Thine Own Self
-0o0o0-
Part 3
"This is exactly what I was talking about, Professor." It was less the volume of the voice that woke her than the tone, the supercilious smugness of it all. She pried her eyes open, wincing against the brightness of the dozens of torches that lit the Common Room. There was no confusion, no peace to be found in a moment of forgetfulness; she knew exactly where she was and, like the Seer she'd never been, knew exactly what was about to happen.
"Thank you for bringing it to my attention, Mr. Malfoy." Professor Noira looked perfect, as usual, dark blonde hair smoothed back from her face, dark brown eyes clear and cool. "I would have thought, as a prefect, you could have handled the situation yourself, but I'm always happy to help when students are over their heads."
It was almost worth what was coming to see the expression on Malfoy's face. Almost. Katherine stored the memory to savor later, but kept her face blank, and David only blinked, neither of them willing to anger Malfoy any further.
But the still-sleepy Rina and Erin were unable to hold back giggles. They choked them off seconds too late; Katherine moved between the girls and Malfoy reflexively, and took the full force of his glare of cold hatred.
"Everyone up!" Professor Noira ordered, either not seeing the exchange, or ignoring it; it was always impossible to read her face. The students struggled to their feet, Rina nearly tripping over her robes. Andrew steadied her at the last minute. "This is the Common Room, not a dormitory or a slumber party, and it is not to be treated as such. Miss Mitchell, I'm surprised at you, encouraging the younger students to deliberately flout the rules in this manner. 20 points from Slytherin, each, and detention, and you'll lose even more points if I catch any of you anywhere other than your own beds at night again."
"But, Professor--" Andrew tried to protest; Noira cut him off.
"Your. Own. Beds. Am I making myself very clear, Mr. Ryan?"
Andrew bit his lip and stared at the floor. "Yes, Professor."
"Excellent." Noira gave them one more hard stare before shooing them off to their dormitories. David's jaw was tight, but he pulled Andrew by the elbow to the boys' stairs. Katherine led the three girls to the other staircase.
"What are we going to do, Kit?" Rina was close to tears. "I don't want to sleep alone, the spiders will come again, I know it!"
"Oh, stop whining!" Erin rolled her eyes. "Like Kit can do anything now."
"Fine for you," Rina shot back. "You and Shivani are in the same room. The rest of us are alone!" Her voice rose to a wail on the last word.
"Both of you shut it," Katherine snapped. "Get cleaned up and dressed; we'll talk at breakfast. Go," she repeated when Erin and Shivani both started to protest.
Rina gave Katherine one last pitiful look over her shoulder as she shuffled through the first-year door, disappearing inside only when Katherine beckoned her on with a jerk of her chin. Erin and Shivani dragged themselves reluctantly towards their rooms, meeting their two roommates leaving. The other two third-years hugged the side of the doorway, working their way past the Muggle-borns as if they had something deadly and contagious, then nearly raced down the hall and away. Shivani's eyes were wide and wounded, but she set her chin and went into the room. Erin slammed the door behind them.
Katherine took the last flight of stairs to the seventh-year room, hoping ti would be empty, knowing it wouldn't. She was correct -- Morgan was already gone, but Kurtz and Halme were still lurking. Waiting.
"Aww, too bad, Mitchell." Kurtz's attempt to look sweet and sympathetic left her looking as if she'd swallowed something disgusting. She brushed her black hair with long, luxurious strokes as she reclined on the end of her bed, her prefect's badge catching the light. The badge that should have been Katherine's, and everyone in the House knew it, especially Kurtz. "All of your little playmates sent to their rooms. What will you do for company at night?"
"Can't blame her for not wanting Ryder to go away," Halme got into the game, applying what appeared to be her tenth coat of mascara to her brown eyes, making them look even smaller than they already did. "He's almost attractive, for a Mudblood, and it's not like she could do any better than a fifth-year."
"I'd be more concerned with how well you can do, Castiga," Katherine advised the other girl, choosing a new uniform sweater and skirt with calm composure. "Malfoy was paying much more attention to that fifth-year last night than he was to you, if I recall. Best look to your back."
Halme paled, then her cheeks flushed with angry color. "As if that little runt Trevalyn could take Lucius away from me! I'd like to see her try!"
"She did. In the Common Room last night. And seemed to be relatively successful." Katherine buttoned a clean white shirt and pulled her school tie over her head and collar before tightening the knot. "And as Narcissa has more than a few centimeters on you -- everywhere," she added with a glance towards Halme's less-than-impressive chest, "--you might want to spend a bit more time worrying about your sleeping partners than mine."
Kurtz didn't bother trying to suppress her snicker at her 'friend's' expense. Halme's hands flexed, but her wand lay on top of her books, a good three meters away. "Have all the fun you like now, Mitchell," the bigger girl snarled. "We'll be the ones laughing tonight, won't we, then? When all of your little friends are alone in their beds, no one here to protect them..."
Halme's eyes dropped pointedly, and Katherine realized her robes were fisted in her hands. "Strong, powerful witches, aren't you?" she managed to say emotionlessly. "Attacking children in their beds. Too bad you're too afraid to take on someone who can fight back."
