AN/ Okay guys, here's the chapter, sorry it took so long!
Dedicated to Mandy and also to Giddyupgal and CaffineandLITJAVAluver.
"KAT!"
A short person hurled herself at my legs as I stepped out onto the back patio. I scooped the young girl up and hugged her.
"Hi Ali, did you have a nice trip?" I asked the excited five-year-old as I placed her back on the ground. She was adorable in her little purple dress and shiny black shoes.
"Yes, there was a pool on the boat!" Ali exclaimed. "Uncle 'Liver said there's a pool on most of those big boats, but I hadn't ever seen one before."
"I've never seen one of those either," I told Ali. "You'll have to tell me all about it later, but right now, your mummy is calling you."
I sent Ali running over to where Oliver's older sister, Leslie, was calling to her daughter. I looked around and spotted my guy friends through the crowd of people that Mum had invited. I beckoned to Oliver and he, Fred, George, and Jeremy came over.
"Come inside," I told them as Oliver's jaw dropped when he caught sight of me. "Sarah's still fixing her hair, but the others are all down here."
"Close your mouth, Oliver, that's my best friend you're gaping at," Fred warned jokingly as he pushed Oliver's mouth closed.
"Katie, you...wow...I...wow...," Oliver stuttered, seemingly unable to string a full sentence together.
"I think the word he's looking for is stunningly gorgeous," Fred supplied, "because if he wanted to say that you looked like a monkey or a banana or something, then I'd have to beat him up."
"I meant the first one!" Oliver exclaimed. "You definitely don't look like a banana!"
"Go and find your girlfriend," I told Fred, who was laughing at Oliver's trouble with speaking intelligently. "I think she's in the dining room getting some food."
Fred, George, and Jeremy needed no second bidding as they hurried off to find the girls. I took Oliver by the hand and led him into my father's study. The fire in the fireplace was still roaring like always.
"You look handsome," I commented, smiling at Oliver who was wearing a nice button down shirt and kaki pants. "You don't know how lucky you are to be able to wear pants."
"And you don't know how lucky I am that you can't," Oliver teased as he spun me around to get a better look at me. "Katie, if I wasn't already fully in love with you, I would be now."
I turned away to hide my face which I was pretty sure had turned a lovely shade of red in my embarrassment. Oliver took my chin in his hands and tilted it so I was looking directly into his eyes.
"I love you, Katherine Ann Bell, more than you can imagine," Oliver said seriously, unfortunately the mood was a little too serious for me, being the fun-loving Katie that I am.
"Yeah, well I have a pretty big imagination," I teased.
Oliver let out a laugh and then kissed me. He let go of my face and slipped his arms around my waist and my arms found their way around his neck. We would have forgotten completely about the party if Alicia and Ginny hadn't come into the study.
"Sarah's coming," Alicia warned. "Are you both ready?"
"Are you sure you want to do this?" Oliver asked seriously.
"Yes," I replied and gave him a quick kiss before wiping a smudge of makeup off of his face. "Are you?"
"I've never been surer of anything in my entire life," Oliver replied.
"Good, cause she's here," Ginny hissed and Oliver and I took that as our cue to start fighting.
"What do you mean calling her a slut, you whore!" Oliver bellowed convincingly, giving me the impression that he was pretending to be talking to Sarah. "You don't even know her!"
"Look who's talking, you hypocrite!" I screamed back. "I doubt you know her either! All you do is go around making out with her! And I'm probably the least whorish person you know!"
"What's going on?" I heard Sarah ask Alicia as she walked into the room. "Why are they fighting this time?"
"Katie went and kissed him," Ginny replied. "He blew up and started yelling."
"You kissed him! You slut!" Sarah roared. "Your boyfriend dumps you and so you decide to steal mine! You have got to be the biggest whore I've ever seen in my life!"
"Then don't go and look in the mirror," I growled, not taking my eyes off of Oliver's hazel ones.
"You're going to regret saying that, Bell," Oliver said menacingly as he advanced towards me.
"Yeah, well what are you going to do? Hit a girl?"
"You're not a girl, Bell, you're a bitch. But I'm not going to hit you; I refuse to sink to your level."
