Katherine ran down to the pitch, not bothering to slow down so that Lee could catch up. She weaved her way through the crowd to Fred and George, seeing McGonagall leading Ron and Harry away from the corner of her eye. Her stomach churned. Oliver could be heard complaining about the cancelled match, but Katherine ignored him as she made her way to the twins.
As they were herded inside Katherine got close enough to Fred to grab his wrist and continue her attempt to weave through the riled up students. As expected Fred grabbed George when he realised what was happening and the three of them managed to make their way into a secret passageway without anyone noticing.
"You ok, Katty?" Fred asked, though he was leaning on the wall with her and George.
"It's nice to be able to breathe," Katherine commented idly, Fred and George both chuckled before they all pushed off the wall and continued up to the common room.
"So, do you know why the match was cancelled?" George asked offhandedly. Katherine grimaced, causing both the boys to focus.
"There was another attack," Katherine informed them, "The teachers are really shaken up."
"Is that why McGonagall took Harry?" Fred asked with a frown, "They can't really suspect him can they?"
"She took Ron too," Katherine pointed out quietly, "It was Hermione."
The boys both faltered slightly in their surprise. They weren't overly close to Hermione, but Katherine was, so was Ron. Also, it struck a little harder when the brightest person you knew got attacked, though the twins still debated that point.
"How do you know that?" Fred asked, voice quieter than normal.
"I checked," Katherine answered, holding out the map, "When she didn't turn up for the match I started getting worried, "She and a Ravenclaw are in the Hospital wing now."
"Hell," George breathed quietly. The trio continued through the secret passages in relative silence after that, it wasn't until they were about to come into the open that they stopped again. Fred had his hand on Katherine's shoulder and forced her to face him, scanning her face with concern.
"You sure you're ok, Katty?" he asked, Katherine shrugged, though she didn't try to dislodge her hand.
"It's unnerving," she said quietly, "But…I don't feel that bad for Hermione. I mean, it's horrible, what happened to her, but, at least she's safe. It's only going to get worse now."
"How can it get worse?" George asked, eyebrows furrowing together. Katherine gave him a dark sideways glance.
"Lucius Malfoy is one of the school Governors," she told them, "People are scared and the Ministry is under pressure to do something about it. It's going to get worse."
…
"How can they get rid of Dumbledore?" Alicia demanded, Katie having just run in with the news. They were talking in shouted whispers, not wanting the rest of Gryffindor to catch onto what they were talking about. Katherine had her sketch book out, though she was clearly listening to the conversation. Fred glanced at the book every now and then, only to find numerous small sketches of different magical creatures, almost all of them with a little cross beside them.
"Someone could die now," Lee hissed, "If they recon this is out of Dumbledore's control than what do the Ministry plan to do?"
"Take Hagrid," Angelina answered, still looking a little sickened by the news.
"They can't really think he's behind this, can they?" Fred asked, "He's been here for years, he wouldn't just randomly start attacking students."
"He wouldn't attack students at all," George snorted, "The worst he'd do would be raise his voice, maybe throw around some empty threats if they were getting near his pets."
"What's the bet Malfoy threatened them?" Lee asked.
"Or bribed them," Alicia added. After a little longer of this Katherine just sighed.
"Guys, there's nothing we can do about it," she pointed out, pressing the heels of her hands against her eyes, "We just have to deal with it."
The others grumbled, but on the whole seemed to agree. Katherine smiled weakly, knowing they were all tired. She stood up and stretched before grabbing her bag.
"C'mon guys, let's go to bed," she suggested, turning away, before she quickly turned back to the group, and commanded, "No cursing Lockhart, he's still a teacher."
With that she turned and headed up to the dormitory. The others blink at each other. Alicia broke the confused silence.
"Why would we curse Lockhart?"
"How can we still have Exams?" Fred demanded, looking horrified.
"I told you they wouldn't cancel exams," Katherine rolled her eyes. She was reading some book while she ate, though they couldn't really tell what it was because of the way it was sitting. She also had a copy of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them beside her.
"Well, yeah, I guess, but, c'mon!" Fred whined, slouching onto the table, "It's so unfair."
"I think you need to redefine your definition of unfair," Angelina laughed easily. Katherine smirked.
"She has a point," Katie nodded, "We're all having to do them so it can't be unfair purely to you."
"So it's unfair to everyone," Lee shrugged, "It's still unfair."
"You know what I think is unfair?" Alicia suddenly spoke up, "The fact that one of the top student s in our year seems to be doing extra credit."
