Juliet looked at her friend and said "Standing up would be a good start" sounding amused, they had landed sprawled out on the ground again.

"Right" Kat said, she had sat up, standing would probably be a good plan. She looked over at Severus again, he was reading some sort of book, she instinctively thought 'dark arts', then amended herself by thinking 'no, you've got to give him a chance'. She looked at Jules and said "I can't do it" simply, and sat down again, but this time closer to the tree.

Juliet rolled her eyes "Kat, you can flirt with Sirius, you can pull pranks and get away with them, you can stare down an accusing teacher, but you can't talk to Severus Snape?" she asked, scooting over to sit next to Kat.

"Exactly, this is different Jules, I've acted like I hated him since fifth year. What am I supposed to say? Do? How am I supposed to act? How do I know he won't just think it's a trick? Oh, and I don't flirt with Sirius, we're strictly friends, it's not like he'd like me back anyway." Kat said to her friend, voicing some of what was going on in Kat's head. Well, at least a little bit, but for most people it was impossible to even remotely make any sense of the way Kat's brain worked.

Juliet rolled her eyes "It can't be that hard, I'll go get him" she told Kat and walked away, not letting Kat get the chance to tell her not to. So Kat watched as Juliet went over to the diligently reading Severus and talked with him. She honestly wished she'd talk for longer, or he'd refuse to come over thinking it was a trick, or that he'd be like the Snape she had always thought of before and hex her for no reason. Well, not a bad curse, just something that would make Jules give up.

But no such luck, Juliet told him something and he looked mad, then looked at Kat, then said something to Juliet, who shook her head and said something else. As Kat watched she was trying to figure out what she'd do, it wasn't like she had ever considered Snape as anything but an enemy, she was just confused, basically, but a confused Kat wasn't always such a good thing, example: Potions.

Well, anyway, she continued to watch until Severus stood up, closing his book, Juliet said something to him, then she saw her best friend walk off into the castle. 'oh great, my best friend deserts me, wonderful, what great friends I have…" Kat thought, seeing this. She wasn't happy about talking to Snape like this in the first place, and now she didn't have a friend to back her up, or whatever you wanted to call it.

Kat saw Severus walking toward her, and looked away, once he got to her she said "'Lo, Severus" simply. It was the first time he'd heard her say his actual name, though it was the second time she'd used it for him. Severus raised an eye brow and took a seat next to her.

"'Lo, Kat." he replied simply, putting his book to the side, and looking at her as if in awe of a miracle. What was going on in his mind? That was what Kat wished she could know, she'd probably be freaked out, or touched by what he was thinking, actually.

Severus' thoughts at the moment:

Wow, she's beautiful, and she used my name! I wish she'd look at me though, well, she's probably feeling weird since I'm sort of staring at her, I should look away, but she's just -so- beautiful, I can't. I wonder how she found out, Juliet said that she didn't find out from her, so where? Almost no one knows… Maybe she figured it out on her own, I wouldn't be surprised, she's really smart. But wait, this could all be a trick, a joke, she could hit me with a curse any second, or Black could jump out from somewhere… But why doesn't it feel like a joke then?…

Yep, he had a lot running through his mind at the moment, but it was nothing compared with Kat's thoughts, which went from 'what do I do now' to 'I wonder why the grass is green, why can't the chloroplasts be purple?'. Yes, a little random, but remember, this is KAT, she IS a little random, and she thinks about just about everything constantly.

"Look, I know how you feel, and I'm willing to give it a chance, one chance, not being enemies with you, I'm not promising anything. But I don't feel comfortable hating someone who doesn't hate me" Kat said, deciding on the best way to put it. She still wasn't looking at him, but staring resolutely across the lake.

If she had been looking at Severus she would have seen the attentiveness in his face as he listened to her words, and the happiness once she had finished. All of his thoughts at that moment could basically be summed up with one word 'YAY!', but something was bugging him, how had she found out?

"H.. How'd you find out? Juliet said she didn't tell you…" Severus voiced his question quietly, this was luck he was riding on, any moment she could decide not to give him the chance, so he didn't want to push it.

"Oh simply, my brilliant failure at potions made a time warp potion, it brought Jules and myself twenty years into the future. Well, after much deliberation between Jules, this annoying Hermione girl, and Dumbledore we went to you for help, you were the potions master, and before you sent me and Jules back you told me." Kat explained like it was the most normal thing in the world, that was Kat for you, being casual over something someone else would think was a big deal.

