Chapter 5: Confronting the Faceless

There was a lot more to spells than waving your wand and saying a few flowery words, Katherine quickly discovered.

Students of all ages were lifted up into the air by their ankles, tripping over thin air, and erupting in tentacles – all before eight o'clock in the morning, and seemingly with little to no effort. The allusion of ease had first been shattered when Katherine and her dorm mates passed James Potter and Peter Pettigrew hiding in an alcove; Peter's wand trained on an unsuspecting Slytherin boy.

"You're over-doing the swish, Pete –" James corrected his motion, "– and you're emphasising the 'Flip' when you should be emphasising the 'endo'."

There was a flash of light, and the Slytherin was thrown back into a curtain that promptly began trying to strangle him.

Katherine's first Charms lesson, however, had been on the Summoning Charm which only Lily and Sirius Black had gotten first try. The Gryffindors had the subject every Wednesday morning with Professor Flitwick and the Ravenclaws.

The first of September had fallen on a Tuesday, which meant that the first day on lessons were on the Wednesday. Every day, Katherine felt a frozen panic settling behind her cheeks at every new classroom, every new Professor, and person that spoke to her. For fear that she would be discovered by her peers as not knowing a single thing about magic. Her wand had felt a foreign adversary, and Katherine did not hold it much.

All week, Katherine had been asked to remain behind after her lessons by all the Professors. They had assigned her material to catch up on the past four years of Hogwarts' curriculum. She was simply relieved that there was no mathematics to be seen apart from in Alice's Arithmancy homework.

Katherine was allowed to sit in on the elective subjects most students chose in their third years, before deciding if she would like to take any of them. She had decided upon seeing the charts and equations, that she would not be joining Alice in that particular class.

Lily had taken it upon herself to teach her the practical wand work up in their dormitory, and Katherine much preferred it.

Record players were one of the few muggle devices that seemed to work in Hogwarts. There were quite a few kicking around in dormitories around the castle. The Fifth Year girls' dormitory was one of them, courtesy of Lily.

A crackle permeated through the room from the empty machine, spinning and spinning… potential hung in the air with the specks of dust catching the golden midday light. Lily and Katherine sat on the floor, their backs against the side of Katherine's bed on the hour-long break between morning and afternoon classes.

"Swish and… Flick…" said Lily, through her chews of the sandwich she'd nicked from the Great Hall at the beginning of lunch. She pointed her wand with envious ease at one of her records, licking tomato seeds of her chin from the piece that had dragged out of the bread, "Wingardium Leviosa!"

The record lifted under the control of Lily's wand, her hand guiding it onto the stainless steel spindle of the player. The tonearm fell down and there was a faint fizzle, a moment, and then a newly familiar tune filled the room – the drumming TICK-TOCK of a marimba, that could only be one song.

Katherine had been delighted to hear that Lily, much like herself, had been watching Eurovision the previous year when ABBA, the superstar swedes, started their storm on the music charts.

"I've been cheated by you since I don't know when

So I made up my mind, it must come to an end…"

As 'Mamma Mia' drifted through the room; empty, apart from the two cross-legged girls, Katherine pointed her own wand at the sleeve – Lily was nodding, coaching her silently from beside her – "Wingardium Leviosa!"

Like a bolt to her spine, came the realisation that the cardboard sleeve had, indeed, sifted up slowly, side to side. An inch of air, then two – a foot – and then it arched through the air to hover in front of Katherine's face where she could pluck it from the air. She lowered her wand, the faces of Agnetha, Björn, Benny, and Anni-Frid smiling up at the girls from the back of car they had been photographed in for the self-titled album cover.

"Yes, I've been broken-hearted

Blue since the day we parted…"

"See – first go and everything!" said Lily, cheerily – encouragingly.

Katherine supposed she had not exactly done her best to hide her hesitance and lack of self-belief from the Prefect. Magic, luckily, seemed to be all about intention. Even if the wand movement and pronunciation was somewhat butchered, if you wanted it enough – it would happen. Exactly how accidental magic happened to kids – Katherine now had a term for the reason she had booted a ball too far when playing, or lights flickered when she got angry.

"Thanks, Lily," said Katherine, absentmindedly fiddling with the corners of the cardboard, "Are you sure this isn't too boring for you?"

