After Christmas, everything settled back into calm—calmly going to and from class, calmly training, calmly grinding away at spells.
Because of the Christmas holidays, Kate had gone more than ten days without really training, so it wasn't until early February that she got her next five Attribute Points.
There were only four months left until the summer holidays, but she was still twenty-two points short of her target Attribute Points, which once again gave her a sense of urgency.
So every morning, anyone who rose early could catch sight of her tearing around the Quidditch pitch like mad with Fluffball in tow.
Exercise could also increase Attribute Points, but it required high-intensity, long-duration workouts to break through, so she'd spent all of January trying to push past her physical limits.
In the end, both her Agility and Strength rose by one point, just as she'd hoped—but Fluffball, dragged along the whole time, went from a perfectly plump free-range chicken to one noticeably slimmer.
Still, the results were obvious: at the very least, Fluffball could now run fast even without teleporting, so if it ever ran into danger, it could make a clean getaway.
Soon February the fourteenth arrived. Historically, the Roman Christian Valentine had been put to death on this day, but in modern times people called it Valentine's Day.
Kate had been training herself into a stupor lately and hadn't noticed the holiday at all, but early that morning, the moment she stepped out the door, she saw dazzling pink flowers decorating every corridor.
Honestly, when she first saw them she gave a start, nearly thinking Dolores Umbridge had shown up at Hogwarts ahead of schedule.
After her morning workout, she came to the Great Hall, only to find it decorated even more outrageously.
All four walls were covered in great big dazzling pink flowers, and worse still, heaps of heart-shaped confetti kept fluttering down from the pale blue ceiling.
She stood at the entrance of the Great Hall in silence for a moment, and instinctively wanted to back away.
She really didn't want to go in—the color scheme was just too awful.
If history didn't change, then when Dolores Umbridge eventually came to Hogwarts, Kate might well raise a hand against that pink toad simply because her aesthetic sensibilities couldn't stand her.
Just as she was about to retreat, she ran smack into Lockhart coming in.
The fellow was wearing pink robes to match all the decorations, a smile hanging on his self-satisfied, supposedly handsome face.
"Student Shafiq, why not go in and take a seat?"
Kate's face twitched, and she could only turn back around, sit down, and eat in silence.
After a while, as the students gradually arrived and took their seats, Lockhart stood up and waved his hands for quiet.
"Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!" Lockhart announced loudly. "So far, twelve people have sent me cards, and I'd like to express my thanks to them! Yes, I've taken the liberty of arranging this little surprise for you all!"
Lockhart clapped his hands, and through the doors leading to the entrance hall marched twelve sullen-faced dwarfs.
And unlike ordinary dwarfs, Lockhart had fitted them all with golden wings and given them harps to carry.
"My friendly, card-carrying little cupids!" Lockhart said, beaming. "They'll be roaming the school all day today, delivering your Valentine's cards!"
Kate noticed that the professors at the table all looked less than pleased—clearly, they too detested Lockhart's presumptuous stunt.
But there was nothing to be done; he was their colleague, after all, and there was no need to undercut him.
Never mind—this sort of thing had nothing to do with her anyway.
That's right, that was exactly what Kate thought. Given her reputation at school, basically no one liked her.
So for the rest of the day, she was sure she wouldn't be bothered.
All day long, the dwarfs kept barging into their classrooms to deliver Valentine's cards, driving the teachers to their wits' end.
Kate had been happily enjoying the show in class when she saw a dwarf barge in without so much as a by-your-leave and walk straight toward her.
"Hey, Kate Shafiq! I've got a message to deliver to you in person!"
The dwarf opened its mouth aggressively, about to recite the message.
Kate, who'd never dreamed anyone would write her a letter, instinctively glanced at the grim-faced Professor McGonagall at the front, then whipped out her wand and, just as the dwarf was about to utter its first word, hit it with a Silencing Charm.
The classroom fell silent at once, the dwarf's mouth working open and shut yet unable to produce a single sound.
"I'm terribly sorry, Professor," Kate said, standing up at once and bowing to McGonagall. "So as not to disrupt the class, please allow me to take it outside."
McGonagall's expression softened a little—Kate was, after all, a model student in whom no fault could ever be found. She gave a slight nod. "You have ten minutes."
"Thank you." Kate nodded, then quickly led the dwarf—still stubbornly trying to deliver its love letter—out of the classroom.
Before leaving, she made a point of glancing at Hermione's expression.
Perfect—as black as the bottom of a pot. It looked like she'd have her work cut out for her after class.
Hurrying the dwarf into an empty classroom where no lesson was being held, she used Finite Incantatem to lift the spell from it, then folded her arms. "All right, say it again."
According to Lockhart's instructions, the dwarf would not leave until it had personally delivered the message to the recipient.
