There were quite a few unused classrooms in Hogwarts, and Kate quickly found one, taking a seat inside for a while.
Not long after, Malfoy hurried in.
"No one should have noticed us, right?" he asked the moment he entered the classroom.
Kate looked baffled. "Why worry about that?"
Did it matter to them if anyone saw?
Malfoy's face stiffened slightly. His lips moved for a long moment before he turned his head away. "Forget it, nothing!"
This guy had always maintained this attitude towards her. Although Kate was used to it, she couldn't just indulge him like this.
"What are you spacing out for?" she urged, raising her voice. "Hurry up and come write!"
Her time in the afternoon was limited; she only had a two-hour window.
Holding his breath, Malfoy finally walked over to a desk, sat down, and took out a quill. "Tell me, what should I write?"
Tossing Hermione's notebook onto the desk, Kate sat directly on the desk in front of him. "Read the notes out loud. Stop when I tell you to stop, and write when I tell you to write."
Glancing hesitantly at the empty doorway, Malfoy finally picked up the notebook and began reading in a low voice.
"Louder, I can't hear you." Kate stared at him with cold eyes.
Malfoy took a deep breath, raising his volume significantly.
"Stop right there! Write a note next to it about the first of the five Principal Exceptions to Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration."
He paused. His hand holding the quill lifted and lowered several times, but Kate, who was sitting right in front of him, acted as if she couldn't see his hesitation.
After a long while, he finally gritted his teeth and asked, "What is Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration?"
This was Transfiguration knowledge only taught in the fifth year and above. Naturally, few first-year young wizards knew about it.
Malfoy kept his head down, expecting Kate to take this opportunity to mercilessly mock him, just as he used to mock her.
But as soon as his question left his lips, Kate crisply explained, "The five Principal Exceptions to Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration refer to things that Transfiguration cannot create. They are food, the conversion between living and non-living things, magical objects, quantity, and creating something out of nothing."
As she spoke, she glanced at the still somewhat dazed person and lightly tapped the tip of her shoe against the desk. "What are you spacing out for? Hurry up and write."
Malfoy snapped back to reality and lowered his head, frantically scribbling in the notebook. But the very next second, his handwriting was scoured completely clean by Kate's wand.
"Write it nicely. With such messy handwriting, who can read it?" Kate tilted her chin up and looked down at him haughtily, mimicking the very action he often did.
Silently gripping his quill, Malfoy looked up at her jawline, then lowered his head again, carefully and neatly writing down the words in the notebook, stroke by stroke.
Once he finished writing, Kate's annoying tone followed immediately. "Keep reading."
Malfoy bit his lower lip hard. His life of being constantly pampered made it impossible for him to endure such treatment.
However, just as he got so angry he was about to throw down his pen and leave, he saw Kate thoughtfully rubbing her left wrist.
Malfoy: ...I'll endure it!
After reading aloud for two hours straight, his mouth was completely dry, and the hand he used for copying was exceptionally sore.
He really hadn't known that Kate actually understood so much knowledge that even he was unaware of.
When he finally finished writing the last stroke, he slammed the quill down fiercely, his long-suppressed temper on the verge of erupting.
But suddenly, a cup of clear water appeared before his eyes.
"Good work." Kate jumped down from the desk and handed the cup to him with a smile.
Malfoy froze. He subconsciously took the cup and drank a large mouthful of water, only to suddenly realize that his anger seemed to have dissipated quite a bit.
Actually, this Kate person didn't seem that bad...
He had genuinely thought so initially, but after Kate took the notebook back and casually flipped through a couple of pages, she nodded again. "Not bad. For the next two weeks, we'll continue like this."
"What?" Malfoy was so anxious he almost jumped up. "It takes two weeks to write this stuff?"
Kate spread her hands with an innocent look. "If you don't want to write, I won't force you. But regarding my wrist..."
"You!" He was momentarily speechless, his face turning alternating shades of red and purple. After a long while, he squeezed out a few words. "I'll be there on time."
Having received his answer, Kate smiled in satisfaction. "Then thank you very much."
Saying that, she walked out of the classroom without looking back.
She left Malfoy alone to hold his frustration in for a long while before he forcefully stomped his foot like a little girl.
Not long after, Pansy hurried over, carefully glancing around. "How did it go?"
"How else could it go!" Malfoy angrily bit his lip. "That annoying person, sooner or later, I'll make her kneel down and beg me!"
Pansy was somewhat speechless. "Delar, you were the one who wanted to—"
"Don't call me that name!" Malfoy drew his wand and pointed it at her in anger and embarrassment.
But seeing Pansy's helpless and worried expression, he weakly lowered it again. "Sorry, I got too excited."
He wiped his slightly sweaty blonde hair. "Let's head back to the Common Room first."
