She never would have guessed that after a bit of a lie-in, the rumors circulating within Slytherin about the Chamber of Secrets would actually start heading toward becoming common knowledge.
The moment Kate arrived at the Great Hall, she saw a few little Hufflepuff boys discussing the matter.
They'd already slain the Basilisk—its hide was still stuffed in her pouch, for goodness' sake—so where on earth had these rumors sprung from?
Tracking down the source was clearly next to impossible; on her way in she'd heard every student coming and going talking about it.
It wasn't until she was seated at the table that she picked out a bit of a pattern.
Right now the rumor was limited to spreading just this much: that Hogwarts had a Chamber of Secrets, that the Chamber held a monster, and that it might very well kill people.
The later mutated versions were all embellishments built on that foundation.
This meant that whoever was spreading the rumor didn't know the Chamber had already been opened and the Basilisk already killed.
The number of people who knew the Chamber existed yet didn't know the Basilisk was dead couldn't be very large.
And the first place Kate had heard the rumor was in Slytherin, which suggested it had most likely spread outward from the Snake House.
She just didn't quite understand what benefit spreading the Chamber rumor at this particular moment could bring the one behind it.
To throw Hogwarts into disorder?
Or was there some other purpose?
With her mind occupied, her hands slowed.
Kate tore at her bread unhurriedly, her gaze drifting almost imperceptibly over every student along the long table.
Most of them were merely parroting the rumor, and there was nothing of substance to any of it.
Then she settled her gaze on Malfoy across from her.
Among those who knew the Chamber existed and knew it would open this year was her own father, Lucius.
To be precise, this whole Chamber of Secrets 'instance' had originally begun with Lucius slipping the diary to Ginny.
Even though he didn't know the diary was one of Voldemort's Horcruxes, he must have understood that it would open the Chamber of Secrets.
But with only four months left in the school year and still not the slightest stir at the school, this had probably started to make Lucius panic.
If the diary had been intercepted, he was bound to be dragged into it as well.
Over all these years, the Malfoy family had, by various means, whitewashed their image in the eyes of the world—no longer Death Eaters.
Before Voldemort's return was a settled certainty, he couldn't afford to be capsized by nothing more than a single diary.
So he was spreading rumors to observe how whoever at the school had gotten hold of the diary would react.
—Of course, all of the above was just Kate's own speculation; apart from her god's-eye view, she had no real evidence.
That was exactly why she needed to feel out the little Malfoy in front of her—though Kate figured the girl most likely had no idea what her father was up to either.
Chewing her bread leisurely, she shot a glance at Pansy, who likewise seemed not to have slept well, and asked with feigned surprise, "Did you have insomnia last night? Those dark circles are so heavy."
You have to understand, this Pansy wasn't the sour, mean-spirited, pug-faced girl from the original works, but the delicately pretty, adorable girl from the films.
As a card-carrying sucker for pretty faces, she spotted at a glance the little flaw on that lovely little face.
Pansy set down her spoon and looked up, the bruised shadows under her eyes now even more pronounced. "That's not something Miss Shafiq needs to concern herself with."
Oh my, what a temper.
"Then I suppose I'll just have to pour Miss Parkinson a glass of cola to cool that fire." Calmly, Kate picked up a cup and began pouring.
Then she glanced at a certain young miss across from her, and while she was at it grabbed two more cups to pour as well, before handing one out to each of the two of them.
Diagonally across from her, Blaise's longing stare all but bored a hole in front of her—yet Kate splendidly ignored it.
Malfoy stayed sullenly silent, but still scooted the cola cup closer to herself, with an air that said she'd sooner die than let Blaise get his hands on it.
Holding back a laugh, Kate lightly clinked cups with Pansy. "How do you feel now?"
Deliberately shooting her friend a glance, Pansy cleared her throat and crossed her arms with feigned pride. "Not enough yet."
She'd spent the whole of yesterday listening to her friend rage and rant, nearly driving her to a nervous breakdown—how could she not collect a little interest on that?
"Then I'll add a slice of meat pie for you." Kate nodded knowingly, picked up the tongs, and clamped down into the platter before reciting woodenly, "Oh dear, I grabbed too much."
One slice went to Pansy, and the extra slice she stuffed onto Malfoy's plate.
Then she started asking cheerfully again, "And now?"
In truth, by this point Malfoy's features had regained much of their former brightness—even the corners of her lips had turned up with a hint of a smile.
Pansy sighed inwardly at how hopeless her friend was and, still wanting Kate to keep serving her food, deliberately said again, "Still not enough."
"Still not enough? Then never mind." Kate wasn't buying her act and simply stood up to leave.
Startled, Pansy hurriedly yanked her back down. "You misheard just now—I said it's enough!"
As she spoke, she looked again at Malfoy's face—the alarm still lingering there, clearly wanting to keep Kate around yet stubbornly unwilling to open her mouth—and felt a wave of helplessness.
