"(Y/n), Hermione scheduled a S-W-S meeting today. I forgot to tell you sooner," Leanne whispered the second Katie had set off to use the bathroom in the Three Broomsticks.
"A, what meeting?"
"You'll learn tonight," Leanne assured. "Makes sense... it's about time we discuss recruiting new women..." (Y/n) gave her a bewildered look. "You'll learn, I promise! You'll have to... You're still our chairwoman."
"Chairwoman for what?" (Y/n) hissed. Leanne held her finger to her lips, signalling the end of the conversation. Seething, (Y/n) turned her attention on Madam Rosemerta, who had come out of the direction of the bathroom and shortly walked over to free them of their empty glasses (only Katie and Leanne ordered due to (Y/n)'s previous drink being quite filling). Her eyes roamed over to where Blaise was leaning lolly against a pillar, peering in the direction of the bathrooms. Blaise sent (Y/n) a brief wave upon catching her gaze before setting out of the Three Broomsticks.
(Y/n)'s eyes narrowed. What were they up to?
"I'm back," Katie announced, looking awfully giddy for whatever reason.
"Ready to go, then?" Leanne asked, dragging herself from the stool she sat on.
"Yep," Katie confirmed, bouncing on the balls of her feet as her girlfriend got on her coat. Harry, Ron, and Hermione seemed to be leaving at the same time they were. (Y/n) held the door for them and Hermione caught it, allowing (Y/n) to jog ahead, careful not to slip on the pavement, in order to catch up with her other two friends.
"Want to know how to test a man?" (Y/n) chirped. Leanne rose an amused eyebrow.
"I don't think we'll be needing to test any men, (Y/n)," Leanne mused, "but sure."
"Take him to the menstrual aisle," (Y/n) said simply. Leanne made a noise that was somewhere between laughter and choking while Katie grinned. "See if he waits outside the aisle or joins you..."
"Is that what you did with Dean?" Leanne said, elbowing (Y/n) before playfully dragging out an, "Oooh."
"Unintentionally, yes," (Y/n) admitted.
"And?"
"He did not mind." (Y/n) smiled and looked down, bowing her head against the swirling sleet as Leanne giggled.
"Really hitting it off, huh?" Leanne hummed.
"I would say so... He asked me if this was our first date before asking me one a real one that wouldn't be just window shopping," (Y/n) said.
"Always good to have someone to keep your bed warm," Leanne added, sticking her tongue out as (Y/n) smacked her arm.
"Leanne!"
"No shame in it, (Y/n), as long as you like the guy..."
"Leanne!"
"Or girl," Leanne added. "You and Parvati are awfully close too... I don't think I've ever seen her go down to the library as much as she is with (Y/n)... What're you two up to, huh?" Leanne grinned.
"She wants to learn a bit more about Divination through me... You know, because I am learning under a Centaur and she is learning beneath Trelawney— Not that I am underestimating Trelawney's ability..." (Y/n) said quickly.
"You sure she's going for just the Divination?"
"Get lost!"
"All right, all right!" Katie laughed, the first time she had spoken since they left the Three Broomsticks. "You'll never guess what I was given back in the Three Broomsticks..."
"What?" Leanne and (Y/n) asked at the same time. Katie took a package out of her coat and held it up. Leanne eyed it nervously.
"What is it, Katie?"
"I don't know. I was told to give it to bring it up to the castle," said Katie.
"Wh— No way! What if it's cursed?" Leanne protested, immediately growing off-put.
"As if!" Katie argued.
"Who gave that to you?" Leanne demanded.
"It's none of your concern!"
"You can't be that careless, Katie, not in times like these!" Leanne said furiously. (Y/n) looked back and forth between the two, feeling like a child whose parents were arguing. "Give it here, Katie, we can go dispose of it—"
"No way! Back off!" Katie said.
"I will not be backing off when my girlfriend could get herself cursed!" Leanne said angrily.
"It's nothing to do with you, Leanne!" Katie shouted. Leanne made to grab hold of the package Katie was holding; Katie tugged it back and the package fell to the ground.
At once, Katie rose into the air gracefully, her arms outstretched as though she was about to fly. (Y/n) and Leanne stumbled back in surprise and Leanne bumped into (Y/n), who nearly lost her balance. Katie's hair was whipped around by the fierce wind, but her eyes were closed and her face was quite empty of expression. Harry, Ron, and Hermione, all of whom had rounded a corner at the very moment Katie dropped the package, had stopped in their tracks, just as Leanne and (Y/n). They all watched, shocked.
