"A Nimbus 2000?" Kate shrugged. "Sounds… neat, I guess."
"Flies like nothing you've ridden before." Ron said. "Best broom ever made."
"It's amazing." Harry agreed. "And Quidditch practice starts this week."
"Brilliant." Ron sighed. Then he grinned, "You should have seen the look on Malfoy's face, though. It was bloody brilliant."
Kate laughed. "I can imagine. Bet he's jealous."
"All he's got is a Comet Two-Sixty," Ron chuckled.
Kate smiled, then her mouth dropped into an insuppressible yawn. "Oh, sorry." She forced her mouth shut. "All this getting up early business is catching up to me, I guess."
"Kate?" Neville had crept up behind her.
"Hm?"
"Can… can you help me with my Potions homework? I'm really confused."
Kate looked at Harry and Ron, who were watching, vaguely interested.
"I can try." Kate said. She told Harry and Ron that she'd see them later and then followed Neville to his work spot. "What's the problem?"
"I don't understand the differences between the Befuddling Stew and the Draught of the Idiot. Where's the difference?"
"Draught of the Idiot, for one, is stewed with the snails before the porcupine quills are added. Another thing you might want to add is that the Draught of the Idiot makes a person act… well, like an idiot. Befuddling Stews just confuse them and sometimes gets them to say stupid things."
"Oh! Oh. I get it. Snails before porcupines. I've got it." Neville scratched a line out on his essay. "Thank you."
"Don't mention it. I'm gonna knock off early tonight. See you tomorrow."
"Night." He was focused on his essay, tongue between his teeth. "And thanks again." He smiled earnestly at her.
It was Halloween at last. Nobody was dressed in a ridiculous costume, though. Kate was rather disappointed. Halloween was the best holiday for expressly that purpose, and here they were stealing it from her.
"Mm, do you smell that?" Seamus asked, breathing in deeply.
Kate sniffed. "Baked pumpkin. Yum." She wanted to eat this, but knew better. No eating properly until she'd lost all of her weight.
She sat down next to Dean in Charms class and tiny Professor Flitwick, after looking around to see that all were present, spoke from his stool.
"I think this class is ready to start learning levitation."
There was a murmur of excitement.
Professor Flitwick went about pairing people up. Kate ended up with Harry. She went down to sit with him. He smiled at her. Kate looked over at Ron and saw that he seemed to be suffering lockjaw. Hermione Granger had been paired with him. Kate couldn't tell which of them was more unhappy about this set-up.
"It'll either be good for them or the death of them." Kate mumbled to Harry.
"Now, don't forget that nice wrist movement we've been practicing! Swish and flick, remember, swish and flick." Professor Flitwick had moved to a pile of books, which was taller than his stool, and still he stood at least a head shorter than Ron. "And saying the magic words properly is very important, too- never forget Wizard Baruffio, who said 's' instead of 'f' and found himself on the floor with a buffalo on his chest."
Kate looked at the feather on the desk and didn't do a thing to it. Harry was busy trying to get it to float. Harry, you're not saying it right, she thought to him, though the though-speak failed to reach his brain. She knew she could do it at once but didn't want to show-off. She half-heartedly mumbled something and waved her wand a bit. Behind them, Seamus had gotten aggravated with his and Parvati's feather, and so had prodded it and set fire to it. Parvati squealed. Kate, without thinking, muttered an anti-fire spell and put it out.
"Thanks." Seamus said, looking uncomfortable.
Kate shrugged. "Just keep your pyromania to yourself."
He repressed a grin, giving a side-long glance to his wide-eyed partner.
"Are you going to try?" Harry asked.
"I did try." Kate lied.
"No you didn't." Harry insisted.
"Fine. Don't laugh." She did it without giving it much thought and it started to drift into the air. She hadn't meant for that to happen. Before too many people could see, she squashed it down with her hand onto the desk.
"Why'd you do that?" Harry asked, looked stunned.
"Wingardium Leviosa!" Ron shouted from the next table over, waving his arms wildly.
"You're saying it wrong!" Hermione snapped.
Kate nodded her head in Hermione's direction. Harry mouthed a comprehending "oh."
"You do it then, if you're so clever," Ron snarled.
"Fine. Wingardium Leviosa." Their feather floated four feet into the air and Professor Flitwick practically squealed with delight and brought the whole class' attention to it.
