In his hut, he was making a pot of strong tea for all five of them.
"It was Snape," Ron was explaining, "Hermione, Kate and I saw him. He was cursing your broomstick, muttering, he wouldn't take his eyes off you."
"Rubbish," Hagrid started.
"Quirrell was doing the same, if you had cared to look." Kate said furtively. "And you did knock him over, Hermione. After that, Harry's broom was all right again."
"Kate! Quirrell? What do you have against him? Come on!" Ron said exasperatedly. "It was Snape!"
"Snape was the one bitten by the three-headed dog. He's the one trying to steal whatever it's guarding." Harry stared incredulously at Kate.
Hagrid dropped the teapot.
"How do you know about Fluffy?"
"Fluffy?" The four of them chimed.
"Yeah- he's mine- bought him off a Greek chappie I met in the pub las' year- I lent him to Dumbledore to guard the-."
"Yes?" Harry asked eagerly.
"Now, don't ask me anymore," said Hagrid gruffly. "That's top secret, that is."
"But Snape's trying to steal it!"
"Rubbish," Hagrid repeated. "Snape's a Hogwarts teacher, he'd do nothin' of the sort."
"So why did he just try and kill Harry?" Hermione cried out. "I know a jinx when I see one, Hagrid, I've read all about them! You've got to keep eye contact, and Snape wasn't blinking at all, I saw him!"
"I'm tellin' yeh, yer wrong! I don' know why Harry's broom acted like that, but Snape wouldn' try an' kill a student!" He looked to Kate next. "And why yeh'd suspect Quirrell is beyond me. I don' know what sort o' people yeh met in America, but Quirrell wouldn' harm a fly." Then he continued. "Now, listen to me, all four of yeh- yer meddlin' in things that don' concern yeh. It's dangerous. You forget that dog, an' you forget what it's guardin', that's between Professor Dumbledore an' Nicolas Flamel-."
"Aha!" Harry said triumphantly. "So there's someone called Nicolas Flamel involved, is there?"
Hagrid's face was red with anger at himself.
Christmas was coming. One morning in mid-December Kate had awoken from another dream to go on her run and found the grounds covered in a foot of snow. Her breath rose in a white mist before her. She had to jerk her legs high into the air in order to move at all. The lake was frozen solid. Kate wondered where the mermaids had gone during this time. Exhausted from her more difficult run, Kate sat down on the ice and looked inquiringly into its black depths.
She went back into the castle, showered, and changed into her robes. Nobody was awake, even Oliver Wood hadn't attempted to beat her up this morning. The centaur in the girls' bathroom was even sleeping. In a fit of intense boredom, Kate snuck out of the portrait hole and wandered down the hallway. It was probably about four in the morning. Kate walked down past the library and looked at the various coats of armor. One was leaning against its sword as though sleeping. Curiously, she looked at the door beside it. Checking to make sure no one was around, she tentatively tested the door knob. She snuck into the room. It was an empty classroom.
"Poo," she whispered. She had been hoping to find something interesting. Then, she didn't know how it hadn't struck her before, her attention was caught by a large mirror that reached the ceiling, with an incredibly intricate gold frame. Her mouth fell open and transformed into a grin. Kate squinted to read the inscription: Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi.
Kate stared again, trying to make heads or tails of it.
"It's a mirror, so it's probably backwards. Ishow no tyo urfac ebu tyo urhe arts desire. Desire. And arts. Wait…." She thought again. "I show not your face but your hearts desire! Huh!" She stepped in front of the mirror wondering what exactly it did. Then she looked at herself and gasped.
There stood a gorgeous and statuesque girl with flowing brown hair that reached the bottom of her back, dazzling eyes without gigantic glasses, a brilliant smile, and a perfect figure. Behind her stood a handsome boy and he took her hand in his. Kate moved her own hand and the girl in the mirror did the same.
I show not your face… Kate touched the mirror. But your heart's desire. Yeah, I'd like to be pretty. She sighed and backed away, touching her short hair as she went. She returned to the common room, though the Fat Lady clucked her tongue disapprovingly at her.
That remaining week at school, Fred and George were given punishment for torturing Quirrell by chasing him with snowballs, the owls were nursed frequently back to health by Hagrid, and the corridors had become frigid. Kate always made her shower particularly hot in the morning. Though she had been eating normally again, she still looked as though her flesh and bones were all that her body consisted of. Her legs had gotten quite the shape from all of the running and the deep snow had helped to contribute to that.
