Hey everyone! This book is slowly starting to come to an end, which is crazy to me because I've been writing it since November 2018. The Battle of Hogwarts kicks off in this chapter. I'm hoping to get 115 chapters so it doesn't end on a random and ugly number. Anyways, I have a sequel in the works that I'll hopefully be able to start very soon after this book finishes...

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Neville climbed through the doorway of the passage that led from the Room of Requirement to the Hog's Head. No one quite knew why — Ariana's portrait didn't exactly speak, she just gestured for Neville to follow her, and so he did.

Katie was sat with her legs hanging over the side of the green hammock in which she slept, and Draco was sitting on his sleeping bag beside her hammock. As the hammock was relatively low down, if he lifted his hand she could just about reach his rings to fondle with them.

"What do you reckon Aberforth wants?" Katie asked.

Draco shrugged. "No idea."

They didn't need to wait long to find out. Merely ten minutes later, the doorway opened and Neville emerged, beaming out at them all.

"Look who it is!" he called. "Didn't I tell you?"

Katie heard the gleeful shouting before she saw the people that Neville had brought back.

"HARRY!"

"It's Potter, it's Potter!"

"Ron!"

"Hermione!"

People flocked towards the trio, hugging them, pounding them on the back, shaking their hands, ruffling their hair, and jabbering excitedly. Katie and Draco looked at each other and she almost fell off her hammock with surprise. Draco appeared to be just as excited as everyone else.

"Never thought I'd see the day where you'd be pleased to see Harry Potter." she smirked and, hopping down off her hammock, she grabbed Draco by the hand and pulled him towards the crowd.

"OK, OK, calm down!" Neville shouted, and as the crowd backed away, Katie and Draco found themselves standing in a gap where they were clearly visible.

When Harry saw her, his eyes widened, and then they narrowed. Katie felt her blood go cold.

"Malfoy Manor not cosy enough for you?" he bit.

Katie frowned. This was what she had been dreading — that Harry, Ron and Hermione would think she had joined the Death Eaters.

She took one step forward. "Harry, listen to me—"

"If you're just going to come out with more lies, then I don't want to hear it." Harry spat. Katerina had never seen him this bitter. It was honestly a little frightening.

"I — what?" she stammered, genuinely nonplussed.

Harry appeared to be resisting the urge to roll his eyes.

"Saw a vision of Draco getting tortured, did you?" Harry said. There was an unnecessary amount of venom to his voice. "Had to go and save him? Then you decided you'd stay in the luxury of Malfoy Manor?"

"Harry, it wasn't like that—"

"'I'm never leaving your side. Not again'." he mocked Katerina's voice, and for some reason that hurt her more than any insult ever could.

"I didn't want to go—" she was practically pleading with him to let her talk. She was aware of the raw desperation in her voice and how pathetic it must sound, but she didn't much care. Her worst fear had come true — Harry thought she had betrayed him and she had to let him no that this was not the case.

"Oh yeah, because living in a great big manor is so horrible." Harry drawled, sarcasm dripping from his voice. Every word felt like a thousand knives piercing Katerina's heart. What hurt the most was the fact that Harry truly believed she would be capable of such deception and betrayal.

No one else was speaking. They were watching the argument, which was more like a lecture coming from Harry, like a tennis match. They stood, frozen stiff, their eyes darting between the two. Ron and Hermione were both pale and they looked uneasy, like they didn't know who to believe. Although, when Ron's eyes travelled down and found Katie and Draco's intertwined hands, he scowled.

"They wouldn't let me leave!" Katie cried. "He made me come back here, he wanted me to help Snape take control of the school!"

Mutters erupted at this. Katie realised that she had never told anyone her true reasoning for returning to Hogwarts, but that didn't matter now... she had to make Harry understand.

"He? Voldemort, you mean?" Harry laughed dryly as if Katie's claim was the biggest lie he had ever heard in his life.

She lowered her voice as she said, "Well, yeah..."

This time, Harry really did roll his eyes. He crossed his arms and glared at Katie with such malice that she felt as though she was folding in on herself.

"Look, I still don't know why he wants you to join him, and quite frankly, I don't care," Harry stepped away from the crowd and started marching towards the exit. "We have a job to do. I don't have time for this."

Katie's heart beat rapidly as she began to panic. He still didn't believe her. She had to make him believe her. In one brief moment of desperation, she blurted her deepest, darkest secret for Harry and the entirety of Dumbledore's Army to hear.

"He's my father!"

Harry paused, as did everyone else. There were no whispers, no gasps, no mutters. It was as though all sound had simply been sucked from the room, and yet the tense silence was deafening. Katie could feel at least twenty pairs of eyes burning into her, she could feel Draco's grip on her hand tightening as a manner of comfort, but she paid no mind to any of this. She stared at Harry, willing him to turn around, and eventually he did.

His expression was entirely unfathomable. It looked like a million different emotions all mingled into one. Harry stared at Katie, as deathly silent as the rest of the room, and then he was the one to cut through the heavy quietness.

"What?"

Katie felt tears pricking her eyes and she hastily blinked them away. She sighed deeply, her shoulders dropping, as she was overcome with the same feeling that she had gotten when she found out that Voldemort was her father. She felt contaminated.

"He planted the vision of Draco in my head as a means to lure me to Malfoy Manor. He was waiting for me when I got there," Katie began explaining. Everyone watched her intently as she told the story that she thought she would never speak to anyone. "That's when he told me — and he said I had to come back to Hogwarts and help Snape take full control of the school. I was trapped inside Malfoy Manor, they wouldn't let me leave. I wanted to go back to you, I wanted to help."

Harry's narrowed eyes surveyed her for a few moments, yet it did not slip by her that his eyes had softened ever-so-slightly.

"How do I know you're telling the truth?" he said at last. No one else dared to move or speak.

Katie gulped and started walking forwards. Her hand slipped from Draco's and he made no effort to cling to her, which she was grateful for. Harry also did not move as she drew closer to him, then she stopped, barely a foot away from him, and lifted her hand, extending her smallest finger.

Harry's eyes flickered between the finger and her face.

"You can't break a pinkie promise." she said, her voice oddly fragile and timid.

Harry stared hard at her, and for a moment a shadow past over his face and Katerina was sure he was going to hex her, but then he raised his own hand and interlocked their fingers.

"All right, we better get going." Harry said to Katie, Ron and Hermione, who all nodded firmly.

"Now, hang on a minute." came the angered voice of Zacharias Smith from somewhere in the crowd. He was completely ignored.

"One of them's here?" Katie asked Harry and he nodded in confirmation. "And Gringotts? Is it true that you broke in and flew out on a dragon?"

For a moment, Harry looked as though he wanted to ask how Katie knew this particular piece of information, but then she pointed to the corner of the room where a wireless radio was sat.

"Potterwatch," she told Harry. "So, it's true, then? You really did break in?"

"Yeah, we did." Harry answered. There was a general cheer from the large group of people around them.

"And did you find one in there?" Katie quizzed. Harry tapped a certain place on his jacket and she knew that he was insinuating that the Horcrux had been tucked away safely inside his coat.

"OK, we really need to get moving." he announced. Just as he, Katie, Ron and Hermione started walking towards the door, Zacharias Smith pushed his way to the front of the crowd.

"Hang on a minute!" he barked. Katie looked around to see that his wand was pointing straight at her and her heart missed a beat. "Are we just going to ignore the fact that she's You-Know-Who's daughter?"

This time people did start muttering and Katie's heart sank to the pit of her stomach. Now, as she paused to take in the sight before her, she could see that most of the DA were glaring at her and had their wands out, though they didn't hold them aloft like Smith did.

"She's proven herself more than you have, Smith." Ron snapped, which earned him a smile of gratitude from Katie. He nodded back to her.

"So what?" Zacharias snarled. "She's got his blood. How do we know she won't turn out to be exactly like him?"

There was an all around hum of agreement and, before Katie could say a word, at least fifteen, if not more, wands were aimed squarely at her chest. She felt Harry press more closely to her side, as if this would protect her from harm.

Katie's eyes traced the room, landing on each and every one of the raised wands, then she shrugged and held her arms up in surrender.

"Understandable." she said simply.

Harry snatched her hands out of the air.

"How many times are we going to need to have this conversation?" he whispered a little harshly. "You don't deserve to die. You're not dangerous."

But a sudden sadness had swept over Katie.

