Chapter 33: Kate Ross

December arrived, bringing with it more snow and an avalanche of homework for the fifth years. Ron and Hermione's prefect duties also became more and more onerous as Christmas approached. They were called upon to supervise the decoration of the castle ("You try putting up tinsel when Peeves has got the other end and is trying to strangle you with it," said Ron), to watch over first and second years spending their break times inside because of the bitter cold ("And they're cheeky little snotrags, you know, we definitely weren't that rude when we were in first year," said Ron), and to patrol the corridors in shifts with Argus Filch, who suspected that the holiday spirit might show itself in an outbreak of wizard duels ("He's got dung for brains, that one," said Ron furiously). Even their research on the Charter became harder to find time for, but for the first time in his school career, he very much wanted to spend the holidays away from Hogwarts. Specifically with Kate at the Ranch.

His detentions with Kate had stopped as Umbridge had taken to practically stalking him and even Kate (who he was pretty sure was still keeping something from him, something that bothered her big time), but did not assign him anymore detentions. They were both sure that she had found out about their duelling lessons but needed time to figure out what to do. She had started being rather cold to Kate as well. Even Educational Decree Number Twenty-six hadn't stopped their lessons though, which banned teachers from giving students any information that was not what they were paid to teach. They simply did it after curfew now. On the bright side, it seemed stalking them had slowed down the toad's progress on destroying the staff, unfortunately that was not to last.

"Gather roun', gather roun'," said Hagrid encouragingly. "Now, they'll be attracted by the smell o' the meat but I'm goin' ter give 'em a call anyway, 'cause they'll like ter know it's me. . . ." He turned, shook his shaggy head to get the hair out of his face, and gave an odd, shrieking cry that echoed through the dark trees like the call of some monstrous bird.

Nobody in Harry, Ron, and Hermione's Care of Magical Creatures class laughed; most of them looked too scared to make a sound. Hagrid gave the shrieking cry again.

A minute passed in which the class continued to peer nervously over their shoulders and around trees for a first glimpse of whatever it was that was coming. And then, as Hagrid shook his hair back for a third time and expanded his enormous chest, Harry nudged Ron and pointed into the black space between two gnarled yew trees. A pair of blank, white, shining eyes were growing larger through the gloom and a moment later the dragonish face, neck, and then skeletal body of a great, black, winged horse emerged from the darkness. It looked around at the class for a few seconds, swishing its long black tail, then bowed its head and began to tear flesh from the dead cow with its pointed fangs. A great wave of relief broke over Harry. Here at last was proof that he had not imagined these creatures from the first night back, that they were real: Hagrid knew about them too.

He looked eagerly at Ron, but Ron was still staring around into the trees and after a few seconds he whispered, "Why doesn't Hagrid call again?"

Most of the rest of the class were wearing expressions as confused and nervously expectant as Ron's and were still gazing everywhere but at the horse standing feet from them. There were only two other people who seemed to be able to see them: a stringy Slytherin boy standing just behind Goyle was watching the horse eating with an expression of great distaste on his face, and Neville, whose eyes were following the swishing progress of the long black tail.

"Oh, an' here comes another one!" said Hagrid proudly, as a second black horse appeared out of the dark trees, folded its leathery wings closer to its body, and dipped its head to gorge on the meat. "Now . . . put yer hands up, who can see 'em?"

Immensely pleased to feel that he was at last going to understand the mystery of these horses, Harry raised his hand. Hagrid nodded at him.

"Yeah . . . yeah, I knew you'd be able ter, Harry," he said seriously. "An' you too, Neville, eh? An' —"

"Excuse me," said Malfoy in a sneering voice, "but what exactly are we supposed to be seeing?"

For answer, Hagrid pointed at the cow carcass on the ground. The whole class stared at it for a few seconds, then several people gasped and Parvati squealed. Harry understood why: Bits of flesh stripping themselves away from the bones and vanishing into thin air had to look very odd indeed.

"What's doing it?" Parvati demanded in a terrified voice, retreating behind the nearest tree. "What's eating it?"

"Thestrals," said Hagrid proudly and Hermione gave a soft "oh!" of comprehension at Harry's shoulder. "Hogwarts has got a whole herd of 'em in here. Now, who knows — ?"

