Disclaimer: See earlier chapters.
I also apologize for my terrible attempt at a Scottish accent, so sorry.
Warning: characters may act out of character!
Chapter 4: Keep your friends close and your enemies even closer
Katie had hoped to avoid her friends and their inquisitive questions for as long as possible so she made it her business to , after shooting a reassuring glance to Casey, a wrathful glance at Pansy and a scornful glance at Elvis, follow the first years and Head Boy Percy along with the other Gryffindor prefects to the Gryffindor common room. However, the best laid plans never work and just as she was leaving the hall Katie was suddenly pounced upon by Fred and George Weasley. "Katiebell!" Sighing deeply and plastering a smile on her face Katie turned around to talk to the two pranksters "Guys how are you doing? Did you have a nice holiday?"
Other than making polite conversation, answering in yes or no Katie didn't really talk much to her fellow housemates, well to tell the truth they didn't know how to approach this new Katie Bell so they mainly left her alone. Katie didn't mind thought, she preferred the solitude. Everything seemed to be going well, surprisingly Casey had only been hexed a few times and unfortunately even though everyone knew Pansy had done it there was no proof, Katie avoided Elvis like the plague, most of the Slytherins were being quite polite to her and she was still on the Quidditch team, well for a while anyway.
Oliver had not been happy when Katie had shown up for first practice with a school broom and even when she explained that she had to sell it to eat did nothing to appease the Quidditch tyrant. Things went downhill form there; he started making snide remarks thinking that she couldn't hear him. By October he was spreading rumours and talking about her behind her back. Katie could only put up with it for so long before she snapped. Katie heard the latest rumour from her new friend Hermione Granger, surprisingly the two girls had built up a friendship one night when Hermione was stuck on her potions work and Katie had found herself confessing all to the younger girl. Hermione had also been having trouble with her friends, finding that she couldn't meet their unreasonable need that she stay frumpy and bookish, doing their homework for them whilst they go running off with girls and playing Quidditch and then not even saying thank you! She sat and listened offering comfort not pity as Katie's team mates would have done, she was the only one who really knew what happened and after listening to the various rumours flying around for weeks she decided she had to tell Katie the latest one, if only to spare her from the embarrassment of hearing it from a large group of people. Katie was sitting in a chair in the common room waiting for Hermione to come down so they could go to breakfast when muttered whisperings caught her attention, two first years looked at her with wide eyes and mumbled "I'm glad she's not in my dorm, I wouldn't feel comfortable if she was" Katie was baffled but an explanation was soon apparent when a nervous Hermione appeared next to her chair. "Hey Hermione you okay?" "Katie, Oliver's been spreading a new rumour" "He has? Can you tell me?" Blushing Hermione said "I'll have to whisper it!" Katie's amused face turned into one of shock then horror as Hermione shared the latest rumour her face finally settled at anger, how dare he. Spreading rumours about her was one thing but bringing Hermione into it was another matter. She was going to give that prat Oliver Wood a piece of her mind, maybe even her fist! Hermione looked very worried as she followed a fuming Katie out of the common room to the Great Hall thinking 'Oliver Wood is in big trouble!'
Striding down the corridors people hurried out of Katie's way it was obvious to see that she was not happy and those that had heard the latest rumour knew the focus of her wrath, Oliver Wood. Conversation became stilted when Katie entered the hall, it was silent and Oliver looked worried as her face became progressively redder, then suddenly she exploded
"What the bloody hell do you think your playing at you big git! It's one thing to spread shit about me but another to say it about my friends! How do you think these rumours are affecting Hermione? Huh? Did you even think about her or were you two wrapped up in your revenge on me? Your just jealous because I refused to go out with you, I mean for merlins sake Oliver the amount of places your body parts have been I wouldn't be surprised if you were a walking example of every STD known to muggle and wizard kind!" she paused here to glance around the furiously blushing faces of girls of various age and housed, surprisingly given his distaste for those slimy gits as he called them, there were a hell of a lot of rosy cheeked Slytherins included! "Anyway what's my sex life got to do with you Captain, if I was a lesbian, which I'm not what the hell would it have to do with you, huh, if I wanted to have a bloody orgy with the entire Slytherin Quidditch team what would it have to do with you?" Oliver futilely opened his mouth to say something but Katie started up again "Oh and Wood, you don't need to kick me off the team because I quit, you can shove your broomstick and your quaffle up your arse!" Ignoring the shocked stares of the entire school, including the teachers and missing the glittering twinkle in Dumbledore's eye and the letter that he looked to and then put in his pocket with a smile gracing his face, Snape trying hard to stop smirking and the utter shock on Professor McGonagall's face, Katie went to walk with dignity past the mumbling students and back to the common room, she was almost to the door when Oliver finally decided to dig himself into more trouble by opening his big fat mouth and announcing in a whiny Scottish brogue "Och, com mon Kady I was anly having a laugh! An just so ya know ya look very sexy whin ur angry! Ha ha .Owww!!!" The rest of his words were cut off by a fruit bowl, sans fruit of course, hitting him in the head. Katie smirked and dusted off her hands before grabbing Hermione by the arm and pulling her from the room.