So the dwarf began to warble out its recitation.
Kate listened carefully for a while before she managed to piece together a clue from all the ornate wording.
The gist of the love letter was that, because Kate had once saved the sender, the sender had fallen for her at second sight, and hoped she would accept.
And the sender was apparently in the same Academy as her—though it wasn't clear whether it was a boy or a girl.
Once the dwarf finished singing, Kate stroked her chin and asked, "Who was it that asked you to recite this to me?"
"It was Wilson! Amber Wilson!" the dwarf cried excitedly.
Who was that?
It took Kate a good few dozen seconds to recall the first-year girl she'd saved during a duel.
She really hadn't had much to do with her—how could she be writing a love letter, and having a dwarf deliver it, no less?
Was this really not some prank meant to embarrass her?
Never mind—prank or not, she'd heard it and that was that; there was no way she'd give any response.
Having casually sent the dwarf on its way, Kate returned to the classroom and sat back down in her seat with an air of nonchalance.
Turning her head, she caught sight of Hermione with a sour face, still busily taking notes and showing no intention whatsoever of paying her any attention.
Kate thought for a moment, then turned to scan the room, and finally spotted the girl with the clear amber eyes in the back row of the classroom.
Their eyes had barely met for two seconds before Amber shyly lowered her head, not daring to look at her.
Judging by that expression, it didn't seem to be a prank after all...
Kate blinked and turned back to face the blackboard.
Shouldn't she give the other girl a proper, face-to-face response?
The moment the bell rang, Hermione gathered up her books on her own and dashed out of the classroom without a backward glance.
Harry and Ron, who always went about with her, exchanged a glance and hurried over to Kate. "Aren't you going after her? Hermione seems angry."
"Mm, I know," Kate answered calmly.
She knew perfectly well that Hermione's anger was just the possessiveness of friendship at work; as long as she explained things properly, Hermione would understand.
But before that, she needed to give a certain girl a proper, face-to-face response.
From the perspective of the one being confessed to, she naturally felt that being interrupted by a dwarf during class and embarrassed in front of so many people gave her every reason to give this confession the cold shoulder.
But thinking from the other girl's point of view, a confession that didn't even get a response would inevitably be heartbreaking.
To put it plainly, she just couldn't bring herself to be hard on a girl.
If the one confessing had been a boy, she'd have swept off without so much as a glance.
Double standards, manifesting in every possible way.
"Hey, no way..." Ron said, noting the odd look on her face and thinking of the dwarf that had disrupted the class. "Don't tell me you've actually been moved by someone's confession?"
Kate tilted her head and smiled. "That's right. Whether the dwarf's method was appropriate is up for debate, but every confession that took courage deserves a response, doesn't it?"
With that, she walked straight to the back row of the classroom, gently tapped the desk, and looked at the nervous-faced Amber. "Would you mind coming out for a moment? There's something I'd like to say to you."
Amber, overwhelmed by the honor, sprang to her feet, even stammering as she spoke. "O-okay!"
As the two of them went out the back door one after the other, a loud "bang" rang out in the classroom.
Pansy watched helplessly as her friend suddenly threw her books to the floor and stormed off in a fury; she gave a soft sigh, picked the books back up, and cast a worried glance at the classroom's back door.
"Ssss... what a rude piece of work!" Bumped by the furious Malfoy, Ron rubbed his aching shoulder.
But what worried him and Harry more was just how Kate would respond to that girl's confession.
"I think it'd be better to go find Hermione..." Harry proposed weakly.
Ron frowned exaggeratedly. "Are you mad? If Kate accepts the confession, what's Hermione supposed to do?"
"If she accepts, then Hermione's going to find out sooner or later anyway," Harry said, lowering his voice.
In their eyes, it was already a settled fact that Hermione and Kate were carrying on a secret romance; and even if they weren't dating yet, it surely wouldn't be long before they got together.
But now, out of nowhere, a confessor had appeared—and Kate was actually going to respond!
It was utterly baffling to them.
Ron sighed. "Nothing for it—let's just hurry and go find Hermione."
The two of them left through the classroom's main door together and immediately took off in the direction Hermione had gone.
Only Pansy was left there. Having finally tidied up Malfoy's books, she hesitated and glanced at the back door.
She could ignore anyone else, but when it came to something involving her own friend, she had to see it clearly for herself!
Thinking this, she worked up her courage and, clutching her books, headed for the back door. She hadn't taken more than a few steps when she saw, from a distance, Kate and Amber standing at the edge of the corridor, talking.
"I asked the dwarf, and it said you were the one who asked it to deliver the message to me," Kate said, looking at her with a calm expression.
Amber, by contrast, had her head lowered almost to the ground, utterly unlike the spirited girl from their first meeting.
