In the end, Kate steeled herself and wrote to both of them at once — an invitation to visit three days from now, with a note in each letter explaining that she'd invited the other as well.
Nominally it was a girls' get-together, but she couldn't shake the nagging feeling that Hermione was going to tear her to pieces.
Then again, her Hermione was such a sensible, well-behaved girl. What could she possibly do to her?
Right. It was definitely just her imagination.
After lunch, Kate had been planning to pop into the library and check on her clone's writing progress — only to be caught red-handed by Katherine.
"What kind of child runs off to the library every single day? I'll give you a chance: beat me in a duel, and you can go in."
By the time she'd been physically hauled out onto the lawn in front of the manor, Kate was still wearing an expression of profound injustice.
"Auntie, I'm only a first-year," she said, staring at Katherine with a head full of question marks. "Doesn't this count as a grown-up picking on a child?"
What kind of relative challenged you to a fight on the very first day of meeting?
She instinctively glanced up at the castle, but saw no sign of the old butler — which left her feeling rather helpless.
This woman had definitely squared things with Grandpa Rand in advance. Otherwise she wouldn't be making such a public show of calling her out for a duel.
What exactly was her goal here? To probe the limits of Kate's abilities, or to give her real combat experience?
Either way, as her aunt, Katherine surely wouldn't do anything to actually harm her.
Katherine raised an eyebrow, just slightly. "What are you so nervous about? Think of it as a warm-up stretch for me."
[Duel Quest triggered: Defeat Katherine Wynyard in a practice duel to earn Duel experience and additional rewards.]
Well. Since even the System had chimed in, Kate — ever the expert at milking every last benefit — had no choice but to grit her teeth and draw her wand. "Fine. Let's begin."
"One rule first: no dark curses or Unforgivable Curses. I have no interest in seeing you end up in Azkaban at your age." Katherine drew her own wand and added the reminder in a perfectly casual tone.
So that meant spells like Fiendfyre — dark magic of that sort — were fair game?
Kate took the hint and said nothing more. The two of them bowed to each other as per proper dueling etiquette before settling into their stances.
The first strike, by convention, belonged to Kate — the younger and junior of the two.
A torrent of blue flame erupted from Kate's wand in an instant: Bluebell Flames. Among fire-based spells, they were considered relatively harmless.
Katherine flicked her wand with casual ease, and a silent Protego materialised before her, catching the flames with perfect precision.
"Are you taking me lightly, Kate?" A note of displeasure entered her voice. "Show me what you're actually capable of!"
The words had barely left her mouth when the ground beneath her shuddered. The lawn fractured instantly, and great columns of earth and rock surged upward from the surface, encircling Katherine from all sides.
"Oh? A Levitation Charm that works like this?"
She regarded the stone pillars with some surprise, let out a short laugh — and vanished from where she stood.
A heartbeat later she reappeared directly behind Kate, her wand already levelling a bolt of crimson fire.
Kate didn't turn around. She gave no sign whatsoever of noticing the threat at her back.
But the very instant the flames were about to strike her, a wall of rock shot up from the ground and absorbed the blast.
"My Levitation Charm is probably a little different from the kind you're used to," Kate murmured quietly, giving her wand the gentlest of flicks.
Katherine's sharp eyes caught it immediately: a small pebble at her feet had begun to tremble — in an irregular, arrhythmic rhythm.
No. It wasn't just the pebble that was trembling. It was the entire ground.
Her expression shifted. She snapped her head up — and saw that every plant, every tree, every flower around the castle had lifted into the air. Even the water of the lonely lake beside the castle walls was rising.
In truth, Kate had already held back considerably, out of consideration for the cleanup effort afterward. She hadn't actually reshaped the terrain around the castle — if she had, restoring it later would have been an absolute headache.
But even at this restrained scale, it was more than enough to win.
"Auntie," Kate turned to face Katherine, who had already braced herself into a full defensive stance, and smiled. "You know Apparition, don't you? Well — I'm going to make sure there's nowhere left for you to run."
Before the words had finished, the sky's worth of vegetation and water came crashing down toward Katherine with overwhelming, thunderous force.
Katherine's expression went rigid. She threw herself into her most powerful defensive posture, wrapping herself in an iron-solid Protego that sealed her on all sides.
This was brute-force physical impact — not magical at its core. As long as she could weather this one wave, she wouldn't need to worry about what came next...
