Katherine heaved a sigh. Of course her father had to have a meeting today. Honestly the very least he could have done was to apperate her onto the actual platform, but no, the train station would have to do. Tenebris was attracting a lot of attention. The crowd was rather think too. She made her way to where she assumed the wall must be. Merlin she hated crowds.
"You remember what the platform number is, right?" asked a familiar voice and she spun to try to locate it.
"Of course!" replied a higher voice defensively and proudly, "Platform 3 and 9/4!"
"Got it in one!" she was congratulated. Oh, this could not be good. Still she couldn't see them, they should not be this damn hard to spot. Suddenly she spotted the red head family. Mrs Weasley, Mr Weasley, Charlie, Percy and Ron. Fred and George were further back with Ginny. Suddenly Ginny ran forward, ahead of the family, looking very excited. They were near the wall between Platform's 3 and 4. Katherine groaned inwardly and was about to call out when Mrs Weasley noticed.
"Ginny!" She yelled frantically, managing to stop the small girl before she ran into the solid brick wall. Katherine pushed her trolley between Fred and George, who were chuckling quietly, and cuffed them both over the back of the head.
"Hey!" Fred yelped, "Who do you think…" He finally looked at her, she had one eyebrow raised. "Katty!"
"Idiots," Katherine chided, "She could have been seriously hurt! Honestly, not even at school yet and you're getting yourselves and others into trouble."
The three moved forward as Mrs Weasley spun to glare at her boys. Her gaze softened slightly when she noticed Katherine. No comment was made on the twins, who were still rubbing the backs of their heads.
"Katherine dear," She greeted kindly, "What are you doing here? Where's your father?" Now she sounded concerned. Katherine released a small sigh before pinning a smile to her face.
"He had some business to take care of," She explained, "He left as soon as I was safely at the station."
"He's busy a lot isn't he?" Mr Weasley asked curiously. Katherine withheld a flinch, knowing he didn't mean anything.
"Yeah, he is," Katherine agreed, "We better get going though, the others will start to worry that Fred and George have blown themselves up."
The group moved on and when they got to the barrier Molly roll called each of them as they went through in their different ways.
"Charlie." Casually stroll through the crowd and disappear. "Percy." Same thing. "Fred."
"I'm George."
"Don't mess around Fred, I'd rather not miss the train." A pouting Fred ran through the barrier, turning once to make a face at Katherine.
"Thank you, dear. George, you next." Run at the barrier, making the trolley do most of the work.
"Katherine, dear."
"You want to come with me Gin?" Katherine asked kindly, the girl still seemed upset about having been tricked. Ginny nodded excitedly and walked beside Katherine through the barrier. After a moment Mr Weasley, Mrs Weasley and Ron all came through. Ginny went back to her mum and Katherine weaved through the crowd, after saying her goodbyes, to get on the train.
"Want some help?" Fred offered as Katherine picked up Tenebris, "Everyone else is already on the train, as is my trunk."
"Thanks," Katherine replied, allowing him to take her trunk. He led her through the train to a compartment with George, Angelina, Alicia and Lee in it. Katherine smiled at them all as Fred put her trunk onto the luggage rack. They watched the train pulled away before they stared talking.
"So any one got plans for this year?" Lee asked in an excited voice that suggested that he wanted to answer his own question.
"Beater's" Fred and George responded immediately.
"Chaser," Angelina announced, following their lead.
"Chaser," Alicia repeated, nodding with a large grin.
"Commentator!" Lee announced loudly, making everyone laugh slightly.
"Seems like everyone's rather excited about Quidditch," Katherine commented nonchalantly, smirking slightly.
"Aren't you going to try out?" Angela asked, "You seem fairly competent on a broom."
"Fast too," Fred added, "You should try for Seeker!"
"That's a bit harsh isn't it Fred?" Alicia asked, frowning at him, "Turning your friend against your brother."
"What?" Fred asked, clearly confused.
"Charlie's not going to be on the team anymore," George announced, clearing everything up, "McGonagall has arranged for him to have some time this year to work with some Romanian wizards, because he wants to train dragons. Anyway, he can't do that and Quidditch so he dropped out of the team."
"He said he will probably be there for some practices and the try outs," Fred added, "Oliver wood is going to be captain."
"That third year?" Lee asked.
"Forth year," Katherine corrected, "He plays Keeper."
"He seems cool," Angela said thoughtfully, "This'll be fun!"