Ron looked furious.
Kate's stomach moaned softly and her head spun. She had been getting slightly dizzy over the course of her weight-loss training. Had she cared to step on a scale, she would find that she had already lost twenty pounds and was well on her way to losing ten more. That would put her five pounds less than what she had once been. If she didn't start eating properly soon, she could gravely hurt herself. She didn't know how much weight she was losing because her face was still round, and that was one of the attributes she was working to lose.
Class was dismissed. Kate walked a distance behind Harry and Ron until Ron spoke up.
"It's no wonder no one can stand her. She's a nightmare, honestly." Ron said. "Well, except for Kate, but she's nice to everyone."
Hermione burst into tears and ran by them. Kate's eyes were wide. She didn't waste a minute in chasing Hermione. Kate caught up to Hermione easily and grabbed her shoulder.
"Stop!"
"No!" She hiccupped, and ducked into the bathroom. Kate groaned and followed her in.
"Hermione…." Kate wasn't sure what to say.
"It's true you know," she sobbed, eyes red and lashes sticking wetly together. "Nobody can stand me but you."
"That's not true." Kate disagreed fervently. "Are you going to listen to what Ron says? He was angry because he couldn't do it as fast as you could."
"Don't be stupid." Hermione snapped. "Everyone hates me, and you know it."
"Hate is not what I would interpret it as." Kate said softly. "I think you intimidate them."
Hermione sobbed harder. The bell rang and the next class had started. "Why are you here?"
"Because you're my friend." Kate said, rather hurt. "Aren't you?"
Hermione's body was shaking very hard with tears and she couldn't manage a response. Kate waited until Hermione's tears had subdued a bit before rubbing her friend's back.
A ghost poked her pearly-white head out from a bathroom stall, looking eagerly at Hermione.
"Myrtle," Kate recognized her, "how are you?" She asked delicately.
"Why is she crying? She doesn't have any friends?" Myrtle asked, looking delighted.
"No. She has me, so obviously she's got friends." Kate gritted her teeth.
"You're not really her friend," Myrtle grinned maliciously, "you just don't want to get into trouble, so you're trying to get her to feel better."
"Don't be thick." Kate snapped.
Hermione, who had graduated to silent sobs, burst out again and locked herself in a bathroom stall.
"Wonderful!" Kate muttered. "Why'd you have to do that? What do you accomplish by making people feel like crap, Myrtle?"
Myrtle's smile faded. "Nobody ever cared about me. You'd have made fun of me too."
"Ugh! That's not true." Kate rolled her eyes towards the sky, thinking she could have used some therapy at that moment.
"Then again, you're probably made fun of all the time, because of your glasses and braces and face." Myrtle became glum. "That's why people made fun of me."
"I'm sorry, Myrtle." Kate said, feeling aggravated. She was there to help a friend, not to be a counselor.
"No you're not." Myrtle began to cry, fat pearly tears rolling down her face. "You don't care either."
"If I didn't care, why would I be talking to you at all? I'm very good at ignoring people I don't care about. After all, I do have an irksome little sister."
"You want to ignore me?" Myrtle sobbed.
"Didn't you just hear what I said? I said that if I wanted to ignore you, I could. Obviously I don't."
Kate spent the better part of the afternoon trying to talk Myrtle into feeling better, which seemed a fruitless task. At the end, Myrtle flushed herself down the toilet and disappeared. Hermione was still crying behind her stall door. Kate started by just trying to comfort Hermione but ended up talking to her about things that had happened in her own life. Hermione was no longer sobbing loudly, when Parvati ducked in and saw Kate sitting on the floor talking to the bathroom stall.
"You okay, Kate?"
"I'm fine."
"Is Hermione still crying? Is she in here?"
"Yes." Kate emphasized, as Hermione began sniffling again.
"Oh, I'll just leave then, shall I?" Parvati turned away and sprinted out.
Kate breathed out and continued her story to Hermione about her life, noticing that it seemed to calm her down considerably. Rubbing her fingers across the grout on the floor, she thought back to everything that she could, to the first ankle twist that turned to tendonitis, to the diagnosis of her neuropathy and to the stupid colitis.
When Hermione finally spoke again, it was six thirty, and it was to ask a question about Kate's second disease.
"Ulcerative colitis is when the intestines bleed, right?"
"Yeah," Kate was glad that Hermione was finally talking. "That's pretty much it."
