Chapter Twenty: Hermione's Slytherin Stalker
"Well, everything looks normal, Miss Bell," Healer Wallaby said to her with a smile, "I'll write Captain Jones a note to forgive your absence at practice, but I assume it won't help you escape her wrath, knowing Gwenog."
Outside the window were three owls, pecking at the window with red envelopes in their beaks. Katie assumed, like Wallaby assumed, that they were from Jones, but there was always the outside chance Montague had found out about her dalliances and had lost it completely. No, scratch that. If Montague knew, there'd be more than three Howlers. Not like he had the right to send any. Fucker.
"Thanks," Katie said, "I wrote Jones already. But I guess I need proof." The Healer moved to the door. "Things are not normal though," Katie said in a rush. "Something's very wrong. Are there more tests you can run?"
Wallaby paused, a hint of announcement flashing on his face then disappearing.
"I have just told you nothing is wrong," he said, "but if you wish to speak to the Head Healer…"
Katie steeled herself. Normally, she'd crumble like Dolores Umbridge in front of Firenze in a situation like this.
"Yes," she said instead, "I'd like that."
It was an exercise in futility. The head healer, Porrdmos, who Benoit Lambert had trained under, told her nothing was wrong after another hour of fruitless tests. Despite her protests, Katie was sent on her way. The thought of going back to practice was making her ill. She couldn't go back to the flat. Montague was stalking her there. When she'd gotten back from dinner with Edith the night before he'd been hovering outside the flat's door, holding a bouquet so large he was hunched over from its weight. Before he'd seen her, Kate had turned and darted round the corner, taken off her shoes, and sprinted silently like a cat down the stairs. She'd stayed the night on Ginny and Harry's sofa instead, but had no intention of repeating this, even if they'd offered. The last thing she needed was Rita Skeeter seeing her come out of Harry's flat with bed hair and wrinkled clothes.
For a brief, crazy moment as she trudged out of St Mungos and back into London, she thought about tracking down Nate. She must know where he lived, somewhere deep in her damaged brain. If he was really her boyfriend, maybe she could…
"Katie," a man said from in front of her. She looked up. Even after talking to him for an hour in person, she hadn't recognized his voice and almost didn't recognize his face.
"Oh," Katie blinked, "Nott. Hello."
She darted a glance around.
"He's not here," Nott said, "if that's what you're worried about."
"What are you doing here?" Katie asked suspiciously, "following me on his orders?"
"Hardly," Nott said, "I injured my elbow on my wand hand a few months ago, and it's acting up again. So I came in to get it checked out. The Healers told me to stop whining and…" he trailed off, then went red, staring behind Katie at something.
Her stomach lurching, she resisted turning around. Fuck, was it Montague? Was it Malfoy trying to apologize again? He'd sent her presents to the flat as well, Ange had told her. Maybe she should tell Montague, and let him and Malfoy duel to the death. The horror on Nott's face grew. Fuck. Was it Rita Skeeter?
"Hermione," Katie said, blinking, as the girl in question came to a halt, staring at the pair of them from the exit to St Mungo's, "you okay?"
"Visiting someone," Hermione said vaguely, "hello Nott. Long time."
Nott coughed, shifting from foot to foot. He'd hunched over slightly. Odd. Now he looked more familiar to Katie.
"Hello, Her–Granger," Nott said, his face still red, "alright, then?"
"Yes," Hermione said, then, as if it were expected of her to maintain the thinnest veneer of politeness she added, "you?"
"I'm well, but–"
"Great," Hermione said frostily, veneer gone, "Katie, what are you doing here, don't you have practice now? I know Ginny–"
"Let's get brunch!" Katie blurted, "I need a mimosa!"
"God yes," Hermione murmured, pinching her nose bridge.
"I don't know what those words mean," Nott said, "but sure."
Hermione's hand left her nose and her eyes went sideways to Nott, then back to Katie, as if she had never even considered that Katie had been inviting Nott as well.
"Actually," Hermione started to say.
"Great," Katie said, "I also need to pour an entire pitcher of melted chocolate on a waffle covered in strawberries without getting kicked out of the restaurant for being a monster, so this might limit where we go."