So Luna had been right.

"But they're really, really unlucky!" interrupted Parvati, looking alarmed. "They're supposed to bring all sorts of horrible misfortune on people who see them. Professor Trelawney told me once —"

"No, no, no," said Hagrid, chuckling, "tha's jus' superstition, that is, they aren' unlucky, they're dead clever an' useful! 'Course, this lot don' get a lot o' work, it's mainly jus' pullin' the school carriages unless Dumbledore's takin' a long journey an' don' want ter Apparate — an' here's another couple, look —"

Two more horses came quietly out of the trees, one of them passing very close to Parvati, who shivered and pressed herself closer to the tree, saying, "I think I felt something, I think it's near me!"

"Don' worry, it won' hurt yeh," said Hagrid patiently. "Righ', now, who can tell me why some o' you can see them an' some can't?"

Hermione raised her hand.

"Go on then," said Hagrid, beaming at her.

"The only people who can see thestrals," she said, "are people who have seen death."

"Tha's exactly right," said Hagrid solemnly, "ten points ter Gryffindor. Now, thestrals —"

"Hem, hem." Professor Umbridge had arrived. She was standing a few feet away from Harry, wearing her green hat and cloak again, her clipboard at the ready. Hagrid, who had never heard Umbridge's fake cough before, was gazing in some concern at the closest thestral, evidently under the impression that it had made the sound. "Hem, hem."

"Oh hello!" Hagrid said, smiling, having located the source of the noise.

"You received the note I sent to your cabin this morning?" said Umbridge, in the same loud, slow voice she had used with him earlier, as though she was addressing somebody both foreign and very slow. "Telling you that I would be inspecting your lesson?"

"Oh yeah," said Hagrid brightly. "Glad yeh found the place all righ'! Well, as you can see — or, I dunno — can you? We're doin' thestrals today —"

"I'm sorry?" said Umbridge loudly, cupping her hand around her ear and frowning. "What did you say?"

Hagrid looked a little confused. "Er — thestrals!" he said loudly. "Big — er — winged horses, yeh know!" He flapped his gigantic arms hopefully.

Professor Umbridge raised her eyebrows at him and muttered as she made a note on her clipboard, " 'has . . . to . . . resort . . . to . . . crude . . . sign . . . language . . .' "

"Well . . . anyway . . ." said Hagrid, turning back to the class and looking slightly flustered. "Erm...what was I sayin'?"

" 'Appears . . . to . . . have . . . poor . . . short . . . term . . . memory . . .' " muttered Umbridge, loudly enough for everyone to hear her. Draco Malfoy looked as though Christmas had come a few weeks early; It was almost Christmas break as it were.

Hermione, on the other hand, had turned scarlet with suppressed rage.

"Oh yeah," said Hagrid, throwing an uneasy glance at Umbridge's clipboard, but plowing on valiantly. "Yeah, I was gonna tell yeh how come we got a herd. Yeah, so, we started off with a male an' five females. This one," he patted the first horse to have appeared, "name o' Tenebrus, he's my special favorite, firs' one born here in the forest —"

"Are you aware," Umbridge said loudly, interrupting him, "that the Ministry of Magic has classified thestrals as 'dangerous'?"

Harry's heart sank like a stone, but Hagrid merely chuckled. "Thestrals aren' dangerous! All righ, they might take a bite outta you if yeh really annoy them —"

" 'Shows . . . signs . . . of . . . pleasure . . . at . . . idea . . . of . . . violence . . . ' " muttered Umbridge, scribbling on her clipboard again.

"No — come on!" said Hagrid, looking a little anxious now. "I mean, a dog'll bite if yeh bait it, won' it — but thestrals have jus' got a bad reputation because o' the death thing — people used ter think they were bad omens, didn' they? Jus' didn' understand, did they?"

Umbridge did not answer; she finished writing her last note, then looked up at Hagrid and said, again very loudly and slowly, "Please continue teaching as usual. I am going to walk" — she mimed walking — Malfoy and Pansy Parkinson were having silent fits of laughter — "among the students" — she pointed around at individual members of the class — "and ask them questions." She pointed at her mouth to indicate talking.

