Before she left, Kate still had to receive her punishment from Dumbledore.
For the rest of the term, she was to patrol the Forbidden Forest every Saturday and hand in a short research essay on Forbidden Forest creatures every week.
On top of that, she would serve detention four days a week. Add Snape's Friday detention, and Kate would have almost no free time outside the weekend.
For students like Harry and Ron, who hated homework and loved trouble, this was probably a punishment of disastrous proportions.
Kate had no objection. She knew herself that she'd gone too far for the sake of the experiment.
After saying goodbye to Dumbledore and stepping out of the Headmaster's office, she finally heard the System's chime.
[Main Quest 6: Uncover the truth of twelve years ago. Quest complete!]
[Main Extended Quest: Capture Peter Pettigrew. Quest complete!]
She stopped mid-step. Only then did she remember that, more or less, she really had finished this year's Main Quest.
This year's opponents had been so weak that it hadn't felt real.
Besides, her head was full of the letter from her mother, and she couldn't feel happy at all.
She didn't want to go back to the stuffy Slytherin Common Room. After a moment's thought, Kate picked a tree near the Black Lake, floated lightly up into it and lay down.
[Host, would you like to claim your rewards?]
"Not in the mood right now. Later." She closed her eyes and stared at the patch of green canopy overhead, her thoughts adrift.
As things stood, even if she killed by using a Dementor's hand, the darkness in her soul could still be stirred up while she carried the Curse. The risk was small, but she couldn't afford to gamble.
So the only option was to lift the Curse first?
She already had an idea, though not a fully formed one. To try it, she'd need someone she trusted, someone who could accept anything she did, standing guard beside her.
Dumbledore wouldn't do. Neither would the old butler. Both trusted her, but both also had that parental urge to protect her.
Which left Katherine?
She'd have to find a way to trick her into coming here. Or maybe she could find a chance to go back herself?
The trouble was, she had no idea whether Old Man Dumbledore would let her leave school again.
[Host, shall we begin the rewards?]
"I said not for now." Her train of thought broken, she answered irritably.
She had barely finished speaking when a light, lilting voice drifted up from beneath the tree. "Senior, are you being pestered by Wrackspurts?"
Kate jumped, and her balance wobbled so badly she nearly pitched headfirst off the branch. Once she'd steadied herself, she looked down. "Luna? What a coincidence, meeting you here."
The girl she hadn't seen in ages stood beneath the tree, gazing up at her. "I followed you here."
"Eh?"
"You looked so unsettled when you came out of the castle. I thought Wrackspurts might have got hold of you, so I came to chase them off."
She flapped her hands at the air, as if trying to catch some big, invisible moths.
Kate hopped nimbly down from the tree and stopped in front of her. "You seem to have grown a lot taller."
"And you seem a lot more tired, Senior." Luna studied her thoughtfully. "Is it because of that sudden illness last time?"
She meant the avalanche incident in the week before Christmas, when the official story had been that Kate fell suddenly ill and needed to go home to recover.
Kate was about to shake her head, then felt that it was true after all, and gave a wry smile. "Sort of. Something happened that made me really sad, and it's connected to that illness."
She sat down by the tree with Luna and looked out at the Black Lake. She hesitated for a long while, not knowing how to put it into words.
When she turned her head, she found Luna watching her without blinking.
That focused, earnest look of a listener smoothed away her restlessness in an instant.
"Actually, I got a letter from my mum." She met Luna's eyes calmly. "Do you remember what your mum looked like?"
Luna's bright silver eyes flickered. She wrapped her arms around her knees and looked toward the distant lake. "She died in an accident during a spell experiment. I was nine."
Put that way, it hadn't been all that long ago.
Kate sighed softly and put an arm around her shoulders. "I don't remember what she looked like. But when I saw the letter she left me, my heart just… churned. I can't even describe the feeling."
She'd arrived in this world with an adult's soul, but perhaps this body had something to do with it. She had always felt something special toward her late parents.
"You miss her," Luna said, blinking. "When I first lost Mum, I couldn't sleep either. Whole nights, one after another."
Kate lowered her eyes in thought for a moment. "And then?"
"Dad told me death is only the beginning of another reunion. When I die, I'll get to see Mum, so I'm not sad at all anymore."
Death, just another kind of reunion?
She thought of the pure white world Harry saw after he died in the seventh film, and of Dumbledore, who had been waiting for him there.
It might have been only a hallucination, conjured by his fading consciousness as he lay dying. Or it might have been real.
"Maybe you're right," she said, leaning back until she lay flat on the lawn. "Maybe after death, we really can see the people we want to see."
Though she thought that when her grandfather died, he probably wouldn't get to see his wife, or his daughter.
"She loved me. That's why she left me that letter," she murmured with her eyes closed.
Luna lay down beside her. "My mum loved me too. She'll be waiting for me in the world after death."
Kate's lips curled up. "She will. As long as you believe it, you'll see her again."
The girl beside her answered with a soft "Mm."
Puzzled, Kate opened her eyes and looked over. Sunlight slanting through the gaps in the branches fell right across the golden-haired girl, who was drifting into sleep.
Her already fair skin seemed to glow even brighter, and her long, curling golden hair rose and fell with her breathing, like golden seaweed floating in the ocean, glimmering in the sun.
For a moment, Kate almost thought she was looking at a forest sprite.
She tilted her head and watched admiringly for a while. Once she was sure Luna had truly fallen asleep, she lay back down too.
In the letter, her mother had said she hoped that after reading it, Kate would run and jump and do whatever she wanted, and be happy.
What she wanted to do right now was end this feud, which had spanned three generations, with her own hands.
But it was still far too early. Until then, she might as well relax properly and prepare for the plans ahead.
As she listened to the breathing beside her slowly even out, a wave of exhaustion rose from deep within her body.
She closed her eyes, and under the gentle spring sun, she fell asleep on the grass beside Luna.
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