Chapter 8: The Powder Blue Case, James, The Cloak, and Snivellus
Monday morning brought with it a blanket of clouds and a double period of Herbology in Greenhouse two.
In the Great Hall at breakfast, Katherine saw Potter for the first time since their lesson; being hounded by a tall Slytherin girl with blonde ringlets piled atop her head in a tight up-do.
"Any comment on your father's involvement in the production of a vaccine for Dragon Pox and Splattergroit, Potter?"
"Yeah: he's involved in it," said Potter, his head swivelling tiredly to the obscenely made-up Slytherin girl leering behind him, "You can quote me on that, seal it, and priority owl it to that bint Jasmine Copper that you've become a lap dog for."
Her smile was acidic.
"Tisk, tisk, little Potter," said the girl, tilting her head, "The things I could do with my creative license and your reckless words…"
"Print anything defamatory about 'little Potter', Rita, and you'll be up to your stupid rhinestone specs in discrediting letters from numerous esteemed members of the Wizengamot." said Black from beside Potter, not even looking up from his coffee that he was shovelling sugar into.
The girl only seemed to become more enthused, her smile wider as it landed on Black, something that was not exactly an uncommon occurrence when girls and Black were thrown into the same cauldron.
"Oh, the Gryffindor Black, couldn't we do a number on you…"
Black sucked his cheeks in ever so slightly.
Rita, getting her desired reaction, preened.
"I could do a number on you too, Rita, but I don't really fancy Azkaban," Black recovered, his haughty countenance falling back into place, "So, bugger off – you're making my coffee taste bad."
Rita's eyes narrowed behind her insulted spectacles and stormed away, an acid green quill quivering after her.
"Sirius," said Lupin, half amused and half solemn, "I have a feeling that'll come back to bite you one day."
Black smiled around the rim of his mug before putting it down and stretching his arms, "So long as there is money in my vault, she won't so much as write the birth announcements of my children."
"Imagine a world where Rita Skeeter could be classed as a credible news source…" said Potter, his eyes set on the stained-glass windows fragmenting the morning sun into blues, greens, and reds.
"She'd be writing fictions about James' poor children before they could even ride a broom," snorted Black, folding his copy of the Daily Prophet and wetting the tip of a quill in ink, "Now, what's six letter word for –"
The audacity of Skeeter perplexed Katherine, and she frowned over the interest of the newspaper in the affairs of school children all the way to the Herbology classroom.
"Don't forget to keep away from the Venomous Tentacula!" Professor Sprout reminded her Fifth Year class, the overbearing strangling plant snapping threateningly at their backs as they worked on their self-fertilising plants.
Katherine used a quiet 'Diffindo' to prune a section of her plant, frowning at the smell of Dragon Dung in the air. Two Hufflepuff boys had been given detention for smearing it on the greenhouse's glass windows when escaping the Venomous Tentacula.
The gloves, although very necessary, rubbed Katherine's raw callouses unpleasantly. The throbbing skin of her palms were just one of a series of flying acquired ailments that had surfaced after long, deep sleep. Her quads ached as she stood, from squeezing the broomstick between her legs for dear life, and she had winced all the way down to breakfast.
A beetle had been buzzing around her face for a large portion of the lesson, and Katherine blinked, turning her head this way and that to shoo it as her gloves were in the soil. She even made to step back from the bench, knocking a trowel. It was then that an unpleasant pinch in her shoulder made itself known as she reached to catch the falling tool.
"Arghh…" she sucked in her exclamation through her teeth, trying to be quiet.
Marlene just glanced up from across the bench, before using her elbow to itch her chin, her own gloves caked in soil.
"It's those new flying muscles of yours," said Marlene, laughing lightly, "Don't worry, eventually your callouses get callouses."
Potter had not escaped unscathed either; a little further down the bench, sporting a bruise on his cheek and a grin as he laughed with Lupin about something too quiet for her to hear.
"Now, Katherine," said Lily, flicking her braid over her shoulder, "For leaf curl, you add two drops of the fungicide potion…"
Katherine nodded, handling that blue gel-like potion carefully.
She had been so absorbed that she barely noticed Black and Pettigrew walking around the perimeter of the room, seemingly inspecting plants, only doing so when she finally shooed the buzzing beetle from her gloved hand only for it flit around Black's face.
Pettigrew lifted his textbook, ready to flatten it, when Black caught his arm with impressive dexterity.
"Christ, Pete, it's just a bug," said Black, casting a glance in the direction of the dumpy witch that was their Professor, "Remember what Sprout said about flora and fauna in our first year?"
"Before or after you got three months detention for using a Bombarda on greenhouse one when you found that Acromantula spinning silk for the Aconite plant?"
Black's lips slipped upwards, and the pair resumed their inspection of plants.
The beetle seemed to grasp its close call and disappeared.
Though Herbology was fascinatingly unusual and hands-on, it was exhausting – and particularly fragrant. Katherine was, in fact, counting down the minutes until Defence Against the Arts later that day after lunch. She had not so much as glimpsed Giles once all weekend.
Through the green glaze of the cracked window, the towers of the Quidditch pitch caught Katherine's eyes as she pondered. A tickling thrill took over her chest, and she yearned to try flying again. It was addictive, the progress. She was sure she could jump on a broom and go higher than she did just the night before…
When the bell rang, despite inhaling dragon dung for nearly two hours, Katherine managed to work up an appetite and moved swiftly off to lunch with her fellow Gryffindors and only stopped to use the bathroom and give her hands an extra-long scrub. She had sent her friends ahead, none of them needing to stop.
Skirting around Greengrass in the hallway, and keeping her head low, Katherine made it to the Great Hall without losing her way even once. It was a first, as on the rare occasion she had navigated the castle alone for the past week, she almost always had to get assistance from one of ghosts to send her back in the right direction.
As she sat at Gryffindor table, and before she could even greet her friends anew, owls flooded in through the windows, zooming above the tables. Letters dropped down in front of Lily, Alice, Potter, Black, and, surprisingly, Katherine.
Curiously prying open the envelope, as none of the others had touched theirs, Katherine produced a piece of green-tinged parchment. Gold-trimmed and inked; it was an invitation.
Marlene rested a hand on Katherine's shoulder, "My condolences. You're being scouted for the Slug Club."
Lily and Alice had unceremoniously stuffed the letter, unopened, into their robe pockets, and continued eating.
Potter had opened it, perusing it boredly.
Black, however, left his on the table, untouched. He gave no indication that he even saw it, his eyes, instead, were on the Slytherin table. The table of green-robed students also had a visit from a cluster of owls, dropping the green invitations off there, as well as around the rest of the hall.
For the first time since Friday, Katherine locked eyes with Regulus Black as he caught his invitation from the air with a flair of dexterity.
Her chest seemed to flash hot and cold, both at once.
Regulus' eyes flashed to the side, and his eyebrows raised.
Katherine followed his gaze to the other, Gryffindor, Black. The brothers stared off from across the hall; a mirror of haughtiness.
"Come on, let's clear out." said Black, suddenly, standing.
Lupin stood, pulling his bag over his shoulder and grimacing, "Slow down, mate…"
Katherine put away her invitation in her school bag and continued forking shepherd's pie into her mouth.
"There are some things I can just smell." Potter said as they passed.
"Like a sixth sense?" Pettigrew asked, seriously.
"Actually, that would be one of the five." said Black, drily.
Katherine's plait was flicked yet again as the boys moved behind her and Lily. She turned –
"Oh, I need the loo…" said Lily, pushing her pumpkin juice away.
Katherine, hair flicking momentarily forgotten, turned back to her friends.
