Under the Stars

The practice was nothing less than a disaster. Or rather, Ron was nothing less than a disaster. So far, he'd completely lost his ability to catch a simple Quaffle and had managed to give Katie a nosebleed. He was now drifting aimlessly around the hoops in a manner that was going to give Angelina fair cause to shout very loudly at him.

Just as this entertaining thought crossed George's mind, Angelina blew a shrill and angry blast on her whistle. "Stop - stop --- STOP!" she screamed at Ron, who stared back at her looking rather terrified. Fred snickered as Angelina went into a rant about which posts one should cover while Keeping as Ron looked ashamed. George knew his twin was rather enjoying hearing Angelina shouting at someone that wasn't him.

"And Katie," said Angelina, turning on her friend. Blood was trickling down Katie's face and she was attempting to mop it up with her sleeve. "Can't you do something about that nosebleed?"

"It's just getting worse!" Katie told her crossly.

George glanced at Fred, who was already searching through his pockets. He watched his brother pull out a small, purple pill and look at it, then across at Katie. The git had given her the wrong pill.

"Gryffindor are losers, Gryffindor are losers..." The watching Slytherins had been kind enough to change from jumbled, shouted insults about Ron's Keeping abilities, the Weasleys' financial situation, Angelina's hair and Katie's nose to a coherent chant that would be clearly heard in Hogsmeade. "Gryffindor are losers!"

They played on, Angelina clearly fuming. The three Chasers played their usual brisk game, the Quaffle zooming from one to another as they soared up the pitch. Alicia put it past Ron into the middle hoop with no problem. George watched Angelina soar after her, then looked round for Katie, who would normally have been right behind her friend. Katie was hovering in mid air on her broom. She seemed to be trying to support herself on her broom with both hands and was as white as a sheet. The front of her robes looked to be covered in blood. "Angelina!" George yelped, his heart pounding. Katie seemed to be seconds off fainting and plummeting 50 fifty to the ground.

Angelina's shrill whistle rang out again as George flew towards Katie with every bit of speed his Cleansweep could produce. He knew Angelina and Fred were on their way towards Katie as well, but he was the closest. Reaching her, he stopped gently, trying not to knock her, and wrapped his arm around her waist. Katie slumped against him, causing him to list to one side.

"She needs the hospital wing," Angelina was saying grimly as George carefully straightened up, maintaining his grip on Katie all the while.

"We'll take her," Fred volunteered guiltily, flying up on Katie's other side and steadying her with a hand. "She - er - might have swallowed a Blood Blisterpod by mistake - "

Manoeuvering Katie gently between them, the twins set off for the hospital wing in silence. George had his eyes trained on Katie, who was now bleeding into his shoulder. He'd never seen a living human being this white before. A kind of cold nausea had settled in his stomach - Katie would have been fine if Fred hadn't given her that Blood Blisterpod. The nosebleed Ron had caused with the Quaffle would have stopped in minutes and Katie would not now be in this state. None of Weasley's Wizard Wheezes were supposed to hurt anyone.

Slowly, gently, awkwardly, they landed. Katie collapsed onto the ground, pulling George with her. "We'll have to carry her," George muttered, half to himself as he extracted his arm and scooped her up, the way he'd carried Ginny when she was small. "Katie? Katie? Katie, say something, please!" She was motionless in his arms, her eyes closed, blood still trickling from her nose.

"Hurry up," said Fred tersely, who had all three brooms over one shoulder.

George had never appreciated just how far it was from the Quidditch pitch to the hospital wing. They had to get Katie to Madam Pomfrey - Madam Pomfrey would make her nose stop bleeding, she'd make Katie wake up and say something, anything, even if it was to curse Fred, George and Weasley's Wizard Wheezes into the next dimension.

Lee Jordan happened to be heading down the stairs as George, Fred and the motionless Katie went up. Seeing them - or more accurately, seeing Katie - Lee stopped and swore. "What happened?" he asked.

"She got a nosebleed - we gave her a Blood Blisterpod accidentally," Fred muttered.

"You gave her the Blood Blisterpod," George snapped as they kept climbing, Lee walking backwards in front of them.

Lee swore again, then grinned. George was so far from smiling that he felt like snapping at Lee as well. "Hell of a way to get the pretty Katie into your arms," he said.

George shifted Katie slightly and glared at his friend. "Would you get out of my way?" he asked as politely as he could manage. Had his mother heard him use that tone of voice he would have been de-gnoming the garden for a year. He reflected for a split second that it was probably a good thing that his wand was in the changing rooms in accordance with Quidditch regulations. Had he had his wand and a spare hand, Lee might now be sporting green skin and pink hair and he'd be facing detention from McGonagall.

Pushing past Lee, he headed up the stairs as fast as he could, leaving Lee and Fred to trail along in his wake.

"George is in a right mood," he heard Lee say.

"It's because it's Katie," Fred replied. "And the Blood Blisterpod - she nearly fell off her broom. She could have been badly hurt..." George noted that his twin sounded more than a little uncomfortable. Right then, he didn't really care. He was nearly there.

