Short chapter, sorry.
Also, there's probably more I should be apologising for in this chapter. Maybe I should just apologize for the whole chapter?
This... event was something I'd planned, only it got a bit out of control. Like, wow, character development all the way! In a crazy shouty way.
Anyway, enjoy!
The Quidditch match, as always, was very exciting, and absolutely hilarious with the not-dementors. Katherine, who'd spotted the trio, hadn't even had the chance to say anything before Harry cast his spell. To see a patronus, a fully formed one at that was amazing, not to mention that it was coming from a third year.
George declared a party in the Common room and Katherine rolled her eyes, knowing she was going to get roped into food gathering. Despite this, she grinned as the twins approached, easily falling into step with them.
"This is big," Fred declared, "We should get some extra stuff."
"Like what?" Katherine raised an eyebrow.
"Well, Honey Dukes always has good stuff," George said thoughtfully.
"You two have already planned an entire speech to convince me to go to Hogsmead haven't you?" Katherine huffed, laughter in her voice.
"Maybe a little," Fred nodded, smirking slightly, "We can totally pull it off."
"We don't even have the map," Katherine snorted.
"The three of us can tell when people are coming, and we're decent enough at hiding on short notice," George countered.
"Plus, we've got all the secret passages memorized," Fred added cheerfully.
"Ok, I'm in," Katherine agreed, "But only because it's a big celebration, we're not going out every match."
"Yes!" the twins declared triumphantly. They discussed the pros and cons of blowing another toilet, which Katherine was firmly against, as they made their way to the hump backed witch.
The shopkeepers were oddly accepting of three Hogwarts students shopping when they clearly weren't supposed to be. Madam Rosmerta simply smiled at them fondly, going on about how students were always so cheerful and reckless. Before they left though, she did say, firmly, that;
"And if any of the teachers get wind of this I'll never serve you three anything again."
The trio agreed easily, it wasn't like they were about to spread the word that they'd been sneaking out and around the castle since first year. They returned with armfuls of bottles of butterbeer, pumpkin fizz, and several bags full of Honeydukes sweets.
"How did you do that?" squealed Angelina Johnson as George started throwing Peppermint Toads into the crowd.
"With a little help from Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs," Fred muttered in Harry's ear.
Katherine snickered, helping herself to a liquorish wand. The Common room was a riot, everyone riding the high of winning the game. She somehow ended up standing on the table in the middle of the room, juggling butter beer bottles, and various other things the boys decided to toss to her, very probably because someone had made a comment about her being a tag-along in their group.
Lee commentated the spectacle and the twins conceded to being 'out juggled' fairly easily.
Eventually McGonagall came in and sent them all to bed, much to the twins' displeasure. Katherine just laughed and said good night. She flopped into the bed, smirking as all the other girls did the same, some giggling slightly, before curling up and drifting to sleep.
She slept well right until ruckus down stairs woke her up. Knowing it was the type of thing that would either attract or be caused by the twins she force herself out of bed and down stairs. She came into the room in time to hear people arguing about Sirius Black.
"What's going on?" she asked Fred tiredly.
"Apparently Black tried to stab Ron in his sleep," Fred answered as McGonagall came into the room.
"Oh," Katherine replied blankly, rubbing sleep out of her eyes. Fred and George both chuckled at her lack of interest, until Sir Cadogan announced that Black had been there and all three of them just gaped.
Katherine was entirely uninterested in discussing Sirius Black, even though he'd managed to get into the castle a second time. She ended up getting a bit twitchy whenever he was brought up and so her friends agreed, silently, not to discuss it with her.
The first day after he broke into the tower she spent most of the day in library.
"Hey," Alex greeted, sitting down opposite her, "You ok? I heard about the mess with Black."
"I'd be more worried if you hadn't heard about it," Katherine rolled her eyes giving a huff, "But, yeah, I'm fine, it's not like he could get up to the girls dormitory even if he wanted to."
"Good point," Alex conceded, "It was a good game."
"It was," Katherine nodded, giving him a slightly teasing smile, "You guys aren't taking it to hard?"
"Nah, not really," Alex smiled in return, "You should have heard Cho Chang going on about the Firebolt. I'm not sure she was even fully aware she'd lost."
"Sounds about right," Katherine chuckled, "You should have seen the Gryffindors when it first showed up. Oliver went nuts over it."
"Sounds about right," Alex agreed easily, "So, listen, I was wondering…"
He trailed of as Katherine cocked her head curiously.
"Er, I was wondering if you'd ended up finishing that Transfiguration work," he offered with a sheepish grin, "I'll look over it for you."
"Yeah, I did," Katherine nodded, giving him a smile before digging into her bag, "I think I got everything, but it's always great getting your opinion."
"No problem."
