What do y'all think of the new cover? I don't think it's great but I really didn't like the last one so I changed it to something new.

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"I'm going to cry," Katie whispered to Draco during a Defence Against the Dark Arts Class. "This is so boring."

"It could be worse. It could be History of Magic." Draco shrugged, keeping his voice low and a weary eye on Professor Umbridge.

"She's not letting us do magic, Draco!" Katie hissed. Clearly, she had spoken too loudly, because Umbridge's toad-like eyes snapped up from her parchment and began to survey the room.

"Who is talking?" she demanded.

Katie sank further into her seat. Professor Umbridge continued to scan the classroom through narrowed eyes, and when no one owned up, she went back to correcting a stack of what Katie assumed were essays.

Katie was nothing short of relieved when the class finally ended.

"What have you got now?" Draco asked her as he packed his bag.

"Er — Divination, I think." she told him.

Draco sighed. "Shame. I've got Arithmancy. See you back at the common room, then."

Draco then left the classroom. Katie bent down to put her book in her bag and when she returned from under the desk, a note hand been placed on the table. Katie grabbed the note and read Harry's handwriting:

ᴍᴇᴇᴛ ᴍᴇ ɪɴ ᴛʜᴇ ᴄʟᴏᴄᴋ ᴛᴏᴡᴇʀ ᴀᴛ 7.

Katie smiled, somewhat warmed by the fact that Harry wanted to continue to use their meeting spot that they had become accustom to after an incident in fourth year in which they met there and were almost caught by Filch.

So, at seven o'clock that evening, Katie packed away her homework, told Pansy that she would be back soon and left the Slytherin common room. Despite the fact that it was not yet after hours, Katie still didn't want to be found wandering the corridors by a teacher and have to explain where she was going. To her relief, she arrived at the clock tower with no awkward encounters, and found Harry already sitting by the edge, feet dangling idly, waiting for her. His head turned at the sound of footsteps.

"Hey," Katie smiled. She made her way over to Harry and sat down next to him on the ledge. "Why'd you want to come here?"

Harry shrugged. "I just haven't seen you much this week, you know?"

"Yeah, I've had a lot of homework." Katie sighed.

"I brought in Invisibility Cloak just in case." Harry said, holding up the Cloak and grinning triumphantly. Katie's smile was quickly wiped from her face, however, because when Harry lifted the Cloak, his sleeve slid down his arm, revealing deep markings on the back of his hand. Harry must have noticed Katie looking because his bright face suddenly paled and his arm whipped back down to his side.

"Harry, what happened to your hand?" she asked anxiously.

"Nothing," Harry stammered. "Nothing, it's just a cut, I—"

But Katie grabbed Harry's hand and pulled is towards her, examining it at eye-level. There, clearly carved into his skin, was a deep and fresh cut, with dried blood still smeared around the edges. Katie noticed that the cut was actually words.

"I must not tell lies," she read in a horrified whisper. "Harry, did that Umbridge woman do this to you?"

Harry didn't say anything. Katie leapt to her feet. An overwhelming surge of anger rippled through her veins and she could feel her entire body growing hot.

"She did, didn't she?" Katie shouted. "Harry, you told me she was just giving you lines!"

"It's nothing." Harry repeated. He pulled his sleeve down over his cut hand and stared out into the sunset, avidly avoiding Katie's eyes, who was shaking with fury.

"It's not nothing! You have to report her! Go to McGonagall, I'll go with you—"

"No, I don't know how much power McGonagall has over her."

"Then go to Dumbledore—"

"No," Harry said once more and he got to his feet. "No, he already has enough to be worrying about."

"Harry, the woman's torturing you, all because you told the truth."

As well as her body, Katie's voice was also trembling. She took Harry's hand, much gentler this time, and carefully ran her finger across the jagged cut. Both she and Harry stiffened and took sharp intakes of breath as she done so.

"It's fine, really. It's over now, anyway. I've finished the detentions with her."

Despite his collected tone, Katie could tell that what Umbridge had done was bothering him. She ran her thumb across the cut once more and this time, Harry didn't stiffen. On the contrary, he seemed to relax.

"Harry," Katie said softly, "that's going to scar..."

"Wonder what it's like to have a prominent scar." Harry said sardonically with a roll of his eyes.