"Then it's too late, because you've already sunk below it, Wood," I replied. "You're nothing without that little whore over there."
"That's it, Bell, you're off the Quidditch team!" Oliver roared. "That's insubordination of the captain!"
"Yeah, well, if you kick Katie off the team, then I'm quitting," Alicia spoke up for the first time. "And you can bet that Angelina, Fred, George, and possibly Harry won't stick around either!"
"Fine, then I guess that I'll have to find myself a new Quidditch team!" Oliver roared, grabbing Sarah by the arm and stalking out of the room. "Have a nice life, Bell, or, better yet, don't."
I waited until Ginny had signaled that they were gone off upstairs until I sat down in a chair. All that fake arguing was really taking its toll on me. Alicia smiled encouragingly at me.
"If I didn't know for sure that you and Oliver were in love, I would have bought that fight 100 percent real," Alicia commented. "You should really think about acting."
"Uh, no way," I replied. "This is plenty of drama for one life, thank you very much."
Alicia and Ginny left to go and check on the rest of the plan. Right now I could almost picture Oliver screaming his head off at the twins and Angelina who were currently 'accidentally' tripping and spilling paint all over Sarah's dress. Soon we would all go outside for the party with the others and continue our torture of Sarah and her new dress.
"Katie, come on!" Fred called into the study. "We've just spilt the green paint from the decorations that we were 'cleaning up' all over Sarah. Your mum's removing the stain right now."
"Okay," I replied smiling in anticipation of the horrible time we were about to give Sarah. "Is 'The Levitating Punch Bowl' still a go?"
"I wouldn't give up that prank for the world!" Fred exclaimed as he offered his arm which I accepted and we skipped outside to the party.
"What in the world," Mum exclaimed about twenty minutes later as a punch bowl was seen levitating across the yard towards where Sarah and Oliver were dancing by the pool. "Katherine Ann, I thought I told you not to use your Grandmother's crystal punch bowl!"
"What are you talking about Mum?" I asked innocently. "Do you mean the floating one?"
"Yes, I meant the floating one!"
Before you go around calling my family crazy, hear me out. My grandmother (My mum's mum) was given a crystal punch bowl by her husband (who from here on out we shall call Grandfather). She was so proud of that punch bowl that she promptly used it that night at their anniversary dinner. The bowl had been charmed by my grandfather so that it would seek out the guest that was the most detrimental to the hosts and dump punch on that person.
Since Fred and I had no idea if Sarah would really be the most harmful guest (neither one of us having any idea which politicians Mum might have invited) we did a little charm work of our own. We had long since figured out that they were unable to know if an underage witch or wizard performed magic inside of a magical household. So, without putting our Hogwarts career in jeopardy, we simply added our own modification. The punch bowl would hunt down the guest that the host most hated, in other words, Sarah Everett.
"Katherine Ann, did you or did you not use your Grandmother's crystal punch bowl!" Mum bellowed, jolting me out of my reverie.
"Fred," I asked, "you did get the punch bowl on the left, didn't you?"
"Erm, I thought you said not to get the punch bowl on the left, so I took the one on the right," Fred replied sheepishly.
"Oh dear!" Mum exclaimed. "There's no reversing the process. Some poor guest is going to get punch dumped on them!"
"Relax, Mum," Kent spoke up. "I took that charm off that crystal bowl ages ago. I did it after that party where it got dumped on that foreign dignitary."
Kent and I both broke into fits of laughter at the memory. Fred and Jess both started laughing too, both having heard the story before. Angelina and Alicia both looked confused and Jeremy and Leanne were dancing, at a safe distance from Sarah and Oliver of course.
Meanwhile Sarah was oblivious to the oncoming disaster, and the lovely stain that would soon grace her white dress. Part of the beauty of this dastardly plot was that we could not get blamed for it. But the real beauty, and the part I found most appealing, was the fact that Fred and I had also added a little, ah, enhancement if you will, to the charm on the punch bowl. Now the punch stains would not come out with magic. And, I was fairly sure, that the only way to get the punch out by Muggle means was to bleach it. It was an absolute pity that poor Sarah Everett was allergic to bleach.
