After getting off the train, they rode the Thestral-drawn carriages up to Hogwarts castle. They had barely reached the Great Hall when Kate, Harry, and Hermione were called away by a professor.
In fact, only she was summoned into the office. Harry was taken by Madam Pomfrey to the Hospital Wing for a thorough examination, while Hermione was left waiting in McGonagall's office.
"Professor Lupin sent an owl ahead and gave a brief account of what happened on the train," McGonagall said, leading her toward the Headmaster's office.
By rights it should have been Snape, as Head of Slytherin, who had a one-on-one talk with her. But knowing Snape's style, he'd probably start spewing venom before he even asked a single question.
So, for the sake of the students' mental well-being, it was Dumbledore who had offered to have her come up to the Headmaster's office.
That sort of explanation could probably only be used to fool the ever-earnest Professor McGonagall.
Dumbledore — what an old con artist.
Next time Katherine asked her, she'd just say Old Man Dumbledore taught her everything!
Kate followed close on her heels. "Professor, so what about Hermione…"
"Oh, the business on the train has nothing to do with her. I merely wanted to speak with Miss Granger about her class schedule," McGonagall explained, stopping before the Gargoyle on the eighth floor.
Only then did Kate nod, reassured. She spoke the password to it and rode up alone.
Perhaps because the start-of-term ceremony was just around the corner, this time Dumbledore wasn't teasing Fawkes, nor fiddling with his milk tea. He had even, for once, tidied up his beard.
"Professor," Kate said, walking over and confessing first, "I used the Patronus Charm on the train, because that Dementor was going to hurt Harry, so I…"
Dumbledore stood by the window and waved a hand. "Professor Lupin has already told me the details. He also said your Patronus is a silver dragon."
"That's right," she said, tilting her head, puzzled. "Is something wrong?"
If it was just a question about the form of her Patronus — well, a silver dragon was a little rare, but hardly a big deal.
Old Man Dumbledore's Patronus was a Phoenix, and her mother's was a Thestral. All of them were magical creatures.
"There's nothing wrong at all. It's your gift, and your parents would be proud of you too."
Dumbledore twitched his eyebrows. "Though I had meant to receive those Dementors, and found that their numbers didn't quite match what the Ministry of Magic had reported."
A faint tremor ran through Kate, though she kept up her puzzled look. "You mean — those Dementors have gone missing?"
"Perhaps they were merely neglecting their duties," Dumbledore said with a slight smile, reaching out to pat her shoulder. "Never mind. Finding them is the Ministry's job. All we need to do is study hard this new term."
This White Dark Lord definitely knew something! He had to!
Kate was roaring inside, but her face wore an agreeable expression. "If I see a Dementor threatening my friends again, I'll still step in."
"I imagine you would." Dumbledore nodded slightly. "Get ready. Let's head to the Great Hall first — everyone's still waiting for us."
The words had barely left him when Kate felt the world spin. By the time she came to her senses, she was already standing at the doors of the Great Hall.
The Sorting Ceremony was already over. She saw a few unfamiliar faces at the long Slytherin table.
Dumbledore, meanwhile, had made his way up to the platform, ready to speak.
Hunching over, she hurried carefully to her seat, and found Malfoy staring at her with shining eyes, though her tone was utterly dismissive.
"Shafiq, I heard that dragon on the train was your doing? What a cheap bit of showing off."
Tsk. My dear young lady, you play the villain far too brilliantly — couldn't you see the newly arrived first-years beside you holding their breath in fright?
Kate gave an amused smile and raised her goblet to her in a toast. "If you'd like, I could teach you too."
"Really—? Ahem!" Malfoy nearly broke character and quickly coughed. "Who'd ever want you to teach them!"
That's what she said, but from that awkward little look — eager, yet desperate not to be caught being eager — Kate knew there was no getting out of being this private tutor.
Up on the platform, Dumbledore had begun his annual start-of-term address. After the pleasantries, he got to the point:
"Our school currently welcomes several Dementors from Azkaban. They have been sent by the Ministry of Magic on official duty, and will henceforth be stationed at every entrance to the school.
"I must make this clear: while they are here, no one is permitted to leave the school without authorization. No trick, no ruse, no disguise will fool them — including an Invisibility Cloak."
He exchanged a level glance with Harry below, then shifted to Kate. "Everyone, please keep yourselves safe. Don't give them any reason to harm you — even if you believe you have the ability to evade beings that have guarded Azkaban for years."
Under his words, the mood of the whole Great Hall turned especially grave. Kate met his gaze from afar and, all at once, let a faint smile show.
Dumbledore's deep blue eyes flashed, and he moved on to the next topic: introducing the new professors.
The new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, Lupin, and the teacher for the Care of Magical Creatures class, David Scamander, whose teaching assistant was Hagrid.
