Femme Fatale

Femme Fatale

Chapter One: Battle Tactics

Katie Bell woke with a start.

Bright summer sunlight shone through the cracks in the blinds. Katie blinked twice, squinting into the sun. She brought her wrist close to her face, peering at her watch. "10:23."

Katie sprang out of bed. "Fuck!" She pulled the doors of the wardrobe open and grabbed the first clothes she could reach. "I was supposed to meet the Quidditch team," Katie muttered to herself, trying to remember the time she was supposed to meet them, "Twenty minutes ago!"

Katie pulled on a red shirt and blue-and-black pinstriped pants. She dived for her money bag, shoved it and her wand in the pocket of her now-on robes, and stopped. "Anything...else?" Katie wondered to herself. Shoving the thought out of her mind, Katie dashed to her fireplace. She grabbed a pinch of Floo powder, tossed it in and said, "Flourish and Blotts!"

Katie stepped in and felt herself being whirled away.

Coughing and dusty, Katie tumbled out of the fireplace and into the bookshop. She dusted herself off and shook her blonde hair.

Katie smiled apologetically at an old lady whom she had flipped her hair at, and stroke out into the street of Diagon Alley. She walked across the way to the tables outside the Leaky Cauldron where, drinking lemonade and grinning at her, was the whole of the Quidditch team (plus Lee Jordan), ready to discuss -as Oliver called it- "battle tactics."

"Kathryn, darling, how nice of you to finally grace us with your presence," George said, blue eyes dancing with laughter.

"Fashionably late, I suppose," Lee added.

"Though not fashionably accurate," Fred teased. "Pinstripes? Have you gone colorblind?"

"Hey!" Katie cried indignantly, tugging at her pants. "I like pinstripes!" She sniffed in a stuck-up manner. "And speaking of fashion no-no's- ripped jeans, Weasley? Oy vay."

Fred tipped his nose up in mock disgust. "Katie, jeans will never go out of fashion."

"Um, hello?" Alicia asked, snapping her fingers.

"When did this turn into a fashion debate?" Oliver queried.

Angelina smiled at Fred, George, Lee, and Katie. "Don't stop now- it's funny!"

"Funny," Harry repeated. "Riiiiiiiight."

Oliver tipped his head to the left ever-so-slightly. "I agree with Harry," he announced.

Alicia hit his arm. "You would!"

Suddenly, Lee changed the subject by saying "Uh, Katie? Shoes?"

Katie looked down at her bare feet. "Oh, damn. I knew I was forgetting something." She wiggled her toes.

Fred and George exchanged looks and cried "TWINKLE TOES!"

Everyone got a good laugh out of that until Oliver waved his hand, and said, "Hello? I exist! What about the battle tactics?"

Katie grinned. "Ollie, only you-"

"Can prevent forest fires," Lee finished.

"I was going to say 'only you could call Quidditch game plans "Battle Tactics,"' but okay," Katie said.

Angelina snorted, and said ,"If your charts are battle plans, then these are war paints." She held up two tubes of lipstick: a gold one and a scarlet one.

Katie seized the lipstick and smeared a streak of gold on one cheek, and a streak of red on the other. "There. War paint. Let's go, Ollie! We want to win!" She tossed the tubes to Alicia, who followed suit. Once everyone was decked out in Gryffindor style "war paint," Oliver began explaining the battle tactics with great enthusiasm, and wild gestures.

Mostly, the team just nodded and agreed, not paying attention to Oliver's frenzied explanations. Finally, he finished with a "we are going to kick ass this season."

Katie raised and eyebrow. "Don't we always?"

"Yes," Oliver agreed. "We just don't kick hard enough. But this season, we are going to kick some major anal."

Suddenly, Lee's face broke out into grin. "I just had a really funny mental image of you guys going around in combat boots, kicking the Sytherin team up and down the Quidditch field." He laughed maniacally.

Harry rolled his eyes. "Great, Lee. It sounds very pleasant."

George frowned. "You, mister, do not have enough team spirit."

"Hey," Katie said, defending the younger boy. "He's got plenty of team spirit. We're just overly so. Harry's got at least as much team spirit as a Hufflepuff or a Ravenclaw. So don't go gnawing on his leg like I know you would."

"Fred looked as though he had been slapped. "As much team spirit as a Ravenclaw?" he repeated. "Why, that's an outrage! WE ARE GRYFFINDORS! CHAMPIONS OF TEAM SPIRIT! MASTERS OF OVER-ENTHUSIASM!!! THE MASTERS, I SAY!"

Angelina smirked. "I've noticed."

