Sparks

Sparks 25

Chapter Twenty-Five: Marcus Flint and Katie Bell find love intermixed with Quidditch rivalries, pureblood traditions and interfering friends during PoA. Can their love survive?

The Great Hall:

Marcus felt like he could not catch his breath. He sat down heavily and just stared at the newspaper in his hands. He looked up into Tarquin's concerned face and made a great effort to concentrate on what he was saying.

"I'm sorry Marcus," said Tarquin seriously. Many of the other pureblood male Slytherins were nodding their sympathies to Marcus all the way down the table as well. They understood like no other students at Hogwarts did. Malfoy looked serious as well. Marcus remembered that Draco was convinced that one day he would go home and have to marry some one he had never met before. Somehow Marcus had never worried about that or about reading his own surprise betrothal announcement in the paper. Now how ironic was that.

He raised his head and looked for Katie. She was gone and Johnson and Spinnet were gone as well. The entire Gryffindor table was glaring at him. Marcus knew he should go and try to find her but he felt weighed down. He stared off into the windows and thought to himself that his life was utter shite.

Tarquin looked at Marcus with a concerned look on his face. He looked in a word - devastated.

"Will you be okay, mate?" asked Chris seriously.

"Do you need anything?" asked Ty.

"I don't know," said Marcus vaguely. Then he stood up abruptly. "Could you tell my professors that I'm not feeling well?" With that statement, Marcus strode off towards the Slytherin dungeons.

He went back to bed and lay there looking at his bed hangings. He was in a state of utter shock. He couldn't believe that his grandmother didn't warn him. His mother was a weak person. Marcus always knew this fact. He could never really depend on her, but Grandma always tried to run interference between him and his father.

His father was a subject Marcus always hated confronting. He was controlling, abusive and a stern man. Marcus idly wondered what it was like to have a normal father, someone who came to his Quidditch games and asked him his opinion what he wanted to do with his life and cared for him just a little.

He was about to be engaged to a girl he had never met before. He did not know the first thing about her. How could he marry so heartlessly? Marcus envisioned a cold future with a woman he could not love. When would he take his first mistress? When would he turn into his father?

An hour later, Marcus flinched when he heard a knock on his door. He got out of bed and answered it. Professor Snape stood in the threshold.

"Mr. Flint," said Snape, "I understand you are not feeling well. Do you need to see Madame Pomfrey?"

"No," said Marcus dully. "I just got a shock, that's all. Could I stay in today?"

Snape gave Marcus a measured look. "I take it then, that the announcement of your forthcoming betrothal was a surprise?" asked Snape.

"Yes," said Marcus listlessly.

"Okay then, Mr. Flint," said Snape briskly. "You can stay in on one condition."

"What would that be?" asked Marcus.

"That after you indulge your self pity," said Snape crisply, "you will fulfill your obligations to Slytherin House. By obligations, I mean that there is a Quidditch final in one week and you are pureblood Slytherin from an old family. Pureblood wizards do not shirk their responsibilities to their family. You are not the first Slytherin to be railroaded into a marriage, Marcus, and you certainly will not be the last. Deal with your situation with grace and dignity for yourself and Miss Bell."

Marcus nodded wordlessly as Snape swept from the room. Strangely enough, Snape's advice had snapped him out of his funk. He had been on the verge of a world class case of depression. He had lows sometimes that would put him in an emotional tailspin. Marcus went to sit on the couch beside the fire.

Then Marcus thought about Katie. He had avoided thinking about her. It was too painful. He had wanted to marry Katie. He loved her so much. He needed to see her. Marcus got up and left the Slytherin dungeons. He was going to see Katie.

Gryffindor Tower:

"Love," asked Alicia, "are you going to be okay?"

Katie was lying face down on her bed crying her eyes out.

"If it is any consolation," said Angelina. "I've heard that Flint was just as shocked as you were."

"He was," said Katie tearfully as she looked up.

"Lee told me downstairs," said Angelina. "That according to some Slytherins he overheard that Flint has never even seen the girl."

"It's his awful father," wailed Katie as she buried her face in her pillow.

"Do you need us to stay, love?" said Alicia. "We will."

"No," said Katie. "Just tell everyone that I'm sick."

As her mates left, Katie stared at the door and thought that she was sick, sick at heart.

Marcus would be looking for her soon. What was she going to say to him? Her unuttered dream was that she and Marcus would spend the rest of their life together building a family. Her dream was shattered. He would be disowned from his family if he did not marry this girl. A betrothal was almost as good as a marriage in the wizarding world. Katie wept silently as she said goodbye in her heart to her dream.

Katie wondered if she and Marcus would still be together now. Could she still be his girlfriend, or was the correct term mistress now? Katie thought about Marcus's father and his offer with new eyes. She had been disgusted and appalled. But would Marcus ask her to be his mistress as well? She loved him but could she be the other woman? Her mother spent years rallying against her father and his girlfriend. Maybe her father's girlfriend loved him so much that she took what she could have. Maybe her father wasn't the heartless villain she always thought him to be. Maybe he was just a wizard who made mistakes and fell in love with another woman.

