I do not own Harry Potter, the Wizarding World, or any canon characters.

The Family that Chooses You

Chapter 8 – Momentary Respite

Katie let herself be pulled down, her face red, her mood furious. She thought idly about which Jinx or Hex to use on Hermione.

"Stop that," Alicia admonished her softly.

"I'm not doing anything."

"You're thinking about Cursing that girl."

"I am not," Katie protested. "I was thinking about Jinxing or Hexing her. Curses are much more serious."

"My apologies," Alicia said and did not mean. "Anyways, shouldn't you be happy about her?"

"Happy that she just accused us of only caring about Harry because we need a Seeker?"

Alicia slapped Katie's knee. "Of course not! I meant that she obviously cares about Harry too. The more people that care about him the better right?"

Katie sighed and sunk back into the couch, her anger fizzling out. "Yeah, you're right." She shook her head stubbornly. "Doesn't mean I have to like her though."

"She's just a firstie being a firstie."

"I wasn't like that." At Alicia's knowing look she blushed. "Was I?"

"Let's just say there's a reason you were made a reserve early on despite being a firstie and leave it at that, to preserve our friendship."

Katie threw a wad of parchment at the giggling Alicia.

Alicia caught it easily and lobbed it into a trash can. Her features grew serious. "Did you write your mum?"

Katie nodded reluctantly. "I…I didn't want to. I wanted to wait until for the Christmas break and talk to her in person. But with all the warning signs, I had to ask her."

Katie had mulled over the idea of asking her mother for weeks. Ever since seeing how Harry acted during practice, how he was when she saw him, it worried her. She thought that he was too much like the children her mother worked with. She never told her family exactly what happened in her cases, she took patient privacy very seriously. She did teach Katie what to look out for, what to notice.

"Sometimes these poor children have no help at all. It's easy to look past it, to imagine someone else caring and doing the hard part. But you might be the reason the person is saved. You don't want to lie in your bed late at night thinking about all the things you didn't do."

Katie still remembered when her mother had told her that. Her mother was obviously upset, and had come home in a terrible state of mind. It took a long time for her to open up and while Katie never learned the details, she saw how it affected her mother.

The memory of her mother crying silently by the fire haunts her to this day.

She drew strength from it as much as she experienced sadness. Her mother had gone straight back to work, determined and passionate. She had not given up.

Katie decided she would not either.

After thinking for a long time, and after several failed attempts, Katie had written a letter to her mother and sent it via owl. She did not mention Harry's name and she was clear that she did not know anything for sure, but only what she had seen. Not to mention descriptions that Angelina had contributed.

She had been nervous writing it. "What if I'm terribly wrong?" had played in her mind time and again. "What if Harry resents me meddling?" was another thorny thought. But she knew that if she did nothing and something awful happened, she would lie awake late at night desperately wishing she did something different.

"Well, let me know what your mum says," Alicia said.

"You don't think I'm making things up do you? Thinking too far into it?"

Alicia shook her head. "No, I trust your instincts and the same for Angelina. If you both think something's wrong then something is. I hope it's not as bad as you two think though." She looked apologetic. "But then, well, you remember when George and Fred said. What they heard from Ron."

"I hope I'm wrong too," Katie said sadly. "And yeah, I think that's what really made me send that letter, what the twins said."

"Is everything okay?"

Katie and Alicia looked up, noticing that Harry had returned. He had plopped himself down on the couch by Katie and somehow missed the end of their conversation. He had been so consumed in his relief from Oliver's reassurance, not to mention Hermione relenting, that he only now noticed how serious the two girls looked.

"Everything's fine," Alicia said smoothly to him. "We're just complaining about the Transfiguration work. Katie was saying how tricky it was getting and I was telling her it only gets harder."

Harry nodded. "It's really hard. Professor McGonagall is a great teacher but I don't always get what she's saying."

"It's awfully useful," Katie said blandly. She waved her wand and tapped a match stick someone left on the table. It transformed into a perfect shiny needle. "I'll never lack for needles when I do my sewing."

"As if you did any sewing worth keeping," Alicia said snidely.

"I can sew your lips together to keep your remarks to yourself," Katie retorted.

"Don't do that, I like Alicia's comments," Harry said earnestly.

Alicia snickered. "Thank you Harry. I'm glad someone appreciates my wit."

"Your wit is as dull as that needle," Katie said.

"I think that's a mark against your wand work."

Harry picked up the needle and gently touched the tip. "Ouch! Nope, that's a sharp needle. Looks like Katie does great wand work too." He frowned slightly. "I wish I could do it as well."

"You'll get there. It's all about practice."

Time passed pleasantly as the girls helped Harry practice his incantation and wand movements while working on their own essays. When Harry performed the Transformation spell and created his own perfect needle they cheered.

"Thank you!" Harry was elated, his cheeks red from happiness and embarrassment. "I still feel a little bad taking your time like this."

"Don't feel bad," Alicia said, waving his concern away with her quill. "Honestly it helps us stay on task and reminds us of the basics. Plus we like helping you."

Harry's voice went quiet. "Not only because I'm on the team though, right?"