Nott blinked rapidly. He was red in the cheeks for some reason.
"I'll need to pour mimosas on my waffles," Hermione said, looking sideways at Nott still like he was a bug, "so we'll have to go somewhere where they also approve of alcoholic waffles."
Katie wondered if Nott was Hermione's Slytherin boy enemy. Every Gryffindor girl had at least one. Then she remembered it was Hermione. Every Slytherin boy treated her like the enemy. "I know the perfect place," Katie said, forcing some cheer.
She would rather drown in a vat of melted chocolate before talking to either Nott or Hermione about her current problem. She had swallowed vomit at the thought of talking to Percy, and he was still a hundred times better option then confiding in the two weirdos in front of her. Hermione's mouth was as thin as McGonagall's. Nott was still blushing. A horrible thought occurred to Katie. Was Hermione not the Gryffindor enemy of Nott, but instead his Katie? The Gryffindor girl he secretly wanted to fuck but had treated like trash throughout school?
Her eyes refocused. Hermione and Nott were both staring at her, open mouthed.
"Why do you both look like the scream mask?" Katie said irritably. "What's it called. That Munch painting."
"The Scream," Hermione said, still looking ill, "er, Katie? Is everything all right?"
"No," Katie said, or she thought she had, but instead she heard herself say yes. Blast it all. Now she couldn't even talk?
"Are you sure?" Nott asked. He was so red it looked like he'd taken all the color from Hermione and transferred it into his own face, "it's just, you just asked me if I wanted to erm." He coughed delicately.
"With me," Hermione said, closing her eyes a moment in pain, "in school."
Katie took a moment. Her diseased brain tried to work.
"Oh," Katie said, "did I ask out loud if you wanted to fuck Hermione in school?"
"Yes," Hermione and Nott said, determinedly not looking at each other.
"And you're both too delicate to say the word 'fuck' to me when recalling the story?" Katie said. For some mad reason, she was about to laugh. No! If she laughed, it might turn into the hysterical tears of a woman from a novel in the 1800's who ended up with a lobotomy.
Nott coughed again. He wore a stupid crest ring, too, just like Montague. The urge to laugh left Katie.
"It's crass," Hermione said delicately. She was chewing her lip and not looking at Nott, who was darting glances at her then staring at his feet. He was still weirdly hunched and red cheeked.
"Well?" Katie prompted.
"Well what?" Hermione asked.
"I asked you a question, Nott!" Katie said. The urge to laugh had returned already. Shite. "Did you want to fuck Hermione in school?"
"Katie," Hermione hissed, "I am already having a terrible morning!"
"A gentleman does not–"
"Scratch that," Katie said, the laughter bubbling, "better question. I know the answer anyway. Yes, you wanted to fuck her in school. But do you still want to fuck her now?"
She was rewarded by the red draining from Nott's face and going directly to Hermione instead. It was fascinating. Her laughter exploded. Tears formed in her eyes. It was too much! Did every Slytherin boy have a Gryffindor fetish? Did the Slytherin girls have Gryffindor fetishes as well? Was Harry about to find Pansy Parkinson naked in his bed, apologizing for that one time when she'd tried to hogtie him and hand him to Voldemort with an apple stuffed in his mouth?
"Katie, are you crying?" Hermione said, alarmed, "why are you crying?"
"Alright yes," Nott said, "I mean, maybe I do. Or did! Did! She has a boyfriend! I respect that! I was kind of an arse in school and I understand if she hates me!"
Katie cried and laughed harder.
"Oh no," Nott said miserably, "I made her cry. Why am I always doing that?"
"You tell me, Nott," Hermione said nastily, "maybe it's your face."
Nott gave a gurgling noise. Oh yeah. Nott was definitely Hermione's Slytherin boy who secretly wanted to fuck her while tormenting her in school. It was weirdly nice to share the pain like this.
"You owe me waffles," Katie blubbered.
"New friends?" Edith asked, "here's your pitcher of chocolate Katie, I'm going to have to charge you twenty pounds for it, but–"
"A steal," Katie said, drowning her waffles.
