I don't always have the time to answer the reviews that you guys so kindly leave me each week, but I wanted to let you all know how much I appreciate the fact that you continue to read. It means a great deal. But my point, one of my readers Etoile Black said "Btw my mental picture of Katie is crystal clear now - before she was a mix but nothing solid." And I realized that you guys had no idea how I picture Katie….so there's a link to the banner on my profile, if will allow me to paste it in, so you can link to it….fingers crossed! I have no idea who the girl is, but I came across her picture one day several years ago, and bang… Katie Bell as I pictured her.

And if any of you guys listen to music while reading or writing, listen to "Disintegration" by Jimmy Eat World while reading this chapter – it was what I had on repeat the entire time. Love to you all. xxx

16.

It was ironic, Katie thought silently as Marcus led her down a dimly lit hall. It was ironic that she would have this conversation with him in the same alcove he had warned her and Lee against using all that time ago. But then Marcus ducked into that same opening in the wall and turned to face her, the thought fled her mind when she saw the look on his face. Marcus withdrew his wand and cast a Disillusionment Charm over the alcove as Katie rubbed her hands over her bare arms in an effort to warm her skin.

"I walked her to the Apparition point, Katie," he began with no preamble, as he waved his wand a second time and cast a warming spell. "You would have seen that. What they failed to report was that I didn't go home with her. I didn't go home with Sophia. I went home and I went to bed alone."

Katie swallowed hard, and moistened her lower lip slightly as hope flared warmly in her chest at the raw honesty she saw on his face. And when Marcus stepped closer to her, she reached out and briefly touched the back of his hand. A faint smile brushed Marcus' mouth when she slipped her hand into his again, and Katie took an unconscious step towards him as she looked up at him.

"Why didn't you tell me you were coming tonight?" she asked softly, and Marcus reached out to skim a fingertip across a stray curl that brushed her collarbone.

"I wasn't sure I could make it," he admitted hoarsely as he drew his finger down over the smooth skin of her shoulder. "My nights are usually spent studying Quidditch moves, and soaking away the pain of training."

Katie nodded silently as she stared up at him. And when he took another step towards her, she saw the fractional dilation of his eyes as she moistened her lower lip with the tip of her tongue.

"But you wanted to come?" she whispered, and Marcus laughed softly when he heard her unasked question. Had he wanted to come with her…?

"Yes. I wanted," he murmured, and when a blush stole across Katie's cheekbones as her lips curved in pleasure, Marcus fought to remember why he had said they couldn't do this.

Before he could finish that thought, voices echoed in the darkened hall way. Katie's eyes widened as Marcus held his finger up to her lips, and he stepped out of the alcove only to hear his name called in surprise.

"Marcus! I didn't know you were coming tonight, how wonderful to see you!"

Cecilia Warrington paused before Marcus with her date, her eyes glinting slyly as Marcus tilted his head in greeting. In the alcove, Katie held her breath, and hoped that the silent Disillusionment spell Marcus had cast would hold, and keep her safely hidden.

"What are you doing out here alone?" Cecilia murmured as she traced her eyes over the physical changes she could see in him.

Marcus shrugged silently in answer, and Cecilia smiled slightly before patting her date on the arm and telling him to go ahead without her. She'd re-join him in a few minutes. The Slytherin boy glanced at Marcus with something akin to reverence in his eyes, before he nodded and continued up the hall. As his footsteps faded, Cecilia peeked up at Marcus from under her lashes, and stepping closer, laid her hand against his chest.

"I haven't heard from you," she murmured, and Marcus stepped back slightly, the muscle in his jaw jumping slightly as Cecilia slowly trailed her fingertips down over his chest to his stomach.

"I've been busy," he muttered, and she laughed softly.

"Too busy to write to me?" she purred, and Marcus snorted at her forwardness.

"My free time is hours far and few between, Cecilia," he said quietly, and Cecilia smiled slightly.

"Yet you have the time to go drinking in Paris," she purred, and Marcus shook his head slightly as his eyes strayed to where Katie was hidden.

"When the owner of your team says jump, Cecilia, you jump," he said flatly. "They tend to not pay you when you don't do as you are told."

"Yet here you are tonight," she said with another smile, and Marcus cocked his eyebrow as he stared down at her.

"What do you want?" he asked bluntly, and when she smiled coyly and trailed her fingertips from his stomach to his cock, Marcus shook his head even as she traced the length of him through the fine woollen pants he wore.

"I'm not interested, Cecilia," he said coolly as he stepped back out of her reach.

Cecilia laughed softly in disbelief, and licked the corner of her lips slowly.

"Since when aren't you interested in a little fun?" she asked and Marcus snickered softly as he lowered his voice.

