See Chapter One for Disclaimer
******************************************************************
Katie and Oliver moved around each other in the kitchen in a well rehearsed dance. For the last five years they set aside one night a month to prepare a meal from scratch, muggle style. It had started out as a dare and quickly evolved into familiar ritual. Once they moved past the first few disasters and had replaced the burnt curtains and repainted the ceiling, they slipped into a comforting groove; Katie chose the food and Oliver supplied the wine, and the conversation flowed into the small hours of the night.
Oliver transported the last of the dishes to the sink and set them to washing up. Returning to the couch he chose his next words carefully. “I‘ve heard a rumour that Etienne has been seen several times in London recently.”
Katie met his gaze calmly. “I’d heard the same rumours. I have almost convinced myself that it doesn’t bother me.”
“If you had let me…” he began.
“He humiliated me, Oliver, and broke my heart, hardly a crime worthy of you spending several years in Azkaban,” Katie retorted.
“Maybe not, but that one punch I did land felt damn good.”
“I am sure it did. I had several fantasies revolving around me throwing the punch, then using a sharp blade, and sending several small boxes to his mistress. It’s a bit strange really, I went for so long thinking about him every day and it wasn’t till I heard he was back in town that I realised how long it had been since I had thought of what happened.”
“Does this mean you are okay with the thought of seeing him?”
“Can I tell you after I do?” she asked quietly.
“Fair enough,” Oliver replied. “How about instead, you tell me (in general terms only please) how you are finding training?”
“It still seems faintly surreal. One moment I’m going through various drills and the next it hits me that I am going to be representing England! I’m enjoying playing with Harry again. There’s a lightness to him that wasn’t there at school.”
“Well he doesn’t have hordes of evil wizards trying to kill him daily so that might account for it,” Oliver said, grinning.
“Very true,” Katie agreed. “It was just very easy to forget when we were at school that he was facing life and death on a regular basis. I like the fact he is getting to be a kid again, if somewhat belatedly.”
“Is Flint giving you any trouble?”
“Surprisingly, no, he’s not. I went along all prepared to have to battle him over everything and he has been, for lack of a better word – pleasant.”
“Pleasant? This is Marcus Flint we’re talking about?”
“Be nice,” she admonished. “I will admit to being surprised, but I am actually enjoying playing along side him. He’s not the same person we knew at Hogwarts.”
*********************************************************************
Marcus crouched over the miniature Quidditch pitch at the team’s headquarters, moving the three tiny Chasers around as he demonstrated his ideas to Katie and Michael Fawcett the third Chaser. Katie began to grin as his enthusiasm swept over them.
“If we bring Evans and Lovegood into a support position over here then that will free you up to…” she began.
“Exactly!” Marcus exclaimed, instantly understanding the manoeuvre. “And as long as we keep Michael between here and … here then we are covered on that side as well.”
“I’m sorry,” Katie apologised, turning her head towards the other Chaser. “We’re not letting you get a word in edgewise.”
“There is no need to apologise,” Michael said smiling at her. “Tell me what to do and I’ll do it but ask me to design a play and I am stumped.”
“Are you sure?” Marcus asked, looking up at him.
“I’m sure. Anyway, I really should be going. It’s my wife’s birthday tonight and I want to take her out to dinner.”
“Fair enough,” Marcus grinned. “I’ll bring you up to speed on Monday morning.”
The two of them went back to poking at the tiny Chasers and scribbling down notes on a roll of parchment. After another hour, Katie’s stomach grumbled loudly. Marcus looked up at her with a smirk.
“Something to add Bell?” he enquired.
“Shut it Flint, I’m hungry.”
Marcus looked at the clock at the wall which was now reading ‘Too late to be here – Go Home!’ He looked at Katie speculatively and asked her, “We’re on a roll here, do you want to continue this over food?”
“Why not.”
******************************************************************
“When you said food I wasn’t expecting you to prepare it yourself,” Katie commented as Marcus handed her a glass of red wine.
