That night, Kate had a dream before the usual dream about fighting a troll and then… a man with red eyes burst out from Professor Quirrell's turban and spoke to her.

"Kate… you are what I seek and what I will find." The voice was cold as ice and it chilled Kate to the bone.

"You will never have me." She retorted bravely.

There was a high-pitched laughter and Kate was thrust into another dream.

Barefoot again… the path is rough…. Kate's hair trailed down to her naked back. She was taller and slender. Kate put out a hand to push a tendril of hair out of her eyes. She saw the fork in the road. Both looked strange and frightening. Which way will you choose? Kate felt something rolling down her leg. She looked and saw what looked like liquid gold and silver. It pooled beneath her and took the form of….

RUN!

Kate sat up in bed, breathing in sharply. She shivered and changed into wind pants that were several sizes too big. She didn't notice that they didn't cling to her legs until she began to run. They were loose around her waist. That was surprising. She tied the drawstring tighter and went her usual route. Her stomach growled and her head spun. She should have eaten more for dinner. Maybe it was time to start eating normally again.

She got back to the common room and did her sit-ups and push-ups, adding five more to each set. In the shower she considered her repetitive dream again, wondering what it could possibly mean.

"A forked road means choices, of course." She said aloud to the painting of a roan centaur after she had gotten dressed. Sometimes, if she watched it long enough, it seemed as though it wanted to speak to her, but couldn't or wouldn't. She felt as though one day it might just open its mouth and say something, except that centaurs didn't much like humans according to magical beast book. She didn't think paintings would be much different. It opened its mouth, and Kate jumped, but it looked away without a word. "What are my choices, I wonder? One is silver and the other's gold. So there's an okay choice and a bad choice? Or is it that one is good and one is bad? And why am I naked in the dream? Is it because I can't hide from this choice? Ugh, I may never know."

She left the bathroom and felt the centaur watching her leave. "If you know something I don't, I wish you'd tell me." She said, and closed the door behind her.

"Still can't beat you up, can I?" Oliver Wood sat perched comfortably on his sofa.

"Give up, it's a fruitless task." Kate teased. "Unless you drug me, I don't think your plans will succeed."

"I like that idea." Oliver grinned evilly.

"Try it and I curse your nose off." Kate pushed her glasses up. The bridge of her nose was still wet from the shower.

"The first year is threatening me?" He acted offended.

"I do a lot more than threaten, you great big fifth year."

Oliver smiled. "Do you know if they caught that troll? I noticed that you came in a bit late."

"Yeah, they caught it."

"Were you there?"

"Sort of."

"Isn't that a 'yes' or 'no' question?"

"Depends on how you look at it."

"Do you know how they caught it?" The older boy asked curiously.

"They knocked it out."

"How'd it get in?"

Kate shrugged. "How's Quidditch going?"

"Pretty good. First match is next Saturday."

"Against who?"

"Slytherin." Wood pulled a face. "Dirty players."

Kate laughed. "They're not all so bad."

"The team is whether or not the rest of them are." Oliver explained pointedly.

"All right, I can't gainsay that." Kate smiled.

"You can't what say it?"

"Oops, sorry." Kate blushed. "Big words… little brain." Kate pointed to her own skull.

Wood stared at her for a moment before bursting into laughter.

Kate smiled goofily, feeling a little unprepared for his reaction. She yawned suddenly, feeling a mixture of dizziness and sleep-deprivation. Covering her mouth, she said an airy "excuse me," and leaned back into her seat. It felt as though water were running up and down the inner-sides of her skull.

"You should go back to bed if you're tired." Wood offered.

"And go back to disturbed dreams?"

"Disturbed dreams? What about?" The tall boy inquired curiously.

"Dunno, just disturbed. The word 'disturbed' floats across my eyes as I sleep in cursive." Kate said, thinking as quickly as she could for seven o'clock in the morning.

Oliver Wood thought about this one before shaking his head. "You really should get to bed."

"No," the freckled-girl shook her head, "I wouldn't be able to sleep anyway."

The captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team looked at her pensively, opened his mouth, shut it, and went back to what he had been working on. Kate pulled out a roll of parchment and began the assignment she had missed at the last period of Halloween.

"First Quidditch match is this Saturday." Harry said, sounding a bit nervous.

"Yes! You're going to show those dirty snakes, aren't you, Harry?" Seamus practically jumped with excitement.

Harry just swallowed.

"You'll do fine, mate." Dean clapped Harry's shoulder.

Harry smiled in a way that suggested he was struggling not to vomit.

Seamus and Dean trotted off to get some work done in the library.

"Don't think about it too much, that's the best plan." Kate finally said. Kate breathed into her cupped hands as they wandered out-of-doors into the chilly November air.

"Yeah, but it's kind of hard not to with practice all of the time," Harry shivered. Quidditch Through the Ages was tucked securely under his arm.

Kate shrugged, not knowing how to console him at this.

Hermione and Ron came outside to join them.

"Gods, it's freezing out here!" Hermione shivered. She pulled out a jam jar and conjured a blue fire inside of it.

"Nice," Kate stood closer to its warmth gratefully. Hermione put it on the ground and the stood with their backs to it, talking amiably. Kate saw Professor Snape come limping out of the school. Harry, Ron and Hermione gathered closer around the fire so as not to let the Potions Master see their illegal fire. Kate backed into it as well. Snape saw them and limped over. He was looking at them, trying to find something to get them in trouble for.

"Are you all right, Professor?" Kate asked concernedly. "Do you need to see Madam Pomfrey?"

