Coming out of the Hospital Wing, Kate saw Hermione standing alone in the corridor outside, her head lowered as she boredly counted the floor tiles beneath her feet.
"Why are you waiting for me here? Didn't I tell you to go to the library with them first?" Kate walked over and took her hand.
Upon seeing her, Hermione immediately broke into a bright smile, but it was fleeting.
"Don't mention it. Harry said he was chosen to be a Quidditch player, so he has to go practice with the upper-year seniors tonight."
She suddenly lifted her head. "You absolutely must not tell anyone about this, especially—"
"Do I look like someone with a loose tongue?" Kate said helplessly. "If they aren't coming, then it's fine with just the two of us."
Saying this, she prepared to lead Hermione to the library.
However, before they had taken two steps, she was held back.
"What's wrong?"
Kate turned around to find Hermione looking hesitant. "I... I don't really want to go to the library today..."
Truly strange. Were there times when even the academic Hermione didn't want to study?
"But there's still homework left to finish," Kate reminded her honestly.
They weren't in the same House, so they couldn't do homework together in a Common Room. As for other places in the castle—now that it was dark, finding a quiet spot was indeed not easy.
"Alright then..." Hermione hung her head, dragging her feet with difficulty toward the library.
She really didn't want to go to the library because, at this very moment, that Ravenclaw senior would definitely be there.
Kate looked at her current appearance with amusement. After watching her struggle for a few steps, Kate finally pulled her back.
"Forget it. Looking at you, you wouldn't get any homework done properly in the library anyway. Let's go to my dormitory."
Since she had a single room, no other Slytherins would come knocking on her door anyway.
"Really?!" Hermione raised her head in pleasant surprise, her eyes shining.
Kate smiled faintly. "But first, I need to disguise you."
Saying this, she took out her wand, muttered an incantation, and pointed it at Hermione.
In an instant, Hermione looked down to discover that her body was gradually becoming transparent, blending seamlessly with the surrounding castle environment.
"Let's go, quickly. I can currently only make the Disillusionment Charm last for fifteen minutes." Kate took her hand and walked briskly toward the Slytherin Common Room.
Under normal circumstances, the Disillusionment Charm only changed one's color; careful observation could still reveal the person. However, when cast by someone with powerful mana, this spell could achieve a complete invisibility effect. But to achieve such an effect required extremely strong magic power and high concentration, which was why Kate was in such a rush.
Finally reaching the stone wall of the Slytherin Common Room, Kate spoke the password, and she and Hermione entered one after the other.
Under these conditions, time should have been very ample. However, unexpectedly, as soon as she entered, she saw a group of upper-year students stand up one by one and surround her.
Was the Disillusionment Charm discovered?
Impossible. The magic power of all these people combined wasn't as much as hers.
Carefully shielding Hermione behind her, Kate furrowed her brows and asked, "Is something the matter, Seniors?"
She recognized the female Prefect leading them; it was the one who had notified her about the dormitory assignment that day.
"Student Shafiq," the female Prefect looked at the surrounding students with some difficulty. "We need to have a chat with you."
Just a chat?
Kate's expression relaxed. "Sure, but I have some things I need to put in my dorm. Can you wait two minutes?"
Facts proved that the Slytherin students weren't so unreasonable and vexatious as to deny her even this little bit of freedom.
Covering Hermione as she hustled her into the dormitory, Kate whispered instructions: "Stay here and don't come out."
"They won't do anything to you, will they?" Hermione grabbed her hand, worried.
Kate smiled. "This is the Slytherin Common Room, and I am a Slytherin student. For the sake of the House Cup, they won't do anything to me."
Private brawling would lead to point deductions. With so many people against one, if things blew up, even Snape wouldn't be able to cover it up. If Snape lost face, the Slytherin students wouldn't have a good time either.
Having finally pacified Hermione, Kate returned to the Common Room, tilting her head back to look at these Seniors who were all several heads taller than her.
"Everyone, can you speak quickly? I still have homework to finish."
Hearing this tone of complete indifference, the arrogant little snakes almost exploded. Fortunately, the two male and female Prefects steadied them, preventing chaos.
"Student Shafiq, I am the sixth-year Prefect, Jody Cooper," the female Prefect took the initiative to speak. "Don't be nervous. They hold no malice, only... they heard that you today..."
"Heard that I united with Gryffindors today to bully Malfoy, a fellow Slytherin, right?"
Kate unhurriedly completed her sentence.
Every House had a tendency to protect its own; this was normal. So, seeing her—a new student who hadn't even been in school for three days—turning against her own kind and uniting with other Houses to deal with a member of the Snake House, this group of little snakes naturally blew their tops.
But here comes the question: everyone belongs to the same school, so why must people be divided into different Houses and be hostile to each other?
Kate really couldn't understand the logic of the four Founders back then. Modern universities were also divided into different departments, but that was based on different teaching content, not classified according to so-called 'human traits'.
For example, take the biased remark Ron made in the original works about how all dark wizards came from Slytherin. The most important thing was, it was one thing for others to slander Slytherin like that, but this group of little snakes arrogantly distanced themselves from others, doing exactly the things that fit those stereotypes.
Wasn't this just splashing dirty water on themselves?
Kate sighed silently, her gaze scanning the circle of upper-year students surrounding her. Facing these guys whose worldviews were basically already formed, the method she used to fool Malfoy wouldn't work.
If she rashly brought up bloodline theory, she would be drowned in their spit.
"Student Shafiq, actually, as long as you don't have excessive dealings with people from other Houses, everyone won't make things difficult for you."
The female Prefect was still advising her, thinking she was being considerate.
That probably wouldn't work; there was a Gryffindor girl waiting for her in her dorm right now.
Kate scratched her face, feigning difficulty. "So, by that logic, are the parents of all you Seniors born of Slytherin students?"
The faces of the group of students changed slightly.
Even if they touted themselves as pure-blood wizards, when discussing marriage, they would at most check if the other party was a pure-blood, not if they were born from Slytherin. If it were strict to that degree, the magical world would have long been full of deformed children from inbreeding.
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