Hey all. Jk=HP. Me=OC

This chapter was a lot of fun to write. I feel like it dove more into Kat as a character and how she interacts with the people in her life. Let me know what you think.

Chapter 3: Swords at Dawn

The morning was far too bright, and unlike Fred and George's room, Ginny's had a window. The worst part was it was east facing. Kat felt like fighting the sun but thought better of it, as she was too pale, and lobster red was not her best color.

Kat rolled over onto her left side and groaned slightly. Sure, her rib wasn't broken and floating in the wrong place anymore, but it still hurt like that time Peeves had "accidentally" pushed her through the trick stair.

It still baffled Kat that the school had stairs students could just fall through, not to mention a poltergeist that had a pension for trouble.

There was a hand on her shoulder, shaking her. She grumbled some more and opened her eyes a crack to see who was bold enough to wake her. There was a tornado of black hair around a familiar face.

"I swear to Godric, if there is not coffee in my hand in the next 30 seconds," Kat started.

Boston smiled and nodded towards the desk in the corner of the room. There sat two mugs that smelled suspiciously bittersweet.

"Can I marry you?" Kat joked.

Boston did her best mime of a laugh and shook her head, walking over to grab the mugs and bring them back so Kat didn't even have to get up. When she sat on the edge of Kat's bed and Kat shifted to more of a seated position, Boston sighed into her coffee.

Kat knew all of Boston's sighs. There was the "Are you bloody crazy?!" sigh, the "He's cute," sigh, the "I think I might die of boredom," sigh, the "I'm over the moon happy" sigh, and then this one. The "care to explain what you've been up to" sigh.

Kat pointedly ignored it.

"Come on. We could run off and get married. Not a sexy thing or anything, just two witches killing it together and having like a cat or something." Kat wiggled her eyebrows.

Boston just stared at her. Stoney eyes and an unimpressed expression. Bugger.

"I was just talking with the boys for a while and then took a super long shower." She took a sip of her coffee. "I don't know why you even have to ask." Kat smiled to herself and waited for Boston to be halfway through a sip of her coffee. "And of course, I had to give the twins a glad to see you shag."

Kat would have sworn in front of the whole Wizengamot that Boston's eyes bulged out of her head a little. She started coughing violently and held up her coffee cup, forcing it into Kat's hand as she fell off the bed to the floor. There was even coffee coming out of her nose. Kat couldn't help it. It was one of the funniest things she had seen in a long time. She had to laugh. The small bedroom was echoing with the sound of Boston trying not to drown in coffee and Kat cackling.

Kat laughed so hard that coffee started sloshing around in the mugs she was holding. One chuckle too many sent the hot liquid all down the front of her shirt. She abruptly stopped laughing. Hot and sticky and cold all at once.

Boston looked up from the floor, finally breathing in air again. When she saw what Kat had done, she fell to the floor again, this time in a silent laugh-fest that had her rolling on the floor.

"It's not funny!" Kat tried, but even she was smiling.

Boston's eyes were shut because her smile was taking up too much room on her face. She just nodded and went back to her strange laughing.

"Oh, shut it!" Kat put the mugs on the floor next to her bed to prevent any more spilling and threw her pillow at her friend.

Boston was still smiling when she propped herself up onto her elbows and nodded her head towards the door. Kat gave her an investigatory look, rubbing her chin for emphasis.

"Food?"

Boston nodded.

"More coffee?"

Another nod.

"Then why are we still here?" Both the girls were smiling so wide there was no way their faces didn't hurt.

Kat flung the quilt off her legs and swung them down. They felt stiff, but she was back to normal mobility. Boston gave her a smirk, and Kat remembered that, though yes, she was wearing her shirt from last night, wet as it was, she had taken off her jeans before she went to bed and was just wearing pants.

"Right. You got anything?" She asked.

Boston shook her head.

"My jeans are way too hard to get on," Kat complained.

Boston just shrugged at her messy counterpart.

Kat knew without a doubt that there would be no putting jeans on today, not with how tender she still was, though she was healing rather quickly thanks to the boys.

Kat had a whole section of her hair sticking off her head at odd angles; purple stains were starting in the corner of her eyes, and she had a clear drool line crusted on her cheek. Put a wet, sticky top and no bottoms with that, and Boston's bird's nest of hair seemed almost elegant.

Boston was in the same clothes she was in last night as neither of the girls had unshrunk their trunks yet and therefore couldn't get to their other clothes.

