Chapter 20: Surprises in Hogsmeade

The walk down to the village was calming. By the time I arrived in Hogsmeade, all my anger towards Tessa had dissipated. Sure, I was still bothered by how she'd come storming into my office, but I was no longer actively seething.

Remembering the shop from the last time I'd visited the village; I made my way straight to Honeydukes Sweet Shop. My body was desperately craving chocolate, and I hadn't been able to get the chocolate frog Alex had bought for me that one time out of my mind.

I found the shop easily enough, but navigating it was more complicated. Though I'd learned quite a bit about wizarding culture recently, types of sweets hadn't been on the list. Eventually, I had to ask the shopkeeper to point me towards their chocolate frog display, which I was embarrassed to find I'd already passed by twice without noticing it.

"Never fear," the kindly shopkeeper smiled as I selected a chocolate frog from the front of the shelf. "Better witches than you have to ask for help sometimes too."

I smiled but didn't correct him.

When we got up to the cash register, I realized there was one important thing I'd neglected to think about. All my money was still in muggle currency.

"That'll be ten sickles," the shopkeeper informed me.

Biting my lip, I produced a handful of muggle money and held it out to him. "Any chance you'd accept this?"

The shopkeeper looked from my hand to my face in surprise. "I see," he said evenly, his voice not betraying his shock. "I'm sorry my dear, but unfortunately I cannot accept anything other than knuts, sickles, or galleons."

Disappointed, I retracted my hand and stuffed the money back into my pocket. I really needed to talk to Headmaster Slinkhard about getting my paycheck in wizarding currency.

"However, there is an exchange counter just down the road," the shopkeeper added.

"There is?" I asked in surprise. It was a wonder nobody had mentioned it to me until now.

The shopkeeper nodded. "Last building before the bend in the lane," he informed me, pointing in the correct direction. "Same building that houses the post office. But be sure to hurry. They close soon."

I thanked the shopkeeper and told him I would be right back with those sickles. Stepping out onto the street, I oriented myself in the direction he'd told me and began to walk over, hoping that I made it in time.

As I was passing by the window of the Three Broomsticks – which I remembered from when Hannah and I had visited the village and had lunch – I caught sight of someone familiar and did a double take. Sitting alone at a table near the back was Cameron.

Curiously, I headed inside and approached Cameron's table.

"Hey," I greeted him. "Fancy running into you here."

"Katie?" Cameron said, surprised. "What are you doing in Hogsmeade?"

I shrugged. "Well I don't have any patrols, so I figured I'd come down for a change of scenery."

"Good idea," Cameron nodded. He was looking a little nervous and I became slightly uncomfortable. Did he not want to be seen in the village with me? Was it that weird being in the company of a muggle? He hadn't seemed to care the last time we'd been in the village, but there had been more of us then, and Alex and I had gone off on our own for a bit.

"What about you?" I asked, trying to maintain the little bit of awkward conversation we were managing.

"Oh, you know," Cameron muttered, his eyes flitting back and forth between me and the door. "Same thing. Just wanted a change of pace, different food…"

His eyes widened and frowning, I turned around to see what he was looking at and saw Skye approaching the restaurant through the window.

"Hey look!" I exclaimed. "It's – "

I trailed off as realization dawned on me. Running into Cam here in Hogsmeade was a coincidence, but running into both he and Skye? That was more than a coincidence. And the way that Cameron was looking panicked and uncomfortable? He was meeting Skye here, and for whatever reason, they didn't want anyone to know.

"You know what?" I said suddenly, not wanting to intrude. "I actually have to go to the bathroom, so I'll catch you later, yeah?"

Relief flooding over him, Cam nodded quickly. "Yeah, for sure, I'll see you later, up at the castle."

Hurrying towards the back of the restaurant just as Skye entered, I found the bathrooms and also a back door. Quickly, I slipped through it, finding myself in a small alley right next to the restaurant.

As I hurried back out onto the street, careful to keep away from the window of the Three Broomsticks so that Skye wouldn't see me, I wondered why they were meeting here in secret. It was possible, I supposed, that they were having some sort of professional meeting and just didn't feel like conducting it in the castle. But judging from the vibe I'd gotten off Cam and the secrecy with which he and Skye were conducting themselves, I got the feeling that this was more of a social meeting.

Were Skye and Cam dating? Skye hadn't mentioned anything to me, but if they were keeping it a secret, then she wouldn't have. Plus, though I felt like Skye and I were close, we'd really only known each other a month – certainly not long enough for her to be confiding her biggest secrets in me yet.

I continued to puzzle over this as I made my way to the post office, only to discover that while taking my detour into the Three Broomsticks, it had closed, and thus I couldn't exchange any of my money.

I tried to decide what to do next. Without any wizarding currency, there wasn't much I could do here in Hogsmeade. And with Cam and Skye having their secret rendezvous, I decided that it would be best to give them their privacy. So, I began to head back up to Hogwarts, my stomach rumbling as I began the long trek.