Katie envisioned a future of being with Marcus then sending him off to his wife and children at the end of the day. Katie silently wept as she realized that she could never do that. She couldn't share him especially if the other woman had a proper claim to him.

After what seemed like hours later, Katie stopped crying. Her eyes hurt and her throat was dry. She thought she had no more tears left. She got up and went to the bathroom to bathe her eyes in cool water. Just because her life had imploded did not mean that the world had stopped spinning.

Katie went downstairs to the common room and heard noises coming from outside the portrait. She opened the door and saw Marcus. She had tried to harden her heart earlier toward thoughts of him. But when Katie saw him standing there looking so unhappy, her heart leaped at the sight of him.

Marcus looked into Katie's tearful eyes and his heart jumped. He pulled her into his arms wordlessly and held her. He could feel her trembling.

Katie pulled away after a long moment and led Marcus into the Gryffindor common room. Marcus stood in the middle of the room and shook his head in disbelief. This day was getting more surreal every minute.

Marcus moved closer to Katie and held her face in his big hands. "I love you, Katie," said Marcus seriously. "I don't want to lose you."

Katie felt her throat close as she sadly smiled. "I'm not the one that is gone," said Katie.

Marcus pulled her down onto a couch and held her.

"Katie," said Marcus quietly. "I didn't know-"

Katie placed her fingers against his lips. "I know," said Katie.

After a long silence, Marcus clutched her desperately and buried his face against her throat. "Merlin, Katie," asked Marcus in a choked voice. "Why doesn't my father love me?"

Tears sprang up in Katie's eyes as she put her arms around Marcus's shoulders tightly. Her hand reached up to stroke his hair soothingly.

"It's not you, Marcus," said Katie shakily. "It's him. He doesn't know how to love but you do."

They sat there in the morning sunshine clutching each other and seeking comfort from one another. In the silence, Katie thought of a poem she once read that said that love alters not when alteration finds. Katie now knew exactly what that poem meant. She could not turn off the love she felt for Marcus. But how could she live with being his love, not his wife?

As Katie held Marcus in her arms, a stark realization came to her. This is how her life would be from now on. He would come to her for comfort and she would give it to him. Because she loved him and in her heart, she knew he loved her too. But they would never truly belong to one another. With anguish, Katie realized that it was up to her to make that bleak future not come to pass. Katie gathered her Gryffindor courage and took a deep breath. Later, she would let the heartbreak out but now she had a job to do.

"Will I be your mistress, Marcus?" asked Katie as she broke the silence.

Marcus's head jerked up in shock. He gazed at Katie with a confused expression.

"Your father asked me if I would be his mistress," said Katie softly. "Are you offering me the same job?"

"My father," said Marcus with a stunned expression. He pushed away from her slowly then a burst of anger crossed his rugged features. "At Hogsmeade during the lunch, he asked you to be his mistress."

"Yes," said Katie. "The answer is the same I gave your father: No, I will not be your mistress. And for the same reason: I love you."

"I don't understand," said Marcus. "I didn't ask you to be my mistress. I love you too."

"But we have to end it Marcus," said Katie as tears sprung into her eyes. She willed them away.

"No," said Marcus as he shook his head. "I will figure a way out of this."

"There is no way out," said Katie. "If you do not marry this girl, you will be disinherited and disowned. A betrothal contract is just as binding as a marriage contract. You are from an old pureblood family, you will marry the old way - for life."

"There has to be a way out for us," said Marcus passionately.

"There is," said Katie as she ran her hand down his face gently. "We go our separate ways. Years from now, I want to think of you with love and a smile. If we stay together after you marry, our love will die slowly and painfully. A clean break now will make the love we have for each other last forever. I vowed that I would never be my mother, Marcus. I will not pine for a love that is out of my reach until I am bitter and angry. One day, I'll love another man. Maybe not in the same intense way I loved you, but in a different way."

"Merlin, Katie," said Marcus as he shook his head. "Please."

"And," said Katie with tears in her voice. "I want you to be happy. I want you to have a wonderful life full of happiness and love. I want you to go to this girl with an unfettered heart. Don't repeat the mistakes of the past."

"You can't be serious Katie," said Marcus in disbelief.

Katie reached up and kissed Marcus gently. She looked into his face intently. "My first love," said Katie softly as she touched his face in farewell. She got up off the couch and walked to the stairs leading up the girl's dormitory. Katie looked back and smiled then went up the stairs. When she saw the look of disbelief and anguish on his face as he sat there stunned, it took everything she had not to run back and throw her arms around him.

Later in her bed with a silencing spell enforced, Katie let her heartbreak go. She hadn't lied to Marcus, one day she would move on to another love. But today, she was going to mourn the loss of her first love, Marcus Flint.

Marcus sat there in the Gryffindor common room for several stunned minutes. He got heavily to his feet and left the room. In a daze, he somehow made it back to his room. In his head, her words echoed over and over again. Katie had broken up with him.