Chapter 3
'That's marvelous, darling! I can't believe you stood your ground with someone who has that reputation. Fantastic.
YES, Kaitlyn! You tell the little bugger where to stick it! Make sure he knows never to mess with a Weasley!
Honestly! Kaitlyn, dear, I must go. Your father keeps summoning the pen over to him so he can write obscene notes. We both love you. Send Ben our love. Jeremiah misses you.
Love from,
Mum and Dad.'
"That's brilliant! Your father has the right idea," Selma said, reading the note over Kaitlyn's shoulder. She had written her parents only minutes after her confrontation with Dameon and it had taken them three days to respond. Of course, this was after the announcement of the second Yule Ball the night before.
All the students fourth year and up were allowed to attend and it was all anyone could talk about. It would be held on Christmas Eve and students were also permitted to bring dates. All Selma could talk about was who she wanted to ask. Kaitlyn had not the slightest clue, nor did she care who she would go with.
"I think John wanted to go with you, he's been sweet on you ever since first year," Selma said, breaking into her thoughts.
"Excuse me?" she said, looking up suddenly. "Jonathon Wood?" She stifled a chuckle. John Wood was a sweet boy, and while attractive and very enthusiastic, he was far too obsessed with the sport of Quidditch to be of any real interest to her. He'd probably spend the entire night comparing the color of her dress robes to a Quaffle.
"Well, what about you?" Kaitlyn asked Selma. "Who do you think fancies you?"
Selma turned a pale shade of pink and looked away quickly. Her eyes scanned the Hufflepuff table. "No one."
Kaitlyn turned around and scanned the table quickly. "Don't tell me it's…"
"Then, no… it's not."
She narrowed her eyes at Selma and then let her gaze drift past her. Her eyes landed on the Slytherin table and she couldn't believe it… Dameon Malfoy was looking at her.
She wasn't sure how to read the look in his eyes. They weren't full of contempt and hate, which she expected by now. Ever since their first encounter, they had gotten into small spats all over the school. They shared a Potions and a Care of Magical Creatures class and Dameon took every opportunity to ridicule her or verbally lash at her. However, he was severely disappointed each time when Kaitlyn had something just as harsh to shoot back at him. She never let him get the better of her.
But unbeknownst to Kaitlyn, Dameon found this exasperating detail quite intriguing. No other person in the entire school had looked at him with such defiance. It amazed him that it was a Weasley with such a will, a female Weasley at that. He found it strange, especially after the stories that his father had told him of the infamous Ron Weasley and Harry Potter.
"Hello, Kaitlyn?"
Kaitlyn blinked and looked back at her friend. "Yes, you were saying?"
"What color robes should I buy? I was thinking of purchasing some from Hogsmeade. My father said he'd send me the money when I needed to buy them. I figure we can get them together when we go to Hogsmeade on Halloween night. I mean, it'd be much more fun to shop with my friend than my mum, even though my mum claims she had the most fashion sense in Gryffindor when she went here," Selma rambled.
Kaitlyn could only smile at her friend. She didn't know how to be enthusiastic about the Yule Ball just yet. It wasn't just the fact that she had no clue who she was going with. It was also that she didn't know if she wanted to go. Then again, she had her mum to think about.
It would probably make her parents proud for her to go, even if it had been a nightmare for both of them when they went. She played with her eggs and heard her mother's voice haunt her. 'If you're going to play with your food, don't eat it.'
Heeding her mother's advice, she pushed her plate away and pulled out one of her textbooks. Selma continued to rambled on ceaselessly about the Ball, who she was going to ask, what robes she was going to wear, and even began to mention how the Yule Ball her mother and father had attended together was the turning point of their relationship.
"What if I meet my husband at our Ball? Seriously, Kate… that's so cool to think about it. Did your mother and father go together?"
Kaitlyn spat into her pumpkin juice. She wiped her mouth. "Are you kidding?"
"No," Selma said, shaking her head. She had a blank look on her face.
"Did Selma just ask what I think she did?" came a voice from next to them. It was Heather Thomas, a fellow Gryffindor in their year. She sat down next to them and looked on interestedly.
"Yes she did," Kaitlyn said, giggling at her friends.
"What?" Selma asked, confused.
