Relinquished, Chapter Fifteen
By Sara-Wackadoo
Marcus' arms automatically went around Katie as she threw herself against him, and his hands calmly soothed her back as he asked what was wrong.
"It was horrible," Katie finally told him, her voice sounding broken with despair. "Angelina attacked me about you and said I was too busy with you to care what happened to them. No one's talking to me, they're all so mad about you."
"Calm down, Kate," Marcus whispered into her ear, not knowing what to do. He had never had a girlfriend who had come to him for help; all his past relationships had been about one thing, sex. But Katie was different than the past girls he dated and he hated seeing her sad. "If they treat you like that, they're not worth it," he told her, watching the Great Hall below them as students and teachers alike started to file into the room.
"But they are! They've been my friends forever, my support."
Marcus shook his head sadly. "They'll come around. Angelina's just mad, eventually she'll realize that you haven't abandoned them and they'll get used to our relationship."
Katie shook her head, "They won't. They're typical Gryffindors. In other words, they hate anyone who's Slytheirn or a suspected deatheater. In this case, you're both."
"I haven't been in Hogwarts for three years, how can they still be holding a grudge against me for that?"
"Easily. Anyways, since you have the mark on your arm, they will never forgive you," Katie whispered sadly, looking into Marcus's eyes."
"Then we'll have to change that," Marcus told Katie confidently just as Katie pulled away and looked him seriously in the eye.
"Obviously you don't understand, Marcus. It's easier said than done and believe me, it'll be a while before I'm accepted back into Gryffindor and a miracle when you are."
Marcus sighed and looked down to Gryffindor table. Since they had started talking, Angelina, Alicia, the Weasley twins and Lee Jordan had settled at the table together and were now glaring up Marcus and Katie. "Kate," he whispered, looking her in the eye, "I know you won't be happy until you make amends… and I won't be happy until you're happy; but please, just let them cool off. The more you fight the more miserable you'll get."
"Hogwarts isn't the same without them," was all Katie said as she pulled away from Marcus and unhappily picked at the food in front of her.
"Well you have me… and you have Osbourne and Jaymes… well Jaymes has always been a bitch, so just ignore her most of the time, but occasionally she says something worth while."
At this Katie laughed, smiling for the first time since she had entered the hall. "I'm glad to have you Marcus," she told him, taking a bite of an apple that was sitting in front of her.
"Good," he smiled and waved to Osbourne and Jaymes as they approached the table. "How's your first day at Hogwarts so far?" he asked Jaymes.
Jaymes shrugged and replied, "Snape is a great professor. I love how he keeps those whining Gryffindors in line. He had Gryffindor and Slytherin fifth years this morning and Harry Potter was in that class. He made the boy snivel. It was amazing. He's a bloody Slytherin at heart, if what I've heard about the house is correct."
Marcus and Osbourne both nodded. "I'm pretty sure it is," Osbourne replied, "especially since everything you've heard has come from me and why would I lie to you?" he asked jokingly.
"You get strange thrills putting me out of place," Jaymes replied casually. "I guess we're more like Snape then any of the Slytherins here. I mean he also went against the Lord."
Marcus nodded, putting a reassuring arm around Katie. "He did. As far as I'm concerned Snape's a great man. If people hadn't been able to trust Snape, they definitely wouldn't trust us either."
The two other ex-deatheaters nodded in agreement as Katie watched her friends; the twins playing jokes as Angie and Alicia laughed themselves into oblivion.
* * *
"Who does she think she is?" Angelina asked Alicia, now her only girl friend. "Sitting up there, high and mighty with Flint at her side. What's she trying to prove?"
Alicia just shrugged, staring at the food before her. "Maybe she's not trying to prove anything, maybe she's happy."
"With a Flint? A Slytherin? Maybe he has some sort of spell over her, making her do his dirty work like getting himself out of prison."
Alicia shook her head, her eyes focused on the food in front of her. She knew what she would see if she looked across the table at Angie. Pure hatred for a girl who had been their best friend since first year. "Listen, Angie," Alicia told her friend, "you might think there's some dastardly strategy to why Katie's sitting up there but this morning she looked happy and now she looks really depressed, a lot like the time that Wood totally threw her off for quidditch, instead of going to the opera with her."
"And who would want to go to the opera?" Angie asked with a sneer.
Alicia shrugged. "Flint?" she asked.
This made Angie burst out into laughter. "Like that troll-blooded bastard understands a word of French."
"He's pureblooded, so of course he does. You underestimate him and Katie, who's been your best friend for years."
"Hey girls," a male voice interrupted as George and Fred waltzed up to the table, Lee following behind. All three had laughing expressions on their faces, not noticing the heated expressions that the two girls had had a moment before. "What are you talking about?"
Angie smiled flirtingly towards Fred and told him, "Well, we were talking about a brilliant beater, to tell you the truth." The lie came easily and the boys swallowed it like babies swallowing apple sauce.
"Aw," George replied, "I'm glad to see you singing my praises, Angie."
Angie and Alicia laughed. "Now boys, don't get big heads here. There are hundreds of beaters out there. We didn't say Gryffindor, now did we?"
"Scheming women," Lee muttered under his breathe and Alicia laughed, sliding her arm around his waist.
"We do love to scheme."
