The Forging of the Bonds

Chapter 33. Calling Mike Out.

Mike paid hardly any attention in Defense, still angry at Potter and watching Elizabeth. She ignored his glances. He left class in a hurry for lunch.

"Mike?" Kate sat down next to him.

"Wha--oh, hi, Kate."

"You've been avoiding Elizabeth," she said. It wasn't a question.

"So?" he asked.

"I thought you liked her."

"I... I do."

"Well?"

"Well, what?"

"Men," Kate muttered.

"What about us?" Dave plunged down Kate's other side.

"Nothing," Kate said.

"So, Mike," Dave said, "how are things between you and Malfoy--"

"Don't you have your own love lives to worry about?" Mike erupted.

"Of course we do. Laura!" Dave called out to the Ravenclaw table and departed.

Kate looked angry. "You are--"

"I'm sorry, Kate. It's just... not going well."

"After two days?"

"Look, she's been avoiding me ever since we had our last meeting with Professor Potter--"

"Wait... you've been meeting with Professor Potter--"

"Yeah. He's been telling us some things about our parents--well, it's been all about Potter and Elizabeth's father so far."

"Okay..."

"Well, last night, Potter showed us a fight between him and Elizabeth's father, and a Death Eater. It was actually Potter for most of it--Malfoy was trying to get to his wife. And then... his wife told him she'd been tortured... and he just went crazy. He killed the Death Eater with Avada Kedavra. He used an Unforgivable Curse where a Stunner would do just as well.

"I don't feel comfortable dating the daughter of a man like that," he admitted.

"I see. You wouldn't happen to know the Death Eater's name, would you?" Kate suddenly asked.

"Bellatrix Lestrange," he answered.

Kate sat in silence for almost twenty seconds, and finally jumped up. Brandishing her wand at him, she shouted out at the top of her lungs.

"MICHAEL RONALD WEASLEY, YOU ARE A COMPLETE IDIOT! APOLOGIZE TO ELIZABETH RIGHT FUCKING NOW!" She then hit him with some sort of painful hex. Mike got up and headed towards the Slytherin table, shocked at this change of behavior from his friend. Kate followed him, wand raised, as if he was a prisoner.

Both Elizabeth and Nadine Zabini stared at them. Zabini was the first to find her voice. "We should leave you two lovebirds alone," she suggested.

"Uhm... yeah," was all Mike could manage. "I'd rather not do this in front of everyone."

Elizabeth nodded. As soon as they were outside, she turned to him. "Well?"

"I'll apologize... but I'd like to know what for. Kate didn't make it clear, exactly."

Elizabeth looked at him. "For thinking I'm evil, for starters."

"But I never thought you were evil," he said.

Elizabeth blinked. "For thinking my father was evil, then."

"I never thought that either--"

"Then what--"

"I'm not exactly... comfortable with this--"

"And you think I am?" Now it was Mike's turn to blink.

"What?" she pressed. "You think my father's teaching me the Dark Arts? That our house is a Death Eater training camp?"

"I'm sorry," Mike said. "I thought, at least when it came to each other, we were past making judgments based on our families' reputations."

"I guess--" she smiled, "--we'll need more work on that."

"I guess so," he said, putting his arms around her.

"What happened to Longbottom? One moment, you're talking like everyone else would, and--"

"I told her the Death Eater your father killed was Lestrange."

"Any idea why?"

Mike shook his head. "Potter probably knows."

Elizabeth frowned. "We'll ask him, but I think the two-week break he suggested is a good idea."

"Agreed," Mike said. "It'll give us time--" he leaned in "--to work on our relationship."

They didn't return to their common rooms for hours.