Actually, when it came to drugging Harry, Kate did feel just the tiniest bit of guilt.
Mainly because Old Man Dumbledore would most likely disapprove of her methods—though he ultimately wanted Harry dead, in the early stages he really was quite good to him.
But without finding someone genuinely affected by the Chamber of Secrets rumors to resolve the matter, how could she dispel Lucius's suspicions?
Kate herself certainly wouldn't do—she was afraid of drawing Voldemort's attention. Harry was better suited to take the fall.
So starting the day after Valentine's Day, for a solid two weeks, Kate went to find Hermione at dinner every day, and while she was at it, slipped a little something into Harry's drink.
It wasn't anything harmful, really—just something to make him dream more. As for why he'd dream of events from fifty years ago, that was because Kate had deliberately brought up the relevant incidents while tutoring him during the day.
Think of something by day, dream of it by night; once dreamed, it would recur. Combined with the influence of Harry's own personality, he was smoothly led right into her trap.
What a sin.
It was precisely because Kate felt so guilty herself that she poured three hundred percent of her heart into helping Harry catch up on the coursework he'd fallen behind on every day.
After saying goodbye to Harry, she didn't head straight to the library. Instead, she hid secretly in a corner, watching as he walked, full of confusion, into the second-floor girls' bathroom.
Given Myrtle's personality, as long as someone asked, she would tearfully recount to the questioner how she'd been killed by the Basilisk.
Really, her death back then had been quite unjust. In life she'd been bullied by classmates and had secretly hidden in the bathroom to cry—only to run into the Basilisk that had just emerged from the exit, and meet its gaze. From that moment on, she went from a bullied student to a bullied girl-ghost.
This way, once Harry learned the fact that she'd been killed by the Basilisk, he would surely become even more certain of what had happened in his dreams.
Although Kate didn't know exactly what he'd dreamed, it should have been connected to the fragments of past events she'd deliberately mentioned over these many days.
And next, Harry would go searching for who exactly this so-called Heir of Slytherin was.
Of course, he wouldn't be able to find them now—present-day Hogwarts no longer had any descendants of Slytherin.
And this time, no one used Serpensortia on him, so he wouldn't discover he could speak Parseltongue, and no one else would be petrified because of the Chamber of Secrets and the Basilisk.
If Kate didn't stir the pot, his conjecture would forever remain nothing more than a conjecture.
Perhaps, right up until everyone graduated in the future, the Chamber of Secrets would remain nothing but an unconventional school legend.
But Kate thought—she hoped Harry could obtain a diary that recorded all the truth of fifty years ago, and then open the Chamber of Secrets.
Only this time, the ones watching him open the Chamber of Secrets would probably be more than just Ron and Lockhart.
She waited patiently.
It wasn't until the sky was nearly dark that she saw Harry emerge from the bathroom, cradling a diary as though he'd found a priceless treasure.
Kate silently curved her lips, and after he left, she walked into the bathroom, where at a single glance she spotted Myrtle sobbing over a toilet lid.
"Hey, how come every time I see you, you're crying?" she asked with a smile.
The moment Myrtle saw it was her, she glared and floated over: "It's you? What are you doing here again?"
Kate raised an eyebrow and calmly walked over to turn on the tap. "Washing my hands."
Looking at herself and Myrtle in the mirror, she asked, "Harry Potter was just here—I saw he had something in his hands. He didn't snatch a keepsake of yours, did he?"
"Bah, bah, bah!" Myrtle spat three times. "What he took was a notebook hidden inside the toilet lid—even I don't know when it got put there."
Of course she didn't—it was Kate who had quietly slipped it in a couple of days earlier using the Disillusionment Charm, and she'd even asked Peeves to help keep Myrtle occupied so she wouldn't be discovered.
"As long as it wasn't your things he took." Kate gave her reflection a slight smile. "Since it's nothing, I'll be off then."
She had barely taken a few steps out when she heard Myrtle suddenly call after her: "Hey, when you came in just now—were you worried about me?"
Kate turned back and thought for a moment. "No, I just came to wash my hands."
With that, she left straight away.
She had to hurry to the library—Hermione was still waiting for her.
The whole evening in the library, they never saw Harry come to find them. Seeing this, Ron seized an opportunity to slip away, leaving just the two of them.
Hermione had long since finished her homework and was now previewing the fourth-year material. At her pace, she'd probably have memorized all of the fourth-year knowledge before the end of term.
