The week soon drew to a close and the excitement of the first Hogsmeade weekend was upon the students. All week pupils had chattered eagerly between classes about what they were going to buy and who they were going to go with. Even Katie was excited despite the fact she had to go with Rachel and Laura. Katie had finally given in to Louise and Kate's pleas and had agreed to go along to Hogsmeade with them, even if it meant spending the afternoon with the two people she disliked. Now it was late Saturday morning and the three friends were deciding what they were going to wear that afternoon.
"I think you should wear your new jeans," said Louise pointing towards the pile of denim on Kate's chair, "With your Goldigga t-shirt,"
"OK then," replied Kate, "Whatever you say, Miss Fashion Guru," Katie snigggered,
"So what should I wear then?" she asked Louise,
"Erm, how about your pink skirt and your Miffy top?" Louise offered as she picked up the t-shirt from the floor. "Looks quite classy for a Hogsmeade trip, I reckon you'll make a good impression on-"
"OK stop right there, now you're going way too far," Katie said, winking at Louise. She knew exactly what Louise was about to say, yet she didn't want to hear it. Right now Katie wasn't sure what she thought of Sam, she liked him enough the other day, but since her vision things were different.
When they had changed, Kate, Louise and Katie headed down to the school grounds to where the carriages were waiting for them. Louise had just put on the nearest clothes she could find so looked a bit scruffy but Katie was all made up as if she was going to a ball.
"I don't know why I have to go out looking like this," Katie complained to Louise as they walked down the gravel path, "We're only going into Hogsmeade,"
"Yeh, but you need to look good for-"
"No!" shouted Katie adjusting her skirt,
"Well it took me ages to do all that make-up," replied Louise, "You know he's going to be there as well so you have to keep it on to look good for him,"
"OK stop. This is ridiculous," Katie said. She stopped in the middle of the path and put her hand into the pocket of her silky pink jacket, pulling out a compact mirror. She held the mirror up to her face and stared into it, screwing up her eyes as if she was looking directly into the sun. Suddenly the make-up on Katie's face started to vanish, her newly dyed blonde hair fell from its twisted knot onto her shoulders and slowly changed back to a dark brown colour and her eyelashes resumed their usual state. Katie put the mirror back into her pocket and carried on walking,
"Err Katie?" inquired Kate, "You're eyes?
"Yes, what about them?" Katie replied coolly,
"Well, they're still blue," mentioned Kate,
"Yeh I know. I just thought I'd keep them like that for a bit, they look quite cool, might try green eyes next time though, just to make the contrast a little less striking." Louise looked at Katie in awe, she wished she could change her appearance whenever she wanted too, but Louise knew that wasn't likely to happen.
They soon arrived at Hogsmeade and the students poured out of the horseless carriages and flooded the village with their presence. Kate helped Katie down from her seat and together her, Kate and Louise walked down into the quaint little village to see what they could find to do.
"Ooh, doesn't Hogsville look so exciting," said a misty voice from behind them. Katie looked round, "
Yeh it does," she agreed, "And it's Hogsmeade not Hogsville," Louise laughed silently. Harriet could be in such a daze sometimes.
The three girls entered the nearest shop, which happened to be Gladrags Wizard Wear, and began to look around at the colourful garments hanging artistically around the room. Louise walked over to the pink section of clothes, followed by Katie and Kate headed off towards the purple things.
"Ooh look Rachel, it's Louise!" exclaimed a voice from behind Katie, "Fancy seeing you here, we were going to meet up with you later, but now will do. You want to come to Madam Puddifoot's with us? It's just down the road, and we need to have a chat. Kate! Come over here, we're going down to the cafe for a drink."
Katie slowly turned round to see Laura and Rachel stood behind her, Laura leaning on the rail of yellow t-shirts. She smiled at Katie, Katie didn't smile back.
"Come on then, lets be going," called Rachel, placing a stray curl behind her ear as she hurried Kate and Louise out of the shop. Katie started forward to follow them,
"Err, where are you going?" asked Laura from beside Katie,
"With my friends," Katie replied blankly,
"I don't think you are. When I said a chat and a drink, I meant with the other two, not you."
"Well I can still come and listen can't I?"
"I don't think so Katie, we'll be finished with your friends later on, you can meet us at the 3 Broomsticks in say, 3 hours?" Laura laughed and rushed out the shop after Rachel. Katie was left dumbfounded.
"Now what do I do?" she said to herself, turning to examine a pearl necklace,
"Well you could always talk to me for a minute," someone replied. Katie dropped the necklace in fright shattering it as it crashed to the hard, tiled floor, she hadn't expected a reply to her question. She bent down to scoop up the pieces.
"Well, do you want to talk to me or not?" Katie had forgotten that she had just been spoken to but looked up from her position on the floor and into the face of her mysterious talker in remembrance.
"Oh!" Katie exclaimed, "I err, yeh, erm, sure I'll talk to you," she stuttered,
"That's great news Katie, fancy going down to the 3 Broomsticks with me?"
"Ok, sure," she replied. Katie's mysterious talker had turned out to be none other than Sam Evanstar, why hadn't she recognised his voice at first? If she had she would have been a lot quicker to reply. But then she remembered, hadn't Sam been acting strange around her in her vision, was this an insight into what he was really like? Katie hoped not, but decided to forget this and followed Sam out of Gladrags, this was an oppertunity she couldn't miss.
