Halloween was spectacular. In fact, it was almost perfect. Katie had spent the bright October day at Hogsmeade with Ron and Hermione. Sadly Harry had not gotten his permission form signed before he blew up his aunt and fled the Dursley's home, so he could not visit Hogsmeade. Truth be told, Katie was, though she felt bad for feeling this way, relieved that Harry wouldn't be attending Hogsmeade in third year. Not because she didn't love his company, because she certainly did, but she did not like the idea of Harry wandering around anywhere that wasn't Hogwarts while Sirius Black was hunting him.

After Hogsmeade, the school returned to the castle for the Halloween feast. This was where Katie's outstanding day started to go downhill.

For the first quarter of the feast, Katie sat at the Gryffindor table and she, Ron and Hermione spoiled Harry with sweets that they had brought back from Honeydukes for him. But all too soon, Professor Snape came swooping down the hall and ordered Katie to return to her house table. Ron tried to argue Katie's case, but this only bought him a detention from Snape. So Katie was doomed to spend the rest of the Halloween feast with Draco Malfoy.

"Say, I wonder why Potter didn't go to Hogsmede..." Pansy inquired.

"He's probably too sacred of the dementors." Draco said and his friends howled with laughter.

"Or maybe he just wanted a day where he didn't have to see your foul face." Katie quipped. The Slytherins went silent, all except Pansy, who shrieked in horror and started cursing profusely at Katie.

After the filling feast, the students piled from the Great Hall. Katie sat herself by the enormous window in the Slytherin common room and gazed out at the wonders of the Black Lake. She had almost nodded off to sleep in the comfortable green armchair when the common room door burst open and the Slytherin prefects came in, yelling frantically.

"Everyone to the Great Hall! Now!"

"What's going on?" Draco Malfoy demanded. A hint of fear was hidden behind his dominant tone.

"Sirius Black," one of the prefects said. "He's here. He's in the castle."

The common room exploded with whispers and shouts of terror at this news. It took the prefects a further five minutes to finally usher their panicking house out of the common room and up from the dungeons. Katie's heart was beating wildly. Her eyes darted around the corridors for any sign of Sirius Black. She did not feel like being jumped by a mass murderer, but more importantly, she did not want him to find Harry.

Slytherin were the last house to arrive in the Great Hall. The tables had been pushed aside and hundreds of plush purple sleeping bags lay dotted across the stone floor. The hall was alive with chatter — both excited and nervous. Katie looked around desperately for anyone that she knew — her friends, her brothers — all she cared about was that they were safe.

"Katie!"

She whipped around to the sound of the voice. "Chris!"

Before Katie had time to speak another word, her older brother dragged her into a hug. He placed a protective hand on the back of her head.

"Merlin's Beard, I was so worried about you." Chris let out a breath of relief.

"Where's Leo? Is he alright?" Katie questioned in a panicked voice.

Chris pointed to the far end of the hall. "He's fine. He's over there with his friends."

"And Harry?"

This time, Chris pointed to the corner of the Great Hall and, sure enough, Harry, Ron and Hermione were grouped together, speaking in hushed voices.

"I'll be right back." Katie told Chris. She gave him an assuring pat on the arm before making her way over to her friends. Harry bound to his feet as soon as he saw her approaching.

"Harry, are you—"

Katie did't get time to finish her sentence before, like Chris had done, Harry threw his arms around her. She staggered for a moment and froze in blind shock, but soon relaxed and hugged Harry back.

"What took you so long to get here?" Harry demanded. "I was so worried."

"I'm sorry, there was just a lot of commotion in the common room. Are you alright?"

"M'fine. So you know what happened, then?" Harry's voice had grown sad and he averted his eyes to the ground with an expression of shame painted on his place face.

"Harry?"

He looked up slowly.

"This isn't your fault." Katie told him. He smiled and hugged her once more.

"Are you two alright?" Katie asked Ron and Hermione, who had remained seated on the cold floor. They both nodded.

"I should get back to my brother," Katie told her friends before addressing Harry directly. "Are you sure you're OK?"

