Katie was scribbling away on her essay. It had many cross outs on it since it was only her rough draft and it was longer then a foot. She finished her last sentence, leaned back in her chair, shut her eyes, and stretched. Then she sat back normally and read her paper over. "Not too bad" and she ripped it off, unrolled more parchment, and began her final draft. She was on the last paragraph when her wand on her desk set off a spark. It was quarter of eight; she set it as her alarm. She laid the quill down, pushed back her chair, and stood up. Quickly she went into the bathroom and brushed her hair and teeth then came out and grabbed her wand and stepped out of her room.
She stopped outside of Jeremiah's door and knocked on it and she heard him say "Coming!" and she heard his footsteps come towards the door and he opened it up and she saw his hair was pretty wet.
"I take it you took a shower" Katie said as a drop of water ran down his face.
"Yeah, hold on one second let me go towel it off…" and he invited her in and she stood by the couch as he quickly went into the bathroom and dried it up some, then he came back out and they headed to the meeting.
They arrived outside of McGonagalls office five minutes early and everyone was there but McGonagall and Dumbledore. Katie and Jeremiah were standing off to the side and she could see Montague glaring at her from the corner of her eye but she ignored it. She wasn't going to cause confrontation if she could help it, she didn't want the whole school to know about the secret that she kept hidden from everyone. The only reason he knew was because he had something to do with it, and it wasn't their summer run-in it was something much bigger then that.
All of the sudden they heard the shuffle of feet and they all looked down the hall to see McGonagall rushing forward in an all black cloak followed by Dumbledore in a light blue cloak with moons.
"Good evening Professor McGonagall, Professor Dumbledore" Katie said.
"Good evening Miss. Bell" Professor Dumbledore said and they all followed him into the office. They all took a seat in the front rows of the class, Dumbledore conjured himself a comfortable chair in the front, and McGonagall began her speech.
"Okay, as everyone knows Voldemort is back, now the schools security is extra strict and tough. We don't want any more tragedies this year, or ever" She stopped and then continued. "So we now have security everywhere. All the doors to outside have spells equipped on them, and if any student tries to leave after the spell commences, which is at six-thirty, unless there is a special activity happening, they will be knocked out, not permanently, long enough until one of us, which includes you all, find them and perform the counter curse. The forbidden forest is, as always, off limits. We cannot, however place a spell over the whole forest, so it will have to be watched carefully during the day. All students are to be to their common rooms by eight every night unless they have a legitimate reason to be out, such as going to the hospital wing, they have a pass from a teacher, or are being escorted to and from detention by one of you. This year with detentions, you will receive a list of all the students in your house that have detention and you will have to come get them and escort them back to your respective houses."
She stopped and looked at Dumbledore who promptly stood up.
"As you can hear, we are being very careful this year. We chose you very carefully because you are the most trusted within your houses. Just to let you know, it took us about three hours per house to choose people this year, that is how critical this is. I hope none of you will prove our decisions wrong. With this said, I want you all to be careful yourselves. You are allowed out of your houses at any time, if something does happen and there is an emergency, you are to keep all students in their rooms and find your head of house for further instruction. If they are not found, look for any teacher. If you cannot find anyone, I want you to take matters into your own hands. I don't want to scare you, but Voldemort will do anything and he would first go for Mr. Potter and the teachers. So, if something does happen to us, you are to find each other, which will no be hard, I will tell you why in a second, and you are to figure out a plan. The reason it will not be hard for you to find each other is outside your bedroom doors there is a table, you take your wand and tap it four times and say "Ligitimus" and it will move aside and a door will open. Stairs will appear, you follow the stairs down to a room, and all of your houses have this. You and only you are allowed in this room. Once you both ascend the steps, the door will disappear until you go back up them. And you do not have to worry, you cannot get into each other's houses, the spell knows who is who, but I don't think I would have to worry about this anyways but all the teachers insisted. But that is to only be used in an emergency."
He stopped and looked at all of them who were, staring intently back then looked at McGonagall and she nodded.
"Miss Bell and Mr. Arkus, have the most responsibility, for they have Mr. Potter in their house. You are in the most danger along with those students. Potter already knows about all the plans and the security, but I want you to keep an extra careful eye on him, along with Mr. Weasley and Mrs. Granger because they have also thwarted Voldemort so they will go after them as well. Especially Mr. Weasley because his whole family has fought against Voldemort."
"Well that is all for now! I hope you have a good night and I will see you all later" Dumbledore said and they all stood up and headed out with Dumbledore behind them, McGonagall was at her desk looking over papers.
Katie and Jeremiah walked off one way and once they were out of earshot of everyone else, they began to talk.
"Wow, this year the security is really tight" Katie said as they walked down a dark hallway.
"Yeah I know, it's even more then last year, wait until the rest of the school hears about it, they will be complaining like there is no tomorrow. I'm glad that no one from the other houses can get up to our room though through those stairs, I don't trust Slytherin" Jeremiah said as they turned to a lighted corridor.
"Yeah I know, me either, especially Montague" Katie said.
"Yeah" he said and they walked in silence, they were both thinking about the new rules and their extra responsibility when they heard movement up ahead, then a girl laughing, then kissing and more movement.
"Sounds like we have a couple of love birds, it's only the second day, some people are really on top of things" Jeremiah whispered and they both stifled a laugh and the rounded the corner and saw who it was.
It was Daphne and Montague.
"Oh, I think I'm going to be sick" Katie said as she turned around. They had walked in on them making out and that was one thing Katie didn't need to see.
"Er…guys, hate to bug you, but we are supposed to be doing our rounds, save this for your rooms" Jeremiah said because Katie was a little busy trying to hold herself together.
