In the end, she never worked up the nerve to ask how things stood between Cho Chang and Cedric.
Mostly because the moment she met Cho's eyes — so gentle they made her pulse stutter — every one of Kate's tangled little thoughts died in her throat.
She even found herself thinking that the original works, or whatever they had been, no longer had much to do with this world at all.
And if that was true, why did she have to know what was going on between Cho and Cedric?
For all she knew, Cho had fallen for someone else entirely.
So, once they'd made a promise to visit Hogsmeade together next year, Kate slunk away in retreat.
The afternoon happened to be Defence Against the Dark Arts class.
She was the first one through the door, and the instant she pushed it open she saw Snape already standing at the lectern.
For half a second she thought she'd walked into the wrong room. Then she remembered — last night had been the night of the full moon.
"Good afternoon, Head of House," she greeted him properly, then took a seat in the front row and set her books on the desk.
Snape walked slowly over and rapped a knuckle on the desktop. "Shafiq."
"Yes, Head of House." Kate was on her feet at once, the perfect picture of a student waiting to be lectured.
"After class, come to my office." Snape looked at her calmly, his voice cold.
Kate blinked, running a swift search through her memory for anything she might have done lately to provoke him.
The answer came back: nothing.
She had been unbearably well behaved this term. Far from losing points, there was scarcely a teacher who hadn't praised her for being clever and hardworking.
"Of course, Head of House." She accepted it without a flicker of anything on her face — so meek and obedient that no one would ever have guessed she was the same girl who had once led Harry and Sirius, father and son both, around by the nose.
Snape's rigid features shifted very slightly, as though he meant to say more, but a burst of chatter and laughter drifted in from the corridor and he turned on his heel and went back to the front.
Every single student who came through that door froze the moment they spotted him, then ducked their head and slid into a seat.
Class hadn't even begun and the room was already dead silent, the students as careful as mice who had walked in on a cat, not one of them daring to make a sound.
Kate lifted her head just enough to peek, and watched Snape's expression grow darker by the second.
No wonder he tore into Lupin so viciously in class later on. Even the best-bred man alive would be furious to see his students look at him like that.
And Snape's temper had never been good to begin with.
At last Hermione dropped into the seat beside her, whispering in astonishment, "What's going on? Isn't Professor Lupin supposed to be teaching this?"
"The Professor isn't feeling well," Kate said, raising a finger to hush her. "Just concentrate on the lesson, all right?"
The words had barely left her mouth when the bell rang.
As expected, Snape ignored the syllabus entirely and jumped straight to the final unit.
Werewolves.
Hermione started to point out where they actually were in the course, and Kate pinned her hand down.
She always listened to Kate. Seeing her shooting frantic looks across the desk, Hermione could only swallow her objection and bend over her textbook.
"Can any of you tell me how to distinguish a werewolf from a true wolf?" Snape asked, sweeping his gaze over the room.
Nobody moved. Nobody spoke.
Anyone could see he was in a foul mood today, and no one was brave enough to walk into it.
Snape looked round the class, gave a short scoff, and tapped the desk in front of Kate.
"Shafiq. Stand up and answer. If even you cannot manage it, then I shall have to assume this is a class of third-years incapable of recognising a werewolf, and I will need to go and have a word with Dumbledore about how far behind your instruction has fallen."
Kate's face twitched at being singled out, but she stood up under the weight of it and delivered a flawless answer.
When Snape told her to sit down, she distinctly heard the whole class exhale in relief.
Ha. Relaxing already? How naive.
For the rest of the lesson, every time Snape called on a Gryffindor who didn't know the answer, he docked them points.
The Slytherins had never been so grateful for their house; otherwise they'd have been targets for that poisonous tongue as well.
By the end, even Hermione — Gryffindor's great hope — had two points taken off her for some nitpicked flaw. When she sat down her small face was scarlet with fury and her eyes were swimming, the tears about to spill over.
"Professor," Kate said, slipping a tissue to her under the desk before rising to her feet, "we haven't formally begun the chapter on werewolves yet. Aren't the questions you're asking rather too advanced?"
Snape's eyes turned on her, cold as stone. "Shafiq, I was under the impression that I was the one teaching this lesson, not you. Sit down, and do not let me hear you criticise my methods again."
"But—"
"Enough, Shafiq. Are you playing the champion for Granger?" Snape glared at her, his voice full of venom. "Stay behind after class. Detention!"
Kate drew a deep breath. Then she felt a tug at the hem of her robes, and looked down to find Hermione shaking her head at her.
She thought about it for a moment, then sat down without another word.
After that no one dared make a sound. They sat in their places copying notes on werewolves straight through to the end of the lesson.
"Each of you will hand me an essay on how to identify and kill a werewolf. Two rolls of parchment, filled. Monday morning."
Snape finished, then looked at Kate. "Shafiq stays behind. We need to make arrangements for your detention."
At Kate's signal, Hermione let Harry and Ron steer her out of the classroom with them.
Once only the two of them remained, Snape paced back and forth across the platform, then stopped abruptly, his gloomy eyes fixing on her.
"Now you will pay for your little display of heroics in my classroom, Shafiq. After dinner tonight, report to my office for detention."
Kate smiled, perfectly serene. "As a matter of fact, I'm already prepared, Professor."
Even if Snape made her drink the potion, it could seal away no more than half the Mana she now had.
"You imagine that makes you heroic?" Snape's eyes narrowed. "You stand up for Granger, you earn yourself a detention, and then you can parade your sacrifice in front of her?"
The venom kept coming. "An act of monumental stupidity. It will do nothing for her whatsoever, and it will bring nothing but grief to you.
"How did I never see it before — that you are capable of this sort of idiocy as well, wallowing in your own self-righteous heroics? One begins to wonder whether your brain has been trampled by a troll!"
It was the first time Kate had sat through one of Snape's tirades from beginning to end without interruption. Honestly… she found herself parsing the subordinate clauses.
"Professor," she said, straightening her spine and meeting his gaze without a trace of fear, "perhaps you're right. Perhaps I am a self-righteous hero.
"But I think that if I couldn't stand up even at a moment like this, then when someone I care about is truly in danger, I might never find the courage to protect her at all."
With that she bowed to Snape, whose eyes had gone wide and rigid. "I'm sorry, Professor. I'll come and take my punishment on time."
The moment she stepped out of the classroom, Snape's face went slack and his foot missed the step; he stumbled and caught himself against the lectern.
All the force behind the venom he'd been spitting at Kate a second ago drained away in an instant, leaving nothing but memory and regret.
Lily. His Lily!
Hermione was pacing the corridor outside the classroom in an agony of nerves.
Harry and Ron had spent a long time trying to talk her round, but she couldn't bring herself to leave Kate alone in there, so she'd waited.
The second Kate came out she hurried over, anxiously patting down her arms, her legs, her chest, her back, before finally letting out a shaky breath.
Good. All limbs accounted for.
"Isn't this a bit much…" Kate's face twitched, and it took considerable effort to trap Hermione's hands and stop them roaming.
Hermione's eyebrows shot up. "I'm worried about you!"
Everyone knew how harsh Snape was. He'd shouted Neville into a full-blown psychological complex about Potions.
"It's fine, it's only a detention." Kate ruffled her hair with feigned lightness. "I've been given plenty of those before, haven't I?"
She'd have done better not to mention it. At the reminder of the past, the tears Hermione had only just managed to force back came welling up again. "Is he — is he going to make you drink that potion again?"
Kate went still. Only then did she remember that Hermione had seen her the year before last, after the potion, too weak even to walk.
She pulled her along quickly, steering her away from the classroom while she soothed her. "Not this time. I promise."
If she didn't explain, Snape's image in Hermione's mind was going to end up somewhere near the wolf dressed up as grandmother.
"But that's what you said last time too…" Hermione looked up at her through blurred eyes.
Something in Kate softened. She led her to a flight of steps and set her on the top one, then tilted her head back to wipe the tears from the corners of her eyes. "Really, not this time. Cross my heart — I'd be a puppy if I lied to you."
"Pfft!" Hermione laughed in spite of herself and thumped a fist against Kate's chest. "Who calls themselves a puppy?"
Kate wagged her head, entirely unashamed. "I do! I'm a puppy, which makes you a little kitten!"
"You're the one who's like a cat!" Hermione bickered back, refusing to concede. "An uglier kitten than Crookshanks!"
The two of them went at it that way for a good while, in a style that would have embarrassed a primary school pupil, before both of them finally ran out of steam.
It took every trick she had, but Kate at last coaxed Hermione's tears back where they belonged and let out a breath of relief.
"Shall we go to the library? I reckon that essay the Professor set will take at least two hours."
She had detention tonight, a Quidditch match tomorrow, and homework for her other subjects besides. Better to get it written before the evening.
"Two hours?" Hermione sniffed through a red nose. "I only need an hour and a half."
Kate grinned. "All right then, we'll compare. Whoever finishes fastest with the best work wins."
"I'm not going to lose!" Hermione's fighting spirit caught light at once — successfully distracted.
As it happened, the library wasn't far, so the two of them went straight in and set about their thoroughly childish homework contest.
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