"Kate, when on earth is the Headmaster's Phoenix going to have its rebirth?
It's been ages since we last went to the library together on the weekend."
After breakfast, the moment she heard that Kate was off to the Headmaster's office again today, Hermione finally couldn't hold it in any longer and blurted out the question that had been bothering her for so long.
The reason Kate had given them was that she needed to look after the Phoenix at weekends — but ever since the term had begun, a whole month had passed and they hadn't spent a single weekend together.
That had left Hermione thoroughly sulky for some time.
"Ah, that…" Kate paused for a moment, thinking that if she went to see Dumbledore this time, she'd then be spending even more time on the diary and on the Basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets.
She hesitated for a while, then took Hermione's hand. "All right, then today we'll go to the library together."
"Really?" Hermione's eyes went wide with surprise. "But what about the Headmaster…"
"It's fine! Dumbledore isn't going to scold us over something like this!"
Kate arched her brows and was just about to lead her off to the library, when Hermione tugged at her: "Wait a moment!"
She turned her head, and there was Hermione with a slightly warm flush on her cheeks: "How about… how about we don't go to the library today?"
"Huh?" Kate blinked, dumbfounded. "But weren't you the one who said you wanted to go together…"
"Couldn't we just go somewhere else instead?" Hermione deliberately knit her brows, putting on a ferocious face. "Or is it that you only want to go to the library with me to do homework?"
She hurried to raise her hands: "All right, all right, today wherever you want to go is up to you, I haven't got the slightest objection!"
She really had no idea whether it was a generation gap or something — there were certain behavioural motivations of these girls born in the seventies that she truly couldn't quite figure out.
Mm, after all, she herself had been born in the nineties — there was nearly a twenty-year gap between them!
She let Hermione drag her along the whole way upwards, all the way up to the tower. This place was normally used for Astronomy class, and lessons were only held at midnight, so during the daytime there were basically no students or Teachers to be seen here.
"I've been wanting to come up here in the daytime to take a look for ages! The view here is wonderful!"
Hermione let out a cheer, dragged her over to the battlements at the edge of the tower wall, stretched out her arms, and breathed in the fresh air with abandon.
Unlike Hermione's lightheartedness, the moment Kate arrived here she instinctively began comparing the scene before her with fragments of the films she remembered.
If history did not change, then in a few years' time, this place would become Dumbledore's final resting ground.
She deliberately walked over to that spiral staircase and glanced down — a full eight storeys high, a drop she could hardly even take in at a single glance.
If one really did plunge from up here, it would surely hurt terribly, wouldn't it?
"Kate? Kate?"
Hermione's voice pulled her out of her reverie. "What's wrong? You look like something's weighing heavily on your mind."
"I…" Kate opened her mouth on instinct, but had barely uttered a single syllable before she hesitated.
She didn't know how to describe to Hermione the mood that had carried over from last night and still hung over her now.
Back when she used to read Harry Potter, she'd simply read it as a novel — to her, the fates of the characters in the story were all things written down on paper, matters already settled.
But now she herself had become one of the people inside this story, and because she dreaded dying once more, she had chosen to keep a low profile and put survival above all else.
So when she saw a real, flesh-and-blood Dumbledore — saw that he was willing to bring his own life to an end for the sake of the entire magical world — there welled up in her an emotion she could not put into words.
She drew in a deep breath and pulled Hermione with her over to the edge of the parapet, gazing down at the lovely scenery below. "I don't know how to say it, Hermione."
Truth be told, even without Dumbledore showing her his memories, she would still have helped — but that would only have been to complete a quest.
Yet now, having faintly felt her way into Dumbledore's state of mind, an impulse welled up from somewhere deep within her.
It was an impulse she had never felt in her past ten-odd years of life — that even without a quest, she still wanted to go and help Dumbledore.
For no other reason than that this hundred-year-old man had spent all this time watching over the Hogwarts and the magical world he so dearly loved.
But… it clashed with her ever-present principle of putting survival first.
This time there was a quest, so fine. But what about the next time, when there was no quest, and Dumbledore still wished for her to come and lend a hand — what was she to do then?
Watching the look on Kate's face — anxious, yet unable to find the words — Hermione pressed her lips together and gently took her hand.
"I don't know what you're so anxious about, but you once told me that going into the magical world is just like giving up the chance to learn and live among ordinary people. At the time, I chose without the slightest hesitation to come along with you.
