She was raised in a cell, not a home. Called a monster, forgotten by the world. Until the day Dumbledore came knocking.
Leonor has never known a wand or a friend—only the cold, silent walls of her tiny cell in Azkaban, her identity buried beneath layers of fear and shame. But when the enigmatic Albus Dumbledore arrives to personally escort her to Hogwarts, the shadows of her past begin to stir.
Aboard the Hogwarts Express, she meets Harry Potter. But unlike other students, Leonor isn’t just carrying books and robes—she carries a curse. And the blood of a family whose name the wizarding world wishes to forget.
A dark and emotionally intense story of redemption, identity, and the haunting price of being different.
⚠️ This fanfiction contains mature and psychologically heavy themes including isolation, trauma, and emotional abuse. Please read with caution.
Philosopher’s Stone
01: The Interwoven Thread
“Hey Abby, just don’t do that. Give it back!”
“Yaa! It’s Abby’s!”
My sister hugged her stuffed rabbit and shook her head in refusal.
I know it’s pathetic for an older person to get worked up over a four-year-old.
But, but, Taffy is a precious stuffed animal that Marriott gave me when he went to live with his new family. He’s the only one that belongs to me.
“That’s mine! Give it back!”
“Yaa!”
Crash!!
The large window behind Abby broke, sending large shards of glass falling on her and me.
When the couple rushed to the room on the second floor where they heard a loud noise, they found their two children covered in shattered glass.
“What are you doing?!”
“Abby!!”
Matthew yelled, and Camilla ran to her screaming, crying daughter, then turned and cursed her horrible stepdaughter.
“Don’t come near my daughter again! You idiot!!”monsterFreak
sorry.
He shattered the window, which was Camilla’s favorite window pane that Matthew had given her.
sorry.
The carpet was covered in glass powder. It was Matthew’s precious carpet.
sorry.
I’m sorry I made Abby cry.
But I wasn’t the one who broke the window…
As she stood at the door, Mrs. Swann looked again at the sender of this unusual letter.
It had been four years and a few months since she, Leonore Pevensie, had walked into this room.
The wealthy Mr. Pevensie has come to this country mansion, far away from his home, to confine his daughter, and even has the door triple-padlocked.
Leonore Pevensie was an adopted daughter. Or so I heard. Or that she was adopted but for some reason they had to lock her away.
When he first brought her here, Mr. Pevensie
“Don’t tell anyone, never let the child leave the room, never go near the child.”
He said with a serious expression.
What struck me at the time was the frightened look in the wife’s eyes as she looked at her adopted daughter from the passenger seat of the car.
Until then, I had suspected that the couple were abusing their adopted daughter, and thought that if they were going to abuse her, they shouldn’t have adopted her at all.
However, the frightened look in the wife’s eyes seemed more like the gaze of someone looking at something unknown than fear of her husband who was abusing their adopted daughter.
The adopted daughter in question was a quiet, if a little gloomy, girl. This made the lady’s gaze even more puzzling.
Despite his appearance, he may actually be a frightening child. He may suddenly go on a wild rampage like an animal, be possessed by spirits, or communicate with aliens every night…
When she first arrived, many thoughts crossed my mind, but even after a month had passed, there was not a single sound coming from the room, not even a groaning sound, other than the sound of water being used.
It would be troublesome if they made strange noises, but it’s also strange that they didn’t make a single sound.
Creepy kid.
That’s what I thought.
One morning while making scrambled eggs for her breakfast, it occurred to me that spending all day in an empty room must be extremely boring.
Then I remembered.
In the room were textbooks that my son had used and books left behind by the previous tenants. I had left them there because I didn’t want to bother cleaning them up.
It might be a little difficult for a child his age, but if he’s bored to death, he’ll read it or something. There should be a dictionary, so he should be able to read it if he wants to. I don’t care if it gets torn up because it’s no longer needed. I don’t want to get involved any more.
It’s been about four years since then.
As usual, I could hear nothing from the room except the shower and toilet.
And the Pevensies have never come to see the child since they left him in their care. Perhaps it’s to be expected, seeing as they’ve taken the trouble to confine him to the countryside, but they’ve never even sent a letter to inquire about how he’s doing.
And yet today, for the first time, a letter addressed to Leonor arrived.
The sender is Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
There’s no address or anything written on it. I have no idea who it is or what kind of organization it is.
Another creepy thing is that the address is written as “Second Floor Corner Room, Ms. Leonore Pevensie.” There is no way to identify the address from this alone. As expected, there is no stamp or postal stamp.
Creepy.
Just having it makes me feel like I could get infected with some strange disease.
I should give it to him quickly. As I opened the door to take it out, my eyes met with the child in the room.
Her thick black hair contrasts with her slender body, and her strangely colored eyes are wide open in shock as she looks back at me.
It was the first time I’d seen Leonor Pevensie in four years and several months.
Even though she wasn’t healthy, she was definitely growing up compared to four years ago. It was a very natural thing to say, but for some reason I found myself surprised. And a small feeling of guilt about the way I was treating her started to creep up in my mind.
Even though I knew that it didn’t look scary at all, I still felt nervous when our eyes met. I wondered if it would suddenly change and attack me. I wondered if it would do something to me the moment I put my hand inside the room.
Keeping his eyes on the girl, he gently placed the letter on the corner of the breakfast tray.
The moment I closed the opening and turned around, I couldn’t help but let out a cry of surprise.
Before I knew it, an old man with white hair, a white beard and wearing a robe stood there, like something out of a storybook.
“Sorry to startle you, Mrs. Swann.”
“No, I’m the one who made a weird noise…”
I didn’t think it was strange that a stranger was standing in my house.
For some reason, it made sense to me that since he was standing there, he must have business with Leonor Pevensie in the room.
And for some reason I had the feeling that this old man was connected to that letter.
“Um, would you like to meet me?”
After confirming with the gentle-smiling old man, he opened the three locks on the room doors one by one without any resistance and pulled the heavy door open.
“Huh…?”
The desk that should be at the entrance to the room is gone. I just put the letter on that black desk. Maybe the kid moved it. I didn’t hear any sound, and I didn’t have time to do that. But, oh well.
“please”
What was I going to do next? Yes, shopping. I wanted some new detergent.
“Now then.”
After Mrs. Swann left quickly, the old man walked down the corridor. The floor creaked in the middle of the corridor. At the back of the room, there was a sound like something falling and a sound like dishes being overturned.
At the back of the room there was an uncomfortable looking cot, an old closet, and two shelves full of thick books. Next to the bed was a black desk on which breakfast was supposed to be served. However, the room’s inhabitant seemed to have been flustered by the unexpected visitor. The toast was spilling out of the tray, and the glass of milk had fallen to the floor and broken.
“It seems I’ve startled you.”
Albus Dumbledore, a white-haired old man, smiled pleasantly at the occupants of the room.
The person who had overturned the breakfast was slumped against the wall beside the bed. She was wearing a large, short-sleeved hooded sweatshirt, tiny jeans, and barefoot. The eleven-year-old girl was about two sizes smaller than average and looked at the visitor and the broken glass through her long, lightly wavy black hair.
“Are you Leonor Pevensie?”
The girl slowly nodded at Dumbledore’s words.
02: Inside the shell
The distance to the neighboring building was no more than one meter. Even if I got as close as I could to the edge of the window, I couldn’t see the top or bottom of the brick wall. When I pressed my face against the window frame and looked at the diagonal edge, I could only see the bright spot, that is, the end of the wall on the side, a width of less than thirty centimeters.
If you can see a bird, you’re lucky. If you can see a human head, you’re super lucky.
However, he soon stopped sticking to the window to peer outside.
Concentrate your mind and clench your right palm.
Crash!
The sound of destruction comes from below in the neighboring building.
I repeatedly clench and open my palm, still feeling the sensation.
How is Abbie doing?
I wish I could tell you I didn’t break the window.
Things, things, things.
Swann’s footsteps.
Screech
The outlet creaks.
It’s time for dinner.
It’s dark outside so this is dinner.
I’ve read about half the books on the shelf, but I’ve only just finished one-third of them. What precocious kid wants to read a paper on the theory of relativity?
I should have given the toffee to Abby from the start.
The window glass was slightly warped at the edges, which made the view outside look distorted and like a heat haze.
Clench your right palm tightly.
Outside the window, there is a faint sound of destruction mixed in with the sound of the rain.
I didn’t break it.
Things, things, things.
Screech
The outlet creaks.
It’s time for dinner.
It’s been raining and it’s still dark outside. The meal five times ago was dinner, so this is lunch.
I get out of the shower and dry my hair with a towel. It’s very humid and it takes a while to dry. It was a mistake to take a shower on a rainy day.
My hair has grown. Probably quite a bit. When I was comparing it to Abby it was only down to my chest.
What did Abby do with the toffee?
He slowly put out his right hand and clenched his fist.
I clench and open my palm, which still feels hard.
I wasn’t the one who broke the window.
Things, things, things.
Screech
The outlet creaks.
It’s time for dinner.
It’s still raining. I’ve lost count of how many meals I’ve had.
I must have fallen asleep without realizing it. I was woken up by the sound of a couple on the same floor arguing. They were probably speaking French. The sound was far away so it wasn’t right next door. They were very angry.
Crash!
There is a crashing sound coming from the building next door.
I was angry too.
But I didn’t break the window that time.
Screech
The outlet creaks.
It’s time for dinner.
It’s bright outside, so is it breakfast or lunch?
In the end, it was so boring that I read the whole paper on the theory of relativity, even though I didn’t understand it at all.
How did you clean that carpet?
After clenching your right palm, try clenching your hand tightly again.
It leaves a feeling like fine sand on your hands.
I didn’t break the window.
Screech
The outlet creaks.
It’s time for dinner.
It’s dark outside so this is probably dinner.
I’ve noticed something surprising: there aren’t any sharp objects in this room. The sharpest thing I can think of is a pencil. Not that I’m going to do anything with it.
Can window glass break by itself?
I stared at my palm, which still felt hard.
But I didn’t break it.
Screech
The outlet creaks.
It’s time for dinner.
It seemed about half a day had passed.
I thought about how I would die. Kind of.
For now, if anyone were to die in this room, they would either drown or starve to death. It’s not like I’m going to do that.
I shook my hand to shake off the sand-like sensation.
Yes, I didn’t break it.
Screech
The outlet creaks.
It’s time for dinner.
It’s dinner time.
Crash!
I didn’t break it.
I didn’t do it.
Screech
The outlet creaks.
It’s time for dinner.
Rice…huh?
I didn’t break it.
What does it feel like to break glass ?I teeth knowledge S hand stomach R mosquito and others
Severus Snape sighed as he tilted the pot of prepared food that still had some of its contents.
Take out the ingredients you brought, boil the pasta and make the sauce. While the sauce is simmering, chop the apples.
The girl who had been following me had been peering at me from the edge of the kitchen entrance the whole time. As long as I was in this mansion, she always followed me at a distance. Rather than following her chicks, she seemed more like a frightened small animal watching out for a predator.
He places the finished food on the table and asks the girl to take a seat.
“When was the last time you ate?”
Severus asked Leonor, the girl he had adopted.
“I had breakfast.”
“What morning is that?”
“ah, “
Leonor raised one eyebrow slightly. Her cheeks were clearly sunken compared to when she first came here.
Snape sighed deeply again.
The last time I came here was three days ago. I prepared three days worth of food then, but no matter how you look at it, there s only about three meals worth left. I m not saying you have to force yourself to eat, but how about you be a bit more greedy with your food?
Leonor said nothing, just glanced to the side. Snape sighed.
“Shall we eat?”
As he watches Leonor finally start to eat the plate after he urges her to, he begins to wonder if it’s really impossible for him to take care of a child, especially a girl who has been imprisoned for several years.
“What do you usually do?”
Even though he has a demanding job, he feels responsible for leaving an 11-year-old girl living alone for days at a time.
“It’s a book. The teacher bought it for me.”
“I didn’t buy it. It was your money in the first place. Are you not interested in the garden?”
“garden?”
As Leonor brought the spoon to her mouth, the soup ingredients fell off the spoon.
“Is that okay?”
“What is it?”
“Going outside”
“Of course. You can do whatever you want as long as you don’t leave this property.”
Leonor’s face seemed to brighten a little when she heard that she could go outside.
“Could you come outside with me? When you’re done eating?”
“Is it okay if I go outside now and can’t see anything?”
“?”
The pendulum clock on the wall above the sink begins to chime.
“It’s only eight o’clock tonight.”
Leonor frowned in confusion as she looked at the clock on the wall behind Severus.
There is one or more clocks not only in this room but in every room of the mansion because, she said, it is easy to lose track of time, just as it is easy to lose track of ourselves.
“Can you read the clock?”
“Just because?”
Apparently she can’t read. Even if she could read the clock, there’s not enough here to make her feel the passage of time. Leonor spends most of her time in a windowless room, with only daylight lighting, day and night. It’s no wonder her body clock is out of sync. I suggested another room, but before I knew it, we were back in the windowless room.
also,
“Let’s live somewhere popular for a while.”
Even though I am the guardian, I can’t be by his side all the time. On the other hand, it would be a problem if he couldn’t keep up with his classmates when he started living together with them in the new semester.
“yes”
Leonor didn’t even bat an eyebrow at Severus’ suggestion.
“Please make things easier for the teacher.”
I was going to say I was doing it for you, but then I stopped myself, because that just sounded like a lame excuse.
“As soon as Dumbledore gives us permission, we’ll move to the room in the Leaky Cauldron. There will always be people there, and it won’t be a problem if you go out. I’m sure you’ll be able to get into a normal routine.”
Leonor listens to the conversation while munching on an apple.
When they look at me with a face like a Noh mask, devoid of emotion, I feel like they are blaming me for my own shortcomings. They say things like that as if they are for the other person’s sake, but in reality they are running away because they can’t handle it themselves. Am I overthinking it?
Due to a spell cast by Leonor’s mother, Kayla, Leonor was missing until her eleventh birthday. Ironic. If she hadn’t cast the spell, Leonor wouldn’t have had to spend four years alone in a small room. But if she hadn’t cast the spell, it would mean that Snape would have taken the baby Leonor. How could he have raised a baby on his own?
Severus looked at the girl who followed him out the dishes to the sink.
There’s no point in thinking about it. What he should be thinking about is how he can support this child from now on. No matter how much he regrets it, he can’t change the past. The facts that Leonor was imprisoned and that Lily is no longer in this world are unchangeable.
03: Hogwarts Express
Harry Potter was impressed when he saw a magnificent steam locomotive parked in the station. After passing through the pillar of Platform 9 with the help of a red-haired family, he found himself in a world full of magic.
Suddenly, Harry turned from the trunk he was struggling to move at the train entrance.
A girl wearing a navy blue sweater, slightly smaller and more delicate than me, was standing right behind me.
“Ah, sorry, you’re standing behind me.”
The girl stared at Harry, and Harry became alarmed.
“I’ll get you out as quickly as possible.”
He tried with all his might to pull the trunk up, but it only moved slightly.
Harry becomes even more anxious.
“…Shall I carry it?”
The girl behind me muttered.
“Huh? Oh, no, it’s alright. This thing is really heavy. I don’t think you can handle it.”
Wiping the sweat from his forehead, he looks down at the trunk, wondering what to do, and immediately feels a little guilty for refusing the girl’s offer of help. He’s been frustrated by the lack of progress, and annoyed that a girl who is obviously smaller and weaker than him has offered to help him.
“Sorry. I didn’t mean any harm.”
The girl looked at Harry and the trunk with a straight face.
Next to the girl was a trunk that also looked heavy.
Harry decided to take a break and talk to the girl.
“Did you bring that trunk yourself?”
The girl nodded at Harry’s words.
“Wow, that’s amazing. Wasn’t it heavy?”
The girl shakes her head.
“Was it heavy?”
The girl remained silent and took out a black wand.
With a wave of his hand, Harry and the girl’s trunks floated easily into the air.
“Wow!”
“You thought a little kid couldn’t carry a trunk?”
“…I’m sorry.”
Harry couldn’t help but apologize because she said it with a straight face. However, the girl didn’t say anything after that. She didn’t look angry, but she didn’t look like she was laughing either. In fact, it seemed like her expression hadn’t changed much since then.
“Can you go ahead?”
Harry found an empty compartment and placed the birdcage on the seat. The girl put Harry’s suitcase on the seat and tried to leave. Harry stopped her because he hadn’t thanked her and he felt a little lonely.
“Where are you going?”
“?”
“Are you meeting someone?”
The girl shook her head.
“Then, if you’d like, please stay in this compartment.”
“Is that okay?”
“of course!”
“Well then,”
The girl returned to the compartment and put both their trunks away on the luggage rack.
I sat across from her and got a proper look at her face for the first time.
His face is out of proportion to the size of his body, and his eyes have a strange pattern that is a mix of blue and green.
Looking at her long black hair, Harry suddenly remembered something.
“I think I saw someone who looked just like you when I was shopping in Diagon Alley.”
“when?”
“It’s the 31st of July.”
“Then it’s me, probably.”
“What were you doing alone?”
“Walking practice”
“fart?”
The girl tapped the toes of her short leather shoes on the ground.
“It was the first time I walked outside in years. At first, I couldn’t walk from one end of the street to the other without stopping.”
“Was he sick or something?”
“different”
“That’s right”
It seemed like there were some complicated circumstances behind it, as it had been the first time she’d walked outside in years without any illness. But she didn’t seem interested in going on to any further details, and Harry felt it would be rude to ask her too many details, so he decided to change the topic.
“Oh, I haven’t introduced myself yet. I’m Harry. Harry Potter.”
“I’m Leonor Pevensie.”
“Nice to meet you, Leonor.”
“Are you the famous person in the newspaper?”
“Uh, yeah.”
Harry braced himself for what he was going to say.
“Really? Is that owl a white owl?”
“Um, yeah. Her name is Hedwig.”
Harry was surprised, as he had expected them to ask about the man and the scar on his forehead.
Leonor was peering into the birdcage. Hedwig’s eyes were squinting and she looked sleepy.
“Owls are nice. I’ve never thought about having a pet.”
Then they looked out the window at children saying goodbye to their families, including the redheaded family who had given them directions to Platform Three-Quarters.
“Did Leonor come alone?”
“Yeah”
“What about your parents?”
“not present”
“…Sorry about that.”
“You don’t have to apologize.”
“I don’t have parents either.”
“That’s right. Sorry, but I feel a bit relieved.”
“Me too.”
There was a knock and it was Ron, the boy from the redheaded family.
“…Is this spot free? There are no free spots anywhere…”
“I don’t mind.”
“That’s fine.”
Leonor agreed and Ron sat down next to Harry, across from the birdcage.
Harry felt a little relieved when Ron came into the compartment. He asked if he wanted to stay, but he was more tired than he’d thought from worrying about talking to Leonor.
Ron glanced at Harry as he sat down next to him, but then quickly looked away.
“I’m Ron. Ron Weasley.”
“I’m Leonor Pevensie.”
“Harry. Harry Potter.”
“So you’re that Harry Potter?”
Ron asked, almost standing up in excitement.
“It’s surprising after all.”
Leonor said quietly. She didn’t seem surprised at all earlier, but now it seems she was.
“What was that guy like?”
Ron’s eyes were sparkling with excitement to hear the story.
“Well, to be honest, I don’t remember because I was just a baby. All I remember is there were lots of green lights.”
“I see, that’s right.”
As was the case with The Leaky Cauldron, I was once again reminded of just how well-known I am.
Leonore’s reaction upon learning Harry’s name was extremely dry, but Ron reacted similarly to the people at the Leaky Cauldron.
I guess there aren’t many people like Leonor.
Suddenly there was a knock on the compartment door. It was the train vendor. There was a mountain of sweets I’d never seen before piled high.
“No thanks.”
“I brought some sandwiches too.”
Ron held up the package sheepishly.
Harry clutched the gold coins that were crammed into his pocket. He had made money and friends, so it would be pointless to go without sweets.
“All kinds please!”
The birdcages were lifted into the truck bed and their place was filled with mountains of sweets instead.
“Let’s eat together!”
“Is it okay?”
“of course!”
Ron ignored his sandwich and started eating his snack.
“this is?”
Leonor looked at the sandwich that Ron was ignoring.
“My mom made it for me. But she always forgets that I don’t like corned beef.”
“yes”
Leonor stares at the sandwich.
“If you want to eat it, you can. I’ll give you everything.”
“Is that okay?”
“Of course.”
Leonor thanked them and ate the sandwiches Ron’s mother had made for her, watching the two of them engrossed in their sweets.
“I guess eating sweets is really normal.”
“Huh?”
Leonor’s unexpected remark made the two of them make silly noises.
“Do you usually not eat sweets?”
“I’ve never received one.”
” Didn’t you snuggle with her ?”ohandteethTa
Ron asked with his mouth full, and Leonor shook her head.
“Leonor, eat some too!”
” Is that okay?”
Harry invited and Leonor raised her eyebrows slightly.
“There are so many of them, so I might as well go.”
“Okay then. Thanks, Harry.”
Harry was excited to see the first sweets he had ever seen, and Ron was excited to see the biggest pile of sweets he had ever seen, and they both were having fun.
Meanwhile, Leonor was fascinated by a chocolate frog card and became engrossed in her own world.
A knock on the compartment door brought Leonor back to her senses.
The door opened, and in walked a strong-looking girl with bushy chestnut hair and a crying boy with a round face. The girl had already changed into her school uniform.
“Neville’s toad has run away. Have you seen it?”
“I didn’t see it.”
“You’re always running away from me.”
The boy called Neville looked dejected and hung his head.
One girl, on the other hand, seemed more interested in the fact that Ron was trying to cast a spell on a mouse than the frog.
“You were going to do a spell? Well, let me show you.”
“Ah, yeah. That’s fine.”
Ron replied disgustedly, then waved his wand at the sleeping mouse.
“Sunshine, daisies, and melted butter. Turn the fat, stupid mouse yellow.”
Nothing happens. Ron’s mouse remains grey furred.
“Is that the wrong spell? I’ve tried a few spells from my textbook and they all worked. I’ve memorized them all, but I’m not sure if it’s enough. I’m Hermione Granger. How about you?”
“I’m Ron Weasley.”
“Harry Potter”
“Really? I’ve read some books about you.”
“A book about me?”
“Oh, you don’t know? I have a few books. Famous wizards of the twentieth century, and so on. I’d read them all. By the way, what’s your name?”
It was only when all four of them turned their attention to her that Leonor realized they were speaking to her.
“Me? Leonor Pevensie. What about you?”
Leonor calls out to Neville, who has been completely left out.
“I’m Neville Longbottom.”
“nice to meet you”
After exchanging greetings with Neville, Leonor immediately turned to Hermione.
“You’re very knowledgeable.”
Hermione blushed a little at Leonor’s words and cleared her throat to cover it up.
“Anyway, you guys should get changed into your uniforms. It shouldn’t be too long before we arrive.”
After hearing Hermione’s words, the three of them reluctantly got up and got their clothes ready.
“Hey, you can use my compartment if you want to get changed.”
Leonor tilted her head slightly when Hermione said that.
“Look, the other two are boys, right?”
Seeing that Leonor didn’t seem to understand, Hermione added.
Leonor then turned to Harry and Ron.
Deciding to take advantage of Hermione’s kindness, Leonor left Neville and went to Hermione’s compartment.
“I’m sorry about earlier.”
Hermione apologised, still sounding a little bit embarrassed, with her previous air of confidence still intact.
“What?”
“You know, it’s too late to ask your name.”
“Oh. No wizards in your family?”
“Yes, my parents are normal people. I was surprised when I received the letter. What about your family, Leonor?”
“Apparently his mother was a witch.”
“Apparently?”
“Yeah”
“Why does it say ‘seems’?”
“Because I’ve never met him.”
“You’ve never met me before?”
“Yeah”
“Why?”
“I was in an orphanage all this time.”
“Oh, is that so…”
On that day in July, Dumbledore suddenly came into the room, checked to see if Leonor was who she was, and then immediately took out his wand and repaired the glass of milk that Leonor had broken.
To be honest, I finally thought I had gone crazy, because the person I met for the first time in years had done something even crazier than I had done the first time we met.monsterFreak
According to Dumbledore, Leonor was also a wizard like him, and the reason she had not been able to come and see him until now was because of a spell her mother had cast to prevent her location from being known.On the morning of her eleventh birthday, the spell was to expire, he found out where she was and rushed over to see her.
After hearing that story, Leonor thought that the dates hadn’t been off by that much. One of the thick, dusty books on the bookshelf said that if you lose track of time, you lose your sanity. Not wanting to lose your sanity, she started scratching the wall to count the days, but it had been a long time since she’d been put in the room when she read the book, and there were times when she’d forgotten to scratch the wall and had to count the days later, so it was pretty vague. But Leonor felt that if Dumbledore hadn’t come to get her, it would definitely have been better for her to lose her sanity sooner.
“Are you listening?”
“yeah?”
“Are you going to stay in this compartment? I don’t mind.”
Hermione looked in, seemingly lost in her own world.
“Yeah. I’ll be back. Thanks for the compartment.”
When I walked back down the corridor, I saw three unfamiliar boys at the entrance to the compartment where Harry and Ron were supposed to be.
When I eavesdropped on the conversation inside, it sounded like they were arguing.
I didn’t like standing in the hallway, but the two behind me were particularly big and didn’t look like they’d be able to get through.
As he stood helplessly behind the boys, Harry noticed Leonor through the glass of the compartment.
As if noticing that Harry had looked away, a third boy looked over at him from between the two large boys.
“Do you need something?”
The third boy spoke in an affectation, about Harry’s height with fair blonde skin.
“Leonor, leave them alone and come in.”
Ron called out to Leonor, who was standing there surrounded by three people bigger than her.
Leonor followed the two who beckoned her into the compartment. The blonde boy saw this and said with a grin.
“Oh my, you know the Weasleys? You’re so short and skinny, your parents must be pretty poor like the Weasleys.”
Before Harry and Ron could stand up to punch the blonde boy, Leonor suddenly spun around to face him.
The blonde boy flinched as Leonor suddenly turned around in front of him.
“If you’d been locked in a room for four years, you’d have ended up all skinny and short like me.”
“”” teeth!?”””
Before the blonde boy could say anything, Leonor spoke calmly with a straight face.
“By the way, what are you three doing here? Are you here to get some sweets? From the way you talk, I’m sure your family has enough money for the sweets you’re eating. I’m sure Ron’s rat is around here, and he’ll bite your fingers off if he tries to get his hands on someone else’s sweets.”
“Your fingers will be bitten off,” Leonor said, and the two big guys took a few steps back in shock. Leonor saw the blonde boy also quickly take a step back.
“I don’t need their sweets! I came to see Harry Potter!”
“Yeah. That’s it. Were you planning on getting me to sign your cheek or something?”
The white blond boy looked at Leonor appraisingly.
“So, who are you?”
“You ask for someone’s name without even giving your own?”
Even in front of the blonde boy who was taller than her and had an arrogant attitude, Leonor didn’t seem to be intimidated at all. On the contrary, she fluently replied to the boy.
” Draco Malfoy.”
” Ms. I’m Leonor Pevensie.”Blonde SnakeBlonde Snake
“I’ve never heard of a Pevensie. Are you a Muggle? The fact you’re hanging out with these guys is a good sign.”
“You must come from a distinguished family. By the way…”
Suddenly, the tone of her voice rose and Leonor raised the corners of her mouth. Her eyes weren’t smiling, so her face looked quite scary.
“I was planning to test a spell on these two boys, so if you don’t mind, would you guys be my test subjects too? I’ve only succeeded a few times with the spell I made myself, and those who failed couldn’t return to normal for about a week, but I want to collect data from a variety of people. You see, the effect may vary depending on the person.”
Leonor took out her cane and tapped herself on the palm of her hand, causing the three boys to tremble.
“Who the hell would do something so stupid!!”
Draco and the others hurried off.
Leonor put away her cane, sat down, and took a deep breath.
Harry and Ron subtly distance themselves from Leonor. It’s surprising that Leonor, who hadn’t said much up until then, was talking so much to Malfoy by herself, and that she was able to utter such provocative words in response to Malfoy’s abusive remarks, but what Leonor said at the end is what worries me more.
“Hey, is the story about the spell true?”
“A blatant lie”
“…Right.”
“Did you both believe it?”
“…”
Seeing the two of them hitting the nail on the head, Leonor twisted her lips in a grin.
“That can’t be true.”
For the first time, Harry saw Leonor’s face change clearly.
Leonor grinned mischievously and Ron’s face turned red like his hair as he made an excuse.
“B-but, I couldn’t help it! The way Leonor said it sounded true!”
“But thanks for getting rid of Malfoy and his gang.”
“You’re welcome. I didn’t think it would go so well.”
“Leonor is good at lying. I was really scared of her.”
“sorry”
Harry wondered whether to ask or not, but decided to go ahead and ask.
“Was what you said the first time a lie?”
“What did you say at the beginning?”
“Like, he was locked in his room.”
“That’s true.”
“picture?”
“What does that mean…?”
Harry and Ron looked at each other.
“Just like that.”
Leonor turned away from them and looked out the window into the distance. Her eyes, reflected in the window, seemed empty.
“First I was in an orphanage, then I was adopted by a family. But soon the family locked me in a room in their country house. The room had a toilet and a bathroom, so I really just lived in the room.”
Even the Dursleys, who reluctantly raised Harry, never banned him from going outside unless it was for punishment.
When Leonor finished speaking, the atmosphere became heavy.
“…Thank you for telling me. I mean, that must have been tough.”
“Maybe. So maybe I’m a little strange.”
“Yeah, things have definitely changed…”
“Huh? When?”
“You’ve said things have changed a few times already.”
“And I think some of Leonor’s strange comments are genuine.”
“Eh?”
When we were on the train, I thought she seemed inhuman, but as I listened to her and watched Leonor make strange noises with the corners of her mouth pulled down, I realized that she was just not used to expressing emotions or talking to people.
Harry and Ron gave him a hearty laugh in return.
04: Where the snakes are
Hogwarts Castle, looming in the darkness, truly seemed to be floating in the darkness. The lanterns on the boat’s rim were reflected on the lake, further enhancing the illusion.
Leonor looked up at the night sky filled with countless stars.
“what happened?”
Harry, who was in the same boat, asked.
“I had no idea the sky was so vast. I’m still not used to it.”
“Was there no window in the room where you were locked up?”
“There it was. All I could see was a brick wall.”
Harry joined them, looking up at the sky with mixed feelings.
Above them was a sky full of stars.
We crossed the lake and passed through large oak doors into the great hall where the upperclassmen and teachers were gathered.
I think I’m used to people around me, but when thousands of eyes are fixed on me I feel like I’m going to be crushed and it makes me anxious.
Leonor took a deep breath, bowed her head slightly, and looked only ahead. This way, being short and with long hair, she only had to look at the hair and the back of the person in front of her.
The tattered hat began sorting the students into houses, with Hermione and Neville being sorted into Gryffindor and Draco into Slytherin.
The Patil twins have just been sorted into Gryffindor and Ravenclaw.
“Pevensie, Leonor.”
I nearly jumped up because I was thinking that even twins can be in different dorms, and whether there is a difference between fraternal and identical twins.
I walked towards the chair in the center and felt everyone’s eyes on me.
Leonor, who was slightly smaller than the other freshmen and had black hair that reached down to her knees and pale skin like a sickly person, stood out in particular, but she had no way of realizing it herself.
Professor McGonagall encouraged me to sit down and place an old hat on my head.
“Oh, here we go again.”
“!?”
I was surprised to hear the voice directly in my head, but thinking about it, this is a world of magic. It’s not like a hat can talk, or talk directly into the head of the person wearing it, in this world .Ma and too
I opened my eyes but all I could see was the inside of the hat. It was pitch black.
“This time it’s even more difficult… but, oh, those two. An odd combination. Now, it’s up to you to choose.”
“choose?”
“Which do you prefer, red or green?”
“Red and green?”
“That’s right.”
“…then, green.”
It should match your eye color better.
“Very well, that’s your choice. Slytherin!”
Suddenly, there’s a static in my ears, like someone turning up the volume on a radio. Where before I could only hear the voice of the hat, now I hear listless applause.
Leonor returned his hat and sat down at a table with people wearing green ties.
Draco had been looking at Leonor the whole time he put the Sorting Hat down and sat down at the table, but Leonor didn’t seem to notice.
The whole Great Hall fell silent when Harry was called, then erupted in cheers as he was sorted into Gryffindor.
Harry happily joined the red tie table.
Ron, the second to last to join Gryffindor, was also greeted by fellow redheads.
After Dumbledore finished his short speech, the empty plates were replaced with heaps of delicious food.
While munching on the delicious food, it was not as if the conversation with her new friends would blossom. From what she heard, it seemed like the parents of the Slytherin students were quite close, so most of the students knew each other before they enrolled. Amidst the commotion, Leonor was alone, engrossed in savoring the unfamiliar food in front of her in silence. Draco, who was sitting a short distance away, was telling her the gist of what had happened in the compartment, encouraging the girls around her to talk to him, but Leonor herself was completely unaware of their conversation.
“Hey, I told you.”
It was only when she was nudged that she realized the girl beside her was talking to her, and in shock, Leonor swallowed the apple pie in her mouth.
“I’ve never seen you before. Where do your parents work?”
“Where do your parents work?” That comes before your name?
I was so surprised at being spoken to so suddenly, my mouth moved without thinking.
“not present”
“No one? No parents? Then what have you been doing up until now?”
“The orphanage, and then–“
“An orphanage? So you’re of impure blood?”or S Pa the law of nature
What does “tainted blood” mean? It was a strange phrase, Leonor thought, tilting her head in her mind. She didn’t know what “tainted blood” meant, but it was easy to imagine it was some kind of insult. Then, as she was wondering what “as expected” meant, she caught a glimpse of familiar blonde hair from a little distance behind the girl who had just spoken to her.
I see. It seems that I had interacted with someone I shouldn’t have interacted with in the train compartment on the way here. I thought to myself, “What have I done?” but there was nothing I could do about it now, so I just poured a generous amount of yogurt with apricot jam into a bowl.
Leonor then continued eating in silence again until all the food on the table was gone and Dumbledore stood up.
As she listens to the school song being sung, she thinks that the atmosphere here is similar to her time at the orphanage. Most of the children at the orphanage Leonor first lived in were reclusive and aggressive, and arguments were like baby play, with all kinds of bullying occurring frequently.
After the Gryffindor school song, which sounded like a funeral march, finished, the prefects from each house began to gather the new students together. They were about to head to their dorms.
As she waited in line, Leonor began to think about Dumbledore’s warning.
If she said something like “If you don’t want to die in a very painful way,” some curious students would definitely go and check out the fourth floor. So it would be better if she just didn’t say anything and cast some kind of spell to keep people away.
Despite his words, it seemed to Leonor that Dumbledore wanted one of the students to discover the secret of the fourth floor.
While thinking about this, Leonor didn’t notice that the people ahead of her had stopped and ended up crashing into their backs, causing them to jump up.
“I-I’m sorry…?”
I suddenly looked up and saw a blonde I’d seen before.
” Mr. Miss”Blonde SnakeBlonde Snake
“It’s not a snake. It’s Draco!”
Good reflexes, but Draco means snake in Latin.
“You were in an orphanage?”
Here it comes.
Leonor nodded silently.
“So what was that thing you said on the train? Were you locked up in an orphanage?”
Blonde SnakeBlonde Snakehe asks mockingly.
Leonor opened her mouth to retort, but then thought better of it.
He felt it would be awful to explain to this person how he’d been imprisoned by the family that’d adopted him from an orphanage, it would be understandable to Harry or Ron, but why should he tell this story to this person?
Draco looked at Leonor in disappointment for a while as she didn’t say anything in response, just said “I wonder” and fell silent.
The prefect goes down the stairs and heads further underground.
I didn’t like the fact that the dormitory was at the top of the tower, but even if it was underground, I thought the stairs would be a pain. Leonor, who doesn’t have much stamina, had a hard time climbing the many flights of stairs. What’s more, if there was a fire, she would get carbon monoxide poisoning. Well, carbon monoxide is lighter than carbon dioxide, so I guess it’s safe to stay at a low altitude. But if there were no windows, there would be no ventilation.
The blonde boy who was talking about something or other kept glancing at me for some reason, but Leonor had no stamina and could barely keep up with the pace of the people around her, so she didn’t have time to worry about that. Leonor, who was walking at the back of the line, gradually fell behind the others.
