The next day happened to be the weekend, and both Grandpa Rand and Sister Kate would be home for the two days.
To keep yesterday's gloomy atmosphere from settling in again, Kate had made plans early that morning — she was going to take the two of them out for a day in the Muggle world.
England was neither particularly large nor particularly small, but it was more than big enough to keep them entertained for an entire weekend.
After breakfast, Kate changed into a T-shirt and shorts. Except for formal occasions, she almost never wore skirts.
Hermione and Cho Chang, by contrast, were very much like ordinary girls — both had changed into light summer dresses and were already waiting by the castle's front doors.
"Where are we going?" Hermione asked. Whatever had happened the night before seemed to have been completely set aside; the look she gave Kate was as easy and natural as ever.
Cho Chang was brimming with ideas. "We could always find some classmates who live in the Muggle world and go with them — they'd know all the good spots."
Who did they know who lived in the Muggle world?
The first person Kate thought of was Harry.
But then she thought about the rather fraught domestic situation Harry was currently living in, and she couldn't help but picture three young witches turning up on the doorstep — and the absolute meltdown his aunt and uncle would have.
Harry would end up suffering for it even after they'd gone.
Apart from him, the only Muggle-born among them was Hermione.
But Hermione's range wasn't exactly wide either. The last time she and Kate had gone out over Christmas, they'd already done a thorough sweep of everything nearby.
"Maybe we should think about it differently," Kate said, raising an eyebrow slightly. "As long as we're having fun, does it really matter where we go?"
Hermione and Cho Chang looked at her curiously, not quite sure what she was getting at.
"I need to get in touch with someone first. And in the meantime —" she glanced meaningfully at their skirts, "— you two might want to change into something more practical. Trousers, ideally." She turned on her heel and headed back into the castle.
An hour later.
The trio — now freshly changed — stepped out of a fireplace into a house in Dorset.
A kind-faced middle-aged man, bearing a distinct resemblance to Newt, was already waiting in the sitting room with a briefcase in hand.
"You gave me quite a fright when you contacted me through the Floo, you know," he said, already talking as soon as they appeared. He held out the briefcase. "Anyway — here's the spare case. Got it ready for you ahead of time."
His tone was entirely familiar, as though he and Kate had known each other for years.
Kate took the case and gave him a polite smile. "Thank you, big brother."
Then she turned slightly to make introductions. "This is David Scamander — my teacher's son, and a celebrated Magizoologist in his own right."
There wasn't really a natural equivalent in English for the Chinese terms for a fellow student of the same master, so Kate and David had simply settled on calling each other brother and sister.
There was more than thirty years between them, but David, like his father Newt, was an uncomplicated, genuine sort of person. He had given Kate a great deal of help in her research.
David ruffled her hair affectionately. "Father said so himself — your instincts with magical creatures are far sharper than mine ever were."
"I still have such a long way to go." Kate laughed softly and ducked her head, a little embarrassed.
"Right then, I won't get in the way of you and your friends." David gave Hermione and Cho Chang a brief nod — and Disapparated.
Kate cheerfully called goodbye after him, then turned to face the other two, holding up the briefcase. "Have either of you heard the stories about my teacher's rather remarkable case?"
"Is that — is that the case? The one from the legend, the one that's said to hold countless magical creatures inside?" Hermione stepped forward in astonishment, reaching out to touch the leather.
She had known Kate was Newt's apprentice, of course, but it had never occurred to her that Kate would actually be able to get her hands on the legendary case itself.
"No, no — it's not that one," Kate said, giving her a light tap on the head. "This is a spare. And what's inside isn't the same collection of creatures my teacher keeps."
Cho Chang had only just recovered from the revelation that Kate was Newt Scamander's apprentice. She asked, with a mixture of curiosity and slight restraint, "So what is in this one?"
Kate smiled mysteriously, opened the case, and simply stepped inside. "Come in and find out."
The two of them stared, wide-eyed, as she vanished into the briefcase.
It was Hermione who moved first — Gryffindor courage on full display — stepping in without further hesitation.
Cho Chang, finding herself suddenly alone, steeled herself and followed.
The moment she stepped through, the case snapped shut behind her, as if nothing had happened at all.
Inside, Kate caught both girls as they dropped down, setting them gently onto the grass at her feet. "So — what do you think of the view?"
Hermione, who had squeezed her eyes shut the moment she found herself in mid-air, finally dared to open them.
What she saw took her breath away.
The grass beneath her feet stretched out as if it extended to infinity. Not far away, a waterfall tumbled down from somewhere high above, gathering into a small river that murmured and wound its way along. On the far bank of the river stood a dense, lush forest.
"I remember reading that Mr. Scamander's Undetectable Extension Charm had reached a level never seen before — that his case contained entire worlds within it." Cho Chang stepped carefully onto the grass, her voice filled with wonder. "I didn't realise it was all true."
She turned around — and found Kate standing by the riverbank, peering around as though searching for someone.
Before she could ask, a tremendous crashing came from the forest across the river. A moment later, a black dragon — a good two metres tall — came barrelling out of the treeline.