“I am slightly domesticated. Even I can manage pasta.” Marcus moved past her towards the dining room. “Grab the bread and follow me.”
Katie complied, sneaking peeks into the rooms they passed. She certainly hadn’t expected to see inside Marcus’s house and couldn’t restrain her curiosity at this opportunity.
After the meal Marcus led her into library and settled into the corner of his favourite couch. He tilted his head and looked over at Katie curled at the other end.
“You’re a bloody brilliant Quidditch player Katie, why haven’t you been playing in the English league?”
“That came out of nowhere,” she commented, pleased at his compliment.
“Not really. I have been meaning to ask for a while,” Marcus admitted.
Katie paused before replying. “The answer to that is rather personal. I’ll pass if that’s all the same to you.”
“Come on Bell,” Marcus smirked. “You can trust me.”
Katie shook her head. “I don’t think so.”
Marcus wasn’t sure why he was pushing the issue but recently he had found himself driven to learn as much as he could about Katie. Ginny had been rather vague on the subject and he wanted to know. “If you don’t tell me I am going to assume the worst like you fled the country to give birth to Percy Weasley’s illegitimate child!”
“God no!” Katie exclaimed laughing.
“Professor Flitwick’s then or perhaps Dumbledore himself,” Marcus persisted. “Come on Katie, where’s that vaunted Gryffindor courage?”
“You’re going to keep on harassing me aren’t you?” Katie looked at him in slight dismay.
“Hmmm I have made it a habit to go after the things I want in life.” Marcus paused and looked at her seriously. “I promise it doesn’t go out of this room.”
Katie returned his look. She was not opening herself up without more of a guarantee against future ridicule. “If you really want the answer I expect a comparable confession from you.”
Marcus laughed, “That is not very Gryffindor of you, Katie.”
“We’re not in school anymore, Marcus. McGonagall is not here to take points.”
“Touché. Fine, I agree to share something with you. Start talking Bell,” he ordered.
“Well, the Ministry finally admitted that You Know Who was back at the end of my seventh year. I had always planned on playing professionally but the increased tension made a lot of the teams wary about signing new players.”
Marcus nodded in agreement.
“Oliver had a word with a friend of his and I ended up being signed as a reserve to the Harpies. It was about that time that I fell head over heels in love for the first time. Despite all the uncertainty in the League and the Death Eater attacks, I was feeling very happy with my life.” Katie paused before speaking again. “You knew that my parents had died in the First War?”
When Marcus murmured in agreement she continued. “Well, my grandparents had raised me until I went to Hogwarts. They were all the family I had left.”
Marcus felt a cold sensation in his stomach. “Were?”
Katie drew a deep breath and fought to keep her voice dispassionate. If she kept telling herself it was in the past she might get through this without crying.
“They were in Hogsmeade on May 6th. They didn’t survive the battle.” May 6th had marked a mammoth battle as Death Eaters had tried to take the town as a staging point for the attack on Hogwarts.
“I had been visiting Oliver when I got the news and was just devastated. He escorted me to my home thinking that Etienne would help me through this. What we found was the little shit in bed with my neighbour. By this time I was in complete shock. Oliver hit him, bundled me up, and took me back to his place to grieve. He wanted to kill Etienne, but I wouldn’t let him. Not out of any lingering love for him, but Oliver was all the family I had left and I couldn’t lose him to Azkaban.” Katie worried a thread on her over robes as she tried to keep her composure. “It was a particularly ugly time in my life and I just wanted to get the hell away from England and everything that had happened. I ended up in Canada after drifting for a while and tried out for the Haileybury Hammers. The rest, as they say, is history.”
Marcus was silent as he worked through everything Katie had revealed. For once he found himself agreeing with Wood. Katie’s ex deserved everything that came to him.
Katie looked up from her hands and met his eyes, “Your turn, Marcus. Tell me something about you.”
Marcus drew a deep breath. After learning that her entire family had been wiped out by Death Eaters, he wasn’t sure how she would react to his story, but decided that anything was better than sitting there watching her when she was so upset.