"I'm not doing extra credit," Katherine rolled her eyes, though she didn't look up from her book.
"Then what are you reading?" Alicia challenged. From the corner of her eye Katherine saw Fred lean forward and the others watching her curiously, she merely sighed.
"I'm reading a book," she answered, "It's something people do when they want to learn, answer questions, and be prepared for their OWLs which are coming up next year. I'm not doing it because one of the teachers asked me to I'm doing it because I want to."
"Well, who needs to do that anyway," Fred shrugged, "We've got you to answer questions, teach us stuff and help us prepare for OWLs, which aren't until next year."
With that he tried to snatch her book away, only to be smacked on the hand and receive a glare from the witch. Once Fred backed away a bit Katherine sighed and pulled both her books off the table into her bag, still not showing the cover of the one she'd been reading.
"You, Fred, are far too reliant on the idea that I'm going to help you," she informed him.
"But you will, right?"
"If you guys will focus," she sighed, "You don't study well, and none of you held out to learn French."
"Learning a language is hard!" Lee complained.
"I know more than six," Katherine replied, getting mixed looks from her friends. She just rolled her eyes, "Anyway, exams are still on, so… I'd say study but I know you two won't."
"We'll be fine," George grinned, tossing some food towards his brother, who stretched to catch it in his mouth and grin widely when he succeeded.
"Ridiculous," Katherine sighed, only to throw something else and hit Fred in the side of the head. She grinned when he turned to frown at her.
"Hey, you'll still help us study right?" Alicia asked, leaning over the table.
"Of course," Katherine nodded, only to get hit in the head by a pea. She turned to scowl at Fred, who only grinned innocently, with a huff she picked up her bag, "C'mon, I don't want to be late for potions."
"They're going to revive the victim," Katie grinned, "That's excellent! One of them can say what attacked them and then the teachers can do something about it."
"Brilliant," Lee grinned, "We'll finally find out what's been going on all year!"
"And everyone will be out of the hospital wing," Angelina pointed out, with a raised eyebrow, "That's kind of important."
"Katty, what's up?" Fred asked, Katherine was staring away from the group, but he couldn't see whatever it was she'd been looking at.
"No, it's nothing," she said, looking back to him before her eyes fell to her food, "I just, I'm worried."
"About?"
"It's nothing Fred," she smiled, "I'm just stressed with all the work I've got. Don't worry about it."
Fred made a doubtful noise but turned back to the group none the less. Katherine looked towards the entrance Ginny had just left through with a sigh. She rubbed the back of her neck uncomfortably; she couldn't put her finger on it, but she had a bad feeling.
…
"All students to return to their House dormitories at once. All teachers return to the staff room. Immediately, please."
Everyone's heads shot up at this, surprised by the announcement. Snape was currently leading them towards charms, but changed course almost immediately.
"Keep up," he commanded.
"Let's check it out," Fred said, grabbing Katherine's arm, George already by his side.
"No," Katherine hissed, "One; Snape will notice, two; that is an excellent way to skip right past expulsion and get us killed,"
"Aw, c'mon Kat," he wheedled, "We've got the map."
"Yes, and we haven't seen any monster on it all year," she snapped, "Let's just go."
"I said keep up," Snape repeated, dark eyes focused on them. Katherine grabbed Fred's wrist, Angelina quickly coming to grab George's and they tugged to boys along with the group.
"Do you think everyone's ok?" Angelina asked.
"Well, the mandrakes with be ready soon so it's not too bad right?" Alicia pointed out, falling into step with them.
"Right," Katherine nodded, "Let's just get to the Common room, we can talk there."
"You guys are being ridiculous," Fred rolled his eyes, "We're pure bloods anyway and Slytherin's monster."
"Your also the biggest family of blood traitors in existence," Katherine pointed out, "Besides, there's nothing the prove it wouldn't go after a pureblood given the chance."
"C'mon," Angelina commanded, "Guys, please, let's just go, it'd be crowded with teachers anyway. Just leave it."
"Fine," George sighed, after sharing one of those silent conversations with Fred. The two boys let themselves be dragged up to the Common room. The majority of the other students sat and fidgeted or were sharing rumours. It took all the others a moment to realise Katherine was glancing around the room, eyes darting back and forth between all the people present.
"Kat what's up?" Katie asked, causing the others to look up at her. She shrugged, not even turning to look at therm.
"Nothing, I'm just looking," she answered vaguely. The group shared silence for a moment until George spoke, voice oddly hesitant.
"Who's missing?"
