Disclaimer: I do not own what JKR does.
Katarina awoke with a jolt as the alarm on her pocket watch went off. She sat up and went to grab for her robes, before noticing that she was already dressed. She scowled, noticing that everything was wrinkled. She grabbed her wand and cast a straightening spell, but it didn't help. She had never been particularly good with domestic spells. She reached up to brush her hair out of her eyes and felt her scar, completely uncovered.
"Goddam." She cursed under her breath. She glanced at her watch and saw she had half an hour before she had to go for breakfast. There wasn't nearly enough time to fix her scar and go to breakfast. She sighed heavily as she decided that it was better to be hungry than to have people start asking questions. She waited until all the other girls had left the dorm and then took out her mirror and began to reapply her make-up to cover her scar. It took her longer than she expected and she had to run to make it to her Transfiguration class on time.
She was starving by the time she made it to class. She was the last one to arrive, but was luckily not late. She slid into the seat that Seliina had saved for her and pulled out her quill and parchment.
"Why weren't you at breakfast?" Seliina whispered.
"I overslept and barely had enough time to get dressed before I had to run to class." Katarina lied smoothly. "I'm starving."
"I'm not surprised; you barely ate anything yesterday either." Seliina replied.
"Ladies!" Professor McGonagall snapped, glaring reproachfully at Katarina and Seliina. "Class has started. As I'm sure neither of you would like to lose house points on only the second day, please cease your talking now." Katarina and Seliina nodded silently. "Now, as you all know, your OWLs are this year. These exams are extremely important for your future here at Hogwarts and once you graduate. You will all need to work extremely hard in order to achieve good marks. However, I have every reason to believe that each one of you is capable of getting their Transfiguration OWL. Now the first spell we will be working on today is the Vanishing Spell. We'll start off with snails today and move up to more difficult animals as we go on. Pettigrew, McClennan, if you could please pass out the snails, we'll begin."
Katarina gave Peter a faint smile as he handed her a snail. She didn't really dislike him. She just found him kind of annoying sometimes. Also, she was feeling much better today due to the fact that she'd taken her potions before coming to class.
By the end of class very few students had managed to do anything to their snails. Only two students had managed to vanish their snails: Remus and Sirius. Katarina had managed to vanish her snail's shell, while James and Peter both managed to vanish their snail's bodies.
"We should work together." James joked, poking her in the ribs with his wand. "You work on the shell, I do the body. We'd be set."
"So when we moved onto, say mice, I'd vanish the skeleton, you'd vanish the body?" Katarina asked with a grin.
"Exactly."
"Somehow I don't think Professor McGonagall will let us get away with that." Katarina said with a laugh. "Ugh," She said, looking down at her schedule. "I've got Double Divination next. What about you?"
"I've got Double Potions with Snivellus." James replied. Katarina scowled.
"I really wish you wouldn't call him that." Katarina said with a sigh.
"That's one battle you're never going to win. Snivellus he is and Snivellus he always will be." James said, ruffling his hair as Lily Evans walked by. Lily glared at him and continued onto her next class.
"She really doesn't like you, does she?" Katarina asked with a grin.
"She does, she just doesn't know it yet." James replied smugly.
"Well, good luck with that. Anyway, I've got to go or I'm going to be late. Have fun in Potions."
"I always do." James replied, rolling his eyes.
The rest of the day passed quickly for Katarina. Her classes went well, though by the end of the day she was rather tired of hearing how difficult the OWLs were going to be. Still she understood that is was something that needed to be said.
It had been a very good day for Katarina so she was in a noticeably good mood by the time dinner came around. She saw Sirius heading into the Great Hall and went over to talk to him. She wanted to apologize for being such a bitch to him before.
"Hey, Sirius, can I talk to you for a second?" She asked, grabbing his arm. He shook his arm free and wordlessly carried on towards the Gryffindor table. Katarina was stunned. She didn't think he'd be particularly nice to her, but she'd thought that he would at least hear her out. She scowled angrily and headed off to her own table. "If he wants to be like that, that's fine." She muttered under her breath.
"You know talking to yourself is one of the first signs of insanity." A voice said behind her. Katarina turned around. It was Severus.
"I never said I was sane." She returned with a grin.
"You seem happier today." He remarked.
"I guess I just needed a good night's sleep." Katarina lied.
"I've heard that can help." He replied.
