SORRY! There was a larger gape than I wanted. I'm sorry. Things have changed up for me recently, updates will be a bit all over the place until I get used to things.

Katherine waited patiently as her father looked over her OWLs. She was itching to see them herself but she knew better than to push her father. That didn't make it any easier to eat her breakfast calmly when she knew her grades were right there but she couldn't read them. Her father didn't seem keen on giving much away either.

She was fairly sure she'd done well. She'd spent enough time going over the course work and learning extra to make sure she'd get all the OWLs she wanted. Hell, she'd gotten study tips from Hermione to make sure she was doing everything she could. The younger girl was ridiculously good, though she limited herself slightly in keeping to the coursework.

"Well, I suppose you did well," her father eventually sighed, "You'll keep this up, I expect?"

"Yes father," Katherine nodded, accepting the letter calmly, "I'm going to go look over my homework. Excuse me."

"Yes, yes, you're excused," her father waved her away, returning his attention to the Daily Prophet. Quietly, so as not to disturb him, Katherine stood up and left the room. She heard Theodore leaving similarly, and his footsteps behind hers. Neither of them spoke until they reached Katherine's room and Theodore shut the door behind them.

"So, what'd you get?" he asked excitedly, jumping onto her bed. Katherine grinned and sat down beside him, opening the letter so they could both see.

Ordinary Wizarding Level Results Pass Grades:
Outstanding (O)
Exceeds Expectations (E)
Acceptable (A)
Fail Grades:
Poor (P)
Dreadful (D)
Troll (T)
Katherine Eleanora Nott has achieved:
Arithmancy O
Astronomy O
Care of Magical Creatures O
Charms O
Defence Against the Dark Arts O
Herbology O
History of Magic O
Potions O
Transfiguration O
Study of Ancient Runes O

The pair stared in silence for a moment, gaping at the paper.

"No way," Theodore breathed. Katherine just continued to gap, thinking pretty much the same thing. Silence raighed again until she managed to find her voice, and it was still quiet.

"There must be a few low O's," she said quietly, "I wasn't expecting, I thought I'd… There should be at least one E."

"Nerd," Theodore teased, poking her in the arm. He was mildly worried she'd gone into shock, "Katty?"

"Sorry, I just, didn't think."

"Except apparently you did," Theodore rolled his eyes, "You going to tell the twins?"

"Well, it's not like the actual grade will matter that much to them," Katherine shrugged, ignoring her slight blush, "I'll just tell them I passed everything."

"You going over there?" Theodore asked, laying back in her bed, "I was thinking of going to visit Blaise, apparently the Malfoy's have tickets to the World Cup."

"Maybe," Katherine sighed, "I still have to ask Father and make sure Mr and Mrs Weasley don't mind."

"Like they would," Theodore rolled his eyes, "Just let me know so I can owl Blaise."

"Sure thing," Katherine nodded as Theodore pushed himself up, mumbling about homework. She grinned, reaching for her Mirror. Fred and George were very excited, not about OWLs, of which they'd gotten three each, but because their Dad had managed to get enough tickets for her to come.

Katherine shook her head as the twins came out of the fire place, grinning widely. Oh Merlin what had they done? She didn't need to ask though, as she recognised the Ton-Tongue Toffies when Fred tossed her one. A grin pulled its way on to her face as well. She might not share her Father's view on muggles, but Harry's relatives didn't sound nice, and these things were harmless really.

"You left before you saw it?" She asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Had to, it was suspicious otherwise," George shrugged.

"Don't know if you've noticed, but most people are suspicious as soon as you enter a room," Katherine replied with a snort.

"Are you suggesting we're not discrete?" Fred asked in mock offence.

"No," Katherine rolled her eyes, "I'm saying you take pride in your pranks, and let everyone know about them, so people are suspicious."

Charlie and Bill snickered at the twins' faces and Charlie leaned towards Katherine for a high-five.

"Man, I've missed you," he sighed.

