As it turned out, Kate hardly had to wait for a reply. Ron responded a day later.
Dear Kate,
Thanks for the note. We've got him. Mum's not pleased. We used Dad's flying car. Apparently that's against the law or something, but it worked. Harry was in a rotten state when we got there, so it's good that we did. He was glad to get out of there. He says thanks for sending Hedwig, too, and for cleaning her up.
How was America? Did you meet many Americans? You probably did, seeing as how you were there and all and lived there before.
Write you later,
Ron
Kate laughed at the strangeness of his letter and set to work on her own.
Dear Ron,
Glad to hear Harry's doing better- his room was not of a good smelling kind.
America was very American, but I did not meet any Americans. They were all Chinese tourists coming to America. All of them. Even me. I suspect Hermione is having the same problem in France, except they're probably Belgians come to have some French cuisine as made by Thai people. Yes, the world is very multi-cultural.
When are you going to Diagon Alley? Let me know and we can meet up.
Ciao for now,
Kate
A week or so went by and Kate lived in relative seclusion. Her sister forced her to play tennis with her about four times a week and her father thought it would be a good idea to start her French lessons.
"No language education at that school," Dr. Slate stated grimly. "I don't care what powers they teach you, you need to learn French."
So it was decided that she would take French lessons all year round. He would send her homework by owl and she would complete it. She decided that she hated her father, in a loving kind of way. She received letters from Hermione, Ron and Harry in turn, and eventually got her booklist from Hogwarts.
"Who's Gilderoy Lockhart?" She wondered aloud.
"Like I would know," her sister snorted.
"Rhetorical, ma soeur," Kate mumbled.
This year, Mrs. Slate wanted to take Kate to Diagon Alley. Meghan wanted to come too, but then she realized that this would require the will to move further than her sofa of sloth. An occasional tennis player and perpetual television watcher, Meghan did little else.
"Wow, a step into another world," Mary Jane breathed as they entered under the magical archway into Diagon Alley. Tom, the toothless innkeeper at the leaky cauldron, laughed his wheezy laugh and wished them well. "This is fantastic,"
Kate smiled and looked around the busy streets with a feeling of joy bubbling in her chest.
It had been so very long since she had seen the magical streets of Diagon Alley, a whole year, in fact. Mary Jane had never seen them before and pulled Kate into every shop for a look. They went into smelly apothecaries to magical pastry shops, books shops and forty-five minutes passed achieving nothing before Kate reminded her mother that she had promised Ron and Hermione that she'd meet them in Gringotts.
"Gringotts? The place with Goblins, right?"
"Mmhmm," Kate grinned at her mother. "Wait 'til you take the cart ride, it'll make you vomit all over the place."
"That's vulgar," Mrs. Slate scolded half-heartedly, staring at an old peddling witch selling some sort of humming Technicolor fur balls. "Maybe I'll pass the ride, then,"
"Good plan,"
Their conversation came to an abrupt stop as they passed through the silver doors into Gringotts. Kate's mother looked unnerved by the cunning faces of the goblins, her hazel eyes blinking rapidly as if to change their appearance. Kate always felt a bit of a shudder when she saw them, as though they were looking into her mind and sneering at what they saw.
Then, Kate started eagerly towards a cluster of redheads.
"Ron! Harry! Hermione!" She squealed, causing a wizened old witch to scowl in her direction. Kate pounced on them, pulling them into a tight group hug. Hermione's neck was somewhat padded from Kate's arm by her bushy brown hair.
"Hey!" Harry laughed.
"Who are you?" Ron asked, dumbstruck.
Hermione smiled bewilderedly, and then, "Kate! You've gotten… taller!"
"Pff," Kate waved that away. "I've missed you all like mad."
She glanced around the group and saw Mrs. Weasley with her ruddy complexion and kind smile, the gawky and balding Mr. Weasley, Fred and George, Percy the Prefect, and a girl who must have been Ginny, Ron's little sister. She was very pretty, though she looked a bit nervous. Besides the Weasley family were people who must have been Hermione's parents, for she recognized the curiously straight teeth on both, bushy brown hair on the mother and Hermione's eyes on her father.
Mrs. Slate trotted over.
"Oh, this is my mom," Kate introduced to the listening group.
"Hi, I'm Mary Jane,"
"You're not a Muggle, are you?" Mr. Weasley started delightedly.
"Arthur, not now," Mrs. Weasley scolded. She turned her smiling face back to Kate's mom. "You can call me Mollie,"
"Mary Jane," Mrs. Slate smiled back.