As for Kate, she was miserably poring over the alchemical knowledge Nicolas Flamel had left behind.
She'd been studying Alchemy for a good half year by any measure, yet her skill hadn't improved to any real height.
It was probably because the knowledge Flamel himself had studied was so varied and vast, and Alchemy itself was no small challenge—so learning it was far harder than the seven years' worth of Hogwarts textbooks.
The two of them studied in tacit companionship until nearly curfew, leaving almost last, right before the library closed.
"It's getting late—be careful on your way back."
Kate stopped at the staircase, watching Hermione head upstairs, then scratched her head to herself.
For some reason she couldn't fathom, she used to walk Hermione all the way back to the Common Room, yet lately Hermione hadn't once agreed to let her see her off.
It really was true—the older one got, the more independent one became.
Kate inexplicably felt like an old mother whose child, watched over since infancy, had finally grown up.
Ambling down the stairs, she found that by this hour there weren't many people still wandering the castle. She could faintly hear Filch's patrolling footsteps in the corridor.
Silently casting the Disillusionment Charm on herself—she had no desire to get caught and docked points just because she was a minute or two late.
As she was nearly at the ground floor, she saw a neatly arranged line of spiders scurrying rapidly toward the exit.
How strange—the Basilisk was already dead. These spiders shouldn't still be fleeing the castle out of fear, should they?
Kate's eyes narrowed. Instinctively snatching up her wand, she went against the direction the spiders were fleeing, and soon found an abandoned classroom.
A dark figure swayed dimly inside the classroom—truly frightening in that pitch-black setting.
Before Kate could step forward to confirm the figure's identity, she saw Lockhart approaching from the corridor opposite, carrying a lamp, and calling toward the dark figure: "Who's there!"
Kate secretly ground her teeth and stepped back a few paces, praying only that if the figure meant any harm, the blood wouldn't splatter on her face.
But soon, she and Lockhart both got a clear look at the dark figure's true face.
It was Snape.
"Dumbledore said summer's coming, and had me brew some potions to drive off snakes, insects, rats, and ants, to scatter around."
He said it slowly, and if not for his tone being so flat that no inflection could be heard at all, Kate might almost have thought he was denouncing Dumbledore.
Making the Potions Master brew insect repellent—you've really got some nerve, Old Man Dumbledore!
Hm?
Wait a moment! Insect repellent?
Kate glanced at the spiders fleeing frantically across the floor, and felt as though she'd just guessed at something rather extraordinary.
To be fair, this Lockhart fellow really did talk a lot—even here, he could still manage to brag to Snape about what large, dangerous animal he'd once encountered.
But by now not many people at school were willing to listen to his boasting—even during Defence Against the Dark Arts, the students generally preferred to study on their own.
Kate figured that if he were willing to share how to use the Memory Charm, he might actually be able to salvage a bit of face.
But clearly, Lockhart had no intention of pulling out his most closely guarded trump card to teach a bunch of students. He'd come to Hogwarts purely to gild his reputation and better promote his books.
Hiding beside a pillar, Kate waited until Snape, cold-faced, had sent Lockhart on his way, before she stealthily poked her head out.
She saw Snape take out another vial of potion and continue, expressionless, to sprinkle it around the classroom.
Soon, another batch of spiders quickly fled the place.
Dumbledore wouldn't go looking for pointless things to do by having Snape drive off spiders—this action of his must have some purpose.
Just as Kate was still frowning, pondering Old Man Dumbledore's line of thinking, she saw Snape turn his head as if he'd sensed something, reaching out to grab toward the very direction she stood in.
She immediately held her breath and quietly stepped back two paces. Right after, she heard Filch's voice come from the corridor on the other side: "Who's there! Come out here!"
Only then was Snape's attention diverted, and he turned his head to look toward the sound.
Seizing this gap, Kate tiptoed lightly on her toes and swiftly fled the scene.
Behind her she could still hear Snape and Filch talking, but she could no longer concern herself with that. She fled all the way back to the Common Room in one breath. Before she could even catch her breath, she saw a dark figure standing at the window, quietly gazing at the Black Lake outside.
At this hour, someone still hadn't gone back to the dormitory?
Kate honestly felt tonight had been a bit too thrilling. Fortunately, she hadn't lifted the Disillusionment Charm, so she carefully shifted her steps, hoping to withdraw to the dormitory without disturbing the other person.
But with the lights off, the Slytherin Common Room was truly too dark—so dark that only after she accidentally kicked a glass bottle on the floor did she belatedly realize she'd made a noise.