"Madam Pomfrey," he yelled, reaching the corridor to the hospital wing and dashing along it. Katie was getting heavy. "Madam Pomfrey! Madam Pomfrey!" He pushed his way backwards through the door into the hospital wing and on turning around discovered himself facing not only Pomfrey but McGonagall.

He heard one of them gasp as he pushed past them and laid Katie down on the nearest bed. "Mr Weasley - what happened?" McGonagall was staring at Katie and her blood-covered robes in horror and Pomfrey was already searching through bottles in a cupboard.

"She got a nosebleed in Quidditch practice," George muttered, sinking into the chair beside the bed and taking Katie's hand.

"And? That's not an ordinary nosebleed she's got there, Mr Weasley."

George stared into Katie's face, willing her to be all right, willing her to forgive him...

Fred and Lee had run into the room. Dropping the brooms onto the floor, they dodged Pomfrey to look at Katie.

"She looks bad," Fred whispered.

"What happened, Mr Weasley?" McGonagall repeated.

"Ron hit her in the face with the Quaffle," Fred whispered, saving George the agony of answering. "I gave her - something that I thought would stop the bleeding. It didn't. It just made it worse. Angelina stopped practice just in time and we brought her up here."

Madam Pomfrey was spooning a garish bright blue liquid into Katie's mouth, muttering an incantation to make her swallow. George watched as the bleeding slowed to a stop. Katie barely seemed to breathing. How much blood could a person afford to lose and not die? But Madam Pomfrey could fix anything - she'd regrown the bones in Harry's arm after Lockhart had removed them.

"Will she be all right?" Fred was asking anxiously. George clutched Katie's hand as hard as he dared, waiting for the reply.

"She'll be up and about in a few days. She's very weak at the moment - she'll need a lot of sleep - lots of Blood Replenishing potions - strengthening potions - Professor Snape will be delighted."

George sighed in relief and allowed himself a little smile. Katie would be okay. True, she'd probably hate him forever, but at least she was going to be all right.

***

"George?"

Sleepily, George raised his head. He wasn't good at waking up. He especially wasn't good at waking up when he'd had a very bad few hours sleep in a hospital wing chair. Hospital wing chair... he forced his eyes open. Hospital wing. Right. Katie.

"Katie?" he whispered. A bit of colour had returned to her face and Madam Pomfrey had cleaned the blood up and changed her into her pajamas.

She smiled weakly. "What happened?" She was whispering too. "Quidditch practice..."

"Fred accidentally gave you a Blood Blisterpod. You nearly collapsed... I'm so sorry, Katie."

"Oh." She looked thoughtful. "How'd I get here?"

"I carried you."

"Oh," said Katie again. "What's the time?"

George peered up at the clock on the wall. "About three o'clock in the morning," he told her.

"And Pomfrey let you stay?" Katie had closed her eyes.

"No, she chased me off. But I - I didn't want you to be here by yourself - so - I snuck back up here," he confessed. "I hope you don't mind."

"You're so sweet," Katie murmured. "Go back to sleep... I am..."

George watched her sleep for a few moments before closing his own eyes again. Perhaps he'd sleep a bit better now.

***

The sun woke them the next morning before Madam Pomfrey arrived.

"I'd better go - Madam Pomfrey will kill me," George whispered, standing up and stretching.

Katie grinned - she certainly seemed much stronger. "Since when did you care?"

"She might not let me back up here. Well - you probably don't want me to come anyway - that Blood Blisterpod..." George's voice trailed off. Katie's expression was unreadable - unlike Angelina, whose every emotion was readable to anyone with sight, Katie had long ago perfected a perfectly blank face.

"Don't be silly," she said finally, her grin coming back. "I'm glad you were here."

"Are you?"

"George... you're an idiot. Come here," she said mysteriously. Glancing around to check that Madam Pomfrey was nowhere near, George knelt down beside the bed and looked at her. "I'm glad you stayed," she whispered.

"Are you?" George whispered again, finding it rather hard to tear his gaze away from her big brown eyes.

Katie nodded, looking up at him. Instinctively, George bent over her and put an arm across her to stroke her cheek on the side away from him. Neither broke their gaze.

"Katie..." He didn't have the words to tell her how much she meant - to tell her how scared he'd been yesterday afternoon - to tell her how much he wanted to sit here with her forever and never ever leave her again.

She reached up and folded her arms around him. George laid his head on the pillow beside hers, still stroking her cheek, and held her as best he could, there in the cold hospital wing. Almost without thinking about it, he let his lips brush her cheek and felt rather than saw her smile, and sigh, and lean her head against his. He still didn't have the words, but he realised she knew, anyway.

Madam Pomfrey found them like that a few minutes later. Neither George nor Katie ever realised that she had smiled to herself and retired to her office for another ten minutes to emerge, 'horrified', and send George down to breakfast with a sharp telling off.

George almost skipped down to breakfast, trying to figure out how something which had gone so wrong yesterday had led to something so completely right today. In fact, everything seemed better today.