Perhaps everyone lost their nerve like this when facing the person they liked.
Kate sighed inwardly, then said gently, "There's no need to be nervous—I'm not going to eat you. I only asked you here because I wanted to formally respond to the message you sent me."
Amber suddenly lifted her head, looking terribly tense. "Actually... you don't have to say it. I think I already know more or less what you're going to say."
"Maybe so," Kate said with a faint smile. "But I'd still like to say some things plainly—it'll be better for both of us that way. First of all, I'm very grateful that you like me, but we're still young, and I think you'll meet someone better and more suited to you than me. So I'm sorry."
After hearing the last word she spoke, Amber's face went pale in an instant.
But she quickly forced herself to stay composed, biting her lower lip hard, and after a while asked, "I understand what you mean. It's just... I want to ask you one last thing—is there someone you like?"
Kate's gaze wandered for a moment, as if she were pondering the answer to this question, and then she shook her head. "Right now there's no one I like."
She could, of course, have fobbed her off with the excuse that she already had someone she liked, but there was no need.
Because she'd had little to do with Amber in the first place, and she didn't want to define exactly what components made up Amber's feelings for her.
Saving her during that first-year duel, for instance—perhaps it was that single act that had given her something like the suspension-bridge effect.
But regardless, since the girl had worked up the courage to confess to her, there was at least some genuine liking in it.
Faced with such a sincere confession, she could only give an even more sincere response.
"Right now I just want to focus on my studies. Matters of the heart and all that—I haven't given them any thought yet."
This was her honest truth, and judging by how she'd conducted herself in every respect over the past year and more, even the rejected Amber had to admit she wasn't lying.
With everything said plainly, it was time to give the rejected girl some space to process her emotions on her own.
Kate hesitated, cautiously studying the other girl's expression, and only after confirming that her emotions weren't fluctuating too wildly did she say gently, "If there's nothing else, then I'll be off."
She turned around and was about to step away when she heard the girl behind her say, "Then... could you give me one more hug?"
Kate knit her brows, turned to look at the tearful-eyed Amber, pressed her lips together, and gently shook her head. "No, I'm sorry."
With that, she walked briskly away alone.
At a moment like this, any superfluous gesture would only stir up the other girl's hopes.
And even if she hugged her now, the girl would still cry afterward—better to be decisive; it was better for everyone.
After she left, an anguished sound of weeping predictably rose up in the corridor.
Pansy, who had watched the whole thing from her hiding place, couldn't help shaking her head as she looked at the girl who didn't even dare to cry aloud in the corridor.
So ruthless.
On the surface Kate seemed so gentle, yet when it came to rejecting someone, she really didn't beat about the bush.
She could already picture what a tragic scene it would be if her own friend went and confessed to her.
She wondered just who could confess to Kate without being rejected.
...
That afternoon, before Charms, Kate heard that Harry had also been cornered by a dwarf reciting a message—and his even came with musical accompaniment, making it a bit more over-the-top than her own version.
Watching Harry come to class clutching his books and looking thoroughly disheveled, Kate felt for the first time that Amber had actually been rather good to her—at the very least, there'd been no musical accompaniment.
She wanted to ask Harry how it felt to be confessed to, but no sooner had she sat down than she saw Hermione, face cold, sit down beside her clutching her books.
"Hermione, why didn't I see you come to lunch?" she asked with concern, sliding her stool over as though she couldn't read the other's expression.
Wasn't that just knowingly asking the obvious?
Ron, off to the side, was practically getting a stomachache watching—and Harry, who was supposed to be a guardian of love alongside him, had run into this same sort of trouble and had his hands quite full.
Otherwise, Harry could at least have helped Kate lay some groundwork before class; then Ron wouldn't have to just sit there fretting helplessly like this.
Hermione glanced at her, and after a while couldn't help asking, "Did you accept her?"
"What?" Caught off guard by this out-of-nowhere question, Kate hadn't yet caught on.
But soon, seeing Hermione's obviously indignant expression, she got it, and turned to glance at the back row of the classroom.
That afternoon, Amber had taken leave and simply hadn't come to class.
Just as well—if they'd talked about this in front of her, wouldn't that have been poking at her sore spot?
She secretly breathed a sigh of relief, leaned in to Hermione's ear, and whispered, "I turned her down."
Almost instantly, she saw Hermione shoot her a surprised look, her tense little face relaxing—the corners of her mouth even starting to curve upward.
"Why didn't you accept her? You don't like her?" Though she could hardly hide her excitement, Hermione barely managed to keep her cool and kept pressing.
Kate could only cry injustice. "I've barely exchanged a few words with her—if that dwarf hadn't come to me, I'd have all but forgotten her name!"