"We didn't really talk to him that much Ang," Alicia reminded.
"Yeah, plus Charlie reckons being Captain makes people stricter," George said.
"Even if they disagreed with the previous captain, if they become captain themselves they tend to follow the lead," Fred put in.
"Really?" Lee asked, "But wasn't Charlie rather strict? You guys won't have much spare time."
"Fred and George have too much spare time anyway," Katherine responded, "Not like they use any of it to do anything useful."
"We do very useful stuff!" Fred exclaimed, "We've been working on stuff all summer!"
"Yeah," George agreed, "We're planning to make all the Slytherin's robes turn pink."
Everyone laughed at this and Katherine rolled her eyes. Suddenly all her friends jumped slightly and stared at her.
"What?" she asked, a lock of hair fell in her face, she sighed, "Oh that. It keeps doing that, I'm lucky it didn't happen at the station. That would have been a mess."
"So it's been like this all holiday?" Angela asked, watching her red hair warily.
"Well, it stayed brown for about two weeks," Katherine replied, "It's been going back and forth ever since, every other day or so. I spent a fair bit of time in my room to hide it from my father. I got all my homework done though."
"Really?" Fred asked, Katherine glared at him.
"If you didn't do the work it's your fault," She scolded, "You're not copying mine." Angelina and Alicia laughed as Fred pouted. Eventually he joined in, never one to remain upset very long, especially over something so trivial.
"Quidditch tryouts!" Angela screamed, a noise quickly joined by Alicia voice. Katherine heard it all from the bathroom, where she was already finishing her shower. It'd been made exceptionally clear to her that she would have no chance of doing something non-Quidditch related today. Not that she minded, she did quite like Quidditch after all.
Still, it was lucky she wasn't in the boy's dorm. The twins had spent ages planning their wake up call, she imaged someone was going to try to hex them. She'd warned the other girls though. She didn't think Angela or Alicia would appreciate being hexed the day of tryouts. It would probably have a negative effect on their performance.
"Guys, I can hear you in the bathroom," she announced as she stepped out of the bathroom, only to see her friends attacking her bed in an attempt to get the attention of her pillows. They looked up and stared at her for a moment before jumping up again.
"Katherine!" Alicia yelled.
"Quidditch!" Angela added.
"Yes, I know," Katherine replied, "It's all you lot have talked about since the train. You're lucky I warned the others, they got some older student to perform silencing charms on the beds."
"Right," Alicia replied, both her and Angela already running for the stairs.
"George! Fred!" Angela screamed. Angela was very loud, Katherine thought aimlessly as she made her way does stairs.
"Aren't the tryouts in the evening?" She asked no one in particular as she made her way down the stairs, shuffling through her bag to make sure she had all her books, she looked up when she got to the Common room, "Guys, I get your excited but we still have classes. You have to change out of your pyjamas."
…
Katherine wasn't sure how she got everyone to class that day, getting them dressed was hard enough. She had to sit in the Common room and constantly tell them they were wearing the wrong clothes. Namely telling them not to wear flying clothes as they seemed fairly intent on going straight to the pitch and waiting there all day for the tryouts, it was exhausting.
They had transfiguration first up too, they only just got there on time as they'd needed to eat first. McGonagall eyed them dangerously, noticing how tired Katherine looked, and how excited the others were.
"Where have you been?" she asked in a dangerous voice.
"Sorry Professor," Katherine answered immediately, fearing there'd be another round of screaming 'Quidditch tryouts' if she let any of the others speak, "Its Quidditch tryouts today, you see. It's been near impossible to get them focused, they kept wanting to run off to the Quidditch pitch."
There were a few snickers from around the room, until Katherine glared at them, in no mood to put up with it at the moment. McGonagall sighed, shaking her head.
"Enough," she announce, silencing what was left of the snickers, "Very well, I understand that you are excited, but should it in anyway affect your classes, you will be unable to make it to the tryouts. Am I understood?"
Fred, George, Lee, Angela and Alicia all snapped to attention at that and quickly announced their understanding. Katherine sighed as she took her seat.
"Of course, that's what gets you back to reality," she hissed in announce. Fred, who sat next to her, merely grinned doodling on his parchment.
"She threatened to keep us from Quidditch," he supplied, "What else did you expect us to do?"
"You guys suck," Katherine replied, glaring at the parchment she was filling with notes.
…
"Quidditch!" Fred yelled, running for the pitch.