Then the five Gryffindors burst into laughing, not noticing when Katie crept out of the hall with Professor Lestrange by her side.
"So, do you like Hogwarts?" Katie asked the other girl as they walked down the hallway towards the dungeons.
Jaymes shrugged. "It's a lot different from Durmstrang, a lot sunnier except for the dungeons of course. People and professors here are also a lot friendlier but then again, now I am a teacher and not a pupil. I guess I'll never know if I would have been accepted here."
"You weren't accepted at Durmstrang?" Katie asked curiously.
Jaymes shook her head. "Most of the students who go to Durmstrang are rich and all of them are pureblood. Although I'm fairly certain I'm pureblood, my money comes from my father whom many believe isn't my real father. For any of the sniveling boys at Durmstrang to have married me, it would have been slander and embarrassment to the family involved. I was pretty much an outsider and everyone there made me feel that way."
Katie shook her head. "Wow, I'm glad I never went to Durmstrang," she muttered.
"Don't worry, they would have never let you in anyways," Jaymes retorted and kept walking down towards the dungeons until they finally reached the Potion Master's small, stuffy classroom.
Katie laughed slightly before parting with Jaymes and sitting in the back of the Gryffindor side of the room, there was no way she'd be caught on the Slytherin side of the room, even if she was dating one. Jaymes slid herself onto a stool at the front of the classroom and the two girls silently watched students file in.
Angelina looked at Katie over her shoulder, her hostile eyes shining brightly. "Well, look whose come crawling back to Gryffindor. Enjoy your solitude Katie," she sneered. "No one here wants you."
Alicia glared at this and gave Katie a reassuring smile as she walked to the back of the room and sat next to Katie. "I'm sorry about her," Alicia said as Angelina glared at them, obviously feeling Alicia's betrayal.
"No, it's fine. I just can't believe her."
Alicia shrugged. "You two always hated the Slytherins together and now you've gone and started dating one. I guess she feels betrayed. Plus, I don't think that her relationship with Fred is exactly stable at the moment. I guess she's jealous as well as angry. You and Flint seem happy."
Katie nodded. "Ya, we are. Thanks Ally. You've always been a good friend," Katie told her smiling.
"It's nothing, Kate. You can always count on me," the other girl told Katie just as the twins and Lee walked into the room.
George looked at Katie sadly while Fred and Lee just glared at her and gave Alicia strange looks as they slide into the desks next to Angelina and started whispering together and glancing towards the back of the room where the two girls sat every so often.
Finally class started as Snape appeared from his office, scanning his pupils. "Today we have two additions to our class I see. Miss Bell, who was taken from us and has now been returned," he announced the obvious, smiling slightly at Katie, "and Miss Lestrange; a new addition to the staff whom I hope you will treat with respect. Now get your cauldrons out! We're brewing a burn-healing paste and for the rest of the year we will be learning potions for healing cuts, bruises, and the like. Now get working!"
And with that Snape started to tour the room as the students split up in pairs.
Alicia and Katie stood over their cauldron as they waited for it to boil, chopping up alihotsy into fine slices so they could put them in the cauldron when it had boiled.
"Now remember," Snape's voice drilled through the room, "please do not ingest alihotsy because it causes hysteria and I don't want any of you to end up in the hospital wing," the professor said with a sneer.
In front of them, Angelina and the boys laughed as George made flutterby bush dance across the room and Katie looked at them longingly.
"Hey, Kate," Alicia interrupted her thoughts, "do you want a drink?"
She shrugged before nodding and Alicia went across the room to procure some beverages as Katie added a few more ingredients into the cauldron and started to stir. A few minutes went by and Alicia returned with two drinks in hand, giving one to Katie. "Cheers," Ally said, smiling at Katie and drained her drink.
Katie took a sip, it tasted like pumpkin juice but something was slightly strange about it. Putting it down briefly she saw Alicia looking expectantly at her before she took another drink, this time longer.
Taking a step back Katie's head started to feel light headed and Alicia, who stood in front of her, started blur along with the cauldron.
Suddenly Katie screamed as the walls crashed down on her and deatheaters filled the room. She vaguely aware of laughter as she collapsed on her hands and knees, her fingers clutching her head as she shook her head too and through violently, trying to make the images go away.
Author's Notes
So, Alicia slipped some alihotsy in Katie's drink… but it wasn't that Alicia doesn't think of Katie as a friend, just peer pressure if you know what I mean. Angie's pretty damn bitter you see. Also, this takes place in Harry's fifth year if I haven't specified that already! I hope you enjoyed the chapter and don't worry; everyone will get their just desserts. ;)
My thanks to my reviewers!
Deidrah- I'm glad you liked the story so far! Hope you like this chapter as well.
Nev- I emailed you! Email me back soon, alright? And ya, I updated! Woo-hoo! Ya, Angelina's really jealous, and while she's usually a good person, she really doesn't understand why Katie would date someone who kidnapped her ect. And possibly… just possibly, there might be a little past there with Angie and the ex-Slytherin or just Slytherin quidditch players in general? Anything's possible. As for Ed, I believe he will be returning in future chapters and Argus will definitely be making an appearance. The bastard wants revenge.
Copperstring- I've updated! I hope you like that chapter! J
And for everyone else who read but didn't comment, thanks for taking the time to read it but don't forget the forget the button down in the left corner that says review. ;)