Marlene checked her watch, "We'll need to go now if we want to get there on time, there's always a line."
Katherine quickly finished off the last bit of vegetables and gravy clinging onto the end bit of pastry of her slice of pie, in anticipation of their impending evacuation to the toilets. As she stood and pulled her bag onto her shoulder, she tipped back her last bit of pumpkin juice and placed her empty cup back down.
Ducking a group of paper aeroplanes, speeding across the Great Hall at slicing speed, the girls navigated the halls up to the bathroom closest to the DADA classroom. The backs of two Slytherin girls' robes marked the back of the line to use the toilets, already spilling out into the hall.
Looking at the dozen girls leaning boredly against the wall snaking inside the tiled rooms, Katherine was glad she went before lunch, "I think I'll meet you guys at class instead."
The Gryffindor girls threw dread-filled looks over their shoulders as they settled into the back of the line, scrambling to move up when it shifted at the sound of a flush.
Katherine slowed as she approached the classroom, just around the corner, as the Gryffindor boys were the only ones already there. Her feet wanted to turn back in the direction she came. Still, she fought them all the way there, setting her eyes on a column across the hall she could stand by and wait for her friends.
Potter's back was broad, and to her, as he faced his three friends where they leant against the wall, though Lupin only had his shoulder to it, and his temple; eyes closing intermittently in the lazy morning sun streaming in.
Katherine adjusted the strap of her book bag on her shoulder and peered down the hallway, willing her friends to appear.
"Just a second,"
It was Potter's voice, but Katherine rarely paid mind to what he said to his friends – that was until he was suddenly in front of her, smiling brightly. He glanced side to side, and leant down slightly, eyes gleaming mirthfully.
"Saturday? Same time and place?" he whispered, eyebrows raised expectantly.
Katherine, a short buzz of excitement flaring in her chest, nodded – unable to help smiling.
Potter returned her smile, making a show of being very inconspicuous as he crossed back to his side of the hallway.
Regardless, his friends had watched the interaction curiously; Lupin had woken up even, and pushed off the wall to stand unaided. Katherine had always fondly, and privately, thought of the Prefect as her favourite of all the boys – despite having never spoken to him. He was, perhaps, the least threatening of all the four.
Over Potter's shoulder, Lupin's curious gaze softened, and he gave the slightest smile when catching her eye.
Black, however, leant against the wall; a leg bent and arms folded.
Pettigrew looked as they he might even wave, bobbing on his feet to look over Potter's approaching shoulders.
Potter glanced back once he reached his friends; and Katherine felt oddly exposed at all four sets of eyes on her at once.
That was when two Ravenclaws bustled past, in the direction of the Runes classroom further down the hallway. The girls had gestured the classroom, and Katherine heard a whispered 'Professor Giles' a few times. It caught her attention, naturally.
"I saw him leaving over the weekend, it's odd… did you notice he didn't come back until after the full moon?"
The Gryffindor boys watched the two dark-haired girls passively as they passed.
"Are you insinuating our new Professor is a Werewolf?"
"Maybe Professors are really hard to come by these days, you know?"
"You're missing the fact that it would be one hundred percent illegal to hire a XXXXX classified Beast to be around children," the one in the headband admonished her friend, and then turned to smile brightly at the boys, "Hi, Remus! Patrols tonight? I think we're partnered together…"
Remus offered a small smile and a nod to the Ravenclaw Prefect, straightening the cuffs of his shirt idly.
"Shame they don't teach us how to kill them in class."
"Montgomery, come on…" said the Prefect, before flicking her hair off her shoulder, "I'm sure an 'Avada' would do…"
"Christ…" Katherine whispered beneath her breath. Surely werewolves couldn't be that bad? Even if they were… Giles certainly couldn't be one…
"He is a bit mysterious, isn't he?"
Katherine blinked, startled by her friends' sudden reappearance after their quest to the girls' lavatory.
Marlene had been the one to speak, nodding after the Ravenclaws in indication that she had heard their trail of conversation. She leant into the rest of the girls where they settled around Katherine's chosen column, amused.
"Like, what do you think he wears beneath his robes?"
Katherine couldn't help a laugh, and raised her eyebrows appreciatively, "More robes."
Giles was a very proper, tightly done up man. Nothing more than his hands or neck had been glimpsed, perhaps, by anyone.
Lily snorted, but then nodded to the door, "Come on, let's go in."
The girls took their seats in the front two desks and settled in, Lily pulling out her pink notebook; flowers and hearts scribbled all over the cover. The glitter gel she used to decorate it always caught the sun. It was an excellent distraction. Katherine knew that there, in the back, was Lily's name in conjunction with the surnames of many muggle celebrity crushes. 'Lily McCartney' was the largest, and most lovingly, scrawled of all.
On the bell, a tall well-dressed figure emerged from the office at the top of the stairs.
The talking among the class stopped immediately.
"We're going to dive right in this lesson as your OWLS are in June."
Katherine saw exchanged glances of worry between other students out of the corner of her eye at Professor' Giles words. She felt a pang of nervousness in her gut as well.
"A lot is revision, so there needn't be too much worry," Professor Giles sat on the edge of his desk and crossed his legs as if to tell a story, "But we will be introducing a lot more advanced defensive spells for duelling situations,"
A few heads picked up and a few excited whispers were exchanged at his words before the room fell to silence once more.
"Shielding is Charm work, but it is used in duels, so we will practice it here today," said Giles, pushing up off of his desk and producing his wand, "'Protego' is the incantation, and move your wand just so…" He instructed, demonstrating with his own wand.
He looked around, his eyes settling on Potter who sat directly across the aisle from Lily. With a smile, he tossed an apple in Potter's direction.
Potter caught the apple easily, albeit confusedly.
"The shield doesn't just deflect spells, but material objects as well," Professor Giles told the class, "Mister Potter, please throw that apple at me."
Potter raised his arm, to lob it, but he apple fell a good foot short from the intended target. The air rippled, to reveal a semi-translucent shield covering Professor Giles from head to foot. Levitating the apple back to his desk, too bruised to eat, Professor Giles turned back to the class.
"I'm going to pair you up based on how you performed in the last school term," said Giles, reaching behind himself for a piece of parchment on his desk.
"Lupin and Evans."
"Black and Potter."
"Longbottom and Snape."
"Dolohov and Fortescue."
Katherine cast Alice a concerned sideways glance, but Alice just shrugged, offering her friends a reassuring smile. But Katherine saw the worried glint in her eyes at the prospect of duelling Atonin.
"McKinnon and Parkinson."
"Roberts and Avery."
"MacDonald and Greengrass."
"Macnair and Dobbs."
"Pettigrew and Goyle."
Katherine looked around the classroom surreptitiously, finding that everyone in attendance had been listed off, except for her. There was an odd number of students in the room.
"And… lastly, Spencer," Professor Giles announced, looking up at Katherine and putting down the parchment, "We have an odd number, and you have only just started at Hogwarts, so you will have to practice with me,"
Professor Giles lifted his wand.
"Everyone, please stand,"
The class complied, and as soon as they all stood the chairs and tables flew to the walls of the room to create space to practice.
"Find a space and begin."
Waving her up to the front of the room near his desk, Professor Giles offered Katherine a tight smile.
"You went away." said Katherine, lightly, carefully.
She had no right to ask after him, not really. To all the world, they weren't any more familiar than any other Professor and one of their students.
"Was it naïve of me to hope no one would notice?" asked Giles, leaning back on his desk and crossing his ankles, "You should check your room at lunch. I think that you'll find a welcome surprise in your trunk that will also explain where I've been."
