Chapter 10: Dinner and a Tip-Toe up the Tunnel
"The earliest recorded use of a broomstick was in Germany – in what year?"
"Nine hundred and sixty-two."
"Name three Broomstick manufacturing companies."
"Nimbus Racing Broom Company, Comet Trading Company, and…"
Katherine hesitated, her eyes flashing away from her flying tutor, and to the pulsing orange glow of the wall sconces as she wracked her mind for one of the many broomstick companies.
"Flyte and Barker." she said in a relieved breath.
James nodded, and raised his eyebrows at her over his clipboard before looking back down to his list of questions.
"Obscure one at the end there," he murmured lightly.
Katherine was buoyed by the undisguisedly impressed tones of the boy.
"Okay, what was the early name for the position I play in Quidditch?"
Easy, thought Katherine, "Catchers."
James sat opposite Katherine and Marlene, where the girls sat at their usual desk in the Transfiguration classroom. The three had arrived early on Monday morning for the sole purpose of undertaking the long-promised quiz. Professor McGonagall supervised the three in her classroom, it being out of hours. She was seemingly making a lesson plan at her desk…
Backwards on his chair in front, James was making his way down a piece of parchment tacked to a clipboard – from where he procured it, Katherine had no idea.
"What is Blagging?"
"It's a foul…" Katherine trailed off, thinking.
James glanced up at her obvious uncertainty, and nodded encouragingly.
Katherine did her best to jog her own memory, as Marlene had gone over the near seven hundred fouls with her in preparation the previous night. She had definitely heard it…
"It's the broom – when someone tries to hold someone back by grabbing the twigs of their broom to slow them down!"
James nodded and went on. His eyes read ahead to his next question, and he paused to look up at her, bracingly.
"If the Golden Snitch is worth One-Hundred-and-Fifty points, and Slytherin are in the lead of the final match of the year, One-Hundred-and-Ninety to One-Hundred-and-Sixty against Gryffindor –" James' lips twisted a bit at his own words, "But both teams have penalties: Seventy for Slytherin, and Ten for Gryffindor. Spinnet finally shakes the Slytherin Seeker, and in pure relief, takes an easy catch as soon as he can of the Snitch for Gryffindor. The Gryffindor team still loses by ten. How?"
Katherine had always hated number questions. As she riddled and piddled the brain teaser away, the silence stretched as James waited expectantly.
Behind him, McGonagall even glanced up, giving away her feigned pre-occupation with her lesson planning.
Marlene wriggled in her seat beside Katherine, going to open her mouth –
James held up a hand to Marlene, and said, amused, "Don't help her."
Katherine leant back in her chair, letting her head fall back to stare at the ceiling as she thought – hopelessness settling in. She was in the middle of re-calculating the penalties when she got it –
"Slytherin were ahead in the Quidditch Cup, and the catching of the Snitch ended the game, but the points Gryffindor scored weren't enough to win the Cup."
James and Marlene let out a tandem sigh of relief.
"Correct," said James, letting his clipboard fall flat, "I'll say… you're well on your way to being a Quidditch fanatic, Spencer."
The clanging of the bell, and the loud shuffling of shoes into the classroom, brought an end to their quiet morning.
Professor McGonagall rose from her desk, where she had been pretending not to listen to Katherine and James, and began to lead the class in a theoretical lesson on bodily transformations.
James had turned his seat back around to face the front as Black fell into the seat beside him, to all the world – everything was at rights.
It was in talking of the most complex of transformations, that McGonagall posed a question to the class, "Can anyone tell me what differs Animagus transformations from all others?"
Lily had fretted across the walkway from Katherine, where she sat with Mary, eyes desperately scanning down her textbook.
It was to be James' hand that lifted in the air, and his alone. When prompted by McGonagall – he gave an enthusiastic answer of – "An Animagus cannot choose their form."
McGonagall gazed over her spectacles, considering James with an inscrutable expression.
"…Very good, Potter. Five points to Gryffindor."
It wasn't a shock, James' best subject seemed to be Transfiguration.
Beside James, Black had rolled his eyes, and proceeded to keep trying to tip his chair back on two legs.
At the ringing of the bell, the Fifth Years put away their things and left the classroom – the Gryffindor's heading to Defence Against the Dark Arts. Once into the hallway, Lily had sidled up to Katherine.
"You'll remember to tell him – after you hand in your essay?"
Katherine nodded as Lily looped her arm through hers. It was less the possibility of Katherine forgetting, she wagered, and more the fact that she might chicken out that Lily was likely concerned about.
After returning from her misadventure with Devil Snare, Lily had been adamant that Katherine tell Giles – if not McGonagall too – about what happened. McGonagall was out of the question to Katherine, with the rule-breaking that henceforth took place.
They had spent the rest of the night trying to guess who might have done it, Katherine ignoring Marlene's pointed gaze and the undercurrent of hostility towards Snape that ran beneath the whole conversation. As Lily counted one hundred strokes, give or take, the girls seemed to settle on Greengrass as the only other person in the castle with motive.
Staying up later with Marlene, and going over Katherine's notes on all things Quidditch and broomstick flying related, Katherine had also risen early to meet James for her quiz – missing all her other friends at breakfast.
It was odd to think that a mere twelve hours ago she was battling herself free of a locked cupboard.
As it was still dark when she woke, it was only at that moment – stopping by an open balustrade, in the high up Tower housing the DADA classroom – that Katherine got a gauge for the weather that day. The sun had still yet to show its head, seemingly, in the dark torchlight swathed corridors, and it became clear why.
