Katrina clanked her glass tankard back onto the table, giving Fred a glance from the corner of her eye. "No," she said, "you can't have some of my Butterbeer. You shouldn't have chugged all of yours in one go."

"But Trina," he whined, slumping into her and shoving his head into the crook of her neck, "I don't have the money to buy another!"

"You should've thought about that before you tried to impress me with your by far superior chugging abilities."

"Please?" Fred asked after giving Katrina's jaw a quick peck.

"Nope," she replied casually, sliding her Butterbeer away from his fingers, which were sneaking up onto the table. Fred scowled. "You'd be drinking after me, too. You know how much I hate that —"

"You say that even after we've spent the whole day snogging?"

"Yes, yes I do."

As Fred slumped back into their booth, looking crestfallen and a little annoyed, Katrina continued, "And we haven't been snogging all day. Just for the last hour or so."

"Yeah," Fred grumbled, "and that's not nearly enough."

Snorting, Katrina placed her elbow onto the table, turning so she could look at him and quirk an eyebrow. "Oh, really? What, do we need to rent out an unused classroom or something and make-out for the whole day?"

At this, Fred abruptly sat up with his hands gripping Katrina's knees, a sort of wild look in his eyes. "Absolutely," he said.

Katrina blinked once, then twice. Once she took in the ginormous grin spreading over his face, she found herself laughing louder than she ever had before.

"Stop it!" she screeched quietly, pushing his face away with her hand. "Stop it! Stop, stop, stop! You're horrible!"

"You are a genius!" Fred said loudly as he dodged her second push and grabbed her wrist with his hand. "That's exactly what we'll do, sneak into a deserted classroom every day and snog until our mouths fall off!"

"No, no!" Katrina laughed, yanking her wrist but to no avail. "I was joking, you twit! Joking! And I know you know what joking is!"

"Of course I know what joking is!" Fred retaliated seriously. "But snogging is no joking matter! Do you have any idea how un-joking of a matter snogging is, Katrina?"

Katrina giggled as he pulled her hand up and around his neck. "How un-joking is it, Fred?"

"Very un-joking," he whispered matter-of-factly.

"So un-joking," she whispered back before biting her lip and glancing over to the side, then back at Fred, "that you could say it was — oh, I don't know — serious?"

"Incredibly serious," Fred whispered so quietly that Katrina barely heard it, even though her forehead was pressed onto his.

"To bad we're not serious then," she smirked.

"Who said we're not serious?" Fred chuckled, quirking an eyebrow. Katrina squinted.

"Who said we were serious?" she asked. He squinted right back.

"Can we be serious and not serious at the same time?" he asked as he tilted his head to the side. "It's a very pressing question. . . ."

"Very pressing indeed. . . ." Katrina mumbled, tilting her head in the opposite direction.

And when they kissed again, she couldn't help but laugh at the sudden bubbly feeling coursing through her innards, tickling the lining of her stomach and making her chest swell. The best way to describe it was the most typical — like butterflies.

Fred was laughing, too. Katrina could feel his smile as he smashed his lips into hers, feel the tiny breaths blasting into her cheek from his nose. With a sudden heart leap, she realized that, just maybe, he might feel the same way that she did.

But whatever uplifting thoughts she might have been able to think as she curled her hand into Fred's hair were brutally interrupted by the sound of revolted gagging.

"Snogging!" Alex cried as Katrina and Fred moved away from each other again, both looking rather surprised. Katrina was turning a vivid shade of violet. "They're snogging! In public!"

The whole of the Hufflepuff Quidditch team snickered from behind him, covering their mouths with their hands and whispering between themselves. If possible, Katrina turned even brighter purple.

"I mean, don't get me wrong, I knew you snogged in all of those deserted classrooms —" Alex began to snigger, but was cut off by Fred suddenly jumping up, waving his hands wildly in the air.

"See?" He shouted at Katrina. "See? They think we should snog in unused classrooms, too!"

The Hufflepuffs only laughed louder. Katrina fought the urge to slide down her booth and wring her hands together, instead wriggling around a bit until she sat taller and straighter than before, sitting on her fingers.

"Haven't you got somewhere to be?" she seethed to Alex, who was nearly doubled over, grasping Cedric's arm to keep himself from falling.

"No!" he exclaimed. "No, I don't! That's the beauty of it!"

It turned out that the Hufflepuffs were, in fact, without anything to do — that was why they were in the Three Broomsticks in the first place. They had been planning on spending the day in Spintwitches, but Alex and his teammates had all finished shopping much earlier than expected. Then he spotted Katrina and Fred, snogging in their own secluded booth like a few other couples (Cora and George included). Now they were all sitting, crowded, at their one tiny little table, hip-to-hip and reaching around to exchange Quidditch gear and whatnot. Katrina thought her insides would be squeezed out of her mouth by the time Cedric shuffled in beside her, but thankfully Fred had enough room to slide her shoulders under his arm and give her a bit of a breather.

