The Ravenclaw/Hufflepuff Quidditch game went off without a hitch, especially for Ravenclaw. Roger and his team beat Hufflepuff to a bloody pulp. Katie, who had been watching the entire game in the stands, came down to wait for her best friend outside of the Ravenclaw locker room. She waited with all of the girls in his fan club, but was luckier than them. Roger, knowing that Katie would be waiting for him, exited the locker room still in his Quidditch robes. He grinned to himself when he saw Katie standing with her back to the door and to him. He came up behind her and covered her eyes with his hand. His other arm found its way around her waist, securing her place.
"Who am I?" he asked in a high-pitched voice. Katie laughed and played along.
"Angelina Johnson?" she guessed.
"Nope."
"Alicia Spinnet?"
"Nope."
"Gee, I don't know. This is really hard," she said before pausing to 'think'. "Maybe you're really a boy just trying to trick me. Harry?"
"Nope," came a manlier voice.
"Fred? George?"
"No and no."
"The love of my life?" she asked excitedly.
"Yes!" he said.
"Cedric is that you?" Katie asked before turning around and looking at Roger. When she saw him, she burst out laughing. She was laughing so hard she had to lean on him for support. He, on the other hand, was wearing a look of utmost disgust. Katie finally stopped laughing and sighed.
"Cedric?" Roger asked darkly.
"Would I be waiting outside of the Ravenclaw locker room if Cedric, a Hufflepuff, was the love of my life?" Katie asked, her hands on her hips as she faced her disgruntled friend. Roger smiled at himself.
"No," he said sheepishly. Katie rolled her eyes playfully as she smiled.
"Then why are we so worried?" she asked. Roger became shifty-eyed as he stared at the ground.
"I don't know," he said. Katie sighed and hugged her best friend. He hugged her back, completely feeling his embarrassment.
"Go shower. I'll still be here waiting for you," she told him. Roger pulled back a little from the hug and nodded. Then he did something unexpected, he gently kissed Katie on the lips.
"What was that for?" she asked softly.
"For them," he said as he indicated the group of now pissed off girls standing near them. Katie saw them out of the corner of her eye and laughed.
"Go shower," she told him. Roger let go of her and went back into the locker room. Katie couldn't stop grinning. Wait… what? What's going on with me? she thought. He's just my best friend, nothing more. Right? What is he? He's just a friend. I think. I really need to stop thinking about this.
Inside the locker room, Roger was having the same dilemma, down to the grin and everything. What in the world did I just do? Did I really just kiss my best friend? That's insane. But it was kind of nice. How's she going to react? Well… I guess I'll find out when I go back out there. His thoughts were interrupted by one of his friends and another Chaser on the team: Robert Connolly, or Rob.
"Why are you so happy? I mean, I know we just creamed Hufflepuff, but your rivalry with Diggory isn't that big, is it?" Rob asked.
"No, that's not it at all," Roger explained as he changed into normal clothes after having took his shower. He pulled on jeans and a blue sweater before putting his cloak on. Rob watched him during all of this, still trying to figure him out. As Roger wrapped his scarf around his neck, Rob finally tried to get to the bottom of his friend's behavior.
"Who is she?" Rob asked. Roger looked at him.
"Since when does there have to be a 'she'?" he asked. "A guy can't be happy over a Quidditch victory?"
"You, Roger, are never this happy over a Quidditch victory. In fact, I've never seen you this happy since you saw Katie after she came back from her holiday in Ireland this summer." As Rob said this, a light bulb clicked on in his head. His eyes widened in dawning. The wheels began turning. He got it. "This is about Katie, isn't it?" he asked mischievously.
"What makes you think that?" Roger asked.
"You can't lie to me, so there's the first factor. What happened?" Rob asked.
"Nothing," Roger lied.
"I just told you two seconds ago that you can't lie to me. Now spill, what happened?" Rob asked. Roger looked up at him and noticed that they weren't alone. The other male members of the Ravenclaw Quidditch team had joined them. All were waiting with baited breath for Roger's answer. He looked all of them in the eye as he answered.
"There is nothing going on between Katie and I," he said. All of them groaned.
"So that means that she's free then?" Rob asked as Roger headed toward the door. Roger stopped dead in his tracks and Rob noticed. He smiled at the other guys before continuing. "Because I was thinking about asking her to go to Hogsmeade with me tonight. Do you think she'll say yes?"
"She's not free," Roger said, never turning around.
"Why not?" Rob asked, only doing this to make Roger admit something. Roger's eloquent response was to give Rob and the other guys the finger as he left the locker room. The guys laughed, then followed, waiting to see if Katie was indeed waiting for Roger outside of the locker room.