Beyond the balustrade was a wall of mist, and behind it were the vague shapes of trees. The cool morning fog rushed against Katherine's face, thick and ghostly. Summer was truly gone.
Haphazardly lining up for class, the Gryffindor girls organised themselves around a statue of a crouching sphinx. Katherine elected to lean on the wall beside the sphinx, watching the door to the classroom.
No sooner had Alice perched carefully on a shoulder of the statue, did Frank Longbottom slide up past Katherine and sit happily on the other shoulder.
James, having walked with Lupin and Frank, hesitated at the sight of Lily, and kept his distance. Instead, he stopped in front of where Frank sat – and where Katherine leant on the wall.
James mussed his hair, looking back over his shoulder, "Where's Sirius and Peter?"
"Potion, I think," said Lupin, slowing behind his friend. Shockingly, Lupin fell against the wall beside Katherine, and directed to her his tired eyes and a quiet, "Hello."
Katherine offered a small smile back, "Hello."
James turned to speak with Frank and Alice about something escaping Katherine, and it left she and Lupin looking out over the hallway in a comfortable, morning heavy silence.
Lupin gave a long, quiet yawn beside her as his eyes focused interestedly on where Peeves was making a racket in an alcove across the corridor.
"You're letting this one go?" asked Katherine lightly, in memory of the previous night.
Lupin startled slightly, then smiled gently, still watching Peeves.
"It was a bit of a one off, actually," said Lupin, raising his eyebrows at the memory, before blinking, "You seemed a bit out of sorts on the walk back –"
He turned to her, peering down with a pull at his lips –
"– I just wanted to hear you laugh."
The bell clanged loudly at that moment, and the group around them all made for the opening classroom door in a none-too-quiet fashion.
Lupin gave Katherine one last kind look as their friends flooded around them, before pushing off the wall to trail behind James.
As Katherine crossed the threshold into the classroom, her plait was, once again, flicked. Turning, she only saw Black and Pettigrew rushing around her…
Katherine sat with Lily in class, as usual, and the group had a theoretical lesson on further Hex Reversals. The whole hour and a half, her anxiety galloped faster and faster in her chest. Unfortunately, the bell had to ring at some point.
"Miss Spencer –"
Katherine paused as she put away her things.
"– Please stay behind a moment."
Lily gave Katherine a significant look over her shoulder and bustled out with the other girls – heading to lunch.
Snape was the last to leave, eyeing Katherine suspiciously, before he too vanished.
Greengrass, on the other hand, had been one of the first to speed out of the door…
The door clicked shut, and Katherine thought the room felt a little warmer for it.
Katherine pulled out her extra essay, as was their routine – on werewolves this time. In researching for the essay, it struck her most that the creatures were real. Then she was petrified by the grisly facts and accounts of attacks. Werewolves sounded to be positively the stuff of nightmares. Katherine was convinced she would know it by looking at someone if they were a lycanthrope – something horrible like that must write itself upon someone's face, cloaking it in darkness and wickedness…
Parchment in hand, she approached Giles desk as he rounded it, then paused – "What in the world…?"
She followed his gaze to her bruised knee peeking out of her knee socks.
Katherine met Giles' gaze tentatively, "I had a flying lesson the other week."
Giles sighed and sat on the edge of his desk, crossing his ankles.
"You have a sacred birthright, Spencer," chided Giles, his head falling to the side, as if exhausted, "You were chosen to destroy Voldemort, not fly around on a broomstick,"
Katherine tucked her hair behind her ear, as he seemed to not quite be done.
Giles then gave a slight smile.
"I was channelling McGonagall." he said lightly.
Katherine relaxed, even managing a small smile, "She insisted upon the lessons, from my memory."
A short happy beat passed between them, Katherine's dread slowly inching back up inside her at ruining it with her news.
"There's something on your mind."
Katherine's eyes shot up to find Giles' own fixed on her, his head tilted gently.
"What makes you think that?"
He crossed his arms with another rare smile, "I can just read you, is all."
Everything else flew out of her mind, and she just wanted to tell him everything that had happened. She wanted him to nod at the right times, hum concernedly, and then proceed to tell her everything she needed know.
Katherine took a breath, "Saturday evening… I was leaving the library –"
"Alone?" asked Giles, inclining his head and letting his eyes bore into her omnisciently.
A hybrid feeling of embarrassment and reticence trickled through her.
"Well…yes." said Katherine, knitting her fingers together and squeezing.
Giles gave a pursed smile, his eyes kind in their condemnation, "Miss Spencer…"
"I was locked in a broom cupboard with Devil Snare." said Katherine, halting any lecture he might have embarked on.
She thought that he, oddly, didn't look surprised.
"Really?" asked Giles slowly, sounding far too amused to Katherine.
"I think it was Greengrass –"
"Have you told Professor McGonagall?" asked Giles, blinking.
"Good heavens, no," Katherine couldn't stop the expression that twisted her features in her horror at disclosing the encounter to her Head of House, "I had to Reducto the door and barely got away as it was…"
Giles nodded, running his tongue along the inside of his bottom lip before tilting his head again, "What makes you think that it was Miss Greengrass?"
An insurmountable rush of rage surged through Katherine's loins, and she felt her eyelids recede.
"She is, without a doubt, the lowest, most awful creature to ever walk the planet," said Katherine, barely restraining her shrillness, "And she's a Slytherin."
"What about Regulus Black?"
