"Look! Harry!" Kate cried excitedly as Ron and she walked dejectedly into the great hall.

"He's still here!" The two of them ran forward. Harry was already piling food into his mouth, looking as though he had experienced Nirvana.

"Oh my gods. What happened?" Kate looked at him. He had a misty, faraway look in his eyes. It disappeared and his mouth broke into a broad grin.

"You won't believe it."

"What?!" Ron and Kate chimed.

"I'm Seeker for the Gryffindor Quidditch team."

"No way!" Ron cried out.

"Yes!"

"I know!"

"What happened, mate?" Ron asked, watching Harry in awe.

"Well, McGonagall brought me in and I thought she was going to curse me into oblivion. I've never been more afraid in my life! So she went to Professor Flitwick's class and asked him if she could borrow Wood. I thought it was a cane or something, but it was Oliver Wood, the Quidditch captain! Now I have to play for the team. That's my punishment."

"Wow!" Ron sat back and stared in wonder.

"Awesome." Kate agreed.

"Wow." Ron repeated. "But first years never- you must be the youngest house player in about…."

"-a century." Harry was still shoveling food into his mouth. "Wood told me."

Kate still didn't touch a bite of her food. Even Ron, who usually ate more than all of the Gryffindors combined, had only served himself a bit before forgetting what he was doing.

"I start training next week," Harry explained, "Just don't tell anyone, Wood wants to keep it a secret."

Kate winked. "My lips are sealed."

Fred and George came over. George leaned on Kate's shoulders and watched Harry from across the table.

"Well done," George said softly. "Wood told us. We're on the team too- Beaters."

"I tell you, we're going to win that Quidditch cup for sure this year," Fred said confidently. "We haven't won since Charlie left, but this year's team is going to be brilliant. You must be good, Harry, Wood was almost skipping when he told us."

"Anyway, we've got to go; Lee Jordan reckons he's found a new secret passageway out of the school."

Kate turned suddenly red, but no one noticed.

"Bet it's that one behind Gregory the Smarmy that we found in our first week. See you."

They had hardly gone when Malfoy and his cronies turned up.

"Having a last meal, Potter? When are you getting the train back to the Muggles?"

"You're a lot braver now that you're back on the ground and you've got your little friends with you," Harry said coolly, obviously unaffected by this remark. Kate snorted. The only thing small about Crabbe and Goyle was their combined brain size.

"I'd take you on anytime on my own," Malfoy said quickly. "Tonight, if you want. Wizard's duel. Wands only- no contact. What's the matter? Never heard of a wizard's duel before, I suppose?"

"Of course he has," said Ron, who quickly turned to face Malfoy. "I'm his second, who's yours?"

Malfoy looked at Crabbe and Goyle, sizing them up.

"Crabbe," he said. "Midnight all right? We'll meet you in the trophy room. That's always unlocked."

Malfoy left, Crabbe and Goyle cracking the knuckles a last time before leaving. Kate stared at Harry and Ron in bewilderment.

"What's a wizard's duel?" Kate and Harry chimed. Then Harry asked, "What do you mean, you're my second?"

Ron didn't look up from his food. "Well, a second's there to take over if you die."

Kate choked on her pumpkin juice.

"But people only die in proper duels, you know, with real wizards. The most you and Malfoy'll be able to do is send sparks at each other. Neither of you knows enough magic to do any real damage. I bet he expected you to refuse, anyway."

"And what if I wave my wand and nothing happens?"

"Throw it away and punch him on the nose." Ron suggested.

Kate grinned. "Good plan."

"Excuse me." The three of them turned to face Hermione Granger.

"Hey Hermione." Kate said kindly.

"Can't a person eat in peace at this place?"

Hermione ignored both Ron and Kate and spoke directly to Harry.

"I couldn't help overhearing what you and Malfoy were saying-"

"Bet you could," Ron muttered.

"- and you mustn't go wandering around the school at night, think of the points you'll lose Gryffindor if you're caught, and you're bound to be. It's really very selfish of you."

"And it's really none of your business," said Harry.

