Disclaimer: I am just a mere visitor in the sublime world constructed by the brilliant mind that is J.K Rowling. Anything that rings a bell is hers.

Chapter 7

Ky's POV

I tuned out the surrounding voices, an angry Ginny scolding an uninterested Ron against telling tales about her to her twin brothers, and I was very aware of the emerald eyes that were upon me. I chose to look away from our little group that were cluttered around the Love Potion Display and let my eyes wander around the crowded store. It was a blur of colour, even the occupants seemed radiant as they looked at this gizmo and that gadget, I was proud of the Twins yet not surprised by the least as I always knew that they were bright, never being of the opinion myself to be smart meant that you need also be dull. I don't think Mrs Weasley fully understood just how much work these products entailed, something I was very aware of, having been consulted in the making of a good few of them myself.

A rippled ran up my neck and my nose flared in anger, annoyed that he was still watching me and I turned on my heel and walked away from the display in no particular direction. I caught a glimpse of exceptional brightness in my periphery, and my eyes landed on Nessie, whose head was a glowing halo in the already bright room as she looked on in wonder as the shop assistant took her and Mrs Weasley through the shop explaining the magic behind the merchandise. I was sure I saw a tear of pride roll down Mrs Weasley's cheek just as Nessie caught my eye, giving me a reassuring smile, most of her pre-Mungo's glow returned after her arrival at The Burrow. I smiled back, but it was fleeting as I felt eyes on me again.

I barged up the stairs as I flung the door behind me, but I never heard the comforting loud bang. I reached Ginny's bedroom flinging that door open as well and kicking the first foot level thing I could find.

"Shit."

I forgot that I wasn't wearing shoes, choosing to fly barefoot, and my big toe was howling in pain. I dropped my butt to the floor, absently massaging the toe.

"Ky." I looked up at the doorway, Nessie stood framed, a look of shock and concern on her now pale face, Mi hovering behind her with a matching expression.

"Oh Ky!" She entered the room and dropped down next to me, reaching to hug me as I battered her hands away,

"I'm fine, I just stubbed my toe."

I pushed her again once more, quickly wiping at me face at the stray tears that fell as I ran to the house. I heard the soft click of the closing door and I looked resolutely out the window. I could see two figures still flying; one was the shocking red of a Weasley and the other the light blonde of a Saber. The red quaffle flying between them as they tossed the ball two and fro, I rubbed my cheek on my shoulder, suddenly too lethargic to lift my hands and my nose caught the familiar masculine scent on my sleeve and I stood, ignoring the pain in my toe once again.

My heart was racing as if I was still in flight and I could feel more tears fall down my face, burning tears, of absolute anger. I pulled my hair out of the hair band in anger, taking no comfort in the softness that fell around my face and hid it from view.

"I…I don't know what's going on between you and Harry, except the obvious fact that you two are no longer together…but I cannot let what you just did go to pass without any discussion. It was extremely reckless and tremendously dangerous and I understand that you must be upset and it must seem-"

I scoffed; in no mood to listen to Nessie pretend to understand how I felt. She stopped talking, a sad yet stern expression on her face that I caught in Ginny's mirror as I kept my back resolutely to her.

"Do you deny that what you did was reckless?"

I didn't answer her, looking at the posters of the Holyhead Harpies on Ginny's wall without taking anything in.

"Do you deny that it was dangerous? You could have gotten hurt-"

"BUT I DIDN'T!" I turned glaring at passive faced Nessie and wary Mi, "I didn't. I jumped off a broom midflight and I didn't get hurt…"

Nessie's eyes narrowed, "Were you somehow testing Harry?"

I clicked my tongue at her and walked to the mirror, "Don't be daft."

I leaned my forehead against the cold window, watching as the group of boys in the Orchard ravaged the picnic that Mrs Weasley and Nessie had prepared and I looked away as my eyes immediately made to seek out the jet black hair.

Mi was biting her lip and Nessie seemed to be biting her tongue, stopping herself from saying anything further.

I ducked my head, feeling the same tightness in my chest that had me stay in Ginny's room for the past couple of days. My body was like a cauldron and my emotions like this horrible immiscible potion that never blended together no matter how hard I tried to control them. Now the colour of the potion was a definite red of anger, a scarlet hue that festered within me. I heard the crack of glass and started to take deep calming breaths like I had done the last time this happened, and repaired Ginny's bed side lamp for the third time since my stay here.