"You have no idea what I've done, Harry." she said quietly, her voice cracking, and Harry seemed to draw back from her a little. She thought painfully of how she had killed, not only a woman, but her own mother, in cold blood. It didn't matter that Maria Blair was a murderous lunatic, Katie had taken her life, and that would haunt the girl for the rest of her life.

"I say we kill her," Smith suggested. He was closing in on her with his wand. Some people hummed in approval of his statement. "Can't have her roaming around. For all we know, she'll start the next war."

A few more people approached Katie and her throat locked. She found herself unable to move or speak, frozen from shock and fear. Had she really been through so many dangers and horrors these last few years only to die at the hands of some prat like Zacharias Smith?

"Have you forgotten about how she came to the Chamber of Secrets with Harry and Ron to rescue me?" Ginny shouted suddenly. All at once, all the approaching hostiles stopped dead in their tracks.

"She jumped in front of me to stop me getting mauled by a werewolf." Ron chimed in, gesturing towards the scar that was still very visible on Katie's face.

"She stayed up into all hours of the night to help me prepare for the tasks in the Triwizard Tournament," Harry added and he and Katie smiled fondly at each other. "And she's one of the only people that believed me when I said that You-Know-Who was back."

Several people, Seamus in particular, shamefully lowered their gazes to the floor. They all felt guilty for how they had treated Harry two years before.

"And I — I'll never forget when she took me to Slughorn's Christmas Party." Neville stammered, his face glowing red. Katerina took his hand and gave it a gentle squeeze.

"She helped me study for my Potions O.W.L." Seamus said.

"And me!" someone in the back row called. Katie couldn't place their voice to a face.

"She fought by Harry's side in the Battle of the Department of Mysteries." Hermione spoke for the first time since she had arrived.

Then Draco stepped forward, so that he and Harry were flanking Katie, and he took her hand. Harry and Draco locked eyes, nodding to each other, and an understanding passed between the two of them.

"She forgave me, even after everything that I done to her," he smiled down at her. "Oh, and, a couple weeks ago, she challenged You-Know-Who to a duel and blew apart a room in my house."

Many people looked impressed — some even lowered the wands, except for, of course, Zacharias Smith.

"Only a really powerful Dark witch or wizard could defeat You-Know-Who like that." he snarled.

Katie rolled her eyes. "I didn't defeat him, dimwit, I blew up the room and he flew away. Now, can we go? We've got stuff to do."

With one last glare at Smith, Harry turned and addressed his friends.

"He's on his way. We're running out of time." Harry said gravely. Katie felt a pang of guilt, remembering that it was she who had told Voldemort that Harry was hunting for Horcruxes. Of course, Voldemort already suspected that Harry was doing so, but Katie just confirmed his theory.

"What are we going to do then, Harry?" Seamus piped up. "What's the plan?"

Harry blinked. He looked puzzled -- like he had just been hit hard by a Bludger. "Plan? Well there's something — Ron, Hermione, Katie and I — need to do, and then we'll get out of here."

Katie shifted uncomfortably on her feet. Would she be leaving Hogwarts with Harry, Ron and Hermione and rejoining them on their quest to find and destroy the Horcruxes. She wanted to — she owed it to them, but she did not want to leave Draco behind with a bunch of DA students who still did not wholly trust him.

"What do you mean 'get out of here'?" Neville inquired, looking confused.

"We haven't come back to stay," Harry said. Katie noticed how he was wincing and rubbing his scar. Voldemort must have been getting closer. "There's something important we need to do—"

"What is it?"

"I — I can't tell you,"

There was a rippling of muttering at this; Neville's eyebrows contracted.

"Why can't you tell us? It's something to do with fighting You-Know-Who, right?"

"Well, yeah—"

"Then we'll help you."

The other members of Dumbledore's Army were nodding, some enthusiastically, other solemnly."

Before Harry could protest any further, the tunnel door opened and all heads swivelled around to face it.

"We got your message, Neville! Hello, Harry, I thought you must be here!"

It was Luna and Dean. Seamus gave a roar of delight and ran to hug his best friend. Knots of stress that Katie hadn't even realised were residing in her shoulders relaxed when she saw Luna. As far as she knew, the Death Eaters had taken Luna, but now she was safe and she looked relatively fine. She was a lot thinner, Katie noticed, but her wide eyes were still full of life.

