Chapter 9: Snared
Katherine woke on Sunday as her friends were drifting in and out of the bathroom quietly. Her clothes were already back and clean, Alice had said something about house elves to explain how everything was clean and laundered earlier in the week.
She sat up, and sighed, still weighted down by the previous night lingering on her skin.
Pettigrew got hexed by Snape all the time and he just carried right on, business as usual. A right trooper, thought Katherine. Hexes and Jinxes had constantly flown around Katherine in the castle, despite the explicit school rule against the use of magic in the hallways. She had just never been on the receiving end.
It had been a mean jinx, but it was certainly far from anything particularly cruel.
Yes, she thought, she should just put on her big girl pants and pretend it never happened.
That morning, she took great care in picking out her outfit and brushing her hair. In the mirror, she inspected her teeth. The one personal gripe she had always harboured about her appearance – was suddenly gone.
When Katherine emerged from the bathroom, Lily was pulling on a jacket, smiling, oblivious to the odd air in the dormitory.
Marlene had been silently glancing at Katherine all morning. It had gone unnoticed by all the other girls, it seemed.
"I'm going to duck off to the owlery before breakfast." said Lily, clutching a thick envelope, puffed with sheets of parchments inside, addressed to her parents.
Mary quickly plucked her own jacket off the top of her trunk, "I've got to send one home too – wait up…"
The door to the dormitory maintained it's newly revolving quality as Alice too headed for it, throwing a glance over her shoulder at Katherine and Marlene.
"Don't dilly dally too much longer – you'll lose the whole day!"
The door closed behind the spritely blonde witch, her mary-janes clacking down the stone steps, fading more and more.
Marlene, still in her pyjamas, still knelt on the ground by her open trunk where she had been pretending to rummage for a particular shirt all morning. With everyone gone, she relaxed back onto her bare heels, looking undisguisedly at Katherine.
"You're not going to tell her."
It wasn't a question – nor a suggestion – it was a simple statement, said blankly by Marlene.
Katherine's eyes fell on the poster of Gary Gilchrest, the top left corner rolling down, bobbing off the wall.
"What would come of it?"
Amused hopelessness settled in Katherine's chest after she spoke the words, and she looked at her curly-haired friend.
Marlene sighed, shaking her head, "One day…"
She plucked a pair of jeans and a top from her trunk, standing and pulling her pyjama pants down. She stood there in her bright purple knickers with daisies all over them, pointedly looking at Katherine again.
"One day, Severus Snape will ruin that friendship all on his own. You just watch."
Fully clothed, Marlene and Katherine plodded down to breakfast, bumping into each other all the way. Katherine's body ceded easily against Marlene's side every time they tried to bounce the other lazily to the other side of the hallway. There was a faith there – and a relief – at something solid to lean against. Even for just a second.
In the Great Hall, the section she and Marlene chose was sparsely dotted with younger Gryffindors. Silently, the girls began perusing the breakfast spread in the centre of the table, a peaceful lull falling over the spot.
Then came a crisp cheerful whistle of a nonsensical tune, and the empty space beside Katherine was suddenly filled.
"Is that the sun coming up for a second time, or is that you lighting up the Great Hall?" James Potter all but leapt over the bench seat in a firebrick red jumper, a breeze seemingly still with him as he grinned, his arm pressing against hers, "I must say, you're particularly radiant today, Spencer."
Black, having traversed the length of the other side of the table, climbed over the opposite bench wordlessly at that moment, immediately picking up a copy of the Daily Prophet.
"Resplendent," said Marlene as she leant around Katherine, frowning earnestly at the bespectacled boy, "Are you lost?"
Katherine was warmed by Marlene's loyalty, but gently nudged her friend, and whispered, "Last night would have been a lot worse if James didn't show up and help me."
Marlene furrowed her eyebrows, gazing at James, confounded.
Across the table came a loud rustle of parchment as Sirius tried to correct the curling corners of his newspaper.
James glanced at the forehead and hair of Black that was visible behind the paper, before giving a mock salute to Marlene. He then gently nudged Katherine with his larger elbow –
"Don't let Snivelly get you down."
With that, James set down upon a plate of scrambled eggs and grilled chorizo, greeting Lupin and Pettigrew happily as they joined the group at the table – "Alright, gents? Eat up, Lupin – you need to keep your strength up, old boy!"
Katherine found herself smiling, genuinely, at her porridge. She poked her spoon around with lazy contentedness, an idea she wanted to share with Marlene springing to mind.
It was as she lifted her gaze that she noticed yet another addition to their section of Gryffindor table; two heads – identically glinting gold in the morning light – had settled across the table, taking the gap left beside Black.
She was still mid-smile when she met his eye.
Gideon was talking quietly to Fabian, all the while watching her. For a moment he looked slightly staggered, before offering her a curt nod. She didn't miss the way his eyes drifted down to her mouth, then back up to meet her gaze.