"Did that hurt?" Hermione poked her face out from the stall door, face bright with tears.
"A lot." Kate grimaced.
"And Madam Pomfrey got rid of it?"
"Yup. And now I'm off that medicine crap."
Hermione wiped her face on her sleeve. "Kate?"
"Hm?"
"Why did you talk to me even though I was a know-it-all?" Her eyes were wide and inquisitive.
"I guess it was because I was a know-it-all once and I knew there was more to you than book smarts and so on." Kate admitted. "I didn't think it was fair to judge you solely on a few impressions."
Hermione smiled weakly. "D'you like me?"
"Of course."
"Thank you."
"For what?" Kate asked.
"Not judging."
"Any time." They started to get up when suddenly the bathroom door was slammed shut and locked. "Um…?" Hermione and Kate stared at one another.
"Oh gods, do you smell that?" Hermione covered her nose. The two of them looked up at once and saw a twelve foot tall, dull gray creature. It held a gigantic wooden club in its left hand, and allowed it to drag on the floor as it moved. Kate looked at it from its small, coconut-shaped head down to its flat, horny feet. She swallowed as she saw how thick and huge it was.
"Um… hi?" Kate tried. "Or is that a…."
"Troll!" Hermione spluttered. "AHHH!" She let out a high-pitched shriek.
Kate screamed too, mouth in a huge hole, but stopped when the troll began to lift up its club. Hermione and Kate scrambled backwards and slammed into the bathroom wall. Hermione, who had no more tears to shed, was breathing in short, uncontrolled gasps. Don't hyperventilate, please, Kate prayed inwardly. The troll swung its club and the two of them ducked and covered their heads with their arms. The bathroom stalls were shattered and debris flew over and hit them.
"We have to get to the door!" Kate cried to Hermione.
"Okay, okay… AHH!" She yelled again.
Kate, back firmly pressed against the wall, began inching along. The troll was focused primarily on the screaming girl with bushy hair. Hermione kept pushing herself into the wall. Kate got to the door and started to try and open it.
"Oh my GODS! We're locked in!" The troll turned around on Kate and swung its club at her. She dodged just in time, flying to another end of the bathroom. The door burst open. The troll knocked into a sink and water spurt out. Kate was still covering her head, but could hear a voice say "Confuse it!"
Kate heard Hermione cry out again.
"Oy! Pea-brain!" There was a metallic clunk against the floor. Kate looked up carefully and saw Harry Potter and Ron Weasley attacking the troll and trying to get Hermione up from the opposite wall. Kate stood quickly and darted over to where Hermione was mouthing wordlessly at the troll.
"Come on, run, run!" Harry urged her, trying to pull her up. Kate appeared and grabbed Hermione's other arm. Harry looked at Kate, nodded and they pulled on Hermione together.
The troll looked very irritated at all of the noise and commotion and started towards Ron, who was firmly pressed into a corner as it was. Kate, who knew a great many spells, couldn't think of one that would apply to the current situation. Harry stood up and ran for the troll, wand in hand. He jumped up and wrapped his arms around the troll's shoulders. His wand went straight up the troll's nose. The troll roared with pain and tried to shake Harry off. Kate sent a bolt of red fire at the troll's leg, hoping to make it fall, thus giving Harry a chance to escape. It only further aggravated the troll, as it hopped around on one foot and continued swinging the club.
Ron whipped out his wand and cried out the first spell that came to mind: "Wingardium Leviosa!"
The club flew suddenly out of the troll's grasp and floated momentarily above the troll's head before coming quickly down with a crack onto its owner's skull. The troll's eyes crossed slightly as it tottered. It fell with a great crash that made the room shake. Kate toppled over, wand out-stretched. She pushed herself quickly to her shaking legs and walked over to give Harry a hand up. She looked over at Ron, who still his wand raised, hardly believing what he had done.
Hermione squeaked, "Is it- dead?"
"I don't think so," said Harry, "I think it's just been knocked out."
He bent over and took a hold of the wand and yanked it from the troll's nose. Kate grimaced as it pulled out a lump of blue-gray mucus.
"Yuck."
"Troll boogers. That's disgusting." Harry wiped the wand on the troll's trousers.
Kate squeezed Hermione's shoulder and then approached the fallen troll slowly. She put her hand to its chest and listening for breathing. Its heart-rate was slow and steady. She breathed a sigh of relief to know that they hadn't just killed it, though she wasn't sure if that would be such a bad thing.