“I left school at eighteen with firm offers from a couple of teams. I tossed up between Puddlemere and the Falcons and chose the latter when I heard that Wood had been signed to United. I just couldn’t see the two of us playing on the same team. It seemed … unnatural.” Marcus laughed as he caught the cushion Katie had launched at his head; she had obviously regained her composure. “As Voldemort began marshalling his power I came under increasing pressure from my family to take the Dark Mark.”
Katie’s eyes shot to his arm. Marcus intercepted the gaze and smiled at her, rolling up his sleeve to show his unmarked forearm. “I was doing something that I loved and I was damn good at it. Getting some ugly tattoo burnt into my arm to follow an insane dark lord who had been beaten by a baby was not high on my list of priorities. Unfortunately, my father had other plans. He wasn’t as high up in the Inner Circle as Lucius Malfoy but he did have a son of age. Bringing me into the ‘family business’ would have helped his movements up the ranks.
“My father decided that I needed a little encouragement, so he decided to torture my mother in front of me.” Marcus paused to take a few deep breaths before continuing. “He was too …enthusiastic… and she went into shock and died. I almost killed him, would have if Professor Snape hadn’t turned up. He’d heard a rumour about what had been planned and was trying to stop it. It was too late to save my mother, but he kept me out of Azkaban. He told me he would take care of everything for me. Within the next forty-eight hours I had buried my mother and my father died under somewhat mysterious circumstances.
“Did you …” Katie wasn’t quite sure how you asked someone if they had killed their father.
“No. Professor Snape said he would take care of everything and I never asked him how far he took that promise.”
“Do you have any family left?” Katie asked quietly
“I have Draco, Virginia and Professor Snape. That is all the family I need.”
“I understand. Oliver became my family after the attack on Hogsmeade. Blood is not as important as love.”
Marcus reached over and refilled her glass. “I’ll drink to that.”
********************************************************************
Katie woke up the next morning, her mind still reeling with what she had learnt about Marcus. Part of her was screaming for revealing her secrets to her school nemesis while the other part was relieved to have got it into the open. Whenever the subject had come up with her friends they all quickly leapt to her defence and rational discussion stopped.
Suddenly, she remembered the last part of the evening and almost choked on her tea. Merlin, she couldn’t believe that she had actually agreed to go out with him tonight! After she admitted that she had never been to the Snake Pit, Marcus had offered to personally show her around. Not a date, definitely not a date, Katie recited. Oh Merlin, it’s a date she thought frantically. I haven’t been on a date in over a year. For that less-than-memorable occasion she had called on the services of Alicia and Angelina (or more specifically their wardrobes) to get prepared. Katie wasn’t quite ready to tell the two Weasleys that she was seeing Marcus socially. Flustered, she grabbed a handful of powder and threw it into the fire.
“Raye wake up – it’s an emergency!” she yelled.
*******************************************************************
Katie smoothed her hands over her skirt trying to resist the urge to tug it lower. Her fellow Haileybury Hammers Chaser had insisted that a date – yes, it’s a date Katie – required something spectacular, and preferably miniscule. Katie had been adamant that she was not going to look like one of those muggle women who stood on street corners, but Raye had been equally adamant that she was not going to look like anyone’s maiden aunt! She had been very vocal on the subject actually. Katie did own nice robes, but one of the quirks of the Snake Pit dress code required its patrons to wear muggle clothing. Her supply of jeans and shorts just weren’t up to the job. They had compromised over a tan leather skirt and tiny black, strappy top. Strapped black heels completed the outfit.
Marcus knocked on Katie’s door, absently running his hands through his hair. He was unaccountably nervous over taking Katie to the club. He had invested a lot of himself into the Snake Pit and he wanted her to like it. He looked up as the door opened and broke into a smile. Katie’s legs seemed to go up forever and as she turned to grab her wand, Marcus grinned at the way the leather pulled across her butt.
“Shall we go?” he said.
End Chapter Three.
