The final month of the school year passed well enough for Kate.
After making her drink that one Potion, Snape never troubled her again — which honestly caught Kate so off guard she wasn't sure what to do with herself.
As for Katherine, things had returned to normal after Kate finished her exam paper. Each evening amounted to nothing more than helping prepare lesson plans, and it never took very long.
That woman hadn't said anything of substance to her right up to the last day. Kate had no idea what she was thinking — but she held fast to her own principle: if the enemy doesn't move, neither do I.
The monthly exercise quests had done her body a world of good. Running two thousand meters every evening had become easy.
This from someone who, in her past life, had been half-dead after an eight-hundred-meter run. She still couldn't quite believe it.
The reward of five Attribute Points had been distributed evenly across Strength, Agility, Spirit, Luck, and Mana.
She had a Vitality of 71 now anyway, so she could throw points wherever she pleased.
As for St. Mungo's — word had it Quirrell had been discharged. She had no idea when exactly he planned to come back and steal the Philosopher's Stone.
Probably soon.
Right up until she sat down in the examination hall, finished her paper in fifteen minutes, and found herself drifting off into thought about all of this.
The practical portion of the exams that followed was just as trivially easy. She dispatched each test with almost no effort at all.
By the time the final History of Magic exam was over, she was still in something of a daze when the cheers of students handing in their papers erupted across the hall.
The school year was already over, just like that.
Time really does fly.
When she thought about it carefully — she had packed every single day of the past year absolutely full, all in service of grinding up her levels, of not getting one-shotted somewhere down the line.
And it had paid off. She had raised her base attributes to the standard of a top-performing graduate, and worked through the entire year's worth of written curriculum for every year level.
So next was summer holiday, time to finally relax... yeah, right!
The business with the Philosopher's Stone still wasn't settled!
Just as she'd predicted, Quirrell's injuries were probably healed up by now, and it was about time he stopped holding himself back and made his move.
And with the pressure of exams lifted, Harry and the others would likely be watching the three-headed dog's room at any moment.
Which raised the question: when the time came, was she supposed to follow them down there and help save the Philosopher's Stone?
The very thought of that System quest to protect the Philosopher's Stone made Kate's stomach clench.
If she had any choice, she really did not want to come face-to-face with Voldemort this early. She wasn't the main character. She had no love-magic protection!
One wrong step, and that was it — curtains. Who would she even complain to?
"Hey, Kate!" Harry came over with relief written all over his face and gave her shoulder a pat. "How come you still look so miserable after finishing the exams?"
Ron grinned cheekily from beside him. "Don't tell me you think you did badly?"
"As if," Hermione jumped in immediately. "This exam was much easier than I expected. There's no way it could have tripped Kate up."
She held herself back, and ultimately refrained from mentioning that Kate had already reached the point of being able to complete third-year exam papers.
"Though I heard a few fifth-years saying their Defence Against the Dark Arts exam was unusually brutal this time," Ron said with dramatic flair. "Apparently loads of the questions were past papers from the N.E.W.T. exams!"
Ah, about that…
Kate scratched the side of her nose with an awkward cough and wisely chose to change the subject. "Sounds like you all did pretty well, then."
"That's all down to you and Hermione helping us revise," Harry said cheerfully — then his expression flickered, and he rubbed his forehead scar with a look of discomfort. "I don't know why, but my scar has been hurting constantly lately. It's never been this frequent before."
"You should go see Madam Pomfrey," Hermione suggested.
"I'm not sick," he said firmly. "I think it's a warning — danger is coming."
He looked over at Kate hopefully. "Could you go talk to Dumbledore? Mention the Philosopher's Stone — there's no proof, but at least it might remind him to be on guard."
Most students hadn't the faintest idea where the Headmaster's office was. Kate had waltzed in and out of it freely more times than she could count over the course of the year.
In Harry's eyes, at least, Dumbledore held Kate in somewhat higher regard.
"…Fine. I'll pass the message along. Whether Dumbledore believes it is out of my hands."
Kate was perfectly aware that at this juncture, Dumbledore would almost certainly manufacture some excuse to leave the school. The trip would be a waste of her time.
But that was exactly the point — it was the only way to make Harry abandon any lingering hope and work up the nerve to go charging into the three-headed dog's room himself.
She set off immediately toward the office entrance on the eighth floor, and knocked when she reached the door.
She had expected the room to be empty — but to her surprise, Katherine's voice drifted through from inside. "Come in."
Kate hesitated for a moment, then pushed the door open. She looked up to find Katherine lounging in the guest chair with a completely at-ease expression, idly playing with Fawkes.
The moment she saw Kate, Katherine showed not a trace of surprise. She gave Fawkes one last casual ruffle of his fluffy feathers, then turned her head. "Teapot's on the table. Help yourself if you want tea."
The nerve. She really wasn't treating her like a guest at all.
Kate twitched the corner of her mouth. "Professor, the Headmaster—"
"An urgent dispatch came in from the Ministry just now. Dumbledore was in the middle of talking to me and dropped everything to go off to London." Katherine said this with a pleasant smile.
For some reason, though, Kate kept feeling like her tone had a faintly ominous edge to it — a kind of chill running beneath the surface.
She quickly said, "Then… then I'll just be heading out!"
"Hold on!" Katherine called after her. "Little Kate, why do you always bolt the moment you see me?"
Kate turned back, wearing her most innocent expression, and shook her head. "I don't. I just didn't want to disturb you while you were playing with the bird."
"What's so fun about a phoenix?" Katherine set Fawkes free without ceremony, then waved Kate over with a cheerful smile. "Come here."
The phoenix wasn't fun — so was she planning to have fun with her instead?
Kate's smile stiffened slightly. She walked over with something less than enthusiasm. "Professor…"
"This summer holiday, I'll be staying at your house for a while." Katherine announced this without the slightest hint of apology. "I wrote to Mr. Jones a few days ago — he agreed."
"Huh?" Kate's mind went blank. She stumbled over her words. "You — you're going to my house too? You know Grandpa Rand?"
Ah — that was a pretty pointless question, wasn't it.
Katherine raised an eyebrow with an amused look. "Well, somebody has to, seeing as I have nowhere to live once I leave the school. Once I find a new place, I'll be out of your hair."
What could Kate possibly say to that?
The sudden news had knocked her head sideways, and she nearly asked Katherine which of her houses she planned to stay in.
She floated out of the office in a daze. It wasn't until she had made it downstairs that she snapped back to her senses with a jolt.
This summer — Hermione, Cho Chang, and now Katherine were all apparently coming to stay at her house?
Good grief…
The mental image was too much. She didn't even want to think about it.
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