Giles pushed up from his desk, his strides languid as he walked around his desk to push his chair in, effectively cutting of any further questioning as he reached for his wand on his desk.
It took Katherine six attempts, with Giles' close instruction, to produce a silvery shield. It was significantly wispier than his, and some of her classmates', but it held up against a few flippantly cast stunners from Giles' wand.
When the bell rang, Katherine spared one last glance back at Giles'; his face relaxed into a rare show of amusement, before she haphazardly pulled her bag onto her shoulder and rushed out of the classroom.
Lily looked up, briefly, from where she had stopped to talk with Snape after being paired with Lupin.
Snape was scowling, "There's something about that Lupin, Lily…"
Katherine tacked onto the back of Lupin where he shuffled out of the doorway with Pettigrew and Potter. She skirted around the boys once in the hallway and sped off anew. Breathless, she climbed what felt like all one hundred and forty-two of the staircases in the castle with sheer will.
She only stopped to breathe furiously outside the portrait of the Fat Lady; the pink-clad witch could not understand Katherine's gasped password.
The pink lady hummed, brows furrowed, "What was that dear?"
The Fat Lady seemed to consider letting the seemingly panicked student in without it, but Katherine managed to calm her stinging gasps –
"Musk Sticks!"
A CLICK, and Katherine was careening through the short passage to the common room and took a sharp right to clamber the stairs to the girls' dormitories. Throwing open the door for the Fifth Years, Katherine halted.
At the base of her bed, sitting innocently on top of her trunk, was her old powder blue case. The one her Uncle had bought her.
Belle, wide-eyed, was prowling along the end of her bed, tail pulled up into a question mark, mewling at Katherine's sudden appearance.
Katherine fell to her knees. With buzzing hands, she worked the familiar clasp and propped open the lid, and promptly took in a shuddering breath.
Her boots… her dresses… her favourite suede coat – and her full-length Afghan coat with the faux fur that she hadn't even worn yet before she was ripped away from home. It even smelt like Claremont; like roses and the woody balm of the floorboards. Pulling out a miniskirt, Katherine sighed, clutching it reverently to her chest. Something relaxed further inside her when she saw her tennis shoes in the bottom.
For the past week, she had felt she was living someone else's life. Wearing odd robes and ridiculously modest knickers – that were more akin to bloomers. Carting around a stick of wood, figuring out how to write with a quill…
Staring into the stark face of her old life, she realised just how much she had already changed...
The rest of the week passed at a calm settled pace, Katherine reunited with the person she was before magic burst into her life. Strangely, she became better at her spells with the confidence that came flooding back to her with her possessions.
She dotingly detailed an annotated drawing of a Bowtruckle for Care of Magical Creatures; Enthusiastically began her dream diary for Divination; Learnt the Summoning Charm – it had been revision for everyone else who learnt it the year previous – with Professor Flitwick; Written four inches on Ghouls for DADA…
Holding her breath the entire time, she even handled Aconite in her second herbology lesson later in the week – also known as Monkshood and Wolfsbane. Professor Sprout had impressed the importance of proper handling as poisoning oneself would result in a failing grade and a trip to Hospital Wing.
As time went on, Katherine found that she was not on as much of a backfoot to her classmates as first thought. Except in History of Magic, in which they were studying The International Statute of Secrecy; a subject the pureblood students, surrounded by magic their entire lives, seemed to know comprehensively, without lifting a book.
When Friday evening rolled around, the girls all shrugged off their outer robes in the dormitory after a long week. Casting off their ties, Lily started her record player and the familiar opening twangs of 'For What It's Worth' by Buffalo Springfield seemed to lift the dust that had fallen over the beds that day.
Katherine had promised the girls they could comb through her old blue case and try on whatever they like after they noticed it's sudden appearance in the room earlier in the week. They descended upon it as she started in on her Potions essay, due the following Tuesday.
"Page thirty." said Mary, absentmindedly, as she swung Katherine's long thin purple scarf around her neck.
Katherine laid across the bed, flicking to the page, and finding everything she needed.
She tapped her socked foot to the beat as she carefully scribbled with the angled point of her quill, Belle's paws striking down the puffed blankets as she approached her owner for pats.
"There's battle lines being drawn
Nobody's right if everybody's wrong
Young people speaking their minds
Getting so much resistance from behind
It's time we stop
Hey, what's that sound?
Everybody look, what's going down?"
"Do you think Slughorn would have a proper conniption if I rocked up to dinner in this?"
Katherine put aside a half-finished essay on the varieties of Venom Antidotes, to watch Lily twirl around in front of the mirror in Katherine's Afghan coat over her uniform. Lily gently clutched the faux fur trim around herself, smiling.
Katherine found herself smiling at the scene her friends made in the mismatched garments, "What happens at these kinds of dinners anyway?"
She ran a hand through Belle's white fur, the feline collapsing onto her side and nuzzling her head back against the blanket.
"The dinners are quite tame, actually," said Alice, zipping up Katherine's black go-go boots and admiring them in the mirror. She met Katherine's eyes in the mirror, expression light, "He'll be assessing you. It's where he weeds out those who won't go onto to be influential, monetarily plentiful, or famous."
"If you make the cut –" said Lily, glancing up from where she placed a large floppy felt hat on Mary's head "– you'll be invited to the Christmas party. That's when he invites graduated members of his club, to let us rub shoulders with them, in hopes it will springboard us into grand opportunities for the future. He, of course, will get a bit of that – just by association."
"If you make it to the Christmas party, you should know –" said Alice, sitting on the edge of her bed and slipping her feet out of the boots "– you'll be expected to take a date."
Marlene dove across Katherine's bed, nearly sending her potions' textbook flying.
Belle gave a noise of disquiet, and jumped off the bed, stalking over to where Marbles groomed herself on Lily's bed.
"A more fortuitous moment could not have presented itself – I've been dying to ask you," Marlene inclined her head towards Katherine and raised her eyebrows, "Fancy anyone, Katherine?"
Katherine disguised her surprise, and hid her face, by moving her inkwell and quill to the safety of her bedside table.
Lily folded up the Afghan, placing it atop Katherine's trunk, "Come on, Marlene… it's so obvious who she likes..."
"It is?" asked Katherine, frowning, airing her parchment to dry her words before placing it with the rest of her stuff, safely away.
"Gideon Prewett," said Alice, nodding. She sighed wistfully as she curled her legs beneath herself at the end of Katherine's bed, "Excellent taste, mind you."
"Shame he's off in his own orbit," said Mary, sitting on the edge of the bed, basically on the back of Marlene's legs, "The only girl I've ever seen him even walk with is the Head Girl, out of duty. I think they're cousins too."
"Narcissa Black," scoffed Marlene, wriggling out from beneath Mary's knees, "Lucky bint – she's got it all. The perfect hair, a vault bursting at the seams, and she gets to gander some of the finest arses known to wizarding kind right from the comfort of her own home."
Katherine's eyebrows rose instantly, "Do you fancy Black then?"
"I'm saving myself for Gary," said Marlene, solemnly laying a hand over her heart. She gazed lovingly up at her poster of the gold-maned Keeper above her bed; his jersey off and trousers slung low as he made a muscle-ripping catch of a Quaffle and grinned at the camera. "And, besides, Black's a bit too moody for my tastes."
Alice sighed, shaking her head at Marlene, smiling all the while, "Shame he's not doing the same for you, love."
"He just hasn't met me yet."
"He's engaged." said Lily, wryly, sitting right beside Katherine up at her pillows.
Marlene lifted a hand, and her eyebrows, "Engaged isn't married. I think I could take her."
