Chapter 19: Sixteen
It wasn't long after the pine trees were dragged; wilted and candle-less, from the Great Hall, that pink garlands, hearts, and house elves dressed as cupid became the new obstacles to combat when walking the halls.
It wasn't until the morning of Valentine's Day that Katherine became privy to the not-so-glittery potions underbelly of the occasion, Scarlet Pogs having pulled a wiry, bespectacled Damocles away from his breakfast at the Ravenclaw table.
"Are you sure you want to use it on Dagworth?" Damocles loosened his looped scarf, lowering his voice as he watched passer-by's, "He's older and might be a bit hard to handle when hopped up on such a potion…"
Scarlet frowned, fondling her velvet sack of coins instead of extending it to Damocles.
"Of age boys just have something else… what's word am I looking for?" Scarlet Pogs' frown evaporated, and she grinned, pointing, "Apparition licenses!"
Damocles sighed, held out his hand, and accepted the payment. It was as he pocketed it that his eyes lifted, and he found Katherine watching the exchange.
"Katherine!" said Damocles, leaving Scarlet to her friends and taking the short step up the Gryffindor table, "How are you?"
"Great," said Katherine, smiling as she gulped down her mouthful of food, "And yourself? I feel as if I haven't seen you around at all…"
Damocles lifted his wiry specs up his nose, grinning bashfully, "The lead up to Valentine's day is a busy time for me – big business,"
He leant in closer, lifting his eyebrows conspiratorially.
"And between that, my classes, and trying to get ministry approval for my Wolfsbane potion…"
"You've finished it, then?" asked Katherine, trying to not appear too surprised for the sake of his ego.
The first dinner of term felt only mere weeks ago – not the months that it had been.
"Just before Christmas," Damocles grinned, flicking his hand dismissively at the impressiveness of it, "Trialled it on my inflicted cousin on the full moon when I went home for the holidays – worked a treat."
"Wolfsbane?"
Both Katherine and Damocles looked up.
Remus looked on from across the table, blinking and frowning.
"Yes," said Damocles swiftly, clinically, "A potion to help a werewolf keep their mind throughout a full moon,"
Damocles extended a hand across the table, the lapels of his robes falling into a pool of spilt porridge. He didn't seem to notice.
"Remus, right?" guessed Damocles, grinning crookedly, "I'm Damocles Belby."
Remus gingerly returned the handshake, "How'd you…"
"Know your name?" asked Damocles, "Well I've seen you around with Katherine, of course,"
Damocles shrugged, realised he had been shaking Remus' hand for, perhaps, too long, and then shrugged; letting go.
"I meant to introduce myself, but I never got around to it."
Remus nodded, but then hesitated.
"This potion," said Remus, slowly, "It really works?"
Damocles eyes lit up behind his specs, "I'd happily explain the mechanisms to you, if you'd like?"
"Belby!"
Damocles turned over his shoulder, nodded, turned back to Katherine and Remus, and then sighed.
"My duty to the teenage population of Hogwarts calls, I'm afraid," said Damocles as he turned, "I'll see you around, Lupin."
Around Damocles' retreating back, came Lily and James, their strides quick.
James grinned, jogging at her side, "We can't disappoint them."
"Who?"
"Your friends," said James, ruffling his hair, "How are they supposed to tell you that I'm no good if you won't go out with me?"
Lily's lips twitched – as if to smile – but then she sat down with a huff beside Katherine.
James laughed as he settled further down the table with Black and Peter.
All Katherine received that Valentine's Day, was a request from Giles to help him lug iguanas up from Hagrid's hut to the castle while everyone was down in Hogsmeade on the weekend.
She had an inkling, a divine one in fact, that she may also get divination homework as she trudged all the way up to the classroom.
"Crystal-gazing is a particularly refined art. I do not expect any of you to See when first you peer into the Orb's infinite depths."
Professor Brown flitted just out of the corner of Katherine's eye.
"Do you see anything, Miss Spencer?"
Katherine's eyes lifted from the ball as a purple butterfly fluttered by the window, and she thought it was a sign if she ever saw one.
"A butterfly, Professor." lied Katherine.
Lily smiled from behind Professor Brown, turning to watch the offending butterfly dance out of vision.