Katherine offered a nod back, and nudged Marlene as she regained her previous train of thought, whispering, "I think Greengrass and Snape are in cahoots."
Marlene turned into her – and so did James, spinning, almost comically, around from his friends.
James lowered his head to hers, and his voice, "Snivellus? In cahoots with someone?"
"He obviously had her get Slughorn – to try and get me in trouble for being out after curfew…" explained Katherine, reminding him of when they had to go under the drapes that miraculously hid them.
Marlene shook her head, "They're twits – both of them – but why would they work together just to get you – maybe – a detention?"
Katherine was at a loss, and stabbed a strawberry that was sinking into her porridge, muttering, "To be an insufferable pain in my neck…"
An odd feeling struck her at that moment, as she became aware that she was pursing her lips in the stern way her aunt had always done…
James snorted, "Someone should tell him that he doesn't need to try to do that, and that he accomplishes it by merely breathing –"
Katherine, distracting herself from thinking of her aunt, focused instead on the jarringly still copy of the Daily Prophet across the table. Black had not turned a single page, perhaps, since he opened the new issue…
"What are you three colluding about?"
Lily had come up behind them unnoticed with Mary and Alice in tow, and she was eyeing James suspiciously.
"Quidditch." James and Marlene chorused together, quickly.
James nodded to Marlene, pushing himself up, "I'll see you at practise tomorrow afternoon."
James moved to sit on the other side of Lupin, freeing up the spot for Lily. Alice and Mary sat beside Marlene, and a new wind of conversation started up.
"Did you hear…?"
"One better – I've seen it."
Katherine turned to Alice and Mary at their whispering, and asked quietly, "Seen what?"
Alice's eyes widened, and she slunk an arm and the top of her torso along the table. She lowered her chin, and, with the upmost of secrecy, she breathed her next words –
"Narcissa Black is engaged to Lucius Malfoy."
Mary gripped Katherine's wrist, hushed awe gripping her face, "And the ring would have cost more than getting all the curtains in the castle done in acromantula silk."
"Makes up for the shame of not getting Head Boy, I guess. The bloody toff thought it was his birth-rite as a Malfoy…" grumbled Marlene.
Curious, Katherine turned her head as so to just peek at the Slytherin table behind them. Malfoy and Narcissa were not sitting quite next to one another, Regulus Black seated between them. Both green-robed Blacks – although Narcissa's time with the surname was limited – were looking back.
Katherine's chest jumped, before noticing that only Regulus was looking to her directly. Narcissa was more so staring out defiantly over the Hall in it's entirety, simply daring someone to look back at her as she primly took intermittent sips from her teacup.
Regulus had only been glimpsed by the girl in passing, and at meals, since they last spoke. The mere fact that he'd approached her at all was still a mystery to her. She sincerely doubted he wanted her friendship.
Katherine turned back, seeing that Gideon was no longer chatting with his brother. Curiously, his gaze kept flickering over to the Slytherin table as he chewed very slowly…
"Excuse me – Katherine Spencer?" came a high, little voice.
The three separate conversations going on around her all stopped as Katherine turned to find a First Year Gryffindor boy rocking on his heels. She remembered his sorting – and his surname – Alderidge… something…
Katherine blinked, her ears burning, "Yes?"
"Professor Giles has asked for you to go see him in the staffroom."
"Right now?"
Alderidge nodded, but Katherine noticed that his eyes kept flashing over Katherine's shoulder worriedly – to where Katherine knew Black was sitting.
"Okay, thank you,"
Alderidge blew out a breath, and scurried away down the table, to sit with his friends.
Katherine turned back around to find Black sitting with his elbows on the table, an expression of mild amusement on his face as he watched the First Year go.
She had more pressing matters, and leant over to Marlene, "So, where would one find the staffroom?"
It was while visiting Giles that she heard Professor McGonagall wondering on her appointment of James to the post of Captain to Professor Sprout.
"Felix tells me that he hasn't handed in his practice questions on hex reversals, and just now I've found out that he hasn't been keeping up with his plant care diary…." said McGonagall, sighing and turning her pursed lips to the window over-looking the Quidditch Pitch, "Maybe I should start thinking about appointing someone else next year…"
Professor Sprout had frowned and opened her mouth – but Slughorn had nudged his pot belly in sideways, tapping his rings and smiling lasciviously beneath his freshly combed moustache.
"Were you not considering Mister Black?" asked Slughorn, lifting one hand from his straining satin vest to twirl his moustache, "In my opinion, the children of that family tend to do well in positions of power..."
Professor Sprout stretched out her ankles on her footrest, leant back in her chair, and pointedly sipped from her teacup.
McGonagall pursed her lips and peered over her spectacles; eyes narrowing at what Katherine assumed to be Slughorn's rather pointed enquiry.
"I did consider Mister Black."
"And he didn't meet the requirements?" asked Slughorn, rocking forward on his heels with undisguised bewilderment.
