The music at Eclipse was just the way Katie liked it. Pounding rhythms that had a primal edge to them, the kind of music that you lost yourself in, where your body took over. And the crowd was just the way she liked it for when she decided to let loose. Absolutely no press and completely Muggle, except for the girl she was dancing with, fellow Harpies chaser Fabriana.

Katie closed her eyes, hips rolling to the pounding bass as she ran her hands up her sides, into her hair and then twining above her head, graceful lines following the movement of her body. She felt Fab come up against her, hips rolling to match Katie's, and she opened her eyes to see sparkling chocolate brown ones and a wry grin.

She knew that look. She and Fab went dancing together pretty regularly, especially in Italy, and Fab always won her little game. They both loved to dance and enjoyed doing it together as neither of them much minded losing most of their inhibitions to the music. But Fab had a game. Bait and Catch. And she always got her man.

Katie gave her a nod and a wry grin of her own, well used to seeing Fab scamper off with some handsome Muggle by this point. She'd find her own way home. She was a witch, after all. Fab flashed a quick, brilliant smile and gave Katie a quick kiss to the lips. "Have fun Bellgirl. You look to die for in that little dress tonight. Don't do anything I wouldn't do!" she called before disappearing into the crowd. Katie laughed softly to herself at that. There wasn't really anything Fab wouldn't do.

Katie always kept dancing after Fab left though. She almost felt like a different person with the music running through her body. Herself, but moreso. And after a Quidditch win, she needed more than a drink and game chat at the pub. She wanted to move, to use up all the adrenaline that continued to pump through her veins long after the game was over. She needed something...and dancing with abandon seemed to relieve some of that ache in her.

Eclipse was a favorite haunt of Fred's. It was normally busy with pretty girls, or even the occasional bloke, with lots of interesting extracurriculars on their minds. Add to that mix consistently decent music and a set of picky bouncers, and it was just generally a good bet on a weekend night. He was hoping the action and mindlessness, not to mention the potential of company for the night, would derail the oppressive wave of dispirit that had followed him all week. He'd had no lack of partners since arriving; had actually had to excuse himself from one girl who was far too interested in leaving the dance floor behind.

He caught the echo of a laugh and a flash of blond as he crossed the floor, falling back to the wall at one side as he noticed a familiar figure. Apparently he wasn't, as he'd thought, the only member of the magical community in attendance tonight.

The dance floor wasn't packed to the brim, thankfully, and Katie had room to move. She gazed around her, heavy eyes in the dim light, and once again concentrated on the music. Swaying hips, a roll through her stomach and her head fell back, long hair tickling her bare back. Katie reached a hand up, running her fingers down her exposed throat, head coming up slowly as her hand traveled down, down her body until her fingers brushed at the skin where her short dress ended.

She danced for a long while by herself. When she looked around her, she could catch eyes, interested male faces, but only a few ever approached. Most seemed content to watch, which didn't bother Katie overly much. They were anonymous eyes. There were a few persistent ones though, such as the tall, dark man currently trying to grab her.

Katie wasn't a professional athlete for nothing though. She gave a small smile and flitted back a few steps, easily eluding his grasp, all the while keeping with the pounding beat. She hoped he would take the hint. When he came towards her again, she felt her face slide into a small frown. Her hips still rolled to the music, seemingly free of her own will, as she took another step back, back into someone. Someone whose hands came sliding around her waist, ghosting over silk and peeks of skin through her dress as they pulled her hips back until she was flush against a hard body, never losing the beat of the music.

When Katie looked up to see who had abducted her, she felt her eyes widen a bit, mouth in a small 'oh' of surprise. She'd recognize that shiny ginger hair anywhere. It seemed that Fred Weasley had 'saved' her. His eyes were darker than she'd ever seen them, intent, but then he winked and looked back up. She turned her head too... to see the man who'd been stalking her across the dance floor. Looking him in the eye, she slid a hand over Fred's at her hip, holding it there, and one up to grab a handful of hair at the base of his neck, behind her, hips still rolling, only now in unison with Fred's. Now that it was more than obvious that she was 'taken,' the man drifted off into the crowd.

She looked up at Fred once the stalker was gone to see him watching her. "Where'd you come from, my shiny boy?" she asked, becoming fully aware, even as she spoke, of all the places that they were touching.

Fred leaned down slightly to place his mouth next to Katie’s ear, lest his voice be lost to the music, admitting bemusedly, “I’ve been watching for a while, but I thought you might rather not have to hex that git in the middle of a muggle club. It’d be terribly bad press.”

He paused a moment as the music grew louder, straightening and focusing on the sway of Katie’s body against him. The reasons they had never done this back in school were rapidly becoming apparent, though he couldn’t bring himself to mind very much. Her very brief skirt flipped and sparkled as she danced, and he couldn’t resist bending once more to mention, “Besides, he definitely wasn’t getting his hands on you in this dress,” as his thumbs stroked deliberately over the exposed skin just above her hips.

Katie looked up at Fred again at his last comment. "Oh?" She pulled his head down with the hand at the back of his neck, fingers still tangled in his hair, so she could talk into his ear, the loud music not exactly conductive to talking normally. "I don't think there's anything wrong with this dress. It's all sparkly and I got it in Italy." Though she was speaking, half her mind was definitely focused on things that she'd not experienced before. Or at least not with Fred. He'd touched her, many times, but the light brushes of his fingers on the skin of her hips and the way he moved against her, body and hands guiding her, were much different than any other touches before. Those touches had not made her think about the smell of his hair tickling her nose or other...things. Pulling herself from her distracted thoughts, she finished, "and you've been watching? Why didn't you come say hi sooner?"

"It's very sparkly, princess," Fred agreed, "and you look amazing in it, but he is not the type of bloke who gets to be this close to you on my watch." After as much experience as he had himself in playing the predator of sorts in this very club, there were actually very few men he'd consider allowing close to Katie, especially if he was going to be present. She was decidedly not in the same tier of protection as Ginny, not now that he was quite aware of the woman she'd become since school, but the idea of the lad he'd just run off pawing her still made him growl internally. "And speaking of watching," he continued after a long moment, "you didn't need me any sooner. You seemed to be having fun with your friend before she left."

"Fab is all kinds of fun," Katie grinned, thinking of her outrageous friend. "She's a chaser for the team too, Fabriana Rezyat? We like to, um...well, burn off the extra energy on game days." Katie could feel herself blush as she thought of the all the ways Fab liked to burn off that extra energy and what that might imply about herself. She was thankful though that the semi darkness of the club would cover the worst of it. Unfortunately it wouldn't hide the spike of heat on her skin. A spike of heat that had a little more to do with Fred just being near her the way he was, though she was trying not to think about that. Fred was her friend, and he and Angie had had a thing for years. She wasn't allowed to think the thoughts flitting through her head. She closed her eyes, breathed in, and let it out through her body and the music. It usually helped, but...Fred's fingers were still playing across her skin. She sighed at herself and then looked up at him again. "I do have to ask though, since this is apparently your watch now, which type of blokes get to be close to me, hmm?"

Fred chuckled against Katie's temple, leaning back an inch or so against her grasp. "I know who she is, and I could see that." It was after she'd darted off that Mr. Aggressive had made his appearance, and though he didn't fault the girl, he was also not keen on a repeat performance. He could feel Katie's skin warm under his hands and smirked, amused that he was having an equally distracting effect on her. Taking the opportunity to lean in as the music changed, he spoke near her ear again, lips almost close enough to brush her skin. "At the moment? Just me, unless you'd rather I go and leave you to your own devices," he offered, knowing it'd be home to his empty flat if she took him up on it; he'd be too preoccupied to enjoy going home with someone else.

As Fred leaned back into her hand still gripping at his hair, Katie relaxed her fingers, letting them drop a bit to rest against his neck, the skin warm against her palm. These small adjustments were instinctual, normal when dancing with someone, but it wasn't exactly normal for her to be aware of all of them. When he leaned down again, his words whispered across her skin in a puff of warm breath, and she could feel how close his lips were, the heat of him just a breath away. "No...I mean...just you," she got out, distracted, before taking a small breath and concentrating on getting a coherent answer out. "I like dancing with you," she finally answered, leaning back into him all the way so that he cradled her body completely. And she did, but she really shouldn't be enjoying it as much as she was.

"Good, I'm glad," Fred murmured low against Katie's ear, knowing it was a potentially dangerous line they were treading. "Only fair, since this is the most fun I've had all night," he said, turning slightly to lay his cheek against hers for a moment. His hands tightened minutely at her hips as she leaned back, adjusting to the increased press of their bodies together, guiding lightly as they followed the music in unison. It was the most fun he'd had all night; Katie was easily a better dancer than any of the girls he'd met, and comfortable with him without being grabby besides. Nevermind that he could feel his blood thrumming along through his veins in tempo with the bass of the song, a feat given his intended purpose for coming to dance tonight.

When Fred spoke again, this time his lips did cross that breath of space and brushed against her ear. They'd always been terribly sensitive, but it was just...different with Fred. Katie's hand gripped tightly at his neck as a small shiver went through her body, nails biting into the skin for just a moment before she put her mind to relaxing her fingers. She didn't know exactly where all this was coming from, why her body seemed to want him now when they'd been around each other for years and not gone there. But then, they'd never been around each other quite like this. It was kind of hard to ignore that friends had grown up when their bodies were moving against each other like her and Fred's were now, rolling hips and tantalizing touches. She could ignore her traitorous body though. He wasn't for her. She would never go there with him and Angie and their thing. No matter how much Angie said it wasn't really anything at all. She liked her friends and they were her family. She wanted to keep it that way.

She closed her eyes and made an effort to just try and be normal. "Definitely the most fun, shiny boy. I.." she took a small breath, trying to collect her thoughts. He smelled nice too. And she wasn't supposed to notice that. "...I don't know why we haven't done this before."

Funny, I do. Because it's almost definitely a recipe for disaster, is why... Fred's inner voice raged. He told it to bugger off, as usual, and smiled down at Katie. "Lack of information and opportunity. I didn't know you liked to dance so much or that you came here, and I haven't seen you out before," he reasoned aloud. He was enjoying being able to make Katie react; it was his game, after all... how much teasing would it take before some other action was necessary? The keen edges of her nails in his skin were a draw, causing a sharp inhale and a slight tensing of his grip before she relaxed her hand. Resisting the temptation to continue toying with her ear, though he filed the information he'd just gained away for future use, he pulled back a bit and turned Katie to face him as the song ended.

As Fred turned her around the music flowed seamlessly into the next song, a little slower, but the pounding, insistent beat still remained. She didn't dance with men terribly often because they were mostly grabby and often couldn't move with the music all that well. That's why she went dancing after all, to dance, to lose herself. There was no fun to be had with a bad partner. But Katie found it all too easy to dance with Fred. He had rhythm and a certain amount of effortless grace, not to mention that he was a natural leader. When Katie did choose to dance with a man here and there, she often lead them as they weren't all that confident in their dancing. Fred definitely didn't have that problem and Katie found it easy to let him set the pace, the sway of their bodies, roll of hips.

Now facing him, Katie laid her hands against his chest and looked up at him, a smile pulling at the edges of her mouth. "Well, I have been in Italy for the last four months, so I wouldn't have seen you. But...I guess Fab and I are always trying to stay one step ahead of the press. We don't go to the same club too many times in a row." She closed her eyes then, concentrating as the music changed, and pulled away from him a bit to let the music roll her body before coming back against him, catching the rhythm of his hips easily. She opened her eyes, heavy lidded, and regarded him. "And I certainly didn't know you liked to dance much, or that you danced this well, my shiny boy," she finished before sliding her hands up around his neck, decidedly not thinking about the soft strands of his hair that were brushing against her skin.

Reevaluating the idea that having Katie facing him would be less of a distraction, Fred smirked and trailed his fingers slowly over the flashes of skin at her waist as they moved together. "Practice makes perfect and all that... it's a better way to spend time than staring at the walls of my flat, at any rate." He refused to think of why said flat was empty, too quiet and neat by far. Shaking the beginnings of melancholy from his mind, he concentrated on the texture of Katie's skin and silky fabric of her dress under his fingertips, the long ends of her hair tickling the back of his hands, and the arch and press of her body as they followed the rhythm of the music. Better to be too involved than hiding from the shadows of his thoughts. "Maybe we'll do this again," he said absently, not sure if she even caught it over the music.

She'd not caught the last of what he'd said, but Katie felt a small frown slip over her face, Fred's fingers on her skin pushed to the back of her mind, at his words of being alone. She looked up at him, concerned, and one hand came around to push the hair away from his face, a little pet of comfort. "There's no reason for you sit in your flat all lonesome, being bored and stuff. I'm only a floocall away, yeah? And I'm sure we could find ways to keep busy," she finished, thinking that she didn't much like being alone herself. Her eyes dropped as she thought about her little cottage waiting for her. She loved it, but the only thing that made it bearable was having her little monster puppies with her.

Unable to suppress the smirk brought on by the idea of 'finding ways to keep busy', Fred covered Katie's hand with his own and set it at his shoulder, leaning in to chuckle, "Well, I can think of a few things, just now," near her ear. He'd always loved making her blush; sometimes it was almost too easy, others not, and though he was entirely serious at the moment, he left it as a tease. "I'll visit, now you're back in the country," he promised, thinking that 'sleepaways' were likely to be more interesting after tonight, even if nothing happened.

She hadn't been implying anything when she'd said there were lots of ways for them to keep busy, but at Fred's words and the tease in his voice, Katie's eyes dropped, mind instantly flashing through a 'few things' that they'd certainly never done together, a 'few things' that caused her skin to heat again. Though she'd been able shut out her body's traitorous reactions for the few minutes that her concern for him overrode it, his breath against her ear and fingers warm and firm at the base of her bare back didn't let her forget that, yes, apparently she was attracted to Fred Weasley. Not that she hadn't always thought him shiny and pretty, but now...now she guessed it made a big difference when the shiny pretty touched you a certain way or moved their body perfectly in sync with yours to music that inspired less than innocent movements. Maybe it was just the music and the dancing and the night in general. She could convince herself of that, being that it was probably true. She'd not thought of him this way before, and he most definitely didn't see her as anything but a little sister type friend. Coming back to the here and now, Katie tipped her head up so she could answer back, her own lips very close to brushing his ear as she replied. "Visit me soon, shiny boy? I don't like it when you get broody all lonesome."

"S'not particularly pleasant on my end, either, princess, but you know how I am," Fred returned. He reached up to lay his hand along Katie's cheek, tipping her chin up so that he could see her face in the changing multicolored light. "I will," he said, offering a smile, "though you're far too good to me. Must be my pretty face." He wanted to kiss her, to breathe her in and see how she'd react; he could feel her blush under his fingertips, had watched her eyelashes lower as a screen to the brief play of naughty thoughts in her head, and he'd spent his whole life testing limits. Somehow, though, he was reluctant to break the current balance of tension, the last drop of water before the cup ran over and ruined the effect. He could practically feel her eyes on his skin as leaned down, brushing his lips across her forehead, over her cheeks.

Katie felt a small smile tug at her lips in return, his grins always able to bring out one in her. "You're much more than a pretty face, shiny boy..." she began honestly, but was completely distracted as her heart began to pound more insistently, seemingly in time with the throbbing bass line of the music as Fred cupped her cheek with his hand, tipping her chin up, eyes watching her intently. Her breath caught and her hands clenched lightly in the fabric of his shirt as he leaned down, lips brushing softly. She felt her eyes flutter shut and as much as she'd tried not to think about shiny Fred things since they had started dancing, it was pretty impossible at the moment. He was everywhere, arms and body cradling hers, hands brushing against her back, breath warm against her face and lips brushing lightly across her skin.

Lips curling into a smile against Katie's cheek as her fingers crumpled the front of his shirt, Fred raised his head enough to meet her eyes as they blinked slowly open, answering sincerely, "I'm glad someone thinks so, anyway." He sighed quietly and twitched the end of his nose against Katie's in an eskimo kiss. Treading the line between friends and more was something he was relatively unfamiliar with; preferring to either draw it firmly or hop over with a smirk and open arms. The first was apparently not an option with Katie; he'd noticed her in school and decided to let things happen as they would, and ten years later seemed to be running that clock down. The latter struck him as a brilliant way to ruin what they already had, causing his current dilemma. He watched her a while longer as they danced, the hand at her cheek sliding to rest at the back of her neck, the silky strands of her hair cascading down over his fingers.

Her body wasn't allowed to react to Fred like this. It felt more than nice, made her pulse race, made her want to do things she hadn't wanted to in a long, long time. But... he just wasn't hers to think about or want that way, despite how much Angie said it didn't mean anything and hadn't for years. It was still the way things were. He was too close with his lips brushing on her skin, his hand warm on the back of her neck, too close to making her do things that she'd regret later. And she was desperately close to letting things happen as they would, but it was Fred and he mattered. This wasn't a time when she could just lose herself with some anonymous handsome bloke on the dance floor, a scandalous story to tell her girlfriends.

Taking a deep breath, Katie stood on tip toes, wrapping a hand around the back of his neck to pull him down to her level, ignoring the musky smell near his skin that made her pulse jump. She put her lips near his ear, eyes squeezed shut, though he couldn't see it, and said, "Lots of people think you're wonderful, despite the pretty face. Don't ever doubt that shiny boy." Pulling back out of his arms, she gave him a long look, a wistful smile playing at the edges of her lips. She'd just keep telling herself this was the best thing to do. "But I better get home soon. The monsters are waiting for snuggles, and..." she hesitated, eyes dropping as she tried to think of something to say that didn't sound like she was running. Because she wasn't running, not from Fred. She was running from mistakes that she knew would make her feel tingly and warm, mistakes that she knew would make her sick with her own sense of betrayal. "...And I just need to get some rest, I think. Big game today and all," she trailed off.

Fred could practically feel Katie get nervous, the tiny increase in tension in the muscles under his hands giving her away before she pulled back. He'd half expected it, really, given the weight of the years they'd been friends without ever trying for more - it was one of the things he loved about Katie, her devotion to her friends, though he was wishing dearly she would stop labeling him as 'taken'. He enjoyed what he had with Angelina, was grateful for it, but they both knew it wasn't permanent or binding, that it didn't make a barrier to other pursuits. Smiling gently, he let Katie wriggle out of his arms, catching hold of her hand before she got too far. "Go home, princess," he agreed, giving her fingers a little squeeze. "I'll find you later."

Katie felt herself relax, a real smile pulling at her lips when Fred grabbed her hand, his words and actions letting her know that he understood, that he didn't think she had a problem with him. Retracing her steps towards him, she laid a hand on his chest to steady herself as she stood on tip toe, lips brushing in a quick kiss against his cheek, one last inhale of him. Stepping back again, she gave his hand a squeeze and said, "don't forget your promise, shiny boy," before letting go of his fingers and disappearing into the crowd.