"Sorry," Cedric said quietly to her, "I did my best to hide you from view, but your brother could be a Seeker when it comes to spotting you."

"Not really," Fred said gruffly. "She is bright blue most of the time, you know."

Katrina gave him a queer glance, but shrugged it off and instead looked to Alex, who was directly across from her, grinning and kicking his toes lightly into her shins almost cheekily.

After rolling her eyes, she turned to Maxine O'Flaherty and Anthony Rickett, the Beaters and only fifth years on the team. They were both in her Herbology class, along with Cora and the majority of the other fifth year Hufflepuffs.

"Wotcher," Katrina said to them both. Anthony smirked as Maxine leaned in on her elbows, looking clearly interested.

"Hullo," she said with a wink. "What're you up to?"

"What did it look like?" Fred asked grumpily.

"He's a bit cross, isn't he?" Cedric whispered to Katrina as she elbowed Fred in the ribs.

"Oh, yes," she replied offhandedly, "but he's always like this."

"I am not," Fred spat back, using his other arm to massage his ribs as he glared a little at Herbert Fleet, the Hufflepuff Keeper that was sitting beside him and glubbing down his Butterbeer.

"No," Heidi Macavoy, a Chaser, giggled. "Just when other boys are around is all!"

"That's not true either!" Fred mumbled harshly, holding Katrina a little tighter by the shoulders. She snorted, rolled her eyes again, and raised her eyebrows at Alex. He only grinned wider.

The Hufflepuffs continued to crowd the table for many more minutes, picking on Fred until he was rather miffed indeed. But by the time the nape of his neck was nearly red, Cedric seemed to think that the damage had been done and slid out of the booth.

"Alright, alright," he chuckled to his teammates, "let's leave these two alone, I don't think Fred's very pleased with us right now."

"You're damn right I'm not," Fred grumbled quietly in Katrina's ear as the Quidditch team groaned.

"But Cedric!" Alex whined. "We just got here!"

"Oi," Katrina laughed, kicking her brother lightly in the shin, "follow your Captain's orders!"

"That's right!" Cedric chortled back, turning around and waving his hands, motioning for the others to follow. "Now c'mon, the booth's too crowded for us anyways!"

After much more moaning and groaning, all the others piled out, leaving only Katrina and Fred in their booth along with some much-needed space. Just as they were leaving, though, something from across the pub seemed to catch Alex's eye.

"Actually. . ." he mumbled, "you all go on without me. . . ."

"What?" Tamsin Applebee asked. She looked around wildly for what Alex was looking at, but he waved it off. Katrina had already seen, though.

A girl sat all by herself, hunched over and looking down at her hands on the table, not a Butterbeer or other morsel of food or drink around. She looked rather alone, maybe even a little depressed, and the long yellow-and-black scarf pulled tightly around her neck didn't seem to be comfortable.

"Don't worry about it," Alex mumbled, already stepping through the crowd. "I'll be back in a moment!"

"See you then," Cedric said, quirking an eyebrow but shrugging and continuing on to a very empty booth, the most of his teammates behind him.

"Stupid pricks," Fred grumbled as he reached over to Katrina's Butterbeer and took a gulp of it. "We were alright, just snogging, but they just had to barge in, didn't they?"

"Mhm," Katrina hummed mindlessly, peering around the table to get a better look at her brother. He was talking to the girl, who seemed rather startled, and was asking if he could sit across from her.

"Next time I see your brother snogging with that Bones girl, I'm going to waltz up to them and — and —"

Fred gave Katrina an odd look, not that she noticed. After frustratedly huffing to himself, he waved a hand in front of her face, making her jump and blink multiple times before turning back to him.

"Sorry," Katrina spluttered quickly, "wh-what were you saying?"

"What I was saying," Fred repeated slowly, widening his eyes as if to emphasize what he was saying, "was that the next time I see your brother and that Bones girl he likes so much snogging again, I'm going to interrupt him like —"

"Susan?" Katrina gasped, ignoring the way he was insinuating that she was daft and instead glancing over to Alex again, who was laughing along with the quiet girl (who still seemed rather uncomfortable). "He snogs Susan?"

"He's only liked her since his first year," Fred snorted, rolling his eyes and heavily sinking back into the booth.

"Really?" she leaned into him, grabbing his arm and hardly taking notice that Fred too another sip from her Butterbeer.

"What, did you not notice?" he asked imperiously, quirking an eyebrow and smirking down at her. "Some sister you are. But yeah, he's been crushing on her forever. How could you not have noticed?"