The girls, in stark contrast to the rest of Gryffindor Tower, were forgoing the Quidditch trials taking place on that evening. Marlene, after all, had already made the team the previous weekend.
It just so happened, too, that Lily had decided to cut her hair, and required moral support.
Lily blew out a breath, picking up the ends of her hair and eyeing them, "Okay, I think I'm ready."
The five girls crowded the bathroom, Lily at the centre. The redhead leant her hips against the sink, a towel around her shoulders, and a pair of scissors in hand that she had spent the week transfiguring from a safety pin. The hardest part of it had been making them sharp enough.
Katherine's teeth found her bottom lip as she watched Lily comb her hair, sitting on the edge of the sink, the only one to face Lily front on, "Do we wet it first? That's what they always do at the hairdressers."
"Oh, you're right!" remembered Lily, suddenly. She turned the tap on, wetting her hands and running them through the front of her hair before combing it again, "The magazines all say you brush it forward like this… and that it's better to take less and check…"
Marlene craned her neck forward from where she leant on the towel rack on the wall behind, "And you've got to go in on the slight angle, I've seen them do it like that…"
Lily leant over the sink, her face up to the mirror, raising the scissors level with her eyebrows.
The sound of the water in the pipes was the only noise as all five held their breath, watching as the scissors closed with a crisp SNIP.
Lily gave a squeal as a red lock fell into the sink – and four more squeals echoed after hers.
Lily peered out from behind her hair, confused and marginally panicked, "Why are you guys screaming?"
Deeply invested, the girls watched on as Lily proceeded to snip across her brow, murmuring 'oh my gosh… oh my gosh…' the whole way. All up, it was possibly three minutes – and then Lily placed the scissors down on the sink and shook her fingers through her new fringe.
"Oh, I'll trim the back!" said Marlene, reaching for the scissors and comb.
"So…" said Lily, eyes flickering to her friend's reflections over her shoulders, "Hack job, or…?"
Then came a flood of genuine reassurance, as she did look rather spectacular, though different – older. After Lily's split ends had been trimmed away, and a final comb, the girls moved back into the dormitory. The red head took up residence in front of the mirror, shaking her fingers through her hair.
Katherine bit back a jibe that she was acting like Potter, and instead watched passively as Marlene lowered the Beatles' Revolver album onto the record player.
"So, who do you guys fancy then?" asked Katherine, propping up her chin as she laid across her bed again.
Alice toed off her shoes, pushing them down to the end of bed beside her trunk, "Frank."
"Colour me shocked." said Lily, playfully, turning back from the mirror.
Katherine nodded to her, "And you, Lily?"
"Bertram." said Lily, easily, pushing up the sleeves of her white blouse and crossing the floor to plop on the end of her own bed.
Katherine had never heard the name before, "Who?"
"Bertram Aubrey. He's a sixth year Ravenclaw," said Lily, smiling a little as she busied her hands on the wooden curvature at the foot of her bed, "Plays on the Quidditch team as a Chaser."
Marlene turned back from where she knelt on her bed; pressing the bottom corner of blue tac on her Gary poster firmer against the wall, "Oh, yes, our Lily is a real Quidditch enthusiast, didn't you know?"
"Shut it," said Lily mirthfully, closing her eyes and grinning, "I've run into him on patrols a few times, I think he might ask me to Hogsmeade."
Mary wrapped an arm around one of her bed posts, her bed beside Lily's, and leant her cheek against the wood also, "It's clear to anyone who has eyes that he's keen."
Katherine only knew of the traditional, arranged, type of romances. Her Aunt and Uncle had been introduced by their families and chaperoned at gala's and parties and a few long walks. It was perfectly proper, according to her Aunt. When Katherine was thirteen, and began attending dinners with them, she had been handed a book on the courting procedures, with a picture of Queen Victoria on the front.
Katherine didn't think anything in the coffee table tome applied to the real teenagers of the seventies.
She cleared her throat, "I went to an all-girls school, I don't… I don't think I get the whole…"
The girls shared a glance as Katherine made hand gestures, then all jumped off their own beds and descended back upon Katherine's once again.
Lily shook her head, "How could we be so obtuse? Sorry, Katherine – we'll get you up to speed…"
"The first good sign," said Marlene with a suggestive expression, fidgeting with excitement, "Is the stare. Most boys our age are too bashful to outright come up and start talking to you, but they'll kind of mark their territory by eyeing you off across the room – the Quidditch Pitch – you name it. All the other blokes will know to back off…"
Lily lifted her index finger, cutting in, "However, some don't want you to catch on, and will be careful to not look at you too much when there's a chance you'll notice it."
"Then any excuse to touch – handing you something, brushing past you in the hallway, pulling lint from your robes…"
Marlene gave a sideways glance, "Awfully specific there, Alice."
"Frank always said I had lint on me." said Alice, making an equally fond and exasperated face to Katherine.
Mary snorted, shaking her head to Katherine, "She never did."
The girls went on with their sage advice, Katherine listening intently to all her friends' offerings.
"They will try and make friends with your friends, group outings are a popular method of getting to know someone outside class in a low pressure environment. Of course, they'll still try and get you alone, off to the side."
"Walking to class together is a big one – even better if they're not in your class."
"If a boy sits next to you in class, you're basically off the market completely."
"Boys who are mean to you – are just mean."
"A big giveaway will be their friends, because they'll definitely know. Their friends will tease them, and act as bodyguards to fend off other potential threats, you'll probably speak to them more than the actual bloke."
"I got a mixtape from Will, my neighbour, this summer," Lily sighed fondly, "There's something to be said for the way muggles go about it…"
The record spun from 'Here, There and Everywhere' to 'Yellow Submarine' and Katherine could not help but make a sudden connection with the new information.
"Well, Pettigrew fancies Mary then, if what you guys are saying is any indication…"
Mary looked down, flicking the hem on her skirt and toying with it, "Yeah… I, er, know…"
"Do you…" Katherine trailed off, watching Mary's increasingly red face.
Mary shrugged, eyes lifting to the wall pensively, "I don't know, Peter's… okay…"
"But he's not exactly the type to sweep you off your feet, is he?" said Marlene, lightly, to both Katherine and Mary.
"Oi, should I put on the Jefferson Airplane one or The Monkees?" said Lily, hopping up and crossing to the record player.
Marlene and Alice turned to give their opinions, and Katherine used the distraction to offer Mary a smile. The girl promptly returned it, although slightly more sheepishly.
"Mary, Mary, where you goin' to?
Mary, Mary, can I go too?"
As The Monkees played, Lily crossed back with a thoughtful expression, "Say, Katherine, would you be amenable to a new hairstyle?"
Before she knew it, the girls had fetched the scissors from the bathroom and were lifting locks of Katherine's hair here and there, tilting their heads this way and that.
Lily conferred with Marlene, the two seemingly the most skilled when it came to matters of hair, "I'm thinking, like, Goldie Hawn in 'The Sugarland Express'… that style of fringe, you know… not quite straight across, just a little shorter on the sides to frame the face…"
Katherine tried to not move her head too much as she laughed; the girls flitting around her, measuring angles to her nose – "I wish I had your nose…" moaned Alice – and weighing up how thick the bits should be in relation to her chin width.
When Katherine woke the next morning, on the second Saturday of term, she had an out of body experience when she went to push her hair back from her face. It was no longer all the same length, and her new fringe clung back against her face, frizzy with sleep.
She happily dressed from her blue case, pulling on her denim playsuit, it being warm enough for the short bottoms. The September sun, unfortunately, would sadly not last much longer. After taking her turn in the bathroom, Katherine slipped on her tennis shoes and bounded down to breakfast with the girls, her tulip hat in hand.