Six feet above the ground, Katie let out a terrible scream. Her eyes flew open but whatever she could see or whatever she was feeling, was clearing causing her terrible anguish. She screamed and screamed; Leanne and (Y/n) started to scream too and seized Katie's ankles, trying to get her back to the ground. Harry, Ron, and Hermione rushed forward to help, but even as they grabbed Katie's legs, she fell on top of them. Harry and Ron managed to catch her, but she was writhing so much they could hardly hold her. Instead, they lowered her to the ground, where she thrashed and screamed, apparently unable to recognize any of them.
Harry looked around; the landscape was deserted.
"Stay here!" Harry shouted at the others over the howling wind. "I'm going for help!" He began to sprint toward the school, hurtling around a bend in the lane before colliding with what seemed to be an enormous bear on its hind legs.
"Hagrid!" Harry panted, disentangling himself from the hedgerow into which he had fallen.
"Harry!" said Hagrid, who had sleet trapped in his eyebrows and beared, and was wearing his great, shagging beaverskin coat. "Jus' bin visitin' Grawp, he's comin' on so well yeh wouldn'—"
"Hagrid, someone's hurt back there, or cursed, or something—"
"Wha'?" said Hagrid, bending lower to hear what Harry was saying over the raging wind.
"Someone's been cursed!" bellowed Harry.
"Cursed? Who's bin cursed— not Ron? Hermione?"
"No, it's not them, it's Katie Bell— this way..." Together, they ran back along the lane. It took them no time to find the little group of people around Katie, who was still writhing and screaming on the ground; Ron, Hermione, Leanne, and (Y/n) were all trying to quiet her.
"Get back!" Hagrid shouted. "Lemme see her!"
"Something's happened to her!" sobbed Leanne. "I don't know what—" Hagrid stared at Katie for a second, then without a word, bent down, scooped her up into his arms, and ran off toward the castle with her. Within seconds, Katie's piercing screams had died away and the only sound was the roar of the wind.
Hermione hurried over to the wailing Leanne, who (Y/n) was trying to comfort through her shock.
"W-what was that?" (Y/n) stammered.
"A curse most likely," Hermione said. "Did it just happen all of a sudden, or—?"
"It was when that package tore," sobbed Leanne, pointing at the now sodden brown-paper package on the ground, which had split open to reveal a greenish glitter. Ron bent down, his hand outstretched, but Harry seized his arm and pulled him back.
"Don't touch it!" Harry crouched down. An ornate opal necklace was visible, poking out of the paper. "I've seen that before," he said, staring at the thing. "It was on display in Borgin and Burkes ages ago. The label said it was cursed. Katie must have touched it." He looked up at (Y/n) and Leanne. Leanne had started to shake uncontrollably. "How did Katie get hold of this?"
"Well, that's why we were arguing. She came back from the bathroom in the Three Broomsticks holding it, and it was a surprise for somebody at Hogwarts and she had to deliver it. She looked all funny when she said it... Oh no, oh no, I bet she'd been Imperiused and I didn't realize!" Leanne shook with renewed sobs. (Y/n) rubbed up and down her arm.
"She didn't say who'd given it to her, Leanne?" Hermione asked in a gentle voice.
"No... she wouldn't tell me... and I said she was being stupid and not to take it up to the school, but she just wouldn't listen and... and then I tried to grab it from her... and— and—" Leanne let out a wail of despair.
"We'd better get up to the school," said Hermione. "We'll be able to find out how she is. Come on..." Harry hesitated for a moment, then pulled his scarf and, ignoring Ron's gasp, carefully covered the necklace in it and picked it up.
"We'll need to show this to Madam Pomfrey," Harry said. As they followed (Y/n) and Leanne up the road, Harry was thinking furiously. They had just entered the grounds when he spoke, unable to keep his thoughts to himself any longer.
"Malfoy knows about this necklace. It was in a case at Borgin and Burkes four years ago. I saw him having a good look at it while I was hiding from him and his dad. This is what he was buying that day when we followed him! He remembered it and he went back for it!"
"I— I dunno, Harry," said Ron hesitantly. "Loads of people go to Borgin and Burkes... and didn't that girl say Katie got it in the girls' bathroom?"
"She said she came back from the bathroom with it, she didn't necessarily get it in the bathroom itself—"
"McGonagall!" said Ron warningly. Harry looked up. Sure enough, Professor McGonagall was hurrying down the stone steps through swirling sleet to meet them.
"Hagrid says you four saw what happened to Katie Bell— upstairs to my office at once, please! What's that you're holding, Potter?"
"It's the thing she touched," said Harry.
"Good lord," said Professor McGonagall, looking alarmed as she took the necklace from Harry. "No, no, Filch, they're with me!" she added hastily as Filch came shuffling eagerly across the entrance hall holding his Secrecy Sensor aloft. "Take this necklace to Professor Snape at once, but be sure not to touch it, keep it wrapped in the scarf!"
