The very next morning, Dumbledore made a sudden announcement in the Great Hall: Professor Quirinus Quirrell, the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, was ill and confined to bed.
Effective immediately, a substitute would be taking over his classes for the remainder of the term.
"You see?" Harry said at the breakfast table, nearly knocking over a jar of jam in his excitement. "Quirrell got hurt by Kate last night — that's why he's bedridden!"
But as much as that was an established fact, what Kate was more curious about was who, exactly, would be stepping in to teach the course.
Voldemort had once desperately wanted the Defence Against the Dark Arts position. When Dumbledore had refused him, he had placed a curse on it — a curse ensuring that no one who held the post would last more than a year, and that each and every one of them would meet with some degree of misfortune.
She was genuinely curious which poor soul would answer the call with only two months left until the end of term.
Not that it was any of her concern.
She ate her breakfast at a leisurely pace, utterly unruffled — until she glanced sideways and caught Malfoy staring at her with that burning, circling gaze.
Kate knew perfectly well what was going through her head. She spoke with perfect composure. "Don't even think about it."
"How do you know what I'm thinking?" Malfoy's expression shifted slightly. She protested with obvious indignation.
What else could she be thinking?
She hadn't gotten her fill of squeezing Dark Cloud yesterday, so she wanted another go today — obviously.
Kate curved her lips into a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes. "I said no, and I mean no. The little one is still young. Don't go disturbing her for no reason."
Malfoy blinked. "You think that's what I was thinking about?"
"What else?" Kate raised an eyebrow as though the answer were self-evident.
Was there anything else about her that could possibly warrant such a burning, scrutinizing look from the proud and imperious Young Miss Malfoy?
"..." Malfoy stared at her, rendered speechless for a long moment. Finally, she waved a dismissive hand. "Never mind. Go about your business."
Kate: ???
Young Miss was in a rather good mood today, it seemed. On any other day, she'd have been rattling off 'damn Kate' every other breath.
That particular phrase fell from Malfoy's lips even more readily than "Merlin's beard."
With that thought, Kate, in an equally rare moment of charity, decided not to argue with her. She was just rising to head back to the Common Room when a young woman walked in through the doors of the Great Hall.
She looked to be only in her mid-twenties. Her straight black hair fell to her collarbones, and a pair of utterly unremarkable black-framed glasses sat on her nose.
But beyond that — the woman's face bore a two- or three-point resemblance to Kate's own, and even with the suppressing effect of Kate's appearance-sealing accessory, she was strikingly beautiful and composed.
"I am Katherine Wynyard," the woman announced, "and I will be your substitute Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher for the last two months of this term."
As she spoke, Katherine's amber eyes moved directly to the Slytherin table.
In the instant their gazes met, Kate felt a strange flicker of familiarity — but her memory told her clearly that in all eleven years since she had transmigrated, she had never once met this woman.
Dumbledore tapped his goblet. "Everyone may return to their business."
Breakfast was always rushed. At those words, the students began filing out to prepare for morning classes.
Only Kate remained where she was, watching the woman who now stood toasting with Dumbledore, goblet raised.
Malfoy had already taken several steps toward the exit when she glanced back and found Kate still sitting there in a daze. With some reluctance, she turned and went back to fetch her.
"Hey. Staring yourself silly?"
She followed Kate's gaze — and found only the new substitute teacher. She let out a short, derisive laugh. "Don't tell me you're actually into that type."
Kate shot her an irritated look and stood up without a word.
"You're actually angry? Shafiq!" Malfoy called after her twice, and when Kate didn't look back, she felt momentarily at a loss.
But that loss swiftly transformed into the emotion Malfoy was most accustomed to expressing. She gave a light, disdainful sniff. "Hmph. That's what you get for glaring at me."
As the young wizards streamed out of the Great Hall like a receding tide, Katherine — seated at the staff table, cutting into a steak — gently adjusted her glasses. She glanced thoughtfully at Malfoy's retreating figure, and the corner of her mouth curved upward.
·····
The second lesson of the day was Defence Against the Dark Arts. The moment the bell rang, Kate watched the new Professor Katherine walk in empty-handed.
She took a measured look at the students assembled before her. The striking features that her black-framed glasses were clearly trying to downplay broke into something like a smile.
"Today, I'm going to teach you all how to handle the creatures you might encounter in the Forbidden Forest. Let's start with — hmm, unicorns, shall we."
She hadn't so much as glanced at Kate when she said it. But the moment the words landed, Kate felt her fingers tighten involuntarily.
