Chapter 7: Bet

Even if I hadn't have rolled onto a copy of the Daily Prophetwhen I woke up this morning, I wouldn't have forgotten what today was.

Even if I wasn't nearly mauled to death by an angry owl, I wouldn't have forgotten to pay the bloody thing.

In an irate way, I threw a couple of knuts out of the window and shooed the bird away. Picking up the rolled paper, I smoothed it out on my bed.

1 YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF ENGLAND CHASER'S DEATH

Bell's Deadly Fall: Details and Witnesses Revisited!

I sigh and run my fingers over the picture of Katie. For once, in this one she isn't falling. I'm in it, I realize as I hold it up to the window.

It's in front of Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes; right after she made the England National Team. Katie is laughing and spinning around Alicia, who looks like she is trying not to laugh, and Angelina is leaning on Fred, who is clearly demonstrating how some of the products work. And George is standing on the side of it all with me. We were planning something then. I don't remember what, anymore. A prank or joke of some sort, most likely. Something to further our sophomoric reputations.

Katie's in the England's Robes and under the picture, the caption reads "Katie Bell's death under mysterious circumstances left her family and friends devastated. Now that the truth is out, may they live in peace."

I grunt at the bullshit of it all and toss that particular issue onto my bedside table. Peace isn't quite the word for it. We can cope, but that is all that we can do.

Things have gotten much better, though. Somehow we can make our way through life again and somehow we can feel again.

Two weeks before today, a sobbing Madison Bell stumbled into the Ministry and held out her hands. "I killed her!", she howled, according to the Daily Prophet and himself, who happened to be there.

She is now in Azkaban for 1st Degree Magical Murder, I don't know how the dememtors are living off of her, though. The girl is ice, through and through.

It gives all of us, especially George, a little bit of help just knowing that it couldn't have been prevented. According to the ministry, little Maddie Bell has been planning her sister's murder for years and the Minister thinks that she may as well have been killed doing something that she loved.

We beg to differ. It would have been better if she wasn't killed at all, but that isn't an option.

We can all talk about her now, casually, and it doesn't seem like there is anything between us anymore. We look for comfort within each other.

George has thrown himself into WWW and can talk and joke again. It's almost like old times, except instead of six...there are five.

Of the five of us, now, Alicia had been the hardest to bring back. She angers so easily and it's hard to talk to her. But she's back now. She's the old Alicia. Since Madison turned herself in, Alicia hadn't been sleeping. So she's been at my flat staying in the back bedroom.

So it's sufficient to say that neither of us has been getting much sleep. I always hear her crying in the middle of the night and I just hold her until she feels safe again. It's still so strange. Until Katie died, I was so sure that Alicia wasn't afraid of anything. It took a tragedy to prove me wrong.

I hadn't wanted to be proven wrong. But now I suppose that it's safe to say that I have fallen madly and deeply in bloody love with Alicia. Katie would have liked that bit of gossip. She would have liked that because we were her own personal project when she died.

Fred and Angelina are happy together and Angelina cheered up when people could talk about Katie. She tells us now that it was the lack of talking that made it feel surreal, and she didn't want to believe it.

No one believes this either...Angelina is pregnant. The word on everyone's lips is 'finally!' and for Fred it is all one big celebration. The way they both go around with a big grin on their faces is almost sickening, but Alicia says it's endearing.

Okay. One of your best friends slapping you on your back and telling you to 'Just wait until you're a dad someday!'. So, endearing is the word for that?

I was thinking bizarre.

But I'm happy for them, I really am.

The baby is due in March. On Katie's birthday. I think Angelina had something to do with this, but you never can be sure.

And me? I'm just getting on gettin' on. But it's possible that I miss Katie more than any of 'em. I'm their rock, their stone. They unload all of their worries onto me. I'm happy with my place. It has always been my place. But I can't help thinking how it would be different if she would have lived. She was one of my best friends.

"Melinda Dervish will put four through the hoop, and Kevin McClose 'll save all of Bulgaria's shots." Katie smirked at Lee from across Fred and Angelina's living room.

"Are you joking? Krum will catch the snitch before Ireland scores. They don't want a repeat of the World Cup. Bulgaria has been hiding ever since!", Lee sneered from across the room.

"Bloody. Hell.", Alicia frowned, scooting closer to the radio. "Must you do this every game?"

"Yes, we must, my dear Alicia. Ten sickles that Bulgaria winsand catches the snitch." Lee held out his hand to his blonde haired opposition.

"It's tradition!", Katie admonished, thinking and muttering something under her breath. "All right. Ireland wins but doesn't catch the snitch and McClose scores at least two goals." She took Lee's strong hand and shook it with equal force.

"Ha! You'll see, Bell!", Lee threatened jokingly as he dropped his hand.

"I will see, Jordan. I will see your ten sickles in the palm of my hand!", Katie laughed at her friend. "Oy! Turn the radio up!"

We would always bet on everything. The scores of a game, the number of people that George can successfully con out of their money, the time it took Angelina to get ready in the morning, number of minutes it took Fred to turn slightly green at his own wedding, how long it took Alicia to talk herself out of a detention.

Everything.

Now as everyone asks me where I think that she is, who she is with, how she is...I only have one answer. It's not definite, but I feel that it could be.

I say that Katie is happy somewhere. That she is surrounded by friends and that she is waiting for all of us.

I'd bet that she's waiting for us. I'd put everything that I owned on it.

I'd stake my life on it.

See you soon, Kate,

I never lose.