every girl in his year and has already shagged a couple of them too. Do you want to end up like one of them?"
"But Roger Davies is actually good-looking," justified Katie.
"Then what are you doing eyeing an ugly butt like Flint?" countered Angelina in a teasing manner.
"Looks can be deceiving," she answered with a shy smile. "Flint is actually nice. He's only mean on the Quidditch pitch."
"Alright, it's your call," Angelina nodded. "But you know what this means, right?"
"Um, no…"
"We can now pursue our Slytherins together!" she squealed, bouncing up and down on Katie's bed.
Katie laughed a little. "I guess you're right."
"Ahem, ahem," Alicia cleared her throat. "And where does this leave me?"
"You can help us, of course," Katie said.
"I suppose that wouldn't be so bad," she shrugged with a slight smile.
Security got stricter than ever as there were five more attacks on Muggle-born students. Quidditch got cancelled, to all the Quidditch players' disappointment, and nobody was allowed anywhere alone anymore. The Slytherins were the only ones unfazed by all the attacks, much to Katie's disgust. They treated it as though it were a laughing matter and shrugged off everybody's extra-cautiousness around the school.
Katie was fortunate enough to catch the Mumblemumps and spend practically the last month of school in the Hospital Wing. It was hardly a break for her, though, because while she could not talk at times, she had to use her time in bed to study for her final exams.
"I'm bored," she complained as Angelina and Alicia came in carrying all her textbooks, as well as a couple of quills and ink bottles.
"Well, you're not missing much," Angelina said grimly. "There's no Quidditch, and if we're not in class or the Great Hall, we're pretty much confined to the common room."
"Yeah," Alicia agreed. "Going to the common room used to be a relief, but now it's just boring. You're much better off in here."
"Besides, I overheard Flint telling the Slytherins he's going to surprise you somehow," Angelina added with a smile. "If that was his plan, he should've been sneakier about it."
"Don't get her hopes up," Alicia said. "What if he was joking?"
"If what Katie has said about him is true, he wasn't," she answered firmly. "Have fun studying! Get well soon, alright? We'll bring you more stuff when we can."
"Thanks," croaked Katie. Her face and neck would start swelling on-and-off from time to time, and when that happened, she was practically useless.
Katie wondered how anybody was studying for finals with everything that had happened, but she nonetheless opened her Herbology book and started studying.
She found Herbology rather boring; it was all memorization plus taking care of various magical plants. Her personal favorites were Charms and Potions. She also liked Defense against the Dark Arts; she was among the many girls that found Professor Lockhart devilishly attractive and handsome. She couldn't say she learned much from him, but she enjoyed giggling about him with Leanne and a few other fellow classmates.
Angelina and Alicia had followed through on their promise and brought Katie some of Fred and George's prank products before being whisked off to their classes by Professor McGonagall. She smiled as she fantasized ways to use them to get out of classes she didn't particularly like.
"Miss Bell, you have a visitor," Madame Pomfrey said later that evening, as she walked by to check on the petrified students.
"Hey," Adrian Pucey walked in wearing his Quidditch robes, carrying bags of licorice wands and chocolate cauldron cakes. "It's Katie, right?"
She nodded, appreciating that he called her by her first name.
"Feeling better?"
She shook her head. "I can't talk very much."
"I'm sorry to hear," he gave her a genuinely sympathetic look. "These are for you, by the way," he placed the sweets on her lap.
Katie smiled as a way of thanking him and took out a quill and ink bottle. She wrote on a piece of parchment paper: "I thought Quidditch was cancelled. What are you doing in your Quidditch robes?"
"Flint is crazy, let's put it that way," he said.
She wrote in reply: "You obviously haven't met Wood. He is the epitome of craziness." She wrote "epitome" in capital letters.
"I guess there's a reason they hate each other's guts then," Pucey laughed.
Soon after, Warrington walked in carrying a box of chocolate frogs. Katie's mouth opened slightly and eyebrows raised as if to say, "Are those for me, too?"
"She's got the Mumblemumps, remember?" Pucey reminded his teammate.
"Oh," Warrington said. "Well, these are for you, yes. Where should I put them?"
She pointed to her side table.
"Sorry about that one night, by the way," he added.
Katie shrugged and wrote on the parchment: "You drank too much. What did you expect?"