"Professor!" Hermione's hand shot up eagerly.
Katherine turned. "In my class, you don't need to raise your hand. Say whatever you like, and you don't need to stand, either."
"Yes," Hermione said, seizing the opening. "According to the previous syllabus, we should be studying how to handle Ghouls next."
"Is that so?" Katherine's smile didn't waver. "But Professor Quirrell has never personally encountered a Ghoul. How could he teach you about something he's never experienced?"
The moment she finished speaking, she flicked her wand at the lectern — and it transformed into the shape of a unicorn. Only the form, no movement, but perfectly rendered.
Quite an impressive feat of Transfiguration, by any standard.
Kate watched the now-lecturing Katherine with studied calm, and realized she had entirely forgotten to take notes.
"Miss Shafiq," Katherine said, calling on her suddenly. "Please tell the class — which parts of a unicorn are useful to a Wizard?"
The unexpected call yanked Kate out of her thoughts. She snapped to attention — and found that Katherine had appeared at her desk at some point without her noticing, looking down at her with a pleasant smile.
Caught daydreaming.
A thought flashed through her mind. She answered with slightly hurried composure: "A unicorn's horn is a Potions ingredient; its tail hair can be used as a wand core or for warmth."
"Good. What else?" Katherine's smile softened a fraction, her tone turning playfully probing.
Kate quietly dug her fingers into her robes beneath the desk. Her gaze slid sideways, avoiding those amber eyes.
"Its blood... can extend one's lifespan. But in doing so, it also brings a curse upon the one who drinks it."
"Excellent answer!" Katherine snapped her fingers with evident pleasure. "Ten points to Slytherin!"
The new substitute professor strode back to the front with a brisk step, shot Kate a playful wink, and launched straight back into the lesson without missing a beat — as though nothing out of the ordinary had occurred.
Had she imagined it?
Kate's heart was quietly unsettled.
The first topic today was unicorns. It was almost impossible not to connect that to last night's events.
How had Dumbledore found a substitute teacher so quickly? And did this particular substitute teacher know something?
And then there was what she'd said about Quirrell — that he had never personally encountered a Ghoul, and therefore couldn't properly teach the subject.
Did that imply that this Katherine had personally witnessed unicorns?
Had she... been there last night as well?
The thought chilled her to the bone. Kate's chest tightened, and the look she directed at Katherine grew considerably more complicated.
The class continued. After a few minutes, Katherine's gaze settled on the student sitting directly behind Kate.
"Miss Malfoy, could you tell the class — what is the difference between an adult unicorn and a juvenile one?"
This was, incidentally, the exact knowledge Kate had explained in the Forbidden Forest the previous night.
Called on so suddenly, Malfoy stiffened. Her mind whirred at full speed, but her answer came out stumbling: "Adult unicorns are... um, white, and juvenile unicorns are..."
If she'd known she was going to be quizzed, she would have gone back and beaten her past self for so rudely interrupting Kate's explanation!
She had been so frightened at the time — she hadn't had the presence of mind to actually listen.
Katherine observed her with a knowing raise of the eyebrow. "Then — do you know the particular properties of a wand with a unicorn tail hair core?"
This is going too far, Professor.
Even Kate couldn't help but groan inwardly. That was an outrageously obscure piece of trivia — not just for first-years, but for many adult Wizards as well.
Watching Malfoy squirm and stammer, face flushing crimson, Kate was just about to raise her hand and bail her out — when Katherine smiled.
"You may sit down. Five points from Slytherin."
A sharp collective intake of breath rippled through every Slytherin in the room.
Point deductions themselves weren't unacceptable — but Malfoy had already had fifty points taken away before, and now five more were gone on top of that.
Life in Slytherin was going to be considerably less comfortable for Malfoy from here on out.
Kate watched Katherine stroll back to the front with an unhurried air, and a peculiar thought struck her — could this Professor possibly be targeting Malfoy deliberately?
Had the Malfoy family crossed her at some point in the past?
"Miss Shafiq," Katherine called on her again, "since Miss Malfoy couldn't answer, would you please provide the answers to both questions?"
Called on once more, Kate stood with a complicated expression and rattled off fluent, complete answers to both questions without hesitation.
"Very good. Ten more points to Slytherin." Katherine gave a pleased nod, and the look she turned on Kate carried a warmth that was almost parental.
For the remainder of the class, she proceeded to call on Malfoy and her lackeys at every opportunity. Each question they couldn't answer cost Slytherin points — deducted with a capricious generosity that left the entire room speechless.
