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Sokka stabbed his slice of chocolate cake with his fork and shoved it into his mouth with a growl.
“Why are you hate-eating that cake?” Toph asked. Her milky grey eyes shined with mirth.
“Because that Slytherin asshole just raised his goblet at me,” Sokka replied through a mouthful of cake.
“Sokka, you knew he would goad you if they won,” Suki reasoned, patting his arm from across the table. “You do the same whenever Gryffindor beats Slytherin.”
“Or when literally anybody beats Slytherin,” Toph corrected, grinning. She heard Sokka’s fork connect with ceramic and deftly floated a new slice onto his plate.
“Why is my brother hate-eating his cake?” Katara asked, dropping into the seat beside Sokka.
“Zuko raised his goblet at him,” Suki explained.
“Did he catch the snitch?” Katara asked.
“Yes,” Sokka growled.
“It was kind of amazing,” Aang pitched in, finishing his conversation with his Herbology partner and turning back to the gang. Sokka bared his teeth at the younger boy. “ What ? Did you see the way he hung off his broom with one hand and grabbed the snitch? I almost got hit by a bludger because I was gaping at him.”
“Same,” Suki said. “I dropped my bat.”
“It was lame,” Sokka scowled.
“It was pretty hot actually.”
“ Suki!” Sokka exclaimed while the others chortled, Toph throwing her head back and laughing loudly.
“I bet it was,” Toph said.
“I hate all of you,” Sokka said, finishing the last bite of his third piece of cake.
“No you don’t,” Aang grinned. “Katara, why’d you miss the match?”
“I’m sorry,” she replied, bunching up her robes in her fists under the table. “I really wanted to be there but I had an essay to finish for tomorrow.”
“For tomorrow ?” Toph asked disbelievingly. “ You , Katara Kuruk, Brightest Witch of Hogwarts and current head girl, almost missed a deadline?”
“I didn’t miss it because I managed to finish it during the match.”
“Yeah, but when have you ever finished an essay the day before the deadline?” Sokka asked. Katara focused her energy on keeping her hands from trembling.
“It’s one essay, leave me alone,” she replied, keeping her tone light. She didn’t want to worry her friends. Everyone was stressed this year, with their N.E.W.Ts coming up, she didn’t need to add to their stress.
“But-” Aang started, a frown on his face. Suki shook her head at him discreetly and his mouth snapped shut. Katara noticed but didn’t comment. If anyone had noticed something was wrong this year, it would be Suki. Not a lot got past her and they’d been living together in the Gryffindor dorms for seven years now.
Dinner was done by the time Sokka had slowly recovered from his rage. It helped when Katara quietly jinxed Zuko’s goblet so that the next time he raised it at Sokka, the water flew out and splashed him in his face. Sokka laughed so hard that he upended his own goblet, which almost defeated the purpose. Katara stayed back in the Great Hall to have a quick word with Headmaster Gyatso about the end of year dance and promised to catch up with the others in the common room.
As she was leaving the hall ten minutes later, a figure pushed off the wall by the doors.
“I know you jinxed my goblet,” a familiar voice rasped behind her. She sighed and kept walking and he took two long strides to catch up with her. “None of your other precious Gryffindors have the brains for it.”
“Was that a compliment?” Katara muttered, feeling a headache come on. “And Toph is a Ravenclaw.”
A snort followed by, “More like an insult to your friends, its a second year jinx. And I know the short one’s a Ravenclaw, it’s just easier to group you lot into one pathetic bunch.”
“Zuko, I am really not in the mood for this today,” Katara said. “I do not have the energy to quip back at you, which frankly will be nothing but boring for you.”
“I just didn’t appreciate having water thrown in my face after a pretty big win,” Zuko said, pushing his hair out of his face.
“Well you were annoying Sokka with the goblet raising,” Katara replied, still not looking at him, her focus simply on walking directly ahead and getting to her bed and falling into it as fast as possible.
Zuko scoffed, “ Breathing would annoy him if it came from me. And are you forgetting how he charmed the doors of the Great Hall to bellow ‘Zuko Sucks’ every time they opened when we lost against you lot last term?” The memory unwittingly brought a small smile to her face before she could stop it. “But of course, you cast that charm too, didn’t you?”
“No comment,” Katara replied, the corner of her lip still quirked upwards. “Uh- the Slytherin common room is that way.” She finally stopped in her tracks to point back down the hallway he had just followed her through. “Do you need something else from me?”
“Yeah, tell your oaf brother that he sucks, won’t you?”
Katara rolled her eyes and finally looked at him. He was standing with his hands tucked into the pockets of his Slytherin robes. His hair was hanging into his eyes and she wished not for the first time that he still gelled his hair back like he used to in their first six years. He was far more hateable that way, with his pointy features and awful slicked hair. But, she noted, there had been a distinct lack of hate long before he had changed his hairstyle. Truly horrible barbs had diminished into lighter competitive banter somewhere between fifth and sixth year. It was not a coincidence that his father had been sent to Azkaban at around the same time. Ever since then, Zuko had no longer walked around with a raincloud over his head, even the dark scar across half his face looked less angry and less painful.
“Don’t forget the meeting we have with the Prefects tomorrow morning,” Katara said. “I’ll get the presentation done tonight.”
“Let me know if I can help,” Zuko said.
