A/N: Right, so... Sorry this chapter took so long... And while Charlie does show up a bit in this chapter, it's primarily about Kathy (daughter of Ron and Hermione, in case you've forgotten). Oh, by the way, there's a reference in this chapter that you'll probably understand better if you've read my seventh year fic. Thus, feel free to read that, if you haven't yet... It's complete and all, so what're you waiting for? Additional note: Thanks to Wolf's Scream for pointing out some logical inconsistencies, which have since been corrected.

Chapter 3

The Thunderstorm

Augusta Kathryn Weasley would always remember the afternoon when she first realized she fancied Sirius Lupin. It was a warm summer day, before her fourth year at Hogwarts, and the Weasley clan was spending the week at their summer home on the shore.

The summer home had been a cooperative investment made by Fred, George and Harry, and actually resembled a hotel more than a conventional house. In fact, when members of the family weren't using it, they often rented out rooms to other wizarding families, as a side operation of Weasleys Wizard Wheezes Incorporated, which now included a second joke shop, a line of various candies, and a wizarding amusement park, in addition to this hotel.

At any rate, on this particular day, the building was occupied by Kathy's immediate family, as well as most of her cousins. The only family among the Weasleys that wasn't there was that of Bill and Fleur. They were off somewhere in continental Europe. France, or Belgium, or Switzerland, or something, Kathy believed. Since Bill and Fleur's family spent a part of their summer each year in a different European locale, it was somewhat hard for her to keep track.

The Lupins were also at the beach-house, that day, and since his best friend John was off with his parents, Sirius was spending his time with Kathy, Ben, and Charlie. Whenever a bunch of the Weasley grandchildren congregated in one place, they had no choice but to break into smaller groups, if any of them wanted to have coherent conversations without needing to scream. It was only logical that Ben and Sirius were hanging out, since, though Kathy wasn't very sure how, Ben had become best mates with both Sirius and John during their third year (Kathy's second). Kathy and Charlie had been talking to each other, and had managed to accidentally get into a splashing fight with Ben and Sirius when they were in the water, and the four had kept talking to each other afterward.

After they had pretty well exhausted themselves in the water, the four of them lay down on the beach and started chatting about the upcoming school-year.

"I hope Lily gets sorted into Gryffindor," said Charlie. "My dad will not be pleased if another child of his goes into Slytherin."

"How'd he react when you got placed there?" asked Ben. Ben was not nearly as close to Charlie as Kathy was. Thus, unlike Kathy, he hadn't asked him about this topic during Christmas break in Charlie's first year, after the first time he'd seen his father since being sorted.

"Well... He wasn't angry exactly," said Charlie. "At least not by the time I got home, anyway. I figure that was probably due to some coaxing by my mum. She always has been good at cooling his temper. But I do think he acted a bit distant from me at first, until he found out that most of the Slytherins treat me poorly. I think it wasn't until I revealed that Malfoy called me a mudblood for having a muggle-born grandmother that he finally decided he wouldn't have to disown me. His reaction to me telling him that was quite priceless, actually. I think he couldn't decide whether to be offended for me, or amused at the idiocy of Malfoy for calling me a mudblood in spite of the fact that I come from two of the oldest wizarding lines in Britain."

"You could have pointed out that at least our family's not all inbred like the Malfoys," Ben pointed out.

"Yeah," agreed Sirius. "Wasn't that Parkinson trollop Draco married his cousin or something?"

Kathy actually laughed out loud at that, before saying, "Ok, first of all, yes, I think they're second cousins once removed, or something. Second of all... Did you just say 'trollop'?"

"Yes, yes I did," said Sirius with a slightly proud looking grin.

"Well, that's good. You don't hear the word trollop as much as you used to," said Kathy.

"You used to hear it more often?" asked Ben skeptically.

"Er... Well... No, but... My point is it should be used more often," said Kathy, feeling a bit stupid for having commented on the word in the first place.

"Couldn't agree more," said Sirius, looking at Kathy with a winning grin that made her forget all about feeling stupid.

There was silence for a second, as Sirius and Kathy looked at each other. Kathy felt something like butterflies in her stomach, and wondered briefly whether Sirius felt the same thing.