He laughed. "You know," he lowered his voice, "Don't say anything, but you know your mate with the braids?"
She saw exactly where this was going. "Angelina Johnson?" she wrote.
"Yeah, her," he nodded. "I've got a bit of a thing for her, you see, but I don't know if, um, you know…"
Katie started smiling mischievously. She silently debated whether or not to tell Warrington that Angelina did, indeed, like him too. Her newfound sneaky side won over and she scribbled, "You don't know her at all, do you?"
"Well, not really..."
"Hurry up whatever it is you're doing," Pucey interrupted. "Flint's coming any minute."
Bletchley had joined Pucey and Warrington in the Hospital Wing with Katie, putting down a box of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans next to the box of chocolate frogs.
"Wow, you guys are so generous," she finally managed to say.
"It was Flint's idea," Bletchley admitted.
"It was?" she squeaked.
"It was," a deep, husky voice boomed from the doorway. Marcus Flint, still in his Quidditch gear, finally appeared; in his arms was a vase full of fresh, yellow sunflowers. He set it down at the table at the foot of her bed, took out his wand, and muttered "Wingardium Leviosa". A golden tray floated into the room filled with various treats from Honeyduke's.
"Oh my God," she whispered. "You did all this…for me?"
"We had to do something," he shrugged. "We heard your friends talking about how bored you were in here."
"Thank you!" she said quietly, and reached out her arms to hug him. Pucey and Warrington lifted her up from her bed so that she could wrap her arms around Marcus. "They're beautiful," she whispered in her ear.
"Just like you," he whispered back, "even when you're sick."
As soon as she was placed back on her bed, she took a sip of water from her mug on her bedside. "Quick question, though: how did you manage to get all this stuff? Everywhere's loaded with teachers guarding the place."
"We're Slytherins," Marcus answered slyly with a grin. "We have our ways. Did you expect anything less?"
They all laughed.
Suddenly, Professor McGonagall's voice was heard loud and clear: "All students to return to their House dormitories at once. All teachers return to the staff room. Immediately, please."
Everyone was silent. Katie pulled the covers up to her neck in fear. "A-a-another attack," she whispered. "You guys should go."
"No," Flint said firmly. "We're staying here."
"I appreciate the thought, but you're going to get in trouble," she said.
"She's right," Warrington said. "We can come back tomorrow, or sneak out later when nobody's out."
"You guys can leave if you want," Flint said gruffly. "I'm staying."
Warrington and Bletchley left, with Warrington waving a little, leaving the three of them in the Hospital Wing.
"What happened to self-preservation, Flint?" Katie said softly, giving him a small smirk of her own.
"Maybe tonight," Marcus sat on the bed and put an arm around her, "I don't care."
"Besides, Madame Pomfrey can't do anything about it anyway," Adrian pointed out. "She's in the staff room with all the other teachers."
"McGonagall only said teachers," Katie corrected him. "Pomfrey's a nurse."
"Well yeah, but she's kind of been in charge of all the," he looked around at the six beds covered by curtains, "victims, hasn't she? She's going to want to go."
"I guess you guys are right," Katie conceded.
Flint and Pucey pulled up a couple of beds next to Katie and plopped themselves on them noisily, with Marcus taking the bed right next to Katie.
"Whoever it was," Marcus broke the silence, positioning his arms at the back of his head, "I hope they turn out alright."
"Yeah, same," Adrian nodded.
"Me too." Katie had an idea of who it was, after observing her suspect in the common room. She was no Ravenclaw, but it wasn't hard to notice the pattern; everytime there was an attack, Ginny Weasley would be extremely distressed and flustered. She would also write in that little black book of hers while seemingly entranced. Shortly after writing, she'd disappear, and then there would be another attack. As much as Katie had wanted to tell somebody, she had nobody to tell; she was friendly with the twins because of Quidditch, but they were closer to Angelina and Alicia. She didn't know Ron Weasley very well, so it would be rather awkward to tell him, and she certainly didn't want to tell Percy Weasley; she found him more intimidating than Marcus at times, in his own way. She sighed out loud.
"Something wrong?" Adrian said.
She shook her head. "No," she lied. "I'm just tired. Good night."
I loved writing this chapter, hope you guys enjoyed reading it! I'll have the next chapter up when I can!
