By the middle of October, the date for the Hogsmeade trip had been posted: the end of the month, the eve of Halloween.
Predictably, Harry looked miserable about it. He had tried to get Fudge or McGonagall to sign his permission form, and, just as predictably, both had refused.
"I could sign it for you — if you're willing to call me your godmother," Kate said serenely, and was then chased across half the castle for her trouble.
Even a well-trained Quidditch player like Harry couldn't catch a girl who ran laps every single day, not without a broomstick under him.
Afterwards he calmed down considerably. Missing Hogsmeade was one thing; suddenly acquiring an elder out of nowhere was apparently a far worse fate.
Kate was fairly sure all of that reasoning was just him salvaging his pride.
So, on the last weekend before Halloween, Kate bundled herself into thick outdoor clothes and set off for Hogsmeade with Hermione.
As a transmigrator who had seen every kind of bizarre amusement park her previous life had to offer, Kate found that Hogsmeade's novelty wore off in under two hours.
After looking through the endless sweets at Honeydukes and the wildly inventive quills at Scrivenshaft's Quill Shop, she lost all appetite for browsing.
Compared with all that magical merchandise, she decided the scenery around the village was rather more worth looking at.
Unfortunately, Hogsmeade village sat entirely above the snow line, blanketed white in every direction — and when Kate suggested building a snowman, Hermione stopped her cold.
"I just put a Warming Charm on you. How can you go and play in the snow? Your health is terrible as it is. What if you catch a cold?"
Hermione stood with her hands on her hips, laying out her case point by point.
Kate could only sigh. By all rights, with the amount of training she did, she wasn't the least bit frail — she could have romped through this snow in a single layer and probably still not caught a chill.
And yet here she was. A hand-warmer in one hand, a glove on the other, wrapped up head to toe, with a Warming Charm on top of it all — and only barely warm.
So she obediently did as Hermione said, gazed longingly at the snow line from a safe distance, and trudged back into the village.
"We've already been to several places. From here the route takes us to Madam Puddifoot's tea shop."
A faint flush crept over Hermione's small face as she said it.
She'd heard from the Gryffindor Seniors that it was the sort of tea shop couples went to.
"Shall we go there?" she asked hopefully.
Kate blinked. If she couldn't play in the snow, one activity was as good as another, so she simply nodded. "Sure."
The moment she answered, she felt Hermione's grip on her hand tighten a fraction.
Following the directions the Seniors had given her, Hermione led Kate down a side lane and into a very unremarkable little tea shop.
Inside it was as cramped as it looked from the street, and full of steam. Everything seemed to be trimmed with frills or tied up in bows.
What an... indescribable sense of taste.
Kate glanced around and found herself frowning, but Hermione kept asking, with real enthusiasm, whether she thought the place was pretty.
"As long as you like it," she managed, dredging up a smile.
Hermione steered her to a round table and sat down, looking eagerly around at the handful of occupied tables.
Sure enough, everyone here seemed to be a couple — every table held two people, sitting very close indeed.
She shifted a little nearer to Kate without quite meaning to.
Kate thought her unusual clinginess was odd, but she tolerated it the way she always did, letting her lean in.
"Now then," said Madam Puddifoot, a comfortably plump woman who came bustling over, her placid face showing a flicker of surprise. "Two ladies. What can I get you?"
Hermione instantly seized Kate's hand and laid it on the table where Madam Puddifoot couldn't miss it. "Two coffees!"
"Hold on," Kate said, frowning. "Hermione, you're still young. You shouldn't be drinking coffee yet."
She looked up. "Two black teas will be fine."
Madam Puddifoot glanced between them with mild surprise, then broke into a knowing smile. "Of course. Two teas, coming right up."
Something about that smile struck Kate as off, though she couldn't say what. She did, however, notice the young couples seated around them.
It wasn't that she was watching on purpose. Two of the pairs already had their mouths pressed together, and that was hard to overlook.
"This place seems very popular with couples," she remarked, stating her observation plainly.
Hermione went pink and said quickly, "It's not only couples who come in. Maybe people just like the atmosphere."
Fair enough.