Severus raised a skeptic eye brow, this was -really- seeming like a prank in disguise. "Really…?" he said doubtingly, and his doubt showed in his voice.

"Yes, really, you said that you noticed me in fourth year, but started liking me in fifth year, that you thought I was beautiful, and smart, and outspoken, and kind, and brave, and funny. You told me that Jules found out and you made her promise to not say anything, and that the only reason it ever seemed that you hated me was because you had to retaliate somehow. But you could never retaliate like you do with James and Sirius. Then me and Jules took the potion and came back" Kat explained, still acting as if it was the simplest thing in the world, she was, after all, just repeating facts.

Severus just looked at her, a bit stunned. Everything she said about how he felt was true, no one but he knew those things, she had to be telling the truth. But how had she managed to make a time warp potion? That was REALLY advanced, not even he could make one, and he was the best at potions in seventh year. "How the heck did you manage to go forward in time?" he asked the most obvious question.

"Simple, I'm the worst in our year at potions, I cause both minor and massive explosions in potions class once a week, all I had to do was mess up really, really bad, even for me" Kat answered bluntly, leaning back against the tree they were under.

Indeed, it was well known, Kat was horrible at potions, and Severus knew that. "Well, in hopes of stopping you from transporting yourself to a different dimension next time, I'd like to offer to tutor you in potions" he said to Kat. If he was supposed to be a potions teacher he better get started, and how better to start than with tutoring Kat? It would give her a chance to see the real him, and probably help her not blow up a potion every week.

Kat finally looked at Severus, her gaze was an appraising one. "If your okay with being covered in goo… and all that" she replied, looking across the lake again, she seemed glad though, Severus was the best at potions in the school, besides the potions professor. So she'd be tutored by the guy, no problem, she figured he probably wanted to take her up on that chance she had given him.

Severus smirked. No, not a smile, but that was only because he didn't smile. "It's fine, err… well, we should work out a time and place to meet, about once a week?" he prodded, he didn't want to push his luck, so he was being cautious.

Kat thought about this for a minute, quiddich practice on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, Mondays were hard enough, Fridays she was usually busy with doing nothing or hanging out with friends, and Sunday was her 'day of rest'-translation: she planed pranks on Sunday. So there was one day to meet up "How about Wednesdays, like, around 5-ish?" she suggested, it would give her a chance to goof off after class but also give her time to do homework after dinner. Homework was actually usually done on Wednesday with Kat, it was her work night, but she'd just have to space it out more.

You see, Kat HAD to get her potions NEWT, she wanted to be an Auror, that meant she needed to fill the requirements. So she would have Severus as a tutor, and she'd get better at potions, or never succeed with her dream of becoming a dark wizard catcher. She saw Severus smile, well, he seemed willing to get blown apart, so she would take his help.

"Yes, that works out on my schedule" Severus said, still smirking.

Kat realized something, she had a detention soon, she glanced at her watch. Correction, she had a detention that started five minutes ago. "I got to go, detention, I'll meet you in the library on Wednesday at 5!" she said, standing up, she didn't wait for his answer, just sprinted toward the castle, it was bad enough this wasn't her only detention piled up, now she would probably have to make up for being late by staying with the teacher even later than she had expected.

Months rolled by, Kat and Severus met up each Wednesday in the library for Kat to be tutored in potions. The first quiddich game came and went, Gryffindor beating Ravenclaw 230 to 120, and Kat continued to get detentions. Soon enough it was November, and there was a Hogsmead weekend coming up, the second one of the year.

"You get Remus to go to Hogsmead with you yet?" Kat asked Juliet, they were outside by the lake again, Kat was working on a potions essay, and Juliet was reading something or other. Kat was the only one besides Juliet who knew about Juliet's crush on Remus, just as Juliet was the only one other than Kat who know about Kat's crush on Sirius.

Juliet let out a laugh "You have to be kidding me! He'd never go out with me! He doesn't even know I exist!" she told her friend, seemingly amused at the idea. "Have you asked Sirius yet?" she then asked her friend.

