Right now Kate regretted it. Regretted it deeply.
Why had she been greedy and ordered that one extra Butterbeer, the one that made them ten minutes late heading back?
Ten minutes. It didn't sound like much. It was more than enough time for someone with a purpose to get a great deal done.
For instance — Hermione had been happy enough to hand over a few Delight Points.
And, for instance, it let a great black dog scramble over the last ridge, slip into Hogsmeade, and arrive right in front of her.
Kate frowned at the dog panting in front of her, exhausted and still circling her without pause.
"Kate, it looks like it knows you." Hermione was still studying the filthy creature, none the wiser.
If it had been a little cleaner, she might have tried stroking that jet-black coat.
"I probably fed it half a sausage once."
Though he hadn't eaten it.
Smoothly, without letting anything show, Kate drew Hermione behind her and stepped forward herself. "Hermione, you go on back."
Hermione blinked. "Why? Is something wrong with it?"
"No, it just looks like it's been a stray for a long time. I want to see if I can find it somewhere to stay around here."
"I can help too." Hermione still wouldn't budge. She didn't understand — it was something the two of them could easily do together, so why did Kate insist on doing it alone?
Kate turned her down anyway. "No need. This dog's half wild and hard to handle. If you're standing there, I'm worried it'll go for you."
As she spoke, she pulled out her wand and twirled it idly, then smiled at Hermione. "Relax. Half an hour at most and I'll be back."
She said it with a smile, but the tone underneath brooked no argument, and the protest Hermione had been building died in her throat.
After a long moment, the little lion who had been cheerfully hanging off her arm lowered her head and let go. "Come back soon, then. It'll be dark before long."
"I will." Kate nodded, calm as ever.
Hermione pressed her lips together and took a few steps, then turned back and pushed a handful of food into Kate's arms. "It looks starving. I've still got some snacks."
The great black dog, which had been on the verge of collapsing from exhaustion, immediately arched its back. It seemed very interested in snacks.
"All right, all right," Kate said, laughing despite herself, and gave Hermione's cheek a light pinch. "Off you go. Maybe I'll catch up with you the moment you reach the castle."
Hermione nodded without a word and left, glancing back every few steps.
Only once even her retreating figure had vanished did Kate lead the black dog, unhurried, to a deserted spot — and put the snacks away in her pouch.
"Hermione gave me those. You don't get to touch them."
Her voice was flat. Then she fished out a sausage and held it out. "Eat it if you want. If you don't, I'm throwing it away."
One look at that all-too-familiar sausage and the dog shot her a resentful glare — then swiftly finished the change from dog to man.
Filthy tangled hair hung to his elbows, his skin was waxen, and what little flesh he had clung to his cheekbones.
If not for the light in the eyes set deep in those sockets, nobody would have recognized this as Sirius Black, who in his school days had been the talk of the entire castle.
Kate showed no surprise at the transformation. She folded her arms. "I knew you'd break out. Were the accommodations at my brother's place really so bad that you had to run?"
"You can get me into the school." Sirius fixed her with a stare, his voice a rasp of certainty. "Help me."
Anywhere near Hogwarts there were Dementors standing guard. He needed a partner.
"Of course I can get you inside," Kate said, raising an eyebrow. "But you're not only here for Harry, are you?"
She flicked her wand, and a scoop of the snow at her feet took the shape of a small rat. "I looked into what you told me last time. It's exactly as you said — Ron's rat, Scabbers, really is missing a toe."
Sirius said nothing. His sunken eyes, when they landed on the little rat, filled with hatred.
"Let me guess. You want to take your revenge alone, and then tell Harry the truth about that night." Kate tilted her head back. "But wouldn't that let the little wretch off far too easily?"
The words had barely left her mouth before a Severing Charm sliced the snow-rat on the ground clean apart.
"Work with me," she said, smiling sweetly at him. "Follow my lead in everything, and I can promise you: every last thing you're hoping for will happen."
His brows drew together so hard the furrow between them could have crushed a fly.
"Even if you are Scamander's apprentice…" His eyes were full of doubt. "Why should I trust you? You're a Slytherin."
He had never understood it from the start — how could Newt Scamander take a Slytherin as his student?
This little witch was no different from every Slytherin he remembered: cunning, treacherous, hungry for power.
If she hadn't become friends with his godson, he'd have died before speaking a single word to her.
Kate answered without heat. "Suit yourself. Whether you agree or not costs me nothing. For you, though, it's the difference between two completely different worlds."