Hagrid stared at her, clearly at a complete loss to understand why she was acting as though he did not understand normal English.

Hermione had tears of fury in her eyes now. "You hag, you evil hag!" she whispered, as Umbridge walked toward Pansy Parkinson. "I know what you're doing, you awful, twisted, vicious —"

"Erm . . . anyway," said Hagrid, clearly struggling to regain the flow of his lesson, "so — thestrals. Yeah. Well, there's loads o' good stuff abou' them. . . ."

"Do you find," said Professor Umbridge in a ringing voice to Pansy Parkinson, "that you are able to understand Professor Hagrid when he talks?"

Just like Hermione, Pansy had tears in her eyes, but these were tears of laughter; indeed, her answer was almost incoherent because she was trying to suppress her giggles. "No . . . because . . . well . . . it sounds . . . like grunting a lot of the time. . . ."

Umbridge scribbled on her clipboard.

The few unbruised bits of Hagrid's face flushed, but he tried to act as though he had not heard Pansy's answer. "Er . . . yeah . . . good stuff abou' thestrals. Well, once they're tamed, like this lot, yeh'll never be lost again. 'Mazin' senses o' direction, jus' tell 'em where yeh want ter go —"

"Assuming they can understand you, of course," said Malfoy loudly, and Pansy Parkinson collapsed in a fit of renewed giggles.

Professor Umbridge smiled indulgently at them and then turned to Neville. "You can see the thestrals, Longbottom, can you?" she said. Neville nodded.

"Whom did you see die?" she asked, her tone indifferent.

"My . . . my grandad," said Neville.

"And what do you think of them?" she said, waving her stubby hand at the horses, who by now had stripped a great deal of the carcass down to bone.

"Erm," said Neville nervously, with a glance at Hagrid. "Well, they're . . . er . . . okay. . . ."

" 'Students . . . are . . . too . . . intimidated . . . to . . . admit . . . they . . . are . . . frightened. . . .' " muttered Umbridge, making another note on her clipboard.

"No!" said Neville, looking upset, "no, I'm not scared of them — !"

"It's quite all right," said Umbridge, patting Neville on the shoulder with what she evidently intended to be an understanding smile, though it looked more like a leer to Harry. "Well, Hagrid," she turned to look up at him again, speaking once more in that loud, slow voice, "I think I've got enough to be getting along with. . . . You will receive" — she mimed taking something from the air in front of her — "the results of your inspection" — she pointed at the clipboard — "in ten days' time." She held up ten stubby little fingers, then, her smile wider and more toadlike than ever before beneath her green hat, she bustled from their midst, leaving Malfoy and Pansy Parkinson in fits of laughter, Hermione actually shaking with fury, and Neville looking confused and upset.

"That foul, lying, twisting old gargoyle!" stormed Hermione half an hour later, as they made their way back up to the castle through the channels they had made earlier in the snow. "You see what she's up to? It's her thing about half-breeds all over again — she's trying to make out Hagrid's some kind of dim-witted troll, just because he had a giantess for a mother — and oh, it's not fair, that really wasn't a bad lesson at all — I mean, all right, if it had been Blast-Ended Skrewts again, but thestrals are fine — in fact, for Hagrid, they're really good!"

"Umbridge said they're dangerous," said Ron.

"Well, it's like Hagrid said, they can look after themselves," said Hermione impatiently, "and I suppose a teacher like Grubbly-Plank wouldn't usually show them to us before N.E.W.T. level, but, well, they are very interesting, aren't they? The way some people can see them and some can't! I wish I could."

"Do you?" Harry asked her quietly. She looked horrorstruck. "Oh Harry — I'm sorry — no, of course I don't — that was a really stupid thing to say —"

"It's okay," he said quickly, "don't worry. . . ."

"I'm surprised so many people could see them," said Ron. "Three in a class..." (Rowling OotP chapt 21-22)

"Wonder what took Umbridge so long to come pick on Hagrid anyway?" Harry mused bitterly.