"Very good…very good…" said Professor Brown, gazing alongside Katherine into the crystal ball, "Do you know what that means, girl?"
Professor Brown's eyes, keen, lifted to Katherine. An eyebrow followed.
"No?" Professor Brown shook her head, tracing an overgrown fingernail over the roundness of the crystal ball, "A Butterfly hints that a visitor to do with your love life will come as spring turns into summer."
Katherine, wanting to know if the situation was as humorous as she thought it was, lifted her eyes and found Lily smiling behind her thin fingers.
Spurred on by her friend's amusement, Katherine set her sights on the window and found the catalyst to send her from an Exceeds Expectations to an Outstanding.
"Oh – wait," said Katherine, crafting a tone she hoped wasn't too false, "It's turning into an owl."
Professor Brown, however keen, seemed to have her vision clouded by interest. And sherry, thought Katherine, her nose wrinkling at the bitter smell as her Professor swayed closer and closer.
"A most unfortunate turn for you, Miss Spencer," said Professor Brown, tapping the top of the crystal ball, "An owl foretells of bad tidings and prophecy…"
Professor Brown snapped her fingers.
"How about your cup – pass it up, girl, the future waits for no one."
Katherine, blinking and fumbling in her haste, handed up the floral porcelain.
Professor Brown tilted the cup left, right, round and round, and then gasped. Her long nails relinquished their over-lapping hold from around the delicate white handle. The cup shattered against the ground with a tinkling SMASH!
With a long-nailed hand clutching her robes against her chest and trembling lips, Professor Brown leant back down, and whispered, "You have… the grim!"
Something wilted in Katherine's chest.
"The grim?" asked Katherine.
Lily's tulip-red fingernails rifled through the pages of her textbook before trailing down a page a pausing.
"It's an omen of death." said Lily, frowning.
Professor Brown had moved on, the tremble from her lips gone, onto other students.
Katherine, and her friends, also moved on – from news of Katherine's untimely death. Well, she tried to, until the news came to her two days later, on Saturday morning.
'TWELVE YEARS SINCE THE SPENCER TRAGEDY'
Katherine took one look at the title of the Daily Prophet and then spent the rest of her time looking at the usual photograph of her parents used when their names were dragged back through the papers.
She ignored the spiel about the tragedy of the attack taking place on their daughter's birthday, and that the day had come about again. She ignored the wondering of Jasmine Copper as to how many birthday's Katherine had left.
Over the sound of the usual breakfast scuffling in the Great Hall, Katherine still felt Lily's gaze on her. Considering that it was a Hogsmeade Saturday, one following Valentine's Day at that, it was a feat.
"It's your birthday," There wasn't so much as a questioning lilt in Lily's words. "Why didn't you tell me?"
Katherine didn't have an answer that wouldn't seem like she was fishing for sympathy. Should she tell her that she didn't even know that it was the day on which her parents were murdered until a few months ago?
"I guess it's a good thing you can't come to Hogsmeade then,"
Katherine found her chest tight at Lily's words. Looking up, though, Katherine found Lily rising from her seat and grinning.
"I can still get you presents and have them be a surprise," said Lily, popping up and skipping off down the hall.
No matter how spirited the entire student body was, there were a few immune to the feelings inspired by a trip from the school falling just after Valentine's Day. Gideon Prewett was all but stomping about, reprimanding students trying to sneak down to the adjacent town without permission slips.
Given the crack down on permission slips, and Peter and Mary having their first one-on-one date, Katherine had intended to stay back at the castle.
James shook his head as he pushed back his finished bowl of porridge, preparing to get up, "Shame you can't come Spencer, a real blight on the institution, if you ask me,"
It seemed James had yet to read the paper, something Katherine was glad for.
Black had sat across from her, perusing it, and had glanced to her once and then taken to his crossword.
"Coming, Sirius?" asked James, disentangling his feet as he climbed over the bench.
Sirius coughed once, "I'm feeling poorly."
"Wouldn't have anything to do with the fact that you said it 'makes you sick' to see the lack of dignity around Valentine's day, would it?" said James, wryly, before clapping Remus – who sat beside – on the shoulder heartily, "Moony – come on! You can't let a mate go alone!"
