Disclaimer: Nothing is mine; everything is J K Rowling's.
Chapter 94 is up!
It's another short one I'm afraid, and it's relatively upbeat and fillery except for a handful of paragraphs here and there, not that you should skim it, I'd feel mildly offended if I found out you had.
Anyway, enjoy, or not, whichever seems the most apt!
Chapter 94
It had been peaceful in the common room. Neville was working on one of the many essays Harry no longer ever had to do again, while he lounged across the sofa, and Katie, who was using his stomach as a headrest, was napping happily across the chair Harry had conjured to keep her from jumping on him to take a seat on the more comfortable sofas.
Everything had been perfectly relaxed for once, until Hermione and Ron had started arguing on the far side of the room.
They'd been whispering to begin with, and so Harry had closed his eyes and ignored them, but their murmuring had grown so heated that they'd briefly awoken Katie, though only for long enough for her to transfigure a cushion into a very stylish, pink pair of earmuffs, and he'd been unable to help but overhear.
Apparently Ron took exception to the fact that he was the third party in the relationship Hermione had with the library, and had finally worked up the nerve to tell her that he'd prefer it if they spent a little more time together.
Hermione had invited him to study with her, and that had escalated the pitch to the point at which Harry wouldn't have not been able to overhear if he had tried.
It was small wonder that the common room was so empty.
'You know we have to be serious about this Ron,' Hermione insisted, for what was at least the third time.
'But not about us?' Ron questioned bitingly.
'About both,' Hermione responded fervently. 'If we won't stand up for everyone then how can we expect anyone else to. This is a school, it's meant to be safe, a haven for learning, but every year it's barely safe for the students to stay. The only year it has been safer for them here than outside, as the founders intended the school to be, has been this year, and that's because Britain is at war with itself!'
'As valid as your point is,' Ron lowered his tone, 'it seems like a bit of a jump from Hogwarts should be safe, and we should help our peers to I'm too busy to spend time with my boyfriend.'
Harry blinked.
They're dating?
That had been kept quiet very well, though, now he looked back at it, he supposed there had always been signs that they liked one another.
'My boyfriend,' Hermione pressed, 'can still spend time with me, but I have really important things to do, someone has to keep an eye on the more suspicious students.'
'You mean Malfoy, right?' Ron sighed.
'Him and any other student who has given in to the lure of power and abandoned proper morals,' Hermione agreed.
'Professor Dumbledore is more than capable of keeping us safe,' Ron told her bemusedly.
'I was petrified by a basilisk, Ron,' Hermione retorted scathingly, 'and that's just the beginning. Since then I've been attacked by a werewolf, Victor,' Ron scowled darkly, 'died on the grounds under very suspicious circumstances, a body was found in the forest, Umbridge was torturing students, and one of our professor's was found dead under the Dark Mark in Hogsmeade.'
'Nobody can keep everyone safe all of the time, Hermione,' Ron protested. 'He did the best he could.'
'Well it wasn't good enough,' Hermione decided shortly. 'It's unreasonable to expect one wizard to keep us all safe anyway, so we should help, and that means we have to be able to look after ourselves.'
'We can,' Ron pointed out. He was a little misguided in Harry's opinion. For a student he was not someone to be trifled with, but most adult wizards wouldn't have much trouble with him in the end. 'We have the DA.'
'The DA is just the start,' Hermione disagreed, hair bouncing animatedly. 'You saw what Harry,' she shot a furtive glance at him, then flushed when he waved cheerfully, 'did to Neville and I.'
'Well he's Harry,' Ron shrugged. 'He's special, isn't he.'
'Are the two of you ever going to be quiet?' Neville demanded. 'If studying is so important, Hermione, then at least leave the rest of us in peace to manage it.'
'Sorry,' the girl apologised. 'You agree with me, don't you, Neville?'
Neville put his quill down slowly, clearly abandoning any further attempt at his essay.
'Yes,' he decided eventually. 'It's not really fair for one person to have to keep us all safe, so we should do whatever we can to help him.'
Neville, Harry knew, meant him, though neither Hermione, nor Ron realised that it wasn't Dumbledore who would end up defeating Voldemort.
Or dying in the attempt, he thought cynically.
'That doesn't mean you should just seal yourself off to study spells in the Room of Requirement,' Ron cut in, 'you're in there every free period practicing.'
'Ron's right too,' Neville said, 'if you spend all your time learning magic to help protect everyone, then you'll lose all the friends you intended to protect.'