"It was a valiant effort." Kate nodded at Hermione.

"Goodbye." Ron finished the conversation.

Ron and Harry told Kate that they'd be leaving at about eleven thirty. It was her task to make it look as though nothing out of the ordinary were happening. Hermione looked at her skeptically as she changed into her pajamas, as though she couldn't believe that Kate wasn't doing anything for or against Ron and Harry.

Lavender and Parvati were happily discussing a new store that had opened in Diagon Alley called Missy's Magical Makeover, or something along those lines.

"Mum says for my birthday present she'll take me." Lavender sighed.

"Lucky," Parvati said jealously. "Maybe I can convince my mother to do something like…."

"Are they going or not?" Hermione burst out to Kate.

"I doubt it, I mean, come on." Kate said, removing her glasses and sitting on her bed. "They'd have to be pretty stupid to think that it was worth it at all."

"Really?"

"Really, really." Kate winked, then yawned unconvincingly and collapsed back onto her pillow. She waited until she heard Lavender's and Parvati's gentle snores. There'd be no deterring Hermione Granger. Kate put on her glasses and a robe on besides and crept down to the common room to see Hermione already waiting for the boys.

"I can't believe how tenacious you are." Kate plopped down beside the bushy-haired girl. "What do you honestly think you'll accomplish by this?"

"Stopping them." Hermione said, shocked at Kate's sudden arrival. "Don't you want to?"

"I'm hardly in a spot to tell them not to go." Kate said pointedly. "People don't like being told what to do as it is, especially not be friends. Or peers," she added as an afterthought.

"What if they get caught and the Gryffindors lose all of their points?" Hermione whispered.

"Well then, they'll have that guilt on their shoulders forever and you'll sit there knowing that they were stupid." Kate explained. "And they're far from being the first of their age to sneak out of the dormitory past hours. You aren't going to change the world in one night."

Hermione pursed her lips as though she didn't want to believe such a thing. She tugged her pink bathrobe around herself and looked expectantly towards the boys' staircase.

"You know, we could just go up there and poke them and pass the message on, then you could go to sleep."

"Are you going with them?"

"No." Kate said. "I don't really think I want to. They told me that they didn't want a huge crowd or anything, so the less people, the better." Kate said. "I'm just waiting up for them."

"Oh. Well then." Hermione looked a little more satisfied. She looked up suddenly and flicked on the lamp beside them. "I can't believe you're actually going."

"You!" Ron said lividly. "Go back to bed."

"That's where I'm going, Hermione." Kate said, nodding fervently.

"I almost told your brother, Percy- he's a prefect. He'd put a stop to this." Hermione hissed.

"Let's go," Harry muttered. "Sure you don't want to come, Kate?"

"I told you, the excuse I gave you won't work if you have too many people."

"What excuse?" Hermione hissed.

"A good one." Kate said.

"It doesn't matter." She leapt up and followed the two boys out of the dormitory. Kate rolled her eyes and went back up to bed, knowing that she had done what she could for her friends without following them to their doom.

Malfoy wouldn't be there. She had told them that already. She said if they really thought Malfoy would be, then go, but just in case he's not….

"You should have an excuse ready." She had explained.

"Like what?"

"Harry, if someone approaches, put your glasses on. Have them off and then put them back on and blink a lot. Then you can say you accidentally did a switching spell with your glasses and they wound up in… wherever you're caught. You needed Ron's eyes to help you."

"I like that." Harry had agreed.

Kate lay down on her pillow and wondered for awhile whether or not Malfoy would be there and how useful her excuse would prove to be. Her lids drooped shut and she drifted off into another dream encouraging her to choose… and RUN!

"You were right." Ron explained, looking tired, but exhilarated the next morning. "Malfoy did set us up."

"But we saw this three-headed dog in the forbidden corridor." Harry explained quickly. "It was standing on a trapdoor and guarding something."

"A Cerberus?" Kate dropped her spoon into her cereal.

"A what?" Ron and Harry chimed.

"You know… ah, it doesn't matter. But how did you get there?"

