Life Is For Living

A/N : All I have to say is, I’m so glad you guys put up with me. LOL. So many mistakes in that last chapter. Uh, I honestly don’t know how the one happened. The “around three in the two”....honestly, it boggles my mind. I think I need a beta. I read through that chapter and went, “Ok, I’m going to note them in my post.”, and then they just got worse and more embarrassing. But I think “around three in the two” is now my new catchphrase. : )

    But now I have my laptop. No more backspacing to correct my misspelled words, since I have AutoCorrect. And I can sit in my comfy chair and type now. So, I’ll write better that way too.

    Ok, onto this chapter. Welcoming Feast and some other things.

****

    Once the first years had been sorted, which included a funny exchange of the Creevey brothers, the food appeared on the table.

    “So, Kate, how is the castle while no one’s here?” Angelina asked as she piled food on her plate.

    “Boring. But quiet,” Katie said over the chatter surrounding them.

    “Free not, fair lady,” Fred said winking at Katie, “It shall be boring no more.”

    Katie laughed. “In more ways than one.”

    Fred furrowed his brow. This caused Katie to feel extremely proud.

    “Ha! I know something you don’t know!” she said, doing a dance in her chair.

    Her section of the table leaned in around her. “And?” George said, eyeing Katie.

    “You’ll find out soon,” Katie said, happy that Draco had told her what was going on this year.

    “Hmmmm, and Charlie said he might be coming here for something,” Fred said in a wistful voice.

    Katie blushed and looked down at her food. “Don’t know about that part, but I do know the main thing,” she said stopping Lee from asking, “And no, I don’t know what we need the dress robes for, Lee.”

    Lee slumped back in his seat, but smiled at Katie. “I guess I’ll just have to keep waiting, eh love?”

    Katie grinned at him. “Yep. Did you mum make you bring a camera?”

    Lee nodded mournfully. “I can see it now. My picture self is going to be clawing at the side of the frame, trying to get out. What a lovely picture,” he said laughing.

    Katie smiled at Lee before taking a bite of her food. Angelina gasped from across the table.

    “She eats! It’s a miracle!” Angelina managed to say before Katie threw a piece of her roll at her.

    “Be nice to me. I had to survive a summer here,” Katie said pouting.

    Angelina threw the bread back at her. “My ass! You know you had fun.”

    “Come now, girls,” Fred said leaning between them, “What would Percy say?”

    “Act your ages!” Katie and Lee said in unison before laughing out loud.

    A moment later, Dumbledore stood and the Great Hall went silent, notwithstanding the rain and howling wind outside. Katie tuned the man out, until he spoke something that made Katie’s heart sink.

    “It is also my painful duty to inform you that the Inter-House Quidditch Cup will not take place this year.”

    She heard Harry’s voiced anger and looked to her side to see Fred and George mouthing soundlessly in Dumbledore’s direction. Katie looked across the table to see Angelina and Alicia were just as dumbstruck as she was, and Lee looked ready to attack Dumbledore. Dumbledore continued, Katie amused, to announce the Triwizard Tournament, when the doors to the Great Hall opened as thunder sounded from above. A haggard looking man stood in the doorway, before hobbling toward the faculty table. As the man sat down, Dumbledore looked around the Great Hall, smiling.

    “May I introduce our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher? Professor Moody.”

    Katie got a good view of the new teacher and felt an odd feeling pass over her. It appeared as if the man was staring right at her. Katie looked down at her plate, and took a deep breath.

    ‘Why did Snape have to ruin everything? I miss Remus,’ Katie thought, looking back up toward the faculty table.

    Snape looked particularly sour, but his eyes flashed when the flickered over her. Katie smiled in return, knowing that the other man couldn’t. The rest of the night was a blur. Dumbledore announced the Triwizard Tournament and explained it origins and it’s new set of rules. Including the one about the entrants having to be seventeen years or older. Katie know understood Percy’s statement further. She, herself, wouldn’t be seventeen until December; the Twins wouldn’t be seventeen until April. Dumbledore continued, announcing that the delegates from Durmstrang and Beauxbatons would be arriving in October and that the champions would be selected on Halloween. When he dismissed them all to go to bed, Katie stood with Angelina and Alicia.

    “Fred? George? Come on,” Katie said tugging on each of the Twins’ arms.

    Fred shot her a glare that could easily compete with one of Snape’s. “You girls go on.”

    Katie furrowed her brow. “Ok,” she said slowly, walking parallel to Angelina and Alicia.

    Cedric came bounding over when they reached the door.

    “I think I might enter,” he said, smile a mile wide.

    Katie’s brow furrowed further, and a feeling of déjà vu passed over her. She gasped slightly. “I don’t think you should,” Katie said in a rush.

    Cedric looked at her curiously, almost mirroring Oliver’s facial expression of being adorably clueless. “I don’t understand. Why not? I’m of age,” he said smiling, “Besides, it could be fun.”

    Katie hugged him suddenly. If Cedric thought this was odd, he didn’t say it. He just hugged Katie, tightly too him.

    “Hey, what’s wrong, Kate?”

    “I just- Dumbledore said something about a death toll, and I-”

    Cedric pulled away from her and leaned down to look at her better. “That’s nice that you’re worried, but I’m sure that the Ministry has taken a lot of precautions. Even if I do get picked, I’m not going to die, Kate.”

    Katie felt a shiver pass down her spine. She had a feeling that she should write this down.

****

    The next day, it became clear why Fred and George had been so angry the night before. They wanted to enter the Tournament. And try and fool the judge. And Lee was joining them.

    “Oh please,” Katie said, almost pleading with them, “Please don’t do this. Cedric already said he was going to enter and I got a bad feeling about this whole thing.”

