When Harry Potter returned to Gryffindor Tower on Halloween night, he found that the common room was completely deserted. Readying himself for the explanation that he was going to owe Ron and his other roommates, Harry ascended the stairs to his dormitory.
Harry was not surprised to see Ron, Neville, Dean and Seamus, all in their pyjamas, but sat up on top of their beds and wide awake. As soon as Harry shut the door behind him, he was met with a loud applause and cheers.
"Blimey, Harry!" Seamus cried, grinning. "How'd you do it?"
"I didn't." Harry said quickly.
"You can get Cedric back for the Quidditch match." Dean was saying as he and Seamus pat Harry approvingly on the back.
Neville remained seated on his bed, but he was smiling broadly and gave Harry a thumbs up. Ron, however, was in a completely different mood to the others. Like Neville, he sat on his bed, only his arms were crossed and he was glaring hard at Harry.
"How did you do it?" Ron asked Harry. His tone was much more demanding than Seamus's.
"What?"
"Nevermind, it doesn't matter," Ron grumbled angrily. "You might've let your best friend know though."
"Let you know what?"
"You know bloody well what!"
"I didn't ask for this to happen, Ron!"
"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Ron growled. "Here."
He handed a piece of parchment to Harry, who squinted his eyes in confusion as he took the slip from Ron.
"What's this?" Harry asked bemusedly.
"It's from Katie. She asked me to give it to you." Ron's tone was still cold.
Harry unfolded the piece of parchment and read Katie's familiar handwriting.
Meet me at the clock tower at 11.
Might be smart to bring the Cloak.
- Katie
Harry knew at once that she was referring to the Invisibility Cloak. Ron climbed under his covers, avoiding Harry's eye.
Frustrated, Harry ran a hand through his unkempt hair.
"I didn't put my name in that cup," Harry said firmly. "I don't want eternal glory, I just wanna be... Look, I don't know what happened tonight and I don't know why, it just did."
Ron stared hard at Harry. "Piss off."
It took a lot of strength for Harry to hold back his anger. Once more, he pushed his hand through his hair.
"You know what?" he said loudly, his frustration evident in his voice. "I can't deal with this right now. I have to go and meet Katie."
***
Katerina Blair sat at the top of the clock tower. Her legs dangled over the edge, aimlessly swinging through the cold night air, as she waited anxiously for Harry to join her.
It was ten to eleven when a distant clatter of footsteps emerged from the stairwell. Katie jumped to her feet and whirled around, hoping to see Harry while fearing that her company would be Filch and she would earn herself another detention for being out of bed after hours.
She blinked confusedly through the darkness when she found that not a single silhouette was in sight. Then she remembered that she had advised Harry to bring his Invisibility Cloak along.
"Harry?" Katie whispered into the silence.
A shuffling sound could be heard from the centre of the room, then Harry Potter appeared as he pulled the Invisibility Cloak over his head.
"Katie—" he began, but didn't get a chance to finish, because Katie had thrown herself forward and was hitting every inch of Harry that she could.
"You idiot!" she yelled. "Complete — stupid — brainless — idiotic — git—"
"Katie—!"
"Why — would — you — enter — that — stupid — Tournament?" Katie spoke between punches. Harry tried to shove her off, to calm her down, but had no luck. "You're — going — to — get — yourself — killed — and — just — leave — me — like—"
"Katie!" Harry shouted. "I didn't enter!"
Katie abruptly stopped hitting Harry. Although she was no longer striking him, her arms were raised, as though she was preparing herself to punch him again. She blinked at him, her eyes wide.
"You didn't?"
"Of course not, you nutter."
"Oh..." Katie said weakly, bringing her arms down to rest at her sides. "Sorry."
Harry's mouth opened slightly in surprise. "You believe me?"
"Of course I believe you. You say you didn't enter, then you didn't enter." Katie responded. She lifted an eyebrow and looked at Harry as though he was insane.
Harry shrugged nonchalantly. "Ron doesn't believe me."
"How could he not—"
"He's being stupid." Harry said quickly.
Katie furrowed her eyebrows as a sudden thought struck her. If Harry didn't put his name in the Goblet of Fire then who did? And more importantly, why did they do it?
