Look! Another chapter! Thanks to everyone who has commented! It's amazing how little I get done without people telling me I should keep writing, but I got it done so I hope everyone's happy! Plus, Theodore gets a mention this chapter.
"Whose cat?"
"Doesn't that belong to a Slytherin?"
"How did it get in?"
"Quick, kick it out!"
"No, wait, let me try this spell!"
"Stupid Slytherin's trying to invade our Common room with their pets!"
Katherine came bounding downstairs, bright red hair a little messy and wand raised. The Common room seemed to pause at the sight, some of the older students remembering the first time they'd seen her with red hair – scary as Hell – and the younger students biting back terrified yelps at the lunatic holding up a wand.
"Anyone hurts the cat, in anyway, and I will personally ensure you're in the hospital wing for at least a week," she announced and the gathering crowd immediately parted away from the sleek black cat sitting in the middle of the Common room.
"Taman!" Katherine exclaimed excitedly, rushing towards the cat. He meowed and purred as she pet him gently.
"What's going on?" George asked, stepping into the room with Fred.
"Well, Katherine just threatened the whole Common room and is now petting a Slytherin's cat," Katie informed them, attempting to assure her friends that Katherine wasn't a raving lunatic. Which really wasn't helped by the fact that she was currently kneeling in front of a cat, grinning excessively.
"Katty, what's with the cat?" Fred asked, crouching down opposite her. Taman hissed at him, Fred poked his tongue at it.
"Taman, Fred. Fred, Taman," Katherine replied, sitting up properly and allowing the cat to curl into her lap, "She's Theodore's."
"Uh huh, why's she in the Gryffindor Common room?"
"Because Theodore and I don't have two-way mirrors and people will give him a hard time if he comes to talk to me directly."
"That's kind of shallow of him."
"Actually it was my idea," Katherine corrected, petting Taman placidly. Fred's eyebrows furrowed and he looked up at George as he felt his brother walk up behind him. George shrugged and they proceeded to have one of those silent conversations, mostly involving things like 'she's your crush' and 'you walked into it, again'. Katherine ignored them in favour of the cat. It wasn't until they both turned their focus on her that they noticed the folded piece of parchment she was holding in the hand not petting the animal.
"So, Taman, huh?" Fred asked, reaching towards the cat, who eyed him warily but didn't attack so he'd already gotten further than he had with Tenebris, "What's up with those names?"
"They mean dark, Theodore thought it would be ironic, I just liked Tenebris."
"What do you mean they mean dark?" George questioned, eyebrows furrowed.
"Tenebris and Taman, its Latin and Croatian," Katherine answered with a shrug, "They both mean dark."
"Wait, can you speak both those languages?" Fred demanded.
"Latin is a dead language," was Katherine's only answer, then she got up and carried Taman to the portrait hole.
"Wait! That wasn't an answer!" Fred and George called together. Katherine walked back into the room and rolled her eyes at them.
"It's not really of major importance which languages I can speak is it?" she said, easily setteling into one of the armchairs, "I'll tell you though, I know at least double the number of languages Theodore knows."
"And how many does he know?" George asked.
"Well, Katherine said thoughtfully, "At least…about four I think, maybe five, his German's a bit rough still."
"That's including English, right?" Fred clarified.
"Yeah, he knows Bulgarian and French because they're countries that Father has fairly regular business with, Latin because it's expected that we can read and write Latin, and he was attempting German but he's not as fond of languages as I am," Katherine nodded to herself.
"Wait, so you can speak those, plus Italian?" Katie broke in, having wandered over to join them.
"Sure," Katherine shrugged, "And a few others, but it's not really…"
"Say something in another language!" Alicia demanded, having joined them, along with Angelina and Lee.
Katherine frowned at them all, "Heb je ooit naar me luisteren als ik praat? Ik begin te denken dat ik ben hier alleen voor uw entertainment waarde."
Everyone gaped at her, not really having expected her to say anything, yet alone in an unknown language.