While they were doing this, the old stone wall suddenly disappeared, and people started to stream into the common room. Leonor followed suit, but immediately crouched down. She gasped for air. Since it was a downward staircase, she managed to keep up with the line, but her stamina was still at its limit. While she was catching her breath at the edge of the common room, the upperclassmen passed by her with strange looks.
After a while, Leonor finally caught her breath and looked up, looking around the lounge.
The dungeon is lit by green light. The lampshades, curtains, and carpets are all dark green. Outside the window is water.
It was nice to see the sky, but being able to see into the lake wasn’t bad either – it was better than a window that only let you see a brick wall a few centimetres away.
The thick carpet looks warm and there’s a fireplace.
Best of all, you can leave whenever you want.
The other first-year students had already moved into the dorms. Leonor was alone in the girls’ dorm. There were five beds in the room, and everyone’s belongings were piled up next to the fluffy beds.
The bed by the window. That’s where Leonor is. She somehow feels isolated from the other beds.
None of the girls in the room spoke to me. Pansy must have told the others. I could hear whispers behind me.
” After ” “, it’s “Tarnished Blood”, huh?”monsterFreak
Leonor snorted and laughed.
One trouble goes away, but another comes.
Well, I’m used to it.
As soon as I got in bed, I felt very tired. It seemed I was more tired than I thought. As soon as my eyelids closed, I lost consciousness.
I had a dream.
A dream in which I am sorted by the Sorting Hat.
I realized it was a dream because my hat
“Green or yellow?”
Because I heard that.
I
“Yellow or blue?”
Because I was asked.
This is a memory of my grandmother.
I remember seeing my grandmother for the first time.
Finally.
I feel incredibly happy and relieved at the same time.
Now I can finally become a full-fledged adult.
Now I can finally be in my place.
The face of that handsome boy with black hair suddenly came to mind.
I slowly opened my eyes in the common room, fiddling with the empty vial in my hand.
Even before I was old enough to understand, my mother had no sense of self.
My mother was controlled by her mother. Or rather, she allowed herself to be controlled by her mother.large stomach N R meaning Will
These are some of the few memories she has of her mother.
It wasn’t long after that that I realized the young man in my memory was that man.
05: Thy Neighbor
When I arrived at the Great Hall early in the morning, I found a dazed Leonor at the Gryffindor table.
For two days after the sorting, they hadn’t seen Leonor in the Great Hall in the morning, so when they happened to meet while walking between classes, they learned that Leonor, who was worried that she would run out of energy before reaching the classroom, would wake up very early in the morning so that she could make it to class on time even while taking breaks. Hearing this, the two of them invited her to eat breakfast at the Gryffindor table, saying that they would try their best to wake up early the next morning.
When Leonor saw Harry and Ron entering the hall, she waved at them.
They both rubbed their eyes sleepily.
“How can you get up this early every day? I could never do that.”
“What about Slytherin?”
“Not bad.”
“Are you going to do something to me?”
“Nothing in particular.”
“Really? I think there’s a lot of bullying in Slytherin.”
“My belongings keep going missing”
“…That’s been done enough.”
Leonor says that it’s common for things to go missing around her bed, and that there are times when she gets into mischief, but she doesn’t really mind because most of the things are easily found.
Being a wizard seems to be a kind of status symbol in Slytherin. After sorting, a girl (apparently named Pansy) talked to Leonor, who assumed she was of Muggle origin, but she seems to have already been baptized in various ways, but she doesn’t seem to be too worried, saying, “I can find you easily even if I get lost.”
Harry thought that was not the only reason, but his hunch was correct.
“They’re more lenient than those kids at the orphanage. They’re all well-mannered.”
“Well, I’ll take some toast from the Gryffindor table and spread it with butter,” Leonor said without changing her expression.
“But I’m tired of searching seriously. I was wondering if there was a better way.”
Leonor pointed with her chin at a book on the table titled, “Crime Prevention Recommendations: From Beginner to Advanced.”
“Can you really understand such a difficult book?”
Ron flipped through the book with a creepy look in his eyes.
“Most of them. They even come with illustrations.”
“You should have just told the teacher in the first place.”
“teacher “
Leonor gave an ambiguous response to Harry’s words.
Adults are unreliable. That’s what Leonor has learned in her life so far. Mr. Pevensie imprisoned Leonor not only for the safety of his family, but also to avoid the bad reputation of returning a child to the orphanage so soon after taking it in, and Ms. Swann, the room manager, was at the mercy of Mr. Pevensie, who paid her a large amount of money.
I’m not saying they’re bad, I’m just saying it’s pointless to expect anything from them.
“I was just trying out a new spell. Nothing really causing any trouble so it’s fine for now.”
“We’ll help if there’s anything we can do.”
“Thank you. Oh, so please don’t touch my textbooks for a while.”
“Uh, uh, yeah.”
At that moment, the Weasley twins appeared with a thump on the table.
“Yo! Little one!”
“Thank you”
Leonor stuffed her mouth with toast and said, munching away.
“Still as cool as ever.”
The twins then sat on either side of Leonor.
“How is your green friend doing?”
“Aren’t you being bullied?”
“It’s okay. Only our luggage is still left.”
“That’s a black joke.”
“Is that so? Do things happen to you if you’re a Muggle-born?”
Although it had only been a few days since school started, the twins seemed to like Leonor very much, as if there was something about her that they liked. The Weasley twins would always call out to her whenever they met in the hallway. At first, Leonor was frightened by the twins who would talk to her for no reason, but she gradually got used to it.
“Maybe so.”
“You don’t know anything about your parents?”
“Mostly. My mother is magical.”
“Oh, Leonor’s mother is a witch?”
Harry is surprised by this unexpected revelation, as he had always thought that he was Muggle-born.
Leonor’s expression remains almost unchanged.
“perhaps”
I didn’t do any special research, but the mansion filled with so many magical items is my mother’s birthplace. At the very least, her parents were likely magical, and judging by the size of the mansion and the number of things it contains, it’s hard to imagine it being built in just one generation. I also saw something that looked like a family tree, so I thought it might be a house that had been around for quite some time.
“Pansy assumed I was a Muggle-born when I told her I was from an orphanage.”
Harry felt saddened as Leonor’s calm speech seemed to tell him that she had endured harsh conditions beyond imagination.
“Are you in Potions today with us?”
“Um, I’m pretty sure. Wow… Snape’s class.”
“Wow?”
“Snape always favors Slytherin.”
“Yeah, especially against Gryffindor.”
George nodded in agreement at Fred’s words.
“Oh.”
Then Harry’s owl, Hedwig, flew in and gleefully dropped the letter onto Harry’s plate and picked a crust of toast from his half-eaten plate.
It was the first letter I had received since I had started school. I almost tore it open and found an invitation to tea from Hagrid.
“Hagrid asked if you wanted to come for tea. Leonor, come with me.”
“Is that okay?”
“of course”
“Well then, little Ronnie will have to stay home alone.”
“Huh?”
“No way. Ron should come too.”
“Well, I’m not going to lie,” Harry said, trying to hold back his laughter at Ron’s surprised expression. Ron looked relieved at Harry’s invitation.
“Oh, that’s sweet Harry.”
“Ronnie boy, that was good.”
The twins said this and burst out laughing. Leonor also laughed. It’s really fun being with these people.
I wish I was in the same dorm. No, I shouldn’t think about it. It will only make me more miserable.
After listening to trivial conversation for a while, I waved goodbye to Harry and the others who said to me, “Let’s have dinner together again,” and left the Great Hall.
I stopped by the library to return the spell book I used to research security curses, then headed to the Transfiguration classroom, but the classroom was still empty.
He had actually planned to sit in the very back so he wouldn’t be seen by the other Slytherin students, but he was looking forward to Transfiguration class so he decided to sit in the second row from the front and unfolded the textbook he’d brought with him.
After a while, a group of Slytherin students came in. When they saw that Leonor was already in the classroom, some of them grinned like wild dogs that had found their prey.
And to Leonor’s surprise, Draco came and sat down next to her. Pansy and the others sat down behind him.
I thought about maybe I should have sat in the very back seat after all, but Professor McGonagall was famously strict, so I figured she wouldn’t do anything during class, so I decided to endure it.
Draco sat next to me and looked over at me with a grin.
“You’re Muggle-born, right?”
That sounds condescending.
“Did your friend tell you?”
“ah”
“yes”
He didn’t even look at Draco and continued reading his Transfiguration textbook.
“So, what’s going on?”
“What?”
Leonor looked straight at Draco, confused, and for some reason Draco flinched a little.
“So it’s about whether you’re Muggle-born or not!”
“What are you going to do by asking?”
“You can just check with him.”
“This guy said something pretty good,” Leonor said, looking at Draco’s face.
He had an attitude that I didn’t like in the compartment, but maybe he was a little better than Pansy.
While Leonor was thinking about this, Professor McGonagall came in and interrupted their conversation.
Once all the Slytherins were seated, Professor McGonagall spoke sternly.
“The class I teach, Transfiguration, is one of the most dangerous forms of magic studied at Hogwarts. Anyone who shows a careless attitude will be asked to leave class and never allowed back in the classroom. Please remember that.”
Professor McGonagall looked around the classroom and her eyes fell on Pansy, who was sitting behind Leonor. When she met the professor’s eyes, Pansy stopped grinning and quickly straightened up.
With a wave of her wand, McGonagall transformed the desk in front of Leonor into a pig in an instant, then with another wave of her wand, it transformed back into a desk.
Our excitement was short-lived, as the teacher called out, “Now, open your textbooks,” and the relentless work of taking notes began.
After taking notes, each student was given a matchstick and asked to transform it into a needle.
At the beginning of the lesson, the teacher had made it look easy to turn a desk into an animal, but after all the complicated note-taking, turning a matchstick into a needle seemed a bit far-fetched. Sure enough, even after spells had started flying around the classroom, no one had managed to turn a matchstick into a needle. Draco, sitting next to him, had made some progress, turning his matchstick into lead.
Leonor picked up a matchstick in front of her and rolled it, imagining how it would turn into a needle. She imagined how the needle would shine in the futon, how sharp its tip would be, and how painful it would be to accidentally sit on a chair or bed that had one of those inside. Although they hadn’t been forced to sew, needles were one of the things the children at the orphanage where Leonor lived were very familiar with.
Leonor put the match on the desk and waved her black wand.
The matchstick instantly transforms into a thin sewing needle.
Next to him, Draco’s eyes widened.
“That’s impressive.”
A voice came from behind her and Leonor turned around in surprise.
Before she knew it, Professor McGonagall was standing behind her, watching Leonor cast the spell.
Professor McGonagall picked up a sharp, shining, leaden needle from Leonor’s desk.
Pansy was watching the whole scene with a frown on her face, as if she couldn’t believe it. There was a plain looking matchstick lying on her desk.
“Everyone, take a look at the needle that Miss Pevensie transformed. The tip of the needle is sharp like this.”
McGonagall held the needle that Leonor had transformed into air in the middle of the classroom for all to see.
“Most needles are made of metal, so they have this lead color, and–“
McGonagall picked up the floating needle, gently applied pressure with her fingertips, and smiled with satisfaction.
“And it’s this hard.”
The bell rang at just the right moment.
“Five points for Miss Pevensie.”
McGonagall shouted over the hustle and bustle of the surrounding classrooms.
I felt like Draco was looking at me from next to me as if he wanted to say something, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to make it to my next class on time so I quickly stuffed my textbooks and other things into my bag.
Then, without a backward glance, he hurried off to the next Potions class.
The only result of the first Potions class was a huge decline in trust in Professor Snape.
This time, Professor Snape’s lesson, which was at the back of the classroom, was a disaster for the Gryffindors.
From the very start of the lesson, he started asking Harry difficult questions, making false accusations and deducting points from Harry and his friends, while at the same time not even bothering to warn Draco and his friends when they were making a fuss.
Professor Snape has taken care of me in many ways as my guardian, but I was surprised at myself for having even the slightest hope that he might be a “good adult.”
On the way to Hagrid’s hut, Leonor remained silent as she listened to Harry and Ron complaining noisily to each other.
Hagrid’s hut was near the Forbidden Forest.
When she knocked on the door, something came flying out. Leonor instinctively jumped to the side to avoid it.
“Ahh!”
Harry was attacked by a large dog.
“Hey! Stop it, Fang! Calm down!”
The dog that stood up was bigger than Leonor.
I was relieved that it wasn’t me who was attacked. If it had been me, I might have been able to repel it with magic. I don’t want to cause a commotion so soon after entering school.
Hagrid tore Fang off of Harry and forced him into the hut.
It was the first time I’d seen Hagrid properly in the light. I think I’d seen him in Diagon Alley, but both then and at the entrance ceremony I was lost in the crowd around me and couldn’t see him very well.
Hagrid is like a dwarf of a different size, big and tough looking, but with kindly dark eyes visible through his shaggy fur.
“Hey there, Harry. This redhead is from the Weasley family, right? Your twin brothers are a real pain. And this one, hmm? Are you Kaira’s child?”
Hagrid leaned forward and Leonor stepped back, a little frightened.
“Do you know my mother?”
Hagrid ran a large hand through his bristly beard.
“Yes, I see. You’re just like your mother. She was a strange girl. Even though she was the head of Slytherin, she often wandered around here by herself.”
She looks just like her mother.
That’s what Ollivander told me when I bought my wand in Diagon Alley.
“Were you close to your mother?”
“We weren’t particularly close, but we talked often. Sometimes she would ask me to tell her about your grandmother.”
“grandmother?”
“He was two years above me. Well, he was a Hufflepuff so we only saw each other a lot but never spoke.”
…How old is Hagrid anyway?
The tea Hagrid made was delicious, but the rock cakes he gave me were so hard my teeth almost broke.
As they sipped their tea, Harry and the others told Hagrid about their school life over the past week.
Leonor’s steps were heavy as she headed down to her dorm in the basement. No matter how used to it she was, it was depressing to go back to a place where she would be the target of bullying. But she had no choice but to go back. Hogwarts at night was creepier, colder, and more uncomfortable than she had imagined. To be honest, the Slytherin dorms were not exactly comfortable either, but it was better than the Hogwarts corridors at night, and more importantly, it was better than being locked up under any circumstances.
Also, I had just used a spell from “Crime Prevention Recommendations – From Beginner to Advanced” last night, so I wanted to see if it had any effect.
When I got back to the dorms, I would usually return to bed immediately to avoid any tampering with my belongings, but today I deliberately took a seat in a chair in the corner of the lounge.
As I spread out my Potions assignments I thought back to what Hagrid had said, and what Harry had said.
What on earth would someone with enough power to break into Gringotts, a place that prides itself on its high security, want? Could it really be the small package that Hagrid took out? What on earth could it be?
“Hey, hey.”
Draco found Leonor in the corner of the room and approached her, but there was no response.
“Hey, are you listening?”
Since he didn’t seem to have heard me, I pulled out the textbook he had been reading in silence.
“Whoa!”
I felt a strong impact in my hand and dropped my textbook to the floor.
Draco cried out, causing the people around him to turn and see what was going on.
“What was that just now?!”
“Anti-theft”
As she answers, Leonor picks up the textbook that fell to the floor. Nothing happens.
“Anti-theft? Why would you need something like that?”
Draco asked, not understanding.
“You know why.”
Leonor sat back in her chair and said without looking up from her open textbook.
“What do you mean?”
When Draco said this, Leonor remained silent and stared at his face.
Her expression remained almost the same as it had been since we first met in the compartment, and it was impossible to tell what Leonor was thinking.
“What do you want?”
Draco felt uneasy as Leonor continued to look at him with a straight face, so he sat down in the chair opposite.
“Hey, look, you were the only one who could transform a matchstick in Transfiguration class today, right?”
Leonor raised her eyebrows slightly, apparently surprised by the topic Draco had brought up.
“ah”
Did you practice anything before class?
“Nothing.”
“Really?”
Draco swallowed.
I was secretly anxious.
Leonor, who was raised in an orphanage and was supposed to be a Muggle-born, managed to cast the spell in one go. On the other hand, Draco spent the whole time and only managed to turn the matchsticks into lead. This was a humiliation for Draco, who was confident that he was better at studying than average, even among those of a wizarding family.
“You really haven’t done anything?”
“I didn’t do anything. I did read the textbooks before I enrolled.”
“Before you enrolled?”
“There was nothing else to do.”
“Do children at an orphanage not go out or anything?”
When Leonor heard what Draco said, she just twitched one eyebrow and didn’t reply.
Draco suddenly remembered the conversation on the train.
“Does this have anything to do with the story about being locked up for four years?”
Leonor blinked her eyes.
“…You still remember?”
“Well, I was just curious. What does that mean?”
“Just like that.”
“Just like that…”
“I was locked up with the couple who adopted me from the orphanage. I hadn’t even taken one step outside my room for four years.”
Draco’s mind couldn’t keep up with the heavy conversation that was far beyond his imagination.
“Um, wait a minute. Why were you locked up?”
“…Because I was a witch.”
As she said this, Leonor’s face was as lifeless as a Noh mask.
“Th-that’s…”
Draco was so shocked by Leonor’s answer that he couldn’t say anything.
And rightly so: being a wizard is the norm here, especially for someone like Draco who grew up in a family with wizarding parents.
“…That must have been difficult.”
Leonor looked at Draco with a straight face as he racked his brains and could only come up with ordinary words.
“So, where do you live now?”
“My birth mother’s birthplace”
“Does anyone live with you?”
“No one. Professor Snape comes by every now and then.”
“Professor Snape?! Why?”
“Because I’m the guardian.”
“Huh?”
Suddenly there was a commotion in the girls’ dormitory, and everyone in the lounge turned to look at the entrance, wondering what was going on.
The sound of running and screams were heard, and Pansy and several others came rushing out of the girls’ dormitory. They were screaming and panicking about something.
“What’s wrong?”
Draco tilted his head at the girls, whose behavior seemed strange to an outsider.
“I told you so.”
Leonor says:
“It’s to prevent theft.”
Leonor’s lips were slightly twisted, the corners of her mouth turning up.
“See you later.”
Leaving Draco behind, who was still unable to understand, Leonor walked right past the noisy Pansies and entered the girls’ dormitory.
As expected, there were several textbooks scattered on the desk beside the bed, and the suitcase that had been stored under the bed was sticking out. However, nothing had been stolen.
Leonor cast a spell on all textbooks and notebooks that would cause a strong static electricity to flow if anyone other than the owner held them. She also cast a spell on the trunks that would cause the whole trunk to explode if it was not opened correctly. Pansy and the others who had tried to steal the textbooks and contents of the trunks and hide them must have been startled by the strong static electricity and the raging trunks and ran out into the common room. In reality, there were spells that would make anyone who touched her belongings without permission suffer from a foul stench, or spells that would make her whole body covered in warts, but she chose a relatively light spell because if Pansy, who was in the same room as her, smelled bad, she would stink too, and if she got covered in warts and it ended up in the infirmary, the teacher would probably scold her.
Leonor lies on her back on the bed.
The two who had just come rushing out of the girls’ dormitory were Pansy and Millicent Bulstrode, well-built first-year students; I hadn’t seen the other two in class so I assumed they were second-year students.
It was less than I expected.
I thought Draco was in on it too, but boys aren’t allowed in the girls’ dorms, so I don’t know if that’s true or not. But from the way they talked in the common room, maybe Draco doesn’t know.
I wonder what I should do from now on.
It would be easiest if Pansy and the others were frightened and stopped touching the luggage, but would they really give up that easily?
Well, if that doesn’t work, let’s think again.
Pushing Pansy and the others out of her mind, Leonor fell asleep remembering the fun Transfiguration class she had had today.
The next day, today was the first weekend since classes started.
After waking up, he lay around like that for a while, but then he remembered that he had a report to write in class, so he sat down to work on it, still disheveled from waking up, on the table next to his bed.
After a while, my stomach started growling, so I decided to take a break and go to the great hall to eat.
It was just lunchtime, and Leonor, who usually hurries to eat her meal for her next class on weekdays, was greeted by many students she had never seen before.
After finishing my meal, I strolled over to the library.
While I was looking around for a book that I could use for my report, I heard someone call out to me from behind.
“Hey”
It was Hermione Granger, whom he had met on the Hogwarts Express.
“Did Professor McGonagall also turn matchsticks into needles?”
“Yeah”
Did you study anything before school started?
“I read the textbook though.”
“Yeah, that’s how much it takes. I’m relieved. Everyone else hadn’t done anything, which was surprising. No one else in class had been able to change the matchstick except for me.”
There was a cough from behind the bookshelf, and Hermione covered her mouth in shock.
“Oh no, if I make noise in the library Madam Pince will get angry with me. If you find any other good study methods, please let me know. Bye.”
Before Leonor could even reply, Hermione had said what she wanted to say and was gone.
After spending some time reading in the library, I stopped by the Great Hall for an early dinner before returning to the Slytherin dormitory.
“Where have you been?”
As soon as I entered the common room Draco spoke to me.
“Library”
“Is that why you didn’t see him? You know, you were saying yesterday that Professor Snape was your godfather?”
Draco continued speaking without giving Leonor a chance to catch her breath.
The people in the common room were glancing at Draco as he spoke to Leonor, some of them staring at him intently, as if to ask what on earth he was talking about to a Muggle-born.
“Why is Professor Snape your godfather?”
“Why?”
“Professor Snape is Head of Slytherin House. He must be busy teaching classes. Why did he become your guardian?”
“I don’t know. The teacher said he asked me to.”
“Ask you? By who?”
“My mother.”
“How does your mother know Professor Snape?”
“My mother was a senior to Professor Snape.”
“Senior? So you were a Slytherin?”
Leonor nodded casually at Draco’s exaggerated surprise.
“Why didn’t you say that first?”
“Because I wasn’t asked.”
“Is Pevensie your mother’s surname?”
“No, that’s from an adoptive family. Her mother is, erm, Kayla Ve, Vi…”
“Perhaps Vivi re?”
The boy suddenly spoke, causing Leonor and Draco to turn around.
He was one of the people who had been staring at Leonor and the others, and since she felt like she had seen him a few times in class, he must have been in the same year. Leonor looked up at him, who was half a head taller than Draco.
“It’s Vivi re, right?”
“perhaps”
“I thought I’d seen that face somewhere before. I never imagined it was Vivielle.”
Not knowing how to respond to the boy who had suddenly started speaking to her, Leonor remained silent.
“I’m Theodore Nott.”
The tall boy said, holding out his hand.
“Hey, Nott. What’s up with that all of a sudden?”
“That’s Vivere, Malfoy.”
Nott put down his hand, which he had just missed shaking with Leonor, and said to Draco.
” What is Vivi re?”a of
“Don’t you know? It’s in fairy tales.”
“A fairy tale? Is there such a thing?”
“Hey, you don’t know? So do you know about the vampire clan?”
“Of course I know. So the Vivi re family is a blood-sucking clan? That’s more of an urban legend than a fairy tale.”a of
“That’s right.”
Leonor was sandwiched between the two boys and looked at the two of them having fun in front of her.
I somehow feel like there are more people looking my way than before.
A vampire family? a of
There are a lot of questions that are piling up, but for now, what is the point of calling them a vampire clan, such an inoffensive name?
“You really don’t know anything? The vampire clan is quite a well-known clan.”
Nott said suspiciously.
“i don’t know”
There were no wizards around, and I was under house arrest in my room anyway, so there was no way they could have known.
“Your family has had a special power for generations, and because they use blood to harness that power, they’re mockingly known as the vampire family. However, the details aren’t known and there are many mysteries surrounding it. That’s why it’s famous as something of an urban legend.”
“There are various rumors, such as that the one who marries the head of the family is the pure-blood with the strongest magical power, or that even though it is supposed to be a pure-blood family, squibs are tolerated.”
Draco adds to Nott’s explanation. Was his mother from such a famous family?
“It even appears in fairy tales.”
“What’s the story?”
“It’s a story about a witch who tries to save a lover, and the lover stops aging. I heard that there’s a strong theory that the witch’s family is the real Vivi re family.”
“I’ve never read anything like that.”
“I thought it was one of the old Beedle the Bard tales or something, but Malfoy says he doesn’t know it.”
“Ha, ah.”
Leonor was overwhelmed by the sheer amount of information and felt like her head was going to explode. She was trying to process what she had heard when she realized that her mouth had been open and swallowed.
“Apart from the Vivieres, would you like to know more about your mother? I could write to my father and ask him. I’m sure he would know something about the Slytherin student who was running into Professor Snape.”
Draco was leaning back like a hound about to catch its prey.
Nott was looking at me with eyes full of enthusiasm and admiration, the first time he’d ever received such a look since he’d arrived at the dorm.
Leonor couldn’t comprehend the sudden change in their attitudes, so she frowned and looked at the two boys’ faces. After a while, she finally spoke.
“So, now that I know you’re not Muggleborn, you want to be friends with me.”
“Because your mother is Vivielle.”
“I just said maybe.”
Leonor muttered back at Nott’s words.
“Physical evidence? Or just verbal confirmation?”
Draco looked like a pigeon had been hit by a bullet when the comment was made, and Nott raised his eyebrows in the same way.
This is no different from an orphanage.
Leonor sighed, raising an eyebrow.
When Leonor didn’t seem to say anything, Draco spoke impatiently.
“Anyway, should I ask Father about Vivi re?”
“I’ll pass.”
Leonor cut him off bluntly.
“teeth?”
“Thank you for telling me about Vivi re. But it’s not like I’m in any trouble right now. Besides, I don’t know your father, and I don’t know you that well.”
“What’s this? Someone was so kind as to teach me.”
“I didn’t ask for it.”
“Do as you please.”
With that, Draco got angry and walked away.
As I watched Draco’s back, I thought to myself what a strange person he was, getting angry without being asked to.
Many of the Slytherins stared as Draco walked from Leonor back to the center of the common room.
I’m sure people will start saying things that aren’t true and strange rumors will fly around again.
Oh, that’s a pain.
While I was thinking about that, Nott reached out his hand again.
“What do you want?”
“I just want to be your friend.”
“Because I’m Vivi re’s daughter?”
“Well, yeah.”
“But I don’t know anything.”
“I’ll tell you.”
Leonor frowned in confusion, and Nott laughed.
“I’m not going to tell you lies. Even if I did, you’d know the truth.”
“Is that a special clan power?”
“Yeah, maybe.”
“Hmm.”
Leonor’s mind was not working properly after hearing so many things.
Seeing this, Knott comes to his rescue.
“Well, now you can just think that you have a friend you can rely on if you ever get into trouble.”
“Hmm.”
Although she still felt somewhat dissatisfied, Leonor lightly shook Nott’s outstretched hand.
The Slytherin students in the common room saw this and began whispering.
The Slytherin students’ gazes pierced her like needles as she entered the girls’ dormitory.
It was very uncomfortable.
06: Broom and dog
This morning I thought the common room was noisier than usual and then I remembered there was flying practice in the afternoon.
I thought he’d lost interest in me after the recent incident in the common room, but to my surprise, Draco had started talking to me again and again. And the two giants, Crabbe and Goyle, always accompanied him.
I don’t mind hearing about Draco, but it’s a bit annoying because it’s so conspicuous. Plus, it seems Draco and the others told the Slytherin students about my origins, and Pansy and the other second-years who had been pranking me until yesterday came to apologize, which was troublesome in itself. The pranks have stopped for now.
In the end, Draco apparently told his father the whole story. A few days after talking with Draco in the common room, I received a letter from Draco’s father. The letter said that Leonor’s mother was a junior in Slytherin, three years below him, and that she was the top of her class, and that she had excellent grades, especially in Herbology, but I didn’t find anything particularly interesting about the family. I wrote a thank you letter as a minimum courtesy to Draco, but I thought it would be better to do some research in books and with the things in the mansion. Incidentally, I looked in the library for the “Tales of Beedle the Bard” that Nott mentioned, but there was nothing like that in it. Nott had asked to be friends, but he no longer gave me discriminatory looks, and when we met in the common room or the great hall, we just exchanged greetings, and he never talked to me repeatedly like Draco did.
“And then he nearly hit a helicopter, but managed to avoid it in the nick of time.”
This is the seventh time I’ve heard Draco brag about dodging a helicopter, but the story becomes vague after this point, so it doesn’t seem very credible.
As they headed towards the schoolyard, Leonor listened intently to what Draco was saying.
To be honest, I wasn’t that interested in brooms. I did want to try riding one, but I knew I could fly on my own if necessary.
Returning to the mansion from Diagon Alley two weeks before school started, Leonor took advantage of the lack of people around and tried out various things on a rusty small car in the garden. It was true that if you tried hard enough, you could levitate things without a wand. But it wasn’t worth it to use up all your strength to keep a car levitating for a minute. The question was how much effort you were willing to put in to do it. Moreover, Dumbledore had warned her that she couldn’t just use her wandless powers in public as she pleased.
Shortly after arriving at the school grounds, the Gryffindor students arrived, some late. Leonor waved to Harry and Ron. They made obvious faces of disgust when they saw Draco standing next to Leonor.
Madame Hooch urged them all to stand by their brooms, and Leonore tried to do the same, but Madame Hooch stopped her.
“Miss Pevensie, you may come and have a look. What would you like?”
Leonor tilted her head.
Why visit by yourself?
“I have heard the details from Headmaster Dumbledore. If you are physically unable to do so, you may simply observe today’s flying practice.”
I see, Leonor muttered to herself.
Leonor, who had only ever lived inside her room until then, had trained in Diagon Alley for a month before entering school, and yet she still did not have even half the physical strength of an average person.
Even now, I never arrive late to class, but on days when I have to move between classes a lot, I’m exhausted just from that.
“Well, please participate as much as you can. If you find it difficult along the way, you can just observe.”
When Leonor took a while to respond, Madame Hooch made the decision on her own.
Urged, I stood next to the broom.
Following the teacher’s instructions, everyone got on their brooms.
“One, two, —“
One Gryffindor student leapt into the air early: Neville.
“Hey! Come back!”
Neville panicked and clung to his broom, rising higher and higher.
Neville floated twenty metres up and then suddenly fell off his broom.
Several girls screamed along with Neville.
“My wrist is broken.”
Madam Hooch ran up to Neville, her face white as she spoke.
Neville was still crying.
Madam Hooch took Neville to the infirmary, and warned him to keep his feet on the ground.
Once the teacher was completely out of sight, Draco called out loud.
“Did you see that Longbottom’s face?”
“Stop it, Malfoy.”
“Wow, Parvati liked that idiot?”
While the Slytherin students, Draco, Pansy, and others, began to cheer, Leonor was alone, lost in thought.
If she’d wanted to help Neville when he was falling off his broom earlier, she probably could have. It was enough to lift a small car. Neville is small, so it should have been no problem. All she had to do was pull the robe up around his neck, or lift him up from below
“Look, it’s the reminder ball that stupid grandma sent me!”
“Give that here, Malfoy.”
Draco picked up the ball from the bushes and Harry quickly pounced on it.
—But I didn’t dare help him. I didn’t want to get involved in anything unnecessary. I didn’t want to have someone blame me for something again. If it had been his neck instead of his wrist, he might have died instantly. But that’s just one of the things that could have happened in the past, not reality. Plus, Dumbledore had told me not to use it in public. So–
“We’ll leave it somewhere where Longbottom can come and get it later. How about up in a tree?”
Draco quickly straddled his broom and slid into the air.
Harry climbed onto his broom, his heart pounding.
“Hey! Harry, no! Professor Hooch said so! Harry!”
Harry ignored Hermione’s shriek and kicked the ground with all his might.
All sounds disappeared from the world, and an indescribable sense of elation washed over me. My veins were racing. Even though I hadn’t learned how to move the broom, I knew how to do it.
There are some things I can do without being taught.
He surges towards Malfoy.
“What will we do, Malfoy? Your guards can’t come here to help you.”
“If you want it so badly, then take it!”
Draco threw his recollection ball with all his might.
I immediately ran after him. There were only three meters left until the ground. Everything seemed to be in slow motion.
He catches the memory ball just above the ground, then changes the direction of the broom and it lands on the ground.
The Gryffindors surged towards Harry.
“That was amazing, Harry!”
“Have you ever ridden a broom before?”
“The Malfoys are acting all right…”
“Harry Potter!”
The Gryffindor students’ spirits, which had gone up with excitement when Professor McGonagall appeared, suddenly dropped.
“What a shame! I could have broken your neck!”
“Professor, it’s not Harry’s fault. Neville’s memory orb–“
“Shut up, Mr. Finnegan.”
“But Malfoy “
“You’re too persistent, Mr. Weasley. Mr. Potter, follow me.”
McGonagall swiftly led a hanging-headed Harry into the school building.
“Serves you right, Potter!”
As soon as Professor McGonagall was out of sight, Draco and the other Slytherins laughed at the Gryffindors, who seemed to be attending a wake.
“Disbanded already?”
When I asked her if she wanted to go back to the school with me, Leonor exclaimed in surprise.
As they walked back through the school grounds, Draco recounted the story with a look of half joy, half regret.
“You saw me fly, didn’t you? I was surprised Potter could fly so high, but I could–“
“Did it fly?”
Leonor tilted her head.
“You saw it right in front of your eyes, right?”
Draco was stunned.
Leonor thinks for a moment.
Now that I think about it, someone said something about a ball. Then later something about a broom.
“There were about two people flying? I think one of them was definitely Draco.”
“It happened right before your eyes, and just a moment ago, right? Why do you not remember so well?”
“I was thinking.”
Draco was disappointed.
It was unexpected that Potter was able to catch the ball, but I thought he had finally shown his true potential.
“Looks like it was true that he could fly, so we’ll have to show you Draco’s broomstick skills another time.”
“You didn’t believe my story?”
“The helicopter story was fishy.”
Draco looked even more dejected.
Ever since he found out that Leonor wasn’t a Muggle-born, or more specifically, since they spoke at the entrance ceremony, he had tried to talk to her a few times and become closer, but Leonor had always been somewhat cold and aloof, and it hadn’t gone very well. There were also times like now when she didn’t hear him when he spoke to him.
“Was the other one flying Harry?”
“Yes. McGonagall saw him flying and took him away. I bet she’s packing her things up and getting ready to go home by now.”
Draco regained his composure when he remembered the sight of Harry being led away by Professor McGonagall.
“Why are you getting ready to go home?”
“Didn’t Professor Hooch say that if you fly while the teacher’s away you’ll be expelled?”
“So Harry is expelled? What about Draco?”
“I was back on the ground before the teacher arrived.”
“What a cunning Slytherin. It would be a shame if Harry really was expelled.”
“Why?”
“It’s a shame to lose someone I’ve had the opportunity to talk to. Harry is the first person my age I’ve spoken to in years.”
Draco looked annoyed when Leonor used the word “first time.”
“Oh, it’s Harry.”
When they arrived in the Great Hall, Harry was just about to sit down at the Gryffindor table.
“I’ll go talk over there.”
Without noticing Draco trying to stop her, Leonor quickly mingled with the Gryffindor students.
“Harry, are you being expelled?”
“Leonor!”
For some reason, Harry and Ron reacted exaggeratedly when Leonor spoke to them.
“Can I eat here?”
“Okay, but what about Malfoy?”
“I think he went to Slytherin.”
Leonor was seated next to Harry. Ron began to speak excitedly.
“Leonor, Harry has been chosen as Gryffindor’s Seeker!”
“S-sure?”
As I poured today’s soup into a bowl, I repeated the unfamiliar words to myself.
“It’s a Quidditch position! You don’t even know Quidditch?”
“There’s no way I know.”
But now that I think about it, I remember Draco saying something about being on the Slytherin team. That’s right, both Ron and Draco had been in the wizarding world since they were born, so it was a bit surprising to see their common ground.
“That’s true. Anyway, you can only really become a Quidditch player in your second year, and Harry is the youngest Seeker in a hundred years!”
“Wow, that’s pretty impressive. Congratulations, Harry. Should I cheer you on?”
Leonor asked, and Harry, who was sitting next to her, looked embarrassed.
“If you’re going to support me, of course.”
“Okay. But what happened with the expulsion deal?”
“There was no talk of expulsion whatsoever. Professor McGonagall was very happy, and thought we might be able to beat Slytherin.”
“Yeah. Slytherin is strong.”
“By the way, what about Malfoy?”
Harry gave him a reproachful look.
“copper?”
