Katie entered the Great Hall just after Ron the next morning. As she passed the Gryffindor table, she caught a snippet of Harry and Ron's conversation.

"Where were you last night?" Ron asked angrily.

"I was with Katie." Harry said as he spooned some porridge into his mouth.

"Katie? As in Katie Blair? As in Katie Blair the filthy, traitorous Slytherin?" Ron said bitterly and Katie's heart sank.

"Ron! Don't talk about her like that!" Harry snapped.

"She's in the same house as You-Know-Who, Harry! All Slytherins go bad!"

"Well Katie's not like that. She's different. She's nice, and funny, and loyal, and she's far from evil." Harry defended Katie and Katie smiled to herself at those kind words.

Glancing over at the Slytherin table, she saw Pansy talking to Draco Malfoy. Shrugging, she walked over to the Gryffindor table.

"Hey Harry. Hi Ron." Katie said cheerfully as she took a seat beside Harry at the table.

"Katie! Hi. Are you allowed sit here?" Harry said, sounding surprised.

Katie shrugged. "No. But who cares. Ooh, bacon and eggs!"

"Chris, Oscar, Niall and I are thinking about heading down to the Quidditch pitch later if you want to come, Harry. You're more than welcome to come along too, Ron."

Ron gave Harry a shocked expression and Harry smirked and wiggled his eyebrows. Katie tried to her best to not snigger and act like she hadn't noticed.

"Eh.. sure. Yeah. Thanks." Ron said and Katie smiled.

As Katie got up to leave for her first class, she was grabbed around the wrist and stopped. Spinning around, she found herself face to face with Ron.

"Ron? What's up?"

"Listen, I'm really sorry about the way I've been acting. It's just, my family don't have a great history with Slytherins and—"

"Ron, it's fine."

Ron looked taken aback. "R-really?"

Katie smiled. "Totally."

***

Chris, Oscar and Niall all mounted the brooms. The wind blew in their face as they took off and Chris yelled in excitement.

Smirking, Katie took out her wand, pointed it towards the broom shed and said,

"Accio broomstick!"

A broom flew through the one doors of the broom shed and straight into Katie's hand. She couldn't help but chuckle at the baffled looks on both Harry and Ron's faces.

"How did you—"

Katie cut Ron off. "Standard Book of Spells, Chapter six."

With those words, Katie mounted her broomstick. But before she could take off, Chris came swooping to the ground. He landed a few feet away and jogged over to the trio while shaking his head frantically.

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no." He grabbed the broomstick out of his little sister's hand. "Absolutely not!"

"Hey, give that back!" Katie snapped, trying to snatch the broom back.

"You haven't even had your first flying lesson yet! You could be expelled. And I could be expelled for letting you on the broom!" Chris exclaimed, exasperated.

Katie scoffed. "But I know how to ride a broom. You taught me when I was nine."

But Chris just shook his head.

"Katerina, I am not letting you in that broom." he said sternly.

Ron twisted his eyebrows together. "Katerina?" he said confusedly.

"Yeah?" Katie replied. "That's me."

"Your full name is Katerina?" Harry asked.

"Yeah. I thought I said that when we first met Malfoy?" Katie said, though it sounded more like a question.

Ron shrugged. "I was too focused on the thought of punching the slick git in the jaw to realise."

"Never mind that. Go put this broom back in the shed." Chris rolled his eyes, handing the broom to his sister.

"No." Katie folded her arms and Chris raised an eyebrow. "If you're not going to let me ride the broom then you can put it back."

"Katie, no! We have to get at least an hour of Quidditch in. There's trials next week." Chris argued.

"Well then let me ride the broom!"

"No!"

"Yes!"

"No! I promised mum and dad that I would look after you, and I'm already in enough trouble with them. I don't want to be sent a Howler with mum screaming at me because you fell off a broomstick and broke your leg or something."

Katie rolled her eyes. "I'm not a baby, Christian! I don't need you looking after me."

"Maybe, but I promised mum and dad."

"Just let me on the broom!"

"We've been over this, I wouldn't let you on this broom even if my life depended on it."

Harry and Ron were awkwardly watching the brother-sister argument play out as they gave each other side wards glances. Oscar and Niall were in the air on their brooms, rolling their eyes.

"The longer you stand here arguing with me, the less time you have for practice. Just let me on the broom, Chris!" Katie snapped.

