For several days running, Kate was somewhere else entirely - and she was, if she was honest, avoiding Hermione a little.
She had worked it all out beforehand: she was not going to read anything into Hermione's straight-girl behaviour.
Plenty of straight girls were like that. Fond of hugging, fond of touching. Perfectly normal.
But the moment she actually laid eyes on Hermione again, she'd find herself remembering the light in those eyes when they turned toward her.
And then she would flee, guilty as a thief.
In class, to dodge Hermione, she went so far as to plant herself in the middle of a knot of Slytherin students.
Even Malfoy noticed something was off, and jeered as she sat down: "Well, well, Shafiq. Had a row with Miss Know-It-All?"
Kate didn't bother answering. She only glanced at the brown-haired girl sitting alone in the front row, then quietly looked away.
Strange, really. Normally, if Hermione noticed Kate keeping her distance, she'd have badgered her relentlessly for a reason and then tried every method under the sun to patch things up.
This time, Hermione didn't come to her either.
So the two of them stayed locked in their odd stalemate.
Which expressed itself, in practice, as a frantic contest to get their hands up first and answer questions for points. The Gryffindor and Slytherin hourglasses climbed in tandem, and the assembled spectators watched it happen with their mouths open.
This bizarre duel went on for two days before somebody cracked and came to find her.
"You two had a fight?" Harry asked, incredulous. "But everything was fine a couple of days ago!"
Kate's hands paused over her books. She glanced automatically toward Hermione's seat, only to find that the girl had already left the second class ended - and her face darkened on the spot.
"Why don't you ask her?" she shot back.
"Already did," Harry said sourly. "She won't say a word!"
"Oh," said Kate flatly, raising her eyes to him. "Then what makes you think I'd tell you?"
That left Harry speechless for a good long moment. Then he saw her getting up to go and hurried around to block her path. "Look - whatever's happened, as your friend I'd just like the two of you to make up."
Make up.
She didn't understand why Hermione was taking the same line, but Kate understood herself well enough.
That was a child she had watched grow up. Fourteen years old, that was all. A green, half-formed girl who wasn't even of age.
And she had been shameless enough to feel her pulse quicken over a child who depended on her. Even if it had lasted only an instant, she thought it was filthy.
It wasn't so much that she couldn't face Hermione. It was that she couldn't face herself.
At the very least, she needed a few days to cool down and see how things stood.
"...Give it a while longer," she told Harry, her expression composed. "Thanks, though. For bothering to talk me round."
Harry still looked entirely lost, but seeing that she wouldn't make the first move, he tried again. "I don't know what's come between you two, but I can tell you this much - Hermione's in a bad way as well. She's hardly eaten anything for two days!"
Kate went rigid, and her voice came out fast and clipped. "Is she ill? Has anyone taken her to the Hospital Wing?"
"She won't go," Harry said, shaking his head helplessly. "We can tell her all we like, she has to actually listen. Why else would I be here talking to you?"
There was only one person Hermione ever really listened to, and that was Kate.
The way she leaned on Kate was plain to anyone with eyes. It needed no explaining at all.
Watching Kate's reaction carefully, Harry decided he had an opening and opened his mouth for another round of persuasion - and then watched her stride straight out of the classroom without a backward glance.
He nearly called after her, then stopped himself.
He could only hope this lie of his would put the two of them back together.
And if Kate came to settle accounts with him afterwards, well - he'd take it.
Kate found Hermione in the library, still working on her homework. She was hauled up out of her chair before she knew what was happening, and before she could react a hunk of bread was stuffed into her mouth.
"Eat! Eat more!" Kate glared down at her, dead serious, a carton of milk in her other hand.
Hermione was about to point out that this was the library and food wasn't allowed - but one look at that grave stare and every word dried up. All she could do was chew mechanically at the enormous wad of bread in her mouth.
She had barely got through two bites when Madam Pince materialised behind them, exactly as one would expect, seized each of them by the collar, and marched the pair straight out.
Only then did Hermione manage to pull the remaining lump of bread out of her mouth. She checked the deserted corridor around them before letting her voice out. "What was that about, shoving bread at me?"
"If you won't eat properly, then hard measures it is." The last of the childishness had only just left Kate's face, revealing the fine lines of a young woman - and at the moment that face wore a distinctly ominous cast.
The instant she'd heard Hermione wasn't even eating, fury had risen off her like smoke. She'd run down to the kitchens, begged some spare food off the elves, and come tearing back to hunt her down.
"Are you a child? Going on hunger strike because you're upset? What next - the day I'm not around, do you go and throw yourself in the lake?"
She was so angry the words tumbled out almost too fast to follow. It took Hermione a long, blank moment to piece together what she'd actually said.
"But - I'm not on hunger strike," Hermione put in feebly, raising a hand to cut off whatever was coming next.
Kate stopped short and frowned, unable to credit it.
"Honestly." Hermione blinked at her, the picture of innocence. "I've eaten properly every day. Ask anyone else in my house if you don't believe me."
And to prove the point she patted her chest and produced a burp.
Mostly because the bread had gone down like a brick.
Kate's face turned visibly red. The voice that had been thundering a second ago began to stammer. "B-but Harry said-"
"Harry told you I wasn't eating, so you grabbed some bread and came rushing over to feed me?" Hermione clasped her hands behind her back and beamed at her.
That absolute swine of a Savior!
Kate ground her teeth and turned to go and have it out with Harry then and there. She swore that even without a wand she could beat him until he was howling for his mother.
"Wait!" Hermione called her back, and pointed at the carton in her hand. "Don't I get that?"
Kate stared stupidly at the milk. "But you said you'd already eaten."
"That's different." Hermione plucked the carton away, then eyed the bread - most of it still uneaten - and knitted her brows in mild distress. "This is far too much. I don't think I can finish it."
With that she tore the loaf in half and held one piece out. "Eat it with me."
Kate blinked, took the bread without thinking, and let Hermione tow her into an empty classroom nearby, where they found seats and sat down.
She watched Hermione work through her half with obvious relish, thought about it, and bent her head for a bite of her own.
Great Hall bread, all right. Reliably the same as ever, and reliably unremarkable.
Privately she tore into it with a running commentary of complaints - and still ate her half straight down, bite after bite, until nothing was left.
"Look at the state of you. How does anyone get crumbs all over their mouth from one piece of bread?"
Hermione, laughing at her, fished out a tissue and leaned in to wipe her face - but their eyes met by accident, and both of them drew back at exactly the same instant.
"Ahem. Thanks." Kate tugged the tissue out of her hand, uncomfortable, and gave her own mouth a few careless swipes.
Hermione must have picked up on how strange she'd been acting, she thought. That was why she'd pulled away without meaning to.
Girls were always sensitive about that sort of thing.
It was only natural, Kate told herself. She understood perfectly. If she were straight, she'd probably have her own reservations about a close friend who liked girls.
Only... reason could accept it easily enough, but the vines wrapped around her heart seemed to have grown thorns, and one careless movement left her bleeding.
She lowered her eyes, sat in silence for a while, then stood abruptly. "If that's everything, I'll be off."
She had taken barely a step when a hand caught her sleeve from behind.
"I've still got homework to finish," Hermione said, her forehead resting lightly against Kate's back. "Let's do it together."
Something shifted in Kate's face, and a faint smile surfaced. She turned around and ruffled the brown hair gently. "All right."
She didn't ask why Hermione had ignored her for two days. Hermione didn't ask either.
And so the two of them sat in the classroom just as they always had, facing one another, writing their homework in easy, wordless accord.
Some day in the future, Kate would look back on this scene and finally understand.
That the Hermione of this moment had been thinking exactly the same thing she was.
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