Snape sneered. "That is none of your business, Ms. Slate. What's that you've got, Potter?"

Harry showed him the library book.

"Library books are not to be taken outside the school. Give it to me. Five points from Gryffindor."

Kate gaped at him.

"He just made that rule up," Harry muttered as Snape limped away. "Wonder what's wrong with his leg?"

"I dunno, but I hope it's really hurting him," Ron said bitterly.

Gryffindor was noisy that night. Everyone was excited for the first Quidditch match of the season tomorrow. Hermione was checking Harry and Ron's Charms homework for them. She wouldn't let them copy, which Kate quietly agreed with. Kate was staring blankly at the window, not looking forward to running in the bitter air that night.

"I think I'm going to go ask Snape for my book back." Harry said standing.

"Better you than me," Ron and Hermione said together.

Kate just shook her head at them. "Want me to come with you?"

"No, that's okay." Harry said shiftily, and then left.

Kate looked down at her fingers and saw that they were shaking. She wasn't all that cold, so she couldn't think of a cause.

"What's wrong?" Ron said, staring at her hands.

"I dunno." Kate shrugged, putting her hands back into her lap. She felt dizzy and sick at the same time. "I don't feel so well."

"Weird." Ron frowned.

"Do you think you should see Madam Pomfrey? What if you've got another disease?" Hermione looked at Kate's face.

"It'll probably go away. Maybe I'm just cold."

It was a few minutes later that Harry practically flew into the common room, looking as though he had just escaped hell by seconds.

"Did you get it?" Ron asked. "What's the matter?"

"Snape was bitten by the three-headed dog. I saw him showing Filch." Harry whispered. "That's why he was limping. You know what this means? He tried to get past that three-headed dog at Halloween! That's where he was going when we saw him- he's after whatever it's guarding! And I'd bet my broomstick he let that troll in, to make a diversion!"

Kate frowned and Hermione's eyes were wide.

"No- he wouldn't. I know he's not very nice, but he wouldn't try and steal something Dumbledore was keeping safe."

"Honestly, Hermione, you think all teachers are saints or something," Ron snapped, "I'm with Harry. I wouldn't put anything past Snape. But what's he after? What's that dog guarding?"

"I'm with Hermione on this one, guys." Kate shook her head. "The only teacher I'd suspect of anything, to be perfectly honest, is Professor Quirrell."

Hermione, Harry, and Ron just laughed at her. "Maybe you really are ill, Kate." Ron said.

"Seriously, there's something weird about him," Kate pleaded, "seriously."

"All right, go to bed." Harry pointed up the stairs. "You're touched in the head."

"Fine," Kate forced a laugh, but was feeling as though no one would possibly believe her on this. It was a gut feeling, but there was nothing she could pinpoint as actual evidence.

Run! RUN! You are so slow… so slow… you will fail if you are so SLOW!

"Ah!" She sat up in bet, whimpering softly. There was sweat all across her brow. The clock was too difficult to read without her glasses. She shoved her spectacles onto her sweaty face and saw that she had slept for little over three hours. Her heart raced with the rate of someone exercising strenuously. The Quidditch match was to be played in less than five hours. She wondered vaguely if Harry had gotten any sleep.

I wish I could sleep, she thought bitterly.

Pulling her wind pants on, she looked down and saw her hip bones jutting out more than they had during her entire life. Wondering if perhaps it was the angle she was standing at the moment, she ignored them and stood upright. She descended the girls' staircase silently and swiftly. In the common room, Oliver Wood lay sleeping on the sofa in front of the fire. Kate chuckled softly and left to go on her run, trusting he wouldn't wake until after she returned.

Her run was hampered only by her dizziness and the strange looseness of her garments. Continually she had to tug her pants up past her naval. She collapsed against the castle wall, perspiration on an all-time high. Her stomach screamed for food and her head ached awfully. She put her hand to her argumentative stomach and felt the muscles that had become steadily more prominent. She ascended into the common room, did her exercises, paused to see if Wood was still asleep, and slipped into the bathroom.

Kate stripped and showered. Looking down, she was able to count her ribs. Her eyes widened; how could she not have noticed that she was this skinny? She had never been so skinny in her life. For her height, she was about ten pounds underweight at this time. Her hair, warm with water, clung to her neck as she emerged from the shower. She looked into the mirror and looked in shock at her skinny body. The only thing that gave any semblance of fatness was in her chin… yet… it was… almost gone. Her cheeks weren't nearly as jolly… in fact… they looked nearly hollow. Dressing quickly, Kate passed by the painting of the centaur. It stared at her in a way that suggested it knew more about her than she did. She glared at it, rather crankier than she was used to and left without a word.

Her robes floated about her skinny frame, barely brushing her flesh. Oliver Wood had woken up and was sitting upright watching for her.

"Damn," he smiled, "I thought I might see you get up."

"Nope. But I saw you sleeping." She said softly. "Big game today." She stated unnecessarily.

"Yeah." Wood nodded, looking grim, yet excited. "You're coming, right?"

"Of course," Kate said, nearly collapsing. Her hands were trembling at her sides. These symptoms reminded her of something she had heard about frequently. Gods, what was it?

"You okay?" Wood frowned.

"I just need to sit down…." Kate walked towards the sofa and fell over. "Jeez," she whispered, hardly able to move. "I'm… oh…."

"Do you need to see Madam Pomfrey?" Oliver stood up, looking terrified on her behalf.

Kate tried to nod, but this final action put her into blackness. Death… it could be worse….