So you probably want me to say that a sudden wave of pity for the poor girl washed over me and I threw myself in the line of fire, so to speak. And, in any other story I might have, but this is real life. I did feel a slight pang, but I'm thinking that was just heartburn rather than guilt. I put on my best horrified face as I watched Oliver whirl Sarah backwards closer to the punch bowl in a perfectly timed maneuver. Sarah caught a glimpse of the punch bowl right as it emptied its red, liquid contents onto her head. Now, the face and scene that resulted was a Kodak moment if I ever saw one.
"My dress!" Sarah wailed in tones that I swear broke the sound barrier. "My hair!"
"Don't you worry dear, that's nothing a little magic won't fix," Mum said soothingly, in a desperate attempt to drown out the other guest's laughter. "We'll get that stain right out! And then Katherine Ann will take you upstairs and fix your hair all nice and pretty, won't you Katherine Ann?"
"Yes, Mum," I squeaked, cowering as Mum's voice got deep and scary stern as she started talking to me, a sure sign that she suspected I was up to no good. "Anything you say, Mum!"
"This stain isn't coming out!" Mum muttered in disbelief. "You can just borrow a dress of mine for the rest of the party, now go with Katherine Ann."
Sarah glared daggers at me and I stared back icily before she spun around huffily and stalked off. Mum gave me a cold glare, as if daring me not to follow Sarah. I gulped and hurried off behind the other girl.
"Where are the dresses?" Sarah demanded as I walked into my parents' room. "Tell me now and this will be quick and relatively painless."
"First, I want you to tell me something," I replied coldly, shutting the door with a click and locking it, "What are you up to, you lying bitch?"
"Why, whatever are you talking about?" Sarah laughed a fake high pitched laugh.
"You know what I'm talking about, so put aside the theatrics."
"Fine, since you want to know what's going on right under your spoiled brat of a nose, I'll tell you."
Sarah began to pace across the room. She looked awful. Her once spotlessly white strapless dress was now spattered with red stains and the skirt was ripped from when she put her heel through the dress coming upstairs. Her hair was half falling down and was matted and sticky from the punch. It also had a slight pink tinge to it. I had a fleeting suspicion that it was going to stay that way for a while unless her mother did something about it. The actual bodice of the dress was threatening to fall off. I really hoped it didn't since I didn't fancy falling victim to witnessing that.
"You want to know? I've been turning you two against each other. The first step was to get Oliver completely under my control. That was probably just about the easiest thing I've ever done. He wanted so badly to forget about you that he was only too easy to manipulate. The next part was harder; I had to turn him against you. Precious Katie, the one thing he really cared about, everyone knew that if they said anything remotely offensive about you, then he would make them, please forgive me for sounding cliché, but wish they had never been born. Once that seed of doubt was planted it was only too easy to keep the manipulating going and get him to kick all of the Gryffindors off the Quidditch team."
"Why tell me all of this, Sarah?" I asked, playing along even though Oliver had just stepped unnoticed out of the bathroom. "Why betray your own house?"
Sarah let out a cold laugh, "Betray my own house? How quaint, you think this is about betraying my house? I did it because my dear, sweet Marcus asked me to. He told me he'd be very pleased with me if I got Oliver Wood to get rid of his entire Quidditch team. Ha, it was too easy to manipulate you and all of your friends."
"It sounds to me like you're the one who got manipulated, Sarah," I replied. "You trusted Marcus Flint? He doesn't love you, he doesn't even like you! All he wanted was to use you, like you used Oliver; like you used me."
"That's not true!" Sarah threw a very badly aimed punch at me (which I easily ducked) and then she fell sobbing to the floor.
"Sarah," Oliver spoke up softly for the first time, "is it true? Is it all true?"
"Yes," Sarah sobbed, a little too large of a sob for my taste giving me the impression that it was all and act, but it seemed to convince Oliver wholeheartedly.
"I'll forgive you Sarah, but only if you can forgive me," Oliver still spoke softly and crouched down next to Sarah who buried her face in his shoulder and continued to sob huge sobs.
"Why would I have to forgive you, Oliver?" Sarah sobbed haltingly.