"He exceeded them," said McGonagall, blinking thoughtfully, "An accomplished flyer, an existing player on the team, outstanding marks in all of his classes…"
"I must say, Minerva," Slughorn edged in, frowning, "I'm not seeing any issue with the boy,"
McGonagall just stirred her teacup.
Slughorn's watery blue eyes glittered with glee as Katherine saw him latch onto something behind his eyes.
"Unless it's not an issue with the boy…but his –"
"Perhaps you should worry about your own house's Quidditch affairs, Horace," said McGonagall, placing down her teacup, "Did Mister Avery not just get himself suspended from matches for a whole month?"
Slughorn cleared his throat, bowed his head, sipped from his cup, and turned to get another sugar cube – "Silly matter really…just a bit excited with his wand was all…"
"Careful, Katherine,"
Her name cast a net over her attention, pulling it back to Giles; his chin pulled down as he eyed her lightly.
"I might start thinking you're just using me to get the gossip on your classmates."
Katherine's chest folded in on itself, "Oh! Sir – Sorry, I didn't mean –"
"Curiosity isn't a sin," said Giles, lifting his chin to peer down at the schedule in his hand, "Now, as you've missed the foundation lessons on magical creatures your classmates covered in third year, I want you to write essays to hand to me before the commencement of each Defence lesson on Werewolves, Hinkypuffs, Grindylows…"
Katherine felt Snape's eyes boring into the back of her head all week.
It didn't take her long to realise that she now had one over Snape. He seemed to be hovering, making sure she didn't tell Lily what he'd done. Unfortunately, it meant his skulking group of friends were never far behind. There was nothing about the way they looked at Lily and Mary that Katherine liked.
Other than that, it was a week like any other as Katherine had come to expect them at Hogwarts. In Charms, they had even learnt about Entrancing Enchantments, though Flitwick had left out instruction on how to cast them.
The highlight of the week had involved Alice and Frank Longbottom – who had absolutely no need for an entrancing enchantment, as he was quite proficient in charming the socks of Alice without magic. In Divination on Tuesday afternoon, a piece of parchment that had been charmed into the shape of a butterfly floated down onto the table in front of Alice with the simple scribble, 'Do you want to hug after school today?'
When they were all filtering out of the class, Frank was being consoled by James Potter as he held his chest, "My heart is beating so fast right now – I can't believe I just asked that…"
Frank Longbottom's next move had been long anticipated by Alice, and all the other Gryffindor girls alike who were living vicariously through her. Respectfully, they let Alice and Longbottom meet up in private, in an alcove somewhere near the Astronomy Tower, and waited with bated breaths in the dormitory.
"What was it like?"
"Did he put his arms around you first or did you do it?"
They all giggled, clutching pillows and squealing as they listened to Alice recount her journey into the new territory she was bravely blazing the path on for all of them.
"He was kind of like… hard – but soft – and really, really warm!"
Mary let out a quiet 'wow' before asking, "Do you think you'll do it again?"
"I don't know…" Alice whispered, a slow smile taking over her face, "Is that smothering him too much?"
They were on their way to Care of Magical Creatures, bounding through the Entrance Hall to the courtyard, when Lily surreptitiously squeezed her and Katherine's linked arms as they passed a group of Ravenclaws.
"He's looking. Quick, act like we're having fun," said Lily, with the hushed hurriedness she only got around Bertram Aubrey, "One, two, three…"
Katherine and Lily laughed a little louder than they usually would, Katherine being sure to make sure Lily was in clear view of the Ravenclaws as they passed, stepping behind her friend slightly.
Snape, standing along a row of statues with Avery, stepped down as the girls passed, "What's so funny?"
It was the first time he had approached Lily while she was with Katherine all week. His eyes flashed between Katherine and Lily, gleaming with apprehension.
Lily waved a hand, sharing a smile with Katherine, as she said inconsequentially, "Oh, nothing."
Snape walked backwards, keeping with the girls.
"Really, what is it?" he pressed.
"Girl stuff, Sev," said Lily, frowning. She shook her head, and said, a little more gently, "I'll see you later, okay?"
Lily skirted around Snape, her arm still linked with Katherine's. Together, they bustled through the throngs of robes in the courtyard to the benches, to wait for Professor Kettleburn to collect them before heading down onto the lawns. An undeniable thickness surrounded the air around them the whole way.
Lily had never been so short with Snape before.
When they clambered up onto a perch of stone, from a crumbled arch, Katherine thought she'd try to lighten the mood.
"So," said Katherine, her eyes searching back in the direction of the Ravenclaws, "What's he like?"
Lily sighed, ease back in the air, smiling dopily, "Amazing."
"Who's this?"
Sue Bond, Lily's Hufflepuff Prefect counterpart, closed in on their spot. Her best friend, Debbie, was not far behind. The two yellow robed girls popped themselves up onto the smoother part of the stone, flattening their skirts.
"Aubrey." said Lily, leaning back on her hands, and needing to squint through the sudden glare of sun.
A crack of light had opened up between two thick woolly blankets of clouds, bathing the courtyard in sudden golden afternoon sun.
