I do not own any Harry Potter Characters.
Chapter 7:
Marcus steps forward, all six foot something of him. "What do you mean?"
They stood a couple feet apart, Katie took a deep breath before continuing "You may be an ass but you mean a lot to me."
"I can't tell if that's a good or bad thing." Marcus fingers lace with hers, confusion swirling in his emerald eyes. His composure slipping.
The air was wet and cold, as they stood still, the chilling damp creeped into their bones."Marcus, I love you."
She had seen his eyes, dark with anger and cold with hatred, but she'd never seen them as they were at this moment. Hopeful, full of joy and disbelief. "No, you don't."
"Please Marcus, I need you to hear this." She all but screamed in frustration. "We've been through a lot, you and I, but I can't help how you make me feel. You've always been there for me, even when I didn't know. I love you."
He seized her by the back of her head and kissed her, and oh boy he could kiss. Her heart was pounding as she leaned greedily into the kiss. They pulled apart, smiling at each other with a hooded look. And then he kissed her again and again. And she kept kissing him back.
It was December, and Katie hadn't gone back to confront her "brother" or her "parents." It was weird to her, how screwed up her family is becoming. Who could she even trust?
The year flew by and Katie and Marcus spent as much time with each other as possible. Even spending her seventeenth birthday watching the sunset while curled up in his arms. Katie confided in Marcus about her grandparents and her dads true identity. Which helped her decision in not going back home for the holidays.
After Professor Dumbledore was fired, the school drastically changed. Dolores Umbridge had an enormous power over the school, often using it to punish kids in the cruelest ways.
Katie briskly walked, trying to be as silent as she could. It was risky with Umbridge roaming the halls, at all hours. It was one of their last chances to see each other at school though. Marcus was graduating and this was their last night together.
When she made her way into the room of requirement, Marcus was on her. He was kissing her, as if he could not get enough of her. He was everywhere, up her back and arms. Kissing her deeper, harder, more fervent then ever before.
He was kissing her like his life depended on it, his tongue slipping inside of her mouth, exploring. She felt every part of her melt, as her body dissolved into his. Marcus suddenly pushed her backwards towards the wall, trapping her. He broke the kiss briefly to pull his long-sleeved shirt over his head. That's when Katie pulled away from him. "Marcus what is that?"
Glancing down at what she was pointing to and his eyes widened with shock, breathing still labored. There on his arm sat a red skull with a snake wrapped around it, the dark mark. Marcus hadn't meant for her to see it, hadn't wanted her to worry about him. "I had to make a deal to get the information about Theodore." His voice hoarse.
"How could you do that?" She asked in a panic.
"I couldn't get the information I needed without joining. Finding out who authorized that private donation wasn't free." He tried to explain.
"I never asked you to do that for me!" She screamed not being able to pretend that everything was okay, because it wasn't.
"I'm sorry" His voice was low and filled with pain. "Listen if I didn't join I wouldn't have found out something really important. Your grandfather is a Death Eater." He went on to explain that Terrence had seen his face the night before, that she couldn't trust him, and she needed to ask Alicia to stay with her for the summer.
Katie and Marcus sat side by side on the train leaving Hogwarts. "Marcus, there has to be a way for you to get out of this." She pleaded with him, grasping his hand in her own.
"Katie if I step out of line now, I'm dead" he said in a voice so low she had to strain to her it.
"You can't give up now." She begged him.
"I have no choice, they are sending me away for a bit. I don't know how long, just that I can't have contact with other people." He explained calmly as if hoping his words would reassure her.
"Just please be safe" she whispered.
"Katie, I'll be back as soon as I can, I promise. You need to be careful though. You're still staying with Alicia for the summer?" In the light of the train compartment, she could see his face filled with worry.
"Yes I just need to grab some stuff from my house and then I'm going to Alicia's. I haven't told them" Katie explained.
The train had arrived at their destination, kids pilling out. Katie followed Marcus, onto the Platform. Their time almost up. "I love you."
"I love you too. I don't know when I'll see you again but hopefully soon." He said, as he wrapped his arms around her shoulders and put his chin on top of her head. Burying her face in the sweet-smelling warmth of his chest. "Be careful please."