"Kaitlyn's dad went with my Aunt Padma," Heather said. She and Kaitlyn then shared a sly smile. "And Kaitlyn's mum… well…"
"She went with Viktor Krum," Kaitlyn finished.
"No she didn't!" Selma exclaimed.
"She did! She has a picture and a few letters that she and Viktor sent back and forth during that summer. My dad still gets angry when she talks about it," she defended her parents.
"Why would your father get angry about that?" Selma asked.
Heather laughed. "Please! My Aunt Padma told me all about it. She said all Ron did the entire time was stare at Hermione and didn't even pay attention to her!"
"And my mum told me what my father said to her about Viktor going with her. It was a big mess."
The girls talked a while longer before getting up to go to their first class of the day, Transfiguration with Hufflepuff. This made Selma giddy with excitement. It was well known that she had a crush on the Seeker for the Hufflepuff Quidditch team, and he was very much smitten with her as well. All Kaitlyn could do was roll her eyes at her friend. She didn't know what she'd do if she ever found herself that smitten over any boy.
It was just then that Dameon Malfoy decided to deliberately walk next to her in the crowd, no doubt trying to provoke her into a fight again.
"Well, well, well, Miss Weasley," he taunted. It had not escaped Kaitlyn's attention that he no longer addressed her as simply 'Weasley.' She had definitely gone up on his scale… whatever it was.
"Good morning, Mr. Malfoy. Where are you off to?" she asked pleasantly, knowing this would irk him even more.
It worked. He gritted his teeth and peered forward, so as not to gain eye contact. "You seem to be too chipper for your own good, Miss Weasley."
"Why shouldn't I be?" she asked innocently, batting her eyes at him. This irritated him even further. "Life is grand, isn't it, Mr. Malfoy?"
Kaitlyn barely noticed Heather and Selma shooting each other furtive glances next to her. No one had ever patronized Dameon Malfoy. Everyone was too scared to.
"Why are you so irritating?"
"For your pleasure, milord," she said with a snotty tone.
"Why don't you go jump off a cliff?"
"Why? So you could follow me off?"
He sneered. "Leave me alone."
"Begging your pardon, milord, but I believe it was you who initiated the conversation. Why do you talk to me if you know all I'm going to do is vex you?"
Seeing the blank look on his face, she flipped her long, fiery red hair behind her shoulder and nodded superiorly. She stalked off, leaving Dameon openmouthed, staring after her.
Heather and Selma ran up to her. "Are you insane?" Heather spat at her. "He's a Malfoy! Stories of his family are legendary! Did you know that his grandfather was a Death Eater for You-Know-Who? Do you know what he can do to you?"
Kaitlyn, not the least bit fazed, looked over her shoulder at the youngest Malfoy. He was still staring after her. She looked back at her friends. "Sure I know what he can do to me. It's whether or not he'll do it."
The time at Hogwarts passed by so quickly that Kaitlyn had to step outside of herself for a second. She breezed through the classes easily, as she had always done ('cursed with your father's appetite, blessed with your mother's intellect,'), and before anyone knew it, it was Halloween. That also meant it was a Hogsmeade weekend, and time for Selma, Heather, and Kaitlyn to buy their dress robes for the Yule Ball.
After receiving some money by owl from her parents, Kaitlyn was ready to shop. Her mother had suggested she wear blue in her last letter. Her father had jokingly suggested maroon, but then retorted bitterly, 'No matter how beautiful you are, I don't know if I'll be able to see past that horrible color.'
Selma was ecstatic. The Hufflepuff Seeker had since asked her. She was excited beyond belief. All she could talk about was their date. The other members of his Quidditch team had pushed him into asking her and Selma was more than happy about it.
"I don't know what Merrill's favorite color is," she vented to Kaitlyn while they walked to the Great Hall that morning for breakfast. "I mean, I don't want to look stupid, but I want to match him. Should I wear yellow? After all, he is a Hufflepuff… or maybe he's seen too much of it? I don't know. I look horrible in yellow. I'm not going to wear black. Black looks so dull, and we wear those colors every single day. Should I wear red? No, too flashy. Pink? No, too pasty…"
Heather had saved their usual spots at the table, where she was working on her assignment for Care of Magical Creatures. "I can't believe that Hagrid actually assigned real work!" she exclaimed, not looking up when her friends sat down next to her.
