Unfortunate Relations
Author's Note: Wow- brace yourselves, this chapter's rather long. Sorry about that, but there was really no other way to do it. Like I said, I really had intended for this chapter to be dark and angsty, but I guess I just didn't have it in me this time. Ah well, angsty or not- I had loads of fun writing the chapter. And believe me when I say LOADS. Anywho, thanks to everyone who reviewed- it's so awesome to know that you guys are still sticking with this story, no matter how retardedly long it takes me to update. A sincere thanks to all! Okay, time for me to shut up. Enjoy the chapter!
Chapter Eight: Let the Games Begin
Katie sucked in air as soon as she squeezed through whatever you squeeze through during Apparating, but not just because she needed a breath. Warmth from the space-traveling void was instantly replaced with a bone-chilling, mind-numbing cold. Rain pelted Katie, coldly oblivious to the bitter symbol it served to her feelings…and her luck. Drat her luck.
"Thanks for the lift, George." she joked, giving his hand the smallest of squeezes before letting go.
"Anytime. What's with you not being able to Apparate, anyway?"
Katie shrugged. "Guess it's just not my thing." Fred soon joined them, and Katie gave him a sympathizing smile as he first winced, then shivered in the icy weather.
They finally took a look around and- if it was at all possible- grew even more silent; the place was deserted. Only mud and puddles lay scattered about the deserted lot they had had the misfortune of landing in.
George blankly allowed the smashing entrance of opening comment, "What are we doing here?" Needless to say, no one answered. No one knew the answer.
There was no orphanage. There was mud, and puddles, and more mud- but no orphanage. "Come on." Katie said grimly (A/N: there are a lot of 'grimly's' in this chapter, aren't there?) and resolutely put one foot in front of the other. All three looked down at their feet; it seemed less depressing that way.
Fred finally nudged George to elaborate on his previous statement. "Uh…Katie?" he prodded tentatively, "In case you haven't noticed, there's no place to 'come on' to. And I'm sure Voldemort would never just drop off a horcrux in an empty lot somewhere."
An emotionless laugh emitted from Katie, picked up and magnified by the wind. "You don't know him like I do." And so they continued, all three (though Katie wouldn't admit it) incredibly bewildered. The rain struck at them harder, pounding so loud in Katie's ears that it took only a matter of minutes for her head to start throbbing.
After about five minutes of silent and grumpy searching, Fred, George, and Katie turned back around- half hoping to see some kind of magical lever reading something like this: Pull here to reveal secret entrance to orphanage! Courtesy of Voldemort Inc., ect. Ha, ha.
But not only was there no such thing, turning around had been a wrong move: Katie's skin prickled as something hard suddenly jabbed the back of her neck.
A smooth voice that she instantly recognized and instantly hated whispered dangerously at her left ear, "Don't move."
Katie, infected by her strange new hatred for this boy that held her at his mercy, and an initial rebelliousness at his tone, turned her neck just slightly enough to see him.
Neither moved; the girl's pitiless grey eyes shocked the boy, whose intricately jade orbs also stopped Katie from any further action. Katie recovered first, though- green eyes couldn't stop her. She expertly whirled around while simultaneously knocking the wand out of his hands.
Cursing, the green-eyed boy bent to retrieve it, but was slowly brought back to his feet when Katie placed her own wand at his throat.
It was weird, almost as if the two were in a death circle- nothing was wrong with the others- in fact, by now they had established that all were friends and were chatting amiably, oblivious to the electric current of hazardous dislike- deflecting even the drowning rain- that emanated from the two strangers.
"Really." The boy, shaking his already hopelessly tangled black mane defiantly, "What're you gonna do?"
After all, this girl before him was small, frail, even…what was she against him? She couldn't have possibly been through as much as he.
The exact same thing had been running through Katie's head. "Oh," she began mildly, boring into him with those wild grey eyes of hers, as she was momentarily perplexed by his startling green ones. "There are a lot of things I could do to you. And," here she grinned, "believe me when I say a lot."
Suddenly, to Harry, she seemed a lot taller.
"Hey, Katie!" Fred called from somewhere out of their own battle circle. "What on earth are you doing?"
"Yeah, put that thing down! These people are our friends!"
She took a while, but finally- reluctantly- lowered her wand.
"Name's Harry." The boy muttered gruffly, offering a dripping hand from his soaking pocket.
Katie grudgingly took it. "Katie. It's…nice to meet you." she replied through gritted teeth while both tried to force a grin (it turned out looking more like a grimace).