Katie rolled her eyes. "Have you touched any pointy needles lately? Sniffed any white powder?" She paused, holding up three fingers. "How many fingers am I holding up?"

Fred pretended to be completely smashed. "Sixteen fingers, Mummy. Dance with me!" Fred danced with a mop that he seized from inside the pub, singing the French national anthem with a surprisingly good accent.

Lee picked up a glass of ice-water, and dumped it down Fred's shirt when he wasn't looking.

Fred howled, and hurled some fallen ice cubes at Lee's head. Lee, of course, threw them back, missed, and hit Angelina.

Harry stood up, walked a safe distance away, and called over at the group, "See you at Hogwarts!"

They yelled "Bye!" in , before Angelina sprang up to join Fred in the ice-war.

Angelina dumped her lemonade over Lee's head, splattering Alicia (who, in turn, tossed some stray ice in her face).

Katie and George exchanged evil grins and joined the war. Squealing, laughing, and generally making a spectacle out of themselves, the six stole drinks from off of random tables to throw at the opposing teams.

Oliver leaned back in his chair, not quite ready to leave, with a sad, dazed smile playing on his lips.

*****Katie's POV*****

Sticky, wet, and laughing, Lee, Angelina, Fred, Alicia, George, and I plopped down at our table, where Oliver sat with an odd smile on his face.

"Oh no," George muttered next to me, voicing what I was thinking. "I don't like that look."

I nodded. "Hey, Ol!" I smiled at him. "Knut for your thought?"

Oliver's expression shifted into playful amusement. "Hell no," he said, a note of teasing in his voice. "My thoughts are worth at least a Galleon."

I raised an eyebrow, and threw a piece of gold at him. It connected with his head,

Oliver sat up straight, and said "I was just thinking how a fool and her money are easily parted."

Everyone laughed. I smiled sweetly, and turned his nearly untouched glass of lemonade over on his head.

*

"Mu-um," Elizabeth, my six-year-old sister whined. "Katie's not sharing the Honeydukes chocolate!"

I was about three inches from cursing the little brat into smithereens.

"Katie!" Mum swept into the kitchen in her ivory ball-gown, in the middle of putting her earrings in. She and dad were going to some stuck-up fancy Ministry ball later that night, and she had nearly gone off the deep end because she couldn't find her shoes. "Katie, let your sister have some chocolate.

"I put my hand on my right hip, and said (very firmly), "No."

"Kathryn Samantha Bell, you will give Lizzie some of that chocolate."

"Eve Carolina Bell, I will not give Liz some of the chocolate."

Mum's lips went very straight, and she hissed with gritted teeth "Kathryn, DO NOT take that tone with me."

She only used my full name when she was royally pissed at me. "Mum, it's my chocolate. Fred bought it for me when we were in Hogsmeade week before last."

"I do not care. Give her some."

I glared. "Over my dead and mangled corpse." I stomped up the marble stairs and into my room, where I slammed the door shut. I pouted at the wall, and counted 97 seconds. Mom and dad always waited 97 seconds after I slammed the door to talk about me.

After I finished counting, I crept out into the hallway, stealthily making my way down half the flight of steps where I could hide behind the statue of my grandfather.

"Michael," my mom said in a low voice. I almost laughed. They were so predictable. "Michael, that wasn't at all like Katie!"

Dad nodded. "I know. She's more of the quiet, obedient type. It's always like the 'Jump. How High?' thing. It makes her easier to deal with than most other kids."

Mom sighed. "Oh, mike, don't you think we're taking advantage of her?"

Dad shrugged. "As long as she obeys, I don't see what the problem is."

Hold on. WHAT?! Did my dad just say that? They were taking advantage of me? Treating me like I was some sort of mindless Cinderella? They were jerking me around, and expecting me to go with it!

I was mad. But it was a cold anger. A calm, cold anger.

We'd see who jerked who.

*****End Katie's POV*****

A/N: Whew! That takes care of Chapter Number One! Hope you liked it! Ookaay, next chapter, Katie officially starts a mini-rebellion. Go her! And they go back to Hogwarts. And so on. I'll post it as soon as I write it! Thanxies to everybody who reviewed!

;)

~"Things That I Took From Somewhere Else"~

From: I nodded. "Hey Ol!" to "I was just thinking that a fool and her money are easily parted."

That's from a strip of Calvin and Hobbes, the best comic EVEREVEREVER, by Bill Watterson

I was mad. But it was a cold anger. A calm, cold anger.

We'd see who jerked who.

I read this in a book in like, the fourth grade. I forget from where, though. Anybody know?