Chapter Twenty-Five: Heaven's A Lie

Disclaimer: All characters belong to J.K. Rowling. The underlined portions are taken directly from the novel; I do not own those parts. They belong to J.K. Rowling.

Author's Note: This fanfiction is going to be different from my other stories. This picks up where "The Heart of Everything" left off. The time in the books also changes. So, pay attention the time, so you don't get confused. Some of the chapters are other Marcus Flint/Katie Bell stories, just with more changes and deleted scenes added.

Time: Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

Genre: Romance, Drama, and Friendship

Rating: PG-13

Bold: Flashback

Katie sunk down onto a bench in the Hogwarts courtyard. Things were very strange this year. No one seemed to stay out of the common rooms more than necessary. Katie had been heading back to the Gryffindor common room, but decided against it. She wanted to enjoy one of the few last remaining nice days. Winter would be upon them soon.

Over the last few weeks, a number of students had disappeared from school. Though the numbers weren't large, it was still noticeable. She figured that parents were fleeing the country or thought that they were safer at home. She was just glad that her dad and Jenna had not thought about that. Maybe they thought that Katie and her sisters were safer at Hogwarts than they were at home.

She stared up at the gray sky. No Death Eaters flying through the air. People were probably just overreacting. She supposed that it was this moment of peace was like the eye of the hurricane with the worse to come.

Katie knew that the worse was to come tonight. Tonight was Quidditch tryouts.

She was kicking herself hard for volunteering to tryout again this year. Why did she do that and risk her spot? She could have had the night off. Why did she have to be such a stupid person? As she got older, things came out of her mouth before she thought them completely out. It seemed to happen the most when she was around Harry.

She did not hate Harry, but there was just something about him that got under her skin. It was just like saying heaven's a lie to someone. He just bothered her sometimes, she guessed. People always felt bad for Harry and whatnot, but she knew that there were people who were a lot worse off than he was. He had friends and people who would die to protect him, many people did not have that. She thought that Harry was blessed more than he realized.

She supposed that she really just did not get people.

Katie got up off the bench and tugged back to the common room. She had to get ready for tryouts anyway. Even though she was conflicted about Quidditch, she just hoped that she got her Chaser position back. It was her final year at Hogwarts and she wanted to leave with a bang.

But not like Fred and George's bang.

She was thinking about something with a little less explosives and a little less bang. She guessed that she would just settle for Quidditch.

Leanne was in their dorm when Katie reached it. She looked up from the book she was reading and rolled onto her back.

Katie smiled at her as she set her stuff down on her bed.

Leanne pulled herself up to a sitting position. "Doing anything interesting?"

Katie kneeled down in front of her trunk. "Getting ready for tryouts."
Leanne flipped her hair. "So, you really are trying out again?"
Katie found her Quidditch robes and pulled them out of the trunk. "That's the plan."

"Are you stupid? Why!" Leanne exclaimed.

Katie pulled her sweater out of her trunk next. "It just kind of came out before I thought about it."

Leanne climbed down off her bed. "Why?"

Katie through the robes and sweater on her bed. "You don't need to jump all over me. Alex already took care of that for you."
Leanne frowned. "He clearly did not do a very good job on it."

Katie pulled her pads and gloves out of her trunk's side pocket. They were brand spanking new, thanks to Marcus's account at Quality Quidditch Supplies. Sometimes it paid to have a professional Quidditch player for a boyfriend.

Katie felt something hard hit her. "Ow!" She looked over and saw Leanne's book laying on the floor next to her. "That hurt."

"Oh, suck it up," Leanne said. "It's not like I hit you that hard anyway."
Katie rolled her eyes. "Violence is not the answer."
"Well, neither is trying out for a team that you have been a part of for years and a team that you should have been captain for!" Leanne snapped.

Katie did not know what the big deal was. It was one for Katie herself to feel a certain way, but for others to feel the same way and snap at her for it was completely different. She wished that people would just take a chill pill. Their constant bombing at her was getting old. She just wished that they would back off for three seconds.

But she bit her tongue and chose to remain silent.

Leanne crossed her arms over her chest. "I just think that the entire thing is messed up. It's not fair to you."
"If I had gotten Capitan, people would probably think that it was because of Marcus," Katie said. It was the best defence that she could come up.

"Why on Earth would people think that?" Leanne exclaimed.

"He's a pro and they would think that he pulled strings to get me in," Katie replied as she stood up.

"If he did any string pulling, it would be for Slytherin," Leanne muttered.

"But most people won't see it that way," Katie said. She hoped that she was doing a good job at faking this.

Leanne nodded slowly. "Does he have anything to do with this year's team? Didn't his friends leave last year?"
Katie shrugged. " I really don't know." Of course she did. Marcus did not even know who the captain was.