After eating, they spent their morning laying out in the sun on the lawns, searching for four leaf clovers with the magnifying glasses. They had transfigured them from pencils earlier that week in class with McGonagall. Professor Brown, the Divination Professor, waved merrily in approval as she passed on her way to supervise the students by the Black Lake.
Alice had determinedly worn her clogs down onto the grass, and laid on her stomach, clicking the backless shoes to her heels and then back off as she swung her legs.
Occasionally, Katherine glanced back up at the castle and watched her fellow students mill about in their weekend clothes. Curiously, the fifth year Gryffindor boys seemed to be walking the perimeter of the castle, popping out in odd spots. Eventually, however, they seemed to decide to take to the skies instead, speeding off on their brooms around the other side of the castle.
As the girls walked to Lunch, a group of Slytherin boys hanging around the courtyard, including Snape, stopped talking as they passed. Two boys, that Katherine recognised as Avery and Mulciber, glowered coolly at Mary as she passed by at the front of their group.
Katherine frowned as she trailed past and received an indifferent, blank stare from the boys, arm-in-arm with Alice.
"What was that about?" she whispered.
Alice set her lips in a line, "That lot don't bother trying to hide their prejudices against blood-traitors and muggleborns, unfortunately."
"But… Snape…" Katherine stumbled quietly.
Alice gave her a knowing look.
"And Lily…" continued Katherine to Alice, shaking her head, begging for it to make sense.
Alice sighed and said, blankly, "She says he's different, that he just keeps his mouth shut to survive them."
Katherine felt oddly protective of Mary, sitting beside the girl at Gryffindor table, watching out for any more unfriendly Slytherin eyes.
"I can't wait for a Hogsmeade weekend…" Marlene moaned as she rested her chin on her hand, a wistful sigh chasing her words, "Lily?"
Lily rubbed up and down between her eyebrows, "The weekend before Halloween is the soonest date that we Prefects could haggle out of the teachers."
The Gryffindor boys breezed down the Great Hall to sit across from the girls, their brooms kicked under the bench.
"James, that last pass was right out." said Lupin, preparing to launch into the rules.
"James never makes bad passes." piped up Pettigrew.
Black snorted, "It's impossible to make a bad pass when you don't pass."
"And he never seems to be able to evade detentions either," Lupin said pointedly, "James, don't you have to go see Professor Giles?"
"Yeah – the smug git," said Potter, cleaning his glasses on his jumper, "I'm starting to see why you don't like him, Sirius."
Black hummed non-committedly as he held a hot bowl of soup in both hands.
"He's the best teacher we've had since second year – I don't understand why you don't like him, Sirius." said Lupin, taking a large, pre-occupied bite of his sandwich.
Whatever Giles had called Potter to his office for mustn't have been too bad, as, at twenty to three that afternoon, she ran into him in the Entrance Hall; his broomstick slung over his shoulder. He did a double take, pausing.
"Spencer," greeted Potter, managing a smile. He nodded in the direction of the lawns that lied beyond the courtyard ahead, "We can walk together since you're early."
Katherine fussed with the neck of her jumper she'd pulled on over her playsuit for their lesson. Oddly enough though, she no longer felt nervous in his company.
"How were tryouts last night?"
He was wearing a Gryffindor jumper, the kind only quidditch players got to wear. It made him look taller and broader than usual as he squinted up into the afternoon sun; the pair having stepped out into the open air of the courtyard.
"Alright, I kept my spot… so did Sirius," said Potter, his expression light, at first. He glanced sideways to her, eyebrows raised, "Thought you might have come, actually. I looked out for you."
Fabian and Gideon Prewett sat with the rest of the Seventh Year Gryffindor boys by the exit of the courtyard, lounging and practising sparkler spells. Fabian whistled and shouted after Katherine and Potter as they passed, "Looking good, Potter!"
Gideon – Katherine would know, as she checked – barely spared them a glance.
Potter just grinned, shaking his broom in acknowledgment as he and Katherine continued on. As they began the trudging decline on the lawns, he spared her an apologetic smile.
"Sorry about that." the words left him at a laugh.
"It's alright," said Katherine, truthfully. She watched her step on an uneven patch of dirt that nearly snapped Alice's ankle earlier that day, and picked up their previous trail of conversation, "Us girls all stayed in the Tower."
Potter slowed, turning to step down sideways off a sudden drop of escarped lawn.
"Yeah, I, er –" his eyes flashed to her, and he adjusted his glasses with his free hand, "− noticed you've done something to your hair."
Katherine smiled carefully, minding her teeth. She always did. They weren't horrible, but the two front ones were slightly crooked and larger than the rest. Due to being away at boarding school most of her life, and at camp in the summers, orthodontics was out of the question.
Potter left his broom against the outside of the broom shed, before ducking in, only to emerge with a similar broom to what Katherine used last time. This one, however, had a darker streak down the wooden handle. It didn't look deliberate.
Potter paused and inclined his head, his professional tone – reserved solely, it seemed, for their lessons – had returned, "Now, do you know what type of broom this is, Spencer?"
"No idea." said Katherine, unabashedly, knowing he was about to tell her.
"It's a Shooting Star," said Potter, turning to peruse the length of wood, "Not the best broom, granted…"
He extended it out to Katherine, and then picked up his own broom anew, smiling at it.
"I've got a Nimbus 1500, the company only started eight or so years ago. Great reliability and handling…"
Potter jerked his head toward the entrance to the arena, and they stepped through onto the grass of the pitch.
"Are there a lot of broom types?" asked Katherine, as they continued to the middle.
Potter seemed to catch his step as they walked, and then swallowed. When he spoke, his voice came out a little pained.
"Yes."
Katherine was privately amused at the restrained emotion of the broom-mad boy, "Should we cover a theory component as well as practical broomstick flying?"
"I'm starting to think so," said Potter, voice still a little strained.
They slowed at the markings in the centre of the pitch, Katherine deciding that there was an odd softness to the broomstick this time. A powdery, dry feeling coating her hand.
"Do you feel comfortable taking off?" asked Potter, gently, seeming to have to remind himself to slow down.
Katherine, having daydreamed about the wind in her hair all week, gave a chirpy reply, "Yep."
It happened a lot quicker than the previous weekend, and more smoothly, as Katherine had mentally gone through the motions countless times in anticipation. Without any real blunders, Katherine was hovering a new four feet off the ground, and already leaning forward to urge her broom into the pace she took three hours to build up to last time.
A swish of air, and she had company before she could blink.
"That was nice," said Potter, appreciation plain on his face, as well as surprise. Turning to watch where he was going, he tightened his grip on his broom handle, leaning a little closer to the glinting wood, "Alright, a little higher – then we're going to try and land from a slight dive."
A defining characteristic of the Shooting Star, Katherine had discovered, was that it veered slightly to the left. As a result, when Katherine came down to land, her trainers scraped into the grass and dirt in a light slide.
Potter dismounted, broom in one hand, the other hand flattening his hair as he frowned at the Shooting Star, "That broom isn't doing you any favours, is it?"
He stepped over, extending his own broom. It was a good foot longer than the shooting star, and significantly thicker.
"Here, try mine."
Katherine hesitantly closed a hand around the richly coloured shaft, below Potter's own strong hand, "Are you sure?"
Potter licked his lips, wrapping a hand around the Shooting Star, above hers. Together they stood, holding the brooms like the edges to a mirror, looking across at each other.