Montague backed off Daphne who was back up into a corner and he walked to Jeremiah.
"Yeah, what are you going to do about it?" He asked spitefully. Daphne was throwing Katie nasty looks because she was stifling her laughter and doing a poor job at it. Daphne's hair was a mess, her lipstick ran up her face, and her shirt was un-tucked and partially buttoned
"Looks like you got hit by a train" Katie said looking at her, and then laughed some more.
"Yeah what are you going to do about it?" Daphne said and Katie shot back.
"I was going to recommend a shower, and a good scrub of your mouth, because you don't know where Montague's mouth has been," she said, and she saw Jeremiah grin at her.
"Shut up" Montague said and he turned and faced her and Katie stood up taller now.
"What are you going to do about it?" Katie said, she was a very proud person and she hated being told what to do.
"I depends on what you do, you keep running your mouth, I could run mine," he said with a smirk
"Oh give it up Montague, I don't care anymore, run your mouth all you want, actually let it run, hopefully it will keep it away from all those innocent girls you try to molest" she said, she was bluffing, she did care if he told but she didn't want him to say anything. That had done it, his top blew. He lunged at her, he hit her, and they both hit the ground.
"Oh…so…manly of you…attacking a girl…ump!" she said, she kneed him hard on her last word and he rolled off her, Jeremiah was busy holding Daphne back.
"So, now that this is all said and done, I will be on my way continuing my rounds, and Daphne I am serious, clean yourself up, he may have rabies" she said and her and Jeremiah walked off leaving Montague whimpering on the floor but then he yelled her name and she stopped.
"You had better watch your back Bell, and you too Arkus" and he stopped talking as Daphne helped him up.
"Eh, I wouldn't worry about it" Katie said as they were heading back to their rooms "He is all talk, no action" then she felt something wet on her face and Jeremiah stopped her.
"You got cut, hold still" he said and he took her face in his hands and turned her head to the right.
"You have a nice little cut on your left cheek, must have been when he tackled you…sorry for not being able to help, I was keeping Daphne back, she was ready to start a dog pile on top of you…lets go clean this up" He said
"Oh, don't worry about it, I took care of him pretty well I think" Katie said and they headed back up to their rooms, he lead her into his room and into his bathroom and had her take a seat on the toilet while he got out some cleaning stuff.
He wetted down some toilet paper and dabbed her face. It stung her a little but she didn't act as if it did. Then he put some potion on it.
"There, it should heal over night now…I have my own medicine cabinet here for minor things instead of having to go down to the nurse all the time. So if you need anything just let me know I'm sure I have it, see my mum is a healer so she supplies me with stuff" He said as he put the stuff back and threw the paper away.
"Oh okay, thanks" Katie said as she stood up and they walked out of the room.
"I finished my essay already for Snape, I just have a few sentences to recopy onto my final draft" Katie said "Did you finish yours?" She asked him.
"Yeah it didn't take me that long…here have a seat, it's only nine fifteen, unless you want to head off to bed" he said as he sat down on his couch.
"That's good, sure I'll hang out for a little while, I usually don't head off to bed until about ten thirty" she said and she took a seat on the couch. His was different then hers, his couch was gold with red trim and pillows, hers was red with gold pillows and gold trim.
"So we really haven't talked all that much, tell me about yourself, like what are you into and such" Katie said getting the conversation started.
"Oh well lets see, I will start with the basics, I am an only child, my younger sister died when she was three and I was five, it was kind of mysterious actually. See my father is an avid Dumbledore supporter and he has fought with death eaters, he is an auror, and he had killed one of their workers and about two weeks later my sister was killed, there was never any proof that they had a connection with it. They said her heart stopped for no apparent reason, and my whole family guessed poisoning." He said and Katie cut in before he could continue.
"Oh I am so sorry" Katie said and he continued
"It's okay, it was hard, and it still is but we are working around it, moving on. So lets see what else, well as you know my moms a healer and my dad is an auror. I want to be an auror when I get out of school, and I have the grades so I am able to do it. What else, my favorite color, of course I have to say it because its just mandatory" he said with a laugh "Is red, go figure Gryffindor colors, um what else. My birthday is January nineteenth, and something random to go along with this, I am still a virgin, hard to find these days" he said then looked at her "your turn"
"Okay lets see, I am an only child as well, my parents got divorced when I was eight and that was the last time I saw my dad. From what I last know, he was working for a sports supply at diagon alley. My mom works for the ministry as a secretary. I want to either continue my career in Quidditch, or go on to be an auror but I am leaning more towards the auror as well. My favorite color would have to be blue, and my birthday is March twenty first, your two months and two days older then me. And to add on to your last thing I am still a virgin as well, and yes it is hard to find people that are now a days" Katie said and she looked at the mirror on his mantle, the scratch on her face was almost gone, the potion was rather strong.
They sat in silence for a little while and it was getting somewhat awkward. Katie looked at the clock it was nine thirty now.
"Well I'm going to head out and take a shower, I got all dirty from landing on the ground, I'll see you tomorrow" Katie said and stood up.
"Yeah, I'm going to head off to bed" Jeremiah said and walked her to the door and he watched Katie go to her room then shut his door.
Katie was in the bathroom and she took off her cloak, which had a hole at the bottom, probably from when she fell. She decided to take a bath instead of a shower so she walked over to the tub and turned it on, putting all sorts of soaps and waters in and she undressed and slipped in. It was rather hot, but it was relaxing and she sat and sunk down until it was just her head above the water. She took a deep breath, shut her eyes, and stayed like that for a while. Her back began to hurt from the fall so she got out of the tub, and dried off while it drained. She brushed her teeth and just grabbed some pants and a t-shirt and slipped into bed and was out in an instant.