Katherine finally turned to look at them, eyes sad and worried; "I can't find Harry or Ron."
"Great, last year all over again," Fred grumbled, though the smallest bit of worry crept into his voice.
"Yeah," Katherine murmured, returning to her search around the room. She wasn't going to tell them she hadn't spotted Ginny either, but worry continued to form as there was no sight of the red head. Part of her wanted to disappear with the twins and find out what was going on, but the larger part of her was actually terrified, though she'd never admit it.
"Relax, one of the teachers will be here to tell us what's happened before you know it," Alicia informed them, focusing on her potions essay.
"She's right," Lee nodded, the others agreed and were soon playing a game of exploding snap. If the game was a bit tense none of the said anything.
"A feast in the middle of the night?" Alicia groaned, yawning, "Why?"
"Everyone will have been cured," Angelina answered.
"And whatever else happened must have been solved, too," Katherine grinned, "C'mon, let's go.
The trio made their way downstairs, to find Lee waiting for them.
"Where're Fred and George?" Angelina asked with a slight frown.
"I don't know," Lee shrugged, "McGonagall took them when she right before she announced the feast."
"That's weird," Alicia frowned, "What do you think Kat? Kat? For the love of Merlin where did she go?"
"I still don't understand how she does that," Lee chuckled.
"And you never will," Katie laughed, coming down to greet them, "C'mon, we'll probably meet them all in the great hall."
"Well, another overly eventful year," Angelina sighed, sitting down on the couch with Katie and Alicia. Fred, George and Lee were playing exploding snap on the table.
"Yeah, we're starting to get tired of our pranks being overshadowed by major catastrophes," George nodded, "Besides, I don't think anyone wants to deal with the additional tension."
"And it's really depressing," Fred added. The pair were being perfectly loyal and hadn't said a word about Ginny to any one, except Katherine who knew anyway. She'd turned up in the hospital wing after all the Weasley's had gathered there and just waited until everyone had calmed down. She'd talked to the twins, and Ginny, though she wouldn't share that conversation.
"At least they cancelled exams," Lee sighed, "Nothing left to study for. That's the way I enjoy things."
"Speaking of," Alicia spoke up with a slight frown, "Considering we have nothing left to study for, where's Katherine?"
"No idea," Fred shrugged after a glance at George, "She's seemed really excited since everyone's gotten better and exams were cancelled. Don't know why, she still seems to be studying constantly."
"So, she's hiding something and you're not getting involved?" Alicia raised an eyebrow.
"It's studying," George shrugged, "Plus, sometimes, she gets a bit…"
George didn't need to finish his sentence however as the grumbling form of Katherine chose that moment to stalk into the room. Fred and George both grimaced slightly, recognising the tone before they could make out the words. Which were slowly becoming more audible.
"Je ne peux pas le croire. Alors sanglante près! Je suis presque là et ... Ugh!" she exclaimed, throwing her arm in the air as she stalked past them, "Arbre sanglant stupide! Cela ne devrait pas être si difficile!"
The group watched Katherine storm up to the dormitory in silence. They continued to stare for a little while after the furious brunette had disappeared up the stairs, until Lee broke the silence.
"What just happened?" he asked, turning to the twins.
"She curses in French sometimes when she's really annoyed," Fred shrugged, looking back down to his cards like nothing happened.
"Why?" Alicia demanded with a raised eyebrow.
"Habit," Fred shrugged again, George snorted and looked up at the girls.
"French is one of the first languages she learnt," he explained, "So, she has a tendency to slip into it when she's cursing things because no one else can understand it and therefore she won't get into trouble for it."
"That, sort of makes sense," Angelina nodded.
"Guys," Katie spoke up, still looking at the stairs in immense confusion, "I'm not sure, but I think she's angry at a tree."
"What?" Fred snickered, looking up at her.
"Well, she tried to teach us French remember?" Katie answered, "We all quit, and I hardly followed any of that, but I swear she said tree at one point."
"A tree pissed off Katherine," Lee summarised with a raised eyebrow. The group exchanged looks before the majority just shrugged.
"Weirder things have happened," Fred and George supplied together. Making the others roll their eyes.
"No, Fred, no," Ginny shrieked as Fred splashed water at her before ducking under the water, "Fred! My robes are soaked."
"Did that to me the first time," Katherine grinned, clapping Ginny on the shoulder as she walked past, before casting a quick drying charm, "Put my wand in my bag?"
"Yeah, thanks Kat," Ginny smiled.
