The fireworks in the Paris night sky were dazzling, making the ancient city seem dreamlike. But the two-week Christmas holiday vanished as quickly as those fireworks. On the day after the New Year, Eda packed her handbag and prepared to return to Hogwarts.
When she crossed the English Channel and once again stood on the land of the British Isles, Eda still didn't feel that this place was very far from Paris. She hadn't yet truly felt that she had left home.
But when Eda returned to the Scottish Highlands and saw those mountains of nearly equal height, when the damp and cold wind struck her face, she finally felt that she had truly returned to Hogwarts. Yes—this was the right feeling.
The ancient castle that had stood for a thousand years became lively again. The returning students brought vitality back to Hogwarts. In high spirits, Eda hummed an unknown tune as she walked toward the Gryffindor Tower, planning to share stories of her trip to Paris with her friends.
The portrait at the entrance to the Gryffindor common room was still Sir Cadogan. The Fat Lady, the dormitory matron, had not recovered from her psychological trauma and still refused to return to her post. From Halloween until before the Christmas holidays, the substitute caretaker Sir Cadogan had probably changed the password nearly a hundred times.
In the portrait, Cadogan was lying on the grass resting, while the pony that always accompanied him grazed beside him.
"Happy New Year, Sir Cadogan," Eda said in a good mood, even greeting him. "Glory be bestowed upon you in the name of justice!"
Sir Cadogan leapt up from the ground, drew his sword, and shouted, "Wrong password! Speak! Why has a succubus like you broken into the castle? What are your evil eyes spying upon? Speak!"
"When was the password changed? Why change the password during the holidays?" Eda asked patiently.
After the Fat Lady's portrait was damaged, none of the other portraits in the castle were willing to take over this dangerous position, because they feared that Black might damage their portraits as well. Only Sir Cadogan was unafraid of Black and had volunteered to take over the Fat Lady's duties.
So whether it was out of respect for Sir Cadogan's bravery and fearlessness, or because he allowed Gryffindor students to return to their common room, Eda still held a fair amount of respect for this knight whose reputation wasn't particularly good.
"You have no right to question Sir Cadogan, you bewitching succubus!" Sir Cadogan whirled the sword in his hand like a windmill and continued, "Speak your evil purpose! The great Sir Cadogan may spare your life!"
Eda pursed her lips and suppressed her anger as she said, "Look here—see this prefect badge? I'm a Gryffindor prefect. Let me in!"
"I saw it, so what? Wrong password means no entry—even Dumbledore couldn't get in. What's so special about a prefect!" Sir Cadogan sounded normal in the first half of his sentence, but the second half burned again with his chuunibyou spirit. "Come then! Let us fight to the death! The brave Sir Cadogan never fears demons!"
Eda suddenly really wanted to take out her wand and "tidy up" Sir Cadogan's appearance a little. She finally understood why, after being refused by the Fat Lady, Black had smashed her portrait in fury. Right now, she also very much wanted to do the same—it would definitely feel satisfying.
At that moment, a Gryffindor student appeared behind Eda, the sound of footsteps drawing closer.
Hearing someone approach, Eda thought she wouldn't need to look for scissors anymore. But when she turned around and saw that the student was Neville Longbottom, she felt she'd better keep looking for scissors after all.
Just as Eda was about to take out her wand and conjure a pair of scissors, Neville carefully asked, "Why aren't you going in?"
In Neville Longbottom's mind there was a ranking of things he feared most. At the very top were Professor Snape and Mrs. Longbottom. And Eda had also been lucky enough to make the list—even though she had never actually done anything to Neville.
"Neville, that old bastard Cadogan changed the password again, so I can't get into the common room," Eda said as if resigning herself to her fate. "Let's just wait here—until someone comes along, or someone comes out of the common room."
Hearing that the password had been changed again, Neville stopped rummaging through his pockets and asked in a panic, "When was it changed? Why was it changed again? I haven't even memorized the last one yet!"
"This morning, you forgetful little chubby," Sir Cadogan hesitated for a moment but still decided to remind Neville. "Didn't you say the new password correctly at noon!"
Neville suddenly let out a sigh of relief and continued the action he had stopped earlier out of panic. After a while, having searched through all his pockets, Neville finally pulled out a small piece of paper.
Eda leaned over curiously and took a look. The paper was densely covered with the common room passwords. Truly, when there are policies from above, there are countermeasures below.
"Black is a cowardly puppy," Neville spread out the paper and slowly read out one of the lines.
"Correct! Black is a cowardly puppy! He doesn't even dare to fight Sir Cadogan to the death!"
Sir Cadogan shouted loudly as he opened the entrance to the common room. Neither Eda nor Neville paid attention to his bold declarations—the moment the opening appeared, the two of them immediately slipped inside.
The common room was lively. Eda reminded Neville to keep his piece of paper safe and make sure not to lose it, then returned to her group of friends.
The twins and Lee Jordan were sitting in exactly the same posture, legs crossed, looking toward the boys' dormitory with puzzled expressions. Angelina and Alicia were sitting in almost the same way, except they weren't crossing their legs, and the direction they were looking was toward the girls' dormitory.
Seeing her friends all in such synchronized poses, Eda's previously ruined good mood turned into curiosity. What was going on with them? Had some unbelievable campus couple appeared within Gryffindor?
It wasn't strange that Eda's imagination ran wild—the way her friends were behaving was simply too bizarre and too hypnotic.
"Can someone tell me what happened?"
Her friends all turned their heads toward Eda in perfect unison, making her shiver. Soon enough, everyone began talking at once, and the whole story quickly became clear. The cause of it all was a Christmas gift Harry had received.
On Christmas Day, Harry received an extremely expensive present—the most expensive and most professional flying broom on the market, the Firebolt. And such a generous gift had even been sent anonymously.
A Firebolt—price negotiable. Eda had wanted to buy one during the holidays but failed to do so. Now Harry was about to ride a Firebolt in the remaining Quidditch matches. This was outrageous—a rich heir driving an F1 car in an amateur competition! Was there no justice left in the world? No law at all?
Although Professor McGonagall had once given Harry a Nimbus 2000 as a gift, Eda didn't think McGonagall would give him a Firebolt. The reason was simple: the Firebolt was far too expensive. Such a costly gift and such special treatment would inevitably cause dissatisfaction among the other students.
The same logic applied to Dumbledore. As the headmaster, it would provoke even more complaints from students. Professor Lupin did care a lot about Harry and was even personally teaching him the Patronus Charm this semester, but Lupin's own life was very difficult—there was no way he could afford something that expensive.
"Now the Firebolt's in Professor McGonagall's hands. She wants to check it for curses—she suspects Sirius Black sent it," Fred complained.
George continued, "And all of this is because of Hermione. She told Professor McGonagall about it. I saw a smaller version of you, Prefect Twist."
Eda didn't think so. She felt Hermione hadn't done anything wrong. Being cautious never hurt anyone; carelessness caused big trouble. What if the broom really had a curse on it? Should they let Harry fall from dozens of feet in the air again?
However, what Eda cared more about was something else entirely. As the last male of the Black family, the price of a Firebolt probably wasn't much to him. But the problem was that Sirius was a fugitive. How exactly did he manage to negotiate the price and place an order for a flying broom? That was the real key question.
Who was helping Sirius Black?
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