Kate hurried to the entrance of Flourish and Blotts, only to find a dense crowd already packed outside. A banner had been strung from the upstairs window:
GILDEROY LOCKHART WILL BE SIGNING COPIES OF HIS AUTOBIOGRAPHY, MAGICAL ME, TODAY FROM 12:30 TO 4:30 P.M.
Kate took one deliberate look at the crowd. The vast majority were witches right around Mrs. Weasley's age.
Good grief. The man was a complete empty suit — and an absolute housewife magnet.
She followed the signing queue along until she finally spotted Harry and the entire Weasley family already standing in line. And among the crowd, she caught sight of two unexpected figures as well.
She squeezed through the gaps and jogged over to them. "Mrs. Weasley, how lovely to see you."
"Kate, you finally made it — I was starting to think you'd be late!" Harry said, visibly delighted.
After greeting Mrs. Weasley, Kate turned to look at him with a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes. "I heard you snuck out of the house?"
Harry cleared his throat, caught out, and quickly pulled her aside. "Er — Hermione and Professor Wynyard are just behind us."
Following his gaze, Kate spotted the two of them standing right at the back of the group. Hermione was currently staring at Kate with eyes practically glowing — but with Katherine there to keep her in check, she hadn't been able to step forward.
"I didn't expect to see you two here." Kate absentmindedly wiped the light sweat from her palm, then stepped carefully over and sized Katherine up before gently taking Hermione's hand.
Before Hermione could say a word, Katherine pushed her glasses up with considerable authority. "Hermione."
"Here!" The little lion jumped, and her already-fluffy brown hair practically stood on end.
Something about the scene struck Kate as off. She instinctively drew Hermione closer to her side. "The sun's so strong today — wouldn't you like to go find some shade, Auntie?"
"Auntie?!"
Never mind the yelps of disbelief from Harry and Ron behind her — Kate stared Katherine down and pulled Hermione squarely behind her back with the unmistakable air of a mother hen.
Katherine couldn't help a quiet laugh. "Little Kate, we haven't seen each other for a whole month — when did you become so guarded around me?"
"Not at all," Kate said, curving her lips into a smile that held no warmth whatsoever. "I'm sure you must be imagining things, Auntie. I hold you in the deepest reverence, truly."
That might have been convincing enough — if one chose to ignore the way Kate's hand had quietly slipped behind her back toward her wand.
"Tsk. What a little nuisance," Katherine muttered under her breath.
The child's hostility toward her was entirely down to how tense Hermione was at this moment. To think she'd consider going for her own aunt over an outsider — not endearing in the slightest.
Katherine gave a light sniff. "All right. Hermione's lessons with me are concluded for now. I'm returning her to you in exactly the condition I received her — so don't come looking for trouble on my account."
With that, she Apparated and vanished on the spot.
Kate blinked. Once she'd confirmed that Katherine was truly gone, she turned to Hermione. "How are you feeling? Did she do anything out of line?"
"Out of line?" Hermione blinked back at her, looking genuinely puzzled. "Not at all — the Professor was very kind and patient with me."
That left Kate completely at a loss. "Then why were you so tense just now?"
She'd almost convinced herself Katherine had been secretly tormenting Hermione behind closed doors.
Not that she could be blamed for thinking the worst of Katherine. On one side: her closest friend of many years. On the other: a mysterious aunt she'd only just met, barely known at all. Emotionally speaking, of course she'd lean toward Hermione.
"It's just..." Hermione's gaze drifted for a moment before settling back to normal. "The Professor is very strict, so I can't help but go rigid whenever she's around."
Just strict, then?
That sounded reasonable enough. Hermione was, all things considered, a good student — feeling nervous around teachers was perfectly natural.
Even Kate herself, even well into her working years in her past life, would occasionally dream of being back in school and wake up in a cold sweat.
Kate scratched the back of her head. "Fair enough. As long as you're okay."
The moment she said it, she felt two pairs of eyes boring into the back of her skull. She turned around: Harry and Ron, both staring at her with eyes practically glowing green.
"…Keep looking at me like that and I might start thinking you've been poisoned and shove bezoars down both your throats," she said flatly.
The two of them blinked in unison, exchanged a slightly embarrassed look, and then composed themselves.
"Ahem! Kate, since when is Professor Wynyard your aunt? You never told us!" Harry crossed his arms, working hard to sound like he had a legitimate grievance.
Kate looked at him sideways. "Oh, is that so? I sent you three letters over the summer. A certain someone doesn't seem to have replied to a single one."
"That..." Harry dropped his gaze guiltily. "There was a reason for that..."
He knew the reason, even if no one else did. A house-elf called Dobby had turned up at his home out of nowhere, tried to stop him from going back to Hogwarts, and had secretly confiscated all the letters his friends had sent him over the summer.
He still didn't understand why Dobby had wanted to keep him away from school — but it had made an absolute disaster of his life. Thanks to Dobby performing magic at the Dursleys', Harry had received a warning from the Ministry of Magic, and Uncle Vernon had found out he wasn't allowed to use magic outside of school.
