6th November (continued...)
"Yes!" I said almost too quickly for it to be believable.
"Do you have any concerns or worries that you would like to talk about?" she asked.
"I'm happy here at Hogwarts, I have friends-"
"But at home...?"
She really wasn't going to drop it was she? I said, "I don't fit in. I never have, I'm the weirdo, the reject, the... freak and they're normal. Here I'm accepted and I'm here 10 months of the year, I can deal with it that way." The emotion in my voice progressively heightened throughout my speech. I stood, said "thanks for the tea" and left, shutting the door firmly behind me.
I stood up against the wall outside the office, taking some deep breaths, willing myself not to burst into tears. Then I heard a familiar voice, "Kathryn? Are you okay?"
I blinked back the tears and looked up, George had put his arm around me and Fred was standing back, "Yeah!" I nodded.
"No, you're not, come on, you can talk to me!" he lifted my chin, "What did McGonagall want you for? I saw you leaving the common room alone earlier..."
I whispered into his ear, "She asked me if everything is alright at home..." George was the only person who truly knew what happened back in August.
"Oh..." he replied, nodding, "and you said...?"
"Yes, George, I said yes! You think of your mum's anger, then times it by 10 and then you might be close to mine."
"Sorry... Here!" he gave me a clean tissue out of his pocket to dry my tears, "I've detention now, so I'll catch up with you later, yeah? Chin up!" he smiled at me.
I smiled back at him and turned towards the common room. I used the tissue to wipe my tears, "I'll believe that when I see it!" I whispered to myself. He basically hadn't spoken to me for two whole months.
9th November
Over the weekend, Hermione filled me in with the plans, starting with Lockhart's class last thing on Monday...
At the end of class, we waited until everyone was gone before Hermione approached Lockhart and said, "I wanted to get this book out of the library, just for a bit of background reading." Anyone would believe that, right? She continued, "But, it's in the restricted section and I need a teacher to sign it out for me?" she lifted a piece of paper out of her bag and placed it into his hands, "I'm sure it'll help me understand what you say in Gadding with Ghouls about slow-acting venoms."
"Ah, yes! Gadding with Ghouls! Did you enjoy it?" Lockhart looked at Hermione, eager for praise, which he got.
"Oh yeah, so clever the way you trapped that last one with the tea strainer!"
Lockhart was sold; he took out his favourite quill and signed the piece of paper, not even looking to see that the book was actually for Moste Potente Potions. Hermione felt like such a rebel as she innocently handed the sheet over to Madam Pince who checked for forgery. Hermione took the book and left the library as fast as she could without looking too guilty.
We all headed toward Moaning Myrtles bathroom and Hermione propped the book open on the floor. "There." She said, pointing, we were all going to transform ourselves into a member of Slytherin house- Harry was going to be Goyle, Ron was going to be Crabbe, Hermione was going to be Millicent Bulstrode.
"I could go as... Pansy Parkinson?" I suggested, but Hermione shot me down.
"Why would you risk taking a potion, when you can be invisible?"
I sighed at her, "Fine, you can live on the wild side and I'll be stuck as boring old me." I think she decided not to argue with me.
14th November
Today was Gryffindors' match against Slytherin. Hermione, Ron and I took to the stands along with the rest of the school, feeling tense about the impending game.
As soon as the match began, Harry was almost immediately hit by the bludger. I saw the lips of George formulate the words, "Close one, Harry!" as he beat the bludger straight at Draco Malfoy. What was strange, was that the bludger went around Draco and came swishing back at Harry. George hit it at Marcus Flint and yet again, Harry was the intended target. Harry flew up the pitch at a considerable pace and the bludger followed, where it was met by a determined Fred who tried to hit it off course, but failed.
Slytherin were leading 60-0 as rain started pouring from the heavens. Wood called for a Time Out. It seemed that the Gryffindor team were in deep conversation for a minute, coming to a decision. The match restarted and the bludger continued to follow Harry, but Fred and George did not. He flew really fast, twirling, dodging and diving in order to miss the bludger.
When directly over head, I heard Draco call out, "Training for the ballet, Potter?" Harry must have stopped for a second too long, as the next thing I could hear was the crush of his bones breaking to the force of the bludger's impact. Harry made a dive at Draco, and rightly so. He stuck his undamaged arm out and caught the snitch! He lost control of the broom with one useless and one occupied hand. He hit the ground with a THUD and fainted.