"Mm." Pansy nodded, pulling him along as usual as they walked out together.
It wasn't until the two left that Kate slowly revealed her figure by the wall somewhere in the corridor, thoughtfully watching their departing backs.
If she hadn't heard wrong just now, the name Pansy blurted out in her moment of desperation was "Delar", not Draco?
"But this name seems to be unisex, right?" she muttered softly, still somewhat unable to confirm her suspicions.
"System, do you know all the functions of this set of alchemical items?"
Currently, she knew the Lover's Chain could regulate one's body temperature and add 5 Luck points. The other matching alchemical items should have their own respective uses.
[Cannot query until all items are collected.]
Kate remained undiscouraged and continued to ask, "Then can you query all the functions and restrictions of the Lover's Chain?"
[Lover's Chain: Forged by Ariel Shafiq for her lover, carrying the alchemist's intense affection.]
[When this item is equipped, the Host gains +5 Luck and can regulate their own body temperature.]
[Usage Taboo: Restricted to female use only.]
Damn, the System actually hadn't told her such an important piece of information?
Kate was speechless.
As a matching piece of jewelry, the alchemical item on Malfoy should have the same taboo as the Lover's Chain.
Generally speaking, the usage taboos of alchemical items were very difficult to alter, even with the use of dark magic.
In other words, Malfoy, who was able to use the alchemical item, was a girl.
Tsk, what a major discovery.
Remembering some of the things she had done to Malfoy before, Kate couldn't help but feel a bit embarrassed.
Tossing a girl around like a yo-yo probably wasn't a good look, was it?
As the weather gradually grew warmer, Hermione also began her revision plan. Furthermore, she always dragged Harry and Ron, the two who often let their minds wander in class, along with her every time.
"Hermione, exams are still hundreds of years away for us. Besides, why not drag Kate along too?" Ron wailed in frustration.
"It's less than twelve weeks away," Hermione retorted. "Also, Kate's hand is injured, she needs to rest properly."
Harry raised his hand in confusion. "But I just saw her and Malfoy alone in an abandoned classroom yesterday. I don't know what they were doing."
Before Hermione could speak, Ron jumped up in an anxious roar. "With Malfoy? Why would she be with that annoying guy?"
The moment he stood up, the people reading nearby in the library couldn't help but glare at him.
Madam Pince also stormed over with her hands on her hips and a dark expression, kicking the three of them out altogether.
"Great, now look what happened," Harry said awkwardly as he packed up his homework. "We can only go back to the Common Room to write our assignments."
Just as he was about to leave, Ron stealthily pulled him back. Following his gaze, Harry looked carefully in Hermione's direction.
He saw that Hermione's face was as dark as thunder, the low air pressure practically suffocating.
Harry quickly tried to smooth things over. "Don't worry, maybe they were just talking casually... or, Malfoy was taking the opportunity to bully Kate!"
Yes, that must be it!
That guy had dared to insult Kate right in front of people from two Houses during Flying Class. Who knows what he would do in private!
Hermione immediately furrowed her brows. "Really?"
"Well..." Harry wasn't sure himself.
Before he could say anything else, Hermione broke into a jog, even forgetting to take the books she carried with her.
There were many abandoned classrooms in the school. She ran up and down searching the whole way. Finally seeing Kate coming out of an abandoned classroom, she quickly ran over.
"Kate, are you alright?!"
She frantically patted Kate's small frame up and down. "Did Malfoy bully you—"
Before she finished speaking, she saw Malfoy, with red, teary eyes, come out of the classroom. He glared at her hatefully before walking away rapidly.
"What... is going on?" Now it was Hermione's turn to look utterly confused.
Kate stroked her hair with an amused look, and quickly pulled away before Hermione could react. "Cough, basically, nothing major."
She had just casually mentioned that she once saw a blonde girl entering the girls' dormitory, and asked if he knew anything about it.
And, as a side note, she told him he didn't need to come here and help her copy notes anymore.
It was clearly a good thing, but who knew this guy's eyes would turn red, and he'd run away so hastily she couldn't even hold him back.
"As long as you're okay." Hermione finally breathed a sigh of relief. "If Malfoy is secretly bullying you, then I'll..."
"What will you do?" Kate asked with great interest.
Hermione choked on her words, clenching her small fists tightly. "I'll go tell a professor and have them deduct points from him!"
Kate couldn't hold it back for a moment and almost laughed out loud. However, under Hermione's glare, she forcefully swallowed the sound back down.
"It's nothing. Since you're here, why don't we go for a stroll?" she asked with a bright smile. "We haven't wandered around the castle in a long time, have we?"
Hermione wrinkled her nose and checked Kate's wrist first before setting her mind at ease. "I'm tired of the castle. Let's go look outside. The sunlight is quite nice today."
"Whatever you say." Kate naturally had no objections.
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