At least she'd stopped crying and laughing. Nott and Hermione were treating her like she was a rampaging blast ended skrewt even if she'd stopped with the weeping hysteria. Well. That was fair. Hermione had even temporarily stopped treating Nott like a bowl of fungus due to her concern for Katie. That's how low she'd fallen.
Hermione chugged a mimosa. Nott fiddled with his stupid ring. He shifted, looking like he'd never worn Muggle clothes in his life. Maybe he hadn't. Hermione had had to charm his robes into Muggle clothes for him to blend in properly. Even when they'd described in detail to him how he should dress if he wanted to come to brunch, it had gone badly. When Nott had made an attempt at following their directions, he'd ended up wearing hot pants and a gold lame tube top.
"Who knew Nott was such a skank," Katie had murmured to Hermione, who was looking at Nott with her mouth open before fixing his outfit to a button down shirt and slacks. Nott had tried to wear the suit jacket on his left leg before Katie had fixed it for him, biting her own tongue so she wouldn't start crying and laughing at her own joke about Nott being a disco skank and scaring the shit out of the two of them again.
"I don't even like drinking,'' Hermione said mournfully, staring at the bottom of the champagne flute.
"You and me both," Katie said, "and now I'm an alcoholic who is blacking out for fun in my free time. Don't be like me."
"Why are we having brunch with Nott?" Hermione asked, refilling her glass and throwing Nott another nasty look.
"I think he wants to bang you very badly and it's amusing me," Katie said, eating a waffle that was mostly liquid chocolate.
"I can hear you," Nott said, shifting. He took a bite of his crepe, and then stared at his fork. "What is it you call this, Katie?"
"Food," Hermione said nastily.
"Brunch," Katie said, "but if you want to call it branch like most wizarding people without Muggle knowledge do to entertain me, feel free."
"I live to entertain," Nott said, eating another bite, "listen, can you return the favor, and either dump Graham or actually date him? If I have to hear him whine into a pint at The Shivering Grindylow one more time…"
"At least we agree he's a whiner," Katie said, "also, terrible company. And I have dumped him!"
"Yeah, where have you been, Nott?" Hermione said, chugging her mimosa. "Katie dumped him ages ago! Good riddance to bad rubbish."
Katie really was a bad influence. If she let Hermione keep at it, the weird sexual tension between her and Nott would lead to drunken snogging, and then Nott would have a pair of Hermione's knickers and she'd have to fake a relationship with him for months where she'd end up halfway in love with the idiot against her better judgment bnefore finding out she was a sex bet and he had a fiance with tits the size of bowling balls and a perfect Disney princess everything else. Oh, and there was Ron. Katie supposed Ron didn't deserve that either, unless he was into that sort of thing. Who knew with Ron. He had grown up getting humiliated a lot…
"That's what I told him," Nott said, "er, the part about him getting dumped. I didn't call him bad rubbish. I did call him an idiot though!" He looked proudly at the Gryffindor girls.
Katie reluctantly nodded in approval. As far as ex Slytherins went, Nott was by far the most tolerable one she'd had to endure. Well. After Higgs, who was still way too sexy and nice to hate. Maybe Higgs had been missorted?
"Good for you for speaking the obvious," Hermione said acidly. She was a mean drunk. Who knew? Katie knew. Now. She was learning all sorts of odd things lately. She should write a trivia game! Theodore Nott: desperately wants to bang Hermoine Granger. Hermione Granger: very mean drunk. Ron Weasley: potentially into humiliation kinks. She had no proof for that last one, but it would be funny.
"Thanks," Nott said, smiling at Hermione.
Maybe Nott was drunk too and could no longer identify sarcasm. He'd tried a Bloody Mary on Katie's insistence and then enthusiastically ordered another two, and only after the second had been drunk had he gotten clarification from Katie that it did not actually contain blood from a Muggle girl named Mary. Purebloods. Fucking lunatics, all of them.
"So why does he think I didn't dump him? Katie asked, "I went with George to the ball! I was extremely rude to his precious mother! I've been avoiding him! I didn't accept the Firebolts, that's Jones's fault that we have them! I told her to send them back, but she's my captain!"
"I don't know," Nott said, shaking his head, "I mean, he does know you've broken it off. He gets that. He's just er. Delusional about his chances about getting you back."