Lily rested her elbow on the mattress, turning to Katherine in her seated position, "'Course not! It's rather fun, actually – teaching..." she trailed off, a little pink in the cheeks.

Katherine had heard the playful jibes from other students called her a 'know-it-all swot' when she offered to help with a spell or to offer knowledge on something she'd read up on. Lily's skin was beautiful – and rather thick – but Katherine could tell she was abashed at her enjoyment in taking charge and lecturing.

"Do you think you'd like to be a teacher one day?" asked Katherine, averting her eyes to watch the record player curiously.

Lily had pointed her wand at it, and it skipped 'Hey, Hey, Helen' and 'Tropical Loveland' to settle on 'S.O.S' – Katherine's favourite ABBA song. She resisted bursting into song.

"I've never really thought about it," said Lily, staring out of the window, an odd expression on her face. She turned back to Katherine, a new smile appearing, "I suppose I should, what with the aptitude tests coming up and all. It's easy to forget I won't be at Hogwarts forever..."

Katherine managed a smile, hoping one day she could see the castle with something other than anxiety. It was then that she was struck with a thought.

"Do you, er, promise not to mention this to anyone outside the girls? I know your best friend's in Slytherin – and I would just die if it got back to Greengrass…"

Lily simply held up her pinky finger, eyes shining with understanding, "Pinky promise."

"Pinky promise." said Katherine, linking her littlest finger with Lily's.

Their smiles were mirrored, and Katherine was overcome with a swell of affection for the kind young witch with flaming red hair.

Kate tended to remain quiet in classes due to her lack of knowledge, just listening and practicing when no one was looking. It was difficult. There was always someone looking at her, it seemed.

Charms was not the soft subject many implied it was, but it was significantly easier than Transfiguration with the Gryffindor Head of House in which they were learning how to vanish objects.

James Potter had progressed from coins to kittens within the first lesson, much to McGonagall's resigned delight, because as a result, it gave him an excuse to lounge with his friends that particularly fine-weathered Thursday afternoon.

They all leant back in their chairs – the way all teenage boys did – stretching their arms and splaying their legs (that seemed longer every time Katherine saw them) out from underneath the desk. Professors often tripped on them, sighing at the anatomically stretching population of the castle.

"How was your summer, Professor?" Black had asked once he had become the third person – behind Potter and Lupin – to progress to kittens.

"Lovely, and completely none of your business." said McGonagall, thumbing through the parchments on her desk with a twitch in the corners of her pursed lips.

"The family went to France," said Black, flexing his arms behind his head, "I ate this snail that was a dead ringer for Griselda Greengrass."

"Positively riveting." said McGonagall as she lifted her bony nose from her stack of parchments and reshuffled them, but her severe features were somehow less so.

"Go on –" whispered Mary, "No one's looking now."

Wedged between Lily and Mary, with Alice and Marlene turning around from the desk in front, Katherine was completely shielded from the rest of the class. More excited than nervous, for once, with her new friends looking on happily, she slashed her wand to the side at the coin on her desk –

"Evanesco!" she whispered.

The gold glint dulled slowly, then the outline of the coin seemed to sink into the very desk – vanished.

"Yes!" said Lily brightly, gripping Katherine's shoulder.

Marlene pointed emphatically with grin, "Now when you threaten to vanish a wizard's bollocks, you'll know you mean business. It's important, you know, they can sense when you're not confident."

Laughing, the girls barely noticed the attempts to catch their attention.

AHEM

Pettigrew was leaning across the centre walkway between the lines of desks, a quill in his hand.

Lupin was watching his friend with interest from beside him at the desk they shared, eyes dancing.

"Mary, your quill –" Pettigrew broke off, edging out of his seat to extend it further across the space, "It, er, fell… and rolled over here."

Black and Potter were sitting behind Pettigrew and Lupin, twirling their wands, watching the exchange.

Mary blinked.

"Oh, thanks, Peter. I never would have seen it over there." She accepted the brown and grey speckled feather with a small smile.