While her mother was introduced to the Grangers, Kate began talking with Harry, Hermione, and Ron about the wild car ride to the Burrow, Harry's arrival in the wrong grate ("Malfoy? What a pleasant surprise!") and Hagrid's saving him.
"Busy morning, yes?"
"That's about right," Harry agreed.
"Mum about had a hernia," Ron shook his head. "You'd think we'd never lost somebody in the Floo Network before."
"Well, he could have been somewhere worse," Hermione stated, pursing her lips. "I still can't believe that you broke the law to get him to your house."
Ron pointedly ignored her. "Well, we'd better get our money. We'll meet you back out here, Hermione."
Hermione opened her mouth to say something, but Ron had already turned away, tugging Harry and Kate after him.
"Ah, so glad to see you're still your charming self," Kate smiled, as they were led into the dark tunnel. She reached up to unclasp her necklace and remove the key.
"What?" Ron asked defensively. "She was just going to be annoying, and you know it,"
Kate rolled her eyes and went into the cart with the Weasley children and Harry.
After they had all bagged some of their gold, they tumbled out of the cart and back into the marble halls of Gringotts, where the Grangers, Mary Jane, and Mrs. and Mr. Weasley waited for them.
"Kate, I'm going to get a drink with the Grangers and Mr. Weasley, is that alright with you?"
Kate could tell that her mother had been laughing a lot and the Grangers seemed quite a bit more relaxed that at first.
"Go ahead," Kate nodded. "Hermione, Ron, Harry and I will get our stuff."
"Good girl,"
Mrs. Weasley took Ginny to get her outfitted and soon after they had all departed onto the busy streets of Diagon Alley, Percy walked off, muttering something about needing a new quill.
"Well, kids, you all seem to know where you're going," Fred piped up. "And I think I spot Lee. Let's go,"
"Right then," and George and Fred left.
"Let's get ice creams," Harry offered. "My treat,"
"Who are we to refuse that?" Kate laughed. Inside Florean Fortescue's, they were greeted by hundreds of flavors, including chocolate, vanilla, peanut butter, cotton candy, toffee nut, peppermint, potpourri, and pumpkin. The three of them wandered in and out of shops, picking up supplies. Ron kept turning to look longingly at Chudley Cannon robes in Quality Quidditch Supplies. Hermione rolled her eyes at him and dragged him off to buy more parchment and ink. Hermione asked questions about America and homework in turn. Harry and Ron exchanged exasperated looks.
"Did any of you tell your parents about the Sorcerer's Stone?" Harry asked curiously.
"No," Hermione stated curtly.
"Hahaha! No."
"I'm not mad," Ron said. "Though I think someone did because Mum kept warning me to keep safe this year and stay out of trouble."
"Probably Percy," Kate shrugged. Then she froze and grinned. "WOOD!" She screamed. She bounded over to where the tall, burly sixth year was standing with a few other unfamiliar Hogwarts students and jumped on him. He caught her in the nick of time and hugged her back.
"Slate! You're not starving yourself, are you?" He asked, putting her back down and looking at her with an appraising eye.
"No, silly,"
Oliver Wood grinned at her and looked back to where her friends were standing.
"Potter! How was your summer?"
"Wretched," Harry smiled crookedly.
"Hope it hasn't affected your Quidditch,"
"Aw, how concerned you are!" Kate punched him in the shoulder. Her eye was caught suddenly by a handsome boy walking by. His gray eyes were smiling as he waved to one of the boys in Wood's group. He looked at her for a moment, smiled, and continued on. She felt her heart rate go up a notch.
They went into Gambol and Japes Wizarding Joke Shop and fiddled with some nose-biting teacups ("Ow! Ooh, this is good….") and discovered Fred, George and Lee Jordan stocking up on Dr. Filibuster's Fabulous Wet-Start, No-Heat Fireworks. They kindly threatened to shove them up their anuses if they told their parents. Inside another store full of old cauldrons, ancient books, and other antique knick-knacks, they found Percy engrossed in a book called Prefects Who Gained Power.
"A study of Hogwarts prefects and their later careers," Ron read aloud off of the back cover with a look of mock curiosity. "That sounds fascinating…."
"Go away," Percy snapped, pulling the book out of their sight.
"'Course, he's very ambitious, Percy, he's got it all planned out…. He wants to be Minister of Magic…" Ron told them in a soft undertone as they left.