"Yes, it did." Katarina agreed. She looked over at her table and saw Seliina gesturing to her. "Well, dinner's about to start, so I should get to my table."
"As should I." Severus replied. Katarina turned and headed for her table. She glanced at the Gryffindor table and saw Sirius smirking at her. She looked away and scowled. She'd been having such a good day until she'd tried to talk to him. Now she just felt angry. She sat down beside Seliina just as the food appeared.
"Guess what happened to me today?" Seliina asked.
"What?" Katarina asked tiredly. Seliina either ignored or didn't catch Katarina's tone and continued on happily.
"Sirius Black asked me to go to Hogsmeade with him in two weeks." She finished. Katarina stared at her friend in disbelief.
"Sorry, I must not have heard you right. You didn't say Sirius Black, did you?" Seliina nodded.
"I did. I said yes. You aren't mad, are you? I know you're fighting with him, but he is kind of cute and…" Seliina continued rambling on, but Katarina had stopped paying attention. She looked across at the Gryffindor table and saw Sirius and friends acting very celebratory. She scowled and turned back to Seliina, who had stopped talking.
"No, I'm not mad." Katarina said slowly. "I just think that he's a bit of an ass." She added, as she spooned some potatoes onto her plate.
"I'm glad you're not mad." Seliina said with a smile. Katarina nodded and stabbed moodily at a potato on her plate. She was confused. Sirius had never shown any kind of interest in Seliina before. In fact she doubted that, until the other night, Sirius and Seliina had ever had a conversation that consisted of more than 'hello, how are you?' She ate the rest of her meal in silence and excused herself early to go to the library.
James had noticed Katarina glaring at their table earlier and her early departure from dinner. He waited until Peter and Remus had left before talking to Sirius about it.
"What do you think you're doing?" He asked as they made their way back to the common room.
"What do you mean?"
"Come off it Padfoot, you know what I mean. Why on earth, why you're completely smitten with Ivanova, would you ask her best friend to Hogsmeade? That really doesn't seem the best way to endear yourself to her, mate."
"I am not completely smitten with Ivanova. And even if I was, she has no interest in me. She's completely infatuated with Moony." Sirius replied in a clipped tone.
"Moony? Where on earth are you getting that from?"
"She said he was the only decent one among us. She claimed that he was the only one she could stand."
"And from that you decided that she fancied Moony?" James asked incredulously.
"Yes." Sirius replied stubbornly.
"Then you're as thick as Wormtail. Did it ever occur to you that the reason you're able to get her all riled up like that is because she fancies you?"
"Or she loathes and despises me. I think I'll stick with that one." Sirius said, the edge in his voice growing more evident with each word.
"Alright mate, but don't say I never told you. Still, that friend of hers was a good second choice." He added with a grin.
"First choice." Sirius replied. "And of course she was, as I have impeccable taste."
"Sure you do." James answered sarcastically.
"Jealous?" Sirius asked, raising his eyebrow.
"Of what you're getting into?" James asked incredulously, as they arrived at the portrait hole. "Not in the least." Sirius laughed before uttering the password and walking into the common room.
Katarina, on the other hand, was furious. She was furious at Sirius for asking Seliina to Hogsmeade and furious at Seliina for saying yes. She understood why Seliina had agreed to it, as Sirius Black was exceedingly handsome and popular, but she was still angry.
She'd gone to the library after dinner to let off some steam by getting an early start on her homework. She managed to finish her Transfiguration paper before heading back to her dorm to get some sleep. She was walking back to her common room when she ran into Severus.
"You look like quite the ray of sunshine today." He greeted sarcastically.
"Black." She replied angrily.
"Of course, who else could it be? What has he done now? Stolen your favorite toy?" He asked mockingly. Katarina glared at him.
"That's rich coming from you." Katarina retorted.
"And what do mean by that?" He asked.
"I mean…" Katarina began. "You know what, never mind. Next time they petrify you good luck finding someone to undo the spell." With that she stalked off in the direction of her common room. Severus merely smirked and watched her storm off.
Katarina stormed through her common room and up the stairs to the girls' dorm. She put her school bag on her trunk and flopped onto her bed. She scowled and tried to think of reasons why Sirius would want to go out with Seliina. She finally decided that he could only be doing it to annoy her.
"Well," She murmured. "Two can play at that game."