"A delusional pureblood?" Hermione said, "imagine that."
Nott looked at her sideways. "You know Weasley is a pureblood, right?"
Katie stared at them, fascinated. Hermione was gripping her fork like a sword and red cheeked with rage. Nott's politely incredulous expression made him weirdly attractive in a smarmy, arseholish way. Was this why all of her friends were obsessed with her and Montague? It was mesmerizing to witness, in the most disturbing way.
"Why do you think I said it?" Hermione said.
Nott grinned at her. Fuck. Katie had forgotten how nice his smile was. Hermione blinked.
"Don't fall into that trap," Katie hissed, no longer amused, "that's how they get you. Montague's smile got me too! The next thing you know you'll be watching him get into fist fights with Muggles and rubbing ointment on him in his pretentious flat while he plots how to ruin your life!"
"Katie," Nott said, "you're…er. Aware you're talking out loud again?" Hermione was magenta now. Maybe she had been noticing how nice Nott's smile was.
"Learn from my mistakes," Katie said from the corner of her mouth. Then she stuffed more soggy chocolate covered waffle in.
"Did you hear," Hermione said, generously changing the subject, "that Elviron Bletchley donated ten thousand galleons to S.P.E.W.?"
"You're welcome," Katie said, "I will accept your thanks in the form of alcoholic desserts and poetry."
"Done," Hermione said, "I might add the Bletchley incident to the next newsletter, do you mind? I'll leave out the part where you screamed at Malfoy when he fell on Moxi. Maybe. Actually that might help recruitment…especially if I include a picture…and an interview with Moxi…"
"Not at all," Katie said. How many people even got the S.P.E.W. newsletters and would witness her derangement again? Six, seven people, if she were being exceptionally generous?
"Is this a good time to pay my membership dues?" Nott asked, "Or should I send them by owl, like usual?"
"Your membership dues?" Hermione said, dropping her fork, "to S.P.E.W?" Katie felt just as stunned, but for different reasons. If Nott was actually a member of S.P.E.W., how the fuck didn't Hermione already know that, when he was probably one of the only members? Was it that hard for the brightest witch of her age to remember seven names?
"Yeah," Nott said, "I joined fifth year. Remember? You came by in the library while I was studying and–"
"I remember," Hermione said uncomfortably, "I just–you don't owe dues. You donated three thousand galleons this year already."
Katie's mouth dropped. If she wasn't embroiled in a deeply twisted non relationship with Montague right now, she would be confused. But she suddenly understood Hermione's disproportionate hostility completely. Oh no. Poor Ron. Hopefully he was into humiliation kinks, or polygamy, and no one would get hurt.
"What is that?" Nott blurted, lunging forward and attacking Katie's remaining waffle with his fork.
"Do you mind?" Katie said indignantly. Katie didn't share food!
Nott hacked into her waffle, a line between his eyebrows.
"Hey!" Hermione said, but Katie didn't miss the distinct hint of relief in her voice that they had moved on from Nott being a donor and member of S.P.E.W., which probably confused Hermione's vagina greatly, "what do you–" her voice trailed off. A line appeared between her brows as well. Nott unearthed something pink from the waffle.
"Fucking hell," he hissed, looking furious.
"That's your mate, that did it," Hermione said, looking even angrier, "your best mate in fact, right, Nott?"
"He wouldn't," Nott said sharply, "it wasn't him."
"Um," Katie said, staring at her murdered waffle and the pink object in the shape of a cumin seed, "can someone explain what the hell is happening? Nevermind. Don't. I'll forget anyway."
"Of course it was him," Hermione retorted, "who else would be making her eat it?"
"Uh," Katie said, "can someone…"
"He's pants at potions," Nott retorted, "absolute pants. Barely scraped an acceptable in his O.W.L."
"So he bought it, then," Hermione said, "how's he been dousing her?"
"An explanation," Katie said, "at some point this century, would be–"
"You can't buy it," Nott said patiently, "or else it doesn't work. You have to make it yourself. This is N.E.W.T. level. No way he could manage it."
"If he practiced enough," Hermione argued, "of course he could."