An hour later, they headed for Flourish and Blotts, the wizarding bookstore.
"A bit crowded today," Kate noted the bustling crowd trying to force their way through the doors. "Wonder what's… oh,"
There was a banner stretched across the upper windows of the store.
"Gilderoy Lockhart- isn't he-?"
Hermione cut her off. "We can actually meet him!"
Harry, Ron, and Kate gave Hermione a startled look.
"I mean, he's written almost the whole booklist!" She explained.
Quietly to Harry, Kate asked, "Why is the entire crowd middle-aged witches?"
Harry shrugged.
"Lockhart's incredibly good-looking," Ron explained with a look of mild nausea. "All the bimbos of the wizarding world want to marry him." Hermione didn't seem to hear him, standing on tiptoe to get a good look over the crowd.
A harassed-looking wizard stood at the door, attempting to keep things under control.
"Calmly, please, ladies… don't push, there… mind the books now…."
Harry and Kate exchanged sideways glances and squeezed inside behind Ron and Hermione. A long line wound right to the back of the shop, where Gilderoy Lockhart was signing his autobiography. Kate saw a winking picture of him on the cover. He certainly was handsome, with bright, unnaturally white, teeth, twinkling blue eyes, and blonde hair, but he gave her the willies. The four of them grabbed a copy of The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 2 and found the rest of the Weasleys, Mr. and Mrs. Granger, and Mrs. Slate.
"Oh, there you are, good," Mrs. Weasley smiled at them.
"…television shows pictures, telephone is just a sound-."
"Tellyvision shows pictures! How fascinating! How does it….?" Mr. Weasley and Mrs. Slate were still discussing the wonders of the Muggle world, apparently.
Mrs. Weasley, for once, was not irritated, but rather out of breath and patting her hair.
"We'll be able to see him in a minute…."
They were, in fact, quite close to the author himself at this point. Two giggling witches were flirting with him until they were shoved aside by the next group of eager witches. Soon he was clearly in view, surrounded by pictures of himself, all grinning and winking jauntily at the crowd.
A short, cranky man was hopping everywhere to get photographs with a large black camera that kept emitting puffs of purple smoke with every impossibly bright flash.
"Ouch!"
"Hey! Be careful!" Kate cried indignantly.
"Out of the way, there," the man snarled at Ron, ignoring Kate and moving back to get a better shot. "This is for the Daily Prophet."
"Big deal," Ron muttered, rubbing his foot where the irritable photographer had stepped on it.
"What a-."
Gilderoy Lockhart heard him and looked up. He saw Ron and Kate- and then his eyes widened with the sight of Harry. He leapt up and nearly shouted with excitement, "It can't be Harry Potter?"
The noise died down into excited whispers and the crowd parted to allow Lockhart an unadulterated view of the famous Harry Potter. Kate raised and eyebrow at a bewildered Harry. Lockhart practically tackled Harry in an attempt to seize his arm and drag him up front. The crowd burst into applause.
"Eek, he's turning red," Kate noted to Ron.
Lockhart started shaking Harry's hand for the benefit of the photographer. The Weasleys, Slates, and Grangers started waving away the cloud of purple smoke that had enveloped them. When the smoke disappeared, Kate noticed Harry trying to sneak back over to the group, rubbing his hand uncomfortably. However, before he could escape, Lockhart clamped his arm around his shoulders and squeezed him to his side.
"Ladies and gentlemen," he said loudly, waving and receiving instantaneous quiet. "What an extraordinary moment this is! The perfect moment for me to make a little announcement I've been sitting on for some time!"
"Uh-oh, I think he's going to propose," Kate whispered to Ron.
Ron let out a snort, but Lockhart didn't hear.
"When young Harry here stepped into Flourish and Blotts today, he only wanted to buy my autobiography- which I shall present free of charge-" There was a storm of applause that stopped when Lockhart opened his mouth again. "He had no idea," Lockhart shook Harry fondly, causing his glasses to slide to the end of his nose, "that he would shortly be getting much, much more than my book, Magical Me. He and his schoolmates will, in fact, be getting the real magical me."
Ron and Kate exchanged bewildered and slightly horrified looks.
"Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I have great pleasure and pride in announcing that this September, I will be taking up the post of Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry!"
While the crowd cheered and Hermione positively squealed, Harry was forced to take the entire works of Gilderoy Lockhart.
"Oh no," Ron and Kate muttered.
