'I thought you were meant to be at home for Christmas?' Harry asked, when Katie unexpectedly joined him for lunch.
'I came back,' she grinned. 'Ange and Alicia were taking their plans for my well being a bit too far so I told them I would go home when they did. I went home, had a really interesting conversation with my parents, and came back today.'
'What did your parents say?' He inquired. She seemed happy, certainly she was more cheerful than in the few days of being shepherded away from him before leaving.
'They cancelled their subscription to the Daily Prophet,' Katie beamed. 'Dad told me that I could go out with whomever I damn well pleased as long as he was kind, good-looking, rich and polite, and they both said that they knew me well enough to see the article was trash.'
'That's good,' Harry decided. 'It's about time more people realised how kind, good -looking and polite I am.'
'Are you rich?' Katie asked, giggling. 'Should I warn Daddy that I might have found someone who has designs on his darling daughter and fits his criteria?'
'I have a trust fund,' Harry told her, 'and my family is an old, pure-blooded one apparently, but I actually have no idea.'
'I guess it doesn't really matter until you're seventeen and emancipated,' Katie decided.
'Voldemort will have killed me long before then,' Harry agreed. 'It's not going to be a problem.' 'Don't joke about things like that,' Katie scowled, thumping him on the arm.
'Yes, Dark Mistress,' Harry inclined his head mockingly, rubbing his upper arm.
'Good boy,' Katie congratulated him, patting him on the cheek.
'Did you like your present?' Harry asked.
'Oh, yes,' she grinned, 'but if you keep giving me things like that then a girl's going to start thinking you want to be more than just friends.'
'Just don't tell Rita Skeeter,' Harry remarked. 'I can't use it, and I'm sure it was only a matter of time until Umbridge tried to confiscate it.'
'I might not give it back even if your lifetime ban gets wiped away,' Katie warned him. 'I knew I should have made you sign something in blood,' Harry sighed in good humour. He'd missed Katie's banter.
'For a Firebolt I would have signed almost anything,' Katie nodded.
'Well if you're willing,' Harry fished a scrap of parchment out of his pocket, 'how does eternal slavery sound?'
'To you?' Katie eyed him coyly and bit her lip. 'Do I get to call you Dark Master?' She asked in her smoothest, most dulcet voice.
'If you want,' Harry answered playfully, then, suddenly remembering what purpose he'd given this piece of parchment he turned it over. To his delight the address written upon the reverse clearly belonged to a house, rather than a workplace. He had Skeeter's home address. 'It's a shame you already gave it to me for the foreseeable future, then,' Katie responded slyly.
'You'd have been a terrible slave anyway,' Harry decided.
'Well your present was a lot better than mine,' Katie admitted.
'I always wanted a sneakoscope,' Harry smiled.
'Then why don't you have it with you?' She accused.
'Because it whistles constantly for no reason, I had to wrap it up in my socks and bury it in my trunk so nobody can hear it.' Since that had also proved unsuccessful he'd put it in the chamber with Salazar and it had finally stayed quiet.
'Been doing untrustworthy things have you,' Katie grinned.
'Every other second of every day?' Harry asked incredulously. 'When there's nobody in the room?'
'How do you know it was making a noise if nobody was in the room?' Katie glanced up at him from her food.
'Because I can hear it from the common room when it's quiet,' Harry explained. 'I did like the chocolate,' he smiled, 'my sweet tooth is getting worse, too many bad influences.'
'What did Neville get you?' Katie asked. 'I know you bought him that really rare, unpronounceable cactus, he sent me a letter that had the damn things name twice in every sentence. It took me hours to read it without tying my tongue in a knot.' 'Mimbulus Mimbletonia,' Harry corrected her, extending his forearm in her direction, and tugging up the sleeve of his robes to reveal the slim, dragon-hide duelling holster his wand was now in. 'He got me this, aurors use them.'
'Cool,' she exclaimed. 'How does it work?'
'I flick my wrist,' he demonstrated and his wand shot into his palm.
'What happens if you don't catch it?'
'I drop my wand and look like an idiot,' Harry grinned, 'and presumably lose whatever duel I was about to fight in. I've practised using it.'
It was a valuable gift, dragon-hide didn't come cheap, and being able to draw his wand faster and keep it safely within his sleeve was priceless.
'Enjoy your lunch,' he told her, retracting his wand and standing up.
'Going somewhere?'
'I have a promise to keep,' he smiled.
'France, then,' she surmised. 'You only smile like that when you're sneaking off to see Fleur.'
'That obvious?'
'Only to me,' she gave him a cheerful wave. 'Have a good time, if anyone comes asking I'll tell them you were with me all along.'
'Thanks,' he returned her wave.
He retraced his steps from the morning back towards the Chamber of Secrets. The corridors were emptier around christmas, especially this year, almost all of the students had gone home and he didn't have to worry about disillusioning himself.
A morning of trying to develop his duelling style, something he had been attempting off and on in his spare moments, had remained rather unproductive. He was faster, he could bend one wand motion into the next much more easily, he'd spent much off his time in Charms practising that when Flitwick wasn't watching him, but it didn't feel like enough improvement to be a match for the onslaught Voldemort was capable of unleashing.
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