Professor McGonagall was sending a list around of students who would be staying at Hogwarts for the holidays. Kate had no objection to going back home to Privet Drive with her parents. Harry and Ron were staying at the castle. Malfoy, still sore about losing to Gryffindor in Quidditch, took this as another approach to being cruel to Harry. No one responded to this new unkind action, because Harry was glad to be staying away from his family.
The quartet of friends had spent every bit of free time in the library searching for the elusive Nicolas Flamel, who seemed to have done nothing. He seemed as obscure as the next wizard. Hagrid, when he had heard about this, had gone off at them. Kate didn't press him to tell them more, agreeing that it probably wasn't their business. Not that that stopped her from being curious and avidly searching. Harry, Ron and Hermione still made fun of her for thinking that Quirrell was guilty. When Kate said that they should ask Madam Pince about Flamel, the other three had quickly put this off as a bad idea. Because even Hermione thought it might get back to Snape "or Quirrell, since you're so intent on it being him," Kate was forced to agree with their logic.
The day that the Holidays were to properly start, Kate was up and running as usual. She got down past Hagrid's hut with his gift. She had ordered it for him a month ago. Kate had seen it in a magazine and couldn't help but think of Hagrid. It was a gigantic walking stick that was carved to be in the likeness of a dragon. She was having trouble running with the package and so stopped at his door, breathing heavily, arms aching, and legs feeling like play-dough. She placed it carefully on his doorstep, making sure that the card was signed and filled out properly for a last time when a large hand came down heavily on her shoulder. It took every bit of self-restraint to keep from screaming.
"Hagrid!" She smiled and then blushed. "Um…."
Hagrid grinned at her from behind his beard, beaming at her. "Don' worry. I haven't said a thing and never will."
"Thank you." Kate looked down and looked back up happily.
"I came out ter wish yeh a good holiday. And ter give yeh this." He handed Kate a clumsily wrapped package. "Yer Christmas package."
"Thank you so much!" She glanced at the package and then beamed at Hagrid, leaned forward and wrapped her arms as far around his figure as she could manage. He pat her on the back.
"'Tis gettin' early. Yeh'd best get back up to yer room."
"Yeah. I'll see you in a couple of weeks, Hagrid. Have a good holiday."
He waved a gigantic hand at her as she ran back up the castle, pausing to look over her shoulder and wave back. She ascended back into the common room and watched out the window as the half-giant walked back into his hut, taking his package with him. She imagined that he was smiling but couldn't know from that distance. Her heart felt warm and soon her body was just as warm from a friendly shower.
"Happy holidays, Centaur." She said amiably to the painting. "I promise to have a name made up for you by the time I get back."
The centaur looked curiously at her.
"After all, I can't keep calling you Centaur. I wouldn't like to be called Human as a name, after all." She readjusted her glasses and stared at the centaur, as though coming to a name. "I've got it, I'll call you Fergus."
The centaur looked affronted and finally opened his mouth. "I beg your pardon!" He spoke with a Scottish brogue. "But my name is certainly not Fergus."
Kate didn't say anything, afraid that he might stop.
He stopped anyway.
"Oh? Then what is it?"
He glared at her. "I am called Druce."
"I beg your pardon, Druce." Kate bowed her head, heart racing excitedly.
"I suppose I can forgive you." His eyes softened.
"My name is Kate." She offered. "Short for Kathryn."
"Yes. Purity. Your name means purity." He nodded sagely. "Get thee to your home, young Kathryn. Your family misses you. Mars has been exceptionally bright and Cygnus begun to shine perceptively in the heavens." He added randomly.
Kate frowned. "What is that supposed to mean?"
But Druce trotted out of his portrait. Kate desperately hoped that centaurs weren't usually like this. She left the warmth of the bathroom to find Oliver Wood sitting on the squashy red sofa, awaiting her arrival. She slumped over next to him, legs stiff.
"I will never beat you out of bed, will I?"
"Never."
"Damn."
"Are you going or staying for the holidays?"
"Going." Wood said.
"Me too." Kate's eyes wandered back out the window to Hagrid's hut.
"So, why is it you get up so early?" Wood asked again. "I don't buy any of your other stories."
"It is my secret." Kate said in a contrived French accent.
"Please?"
"No."
"I'll take it as a Christmas present."
Kate had to laugh. She shoved her glasses further onto her face. "Alright. I do it so I can run in the morning."
"Really?" Wood's eyebrows shot up.
"Yeah."
"Wow. That's determination."