"Kate's been pranking her, I think. There's no way Fred and George could've set up wards through the whole castle that only respond to her magical signature." Hermione said, referencing the pranks that had hit Umbridge for most of November. It seemed as though every time she walked through any kind of doorway that her hair turned neon blue, her pink clothing turned black, or her skin turned to the exact shade of a toad but no-one seemed to know why or how, until Dumbledore had finally asked whoever was tampering with the school wards to stop. Even then, Ron's brothers seemed to be Umbridge's primary suspect, but many students knew better. Pity none of them seemed to care enough to tell anyone.

"We've got to make some progress tonight." Harry's mind jumped to another pressing issue. His friends agreed and later that day they found themselves once again in the Hogwarts Library.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione split up as soon as they entered. Hermione broke straight for the law section of the library, while Harry and Ron went to the history section. They all knew the drill at this point and did not even need to exchange words as they moved, eventually meeting again at their table and pulling out their notes.

They began their work quickly and continued for several hours.

Sometime during the evening, Harry was making his way to the Potions section when he was stopped.

"Wotcher Harry!" A bright voice exclaimed.

Harry spun around and was met with the cheery face of Tonks.

"Hello, Tonks." He said awkwardly, "Er-what're you doing here?"

"I had to drop something off with Dumbledore." Tonks said, "What are you doing?" She peered at him suspiciously.

"Doing an, a, an essay, on- this book actually." Harry floundered pulling out a book at random and holding it up.

Unfortunately, the title of the book happened to be Teen Mom: Everything You Need to Know Before You Give Birth.

Harry blushed scarlet as he couldn't quite manage to meet the young auror's eyes.

"Right." Tonks said, turning her head to hide her laughter. "Ok, Harry. I'll leave you to it then…"

She gave him a thump on the shoulder and left him standing there staring at the book in his hand.

LATER THAT NIGHT 12 GRIMMAULD PLACE

"Harry was doing something odd today." Nymphadora Tonks reported.

That got the attention of the entire meeting as they all turned to look at her.

Sirius Black perked up at the mention of his godson and made sure he was listening carefully, would this be a clue in his own search into Harry's lesser known friends?

Jake Castillo also snapped his head up and looked at the young auror, his expression one of carefully formed curiosity. He forced himself not to panic and get ahead of himself, worrying that their cover had been blown. He was not used to having to trust so many people to keep up a charade, even if there was no one he trusted more than those involved this time.

Albus Dumbledore turned his attention to one of the Order's newer members with carefully hidden interest. He swept his eyes over the other order members to gauge their interest before he focused completely on Nymphadora. Sirius looked interested, but perhaps that was easily attributed to his otherwise lack of involvement at the moment and the subject matter. He was not sure if this report would, in any way, help him solve the puzzle that was Kate and Harry's relationship. Right now he'd settled in simply letting it play out and keeping a closer eye on the pair, but that hadn't yielded anything of concern. The only thing he'd noticed was just how much time Harry seemed to spend with her. If the notion wasn't so ridiculous, considering the parties involved, he'd wonder if they were having an affair. That, of course, would be the last thing he'd want because then he'd have to fire Kate, who was by far the best DADA Professor Hogwarts had seen whilst he'd been alive, but also because that would most certainly hurt Harry in some way. Or let it go on, which he couldn't do either.

He really hoped it wasn't that.

"Oh? What was Mr. Potter up to today?" Albus prodded.

"He, Ron, and Hermione, nearly ransacked the library today, looking for a charter, it sounded like. Tracing its path through history. Or writing an essay on teen pregnancy."

Albus's brain froze for a fraction of a second, while Jake had to hide a blanch. They all ignored her essay wisecrack and focused on the charter.

Jake couldn't believe Harry had been caught, but then again, since when did they follow him? Had this happened behind his back? Were they tailing Harry now?

Thankfully Remus asked for him. "Why were you watching Harry?"

Tonks shrugged and blushed, "I was giving Albus my report and I was on my way back down the Entrance Hall when I saw them sneaking around and er- I decided to follow and then I stayed for a while and...well, there you have it."

Silence reigned as people digested this, but not for long.

"Why would they be looking for a charter?" Bill Weasley asked cautiously, like he almost didn't want to know what his brother and his friends were getting up to this time. No one could really blame him, having heard the stories themselves.