"Yeah right, Sirius would never want to go with me, besides, he probably already has a date with one of those bimbos in his 'fan club'. Not to mention the fact that since I've stopped teasing Severus with him we don't hang out so much." Kat said to her friend, looking up from her essay. Kat had gotten Sirius and James to tone it down a bit on the teasing, but the still did hex Severus a lot.

Kat still pranked, don't get me wrong, she just didn't single a single person out anymore, she had larger scale pranks now, that usually involved a whole house, not just a few people. So she didn't hang around with Sirius so much anymore, they were still pretty good friends though, she wasn't willing to lose his friendship over a crush she had had on him since first year.

"You don't give yourself enough credit you know. Have you seen the way he looks at you sometimes?" Juliet asked Kat with a smirk.

"Your hallucinating, okay? He doesn't like me back, and I'm not about to ruin the friendship I have with him to prove that to you" Kat replied simply.

"Fine, think what you want" Juliet said, she wasn't going to fight with Kat over this, Kat was too stubborn for her to ever win anyway. Juliet read and Kat worked in silence for a little while, for once Kat was doing her potions homework on her own, she hadn't asked for help at all, not once, and this was one of the hardest assignments they had gotten all year.

Of course, it was taking her longer than usual, this assignment, but she wanted to get it right. She was actually doing a lot better in potions than she had been before, she knew her ingredients like the back of her hand. She could tell moon stone dust from granite dust in a heartbeat, and that was usually hard for even people who had mastered the art of potions to do. She had always been that good with ingredients, that's how she had made it into NEWT level potions, it was just the combining of those ingredients that she had trouble with.

That sort of thing came with being wiccan, you learned the names of the things you worked with, or you got stuck in otherworld, or you left your body permanently. So Kat had known her ingredients that well since before she could remember, oh well, she still needed help in potions, most of the time she couldn't sit still long enough to properly brew a potion anyway, and she knew she wasn't planning on using such things excessively, the only reason she was doing this was so she could become an auror.

"I'll see you later, I need to go check something out in a book from the library" Kat told Juliet, standing up.

Juliet laughed "I never though I'd hear that you of all people willfully went to the library! Bye" she called to her friend as Kat walked away toward the castle.

As she made her way toward the library Kat was thinking about what Juliet had said. Could he really like her back? No, but if he did… You see, Kat had started to have feelings for a different guy in the past week or so, a certain person tutoring her in potions. Believe it or not, she was starting to really like Severus, they had a lot in common, and were starting to be pretty good friends.

She figured she'd deal with it later, she entered the library and remembered exactly why she usually avoided the place. It was always so stuffy in there, and the quiet sometimes was unnerving. Oh well, she headed for the table she usually sat at with Severus working on potions, it was right near the potions section after all. She wasn't that surprised to see Severus there, and she smirked, predictable.

She grabbed the book she needed and took a seat across from him and then opened the book, looking for the fact she needed to nicely end off her essay, which was a good foot longer than it had to be. "How did I know you'd be here?" she asked Severus quietly, still scanning the pages, looking for the information she needed.

Severus chuckled, not looking up from his book, and said "After three months of spending time with someone you get to know some of their habits" as a reply.

"True" Kat conceded, she then flattened out her essay on the table and added the last two sentences, having found the fact that she needed. "Mind checking my essay for me?" she asked, putting away her quill and ink, she was pretty sure she had it all right, she just wanted to be sure.

"No, not at all" Severus replied, dog earring the page he was on in his book, closing it, and picking up the essay to read. He scanned over it, a smirk on his face, well, it was perfect, nothing wrong and extra information, he handed it back to her saying "You can expect an 'O' on that". They were getting their work graded the way the NEWTs were graded, and 'O' was the highest grade you could get.

Neither of them saw that behind the book case that was right near the table they were at, someone was watching them. Well, more like watching Kat, but anyway, they just didn't see him.

"Really?" Kat asked, taking back the essay "Awesome! Thanks Severus, look, I'll see you later, I have some plans to make" she said, standing up, she knew he would understand that she meant she was planning a prank.

"Wait, Kat, I was wondering…" Kat turned around to face him again as Severus said this. "Well, will you go to Hogsmead with me this weekend?" he asked nervously. He had to ask, they had been friends for about three months now. A look of faint surprise flicked on Kat's face. On the other side of the book shelf the expression on whoever it was' face was jealous as he watched, waiting for Kat's answer just as hopefully as Severus, but for different reasons, hoping for a different answer.