Chapter 12: Hogsmeade
Harry woke up Friday morning with a groan. His body was still aching from Quidditch practice the evening before. Ron had turned into some kind of drill sergeant. Harry lay in bed for a moment, and thought about how later that day he would be going to Hogsmeade with Katie. They talked after practice and had decided to meet each other outside the Entrance Hall at three o’clock. He could hardly believe it. He had known Katie all these years and had never thought of her as anything more than a friend; today he would be going on a date with her. It had happened so fast, but the past week he had found himself thinking about her in class and looking forward more than usual to Quidditch practice; it was nice to think about something other than the prophecy, Voldemort, and Sirius’s death.
“Awake, Harry?”
Harry lifted his head off his pillow and looked through the hangings of his bed. Ron was standing there, peering in at him.
“Yeah.”
“It’s about time. I just came back from the Great Hall to see if you were alright. Breakfast is just over, but I brought up some toast for you.”
“Why?” Harry thought this was a bit odd, since he had missed breakfast before, and Ron hadn’t provided delivery then.
“Well, you’re my star player aren’t you? You’re going to have to have a regular diet, and missing breakfast isn’t a good idea, mate.”
Harry looked at him, nonplussed. Katie was definitely right, he thought, Wood had cursed the Captain’s badge.
Harry ate his toast, then got dressed and left for class. He had to suffer through Double Potions that morning, then he had Transfiguration “ after that he was free to spend the day with Katie at Hogsmeade.
Ron, who was headed to the library to research Human Transfiguration, walked with Harry while he was on his way to the Dungeons.
‘Hermione wanted me to ask you if you and Katie could join us at The Three Broomsticks at around six o’ clock. Dean and Ginny will be there too, kind of like a triple date...”
Ron didn’t sound too excited about Dean and Ginny, he clearly still had negative feelings about the relationship.
“Sure, if Katie’s alright with it.”
“Alright then, I’ll see you later, mate.” He turned for the library as Harry headed down to the dungeons for Potions. Snape’s class was, of course, thoroughly unenjoyable. While getting a piece of Boomslang skin, so he could study the properties and write a detailed essay, Harry had accidentally knocked over several of the Professor’s liquid filled jars, knocking them onto the floor, where they broke with a crash. Of course Snape only had to point his wand at the mess and utter, “scourgify”, but that didn’t stop him from deducting 10 points from Gryffindor and then giving Harry detention.
“That was completely unfair...” Harry muttered as he and Hermione left class for lunch.
“Oh, Harry “ you know how Snape is.”
“You would think he would be just a little nicer to me. I mean, he’s in the Order, and he knows I’m dealing with Sirius’s death. You know, he’s probably ecstatic that my godfather is dead “ there’s probably no shred of guilt in his tiny mind over anything that’s happened. He’s not human.”
Hermione bit her lip; clearly she didn’t think that Snape cared much about Sirius dying either. Usually if Hermione didn’t have an opposing view or argument, or something new to say, she just didn’t speak.
Harry spent lunch and most of Transfiguration in a bad mood, thinking about how much he loathed Snape, and how much he missed Sirius. By the end of class, though, it was time to meet Katie, and Harry decided to focus on the positive instead of the negative. Seeing Katie waiting for outside the Entrance Hall definitely made this easier; the sun was shining on her skin, and she looked as though she were glowing with radiance.
“Hey Harry,” she smiled at him as they turned to leave.
“Hey Katie,” he smiled back.
“So what do you want to do today?”
“Er...Whatever you like. Ron and Hermione want to meet us at the Three Broomsticks at around six though, so if it’s alright with you...”
“That’s fine, as long as Ron doesn’t start talking about Quidditch,” she said, grinning.
“Ah... I think you’ll be alright. He’ll be too busy trying not to spill something all over Hermione.”
“So, are they going together now?”
“Yeah, I think they’re pretty much set.”
Hermione and Ron were still upstairs in Gryffindor tower; Ron was probably pacing the room nervously while Hermione was upstairs getting ready with Ginny, Harry thought. He couldn’t help but smile at the thought of what his best friends were going through right now.
“So what’s it like, having your best friends dating each other? Do you feel left out?”
“I have company to keep me occupied, and I have to say “ I enjoy the company.”
Katie smiled shyly. She seemed to do this whenever she was complemented, Harry noticed throughout the rest of the evening. They spent a few hours just walking around Hogsmeade talking.
