AN/ This chapter is dedicated to TALIX who has brilliantly reviewed BOTH of my stories after what must have been a marathon session of reading!

~*~*~ Chapter Twenty Seven ~*~*~

High Fidelity

Hagrid bent down to scoop up the pale girl, looking unusually serious and quiet, hefting her in one easy motion and cradling her to him as he set of through the crowd of spectators. The whole market seemed to have stopped what they were doing to witness the scene, of the infamous Prisoner of Azkaban being hauled away by a half giant as her three friends swarmed around the two figures, yelling and looking furious.

Well, more one of them was doing the yelling, the other two seemed to be holding him back - trying to stop him from attacking the crowd.

"WHO DID IT?" he roared, brandishing his wand at the shocked crowd, "OWN UP!"

"Harry, come on," cried Hermione, dragging the wand out of his hand in a sudden wrench, "this isn't going to help!"

"WHAT DID YOU DO TO HER!" he continued to rant, addressing the crowd in general, "WHAT'S WRONG WITH HER?"

No one replied and the crowd was hastily shuffling out of the furious finger pointing of the new magus, who seemed to be trying to pick out a target, any target.

"We need to get her to Madam Pomfrey," Ron told him seriously, "stop wasting time."

Harry seemed to take notice of this more than Hermione's pleads and finally dropped his arm and running over to Hagrid without a word. Ron and Hermione shared a worried look before catching up with Hagrid's massive form, who was taking large strides towards the castle, causing the others the run by his side just catch up. Harry was questioning him endlessly, demanding to know what was wrong, begging Hagrid to do something now, complaining about the time it was taking and asking if he could do anything.

"Harry, I don't know what's wrong," said Hagrid finally in a tight voice, "stop yeh pestering and we'll get there quicker."

After that he shut up and they continued their hasty procession to the castle. Hermione was already trying to formulate a theory on what had happened - to her eyes it looked as if Catalina had been beaten up, not cursed, but Harry had apparently been with her the whole time. As they crossed the school lawns they were all surprised to see Dumbledore sweeping down the lawns towards them, followed by Professor McGonagall and Flitwick.

"She's coming 'round," Hagrid proclaimed suddenly, and Harry forgot about the Professors coming their way.

Hagrid placed her down on the frosty grass and Harry pushed him aside as he knelt down in front of her.

"Catalina?" he asked softly, shaking her slightly, "Catalina, can you hear me?"

The girl gave a groan and shook her head slowly before pulling her eyelids open. In the few seconds of entering consciousness she became panicked and disorientated, Harry could feel her fear choking him. She waved her hand but he grabbed it before she could fly spells at everyone, suddenly noticing another person kneeling on the snow across from him. He looked up into the concerned blue eyes of Professor Dumbledore, trying somehow to plead for him to do something.

He looked back down at Catalina, who winced and began to blink furiously, before suddenly sitting bolt upright, looking terrified.

"Tumsc…tumsca…tiy…tiy," she kept saying thickly, shaking her head from side to side, as if to clear out her head.

"What are you trying to say?" asked Harry, leaning down and trying to hold eye contact with her wandering gaze, "Catalina?"

"Harry," she gasped coherently, eyes lighting up in recognition, "Timescape!"

"What?" he asked in confusion, thinking she was still speaking in tongues, "Time scape?"

"Timescape," repeated Dumbledore, looking over to the other two professor's as if this confirmed their worst fears, "Who was it Catalina, who's Timescape?"

She blinked rapidly, wincing as if in some pain and Harry wasn't sure if she'd heard him right, Harry was pretty sure he hadn't. He was confused as everyone except him and Ron seemed to understand what was happening.

"Firelight's," she said in a choked voice, "It was Charles Firelight's. He's here, we've got to get away, please, he's here."

"Whoa, whoa, wait a second," said Harry in a panicked voice, "what are you talking about? What's she saying?"

"All questions will be answered later, it is not safe to stay out here exposed Albus," said Professor McGonagall sternly, though Harry could detect a quaver of fear in her voice, "lets get her out of the cold and into a hospital bed."

"You're right, Hagrid pick up Miss Firelight and bring her to the hospital wing," commanded Dumbledore, rising to his feet.

"I can walk," declared Catalina defiantly, "I'm ok, I just have a little headache -"

She climbed unsteadily to her feet, but as she did so she gave a mighty sway and her eyes rolled to the back of her head as she pitched forward, legs buckling underneath her. Harry darted forward to catch her with a panicked yell but Hagrid got there first and there was a few seconds of general confusion and shouts before Dumbledore managed to restore order and they were sent up to the castle.

Catalina seemed to be out for the count again and the three watched in anxious silence as they trooped into the Hospital Wing and we're led over to an empty bed, where she was laid down.

"Now everyone out, I need to examine her," said Madam Pomfrey, flapping every one with her arms, "That includes you, Mr Potter."

Harry, who had remained at the foot of her bed gave her a startled look and was practically dragged around the tall curtains by Ron and Hermione who stood on the other side, staring at it blankly for a few moments.

"What's a Time scape?" demanded Harry, rounding on Hermione suddenly, who was looking pale faced and worried looking.

"Sssh, not here," she hissed back to him.

"But if she said Firelight is here that means -" began Harry again regardless.

"Don't talk about it here!" Hermione rebuked him again, "we don't know who might be listening."

"Hermione in case you haven't noticed Catalina is lying in there unconscious because of something that bastard did, this isn't the time to be worrying about being secretive!" he snapped angrily.

"Harry, get a grip!" Hermione shot back, "she is going to be fine, don't loose your head and risk exposing everything because you're too hot-headed to see sense!"

"I'm not being hot-headed!" he told her incredulously, "I think I've got every reason to be worried when she's been in some kind of weird magical thing with her father, a Death Eater by the way, that's left her looking like she's been in a bar-room brawl!"

"Mr Potter," came a shocked voice, "could you please keep your noise down inside the Hospital Wing and kindly leave us alone, all of you! Go on, shoo!"

Hermione shot him a disgusted look for getting them thrown out and they silently walked out of the wing and hung around the door. Last lesson was still in full swing and the three Professors' that had been escorting them had disappeared, probably up to Dumbledore's office Harry supposed.

"Hermione, what is a Tim -" he began again, this time in a more pleading voice.

"Harry," she growled warningly, "sit down and shut up."

Harry gave her an angry glare before throwing himself down onto the floor of the corridor, making it very clear to them both that he was in a mood with them. However a few minutes of this and he'd given up on the anger and had taken to staring ahead of himself blankly, biting his nails.

That was never a good sign.

*

Ten minutes later and Catalina was battling away with the Matron's various attempts at prodding her with various charms and muttering things under her breath.

"I'm fine," she said irritably, "I need to see Professor Dumbledore!"

"Are you a Healer? No, you're not. So will you kindly let me do my job and sit still," said Pomfrey in a brusque manner.

There was another few seconds of fighting in which Catalina tried to get out of bed, while the Matron tried to forcibly restrain her and push her back down. She called the matron several choice names, all in other languages, who replied by telling her to sit still in an increasingly louder voice. It was a battle of wills and strength and in the end Pomfrey won as Catalina was too tired and weary to struggle any further, although she wouldn't admit that.

"Now," said Madam Pomfrey, nostrils flaring and holding Catalina's wrists tightly, "Will you please just sit still?"

"No," said Catalina wearily, "this is more important - I promise I'll come back after I speak to Dumbledore, it's really important!"

"Whatever you have to say can wait until we heal these cuts and bruises and stop these shakes of yours," bustled the Matron, already casting various spells over the irritable Catalina.

She look down at her hands in surprise to see them trembling terribly, as if she had been exposed to a sudden cold and was freezing. In fact she felt pretty cold, her hands were a horrible white colour she didn't think was even her usual pallor. In fact, she noted with a strangely disconnected feeling, she was trembling all over and was feeling quite battered indeed.

"There, that wasn't hard was it," asked the Matron approvingly when Catalina had finally shut up, "now, I'm just going to get some Quick Seal Potion for those cuts on your face, I'll be back in a moment."

Catalina nodded absentmindedly, obviously a million miles away and the Matron walked off to her office, safe in the knowledge her patient was now subdued enough and obviously in shock.

The moment she went around the corner, Catalina lost her look of faraway dazedness and threw off the covers, tottering across the floor as her head throbbed and grasping the handle. She pulled back the door and broke into a sprint, ignoring the bustle of students around her, some shouting her name oddly.

