Romance Americana

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Tuesday night

Midnight

Gryffindor Common Room

Ron made his way through the portrait hole and headed over to the table in his usual corner. Harry and Hermione were already there, and they were studying. This normally wouldn't have been such a shocker had it not been for the lunch time make out session Ron had been witness to. He dropped his books and plopped into a large, red velvet armchair.

"So, you two finally came up for air?"

"Funny, Ron. Where's Kate?"

"Don't know. Said she wanted to talk to her teammates, I think. Why? What's wrong?"

Hermione cleared her throat and spoke up. "Nothing, Ron, but we need to ask you a question."

"Yes..."

"Why didn't you come up to bed last night?" Harry looked Ron straight in the eye when he asked the question.

Hermione quickly stepped in to play peacemaker. "Not that it really matters, and it's none of our business personally, but we need to ask you as Head Boy and Girl."

Ron just laughed at Hermione's worried look. "I understand, Hermione, don't worry. Kate and I were studying for Herbology. We fell asleep in front of the fire. Nothing happened that anyone could yell at us for. No points will be lost."

Hermione visibly relaxed. "Okay. Ron, I'm sorry about that, but we do need to ask."

"Hermione, I told you it was okay. All I want to know is, who checks up on you when you and Harry don't wind up in your own beds?"

Harry stood. His green eyes were almost level with Ron's blue ones. "That was a low blow, Ron."

"Yeah, well, so was asking about what I was doing with my girlfriend. We wouldn't do anything more than snog in the common room, and you two know it."

"We know, Ron. Just be careful, okay?"

"You got it, Hermione. Good night."

"'Night, Ron."

"'Night."

Hermione waited for Ron to leave before turning back to Harry.

"Harry, do you ever wonder if he's making a mistake with Kate?"

"What do you mean?"

"She seems... I don't know, but she doesn't seem like she really very serious about him, does she? And he's running around, trying to do whatever he can for her. I just don't think either of them is making a wise choice."

"'Mione, that could apply to a lot of people."

"But I don't think she's being up front with us, Harry. She's hiding something, and it's a damn big something, if I'm guessing right."

"That may be, Hermione, but we can't just come out and tell Ron that; he'd kill us. Just give Kate a chance."

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1:30 am

Charms Corridor

Kate was waiting in the alcove by Professor Flitwick's room. She had the hood of her cloak pulled up to hide her flaming red hair. Shannon came next and nudged Kate to get her attention.

"Why are we having a meeting now? I thought we were waiting until we got a positive confirmation on Voldemort's position."

"Hush. I'll explain when everyone gets here."

Within five minutes, the rest had shown up.

"Follow me. We're going up to the south tower. We need to be far from everyone else. This might get a bit loud."

They went at a sprint up to the south tower. Had any of the students seen them, they would have noted how all eight ran low to the ground, as if they were running a secret ops mission. They made it to the south tower in about five minutes. Benny started the conversation.

"Ravenclaw vs. Gryffindor Saturday. Who's gonna win it? Kate? Shannon? No bragging? I think we need to take your temperatures if you don't start showing off in a minute."

"Benny, shove it where the sun don't shine. We have more important things to discuss."

Matt looked Kate dead in the eye. Had Jarrod told him about their meeting in the hallway? She'd kill him if he did. "Like, what's going on in the different houses? Anything suspicious? C 'mon people, talk to me."

Dani went first. "Nothing too unusual is going on in Hufflepuff. It's just normal stuff, like people necking in the common room, bitching about how they never win. Stuff like that."

"What about Ravenclaw?"

"Everyone's too stressed about perfect grades to do anything but sit in the common room or library to study. The wildest I've ever seen them is when they're trying to argue up their GPA with McGonagall."

"Shit. Lauren, Benny, I hope you have good news."

Benny shook his head; he hadn't heard anything interesting in the past two weeks or so.

"Lauren?"

"Draco has a thing for the youngest Weasley."

"SHIT! When did he tell you this?"

"Our first night here, he confronted me in the common room. I turned the tables on him and asked who he was interested in. I figured it would be a Gryffindor, but I didn't know that it would be Ginny. I had to fight to keep my cool when he told me. His crush just fucked over our entire mission."

"Yeah, well, that ain't the worst of it."