Katherine could only blink for a few seconds, having to forge a new pathway in her brain to try and figure out how Giles knew.
"How do you –"
"I have my ways," said Giles lightly, lifting his chin slightly.
Katherine continued to frown at him, trying to glean the truth from his minute expressions. That itself seemed to do something, and Giles was opening his mouth again without an argument from Katherine, lifting a hand and blinking resignedly.
"Alright, sometimes the idle gossip of teenagers piques my interest."
Katherine swallowed, shaking her head, "He's actually been nice to me – cryptic, sure, but nice."
"You know how Slytherins are; unable to be upfront about anything." said Giles, his eyes glinting with something akin to amusement.
His tone was laced with light condemnation, and Katherine knew why.
"Okay, so maybe I've been suckered into the house rivalries a bit," said Katherine, conceding, "But they do turn out more dark wizards than any other house – it just all adds up to look really bad for Greengrass."
"Well, you know what you have to do then," said Giles, regarding her, "Prove it was her."
"Yes, but how?" asked Katherine, her cheeks laden with her desperation.
"That is up to you," said Giles, standing to his full height, "Unless you have any concerns you're not up to speed with your fellow classmates, I believe that is the last of the essays I will ask you to complete…"
At a loss for ways to prove Greengrass' guilt, Katherine decided to focus her efforts on helping Pettigrew with Mary.
It wasn't difficult to find a book in the library on jinxes and hexes, and then to find the tooth-growing jinx 'Densaugeo' that Snape had used on Katherine. With it was a general cancelling spell, but in the footnotes was a reference to another book on shrinking spells. Writing down the incantations and wand movements for both the jinx and healing spell, Katherine began practicing them on taxidermy animals around the castle.
Unsure if Lily would approve of her tactics, Marlene having Quidditch practise, Alice studying with Lily and unknowingly keeping her occupied, and unable to tell Mary what she was doing, Katherine flitted around the castle on her lonesome – as inconspicuously as possible.
September changed into October on a Tuesday, during the fifth week of term, and Katherine finally felt confident in the new spells.
Having been asked to linger behind at Care of Magical Creatures with Frank and Mary to help clean up the feeding stations, Katherine missed her chance to grab Pettigrew before everyone vanished for lunch. The three were walking into the Great Hall, when Katherine didn't spot Pettigrew with Potter and Black at the Gryffindor table.
As a rule, Katherine didn't approach James when he was in conversation with Black, so she couldn't ask him…
Thinking fast, she quickened her steps, to catch up with Frank.
"Hey, Longbottom?"
Frank, a little startled, offered her a smile as they walked down the table, "Yeah?"
"You don't happen to know where I might find Peter Pettigrew, do you?" asked Katherine, keeping with his strides.
Frank slowed his pace, glancing casually at Katherine out of the corner of his eye, "What for?"
"Well, I know he fancies Mary…" said Katherine, quietly.
Frank stopped and turned to look at her straight on, nodding slowly, eyes slightly sceptical.
Katherine shrugged, tucking her hair behind her ears and pushing it behind her shoulders, "And I just want to help him build up his courage."
She found herself shrugging again under his gaze.
"Yeah, alright," said Frank, finally, lightly. He nodded back towards the doors, "Come on, I'll take you to him."
It was a short, brisk walk to the courtyard where Pettigrew was playing Gobstones with his third-year cousin as Lupin watched on.
Lupin was the first to notice them, nodding to Katherine from where he leant on his elbows on the stone balustrade, "Alright, Spencer?"
"Alright." said Katherine, quietly, casting her eyes curiously over to where Pettigrew and his cousin sat criss-cross on the ground.
Frank leant over to Remus, whispering in his ear.
With a nod, Remus waited until the round of gobstones was over, and shouted, "Oi – Pete!"
Waving goodbye to his cousin in his Ravenclaw robes, Pettigrew crossed to the three by the surrounding section of balustrades of the courtyard.
Pettigrew eyed Katherine, confusedly, "I didn't think you girls played gobstones."
"Never mind the stinking balls of gunk, mate," said Frank, clapping a hand on his shoulder and waving an arm to Katherine, "Miss Spencer may have the very solution to all your romance woes, dear Peter."
Pettigrew's eyes went wide with alarm, and he leant in, whispering urgently, "You haven't told Mary, have you?"
"No, of course not." said Katherine, furrowing her eyebrows in disbelief.
Pettigrew frowned, eyeing her suspiciously, "Are you sure?"
"I have not breathed a word. Cross my heart and hope to die." said Katherine, earnestly, laying a hand over her heart.
After a long moment, Pettigrew finally gave a nod. Then he looked very feeble as he went to speak –
"Well… what do you suggest?"
Katherine took a breath, readying to launch into her pitch, "Well, Snape cornered me outside the portrait the other week –"
Lupin's head snapped to her "– He what –?"
"– and Gideon took me to Pomfrey, to reverse the Densaugeo jinx he used…"
Pettigrew's face relaxed into understanding, and he lowered his eyes before looked out over the sloping lawns.
"I used to hate the way I looked, but Pomfrey kept healing them back further than the damage done by the jinx – better than they were before. And it's been brought to my attention that it's something you had in common with me…" she trailed off, unsurely, "You don't need to do it, there's nothing wrong with it… after all, she likes you anyway…"
Pettigrew looked up, blinking, "She does?"
"Give it a go, Pete," Frank gripped Pettigrew's shoulder tighter, giving him a light shake, "Might have half the school drawling after you – you never know."
