Chapter Thirty-Seven: I'm Alive

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

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

Time: Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

Genre: Romance, Drama, and Friendship

Rating: PG-13

Katie exited Charms with Lisa, Alex, and Leanne. Things hadn't changed over the months that she had been gone. Alex and Lisa still fought over the simplest things and Leanne tried to keep the peace. Harry had cornered her earlier and asked about the attack; she felt somewhat bad that she had not been able to answer his questions.

"It was accident!" Alex was whining. He had turned Lisa's eyebrows hot pink in class by mistake.

Lisa glared at him and pointed to her eyebrows. "Tell that to my eyebrows!" she snapped.

Alex studied his handy work. "I think pink is a good colour on you."

Lisa kicked his shins. "Pink is an awful colour!"
Alex winced. "I was trying to be nice." He paused. "Besides, you got to close and you know that Charms is my worse subject."

Lisa stuck her tongue out at him.

"Oh, that's real mature."

Katie and Leanne exchanged looks. It never ceased to amaze them how much Lisa and Alec could bicker or that they had that much to fight over. Some things just did not make sense in this world.

Lisa hit Alex with her textbooks. "Mature that!"
Alex ran down the hall and slammed into some scared looking first years. Without saying a word to the first years, he ran into the boys' bathroom.

"That was low," Lisa said. "Do we know any guys who would go in there and beat him up for me?"

Katie and Leanne shook their heads.

Lisa sat down on the floor outside the bathroom. "He's going to have to come out at some point."

"He could climb out the window," Leanne countered.

"We are on the fifth floor. It's highly unlikely." Lisa smiled up at the other two. "Besides, he'll be hungry in a few hours."

Katie and Leanne exchange looks again. Why didn't they just give it a rest already?
"Are you two going to stay here with me?" Lisa asked innocently.

"Um, I have Potions," Katie and Leanne said together.

Lisa shrugged. "Suit yourselves, but you are going to miss a good time."

Without answering, Katie and Leanne turned and headed toward the dungeons. Katie just hoped that Lisa did not hurt Alex too much. He was one of the few decent boys she could think of.

"I'm surprised that she just didn't open the door and go in," Leanne said as she sat her books down on their table.

Katie nodded. "Probably didn't think about it."

Leanne pulled out her chair and sat down. "That is probably very true."

Katie sat down just as Slughorn walked in. The lesson passed without any incident, unless you counted a Hufflepuff boy setting his robes on fire.

After class, the two girls went back up to check on the Lisa and Alex situation. Neither one was in sight and there was no blood or bodies anywhere; everything must have gone alright. Katie and Leanne made their way back up to the Gryffindor common room. Neither of them was in sight. Katie was beginning to worry. Would Lisa actually hurt Alex? She did not think that Lisa was the type, but being cursed tended to change your view on the world.

Katie sat down in on the sofa in front of the fireplace. Leanne had gone to get her Defence Against the Dark Arts stuff. Exams and school seemed so far away from her right now. She still felt as if she was in her own little world. She had to keep telling herself that she was alive and that nothing could take that away from her now.

Leanne came back down and slammed seven years' worth of Defence notes down on the coffee table. "Do you think that we have to know all of this?"

Katie picked up a piece of paper that was on top. "Greg Lucas is hot." She smiled. "That is probably something that you need to need."

Red faced, Leanne grabbed the note from Katie's hand. "That is not funny!"
Katie tried not to laugh. When it can to crushes, Leanne got really embarrassed.

Leanne hit Katie with the notes. "It's not funny! Some of us don't have a boyfriend who buys us shiny rings, which we need to talk about!"
Katie straightened her face. She had hoped that Leanne had forgotten about that. "Should we wait on Lisa?"

Leanne shook her head. "Nope, you can tell us at different times."

Katie tried not groan. She really did not want to talk about this now. "We need to study."

"We need to talk about that ring."

"It's nothing!"
Leanne smiled. "If it's nothing, then why don't you want to talk about it."

Katie looked down at the ring. "It's just a ring I wanted and he got it for me."

"Katie, guys just don't buy rings for nothing. He wants something," Leanne pressed.

Katie bit her lip. As far she knew, Marcus didn't want anything more than he had already gotten. Besides, he had given her that ring years ago. It was nothing, but a simple Christmas gift. Why was that so hard for people to see? Was it necessary to read that deeply into things?

Leanne leans in close. "He wants something."