“We were together during flight training, weren’t we?”
He remembered the displeased looks on Harry’s face when he saw Draco standing next to him, and then it all made sense.
“Once I told her my mother was magical she started talking to me.”
“Did you tell Malfoy?”
“It’s not something I hide. It’s not something I flaunt.”
They continued talking about how Snape’s classes were unfair and how it was impossible to stay awake in History of Magic, when suddenly Harry felt someone looking at him and turned around to see Malfoy and the other two there as usual.
“The Last Supper, Potter?”
“You seem fine on the ground, Malfoy.”
“Draco, Harry isn’t expelled.”
Leonor interjected between the two hostile people.
“Why is Leonor eating in a place like this?”
Draco made a sulky noise.
“Who cares where anyone eats it?”
“Yes, Leonor’s freedom.”
“You stay quiet, Weasley.”
“What, are you doing this, Malfoy?”
When Draco spoke up to Ron, who was defending Leonor, the three boys started arguing, ignoring Leonor.
“Yeah, I’d do it. How about a wizard’s duel? You’ve never heard of it?”
“Of course there is. I’ll be the second. Who are you?”
“It’s Crabbe. How about meeting in the trophy room at midnight tonight?”
The story progresses smoothly before my mind can keep up.
“Okay then, that’s settled.”
“You should definitely come.”
“Yes, of course.”
It has been decided that a midnight duel will take place.
After finishing her meal, Leonor decided to return to the dormitory with Draco, who seemed satisfied for some reason.
Meanwhile, as soon as Leonor and the others left, Harry and his friends were scolded by Hermione for trying to break the school rules.
In the common room, Draco sank deep into the sofa as he opened a new box of Every Flavour Beans, planning to leave the vomit and earwax flavours to Crabbe and Goyle later; the two, who didn’t like mornings or nights, had already gone to bed.
“Is it unusual for you to be in the common room so late at night?”
Beside Draco, Leonor, who was unusually quick to come and sit next to him, was spreading out the assignment.
“If I stay in bed, I’ll probably fall asleep before midnight.”
“teeth?”
The beans in his mouth tumbled onto his jeans.
“Wandering around late at night sounds fun. I’d like to try it at least once.”
“yeah ?”
A few beans spill out of the box he was holding.
“You promised us a duel.”
Leonor said casually, her hands still working on her assignment.
“Eh, eh, wait a minute!”
Draco instinctively stood up.
Draco’s panicked voice caused several people remaining in the common room to turn their heads. A box of Every Flavour Beans on a desk toppled over, spilling the beans everywhere.
“What’s wrong?”
Leonor raised her eyebrows slightly and looked up at him as he stood up.
“Oh come on!”
Draco clutched his head and collapsed onto the couch with a thud.
Without saying anything, Leonor stopped holding her pen and looked at me curiously.
“…If you really want to go wandering around late at night, do it some other time than tonight.”
“Why? A duel?”
Leonor seemed to realize something when she saw Draco’s bitter expression.
“Did you intend not to go from the start?”
His voice was colder than usual.
“Well, who would go anyway?”
“…I was looking forward to it.”
Leonor muttered to herself as she gathered up the beans scattered on the report paper for her assignment. Her voice sounded sad, which startled Draco, and he stole a sideways glance at Leonor, but her expression was the same as usual.
“Why do you hang out with those guys?”
“Well, maybe. Because they treat me like one of their kind.”
“I’m here, a fellow dorm resident.”
Draco makes a sulky noise.
Leonor remained silent.
“You too, Draco.”
After a while, Leonor spoke without stopping to pick up the Every Flavour Beans.
“Do you want to be friends with me because I’m related to the Vivere family?”
“picture,”
“I’m glad I have someone to talk to in the dorms now. I don’t have to deal with tampering with my luggage anymore. But, from my perspective, Nott and Draco are just some of the people who found out about my lineage and started talking to me. That’s a bit harsh to say.”
I was happy that Leonor had told me her true feelings like that. But I was disappointed that she had felt that way.
Thinking back, it was definitely after hearing the story about Leonor’s house that he started talking to me more.
“On the other hand, Harry and the others get along well regardless of their backgrounds, so I naturally feel closer to them.”
Leonor was poking around at the box of Every Flavour Beans.
“I’ve been trying to talk to her since I first enrolled. I just couldn’t find anything to talk to her about.”
He tries to explain but can’t find the words. However, Leonor still seems to take it in a positive way.
“You’re strange.”
“Where?”
“Although it may seem like they’re a hardcore pure-blood advocate, they also have a rather inclusive side.”
“Maybe he’s a nice guy after all,” Leonor said, turning up one corner of her mouth.
“From now on, I’ll try to keep a stock of topics to talk about.”
“That’s right. Draco’s stories give us an interesting glimpse into the everyday life of the wizarding world.”
Leonor picked up a lemon-flavored bean and put it in her mouth before handing the box back to Draco.
“Really?”
Leonor nodded yes.
Draco took the box and put a bean in his mouth. It tasted like vomit.
Leonor laughs as she sees him choking and spitting it out.
Draco was happy that he felt like he had taken a step closer to Leonor. It was the first time they had ever spoken their feelings to each other.
“So, Harry and the others came to the trophy room expecting Draco to be there.”
As she said this, Leonor quickly put away her assignments and writing implements. The pendulum clock pointed to twenty minutes before twelve.
“That’s right.”
“And you overheard it with Filch.”
Draco nodded.
“Excuse me for a moment,” Leonor said, picked up her luggage and went up to the girls’ bedroom, then came down immediately and turned around in front of the door to the lounge.
“Is Draco going too?”
“Hey, Filch’s going to find us.”
“Maybe.”
I somehow thought that a mischievous smile appeared on Leonor’s face.
Draco sighs.
“This has to be the only thing we can do.”
“Well? I’ll go by myself. I’ll tell Harry and the others that Draco cheated.”
“Okay, okay. Just go, dammit.”
Draco also stood in front of the common room door.
“Now that I think of it, there’s no waiter. Crabbe and Goyle are already in bed.”
“a “
It wasn’t yet midnight, but before I knew it, everyone in the lounge had disappeared.
“It can’t be helped. I’ll get revenge.”
“Don’t assume you’ll be defeated. Besides, with your physique you won’t be able to beat Potter and the others.”
“Excuse me. I should say that even though I look like this, my magical powers are quite strong.”
I remembered that Leonor had always gotten good grades in practical classes, and I began to think of various spells to use in the duel.
The two of them huddled in the trophy room exhaled as they heard Filch’s footsteps receding.
Before I knew it, the night had gotten cold.
Draco, who had come to the common room in light clothing due to its warmth, rubbed his arm. Leonor next to him was also lightly dressed, but her long hair covered her arms and waist, making her look warm.
I saw figures in the hallway. It must be Harry and his friends. They were approaching the trophy room. One shadow, two, three?
“Hermione Granger? Have you been asked to referee a duel?”
The third shadow was Hermione, who skillfully kept her voice low and raised her voice.
“You’ve got to be kidding me! I can’t believe Leonor really came. It was obvious that Malfoy was trying to frame Harry and the others.”
“As expected. You see right through him.”
“Hey, don’t bring it up again!”
“I thought so, Malfoy. I thought so. You two, return to your dorms now.”
“It’s useless.”
As Leonor spoke, the boys were already slapping their shoulders and looking ready to start a duel.
“What happened to your valet? Has he been abandoned?”
“I just replaced her with Leonor.”
Hermione, who had been watching the corridor for Filch, turned around as if to say, “I can’t believe what you said.”
“Leonor is going to duel? That’s ridiculous! Leonor and you are of completely different physiques!”
“Sorry, Leonor. I’ve lost the game.”
“I wonder?”
Harry grinned, ignoring Hermione’s protests, and Leonor retorted casually.
“Hey, so don’t talk as if you’re going to defeat me.”
Harry and Draco turned away from each other and walked a few steps, but before they could turn around Hermione interrupted them with a sharp voice.
Everyone listens at once.
“…I knew it was Filch’s voice, he’s coming this way!”
The four of them jumped up and hurried out of the trophy room, with Harry at the front.
“Oh no! It’s a dead end!”
Ron made a desperate noise.
“That’s the door. Move! Alohomora!”
The lock slid open with Hermione’s spell, and the five of them poured in.
“Shh. Filch’s here.”
Harry looks through the keyhole to see what’s going on outside.
“…It seems like he’s gone. He’s fine now.”
“Don’t grab me so tightly, Leonor…”
Hermione, who was standing behind him, suddenly went quiet.
“Hermione?”
When Harry turned around, something strange caught his eye.
Behind everyone, three pairs of eyes glowed brilliantly in gold.
eye?
Ron and Malfoy turned around, following Harry.
As I slowly got used to the darkness, I could see its shape.
Large fangs and drool dripping from its mouth, which reeks of animal breath. Three heads and a body covered in dark fur.
To sum it up in one word: monster.
Harry opened the door frantically, not caring about the noise he made, and ran out, followed by the other four like gazelles fleeing a lion, running back the way they had come, coming to a halt when they came to a halt in front of the trophy room.
“Wh-what’s that?”
Ron asked in a high-pitched voice.
“who knows “
Draco spoke breathlessly. Leonor, the weakest of the group, was crouching down next to him.
“We should hurry back to the dorms. Filch will find us if we stay here.”
“Yes, let’s do that.”
“Leonor, can you stand up?”
Leonor nodded silently, and the five of them split into two groups and hurried off to the dormitory. All thoughts of the duel had slipped from their minds.
With Draco’s password, the stone walls of the dungeon disappeared and Leonor collapsed into the common room.
“Hey, are you okay?”
“… Kel… s…”
“teeth?”
“…Cerberus…”
“Cerberus?”
“That dog. It’s a guard dog from Greek mythology. It’s owned by Hades.”
“Why is he at school?”
“here we go”
Leonor sank deep into a nearby sofa and let out a deep sigh.
Then, I couldn’t help but laugh out loud.
What are you doing running around the school in the middle of the night?
There were many things I wanted to think about, such as why the guard dog was in that room or the door at my feet, but I was too exhausted to think about it.
The pendulum clock chimes one o’clock.
“I need to go to sleep.”
They both said goodnight to each other and went up to the bedroom.
07: When the Pumpkin Smells
Leonor was walking quickly alone down the dark corridor.
I had planned to do a bit of reading in the library during my lunch break, but the lights suddenly went out, and when I looked up from my book, it was pitch black all around.
I did it.
Before they knew it, it was past lights-out time, and Madame Pince, not realizing that Leonore was there, had turned off the lights. What’s more, she left quickly.
I had no choice but to follow the path to the dormitory along the wall in the pitch black darkness.
No, I thought I was following the path, but I was clearly lost. For starters, the library was on the fourth floor and the dorm was in the basement, but I had only gone down the stairs twice.
This might be bad.
It gets pretty cold at Hogwarts at night.
It’s quite warm during the day, so I wear light clothing.
Being immersed in a book from noon, skipping classes, getting lost, and freezing to death without being able to return to the dorm is no laughing matter.
Where am I?
The anxiety makes the memory even more hazy.
I stopped and took a deep breath.
Calm down.
It was so dark that I took out my walking stick to light it up, and my heart nearly stopped.
Someone is there.
I could hear whispers coming from a nearby classroom. Strangely, instead of feeling relieved to see someone, my anxiety only increased.
“…Yes…please, I’ll definitely…do it…please…”
The voice was cold and hard.
Whose voice could that be?
I could only hear one voice, but it was clearly not a monologue. It sounded like he was talking to someone.
I wonder who he’s talking to.
Suddenly, a chill ran down my spine and I stepped back in the opposite direction from the classroom.
Once I had gotten quite far away from the classroom, I heard the sound of clothes rustling behind me.
He practically jumps and points his wand in that direction.
It was Professor Snape.
The teacher suddenly appeared from the darkness, used the light of her walking stick to make her face visible, and put her finger over her mouth as if to tell everyone to be quiet. She glanced around the classroom, then grabbed Leonor’s arm and walked steadily away.
“What were you doing up until this time?”
Snape said as we reached the bottom of the first flight of stairs. He walked with such long strides that I had to jog to keep up.
“I was reading a book. In the library.”
“All day long?”
For some reason, it seems that I skipped my afternoon class.
“McGonagall and Flitwick came to tell you that you weren’t in class.”
Leonor glanced at Snape.
He looks even more grumpy than usual.
Apparently it was quite a nuisance.
” sorry”
Snape said nothing.
Before I knew it, I had arrived at the basement. Snape urged me inside and served me a hot dinner. Pumpkin pie and pumpkin soup, it was a shocking menu that even Professor Snape could get so into Halloween.
“How’s school going?”
Snape serves tea once Leonor has mostly finished eating.
Leonor holds her teacup in both hands and thinks for a moment. The pranks are gone, but she still can’t fit in at the dorm, the classes are full of favoritism, and what the teachers are hiding on the fourth floor.
“…It’s going well.”
He looked up and found himself face-to-face with Snape, who was sitting opposite him.
“Even though this is a school, danger lurks here. Don’t go out alone too much. And…stay away from Quirrell. Leonor, I am your guardian in my own way. If you need anything, please let me know. If you don’t need anything, just come and see me from time to time.”
The voice was serious.
As Leonor thought back to her Potions lessons up to that point, she felt her face twitch as she looked at the man looking down at her.
Having been involved with Harry for the past few months, I didn’t think he was a particularly problematic child. He was a boy his age. Still, I felt that there must have been a reason why Snape disliked Harry that was beyond Harry’s control. Such a person was worried about me.
What kind of person is Severus Snape?
Snape came to see me off at the stone door.
I cross the common room and head straight to the girls’ dormitory.
“Where have you been?”
Pansy peeked out from under the bed canopy.
“Library”
“Draco was looking for you.”
He speaks in a slightly sulky tone.
“And that, from Professor McGonagall and Professor Flitwick.”
“thank you”
“Well, good night.”
“Hmm, good night.”
For one reason or another, I ended up talking to Pansy a little. Or rather, she just started talking to me when she needed to.
Pansy pointed to Leonor’s bedside desk, where there was parchment and sweets. Professor McGonagall gave Leonor a rough outline of the lessons she had missed today, and Professor Flitwick gave her chocolate frogs. I thought that their personalities were well reflected.
I pushed the chocolate frog aside and lay down on my bed. I rolled onto my back and unfolded the parchment from McGonagall. I had read the textbook many times before school started, so it wasn’t that hard to understand the content of the lessons. It was more like review and practical practice. But generally speaking, the lessons were fun, so I was pretty disappointed that I had missed the afternoon lessons.
I need to practice today’s spells.
While thinking about this, I rubbed my stomach, which had been bloated by the pumpkin, and closed my eyes half-heartedly.
When I opened my eyes, it was daytime.
I suddenly woke up and, of course, Leonor was the only one in the room.
I hurriedly packed my things and made a dash, somehow managing to slip into the classroom for my first afternoon class.
“He wasn’t there yesterday afternoon or morning.”
As I was leaving the classroom after class, Draco spoke to me.
“Yesterday I went to the library. Today I overslept.”
“Didn’t anyone wake you up?”
I glanced over at Pansy when Draco asked. She was hanging out with the other Slytherin students and heading into the Great Hall first. Well, it turns out they weren’t all that close.
“From the looks of it, you probably don’t even realize what happened today.”
As Draco said this, Goyle reached out his hand from beside him.
“what?”
“Hey, it’s Halloween.”
“ah”
Even in the wizarding world, children have a thing for trick-or-treating, where they get sweets from other people. I placed the chocolate frog I had hurriedly put in my bag with my textbooks that afternoon on Goyle’s hand. Goyle happily popped the chocolate frog into his mouth right there.
“What about mine?”
“do not have”
“There isn’t one?!”
“I only have one.”
Having missed both breakfast and lunch, Leonor was starving and ran into the great hall, which smelled of pumpkin, ignoring Draco, who was obviously sulking.
Just like at the sorting ceremony, Dumbledore’s greeting signaled food to appear overflowing from the table. Crabbe and Goyle were rushing to pile food onto their plates. Today, Leonor was unusually happy and piled every dish from the table onto her plate. Pumpkin soup was Leonor’s favorite, and she had already had five refills to make up for what she had missed.
I had put some fruit jelly into a bowl and was about to eat when the door opened with a loud bang.
Quirrell cried, staggering in, out of breath.
“A troll! In the basement!”
Dumbledore rose to his feet at Quirrell’s words. The chatter, the sounds of forks clinking against plates, and other noises in the Great Hall instantly disappeared.
“I have to let you know…”
With that, Quirrell collapsed on the spot.
A scream came from one of the dorms. This was the start of students at every table starting to panic. Even Draco and Nott were rushing to get out from between the tables and chairs. Leonor couldn’t quite grasp the magnitude of the situation and was intimidated by the reactions of those around her.
“Quiet!”
Dumbledore’s voice echoed throughout the hall, causing everyone to stop moving.
“Prefects of each dorm, please escort your underclassmen back to your dorms. Teachers, please take the trolls.”
The students regained their composure after hearing Dumbledore’s voice, and the prefects headed for their respective dormitories. Leonor squinted her eyes to look for Harry and Ron among the Gryffindor students, but she couldn’t find them anywhere. Then she saw the two sneaking out of the Great Hall, evading the prefects’ notice.
Just as I was about to chase after them, someone grabbed my arm.
“Where are you going?”
It’s Draco.
“Harry and Ron.”
“Leave me alone!”
“but,”
“There’s a troll on campus!”
While Draco and I were arguing, the students had disappeared from the Great Hall. Leonor was half-dragged to the front of the stairs.
“Trolls are no match for children! What would happen if we accidentally ran into them…?”
Draco couldn’t finish his sentence because Leonor suddenly put her hand over his mouth. Leonor didn’t even realize that she had her hand almost in Draco’s mouth.
Leonor’s attention was drawn to a figure running out of the deserted Great Hall. It was Quirrell, running at a speed unimaginable from his usual gait. He glided up the stairs, unaware of Leonor and Draco.
The troll is in the basement.
“why ?”
He remembered what Snape had said to him yesterday.
“Stay away from Quirrell.”
Was that just an act?
Trolls are bait?
I held the teachers back in the basement, and while they were there I went upstairs…
Maybe to steal something hidden on the fourth floor?
An image of Quirrell appeared in Leonor’s mind, looking the most evil-looking face she could imagine.
Quirrell laughs loudly in that creepy, cold voice that I had heard last night.
It was such a bizarre idea, yet somehow it felt like the pieces of a puzzle fell into place, and I felt a chill run down my spine and get goosebumps.
After that, Leonor, completely exhausted, was dragged by Draco to the dormitory.
08: The Snake Among the Lions
“Good morning, Leonor.”
“good morning”
On Saturday morning, Leonor met Hermione in the library.
“Do you want to do your homework with me today?”
“Okay.”
“I’ll meet you in the Gryffindor common room. The boys never get started on their homework unless I’m watching.”
A few days after the troll incident, Leonor was finally invited by Harry and Ron to visit the Gryffindor common room for the first time. However, when she got there, Harry wasn’t there, and she ended up hearing from Ron and Hermione in a corner of the common room how the two boys had defeated the troll and how Hermione had protected them. As for Harry, he had been practicing Quidditch since early morning on the holiday. Apparently, the first match against Slytherin was coming up soon.
From then on, he began to hang out in the Gryffindor common room more often.
That day, I returned to the Slytherin dorms to get my homework supplies and then dropped by the Gryffindor common room.
As expected, Harry was not at Quidditch practice and was sitting at the table with Ron and Hermione.
It was raining outside the window.
At first, many students looked at the Slytherin students who were mixed in with the Gryffindors with cold eyes, but it seems that everyone quickly got used to it. Many students stopped glaring at the Weasley twins when they saw them paying attention to Leonor. The twins seem to be popular in Gryffindor.
“Come on, give us a break. We can just do it tomorrow.”
Ron frowned as he faced the mountain of homework. Harry had the most homework piled up, but Ron had just as much. Harry seemed to be doing his best despite being busy with practice.
“I’m not talking about going to watch Harry practice tomorrow.”
“So I’ll do it after I’ve finished watching practice.”
“That’s a lie! It’ll just mean I wish I’d finished it first.”
Hermione smugly brushed off Ron’s retort and told him to open his textbook.
“Leonor, say something.”
Ron said, reluctantly holding the quill in his hand.
“You should do your homework first.”
Leonor said this without looking up from her report. This was her last assignment and she was already halfway through it. Although she was the fastest, she was also slow at writing, so she was only making plodding progress.
“Damn it…Leonor, are you feeling okay?”
“That’s not true.”
“I see.”
“No way,” Ron said, turning the page in his textbook.
Leonor glanced sideways at the girl with bushy chestnut hair sitting at the table next to Ron. Although she had spoken a little with Hermione on the Hogwarts Express and in the library, she hadn’t really had any other conversations with her. Leonor had barely had any contact with the Slytherin girls, so she didn’t know what to say to them. As a result, she became even more silent than usual. Before Hermione noticed, Leonor quietly looked away and continued her report.
Around noon, Harry and his friends returned home soaking wet.
Hermione and Leonor used their wands to blow hot air onto the wet uniforms and dry them.
“Finally Wood gave up.”
“He’s going to freeze us to death.”
George and Fred, who had returned home with us, said in unison.
“Little one, come play chess with us.”
“Okay.”
Leonor had already finished her report and was just killing time by reading a book she had borrowed from the library, so she readily agreed.
“Eh, that’s unfair.”
“Lonnie boy, finish your homework first.”
“Have you guys finished your homework?”
“We’re good at this.”
George winked at Hermione, and Leonor began to understand that by “efficient,” he didn’t mean quick on his homework, but that he could keep up with class without doing it.
“I’ll do my homework too.”
Harry returns from the boys’ dormitory and spreads his bags next to Ron, who is busy with Quidditch practice but is working on his homework.
Harry and Ron then worked on their homework under Hermione’s supervision, while Leonor played chess with the twins next to them.
Although Leonor does play chess, it’s only been since she picked up a chess piece for the first time last week that she plays against one of the twins, tilting her head under the guidance of the other.
“If you put it there, your rook will be taken right away.”
“Then this way?”
“That’s also a dobon.”
“Hmm.”
Leonor holds her head in her hands. She doesn’t understand anything.
“You’ve learned how to move the pieces now, haven’t you?”
“I’ve read about it in books many times.”
“Then why can’t you hit it?”
“There was no one to play with.”
“Oh, I see. Sorry, sorry.”
Fred scratched his head embarrassedly. Leonor didn’t seem particularly bothered.
“There was no chessboard or pieces.”
Since Leonor hadn’t made any particular attempt to hide it, the twins somehow realized that she had a special upbringing. However, they were both considerate of Leonor and tried not to delve too deeply into her.
“If we’re going from here, it would be best to move the bishop over here.”
“Because it gets you out of the other Luke’s orbit?”
“That’s true, but it also means your queen can move.”
Leonor frowned deeply.
In the end, Leonor suffered a crushing defeat, and now she had to watch the twins compete from the sidelines.
“Hey, Leonor.”
As Hermione left the common room, saying that there was a book she wanted to borrow, Harry spoke to her.
“yeah?”
Harry and Ron exchanged glances, then Leonor moved closer after being beckoned by him.
“Hermione keeps asking me what kind of place Leonor grew up in, but is it okay if I tell her? I thought it would be rude to tell her without her permission, so I haven’t said anything, but she keeps asking me…”
“I don’t mind at all. I’m not hiding anything.”
Both of them looked serious, so Leonor was surprised to see that it was nothing. She was about to go back to watching the twins’ match when a thought suddenly occurred to her.
“What about your brothers?”
“I haven’t said anything to my brothers. Those two are always up to mischief, but I have a good sense for those kinds of things.”
“Yeah. I thought you knew.”
Afterwards, I watched the twins play again, wondering if they were good at manipulating people. I didn’t understand chess at all.
Leonor was dismissed from the Gryffindor common room after George narrowly beat Fred, and Ron, who had ignored Hermione’s protests and joined the chess game instead of his homework, beat Harry soundly.
The hallways were colder than I expected, and I was relieved when I reached my basement dorm.
“Leonor!”
As soon as he entered, Draco found Leonor and approached her with a stern look on his face.
“Where have you been?”
“…Library”
“I just went there but he wasn’t there.”
Leonor raised one eyebrow.
“Then somewhere else.”
“Hey, don’t mess around. You were hanging out with those Gryffindors. Don’t you know what people are saying about you?”
Draco looked angry, sulky.
“I don’t know and I don’t care”
“They say you’re spying on the Slytherin Quidditch team.”
“I?”
Leonor couldn’t help but snort, not wanting to spy on the Slytherin team, she didn’t even know who the team members were.
“Anyway, if you don’t want to arouse suspicion, you should stop hanging out with those Gryffindors. You can stay with us instead.”
Leonor glanced at the couch behind Draco.
The Slytherin girls frowned when they saw Leonor being talked to by Draco. The girls didn’t look happy when they saw Draco paying attention to Leonor. It looked like he was going to mess with their luggage again.
“Thanks, but this is the first time I’ve been able to go out and do what I want, so please don’t stop me.”
Leonor turned to Draco and said that, then hurried away from him.
The day of Harry’s first Quidditch match was a glorious sunny day.
Next to Hermione in the Gryffindor bleachers is Leonor, who she and Ron invited. Thanks to Hermione’s arrangement, she was wearing the Gryffindor tie she borrowed from Harry today so she wouldn’t stand out. Hermione thinks that the red actually suits her.
Hermione had somehow come to understand that Leonor had grown up in a rather unusual environment, judging by her lack of facial expression and common sense. She also felt that this was connected to her abnormal lack of physical strength and her small size compared to her peers. When she asked the twins, they said they didn’t know the details, and Harry and Ron always gave her vague answers, but the other day they finally told her.
Apparently he was imprisoned for four years by a family that adopted him from an orphanage.
At first, I was angry and tried to ask Leonor for more details, but Harry and Ron stopped me. Harry said that Leonor said she didn’t want to hide it and didn’t seem to care much, but she never talked about her past, so it would be bad to ask her about it. I reluctantly agreed that it was cruel to remind Leonor of events that were not good memories.
Hermione looked at the small Slytherin student beside her.
Leonor looked around restlessly, her eyes trained on the commotion around her. She didn’t seem to notice, but her head was bobbing back and forth and one cheek was puffed out. She looked very nervous.
“Is this your first time watching sports?”
Hermione asked softly. Leonor nodded.
“It’s like a festival.”
“That’s pretty much it.”
Hermione was a little surprised to see Ron waving the flags with Neville, Seamus, and Dean, but she joined in. Hermione also helped make the “Potter for President” flag, but she wasn’t as into Quidditch as the other kids. If Harry hadn’t been a player this time, she might not have been so interested.
While Hermione was thinking about this, the stadium erupted with excitement as the athletes filed out, and within minutes she was joining in the frenzy.
In the arena, players in red and green uniforms flew around, and several balls flew between them. Halfway through the game, Hagrid arrived, and Leonor, who was practically crushed next to him, could barely keep up with the rapidly changing situation of the game and had no time to cheer. Leonor barely knew the rules of Quidditch, but she somehow understood that there were balls that ran into players and balls that didn’t move on their own.
“Now it’s Slytherin’s turn to attack. Their Chaser dodges the Bludgers, then the Weasley twins, and with incredible speed… wait a minute Harry seems to have found the Snitch!”
Fellow twin Lee Jordan’s commentary rings out amid the cheers.
Harry was running full speed after something that Leonor couldn’t see.
“Dammit!”
Harry was tackled by a Slytherin player, knocking him off-balance and out of trajectory.
Ron’s swearing and the booing from the Gryffindor side suggested that Slytherin had played a bad game.
Lee Jordan, who was supposed to be a neutral commentator on the match, was also repeatedly warned by McGonagall for trying to be rude.
After Gryffindor’s penalty shot is scored, Ron yells as the Slytherins aim the black ball at Harry.
Harry did a flip in the air to neatly avoid the ball, but then something started to go wrong.
The broom Harry was on began to swing back and forth, like an unruly horse, trying to throw him off.
“Harry?”
Hearing Leonor’s anxious voice, Hermione started and looked up at the stadium.
“Something’s wrong!”
“It’s true! My broom has stopped listening to me!”
“Did the Slytherins do something?”
Hagrid was shivering next to him.
“I can’t lay hands on these little guys. If I could–“
“Powerful dark magic!”
Hermione noticed something and snatched the binoculars from Hagrid and looked around the stands.
“There he is! It’s Snape!”
Ron looked through the binoculars he had snatched from Hermione and groaned.
“What are you going to do…”
“Leave it to me.”
“Wait–“
Before Leonor could say anything, Hermione stood up and said, “I’ll go too,” and Ron followed her.
Leonor looked through Hagrid’s binoculars where they had left them, then quickly scanned the teachers’ area.
The person I was looking for was quickly found.
Just as Hermione had seen Snape, Quirrell was staring at Harry’s broom and muttering something.
Hermione and the others were convinced that Snape was the culprit, but Leonor knew that Quirrell was more likely, and if he was the culprit, Snape must have been casting a counterspell or something.
What should I do?
There’s no doubt that if Harry fell from here he would not get away with it.
He looked through the binoculars again. Hermione’s specialty, a gentian-colored fire, rose up at Snape’s feet. Snape noticed the fire and panicked, but Quirrell kept staring at the broom. And the audience’s suspense as they watched Harry never stopped.
Leonor made up her mind.
Taking a deep breath, I thrust my right hand forward, clenched my fist, and pulled it towards me.
There was a snap of wood, and through the binoculars, Quirrell fell off the stand with a broken leg.
Leonor quickly spun around in the air after seeing Quirrell fall off his seat.
“Harry?!”
“It’s okay! I’m back to normal!”
When Leonor came to her senses, she found herself being hugged by a Gryffindor boy. He was named Seamus, if I remember correctly, and he seemed very worried about Harry, as his hands were trembling as he wrapped them around her.
So when the audience roared again, I had no idea what had happened.
After a moment of silence.
“Got it! Harry’s got the Snitch!”
Leonor was then mobbed by the Gryffindor boys until Hermione and Ron returned and rescued her.
09: Let the right one in
Just when I thought the first Quidditch match was over, it was already the season when snow was piling up on the school grounds.
Afterwards, the three of them and Leonor talked about who had put the spell on the broomstick. However, they were pretty sure it was Snape, and Leonor just listened in silence. Harry went on to say that he had heard Snape curse about Cerberus in the staff room the day before the Quidditch match.
Leonor thought that it was Quirrell who had put the spell on Harry’s broom. She didn’t know why he had tried to put Harry in danger, but it was Halloween, so it seemed suspicious. However, even if Professor Quirrell had been trying to do something bad, she couldn’t find any reason for Professor Snape to put a counter-spell on Harry’s broom. If you’ve been to Potions class, it’s obvious that Professor Snape hates Harry. Would he go out of his way to help Harry, who isn’t even a student there? Although she doesn’t view Professor Snape as hostile as Harry and the others, Leonor herself was still unsure of what kind of person he was.
She first met Professor Snape at Vivi re Manor, where she was taken by Dumbledore. At the time, he said that he was a junior student two years younger than Leonor’s mother, Kayla, but I don’t think they said much else. Since then, he has been taking care of her as her guardian, providing her with food, clothing, shelter, and school procedures, but the truth is that Leonor knew almost nothing about Snape. Furthermore, seeing how he treated Harry and the Gryffindor students unreasonably, Leonor’s distrust of Snape was growing.
So, in an attempt to clarify things once and for all, Leonor stood alone in front of the underground laboratory after class.
When I knocked, a grumpy voice came from inside saying, “Come in.”
Snape raised his eyebrows slightly in surprise when he saw Leonor enter.
“Is something wrong?”
He asks with a serious face.
“No, just kind of.”
He gave me a very puzzled look.
It’s no wonder, as he had been asked many times to come and see her, but he had never shown up even once.
Snape looked skeptical but still brought out the tea.
Leonor stared at the teacup that had been served to her. Snape stopped what he was doing and looked at her. Leonor spoke without looking up.
” Why did you warn me to stay away from Quirrell, Professor?”
There was a moment’s pause, and then a loud sigh, and when he looked up he saw that Snape’s brow had deepened.
“I can’t tell you that. At least, I can’t tell you right now.”
“So what spell did you put on Harry’s broom?”
Snape frowns.
“what—–“
“Professor Quirrell too. Was that a dark art or a counter-curse he was casting?”
” You noticed?”
“The professor hates Harry, so why did he cast a counter-curse?”
Leonor spoke quickly, her voice unintentionally rough. She clenched her hands in her lap and took a breath.
“it is “
Snape closed his mouth and looked down, searching for words.
“Why do you hate Harry so much?”
“…I feel bad saying that to you now. Leonor, please believe me on this…”
Leonor understands that sometimes there are circumstances that adults can’t control, but she’s tired of being told what to do without any explanation.
“How can I trust you, teacher?”
Snape shut his mouth abruptly. He knew it was a shame, but he couldn’t stop it. The pent up disbelief turned to irritation and seemed to spill out of his mouth.
“I don’t know myself, and I don’t know my teachers. They tell me what to do, but they don’t explain it to me.”
Snape said nothing for a while.
Feeling awkward, Leonor stood up to leave the lab. She felt a little sorry for having had tea made for her, but she decided to just leave.
“Leonor”
Just as she put her hand on the door, someone called out to her. Leonor stopped without turning around.
“I’m sorry I haven’t told you about a lot of things. Just please, stay away from Quirrell. Whatever you do, don’t be alone with him.”
Leonor didn’t answer and left the lab.
As mid-December approached, the snow falling on the schoolyard became thicker and thicker.
Leonor was excited to see such heavy snow for the first time, and one day after class she finally plunged her hands into the thick snow.
The pure white snow she scooped up slowly melted from the heat of her hands. It was so cold it hurt. Leonor brought her face close to the snow, almost touching her nose, and twisted her lips in a grin.
Draco tilted his head to the side, wondering if Leonor had gone mad, as she repeatedly scooped up snow and watched it melt in her hands with a grin.
“What are you doing?”
“Watching snowflakes”
“Is it really that interesting?”
“They’re all hexagons, even though they’re all different shapes.”
“Of course. You only just noticed that now?”
“I can’t remember the last time I touched snow.”
Leonor probably didn’t mean it, but Draco felt like he’d been stabbed right in the heart.
“I did it again,” Draco grimaced.
Leonor, fascinated by the snow, doesn’t notice.
Something Leonor had said in the common room before the first Quidditch match had been sticking in Draco’s mind ever since.
He didn’t know much about Leonor’s past. Leonor never talked about it, and he didn’t think it was something he could ask Draco about either. However, as they talked he was keenly aware on multiple occasions that Draco’s common sense was far removed from the environment Leonor had lived in up until that point. For Draco, being able to go wherever he wanted, whenever he wanted, was simply a given. He could somehow understand in his head that this wasn’t the case for Leonor, but he couldn’t possibly understand what that actually meant. In the end, he couldn’t say anything to Leonor, who continued to go out as she pleased after that incident.
But if your favorite place is anywhere you can hang out with Gryffindors, then that must mean you don’t like Slytherin.
Leonor never approached Draco or the others on her own.
Draco found that frustrating.
Leonor is unaware of Draco’s feelings and is still engrossed in observing the snow.
“Is Leonor not coming back?”
“What?”
My hands were completely red from touching the snow with my bare hands for so long.
“Christmas holidays are coming up soon.”
“Yeah. I’m not going back.”
Even though I was able to be at Hogwarts, I didn’t want to spend Christmas alone in that dark and deserted mansion. Professor Snape seemed to be a busy man, so he would hardly come to Vivi re Manor, and it was awkward to have to face him alone after I had said something rude to him the other day.
“Well then, if you don’t mind, why don’t you come over to my house?”
“I’m happy, but no thanks. Christmas at Hogwarts sounds like fun.”
“Really? There’s no one left in Slytherin.”
“Then you’ll have the common room to yourself.”
Leonor has finally come out of the snow and is clenching and opening her red hands, which must have been so cold that she has no feeling in them.
“At least wear gloves.”
“I don’t have one.”
Come to think of it, Leonor wasn’t even wearing a scarf. She just had her long black hair down, as usual.
“Aren’t you going to buy it?”
Leonor shrugged her shoulders.
“Professor Snape has the money.”
“Why Professor Snape?”
“Because I’m your guardian. Didn’t I tell you?”