She kept looking left and right, out of the windows an all around her, so convinced was she that Charles Firelight would turn up again. Feeling slightly ashamed, but overwhelmingly terrified she sped up and reached the gargoyle to Dumbledore's office, out of breath and with a desperately spinning head.

Someone grabbed hold of her arm and she gave a horrified scream, twisting out of the grip and spinning to face her attacker.

"Its only me," cried Harry, holding his hands up as if he were being threatened, "Are you ok? What are you doing out of the Hospital Wing?"

"Harry!" she gasped, before turning back to the gargoyle, trying to calm her furiously pounding heart - she had been sure she'd known who it was, "I need to see Dumbledore!"

"You're ill! You need to get back to the hospital wing," he said as Hermione and Ron caught up, "You're still bleeding!"

"No," she said, desperately hammering on the stone, "I need to see him!"

"There's plenty of time for that later," said Hermione gently, "come on Catalina, back to the Hospital -"

"No!" she cried in an anguished voice bordering on hysterical, "there's not! I didn't know he was going to be there! I didn't tell him we had the day off, I swear. I honestly never said anything, I haven't spoken to him - you know I wouldn't speak to him! You've got to tell them, they'll expel me! They'll think I did it -"

"Catalina!" cut in Ron in a shocked voice, "no one thinks you did ok?"

"They won't believe me," she said, obviously babbling, as she pounded the gargoyle, "you know they won't. You know what they'll say - what they always say! I can't go through -"

"Stop it," commanded Harry suddenly, having a brief scuffle as he tried to pull her hands away from the rough stonework she had been beating her fists on for the past minute, "you're going to hurt yourself! Stop it, Catalina, come on, stop it."

"STOP!" shouted Hermione suddenly as Catalina and Harry still scrapped.

They both froze, the haunting gene of every school child that programmed into the sounds of an angry authoritative voice.

"You're ill Catalina, you're not thinking straight," she explained in the calm voice of a councillor now, "you've had a nasty shock and by the looks of it some heavy blows so you need to sit down and get your rest."

"She's right Catalina, you'll feel better in the morning," added Ron supportively.

"No," she said, pulling her hands out of Harry's grip but not attacking the gargoyle again, "By the time I'm rested up he'll have got away! Dumbledore needs to hear this!"

"They know what your father looks like," Hermione reminded her, "and they know roughly where he is, they can do this on their own."

"It wasn't him in the flesh!" Catalina cried, "he was using someone else, possessing them and if we don't find her soon he's going to kill her and it'll be all my fault!"

Harry, Ron and Hermione were silent for a moment, obviously sharing one of their looks, before Harry gave a sigh a pulled her gently aside.

"Peppermint Creams," he told the gargoyle, which sprang aside.

She gave a few blinks as she tried to clear her head that was pounding terribly before taking the stairs first. As she climbed the stairs she began to feel dizzy and stumbled slightly. She was eternally grateful when she felt Harry's hand on her back, steadying her as she went, preventing her from falling down the spiral staircase.

She reached the door and knocked it with one of her trembling hands, which she quickly hid from everyone's view as the door was opened and the three Professors that had found them blinked back at them in surprise. For the next few moments there was a lot of loud conversation, all with exactly the same remarks as had been discussed down by the gargoyle, a fact which was not helped by the appearance of Madam Pomfrey, looking evil.

"Silence!" commanded Dumbledore, raising his hands, "that's better. Now Catalina are you feeling well enough to be here?"

"Yes," she said defiantly.

"Then Poppy, I'm afraid this cannot wait. I shall send her down as soon as possible," he assured.

Madam Pomfrey hissed and spat her resentment towards Dumbledore's decision and made not a quiet departure, her words of anger still ringing in their ears.

"Now Catalina," said Dumbledore when the door had been closed and sealed with a secrecy charm, "what is so important that it cannot wait a few hours?"

"Don't bother looking for him, he's far away by now," she started up instantly, swaying slightly as she stood and waving her finger about.

"We understand this, we usefully have access to the Magical Tracker System used by the Misuse of Magic office and he is not registering," supplied Dumbledore helpfully.

"He wouldn't anyway," snapped Catalina, obviously annoyed at the interruption, "it doesn't track Magus's who do not possess a wand! And anyway everyone knows there's loads of charms you can do to make yourself untraceable!"

Harry could tell Dumbledore was shocked to hear this news, but hid it well, "Well, in that case the MTS is of no use to us then."

"No, It's not. But you shouldn't be looking for him! He wasn't there - he was controlling someone else!"

"With the Imperious Curse?" asked Professor Flitwick.

"No, not that, he was possessing someone," she said desperately, "you know, using their voice but directing their speech, seeing through their eyes, possessing her."

"Indeed?" asked Dumbledore curiously, leaning forward in his chair with interest, "who?"

"I didn't recognise her, but she was about six foot three, a black woman, about 25/30 years old. She had pure white hair, but it wasn't grey, she had a small scar on her neck and her wand was made of -"

"Redwood," finished Professor McGonagall with a grimace, "It's Janita Jacobs."

There was a flurry of activity as messages were interchanged through the fire, and owls were written and hurried, low conversations were interchanged between the three staff, seemingly forgetting the other four were still standing there.

Catalina still stood on her feet, swaying even more now, her head was hurting terribly and she still had the shivers - her hands were quaking like nobodies business. Several Order members came and went in a short space of time and Catalina absentmindedly brushed her hair from off her face, shocked to see that when she withdrew her hand it was stained with blood. Before she could subconsciously examine her injuries further, Professor McGonagall and Flitwick left the room and Dumbledore motioned for them to sit down.

She gratefully fell into her chair and heard the others follow suit.

"Now Catalina, I want you to tell me exactly what happened, and everything your father said," Dumbledore told her in a comforting voice, "its vitally important you leave nothing out."

"Can't this wait?" cut in Harry, eyes focussed on the small trickle of blood coming from under her hairline worriedly.

"I'm afraid it cannot Harry," said Dumbledore gently, "you know I would not ask unless we had no other option."

Harry sat back in his chair without saying anything, and Catalina opened her eyes again, seemingly having missed out the last bit of the conversation.

"Tea perhaps would help here?" said Dumbledore, summoning a tray of teacups and biscuits instantly.

Harry leant forward and picked a cup and saucer up for Catalina, handing it her gently. He was worried about how unfocussed her eyes were as she took the cup off him. There was a sudden jarring noise in the air and everyone stared at the source. Catalina's hands were trembling so much that the cup she was holding onto the saucer was shaking and clattering noisily.

"I'm not actually thirsty," she said, thrusting it back into Harry's hands and slopping the boiling liquid on her hands in the process, though she didn't seem to notice.

Ron and Hermione shared a worried look and Dumbledore acted as if nothing had happened.

"Well then, down to business…" he said, picking up a ginger snap, "Catalina, what happened?"

"Well, I can't really remember much of what he was saying," she began in a confused voice, "but we were arguing I remember, for a while, about - now what was it? Something about…well the Scape flickered and he had to go…"

Dumbledore studied her as she cast around her confused thoughts, trying to pinpoint the words that had been said, but she was genuinely puzzled. What had they been talking about? The last curse must have addled her brains or something because she couldn't for the life of her remember…

"Think hard," coaxed Dumbledore.

"I don't know," she said frustratingly, "he wanted to ask me something…about my mother? Does that sound right? No…maybe not…And there was something about me being…a Dumbledore…No…"

She lapsed into silence and everyone studied her intently. She seemed to have nothing more to say and Harry frowned deeply at her, taking in the cuts and bruises, including what looked like nail marks around her chin that were turning yellow and green as they bruised. He cast a worried glance at Dumbledore, who was also studying her.

"Sorry to butt in," said Ron suddenly, "but what is a Timescape, I don't understand what's happened?"

"Timescaping is the ability possessed by powerful Magus's and Sorcerers to alter the flow of time. What happened to day I assume, was that Charles Firelight used this ability to speak to Catalina."

"He stopped time?" asked Harry incredulously as Ron gaped alongside him.

"No, that's impossible, no one can stop time. But they can bend time. Firelight pulled himself and Catalina out of normal time and into their 'own time' as you might call it. It would give the appearance that they were the only one's moving," explained Dumbledore as Hermione nodded along, obviously already knowing and understanding this.

"But he had to be close by," cut in Hermione timidly, "didn't he? He can't do that sort of magic from a distance?"