"Do you solemnly swear that you will do your absolute best to not crash it into a tree?" asked Potter, lightly, inclining his head, sweat glinting on his neck.
Katherine couldn't help a full smile, closing her eyes, "I solemnly swear."
Potter relinquished his hold on his broom as Katherine relinquished hers on the Shooting Star. He stepped back, using the broom to lean on.
"It's a different beast," warned Potter, nodding to the broom, "Take your time… go slowly… just mounting and hovering for now…"
Without needing to even say a word, the Nimbus slapped into her hand soundly as soon as she held out her hand. At her look of incredulity, Potter just grinned, swiping his thumb at the corner of his lips.
Swinging a leg over, Katherine found she had to sit a little further forward than on the shooting star to hold the handle properly, and then lifted into a hover so smoothly that she barely noticed. The tacky, well-polished lacquer, stuck soundly and comfortably in her palms.
Potter paced around her, nodding, "You look at home on that thing, you can get money from Gringotts by owl these days, you know? Then we can go down to Hogsmeade and get you a better broom."
Katherine touched back down, dismounting.
"I don't have a permission slip." said Katherine, having been told by Lily about the requirement.
Potter turned his neck, as if shooing a fly.
"We'll burn that bridge when we get to it," he leant forward anew, a salacious curve to his lips, "Are you ready for the first of your advanced lessons?"
Katherine glanced around at the weakly glowing lanterns dotted around the towers, "It's getting dark."
"I'll protect you," said Potter, amusedly, as he backed up to rest the Shooting Star against the canvas of the closest tower, "Besides, you need to learn to fly in all conditions, and –"
Potter swaggered back to her with glittering eyes –
"– with passengers."
Katherine felt her legs go weak, "What if I accidentally kill you?"
"My Mum will be very sad –" said Potter, nodding earnestly, before fixing Katherine with an easy expression "– but comforted, knowing I died doing what I love most,"
Laughing at his own words, Potter casually took his broom back from her and mounted it, sliding back closer to the bristles.
"Come on, jump on –" he nodded to the spot in front of him, holding up his hands, "I promise I won't grope you."
Without being told, Katherine had deduced that it was only logical that you had to be on the front to steer. Katherine carefully swung a leg over, not wanting to kick Potter. Her hands found the handle, and she gripped it tightly, then hesitated.
"How do I…?"
Potter leant over her shoulder from behind, true to his word and not touching her at all, "Pretty much everything is the same, but you have to be more careful when pulling up and leaning forward – double the weight means double the need for balance."
Lifting to a hover, even with Potter's broom, felt like she was doing it all again for the first time. She could feel his weight, unbalancing the broom ever so slightly. Curiously, and distractingly, Potter smelled strongly of Mandrake.
"You're not going to fall off, are you?" she asked, paranoid, as they rose ever higher while lapping the pitch at a drifting pace.
Potter gave a short, good-natured laugh, "I'm fine. I've got a grip on the bristle band behind me – and there's sticking charms too, you know?"
Katherine nodded, and they lifted higher and higher with Potter's quiet encouragement – and then they were level with the seats of the towers. Looking down, Katherine again reaffirmed that she was still not afraid of heights, just startled at how far she had taken them, not realising...
"We could leave the pitch," came Potter's voice from behind, "And just go around the grounds."
"Are we allowed?"
"Of course. Why wouldn't we be?"
It was a clear night, a crescent moon rising above the almost indistinguishable darkened surface of the Black Lake, and Katherine felt they were level with the smatterings of stars. Potter seemed to have an encyclopaedic knowledge of the grounds, pointing out every tower in the castle – which Katherine would proceed to loop on the broom as Potter WHOOOO'ed.
"If you squint, you can see Flitwick in his office. Over the years, we've found that the windows are all too easy to fly in through and fetch our confiscated items back… weak point of security, really… and that bring us to the boundary of the school grounds…"
Below them, the line of the wrought iron gates and fence stretched as far as the eye could see.
"Down there's Hogsmeade, beyond the train station," said Potter, pointing to the blinking lampposts of the sleeping wizarding village.
Katherine relaxed as they just hovered there, the barest of breezes knocking her legs beneath her before they settled again. Her hand fell to her leg, and her breath clouded in front of her face, the air audibly crackling with stillness – and coldness – as she and Potter looked out on the village.
"Two hands for beginners." said Potter, suddenly, but lightly enough, guiding her hand back to the handle.
"Sorry," said Katherine, though it came out of smiling lips. She urged the broom forward again, drifting along the fence, back towards where Gryffindor Tower overlooked the lawns and Quidditch Pitch, "I haven't been taking up too much of your time, have I? With these lessons?"
"Classes are a breeze, and Quidditch practises will only be three times a week," said Potter, pausing, "Plus, if I can teach you successfully – McGonagall will give me serious consideration for Captain next year."
Katherine focused on guiding them – balancing them, "Aren't you a shoe in, anyway?"
Potter hummed.
"It'll be between me and Sirius."
"You're so close – what will you do if he gets it?"
Potter was quiet for a moment.
"He would probably be better at it than me, honestly," said Potter, tone laced with contemplation, "I'm just holding out that McGonagall has a serious lapse in her judgment and picks me instead."
Katherine thought on the feel of ease she felt with – the essential stranger of a boy – on the back of the broomstick.
"I think you're a good teacher," said Katherine, not thinking, "You would be..."
She felt his eyes on her.
"A good captain?" he supplied, quietly, "Thank you, Spencer,"
The sincerity warmed her to her bones, despite her numb nose.
"So, you're not scared of me anymore?" he asked.
Katherine shook her head, knowing he was watching her.
A light fall of air came from his nose, "Good."
"Potter?"
"James."
Katherine pressed on despite his correction, "Can we go fast?"
"I thought you would never ask."
At once, a hard chest pressed against her back. Long arms slipped around her waist and then his hands were gripping the handle above hers. Her stomach then promptly vacated her body through her arse.
"James!" His name ripped out of her lips, unfamiliar, and yet she enjoyed the way it mingled over her tongue long after.
James' chin over her shoulder, and his laughter battling through her flying hair, neither of them could have possibly seen the purple pyjamas filling a window, high up in Gryffindor Tower.
Lily Evans, though, watched with a faint smile of incredulity as they zoomed across the night sky, framed by the moon and the pointed pines of the forbidden forest; laughing and squealing in delight.
Touching down again on the pitch, the glowing lanterns were only bright enough to catch and light their faces faintly.
James removed his arms from around her, leaning back and chuckling, "Spew if you like, I'm good at vanishing charms."
Katherine was catching her breath as their feet fell flat and surely on the ground, her eyes plastered open from the adrenalin and wind.
"Oh my gosh…" the words were a whisper as she swung her leg back over, standing on her own two feet. It was almost unnatural after spending so much time straddling the broom in the air.
James grinned, his broom upright in his grip again, and nodded to the exit of the pitch, "Come on. We've got quite a climb ahead of us back up to the castle, curfew won't be far off."
"You already have detention, don't you?" asked Katherine, though turning towards the exit and beginning to walk.
It felt like she was still half in the air, her feet falling lightly.
James gave a mirthful, sideways glance, "I was thinking of you, Whispy."
The lights of the castle were a beacon guiding them back up the grey-blue grass.
"I'm thinking we'll do a quiz on all things flying, to fill the gaps in your knowledge," said James, broom slung over his shoulder, panting lightly as they climbed closer to the courtyard, "Do you think two weeks should be a generous enough amount of time for you to study?"
Katherine nodded, carefully sidestepping the roots sticking out of the inclining soil right beneath the steps up to the courtyard.