"Will you please stop jumping down my throat? I'm on your side, here." Katie snapped.

Harry went quiet and looked down shamefully.

"Sorry..." he mumbled after a few tense seconds.

"That's quite all right," Katie said. "I get it, you're stressed, you're overwhelmed, you're angry, but you can't keep things like this from me. Do Ron and Hermione know?"

Harry stiffened again. "Ron knows. He saw it the other day." Harry admitted.

"And what did he say?"

"The exact same as you — told me to report it."

Without warning, Katie pulled Harry into a protective hug, which he gratefully accepted. He buried his head into the crook of her neck and something told Katie that he was forcing back tears.

"You're never doing a detention with her again," Katie stated firmly. "Next time she gives you one, I'm taking Polyjuice Potion and—"

"I think the hell not." Harry cut her off sharply, though both of them let out small laughs.

The sun had almost set now. All that was left was a blink of it's rounded tip peeking out over the tops of the swaying trees of the Forbidden Forest. The feeble sunlight sent glimmering spots dancing across the inky surface of the Lake, and streaks of pink and purple were splayed against the ever-dimming blue tones of the cloudless sky.

Katie and Harry sat themselves back down on the cold ledge, Katie resting her head on Harry's shoulder and continuously soothing the raw cut on his hand with her thumb. For many passing minutes, they sat in pleasant silence watching the last sliver of the sun disappear behind the mass of green leaves, and only when the sky had faded to darkness and the first star had appeared did Katie speak.

"Have you heard anything from Sirius?" Katie asked.

"Actually, now that you mention it, yeah." Harry responded.

Katie sat bolt upright. She had expected the answer to be a no, so she was surprised and intrigued when she got a yes. She stared at Harry with the utmost eagerness.

"And?" she pressed.

"He says that Fudge thinks Dumbledore is creating some kind of army to overthrow the Ministry. That's why he has Umbridge here and that's why she's not teaching us magic." Harry told her. Katie stared at him disbelievingly before bursting out with a spurt of cold laughter.

"That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard, and that's including the time that Daphne Greengrass suggested I was You-Know-Who's daughter." Katie said with a snort of laughter.

"Right?" Harry agreed.

Katie lay her head back on his shoulder. "You know what? Maybe we should start an army."

"Yeah?" Harry said, and amused tone to his voice.

"Yeah," Katie continued. "It would be pretty epic, wouldn't it? Storming the Ministry, taking down all the corrupted Aurors, then marching straight up to Fudge and saying 'Minister Cornelius Fudge, I am relieving you of your command', and then the Weird Sisters start playing—"

"What, you just have the Weird Sisters on stand-by during a rebellion, do you?" Harry chuckled.

"Shut up, let me have my fantasy."

Harry laughed and pulled Katerina closer to him.

***

If the first two weeks of term had not been a nightmare, the third one certainly was. Professor Umbridge had been appointed to Hogwarts High Inquisitor, meaning that she had the authority to inspect classes and report back to the Minister her accounts of the class, teacher and students. Both Katie's Charms and Divination classes had been inspected, and Katie had the impression that Professor Umbridge had not been impressed by Professor Trelawney.

"She can't sack people, can she?" Hermione asked wearily at breakfast one morning.

A blood-curdling 'hem, hem' from behind Katie made her and Hermione whip around. Professor Umbridge was standing behind them, her usual fake and sweet smile plastered on her face.

"Miss Blair, would you kindly return to your house table?" Professor Umbridge said. Katie did not move, and Chris, who had been sitting very close by with Niall, Oscar and the twins, was the one to speak defiantly.

"But Kat always sits here." he said, a hint of anger in his voice. Evidently, he was not Dolores Umbridge's biggest fan.

"That is all very well, Mr Blair, but I regret to inform you that she will no longer be sitting in your company during breakfast, or during any other meals, for that matter," Umbridge's smile and girlish tone did not fade. Katie glared up at her. "Refusal to co-operate is an automatic detention, Miss Blair."

Across the table, Harry loudly cleared his throat. Katie caught his eye and he shook his head slowly but seriously. Katie's gaze momentarily fell to the cut on his hand and, with a surge of hatred towards her Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, stood up and strode away without a word or a single glance back at the Gryffindor table.