Pettigrew battled a small smile, looking out over the lawns again.
"Well…" he said, at last, turning back, and glancing around them anxiously, "Not here."
Katherine nodded quickly, "I've thought of that – we could use Moaning Myrtle's bathroom."
Pettigrew looked to Frank and Remus, and back to Katherine a few times, thought plain in his eyes.
"…Alright."
"I should be getting back," said Frank, casting a glance back to the Entrance Hall, with one last pat of Pettigrew's shoulder he turned to leave, "You'll be right, Pettigrew."
The hallways were mostly empty, with everyone at the Great Hall for Lunch, so they were uninterrupted as they made the quick journey to the abandoned bathroom.
At one point, Katherine thought she saw Black coming out the boy's bathroom on the first floor doing a double take when he saw them hastening through the hallways together. He must have simply kept on walking in the direction of the Great Hall as he didn't attempt to approach them.
And then was the tricky, up close, and personal part.
Lupin leant back on one of the basins around the centre column, one arm crossed across his chest and the other resting against his mouth as he watched on at a courteous distance.
"It might be a little painful, but there's less to do then when mine got done… so it shouldn't be too bad…"
Pettigrew nodded apprehensively.
Katherine awkwardly indicated with her wand that Pettigrew needed to open his mouth, and then, when he hesitantly complied, set to work, whispering the incantation and slowly twisting her wand…
A slight wince and squinting of his eyes was the only indication of any pain the boy felt, but after a mere moment, the teeth had corrected and shrunk perfectly into place – and it was over.
Katherine stepped back, stowing away her wand, "Okay, that's it…"
Pettigrew nodded, turning and bracing his hands on a basin as he bared his teeth to the mirror.
Together with the observing Prefect, Katherine watched as Pettigrew cast a critical eye over his adjusted bite. Feeling to voyeuristic, Katherine glanced to Lupin, and decided that she might try for some conversation to give Pettigrew some semblance of privacy.
"So, did you end up finding the room?"
Lupin blinked at her words, then seemed to cotton on quickly to her meaning.
"We've thrown in the towel, actually, accepted it as forever lost to us," said Lupin, looking down at his shoes, tapping them together absently, "Unfortunately, Sirius and James have decided to undertake another project of sorts..."
"Blimey, I look alright..." came Pettigrew's awed voice as he stepped back, turning this way and that in front of the mirror.
"A real stallion, mate," said Lupin, bolstering his friend, "Now all you've got to do is talk to her."
Pettigrew's face was then in the grips of mortification, "What's next? A bloody lap dance?"
Katherine and Lupin glanced to one another, the Prefect with a wry glitter in his eyes.
Lupin turned back to his friend, tipping his head thoughtfully, eyebrows raised, "I'd work up to that one."
Pettigrew began muttering to himself and turned, making for the tiled walkway leading out to the hallway.
The bathroom seemed to echo with its quietness, large and empty around the two remaining.
Lupin smiled tiredly down at Katherine, raising his eyebrows, "Heading to lunch?"
Katherine nodded, remembering that she was actually rather hungry, having forgone the beginning of her break to cajole Pettigrew into letting her help him…
"Excellent," said Lupin, pushing away from the sink he was leaning on, "You're far less likely to be locked in a cupboard with a deadly plant when walking with a Prefect."
The implication of what he meant by his words sunk in when they had traversed the tiled walkway out the main hallway. In the beaming, broad daylight, Lupin walked unmistakeably with her in the stream of students.
Katherine had never walked so publicly with a boy before and felt a spark of excitement travel out from her chest – like a firework.
A group of third years bustled around them, the girls staying steadfastly away from the boys. It was a measly two years – between them and Katherine. Yet they suddenly seemed a great deal younger to Katherine.
She did not have much time to dwell on her revelation. Half of the Slytherin Quidditch team also approached from the other direction, others parting like the red sea for them.
Lupin – instead of easily making way for the upperclassmen and splitting from Katherine – waited a step behind, sticking with her as she skirted around them.
Beyond thinking of the mild-mannered Lupin as her favourite out of the Gryffindor boys, Katherine had not really paid the boy much mind before. From that mere decision alone, however, she held him in even higher esteem. He was not embarrassed to be seen with her in the way so many other boys their age seemed to be when stuck walking with a girl.
She had always wondered when the transition was – for the boys her age to change into the Sixth and Seventh Year Casanovas roving the hallways. In the past weeks, she had quickly looked away as older students walked hand-in-hand, as boys pulled girls onto their laps, and kissed cheeks before loping off to class.
Then, however, as she and Lupin passed a pair of Sixth Year Ravenclaws; the girl leaning against the wall, and the boy leaning against the wall with one hand, the other familiarly on her hip as he whispered in her ear… –
Katherine went warm all over. She, for the first time, imagined how the hands would feel on her. The need to steady her breathing, and the slight pang of fear in her gut, indicated to Katherine that perhaps she still wasn't quite ready for such things.
She had never paid it much mind before. She wondered… how could it all look so different suddenly?
It felt as if she had only been fourteen an hour ago, in the wooden, echoing corridors of St. Mary's. She had only held concerns for the panic of needing to pass at a C1 level in French, for the chance to go out into London at the weekend and get to a sweet shop, and whether or not they would get a free swim at the end of P.E. in the school's heated pool.
At that age, you think boys have as much personality as coat hangers, and you don't notice their looks.
Then you grow up.
