Okay. You know the drill. HP belongs to Jk. OC belongs to Me.
This chapter was a lot of fun to write because I really got to focus on Boston and Kat. I know most of you are here for the twins, I am too, but I kind of fell in love with these characters so I had a lot of fun with them.
Anyway hope you enjoy.
Chapter 4: Catch Me if I Fall
After breakfast, Molly had demanded that the girls get their trunks so that she could unshrink them, and Kat didn't have to stay in "improper clothing."
Kat and Boston had quickly changed, wanting to get into fresh clothes no matter what breakfast might have seemed.
Boston had ended up in gray sweatpants with some black tights with diamond-shaped holes in them, held together with black strings. They were under the sweatpants and looked a bit off, but it wasn't Kat's place to judge muggle fashion. She was wearing tall trainers that puffed out around the ankle. They were in an alarming shade of purple that made Kat do a double-take. It had been a while since Kat had seen Boston in a color that was brighter than gray. Her shirt was a baggy sort of thing in her typical black. She had tied it into a knot under her left breast so the material bunched up, and her middle was exposed again. She hadn't pulled her hair into a ponytail this time, though. It was down around her shoulders, nearly hitting the middle of her back.
Kat dressed a bit differently. She wanted to make sure her bruises were all covered so no one saw them. When Boston had taken her shopping in muggle London, Kat had discovered these fantastic bottoms called leggings. They were soft and stretchy and about as comfy as sweatpants. She threw on a pair of emerald green ones and a beige, thin, long-sleeved shirt that was three shades darker than her complexion. She only had the one pair of trainers, so she just shoved those on again. When it came to her hair, there wasn't much she could do with it, as short as it was. However, it seemed determined to keep one side a bit too wavy.
Hermione arrived not long after that, and the Burrow was almost equally matched boys to girls. Bill had suggested a quidditch game, but Percy and Kat had declined. Percy cited work-related reasons, and Kat said it was too much of a safety hazard for her and everyone around her. Fred and George had to agree with her there. Hermione also wasn't going to play, seeing as she had a horrible fear of flying to begin with. That left only enough players for one full team, and no one wanted to play an uneven game.
Instead, they had taken to what could only amount to flying dodgeball, hitting beaters at each other and tossing the quaffle at each other's heads.
Kat watched from the garden. She had decided to lay down and soak in as much of the sun as she could while she still could. Propping herself on one elbow and using her other hand to block the sun from her eyes, she watched the Weasleys and Boston play their strange little game.
Boston, Kat had to admit, was an excellent flyer. She was probably the best flyer in the sky then, but Kat wasn't about to point that out. Boston had a thing about team sports that Kat never really understood. She refused to play any team sport competitively and enjoyed fun games of quidditch or muggled football every now and again, but she never joined a real team, and when an entertaining match became a little too serious, she would just up and leave.
That wasn't to say that she wasn't competitive. Boston was what many people would call a bad sport. She loved to win, and everyone knew it, but when she lost, it was like someone had turned the world cold. It was best to leave her alone after she lost a game of Wizard's Chess or one of those muggle games she would bring along with her every now and again.
Boston had grown up differently than most of her classmates. She grew up in the muggle world, much like Hermione and Harry, but she was raised with the knowledge she was a witch. She had actually been raised by a close friend of her family, though she never talked about her family for obvious reasons.
By the time Kat had started coming around to visit Boston, it was clear that the topic of her upbringing was not something anyone was going to talk about and certainly wasn't to be mentioned to anyone outside the walls of the small apartment.
Boston and her guardian had been packing up their belongings, getting ready to move into a new place, which Boston was assured was much safer, if not horribly dark.
Back in the Weasly's garden, Fred hit one of the bludgers a bit on the top, and it spun past its mark, Bill, and was flying straight towards Kat. She shrieked and barely had time to get out of the way before it made a hole in the earth where she had just been.
"Fredward! That could have killed me!" Kat yelled up at him, no anger in her voice.
"Fredward?" Bill asked, raising an eyebrow.
"That's what she calls me when she is upset with me," Fred explained.
"It's an everyday occurrence," George called from a little further away.
"Does she know your name is Fredrick?" Bill pushed.
Kat huffed and got to her feet. "She can hear you, William! And yes, of course, I know our dear Freddie's name is Fredrick, but have you tried to say that when you're angry? It comes out all wrong. Now Fredward, that just sort of rolls off the tongue, and it leaves you more time to yell at the bloody wanker."
