Chapter Thirteen

"Merry Christmas, Harry." Kate kissed Harry's cheek and dropped a wrapped package into his lap. They were all sitting in Kate's Tower: Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Harry, and Kate.

He unwrapped the shiny gold paper. She'd given him some candy and a robe of his favorite Quidditch team. He held up the neon orange robe and smiled. "Thanks, Kate. You're the best."

Kate saw Hermione nudge Ron's arm. The two were finally dating, to Harry's relief. They had been crazy about each other, but neither would act. Their constant bickering had stemmed for a whole week, but now they were snipping at each other again. Kate merely found the whole thing amusing.

Harry had given her a picture of herself. It was a black and white, taken when she hadn't been looking one day at the lake. The picture-Kate looked off the photograph in deep thought. She had a bemused half-smile on her face.

"Breakfast?" Kate asked when everyone had unwrapped their stack of gifts.

Ron nodded. "Definitively breakfast."

"None for me. I've got to get going. I'm meeting Dean in fifteen minutes. Thanks anyway, Kate. Bye, everyone," Ginny waved and let herself out the door. Their fellow Gryffindor Dean Thomas was Ginny's boyfriend. The two had been apparently dating on and off for years.

Ron and Harry sat at the table and sipped coffee. Hermione and Kate wandered back to the kitchen.

"We can manage breakfast, I think."

"Good idea."

"What are you feeding us?" Ron gasped when Hermione placed the plate of some kind of eggs in front of him.

"Eggs, Ron. What's wrong?"

"Erm…they don't exactly look like eggs, Hermione."

Kate surveyed the plate. The simple scrambled eggs had turned an eerie gray color and were leaking hot pink ooze. "I guess I overdid that spell, then. Sorry."

"The toast is alright," Harry said between bites, laughing.

Ron laughed too and took a piece of the dry toast.

"Merry Christmas, indeed!"

Later, Harry and Kate took a walk through the Garden. It, like everything else, had a thorough jacket of the whitest snow. The trees and bushes that had once been leafed out with green were bare and dead-looking. The paving stones were uncovered by the snow, guiding them to the Temple. The whole Garden had gone into hibernation.

"I still can't believe that in less than a year, I'll be out getting a flat in London, away from Hogwarts."

"It goes by almost too fast, doesn't it?" Kate slipped her cold, red hand into his.

"Yeah. Remember when we met?"

Kate nodded, watching her feet travel along the pathway, leaving partial footprints in the snow heaped between the stones.

"It seems like I've hardly gotten the chance to know you, Kate." He swallowed. "When the time comes, and I leave for London…will you come with me?"

Kate stopped biting her lip when she tasted the coppery-hot tang filled her mouth. "Harry." She took a deep breath. "Would we come back?"

He hung his head. "I don't know, Kate. I don't know if I can."

"Harry, I don't know if I can leave. Not just yet."

He sighed and dropped her hand. "Why?" His voice was that of an injured lion with its ego burned.

"I can't leave the Temple, the Garden. I'm a Guardian. I can't leave it, Harry."

"A Guardian? Kate, Hogwarts is the safest place on earth. I think the Box is protected enough without…" He stopped, realizing what he was saying.

Kate had stopped and her lips twitched with anger. "Without me. I can't believe you would… How dare you say such despicable things?" Her eyes hardened over and glowered at him. "And believe it or not, you're a Guardian too. There are responsibilities that go along with that!"

He lashed back. "What if I don't want any more responsibilities? Have you ever thought of that? I don't want it! None of it!"

"Yes, Harry. I have thought of it. It's not like you're the only one making bloody sacrifices!"

"And what are you really losing, Kate?"

"What's that supposed to mean, Harry? Are you afraid that if you let someone give you their trust, you'll trust them and they'll desert you? Like Sirius did?"

"He didn't desert me!" Harry's yell echoed through the Garden, sending mutated replicas back at them.

Kate lowered her voice. "Then why don't you let me trust you?"

"I do trust you, Kate."

She walked up to him and kissed his cheek. "Then talk to me, Harry," she said and stiffly walked away.

Kate stalked to the castle instead of the Tower. Without realizing, she'd strode right to the entrance to Sibyll Trelawney's tower.

"Come in, my dear," said the misty voice from the top of the creaky staircase.

Kate climbed up the stairs into the oppressive room.

"Kathleen. I, of course, knew you were coming. Please, take a chair."

Kate sat.

"Is there something you'd like to ask me, Kate? A question perhaps?" Her insect-like eyes inspected through the thick lenses of her glasses.

Kate gulped. "Yes, actually. It's about the Garden."

"Ah, yes. I was actually wondering when you'd visit me again. You haven't been here in a long time."

Kate hadn't been to the attic since Harry had visited the Garden. "Professor, I really was going to come talk to you about it."

"Young love conquers all, my dear. I completely understand." Her magnified eyes took on an all-knowing stare.

"I just had a question. About my mother."

Sibyll nodded and folded her bejeweled hands together.

"When my mother, when she left, she took the Box with her, didn't she?"

"I am not privy to that information, my dear child. The Guardian protects all aspects of the Arca."

"I'm sorry. What?"

"The Arca. What the Guardian protects."

"You don't know what it is?"

Sibyll clutched her chest and fluttered her eyelids. "Good heavens, child. No. Nor do I want to know. What about you're mother now, dear?" Her composure returned in a flash and she adjusted her crimson scarf around her shoulders.

"Oh. Yes. I was just wondering, did she abandon--leave the--Arca--unguarded?"

Sibyll shook her head. "Sadly, yes. Couldn't handle the stress of a child and her responsibilities. Poor thing."

"But when she left for London, when she met my dad…"

"Ah, yes. She was intending to come back, so they allowed it. A Guardian can't leave permanently. They have to accept. There is no other choice."

Kate tossed and turned in bed that night. Alone. His things were still in the Tower, however, and he'd left a shattered note telling Kate he was sleeping in the Gryffindor Tower with Ron and not to worry.

How could she not worry? She had said things she didn't mean, earlier in the Garden. Kate regretted talking about Sirius. Saying that Sirius had deserted him. The sad truth was that Harry didn't want the responsibilities of the Temple.

"He's not ready for them. The obligations of the Guardianship; of protecting the Arca," Severus said, watching Kate as she drank the hot tea.

"But my mother…"

"She did leave. And came back…the first time. The second time, after you were born…she didn't. When you were born, she left Hogwarts with your father, taking the Arca with her. She couldn't handle it, so she returned it to Dumbledore. And look at what happened to her. Murdered."

"Surely that wasn't her fault!"

"She could have prevented it. The Arca looks after its own. You have to be strong in both body and mind to keep the Guardianship. After Diana deserted the Arca, the Temple, its magic deserted her."

"So you're saying that if she would have stayed with the…Arca, she would be alive today."

"In a word, yes. They both would."

Kate swallowed. "Harry doesn't want the Guardianship. He refuses it."

"Then he'll die. He knows the secret of the Arca. Now the Dark Lord will stop at nothing to have him."

"But Voldemort already wants Harry dead. Everyone knows that."

Severus nodded gravely. "I know."

Kate couldn't trust her ears. "Harry has to accept. He has to."