Unfortunate Relations

To my NEW reviewers (!)- Yay! I didn't know, honestly, that other people were reading it. So, thanks for the input.

Author's Note: All I have to say- I'm not particularly fond of this chapter. Ah well, I suppose we can't win them all, can we? Or at least, we can't write them all well. Pity.

Chapter Ten: The Possibly Worse Predicament

"Oh- I know what it is. Don't want to share the spotlight, do you, Harry? Afraid I'll steal your-"

"Stop messing with stuff you couldn't possibly know anything about." Harry cut in neatly, mentally screaming and trying desperately to keep it in. This was quite possibly the worst fight he'd ever been in- Katie knew where to hit.

And, on either side, the hits were becoming increasingly lower.

"I know nothing about you? Oh, please- spare me the drama. You're an open book, Harry. And you know something? You're not that complex or interesting. Lucky, maybe, but-"

"But I guess my luck ran out, didn't it? The moment I met you, I mean."

Katie snorted, shrouding her face in mist. "Great comeback. Excuse me while I crawl into a corner and cry."

Harry really was trying very, very hard to keep his emotions level. Too bad it wasn't working. "You're not so different from him, are you?"

"Who?"

He smirked, knowing he had finally beaten her. "In fact, I can't really tell the difference."

Katie turned her head so she didn't have to make eye contact with Harry- she knew what he was talking about. It stung, like the tears unwillingly starting from her eyes, to know that Harry would use such an obvious weakness against her.

Harry, easily mistaking her silence for stupidity, broadened his grin. "Are you honestly that thick? Voldemort, Katie. Your uncle." Pausing, he anticipated some scathing reply that never came. So – like any stupid teenage boy – he kept going. "Alright- so what's next? You whip out your wand and curse me? You'd be good at it…Katie?"

She was wearing the most interesting and frightening expression; her body had gone rigid and her mouth was drawn into a tight line of resistance. At first glance, it had looked like anger, but…If Harry hadn't known any better, he'd have said she was being possessed.

The eerie urgency of the situation struck Harry at once, but it didn't matter- there was nothing he could do. Except possibly make it worse, which he rather wanted to avoid.

Gripping his wand tightly with his right hand, Harry watched Katie in a spellbound sort of horror.

"KATIE!"

XXX

"You're not so different from him, are you?"

'He's right, Katie…you know that, don't you?'

Cold voices flooded Katie's even colder mind- unmercifully filling her thoughts and ripping any shred of control from her body.

'I just want you to know that, eventually, you'll give in. Maybe even sooner than you think.'

She'd felt this before, but never so bad. Usually, she could fight whatever it was away.

'But not this time.' The voice whispered darkly, 'It's different, now.'

"Why now?"

'He's closer than you think.'

Katie screamed, clutching at her head and leaning forward in agony. A searing pain raged up and down her veins- a pain that sought for control which she refused to give.

But it was almost as if she had no choice in the matter. She screamed again, hot tears streaming down her flaming cheeks as she unwillingly took out her wand.

She fought, but it didn't matter. Katie looked at Harry and knew she was going to kill him. Suddenly, before everything else took over, one solitary saving thought filled her mind.

She couldn't save Harry…but maybe Harry could. Grasping all remaining willpower, Katie opened her mouth.

XXX

"Stop me." A burning throat, racked with pain, called so softly into the darkness that Harry barely knew if Katie had spoken or if he was just imagining things.

He started out of his reverie- as much as he hated Katie, he didn't want to have to hurt her. Not like that much mattered, because Katie would kill him if he didn't figure out how to stop her. A spell? Right. Because every Hogwarts student was taught how to unpossess random passersby.

Her crying eyes pleaded with him, begging him to do something. "Avada ke-"

"NO!" Instinctively Harry's taut body sprang forward as a filmy red began to cloud Katie's eyes. He grappled for her wand, grabbing her wrist and holding on with a deathly grip.

Victoriously, Harry held Katie's wrist high, trying to grab her wand with his other hand. At least it worked- his sudden move had surprised her. Or…not. Katie (or whatever it was that had taken over Katie) violently ripped her hand from his and repeatedly sunk her fist into his stomach, her lightning-swift blows leaving a stinging burn in their wake.

Without thinking of what else he could possibly do, Harry lunged toward Katie and threw both of them to the ground.

XXX

A banshee-like shriek split the sky more effectively than a thunder storm- in a flash Ron, Hermione and the twins were out of their warm beds, risking the cold night for a possibly worse predicament.

"Whazzat!" Ron's speech slurred a little, and his eyes blinked heavily from a serious lack of sleep and warmth.

The sarcasm in Fred's voice was maybe just a little too evident. "A scream, Ron."