If anyone had walked past the hourglasses tracking the House Cup in that moment, they would have been baffled to find the green gemstones in Slytherin's column rising and falling like a tide.
By the time the bell finally rang, the net result of an entire lesson's worth of additions and subtractions had — through Kate's very last answer — just barely tipped back into positive territory.
The moment the bell sounded, Malfoy stormed out with her lackeys in tow, cheeks blazing red, dignity in tatters after an entire class period of humiliation.
The classroom didn't even need to be quieted — the whispers among the other Slytherins about Malfoy were already filling the air on their own.
A handful of students even, in a rare show of cordiality, came over to exchange a few friendly words with Kate before heading out.
With just one class period, this professor had come remarkably close to reversing the social standing of both Malfoy and Kate within Slytherin House. What on earth was she trying to accomplish?
Kate cast a complicated glance at Katherine and was about to leave alongside Hermione when a soft voice came from the lectern: "Miss Shafiq, please stay behind for a moment."
"I'll wait for you outside," Hermione said quietly, clutching her books.
Kate shook her head. "No need — head back early. I have some questions of my own for the Professor."
Hermione hesitated, glanced at the pleasantly smiling Katherine up at the front, gave a small nod, and turned to leave.
Once the others were gone, Kate strolled up at a measured pace, tilted her head up with the expression of a perfectly well-behaved student, and said, "Professor? Was there something you needed?"
"The Headmaster would like to see you," Katherine said. Alone with Kate now, the softening of her expression was visible to the naked eye. "I imagine he wants to ask about the fire in the Forbidden Forest last night."
Kate's heart gave a small lurch. Her face stayed perfectly composed. "A fire? There was a fire in the Forbidden Forest? Why would the Headmaster want to ask me about a fire in the Forbidden Forest?"
"Exactly — that's just what I was thinking, too." Katherine raised an eyebrow, reached out with an air of easy familiarity, and wound a strand of Kate's hair around one finger.
She smiled lightly. "If you'd rather not go, I can decline on your behalf."
Kate shifted back half a step, extricating herself from the woman's touch with a faint awkwardness. "Professor, I'll go and explain things to the Headmaster myself. Please don't trouble yourself on my account."
There was so much she wanted to ask Katherine.
Why had she taken on this posting at such short notice, with only two months left in the year? How did she know what Kate had said and done inside the Forbidden Forest? And — why did the sight of her keep triggering that inexplicable sense of familiarity?
But it was far too early to ask any of that. She barely knew Katherine. And Katherine was under no obligation to answer her questions.
"If there's nothing else, I'll be on my way."
She gave a polite nod and moved to leave.
She had barely taken two steps when she heard Katherine call her name — not 'Miss Shafiq,' but her given name: "Kate. If you ever find yourself in a difficult situation, come to my office."
Kate turned in surprise, met the woman's gaze for a moment, managed a thin smile, and walked quickly out of the classroom.
She made it to the corridor, a good distance from the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom, before she finally stopped and looked back. Only then did she exhale.
She didn't have the mental bandwidth to puzzle over Katherine Wynyard right now. She had known ever since she set fire to the Forbidden Forest last night that a disturbance of that scale would reach the Headmaster sooner or later.
Which meant Dumbledore would know not only that she had secretly accompanied the others into the forest, but also that Voldemort had been drinking unicorn blood — and that she had managed to burn him.
The latter was, objectively, a good thing. But the former was unavoidable, and she would almost certainly be facing another punishment.
Still — even if he had to drink potions, Quirrell would be spending the next two months flat in bed. Even if he wanted to cause trouble, he wouldn't have the energy for it. He wasn't a threat for now.
With her thoughts sorted, she walked straight to the Headmaster's office. The path was unobstructed all the way to the door. She knocked.
"Come in," came Dumbledore's voice from within.
Kate took a slow, deep breath. She was probably the only student in the school who found herself in and out of the Headmaster's office this frequently.
She pushed the door open — and found Dumbledore with his back to her, feeding Fawkes.
"Professor," she said softly. "Professor Wynyard said you wished to see me."
"Ah, yes — you've already met Katherine, then. What do you make of her?" Dumbledore didn't turn around.
Kate paused. She'd thought she was here to answer for the Forbidden Forest incident.
"Professor Wynyard..." she chose her words carefully, "teaches very well." Except for the part about targeting Malfoy, she genuinely was a better instructor than Quirrell.
At the very least, she didn't stammer nearly as much.
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