--- Chapter Four ---

No Longer Friends

Sunlight flickered through the room, bathing Katie Bell's bed in warmth. Groggily, she opened one eye. Yes, she still was in bed, and it was already quarter past nine; but luckily, it was a Saturday. She slept late last night, after the incident with Lee, Patricia and Tom. Now feeling very embarassed of how she cried in front of Tom and deserted Tom, her cheeks flushed pink. For the next few minutes, Katie lay there, hardly moving, reflecting on what had happened last night. She flinched when she remembered Lee and Patricia … kissing.
Her thoughts disappeared and were replaced by turbulent emotions of rage. Katie had liked Lee all those years … so why can't she just hate him now? Afterall, he is with that scarlet woman. Katie's mouth quipped intoa small smile, when a memory jerked her mind. Lee was fond of the insult 'scarlet woman' because he found it highly amusing and hilarious. The smile faltered. She didn't want to be thinking about Lee, after what he had done to her last night. Katie's blood boiled and bubbled withanger when Lee came across her mind. Last night she had been so depressed and poigant she had failed to see the big picture, which promptly dawned on her the following morning. Lee was an idiot. For four years, she realised, she had been wasting her time fancying Lee when she could have been out with other boys and having fun. Instead, she refused any sort of propisition of a date or such from any boy that didn't take the form of Lee Jordan. She waited, waited four bloody long years to see him kiss the bint of the century.

'I've already wasted enough time on that sodding git. I'm going to fly my broom,' she muttered angrily to herself, her temper subsiding slightly.

Katie always felt better when she had some time to herself to fly. Grabbing her cloak, she quickly brushed her hair into a ponytail and dashed out of the room.

'Pass the maple syrup,' said Lee Jordan thickly through a mouthful of eggs.

'Not on your mother's grave. You'll have to get it yourself,' said Fred, clutching onto the maple syrup for dear life.

Lee made a lunge for it, missing it narrowly.

'And another amazing save from the fantastically awesome Fred Weasley!' said Fred triumphantly.

'Oh, be quiet. You're as fantastic as my spoon,' said Lee shortly, jabbing Fred sharply with his spoon.

'What a marvellous spoon it is! Simply splendid –' began Fred, until his twin brother George cut him short of his spoon speech.

'Morning all! Miss me?' said George, taking a seat next to Fred.

'Not a bit,' replied Lee, now leaning in his chair and glancing over at Ron who happened to be sitting next to him, rapt with scoffing down his breakfast at an alarming rate.

'How absolutely spiffing it is to see you Ron, old boy!' exclaimed Lee, patting Ron hard on his back.

He choked.
'Hullo Lee,' he replied weakly, coughing.

'Man. Haven't seen you around. How've you been?' asked Lee.

'Not bad,' said Ron,tearing his bacon violently in half with his knife.

Suddenly, Ron looked up from his almost empty plate and asked, 'So what was the thing last night with Patricia?'

It was an innocent question sure enough, but Lee could see Fred and George watching on with great interest from the corner of his eye.

'Yeah, what did happen with Patricia, eh?' asked Fred, sniggering.
Lee shot him an irritable look.

'Nothing. She thought she'd have a go at sucking my face off from my head. Horrible stuff,' he replied, in what he thought was the most bored tone he could muster.

George wiggled his eyebrows. 'Are you sure about that?'

Lee ignored his question, but continued on to say, 'Well, did anything happen with Alicia?'

Lee grinned broadly watching Fred's ear-to-ear smile fade.

'None of your business, mate,' said George, no longer smirking.

'So you did do something with her, then? What was that, George?' said Lee, thoroughly enjoying every second of taunting George.

Beside him, Ron snorted into his plate.
'Your with Alicia now?' he questioned his elder brother.

George shot his brother a look of death, which Ron promptly disregarded.
'Be quiet, you little nit. We'll tell Mum you've been going round the school kissing girls - ' said George furiously.

'- one in particular being Hermione Granger,' finished Fred.
Ron turned a brilliant shade of crimson, and didn't say anything further at breakfast.

