Katie followed Professor Lubella down dusty corridors, through doorways, under arches and behind worn tapestries until they finally reached a small round room with countless stain glass windows. The walls were made of cold stone, as was the floor, which was covered in what looked like the remains of the muddy footprints of many previous head teachers. Katie looked upwards and noticed that the room they were in was in fact a tower that went up and up into what looked like a black oblivion. Professor Lubella cleared her throat and flicked her shiny black hair over her shoulder.
"Fizzing Whizzbee," she said, and the wall in front of Katie started to revolve, revealing a stone gargoyle on the other side and a steep flight of stairs.
"OK then Katie," said Lubella, "After you." Katie stepped forward and started up the spiralling stairs. There was no need to climb any further however because the stairs seemed to also be slowly moving upwards on their own accord. When they reached the top Katie stepped down into a room which she presumed was Professor Lubella's office. She had never been in there before and so stood, mouth open, gaping at the hundreds of portraits that covered the walls. The room was also full of strange looking objects and Katie even noticed a Disney video collection on a shelf behind Lubella's desk. She smiled but was soon brought back to her senses as the head teacher tapped her sharply on the shoulder with her wand and told her to sit down.
"Katie, I need to have a word with you," Professor Lubella started as she sat down on the gold plaid chair opposite Katie. Katie shifted uncomfortably in her seat. "I sensed that something was wrong and so thought it wise to call you here, rather than you having to explain it in the middle of the school."'
"Yes," replied Katie glumly, it had now dawned on her why she was there, "It's those two Gryffindor's," she said, "I don't know who they are but they sure are annoying."
"That's not what I meant," said Lubella, "But carry on anyway." Katie sighed,
"Well, I was just coming to see you because I had this dream, no, vision, and they stopped me and wouldn't let me go past and then they started asking me stuff but I needed to get to you and they were acting as if I was a little child but I needed to see you and they thought I was lying, and then, then, you appeared." Katie said, so fast that she was out of breath by the time she had finished. "Do you know who they are?" she added. Katie seemed to think it best if she gave Lubella the story all at once, so she could get it over and done with.
"Why yes." replied Lubella calmly. She was good at keeping calm in a crisis and knew exactly how to deal with everything, this was one of the reasons why so many people admired her. "They are two second year Gryffindors. They go by the names of Rachel Felton and Laura Goyle. The only reason why they are acting like this is because they're jealous Katie. They want to be like you because, well, you're a really nice person. Now, don't let them get to you."
"OK," said Katie blankly, though she could tell Lubella was just saying that to make her feel better.
"Now. Is there anything else you wish to tell me?" asked Professor Lubella, who had obviously seen the look of disbelief on Katie's face.
"Yes." said Katie, now looking at her knees, "I had this vision whilst I was asleep in the hospital wing. Someone's in grave danger Professor, danger from Vol-, sorry, you-know-who. He's going to murder again. I know it."
"OK Katie," said Lubella, "Can you tell me any more information?"
"Err, no." replied Katie, "Wait! Yes I can! It's coming back to me now. It was a girl that was killed, yes, a girl, and I recognised her from some-" Katie froze mid-sentence in absolute horror, her eyes widened, "The girl was, the girl was-"
"Yes?" encouraged Lubella as she put her hand on Katie's shoulder. Katie was now crying silently, but managed to go on.
"It was Kate," she whispered. Katie put her head in her hands and tried to breathe deeply and think clearly but all she could see was the blinding green light and the sound of Kate's innocent screams. "P-Professor?" Katie stuttered, she was in too much shock to speak properly, "W-w-why does V-voldemort want to k-kill Kate?"
"Now now Katie, I want you to first understand this. The vision you encountered was infact an insight into matter that has already happened. Now is not the time for me to explain it Miss Lovegood, but the time will come eventually
"B-but," stuttered Katie, "If it was in the past then surely that means....why is.......but surely........how can Kate be alive now?"
"Katie. The girl you saw in your vision wasn't Kate, though she did resemble her greatly. I now however, cannot give you any more information, though I can caution you to be careful as you have many visions yet to come."
"Many?" questioned Katie
"Yes," replied Lubella. "But please don't fret and worry over them. Now Katie when you are ready it is time for you to leave," said Lubella kindly, "Remember if there's anything you want to tell me, anything at all, you know where to find me." Katie smiled weakly and stood up.