“Now that I think of it, you did say that. Can’t you at least give me some pocket money?”
“here we go”
Leonor was looking off to somewhere else out of the corner of her eye. When Draco looked in that direction, the Slytherin girls who had been whispering suddenly left their positions. They kept glancing at him.
“Did something happen?”
“I didn’t do anything.”
With that, Leonor quickly entered the school building, with Draco following behind.
Hogwarts was very cold in the winter. Especially the corridors facing the outside were frozen and slippery. I was thinking that since I had magic, I should try to make the corridors not freeze, but one day I had a big fall. The floor was slippery and my foot hurt when I fell, so I was staggering around picking up the contents of my bag that had been scattered all over the place, and Professor Quirrell happened to be passing by and saw me.
“P-Pevensie, y-you okay?”
“I’m fine. I just fell.”
“Maybe you’re injured.”
“Oh, it’s okay.”
To tell the truth, my knees and arms were tingling from the scrapes I’d sustained when I’d fallen, but I didn’t want to bother telling him.
“Even if it’s a small injury, it’s no good to underestimate it. Bacteria can get in through the wound. If you’d like, I can treat it in my lab.”
With that, Professor Quirrell deftly picked up Leonor’s bag and put his other hand up to support her back, and before you knew it, Leonor was walking down the corridor to Professor Quirrell’s laboratory.
Professor Quirrell’s turban gave off a strong garlic smell, stimulating Leonor’s nose, which had become weaker due to the cold. It would be rude to cover her nose with her hands, so she tried to breathe through her mouth as much as possible.
Professor Snape had told her not to go near Professor Quirrell, but Leonor was acting a little rebellious at the moment. She was even beginning to think that maybe Professor Quirrell was trying to tell Leonor something, and Professor Snape didn’t want Leonor to know about it.
I noticed that although he was usually very timid when walking, he seemed to have a firm step today, when I came towards him, Professor Snape, looking extremely angry.
“May I ask my housemate what he needs, Professor Quirrell?”
“S-Professor Snape. I-I was just trying to tend to Miss Pevensie’s injuries.”
“There’s no need for that. If she’s injured, I’ll escort her to the medical room.”
“But,”
Without further ado, Professor Snape snatched Leonor’s bag from Quirrell’s hands, and ignoring the professor who was about to say something, grabbed Leonor’s arm and started walking away.
“I told you not to leave me alone with Quirrell.”
After walking down the corridor for a while, Professor Snape said:
Leonor was silent.
My foot, which I scraped earlier, and my arm, which the teacher was holding, hurt a little.
Then the two walked in silence to the medical room.
After seeing Leonor enter the medical room, the doctor quickly turned around and left.
“Did you slip on the frozen outer corridor? There’s an anti-freezing spell there, that’s for sure. If there weren’t, the outer corridor would be covered in blood by now, and the medical bay would be overflowing with students who’d slipped and been injured just like you.”
As she quickly healed the scrape with peppermint extract, Leonor tilted her head to the side at something Madame Pomfrey said.
Even if you say that, it’s true that Leonor always freezes when she walks down the outer corridor.
“Are you coming back for Christmas?”
I had just returned from the infirmary to the dormitory and was warming my cold hands by the fire in the common room when Nott spoke to me. Draco had gone to the boys’ dormitory to pack his things.
“No, I’ll stay here.”
“You’re living in the Vivi re Mansion now, aren’t you? Don’t you want to see what’s in the house?”
“I haven’t known anything about my parents or my home for nearly ten years. I don’t think it’s that bad if I don’t know about them for another year now.”
“I guess you’re not that interested.”
Leonor watched the flickering fire.
“Even though I have a home and people I can rely on to look after me, my mother still chose to put me in an orphanage. I feel like I’m not welcome here.”
“Maybe. On the contrary, he sent you to an orphanage, but asked Professor Snape to be his guardian. There must have been a reason for that.”
“I wonder. Are you going home?”
“Of course. Christmas dinner with my parents and brother.”
“That sounds fun.”
Hearing that Nott has a younger brother reminded Leonor of her sister-in-law and wondered what kind of Christmas she would have with her parents.
Snape sighs.
They were in one of the clothing stores in Hogsmeade.
A few days ago, Draco Malfoy came by and asked me to buy Leonor a scarf, and that he would give her the gloves as a gift.
I had forgotten.
Even though we rarely saw each other outside of class, I was shocked that I hadn’t noticed until another student told me. Draco, who had come to tell me, also looked my way with a strange expression on his face.
Taking care of someone like this made me realize that I had almost forgotten what it took to get by as a student, and since Leonor had never asked for anything herself, I had no idea what she needed.
Leonor was surprisingly seldom forthcoming. She never asked me about her mother or her relationship with Snape. I was not prepared for how to explain her mother, so I took it for granted. I think I saw her mother in some ways. Even though they looked identical on the outside, they were completely different on the inside. I didn’t give her a proper explanation, and only interacted with her as much as necessary. I thought that was enough. I thought I should have followed up a little more, but I was too busy. I was naive.
In Leonor’s eyes, Snape may now be nothing more than the adoptive father who imprisoned her. It was her own fault. She ruminates on what Leonor said to her in the lab.
I wonder what Kaira would say if she saw me like this. Would she laugh and say, “Just as I expected?”
Snape took the scarf that the salesgirl had wrapped for him and left the shop, sighing again.
10: Who is the fairest of them all?
It was Christmas time, and just as Draco had said, the Slytherin house was remarkably empty.
Come to think of it, it had been a long time since I had been alone.
Leonor didn’t feel particularly lonely, and enjoyed a second nap on the sofa in the common room every day. She would sleep until her stomach growled. However, once she woke up hungry, it was impossible to go back to sleep. So she had no choice but to crawl out of her blanket and head to the great hall for breakfast and lunch. In the afternoon, she would walk around the school and when it got dark, she would go to eat dinner, go up to the girls’ dormitory and go to bed. She repeated this routine over and over.
But Christmas morning was a little different. When I woke up, there was a small pile of parcels on my bedside table.
Leonor tilted her head at the unfamiliar packages, but then noticed that one of them had “To Leonor” written on it, so she reached for it. She opened the wrapping to reveal a large box of sweets and a bright red message card.
“Merry Christmas! Eat lots of sweets! From Harry”
Leonor’s mouth dropped open.
…Christmas present!!
She quickly looked around at the other packages on the table, all addressed to Leonor.
Open the packages starting from the front.
Ron also gave him a large box of assorted sweets. Hermione gave him a quill that looked easy to draw with. She would always frown when she saw Leonor slowly making progress on her report. Of course, it wasn’t that the quill was of poor quality, it was simply that Leonor wasn’t used to writing, but it was unclear whether Hermione noticed. Draco gave him black gloves. Only the bottom part of the gloves was made of green fabric, and they were smooth and comfortable to the touch.
Snape also sent a scarf. The black, soft scarf looked plain at first glance, but it sparkled when the light hit it. It was a gift that was very typical of Snape, with not even a single word of Merry Christmas on it. Nott didn’t send a present, but he sent a beautiful dark blue message card.
Finally, there was a sweater with a card that said, “Have a Merry Christmas!”, but no one knew who sent it.
Leonor held her head in her hands as the presents spread out all over the bed.
I had completely forgotten about the tradition of exchanging presents at Christmas. I remember that when I was at the orphanage, we decorated a shabby tree and had a more luxurious dinner than usual, but I had never exchanged presents with anyone myself, and I never thought I would do it.
I hadn’t expected them to send me presents, so I hadn’t sent any to the Gryffindor boys, Draco, or Nott. Of course, I hadn’t sent any to Snape either. Feeling happy and sorry at the same time, I set their presents aside for the time being and turned to face the sweater whose sender was unknown.
He groaned and racked his brain for a quarter of an hour, but he couldn’t think of anyone who would send him a sweater – he wasn’t close with anyone in Slytherin other than Draco and Nott, and he didn’t really have any contact with anyone outside of school.
After much thinking he couldn’t come up with anything, and he felt bad about wearing a sweater whose sender he didn’t know, so he left it in its wrapping and jogged off to the Great Hall to look for Harry and Ron.
When she went to the great hall, she saw the two of them eating. When they saw Leonor, they both said “Merry Christmas!”
Leonor, who had come running from the dormitory, was out of breath and explained her situation to the two of them.
“Thank you both for the sweets. I wasn’t expecting to get any presents for Christmas, so, um…”
Harry and Ron looked at Leonor with kind eyes as she struggled to find the words to express her feelings.
“Don’t worry about it, Leonor.”
“That’s right, Leonor didn’t do anything wrong.”
“Um, I’ll pay you back next time, so please wait a bit.”
Since he had sent me a present, I wanted to send him something in return, but I don’t have any money to buy anything, and I can’t think of anything to buy right away.
“Well, I’m looking forward to it.”
Ron’s words made me frown, wondering if I could live up to his expectations.
Leonor suddenly looked down and tilted her head.
“That outfit…”
No matter how you looked at it, it was a different color of the sweater that had been sent to Leonor.
“Mrs Weasley made it.”
“Weasley Ron’s mom? Why?”
“I told Mum that Harry had no address to receive a present from, so she sent him a Weasley sweater. I told her about Leonor, did it arrive?”
Leonor nodded enthusiastically.
“on second thoughts”
Ron chuckled.
“Show me too.”
As Harry told her, Leonor went to the dormitory to get the sweater. When she returned to the Great Hall, she found the twins and their older brother, Percy, a prefect of Gryffindor. They were all wearing the same sweater, but in different colors. Leonor’s sweater was a pale pink color.
“Looks like we’ve got more siblings now.”
When Leonor put it on in front of everyone, George grinned and said,
Later, Leonor was invited by Harry and the others to join in a snowball fight. The result was a crushing defeat for the upperclassmen against the first-years, with Leonor and the others getting hit in the face multiple times by the curved snowballs thrown by the twins and Persey, and getting soaked from head to toe. Having exhausted herself from the snowball fight, Leonor curled up on the sofa while Harry and the others played chess and roasted marshmallows by the fireplace in the Gryffindor dormitory that afternoon. She was sleeping so soundly that she would have almost overslept Christmas dinner if Harry hadn’t woken her up.
Looking at the table packed with food, twice as lavish as usual, I was grateful to Harry for waking me up. If I had missed out on this meal, I would have regretted it until next Christmas. That was the kind of dinner it was.
The next morning, I woke up feeling worse than usual, probably because I had eaten a lot the night before.
When I went to the Great Hall to have breakfast, I found Harry and Ron talking excitedly about something.
“good morning”
“Good morning! Hey, Leonor, let’s go together!”
“Where?”
“Harry found a mysterious mirror. It shows his mum and dad in it. Do you want to come and see it tonight?”
“Are you going at night?”
“Yeah, we’ll be fine, Filch won’t find out!”
Leonor raised her eyebrows slightly, the last time she walked through Hogwarts at night she had heard some eerie voices, and Snape had told her to do so.
I felt a little uneasy, but I wasn’t going out alone and Harry said it was okay, so I thought it would be okay.
Two boys agreed to pick me up from the Slytherin dorms in the evening.
I wondered if it would be okay since the Slytherin dorms were right next to Snape’s laboratory, but Harry and the others seemed totally fine.
At night, Leonor was waiting for the two of them in front of the Slytherin dormitory. Unable to turn on her wand light, she leaned against the wall in the pitch black darkness.
“Leonor!”
Suddenly, someone whispered my name. I looked around but there was no one there. Then, suddenly, Harry’s head appeared in the darkness.
Leonor was so shocked that she jumped up on the spot.
“See!”
This time Ron’s face appeared next to Harry’s.
“What’s going on?”
“It’s an invisibility cloak.”
Harry said and the rest of their bodies came out.
The invisibility cloak was light and very smooth.
Leonor was placed between them and put on an invisibility cloak so that she could see outside clearly from inside.
“Right here, in this room.”
After walking for a while, I arrived in front of a room in an area I don’t usually go to.
When we entered the room, it looked like it hadn’t been used for a while. There was a magnificent mirror that reached the ceiling. This was probably the mirror Harry was referring to. From a distance, it just looked like an ordinary mirror.
Harry threw off his cloak and hurried to stand in front of the mirror.
“Look! You can see it! Those are Mom and Dad on either side of me!”
Leonor and Ron exchanged glances. There was no such thing reflected in the mirror.
“What do you mean?”
Ron also stood in front of the mirror.
“I can only see you No, I can see me!”
“picture?”
Now it was Ron looking into the mirror.
“I see myself all grown up, holding the trophies in both hands – the Best House Cup and the Quidditch Cup! And I’m even wearing my badge! Harry, does this mirror show you the future?”
“That can’t be. My family is already dead. Maybe different people see different things.”
“Indeed. Maybe that’s true.”
“Leonor, what do you see?”
Leonor was looking at the writing above the frame of the mirror. At first glance it looked like a string of meaningless words, but when read backwards it formed complete sentences.
Leonor hesitated to approach the mirror.
The mirror was dull and cloudy.
Leonor peered at the mirror from a distance.
Leonor was faintly reflected in the mirror, and there were two girls on either side of her.
Leonor frowned at the sight of the two of them and tried to look away. Then, all of a sudden, she noticed the shadow of another person behind her, just as the scenery was reflected in the window. Was it her mother? She squinted, but couldn’t make out her face.
Before I knew it, I was right in front of the mirror.
The mirror, towering like a portal into pitch black darkness, reminded one of a window pane at night.
I hate glass windows.
Leonor frowned and quickly stepped away from the mirror.
“I couldn’t see very well.”
“You’re kidding.”
“Why don’t you take another look?”
“No. I don’t like glass.”
Leonor refused to look in the mirror again.
Harry and Ron were arguing over who would stand in front of the mirror again first when suddenly there was a noise outside the room.
“bad!”
Just as Harry had put the cloak over them, Mrs. Norris, Filch’s beloved cat, came in. She circled around and out the room, her yellow eyes shining, and the three of them hurried out the door before Filch could come and check on them.
Back in the Slytherin common room, Leonor was lying in bed thinking about the mirror.
I know what I want.
I recalled the familiar faces of the two reflected in the mirror.
The two, who will likely never meet again, smiled cheerfully at Leonor.
Even though it was Christmas I felt awful.
I pushed their faces out of my mind and fell asleep.
Leonor had come to the room with the mirror.
When I stood in front of the mirror, I saw myself standing there holding hands with two girls on either side of me, just like the last time I was there. I knew exactly who they were.
As soon as I took a step forward to get a better look at their faces, the scene in the mirror changed completely.
picture ?
It’s the shadow of a man and a woman embracing each other.
It was as if I was seeing a very vague shadow shining through the paper.
This time she turns into a woman surrounded by a large group of people.
Then the speed increased and the scenery changed rapidly, until the scenery overlapped and distorted, like a painting made of many colors painted on top of each other.
The mirror surface looks like a canvas covered in layers of faded paint.
Furthermore, the mirror gradually darkened and a figure began to appear in the center. It was the same figure I had seen behind me before.
It was me.
No, not me.
The person in the mirror is much taller than me, and her pale skin, which looks like it hasn’t been exposed to the sun for years, is paler than my own. Moreover, although her facial features are identical to mine, her overall appearance is hollow, like a Noh mask. I wonder if this person is my mother.
The woman in the mirror was looking straight ahead, somewhere far away.
” Wish …”I reach large stomach N R meaning Will
The woman muttered softly.
Then I woke up.
Waking up feeling queasy, like after a nightmare.
I looked at the clock and saw that it was still dark outside.
But I couldn’t bring myself to go back to sleep, so I sat up in bed, rubbed my face, and bundled up warmly before leaving the common room.
When I went out to the schoolyard, the sun hadn’t yet risen, but it was dimly bright thanks to the falling snow.
I scoop up the snow while still wearing the gloves Draco gave me.
As I watched the snow slowly melt in my hands, I heard the sound of snow being stepped on behind me.
She turned around to see Dumbledore standing there, smiling at Leonor.
“Good morning, Leonor.”
” good morning”
“How about you accompany this old man on a walk?”
Leonor nodded silently.
The two walk side by side.
“Even so, you’re getting up pretty early. When I was younger, I never got enough sleep no matter how much I slept. It seems like you have something on your mind.”
Leonor wasn’t sure what to say.
“Have you seen a vision in the mirror?”
Leonor looked up in shock at the old man beside her.
“Why ?”
“I can become invisible even without a cloak.”
Dumbledore was smiling. Leonor looked ahead in silence.
“I had a dream.”
After a moment, Leonor said:
“Oh. What kind of dream was it?”
“I had a dream about a mirror. Various images appeared in the mirror one after another, and in the end I turned into a woman.”
“With a woman?”
Leonor furrowed her brow.
“She looked just like me, but there was something different about her.”
“I think it must be your mother.”
Dumbledore said it in a rather unusual way.
“mother ?”reach
“That’s right. All the women in your mother’s family look exactly alike. Your mother and her mother, they all look the same.”
Why did you see our mothers in the mirror? The other
As he spoke, he wondered whether it was ok to reveal information about Harry and the others, but then he remembered that Dumbledore had acted as if he was aware of the Invisibility Cloak.
“—The other two only had their own desires in mind.”
“It seems you realize what the mirror reflects, very good. You see things they did not. This is due to the power of your family. Your mother’s family had powers that other wizards did not have.”
“You mean being able to perform magic without a wand?”
“That’s not true. There are others, though rare, who can use magic without a wand.”
Dumbledore was smiling gently, but didn’t seem interested in going into any further detail.
They had come to the edge of the lake, where there was a thick layer of ice.
“Speaking of wandless magic, have you kept your promise to me?”
When he was escorted out of his room and arrived at Vivere Manor, Dumbledore had warned him not to use magic without his wand in public.
“I only broke it once.”
When he broke Quirrell’s chair during Quidditch.
“I’m happy to be honest.”
They approached Hagrid’s hut, smoke rising from the chimney.
“How are things going lately?”
“I got a Christmas present.”
“I see.”
Dumbledore laughs gleefully.
“But I don’t have anything prepared. I don’t know what to give.”
“Anything that comes from your heart is fine, Leonor.”
“It’s something that comes from the heart, huh?”
“I’d rather have some socks, but sweets aren’t bad either. I can never have too many things to go with my tea. By the way, are things not going well between you and Professor Snape?”
Leonor didn’t answer for a while.
“…I think Professor Snape is finding it annoying that he has me in his care.”
“Oh, I don’t think that’s true. In fact, I’d say you’ve helped me out.”
Dumbledore laughed sadly for some reason when he heard Leonor’s words. Leonor didn’t understand why.
“Professor Snape is brilliant in many ways, but also extremely clumsy in some areas. Someone at the shop complained that you spent an hour wandering around the shop choosing your Christmas present.”
Leonor’s eyes fell on the soft, black scarf.
“What is your favorite thing, Professor Snape?”
“Oh, you’ll have to ask that for yourself, Leonor. You can rely on him for other things too.”
Dumbledore said gently.
“You should indulge yourself as much as you can while you’re still a child. Eventually, whether you like it or not, you’ll be dragged into the adult world. Before that happens, you should use the privileges you have now.”
“Is that because of the power my mother’s family possesses?”
“That’s right. Unfortunately, I don’t think I’ll be able to defeat your mother and her sisters. Your mother is a particularly strong woman.”
Dumbledore escorted me to the entrance of the dungeon.
“Well, I think I’ll invite Professor Snape out for tea. I like sweets, but I’m not a big fan of ginger. When I offer Professor Snape sweets, he always eats the ginger ones.”
The old man gave me a mischievous smile and left.
11: Wrong direction
The day before the end of the Christmas holidays, Snape was about to leave the laboratory when he found a package hanging on the doorknob outside. Inside was a slightly crumpled cookie. Looking at the card, which only had the address and a picture of a Christmas tree on it, Snape thought that, although it was not his place to say it, she was just as lazy as her mother when it came to writing. The cookie was not too sweet, just the way Snape liked it, with a refreshing ginger flavor.
Although Snape did not know it, Leonor spent the rest of the Christmas holidays thinking of what to give in return. Luckily, while wandering around the school before Christmas, she happened to come across the kitchen and was able to ask the help of the house-elves there. They taught Leonor how to bake cookies and gave her advice on how to make beautiful message cards and how to wrap presents. She chose cookies as return gifts because Dumbledore had advised her to do so, and because she thought that food would disappear quickly, and because cookies seemed the least likely of all the sweets to fail. She made sweet lemon flavored cookies for everyone, and ginger flavored ones for Ron’s mother and Professor Snape. Although her sense of style was a little questionable, she was a professional and the cookies she made under the guidance of the house-elves turned out so well that it was hard to believe it was Leonor’s first time cooking.
Both Harry and Ron were happy with the cookies and the message card.
And so the Christmas holidays were over.
Leonor pulled the curtains aside and looked down at her bed.
Here we go again. And it’s getting worse.
My overconfidence, thinking that they wouldn’t immediately rummage through the trunk, backfired.
As I picked up the textbook pages scattered on the bed, I couldn’t help but sigh.
There are a lot of people in Slytherin who don’t like Leonor, who doesn’t fit in with the house and often hangs out with Gryffindor students, but Draco still cares about her. The second round of baptism by the Slytherin students has begun. The ones leading the way are mainly the girls who have a crush on Draco. Women’s jealousy is stronger than Muggle bullying. What’s more, it’s also sneaky that they try not to let Draco know.
Leonor recites “Reparo” to straighten the textbook after lining up the pages in order and roughly aligning the edges. At first, it didn’t go well, with the pages getting mixed up or becoming bulkier than before, but recently she’s been able to straighten them out properly. It’s a pain to line up the pages by hand, but she makes it a point to take the extra step this way because there are fewer mistakes.
Leonor casts an anti-theft spell on the repaired textbooks and puts them back in the trunk. She casts spells on the other books in the trunk that were not damaged, and then on the trunk, but she knows it will only be a temporary solution. The anti-theft spell on the textbooks means that no one can touch them except the owner, but the spell can still be cast. She needs to think of a countermeasure before they get smart. It would be terrible if someone accidentally opened the trunk using the correct procedure and put a damn bomb in it.
Leonor left the dormitory, seriously wondering if she could still be transferred to Gryffindor. She worried that Draco would find her in the common room, but Draco was not there, so her fears were unfounded.
Leaving the common room, Leonor headed to the library, praying that she wouldn’t meet any Gryffindors. She had boasted to Draco that she would let him do as he pleased, but to be honest, she just wanted to avoid making the situation any more difficult. She was tired of herself for avoiding both the Gryffindors and Draco recently.
When Leonor arrived at the library, she rummaged through all the books on crime prevention.
After a few hours, Leonor heads to the Great Hall for an early dinner, feeling that she has gathered a fair amount of results. The main dish for the day was roast chicken. After enjoying the gelato for dessert, Leonor heads to the library again. As she approaches the library, she hears Draco’s voice and quickly hides behind a pillar.
“I just wanted to try it out on someone.”
Peeking out from behind a pillar, I saw Neville lying in a mess on the floor, surrounded by Draco, Crabbe and Goyle.
“Stop it!”
“But look, doesn’t this suit you better? That cowardly Longbottom should go back to the swamp from today onwards, not Gryffindor!”
I listened silently to Draco’s voice, which sounded like a completely different person than when he was usually with Leonor.
I knew that Draco would always pick fights with Harry and Ron, I’d seen it many times, but I didn’t know that he bullied other Gryffindors in the same way.
Leonor was filled with helplessness.
Draco didn’t notice Leonor hiding behind a pillar, and left with Crabbe and Goyle laughing loudly.
“Le, Leonor!”
Neville jumped as he saw Leonor come out from behind a pillar.
“How long have you been here?!”
“Neville, you…”
Neville hastily wiped away the tears from his eyes.
“Huh, it’s fine. I’m used to it.”
He tried to stand, but his feet were stuck together and he couldn’t keep his balance, so he fell again.
Leonor took out her wand and cast a counter-spell, and Neville’s legs were suddenly lifted off the ground.
“thank you,,”
Neville sniffed again, wiping his eyes, his knee hurting from the scrapes he’d had in the fall.
“Is Draco always like that?”
Leonor asked in a small voice as she held out her hand.
“Eh, no, well, yeah, I’m a coward.”
” Sorry, Neville.”
For some reason, Leonor seemed depressed.
“Eh, Leonor isn’t bad!”
“But I didn’t know.”
“You haven’t done anything wrong. Now that I think about it, you haven’t been to the common room recently.”
“Yeah. Things are getting a bit complicated at the dorms right now.”
“Is that so? But Leonor, your mother is a witch, isn’t she?”
“Yeah. That’s something else.”
Leonor said, letting out a big sigh.
Neville noticed that Leonor was carrying only books on crime prevention.
Leonor noticed Neville’s gaze and gave a slight smile.
“Well then, I’ll go back to the dorm.”
“Yeah. See you later.”
Leonor went into the library and Neville returned to the Gryffindor dorms.
As I entered the common room, Hermione called out to me, “Neville! What’s wrong?”
I realized for the first time that my trousers were ripped and my cheek was scraped.
Leonor was in the library looking through more books.
Seeing Draco earlier had made him so angry, both at what he was doing and at himself for running away from him so he wouldn’t get into trouble.
I thought to myself, I’m not going to run away anymore. This isn’t an orphanage. Now I have a home to go back to. I’m not going to give up anymore.
My head was boiling with anger, and when I realized it, there was no one else in the library. I left the library, chased away by the relentless gaze of Madame Pince, who was on patrol.
The hallway wasn’t completely dark, but it was quite dim.
The air feels unpleasant.
Come to think of it, I was on my way back from the library when I heard the eerie voice.
Snape had also warned me not to go out alone too much.
This is bad.
It’s okay, I’m sure I’ll be able to find the way to the dorm without getting lost today.
I wanted to believe it was just my imagination, but I could hear footsteps following me for a while now.
A little further down the corridor, around a corner, there is a secret passage the twins told us about. Let’s hide there for now.
As Leonor ran, her footsteps got faster.
The footsteps stopped as they turned down the hallway and disappeared into a tapestry door on the wall.
Leonor hides behind a tapestry.
The footsteps came again, but this time they were slow and seemed to be looking around as they walked.
The footsteps stop in front of the door.
The sound of footsteps approaching.
Leonor’s heart nearly stopped.
“What are you doing there?”
There were new footsteps and the voice of Professor Snape.
There was a tapping sound of footsteps at the door, and I realized that the person was moving to the center of the hallway.
Now! Leonor slid down the hidden path and ran as fast as she could back to the Slytherin common room.
As Leonor returned home out of breath, some people, especially the girls, glanced at her. When she saw them, she quickly hid her hands. Leonor realized what was going on.
“Reditus frutiva, return what has been stolen.”
When Leonor waved her black wand, Leonor’s textbooks flew out of their hands in pieces. The spell was extremely effective.
“Reparo”
Not caring that almost everyone in the common room was looking his way, he fixed the torn up textbook with one word.
Holding the restored textbook under his arm, he went over to the table where it had come from.
The girls, whose names they didn’t know, witnessed Leonor use the spells the upperclassmen learned with ease. They both turned pale as they saw her approach with a murderous aura.
“Wh, what is it?”
Still, one of them puts up a bluff.
The small first-year student in front of me bared his canines and smiled like a carnivore hunting its prey.
“Listen carefully.”
The two second-years trembled at the deep voice of Leonor, which they were hearing for the first time. Leonor’s hair, which was spreading with murderous intent, swayed back and forth.
“If you ever lay hands on my belongings again, I’ll have to pay you back more than twice as much. Unlike you guys, I had a bad upbringing. I know a lot about dirty tricks. Don’t underestimate someone who grew up in an orphanage.”
With that said, she went to the girls’ dormitory and cast a new security spell around her bed.
A week has passed since then, and Leonor still feels awkward in the dormitory.
Ever since Leonor picked a fight with an upperclassman in the common room, the second round of baptism went quiet. Her belongings were safe, but the discomfort didn’t change. Since she picked a fight in a common room with so many people, people started to be wary of her. Especially the second-year girls, they would cower and run away when they saw Leonor. Even though she was angry, she thought she’d done it again, but there was nothing she could do.
Although she was angry and bossy, actually taking it out on someone was harder than she thought it would be, so she ended up avoiding Draco.
I sighed and left the common room, wondering where I should run off to today.
After thinking for a while, Leonor decided to go to Hagrid’s hut, which seemed relatively safe, and headed towards the schoolyard.
While I was walking through the schoolyard, I felt like someone was following me, but when I got to the hut and looked back, there was no one there.
When Hagrid showed his head at the door after Leonor knocked, he seemed relieved to see Leonor for some reason.
“Oh, it’s you. I thought for sure it was those three again. Come in.”
It was very hot and muggy inside the hut.
Even though it was nice weather outside, Hagrid had all the windows closed and even had the fire lit.
Since it was she who had turned up without a word beforehand, Leonor decided not to complain and rolled up her shirt sleeves as far as she could.
Hagrid served us tea and rock cakes.
I felt bad about not touching the rock cake because I almost broke a tooth the last time I tried it.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.”
“Ah, I see. Well, take your time. And then–“
Hagrid seems to be worried about something and keeps his eye on the fireplace.
“—So, um, what were we talking about?”
“I haven’t said anything yet.”
“Yeah, that’s right. Want to say something?”
“What was my mother like?”
“Kaira. She’s the one. Wait a minute…”
Hagrid said and went back to the fireplace.
Your mother? Kayla
Hagrid told Leonor about her mother bit by bit. Halfway through, Hagrid moved his chair in front of the fireplace and sat there talking. Leonor listened to Hagrid’s story and stared blankly at the round stone in the middle of the fire.
After about an hour had passed (although it felt much longer to Leonor), Leonor realized that she would be roasted to death if she continued, so she thanked Hagrid and left the hut.
As she walked through the schoolyard, Leonor felt like she was being followed by someone, so she looked back several times. When she reached the school building, she looked back again and saw Harry and the other three in front of Hagrid’s hut. It seemed they had missed each other somewhere.
After that, she started seeing Harry and his friends around the hut almost every day. Leonor, who had nowhere to go, would hole up in the library during breaks. Since it was boring to go the same way every time, she would take longer routes and use shortcuts and hidden paths that George and Fred had shown her.
During my lunch break, I went through one of these secret passages and came out near the infirmary, when I ran into Ron.
“Leonor! What are you doing here?”
Ron cried out in surprise when he saw Leonor suddenly appear in the hallway.
Leonor feels a little awkward, but she can’t hide now.
“Going to the library”
“The library? Have you been to a place like this?”
“Detour”
“Hmm. It’s been a while since we last met.”
“What happened to Ron?”
Although Ron appears to be in good health at first glance, one of his hands is wrapped around a bloody handkerchief and there seems to be a strange smell coming from it.
“Listen to me!”
Ron raised his voice as if he had been waiting for this, then whispered to Leonor while looking around.
“Hagrid has been hatching dragon eggs in his hut, and we’re helping him, but the dragon bit our finger last night.”
Ron said, showing Leonor his swollen hand. It wasn’t just his imagination that it smelled strange.
As Leonor looked at Ron’s hands, which were beginning to turn green, she remembered the stone that Hagrid had carefully placed in the fire, and she understood.
“That was a dragon egg.”
“Leonor, did you know?”
“I saw them putting round stones on the fire.”
“It’s gotten too much for me now, so I’m going to sneak Charlie in and take him in on Saturday night.”
“That’s right”
I wondered who Charlie was, but I felt uncomfortable having a long conversation with Ron, one of whose hands was swollen to three times its usual size, so I saw him off as he headed for the infirmary.
12: Secrets in the Dark
In the midnight corridor, Harry tightened his grip on the invisibility cloak that was over his head.
“Walking around in the middle of the night like this! You will be penalized! Plus, you will lose twenty points from Slytherin!”
Right in front of him was Malfoy, held captive by Professor McGonagall.
“Professor, there’s a misunderstanding. Harry Potter is bringing a dragon!”
“What a lie!”
It was a misunderstanding, it was a misunderstanding, Malfoy kept repeating as he was dragged away by Professor McGonagall.
“Penalty Malfoy!”
Hermione whispered happily behind Harry. Harry felt like dancing too. He had been worried ever since Malfoy saw Norbert being born in Hagrid’s hut. All that was left was to hand Norbert over to Charlie’s friends at the Astronomy Tower and then the problems that had been bothering Harry and his friends for the past few days would be over.
Maybe it was because I was thinking that I let my guard down.
Harry and his friends forget their invisibility cloaks at the top of the Astronomy Tower and are caught by Filch as they descend the spiral staircase.
“This has never happened before!”
Harry and Hermione could only bow their heads in front of the furious Professor McGonagall. Neville, who had also been forced to stand next to Hermione, was shaking with fear. Apparently, Neville had been wandering the corridors trying to warn Harry and his friends that Malfoy was trying to capture them.
“Under no circumstances will you be allowed to wander around the school at night. Fifty points will be deducted from Gryffindor. Fifty points per person.”
Harry and the others were completely devastated and couldn’t say a word.
Snape then brings in Malfoy and another small student.
“Leonor?”
Harry cried out involuntarily.
“You’re all being punished, including Miss Pevensie.”
Next to Malfoy, whose face was twisted in frustration, Leonor was looking up at Professor McGonagall with an unreadable expression on her face.
I ve been lenient up until now, but it would be troublesome if you couldn t learn the rules while living in a group. You ve been warned many times, so I ll make sure you receive a punishment as well.
Harry had no idea what Leonor had done to be there, as she was staring up at McGonagall with her usual blank expression.
The next day was a nightmare for Harry. Harry, who had been a hero twice in a row in Quidditch matches and was popular not only with Gryffindor students but also with Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw students, was suddenly hated by them all at once overnight.
With exams approaching, they managed to endure the stares of those around them by devoting themselves to studying for the exams, along with Hermione and a revived Ron.
The silver lining was that Malfoy didn’t join the other Slytherin students in teasing Harry. Malfoy, who received fewer points and penalties than Harry and his friends, seemed to be studying quietly so as not to attract the attention of the other Slytherin students.
Surprisingly, Leonor was acting as if nothing had happened, and instead of sneaking around like Harry and the others and Malfoy, she came into the dining room on her own. I don’t think I’ve seen Leonor with the Malfoys recently.
When Harry caught sight of her, he gave a slight wave and Leonor quietly sat down at the Gryffindor table.
“Did you get the dragon?”
Leonor asks.
“Yeah”
Harry and his friends were living a nightmare, but the crucial issue of the dragon remained hidden from the public.
I won’t be satisfied until Hagrid, who started this whole thing, thanks me and apologizes properly.
“Who’s Charlie?”
“Oh, I forgot to tell you. He’s my brother, and he’s doing research on dragons in Romania.”
“That’s right”
“Why was Leonor here yesterday?”
“I was reading a book in the library from noon, and the next thing I knew it was the middle of the night.”
I couldn’t quite understand what was being said.
“Huh? Have you been reading books since lunchtime?”
Ron asked impossibly.
“Yeah”
“What about dinner?”
Harry listens too.
“Hmm, I forgot to eat again.”
Ma Ta ?
The three of them looked at each other in surprise.
“…Hey, how many times has that happened?”
Hermione asked fearfully.
“I woke up in the middle of the night… maybe the third time?”
Saying this, Leonor stuffs her face with today’s beef stew. The other three don’t know this, but she overslept this morning and is starving.
“Aren’t you hungry?”
“It’s empty. But I’m used to missing two meals.”
Harry and the other two were once again horrified by the environment in which Leonor had grown up.
Some Gryffindors make obvious faces when they see Leonore at the Gryffindor table, because they genuinely think that the little Slytherin is the reason why Harry and his friends are acting so stupidly and causing so much damage to their house’s points, even though that’s not the case.
Harry flinched as the gazes were directed at him.
“Is Leonor okay?”
“What?”
“You know, in the dorms. Like, points were deducted.”
Like Harry and the others, Leonor had also lost points, and including Malfoy’s, Slytherin had lost 40 points.
“Yeah. I’m fine.”
“Are you okay?”
“No. The atmosphere was terrible to begin with. But Professor Snape told me not to go to unpopular places.”
Snape is after the Philosopher’s Stone. It was a sure thing among Harry and his friends. But even so, does Snape care about Leonor, who is his ward? Or is he just trying not to let Leonor see what he’s been up to?
No matter how suspicious he may be, Snape is Leonor’s only family member. Harry and the others hesitated to bring up the story of Snape and the Philosopher’s Stone in front of Leonor.