Then, much to Kathy's disappointment, Charlie broke the silence, and Sirius looked away to look at him. "So, who do you reckon will be the Gryffindor prefects this year?"

Ben, Sirius, and John were each entering their fifth year.

"Probably John, for the male," said Sirius. "He's no better at his classes than Ben or I, but he's always been better at charming McGonagall. Not that he gets in any less trouble than us, but when we get caught trying to pull a prank, John's the one who comes the closest to getting McGonagall to laugh at how funny the prank would have been if we had managed to pull it off."

"Could be John," agreed Ben. "Frankly, I don't care who it is, though, as long as it's not Wood."

Travis Wood, who was the son of Oliver Wood, had born a grudge against Ben ever since Ben was made Keeper over him. The three were rather paranoid that if Travis were made prefect, he might go out of his way to try to get them into trouble. Not that that would be overly difficult to do.

"Oh, it won't be," said Sirius. "It'd be Thomas before it'd be Wood."

"Good point," agreed Ben.

At this point, Charlie seemed to be struck by a sudden inspiration and said, "Hey, do you lot think we should try to get a Quidditch match going?"

"Of course!" registered Sirius and Kathy promptly, in unison. Kathy was as big of a fan of Quidditch as the boys. During the previous year, Kathy had become the youngest Chaser on the Ravenclaw starting team, while Charlie had been made the Slytherin Seeker. Kathy and Sirius glanced quickly at each other, grinning at their identical reactions to Charlie's question. However, they didn't share a moment like they did the last time their eyes met. That is, assuming that the moment had been shared the first time, instead of something that she was just imagining.

"Oy!" yelled Charlie, having made his way toward the water so that the rest of the cousins would be able to hear him. "We're picking teams for Quidditch in five minutes. Anyone who wants to play, put some clothes on, get your brooms, and meet us behind the house."

As at Arthur and Molly's house, there was enough space between the beach-house and any muggle residences that it was safe to fly on their brooms without attracting attention.

A rather high proportion of the kids present played Quidditch for the house teams at Hogwarts, and even those that didn't still had a great interest in the sport.

"Do you reckon we ought to tell the adults?" asked Ben, as the four of them began to make their way toward the house to get their brooms. The adults were mostly in the house, apparently not quite having the energy to spend as much time on the beach as the kids tended to.

"We'll probably have enough for almost full teams even without them. We can mention that we're playing, but they probably won't play," said Sirius.

He turned out to be right. Some of the adults mentioned that they might get their own game together later, but they figured there'd be enough kids willing to play to make for a good game. When everyone had gathered in the back yard, there were twelve assorted members of the Weasley, Potter, and Lupin families. The only kids that weren't there were the very youngest. Even Lily Potter, and Fred's son Jack were there to play, although both were just about to start their first year, and therefore had only learned to fly from their parents. However, since both sets of parents were very competent flyers, their children had already become quite good.

Ben and Sirius acted as captains. Ben picked Charlie first, then Sirius picked Kathy. The final teams turned out to be Sirius, Kathy, Andrew Weasley, Jake Weasley, Andrea Weasley, and Lily Potter, against Ben, Phil Weasley, Charlie, Paul, Glen Lupin, and Jack Weasley.

Since Andrew and Phil were the only ones on each team who had ever played beater before, both teams played with only one beater, so they used just one Bludger, but the rest of the positions were the same.

The teams got into quick huddles before starting.

"All right... Since none of us really play seeker, who wants to do it?" asked Sirius, who seemed to be taking the role of captain very seriously even in this quick pick up game. Kathy thought it was pretty funny, actually.

"Well, I could try," offered Kathy.

"I kind of hoped you would play Chaser," said Sirius. "I mean, they've got Charlie, who actually plays Seeker for Slytherin. He's almost definitely going to get the Snitch before any of us, so I think that the best chance we have to win is outscoring them at the goals. So, it might be better if you played Chaser. I mean, you are an excellent Chaser."

"Thanks," said Kathy, slightly flattered. Of course, she had scored a fair amount of points last year on the Ravenclaw team, but still... hearing it from Sirius... He was such a great chaser himself... Kathy shook her head in an attempt to clear it, wondering why she was thinking about Sirius so much lately. But shaking her head didn't stop her from thinking about him. Then she started wondering why people thought it was a good idea to shake their heads to clear them in the first place. Ironically, this actually did distract her from Sirius a bit, in an indirect way.