Remus' eyes flashed up to Katherine, "Well, actually, I –"
"Just quickly to Honeydukes and back –" James wrangled an arm around Remus, pulling the boy to his feet and dragging him out of the Great Hall, nattering on happily about something.
Remus glanced back with a tight apologetic smile.
The only fifth year Gryffindors left at the table, were Katherine and Black. Neither had addressed what had happened just a few nights ago, after the match. Together they sat in silence as they ate, Black continuing with his crossword, both comfortable to leave the quiet unbroken.
After eating, Katherine made her way to waste time with a stroll around the Quidditch Pitch before meeting with Giles, and then changed her direction for a walk around the lake instead.
It was by the large beech tree by the frozen edge that Katherine found a mass of black fur, and icy eyes peeking out from beneath it as she neared.
"Oh!"
Katherine's hand had flown to her chest with her startle at the presence. She hadn't expected to come across anyone, man, or beast. But, she realised, upon looking closer, that it wasn't very much of a beast. It was a dog – a wolfhound – and it was still round in the face; still a puppy.
Its ears pricked up and its tail beat with cold, hollow THUD's against the dirt.
"Have you been out in the cold long?" asked Katherine, her feet pulling her toward where it laid, "Where's your family – your, er, pack?"
The ears fell down the sides of the dog's face, its tail slowed to a wiggle, and the dog just blinked at Katherine.
"No family?" asked Katherine, slowly kneeling, "Me either,"
The dog let its head fall forward onto its paws, from there it gazed up at Katherine; tail wagging again.
"I remember you now – you chased Mrs Norris around the castle before Christmas,"
The dog's head lifted, almost as if the dog had leant back to appraise her for discovering its identity.
The action lured Katherine's arm forward unthinkingly, and her fingers settled between the dog's ears before she knew what she was doing. Tentative – unsure of just how stray the dog was – Katherine let her fingers splay through the soft black fur.
"It's too bad you couldn't have done it again today," Katherine sighed, smiling back at the dog as its tongue flopped out of its mouth; panting at her pats, "It would have given everyone else something else to talk about beside their bleeding chocolates and flowers…"
The dog rolled onto its side, displaying its belly for Katherine, it's arms wobbling where he held them up and away for Katherine to scratch his ribs. His tongue still lolled happily out of his mouth, but his eyes watched her – listening.
"After watching my last family members avada'd the day before term started, being locked in a cupboard with devil snare, nearly being drowned, and getting attacked by a Dementor – twice –" Katherine took a breath –"You'd think that I could have a wee bit of a break…"
Katherine's hand tired and she pulled it back to her knees and sighed, smiling as the dog rolled back up onto his paws.
"This 'being the prophesized defeat of Lord Voldemort' thing is really turning me into a wet blanket, sorry," said Katherine, ruffling between his ears.
She watched the dog as she thought of everything she had revealed, and then ran her hand along the side of his face, like she would a horse.
"It's not all bad, I have some great friends – Lily, Alice, Mary, and Marlene," said Katherine as she stroked the dog's neck, "They'd love you,"
The dog leant into each and every stroke from his whiskers, beneath his ear, and to his shoulder –
"Speaking aloud as you write into your diary about me, Spencer?"
Katherine felt her brain rattle in her skull from the force of her jump.
The dog, however, had gone deathly still as it surveyed the scene Regulus Black strolled onto.
"Now, I know I don't come from the sanest of families," said Regulus loftily, crossing his arms and ankles as he leant against the tree, "But I only have one Aunt that talks to herself – and we all talk about her when she passes out after too much firewhiskey at gatherings."
Indignation flared through Katherine, and she longed to spit out a response – no matter how half-baked.
"I was talking to the dog."
Regulus blinked, "Because that's so much better."
Katherine gathered herself; drawing her hands to her knees, her shoulders back, and lips to a purse.
"It seems that you deem me sane enough to speak to and not about when I'm unconscious or absent from the room."
Regulus raised a hand to a branch, slinging his weight across his hips. He bent a leg and craned his neck to smile amusedly down on Katherine.
"Giles is asking around for you."
"Oh, blast!"
Katherine shot to her feet, brushing down her robes and ensuring that their contents hadn't spilled out onto the grass.