Still, I’ll ask anyway.
“How is Snape? Has anything changed?”
“Hmm? I don’t know. Professor Quirrell keeps telling me to be careful.”
“Professor Quirrell?”
“Yeah”
Why is Professor Quirrell here?
After finishing her meal, Leonor looked behind Harry and the others. Some of the Gryffindor students sitting at a distance were glaring at her, especially Leonor.
“Then I’ll go.”
Seeing them like that, Leonor quickly stood up. Harry and the others could only see her off as she left the dining room alone.
After leaving the dining hall, Leonor has no choice but to go straight back to the dormitory in the basement.
Last night, or more precisely today, as Leonor was leaving the library and heading to her dorms she was spotted by Professor McGonagall, dragging Draco along. Leonor was also feeling the pain of being found by the professor, as she had been chased by footsteps once again, but Professor McGonagall, who had been angry about Draco, became even more angry and handed the two over to Professor Snape.
Professor Snape sighed deeply when he saw Professor McGonagall bring Leonor to him, and then quietly but in a particularly grumpy voice he gave her a long, drawn-out scolding, which spared Draco very much.
As I was walking towards the dorm, someone stood next to me and started talking to me.
“What did you do?”
It was Theodore Nott.
Leonor answers as she walks.
“I was reading a book in the library.”
“Weren’t you with the Potters?”
“No.”
“You were just reading a book in the library?”
“Yeah”
“Until midnight?”
“Yeah”
When I didn’t hear anything, I looked up and saw Theodore with a suspicious look on his face.
“What’s wrong?”
“Well, you’re a weird guy after all.”
Leonor gets annoyed when he bluntly calls her weird.
“Anyway, be careful not to lose points. It will make things even more uncomfortable for you.”
“It just cuts down on what I earned.”
I don’t remember the details, but Leonor, who often receives points in class, has earned more than twenty points for Slytherin by herself.
Theodore must be well aware of that.
“That’s true.”
When I entered the common room, I found Draco, sitting silently in the corner, working on a textbook.
Leonor hadn’t really talked to Draco recently. Probably since she saw Draco and the others bullying Neville. The two hadn’t spoken since they were dragged away by the teacher yesterday and scolded.
I’m thinking about what to do. I don’t mind things the way they are, but I feel like it would be bad if I stopped talking to Draco.
“Are you going to stay in the common room?”
But that didn’t mean I knew what to do.
“Uh huh, I’m going to bed.”
“Right. See you then.”
“bye bye”
Leonor went up to the girls’ dormitory and put off the things she didn’t want to think about, and lazily studied for her exams under the canopy of her bed.
The punishment would take place at night. When Leonor left the dormitory in the morning, Professor Snape had told her to wait for Filch in the hall at 11:00 p.m. She probably told Draco the same thing.
Leonor gets ready early, and as she is about to leave the common room, her eyes meet with Draco, who follows her.
“If you’re going, let me know.”
“You don’t have to match it.”
It would be bad if I arrived just in time to receive my punishment. Leonor, who is still weak as usual, is thinking about what to do, so I’ll probably arrive quite early.
As Leonor walked down the dark corridor, she wondered again why she had been avoiding Draco.
Leonor was angry when she saw Draco bullying Neville.
It felt terrible to me, but I wasn’t particularly angry at Draco for bullying Neville, because then I’d have to be forever angry at what Mr Pevensie and Miss Swan did to me too.
He was angry, not so much at Draco bullying Neville, but at himself for not knowing that Draco was bullying Neville.
When Leonor realized this, she felt a weight lift off her shoulders.
I wasn’t angry at Draco, I was just a little disappointed.
As expected, neither Harry nor Filch were in the hall yet.
“What do you think the penalty is?”
Draco said, waiting for Filch.
“What is it?”
Rather than thinking about the content of the punishment, Leonor was wondering whether it was contradictory to punish someone for wandering around the school at night.
“Maybe something that can only be done at night?”
“Like looking after Hagrid’s nocturnal creatures?”
“Leonor was involved in the dragon thing, right?”
Draco said, looking at Leonor.
“I saw the eggs.”
Leonor readily confessed.
Draco tilts his head.
“Oh, weren’t you helping the dragon escape?”
Leonor shook her head.
“So what were you doing?”
“I was reading a book in the library.”
“Until midnight?”
Leonor replied, thinking that she had had this exchange many times before.
“Yeah”
“Why are you in the library until midnight?”
“Before I knew it, it had happened.”
Draco, like Theodore, looks at me with a strange expression.
Well, it can’t be helped, Leonor muttered to herself.
Filch arrived a little later, followed by Harry, Hermione and Neville.
As Filch leads Leonor and the others to Hagrid’s hut, he tells them their destination for the night is the Forbidden Forest.
Draco was the most trembling of all, and Neville also looked ready to collapse at any moment, though Neville had looked as if he might collapse at any moment since they had first reached the hall, pale as a rock.
Leonor doesn’t really understand how scary the forest is.
They say there are werewolves and other scary creatures in the forest.
Leonor imagined Professor Snape’s face as he told her not to go out alone at night because it was dangerous, and then sent her out into the forest where there were dangerous creatures.
“I’ll be back at dawn to retrieve what remains of their bodies.”
Everyone looked gloomily at Filch as he returned to the schoolyard after handing him over to Hagrid.
“Now then, you guys, as the forest ranger, I’m going to give you a serious warning today. The forest at night is really dangerous. You can’t let your guard down. After all, what we’re doing tonight is dangerous. So please follow me for a while.”
With that, Hagrid picked up a huge crossbow, almost the same size as Leonor’s, which was lying next to him, and began heading towards the forest.
He led the way to the edge of the forest and then Hagrid pointed into it.
“Look there. See that shiny thing on the ground? That’s unicorn blood. Something has hurt the unicorn. I’ve found two dead ones so far. Your job today is to find a wounded unicorn.”
“Is the unicorn attacker in the forest?”
Draco and Hermione visibly shuddered, and a chill ran down Leonor’s spine as well.
“That’s right. Don’t get separated. If you stay with me and Fang, the creatures of this forest won’t attack you without reason. Now, we’ll split up around here.”
Draco, seeing the long fangs peeking out of Fang’s mouth, quickly moved to his side. Harry and Hermione, knowing that Fang was a coward despite his appearance, looked at Draco with lukewarm eyes.
“Very well. Then Harry and Leonor, come with me.”
Hagrid chose the two men who happened to be sitting on either side of him.
“Hermione, Neville and Draco are with Fang.”
Hermione and Draco both looked shocked at the same time, and Neville didn’t even seem to have the time to move his expression.
“If you find a unicorn, shoot up a green light. If you’re in trouble, shoot up a red light. Got it?”
After splitting up, Harry and Leonor followed the blood trail with Hagrid.
Hagrid had left the torch he was carrying to mark the rendezvous point, but the bloodstains shone silver in the moonlight.
“Do werewolves ever attack unicorns?”
Harry asks.
“They’re not as agile as unicorns. They’re hard to catch. I’ve never heard of a unicorn getting hurt.”
The bloodstain snaked unnaturally from side to side, and as I followed it, it gradually changed from silver to a dull lead color.
“The blood is drying. Isn’t he here?”
At that moment, something clearly moved in the open space ahead.
Hagrid quickly unloaded his crossbow, but when he saw the shadowy being emerge into the moonlight, he put it down.
“Is it you, Ronan?”
What appeared was a centaur with the legs of a horse and the upper body of a human. Just like the ones in fairy tales and myths.
Harry and Leonor looked up at the redhead in shock.
“Good evening, Hagrid. Were you going to shoot me?”
“Better safe than sorry. Something is wandering through the woods. This is Harry and Leonore. You’re both students at the school.”
The centaur stared down at Harry for a moment and then muttered, “I see.”
Then he turns his gaze to Leonor and raises his eyebrows as if he has seen something unexpected.
“It’s been a while.”
” I?”
Leonor tilted her head, not understanding that he was the one being spoken to. There was no way she knew a centaur.
” Not yet?”N S hand stomach N stomach
The chestnut-haired centaur narrowed his eyes at Leonor.
“By the way, Ronan, has anything unusual happened in the forest recently?”
Ronan didn’t answer Hagrid’s call and looked up at the sky.
“Mars is bright tonight”
“Yeah. But I want to talk to someone a little closer. Is the forest still the same?”
“The darkness gets darker”
“Was there anything out of the ordinary in that darkness?”
“The innocent are easily consumed by darkness”
“Oh…. Have you seen the injured unicorn?”
“The darker the forest, the more it hides its secrets.”
Hagrid sighed deeply to relieve his frustration, gave them both a look, and readjusted his crossbow.
“Well, if anything happens, let me know, please. Come on, let’s go.”
Harry followed Hagrid, looking back at the centaur several times until he was out of sight.
“I’ve never once gotten a clear answer from the centaurs. They’re very intelligent people, but they just don’t seem to get through to me.”
Hagrid said annoyed.
“Do you see each other often?”
“Well, centaurs live in this forest. They don’t show themselves much in public, but there are a lot of them.”
Harry looked back again but the centaur was no longer in sight.
13: Memory of Water
We walked for a while, down a different path than we had come, but we didn’t see any injured unicorns or any fresh bloodstains.
Hagrid stopped in his tracks, and Harry looked up to see a red light appear.
“Hagrid! Hey!”
“Wait here. I’ll be right back.”
And with that Hagrid set off down the path, cutting through the undergrowth.
As Hagrid’s footsteps receded into the distance, Harry and Leonor looked at each other.
It felt as if the darkness had suddenly grown larger.
There was a rustling of leaves, and what sounded like rustling clothes mixed in with the sound, but Harry tried hard not to hear it.
However, the sound of rustling clothes seemed to be getting closer.
Leonor seemed to have noticed as well, as she looked up at Harry with wide eyes, perhaps in fear.
Both of them were frozen and unable to move.
The sound of leaves rustling can no longer be heard, and only the sound of clothes rustling can be heard.
The sound of slurping, slurping came closer and closer…
At that moment, there was an incredibly loud crackling sound and the light of a torch appeared.
Hagrid had returned with the other three and Fang.
Harry and Leonor breathed a sigh of relief.
Neville was sobbing.
Hermione said that Malfoy had snuck up on Neville from behind while they were standing next to each other, but Malfoy said that he had simply tripped and lost his grip, but when asked why he had snuck up behind Neville in the first place, he was flustered, and either way Hagrid was furious.
“Thanks to all the fuss you’ve been making, we might not even get caught. Ok, let’s re-sort the group. Neville, come with me. Hermione, too. And the other three with Fang.”
Hagrid whispers something to Harry and Leonore.
“I’m sure Malfoy will behave better with you guys.”
Harry led Fang, followed by Leonor and Malfoy.
As Hagrid had expected, Malfoy followed quietly and obediently.
“Ouch.”
Suddenly Leonor spoke up.
“what up?”
Harry turns around.
“No, nothing.”
Saying this, Leonor bites her finger.
Maybe he caught his finger on the branch.
Unlike before, the blood on the ground still shone silver.
The amount of blood dripping seemed to increase, and Harry shuddered as he got closer and closer to the sound of rustling clothes.
Suddenly, the lush forest of old oak trees becomes sparse.
It was a small clearing in the forest.
The three of them had their eyes glued to the base of a large tree that was several thousand years old.
The moonlight reflected off its lithe limbs and body as it lay on the ground, giving it a pearlescent glow.
His shining body, as if ready to leap into action at any moment, lay in a bed of silvery blood without a pulse, and his eyes no longer reflected anything.
It was a unicorn that had just died.
The scene was cruel, yet beautiful.
The three of them just stood there.
The darkness of the plain shook with the sound of something sliding.
Before their eyes, something hooded appeared from the darkness.
It crawls rather than slides, making a slithering sound, and falls onto the unicorn’s corpse.
A mouth appears from the hood and bites into the wound from which silvery blood is flowing.
This was followed by a hair-raising sound of “slurp, slurp” that echoed across the plain.
“Gyaaaaaahh!!”
Malfoy screamed and ran off.
Fang also shook off Harry’s hand on the leash and ran away, crying loudly.
Harry and Leonor, who were a step behind, were unable to take their eyes off the dark shadow.
The thing that was sucking up blood with a raw sound slowly raised its head and turned towards me.
Inside the hood was darkness.
The moment it turned towards him, Harry felt a sharp pain in his head.
It looked as if his head had been split open, judging from the scar on his forehead.
The pain was so intense that Harry groaned and crouched down, clutching his head.
Leonor noticed Harry crouching next to her, but couldn’t move.
I can’t take my eyes off the hood.
He gripped his wand tightly in his hand, but it felt pointless.
The shadow slowly approached Leonor, its skirt sliding along the ground making a slithering sound.
It didn’t seem to move quickly, but the next thing Leonor knew it was right in front of her.
It rose from the ground to cover her and reached out to reach Leonor’s face.
Suddenly, Leonor felt her body relax.
In an instant, his arm rose of its own accord and a spell was fired from the tip of his wand.
An invisible shield stands between them, and the shadow is pushed back.
Before the shadow could move in to attack, the sound of hooves came from behind.
The hoof slid over Leonor and Harry and sprinted towards the shadow.
A minute, maybe two minutes passed.
The pain in my forehead faded as the sound of the rustling of clothes faded away, and now it no longer hurt at all.
Harry looks up.
The shadow disappeared, and a centaur stood there, protecting the two of them.
“Are you hurt?”
A blonde centaur, different from the Ronan he had met earlier, peered into Harry’s face.
“Y-Yes. Thank you.”
Next to him, Leonor was kneeling on the ground, staring blankly into the depths of the forest.
The centaur held out a strong arm and pulled Harry to his feet.
Leonor was still staring off into the distance, eyes wide open.
“Leonor? Are you okay?”
Leonor nodded repeatedly in response to Harry’s question, but she seemed somewhat absent-minded.
He still had his stick tightly in his hand.
The centaur reached out his hand in the same way, but for some reason Leonor was unable to put any strength into it, and was lifted almost entirely by the centaur’s strength.
“You’re a Potter boy, and you-“
The centaur then finally looked deeply into Leonor’s face as she turned away from the depths of the forest.
“You’re here again?”
The centaur looked at Leonor with a voice that sounded resigned and somewhat pitying.
“What’s your name?”
“Leonore Pevensie”
“Is that really your name?”
Leonor was a little taken aback by the centaur’s words.
“…Do you and I know each other?”
“That’s not you.”
Harry didn’t understand what the centaur meant.
“We’d better hurry back to Hagrid. The forest is dangerous right now, especially for you, Potter. Can you give me a ride?”
The centaur bent down to give Harry and Leonor a better access.
Harry supported Leonor, who was still limp, from behind.
The centaur’s movements as he galloped were probably those of a bareback rider, which Harry found not very pleasant.
” What’s your name?”
Leonor suddenly asked in a dazed voice.
“I’m Florence.”
“yes “
Suddenly, the sound of rough hoofbeats came from deep in the forest. Harry turned to look in that direction, and at the same time, two new centaurs appeared. One was Ronan, and the other was a centaur he had never seen before. Both of their flanks were rippling and glistening with sweat.
“Florence!”
yelled the centaur who wasn’t Ronan.
“What have you done? Are you a donkey, carrying a human being on your back?”
“Bane, do you know who this child is? He is from the Potter family. The other one is one we have yet to solve.”
“What did you say…”
The centaur called Bane and Ronan stared at Harry and Leonor as if they were licking each other. After looking at the two of them as if they were shooting, Bane turned his eyes back to Florence and continued speaking forcefully.
“Even so, have you forgotten? We swore to the heavens not to defy them.”
“I believe Florence is doing what it thinks is best.”
Ronan spoke in a low voice while restlessly scratching the ground with his hooves.
“The best! What’s the point? It’s not our domain!”
“Didn’t you see the unicorn? Didn’t the planet tell you its secret, why it was killed?”
This time it was Florence who raised her voice at Bain.
“Bane, I will face what lurks in the darkness of these forests. I will join forces with the humans if necessary.”
“Anyway, now is not the time to talk.”
Ronan placed his body between the two raging monsters.
“Florence, please take the children to Hagrid quickly.”
Florence runs off, leaving the other two behind.
No one spoke.
After a while, in a place where the trees were particularly lush, Florence spoke up.
“Harry Potter, Leonor, do you two know what unicorn blood is used for?”
Harry thought about it for a moment but didn’t know.
Leonor may have fallen asleep, as she doesn’t respond.
“I don’t know. I’ve used tail hair in potions before.”
“That is because to harm a unicorn is an extremely cruel act. A unicorn’s blood can prolong life even when one is on the brink of death, but the price of killing a pure and innocent creature is immeasurable. The moment that blood touches one’s lips, one is cursed.”
“Am I cursed?”
“Forever. The life that is gained is not a perfect life, but a life of death while living. And yet there are those who try to cling to life.”
“Who on earth would do such a thing? To be damned forever?”
“Do you have any idea?”
Harry thought for a moment and quickly found the answer.
“But why now?”
“It is a stopgap. What if you were close to gaining complete power and strength and eternal life? To extend your life just a little longer until then. Harry Potter, do you know at this very moment what is hidden in the school?”
“Right, the Philosopher’s Stone! The unicorn’s blood is just a bridge to getting us there!”
The pieces come together inside Harry.
Even though he was no longer supposed to be nearby, I thought I heard the sound of clothes rustling and the hairs on my back stood on end.
“What we just saw…”
“Harry! Leonor!”
It was Hagrid’s voice.
“Oh my goodness.”
Hagrid, Hermione, Neville, Draco and Fang were there too, holding torches.
“Harry! Harry! Are you okay?”
“I’m fine, but…”
“Leonor!”
Draco exclaimed.
“Hagrid, there’s a dead unicorn. It’s deep in the forest. Just go straight and you’ll find it.”
Hagrid ran off into the forest to see the unicorn.
Harry slides off of Florence’s back, who bends over, and helps Leonor down.
Leonor was not asleep, but she was still drowsy.
“Well, good luck, Harry Potter, Leonor. Even centaurs can misread the planets sometimes.”
Harry and the others watched as the centaur slowly retreated into the depths of the forest.
“Leonor, are you okay?”
“Are you okay”
As Hermione peers at her, Leonor nods without meeting her eye contact.
“What happened? What did you see?”
Harry explained in Leonor’s place.
The unicorn was dead, the hooded shadow was drinking its blood, the wound hurt the moment the shadow turned towards me, and the shadow attacked me.
Hermione takes a deep breath.
“Then Leonor pulled something out of her staff and the shadow was blown backwards. It tried to attack again, but a centaur came and chased it away.”
“Did Leonor chase him away once? Did you know that spell Leonor?”
“I don’t know. My body just moved instinctively…”
Although she didn’t appear to be injured, Leonor was clearly in a strange state.
Recently, her facial expressions had finally started to become more like those of a normal child, but now Leonor’s face still looked emotionless like when they first met.
Then Hagrid returned and the punishment for the night was over.
Everyone urged Leonor to go to the infirmary, but she refused, saying she wasn’t injured.
They part ways at the entrance to go to their respective dormitories, and Draco and Leonor return to their dorms together.
Draco had been holding Leonor’s hand ever since they’d left the forest.
Leonor’s steps were unexpectedly steady, but even though he knew that wasn’t the case, he felt as if Leonor might suddenly disappear if he took his eyes off her.
Draco spoke up, feeling guilty for running away and leaving Leonor behind.
“At that time, well… I was sorry.”
“Hmm? Mmhmm, yeah.”
Leonor replies as if she doesn’t understand what he’s talking about.
“Are you sure there’s nothing wrong?”
“Hmm. I’m tired.”
Leonor tilted her head, searching for words.
“It felt like my body wasn’t my own.”
“What do you mean?”
“Hmmmm…”
After that, Leonor never gave a proper reply, and the two parted ways after saying goodnight in the lounge.
Draco’s tension and anxiety had made him more tired than he had thought, and he collapsed into bed and lost consciousness.
14: The Sign of Three
The day after returning from the Forbidden Forest, Leonor overslept.
I felt like I had a bad dream, but I didn’t remember it when I woke up.
Draco became frightened when Leonor took a long time to wake up, and when Leonor came down to the common room just before noon, Draco complained to her while she was still asleep.
Leonor had simply been thinking about something with her exhausted head that night. That’s why Harry and the others were so worried about her, and she felt bad about it.
Harry seemed convinced that the man in the hood he saw that night was Voldemort.
Leonor was in agreement with that, but she couldn’t agree with the theory that Snape was trying to steal the Philosopher’s Stone. However, Harry and the others didn’t talk much about Snape when Leonor was around, so she didn’t have a chance to talk about it, and in the first place, everyone was running out of time to talk about the stone.
Before I knew it, the school was in a full exam mood.
Hermione was hysterical, and would open her textbook anytime, anywhere, and would ask questions of anyone nearby, which annoyed Harry and Ron. Draco was in a similar state, though not to the same extent as Hermione. The library was overflowing with people who weren’t usually there, and Leonor stayed in the dorms as much as possible. Pansy and the others also seemed to be desperately studying, and they didn’t even get strange looks from me in the common room, so I was able to concentrate on my studies comfortably.
The exam consisted of a written exam and a practical exam.
There were a few parts of the note that were unclear, so I just filled them in by writing something that seemed relevant.
The practical tests were a little better: in the Charms test the pineapple properly tapped to the edge of the table and even bowed at the end, and in Transfiguration the rat was transformed into a snuffbox with arabesque patterns all over its body. Judging by the teacher’s face, Leonor thought that she had done pretty well on the practical tests.
The last exam was on the History of Magic, and I wrote down everything that was written in the textbook exactly as I could remember it on the answer sheet.
And so Leonor’s first end-of-year exam came to an end.
As soon as the exam was over, Leonor thought back to that night in the Forbidden Forest.
Ever since that night, even while studying for exams, and whenever I had a moment’s free time, I would think about the time my arm released a spell on its own.
Truly, my body moved on its own.
At that time, her body was her own, but it wasn’t hers. It was as if a will other than her own was moving her from within. To begin with, Leonor didn’t know such a spell. It was a spell she had never heard of in class or in a textbook.
Why was my body moving on its own? What was that spell? I had been itching to find out, but now that the exam was over, there was no need to hold back any longer.
“Leonor! How was the exam?”
Hermione called out to Leonore as she spotted him among the crowd of students who had come out of the main classroom into the schoolyard.
“Hmm, it’s probably half done.”
“I was a lot nicer than I thought. I didn’t need to rush and memorize all that.”
As Hermione talked about the exams, Ron looked gloomy next to her, and Harry’s brow furrowed as if he was thinking deeply.
“Do you know of a spell that can create a shield-like defense?”
“Oh, what’s that? I don’t know. Did that come up in a spell test? I don’t remember it.”
Hermione’s face went white at Leonor’s question.
“It’s not a test question. I was just wondering.”
“Oh, is that so? That’s a surprise. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of it. Do you have two?”
“There’s no way we know any spells that Hermione doesn’t know.”
Ron shrugged at Hermione’s question.
“I see. See you later.”
“Where are you going?”
“Library”
“Ugh.”
While Leonor headed towards the school building, the three of them headed down towards the lake.
It had been a long time since I last went to the library.
As exams approached, a lot of people who normally don’t go to the library would gather there, so I felt uncomfortable and didn’t go for a while.
Leonor was unaware of it, but while she was holed up in her dorm studying for exams, she had inadvertently ended up following Snape’s advice not to go out alone.
As expected, there was not a single student in the hallway leading to the library. It seemed like most of the students were out in the schoolyard trying to do some photosynthesis, which they hadn’t been able to do during the exam period. It seemed unusual for someone to head to the library the moment the exams were over.
It had been a really long time since she had been to the library, so Leonor had forgotten.
Where were the footsteps always chasing me?
Harry sat in the shade by the lake and rubbed his forehead with his hands.
“My wound has been hurting for a while now. It’s the first time it’s hurt for this long.”
“Why don’t you go to Madam Pomfrey’s?”
Hermione says.
“Maybe you just haven’t slept enough? You’ve been studying too hard for exams. If you get a good night’s sleep tonight, you’ll be better.”
Ron was now sprawled out on the grass.
It’s true that I haven’t been sleeping well lately, but it wasn’t because I was neurotic about studying for exams or anything like that – it was because I was having a recurring nightmare of a hooded figure peering at me, dripping with blood.
Harry shook his head.
“No, it’s not like that. I think it’s probably a warning. It’s a message that something bad is going to happen soon.”
Hermione and Ron looked at each other.
“Harry, relax. Dumbledore is guarding the stone. And even Snape was no match for a dog with three faces.”
“Plus, I don’t think Hagrid would betray Dumbledore and tell Snape how to tame Fluffy.”
“That’s true, but…”
Even though the two tried to persuade him, Harry couldn’t shake off his anxiety.
Harry also didn’t think that Hagrid would betray Dumbledore.
But I feel like I’m missing something important.
Something very important and significant.
This feeling of uneasiness may be similar to those weeks when he spent worrying about when his teacher would find out, between Malfoy’s spying on his hut and handing over his dragon to Charlie –
“That’s it!”
Harry suddenly yelled, making Ron and Hermione jump.
“It’s a dragon! How did I not notice that?”
“What? What are you talking about?”
“We need to get to Hagrid!”
Harry stood up and ran off, followed by Ron and Hermione.
“Harry, what’s wrong?”
“Hagrid has always wanted a dragon, but it’s illegal to keep one. So you think someone who happens to have a dragon egg in their pocket would happen to offer Hagrid a bet?”
Harry’s words startled Ron and Hermione.
The three of them sprinted towards the cabin in front of the forest.
“Hey, it’s you guys. Want to come in for some tea?”
“That’s not the point, Hagrid.”
By the time we reached the hut, all three of us were completely out of breath.
“I want to ask you about the guy who gave us Norbert. Do you remember him?”
“You know, if you remember, I didn’t see his face because his hood was still up. The Hog’s Head is full of weirdos, you know. He might have been a dragon dealer, you know?”
No one asked him why he was drinking in a place like that.
“What did you talk about with that person?”
Hagrid spoke bit by bit, grimacing as he tried to remember.
“He was really interested when I told him I was a gamekeeper at Hogwarts and asked me what animals I kept. I told him a few things and then I told him I’d always wanted a dragon. He said he’d give me a dragon egg, but only if I knew how to take care of it. I told him dragons were easy compared to Fluffy.”
Harry heard himself swallow hard.
“Did that person seem interested in Fluffy?”
“Yeah, well, Cerberus isn’t around here. So I told Fluffy that if I played him some music he’d fall asleep right away.”
Hagrid took a deep breath.
“I shouldn’t have told you guys! Forget it!”
Harry and the others had already run off, ignoring Hagrid’s voice.
“Oh no!”
“We must go to Dumbledore now!”
They ran to the staff room, only to find the three of them once again with their jaws dropped in shock.
“Professor Dumbledore’s not here?!”
McGonagall had told him that Dumbledore had received an urgent message from the Ministry of Magic and would not be back until tomorrow.
Harry and his friends complained about the danger to the Philosopher’s Stone, but Professor McGonagall did not take them seriously and they were eventually sent away.
“Tonight.”
Harry groaned in the Gryffindor common room.
“I figured out how to outwit Fluffy. Dumbledore won’t be here until tomorrow. I’m sure Snape engineered that emergency call.”
“But is there anything we can do?”
“We have to try even if we can’t. Dumbledore isn’t here. The other teachers don’t believe us. We’ll do what we can. Hermione, keep an eye on Snape in front of the staff room.”
“I?”
“Out of the three of you, you’re the best choice. I could go around and tell all the teachers, ‘I’m worried about whether I’ve done the last question right…’ and everyone would believe you.”
“Excuse me.”
Hermione glared at Ron, but Harry secretly agreed.
Hermione reluctantly agreed to keep watch.
“What are you guys going to do?”
“We’ll be on guard duty in that hallway on the fourth floor.”
Harry and Ron headed up to the fourth floor.
As soon as they arrived they nearly jumped at the sound of footsteps heading their way, but it was Professor McGonagall.
“Enough of this! Do you really not trust the protection of the Hogwarts professors? This is the last time! The next time I see you in this corridor you will lose fifty points! Yes, fifty points each!”
The two of them had no choice but to return to the dormitory.
They had been sitting on the sofa for a while when Hermione returned.
“I’m sorry. Professor Snape asked me what I was doing and I told him I wanted to ask Professor Flitwick a question for the exam, and he actually called me and we’ve been talking ever since. I don’t know where Professor Snape went.”
“Well then, I have no choice but to go.”
Harry said as they both looked on.
“What are you going to do?”
“I’ll get the stone first somehow.”
“But how? If we go now, McGonagall will see us in the corridor and we’ll lose points.”
“I’ll use my invisibility cloak. I left it in the tower and it’s been returned.”
“I think three people will fit.”
Harry looked at Ron quizzically, not understanding what this meant.
Ron shrugged his shoulders.
“Even if I told you to stop, you wouldn’t listen. I’m not going to let you go alone.”
“That’s right. Without us there would be no way to get through the magic traps set by the teachers. I’ll go and investigate further now.”
Hermione said, running up the stairs of the girls’ dormitory.
One by one, people started disappearing from the lounge.
After making sure the last person had entered the common room, Harry took out his invisibility cloak.
“Can all three of us fit in?”
When I went out with Leonor on Christmas night, I didn’t mind if my legs were sticking out a little, but tonight was different.
“what are you doing?”
A voice came from the shadow of an armchair where no one had thought they were.
“Neville.”
“You’re going out again, aren’t you?”
“Neville, get out of the way. This is important.”
“Stay put. I won’t let any more points be taken away from Gryffindor.”
Neville stands in the entrance to the common room.
Harry and Ron looked to Hermione for help.
“Sorry, Neville.”
With a wave of Hermione’s wand, Neville stiffened and collapsed.
“I definitely feel like I wouldn’t be able to make it to the end without you.”
“What are you going to do with such a weak attitude?”
Even though she was complaining, Hermione seemed a little happy.
“I wonder if Leonor has returned to the dormitory properly?”
“That reminds me,” Hermione muttered as they left the dormitory.
Surprisingly, Leonor is more skilled than Hermione when it comes to practical skills alone.
It will be even more encouraging if Leonor joins us.
But there was no time to visit the Slytherin dorms underground right now.
“Is he not here either?”
An unexpected voice made the three of them literally jump.
A blonde appeared from the shadows.
“Malfoy!”
Malfoy looked extremely out of place in front of the Gryffindor dorms.
“Why are you here?!”
Malfoy himself seemed uncomfortable.
“Leonor hasn’t come back yet. She wasn’t in the library. I thought she might be here.”
Malfoy said with a sour look on his face.
Harry was simply shocked that Malfoy had been so worried about Leonor that he had wandered around the school at night and even visited her in the Gryffindor dormitory.
“Leonor isn’t here. She said she was going to the library after the exam and that’s all we said.”
“I just went there, but there was no one in the library.”
I want to believe that can’t be the case, but I have a bad feeling.
“By the way, where are you planning to go now?”
Harry and the others looked at each other, not sure how to cover it up.
I don’t have time to waste in a place like this.
Moreover, he had a feeling that it was no coincidence that Leonor was nowhere to be seen.
Harry looked at Malfoy in disbelief.
“We’re going to the fourth floor. The stones are dangerous.”
15: The Great Game
Ron and Hermione were confused.
For some reason, Malfoy had followed Harry up to the fourth floor and was arguing with him the whole time.
“I’ve said it many times before, but there’s no need for you to come.”
“You’re the one who has to say it over and over again. Leonor might be involved.”
“It’s just a possibility. Don’t stick your nose into something so dangerous just because of that.”
“You guys know it’s dangerous, but you’re still going.”
“It’s important to us.”
“It’s important to me too.”
“You left Leonor behind that night and ran away.”
“I know!”
Malfoy suddenly stopped in his tracks and the three of them turned to see him with a sour look on his face.
“I know. I also think that I should have stayed there or even forced my way through to pull Leonor’s hand. That’s why I don’t want to do that again.”
Harry and the others were silent as they saw Malfoy looking serious for the first time.
A sound like a music box came from somewhere.
Ron put his face close to the door and listened.
“I can hear Fluffy snoring.”
Harry put his hand on the handle and looked back at Malfoy.
“No matter what happens from now on, don’t complain.”
“I won’t say that.”
The door creaked open.
A harp played intermittently, while three enormous, fierce dog heads slept soundly.
As the pauses in the harp music get longer, Fluffy’s breathing gets quieter.
Harry hastily took out Hagrid’s handmade flute that he had stuffed in his pocket and played it.
I just connected the sounds together randomly, but Fluffy’s breathing immediately became deeper.
Ron, Hermione and Malfoy managed to move the giant paw aside and open the trap door.
Behind the door, darkness continued all the way down.
“…Who should go first?”
In response to Ron’s question, Harry nudged him with his foot and gestured to himself.
Ron nodded, understanding what Harry meant.
“Okay, then I’ll take over on the flute. If Harry gets off and there’s no problem, then we can just carry on.”
Harry handed the flute to Ron and leapt into the darkness.
Harry landed with a thud on the soft, rough ground, all vines.
“It’s okay.”
Hearing Harry’s voice, the other three also jumped down.
“What is this plant?”
“Maybe it’s for cushioning. Either way, it’s there.”
“Am I lucky?”
Hermione screamed in response to Ron’s words. She was the last one to land, and the vines began to wrap around the four of them.
“Whoa, what is this!”
Malfoy cried out as well. The more Malfoy struggled to shake them off, the more vines wrapped around them. Harry pulled the vines that had wrapped around Ron’s feet with all his might, and Ron tried to pull Harry’s off, but more vines appeared one after the other.
Hermione managed to shake herself free, but the other three were tightly gripped down to their knees.
“Don’t move! I know this. It’s a devil’s trap.”
“I’m so grateful I knew your name right away!”
“Shut up! I’m remembering how to get rid of you! Well, devil’s traps, devil’s traps love damp and darkness…”
“Fire! Light it up!”
Their arms had already been entangled, and the vines were closing in on their throats.
“Yes, but I don’t have any matches.”
“Are you kidding me? Are you still a witch?”
Malfoy yells.
“it was!”
Hermione waved her wand and a gentian light erupted from the tip. The vines exposed to the light and warmth shrank back, and as if their strength from before was a lie, they let the three of them go. Harry and the others crawled out from under the limp vines.
“You really are…”
“Seriously, I’m shocked to hear that joke.”
Ron and Malfoy got up and started complaining.
“But if I hadn’t been there, all three of them would have been strangled to death by now.”
Malfoy shrugged at Hermione’s words but made no further complaint.
“This way.”
Wiping the sweat from their faces, the four of them headed down the path Harry had pointed out, leading deeper into the cave.
My right arm is tingling.
It feels like I’m being hit in the head from the inside.
I was poring over a book when I suddenly realized it was getting dark, so I decided to go home.
By the time I heard footsteps approaching from behind, it was already too late.
An electric shock ran down her back, and Leonor collapsed forward.
I have no memory of what happened after that.
In an attempt to clear my head, I closed my eyes tightly, then lifted my heavy eyelids.
The man was clutching his bloody right arm.
“…Professor Quirrell.”
With his other hand, Quirrell grabbed Leonor by her hair and held her up, collecting the blood running down her arm in a jar.
“I’ve always wanted to see the effects of Vivielle’s blood up close. Do you really think I’m going to waste such an opportunity? The last door didn’t work, but I think we can try again.”
Quirrell spoke more to himself than to Leonor, his voice now heavy with desire and a glint in it, his usual stammering voice gone.
A bottle the size of a baby’s head was filling up with blood. Leonor felt a chill and nausea that made her want to claw her whole body.
When the bottle was full, Quirrell let go of Leonor’s hair and walked away with the bottle. Leonor suddenly let go of her hair and collapsed, powerless, on the spot, hitting her face hard on the floor. The floor was made of black and white marble.
“Dammit!”
In the distance, Quirrell could be vaguely seen swearing at a large statue he was facing, a pawn larger than life.
“Your blood is not yet ripe. I could have tested your blood beforehand if that damn Snape hadn’t interfered. You’re nothing more than a burden now.”
Quirrell’s footsteps returned.
I’ll be killed…!
…I don’t want to die.
Quirrell stood next to Leonor, who was on the floor, and poured the remaining contents of the bottle into her face.
“We’ll have to wait until Master returns to see Vivielle’s magic.”
