I know, I didn't post when I was supposed to and you all hate me, really sorry. The holidays are over and my workload increased exponentially. My updates are going to be more irregular now, but I'll still update at least once if not twice a month. I was also suffering major writers block, so this chapter isn't at the best and is pretty short. Really sorry.

After being woken up early and gathered around the fire place Katherine, and the remaining Weasley's, watched Fred, George and Harry disappear through the fire place.

"Stuttered a bit didn't he?" Katherine asked Ginny, "And someone probably should have told to take off his glasses."

"He'll be all right though, won't he?" Ginny asked worried, "It was his first time, and it's got to be weird if you're not used to it."

"I'm sure he'll be fine Ginny, no worries," Katherine assured.

"Ok, Katherine, you're next," Mrs Weasley said, having finished muttering to Mr Weasley. She still looked worried though, and that couldn't bode well.

"Sure thing, Mrs Weasley," Katherine smiled and, with the ease of practise, through the Floo powder into the fire, stepped in and said clearly, "Diagon Ally!"

The familiar spinning whipped her away from the Burrow as the roaring of the fire filled her ears. She stepped out as soon as it stopped and immediately blinked uncomfortabley.

"I think I got ash in my eye," she grumbled mutedly, then she looked up and saw Fred and George watching her. Just Fred and George, "Guys, where's Harry?"

"Huh?"

…

"Oh, I can't believe we lost him! What will his Aunt and Uncle say! Oh, where could he be Arthur?"

"Don't worry mum, he'll turn up," Fred shrugged.

"Yeah, even if he stuttered he still said Diagon Alley," George pointed out, "He can't have gone that far."

"This isn't a joke boys'!" Molly snapped, "Arthur I'm going to check the other grates, you stay here and see if he comes out somewhere. Ginny you can come with me."

"Oh Merlin, what's Hermione going to say when she finds out I lost Harry in the Floo network!" Ron whined quietly.

"No doubt she'll say it was very silly to let someone whose muggle raised use magic transportation without assistance," Katherine replied, clapping him on the shoulder.

"Where do you think he came out?" Fred asked quietly.

"He would've come out if he was," George shook his head, "Imagine if he accidentally ended up at someone's house."

"They'll be thrilled!" Fred laughed, "A personal visit from the hero of the wizarding world!"

"On the other hand if he's likely around here but some where he doesn't recognise…"

"You don't think…?"

"Well, he could have couldn't he?"

"Look!" Ron yelled suddenly, pointing over to a large familiar form. Well, he was actually pointing at Hermione and Harry, but it was easier to see Hagrid.

"Dad we found him!" Percy yelled, catching Mr Weasley making his way back towards them, the group rushed over to where Hagrid, Harry and Hermione were.

"Harry," Mr. Weasley panted. "We hoped you'd only gone one grate too far…" He mopped his glistening bald patch. "Molly's frantic — she's coming now —"

"Where did you come out?" Ron asked.

"Knockturn Alley," said Hagrid grimly.

"Excellent!" said Fred and George together.

"We've never been allowed in," said Ron enviously.

"I should ruddy well think not," growled Hagrid. Mrs. Weasley now came galloping into view, her handbag swinging wildly in one hand, Ginny just clinging onto the other.

"Oh, Harry — oh, my dear — you could have been anywhere —"

Gasping for breath she pulled a large clothes brush out of her bag and began sweeping off the soot Hagrid hadn't managed to beat away. Mr. Weasley took Harry's glasses, gave them a tap of his wand, and returned them, good as new.

"Well, gotta be off," said Hagrid, who was having his hand wrung by Mrs. Weasley ("Knockturn Alley! If you hadn't found him, Hagrid!"). "See yer at Hogwarts!" And he strode away, head and shoulders taller than anyone else in the packed street.

"So, you seemed to show very little enthusiasm in Harry's adventure," Fred said as Harry turned to conversation with Ron and Hermione.

"Just not interested I guess," Katherine shrugged, "But Harry's lucky he found Hargid, Knockturn Alley really isn't a nice place."

"You say that like you've got experience," George said studying her curiously, Katherine merely shrugged again and Fred's jaw dropped.

"You do!" he announced accusingly, "You've been into Knockturn Alley!"

"Yes, a little louder why don't you," Katherine growled, frowning at him, "Of course I've been in Knockturn Alley, I don't exactly have a law abiding father do I?"

"Yeah but…Knockturn Alley," Fred said in an awed voice.