"Really?" Disbelief was written plainly all over Hermione's face. "She's fairly good-looking—how could you not remember her?"
"There are plenty of good-looking people—am I supposed to remember every single one?" Kate said helplessly, hands on her hips. "And besides, do you want me to accept her, or don't you?"
Hermione's little face flushed at once, and she immediately shifted to sit a bit farther from her. "Whether you accept her or not—what's that got to do with me?"
"Of course it has to do with you," Kate said, entirely matter-of-fact. "You're the one I grew up with since we were little—how could anyone else compare to you?"
Even Ron, eavesdropping nearby, widened his eyes, marveling to himself that this idiot Kate had finally wised up and learned how to sweet-talk someone.
Yet what Kate herself was thinking was that Hermione really was her childhood sweetheart, and if she ever went looking for a girlfriend in the future, she'd definitely have Hermione help vet the candidates!
But that sort of thing would have to wait until after she graduated, so for now she'd need to stay on good terms with Hermione.
"Hmph," said Hermione, and at these words the little face she'd worked so hard to keep taut finally couldn't help breaking into a smile. "I'll give you this—you know how to talk this time."
She certainly wasn't going to tell Kate that Amber's confession had worried her so much she'd had no appetite for lunch.
For that entire lunch hour, in fact, she'd been in a state of dread, terrified of how she'd react if Kate really did come back with Amber to announce that they were together.
It certainly wouldn't have been a calm reaction.
With class about to start, Hermione stole a glance at Kate, who had already settled into class mode, and her lips curved up without her realizing it.
Thank goodness—at least in Kate's heart, she was the most important one.
Kate had thought the Valentine's Day commotion was over and done with, but the moment class ended, she saw Cho Chang waiting at the classroom door.
What was going on here?
Before she could react, Cho Chang dragged her off. Glancing back in the rush, she saw Hermione just then come out of the classroom, looking around for a while when she couldn't spot her.
"Why the sudden summons?" Kate, baffled, was pulled to a corner of the corridor, and glanced back somewhat worriedly toward the other side of the corner, where Hermione was still searching for her.
Cho Chang simply cupped her face and forcibly turned her head around. "I heard someone from your Academy confessed to you?"
"Has this already become common knowledge?" Kate shot back in astonishment.
Those dwarfs had been running all over the inside of the castle today; the people who'd commissioned them to help confess numbered eighty if not a hundred. Surely not every confession had become the talk of the school?
Cho Chang was nearly winded by her question and could only insist, "Just answer my question first!"
"Turned her down, of course!" Kate answered with an innocent face. "Don't you know me by now?"
"I... how would I know what's going on in your head?"
Momentarily stumped by Kate's counter-question, Cho Chang hastily let go of her. "I just heard about it, so I wanted to come ask what it feels like to be confessed to, that's all."
"Ohhh—" Kate deliberately drew out the syllable, leaning in with a mischievous smile. "I know what you're thinking now!"
She reached out and poked Cho Chang's soft little cheek. "Don't tell me you want someone to confess to you too?"
Her heart, which had been strung up in her throat with tension, dropped back into place; Cho Chang secretly let out a breath and put her hands on her hips in annoyance. "What's there to be envious of? It's not like no one pursues me!"
Just within the Quidditch team alone, several boys and girls had expressed their affection for her.
It was just that she really had no interest in developing anything beyond friendship with these people, so in the end it had all come to nothing.
"Then why come rushing over to ask me..." Kate's face twitched. "Don't tell me you're really this bored and came all this way just to hear me gossip?"
Cho Chang's eyelashes trembled slightly, and she admitted in a fluster, "Is-is that not allowed?"
"It's not that it's not allowed," Kate said, stroking her chin with a slightly awkward look, "it's just that this does concern another girl's privacy, so it wouldn't be right for me to go into detail."
A girl?
As if she'd caught some blind spot, Cho Chang pressed on in puzzlement, "The person who confessed to you—was a girl?"
"You didn't know?" Kate grinned. "She's a really nice girl, but I just don't feel anything for her!"
"Then..."
Rubbing her fingers together somewhat nervously, Cho Chang lowered her gaze, not daring to look Kate in the eye. "Do you like boys or girls?"
This was the question she'd always wanted to ask; and if she wasn't mistaken, Hermione probably wanted to know too.
Kate blinked and answered without hesitation, "I like girls."
In that instant, it was as though a thunderbolt struck down from the edge of the sky, hitting Cho Chang square in a flash.
She jerked her head up, the question already at the tip of her tongue and nearly out, when she heard the sound of books tumbling to the ground from around the corner.
The two of them looked toward the sound together and saw Hermione standing there dumbstruck, her books and stationery scattered all over the floor at her feet.
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