The distinctive taste of iron spreads in your mouth.
“don’t cry”
She heard Marriott’s voice in her head, and then Leonor lost consciousness.
Harry and his friends walked down a path that led deeper into the cave.
After walking for a while, I heard the sound of thin feathers rubbing together.
The four of them entered a large, open room with a high, arched ceiling, filled with sparkling little birds flying about.
Across the room, I can see a thick wooden door.
“I wonder if these guys are going to attack me?”
“Maybe. I’ll go first.”
Harry covered his face with his arms and ran across the room. Nothing happened.
At Harry’s signal, the other three crossed the room.
“Not a bird, right? What is it?”
“Maybe a key?”
“Hey, this…”
Hermione’s firm voice made everyone look at the door.
There is a sticky red liquid on the silver keyhole.
“Blood.”
Leonor hasn’t been seen since the evening. Fluffy is asleep. The door is covered in blood.
The bad feeling grows even stronger.
“I don’t think it will open, but you can try the spell.”
Hermione casts the spell as instructed by Harry, but nothing happens.
“I thought so. I need to find the real key inside.”
“There are definitely more than a thousand of them.”
“It’s made of silver, like the keyhole, I think.”
The four of them squinted their eyes, searching through the mass of keys, and Harry spotted a large, rusty key dangling in the air with a broken wing.
“The one over there with the broken wing.”
“You’re staggering around.”
It seems that Malfoy found them at almost the same time.
“How do we catch it?”
“Isn’t that what the broom is for?”
Malfoy pointed to a broom in the corner of the room.
“Okay, I guess I have to fly here.”
Hermione grimaced – broomsticks were one of the few things she wasn’t good at.
“You stay in front of the door. And–“
Harry turned to Malfoy.
“Once you get the key, go back the way you came.”
“Why?”
“I need the teachers to know. At the very least, someone is hurt. Preferably Dumbledore, but any other teacher would be fine.”
“You go, Potter.”
“I need to get to the Philosopher’s Stone as quickly as possible. But I don’t know if we can handle it on our own, so I want you to call for help. That will also help Leonor.”
Malfoy’s blue eyes fixed on Harry.
“…Okay.”
The boys mounted their brooms and took off towards the group of keys. It had been a while since they’d seen Malfoy fly, since they’d fought over Neville’s memory orb, but he was good on the broomstick.
Even though its wing is broken, the key is surprisingly nimble and difficult to catch.
“You three chase them down!”
The three of them chased the keys from each direction, driving them to the top of the arch in the ceiling. The key with the damaged wing was not as maneuverable as the others, so it fell a little behind the flock.
Harry accelerated and reached for the keys.
The key fell into Harry’s hand with an unpleasant crunch.
“Got it!”
Harry turned his broom around, still holding the keys tightly in his hand.
The next moment, Harry used the reflexes he had honed through Quidditch to throw himself down.
The key attacked.
Ron and Malfoy hurried off to bed as well.
The keys paid no attention to the two of them and continued to pursue Harry like a swarm of bees.
“This way!”
Harry tosses the key at Ron, who catches it and tosses it at Hermione.
“Now, go, Malfoy!”
Malfoy seemed hesitant but Harry, chased by the key, didn’t care.
“Harry! Hurry!”
Hermione opened the door and Ron practically burst in on his broom.
“Malfoy!”
“…Oh no! Don’t die, Potter!”
Harry dashed through the door, seeing Malfoy out of the corner of his eye heading the way he had come.
The moment Hermione slammed the door shut, the lights came on in the pitch black room.
Hermione screamed as she turned from the door.
Harry and Ron both shivered involuntarily.
Spread out before me was an enormous chessboard, with black pieces lined up neatly in front and white pieces across the room.
But it wasn’t the piece that was bigger than them that sent chills down the three of them’s spines.
There are traces of blood all over the chessboard.
Along with the gruesome sight, the strong smell of iron hits the nose.
He could see that Hermione was trembling slightly.
Harry felt his legs give way, but there was no time to flinch.
“You have to play chess to get to the other side.”
“I think so.”
Harry whispered and Ron nodded.
“I think each of us will take a turn for a black piece. Wait a moment.”
Harry and Hermione waited quietly as Ron began to think, both of them well aware that Ron was the best chess player of all.
“Harry, you take the place of Bishop. Hermione will be Rook next to you. I’ll be Knight.”
As if they had heard Ron, the black pieces who were called stepped down from the chessboard and made way for the three.
Ron let out a deep breath as he saw the two of them get into position.
“Let’s get started.”
The white pawn moves forward.
A life-size game of chess began.
Ron’s knight was the first to be taken, and the white queen mercilessly slammed the black knight to the floor and dragged it off the board.
One after the other, the white pieces knock down the black pieces and drag them off the board.
What would happen if I were taken?
The sight of the injured black horses lying dead in heaps against the wall chilled the two of them to the core.
I didn’t notice at first because of their black bodies, but one of the eight pawns was covered in blood from the top.
The trail of blood grows after the pawn passes through.
Twice Ron narrowly prevented Harry and Hermione from being taken.
Ron raced around the board and captured as many white pieces as had been taken.
Both sides have almost no pawns left.
“…This is the only option.”
Ron thought for a while and then muttered to himself.
“what happened?”
Hermione asked instinctively.
“…The next move will take me.”
“No!”
They both shouted at the same time.
“That’s how chess is played! I’ll move forward one piece, then the Queen will come for me, Harry, so you can move and checkmate the King!”
“But that’s not true…!”
“There is a price to pay to move forward!”
While we’re talking, Snape might get the stone and something might happen to Leonor.
Harry swallowed hard.
“Let’s go.”
Ron steeled himself and took a step forward.
The White Queen hit Ron over the head with her stone arm.
Hermione screams and Ron collapses to the floor.
The two of them managed to stay where they were and watched Ron being dragged away.
Harry stood before the White King on trembling legs, looking up at the crown.
The White King removed his crown and got down on one knee in front of Harry.
The remaining pieces were swept to the left and right with a bang and bowed.
The two of them rushed over to Ron, who had collapsed among the black pieces.
—Thank goodness. You’re breathing.
Ron seemed unconscious.
“We need to move on.”
It was the path that Ron risked his life to pave.
Reluctantly, the two of them left Ron behind and went through the door.
The smell of sewer hit them and they quickly covered their noses.
I know this smell.
Lying in the room was a troll, bigger than the one that had appeared on Halloween.
He has a lump on his head and is unconscious.
Harry and Hermione slowly made their way around the side of the room, careful not to wake the troll, and made their way to the next door.
The next room contained rows of thermoses of different sizes.
The door we came through and the next door burst into flames. And not just any flame. Purple and black flames.
Hermione unfolded the scroll next to the bottle and slowly read its contents.
“…It’s a puzzle. Three are poison, two are alcohol, one will get me through the black flames, and one will allow me to return through the purple flames.”
“Which one should I drink to move forward?”
“Wait a minute,”
Hermione muttered to herself as she reread the scroll.
“This one. The third bottle from the left, the smallest one.”
It’s a small bottle that only holds one mouthful.
“So what about helping me get back?”
Hermione pointed to the round bottle on the far right.
“You drink it.”
Harry looked straight at Hermione.
“I want you to bring Ron back with the broom from the locked room. I’m sure you can jump over Fluffy with it.”
“but !”
“Please! There’s something I need to ask of you. It’s been a while since Malfoy went to get help. He may not be trusted like we are. I need you to go to the Owl Cottage and send Hedwig directly to Dumbledore.”
Hermione’s eyes filled with tears, but she walked back through the violet flames without looking back.
Harry drank the contents of the smallest vial Hermione pointed to.
I felt as if cold ice was flowing through my body and I shivered.
And then he stepped into the black flames.
16: Girl in the room
“don’t cry”
Marriott laughed, taking Leonor’s hands in his own words.
“I’ll definitely send a letter.”
Marriott was especially well-liked by the staff at Hughes Orphanage. With light brown curly hair and hazel eyes, he had the appearance of an angel. He was also obedient, considerate, and easy to handle, so it was inevitable that he would capture the hearts of the adults who were constantly busy taking care of children. The reason that Marriott and Leonor were such good friends was because they were both “Hughes”.
Children can be cruel and like to rank everything. Whether or not one’s biological parents know is one of those ranks. Even though he was one of those “Hughes,” the bullies still respected Marriott. The reason Leonor wasn’t bullied so much was because Marriott was by her side. And Marriott was the only child at the orphanage who knew that Leonor had mysterious powers. Marriott wasn’t creeped out by Leonor’s mysterious powers.
The day Marriott was taken away, Leonor didn’t cry. Tears welled up in her eyes, but she fought back tears.
“Don’t cry, Leonor.”
Marriott was the one crying as he said this.
“This, you see, was given to me by Mr. Clark, my first friend. I named him Taffy.”
Marriott brought out a stuffed rabbit. It was a brown rabbit.
“I want Leonor to have it.”
“For me?”
Leonor sniffed.
“Yeah. In my place.”
Leonor received a stuffed animal from Marriott. It was made of terry cloth and felt very soft to the touch.
I didn’t want to make Marriott sad as he was about to start a new life.
Marriott wiped the tears from his cheeks with his hand and smiled.
“I’ll be waiting for your letter, Taffy.”
“you!?”
What stood there at the other end of the black flames was not Snape or Voldemort, but Quirrell.
At his feet, Leonor was lying face down, covered in blood, with her eyes tightly closed.
Quirrell smiled coldly, a far cry from his usual timid demeanor.
“I thought I’d find you here, Potter.”
“But I’m Snape…”
“Ha! He’s Dumbledore’s dog. We would have got the Stone sooner if it weren’t for him. A dreary bat, he was a good cover, though. Nobody ever suspected poor, cowardly Professor Quirrell, did they?”
“But Snape tried to kill me!”
“I was the one trying to kill him. He got in the way. Now, Potter, you get in the way.”
Quirrell snapped his fingers and a rope appeared from nowhere and wrapped tightly around Harry.
“Why Leonor?”
Harry persisted.
“This guy is the descendant of a clan that uses different magic than us. With his powers it should be easy to obtain the stone. However, when we tried it out we found him to be an inexperienced and useless being. It was a lot of trouble. But anyway. I’m sure my master will find a use for him someday.”
Quirrell glanced at Leonor at his feet, then turned his back to Harry.
“I must examine this mirror. Vivi re’s girl is no use to me.”
Behind Quirrell was the Mirror of Evil, which had shown Harry’s parents on Christmas night.
“The mirror is the key to finding the stone. That’s an elaborate scheme, Dumbledore.”
Quirrell put his face close enough to touch the mirror’s nose and examined every nook and cranny of the wooden frame, then walked around to the other side of the mirror.
Harry twisted, trying to free himself from the rope, but the knot was strong, and he lost his balance and stumbled and fell.
When Harry, who had fallen, picked himself up, his eyes met with Leonor, who was supposed to be unconscious.
Leonor stared at Harry without moving a muscle, not even a muscle .blue stomach pupil
Leonor suddenly looked down at her hands. The pools of blood that had formed around her body were slowly stretching out from her fingers. The pools of blood were reaching the legs of the mirror.
Leonor is trying to do something.
What Harry could do now was to distract Quirrell from the mirror and Leonor, even if only for a moment.
“Snape almost killed me during the Quidditch match.”
Harry said quietly.
“ah”
A perfunctory reply came from behind the mirror.
“I was the one they were trying to kill.”
“But Hermione saw Snape casting the spell.”
“He cast a counter-spell on me. I almost killed you when your friend Miss Granger set his robes on fire and he looked away. But then the leg of a chair broke and I looked away, much to your master’s anger. I would have knocked you down sooner if Snape hadn’t interfered.”
“Snape was trying to protect me?”
“That’s right. That’s why Snape volunteered to be the judge in the next match. I don’t think I could lay a hand on you in front of Dumbledore. All he did was volunteer to be the villain.”
“But Snape hates me.”
“Yes. Your father and he were classmates at Hogwarts and hated each other. It must be amusing to have to defend the legacy of a hated classmate.”
Quirrell chuckled.
The blood from Leonor’s hand reached Kagami’s leg.
Kagami’s legs soaked up the blood like dry tissue.
Leonor closed her open eyes .blue stomach pupil
Harry waited to see what would happen next.
Nothing happens.
“What’s going on?”
Quirrell came around again and stared intently into the mirror.
“I see the stone. I am offering it to my master… but where is the stone?”
As Quirrell came around from the back, his foot stepped on a pool of blood, making the trail of blood stretching from Leonor toward the mirror less noticeable.
Quirrell is so engrossed in the mirror that he doesn’t notice the pool of blood at his feet.
Leonor remains motionless with her eyes closed.
Harry thinks.
I want to get the stone before Quirrell does.
Harry’s goal now is to get the stone, if only Harry could see the mirror now.one No. of Desire fruit
Harry crept closer to the mirror so Quirrell wouldn’t notice.
It hurt where the rope dug into my skin.
Behind Quirrell, who was clinging to the mirror, Harry managed to shift until he was near the edge of the mirror.
In the mirror I can see myself tied up with ropes and sitting on the floor.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, a woman appeared in the mirror.
A woman who looked to be about the same age as a Hogwarts senior student squatted down right behind Harry in the mirror, stepping lightly.
Harry gasped softly in surprise.
Leonor was a little older than she is now.
Quirrell doesn’t seem to see it.
Leonor in the mirror looked cheerful as she met Harry’s eyes through the mirror.
“It’s been a while since I’ve talked to someone.”
A voice came from right next to Harry’s ear.
Quirrell didn’t even seem to hear her, as he continued muttering to himself while looking in the mirror.
“Are you the one who wants to find the rock?”
It was a quiet voice that didn’t suit his age.
Harry nodded softly.
Harry realised that the woman in the mirror was not Leonor.
She looks just like her, but she’s not Leonor.
“Then I’ll give it to you.”
With that, the woman in the mirror produced a blood-red stone from nowhere and placed it in Harry’s pocket inside the mirror.
Suddenly, Harry felt pressure coming from his pocket.
Harry got the stone!
Harry is surprised at how easily he got the stone.
Moreover, he is still tightly tied with rope, so even if he manages to get the stone, there is nothing he can do.
“I don’t understand, what kind of mechanism is this? Master! Please lend me your wisdom!”
Quirrell, who had been growling the whole time, raised his voice.
“Use Potter…”
Suddenly a low voice rang out.
Harry’s heart fluttered so hard it felt like it was going to jump out of his body, and the low voice seemed to come from Quirrell himself.
Quirrell snapped his fingers and the ropes binding him were loosed.
“Now, stand up here and tell me what you see!”
Harry slowly came to stand directly in front of the mirror while the woman in the mirror aimed her eyes at Quirrell’s turban.
Harry stared at his own pale face in the mirror.
Harry already has the stone.
I have to tell a lie!
The woman turned towards Harry again and stood diagonally behind him.
He stared intently at Harry’s face, a look of keen interest on his face.
It really seems like Quirrell can’t see the woman at all.
“Well, what do you see?”
Quirrell’s voice brought Harry’s attention away from the woman, he swallowed hard and opened his mouth.
“I-I see me shaking hands with Dumbledore. Gryffindor has won the House Cup.”
“The boy is lying…”
cried Quirrell again, his voice rumbling.
“Tell me the truth, Potter!”
“I’ll speak to you directly…”
Quirrell glared at Harry through the mirror as he untied his turban.
The turban fell to the floor with a swift movement, revealing what must have been the back of Quirrell’s head.
It had snake-like nostrils and glaring, bloodshot eyes.
The face glared at Harry, a terrifying expression on waxy white skin.
There was the remains of Voldemort.
Harry was paralyzed, unable to move, his throat was so dry he couldn’t speak.
“Harry Potter…”
Voldemort whispered.
“Look at this state. I am nothing more than a shadow and mist, and can only appear by borrowing someone else’s body. But I am not destroyed. Soon I will regain my body with the Water of Life. Now, may I have the stone in your pocket?”
Voldemort knew where the stone was.
Suddenly Harry’s legs regained feeling.
Voldemort whispered to Harry as he stumbled back.
“Don’t do something stupid. Do you think you can escape from me, kid? Your mother died trying to protect you. If you die here unable to protect the stone or your friend, both parent and child will have died in vain. Give up and join my side. Hand over the stone.”
“No!”
“Get him!”
A low voice shouts.
Quirrell lunged at Harry as he ran for the door.
Quirrell dragged Harry to the ground, straddled him, and put his hands around Harry’s neck.
Suddenly, Harry felt a pain in his forehead, as if he had been pricked by a needle.
His breath hitched and he clawed frantically at Quirrell’s arm.
Surprisingly, Quirrell’s grip loosened easily.
“Master! I can’t hold him back! My hands!”
Quirrell pinned Harry to the ground with his knee and screamed at the sight of his blistered hands.
“You idiot! Then kill me! Use your wand!”
Quirrell takes out his wand and begins to cast the Killing Curse.
“Attack me in the face!”
The woman in the mirror screams.
Harry quickly reached out and grabbed Quirrell’s face.
“Ahhhhhhhh!”
Quirrell rolls away from Harry.
The skin on his face burned and peeled away where Harry’s hand had touched it.
“Don’t let him get away!”
Encouraged by the woman’s voice, Harry leapt at Quirrell.
He clings desperately to Quirrell’s violent face.
“Aaaaaahhhhhhh!”
Quirrell writhed in pain.
Harry realizes: Quirrell cannot touch him.
Voldeo’s voice repeatedly yelled, “Kill him!” along with Quirrell’s voiceless screams rang out in Harry’s head.
The smell of burning meat stings the inside of my nose.
Harry clung to Quirrell’s face with all his strength.
Harry didn’t even realize that his hand had plunged deeper into the hole, and as the pain in his forehead was so intense that it receded, his consciousness faded into darkness in his death throes.
The voiceless scream eventually stopped dead, and the body’s limbs hung limp and limp.
The woman in the mirror watched, chin resting on her hands, as Quirrell’s face was burned to the bone and he died in pain.
A mist-like substance escapes from the dead corpse and quickly flies away somewhere.
The woman watched the scene unfold to the end before making her move.
He approaches Harry, who is unconscious in the mirror, and looks down at his face with a serious gaze.
“It’s you, isn’t it?”Small death Many stomach
The woman muttered, not wanting anyone to hear.
He stared at his face for a while, then when he heard footsteps approaching, he slowly reached for Harry’s trousers.
Toying with the blood-red stone in her hand, the woman disappeared somewhere from the mirror before the owner of the footsteps reached the room.
“Come on, come on in.”
At Matthew’s urging, we stepped into one of the rooms in the large house.
The floors are highly polished and covered with thick carpets.
The child was standing on the carpet with his tiny shoes lined up.
“Abby, this is Leonor. From today onwards, I’ll be your big sister.”
Camilla said as she rubbed her cheek against the child.
“Leonor. This is our daughter, Abby. Please take good care of her.”
The child came running up to me without hesitation, with a cute, crinkly smile on her face.
The child jumps at the clothes that were just bought for her before she came to this house.
“Abby’s new big sister! Abby’s big sister!”
He jumps onto me and hops around, looking up at me with sparkling eyes.
It was cute.
It made me smile without even thinking.
I felt so happy, it felt like the depths of my heart was slowly melting. So very, so happy.
My new little sister jumps on me without any hesitation.
Abby, being young and lisping, had trouble saying Leonor’s name properly.
That’s why Abby called me Nora.
“Nora! Nora!”
That child tried to follow me wherever I went.
“Nora!”
He wanted to do everything with me.
“Nora, let’s sleep together!”
We even sleep together.
“Nora, let’s go to the garden together!”
It’s the same when we play in the garden.
“Nora, let’s play house!”
It’s the same with playing with dolls.
“Nora, we’ll always be together!”
We’ve been together forever and ever.
Leonor suddenly opens her eyes.
Leonor was lying on her back on the bed.
Where am I?
He stared at the dingy ceiling for a while before finally realising it was the Hogwarts infirmary.
At the same time, he remembers being attacked and dragged around by Quirrell.
Leonor looked down at her right arm, where Quirrell had supposedly torn it off.
There is still a faint scar, but I hardly feel any pain.
I lightly clenched and unclenched my hand, as if to check the sensation.
Leonor was left lost in thought.
It felt as if I had just met these two people who I hadn’t seen in ages.
I never received a letter from Marriott.
I overheard the gossip-loving staff at the orphanage talking about how he’d been involved in a traffic accident while on a summer vacation the year he’d been adopted by the Clarks.
Even though we had said we would always be together, Abby and I were separated.
No matter how much I pleaded that I hadn’t hurt Abby, no one would listen.
There was nothing that the child Leonor, the helpless Leonor, could do.
So Leonor gave up.
I didn’t care anymore.
He didn’t care if he was locked in his room, if his meals were forgotten, or if he was living like a pet.
He hadn’t paid much attention when Professor Snape warned him about the danger he was in.
But when I felt like Quirrell was going to kill me, I suddenly realized I didn’t want to die.
I’ll probably never see those two again.
but.
For Leonor now,
There’s Harry.
There’s Hermione.
There’s Ron.
There’s Draco.
Theodore, Fred and George too.
And,
The curtains were drawn with a click, revealing Snape standing there looking even more grumpy than ever.
“You idiot…!”
Snape stopped speaking when he saw Leonore looking up at him with tears in her eyes.
And there’s Professor Snape.
He’s clumsy and it’s hard to tell what he’s thinking, but there are adults who worry about him.
Leonor cried quietly.
Leonor was finally able to leave the room.
17: You know nothing, yet
Harry woke up in the infirmary three days after passing out in front of the mirror.
When Harry panicked and thought Quirrell had the stone, Dumbledore calmed him down and told him that Quirrell was dead and the stone had been lost.
Has it been lost?
Harry couldn’t help but ask again.
After all, the stone was definitely in Harry’s pocket, and he was clinging desperately to Quirrell to protect it.
However, by the time Dumbledore reached Harry’s room just after he had lost consciousness, the stone was gone.
Dumbledore said the mirror must have changed its mind.
Dumbledore left the stone in the mirror so that only those who wanted to find it – not those who wanted to use it, but those who wanted to find it – could get it. And the mirror gave the stone to Harry just as he had expected. However, it seems that the mirror somehow got the stone back after Harry defeated Quirrell and lost consciousness. Dumbledore, who had intended to destroy the stone, stood in front of the mirror in the end, but the mirror never gave him the stone again.
Dumbledore listened intently as Harry explained how he had seen a woman who looked just like Leonore in the mirror, and that the mirror had been created by one of Leonore’s ancestors.
Harry then bombarded Dumbledore with question after question until Madam Pomfrey called an end to the conversation.
Although there were some questions that Dumbledore didn’t answer, he told Harry as much as he could.
Dumbledore had been chased away by Madame Pomfrey, and Harry was occupying his time when the curtains between him and the bed next to him were thrown open.
“Hi Harry.”
Harry was surprised when a girl with black hair and blue-green eyes appeared with a light-hearted voice.
“Leonor!”
Her skin was still as pale as ever, but it looked a lot healthier than when she’d collapsed in front of the mirror.
“what happened?”
Harry couldn’t help but ask.
Leonor looked at Harry as if she had been possessed.lol face in
Leonor laughed a little embarrassedly and scratched her cheek with her fingers.
“Well, I had a rather nostalgic dream.”
Leonor said as she sat down on the edge of Harry’s bed.
“Harry, I’m sorry. I got captured and everyone got into danger trying to save me.”
This time he quietly bowed his head to Harry and apologised.
“That’s fine. I’m sure Leonor would have come to help me if the same thing had happened to me. And even if she hadn’t been captured, I think I would have gone.”
“Come on, even if that’s a lie, please tell me it was for my sake.”
They both laughed out loud, and Madam Pomfrey came rushing over.
“Miss Pevensie! You should stay in your own bed. You were bleeding so badly you could have died. Just drink your blood juice and go to bed.”
“There’s no need to worry. There’s no one wearing a turban here, and look, you’re sitting quietly on the bed with your juice in hand, right?”
Leonor picked up the cup that was lying next to her bed and sat down on the edge of Harry’s bed.
Madam Pomfrey rolled her eyes in shock and walked away.
“What’s that?”
The cup Leonor was holding was filled to the bronze-colored liquid.
“Blood-building juice, you say.”
Leonor took a sip and frowned, not liking the taste.
“Are you okay?”
“Definitely anemic, but otherwise fine. How about you, Harry?”
“If I move it, I might get a headache.”
“Are you okay talking?”
“For now.”
“I see.”
Leonor was again sipping juice from her glass.
Her lips were stained red only where the juice had been on them.
Leonor and Harry sat down with the pile of get-well sweets at the foot of the bed and talked to each other about what had happened.
However, all Leonor could talk about was that Quirrell knocked her unconscious as she left the library and that he drew her blood during a chess match.
Harry told Draco about how after he and Fluffy met up, he had climbed down the door at their feet and almost been strangled by a devil’s trap, how he had found the key among thousands of birds, Ron’s struggles at chess, how Hermione had solved the riddle and found a potion that would allow them to pass through fire, and how a woman who looked just like Leonor appeared in the Mirror of Erised and gave Harry the stone.
“Did he hide the stone?”
“That’s what Dumbledore says.”
“I wonder why I changed my mind?”
“I don’t know. I guess Leonor really doesn’t remember.”
“Yeah. I vaguely remember him collapsing on the floor.”
Leonor barely remembered what had happened in front of the Mirror of Erised.
The next day, Ron and Hermione came to visit, having finally received permission after much begging from Madam Pomfrey.
They were both surprised to see Leonor laughing out loud.
Harry told them what had happened in front of the mirror, while the other two explained what had happened after they had gone to get help.
Draco went back to get help after catching the key, and pleaded with the teachers in the staff room for help, but as Harry imagined, they didn’t believe him when he was telling the truth. When he was about to be taken to the punishment room, he ran away and ran into Professor Snape’s laboratory.
As soon as Professor Snape heard Draco’s story he contacted Dumbledore.
Dumbledore then returned to the school, missing Hedwig who had been sent by Hermione.
Hedwig is heartbroken because she was unable to complete the mission, and sometimes she comes over to interrupt Ron and Hermione’s breakfast out of spite.
Harry decided that once he returned from the infirmary he would give Hedwig lots of attention.
Draco arrived alone some time after Ron and Hermione had left.
He came to visit Leonor, but Leonor had snuck out of her bed and stayed in Harry’s, so he ended up meeting Harry as well. Unlike before, the mood didn’t become tense the moment they met, but somehow the two of them seemed awkward with each other.
Draco was also surprised at Leonor’s complete change in mood.
Leonor didn’t understand why everyone was so surprised.
In the end, Leonor and Harry spent the rest of the day in the infirmary until the end of the school year party.
They didn’t think permission would be granted so easily, but it seemed Dumbledore had sorted it out, and although Madam Pomfrey looked dissatisfied, she reluctantly saw the two of them off shortly before the party was to begin.
When they arrived at the Great Hall they were greeted with a rousing welcome, mostly by Gryffindor students.
Leonor thanked the twins for sending her the toilet seat (it was confiscated so she never got to see it), then sat down obediently in the Slytherin seats. The Slytherin students gave her strange looks, but Leonor didn’t care about that at this point.
The House Cup ended with Gryffindor winning thanks to Harry’s last-minute extra points. An explosion of cheers erupted from the Gryffindor table, and Neville was crying with joy.
Thanks to the extra points given by Draco, Slytherin came in second. Since the gap with Gryffindor was so close, some people thought it would have been better if Dumbledore had also given extra points to Pevensey, but Leonor didn’t mind that she didn’t get any extra points. If she had, she would have been upset. In the first place, it was because she was in the library late at night that she ended up being caught by Quirrell, so I don’t think Leonor was of any help in the whole incident. She also doubted whether it was really her who helped Harry in front of the mirror. Draco, who was beside her, looked surprisingly refreshed, even though Slytherin had lost to Gryffindor.
So there wasn’t much of a celebratory mood at the Slytherin table, but the food was delicious.
In the infirmary, munching on food, he chats happily about trivial things with Draco, who he hasn’t spoken to properly for a while since Harry was there, and Theodore, who he hadn’t even met in the first place.
Pansy, who was sitting opposite, blinked and watched intently.
“You…”
“yeah?”
It was rare for Pansy to speak to her outside the girls’ dormitory, so Leonor turned to face her, but when Pansy didn’t say anything, Leonor tilted her head.
“what happened?”
“No… it’s nothing after all.”
“So”
Leonor ate her fill and chatted a lot.
It was the night we talked the most since coming to Hogwarts.
Finally, the results of the end-of-year exams were announced, and Leonor and Draco shared their grades. Draco wasn’t the best in his grade, but he was at the top of his class. Leonor’s grades varied from subject to subject, with Transfiguration and Charms being top of the class, and her grades in other subjects being average or slightly above average. Draco realised that even though he read the textbooks well, that didn’t mean he remembered them well.
Leonor, satisfied with her show-off with Draco, goes off to hang out at the Gryffindor dormitory. Draco doesn’t say anything.
Of course, Hermione was at the top of her year, followed by Leonor, and while Ron and Harry didn’t do too badly overall, they both did poorly in History of Magic.
I also shared my grades with Neville and got a peek at Fred and George’s grades.
After chatting for a while, we left the Gryffindor dormitory and Leonor stopped in the middle of the corridor leading to the basement dormitory. Then she turned around and walked down a corridor she didn’t usually walk down.
When he arrived in front of the room he had snuck into with Harry and the others on Christmas night, he slowly opened the door.
I didn’t really think it was there, but there was a dungeon mirror in the middle of the room.
Leonor quietly approaches the mirror.
Glass isn’t as scary as it used to be.
Leonor is seen in the mirror with Marriott and Abby on either side of her.
Leonor took out the sewing needle she had put away when she left the dormitory that morning and pricked the tip of her finger with it. It was the same one she had transformed from a match using her transformation technique some time ago.
When I pressed hard with the pad of my finger, a puffy red drop appeared.
His hand touches the wooden frame of the mirror.
I could feel the blood on my fingertips being absorbed quickly.
“Finally here.”
A voice came from somewhere.
Before anyone knew it, Marriott and Abby had disappeared from the mirror, and a woman wearing a black dress with a stand-up collar was standing next to Leonor.
As Harry had said, she was someone between a girl and a woman in age, and looked just like Leonor.
“Who are you?”
The woman in the mirror looked at Leonor with amusement.
“You really don’t know anything.”
Her strangely mature features and pale complexion made her look like Leonor, not like a relative or mother and daughter.
The only difference was her height and hair; she was about a head taller, and her black hair, a little lighter than Leonor’s, reached down to her collarbone.
“what?”
“About the family. About various things.”I reach
Her way of speaking is very mature, yet at the same time, she seems very youthful.
To put it in perspective, he has the vibe of an older guy living next door who is a bit rebellious towards adults.
“Because I was in an orphanage.”
“It seems so. But you would have died alone.”
Leonor stared up at the man.
“You weren’t the one who cast the spell in the Forbidden Forest, nor were you the one who gave this mirror its blood.”
Leonor unconsciously cast a spell at the cloak that had attacked her. It was a shield spell. It was one of the spells that upperclassmen learn, but it was a spell that Leonor had never seen or heard of before.
“Who did it?”
” Yes.”I reach
Though they look the same, they are mesmerizingly distorted and beautiful.
“You don’t know anything. Not yet.”
” What’s your name?”
“Parma”
“Are you my ancestor?”
“Not directly, though. I wasn’t chosen.”
“What happens if you get selected?”
The woman smiled but didn’t answer the question.
“It feels strange. You have the face of , yet you know so little about . Not even about how to use your powers.”I reach I reach
“How would I know?”
“You should already know.”
The woman didn’t tell me any more.
“You have the stone?”
Without looking at Leonor’s face, Palma put her hand in the pocket of her dress and revealed a red stone.
“Why did you steal it?”
“They’re too much to handle.”
Then he puts the red stone back into his pocket.
The woman didn’t tell me anything more.
The Hogwarts Express sped along at high speed, and the scenery outside the window flashed past me.
Leonor was playing chess with Draco in the compartment, munching on snacks sold on the train. She had never been able to beat Draco at chess, but she was getting pretty good at it.
“What really happened?”
As she tilted the box of Every Flavour Beans to see if there were any good flavours left, Draco suddenly asked,
Come to think of it, Draco had never asked her any further about why Leonor had started laughing.
“Hmmmm.”
Leonor tilts the box of beans and thinks about what to say.
“Maybe he just realized I was out of that room now.”
“Now?”
“Too late now.”
Leonor pushed the box of beans aside and reached for the chocolate frog.
“Draco,”
“yeah?”
“I’m glad you talked to me when I first started school.”
He said without looking at Draco, but he could see that he had stiffened a little.
” Well, you’re welcome.”
Draco said with a bit of pretense and smirked.
Leonor grinned as well, and moved her chess piece forward.
Secret Room
01: Summer Melancholic
My arm hurts.
Morfin had just grabbed me with all his might before throwing me against the shelf.
At that moment, I heard the laughter of children and adults outside.
He was the boy who lived in that big mansion. He was walking happily, sandwiched between his parents.
I didn’t feel jealous. It was a different world, a different dimension.
Ggggh.
I can hear my father snoring.
Today is one of the hottest days of this summer.
Gah!
Now it’s Morphin’s snoring.
The air outside is much more comfortable.
I peeked out the window just in time to see the last light in the mansion go out.
Riddle House.
Compared to that mansion, living in this shack makes me feel less than human.
Cleaning tool holder.
That’s what this house is like, both in appearance and location.
So maybe we’re like mice in the cleaning supplies closet.
No. Not a mouse.
It’s a snake.
hovel.
I rub the right side of my back. It’s probably broken where the flying cauldron hit it.
From the window I could see a magnificent mansion. The lights were still on.
There was no letter today either.
My father and brother keep hitting me.
“You failure! You are a disgrace to the family!”
Is it a blessing in disguise that they can hear what their fathers are saying, or is it the other way around?
My sister just huddled in the corner of the room.
Today is the last day of August.
If this continues I’ll be killed.
My sister is fine. She’s weak, but she can use magic.
I opened the door and went outside.
The road is visible in the moonlight.
I can barely take a step forward, but if I stay here I’ll definitely be killed.
Going a little further
It hurts, my whole back, my whole body.
I can’t move.
He was crouching by the deserted gate.
The gate, which seemed deserted, opened and a young man with blue eyes appeared.
She has a proper figure and a beautiful, though expressionless, face.
He knows I’m there. Or rather, he’s here to do something to me.
“Why are you here?”
I’m so thirsty, so tired, I can’t speak.
The young man’s gaze drifts into my gaze.
“I have mother’s permission, so shall we go in? Come on.”
Tiny hands.
Everything is cute.
Even though he is just a newborn, he has such a beautiful face.
So cute and adorable.
This is where I belong.
I couldn’t be happier.
“Ahh.”
Leonor, who had been sleeping in a strange position, nearly fell off the armchair and let out a silly shriek.
He rubbed his face and stretched.
I feel like I’ve been sleeping a lot lately.
An open vial had been left on the table beside the chair.
She got off the chair barefoot and headed to the kitchen with the empty bottle in hand.
A delicious smell was coming from the pot in the kitchen.
My stomach is growling.
I’m hungry.
Since returning to this mansion, my habit of forgetting to eat has gotten worse.
He rinsed the vial with water, turned it upside down, and piled the pork and beans Professor Snape had prepared onto a plate. The delicious smell of tomatoes tickled his nose.
I also took out the bread that was stored on the shelf and lined it up on the kitchen table.
As I munched on the soaked bread, I ruminated on my hazy dream.
Dreaming is tiring.
At first, I barely remembered it when I woke up, but each time I rewatched it, the dream seemed to grow bit by bit, and become more vivid.
I slept too much and my body felt tired and ached all over, but I didn’t feel like I slept very much.
I finish off the plate and wash up in the sink.
After placing the plates in the basket, I picked up the small bottle I had just washed and left the kitchen.
We headed to a small, long study.
I’m not sure if it’s right to call it a study. On one side, there was a counter that stretched from the entrance to the back of the room, and the top of the counter and the entire wall on the opposite side were bookshelves. The ceiling was not high, and the light from the not-so-large window at the back brightened the whole room.
There was a small shelf on the counter with small bottles lined up on it.
Leonor returned the empty vial to its empty spot on the shelf.
The vial on the left is empty, but the ones on the right and below are filled with a dark red liquid.
