[Author's Note: To prevent chapter-skipping confusion, this is posted at the very top: Chapters 37 to 41 of this volume have all undergone some degree of revision, with 38, 39, and 40 seeing large-scale changes. Please remember to refresh before reading. Also, to avoid affecting the reading experience, the interspersed notes and comments related to the original plot have been deleted. My deepest apologies — please understand!]
That afternoon, after Defence Against the Dark Arts class ended, Kate kept to their earlier arrangement and brought Harry, Ron, and Hermione back to the abandoned classroom.
This time, she'd brought a mysterious crate with her — nothing like the one Lupin had once used to hold the Boggart.
"I don't know how your Patronus Charm practice has gone while I was away. Let's see each of you cast one first."
She sat on top of the large crate, arms crossed, watching them.
The three of them exchanged a glance, then each released their own Patronus.
Hermione's little sea whale had very nearly taken full shape, trailing dreamlike mist as it nuzzled affectionately against Kate.
Harry, on the other hand, had made no progress at all. Like Ron, who'd improved somewhat, he could only manage a thin wisp of silver mist — pitiful next to Hermione's.
"Your progress is... actually pretty good," Kate said, raking a hand through her hair in exasperation, trying to comfort the two boys who stood there looking crestfallen.
A month had passed since their first lesson. She had no idea whether the two of them had practiced on their own, but the Patronus Charm was inherently complex — genuinely difficult for wizards this young to master.
"All right," she said, clapping her hands to pull their attention back to her. "Next we're going to do a practical exercise. Since you're all at different levels, I want you not to push yourselves past your limits.
Before we begin, anyone who wants to back out can raise their hand now. And I want you to remember — this exercise is not something to take lightly. Please take it seriously."
Her warning was about as blunt as it could get, but none of the three children in front of her so much as flinched. All three declared, without hesitation, that they wanted to take part.
"All right then. I hope you're mentally prepared," she said, hopping down off the crate and pushing them back a few steps.
"Spread out a bit. Whatever comes out of this box, when I tell you to cast the spell, you all cast the Patronus Charm together. Understood?"
Hermione nodded with confidence, her body tensing slightly, already braced for the fight.
With even her looking ready, the two boys weren't about to be outdone. Harry and Ron squared up as well, eyes fixed on the crate.
Kate's mouth curved into an odd little smile. In one motion she snapped the lock open — and almost instantly, a Dementor slid out from within, and the classroom plunged into cold, gloomy darkness.
"Cast it!" she shouted.
"Expecto Patronum!"
The three incantations rang out together. Hermione's silver otter emerged smoothly, and even Ron managed to summon a patch of silver mist.
Only Harry — sweat pouring down his face, shouting the words over and over — got no response at all from his wand.
Seeing this, Hermione called out at once, "Harry, think of your happiest memory!"
But Harry, drowning in fear, could no longer make out her words. His legs shook as he watched the Dementor, driven off by his friends' Patronuses, glide straight toward him.
"Ex- Expecto Patro..." he tried desperately to get the words out clearly, but his tongue had gone thick and clumsy.
Kate had been watching his expression the whole time, and the moment she saw he truly couldn't hold on any longer, she snapped her fingers. Light suddenly flared up inside the Dementor in front of them.
In the blink of an eye, the Dementor — a creature no wizard could supposedly kill — was consumed by that light and burst apart, scattering into fragments before dissolving into ash and vanishing.
"Harry!" Ron was the first to rush over, catching the boy as he sagged toward the floor, then turning to Kate in alarm. "What happened to him?"
Hermione dug through her things for a while before finally producing a bar of chocolate. "Quick, get some of this into him."
While Ron hastily broke off a piece and fed it to Harry, Hermione's expression turned grim. She pulled Kate aside, a few steps further into the room.
"That wasn't a Boggart, was it?" she asked, voice dropped low, anger simmering beneath it. "I saw it clearly — that was a real Dementor! How did you get it into the school? Do you have any idea what would happen to the whole school if it got loose?"