******************************************************************
Katie and Oliver moved around each other in the kitchen in a well rehearsed dance. For the last five years they set aside one night a month to prepare a meal from scratch, muggle style. It had started out as a dare and quickly evolved into familiar ritual. Once they moved past the first few disasters and had replaced the burnt curtains and repainted the ceiling, they slipped into a comforting groove; Katie chose the food and Oliver supplied the wine, and the conversation flowed into the small hours of the night.
Oliver transported the last of the dishes to the sink and set them to washing up. Returning to the couch he chose his next words carefully. “I‘ve heard a rumour that Etienne has been seen several times in London recently.”
Katie met his gaze calmly. “I’d heard the same rumours. I have almost convinced myself that it doesn’t bother me.”
“If you had let me…” he began.
“He humiliated me, Oliver, and broke my heart, hardly a crime worthy of you spending several years in Azkaban,” Katie retorted.
“Maybe not, but that one punch I did land felt damn good.”
“I am sure it did. I had several fantasies revolving around me throwing the punch, then using a sharp blade, and sending several small boxes to his mistress. It’s a bit strange really, I went for so long thinking about him every day and it wasn’t till I heard he was back in town that I realised how long it had been since I had thought of what happened.”
“Does this mean you are okay with the thought of seeing him?”
“Can I tell you after I do?” she asked quietly.
“Fair enough,” Oliver replied. “How about instead, you tell me (in general terms only please) how you are finding training?”
“It still seems faintly surreal. One moment I’m going through various drills and the next it hits me that I am going to be representing England! I’m enjoying playing with Harry again. There’s a lightness to him that wasn’t there at school.”
“Well he doesn’t have hordes of evil wizards trying to kill him daily so that might account for it,” Oliver said, grinning.
“Very true,” Katie agreed. “It was just very easy to forget when we were at school that he was facing life and death on a regular basis. I like the fact he is getting to be a kid again, if somewhat belatedly.”
“Is Flint giving you any trouble?”
“Surprisingly, no, he’s not. I went along all prepared to have to battle him over everything and he has been, for lack of a better word – pleasant.”
“Pleasant? This is Marcus Flint we’re talking about?”
“Be nice,” she admonished. “I will admit to being surprised, but I am actually enjoying playing along side him. He’s not the same person we knew at Hogwarts.”
*********************************************************************
Marcus crouched over the miniature Quidditch pitch at the team’s headquarters, moving the three tiny Chasers around as he demonstrated his ideas to Katie and Michael Fawcett the third Chaser. Katie began to grin as his enthusiasm swept over them.
“If we bring Evans and Lovegood into a support position over here then that will free you up to…” she began.
“Exactly!” Marcus exclaimed, instantly understanding the manoeuvre. “And as long as we keep Michael between here and … here then we are covered on that side as well.”
“I’m sorry,” Katie apologised, turning her head towards the other Chaser. “We’re not letting you get a word in edgewise.”
“There is no need to apologise,” Michael said smiling at her. “Tell me what to do and I’ll do it but ask me to design a play and I am stumped.”
“Are you sure?” Marcus asked, looking up at him.
“I’m sure. Anyway, I really should be going. It’s my wife’s birthday tonight and I want to take her out to dinner.”
“Fair enough,” Marcus grinned. “I’ll bring you up to speed on Monday morning.”
The two of them went back to poking at the tiny Chasers and scribbling down notes on a roll of parchment. After another hour, Katie’s stomach grumbled loudly. Marcus looked up at her with a smirk.
“Something to add Bell?” he enquired.
“Shut it Flint, I’m hungry.”
Marcus looked at the clock at the wall which was now reading ‘Too late to be here – Go Home!’ He looked at Katie speculatively and asked her, “We’re on a roll here, do you want to continue this over food?”
“Why not.”
******************************************************************
“When you said food I wasn’t expecting you to prepare it yourself,” Katie commented as Marcus handed her a glass of red wine.