Roger stepped out of the locker room to find Katie with her arms wrapped around her. She was bouncing up and down a little. Roger laughed a little at her as he watched this escapade. She had her cloak on her but only chose to wear a t-shirt and jeans on underneath. She had no scarf and no gloves. Her nose and cheeks were pink from the cold. As she bounced she blew breath into her closed hands. She smiled as caught sight of Roger. He went over to her and hugged her. As he did, he rubbed his arms up and down her back, trying to warm her up.
"Do you want my scarf?" he asked. She looked up at him.
"Won't you be cold?" Roger shook his head.
"Not as cold as you," he answered. He stepped back and took off his scarf. He wrapped it around her neck and took her unprotected hands in his. He rubbed her hands with his gloved ones and hoped that the friction would indeed warm her up.
"This looks different; me wearing my Gryffindor cloak and your Ravenclaw scarf. People are going to give me funny looks," Katie said.
"Not if I'm with you. Then it just looks like what happened. I let you borrow my scarf," Roger said.
"Thank you," Katie said. Roger nodded, he knew why she was thanking him. She would do that occasionally. She always thanked him for being her best friend. He smiled after nodding.
"You're welcome," he said. Katie smiled and was looking past Roger's right shoulder.
"What are they doing?" she asked. Roger rolled his eyes and didn't even look behind him. He knew who was there.
"They think something's going on between us," he explained. Katie laughed and looked back at the guys huddled around the door to the locker room.
"Are you serious?" she asked.
"Yeah." Katie looked back at the guys and waved. Roger grabbed her hand and stopped her as he heard laughing coming from behind him. Suddenly Katie kissed him gently on the lips, as he had done before. They could hear whistles behind them and an 'I knew it!' from Rob. When Katie pulled away Roger just looked at her.
"What was that for?" he asked. Katie grinned.
"For them," she said. And for me, she thought. Roger laughed and took her hand.
"So everything's for them?" he asked as they started to walk up to the castle.
"Of course," she answered, knowing full well that the guys were behind them every step of the way.
"Do you want to change into something warmer before we go to Hogsmeade?" Roger asked. Katie nodded and they headed toward Gryffindor Tower, still with an annoying pack of boys following them… wonder who they could be? Roger stopped outside of the living quarters for Gryffindors and waited for Katie to come back out. As he waited, that group of annoying Quidditch players caught up with him. He had been waiting nearly ten minutes and figured Katie was talking with Angelina or Alicia, or both, about something. However when he saw Katie come out of the portrait hole, he knew she hadn't been talking to either one of her friends. He and the rest of the boys were rendered speechless. Oh… my… was the thought swarming around in Roger's head. He was brought back to reality when Rob nudged him in the chest. Rob never took his eyes off of Katie.
Now why would this be a problem? Well, Katie had changed. She was now wearing a mid-thigh khaki cargo skirt (A/N: Old Navy… sorry), a brown, long-sleeved, low v-cut shirt over a white camisole and black knee length boots. She looked good and classy at the same time. Her hair was down and wavy. She had her cloak and Roger's scarf on her arm.
"Ready to go Katie?" Roger asked, finally finding his voice. Katie smiled.
"Yeah. Just let me put my cloak on," she said, handing Roger his scarf. He took it and watched Katie put her cloak on, only this cloak wasn't her school cloak. It was a normal black cloak with silver fasteners. Roger couldn't believe he didn't recognize it sooner. It was the cloak he had gotten her for Christmas last year. Katie finished fastening the cloak and Roger wrapped his scarf around her neck. Katie reached into her cloak pocket and pulled out a pair of gloves. She put them on and nodded to Roger. They left the tower and the other boys behind, but not for long. The boys soon followed them all the way to Hogsmeade.
"Katie?" Roger asked as they walked down the main street of Hogsmeade. She turned toward him and they stopped. The guys stopped too, a ways away, but so they could still hear.
"Hmmm?" was Katie's response to allow Roger to continue.
"Are you okay?" he asked. She had been really quiet since they had left the castle. Normally she was very talkative on the way to Hogsmeade.
"I don't know," she said. "I'm just really confused." Roger led her to the side of the street so other people and students could go by.
"About what?" he asked. Katie looked up at him.
"Us," she answered softly. Roger hugged her; he had a feeling that's what it was about. To tell the truth, he was confused about it too.
"I know what you mean," Roger said. "I'm confused too." Katie pulled away from Roger and looked up at him. He melted when he saw her glistening eyes. He pulled her back toward him and held her tighter.
"Do you want to go get something to drink?" Roger asked. Katie looked at him with laughter in her eyes. "Butterbeer, perhaps?"
