Chapter Twenty

Hey everyone! I'm back with another chapter. Thanks for reviews/favourites/follows :D

Disclaimer - I do not own the Harry Potter universe. All rights to J.K Rowling. I do, however, own Katherine.

A year was a long time. If everything could change in the matter of a second, then everything else could revolutionise in a year.

The summer following fifth year brought with it many cheerful opportunities. George and Katherine would go for walks and he would take her out to quaint little restaurants on dates, giving her the occasional gift that he always made sure to wrap, as she enjoyed unwrapping so much. They got to know each other in the most intimate ways and Katherine finally began to feel the 'long haul' commitment they'd talked about in a broom closet. It felt incredible.

The day she received her OWL results was the day Fred and George both had to combine their efforts to calm her down. The confidence from before had faded to complete non-existence and the twins were hard pressed to make her breathe properly. Then she opened the results and, like Hermione, calmed down upon seeing them.

Astronomy: E

Care of Magical Creatures: E

Charms: O

Defence Against the Dark Arts: O

Ancient Runes: E

Herbology: O

History of Magic: A

Potions: O

Transfiguration: O

History of Magic was a surprise, as she hadn't expected to pass that at all, but everything else was brilliant in her eyes. She had aced her favourite subjects and done well in the others – what did she have to complain about? George only complained because he'd apparently gotten himself a super smart girlfriend. She pointed out that his joke shop showered him with money, the result of his own brilliance.

There was plenty of debate over Harry's residence but, in the end, Dumbledore had won (as usual). Harry was to remain with the Dursley family until Dumbledore said otherwise and an infuriated Sirius had moved into an apartment in Diagon Alley, refusing to keep living in Grimmauld Place. Katherine really couldn't blame him.

When back at school, things were remarkably . . . unremarkable. Harry followed Malfoy who, as it turned out, was a Death Eater. Harry also got his paws on some creepy potions book that Katherine refused to even look at, paying more attention to her studies and constant letters to George. They maintained steady contact, just like they knew they would, and letters often came with added parts by Fred, which were always good for a laugh.

Through the year, Katherine kept up practice of Occlumency, though she no longer had lessons, and she improved her metamorphmagus abilities tenfold. Thanks to Tonks' help over the summer, she was able to completely change her form into another by Christmas – which terrified Fred and George, much to her entertainment.

Ginny and Harry got together, much to everyone's relief. Harry had landed himself in detention after using a revolting curse on Malfoy and missed the final Quidditch match. They had won and Harry had celebrated by kissing Ginny square on the mouth in the most romantic notion Katherine had ever witnessed.

Then things went wrong. Severus betrayed them all and killed Dumbledore in cold blood, Malfoy let Death Eaters into the school and Katherine only just managed to escape any kind of injury. Bill Weasley – engaged to a stunning woman by the name of Fleur Delacour – was mutilated by a werewolf and Molly finally accepted that Fleur would be hanging around. Ginny and Hermione didn't seem too thrilled at the prospect.

"You're going to get wrinkles," George said as he sat next to her and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. They were under a large tree in the backyard of the Burrow in the beautiful summer sun, the entire area of land bathed in gold. She and Hermione had been there for just over a week, with Ron and Hermione trying to get as much secret planning done for their search for Horcruxes as possible.

"I'm just thinking," she replied easily but George knew it was more than that. He always knew.

"I know that you're angry at him," he said quietly. It was a sore subject that no one so much as hinted at anymore because Katherine would either grow infuriated or burst into mortified tears. Severus had been with her since she was five years old and she had trusted him with her life – but he had betrayed them all. He had killed Dumbledore and Katherine had never been so disgusted with anyone in her life.

"I never thought he could do something like that. He said he would always endeavour to protect me. He lied," she said slowly, staring hard at the ground between George's feet. He let out a sad sigh and pressed his face into her hair, kissing it softly.