When Katie arrived home that night, the house was mostly quiet except for the muffled voices from the living room. Walking into the room she saw her Grandmother and Dad. Her Grandmother was the first to notice her enter the room.
"Katie we need to have a talk." Mrs. Bell said calmly, Theodore just now noticing her.
"Little late for that, I know he's my dad and you're my grandma." Katie huffed sitting on a sofa opposite from them, dropping her bag at her feet.
"It's more than that, it's the why." Mrs. Bell continued. "When your grandfather found out about Theodore falling in love with a No-Maj he couldn't handle it… then your mother threatened to tell the whole wizarding community about it. He just… snapped." Mrs. Bell paused, tears starting to well up in her eyes at the memory. While her father sat there on the couch almost looking as puzzled as she was.
"He killed your mother and set your Dad up for the murder. You were only a day old, I didn't know how else to protect you but to raise you as my daughter. Katie I'm so sorry for lying to you all these years." She continued dabbing her eyes with a tissue. "Your Grandfather wiped your fathers memory when he went to Azkaban. I've been trying to help him remember ever since he got out, but it comes and goes."
She paused for a moment before continuing,"I've wanted to tell you for years but I was so scared of him, once I found out what he was doing to you, I tried to stop him, but he poisoned me…" before she could finish she paused her face lighting up in horror. "He's back, Katie hide!" Her grandmother dragged her from the spot on the couch, leading her to the closet. "Be quiet" she whispered before shutting the door.
"I should have known that you wouldn't learn your lesson" her grand father said cruelly as he entered the room. Katie could just make out his figure through the downward slanted gaps in the closet. "You really think the blood traitor deserves a second chance?"
"Cassius…no…don't. He's our son" she pleaded as he approached her. Her father who was still stuck on the couch in a daze, was no help to her. Tears streamed down Katie's face, unsure of how to help her grandmother, her wand was still in her bag sitting next to the couch. She wouldn't reach it in time.
Then her Grandmother screamed, and she would never forget that sound. A knife slicing through flesh, and the gurgling of blood as her Grandmother suffocated. Katie held her hands over her mouth as short sob escaped her throat.
"My boy, you've gotten yourself in quite a jam, this time huh. How does it feel to know you are going to be set up for your mothers murder? I knew she couldn't resist speaking with you, all I had to do was wait" Her grandfather said in a menacing voice.
He walked up to her dad looking down at him with disgust as her father cried. "Stop sniveling you sack of shit. Stop this rubbish. You still haven't changed a bit, still the whiny little Gryffindor brat."
"You... framed me" Her dad whispered shock written on his face as if only just understanding this. "You gave me false memories."
"Someone's becoming lucid" he barked out a laugh. Cassius cackled. "Your daughter is so talented; did you know she's able to do the Imperius Curse? She's even done it on a few of her fellow students." That couldn't be true right? "Unlike you, we raised her in America, where falling in love with filthy muggles is illegal. I even hear she's dating a Death Eater, a pure blooded boy."
"You killed them." Theodore's voice raising, and then it happened so fast. Theodore tackling Cassius to the ground, and a distinct sound of a wand falling onto marble and rolling away. Katie made a break for it, spilling out of the closet and breaking out into a run, towards her bag. Finally wrapping her fingers around her wand she turned to Theodore and Cassius who were rolling on the floor exchanging blows.
Raising her wand high, she yelled out "Everte Statum" an orange light shot from her wand, and Cassius was thrown off Theodore, his back connecting with the fireplace, landing with a loud thud.
Her eyes drifted to the knife that was covered in blood, then to Mrs. Bell whose body was still, in a pool of her own blood. He had murdered her. All Katie felt was hatred for this man, as she shouted. "Depulso" the knife was repelled away from Katie with a great force, landing in his throat.
Frantically his hand went up to the knife, fear flashing across his face. He clutched at his wound willing it to stop profusely bleeding. He was wheezing and choking, blood gushed from his mouth as he tried to speak, and then he fell limp.
"We've all got both light and darkness inside us. What matters is the part we choose to act on. That's who we really are." — Sirius Black