Then a crack split the ground at her feet, and Katherine's expression changed again.
The earth, already trembling, was now shaking violently. Fragments of rock flew in all directions; debris from deep underground was being dragged upward, spiralling into the air.
Katherine looked down in alarm — and found that the ground beneath her was laced with a dense web of fractures, spreading outward from somewhere far below.
One more ounce of pressure, and the entire patch of earth might simply give way.
What kind of power was this?
She raised her head. The look she fixed on Kate held a flash of real alarm — but it hardened into resolve almost immediately.
If this attack was aimed at her, then she'd redirect it. All of it.
Katherine Apparated again, reappearing behind Kate. The moment Kate turned her head, Katherine fired a Disarming Charm.
The wand flew from Kate's hand — and the world around them ground to a halt.
Katherine had fully expected that to be the end of it. But the so-called attack didn't stop. Instead, it simply recalibrated its target and came right back.
For a moment, both of them were lost in a world gone dark with falling debris. Katherine had no choice but to cast Protego after Protego, shielding them both.
"Auntie," Kate said softly, close to her ear, "I do know a wand-free Levitation Charm or two."
An avalanche of mass came crashing down. Katherine watched each impact land on her shield — and each one made her supposedly airtight Protego feel laughably fragile.
Before long, the luminous barrier was riddled with hairline cracks.
Held firmly in Katherine's grip, Kate watched it all with perfect composure, and twisted the knife with a cheerful inquiry: "Auntie — want me to stop it? All you have to do is surrender."
"You little brat!"
Katherine gritted her teeth and held on through sheer willpower. She barely managed to outlast the assault — only for Kate to launch a wandless Summoning Charm the moment it ended.
"Auntie," Kate said with a grin, snatching her wand back and levelling it at her. "You don't want to go through that a second time, do you?"
Katherine stared at her for a long, speechless moment — then raised both hands.
"Alright, alright. I give up. Happy now?"
[Ding! Duel Victory!]
[Duel experience +1, Attribute Points +1]
Kate calmly allocated the Attribute Point to Strength, then swept her wand in an arc, casting a Mending Charm that put everything back as it was. Only then did she turn to Katherine with a cheerful smile.
"After you, Auntie. Well fought."
Katherine pressed a finger to her forehead in exasperation. "Pull a clever trick like that on me again, and don't expect me to bail you out next time."
Both of them knew the duel had shed most of its formality somewhere in the middle.
Kate hadn't actually needed to use a wide-area attack like the Levitation Charm. Katherine hadn't actually needed to shield them both with Protego.
At numerous points throughout the fight, either of them could have found a cleaner way to end it. They'd both chosen not to.
Katherine had been careful with her, unwilling to strike hard.
And Kate had simply been showing her a few of her cards.
"That earthquake at Hogwarts — that was you, wasn't it?" Katherine said, her voice certain rather than questioning.
Kate smiled and said nothing. She only asked, "Since I won, you'll let me into the library now, right?"
"Tch..." Katherine clicked her tongue softly. She'd completely forgotten about that part of the deal.
She waved a hand in dismissal. "Go on, go. What kind of child spends all her time buried in books at your age."
"Thank you, Auntie." Kate's whole face lit up. She gave a small, happy bow and sprinted gleefully toward the library.
Katherine watched that little figure vanish through the library doors with a helpless sigh — then turned to find the old butler standing behind her, seemingly having appeared out of nowhere.
"You told me this child spent every day cooped up at home, either reading or practising spells. I have to say, she looks like she enjoys it quite a lot."
Grandpa Rand smiled, his eyes warm and gentle. "Kate has always been this way. Once she sets her mind to something, she loses all track of time."
"Which is exactly how she got this strong." Recalling that extraordinary Levitation Charm Kate had used on her, Katherine felt a lingering unease even now.
Thirteen years old, with the knowledge of a seventh-year. Magic powerful enough to suppress most adult wizards without even breaking a sweat.
She could almost see it already — the brilliant, luminous future that awaited this child.
"And that," said Grandpa Rand, his smile fading by a fraction, "is precisely what I worry about." He stepped forward a few paces, lowering his voice. "Don't you think Kate is a little too driven — nothing at all like an ordinary child?"
Katherine's expression shifted.
In truth, she'd already sensed something was off, without needing Grandpa Rand to say a word.