"Don't ask me," Selma said, pulling up a golden plate almost as soon as she sat down. She piled food onto her plate in large heaps, not even realizing what she was doing.
Heather looked up and peered incredulously at her friend. "What's up with you? You're eating like Kate."
Kaitlyn slapped her friend on the arm and then answered, "She's so hung up on this Merrill guy that she doesn't even notice that she's got three hundred pieces of bacon on her plate."
Selma looked down at her plate and then shrugged absently. "Oh well. Where does it go to anyway?"
Kaitlyn gazed at her friend sternly. "You know those house-elves work very hard preparing this food for us. We could at least be a little decent and not waste it."
"Honestly, Kate, sometimes you remind me so much of your mum," Selma laughed.
She only rolled her eyes in reply. After their breakfast was finished, they made their way to the first class of the day, Care of Magical Creatures with Slytherin.
Kaitlyn was determined not to even make eye contact with Dameon that day. She wasn't going to let him get the better of her, as he had been doing (or trying to do at least) the past two months. He had not let up since the first day. Yet he had stopped calling her Miss Weasley and was now referring to her as Kaitlyn. That was quite an adjustment.
" 'Lo, there, Kaitlyn," Hagrid greeted cheerfully when they reached his hut that morning. Kaitlyn had always liked Hagrid. When she first met Hagrid, he'd happily told her stories about her parents when they went to Hogwarts. She remembered going down to visit him with Selma her first year. She would never forget the story about the slugs that her mother had never told her. Hagrid had stared at her for a few seconds and said, "I can' believe how much ya look like yer father, Kaitlyn."
Ever since then, Kaitlyn had visited Hagrid as often as she possibly could and immediately signed up for his class when she had the chance. She loved his class above all others. However, sharing it with the Slytherins really upset her.
Selma and Heather smiled at Kaitlyn and Hagrid shook his head at them. "I just hope you three aren' causin' any trouble for yer poor teachers this year."
"Oh, Hagrid," Heather piped up. "What would ever give you that idea?"
Hagrid smiled knowingly at them and began the class. Kaitlyn turned to see Dameon's silver head bowed into a group of boys. They looked like they were conspiring against Hagrid, which made Kaitlyn's blood boil.
After the lesson was well underway and everyone had a creature to study, Kaitlyn, Heather, and Selma started to talk about the Ball again.
"Personally, Selma," Heather began before her overzealous friend could open her mouth, "I think you should wear silver."
"Silver?" she asked, perplexed. "Why silver?"
"It'd look best with your hair color. Your hair is so dark that it would look really pretty."
"Don't you think that's a rather pallid color? Especially for my skin tone? I'm part Irish, you have to remember that!"
"I don't think that really matters," Heather said. "I think you'd look best in silver. Besides, I think Merrill is wearing black. At least, that's what his best friend told me. After all, I'm going with him."
Selma and Kaitlyn looked up quickly. "You're what?" they screeched.
"You never told us this!" Kaitlyn exclaimed.
"Oh yes, sorry about that. He asked me yesterday morning before you came down to breakfast and I was so preoccupied with my work that I didn't even think twice about it."
Selma and Kaitlyn exchanged a shocked look and then stared at their friend. "Well… what brought this about then?"
"Well, Charlie and I used to share a tray in Herbology, you know, when you two grabbed each other before anyone else could. He told me that he liked talking to me and wanted to take me to the ball."
Kaitlyn laughed. "Wow. Two down. Zero to go."
"Zero? What do you mean zero?"
"Yeah, you need to go with someone! What about John?"
"Yeah! I heard him talking about asking you."
Kaitlyn grimaced. She looked up and saw John smiling at her. She smiled back politely and then looked back at her friends. "No way. He'll talk about Quidditch the entire time. Sorry."
"What? What's wrong with going with the Captain of the Quidditch team? Wasn't your uncle the Captain when Gryffindor won the Cup?"
"Yes, and his father was the Captain when we won, too. So what? That doesn't mean anything."
"Sure! You have plenty in common," Heather prompted.
"What if I don't want to go with John?"
"Then don't go with him. He just wants to ask you," Selma reminded her.