Hermione huffed, but seemed to concede the argument.
'So?' Ron asked hesitantly.
'I suppose I should spend a little less time among books,' she relented. 'It's a Hogsmeade weekend, isn't it?'
'Yes,' Neville sighed, 'and I was hoping to have my essay done before now, since it is almost the time at which we agreed to leave.'
'Sorry, mate,' Ron raised his palms in apology.
'It's fine,' Nev grimaced, 'I wasn't really getting anywhere with it anyway.'
A finger firmly poked him in the side, and Harry turned away from the conversation he was watching to look down at Katie, who'd woken up again.
'What?' He asked, catching her finger before she could poke him again.
'Is Neville going with Hannah?'
'Probably,' Harry shrugged, 'I don't know, I'm not his keeper, she is.'
'I'm bored,' she whined, 'let's go gatecrash their date.'
'Seems a bit cruel,' Harry frowned.
'Well we'll only do it if they're not really doing much,' Katie yawned, pushing her head into his stomach as she stretched.
'Oh so that's fine then?'
'Yes,' she beamed, poking him again, 'now get up, I need to buy broom polish, and chocolates.'
'I'm up,' Harry grinned, dispelling the chair he had conjured and dropping Katie onto the floor, 'in fact,' he peered down at in false surprise, 'I'm waiting for you.'
'Very funny,' she sulked, using his hand to pull herself upright, 'didn't Fleur tell you that's not how you treat a lady.'
'She never mentioned it,' Harry admitted, 'but I'll ask the next lady I meet so I can let you know.' He looked down at her appraisingly. 'Nice earmuffs, by the way,' he smirked, 'they bring out the embarrassed blush of your cheeks.'
'I'm not blushing,' Katie protested, flaring crimson.
'No,' Harry deadpanned, 'not even a little bit.'
'Hush,' Katie remonstrated, 'let's follow Neville.'
'There are so many more important things I could and should be doing,' Harry sighed, as Katie all but dragged him towards the portrait and out of the tower.
'There is nothing more important than Firewhiskey chocolates and quidditch,' Katie told him firmly, trailing Neville, and darting behind small groups of students, most of whom were a head shorter than her.
'You are not very good at sneaking,' Harry laughed, retrieving his arm from her grip, and strolling casually down the corridor.
'You're not embracing the spirit of this,' she sulked, slinking out from behind the cover of a group of Hufflepuff girls who were standing absolutely still.
'Maybe because he likes his girls older and more mature than a twelve year old,' one of the girls in the group Katie was using as cover quipped.
'Oh,' Katie peered into the gaggle, 'Romilda. I didn't recognise you without all that eye-shadow.' The dark-haired girl scowled. 'Why aren't you in Hogsmeade with your boyfriend?'
'I don't have one anymore,' Romilda said proudly, 'he wasn't dedicated enough.'
'Ah,' Katie said with delicate glee. 'Come, Harry,' she declared loudly, catching sight of the huddle of Hufflepuff third year girls, eyes lighting up with mischief much to his dismay, 'there are many students to seduce.'
Why me? Harry asked silently, as the girls flushed brilliantly and scattered from his path like frightened sparrows. Ah well, he grinned, in for a penny…
'After you, Katie,' he told her with a suggestive wink, stopping the brunette in her tracks for a moment.
She fled playfully an instant later, cackling happily, and throwing herself over Neville demanding he protect her virtue from alluring dark wizards.
Luna Lovegood has a lot to answer for, Harry decided.
It hadn't helped that the blonde ravenclaw genuinely believed the story she had told everyone, nor had it been helpful that her father owned a paper, The Quibbler, and had absolutely no scruples about the quality of what he published.
I hope Voldemort enjoys it as much as I do, Harry smirked.
'Good sneaking,' Harry told Katie when he finally caught up to her at the edge of the village.
'So overt it's covert,' she beamed proudly from where she had her nose pressed against the glass of the quidditch supplies shop.
'If I thought you were actually that sneaky I'd be worried about my virtue,' Harry remarked glibly.
Katie's smile slipped slightly, and she turned away from the window.
'Sorry,' he frowned, 'I shouldn't joke.'
'It's fine,' she said, shaking her head, 'if we can't laugh about it then what can we do?'
'Can't argue with that,' Harry smiled, looping his arm through hers. 'Shrieking Shack?'
'No thanks,' Katie beamed, 'someone broke the only chair.'
'You, if I remember correctly,' Harry commented.