A distant grandfather clock chimed ten as Lee was pulling on socks in the boys' dormitory.
'I'm going out for a bit of a fly,' called Lee to the twins, sliding on his shoes.
They muttered something about coming down later as well, and with that, Lee swiftly made his way down to the broom shed on the Hogwarts' grounds. He stepped outside, the lazy early afternoon sun effulging down on him. The wind was cool and crisp; a perfect day for flying he concluded. Strangely enough, when he reached the broom shed, it was already unlocked and wide open. He walked in, the musty, damp smell overwhelming him. Lee squinted through the darkness for his Cleansweep Seven. He didn't play Quidditch for Gryffindor, but nevertheless, enjoyed it. He unlocked his slightly battered and old broom from the holder, and a second later had mounted it and was soaring through the sky.

He circled the lake a few times, enjoying the sensation of the light breeze against his face. Lee closed his eyes for a brief moment, before blinking open to find someone soaring directly in front of him, about some twenty or thirty metres up ahead. He squinted hard. It was a girl, her long dark, brown hair billowing messily in the gust of the wind. Who was it? She looked familiar … abruptly, the girl made a quick, clean swerve to the left. A twinge of familiarity struck Lee like a Filibuster Firework – no one could veer off so suddenly quite like Katie Bell could.
Who was that? Katie strained to see who was on the broom opposite her, but was finding it impossible with the sun directly in her eyes. She turned right sharply, zipping past the mystery person. She caught a blur of the boy on his broom, but didn't want to believe her own eyes. The chocolate brown skin and dreads … who else could it be but none other than Lee Jordan?
The disruption of finding Lee airborne with her abruptly cut Katie's flying session short, as she went in for a hasty landing, dismounting her Galaxy and locking it safely back in its holder. She whirled around, praying to God she wouldn't 'bump' into Lee on her way back to castle. Unfortunately, God must have not been paying much attention to her at that time as the next thing she knew, she had walked straight into the arms of Lee Jordan.
'Watch it!' yelled a peeved Katie, untangling herself from the tall boy and his broom in front of her. Her heart sank when she looked up. She was gazing into Lee's unmistakably brown eyes. For a split second, Katie thought she had seen the seriousness flicker in his eyes before he quickly looked away, clearly embarassed.

'I'm going,' said Katie curtly, striding out of the dark broom shed.

'Wait!' Lee grabbed her hand.

She halted, whirling around to meet Lee's eyes again.
'What?' she said impatiently, glaring up at him with her firm, hazel eyes.

Lee scratched the back of his head, looking slightly reluctant and embarassed.

'I, uh, just want to apologise, you know, for yesterday … ' he stuttered, feeling his face heat up.

Katie broke him off with an angry rant. 'Apologise for what, Lee? Apologise for snogging that horrible blonde stick-insect?' She breathed out, and continued in a hurtful, sarcastic tone. 'Oh yes, I'm sure that you'd want to apologise for that. You had the time of your life with her, didn't you?'

Lee could suddenly feel his anger rise. Who does Katie think she is? She doesn't have a right over me! And I came to apologise to her! What more does she bloody want?

'Man, you know what, Katie? If you don't want my apology, that's perfectly fine with me. What do you bloody want from me anyway? I tell you you I like you but then you just turn me down – ' he said heatedly, but was again interrupted by Katie.

'Excuse me, Lee Jordan? If you really had meant what you said, which is doubtful, I did tell you I liked you but I guess "I like you" was too difficult to register in your mind. Is that why you asked Patricia Stimpson –' Katie spat the last word with a look of pure disgusttwisted on her usually pretty and cheerful face,'to the Halloween Ball?'

'I didn't ask her! She asked me!' yelled Lee, his fists clenching.

'Well why did you say 'yes' then?' shouted Katie back.

'I – DON'T – KNOW!'

'STOP MAKING UP BLOODY EXCUSES LEE JORDAN! I DON'T HAVE TIME FOR YOUR BULLSHIT!'

Katie's face was red. She gave Lee one last glare before uttering, 'I hate you Lee, and I'll never, ever trust you again.' and stormed off.

