A/N: Here's the next chapter! Hope you all like it! - Casper

When Kat woke up next, she was shocked to see that it was almost noon. Within 10 min, she had showered, tossed on a set of robes and apparated to the Ministry. She ran to her office and barged through the door terribly out of breath.

"Sorry I'm late guys! I overslept. I think I woke up 15 minutes ago." She wheezed.

"Kat! You look like you're about to pass out. When was the last time you ate?! Also Draco's not here yet either so sit down."

Kat followed Padma over to her desk and sat down rather exhaustedly. "Probably lunch yesterday? I'm not entirely sure."

"Here, I brought a lunch today but I can go grab more food later. Eat mine."

Kat thought about protesting but her stomach decided that food was more important. A few minutes later she addressed Padma again.

"Thank you. Here's some money for lunch. I appreciate it. Now, I'm going to sleep again. Wake me when Malfoy gets here."

With that, she walked over to the chairs by the bookshelves and curled up and went to sleep.

- Draco's POV -

Draco Malfoy was not usually a late sleeper so when he woke up at 2:00 the afternoon after their first mission, he was shocked. He decided that Kingsley would want to talk to Katherine and him, so he decided to head into work for a short day. The entire time that he was getting ready he tried to forget about the kiss with Katherine the night before. He was mostly successful as he showered, and ate lunch. He put on a set of casual robes and apparated to the Ministry. Within a few minutes he was at the door to the office and entering. When he walked into the room Padma gestured at him to be quiet waving her hand in the direction of their mini library. Confused he wandered over towards where she pointed and found a sleeping Katherine in one of the chairs. Seeing her brought back all of the memories from the night before, and so he took a moment to quietly study her. She wasn't wearing any cosmetics, her hair was in some sort of messy pile on top of her head and she looked exhausted, she was definitely more pale than usual. Despite all that, Draco found that he thought she still looked beautiful.

He heard his name being called softly and he turned to find Padma with Kingsley. Deciding that now was a good time to wake Kat, Draco gently shook her.

"Kat. Katherine. Wake up, Kingsley's here."

She slowly opened her eyes and groggily muttered "Draco?"

He just replied "Yeah, Kingsley's here" while ignoring the way he felt from the husky way she said his name.

- Kat's POV -

Kat was brought out of a very delightful dream by the sound of Draco calling her name. Confused she opened her eyes and looked out at him. Ignoring the soft look in his blue-grey eyes, she just said his name. When he said that Kingsley was there she quickly stood up and tried to make herself look presentable.

"Please Katherine. No need. Stay seated. We can do this in these lovely looking chairs." Kingsley spoke to her before taking a seat across from the chair she had been in. "Now if you don't mind, I would like a report of what happened. An oral one is perfectly fine, I won't need a written one."

The two of them sat down and proceeded to tell him everything that had happened the night before; however, they both left out what happened in the cupboard, simply saying they hid in there and then left.

"Well, it sounds like it went as well as could be expected! The unspeakables have already started analyzing the bracelet and so far they are fascinated by it. They're looking to replicate it, but using healing magic instead. Now I insist you take the rest of the day off and rest. You can start doing more preparation tomorrow. But for today. Rest." With that final word, Kingsley rose and left the offices.

"I'm hungry. I'm going to get food and then go home." Kat addressed the entire room. In an attempt to forget the previous night, she turned to Draco before addressing him.

"You're welcome to join me for dinner if you'd like."

Draco only nodded but stood to grab his robe.

They quickly made their way to the same café as last time and were quickly seated. Their food was brought to them and they were soon carrying on a conversation about possible ways to prepare more for the next mission. They were talking about possible transfiguration options when Malfoy suddenly paused.

"I've got it!" He exclaimed.

Kat was very confused. "Got what?"

"Animagi! That could be very useful. One of us could have a very useful form. We should look into how to do it. Maybe we should contact Professor McGonagall…"

Draco stopped talking as he noticed that Kat was looking distinctly uncomfortable.

"Are you okay?"

Kat nodded "Yes, sorry. It's just. Well, I'm already an animagus."

Both of his eyebrows rose at that admission.

"Well that would've been useful to know before now." He responded rather icily.

Kat looked chastised at his tone "Please don't be like that. This is really personal…." she paused for a

moment before continuing "Nobody else knows."

He looked perplexed at that comment "Nobody. As in not Potter, Granger or Weasley?"

"Nobody. Not even Ginny."

"Why?"

"I learned how to do it our 7th year. As you may have noticed, I didn't go with the other three hunting for horcruxes; instead I went back to school and tried to help the order from inside Hogwarts. A few months in I thought the same thing as you did, being an Animagi would be extremely useful in trying to get information around Hogwarts undetected. Especially if I had a useful form. So I talked to McGonagall. I've always been good at Transfiguration and I think we both needed something to take our minds off of everything. She agreed to help me. It took me 4 months. I finally finished my full transformation right after the Christmas holidays. But unfortunately I'm not anything common, native to the area or small. I knew early on what my form would be but I was hoping for some reason that maybe I could still manage to use it. I used it for a little bit here and there. I also never told Ginny because if I was the only one who knew the information, they wouldn't have to lie. Then after graduation I never saw a point in bringing it up."

Draco looked impressed. A 17 year old learned how to become an animagus at the school being monitored by Voldemort and his followers.

"Well, what's your form."

When she only looked super uncomfortable he decided to make a trade.

"What if I tell you something personal in exchange."

Shocked at the offer, Kat took a moment to process it and then nodded her head in agreement.

"If you remember our first meeting with Kingsley, I got angry outside the office when you compared me to Lucius. I have no desire to be like him at all. Malfoy's, above all else, are family oriented. He cared more about power than family and it ruined us. He was an awful father and an awful husband. Every once in a while, he would hit my mother. She, of course, lied and said that she was clumsy and tripped. Or that something fell and hit her. But I saw him do it a couple of times. I don't know if you remember, but when I moved closer to you, you flinched and all I could see was my mother and my father."

Kat sat there for a moment with her jaw agape, but after a moment she responded.

"I do remember flinching. I'm sorry for making you feel that way, it wasn't intentional. Just in a non-magic fight, I'll lose every time and it was instinct to flinch."

"It's not your fault at all, don't ever think that it is."

Upon deciding that Draco looked especially forlorn about the conversation, she quickly put some money on the table, grabbed his hand and pulled him out of the café and into a small deserted alley.

"Katherine, what are we doing?"

"I wanted to say thank you for telling me, I can tell that that was hard for you. So, in repayment, I'll do you one better than telling you what my animagus is. I'll show you."

Then without another word, Kat stepped back and with a quick blink of her eyes, she transformed into her animagus form.