"Oh, yeah, he's a doll." said Sue, thoughtfully, glancing at the cloud of tall blue robed students.
Debbie flung her plaited pigtails onto her back, producing what was unmistakably the soft tissue wrapping of sweets, "What have you got for two quills, Evans?"
Lily ruffled around the front zip of her bag, holding aloft a purple cardboard envelope with bright lettering all over.
"A half-finished pack of Florien's Blowing Gum."
The girls traded sweets. To Katherine's surprised delight, Lily handed the second sugar quill directly to her. With a quiet 'thanks' Katherine accepted the magical confectionary, twirling the realistic stem between her forefinger and thumb as she put just the tip through her lips.
The sun disappeared behind the clouds again, a grey tinge falling over the girls' faces once more.
"Our boys are alright, but the sixth and seventh years are well fit," said Debbie, following their previous trail of conversation, "Shame they stick to the senior girls… surely it's got to be boring to pick from the same dozen or so people all the time…"
Sue hummed, "Unless you're Bruce and Vicky, they've broken up and gotten back together, what – four times?"
"I guess it's more complicated when you're older…" said Lily absently, crossing her legs leisurely as she watched the courtyard.
"Not much choice about here is there?" said Sue, lightly.
Debbie huffed, "Black used to be best looking boy in our year, but that hair…"
Katherine found the feathered helmet of hair in question, and didn't see the issue. Though, in London, she had seen many bad shag cuts and bowl cuts alike, so she was fairly desensitised she supposed. Once, she had even seen a rather tasteful mullet…
"He'd never say it to his face, but Cal Roberts calls him –" Sue broke off, and glanced around before leaning in and whispering "– a hippie."
Katherine had to clench her jaw quickly to stop from laughing, seeing Lily doing the same out of the corner of her eye. The pureblood girls couldn't have known that, while longer-haired, Sirius Black was far from being a hippie.
Debbie sighed, frowning wistfully across at the boys, "He'd be so handsome if he just cut it…"
"I take it you're no longer holding a candle for him then?" asked Lily, taking another suck at her sugar quill with an amused glance at Debbie.
Debbie shrugged, "He's a bit too moody for my tastes, and you can never get him alone, let alone speak with him..."
Sue hummed in acknowledgement, casting a scan over the two groups of boys.
Fifteen; what an odd age to be. Collectively, they all weren't shaped too differently to whippets…
"What shape is it...?"
"Tulip, I reckon."
Until the Professor came, Katherine and Lily helped Debbie and Sue try and discern which flower the Florien's gum had magically blown into as they chewed away. Every time the gum burst, a fruity fragrance filled the air, Katherine breathing it in with passive delight as she sucked on her creamy white sugar quill.
On that Wednesday afternoon, the mixed group of Fifth Years enjoyed their elective class down on the lawns with intermittent patches of sunlight – that was almost even warm. For two hours, they took to the outer edge of the forbidden forest with magnifying glasses, trying to find a fairy hollow in the trees to record the habitat conditions of the creature.
It was such an easy lesson, that no one mucked up. Katherine thought that Professor Kettleburn looked like he had a headache as he perched on a large root of a tree, leaning back and closing his eyes as he waited for everyone to complete the task. Even James and Black behaved themselves, milling about from tree to tree with barely a word.
On the bell, everyone trudged back up to the castle. They were through the courtyard, and stepping through to the Entrance Hall, when a hand clapped down on Katherine's shoulder.
"Spencer," came James' hushed voice, in leu of his usual booming volume.
Lupin was with him; one hand gripping his bag strap, and his eyes flashing amusedly between Katherine and James as he slowed his pace beside Lily.
James leant down to Katherine's ear to whisper, "No lesson this weekend, I'm afraid. An old detention still needs to be served."
Katherine wasn't sure what she expected him to tell her, but it wasn't that.
"Oh," disappointment she didn't expect bubbled up inside her, "That's alright."
James patted her shoulder as he stepped away, ahead, wagging a finger, "Use it as study time!"
Two Seventh Year Gryffindor girls gave the loud Fifth Year boy a dark look, having to skirt around him.
Lily blinked after him, "I was unsure that word was even in Potter's vocabulary..."
Katherine didn't have the heart to tell her that he meant to study broomsticks and flying.
Lupin laughed lightly, "See you, Evans –"
Surprisingly, he turned back as he went after his leaping friend, giving Katherine a nod.
"Spencer."
It was a silly, odd thing, but the saying of her name made Katherine feel awfully seen. Like she was finally just as much as a student as any other. As the days went by, she was beginning to find it hard to remember much of anything she used to do before she came to Hogwarts…
On Saturday, the sun did not peek out from behind black clouds all day. The green Scottish Highlands glowed up at Katherine through every window she passed, loaded with a month's rain – that had fallen overnight.