Lee gawped at her. 'I hate you too!' he shouted after her, but she was too far gone to hear him. He was more than mad. Katie – of all people – blamed him for willingly kissing that blabbering numbskull? She may have the looks … but certainly didn't have any brains whatsoever. And Katie … I thought she would understand me. I always thought Katie would understand me, but I guess I had always made a mistake there. The words bitterly echoed in his mind, as he slowly sauntered up the forever changing Hogwarts stairs to whatever awaited him in his dormitory.
Lee peered into the room. No one was there, not even Fred or George. He sighed, and walked out again. The first thing to do, a little voice said in his head, is to break things off with that skeletal dung bat. He had absolutely no objections to this – he was dying to tell Patricia how retarded and irksome she really was, especially when she would think he was listening to her rave on about Marlen Sliggaworth, perhaps the most hideous lead singer of any wizarding rock band. 'He is so awesome!' she'd exclaim. Lee thought this was ridiculously funny. No one thought Marlen Sliggaworth was awesome – when ever his band played live they'd be pelted with rotting tomatoes, onions and not to mention, hexes and spells of all sorts. Obviously, Lee had been mistaken. Marlen had one fan. One very stupid fan.

'Leeeeeeeeeeee!' came a loud, echoing voice.

Lee froze, his neck prickling.

'Bloody hell. She doesn't have to scream louder than a friggin' banshee,' he mumbled in a low voice.

'What?' came his exasperated reply.

Patricia waltzed up to him, hardly noticing his annoyed tone.

'I was wondering if we could go to Hogsmeade together this weekend,' she said, battering her glittery, fake eyelashes.

'No.' said Lee flatly.

Patricia's mouth opened wide in shock. 'Why not!' Her big, blue eyes began watering, as if she had shoved a large, red hot chilli down her throat that very second.

'Newsflash: Guys don't like girls who have squirrel faeces in their head instead of a brain. And that's why I'm er, putting an end to this um, relationship.'

Lee thought he had said that quite well, and was impressed with himself. However, Patricia must have thought very much of the opposite. Her huge, fish-like eyes flooded with tears, and her usually blemish-free face splotched red.

'You are a wanker!' she wailed, hurling a small, paper box to the ground. It made an odd, squelching noise as it hit the cold, tiled floor. 'I baked a cake for you! It was your favourite, cheese and radish,' Patricia blubbered, who now was slowly backing away from Lee.

Lee shot her a look of bewilderment.

'Cheese and radish?' he echoed blankly. 'Where on earthdo you get your information from, woman?'

She still didn't seem to have gotten the hint, and just couldn't stop the waterworks. Her eyes were more bloated and puffier than ever – Lee thought she looked like a swelling pufferfish. Just as Lee was about to leave, he couldn't help feeling sorry for the lunatic girl. Afterall, no one in their right mind would date her any longer than a week.
'I'm sorry. You're just … not my, er, type,' he said, stopping in his tracks – struggling to find words that wouldn't offend the girl.
She sniffled loudly in reply, and wiped her eyes. Lee was pleasantly surprised when she nodded only once and left the room quietly. Lee was beginning to think she had a brain,but only until afew minutes later, whena loud and obnoxious voice was heard cursing and snivelling loudly.

Katie barged into the bedroom, pulled out a lollipop and a recent issue of Witch Weekly from under her bed andran out again. Alicia Spinnet and Lavender Brown who had been in the room playing with Muggle nail varnish stared after her, puzzled. Katie wasn't in the mood to talk to anyone. She just needed to settle down in the Common Room and avoid the twit of the century – none other than Lee Jordan himself. Katie flopped onto one of the softer, plusher cushions on the floor close to the warm, roaring fire in the fireplace. She sucked happily on the sherbet pop for a good twenty minutes or so, until she was left welling a plastic lollipop stick in her mouth. Katie threw the chewed stick into a nearby waste basket with accuracy and tossed the magazine to a table close to her.

'Impressive, dear Katie.'

Katie whirled around in confusion. Dear Katie? Who said that – oh, it was George.

She let out a weak, strained laugh.

'Yes, indeed,' she replied.

'I was worried for a second there though, Katie, your face was screwed up and you resembled somewhat a ballooned elephant.' added George calmly, handing Katie a suspcious-looking pastry; greatly resembling the twins' Canary Creams.