Slughorn's dinner had been postponed numerous times over the beginning of the term. He had invited both the Head Boy and Head Girl, and numerous prefects (almost all of which had Quidditch practices to attend) without accounting for clashing schedules. And, wanting all who had been invited able to attend, the dinner had to wait until the sixth week of term.
The second Friday of October had been far from Katherine's mind. Between James' lessons, Pettigrew's plight, normal lessons, and threats on her life – it had lingered far into the background of her daily concerns.
On Friday, after lessons, the girls' dormitory seemed to have a pulse – and it was hammering. Alice, Katherine, and Lily all needed to be showered and dressed for the Slug Club dinner.
"Stop looking at me like that, Katherine," said Marlene, looking up from a magazine she flicked through. She cracked a genuine smile, "I'm not one to care for Professor Slughorn's pandering."
Alice turned back from the mirror as she did her hair, eyes glittering, "You wound us shallow beings."
"Perhaps, if it wasn't for the fact that you're all just too polite to say no." said Mary, upside down on her bed, legs up on the wall and her heels thumping out a rhythm.
"No, actually," said Lily sarcastically, emerging from the bathroom in her towel, "I want to be filthy rich."
Marlene, smiling, raised her eyebrows as she flicked the page over, "Shame we'll all have to get married and spit out some kids when we could all be greats of the wizarding world…"
It was an odd prospect for the fifteen-year old's, but, seemingly inevitable if they travelled the normal path of everyone around them. Most people were marrying straight out of school, and there was the whispered about notion of a 'love child', sniffed at like it was the height of dishonour by Katherine's aunt.
"How many for you and Gary, do you reckon?" asked Alice, pulling on her shoes over her stockings.
"Enough for a Quidditch team."
Lily came up behind Katherine, placing her hands on the shoulders of her red shift dress before picking up a brush and gently running it through Katherine's hair.
"You deserve to look like the height of loveliness tonight, after everything," said Lily, smiling in the mirror before stage-whispering, "Especially as Gideon will be there."
"Come on, you two!" said Alice, calling from the door.
Katherine and Lily sprung up, slipping on their shoes – in Katherine's case, zipping up her favourite black boots. Together, they followed behind Alice, sticking out amongst the school robed students making their way to dinner. The feeling of being a part of something special put a spring in Katherine's step as she and Lily strode, arm in arm.
"Katherine?"
"Yeah?"
"…I don't think I want to get married."
Katherine turned to her friend, finding Lily staring ahead, expression blank – shocked, almost, at her own admission.
"You don't have to." said Katherine, as their shoes continued clacking beneath them, squeezing Lily's arm a little tighter.
Lily smiled, turning to Katherine, "Spinsters for life?"
Katherine brought around her spare hand.
"Pinky promise."
Lily linked her little finger with Katherine's automatically, "Pinky promise,"
Holding their linked arms a little tighter, they continued up the steps to Slughorn's quarters.
Carefully planting her shoes, Lily said in hushed proclamation, "We'll grow old together!"
"It's going to be you and me living in a big house... these two old biddies with all these cats," said Katherine, adding to the invented future, "I bet we even die on the same day."
They waltzed into Slughorn's quarters, carrying their cheerfulness with them.
It was there that they happened across Narcissa sitting in the middle of a group of blazers like a white rose; laughing at the right times, her teeth gleaming appealingly.
Lucius Malfoy had forfeited the spot next to his fiancée in favour of sitting by the window with a goblet, his face twisted as if he had just walked into the greenhouse after the plants had been fertilized. A silver ring on his pinky finger drew Katherine's attention, there was something engraved on it, but she couldn't see from her distance…
The boy beside him startled Katherine from her observation.
Regulus Black stood straight-backed in front of the window that the rain beaded against. He wasn't extraordinarily tall or built, being only fourteen, but he didn't look out of place amongst the upperclassmen. His eyes lifted to her, as if sensing her gaze.
Katherine offered him a small smile.
He blinked once, lifting his eyebrows. His eyes slipped around the room before he offered her a smile, quicker than apparition, his face falling back to its default haughty expression immediately after. He pointedly kept his eyes away from Katherine after that, seeming to be keeping one of them on Malfoy.
Katherine was one of only a few girls in attendance. Katherine realised that fact as Slughorn got everyone seated. There was Alice, Frank, Gideon, Lily, and James from Gryffindor. Malfoy, Narcissa, and Regulus from Slytherin. And a seventh year Ravenclaw boy.
"Damocles, m'boy!" Slughorn addressed the Ravenclaw boy gleefully, "On my left, son."
Slughorn turned to Katherine, something alcoholic swishing in his goblet.
"Katherine, dear girl," said Slughorn with rosy cheeks and a more subdued smile, "On my right."
Katherine sat where she was directed, the round table ensuring that everyone could see each other easily. Alice and Frank were next to each other, directly across from Katherine and Slughorn. James on Frank's other side and Lily on Alice's. Regulus was next to James, beside Katherine. Malfoy was beside Damocles, making him harder for Katherine to see. Something she was glad for. Meanwhile, Slughorn also seemed to think it fitting to put the Head Boy and Girl beside one another.
Slughorn snapped his fingers once everyone was seated, a house elf appearing with a crisp POP.
"Are you ready for the first course?"
Slughorn nodded with a pleased smile.
"Yes, Binky," He answered, holding up a hand and laughing boisterously, "No need to rush between courses."
"Yes, Mister Slughorn." Binky replied, before disappearing with another POP.
"So polite, sir." Commented Malfoy, his icy eyes wrinkling with the faintest of squints.