"Ow! Fred! That was my ear!" Katherine screamed, taking chase immediately. They were all running towards the pitch, though Lee and Katherine weren't actually trying out. Katherine quickly caught up to Fred and tackled him to the ground without hesitation. Unfortunately the ground where she caught up was uneven and they proceeded to tumble down the small slope and continue till the end of the pitch. Katherine groaned as they finally stopped, trying to get her bearings. With her head spinning it took her a moment to realise that Fred had ended up practically on top of her, and was now grinning widely down at her.
"This is your fault," She informed him, trying, unsuccessfully, to wriggle out from under him. Fred simply laughed, not moving at all, eventually her patience wore out, "Are you going to move?"
"Probably not," Fred replied, still grinning, "See, it's highly entertaining to watch you lose your temper, but if I move you can get to your wand."
"Very Slytherin," Katherine informed him with a raised eyebrow, Fred made a face.
"Excuse me but we need the pitch," announced a vaguely familiar voice. Fred turned slightly to see who it was, Katherine used the opportunity to shove him off and he rolled sideways, ending up on his back.
"Aw, Oliver, it was just getting entertaining!" Charlie commented, a similar grin on his face to the one Fred had had. Katherine glared at him, even as he helped her of the ground.
"Thanks for the help," she said sarcastically, "Besides, I'm with Oliver, you should get the tryouts out of the way."
"Are you trying out?" Oliver asked, watching as Katherine wiped dirt from her clothes.
"No," she replied, "I just came to watch, they are though." She gestured toward George, Angela and Alicia, who had all joined Fred now that he was standing up.
"What positions do you play?" Oliver asked immediately, Katherine went and stood with Charlie who was watching Oliver with approval.
"Beater," Fred and George announced together.
"Chaser," Angelina added, and was echoed by Alicia.
"Ok, c'mon, a few other people are already here," Charlie informed them, heading for the changing rooms.
"So, he's the new Captain?" Katherine asked, it was her first chance to actually talk to Charlie since the holidays started.
"Yeah, I think he's going to be really good," Charlie replied, "May even help us win the cup."
"He's going to have trouble finding a replacement Seeker though," Katherine pointed out, "Can't you play without going the practices?"
"No, I thought about it, but it didn't seem fair to the rest of the team. I'm only here because Oliver asked if I could help him out a bit."
"Ok, so do you think it's going to be a hard tryout?"
"Depends what you mean by hard," Charlie replied, pushing the door open. Oliver stood in front of a large group of people, with another boy standing behind him. Katherine assumed he was the Chaser who hadn't left yet, but he was a seventh year so he'd need a replacement next year. There seemed to be an excessive number of people in the room, that's probably what Charlie meant by hard. It'd be interesting to see how good they all were though.
Evidently a few people had come to watch, probably to support their friends. Despite this a few people were against it, Oliver included, they seemed to think the other houses would come to spy. Oliver, it turned out, was rather paranoid, loud and strict. He seemed a totally different person of the pitch. Anyway, Charlie said that, as a friend of the family, she could fly around with him so long as she wasn't prejudice because of her friendship with those trying out. Katherine had agreed eagerly, she really did love to fly.
For a while the pair just flew over and watched, commenting on the variety of flying styles, and people who worked well together. After that, however, Oliver asked if Charlie would watch over those trying out for Seeker. They had a practise snitch and everyone trying out was flying around widely searching for it. Charlie groaned audibly as he watched them, Katherine thought it was a good example of why there was only one Seeker.
Charlie flew into the fray to try and take control and Katherine floated up a little more. She could see basically everyone now, the twins were proving how well they worked together while Angela and Alicia were showing how co-ordinated they were, ducking, weaving and passing through the other brooms. Turning to look back at Charlie, Katherine saw something glint gold in front of her eyes.
Some small part of her brain reminded her that she wasn't trying out and going after the ball was pointless, but she was already moving. She zoomed towards the small ball, ignoring all her logical thoughts telling her to do otherwise. No one was really focused on her anyway, everyone in the stands were watching their friends and everyone in the air was focused on what they were supposed to be doing.
She was immensely glad she'd had lots of flying practice at home, as she was currently aiming herself at the ground. Fortunately she didn't have to get very close the ground, she swiped at the Snitch, pulling up at the same time and ended hovering a fair ways above the ground. She was lower than everyone else though, and she could feel the Snitch wriggling in her hand, quickly she rose back to Charlie's height and sped over to him, hiding the gold ball from view.