During her two months at Hogwarts, she had spent some time observing Kate.
Compared to other young wizards her age, Kate's most striking difference was her iron self-discipline.
Without anyone prodding her, she studied for over twelve hours a day — and still carved out time to practise spells or run laps around the Quidditch pitch.
When she wasn't spending time with her small circle of friends, she was either studying or on her way to study. That was the whole of it.
Even Hermione — the little academic prodigy at her side — wasn't this relentless.
"You're right..." Katherine murmured softly. "I can't figure it out either — why Kate is so different from everyone else."
If she truly loved learning for its own sake, she ought to have been sorted into Ravenclaw. Instead she'd ended up in Slytherin.
The distinction between those two wasn't something Katherine was unclear on.
But if Kate had some grand ambition driving her, her behaviour didn't match Slytherin's character either.
What on earth could possibly compel a child — at an age when she should be chasing fun — to push herself this relentlessly, day after day?
Looking at the faint bitterness on Grandpa Rand's face, Katherine narrowed her eyes with a frown. "Mr. Jones — is there something you haven't told me?"
Grandpa Rand gave a rueful smile. "It's a matter that actually concerns you, in a way. I must ask you to promise me first — what I tell you stays between us."
"I promise." Katherine gave a solemn nod.
...
Kate stifled a yawn and glanced up at the skylight above her. The last of the evening light filtered through that small square of glass, suffusing the room with a quiet, particular beauty.
It was already dusk.
She set down the book in her hands — Advanced Applications of Wandless Magic — stood up, and stretched.
Behind her, in the corner, the clone was still diligently at work. The parchment it had covered with writing was already over a hundred inches long, folded into a thick bundle.
At this rate, it would probably take another week or two to finish.
Kate made a rough estimate and immediately felt exhausted just thinking about it.
Three hundred years of accumulated knowledge. How long would it take to truly absorb all of that...?
She sighed quietly, returned her book to its proper shelf, and walked straight out of the library.
Jingjing the house-elf had been waiting outside the door for some time. The moment she appeared, Jingjing bowed respectfully.
"Little Master, the Butler and Miss Wynyard have gone out on business. They asked you to go ahead and have dinner — you don't need to wait for them."
Kate blinked. "Gone out? Did they say where?"
"Somewhere in Europe, I believe. I don't know exactly where."
Suddenly dashing off to Europe — what was that about?
Kate turned it over in her mind, combing through her memories for any clue related to Europe.
But no luck. Neither the family's business interests nor any of the household's connections had ever had dealings with Europe. Not that she could recall.
She'd just have to ask when they got back.
She ate dinner alone, and shortly afterward two letters arrived — one from Cho Chang, one from Hermione.
Cho's was easy enough: she said she was glad Kate had invited Hermione too, and mentioned she'd help them practise Quidditch when they visited.
Hermione's, though, was strange.
Kate had braced herself for a lecture — or at least some pointed remarks about being kept in the dark. But there wasn't a trace of that in the letter.
So had she been judging Hermione unfairly after all?
Kate scratched her head, then let it go.
If Hermione had no complaints, then the next month would probably be quite pleasant.
Perhaps she just wasn't used to being on her own with only a few house-elves for company. Kate wandered through the manor's garden for a while and found it so thoroughly boring that she retreated to her room.
So this was what it felt like to live in a castle by yourself. Dull.
Her room was the only one with a light on. The rest of the castle was dark in a way that felt almost oppressive.
She played with Fluffball for a while, but sleep wouldn't come and she didn't feel like doing anything else. In the end she simply sat on the windowsill, tipped her head back, and looked up at the stars.
She wondered what Hermione was doing right now.
She wondered when Grandpa Rand and her auntie would be back.
For just a moment, Kate was struck by a feeling she hadn't had in a long time — the same lost, adrift sensation from when she had first arrived in this world as a child, with no idea what to do or where to go.
She waited for what felt like a very long time — long enough for the stars overhead to grow dim — before she finally spotted two figures walking up the tree-lined path outside the castle.
Her heart lifted. She sent herself floating gently down with a Levitation Charm, bare feet landing on the grass — only to misjudge the landing and pitch forward, tumbling straight into Katherine's arms.
"Ow..."
She clambered out of the embrace, looked up with a wince, and smiled — eyes bright as stars.
"Welcome back!"
____
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