"I told you that you weren't allowed to make any more of it! And certainly, you weren't allowed to experiment on muggles. On muggles!" Mrs. Weasley yelled.
When Mr. Weasley and his sons went to pick up Harry from the Dursleys' house to go watch the Quidditch World Cup, they couldn't prevent the twins from pulling a prank on Harry's disgusting cousin.
"How do you want us to succeed if you don't let us try?" replied Fred, raising his voice to match her mother's.
"I want you to succeed by getting the O. you were supposed to take."
"The store it's not going to…"
"The store? I don't want to hear anything else about that store of yours."
"But…"
"No buts. Go to your room and bring downstairs everything you kept in there."
The twins got up and reluctantly went upstairs.
Molly sighed and went to the kitchen to seat beside Bill and Charlie. Arthur, who hadn't said anything during the whole argument, approached the table, glanced between Charlie and Bill, and moved his head to the front door indicating they should leave the room. The two young Weasleys understood and stood up slowly, afraid to make any sudden movement or noise as if his mum was a bomb about to explode.
Mr. Weasley and Bill went outside, to get some extra chairs for dinner. Charlie had only one foot outside when he remembered something.
"Oh…uh…Kate will arrive later, mum." He said quietly. He stared at his mom, who was looking at the table with both hands in her head. She raised her head and forced a smile at Charlie "I'll make more salad, then." Charlie nodded and closed the door behind him to join his father and brother.
Upstairs the rest of the family was waiting impatiently for the argument to end.
"I think they've stopped arguing," said Hermione "Shall we go down and help your mum with dinner?"
In no time the house looked like Diagon Alley when there was 10% off in Flourish and Blotts. The members of the family were entering and leaving the house, bumping into each other and trying their hardest not to drop anything. At some point someone had left the door open, which was very helpful, and soon they were all outside enjoying the warm weather and the delicious meals Molly had prepared.
They were about to start eating dessert when they heard a "pop" that resonated in the Weasley garden. Everyone turned their heads in the direction of the noise and stood very still.
"My dear girl, we were starting to think you wouldn't come…"
"I wouldn't miss a Weasley meal for the world"
"Too bad, we didn't wait for you to eat," intervened Fred.
"Yes, there's nothing left, not a single potato"
"Is that so? And to think I brought things from Romania for you…" the twins looked at each other excitedly, but they remembered the argument with their mother and their eyes lost the characteristic spark they usually have. Confused by the unusual behaviour of George and Fred, she sought answers from the closest person: Charlie. Neither of them could contain the smile when they saw each other again after two days. The twins momentarily forgotten. They were still staring at each other when they heard Molly's voice.
"Are you hungry, Kate? Do you want some salad?"
"Yes, please, Mrs. Weasley, I've had a very long day."
"Of course, of course, come on, give me that," she quickly took her backpack and disappeared inside the house.
"Welcome, Kate, we were wondering what took you so long," Mr. Weasley said. Kate approached Mr. Weasley to kiss him on the cheek.
"Thank you, Mr. Weasley. Well, I wanted to say hi to Madam Pomfrey," she kept going around the table to put an arm around Bill's neck as a greeting. She snorted and touched Bill's earring "What's this?" "It's called style, I don't expect you to understand…" She laughed and continued her story.
"She wrote to me and asked me if I could bring her some Hungarian herbs… Hello, Percy…" Percy, who was deep in thought answered a brief "Good evening, Katherine." When she got to Charlie, he pulled his chair back so that Kate would give him a small kiss on the lips. "Hey" "Hi" they smiled, and Kate went to greet Ron and his friends.
"Madam Pomfrey had no time to waste and put me to work immediately!" Soft laughter invaded the garden. "Hi, guys, how long since last time!" Harry and Hermione were most surprised to see that the famous Katherine Williams remembered them. They'd only seen her once, in their first year, when they smuggled Norbert, now Norberta, out of Hogwarts. They didn't expect the hug she gave them both, either. "How are you, Ron?" "You're just in time, I don't think I could have survived another conversation about cauldrons…" Upon hearing this, Percy looked up and turned his eyes to his brother. "You are sensible, Katherine, you will agree that the standardization of the thickness of cauldrons is vital." Kate sighed dramatically and shrugged. "Someone has to do it." "Exactly." Bill snorted, and Charlie smiled shaking his head.
"Katie, why didn't you and Charlie arrive together?" Ginny asked.
"An emergency at the hospital forced me to stay there. An unauthorized duel that ended badly." Kate approached the twins from behind, putting her hands on each of their shoulders. "Is everything alright?" "Splendid." She frowned and looked up at Charlie who gave her an I'll tell you later look. She nodded and turned at the sound of a door opening and closing. "Here you go, dear, eat, eat" Kate sat in the free chair next to the twins. "Thank you, Mrs. Weasley".