Harry looked down, not wanting to meet her eyes again, and saw something…strange, to say the least. It looked like some kind of tattoo on her wrist, almost like a-
But she pulled her hand away too soon for him to tell, and her wrist was completely by the dark folds of her robe. Ron and Hermione also shook hands with Katie (Katie using the other hand, Harry noticed) and there followed a good deal of 'nice to meet you's' and 'how do you do's' before Hermione could once again speak the charm to reveal the house to everyone.
For a moment, all six just stared in a reverent kind of awe at the foreboding structure- after all, the building loomed very imposingly despite the weathering of many years, perhaps because of it.
The orphanage hung monstrously tall, grey and not quite silent over the heads of six pitifully tiny figures; it moaned and sighed at every wind's breath, as if asking but never receiving an end to its cruelly extended life. But, though it leaned a little their way, the dilapidated edifice held well enough.
"So…old house."
"Horcrux hidden inside…" Fred and George looked questioningly at Harry, Ron and Hermione.
And Katie finished their thoughts. "What's the catch?"
"There's no way in." Harry uncharacteristically smirked at Katie while Hermione and Ron gave each other confused looks; he was beginning to act more like Malfoy that himself.
He dared her- this newcomer, probably just a tag-along of Fred and George- to figure it out. He dared her to open the door…but, surprisingly, Katie ignored his cheeky implication and unspoken dare.
Everyone stared at her as she muttered to herself, thoroughly scrutinizing the orphanage- its weaknesses (it had many), its strengths (there were few), and its openings.
"Knowing him…you can't get in from the front- it'll probably be some dark, dangerous way…like the basement." she laughed to herself, but the expression on her face soon turned defensive when she saw everyone's bewildered stares.
"How- how would you even know?" Harry managed to splutter as his brain raced for an answer to his own question.
Katie remained silent; giving her name away to someone who already hated her was the last thing she wanted to do. But, strangely enough, Katie knew that she owed something to these strangers: something like the truth. Wouldn't they be working together to destroy Voldemort?
"Yeah…about that…" George fumbled for an excuse, but Katie put a hand on his shoulder to stop him.
Her eyes swept over the other three, regarding them carefully, asking them to accept her. "You would have found out anyway." she began resignedly. "I'm…my full name is…Katie Riddle."
At first, no one got it. "There're lots of Riddles." Hermione said matter-of-factly. Ron nodded, Harry just raised an eyebrow. A shadow of doubt seemed to cloud each face; it was the kind of look that someone gets when they find out that a seemingly innocent acquaintance is guilty of murder.
"There may be a lot, but you only know one."
Katie tried to add something, maybe a remark that could possibly make her look a little more heroic, but no more words seemed to want to come out.
"Oh- are you idiots that thick? She's Voldemort's niece." Fred bluntly filled in the deathly stillness and open mouths with the obvious statement. Katie winced.
"But don't worry! She's not all bad- jus destroyed a horcrux, in fact."
That didn't help Harry, or Ron, or Hermione. Dropped jaws turned to hard and untrusting stares, and each body went stiff with tension.
"Bloody h-"
"Shhh, Ron!" Hermione shot Ron a warning glance and grabbed his hand. 'Don't. You'll just make her angry.' the look seemed to say.
Well, that was worse than any exclamation. Katie might as well have been some dangerous mongrel in a zoo, peered at through thick steel bars by prying and fearful eyes.
None of this, however, compared to Harry's reaction; one look at him and Katie's blood froze. She was suddenly much colder than any rain could make her. "Destroyed a horcrux?" he whispered in poisoned disbelief (Katie could tell was the kind that whispered when particularly dangerous). "Which one?"
"Oh, the- locket…what?" Fred muttered the last question under his breath when he noticed Katie's warning expression. She slowly shook her head. It was too late to do anything, but telling Harry which horcrux they'd destroyed had been a bad idea.
The taut anger in his stance intensified as his fists and mouth line tightened. Harry didn't know it, but right then he looked very akin to Uncle Vernon.
Katie almost smirked. She had never so intensely rubbed someone the wrong way before, and it was kind of…amusing. At the same time, though, the spluttering teenager storming back and forth in front of her was driving Katie past the point of insanity as well.
"So it was your fault." Harry whispered simply, and Katie twisted her brows in sudden confusion. She saw not only hatred in his face, but pain, also…
Everyone was holding their breath (quite literally) – eyes fixed on Harry, anticipating possibly explosion.
But, oddly enough, he didn't explode; Harry, for the first time in a long time, simply spoke. And- though his face was still very red- Ron and Hermione both though it a nice change. "We. need. to. talk." He hissed through gritted teeth.