"How could you have noticed?!" Katrina screeched quietly, stealing another glance at Alex. He was now standing, motioning for the girl to follow him — but she only shook her head.

"He's only always around her." Fred chuckled, wriggling his hip into hers to regain her attention.

"Yes," Katrina said, turning back to him with an exasperated look, "but I'm always around you. That doesn't mean that I — that I —"

He shot her a suggestive look.

"A-and I'm always around George and Lee, too," Katrina quickly retaliated. "And Cora! A-and a good lot of the other Gryffindors, I'll have you know —"

"Oh, yes," Fred drawled dramatically, draping his arm over her shoulders again and drinking the last of her Butterbeer, "please tell me how often you and that Lavender Brown hang out and snog in the girls' lavatory." But before Katrina could retort, he added, "Actually, don't tell me — I can just ask Moaning Myrtle. She'll tell me all of your make-out secrets in great, weeping detail."

She sighed, running a hand through her hair and grumpily yanking her empty tankard out of his hand, looking down into it to see if there was any drop left. There wasn't.

"Ah, c'mon, love," Fred teased, poking her cheek with his long, freckled nose, "just admit it already! Say it out loud, get that weight off your chest."

"I don't know what you're talking about," she snapped sharply, clanking the tankard onto the wooden table and raising her chin snootily. Fred snorted.

"If you don't say it, I will," he sang.

"Say what?" Katrina hissed.

"Yoooooooouuuuuuuu," Fred said slowly, teasingly, even going to far as to twirl a finger in her face, "liiiiiiiiiiike me!"

And even though she had seen it coming, Katrina began to stutter and blush and prickle uncomfortably anyways.

"S-since when h-have I — since when d-did I say that — that I — why would I —"

"Katrina, darling," Fred cooed sympathetically, pulling his arm back to his side and patting her hand in a consoling way, "we've been snogging for the last hour. I'm generally quite positive that you are unequivocally in love with me."

"St-stop it!" Katrina squeaked, jerking her hand away and turning bright magenta. "I-I'm not — d-don't call me —"

"What?" he asked, swooping so close that his raised eyebrows nearly smashed into hers. "Darling?"

"Stop!" she screeched, shoving his face as far as possible from hers with both hands and desperately trying to fight off the blood rushing to her cheeks (though, in truth, she probably couldn't get any redder). "Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop!"

"Fffime!" Fred shouted, muffled because of Katrina's palms mashing his lips together. "Fffffffffinnnne!"

But she didn't move. Katrina sat, now stiff, still holding Fred's face as far from hers as she could. Darling. That was a whole other level of butterflies.

He grunted. Then he groaned. Slumping his shoulders, Fred waited a good three minutes for Katrina to finally remove her hands. She jerkily returned them to her lap, where she twisted her fingers together and began to chew on the inside of her cheek, idly watching Alex as he led the blond girl to his Quidditch team.

"Anyways," Fred said slowly, edging her painstakingly through the thousands of jumbled thoughts whirring through her brain, "George and I were thinking that tomorrow — y'know, a Sunday — would be the perfect time to sneak into the Boathouse and try out the Toffees."

"Oh," Katrina scowled. Shoving her blush and thoughts away, she said, "Have we got all the ingredients for the Swelling Solution? I think we do, but I don't know. . . ."

"I'm pretty sure we do," Fred nodded.

"Tomorrow, then," she sighed, sinking back into the booth as he slid his arm over her shoulders again. "After breakfast though, please."

"Sounds fine with me."

And the blond girl sat with Alex and his friends, fiddling with the sleeves covering her wrists.

Katrina stirred the Swelling Solution in an aggravated sort of way, grumbling to herself. For some reason, no matter how many times she waved her wand, it was still a murky yellow-green rather than its usual lime color. Her wand was probably acting up again — it tended to have spells where it simply would not obey.

"Is it ready yet?" George asked, peering over her shoulder keenly.

"Not sure," Katrina grunted in reply, stirring the potion clockwise and then anti-clockwise. A bubble popped on the surface, gurgling loudly.

"We've been here for two hours." Fred groaned, spread-eagled on the Boathouse floor.

"Why don't you just use it, then?" Katrina snapped, returning her spoon to the cauldron's side and watching it bubble in annoyance.

"Might as well," George shrugged.

Fred hopped up and over to their little area, where multiple toffees were strayed on the dirty stone floor along with Katrina's cauldron and charmed fire. He sat beside George, frowning in thought.

"So. . ." he said, "what do we do now?"

Katrina blinked. She hadn't thought of that.

"Maybe we can dip them into the potion?" George suggested.