"Listen," Katie said, "can we go back to talking about how hard I dumped Montague? That was somehow more pleasant than this."
"No," Nott said, carefully putting the pink seed on his own plate, "I'm sure it wasn't him. I know you hate Slytherins, Her–Granger, and with good reason, but we're not all the same. Not all of us are capable of giving innocent people mind altering potions."
Katie, who had been seconds away from flinging off her jumper and dancing on the table to get the two of them to stop ignoring her, went cold. Mind altering potions?
"Even if he's obsessed with her?" Hermione said.
"The way he's acting makes no sense if he's giving her the Confucius Confusion," Nott said, "think about it! Without bias, if you can!"
Hermione nodded once, looking angry that she was having to agree with Theodore Nott about anything.
"Who then?" she asked, "if not Montague?"
"What is the Confucius Confusion?" Katie demanded, "What are you two talking about?"
"I dunno," Nott said, running his hands through his hair, "Flint? So she doesn't win the cup?"
"Flint?" Hermione said, "that doesn't even make sense! Does he even like her?"
"We hate each other with the fire of a thousand suns," Katie said, but they kept ignoring her. "He does tell me to ride his broomstick a lot. You know, a tired penis euphemism. If he cared, wouldn't he try harder to sexually harass me in an imaginative way?"
"You think whoever gave her this likes her?" Nott demanded, "More like hates her guts, no?"
"There's a lot of people that fit that category," Katie said.
"Hellman?" Hermione said, chewing on her lip, "she really hates her. Katie got her spot on the first string, and gets all that press coverage, and is a war hero, and the fans love her."
"Hellman doesn't have the brains or the money," Nott said.
"Rita?" Hermione suggested, "No. She wouldn't dare. Not when she knows Katie is my friend. Would she?"
"Yes, she would dare, but it would make no sense for it to be Skeeter," Nott said, "why would she need to alter Katie's mind? What would that achieve?"
"It's true," Katie said, "my mind is already half rotted, like swiss cheese."
"You're sure it's not Hellman?" Hermione pressed, "she'd fit the best, and she's clever in a lot of ways."
"Hellman is also pants at potions," Nott said, "and she sells a lot of photos to the press for extra money, but she spends all of it on designer clothes and her mum's bills. So she couldn't afford to pay someone else to make it."
"How do you know all that about Hellman?" Hermione asked suspiciously.
"I'm an unspeakable," Nott said, "I can't reveal why I have to research things from time to time."
"It's her tits, isn't it?" Katie murmured, "they're magnificent. Then again, you want to fuck Hermione. I guess you can want to fuck both of them. You're a guy, after all."
"Don't lie to me," Hermione snapped, "it's relevant. Why did you research Hellman's potion ability and financial situation?"
"Was it because of the affair her mum's having with Adrioc Pucey?" Katie asked helpfully.
She drank her mimosa, then laughed. Why was she feeling relieved? Someone was dousing her with a mind altering potion of some kind, and she felt relief? Was getting drugged really better than an unknown brain injury from an old dark magic curse?
"Yes, actually," Nott said, looking surprised, "figured that out, Katie?"
"Oh, you can hear me now?" Katie said, then hiccupped, "cool. Well yes, Jones told me. So it's not like I figured it out I guess. But I do know. It explains a lot. That's why she's giving all those nasty quotes to Rita. Blackmail and all. Should be illegal, but I do enjoy when Montague blackmails Skeeter, so I guess I shouldn't be a hypocrite."
"Not Hellman then," Hermione said, still ignoring Katie, "you sure it's not Flint?"
"Flint's an idiot," Nott said.
"True," Katie nodded.
"Malfoy?" Hermione said, "finishing the job of the necklace?"
"He just apologized to her in public," Nott pointed out, "Draco's not that clever, to do both at once to mislead people. You know him."
"Unfortunately," Hermione said.
"Malfoy also sent me a gift basket of wines and cheeses," Katie said, "also gold leaf chocolates. Ange and Alicia ate it all though. Pity."
"Well then, who?" Hermione demanded, "The opposing team for the next match?"
"The alleged Muggle who served us?" Nott said, eyes narrowing as he looked at Edith, who was cheerfully pouring tea to another table.