"I don't know why anyone would ever forget to be polite to someone." Shot out of Katherine's mouth before she could control herself.
James had been right, of course, on the first night of term. Just looking at Malfoy could make one want to hex him.
Regulus' nose swung towards Katherine in her periphery.
"Binky isn't someone – she's a house elf." drawled Lucius Malfoy.
"How is your own House Elf these days, Malfoy?" said James.
Frank shook his head at his friend.
James, however, was like a dog with a bone, "Make him iron his hands lately for incorrectly washing your y-fronts?"
Surprising everyone, Narcissa was the first to laugh, raising a dainty hand to her plum-painted lips.
Slughorn lifted his utensils as bowls of soup cropped up around the table like they did at meals in the Great Hall, "Well, dig in, everybody!"
All the while, Katherine snuck glances at Regulus' gold cufflinks until she was brave enough to meet his eyes; not un-similar to the indigo milk cap mushrooms on his plate.
"You're not going to offer some cutting comment in defence of your fellow Slytherin?" she whispered.
Regulus chewed his mouthful neatly, then leant his head slightly closer to hers, speaking softly, "I was always taught that if you want to know the worth of a man, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals,"
Katherine turned to her right, startled both by Regulus' words and his shoe tapping her own beneath the table.
No one had ever done such a thing to her before. Her mouth opened, and closed again, as she endeavoured to not reveal to the table just how out of sorts she was – and without a reply.
Regulus, however, nonchalantly returned to slicing his mushroom.
"Besides, you said it all. And thankfully so, as I could not possibly get away with it," he said, pausing his forkful just shy of his mouth to continue, "I guess when one has a prophecy written about them, it's not because their exceptionally passive."
"Prophecy?" she asked, having little to no knowledge of such a thing.
Regulus ceased chewing, his utensils hovering above his plate as he stilled completely.
Katherine tried again, "There's a prophecy – about me?"
"It's not… common knowledge," said Regulus, slowly, "But those of us with family connections in the Ministry…"
Regulus' eyes flickered to Slughorn on Katherine's left. His shoulders stiffened and his eyes flickered back to Katherine with an imperious glint.
"Laugh."
"What?"
"Come on, Slughorn will probably kick me out if he thinks I'm threatening you." said Regulus, with a hint of urgency pulling at Katherine's compassion.
So, she laughed, throwing her head back in the delicate way she had honed over the years shadowing her aunt.
Regulus chuckled politely.
Slughorn, predictably, promptly lost interest.
Gideon Prewett, however, was frowning at Katherine.
Her chest quaked.
"– and, James Potter," Slughorn zeroed in on the boy with jet black hair, "Has your father, Fleamont, considered making any more potions?"
James swallowed his sip of soup and smiled.
"Sleek-ezy and skelo-gro provide a plentiful profit for our family to be comfortable," James answered, sounding obscurely humble at the mention of potions that were staples in the wizarding community, "Unfortunately, he isn't getting any younger and retirement is imminent, I would say."
Katherine had never heard James speak so well.
Slughorn smiled conspiratorially, resting his hand on his quaking belly; his rings on display.
"You could sit happily on that gold without working a day in your life," said Slughorn jovially, "But you still wish to be an Auror?"
James nodded, suddenly solemn. His soup was forgotten at the mention of his future career.
"Gold doesn't mean very much when there's a war on." said James, his eyes sliding to Lucius and Regulus before back to Slughorn.
Slughorn nodded quickly.
"Oh, yes, of course," Slughorn readily replied, blinking and raising his eyebrows, "It's very good of you to take such an interest in the political climate of our community,"
The soup suddenly vanished from the table, and the bread and water refilled.
"And the lovely Lily," Slughorn redirected his attention to the red head –
James wasn't complaining –
"– how are your parents in the muggle world? Is your father still a…" Slughorn trailed off, frowning, and at a loss for Lily's father's occupation.
"A Policeman?" Lily supplied, nodding, "Yes, there's quite a bit of bedlam in the muggle world too so he is kept busy a lot of the time."
Slughorn nodded, pleased, but desperate for a lighter topic. His eyes wandered the table, already having spoken to Alice and Frank, before they fell on Regulus where he sat beside Katherine.
"Regulus Black; the most accomplished school-boy Seeker I've ever seen, any offers from England yet?" Slughorn asked, riled up by his own hype-talk.
Regulus' hand twitched where it rested on the tablecloth, beside Katherine's.
Regulus inclined his head, "I dare say I'm still too young for consideration."
Malfoy and Regulus exchanged an array of firm looks in a matter of seconds.
"Nonsense!" Slughorn swatted the air, accidentally knocking over his water that he hadn't touched that evening, "You're fifteen in December, what else would you do?"
"I do work with my Father, preparing to take over the Black family's seat in the Wizengamot one day." Regulus replied automatically– indifferently.
"Should that not be a job for your older brother?" Slughorn inquired, his interest increasingly ten-fold, "I did invite him this evening… as always…" the man mumbled to himself, raising his eyebrows.
Regulus' back straightened, and his lips became thin.
Katherine shuffled awkwardly in her seat beside Regulus, feeling, suddenly, that it could be a very precarious place to be.
"My brother has other aspirations." Regulus deadpanned.
Slughorn blinked, unable to take stock of the moment in his semi-inebriated state, and smiled, before turning his attention to the boy beside him.
"For those of you who don't know," said Slughorn, anew, "Damocles is pioneering new werewolf research."