"I forgot that I was supposed to meet him…"
Regulus shifted in the corner of her eye, his arms dropping to his sides.
"I'm not sure how long you'll be tied up with whatever he needs you for, but…" said Regulus, hesitating and taking a step toward her with an inclined head, "Would you like to meet me afterwards –"
An uncharacteristic bark from the dog almost made Katherine yell out in surprise – it was loud, and crisp, and almost too much for her ears from where she stood beside it.
Regulus' lips curled back in a sneer, and he peered down his nose at the source of the interruption with the upmost distaste.
"Is this mutt serious?"
"He's not a –"
"Concern of mine," said Regulus coolly, lifting a hand and frowning, "I'll be off – I suggest you do the same before you catch something…unsavoury,"
Katherine, blinking after Regulus Black as she so often did, wondered whether it would ever be the other way around…
Sometime in her wondering, Regulus turned back around.
"Oh," said Regulus, "And, Katherine?"
Katherine sighed, but met his gaze.
"Happy birthday."
Katherine watched as Regulus slipped his hands into the pockets of his trousers and strolled off at a leisurely pace.
As he resumed his circuit around the Black Lake, Katherine resumed her previous thought trail.
"See you…" said Katherine, crouching back down by the dog. She tried to convey her sympathy for the dog through her pats.
Once she tore herself away from the dog and tore across the grounds, she found that Giles was waiting patiently outside Hagrid's hut for her. He was a speck of tweed against the powdered lawns as Katherine approached the bricked structure and the plume of smoke twirling up out of it.
Everything she had dreaded about the task was alleviated by Giles' prompt news that they would be using their wands to levitate the cages up to the Defence classroom, as opposed to carrying them.
The taunting glow of the fireplace against Hagrid's window panes wasn't to last for more than six whole minutes – as that was all the time that it took to divide the cages between Giles and Katherine, levitate them, and walk them up to the castle.
It was easier than any class practical she had ever completed. Giles could have done it alone, even. And, Katherine realised, when his tea set was already out upon their arrival at the classroom, that he had an ulterior motive in asking for her help.
He wanted to talk to her about something.
A reverberating CRASH from down the hallway saved Katherine from a probing conversation with her new guardian.
Giles pushed up out of his chair and crossed to his open door, "What in the blue blazes is…"
Katherine reached the door before his words failed him, and was able to see the spectacle for herself.
James and Peter – returned already from Hogsmeade – leant out of an alcove across the hallway, wincing at something further down.
Katherine followed their eyes and found a bed of scattered glass at the bottom of the divination stairs; crooked, from a rushed deploying. Down them sped two sets of different coloured robes.
"How many?" bleated Sybil Trelawney, eyes magnified by her glasses as she scurried after Black's robes, "How many crows did you see?"
"I think he's about to see stars if he doesn't watch where he's going." murmured James, leaning his shoulder against the stone wall of the hallway as he watched on; amused.
Black ran with wild grace, his neck twisting so he could glance over his shoulder and then glance back to watch his step, his face glimpsed by Katherine for brief moments in the throes of desperation to escape.
His eyes pierced her mid-step, and he grinned, "Wotcher, Spencer!"
His robes swished past, leaving Katherine to blink in his wake and wonder whether her half-formed smile of confusion took place in enough time for him to catch.
She also had to wonder when her Head of House had arrived, the tall stiff tartan pole in the middle of the hallway that caught all the moving parts of trouble.
"Potter," said McGonagall, her eyebrows lowered as far as possible, shaking her head gently, "What in Merlin's name is wrong with your friend?"
"One for sorrow, two for mirth, three for a wedding, four for a birth, five for silver, six for gold, seven for a secret never to be told…" sang Sybill.
"I was just going to ask Professor Brown about an omen and that loony –" Black's eyes flashed with exasperation in Sybil's direction "– all but jumped on a poor bloke just gazing away the time until Professor Brown returned from a sherry in her quarters…"
"Well, go on then – the lot of you," said McGonagall, raising her hands in a shooing motion.
Katherine, assuming she was a part of 'the lot', also went to go.
"Not you, Katherine,"
James glanced back in sympathy before he stole around the corner with Black and Peter.