Katie always arrived to Defence Against the Dark Arts in a bad mood, but that afternoon, she was particularly more waspish. She slammed her book down onto the table, startling Draco, and, ignoring the ugly scowl that Professor Umbridge shot her, took perfect care to make an excessive amount of noise as she scraped her chair across the floor and threw herself onto it.

"I hate her," Katie growled under her breath. "I hate her so much. I want to Avada Kedavra the crap out of her stupid ugly toad face—"

"Woah, woah, calm down, " Draco whispered. "Don't let her hear you muttering Unforgivable Curses under your breath."

"I don't care," Katie bit angrily. "I want to use them all on her — Avada Kedavra, Crucio, the Disintegration Curse — the whole lot."

Once the class had settled down, Professor Umbridge started to speak.

"As we finished Chapter One last lesson, I would like you all to turn to page nineteen today and commence 'Chapter Two, Common Defensive Theories and their Derivation'. There will be no need to talk."

The class gave an audible sigh as it turned, as one, to page nineteen. Katie had barely opened her book when Hermione's hand shot into the air. Professor Umbridge had noticed this, too, and what was more, she seemed to have worked out a strategy for such an eventuality. Instead of trying to pretened she had not noticed Hermione she got to her feet and walked around the front row of desks until they were face to face, then she bent down and whispered, "What is it this time, Miss Granger?"

"I've already read Chapter Two." Hermione said.

"Well then, proceed to Chapter Three."

"I've read that too. I've read the whole book."

Professor Umbridge blinked but recovered her poise almost instantly.

"Well then, you should be able to tell me what Slinkhard says about counter-jinxes in Chapter Fifteen."

"He says that counter jinxes are improperly named," Hermione said promptly while Katie watched with a smile on her face — thankful that someone was getting one-up on Umbridge. "He says that 'counter-jinx' is just a name people give their jinxes when they want to make them sound more acceptable."

Professor Umbridge raised her eyebrows and Katie knew she was impressed, against her will.

"But I disagree." Hermione continued.

Umbridge's eyebrows rose a little higher and her gaze became distinctly colder.

"You disagree?"

"Yes, I do," Hermione said, who, unlike Umbridge, was not whispering, but speaking in a clear, carrying voice that had by now attracted the attention of the rest of the class. "Mr Slinkhard doesn't like jinxes, does he? But I think they can be very useful when they're used defensively."

"Oh, you do, do you?" Professor Umbridge said coldly, forgetting to whisper and straightening up. "Well, I'm afraid it is Mr Slinkhard's opinion, and not yours, that matters within this classroom, Miss Granger."

"But—"

"That is enough," Umbridge snapped. She walked back to the front of the class and stood before them. "Miss Granger, I am going to take five points from Gryffindor house."

"What for?" Harry said angrily.

"For disrupting my class with pointless interruptions," Umbridge stated smoothly. "I am here to teach you using a Ministry-approved method that does not include inviting students to give their opinions on matters about which they understand very little. Your previous teachers in this subject may have allowed you more license, but as none of them — with the exception of Professor Quirrell, who did at least appear to have restricted himself to age-appropriate subjects — would have passed a Ministry inspection—"

"Yeah, Quirrell was a great teacher," Harry said loudly, "there was just that minor drawback of him having Lord Voldemort sticking out of the back of his head."

This pronouncement was followed by one of the loudest silences Katie had ever heard. Then—

"I think another week's detention would do you some good, Mr Potter." Umbridge said sleekly.

With a rush of burning hatred and a wave of fury, Katie sprung to her feet, slammed her hand down so hard on the table that many of her classmates flinched, and yelled, "Like hell it would!"

"Don't get involved!" Draco hissed at her, grabbing her sleeve and trying to pull her back down, but she briskly shook him off and glared hard at Professor Umbridge, whose smile was long gone. She blinked plainly at Katie as the class held their breath.

"Perhaps you would like a week's detention too, Miss Blair?" she drawled.

Katie let out a cold and short laugh. "What are you going to do, carve 'I must respect my elders' into my hand?"

Professor Umbridge, who was visibly shaking with anger now, cast a dooming glance in Harry's direction, who looked as though he might faint with worry, before she fixed her narrowed eyes on Katie, who did not back down.

"That'll be ten points from Slytherin, Miss Blair."