Kaitlyn shook her head. "There's no one I really care to go with anyway. Maybe I just shouldn't go."
Both of her friends gasped as they looked at her. "B-But, Kaitlyn… what about your mother… and us?"
"What's my mother got to do with this? I mean… if I'm not going with a date, than it's really not worth going."
"Then that's your problem, Kate," Selma pointed out. "You said you don't want to go with anyone, but you don't want to go without a date. What are you going to do?"
Kaitlyn looked away from her friends. What did she want? But before she could answer her thoughts, she felt something hard hit the back of her head. She looked up quickly and saw Dameon rushing over quickly.
"Excuse me, Kaitlyn," he said tartly, bending over to retrieve his book. "My friends thought it would be funny to hit you, and though I did agree, I thought it would still be rude. If you'll excuse me."
"Perhaps I shouldn't," she replied, turning back around.
He stopped in his tracks. Here it came. "Perhaps you should."
"Oh please," she said, for what felt like the eightieth time since she knew him. "You know very well who threw the book. You wanted to come over here. You just need a reason to get over here so you could fight with me. Sorry, I am not giving you the satisfaction."
Dameon's eyes glittered menacingly as he peered at her. "Are you calling me a liar, Kaitlyn?"
"What if I am, Dameon?"
"Watch yourself."
"On the contrary, Dameon. I think it's you who needs to watch yourself."
He narrowed his eyes at her and then walked away, mumbling to himself. Heather and Selma shook their heads at her.
"It's too bad he's a Slytherin, Kaitlyn," Selma commented.
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"Oh it's so obvious, Kate," Heather piped up.
"What is? Obviously it's not that obvious if I can't figure it out… obviously," she said, turning bright red and looking away.
Heather and Selma looked at Dameon from above Kaitlyn's shoulder. He was glancing at their table both nervously and angrily. It appeared as though he couldn't make up his mind as to which.
"Dameon fancies you."
Kaitlyn laughed so loudly that three groups stopped what they were doing to look over. She put her head back down and chuckled to herself. "You two… you two are quite funny. Dameon Malfoy… fancy anyone but himself? What a joke!"
Before either of her friends had time to reply, Hagrid told the students to return their creatures to the respective crates and to have a good day. He winked at Kaitlyn before she left and happily forgetting everything they had just discussed.
The day passed uneventfully after that and Kaitlyn was most excited to get out of the castle to go shopping in Hogsmeade. She talked excitedly with her friends as they neared the village. One of Kaitlyn's favorite places was Honeydukes, the sweets shop. She didn't miss the chance to go and talk to her uncles Fred and George who now owned and ran Zonko's joke shop.
However, the highlight of the trip was when the girls entered the robe shop. The storeowner seemed to know what they wanted immediately, and set to work with the measurements. Selma requested a set of robes in silver and the excited witch knew exactly what to get her. After trying them on and making adjustments, Selma was the proud owner of a beautiful pair of dress robes.
Heather had no trouble finding the perfect dress robes for herself. She had picked something in a dark blue. Kaitlyn, however, was having more trouble than she felt she needed to.
"What color? What color?" she asked, going through the thousands of robes the owner seemed to have accumulated. She couldn't do red or orange, as both colors always seemed to clash horribly with her hair. She didn't want to pick blue, as one of her best friends was going in blue. Her strange dislike for the colors yellow and purple were coming into play and she definitely didn't want to show up in a color that she wore every day to class.
She stopped, however, when she came across a soft, multi-color robe. She pulled it out and saw that it was a turquoise and shocking pink color that changed shades at the angle you peered at it. It intrigued her and she could hear the squeals from across the store.
"Only you could pull off something like that, Kaitlyn! Try it on!"
Even though she did try it on, there really was no need to. It was perfect for her and she bought it right away. She couldn't wait to write home that night to tell her parents she'd bought a color-changing robe. She could just see the note back. Her mother would write, 'Color changing? Well, only something like that would belong on you, dear.' Her father would have been more blunt. 'Color-changing? Way to stand out, love!'
Walking out of the robe shop and back up to Hogwarts, Kaitlyn couldn't help but feel somewhat glamorous with the outfit she had selected. Her only problem now was finding someone to look glamorous for.