Boston was hanging upside down from her broom behind everyone, silently laughing at Kat's clearly fake outrage. Boston could always tell when it wasn't real anger. She never called Fred Fredward when she was truly angry. Boston knew when Kat was truly angry, she didn't call you anything at all.
Kat looked over at Boston, her long hair hanging like some sort of strange banner. "Oh, shut it, Boston! I'm just glad you know how to hit a bloody bludger."
Everyone turned their brooms to see the silent girl in near tears from laughing, her face so red it was starting to turn purple. Boston wiped the corner of her eye with the palm of her hand and pointed her broom towards the ground. There was a small moment when Kat was sure no one was breathing, but Boston knew precisely when to pull up and wound up right side up and her hair a little wild.
"I take offense to that," Fred finally said.
"You should," Kat called, "it was an insult." There was no hiding the smile that had slowly been growing on the brunette's face. It was so wide that she scrunched her nose once to relieve some tension.
"Come on and fly with us," Charlie called.
"Would you like to see this lovely garden catch flame?" She called back, shading her eyes to look at him properly.
"Has that been known to happen?" He sounded concerned, but even from her spot on the ground, she could see him smiling.
Kat didn't even get a chance to answer as Ron, Ginny, George, and Fred all chorused, "Yes." Boston was nodding along with them.
"A story for another time," Kat promised him.
It wasn't long until Arthur called them all in as it was time to pick up Harry.
"Ron, of course, will be coming," Arthur said, looking around.
"We've got something to give to Harry," Fred interjected.
"It's just in our room," George said.
Arthur made a noise that sounded like it was meant to be annoyed but came out amused. "Hurry up then."
They ran up the stairs faster than Kat could remember them ever moving. They were moving so quickly, and with such force, they were sure to be shaking the house or at least the staircase.
Ginny came up to Kat then, squeezing her hands. "With Harry coming, we can play four on four."
"Yeah, I'll stick to my role as cheerleader."
Ginny scrunched her eyebrows. "Cheerleader?"
Kat nodded. "Yeah, it's a muggle thing. I saw them when Boston and I went to a few muggle games and watched some on the telly."
"What is it?"
Kat squeezed the girl's hand back. "From what I can gather is that they mostly comprise women in their underwear performing tricks and flips in order to distract the opposing team so that they will lose."
Ginny laughed, and Kat could see Boston smiling and shaking her head.
"So which team will you be distracting?" Ginny asked after she was done.
Kat thought about that for a long moment then said, "I think I'll distract whatever team Boston is on. They already have the unfair advantage of having her on their team anyway."
"So what you're saying is," Charlie chimed in, "I want to be on the other team."
Kat looked at Boston, who had crossed her arms, leaned back at an angle and raised an eyebrow at the Dragon Tamer. There was a cocky smile threatening the corner of her mouth.
Kat nodded toward Boston, and Charlie followed her eyes. "I think it means you really want to be on Boston's team," Kat chuckled.
It wasn't that long that the boys had stayed at the Dursley's. They had used the floo, Arthur, Ron, and the Twins. Fred had stuffed his pockets full of something before he went off, but Kat didn't see what it was.
Harry, Ron, and the boys burst out of the fireplace in a huff. Harry and Ron were doubled over laughing. Fred and George had huge smiles on their faces which made Kat smile but also made her nervous. She knew that smile. It meant trouble.
"What happened?" Charlie asked.
They were all laughing too hard to answer.
Arthur came through the fireplace then, red in the face. "I don't even know what to say!" He wasn't quite yelling, but it was the Arthur Weasley version of yelling. All stern tones and rushed sentences.
"We didn't force him to eat it!" Fred protested.
"Yeah, it's not our fault-"
"I dropped it-"
"How were we supposed to know he'd eat it?" George looked extremely innocent at that moment.
"You knew exactly what you were doing." Arthur huffed and ran a hand through his thinning hair. "I am very disappointed in you boys."
"How long did his tongue get?" Kat shook her head at Fred's question. What the hell did they do?
"It was four feet before his parents allowed me to fix it." The boys started laughing all over again. "This isn't funny, boys. Wait until your mother hears about this."
"Hear about what?" Molly asked from behind them all. Everyone turned to look at the short, plump woman. All the laughter stopped.
Arthur cleared his throat. "Don't worry, dear. I straightened the boys out, and they will not be doing anything like that again."
The twins nodded along with their father. Kat couldn't hide her grin, neither could Boston. Making Arthur mad was one thing, but Molly was like pressing the button on a rocket that was headed right at you.