    Fred and George tensed at the mention of Cedric.

    “Well,” Fred said haughtily, “can’t let Diggory win. What about you, Ang? You’ll turn seventeen before then.”

    Angelina looked nervous. “I don’t know yet. I might.”

    “ANG!” Katie shouted, “No! You have to believe me. This Tournament is a bad idea.”

    “Oh, sod off, Katie,” Fred said angrily.

    Katie narrowed her eyes and stood from the table. Walking up behind Fred, who had been seated a few seats away from her, she punched him in the arm, hard.

    “Merlin!” Fred said, glaring at her, “What’dya do that for?”

    “Because you’re being a real git, Fred. Excuse me for caring about you enough to care if you live or die,” Katie said, tears filling her eyes before she stormed out of the Great Hall, grabbing her schedule and books as she went.

    She didn’t notice that someone had seen the transaction and was following her.

*

    “Nice, Fred,” Lee said from across the table, looking at is friend with disdain.

    “Fuck,” Fred muttered, putting his head in his hands, “Bloody fucking hell.”

    “Exactly,” Angelina said angrily.

    With a sigh, Fred stood from the table. “I’ll be back.”

*

    Katie stood in the entrance hall, holding back her tears. She knew crying in the midst of all this traffic would not be a good thing to do. A hand grabbed her arm and she looked up. Snape. He nodded his head toward the dungeons and Katie allowed herself to be guided down there.

*

    Fred walked out of the Great Hall, just in time to see Katie being taken to the dungeons by Snape. He kept his blood from boiling further and followed them.

*

    Snape guided her into the Potions classroom and shut the door. She fought from bursting into tears the moment the door closed, but it was no use. As soon as the first tear fell from her eyes, Snape’s hand was on her shoulder, begging her not to cry.

    “What happened out there?” he asked kindly.

    “It was nothing.”

    “If it was nothing, you wouldn’t be crying. Now tell me.”

    Katie sighed. “This whole Tournament thing is a completely bad idea. I got a bad déjà vu feeling when Cedric told me he was thinking about entering. I think that was what I dreamed last week that I couldn’t remember. Something’s not right about it all. And that Professor Moody? I don’t know about him either,” she said and she noticed that Snape stiffened at the mention of Moody, “And Fred and George are going to try and enter. And I just- They don’t understand how much they mean to me. The Weasley’s have been what I base the word ‘family’ on, for my whole life. It would kill me if anything happened to any of them,” she said pausing, “Between my dreams and this Tournament, I don’t know what I’m going to do,” she said looking up at Snape finally.

    Her godfather’s face showed nothing but compassion. “You’ll be fine. I promise. I’ll take care of you.”

    Katie turned and embraced Snape tightly. “Thank you,” she said, her heart feeling just the tiniest bit lighter.

*

    Fred listened to the exchange through the door. He would never admit it to anyone but himself, but Snape seemed like a good person to take care of Katie. He understood and he listened to her. He didn’t treat her like a child. He accepted that she was scared and made her feel at ease. The exact opposite of what he had done. Fred sighed and walked to the top of the staircase to the dungeons to wait for Katie. He didn’t want her to know that he had listened in on her private conversation.

*

    Katie exited the classroom and made her way out of the dungeons. As she entered the entrance hall, a voice sounded behind her.

    “Katie, wait.”

    Fred. Katie turned around and looked at him, making sure that the pain was still in her eyes. She arched her eyebrow in questioning and Fred embraced her.

    “I’m sorry, Kate. I’m so sorry.”

    Katie laid her head against Fred’s shoulder. “Mean it?”

    “Yeah,” Fred said pulling away from her and kissing her cheek quickly, “I was being a git. Thanks for keeping me in line.”

    Katie smiled and looked down at the floor.

    “And I’m sorry that I didn’t take all that stuff seriously. You have every right to scared about the Tournament,” he said throwing an arm around her shoulders and steering her back toward the Great Hall, “Who am I to tell you not to be?”

    Katie shrugged and leaned closer to Fred. Fred tightened his grip on her shoulders.

    “Don’t worry. Nothing bad is going to happen.”

    “I don’t know about that.”

*

    At that last statement, Fred knew he would have to find an appropriate time to ask Katie about those dreams she had been talking about with Snape. Maybe she had dreamed something happening to one of their friends and was scared because of that. As the approached the table, Lee grinned and Angelina glared at him before smiling at Katie.

*

    “Everything ok now?” Angelina asked Katie, and before she could answer she thrust a piece of parchment in front of her, “This came for you. It was unmarked and all, so I opened it to check. I think it might be from Cedric though,” Angelina said as Katie blanched.

    “Ok,” Katie said, taking the parchment.

    As soon as she read the first line she smiled. Draco.

Meet me at “your” rock during lunch. I need to talk to you. Thanks.

    Katie rolled her eyes at the quotes around “your”. Cheeky little thing. She turned a looked for him at the Slytherin Table. They locked eyes and Katie gave a small nod. Draco winked and went back to his food before Katie turned around. Angelina was watching her expectantly.

    “Oh, it wasn’t from Cedric. But I know who sent it. It’s no big deal,” Katie said scanning her schedule, noticing her ordinary Potions were still on Tuesdays and Thursdays, while her advanced class had moved to Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.

    “Ang, did you notice our Advanced Potions class changed its days?” she asked looking across the table at Angelina.

    She groaned. “Yes. Now we are officially in the dungeons every day except for the weekends.”

    Katie mentally thanked her godfather for that bit of scheduling. The bell rang to signal the start of the morning classes, and a groan of disgust rose in the Great Hall, as everyone was herded out. Katie had a feeling in the pit of her stomach that today was going to be a long day.