After walking (or being dragged in Hermione's case) for quite a while in silence and feeling that Katie's rage had lessened a bit Hermione finally plucked up the courage to ask "Katie, where are we going?" she got no reply so she asked again. "Hmm, oh to the kitchens to find an." "Oh, we missed breakfast didn't we.." "accommodating house elf to supply us with alcohol so I can get pissed out of my head and forget what a prick Oliver Wood is and how everyone in school now thinks I'm a lesbian ." "Oh okay. wait a minute did you say alcohol?" "Yup, as in butter beer, fire whiskey, peach schnapps if they've got it, I don't care as long as it's alcoholic!" They had stopped in front of the portrait that covered the entrance to the kitchen, Katie tickled the pear and it opened. Turning to Hermione she said "You coming or not?" in the emotional state that she was in Hermione didn't trust Katie and alcohol and besides how much alcohol could one girl drink, besides thought Hermione I wont be drinking any so everything will be alright.
After being in the kitchens for about 12 hours and managing to obtain huge amounts of fire whisky, and peach schnapps from a rather obliging yet totally tanked elf, attempting various songs in an impromptu karaoke session and spilling drunken secrets, including writing a letter to her biological father and the rather embarrassing story of how Oliver asked her out complete with fake, drunk over the top Scottish accent "Och Kady your so preeetty wuld ya like to have a quick shag??" accompanied by intoxicated giggles from Hermione, the girls decided it was time to go back to their common room, well that and the house elves were trying to kick them out of the kitchen, so clutching a bottle of fire whisky in each hand the girls stumbled out of the door way. Many wrong turns, exaggerated Mission impossible spoof sneaking and muffled giggles accompanied by two hours later found them in front of the Fat Lady portrait. The fates must have been smiling on them because not only had they not been caught by Filch despite stomping around like a herd of elephants but the portrait door was still open so they weren't locked out of the common room for the night! Smiling at each other the two girls practically crawled through the entrance and collapsed onto the comfortable chairs gracing the empty common room, it seemed as if everyone was in bed. After talking for an hour the girls decided to retire to bed. Katie was so drunk that she didn't notice the small pile of letters sitting by the side of her bed.
Warning: characters may act out of character!
Chapter 4: Keep your friends close and your enemies even closer
Katie had hoped to avoid her friends and their inquisitive questions for as long as possible so she made it her business to , after shooting a reassuring glance to Casey, a wrathful glance at Pansy and a scornful glance at Elvis, follow the first years and Head Boy Percy along with the other Gryffindor prefects to the Gryffindor common room. However, the best laid plans never work and just as she was leaving the hall Katie was suddenly pounced upon by Fred and George Weasley. "Katiebell!" Sighing deeply and plastering a smile on her face Katie turned around to talk to the two pranksters "Guys how are you doing? Did you have a nice holiday?"
Other than making polite conversation, answering in yes or no Katie didn't really talk much to her fellow housemates, well to tell the truth they didn't know how to approach this new Katie Bell so they mainly left her alone. Katie didn't mind thought, she preferred the solitude. Everything seemed to be going well, surprisingly Casey had only been hexed a few times and unfortunately even though everyone knew Pansy had done it there was no proof, Katie avoided Elvis like the plague, most of the Slytherins were being quite polite to her and she was still on the Quidditch team, well for a while anyway.
Oliver had not been happy when Katie had shown up for first practice with a school broom and even when she explained that she had to sell it to eat did nothing to appease the Quidditch tyrant. Things went downhill form there; he started making snide remarks thinking that she couldn't hear him. By October he was spreading rumours and talking about her behind her back. Katie could only put up with it for so long before she snapped. Katie heard the latest rumour from her new friend Hermione Granger, surprisingly the two girls had built up a friendship one night when Hermione was stuck on her potions work and Katie had found herself confessing all to the younger girl. Hermione had also been having trouble with her friends, finding that she couldn't meet their unreasonable need that she stay frumpy and bookish, doing their homework for them whilst they go running off with girls and playing Quidditch and then not even saying thank you! She sat and listened offering comfort not pity as Katie's team mates would have done, she was the only one who really knew what happened and after listening to the various rumours flying around for weeks she decided she had to tell Katie the latest one, if only to spare her from the embarrassment of hearing it from a large group of people. Katie was sitting in a chair in the common room waiting for Hermione to come down so they could go to breakfast when muttered whisperings caught her attention, two first years looked at her with wide eyes and mumbled "I'm glad she's not in my dorm, I wouldn't feel comfortable if she was" Katie was baffled but an explanation was soon apparent when a nervous Hermione appeared next to her chair. "Hey Hermione you okay?" "Katie, Oliver's been spreading a new rumour" "He has? Can you tell me?" Blushing Hermione said "I'll have to whisper it!" Katie's amused face turned into one of shock then horror as Hermione shared the latest rumour her face finally settled at anger, how dare he. Spreading rumours about her was one thing but bringing Hermione into it was another matter. She was going to give that prat Oliver Wood a piece of her mind, maybe even her fist! Hermione looked very worried as she followed a fuming Katie out of the common room to the Great Hall thinking 'Oliver Wood is in big trouble!'