Damocles Belby was a gangly young man with glasses suited to someone three times his age. His hair had a certain kind of tidied messiness that came with appearance upkeep taking a backseat to reading one more chapter. His robes were expensive and fitted, as he came from a good family, but no amount of galleons could buy him a body to properly fill them.
Katherine often saw him in the library, hunched over books. She could finally put a name to his face.
"Terrible affliction, lycanthropy." Damocles conceded, bowing his head.
"Werewolves are people too." said Lily, eyeing him over the glass she sipped from.
"Oh, yes, yes," said Damocles with wide eyes, "I meant no prejudice – my cousin's a werewolf; hence why I'm working on a cure."
Katherine might have had ants in her pants at the opportunity to speak with him.
"Is that with Aconite?" asked Katherine quickly.
Slughorn had leant back to allow his students to converse in front of him, smiling at the scene.
"W-well, yes! How'd you know?" Damocles spluttered out excitedly.
Katherine gave a small smile, "I can smell it on the benches after the seventh-year class lets out."
Damocles ignored their Professor, blinking at Katherine, "Do you know much about werewolves?"
"Just what's in the textbooks." Katherine shrugged.
"I'm very close to finishing," Damocles nodded, pride seeping into his quiet voice, "I think that I will finish it before the end of term."
"It will be a shame to see you graduate, Belby." lamented Slughorn, frowning into his goblet of mead.
"You still have my younger brother." Damocles tried to bolster the suddenly down-trodden man.
His words didn't lift Slughorn's spirits. But the main course that arrived not seconds later, did.
The rest of the night flew by after that. Dessert was short, Lily needing to leave for Prefect patrols and everyone else needing to get back to their dormitories before curfew. Regulus did not seem to care to stick around to further explain the information he dropped upon her without warning.
Frank had taken Alice for a walk, promising the rare sight of the Giant Squid breaching in the moonlight.
Gideon and Damocles had stayed behind for a night cap with Slughorn, being of age.
Katherine was left to walk back to Gryffindor Tower herself, everyone else having other common rooms to return to.
Or so she thought.
"Spencer!"
Halting and turning, Katherine realised that she yet to account for the last Gryffindor who wasn't old enough for some firewhisky.
His jet-black hair flopped in the firelight of the wall torches as he jogged to a stop beside Katherine, "It's late, we should walk back together."
"Safety in numbers?" asked Katherine.
"Something like that." said James, smoothing his hand through his hair as they started walking once again.
"There's death in numbers too," said Katherine, lightly, "It's called a massacre."
"Shall I fetch Sirius?" asked James sarcastically, smiling back at her, "Make it a real blood bath?"
The hallways had been empty all the way to the third floor, the pair not even happening across any Prefects or Professors. Katherine had initially planned, before James joined her, to use the shortcut behind the tapestry on the Charms Corridor that would come out in the Trophy Room. She didn't know when Greengrass would strike again, and thought it best to stick to the secret passageways – and out of broom cupboards.
"If we're being safe, I know a quicker and quieter way back to the Tower." said Katherine, as they slowed by the passage Giles had shown her on the first day.
"A secret passage?" asked James, slowly grinning, "Who showed you this?"
Katherine found his grin infectious, "I can't tell you all my secrets."
It had only taken minutes to come out on the other side. But, before she stepped out into the trophy room, she felt her boots SQUELCH. Looking down and then back down the tunnel, Katherine saw water rising up the incline of stone.
Remembering her wand that was shedding light upon this fact, Katherine turned to the opening and threw herself out.
James simply stepped out, muttering a 'Nox' and stowing his wand in his robes as he eyed Katherine concernedly.
"Everything okay, Spencer?"
Looking around, Katherine realised that it was possible that a pipe may have burst, and took the hand that James offered her to regain her footing. Before she could sigh in relief, her wand left her hand.
With impressive speed, James whipped out his own, looking around, and no sooner was disarmed too.
Looking around for the person who had disarmed them both, Katherine felt dread weigh down her skin. The situation was very reminiscent of the Devil Snare incident. And, just like she had been back then, Katherine was forced back into the passage. This time, without her wand.
This time, with James.
"Not again…" groaned Katherine, raising her hands to thump into the stone in hopes of someone – anyone – Filch, even, to hear and come to their aid.
James searched for a way out, and Katherine continued beating on the stone wall until her hands began to bleed. Only then did she fell back against the wall, defeated.
"Oh, goodness, we're going to die in here…" said Katherine, her hands finding holds in the rock wall to pull herself up and out of the water lapping at her chest.
"Be positive." said James, valiantly still searching for another way out, his broad shoulders to her.
"We're going to die quickly."
The look he threw over his shoulder almost made Katherine laugh, feeling the most at ease with him that she ever had before.
Slowly, the water rose. And slowly, Katherine ran out of tears, accepting her fate and just wishing that it would hurry up.
Even James turned back, leaning against the wall beside Katherine, "Well…if we're going to die in here…"
Hearing him say the words made Katherine realise that she still entertained delusions of being saved, not daring to think that they would come true. Hogwarts, though, seemed to have other ideas. As James went to speak again, so did another voice – from the other side of the door.
"Are you mumbling the spell?" a hushed voice whispered.
Katherine shot off the wall, water splashing around her armpits as she and James made for the door.
"No," another voice replied, the stone wall crumbling in an effort to open it from the outside, "It's–just–not–budging."
Katherine let out a cry of relief, pressing her ear to the door, barely noting that James had done the same.