So all at once, five shapes shuffled silently forward, leaving one to slump dejectedly in the storm.
XXX
Many contradicting thoughts were slipping in and out of Katie's mind- but she was used to that.
What she wasn't used to was this total feeling of loneliness and rejection, and the new biting hatred that made her more ravenous wolf that human. Maybe it was better that they let Katie alone for a while- it seemed very likely that right then she would have liked very much to snap someone's (particularly Harry's) head off.
XXX
The other five were huddled some distance from the wolf- I mean, Katie- and their argumentative whispers were easily covered by heavy atmosphere and the wind's dull moaning.
They all gathered in proper football formation (A/N: for all you muggles out there, ha ha) and, for several minutes, stayed in appreciative silence- except, of course, for the occasion sneeze and the rain- which, despite that anything and anyone with reach of the downpour's wrath had been soaked quite literally to the bone, continued to furiously drench and puddle the area.
There was a huffy breath as everyone waited for Harry to stop steaming.
"Now, Harry." George condescendingly began, clearly seeing that he wasn't going to settle. "What's this all about?"
Harry couldn't help but roll his eyes. "Oh, you know. Her, of course." He had meant to simply flick his head in her general direction, but his eyes caught in mid turn. She looked so…alone. And as usual it was all Harry's fault.
And, as he unconsciously stared, Harry actually began to change his mind about her; she sat cross-legged, with her head down, and her black hair hanging limply around her head. In the rain, her white skin almost glowed a translucent white. Maybe she wasn't so bad after all?
But the girl's neck immediately snapped up straight (almost sensing the intrusion) and her grey orbs found his green ones, glinting with a hatred he had only ever seen in one other person…
No, she was most definitely Voldemort's niece.
Harry tore his gaze away from Katie, finding it difficult to break eye-contact. "Anyway," he continued impatiently, "She can't stay."
"What!"
"I say, Harry-"
"I think I'm with Harry on this one, but let's hear both sides of the argument first." Hermione's level voice cut in smoothly.
Only Ron hadn't said anything; both Harry and the twins were playing a mental tug-o-war, fighting with each other to make Ron choose a side. "I'm with Hermione." he mumbled after a rather large sneeze. Hermione beamed.
"Fine. Let's hear it. Fred. George."
"Aren't we proof enough?"
"Yeah, I mean- she hasn't killed us, has she?" George folded his arms triumphantly while Fred continued staring pointedly at Ron, his eyes holding a dangerous glint that promised future torture if he didn't agree to his twin brothers.
Ron shivered. There were only too many reminders of what the twins could do to him, and Fred and George were only too happy to give him yet another happy memory.
"Nonsense! What about the Imperius Curse? How do we know you're not under it?" Harry asked as he gave George a suspicious prod.
"Watch it, Harry! We're quite ourselves…except a bit on the crabby side- and you're not helping!"
Hermione sighed, her breath coming out in short little mists and quickly vanishing as rain washed away the imprints. She moodily surveyed Harry and George, who by now had their wands out and were circling each other menacingly. Her eyes swept over to Fred (now taking threatening steps towards a cowering Ron). Once again, the time had come for intervention. Her intervention, to be more specific.
"Harry! George! I need you to focus." They both tucked their wands back into the folds of their robes and jumped simultaneously as Hermione barked out her orders. "Ron! Fred! I need you to grow up."
Fred turned his head to look at Hermione with sulking, lazy eyes. He mumbled something about 'unfair,' but at least he sauntered back to the group.
"But mother," he whined playfully, "I don't wanna grow up."
Unfortunately for Fred, Hermione was not in a joking mood. In an instant, she had whipped out her wand, and a pink-and-orange polka-dotted beard was rapidly forming at Fred's chin, finally stopping a little past his ankles.
His cheeks flushed a bright crimson as he opened and closed his mouth repeatedly in silent shock. Desperately, he tried to put a reversal charm on his overly excessive facial hair, but it didn't seem to have any effect, except of course, to make the colors even flashier.
George, meanwhile, had been rolling on the muddy lawn (oblivious to the fact that by now, he probably looked worse than Fred), cackling maniacally and flinging his arms wildly into the air.
The bushy haired, bright-eyed wielder of Fred's unexpected torment stood before him, putting a hand on her hip and clicking her tongue disapprovingly.
"Strange." she pondered loudly. Hermione, Fred noticed, was very good at feigning concern, that is, until the wicked grin stole over her features. "Strange…I guess you're right, Fred. I give you a whole six-foot beard, and you still manage to look like a slightly deranged four year old."