"I swear if this is about that ridiculous Weasley's Wizard Wheezes again," Molly started.
"I gave them a firm talking to," Arthur tried again.
"Everyone, out." She didn't have to shout. She never had to shout, but as everyone was clambering to leave as quickly as possible, Molly could be heard yelling at Fred and George about putting another toe out of line and horrible jokes and taking their wands away. They had to get all the way out into the garden before they couldn't hear Molly laying into the boys anymore.
"We should probably help Mum out a bit," Bill suggested.
Boston nodded.
Kat looked at her friend and saw that she wasn't looking at anyone in particular, but her gaze seemed to be sliding around the general area of Bill Weasley.
Kat elbowed her friend and smiled and raised her eyebrow.
Boston's mouth opened as if she were about to say something to object, but it closed, and her eyes promised vengeance.
Kat just laughed.
Something furry ran between Kat and Boston's legs and over into the hedges. Hermione was chasing after the blob of orange, yelling for it to come back. Crookshanks was chasing some of the garden gnomes around. The gnomes looked as if they were enjoying themselves, every once and a while turning around to bite at the cat. That poor cat was just so angry it was almost funny.
Hermione had adopted Crookshanks last year sometime, and the whole of the Weasleys seemed to keep the cat at a distance. Ron had claimed that it was because the cat was ugly with its flat face and puffy orange coat.
Boston had taken a liking to the creature and was often seen with Crookshanks in her lap when Hermione was not in the common room.
The cat seemed to be far more aware of itself and the world it lived in than most animals, but it was aloof enough that it didn't matter much to Kat.
There was a large crashing sound followed by some cheering from Ron and Harry. Boston was the one who looked first, Kat still caught up in the Crookshanks garden gnome showdown.
Boston tugged on Kat's sleeve and pointed in the direction she was looking.
Kat saw two large tables hovering in the air, crashing into each other. Charlie and Bill had their wands out, and Harry and Ron were whooping. Kat didn't quite know what the objective of the game was, but it seemed like it was fun nonetheless. She pulled Boston closer.
"Give us a ride?" Kat asked. Charlie had a somewhat shocked looked on his face.
"What?" He stammered.
Kat pointed to the tables in the air. "Come on! Let us have a ride then."
Kat liked the cute little red that was at the tips of his ears. Well, the tip of one. His right ear had a rather flat top, and a scar snaked from there and curled around his jaw.
"Yeah, alright." He started to lower the table. "Hey Bill," he called to his brother, "care to make this more interesting?"
Bill tilted his head slightly and started to lower his table as well.
The moment Charlie's table hit the ground, Kat scrambled to sit on top of it. Boston did the same with Bill's.
"This is a bad idea," Bill stated with a smile spreading on his face. He shook his head, causing his tooth earring and ponytail to shake as well.
The tables moved upwards, and Kat had to fight to shift her weight so she didn't go sliding off the end. "Keep her steady, Charlie," She called down to the ground.
"Aye aye, Captain." Kat caught the sight of him saluting her.
Kat looked across to the other table.
Boston had a wicked smile on her face and looked much more stable than Kat felt.
"Oh no," Kat whispered. This was probably a horrible idea.
Though the boys were technically in control of the tables, it seemed like Kat and Boston could still sort of direct them. So when Boston rose to her feet and started leaning towards the front of the table, in the direction of Kat, she knew she was in trouble. Bill seemed to get Boston's message and moved the table quickly towards Kat's.
"Hold on!" Charlie called from the ground, and Kat only had a second to grab the sides of the table before it tumbled to the right. Kat let out a scream as her whole body lurched with the table. Her left hand was starting to slip when the table righted itself again.
Once Kat got her bearings again, she smiled at a very determined-looking Boston. "Is that all you got?" It was a tame taught considering what they usually "said" to each other.
Kat had never asked Boston why she didn't talk, and it didn't seem polite or relevant. She knew that Boston could talk but for one reason or another outright refused to. She didn't even speak when casting spells.
Hogwarts had of course had a few students in the past who learned magic in different ways. Though deaf, mute, or blind students weren't prevalent, and the administration didn't have anything set up expressly for students like that.
In their first year, for the first term, Boston struggled a lot with her magic and studies. She understood the magic theory, of course, but when asked to perform spells without speaking, it was nearly impossible for her to do even simple magic.