"Here, let me have a go." the first voice insisted.
There was a pause and the sound of scuttling shoes, murmured curse words meeting Katherine's ears through the stone.
"What are you doing here?" It was Lily's voice, "Five words or less."
Katherine almost cried again. Lily was there. She would get Katherine out for sure.
"Out. For. A. Walk…" who Katherine could now decipher as being Black answered, "Evans."
Katherine didn't care much for hearing more of the group's conversation, she had to get their attention before they left. She beat on the wall again, ignoring her cut up hands. As she heard attempts being made to open the passage, the water began to rise more quickly.
"There's water leaking out," Lupin commented, "Do you think someone's stuck in there?"
James and Katherine exchanged glances at Remus Lupin's astuteness.
"We should get a Professor." Katherine heard Lily say.
"No."
"What do you mean 'no'?" Lily sniped.
Katherine was startled by how vividly she could imagine Black rolling his eyes. Even with the water being up to her neck.
"I mean no," said Black, "Do you want to hear it in French?"
"That's Katherine's wand…" said Lily, "She's stuck in there without her wand!"
Katherine was gulping air against the top of the passage when they finally managed to open it, James' larger head disadvantaging him and sending him under a flat second before her. They flowed out with the water, carried by it, scraping their knees on the stone floor when it drained away and dumped them.
Katherine looked around from where she lay in a heap on the floor. Lily and Lupin were by the 'Services to the School' plaques, Lily advancing forward to help Katherine up.
Black and Pettigrew were standing at the opening of the passageway. They were looking from it, to Katherine, to James, and back again.
"We should definitely get a Professor." Lily maintained, glancing around in paranoia.
"No." gulped Katherine, as Lily helped her stand.
"Not again," said Lily before launching into a tangent, "Katherine, you're delirious from lack of oxygen –"
"I think that I'm going to have to side with Lily and highly suggest that you tell someone." Lupin chimed in, frowning.
"Do you know who did it?" asked Lily as she squeezed out Katherine's hair.
Katherine watched the water from her hair make a puddle on the ground.
"Well…no, but I'm pretty sure it was Greengrass." answered Katherine, squeezing some water out of her dress.
"It's Giles! Scatter!" Pettigrew declared suddenly, ducking into the previously flooded passageway.
Black also disappeared into the passageway, Lupin pulling Lily in too who was digging her heels in. James followed Lily, pausing at the open door and waving Katherine hurriedly in.
"Come on, quick!" whispered James, his hair slicked back by the water – and neater than Katherine had ever seen it.
"Go," said Katherine with a weak smile, "I won't get in trouble."
James hesitated, his eyes flashing to the shadow stretching around the corner, back to Katherine. Then he seemed to tear himself from the very fabric of space to careen back down the drained tunnel behind the rest of the fifth year Gryffindors.
Katherine, not fleeing, instead searched for her wand that Lily had sighted. She eventually found it underneath one of the cabinets, having to get down on her knees to reach for it.
The clearing of a throat, despite Katherine expecting Giles' appearance, made her jump. Her head found the edge of the underside of the cabinet. Katherine yelped, before retrieving her wand and slithering out from underneath the piece of furniture.
Giles looked from the flooded floor – to Katherine's drowned clothes – to the open passage, and then finally back to Katherine. Giles sighed before he pulled out his own wand. He gave it a complicated little wave so that hot air streamed out of the tip; he then pointed it at her dress, which began to steam as it dried out.
"Let me guess," said Giles with a tired smile, "Slytherins?"
Katherine fell into step with him, "I can't even go to a nice dinner without an attempt being made on my life..."
"You should have taken a jumper."
The month started to streak by. Slughorn's dinner was followed by the seventh week of term – and the third week of October. With most of her fellow Gryffindors in on the unspoken rule that Katherine was attacked whenever alone, she was scarcely left by herself.
Black even seemed slightly less intimidating, though he didn't go out of his way to acknowledge her – let alone speak to her. Katherine, however, thought his expression was a little less haughty when he looked up from his copy of the Daily Prophet one morning.
James managed to squeeze in two practical broomstick flying lessons that week. He and Katherine would take to the pitch in the early afternoons, right after classes, and before the evening rain showers that had become like clockwork. Charitably, he had leant her his broomstick for their lessons – "Nicked Sirius'" he had said cheerily, to explain the near replica broom he himself rode.
He had even gotten a whistle from somewhere, and had taken to calling out commands for her to do on the fly – "Barrel roll – now a loop to loop – through the ring – under, then over, under again –"
Lily had even come out to one of the lessons, her curiosity finally getting the best of her. She was scarcely seen without the camera her parents had sent her with their reply to her letter, and had it with her again in the spectator towers as she sat, wrapped tightly in her winter cloak and scarf with Marlene.
After watching curiously at the beginning, a little apprehensively, she seemed to mostly focus on taking artistic photographs of Marlene against the skies. On occasion, Katherine saw the lens pointed in her direction.
Classes and homework took up a lot of the Fifth Year's spare time, the OWL's ebbing at the edges of everyone's mind. And as the workload became miserable, so did the weather. The only positive thing about the eighth week of term, for most, was that it led into the first Hogsmeade trip of the year.
Katherine listened to her friends natter excitedly about all the places they wished to go, knowing all the while that she would be staying back at the castle. Though she yearned to share in her friends' excitement, she attempted to look on the bright side of a vacated castle.
Maybe, she mused, she would finally get a weekend of peace.
Author's Note: Thank you for reading! :)