"Do you know who put your name in?" Katie asked stupidly. Of course he didn't know, otherwise that person would have their wand snapped and would be facing a hearing in front of the entire Ministry of Magic.
"No," Harry said. "But Moody reckons that whoever put my name in there wants me dead."
Katie almost laughed at how calmly Harry could say that someone wanted him dead. Almost, but she couldn't laugh, because now was not the time for jokes. Katie was plunged back into deep thought.
"Who on Earth would want you dead?" But the answer skipped through Katie's mind as soon as the question rolled off her tongue.
"Voldemort. Sorry—" Harry added quickly when Katie flinched at his use of that name.
"But You-Know-Who is... well... gone. You got rid of him years ago."
Harry let out a deep sigh. He nervously chewed his lip and ran a hand through his hair (which Katie thought was really cute, but she pushed that aside, because once again, this was not the time).
"I haven't told you this but, over summer, I had this dream..." Harry started explaining and Katie's mind flicked back to the dream she had about her father. "Voldemort — sorry — was there. He was with Wormtail and another man, I don't know who, but they were plotting someone's murder..."
Harry paused and swallowed harshly. Katie stared at him intently.
"They were plotting my murder." Harry finished.
Katie felt her body momentarily tremble when Harry concluded his short story.
"So you think that—" Katie stopped talking abruptly when her attention was sparked by a small thud. Harry heard it too. Both of their heads turned at the exact same time, and it was clear to them now that the sound they were hearing was footsteps coming up the stairs.
"Who's there?" Filch yelled nastily.
Katie looked at Harry, eyes wide and alert, not knowing what to do.
"Quick!" Harry hissed. He grabbed Katie's arm and tugged her towards the wall, then he threw the Invisibility Cloak over them both. They had to crouch down so that their feet were hidden. Katie wobbled a bit and tensed up when she felt Harry's hand slip around her waist to steady her.
The pair held their breaths as Filch emerged atop of the clock tower. Mrs Norris was there too, tracing around Filch's ankles. Filch's crazed eyes scanned the surrounding room.
"I know you're in here," he growled. "I heard voices."
Katie was beginning to grow hot underneath the cloak. She shifted around uncomfortably. Harry squeezed her hip and she took this as a signal to stop moving so she didn't blow their cover . She tried to focus on something — anything other than Harry's hand on her hip, but her mind couldn't seem to travel elsewhere.
Filch thoroughly searched the room, and when he was sure that there were no students hidden in any of the nooks and crannies, he returned to the stairs. Harry waited a few moments more, until Filch's footsteps had completely died away, then ripped the Cloak off himself and Katie. They both brought themselves to their feet, but Harry's hand remained wrapped around Katie's waist, which did not go noticed by the girl.
"That was close." Harry chuckled.
Katie smiled, unable to find a response as her mind was still foggy. Her eyes flicked between Harry's face and his hand. Harry noticed this and his face went slightly pink, but he still didn't take his hand away. If anything, he only tightened his grip, which made Katie's stomach flip.
Katie couldn't stop her eyes from trailing down to Harry's lips, but she hastily snapped them back up to meet his eyes, which were wide but soft.
Harry started slowly leaning forward. Katie's heart beat rapidly picked up its pace — she would've been surprised if Harry wasn't able to hear it thumping. A strange warmth rushed through her veins as her legs quavered.
They were so close now, their noses almost touching, and then—
There was a great bong.
Katie and Harry yelped in fear, springing away from each other at the speed of light. The chiming clock on the face of the tower had just struck eleven and, being so close to it, the gong was extremely loud to Katie and Harry's ears.
The pair broke into fits of giggles, still flustered from their little moment only seconds before hand.
***
The weather grew colder and the days grew shorter as November dawned upon Hogwarts.
Katie's mind was constantly overwhelmed with thoughts. Every week, an owl would deliver her the newest print of the Daily Prophet and she would flip through it eagerly, hoping that she would see the wonderful news that her brother and mother had been found. Each time, however, the newspaper displayed the same missing persons poster, and Katie's heart broke a little bit more.
Her dream about her father had repeated itself twice more since the first time she had it. On all three occasions, she awoke with a start, sweating and crying, and Pansy was there to comfort her each and every time.
