Chapter Forty-One: Storm the Sorrow

Disclaimer: All characters belong to J.K. Rowling. The underlined portions are taken directly from the novel; I do not own those parts. They belong to J.K. Rowling.

Author's Note: This fanfiction is going to be different from my other stories. This picks up where "The Heart of Everything" and "The Heart of Everything: Shallow Bay" left off. The time in the books also changes. So, pay attention the time, so you don't get confused. Some of the chapters are other Marcus Flint/Katie Bell stories, just with more changes and deleted scenes added.

Time: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Genre: Romance, Drama, and Friendship

Rating: PG-13

Bold: Flashback

Alex walked next to Katie. His face was the most serious she had ever seen it. He gave her a small smile whenever he saw her watching him.

Lisa joined them on Alex's side. She stepped forward.

Katie's world exploded. She flew backwards and struck the back wall. She could only see dots and hear the panicked cries of the others around her. She shook her head and fought to refocus.

Alex was next to her, unmoving.

"Alex," Katie whispered as she crawled over to him and shook him. "Alex, please."

He didn't move.

Katie put her hand on his neck. Nothing.

"WE HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE!" Damon roared in her ear.

Katie allowed him to pull her away from Alex's body. His body...She gulped. He was dead and it was all her fault. He would not had even come had it not been for her. Lisa? Where was Lisa? She was probably dead as well. Two of her friends were dead and it was because of her.

Katie woke up to a spinning world, lots of blue and silver, and the smells of homemade chicken noodle soup. Groaning, she pushed herself up to get a better view of her surroundings. She was in a bedroom. She tried to look more, but feel back down onto the pillows with a small cry of pain.

"That wasn't wise."

She looked toward the door and saw Marcus leaning against the door frame with eating out of a bowl. "You look better."
Marcus pushed himself off the door frame and came over to her. He sat down carefully on the edge of the bed.

Katie grabbed his spoon and started eating out of his bowl. Much to her surprise, he didn't say anything. "So, how long have I been out?"
"Close to three days."

"Oh." She paused and took a deep breath. "What happened?"
"The Death Eaters that were in Azkaban are now prisoners."
"Oh."
Marcus looked at her. "Is that all you can say?"

Katie blinked. Alex...Lisa...They were gone! She couldn't believe it! It was all her fault. They would not had even been there if it wasn't for her. People always died when it came to these things and it was always the good guys who did. Why didn't the bad ones have to go Why did people as carefree as Alex and Lisa have to go? What had happened to their bodies?

"Katie?"
Katie looked at Marcus. "I'm fine."

Marcus looked at her with a doubtful expression, but didn't push the issue.

"Where's Emily?"

"Upstairs with Jenna."

Katie attempted to nod, but her head hurt too much. "Was there anyone?" She paused. "Was anyone else from our side killed besides Alex and Lisa?"
"No."
Katie blinked hard. There was nothing worse than being the only ones. Marcus put his arms around her and she leaned into him, not hard because she didn't want him to start bleeding. She turned up to him and kissed his sweet lips.

"Will you two wait until I'm out of the room?"

Katie jerked away from Marcus and saw that Nathanial was making his way toward the bed. She felt herself get red. It's not like they were doing anything wrong to begin with.

"At least you're in the same room, so I don't have to hunt." Nathanial motioned for Marcus to move. "How's the head?"

Katie winced as Nathanial started gently examining it. "Sore."

Nathanial nodded. "It's going to be." He moved away from her. "Other than that, it looks good. Are you having any difficulty with memory or anything else?"
Katie shook her head.

"Good." Nathanial turned to Marcus. "Your turn."

Marcus said something to Nathanial in Italian that Katie couldn't catch. Nathanial answered back just as quickly. She hated whenever they did that. Why couldn't there be just one language? The next thing she knew, Marcus was pulling his shirt and bandages off and Nathanial was staring at his side.
"You need to stop moving around so much," Nathanial muttered to Marcus.

"I'm not moving as much as I normally do," Marcus pointed out.

"True, but you are moving around too much. You'll tear those wounds back open."

"I know."

"Then, do it!"
When Marcus didn't answer, Katie could not help but to smile. It was kind of cute how he backed down when it came to his family. He was whipped and there was no other way to describe it.

Katie peered at Marcus's side. The wound was healing, slowly, and would leave a nice scar, but he would recover. The one his stomach looked better. That scar would probably be smaller than the one from where he had his appendix removed. They weren't red, which was good and the bandages were clear, which was even better.

"Okay," Nathanial muttered.

Marcus pulled his shirt back on.

"You two will be okay." Nathanial paused. "I just wouldn't take it past snogging."
Katie turned red and Marcus made a face. Smirking, Nathanial backed out of the room.

"So, what have you been up to?" Katie asked as she finished off Marcus's soup.

"Not much. I've just been doing some reading."
"On what?"
Sighing, Marcus reached under the bed. "I didn't want them to see this. Haley and I did a little digging while you were gone." He showed her the title: Secrets of the Darkest Art.