"Yeah, Knockturn Alley, where basically everyone wants to attack you for one reason or another, everyone pretty much lives in permanent fear and none of the people in the street know anything about person hygiene," Katherine described darkly, "Everyone's doing shady dealings and the only way to get what you want is to be scarier than the other guy."

Fred and George shivered slightly at the description as they came up to Gringotts and Mr Weasley started getting really excited by Hermione's parents. The twins laughed at their father's antics and headed inside.

"You coming Kat?" George asked, Katherine shook her head.

"I've already got my money," she explained, "I'll just wait out here, maybe hang out with Hermione."

"Okay, see you when we get out, don't miss us too much," Fred waved, Katherine rolled eyes.

"Are you not going in with your family?" Mrs Ganger asked as the Weasley's and Harry disappeared into Gringotts, Katherine looked up at her in confusion for a moment, then she noticed Hermione's eyes flick to her hair.

"Oh, no," she laughed, "I'm not a Weasley. There was a, err, accident, and my hair ended up dyed this colour. It's naturally brown."

"Oh, how did that happen?" Mrs Granger asked with a frown, "Couldn't your parents try to put it right?"

"My friends are just a bit thoughtless sometimes, they apologised profusely though," Katherine assured with a smile, "And my father is really busy, he hasn't had the time to fix it. I'm pretty used to it now anyway."

"C'mon mum," Hermione called, "You coming in Katherine?"

"No, I'll wait out here," Katherine smiled, leaning against one of the walls. She watched a couple of owl's flying off with deliveries before she pulled out her sketchbook. No point being idle. A little while later the others all came outside and started going to their separate things.

"Is that Lee?" Fred asked, looking over the crowd.

"I think it is," George nodded, "C'mon Kat, let's go!"

Katherine laughed and headed off after the twins, hearing Molly yell out behind them, "

"Lee!" Fred yelled, throwing an arm over his friend. A movement soon mimicked by his brother.

"Hi, how are you?" George asked. Lee just laughed at their antics.

"I'm fine, how about you guys? And where's Kat?" Lee asked, frowning as he looked around the pair.

"Over hear," Katherine called, already a little bit ahead of them, "You guys coming or what?"

Fred and George stared at her, looked behind them, then turned to stare at her again.

"How the Hell did you get ahead of us?" they demanded together.

"Magic," Katherine replied in a cheeky voice, smirking at them, "I do what I want, now hurry up, someone's going to start thinking there's something wrong with you if you just stand there with those stupid looks on your faces. Then again, bit hard to see the difference isn't it Lee?"

Lee couldn't help but laugh as he gave the slightest nod and the twins gave them both insulted looks.

"I find that highly offensive," Fred informed them, in what may have been an imitation of Percy.

"I concur dear brother," George nodded, using the same tone.

"That doesn't make you sound any smatter," Katherine assured them, with a roll of her eyes.

"So where are we going," Lee asked, as the group wandered though Diagon Alley.

"Well I need some things for Tenebris, and some new potions ingredients," Katherine said thoughtfully.

"Cool! To the pet shop!" Fred announced, with he and George easily taking the lead. Lee and Katherine rolled their eyes good-naturedly and followed the pair though the crowd, watching their ridiculously animated conversation from a few steps away.

"Pair of lunatics them," Lee laughed as George stumbled over a cat, who chose the moment to streak across in front of them and used Fred as a means of keeping himself up, "Even after three years I still can't believe your friends with them sometimes you just seem so…" Fred and George started striking random poses for unknown reasons as they discussed the difficulty of tripping a cat. "Normal, though I guess that really isn't hard next to them.

"I know what you mean," Katherine laughed, looking thoughtful, "I guess it's kind of like Stockholm syndrome. I mean, when they first started hanging around I didn't want anything to do with them but they kind of grow on you, like mould. After a while they just dragged me into their lives and before I knew it I was surrounded by friends and having family dinners at their place."

"…Did you just compare your friendship with the twins to being kidnapped?"

"Yes."

"…Why?"

"We have this weird arrangement going," Katherine sighed, "Whenever I'm asked a question about them I'm required to answer with the weirdest analogy I can think of that still makes sense. I get two points for that because I got kidnappers and mould."

"I'm sorry, did I say normal? I'll try not to make that mistake again."

"It was their idea," Katherine defended, though she was laughing.

"Oi, what're you two laughing about?" George called.

"Yeah, hurry up, we don't have all day," Fred added.

"I just scored two points in your stupid analogy game," Katherine informed them as she walked past them into the store.

"So weird," Lee chuckled as the group began looking around the store.

…

"Well, there are my parent's, I gotta go," Lee said, waving to the others as he ran off.