Kate turned to the fogged-up window beside them and rubbed a patch clear with her finger. Through it she could see the white expanse of snow outside, and she nodded, cheered up at once. "It really is nice."
Hermione let out a quiet breath of relief.
The tea arrived quickly. Kate took a sip and smiled. "Much better than the tea the Headmaster brews."
"Really?" Hermione tried a mouthful herself, intrigued. "Actually, I've never asked you — Headmaster Dumbledore seems to favour you a great deal."
Kate scratched her cheek. "Probably because he and Grandpa Rand are old friends. He's only being kind to me for my guardian's sake."
The one he really cared about was the Savior. She was just an extra thrown in.
"Don't say that. I've never seen any other student come and go from the Headmaster's office as they please. He genuinely cares about you," Hermione said earnestly.
"...Maybe so." Kate smiled and didn't argue.
In all fairness, Old Man Dumbledore had treated her well.
Otherwise, after learning last month that her XP-eating had left him carrying the blame, she wouldn't have quietly reworked her whole XP strategy to help him out.
Subjectively or objectively, she had no wish to see Dumbledore dragged down by anything she did.
If once she had simply wanted to cling to Old Man Dumbledore as a convenient powerful patron, her feelings now were closer to how she regarded the old butler.
As long as Old Man Dumbledore never sent her off to die, she wouldn't mind respecting him as a genuine elder.
She took another sip of tea and turned to look out the window — just in time to see a certain blonde heiress storming past outside with two hangers-on in tow.
"It's all just snow. What's so fun about it?" Malfoy snapped, arms folded, rounding on her followers. "Where are Pansy and Blaise?"
Crabbe said cautiously, "I think they went off on their own..."
Even someone slow on the uptake could guess at whatever was going on between those two.
Malfoy scooped up a handful of snow in a temper and hurled it into the distance.
"It looks like Malfoy has a thing for Parkinson," Hermione murmured, watching through the glass.
Kate's expression shifted, and she straightened her spine without thinking. "Does she? I never got that impression."
"Then don't tell me she likes Blaise Zabini?" Hermione said, amused.
It was an offhand joke. She had been about to edge a little closer to Kate — but Kate's face changed slightly, and she stood straight up. "I'm going to the toilet. Back in a moment."
"Kate!" Hermione scrambled up in alarm to call after her, but Kate didn't hear a word of it and pushed straight out the door.
She'd wanted to say... there was a toilet right there in the shop.
A thick wave of disappointment settled over her. Hermione sniffed, picked up her tea, and drank another mouthful.
It had gone cold.
Malfoy ran all the way to the edge of the village. She hadn't let either of her followers come along, and now she piled up snow on the ground alone, seething.
Pansy and Blaise ditching her was bad enough — but she'd gone all the way round the village and hadn't caught so much as a glimpse of Kate.
That girl had promised to teach her the Patronus Charm, and now two months into term there was still no sign of it happening.
"Bah! Off somewhere having a lovely time with Granger, no doubt," she spat under her breath.
Then a voice came from behind her. "Funny, I thought I heard someone cursing my name."
Malfoy whirled around. Her eyes lit up at the sight of that heavily bundled figure — then she gave a scornful sniff and got to her feet, chin up.
"That's right, I was cursing you! And not just behind your back — I'll do it to your face too! Damn you, Kate, you promise-breaking wretch!"
It was the same complaint over and over. Kate dug at her ear, walked toward her step by step through the snow, and gave a lazy flick of her wand.
A palm-sized silver dragon shot out and shook the tree above Malfoy's head a few times.
In an instant, the heaped snow on the branches came down all at once, burying Malfoy from head to toe.
The heiress stood there wide-eyed and frozen for a long moment before it registered. Then she came charging at Kate, shrieking, "Kate, I'll kill you!"
"Now, who was it who asked me to teach her the Patronus Charm?" Kate asked with a sunny smile, dodging nimbly around her wild, flailing swipes.
Malfoy stopped mid-motion and looked back at the palm-sized silver dragon perched at the top of the tree, disbelief on her face. "That's your Patronus?"
How was it different from the one she'd seen on the train?
"You don't believe me?" Kate's lips curved. She beckoned, and the silver dragon swooped down to settle in her palm.