'Pretty sure it was you,' she retorted cheerfully. 'Honeydukes? Or Three Broomsticks?'
'Honeydukes first,' Harry decided, 'let's get the trauma out the way so I can drink my sorrows away afterwards.'
'You're buying,' she exclaimed, darting across the street and through the door, before Harry could disagree.
'I'm not rich enough to fund your chocolate addiction,' he complained good-naturedly.
'Centuries old pure-blood family,' she reminded him, eyeing the life-size animated chocolate models.
'No,' Harry warned, when she stepped towards the Grindylow, 'I'm not wrestling with that for the rest of the day.'
'Just the one box then,' Katie nodded, 'it's all I really intended to get anyway.'
'Choose a nice one,' Harry offered generously. He might not be particularly rich, but he could afford a lot of chocolate, and properties in wizarding villages only got more expensive.
'Or a big one?' She fluttered her eyelashes.
'As long as it isn't animated,' Harry agreed. Neville had come of decidedly second best in his battle with the bowtruckle, and Harry had not intention of adding his own name to the list of victims.
Katie bounced off down the aisle, swapping boxes as she tried to make up her mind, and Harry drifted towards the end of the aisle where he had spied something Fleur might appreciate.
Animated hot chocolate powder, he read curiously. Creates chocolate bubble creatures that last longer the more powder you add.
'Something for Fleur?' Katie popped up behind him, a slim, brown package tucked under one arm.
'She likes sweet things too,' Harry grinned. 'What am I buying for you?'
'Chocolate coated, butterbeer creams, and Firewhiskey hearts,' she confessed guiltily, patting the package. 'They're really nice looking,' she peeled back the paper to reveal a slim, dark box, that contained almost two dozen chocolates nestled in white paper.
'Tasty,' Harry commented, reaching out towards them playfully.
'Mine,' Katie admonished, batting his hand away, 'you buy your own.'
'I'm buying yours,' he reminded her pointedly, and she had the presence of mind to feign innocence if not remorse. 'Incorrigible,' he sighed, picking up a pot of the hot chocolate powder, and the slim box that Katie passed him.
'Six galleons,' the bored sounding girl behind the counter droned.
'Here,' Harry passed her the correct number of coins, and returned the box to Katie's arms. 'I bought it, so you can carry it,' he told her, when she bit her lip and fluttered her eyelashes again.
'Hey,' the girl behind the counter perked up suddenly, 'aren't you-'
'Voldemort,' Harry nodded, interrupting the girl mid question, 'but ssssh, I'm in disguise, it's so hard to get good chocolates when you're committing mass murder and organising a blood purist revolt.'
The girl's mouth was still hanging open as they left the shop.
'Three Broomsticks?' Harry asked, shrinking the hot chocolate after checking the label to make sure he could do it without ruining it.
'I saw Neville and Hannah,' Katie suggested slyly.
'Ok,' Harry grinned, more in the mood for her games now. 'Hold still,' he instructed, flicking out his wand.
Katie scrunched up her face, and shivered as Harry's magic touched her.
'What are you doing?' She demanded.
'Casting glamour charms,' he smirked, conjuring a flat disc of water in the air in front of her as a makeshift mirror.
'Oh,' Katie's grin turned evil, 'I like the way you think.'
They strolled into the pub together, casting an eye around for Neville and his blonde companion. The pub was very crowded, as it always was on the first Hogsmeade weekend of the term, with overage students all around the bar, and underage ones lurking tentatively nearby it.
'Over there,' Harry pointed surreptitiously, 'in the corner a few booths across from the toilets.'
'Good spot,' she beamed, 'I'll be back in a moment.'
'Have fun,' Harry grinned, 'and Katie dearest,' he conjured a gaudy, fluffy, pink, heart-shaped cushion and deposited it into her hands, 'whatever you do, don't cause a scene.'
Katie bounced away across the floor under the glamour charms, drawing the eyes of every student, as Professor Sprout was rarely seen moving so spritely, nor clutching a cushion so horrendous that Madam Puddifoot might have treasured it for years.
'Neville,' she cried, sinking to her knees once she was roughly in the middle of the room, and bursting into very loud, very fake sobs. 'How could you!?'
'Professor?' Neville inquired politely, slowly turning brighter and brighter crimson, as Hannah stared at the scene in stupefaction.
'I hoped,' Katie wailed, 'that the rumours were untrue, but now I see that my fears are not unfounded, you have left me for a younger woman.'
'What?' Hannah gasped.
