Harry Potter :Diamond Heart

'No,' Katie exclaimed, 'everyone just knows it's haunted.'

'I can tell you, if you like?' Katie brushed the splinters off the three-legged chair and gestured for Harry to sit on one half. He obliged and Katie took the other side, wrapping an arm around his waist to keep her balance.

'Tell me,' she all but commanded.

'A while back there was a student at Hogwarts who was a werewolf,' Harry began, trying to think of a way to leave the names out. 'Every full moon he would come here to transform, sneaking out of the castle using a secret passage.' He was wise enough to keep the entrance to himself; it would be a very bad start to his date with Katie if she were squished by the Whomping Willow. 'The werewolf was lucky enough to have three friends who did not care what he was and they decided, in order to help him that they would become animagi.' 'How would that help?' Katie asked, eyeing the claw marks on the walls with more interest than before.

'Werewolves are not dangerous to animals, remember, their bite only effects humans. The transformation is supposed to be very painful and so to keep him company they turned into animals and came here with him.'

'Did nobody ever realise?'

'I don't know,' Harry admitted. 'That's the whole of the story as I know it.'

'How did you learn about the place?'

'Do you remember Professor Lupin?' Harry asked gently. It had been common knowledge that he was a werewolf after his resignation came into effect, but Katie had not yet seemed connection.

to

make

the

obvious

'Yes,' Katie nodded, 'he resigned because... Oh,' she realised. 'He was the student.'

'He told me about it last year,' Harry explained.

'Who were the other three, then?' Katie asked.

'Sirius Black, Peter Pettigrew,' Harry endeavoured to keep his voice even at the name of the traitor, 'and James Potter.' His voice cracked at the last name and looked away embarrassedly.

'Your father,' Katie surmised sympathetically. She fell silent for a little while, clearly searching for something to say, then squeezed his shoulder and gave him a smile. 'Thanks for telling me the story.' Harry heard the unspoken gratitude in her tone for voluntarily telling her something that he knew would interest her, but might stir up less enviable feelings within him.

'I've come here almost every time I visit Hogsmeade,' Katie began after a moment of silence, 'but I never knew what it was actually for.'

'What did you think it was?' Harry knew that most students believed it was haunted with the prevalent theory being a more violent version of Peeves the Poltergeist occupying the building.

'I always thought it was a hoax,' Katie admitted. 'I never saw any ghosts when I came here.'

'Well, now you know,' he glanced down at the chaser, who was staring up at him quite cutely.

'It's good you're taller now,' she noted, tucking herself under his arm. 'You can keep me warm.'

'It is a little cold,' Harry agreed. November had only grown chillier as it reached its end and the Shrieking Shack, with its broken windows and gaping walls, had little in the way of insulation.

Katie beamed and shifted a little closer to Harry, but under their combined weight the gnawed chair leg gave way and pitched them both onto floor.

'We've broken part of one of Hogwarts' most iconic buildings,' Katie giggled, pulling herself up on Harry's offered hand. 'Professor Lupin won't mind,' Harry grinned. 'He started the demise of the chair himself.'

Harry surveyed the remnants of the chair as Katie carefully brushed the dust off her clothes. It was in four separate pieces and unlikely to ever recover on its own. He considered using the mending charm to undo the damage, but Harry really didn't feel like fixing it. It sort of felt that by repairing the chair he would be undoing the moment that broke it and he had quite liked sharing the chair with Katie. It had been a comfortable closeness that they had been sharing and Harry could not remember feeling anything quite like it before.

I could grow to quite like Katie, Harry realised.

'Let's go to the Three Broomsticks,' she suggested, 'there's nowhere to sit now.' Harry nodded his agreement and they made their way back towards Hogsmeade's best pub.

It struck him that he hadn't even thought about Peter Pettigrew, getting stronger, the tournament or horcruxes since he had seen her. Harry smiled and his steps through the frosty ground became a little springier.

Katie waited only a few seconds after leaving before reaching out and taking Harry's hand in hers. For once Harry didn't mind or resist contact with another person, her hand was soft, and pleasantly warm.

They found Angelina, Alicia and the Weasley twins sitting round a table pressed against the side wall of the inn. It was as crowded as normal and Harry instinctively shifted a little closer to Katie and the reassuring warmth that seemed to emanate from her.

'All we need now is the keeper,' Angelina remarked as he and Katie pulled up a chair.

'It's a good thing Wood's left to join the big leagues,' a twin, presumably Fred since he was sitting closest to Angelina. After learning that the two girls were still holding a grudge for them swapping places on the last double date he doubted that they'd do it again.

'Indeed, brother mine,' George replied. 'He'd be outraged.'

'He'd be the only member of the team not dating another team mate,' Fred snickered as Katie disappeared towards the bar.

'We'd get a very long lecture about squad relations and then he would have forced us all to be married so we couldn't separate and harm the atmosphere of the team.' Harry laughed, a little grateful Katie had not been next to him to hear that. She was almost two years older than him and it might not seem like much now while they were at school, but he guessed a few successful dates and a year or so later might make some differences seem greater. Katie might start to think about the future as she left school and took the next steps in life. A career, a husband, a family all came after that final set of exams, hovering in the back of the head as a reminder of everything that was to come. Harry only considered it vaguely, being fourteen it was all a long way off, and he wanted a family some time in the future, but it seemed rather early in life or his relationship with Katie to be thinking about anything like that. It made him more than a little nervous.

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