"Well, I always wake up from a nightmare… where I can't run. It bugs me, so I'm sort of proving to myself that I can run." Kate thought of the path and how her feet were so rooted to it, but didn't tell him any of that. She squinted through glasses. There seemed to be a spot on them. She took them off and started rubbing at them with her robes. She looked through them directly at the fire and then was satisfied, so was about to put them back on, but Wood stopped her.
"You have pretty eyes." He said, holding her arm out.
Kate blushed. "Thanks." She felt uncomfortable.
Wood flushed too. "Sorry, I've just never seen you with your glasses off before. You just look different."
Kate shoved them on, feeling as though they were a sudden security blanket.
"Sorry," Wood said again.
"No, it's okay. No one really sees me without them. Heck, I don't see me without them, not that I can see more than an inch in front of my nose without them."
Wood grinned and ruffled her hair playfully.
Later that morning, Hermione, Kate and Dean, Seamus and Neville all boarded the train together. They sat in the compartment discussing their holiday plans.
"Well, Gran always has all of the relatives over." Neville explained. "It's usually really boring." Neville turned pink. "But Aunt Edna makes a really good rice pudding."
"Mum doesn't like wizard crackers, but we always have them anyway." Seamus explained. "My cousins, uncles and aunts always come to visit. Or else we visit them. Only the ones from the wizarding side come usually. Sometimes Mum's sister comes, but not usually."
Hermione, Kate and Dean felt that their stories were all pretty similar.
"It's our first Christmas in England, so I doubt we'll have anyone over." Kate shrugged.
The door swung open to admit three Slytherin boys.
"Back to the Muggle world for all of you, eh? No Potter or Weasley, I gather. Probably too expensive for the weasel family." Malfoy and his cronies cackled. Kate rolled her eyes and was about to ask them to leave when Malfoy turned to scrutinize her. "I see you've been losing weight, Slate." Malfoy glared at Kate as though trying to see whether or not she was just hiding it. "Magical formula?"
"Malfoy, if you've nothing else to say, why don't you just leave?" Kate said coolly. "The mood in here was very nice until you arrived."
Crabbe cracked his knuckles and then nudged Goyle to do the same.
"What's going on in here?" A boy's voice floated in over the three Slytherin's heads. Oliver Wood pushed his way into the compartment. "These boys aren't giving you trouble, are they Kate?"
Kate looked at the three of them and saw them looking nervously at Oliver's brawny arms.
"See you later, Slate." Malfoy motioned to his friends to follow him out.
"Not anymore apparently." She said in response to Wood's earlier question. "Thanks."
"I just came in to give you your present."
"Oh no! I didn't get one for you!" Kate blushed.
"Yes you did," Wood grinned. "Forgotten so soon? Here," he handed her a package. "Don't open it 'til Christmas, or it will explode."
"That's reassuring."
"I know." And he left.
Kate's parents were glad to see her arrive from the platform, wearing normal Muggle clothing that was far too loose for her. She was wearing a gigantic, white, turtle-neck and some even baggier jeans that she had had to tie a rope around. Her father took her trunk for her, placing it on a trolley for her and then hugged his daughter. Her mother hugged and kissed her happily. Kate tossed her hands around their necks and whooped excitedly. She hadn't realized how much she had missed them. Her friends were also getting off of the train and were wishing Kate happy holidays.
"Oh, Mom, Dad, I want you to meet my friends. This is Seamus Finnigan, Dean Thomas, Neville Longbottom and Hermione Granger."
"Nice to meet you, I've heard so much." Mrs. Slate said eagerly.
The children's parents came over and spoke with one another, introducing themselves. Kate's parents, as they told her later, truly liked her friends and were happy for her luck in finding friends.
"How has this year been so far?" Her father asked from behind the wheel.
Kate was staring out of the window, thinking that she was approaching the end of her dream. "It's been excellent." Kate said. "It's just exciting."
"We've missed you a lot." Mrs. Slate turned to face Kate, her hazel eyes filled with tears. "It just reminds me how much you're growing up." Her mother hadn't highlighted her hair in awhile and it had become a darker brown again. "You should see the house. It's all finished up."
Privet Drive was covered in a few inches of snow and the lights on the houses made it look like a winter wonderland. The moon was shining brilliantly in the wintry sky. The stars were gorgeous in the velvet of night. Kate remembered something that Druce the centaur had said about Cygnus and looked for the constellation. Then she remembered that Cygnus was a summer constellation. She exhaled heavily in a billow of white air.