The five students followed Professor McGonagall upstairs and into her office. The sleet-splattered windows were rattling in their frames, and the room was chilly despite the fire crackling in the gate. Professor McGonagall closed the door and swept around her desk to face Harry, Ron, Hermione, (Y/n), and the still sobbing Leanne.
"Well?" Professor McGonagall said sharply. "What happened?"
Haltingly, (Y/n) told Professor McGonagall how Katie had gone to the bathroom in the Three Broomsticks and returned holding the unmarked package, how Katie had seemed a little odd, and how they had argued about the advisability of agreeing to deliver unknown objects, the argument culminating in the tussle over the parcel, which tore open. It was obvious to everyone in the room that Leanne was so overcome, there was no getting a word out of her— she could only nod in confirmation to (Y/n)'s story.
"All right," said Professor McGonagall, not unkindly, "go up to the hospital wing, please, Leanne, and get Madam Pomfrey to give you something for the shock— (Y/n), I'll dismiss you, too, in just a moment..." When Leanne had left the room, Professor McGonagall turned back to the remaining four. "What happened when Katie touched the necklace?"
"She rose up in the air," said Harry before anyone else could speak, "and began to scream, and collapsed. Professor, can I see Professor Dumbledore, please?"
"The headmaster is away until Monday, Potter," said Professor McGonagall, looking surprised.
"Away?" Harry repeated angrily.
"Yes, Potter, away!" said Professor McGonagall tartly. "But anything you have to say about this horrible business can be said to me, I'm sure!" For a split second, Harry hesitated.
"I think Draco Malfoy gave Katie that necklace, Professor," Harry finally said. On one side of him, Ron rubbed his nose in apparent embarrassment; on the other, Hermione shuffled to her feet as though quite keen to put a bit of distance between herself and Harry. She wound up bumping shoulders with (Y/n), whose eyes were on the floor in deep thought.
"That is a very serious accusation, Potter," said Professor McGonagall after a shocked pause. "Do you have any proof?"
"No," said Harry, "but..." and he told her about following Draco to Borgin and Burkes and the conversation they had overheard between him and Mr. Borgin. When he finished speaking, Professor McGonagall looked slightly confused.
"Malfoy took something to Borgin and Burkes for repair?"
"No, Professor, he just wanted Borgin to tell him how to mend something, he didn't have it with him. But that's not the point, the thing is that he caught something at the same time, and I think it was that necklace—"
"You saw Malfoy leaving the shop with a similar package?"
"No, Professor, he told Borgin to keep it in the shop for him—"
"But Harry," Hermione interrupted, "Borgin asked him if he wanted to take it with him, and Malfoy said no—"
"Because he didn't want to touch it, obviously!" said Harry angrily.
"What he actually said was, 'How would I look carrying that down the street?'" said Hermione.
"Well, he would look a bit of a prat carrying a necklace," interjected Ron.
"Oh, Ron," said Hermione despairingly, "it would be all wrapped up, so he wouldn't have to touch it, and quite easy to hide inside his cloak, so nobody would see it! I think whatever he reserved at Borgin and Burkes was noisy or bulky, something he knew would draw attention to him if he carried it down the street— and in any case," she pressed on loudly before Harry could interrupt, "I asked Borgin about the necklace, don't you remember? When I went to try and find out what Malfoy had asked him to keep, I saw it there. And Borgin told me the price, he didn't say it was already sold or anything—"
"Well, you were being really obvious, he realized what you were up to within five seconds, of course he wasn't going to tell you— anyway, Malfoy could've sent off for it since—"
"That's enough!" said Professor McGonagall as Hermione opened her mouth to retort, looking furious. "Potter, I appreciate you telling me this, but we cannot point the finger of blame at Mr. Malfoy purely because he visited the shop where this necklace might have been purchased. The same is probably true of hundreds of people—"
"—that's what I said—" muttered Ron.
"—and in any case, we have put stringent security measures in place this year. I do not believe that necklace can possibly have entered this school without our knowledge—"
"But what if the necklace never did enter Hogwarts?" (Y/n) asked. Professor McGonagall looked at her questioningly. "What if a delivery was set up and, whoever gave the necklace to Katie whether it be Draco or not, had it set up waiting in Hogsmeade?"
"Very possible," Professor McGonagall admitted. "But it couldn't have been Mr. Malfoy because he was not in Hogsmeade today."
"How do you know, Professor?" Harry asked, deflating.
"Because he was doing detention with me. He has now failed to complete his Transfiguration homework twice in a row. So, thank you for telling me your suspicions, Potter," Professor McGonagall said as she marched past them, "but I need to go up to the hospital wing now to check on Katie Bell. (Y/n), come. Good day to you all." She held open the office door and Harry, Ron, and Hermione filed past her without a word. They watched as Professor McGonagall led (Y/n) off to the hospital wing.