"Well, what are we waiting for?" George questioned in a doomed whisper.

For a moment everyone just looked at him. It's very hard to think when your brain's frozen over. But, being by far the smartest of the bunch, Hermione's brain naturally thawed before the rest.

"Let's go find out where it came from."

Everyone but Fred (who continued staring wistfully and surreptitiously at his sleeping bag) nodded in resolute determination.

"Right, then. Forward, march!" Ron stated in what he thought was a brisk tone.

They all knew who was causing the commotion, though. Their brains could have been made of swiss cheese- they could have had no brains at all- and they still would have known.

All four were wondering what on earth Harry and Katie had been up to.

Unfortunately for them, they were about to find out.

XXX

As Katie's mind swam towards consciousness, she became aware of a comfortably pressing warmth weighing down on her like a heavy blanket.

She tried frantically to remember (which was hard because of the dull throbbing in back of her head) – where was she? Oh. That's right. She had lifted her wand to kill Harry-

Kill? Harry? Bloody hell.

Her eyes snapped open- and Katie immediately sucked in air. The subject of her worry was staring concernedly into her face, his hot breath fastly spreading a furious blush across Katie's cheeks.

The situation wouldn't have been so unsettling if Harry wasn't pressed on top of her, his eyes boring deeply into her own and his face nearly touching hers. She shifted nervously under Harry, loving and hating this ridiculously uncomfortable position both found themselves in.

Katie suddenly had the most compulsive urge to close the already narrowing gap with her mouth. 'What am I thinking?' She questioned herself in an accusing tone as she quickly pushed the shocking impulse far from her mind. She was supposed to hate him. She did hate him. Right?

"Well…" Katie breathed, pulling back just enough to stop their lips from meeting. "This is awkward." She watched, eyes keenly intent on Harry's own, which had closed expectantly when both had leaned forward. Green orbs slowly (unwillingly) opened, mouth closed firmly in embarrassed disappointment.

Harry couldn't help but grin. "Yeah."

"So…" Katie's voice trailed off into the mist. She found that her will to resist any and every temptation was fastly fading.

"Um, Harry."

"Yeah?" he whispered huskily back, his wicked grin still hovering tauntingly only inches from her mouth.

"You're kind of on top of me."

"Oh- sorry." he mumbled, hopping up and helping Katie to her feet in one swift motion. Harry thought he saw an almost apologetic glint in her eyes when she opened her mouth to speak..

"It's not as if I didn't want – " Katie quickly clapped a hand over her mouth, letting dark hair fall in front of her face. It would never work. Katie knew that. She didn't exactly know why it wouldn't, and she didn't exactly not want it to, but it wouldn't. "It- it's not as if I didn't want you to save me." She ended lamely.

Harry raised an eyebrow. "Are you alright?"

Katie touched the back of her head and winced. "I'll be okay- it's just my head." She watched as relief touched Harry's face and inevitably hers as well. "Oh- how are you? I really am sorry about trying to kill you- it wasn't my fault. Honestly."

Harry laughed. "No harm here. But…" his expression darkened, "What was that, Katie?"

Turning away from him, Katie didn't say a word. Partly because she didn't want to have to talk about it, and partly because she didn't even know the answer.

He seemed to understand though, and mercifully began filling the silence. "Katie…I want to apologize. I- I shouldn't have said those things-"

"It's fine. I said some bad stuff, too." Katie smiled, wondering if she had ever experienced a more bipolar night. Nonchalantly she reached out to rest on the wall behind her and found a door knob.

An immediate pain suddenly coursed through her fingers. Katie swore under her breath and pulled back- the throbbing sensation stopped abruptly.

"What's wrong?" Harry asked tensely. After this night he was prepared for almost anything.

But Katie didn't answer him. Instead, she simply knelt down to examine the rusted bronze door handle. Curiosity commanded Harry's mind, and soon he stooped down beside her to inspect it as well.

The handle had an intricate design; twisting and turning in such a strange, undulating pattern that it almost seemed to distort wildly of its own accord. Katie's slender fingers traced along the knob's outline, and her features set into a grim line.

Suddenly, the strange and almost foreign pattern made sense to Harry. There was no keyhole, no lock to pick. The design, carved out so elaborately onto the bronze, was a Dark Mark.

With a knowing sort of stance, Katie whipped around to face Harry, stopping as she once again faced a disconcerting lack of space between both faces.

"I think I might know how to get in."

XXX

"Are we almost there?"

"I don't know! I can't see anything through this idiotic fog."

"Can fog be idiotic?"

"Not as idiotic as you, but yeah. Sure."

"At least there've been no more screams." Hermione's hushed voice descended on all four like the plague; complete quiet came over everyone. It was true, the screams had stopped- that could be a good thing, but just as easily it could be bad.

"We're never going to get there in time!" Ron complained, angrily kicking up a tuft of dirt and letting it fly into the night.

"Don't say that, Ron. We'll make it." Hermione put her hand in Ron's, and Ron gripped it in tight reassurance.

"I'm sorry, Hermione. You're right."

But they weren't going to make it. And they all knew it. The twins had become silent as soon as Hermione had spoken. What could have happened? With Katie's luck, anything bad. They knew that- and were trying hard not to think of it.

"I swear this fog's getting thicker every minute." George muttered darkly.

Fred stuck his head up, and looked wonderingly around them. "You know, George? I actually think you're right. The fog is getting thicker."

Again, no one said anything. A mutual understanding lay in each person tonight- a sense of togetherness and desperation drew them closer together somehow.

Something was definitely behind this fog- the way it hung oppressively and continued to thicken made it seem as if someone was deliberately trying to keep them from getting to the orphanage in time.

And the worst part was that they could do absolutely nothing about it.

XXX

"I know how to get in," she repeated reluctantly, "But I don't think it's going to help anything really."

Harry's expectant face sunk into an almost angry confusion. "What do you mean it's not going to help anything? We'll be in. Then we'll destroy the horcrux." He said it so simply, like a child who put absolute faith in a parent.

"Do you really think it'll be that easy?" Katie questioned in a wondering voice. "Tom won't just test us physically, you know. And it's not going to just be figuring out how to break the spells. He's going to try to set us against each other. Which won't be too hard, considering you don't care much for me and the feeling's mutual on my side. This test may seem like a game, but it's our lives we're fighting for."

"Thanks for the heart warming speech, Katie. Now are you going to open it or not?"

Katie sighed, and with a flick of her wrist lifted up the sleeve of her robe. The suspicion that had plagued Harry until just a few minutes ago came back strong.

'A dark mark? Doesn't that prove it, then? She's with him. She's a death eater.' Harry watched Katie wince almost as though she could hear his thoughts. Despite all his mistrust, he could see the mark definitely wasn't something she could ever be proud of.

"Do you happen to have a knife on you?"

"A what?"

"Oh, never mind- I'll do it." Muttering a curse under her breath, Katie transfigured a fallen twig into a sharp, glistening knife. 'McGonagall certainly never taught us that trick.'

Painstakingly, Katie began carving out the dark mark onto her already marked wrist, tracing its dark tattoo outline with her bloody blade. Harry found himself putting a hand on her tense shoulder to keep Katie calm, but even as he did, several stinging tears fell from her chin to mingle with the blood seeping from her wrist.

"Can- can you fix that?" Harry asked worriedly.

"Sure. I can repair the veins, anyways. It'll still bleed a little." Katie tilted her head so she could look at Harry, and grinned- wiping away the tears from her grey eyes. The clean pain cutting into her skin was well hidden behind Katie's now expressionless face. "Don't lose sleep over this, Harry- I know how to take care of myself." 'Thank God, otherwise I'd be dead by now.'

For one brief moment, Katie imagined what her life would be like if she didn't need to know how to take care of herself- if someone else was there to do it for her. Too bad she would never know what that was like. Too bad she was Voldemort's niece.

Katie leaned forward, Harry's arm still gripping tightly to her shoulder, and pressed the bloody mess against the door design. Pulling back, both gazed in numb horror as the bronze handle turned a rusted red. Click.

The door silently swung open- only to reveal a dark interior that no outside light dared penetrate.

"Should we wait for the others?"

Harry firmly shook his head. "We haven't the time! Who knows how long this door will stay open. And I'm not letting you do that-" here he pointed towards her reddened wrist, "again."

Without another word, glance, or thought, Katie and Harry stepped into the orphanage.

The door slammed shut behind them.

But, you already knew that was going to happen, didn't you?

XXX

Literally seconds later, the twins, Ron and Hermione ran up the steps of the back porch.

"They're not here."

"Oh, please don't tell me we went to the wrong porch!"

"'Fraid so, Ron."

Everyone turned round to go the other way, when Hermione grabbed Ron's hand with icy fingers. "Look." She pointed at the door, but she really didn't need to.

It was kind of hard to miss the blood.

XXX

This one was actually pretty dark, huh? That's a first for me. Usually now, my chapters are funny. Anyway, you may hate me for leaving out the rest of the gang, you may not. It was necessary though, believe me. Don't worry- they'll have a piece of the action next. I may even cook up something for them to do while Harry and Katie are on their little escapade. Oh, and just one more thing: Who do you like together more,

1. George and Katie

Or

2. Harry and Katie