'How could you do this, Nevvie?' Katie cried, laugher starting to suffuse her voice as she thrust the cushion at Neville's shins. 'Surely the arms of this buxom, young blonde cannot compare to the nurturing affection of Herbology. Return to my bosom, to the bosom of mother nature, and the soft, warm soil of the greenhouses.'
'Harry!' Neville yelled, guessing the game. 'Get out here, and collect your accomplice before I hex her back to Hogwarts and bury her in the soft, warm soil of the greenhouses.'
'Game over,' he grinned, removing the glamours from Katie, who scampered back behind him to hide from a visibly annoyed Neville.
'Not funny,' Neville groused when the two of them joined him, and a giggling Hannah, who, now she knew it was a joke, found it as hilarious as the rest of the pub's occupants.
'It was pretty funny, Nevvie,' Hannah told him, patting him on the arm comfortingly.
'Oh,' Katie beamed, waving suddenly, 'Angelina and Alicia, does anyone mind?'
'No,' Neville agreed very quickly before Harry could remind her that her two friends weren't very fond of him at the moment.
'Thanks,' she waved again, and eventually caught Alicia's attention who dragged Angelina across too.
'Hi Katie,' they chorused, 'Neville, Hannah,' they exchanged a glance, 'Harry.'
'Girls,' Harry replied dryly, throwing an equally unsubtle look in Katie's direction.
'I see you made it Honeydukes,' Alicia smirked, tapping the brown-papered box.
'Harry spoils me,' Katie beamed, 'though he wouldn't let me buy an animated Grindylow.'
Neville breathed a sigh of relief.
'I'm not spending my day fighting one of those,' Harry shook his head, 'I saw what it did to Nev.'
'I had bruises for weeks from that bowtruckle, and in inconvenient places too.' Hannah nodded absently in agreement, then flushed bright red.
'I'll head to the bar and get us a round of drinks,' Katie suggested, nodding none too subtly in the direction of Angelina and Alicia, when Harry glanced up at her. 'And I'm taking these with me,' she added, snatching her chocolates out from under Alicia's fingers.
Oh, he realised. Time to sort this out.
'Firewhiskey?' Katie asked, counting all their heads and leaving towards the bar before anyone could object.
'Firewhiskey it is,' Angelina noted wryly.
'Time for that conversation Katie wants us to have,' Harry added glibly. Neville retreated back into the corner to avoid the drama, dragging Hannah, who seemed more curious, with him.
'Oh,' the girls heads snapped around from where they were tracking Katie's progress to the bar. 'The one where you pretend you aren't messing out best friend around?'
'The one,' Harry continued icily, 'where I tell you that I already have a girlfriend, and it's not Katie.'
'That doesn't make it better,' Alicia told him flatly.
'Katie and I are friends,' Harry said, pretending he hadn't heard, 'just friends, and we both know the boundaries of our relationship.'
'So you're aware that she likes you,' Angelina remarked, considerably less coolly, 'and you're not keeping her around as some sort of back up option for that veela girl.'
'No,' none of the ice left Harry's tone, but he relaxed back in his chair, 'I will not need a back up for Fleur, and Katie deserves better than that.'
'Good,' Alicia looked a little guilty, 'er, we're sorry for being a bit hostile, then,' she added hesitantly. 'After that article, and how you acted when she was hurt in quidditch, we thought you and her were together, but you were keeping it under wraps, and playing around.'
'And then when Fleur turned up too, well,' Angelina shrugged, 'we assumed the worst.'
'Stupid article,' Harry grumbled, 'apparently there's a whole sect of witches with interesting appetites who liked it more than I'm comfortable with.'
'I know of a couple,' Alicia smirked, dangling imaginary handcuffs from her fingers.
'No thanks,' Harry grimaced. 'Katie's coming back.'
The group, including Neville who had returned from the corner now the drama was done, turned to watch Katie meander across the floor, trailing a line of floating glasses of Firewhiskey.
'I got them,' she beamed, 'Madam Rosmerta was feeling chatty though, so it took me a little longer than I expected.'
'We're all sorted,' Angelina said bluntly. 'Harry's a nice guy, he's not messing you around, you were right all along, and we're sorry.'
'Well that totally ruins my I told you so,' Katie sulked, unwrapping her package from Honeydukes. 'Chocolate?' She offered, absently peeling back the paper. 'I'm feeling generous.'
'Well if you're going to be so kind as to offer me one of the chocolates I bought you,' Harry grinned.
'Nothing for Harry, then,' Katie decided, catching his eye as she pulled open the lid of the slim, black box, giving him a wink.