"Peter didn't hand in his Transfiguration homework and had to stay and restack all the old textbooks for detention, he should be coming out of it about now…" continued James, slowing as they crossed through the courtyard and into the Entrance Hall, "I was planning on waiting for him, but he dawdles… and I understand if you don't want to risk a detention…"
They slowed to a stop at the base of the grand staircase.
"Oh, I can walk back myself." said Katherine, shrugging.
"I…" James hesitated, glancing in the direction of the old storeroom, and then back. He furrowed his eyebrows, and said quietly, "Are you sure? It's late…"
"What's the worst that could happen?"
Snape accosting her on the staircase landing just shy of Gryffindor Tower after an uneventful, prefect and professor-less stroll, it seemed.
There was a crackling BANG, a flash of light, and the cried word –"Levicorpus!"
Katherine's knees bubbled with adrenalin – and she dove out of the way. The stone of the landing rushed against her skin, a cool relief on the hot night – before it split open.
Katherine, breathless, pushed herself up and produced her own wand.
"What do you want, Snape?" asked Katherine, ignoring the eye-needling pain emanating from the arm she lifted her wand with.
"Did you fall down and smack your little head on the stone?" snarled Snape, shaking his head at her, "I'm asking the questions. Who are you?"
Katherine felt adrift, "Are you… are you joking?"
"You come to Hogwarts out of nowhere – befriend Lily overnight – get into the slug club –" Snape's eyes flashed wildly in the flickering shadows, "I don't know why you're here, but stay away from Lily. I don't want her getting caught up in whatever you're involved with."
Katherine felt filled to the brim with incredulity, "I'm not involved in anything!"
"Don't lie to me," Snape's eyes flashed malevolently – even in the dark and at distance, "Expelliarmus!"
Katherine slashed her wand down in front of her, "Protego!"
The red jet of light bounced harmlessly off the translucent shield.
Snape held himself wider, stepping forward.
"Stupefy!"
Katherine ducked, scrambling up the stairs as well as she could backwards; an uncomfortable pull in her neck.
Snape was relentless, barely breaking before sending another spell at her, "Impedimenta!"
The step just below her feet rumbled. Katherine just kept on scrambling up the stairs, the only thing she could do.
Snape stepped up on the blackened step a moment later.
Katherine was almost to the portrait of the Fat Lady. She hadn't even taken a breath when light was leaving Snape's wand again.
"Densaugeo!"
She fell to her knees, the bottom corner of the Fat Lady's gold frame shocking the soft joint of her shoulder. Her mouth felt suddenly too small – fingers lifting to her lips, Katherine found her teeth growing and twisting past her lips – to her chin –
An odd sounding hex left his mouth, and then a flash of light ripped towards her.
It should have hit her – and something equally as terrible should have been afflicting her – but it didn't.
A weight ploughed into her side, and she was hurtled out of the way.
James righted his spectacles that had slid down his nose. He looked away from Katherine, cradled beneath his limbs, up to a fuming Snape.
Snape lifted his wand again.
"Miss Greengrass, it isn't necessary that you accompany me –"
Two shadows flickered around the corner from the trophy room, Slughorn's voice distant.
"…you've done your duty by reporting a duel..."
"Too soon!" cried Snape, turning and flapping away into the dark recesses of the castle.
The portrait wasn't a viable option for escape – the password bound to be overheard. Slughorn could simply ask the Fat Lady who the last people that she let through were too.
James tugged on her hand, pulling her over to an alcove and producing a handful of fabric uncannily similar to Katherine's Aunt's drapes.
"What are you –"
The fabric was cast over the two with a cool rush of air, settling as Slughorn and Greengrass appeared around the corner in their robes and slippers.
It was as if Katherine was watching the scene through a thin film.
James' breath was hot against the skin behind Katherine's ear, "You're safe – they can't see us."
It still didn't change the obscure feeling of anxiety brought forward by standing on a landing after curfew under drapes while a Professor approached.
Greengrass twirled around, her eyes looking right through Katherine, "But it was right here – I heard –"
The childlike feeling of being humoured didn't come like it would to when choosing an obvious hiding place. Slughorn and Greengrass couldn't see them.
"Perhaps you overhead some students practicing for their Defence O.W.L, hey?" said Slughorn, turning, "You look a little stressed, Miss Greengrass, perhaps you should get some rest…"
It was as they rounded the corner again – Greengrass dragging her feet – that there was a second rush of cool air.
The drape-like-fabric tangled around their limbs, and Katherine caught James' elbow to her mouth.
Katherine's hand went to her, now, grotesquely large teeth, "Ouch…"
James squinted through the weak torch light, and then his whole face relaxed, "Oh – Katherine…"
His eyes continued to rove Katherine's plight, a hand scratching beneath his collar.
"Hospital wing?"
"No!" Katherine panicked, "No – let me see if Lily can fix it first."
Her prefect friend wasn't in the common room when they returned; James holding Katherine up to stop her over-balancing with her suddenly sprouted teeth. The Head Boy, however, was.
"What's happened?" asked Gideon, clambering to his feet from a sunken armchair.
James looked to Katherine at the same time she looked to him.
"Come on, I'd like to help," said Gideon, sighing, "I'm Head Boy."
"She was hexed by an unfriendly Slytherin. Have you seen Evans?" asked James.
"She went up to bed about an hour ago," said Gideon, eyes flitting between James and Katherine, "Is that what happened, Katherine?"
Katherine ignored James' eyes, and said, honestly, "James jumped in to help me."
James sent an emphatic, righteous look to Gideon, then turned back to Katherine, raising his eyebrows, "Will you let me take you to the hospital wing now?"
Gideon frowned, stepping forward, "I'll take her."
James' arm didn't shift from below Katherine's shoulders where he held her up.
"Are you sure you don't need a hand –"
"I've got two," said Gideon, nodding at Katherine, "And there's nothing wrong with her legs either."
"Oh, yeah, I guess they're alright." said James with a glance at the mentioned limbs.
James' arm fell away, and Gideon shooed him with a nod of his head in the direction of the boys' stairs.
"Hang on – Potter?" said Gideon, suddenly frowning, "What were you doing out so late?"
James blinked, his face a mask of impassiveness, "Sleepwalking."
Gideon eyed him in exasperated disbelief.
"Go on up to bed, then," said the Head Boy, sighing.
Katherine watched helplessly as James walked around Gideon, stuffed his hands in the pockets, and glanced back, already ascending the boys' staircase.
"Come on," said Gideon with a sympathetic smile, crossing to the portrait.
It wasn't until they had navigated three sets of moving staircases that Gideon cleared his throat, gesturing to Katherine's hexed teeth.
"Were you duelling? Why did it actually, er, happen? If you don't mind me asking…"
Katherine teared at the ginormous teeth propping her lips open uncomfortably, and struggled out her muffled response, "I honestly don't know."
The bottoms of her front teeth ran alongside the inside of her busted up forearms – all the way to her elbows.
"Miss Spencer!" Madam Pomfrey rushed out of the open doors to the Hospital Wing, "What's happened now?"
Katherine thought quickly, and endeavoured to speak as clearly as possibly, "Some first years were experimenting in the common room…spell went awry…"
Madam Pomfrey sighed, gingerly took Katherine by the elbow, and guided her through to sit on one of the vacant beds.
"I know just the spell that should do it," said Pomfrey, reaching beneath the bed and producing a hand mirror, "You'll need this to tell me when they return to normal…"
Katherine felt her eyes sting as she sighted her teeth in the mirror, longer and more twisted than she was used to.
