Long time no chapter. My muse sort of took an unexpected nap, sorry bout that. Just felt like putting in a couple of the groups adventures. Not extremely exciting but makes me feel better. :) Thank you for the comments and, in answer to one, yes, this probably will get rather long due to poor planning and my easily entertaianed self.
Time started moving faster after Katherine became friends with the Weasley twins. For another thing she actually spoke to them in class. Classes had become a bit of a challenge, the twins would spend all their lessons trying to make her laugh or mess her up and she'd have to sit through it, answering them quietly as she tried to keep a straight face. She'd consequentially found that the best way to get back at them was to get them called upon by the Professors as much as possible.
Those who didn't see the trio in the Gryffindor common room could easily assume they existed purely to make life hard for each other. It could often seem, to the casual observer, as though there was no way they could be friends. Katherine still visited the library every now and then, but much less often than she used to.
The twins often dragged her away from the common room to go on what she called their 'ridiculous antics to avoid homework' but the twins preferred to call the 'amazing exploits of Hogwarts greatest pranksters'. Needless to say they ended up doing a lot of unusual things between then and the holidays…
Fred and George walked down to breakfast that morning talking animatedly about who knows what, which was the first clue that something was up.
"Today is the day!" George announced as he sat down.
"What day?" Katherine asked, putting down her fork to focus on the twins.
"Tut, tut, Katherine," said Fred, "We couldn't possibly tell you that, could we?"
"Do you have the map at least?" Katherine asked with a sigh.
"Of course," Fred replied, each of the twins took a piece of toast.
"Now let's go!" George announced and Katherine got up to follow them. Really what else could she do? She wasn't going to let them leave her out. They walked for a moment, the twins muttering together and looking at the map they held between them. Eventually Katherine noticed they were getting into Slytherin territory and looked over their shoulders at the map.
"Guys, where are we doing?" she asked. There was no one nearby, except the Bloody Baron.
"In here!" Fred announced, pushing her into the room where the Bloody Baron was currently…well, she wanted to say brooding. They followed her in, after clearing the map, and she saw determination spark in their eyes as they looked at the ghost. She lent herself against the wall, her first thought being 'Not even they are that stupid', which quickly became 'Of course they are' as George opened his mouth.
"Why do you wear those chains?" he demanded, non-too subtle. It was clear why these two weren't in Slytherin, beside their distaste for the house. The Bloody Baron stared at them for a moment before until his eyes flicked to Katherine.
"Such unpleasant company for a child of Slytherin house, do you approve of this questioning?" He asked in a deep, cold voice. Katherine repressed a shudder.
"I'm out," she said, holding up her hands in surrender, "I hold no part in this. Though I am not a Slytherin, I'm Gryffindor, just like them."
The Baron nodded solemnly and the room became slightly colder. Katherine pushed herself against the wall and saw the twins pale slightly at the full realisation of what their question had brought on them….
"Stupid idea really," Katherine repeated, as the trio made their way up to Gryffindor tower. The twins were rather shaky and refused to talk about it at all, "What made you think he'd tell you? By the way, have you thought up a cover story for the rest of Gryffindor?"
"Yeah, they can bugger off," Fred grumbled, still shaking slightly.
"We can play if off," George mumbled, straightening his robes, Fred quickly following his lead. Katherine shook her head.
"Sure you can," She replied, an evil grin growing on her face, "But I'll always know."
With that she all but skipped into the common room, the twins' horror struck faces staring after her.
"Do you think she's serious?" Fred asked, leaning towards George slightly.
"Yes," George replied, "Yes I do."
"Dungbombs!" Fred yelled, charging down the stairs from the boy's dormitory. Katherine rolled off her chair and hid behind it before he saw her, grinning to herself.
"Hey, where'd she go?" George asked, looking around the common room. As the twins were looking in the opposite direction Katherine darted passed Lee, rolled across the floor and made her way behind them. She grinned at Lee as the twins turned towards him. Lee, to his credit, did a very good job of keeping a straight face as she proceeded to make faces behind their back.
"Lee, have you seen Katherine?" Fred asked
"We wanted to get both of you in on our latest escapades," George explained. Lee raised an eyebrow questioning, though her was looking past the twins at Katherine. She shrugged and mouthed 'ask'.
"What are you planning?" Lee asked, returning his focus to the twins.
"Well we just got a whole bunch of dungbombs-"
"-and we were going to set them off in the…"
"Dungeons!" Katherine announced, pouncing between the pair, "And where did you learn a word like escapades, George?"