Kate had seven pairs of eyes on her. "His feelings are returned. Ginny told me after lunch."

"That would explain a lot."

"Yeah, like how she gets pissed whenever someone bad mouths Malfoy. I wish I could tell her..."

Matt took her hands; Kate kept her gaze directed downwards. She couldn't let them see the blush on her cheeks. She thought 'They depend on you for answers, Kate; you don't get to be human.'

"Kate, you know you can't. We're here to try and prevent it, but we can't tell them; then we put them in danger. We agreed to this job; we're the ones that get the pay checks."

Kate nodded. "You're right. But we can try to keep them a part. Draco and Ginny don't get close enough for a dance on Friday, got it? I don't care if you don't get to dance with someone you like; you're there to keep them apart, understood?"

They all nodded.

"Good. It's time to get some sleep."

They nodded and left. Jarrod and Matt were the last ones to leave. As he passed her, Jarrod hissed, "Talk to him, Kate."

She nodded and grabbed Matt's arm to keep him from leaving.

"We need to talk."

He just looked down at her, his intense gaze making her squirm. Kate hated it when he did that.

"I was talking to Jarrod..."

"And he said that I'm still in love with you, right?"

"Yeah, he did."

"He's right. But I can't do a damn thing if you don't love me back, right?"

Tears were forming in her eyes.

'Please, Matt. Please don't make me cry.'

"Look at me, Kate."

He tilted her chin to look up at him. "What do you feel?"

"Feel? I'm not allowed to feel. The only feeling I can show is whatever I need to so I can get a confession, or convince my audience that I'm not Kate Morgan; I'm some stranger on a screen. That's all I am any more. I'm not allowed feelings, or..."

He kissed her quickly. She didn't even realized what was happening before he pulled back.

"You just kissed me."

A nod from him.

"Why?"

"I think Jarrod told you that. I. Still. Love. You. I'm in love with Kate Morgan, Hollywood actress, and the girl I met my first year at Americana. My sister's friend. The one who used to play games with me; the girl who went into town with me, and we would pretend that we were married, or something else that was completely off the wall. And do you know why we did that?"

"Refresh my memory."

"Because it was fun. Because she wanted to feel alive, and that helped her." He was too close to be considered just friendly, and was whispering in her ear now. "You're still that same girl, Kate. Just older and wiser."

"Am I really? I wasn't as good to you as I should have been. I took what you wanted to give me and I ran from you. I ran all the way to O'Hare, only to find out that you were assigned to this mission too. And to counteract that, I kiss the first I guy I meet on the Express. It was blind dumb luck that he was Ronald Weasley. And do you know what makes me such a bad person?"

"There isn't anything bad about you."

"Yes, there is. I don't love him. He wants to give me the sun, stars, and moon, but I don't love him. And I don't know what to do."

Kate had started to cry. Kate never cried. Matt pulled her close, hushing her and rubbing small circles on her back.

"It's all gonna be okay."

He started singing.

"She grew up with the children of the stars, in the Hollywood hills and the Boulevard..."

That earned a laugh from Kate.

"You shouldn't be singing."

"Hey! Don't bite the hand that calms you."

"Sorry. That's our song." She pulled away, keeping her arms wrapped around his chest. "Thank you, Matt."

"You're more than welcome."

"Matt, what are we gonna do?"

"What do you want to do?"

"I want to... I know what I want, but I can't have it! I can't just leave Ron like that. It would be suspicious. Plus, we need more inside information for Gryffindor. Being with Ron helps me get to basically everybody."

"This could be our little secret."

"Like, having an affair?"

"Something like that, yes."

"But what happens when they find out?"

"They don't find out. We meet like this, maybe in the library to avoid gossip. Who would suspect that anything was going on between a studious Ravenclaw, and the girlfriend of Ron Weasley, Harry Potter's best friend? If you bring all three of them along, the suspicion is even further removed."

"It sounds so wrong..."

Matt kissed her again, just a little bit longer.

"...but feels so right?" he finished for her.

Kate bit her lip and nodded. This is what she had wanted along; she had wanted to use Ron to make Matt jealous. She just wished this plan didn't have the potential to hurt that it did. She was about to voice her worry to Matt when he kissed her for the third time.

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