"The bell will ring momentarily –" came Professor McGonagall's voice, "Before you hurdle the desks in escape, I must hand out these aptitude tests –"

A stack of parchment lifted wordlessly from McGonagall's desk, and advanced down the passage between desks, sheets flying off to land before every student in the row before progressing toward the back of the room –

"In addition to your Ordinary Wizarding Levels, you will complete these and submit them to your Head of House by the end of next week. Before the commencement of your June exams, you each will meet with your Head of House for an interview to decide on what sort of career path you would like to take in the future. Now is the time to begin thinking about the N.E.W.T subjects that will get you there also,"

The CLANG of the bell punctuated Professor McGonagall's words.

"Class Dismissed."

A clatter erupted as everyone stood, scraping their chairs, slapping their books away.

"Spencer," came the predictable call of her name –

- Katherine stilled her movements, not looking up –

"Stay behind for a moment, please."

Katherine shot a tired smile to her friends.

Lily laid a hand on Katherine's arm, "We'll be outside."

With that, the girls joined the bottleneck of robes at the door.

"Come on, Peter." said Potter, roughly hooking his arm around Pettigrew's neck.

Black shouldered into Pettigrew with a grin that matched Potter's, "Yes, Peter, we shan't dawdle."

Lupin was smiling as he conversed with Longbottom, following the three out of the classroom.

Katherine approached the front of the classroom where McGonagall now sat at her desk, marking off something at the bottom of piece of parchment.

Without looking up, she spoke, "Have you brought a broom with you to Hogwarts, Spencer?"

"Er, no," said Katherine, ineloquent in her surprise at the question. She thought it would have been Transfiguration related. "Giles said only first years needed it for their flying lessons."

McGonagall glanced up again from her parchment, something akin to amusement in her brow, before she looked back down, making another mark with her quill.

"Have you learnt to fly, Spencer?"

Katherine gulped, "No."

"It is a fundamental part of your education," drolled McGonagall, placing her quill in her inkwell. The Professor looked up, black hair pulled tight in her bun, peering over her spectacles. "Would you like to learn?"

Katherine had heard the exciting chatter mounting all week in the lead up to the first of the Eleven-year-old's flying lessons on Friday. Many of them, it seemed, had already clocked years of flying in at home.

Katherine's face went a little numb at her realisation of what it would mean, "Take classes with the first years?"

"No, I don't think that would be necessary," said McGonagall, now furrowing her eyebrows and looking down at her parchment again. She lifted it onto one of two piles before her on the desk before looking up again, "I could organise private lessons with another student who is an accomplished flier."

"Couldn't Lily teach me?"

"Miss Evans enjoys flying a great deal and passed all of her First Year exams, but she did not grow up with brooms like some others – and has not done much broom flying since first year," McGonagall laced her hands over one another before her on her cleared desk, "Not to mention, as a Prefect, that she is quite busy already."

Katherine nodded, lowering her gaze as she swallowed her disappointment, "Yes, of course."

Maybe Marlene, thought Katherine. Her curly-haired dormmate had been the one to enthusiastically explain Quidditch to Katherine, the sport of the wizarding world. She had every intention of replacing her cousin, Marcus, as the Gryffindor Keeper as he had graduated the previous year.

"I will organise the details and let you know when to expect your first lesson."

Gosh, a thought shot through Katherine's mind, what if she picked Fabian Prewett – the Quidditch Captain? Dread filled her at the prospect – she was sure she would fall off spectacularly.

"Now," said McGonagall as she stood, rounded the desk, and walked with Katherine to the door, "Have you decided upon any electives to take with your core classes?"

Katherine corrected her book bag's strap over her shoulder, still adjusting to the ever-odd swish of her robes around her ankles, as she strode slowly with the tall, booted witch, "Just Divination –"

McGonagall's seemed to breath in deeply through her nose at that –

"– and Care of Magical Creatures."

"It is… wise to keep it short for your O.W.L year, and into the N.E.W.T's of the following two years. Do not forget that you can choose to drop subjects after your O.W.L examinations if you find them unsuitable."

Katherine felt a spark in her chest, "I can drop History of Magic?"

McGonagall regarded her with pursed lips, "One would think you would find it useful – to catch up on all you have missed about the wizarding world."

The look in her eye, however, told Katherine that the elder witch knew of Professor Binn's dull, snore fest lectures. Katherine had been flabbergasted that the earthy departed Professor had not been replaced.

