Just Trust

Sirius' P.O.V.

I just stared at James in shock for several minutes before finding my voice.

"Really? That's the first thing you say?" I said, when I did. James shrugged. I shook my head and headed out the door.

"Hey, where are you going?" James yelled after me, and hurried up to be walking next to me.

"I'm going to check on Kat, where else?" I replied, he nodded. We got to the Hospital Wing, which was bustling with activity. The only patient, however, was Kat. Madame Pomfrey was going ballistic, putting spell after spell on Kat, and force-feeding her potion after potion. Dumbledore, McGonagall, and Flintwick were in the corner in a fierce argument that had a lot of hand waving. Suddenly, a red missile hit us from behind and knocked us over. Without having seen us, apparently, Lily hurried over to Kat's bedside, despite Madame Pomfrey's glares.

"Is she going to be OK?" Lily asked desperately. McGonagall came over and stood behind her looking furious.

"She will be." She said firmly, causing Dumbledore and Flintwick to sigh in exasperation. Madame Pomfrey sighed, seemingly exasperated too.

"Will you all decide the fate of this poor girl when she's at least conscious? She should get a say."

"She already did, and it failed. So I say we go with plan B." Flintwick said, as if his point was proved. Dumbledore actually face-palmed while McGonagall started to draw a breath in righteous anger. Before she could let loose with her tirade, another exasperated voice joined the fray.

"And I said I liked plan A. Which actually did work, because I'm still here, aren't I?" Everyone started and looked down at Kat in surprise. Kat smiled impudently and sat up, causing James and I to lean forward in preparation for the "Pomfrey Fit." (One time I singed my eyebrow and tried to sit up and she freaked out.) But, Kat sat up and swung her legs over the bed, causing nothing but a sigh and a small "be careful."

"So? How did it go?" She asked when she was situated, looking around her expectantly. Madame Pomfrey sighed and grabbed a list from the bedside.

"One broken wrist, wand arm: fixed. Two bruised ribs, left side: fixed. One rather large burn, face: not fixed. And then you had a rather large piece of glass stuck in your throat. That was several inches from your windpipe. I fixed that too. I just left some minor scraps and that burn. You might feel uncomfortable in your rib area for a while, so I wouldn't advise hugging. That is about it." Madame Pomfrey rattled off in a tone of much practice.

"Well, that's better right?" Kat said almost happily. "Nothing too bad, and the glass from the window isn't that big of an issue. I just hadn't reinforced them yet." She started to get up then sat back down, hard. Flintwick, Dumbledore, McGonagall, Madame Pomfrey, and Lily all tried to steady her at once. She rolled her eyes.

"Well, I was led to believe the only reason he left was because he saw the wound. He doesn't have the medical resources at his camp, or where ever he was going to go, that we have here. He is going to be back, and we have to prepare for the eventuality that Plan A might not be viable in the current environment." He tried to say diplomatically, but Kat snorted.

"Fancy. Well, I believe that that eventuality was planned for, thus the examples of Plans B and C, but as plan A went almost perfectly Plans B and C are the ones that are seemingly less viable." Lily and McGonagall were looking back and forth like this was a tennis match while Flintwick was looking at the ground as if we wanted to start correcting their grammar.

"Although you are making valid points you may want to consider the options of Plans B and C, at least for the future. I concede that Plan A seems to have worked well considering the circumstances, but we need a more effective way of communication than sending whoever you have in Detention at the time." Dumbledore said sighing.

"Indubitably. Now, I'm pretty tired. I think I'm going to go to bed..." Kat said as she stood up. The blanket that Voldemort had left on her slid to the floor and as she bent to pick it up her legs gave out, causing them all to haul her back into the bed.

"Was that what I thought it was?" She asked incredulously, not even arguing.

"I thought it was a nice touch personally." Lily said matter-of-factly. Everyone looked at her in shock. "No? Well the childhood safety blanket is cute. I don't care who you are."

"Oh, Lily. I love you, but, seriously? You're such a romantic." Kat said, causing James to look at me excitedly and grab my arm. Unfortunately, that movement caught the attention of Madame Pomfrey, who was the only one not staring at Lily or the blanket.

"Oh. My. God. How long have you been standing there?" She shouted, getting more excited than I saw her get when I broke three bones. Everyone jumped up and whirled around and Kat produced her wand from seemingly thin air to point it at my throat.

"Oh, hello Mr. Black, Mr. Potter. How are you this fine evening?" Dumbledore said with his eyes twinkling wildly. But he was cut off by McGonagall yelling,

"Potter, Black, Detention. What do you think you're doing being out after curfew?" Kat had stored her wand away at this point and was gathering her blanket to make an apparent stab at getting back up while everyone's attention was diverted.

"Um, well, we came to see how Kat was doing and um, you seemed busy?" James said in a fearful voice. Kat was standing up and looking quite proud of herself, but she had to lean on Lily's shoulder which once again transferred all attention back to her.

"I'm fine." She said before anyone could say anything. She then looked James and I right in the eye and then said in a clear carrying voice,

"How much?"

