A/N: Second favorite chapter! Oh, and I only just realized, but please, bare with me if you've noticed that one scene is going on, and then all of a sudden another is going on. In this chapter, passage of time will be indicated with !~!. Please, just use your imagination for the first fourteen chapters! R&R, if thou pleasest!
The Deathly Hallows
Katrina raised an eyebrow at Fred as he caught her eye. He grinned sheepishly and turned to smile graciously at the French girl he had so eagerly just introduced himself to. The Weasley twins certainly seemed to be enjoying Bill and Fleur's wedding.
Well, now, two can play at that game, can't we? She turned to a rather handsome young Frenchman with dark hair, dark eyes, and a very nice smile, and had just begun flirting with him (and believe me, he was retaliating with just as much vigor) when Fred stepped in.
"And what would you be doing, now?" he asked the boy menacingly, using his height to an advantage.
The poor boy turned an unnatural shade of red and backed away, muttering apologies.
Fred looked at Katrina, his bright grin plastered back onto his face where it belonged. "Um...he was taking up too much...air-space?" he tried weakly.
She smiled and rolled her eyes. "Try again."
"Uh, um...well, I'm sorryandhowaboutwejustdance...now?" He was trying, she had to give him that.
"Oh, okay. But no more pretty French girls."
"What pretty French girls? Where?" Fred whipped his head around - teasing her. "The only pretty girl I see is right here in front of me."
"And believe me, the only handsome guy I see is this 50 foot one in front of me." Indeed, he was a lot taller than her, but not by much anymore - she herself had gotten taller in the past few months.
!~!
"You alright, Freddie?"
"Yeah."
The three of them stared off into the distance from one of Hogwarts' battlements. Katrina leaned against Fred's shoulder, quietly reflecting.
"Kat, you good?"
She smiled. "I'm fine, George." She was going to say more, but stopped herself.
Overhead, the storm clouds brewed and darkened. So much had happened in the past few months, and it was all going to end here. Tonight.
George stretched. "We should go down now." Catching a look from his twin, he added, "I'll catch up with you two lovebirds." He headed down the spiral staircase.
Fred looked at his girlfriend. "Are you really okay?"
"Fred, what if-"
"Don't worry about that, Kat. Everything's going to be fine. We'll all be okay come the morning, Voldemort will be gone and I can go back to dating my werewolf girlfriend."
"Animagus."
"Right."
They were silent for a while, before Katrina said, "But what if-"
Fred stopped her with a kiss.
It was slow and sweet and tender. His mouth was warm against her's. She closed her eyes and wrapped her arms gently around his neck. He pulled her in, his hands around her waist.
Katrina wanted the world to stop, for time to freeze, and she could keep living in this moment forever...
And it was over. She pulled back, looking at him. Hazel eyes met brown.
"I love you, Katrina."
"I love you too, Fred." She hugged him, her eyes tightly shut.
Why?
!~!
"Nice night for it!" Fred yelled as Harry Potter ran by.
Katrina raised her wand, redwood, 14 inches, phoenix feather. George on her left, Fred on her right. Her friends - Angelina, Katie, Luna, Neville, Ginny, all around them. She took a deep breath and reached out for Fred's hand. He took it gently. Slowly her racing heart calmed.
And all hell exploded.
Katrina cast Stunning Spells, hexes and curses left and right. Occasionally she transfigured a Death Eater into an inanimate object; one was a lamp, another an umbrella, and one particularly ugly-looking man became a pencil.
Once in a while she would become a wolf again, and that was mainly for intimidation. She wasn't about to kill a human as a wolf. But the Death Eaters didn't know that.
"Stupefy!" she yelled, casting a messy Stunning Spell at a blond Death Eater.
A scream rose above the crowded Hall. Katrina shoved a convulsing Death Eater to the floor roughly and turned, trying to find the location of the sound.
There. Lavender Brown, whom she briefly remembered gossiping to Angelina and Katie about two years ago, lay on the ground, screeching her eyes out in primal pain.
The death toll rose higher. Katrina would catch glimpses of friends and enemies alike falling, but all she could do was keep fighting.
Suddenly she was back-to-back with Percy Weasley, dueling a female Death Eater. As woman keeled over with a full body-bind placed on her, Katrina heard Percy yell from behind her.
"Hello, Minister!" he bellowed, sending a neat jinx straight at Thicknesse, who suddenly clawed at his robes as if something under there was extremely uncomfortable. "Did I mention I'm resigning?"
"You're joking Perce!" shouted Fred as the Death Eater he was battling collapsed under the weight of the three separate Stunning Spells sent his ways. Fred looked at Percy with glee.
