A/N: So since I didn't state this in my first chapter, this is totally AU. Also, sorry this chapter is so short! The next one will be much longer!
"Cause I'm a wreck when you are gone
And I know now that I was wrong.
I need you. I need to find you.
Come back, come back, come back to me."
Katie hadn't been brave enough to face her parents in person. She hadn't been brave enough to tell them that she would happily no longer step foot in their home if it meant that she was able to live the life she so longed to for 8 months. She hadn't been brave enough to tell them that the day they took her from the wizarding world they took away her life, her friends, and her love. Instead, she wrote them a letter. It was the only way she'd ever be able to get everything out without breaking down or chickening out, and she'd chickened out for too long. The letter told them all of those things and more. She told them that she was ashamed of the people they'd turned in to. She asked them why they lied all of those years she was in school, why they reassured her so often that she was loved, and why they decided to rip her world away from her. She told them it would have been easier to have not gone at all. She told them she was bitterly angry with them, and that she didn't expect anything back but her wand, which she received in her mailbox the next morning.
The last thing she told them was that she wouldn't have made such good friends, and she wouldn't have fallen in love…
Katie inhaled sharply at the thought as she glanced at the photographs on her mantle. She'd printed out pictures of all the people she held dearest to her heart, all of those she had to leave behind. She scanned the photos carefully, her eyes lingering only momentarily on each one. There was one of her, Alicia, and Angelina from after a particularly brutal quidditch match they'd won. There was one of her and Oliver after they'd decided to dump a bucket of water on him. He was so angry. Katie let out a small laugh. There was one of her and the twins, smiling, and then… there was one of her and Fred. Her eyes stayed on that photo, wishing more than anything to have that back. The photo was taken in the Gryffindor common room, late at night. She and Fred had gone out for a midnight stroll around the lake because the weather was still warm. They'd shared whispered words of love and spent the entire night simply basking in each other's company. Despite the fact that he was a total and complete prat sometimes, she loved him still. Every day she missed his laugh, his jokes, his smile.
A few tears stung at Katie's eyes as she remembered the day she had to leave him. She'd never forget his face when she told him she was leaving. She didn't have much time, and she was sure the scars she's left were deep. There was no proper goodbye, no kiss, no hug. The hug he gave her on graduation day would be the last they ever shared, and it was hardly long enough for Katie to have been happy with the way she'd left things. She wanted more than anything to feel his arms around her again. She wanted to feel safe. She wanted to feel home.
Her heart yearned for him as her eyes continued staring at the photo. Everything else in her apartment save for the furniture had been neatly packed away in a singular suitcase. Thank Merlin for memory charms. She glanced at the photo one more time before waving her wand. They sailed gently into the suitcase, and she zipped it shut.
She inhaled, taking one last glance around her apartment with a smile, happy to be saying good riddance to this terrible place. She shoved her recruitment letter from the Appleby Arrows into her pocket before grabbing her suitcase. She had no idea how to get in touch with Oliver, or even Angelina or Alicia. She had no idea what any of them were up to now, except for Fred. Though she never received any kind of owl from him, or any of them, she knew that Fred and George would still be at Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes It might be closed, since it was pretty late. Last time she checked though they had a flat upstairs. It was the only thing she could be absolutely sure of, and so she closed her eyes, inhaled, and apparated straight there. This was either going to go extremely well, or horribly, horribly wrong.