Several conversations occurred at the same time at the table. Kate realized how much she missed being with them, her second family, and she remembered the summers she spent at The Burrow with their friends when they went to Hogwarts.
"Look at the time," Mrs Weasley said suddenly. "You really should be in bed, the whole lot of you."
They all stood up and headed inside the house. Charlie put one arm around Kate's shoulders once she finished taking off her shoes and leaving them next to the door. She smiled at him and hugged his waist.
"Kate, I left your stuff in Ginny and Hermione's room," said Mrs. Weasley. Charlie sighed, a bit annoyed.
"Thank you, Mrs. Weasley."
They went to Charlie's room and stood facing each other in front of the door.
"Almost" Kate laughed "At first, I understood, but it's been years! We even live together…" Charlie said shaking his head.
"I'm sure you can handle one more night without me. Besides, you and Bill can gossip without anyone interrupting you."
"Yeah, we'll talk about how mean you are with me"
Kate smiled. She put both hands on his chest and slid them to his shoulders to finally put them around his neck. Charlie wrapped her in a hug.
"So, what's wrong with…you know, the twins?"
"Another argument with Mum about the jokes, and the OWLs, and the store…the usual. What did you bring for them?"
"Oh, I was going home from the hospital when I saw these sweets in that store next to the bar we went to a few weeks ago…"
"Your Waterloo" "Yes! That one and they were selling some kind of candy that explodes in your mouth or something, and I thought 'Those two would love it.'"
"I'm sure they will but wait a little for things to cool down."
They stood there in comfortable silence. Kate put her head on Charlie's shoulder and he buried his nose in her hair.
"Excuse me, can I enter my room?" The couple looked up and saw Bill with his arms crossed. "Pardon us, Sir, for we were delaying your beauty sleep" responded Kate. Without untangling her body from Charlie's, she moved them both to the side, and bowing her head she extended one arm gesturing him to pass.
"See, Charles? You should learn some manners." Teased his brother before closing the door behind him. Kate turned her head to face Charlie.
"The others will get up very early to use the portkey, you can come to my room then if you want…" Charlie put his lips on hers for a long and slow kiss. "Mhm…" he nodded. Kate moved one of her hands and caressed his cheek, and with one last peck she whispered, "Good night". Charlie unwrapped his arms, gave her a kiss on the forehead, and watched her go to Ginny's room.
Kate slowly opened her eyes, trying to adjust to the dim light coming through the window. It took her a few seconds to recognize the room she was in. She found neither Ginny nor Hermione. In fact, she was completely alone. She rubbed her eyes and slowly got up. She made her way to the bathroom before going downstairs and found Molly serving breakfast. "Good morning, dear" "Good morning, Mrs. Weasley." She sat down and closed her eyes enjoying the smell of toast and tea. "Charlie told me about today, are you nervous?"
"Oh, no… maybe… a little…" she looked down at the cup in front of her and back at Mrs. Weasley. "Definitely." She exhaled a long breath and grabbed her necklace, playing with it. "It's my first big event and it will determine if…actually it won't. Mr. Nougal, my team leader, said 'I'll consider talking with Mrs. Argerich about you being a mediwizard'" she mocked a deep voice which draw a chuckle out of Mrs. Weasley.
"I'm sure you will get it. Where are those boys? Bill! Percy! Charles!"
"Here, here," said a tired Bill from the stairs. "Why are you so tired? You slept in today!"
"They didn't stop talking until three in the morning," Percy said. Kate glanced at Charlie and smiled into her cup.
"And how would you know?" asked Mrs. Weasley with her hands on her hips. "I was working."
After breakfast, the oldest Weasley sons and Kate prepared to apparate to the Quidditch World Cup camp.
"Alright, take care of each other…and look out for Ginny, oh, Bill, grab some galleons…"
"I have money, mum, you keep it."
"But…"
"No." Bill reached out and closed her mother's extended hand with three gold coins. She sighed and pinched his cheek. "Do you know where your tent is?"
"Not, yet. We'll arrive at the apparition point, and we'll be told then." Kate said, securing her healer ID into the pocket of her jacket. She grabbed Charlie's and Bill's hands. "Perce! Come on!" They waited for Percy to put his book inside his bag.
"Have fun, dears".
Suddenly, they disappeared and Mrs. Weasley found herself in a quiet and empty house.