"You're the one who decided to run off to Romania," Katherine shrugged, "You two should have been here when I-"

Katherine was cut off by Harry's arrival, and the consequential distraction as Charlie and Bill introduced themselves. Katherine just smiled and waved, knowing full well things were going to get wild when Mr Weasley came back through.

Katherine, as usual, stood by to watch the scene. It was amusing to see the twins cower every now and then, even if she didn't necessarily agree with Mrs Weasley. She, personally, thought it was impressive that the twins not only knew what they wanted to do with their lives, but were confident and prepared enough that they were already working towards that goal. She was even helping them, not that she'd openly admit it. It wasn't much anyway, an idea every now and then, and helping a bit with the testing, though she was mostly there to work out counters for when it didn't work properly.

The rest of the evening went fine. Katherine cheered on the table fight, took Charlie's side on who would win the world cup, though she had to agree Krum was the better Seeker, and she rolled her eyes as Percy hinted at the 'Top Secret' Ministry business.

Her father wasn't the kind to keep secrets in his own house. He just expected his children to keep quiet, which to be fair they did. Still, Percy was being a bit big headed about it. She feared what he'd be like when there were other Ministry official's around.

…

Katherine fell asleep fairly easily, focus on the quiet chatter of the two younger girls, rather than the loud celebrating outside. She'd enjoyed messing around with the twins all day, and the ridiculous celebrations after the match. Still, it was good to sleep. Even if that sleep was invaded by a weird dream in which the twins were flying around a Quidditch pitch, throwing prank items instead of trying to hit the bludgers.

Still, when Mr Weasley came in to shake them all awake she woke immediately, dread curling in her stomach. He went over to Ginny first, even as Katherine pushed herself up.

"Ginny, get up, grab a jacket," he commanded, glancing over his shoulder at Katherine. Katherine nodded, grabbing her wand and rapidly pulling on proper clothes before she moved to shake Hermione.

"Hermione, c'mon we have to get up, something's going on."

"What is it?" the bushy haired girl mumbled, sitting up sleepily.

"Don't know," Katherine answered, making sure she wasn't going to go back to sleep, "Grab your wand and a jacket and come on."

Hermione nodded, looking slightly fearful. Katherine wanted to apologise for scaring her when she didn't know it was called for, but she was too busy worrying herself. She didn't ask what was going on, or wait for Mr Weasley and the other two. She knew there was a time and place, and now was definitely not the time.

She came out to find Harry, Ron and the twins already out there, staying in horror at the scene that had taken over the grounds. Katherine swallowed convulsively, eyes wide. She didn't even try to kid herself on who those people probably were. She probably knew most of them. Merlin, her father could be in there for all she knew.

She forced herself not to throw up at the thought despite the churning in her gut.

"We're going to help the Ministry!" Mr. Weasley shouted over all the noise, rolling up his own sleeves. "You lot - get into the woods, and stick together. I'll come and fetch you when we've sorted this out!"

Bill, Charlie, and Percy were already sprinting away toward the oncoming marchers; Mr. Weasley tore after them. Ministry wizards were dashing from every direction toward the source of the trouble. The crowd beneath the Roberts family was coming ever closer.

"C'mon," said Fred, grabbing Ginny's hand and starting to pull her toward the wood.

George tugged on her shoulder, looking her over with worry. Katherine shook her head at him, rushing to catch up with Fred. He seemed worried about her as well, but more focused on finding a safe place for them to go. They were being bustled around by the crowd and Katherine reached out, managing to grab Ginny's hand while George grabbed the back of Fred's shirt, ensuring they all stary together.

"We need to get out of this crowd!" Katherine shouted. Another green light flashed and she flinched away from it, knowing some of the spells that came out that colour

"Right," Fred nodded, pulling them on.

"We can go back to the tent once that mess passes," George said, "Find Dad and the others."

"Where's Harry, Ron and Hermione?!" Ginny suddenly shouted. A range of curses fell from Katherine's mouth, mixing with that of the twins.

"I can go look for them," Katherine said suddenly, thinking of her falcon form.

"No!" Fred and George both shouted while Ginny tightened her grip on Katherine hand.