Kat stood on shaking legs, still very sore. She cast a quick look to the back of them. She had looked last night in the shower, and most of the bruises, thankfully, were on her butt and upper legs. A few purple splotches were cascading down her legs and one painful looking one on her left ankle, where she thought she might have sprained it.

Her legs looked pretty much the same as they always had, a small, constant smattering of bruises, but otherwise fine. Kat grabbed Charlie's jacket from its place at the end of her borrowed bed and slung it around her. It hit just a few inches below the worst of the bruises, and if she zipped it all the way up, it could have been a dress. A huge and awkwardly shaped dress that was 100% a jacket.

"Alright, take me to the food."

Kat motioned towards the door to Boston, who just looked at her friend for another second and shook her head. She walked towards the door and opened it, dramatically motioning for Kat to walk through. She was close to bowing.

"Ah, yes, thank you, Jeeves."

As Kat walked past, Boston slapped her in the back of the head.

"Ow!" Kat yelled.

She looked at Boston, who was suppressing a smile, and shrugged.

"Yeah, I deserved that." Kat conceded.

Boston nodded, and both girls made their way downstairs to the kitchen.

Most of everyone was already down there, as Kat had noticed they all seemed to rise with the sun, like some sort of reverse vampires. Eyes flung to the girls, and they clomped down the stairs.

"Oh, my dear," Molly started. Kat held up a hand covered in the sleeve of the jacket.

"Don't worry, Molly. I am wearing pants under this." Kat assured her with her most serious face.

"Well, I don't think that is entirely propper for,"

Kat cut her off again, with her best Percy attitude she could muster. "As it is, my trunk is still tiny; we are all lucky I am wearing anything at all."

Fred and George were suppressing laughs from the end of the table. There were two chairs beside them that Kat and Boston walked to.

"And honestly, Molly," she started back up as she sat down, "I wouldn't let a little thing like nudity keep me from your cooking."

Red spread across Molly's nose, and Kat couldn't tell if it was anger or embarrassment or some combination of both.

Boston was grinning like a cat who had just found a new toy to play with.

It was Charlie that cut the silence. "Isn't that my jacket?" This sent the family into a whole new tizzy. Everyone was talking at once.

"Why is she wearing just your jacket?"

"Did she sleep in Charlie's room?"

"No, we're with Percy."

"Is she actually wearing pants?"

Kat chimed in with the chaos she caused. "Oh, Charlie!" She declared dramatically, throwing her arms against the table, causing the plates to clatter. She dropped her head, then lifted it quickly, flicking some of her hair, but not all, out of her face. "I think it's time to tell them."

Charlie being the good sport he always was, continued, "I don't know darling, I think it's a bit premature."

"No! I can't hide it anymore!" Kat looked around the table. "Family! Fred, George, sweet Boston. It's time you knew." She took a long pause making sure everyone was focused on her. "Charlie and I are," Charlie cut her off.

"No. I should be the one to tell them," Charlie cut in. Kat looked surprised. Sure, Charlie would occasionally go along with her antics, but he never really added in himself. "Mum. I've asked Katherine to marry me. She and I are going to raise dragons here at the Burrow."

Kat had to laugh a little, Molly looked scandalized, but everyone else had the biggest grin on their face.

"How dare you!" Fred cried. "You knew I wanted to raise dragons with Kat!"

"You wound me, brother," George joined in. "I too wanted to raise dragons here with Kat."

"Well, there is only one way to settle this," Ginny piped up from the other end of the table. "You'll all have to compete for her heart."

Boston nodded viciously.

Kat agreed. "Yes! Swords at dawn!"

"Oh, that sounds like too much work," Fred relented.

"Yeah, dawn is very early," George agreed.

Charlie shrugged. "Sorry, Katherine darling, I'm going to have to side with Fred and George here."

Everyone set out into a round of laughter as Kat looked as scandalized as Molly did. Hand on her heart, she scoffed. "Well! That will teach me to fall for a Weasley boy."

Boston nudged her and wiggled her eyebrows. She pointed to herself and Kat then to her ring finger.

"Wait, really?" Kat asked.

Boston nodded with that same feline smile.

"Family! Great news! Boston has agreed to run away with me and get married!" There was more laughter and jeering.

The rest of breakfast was quieter, which isn't saying much since by the end of that scene Kat made, nearly everyone was shouting.