"You stay away from my Edith," Katie said, "no way it was her!"
"Katie," Hermione demanded, turning to her at last, like she'd remembered she was there, being drunk and useless, "have you noticed any odd behavior from yourself recently?"
"Oh, no at all," Katie said sarcastically, then cackled again.
"Maybe she just got dosed the first time now," Nott said, "how did it even get in this? Maybe she wasn't even the target!" He grabbed Hermione's plate in a clear panic, sawing at her waffle.
"She's being sarcastic, Nott," Hermione said, "how dense are you? Listen, Katie, I meant have you been acting odd aside from…er…you know. your interactions with Montague?"
"No," Katie said, "I've been acting totally normal, as far as I'm concerned. But according to everyone else, someone is either drinking polyjuice with my toenails in it, or I've been leading a secret double life that would make one of Molly's phantom scarlet women blush."
"A what now?" Nott said blankly, "your waffle is clear, Hermione. Nothing in it. My crepes are clean too. So it's definitely just Katie's food." They exchanged a look. Christ. Poor Ron. Nott was calling Hermione by her first name, Hermione wasn't correcting him, they were exchanging meaningful looks that had no meaning to Katie…what a mess. She was even destroying other people's relationships now.
Even drunk and insane, Katie reconsidered telling Hermione and Nott what was going on. Nott was being nice, but Nott was Montague's close friend. Best friend, maybe. The only way this could get worse was if Montague knew.
"Polyjuice?' Hermione said sharply, "has someone been impersonating you?"
"Maybe," Katie said.
"No," Nott said, "if you're saying…what are you saying, Katie? That you just found out that you've been doing things and not remembering them?"
"Yes," Katie said, "or else someone is using polyjuice."
"Doubtful," Nott said.
"It's easier than you think," Hermione said, "don't dismiss it."
"It's just…the Confucius Confusion potion," Nott frowned, "do you not know what it does?"
"Don't patronize me," Hermione snapped, "you stupid Slytherin–"
"Patronize me," Katie said, "I'm dumb. What does it do?"
"Well, it removes memories," Nott said, "but you don't even know it's happening. You can't remember any gaps in your life, so you can't even figure out something's wrong."
"Is that all it does?" Katie said, aghast. "It doesn't…er…alter behavior?"
"In what way?" Nott asked, "and what's a scarlet woman?"
"Nothing," Hermione said loudly, who surely had spent enough time around Molly Weasley to know better and was generously covering for Katie, "a..nickname for a Gryffindor girl. You know, scarlet and gold? Anyway, how does that prove it's not polyjuice as well, Nott?"
"Well, if someone could fully tell me what's going on," Nott said, "I could say for sure. But Graham has been complaining that he can't get a hold of you for ages. Even before you found out about Tatiana. He'd go to your flat or owl you or whatever and you'd be gone, Johnson or Spinnet would say you're out with friends, but then he'd find your friends and you wouldn't be there."
"So he's been stalking her?' Hermione said, outraged.
"Oh, am I supposed to be shocked?" Katie said, "dammit, I wanted that waffle." She sighed, looking longingly at it. She'd already eaten most of it. What did it matter if she ate the rest of a mind altering potion? Maybe it would remove the memory of her sleeping around. Maybe she'd forget how much fun she'd had with Montague the last few months. Hermione slapped her hand away from the waffles without looking.
"If it was polyjuice," Nott said reasonably, "you'd be where you're supposed to be all the time. But there were huge gaps where Graham couldn't find you, and you'd never mention that you were up to anything. Your parents are really worried, they were talking to him about getting you scanned by a cat, or something…?"
"He's writing my parents about me?" Katie exploded, "my parents are confiding their worries about me to him and not to me? Fucking hell, Hermione, give me your mimosa!" she chugged.
"Sassy's seen you…er. Out with another gentleman," Nott said delicately, "a blonde bloke, with skin deformities?"
"Tattoos," Katie and Hermione sighed in unison.
"It's driving Graham mad. That's half the reason he was so surprised you were so angry about Tatiana. I mean, they've not even had–uh. I mean…"
"Of course he hasn't had sex with her," Katie said drunkenly, "she's the virgin bride. I'm the slut mudblood to have fun with before you marry Snow Virgin." She cackled. This was getting funny again, in a sick way. Had she been tormenting Montague the way he'd tormented her, and not even known it?