"You set yourself up for this," she chuckled, their expressions were priceless, "Idem na ručak sada, nadam se da ćete svi uživati gledajući kao idioti. Moj život je vrlo zabavna upravo sada."
With a large grin in place Katherine wandered from the room, leaving her friends to puzzle over what she'd just said. She vaguely wondered if any of them would notice that Dutch and Croatian were different, but she doubted it, none of them had shown much of an interest in language. She'd through in some Spanish next time if they asked about it again, it was way more fun than it should be to see them all so confused
"Well we're not trying to get inside we're just trying to work out what's in there."
"Sure, if you say so."
"You don't sound very enthusiastic."
"And you don't sound like someone who wants to be cursed, but you're getting pretty close," Katherine snapped, leaning against the wall as the twins tried to hear and see through the door, "Why am I here anyway?"
"Because you're clever and we thought you might have some ideas," George replied, Fred was busy pretending like she hadn't just threatened him.
"Well, I know of a spell that will enhance your hearing for a while," the twins looked over at her excitedly, "But I'm pretty sure the end result is that you go death. I read it in one of my father's books."
"Why would you even bring that up?" Fred shuddered.
"Because whatever's through that door knows we're here and if you'd shut up long enough to listen you'd realise it's not exactly silent," Katherine snapped, Fred and George froze, ears pressed to the door. The growling was audible through the thick wooden door and the two boys backed up slightly.
"What do you think it is?" George asked.
"Something extremely exciting," Fred answered, grinning widely.
"Probably," Katherine agreed solemnly, "But it'd also probably be more than happy to bite your head off if you were to consider going back on you word to Dumbledore. C'mon, its dinner time and I'm hungry."
"Aren't you even remotely curious as to what's in there?" Fred asked as they made their way to the Great Hall.
"Maybe, but I'm not about to try and break into a room with a large growling animal in it," Katherine replied.
"Wait, how come you get the smallest bits of information and suddenly seem to know everything about the situation?" George asked, referring to how she knew it was a large animal.
"We could hear it through the door and it wasn't exactly right up against it, was it?" Katherine replied, "Also, there might be an echo in the room, but it sounded like more than one growl to me. I guess I just tend to be more observant than you two because I'm not planning how to investigate the situation."
"Because you're little miss…"
"Fred, think about what you're about to say, then think about whether or not I'd have to hurt you if you finished talking," Katherine commanded.
"So, it's Halloween next week," Fred announced in a very non-subtle change of subject, Katherine smirked at him.
Katherine loved Halloween, maybe because of all the brilliant food and decorations, or maybe because the twins could get away with more so she didn't have to put up with them whining about detention so much. The Halloween feast was always brilliant and she had to admit, privately, that listening to Fred and George discuss the success of their pranks was lots of fun as well. This year they'd managed to convince a Ravenclaw, three Hufflepuffs and seven Slytherins that they were each being haunted by a personal ghost who made Moaning Myrtle look like the Grey Lady. How they'd done this she didn't have a clue, but she was pretty sure Peeves had joined in at some point, he was much more co-operative this year.
"That last Slytherins face? Priceless! So keeping that joke around."
"Are you ever going tell us how you did it?" Lee asked as Fred continued to laugh.
"Of course he's not," Katherine replied, pointing a fork at Lee from across the table, "Not explaining anything is his favourite part of pulling stuff off when it's just him and George."
"Yeah, it's…Hey!"
"She worked you out again bro," George laughed, "You're never getting past her."
"I will! You just watch, one day I'm going to totally fool you Kat!" Fred announced determinedly.
"Oh, thanks a lot George," Katherine groaned, "That's just what I needed."
Suddenly Quirrel ran into the room, looking ruffled and terrified. All the eyes in the room followed him bemusedly as he ran up to the teachers table. He slumped against the table as he reached Dumbledore's chair, gasping heavily.
"Troll – in the dungeons – thought you ought to know." He mumbled weakly, though he was still heard throughout the silent hall. He promptly passed out, totally dead to the world.