Leonor sat down on a chair in front of the counter, picked up a small bottle to the right of the one she had just returned, and played with it in her hand without thinking about it at all.
Summer vacation.
When I returned to the Vivi re Mansion, I put my luggage down and immediately went to look around all the rooms in the mansion.
There was nothing surprising there.
This reminds me and I walk around the rooms of the mansion again.
This time it worked.
When I re-entered the storeroom next to the entrance hall, it had turned into an unfamiliar corridor. I went out the door at the end and found myself in a room next to the entrance hall. At first glance, the room looked unchanged, but I noticed that there were now many doors and corridors that weren’t there before. There was so much that I couldn’t possibly go around in a day.
Leonor licks the wounds on her fingers as she enters one of the new rooms.
It was connected to an underground storehouse.
Although it was called a storehouse, the shelves lined from corner to corner of the walls were not filled with barrels, but with hundreds of bottles, each slightly larger than a juice bottle and of slightly different shapes. The light did not reach the top of the shelves, making it almost impossible to see.
All the bottles had labels on them, the ones on the bottom right were the newest, and the ones on the top left shelf were so old it was impossible to tell how old they were.
The bottles were filled with a dark red liquid, but the most recent one was empty. Leonor noticed her own name on it.
By Kayla Lien
Leonor Marion
1980.7.21~
Apparently I had a middle name.
Kayla must have been his mother’s name, as the bottle next to it had the same name.
By Judith Cullen
Kayla Lien
1956.2.15~1981.7.24
The bottle was filled to the brim.
In other words, the last empty bottle was for himself.
Leonor didn’t know what to think.
Check the label again.
If Kayla was the mother, then Judith would be the grandmother.
The names seem to be written in the order of daughter before mother, and the initials are in alphabetical order.
With that in mind, I moved the bottle backwards to the left, but I soon came across something that didn’t fit.
Going back from Kaira, the second bottle I came across was the T. What’s more, the second and third bottles had the same name in the mother’s place. The second bottle was somehow quite different in shape.
Leonor quickly gave up trying to trace the name on the bottle and returned to the mansion above ground, opening a new door.
One of the newly discovered rooms was a small, long study.
Leonor looks at the vial in her hand.
The vial has the word “Therese” written on it along with a number.
On the counter in the study was a family tree that had been pulled from another room. Although it was called a family tree, it only listed the names of those who had inherited the family business and their children, but it did not tell us whether those who had not inherited the family business had started families; it was just a thin, vine-like diagram.
The Vivi re family headship was passed down to daughters for generations.
However, two generations before Kayla, in the generation of Leonor’s great-grandmother, a line extended from the eldest son, not the only daughter, of the previous generation. Therese was connected to that eldest son by a double line. In other words, it seems that Leonor’s great-grandmother was not a member of the Vivi re family.
In the last few generations close to Leonor, most people have only one child, or at most two, but in the old days, the Vivi res had many children, and their names were written next to each other, all starting with the same letter. Going back far enough, Leonor found the name Palma. There was no line under Palma.
Leonor was about to open a new vial when she suddenly stopped.
Come to think of it, I was planning to meet up with Draco tomorrow and go to Diagon Alley.
Leonor touches her hair, which has grown even longer since last year. It has been neglected for a while, and combined with bedhead, it is messy.
After drinking the liquid from the vial, I feel sleepy and sleep for hours.
If I go to sleep now, I might not be able to get ready to go out in time tomorrow.
I’ll get ready for tomorrow first, then go to bed early tonight.
Leonor put the vial on the counter and rose excitedly from her chair.
It’s been a while since I went out.
This summer I’ve been sleeping in my room a lot and have hardly been out in the garden.
Professor Snape seemed to be as busy as ever, and we only saw each other about once a week. At worst, he would come over at night to prepare a meal, stay overnight, and leave the next morning or around noon.
Leonor left her study and skipped to the bathroom, humming as she wondered what she should wear the next day.
02: Young Grasses
Draco had been waiting for a long time in front of the gate, but he felt a little relieved when he spotted Leonor at the end of the path.
The mansion where Leonor’s mother was born was so deserted, with its deserted gate and overgrown grounds, that it seemed to be unpopular, and she had begun to worry whether the address was really correct.
During this break, Draco regularly sent letters to Leonor. At first, he got a reply within two or three days, but the intervals gradually increased, and sometimes there was no news for nearly two weeks. Draco waited anxiously for the letters and was worried that Leonor had reverted to the way she was when she first entered the school.
Perhaps it was because we were in the shade of the trees, but Leonor’s face seemed expressionless.
“It’s been a while.”
Draco called out to Leonor, feeling a little nervous as she opened the creaking gate and came out.
“I agree”
Leonor was dressed all in black and looked rather strange.
“Huh? Is our face getting closer?”
Standing in front of Draco, Leonor looked up at him and cried out in confusion.
Leonor, who hadn’t had any sunlight or proper exercise for four years, was the shortest girl in her grade.
When I met him again after a long time, I saw that he was now nearly Draco’s height.
He’s still as short as ever, but it seems he’s become an appropriate short for his age.
Leonor, who appeared expressionless, also appeared to be sulking when I got closer.
“Listen, I can’t wear any of my clothes anymore.”
Leonor said dissatisfied and spread her arms.
The look was quite comical, with the excessively long hems rolled up and tied with string.
“Whose clothes are they?”
“My mother’s. It was the only thing in the closet.”
Combined with her strange clothes, Draco couldn’t help but laugh at Leonor’s sulky look.
“It can’t be helped. I can’t use magic.”
Leonor shook her body like a child throwing a tantrum, swirling her long skirt around.
“Oh come on. I wanted to dress up since it was such a special occasion.”
Draco laughed, mocking Leonor’s outfit.
Leonor glared at Draco.
“You should worry about your own height instead of worrying about other people’s clothes. By next year, the heights might be reversed.”
“Don’t say that!”
“Oh, you’re worried.”
“I don’t care!”
Leonor laughed and walked off, Draco following behind.
Draco’s worries seemed unfounded.
A little ways away, Draco summoned a house-elf who apparated them away from the crowd and took them to the outskirts of Diagon Alley.
When they arrived at the alley, a man who appeared to be Draco’s father was waiting for them.
Leonor feels nervous around adult men. She’s not scared, but she doesn’t like them.
“You’re Miss Pevensie. Draco has told me the story.”
Mr. Malfoy called out to Leonor as he walked towards her from across the street.
“It’s nice to meet you. I’m Leonor Pevensie. Draco is indebted to me.”
Feeling everyone’s eyes fixed on her ill-fitting clothes, Leonor’s back began to break out in sweat.
Leonor shrank in front of Mr. Malfoy, who even an amateur could see was neatly dressed in well-tailored clothes, as if she had been scolded.
“Well, I grew a lot during the holidays, so I don’t have any clothes at home.”
Mr. Malfoy smiled slightly after hearing Leonor’s desperate excuse.
“I must say something to Severus. He’s my junior. I was surprised when Draco told me he was your godfather.”
As she shook the outstretched hand, Leonor breathed a sigh of relief, realizing that the man was not as scary as she had thought.
“I wonder how school was last year? I hear your practical skills are excellent.”
“Only in practical skills. In other areas, Draco is no match for you.”
“Draco said he got first place in his exams last year. Who knows what will happen next time?”
Mr. Malfoy said, looking at Draco.
Draco’s shoulders slumped.
“What did you do during your break?”
“During my vacation, I actually spent most of my time sleeping at home.”
There’s no way I could say that I was drinking the blood of my ancestors.
Leonor hadn’t even realized that she had no qualms about drinking the blood from the vial, but she instinctively understood that it was not something to openly talk about with other people. And it was true that she had spent the whole time asleep.
“No matter how much I sleep, I’m still so sleepy…”
“Haha, that’s quite a luxurious way to spend your holiday.”
Mr. Malfoy pulled a nice pocket watch from his jacket and checked the time.
“Well, I have a few things to do outside the alley. Draco, you two go ahead and get going. I’ll meet you at Flourish and Blotts later.”
“Where is my father going?”
“What? It’s nothing important.”
Mr. Malfoy walked away, and Leonor let out a deep sigh.
“what up?”
“I was nervous.”
“To my father? Why?”
“I hardly ever speak to any adults other than the teachers at Hogwarts.”
“But he’s my father. Is there any need to be nervous?”
Draco seems to have forgotten, but Leonor had been imprisoned for four years by the man who was his father (albeit a stepfather). Leonor gave a bitter smile.
It seems I was really bad at it, and now I’m suddenly hit with a wave of fatigue.
The shopping is yet to come.
First, the two go to buy new uniforms.
Although not as tall as Leonor, Draco had also grown taller. The two of them went into Madame Malkin’s shop and bought a set of uniforms.
Leonore also bought a one-piece dress that could be worn for everyday use, and changed into the clothes she had bought right away.
Although it didn’t look as good as Draco’s, it was still a decent look.
Apparently, Leonor’s body had grown a lot without her realizing it, thanks to the amount of sleep she’d had during the holidays. Her new clothes were a lot bigger than last year’s.
Back in the street, they bought more parchment and quills, browsed in a prank shop, joined the crowd in front of a display window displaying new brooms (Draco was the only one transfixed; Leonore was still uninterested in them), and finally came to Flourish and Blotts, where Mr. Malfoy had not yet arrived.
There was a banner hanging on the upper floor of the bookstore announcing in large letters that someone was going to be holding a book signing event.
There was also a crowd inside the bookstore.
Leonor was exhausted after her stressful conversation with Mr. Malfoy and the constant jostling of people looking at their brooms.
Not having the energy to go into the crowd and buy a textbook, Leonor crouched down at the edge of the stairs where there were still few people around.
I thought that I had gained a lot of physical strength after a year of school, but I still couldn’t come close to matching the endless stamina of the energetic boys my age.
Draco, worried about Leonor, decided to buy textbooks for both of them.
As she sat on the edge of the stairs waiting for Draco, Leonor looked at the person in the center of the crowd.
The man in the flashy light blue robe was flashing a cheap smile at everyone around him, eliciting squeals from the ladies around him. After only a few minutes, Leonor was already fed up with the man.
“Leonor!”
Harry was in the long line, along with Ron and Hermione.
Leonor waved to the three of them through the gap in the staircase banister.
“It’s been a while. What are you doing there?”
“I’m on break. I’m tired. Draco went to buy me some textbooks.”
“Oh, you’re here with Draco?”
Ron makes a disgusted noise.
“How is Leonor doing?”
“Yeah. How about you?”
“I’m fine. Harry’s just had a bit of a rough time.”
It seems that even when he’s not at school, Harry gets into trouble.
“I’ll tell you later.”
The three were swept away to the back of the store.
Draco returned just as Harry and the others were swept away by the crowd.
After thanking her, Leonor looks at the cover of the textbook Draco bought for her and feels disgusted again.
“Is this the book by that Lockhart guy?”
“Yeah, didn’t you notice? It was on the textbook list.”
Apparently he had no interest at all. He barely remembered it.
The noisy crowd grew louder, and the two of them looked down, wondering what was going on.
“Oh my, I feel sorry for you Harry.”
Harry was held tightly by Lockhart and was having his picture taken with lots of splashes of water.
Harry had a displeased look on his face that Leonor could see was obvious.
“Ha, it must be hard for a celebrity like Potter to even come and buy textbooks.”
“That must be really tough.”
Finally freed from Lockhart, Harry sneaked down to the bottom of the stairs where Leonor and the others were.
Draco immediately retorted sarcastically.
“Potter’s a celebrity. You must be in a good position to make front page headlines just for buying a textbook.”
“Leave me alone. That’s not what Harry would have wanted.”
A girl Leonor didn’t know retorted to Draco’s sarcasm. She had the same fiery red hair as Ron.
She’s Ron’s sister.
Leonor’s eyes are glued to the child.
“Malfoy?”
Ron and Hermione emerged from the crowd, carrying Lockhart’s book.
“Are you surprised to see Harry here?”
“I’m surprised you’re here, Weasley. With all those new books you’re buying, there’s probably only going to be water on your dinner table for the next month.”
Harry and Hermione grabbed Ron, who was about to strike back.
“So this is where you were? There’s a huge crowd here. Let’s go outside quickly. Hey, what about you?”
Mr. Weasley, a tall red-head, squeezed through the crowd and saw Leonor, whose eyes were glued to Ginny.
“Oh my, I wonder who it is. It’s Arthur Weasley.”
Mr. Malfoy had just appeared.
“Lucius.”
Mr. Weasley returned the greeting coldly.
“The government seems to be busy. What’s more, even if you work overtime, it seems like you still don’t get paid enough to buy enough textbooks for your children.”
Mr. Malfoy pulled an old textbook from Ron’s sister’s cauldron and examined the worn binding.
“Unlike you, Malfoy, my children and I have enough sense not to interfere with other people’s finances, even though we may be poor.”
“I have no sense? That must be you, Weasley.”
Mr. Malfoy threw his textbook back into the cauldron and turned to Mr. Weasley.
“That is not something you should say to disgrace a wizard.”
“It seems that you and I have different ideas about what disgracing a wizard means.”
“That seems to be the case.”
Mr. Malfoy’s pale grey eyes fell on Hermione’s parents, who had been watching the whole thing anxiously from afar.
“I can’t believe I’m hanging out with people like this. I thought I’d hit as low as I could go, but wow…”
In the next moment, Mr. Weasley launched a punch at Mr. Malfoy, who responded by hitting back.
A thick book of spells fell from the bookshelf they had bumped into, causing screams to ring out from all around.
No one could do a thing to stop the two of them grappling, but then Hagrid appeared, grabbed them by the scruff of the neck, and pulled them apart.
“Stop it, you guys.”
Mr Malfoy had a cut lip and Mr Weasley had bruises on his face.
“Let’s go!”
Mr Malfoy shook off Hagrid’s hand and walked out of the shop, shoulders slumped.
Draco nudged Leonor, bringing her back to her senses.
“Oh, see you then.”
After waving to Harry and the others, Leonor ran after Draco, carrying her heavy textbooks.
“Hey, hasn’t Leonor been acting a bit strange?”
After they had escaped the annoyed shop assistant and made their way out to the street, Harry suddenly said:
Leonor had started to laugh at the end of last year, but halfway through her speech she hadn’t moved an inch. Normally she would have continued to talk to Harry without caring about the sarcastic exchanges between him and Malfoy.
“Oh, is that so?”
Ron’s mind was preoccupied with what Malfoy and his father had said, and how his father’s counter had almost been decided as Mr. Malfoy.
“I wondered too. I wonder what happened.”
“I wonder if something happened.”
Harry said worriedly.
Ginny was secretly watching Harry.
Mr Malfoy was in obvious displeasure for some time after we left the shop.
Draco invited her to dinner, but Leonor politely declined because Mr. Malfoy, who she doesn’t like, was in a bad mood and simply exhausted. Draco was disappointed, but it seemed that her physical strength had decreased more than she thought during the summer holidays. After more than half a day in the popular alley, Leonor was so dizzy that she could barely stand.
On the way back, I was dropped off at the gate of the mansion, and walked down the path carrying my textbooks and heavy luggage.
As soon as she arrived at the mansion, Leonor dropped her luggage and collapsed onto the sofa.
I’ll have to ask Professor Snape to buy me some clothes.
Exhausted, Leonor thinks vaguely with her brain not working.
I thought of Ron’s sister whom I met at Flourish and Blotts bookstore.
The way she charged at Draco without flinching made me think she was similar to the fearless Abby.
Remembering her sister-in-law, Leonor becomes a little sentimental.
Leonor, who had fallen asleep without realizing it, shook her head, jumped up from the sofa, and ran to her long, narrow study.
When Leonor returned, she placed the empty vial on the table and climbed into bed. She was asleep in an instant.
Tiny hands.
Well-shaped lips, slightly parted.
Eyes that haven’t even opened yet.
Everything is cute.
Even though he is just a newborn, he has such a beautiful face.
It didn’t look like me at all.
it was good.
Cute and lovely Judith.
His blue eyes, which had been peering at the baby, looked at me and smiled.
I’m wrapped in his big arms.
This is where I belong.
I couldn’t be happier.
03: Elephant in the room
Hermione was pretty angry.
Yesterday, I was so worried about Harry and Ron because they still hadn’t boarded the Hogwarts Express, but now they were driving through the city and coming to school. Everyone in Gryffindor except Percy was praising them as if it was a heroic tale, and while I thought they would be sorry, they didn’t seem too unhappy about it.
I’m sick of it.
Harry should have sent a letter to the school since he had Hedwig with him. Or he could have waited for the Weasleys to come back and contact the school. It only takes a moment to realize how much trouble it would be if they drove Mr. Weasley’s car and a Muggle saw them. Why do boys act so carelessly?
It was a blessing in disguise that Professor McGonagall didn’t deduct points from Gryffindor house because it was before the new term had started.
“Good morning.”
“Oh, good morning, Leonor.”
Leonor came to Hermione, it seemed like Malfoy had left her behind from day one.
On Hermione’s other side, Ginny looked surprised to see Leonor, wearing a green tie, walking into the Gryffindor table as if it were normal.
“Um,”
Leonor looks at Ginny.
“Good morning,”
“Eh, ah, thank you.”
After the two exchanged an awkward greeting, Leonor sat down in a chair. Ginny frowned a little, out of Leonor’s sight.
Caught between the two of them, Hermione tilted her head.
Whenever Leonor is in front of Ginny, her behavior seems strange.
Something similar happened on the Hogwarts Express yesterday.
While searching for the two on the train, she had met Leonor once, but after returning to her compartment after failing to find Harry and the others, Leonor came to where Hermione and the others were. After asking if they had found Harry and the others, she introduced herself as Ginny.
Hermione thought it was a little strange that Leonor, who almost never started a conversation with new people, had spoken to Ginny. Also, considering that she had started the conversation, she was quiet and seemed unsure of what to say.
Normally, Leonor doesn’t talk unless she has something to say, and when she does, she’s surprisingly talkative. However, she approaches Ginny on her own, and yet she’s quiet despite that.
On the other hand, Ginny did not have a good impression of Leonor, who was with Malfoy when he spoke ill of Ron’s house at Flourish and Blotts. Hermione defended her, saying that Leonor was not a bad person like Malfoy, but she seemed unable to shake off her bad impression, as she became suspicious whenever she was near Ginny.
“What happened Harry and the others?”
Leonor asks.
The two hadn’t even reached the Great Hall yet.
“That’s it!”
Hermione, still angry, spoke with emphasis.
“For some reason, they couldn’t get onto Platform 9 and 3/4, so they drove all the way to the school!”
“He flew by car? What do you mean?”
Leonor, who had never heard of Mr. Weasley’s car, tilted her head in confusion, not understanding what Hermione was talking about.
Hermione, still angry, quickly explained about Mr. Weasley’s car that the twins had been talking about in the dormitory yesterday.
“Oh, it’s Ginny’s dad’s car.”
“That’s true.”
Ginny was still looking at Leonor with a questioning expression.
When Hermione told how they had used the car to fly through the air in front of Muggles and then crashed it into the Whomping Willow in the schoolyard, Leonor laughed out loud.
“Ahaha, you two are the same as always.”
“This is no laughing matter!”
“Sorry, sorry. But sometimes you can’t get through a pillar.”
“That’s strange.”
“Now that I think of it, what was the big deal with Harry over the summer holidays?”
When they met in Diagon Alley, she’d told Leonore a bit about Harry’s troubles over the holidays, but when Uncle Weasley and Mr Malfoy started arguing, the conversation ended there.
However, before Hermione could begin to explain, Harry and Ron arrived.
Hermione simply said, “Good morning.” The two of them looked a little guilty as they looked at her.
“Leonor is here too. Good morning.”
“Good morning. I hear you two had a hard time yesterday.”
“It was a disaster.”
“How difficult was your summer vacation?”
“That’s it,”
Sitting at the table, Harry explained that a house-elf named Dobby had been blocking his letters since the holidays began, and that on the very day Uncle Vernon had told him to pretend he wasn’t there, Dobby had turned up and used levitation to smack Aunt Petunia’s perfect cake over his head.
“And then Uncle Vernon got so angry he locked me in my room for a week.”
“Hmm.”
Leonor’s reaction was surprisingly indifferent.
Hermione wondered if she was being too cold-hearted, but then she remembered Leonor’s background, took back what she’d said, and in her mind apologized profusely to Leonor. It would be cruel to ask for sympathy from Leonor for being locked in her room for only a week, when she hadn’t been allowed to take a single step outside her room for four years.
“Ron, Fred and George picked me up and I stayed at Ron’s house from there.”
“Oh. So the car you picked up Harry in is the one you drove to school in yesterday.”
“Yes, that’s it.”
The two of them looked at each other with a strange look on their faces, a mixture of guilty conscience and pride.
“Hey, little one!”
“You’ve quickly escaped Slytherin.”
The twins were full of energy from the morning.
“Hi. You’re Harry’s second and third prince charmings this season.”
“Who’s number one?”
“That’s not Ron after all.”
“Lonnie boy?”
“You’re the first, ahead of us?”
“Even if we give you the benefit of the doubt, Hakuba is a good place, isn’t it?”
“It’s not a white horse, it’s a red horse.”
The twins playfully put on a show, and Leonor laughs as she watches.
“Is he friends with Fred and George?”
As Ginny watched Leonor leave the Great Hall before everyone else, she whispered to Hermione, “I wonder if she still has a bad impression of him, calling him ‘that person’.”
“Yes. In the beginning, Fred and George paid a lot of attention to Leonor. Leonor may look like that, but she’s actually quite easygoing, and sometimes she can be quite foul-mouthed, so they got along well after all.”
” That’s right”
Ginny’s voice sounded a little sulky as she said this.
That’s what it was, Hermione realised.
Ginny is jealous of Leonor.
Leonor is worried about by her idol Harry, and is doted on by her own brothers.
But maybe Leonor doesn’t feel the same way about Harry.
Feeling it would be rude to interfere, Hermione decided to keep an eye on them for a little while longer.
As soon as Leonor left the Great Hall, Ron received a barking message from Mrs. Weasley.
When the noise subsided and Hermione saw Ron and the others practically cowering under the table, her anger finally subsided a little.
The first class of the year was Transfiguration with McGonagall.
Leonore neatly transformed the gold bugs she was given into buttons, and Professor McGonagall looked pleased with the shiny black buttons she made.
“It’s still going strong as ever.”
After Transfiguration finished and I was heading to the next classroom, Theodore Nott spoke to me.
“of course”
Transfiguration is one of Leonor’s specialties.
“How was your home?”
When Theodore asks, Leonor thinks about how to explain it.
The greenhouse filled with plants reminded me of the mansion’s garden.
The mansion’s garden was full of vines.
“I need to tidy up the garden a bit.”
“garden?”
“Yeah. It’s covered in vines.”
This summer I did nothing but sleep and didn’t go out to the garden once.
“Did you find anything at the house?”
“The room was full.”
Starting this year, herbology classes have been held in the third greenhouse.
I don’t usually talk much with the Ravenclaw students I was in with, and I was wearing earmuffs while repotting the mandrakes, so we didn’t have much to talk about.
As I was leaving, my whole body smelling slightly of earth, I spotted Harry.
The moment Leonor tried to call out, there was a splash and something flashed.
He looked around and saw a boy with light brown hair standing near Harry holding a camera.
Draco, who had overheard their conversation, made a mean face and went to confront Harry again.
Leonor followed him, thinking that he was the same as always.
“Potter, you’re handing out autographed photographs?”
Draco yelled, his voice resonating throughout the courtyard.
“Did you hear guys? Potter will be giving out autographed photographs.”
“I didn’t do that. Don’t make up your own words, Malfoy.”
The two of them are always like this.
Whenever Draco sees Harry he immediately goes to mess with him, and Harry does the same in return.
Since there was no real harm to either of them, Leonor decided to leave them fooling around.
“Ron, how’s your wand?”
Ron, who had been paying attention to the conversation between Harry and Malfoy, was a little surprised to be suddenly spoken to, but then he frowned and shook his head.
“It’s no good at all. The last time I tried transformation, a strange smoke came out.”
Ron said, looking down at his wand, which had nearly snapped in two when it hit the Whomping Willow.
“I wonder if there’s a spare somewhere?”
“I don’t think he has a wand.”
“There isn’t one?”
While Leonor and Ron were talking, Harry, Draco, and a little boy were joining in the arguing.
“What on earth is going on?”
A loud and cheerful voice came out.
“I heard you were handing out autographed photos?”
“Ugh. See you, Ron and Harry.”
When Leonor saw Lockhart approaching, she slipped away into the crowd and left the place.
Draco was suddenly left alone and was momentarily flustered, but then he saw Lockhart holding Harry in a bear hug and grinned, before disappearing into the crowd as well.
After the day’s lessons were over, Leonor sat down with Draco at the table near the fireplace and started working on the Transfiguration assignment. Leonor’s nerves had gotten stronger than before, so this year’s dorm wasn’t unpleasant for now.
Leonor is not being ignored, but she is being left to her own devices at the moment in Slytherin.
Leonor still hung out with the Gryffindors, but she wasn’t completely isolated from the Slytherin students either, and even if they bullied her, she would just hit them back twice as hard. Leonor hadn’t noticed, but since the end of last year, she had suddenly started laughing, and everyone was unsure of how to distance themselves from her. Draco and Theodore, who would talk to Leonor even when they didn’t have anything important to say, were rare in Slytherin.
“Lockhart has a good thing going for Potter this year.”
Draco says with an evil grin as he writes up his report.
“Draco, you seem to like Harry quite a bit.”
Leonor said as she wrote the report in the same way. Her writing speed has almost reached the same level as the average person.
“Huh?! Don’t say weird things! There’s no way I like that guy.”
Everyone in the common room looked up to see what was going on when they heard Draco’s loud voice, but as soon as they realized it had something to do with Leonor, they stopped paying attention.
“But every time I see him I go and bother Harry.”
“That’s harassment.”
“So I thought that you must like it if you went out of your way to harass me.”
“So I don’t like it!”
“I guess so,” Leonor replied as she continued with her report.
“You went to Gryffindor again.”
“Yeah, I went.”
Leonor admits without the slightest bit of embarrassment.
“When are you going to stop?”
“There’s no rule that says you can’t make friends with people from other dorms.”
“If you keep going like this you’ll never fit in with Slytherin.”
“I’m comfortable enough in my current dorm.”
Draco sulks at Leonor’s lackadaisical attitude.
“I’m not asking Draco to be friends with Harry or anything, so just take it as it is.”
“Geez, you”
Draco decided to give up trying to do anything about Leonor for now.
“I have Quidditch practice tomorrow.”
“You became a player?”
“Oh, of course. Seeker.”
“Wow! That’s amazing, congratulations.”
Draco felt a little better after hearing Leonor’s words.
“It’s still a secret, but we’re going to practice tomorrow with the new brooms that Dad bought for the whole team.”
“Oh, that broom you saw in Diagon Alley? That’s what I got.”
“So, do you want to come watch practice tomorrow?”
“Um, sorry, I have a prior engagement.”
“Another Gryffindor?”
“yes”
Draco shook his head dismissively.
“Show me your uniform again.”
Leaving Draco behind, Leonor went up to the girls’ dormitory.
Now that I was alone, I sniffled.
There were two or three children sitting in every compartment.
I found a compartment with only one other person in it and looked inside through the glass door.
A black-haired boy who appeared to be a freshman was looking out the window.
He has a handsome face with a straight nose, and you can’t help but stare at him.
The boy suddenly turned towards me, and I hurriedly left the front of the compartment.
As we were being lined up to be sorted, the boy from before was standing right next to me.
She certainly had a beautiful face.
The boy steps forward.
As soon as the hat touched his head it shouted, “Slytherin!”
I followed him with my eyes.
“Vivi re, Judith!”
Hats
“Yellow or blue?”
he asked.
“Hufflepuff!”
I was called out and sat down at the table.
I woke up in the canopy.
I had a dream.
A dream in which I am sorted by the Sorting Hat.
I realized it was a dream because my hat
“Green or yellow?”
Because I heard that.
I
“Yellow or blue?”
Because I was asked.
Finally.
The face of that handsome boy with black hair suddenly came to mind.
04: Flocking with ducklings
On Saturday morning, Leonor went to the Gryffindor dorm to meet Harry and his friends, and found out that Harry had been taken away to Quidditch practice in the early hours of the morning, so she had to change her plans from visiting Hagrid’s to going to watch Harry practice instead.
Leonor looked around the common room but didn’t see the person she was looking for. Feeling a little disappointed, Hermione asked her, “What’s wrong?” She shook her head and said it was nothing, and followed Ron out of the common room.
With the breakfast they had prepared in the Great Hall in hand, the three of them headed towards the Quidditch field.
“Last year’s final match was a crushing defeat because Harry was in the infirmary, so Wood is really motivated this year.”
“Who’s Wood?”
“He’s the captain of the Quidditch team. I’m sure you’ve met him a few times.”
“Really?”
“Look, I’m happy to see you Leonor, but is it okay for you to come to Gryffindor so often?”
“It’s okay. I’m left alone in Slytherin right now.”
“So what do you think about that?”
“It’s quite comfortable.”
“Leonor, what’s it going on with you and Malfoy?”
“Well, I guess we get along well.”
“That Malfoy guy has been picking a lot of trouble with Harry this year. Leonor, do something about it.”
“Well, it’s not going to make any difference if I do anything about it. It’s best for Harry to fight back properly.”
Draco is Draco for always trying to get involved, but Harry is also Harry for always giving the reaction that makes Draco happy. If Harry completely ignored Draco, or retaliated in a way that Draco would never want to touch again, Draco would stop trying to get involved. But if that happened, Leonor from Slytherin would have fewer opportunities to talk to Harry and the others, so Leonor conveniently decided to keep quiet.
They arrived at the stadium, but Harry and his friends hadn’t even started practicing yet.
“How about classes over there?”
Leonor and the others continue chatting while sitting in the stands.
“Lockhart is the worst,”
Ron told Leonor about the terrible experience he had with the pixie that Lockhart had brought to his class, and Hermione soothed him by saying it was all right.
“Ron, it’s just the first lesson, so the teacher just messed it up a bit.”
“Did you get it wrong? That’s the last thing a Dark Arts teacher should do.”
“Pixie pixies are great. When we came to school we just had to sit down and learn.”
Leonor barely paid any attention to Lockhart’s lecture the other day.
His attention was gradually drawn away by Lockhart’s endless boasting, and before he knew it, the alarm bell was ringing. His habit of occasionally not listening to what people say seemed to be alive and well.
I heard a clicking sound and saw the small light brown haired boy I had seen before standing a little way away in the stands, intently taking pictures of Harry.
“Oh my, what’s wrong?”
Hermione tilted her head at the sight of Pitch.
Harry and the other members in red uniforms came down onto the field one by one.
I saw a group of people in green uniforms entering from the other side of the stadium.
“Team Slytherin.”
“Now that I think of it, Draco said he was going to practice today.”
The three of them looked at each other.
I don’t think the Gryffindor and Slytherin teams will practice together.
In other words, a double booking.
“It looks like there’s going to be some trouble.”
“Let’s go to Harry.”
The three of them walked down the stands and over to the Quidditch team.
All seven Slytherin members, including the smallest, Draco, were showing off their brooms to Harry and the others.
“What’s wrong?”
“Ah, Weasley. We were just admiring the brooms my dad bought for each of our team.”
Ron’s mouth dropped open as he looked the shiny broom up and down.
“Your team should raise some money to buy new brooms. Maybe they could sell some autographed photos of Potter and auction off some of the Weasley antique brooms for charity to raise a bit of money.”
Draco didn’t seem to notice Leonor, who was standing behind Ron and Hermione.
“At least none of the Gryffindor players were chosen for money. They got their spots purely on talent.”
Hermione stated firmly.
“Shut up! Nobody wants your opinion, you filthy unborn child.”
Draco spoke up.
At the same time that Ron’s wand made a loud bang, Leonor ran over to Draco and slapped him.
Most of the people there were distracted by Ron, who had been hit by a flash of red light from his wand and fallen to his bottom, but a few of them caught sight of Draco, who was clutching his cheek and looking at Leonor in shock.
” What are you doing?”
“There’s a limit to everything.”
Looking directly at Draco, Leonor said quietly.
“Ron! Ron! Are you okay?”
The conversation between Draco and Leonor was barely audible to those around them, drowned out by the murmur of the Gryffindor students who rushed to Ron’s side in concern.
Leaving a stunned Draco there, Leonor joined Harry and Hermione in supporting Ron, who continued to cough up slugs, as they headed towards Hagrid’s hut.
Harry, who had been watching the whole thing between Leonor and Malfoy, stole a quick glance at Leonor as he headed towards Hagrid’s hut.
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah”
Leonor nodded, but her expression was not gloomy enough to warrant worry.
Hagrid emerged from the hut looking extremely grumpy, but the moment he realised who their visitor was, the corners of his eyes drooped.
“You guys! I thought for sure it was Professor Lockhart again.”
Harry briefly explained that Ron’s wand had backfired and hit him with the Slug Curse.
They went into the hut and Leonor and the others helped Ron sit in a chair, then Hagrid handed him a washbasin.
Ron immediately gagged and spat the giant slug into the washbasin.
“It’s better to let it all out than not to let it all out. Let it all out.”
Leonor and the others sat down in their chairs and accepted the tea and sweets that Hagrid had brought out for them.
Fang was delighted to see a familiar visitor and quickly drool-soaked Harry’s robes.
They spent some time in Hagrid’s hut, but by the time they returned to the school, Ron’s slug-eating hadn’t stopped.
When Leonor returned to her dorm, Draco and Leonor had their first argument.
“Why would you do something like that!”
As soon as Leonor entered the common room, Draco, who had been waiting, confronted her.
Draco’s cheeks were slightly red.
“I’m not going to stay quiet forever when my friends are insulted.”
Leonor retorted to Draco in a colder tone than usual.
“Are you saying I’m not your friend?”
“I never said that.”
“Then why? Without me you’d be all alone in Slytherin.”
Leonor, who was about to go up to the girls’ dormitory, turned around to face Draco.
“I have never once said anything bad about your friends in front of Draco.”
Draco was silenced by Leonor’s anger.
“I told you I don’t want Draco and Harry to be friends, but just as Draco is my friend, so is Hermione. I would be angry if my friend was insulted in front of me.”
The Slytherin students watched from a distance as the two of them argued in the middle of the common room.
“There’s a limit to that, right? No matter how bad your relationship is, there are some things you can say and some you can’t.”
“Who knows the limits? How many times have you been in Gryffindor this year? You’re in Slytherin.”
“That’s irrelevant.”
“It matters. It would be better if you, a Slytherin, didn’t end up in Gryffindor so much.”
“So whether I stay friends with Harry and the others is up to me.”
“That’s not it… What do you want so badly by chasing after that Weasley sister?”
Draco noticed that Leonor seemed slightly shaken by his words.
“…What do you mean?”
“You’re right. Did you think I hadn’t noticed?”
Since the beginning of this year, Leonor has noticeably increased her visits to the Gryffindor house and table.
He had also seen Leonor make a point of talking to the small Weasley sister on a few occasions. Draco noticed right away that Leonor rarely spoke to new people on her own. Even when moving between classrooms, Draco had noticed that Leonor would get distracted by the first-years from Gryffindor whenever they passed by. And that’s not all. Rather than the two being friendly with each other, it was just Leonor who would talk to the Weasley sister.
Leonor frowned and said nothing.
“What is this?”
Draco was jealous of the Gryffindors, of the Weasley sister.
He prioritizes going to watch Gryffindor practice over his own house’s Quidditch team’s debut.
Even though the new semester has just begun, he leaves himself behind in Slytherin and goes to meet Weasley’s sister, who he isn’t even particularly close to.
We were in the same dorm and spent a whole year together.
“…Do you want to play sisters?”
That day, the atmosphere was tense as both of them went up to the bedroom.
Wood’s Quidditch drills took place almost every weekend, and Harry was forced to work on his homework diligently after school every day, since he could no longer do it all at once on the weekend. Luckily for Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Leonore made sure to do it at the same time as him.
Ever since Ron’s slug incident, Leonor has been hanging out in Gryffindor house almost every day.
According to Hermione, Leonor and Malfoy had gotten into a fight because he had called Hermione a Mudblood. Harry felt bad for Leonor, but it made him feel good.
