Given Hermione's current height, pinning Kate against the wall inevitably meant she had to tilt her head up to look at her.
As a result, what was supposed to be an interrogative wall-pin suddenly took on a rather childish charm.
"The little dragon survived. It's waiting for you to name it."
Hermione stared up at her. Her brows were furrowed tightly, but hearing that muffled tone, Kate knew she was still angry.
Angry on Kate's behalf.
With the roles of attacker and defender suddenly reversed, Kate guiltily pursed her lips. She grabbed Hermione's right wrist with one hand and looked earnestly into her clear, dark eyes.
"I know."
Hermione's gaze darted away for a second before she finally pulled her hand free, lowering her head to stare at the bathroom floor.
Who knew what was so fascinating about the floor's pattern.
Adjusting her wizard robes, Kate cleared her throat and asked, "So what was that about wandering the castle at night? And Malfoy—how did she get mixed up with you guys?"
At the mention of this, Hermione immediately got angry.
She turned around. "After you collapsed, the little dragon kept screeching every day. We couldn't even get it to eat. We wanted to find the Headmaster, but the Headmaster wasn't at the school."
"So we thought about sneaking into the Hospital Wing in the middle of the night to wake you up and take you to see the little dragon. Who knew..."
As she spoke, she lowered her head in shame.
Needless to say, they must have been caught by Malfoy, who had been trying to get something on them.
Now all four of them had lost points and were being punished with a patrol of the Forbidden Forest.
Kate rested her hands on her hips, utterly speechless. "You guys are really..."
"I was wrong, Kate." Hermione suddenly threw herself forward, hugging her arm and acting coquettishly. "I will never wander the castle at night again!"
Hah, you'll definitely say the exact same thing next time.
Even knowing the fundamental nature of the Gryffindor trouble-making trio, this was Hermione!
Hermione was holding her hand, acting all cute and whiny with her!
Who could resist that?
Kate certainly couldn't.
The serious expression she had painstakingly mustered instantly crumbled. Kate shook her head with a smile and raised a hand to pinch her little cheek. "Next time, just remember not to get caught."
Asking them not to wander at night was basically impossible, so it was better to make practical demands.
"I'll try my best!"
Only then did Hermione show a hint of a smile. Following that, she carefully felt Kate's chest. "Right, you were just discharged today. How are you feeling now?"
"I'm fine," Kate replied calmly, grabbing her hand and moving it away from her chest. "As long as you don't make me angry, that is."
The two of them roughhoused for a bit as usual before tidying themselves up and heading out. They immediately saw that Harry and Ron had already finished eating their burgers and were sitting on the floor out of sheer boredom, playing rock-paper-scissors.
"Are you two..." Ron stood up at once, eyeing their intimately linked arms. "Done talking?"
Kate gave him and Harry each a flick on the forehead with a forced smile. "Wandering at night. Taking Hermione wandering at night. Taking Hermione wandering at night and actually getting caught."
"The fact that I'm not flicking you a few more times is me fulfilling my duties as a friend."
Pretending his forehead hurt, Harry hurriedly said, "Since you're already discharged, we should hurry up and go see the little dragon!"
"That's right! It's been screeching for days. No matter how Hagrid tries to feed it, it refuses to eat. It looks like it's going to starve to death!"
How could that be allowed?
How could the little life she had risked her old bones to save die from a hunger strike!
Without a second thought, Kate ran with them toward the gamekeeper's hut.
The interior of the hut was still sweltering hot. Having run all the way there, she didn't even have time to catch her breath before she heard the hoarse screeching of the little dragon.
Meanwhile, Hagrid was standing helplessly in front of the table, trying to feed it chicken blood and brandy. But the little dragon didn't even spare him a glance, just continuing to screech incessantly.
"Little dragon!" Kate called out anxiously, walking over to snatch the alcohol from Hagrid's hand and feeding it herself.
This time, the little dragon's long, large snout sniffed her fingers intensely. Then, it pressed its mouth directly against the cup and swallowed large gulps.
Seeing this, the others finally breathed a sigh of relief.
"Just as I thought. The little dragon really treats Kate as its mother," Harry said, though he couldn't help but look at Hagrid with some concern.
Hagrid was blocked behind Kate, but his gaze remained glued to the little dragon. However, his usually good-natured face couldn't help but show a hint of disappointment.
He was the one who brought the dragon egg back, but the little dragon refused to acknowledge him at all.
How could that not break his heart?
"Bring some more brandy. It's starving," Kate said softly.
Hagrid nodded quickly, walked over to the brandy barrel by the fireplace, scooped out some alcohol, and handed it to her.
"After this, just feed it chicken blood and brandy every half hour, and it should be fine." Kate finished feeding the alcohol and wiped the sweat from her forehead. Turning around, she realized Hagrid was standing exceptionally far away from her.
She frowned. "What are you doing standing all the way over there? Hurry up and come here."
Hagrid pointed at himself hesitantly. "Me? It won't acknowledge me."
"It can," Kate nodded with absolute certainty.
Waiting for Hagrid to step forward hesitantly, she grabbed his hand and brought it close to the little dragon, letting it sniff with its large snout. "Little dragon, remember this scent."
The little dragon let out a fiery sneeze. Its head bobbed up and down, and after lightly touching Hagrid's hand, it nuzzled back into Kate's embrace.
"It touched me! It was willing to touch me!" Hagrid was so pleasantly surprised he almost jumped for joy.
He tentatively reached out again and lightly touched the little dragon that was acting coy in Kate's arms. It didn't have any extreme reaction to his approach.
"This way, you'll be able to feed it food from now on." Holding the little dragon with one hand, Kate smiled in relief.
As a person, Hagrid might not have much in the way of brains, but he was, after all, trusted by Dumbledore. At the very least, his character was guaranteed.
She was attending school and didn't have the time to feed it, so for the time being, she could only leave it in Hagrid's care.
When it grew a little bigger—in about a week or so—it could be taken back by Newt to be raised.
At this moment, Hagrid's eyes were already blurred with tears. "It doesn't have a name yet. How about we call it Norbert?"
"?" Kate froze for a moment, eyeing the little dragon in her arms suspiciously. "But isn't it a female dragon?"
Hagrid's eyes widened instantly. "A female dragon? That... the books didn't mention that!"
Kate was almost amused by him. "Just because it's not written in the books doesn't mean there's no way to tell. I studied under my Teacher for a year, and I'm very certain it's a female dragon."
This completely stumped Hagrid.
"Then..." he asked hesitantly. "Why don't you name her instead? She already treats you as her mother."
She wasn't particularly good at naming things either.
Kate looked at the little dragon in her arms with some difficulty. "Seeing as you're so black, how about I call you Darkie?"
She turned her head, only to see Hagrid and the three little lions with expressions full of question marks.
See, she really didn't know how to name things.
Her gaze sweeping around the surroundings, Kate cleared her throat. "Then let's change it to a proper name. How about Dark Cloud?"
"That's the one!" Hermione decided immediately, terrified that she would come up with some other bizarre name.
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