I will never believe in anything again/ I will never believe in anything again/ Change will come/ Oh, Change will come/ I will never believe in anything again/ We will never believe again- Coffee's for closers: Fallout Boy

Katie blinked once, twice. A familiar red head was looking down anxiously at her.

"Fred." She smiled, and grasped his hand.

"How are you?"

"I'm fine. Bit...woozy. Some of those dreams were trippy." She shook her head slightly. "But- hey, where the hell am I? What's going on?"

Fred hesitated "Can't you remember?"

She frowned in concentration "The last thing I can remember is opening the bathroom door in the Three Broomsticks. What happened to me? How many days have I been out?"

"Er...five." There was a pause as she contemplated this, and then Fred added "Months that is."

"WHAT?"

"You got cursed by a necklace."

"What?" She tried to sit up, but Fred pushed her back.

"Lie down or I'm not telling." He said warningly

"Fred! What happened to me?"

He sighed in exasperation. "You've been awake for a whole five seconds and you're already bugging me." He told her.

"Good. What happened?"

"When you went to the toilet someone put the Imperius curse on you and you were ordered to deliver a package. You and Leanne were arguing- see even under Imperius you're a moody cow- ow, that hurt! - the parcel tore, you touched it, and well..."

"Spent five months as a vegetable."

"Yeah, pretty much."

"What's the date?"

"April 7th."

"Happy Birthday! Oh my god, I missed my birthday! I can't believe I missed my eighteenth birthday because I was too busy sleeping!"

"I wouldn't call it sleeping..."

"Why isn't anyone else here?"

"Probably because it's about three in the morning." Replied Fred.

"If it's so early...why are you here?"

The back of his neck went pink. "I was- I've been staying here."

He became aware of the proximity of their faces: he was leaning in as though he would breathe for her. His hand cupped the side of her neck and his lips grazed hers.

"Move over." He whispered. He lay beside her, his arm over her waist, his hand possessively on the flat of her back, their foreheads touching.

Both dropped off to sleep quickly. Several hours later Anna and John glanced in and saw the pair of them curled up. They exchanged looks, then tiptoed away.

Katie returned to Hogwarts a couple of weeks later. Having missed half of the year of course, she didn't know hardly any of the work. She attended extra classes, and Dumbledore obtained permission from the Magical Board of Education for her to take her final exams in September.

The rest of the school year slipped by quickly for Katie, with her extra classes and quidditch and writing long letters to Fred at least once a week.

Eventually the questions about who had cursed Katie began to die down. Katie was glad- she had got snappier and snappier to those who had been asking her- but she couldn't help but think about it herself. Dumbledore had told her that they could launch an enquiry, but had hinted that if certain questions were asked, the wrong people might get involved.

Katie understood what he meant, and did not request an investigation.

The term drew to a close. Katie, however, still had several months of work ahead of her and did not relish the idea of spending her summer doing school work.

She was up late one night, pretending to work, but really writing a long letter to Fred. She suddenly became aware of screams and yells, muffled by the thick walls, but she could still hear them, and the unmistakable sounds of a fight.

"What the..." She poked Rachel, who was sleeping on her potions essay next to her. "Rach, wake up."

"Mmm?"

"Do you hear that?"

"Hear-"Rachel fell silent. Katie looked at her friend. At the same time they reached for their wands and crept cautiously to the portrait. Katie pushed it open and they peered out.

A thump behind them made them jump.

"Wh-"Katie stopped speaking. Hazel had her wand drawn.

"The Dark Mark." whispered Hazel, her eyes wide. "I just- it's over the Astronomy Tower- and-"

Katie swore.

"Do you think- it's him?" Hazel looked scared.

"How the hell would he get in here?"

"Well, who conjured the Dark Mark then?" retorted Hazel.

"Guys, this isn't time to argue." interrupted Rachel.

Katie closed her mouth and nodded at Hazel, who bowed her head slightly.

"What the hell is going on?" Cormac McLaggen was standing at the foot of the stairs, several people, including Leanne, behind him.

"I don't know." She was looking at Hazel, who was staring right back. Hazel quirked her eyebrow, a dare. Determined, Katie added "But I'm going to find out."

She stepped out of the portrait hole and began to make her way towards the sound of the fight. She could sense other Gryffindors following her. Leanne and Rachel were to her right, but Hazel was on her left. Katie felt that now, bizarrely, was the right time to tell Hazel she was no longer angry, but she didn't know how to phrase it, especially at such an inappropriate time. Instead she reached out and grabbed Hazel's hand, trusting her to get the message.

Hazel looked at Katie. Katie raised her eyebrows and Hazel winked. Just then, they emerged in the main entrance, where other students were gaping at the damage.

"Bloody hell." Breathed Leanne, gazing at the oak doors.

"What the hell happened here?" Rachel sidestepped a pile of rubies, just as Harry Potter dashed by them.

"Death Eaters." A petrified looking Ravenclaw told them. "Just ran through with Professor Snape and that Malfoy boy."

"Shit- hey Kate, where are you going?"

Leanne hurried after Katie, who was marching ahead. "I'm going to find some answers." She said, "Come on."

The four girls carefully picked their way through the wreckage. It was quiet, except for the distant yells of various curses, but they were getting fainter.

"Oh my-"

Katie turned from the direction of the shouts to where Rachel was looking.

Dumbledore's dead body was mere feet away from them.

Leanne gagged, Hazel retreated a few steps back but Katie didn't move. What do you do when your headmaster is lying dead in front of you?

More people were gathering, more people were crowding around. She couldn't stand it. Dumbledore wasn't meant to die. He just went on forever. Who had done this? How were they in the school?

Katie stumbled away, and vomited.

As soon as the funeral ended, Katie's mother whisked her away, afraid. There was no real sense of ending, but Katie found she didn't care. She didn't care that she would not get one last tour of the school, one last night in her bed with the posters around it, no chance to say goodbye to the teachers, no last broom ride on the quidditch pitch, no last meal in the Great Hall. There was no chance to look back at the years.

Now, she could only look forward.

A/N And, in the words of Bill and Ted, be excellent to each other. And party on dudes! And perhaps review? :D