Originally, Kate had assumed the Ravenclaw team wouldn't welcome an outsider like her coming to watch their practice.
But to her surprise, the moment they heard that Cho Chang had brought her, far from turning her away, they even led her straight to the best vantage point to watch.
After practice ended, the towering captain—well over six feet tall—shook her hand very solemnly and insisted she come watch next week's Quidditch match too.
Even as Cho Chang led her out of the Quidditch pitch, Kate was still in a daze.
She really couldn't figure out why Ravenclaw was being so friendly to her.
When she asked Cho Chang, Cho only stammered out a single line: "They probably think I play better when you're around."
Hm?
Was there any necessary connection between those two statements?
True, during today's practice Cho had caught the Golden Snitch more than once—at that rate, she'd probably wrap up the actual match in about ten minutes.
But that only meant Cho was in good form; it didn't seem to have anything to do with Kate, did it?
Before she could finish mulling it over, Cho had already walked her to the castle entrance. "I still have to go over tactics with the team, so this is as far as I'll take you."
Kate came back to herself, replied with a smile, then turned and headed into the castle to find Hermione and have lunch together.
After lunch, Katherine told her to keep practicing the Patronus Charm in the office.
"Same as yesterday—first pick a happy memory, then say the incantation." Katherine leaned against the wall, coaching her.
Kate nodded and began working to recall every happy thing from that morning.
Feeding Malfoy in the Great Hall, reading with Hermione in the library, drawing under a tree with Luna, watching Cho play on the pitch.
Even she could hardly believe she'd managed to do so many things in just one morning.
Slowly closing her eyes, she recalled the easy, pleasant feeling of being with each of them, and as she opened her eyes again she spoke the incantation.
"Expecto Patronum!"
Silver substance instantly gushed from the tip of her wand. Utterly unlike yesterday's formless, chaotic mist, this time what appeared was a dazzling, enormous creature that nearly filled the entire office.
Katherine's earlier ease vanished; she straightened up, tense, staring almost transfixed at the creature before her.
"This is..." she murmured under her breath, "a dragon?"
A magical-creature Patronus—something only a very few wizards could ever produce—had now appeared right before her eyes.
And unlike an ordinary Patronus in size, this dragon-shaped Patronus was clearly far larger.
"A silver dragon?" Kate looked up at it curiously. Somehow, she couldn't shake the feeling that this dragon looked a little familiar.
But in this cramped office there was really no way to make out the Patronus's full form; she could only guess it resembled one of the dragons she'd saved.
[Ding! Congratulations, Host, on mastering an advanced spell: the Patronus Charm!]
It wasn't until the System's notification chimed that Kate snapped out of it as if waking from a dream. She quickly recalled the Patronus, and when she turned to look at Katherine, she noticed her expression was a little odd.
"Auntie?" Not understanding, she gripped her wand tighter. "Was there something wrong with the spell I just used?"
Katherine came back to herself and shook her head with a wry smile. "No, you did wonderfully. It's just—I never imagined I'd live to see a second person whose Patronus is a magical creature."
"Then... was the first Dumbledore?" Kate ventured.
As far as she knew, Dumbledore's Patronus was a Phoenix, which was also a magical creature.
"No, not him." Katherine stepped up to her and gently stroked her soft silver hair, gazing tenderly into her black eyes as if looking through her at someone else.
Somehow, Kate seemed to understand who she was seeing, and with a complicated look she asked, "Then... was it my mother?"
"Your mother, Grace Wingard,"—the moment she said the name, a small smile spread across Katherine's face despite herself—"her Patronus was a Thestral."
Though she'd half expected it, Kate was still startled by her own mother's peculiar Patronus.
Unlike beloved magical creatures such as dragons, phoenixes, and qilin, a Thestral was a magical creature that only those who had witnessed death could see.
To most people, the Thestral was a symbol of ill omen—and her mother's Patronus was a Thestral.
She couldn't help feeling that her mother, too, must have had an unusual story.
"Then what about my father?" she asked curiously.
Katherine raised an eyebrow. "A dolphin, I believe. As far as ordinary animals go, that's a fairly rare Patronus too."
A dolphin, huh....
"Then my father was probably a very gentle person." Kate guessed earnestly, a faint smile surfacing in her eyes.
A mysterious mother, a gentle father—though both had already passed from this world, they had still left her a great deal.
"That Elphias fellow...." Katherine pursed her lips, seemingly still resentful, even now, of the man who had stolen her sister away.
Still, in front of Kate, she sighed and admitted, "All right—most of the time he was a decent sort. I can just barely accept him as my brother-in-law."
Handsome and wealthy, and gentle in a way unbecoming of a Slytherin student, and dependable too—if he hadn't had so many good qualities, he'd never have won her sister's heart.
"Back when she and I practiced the Patronus Charm together, Grace had the greatest talent—it took her less than a week to master it."
She murmured softly, gazing at Kate's face as she recalled those days. "I couldn't manage it—even though we were sisters by blood, it took me a full three months to successfully conjure a Patronus."
As she spoke, she pinched Kate's little cheek again. "You little thing—your looks, your temperament, your talent are all so like Grace's. How did your hair end up taking after him?"
If her hair had been the same too, then she'd have been able to see the Grace who had grown up right beside her.
"If I didn't resemble him at all, Mother would probably have been disappointed too!" Kate's little face was pinched red; it took some effort before she finally wriggled free of Katherine's hand to explain.
Katherine froze, then gave a wry smile.
That was true. Her sister had loved Elphias so much—if the child she bore had looked nothing like him, that was what would have made her unhappy.
Rubbing her sore cheek, Kate lifted her head. "Anyway, Auntie, you're the only blood relative I have left now, and I'm going to be very, very good to you!"
With that, she darted off in a streak.
If she got caught again, her cheeks would surely be subjected to another round of torment.
"That little rascal...." Katherine ground her teeth with a grinding creak, nearly chasing after her to haul the girl back.
Still, hearing those words from a miniature version of Grace made all her hard work in coming here to clean up the mess feel worthwhile.
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