"I'll be fine. Go on." Harry assured Katie, but she was not thoroughly convinced. Nevertheless, she bid the Gryffindors goodnight before prodding across the hall to where Chris and Leo had settled. Leo's eyes lit up when his sister sat down beside him.

"Come on everybody, lights out! Quiet now!" Percy Weasley called out. There was a grumble of annoyed huffs as everyone clambered into their sleeping bags. Katie lay on her back, in the middle of her two brothers, and stared at the whirring ceiling that reflected the night sky.

Roughly fifteen minutes later, the final whisper disintegrated and the hall fell into an airy slumber. Katie, however, lay wide awake. Her thoughts were dwelling on Harry and how scared she was for him. Not only that, she knew that he was blaming himself for Sirius Black breaking into the castle. No matter what, Harry Potter always seemed to blame himself for the bad occurrences at Hogwarts.

"It's gonna be OK, Kat." Chris whispered. This made Katie smile, and she finally was able to relax, sinking back into her sleeping back and drifting off to the sleep that she had been deprived of in the common room.

***

No one talked about anything other than Sirius Black for the next few days. Theories as to how he had managed to enter the castle spread like wildfire, but like Ron and Hermione, Katie wasn't interested in the how, she only cared about the why. The teachers all kept close eyes on Harry and Percy Weasley followed along his trail everywhere the poor boy went. Although the fuss agitated Harry, it relieved Katie. She knew that he didn't like her constantly checking up on him, so it was a comforting thought for her that someone would always be watching over him.

Aside from Sirius Black, Katie had one other thing to occupy her mind from Ollivander's theory. The first Qudditch game of the season (Gryffindor vs Slytherin) was slowly approaching, and Flint had the Slytherin team training hard. As the days passed, the weather grew darker and colder. Rain and thunder hammered for days on end, and the wind whistled all through the night.

On Friday, the day before the Quidditch match, Katie made her way through the storm and down to the pitch for her final training session. However, when she arrived at the changing rooms, she found that only Marcus Flint was there. He turned around at the sound of Katie's footsteps.

"Go back to the common room. We're not playing tomorrow."

"What?" Katie yelled. "Why not?"

"Because Malfoy's arm is still in that sling—"

"His arm is fine! He just doesn't fancy our chances in this weather!" Katie exclaimed angrily. She tossed her broomstick aside in frustration.

"There's nothing we can do about it, Blair... Now pick that broom up, they cost good money."

With a growl of annoyance, Katie snatched up her broom and spun around to leave the changing room. "This is ridiculous!"

Katie stalked back to the Slytherin common room in a fit of rage. Upon arriving at the common room, she spotted Draco Malfoy by the fire, accompanied by Pansy, Crabbe and Goyle. They were all laughing hysterically.

Not caring that she was about to cause a scene in front of almost the entirety of Slytherin house, Katie stomped over to where Malfoy was sitting.

"What the hell do you think you're playing at?" Katie growled. The four other Slytherins all stopped laughing abruptly and averted their attention to Katie, who was glaring at Draco nastily.

Draco grinned smugly. "Incase you haven't noticed, Blair, my arm is still wrapped in bandages."

"Oh, shut up!" Katie snapped. "There's nothing wrong with your bloody arm."

Draco leaned back on the couch and smirked. "Maybe not, but we wouldn't stand a chance in this weather. I've done our house a favour."

"Besmirching our name and doing something cowardly is not doing our house any favours, Malfoy. What happened to Slytherin pride?"

Malfoy's smirk did not falter. In fact, it only grew to twice the size it already was.

"What happened to you being ashamed to be a Slytherin, Blair?" he taunted. Katie opened her mouth to retaliate, but found herself at a lost for words. Draco's eyes glittered menacingly. With a small growl, Katie turned on her heels and left the common room for the showers.

Katie supposed Draco had a point. Slytherin had better chances of winning the Quidditch Cup if they didn't play against the best team in the school during a storm, but Katie had trained so hard for this game for weeks. Not only that, but Hufflepuff had a very different playing style to Slytherin, so it wasn't fair to Gryffindor that they were now playing a team that they hadn't trained to go up against.