In their second term, Boston stopped taking classes with Kat and took private lessons with the professors in order to learn wordless magic. It had been hard on them both, not being together. They had grown so close over the first term. Boston was stressed for a very long time with her magic and her classes.
Boston had explained in her own way that the professors were telling her to say the spells in her head while doing the wand movements. Kat felt terrible that her friend wasn't enjoying magic as much as Kat knew she could. Boston had only been able to do accidental magic, so the dorm was always an exciting place.
There was a time when all five girls sharing the dorm had woken up on the ceiling, unable to get down because Boston had a nightmare. Professor Minerva Mcgonagall, Minnie, had to get them down when they didn't show up for their first classes.
"Well, when I do a spell and say the words, I don't really say them in my head too. I think about what the spell is meant to do," Kat told Boston one night when they were practicing levitating things. Boston chewed on the end of her wand for a long moment after that.
She held up a hand to Kat then, indicating she wanted Kat to stop and focus on her. Kat, of course, obliged her friend. Boston then pointed her wand at Kat.
Kat would look back on that moment as the moment they went from friends to sisters. She had never trusted someone so much before, and she doubted she would give her trust so freely like that again.
Back on the tables floating 5 meters off the ground, Boston was still on her feet. Her strange puffy trainers stable on the top of her table.
"First to fall buys the other sweets on the train, yeah?" Kat called.
Boston nodded, looking somehow even more determined and focused than before.
Kat knew that Boston had the advantage in the air, but Kat could hold onto the edges of the table on her stomach, and Boston's pride would keep her on her feet.
"I'm not sure this is a good idea," Hermione called from the ground, but no one paid her any attention.
"Charlie!" Kat called. "You better keep me on this table."
"I'll do my best."
"I make no promises to you, Katherine," Bill laughed alongside his brother.
Boston smirked along with his words, an indication that she seconded him.
Then the tables were moving again. Boston was continually shifting her weight from one foot to the other in order to keep her table steady. Kat didn't have that issue. She just had to hold tight. With the width of the table being only slightly smaller than her wingspan, she had very little wiggle room to hold on.
"Boston!" Bill called. "Crouch down now."
Boston did, and Kat could see why, but it was all happening too fast.
Bill dropped the table a few feet lower and then put it right under Kat. Then, faster than Charlie could move Kat out of the way, Bill sent Boston's table flying up so it hit the bottom of Kat's, trapping Boston between them.
Boston, crouched, reached up to put her hands on the bottom of Kat's table, and tested pressing on one side than the other. Both tables swayed as she did. Boston looked to Bill, who looked a bit worried.
She nodded once at him and pointed to the left.
He looked wary but pushed his magic so the tables would tilt to the left. Boston didn't hesitate as the tables turned to the side and then upside down. She moved quickly, staying on top of the table the whole time, ending up on the bottom, smiling victoriously.
Charlie had tried to move the table but could only do so after it was all the way on its left side, Kat hanging on by just two fingers.
"Let go with your left hand," Charlie called.
"That's likely!" She shouted back.
Then, Bill slammed Boston's table into Kat's again, and it finished its rotation, Kat dangling from it by her fingertips.
Boston pointed down, and Bill lowered her so she was eye to eye with Kat.
Kat looked at her friend, sweat beading along her brow. "Dirty move Boston."
Boston just smiled and looked down at her feet. There was room for two, she seemed to be saying.
"I do not accept defeat!" Kat swung and tried to get momentum to swing to one side. Unfortunately, she was unwilling to let go of one side, so it was just swaying the table.
"Kat!" Charlie called.
Boston's eyes went wide. She jumped off her table at the same time Kat's fingers finally gave out, and she dropped.
It seemed like everyone was screaming then; Kat most certainly was. Boston had turned so she was under Kat as they fell, clutching to each other, expecting the fall.
There was a jolt, but it didn't hurt. Boston and Kat opened their eyes, which they didn't remember closing in the first place, to see themselves hovering a few inches above the ground. Arthur was standing nearby with his wand out. Then, he dropped them with an oof.
"Can you please keep it down!" Percy yelled from his window three stories up. "I am trying to finish my report on the importance of regulating cauldron thickness. Mr. Crouch is expecting it on his desk by this Tuesday!"
Arthur, who had looked concerned and perhaps a little angry, let out a sigh as the whole of the garden burst out laughing.
"You children ought to be more careful," he said to Kat and Boston, "and boys," he swung his gaze towards the oldest members of the family, "I expect better of you." They were all still laughing through, and even Arthur cracked a small smile.
