It was, as Harry had predicted, very interesting the next morning. Skittish looks were exchanged wherever Harry and Katie went, and he had somehow gotten unused to the name "Kelly Damen" being said, not remembering that the girl next to him answered to it. He frequently kept on walking when she stopped to answer a first year's question on how she came back to life.
The weeks and months that followed were hardly any different than the next day. The majority of teachers were simply in awe. Professor Binns carried on as normal, he being one of the few who did. Professor Snape gave death glares to Katie whenever possible, which seemed to be every moment since the directions were given, as he sat in the seat behind his desk and glared menacingly at her for the rest of the period. Professor McGonagall did her lesson and went around the class, helping students out, but was frequently seen to give mysterious looks to Katie. Harry even met Professor Trelawney on his way to dinner and she gave him quite a speech on how this was not news to her, and that she had predicted this long before Katie had even died. Professor Vector, whom Harry had never formally met, personally thanked them for solving a mystery she had been seeing in the stars.
"It's been most odd," she said. "The stars were in quite an odd alignment, with Calipto and Jupiter. I did not understand why until this miracle took place. Thank you for helping me solve this."
There were more D.A. lessons than usual as the members tried to discover what had happened to bring Kelly back to life, though they were always disappointed. The only people Harry and Kelly told here Hermione, Ron, Ginny, Elyse, Heather, and the Secret Students. The rest learned a little less than they were hoping for every D.A. lesson they attended.
The Weasley twins followed Katie around for the rest of their stay, magically throwing a red carpet in front of her wherever she went. Snape got so annoyed when she walked into his classroom that he turned the carpet black.
"Severus Snape!" Fred had chided. "Do you want her to die again?"
When Katie wasn't in class or with Harry, she was with Riles. When Harry didn't see Katie near him, he'd look out the window and see the two walking and talking, laughing occasionally. Both girls had a shine in their eyes Harry had never seen before, now that they had been reunited. Harry was often caught spying by the two, and they'd smile at him. Harry would reflexively smile back and leave the window. Katie would be back with him within ten minutes.
This particular time Harry had just noticed her absence as he sat down for dinner in the Great Hall with Ron and Hermione.
"Lost her again?" Ron asked, grinning as Harry looked around blankly.
Harry spotted her walking in with Riles. "Nope."
Katie looked around and her eyes fell upon Harry. She said something to Riles, and the two exchanged a smile before Katie walked over to him.
"How do you get to her so fast?" Harry asked. "We just left History of Magic."
"You guys just aren't fully awake after that class," Katie said dismissively. "She was there, waiting. I thought you saw her."
"Won't she get in trouble for being seen?" Hermione asked.
"And doesn't she have paperwork?" Ron added, mouthing "later" to Hermione's confused expression.
Katie thought over her words carefully before putting them out of her mouth. "I've learned lots of information in the last couple months. The paperwork has been taken care of. All the other students see her as a Gryffindor that's been there all along. No one new, just another person among the crowd of students."
"That's rather complex," Hermione observed. "How would you get such a charm around her, especially with such technicalities?"
"Oh, not a charm, a potion. I'm sure Professor Snape has mentioned the Outroverse Potion before?" Katie inquired.
"If he hasn't, I read it in Potions for Pre-Professors. But I don't understand how you could inject such complications into such an already complicated potion…."
Harry stopped listening and put some turkey on his plate. He was hardly interested in a potion with as many complications as the two brainiacks were suggesting. Even if he would need it for Auror training, over a good meal was not the time to discuss it. Harry finished his dinner before everyone else, consequently, because he was not joining into the conversation
"Meet you by the tree?" Katie suggested.
"Sure. Less than ten or I'm gone," Harry said.
Katie laughed. "Done."
Harry left Katie and Hermione alone with their talk, and Ron still piling food onto his plate. Harry's footsteps echoed across the stone walls of the Entrance Hall, each one reverberating back to his ears a second later, as though he had a bad stalker. The Entrance Hall was unusually empty, lacking even a single prefect guarding the sacred halls of Hogwarts.