"I could try," volunteered Lily. "I've never played Quidditch before, formally, but when I learned how to fly, my Dad let me use his Snitch to practice. He thinks maybe I can be a seeker, too," she finished with a smile.

"Sure," said Sirius. "That leaves Jake and Andrea. Which one of you wants to be Keeper?"

"I will," said Jake.

"Fair enough," said Sirius, and then the huddle broke up.

The game turned out to be pretty high-scoring, even though Ben was a quite competent Keeper.

Paul, Glen, and Jack were playing Chaser for the other team. Although Jack had just recently learned to fly, Glen was quite good. He didn't play for the Gryffindor first team, but as the Chaser first-team spots were taken by Sirius, and John, and the current captain of the team, there was really no shame in that. She reckoned that he could have made any of the other house teams, and would probably be able to fill one of the Chaser spots when the older ones graduated.

At any rate, by a certain point in the game, it seemed almost as if Sirius and Kathy were able to read each other's minds, anticipating their teammate's next turn, and throwing the quaffle ahead of them.

From their vantage points high above the grounds on their broomsticks, the kids were able to see black clouds coming in quickly from the distance. Although it had been rather cloudy all day, the new clouds coming in looked much more ominous.

It was looking like there might be a thunderstorm coming. Kathy reckoned she wouldn't much mind that. She had kind of a thing for thunderstorms. The dark clouds, contrasted every once in awhile by the quick flashes of lightning. The heavy, cool rain, which could feel so good on a hot day like today, and the earth-shaking thunder which could make you jump if you weren't expecting it.

Yes, in fact, she quite hoped there would be a thunderstorm today. But she also rather hoped that they'd get to finish the game first.

The Kathy-Sirius combination turned out to be a deadly one, as far as Quidditch went, and this was able to distract Ben enough that he had little attention left over to pay Andrea, who was therefore able to score several goals of her own.

The game stayed relatively close, however, and when it was 190-150 in Kathy's team's favor, Ben, who was playing captain for the other team, called a time-out.

"We're doing well so far," congratulated Sirius. "But Glen's playing better than I expected him to, so it doesn't look like we're going to be able to count on our chasers to win the game for us. Not that we're not working our butts off out there, mind. By the way, Kathy, you're doing really well. Don't know why you couldn't have been sorted into Gryffindor. And Jake and Andrea, you're doing great, too. I think the future of Gryffindor-Quidditch will have some hope after I graduate after all," he finished with a grin.

"Hey, what about me?" asked Andrew.

"Andrew, I'm not speaking to," continued Sirius, "as the Blugder hit me in the thigh, and I think I'm going to have a bruise."

"Yes, well, you should have dodged it. Besides, remember who the other team's got as their beater. I can't keep the Bludger away from you all the time!" said Andrew, in mock-defensive tones.

"Well, I'm still not talking to you," said Sirius. "Oh, damn. Well, perhaps I am talking to you, then. But I'm still rather peeved," he continued, as everyone laughed. "Anyway, my point is, Lily, it looks like the game's going to depend on whether or not you can catch the Snitch."

"No pressure, though," Kathy assured her with a laugh.

"Of course not," said Sirius. "But, I still think you can do it. After all, you've got about the same genes as your brother, right?"

"Er... I would assume so," registered Lily with a grin. In spite of the fact that she had mostly inherited her mother's looks, they were holding out hope that she had also inherited her father's seeking skills.

"Let's get started again, then!" called Ben from the opposing huddle.

They all mounted their brooms, and the game started again.

Glen started out with the Quaffle for the opposing team, but when he passed it toward Paul, Andrew managed to knock it off course by a really fantastic shot with the bludger. Andrea managed to swoop down and grab the quaffle from rather close to the ground. She tossed it to Sirius, who tossed it quickly to Kathy. Phil managed to chase down the bludger and hit it back in Kathy's direction, forcing her to re-evaluate her route toward the goal-hoops.