There was a glitter of bright, moon-white opal over her knuckles, then, with a small gasp of surprise, Katie collapsed onto the table with a dull thud.
'Katie?' Alicia asked nervously. 'Are you alright?'
The brunette did not respond.
Move, Harry urged her, don't stay so still.
For a very long moment he hoped she would stir and show everyone she was fine, but somewhere deep down Harry knew that Katie wasn't alright, and that she never would be again.
'She's not breathing,' Angelina shrieked, and Alicia started hyperventilating, but their screams seemed very far away, and all Harry could see or understand was the messy shroud of his friend's hair, and the trickle of bright blood running from her ear to drip off her jaw into the Firewhiskey beside her.
She's dead.
Ice crept across the table from where he sat staring, coating every surface in spines of hoarfrost as long as his fingers. His magic surged and roiled wildly, uncontrolled, unconstrained, freezing the liquid in the circle of glasses around Katie, cracking and shattering the glass, freezing the alcohol, and trapping the shards in an elegant crown of ice.
It spread across the room as the pub fell silent, aware that something was wrong, coating the walls, floor and ceiling in frost, breaking every unfinished glass, bursting the pipes that ran along the walls and behind the bar, sending copper pieces clattering to the floor. The candles around the room guttered, and died as the air froze, the fire shivered before the frost that washed over the grate, and the windows creaked and cracked against the cold, falling from their frames.
They were all watching now, but Harry didn't care. He barely noticed the cold that turned his breath to icy mist, nor the way the tables and chairs crumpled, and crumbled away in front of him, collapsing in frosty fragments to the floor as his magic unleashed his emotions upon the world.
Madam Rosmerta was chatty, he remembered, a single, coherent thought making itself known.
With every eye in the room on him it was easy.
He didn't use the incantation, or his wand, but there was nothing passive about the legilimency he employed, thrusting the image of the box into her head over and over, ignoring oddly twisted recollections, uncharacteristic thoughts and impulses, until he found what he desired.
'What would you like young man?' Rosmerta asked warmly.
'To survive the consequences of what I am about to do,' her customer replied shakily. 'Imperio.'
The barmaid slumped limply to the floor, shaking, shivering, with blood running freely from her eyes, nose and ears. He had what he wanted, what he needed.
Harry knew that voice, knew it without any shred of doubt.
Neville, he was vaguely aware, was dragging him by one arm, and Hannah by the other, but he did not care, could not feel the bruises forming and healing upon his body, nor the fear, and horror that emanated from the crowd of students scrambling from their path.
Malfoy, he seethed, his fury beyond words, or scope of emotion.
The creature stirred, thrashing furiously within his chest, dark eyes open and alight with wrath, mouth agape, a thousand, needle-like teeth bared before a whip-like tongue, and icy breath that whistled and whispered of vengeance.
Snape had tried to warn him, but he hadn't listened, hadn't even suspected, the truth.
Harry had been a fool to think she was safe at Hogwarts.
His target was never Dumbledore.
A fresh wave of his magic pulsed off him as his fury rose further still, forcing Neville and Hannah to release him with cries of pain, their skin blistering and cracking at the caress of his magic. He was dropped onto cold cobbles. The icicles protruding from the stones cut his palms, slickening the ground with blood that froze only moments later, but the pain was nothing before Harry's rage, and the wounds faded.
The manipulative, old wizard had known who the target was, he had said so, and he had told Harry not to worry, allowed Malfoy to complete his mission instead of stopping him as he should have done.
'One less attachment for his martyr,' Harry hissed aloud, the parseltongue slipping more easily from his enraged tongue. 'Dumbledore,' he spat, with venom-filled promise, his wand flicking into his palm. Viridescent sparks poured from its tip to lash out at anything living around him, scarring the cobbles, and searing the sleeve of his robes away to a wisp of smoke.
He would have that stone, and his revenge, and he was done waiting for Dumbledore to do any more damage to those he cared for.
There's only one person left he will try to take.
With a violent crack he disapparated, disappearing back to the only person that had meant more to him that Katie did.
AN: Please read and review, thanks to everyone that does! So all the non-upbeat paragraphs might have come at the end... I've been waiting to write this chapter for a very long time, and I will eventually name it "For Whom the Bell Tolls" but I didn't want my love of terrible puns to ruin the surprise!
P.S. This was always going to be Katie's fate, in every potential one of the three endings actually, even the one when she gets the guy, poor girl...