"What a useless Defence Professor," Katherine mumbled right before the hall broke into loud, uncontrolled noise. It took several purple firecrackers exploding from the end of Dumbledore's wand to bring silence.
"Prefects," he rumbled "lead your Houses back to the dormitories immediately."
Katherine felt horror welling up in her. Oh dear Merlin, this could not be happening…She hated it when the twins got that look in their eyes. Percy was very much in his element, though he was oblivious to his brothers.
"Follow me! Stick together, first years! No need to fear the troll if you follow my orders! Stay close behind me, now. Make way, first years coming through! Excuse me, I'm a prefect!"
"C'mon Katherine! This way!"
"No, Fred, not now, I want to go to the dormitory," Katherine whined as the twins dragged her away from the mass of students, "Guys, troll…"
"If we can avoid teachers I think we can avoid a mountain troll, they're not exactly smart, are they?" Fred asked.
"And you know we've got a point, sides," George continued waving the map in her face, "Not like anyone can sneak up on us."
"You two are going to be the death of me, where are we going anyway?" Katherine asked.
"Kitchens," Fred replied, "I'm still hungry."
"Are you joking?!" Katherine all but screamed, then promptly bit Fred as he tried to cover her mouth with her hand, the result of which was George's muffled laughter as Fred glared at her, "The kitchens are near the dungeons you morons! As in, where the troll was seen."
"Wait, she has a point Fred," George frowned as they came to a progressive halt.
"Yeah, maybe that isn't the smartest idea…" Fred replied, Katherine crossed her arms.
"Brilliant, so now we can…Oh Merlin, what's that smell," Katherine groaned, holding her nose.
"No way…"
"Quick, hide!" Fred announced, scrambling into one of their secret passage ways as they heard heavy footsteps.
"What's that doing here?" Katherine hissed, peaking out at it, "We're nowhere near the dungeons yet."
"Who cares what it's doing as long as it doesn't find us," George hissed.
"I'm with George," Fred nodded, "C'mon let's get out of here."
"Since when did you two become the voices of reason?" Katherine asked, following them through the passage and away from the troll, "Now I really am scared."
"Yeah, well, now we now it's neither in the dungeons, or headed to the dungeons, let's go get some food," Fred suggested.
"Of course," Katherine sighed, then heard the muffled sound of running feet, "I guess the teachers finally caught up to it."
"So to the kitchens?" George asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Yeah, might as well, I didn't get any desert," Katherine sighed, "But keep an eye on the bloody map alright?"
"Brilliant," Fred and George laughed. Katherine rolled her eyes and pushed in front of them.
"Boys," she grumbled, hiding a little smirk.
…
When they returned to the dormitories the trio found all their friends munching out happily. They spread their own collection of food over the table.
"We all know we get us better desserts than the teachers," Fred pointed out.
"Are you away that if Percy had noticed you were missing you'd never have heard the end of it," Angelina informed them.
"Ah, but he didn't," Fred replied, "He was too busy trying to prove that he's an amazing prefect to worry about his meddlesome brothers."
"On the other hand he's friends with Kat, so he might've been worried about her," Katie pointed out.
"Please, Katty probably knows all the spells he knows, if not more, it is illogical to be worried out her," George answered, sending a small smirk at Fred who raised an eyebrow and glanced at Angelina.
"So do you have anything to say Kat?" Alicia asked, clearing hoping she'd tell the twins off, but when she turned she found Katherine looking at her slightly bemusedly with a chocolate frog sticking out of her mouth.
"I'm sorry, what were we talking about?" She asked, taking the frog into her hand. There was silence for a moment before everyone burst out laughing, except Alicia.
"You're supposed to be the mature one!" she yelled.
"I take a break on Halloween," Katherine shrugged, slipping the frog back into her mouth. Everyone just laughed harder as Angelina fumed.