Ron still had his wand above his head, eyes rounded.
There were hurried footsteps and a loud slamming. The four of them looked quickly up, realizing all the noise they must have been making. Someone obviously would have heard them. Kate had quite forgotten where they were in the heat of the moment. A second later, Professor McGonagall, Professor Snape, and Professor Quirrell crowded into the room. Quirrell took one look at the troll and sat down quickly on an exposed toilet, the one Myrtle had escaped through a few hours ago. He clutched his heart and let out a faint whimper. Kate didn't like this. Something about him made her stomach squirm uncomfortably, though she had no idea why. She looked at the turban and felt her lower stomach clench hotly. There was a whispering in her ear that she couldn't be sure of. It seemed to be saying run. She looked away, back towards the remaining two teachers, and her heart sunk much lower.
Snape was busy checking the troll, but McGonagall was giving Harry, Kate and Ron looks that seemed quite capable of murder. Kate felt her cheeks flare hot-pink. McGonagall's lips were practically non-existent they were so thin and white.
"What on earth were you thinking of?" Professor McGonagall asked in a soft and dangerous tone. Ron didn't seem fazed, his wand was still raised. Harry looked as though he longed to bring it down for him. "You're lucky that you weren't killed. Why aren't you in your dormitory?"
Harry looked at the floor. Kate didn't understand what was going on and almost opened her mouth to ask what the problem was.
"Please, Professor McGonagall- they were looking for me." Hermione came out from the shadows.
"Miss Granger!"
Hermione stood on shaking legs.
"I went looking for the troll because I- I though I could deal with it on my own- you know, because I've read all about them."
Ron dropped his wand. Kate's mouth dropped. Hermione Granger, telling a downright lie to a teacher?
"If they hadn't found me, I'd be dead now. Harry stuck his wand up its nose, Kate set fire to its leg and Ron knocked it out with its own club. They didn't have time to come and fetch anyone. It was about to finish me off when they arrived."
Kate wasn't sure how to react, but she knew to keep her face blank as possible.
"Well- in that case…. Miss Granger, you foolish girl, how could you think of tackling a mountain troll on your own?"
Hermione hung her head. McGonagall scrutinized the other three as though waiting for an alternate truth. Harry and Ron's eyes looked full of surprise but the rest of the face was unreadable.
"Miss Granger, five points will be taken from Gryffindor for this," said Professor McGonagall. "I'm very disappointed in you. If you're not hurt at all, you'd better get off to Gryffindor tower. Students are finishing the feast in their houses."
Hermione left and Kate almost followed, but for McGonagall turning to face her, Harry and Ron.
"Well, I still say you were lucky, but not many first years could have taken on a full-grown mountain troll. You each win five points for Gryffindor. Professor Dumbledore will be informed of this. You may go."
The three of them hurried out of the bathroom and said not a word until they had climbed two floors up. Kate finally wiped her face in her trembling hands.
"That," Kate began, "will scar me for life."
"We should have gotten more than fifteen points, though." Ron grumbled.
"Ten, you mean, once she's taken off Hermione's."
Kate tilted her head. "I wonder why she chose that of all stories."
"To get us out trouble, I guess. It was good of her." Ron admitted. "Mind you, we did save her."
"She might not have needed saving if we hadn't locked the thing in with her."
"You what?! That was you?!" Kate whispered. "Oh my gods. Do you know what sort of ulcers that could cause in an old woman? No. Youth is wasted on the young."
Ron laughed hysterically, still shaken from the experience. Harry only smiled. They finally had reached the portrait of the Fat Lady.
"Pig snout," Harry said and they entered.
The room was crowded and noisy while the students ate the rest of the feast. Kate had forgotten about the Halloween feast. Her stomach, on the other hand, hadn't quite forgiven her lapse of memory. Hermione stood by the door waiting for the three of them. Kate said nothing while looking at the three of them in waiting.
The three of them said an awkward "thanks" at once. Kate bit her lip and hugged Hermione, then Ron, and then Harry. They went off to get plates together, in silence, mentally going over the past events.
Kate wasn't sure exactly what it was, but the mountain troll experience had certainly brought Hermione into a circle of friends and Kate's stomach felt warm and content even before the food reached her mouth.