"Why? So you can get me piss drunk and take me to some place and take advantage of me? Sure, sounds good to me," Katie answered in usual fashion. Roger laughed, as did Katie. Roger was just glad she was back. He was so glad, he picked her up as he hugged her and spun her around (A/N: he does a lot of that). As usual she screamed first, then laughed along with him. He put her down and they walked to the Three Broomsticks. As they did Rob turned to the other guys.
"That's more like it," he said. "Back to normal except for one thing." One guy turned to look at him.
"What's that?" he asked.
"They're completely in love," Rob explained.
In the pub, Katie and Roger chose to sit with other people, namely Fred, George, Alicia and Angelina. Lee Jordan joined them seconds later, having nabbed a date with a Hufflepuff later that evening. Alicia, Angelina and Katie laughed at his antics. They had known Lee way too long. And as he leaned back in his chair, sighed and stretched out his arms, they did it too. Fred, George and Roger laughed as the girls imitated Lee. Even Lee joined in on the laughter. The girls? Well, they just congratulated each other. Katie could feel Roger grab her hand underneath the table. She grinned and interlaced her fingers with his.
"That was a great match today, Roger," Lee commented to the captain.
"Thanks Lee. Great commentating," Roger said. Roger looked around the pub and saw Oliver Wood and Cedric Diggory walk in, discussing the match. Roger turned to Katie.
"We should go," he said. Katie looked around and nodded. "See you ladies and gents later. We're heading back up to the castle," he told the group. They waved and said good-byes as Roger and Katie left the pub, no longer hand in hand. Oliver and Cedric watched them leave. Their faces darkened as they took Roger and Katie's seats.
Outside it had begun to snow lightly. Roger watched as Katie shivered slightly as they stepped outside.
"How was Ireland?" Roger asked.
"It was nice. It's very pretty there. There were so many beautiful castles and the scenery was so green," Katie recounted.
"Did you meet anyone?" Roger asked nervously. Katie looked at him before speaking.
"Yes. I met so many boys. They all fought over me and killed each other, so I was forced to come back here to you," Katie said. Roger started to walk away from her muttering about feeling 'so loved'.
"Fine! Make me walk by my lonesome!" she yelled. She checked to see if Roger changed his course but he didn't. Katie sighed heavily and followed him. She ran a little to catch him and eventually did. She tapped him on his left shoulder and he turned around. His face showed every sign of betrayal and dejection. Katie's heart melted as she saw his face. Katie showed every sign of regret. She threw her arms around Roger's neck and held him close to her. However he didn't wrap his arms around her; but he could feel her breath on his neck as she spoke to him.
"Roger, I'm sorry. I was just kidding. I thought you were too. I didn't realize you were serious. I didn't meet anyone. I couldn't. I thought about you too much. I really wanted you to come with me," she confessed. Slowly she could feel Roger's arms find their way around her waist.
"Let's go back," Roger said. Katie pulled away from him and nodded. Katie took his hand as they walked in the direction of the castle.
As they entered the school, there was an unspoken agreement of where they would go: Roger's room. Whenever they needed to be alone, that's where they went. They entered the room from a secret passageway and went over to Roger's bed. Roger watched Katie as she took off his scarf and put it on his desk chair. She took off her cloak and hung it across the chair. She looked at things on his desk as she spoke.
"Remember when you used to tell me all about your dates with girls?" Katie asked.
"Yeah. Did you ever want to kill me?" Roger asked from where he was sitting on the bed. Katie gave a short, little laugh.
"No. I wanted to kill them. You were my best friend. How could they steal you away from me? When you told me about one date, I'd want to wring her scrawny little neck. All because they took my best friend away from me." Katie laughed a little. "Then I wanted to be them. I wanted to be the one you'd tell your friends about. I wanted to be the one you bragged about. I wanted to be the one you wanted."
"Why's that?" Roger asked. His voice came from somewhere else in the room but Katie couldn't place it. All she knew was that it was closer.
"I wanted you," she said. Katie felt arms wrap themselves around her from behind. She felt Roger rest his chin on top of her head.
"Katie, turn around," Roger said. And so she did. When she faced him, she saw that he had removed his cloak and gloves. He took one of her hands and took off that glove. He placed it on top of her cloak. He did the same with her other glove. He took her face in his hands and kissed her softly. As Roger's hands went to Katie's waist, hers went to his neck. Katie pulled away and smiled.
"What was that for?" she asked grinning. Roger picked her up and put her on his bed. He positioned himself over her and held himself up on his hands.
"You really know how to ruin a moment, don't you?" he asked sarcastically.
"You set yourself up for it," she responded. Roger looked toward the ceiling.
"I did, didn't I?" He looked back to Katie, only to see her nodding at him. "Shut up!" he said before kissing her again.