Any plans for outdoor activities was scuppered by the weather as soon as everyone awoke and took one look out the window. The girls dressed slowly in their warmest clothes, and trudged down to breakfast. There, in the Great Hall, not a head was missing. The fires roared louder than the chatter and din while plumes of steam rose from soups, and plates of scrambled eggs and sausage.
Many were familiar with the idea of a long lunch, but that morning was host to the longest breakfast Katherine had ever experienced. At the prospect of the alternative; the chilly echoing castle hallways, or the limiting walls of the common rooms – there seemed to be nothing much better to do than huddle in warm jumpers and share a yarn over the blistering hot food and drink.
Only when the food disappeared from the tables, to not be re-filled, did people slowly leave their places at the large tables.
Katherine decided to bury herself in the bookcases of the library for the rest of the day. Even Lily wasn't lured by the idea, so Katherine was left on her own. She had found herself a regular in the library in the past weeks, learning quickly the ways of the ordering system – and which books you should avoid touching too much. There had been a few little incidents in which she almost lost half her plait to chomping pages, and her hand to a litany of magical papercuts.
Katherine was working through a large tome on the importance of weather for favourable flying – when Madam Pince's feather that poked from her hat, quivered just out of Katherine's peripheral vision.
"Spencer," said Madam Pince, slowing by Katherine's chosen table by the window, "Potter has detention and needs to help put the returns back in the proper manner,"
James stood behind the hook-nosed librarian, eyeing the shelves with ill-disguised boredom as dozens of stacks levitated around him and onto Katherine's table.
"Make sure that he doesn't set half the library on fire, please. I have to step out for a moment."
"Certainly, Madam Pince." said Katherine, immediately reaching for a stack of the returns.
"How come she doesn't hate you?" James asked, thumbing through the first few pages of a large tome disinterestedly.
"I don't dog-ear the pages." said Katherine, flattening out the page of one of the books in her pile. Katherine turned and crossed the aisle to put a book back with the others in its series, and when she turned back she had to hold a hand to her chest in surprise.
Black stood next to James, his reproving gaze set on the pages of a Dark Arts tome.
James peered over Black's shoulder, curiosity plain on his features.
"Those books are dangerous," Katherine warned, turning to put another book back, "You don't even need a wand for the spells in there."
"Right, you can't just go 'librum incinderae' and expect –"
A surprisingly high-pitched shriek made Katherine turn around. The boys were urgently slamming the hard cover of the offending text closed. James offered her a quick smile, adjusting his glasses before turning back to Black.
The latter of the boys was picking up another book curiously, looking at the numerous stacks in horror, "Giles has got you working like a House Elf…"
"What's that old adage that Mum sticks by when you come round in the summer?" James asked goadingly, "A task shared is a task halved, or some rubbish…"
Black looked down his nose at a stack of books before he reached for it, sighing, "Doing this is going to give me all the good karma I need for the rest of my life..."
Katherine worked in silence, smiling to herself at the things the boys would say, stifling laughter at times.
"I… I've got to take these books a couple aisles over," Katherine announced, unsure whether they would care, "You won't set any more fires while I'm gone, will you?"
James shrugged, peeking inside the cover of a book, "No promises."
Katherine gathered the largest stack so far and wobbled it two aisles over. It was as she was looking for a table to rest them on that she lost the book off the top of the stack.
It didn't hit the ground.
Katherine saw a veiny hand carefully place the book on the table, and then the entire stack was taken from her hands.
"I'd like to apologise for Sirius," said a soft voice.
Relieved, and shaking out her hands, Katherine met the steely gaze of Regulus Black. He stood, forearms flexing under the weight of the books, and smiled.
"Our parents didn't give him enough attention as a child."
Finally, he put them down on the table Katherine had intended to before his intervention. He turned, one hand on the back of the chair and the other smoothing back his already smooth black hair.
He smelt very clean, thought Katherine. It made no sense, but the only descriptor Katherine could conjure in her mind was that he smelt like a sea blossom, and the cool skin of an apple.
"You're not going to tack on a crack at me for not having any parents?" Katherine joked, looking at him out the corner of her eye as she returned a book.
His gaze was unflinching, and as piercingly clear as a blue sky.
"No," the word was soft, and blooming with surprising candour.
He lifted a tome to read the title, and then put it away in the shelf.
"Your assumption about my character far from delights me, I must say. But, then again, I must concede that you don't know me very well."
Katherine watched him curiously all the while, "That's easily rectified."
"Oh, yes," Regulus agreed sarcastically, "Shall we take a stroll through the hallways arm in arm?"
Laughter mingled over Katherine's tongue, and she suggested the most ludicrous idea she could think of, "I could make us friendship bracelets."
Regulus leant closer, his forehead lining as he raised his eyebrows, eyes shining with mirth.
"I know all the hair spells."
He was perhaps the first Slytherin that she felt no threat from whatsoever; with his slim boyish face and neck, and his height – closer to hers. She would have called him a pocket version of his brother, but they weren't too far apart in height.