Katie took a moment to choose her words carefully. "Well, yes and no. Yes you're on the team and to be honest we probably wouldn't have gotten to know you if you hadn't become Seeker. But like Wood said, the team's a family and we help and take care of each other. We're glad to help you when you need it and we're happy you're on the team."

Harry was still for a moment before nodding. That all made sense to him. Hearing Katie say that he was a genuine part of the team, to hear he was a part of their family, hearing that they wanted to help him, made him feel warm inside. It was a new feeling, one that he only recently experienced and craved all the more. It made him feel good. It made him feel safe.

He smiled shyly. "I'm really happy I'm on the team too and met you and everyone too. I think I would be terribly lonely without you."

"Us too," Alicia said kindly. Until now, she never realized how little Harry smiled normally. He was always so withdrawn, unassuming. These little moments of him opening up, him showing a positive expression, were certainly heart-warming. Her expression turned mischievous. "Especially the twins. They would be so lonely without someone to tease on the team. We're too used to them. Not to mention Katie loves to take care of something. You should see how she treats the cats in the t-OW!"

Katie had taken advantage of Alicia's lowered guard and threw another ball of parchment hard, hitting the other girl in the neck. The two began chucking all sorts of things at each other with a giggling Harry hiding behind Katie.

Eventually the projectile battle ended and the two girls returned to their work, chatting and teasing each other. Alicia finished her essay and rolled it up. Her eyes fell on Harry and her expression softened. "Maybe we are tiring the poor thing out."

Katie turned and saw Harry asleep beside her. She was struck how different he looked like this. His face was completely blank, no crease of worry, no haunted look, no lines of concern. He looked completely relaxed.

She felt bad waking him but thought he might want to go up to his bed. She touched his shoulder gently, "Harry, do you want to go to your dorm?"

He mumbled incomprehensible words. He fell into her touch, his head landing softly onto her shoulder. When Katie shifted, trying to shake him again, he slid down her side, his head resting in her lap. As he went horizontal, he curled into a ball, his legs coming up and his arms wrapping around himself.

"Wow, he really does curl up like that," Alicia commented.

"Looks like," Katie replied softly. She looked down at the sleeping boy. She normally would be horribly embarrassed if any boy laid their head in her lap like that. Yet Harry looked so at peace. She felt happy that he could be like that, even for a moment.

A shadow fell over her and she looked up. Angelina stood over them and the girl looked down at Harry with a mixed expression. "I was going to tease you a bit for having a boy's head in your lap," she admitted, "but he looks awful comfortable like that."

"Probably because Katie's lap is more comfortable," Alicia said. "Yours would be too hard, too muscular." She giggled as the two girls glared at her.

"I feel vaguely insulted," Angelina said with a wry grin. "First time I've felt that way for having muscles."

"I feel insulted for the opposite reason," Katie said. "I should come over there and teach you a lesson."

"You'd have to get up and then you'd wake the poor boy. Could you live with that?"

"It'd be like bothering a cat in your lap," Katie said and the three nodded in agreement. She gently brushed a lock of black hair over his scar, like how she had seen him try to hide his scar.

He moved under her touch. He murmured something, snuggling closer to Katie.

Katie's heart stopped. She had barely heard what he said. She leaned down as far as she could and brushed his hair again, listening hard.

He murmured again sleepily.

Angelina and Alicia saw the look that crossed Katie's face. It was a look of complete shock, of someone who heard something that invoked a deep-set emotion.

"Katie? What's wrong? What did he say?" Angelina asked.

Katie shook her head, her eyes brimming with tears. Her hands were clasped to her mouth to keep herself from crying out.

Angelina leaned down to the sleeping boy. She too brushed his hair like she saw Katie did. The action once again prompted Harry to mumble in his sleep.

She resisted the urge to bury her face into Harry, to grab him, to hug him. She never wanted to break his tenuous peace. Instead Angelina buried her face in her hands, stifling her sobs.

By now Alicia was incredibly worried. She rose from her chair and knelt down beside Angelina. "What's wrong?"

"He said mum," Angelina gasped out. "Oh Merlin, he said mum."

Alicia looked at Katie who nodded tearfully. "Oh. Poor boy." She hesitated, her mind going to an awful place. "Do you think he said that because no one's ever been kind to-."

"Please don't finish whatever you're about to say," Angelina said brokenly. "Because I don't want to think about that. I don't think I can handle it."

Alicia rose and walked to a large chest in the corner of the room. It was filled with blankets and quilts, all sorts of comfortable things for any of the students to use. She pulled out a large quilt made from patches of red fabric and carried it back.

She and Angelina tucked Harry under the quilt. As they did he relaxed ever so slightly, no longer curled up as tightly. Katie gently ran her fingers through his wayward hair and his breathing became deeper, easier.

Alicia and Angelina sat on the ground, leaning against the couch. The three girls sat in silence while the rest of the world turned around them. The room was its usual riot of commotion but thankfully none of it interrupted them.

"I'm glad you wrote to your mum," Alicia said softly. "I have to admit, I'm panicking a bit because I don't know exactly what to do."

"I know what to do," Angelina said. "We take care of Harry." She reached out with her hands and took Alicia's and Katie's. "We take care of each other."

Katie squeezed Angelina's hand hard and felt the other girl do the same. "Right. Wood was right. We're a family." She looked down at Harry. "We can be a family for Harry."