"Oh no, he was here alright," said Dumbledore thoughtfully, causing Catalina's tremors to increase, "maybe hiding somewhere in Hogsmeade."

"Then we can still capture him!" cut in Harry excitedly, "couldn't we?"

"He's gone," said Catalina in a faraway voice, "he's walked free again for the second time when I could have stopped him…"

"Let us put aside thoughts of capture for a moment. The Order are out looking for Janita now, but it is absolutely imperative that we know what your father wanted," pressed Dumbledore, trying to catch Catalina's gaze, "and what he said exactly."

"I can't remember," she told him frustratingly, "its like there's this huge block and all the words are just garbled, there's no sense to them."

"That's because of the temporal displacement caused by the fluctuations in time," offered Hermione in a clear voice before noticing everyone's expression and adding, "isn't it?"

"Er…in English now?" asked Ron, looking even more confused than Harry.

"The brain cannot cope with being in two time frames, or the memory of one," Dumbledore said in disappointment, leaning back in his chair reflectively, "It's like a massive overdose of Time Lag in international portkeys orJet Lag that muggles get."

"Oh…" said Ron slowly, before turning to Hermione looking impressed, "how'd you know that then?"

"You don't use a Time Turner for a year and not pick up a few things on the perils of time travelling," said Hermione bashfully, blushing under the headmasters proud grin.

"Hang on," said Harry, backtracking the others, "you're saying you can remember the scenes, but not the words?"

Catalina nodded at him and he gave a thoughtful nod and turned to Dumbledore slowly.

"Well then, wouldn't the Pensieve work?"

Dumbledore nodded, Hermione looked intrigued, Ron was looking slightly lost, but Catalina merely stared at him.

"You have a Pensieve?" she asked Harry.

"No, Professor Dumbledore does," he said, noting with alarm her lids were looking slightly heavy now and she was sounding a bit dull-witted.

"We could give anything a try," said Dumbledore approvingly, already heading to his cabinet and pulling the rough stone bowl out.

He placed it on the desk in front of them and Dumbledore leaned up against it.

"Now I need a few tester memories first, to acclimatise your thoughts to the bowl," said Dumbledore, brandishing a wand, "I want you to think about a conversation you've had today."

Catalina nodded heavily and cast around for a suitable discussion she wouldn't mind the whole room hearing. She still hadn't thought of one when Dumbledore asked her kindly if she was ready and in her panic she told him she was. He pointed his wand against her head and she desperately recalled walking to Hogsmeade. She felt a tingling sensation around where the wand was placed and a funny slight dizziness as he began to draw it away, tipping the silvery strand into the pool of metallic water glittering in the stone bowl.

Dumbledore instructed her to hold the sides and swish it around, which she did, feeling somewhat pleased when an image of Harry appeared sprawled across the floor.

"Yeah," came his voice, sounding like it was coming from a long way away as a giant hand came into view, "some of us have better things to do than being sat in a frozen puddle being mocked."

"Would I mock you?" she recognised her own voice asking innocently.

"Er, let me think about that….yes!" said Harry, being wrenched into the air by Hagrid.

The image faded and she looked up, hoping this was a good sign. Dumbledore smiled encouragingly and she gave a sigh of relief.

"And again," instructed Dumbledore, "a memory from yesterday."

She cast her mind back desperately - what had happened yesterday? She had come back from St Mungo's, talked to Dumbledore all day, spoken to Harry before going to bed in the early hours. Again before she was ready, he began and unsurprisingly they were all a little disappointed by the haze like mist that appeared when he put the memory in.

"You need to concentrate," he said kindly.

"I know, I'm sorry, but I can't remember anything about yesterday I feel like sharing," she said, avoiding his gaze.

She guessed Harry probably knew why she didn't want to broadcast any of her memories of yesterday to them all, most of them were personal between her and him she didn't want everyone to see.

"Just one more, a distant memory," he asked, though Catalina wasn't sure why.

She searched desperately for one as her head reeled and finally settled on something nice and simple. Again Dumbledore drew out the memory and placed it into the bowl as she closed her eyes wearily, she was beginning to feel tired now…

Harry however leaned forward and gazed into the swirling depths as a figure rose up and revolved slowly, an image he'd seen replicated a long time ago now.

It was of a young boy of perhaps six or seven, dressed in unfamiliar Quidditch robes with a junior broom in one hand. He was chatting away in an excited voice, grinning widely, but what he was talking about Harry had no idea, it was in a very foreign language indeed. However, Harry didn't need to be able to speak Afrikaans to know who this person was, it was quite obvious just by looking at him, with his coal black eyes and hair with something familiar lingering around the grin.

It was her baby brother.

Ron and Hermione were frowning at each other and Dumbledore was gazing intently at the figure with a look of deep thoughtfulness and concentration. He looked over to Catalina who was staring blankly at the figure who had stopped talking by this time and disappeared into the mist again. Harry wondered why Catalina had chosen that memory, she had always tried to keep the existence of her brother a secret, yet now she was broadcasting it loud and clear.

"Ok, let's just go for the big one now," said Dumbledore, after a searching look and an understanding smile, "concentrate deeply on what happened a few moments before the Timescape started."

She screwed her eyes up in concentration, and Dumbledore gave her a long time to prepare. She had her face scrunched up when she finally gave a nod, and Dumbledore drew out the memory, placing it with the others. It floated into view and after a moments, they all climbed in, landing in various places around the Harry and Catalina who were walking through the market hand in hand, as well as standing next to each other looking at their twins.

This time they all noticed the sudden pulse through the air and just after, Harry-memory had raised his hand to his eyes.

"Can you feel…something…"

Time slowed to a standstill and there was the sound of approaching footsteps…

*

It was six hours later and nightfall had fallen on Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Harry Potter was currently making his way through the empty corridors of the school alone, under the cover of his invisibility cloak. The Marauder's Map was pressed against his nose as he squinted through the dark at the tiny labelled dots.

Professor Dumbledore was currently in his office, so were a suspiciously large number of people for midnight. The news that Firelight had noticed the departures from the ministry and wanted to know where a lot of people had gone had sent ripples of panic throughout the Order.

Peeves, Filch and Mrs Norris were all together in the sixth floor tapestry room, some distance away from him and Harry only had to pass one teacher on the way to the Hospital Wing who was roaming the corridors in search of the kitchen most likely.

When he reached the Hospital Wing entrance, he wiped the map clean and folded it away, pushing the door open as soundlessly as possible and slipping in. The room was practically empty of patients and he moved soundlessly over to Catalina's bed, recognising her outline almost instantly.

He pulled up a chair and sat down, leaning his elbows onto her bedclothes and places his chin in his hands. She had fainted whilst inside her own memory somewhere towards the end Harry had hoped and they had all been thrown out instantly. When they had bought her to the Hospital Wing Madam Pomfrey had been furious and had disallowed any visitors.

Harry stared down at her form, once again feeling sick. Most of the cuts and bruises were gone now and she looked almost fine, but Harry couldn't rid himself of the images of her Pensieve memory. He'd wished he hadn't seen in a way, because his own guesses couldn't have been any worse than the truth if he'd tried.

Apart from the teasing, the taunting and the obvious long running manner with which he dealt with her, it was the violence that had sickened him the most. How could he have done those things, to his own daughter? Harry had counted four maybe five times he'd punched her in the face, he'd grabbed her by the arm repeatedly, shook her, dug his nails into her chin on two occasions, used the Imperious curse on her…

Catalina had once told him she had a very strict upbringing with her father and last year Hermione had hinted to him that she got the impression her father used a little more force than necessary. Harry hadn't believed her then, at the time he was still the world famous Auror and Gryffindor, but as he had found out many time during his magical life, Hermione's impressions were usually right.

He felt sick for her, angry, furious even for her, but most of all appalled that his Catalina had to be put through that. Not only was it so soon after the last meeting with him, it had been only two days previously her mother had died in front of her. And now Harry couldn't sleep because he was worried for her, because he was feeling overwhelmed by the emotions witnessing the family reunion had caused him to feel.

Harry reached out from under the cloak and brushed the mass of hair off her forehead carefully. She didn't make a sound and he continued to brush it away for some time. He recalled the part of the meeting in which Firelight had turned towards the frozen figure of himself, when he said all those things about him, the fact Catalina was with him for his money, that he was 'Half-blood, muggle-raised, worthless waste of space.' Boy he wasn't well liked in the Firelight household.