"Guys, I think I can-" Katherine started, but was interrupted by another flare of green light. One that didn't fade. The four of them looked up to see a bright green skull in the sky with a snack protruding out of its mouth. Katherine paled while the other three looked around confusedly as screams sounded around them.

Ginny's grip slackened as she lost her focus and Katherine's hand fell, only for her to reach back, grabbing Fred's other hand and squeeze it tightly. Fred looked towards Katherine and was shocked to see her looking up at the glowing symbol with pure terror. He looked to George, who seemed to notice it as well. With a nod to each other they began taking action again.

George grabbed Ginny while Fred kept his hold on Katherine hand. They began moving again, only to stop when Katherine tugged them in the other direction, back towards the tent.

"It's calming," she said in a shaky voice, "We have to get back. They'll worry."

Both boys still felt they were missing something, but they trusted Katherine and began leading the way back to the tents. Katherine didn't even attempt to release Fred's hand, and her eyes kept flicking up to the glowing green symbol, face full of fear. Fred gave her hand what he hoped was a comforting squeeze and shot her a small smile. She tried to smile back, but it came out shaky and forced.

Charlie came out of the boys tent with his wand in his hand as they approached, but promptly lowered it when he saw who they were. He had a large rip in his shirt, but seemed to hardly even notice it was there.

"Oh thank Merlin," he declared, managing to pull them all into a fierce hug before ushering them inside, "Get it, Dad'll be back soon."

Inside the tent Percy was dealing with a bloody nose while Bill was forcing his was through materials, likely to find something to stem the flow of blood from his arm. Katherine moved to help him and Fred finally let go of her hand. He knew she preferred to be busy, even if he could still see her shaking slightly as she helped apply a bed sheet to the wound.

"What's going on, what was that, symbol out there?" Ginny asked, sitting shakily down at the table to be joined by Fred and George. The three eldest Weasley's exchanged looks and Katherine kept herself focused on pressing the sheet to Bill's arm. Bill didn't ask her why, knowing everyone had their own ways of coping, and that she seemed more aware than his siblings did.

"That was the Dark Mark," he answered quietly, earning himself a glare from Percy, who probably didn't think they needed to know this.

"Dark mark?" Fred repeated blankly.

"You probably wouldn't remember," Bill sighed, "It's You-Know-Who's mark. During the war when it appeared, it was a sign of a Death Eater attack."

Ginny made a quiet noise of fear, the twins eyes widened, and Katherine mumbled some mostly nonsensical apology for not knowing healing magic very well. It worried Bill slightly that she seemed so aware considering she shouldn't remember most of the war. Then again, some things stuck long after they should.

Fred and George, for their part, were both forcing back the vague memories they had of their last trip to the Uncles' house when the scene had been swathed in the same green light. After last year the memory was dangerously fresh, even if still slightly blurry. They never saw Uncle Gideon and Fabian after that.

Ginny was shaking slightly, remembering her first year and everything that he had done to her.

Suddenly Charlie stuck his head out of the tent again, making Katherine wonder if he'd put up wards of some kind to alert him to someone arriving. She got up, moving away from Bill, who easily took the sheet and continued pressing it to his arm, and fetched some water.

When Mr Weasley finished explaining everything and sent them all to bed Katherine didn't even pretend to go to the girls' tent, preferring to follow Fred and George to their beds. The two boys didn't say anything, nor did Charlie when he checked in and made sure they all had a bed. Once they were all laying down and the lights had been turned off Fred spoke in a whisper.

"You knew what it was, didn't you?" he asked. Silence rained for a moment before Katherine answered, just as quietly.

"Yes," she supplied, laying on her back and looking at the top of the tent, "I've seen it before."

"We have too," George offered, "When we were little. We hardly remembered it before last year."

"Who do you think would cast it?" Fred asked quietly.

"No one who should be out in the open," Katherine answered quietly, "That's what scares me."

Once they got home, and had been allowed to go to their separate rooms the events at the World Cup were pushed from the twins mind. Katherine sat quietly on Fred's bed, waiting for them to calm down a bit and properly explain what they were so hectic about. Though she had a pretty good idea, they weren't being particularly quiet about it.

