Kate didn't sleep well all night.
The moment she closed her eyes, her head filled with the sound of Delar crying.
She drifted off somewhere around five or six, only to jolt awake, and after that there was no getting back to sleep. She headed straight for the pitch and ran several extra laps.
By the time she'd washed up and gone to breakfast, it was a sight to behold. Two giant pandas, face to face, and even their dark circles matched. It was enough to leave anyone speechless.
Pansy watched the two of them from the side, grinning. "Did you two go out burgling together last night?"
Delar looked silently at the dark circles under Kate's eyes, then lowered her head. After a few bites of bread she lost her appetite, grabbed her two lackeys by the collars, and stood up to leave.
"Draco!" Pansy called after her. When she got no response, she turned to Kate, but before she could say a word, Kate left too.
Pansy stared blankly at the barely touched food they'd left behind and rubbed her chin. "Don't tell me they're fighting again?"
"Looks to me like they've split for good," Blaise said calmly. "For a short while… no, for a very long while, those two won't be speaking to each other."
Pansy's eyes went wide, and for a moment she had no idea what to say.
The person next to her poked her. "Haven't you heard? Yesterday someone saw Shafiq turn Malfoy down outside the Potions office!"
"And today the two of them didn't say a single word to each other. Sounds like it's true."
"Ah, Shafiq's pretty good-looking, actually, and so strong too. If the two families didn't have a feud, it might really have worked out…"
Pansy shot to her feet, glared hard at the gossiping idiot, and stormed off.
Before long, the news that Malfoy had chased Shafiq and been rejected instead spread rapidly through Slytherin House, and soon after, through most of Hogwarts.
It turned out that nobody knew how bored the young wizards of Hogwarts could get once they couldn't go to Hogsmeade.
The only silver lining was that neither of the two involved was anyone to be trifled with. Apart from spreading fast, the rumors hadn't mutated into any bizarre versions.
The little snakes who'd worried the two families might join forces finally relaxed. Aside from them, the happiest person in the whole school was probably Hermione.
The stormy, unpredictable expression she'd worn yesterday had cleared like parting clouds. Today she smiled at everyone she met and eagerly showed off her Miss Know-It-All skills in every single class.
Even Harry and Ron, who shared those classes with her, had stopped trying to understand her.
All day long, Gryffindor and Slytherin had no lessons in common, so they'd hardly seen Kate at all.
Even so, Hermione stayed in a good mood the whole day.
That lasted until after class. Before they'd even left the classroom, Lupin came looking for Harry in person and asked him to come along.
Hermione's day-long silly cheer finally settled back to normal, especially when she saw Kate trailing behind Lupin.
She instinctively moved forward, but Ron held her back.
Kate hadn't noticed her at all. She simply handed Harry a folded map. "We found this a few days ago."
"The Marauder's Map?" Harry belatedly patted his pockets and realized that the map he always carried had gone missing at some point.
"Looks like you already know how to use it," Lupin said cheerfully, taking it back. "Now, would you come with us?"
Ron sensed something was wrong and hurried to block Harry. "No, he didn't do anything with it… I mean, this map, I actually bought it at Zonko's Joke Shop and gave it to him!"
"Mr. Weasley," Lupin said gently, soothing him, "there's no need to be nervous. We didn't come for Harry to call him to account, and besides, Student Shafiq is here too."
Kate stepped forward at just the right moment. "Harry, I'm the one who picked up the map. It's better if we talk about the details in private."
She glanced at Hermione, then quickly looked away.
When someone feels guilty, she often can't bring herself to meet the eyes of the person who makes her feel that way.
Kate was exactly like that right now.
"All right, I'll go with you." Harry thought it over for a moment. He was starting to realize that the conversation ahead might be very important, so he didn't hesitate and followed them out.
The three of them hurried to the Defense Against the Dark Arts office, where Lupin drew the curtains to shut out any eyes that might be watching.
"I'd better do the talking. You've had a hard enough time these past two days looking after him." Kate rubbed her temples, arranging her words in her head.
Harry looked at her, baffled. He had no idea what kind of shock his understanding of the world was about to take over the next hour.
…
"Why do you think Kate didn't talk to me today?" Hermione asked miserably, gripping her quill.
The Weasley siblings sitting across from her exchanged a glance and shook their heads helplessly.
Ron hadn't originally planned to come to the library to do homework with her. He was still fretting over the missing Scabbers, and he was convinced Hermione's Crookshanks had done it.
But the homework had just jumped another level in difficulty.
That forced him to turn to Hermione, but he couldn't swallow his pride and ask her outright, so he'd simply dragged Ginny along too.
"Doesn't she have something to talk to Harry about?" Ron flipped through his book, skimming ten lines at a glance, and scratched his head in despair at the blank parchment in front of him.
He was craning his neck to peek at what Hermione had written when he looked up and spotted Delar walking over with her companions, her face thunderous.
Seeing the three of them sitting there, Delar narrowed her eyes and gave an irritated snort.
Ever since Kate had rejected her, she'd found even Kate's friends harder and harder to stand.
That look made Ron bristle at once, and he shot back sarcastically, "Malfoy, the whole school knows about your business now, don't they!"
Delar halted mid-step and glared at him. "What's it to you? Worry about yourself, Weasley. I wonder if your family's scraped together enough for your tuition next year?"
"You!" Ron leapt to his feet, a vein bulging on his forehead.
Just as Madam Pince was about to come and throw them out, someone got there first.
"Ron, Malfoy, don't cause trouble in the library."
Kate stepped out from behind the bookshelves and gave Delar a pointed look.
But the moment she saw that proud face, all she could think of was the little girl who'd thrown herself into her arms, sobbing.
Looking away guiltily, she kept her voice outwardly calm. "Break it up, both of you, unless you'd like to be thrown out."
Delar gave a cold laugh and turned straight around to leave, unwilling to stay a second longer.
"Finally, somebody who can put him in his place."
Ron was still gloating when he noticed Harry walking over with a complicated look on his face. Harry clapped him heavily on the shoulder.
"Ron, Scabbers… he's dead."
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