A short pause ensued (not counting George's incessant guffawing and mud-flinging) – and even the rain could not wash the look of hideous embarrassment from Fred's face. He was used to being the prankster, not the other way round.
"SHE JUST- AND THEN HE- OH, HA HA- I CAN'T BEL- OH, HA HA HA!" With George laughing like an idiotic lunatic- and making himself look more the fool that Fred ever could, even if he had tried, it became exceedingly difficult not to laugh.
Though Harry was managing it quite nicely- if only it weren't for his red face and oddly contorting features…
"Absolutely brilliant, Hermione!" Ron congratulated her, giving his friend a quick approving hug. He immediately broke away from her, however, after seeing Fred's murderous death glare directed at him. Um- I mean…hard luck, mate." Ron switched from hugging Hermione to sympathetically patting his brother on the back.
Fred grunted, looking for all the world like a cat that has been dropped into the bathtub and then laughed at. "Why, if you weren't a girl, I'd-"
"You'd what? Hex me into oblivion?" Hermione chuckled, though not unkindly. "Come off it Fred, just a joke. How's it feel to be at the other end of the rope?"
"Bloody horrible." he mumbled miserably.
"Come on." She tugged at his hand to come back to the circle, "Friends?"
"If my blasted brother wasn't madly in love with you…" He looked up as he shuffled forward, and his face gradually returned to its normally wicked vigor on seeing his former blush mirrored in Ron's cheeks.
"…Friends."
XXX
Katie watched George's crazy antics from a distance, and she couldn't help but laugh, despite the fact she was trying desperately to stay angry at the world. Somehow, George made everything- even the worst possible situations- seem a little lighter. So did Fred, but George was…different, somehow. Katie thought it funny that, though they were twins and seemed identical not only in looks, but in actions (at first acquaintance), the twins each had their own separate personality.
Katie didn't notice the group turning and gesturing to her, or the friendly, accepting nods that were thrown in her general direction, her thoughts had taken over her so completely. And she didn't notice when Harry crept up behind her and cleared his throat.
"…Katie."
"Hmm? Oh, sorry, I didn't- oh. It's you." The smile that complimented her pleasant features was quickly replaced with that all-too familiar scowl. Harry found himself wishing that for once it wouldn't be him she directed her hatred towards. Her smile was actually quite nice- if only Harry had the chance to get used to it. Not as though he really wanted to or anything.
"You can…stay." Harry said, trying his very best to keep his voice civil.
"With all due respect, your majesty, I didn't know I needed your permission." Katie brushed past him in a queenly manner, and found herself face to face with George.
"Thanks." she murmured, throwing her arms around him- mud and all- in a quick embrace. George smiled hazily, mumbling something inaudible in reply.
'Oh, sure.' Harry grumbled inwardly, 'Thank George. But does Harry get any appreciation?'
'…Does Harry deserve any appreciation?' a small voice answered. He quickly put the thought aside, though…after all, he didn't like that answer.
Katie nodded towards Ron and Hermione over George's shoulder, flashing them a brilliant grin. "You too. Thanks…a lot."
They both smiled back, Hermione's smile the brightest. It wasn't as though she didn't love Harry and Ron dearly, but- she was just a little tired of dealing with thick-headed boys. This would definitely be a nice change.
"Hey- what about me?" Fred whined. A small giggle escaped Katie's lips before she could stop herself. Who could blame her? Fred looked absolutely ridiculous- the stupid way he held his beard so he wouldn't trip over it made him look so hilarious it was appalling.
Katie took her arms from George and faced Fred solemnly,
"Nice beard."
XXX
So…what'd ya think? How'd you like the friction between Katie and Harry? Please review- I look forward to everyone's comments!
BregoBeauty: Update your story, you fiend! Or I shall have to smight you with my…twin knives? I dunno. Something cool. Thanks so much for reviewing!
Gylfie: YES! Your rant makes me HAPPY! (Does it disturb you that the image of Scott banging his head repeatedly against a wall makes me laugh? No? I didn't think so.) LOL. Anywho…thanks.
audreyblaine: Dude, your incomplete sentences ROCK. Thanks for reviewing! Oh- and I'm flattered that you like it even though it isn't Lily/James (those are usually my favorite stories, too).
elven-jewel-18: My character's three dimensional? SWEET! LOL- I'm really glad you like it! I hope I continue updating soon.
Irish Anor: Hello! Ah, the golden trio. Yes. They're cool. But the twins're cooler- at least in my opinion. I really hoped you like this chapter!
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