Later on, my mum told me that this was the road I'd chosen for myself, and that if one day I started feeling lost at Hogwarts, I should think back on why I'd come here in the first place.
I don't know how to counsel you, but when you can't figure out some problem, then go right back to the very beginning and set off again."
Kate's expression went blank for a moment. "Go back to… the very beginning?"
What was her beginning?
Keeping her head down all the way and surviving until graduation?
No, that was merely a goal.
Because she didn't want to die, she wanted to live, and to live for as long as possible — because she was afraid of death.
In this world, the one capable of bringing her the terror of death was Voldemort.
At root, so long as Voldemort wasn't dead, she could only ever live in his shadow, never able to step out from beneath it.
"I see… I see now!" Her eyes lit up faintly, and in her delight she gripped Hermione's shoulders, then in her excitement pulled her tightly into her embrace. "Thank you, Hermione!"
Whether to lie low or to charge in head-on — both were only means to an end.
She'd chosen to bide her time and keep her strength hidden so she could better protect herself, and the people around her — and best of all, so that Voldemort might be killed along the way. Whoever did the killing in the end didn't matter, as long as Voldemort died!
Her own strength wasn't quite there yet, but with a chance to help Dumbledore wipe out the Horcruxes lying right in front of her, how could she just stand still?
"Eh? K-Kate?"
Hermione was thoroughly disoriented by her sudden hug, flailing for a good long moment before she gradually managed to place her own hands against Kate's back.
Yet before her palms could even make contact with the fabric, Kate had already let her go, smiling brightly as she gave her cheek a little pinch.
"Hermione, you really are my treasure!"
Hermione didn't even know what she had been wrestling with, and yet she'd still been able to guide her through it — how amazing was that!
With a different mood, the view outside the tower looked extraordinary in a way it hadn't before.
Kate spread her arms wide, drew in a deep lungful of fresh air, and then breathed it out again, feeling refreshed in every sense.
"So where shall we go next?" To her credit, she hadn't been so swept up in the moment that she'd forgotten her promise to spend the whole day with Hermione.
Only the Hermione who, just moments ago, had been so open and natural had now suddenly turned a touch bashful.
She lowered her head, one hand covering her face while the other pointed down at the lawn below: "Let's go sit over there for a bit. From there it looks like you can see the whole of the Black Lake."
"All right."
Kate turned her head and glanced at the spot Hermione had indicated. It wasn't far at all, but walking down the tower one floor at a time would take a bit of time.
Then something occurred to her. Her brows arched, and she leaned close to the still slightly red-cheeked Hermione's ear to whisper, "Why don't we try going down a different way?"
"Wh— what way?" Hermione took a moment to react before she realised what Kate meant. With a touch of fear, she glanced down below and frowned in hesitation.
"But it's so high up here…"
"With me here, I'd never let you come to any harm!" Kate fixed her with an earnest gaze. "What do you say? Want to give it a try?"
If she didn't even have this much courage, then she wouldn't really be Hermione.
Hermione hesitated for a few seconds, then, blushing, of her own accord wrapped her arms around Kate's slender waist and said half-jokingly, "All right then, I'm putting my life in your hands."
"It's not that dramatic." Kate shook her head with a laugh, letting Hermione hold on. She slid one hand onto Hermione's shoulder, and together the two of them leapt over the wall, plunging straight down through the air.
At the same moment, Kate's other hand drew out her wand and cast the Levitation Charm skyward.
Their bodies, which had been plummeting fast, were now as if gently buoyed up by something, drifting and swaying as they alighted on the ground.
"What did I tell you? This route's much faster!"
She lowered her head and smiled brightly down at the girl who had just been tucked into her arms — only to be pulled in close by Hermione's hand at her waist.
"I — I was about to use the Levitation Charm too just then. You just beat me to it!" Her voice was still trembling, but she stubbornly lifted her chin and stared up at her, refusing to concede.
Kate forced down her laughter and graciously gave her an out: "Yes, I was just being too impatient — I was worried we'd fall and get hurt, so I jumped in first. Of course you could have managed it just as easily."
"Hmph, so long as you know." Hermione coughed a little guiltily and lowered her head, only then noticing the rather intimate, ambiguous posture she and Kate had ended up in — which startled her enough to quickly let go.
Fortunately, Kate didn't take any notice of these little flutters of hers, and simply walked over to sit down on the lawn.
Before their eyes, the vast Black Lake lay tranquilly beneath the castle, with not the slightest hint of yesterday's wind-tossed waves.