"We'll never do that to you," he promised and she nodded in acknowledgement. Her faith in people had been jolted, but she could see the good around her. And she knew George would never, ever hurt her like Severus had – just as she would never hurt him.

"I know you wouldn't," she said reassuringly as his lips moved to her neck and kissed with more pressure. Smiling, she tilted her head back to give him more access. "George, your mum will see," she warned weakly but George only chuckled.

"I told her we were going out for lunch, to keep your mind off things. So let's go," he said before Katherine felt the brief suffocation of apparition. When her eyes focused, she saw that they were seated on the sofa of Fred and George's flat.

"You're a cheeky little git, do you know that?" she questioned with a sly smile. George pulled away from her neck just to lick his lips temptingly.

"Oh, I know," he agreed before leaning forward and connecting their lips. Heat flared from the tips of Katherine's toes to the top of her head and her hands reached out, gripping onto him tightly and not planning on letting him go. "Come on, kitty cat, let's cause chaos."

XXX

"I can't believe you trust Mundungus over me," Katherine spat bitterly as she brutally shoved the last of the necessary clothes into one of two large sacks, dumping it within the vicinity of a nearby Thestral. Around her were several of the intimidating creatures, some brooms, and Hagrid's gigantic flying motorbike, which Sirius had insisted he keep.

"I don't," Moody grumbled from next to his own customised broom, fully equipped to handle flying with his leg. Katherine raised an eyebrow at her mentor as most of the others joined them outside, within the magical protection she had helped put up.

"Could've fooled me," she complained, looking around for something to do. George appeared next to her at the opportune time, occupying her lips immediately. Her arms looped around his shoulders and his hooked her waist and pulled her closer. Vaguely, she heard Fred making loud noises of protest in the background.

"Alright, cut it out you two. Kitty cat, Asher's looking for you," Sirius' voice broke through their bubble and, sighing, Katherine pulled away from George with a resentful smile. He grinned cheerfully back at her.

"We'll be fine," he promised and she glowered. "I know, I know, we can't promise that yet – but you'll see. Now go sort that cat of yours out before he eats other necessary apparel," he joked and she rolled her eyes, leaning up for another brief kiss.

Moody wasn't allowing her to go along to get Harry from the Dursley household, despite letting Hermione and Ron go. She was to temporarily stay at the Burrow with Molly, Sirius and Ginny. Apparently she and Sirius were 'back-up', which she knew was necessary. They were both experienced and knowledgeable, not to mention prepared. She just didn't like being passed over for Mundungus.

"Be safe, be wary and for God's sake don't do anything stupid. I will kick your arse if you get injured," she warned, pointing her finger first at George and then the others. Tonks happily ruffled her hair before going off towards her broom and the others dispersed with her. George looked down at Katherine with warmth dancing in his eyes, an emotion there that she'd grown accustomed to but had never identified.

"I'll come back for you, Katherine Prevett. You're my adorable kitty cat," he told her cheesily but she didn't care if it was cheesy or cliché – it felt like hope and the rush of overwhelming feeling in her chest was almost too much to handle.

"You better," she replied simply, sharing one last, brief kiss with him before watching him get on his own broom. On Moody's count, they all rose into the air – Hagrid's motorbike with an almost deafening roaring sound – and disappeared quickly into the sky.

"Seriously, that cat is going to do some damage," Sirius urged and, with a small smile, Katherine let the older man lead her back into the Burrow, where Asher was waltzing along the back of the sofa like he owned it. When he saw her, he immediately leapt into her arms and Katherine hugged her adorable cat close to her, stroking his thick black fur. Sirius, looking relieved, collapsed on the sofa as the two Weasley women went to the kitchen.

"They're going to be OK, Ash. Everything's going to be OK," she whispered into the animal's ear. The feeling of lying to herself was hard to ignore, but she did it anyway. Worrying would get her nowhere, so she'd do something else. "Let's go outside." Or she could just relocate her worrying.