“I am slightly domesticated. Even I can manage pasta.” Marcus moved past her towards the dining room. “Grab the bread and follow me.”
Katie complied, sneaking peeks into the rooms they passed. She certainly hadn’t expected to see inside Marcus’s house and couldn’t restrain her curiosity at this opportunity.
After the meal Marcus led her into library and settled into the corner of his favourite couch. He tilted his head and looked over at Katie curled at the other end.
“You’re a bloody brilliant Quidditch player Katie, why haven’t you been playing in the English league?”
“That came out of nowhere,” she commented, pleased at his compliment.
“Not really. I have been meaning to ask for a while,” Marcus admitted.
Katie paused before replying. “The answer to that is rather personal. I’ll pass if that’s all the same to you.”
“Come on Bell,” Marcus smirked. “You can trust me.”
Katie shook her head. “I don’t think so.”
Marcus wasn’t sure why he was pushing the issue but recently he had found himself driven to learn as much as he could about Katie. Ginny had been rather vague on the subject and he wanted to know. “If you don’t tell me I am going to assume the worst like you fled the country to give birth to Percy Weasley’s illegitimate child!”
“God no!” Katie exclaimed laughing.
“Professor Flitwick’s then or perhaps Dumbledore himself,” Marcus persisted. “Come on Katie, where’s that vaunted Gryffindor courage?”
“You’re going to keep on harassing me aren’t you?” Katie looked at him in slight dismay.
“Hmmm I have made it a habit to go after the things I want in life.” Marcus paused and looked at her seriously. “I promise it doesn’t go out of this room.”
Katie returned his look. She was not opening herself up without more of a guarantee against future ridicule. “If you really want the answer I expect a comparable confession from you.”
Marcus laughed, “That is not very Gryffindor of you, Katie.”
“We’re not in school anymore, Marcus. McGonagall is not here to take points.”
“Touché. Fine, I agree to share something with you. Start talking Bell,” he ordered.
“Well, the Ministry finally admitted that You Know Who was back at the end of my seventh year. I had always planned on playing professionally but the increased tension made a lot of the teams wary about signing new players.”
Marcus nodded in agreement.
“Oliver had a word with a friend of his and I ended up being signed as a reserve to the Harpies. It was about that time that I fell head over heels in love for the first time. Despite all the uncertainty in the League and the Death Eater attacks, I was feeling very happy with my life.” Katie paused before speaking again. “You knew that my parents had died in the First War?”
When Marcus murmured in agreement she continued. “Well, my grandparents had raised me until I went to Hogwarts. They were all the family I had left.”
Marcus felt a cold sensation in his stomach. “Were?”
Katie drew a deep breath and fought to keep her voice dispassionate. If she kept telling herself it was in the past she might get through this without crying.
“They were in Hogsmeade on May 6th. They didn’t survive the battle.” May 6th had marked a mammoth battle as Death Eaters had tried to take the town as a staging point for the attack on Hogwarts.
“I had been visiting Oliver when I got the news and was just devastated. He escorted me to my home thinking that Etienne would help me through this. What we found was the little shit in bed with my neighbour. By this time I was in complete shock. Oliver hit him, bundled me up, and took me back to his place to grieve. He wanted to kill Etienne, but I wouldn’t let him. Not out of any lingering love for him, but Oliver was all the family I had left and I couldn’t lose him to Azkaban.” Katie worried a thread on her over robes as she tried to keep her composure. “It was a particularly ugly time in my life and I just wanted to get the hell away from England and everything that had happened. I ended up in Canada after drifting for a while and tried out for the Haileybury Hammers. The rest, as they say, is history.”
Marcus was silent as he worked through everything Katie had revealed. For once he found himself agreeing with Wood. Katie’s ex deserved everything that came to him.
Katie looked up from her hands and met his eyes, “Your turn, Marcus. Tell me something about you.”
Marcus drew a deep breath. After learning that her entire family had been wiped out by Death Eaters, he wasn’t sure how she would react to his story, but decided that anything was better than sitting there watching her when she was so upset.