But as angry as his words made Harry feel, it was overrun by the memory of Catalina stepping in front of him, of her defending him even though he could see in her eyes she thought it would cost her her life. In the darkness he looked at the lightning bolt scar on his hand. He'd got that nearly a year ago, because he'd proved he'd been willing to die for her, and it was the same now.

This thought proceeded to dwell on something Firelight had said that day, 'who are you then…a Potter?' The words had come as a surprise to Harry, even though he'd known they were coming, for some reason he couldn't stop thinking about this sentence, and how he had said that in Harry, Catalina had found money, a family and somewhere to live in all in one go.

He tried to rid his head of these thoughts, and sat back in his chair, vowing to keep an eye on her not just for tonight, but forever. He never wanted to have to stand by and watch her get hurt like that when he could do nothing. He was there for gods sake, inches away from her, he was preventing her from escaping even!

He felt so useless that he could do nothing to help, then or now, and merely settled for watching her, fighting off sleep and witnessing sunrise at Hogwarts for the first time in a long while.

*

Catalina groggily re-entered consciousness, fighting it off for as long as possible and dozing fitfully as the bright white light irritated her eyes. She stubbornly kept her eyes closed as she replayed her memory and groaned, it all seemed such a long time ago and a few minutes ago at the same time, so surreal and yet so real. She pulled her eyes open finally when she heard a slight rustle of clothes around her.

Blinking furiously and trying to get used to the light, her eyes focussed in on a tired looking Harry, who was slouched in his chair, watching her. He looked worse than she felt and she cleared her dry throat a few times before attempting to speak.

"How long have you been here?" she croaked out, giving him a half smile of a greeting.

"A while," he said, sitting up and stretching slightly.

"How longs a while?" she asked him, hiding her one arm under a mass of blankets hastily.

"Oh, since about midnight," he replied, after looking down at his watch.

"What?" she asked incredulously, trying to rub the sleep out of her eyes, "you serious?"

He shrugged and stretched in his chair, before shuffling forward and resting his crossed arms on her knees.

"How are you feeling?" he asked somewhat anxiously.

"Fine," was all she said as she winced slightly, trying to move into a seated position.

Harry gave her a sceptical look, for some reason he didn't believe her theatrics, she thought she'd done a pretty good acting job then. She reached across to the side cabinet for a glass of water and suddenly the noise of clattering metal filled the air. She looked quickly at the source of her noise, her bangle was tapping against the counter as her hands were shaking - ah, so that would be what gave her away.

She pretended nothing was amiss and took the water anyway, the glass banging against her teeth in time to her shakes as she took a sip, using both hands in the end to steady it. When she put the glass down, she tried to tuck her hair behind her ears and act normally.

"Here," said Harry eventually with a sigh, taking both of her hands and placing them on the blanket in front of her, folding his own hands over hers, "Just take it easy."

"No one is expecting you to be perfectly normal after yesterday ok?" he told her, "you've had a huge, massive shock and you've been pretty ill."

She gave a heavy sigh and nodded, wondering if her father was going to ruin her life all over again, she only had a few days left at Hogwarts and she wanted to enjoy them, as much as she could anyway.

"So, now you've seen my father as he normally is, what do you think?" she asked him.

"Do you need to ask?" Harry said, and she could hear the bitterness in his voice, "does he always speak to you like that?"

"Like what?"

"Like he was. Calling you 'child' all the time, putting you down, and the way he kept telling you to "stand up straight and- "

"'- look me in the eye'," finished Catalina, "yeah."

"Oh," said Harry with a frown and another angry look, "why'd he keep calling you Aurora?"

"Oh it's what he does when he's angry," she said, avoiding his gaze as she stared at her bedspread, "you know how parents usually say your full name, well I guess he figures 'Catalina Aurora Firelight' must be too long."

"Its his mothers name anyway, I guess he likes comparing us " she added a while later, before muttering slightly "the evil bitch that she was."

Madame Pomfrey chose that moment to walk in and thus ensued a long argument about Harry being there without permission. Luckily he'd had many hours to contemplate his reasons for being in as early as he was and she left a while later to fetch Catalina's potion and to wake up some of the other patients.

"Am I getting out today?" Catalina asked her when she returned with a small purple vial.

"Hmm," huffed Madam Pomfrey who looked as if she desperately wanted a reason to keep her in, but couldn't really find one, "yes, you may leave -"

"Excellent," she said, making to get up and go there and then.

"After you've drank this and let it go down. You should make second lesson," she declared, stalking away again, obviously in a bad mood.

Catalina took the potion with a grimace, "I'm sure she's made it purposely horrible," she said with a face like a sour lemon.

She had to wait for it to go down again so Harry hung around still holding her trembling hands and chatting away about unimportant things, what they usually did when faced with something horrible they didn't want to talk about. Harry could tell she was pretty messed up by the encounter, even if she didn't want to admit it and tried valiantly to cover it with humour.

"I don't think I want to visit Hogsmeade again," she said with a laugh after a while, snuggling down into her pillows and turning to face him, "every time I go there I end up being attacked and in the hospital wing."

"Hmm, yes, that is enough to put anyone off visiting the place," said Harry with a slight grin, unable to decide whether he was happy or not that she was trying to dodge the subject.

Harry stifled a yawn and Catalina hid a grin, "You didn't need to stay up for me all night."

"I was just making sure you were alright," he said, patting her hand in a theatrical manner.

"Yeah, well, I'm ok when I'm asleep aren't I? It's when I'm awake you better watch out!"

"Oooh I'm scared," he laughed, "is this the sequinned bulleen thing again?"

She merely poked her tongue out at him and he chuckled quietly, quite impressed at her diversionary tactics. She was definitely getting better at them.

"Knock knock," came a voice behind them, and they both jumped, twisting round to see Ron and Hermione standing there with nervous grins on their faces.

"Figured you'd be here," said Ron, obviously heartened by Harry and Catalina's smiles.

"Can't keep himself away," she said sweetly, "can you Harry?"

"Obviously not," said Hermione eyeing up Harry with his hands in Catalina's.

With a fake cough and a blushing face Harry pulled his hands off the bed and Ron and Hermione grinned at the two, who were both looking like they'd been caught up to mischief.

"Feeling better Catalina?" asked Hermione, trying to spare them some blushes as Ron was sniggering next to her.

"Much thanks," she said, "I'll be out in time for second lesson."

"Oh great," said Hermione happily.

"Harry we've got your book bag," said Ron, trying to hide his grin, "you better get going or else you'll miss breakfast."

"Oh," he said, looking disappointed, "right. I'll catch up with you guys in a second."

They both nodded and waved goodbye to Catalina before heading out of he room. Harry watched them go and turned back to Catalina, hoisting his bag up.

"Oh, just one thing," he said with a mischievous glint in his eyes, "got you something to pass the time…"

He pulled out a grey feather quill and a piece of parchment sliding it onto her lap. The feather stood to attention of the paper and with a small laugh, he pulled another quill half out of his pocket - the twin to the IMS quill.

"First lessons Charms," he explained as she laughed in understanding, "Flitwick never takes any notice…"

"Fantastic," she said happily, picking up the quill and examining it.

"I better go, but you take care of yourself ok?" he said, standing up, "I'll come get you at break."

"Alright then," she said with a sigh, "I'll just wait here shall I?"

"Little Miss Sarcastic today aren't we," he said, before casting a look towards the door, "see you later."

He turned to go away, hesitated slightly before turning back to her. She raised her eyebrows questioningly at him as he stood there, apparently arguing with himself over something. Finally he gave her a strange look.

"Try not to worry?" he said seriously.

He leaned over the side of her bed and planted a small kiss on her forehead, before straightening up and striding out of the room. She watched the doorway she'd just seen his robes disappear through with a dreamy, albeit shocked expression for some time.

*

Ron and Hermione didn't understand what Harry was finding so fascinating about his work. Usually in Charms they didn't do much work, but today he had been writing for the past half an hour solidly with his new quill. Every now and again he would given a grin or a sudden smile as he looked around for inspiration, the quill in his hand writing away without him even looking.

"Ok, spill," said Ron suddenly, leaning across their desk.

"Huh?" said Harry, looking up as if noticing everyone was there for the first time.

"What are you up to?" Ron said suspiciously, "I'm sorry but an essay on the Vanishing charm just can't be that interesting!"

"It could be," said Harry looking hurt.