***

After she had dried off and cleaned herself up, Katie pulled on her school robes and made her way to Defense Against the Dark Arts. She was in a particularly glum mood, which did not go unnoticed by Harry, Ron or Hermione as Katie took her usual seat beside the Boy Who Lived.

"So," Harry began. "I'm assuming you know about the match?"

"Yeah." Katie replied flatly.

"There's nothing wrong with the git's arm!" Ron hissed. "He's just too scared to play in this weather!"

"I know! But we don't have any proof." Katie told her friends.

Hermione started to speak but came to a hasty halt when the door banged open. The class plunged into a deep silence when, instead of Professor Lupin, Professor Snape swept through the classroom, his black cloak rippling behind him. With a flourish of his wand, the shutters on the windows slammed shut. Up the front of the class, Neville Longbottom could be spotted slowly sinking into his chair with fear.

"Turn to page three hundred and ninety four." Snape said in his usual, drawling voice. The students wasted no time before hurriedly flicking through the pages of their books.

"Sir, where's Professor Lupin?" Harry asked cautiously but clearly.

Snape's black eyes glittered.

"He says he is feeling too ill to teach today," Snape explained with a twisted smile. "Turn to page three hundred and ninety four."

Katie glanced at Ron, who seemed to be as in the dark as she was, because he just shrugged unknowingly at her.

"As I was saying before Potter interrupted, Professor Lupin has not left any record of the topics you have covered so far—"

"Please, sir, we've done Boggarts, Red Caps, Kappas and Grindylows," Hermione said quickly, "and we're just about to start—"

"Be quiet," Snape snapped. "I did not ask for information. I was merely commenting on Professor Lupin's lack of organisation."

"He's the best Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher we've had." Dean Thomas said loudly. Some people nodded and hummed in agreement. Snape glared evilly down at Dean.

"You are easily satisfied. Lupin is over-taking you — I would expect first years to be able to deal with Red Caps and Grindylows. Today we shall discuss... werewolves. Page three hundred and ninety four."

"But, sir, we're not supposed to do werewolves yet, we're due to start Hinkypunks—" Hermione was seemingly unable to restrain herself.

"Miss Granger," Snape started coldly. "I was under the impression that I was taking this lesson, not you. And I am telling you all to turn to page three hundred and ninety four. All of you! Now!"

Snape started to slowly pace up and down the classroom, and once everyone had opened their books on the correct page, he quizzed them.

"Now, which one of you can tell me the difference between a werewolf and an animagus?"

Hermione's hand shot into the air, as it so often did. Snape scanned the classroom through narrowed eyes.

"No one? I'm disappointed. I will be sure to inform Professor Dumbledore how very behind you all are..."

"Please, sir," Hermione said. "An animagus is a wizard who elects to turn into an animal. A werewolf has no choice. With each full moon, when he transforms, he no longer remembers who he is — he'd kill his best friend if he crossed his path. Furthermore, the werewolf only responds to the call of its own kind."

Draco imitated a werewolf's howl, which almost made Katie laugh, but she refused to give Drcao that satisfaction. The pair were still not on good terms. Not that they usually were, but they had avoided conversation at all costs since their argument in the hospital wing.

"Thank you, Mr Malfoy," Snape said coolly. "That is the second time you have spoken out of turn, Miss Granger. Five points from Gryffindor for being an insufferable know-it-all."

Hermione's face lit up bright pink and she stared down at the table with tears in her eyes. It surprised Katie when Ron, who called Hermione a know-it-all at least twice a week, said loudly, "You asked a question and she knows the answer! Why ask if you don't want to be told?"

The class knew instantly that he'd gone too far. Snape advanced on Ron slowly, and the room held its breath.

"Detention, Weasley!" Snape barked, his face very close to Ron's.

"Another one?" Ron cried.

"That's right," Snape said silkily. "And if I ever hear you criticise the way I teach a class again, you will be very sorry indeed."