All thought of revenge went out of Malfoy's head. She stared at the little dragon in fascination, refusing even to blink.
A second later Kate closed her fist, and the silver dragon vanished from sight.
"The incantation is Expecto Patronum. While you cast it, you have to recall a happy memory. That's the trick of the Patronus Charm."
Then Kate raised an eyebrow, her tone turning playful. "Whether you can actually produce one, though, depends on your talent. It's an extremely advanced spell. Most Wizards never manage to summon a Patronus in their entire lives."
Malfoy's brows drew together. She yanked out her wand, refusing to be looked down on. "Just you watch, then!"
How dare this girl challenge her — she'd show her what she was made of!
"Expecto Patronum!" she shouted. The wand gave no reaction at all.
Her eyes went wide. But with Kate standing right there watching, she swallowed her temper and shut her eyes.
A happy memory.
Her happiest memory was...
The image in her mind settled on the daily sniping matches between her and Kate. Malfoy opened her eyes. "Expecto Patronum!"
A thin wisp of silver mist puffed from the tip of her wand. Only a little — but far better than before.
"Kate, look! I'm going to do it! I'm going to —"
She spun around, shouting excitedly, pointing at that shred of mist in the air, only to find that the girl who had been standing in the snow was gone.
Her elation crashed straight to the bottom. Malfoy stared at the footprints in the snow for a long while, her face gone white.
Whether from the cold or from anger, she couldn't have said.
She turned and shouted at the empty air:
"Expecto Patronum!"
"Expecto Patronum!"
"Expecto Patronum!"
This time, the wand tip gave nothing at all.
She flung the wand down into the snow. Her eyes, red with fury, brimmed with warm droplets on the verge of falling — and she forced them back.
"Damn you, Kate!"
Then she kicked a great spray of snow across the ground.
"Achoo!"
Kate, who had finally made it back to the tea shop still trailing cold air, sneezed.
Hermione was at her side in an instant, feeling her hands. "You went out for five minutes and your hands are freezing? Have you caught a cold?"
"Er... I shouldn't think so." Kate rubbed her scarlet nose and put on a brave front. "I'm not that fragile!"
That was what she said, but Hermione stood up anyway, unconvinced. "Let's head back. If we stay out much longer I'm worried you really will catch a chill."
Kate blinked. "But... didn't we promise Harry we'd bring him sweets?"
With a rich lady like herself on hand, you could hardly count on Ron to do the snack shopping.
Hermione stalled mid-motion, and from the sheepish look on her face Kate was quite certain she had forgotten all about it.
Poor Harry.
Kate stood up, laughing, and gave her cheek a light pinch. "Look at you, forgetting even that. If even we forgot about Harry, how pitiful would he be?"
"...All right." Hermione's head drooped. "Then Honeydukes first, and after that the Three Broomsticks. I've heard the Butterbeer there is very good."
Kate blinked. "Fine. Whatever you say."
And she took Hermione's hand as she said it. Her cool fingertips were wrapped up in Hermione's warm palm, and it gave her an odd little rush of contentment.
They bought sweets of every description at Honeydukes. Kate reckoned Harry could meet his sugar requirements for a solid fortnight on the haul.
After that the two of them made their way to the Three Broomsticks, where, being underage, they were served the non-alcoholic Butterbeer.
In weather with a wind that cut like that, nothing warmed you through like a hot mug of Butterbeer.
Kate lifted her mug and drank deeply, feeling the warmth spread into every inch of her, and let out a long, satisfied breath.
"Once you've finished that, we're going back," Hermione reminded her, looking pleased with herself.
"Yes, yes!" Kate wasn't the least bit annoyed at being fussed over. She leaned in and nuzzled affectionately against Hermione's neck.
Perhaps she'd simply enjoyed the day out too much and gone a bit giddy with it. Otherwise she'd never have done something so intimate out of nowhere.
When she'd had her fill and lifted her head again, reluctantly, she caught sight of Hermione raising her mug with slightly stiff movements and taking a very large swallow of Butterbeer.
Kate watched her a moment, then raised her own mug too, and happily drained every last drop.
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