Chapter 6

'How am I supposed to help a friend in need when that friend doesn't even know it? Mum, this is one I don't think even you can answer with a book. I need you to go off of your pure intuition. Does what I'm saying make sense to you? He's never known compassion or real friends, and he tried to tell me all of this. That's when he realized that he was saying too much and walked away. He told me that I've been given so much love, I can't possibly know what he's going through. Mum, I really need your help.

Love,

Kaitlyn.'

She sent the letter within minutes of the conversation she had with Dameon. She received a letter the next day during lunch, but it was not from her parents. It was from her favorite aunt and uncle.

Selma and Heather jumped at the sight of the letter. They loved to see Kaitlyn receive things from her famous Uncle Harry, which only proceeded to perturb her. He was only her favorite Uncle Harry, the man who used to buy her treats from Honeydukes when her mum said no. The man who took her for her first ride on a broomstick. Her Uncle Harry.

"Can I see what it says, Kate?"

She rolled her eyes. "Can I read it first, please? After all, he is my uncle!" she exclaimed. She opened the letter and laughed the moment she did. He'd sent her a picture. It was of her Aunt Ginny, Sara, and him.

'Dearest Katydid (my favorite niece),

According to your delightfully well-informed mother, you are doing splendidly at school. Top marks, I expect. After all, your mother is the famous Hermione Granger. Have you worked on Summoning in Charms yet? I'm still very impressed that you managed to learn them when you were twelve, Katydid. I couldn't get the hang of it when I was fourteen!

I expect you've already bought your dress robes for the Yule Ball. Fabulous. Your friend Heather will probably go into detail about how lousy a date to her mother I was. After all, I didn't have my mind on girls until your Aunt Ginny joined the Quidditch team.

Anyway, do you have a date yet? That's a lot of the reason I'm writing to you. Your wonderful aunt wanted to know, but is too busy lately to write. Of course, she should be resting, but does she listen to me? Of course not! I sincerely hope she doesn't get a hold of this letter before I send it to you. She'll have my head for calling her stubborn. As if she needed to be told anymore.

Now I sound like your mother. I really should get back to work. Sara's expecting me in the garden. Write me back as soon as you can!

Your favorite uncle (don't lie, you know I am),

Uncle Harry-head

P.S. We expect you home ASAP when your aunt has the baby. We decided that you are to be the first niece to hold him. Well, Ginny decided. I don't get much choice anymore. Love you!

Kaitlyn laughed maniacally at the thought of her Aunt Ginny waddling around their flat, ordering her uncle around. He was much bigger than her aunt, but it was no secret that Ginny had much more control than Harry. It had always been that way and Harry had never seemed to mind. He was too in love with her aunt to care.

"Aw! They look so cute together. I'm glad nothing happened with my mum and your uncle. That would have been crazy, wouldn't it? I can't believe she didn't go to the Yule Ball with my father! They didn't even get together until seventh year. They were more thick than your parents, Kate!" Heather said, looking at the picture.

Kaitlyn sighed, rereading the letter. Did she have a date yet? Of course her Aunt Ginny would want to know. She was just like that. But she didn't have an answer for her Aunt Ginny.

Was she even going to get a date?

It was the middle of November and talk of the Yule Ball was increasing. Almost everyone in Gryffindor who was a fourth year and above (and even some third years) had a date. She felt that if she didn't act soon, she was probably going to be left alone in her wonderfully elegant robes. Her suddenly apathetic attitude toward relationships and the male gender could have been preventing her from finding someone to go that ball with. It never even occurred to her that perhaps she was exuding the fact that she wanted no one.

Then why was Dameon tangoing with her?

She shook his name out of her head before she went crazy again. She was sure she had reached him, but then he'd just shut down again. Now they were back to 'Weasley' and 'Malfoy.' It couldn't have been worse in that respect. All she had going for her was the fact that John Wood still didn't have a date, and he was looking awfully interested lately.

"I know he's going to ask you," Heather whispered to her the next night at dinner.

Kaitlyn's head flew up. Her eyes immediately landed on the Slytherin table. "Excuse me?"

"John," Heather said, nudging her. She turned and saw the fanatical glint in John's eye as he talked to his teammates about Quidditch. He suddenly turned his gaze toward her though and smiled shyly. Kaitlyn pulled her eyes away before she could stare too long.

It was happening in slow motion. John was telling his friends he'd be back in a minute, getting up from the table, and approaching.

Kaitlyn panicked. The last thing she wanted was to be cornered by John. Did she really want this? Did she want to go with him? He wouldn't be free forever, but then again… no.