After dodging the bludger, Kathy found herself heading toward the far-left goal. Ben moved in the direction of that goal. Lupin was nearer to the far-right goal, and Kathy threw the ball toward him, figuring that he would throw it into the goal.

However, at that very moment, Charlie and Lily dove right in front of him, neck and neck, rushing toward the ground. They each had their upper bodies pressed flat against their brooms. Lily seemed to be pulling a bit ahead of Charlie, since she was smaller than him and caused less air resistance. But, then again, since Charlie had longer arms than Lily, he still had a good shot at catching the snitch.

Speaking of the snitch, Kathy had no idea where it was. She tried to find it, extending Charlie and Lily's path toward the ground. She didn't end up seeing it until Lily, who had managed to pull just a little bit further ahead of Charlie, had stretched out her hand and caught it. When she pulled up, she was only ten feet from the ground.

Everyone congregated on the ground and got off their brooms.

"What a rush!" said Lily.

"I can't believe you beat me on that!" said Charlie. "I bet I'll be playing against you as Seeker on the Gryffindor team in a few years."

"Good job!" said Sirius.

"Yeah, excellent," agreed Kathy.

"I don't know if I would've gotten it if it hadn't been sort of flying more toward my direction than Charlie's," she said modestly.

"That's part of the game," said Charlie. "Besides, I never would've seen the snitch if you hadn't dived down first. It would've been a spectacular showing for your first game even if you hadn't caught it."

"So..." said Andrea, "anybody want to go back into the water?"

"I'm going to stay out here and fly for awhile," said Charlie.

While several of the kids went back to the water, Charlie, Lily, Ben, Sirius, and Kathy got back on their brooms to fly around for awhile, tossing the quaffle around between them.

After about 20 minutes of this, Kathy felt a raindrop. Then, she felt a couple more.

"You guys feel that?" asked Lily.

"Yeah," responded Ben. "I think I'm going to get off my broom. It's no fun flying in the rain."

They each got off their brooms. "Are you guys going inside?" asked Charlie.

"Well... I'll take my broom in, at any rate. I might come back out, though, I like thunderstorms," said Sirius.

"Really, you too?" asked Kathy.

Sirius looked at her appraisingly. "You like them as well? Are you going to come back out, then? I could use some company, as it looks like everyone else is going in," he said, glancing toward the other kids, running up from the beach to the house.

"Sure," said Kathy. "I'll meet you back out front after I put my broom in my room."

"All right, you two kids have fun, then," said Ben with a laugh. "Fancy a game of Wizard's Chess, Charlie?"

"Sure," responded Charlie.

"I'll take winner," said Lily, who was actually pretty good at chess.

Kathy put her broom back in the two bed room the she was sharing with her younger sister Andrea. As she headed back toward the front door, she passed through the big common room where most of the others were.

"Are you staying in out of the rain, Augusta?" asked Hermione. Her mother was the only one who called her by her actual first name. She had been the one to name her, too, apparently taking her name from the middle-name of a particularly intelligent opponent of Voldemort. Apparently, this woman had also managed to leave behind an enchanted journal that had helped her parents and Harry to find Voldemort's Horcruxes. However, for reasons that had never quite been fully explained to Kathy, her father had ended up hating that woman with a vengeance. But, apparently he had forgotten that the woman's middle-name was Augusta, which was why he had agreed to let his daughter have that name. Apparently, he didn't realize it until Harry mentioned it in passing, when Kathy was about two. Kathy couldn't remember, but according to her uncle Harry, this had sparked perhaps the most legendary of the Ron versus Hermione arguments. They never quite decided what to do about the name-issue, so it turned out to be up to Kathy herself. Hermione had kept calling her Augusta, while her father had always called her by her middle name. Being a bit of a daddy's girl, Kathy had naturally chosen to call herself by the name that her father used. She didn't regret the choice now, either. Augusta was such a stiff and formal-sounding name. Kathy didn't think it fit her too well.

"Er... wasn't planning on it," said Kathy, hoping that her mother wouldn't make her stay in.

"It's only rain," contended Ron.

"True," registered Fred. "Remember, we put up that charm to keep lightning from striking within 500 meters of the house."

"May I please go out, mother?" asked Kathy sweetly, knowing that the best way to convince her mother of anything would be to use good manners.