I heard soft shuffling of feet and I turned my head, looking at the corner of the room, "Why did you jump then?"

I bit my lip, angry at Mi for asking the question, angry at Nessie for looking so concerned, angry at the Weasley's for laughing so loud when all I wanted was to be alone and in peace, angry at Harry for reasons so varying it was hard to pick just one…but most of all…angry at myself for knowing the exact answer to Mi's simple yet underlying complex question.

I moved away from her, heading towards the door to find Nessie framed there yet again.

"Move." It was a growl, a growl that would have had little rats like Mundungus Fletcher running with their tails between their legs, but as her blonde head remained firm and high I knew no matter how loud and fiercely I growled…words would not budge a Thornton.

Her aquamarine eyes were calculating yet her face stayed soft, her lips slightly downcast and her nose flared slightly, she knew, just as I did, that nothing I would say could get her to move…

"You want to tell me." My eyes narrowed at her as her pink lips spoke the most ludicrous words, "You do. You've been wanting to tell me ever since you reached Belle Île a week ago…I could see it in your eyes…you want me to ask. Yet I did not because at the same time I could tell that you would not tell me, but now I see it…I see that you do want to-"

"Stop with the insipid psycho babble!" I barged forward, annoyed at her dissection of me, and her apparent surety at the results. My shoulder made contact with her arms, that lacked its previous toned definition yet carried strength in it just the same as she stood her ground. I clucked my tongue, feeling like a caged animals and whirring around and storming to the window and wrenching it open as suddenly the room felt torturously hot.

"Going to jump out the window now, are we?" I turned, glaring at Nessie for the statement and she did a commendable job of keeping her face blank, her only tell the sadness in her aquamarine depths, "Oh wait, you wouldn't…Harry isn't here to catch you, is he?"

I cocked my eyebrow at that very un-Nessie like comment as I heard the sharp intake of breath on my left from Mi. It seemed that she knew her usual consoling and comforting technique would get nothing out of me.

"Did you, or did you not jump to test if Harry would come to your rescue?"

"Is that honestly the best reason you can come up with?"

"Well I do have other reasons in my head, that was just the more comforting option…I would hate to think that you would jump to physically harm yourself to prove something to him."

"Do I look like some love sick wounded woman who is dumb enough to harm herself in the hope of hurting her lo…him. Do I? Do I look like an idiot? Do I look like someone dumb enough to fall in love with someone who didn't love her back! To trust someone who would take that trust and trample all over it like a horde of angry hippogriff's and leave me broken, bruised and bitter behind! DO I!"

My throat burned as my veins were on fire, this thumping heart that was held so tight loosening my tongue in the hopes to relieve its pressure. Nessie's face was wet, all that fake strength she mustered leaving her just as quickly as my shouts began but I knew she wasn't crying out of fear, somewhere along the last year she had become my sister, not because she married my brother, but because fate had made it so, when she wept at my side when I was sick, when she fought werewolf and demented Blacks to protect me…I turned to Mi, who was looking at me warily, tears leaking down her now tanned cheeks, the black eye she received from fiddling with the punching telescope the Twins had left in their room glowing on her face. Tears not of fear, but of pain, for my pain had become their own…

I turned toward the window, this glowing feeling of trust discomforting, not wanting to look at them longer and my heart constricted once more.

"I forgot." My words reflected off the half opened window, hitting the glass pane and bounding behind me as I stared at my blood shot eyed reflection that angered me a little more. There was a long curl that fell across my face that tickled my nose yet I left it untouched, relishing the feeling of something else other than the amalgamation of pain, disappointment and disbelief.

"Forgot?" Mi's voice was so close to me, I flicked my eyes to the right and could see her reflection in the window as she stood beside me, her face flushed with apprehension while the blonde on my left looked at me with a frown.