The one thing that usually managed to keep Katie's mind occupied from gloomy thoughts was Quidditch — a good, hard training session was enough to distract anyone. Sadly, due to the Triwizard Tournament, Quidditch had been cancelled for the entire year, so Katie supposed that her fourth year of education at Hogwarts was going to be her worst.
One, and possibly the only good thing happening in Katie's life was that she was thriving in Potions. Snape would peer over her shoulder and into her cauldron, a sneer on his face as he pursed his lips. Katie Potions had proven to be incredibly accurate, and Snape had a very hard time criticising her concoctions.
The first task of the Triwizard Tournament was swiftly approaching. Although he tried to hide it, Harry was beside himself with nerves. Katie could see right through his courageous facade — he was terrified, and who could blame him? People died in this Tournament. Hermione was helping Harry prepare for the task by teaching him useful spells while Katie assured him on the daily that he was strong enough to pull through.
It was still a great mystery as to who had actually put Harry's name in the Goblet of Fire, but Katie's mind was too preoccupied to really worry about that. Every where she went, whispers followed her — whispers about her dad's death, which was still a mystery to everyone but Katie herself, who knew that he had been murdered with the Killing Curse, but she was too fragile to speak to anyone about it.
As well as this, murmured theories about what had happened to Leo and Mrs Blair bounced through the castle. Katie knew that Chris was also in the same position as she, so she done her best to be there for him, but it was hard to comfort her brother when the reality of their dad's death nagged at the back of Katie's brain, while Chris still hadn't the slightest idea what had really happened to Anthony Blair. Katie wanted to tell Chris, she really did, but she couldn't bare the though of his reaction.
Ron refused to believe that Harry hadn't entered himself into the Tournament, which Katie thought was rather petty of him, but he wasn't alone. The entire school had full confidence that Harry had put his own name in the Goblet of Fire. As Hufflepuff house rarely got any glory, every single Hufflepuff was very angry with Harry, feeling as though he had stolen Cedric's thunder. Cedric, on the other hand, didn't seem to mind at all, though he, like everybody else, thought that Harry had entered the Tournament on his own terms.
Katie stood up at the end of her Transfiguration lesson, relieved that her next and last class of the day would be a free period. She rushed from the classroom as quickly as possible and was still stuffing her books into her bag when she ducked through the doors.
The Slytherin was surprised to see Harry Potter standing on the other side of the corridor. He was leaning against the wall with his arms crossed, as though he was waiting for someone.
"Harry?" Katie called out.
Harry smiled and stepped towards her. "Hey, I just came to check in. We haven't really spoken these past few days."
"Yeah, sorry about that," Katie said, clipping her bag shut. "Want to get some air?"
Neither of them felt like going very far, so they crossed the hallway and went out into the middle courtyard, which was already packed with students who, like Katie and Harry, had a free period.
"Any luck with Ron?" Katie asked.
Harry let out a small grunt. "No."
"Why so tense, Potter?"
Katie and Harry looked to the source of this voice, finding Draco Malfoy sat in a tree, grinning wickedly down at Harry. Crabbe and Goyle were stood at the foot of the tree. Feeling a sense of foreboding building up inside her, Katie rubbed her forehead in annoyance. This was not going to go down well. Katie shot Draco a cold glare, warning him to keep his mouth shut, but he ignored her completely.
"My father and I have a bet, you see. I don't think you're gonna last ten minutes in this tournament." Draco called from the tree.
Katie could see Harry's jaw clench in anger. Her eyes flickered helplessly between Draco and Harry, unsure of what her position in the current situation was supposed to be.
"He disagrees," Malfoy continued, jumping from the tree. He, Crabbe and Goyle strode forward. "He thinks you won't last five."
A bubble of anger popped inside Katie. "Draco—"
Before she had the chance to tell Draco to knock it off herself, Harry had sprung forward and shoved right into the blonde.
"I don't give a damn what your father thinks, Malfoy," he growled. "He's vile and cruel, and you're just pathetic."
With that being said, Harry turned on his heel. His eyes were burning with anger, but he was smarter than to let the small quarrel progress into a physical fight. He grabbed Katie's arm, a little tougher than he had intended, and started walking away with her.
Bang!
Something white-hot grazed the side of Harry's cheek. Katie jumped around and spied Draco pointing his wand at Harry.
"Are you alright?" she asked Harry quickly as she examined his face. He swerved his head out of her reach.
"I'm fine."
Harry plunged his hand into his robes, searching for hid wand, but another loud bang halted him.
Draco Malfoy vanished, and in his place was a pure white ferret, shivering on the grass.
"That'll teach you to cross someone when their back is turned!" someone growled angrily.
Professor Moody had appeared in the courtyard. His wand was pointing at the ferret — or, at Draco, and he turned his head so that he was looking at Harry.
"Did he get you?"
"No," Harry lied. "Missed."
As Moody paced towards Crabbe and Goyle, the ferret at their feet gave a terrified squeak and took off towards the nearest door that led to the castle.
"I don't think so!" Moody roared, pointing his wand at the ferret again — it flew ten feet into the air, fell again with a gush of wind, then bounced upward once more.
All of the students in the courtyard had gathered around to watch the scene unfold. While some of them seemed frightened, the vast majority were howling with laughter (Harry included) as Moody flung the ferret through the air.
Katie allowed herself to laugh and, although she felt very guilty doing so, she couldn't help it. Draco Malfoy, the amazing bouncing ferret, was quite a funny occurrence.
"Never — do — that — again—" Moody said, speaking each word as the ferret rose and fell again.
"Professor Moody!" a shocked voice cried out.
Professor McGonagall had appeared in the courtyard, her arms full of books.
"Hello, Professor McGonagall." Moody said calmly, bouncing the ferret still higher.
"What — what are you doing?" Professor McGonagall asked apprehensively, her eyes following the ferret's progress through the air.
"Teaching."
"Teach— Moody, is that a student?" McGonagall shrieked and dropped the books that she had been carrying.
"Yep."
"No!" McGonagall cried. She whipped out her wand. A moment later, with a loud snapping noise, Draco Malfoy reappeared, lying in a heap on the floor with his blonde hair all over his face. He got to his feet, wincing.
Like the rest of the courtyard, Katie was still laughing, but she stopped abruptly when her eyes met Draco's — which were watering with pain and humiliation. The girl felt her heart clench when he turned on his heel and took off inside the castle.
"Alastor, we never use Transfiguration as a punishment!" McGonagall had begun to scold Moody. "Surely Dumbledore told you that."
Moody glanced down at McGonagall's wand, which was pointed square at his face. "Might've mentioned it.
"And you will do well to remember it," McGonagall turned to the cluster of students. "Away!"
Harry looked at Katie. He was grinning broadly, his face shining with ecstasy, but Katie couldn't reciprocate his feeling of joy. Sure, Moody turning Draco into a ferret had been funny at first — seemingly harmless, and well deserved, due to the fact that Draco had struck Harry when his back was turned. But when Katie saw the pained shimmer of tears in Draco's eyes, something clicked inside her.
"Brilliant—" Harry began, but was cut short when someone called out his name.
"Harry!"
Hermione was standing by a pillar, waving him over. Harry glacned between Katie and Hermione, uncertain of what to do, but the Slytherin promptly made the decision for him.
"Go," she nudged him gently. "I need to go to the library anyway."
"You're sure?"
Katie nodded. As Harry went to join Hermione, Katie went back inside the castle. She had, of course lied about needing to go to the library. Her true intentions were to go to the Slytherin common room and check in on Draco. While he had started the entire confrontation and definitely deserved some form of punishment, Katie had to admit that Moody had taken it a little too far.
Arriving at the Slytherin common room, Katie found it to be completely deserted, as all of the students were either still in classes or elsewhere in the castle for their free period.
The only person in the entire room was a blonde boy, sat stiffly in an armchair, staring at the flames that were roaring in the fireplace.
"Draco?" Katie called softly.
At the sound of a voice, Draco whipped his head around. His eyes narrowed when he realised that it was Katie who had spoken to him. He glared at her then turned back to the fire again.
"Go away." he said flatly.
Katie slowly walked towards the fireplace. "Draco—"
"Go away!"
Katie winced at his harsh tone, but was far too stubborn to leave just because he had yelled at her.
"Talk to me—"
"No!" Draco jumped to his feet, shaking with anger. "What do you want to say? That you're sorry? Because we both know that's a lie."
Katie frowned. "I just wanted to make sure you were OK..."
"Obviously I'm not," Draco snapped. "But why should that matter to you? You were one of the people laughing, after all."
Growing angry now, Katie crossed her arms and hardened stare.
"Oh, come on, Draco!" she said exasperatedly. "It was funny—"
"For you!"
"It was funny at first, alright? But then Moody took it too far, and I don't think you're being entirely fair, here. You did start the fight, after all."
"I had no intention of being turned into a rodent." Draco quipped angrily.
"Actually, ferrets aren't rodents—" Katie began, but stopped shortly upon seeing Draco's glower.
"Is that all you came to say? Came all the way down to the dungeons just to tell me off for picking on Potter?"
"Like I said," Katie scowled at him. "I came to make sure that you were alright, but as always, you have to pick a fight."
"I just got Transfigured into a ferret and bounced into the air in front of the entire school, so forgive me if I'm a little put out!" Draco was raising his voice again, which made Katie nervous, but she refused to let that show.
"Stop making everything so difficult!" she was shouting now, too.
"What do you meaning 'everything'?"
"I mean everything! Can you not hold a civil conversation? Are you incapable of maintaining a friendship with anyone?" Katie was growing hot with rage. Her intentions had not been to start and argument with Draco, because the pair had actually been getting on rather well over the previous weeks, but she was too self-preserved to allow herself to be yelled at when she herself had done nothing wrong.
Draco's face had grown red from shouting. "That is entirely unrelated—!"
"Is it?" Katie cut him off firmly. "Because, if you ask me, you could have a lot more friends if you stopped being so arrogant."
"I have plenty of friends."
"You have two friends, Draco, two! And that's Pansy and I — the rest are just cronies. They do what you say because they're scared of you." Katie countered.
"Yeah, well, they'll have a hard time fearing me now, since they just watched me get thrown around—"
Katie stomped her foot on the stone floor. "Shut up about the ferret, will you? That's not what this is about anymore!"
"What is it about, then?" Draco shouted.
"You and your attitude!"
Draco scoffed. "You're not my mother, Blair, I don't need you to lecture me about my misbehaviour."
They fell silent after that and stood, completely still, staring at each other through narrowed eyes. Both of the Slytherins had their arms folded in anger.
A clamour of footsteps caught their attention. The door leading to the girl's dormitories opened and Pansy's head peeped through the small crack. Her eyebrows were furrowed and her nose was upturned in distaste.
"What's going on?" she inquired. "I thought I heard shouting."
"Nothing," Katie said, and with one last glare at Draco, she finished. "We were just discussing the amazing bouncing ferret."
***
The next day marked the official beginning of the Triwizard Tournament. The First Task was to take place in a matter of hours, and the atmosphere in the school was one of great tension and excitement. Lessons were held as normal until midday when, after lunch, the school would make their way into the grounds for the First Task.
Katie found herself unable to eat anything at lunch. She felt sick with nerves and knew that she would merely regurgitate anything that she tried to digest.
Rapping her fingertips anxiously against the polished wooden table, Katie eyed Harry from a distance, chewing her lip to relieve some stress. Draco cleared his throat beside her.
"Listen, about yesterday—"
"Unless you're going to apologise for hexing Harry, then I really don't want to hear it, Draco."
Katie hadn't meant to sound so harsh, but she was so on edge that engaging in yet another argument with Draco Malfoy might have just caused her to break down.
Draco huffed, crossed his arms, but said no more. Katie watched as Professor McGonagall rushed down the Great Hall, stopping halfway down the Gryffindor table. She said something to Harry, who nodded, rose from his seat, and started following McGonagall through the Hall. An unsettling feeling in her stomach told Katie that McGonagall was taking Harry down to the grounds to prepare for the First Task and, before she really knew what she was doing, Katie was on her feet and chasing after Harry.
Just as Harry slipped through the doors of the Great Hall, Katie caught his hand. He turned around, eyes wide, but quickly relaxed when he saw that it was just Katie who had grabbed a hold of him. Realising that the sound of footsteps behind her had faded, McGonagall turned around. She pursed her lips.
"Miss Blair, Potter must go down to the grounds at once. The champions need to prepare for the First Task." McGonagall said curtly.
"Good luck." Katie almost whispered to Harry, who smiled.
Katie hugged him shortly, then watched as McGonagall led him from the castle and out of sight.