"I have your aptitude results."
The scroll of parchment was extended through the considerably easier to breathe air.
"Thank you, Professor." said Katherine, coveting the scroll with her eyes and longing to pull the ribbon from around it.
"The delay was due to conflicting results," said McGonagall, peering over her spectacles, "But I expect to see you in my office at the end of your first lesson on Monday for your counselling session."
No amount of sternness could squash Katherine's excitement.
"Of course, Professor." said Katherine, bowing her head as she turned to begin the journey back to her dormitory – to open her results privately.
"Eight for a wish, nine for a kiss…" Sybil still sang, only stopping when a blur of blonde hair and Ravenclaw robes came around the corner, "Oh, hello, Pandora!"
"Sybil," said Pandora with an airy but strangely sincere smile, "An acorn just fell down on me from the tree I was sitting under – do you wish to join me for tea and share in some of my forthcoming luck?"
Sybil toyed with the ends of her scarf, nibbling on her lower lip, "Only if it's chai – I need to be ready to cast myself into the beyond for my crystal gazing later."
Upon reaching her dormitory, Katherine came into the knowledge that she would best suit the profession of healing, and she also came into the possession of a set of eagle-feathered quills and a membership at Sprintwitches Sporting Needs in Hogsmeade; beloved birthday gifts from her friends.
It was as she thanked Lily and examined her new quills, that Marlene plopped down beside Katherine on her bed.
"What's this?" asked Marlene.
Not looking up from her quills and seeing Marlene's neck turned in the vague direction of her bedside, Katherine assumed her friend was asking about the scroll.
"I finally got my aptitude test back," said Katherine, testing the sharp tip of the quill against her fingertip, "Healing."
"Just like me!"
At Lily's loud realisation, Katherine's hand slipped and her new quill drew a bead of blood.
"I always wanted to be a nurse before I found out about magic," said Katherine, pressing her bleeding finger to her lips, "I'm not all that surprised."
"My mum was a nurse, I was going to follow in her footsteps until I got my letter," Lily nodded, loosely plaiting her hair, "I wasn't all that surprised either."
"So, did Professor Brown issue it, then?" asked Marlene, laughing shortly as she fell back against Katherine's pillows, "It would be her idea of deciding your future with a crystal ball…"
Katherine, bleeding and putting her quills down, finally caught the strangeness of Marlene's words.
"What?"
Marlene sat up and waved a hand at Katherine's bedside table, "The only thing up here is a crystal ball."
And she was right.
"That's not…" Katherine shook her head, disbelief numbing her neck, "My aptitude test is on my bed, that's – that is…"
"Beautiful!" exclaimed Lily, pulling out her Divination textbook from her trunk.
It was a crystal ball, much like the ones she had stared into on Valentine's Day in Divination, but with a difference. It didn't swirl with grey tendrils of smoke. Glittering flowers – jasmine – were iridescent in the dusk falling over the dormitory, charmed in a perpetual cycle of falling through the metallic inky liquid inside the ball.
"Let's see… jasmine… jasmine…" Lily traced her finger down the page of her textbook, "Jasmine represents purity and love, blooming in the early evening – a time when it is also commonly thought that love does too…"
Marlene glanced up with a smile, blinking, "It just means some bloke fancies her, Lily."
Lily just hummed, eyeing the crystal ball –
"Who do you think sent it?"
Minutes after the beginning of period two on Monday, Potions was underway and Katherine was rushing through the halls, worried that she would be late.
The results of her newly returned aptitude test and her career counselling session with McGonagall was fresh in her mind. They had decided easily that if she lived beyond a confrontation with Voldemort, that she would pursue Healing. Then they had to decide of the subjects she would be taking the next year.
The following year she would drop Astronomy and History of Magic. She only needed Potions, Charms, Transfiguration and Herbology for healing. Still, she could not bring herself to drop Defence, Divination, or Care of Magical Creatures.
Coming up behind the Fifth Year Gryffindor boys, Katherine realised that she couldn't be too late to Potions…
"Look, it's Aubrey." said James to his friends, a smile pushing his glasses further up his nose than usual.
"Hex him something severe, James!" said Peter, laughing as he eyed the back of Aubrey's robes with undisguised glee.