Striding down the corridors people hurried out of Katie's way it was obvious to see that she was not happy and those that had heard the latest rumour knew the focus of her wrath, Oliver Wood. Conversation became stilted when Katie entered the hall, it was silent and Oliver looked worried as her face became progressively redder, then suddenly she exploded
"What the bloody hell do you think your playing at you big git! It's one thing to spread shit about me but another to say it about my friends! How do you think these rumours are affecting Hermione? Huh? Did you even think about her or were you two wrapped up in your revenge on me? Your just jealous because I refused to go out with you, I mean for merlins sake Oliver the amount of places your body parts have been I wouldn't be surprised if you were a walking example of every STD known to muggle and wizard kind!" she paused here to glance around the furiously blushing faces of girls of various age and housed, surprisingly given his distaste for those slimy gits as he called them, there were a hell of a lot of rosy cheeked Slytherins included! "Anyway what's my sex life got to do with you Captain, if I was a lesbian, which I'm not what the hell would it have to do with you, huh, if I wanted to have a bloody orgy with the entire Slytherin Quidditch team what would it have to do with you?" Oliver futilely opened his mouth to say something but Katie started up again "Oh and Wood, you don't need to kick me off the team because I quit, you can shove your broomstick and your quaffle up your arse!" Ignoring the shocked stares of the entire school, including the teachers and missing the glittering twinkle in Dumbledore's eye and the letter that he looked to and then put in his pocket with a smile gracing his face, Snape trying hard to stop smirking and the utter shock on Professor McGonagall's face, Katie went to walk with dignity past the mumbling students and back to the common room, she was almost to the door when Oliver finally decided to dig himself into more trouble by opening his big fat mouth and announcing in a whiny Scottish brogue "Och, com mon Kady I was anly having a laugh! An just so ya know ya look very sexy whin ur angry! Ha ha .Owww!!!" The rest of his words were cut off by a fruit bowl, sans fruit of course, hitting him in the head. Katie smirked and dusted off her hands before grabbing Hermione by the arm and pulling her from the room.
After walking (or being dragged in Hermione's case) for quite a while in silence and feeling that Katie's rage had lessened a bit Hermione finally plucked up the courage to ask "Katie, where are we going?" she got no reply so she asked again. "Hmm, oh to the kitchens to find an." "Oh, we missed breakfast didn't we.." "accommodating house elf to supply us with alcohol so I can get pissed out of my head and forget what a prick Oliver Wood is and how everyone in school now thinks I'm a lesbian ." "Oh okay. wait a minute did you say alcohol?" "Yup, as in butter beer, fire whiskey, peach schnapps if they've got it, I don't care as long as it's alcoholic!" They had stopped in front of the portrait that covered the entrance to the kitchen, Katie tickled the pear and it opened. Turning to Hermione she said "You coming or not?" in the emotional state that she was in Hermione didn't trust Katie and alcohol and besides how much alcohol could one girl drink, besides thought Hermione I wont be drinking any so everything will be alright.
After being in the kitchens for about 12 hours and managing to obtain huge amounts of fire whisky, and peach schnapps from a rather obliging yet totally tanked elf, attempting various songs in an impromptu karaoke session and spilling drunken secrets, including writing a letter to her biological father and the rather embarrassing story of how Oliver asked her out complete with fake, drunk over the top Scottish accent "Och Kady your so preeetty wuld ya like to have a quick shag??" accompanied by intoxicated giggles from Hermione, the girls decided it was time to go back to their common room, well that and the house elves were trying to kick them out of the kitchen, so clutching a bottle of fire whisky in each hand the girls stumbled out of the door way. Many wrong turns, exaggerated Mission impossible spoof sneaking and muffled giggles accompanied by two hours later found them in front of the Fat Lady portrait. The fates must have been smiling on them because not only had they not been caught by Filch despite stomping around like a herd of elephants but the portrait door was still open so they weren't locked out of the common room for the night! Smiling at each other the two girls practically crawled through the entrance and collapsed onto the comfortable chairs gracing the empty common room, it seemed as if everyone was in bed. After talking for an hour the girls decided to retire to bed. Katie was so drunk that she didn't notice the small pile of letters sitting by the side of her bed.