Kate wasn't very fond of apparating, she knew it was practical, but it made her dizzy every time. She didn't like brooms, although she was a decent flyer, and portkeys weren't her favourite. Traveling with Katherine was always a challenge.
The four of them appeared under a green sign with six white lines making a circle in the middle, representing the apparition point. Kate closed her eyes and put her hand on her stomach, trying to recompose herself.
"Half-past eleven from Apparition point number three." A man dressed as a muggle explorer was standing in front of them writing the time they had arrived.
"Weasley. Three." Bill said.
"Let me see…yes, the missing Weasleys, there you are" he scribbled something, grabbed three pieces of paper from his pocket and handed them to Bill. "Show these tickets to Mr. Roberts, the site's manager. Two tents, one night, already paid. Half a mile's walk in that direction, first field you see."
Kate took out her healer identification card. The man adjusted his glasses and turned several pages of the book he had in his hands.
"Williams, Williams… ah, yes, some members of your team are already there," he waved his wand and her ID card morphed. 'Dr. Katherine Williams'. "Muggleproof. Shake it energetically for it to return to its original state. Show it to Mr. Johnson. Your tent is the green one close to the game pitch, you will recognize it."
"This is where we part ways then." she said to the Weasleys. Charlie seemed to sense her nervousness because he stood in front of her and put his hands on her cheeks. "You are meant for this job. Trust yourself." She nodded, visibly more relaxed, and kissed him lightly on the lips.
Kate walked through the moor, hundreds of tents appeared in front of her. She stopped and admired the place; she could hear faint laughs and people shouting in the distance, excited to be a part of something important; children running, men and women shouting, trying to sell all kinds of merchandise of the teams, or the Daily Prophet or food…
She started walking again towards the pitch and a group of teenagers passed her shouting, singing and dancing, all dressed in red and black clothes with their faces painted with the same colours. "Krum! Krum! Krum!"
"Hey, Lady, I hope you support the right team!" shouted one of them.
"Of course, I'm half Irish!" she teased also shouting. Another one turned around and started walking backwards. "I feel sorry for you, ma'am!" The group laughed and started running towards the camp site. Kate shook her head 'Ma'am'.
Before she knew it, she was standing in front of a large green tent next to a small river.
"Identification." She heard a voice say. "Mr. Johnson?" "The one and only, miss…"
"Williams" she answered handing him the muggleproof card. "Big event is going on 'ere, eh?" "Yes, some sort of…rally." The man just nodded and let her in.
The interior of the tent was noticeable bigger than it seemed, thanks to an expansion charm, and it was full of beds, cupboards filled with potions and other supplies, some mediwizards with blue uniforms and others with green robes. "Williams!" she recognized Mr. Nougal's deep voice. He motioned her to follow him. Mr. Nougal was an intriguing man in many ways, his dark skin, hair, eyes and beard gave him a mysterious aura that most feared. Kate had never found him intimidating, he respected her, and despite not being a man of many words, they made a good team.
"Get changed, we need to check the inventory." He turned around but paused, remembering something. "You will be taking half of our group to the left side of the pitch. Choose who you want to be with you. You'll be in charge." A lump was formed in Kate's throat, and it took everything in her to stay calm and focused. "Florin, Alina, Rahela and Vasile."
Mr. Nougal hummed and touched his beard. "Interesting choice, may I know why?"
"Florin: charms, Alina and Rahela: potions, Vasile: best Skele-Gro potion I've ever seen. I'm still trying to convince him to tell me how he prepares it." Mr. Nougal nodded and disappeared behind a thick curtain.
"He is in a good mood today" Kate saw Alina and other team members walking towards her and smiled. "The Quidditch World Cup puts anyone in a good mood." "I've heard he bet 10 galleons for Bulgaria" "That's too bad." "How could you say that? Bulgaria has an excellent seeker and…" "Please, Ireland chasers are too good…" "You don't even know how to spell 'chaser'…" Kate chuckled and left the conversation before it became an argument and went to a tiny room to change into her working robes. She could hear Charlie's voice in her head 'Remember to breathe, Kate.'
The game was about to start. Thousands of people filled the place, screaming and waving flags. Kate and the team were situated on one side of the pitch under the first row of seats. Rahela, a tall woman with tanned skin, conjured a table and put her potions box on it. Alina adjusted her belt and grabbed some bottles. Kate approached the pitch and watched the Veelas, the Bulgarian mascots, dance. She turned her head and saw Vasile standing beside her. Vasile was one of the veterans in the group. She never asked his age, but he looked slightly younger than Dumbledore. Vasile wasn't a popular person among the rest of the employees at the hospital, his bad reputation made him an isolated man. When Kate first arrived at the Rumanian hospital she didn't mention or judge the multiple scars on his face and Vasile saw something in her that the others had never shown: acceptance. He became her mentor and eventually her friend.