Eavesdropping, as any god eavesdropper knows, has its ups and downs. For Fred and George, the pros typically outweighed the cons, then again, normal they planned the eavesdropping. This time they hadn't planned it, they'd just been trying to track down Katherine, having lost her after dinner. Thus, one Friday evening they found themselves around the corner from the Ravenclaw Common room.
"Hey," Alex started as they were just a few steps away from the entrance to the Ravenclaw Common room, "So it's a Hogsmead weekend."
"Yeah, did you want to meet up again?" Katherine replied, giving an easy smile, "I'm pretty sure the others are more interested in getting away from teachers pressuring them about exams than actually wanting to do something in particular."
"Ah, well, see that's just it," Alex said, taking a deep breathe, "I was wondering if you wanted to go with me?"
There was a pause as three boys waited on Katherine's answer. Katherine just blinked for a moment before asking, slightly blankly, "You're asking me out?"
This surprised the boys, as they'd all come to accept Katherine's strange obliviousness to things involving herself, and the Ravenclaw hadn't really been as blunt as he could have been. Still, he shook himself out of it pretty quickly. Not to mention more neatly than the twins, Fred had attenped to charge forward and interrupt the conversation, prompting George to grab him and fight to hold him back, not wanting to find his twin at the end of their friend's wand. Again.
"Well yes, I was hoping we could go out," Alex affirmed with a slightly sheepish grin. Katherine seemed to flinch slightly, though Alex missed it as he glanced away and the twins couldn't be certain because they'd still been wrestling.
"Alex, I can't," Katherine sighed, sincere regret tinting her voice, though it was mixed with mild panic. Fred and George froze, George watching Fred, and Fred watching Katherine. Alex frowned.
"Why not?" he asked with a frown. Katherine definitely flinched this time, though Alex missed it again because she was looking away from him.
"I just…" Katherine started, but was cut off.
"Is it one of the Weasleys?" Alex questioned with a frown.
"It's not the twins," Katherine replied, frowning in turn, "What do they have to do with this?"
"What don't they have to do with this?" Alex shot back, "You're always saying you can't do things, or we can only meet up at certain times because of them, you're always planning when we meet around what you're doing with them, and you never tell them off for their pranks even though if it were anyone else you'd be on their case immediately."
"I don't-" Katherine started, looking slightly offended.
"You do! You put them first in everything! You're acing pretty much all your classes and tutoring them."
"I'm not just-" Katherine tried again, definitely offended now.
"What then?" Alex snapped, throwing his hands up, "What else could it be?"
"I have to think about Theod-"
"Your brothers likes me a right sight better than he does those two rouble makers," Alex interrupted again. Katherine scowled up at him, all traces of regret gone.
"That's beside the point," she said through gritted teeth, "My father-"
"Oh please," Alex snorted, "Your father hates everyone in Gryffindor. He'd be happy to see you with me. I'm a pureblood, and I've got a much better reputation than their family."
"Oh for Merlin's sake!" Katherine shouted, "If you'd stop interrupting me you'd know what a fool you were making of yourself."
Though her voice remained steady her eyes glinted slightly, not with anger but with tears. The twins had never seen Katherine cry before, except when she was laughing, and that hardly counted. Alex seemed just as in shock as they were, if not more so.
"You think you know everything there is to know about my family? Great! Tell me what my middle name is. Tell me why I didn't argue with the sorting hat. Too hard? Try telling me why I rarely talk to the brother I adore, or why I spend a large part of my holiday in my room rather than simply explaining I had no control over what happened, or how about why I never talk about friends from before Hogwarts?"
She was getting into his space now, letting her rage cover up the fact that there were still tears in her eyes.
"You know what, maybe I do put a bit of stock in the first friends I ever made by choice rather than because it was beneficial to my father, I fail to see where you get the right to decide if that's ok or not. You want to know something else? The only reason Theodore gets along better than you than he does with Fred and George is because of that oh so precious reputation of your family. Besides, if you know my father's views did you stop to think that maybe I'm already betrothed?"
"You don't know anything about my family, or my life outside of class work, Barker. Don't you ever dare pretend otherwise."
With that Katherine turned on her heel and began to storm away.
"I know that her mother's death was considered suspicious. You and your precious brother were there."
Katherine froze mid step.
Fred and George both growled, already moving forward without thinking.
The three boys all knew Katherine was dangerous, they'd seen her with a wand. They'd seen her thoroughly defeat a boy three years older than her in a duel, and barely bat an eyelid about it. The twins had seen her lie through her teeth and still get away with it. They never thought for a moment that she was incapable.
Still, none of them expected what happened.
One moment Katherine was frozen in place the next she'd spun on the spot, her hand firmly connecting with the side off Alex's face.
The loud clap echoed down the halls. Alex stumbled.