"No sorry Harry I don't buy it," added Hermione, "I'm not that interested in it so you certainly aren't."

"Whoa whoa," said Ron with a great laugh, "stop the press! Hold a conference! News flash - Hermione is human too!"

Harry laughed and looked down at her latest reply, sniggering and hastily scribbling back while Hermione glowered at Ron evilly.

"Oh come on now," said Ron, pulling the parchment out of his hand, "what are you writing?"

"Its none of your business!" replied Harry sweetly, pulling the parchment back.

They both watched him writing away for a few more moments before Hermione had a sudden idea.

"Oh I know what it is," she said shrewdly, "your writing a love letter aren't you? To Catalina?"

Harry was so side-tracked by what she said, staring at her open-mouthed that Ron had time to reach across the desk and pull away the parchment. He held Harry at arms length, trying to read the page of red and blue writing.

"Well…that's…because…you…never…said…" he began to read, struggling against Harry's grasping hands.

"Ron give it back," he growled.

They were about to start bickering when the grey quill zoomed across the desk until it was horizontal to the page. Ron was so shocked he dropped the parchment and it fluttered to the desktop, still writing away. He and Hermione leant over it, reading it looking scared.

"Hey…Harry…What's…up…you've…gone…quiet?" read out Hermione slowly, looking over to him in an accusing glare, "What is this?"

"Surprise!" he said weakly as more script appeared on the parchment.

Harry?

"It's a Instant Messaging Service Quill," he said wearily, "we were going to give one to you when you go to France, so we could still talk, you know."

"It's Catalina?" asked Ron, picking up the parchment again.

Harry leant across the table and yanked it out of his hands, "Yes, its Catalina - which means it's private."

"I'll bet - we saw you holding hands in Hogsmeade! What's up with you two?" asked Ron, looking like he was really enjoying the turning of the tables.

"An IMS Quill?" asked Hermione, watching it scratching across the page.

"Well what do you thinks going on?" asked Harry, with a shrug.

"An IMS Quill?" she continued sounding in awe.

"Are you going out?" asked Ron eagerly, both of them completely ignoring Hermione.

"These are really rare! And expensive! Where did you get it from?" she asked, watching the quill continue to write, even though Harry was holding the parchment upside down at his side.

"Well…sort of. I think so," started Harry thoughtfully.

"What do you mean you think so? You're either going out or you're not," pointed out Ron.

"I've read about them of course, apparently the feather comes from the Geminus Bird," started Hermione, obviously paying as much attention to the guys as they were to her.

"Well, I mean, it's complicated," said Harry.

"It's always complicated with you and her," said Ron, rolling his eyes, "you make things too complicated."

"Apparently, the twin birds always copy each other," said Hermione, "so the feathers will always copy each other…"

"But, you said you think so?" asked Ron.

"Yeah I think so," said Harry with a grin, "I definitely think so. She doesn't kill me every time I touch her -"

"That much is obvious," smirked Ron.

"And we're getting on…good," he finished lamely, "really well in fact."

They were unaware of Hermione muttering away, still on the subject of the quill.

"So have you kissed her yet?" asked Ron, point blank.

That stopped Hermione mid-sentence, and she turned to Harry, as did Ron, waiting expectantly. Harry was enjoying holding them in suspension as long as he was, there looks were priceless and he was wanted to share them with Catalina.

"Where?" Harry asked eventually after he could no longer pretend to not understand what they were talking about.

"What do you mean where!" exclaimed Ron delightedly, "where else are you going to kiss her?"

"Not where you think, obviously," said Harry, with a fake look of disgust towards Ron, "on the forehead if you must know."

"So not on the lips?" said Hermione in disappointment, "come on Harry, you've know each other for over a year now. Just make the first move…"

"It's not as easy between me and her as it is between you and Ron," explained Harry wearily, "there's no expectation between you two, no media coverage."

"Even so, a year is a long time to love someone and not act on it" pointed out Ron, as the quill went mad, jotting away.

"Hey! You and Hermione lasted five! But just give me time," promised Harry with a blushing grin, "all we need is a few more weeks."

"Why not now?" pleaded Hermione, "before we go away? I want to witness the happy occasion!"

"We'll just see," said Harry, finally replying to the tons of messages left by Catalina.

"So you want to go out with her?" asked Ron, taking advantage of this free for all discussion.

"Of course I do," explained Harry as he wrote away, "I'm in love with her for godssakes."

Ron and Hermione sat back in their seats looking impressed, that as the first time they'd ever really heard Harry confess to that.

"And how does she feel?" continued Ron as Professor Flitwick moved closer, reading over Dean and Seamus's shoulders.

"The same," shrugged Harry, before adding worriedly, "I hope. No, I'm just being pessimistic, she does."

"How can you be so sure?" asked Ron mischievously, trying to play with Harry's mind now.

"Because she told me," said Harry simply, as if explaining something very simple to a toddler.

"What she just came out a said, 'I love you'?" asked Hermione, looking delighted.

"No, I think her exact words, were '"And I'm going to be honest, no more lying or secrets,' and I asked what lies and secrets and she just said, "I've been keeping a big secret, about how I've fallen in love with my best friend.'"

Ron gave a whoop, leaning back on his chair legs, and Hermione clapped happily. They caused such a commotion that Professor Flitwick looked across to them and shushed them up.

"She said that!" asked Hermione delightedly in a high whisper.

"Yeah," said Harry bashfully, carefully wording his reply to Catalina.

"That's so romantic," sighed Hermione, looking out of the window dreamily, "Ron's never said anything like that to me."

"Hey, I'm still here you know," said Ron peevishly, "remind me to kill Catalina for setting a standard."

"Can I see your work so far?" asked Flitwick, appearing next to their table.

Hermione looked flustered a pushed forward her parchment, which Flitwick merely scanned over and nodded approvingly. Ron waved his paragraph of work, which Flitwick eyed coldly, suggesting he put a bit more effort in next time.

"Mr Potter?" said the Professor when Harry hadn't handed him his, "you're work?"

"Er," said Harry, looking around desperately, "I've er, actually been practising the charm before writing up about it."

"Really?" asked the tiny teacher disapprovingly, "well, let's see it then."

Harry gulped and pulled out his wand, focusing on the quill the professor had placed in front of him. Despite his magus powers, both he and Catalina had been told to do only wandwork in lessons, during their free time it was ok to use bare hands.

"Evanesco," he said, with a flourish at the quill.

Sadly nothing happened. He guessed he must have not been concentrating, what with Catalina writing back to him on the parchment concealed under the desk and his thoughts still on her rather than his class work.

"I er, obviously need a bit more practise," said Harry weakly with the ambitious hope of making light of his faux pas.

"Obviously," said Flitwick, not looking very impressed at all, "if it were not for the fact you are coming here tonight already I would call you back for a bit of practise. Now get to work on that essay."

The teacher stalked off, obviously not in a very good mood today at all. When he was finally out of earshot Harry turned back to the others, catching Ron's eye and grinning, wiping away the fake sweat.

"Thought you were a gonner then mate," said Ron with a laugh, "you're usually really good at that charm."

"It's the pressure," joked Harry cheerfully, already writing back to Catalina, "I just can't take it man!"

"I don't think you should joke about it Harry," said Hermione sternly, "you should be working, not flirting via your new magic quill."

"Hey," protested Harry indignantly, annoyed at Hermione sour look, "didn't Ron just say I was usually good at this charm? Therefor I needn't write up pointless reams about it. Anyway, I'm not flirting, I'm trying to cheer her up."

Hermione merely rolled her eyes as Harry looked down the parchment, sniggered, and bent over it, furiously writing away again.

In the end Hermione showed him a special charm that meant only he could read what was being written on the page, trying to put a stop to Ron sneaking looks and teasing him, as well as just in case he got caught by a teacher. Five minutes before the lesson finished he was packed up and ready and raring to go, already thinking about what he was going to talk to Catalina about when he met her at break. Professor Flitwick dismissed them, annoyingly holding Harry back to have a 'serious chat' about his concentration and work during the lesson. Harry tried to convince him he was just worried about Catalina after yesterday, and that seemed to soften him up and he finally let Harry go.

Ron and Hermione met him outside the classroom and jogged with him to the Hospital Wing, where Catalina was already waiting for them, sitting on the side on the bed with a bored look on her face. In her hand she held a quill and a rolled up piece of parchment.