When they got home, Meghan was lying in front of the television, watching a cartoon show lazily, sprawled on the floor. By her side was a strongly scented pine tree, already decorated with a few sparse ornaments. Meghan stood up eagerly and hugged her elder sister.
"Hey… Jolly… whoa…." She let go and stared in awe at her small-waist-ed sister. "Where did your cheeks go?"
"Yes, I barely recognized you in the station," her father agreed. "Are they starving you at that school of yours?"
"Certainly not." Kate laughed, thinking of the sumptuous feasts that were served.
"I almost thought the same, but then Neville Longbottom was still round-faced as ever." Mrs. Slate smiled.
"You have a tree," Kate remarked. "A real tree."
"Yes, well, we sold the false, so we thought it would be all right to splurge just this once." Dr. Slate shrugged.
Mrs. Slate came over to Kate and tugged at her shirt. "We need to get you a new wardrobe this summer." She lifted her shirt up and saw the rope around the pants. Playfully, she poked Kate's navel. Kate rewarded her with a squeak.
She spent that night with her parents properly recounting all of her school activities, tactfully leaving out anything to do with her suspicions of Quirrell, her nightmares, and running. When she told them about the troll situation, her parents looked astonished and horrified. From that point on, she never told them of a dangerous occurrence again for fear that they would take her from the school. Her sister kept bringing the troll up, again and again. Kate wondered if it would be alright to wipe her memory.
"So you fought a troll? How big was it?"
"It was a small troll," Kate said. "It was maybe a few inches taller than me." She recalled the gigantic troll that stood at least ten feet into the air.
"Oh, then who cares?" Meghan got bored quite early with the discussions of her school. Before everyone went off to bed, Kate snuck the presents that she had gotten for her family under the tree and followed everyone upstairs. Her room was just as she had left it, except that her mother had taken the liberty to paint it a creamy green color.
She collapsed into bed, her parents staying to wish her goodnight. Her tuck-in lasted far longer than it ever had. She hadn't been tucked in for years and supposed that she shouldn't have been shocked by this sudden display of love, having been absent for a few months.
Still having her nightmares, she continued to run even while at home.
Kate and her sister went out sledding quite a bit. One day when her sister didn't feel like going out and her parents were over at the Danby's, Kate went to visit old Mrs. Figg.
She knocked on the door a couple of times before the batty old woman came out, dressed in a festive robe.
"Hello?" She looked at Kate without any sign of recognition.
"Hi, Mrs. Figg. Remember me? Kate Slate?"
"Oh yes!" The old woman clapped her hands together. A cat brushed by her ankles to get a look at Kate. "Come in for some cocoa. I have it sitting on the stove."
"Thank you," Kate smiled, pink-cheeked from the cold. She followed the old woman into her house, which was overrun with bizarre, yet friendly, cats. Mrs. Figg walked over to a cupboard, took out two coffee mugs and filled them to the brim with cocoa. She took a seat at the counter and motioned that Kate should do the same. "How have you been, Mrs. Figg?"
"Oh, very much the same as ever. Nothing new ever happens around this town. How is school going for you?"
"Very well," Kate said cautiously.
Mrs. Figg was testing her cocoa against her lips before sipping it. Kate allowed the warmth of the beverage to go through the orange mug and into her fingertips. She realized suddenly that she was still wearing her coat. Taking it off, she draped it over the back of her seat.
"Where is it you go?" Mrs. Figg asked, looking back up at Kate.
Kate thought very hard. She didn't know any of the boarding schools besides Hogwarts. What if Mrs. Figg knew every school in the area?
"Keeping to the Statute of Secrecy, aren't you?" Mrs. Figg smiled warmly at Kate.
"You… you knew I was a witch?" Kate's mouth dropped.
"Yes. I may be a Squib but I know these things. Whenever a new witch comes into the area, I'm supposed to know these things." Mrs. Figg shook her head.
"Oh," Kate felt uncomfortable, though Mrs. Figg seemed perfectly cheerful. "So, why is it… well… how come Harry didn't know? I mean, you watch him all the time…."
"He still cannot know." Mrs. Figg said sharply. "Say nothing of this to him." She glared at Kate. Kate leaned further back into her chair and squeaked.
"I won't, I promise." Her eyes were wide in shock.
Mrs. Figg's face broke into a smile.
A cat leapt into Kate's lap and started purring. The rest of their conversation was pleasant and rather avoided more magical topics. Kate left an hour after and returned home.