"He's not George, I am," Fred replied as he rebalanced himself to cope with the sudden weight of Katherine leaning on one shoulder.
"Why the dungeons?" Lee asked before his friends could start an argument over who was who, as they were prone to doing for who knows what purpose. He wasn't sure who would win that argument, Katherine was fairly stubborn after all, and rarely argued without the full belief she was right. Katherine shrugged, moving past the twins.
"The Slytherins have been really annoying lately," she said calmly, though not looking at any one directly, "Besides they always give the best reactions."
"Seems fair," George nodded, "Everyone ready?"
…
"And, thus, we found ourselves heading to the dungeons with our pockets full of dungbombs."
"Could do without the narration Lee."
"Sorry Fred."
"I'm Goerge."
"Would you guys just shut it?" Katherine commanded, "We'll automatically be suspected of something for being down here and the dungbombs don't exactly help our case."
"Sorry Katherine," the three boys chimed together, causing her to shoot them an irritated look. They came to a fork and split up. They moved through the dungeons very quickly, having gone over the layout earlier. Each set their dungbombs and took off at high speed, continuing to run as they met up with each other.
They darted past Peeves doing who knows what and he quickly came after them.
"What are the ickle firsties doing?" He asked, as they continued to run up stair cases, "Gryffindors running from the dungeons. Doing something naughty?"
"Drop by the dungeons and maybe you'll get a whiff," Katherine said with again, causing the others to laugh and Fred to trip slightly as he ran, "You'll have to tell us what you think."
Peeves gazed at the group before speeding in the other direction and they heard shouts after a moment and immediately slowed to a walk so as not to look guilty.
They were all sitting in the common room, surrounded by their homework when McGonagall finally entered the common room.
"Mr and Mr Weasley, can I please speak with you about the dungbombs in the dungeons?" she commanded, having clearly decided they were suspects.
"Dungbombs in the dungeons?" Fred asked, grinning, "Of course you can Professor."
"Any idea who did it?" George asked, "We should unite our efforts!"
"We'd be unstoppable!" Fred agreed with glee. McGonagall frowned.
"I wanted to talk to you about that, you are the most likely culprits," she informed them irritated, it was like having new Marauders, and she really didn't want that.
"Excuse me Professor," Katherine started tentatively, "How could they have set off dungbombs? I was with them the whole time, so was Lee, and I don't know what they've been doing, but I finished my transfiguration homework."
She said the last bit proudly and all three boys started at her, shocked. They looked at their own parchment, which was covered in scribbles and a few games of hangman, and shared confused looks. How had she gotten her whole essay done in that time?
"You were with them the whole time?" McGonagall asked, scanning the essay.
"Not quite Professor, since they came down to the common room but they went for a walk at one point," Katherine nodded, "Given the time period, though, there's no way they could have prepared those dungbombs without me knowing."
"Very well," McGonagall conceded, though still having her doubts, "You may want to look over the part about switching spells though, it appears you were distracted."
"Thank you," Katherine replied with a smile as she took her essay back, immediately getting bussing adjusting things. McGonagall walked out of the room, shooting the group a suspiciously look before the portrait swung closed. The three boys gawked at Katherine for a moment and she eventually looked up at them with a frown.
"What?" she demanded.
"You lied to a teacher," Fred breathed, the other two nodded mutely.
"I didn't lie," Katherine replied, looking back at her work, "Not one single word I told her was false, if you think about it. It's often far too easy to catch people out on a lie. Much better to tell the truth and omit certain details, or play dumb, but that's often just as suspicious."
Silence came over them again. The boys continued to stare at her as she edited her essay.
"Kinda scary, isn't she?" Lee asked the twins in an undertone. Fred and George both mumbled their consent, still rather impressed by her 'not-a-lie'."
It was a week before the Christmas holidays when Katherine walked into breakfast, sat down with the twins as normal and proceeded to drop her head onto the table without a word. There was a nice thump as her head met the table and the action caused her, still brilliantly red, hair to splay around her and hide her face.
"Hey, you ok?" Fred asked when she didn't sit back up.
"I'm staying here for Christmas," she informed them dully, still not getting off the table.
"You told us you'd been planning on going home," said George, clearly confused.
"Yeah, I was planning on it," she mumbled.
"But?" they prompted.
"My father will kill me if he sees my hair like this," She said quietly, not looking at them, "And I told Theodore I'd be home for Christmas! Now he's going to be angry with me!"
She whimpered slightly at this thought. The twins watched her uncomfortably, very aware that this problem was their fault. They thought about it for a moment, thinking everything through, sort of.