Hermione composed herself and sat down beside her too, leaning against Kate's shoulder as she usually did: "What are you thinking about?"
"Hogwarts has stood for a thousand years. Over all those years, when the students saw the very same scenery we're seeing now, what might they have been thinking?"
She had only been musing aloud out of some unaccountable sentimentality, but beside her, Hermione had begun thinking it over in earnest.
"I don't know what they were thinking, but I do know what I'm thinking right now."
She propped her head up, stretched out a finger, and poked Kate at the corner of her lips, smiling as she said, "I hope you can be a little happier."
Kate froze, her gaze drifting unconsciously to Hermione's finger. "That's the only thing you're thinking about right now?"
"Yes," she said, as if it were perfectly obvious. "All I want is for you to take the time to be with me, just like this. You're already with me right now, which makes me very happy, so I want you to be able to be happy too."
Before Kate could even reply, Hermione hurried on: "You're thinking about the Headmaster right now, aren't you?"
Kate hesitated for a moment, then gave a small nod.
"All right then," Hermione sighed with a put-on air of resignation. "Next time we're together, if you're this distracted again, I'll throw you off the Gryffindor tower."
"Hold on, do you mean…" Kate hadn't quite caught the hidden meaning behind her words.
But very soon, Hermione had taken the initiative, pulling her up and pushing her in the direction of the castle: "Silly, go and find the Headmaster, hurry. If you end up holding things up, then it'll be on my conscience."
"But I already promised I'd keep you company!" Kate was forced forward by her pushing, and could only turn around to try and stop her.
But the moment she turned, she met Hermione's perfectly earnest gaze.
"Kate, I don't know what exactly you've been so busy with lately, but as your friend, I ought to support you, not hold you back, right?"
"Er… that does seem to be the way of it."
"So don't make me turn into the one holding you back!" Hermione said with absolute conviction. "Hurry up and go and do what you've got to do, then come and find me once you're done!"
Kate blinked a few times — she was checking whether Hermione was speaking in reverse.
Being a girl herself, she understood girls all too well, especially girls whose minds weren't quite mature yet: when in the grip of negative emotions like anger or disappointment, they sometimes said exactly the opposite of what they meant.
For instance, telling you that you didn't have to keep her company while in her heart she desperately wanted someone to stay glued to her side.
This time, though, she couldn't seem to find any such tell-tale signs on Hermione's face.
"Then… I'll make the time up to you next time?" she ventured.
Hermione gave a little smile: "All right, I'm holding you to that!"
Well, well — sure enough, the little girl was emotionally steady. She really had grown up.
Kate didn't dwell on it any longer. After telling Hermione to remember to head back early, she set off in quick strides for the castle.
Only once Kate had left did the smile on Hermione's face droop in an instant.
Drifting back, somewhat at a loose end, to where she'd been sitting just now, she glanced at the Black Lake before her. "I really don't know how Kate can let out so many sighs about scenery you can see every single day."
She might not know what exactly Kate had been fretting over lately, but she did believe that what she'd just done was the option least likely to put Kate on the spot!
Just as Professor Wynyard had taught her — if you wanted to help someone, it wasn't about pressing them into doing something for you, but rather about being considerate of them.
Hermione thought she'd done a pretty decent job of it this time. Although she had been desperate to ask Kate, she'd still managed to hold herself back.
It was fine! One of these days, Kate would tell her all about what had really happened!
What she had to do now, instead of standing there worrying herself into knots, was to use every bit of time and opportunity to better herself, so that when Kate needed her, she'd be able to step up and help.
Slapping her own cheeks firmly, Hermione let out a soft breath, drew her wand, and gave a forceful flick toward the lake before her.
But the words that came out of her mouth weren't a spell — they were a mysterious, incomprehensible string of syllables.
"HAGALAZ!"
Almost instantly — even a touch faster than the release speed of an ordinary spell — a small portion of the Black Lake's water before her began to freeze over.
A flash of delight crossed Hermione's face, but when she saw the layer of ice on the lake's surface melt away again just as quickly, she lowered her head a little dejectedly.
Sure enough, she was still a hundred thousand miles off the Professor's level.
Soon, though, she rallied herself. Glancing back once in the direction of the castle, she silently tightened her grip on her wand.
If she wanted to catch up to Kate, she would have to learn from the dogged persistence with which Kate practised her spells. What Kate could do, she could do too!
"HAGALAZ!"
"HAGALAZ!"
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