Silence rained in the hall, only broken by Katherine's harsh breathing. Alex put his hand to his face, where a large red handprint was already forming, and stared up at her in shock.
"Don't you dare talk about my mother," she commanded, voice slightly hoarse from unshed tears. Fred twitched, Katherine looked up, her eyes widened.
For a moment the room froze again, the twins staring at Katherine, Katherine staring back in horror, and all three of them ignoring Alex's continued presence.
"Kathrine," Fred tied after a moment of silence.
Without warning Katherine shoved past them, racing down the hall. She didn't storm, as they half expected, she ran. The only time she'd every run away from them like that was the very first day they'd 'met'. The pair stared after her blankly for a moment.
Alex finally managed to make some small noise of shock, gaining himself the attention of the two red heads.
Fred punched him in the nose. George went for his stomach.
This done they both started running towards the Common room. Not that it mattered. Katherine had a head start, she was faster than them and she knew all the secret passages they did.
Katherine didn't pause on her race through the castle. Shaking her head to try and get rid of the one or two tears that'd slipped out. Her eyes remained glassy and wet, making her grit her teeth. She wouldn't cry. She'd shared a lot with the twins that she'd once thought she'd never tell anyone. Five years of friendship and she'd managed to hide it until now. Now she couldn't work out what to do with herself.
She snapped the password at the Fat Lady, who looked slightly shocked but swung open quickly. Of course all her other friends were in the Common room, and thanks to their Quidditch reflexes they were quick to notice things.
"Katherine?"
"Katherine what happened?"
"Are you ok?"
"Kat?"
Katherine just ran past them all, up to the dormitory. All thoughts of being careful and keeping things hidden had flown from her mind the moment she realised the twins had heard her argument with Alex. Once in the dormitory she threw her bag onto her bed, pointed her wand and hissed a few spells under her breathe. She was already turning her back as the curtains pulled themselves closed, sealed shut until she un-spelled them.
With no thought to who might see Katherine flung the windows open and leapt out. Despite her constant caution, making sure she didn't try anything with her other form she wasn't ready for, she didn't even think out the change. One moment she leapt out the window and the next she was pumping her wings as hard as she could.
She didn't care that it was getting dark, that she'd probably be in serious trouble when she came back, or even that she didn't really know what she was doing or where she was going. It was easier in this form, as an animal she could push those things to the back of her mind and focus on instinct. She didn't have to think about the concern on her friends' faces, or how it'd felt like someone had knocked all the air out of her when her most carefully hidden secret had been spoken like it was nothing more than an errant thought.
She didn't have to think about how completely shocked Fred and George had looked. She didn't have to think about what they may have made of the Ravenclaw's comment. She didn't have to think that maybe she was making the situation worst and she may have lost her best friends by the time she got back. If she got back.
She pushed her wings harder, taking herself higher and faster. Further away from Hogwarts.
She didn't need to think.
Fred and George climbed into the Common room, ignoring the Fat Lady demanding to know what happened to Katherine. She wasn't in the Common room when they arrived, neither was Angelina, but the others were and they turned to them immediately.
"What happened?" Lee asked, seeming more confused than anything, though he was slightly worried.
"What did you to do?" Alicia demanded, clearly furious though her eyes kept flicking to the stairs, "Katherine ran in like she was possessed! I've never seen her look so…"
"Undisciplined?" Katie offered, "She's always careful, and she looked completely wrecked."
"It was Barker," George supplied, "They got into a fight and he, he went for where it hurt."
"How did he even know?" Fred growled, "Why would he bring something like that into such a petty fight?"
"What was it?" Lee asked, frowning up at the pair. They both shook their heads firmly.
"Pretty sure she didn't want anyone to know," George muttered. Fred was looking towards the staircase.
"Is she…"
"She won't come out," Angelina announced, coming down the stairs, irritation and concern mixing in her voice, "She's spelled the curtains around her bed shut, maybe put a silencing spell around it. I tried everything I could think of to get her out of there. I very nearly took a leaf out of her book and just cursed the bed."
Fred and George both flinched. Katherine wasn't the type to run away from a problem, and she'd gotten more daring, though no less careful, since they met her. They knew there were things she still didn't tell them, and she was always a bit touchy about her family. Still, she'd told them things, either because it'd just come up or they'd been pushing for some reason.
They knew she knew lots advanced and very dangerous curses because her father expected her too, knew that she willingly dealt with extra criticism to protect her brother, knew that she didn't always talk about things because she was partially wary of her father's reaction. They knew that her mother had died right before she came to Hogwarts, changing her whole family dynamic.
Now they knew that she'd seen her mother's last moments.
They were pretty sure that was a secret she hadn't been planning to share with them at all.
Thanks to anyone who has stuck to this story for so long.
Next chapter shouldn't take to long, and it's highly likely its going to get emotional.
Dramatic events. Good or bad?