Chapter 7 - Hogsmeade

Katie rolled over in her sleep, clutching the blanket closer to her. She could feel the light from the early morning even though her eyes were closed. She rolled over again, and promptly fell off the couch. She hit the ground with a thud.

"Ow! What the heck?" she looked around her. She was in the Gryffindor common room, beside the fireplace. She looked at what she assumed was a blanket. It was somebody's cloak. She stood up and looked around. The fire had long gone out, the common room was empty, and faint streaks of pink colored the ceiling. She checked her watch. Five am. She sighed and fell back on the couch, rubbing her eyes. Suddenly she remembered the transfiguration project. She leapt up and looked around for the work. Suddenly she saw it on a table, walked over and checked it. Finished! About time, she thought. She looked down and groaned. Her robes were all wrinkled from sleeping in them all night. Ah well, might as well just get up and find some clean ones, she thought, and set about getting washed and ready for the day.

About half and hour later she headed down to get some breakfast, vaguely remembering she should be practicing for the quidditch trials. She promised herself she would get in some practice after breakfast. She looked around and discovered she was the only one there. Not surprising, she had to admit. She preferred it that way, nice and quiet. She suddenly remembered today was the trip to Hogsmeade, she had been looking forward to it ever since she saw the notice in the common room. Well, ever since she first saw Hogsmeade in fact, but that wasn't the point.

She quickly swallowed down some toast and went upstairs to collect her broom. A few minutes later she was outside, gradually waking up in the cool breeze. When she returned to the dining hall she found that it was practically full with chattering, excited third years, less excited fourth and fifth years, and some positively bored looking sixth and seventh years. She guessed that after three years visiting Hogsmeade the novelty soon wore off. She spotted the marauders and headed off to see them. Remus spotted her first and waved, gesturing for her to come and sit down next to him.

"Been flying?" he asked, stuffing his face with toast.

"How did you guess?" she sat down and leaned back against the table.

"Sleep well?" asked Sirius. She looked over, he was smiling mischievously.

"Well, after recovering from a concussion falling off a couch, yeah I suppose." she eyed him suspiciously. "Why?"

"Because you nearly fell asleep over a table." She suddenly realized that cloak she found must have been his, he must have put her on the couch. How sweet, she thought. And after how I treated him yesterday. She smiled.

"Thanks for that." He grinned.

"No problem, can't have poor Katie getting a bad back can we?" She laughed and looked around the table. "Where's James?" Remus pointed further along the table. James was sitting next to Lily, probably trying to persuade her to go with him to Hogsmeade from the look on her face. Katie waved at Lily, who promptly took the excuse to go over and see Katie. Unfortunately for Lily, James followed. Lily sat down next to Katie with a look of relief.

"Thanks Katie, didn't know how much longer I could stand being around him." she jerked her head over at James. Katie eyed her thoughtfully.

"You know Lily, don't you think it'd be a lot easier if you just went out with him? I mean, he'd stop asking you out, and you never know, he might be all right when no Slytherins are around." Lily looked slightly betrayed, to say the least. Katie took advantage of her momentary silence to continue.

"Come on, It's obvious he cares a lot about you, you only have to watch him smile whenever you walk by to see that. Besides, what could it hurt?" Lily suddenly looked very thoughtful.

"Well...I suppose it couldn't hurt." She turned around. "Hey James?"

"Yeah?"

"I'll go with you to Hogsmeade, but on one condition!"

"Sure, what?" James asked eagerly.

"If, after today, I don't want to go out with you again, you have to stop asking me out." James pretended to think hard about this.

"Hmm...You're on Lily." grinning, he stood up, and offered her his arm. Lily took it, and with one last slightly agonized look back at Katie, let herself be dragged off to the entrance hall. Katie felt sure James was going to make the most of this opportunity.

Sirius, Remus and Peter looked over at Katie in amazement.

"How'd you do that?" asked Sirius. Katie smiled and shrugged.

"Guess I'm just naturally talented at matchmaking." Remus was about to open his mouth to say something when he spotted something behind Katie. She turned around and saw John from the day before. He offered her his hand and she took it. Grinning as she left the hall, she turned around and waved good-bye, laughing at the shocked looks on their faces. Sure they were back to normal now, but that felt great.

John and Katie walked over to the main doors, where the caretaker was ticking off names on a long list. After they had been ticked off, they walked out through the doors, and off to Hogsmeade.