They explained eagerly to her about the prior night's adventures. They had gone to the trophy room and heard Filch telling Mrs. Norris to sniff for them. Neville, who had forgotten the dormitory password, crashed into a suit of armor and the four of them were forced to flee for safety in a locked room, which, as it turned out, was the third floor corridor.

"It was gigantic," Ron put his arms out wide to emphasize how large it was.

"What it makes me think of though, is… well, listen to this." Harry began. "When Hagrid took me to Gringotts, he had to get a tiny package out of a top-security vault. He kept mentioning that Hogwarts was the safest place in the world and how it was a favor for Dumbledore. A secret one, too. I think it's what the dog is guarding."

"It's either really valuable or really dangerous," said Ron.

"Or both," Harry agreed.

"Or neither," Kate grinned jokingly, but her grin fell away. "But I do wonder. Boy does Malfoy looked shocked." Kate noticed, nodding towards the pointy-faced first year. He kept staring at Ron and Harry as though they were an apparition that would soon fade.

Kate noticed that Hermione was giving Ron and Harry the cold shoulder, but she continued talking to Kate. Though she didn't like to think about it, it was probably because she was Hermione's only friend. Nobody else liked how bossy the bushy-haired girl was. Even Kate found it tiresome from time to time that all Hermione would talk about was homework and grades. Kate flat-out told her she would not discuss her grades with anyone, not even Hermione.

"Why not?"

"It adds unnecessary competition to a friendship. I am very competitive when given the chance. I don't like it." Kate shuddered. She stuck her hands in her pocket and was pricked by the needle. She had forgotten it was in there.

Hermione frowned as though unable to understand that competition was something someone could dislike. Neville could often be found trying to read a book or watching a conversation. When he thought people weren't looking at him, he was often pale and looked as though he were wont to cry at any given moment. At these times, Kate often went over to distract him. It couldn't be healthy for him to be so nervous all the time.

Gasping and clutching her chest, Kate slunk against the castle wall. She wiped her forehead off on the back of her hand, and then stopped in mid-wipe. Realization struck her suddenly: she could feel her ribs! They certainly weren't as obvious as they had once been, but they weren't as thickly padded either. It was this good news that encouraged Kate to go up to the common room and get her shower. While the water beat down on her back, she poked her stomach and realized that it was smaller than it had been a month ago. In fact, it was safe to say that she was losing weight at last! Even her shoulders were becoming less padded.

After donning her robes, she noticed that they were looser as well. She grinned at her reflection. The jolly cheeks were shrinking too. They were still there, but they were diminishing at last. She did the robo-cop in front of the mirror a few times in celebration and then skipped out to the common room to work on an essay.

"Oh darn," Oliver was there, sitting on the couch, "I thought I'd beaten you here."

"Are you trying to beat me now?" Kate shook her head. "You shall fail miserably, I'm afraid."

"Why do you get up so early? It can't just be to shower."

Kate shrugged. "I just wake up and I figure I may as well get up."

"That's it?"

"Yup."

"Really?" He scrutinized her.

"Really, really." She smiled.

"All right." But his tone indicated that he didn't believe her for a second. "So, you're a friend of Potter's."

"Yeah," she brightened. "Is he a good Seeker so far?"

"Is he good? I really don't know yet. Practice starts next week. But he must be good if McGonagall thinks he's worthy of the team." Wood leaned back into the sofa, a dreamy look in his eyes. "The team is perfect this year. Perfect. There's no way we won't get the Cup this time. It will be ours!"

"That'd be pretty cool." Kate agreed, sensing this was a big thing for her fifth-grade friend. "I'll bet you do it. Is this your first year as captain?"

"No. I was captain last year as well."

"Wow, so you're going to be captain for four years?"

"I certainly hope so." He smiled vaguely.

"Are you going to join a Quidditch team after Hogwarts, you think?"

"Hopefully one will take me. I'd like that."

"That would certainly be fun." Kate agreed. She bent over to pull out her homework. They spoke intermittently throughout their work until the other students came down, at which point they went to breakfast and continued their day.