"Albus, you don't think they were looking for the Hogwarts' Charter, do you?" Minerva McGonagall asked in alarm.

"I certainly hope not." Albus answered her gravely.

Jake hid his surprise at that exchange while the rest of the Order looked openly curious. What did they know about the Hogwarts Charter? Jake wondered.

"Hope not?" Someone from one of the rows farther back asked.

Snape answered, "Well if they are that means that they most certainly got the foolish notion from Ross."

"Ross?" Sirius pounced on the name.

"Kate Ross, the DADA teacher this year. She brought it up in a staff meeting several months ago." Filius Flitwick supplied, looking thoughtful.

Albus, Jake noticed, frowned deeply as he turned the idea over in his head. Finally the Headmaster spoke again. "I will deal with this." He declared, to everyone's surprise. This seemed like something he would delegate because it was not directly related to the war effort, but then again, it did involve Harry Potter, someone he was known for being rather protective of.

If Albus's reaction was curiousity then Sirius's was a downright shock. His eyes widened and his mouth flew open before he abruptly schooled his features as he snapped his head to stare meaningfully at Jake. No one really noticed his reaction, except Jake who had a very bad feeling about it.

Sirius had indeed just connected some very important dots. Kate...her first name was Kate. And she was the new DADA professor this year, who apparently had enough influence with his godson that he was willing to go to research certain, dubious, topics for her. This was alarming and interesting. He'd have to learn more about Kate Ross, more than the gushing he'd heard from fellow Order members anyway.

Could it be her? Could he have found the mystery girl? Had she been right there the whole time? From what he could tell, she was a 20-something year old from the states, so he supposed he could forgive himself for not immediately thinking that a random girl would be so close to his godson, but… There she was, a professor at Hogwarts the year after Voldemort returned.

One thing was for sure, he needed to talk to Jake, who would probably know more about Professor Ross than he did.

Indeed, he cornered him as soon as possible.

"Jake," He hissed, "want to take a walk?"

Jake jumped when he spoke and turned to face him slowly. Sirius didn't know the panic the man was fighting even as he gave an easy smile and said, "Sure."

Once they were in a room secured with copious privacy wards, Sirius was fit to burst with what he had figured out.

"Kate, the girl we've been looking for, is the Hogwarts DADA professor." Sirius said seriously.

Jake laughed. "What? You think Harry is friends, personal, close friends with Kate Ross?"

Sirius frowned, "Why is that so hard to believe?"

"Because it's Kate Ross?" Jake retorted with a snort.

"Why would that matter?" Sirius demanded, "I keep hearing everyone gush about Professor Ross, whose first name I didn't know was Kate until today, mind, but I don't get it. She's like 19, what the hell is the big deal? Sure she's young, but really…"

Jake gaped at him for a moment, "You're kidding."

Sirius was now confused, "Is that supposed to be sarcasm?"

"No." Jake said bluntly. "Kate Ross…" He began pacing the room, "Is 23 years old, has defeated seven Dark Lords, liberated a solid three different countries, has a mastery in curse breaking from Drake Herr, won the International Duelling Cup series 9 times in a 9 year career that started when she was 12, she is responsible for the invention of tons of spells, wards, and potions, is widely considered one of the most powerful witches of all time, and maybe the greatest duellist ever. She also happens to be a celebrity due to her notoriously good personality."

Sirius blinked, "Oh."

"And her younger sister is one of the best professional quidditch players in a long time…"

"So she's a big deal?" Sirius asked a little faintly.

"Yes."

"But I still know that she's the one I'm looking for, it just fits too well."

"Damn." Jake cursed.

AFTER THE ORDER MEETING IN HOGWARTS' HEADMASTER'S OFFICE

Albus Dumbledore would be lying if he said that what he'd heard at the Order meeting didn't alarm him. Sirius was clearly up to something, Jake was beginning to seem to know more than himself about things he probably shouldn't know anything about, and Harry was in danger of dealing a serious blow to the fight against Voldemort, probably unwittingly, but nevertheless, Ross needed to go. Her influence on him seemed to be stronger than he'd thought and she was putting Harry in danger, and Albus couldn't allow that. He'd have no choice but to speak to the boy.

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