"I have just one more question," she said as she walked over to the staircase, "Why did the woman resemble Kate?"
"That I cannot answer," replied Lubella kindly, though there was something about her voice that made Katie wary. Katie started to march back down the stairs, the sadness on her face had vanished and had been replaced by a look of utter confusion. "Goodbye Miss Lovegood,"
said a distant voice as Katie walked along the corridor. Katie didn't know what to do. She wanted to tell Kate and Louise instantly about her vision, but then decided against it, somethings were best kept to herself. She decided to let her feet guide her, and ended up back in the Ravenclaw common room. Ignoring all welcomes from her fellow students Katie trudged straight into her dormitory and lay down on the bed. Moments later she was once again fast asleep.
"What is it?" replied Kate anxiously,
"I don't believe it!" There was the sound of rustling paper,
"Wow! Look at that!"
"I know I know! What am I going to wear?"
"Never mind that, who are we going to go with?"
"Oh, yeh," replied Louise, sounding downtrodden. Katie stretched and opened her eyes. Sleepily she sat up and saw Kate and Louise sat on the end of her bed, Louise clutching a scrumpled piece of parchment.
"Keep it down guys," Katie mumbled, lying back down again, butt something distracted her, "Kate!" she screamed, sitting back up again violently and jumping out of bed to greet her friend. "Kate! How good to see you!" Katie gave her friend a quick hug and then flopped herself down onto the bed next to Louise.
"Oh-kay," said Kate, "What was that for?"
"Err, nothing," replied Katie quickly, after all, she had decided to keep her vision secret..
"What's all the fuss about anyway, you two woke me up."
"Oh, it's the Winter Ball this Christmas," piped Louise
"Oh yeh, go on then, what's the bad news?" said Katie, raising an eyebrow as she turned to face Louise,
"Hey! How did you know there was bad news? Anyway, I've just read this poster and it says that the Ball is only open to third years and above, which means we can't go unless someone invites us,"
"Well that rules us out of going then," answered Katie as she stood up to go and get changed, "I mean, who's gonna invite us?"
"Honestly Katie," said Kate rolling her eyes, "You never think positive do you?"
"Well it's true," said Katie, "I mean who is going to take us?"
"I just can't wait for the dance!" cried Becca excitedly, "I already know who I'm going to ask."
"Who are you going to ask?" queried Kate,
"Oh, just the Keeper on the Hufflepuff team. You know, Martin Corner. Who are you guys going with?"
"What? Us?" asked Katie, spilling her orange juice all over the table,
"Yeh," said Becca, "You,"
"Well," replied Katie,
"We aren't exactly-" said Kate
"Going to decide yet are we?" added Louise. Katie sighed in relief that Louise hadn't told Becca and Harriet they weren't going to be invited.
"If you say so," said Becca biting into an apple tart.
"I'm going to the Ball," said Harriet dreamily, "I can't wait, I've already been asked as well,"
"You have?" said Becca, so astonished that she dropped what she was eating.
"Yes. By Jack Weasley. He asked me on the way to the bathroom this morning."
"Right." replied Becca, "I won't even ask why you were going to the bathroom together but we better be going now, don't want to be late for potions!"
"Bye then," replied Kate as she tucked into a Brunch bar. "Though I think we best be off too, got an astronomy lesson to get to,"
"Astronomy?," said Katie and Louise in unison.
"But it's morning, and it's daylight," commented Louise, as if suggesting Kate had made a mistake.
"I know," said Kate, "But that's what my timetable says." They stood up and Katie and Louise marched out of the Great Hall together, closely followed by Kate carrying a huge handful of Brunch bars. Louise rolled her eyes.
"This is just going to be a living nightmare," said Katie, "What if we really don't get invited to the Ball by anyone? We'll be the talk of the school, for at least a week,"
"Oh Katie," replied Kate stuffing food into her bag, "Think positive! Who would you like to go with?" Katie laughed,
"Isn't that a bit obvious?" she said, "Sam Evanstar of course,"
"Well I'm sure we can make it happen," said Louise, "But for the moment let's not worry about that, we just need to find our way up to the astronomy tower."
Kate, Katie and Louise followed their instincts and soon found themselves at the entrance to the astronomy tower, they could already hear the patter of feet upstairs and realised they were late. They slowly entered the classroom and sat down on the back row, fortunately Professor Bloom hadn't noticed and so Katie breathed a sigh of relief.