"Sorry I'm late," Harry said as he approached with a apologetic look on his face, "apparently Flitwick thinks I 'am lacking in concentration and passion for the subject' or something along those lines."

"Charms went well then I take it?" she asked, climbing to her feet.

Harry felt the small pressure of a headache throbbing in his head that he knew belonged to her a gave her a sympathetic look. He didn't say anything however and followed her and Hermione out of the Hospital Wing.

"I've got to go and get my bags and stuff before potions," she explained, "meet you there?"

"Oh ok," said Harry as she began to walk off, "you want me to come with?"

"I'm sure I can manage on my own," laughed Catalina, eyebrows cocked.

He merely bobbed his tongue out at her while Ron sniggered beside him. Harry elbowed him sharply.

"I'll come with you if you don't mind Catalina," said Hermione quickly, "I need to pick up my runes dictionary, I forgot to pack it."

They guys gave a wave to Catalina and Hermione who disappeared around the corner and began to walk to the classroom, chatting animatedly.

"No doubt she's gone and told Catalina everything you said today," said Ron with a roll of his eyes, "she's desperate for you two to get together before we leave."

"Well, it's Tuesday now, and we leave on Sunday morning," began Harry as they leant against the wall and waited for the rest of the class to turn up, "and in the mean time we have to perfect our language charms, pack our bags and attend a funeral."

"Oh yeah, I forgot about that," said Ron quietly, "when is it?"

"Friday," said Harry, "we're getting some Order guards to take us to the cemetery by Godric's Hollow for the day."

"Oh," said Ron, looking slightly dispirited now, "good of Dumbledore to sort it out so quickly really isn't it?"

"Yeah, good," said Harry awkwardly.

They didn't say anything for a while and seized with great gusto the opportunity to talk to the other Gryffindor dorm mates who had just turned up. Apparently Dean had got permission off Dumbledore to set up an after school club for playing football and was excitedly discussing leagues and house teams already - everyone else thought he was getting a bit over the top when he began outlining strip details.

*

Harry pulled the large stack of parchment squares towards him and inked his quill. He stared at the page for a long while, trying to think of the best way to word his letter. Should he be formal, or personal? Who should he sign it from? How much information should he put into it? All these things he needed to think about, it was already making his head hurt.

Finally he lowered his quill and began to write, stopping every now and again and looking to the roof of the library for inspiration. When he finished the first letter he sat back and read it, rubbing his eyes tiredly, he hadn't realised how long he'd gone without sleep until that moment.

Dear Mr/Mrs ____

I am sorry to inform you that Mary Firelight nee Cotard sadly passed away on Saturday 22nd of September in St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries, England.

You are invited to attend the memorial service and burial at Five Willows Cemetery, Godric's Hollow by her daughter Catalina. The service will begin at 1pm, on Friday 28th September

Details of international portkeys and transport options to the nearest Floo Station, Old Town Street, are enclosed within.

Yours sincerely,

H.J. Potter

Harry didn't like the letter he decided. It was so formal and such a terrible way to break the news to some of Mary's friends of her death, but he didn't know any other way to word it. He was also going to put 'the family invite you' but realised this sounded a little bit stupid as it was only Catalina who was going to be there.

"Replicato," Harry muttered, waving his hand surreptitiously over the letter, pleased when a crisp new copy appeared next to it.

For the next ten minutes he repeated this charm, before he pulled out the address book Catalina had given her. He opened its pages and began on A, realising it was going to probably take him all of lunchtime and into this evening to get the whole book finished. He also realised with a jolt many of the people lived in foreign countries - in fact almost 90% of them did, and Harry had little hope that they would attend.

Harry felt a surge of irritation when he got to the C's in the address book and saw the Cotard's listed. He knew it was the right address as he'd taken a floo ride to their home in the summer, but the writing looked incredibly faded as if the address was written many a year ago. He wrote to them anyway, still dwelling on the thought that they never came to see Catalina's mum in hospital, not even when she was dying, or to pay their respects and help comfort Catalina afterwards.

He doubted whether they'd even come to the funeral.

Harry looked at his watch and realised with a jolt that he'd missed the entire lunch and it was time for next lesson. Hastily picking up the reams of papers and enveloped, stashing them away in his already bulging bag he ran out of the library and made his way for the wide lawns towards Hagrid's cabin.

The lessons passed quickly and Catalina gave no sign of remembering or caring much of yesterday's events, or that she knew what was coming this Friday.

"I don't mean to sound judgmental or anything," Hermione had said to him in an undertone as they pruned the same pot plant in their afternoon lesson, "but she doesn't seem very upset to me, about her mum that is."

Harry gave her a quick look before looking over to Catalina who was sharing a low conversation with Ron which seemed to be very entertaining. As if to compound Hermione's thoughts, Catalina's laughter carried across the workbenches and Hermione looked significantly at him.

"It's complicated Hermione. She wasn't as close to her parents as you and Ron are with yours," Harry begun, trying to fathom it himself, "it's like this. Whenever anything happens to her she doesn't like, she just sort of blocks it out you know? She just doesn't acknowledge it. She's always been like it."

"But she can't block something as huge as this out surely?" she continued, watching Harry closely, "this isn't just some fight or new newspaper report - this is her mothers death. And she used to be really close to her parents before she came to Hogwarts, she told me. And even if they didn't appear to be as close as me and Ron are to our parents now, she still must have had some bond with her surely?"

"I don't know," said Harry heavily, "there was a lot of bad blood between that family. She feels betrayed that her mother committed suicide, for still loving her dad after everything that happened, for seemingly not loving her."

"I'm sure she did!" protested Hermione at once.

Harry gave her a thoughtful look, before proceeding to tell Hermione about Mary Firelight's memory box and how it contained nothing relating to Catalina at all. Hermione looked shocked and confused all at once, she too obviously couldn't understand the mystery of the box either.

"Even so," struggled on Hermione, dipping her voice even more, "I haven't even seen her shed a single tear, not one."

"She has," said Harry awkwardly, wondering whether or not he was betraying Catalina by telling Hermione all this stuff, "a lot. When we were there, she didn't stop for practically the whole time, not until the box incident any way. After that she just shouted, and threw things about. I'm guessing she just doesn't know what to think about her mother anymore."

Hermione nodded and they both turned to watch Catalina, who was now shrieking with laughter with Ron, who both had tears of laughter running down their faces. Hermione gave a tut, "Even if she is confused, I wouldn't expect her to be acting like this. It's disrespectful."

"Mary Firelight lost Catalina's and my own respect the day she died," said Harry reprovingly, "it wasn't any old accident Hermione, it was suicide! She starved herself to death - what kind of message does that send your daughter eh?"

"Even so…" said Hermione awkwardly, "even so…"

"She is upset," said Harry eventually, "but she just doesn't show it like she used to…Trust me ok?"

"Well, if you say so," said Hermione, "but I'll still speak to her later I think."

Harry merely shrugged and returned to his plant.

"I'm glad you're sorting things out with her though," said Hermione a while later, sensing not to brooch the previous topic of conversation.

Harry gave a swift smile at his plant, before trying not to appear too pleased with himself, "So am I."

"It's always been hard between you two, hasn't it?" she said, almost sadly, looking over to Catalina and Ron who were still sharing a private joke.

"Not really," he said, squirming slightly.

She gave him an understanding look, knowing that he didn't believe what he'd said anymore than she did.

"The problems never been lack of love though has it," she told him, maintaining eye contact with the small green petals of the shrub as she prodded her two best friends relationship further.

"No," Harry snorted, before going bright red.

Hermione had a feeling he hadn't meant to be so candid. She gave him a warm smile to say that it didn't matter, she already knew.

"You're a lot different since you met her you know," Hermione continued, not sure how much of a personal conversation she was going to get away with.

"What, you mean stressed and constantly on edge?" joked Harry with a slight chuckle.

"No," smiled Hermione, before becoming serious again, "I just meant that you're a lot more…I don't even know what it is. You just seem so much more…settled."

"Settled?" repeated Harry with a raised eyebrow, obviously puzzled.

"That's not it. I don't know, it's just like this. I believe every person had a place, or a niche or something where they belong. And when we were muggles starting in Hogwarts we found our niches right? And we kind of sunk into them over time? But you could tell that you never fully settled, because of your history and your fame and everything…"

"Your making uncharacteristically little sense," put in Harry, frowning in concentration as he attempted to follow Hermione's analogy.