They had reached the door, and the hallway's chatter was suddenly all around them. And, curiously, a Quaffle was coursing a vicious path past the door, over the heads of the students. A group of first year Ravenclaws dove out of the way, screaming. Parchment flying, the messy jet black hair of James Potter soared above the others as he plucked the Quaffle from mid-air.

McGonagall's accent had never been thicker, "Potter!"

Potter quickly underarmed the Quaffle to Pettigrew; who nearly dropped it, before shoving it up his shirt hurriedly. Lupin, looking sheepishly at their Professor, rested a hand Pettigrew's newly pregnant grey jumper, as if to hide it.

Potter blinked behind his glasses, hand lifting to his hair, "Yes, Professor?"

"My office," McGonagall crooked finger at the boy, turning to re-enter her classroom anew. She paused, regarding Katherine where she still lingered in the doorway, "Look out for my owl with further details on your first flying lesson. I hope you enjoy the rest of your classes, Spencer."

Katherine nodded to her Professor, and waited for a break in the foot traffic of the hallway.

"Told you we should have nicked the Snitch." moaned Potter on approach, his friends flanking him as they all crossed the hallway back to Transfiguration classroom.

There was something intimidating about a troupe of teenage boys, mused Katherine. There was something in the way they strolled shoulder to shoulder, a clever glint in their eyes, a pull of laughter at their lips…

Potter, face blank, sauntered past her through the doors to the Transfiguration classroom.

Black fell against the wall, crossing his arms with a sigh, eyes moving reprovingly over the hallway. Lupin and Pettigrew lined up against the wall beside him, pulling the Quaffle out from beneath Pettigrew's uniform. Despite being less than a metre from her, none of them acknowledged Katherine.

Joining the foot traffic, Katherine spied Lily and Mary. The girls waved from across the hallway where they straddled the balustrades beneath the arches to the leafy courtyard. Crossing to them, pausing as she knocked shoulders with a burly Hufflepuff sixth year and mumbled an apology, her mind wandered to who her flying teacher might be…

Marlene had also given Katherine an expert level analysis of all the players on the Gryffindor side, as well as a lecture on the game.

Fabian Prewett, a Beater – and now Captain – was as good looking as he was strong and unforgiving with his bat. King had been a Chaser for going on six years – having been held back and losing his captaincy – and was a walking encyclopaedia of plays and could turn a winning strategy on a dime. Andrew Spinnet was a Third Year when plucked from obscurity last year and was a speedy Seeker – though his small stature – usually favoured in the position – left him to be knocked around.

Potter and Black had also joined the team last year as Chasers, rounding out the all-male Gryffindor side, and had quickly become notorious for their break-neck pace of play and twin-like synchronisation. In short, Katherine had deduced, they were very good.

The animosity between Gryffindor and Slytherin was tangible in the halls, only cut through by the hexes and curses the members of the houses threw at each other between classes.

Potions was an exception to the rule, for one reason and one reason only; Slughorn. The walrus-moustached and pot-bellied man put the two houses on a level playing field. So long as Lily outshone everyone member of his own house, Gryffindors, and Muggleborns, were the new craze. Or so Marlene and Alice had told her.

Privately, Katherine thought the subject seemed a lot like cooking, having instructions and ingredients that were easy to follow. She thought she might finally be able to be on level with her peers for once, despite it only having been – barely – a week at the castle.

She did not think she would survive if Potter or Black finally realised she was as much as a plonker at spells as Pettigrew.

Murmurs of disdain were heard as the girls tramped down to the dungeons with the rest of the Gryffindors; the name of the house of snakes being hissed appropriately as they shared their next class with them.

"Maybe you can ask Snape about his new loyalties, Lily," said Marlene, "Look, there he is now with his good friend Evan Mulciber."

The weedy boy that Black and Potter had made a spectacle of at the welcoming feast was almost completely hidden from view by the other neckless boy's meaty shoulders. The two ambled along with a group of other Slytherins, the group complaining at large about the working conditions in the greenhouses in the lingering summer heat.

Katherine remembered Lily's insistence that Potter and Black would hex people 'just because they could', but the only time that she saw them draw their wands was when Snape hexed them first in hall, getting Pettigrew. Lily did not see that. She only saw the boils erupt all over Snape's skin and Black knock him on his backside with the quickest of spells.