"Look out!" Cho Chang's expression changed in an instant. She had barely reached for her wand before Hermione placed a hand on her arm and held her back.
The black dragon bounded across the river in its excitement, rammed its head squarely into Kate, and launched her upward — only to catch her again on its back.
Kate had clearly been expecting exactly this. She didn't tumble about in the slightest; instead she simply went with it, landing neatly astride the dragon's spine.
"Dark Cloud! I haven't seen you in months — look how big you've gotten!" She flung her arms around the dragon's back, overjoyed, pressing herself flat against it.
Cho Chang was staring. "Is that..."
"That's the dragon Kate rescued. It's treated her as its mother from the moment it hatched." Hermione covered a smile with her hand and explained in a quiet voice.
Now she finally understood why Kate had brought them here. She'd wanted them to come and spend time with Dark Cloud.
"That's... extraordinary." After a long pause, that was all Cho Chang managed.
She watched Kate, perched on dragonback and having the time of her life, and thought she looked like something out of a fairy tale — this girl who moved through the world like a creature made of light.
For the vast majority of wizards, a dragon was a dangerous beast, full stop. Only a tiny handful of the most accomplished wizards in the world ever kept a dragon as anything resembling a companion.
But Kate was something else entirely. You could see it just from watching her tumble around happily with a hatchling like that.
That young dragon genuinely regarded her as family — not as a master, but as kin. To have earned that kind of bond... there was probably no one else in the world who could have done it.
"Cho Chang, stop standing there gawping — come on!"
Hermione's call snapped her out of it. She turned to find that the two of them — and the dragon — had somehow already waded into the river and started a water fight.
Dark Cloud, however, was using its sheer size to devastating effect, thrashing its head and wings to send great curtains of water crashing down, until both Kate and Hermione were soaked to the bone.
Cho Chang burst out laughing, kicked off her shoes, tossed aside her wand, and splashed in to join them. "I'm coming!"
The water fight — childish by most standards, but perfectly pitched for the three of them — went on for the better part of an hour, ending when Hermione and Cho Chang both admitted defeat, one after the other.
Kate, thanks to her long months of physical training, scraped through with just enough energy left to outlast Dark Cloud and claim the title of undisputed champion.
Even so, by the time she'd dried everyone's clothes with a quick charm, she flopped straight down onto the grass, completely spent.
"Awoooo!" Dark Cloud let out a sound remarkably like a dog, flopped down beside her, and immediately began nuzzling her with its wings — puffs of smoke drifting out of its nostrils all the while.
All the nuzzling left Kate's hair in absolute chaos, which sent the other two into fits of laughter.
"Oh, so you think that's funny, do you!" Kate sat bolt upright and pointed at them both with exaggerated outrage. "Dark Cloud — show them what you're made of!"
The words were barely out of her mouth before a ball of fire erupted from Dark Cloud's jaws, slamming into the distant waterfall and sending an enormous plume of steam billowing into the air.
All three of them blinked.
Right — Dark Cloud was, in fact, a fully legitimate fire-breathing dragon. Somehow, in the middle of all the fun, they'd nearly managed to forget.
"Hmph, I can do fire too!" Hermione gave a light sniff, and fired off an Incendio at the waterfall, sending up another hiss of steam.
Sensing a new competition taking shape, Cho Chang cracked her knuckles and launched a powerful jet of flame, briefly punching a gap clean through the waterfall.
In terms of raw magical output, Hermione — despite all her hard work — was still a step behind Cho Chang, who had a full year on her.
Kate was idly stroking her chin, trying to gauge the two of them, when two very pointed looks landed on her simultaneously.
"Hm?" She blinked, looking from one to the other, suddenly at a loss. "...Do I have to go too?"
"Obviously!"
Kate scratched her head with a slightly pained expression, pulled out her wand, thought for a moment — and sent a jet of fire streaming from its tip.
But unlike the ordinary flames the other two had produced, the fire Kate conjured had already begun to take on a shape.
"Is that... a snake?" Cho Chang instinctively pressed a hand to her chest. Watching the enormous, roiling fire-serpent before her, she felt an inexplicable tremor run through her.
Kate grinned, and sent it hurtling at the waterfall.
Fire met water — and in an instant, an earth-shaking roar of vaporisation tore through the air.
To the astonishment of everyone watching, the fire-serpent blazed a path straight up against the current, sweeping almost the entire waterfall into nothing, until the flow ran dry.
A moment later, the vaporised water hit the cooler air above and came drifting back down as a gentle, pattering rain.
Kate cheerfully recalled her flames and turned around — only to find that Cho Chang had somehow conjured an umbrella and was now standing right beside her.
"Careful — you don't want to get wet again."
Kate blinked once, then smiled warmly. "Thank you."
____
________________________________________
🌸 Help Love Bloom!
Our girls need a little push... and you can help!
💖 Gift for Everyone: Once we hit 50 Powerstones, I'll release +1 bonus chapter to warm your hearts.
🚀 Community Reward: If we reach 20 supporting members, we'll have a +5 chapter marathon across all stories! The romance won't stop.
👻 Come to our secret corner: Search for GirlsLove on (P). You know that's where the magic happens... 😉