We will meet again ~ Fred Weasley

- You Matter More -

"The moment he stepped into something dangerous, it felt like the world split down the middle. Half of me was still standing beside them...and the other half was already terrified of losing them."

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It was finally time to find out who the Triwizard Champions were.

The Great Hall had been rearranged for the occasion, long house tables replaced with rows of benches facing the Goblet of Fire, which burned steadily at the front of the room. The usual chatter had been replaced by something tighter, more anticipatory—whispers that rose and fell like waves as students speculated, guessed, and argued over who would be chosen.

Katherine sat among the Gryffindors without hesitation. She needed a break from Draco.

Ron was to her left, already leaning forward with restless excitement, while Ginny sat on her right, her posture far more composed but her eyes just as bright. Harry and Hermione were close by, the four of them forming their usual cluster despite the mixed seating.

Katherine's injured arm rested carefully in her lap, wrapped neatly beneath the sleeve of her uniform. The bandaging Draco had done was hidden well enough, but not entirely.

Ginny noticed first.

Her gaze dropped, brows pulling together slightly before she leaned closer.

"Blimey, Katherine," she said, a touch too loudly for Kat's liking, "what happened to your arm?"

Katherine stilled.

For a split second, she considered brushing it off—but the way Ron immediately turned, the way Hermione's attention snapped toward her, told her she wasn't getting out of it that easily.

She glanced down at her sleeve, then back up again with a small, dismissive shrug.

"Nothing dramatic," she said lightly. "I caught it on something in the common room last night."

Ron squinted at her. "That doesn't look like a nothing injury."

"It was glass," she added, adjusting her sleeve slightly. "Lantern stand tipped over. Wrong place, wrong time."

"That sounds painful," Hermione said, her tone shifting instantly to concern as she leaned forward. "Did you go to Madam Pomfrey?"

Katherine hesitated—only briefly.

"...Not exactly."

Ginny raised a brow. "What does that mean?"

Katherine exhaled quietly, her gaze flicking—just for a moment—across the hall.

Toward the Slytherins.

Toward him.

Draco sat among them, posture composed as ever, though there was something slightly more rigid in the way he held himself tonight. His attention appeared fixed on the Goblet, but Katherine knew better now.

She looked away before anyone else could follow her gaze.

"Draco helped me sort it," she said, quieter this time.

Ron blinked. "Malfoy?"

The disbelief in his voice was immediate—and loud.

"Ron," Hermione hissed under her breath.

"What?" he whispered back, though not quietly enough. "He did—he—what?"

Katherine rolled her eyes faintly, though there was no real bite behind it.