The crowd seemed to be with Potter and Black, everyone laughing at an embarrassed Snape. The two boys lost Gryffindor twenty points apiece.

Their expressions were interesting to watch at Lily's chiding and point taking. They went from defensive, to disbelief, to acceptance. They never said a word in retaliation to Lily. Though there were a few eye rolls, all from Black, they never ratted Snape out for starting it.

Lily had to miss the start of class to take Snape to the hospital wing.

Black had crouched down by Pettigrew and magically reversed the enlarged nose that Snape gave him. Potter had held out a hand and lifted Pettigrew up with a smile, patted him on the back, and then they all walked on to Potions.

Katherine felt Lily's absence when she walked into the Potions classroom, despite the other three girls. Frank beckoned Alice over with a playful grin, nudging shoulders with her when she joined him at his bench with Mary, who partnered with a fidgeting Pettigrew.

Marlene huffed at the traffic blocking the ingredient cupboard, kicking her bag under the bench and heading for the small door at the back of the class herself, muttering, "Dropping this sodding subject next year…"

Everyone 'took turns' walking to the ingredient cupboard, it being too small for too many people to be in at once. When Katherine took her turn, gauging that most people had already gotten their ingredients, she had the cupboard to herself as she wandered it in awe.

Katherine looked from her book with the list of ingredients to the bottle labels. The potion called for powdered Moonstone, syrup of Hellebore, powdered unicorn horn, and powdered porcupine quills.

A throat cleared behind her.

James Potter's eyes were uncomfortably focused, even behind his glasses, on her. He looked very different without all of his friends around him.

Katherine stepped to the side, and he moved out of the doorway and took up the space beside her. He reached for ingredients, squinting at the labels despite his glasses.

Katherine marvelled at the miracle of body heat that seemed rolled off all teenage boys inexplicably. It was an odd phenomenon to her, having attended an All-Girl's school. It wrapped her in the small space, and, for the first time since stepping into the dungeon classroom, she was not shivering.

Mulciber, of course, decided then to squeeze into the cupboard, making it more claustrophobic than cosy. He reached for one of the many bottles of powdered unicorn horn but misjudged the distance and instead knocked a broken bottle of Hellebore.

Potter's arm shot out across Katherine's face.

Katherine stepped back, her fellow Gryffindor with her, his broad shoulders sequestering her back into the corner.

The Hellebore spilt down the front lapels of Potter's robes.

"Argh, you've ruined my favourite robe!" Potter exclaimed, a hint of mirth in his tone as he tried to spell the stain out, "You can't just go around ruining people's favourite robes – it's very impolite."

Katherine left the cupboard, having been practically pushed back out of the door, and as she had collected all her ingredients. She chanced a glance back over her shoulder, and saw Potter leaving the cupboard with clean robes and an exasperated smile, nodding over his shoulder to Mulciber and shaking his head.

He returned to his friends. Of which, Lupin and Black were peering across at her with faint interest.

Lily had said Potter was terrible – an arrogant little berk – and yet…

It was then that Lily swept in with a grin at Katherine.

"Sorry for being late." Lily apologised to Slughorn as she put her textbook down on the bench across from Katherine.

Snape stalked into the room barely a moment after the words left Lily's lips. His eyes scanned the room and he only paused to glare at the bench where Black, Potter, and Lupin were already brewing, before he found that the only spot left was next to Lily. His body stilled, before he took up the spot next to Lily with pained detachedness.

Around the room, various signs that the Draught of Peace had been brewed incorrectly cropped up. The room seemed to be filled with a permanent sulphurous odour, Slughorn having had to crack a window before waving it out. Green sparks had erupted out of Katherine's peripheral vision. And, perhaps most entertaining and concerning of all, Pettigrew's potion exploded and set his robes alight.

"Ah! What do I do?" Pettigrew hopped from foot to foot.

"Personally," said Black, looking up from his potion, "I'm a big fan of ignoring the problem until it eventually just goes away."

"Pettigrew!" Slughorn rushed over in alarm, "Shrug off your robes!"

Pettigrew pulled off his outer school robes, stomping on them to extinguish the flames.