"Welcome back to a new year of astronomy. This lesson will be on a Tuesday first lesson and Thursday midnight." called Professor Bloom, "Today we will be studying planet arrangements as these can easily be seen in daylight, I would like you to get into pairs and choose a telescope." Professor Bloom smiled at Katie, they had known each other for 12 years as they lived in the same neighbourhood. Katie would often go and play with Professor Bloom's children or watch her husband Orlando rehearse for his latest films.
"Katie? Can I go in a pair with you?" asked Kate, "Yeh sure," replied Katie. Louise looked at Katie with an expression of sadness on her face and turned to pair up with Pip Patil instead. The telescopes were positioned in a large circle around the room, Katie and Kate chose one near to the front desk and attempted to star gaze.
"How on earth do you star gaze when you can't see the stars?" said Katie wearily, Professor Bloom seemed to have overheard her and announced to the class,
"To be able to see the planets in daylight switch you telescopes to 'lunar' mode using the little yellow button on the side. Then take the chart in front of you and copy down what you see. There is a map on the wall over here which shows what your completed charts should look like. Please only copy this if you are having trouble seeing the planets yourself. Right, back to work." Katie put her eye to the telescope and peered into the sky.
"What do you see?" asked Kate, who had been appointed chief drawer,
"Er, not much actually. I see Saturn and Jupiter and Mars. Grid references H4 Saturn, F4 Jupiter and A4 Mars."
"A4?" asked Kate, "You sure? It says on the chart over here that Mars should be on D4,"
"Well it's not. OK, Mercury K5, Uranus H4, Pluto B7-"
"Katie stop. This is all wrong. How can Mercury be further out than Pluto? And how come Saturn is in the same place as Uranus? Katie can I have a look, I think you're reading it wrong."
"I am not reading it wrong thank you very much. Only a few weeks ago did I write an article about accurate stargazing so I think you'll find that I'm perfectly correct," Katie snapped back, putting her eye back up against the telescope again. "Right, in squares L1 to L10 is the asteroid belt, I can only just see it," she said,
"But-," Kate began,
"Sshh. A6 Venus and H4 Neptune. Then after that I think we're done."
"Katie, this is ridiculous," commented Kate,
"What are you talking about?" asked Katie, "It's perfectly fine, I told you what I see and unless I am mistaken that is exactly what I saw,"
"Yeh but Katie, we have three planets in the same square, it can't be-"
"Kate? I said that's what I saw and I am definitely not wrong thank you." Katie jumped down from the telescope and went over to examine their chart. "I think it looks fine," she said, "And how do you know that I'm the one that's wrong? You might have got the wrong co-ordinates."
"Katie, I only drew what you told me to," replied Kate wearily,
"Whatever you say." Katie rubbed her hands together and sat down opposite Kate. Kate, not satisfied with Katie's stargazing techniques, had now resorted to copying the chart from the wall onto their results. Katie sighed and smiled at Kate, she knew she was right and so decided there was no point in helping her copy down the proper chart. They were forced to stop what they were doing though as Professor Bloom started to speak.
"OK then class, that's enough planet watching for today, hopefully you will have a completed chart by now. Please sit down." Kate and Katie went back to their bench and found Louise already sat there, puzzling over her own star chart.
"Hiya," said Katie as she sat down,
"Hi," replied Louise, "You know I think Pip did her planet gazing all wrong, have you seen this?" she thrust the piece of paper into Katie's hands. Kate peered over to look at it.
"See!" exclaimed Katie, "I wasn't doing it wrong, Louise has the same references as we did!" She sunk back against the wall looking pleased with herself.
"OK Miss Smarty," said Kate, "But how was I supposed to know? It certainly looks wrong." She gave the chart back to Louise and then turned to Professor Bloom,
"Well done class that was an excellent lesson, please hand in your star charts on the way out. Complete them for homework if you haven't already done so," said Professor Bloom and with that, the class stood up and started to snake out of the astronomy tower. Katie, Louise and Kate followed at the end and headed towards the Hogwart's grounds for a bit of fresh air before their next lesson.
A/N review review review! Hope you like it so far, the plot can go a bit weird sometimes and the Brunch bars are there for a reason!