Returning to the Common Room, Kate carefully avoided the gazes of others, worried that someone might notice her posture was a bit off right now.
How could it not be off?
Hermione had insisted on using the Disillusionment Charm to follow her back. Could she really stop her?
Right now, Hermione's Disillusionment Charm was like the amount of time Ultraman could stay in the human world—just three minutes. A single second more, and she would be exposed.
Hurrying over to the girls' dormitory, she hadn't even touched the door to her own room when she caught a glimpse of Pansy leading a figure with long, pale-blonde hair into their dorm out of the corner of her eye.
Hmm?
Are there any girls with long, pale-blonde hair in Slytherin?
There was certainly a boy who fit the description, but it was impossible for him to appear in the girls' dormitory...
The magical wards for all the House dormitories were set up in a very discriminatory manner; boys couldn't enter the girls' dormitory, but girls could come and go freely in both.
Classic Hogwarts.
Kate was just about to go over and take a closer look when she remembered the little lion cub still beside her. She had no choice but to quickly open the door and let her in.
"Why are your hands so cold?" The moment Hermione revealed her true form, she touched Kate's hand, which felt as if it had been soaked in ice water.
Kate froze for a moment. She had taken off the Lover's Chain when applying the ointment, so its warming effect had instantly vanished.
She coughed lightly, withdrawing her hand as if nothing were wrong. "It's probably bandaged too tightly, affecting my blood circulation."
Walking over to Fluffball's cage to add some food, she asked seemingly casually, "By the way, there are only twelve weeks left until the final exams. Have you prepared a revision plan yet?"
Twelve weeks—three months' time. Only a top student like Hermione would start making a revision plan from now.
Sure enough, Hermione's eyes lit up. "Oh, right! There isn't much time left, and I don't even know how Hogwarts' final exams will be tested..."
Muttering to herself, she naturally walked over to Kate's desk and began flipping through the textbooks. "Where do you keep your notebooks? I'd like to use them for reference."
"Right in the desk drawer, feel free to look around." After Kate finished sorting out the bird food, she turned back, only to find that Hermione had already picked up a stack of parchment and was reading through it.
Wait... why does that look so familiar?
Snapping back to reality, she hurried over to snatch it from Hermione's hands. However, at this moment, she had completely overestimated her one-handed combat effectiveness.
"Aren't these the notes I gave you before?" Hermione immediately stepped back, her eyes glued to the contents of the parchment as she flipped through it. "There are so many annotations added on it..."
Kate scratched her cheek in slight embarrassment. "I had some free time, so I just added some notes."
In reality, she hadn't been free at all. She had squeezed out time to read them in between grinding spells and exercising.
"So, you frequently read the notes I wrote for you!" A brilliant smile bloomed on Hermione's small face. "Can I take them back to read?"
Seeing her smile, Kate intuitively felt that something bad was about to happen. She figured that if she nodded in agreement, what Hermione would return to her later would likely be a brand-new stack of parchment.
Oh well, teaching my little childhood friend isn't a bad thing!
She shrugged, indicating she could read it as she pleased.
"Oh, and there's another thing! There was a spell before that I never quite understood..."
The customary mini-class began. The two of them routinely exchanged knowledge until it was nearing curfew. Only then did Hermione stealthily cast the Disillusionment Charm and leave the dormitory.
She didn't let Kate see her off. Navigating the familiar route out of the dormitory all the way to the now-empty Common Room, she suddenly saw a pale-blonde figure entering the boys' dormitory.
Is that a boy? Or a girl?
Hermione rubbed her eyes vigorously, not having seen it too clearly.
Although the person had entered the boys' dormitory, they seemed to have long hair.
But it seems Malfoy is the only one in Slytherin with long hair, right?
Perhaps she had just seen it wrong.
The Disillusionment Charm had a limited duration, leaving no room for delay. Hermione quickly tossed the matter to the back of her mind and hurried out of the Common Room.
The next day, while Kate was still eating breakfast, she received an entire stack of notes from Hermione.
"Asking me to annotate all of these... isn't that a bit too much?" She tilted her head, her face full of question marks.
Hermione held back a laugh. "I didn't tell you to finish writing them for me right away. Take your time, just write a bit when you're free!"
After going back yesterday, she had carefully studied Kate's annotations. Similar to the handwritten, detailed explanations of spells Kate had gifted her for Christmas, they all contained her own unique insights.
Compared to what the teachers explained, the content of the annotations was much easier to understand and even offered room for expansion. This made Hermione feel as if she had found a priceless treasure.
Watching Hermione head to the opposite long table in high spirits, and thinking about how she was about to become Hermione's mental laborer, Kate momentarily felt speechless and choked with silent tears.
"Hey," Malfoy called out to her with a frown from the Slytherin long table. "If you don't want to write something, then don't write it. Don't you even understand something this simple?"
Kate casually tucked the notes into her pocket, looking him up and down with a mocking gaze. "Isn't it because my hand was injured by you that I can't write?"
"I..." Malfoy's face flushed bright red. "I didn't do anything to you at all! If you're not satisfied, you can go complain to the Head of House!"
Like Snape would care about such trivial matters.
Kate raised an eyebrow slightly. "Whether you did it or not, the people around you at the time must have all seen it. I got hurt because of your touch. Are you trying to deny it?"
This barrage of words provoked Malfoy until his face alternated between red and white. "Then tell me, what do you want!"
He took the bait so easily.
Kate stretched her injured wrist. "Although it's my left hand that's injured, it still has some impact on my writing. How about I trouble Student Malfoy to help me write the annotations?"
"Me, write them?" He suddenly stood up from his seat. "How could I possibly write this kind of stuff..."
"I will dictate, and you write. You only need to be responsible for copying it down for me," Kate interrupted him calmly.
Malfoy gritted his teeth, but not knowing what he suddenly thought of, the anger that had been on the verge of erupting instantly dissipated.
He took the opportunity to sit back down. "So you're saying... when I write, you'll be watching from the side?"
"Of course. As long as you finish writing this stack, I'll consider letting you off the hook."
If this guy wrote nonsense, she would have to do it all over again herself.
Looking hesitantly at Pansy beside him, Malfoy finally nodded. "Fine, we'll do that. But I won't copy them for you in the library or the Common Room!"
She understood; he wanted to save face.
Kate shrugged. "Then we'll find an unused classroom. I'll set the time every day, how about that?"
"Deal!"
Only by getting close to this guy could she find out exactly what the matching alchemical item to the Lover's Chain on him was.
Clearly, this was a transaction that satisfied both parties.
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