"So, what do you want to do?" asked John.

"I don't know, I've never been to Hogsmeade before." John looked surprised.

"Really? Why not?"

"Well, I've only been at Hogwarts for about three weeks." He nodded and suggested some places where they could go, until he came to The Three Broomsticks.

"The Three Broomsticks? That sounds fun, lets go there." He nodded again and they walked off towards the pub, Katie looking around in amazement at all the different shops. It was like Diagon Alley, she thought, except no Knockturn alley to get lost in. She shuddered at the thought as they entered through the doors. John promptly ordered two butter beers as Katie tried to find a seat.

They sat down by the window and started talking randomly about Quidditch, classes, teachers they hated, and various other things. They'd been there for about an hour when something suddenly caught John's attention. Katie turned around a saw a Slytherin girl looking at them, a furious look on her face.

"John?!" she cried, walking over to them. "What on earth are you doing here with her?" She shot a furious glance in Katie's direction. Katie raised an eyebrow.

"Marie! Nice to see you!" said John, looking slightly worried.

"I can't believe it!" she cried, "We only split up yesterday and you're already going out with some girl in Gryffindor?" Other eyebrow raised.

"You are...awful!" she turned around and headed for the door.

"Marie wait!" she turned back around.

"I'm only here to...to make you jealous alright! You think I'd really want to be here with a Gryffindor?" If Katie had another eyebrow that one would be up too.

Katie stood up.

"What?! That's the only reason you asked me out? Well, what a coincidence! I only agreed to go out with you because I knew it'd annoy my friends to see me with a Slytherin!" she said this last word with disgust. And there she was thinking not all Slytherins were bad, boy was she wrong.

Marie looked over at her, her bottom lip turned up in a scowl.

"Don't you dare talk to my boyfriend like that!" she ignored John who was looking hopeful at the word 'boyfriend'.

"I'll talk to that slime how I like!" cried Katie, getting more and more annoyed.

"Why you.." Marie searched for a word to describe Katie, but, failing, settled for pulling back her hand and slapping her hard in the face. Katie put a hand to her face, shocked. A second later she was filled with anger. How dare she treat me like that? Without thinking, Katie pulled back a fist, and punched Marie as hard as she could in the face. Marie fell back onto the floor unconscious, blood streaming from a broken nose. Katie's hand was throbbing painfully, she felt sure she'd probably broken it on that girl's thick head.

John whirled around to face her.

"How dare you hit my girlfriend!" he started yelling at her. Katie yelled back full force, ignoring shocked looks from around the pub. She wasn't sure how long they fought for, but suddenly she couldn't take it anymore, and stormed out of the pub, slamming the heavy door shut behind her.

She ran out into the rain, and didn't stop until she reached the other side of Hogsmeade. She sat down on a bench and buried her face in her hands. How could she have been so stupid? A Slytherin? Of course he'd have been up to something, she probably was the first girl he came across. Suddenly she felt guilty. She only agreed to Hogsmeade to see the look on the marauder's faces. Well, they'd look pretty shocked if they'd seen what she'd just done. She rubbed her hand, trying to feel if was broken. No, just bruised. She sighed and buried her face in her hands again.

She wasn't sure how long she'd been there, all she knew was that she was getting pretty wet. Suddenly she heard a bark. She lifted her head and saw a huge black dog, bouncing around playfully. She watched it suspiciously. It danced around, chasing it's tail. She laughed in spite of herself and put a hand out for the dog. It soon came over and, to her surprise, jumped up on the bench next to her.

"Wow, you're friendly." she murmured, as she stroked the dogs head. The dog put out a paw and she took it, laughing.

"And well trained, if only all boy's were like that too." She rubbed her hand subconsciously. The dog watched her. If Katie didn't know any better, she'd have sworn that dog was looking concerned. She shook her head. Concerned? Come on, it's a dog. Yes, a well trained dog, but a dog nevertheless. She looked over in the direction of the pub. Great first day in Hogsmeade, she thought. Wonderful, another happy meeting with the Slytherins. With a sigh she stood up. Might as well go back to the castle, she thought, before I get hunted down by somebody else.

As she walked the dog followed her, dancing around and making her laugh. It followed her all the way up to the castle, only leaving her when she walked into the grounds.

Yay, a long(er) chapter! Not much to say except...review! More reviews! mua ha ha!!!