"For certain reasons, Mr. Scamander is not at the school today. You'll get to meet him when classes begin tomorrow."
As Dumbledore spoke, he even gave Kate a playful wink.
As for Kate, she was completely stunned, missing his glance entirely for the moment.
David Scamander was the middle-aged man who had brought the little dragon Dark Cloud over to keep her company last time. Technically, she ought to call him Senior Brother.
Why had he come here to teach? And Hagrid had become his assistant? Why had this year's storyline thrown up a variable right from the start?
Finally shaking herself out of it, she bit into a piece of pumpkin, her mind still a bit of a mess.
After dinner, she followed the crowd back to the Slytherin Common Room, then slipped alone through the lively throng and strode quickly into her dormitory.
Just as she'd expected, a letter was already lying on the desk in her dormitory, signed by none other than David Scamander.
"Dear Kate,
Headmaster Dumbledore has invited me to teach at Hogwarts for a year. Our last meeting was too rushed, and I forgot to tell you beforehand, so I am writing this letter, with a small apology enclosed.
David Scamander."
Tucked inside the envelope was a photograph. When Kate took it out to look, she realized it was a picture of David's son Rolf together with Dark Cloud.
Brushing her fingertip lightly over the moving Dark Cloud in the photo, Kate laughed despite herself.
Call this Senior Brother of hers stiff, and yet he knew exactly what she wanted; call him easygoing, and yet he'd write her a letter of apology over such a small thing.
Well, at any rate he was probably a bit better than Newt had been at the same age — likely he'd inherited Tina's emotional intelligence and Newt's habits of thought.
She gave a soft laugh, tucked the letter away in a drawer, and stuck the photo in the most prominent spot on her desk.
As long as she looked up, she'd be able to see it.
As for changes to the storyline — last year she'd already smashed the Chamber of Secrets plot to pieces. This year's little change was nothing at all next to what she'd pulled off then.
Cheerfully, she fed Fluffball, and then, in quite a good mood, opened up her System.
[Host: Kate Shafiq]
[Class: Wizard]
[Title: Lord of the Manor]
[Charisma: 40]
[Strength: 60]
[Agility: 55]
[Spirit: 60]
[Vitality: 82] [Willpower: 2]
[Luck: 50+5]
[Mana: 76]
[House Reputation: 50]
[Family Reputation: 35]
[Wand Output Power: 2.0]
[Wand Attribute Points: 13]
[Wand Stacked Damage: 65%]
[Emotion Points: 3]
Setting aside the useless Charisma, she was still 70 Attribute Points short of her goal of getting every stat above 75.
Kate had thought this goal was set a little high — she might not manage it within a year. But on the train, the moment she heard she could level up by eating Dementors, an idea had begun to form.
After all, once Voldemort came back later, the Dementors would defect en masse to the noseless freak's side anyway. Better to deal with them ahead of time and be done with it for good.
"System, how many Dementors are there in total for me to level up on?"
[Within England alone, there are roughly 150 or more Dementors in existence, the vast majority of them held at the wizard prison Azkaban.]
For every 10 Dementors eaten, she got a random 1 to 5 Attribute Points. So finishing off all 150 would give her a random 15 to 75 Attribute Points.
Wouldn't that cover exactly the Attribute Points she needed!
Kate's eyes lit up, and she was already thinking about how to sneak off to Azkaban for a proper feast.
But thinking it over, Azkaban did currently hold plenty of vicious, hardened criminals. Eating all the Dementors in one go and letting the prisoners escape would be a real headache.
Better to start slowly with the ones at school and leave the rest for later.
"How many Dementors did the Ministry of Magic send?"
[Known to be 40, but the Host has already eaten 20.]
Half of them already?
Kate frowned. So the most she could earn now was another 10 Attribute Points? The Ministry was so stingy.
Complain as she might, Hogwarts was a school after all; send too many Dementors and the parents wouldn't feel at ease either.
This was probably the maximum the Ministry could spare from Azkaban.
Never mind — even a mosquito was still meat. She'd stuck to her training every single month; how could she possibly turn her nose up at this modest amount?
So Kate cheerfully made up her mind: she'd treat these Dementors as stockpiled rations, waiting until the end of term to slowly get to work, gnawing them down one by one, and leaving not a single one for the Ministry.
It wasn't as if they knew anything could kill a Dementor anyway.
For now, she'd just let these little snacks hop about a while longer.
____
________________________________________
💖 Gift for Everyone: Once we hit 50 Powerstones, I'll release +1 bonus chapter to warm your hearts.
🚀 Community Reward: If we reach 20 supporting members, we'll have a +5 chapter marathon across all stories! The romance won't stop.
👻 Come to our secret corner: Search for GirlsLove on (P). You know that's where the magic happens... 😉