"Careful, Vasile, I don't want you dancing with them in there." She teased, pointing to the Veelas. "Oh, Katherine, I am immune to the charms of the Veelas. Nothing can get through this old man."
They watched how the Irish mascots made beautiful figures in the air and Kate glanced again at Vasile with a worried look. "Listen, Vasile…" she whispered. "Do you still have bottles with your potion? I know someone who can provide the ingredients to make it, I can…"
"Miss Katherine, how many times will I have to tell you that you don't have to worry about me?" "But I do…" "I have everything I need." Kate didn't look convinced. "Okay…" Vasile put a hand on her shoulder and patted it a couple of times. "Thank you, Katherine."
"Look! They're off!" Shouted Florin. Kate looked down at him and saw him watching the game with a pair of Omnioculars. Florin was a temperamental half-dwarf with a wicked sense of humour.
"Here, Nougal bought a pair for everyone." Alina handed her the object. "Now, that's very generous of him."
After a while watching the players chase after one another the team put particular interest in the seekers: they were flying full speed towards the ground and while Krum was able to change his trajectory, Aidan Lynch, the Irish seeker, hit the ground with a loud thud. Florin started laughing hysterically. "He played him well, he did!"
"Rahela, Vasile!" Kate shouted and sprinted towards Lynch's body on the ground, with her two partners hot in her heels. She kneeled beside him and took out her wand from her sleeve. "Lynch. Lynch." Vasile touched his head, arms, and legs trying to find a broken bone. "Rahela, he is unconscious. A few drops will suffice." Instructed Kate. Rahela opened his mouth and inclined a flask over his tongue.
Up in the Top Box, the Weasley family watched how the trained mediwizards examined the seeker.
"He'll be OK, he only got ploughed!" Charlie said to Ginny. "Hey! There's Katie!" Ron exclaimed, passing his Omnioculars to Charlie, who smiled and watched her give instructions to the other two wizards that were with her.
Lynch got up and the Irish supporters cheered loudly. Kate, Rahela and Vasile rushed back to their positions.
"Hey, what am I? The substitute?" Florin said to Kate and threw his arms in the air indignantly. "You were too happy." He just huffed and turned his back at her, rolling his eyes.
The accident made the Irish team start playing more aggressively and Kate couldn't keep track of their movements or predict them. Krum received a Bludger hard in the face but the Irish team winning the game angered him enough to keep playing, the foul whistle wasn't heard. Lynch hit the ground again. Krum had blood all over his face. 'IRELAND WIN!'
"Vasile, Rahela, go to Lynch again. Alina, Florin let's check on Krum."
"Oh, so now you need me?" Kate ignored the comment and started walking between the Leprechauns and Veelas, trying to get to Krum. Mediwizards in blue robes were arguing with him, wanting to heal him but Krum kept fighting with them.
"Leave me alone!" he shouted. Kate put a hand on a man's shoulder and moved him to the side. She stood right in front of him. "Would you stand still?" she gave Krum stern look and he returned the gaze, defiant. Without losing eye contact she waved her wand and Krum's nose cracked slightly to the left. Krum flinched. Florin imitated her and the cut on his lip disappeared.
"See? It wasn't that bad."
Krum just walked past her, anger running through his veins for losing the match. "I've always been a big fan!" shouted Florin and Alina hit his shoulder laughing.
It took almost thirty minutes to go back to the tent, everyone was attempting to leave the pitch at the same time and moving around wasn't an easy task.
Kate had just finished changing her clothes when she saw Mr. Nougal's walking towards her. "Good job." And with that he left as fast as he arrived. She pursed her lips trying to contain a smile. "Hey, Kate, we were going to grab some firewhiskey, are you coming?" "No, thank you, Alina, I'm going to spend the evening with my family." "See you tomorrow then."
She got out of the tent and walked among the people celebrating the Irish victory. She bumped into a man, and then a woman, and then another one when she finally reached a spot near a campfire where she stood to scan the place. After a minute, three redheads caught her attention "Well, that's luck of the Irish"
"Hey, Weasleys!" she shouted. Bill, Fred and George turned their heads, being careful not to drop the hot chocolate trays they had in their hands and smiled when they saw her approaching them. "Katie did you know that we are now rich?" "Yeah, very rich." Kate laughed. "Oh?" "They've been gambling," Bill explained. "Come on, let's go back to the others."