"Mates, if it's not out of retaliation, it's just mean."
Katherine's eyes lifted from the floor in front of her shoes and saw a glimpse of a Black she had yet to meet... She didn't let her eyes linger long, making sure her mouth was firmly shut as she continued around them to class.
All three of his friends had looked to Black, a mixture of incredulity and trepidation on their faces.
Peter shook his head in confusion, "Mean?"
"Yeah, you know, bullying." Black blinked, amused and ever so condescending.
James managed to close his mouth.
"Sirius is turning into Remus." teased James, smiling widely and whacking Black on the back.
Remus raised his eyebrows, "It's nice to finally have an ally."
"Woah, Mister Prefect," said Black, eyes glittering, "I'm not going for sainthood just yet."
James slung an arm around Black's shoulders, pacified by his amendment.
"What's with the change, Sirius?" asked Peter, his voice sounding now from behind Katherine.
Her back to the boys, Katherine didn't need to see Black to know that he had shrugged and stuffed his hands in his pockets.
"If Evans doesn't hear that James is being a menace, she might give him a go."
"That actually…. makes… sense." said Remus, slowly.
"Can we still shoot gum up the ghosts' noses?" asked Peter, his voice climbing in question.
As Katherine slowed by the Potions' classroom door, she turned as she pulled the handle in enough time to be privy to James slinging his arm around Peter's shoulders.
"Of course, Pete." James reassured his friend solemnly.
Peter, Mary, Frank, and Alice had all taken one work bench, chatting happily about plans to all go to the three broomsticks on the next Hogsmeade weekend when Katherine filed into the classroom.
Lily had taken to the bench beside them, but before Katherine could join them, Snape stepped up, to stand opposite Lily. Not wanting to partner on a bench with Snape, Katherine let Mulciber fill the last chair at that bench.
Spying Marlene on her lonesome, Katherine quickly stepped up to her table. Behind Katherine, robes swished against hers, and Remus took his usual spot beside her.
James stepped up next to Marlene, using his thumb and forefinger to rub his eyes beneath his spectacles, "Oi – McKinnon, I wanted to discuss something to try at next practise…" he went on to chat quidditch for a short period, before ducking off to the ingredient cupboard.
Black had arrived at the back of all the others, and reluctantly took the bench beside Greengrass – behind Katherine and Remus.
Katherine had never heard the girls speak so pleasantly to someone. Black, however, did not return it, giving one-word responses. He spent most of his time turned around, seemingly finding a way to speak to James, against all odds – and seating arrangements.
Katherine tried not to dwell on the feeling of satisfaction that filled her at it, and instead turned to the task at hand, "I'll go to the cupboard to get the –"
James had returned from his own trip to the ingredient cupboard, and placed down double the amount of ingredients –
"Don't worry about it," said James, giving a lop-sided smile in the midday sun dappling through the small lead-lighted windows of the Potions classroom, "Consider it a late birthday present."
Remus swayed, knocking his arm with hers, a gentle smile angled down at her, "We're all very sorry for forgetting your birthday."
All? thought Katherine, confused.
"You wouldn't happen to know who sent me the crystal ball, then?" asked Katherine, picking up a knife to slice the billywig.
James and Remus both looked up, at each other, and then at her –
She glanced up at Remus, nerves tickling her sternum, "I thought it might have been –"
Remus' stare was holding –
"– actually, don't worry." she amended, feeling much too silly to have suspected the boy.
Remus leant by her, eyebrows knitted together, "Someone sent you something anonymously?"
"Oh, it's gorgeous!" Marlene cut across, giving Katherine a knowing smile, "Whoever did must be very sweet on our Katherine."
James's eyes drifted over Katherine; his eyebrows raised in appraisal –
"It might not even have been a student," said Katherine, a little self-consciously, before pondering aloud, "Do you think Giles might have…"
Marlene shrugged, "I mean, it's a possibility…"
Unlikely, however.
James' eyes fixed over Katherine's shoulder, a faint frown pulling at his features, before he looked back to Katherine and said, "A crystal ball, you say?"
Marlene stirred the ladle of she and Potter's potion, eyeing him pointedly.
"Any leads, Potter? Now's not the time to keep your cards close."