Worst case, she'd coast through this year, and right at the end of the story, just before Peter fled, she'd swoop in like the bird waiting behind the mantis and catch him. That would count as completing the task too.
But in the original works, even after Sirius exposed the truth, Peter's escape left him without proof, and in the end he had to flee with Buckbeak.
The gap between those two outcomes was enormous.
"It's getting dark. You've got one minute to think it over." Kate glanced at the sky and put on an impatient face. "When the time's up, I won't touch this business at all."
Sirius ground his teeth, his gaunt chest rising and falling, his eyes drifting again and again toward Hogwarts.
That was his old school. It was also where his godson Harry was — and where his enemy Peter was.
But even if he reached Harry, how was he supposed to catch Peter and lay the truth bare in front of the boy?
He was confident enough: with Lupin inside the school working from within while he pressed from without, there was a chance of dragging it all into the light. And yet…
He looked down at the little witch in front of him and found himself grinding his teeth again.
From the first time she had knocked him out cold, he'd known this Slytherin witch was no easy mark — and, inconveniently, she was his godson's close friend.
Once he'd come to, he had tried to seize her wand and pin her down. Except the little witch turned out to know Wandless Magic.
Never mind that he couldn't use that peculiar wand of hers at all — even if he could, he'd have been no match for her. She had beaten him black and blue bare-handed.
Was hand-to-hand combat what young wizards did for fun these days?
After that, she'd gone and fetched Newt Scamander's son, David Scamander, to "adopt" him.
He'd only slipped away because David had left home to teach — and then run straight into this little witch again.
Sirius couldn't tell anymore whether it was fate or a curse.
A decade and more in Azkaban had left him unable to trust any stranger easily. But faced with this strange Slytherin witch, he had no options at all.
He couldn't beat her, and she held something over him besides.
"Thirty seconds left," Kate reminded him helpfully.
His fists clenched. The words came out fast. "You have to promise me you won't do anything that harms Harry."
"Naturally. I'm his friend." Kate nodded as if it went without saying.
Not counting the times she strung him along, of course.
"Then why help me at all? You could tell Harry everything. Even if he didn't believe you, he'd go looking into it himself."
"You want me to walk up to him and say that the man everyone knows sold out his parents is actually one of the good ones? Do you think he'd believe me, or cut me off for good?"
Kate planted her hands on her hips, exasperated. "I'm his friend, so of course I want to help him. But there's a right way to do it.
All I can do is help him find the truth piece by piece, instead of dumping something that far outside his understanding on him all at once. That would only make it impossible for him to accept."
Sirius had no answer. The logic did hold.
Friends. There had been a time when he'd had a whole pack of them. Now some were dead and the rest were traitors.
He let out a breath. "Fine. For Harry's sake, I can… do things your way, for now. But remember this: the moment you try anything that hurts Harry, I'll drag you down with me if it kills me."
For all the feeling stirring in him, he kept one eye open. This little witch outstripped ordinary people in both power and cunning; she was genuinely dangerous.
So however sweetly she talked, he couldn't hand her his full trust.
The last man he and James had trusted had dragged them both into hell. He would not make that mistake twice.
"You say that like you could actually take me," Kate muttered, and held the sausage out again. "Want one?"
Sirius froze. He stared at the sausage, wavering for a long while — then steeled himself, snatched it, tore off the wrapper and chewed and swallowed it in a few quick bites.
Luckily David's temporary lodgings hadn't been far from Hogsmeade; a day and a night of running had brought him here. He'd eaten almost nothing on the way.
Hermione had been right. He really was starving.
And then… the world began to spin.
"Oh dear, this batch of sausage seems to have a little something mixed in as well. So sorry, I forgot to mention it beforehand." That was Kate's explanation, the last thing he heard before he blacked out.
He'd known it. You should never trust a creature that scheming!
How on earth had his godson ended up friends with an evil Slytherin like—
The thought never finished. He toppled over completely.
When he woke again, he found he'd apparently been moved somewhere new.
And this time the person waiting to receive him wasn't Mr. Scamander. It was someone far more unexpected.
"You're awake, Mr. Black." The old man with the grizzled beard turned slowly, eyes crinkling as he looked at him. "Would you care for some black tea?"
Sirius shot upright, staring at the kindly old man in front of him. "You— No, sir, how could you—"
"Kate asked me to keep you here." A glimmer of amusement showed in those bright blue eyes. "You did want to get into the school, didn't you?"
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