The next day was the Quidditch match.
The weather was clear, with the crisp chill of late winter turning into early spring. On a day like this, the match was bound to be a good one.
Before ten in the morning, the spectators were already streaming into the stands in orderly lines.
At a quarter to eleven, the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw teams set off for the changing rooms, and everyone waited for them to take the field.
Oh, except for two people.
"Everyone's gone to watch the match. Are you sure you don't want to go?" David had specially put on clothes that were easy to move in, and he trailed behind Kate with his hands clasped behind his back.
Kate shot him a sideways glance. "If you don't want to help, I can do it on my own. I promise I won't tell Teacher."
"Ugh, I promised Dad I'd look after you," David said helplessly. "You have no idea. I've still got a few letters from him in my drawer, and every one of them blames me for not protecting you properly."
After all, Kate was his old father's only disciple. Before David left for Hogwarts this time, he'd been told over and over, a thousand times, to take good care of this one precious sprout.
David was fond of his little junior sister, who was young enough to be his daughter. When he heard that Kate needed his help with something, he agreed without a second thought.
Only after he arrived did he learn that she wanted him to help find a rat.
It felt a bit like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut, but he agreed all the same, as a matter of duty.
And so Kate had brought him to the area near the Gryffindor Common Room.
"Scabbers disappeared from in there, so we should start searching from where he went missing," Kate said with a perfectly straight face. "The boys' dormitory. We go in together. No problem, right?"
David's face was a study in mixed feelings. He glanced at the Fat Lady in the portrait by the entrance, then nodded. What else could he do?
According to the plan, Kate cast a Disillusionment Charm and followed beside him. David gave the password to The Fat Lady, and then the two of them went in together.
The plan went off without a hitch. Thanks to his status as a Professor, the Fat Lady raised no objection, and they entered the Common Room with no trouble.
What came next was actually simple. Every one of the little lions was at the Quidditch pitch right now, so all he had to do was cast a few simple spells to detect what was in the Common Room.
"Only a few pets in all the rooms, but no rats…"
David murmured as he closed the door to one dormitory. He turned and saw his junior sister coming out of another room. Suspecting nothing, he asked right away, "Find anything on your side?"
"Nothing." Kate calmly slid her hands into her pockets, tucking away the Marauder's Map she had just taken out.
She had picked today to take the Marauder's Map not only because few people were around, but also because Harry normally carried the map everywhere, treating it like a treasure.
Only today, a day with a Quidditch match, would he surely not have it on him.
"Go wait outside for a bit. I can handle the girls' dormitory on my own."
With a few words she sent David on his way, then walked straight into Hermione's dormitory. Once she was sure no one would disturb her for the moment, she took out the map.
The Marauder's Map was a magical map that showed every location in Hogwarts, including the names and positions of everyone inside the school.
To look at, it was nothing more than a worn old piece of parchment.
She drew her wand and tapped the parchment lightly. "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."
In an instant, fine lines of ink spread out from where the wand tip had touched, like a spider's web, linking up and crisscrossing until they covered every corner of the parchment.
Then large, curling green letters appeared across the top: Messrs. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs, Purveyors of Aids to Magical Mischief-Makers.
The map held every detail of Hogwarts. Kate leaned in and searched carefully for a while, and soon spotted a black dot labeled "Peter Pettigrew" pacing back and forth in one spot.
Was he really that afraid of Sirius?
She smiled in satisfaction, memorized the dot's position, then shut the door and left as if nothing had happened.
At the same moment, the armored warrior that had stood motionless for so long in the armor corridor on the second floor finally began to move.
…
When she came out of the Common Room, David was still waiting outside.
Kate dispelled her Disillusionment Charm and walked over. "Nothing in there. I think it may have run outside."
"It won't be easy to find one little rat in a castle this big."
David furrowed his brow and was still racking his brain for other ideas when a dog's bark rang out from somewhere.
Strange. As far as he knew, no student at the school kept a dog.
He wanted to follow the sound, but then he saw a large ginger cat dash out of the Gryffindor Common Room.
"Crookshanks?" Kate said in mild surprise, walking over to pick it up.
It didn't resist. It lay lazily in her arms, meowing as if it wanted to say something.
"So this is the cat that scared the little rat away?" David came over with interest and ruffled its head. "I'm guessing that barking just now has something to do with it, too?"
Seeing that he had already noticed, Kate had no choice but to pin the blame squarely on the cat. "It must be because it runs off to play all the time. It probably made friends with some stray dog out there."
On Crookshanks's flat face, a look of almost human bewilderment appeared, as if to say: the kitty hasn't done anything wrong, so why does the kitty have to take the blame?
"Be good. I'll have your owner give you some cat treats later."
Kate soothed it calmly, but David was still staring toward the far end of the corridor where the barking had come from, and his expression had turned wary.
"With Dementors guarding the grounds, how could a stray dog possibly get in?"
He was right. Without knowing the secret passage, and without anyone's help, no stray dog could get into Hogwarts as things stood now.
Behind his back, Kate couldn't help sighing silently.
That Sirius really knew how to cause her trouble.
Animagus transformations might be flawless, but David was Newt's son, raised among animals since childhood.
If she didn't stop him and let him go over to look, he would surely notice something odd about the black dog that Sirius had become.
As she was racking her brain, two girls' startled screams came from downstairs.
Oh no!
Her face changed slightly, and she ran to the nearest staircase to look.
She had been concentrating too hard just now, and the armored warrior she was controlling in her distraction had been spotted!
But David's attention had been pulled toward the screams as well, and forgetting all about any stray dog, he raced down the stairs.
Well… she supposed that was a blessing in disguise.
Kate, utterly speechless, set Crookshanks down and whispered, "Tell your friend to hide well, and not to come out again for the rest of the day!"
With that, she quickly ran down after David.
Crookshanks meowed twice, shook out its fur, and bounded off toward the room at the end of the corridor.
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