"Who's there?" A soft, delicate female voice issued from the dark figure.
Kate instinctively held her breath. She couldn't make out where the bottle on the floor was now, so she could only step back a few paces and stay put for the moment.
Soon, she saw the dark figure light up a wand and walk quickly over from the window.
Malfoy held up her wand, glanced around a few times, then picked up the bottle on the floor with a strange expression.
Could she have been mistaken—was there actually no one there at all?
Unwilling to believe it, she took two steps forward, waving her hand back and forth incessantly, trying to find the fellow hidden in the darkness.
But no matter how long she groped around, she found no trace of anyone.
Perhaps she really was just being too sensitive.
Somewhat dejected, she lowered her hand. Just as she was about to turn around, she heard another faint clinking sound come from behind her.
"Who on earth is it!" She whirled around, and in the flash of the wandlight, she illuminated none other than Kate—forced back into visibility by the Disillusionment Charm's time limit.
The instant she saw who it was, Malfoy felt her heart skip a beat. She looked at the somewhat flustered Kate and narrowed her eyes slightly.
Then she turned around and extinguished the wandlight.
The room instantly fell into silence, but soon she heard the sound of Kate hurriedly fleeing back to the dormitory.
Instinctively gritting her teeth, Malfoy kicked the bottle on the floor aside and went straight back to the dormitory herself.
Slamming the door shut with a "bang," Kate instinctively pressed a hand to her wildly pounding heart.
Good grief—she'd actually been caught coming back late by Malfoy.
There was no telling whether she'd tattle to Snape to get her a detention.
In the past, Kate could still have trusted her not to, but she'd just provoked her not long ago—whether Malfoy would repay resentment with kindness was hard to say.
Whatever—a detention's a detention. As if she'd be afraid of Snape?
Quickly skipping past this, Kate thought again of what she'd seen tonight, and found it exceptionally bizarre.
As everyone knew, these spiders at school would only flee toward one place: the Forbidden Forest.
Because in the Forbidden Forest was one of their own kind, the Acromantula Aragog. Fifty years ago, when it was still a young spider, it had all along been secretly raised by Hagrid.
But because the young Riddle had opened the Chamber of Secrets and used the Basilisk to kill Myrtle, someone had to take the blame—so Hagrid and Aragog were made the scapegoats.
And so Hagrid was expelled, and Aragog fled to the Forbidden Forest. Over fifty years of growth, it already had tens of thousands of offspring spiders in the Forbidden Forest.
Though raised by Hagrid, these Acromantulas were extremely aggressive toward humans. In the original works, Harry and Ron had gone to the Forbidden Forest to find clues, only to be swarmed by them, and had nearly failed to make it back.
And in the original works, the spiders had fled because of the Basilisk's appearances—they feared the Basilisk.
Now Dumbledore was suddenly driving off spiders—could he be trying to fabricate the illusion that the Basilisk was still alive, in order to throw Lucius off?
There was no need for that.
Old Man Dumbledore was, after all, the Headmaster of Hogwarts—not a weak, friendless orphan girl like her. He had plenty of ways to keep Lucius in check.
Then could it be that he, like Voldemort fifty years ago, wanted to turn the spiders into the monster of the Chamber of Secrets, then seize the chance to wipe them out in one fell swoop, and dispel the rumors in the process?
That seemed a bit troublesome too.
Besides, Hagrid still had feelings for Aragog. Old Man Dumbledore wouldn't go so far as to ruin his friendship with Hagrid just for the sake of one Lucius.
So what exactly was the reason he was doing this?
Kate couldn't figure it out, but to be fair, this maneuver of Snape's would also indirectly reinforce Harry's suspicions, making him think the Basilisk was about to appear—which was why the spiders were scurrying away.
Come to think of it, legend held that the Basilisk feared roosters, so it would kill roosters in advance to ensure its own safety. So could she go kill a couple of chickens to stir things up even more?
Hiss—she couldn't shake the feeling that hoodwinking Harry like a fool this way was a bit wrong.
But there was no help for it—the secret of the Chamber of Secrets had to be uncovered by someone, rather than being quietly resolved by herself while letting it fade into a mere school legend.
The Savior was the best candidate to uncover this secret.
Harry had no choice, and neither did she.
Besides, she'd already eliminated all the dangers for Harry anyway. Now she was just letting him experience part of the original works' plot—there was no danger in it, so it should be fine... probably.
She would definitely prepare a big gift for Harry next year!
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