"I can smell the scent of your dates cum on your breath, Cecilia; it tends to be a bit of a turn off," he said, and smirked slightly when Cecilia jerked back from him as humiliation stained her cheeks. "I'm here as a guest, Cecilia, not to look for a wife. Go and play with your date."

Marcus might have graduated, but Cecilia understood the rules within her House. She'd been dismissed, and no amount of coyness on her part would change his mind. Tilting her head, she stepped closer to him; rising up onto her tiptoes, she tried to press a kiss to Marcus' clenched jaw, only to have him tilt his head out of her reach. With a soft sigh and a final glance at him, she made her way back to the Great Hall. Marcus waited until her footsteps had faded before he turned back to face Katie, only to be met with her fury as she tried to step past him.

"Katie, where are you going?" he asked, and Katie glared up at him.

"I'm going back to my own date. After all, you're here as a guest," she bit out, and Marcus snarled in frustration as he shoved his hands through his hair.

"Don't twist my words, Bell, that's not what I meant," he ground out, and Katie snorted in disbelief.

"Are you trying to tell me that I'm blind, Marcus?' she asked, and then gestured down the hall. "Are you trying to tell me that you haven't been with her? Because I might be a pure little virgin, but I'm not stupid!"

"What's she got to do with here and now? When in Circe's hell did she become a deciding factor with you and me?" Marcus asked in bewilderment, and Katie laughed bitterly.

"She's right down there, Marcus, all that you require in a woman…beautiful, full-breasted and of the legal age to have sex with you. Go to her. Go on. I don't want to do this anymore."

Katie's blood burned as she shoved fiercely against his chest, rocking him back a step as she tried to slip past him. Marcus' face was set in mutinous lines, his expression a mixture of disbelief, anger and frustration as he grabbed her arm and pulled her back into the alcove with him.

"You don't really mean that…you want me," he hissed, his blazing eyes daring her to deny it.

"Does that matter? You don't want to want me, remember?" Katie spat at him.

She spun away from him, her shoulders hunching and her head lowering as Marcus swallowed heavily behind her. And when he stepped closer to her and covered her shoulders with his hands, Katie fought him for a minute before she finally allowed him to slowly turn her back to face him. He ran his fingertip down over her cheek, following the trail an unwillingly shed tear had left behind as she stared up at him with humiliation staining her cheeks. And when his fingers didn't leave her skin, when they continued to lightly feather across her jaw, Katie finally reached up and covered his fingers with her own.

"Why?" she whispered, and Marcus shook his head as he tried to form the words to make her understand. Katie turned her face into the palm of his hand, causing his words came out in a stutter as her lips lightly brushed across his skin.

"You… you're barely sixteen, Katie. I can't touch you, no matter how much... Merlin, what do you want me to say?" he asked helplessly, as he brushed his thumb across her lower lip. "Don't you dare think that I don't want you. You've got no idea just how much... There's only one face I see when I'm with a witch," he said brokenly.

Katie closed her eyes as his voice washed over her, her eyebrows drawing together painfully at his whispered confession.

"Don't tell me things like that..." she whispered as humiliation burned her cheekbones and another tear escaped her tightly shut eyes and slid down her cheek.

His fingertips feathered across her cheek gently as her voice broke, and then smoothed her hair back. He tucked it behind her ear, and traced the swelling under her eyes as her breath hitched painfully in her chest. And when his knuckles grazed her cheek again, Katie finally opened her eyes and looked up at him. He looked as gruff as always, and his voice shimmered with anger and barely repressed violence, belying the gentleness with which he touched her.

"Believe me, I've had the pretty, sophisticated witches, who fuck like a pro," Marcus ground out, as if the words physically hurt him to voice. "Witches who are easier, and don't treat me like I'm evil incarnate because a girl who sucked my cock a lifetime ago offered me a repeat. Those witches are good for one thing, Katie, which is a quick, impersonal fuck. Those are the witches whose name you've forgotten the minute you walk out their door. You, though? You're like a fucking drug, one I know I should give up. But I'm weak. Addicted.

"I wake up reaching for you in the middle of the night, and curse myself a fool for it when you're not there. I go to sleep at night imagining our future, away from here, from Hogwarts. I dream about all the things I want to do to you, that I want to teach you. I feel your hands on me in my dreams, and I wake up with my cock in my hand and your name on my lips. I know I should walk away from you, Katie, and get on with my life. But I can't," he said softly as his voice trailed off. He reached up and slowly traced his fingertip down over her cheek again. "I can't, and neither can you. Because you're as obsessed as I am," he said finally as his hand fell back down to his side, where he clenched it into a fist as he looked away from her.

Katie lifted her chin, her eyes glinting slightly as she stared up at him.

