When we reached back at the Burrow, Mum was just as worried as she could possibly be. Because this was the first time she had let her children go on such a big event without her supervision and chaos had been unleashed.

After all the fussing of making sure that none of us was badly hurt and treating the minor injuries, we were sent off to bed. Fred and George had been the first to leave while me and Gin were the last.

As I climbed the stairs up to the attic, I could hear an uproar from the twin's bedroom. It was nothing like the usual explosions when they would be inventing stuff. Instead it sounded like a heated argument with cursing involved.

Being the nosy annoying sister that I am (according to Perce), I decided to pop in and see what had got their knickers in such a twist.

I threw open the door without knocking, as it had become quite a ritual with us, and saw that they had angry faces and the scarlet bag of galleons they had won from Ludo lay open at the bed.

"Who put pepper in your soup?" I asked casually.

"Damn Ludo Bagman!" they spat out.

Oh... Wait, what? I didn't know the Quidditch commentator had enough time for such silly pranks. 

However, I noticed that the bag of galleons was empty yet I do remember Bagman handed it full to them. "Where did all the galleons go? Used it all up already?"

"Didn't have the chance to do so," George spoke, "he paid us in Leprechaun Gold, that nasty fraud."

Now what type of gold is that?

Seeing the questioning look on my face, Fred elaborated, "it is exactly identical to galleons but vanishes in a few hours. We were fooled by that vile, disgusting backstabber!"

Ah I see. "I do feel sorry for both of you but you should have known better than to bet against him. No wonder Dad disapproved."

As expected, they eyed me as if I was some sort of alien who had just turned up out of nowhere. "If you are here to be Percy Weasley 2.0 then we request you to kindly leave," they snapped.

Come on, there's no need to be so rude. "If I really were Percy 2.0, I wouldn't even feel slightly sorry for you two."

"Thanks for the compassion, sis. But we're utterly disappointed at the loss of such good fortune."

I knew it would take them a while to settle down after such a deceit. So leaving them to their mourning session, I left for my own room.

***

It was early morning when I was woken up by tapping sounds at my window. Rubbing my eyes I sat up and saw a tawny owl perched up on the window sill. Now who could be sending me mail at this time of the year?

All of a sudden an alarm went off in my head; the OWLs result.

Frantically I opened the window and untied the letter from its tiny leg. However the envelope didn't bear the school crest. Looking at the owl closely, I saw it wasn't a school owl either. Hogwarts uses barn owls for mailing while this was a tawny owl. 

I breathed a sigh of relief. Giving the owl a few tidbits to devour, I sat back on the bed and tore open the letter. My cat, Priscilla, climbed up and curled beside me. The commotion I created must have roused it up as well. 

Stroking the beautiful white fur, I trained my eyes on the letter. It was from Remus. Finally.

"Dear Katerina,

Hope you are doing well. I'm good too as I did find a job soon after resigning from Hogwarts. Your OWL results must have been dispatched by now as far as I know. If you have received the result, congratulations in advance. If not, then best of luck.

How are the other Weasleys and Harry? I heard about the attack at the Quidditch World Cup, seemed rather hard to believe as there seemed no possible reason for the Death Eaters to show up like that. I bet they are getting bored and just want a taste of the old days.

Padfoot is safe though. I'll let you know if something else happens which can be of any significance to you. Reply whenever you can, I'm including the address on the back page. Send my regards to Harry.

Remus Lupin."

I folded back the letter into the envelope and looked up to see that the owl had already flown away. Guess I will reply later then.

After changing out of my night dress and brushing my teeth, I went downstairs where breakfast must already be laid out on the tables. As expected, a delicious smell wafted through the kitchen; Mum was making buttered toast.

Seeing that no one else had come out yet, I quickly set the plates on the table and then called out everyone to come and have breakfast. After a short while, we were all seated and enjoying Mum's delicious cooking. 

Fred and George were narrating the tale of their woeful deceit to all of us. Dad obviously gave them the 'I told you so' look. 

We were just about finished when two owls bearing the Hogwarts crest flew in through the window and perched on an empty stool patiently.

"Aha, bet these are your OWL results," Percy exclaimed with a look of pure satisfaction on his face. 

He would be so utterly delighted if any one of us fails, God forbid.

Mum handed the letters one by one to me, Fred and George respectively. I must admit, my stomach was twisting into knots and I was dreading that I had somehow failed everything.

The twins were not affected at all as they happily announced that they had no Ts in the entire result which was sufficient for them.

"Katerina dear, what are you waiting for?" Mum spoke, "we all want to know your result too."

With slightly trembling hands, I took the letter out of the envelope. But before I could read it, Percy snatched the letter from my hand. 

"Bloody hell, Perce! Give it back this instant," but my protests were to no avail as he held it out of reach squinting at whatever result I had got.

"Not bad," he announced, "Mum, Kat managed to scrape off acceptable passing marks."

What?

"Now that's just... unbelievable. I mean, yes I am glad that I didn't fail any subject but my exams didn't go that average either so..." 

Percy clamped a hand on my mouth shutting it, "you've got nine Os and that's four more Os than the twins so you should consider yourself lucky. But how on Earth did you get an A in potions? I was honestly expecting more from you."

"That's not my fault," I remarked, "if Professor Snape had been as good a teacher as the others are then I would have likely scored better."

Mum however gave me a congratulatory hug, "you did well, dear. Never mind Percy. We are all glad for you."

The twins were quite visibly scowling by now, "and what about us? Are we next door neighbors?"

Mum suppressed a laugh at their comment and gave them both a hug too, "of course not, dear. We're glad for all of our children, including you."

When all the antics at breakfast were over and we were picking up the dishes, Percy came up to me and spoke, "I'm not going to give you a lecture so don't run off. There's just one question I have to ask."

Okay... Wonder what's on his mind this time.

"How did you not get a T in Astronomy? I mean, not being rude, but you honestly suck at that subject."

You what? I balled my hands into fists, "Percy!"

There was a mischievous twinkle in his eyes as he effortlessly disapparated. Argh! 

There are very rare times when he gets in such a playful mood. But trust me these rare times are when Percy is at his worst dangerous attitude.

Percy being annoying is what we are all used to, but Percy being mischievous is a great threat for us.

***