"Hi, everyone!" Luna said happily. "Oh, it's great to be back!"

"Luna," Harry said, "what are you doing here? How did you—?"

"I sent for her," Neville grinned proudly. "I promised her that if you turned up I'd let her know. We all thought that if you came back, it would mean revolution. That we were going to overthrow Snape and the Carrows."

"Of course that's what it means," Luna said brightly. "Isn't it, Harry? We're going to fight them out of Hogwarts?"

"Listen," Harry sounded immensely guilty and apologetic when he spoke, "I'm sorry, but that's not what we came back for. There's something we've got to do, and then—"

"You're going to leave us in this mess?" Michael Corner demanded.

"No!" Ron said quickly. "What we're doing will benefit everyone in the end, it's all about trying to get rid of You-Know-Who—"

"Then let us help!" Neville said angrily. "We want to be a part of it!"

There was another rumbling noise behind them and the tunnel opened again. Climbing through the hole was Fred and George, closely followed by Lee Jordan. Seeing all these familiar faces made Katie want to cry as relief flooded her. Everyone was all right.

"Aberforth's getting a bit ratty," Fred was saying. "He wants a kip, and his bar's turned into a railways station."

Right behind Lee came Cho Chang. She flashed a bright smile to the room and then she walked over to sit beside Michael Corner.

"So what's the plan, Harry?" George asked.

"There isn't one, I—"

"Just going to make it up as we go along, are we? My favourite kind." Fred grinned.

"You've got to stop this!" Harry told Neville. "What did you call them back for? This is insane—"

"We're fighting, aren't we?" Dean quirked an eyebrow. "The message said Harry was back, and we were going to fight! I'll have to get a wand, though—"

"You haven't got a wand—?" Seamus began.

Ron turned suddenly to Harry. "Why can't they help? We don't know where it is. We've got to find it fast. We don't have to tell them it's a Horcrux."

Harry looked from Ron to Katie to Hermione, who whispered, "I think Ron's right. We don't even know what we're looking for. We need them." And when Harry looked unconvinced, "You don't have to do everything alone, Harry."

Katie could practically hear Harry's brain whirring as he thought hard but fast. At long last, he said, "All right."

"OK," he called to the room at large, and all noise ceased. All of them looked alert, excited. "There's something we need to find. Something — something that'll help us overthrow You-Know-Who. It's here at Hogwarts, but we don't know where. It might have belonged to Ravenclaw. Has anyone heard of an object like that? Has anyone ever come across an object with her eagle on it, for instance?"

He gazed hopefully towards the group of Ravenclaws, to Michael, Terry Boot, Padma Patil and Cho Chang, but it was Luna who answered, perched on the arm of Ginny's chair.

"Well, there's her lost diadem," Luna suggested, and when no one reacted, she went on. "The lost diadem of Ravenclaw? Hasn't anyone ever heard of it? It's quite famous."

"Yeah, but the lost diadem," Michael drawled, rolling his eyes, "is lost, Luna. That's sort of the point."

"Sorry, but what is a diadem?" Ron asked,

"It's a kind of crown," Terry answered. "Ravenclaw's was supposed to have magical properties, enhance the wisdom of the wearer."

"If you'd like to see what the diadem is supposed to look like, I could take you up to our common room and show you, Harry?" Cho proposed. Ginny's jaw clenched. "Ravenclaw's wearing it in her statue."

Harry hissed in pain and his hand shot up to his scar. Katie knew that they were running out of time.

"Go," she whispered to him. "It's the only lead we have."

"All right," Harry agreed. "I'm going to go and look at this statue, at least find out what the diadem looks like. Wait for me here and keep, you know — the other one — safe."

Cho had gotten to her feet, but Ginny said rather fiercely, "No, Luna will take Harry, won't you, Luna?"

"Oooh, yes, I'd like to!" Luna said cheerfully, and together, Harry and Luna left the Room of Requirement."

As soon as the door closed, talking erupted in the Room like gunfire. Three heads of red hair pushed their way through the throng. Fred and George each clapped Ron on the back while Ginny hugged Hermione, then Fred and George, who were much taller than Katie, hugged her together and she found herself momentarily smothered.