"You keep reminding me that I'm a child, Marcus," she began, drawing his gaze back towards her. "Need I remind you that I'm sixteen now? That's the same age as the girl you just dismissed would have been when you took up with her, if you did so in your final year. I might not have the experience that you're used to, but what I do have, is courage. I'm not scared to be with you, if that's what you want. I'm not scared to keep it a secret, until I'm of age. I'm not scared of how you make me feel, even though I know I should be. I'm not scared of the power you seem to hold here, and I'm not scared of how much you want me."

When Marcus continued to stare at her silently, Katie slowly reached out to brush his face with her fingers.

"Do you really want to leave here tonight, after telling me all of these things, and just go back to being friends?" she asked softly. "Do you want to know that the nameless, faceless witches that aren't enough for you, is all you have to look forward too? Do you want to know that I'd been asked by several different boys to come to the Yule Ball with them, but that I chose Lee because I know he's had a crush on Padma Patil since last year; that makes him safe, Marcus, because I don't want to worry about another boy thinking I like him, when I know I'm already half way in love with you. What I am scared of though, is walking away from you tonight and never feeling like this again," she finished.

Marcus groaned and pressed his fingers against his eyes for a minute. And when he finally looked back at Katie, she saw a mix of anger and resignation on his face. The look in his eyes had barely registered with her, before his jaw clenched and he stepped closer to her.

"Marcus…" Katie began, only to falter when he shook his head and expelled a harsh breath.

"Shhh…don't. Don't. I'm going to burn in hell for this... just let me…Katie…" he groaned, and reaching out to cup the back of her neck, he pulled her towards him.

"You're too young," he whispered angrily and then he bent his head and kissed her.

His grip on her promised to leave bruises, while his mouth hinted at barely controlled desperation as he pulled her the rest of the way into his embrace. Banding his arm around her waist, he caught her chin with his free hand; angling her head to suit him best, Marcus began to back Katie towards the wall as her lips parted beneath his. Expelling a harsh breath through his nose, Marcus hauled her up on tiptoe, fisted his hand in her hair, and groaned into her mouth when her tongue touched his. Katie clutched at the material that covered his chest. She felt him turning her, her soft cry swallowed by his mouth as her back thudded against the wall, and he leaned into her. Gasping, she turned her head, breaking the kiss; her breath shuddered out in a series of quick pants as Marcus' lips dragged across her cheekbone, and then down the side of her throat. There was a hint of violence in him as his teeth scraped her skin, followed by the wet rasp of his tongue as his fingers dug into her lower back.

"So… sweet," Marcus muttered thickly as he lifted his head.

"Marcus..." Katie murmured, trying to overcome the pulsing madness and sooth the dark change in him by sweeping her fingertips across his chest. She'd known that he wanted her, but the thought vs. the reality of it were two very different things.

"Don't…" There was the tiniest hint of supplication in his voice as he tightened his hold around her, showing the tension in his arms. "Katie…"

His hand left her hair and stroked across the smooth skin of her throat to her shoulder and then slowly down to the gentle swell of her breast. His eyes followed the path his hand took, and they darkened as Katie arched up into him. His fingers smoothed across the textured chiffon of her dress, his thumb sweeping up to toy with her hardening nipple. Even as she went to speak, he was closing his lips over hers again, and mapping out the warmth of her mouth with his tongue. His thumb continued to roll her nipple, and Katie wrapped her arms around him helplessly.

"I swore I wouldn't do this," he ground out as he wrenched his mouth from hers, and smoothed his hands up her sides and cupped her face. "I promised myself that I'd wait, that I could wait, but fuck… Katie."

Looking down at her, he took in her swollen lips, tousled hair, and the dazed look in her eyes, before he swore again, and dragged his hands down over his face. But when Katie reached up, and hesitantly traced her fingertip over the corner of his mouth, Marcus cupped her face in his hands, and dipped his head to meet her lips. A soft hum of triumph left him when she rose to her toes and met him half way. His hands swept down her side to her hips, where his fingers dug into her flesh. And as he pulled her closer, he groaned, the sound low and guttural. His tongue licked into her mouth, sliding against hers; he felt himself stir, harden, and Marcus slowly began to lose all manner of control as he slid his hand up her back and fisted it in her hair again.

The rough stone of the wall scraped his hands raw as Katie squirmed restlessly in his arms, her fingers catching the edge of his robes as she held him tightly; but when the fabric of his robes parted slightly, Katie couldn't help herself. She pulled back from the intensity of Marcus' mouth, and lightly brushed her fingertips over the smooth skin she had unwittingly bared when the top clasp of the fine woollen robes he wore had come undone. Marcus' breath hitched as his fingers dug into her hips, before he leaned against her again as she rose slightly up on tiptoe to press her lips shyly against his.

