Disclaimer:  I only own the ideas.

Chapter 50: Make Me Beautiful

Pansy Parkinson awoke like the rest of them: crying.  Katie thought it was pathetic too.  She had never seen a Slytherin cry and Pansy was one she was sure didn't even know how to spell the word tear, much less shed them.

It was a difficult decision, this whole Mitch thing.  And it didn't help at all to have to sit and watch Carmen glaring at Lee.  Natalie hadn't been by to visit Lee since their spat and Katie felt bad for Natalie and Lee.  Carmen was being unfair to them both but Katie wasn't going to tell any of them what she thought should be done.

And so Katie minded her own business, writing in her journal (Mitch had given it back to her but he hadn't yet found the chutzpa to tell her he had read it—all of it) and trying to untangle the mess she had found herself in.

Angelina and Alicia were visiting one afternoon when Angelina let her sex life with Fred Weasley slip.  Alicia groaned and Katie blushed furiously.  "You have a sex life?" she asked incredulously when the embarrassment had left.

"That Fred Weasley is a wicked, wicked wizard," Angelina admitted with a devilish grin.  Her eyes were sparkling with untold secrets.

Katie chose to ignore this comment and turned to look at Alicia.  "And so you are with George?  Aren't you afraid of kissing 'George' and then finding out it's really Fred?" she asked.

Alicia laughed heartily.  "That's already happened once!  Except that it was Angelina who kissed George!  I couldn't possibly be angry with either one of them; well I could have been with George but he made it up to me later," she let on with the snigger.

Katie rolled her eyes.  "I don't even want to know."

There was a comfortable silence in which they all sat in their own thoughts.  Alicia was the one to break the silence.  "So, what about Mitch?"

Katie sighed heavily.  "What of him?"

"Do you like him?" Angelina jumped into the conversation.

"Yes, I do like him.  I like him a lot."  She looked each of her friends in the eye.  "He's such a sweet person.  You couldn't possibly know just how sweet he is."

Alicia squealed.  "Oh, I am so happy for you, Katie!  I must admit that I didn't know how you'd react when you found out he read your diary…but I'm so happy you're happy!"  She threw her arms around Katie.

Katie didn't respond.

He read my diary?

Angelina noticed the change Katie's facial expression change and her eyes rounded out.  She grabbed the Alicia's collar and pulled her away from Katie.  "I don't think she knew that Mitch read her diary."

"You let him read my diary?" Katie asked.

Upon first impulse, Angelina wanted to deny the whole thing and say Alicia had taken a bludger to the head, which she had, but Alicia nodded timidly.  "We had to Katie; it was the only way for you to wake up."

Katie looked furious.  "It was not the only way for me to wake up!" she protested angrily.

"No, Katie, it really was.  And Dumbledore said it had to be Mitch.  We didn't know how else to get him to fall in love with you."

Still looking furious, she didn't reply right away.  "Do you know what I've written in that diary?  Do you know how embarrassed I am?  I cannot possibly look Mitch Reed in the face ever again!  How in the hell could the three of you have done this to me?"

Angelina was getting irritated with her friend.  "We didn't do anything to you, we did it for you!"

"And if I had wanted your help I would have asked for it!" Katie stated loudly.

Angelina snorted.  "No you wouldn't have.  Or have you forgotten?  You were unconscious!"

"Stop it!" Alicia interjected louder than her friends.  "Just stop!  What's done is done so let it go!"

Alicia was not the one of the three who typically yelled and so the others were stunned into silence.  Katie looked away.  "Well, I'm sorry," she said quietly, "but I am still angry." 

Angelina mumbled her own version of an apology.

Alicia grinned.  "Good.  Well, my work here is done.  Now all we have to do is to find Mitch."

***

Mitch had been standing in the door to the Infirmary when he heard Katie's mad voice talking sternly to her two best friends.  And then he heard the word diary and turned to run.  He didn't want her to be mad at him and he didn't want her to confront him with it now.

He wasn't ready.

He nearly ran the way to the Ravenclaw Common Room, only stopping at step 212 to catch his breath.  Mitch's eyes traveled the entire way up to the common room door.  There was still a long way to go…

***

Katie, Padma, Carmen, Lavender and Lee were all returned to their houses the following week.  Pansy was still too tired to leave and so Madame Pomfrey hadn't granted her leave. 

Katie was glad to return to the common room setting and found great amusement watching Parvati and Harry snog in the corner when they thought no one was looking.  It was even more fun to watch Hermione snog Ron and then blush fiercely only to tell him not to snog her in public.  Ron never pointed out she was the one to start snogging.

Hermione and Parvati sat down next to Katie.  "So, are you going to the Yule Ball with anyone?" they asked innocently enough.

"No, I haven't spoken with Mitch since over a week.  I don't know why.  I don't know where he is," she told them quietly.  She never even looked up from the book she was reading.  "Besides, I've too much to catch up on.  Homework, you know."

Hermione grimaced. 

Parvati laughed.  "Oh come off it now! Hermione hasn't finished all her homework for the next two weeks so you won't!" she protested with a laugh.  Hermione drew her eyebrows together: it was true, she hadn't finished it all.  She still had that paper on the History of Magic to edit and then there were the O.W.L.S. of course, she couldn't forget about them.

"Hmm…maybe I should get to doing homework.  We do have that paper due next week and there are the O.W.L.S.—

She was cut off by Parvati gripping to her sleeve and yanking her back down into a sitting position.  "Not now, Hermione!"

Hermione sighed, frustrated.

"Where are your boyfriends anyhow?"

"At Quidditch practice of course," Parvati answered.

"And how come you aren't with them right now?"

"We thought we would stay in a talk to you.  Besides, it's cold outside.  I like Harry a lot but I've no intention of waiting out in the freezing weather for Quidditch to get done, thank you very much," Parvati announced.  Then she winked.  "Besides, the Yule Ball is just around the corner and you don't have a dress, do you?"

"I don't think 'just around the corner' is three weeks away," Katie said.

"It is for Parvati," Hermione mumbled.

"I'm going to choose to ignore that, Hermione.  Besides, even you have your dress robes picked out," Parvati pointed out.

"Yes and I've had them picked out since before the term started, which you are very well aware."

Parvati grinned.  "Anyway," she said, turning back to Katie, "my friend Hermione and I have a busy schedule: we've got to help Carmen, Padma, and Lavender pick out dress robes and we don't have time!"

"Fine," Katie said, looking back down at her book.  "Go help Carmen, Padma, and Lavender pick out dress robes.  I'm sure I'll still be sitting here by the time you are done."

Parvati smacked a palm to her forehead.

Hermione leaned in and whispered to Katie.  "You know you want our help so just agree, OK?"

"I thought you had homework that needed to be done?"

Hermione shrugged.  "Some things are more important that homework."

Katie gasped.  "Hermione Granger!  I shall be forever scandalized by your remark!  That such a remark should come from you out of people is just, it's—horrific!" she teased.

Hermione smirked.  "Fine.  Just don't tell Ron that or I'll never get anything done if he can help it."

Katie settled back into her chair and gave them each a thoughtful look.  "Alright then, if that's what you want.  Make me beautiful."

What did you think?  I hope you liked it!  Only one chapter to go!

One lives in hope of becoming a memory.

~ Antonio Porchia