“I left school at eighteen with firm offers from a couple of teams. I tossed up between Puddlemere and the Falcons and chose the latter when I heard that Wood had been signed to United. I just couldn’t see the two of us playing on the same team. It seemed … unnatural.” Marcus laughed as he caught the cushion Katie had launched at his head; she had obviously regained her composure. “As Voldemort began marshalling his power I came under increasing pressure from my family to take the Dark Mark.”
Katie’s eyes shot to his arm. Marcus intercepted the gaze and smiled at her, rolling up his sleeve to show his unmarked forearm. “I was doing something that I loved and I was damn good at it. Getting some ugly tattoo burnt into my arm to follow an insane dark lord who had been beaten by a baby was not high on my list of priorities. Unfortunately, my father had other plans. He wasn’t as high up in the Inner Circle as Lucius Malfoy but he did have a son of age. Bringing me into the ‘family business’ would have helped his movements up the ranks.
“My father decided that I needed a little encouragement, so he decided to torture my mother in front of me.” Marcus paused to take a few deep breaths before continuing. “He was too …enthusiastic… and she went into shock and died. I almost killed him, would have if Professor Snape hadn’t turned up. He’d heard a rumour about what had been planned and was trying to stop it. It was too late to save my mother, but he kept me out of Azkaban. He told me he would take care of everything for me. Within the next forty-eight hours I had buried my mother and my father died under somewhat mysterious circumstances.
“Did you …” Katie wasn’t quite sure how you asked someone if they had killed their father.
“No. Professor Snape said he would take care of everything and I never asked him how far he took that promise.”
“Do you have any family left?” Katie asked quietly
“I have Draco, Virginia and Professor Snape. That is all the family I need.”
“I understand. Oliver became my family after the attack on Hogsmeade. Blood is not as important as love.”
Marcus reached over and refilled her glass. “I’ll drink to that.”
********************************************************************
Katie woke up the next morning, her mind still reeling with what she had learnt about Marcus. Part of her was screaming for revealing her secrets to her school nemesis while the other part was relieved to have got it into the open. Whenever the subject had come up with her friends they all quickly leapt to her defence and rational discussion stopped.
Suddenly, she remembered the last part of the evening and almost choked on her tea. Merlin, she couldn’t believe that she had actually agreed to go out with him tonight! After she admitted that she had never been to the Snake Pit, Marcus had offered to personally show her around. Not a date, definitely not a date, Katie recited. Oh Merlin, it’s a date she thought frantically. I haven’t been on a date in over a year. For that less-than-memorable occasion she had called on the services of Alicia and Angelina (or more specifically their wardrobes) to get prepared. Katie wasn’t quite ready to tell the two Weasleys that she was seeing Marcus socially. Flustered, she grabbed a handful of powder and threw it into the fire.
“Raye wake up – it’s an emergency!” she yelled.
*******************************************************************
Katie smoothed her hands over her skirt trying to resist the urge to tug it lower. Her fellow Haileybury Hammers Chaser had insisted that a date – yes, it’s a date Katie – required something spectacular, and preferably miniscule. Katie had been adamant that she was not going to look like one of those muggle women who stood on street corners, but Raye had been equally adamant that she was not going to look like anyone’s maiden aunt! She had been very vocal on the subject actually. Katie did own nice robes, but one of the quirks of the Snake Pit dress code required its patrons to wear muggle clothing. Her supply of jeans and shorts just weren’t up to the job. They had compromised over a tan leather skirt and tiny black, strappy top. Strapped black heels completed the outfit.
Marcus knocked on Katie’s door, absently running his hands through his hair. He was unaccountably nervous over taking Katie to the club. He had invested a lot of himself into the Snake Pit and he wanted her to like it. He looked up as the door opened and broke into a smile. Katie’s legs seemed to go up forever and as she turned to grab her wand, Marcus grinned at the way the leather pulled across her butt.
“Shall we go?” he said.
End Chapter Three.
Leave a Review