Leanne sighed. "I just don't think it's fair," she said slowly.

Katie wondered how many more times people was going to say that. "Life's not fair."
Leanne closed her eyes. "Yeah, I know."

Katie twirled the ring on her finger. Marcus had gotten it for her a few years ago.

"So, did you ever determine if that was promise ring or not?" Leanne asked out of the blue.

Katie threw down her sweater on the bed. "Now, where on earth did that come from?"

"Didn't we talk about that?" Leanne inquired. A thoughtful look her face. "I thought we did."

"No, I believe you are mistaken," Katie said as she thought back to that day.

Katie rolled over and stared into the soft flames of the fire. Christmas was here. She climbed out of bed and looked at the stack of presents at the foot of it. They looked so pretty in their lovely wrapping. She did not want to ruin it. On her right, Leanne began to move.

"Merry Christmas," Leanne whispered to Katie.

"Merry Christmas."

Leanne sat up and looked at her own mound of presents and jumped out of bed. She was more awake then she ever had been. "PRESENTS!" She began to tear into them.

Katie turned back to her own pile. She picked the one up from Marcus and opened it. After nearly two years of dating, she still did not know what to expect from him. She opened it and saw that he had gotten her the new Chaser gloves that she wanted. She smiled and tried them on. They fit wonderfully on her. A smaller package fall out of the wrapping. She bent down and carefully picked it up.

Leanne's head shot up. "What is it?"

Katie stared at the package. "Who knows? It's from Marcus."

Leanne raised her eyebrows suggestively.

Katie threw wrapping paper at her. "You're sick."

Leanne shrugged. "You never know."

Katie turned her attention back to the package. He would not think about that, would he? Great, now Leanne had her thinking provocative thoughts. She took a deep breath and opened the package.

Leanne leaned over her shoulder and swore quite loudly once the contents were revealed. "That was not cheap."

Katie stared down at the object in her lap. It was a purple stone on a gold band. It was the ring that she had been wanting. She could not believe that he had gotten her that, let alone that he remembered she wanted it. "It's my ring," she whispered.

"The one you always talked about?" Leanne inquired.

Katie nodded. "I can't believe her remembered."

"Well, it is Christmas and miracles do happen."

Katie slid the ring on and stared at it. Maybe this was her Christmas miracle.

Either that or he just wanted a heated make-out session.

"Well, if we didn't, we need to," Leanne stated.

Katie just rolled her eyes. She really needed to get to tryouts. "Maybe later we can attempt to read Marcus's mind."

"Oh, scary," Leanne said. Her eyes got big.

All Katie could do was laugh.

An hour later, Katie stood on the Quidditch pitch gripping her broom. A lot of people had turned out for tryouts. It kind of surprised her a first, but then she looked the Quidditch hopefuls very closely. A lot of them were Harry Potter fan girls. She shook her head. It was not going to be a hellish tryout but it probably was not going to be heaven. People's definition of heaven tended to be a lie anyway. This should be piece of cake.

Ginny Weasley was her only real competition if she was going on past experiences. Katie thought that she could live with Ginny as a teammate.

Harry lingered next Katie. He seemed to eyeing someone. Katie really did not know who it could be.

We met on the train, in old Sluggy's compartment," he said confidently, stepping out of the crowd to shake Harry's hand. (Rowling 223)

Katie tried not to wince as he stepped on her foot as he pushed by her. She hoped that this guy did not get a spot on the team.

"Cormac McLaggen, Keeper." (Rowling 223)

Katie hoped that there was someone better suited for Keeper out there. Anyone had to be better. Judging by the look on Harry's face, she thought that he did as well.

"You didn't try out last year, did you?" asked Harry, taking note of the breadth of McLaggen and thinking that he would probably block all three hoops without even moving.

"I was in the hospital wing when they held the trials," said McLaggen, with something of a swagger. "Ate a pound of doxy eggs for a bet." (Rowling 223)

Katie tried not to gag. Why were boys so gross? Most importantly why were guys so stupid and bragged about being stupid? She had yet to find a member of the female gender who had the answers to these question. If there was such a female, then she would be the wealthiest person in the world. She would had figured out how the male mind operates.

"Right," said Harry. "Well...if you wait over there." (Rowling 223)

McLaggen frowned as he was ordered to the sidelines. Katie could not help but smirk. She was glad that Harry was not going to take any crap from anyone.

Harry blew his whistle. "Alright!" he said over the crowd as they quieted down. "Let's get to work! We have a lot to get done today. So break up into groups of ten based on what you are trying out for."

Katie joined a bunch of giggling girls, who turned bright red every time Harry looked over at them. She had this in the bag.