Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter!
Whoo, I survived my first week back to school! And I was finally able to take some time to write this chapter! I decided to dig a little deeper into the relationships with their friends with this one, so it took a little more time. This chapter takes place the summer before Katie's fourth year (before Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban). Katie is almost fourteen (her birthday for this story will be June 30), and Marcus turned 18 between the last chapter and this one. I anticipate the next chapter (or two, depending on where the story goes after the next chapter) taking place in the summer. Now that Katie is getting older, you can expect more drama between the two of them and on both sides as well! The chapters will slowly build more depth into the layers of their characters, too. Happy reading!


"Look, if you miss him so much, why don't you just write to him?" Angelina said as she and the two other girls decorated cupcakes by hand at Alicia's mother's bakery.

"But I don't know where he lives," Katie pointed out.

"Hey, doesn't Flint's family own Flint Jewelry and Co.?" Angelina said. "I think my dad bought my mom's engagement ring from there."

"His mom does," Katie remembered from their dinner in the Three Broomsticks.

"She's a total bitch though," Angelina rolled her eyes. "She got her competitors out of business so that her company could be the jewelry company. The other two weren't very good to begin with, but it doesn't make it right, you know?"

"Yeah," Katie stared off absentmindedly. She wondered if what Angelina had said was true and if Marcus knew about it, since he had told her that he didn't get to see her very much.

"Alicia, you haven't said much," Angelina turned to her Muggle-born friend. "Why don't you just decorate these…"

"Cupcakes," Alicia finished.

"Cupcakes," Angelina nodded. "Why don't you just decorate them with magic? I bet it'd be a lot faster, you know."

"First off, we're not allowed to use magic outside of school," Alicia said. "Second, it wouldn't be the same. There's a reason my mum's business is doing well; everything is homemade from scratch."

"I see. You know, I wonder what the Ministry's going to do now that that serial killer is on the loose."

"Sirius Black?" Katie suddenly paid extra attention. Her parents had gone to school with the man, and he had been fairly popular among the Gryffindors. Although her parents were in Hufflepuff, they had been friendly with Black, and they knew that he was fiercely loyal to his friends. In fact, he was so loyal that, in their opinion, he should have been in Hufflepuff. That was unlikely, though, as he came from a family of Slytherins and most likely asked to be put in Gryffindor the way Harry Potter did when he first came to Hogwarts.

"Yeah, he's the reason Potter's parents died in the first place."

"I don't know, they don't have enough proof, in my opinion," Katie said thoughtfully. "All they said was that he betrayed Harry's parents to You-Know-Who. They didn't give any details. Plus, my parents knew him back when they went to Hogwarts, and they told me he was one of the most loyal people they had ever met. I think he might be innocent."

"People change, you know," Angelina insisted. "Look at his family. The whole lot of them before him was in Slytherin. His inner snake was bound to come out."

"And this is one reason I'm glad I live in the Muggle world," Alicia sighed. "At least I can stay away from all that drama."

"But we have Quidditch," Katie said. "And Hogwarts!"

"I guess I've gotten used to it, growing up with Muggles and all that," Alicia shrugged. "It's not so bad, really. But yeah, it's kind of hard to beat Quidditch."

"Alright, so back to Flint," Angelina still referred to him as Flint, even though Katie's connection with him had gotten considerably stronger at the end of last school year. "Write to him, Katie. Really. You'll thank me later."

"But what do I tell him?"

"I don't know, whatever you want," she shrugged. "I don't really know much about what goes on between you two, so…"

"If you don't write him, he might think you're not into him anymore," Alicia agreed.

"But it goes both ways," Katie protested. "If he wanted to talk to me, don't you think he would've found some way to contact me? Right now I feel like a fan girl or something writing to him. He's, like, eighteen."

"Since when did you become so chicken?" Angelina put her hands on her hips. "You have the nerve to go into the Slytherin common room – in his room –and sleep there, but you can't write to the guy?"

"It's not the same…"

"Fine then," Angelina conceded. "Don't write him. Let him shag some other little slut."

"He's not like that!" Katie nearly yelled at her friend.

"I wouldn't put it past him," she said fiercely. "Don't underestimate a Slytherin."

"Girls," Alicia came between them. "All the customers can hear you. Keep it down or my mum won't let me bring friends here anymore!"

Her two friends looked at her for a moment before glaring at each other.


