When the taxi finally reached Museum Campus after what seemed like hours of driving through the city, the sky was beginning to lighten; dawn was quickly approaching. Hermione reached into her pocket and pulled out some muggle money she had exchanged upon arriving at the airport and paid the driver. Harry got out of the back seat after Ron and the two opened the trunk to retrieve their luggage. Once the cab drove away, Ron began letting out another dose of his muggle slander that had been plaguing his friends since their trip began.

"A whole hour in the back of an old, musty car just to get here and we still have to walk?" He asked angrily, "Can we at least shrink our bags a little bit?"

"Ron, will you just shut up!" Hermione said finally taking a stand, "You have been complaining constantly about everything we have had to do since we left London. Give it a break; please. It's just around the corner."

When they had finally reached the corner of the street, they arrived at the front steps to a vary large, white building with unique Greek style architecture. Harry, Ron and Hermione walked up to one of the large pillars and set their bags down. Ron leaned up against the pillar to relax and began talking incoherent gibberish to himself.

"So where's your friend?" Harry asked Hermione.

"She'll be here soon."

They waited for several minutes, trying to enjoy the scenery of the big city that surrounded them. "Hermione Granger," a voice said from their left. As they looked, they saw a rather thin, blonde girl about their age walking up to them. She stopped just short of a few feet from the top of the large staircase and glared at them.

"Hey Kate," Hermione greeted her, happy to finally see somebody else that she knew. The girl said nothing and continued staring at her and her friends, "This is Kate," she said to Ron and Harry, introducing her to them, "Kate, these are my friends, Harry and Ron," she said pointing them out. Hermione began to feel slightly worried as her old friend just continued to stare at them blankly with a slightly evil look in her eyes. "Kate, are you okay?"

"Am I okay?" her friend responded. "Ten years ago, my best friend told me that her parents were making her go to some far away boarding school. She disappeared for what seemed like forever. Now she's standing in front of me with all knew friends as if I never existed. You never called; you never wrote; you never even came over to my house in the summer to say hi since you started going to that mystery school and now you suddenly need my help. I'm sorry, but why should I give a damn?"

Ron and Harry watched helplessly from their spot against the tall pillar as Hermione attempted to rekindle her lost friendship. "I am incredibly sorry Kate," she started, "Some things happened back then; things that I couldn't talk about. I was afraid of what would happen if I let some things slip."

"That's unfortunate," Kate responded, "Because coincidentally, I have a couple secrets of my own. I'm not sure if those secrets are something I should let slip or not." She was beginning to sound rather cynical and was clearly not happy about what she was hearing.

"If it's any consolation, you don't really want to know where I have been in the last few years, or what I-we have been through. Please Kate, we really need you to help us here." Hermione looked her Kate in the eye, hoping that she would change her mind.

"Piss off," Kate told her. She turned her back and began to walk away.

"Excuse me?" Hermione said, slightly disgusted at her words, "Did you really come all the way out here just to say that to me?"

Hermione turned and gave Harry and Ron a look of despair and started walking back down the stairs to them. In a quick, impulsive attempt to help out, Harry shouted out to Kate, hoping that she would turn around and reconsider providing help. "Really bad things are about to happen soon and if you don't help us at all your world could be in danger too," He shouted. He suddenly looked Hermione with guilt expressed on his face, not realizing what he had said until it was too late.

Kate turned around, acknowledging his statement and started walking back to them. "What do you mean my world?" she asked suspiciously.

Hermione's heart started racing and her breathing became quick and heavy; she knew they now had no choice but to reveal their secret to a muggle. "Kate," She said quietly, "I need you to know that once we tell you what we are about to tell you, you are officially as much a part of this as we are, and that it will put you at risk to any of the events that may follow."

"Fine," she said in reply, skeptical about anything she might hear next.

"When I turned eleven years old, when I first told you that I was going to a private school, I received a letter telling me that I had magic in my blood and that I was accepted at a school of witchcraft and wizardry. Being part of the magical world included not being able to tell anybody about it, which is why I couldn't talk to you; I didn't want to risk letting that secret out. Harry and Ron were the first real friends I had there."

"So wizards and witches really exist." Kate confirmed.

"Not just that," Hermione continued, "everything that you ever thought was a fantasy, unicorns and dragons for example, are real; a very powerful spell has been place over the entire world to ensure that normal people like you don't see them."

"So what are these bad things that you mention," Kate asked, curious about the magic world.

"A few years ago, an extremely powerful dark wizard came back to power-"

"By extremely powerful we mean he was practically a god," Harry added.

"Anyway," Hermione continued, "the dark lord, as he was known, attempted to take control of the entire wizarding world and destroy those who were not pure-blood wizards."

"What do you mean by pure-blood," Kate inquired.

"Wizards who have direct family who do not have magic powers; we call them half-bloods. I had no immediate family who were wizards. I was muggle-born, which is our word to describe non-magic people. anyway, the entire wizarding world fought against the dark lord and it was only two years ago that we finally managed to kill him. Unfortunately there is very powerful magic that exists that can bring him back and we have reason to believe that someone plans to do just that if they didn't already." Hermione stopped for a moment before changing the subject. "You seem surprisingly accepting of all of this. I thought for sure you would be freaking out a little."

"Actually, not all of this surprises me," Kate responded

"How so," Ron asked, confused that a muggle would know about magic."

"About a year ago, I experienced a rather traumatic incident that finally made me realize that there are other things out there."

"Like what?" Hermione asked.

"Last year something was attacking the students at the university I was attending. It was a werewolf."

"How do you know?"

"My friend, Michael was bitten. For a while, we couldn't figure out what actually happened to him, but his roommate, Brian, managed to find out and got bit in the process. They fought each other in the dorm room and it got passed on to me as well,"

"You're a werewolf?" Ron said, surprised. Kate nodded back.

"Kate, I know there are people here who investigate what most people would consider abnormal. Do you know anybody like that who might be able to help us?" Hermione asked, "We need to find an secret organization and I think someone like that might know about them,"

"I think I might, actually." Kate responded, "Why don't we head up to my place and I'll see if I can find their number."