"That's nice." Katie bit back.

"Would you like me to make it twenty?"

"Go on, then."

"I will make it thirty, Miss Blair, do not test me!"

"Bet."

"Fifty points from Slytherin!" Professor Umbridge screeched in a voice that was so unlike her usual girlish one that Katie was momentarily stunned. Both she and Umbridge were staring at each other with the utmost loathing, and each of them were trembling with fury.

"Are you done now, Miss Blair?" Professor Umbridge whispered venomously, her voice shaking.

Katie had barely left the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom when Draco grabbed her sleeve and pulled her against the wall. She barely had time to process the situation before Draco was lecturing her.

"You stupid, stupid git!" he scolded.

Next thing Katie knew, Harry exited the classroom. He glanced up and down the corridor, spotted Katie, and made a beeline straight towards her, much to her displeasure.

"What were you thinking?" Harry hissed angrily.

The mingled shouts coming from both Harry and Draco soon drowned each other out, and all Katie could hear was angry noises rolling from their mouths. Her eyes continued to dart between one boy to the next, until finally, the ringing chastises became too infuriating, so she cut them off with quite a loud yell of her own.

"Will you both shut up!" she bellowed, and this deemed effective, because the both of them promptly stopped yelling. They glanced aside at one another, realised just how close together they were standing (they were shoulder-to-shoulder), coughed awkwardly and each sidestepped away from each other.

"Thank you!" Katie cried in exasperation before turning and talking to Harry directly. "I was just sticking up for you, Harry."

"Well I don't want you to—"

"There is no way in hell I'm letting you go to another detention with her, not after what she did to you last time."

Draco quirked an eyebrow. "What did she do to him?"

"Nose out, Malfoy!" Harry snapped without looking at him. "My point is, you yelling at her done no good. I'm still in detention and you lost Slytherin fifty points."

"Like you care about Slytherin's points, Potter." Draco scoffed.

"My God, do you ever shut up?" Harry hurled irritably, finally facing Draco.

Draco folded his arms. "No, actually, I don't. Talking is one of my many talents, you see—"

"SHUT UP!" Harry shouted.

Katie narrowed her eyes, looking between Harry and Draco, both were glowing red, and heaved a deep sigh.

"Right, I'm going back to the common room," she announced steadily. "You two can stay here and duel for all I care. Sorry for sticking up for you, Harry." she added hotly.

As Katie stalked away, she could still faintly hear the distant echoes of Harry and Draco yelling at each other. Maybe it hadn't been a great idea to leave them alone, but she was so full of violent anger thanks to Umbridge that if anyone even dared to shout at her once more, she might just have cursed them.

***

That night when Harry left detention with Umbridge, Katie was waiting for him in the shadows of the corridor. Harry had barely taken twenty steps when Katie grabbed him and forcefully pulled him inside an empty classroom. Harry let out a yelp and fear and Katie sharply shut the classroom door, hoping that this would prevent Harry's cry from travelling through the halls and attracting any teachers.

"Katie?" Harry whispered. "What are you doing?"

"Let me see your hand." Katie said hastily, giving Harry no time to respond as she snatched up his wrist. As soon as she done so, her hand became soaked in what she could only assume was blood, and she felt herself grow cold. The only source of light in the deserted classroom was the bated glow of the moon that was seeping in through the tall windows, but this was not enough for Katie to inspect Harry's cut.

She pulled out her wand and muttered, "Lumos."

A beam of light erupted from the end of Katie's wand, illuminating Harry's injured hand. It was red and inflamed and fresh streams of blood were issuing from the cut that was now deeper than it had been before. Harry's entire hand was coated in blood. It had seeped into the hem of his sleeve and was trickling off his wrist.

Despite the fact that she felt as though she was going to be sick, Katie untied the hair handkerchief that she had bound around the top of her braid and wrapped it tightly but comfortably around Harry's bleeding hand, who held her wand for her as she did so.

"Thanks." Harry said sincerely, examining his make-shift bandaged hand.

"She can't keep doing this to you," Katie shook her head. "Wait til' you see — next she'll be preforming the Cruciatus Curse on you as a punishment."

Harry frowned. "Look, about earlier, I'm really sorry for having a go at you—" he began, but was promptly cut off.