"So what if she has a male friend," Hermione said sharply, "my best friend is Harry, isn't it?"
"That's what I told him," Nott said, "that he could just be your friend. Sassy never saw anything that would say otherwise. The boys didn't agree with me, but they're idiots."
"They're your friends," Hermione said nastily.
"But let's take the fact that you were dating Graham at all, Katie," Nott continued doggedly, "That's unusual, isn't it?"
"Yes," Katie said, though to be fair, that was the one bad choice in her life that maybe hadn't been manipulated by a mind altering potion.
"So maybe the potion removed your memory of Graham," Nott said, "you forgot what–"
"But that proves it!" Hermione exclaimed, "it was Montague! He wanted Katie, and he gave her a potion that made her forget what an arse he really was! Everyone else remembers, they keep reminding her, but–"
"I didn't forget," Katie snapped, "I was bored and confused and reckless. I remembered what an arse he was. And is. Still."
"That doesn't mean it wasn't Montague," Hermione argued, "if he's bad at potions, he could've messed it up, right Nott? and then Katie would have forgotten the wrong things, right?"
"It wasn't Graham," Nott said, "that's not him. I swear. Even if you believed he was capable of it…why isn't he changing the dose to make her forget about Tatiana? Why is he so happy that he won Katie over to begin with? He's been trying to get her for years! He wouldn't be this smug about it if he'd done it through a potion. He wouldn't be this upset that it wasn't working anymore…he'd just give her more potion!"
"Like that," Hermione said, pointing to the remains of Katie's waffle.
"That's a tiny dose," Nott said, "not enough to change her behavior so much that other people will notice, but enough that she'd forget something that they wanted her to forget. The question is, what has she forgotten?"
"Sex," Katie thought, a chill going through her. She'd forgotten sex. Consensual, it seemed, or near enough that everyone involved had thought so. But what else has she forgotten?
"Someone's probably been giving it to her for ages," Nott continued, "this isn't an exceptionally large dose. She's been eating it for months, maybe."
"Years," Katie said quietly.
"Years?" Nott and Hermione said in unison.
"It's either that, polyjuice, or the necklace," Katie said heavily. "I just found out. I've been…up to weird things. Or someone looking like me has been. Since I dunno. After the necklace?"
"The necklace?" Nott said, looking twice as horrified as Hermione.
"Scarlet woman?" Hermione said under her breath to Katie. the sympathy in her eyes cut. Hermione knew, now. She understood how damaged Katie was. There was no going back. She couldn't hide it anymore.
"The opal necklace?" Nott repeated," you're sure? Not before?"
"No, I'm not sure," Katie said, "but that's the first confirmed…um…incident of me forgetting things that I now have been informed about."
Nott stood so abruptly his chair fell. People looked over, but his eyes were faraway.
"Don't go back to your flat, Katie," Nott said, "go somewhere but don't tell me where. Just in case he gets it out of me."
"Montague?" Hermione said, "are you finally admitting he did it?"
"No," Nott said, "he didn't. But I think I know who did."
"Care to share with the class?" Hermione said sarcastically.
"No," Nott said, throwing a hundred pound note on the table carelessly. Fucking rich wankers.
"Oh don't bother telling me," Katie said sarcastically, "only my life, here."
"I don't have proof yet," Nott said, "just…avoid everything but your practice. I guess you have to go to that." He picked up his chair absently.
"Why do you need proof?" Hermione demanded, "shouldn't she know who is doing this to her?"
"I know how you Gryffindors are," Nott said, "if I'm wrong, you would go after them anyway. Things could get ugly."
"They aren't already?" Katie said.
"Not yet," Nott said ominously, then he swept off in that way all Slytherin men did from time to time, like they were auditioning to play Jazz Batman on Broadway. His conjured suit jacket somehow billowed behind him.
"Wanker," Hermione said.
Author's Note: I couldn't resist this Easter egg to myself and to readers/fans of Mudbloods of the Death Eaters this chapter. :)