The kiss didn't remain shy and chaste though, and Marcus began to unconsciously rock his hips as he licked his way back into her mouth. Barely aware of anything but the girl in his arms, and the taste of her on his tongue, Marcus froze when the tip of a wand unexpectedly dug into the skin of his throat. He slowly broke away from the kiss he was sharing with Katie, and ignoring the soft whimper that left her lips, he lifted his head slowly as the wand tip twisted against his flesh. Katie froze in his arms, and when the tip of wood left his skin, Marcus turned his head slightly and met Lee's glittering gaze.

"I swear to Godrick, Flint, if you don't let her go, I'll curse you into St Mungo's."

Lee's voice shook slightly as did his wand hand as he kept the slim wood trained on Marcus. Marcus' hand slowly slid across the back of Katie's neck as he turned to face Lee, and even as Katie opened her mouth to voice a protest, Marcus' hand was flashing out and grasping the younger wizard by the throat. Lee gagged as Marcus abruptly spun him; his breath was knocked out of his lungs when his back collided with the rough stone of the wall, and he gurgled slightly when his wand was abruptly wrenched from his hand by Marcus. Marcus twirled it once in his fingers as he caught it, so that when he raised it the tip rested between Lee's eyes.

Utter silence descended on the hall, and Marcus tilted his head slightly as he stared down at Lee through onyx eyes that glittered with cold anger, and promised painful retribution as the two wizards stared at one another. The muscle in Marcus' jaw ticked several times, and as his lips parted to speak, Katie's hand slid across his wrist as she stepped into his side and tilted her head. Marcus' gaze strayed towards her, and Katie curled her fingers around his wrist as she gently tugged his wand hand down slightly.

"Marcus… let him go," she said softly, and the muscle in his jaw ticked again. Glancing back at Lee, Marcus' hand painfully tightened around his throat for a heartbeat, before he dropped his hand and glared at the younger wizard as Lee sagged forward and coughed as he dragged air into his burning lungs.

Katie tugged gently on Marcus' hand, and he turned slightly to look at her as she stared back up at him. He read the plea that shone in her eyes, and snarled softly as he glanced back at Lee. Lee's eyes were widening as he glanced between Marcus and Katie, and he gasped out a painful breath.

"You…you were… Katie's a good girl, Flint! She's a good girl, and you were…you…"

Marcus took a step forward that had Lee's jaw snapping shut, and Marcus laughing bitterly.

"That's probably the smartest thing you've done, Jordan," he said nonchalantly, and then shook his head as his mouth twisted into a sarcastic laden smile.

"What did you think was happening?" he asked coldly. "Did you think that I was attacking Katie?" he continued. "Getting ready to rape her in the main hall of the castle? What exactly was it that you thought you were saving her from?" he asked when Lee could only stutter in response. "Did you ever stop to consider that being held by me… that being kissed by me was exactly where Katie wanted to be? That what you interrupted was between two consenting people and that it wasn't a case me taking advantage of your little lioness?" Marcus asked bitterly, and Lee shook his head in disbelief.

"You… whatever that was, Flint, it was not consensual! How could it be?" Lee asked, as he jabbed his finger at Marcus. "It was probably more about stroking your ego; having one of Gryffindor's golden girls caught up in a web of lies and…and… for all we know, it could be one huge practical joke designed to hurt Katie, because I seem to remember that she was one of your favourite targets when you were here!"

"Silencio."

Lee grabbed his throat when his voice abruptly disappeared, but he shrank back at the look on Marcus' face when the older wizard twirled Lee's wand in his hand again.

"Do not try putting those types of ideas in her head again," he warned softly. "Katie knows how I feel. I know how she feels. Just because you're too blind to see this for what it is, doesn't give you the right to cheapen it or her. Open your eyes, Jordan! I've been gone from here for more than six months! Do you really think Katie's the type of girl who would go around kissing random wizards she once played Quidditch with?" he snarled with a savage sweep of Lee's wand that ended the spell he had cast.

Lee's lips parted, but all that came out was a stutter of confusion and air as Marcus tossed Lee's wand towards him. Lee fumbled for it, yet the wand still clattered to the ground as Marcus stepped back and then glanced at Katie.

"I'd better go, Katie, before he manages to gather enough wit to scream out that you're being violated," he said with another scornful look in Lee's direction.

"Marcus…"

He smiled then at the soft plea in her voice, and ignoring the disbelief on Lee's face, traced his fingers across her jaw so that he was cradling the back of her skull before he dropped a chaste kiss on her upturned mouth, that ended with a gentle nip of his teeth on her lower lip.

"I'm staying in Hogsmead overnight. If you don't get a chance to come and see me tomorrow, I'll see you over Christmas," he breathed softly against her cheek, and when Katie's hands rose to brush over the front of his robes, Marcus curled his hand around her hip, kissed her briefly once more and gave her a gentle squeeze before he turned around and walked towards the darkness of Slytherin House.