Outside, Katherine watched Asher chase a garden gnome with gleeful little noises springing from him every now and then. The gnomes weren't nearly as happy, protesting quite loudly with swear words that Fred and George were likely responsible for. She thought about Harry, hopefully preparing to leave Privet Drive for good as she thought. Whenever his mission was over, he'd be living with Sirius.

She contemplated Hermione's decision to erase the memories of her parents. As someone who had lost one parent to brain damage, it had taken a lot to convince Katherine that it was a good idea. Eventually, she realised that Voldemort would tear them apart piece by piece to get information and she wasn't willing to let that happen.

"Katherine, Alastor sent the signal!" Molly called from the door of the Burrow. Nodding in her vague direction, the younger woman scratched Asher's ears before walking forward, out of the boundaries. With no further thought, she disapparated with a clear location in her head. Once again, the suffocation that came with being squeezed through a small tube took over, right before she landed across the street from an unfamiliar house.

"You must be Katherine. Come in, come in." A man with light hair and a gentle smile was the one to greet her, gesturing frantically from the door of the unfamiliar house. Katherine couldn't apparate through the wards, but she could certainly see through them. It must have been a loophole.

Keeping all of her senses trained acutely, Katherine slipped across the road and through the front door of the welcoming home. Inside, a living room sat off to the side and a kitchen was just out of complete sight round a left corner. Ted Tonks moved by her and gestured her through to the kitchen. There, Andromeda Tonks stood with her fingers wringing together.

Although Katherine had been expecting it, she still tensed up and gripped her wand. Moody and Sirius had warned her of Andromeda's remarkable resemblance to Bellatrix – but it was still a shock. Her hair was a lovely shade of brown and fell in soft curls, rather than the frazzled mess that Bellatrix had. Her eyes, though the same shade as her psychotic sister's, were much gentler. Her expression was shocked.

"Oh, I apologise for being rude. It's just . . . you look so like your mother," Andromeda said, causing Katherine to halt completely. Eyes narrowed thoughtfully, she recalled her brief meeting with Narcissa Malfoy in King's Cross station after fifth year ended. The blonde had mistaken her for Marilyn as well.

"It's nice to meet you, I think," she said warily, sticking out her hand. Andromeda shook it kindly.

"I didn't mean to alarm you, but you do look so much like Marilyn did when she was your age." Katherine raised her eyebrows as Ted stood next to his wife.

"That seems to be a common consensus in your family – at least the sane ones. Bellatrix must not have been paying much attention," she noted, and got the desired effect. Andromeda nodded with a small yet noticeable sadness in her eyes.

"You have met Narcissa, then." Katherine nodded stiffly. "We don't have a lot of time to discuss it, but your mother and Narcissa were very close back in their Hogwarts days. We were all in Slytherin together, though I had a very different group of friends. Bellatrix never much cared for Marilyn, but your mother and Narcissa were very close."

Katherine had a brief moment where she pictured Draco Malfoy and supposed the close feelings did not run in their families.

"Narcissa thought I was her but . . ." she trailed off, uncertain about how to finish her sentence. Obviously something had happened to Narcissa to make her lose contact with Katherine's mother. Katherine wasn't even surprised her mum had been a Slytherin.

"They kept in contact for as long as possible, but things were hard. Narcissa married Lucius and Marilyn married your father. After me marrying Ted, my family were even less fond of muggle/pureblood marriages and that's when Narcissa lost contact with Marilyn, after the wedding." Katherine didn't bother asking what wedding Andromeda referred to – it didn't matter.

"I just thought . . . if they were so close. I hate Lucius Malfoy." She supposed it was childish to react in such a way, but Andromeda was making it clear: Marilyn and Narcissa had been best friends and Lucius had destroyed that. What if they'd stayed friends? Would Marilyn still have lost her mind in utter desperation, or would Narcissa have been able to help her through the depression of losing her daughter? There were a lot of what if's to consider and Katherine really didn't like any of them.

