Once Halloween passed, the Quidditch season was upon them.
Although this year the unknown Christmas study-tour had drawn the students' attention away somewhat, Quidditch was, without question, still the most closely watched competition in the whole school.
The very first match was between old rivals—Gryffindor against Slytherin.
This time there was no Dobby making trouble, and nothing went wrong for Harry, so Kate watched the entire match from start to finish with a smile on her face and a relaxed, cheerful mood.
Even when Harry caught the Golden Snitch in the end and the whole of Slytherin House was bitterly disappointed, she still didn't bat an eye—she even remembered to give Harry, up in the air, a thumbs-up.
When she returned to the Common Room, a thoroughly bedraggled Malfoy, clutching her beloved broomstick, forced her way out through the crowd pressing in around her.
She hated losing, and she hated even more being consoled by a crowd as the loser after a defeat.
Kate sat calmly in the farthest corner, watching the little girl bolt out of the Common Room, and stroked her chin thoughtfully.
"I just remembered I've got homework I haven't finished, so I'm off to the library first." She rose to her feet, said it to Pansy, and then strode quickly out.
Left behind, Pansy muttered to Blaise with a speechless look on her face: "As if anyone doesn't know she's always the one who finishes her homework fastest and best."
If you want to go after someone, why bother with such a clumsy excuse?
Blaise shrugged, lifted his cup and stood, and skillfully began smoothing over their departure for everyone.
The dungeon corridor outside the Common Room.
Kate followed the Tracking Spell along the footsteps all the way into the depths of the dungeon, and before she'd even drawn near, she heard Malfoy punching and kicking at a wall.
As she kicked, she was also cursing loudly, "Damn that Kate."
Kate was speechless for a moment, musing that it wasn't as if she'd been the one to make Slytherin lose—whoever this fellow wanted to blame, surely the blame couldn't be pinned on her?
Sure enough, that line had already become Malfoy's catchphrase.
Letting out a quiet sigh, she stopped in the corridor at the corner, leaned her body gently against the wall, and listened to Malfoy loudly cursing her just a few steps away.
She didn't know how long she waited, but only once the sound of kicking the wall and the cursing gradually faded did she turn to the side and look at the other girl: "Done venting?"
Malfoy was startled by her, and in this pitch-black environment, Kate could even faintly make out the sudden, drastic change in her expression.
"You... why are you here?! How long were you listening?"
"I got lost, I only just got here." She told the lie with a perfectly straight face.
At first Malfoy really was taken in by her, but then, hearing the laughter she faintly let slip afterward, she flew into a rage again: "You're lying to me!"
Well, who told you to be so easy to fool?
Kate forced down her amusement and kept teasing her: "Actually, I was worried you were so afraid of the dark you couldn't walk—that you'd run off here and then not know how to get back."
"As if!" Malfoy felt her very pride was being challenged. "How could I possibly be afraid of the dark!"
She had been just about to spit out another "Damn that Kate," but who'd have thought this fellow who ought to be damned would suddenly reach out and tug at her sleeve.
"But I'm afraid of the dark." Kate tilted her head. "I saw you run out and thought you were really angry, but after I followed you out, I realized I'm a little scared of the dark and can't walk."
As she spoke, she even gave Malfoy's sleeve a few shakes: "Can you take me out of here?"
Having been toyed with twice in a row, Malfoy had already grown suspicious of her words, yet she still couldn't help asking out of concern: "Are you really afraid of the dark? How come I never knew before?"
"Actually..." Kate let go of her sleeve, the laughter in her voice all but overflowing, "I'm not that afraid."
"You—!"
Malfoy was so furious she raised her wand outright: "Kate, I challenge you to a duel!"
Kate simply raised both hands, making a gesture of surrender: "I refuse. If you're really worked up, then just cast a spell on me directly."
"You think I wouldn't dare!" Malfoy gripped her wand tight, only the hand holding it up was trembling.
Kate sighed, and stepped forward of her own accord, forcing her to retreat step by step.
She backed all the way to the corner, and when there was no further to retreat, Malfoy threatened her in a quavering voice: "Come any closer, and I'll... I'll..."
"And you'll hit me with a Killing Curse?" Kate gave a soft chuckle in the dark and, in one motion, took the wand from her hand, then seized Malfoy's overly slender wrist.
Almost instantly, she felt her palm burn as though it had been scorched by a fierce flame.
"Sss—"
Kate snapped her hand back, half-kneeling to the ground in pain, and at the same time raised Malfoy's wand: "Lumos!"
A point of light immediately illuminated the small patch of space where they currently stood.
Malfoy at once crouched down, looking somewhat flustered at the burn on her palm: "This has happened before too—what on earth is going on?"
"You—you, don't be in such a hurry to touch me." Kate braced herself against the wall and barely managed to stand, and when she made out her own injury by that bit of Lumos-light, she couldn't help drawing in a sharp, cold breath.
She'd been so busy teasing someone that she'd forgotten this little girl still carried on her an alchemical item infused with dark magic.
But this was perfect—she could take the chance to sound her out.
Deliberately putting on an utterly anguished look, Kate forced out a head full of sweat and asked in a feeble voice: "You've got something on you, haven't you?"
Malfoy, too, was panic-stricken all over her face. She wanted to touch her, yet feared she'd hurt her, her hands halting helplessly in midair.
"I don't know! I really don't know! Why don't you go to the Hospital Wing and have it looked at first?"
"If we don't get to the bottom of it, then from now on I'll just have to keep my distance from you." Kate tilted her head up, smiling weakly, "Hey, do you really hate me that much?"
Under the faint Lumos-light, Malfoy's already pale little face was even more wan, only her faintly red lips still mumbling: "I... I don't know..."
The thing her father had given her to conceal her gender—no one, whoever they were, could be told about it; this was something she had promised her father from the very start.
But... watching the way Kate got hurt every single time from contact with her, her heart felt an indescribable misery.
"Never mind. If you're not willing to tell me, then so be it." Kate smiled with regret and slowly turned around, "Then let's just say you hate me. From now on I'll learn my lesson and keep my distance from you."
With that, she staggered off into the darkness.
"Kate!" Malfoy couldn't help stepping forward and calling out to her, yet didn't see her stop in the slightest.
The Lumos-light of the wand gradually went out, and in the darkness there was once again only Malfoy alone.
She lowered her head, and in the pitch-blackness she couldn't even see her own hand clearly, yet she still remembered the warmth of body heat that had come through when Kate gripped her wrist just now.
But now, there was no light, and no warmth either...
At the corner of the corridor, Kate hid in the darkness, tilting her head up to listen to the faint sobbing coming from Malfoy behind her, and couldn't help frowning in confusion.
She was the one who got burned, and she hadn't even cried—so what was this fellow crying about?
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