Madam Pomfrey frowned in concentration, and glanced at Gideon where he watched on with a frown. And then it was suddenly as if screws were being driven through Katherine's gums. Her toes curled, her tears spilled down her cheeks.
In the mirror, Katherine's teeth glided over her bottom lip; shrinking. They twisted – straighter than Katherine had ever seen them. Her lips closed easily now.
"Stop!" the word shot forth from Katherine's transfigured mouth, and Pomfrey lowered her wand.
The word sounded different, Katherine's tongue no longer getting in the way of her teeth.
"Alright, off to bed then," said Pomfrey, turning and bustling away to one of the students staying overnight in the bed over, "You should sleep off any remaining tenderness."
Katherine nodded, keeping her lips resolutely closed, and slid off the bed.
Gideon gave a tight smile, before awkwardly looking away and gesturing they begin the walk back to the Tower.
They were almost back to the staircase, when Gideon looked like he might speak again, but the steady clacking of shoes on the stone interrupted anything he might have said.
Out of an off-shooting corridor, glided a tall, fair-haired Slytherin girl in silk plum robes. At her company in the junction of the passages, Narcissa Black cast her lofty gaze over Katherine; the indifference joltingly reminiscent of her younger cousin in Katherine's house.
Narcissa's delicate brows lifted, faint amusement firming her high cheekbones as she turned her steely gaze to Gideon, "I believe you wanted to talk to me about Skeeter?"
"Right," said Gideon, seeming to reorganise himself where he stood.
Katherine had never seen the Head Boy look bashful before.
"You're Head Girl and her Prefect – can't you do something about her snooping? It might have been on page seven, but Dhalia Bobbins was in a right state when she found out she was supposedly pregnant and engaged to the cousin to the undersecretary of the minister on Saturday…"
Katherine made to leave – feeling very much like she was intruding – but Gideon caught her by the sleeve, shaking his head. When he seemed confident that she wasn't going anywhere, he relinquished his hold and turned back to Narcissa.
Narcissa eyed Gideon coolly, "If I wasn't doing something about it there'd be a lot more articles in the Prophet from Skeeter's insider tips – trust me."
Gideon sighed, smoothing along the side of his hair – his gold signet ring flashing against his gold hair.
"Can't you do more?"
"Well, isn't she?" said Narcissa, raising her eyebrows, something like cruel amusement tugging at her lips.
Gideon frowned, "What?"
"Betrothed to Benjamin Quince?" Narcissa spoke very slowly, in a sing-song way, as if Gideon were a child.
"They haven't even met. She just got the blasted letter from her parents on the second day of term, I was at the table – just me, and Fabian, and her –" Gideon broke off, tilting his head and eyeing her, "So, unless you're telling me the beetle that landed in the lemon curd flew all the way to the Slytherin table and whispered it in Skeeter's ear, she's using nefarious means to garner this gossip."
Narcissa crossed her arms across her chest with unbelievable grace, tapping a neat nail along her forearm in front.
"I am hardly privy to these, supposed, nefarious means… but I will try to put a lid on any more 'happy announcements' making the paper," she said, uncrossing her arms and bowing her head, "Now, if that is all…?"
Gideon tilted his head, "Black."
"Prewett."
Her perfume lingered behind as Narcissa turned and left them, parading away.
When the clacking off her shoes began to fade, Gideon spoke, though eyeing where she left contemplatively.
"I, er, think I want to check a few corridors down here before I head back up to the Tower… Slytherins and all…" he turned to her, smiling a little at the implication, "Do you think you'll be alright to make it back up on your own?"
Katherine, in fact, had mixed feelings.
"Sure," she said, however, not wanting him to keep glancing at her sympathetically in the manner he had been doing, "Goodnight."
"Yeah, night…" The distracted words were uncharacteristically ineloquent of him, as his eyes scanned the hallway, and he started off down a particularly dark stretch.
Katherine, trusting that lightning – and Snape – would not strike in the same place twice, light-footedly climbed through the castle, past snoring portraits and the glow of ghosts streaking off around corners. When she reached it, the common room was empty, and she climbed the stairs, even more quietly.
All the girls were asleep when Katherine slipped into the dormitory, and she snuck her pyjamas – her trusty old pink ones – out of her trunk, and slipped into the bathroom. Her eyes had lingered over Lily, where she lay peacefully on her back…
A pang of pain in her gums urged her along, and Katherine pulled off her robes – reeking of the smoke from her duel with Snape. Then again, a duel would suggest she did something more than try and run away…
If it hadn't been for James…
Katherine clenched her eyes shut, holding her breath as the hot water of the shower cascaded over her head.
"Katherine?"
The door opened a sliver, and the starlight crossing the dormitory illuminated the frosted glass of the shower. The beaming wedge of light paled Katherine's skin beneath the beads of hot water, and she absently watched the dimpled blur of Marlene's curls moving on the other side.
The toilet flushed, and the buzz of hesitation then filled the air, "Your robes smell like brimstone… what happened?"
Katherine felt her eyes burn again, her scraped arm aching under the hot spray of water and soothed by it all at once.
"Snape."
The door clicked closed, and the orange glow of the candles on the wall, either side of the mirror, flickered through the room, warming it. The dark shape of Marlene sunk down to the floor outside the shower, the pressure of her shoulder clear against it.
"Do you want to talk about it?"
Katherine closed her eyes, her hair dribbling water down the base of her spine, "It just came out of nowhere…"
The confession left her body airy and overcome, Katherine crouching down to sit on the tiles of the shower floor; her knees still in the hot spray of water. She let the drops of warm water move over her lips, into her dry mouth as she sat, parallel to Marlene on the other side.
"Did it, though?"
Silence followed her words, the steam of the shower rolling over Katherine's face. She moved her feet over the roughness of the tiles and the drain, feeling comforted by the sensation and Marlene's obvious dislike of Snape.
"James let me take his broom tonight." said Katherine, lightly, staring across at the opposite pane of glass enclosing her.
"Yeah?"
"Yeah."
"It's a Nimbus, isn't it?" asked Marlene, just as lightly.
"Yeah, it is."
Marlene's shadow shifted slightly on the other side, "I've got a Comet, myself."
"Do you like it?"
"It's tops."
Another quiet lull drifted over them.
"It was my teeth," said Katherine, not intending to nearly sob on the word, "Snape hexed my teeth to grow."
The side of Marlene's head pressed against the glass a little harder, "That must have been really painful."
"Yeah."
Minutes passed as the two girls sat, separated by a sheet of glass, and the obscurity of night. They didn't speak again, but Katherine found the will to stand and finish washing herself, a cold numbness slowly abating from her tailbone.
The task of tightening the taps again, and the cone of water vanishing from around her, seemed to quell any disquiet left inside Katherine. There was a finality to it.
There was the wobble of the glass door on its metal tracks, and Katherine's towel was poked through the swirling steam.
By the time Katherine dried herself and stepped out, Marlene was gone.
She focused on the orderly pulling on of her clothes and then went to bed, Marlene offering her the briefest of glances from the bed beside hers, before yawning and closing her eyes.
Katherine rolled onto her back, mindfully keeping her legs away from where Belle curled at the foot of her blankets.
For the first time since arriving, Katherine considered running out of the gates of Hogwarts and shouting like a lunatic for Voldemort to come find her. It was a certain overreaction, Katherine knew. But the supposed protection of the castle was voided, as Snape had gotten to her all too easily.
Perhaps it was out of some misguided loyalty to Lily – he must have cared about her to do it – he didn't know Katherine…
As sleep edged closer, Katherine was almost convinced it was some weird, bad dream.
Author's Note: Thank you for reading! :)