"I know it's hard, dear." There were no more words to be said, for the sound of Hagrid's motorbike tore through the air, followed by a crash. Katherine sped to find the hairbrush she had been forewarned about. When she got downstairs, Harry seemed distressed and Hedwig was missing. She decided not to ask.

"Well thank Merlin you're alive. You were probably the riskiest," she noted sarcastically, causing Harry to whirl around. She managed to place the hairbrush on a nearby table before getting her ribs crushed in a hug.

"It's great to see you Katherine," he said honestly and Katherine, touched, patted him on the back before pulling back. He looked healthier than normal, though there were dark shadows under his eyes and he looked a little pale.

"You too, Potter. Let's get going before Molly gets too nervous or Ginny puts Asher in Ron's sock drawer again."

Harry laughed genuinely before they all put their fingers on the hairbrush. Katherine caught one last glimpse of Andromeda's worried face before her stomach turned and she flew just briefly, reappearing in a heap at the Burrow.

"Death Eaters were waiting," Harry managed to say after Molly had engulfed him in a hug. Katherine's stomach turned once more and her heart tightened painfully in her chest, so much that she almost bent over double. She didn't need to know that neither Ron and Tonks, nor Arthur and Fred had made it back, due to their abandoned portkeys on the ground.

"What happened?" she demanded in as steady a voice as possible. Harry just shook his head sadly and Katherine, close to wringing his neck with her bare hands, had to physically restrain herself as Sirius appeared and hugged his godson tightly. He had clearly guessed the situation, whilst Katherine still remained in the dark about everything! So, Death Eaters were waiting. What had happened to Harry? What had happened to everyone else?

"Mum!" Ginny exclaimed and Katherine's head spun around so sharply that her neck cracked audibly. The noise that left her mouth grated against her throat like sandpaper as a hot, angry flush overtook her skin. It was inhumane, the noise, like an animal being hit with the Cruciatus Curse and skinned alive at the same time, but lower, like it had no energy left to fight.

Following like she was tied to them, Katherine observed like a ghost as Sirius and Remus carried an unconscious and heavily bleeding George into the Burrow. Harry and Ginny were right behind her, whilst Molly was already inside and ready to help. Upon getting a close look, once her boyfriend was on the sofa, Katherine's eyes almost rolled back in her head with how close she was to fainting.

Underneath all of the gory, thick blood pouring from the side of his head, she could see there was a gaping hole where George's ear should have been. The blood oozed out of the wound as Molly fretted over what to do. Katherine had to lean on the nearest object – Sirius – to stay upright and to stop the wave of emotion crashing over her becoming too evident. Of course, everyone had already noticed. Then she was being grabbed by Remus and stared at with normally kind brown eyes.

"What were the words I said to you about Sirius after our first visit to St Mungo's?" he demanded and Katherine recovered from her shock rapidly.

"'And we both know that, unless you want to, you will not give up on him'," she stated firmly, staring him dead in the eye. Sirius made a strange noise somewhere to her right but she ignored it, staring at Remus, who backed off almost immediately. "What was he hit with?" she asked, crouching by George's head.

"Snape's curse."

Katherine's breath caught in her throat and her fingers pinched the bridge of her nose in an effort to focus her frustration on something other than blowing the nearest table to smithereens.

More people slowly made it back, and George came to from unconsciousness.

"Saint like," he answered when his mum asked how he felt. Katherine and Fred exchanged alarmed looks before staring back at George with terror.

"What's wrong with him?" Fred demanded, taking a stumbling step forward. Katherine stared with wide eyes at George still.

"Saint like," he repeated and Katherine was beginning to shake. Her mum had already been lost to brain damage – she didn't want to lose George too! "You see . . . I'm holy. I'm holey, Fred, get it?"