Meanwhile, back in the wizarding world, Marcus Flint, Adrian Pucey, Christopher Warrington, Terrence Higgs, Graham Montague and Miles Bletchley sat atop their Nimbus 2001's at the Flint Manor's private Quidditch field. It was nowhere near as big as the one at school, but it was still big enough to hold a friendly game. They went three on three, with Marcus's team of him, Pucey and Warrington winning, due to his superb goal-scoring.

"So what's the deal with you and Katie?" Adrian asked Marcus as they landed back on the ground.

"Which Katie?" There was also a Katie Hodgeson in Hufflepuff that annoyed him to no end with her goody two-shoes, stickler-to-the-rules attitude, but he had a feeling which one Adrian was referring to.

"Bell, obviously."

"Oh. What do you mean?"

"Well, how do you feel about her?"

"What a dumb arse question, Pucey," Warrington pulled up beside him. "It's no secret he fancies her."

"Would you like me to throw you off the team permanently, Warrington?" Marcus snarled dangerously.

"It was just a damn question," Warrington said. "Jeez, it's not like I touched her this time. Besides, I like her friend better. You know, the one with the plaits?"

"Whatever," Flint waved his hand.

"So do you like her?" Pucey asked.

Marcus's teammates waited expectantly for his reply. Suddenly he was quiet. He was never good at expressing his feelings, especially if they were bordering on romantic. The truth was, Marcus wasn't sure how he felt about the young blonde. From the moment he met her, he had the desire to protect her for reasons he couldn't quite explain. That desire turned to a need, and he subtly began watching out for her in her third year. She still was very much a child compared to him (he wasn't quite sure if she had turned fourteen yet) and it killed him inside. He just couldn't take away her innocence like that, not with the amount integrity she had.

"I…don't know," he finally answered.

"That's bullshit," Pucey said. "You brought her into our common room and threatened us all not to touch her. You've never cared like that before."

"Yeah," Montague agreed. "And the way you were ready to kill Warrington after…"

The other Slytherins whistled and cheered.

"Enough," he thundered. "Leave. All of you."

They all knew better than to defy him, so they quickly turned on their brooms and flew home.

"Except you, Pucey," Marcus stopped his friend, who was practically his brother.

Adrian turned to him. "It's pretty obvious, you know. You may be a master at sneaking around and bending the school rules, but this…you can't really hide."

"You don't understand, do you?" Flint was frustrated. Then he shook his head. "No matter. I wouldn't expect you to."

"Try me."

"Look, if Bell and I were to get more…you know, serious," he began, then trailed off. "My point is: me and her right now would be absolutely wrong. She is still a child!"

"She's only a year younger than me," Adrian shrugged. "What's the big deal?"

"You're not a fucking girl," he groaned impatiently, clapping his hand to his forehead. "See? I knew you wouldn't get it."

"I do, Flint!" he yelled. "I'm not as stupid as you think! Sometimes I think I know you better than you know yourself. I wasn't telling you to get into a relationship with her; that's your business. I was just asking you how you feel about her."

"If you really aren't as stupid as you say, you will believe me when I say that that is a hard question to answer," Marcus said calmly. "I definitely care about her. I don't like seeing her sad or scared or…hurt." He swallowed as he remembered the time he had scared her so badly when he was a sixth-year. "I guess it's rather strange. I've never cared about anyone the way I care about her. All my life, I've manipulated people for my own personal gain and haven't had many real friends. In fact, you've probably been my only true friend, Adrian."

"Wow," Adrian didn't expect that last part. "Um, thanks. I guess I should tell you then that you're one of the best friends I've ever had, too. You've always had my back, no matter what."

"You're practically my brother," Marcus shrugged.

"Alright, stop avoiding the subject, back to Bell now."

"Right," he nodded. "I suppose I do like her as more than a friend. It might be incredibly wrong, but I do."

"It's only wrong if you shag her," Adrian pointed out. "But if you love her, you love her. Fuck the rules. We're Slytherins for a reason, aren't we?"

Flint smirked. "I taught you well."


I don't know about you, but I love Marcus even more now! And as you can see, Adrian will play a fairly large role in the story from this point onward. I'm growing to like his character too, actually. In other Katie/Marcus stories I've read, Adrian seems to be the villain in some way, but judging from the way he doesn't cheat or play dirty in Quidditch like many of his teammates (according to Harry Potter Wiki, anyway), I figured he's a somewhat moral person that exhibits the positive side of the Slytherin traits.

And thank you, by the way, for all your story alerts and reviews! They are so encouraging for me, and it makes me so happy when I see a new story alert or review in my email inbox! I will hopefully have another chapter up tomorrow since it's a three-day weekend for me. Later, all!