"Madam Hooch did say that Snitch was questionable," Charlie sighed as Katherine approached, looking flushed but calm, "I'm not sure why, but I brought a spare all the same. Listen up, Snitch, fast-" he threw it into the air, and it immediately took off, "Now go fetch."
"You sound annoyed," Katherine pointed out, raising an eyebrow.
"I'm fine, it turns out its rather hard to find a Seeker, never had to worry about it before," Charlie sighed. Katherine smirked at him, and gestured towards the beaters try outs which Oliver was watching.
"On the upside it looks like Fred and George are gonna make it on the team," she offered. Charlie looked over to see Fred and George roaring with laughter as other students struggled to stay on their brooms, one boy had already slipped and was holding on with only his hands. Katherine and Charlie began moving towards them, Charlie frowning slightly, but then Oliver yelled something they couldn't hear and the twins immediately straightened up.
Oddly quickly the pair flew around to help the others, pulling them back onto brooms and helping to stabilise their flying until they got to the ground. Katherine and Charlie flew over the Oliver, Charlie looking very confused.
"What did you say to them?" He asked, awestruck. Oliver gave him an odd look.
"I told them to snap out of it and help before someone got hurt," he deadpanned.
"Yeah," Katherine nodded, causing both boys to turn to her, "Fred and George may mess around, but they won't let others get hurt because of them. Unless that was their intention, in which case it's a whole different story." She mumbled the last sentence to herself, shaking her head slightly.
"Hey Katty!" Fred called as he and George joined them.
"Katty?" Charlie repeated.
"Don't call me that."
"But Fred can?"
"Have you ever tried getting them to stop once they've chosen a nick name?"
"Fair enough," Charlie agreed, grinning with Katherine at Fred's indignant look, "I think it's about time to head in, right Captain?"
"Huh? Oh, me, yeah. Sorry Capt…Charlie," Oliver replied haltingly, when he turned and spoke to the twins he sounded far more assured, "You two grab the practice bludger."
"Yes Captain," Fred and George responded immediately.
Katherine snorted and mumbled to Charlie, "Bet you anything that attitude doesn't last."
"No way," Charlie laughed, "I've lived with those two, I'm not betting against that."
Katherine watched Fred wrestle the bludger to the ground once she'd landed before the trio headed back to the changing room where Oliver was talking with Charlie and Chaser guy as he prepared to announce the new teams.
"Ok, listen up," Oliver called, bringing immediate silence over those gathered in the room, "First off, our new Beaters are Fred and George Weasley." There was some clapping, including Angela, Alicia, Katherine and Lee-who had joined them once they landed, he claimed he'd been practising commenting for the stands. The other people trying for Beater filed from the room. "Our seeker will be Thomas Jones." Some light cheering and the Seekers left as well. "Now for our Chasers I want to talk to Angelina Johnson, Alicia Spinnet and Katie Bell."
Katherine frowned as the last people who hadn't been listed left the room. Katie Bell seemed to be a familiar name, but not someone she could actually remember anything useful about.
"You guys can leave," Oliver informed Fred, George and Thomas, "I'll come tell you when our first practise is." Thomas was the only one to actually move though, the rest simply sat and waited. Oliver shrugged, turning to the girls.
"Listen each of you performed very well, and it's a close call so we've had to talk a few things into consideration," Katherine saw this becoming long and boring before Oliver got anywhere near announcing his decision, so she used the opportunity to look at Katie.
"Hey George," Katherine started, eyes still on Katie, "Doesn't she look like one of the first years?"
"Oh yeah," George agreed, eyes lighting up with recognition, beside him Fred was nodding in agreement, "Do you think they know that?" He gestured to Oliver, Charlie and Chaser guy-Katherine really needed to learn his name.
"So, Angela and Alicia will be our new Seekers," Oliver announced, breaking into their conversation, "Katie, since there aren't any actual rules against first years trying out, or coming to practises, if it's alright I'd like you to train with us this year. It'll be good preparation for next year when Andrew isn't here."
"Well, I guess that answers that question," Fred announced, standing up and moving towards the girls, he winked at Katie, "Nice job, on both flying and infiltrating tryouts."
"Don't worry," Katherine told the confused looking girl with a grin, "He's just impressed with your 'rule breaking', he's weird like that, but you did seem a good flyer."
Katie grinned and easily joined them in walking back to the Common room.