"Oi, Spencer –"
James paused at the mouth of the aisle, a book in his hand; forgotten.
Regulus cleared his throat, stepped back, and stole away past James to the next aisle. He threw one last look over his shoulder at Katherine, something imperceptible simmering just below the aloof features.
Katherine found herself disappointed by his quick departure, surprising herself.
"James? Where are you, mate?" Black's voice carried over the aisles, "Did you find her?"
James stepped away from the mouth of the aisle, disappearing from Katherine's view.
"I found her about to snog your brother."
"You're kidding,"
Katherine could imagine Black leaning back uninterestedly, "Good thing you stopped it; he's a horrible kisser."
The stack Regulus had helped her with being her last, she was free to leave. She didn't avoid Black or James, but she didn't see them again – vaguely hearing them chatting where she thought was the restricted section.
Katherine almost hoped to find Regulus in the hallway when she left. But she didn't. There wasn't anyone else in sight either.
A long, pained MEOW, however, made Katherine pause in the middle of the hallway, ears peeled for another. Sure enough, there was. Katherine walked towards the sound, hoping Belle was up in Gryffindor Tower…
A broom cupboard was where Katherine's ears led her. She paused at the door, suspicion sparking in her gut, but she opened it anyway. She was promptly pushed in, turning as she fell to find nothing behind her. The door slammed on her before she could look for anything else.
The click of the lock made her face become heavy with horror. She scrambled to her feet, throwing herself against the wooden door. She beat it with her hands, forgetting that she was a Witch.
"Hey!" Katherine cried, "LET ME OUT!"
Hopelessness settled in her stomach. Just as she reached for her wand, something slithered around her ankle. A shriek jumped up Katherine's throat, and she casted the quickest Lumos of her life.
Under the new light, she almost wished that she hadn't. A dark mass of tentacle-like roots shrunk back slightly under her wand-light.
She was trapped with Devil Snare.
Remembering back to what she had read about the plant for Herbology, Katherine stilled. It would only kill you faster if you struggled. That was what made it so popular for assassinations. Watching it, and endeavouring to not move, Katherine wracked her brain for a way to ward it off.
It took a moment of trying to calm her breathing and shaking her hands, before she composed herself enough to think clearly. Then Katherine could recall the rhyme Professor Spout had taught them, about the plant 'sulking' in the sun.
She swiftly rotated her wand, "Incendio!"
The plant immediately receded at the swirls of fire. The tentacle around her ankle went first, to her relief. Watching it coil in on itself, Katherine ensured that it was tamed before she turned her back on it.
"Alohamora!"
The lock didn't budge.
Panicking again, all of the unlocking spells Katherine knew flew from her mind. She just had to get out.
"Reducto!"
BANG! In a flash of light, the door was reduced to dust, the tinkle of the settling powder on the stone buzzing in her ears.
The unmistakable sound of footsteps began to echo off the stone, coming from around the corner. TAP…TAP…TAP –
Coughing, and swatting the dust-cloud in the air, Katherine leapt out, nearly stumbling over –
A pair of well-polished oxfords paused, mid-step, and Remus Lupin was before her – face frozen in surprise as he took in the dusty scene and Katherine's ruffled appearance.
"…Hello." he said, in more than a little confusion.
"I –" Katherine paused to gulp in a few breaths, pressing a hand into her chest in an effort to calm her labouring lungs – "I was locked in a cupboard – Devil Snare –"
Lupin's face fell into a mask of solemnity, all previous amusement gone. His eyes found the cupboard behind her, and the black tentacles searching out of the darkness blindly, curling wildly.
"Locked in a…" he broke off, and his eyes swept over her hurriedly, "Are you hurt?"
The prefect was the paragon of concern.
Katherine felt herself calming, "No… no, I'm alright – just spooked is all, I guess..."
Lupin bent his neck to meet her eye, his own shining kindly, "I personally didn't see anything, Spencer, so I can't do much, but… I highly suggest you tell a professor."
"I had to reducto the door."
A flicker of restrained amusement ran across his face, "Yes, I was there for that bit. Are you not handy with unlocking charms, or…?"
"Ripped shirt sleeves are not a 'statement', Mister Longbottom –" McGonagall's shrill tones had echoed around the corner –
Katherine, in chilling realisation, hurriedly whispered, "She'll see the door!"
Lupin's eyes flashed with immediate understanding. His hand closed around her elbow, and he tugged her along with a quiet, 'come on'.
Two shadows stretched onto the hallway, one McGonagall and the other likely Frank Longbottom –
"And if it were, what would that say? 'I'm a washed up good for nothing bum'?"
Katherine, panting heavily again as she and Lupin sprinted down the hallway, thought she had never done so much running in her life as she had done at Hogwarts in the past three weeks.
Katherine's desperate eyes fell upon the stairs up to the astronomy tower, and she knew they had found their refuge.
They slowly crept up the stairs, their backs to the curving stone wall. Lupin, to her great satisfaction, was breathing as raggedly as her, but he oozed a liveliness that she had not yet seen in three weeks at the castle. If he had been sick, he was certainly better.