The echoes ceased as Harry stepped foot onto the grounds, the smooth path of dirt stopping most sounds from reaching Harry's ears. Hands in his pockets, Harry strode across the peaceful grounds, the sun fading in the distance, about to be engulfed in the black trees of the forest. The wind was light, just brushing the leaves as it moved from the mountains, heading toward the village of Hogsmeade. The sky reflected Harry mood: bright, happy. He couldn't remember the last time he'd been so happy, Harry realized as he sat down against the tree where he and Katie always spoke. It was the same tree that they had declared as "their tree" so many months ago, and which still retained that title.
They had had many talks under this tree, few conversations different than what they had been before their most recent adventure. It was like nothing had happened, that they had merely gone on a field trip and were now back to their usual routine. This tree had become a part of their daily lives.
The Room of Requirement now had a spot in their day, too. While difficult to reach without being noticed, somehow they had yet to be caught pacing in front of the blank wall where a secret room hid. Harry and Katie had experimented, and they decided that they both best liked the room similar to Gryffindor Common Room. The only difference was that it was smaller, more cozy, and had no other students. The other Gryffindors were only reason the two refused to stay in Gryffindor Common Room anymore. Though everyone now knew the whole story of Katie coming back to life, they still gained many unwanted, and very uncomfortable, looks. They had made up their mind on the first night that they would find another place to study. The Room of Requirement reached their thoughts, and they had yet to find a problem with it.
"Hey, stranger," someone whispered in his ear.
"Nice to see you've made it," Harry said.
"It's only been five minutes," Katie said. "Impatient already?"
"Always and forever," Harry said as she sat next to him. "So what's the chit chat about today?"
Katie paused before answering. "Harry, soon I will need to know if you want to come with me to the base this summer."
There was another pause.
"How soon do you need to know?"
Katie ginned apologetically. "Allow me to rephrase myself. I need to know now if you want to come or not."
"Ah," Harry said. He had barely thought about it, and was hardly prepared to give her an answer now.
"Tonight, at the latest. I know, I'm not giving you much warning of a deadline. I was just made aware of how soon I'd need to know."
Harry nodded.
There was silence except for the wind and the occasional shutting of a window high above.
"I told you I would be interested," Harry said.
"Yes," Katie confirmed.
"What more can you tell me about it?"
Katie sighed. "Not really anything. We'd teach you a lot of the stuff we know. It could help you. We'd show you the meaning of stealthy, get you farther along in your wizarding training so that you might not have to say an incantation to cast a spell, and maybe if you're up to a real challenge, how to kick spells away. Now that is a challenge."
Harry nodded once more. "And if I don't want to, I go to the Weasley's?"
Katie exhaled a deep breath. "Yes."
Harry thought long and hard about the options put before him. How he loved going to the Weasley's. It was his second home, the real home he never had, the one he always dreamed of. On the other hand, he would love to be so far ahead in his wizarding training. Not having to say an incantation to cast a spell would be wonderful. Kicking spells away--well, he sure wouldn't learn that at the Weasley's.
"What about Ron and Hermione? Could they come, too?" Harry asked.
Katie didn't answer him right away. "I don't know. I suppose they could, but I would have to ask Lyse and Heath to be sure. Would that make the difference in your decision?"
Harry shrugged. "Maybe."
"I'll find out for you, then. C'mon, let's get out of here. I'm getting the creeps. Too quiet."
They stood and silently swept across the grounds, reaching the castle without obstacle. Deciding that the two oak doors couldn't open any louder as everyone in the Entrance Hall's attention was directed toward them, the two hastened inside. Katie looked around for a moment, then seemed to see what she was looking for at the bottom of the stairs.
Katie started speaking fluently in a foreign to language to Elyse and Heather, who were listening intently. They replied, and Elyse and Heather seemed to be disagreeing. The two starting talking slightly louder than normal to each other, leaving Katie out of the conversation. She looked at them with raised eyebrows, arms crossed, giving the unmistakable impression of boredom. She was jerked back to the conversation at hand because of something Elyse said, then turned back to Harry.
"If they get permission, they are allowed to stay with us."
Harry nodded and smiled. "Sounds like a fun summer, then."
"Oh, that's what you think," Katie said, smiling back.
"What d'you mean? How hard can it be? Sounds like a piece of cake to me," Harry commented.
Katie just kept on smiling. "You'll see."