"You actually are joking, Perce...I don't think I've heard you joke since you were, well, I don't know how young!" He caught Katrina's eye, and grinned. "Okay, Kat? Bet that-"
The air exploded. Katrina was thrown into the air, and instinctively curled her arms over her head. She landed hard on her side, her wand skittering away from her. She grabbed it, clutching at her ears as she did so. The world had taken on a muffled sort sound, and it spun in and out of focus. But suddenly she realized-
Fred.
She screamed even before she reached him. It was an animal cry of agony, something neither flame nor curse could cause. It was the cry of the wolf. Fred lay on his back on the ground near where the wall had blasted apart. Katrina was the first to reach him.
"No-no-no!" she shouted, shaking his shoulder. "No! Fred! No!"
Suddenly Percy was by her side, and Ron was kneeling across from them, and she was thinking mindlesslyHe's gone. Oh god, he's GONE.
Another explosion wracked the castle, and Katrina ducked down, across her boyfriend's body, shielding him. Silently she grieved, denying it over and over again in her mind. Dimly she heard someone shouting.
"Percy! Katrina! We've got to move!"
She was aware of Percy standing up and stumbling away, but she just shook her head, curling herself over his body, protecting it from the sounds all around and clutching at it like her last hope. Wake up, please, Fred, wake up.
Her world had ended. Everything had fallen silent when she began to run, as a wolf.
Far away from everything, away from Fred's body, which she vaguely remembered helping move to where a suit of armor had stood before.
But she was the silver wolf once more. She didn't remember changing. But she streaked out of the castle as fast as she could, away. She passed death and destruction, Death Eaters and students alike, lying glassy-eyed on the floor, never to move on their own account again.
Coward. Stupid bloody sniveling coward.
And she was human again, shivering on the edge of the forest. It was dark, but the Forest looked warm and inviting, like a loved one waiting to welcome you at the end of a hard day.
Somehow she knew that if she had gone in, she would have never come out. She took one last long, lingering look at the Forbidden Forest, narrowed her eyes, morphed back into a wolf, and raced back towards Hogwarts.
By the time she had gotten there the battle was half-over. She stared round at wounded, row upon row of them. And the dead. Lupin, who had taught her to control her Animagus form. Tonks, who she had always admired and looked up to. Colin Creevey, a young sixth-year Gryffindor. She was soundly regretting her decision to come back when -
"Katrina!"
She turned at the sound of Molly Weasley's voice. Katrina only just finished returning to human form when she was enveloped in a bone-crushing hug.
"Mrs Weasley, there's-"
"I know, dear. I was told a few minutes ago."
And suddenly the two women were crying, both of them holding onto the other for support.
"Come, dear. Everyone's with him."
Katrina followed Mrs Weasley to where Fred was laid out. All the Weasleys gathered around his body. She knelt next to George, staring unseeing at his twin's body. Fred would never cast a spell again, never live or walk or talk or breathe again. He looked as if he were sleeping, a small ghost of a smile on his freckled face.
"George..."
"How did it happen?"
"George, I don't want to-"
"How did it happen?"
The quiet fury in his voice scared her. She choked out a ragged explanation.
George seemed to deflate. "Sorry, Kat."
He put his arm around her comfortingly as her body quietly shook with anguish. His own grimy cheeks were slashed with tears.
We were all there, comforting one another. But all I wanted right now was Fred.
Ron noticed the small bulge in Fred's pocket before anyone else. He slipped his hand in and pulled out a tiny velvet box. Mrs Weasley peered at it over his shoulder. Ron looked up. "Katrina..." He seemed at a loss for words, and simply held the box out. Mrs Weasley tried to stop him, but it was in Katrina's hands before she could do anything.
She turned it over, and there on the top of the purple velvet box, were the words, sewed in gold:
Katrina
I will always love you
Katrina opened it. "He was going to..." she was unable to finish. She had been brave for long enough. The tears flowed down her blood- and dirt-stained cheeks. She sobbed.
In the centre of the box was a ring, fitted with a small, perfect diamond.
Hours seemed to pass for the small girl although in reality it was only minutes, before a loud call of, "WEASLEY, FRED!" brought her back to the present.
She watched dully as the Sorting Hat was placed on a red-headed boy. It was too big for him, and slipped down over his eyes, causing a ripple of laughter to sweep the hall. The girl smiled herself - if only just a little. The boy himself grinned and swung his legs as the Hat practically screamed, "GRYFFINDOR!"
She looked down at her robes, and continued trying to create a hole in the ground that she could sink through. Expectedly, it didn't work.
"Hey, is anyone sitting here?"
Katrina looked up, startled. Fred flashed a grin at her.
!~!~!~!~!~!~!
A/N: Fred. *Sniff* Goodbye, Fred Weasley.