Almost

Chapter 10: Calendar

Maybe it was the stomach full of pizza. Maybe it was too much talking and excitement for one day. Maybe it was just the comfort of the familiar couch and her old, worn blankets that she'd sat under for too many years to not find them comforting. Maybe it was some subconscious ability to pretend that her and George and Evie had lived here together all along, to wrap herself in this blanket of normalcy. She didn't know why she was able to fall asleep without her tempering. But she did.

Which was a bad idea.

"Katherine!" George yelled, shaking her to wake up from the other side of the couch. She sat up sweating, her throat hoarse from yelling. Shit, she thought.

"What the hell?" her dad said, staring at her with a crazed look in his eyes.

She cleared her throat, trying to pull herself together. "Just a nightmare," she assured him, shaking her head and attempting a laugh. "Sorry for the scare."

"What were you dreaming about that had you screaming like that?"

"Nothing, I just have nightmares sometimes. It's not a big deal." She stood up and walked over to the kitchen to make some coffee.

"So, you've had nightmares like that before?" he asked, following her path.

She sighed but focused on the coffee maker, giving thought to each step. Turn water on. Pour water in.

"Sometimes. What, you never have nightmares?"

Place coffee filter. Open coffee canister. Three spoonfuls coffee. Spoonfuls? Spoonsful? Spoons full?

"Sure," he said, "but I normally don't turn into a banshee. How often do you have them?"

Close lid. Hit brew.

"Every once in a while. It's really not a big deal."

Hit brew. Hit brew... Why won't it brew?

"Last I heard of someone who had nightmares like that..."

Damnit, Katherine. It isn't plugged in. You're losing it.

"Dad, I promise, it's nothing to worry about. I'm fine. I'm sorry I worried you."

Hit brew. Let percolate. How long does this thing take to make a freaking cup of coffee?

"Bloody hell, Katherine, you have too extensive of a vocabulary to keep saying 'I'm fine!' That was no normal nightmare, so start talking before I spike that coffee with veritaserum."

Katherine had never heard George yell like this before. She gripped the counter, letting her magic course through it and make it precisely an eighth of an inch thicker. When she knew her face was implacable, she turned to face him.

"I'm fine."

She wanted to test him. Wanted to see how he would respond. Wanted to dare him to doubt her or cut and run. She didn't know what she wanted his reaction to be, she just knew she wanted to see it.

"Katherine Ivy Weasley, you are not fifteen years old, so stop acting like it."

"Waine," she said, her voice still just as even. "Katherine. Ivy. Waine."

He didn't stumble, didn't waiver, barely even narrowed his eyes. "How often do you have these nightmares?"

"I don't keep a calendar."

"Bollocks," he said. "How often?"

The couch upholstery turned a half a shade darker. The coffee maker beeped. She turned to a cabinet and pulled out the greenest coffee mug she could find, filling it to the brim and taking a long sip.