"I forgot that Harry and I broke up…" It was the silliest words that left my mouth yet it was true…I looked away from their reflection, concentrating on the sway of the soft grass as the wind picked up as evening drew closer. "I…he was so close. Closer than he has been this whole time…the first time he was right next to me. I could smell his scent…even with the rushing wind that pounded in my ears I could hear him breath beside me…my skin prickled all over at the feel of him, right there beside me, in the middle of the air and everything…" I closed my eyes, so angry at myself at what I was saying, "Everything was right. That feeling was right. That was how it was, it was supposed to be. I glanced at him, for just a moment…for less than that even…and he was smirking at me, that lopsided grin that just…" I took a deep breath, the image of that smirk too much to bear, "And I forgot that he did what he did…I forgot that we broke up and for a moment that coincided with my decision to jump and catch the snitch…I was his girlfriend. And I knew he would catch me…for one fleeting moment all the pain and heart ache of the last week disappeared and I loved him and trusted him again…and I jumped because that was what I would have done if he hadn't done what he did…I jumped and I forgot that he wasn't mine. I jumped and I trusted him. I jumped and…"

"He caught you." I felt her long fingers at my neck and I didn't beat them away. I turned to her, a horribly broken expression on my face that I didn't dare look on at in the reflective surface of Ginny's room window, knowing that the weakling that stared back at me would break my heart more than even Harry had.

"Why?" I asked Nessie, knowing she could not know the answer yet asking the question never the less. "Why did he catch me?" As I fell through the air, the mere seconds felt like hours of contemplation as my mind raged inside me. I didn't know what I wanted. I shouldn't expect him to catch me…he wasn't to be trusted and depended on, I was going to fall and hurt myself grievously because not even Vez could get to me in time. Yet the panic never caught me…my heart was so sure…so sure that he would catch me even though my mind continued raging on. And when I felt his hands around me…I was relieved…

"Because it's not a switch…Love. It isn't a switch that you can turn off and on. Sometimes we don't even know that we're acting on it, be it when we jump off brooms trusting that someone would catch us, or be it pummeling down at break neck speed just to prevent the one you love from being hurt."

"He doesn't love me!" I shouted out the words at Nessie, the mantra that I spoke to myself daily.

"Nobody, not even you my darling, could possibly know what is truly in Harry's heart. Love is dangerous and a chameleon like thing, it's as unique as we ourselves are as individuals. Our actions are how we express it…be it holding hands, embracing or even making love…and hand in hand with that love is trust and just like love is expressed in actions, trust is expressed the same, yet the difference lies in the break. It takes one action…whatever it may be…to break ones trust…yet that same action cannot break love. We can tell ourselves to distrust someone, but we cannot force ourselves for the love we feel to leave with that trust. Whatever Harry did, however he had hurt you, does not mean that he doesn't love you, just as it's OK to love him too. It won't take one action to break that love…but anything that breaks can be-"

"I don't trust him." I bit out, glaring at the window, closing ears to the rest of her words.

"You jumped."

I turned, glaring now at Mi but she didn't flinch, "You want me to trust him? After everything he has done! You're on his side!"

"DON'T! Do not do that Ky! I am on nobody's sides! There are no sides! This isn't a battle! This is the first bump in the road that you-"

"He cheated on me!"

"He made a mistake! He was hurt, lonely, suffering from Sirius' death!"

"Are those excuses!"

"NO! Not at all! It's horrible what he did but it isn't unforgivable!"

"It is unforgivable! It is! I can never trust him again! I don't see why I should even try!"

"HE LOVES YOU!" She shouted, her chocolate eyes soft and pleading.

I looked at her, the anger slowly fading away, "Yet…where is he? Huh? Where is he? Is he begging for my forgiveness? No. He isn't here confessing his love either…where is he?"

She bit her lip, "He thinks…you don't want to see him. He…I…"

"Stop defending him. Just stop."

She opened her mouth…and then closed it once again. Nessie came forward, her face drawn and her eyes sad at finding out the reason why Harry and I were no more. "Have you spoken to him?"

I scoffed, "To say what?"

"To let him know how you feel-"

"I feel nothing." I spat out. "Except annoyance at the two people that were supposed to be on my side-"

"We are!"

"No! Get over it Mi! It's over! We're over! Harry and I are over! No amount of talking, of discussing, of FEELING is going to change that! Not because I am stubborn but because HE made a choice! He did! I didn't have my say! I won't have my say! He said everything by what he did! AND I WILL NEVER FORGIVE HIM! So stop! Stop trying to see reason in everything I did! I jumped because I was stupid, stupid enough to trust someone with my life! This isn't an Arithmancy lesson where you need to solve this problem! There is no solution! Just that like all other things, this ended. Us. It's over."

She looked down at the floor, knowing that I wasn't talking to her anymore…it was over. The more I said it the more it will sink in…that's what I told myself.

"Then it is." Nessie gripped my shoulder, smiling down at me, "If you say it is, it is. We will not bring it up again, unless you want to talk about it."

"I don't want to talk about it."

"Then we won't. What do you want?"

What I wanted? A week ago I wanted a time turner, but what difference would it make, what's more desperate than going back in time and stopping your boyfriend from cheating on you…maybe I could go back in time and not fall in love. I shook my head, I hadn't done that on purpose and I couldn't pin point a time that had irrevocably changed my heart…

"Ben and Jerry's."

"I can magic some of that up." She smiled, and I let her lead me out the door, grabbing Mi's hand on my way out. She may disagree with the situation…and push the subject that I just wanted to fall away…but I knew her heart was in the right place…and mine? Well…it was a few degrees below its optimum temperature these days…but it was still beating…

"I have to go." I turned, Vez's clear voice floated over to me from the entrance, I rolled my eyes.

"By all means."

"Selina and Silvain will look after you."

"I don't need to be baby sat!" I spat.

He rolled his golden eyes in turn, when did he start mimicking my actions? "Just stay out of trouble. You two, stick to her like glue."

He turned and waltzed off as the twins who were on either side of me nodded at him in affirmation. Once he was gone they turned and at the same time said,

"Wait here, I will be back in a minute."

I didn't care, letting Selina go to whichever guy she wanted to play with and Silvain go to whichever poor girl would fall peril to his pitiful charm. I leaned against the wall at the entrance, looking at the crowd, some familiar faces interspersed in the sea of strangers.

"32 C." I turned to the clear girly voice, seeing nobody on my left or right. "Am I right?"

I followed the voice downwards, my eyes stopping at the level of my shoulder as I stared at the little girl that stood at the entrance of the shop; she had waist length chocolate hair, very similar to Mi's except that it was pin straight to perfection, her hazel eyes bright as she smiled up at me. She wore a white dress that made her look like a porcelain doll which was helped by her stillness and perfect posture.

"What?" I cocked my eye at the girl that looked no older than ten…I wasn't very good at telling the age of children, if they were boys and tall enough they were teenagers and if they were girls with big enough boobs they fell under the same category.

"The size of your brazier."

I laughed; a huge smile on my face at the words that definitely did not match her age, "My brazier?"

"Well judging by the way your shirt is constraining against your skin, I could only assume that is what you were wearing. Did I guess the size right?" I laughed again as she stared at my chest.

"Spot on actually, who taught you the skill?"

She smiled in triumph, "My brother did."

"And where is this brother of yours." I glanced around the room, looking for a similar face.

"He's at home, sick, he's been sick for a few days. Do you have brothers?"

I looked at her quizzical face, "Yes, two."

"Ha, I have four!" I grinned, this girl obviously was competitive.

"And where are these three other brothers, not all home in bed are they?"

She giggled, "No they're doing they're school shopping. Are you poor?"

My smile widened at the question, "No…why?"

"Forgive my assumption, seeing as your pants are torn I thought it's because you could afford no better."

"Pants? These are jeans…and their torn because…" I wasn't about to explain style to this little girl that looked like she was straight out of a Victorian novel. "I was in a fight with a werewolf and he tore them with his claws!"

She giggled, "Liar! You couldn't fight a werewolf! Are you both a liar and a beggar!"

I laughed, she was funny this kid. "I guess, we all have our roles to play in life."

"Maybe you should come with me; I could get you a shirt that fits and a pants without any holes. Or-" She smiled widely and I think she was now on her tiptoes, "We could buy you a dress. A beautiful violet one that would go so well with those specks in your eyes, if that's too bright we could get you a black one…or a white one with a violet cloak and black heels that would make you look like utter perfection!"

I scoffed, "I'm allergic to utter perfection. Anyway, shouldn't you be shopping with your mum or something?" I looked around the shop and her smile faded.

"My mum is dead."

I bit my lip, well shit. "Sorry…" She was smiling a moment ago…I felt really guilty, "My mum's dead too…"

Her sad expression changed to a challenging one, "My dad's dead." She didn't seem sad by the fact…

"Well…so is mine…"

She sighed in frustration, upset that she wasn't winning this 'competition' she had going on.

"I don't have any sisters."

"Me neither."

"I did say I have FOUR brothers."

"I know, I have two."

This lead didn't seem to placate her, "My hair is longer than yours; it goes right down my back. Yours stops about halfway."

"Well that's only cause you're a midget, if you had to measure the strands mine would be longer."

"I am not a midget! I happen to be the tallest in my class."

"Is it a class full of midgets?"

She scrunched up her nose at me, "I'm rich."

"I'm richer."

"How can you know that!"

"Well easy, I can afford to buy a good few things in the shop, while I'm guessing you couldn't even buy one."

She glared at me, "If I asked one of my brothers they would buy me anything I wanted!"

"If I asked my brothers they would probably buy me the shop." It was mental, but playing this competition game with this little girl was the most amount of fun I had since…I can't even remember.

"I'm prettier than you are."

I shrugged, "What makes you say so."

"Well aside from the obvious vision that my eyes allow me, I have two boyfriends!"

"Oh, that doesn't make you pretty Kid, that makes you a little slut." I laughed and she fumed up at me.

"I am not a slug!"

I laughed louder and she growled at me, her perfect posture disappearing, "I bet you don't even have a boyfriend!"

My laughter died and she smirked as the tables reversed, "I bet you never had a boyfriend."

"I did."

"He dumped you."

"I dumped him."

"What did he do?" She looked up quizzically, I shrugged, this whole conversation mental.

"Kissed some slug."

"Why would he do that? Did he think it would turn into a princess?"

"No. And I'm pretty sure the fairy tale is a frog."

"Who'd kiss a frog!"

"Who'd kiss a slug!"

"Well someone out there kissed you."

"I bet you've never even been kissed."

She gasped, "Of course not, I am a lady!"

"No, you're a midget."

"You're a-" She stopped, her pointy finger up in the air, her eyes at some point above my shoulder and I turned around, not seeing anyone looking at us. I turned back…and she was gone.

What was going on with me, my heart sunk and I kind of missed the kid. I looked out the window, trying to spot her amongst the many passersby.

I wrenched open the door when I eventually saw the long chocolate brown locks, "KID!"

She didn't seem to hear me, walking deeper into the alley. Stupid kid, why is she going down there? I ran after her, the alley so small it brushed both my arms as I walked down.

"KID!"

Her hazel eyes glowed up at me, "Ky! What are you doing following me? Go back to the shop."

"What? How do you know my name?"

"Don't you remember me?" She sounded sad…

"Of course…I spoke to you like ten seconds ago in the shop. Come." I clutched at the air in the dark alley, trying to find her wrist. "Come back to the shop."

"I can't…I want to, but I'll be in trouble. I have to go." I could hear her soft footsteps and followed her further down the alley eventually coming out in a small square space made by the surrounding brick walled buildings.

She stood in the middle, her usually smiling face absent. "You shouldn't have followed me. I shouldn't have gone to you…I just wanted to say hi."

"Why did you want to say hi to me?"

"Well isn't it obvious." My hand was at my fondina in a second at the sound of an unfamiliar voice and I turned around, staring at the silver masked, dark cloaked figure behind me. I may not have the talent for guessing bra sizes that this kid had, but I knew enough to know that the Death Eater was female…it wasn't Alya or Kat though and the figure didn't suit the description of Bellatrix. "The child never knows when to keep her mouth shut. Neither does she know what it means to not wander away."

The light green eyes turned away from my own, both our wands pointed to each other, and it fell on the Kid who looked terrified.

"I just-"

"Shut it. Come over here."

"Don't move." I picked my hand up to my side, backing up so that my arm didn't allow the child to walk pass me and towards her.

The green eyes glinted, I saw her wrist flick before she even made the movement and I cast a shield charm at the stunner, the red sparks didn't even make an effort to get past.

I grinned, "I've been waiting for that."

"For what?"

I grinned wider, "For you to throw the first punch so what results wouldn't be considered an attack, but a defence."

"I suppose you think you can attack me?"

"Turn around bitch, I already have."