Kate looked over to where Harry was dumping his armload of unsolicited books into Ginny's cauldron and saw a familiar blonde boy.
"Malfoy,"
"What?" Ron called over the noise.
"Malfoy!" She shouted, running over towards Harry, followed closely by Hermione and Ron.
"…didn't want all that!" Ginny glared at Malfoy.
"Potter, you've got yourself a girlfriend!" Malfoy drawled in amusement.
"Oh stuff it, Malfoy," Kate snapped as Ginny turned red.
Malfoy's head whipped to the side to look at Kate, Ron and Hermione as they got closer.
"Slate?" He asked, eyes narrowing. "You look like you've been pulled out of that old fat body of yours. Did you finally vomit yourself up?"
Kate's face burned with fury, and she grabbed onto Harry's sleeve as he started forward.
"Classy as ever, Draco Malfoy," she hissed.
Ron looked at Malfoy with disgust. "Bet you're surprised to see Harry here, eh?"
Malfoy smirked. "Not as surprised as I am to see you in a shop, Weasley. I suppose your parents will go hungry for a month to pay for all of those."
It was Ron's turn to lunge for Malfoy. He was stopped by Kate and Hermione holding onto the back of his jacket.
"Ron!" Mr. Weasley struggled over with Fred and George. "What are you doing? It's too crowded in here, let's go outside."
Mr. and Mrs. Granger along with Mrs. Slate came up behind them, looking nervous.
"Well, well, well- Arthur Weasley,"
A man with long silvery-blonde hair and cold gray eyes came up behind Draco Malfoy and put his hand on his shoulder, sneering in just the same way.
Kate wanted to ask if he was Satan, for Draco was certainly the spawn of the devil.
"Lucius," Mr. Weasley nodded coldly.
"Busy time at the Ministry, I hear," Mr. Malfoy said. "All those raids… I hope they're paying you overtime?" He reached lazily into Ginny's cauldron and took out a very old and worn copy of A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration. "Obviously not," Mr. Malfoy smirked. "Dear me, what's the use of being a disgrace to the name of wizard if they don't even pay you well for it?"
Mr. Weasley flushed darker than either Ron or Ginny.
"We have a very different idea of what disgraces the name of wizard, Malfoy,"
"Clearly," said MR. Malfoy, his pale eyes wandering towards Mr. and Mrs. Granger and Mary Jane. "The company you keep, Weasley… and I though your family could sink no lower-"
Kate and Hermione glared at him and Kate had words on the tip of her tongue when Ginny's cauldron went flying. Mr. Weasley had thrown himself at Mr. Malfoy, knocking backward into a bookshelf. Dozens of heavy spell books came thundering down on all of their heads. There was a shout from either Fred or George that sounded like, "Get him, Dad!" Mrs. Weasley, who was struggling through the crowd, shrieked "No, Arthur, no!" The crowd stampeded backward, knocking more shelves over. "Gentlemen, please- please!" The assistant cried.
"Break it up, there, gents, break it up-." Hagrid's voice boomed over all of the hubbub. In practically no time at all, he had pulled the fighting wizards apart. Mr. Weasley's lip was bleeding and Mr. Malfoy had a spectacular bruise blossoming over his left eye. He was still holding Ginny's old Transfiguration book. He thrust it at her, his eyes glittering with malice.
"Here, girl- take your book- it's the best your father can give you." Pulling himself out of Hagrid's grip, he beckoned to Draco and the two of them swept from the shop.
Hagrid scolded Mr. Weasley for fighting, saying that the whole Malfoy family had bad blood and let them be. Kate noticed that he was carrying the dragon staff that she had given him last Christmas and smiled. He said goodbye to them and said he'd see the kids at school. Mrs. Weasley went of on Arthur until Fred cut her off. The group, once cheerful, had become subdued and said goodbye at the Leaky Cauldron.
The Grangers and Slates left together, as the Weasleys and Harry would be going back via Floo Powder.
"That was a bit frightening," Mrs. Granger said as they walked down the streets of London, looking for the bus stop.
"Kate, that Draco Malfoy boy… I don't think you should associate with him," Mrs. Slate said nervously.
Kate laughed. "That would never happen to begin with."
Hermione nodded.
"See you in school, 'Mione," Kate said goodbye.
"Nice to meet you both," Mrs. Slate said kindly.
They waited until the Grangers' bus had gone off before getting in the car and leaving for home. Kate only worried that her mother might worry too much about Hogwarts this year, but soon moved conversation to other topics until they got home.