"It's gone!" Fred declared with a deep scowl, "How is it gone. Gold doesn't just-"

"We can't jump to any conclusions, what if-"

"Bill charmed the bag. Bill. It's just-"

"But it can't-"

"I know!"

"It's gold-"

"-how does a bag of gold just disappear?"

"It doesn…" George drifted off as realisation slowly appeared on his face. He shared a look with Fred, whose mouth dropped open slightly. Katherine, who'd been scrambling to follow the conversation, and was still pretty sure she'd missed a couple of things, sucked in a breath as she caught up.

"Lepricorn gold," they all groaned. Katherine sighed, this wasn't going to end well. As if to confirm her suspicious Fred began muttering mutinously while George reminded him that they couldn't claim Bagman had done it on purpose.

Katherine wasn't so sure. She didn't know much about Mr Bagman, but she was fairly certain most of the good stuff was from his Quidditch days, not his ministry ones. She really wasn't sure how reliable he was, plus betting seemed to be a big thing for him. This was going to be a problem.

After the world cup time flew by. Katherine and the twins were splitting time between think about Bagman and thinking about their prank items. Up until the day they were packing. There was a commotion from Ron's room but the twins expertly ignored it. Katherine was, once again, relaxing on Fred's bed, as usual she was already packed.

Her lack of doing anything allowed her to catch sight of the dress robes before the boys did. They didn't look too bad. They were a little old fashioned, and a fairly unattractive shade of reddish brown, but not particularly lacy like the ones she'd caught Mrs Weasley with when she'd been doing laundry.

Ron had her sympathies.

She waited quietly for the two boys to notice them. Wondering when her father would start making a scene about her going with some respectable pureblood boy. Like any of the Slytherins would come within two feet of her. Her father might not be stupid in the usual sense but he seemed to have forgotten what life at Hogwarts was like. Either that or he just didn't care about making her life difficult as long as she didn't ruin his reputation.

That was a bit more likely.

"Why do we have dress robes?" Fred suddenly demanded, drawing Katherine out of her dark thoughts.

"Typically they're for one to wear to events," she informed him casually, "But I'm sure with your minds you could come up with something else."

"What event could we possibly need these for at school?" George asked bemusedly.

"Typically a dance, sometimes a wedding, but I doubt any of the teachers would want the whole school at their wedding," Katherine shrugged, "Parents were told we needed them this year."

"Do you have a set?" Fred asked, looking over to her.

"Not yet," Katherine sighed, rolling her eyes, "My father said he was going to buy me some and send them to me."

"Hmm," George hummed, looking at the robes thoughtfully, "If we just alter them a bit, put some colour changing charms and things on them they'll be fine. We probably only have to where them once anyway."

"Suppose so," Fred agree with a slight frown, "But why?"

Katherine rolled her eyes, reminding the pair that they needed to finish packing. They did so, though still discussing what might be going on at Hogwarts that they needed dress robes.

"Tell us what's happening at Hogwarts!" Fred bellowed out of the window as Mrs. Weasley, Bill, and Charlie sped away from them. "What rules are they changing?"

But Mrs. Weasley only smiled and waved. Before the train had rounded the corner, she, Bill, and Charlie had Disapparated.

Katherine rolled her eyes, sitting down with the girls and pulling ou her sketchbook as the two boys collapsed with a huff.

"Just wait till we get to school," she suggested, despite the fact they were already turning to Lee to ask him if he knew, "I'm sure we'll be told what's going on."

"Well, that's just boring, isn't it?" Fred raised an eyebrow.

"Honestly Kat, it's like you don't know us at all," George grinned. Katherine rolled her eyes as the other's laughed and questioned each other on their knowledge, or lack thereof, about the event at Hogwarts.

Interestingly none of them bothered to ask Katherine if she knew.

Is anyone still reading this? If you are I'm deeply honoured and your dragon eggs are in the mail, take good care of them.
Oh, note, I would appreciate knowing who's for and against me introducing a couple of OC's from the other schools. I can go either way.