James gave a gentle shake of his head, and a short smile to Katherine, before resuming his potion making, advising Marlene on the next steps.
Remus was stirring, frowning at the bubbling cauldron.
Katherine leant closer to his side to whisper up at him, "Alice knows how to check if something's cursed, by the way, if that's what you were worried about… after everything else that's happened…"
"Oh," said Remus, looking up and nodding absently. He gave a slow nod, with a faint smile, and turned his eyes back to the potion, "Right…"
Katherine reached for the tacky-shelled pod they needed to add next, "I can crush the pod; I know the smell bothers you."
Startled, Remus glanced up again. This time, however, the smile was his usual one.
"Thanks," he said, with new brightness. He watched her squash and add the pod with a HISS of the bubbling liquid, and furrowed his eyebrows anew, turning to her, "… hey, Spencer –"
"Five minutes until the bell! And I expect ten neat phials on my desk!" declared Slughorn with a playfully stern expression as he pointed out over the classroom, before returning to rifling through parchments on his desk.
Whatever Lupin was going to say whittled away in the face of their deadline. They hurried along, focusing on their task, and delivered one of the ten phials to Slughorn's desk by the lesson's end. In the rush out of the room at the bell, Katherine was separated from Remus, and slipped through, shoulder to shoulder with Black in the mess of robes.
In the hallway, the groups of students reassembled themselves, Black and Katherine splitting for their friends. Unanimously, they went back to their groups of boys and girls, after mingling in the morning lessons.
After grabbing some lunch from the Great Hall, all the Gryffindors had migrated back to the common room before afternoon lessons.
Katherine and Marlene were by the window, Katherine half-listening to the names Marlene rattled off as suspects for the crystal ball-giver. The thought of it having actually come from a walking, breathing, boy… well, it made Katherine blush too much.
Instead, she focused on whether James Potter was going to catch his Snitch again.
"You could teach." said James, letting go of his Snitch before catching it again.
Black looked to James, bow-shaped lips slackening and sneering in a symbiotic expression of quiet horror.
"I could also kill myself." said Black coolly, snatching the Snitch seconds before James did.
James pried the gold ball back from Sirius' hand with a scandalised look, smoothing out the flittering wings.
"You're no Seeker." James admonished him playfully, one hand going to his hair and the other releasing the Snitch again.
"Neither are you." said Black, his tone lighter than before and with a twitch at his lips.
Katherine picked up an abandoned magazine on the end table to busy herself. At once, it fell open – and at once, Katherine was taken back to the Sunday mornings when her Uncle would leave the very same 'Just Cars' magazine by the toilet.
The gleam of the glossy parchment… The clicking of the sticky spine…
Only once she overcame her nostalgia, did Katherine notice the circle of ink around a run-down Triumph Bonneville motorcycle – and the underlined telephone number and a scribbled 'July 31st – Paul's Auto Barn, Kensington'.
Katherine traced the lazy cursive letters, taken by the way 'K' curled elegantly and wondered if she could recreate it when writing her own name –
"The last time I checked, that magazine didn't come with a brail option."
Katherine's ribs jumped inside her skin. She whirled around, and green met grey.
Black blinked slowly, arms spread out behind him in a very, graceful, yet hedonistic manner.
"Oh!" said Katherine, holding out the magazine, "Er, is this yours?"
Black's lips slipped up.
He turned, and his eyes needled through Katherine once again, "I bought it; yes,"
Black flicked a hand through the air before he took to primly picking lint from his trousers.
"But I don't have any use for it anymore," he shrugged, his gaze slipping sideways to Katherine once more – heavy-lidded, "So knock yourself out."
"No, you're supposed to read them, Padfoot –"
James gave his friend a mirthful glance –
"And what's this about brail?" asked James, with a concerned glance at Katherine, "You haven't had any signs of sight loss, have you –"
James went on to recommend no less than three reputable wizarding optometrists and to ideally check in with Madam Pomfrey before they played Slytherin.
And that was how Katherine found out that Spinnet, unfortunately, was missing the next match so his regrown bones had time to properly calcify and re-strengthen.
She would have to play again.
On top of everything.
Author's Note: Thank you for reading! :)