"You need to forgive me because I've been playing you for days, Sarah. I've known you were up to something and Katie and I started dating, so I've also been cheating on you. But I know all about you and Flint by the lake at night, so I don't feel bad about that."
"You cheated on me!" Sarah suddenly stopped her fake sobbing and shoved Oliver over. "You cheated on ME!"
"Yes," Oliver squeaked from where he lay on the floor. He quickly scrambled up. "But you cheated on me!"
"I can't believe someone would actually cheat on me!" Sarah screamed, once again reminding me how grateful I was that these rooms were soundproofed. "I'm perfect!"
I snorted, "This is getting a tad melodramatic if you ask me."
"Who asked for your input, you bitch!" Sarah screeched, but instantly regretted saying anything as she saw Oliver step threateningly closer, I, for one, didn't so much as blink.
"Well, this is my house, and this is my party and I am the one who's going to send your sorry butt packing. I was thinking about turning you out with your nicely packed trunk and your wand, but now I'm thinking there might be a more fun way to do this. And I mean fun for me, not for you."
Sarah's face paled at the thought and she instantly went completely silent.
"Okay, now that I can hear myself think, Jobber!" I called and the house elf dutifully popped into the room. "Would you please see Miss Everett out?"
"Yes, Mistress Katie," Jobber said happily, grabbing Sarah with his long hands and walking out the door. "Anything else that Mistress be wanting?"
"No thanks, Jobber. I'll take care of her things." I replied to the house elf as Sarah shot me a look of horror at the thought of me 'taking care of her things'.
"What are you going to do, Katie?" Oliver asked in a sort of warning voice. "What more can you do to her?"
"Relax, Ollie," I said calmly. "I'm not doing anything to her. But she will be surprised to see Marcus Flint outside."
"You invited FLINT!"
"No, Oliver, do you think I'm stupid? And don't answer that if you know what's good for you," I snapped as Oliver opened his mouth to answer my question. "But you don't have to invite someone in order for them to sneak over to your house."
I pointed out the window to where Marcus Flint crept along in the dark. He made his way towards the side of the house but dove behind some shrubbery when the door opened and Jobber and Sarah stepped out. Jobber released his grip on the girl and came back into the house, shutting the door behind himself.
"Hmm, as much as I'd like to watch this happy reunion play out its natural course, I think I'd better keep them from mauling each other."
I grabbed Sarah's rather large bag and lugged it down the hall and then down the stairs. I arrived at the front door and opened it just in time to see Sarah give Flint a rather nasty blow to his face.
"Ouch, that looks like it hurt, Flint," I commented coldly and the pair jumped, neither having realized that I had arrived. "Ah well, you deserved it."
"Are you coming to ruin my life more?" Sarah wailed, and I almost felt a pang of pity, almost being the key word.
"No, actually," I said in an almost civil tone. "I'm here to give you your things and to save you from yourself."
"Cut out the angelic act, Bell," Sarah snapped. "You're no angel!"
"Yeah, but you're no devil either," I replied, making Sarah's jaw drop in disbelief. "You made a bad decision. Sure, I'll never like you, but that doesn't mean I can't help you."
"What could you possibly do for me," Sarah asked as Flint slowly started to creep away and then broke into a sprint and disappeared.
"You need therapy," I replied. "And a nice day at the spa wouldn't hurt. You'll find all the information inside your bag. Take the help or leave it, it makes no difference to me. Now, get on the bus and go home."
Sarah turned just as a violently purple bus appeared out of nowhere. She looked at me again as I lowered my wand arm to my side. She didn't smile at me, but the look of thanks in her eyes was sufficient. I knew the girl wasn't all bad. I also knew she'd be all right. And so would I.
AN/ okay guys, here's the deal, that was the last full length chapter. I'm going to write an epilogue and, HOPEFULLY, a sequel which I'm planning on making post-Hogwarts. Erm, thanks so much guys for reading this! I LOVE YOU ALL!
Love From,
MotherCrumpet
PS in your review, please tell me if there are any loose ends or anything that I need to tie up in the epilogue! THANKS!
RANDOM QUOTE
Last time was WINSTON CHURCHILL! Try to guess this one!
"Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind."