"Kate and Professor Scamander?" Malfoy sat at the desk with her arms folded, her small brows knitted high. "Do you have any idea what you're saying?"
Pansy paced back and forth behind her. "Of course I do! Delar, even if seeing the two of them in the office was a coincidence, the photograph on Kate's desk can't be faked!"
"I told you, don't call me that name," Malfoy snapped, her nerves fraying. "And you must have seen it wrong. It's simply not possible!"
That was Kate they were talking about. How could she possibly keep a photo of some middle-aged man in his thirties or forties sitting on her desk?
What could she see in that professor? His wrinkles? The fact that he never bathes?
No. Absolutely not.
"Fine, if you're that certain about it," Pansy said, throwing up her hands, since words clearly weren't getting her anywhere. "Then go and look for yourself. Kate's room."
Malfoy went rigid, colour rushing into her face. "Go into her dormitory? Th-that's out of the question! She doesn't know that I'm—"
Her lips trembled, but she swallowed the rest of it.
"And why should I go and look at her room anyway? If she's fond of old men, what has that got to do with me? I hope things go badly for her!"
By the time she finished she had worked herself up enough to stand and pace the floor. "In any case, don't ever mention whose photograph is in her room again. I don't care in the slightest!"
Then she stormed out of her own dormitory.
Leaving Pansy alone, clicking her tongue in amazement.
So much for not caring. There was practically smoke coming off the top of her head.
The smouldering Malfoy hurried out of the Common Room and ran straight into Kate, who was just coming back.
Before Kate could even say hello, Malfoy gave a cold snort and swept right past her.
Kate stood there blankly: ???
She hadn't gone out of her way to provoke the young lady today, had she?
Kate had no idea, and Kate was innocent. She was just an ordinary schoolgirl.
So the ordinary schoolgirl decided she had seen nothing at all and went on to her dormitory.
The term was drawing to a close, the weather had begun to clear, and the whole castle hummed with the busy air of Christmas.
Last year's study tour had been a great hit with the young wizards, and it had earned Hogwarts a rather handsome share of the profits.
The trade-off was that the teachers leading the groups, and the Aurors the Ministry of Magic sent along as escorts, had come under considerable strain.
So Kate and Dumbledore went back over the arrangements and set new rules: only students in their third year and above, and below their sixth, could take part.
The moment the rules were announced, every student left out of it howled in protest.
Ron and Hermione had already decided to join the study tour again. Harry, having no signed permission form, had no choice but to give it up and stay behind at Hogwarts.
Kate, meanwhile, chose to go home. This Christmas she would spend with the old butler.
On the last weekend before the Christmas holidays, Kate and Hermione said goodbye to Harry and set off happily for Hogsmeade.
"Honestly, with the weather this cold, you'd have been better off staying in," Hermione said, sliding her hand straight into Kate's bag and warming the chilled back of her hand with her own.
Kate laughed. "Shall we head back, then?"
"Certainly not," Hermione said, pouting. "We're already here. Let's go to Honeydukes first and buy something to eat!"
The classic "we're already here."
Kate shook her head. After all these years of her influence, Hermione had picked up a Chinese catchphrase.
Honeydukes was packed with students. The two of them squeezed inside with some difficulty and bought Creamy Almond Nougat and Whizbee sweets.
Kate guessed Dumbledore would be fond of these, so she picked up an extra portion for him.
She paid and came out with a great bag of sweets, only to find Hermione already holding a tray of blood-flavoured lollipops, eyes shining at her. "Want to try one?"
"Are you quite sure these aren't meant for vampires?" Kate leaned back with visible distaste, but under Hermione's expectant look she gave in, picked one up and bit into it.
Hisss—
That woke her right up.
The sweet, cloying, coppery taste flooding her mouth made her shiver, and she set the thing down at once. "No. Not even Harry would eat this."
"Too right!" came Harry's voice from beside them.
Hermione shrieked and flung the lollipop away, and it landed squarely on Harry's head just as he was lifting the Invisibility Cloak.
The blood-red lollipop stuck fast in his mop of black hair.
Kate bit back her laughter, reached over to pull it free, and cleaned his hair with a Scouring Charm. "Ahem. It seems our Mr. Savior has successfully broken out of Hogwarts."
"How did you get out?" Hermione asked, astonished.
Only then did Harry steer them to an empty corner and tell them, in a low voice, about his adventure.
It turned out to be the Weasley twins. Seeing Harry stuck at school and unable to come to Hogsmeade, they had given him a remarkable map.
"The Marauder's Map. It shows every last detail of Hogwarts castle and the grounds, it labels people by name, and best of all, it charts every one of Hogwarts' secret passages!"
Harry spoke with mounting excitement, then caught the odd look creeping over Hermione's face and clutched the map to his chest. "Hermione, I'm not handing it in!"
"But what if Sirius uses those passages to get into the castle?" Hermione said gravely. "The professors have to know, so they can guard against it!"
Harry faltered. She had a point. If Sirius knew about the passages...
"Isn't the Guardian around?" Kate said with a shrug. "That mysterious Guardian isn't going to let anyone who breaks into the castle get away with it."
Blowing her own trumpet like this was hardly dignified, but watching Hermione's expression ease, Kate knew it had done the job.
"Exactly! That's someone who can go toe to toe with a troll!" Harry said, waving his arms about.
Hermione was left with nothing to say. She wanted to argue, but recalling the Guardian's record, she had no ground to stand on.
"There we are. Off you go and enjoy yourself, Harry, just keep an eye out for your own safety."
Kate cheerfully turned him loose, then remembered something and added, "The Butterbeer at the Three Broomsticks is very good. You have to go and have some."
"Right, I will!" Harry had no wish to hang around as a third wheel anyway. He still had to find Ron and tell him the good news.
Hermione watched him throw the Invisibility Cloak over himself and vanish, and her nerves flared. "How could you let him go off on his own? If he runs into Sirius—"
"He won't. Didn't you see what it says over there?" Kate pointed easily at the notice beside the Honeydukes door. "Dementors patrol after sunset. Sirius won't show his face here."
Hermione, stuck for an answer, thumped her on the arm. "All you ever do is contradict me!"
Kate, hit out of nowhere, stared at her with wide eyes and stammered for a good while. "Then... shall I go and drag Harry back?"
Hermione made no reply, so Kate genuinely set off to catch Harry, who was still under the cloak and not far away.
"Don't!" Seeing she truly meant it, Hermione grabbed hold of her. "You're actually going after him? Harry hardly ever gets out. Can't you let him have a bit of fun?"
Only then did Kate put away the wide-eyed innocence and nod solemnly. "I think you're right, too."
Hermione blinked, realising she had walked straight into it, and couldn't decide whether to be cross or to laugh.
She ought to have guessed. Someone this clever could hardly have failed to understand what she meant.
"Hmph!" She sniffed pointedly. "You just love picking on me. I'm going off to play with Parvati Patil and the rest of them. You can stay here and build snowmen by yourself!"
And with that she strode off toward her roommates, standing a little way away.
Hermione had assumed Kate would come chasing after her the way she always did, but she walked all the way into the crowd, and Kate never came.
An uneasy feeling rose in her. She spun round at once and shoved back out through the crowd to look for her, deaf even to her roommates calling after her.
But when she finally forced her way clear, she saw Kate still standing where she had left her, deep in cheerful conversation with an unfamiliar girl, entirely unaware that Hermione had come back.
The girl's face was turned away, so Hermione couldn't make out her features. She only knew that the girl was dressed in a way she had never once seen, not even at school.
How could Kate be laughing and chatting with a stranger like that?
A strange feeling welled up in her, one Hermione couldn't put a name to. She only wanted to go over and call out to Kate.
But Kate seemed to sense her there. She glanced back over her shoulder and offered a smile that belonged to someone else entirely.
"It's nothing. Just a girl from my year."
That was what Hermione heard her say, before she turned and walked away with the girl without a backward glance.
Hermione nearly called out, then remembered that strange look on Kate's face a moment ago. The colour drained from her cheeks, and she took off at a run for Hogwarts.
"Professor! Professor McGonagall!"
She reached the castle gasping for breath and went straight to knock on Professor McGonagall's door, but no answer ever came.
Hermione stamped her foot in frustration, then remembered that with Christmas so near the professors were most likely in the Headmaster's office going over the details of the Christmas study tour, and she ran for the eighth floor.
The gargoyle on the eighth floor needed a password. Hermione had run the whole way, and by now her stomach ached and darkness swam at the edges of her vision.
"Password..." she panted, dragging at her memory. Kate had once told her that the passwords to the Headmaster's office were always sweets of one kind or another.
"Sherbet Lemon!"
"Toffee Eclairs!"
"Fizzing Whizbees!"
She reeled off one password after another and none of them worked. Sweat stood out all over her forehead, and just as she was running out of ideas, a voice spoke behind her.
"Creamy Almond Nougat!"
The gargoyle swung open at the word.
Hermione turned in surprise and found herself facing Katherine, who had come back to Hogwarts at some point without anyone noticing.
"T-Teacher Winyard..." she said, her breathing still ragged.
Katherine wasn't wearing her black-framed glasses, and her already striking face looked all the sterner beneath the gloom in her expression.
"In such a hurry to find the Headmaster. So something has happened to Kate after all," she murmured, and took Hermione by the hand, drawing her straight onto the staircase.
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