"I suppose so," said Hermione.

"Thanks mum," said Kathy, walking over and giving her a quick hug.

She met Sirius at the door. In spite of the rain, it was hot enough in the house that she was still sweating a bit from when she had run up the stairs. The rain would be quite refreshing.

He grinned at her before opening the door, "It's really coming down out there now. You ready?"

Kathy grinned back. "I'm sure I can handle it."

"All right, let's go," said Sirius, and opened the door. Sirius stepped out first, and Kathy followed him out into the pouring rain. The noise of the rain itself was enough to make them need to raise their volume when they were talking.

"So, what are we going to do out here?" asked Kathy.

"I'll race you down to the water," challenged Sirius.

"All right," said Kathy. "On three."

They counted to three together, and both started running in the sand toward the water.

It was a short sprint down to the water, but when they were halfway there, lightning flashed, lighting up the gray dimness.

They reached the water at the same time, just as the thunder from the lightning began to roll. Their shoes were off, since they didn't feel like getting them wet. Neither of them had a particularly easy time stopping, as they had been going at their full speeds. In attempting to stop, they each ended up nearly to their waists in water, before each lost their balance in the waves and fell over.

Each went under, momentarily, before coming up laughing.

"Well, you're awfully coordinated," said Kathy with a laugh.

Sirius frowned thoughtfully. "Yeah. Sometimes I don't know why I get off my broom. And now we're all wet."

"Yeah," Kathy agreed. "You come out into the rain to try to dry off, and end up all wet."

"Yes. Quite ironic," Sirius joked.

"Still, we might as well get out," said Kathy, looking at him. She was still trying to figure out whether he had felt the chemistry between them during their shared look earlier that day. If he had, he was showing no signs of it, and she was already beginning to think that things would be a whole lot easier if she hadn't felt it in the first place.

She had known him for most of her life, and had never had that type of feelings for him before. But then, when they'd been together, it had usually been in a much larger group. In fact, Kathy reflected, this little episode in the rain was possibly the longest they had ever been alone together.

They stood on the beach, where the waves lapping at the sand met the rainwater rushing down in rivulets from the higher ground. They looked out at the dark clouds over the water, watching the lightning flash and the waves crash. At least, that's what Sirius was looking at, and what Kathy had intended to be looking at. But, at some point Kathy, quite in spite of herself, became distracted from the storm and started looking at Sirius.

It was because of this distraction that she managed to be so surprised by a crash of thunder that she actually leapt into the air. This jumpiness, of course, would have caused quite enough embarrassment to be getting on with, but unfortunately, her little jump managed to cause her balance to falter.

She fell, as it turned out, right into Sirius' arms. Well, actually, she almost collapsed into a heap in front of him, and it was probably only by Sirius' Quidditch-instincts, which told him to grab any object moving toward him, that he ended up catching her instead of letting her fall to the ground.

Still, she wasn't overly displeased by the fact that her stumbling had left her quite conveniently wrapped in Sirius' arms. She was however, a bit displeased by the remarkable speed with which he let her go, after holding her only a second or two and asking her if she was all right.

As soon as she said she was all right, he let go, leaving her a bit disappointed and quite embarrassed. She grinned at him sheepishly. "Sorry 'bout that," she registered.

"It's ok," he said, grinning back slightly. Their eyes met for another brief moment, but this time Kathy was quite sure there was no connection between them. When she literally fell into his arms, he had let go of her so fast that she was almost absolutely certain that he had no feelings for her.

And she certainly wasn't going to ask him about it. She had managed to be quite embarrassed even without admitting that she liked him, so she wasn't going to do anything more to embarrass herself. She wished she could erase the feelings which she was starting to develop for him. But even as she wished this, she couldn't help but think of how charming, funny, and handsome he was.

It was then that Kathy realized that her emotions had gotten quite out of her own control. The damage had been done.

A/N: Well... I'd love to know what everybody thought of this chapter. I'm not sure whether it turned out well... This style is rather different for me, and encouragement will help me continue at a better pace. Unless I'm struck by sudden inspiration otherwise, next chapter will probably focus largely on Ben (son of Percy and Penelope). Among other things, it will explain how he started hanging out with John and Sirius.