Potter and Black were snickering on the other side of the bench, Lupin turning pointedly away to work on his Potion.

After the amusement surrounding Pettigrew's flammability died down, the room went back to their potions. But the incident had distracted Katherine, her having been doing her last stirs.

She was supposed to do three clockwise stirs and three anti-clockwise stirs. But she had lost count of her anti-clockwise stirs, sure that she accidentally did four. So, with bated breath, she picked up the bottle with the very last of the ingredients she needed to add.

After adding the last seven drops of Hellebore, a silvery cloud gently rose up over Katherine's cauldron. The soft POOF had caught Slughorn's attention immediately, as well as Lily and Snape's as they were directly across from her. Neither of them had finished yet.

Slughorn waddled over and peered into her cauldron.

"Well, it's simply marvellous!" he remarked, his smile jolly, "Fifteen points to Gryffindor."

Her chest swelled with pride, but her eyes lowered. Dozens of eyes seemed to burn into the back of her neck. Finally, she could have sighed, she had gotten something right without any help. Her self-consciousness evaporated ever so slightly in that moment, her shoulders falling back.

"Thank you, Professor." Katherine accepted with a quiet smile.

"I've been meaning to come over here all lesson to greet you properly," said Slughorn, regarding her for a moment with senile smile, "You look a great deal like your mother,"

Katherine felt only shock, it's cold grip on her face.

"Your Father dropped my class in his sixth year," Slughorn went on, raising his eyebrows thoughtfully. His face suddenly split open with a grin, "Handier with a broom than a ladle, I dare say,"

He gave Katherine a good-natured elbowing, before his eyes focused on something far off – a memory.

"I do hope you keep up the good work." Slughorn commended her before turning to check other students' potions.

Katherine's eyes lifted to Lily and Snape across from her and found herself uneasy.

Snape was glaring at her.

Lunch on Friday was not spent up in the dormitory with Lily, as she was having Lunch on the lawns with Snape. Katherine had eaten at the Great Hall and then decided to make a trip to the Library.

The library was not as empty as she anticipated. Almost every time that Katherine had gone to the library, one or all of the Fifth Year boys had been combing the shelves. It was something most unusual, according to Lily.

They were there once more, lurking by the roped off section of the library.

"You really shouldn't –"

"Just look the other way would you, Moony –"

"We haven't even covered Crinus Muto yet –"

"Don't be a wet blanket –"

Breezing through, and ignoring the suspicious eye of the librarian Madam Pince, Katherine made a bee line for the Dark Arts books as usual. Her encounter on Claremont left her with a deep desire to know how to defend herself.

Katherine struggled reaching for 'Confronting the Faceless', unsure if Madam Pince would give her a life ban for using a levitation charm on any of the books. She barely noticed when a presence bloomed behind her, expecting it to pass.

It didn't.

A hand reached up, going beyond her own. The hand was large and elegant, with spidery veins beneath the alabaster skin; distinctly male. The long fingers deftly pulled the book she wanted from the shelf. On the little finger sat a gold signet ring with a minute engraving of words, glinting at her.

Katherine followed the hand as it pulled the book down, her eyes trailing up the sleeve to see the Slytherin crest before anything else.

"Here you go." The voice was quiet but rich, and the book was extended to her in the short space between the pair.

Katherine met a pair of forget-me-not blue eyes.

"Thank you." Katherine breathed out, accepting the book.

The boy had taken a surreptitious step back, but made no move to leave. His shined oxfords remained pointed towards her as he reclined against the shelf with languid grace. A nod towards the book, his eyes never leaving her, and he spoke again.

"N.E.W.T level, we are a bit ambitious aren't we –" he said lightly, the words smothered in a well-bred tone, "– presuming you will pass your O.W.L's?"

"So ambitious, in fact, that the old hat did suggest Slytherin..." she said, absentmindedly as she glanced at the cover of the book.

There was a surprise filled pause.

"Greengrass would have smothered you in your sleep,"

Air fell from Katherine's nose against her best efforts, and she lifted her eyes back to the boy.

"There are some dark spells in there." he said, his eyes on the book again. Something akin to reverence flickered in their depths.

"Defensive spells." said Katherine.