"Yeah I know," laughed Hermione, before attempting to straighten out her thoughts, "I just think that since Catalina turned up you've found your place. You've found someone who actually knows what its like to deal with the things you have to? Honestly, I know I'm rambling, but you must admit, despite massive differences, your lives are spookily the same in ways…"

"I think that's a good thing right?" Harry finally said, after he had processed and translated what Hermione had said.

"Yes," laughed Hermione this time, before suddenly thinking of something, "You're happy! That's what it is!"

"Hermione, I wasn't unhappy before Catalina moved here," he said with a slight smile.

"Not like that," she grinned, still not quite sure what she was talking about, before stating frimly, "you're in love. And love makes you feel a different kind of happiness. You belong with her, and she belongs with you, it's as simple as that."

"Yet it's just taken you ten minutes to actually state that," said Harry.

She smiled and Harry caught her eye, shaking his head in amusement. Just then they heard Ron's sudden guffaw of laughter and they both looked across to their respective partners, who were leaning over their bench laughing with Lavender. Hermione looked slightly surprised, she'd forgotten the Lavender's behaviour to Catalina had improved.

"I'm glad some people are starting to come round," Harry murmured, almost to himself and Hermione gave a quick nod.

They worked away for another few minutes in silence and Hermione thought back across their conversation happily, she couldn't remember the last time she'd spoken to Harry for so long about matters of the heart - in fact, she didn't think she ever had.

However, while she was thinking over these thoughts she noticed something that made her frown slightly. Catalina had been leaning across her desk, trying to reach a new pair of shears when Ron reached over and tried to get her attention by tapping a hand on her lower back. She gave a horrified start, and whipped around to Ron quickly, who hadn't noticed as his attention was fixed on Malfoy, who was doing something that Ron had wanted to show Catalina.

"Why does she do that?" Hermione asked Harry in a confused voice.

When he didn't answer right away she turned to look at him, staring across the room to them looking just as confused as Hermione felt.

"I don't know," he said finally, dropping his gaze to the plant, before almost instantly raising them back to Catalina.

"It must be something to do with her time in Azkaban don't you think?" she suggested tentatively, not sure how much of what she suspected she should give away to Harry, "or at the Riddle Manor, or St. Mungo's…"

"What do you mean?" he asked swiftly and Hermione noticed the horrible look in his eyes, a look that reminded her of Sirius's wanted posters in her third year.

"Well, it's just…." she tried, before faltering.

She didn't know what to say to Harry, wondering if the thought had crossed his mind at all, or whether she was just going to cause more trouble. All she knew was that, ever since she'd seen Catalina since the Troubles of last year, she'd been terrified of being touched by people. At first her reactions were violent, but over the months they'd calmed down until she could walk down the corridor without flinching.

She tried to think of a reason and come up with only one, one that was too horrifying to think about, let alone speak the words to Harry, who she felt would be as devastated as he would be angry.

"Hermione?"

His voice cut into her reverie and she shook herself, tried to avoid his frightening, worried look.

"It's nothing Harry," she said finally, "I just wondered that maybe there was some kind of hex on her that makes her act like that, or some kind of injury?"

She knew it wasn't a stunningly brilliant lie, but Harry didn't seem to question it. Rather, a sudden look of understanding flashed in his eyes and he turned to her, giving her a calculating look.

"She has a…scar there," he said, obviously choosing his words carefully, "where Ron just touched her, she has a scar…"

"What kind of scar?" asked Hermione suspiciously.

"Not one of these," he said, jabbing his lightning bolt scar a little too viciously, "a…a different one, it's recent, last few months."

She couldn't understand why he was being so shifty about an ordinary scar, or why he thought it was so important - she could tell he was desperate to talk to her about it.

"Well, what does it look like first?" she asked him, trying to sound as if she knew anything about medicine.

"See, that's the thing," said Harry, shifting closer to Hermione so no-one would hear him, "it's not normal looking, it's sort of like…here…"

He reached across the desk for a scrap of parchment and carefully began to draw something on it, hiding it from everyone, including Hermione's, view. He finally handed it over, not quite meeting her eyes. With another curious look at him she looked down at the parchment.

She felt as if ice had just flooded her veins as she looked at what Harry had just handed her, taking in the long drawing as one continuous line zigzagged across the page, curling into ornate rolls at each end as if it were some heraldic design. If Harry had not told her it was a drawing of a scar, she would have said it was someone practising Celtic knotwork.

"This is cut into her skin?" she whispered back to him, eyes round in horror.

"You know what it is?" he asked quickly, looking suddenly manic, "what is it, tell me?"

"No, no…I don't know what it is," she told him, not realising her fingers were shaking slightly.

"Then why are you acting like that?" he demanded, "Hermione, if you know anything, you've got to tell me! I -,"

"No, I honestly don't know anything," she whispered, before raising her disbelieving eyes to Harry's and holding out the parchment, "but do you know what this means? What having that on her back means?"

"No, what?" he demanded quickly, looking frightened at what she was about to say.

"Harry," she said faintly, "this is deliberate…she couldn't have put it there, and you don't fall and get this kind of, of, ornate artwork…it's deliberate…"

Harry looked very much as if he were about to be sick, although the thought must have occurred to him, Hermione could tell he was deeply shocked by her words and caught his shaky look towards Catalina. She noticed he was gripping the edge of the workbench with white knuckled hands and Hermione stared down at the picture of the scar again.

"Do you think…Riddle Manor?" she asked him, voice trembling now.

He gave her a swift look, before glancing over to Catalina.

"When I think, of, of what happened to her then, what might have happened," began Harry, breathing heavily as he broke off, "I mean we don't know what happened do we…we don't know, what they did to her…"

"Harry," said Hermione, close to tears as she laid a comforting hand on his arm, "please don't think about it…it's in the past now."

"But she must think about it," he said in a strained voice, "the reminders are all around her aren't they? What does she think…she must think about it all the time, mustn't she Hermione?"

"Please Harry, don't," she said anxiously, setting fire to the picture in her hand, "if she hasn't spoken to you about it, then she doesn't want to…"

"Yeah…" he said in a faraway voice, not looking at all convinced or comforted by her words, in fact she had the feeling they'd worsened the situation somehow.

"Have you never seen it?" he asked her suddenly, "you live in the same dorm, surely you would have seen it?"

"No I've never," said Hermione worriedly, casting a look over to Ron, she wanted him to come over and talk about this and help Harry, "she always changes in the toilets, because she's embarrassed of her Dark Mark…"

"It always looks brand new," he said in that same distant voice, not noticing everyone was packing up to leave, "I've seen it three or four times, but it always looks ready to split…"

"There must be some sort of residual from the curse," she told him, noticing Catalina and Ron had nearly finished packing away, "listen, class is over, they're coming over…what are you going to do?"

"I can't ask her about it can I?" he asked her hopelessly, "I suppose I could do some research…there must be something about scar art, inflicted pain and that sort of thing?"

Hermione blanched at what he said and he seemed to go even paler, but at that moment Ron bounded over, looking incredibly smug.

"Did you see Malfoy cock up?" he asked the pair delightedly, still chuckling at the memory, joined quickly by Catalina, who giggled and sat on the worktop in between Ron and Harry.

"No, no…what happened?" asked Hermione, trying to pull herself together, noticing the look Harry was giving his bag as he packed up, carefully avoiding everyone else's gaze.

"Didn't listen to Sprout saying that Sumbucus extract caused temporary loss of coherent speech if inhaled," snickered Catalina, looking immensely pleased with herself as she swung her legs from the bench.

"He's been babbling about green frogs falling from the ceiling for five minutes!" exclaimed Ron, "don't tell me you missed it?!"

He looked horrified at the prospect.

"Yeah, must have been concentrating too much on not inhaling the extract ourselves," joked Hermione in a shaky voice before holding her hand out to Ron, "shall we get to DADA?"

"Yeah sure," he said, giving her a confused look, before being led out.

Catalina gave another happy laugh at the memory of Malfoy as she watched them and turned to look at Harry, who was watching her with the oddest expression on his face. She opened her mouth to say something to him, but the words died in her throat as she noticed the look in his eyes. Her smile faltered and good mood slowly slipped away as she looked at him worriedly.

"Harry…" she said slowly, not quite sure what else she could say.

This however seemed to spur him into action.

"I just want you to…you know that I would…" he tried, seemingly unable to sort out his own thoughts, "I want -."

"Did you inhale Sumbucus extract too?" she tried, giving him a worried smile as her joke faded away without notice.