"Sounds good to me!" Fred said quickly, picking up a toffee and pitching it into the cauldron.

It fizzed and spit the toffee right back out again. The twins looked at the sweet expectantly.

But it melted and filled a crack on the floor.

"Aww," Fred and George chorused. Katrina sighed.

"Oh well," she mumbled to herself, stuffing her wand into her pocket and preparing to stand up. "We'll think up some other ideas later, boys. Meanwhile, I think I'm going to visit Professor Lu—"

"Yeah, yeah," Fred waved his hand in her direction. "Lupin. We know."

"Fred and I are gonna stick around," George said as Katrina scowled at his brother. "Maybe you messed the potion up or something."

"I brewed it perfectly, thank you very much," Katrina spat.

"Of course, Your Brilliantness," the twins said together.

Exhaling pointedly from her nose, Katrina rose to her full height and shoved a handful of hair over her shoulder. "Bring me my Cauldron back when you're done."

"Yes, Your Brilliantness," they said.

She might have been slightly miffed by the time she stepped back behind the portrait and walked to the Grand Staircase again.

But, for some reason, when Katrina began to walk to Professor Lupin's office, she found herself uninterested. She had just visited him the other day, there wasn't really any need to see him again. So what was she supposed to do?

The answer hit her like a tonne of bricks. Go to the Library. She hadn't been there in weeks! Like any typical Ravenclaw, Katrina turned on the heel of her feet and marched towards the Library, now much happier. A good book sound marvelous right now.

When she arrived, though, a good book was not waiting for her. Hermione was, sitting alone at a table and wiping her eyes furiously, a crumpled note in her hand.

"Oh," Katrina mumbled, hurrying over pulling out a chair immediately. Hermione squeezed her fist tighter and rubbed her eyes harder, letting Katrina know that she knew she was there. "Oh, is it Ron again?"

"No, no," Hermione choked quietly, shaking her head full of bushy brown hair and finally removing her hand from her face, revealing puffy and red eye along with tear-stained cheeks. "W-we're fine now, I apologized, b-but — but —"

"Well that's good," Katrina said soothingly and began to rub Hermione's back. But the Gryffindor instead shoved the note into her hand, beginning to sob as quietly as she could without Madam Pince noticing.

Worried and a little anxious, Katrina carefully unraveled the letter, skimming through the sloppy, messy ink written on it. And then she gasped.

"No!" she said. "No, they can't! Buckbeak didn't do anything, you all said so! It was just that Malfoy prick starting a fuss! They couldn't — why would they—?"

"Oh, Katrina," Hermione wept, "they're going to execute him! Th-they're not even going to wait for the appeal to make a decision, I can just feel it! Malfoy's father has close ties w-with the Ministry and I'm sure he's threatened them all with curses on their families and — and — it's just so horrible!"

"It's illegal!" Katrina restrained her screeching as Madam Pince looked over her long nose at them. "It's immoral! Wrong! Stupid! Selfish! Dumb! Why wouldn't they just — I-I don't know — send him off to a Hippogriff reserve like the others? This is completely and utter bollocks!"

"I know!" Hermione finally wailed. "I know it is! They know it is! B-but we can't stop them! It's so horrible, Katrina!"

"Shh!" said Madam Pince harshly. Katrina ignored her.

"I am going to brutally maim that Malfoy boy the next time I see him," she said through gritted teeth. "Buckbeak is innocent, you've told me! Harry's told me, Ron's told me, the rest of you have told me! All because he's a whiny, piss-eating little shite—"

"Shh," Hermione said quickly, taking a hold of Katrina's arm with a vice-like grip. "Don't — we'll get into trouble! Just — just — ooh!"

She was clearly just as angry and frustrated as Katrina was. There was a fiery look in her eyes and some sort of twinge to her voice as she exclaimed quietly in agitation. Katrina had a feeling that Hermione wanted to maim Malfoy when she saw him next, too. Thus a great friendship of mutual great dislike was formed.

"I just can't stand it," she said finally, sighing and crying a bit more.

"I can't either, and I won't," Katrina said firmly. After many more minutes of sobbing from Hermione and shoulder rubs from herself, Katrina asked quietly, "So where are Harry and Ron then?"

"I don't know," Hermione said as she wiped her eyes again. "I told them I was coming here to research, and they said they wanted to come, too, but I told them not to. They're probably in the common room or something."

"Do they not know —?"

"No, no, they do," Hermione sniffed. "They're just as — just as mad as I am. Oh, I just wish they would give Buckbeak a chance!"

"I know, I know," Katrina said, calming down and rubbing her shoulder again. "That's horrible. . . ."

"Absolutely dreadful," Hermione agreed.

END OF CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

well THAT only took forever and a day