They talked about Quidditch (apparently Katie didn’t mind talking about the game, as Ron wasn’t around), their friends, school, just life basically. Harry tried to avoid the topic of the Voldemort, as he didn’t want to think about it much. They went into a Quidditch supply store, and into Honeydukes where Harry bought Katie a huge bag full of Chocolate Frogs and Fizzing Whizbees, which he learned, were her favorite sweets. At around half-five, they headed for the Three Broomsticks. They found a booth big enough for six people, and Harry bought Butterbeers for Katie and himself. They talked a bit more while they waited for Hermione, Ron, Ginny, and Dean. He was a lot more comfortable with Katie than he had been with Cho. She was laughing while he told her the story about the time he had set a snake loose at the zoo, when they were joined by the other four. Harry looked at Ron. He was holding Hermione’s hand but he looked quite terrified “ Hermione didn’t seem to notice. She was laughing and talking with Ginny, who Dean had his arms around. The latter couple definitely looked more comfortable then the former. Ron and Dean left to buy butterbeers for themselves and their girls, while Hermione and Ginny sat down. Ginny started talking to Katie, and Harry excused himself for a minute to go talk to Ron.
“So how’s it going?
“Alright, she does most of the talking. I don’t know where she finds stuff to talk about though. It’s like we haven’t know each other for six years.” Ron shook his head in disbelief.
“Well are you enjoying yourself?”
“Yeah, we went to the Shrieking Shack. She asked me about how I was doing as Quidditch Captain “ so I haven’t been totally speechless.
“Well try to relax a bit. It’s Hermione.”
“I know “ it’s Hermione. That’s the problem.”
“Ron “ just act normal. Or normal for you anyway.”
Ron sighed an ‘okay’ as they turned to join the girls.
They had just sat down when a shaken looking wizard ran into the pub, waving something around in his hand.
“The Daily Prophet just released an Extra edition...Five ministry workers were murdered this afternoon, and two more were taken...” he shouted so the whole pub could hear.
This announcement was followed by a terrified silence.
“This is what it says,” He started to read from the paper in his hands, “Someone, thought to be Kingsley Shacklebolt, the Head of the Department for Magical Law Enforcement, walked into the Magical Law enforcement office a few hours ago and started shooting killing curses at ministry employees. Five were killed in the attack. He then took two ministry officials by force and left the Dark Mark on the scene. Victims’ names were not released. Shacklebolt, who was in a meeting with the Department Heads and Minister of Magic Amelia Bones at the time, was not the actually attacker.
“It is believed that this is the work of an imposter,” Bones said. “Most likely by the means of Polyjuice Potion... Shacklebolt is now making a list of all people who he has had close contact with over the past month, and therefore may have taken something from him to brew the potion. The attack is thought to serve the purpose of merely sending a message to the Ministry and the public “ as there was nothing, other than the two workers, taken from the scene and there doesn’t seem to be any clear motive. The Ministry will be launching a massive investigation into the attack, putting forth as much man power as possible; For now we are do not know much about the situation or motive.
The Minister also remarked that the public should be cautious, as it seems that You-Know-Who’s attack has officially begun.”
The wizard stopped reading at that point, and looked up to see the reaction. Everyone in the pub was in a state of shock. Suddenly the place burst into an uproar. Harry looked at the five people he was with: Katie had started to cry on Harry’s shoulder, Hermione on Ron’s. But Ginny, was not crying. Ginny was starting at the table, looking fearful, as was Ron.
“Dad...” she said quietly.
Suddenly Harry realized “ Arthur Weasley worked at the Department for Magical Law Enforcement. Hermione looked up at Ginny and Ron; she too had realized what was going on inside Ron and Ginny’s minds.
“What if... Ron...” Ginny looked at him, tears had started to fill her eyes, “Ron.. what if Dad...?”
With that Ron jumped up, still holding Hermione’s hand “
“We have to get to the school now.”
The group stood up along with ron, and they started to leave for the door, amidst the crying, screaming, angry, scared and shocked, witches and wizards in the pub.
“Harry, what’s wrong?” Katie asked, clearly bewildered as to what was going on.
“I’ll tell you on the way to the school,” he said as they exited onto the street, also filled with distraught men and women. They made their way back to the school as fast as they could, in an urgent run, while the glowing red sun lowered slowly behind the distant mountains.
A/N: Sorry about the cliffy - but you need to get used to them, they're my specialty. I'm trying to get these chapters up as soon as possible for you [eek! I'm on ch. 41 and I can't believe how far the story has progressed] Things are beginning to get interesting now that the relationships have been established and the Death Eaters have really begun to mix things up...