Lupin's hand tightened around her elbow, alerting Katherine to the fact that McGonagall and Frank had paused at the foot of the stairs.
Katherine's breath hitched.
Lupin clapped his hand over her mouth. He controlled his own breathing with an enviable calm, his expression apologetic as he pressed his head harder against the stone wall. His eyes then flickered down the shadowed spiral steps, jarringly composed.
The feather in her conical hat quivering, McGonagall shook a scroll of parchment at a meek Frank Longbottom, "You're lucky I don't owl Augusta – does she know about this adventure in fashion?"
Frank turned away from her green stare, his eyes climbing the stairs, and, terrifyingly, he squinted.
The light from the hallway seemed to heat through Katherine's shoe, falling on it like a spotlight. With a panicked gasp, muffled and hot behind Lupin's fingers, Katherine pulled her shoe into the shadows.
Frank looked back to McGonagall, responding to something Katherine hadn't heard over the pounding of blood in her face.
Katherine, noting their disinterest – and being the one of the chopping block if they happened to look harder up the stairs – pressed against Lupin's side, nudging him further up the steps.
They edged up the staircase until both were well out of sight. The flicker of McGonagall and Frank's shadows, and the gentle tap of their shoes, fading, and fading further again, led Lupin to drop his hand from over her mouth.
Taking deep breaths, Katherine slid down the wall into a heap of her robes on a step. Relief was not a strong enough word for what she was feeling. She might as well have been running from Death Eaters again as far as her adrenal response was concerned…
Lupin fell against the opposite, and previously unsafely exposed, stone wall, looking across at her as he too caught his breath.
"You didn't do anything wrong, why did you run too?" asked Katherine, in realisation.
Lupin huffed out a short laugh, a breathy smile following as he blinked and said, "Reflex?"
Katherine too huffed out a copy of his laugh, and closed her eyes for a bracing second before stepping down from where they stood, beginning a slow plod down the stairs. Lupin was soon again beside her, joining her in her descent, already a step ahead on his slightly faster pace.
For the first time, she fully took the Prefect in properly from her new, higher, vantage point.
He was deceptively innocent from afar. Up close, though, he was as far into the transition into manhood as the others; with a long neck that branched out to hard, angular shoulders. She thought she could put all her weight on him, right there, and he would not buckle.
Katherine quickened her pace to match him, meeting his eyes when he glanced down to her.
"You could have dobbed me in." said Katherine, matter-of-factly.
Lupin's lips quirked, but he frowned slightly, "For what?"
They reached the base of the stairs, stepping out into the hallway. Katherine leant on the curve of stone wall, giving Lupin a meaningful, slightly exasperated, look.
With a nod, and quiet 'ah', he seemed to cotton on. Lupin leant his shoulder against the wall beside her, his head too, and then he was looking down at her, "Well, after the whole 'entrapment with a killer plant' thing I thought I ought to cut you a bit of break."
"Moony –"
Lupin's head turned away from her, to where James, Pettigrew, and Black had all come to a stop at the junction of hallway.
Katherine stepped away from the wall, "I think I'll head back to the Tower to find Lily –"
"Actually, we're heading that way –" James seemed to be oblivious to her attempt to politely excuse herself – "Come on."
Pettigrew and Black shared a look, but fell back into step with James as he turned, leading the way.
Katherine glanced to Lupin, hesitant.
Lupin moved off the wall, making a 'well – come on' motion with his head.
"Wasn't it down that hallway?"
"I'm rather sure it was on the seventh floor."
"That's right, it was by that big tapestry..."
Katherine, trailing behind with Lupin – who finally seemed to find a slower gear of walking to slip into – must have let her confusion bleed onto her face.
"Hogwarts doesn't have a fixed floorplan, per se," said Lupin, in quiet explanation, watching as his friends slowed ahead of them, all pointing down a different hallway adamantly. He smiled faintly, tipping his head to Katherine, "We found a room last year, but it seems to have moved around on us since."
James noticed their approach, overhearing their conversation, and grinned with an energetic frazzled air about him, "Brilliant, isn't it?"
"To you, perhaps…" said Black absently, squinting down a skinny off-shooting corridor, "It'll do my head in if we can't figure it out before we graduate."
James sighed, and fondly patted a column, "The old castle will just have to keep her secrets."
They all started walking again, and Black muttered something that sounded like '…the last sodding one to go on it…' as he and James stole out the front of the group, conferring quietly.
Katherine only listened half-heartedly. There – in her mind – was a slot machine, of Snape and Greengrass' faces, going round and round…
It didn't stop her feeling when Lupin glanced to her, then slowed.
"Hold on,"
Katherine stopped, to avoid running into the hand Lupin had put out in front of her.
James, Black, and Pettigrew doubled back.
"That really does look like Peeves up to no good, doesn't it?"