'Canary Cream?' Katie asked, ignoring his previous comment.

George nodded. 'Yes, you can slip one to Lee. He's been a bit of an arsehole lately. He deserves being Canaried.'

Katie laughed, the same strained laugh again. 'Alright, George. Although I think he isn't that easily fooled.'

'You'll have to figure out a way then,' said George, his blue eyes twinkling mischievously. 'I have to go now … Fred will be in trouble, no doubt, without the guidance of the amazing George Weasley … '

Katie giggled and gave George a wave, clutching the Canary Cream in her left hand. She had spent enough time in the warm Gryffindor Common Room - maybe she needed a little stroll around the school. Katie went down a couple of flights of stairs and turned left into a corridor, quite unsure of where she was going. She was turning, twisting, until she arrived at a large, oak door in an otherwise desolated corridor. It was quite familiar … Katie strained her memory as she ran her fingers across the intricate detail carved onto the oak. Creak. Katie leapt back in surprise as the door made a tiny sound, and clicked open. A tall, familiar dark-haired boy strolled out, his hands full of books. Tom Reiner. This must be to the Hufflepuff Common Room …

'Hello, Katie!' he said brightly, dropping the books and embracing her in a short, unexpected hug.

'Um, hi Tom,' she said, her eyes distant.

He furrowed his brow in concern.

'Oh no, don't tell me, it's that Lee guy isn't it?'

'What! Um, no – er no,' she said sheepishly, as his dark brown eyes penetrated her.

'It is. Look, I'll put these damn library books away, and you can come with a walk with me and we'll talk. How does that sound?'

Katie wasn't eager to go walking with Tom, but it wasn't like she had anything to do, so …

'Yeah sure.'

As they strolled to the library, Tom did most of the talking and chatting, while Katie listened only half-heartedly.

'Look, that Jordan character, he was nothing. He didn't even make the Quidditch team, for the love of God,' said Tom, rolling his eyes.

Katie felt an urgeto defend Lee once again, despite the hatred she was feeling towards him at the moment.

'Well, he is a very good Quidditch commentator … and he never really tried out for the team,' she informed him.

'I guess,' he said thoughtfully, shifting the weight of the books.

They walked in silence to the rest of the library, where Tom finally deposited the huge pile of books on the library's "returns" desk.

'How 'bout you and me, next Friday night?' Tom said suddenly.

Tom's unexpected proposition startled Katie.
'To do what?' said Katie uncertainly.

'Anything. We can go the lake,' beamed the tall Hufflepuff boy.
Katie paused for a second. The lake? But that's where Lee and I used to go … she remembered; andcould feel the familiar rush ofunwanted tears stinging her eyes. Katie held them back.

'That seems like a good idea,' she heard herself say.

Tom Reiner shot her a dazzling smile and clapped his hands together.

'That's great! I'll meet you after supper at seven?'

'Seven sharp.' agreed Katie.

He smiled again, and leant forward for a hug. Katie could only stand there as he embraced her in such a tight, gripping hug; one in which she could hardly breathe. He let go just as she was about to run out of air. Promptly, Tom turned his heel and strided out of the library, before giving Katie one last enthusiastic wave.

A/N Hello all! Havent updated in a while, I got carried a little carried away with my new Sims game.
There really should be more Katie and Lee fics. That makes me even sadder that there are hardly any on them. It's all Katie and Oliver. Katie Bell and Oliver Wood together is just WRONG.
And thanks to Euraphadriel, darkforest214 & LCH8292 (haha yes, they WILL be tortured! evil laugh) for reviewing.
You guys are awesome!
It's all good. Please REVIEW. I'm really lost for ideas, and would welcome any new ones, but I am promising mushiness in the sixth/seventh chapter… !
Also, forgive me if I made yet another mistake – the flying bit. Can students fly around Hogwarts? Tell me if I made a mistake XD.
I was also wondering: is Katie a year below Angelina, Alicia, Lee, Fred and George in the book? I always thought they were in the same grade (and really hope they are) …

Anyhoo, toodles.

Enjoy, and I'll update in a day or two.

Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince awaits to be read :-P