Katherine loved Quidditch, and though she wouldn't tell her friends for fear of what the twins would do as revenge, she was beginning to love the excessive amount of practise Oliver put them through. All the time she got to spend 'studying' was brilliant, she thought she was moving along pretty fast considering she was attempting very complex magic while also having to keep it from the two most mischievous people in school. She was also doing amazingly well in Transfiguration thanks to her animagus training, but she was slightly worried the others would notice she never needed to study transfiguration with them.
She wandered back into the Common room moments before the Quidditch team wandered in. She offered Harry a wave before turning her eyes on the twins, who collapsed into their chairs with heavy sighs. The motioned was mimicked by each of the girls.
"He needs to give us a break," Alicia whined, "I want to win too but this is insane."
"I know," Angelina replied, "Every time we get closer to a match he starts loading on the practises. When do the other teams get the pitch?"
"Have you guys finished the Transfiguration essay yet?" Katherine asked, flicking through her potions book, "It's due tomorrow you know."
"Katherine!" they all whined, except Katie who snicked.
"You finished your star chart then Katie?" Katherine questioned, cutting off the snickering. The girls all groaned and went off to fetch their stuff but George didn't move and Fred just rolled over so her could look at her.
"Why do you do this to us Katty?" he whined.
"I don't the teachers do, and when you're finished Transfiguration you should start on the Potions essay. It's due next week but Snape seems in an even worse mood than usual," she answered.
"I hate potions!"
"No you hate Snape," Katherine replied, "You're perfectly competent in Potions and we all know it. Now both of you do some homework or I swear I will curse one of your belongings and not tell you what it was."
The two boys grumbled but pulled out parchment and quill's and started working. Katherine smirked, then sat by the table with them and began sketching, helping them when they asked her things and smacking them over the head when they tried to get the answers directly from her.
'They better be brilliant in this game Oliver,' she thought idly, not really focusing on her sketch, which was turning into a very detailed drawing of Fred doing his homework.
…
The first Quidditch game of the year found Katherine in her usual seat beside Lee, waiting for the first scream from Professor McGonagall. By this point it wasn't a Quidditch game to her until the Professor had yelled at her friend. The brooms rose and the teams started flying around each other.
"And the Quaffle is taken immediately by Angelina Johnson of Gryffindor – what an excellent Chaser that girl is, and rather attractive, too –"
"JORDAN!"
"Sorry, Professor."
And the game had started. Katherine chuckled quietly to herself, Lee refused to let go of that joke, even though she was fairly sure Fred was no longer 'paying' him.
"And she's really belting along up there, a neat pass to Alicia Spinnet, a good find of Oliver Wood's, last year only a reserve — back to Johnson and — no, the Slytherins have taken the Quaffle, Slytherin Captain Marcus Flint gains the Quaffle and off he goes — Flint flying like an eagle up there — he's going to sc — no, stopped by an excellent move by Gryffindor Keeper Wood and the Gryffindors take the Quaffle — that's Chaser Katie Bell of Gryffindor there, nice dive around Flint, off up the field and — OUCH — that must have hurt, hit in the back of the head by a Bludger — Quaffle taken by the Slytherins — that's Adrian Pucey speeding off toward the goal posts, but he's blocked by a second Bludger — sent his way by Fred or George Weasley, can't tell which — nice play by the Gryffindor Beater, anyway, and Johnson back in possession of the Quaffle, a clear field ahead and off she goes — she's really flying — dodges a speeding Bludger — the goal posts are ahead — come on, now, Angelina — Keeper Bletchley dives — misses — GRYFFINDORS SCORE!"
Katherine watched avidly, attempting to figure out which one of the twins it was, and failing miserably. She hated not being able to tell them apart, even if everyone pointed out that she was lucky she could tell them apart on the ground. Lee thought it was hilarious though.
For a while the game went on normally. Bludgers, yelling, laughing at Lee's commentary and a false sighting if the Snitch. Katherine Groaned at the block, hoping Harry wouldn't get too badly hurt in his first match. Of course Lee's Gryffindor colours chose now to show themselves.