Hermione, Ron and I ran to Harry's side, where we were met with Harry arguing with Lockhart who was casting a spell over Harry's arm. The consequences were unnerving- the bones disappeared from his arm and it was in a distorted position. He was rushed to the hospital ward where Madam Pomfery gave off. Harry was forced to drink some Skele-Gro which must have been disgusting by the look on his face.
Madam Pomfery shooed us away, so we went into Moaning Myrtle's bathroom where we continued brewing the Polyjuice Potion. Hermione noticed that we needed some ingredients from Snape's Private stores- how we are going to get them, I do not know...
10st December
In today's potions class, our plan was in full swing. Draco kept reaching over me and accidently on purpose bumping into me as we brewed the swelling potion. It was getting a little ridiculous.
"Have you got bugs in your knickers? Cause you can't stay still." I asked him.
"I can't help myself," he claimed, "You're attracting me like a bee to honey."
"Oh, but my honeybee, I'm not that sweet." I said as Hermione gave Harry the nod. I watched out of the corner of my eye as Harry went into his bag and lit one of Fred's Filibuster fireworks. I coincidentally dropped some of the dried nettle and ducked out of the way as the firework exploded into Goyle's cauldron who was on the other side of Draco. As I stood back up, Draco's face had swollen up like a balloon (not that it wasn't big enough already), his head lolled around pathetically as Goyle's hands grew to the size of bowling balls within seconds. The worst part was, however, some got splashed onto my leg, which had swollen up to the thickness of the whomping willow. It would only move if I dragged it behind me. I heard Ron laughing in the background.
Snape tended to the noise and panic of the class, most of which came from Draco, whose undying love for me vanished as he pushed past me in the queue to get the reversing draught. I pretended to be completely oblivious, and not shoot daggers at Harry whilst Hermione went into Snape's stores. (He later apologised, so he's forgiven.) Leg restored to normal, ingredients 'borrowed', the whole operation seemed to have been a success!
19th December
When I finally arose from my bed this morning, I got washed and dressed and was pounced upon in the common room by an overexcited George!
"Morning!" he smiled.
"Morning?" I raised an eyebrow to him, slightly confused.
"I've got some really exciting news to tell you!" he really was so attractive when he was excited.
"Go on...?" I smiled weakly, thinking of the endless possibilities of what would make him this happy, Snape being fired, a prank that had gone really well, Draco being humiliated, Percy losing his prefect badge again...
"There's a duelling club tonight at 8! The school is finally allowing us to fight! And maybe fewer people, namely muggle borns such as yourself and Colin will be targets of the monster?" he explained, "Do you want to come?"
Suddenly my heart started to beat really fast, ignoring the fact that he said that my life was basically in danger, "W- with you?"
He turned bright red, "There'll be a group of us, you know..?"
"Ah, okay! Sure!" I nodded and then headed down to grab something for breakfast, feeling slightly disappointed.
That evening around half 7, Ron, Harry and Hermione headed down to the Great Hall without me. Apparently I was taking too long to get ready and the boys wanted a good place to stand. To my surprise, Fred, George, Angelina, Lee and a few other fourth years I didn't know were all standing around waiting for me. George and I were at the back of the group, walking considerably slower than the rest.
At 8.01pm we strolled into the Great Hall. I was laughing, really loudly; I mean, I exploded with laughter and everyone in the hall turned around and stared at us.
"That exploding laughter candy really does work, doesn't it?" George announced, thinking on his feet.
"Yeah, it's really good!" I said quickly, feeling unbelievably awkward as Snape's eyes found mine from the golden stage ahead of us.
"Hurry along now; let's not wait for the grass to grow, Miss Pink, Mr Weasley." I curtsied as he looked away, making George snigger and I quickly found myself beside Hermione.
What was to come, though, made Hermione and everyone else in the room; in fact forget our unfortunate late arrival. Snape called Harry and Draco to duel on stage. Everyone who had the slightest knowledge knew that these two would have gladly ripped each other to shreds, given the opportunity. But as Draco conjured a snake for Harry, he dealt with it in the most inexplicable way imaginable. He hissed at it, as though he was speaking in another language, snake language. I didn't know he could do that.