The boy tilted his head. A myriad of expressions passed behind his eyes before he gave a surreptitious shake of his head and frowned.

"You can use a spear as a walking stick, but it does not change its nature."

"Well, when you have a loony chasing after you with a spear, let me know how you feel about technicalities."

Katherine expected him to tense or sneer, or give her a verbal lashing.

But the boy in front of her simply raised his eyebrows. His pale eyes became brighter as they regarded her, "You are not at all what I expected…"

"I could say the same about you," said Katherine, her eyes flickering to the green and silver crest and back, "But then again, I haven't seen you with Snape's crowd."

"Snape's not in my year."

"Which budding psychopaths are your dorm mates, then?" Katherine asked, "Nott? Lestrange?"

His lips curved, but as he went to open his mouth laughter echoed over the aisles of dust and bound knowledge. The boy he cleared his throat, stepping back.

"The ladder's over there," he said, nodding to the mentioned object and turning as he spoke, "For the next time you set your sights beyond your reach."

The boy, his name still escaping her, spared her an undecipherable look before he swept out of the aisle.

The ringing of the bell jolted Katherine into action, signing out the book and navigating the student-spotted hallways.

When Katherine entered the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom, mostly everyone else had arrived. But Professor Giles had yet to emerge from his office.

Lily too watched the office door, but her attention was split to where Potter and Black were playing hangman on the chalkboard.

Potter was the scribe whilst Black had Pettigrew levitated in the air as a real-life sacrifice. But, instead of hanging, with each wrong answer Black lifted Pettigrew higher and higher. When he reached the ceiling with the final wrong answer, Black relinquished control.

Before Pettigrew could splatter, Potter speedily transfigured a rug into a mattress. It was as Pettigrew bounced from the mattress and onto the ground that Professor Giles opened his door.

Something relaxed inside Katherine at the familiar brown hair in its slicked back style and the crooked nose.

"Today's lesson will cover the magical creatures that you will have to encounter in your O.W.L's."

And that they did.

The vast array of animals that could murder you in unusual circumstances confounded Katherine. Towards the end of the lesson, tiring from hunger and finishing up her notes, Katherine found Lily – her notes finished – glancing her way.

Katherine smiled, "Alright, Evans?"

"Alright, Spencer," Lily returned, an easy expression ready, "I was thinking about having lunch on the lawns – what do you think?"

Potter's head lifted up out of the corner of Katherine's eye.

"I think that it sounds like a brilliant idea," Katherine smiled, looking out the window, "While the weather's still good…"

The bell rang barely a second later, everyone rushing for their bags and the door.

Giles had turned around, silently cleaning the blackboard with a wave of his hand.

Katherine accepted the unspoken dismissal, as he had been a man of few words to begin with. Even though part of her wished he would invite her to his office for tea and ask after every detail of her first week and offer advice and assurance… Giles was not that kind of man. If he had something to tell her – he would.

The day was done, and the green lawns beckoned.

Rushing through the stone corridors, the cold echoed off every wall and the dusty floor. The girls surveyed the grass for a nice spot without any rough weeds before pulling off their shoes and rolling down their socks. Falling back against the grass, Katherine cursed herself for being such a bumbling idiot in most of her classes of the day, and threw her forearm across her eyes.

She wondered when things would pick up for her at the school…

"Come on, Katherine," Marlene's voice tore her from her misery, "Bask in the sun – while it lasts."

Katherine slid her arm up to her forehead, squinting against the sun.

James Potter was lounging and looking hopefully at Lily from a few yards away.

Frank, not as socially awkward, had waved at Alice warmly. A gesture that she had returned bashfully.

Two tall heads that shone bright gold in the sun caught Katherine's eye. She followed the glint to the banks of the Lake, three Slytherins strolling together. The boy and girl that had initially caught her eye faded into the background when Katherine spotted the gelled black hair of the younger boy with them. The boy from the library.

Katherine immediately tapped Lily's knee.

"Who's that?" Katherine asked, nodding down where the three Slytherins still strolled.

Lily looked between the three despite the sun in her eyes, "Which one?"

"The one with the dark hair."

Lily frowned, watching the boy for a moment.

"Regulus Black."

Author's Note: Thank you for reading! :)