She turned on her heal and erected her own shield charm which did nothing at all as the bricks in the wall behind her flew at her with force. Her shield charm barely held the assault of the first few and then she tried ducking as the next few flew her way, and some made their way past her and to us. The little girl screamed but the bricks turned to dust before any of it could reach us. The Death Eater's ducking skills were not as proficient as she thought as she emerged from the rubble, dust flying everywhere, battered and bruised. My smile widened.

"Cheap tricks." She muttered, wiping at the blood at her lip.

"The only thing cheap around here, is you."

"Quit it with the one liners!" She shouted in annoyance.

"I would stop talking and look up if I were you."

Her green eyes shot skywards and she stepped out of the way, but it was too late, the swarm of brick dust crawled at her skin as I recited the spell that made it increase its pressure in my mind, making it peck at her skin with the force.

I looked to my side as the girl looked on horrified and the spell stopped, I didn't want to scar the kid for life. Her hazel eyes found my own, all her previous cockiness gone.

"Behind-"

I flicked my wrist and the shield charm was up again, the blue spell bouncing off it harmlessly.

"-you" She finished feebly and I smiled down at her.

"Still don't want to come with me?"

"Don't go with her!" The girl slowly arose, her skin smeared with blood at the superficial wounds that traversed her body.

"Still with the talking? Should I take your tongue, Slug?" I smiled, trying to reassure the girl a little.

"Or maybe I should take yours." I felt the blade at my neck and my smile died, the blue spell was just a distraction as another one of them appeared…and I fell for it…this one was male and the voice prickling my skin in familiarity.

"Who are you?"

"I wouldn't think that should be the question you should be asking Ky."

I gulped and he laughed into my ear,

"I wouldn't do that either…" He held the blade to my neck with his left hand as his right hand was at my right wrist, holding my wand arm down. "And before you get any ideas, I am right handed but my left cuts just as fast and steady as my right, so go on, try to Ky your way out of this one."

"Ky my way out? I haven't heard that reference before."'

"Well you're almost as good as Peter Pettigrew at getting yourself out of sticky situations."

"Well there's one big difference between her and Peter Pettigrew." I heard the familiar voice and there was a prickle up my neck that had nothing to do with the cold steel of the knife. The blade fell out of the death eaters hand as he swore, the blade handle glowing red on the floor as Harry must have used a fire spell to heat it. "He was a rat, what you have in your midst is a lioness, she'll leave a trail of blood in her wake, that would have absolutely nothing to do with chopped fingers."

I turned away at the appraising look he bestowed on me and I flicked my wrist and the female one, who was had raised her wand at my distraction, flew and banged against the same wall I used for my brick attack, "What are you doing here!" I growled.

He raised his eyebrows, wand on the male, "Well for one thing, saving your arse."

I scoffed, flicking my wrist at the women who scrambled to her feet, this time disarming her. "Like I need you to save my arse."

He raised a shield charm to the guys violet spell and smirked at me, "I think I have set some sort of precedence so far, don't want to break my strike record."

I could tell he was feeling it, the adrenaline rush of the fight, Harry wasn't cocky, yet he was being just that. And I should be swearing at him, but here I was, smirking at him. Yes, the adrenaline rush was a strange thing indeed.

"Confringo." The brick his assailant had sailing towards his head burst as my spell hit it, "Whose saving who?"

He raised his wand and I turned around to see my death eater dodge the stunner he sent at her, "Still me, it seems."

I rolled my eyes, conjuring ropes that quickly tied around my opponent; she barely put up a fight…such a disappointment. I turned, watching as Harry flung a spell at his opponent, dodging spells as he closed the distance until he was an arm's length away. He was fast enough to disarm him but the guy wasn't relenting, pulling out another knife but Harry was quick, Godric he was quick. And fierce. And the little space grew hotter as heat spread through me as I watched him. He had the man's wrist and banged it against the brick wall, causing him to lose grip on the knife which clattered to the floor. Harry held him by the neck with his other hand, most of his successful previous spells weakening the man enough for him to physically overpower his taller opponent.

"Let's see who our guest is."

Harry let go of the man's wrist, using his own free hand to knock the silver mask off his face…our gasps fused together…

"Jack…"

And just like that, all heat disappeared as I stared, frozen at the familiar dark haired boy...

A/N: Please review…they really mean a lot.

Hope you enjoyed this update.

Kalina