"The whole thing." I found myself answering. It wasn't Occlumency. She just had these eyes that made you want to tell the truth.

"Fine. You wanna help me get back to the Common Room? I can explain parts, I'm sure." She said to me before turning back to McGonagall and Flintwick, who looked apoplectic, saying, "I say we go with Plan A. Now, I'll talk to you both tomorrow." She then abandoned Lily's shoulder and walked out, right past James and I, with Lily right behind her. After she got out of the Hospital Wing she sunk down onto the ground, hugging the blanket to her. Lily sat next to her and rubbed her shoulder while James and I just stood there awkwardly.
Eventually she looked up.

"We should get going before The Marauders come out... Oh." She said, blushing slightly when she realized we were there. Tears were running down her face, but her burn was strangely gone.

"Oh... Hi?" She said awkwardly, blushing more now.

"Are you OK?" James asked, before I could ask anything about what the hell they were talking about.

"Yeah." She said, standing up and picking up the blanket carefully.

"I'll hold that for you if you want." Lily said. Kat paused for a second then smiled, handing it over.

"I don't know what I was thinking." Kat told Lily, who smiled now that she was apparently back to normal, and turned to us.

"OK, so you guys might want to go ahead. There might be some second attempts before I get to Gryffindor..." She said, straightening up.

"We'll just go with you." I said, already deciding that I was going to see this through, and I could tell James felt the same way.

"OK. Just be prepared." She said, heading off with Lily. James and I followed after glancing at each other. About five minutes later Lucius Malfoy and his two bodyguards, Crabbe and Goyle, popped out from behind one of the suites of armor.

"Hello there, Katarina." Lucius said smugly. Kat just smirked.

"Well, this is feeble, so I'm just not going to bother with you." Kat said before walking past, gesturing for James and I to follow. Lily already had. We heard the irate sound of the stunning charm and then thumps as they fell to the ground. I looked around wildly, trying to figure out why they had fell and how Kat didn't even have her wand out.

"Its a shame, I was hoping after what had happened earlier that they would be more creative." I heard Kat whisper to Lily, who giggled. James and I exchanged looks and hurried up to join them. We were almost to Gryffindor tower when Bellatrix came out from behind a tapestry. Kat got out her wand, as did Lily, with James and I hurrying to do the same.

"Hello there, Lady Katarina." Bellatrix said, obviously clueless that she had said almost the exact same thing as Lucius Malfoy. At least now the Lady thing made sense. "You are coming with me. There is someone very important who wants to see you."

"I'm afraid we already met tonight. Perhaps you would like to take a message?" Kat asked politely, but with a small amount of steel. Bellatrix looked surprised, but quickly recovered.

"I'm afraid you can take the message yourself. But what is it, if I may ask?" Bellatrix said in the typical pureblood drawl.

"Go to Hell." Kat said coldly, all visages of politeness gone. Bellatrix scowled and shot a stunner at Kat, who just stood there as the apparently silent shield charm blocked it. Bellatrix promptly shot everything she had at the shield, which caused Kat to laugh.

"Someone has been getting private lessons." Kat said smiling. "It won't be enough." She promptly shot a stunner at Bellatrix, who was tired from the spells, and calmly watched as she fell to the ground. She walked away with Lily in tow. We all walked in silence for a while, but when we got to the Common Room we rounded on her. It was empty because of the hour.

"What the Hell?" James said, seeming not so sure of himself.

"I did give you a hint." She said calmly, as if a hint was practically telling us.

"Oh, because a hint is enough to figure it out." I said sarcastically.

"Lily figured it out with less." She replied simply. I just stared at her, exasperated.

"You're probably a huge danger to the school! This should have been announced at the feast!" James whisper-shouted, obviously upset.

"Leave her alone, you jerks!" Lily said, guiding Kat, who was looking quite upset, up the stairs to the girls dorms. She turned back every couple of stairs to glare at us.

"Please don't tell anyone." We heard coming down from the stairs a couple minutes later. Kat sounded tearful.

"Don't worry. He was just upset he couldn't figure it out as well as Lily." I said back up the stairs. "I know how it is."

"How what is?" She asked, still sounding a little upset.

"People treating you differently because of your family." I whispered back.

"Right. Of course you do. I'm sorry. It's just that he's right. I just wanted to be normal for a bit, you know?" She asked sadly. I nodded, then, realizing she couldn't see me replied.

"I understand. And you can be. Don't worry, I won't tell anyone."

"What about Bighead- I'm sorry- James." I thought about it for a second.

"He'll probably just tell Remus and Peter. It would be pretty impossible to stop that one. But I'll make sure he doesn't tell anyone else." I whispered back up the stairs.

"That's OK. Remus was cool when I talked to him before. And he will probably understand." She whispered back, confirming our theory.

"Yeah. And I'll make sure Peter keeps quiet." I whispered, not surprised she had forgotten him.

"OK. Good Night, Sirius." She whispered. I said goodnight back and was almost up the stairs to the boys dorms when I heard,

"And Sirius?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks."