Chapter Twenty-Seven: Not Being Told

"Ang, what's wrong?" Katie ask, getting up and going over to her friend. Angelina put her hands up to her face, covering the tears that were quickly making there way down.

"F-F-Fred..." She started. Katie frowned.

"What did he do?" She asked, getting ready to pound Fred if-need-be. Angelina must have noticed this from Katie's tone, because she looked up at Katie.

"H-he told me he loved me." Angelina said. Katie's frown stayed in place while her eyebrows furrowed.

"Why are you crying?" She asked. More tears came down Angelina's cheeks.

"B-because, I didn't say it back." She said.

"Oh, Honey, it's okay." Katie said, losing the frown and adopting an understanding and comforting look as she pulled her friend into a hug. "If you don't feel..." She started. Angelina pulled back again.

"That's the problem. I do, I do feel that way, I just couldn't get the words out." She said, her eyes filling once more, but not spilling over. "In my experience, love complicates things. I mean look at my parents, they're divorced now and they loved each other at the beginning." Angelina finished, the tears now spilling over with even more vigor. Katie made to comfort her friend again, but Angelina pulled away from her completely. "I'm sorry Katie, I..." She started, but didn't finish before she went running from the common room up to her dorm room. Katie watched Angelina go with a sigh.

"No one's love life is going right." She muttered to herself. The Portrait Hole opened again, and Oliver came walking through. Katie started to turn and leave the room, but for some reason she stopped when Oliver raised a hand to her.

"Don't worry, I'm not even going to try." He said sadly in such a quiet voice that Katie almost missed it. With that, Oliver walked in a dejected fashion up to the boys dorm rooms. Katie was left standing alone. Katie sighed once more and left the common room, deciding she wanted to go for a nice fly around the pitch.

Angelina had just sat down on her bed when she suddenly jumped up again.

"Oh Fuck!" She said loudly, slapping her hand to her forehead. She had been so upset that she had completely forgotten to tell Katie the truth about Oliver. Angelina ran out of her dorm room. "Katie, I have to tell you..." She said as soon as she got to the bottom of the stairs, but she quickly realized that the common room was empty. "Oh shit." Angelina muttered. Angelina ran back up the stairs to check and see if Katie had gone to her room. When she went through the door she saw that were no traces of Katie in the room. Angelina left the same way she came, going straight for the Portrait Hole when she got down the stairs.

Angelina ran into George and Fred halfway to the Great Hall. Angelina visible flinched when she saw the cold look Fred was giving her. But she soon forced herself to recover.

"Have either of you seen Katie?" She asked. Fred seemed to ignore her and George shook his head.

"No, why?" George asked. Fred, not wanting to stay, started to walked around Angelina. He suddenly stopped and backtracked.

"Did you tell her?" He asked. Angelina shook her head.

"I had forgotten when I got to the common room, and when I remembered, Katie had already left." She said. George looked at both the people standing next him like they were speaking some crazy language. Fred and Angelina noticed this and relayed what had happened in the third floor corridor to George. Both people silently agreed to leave out there fight. Once they had finished with there story, George sighed.

"Merlin." He muttered under his breath.

Katie made her way around the Quidditch pitch. It really did seem to make her feel a bit better. Almost as good as singing usually made her feel.

But, it didn't quite do the trick. Suddenly, Katie remembered something. I Christmas present from her mother that she had stuffed away. With almost light speed, she flew to her bedroom window. With a muttered spell and a twitch of her wand, her window eased open and she drifted inside. Once in through the window, Katie closed it and went over to her trunk. She had enchanted the inside of her trunk fifth year, hoping to fit larger things in it. And she did.

Katie opened the lid, got down on her knees, and started looking through the enchanted box. A few moments later, Katie grasped what she had been looking for. With a bit of force, she pulled out a full size keyboard.

Katie set the keyboard down on the ground and looked at it. It looked like a normal electric keyboard, but this lovely present was Hogwarts friendly. Her mother had charmed it so that it worked while she was at Hogwarts. Once she got out of the magical world, though, it would have to be re-charmed so it worked everywhere else.

Katie looked around the room and saw that there wasn't enough free space to set it up in there. With a grown, she stood up with the mini-piano and headed toward her door and down to the common room. When she glance around the common room and saw that nobody else was in there, she moved to a far corner and set up her piano. Katie then went over to one of the tables in the common room and grabbed a chair. Once she had set it down in front of the keyboard, she transfigured it into a piano bench. Katie then sat down. She stared at the key for a few moments, not knowing what to play. As she thought, she ran her hands over the keys and under the board. She stopped when the felt some kind of latch underneath. Katie pressed it forward a bunch of papers fall out and hit her knees on the way down. She bent down to pick the pieces of paper up. It wasn't until she was sitting up straight holding the stack in her hand that she realized what the sheets were. It was all the sheet music she had left in her room at home. Her mother had sent it with the gift. Katie looked through the sheets and found a song that seemed to fit her current mood. Katie put the music on a small music stand attached to the back of the keyboard. She then started to play the intro, not hearing footsteps come down the boys stairs.

I didn't know it could feel like this
I didn't know the hurt
And I try to explain to myself
But I can't find no word

When Katie had been at home, she had heard this song on the radio. She had really liked the song, and she has gone out and brought the sheet music. But, she had never really understood the meaning of the words.

So I lie about it
And I tell 'em I'm feeling fine
And I'll cry about it
Hoping tomorrow will change my mind

She felt now like she was starting to.

Oliver watched Katie play. He had never seen her play piano or sing before. She had never let him.

Happiness has come to this
And God, it's such a heavy burden to bear

As Katie sang, unaware of the onlooker, she felt a tear slide down her cheek.

I didn't know it could be like this
I didn't know it could go so far
And I try to reveal the part of me
But you can't find no scar

Oliver saw Katie's whole body start to tremble as her previously loud and beautiful singing voice lowered to a soft, pained, whisper.

And I lie about it
And I tell 'em I'm feeling fine
And I cry about it
Hoping tomorrow will change my mind

Katie felt herself start to whisper the lyrics, she felt her shoulders start to shake, and then she felt hick-ups start to form as she finished off the song.

Happiness has come to this
And God, it's such a heavy burden to bear

Finishing the song, Katie dropped her elbows onto the piano keys and dropped her head into her hands. More tears littered her cheeks as she sobbed, barely hearing the resounding ring of the piano keys she had just hit. Sure, she had cried before; a lot actually, but this felt different. This felt final.

Oliver silently watched Katie cry. He wanted so badly to go over and try to comfort her, but he knew that would just make it worse. With one last looked at Katie's shivering form, Oliver turned and went back up the stairs.

AN: The song is called 'Happiness' by Abra Moore