As they entered the 3 Broomsticks Sam led Katie to a small table at the back of the pub. It had a blue tablecloth with daisies embroidered onto it and a small hanging light above it that gave off a purple misty haze. Katie sat down nervously, as did Sam.
"So, I haven't really spoken to you much before Katie," he said, "But I noticed you were on your own so I thought I'd jump at the chance to get to know you better, why don't you tell me a bit about yourself?" Katie was in shock, but started to explain her life to Sam anyway.
Sam sat there gazing at Katie throughout the whole afternoon and through 4 pints of Butterbeer, it was starting to make Katie feel uncomfortable. She shuffled on her chair and then said,
"OK, I have to go now. I'll see you later,"
"Oh, OK," replied Sam, crestfallen. Katie got up and left the pub and Sam behind her.
"Phew," she thought to herself as she exited the pub,
"That was an interesting afternoon." Katie sat down on the bench outside the 3 Broomsticks and waited for Louise and Kate to return. Evetually they came, accompanied by the 'troublesome twosome' (as Katie had named them whilst waiting) and they hurried up to Katie to greet her.
"Hiya Katie, how are you?" asked Louise happily as she parked herself on the bench next to Katie,
"Yeh, OK," Katie replied glumly. She hated seeing her friends enjoying themselves without her.
"Cheer up Katie," said Kate as she also sat down, "Want a Wootsit?" She held out a scrumpled crisp packet to Katie,
"No thanks," Katie replied. This was followed by an awkward silence, but,
"Bye then Louise and Kate," Rachel called, breaking the ice. Katie looked up to see Rachel and Laura walking down the street, Rachel's bracelet hanging loosely from under her jumper and Laura's skirt swaying in the breeze.
"You guys look as if you had a good time without me," Katie said sadly fiddling with the toggle on her jacket,
"Actually," began Kate, "We didn't have anything of the sort,"
"So what did you do?" Katie asked looking slightly more cheerful,
"That's it you see," Louise said, "We can't remember,"
"You can't remember. You two have the memory of a goldfish," Katie looked back down at her knees. Her friends had obviously had a good time away from her, but just didn't want her to know.
"Honestly Katie," Louise said as she saw the look of disbelief on Katie's face, "We're telling the truth. The only thing I remember about this afternoon was me and Laura sat in the 3 Broomsticks over a cup of coffee. One minute we were talking about me and then the next thing I know I'm back here with you again." Katie looked up into Louise's eyes,
"Truthfully?" she asked,
"Truthfully," Louise replied, "I wouldn't lie to you." Katie seemed satisfied with that answer and so stood up,
"Let's get back to Hogwarts," she said and together Louise, Kate and Katie headed off towards the castle arm in arm.
Back at school everything was quiet, Katie and her 2 friends had returned early so as to have the castle to themselves for a bit. Katie led them over to the Quidditch pitch where they sat in the Hufflepuff stand for a while
. "So this is what it looks like from the other end of the pitch," Katie said as she watched a couple of random Slytherins fly around on broomsticks near to the Ravenlcaw end.
"It doesn't look much different to me," commented Kate,
"Yeh but you come here like every day," Katie mentioned.
"Katie?" Louise piped from beside her, "What have you been doing all day?" Katie choked,
"Well I was in Gladrags for a while,"
"You weren't in there all afternoon though were you?"
"No I wasn't."
"So, what were you doing?"
"Well I erm, hey look at that guy!" Katie pointed onto the pitch where the Slytherin Keeper Michael Lestrange was doing loop-the-loops on his broom, Louise coughed,
"Oh, sorry. What was the question?"
"What were you doin this afternoon?" Louise repeated,
"Err, well, OK I might as well tell you. I was in the 3 Broomsticks with Sam,"
"YOU WHAT!"screamed Kate out of surprise, "You were with Sam all afternoon? No wonder you looked so happy just before we came to meet you,
"Y-you saw me?" Katie stuttered,
"Yeh!" laughed Kate, "As we were coming to meet you. Saw you coming out of the pub looking incredibly pleased about something, but as soon as we came up to you you put on the sad face." Katie cringed, they weren't meant to have noticed that.
"Yes I had a butterbeer with Sam, he met me in Gladrags and didn't seem to be with anyone either, so we just decided to go to the 3 Broomsticks together. Well, it was actually him that decided,"
"But why didn't you tell us?" asked Louise, "It's not exactly a thing to be ashamed of, and that's coming from me." Katie laughed nervously,
"I just didn't know how you'd react," she said,
"Well what did you expect us to say? You're insania Katie, you really are." Louise slouched down in her chair and folded her arms, tutting quietly to herself. "So, did you, I mean, did anything happen between you and Sam then?" Kate asked intrigued,
"What do you mean?" Katie snapped back as she moved uncomfortably in her chair,
"I mean like, did anything happen. Did he ask you to the winter dance?"
"What? Oh. No he didn't, I totally forgot about that. But anyway, that's the end of that conversation," Katie concluded. She was relieved that relating her afternoon to Kate and Louise was over. Katie left her seat and smoothed the creases out of her skirt,
"Let's get back to the common room," she said sleepily, rubbing her eyes,
"OK," agreed Louise and Kate in unison. The evening that followed the Hogsmeade visit was drawing to a close. The sun was setting over the forbidden forest and corwds of mosquitoes fluttere lightly above the lake. The night had brought a slight chill causing the three girls to shiver as they approached the castle. Most of the castle grounds were in shadow so Katie had to be careful to watch her footing.
A/N Hope that wasn't too boring? Review!