On Monday, Kate had barely stepped into the Great Hall before heads started turning.
Growth in the other Attribute Points might not have been obvious to anyone. But after Charisma jumped by a full fifteen points, you'd have to be blind to miss the difference in her.
Kate had come prepared, though. She simply claimed she'd started wearing makeup, which shut down most of the curious, probing looks.
A few girls kept hovering, itching to ask her for makeup tips. Kate ignored every one of them.
In Defence Against the Dark Arts, Lupin was back — and he announced that nobody had to hand in the homework Snape had assigned.
Kate could only stare at her four rolls of parchment in silence. At least Hermione was in the same boat; she'd slaved over the essay too.
But even with Lupin back, Kate still had to report to the Potions office every Friday. There was no escaping Snape's particular brand of torment.
The Ministry of Magic had discovered that another thirty-odd Dementors were missing. Word had it that Fudge was one step away from marching up to Hogwarts himself to hunt down whoever was behind it.
Kate never laid eyes on the man, though.
She only heard that, because of Harry, Dumbledore had flown into such a rage that even the Minister for Magic had to swallow his pride and take the loss.
Not only had half the Dementors been withdrawn, the rest were now confined outside the castle.
After the Defence Against the Dark Arts class, Kate went looking for Hermione out of habit — and got intercepted by Harry instead.
"They tell me you're the one who saved me from the Dementors," he said gratefully. "I've been stuck in the hospital wing these last two days, so I never got the chance to thank you."
Kate waved it off. "I only did what anyone should have done. And besides — I forgot to save your broomstick."
At the mention of his Nimbus 2000, now so much splintered wood, Harry's face fell. He pulled himself together quickly enough.
"I went to see Professor Lupin before class. He told me the Dementors affect me so badly because I've lived through a very unusual kind of fear.
"I think you might be the only person our age who could understand that. So — could I ask you to teach me the Patronus Charm?"
"The Patronus Charm?" Ron caught wind of it and edged over. "Kate, could you teach me too? That silver dragon was brilliant!"
Hermione put her hands on her hips, unimpressed. "Everyone's Patronus is different. Even if you learn the charm, what you produce won't look anything like Kate's."
"Thanks for the bulletin, Miss Know-It-All!" Ron shot back, and got a book hurled at him for it.
Kate watched the two of them scuffle in circles around Harry, then hauled Hermione over to stand beside her and cleared her throat. "Why not ask Professor Lupin to teach you?"
Their histories might be similar, but she was still only a student herself.
Harry looked awkward. "Because the professor says he isn't well. If he's going to teach me, it can't happen until after the Christmas holidays — and I want to learn the Patronus Charm sooner than that."
All right, then.
She turned to Hermione. "You want to learn as well?"
"Mm!" The brown-haired kitten nodded furiously.
Kate smiled. "Fine. Outside the Great Hall, after dinner."
That evening, with the sun just down and dinner barely finished, Kate met her three brand-new students outside the Great Hall as promised.
She found an abandoned classroom nearby, and her small-group lesson began.
"The Patronus Charm is the Dementors' natural enemy. It's a positive force.
"It's the outward expression of everything Dementors feed on — hope, happiness, the will to survive.
"But unlike a real person, it can't feel despair, so the Dementors can't touch it.
"Because the logic behind it isn't quite the same as the magic we usually cast, plenty of full-grown Wizards never master it."
Ron's hand shot up. "But you did, and you're only fourteen!"
"To be precise, in another month, once Christmas is over, I'll be fifteen," Kate corrected. "Not that any of that matters."
She swept her wand through the air and murmured the incantation. A silver dragon the size of half a person drifted weightlessly around the room, then came to rest on Hermione's shoulder.
"As you can see, my Patronus is a dragon. My mother's is a Thestrals, my father's is a dolphin. No two are ever quite alike — they're simply your own character, made visible."
Kate flicked her wand, and the silver dragon vanished.
"The incantation is Expecto Patronum. The trick, when you practise, is to hold on to a happy memory. It's a positive emotion given form, and what Dementors fear most is a Patronus, which stands for everything positive."
She pointed at Harry. "You first."
Harry stood up, a little tense, racking his brains before he settled on the first time he'd ridden a broomstick.
"Expecto Patronum!"
He cleared his throat, fixed his mind on the memory, and swung his wand.
A wisp of silver-white vapour burst from the tip.
"Something happened!" He grabbed excitedly at the mist and closed his hand on nothing.
The protagonist, all right. His instinct for magic already put him head and shoulders above everyone his age.
"The reason it didn't take shape is that your memory isn't vivid enough," Kate said, then turned. "Your turn, Ron."
Ron swallowed and drew out the new wand he'd only got this term. "Expec— Expecto Patronum!"
The new wand did absolutely nothing.
"Expecto Patronum! Expecto Patronum!" Ron was getting frantic now, slashing the wand about, and still nothing happened.
Kate stepped up and caught hold of the wand. "Don't panic. This is well beyond the syllabus. In theory even a seventh-year wouldn't pick it up straight away."
Only then did the tightness leave Ron's face. He lowered his head and gripped the wand, disappointed. "Maybe the memory I picked just wasn't happy enough."
"Let me try! Expecto Patronum!"
Hermione volunteered herself, whipping out her wand, her eyes never once leaving Kate's face.
A thick silver substance came pouring out of her wand tip, and something was taking shape in it — the rough outline of an animal.
"Beautiful!" Kate said, genuinely impressed.
She leaned in, studying the faint, flickering shape of the creature. But no matter how she looked at it, the silhouette was nothing like the otter Hermione had in the original works.
Had Hermione's Patronus changed?
She glanced back in surprise, and realised Hermione's gaze had been fixed on her the whole time.
"Er… what memory were you thinking of?" she asked quietly.
Hermione's smile widened. "I wasn't thinking of anything. Just seeing you makes me happy enough."
Kate blinked at her, thoroughly lost, and gave her own cheek an absent pinch.
Did she really look that much like a stand-up comedian?!
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