Katie rolled her eyes. "We are not going down that road. My love life is none of your concern."

"As the best friend, it is so a concern for me."

Katie pulled her own Defence Against the Dark Arts things out of her bag and opened it to a random page. "We need to study."

Leanne took the book from Katie. "No, we need to talk about that ring."

Katie yanked her book back. "No, it's time to study!"

Leanne threw the book behind the sofa.

Katie raised her eyebrow. "Really?"

Leanne nodded. "Yes, we need to talk."

"I already told you, it's just a gift."

Leanne hugged her knees. "Do you think he will do it?"
Katie went behind the sofa and got her book. "Do what?"

"Propose."

Katie came back around and sat down. The idea had never occurred to her. She had always thought that she and Marcus would have some kind of future together, but she was not sure about that future. Being married won't be all that strange, but the thought of having a family together was. She really could not picture either of them with children.

Katie just shrugged.

"Would you say yes?" Leanne pressed.

"Probably, why wouldn't I?"

Leanne smiled. "It must be nice knowing this young who you are going to marry."

"It's a strange thing to think about," Katie said staring at the floor. "Marriage, the world. We are leaving Hogwarts forever in a month."

Leanne nodded. "It's so strange." She paused. "But at least we know what we are going to do."

Katie nodded, this was true. Katie was going to the University of Falmouth and train to become a primary professor. Leanne was going to train to be a Herbologist. There was a fair number of their classmates who had no idea what they wanted.

"What's Marcus going to do after he's done with Quidditch?"
"Mediwizard." Katie hated how people assumed that all Marcus did was play Quidditch.

"He probably already knows a good about it," Leanne mused.

"Yeah. He had to learn a good bit about it for Quidditch training."

Leanne nodded. "Makes sense."

Katie bit her lip. Even though she knew what she was doing after Hogwarts, the thought of leaving scared her. The world was a dark place at this moment. At least at Hogwarts, they were somewhat safe, but out there they were just sitting ducks.

"What are you thinking about?" Leanne asked.

"Have you ever thought about how many people are going to die?"

Leanne nodded. "Yeah, but I try not to let it take over my life. I just keep telling myself that I'm alive for now and I'm going to stay that way."

"So many people are gone each day," Katie sighed. "I can't even read the Daily Prophet because of it. I'm afraid that I will see someone's name I know."

"I know the feeling," Leanne said. "It sucks and there's nothing we can do about it."

"I think that's the worse part," Katie said.

"Yeah, it is. I don't want to lose anyone close to me."

Katie shook her head. "Me neither. The bad thing is, it's going to get a lot worse."

Leanne nodded. "Well, I guess we could attempt to prepare ourselves by studying Defence Against the Dark Arts."
Katie opened her book. She was just glad that the attention was off her and the ring.

A few days later, Katie woke before anyone else. It was Saturday and she had been hoping to sleep in; her body had other plans. Huffing she got up, dressed, and decided to go for an early morning run around the grounds.

As slightly as possible, she slipped out of Gryffindor Tower and left the castle. The early morning air still had a nip to it, but after a few minutes of running, she hardly noticed it all. She rounded the Green Houses and slammed into something.

Dazed, Katie stepped back. "Sorry."

"Well you should be," Draco Malfoy snapped. He was holding a cage with a small bird inside.

Katie eyed him. She had never liked Malfoy. Most importantly, what was he planning on doing with that bird?

"Now, out of my way, some of us have important things to do." Without another word, he pushed past her.

Katie watched as Malfoy made his way toward the castle and disappeared inside. A part of her wanted to follow him and see where he was going, the more reasonable part of her was telling her to stay away from him.

Sighing she turned her attention away from Malfoy and continued around the greenhouse. Everyone had their secrets. The distance between her side and the Dark Side was growing. To be honest, she was not really sure who she could trust anymore. People changed so fast and so much.

Katie sat down by the lake. She wished that she could remember who cursed her. No matter how hard she tried, she just could not remember. She laid back on the ground and stared up at the blue sky. It was like her memories of that day were gone. Someone wanted her to forget what happened and that person was doing a good job with it.

She closed her eyes. She could remember going in the girls' bathroom and them leaving with the necklace. The next thing she remembered was waking up in St. Mungo's. How she got the necklace or who gave it to her was just a big empty slate.

She reminded deep in thought for a couple more minutes before giving it up as a last cause. This was not her time of dying and she was alive. She had to keep holding on. In this moment, that was all that truly mattered.