"No, no I didn't," he said, and she got the feeling he had something important to say, so she waited.

He stepped towards the table which she was sitting on and placed his hands on her knees, patting them worriedly, staring at the spot as if what he wanted to say was written there.

"I know we don't talk much about what happened, in May," he began, and she instantly tensed, she couldn't help it.

Harry must have felt it because he gave her a swift, understanding look, "and we don't ever have to, if you don't want to…"

She nodded heavily, unable to stop the storm of images the simple word 'May' had conjured in her head, visions of her in Death Eater robes, the pain of Cruciatus, holding that knife, stabbing that woman, the feeling of her boot pushing down on Harry's windpipe…

Carefully, he placed his hand on her hips and gently slid her off the bench, so that she landed on the floor right in front of him. She couldn't look in his eyes, feeling somehow it wasn't right when all she would be able to see was the look of horror and pain beyond anything as she stabbed him all those months before, being able to see, as if it were happening right in front of her now, the way he'd slumped away from her onto the floor. She could still remember the rivers of blood that fell between the floorboards and splashed as she walked through them.

As if sensing exactly what she was thinking, he placed two slightly shaking hands on either side of her bowed face and tilted it up until she met his eyes.

"It doesn't change anything, between us, does it?" he told her quietly, searching her eyes.

She gave the slightest sigh and dropped her eyes again, she hated all the doubts that surfaced in her mind whenever she thought about May, it brought down everything she worked hard to ignore.

"Because I love you, and nothing is ever going to change that," he whispered in a low voice.

She gave a slight start at his words and found herself looking up into his eyes, that were so alight with passion and feeling that she could hardly stand to look at them, wondering what on earth she'd done that meant so much that he could love her that much.

"No, nothing will change that," she replied, leaning her forehead against his now as he wrapped his arms around her, a move which she copied.

"And you know that I'd do anything for you," he continued in that same low voice, holding eye contact so that she could do nothing but stare back, almost hungrily.

"I know that," she told him, unable to keep the tremor out of her voice, as she desperately wished she never had to leave his side ever again.

"And that if anything ever happened to you, I just," he broke off, not even able to finish what he was saying.

"I know," she managed to choke out, feeling that being here was the most important thing she'd ever done, that hearing these words, and knowing that she could say them back without a seconds hesitation.

"Me too."

It was all she needed to say, all he needed to hear, there was nothing else she could have said that would have meant anything more to him. He moved his forehead off of hers and she laid her head on his shoulder as he pulled her tighter towards him. She let out the breath she hadn't known she'd been holding and smiled sadly, taking another deep breath and noticing how Harry smelt of woodsmoke and grass. Too much time spent in front of the Gryffindor fireplace and the Quidditch field she thought vaguely. He buried his face into her hair and seemed to not be able to pull her close enough.

She didn't know what Hermione had said to Harry to make him act like this, but she found she didn't care, they should have said those things to each other so long ago, but now they had, in a weird way it seemed right for waiting. She was amazed by the force of her feelings for him, as if no words could be put to them, and she could feel like there was no evil in the world, just for that minute.

She was just becoming lost in her thoughts when she felt his head move slightly, she hoped he wasn't going to suggest they go to their next lesson, she never wanted to move ever again. But instead of him moving away she felt a sudden pressure on the one side of her neck and it took her a few moments to realise Harry had planted a soft kiss there. Her heart was hammering wildly as she closed her eyes against the pleasant thrill that had chased up and down her spine.

She really wanted to know what was going on with him now, this was all so unexpected….

She felt Harry exhale shakily, still close to her neck that she could feel the heat of his breath and at that very second all she wanted to do was to step back slightly and kiss him right back, let him know that she was ready, they were ready, that everything was ok.

However at that moment Harry began to loosen his grip on her and gradually stood back. She had expected him to be hiding his eyes but instead he held them for a long time, taking in her look of shock, comfort, love and gave a steady nod. His eyes were unreadable.

"We're late for Lu Tze," was all he said, before turning away and gathering up his bag.

"Right…" she managed to say, shivering against the cold that invaded her skin no that Harry wasn't there.

Wordlessly he held out his hand for hers.

Feeling slightly as if she was in a dream, she took the hand and they walked out of the greenhouse with their shoulders touching and fingers laced within each others.

AN/ Somehow, I think we all knew I was going to be having this conversation with you huh? I'm so sorry about the lapse of a week from the promised posting deadline but I have a really good excuse this time! I was in a caravan in deepest darkest north Wales in a caravan for a week with no tv, let alone internet! AGH!

So, she says meekly, SORRY! Anywho, how did you like this chapter, a bit of history, a bit of romance (at long last you all sigh). By the way, did no one except randomreaderguy want to know the answer to the riddle Catalina asked Harry last chapter?

What is more powerful than God,

More evil than the Devil,

If you eat it you die,

Rich people want it,

Poor people have it…

What am I?

athenakitty - Athenakitty, mistress of the questions! As to this weeks list, I'm not sure I quite follow them! Firstly "Catalina have fun ranting?" I think you mean from this chapter and yes, everyone loves a bit of a rant don't they? "Will Harry break free?" break free from what? The timescape? Well, alls revealed here as they say! "Who's Harry guardian?" Its still Sirius in this fic as I began writing a year before book 5 and The Incident in that which has left Harry semi-guardianless and "Will Harry upset somebody's plan?" Who's? Lol, thanks for the review, or questions I should say!

cloud6475 - I'm so glad you like my story I mostly write for myself so it's always nice to hear other people enjoy it to! And I know what you mean about the review thing, I've read stories than have literally thousands and poor ole me is stuck on 248! Oh well, I guess some people have got more recognition and followers, mine seems to be a minority taste! Glad you like the H/C relationship, things do get better from now on, promise!

goldensnitch3 - Sorry, she says meekly, for the cliffie! Thought I hadn't done it for a while! And sorry for the wait but don't worry - she's alive - we all knew she would be! She tougher than a bit of manhandling!

Harrybrandybuck - I'm very sorry about the lag in time in posting, hope this chapter made up for it!

Nasser Himura - I'm glad you like my latest super-power, don't know how realistic it was so it was fingers crossed for peoples reaction, they seemed to like it! Would be interesting if Harry and Catalina could develop that huh? Exciting possibilities!

nyermen - Glad you had a good time (hopefully) in India. Am slightly worried about how you know I watch Red Dwarf - was it something I said! Or do I just radiate a knowledge of the kings of smeg? Lols! Thanks for the review!

randomreaderguy -Ahah, the riddle. You know I was quite surprised - you were the ONLY person who asked about the riddle, no one even wants to know the answer! Do you? It's not from the HP books, and I'm not aware if it's in any other books, I got it from a junk e-mail my mate sent me. Tell you what, as an incentive to keep reading this terrible story, I'll tell you the answer NEXT POST!

Rich - Hey there again. You're right about Catalina's dad, getting a bit too powerful for his own good coughs plot spoiler coughs His story is basically dealt in this story, don't know if there's another planned - its all down to workload as usual! And as to the location of Remus's house, I chose to have it nice and local to me too - I find it a lot easier to write about somewhere where I've been lols. I go up to Princetown sledging on the moors at winter, or at least I used to! Uni's the same here, all ok until you remember the deadlines and exams looming and then things get a little hairy! What course are you doing?

Rini Sayian-jin - Lols, thanks for the review. I liked the whole Hermione and the slippy ice routine too - could really imagine it. In fact, I think I may have witnessed it a few times so maybe I'm plagiarising real life!

Talix - Well hello patient FANTASTIC new reader! Firstly, thanks for the reviews for my last story (which personally I think is rubbish and totally flawed!) and for this one - you must have spent hell of a lot of time on the net reading this rubbish! So, for this chapter, I realised being able to stop time was a bit too much for the story (he could take over the world while everyone was frozen solid) so we had to have a few rules. Anyway, as you've just read, there's more to Timescapes than meets the eye!

And the red letters, again I'm surprised less people ask me about that than anything, I would be dead curious if I was them! Don't know what chapter it will be revealed, but in Poland FOR SURE. As to the Typo's thanks a lot for pointing them out, as I've probably said before, I'm terrible at English - haven't done it for about four years! However some of them you pointed out are a result of colloquiums and the way that I myself talk (which isn't exactly Queens English). I tend to forget to write properly and include some of my own sayings (such as "…am light" etc!)

THANKS FOR THE REVIEWS!