“You didn’t take notes in our meeting with Professor Kyoshi,” Katara reminded him smartly.
“Ah yes but see, Miss Kuruk, I am a superior being- I do not require notes like you do, I have what is called an excellent brain,” he tapped the side of his head with his index finger, his lip curled into a smirk. Katara rolled her eyes again and the smirk widened.
“Goodnight, Sozin,” she said, turning on her heel and heading towards the staircase that led up to her common room.
“Goodnight, Kuruk,” he called to her back. She shook her head and sighed, knowing she would have to be up late creating the presentation for the prefects for the next morning. She hadn’t slept well in about three weeks now, and it was beginning to affect her anxiety levels to a troubling level.
When she woke up the next morning, her head was against something hard and when she stuck her tongue out to lick her dry lips, she tasted parchment. With a curse and a leap out of bed, she realised she had fallen asleep fairly soon into working on the presentation. She cast a quick tempus and swore again when she realised she had five minutes left till the meeting. She changed quickly and speed-ran a comb through her hair and with a defeated look at the incomplete work sprawled across her bed, she ran out of the room while pulling on her robes. When she stumbled into the prefects’ meeting room, everyone was already seated and waiting.
“I’m so sorry,” she rushed out, sitting down beside Zuko at the desk in front of the room facing the others. She could feel Zuko’s eyes on her and reluctantly turned to meet them. His lips were turned slightly downwards and she wondered if her addled brain was imagining concern. Zuko Sozin couldn’t possibly be concerned about her . His eyes flicked down to her empty desk, upon which she had placed no presentation.
She felt shame burn through her chest like a parchment catching fire and her throat felt tight. She had given Zuko shit for not taking notes and here she was, said notes strewn across her bed and no presentation to show for it.
“Right,” Zuko said, facing the prefects. “Let’s get straight into it. I didn’t have time to make copies of our notes with Kyoshi because we thought it would be good if we opened the floor for ideas for the ball today, and then discussed her logistical constraints next time. If we all know what we can’t do from the get-go, we might feel limited with our ideas. So let's think big and then whittle down afterwards. Who wants to go first? I trust you all brainstormed over the last week?”
Katara felt overwhelming gratitude wash over her as Zuko took the lead without any hesitation or any questions. He didn’t ask her to take over at any point, even though she was supposed to lead the meeting that day, and only occasionally turned to ask her if she had any thoughts about an idea that had just been raised. She had been so harried that morning that she hadn’t even brought anything to take notes on. But Zuko didn’t comment, he simply withdrew his own notebook and quill and began dutifully noting down any ideas the group were coming up with.
By the end of the meeting, Katara felt exhausted even though she had barely spoken beyond her initial apology. As the prefects all filed out of the room, she remained seated and stared numbly out the window where she could see a few people flying on brooms in the Quidditch pitch.
“Kuruk, you okay?” She blinked and turned to look at Zuko, who was standing in front of her desk, his arms crossed.
“Thank you for taking over today,” Katara said, her shame still pounding through her heart. “That was a trainwreck and I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine,” Zuko said slowly, watching her a bit too intensely for her liking.
“It’s not,” Katara insisted, standing up. “I was responsible for the presentation and I completely blew it.”
“Do you always put this much pressure on yourself?” Zuko asked as they left the room together. “Well, of course you do, brightest witch of our year and all.” Katara’s heart clenched at the title. She was feeling far from deserving of it this year so far. He stopped and turned to face her. “But look, there are two of us, okay? I know you’re used to taking care of everything for your bandwagon of hufflepuff-hugging Gryffindors, but we’re a team here, so you don’t have to do everything alone, alright?”
Katara blinked and stared at him, her throat feeling dry. She swallowed hard as she looked into his piercing golden eyes. Eyes that she once hated with a vengeance. Eyes that once hated her with a vengeance. “Why are you being so nice to me?”
He blinked back, looking surprised. A pale blush then dusted his cheeks and he looked away from her and rubbed the back of his neck. “You seem like you might need it this year. You don’t look like you’ve been sleeping, you don’t seem to be at meals half the time, everytime I see you you’re holed up in the library-”
“So this is pity?” Katara spat, feeling too irrationally livid all of a sudden. “You pity me so you’re being nice to me?”
“What? No,” Zuko spluttered. “Well, yeah, but no! Not pity! I mean- you’re just not- you don’t seem like yourself.”
“And what’s that supposed to mean?” Katara demanded. “Like myself ? What, I’m not exhibiting enough peasant-like behaviour for you to make fun of? Cooped up in the library means you can’t catch out all my muggleborn flaws as easily?”
“Katara,” Zuko said, eyebrows drawing together, “When was the last time I said anything like that to you?”
Katara knew he was right, and knew she was very very wrong with her accusations. She knew he had changed in the last year, knew he was making a real effort to not be like how he used to be. She didn’t completely understand why but she could see it clear as day. So for her to be hurling out accusations in an emotional outburst was uncalled for. She knew this. But the last thing she wanted was to be pitied , least of all by someone like Zuko Sozin.
“I don’t need your pity,” Katara said. She wanted to apologise, she wanted to explain, about how every moment since she started seventh year had felt like an unending burden of responsibilities, a pressure like no other weighing heavier upon her shoulders every day. But she hadn’t even told her own friends, so why on earth would she tell him?
“Thank you for your help today,” was all she could manage in a mumble, the fight leaving her, before she turned and strode away.
An hour later, her head was buried in her Transfiguration textbook but her brain couldn’t seem to concentrate. It felt like there was a constant stream of white noise buzzing around her skull and the words on the pages in front of her meant nothing as she read and reread them hoping for some semblance of sense. Come on, Katara!
“Katara?” Knuckles rapped the table in front of her textbook and her head snapped up to look at the person who had been calling her name multiple times.
“Aang, hi,” she said softly.
He slipped into the chair beside her and looked at her with concern. “Katara, are you okay?”
“I’m fine, Aang.”
“Ty Lee said you didn’t look very well at the prefects meeting,” Aang frowned. Katara sighed. When the Hufflepuff prefect had squeezed her arm on the way out of the meeting, she should have known that she would report back to her boyfriend on Katara’s behaviour. Even if it wasn’t obvious how disorganised she had been that morning, Ty Lee had an uncanny ability to know exactly what was going on in a person’s mind at any given time.
“I’m just a bit tired from studying,” Katara said. “So much rides on the N.E.W.Ts, especially for muggleborns like me who want to enter the Ministry and make a positive impact and-”
“Katara, you’re going to do great,” Aang reassured her gently. And Katara wanted to scream. It was exactly this pressure that was slowly undoing her. Everyone expected great things from her, everyone . The headmaster, the professors, her friends, her family, and worst of all herself. How could she disappoint everyone in her life?
“Thanks, Aang,” Katara replied instead. “But you don’t have to worry about me, I’m just stressed is all.”
Aang frowned, studying her face intently before his shoulders dropped and he smiled gently at her, “Okay. But we’re here for you if you need us. You know that right?” Her throat felt tight and she blinked back the stinging sensation in her eyes. She nodded.
“I also wanted to ask you something else,” he said, shifting in his seat nervously. “Do you- do you know anyone who could tutor me in Defense Against the Dark Arts ? Not you!” He added quickly when she opened her mouth. “I don’t want to add to your workload. But do you know anybody else? Who could help me out? I’m failing miserably because I hate everything about that subject but I need to pass my exams.”
Katara considered tutoring him herself but like he said, she was already overworked, and this would be the last thing that would help her. She thought about the others in their class and finally settled on one face. “I know you kind of hate him but the only other person who is top of the class and could probably be a decent teacher is Zuko.”
Aang frowned, “I don’t hate him. He’s not who he used to be before. He’s still insufferable, sure, but you can tell he never means it. And Gyatso would never have made him Headboy if he didn’t believe that he deserved it. But do you think he’d want to help me?”
“I think it’s worth asking,” Katara smiled. “I think he would.”
“Alright,” Aang said, a determined set in his shoulders. He quickly leaned over and hugged Katara tightly. “Thank you, Katara.” He stood up and shouldered his bookbag. “And remember, if you need us, we’re here.”
“I know,” Katara replied gratefully.
Katara began giving up on feeling better as the days went by, when her nights were full of restless sleep and her days were plagued by migraines. She felt as though she was losing her mind as her essays were completed increasingly last minute and her study sessions dragged on hours longer than expected because nothing seemed to register in her brain. And with every passing day, she felt herself grow more exhausted and less hopeful for the year.
One evening a week later she arrived at her Herbology lesson fifteen minutes early and noticed three Slytherin boys already lounging in the classroom. She swore and kept her head down as she slipped into a seat at the back of the class, hoping they wouldn’t notice her. These three particular boys weren’t people she wanted to deal with right now. They were what Zuko used to be in their first years at Hogwarts- nasty and offensive and downright cruel. She had no energy to fight them like she normally would.
“Hey, it’s mudblood Kuruk, here with all her friends,” one of the boys called, leering at her.
“Grow up, Lee,” Katara mumbled, opening her textbook.
Lee hopped off the desk he was sitting on and sauntered over to her. One of the boys behind him mumbled about house points but he dismissed the concern with a wave and walked over to Katara.
“What do you work so hard for anyway?” Lee asked, ripping her textbook away from her. She grit her teeth together, feeling for her wand in her sleeve. “Mudbloods don’t get far in the Ministry anyway.” He chucked the book onto the floor and reached his pale and boney hand towards her face. She was about to flinch back and draw her wand when a long fingers grabbed Lee’s wrist.
Lee yelped as the fingers twisted his hand painfully.
“Fifty points from Slytherin,” Zuko barked, shoving Lee back and standing between him and Katara.
“Are you joking?” Lee spat. “That’s points from your own house! For her ? A southern peasant?” Zuko drew his wand faster than any of them had the chance to blink.
“Sit down and shut up if you don’t want another fifty points docked,” he said, eyes blazing with fire. “And if I hear you or any of your friends use that language again, it’ll be a hundred points next.”
“Screw you, Sozin, you blood traitor,” Lee sneered, turning back to his friends and sitting down. Zuko kept his wand in his hand and slipped into the seat beside Katara, where she was watching him quietly.
“You didn’t have to do that,” she said as he dusted off her textbook and handed it back to her.
“Yes, I did,” he replied. “You okay?”
She nodded mutely. “I can normally fight my own battles but I’m just tired.”
“Trust me, if anyone knows how good you are at fighting your own battles and standing up for yourself or the ones you love, it’s me,” Zuko smiled gently. He nodded his head towards Lee, “That used to be me.”
“But it’s not anymore,” Katara said, feeling shame twist in her gut as she remembered what she had said the week before. “I’m sorry about the other day. I know that’s not who you are anymore.”
“I know,” Zuko said. “I wasn’t pitying you.”
“I know,” Katara replied, offering him a small smile which he returned.
“New Herbology partner, Katara?” They turned to see Suki walking towards them, Sokka frowning beside her.
“Uh- no, we were just- uh-” Zuko stammered, reaching for his bookbag.
Suki waved him off, “I’ll work with Sokka today, you can be Katara’s partner.”
Zuko turned to Katara and she wondered if her lack of sleep was imagining the redness creeping up his neck . “Is that okay with you?” She stared at him, was that hope in his golden eyes? She had worked with him once last year, during Potions, and she knew he was an excellent student. He worked quietly, studied diligently, and was an excellent team player.
We’re a team here, so you don’t have to do everything alone, alright?
She nodded and he smiled softly at her, his face lighting up. Professor Asami smiled widely when she saw the two of them paired up and then promptly announced that their current assignment would take the next two months and the person sitting beside them would be their assignment partner. Their assignment was to select two flowers, picked at random from a bowl at the front of the classroom, and manipulate their seeds in a way that allowed them to bloom in any given condition. Katara picked a fire lily and Zuko picked an ice daisy.
Katara had worked with all her friends over the last six years. Toph was lazy and rarely did her share of the work. Aang was wide-eyed and curious but took three times the amount of time she did to get anything done. Sokka was funny and hard-working but complained about every single thing. Suki was her favourite and showed up to all their meetings on time and put in her fair share of the work and never slacked. But Zuko, Katara realised over the next two weeks, was a perfect partner.
He showed up early to their study and gardening sessions, always had notes and ideas pre-planned and pre-penned, picked up new books immediately after every meeting to prepare for the next one, and never once made her feel like she was responsible for the both of them. And for the first time since she had started her seventh year, she found herself enjoying her studies. She looked forward to each of their meetings, she enthusiastically selected reading materials and gathered new seeds and took notes to share with him, and every word that she read and noted made perfect sense . When he sat beside her and they worked together, it was like taking a potent aspirin. Her migraines disappeared, her shoulders felt unburdened and she felt herself relax.
“Did you finish your Transfiguration essay yet?” Katara asked as they started packing away their latest Herbology research.
“The one due next week? Just the conclusion left,” Zuko said. “You?”
She hesitated before confessing, “I’m having some difficulties with the flow of the essay. I can’t seem to order my thoughts well enough. I was going to work on it now if- if you want to work on them together?”
Zuko’s smile was soft and sweet but felt blinding nonetheless. “That would be great. Do you want to read through mine so you can take a break from your own? It’s probably a different research topic but it might help?”
Katara released a grateful exhale so loud that she cringed in embarrassment and looked around to make sure nobody had heard her. She smiled sheepishly at him, “That would be really great. Maybe you could have a look at mine and tell me where I’m getting stuck?” They sat together for the next hour, almost entirely in silence except for the scratching of their quills against parchment. Katara had no more than two notes because frankly his essay was almost flawless. She felt enthralled while reading it, the flow and structure and words running seamlessly through the papers.
When they were both done, they swapped essays and her eyebrows lifted at all the comments he had scrawled into the margins of her essay in blue ink. She glanced up to see his face panicked, looking between the two comments she had written ontop of his essay and the many comments he had written on hers. He reached out to try and grab her essay back but she pulled it out of his reach.
“I’m so sorry, Katara,” he rushed out. “It’s good, I swear. It just-”
“Zuko,” she stopped him with a small smile. “Thank you.” His mouth closed. “I needed this. I’ve been really stuck and none of my own words make sense when I read them. Your comments- they make sense to me. Thank you for the effort, you didn’t have to.”
“I kinda enjoyed it,” Zuko admits with an embarrassed smile. “Your research topic is excellent- the utilities of snow transfiguration isn’t something I’ve read about often. It’s just the structure that’s lacking, which you already pointed out. So it was just a matter of finding the right place for all your points. Like a puzzle.”
“Thank you for giving me tips on how to solve my puzzle,” Katara said, her smile growing at his enthusiasm. For your essay , she whispered to herself, her heart beating louder than usual.
Six days later at breakfast in the Great Hall, a throat was cleared behind Katara and the moment she saw the scowl on her brother’s face, she knew who it was. She turned around to see Zuko standing awkwardly, his hands buried in his robe pockets.
“Hey, Zuko!” Aang greeted brightly.
“Geez Sparky, your heartbeat is going crazy,” Toph commented. Then she turned slowly to Katara and a cheshire grin began spreading across her face. “In fact-”
Katara cleared her throat loudly and quickly, cutting her off, but not missing the smile Suki hid behind her goblet.
“Hi, Aang,” Zuko said and then waved awkwardly at everyone at the table, “Hey, everyone, Zuko here.”
“We know who you are, weirdo,” Sokka said, narrowing his eyes. “What do you want?”
“Uh Katara, can I speak to you?” He rubbed the back of his neck.
“No, if you have something to say, you can say it in front of all of us,” Sokka said, still squinting.
“Sokka,” Katara snapped, “Don’t be an idiot.”
“I don’t trust him, Katara,” Sokka said, turning his nose in the air.
“Shocking,” Suki deadpanned.
“Fine,” Zuko rolled his eyes. He withdrew something from his pocket and held it out to Katara. She gingerly took the vial from him. It had a purple liquid sloshing around and she tilted it this way and that to work out if she could identify it. “It’s a herbal remedy for migraines.” Her eyes snapped up to him in surprise. He lowered his voice, stepping a bit closer to her, “You mentioned you were getting migraines.”
“You brewed this for me?” Katara asked softly. The others had gone deathly silent.
“Uncle helped me,” Zuko answered sheepishly. “He used to brew them for me when I first-” he gestured vaguely around and it took her a moment to realise he was gesturing to the scarred side of his face. “Anyway, they really helped me and I thought you could try one and see if it helps.” Katara glanced at the Professors table where she could see Professor Iroh watching them with rapt curiosity. He grinned and waved at her and she smiled gratefully at him.
“Thank you, Zuko,” she replied, feeling truly touched.
“Nuh-uh-uh!” Sokka said and Suki groaned beside him. “You are not drinking something brewed by the Slytherin Prince himself.”
“I drank something he brewed already!” Aang chirped up from Sokka’s other side. “I had a panic attack during my first Defence lesson with him, so he brewed me a calming draught for our second class. It really helped me overcome my initial fear.” Katara turned to Zuko in surprise again, her heart fluttering dangerously in her chest. As soon as she felt it in her chest, she snuck a glance at Toph, who had another smile crawling onto her face.
“You’re taking lessons with him?” Sokka exclaimed. “And you’re studying with him?” He turned to Katara. Both she and Aang shrugged. “What next?!”
“He helped me pick out candy at Hogsmeade the other day,” Toph said. Another nervous skip of a heartbeat in Katara’s chest.
“Suki, please tell me-”
“He’s a surprisingly good sparring partner,” Suki grinned at Zuko who smiled bashfully at his feet, his eyes flicking constantly back to Katara, who’s heart was beating so fast that Toph had started cackling.
“My whole family has betrayed me,” Sokka grumbled, stabbing his dinner with a fork. “Sleeping with the enemy.”
“Not yet,” Toph murmured under her breath. Katara would have shoved her if it didn’t draw attention to the girl.
“Thank you for this, Zuko,” Katara said, bringing his attention back to the vial in her hands. “And thank your uncle please too.”
“Do you wanna finish breakfast with us?” Aang asked enthusiastically. Sokka poked him in the ribs and Aang shoved him away.
“Erm- that’s nice, but I’ve already eaten,” Zuko said. “And I’m not sure I won’t be poisoned.” Aang’s face fell and something in Katara’s face must have fallen too because he quietly added, “Maybe next time.”
As he walked away, Toph leaned towards Katara and whispered, “If he had stayed for breakfast, you might have gone into cardiac arrest.” This time Katara did shove her.
“It really helped,” Katara told Zuko a week later during their nightly patrol. They were walking through a dark corridor, their wands lit up with a lumos and their footsteps echoing silently around them. “The migraine remedy. I had a terrible one today and took it and it was gone within minutes. Thank you.”
“I can make some more for you, if you like- or I could show you how to make them,” Zuko offered. “They’re herbal remedies so they aren’t bad for your body or anything. I used to down like one a day when I first got injured.”
“Do you still get them?” Katara asked quietly, wondering not for the first time about his scar. He didn’t have it in first year but in second year he returned with an angry scar and an even angrier scowl that didn’t leave his face for the next four years. His friends and housemates began to drift away from him during that second year, as if his scar would contaminate them, and if he hadn’t been so damn nasty to her back then, she would have felt sorry for him. Now, knowing who Zuko had chosen to become, she felt sorry for that little boy.
“Sometimes,” Zuko shrugged. “I tend to get them when I’m feeling particularly shit about how I look.” He released a strangled laugh and she had the sudden urge to reach out and grab his hand. “I mean I barely notice it anymore, it’s just part of my look ,” he waved his hand at the left side of his face, “but on certain days, when I wake up in a bad mood or something, I look at myself and it’s all kinds of phantom pains and the migraines return.”
Katara nodded, desperately wanting to catch his hand and squeeze it. It didn’t sound like something he spoke about often and she felt honoured that he had shared this much with her.
Just as they were turning the corridor towards the Gryffindor common rooms, a figure leaped out with a bellowed “BOO!” brandishing a torch with a live flame. Katara shrieked and threw out a aguamenti before realising it was her brother, who was now drenched through but doubled over laughing.
“Sokka, you idiot!” She screamed, shoving him. She turned to check on Zuko and froze.
“Classic,” Sokka laughed, wiping tears from his eyes. “Prank Master General does it again!”
“Not funny,” Katara mumbled but her eyes were locked on Zuko, who had fallen backwards onto the floor and was currently shielding his face, his eyes slammed shut. She knelt down slowly as if approaching a frightened animal. “Zuko, it’s okay.” Sokka began to realise that his prank had not had the intended effect on both parties and quietened down immediately, staring wearily at the two on the floor. “It was just Sokka being stupid.”
Zuko slowly lowered his arms from his face and blinked, his breaths coming out short and harsh. Katara reached out and touched his ankle. There was genuine fear etched into his features and his eyes were locked on the extinguished torch in Sokka’s hand.
“Hey man, I’m sorry,” Sokka mumbled.
“Zuko, you’re okay,” Katara said, squeezing his ankle. It seemed to bring him out of the fearful daze he was in and he shook his head sharply and stumbled to his feet.
“I gotta go,” he whispered before turning and fleeing.
“Shit,” Sokka said. Katara hit him on the arm with an angry, “ you idiot!” before hurrying down the corridor to where she guessed Zuko was headed. She was correct and found him in the Astronomy tower, sitting on the floor at one of the railings with his legs dangling over the edge.
Katara slid into the spot on his left and refused to look down. She was way too high up and she was afraid she would throw up or cry if she looked down.
“Hi,” she said quietly, their hands inches away from each other resting on the floor.
“Hi,” he replied. “How did you know I was here?”
“I’ve seen you up here brooding many times over the last seven years,” she said lightly, smiling up at him. He breathed out a weak chuckle.
“I don’t brood.”
“Sure you don’t, Mr Pouty.” Another soft chuckle. They sat in silence for a few moments until she said, “I’m really sorry about Sokka. He feels terrible, as he should.”
“It was just a prank,” Zuko shook his head. “He just had an unfortunate victim.” His jaw tightened and she saw him tilt his head to the right, away from her. “Do you want to sit on my right?” He rasped.
She reached out her pinky and grasped his. “I’m good, thanks. And honestly, if I try to move, I might throw up.”
He looked at her and frowned and then noticed how straight she was sitting, how she refused to look down, how her breathing was slightly laboured. He smiled softly, the moonlight dancing in his eyes, and shuffled gracefully backwards so that his legs were no longer hanging off the ledge. He patted the place beside him and Katara gratefully moved away from the edge and to his side, exhaling with relief.
“That’s why you don’t fly like the rest of your friends?” He asked. She felt her stomach flutter when he reached out and linked their pinkies together again.
She nodded, “I hate it, being so high up, feeling so completely out of control.”
“Whenever my dad would hurt one of us, I’d take my broom out and fly for hours,” Zuko said and his confession was so blunt, so sudden that Katara couldn’t help the gasp escape her lips. “It made me feel like I was in control of something. And being so high up, left to my own devices, I felt like I could escape if I wanted to, that freedom was an option. That I had a choice- if I wanted to leave and never return home.” Katara stared at him as he spoke, her eyes tracing the ridges of his scar, one she can only assume came from fire.
He looked out at the sky as he spoke. “It was nice, feeling like I was free for those hours on my broom, when my home was a prison. My dad was psychotic.” He released a humourless laugh. “When he burnt my face, I was the only witness and I was too scared to testify against him when my uncle urged me to.” Katara felt a lump in her throat and untangled their pinkies so that she could wrap all her fingers around his. “Azula was just six then and- my mother took her and left. I want to believe she left me behind because I was too injured and bed-ridden to conveniently flee.” A tear slipped down Katara’s cheek. “I want to believe that she saved who she could save that day.”
“She shouldn’t have left you behind,” Katara choked out, her eyes full of tears as she pictured twelve year old Zuko lying in his bed with his face bandaged and his mother and sister gone.
Zuko shrugged. “Uncle was there for me, best he could be. It’s probably the only thing that saved me for the four years after that. Him and my cousin, Lu Ten. They could’ve left, like my mom did, but Uncle refused to leave me behind. Lu Ten became an Auror in my fifth year and the moment that he witnessed my dad raise his hand on me again, he arrested him. Some veritaserum and an interrogation under legilimency revealed that Ozai had done far worse than burn his son’s face off. Off to Azkaban he went. I spent the second half of fifth year and the first half of sixth year with a mind-healer and between that and my uncle and Lu Ten, I got my life back together. I like to think Lu Ten became an Auror with the sole purpose of arresting my father.” He smiled wearily.
“He sounds like he loves you very much,” Katara said, unable to stem the tears falling down her cheeks.
“He does,” Zuko nodded. “It’s why I was… different after sixth year.” He looked at her finally, his eyes boring into hers and suddenly they were pleading. “Katara, I am so sorry.” Her breath stuttered. “About those six years. I was horrible to you, nasty and mean and vile. I am so sorry. If I could turn back time…” She squeezed his hand, almost painfully, as her eyes filled up again.
She shook her head, “It’s behind us now. And if we could go back in time, I’d probably try to avada your father, consequences be damned.” His mouth stretched into a smile and he laughed softly, ducking his head. “Zuko, I’m sorry that happened to you. You should be very proud of yourself.” He shrugged lightly and she scooted closer to him. “No really. Despite everything you went through, you are kind and funny and intelligent and I feel lucky to be sitting here beside you.”
“I think I’m the lucky one,” he said quietly. He looked back towards the sky, “That’s why I reacted so badly to Sokka’s prank. I don’t respond well to fire jumping out at me, or really anything jumping out at me.”
“He’ll probably apologise to you next time he sees you,” Katara offered weakly.
Zuko barked out a laugh, “That would be mortifying.” She shared a smile with him and bumped his shoulder with hers.
“If you’re lucky, he might even hug you.” Zuko groaned and she bit her lower lip as her smile widened.
“Should I just throw myself off the tower now?” He dead-panned.
“We still have our Herbology assignment due, you can’t leave me to do it alone,” Katara said. “Or I’ll have to reconsider my opinion that you’re the best study partner I’ve ever had.” Zuko’s neck and face flushed red, all the way to the tip of his ears. She revelled in the sight, dropping her head to his shoulder.
“If Sokka tries to pity-hug me, I’ll tell him you said that and he’ll scowl so hard he might pull a jaw muscle,” Zuko said.
Katara wasn’t sure whether the hug happened, or whether Zuko had to tell Sokka what she had said, or when and how Sokka even made his apology, but the next evening when she went to the library to study at her and Zuko’s favourite desk, she found the two boys sitting together and studying. She stayed hidden as Sokka leaned over and unsubtly tried to peer into Zuko’s homework. As Sokka got closer, Zuko pulled his notebook away and out of his eyeline. Sokka huffed and returned to his own notebook and the corner of Zuko’s lips pulled up into a smirk. A laugh bubbled out of Katara and both their eyes’ snapped up to look at her. She grinned sheepishly and waved at them, her heart fluttering happily in her chest, before joining them. When Zuko caught her eye and he smiled at her with warmth and fondness, she felt flowers bloom all around her heart, a combination of ice daisies and fire lilies.
The next two months passed in a blur for Katara. While she enjoyed her study sessions with Zuko, that had now expanded to included the rest of the gang on occasion, she was beginning yet again to feel bogged down by the million things she had to do and study. She felt almost constantly bone-tired and battled migraines multiple times a week, including at inopportune times at night which disallowed her to get any sleep to regain the energy she undoubtedly needed to handle the day after. She forced herself to power through, writing essay after essay and reading book after book and making presentation after presentation. She pushed herself and pushed and pushed. Until her body decided it had had enough.
“You’ll be at the match today?” Aang asked her as she finished her breakfast and tossed back a vial of migraine potion.
“You missed the last one, Katara, you have to be there,” Sokka said. “You’re like a good-luck charm.”
Katara felt touched at his sincere tone and knew that her brother and friends missed her in the stands.
“Plus nobody describes the match for me if you aren’t there,” Toph said. “So I just stand there in an arena of putrid sweat while everyone shouts like barbarians for no reason.”
Sokka added, “ And you’ve to witness us beating Slytherin so that all my upcoming goblet raising to Zuko at lunch will make sense to you.”
“Aren’t you past your rivalry?” Suki rolled her eyes.
“About life? Yes. About Quidditch? Never.”
“I’ll be there,” Katara promised. “Let me go check on our Herbology experiment real quick and I’ll meet you at the Gryffindor common room before the match?” They nodded and waved as she left.
She was halfway to the Greenhouses when the ceiling and walls began tilting and her head began spinning. She grabbed the wall to steady herself but her vision started dipping to black. She began feeling warm in her robes and her hands began to tremble and she clutched her pounding head.
“Katara?” She heard someone call her name. She knew that voice. She loved that voice. Her bookbag went tumbling to the floor, its contents spilling out. Someone fell to their knees beside her but their face was level with hers. Was she on the floor? How did she get there?
“Katara, can you hear me?” She reached out and her fingers grazed a rough cheek. She smiled. “Katara, hey!” Hands shook her gently as she tipped forward and crashed into green robes, her mind blacking out.
When she came to, she was staring at the high ceilings of the Hospital Wing and was lying in soft cotton white sheets, a blanket pulled up securely till her neck. There was an exhaustion in her bones but her mind felt more relaxed than it had in weeks. Madame Song had probably given her a calming draught.
She coughed through her dry throat and there was movement to her left.
“Hey, you’re awake.” She turned to find Zuko in a chair beside her bed, dressed in his Quidditch uniform. She frowned. They looked distinctly clean.
He helped her sit up and handed her a glass of water which she drank with her eyebrows still drawn together in confusion.
“What time is it?” She asked.
“Uh-” Zuko glanced around until he found a wall-clock. “Ten past one.”
“How long have you been sitting here?” She asked.
“Three hours,” he said and then frowned, “Are you okay, Katara?”
Despite the water she had just downed, her throat felt dry again. “I passed out three hours ago?” He nodded. “You’ve been here the whole time?” He nodded again. “Your uniform is clean.” He hesitated and then nodded. “Did you miss your game?”
“Katara-”
“Zuko, did you miss the Quidditch match?” Before he could answer, four figures came bounding through the doors and to her bed.
“You’re awake!” Sokka exclaimed with relief. She studied him, and then Suki, and then Aang. They were all still in their red Quidditch uniforms which, along with their hair and skin, were caked with dirt and sweat. She looked at Zuko again. His cheeks were flushed.
“Are you okay, Katara?” Suki asked with concern, perching on the edge of her bed by Zuko.
“Yeah, you really had us worried,” Sokka said frowning. He sat down on the other side of the bed, by her hip. “When you didn’t show up at the common room like you said, we assumed you changed your mind about attending the match.”
“I insisted that you didn’t,” Aang said. “But we waited for as long as we could and then had to head to the match. We’re sorry we didn’t look for you.”
“Yeah,” Sokka said, squeezing her hand. “We should’ve known something happened.”
“There was no way you could’ve known,” Katara reassured him, fingers tight around his.
“When the match started and they announced that the Slytherin seeker was the sub, it didn’t feel like a coincidence,” Suki said, looking at Zuko, who was looking down at her blanket and not at any of them. Katara’s heart started thumping faster. “Especially because you said you were going to check on your Herbology assignment.”
“And Zuko wouldn’t miss a game unless something was catastrophically wrong,” Aang reasoned out loud. “When the match was over, Headmaster Gyatso informed us that you were in the Hospital Wing and that Zuko had brought you here.”
“Did you miss the game because of me?” Katara asked, eyes on Zuko again. He glanced up at her through his eyelashes.
“Damn right he did,” Toph said, coming up beside Zuko and thumping him on the arm. “Took one for the team. Well, unfortunately not his team.”
“We won,” Sokka said, grinning. Katara smiled at him but her eyes kept returning to the bashful boy at her bedside sitting in his perfectly clean gear.
“Are you saying you wouldn’t have won if Zuko was seeking?” Toph asked and this nudged a smile out of Zuko.
“ No! ” Sokka spluttered. “Of course we would have won. But his not being there made it easy as pie.” He looked at his sister, “You sure you didn’t pretend to faint so that Zuko would swoop in to save you and miss the match?”
“Of course not!” Katara replied furiously, “I would never do that to him.”
“I know,” Zuko said quietly.
“I’m sorry you missed your match, and I’m sorry Slytherin lost,” Katara said. Sokka opened his mouth but Aang clamped his hand across Sokka’s mouth.
“I don’t care about that,” Zuko shrugged lightly and the sincerity in his voice and the way he was looking at her made her cheeks heat up.
“He’s saying that he only cares about you,” Toph spelled out unnecessarily and Suki hit her on the arm as Aang groaned.
Katara expected Zuko to duck his head, to look away and to turn awkward but he just held her gaze and said, “Yeah.” She swallowed hard and bit her lower lip as a smile made it’s way across her face. He smiled back gently, in the soft way that she felt was reserved specifically for her.
“This is gross,” Sokka said, shoving Aang’s hand off his face. “The only reason I’ll allow it is because we just won.”
“ Allow it?” Katara shrieked, turning on her brother. He winced, standing up and backing away. “You’ll allow it?”
“We’re gonna go,” Aang said quickly, grabbing Sokka’s arm and pulling him towards the door. “Rest up, Katara! We’ll see you in a bit!”
“Take care, Sugar Queen,” Toph saluted her. “We’ll come bother you soon.”
“Katara,” Suki hung back and shuffled closer to her. “What happened?”
Katara looked at Zuko who was staring at her with concern. He nodded at her encouragingly. She sighed. “I’ve been feeling completely overwhelmed this term.” Once she started speaking, she couldn’t stop. She told Suki and Zuko about all the pressure, all the expectations she had from herself, everything she thought she was doing right and everything she thought she was doing wrong. She confessed her insecurities and her responsibilities and how she was completely drowning in them. They listened to her admissions and when she was finished, Suki climbed over the bed and hugged her tightly.
“We got you, Katara,” Suki said firmly before shuffling off the bed. She touched Zuko’s arm, “We’ve all got you. You aren’t alone, and we’re going to take care of you and it’s going to be okay. I promise.” Katara nodded, tears slipping out from the corners of her eyes. She smiled gratefully and swiped at them. “Shall I tell the others?” She hesitated before nodding. “I’ll go do that now and we’ll figure this out together, okay?” Katara nodded, too choked up to say anything and Suki squeezed her hand once more before leaving.
“You have good friends,” Zuko said softly.
“They’re your friends now too,” Katara reminded him. “Even Sokka.”
“I’m worried he might try and lightly dose you to make you pass out before the next match so that I miss it again,” Zuko joked.
“Thank you, Zuko,” Katara said, reaching her hand out. His fingers wrapped around her’s immediately and she felt warmth flood her system.
“Katara…” He said hesitatingly. She waited patiently till he gathered his thoughts and continued, “You mean a lot to me. I- I hope you know that.”
“I may have noticed, yeah,” she said and they shared a smile. “You mean a lot to me too. Maybe when I’m better, we could, you know- do something together.”
“Like study?” Zuko asked cheekily. She barked out an unexpected laugh. “Or grow some plants?” He reached over to her side table and picked up something she hadn’t noticed. It was a plant pot. Two flowers bloomed beautifully from stalks of lush green. She felt the icy cold air encompassing the plant and reached out to confirm her suspicions.
She gasped, “Tundra?” He nodded, grinning. “You figured out how to make them bloom?”
“Actually you figured it out,” He said. “I was going through your notes about vegetation in the Southern Water Tribes, and how your dad and grandma would grow crops, and I got an idea about-”
Katara flung herself onto Zuko, cutting him off. He laughed softly and placed the plant back on the side table before wrapping his arms around her. She held him tightly and he held her close, both of them smiling widely. Katara’s eyes touched on the two vibrant flowers.
Four years later, an entire row of ice daisies and fire lilies took up residence on the living room windowsill of their apartment. And they knew without a doubt that the flowers would keep blooming no matter what conditions they faced.