Under the Stars

Moaning Myrtle scowled to herself as she hovered at the top of her favourite cubicle, spying on the couple sitting on the floor of her bathroom. They were always in here; snogging and talking and laughing. She hated that. She'd told them to go away, but the girl had just said, "There's no privacy anywhere else in the school, Myrtle," and the boy had just grinned.

She was called Katie, Myrtle knew. She was a pretty little thing, the sort of girl Myrtle had never been. A Quidditch player, apparently. Gryffindor. How sickening. As much as she liked anyone, Myrtle liked Ravenclaws - after all, she'd been one.

He was a Gryffindor too. George. He was always teasing the girl, calling her Kitty-Kat or sweetheart. Actually, she seemed to quite like being called sweetheart. Myrtle thought it was a horrible name and felt she would have been quite offended had anyone ever called her that. Of course, they hadn't, so she'd never had the chance to find out.

Tonight they were just sitting there, the girl snuggled up to the boy with her head on his shoulder. Myrtle found that rather nauseating, but she couldn't resist spying on them. They looked quite sad, actually. She wasn't inclined to feel sorry for them.

***

George sighed as he thought about the biggest drawback to the incredible plan he and Fred had cooked up for tomorrow. Set up a portable swamp in the third floor corridor to lure Umbridge away from her office and give Harry a chance to get in to talk to Sirius. Allow themselves to get cornered by Umbridge, Summon their brooms, fly into Hogsmeade, then Apparate home. Lee would take care of their trunks. Hopefully, Dad and Bill would take care of Mum.

The biggest drawback was curled up in his arms. Leaving school meant leaving Katie. There had been so many times in the five hours since they'd come up with the plan that George had been tempted to back out, to suggest they do something less extreme that would allow them to remain in school. He couldn't. The only thing that was keeping him here was Katie and he'd been torn between Fred and Katie.

Katie had said, "Go." That had been the worst part; telling her, and her giving him her support. He almost wished she hadn't. She'd miss him; he could see it in her eyes. And he'd miss her. He'd miss the way her eyes caught his and smiled over the breakfast table; her effortless talent at Quidditch; the way she sat bent over her homework in the common room in the evenings while he tried to distract her; her sense of humour; the way she came to him for comfort when Umbridge/Snape/the disaster that was the Gryffindor Quidditch team was getting too much.

"George?" Katie murmured.

"Yeah?"

"You're squishing me."

"Sorry." George loosened his grip on her a little.

"That's okay."

"Katie?"

"Mmmm?"

"I'll miss you."

"I should hope so."

George tucked a stray bit of her wispy blonde hair back behind her ear with his thumb. He felt as if he understood a lot. How Ginny had acted the first time Harry had come to stay - Ron's behaviour around the Yule Ball - the goofy grin on Charlie's face the summer he'd had his first girlfriend - the way Percy had been with Penelope. The git. It all made sense now, like some great, earth-shattering revelation about what it meant to be in love. Was he in love? He had to be. There was no way this feeling could be anything else.

"George?"

"Mmmm?"

"What if the Inquisitorial Squad won't let us send each other letters?"

"Then... I'll miss you even more. You'll have to remember how much I love you, and how much I miss you, and how awful Umbridge is."

"You remember that, too." Katie lifted her head and looked at him. "George... you won't forget me, will you?"

"Katie, I love you. I could never forget you. I'll be thinking about you every day."

"Yes... but we won't see each other for a couple of months. And then I'll have another year at Hogwarts. It's a long time."

George looked into her eyes, remembering the first time he'd done so, after he and Fred had just about killed her with a Blood Blisterpod during Quidditch practice. "It's a very long time," he said, "but I'll wait if you will."

She smiled. "Of course I will. I was just checking."

"Silly girl," George whispered, kissing her on the nose.

Her face crumpled.

"Katie? Sweetheart, I wasn't serious."

"It's - it's not that," she said shakily. "I'm just - going to miss you - so much - oh, George."

"You're breaking my heart, Kitty-Kat. Oh, Katie, sweetheart..." George could feel her trying not to cry as she buried her face against his neck. "You go ahead and cry if you want," he murmured, rocking her like Mum had used to rock Ginny, when they'd been teasing her and made her cry.

Myrtle muttered something incomprehensible from the cubicle where she'd been spying on them and started wailing. George muttered something that Katie would usually not let him say, and heard the splash of Myrtle diving into the toilet to sulk.

George sighed, and tried to will time to slow itself down.

***

Katie slipped one hand into the pocket of her robes and gripped the tiny teddy bear George had given her for Christmas.

She was standing with the teachers, the ghosts, and most of the school around the great Entrance Hall. In the middle of the floor stood George and Fred; Peeves hovering happily above them; Umbridge glaring at them from the stairs.

They'd really gone and done it. They'd really created a swamp in the third floor corridor, and had, just for the fun of it, covered the first students on the scene with Stinksap from some weird plant of Neville Longbottom's. They'd been pursued down here by Umbridge to where a large group of forewarned students had been waiting. Umbridge looked delighted; the Inquisitorial Squad looked smug.

Filch had just arrived on the scene and was waving a piece of parchment, shouting something about having whips waiting. Whips? Katie gripped the teddy bear even tighter and found herself pleading silently with George to get out of there, to get out before Umbridge could hurt him.

"George," Fred was saying, "I think we've outgrown full-time education."

"Yeah, I've been feeling that way myself," George said, his eyes scanning the crowd before coming to rest on Katie. She smiled, the best she could, beaming thoughts out to him. I love you. I'll miss you. Take care of yourself. Get the hell out of here before Filch does bring his whips out.

"Time to test our talents in the real world, d'you reckon?"

"Definitely."

"Accio brooms!" they cried together.

Katie couldn't take her eyes off George as the twins' brooms came pelting along the corridor, down the stairs, and skidded to a halt in front of them. She barely heard Fred and George's parting words to the crowd as they mounted their brooms, as the Inquisitorial Squad ran towards them and the twins rose into the air.

"Give her hell from us, Peeves," Fred told the poltergeist solemnly. Peeves saluted, the students applauded, George shot one last look at Katie and the Weasley twins flew out the doors into the sunset, leaving Hogwarts behind them.

No one moved. The Inquisitorial Squad, Umbridge and Filch were disappointed and angry; without a word, Umbridge stormed off back to her office. Flitwick was beaming, presumably because of the twins' use of the Summoning Charm, and even McGonagall seemed to be trying to hold in a smile.

The conflicting emotions of pride and a deep emptiness swelled in Katie's stomach. Half of her wanted to celebrate George and Fred's triumph with the other students, to gloat over the failure of Umbridge and Filch, and listen to the others praise her boyfriend. The other half wanted simply to go and hide in her dormitory, or in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, or anywhere private, to mope over what she'd lost.

"Katie?" It was Angelina, and one of Katie's roommates, Charlotte. "C'mon, Katie." Angelina put a sympathetic hand on Katie's shoulder and began to steer her along with the tide of students heading back to Gryffindor tower. None of them talked of anything but the twins, who would definitely be going down in Hogwarts legend.

Katie smiled. My boyfriend, she thought.