"Well, we have to stick together," Katherine chuckled, "Plus soaked robed get really uncomfortable."
"I don't doubt it," Ginny replied, turning away from the lake as Katherine waded in. When she turned back Katherine, Angelina and Alicia had bullied Fred, George and Lee into letting the onto their shoulders and were now fighting to stay up. Alicia and Lee were the least co-ordinated, but Fred tended to be more reckless and George and Angelina seemed to be sticking to stealth attacks, so they all seemed to even out.
Katherine waved when she say her watching, and promptly grabbed Alicia's arm as the other girl tried to push her into the water. This caused both of the to fall, dragging the two boys with them, right into Angelina and George.
Ginny spent five minutes trying to breathe past her laughter and, when she finally did, the others were climbing out of the lake, dripping everywhere but grinning widely at each other.
"Ah, another year behind us," Fred grinned, collapsing dramatically onto the train seat. Unfortunatly this put him on top of both Alicia and Katherine and he soon found himself falling onto the floor with an undignified yelp that made both girls laugh.
"No kidding," Lee nodded, laughing along with the others while a grinning George helped his brother up, "So glad it's the holidays."
"All holidays to plan next year's pranks," Fred grinned, this time sitting beside Katherine and not ending up on the floor.
"Or study for OWLs," Katherine suggested, giving him a smirk as she looked up from her sketchbook. Fred made a face at her.
"Why would you say that?" he demanded, "We are just now leaving school, look there it goes, you do not bring up homework now."
"Studying and Homework are different," Katie pointed out, wandering into the compartment, "So what's this I hear about lake wrestling that I wasn't invited to?"
"You were hanging out with your friend," Angelina shrugged, "Besides, it just ended with all of us thrashing around pointlessly as we tried to untangle ourselves from each other."
"It was fun," George grinned, "Pity no one won."
"On the other hand if there had been a 'winner' it would have just been argued over," Alicia pointed out, "Then we would have had to have rematches and everything would have just gotten out of hand."
"Well, that's probably true," Lee frowned, then turned to Katherine, "On an entirely unrelated note, why are you hitting Fred with your book?"
"I didn't do anything!" Fred shouted immediately from his position huddled in the corner. Katherine smacked him one more time with her book before sitting back in her seat.
"It's not bad enough you were looking over my shoulder you almost set it on fire!" she snapped, tucking the book away, "I swear, you're never going to grow up."
"I no longer age!" Fred declared proudly, Katherine looked a little like she wanted to hit him again.
"You almost set her book on fire?" Alicia asked with a raised eyebrow, now it was Fred's turn to frown.
"That was an accident," he said defensively, waving his wand around, thought the others hadn't even noticed he was holding it, "It just kind of, sparked."
"Oh, great, you're moving onto fifth year and you can't even control your wand," Katie rolled her eyes, "At least I know what I have to live up to."
"That'd be Kat," Angelina pointed out, "You're supposed to aim for the top of our grade."
"Well, no one told me that rule," Katie pointed, though it was slightly ruined by the way the corner of her lips twitched upwards.
…
"Think we'll see each other over the holidays?" Fred asked as they climbed off the train.
"Who knows," Katherine shrugged, "Though I have no doubt you'll mirror me, one way or the other."
"Aw, you know us so well?" George cooed, "Think you've got time to say hi?"
"Don't think so," Katherine replied, gesturing to where she'd just spotted Theodore waiting for her out of the way off the crowd, "See you guys soon."
"No doubt," Fred grinned, giving her a hug.
"Yeah, hopefully we'll have a less stressful year," George rolled his eyes, before releasing Katherine from his own hug. She made faces at both of them, causing them to laugh.
"We can only hope," she chuckled as she waved to them, heading towards her brother.
"Good train ride?" he asked.
"Well, I didn't get any food in my hair and we managed to stay in the one compartment so, on the whole, I'd say yes, a decent train ride," Katherine grinned at him.
"Your friends are insane," Theodore informed her seriously, though he was smiling as well.
"Yeah, I think a few people have mentioned that," Katherine chuckled, "I guess it's good to have some time away.
"Yeah," Theodore nodded, then glanced at her with a faux innocent smile, "Your still gonna help me with my homework though right?"
Katherine laughed, cuffing him over the head lightly as they waited for their father.
I know, I'm horrible. Sorry about the huge space between updates, and I can't promise it won't happen again. In a few months though I'll have lots of free time so I'll start updating heaps.
Comments are greatly appreciated! Even if just to tell me I shouldn't take so long.