Without her assist, when on earth would this hopeless creature ever break the ice with Kate!
She thought for a moment, sipped some cola, took a bite of meat pie, and then asked slowly, "That Wilson from yesterday... you turned her down, didn't you?"
Kate propped her chin in her hand, exasperation written all over her face. "You already know, so why ask?"
The whole thing had long since spread throughout Slytherin.
"Mm, I know," Pansy said, raising an eyebrow and winking at her friend. "But I still want to ask—what kind of person do you like?"
That question was awfully direct.
Kate pondered for a moment, then answered coolly, "Good-looking ones."
A textbook looks-obsessed answer.
But everyone's tastes differ, so the answer was pretty subjective too.
So Pansy pressed on, "What kind of looks do you consider good-looking? Give an example?"
If she said Marilyn Monroe or Audrey Hepburn, you two young wizards wouldn't necessarily even know who they were...
Kate was speechless for a good while before she had to say, "There's no particular look. Among the people at this table, I think you're quite pretty, and Malfoy's not bad either."
The moment the words left her mouth, she felt the cold air beside her suddenly warm up. Puzzled, she lifted her eyes to see Malfoy with her head down, vigorously sawing at the meat pie in front of her.
Hiss... had she said something wrong just now?
Just as Kate started reflecting on the possible mistakes in her words, she heard Pansy lean in to her ear and whisper, "Don't mind her—she's over the moon right now."
Ah, this...
So the bowed head was to hide a smile?
Kate gave a little chuckle, and seeing that the mood was more or less set—just as two people happened to pass behind her, also discussing the Chamber of Secrets—she smoothly changed the subject:
"By the way, why are so many people talking about the Chamber of Secrets today? What is the Chamber of Secrets?"
She did her best to play the outsider.
With the earlier groundwork laid, Pansy, though she found the topic switch rather clunky, still told her quietly, "No idea—we only heard the rumor for the first time today too."
Mm—reasonably speaking, even if Lucius were deliberately spreading the rumor, he wouldn't drag his own daughter, a mere thirteen-year-old student, into it.
Kate had of course thought the same, but to be safe, it was better to ask and be sure.
She nodded in understanding, then took a sip of cola. "It's nothing—let's just eat first."
This wasn't a good place for questions.
Lunch stretched on for the better part of an hour. It wasn't until Malfoy and Pansy had left that Kate stood up, holding her little belly.
When she'd gone to the Hospital Wing for a checkup a couple of days earlier, she'd discovered she had broken through the 160-centimeter mark—about as tall as she'd been in her past life.
On the other hand, her weight was still too low—probably due to her constitution and her daily training—so Madam Pomfrey had insisted she eat her fill at every meal, or else she'd have to suspend her workouts.
Being unable to milk the System for freebies was practically the death of her, so Kate had no choice but to keep up her exercise while stuffing herself full every single day.
It was just... today she seemed to have eaten a bit too much.
Nothing for it—she'd go take a stroll at midday, since she had no class first thing in the afternoon anyway.
Having made up her mind, she ambled out of the Great Hall and wandered around the corridors.
As she passed a bathroom on the second floor, she heard a rather arrogant burst of male laughter coming from inside, mingled with the faint sound of a girl crying.
This was the girls' bathroom, wasn't it?
Kate even looked up deliberately at the sign overhead, unconsciously grinding her back teeth, then immediately snatched up her wand and strode inside.
Much like the last time she'd come in here, the bathroom was still just as gloomy and dim; even at midday, when the sun was at its strongest, not much light made it inside.
"Hey!" she called into the room, her face frosty. "Whoever's in there, come out here!"
After a while, two tall boys who looked about fifteen or sixteen came out together, and the moment they saw it was a short little girl, they let out a round of mocking laughter.
Kate paid their laughter no mind at all, her gaze passing over the two of them to look inside, where she saw Myrtle floating in front of a stall door, sobbing softly, with plenty of little stones scattered across the floor.
It didn't take much to guess what was going on.
"You've been throwing stones at her?" she asked with the last shred of her patience.
The two boys exchanged a glance, and the black-haired one sneered contemptuously, "So what? She can't feel any pain at all—the stones pass straight through her body."
"That's right," the slightly taller boy chimed in. "She's nothing but a ghost."
At this, Kate raised an eyebrow slightly and glanced at their ties—green.
"So you two upperclassmen are Slytherin students as well," she asked with a smile. "No wonder you looked a bit familiar."
The pair smirked smugly, thinking that upon learning their identities she'd chosen to stop meddling.
"Little junior, you've made a wise choice. Just remember not to tell the Head of House—otherwise... you know how it'll end."
"Mm, I won't tell the Head of House." Kate's eyes curved. She peered inside once more with curiosity. "Say, why don't you two let me join in? I'd like to try it too!"
As she spoke, she went ahead and shut the bathroom door, adding an Anti-Unlocking Charm for good measure, sealing the door completely from the inside.
"Well then, let's begin." She gripped her wand tight.
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