"You could come for Christmas at our place," Fred offered.
"Yeah, mum wouldn't mind," George agreed easily.
"No, guys, I don't think…"
"CHARLIE!"
The twins cut her off as they bellowed across the hall. Many people jumped at the loud noise, Charlie, who had just come into the hall merely walked over to them with a sigh.
"You guys are going to make me death one day," Katherine informed them through her hair. The twins ignored her.
"Charlie," Fred began, "Mum wouldn't mind if we-"
"-brought someone home for Christmas-"
"-would she?" they finished together. Charlie looked from his brothers to Katherine, raising an eyebrow. He hadn't actually had a full conversation with her yet and was still uncertain how the friendship had come up considering Katherine didn't exactly seem the type to be friends with the twins. He sighed, drawing himself out of his thoughts.
"I don't think mum would mind," he said, frowning at the large grins the two of them adopted, "But don't you think you should let Katherine decide where she wants to be for Christmas?"
The twins turned to frown at him and Katherine laughed weakly. In all honesty she was terrified of meeting the Weasley family. By most other purebloods they were known as the biggest family of blood-traitors currently in existence, and she knew Mr Weasley didn't get along with Mr Malfoy. She couldn't see a scenario where her father would meet Mr Weasley, or any of the Weasleys and manage to have a civil conversation. She highly doubted she'd be as welcome as the twins suggested she would.
"Well, she's either staying here or coming with us," Fred put in, sounding slightly grumpy.
"So, logically, the answer is she comes home with us," George added, Charlie sighed, getting up from the table as he prepared to leave.
"Just make sure you owl mum if your bringing an extra person," he told them.
"C'mon," Katherine sighed, following Charlie's lead, "We have History of Magic. I guess I can write my letters in there."
The twins laughed as she contemplated this option. It made sense, she could write the letter and take some vague notes at the same time. The three sat towards the back of the class, the twins didn't even bother to look studious knowing Professor Binns wouldn't care, or notice for that matter. Katherine pulled out a few sheets of parchment, one to take notes on, one for a letter to her father and one for a letter to her brother.
Dear Theo
I know I promised you I'd be home for Christmas but I don't think I can come home with my hair like this. We both know father would be far from pleased to see that. I'll get you something really good for Christmas though ok?
I'll probably be staying at Hogwarts but Fred and George invited me to their place. I'm pretty sure they feel guilty that I'm unable to go home. I'm not sure if I want to go, though. They make it sound like I'll be really welcome and, while they do seem like a nice family, I'm not so sure. It's not like our families really get along is it? I just don't feel like spending the holidays somewhere people are going to mistrust me and get defensive whenever I make a sudden movement. It'd be like joining Gryffindor all over again, which does sort of make sense if you think about it.
Again, I'm really sorry I won't be home for Christmas. Do you think you can handle it on your own? If you really want me to come home I can. I'm sure it won't be that bad if I explain that I didn't have any control over it. I'm here for you.
Love Katherine
As she signed the letter Fred leaned over to see what she'd written. She immediately pulled the parchment away from his view, frowning at him. He had that curious spark in her eye that meant she was going to have to post this right away if she didn't want the two of them reading it. And she definitely didn't want that.
"Write some notes or something," she snapped.
"Why?" George asked, "We can use yours."
"Do I look like I've written any notes?" Katherine asked, gesturing at the two blank parchments.
"You wrote something," Fred muttered. Katherine cuffed him around the head, dipping her quill back into the ink.
Dear Father
I believe I will be staying at Hogwarts for Christmas. I hope this does not disadvantage you in anyway, however I thought this would be more productive. Please inform me if you wish for me to return home.
I shall alert you to any last minute changes to my plans. Have a good Christmas.
Sincerely, Katherine
Katherine looked over this letter with a frown. It seemed so short, unlike the letters she sent Theodore. Of course, she often described pranks and rule breaking to Theodore, something she could hardly do with her father. She couldn't even mention her hair. She tucked this piece of parchment in her bag with the other one, frowned at the black piece and then began to draw aimlessly on it. Missing one day of notes wouldn't kill her.
She noticed the twins bent over their own piece of parchment and leaned forwards just enough to recognise they were writing their own letter. She shook her head. Of course they were going ahead and telling their parents that they'd invited a friend.
"Guys, I might stay here," she reminded them, they chuckled quietly causing her to huff and slump into her chair.
So, what shall she do? Go to the Weasley's, go home or stay at Hogwarts? Moreover what will the twins let her do? Next chapter shall be here soon. Probably. Hopefully. Not really sure but we'll see.