They found Mr. Weasley and Charlie arguing about the match, Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny talking happily and Percy reading on the couch. "Look who we found" Six faces turned to the front of the tent and cheered when they saw the three brothers and Katie walk through the door. They spent the evening drinking, laughing and talking with one another. Mr. Weasley decided it was time to go to bed when Ginny fell asleep on the table, spilling her cup on the floor. Everyone left to their respective bunks except for Charlie and Kate, that had moved to the couch to enjoy a private moment.
Charlie pulled Kate onto his lap and she curled up in a ball, with her hands on his chest and her head buried in his neck. "'m tired." Charlie started pressing soft kisses against her hair, forehead and hair line and caressing her thigh with his thumb, squeezing lightly from time to time. "I figured…" Kate sighed and nuzzled his neck "Nougal said I did a good job" She could feel Charlie's smile. "I'm not surprised" he continued pressing kisses on her head and Kate had to concentrate on keeping her eyes open, fatigue starting to fill her body. "You will stay here tonight, we can grab your things tomorrow."
When she didn't answer, Charlie thought it was useless to carry her to the boys' room with him, so he grabbed the thin blanket that rested under his head and pulled them both down. Charlie looked at her for a while. Sometimes, when he found himself thinking of her, he would wonder why she would choose him as a life partner, what did he do to pique her interest, how she changed his tendency to think exclusively about dragons and he would often marvel at how far they've come as friends, partners and lovers.
"You're starin'" he heard her murmur. Charlie chuckled softly, and Kate kissed his chest letting out a contented sigh.
The peaceful slumber didn't last. Mr Weasley started shaking them awake an hour later. "Charles, Kate!" A high-pitched scream made them jump. "What was that? What's wrong?" Charlie asked untangling himself from the blanket. Kate stood up and quickly put her leather jacket on.
"Death eaters." Responded Mr Weasley and went to wake up the rest of the kids. Kate reached down to her boot where she kept her wand and headed outside. Charlie's eyes widened and ran after her.
"Kate! Katie!" She was standing in front of the tent and Charlie collided with her body making them lose balance. He grabbed her arm and pulled her towards him.
Fire surrounded the camp, a procession of black hooded figures was walking through the tents, casting spells in every direction. Someone screamed loudly again, and they saw a body floating in the air like a puppet. "Go to the forest, now!" they heard Mr Weasley say behind them.
After that, everything happened too fast to register it. A voice that sounded like Bill shouted "Careful!" and suddenly an explosion made Kate end up on the floor with her ears ringing. She couldn't hear anything; her vision was blurred. Slowly, she tried to sit up and managed to focus a body lying on the floor a few meters away from her. Her heart started beating faster and faster. "Charlie?" She wanted to stand up, but her legs failed. "Charlie!" Kate crawled towards him and when she reached him she saw a red stain on one side of his shirt. She started to panic. "Charles, I swear to Merlin. Open your eyes right now."
She searched inside the pockets of her jacket and found the utility knife her grandmother had gifted her. She took a pair of small scissors and cut Charlie's shirt open. "Katie?" She snapped her head up and saw Charlie looking at her. "Shh, you are going to be okay." He tried to get up, but Kate put one hand on his chest and the other on the back of his neck.
"No, no, no, stay there."
"Hurts." He pointed at his side. "I know, my love, I know." She frantically looked around for her wand and spotted it near a now extinguished campfire. "Don't move." She ignored the pain she felt when she stood up and ran clumsily to get her wand.
She kneeled beside him again and saw that a sharp rock had stabbed Charlie. "Alright, love, I need you to think about that Antipodean Opaleye that they brought at the reserve, do you remember?" Charlie flinched.
"Yeah…yes. A real beauty." Kate cast 'Lumos' and put her wand between her teeth.
"Aha, vat elze?" She started removing the rock from his side and Charlie started breathing heavily. "Uh…she had…uh…bright…skin! Bright skin!" Once the rock was removed, Katie examined the wound for more fragments of rock. Finding none she took her wand out of her mouth and waved it over Charlie's skin. "What else?"
"The eyes…the eyes were black…" The deep cut started to close. "And the tail…it was…" Charlie closed his eyes and took a deep breath, the pain slowly subsiding. She changed her position and put his head on her lap, stroking his hair soothingly with the hand that had less blood. For the first time, Kate ventured to look around her. The commotion seemed to have stopped. The moor was silent, one could only hear the wind.
She heard steps and raised her wand. Someone appeared in front of her. "Percy." She breathed. Bill and Mr Weasley appeared behind him with worried looks. "He'll be fine, but I didn't clean the cut and I need to go back to the medical tent. Is everyone alright? What the hell happened?"
The three Weasleys looked at each other.
"Someone conjured the Dark Mark."