Lupin was indicating down a corridor that led to what Katherine thought was one of the other Transfiguration classrooms. Peeves, one of the more frequently seen apparitions around the castle, was cackling and kicking out his belled shoes in excitement as he fiddled with a door handle that he floated by.
James' eyes flickered from Lupin to Katherine, and back again, "I think we know just the spell."
"I think so." agreed Lupin, nodding with a thoughtful expression.
James pulled out his wand – "All together!" he cried in muster of the boys –
"Waddiwasi!"
A wad of gum that Peeves had been mushing into the keyhole then flew out and up his nose. The poltergeist shrieked, floating back from the door wildly with a cry of 'Argh! Who goes there!?'. He, in a panic, popped out of sight before laying eyes on the four Gryffindor boys.
Howling with laughter, the boys turned away and pressed on in their journey.
Katherine had watched, transfixed, and asked Lupin quietly, "Is that what's going to happen to me if I break the rules again?"
"No," the word left Lupin at a laugh, and he tipped his head down at her with an easy smile, "Though I suggest you stick on the right side of them."
"Here's what you do…"
Out in front, James was saying something to Pettigrew that Katherine couldn't quite catch.
Pettigrew pushed James back, shock gripping his face, "You're stark raving mad – I couldn't do that!"
James sighed, throwing his hands up. In pure happenstance, he threw a glance over his shoulder, and smiled slowly.
"Katherine – you're a girl –"
"No – don't ask her!" gasped Pettigrew, pulling James back around as he hastened on, "It's not that big of a deal… let's just leave it…"
Katherine didn't think she had to know the boy very well to know he wasn't being exactly truthful. With one look at his friends, she knew they were not fooled either.
Mercifully, the boys did leave it alone as they started the climb up the grand staircase. Seemingly not wanting to risk it, Pettigrew picked up the pace, racing ahead of his friends by nearly a whole staircase length.
Katherine hesitated, before saying, "If he asked her out… she'd probably say yes, you know…"
"He just won't do it." said James, at a sigh, shaking his head.
"Why not?" asked Katherine.
Lupin's hand found the back of his neck as they climbed, rubbing, "He's not confident… you know, about the way he looks…"
Her eyes followed the boy in appraisal, and Katherine came to conclusion that Pettigrew wasn't completely unfortunate looking…
Katherine's eyes slid to Lupin on her left, then James on her right, choosing her words carefully, kindly, "He'll… grow into it all..."
Lupin glanced at James across the front of Katherine. The two, while only slightly taller than her, were all legs. They were about a half step in front of her, able to see each other easily, as well as her.
Black, meanwhile, took the steps two at a time, out in front.
"Not his, er…" James trailed off quietly, not looking up from the steps as he gestured to his own teeth.
Reflexively, Katherine's mouth closed around where her own problem teeth used to be. There was no need however to hide them anymore. If she could do the same for Pettigrew…
Black had paused on the landing outside the portrait of the fat lady just ahead, stiffening into a violently straight back.
Lily and Snape stood outside the portrait, obviously in the middle of farewelling one another. "I wonder why they haven't cleaned that blackened step… what kind of spell does that to stone anyway?" Lily could be heard saying, her back to the approaching group.
The floor seemed to tilt away from beneath Katherine's shoes. She was flooded with the disorientating feeling of trying to find one's way in the dark, desperately even, like something was coming up behind you – or in front of you, unbeknownst.
Lupin kept going, clearing his throat, and pointedly ignoring Snape.
It would be easy enough to skirt around them and say the password quietly, as to not be overheard by the Slytherin. Lily stood on the edge of the landing, and Snape was a few steps above her on the adjacent ascending staircase.
Katherine felt James' eyes on the side of her face.
The CLICK of the portrait opening caught Lily's attention, and she finally turned, "Hi Lupin –"
Her eyes flashed back, brightening when they landed on Katherine –
"Oh – Katherine – I was wondering where you got off to!" Lily turned more, her body posture indicative of an invitation for Katherine to join her and Snape. Katherine, though, remained with James. "I ran into Severus when I was looking for you, actually. We found this lovely courtyard out of the rain by Ravenclaw Tower – you have to come with us next time! We spent the whole afternoon there!"
Katherine managed a small tight smile, and a short nod.
"Anyway, see you at dinner, Sev!" said Lily brightly, waving as she turned towards the portrait.
Snape lifted a half-hearted hand, still down by his side, as he turned and trudged up the stairs – out of sight.
Lupin disappeared first through to the tunnel, Lily right behind, and Katherine behind her.
Lily had waited just inside to the portrait, and linked her arm through Katherine's, "So, what did you get up to?"
Katherine felt stranded for a moment, between the choice of lying to Lily, or telling her the truth. The latter felt the most comfortable. Truly, she had missed confiding in Lily.
"Well, I was leaving the library…" said Katherine, preparing to launch into the story.
Besides, thought Katherine, it couldn't have been Snape.
He was with Lily all afternoon.
Author's Note: Thank you for reading! :)