Katie frowned. "Not exactly light reading or happy."
"I know, but Haley and I we found something while you were gone."
"I hope you're not teaching your sister bad tricks." Katie smiled. "So, what did you find?"
"There's this safe upstairs that Nathanial keeps a lot of papers in. Anyway, Haley thought that they weren't telling us anything and we kind of went through Nathanial's stuff." Marcus's expression resembled that of a child's who had just been caught with his in the biscuit jar. "We found something called Horcruxes and it was tied in with You-Know-Who."
Katie frowned. She had never heard of Horcruxes. Both of them had taken Advanced Defence Against the Dark Arts too. "What's it say about them?"

"Fragments of a person's soul are used to create it, which a person can get by killing another. Most only make one, but Nathanial seemed to think that You-Know-Who made more than one." Marcus paused. "I don't why he thinks that."

"Well, You-Know-Who has killed thousands, maybe millions, so it is very possible that more than one exists."

"I guess," Marcus said. "That's not even really the scary part."

"What could be worse than magic that kills?"
"The kind that fights back. This magic senses some kind of line of defence. The bit of soul inside it can sense whenever there is a threat and defend itself. It is said that it may even cause death in rare cases."
"That's bad."

"Yeah."
Katie stared at Marcus. She reached up and touched his soft, dark hair. "Nathaniel's sure about this?"

Marcus nodded.

"The darkest magic for the darkest wizard, it's fitting." Katie sighed. "Things just got a lot more complicated. There's just simply no easy way to kill him."

"Was there ever?"

"You know what I mean."

They feel into silence. Katie really wasn't surprised that You-Know-Who managed to find a way to beat death. Was it even possible to kill him with the threat of the Horcrux? All of their chances of defeating him were gone, giving the Dark Side a chance to come in and storm the sorrow.

"Is there anything we can do?" Katie asked.

Marcus sighed as he laid slowly back on the bed. "I don't know. One is for sure though."
"What's that?" Katie whispered as she laid back next to him.

"We can't go back to England, yet."
Katie gripped his hand. "That's okay. I'm getting used to the sunshine."

Marcus laughed. "Yeah, there is that."
She kissed him before rolling over to her side. "All of this is giving me a headache and you look like you could use a few hours of sleep yourself."

"Just sleep?"

"I don't want to hurt you."

Marcus's laughter filled the room. "Getting a little confident there?"
"Boy, don't make me hurt you."
His hot breath tickled the back of her neck as he spoke. "Baby, I would like to see you try."

Katie's face got red. She had nothing to be ashamed of, the truth hurt some people.

"Go to sleep." The last thing she heard before closing her eyes was Marcus's soft laughter.

Katie woke up before Marcus the next morning. She looked over at his sleeping form, realizing for the first time in months how young he actually was. She slipped out from underneath the covers. It was early, so early that daylight hadn't fully overtaken the night sky.

Emily...She wanted to see Emily. She crept up the stairs quietly because she didn't want to wake anyone in the house. As soon as she stepped into Emily's room, a sense of serenity overcame her. Up here, nothing bad could happen, the evil of the world did not exist in these walls.

Emily was still asleep when Katie approached the crib. Her little fists were wrapped around her favourite stuffed tiger, her tiny eyes closed. She looked so lovely there sleeping without a care in the world.

Katie pulled her blankets up closer around her and smiled. This was what it was supposed to be like.

She went over to her bed and pulled a small trunk out from underneath it. No one else knew that she had brought this or that it even existed. Inside was the memories of yester years and forgotten dream. She slowly opened it. On top were pictures of Katie with Leanne, Alex, and Lisa. She felt a familiar pain in her stomach as she looked at Alex's and Lisa's smiling faces. She carefully sat those aside. Next were pictures of her with Angelina, Alicia, Fred, and George with Oliver mixed in a few. They all looked so young. The pictures of her and Marcus were rather interesting. She could tell the date of them by the basis of his Quidditch uniform, the Slytherin green turned to Falmouth grey. Smiling, she sat all the pictures down on the bed. She needed to get a scrap book or something to put those in.

She picked up a Galloon that was mixed in with a picture of Dumbledore's Army. She had always thought that using something as simple as a coin to alert people of new meetings was brilliant. It was the perfect way to communicate in secret. She frowned. There was something wrong with the coin. She stared closer. There was meeting. What the hell?

She got to her feet and rushed downstairs. "Marcus!" she yelled as she stepped in the room where Marcus was sleeping.

He slowly opened his eyes and stared at her.

Katie shoved the Galloon in his hands.

"Why are you showing me this?"
"It's what we used for D.A to know when the next meeting was." She pointed to the side of the coin. "Look, there's a meeting tonight."

Marcus frowned and looked closer at the coin. "Do you want to go?"

"They never summon us unless it's important." She looked nervously at the coin.
Brad appeared in the door, his face flushed. "It's Hogwarts. The Death Eaters are on the move."