Whilst Fred reprimanded George for his ill-chosen humour and Molly cried quite hard, Katherine glowered, her eyes edging on burgundy. Eventually, George noticed and swallowed thickly, noticing her thunderous expression.

"Now, now, Kitty, let's not do anything rash," he said pleadingly. Katherine did not move nor twitch. Fred chewed his lip nervously and she could feel Remus and Sirius watching her warily.

"Rash? Rash? You're making jokes – you've lost an ear! I thought you'd lost your mind! HOW IS ANYTHING I DO FROM NOW ON RASH!?" she screamed, losing her composure completely. Fred patted his brother's shoulder before moving away with the attitude of a nervous animal whilst George looked hesitant, but knowing.

"You're the nutter in this relationship," he told her quietly. With that, the wind was taken from her sails and she deflated abruptly. Stumbling forward a few steps, Katherine's knees gave out right by George's head and he used his closest arm to pull her to his chest. There, she sobbed unashamedly for an immeasurable amount of time. That was until Fred broke the reverie.

"Katherine," he whispered, directly into her ear. Nothing else had caught her attention, she'd tuned it all out. But, recognising the quiet desperation in Fred's voice, Katherine peeked out from George's chest to see that the others had returned – well, mostly.

"Where's Moody?" she asked in a cracked voice. Remus was looking at her with a sympathetic expression whilst Sirius gritted his teeth from next to the werewolf. Fleur's beautiful face was stained with tears and Bill looked like he'd swallowed something remarkably unpleasant. Harry just looked stunned.

"He's dead, Katherine," Remus told her gently. That was it. Katherine felt her face go blank and her shoulders go stiff as she stood up. With Severus' curse used on George, the overwhelming knowledge that Marilyn and Narcissa had once been best friends, and then Moody's death – Katherine couldn't take it anymore. As calmly as she was able, she walked outside and stared up at the sky. For one brief, strange second, she wondered if James and Lily Potter were watching with Moody.

Back inside, there was a tense silence. George was uncomfortable because he wanted to go after Katherine, but he was in considerable pain and his mum was fretting over him in an attempt to find some way to grow his ear back. Apparently she was the only one that hadn't accepted it as a lost cause.

CRASH!

"There goes the garden bench," Fred mused, casually ambling over to the window and grimacing. "I think she got a gnome or two as well," he added. Vaguely, George could just see faint trails of smoke.

"I'll go talk to her," Sirius offered, but everyone protested. George was the loudest by far and Fred wasn't far behind. Hermione hadn't said much but she was very focused on Sirius. George just wanted to hold Katherine – but she was completely overwhelmed.

"Let her blow some things up, kick a couple of gnomes and then we'll see whether or not she's approachable. Otherwise, just leave her be," Fred warned, looking back out of the window. George was frustrated and sore and just wanted to sleep.

"Fred, George, with the Delacours coming soon, we're going to run out of room. I don't want to ask and I'm certainly not condoning anything, but can Katherine stay at your flat?"

George knew he wasn't the only one in the room that could hear just how much it was killing his mum to ask that question. She was right, though, the Burrow couldn't hold that many people – although he didn't have the heart to tell his mother that he and Katherine had already done the activities she wasn't 'condoning'.

"Of course she can," Fred said like it was obvious – which it was. George just stayed silent as his mother tried various spells.

"Maybe Katherine has some kind of potion, or knows of one," she mused when none worked. Remus sighed whilst Fred glanced away from the thickening smoke in the garden.

"I don't think now is the best time to ask her," he said obviously, sitting by George's feet. Molly Weasley sighed and slammed a book shut that George hadn't even noticed she'd opened. It was probably a good thing he couldn't hear from the left side any more.

"She'll be alright," Remus said reassuringly, taking up Fred's vacated position by the window. God, he hoped so.

There you have it: the beginning of Deathly Hallows. No sneak peek this time, but the next chapter is the wedding, where (hint, hint) some three little words might be exchanged between Katherine and George - finally. See you in a few days :) x