"So — after that obvious and disgusting bit of cheating —"
"Jordan!" growled Professor McGonagall.
"I mean, after that open and revolting foul…"
"Jordan, I'm warning you—"
"All right, all right. Flint nearly kills the Gryffindor Seeker, which could happen to anyone, I'm sure, so a penalty to Gryffindor, taken by Spinner, who puts it away, no trouble, and we continue play, Gryffindor still in possession."
Katherine laughed along with each of Lee's comments, her laughter was really helped by McGonagall's disapproval. She couldn't get told off for laughing at a Quidditch match. She managed to get a grip on her laughter and opened her eyes, only to frown as she caught sight of Harry jerking about wildly on his broom. She leant forward, that wasn't right…
"Slytherin in possession — Flint with the Quaffle — passes Spinnet — passes Bell — hit hard in the face by a Bludger, hope it broke his nose — only joking, Professor — Slytherins score — A no…"
The Slytherins cheered. Apparently no one else had notice Harry's odd behaviour. Katherine ran through possibilities, automatically jumping to curses. There was no way a student could do that though… Harry swung of his broom and Katherine instinctively pulled her wand, trying to think of a spell that would be helpful in this situation. Which was stupid really, the teachers could take care of it…unless. Her head snapped towards the teachers, more directly Snape, who disliked Harry and had been a Death Eater with her father. That was stupid though, if Snape wanted someone killed he'd be much more subtle, also he really just hoped he didn't want anyone dead.
She continued her search until she found Quirrel, who also appeared to be muttering. He was much more careful about it though, hardly even noticeable. Katherine looked back towards Harry. Fred and George were now circling under him, having been unable to reach the broom. Suddenly she had the image of one of them being on a cursed broom and her eyes flew to where Ron and Hermione were sitting, or had been. Hermione was gone.
"For the love of," she looked towards the teachers again and found Snape freaking out about being on fire. Only fir the fire to disappear as he was distracted and Quirrel had toppled over at some point. She was going to laugh about that all later.
For now her eyes returned to Harry, who was plummeting towards the ground, looking like he was going to be sick. He hit the ground, hard and on all fours, coughing. Suddenly something golden fell into his hand.
"No way," Katherine breathed, wide eyed.
"I've got the Snitch!" Harry shouted, waving it above his head, and the game ended in complete confusion, which Katherine wished was less common.
…
"Guys!" Katherine yelled, grabbing Fred and George in a hug as soon as they stepped out of the changing room, "You were brilliant!"
"Hey Kat, glad you think so," Fred replied bemusedly, you seem a little excited.
"I think you freaked her out," Lee offered.
"I was worried about Harry," Katherine snapped, "Quidditch games are dangerous but that was ridiculous, and I can't exactly go hug him can i?"
"Why not?" George asked, "He came out just before us didn't he?"
"He ran off with Ron and Hermione," Katherine shrugged, "But I meant it'd be awkward."
The other girls came out and joined in the easy banter, which quickly changed to discussing how well they all played, and the hilarity of Lee's Commentary. Katherine decided not to mention Quirrel. She was probably wrong, his lips were hardly moving, and the Professors were more suited to handling a situation like this than kids. Plus she really didn't want the twins to go investigating the situation. She'd been really worried about them, even though they hadn't been in direct danger and she'd never admit it.
The stuff in bold is directly from the book and I take no ownership of it. If I owned Harry Potter why would I be doing this?
Translations
Dutch=Do you ever listen to me when I'm talking? I'm starting to think I'm only here for your entertainment valueà Heb je ooit naar me luisteren als ik praat? Ik begin te denken dat ik ben hier alleen voor uw entertainment waarde.
Croatian=I'm going to lunch now, I hope you all enjoy looking like idiots. My life is very entertaining right nowà Idem na ručak sada, nadam se da ćete svi uživati gledajući kao idioti. Moj život je vrlo zabavna upravo sada.
Yay! So, R&R, tell me what you think and anything you want in the next chapter~