"That was a good way to pass the time," George sighed happily, having spent the majority of their hour wandering around and joking with Lee.

"Yeah, but we better get to the shop, Mum'll have a fit if we don't show up on time," Fred announced and they started making their way through the crowd.

"Is it more crowded than normal?" Katherine asked suspiciously, not having to push through the crowd as she stuck close behind the twins.

"Just a little bit," George agreed, finally spotting the group of red heads in the mass of people.

"Not even the last ones here," Fred snorted when they noticed that Harry, Ron and Hermione had yet to show up.

"Oh, I hope they haven't managed to get themselves into trouble," Mrs Weasley fretted.

"Mum, if we managed it shouldn't be too hard for them," Fred pointed out. Katherine snorted but just started investigating one of the displays when the twins shot her curious looks, they didn't get the chance to ask though as the other three finally showed up.

"Oh, there you are, good," Mrs Weasley said breathlessly, and Katherine had to smother laughter as she patter her hair, again, "We'll be able to see him in a minute…"

Katherine gagged slightly, she didn't really want to see Lockhart. She remembered, vague though it was, meeting him once before, he'd been loud and annoying. Besides her father absolutely loathed him, though he loathed quite a few people, he always said honest things about them, just in very confusing ways.

Before she knew it though, not only was Lockhart speaking but he was dragging Harry up in front of the crowd and suddenly had books shoved into his arms. Katherine hardly noticed this though as she heard that Lockhart would be teaching them.

"No," she groaned along with the twins, both of whom looked as though they wanted to brain themselves.

"We're not gonna learn anything from him," Fred whined.

"Learn how to be an idiot maybe," George pointed out darkly.

"And we thought Quirrel was bad," Katherine groaned, "At least he actually knew something, even if he was a useless teacher."

To complete the so far brilliant books shop experience, the Malfoy's suddenly made an appearance. Katherine was worried Harry would start a fight, only to be surprised a few moments later when Mr Weasley launched himself at the senior Malfoy. Fred and George both yelled, "Get him, dad!" so well in time it sounded like only one of them was talking. Katherine wanted to cheer Mr Weasley as well, but didn't want to know what'd happen if word got back to her own father and so merely shrank back slightly hoping none of the Weasley's would be seriously hurt. She was grateful when Hagrid stepped in, surprised as she was that he'd managed to get through the crowd.

"C'mon," she hissed quietly, tugging at Fred's sleeve, slightly worried he'd pick up where his dad left off.

"It was just getting good," Fred whined, and George nodded, giving the shop longing glances.

"I know, I enjoy seeing someone like Malfoy get beat up as much as the next person but, that doesn't make it a good idea," Katherine replied, following Hargid and the other Weasley's away from the store. Mrs Weasley was fuming, growling at Mr Weasley the whole way.

"A fine example to set for your children… brawling in public… what Gilderoy Lockhart must've thought —"

"He was pleased," said Fred. "Didn't you hear him as we were leaving? He was asking that bloke from the Daily Prophet if he'd be able to work the fight into his report — said it was all publicity —"

Katherine snorted, she agreed wholeheartedly with Fred, then frowned slightly as she contemplated joining the twins in some of their class avoidances. It was not going to be a fun year with him teaching.

"Look on the bright side," Katherine advised the twins, with a smile in an attempt to cheer them up, "I think we've found a good target for pranks this year in our new teacher."

The twins stared at her for a moment, and she could see the slow lift in their spirits as exactly what this meant dawned on them what this meant. Katherine smiled at the bright spark in their eyes.

"Brilliant," they both breathed and, before she knew it they were planning all the best ways to prank 'the blonde peacock' as he had come to be named. Katherine couldn't help but laugh as she listened to them and added in her own thoughts every now and then. To the untrained eye it would almost look as though the Weasley twins were looking forward to school. Still, they'd be one the Hogwarts express before they knew it, Katherine smiled at that. School or not, you couldn't help but love Hogwarts.

Katherine and the Weasleys Floo'd back to the Burrow (thankfully Harry found the right place this time) and she and the twins spent the rest of the day seeing who could shoot the furthest target with their slingshots. The boys were both impressed and slightly irritated Katherine had gotten so good but never shared her skills for any pranks. Katherine just laughed and shot a jelly bean at Fred, the bean bounced off his head and hit George as well. They didn't find Katherine till dinner after they'd tried to get her back, and she decided not to mention that she'd been up on the roof, didn't want them getting silly ideas after all.

Sorry for the mild CRACK chapter, still, hope you enjoyed. Reviews are welcome and help me write!