By the time I returned to the castle, whatever anger I'd been feeling had all but dissipated. My hunger was now my top priority, so I entered the Great Hall and made my way up to the staff table, eager for some dinner.

"Hey," Alex waved me over to the empty seat next to him. "You're awfully late for dinner."

"I was down in the village," I admitted. "I was going to have dinner there, but I needed to exchange my money for your coins and the post office closed before I got there." I left out the part about Cam and Skye. If they wanted to tell Alex about their date, that was their business. I wasn't about to start spreading gossip.

"You should have told me you were going," Alex insisted. "I could have lent you some money."

I shook my head. "It's fine, the walk was good, and it was nice to get out of the castle, even if it didn't end up the way I'd meant it to."

"Well next time then," Alex declared.

"Next time I'll be smart enough to go down earlier in the day so that I actually can get my money exchanged," I retorted.

Alex laughed. "Or that," he agreed with a smirk.

The next morning, I awoke to the sun streaming in through my window. For a moment, I just basked in it, grateful that it was the weekend, and then I suddenly bolted up out of bed in a panic. It wasn't the weekend! It was Friday. I had classes to teach and patrols to do. Grabbing for my schedule, I suddenly realized that I had about five minutes before my breakfast shift was about to start.

Throwing on the first outfit I could find, I bolted out the door, thankful that I'd at least mastered the route from my quarters to the Great Hall.

I was only a couple of minutes late, really not a huge deal. Except that when I came bursting through the double doors at 6:02AM, I learned a most unfortunate fact. The person with whom I was to supervise breakfast with this morning was Tessa Flitwick.

"You're late," she said from her seat at the head table. Her arms were crossed, and her body looked angry, but her face was gleeful.

"Barely," I insisted, hurrying up to my own seat. "And there aren't even any students here yet, so what's the big deal?"

"The big deal is, you were late," Tessa insisted. "I don't think the Headmaster will be all too happy when he finds out."

"I think he'll be able to forgive me being two minutes late to a breakfast shift," I shot back. "It's not like I was late to dinner and the students were running amok."

I was getting really fed up with Tessa and her high and mighty attitude. I had no idea why she seemed to dislike me so much – it wasn't as though I'd done anything to her personally.

Then Tessa's gaze moved down from my face to my torso, and her expression turned from one of satisfaction to one of disgust.

"Don't tell me that's supposed to be fashionable in the muggle world?" she sneered.

I looked down and realized that in my hurry to make it to breakfast, I'd put my shirt on backwards. The tag was sticking out at the top and everything.

But I wasn't about to give Tessa the satisfaction of thinking that I was incapable of dressing myself.

"Of course not," I scoffed, fighting the urge to at least fix the tag, which now that I was aware of it, was tickling my neck and making it very difficult to focus on anything else. "It's a test for my students, to see who realizes that I'm wearing the shirt wrong, and who doesn't notice a thing."

"That's quite an odd test," Tessa commented, seemingly unconvinced.

I shrugged. "You have your way of teaching and I have mine," I replied.

"Yes, and my way of teaching is in line with the standards set out by the Ministry of Magic," Tessa replied. "Tell me, are you planning on adhering to a traditional curriculum, or are you a fan of Augusta Clagg's updated version?"

"Oh, well uh… I'm actually making my own curriculum," I replied.

"Well that's awfully cavalier of you," Tessa declared. "So, you're saying you're smarter than Augusta Clagg?"

I was growing weary of this back and forth. Tessa didn't like me, so be it. That didn't mean she needed to keep attacking me for no reason.

"I'm not saying I'm smarter than anybody," I informed her. "But I do think I know more about muggle culture than anyone here, seeing as I am a muggle and have lived in it for my entire life."

"There are tons of witches and wizards who live in the muggle world," Tessa insisted. "And if they didn't understand it well enough, don't you think our secret would have got out long ago? We don't need a muggle to teach muggle studies. The wizarding world has gotten along just fine on its own this long."

"That may be so," I agreed. It wasn't my place to cast judgements on my predecessors or on how my subject had been taught before I got here. "But I'm here now, and this is how I intend to teach. At least as long as Headmaster Slinkhard will keep me."

"I can assure you, it won't be long," Tessa declared.

I didn't bother to respond to her this time, instead choosing to focus on eating a hearty breakfast. I hadn't eaten much yesterday and wanted to make sure I had all my strength today as I had a total of three classes to teach, including the seventh years. Which of course meant one thing: Donnor Dalman.

Students began trickling in for breakfast, and soon the Hall was filled with chatter and laughter and the sounds of forks and knives scraping against plates. I noticed that Skye and Cameron were both conspicuously absent from breakfast and wondered how late they'd stayed out the previous night.

I ate my fill and then spent the remainder of breakfast seeing if I could recognize my students from the sea of faces, I was looking down on. I identified a few and praised myself on remembering some of their names as well.

By the time breakfast came to a close, I was feeling much more myself and I was ready to get back to work. I had an hour before my sixth-year class started and I intended to make sure I was prepped and raring to go.