"Well, everyone needs to start somewhere." Kurtz grinned and tossed her hairbrush towards her dresser; the silver clattered loudly against the wood. "Don't worry, Mudblood, when the time comes, you won't be left out." The two wafted out of the room, their laughter trailing nastily in their wake.
In the now-silent room, Katherine closed her eyes and breathed deeply, once, then again, then again. Then, carefully, she opened her hands, and began the work of magicing the wrinkles from her robes.
-0o0o0-
"Telawasi!"
Everyone ducked at the roll of paper went flying over their heads and slammed into the door of a stall, the crash echoing through the room. "Good, Shivani," David told her, retrieving the roll with a flip of his wand and dropping it to the floor in front of the other third-year. "Erin, try it."
Erin, still sulking over her last four failed attempts, tightened her grip on her wand, swished, and popped her wrist. "Telawasi!" The roll twitched a bit, then stilled. Erin's wand went flying in frustration.
"Accio wand!" David redirected the flying wood into his hand before it could hit anything. "Brilliant, O'Malley. Disarm yourself before anyone else has the chance. That'll be very effective."
Erin crossed her arms and plopped to the tile floor, her scowl deepening. "This is a stupid charm, and it's fifth-year work, anyway. How are we supposed to learn it in an hour?"
"If I can do it, you can do it," Shivani pointed out, the nerves in her eyes and voice making her forgo her usual diplomacy.
"Well, pardon me for not being a future Auror like the two of you," Erin sniped back at her roommate, including David in her glower. "I plan to have better things to do with my time than fling rolls of toilet paper around the loo. This is useless!"
"If you'd prefer to go to bed tonight with no defense but third-year spells, be my guest," Katherine cut in before Shivani could say whatever she'd been about to say, as it almost certainly wouldn't have been helpful. "Otherwise, quiet down and work."
Erin looked rebellious, but hauled herself back to her feet for another try. Katherine returned her attention to Rina. "Again. Wingardium leviosa. Honestly, you learned this first day in Charms."
"I'm failing Charms," Rina said miserably. "I can't make my wand work right. Isn't there a potion I could use?"
"You're the only one of us who's any good in Potions." Andrew's forehead wrinkled in concentration as he levitated his roll of paper across the room, carefully banging it into every pipe and sink along the way. "Do you know anything Snape wouldn't?"
"...No."
"Better work harder in Charms, then." Andrew brought his battered paper back, landing it at Rina's feet with a flourish; Rina promptly threw it at him. He ducked and the paper sailed over his head towards the wall -- and passed right through the ghostly head that had just popped out, hitting the wall and bouncing back to the floor. Moaning Myrtle let out a shrill wail and retreated for the third time, chased by the semi-hysterical laughter of the younger students.
Katherine rubbed her throbbing forehead and sighed, sinking to the floor and leaning back against the cool stone pedestal of the center sinks. Her eyes closed against the headache, she listened as David regained control of himself and paired the other students off, Rina with Andrew to continue working on the levitation charm, Erin to serve as a target for Shivani's impediment and body bind curses.
"How much good to you really think this is going to do?" he asked as he sat next to Katherine, pitching his voice under Erin's bitter complaints.
She shrugged without opening her eyes. "Probably none. I'm out of ideas."
"You think they'll come after us tonight?"
"Halme and Kurtz said as much -- and you saw Malfoy this morning. He's bored with playing with his food."
"Thank you for referring us that way."
"Sorry."
"Yeah." Erin yelped and toppled over as Shivani nailed her with a body bind; David looked over at them, but didn't move. "You should go remove that, Kit. Good practice."
"As Miss O'Malley pointed out, you're the future Auror. The Minister of Magic doesn't need to remove curses." But she rose anyway, and took only two tries to banish the hex. Erin got up grumbling and nursing bruises; Shivani tried not to look triumphant, and almost succeeded.
"Almost time for fifth-hour," Andrew announced.
His voice broke Rina's concentration just as she'd maneuvered the roll of paper into the air. It fell to the floor and she threw it at Andrew again with a shriek of rage, hard enough to stagger him back a few feet. "Hey!" He recovered his balance and, face dark, leveled his wand to retaliate.
"Rina! Andrew! Enough!" They'd never heard Katherine shout before, and five pairs of wide eyes turned to her, silenced. She felt the weight of those eyes bearing down on her shoulders and closed her own, breathing until she could control her voice again. "Go to fifth-hour. Everyone who can, meet back here before dinner. We'll meet again after dinner and keep working until curfew."
"Kit?" Shivani's voice was tiny, tentative, all triumph gone.
"Go." She listened to them leave, hasty whispers and one nervous giggle, books clumping together, satchels thumping against backs, feet scuffling on tile until the room was silent again.
Only David remained when she opened her eyes, watching her gravely. "Only 8 hours to curfew. Dumbledore isn't back yet."
"No."
"It's not enough time."
"No."
If he was looking for comfort, he was disappointed, but he didn't show it. He nodded and picked up his books, then hers, and inclined his head towards the door. Katherine almost smiled as she let him escort her out of the girl's loo.
8 hours to curfew. Only 8 hours.
It wasn't enough.
-0o0o0-
TBC