If Ron and the twins hadn't snuck out in the flying car in the middle of the night to rescue him, he'd probably still be locked in his room.
"Oh, everyone's got their reasons," Kate said breezily, pretending she knew nothing.
Just as Ron was about to open his mouth to defend Harry, Kate shifted her gaze past him to a small red-haired girl standing behind them.
"You're Ginny, aren't you?" She extended a hand to the girl. "Hello — I'm Kate. I wonder if you still remember me?"
Ginny glanced uncertainly at her brothers, then reached back and shook Kate's hand, answering in a small, shy voice, "Hello, Senior Kate. Harry's mentioned you before."
What a sweet girl.
Kate cast a brief sideways glance at Harry, who was completely oblivious beside her, and couldn't help marveling at his luck. A secret admirer crushing on him this young — and he'd end up marrying her one day.
How come no one ever had a crush on her?
Ahem!
Realizing her thoughts had wandered somewhere rather off-track, Kate coughed under her breath to cover her embarrassment.
Romance could wait. She had to survive long enough to actually graduate first.
No point talking about love if she wasn't alive to see it!
"Hey, I'm your brother too, you know!" Ron said, clearly put out that she'd only addressed Harry.
"That's right," the Weasley twins chimed in simultaneously, each popping a head out from behind Mrs. Weasley, "we're your brothers as well!"
Ginny's face turned scarlet, and she immediately buried herself in her mother's robes.
So Ginny's very obvious crush on Harry was already common knowledge in the whole family, was it?
Kate raised an eyebrow slightly and greeted the twins as naturally as one could, then looked down the long queue. "So what are you all queuing for, anyway?"
"You really don't know?" Without a professor nearby, Hermione was visibly livelier — though perhaps a bit too lively.
She pointed up at the banner and exclaimed, "It's Gilderoy Lockhart's signing event!"
"I know," Kate said, grabbing Hermione's other arm before her excitement could launch her into orbit. "But if you just want to buy his book, couldn't you go straight into the shop?"
Ron curled his lip. "I think you're right, Kate. There's really no point queuing this long."
Mrs. Weasley rewarded him with a firm flick to the back of the head for that.
Clearly she was a Lockhart fan as well.
Hermione shot Ron a withering glare. "It's completely different! We get to see him in person and get his signature — that's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!"
"Is it, though?" Kate's face twitched. She looked at the still-enormous queue stretching ahead and took a step back. "I'm not particularly interested in his signature — I'll just head on inside."
She'd barely taken a few steps before Hermione yanked her back hard.
"Ow —"
Kate stared at her in mild surprise. When had this little girl developed such a grip?
Hermione seemed to realize she'd used a bit too much force, and quickly rubbed Kate's shoulder apologetically, then leaned in and wheedled in a small voice, "Kate, stay and queue with me, pleease~"
"But Harry and Ron are right here with you," Kate said weakly, gesturing at the entire assembled Weasley household.
Hermione's cheeks went pink. She hugged Kate's arm tightly. "They're... they're different from you."
Different how, exactly?
Missing an arm? Short a leg?
Kate very much wanted to say exactly that — but one look at Hermione's flushed, bashful little face and she swallowed every word.
"Actually," she said, picking her words carefully, "Flourish and Blotts is partly a Shafiq family investment, so if you all want his signature, we can go inside and wait for the event to wrap up. I can go talk to him after and arrange a private signing — photos included."
The moment she finished, she felt two blazing stares fixed on her — one from Hermione and one from Mrs. Weasley.
The other children were visibly thrilled as well. After all, who'd want to stand in the blazing sun when they didn't have to?
Before long, the whole group peeled away from the queue and slipped inside the bookshop.
The cool air inside was a welcome relief, and the Weasleys' faces all visibly brightened the moment they stepped in.
"Five sets of Lockhart's books..." Mrs. Weasley moved along the shelves, pulling an armful of bestsellers and distributing them into the cauldrons the children were carrying.
Ron squinted at the price tag and murmured gently, "Mum... I don't think we brought enough money..."
"Don't worry," Kate patted him on the shoulder. "With me here, everything in the shop is thirty percent off."
Ginny's eyes lit up instantly. "Then I can get a new wand and new robes too!"
Mrs. Weasley had been planning to buy her second-hand ones before.
"Oh, Kate," Ron declared with theatrical admiration, "you are the god of fortune for our entire family!"
Kate gave a short laugh and drove her fist into his shoulder hard enough to make him double over with a grunt of pain — then said lightly, "Call that the interest."
____
________________________________________
🌸 Help Love Bloom!
Our girls need a little push... and you can help!
💖 Gift for Everyone: Once we hit 50 Powerstones, I'll release +1 bonus chapter to warm your hearts.
🚀 Community Reward: If we reach 20 supporting members, we'll have a +5 chapter marathon across all stories! The romance won't stop.
👻 Come to our secret corner: Search for GirlsLove on (P). You know that's where the magic happens... 😉