Mid-Spring, 1998: Part One

Katie did not like war. In fact, she was quite fed up with the one currently engulfing the wizarding world. Honestly, why was anyone even fighting? Because some people didn't have 'pure' enough blood? It was all completely bogus in her opinion.

Katie wanted to go back to enjoying life. She wanted to spend her evenings with Oliver comparing Quidditch tactics, not battle tactics. She wanted to be able to spend some quality time with her friends in public without the fear of a Death Eater attack looming over their heads. She wanted to see her parents again.

Really, she just wanted all of the fighting end.

And she knew she shouldn't complain. The worst thing that had happened directly to her so far had been that her job had been put on an indefinite hold and her parents were safely hiding somewhere outside of the country. Other people had it so much worse, but Katie couldn't help but feel frustrated. She felt like she should be doing more…but what more could be done? She was already doing volunteer shifts at St. Mungo's pretty much all day. And she had gone on several missions with the twins before things had gotten so bad that nearly everyone had been forced underground. Now it was mostly Death Eaters and snatchers out there, roaming free, terrorizing innocent people.

And it was killing Katie that she couldn't get out there and do something more to help.

In fact, there was only one person who Katie could think of who was still out there, presumably fighting the fight. And that was Harry.

Harry, who was pretty much the entire reason this whole thing was dragging on for as long as it had. Not that Katie was blaming him for the mess they were all in. Not at all. It was just that for as long as Harry was out there, then He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named would be hunting him. The war would continue as long as both of them were still alive, of that much she was certain.

Obviously, Katie was rooting for Harry. If he ever surfaced again, that was.

She had heard from the twins that Harry had been at their oldest brother's wedding back in August, and he had escaped with Hermione Granger and their brother Ron when the Death Eaters arrived after taking over the Ministry of Magic. And then there had been a sighting of him at the Ministry almost exactly a month later, at the beginning of September. For the life of her, Katie couldn't imagine what Harry, Ron, and Hermione had hoped to accomplish by attempting to infiltrate the Ministry of Magic on their own. But then again, that particular trio had always been getting into weird stuff back at school, though not always to the best results.

But that didn't mean she wasn't surprised when, in December, she read about Bathilda Bagshot's death in the Daily Prophet and what the Ministry's official stance on the matter was. Apparently, her death was discovered under 'suspicious circumstances'—whatever that meant—but, more importantly, she had been discovered dead in her home in Godric's Hollow. Yes, the very same Godric's Hollow that was one Harry Potter's birthplace, which someone translated into Harry being blamed for the elderly historian's death. Katie knew it must be a ploy by the Death Eaters running the Ministry, as no definitive evidence tying Harry to her death had been presented, as far as she knew.

Yet another crime they were trying to pin on him…

The next word Katie had heard of Harry was a very brief sighting around Easter at the home of Luna Lovegood. Now Katie could only assume that Harry was still on the run and hoped that he kept himself safe and hidden until such time as he was ready to defeat You-Know-You once and for all.

But the point remained: Katie felt incredibly useless. For as much as she didn't understand what in Merlin's name Harry and his friends were getting up to, she could at least tell that they were attempting to do something, and something was an awful lot more than the nothing she was currently occupying herself with.

Katie sighed heavily as she stared unseeingly into the empty fireplace, her legs pulled up to her chest with her arms wrapped around them and her chin resting atop her knees. She had been sitting like this for the better part of the afternoon, since arriving home early from her volunteer shift, in fact. By the shadows crossing the floor, she guessed it was probably about six o'clock by now.

Katie was brought suddenly out of her reverie by the sound of a key in the front door. However, she did little more than tilt her head so that it was resting on her knees now, facing the front door, waiting. Soon enough, the door opened and Oliver entered, two large bags of what appeared to be groceries in his arms. Oliver had been headed straight for the kitchen but stopped dead when he saw Katie seated on the couch. He frowned momentarily before speaking.

"When was the first time I ever called you 'Katie' rather than 'Bell?'" Oliver questioned, eyes narrowed.

Another sigh, barely audible this time, passed Katie's lips. Security questions. She hated having to make sure of someone's identity before letting them in her home. She was sick of it; sick of so many things having to do with this war.

"My fourth year," Katie replied, before Oliver could get ahead of himself and worry that she wasn't really Katie and was in fact a Death Eater in disguise, apparently out to get out-of-work Quidditch players. "Your seventh. When I stopped you from drowning yourself in the locker room shower after we lost our first match of the year. After I yelled at you for setting a bad example as the captain all you said was 'Thank you, Katie,' and then you let me bring you back up to the castle."

A smile spread across Oliver's face momentarily at the memory before settling back into a frown. "Why didn't you stop me at the door? You know it's not safe."

"Who else would bother with a key?" Katie asked listlessly, turning her attention back to the cold fire grate.

Because she was no longer looking at him, Katie didn't see the look of concern that passed across Oliver's face. All she heard was him walk away, in the direction of the kitchen, his footsteps hurried. And then suddenly he had returned and planted himself firmly on the couch beside Katie. When he tentatively wrapped an arm around her, she couldn't help but melt into his embrace, realizing for the first time that she was rather chilled.

"What's wrong, Kates?" Oliver asked, wrapping his other arm around her as well now, firmly securing her in his warm embrace.

"Nothing," Katie answered automatically, which Oliver scoffed at.

"I think I know you a little better than that," Oliver told her, and Katie realized, much to her chagrin, that he sounded slightly hurt by her response. "Did something happen at St. Mungo's? I thought you weren't supposed to be home 'til later."

"They told me to come home early," Katie replied. "Ordered, more like, actually. Apparently I look like I could use some rest."

"You have been there rather a lot, lately," Oliver said carefully, worried it would upset her.

But Katie simply didn't have the energy to be angry, although there were feeble stirrings. Hadn't she already established (only to herself, admittedly) that she wasn't doing enough to help with the war effort? And so it was those feelings she voiced.

"Not often enough," Katie informed her boyfriend. "I feel like I'm barely doing anything."

"Things will get better—" Oliver began, but Katie cut him off abruptly.

"Not while there's still a war going on!" She said, mustering as much heat as she could, but admitting silently to herself that it was nowhere near as passionate as she had once been about a great many things. She was just so tired of just about everything.

"I'm sure it'll be over soon," Oliver said, as much to console himself as Katie.

"It had better be," Katie muttered. "Because I'm sick of it. I hate it. I hate having to watch over my shoulder every time I go out, and not being able to contact my parents, in case it somehow gets traced. And I want to see my friends and be able to go out flying. I just want my life back, Oliver!"

Oliver didn't immediately respond, and Katie was suddenly worried that she had scared him. She really shouldn't keep her feelings bottled up so much…Her fears were quickly relieved, however, when Oliver finally spoke.

"I could tell that things have been difficult for you lately," He said, tightening his hold on her and pulling her into a closer hug. "It's been hard on all of us, but at least I get to see my parents, on occasion. And, well, I guess I should tell you that I had a surprise for you tonight, to try and make you feel better, but I was counting on you not being here so that I could set things up."

"Sorry," Katie murmured, her bad mood lifting marginally at the news that Oliver had been planning something special just for her because he had noticed how down she was. He really was too good to her sometimes.

"It's not your fault," Oliver said easily, shifting his head so that he could press a swift kiss to the top of her head, which had been nestled into his shoulder. "We all know I would have ruined dinner anyway. Now you can help me and we'll get to spend even more time together."

Katie couldn't help but smile at this. Just being around Oliver right now was already doing wonders for her. Merlin, she loved him.

"Well, what exactly did you have in mind?"