"Oi, Christian! Get your ass up here!" Niall yelled in his thick Irish accent. Chris gave his sister one last look before dropping the spare broom onto the ground and flying off.

Katie smirked and picked up the broom, but before she could get on, an ear-piercing squeal filled the stadium.

"Miss Blair! What on earth do you think you're doing?!"

It was Professor McGonagall. Her crazed eyes were bulging out of her head as she clutched her chest while running over to the three first years.

"What're — What — Give me that!" Professor McGonagall snatched the broomstick from Katie's hand, only this time, Katie didn't bite back.

"What on earth do you think you're doing, Miss Blair?"

Chris, Oscar and Niall sniggered together and this attracted McGonagall's attention.

"Blair, Whiterose, Murray, inside now!" she snapped at the three third years.

"But professor!" Niall whined. "There's Quidditch trials next week."

"Quiet, Murray! Inside. Don't have me to tell you again." McGonagall turned back to face Katie. "Explain yourself."

Katie opened her mouth to speak but no words came out. Her mind was blank. The only thing she could think of was the months worth of detention that she was about to get.

"Well?" McGonagall barked and Katie flinched.

"She was just about to put the broom back, Professor." Harry cut in suddenly, his voice trembling.

McGonagall looked between Katie and Harry. "That doesn't explain why she would have the broom out in the first place, Mr. Potter."

"That would be my doing, Professor." Another voice joined in the conversation. It was Niall.

"Murray, did I not tell you to go inside the castle?" Professor McGonagall snapped.

"You did Professor, but this is relevant."

McGonagall scoffed. "Go on then."

"You see, Chris, Oscar, Brendon and I wanted to practice some Quidditch before the trails next week, and these three wanted to come watch. So when we got here, we grabbed four broomsticks from the shed, but Brendon never ended up coming out, so we asked Katie to bring the broom back for us." Niall said confidently. It baffled Katie how he could come up with such a believable story on the spot.

"Well if that is the case, then I don't think any form of punishment is in order." Professor McGonagall said. Katie gave Niall a grateful smile and he winked at her.

"Murray, Potter, Weasley, you may go. Blair, I would like a word." McGongall shooed the three boys away and Katie felt her heart rate quicken. Various possible things that McGonagall could say to her flashed through Katie's mind and she found herself panicking.

"Am I in trouble, Professor?" Katie asked cautiously, her voice shaking.

"Why, not at all Miss Blair!"

Katie felt her muscles un-tense and she sighed in relief.

"I just wanted to have a word about Quidditch. I was going to make an appointment for tomorrow in my office, but seeing as I found you out here, I suppose it makes more sense that I just talk to you now."

Katie raised one eyebrow in confusion. "Quidditch?"

"Yes. Your brother tells me you're quite the flyer." McGonagall said and Katie struggled to hold back her smirk.

Katie shrugged. "I'm okay I s'pose."

"I know I probably shouldn't be helping out other houses, but Slytherin could really do with someone like you on the team." McGonagall told Katie with a gentle smile.

"But Professor, I'm a first year. There's no way I'll get on to the house team." Katie sighed sadly. McGonagall just shrugged and smiled before walking away.

Katie walked out of the Quidditch stadium and noticed Niall standing waiting for her. Even if it was dark, you must be blind if you could miss that mop of curly blonde hair.

"Hey, should you not be up at the castle?"

Katie and Niall started walking side by side back up to the school.

"What happened with Professor McGonagall?" Niall asked Katie.

"She told me that I should try out for the Slytherin Quidditch team. She said that the team could, quote unquote, really use a good flyer like me." Katie explained and Niall smirked.

"You are a good flyer, though." Niall said, patting the younger girl on the back.

Katie rolled her eyes. "Only because Chris taught me."

"But you're better than Chris."

Katie's jaw dropped.

"Chris is a Gryffindor chaser! I'm not even nearly as good as him!" she exclaimed and Niall shrugged.

"Whatever you say, Blair."

The pair parted ways in the Entrance Hall, and Katie went back to her common room with a smile on her face. Out of all of Chris' friends, including Brendon, who was a Ravenclaw but wasn't a person that Chris would hang around with much, Niall was Katie's favourite. He was like another older brother to her, except he didn't tickle torture her until she couldn't breathe.

When Katie was younger, Niall used to play games with Katie. They would always end up in fits of laughter, before Chris would drag Niall off to play Quidditch.