Kate glanced back at the spot where the Dementor had vanished and shook her head. "It won't get loose. I've already tested this many times."
"What?" Hermione's brow creased. "What kind of dangerous experiments have you been running on your own now? And — how did you kill a Dementor? The books all say they can't be killed!"
"They can be. Though right now, I'm the only one who can do it."
She explained it flatly, as though discussing the weather. "You feed the Patronus's silver mist into the Dementor's body. Then, if it doesn't behave, you just detonate it."
In fact, that very afternoon, on her way out of the Headmaster's office, she'd gone out of her way to catch more than a dozen Dementors just to test the theory.
The results had proven her idea sound.
The method essentially planted the Patronus Charm inside the Dementor's body in advance; then, by drawing on a reserve of Mana set aside beforehand, she could blow them apart into nothing.
Of course, by her own estimate, only her Patronus could pull this off — after all, nobody else's Patronus was capable of, well, eating a Dementor.
"Why on earth would you catch Dementors to run experiments like that?" Hermione still couldn't wrap her head around it. "It's far too dangerous."
Kate was about to answer when, out of the corner of her eye, she caught Harry stirring back to consciousness. She raised her voice deliberately. "Because Harry's especially afraid of them, so I wanted to bring one in for him to practice against."
That, of course, wasn't the real reason.
What she actually wanted to know was whether she could control a Dementor.
Most Dementors these days were under the Ministry of Magic's control, used to guard Azkaban — and in the future, once Voldemort returned, they would switch their loyalty to him.
That meant they had a degree of awareness of their own.
And if they had awareness, that made things manageable. Even if she couldn't fully control them, she could still use fear to herd them like sheep into one place.
As for this particular Dementor, she really had confirmed she could control it completely before bringing it in — with the thought of letting the three of them get some practice in.
Best case, all three of them would be able to cast a strong enough Patronus to drive the Dementor back into the crate, and everything would end fine.
Even if someone couldn't manage a Patronus, she'd been standing right there the whole time, ready to step in immediately — she wouldn't let any of them get hurt.
"It's — it's fine, Hermione," Harry said, sweat still beaded on his forehead as Ron helped him to his feet. "Kate did this for our sake too."
With even the frightened boy himself saying so, Hermione had no choice but to let it drop.
"It's just — that Dementor is far too dangerous. Try not to bring anything like that into the school again. If someone else finds out, you'll be the one who gets burned for it." She added a few more worried warnings.
Knowing she was in the wrong, Kate could only nod obediently.
Still shaken, Harry had to be helped back by Ron.
With no one else left around, Hermione, once alone with Kate, couldn't hold back a scolding tone. "Next time something like this happens, tell me sooner — otherwise how am I supposed to cover for you?"
Kate nodded hastily and was about to walk her back, but after only a few steps, she was suddenly pulled to a stop.
She turned around and found herself pulled into a full embrace.
"I know you've been under a lot of pressure lately," Hermione said, her voice muffled. "Please stop doing things this dangerous. I worry about you."
Looking down at Hermione, who was nestled against her like a small cat, Kate felt, for no reason she could name, an urge to wrap her arms around her in return.
But the moment she reached out, she caught herself, realized what she was doing, and quickly pushed her away.
"I understand," she said, rubbing her nose guiltily and avoiding Hermione's eyes. "Don't worry. It won't happen again."
Kate thought, there was really no way she could tell a fourteen-year-old girl like Hermione that she was preparing herself to kill her own grandfather.
Hunting Dementors was about turning them into tools for herself — using them to help carry out her revenge.
But could she tell Hermione that?
No. Not a single word of it.
With that thought, she let a smile rise to her lips, though it never quite reached her eyes. "Come on, let's get you back."
Hermione studied her for a moment with an odd look, before finally relenting. "All right."
She'd always trusted Kate unconditionally, no matter what.
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