"Excuse me," she blurted out, grabbing her things and running out of the Great Hall at a breakneck speed. John turned around, making to follow her, but stopped in his tracks. Was he going to ask her later, or did he realize that maybe she didn't want to be asked, as it seemed so many other boys in the school had?

She escaped into the hallway and managed to calm herself down somewhat. She knew she needed to send another letter to her mother, and she needed to do it right away.

Kaitlyn dared not to even look back as she headed up to the owlery. All she needed to focus on was what she was going to write home. How would she phrase this to her mother? How could she phrase it? There were only so many words to describe the way she suddenly felt. Was it loneliness? Sadness?

She opened the door to the owlery and was instantly hit with the pungent scent of birds, the musty attic, and dust. She turned to close the door and heard a floorboard creak across the room.

"Hello? Who's here?" she called.

Expecting to see a first or second year pop up from amongst the birds, she ventured closer. "Hello?"

"Kaitlyn?" came the voice back. It was Dameon, of all people. The person she had wanted to write home about… sort of. She straightened her shoulders as she stared at him.

"Hello, Dameon," she greeted. "What are you doing up here?"

"Sending word home," he said, staring at her. An awkward silence followed. They both tried to speak at once.

"Dameon, I…"

"Listen…"

They stopped, staring at each other for a second. Kaitlyn turned around to leave but stopped again when she heard Dameon's voice behind her.

"Wait! Please, don't leave," he called calmly.

She looked up and then turned around. "What do you want? I mean… seriously? You have the nerve to talk to me now?"

"Yes, Kaitlyn… I wanted to apologize for the way I acted the other day. I was just… I was scared."

She frowned, all hostility and anger forgotten. "Scared of what?"

He sighed, leaning against the wall behind him. He looked down at his hands and suddenly became very interested in his fingernails. "I told you what my home life is like, Kaitlyn. I've never known anyone who cares about what I have to say… that is, I never knew anyone like that. That was until I met you, and that scares me. I don't know how to react to you sometimes. You surprise me."

Kaitlyn sighed heavily. "You surprise me as well, Dameon. No person has ever made me think the way you make me think… or feel."

His eyes filled with tears again as he looked up at her. "What do you mean by that?"

Kaitlyn couldn't help the tears form in her eyes as well. "What are you talking about?"

"Come on, Kaitlyn, tell me!" he pleaded in a tone so desperate that it surprised her. "What do you mean by I make you feel something different? Please tell me."

She dared to take a step closer to him, gulping down her pride and closing her eyes, trying to evade the tears. "It's just like how you see me. No one has ever challenged me. I'm just another girl, another Weasley… no one looks at me the way I'd love to be looked at. My parents are so in love with each other that it takes my breath away. It also makes me want that same thing. Why can't someone look at me like I'm their world? That's what I saw in you, Dameon, believe it or not. When you really saw me at Flourish and Blotts that day, I knew that there was something about me… something that maybe someone would look at one day."

Dameon moved closer to Kaitlyn. "That's how I make you feel? Special, like someone wants you?"

Kaitlyn nodded, expecting him to make a sarcastic comment about her feelings. But instead, she felt his hand take hers and was surprised at how soft his fingers felt on hers. She looked up into his eyes quickly, not sure what to think.

"Will you go to the Ball with me?"

Tears slid down Kaitlyn's cheek, but she had no idea why. She couldn't bring herself to look at Dameon, but the words had penetrated her heart. Maybe there was hope, after all. Maybe there was something about herself she'd failed to see that Dameon had seen. Maybe he was genuinely interested.

Maybe you should answer him. He just asked you to the Ball!

Her eyes landed on his and she was shocked. He too, was crying. "Yes. I'd like to go the Ball with you, Dameon."

A smile flickered onto his face and he stared down at her. Kaitlyn couldn't stop her body from moving toward his and wrapping her arms around his waist. He seemed a bit taken aback, like he had never been hugged so tenderly… or at all.

His arms tentatively wrapped around her shoulders and the longer they stayed locked together, the longer they started to realize what everything meant. Kaitlyn really started to believe that love was not just a fantasy any longer. It was coming and she was ready for it.

Dameon couldn't believe how good it felt to have someone care for him as much as Kaitlyn did. He'd never known the feeling of not being completely alone. It was the most wonderful feeling in the world. She was willing to listen to him, to talk to him like he was a normal person, to challenge him, to love him… she was even holding him like she cared.

And his heart soared. Gone was the loneliness of being a Malfoy. He was now ready to open his soul to the warmth of this so called peasant-like Weasley. If love was gold, Kaitlyn Weasley would have been the wealthiest witch in all of the world.

He wanted to share the fortune.