Leonor was sorted into Slytherin, but she remained Harry’s friend. Although they had been in different houses for over a year, he liked Leonor, who had not been tainted by the bad Slytherin culture and had not changed since they first met on the Hogwarts Express (though she had changed in a good way).
So it made Harry angry every time he saw Leonor in Slytherin next to Malfoy.
Malfoy was a total jerk to Harry.
I had a somewhat better opinion of Malfoy when they teamed up to rescue Leonor after she was kidnapped at the end of last year, but when I see him boasting about his own family background, making fun of Ron’s family, and discriminating against Hermione because of her background, I don’t think he’s a good guy after all, and I’m also wondering why Leonor had stayed with him up until now.
Leonor defends him like a typical victim of domestic violence, saying, “He’s not all bad.”
Leonor had brought her textbooks and even a change of clothes, and was now fully established in the Gryffindor common room.
Although she had joked that she was sleeping in the twins’ bed, Harry had never seen Leonor in the boys’ dormitory, and he assumed that she would have returned to the Slytherin dormitory at night.
Today, as usual, Leonor was spreading out her homework in a corner of the Gryffindor common room alongside Harry and the others.
“Now that I think about it, did you two receive any punishment on the first day of the new semester?”
“Of course.”
Hermione raised her eyebrows slightly, as if reproaching Ron for speaking so confidently.
“I’ll be polishing trophies and Harry will be helping Lockhart answer fan mail.”
“Hmm, it’s lighter than I thought.”
“Not lightly. The punishment was on the night the slug curse reversed course, and the slugs wouldn’t stop coming even while I was polishing, so it was the worst.”
Leonor looked up slightly and seemed to imagine Ron polishing the trophy with the slug stuck in it.
“Maybe the slime from the slugs makes a good abrasive?”
“I’m not! I’ll never have to polish a trophy again!”
“Then you shouldn’t break the school rules.”
“Hermione, who was furthest along as usual, snapped. Her almost finished paper was filled with tiny print and was still nearly twice as long as Harry’s or Ron’s.
“Has it been hard for you too, Harry?”
“I had a hard time, you know?”
Harry thought it was the perfect time to tell Hermione and Leonor about what had happened that day, something he had not told anyone other than Ron.
“Of course I don’t want to help Lockhart anymore, but…”
So he lowered his voice so that only Leonor and the others could hear.
“I heard a strange voice in Lockhart’s room.”
“That’s a strange voice?” Hermione and Leonor tilted their heads and looked at Harry.
Harry told Leonor and the others the same voice he had heard in Lockhart’s room.
“Tearing it apart, that’s creepy…”
“As dangerous as ever. What about Lockhart?”
Hermione sounded concerned, while Leonor asked Harry in a surprisingly calm manner.
“And Lockhart didn’t hear it.”
Ron answered for Harry.
“Was that a quiet voice?”
“No, it wasn’t a tiny voice that you couldn’t hear unless you strained your ears.”
“I see.”
“Do you have any idea, Leonor?”
Leonor had been out and about at Hogwarts late at night, albeit unintentionally, on a few occasions, and Harry thought she might know something.
“That creepy voice you hear in the night, huh?”
Leonor thought for a while, then said, “Ah.”
“Do you know anything?”
“Oh no, that’s definitely not it. I thought I heard Quirrell’s voice last night.”
“Oh, that certainly isn’t the case.”
Quirrell died late last year.
“Was that the only time you heard it?”
“Yeah”
“I wonder what it is.”
“It’s true.”
Harry lamented in his mind why he always had to get into so much trouble, between the house-elf Dobby and that eerie voice.
At that moment, Percy, who had just come down from the boys’ dormitory, stopped in his tracks when he saw Leonor.
“Pevensie,”
Usually he would come right away to advise Leonor to return to Slytherin, but for some reason he didn’t come near her today.
“Hi Percy.”
Meanwhile, Leonor called out to Percy in an almost overly cheerful manner and waved her hand.
Harry and the others tilted their heads as Percy looked concerned but left without saying anything.
“Leonore, did something happen with you and Percy?”
Hermione asked, having finished her assignment and reading a book she’d borrowed from the library.
“Hmm? Not really.”
Leonor, with her slightly mischievous smile, is full of suspicion.
“Leonor is surprisingly bad-tempered.”
Ron, who sensed something of a twin-like quality in Leonor, shrugged his head and said:
“That’s too late now. I was competing with my parents at an orphanage where anything goes except violence, so how could I not be a bad guy?”
Leonor laughed out loud at Ron’s words.
Leonor finished her assignment before Harry and Ron and went to visit the twins when they returned to the common room.
Leonor gets along well with Harry and the others, but she also gets along well with Fred and George, in a different way. When the three of them put their heads together and plot something evil, Harry thought that from the outside they looked like real siblings.
According to Ron, the Weasley sibling who got along best with the twins was the youngest, Ginny, but Harry had never seen the twins together with Ginny.
As for Ginny, she was sitting at a table on the other side of the common room reading a book.
Ginny had just looked up from her book when her eyes met Harry’s and she blushed bright red and hid in the shadow of the book she was holding.
Leonor was watching Ginny from between the twins.
“Well, it’s about Leonor.”
A while after Leonor started hanging out with the Gryffindor students, Hermione said this while they were on their way to the Herbology greenhouse. As expected, their schedules were different, so Leonor wouldn’t be with them during breaks in between classes.
Hermione commented that Leonor’s behavior was different when she was around Ginny.
“Don’t you two notice anything?”
When asked, the two of them look back on Leonor’s behavior over the past few days.
“Now that you mention it, I might be looking over there all the time when Ginny’s around.”
“I don’t know.”
Ron may find it difficult to understand because he is biased because Ginny is family.
“Have you noticed that Leonor has been showing up to Gryffindor more often this year?”
“it is”
“That’s true.”
This struck a chord with both of them.
“But what does that have to do with Ginny?”
“But then I remembered…”
Hermione sighed, grimacing as if she was about to tell a guilty story as she went into the greenhouse and put on work gloves.
“I thought you had a sister-in-law named Leonor.”
“By obligation, I mean…”
Harry’s voice quietened accordingly.
“Yes, that’s right. And it occurred to me that maybe Leonor sees Ginny as a reflection of her sister…”
The three of them fell silent, feeling as if they had touched upon Leonor’s deepest emotional wounds.
Leonor’s mother was of wizarding descent, but she had been in a Muggle orphanage since she was a baby, and had once been adopted by a family who had locked her in her room for four years. Leonor rarely spoke about her family or her time in captivity.
“How do you know she had a sister?”
“I only mentioned my sister once.”
Hermione replied with an apologetic look on her face in response to Ron’s question.
“You remember well.”
Harry was amazed at Hermione’s memory.
“But if the step-sister is the reason Ginny is interested in her, then I guess Leonor was on good terms with her.”
Neither of them knew the answer.
05: Wandering Kite
Leonor stretched her stiff joints as she walked down the hallway, where the scent of pumpkin began to drift from nowhere.
I’m currently on a short run from home.
She was annoyed when Draco had said to her in a rather condescending way that without him, Leonor would have been all alone in Slytherin. She might have also been upset when he had pointed out Ginny.
Unlike the orphanage where there is no escape, Hogwarts is spacious. Leonor, who realized that she didn’t need to dutifully return to Slytherin, has been sleeping in a corner of the kitchen recently. As expected, the place is not that spacious and she cannot get a bed as good as the ones in the dorms, so her joints hurt a little, but the house-elves often give her sweets and it is not far from the Gryffindor dorm, so the kitchen is convenient in many ways. Pumpkin dishes have been made in the kitchen every day recently. She thinks she can smell pumpkin in the hallway, but maybe it is actually her own body that is smelling it.
Harry and the others seemed to think that Leonor returned to her dorm at night, but in fact she rarely returned except to pick up her textbooks.
In fact, at the beginning, she had actually tried to go to the twins’ bedroom once, but she ended up in Percy’s room by mistake. Percy was engrossed in writing something in his notebook and didn’t notice Leonor approaching for a while. When he realized that what Percy was writing was something like a diary, he finally noticed Leonor and began to panic. He seemed to think that Leonor had read the contents of the notebook. She even told him not to tell anyone about the notebook, saying that it was fine for him to stay in Gryffindor. Although she couldn’t see much of what he was actually writing, Leonor, who had been told to go back to her dormitory every time she met Percy, saw this as an opportunity and decided to accept Percy’s deal.
I was enjoying my life in Gryffindor house, which had become more and more comfortable. However, I was beginning to think that it was time to go back to my own house.
I’d gotten used to being out of place in the Slytherin house so it didn’t really bother me, but having not been back to the dorm for days made me feel a bit uneasy, like a kite with its string removed, with no fixed direction.
Also, ever since Draco had told me, I’d been trying to be as careful as possible not to worry about Ginny, but I couldn’t help but be worried when we were in the same space. It was pretty difficult to be careful not to be worried about her. Maybe it would be better to put some physical distance between us.
In the quiet early morning hallway, a figure in a familiar red uniform was walking. It was Harry.
Leonor chases after him and falls alongside him.
“Good morning. Are you going to practice now?”
Harry rubbed his eyes sleepily.
“Good morning, Leonor. Yes, I’m on my way to the stadium.”
“Shall I come with you part of the way?”
Leonor decided to accompany Harry outside the school for a walk.
“What were you doing so early in the morning?”
“I thought I’d go to the dorm to get a change of clothes. Not many people will be awake at this time.”
“What, you really didn’t go back to the dorm?”
Harry uttered a surprised noise.
“Not at all. I go there to pick up my luggage sometimes.”
“So where do you sleep?”
“Just find a good place.”
“It’s really a twin bed…”
Harry looked at Leonor in disbelief.
“No way.”
Leonor laughed.
“Don’t catch a cold. It seems to be going around these days.”
Harry is worried about me, but it’s warm enough in the kitchen that I’m not likely to catch a cold.
“Now that I think of it, Ginny hasn’t been feeling well lately.”
When Leonor said that, for some reason Harry looked intently at her face.
“You see,”
Harry thought about something for a while before suddenly speaking up.
“Does Ginny remind you of your sister?”
“Huh?”
Leonor was shocked and froze.
Harry panicked when he saw this.
“Sorry! I was overstepping the line, forget about that.”
“…How do you know?”
“Well, Hermione noticed that you were acting differently around Ginny, and then she started talking about how you had a younger sister called Leonor.”
Harry says awkwardly.
“Oh, am I really that obvious? Draco told me that too…”
Feeling embarrassed, Leonor gave a wry smile.
I never would have expected that Hermione and the others would say the same thing to me. Recently, I had been trying to refrain from going up to talk to Ginny because I was worried about what Draco had said to me.
“And to Malfoy?”
“Yeah. Well, if Draco from Slytherin can tell, then surely Harry and the others can too. Still, I remember you talking about having a step-sister very well. Did you ever talk about it that much?”
“Well, maybe once. Hermione remembered.”
“That’s Hermione for you.”
It was already mid-October and sunrise was getting much later, but by the time the two of them walked along the corridor outside, the sun was beginning to shine on the schoolyard.
“I feel like there are some similarities. The atmosphere and stuff.”
Leonor said, looking out at the schoolyard, which was beginning to lighten.
“Do you want to see me again, Leonor?”
“Hmmmm.”
Leonor chuckled.
“I don’t think we’ll ever meet again.”
If you ask me if I want to meet you, I would say yes.
But I never thought I’d get the chance to meet him.
Before I knew it, I was very close to the stadium.
“I was thinking about going back to Slytherin soon.”
“Yeah, you don’t have to go back.”
“I can’t really say that.”
Since not only Draco but also Harry and the others had pointed this out, it would probably be best to put some physical distance between them.
Leonor waved goodbye to Harry as he entered the stadium.
“You’re getting pretty worked up, Malfoy.”
“knot”
Theodore Nott called out to Draco Malfoy, who was sitting at a desk in the corner of the common room.
From the outside, Malfoy looked the same as usual, but Theodore, who had known him for a long time, knew that the state of his styled hair was a barometer of Malfoy’s fatigue. Right now, a large strand of Malfoy’s hair was falling onto his forehead from where it had been combed back. He looked quite tired. As if to confirm Theodore’s guess, Malfoy let out a big sigh.
“Why?”
Malfoy muttered, sounding at a loss.
In the Slytherin house where Leonor had disappeared, Malfoy was now isolated in Leonor’s place.
The reasons are both simple and complex.
Ever since Malfoy and Leonor had a fight, Leonor has not been getting good grades in class. Normally, it would be Leonor’s fault and she should be the one to blame, but for some reason, the Slytherin class has an atmosphere that Malfoy is in the wrong, and Malfoy is being ostracized. He is not treated as badly as Leonor, but it is a big difference for Malfoy, who is normally surrounded by people.
Malfoy shook his head in confusion.
“If I apologize, maybe he’ll come back?”
Theodore makes a suggestion to the tired-looking Malfoy.
“Why should I be the one apologizing? It’s Leonor who can’t fit in at the dorm.”
“It doesn’t seem like a problem for Leonor, but it’s not like that for you.”
Malfoy didn’t answer, instead looking sadly at the Slytherin students, who had recently become quite the strangers to him.
Theodore looked at Malfoy with interest.
Malfoy has met many people through his family connections . Theodore is one of them. But those people look at the family of Draco Malfoy and the Lucius Malfoy behind him, rather than Malfoy himself. Malfoy himself probably didn’t understand how rare a friend like Leonor was to him, as she looked straight at him, and Leonor probably doesn’t understand it even now.friend reach
Leonor, who now takes Malfoy’s place in classes more often, is as relaxed as ever, and in fact seems a little plumper than before.
Unlike most Slytherin students, Leonor is completely ignorant of birth or social status.
This may be due to the environment in which Leonore herself was raised, but ironically, the person she was born into, Vivi re, also has a similar temperament.
Although Theodore had no intention of reconciling Malfoy and Leonor, he felt sorry for Malfoy, who looked so exhausted, and left the common room thinking that he would say something to Leonor the next time he saw her.
Leonor sat at a desk in the back of the library and flipped through a randomly interesting reference book while thinking about when to bring her luggage back to the Slytherin dorm. Before she knew it, the amount of luggage she had been taking out little by little had become too much to carry all at once.
“I found you. It’s been a while.”
Theodore spoke to Leonor, who was lost in thought with her assignment spread out.
“You see each other every time you have class, right?”
The cold war between her and Draco continued and she rarely returned to Slytherin house, but her relationship with Theodore hadn’t changed much.
In fact, since he was no longer paired with Draco in class, he was paired with Theodore instead, so they were meeting each other more often than before. He also occasionally paired with Daphne Greengrass, but they hardly spoke to each other except for necessary conversations during class.
“I haven’t seen you around the dorms lately.”
“I hardly ever come home.”
“Really, where are you spending your time?”
Theodore shrugged his shoulders in an exaggerated manner, as if it was none of his business.
Theodore sat across from Leonor and began to spread out his own assignments. Leonor didn’t mind and just flicked through her textbooks. Ron and Hermione were watching Harry’s practice. Today, Leonor was unusually doing something on her own.
“How are things going lately?”
“Everything’s going well. But I think I should go home now. I’m starting to miss my bed in the dorms.”
There was Ginny, and I was getting tired of worrying about not getting points in class.
Ever since she ran away from the dorms, Leonor had avoided scoring points in class. She’d never raised her hand to begin with, but now she would deliberately slow down the success of her spells and the speed at which she made potions.
“That would be great, because I feel sorry for Malfoy.”
“Draco? Did something happen?”
I thought about how Draco had been acting lately, not having spoken to him once since our fight, but I couldn’t think of anything particularly unusual.
“Malfoy seems a bit isolated at the moment.”
“why?”
Leonor looked up from the book she was reading.
“Because you stopped getting points in class.”
Leonor tilted her head, still not understanding.
“What does that have to do with Draco?”
“So, I guess Draco is responsible for causing you to lose that source of points.”
“But I’m the one who stopped getting grades in class?”
“Like, it’s the trainer’s fault for letting go of the reins?”
“Am I a tiger or something?”
“Maybe a wayward dragon.”
Leonor could only roll her eyes in shock.
“I don’t really know, but I’ll be back soon.”
“I wonder when that will be.”
“That’s right, I actually like my current bed quite a bit.”
“Malfoy’s gonna go nuts if he finds out you’re in Potter’s bed too.”
“I wonder why that would be. Besides, that’s Hermione’s bed, isn’t it?”
“Oh, so you’re not familiar with that either.”
Theodore laughed to himself, understanding the situation.
Leonor didn’t know why Theodore looked so amused, but when Madame Pins came round with a gleam in her eye, Leonor was forced to return to her book.
Leonor inhaled the strongest pumpkin scent she had smelled in the past few weeks. Today, Leonor had completed her mission of carrying her textbooks to her bedroom when there were few people around, and now that classes were over, all that was left for her to do was stuff her stomach with her favorite pumpkin dishes.
She strode gleefully across the Great Hall, filled with sweet and savory aromas, and sat down at the Slytherin table. Several Slytherins who had arrived early gave her stares, but all she could think about was the Halloween feast.
The thick pumpkin soup slowly spreads in my mouth as I take a sip, then seeps into my empty stomach. Since I had been carrying a lot of stuff in the morning and at lunchtime, I hadn’t eaten much today.
“yeah~~”
I couldn’t help but let out a cry.
Next, I take a bite of the scone, and don’t forget to eat some meat as well.
Draco came in just as Leonor was enjoying her meal.
Draco looked surprised when he realized Leonor was at the Slytherin table after he was directly in front of her, probably because he had been obscured by the food.
Draco looked a little uncomfortable, but Leonor, sleep-deprived and hungry and not thinking clearly, didn’t pay much attention to it and just waved one hand with her mouth full.
Draco hesitated for a moment, but then sat down across from him.
“Hmm, definitely a bit worn out?”
Perhaps it was because of the preconceived notion that Theodore had given him. I hadn’t noticed it when I’d seen him in class before, but looking closely, Draco seemed less energetic than usual.
“What is it?”
Draco said bluntly, but with a hint of amusement on his face.
“Have you decided to come back?”
Draco said, putting food on a plate without looking up.
“Yeah. It seems like the circus has been pretty quiet lately. I thought the trainer might be feeling lonely, too.”
Leonor replied as she added more food to her plate.
“What are you talking about?”
“I don’t know.”
Draco spoke up as he put food on his plate.
” I’ll try not to use the term ‘tainted blood’ from now on. Not in front of you or that person, though.”
“Hmm, nice to meet you.”
Adding that last word was typical of Draco.
“…And what happened to Weasley’s sister was bad.”
Draco added awkwardly.
“Oh, that’s good, it’s actually true, and I’ll try to go to Gryffindor less from now on.”
” What happened?”
Leonor said it so casually that Draco asked suspiciously.
“I realized I miss my sister more than I thought.”
Leonor says as she stuffs her face with food.
“You had a sister?”
“I was only there for a few months. I was there as an obligatory guest.”
Draco froze as he realized the meaning of Leonor’s words.
“It’s annoying, because we’ll never meet again. I’m always chasing after his shadow.”
Perhaps because she was tired, Leonor talked more eloquently than usual.
“I guess I’ll just have to swallow that.”
My eyelids started to feel heavy towards the end, but I had stuffed myself with even the dessert that I wasn’t able to finish last year, so I have no regrets.
He had been thinking that if he finished eating quickly, he would join Harry and the others at the Death Anniversary party that they had promised the ghost Nick, but he didn’t have the energy to do so.
There were still many people remaining in the great hall, but Leonor rubbed her sleepy eyes and headed down the stairs to the underground dormitory.
As soon as she reached the bottom of the stairs, Leonor thought she heard something and stopped in her tracks.
For some reason, my eyes suddenly became wide awake and I listened intently.
There’s another sound.
It sounded like something heavy was being dragged, and it was coming from the ceiling.
But soon I could no longer hear it.
Tilting her head, Leonor turned around and retraced her steps, climbing more stairs.
I climbed one flight of stairs and then went around the railing to climb the next flight of stairs when I suddenly ran into someone.
“Wow.”
A red-haired girl was standing there in a daze, one hand on the railing.
“Ginny?”
He is looking down, dazed, and out of focus.
“Are you okay? Are you feeling sick?”
“Le, Aunor…?”
When Leonor called out to her, peering into her face from below, Ginny suddenly came to her senses, as if she had just woken up from a dream, and met Leonor’s gaze.
He seemed to be feeling unwell as his face was completely blue and his feet were unsteady, as if he was about to trip down the stairs at any moment.
“Uh, what is it?”
“I called out to you because you looked really unwell, are you okay?”
“It’s okay.”
As Ginny said this and started to walk away, she lost her balance and fell onto Leonor.
Ginny’s body was cold and her lips were purple.
“Shall I walk you back to your dorm? Or do you want to go to the infirmary?”
He had thought about refraining from getting involved, but he couldn’t just leave Ginny looking so unwell.
“I’m going back to the dorm.”
Leonor, who is shorter than people her age, is almost the same height as the petite Ginny, even though she is one year older.
When Leonor put her arm around her shoulders, Ginny obediently leaned her weight onto Leonor’s body.
He took the easiest and shortest route to the Gryffindor dorm, combining shortcuts the twins had shown him and loopholes he’d found himself.
Ginny’s body was still cold even after walking for a while.
Leonor spoke without thinking, trying to fill the silence.
“I used to have a younger sister.”
“Younger sister?”
Ginny still seemed a little dazed.
“Yes, she’s two years younger than me. I think she looks a bit like Ginny.”
Ginny doesn’t say anything.
While Leonor was frantically searching for the next topic to talk about, Ginny hesitated for a moment before speaking.
“Do you like Harry, Leonor?”
“Hmm? Yes, I like you. Harry and your brother Ron are both great friends.”
” yeah?”
“I like Fred and George too. They’re both good people.”
“I don’t know if I can call Fred and George good people. So when you say you like them, Leonor, do you mean as friends?”
“That’s right. Um, anything else?”
“No, it’s nothing.”
Ginny shook her head, her expression seemed to soften a little.
“How come you’re often in Gryffindor even though you’re a Slytherin?”
“Yeah, that’s it. I had a bit of a fight with Draco, but we’ve made up now and I’m going back to Slytherin as of today.”
We finally reached the middle of the tower where Gryffindor House was, which is quite a feat having a house at the top of the tower.
Ginny still looked unwell, but her complexion was much better than it had been at the beginning.
Just as they were about to reach the finish line, they heard a commotion from the bottom of the tower. It seemed the Gryffindor students had returned en masse.
“I was wondering who it was, but it’s Ginny and Leonor.”
“What are you doing here?”
The twins suddenly appeared from the crowd.
“Ginny seems to be feeling unwell.”
“Really? You’re completely pale.”
“This is a little better though.”
“Leonor brought me here, thank you.”
“Pevensie, you should go back to Slytherin today.”
Percy, who had been walking at the rear of the Gryffindor group, quickly cut in.
Leonor had originally intended to return to Slytherin today, but when someone else tells her to do so, she doesn’t really want to go back.
Percy continued.
“The principal has asked all students to hurry back to their dorms. You too should return to your dorm.”
“Is something wrong?”
“That is…”
George started to explain, but Percy interrupted him and repeated that they should hurry home.
Leonor had no choice but to leave Ginny in Fred’s care and head back the way she came.
I thought people might stare at me since I’d been back in the underground dorms with other people around for the first time in a while, but to my surprise there was no reaction.
Everyone is chattering excitedly about something.
Theodore noticed Leonor, beckoned her over, and told her about most of what had happened today.
Apparently Filch’s beloved cat, Mrs. Norris, was turned to stone in the third floor hallway and a message was written on the wall reading “The Chamber of Secrets has been opened. Enemy of the Heir, beware.”
“What’s a secret room?”
“You really don’t know a lot of things.”
Theodore said this in an exasperated tone, but Leonor, suddenly hit by the fatigue of the day, had no interest in listening to the detailed explanation, so she went up to the girls’ dormitory before the Slytherin students, who continued talking with excitement still not yet subsided, and collapsed into bed for the first time in a long while.
Now that I was alone, I sniffled.
I couldn’t help but worry about whether the small bottles I had crammed into my bag would make any noise. I also didn’t like the fact that my suitcase was obviously bigger than the others’ and would attract attention.
There were two or three children sitting in every compartment.
I found a compartment with only one other person in it and looked inside through the glass door.
A black-haired boy who appeared to be a freshman was looking out the window.
He has a handsome face with a straight nose, and you can’t help but stare at him.
The boy suddenly turned towards me, and I hurriedly left the front of the compartment.
He was a beautiful and handsome boy.
As we were being lined up to be sorted, the boy from before was standing right next to me.
She certainly had a beautiful face.
“Riddle, Tom!”
The boy steps forward.
Is there such a coincidence?
As soon as the hat touched his head he shouted “Slytherin!” and was greeted by the people at the end tables.
I followed him with my eyes.
“Vivi re, Judith!”
Hats
“Yellow or blue?”
he asked.
“Hufflepuff!”
I was called out and sat down at the table.
I woke up in the canopy.
I excitedly tried desperately to remember.
I had a dream.
A dream in which I am sorted by the Sorting Hat.
I realized it was a dream because my hat
“Green or yellow?”
Because I heard that.
I
“Yellow or blue?”
Because I was asked.
This is a memory of my grandmother.
I remember seeing my grandmother for the first time.
Finally.
I feel incredibly happy and relieved at the same time.
Now I can finally become a full-fledged adult.
Now I can finally be in my place.
The face of that handsome boy with black hair suddenly came to mind.
06: A brief encounter
For a while afterwards, the whole school was abuzz with talk of the incident.
The day after the incident, information gradually began to reach Leonor.
Apparently, Harry and his friends were the first to discover the stoned cat. By the time the information reached Leonor, Harry had become the heir to the Chamber of Secrets.
The writing on the wall in the corridor hadn’t faded at all, no matter how much Filch cleaned it, and Leonor took the opportunity, while Filch was not patrolling the corridor, to peer closely at the bright red message written on the stone wall.
The secret chamber is opened. Beware, enemies of the successor.
“What exactly is a secret room?”
“You’re a Slytherin and you don’t know that?”
Theodore once again sounded exasperated at Leonor’s simple question.
“It’s a Chamber of Secrets that Salazar Slytherin, the founder of Slytherin, built at Hogwarts before he left. It is said to contain a monster that can drive the enemies of the Heir out of Hogwarts.”
“A monster? Did Salazar Slytherin lock a monster in a room?”
“ah”
“I wonder if Salazar Slytherin knew when the heir would appear.”
“I don’t know. I don’t think you know that. Why?”
“What if the monster’s lifespan runs out before an heir appears?”
“Maybe it’s a monster that’s really long-lived, or maybe immortal.”
Leonor nodded, understanding what Theodore said.
If you heard this in the Muggle world, it would probably just be laughed at as a childish idea, but in the wizarding world, it’s a perfectly reasonable thought.
How could a monster survive in the Chamber of Secrets?
And what guarantee will the monster obey its successor?
Many other questions were floating around in Leonor’s mind, but in the wizarding world, they probably weren’t such big deal.
“And the heir’s enemy is a Muggle-born?”
Even Leonor knew that Salazar Slytherin was a staunch blood pure-blood believer.
“Right.”
Theodore nodded.
Filch, the owner of Mrs. Norris, the petrified cat, is apparently a Squib, someone born into a magical family but unable to use magic.
“Not just Muggleborns, but Squibs too?”
“You can’t use magic, just like Muggles.”
“It’s a cruel world.”
Naturally, all the teachers were nervous. If the monsters really started to drive out the Muggle-borns, half of the students in the school would be gone. Also, it seems that magic that can turn a living being into stone semi-permanently is a fairly advanced form of dark magic. It’s a big problem if someone (or a monster) who can use that kind of magic is on school grounds. It became strict to go out except for classes and the library.
Draco seemed half happy and half unhappy about the appearance of an heir, and seemed jealous that Harry was being called an heir.
“Hey, is there a spell that can tell if someone is Muggle-born?”
“I’ve never heard of it. Why?”
Draco tilted his head at Leonor’s sudden question.
“Targeting Muggle-borns means the culprit has to know whether you’re Muggle-born or not, but if they can’t tell by spells or anything, that must mean they’ve had contact with you, or with someone who knows your background.”
In fact, last year, Leonor was mistaken for a Muggle-born and was baptized by Slytherin students, but the baptism ended when Leonor declared herself a descendant of Vivi re.
“I guess the culprit could be closer than we think,” Leonor muttered, looking at Draco.
Draco shrugged.
“It wasn’t me. I was right in front of you on Halloween.”
“But this is a magical world, so I think it would be a piece of cake to manipulate others into attacking you.”
Even though she said that, Leonor didn’t think that Draco had turned the cat to stone.
“That is certainly true. Oh, if only I knew who the heir was.”
“What would you do if you knew?”
“Of course I’ll help. There’s no better opportunity than this.”
“If Hermione disappeared now, you’d be forever losing to her in exams.”
Draco had never even thought about it, and looked like a pigeon had been hit by a bullet.
While the teachers were becoming more strict about going out, it was some time after the incident that Leonor was able to have a brief chat with Harry and the others in the Great Hall.
“Harry’s unlucky.”
Recently, Hermione asked Professor Binns, the History of Magic teacher, about the Chamber of Secrets during class, which spread information about the Chamber of Secrets to students outside of Slytherin. This also led to more rumors of Harry’s heir.
Harry looked gaunt and sad.
Leonor had been given a detailed account of the circumstances surrounding Harry and his friends’ discovery of Mrs. Norris. It was certainly a timing that would have made her a suspect.
However, it seemed that the Heir of Slytherin wasn’t the only reason Harry had been feeling down lately.
It’s Lockhart and the camera boy.
It seems that Lockhart always gets involved with Harry. Leonor felt sorry for Harry when she heard that he was being forced to be the partner in Lockhart’s play in class. Leonor had not been able to listen to the Defense Against the Dark Arts class seriously even once since the beginning of this year. At this rate, it seemed that there would be no chance for him to listen to the class seriously for the rest of the year.
The camera boy was also quite a pain; he seemed to have memorised Harry’s schedule and would frequently find time between classes and during the day to talk to him.
“If I were Harry and I was the heir, I’d turn that camera boy to stone next.”
“Leonor! What are you saying?”
Hermione gasped at Leonor’s inappropriate remark.
But isn’t it too easy to just turn someone to stone, especially since the opponent is a legendary monster? And even if they are turned to stone, they can make a recovery potion using medicinal herbs that they learned in their second year classes.
Leonor is lost in thought.
What will the successor want to do?
If they were serious about getting rid of the Muggleborns, it would be easier to do it all at once before the teachers were ready to take precautions, or are the monsters and heirs of legend so strong that it doesn’t matter if the teachers are on guard?
“Hey, isn’t the heir Malfoy?”
I had expected it, but the three of them still asked.
“That’s right, I heard the same thing, but it’s not true. It seems they don’t even know who the heir is.”
“But does that mean you’re just hiding it from Leonor?”
“Hmm, that’s true. If Draco really is the heir, he’d do that much.”
“Do you think Leonor is suspicious?”
“Nothing. If Draco was the Heir, I don’t think he’d be able to keep quiet in the dorms.”
Among the three, Draco seems to be the one most suspicious of being the heir.
That can’t be helped, Leonor thought.
“By the way, how’s Malfoy doing?”
“condition?”
“You know, Quidditch.”
“Oh, I see.”
Harry reminded Leonor that there was a Quidditch match this weekend, Slytherin vs Gryffindor, and it was Draco’s first match.
“I wonder what will happen.”
“You’re pretty cold-hearted, aren’t you?”
“I’ve never gone to watch them practice. If I did, I’d be accused of spying.”
I don’t think Draco would say something like that, but I don’t know what the captain and other upperclassmen would think. It would be terrible if they glare at me strangely, and it would be bad for me to interrupt their practice.
“Are you coming to watch the game?”
“Ah, I guess I’ll go if I can get up.”
He hadn’t been getting enough sleep lately. He knew it was because he was having dreams and not getting a good night’s sleep, but he didn’t tell Harry or the others.
Plus, with both Harry and Draco playing, Leonor can’t decide which team to root for.
“Well, good luck to you too, Harry.”
With the first Quidditch match of the season just around the corner, there was a different atmosphere in the Slytherin common room than usual.
Draco was surrounded and subjugated by girls to the point that he began to doubt what Theodore was saying and wondered if it was really true that he had been isolated in his dorm just a short time ago.
Leonor, who was not sure she could get up for the game tomorrow, called out to Draco as she passed by him, wishing him good luck. As soon as she did so, the girls around Draco glared at her, and she quickly went up to the bedroom to escape their gazes.
As expected, when she woke up the next morning, the match had already started. Not wanting to go to the stadium at that time, Leonor spent the day sleeping in her bed.
The next day, we learn that Slytherin has lost to Gryffindor in Quidditch and that Harry has been wiped out and sent to the hospital.
They then proceed to the Great Hall, where they learn that a student has been turned to stone during the night by the monster from the Chamber of Secrets: Gryffindor first year Colin Creevey (the camera boy!).
“Oh dear.”
Leonor couldn’t help but cry out.
The student casualties had caused shockwaves far beyond anything Filch’s cat had experienced.
In the hallways, they always walked in groups of two or three, moving quickly. Due to pressure from the teachers, Draco, and Theodore, Leonor, who used to be alone, started to hang out more with the Slytherin students.
“No change Malfoy?”
“Not at all.”
Hermione was talking to Leonor among the bookshelves in the library. They were both whispering so Madame Pince wouldn’t kick them out. It felt like it had been a long time since they’d seen each other like this.
“Well, I don’t hope you’re offended, but we’re going to spy on Draco.”
Hermione confides in Leonor.
“how?”
Leonor said without the slightest sign of surprise or anger.
“I was thinking of using Polyjuice Potion.”
“Polyjuice? Where do you get that? Maybe we’re going to make it ourselves?”
Leonor looked at Hermione in shock, as if to say that she had decided to break the rules herself, even though Hermione knew very well that this was a bit too much for her.
“The three of us are thinking about disguising ourselves as Slytherin students and talking to Malfoy. Even if he’s not the Heir, he might know something.”
“Wouldn’t it take a long time to make Polyjuice Potion now?”
“Actually, I’ve already started making it.”
“Well, let me see how you make it.”
“Sure. Not in return, but could you help me gather the ingredients?”
“Fine. Like Slytherin hair?”
“And powdered bicorn horn and poisonous vine.”
“Those two are Professor Snape’s potions storeroom.”
“That’s right. Have you ever been in there?”
“Not likely. If I were to sneak in, I’d probably do it during class.”
“Yes. It would be nice to distract Professor Snape during class.”
“That’s right. Who do you want to be the sacrifice?”
Leonor casually says something disturbing.
“I’d be happy to be in Slytherin because Gryffindor gets all the attention.”
“Okay. I’ll think of someone to help me.”
With Leonor’s help, we may be able to gather the remaining ingredients for Polyjuice Potion.
“Well, Leonor, aren’t you upset that we’re suspicious of Malfoy and trying to spy on him?”
“Well, it doesn’t really matter. If he’s innocent, there’s no real harm in spying on him. Besides, it would be a problem if I boasted that Draco didn’t do it and in fact he was the culprit.”
Leonor doesn’t seem to really care, so Hermione’s worries seem unfounded.
“Now that I think of it, where do you make it? If you make Polyjuice, will no one see you?”
“Don’t worry. I’m making it in a special place.”
It was almost time for the two boys to take their shifts, so Hermione decided to go and show Leonor the potion she was making.
“How’s Ginny doing lately?”
Leonor said this as they were walking down the hallway, and Hermione couldn’t help but look at her.
“It still seems to be bad.”
“I see.”
“I’m sorry, I was spreading rumors about your sister.”
Hermione erred in her haste.
“That’s fine. It’s not something I want to hide.”
I was really surprised when I heard from Harry that he had asked Leonor directly about her sister. I never expected that after he had told the two of them that Leonor had a sister, he would go and ask her directly, and so forthrightly. That’s what boys are like.
Hermione led Leonor to the ladies’ bathroom on the third floor.
The toilets are always broken, there’s the ghost Myrtle, and it’s right next to where Mrs. Norris was first found after being turned to stone, so it’s a place that they figured would be unlikely to be found by anyone.
Leonor says this is her first time here.
I open the door, even though there is a sign saying it is out of order.
“It’s me. Leonor is with me.”
Harry and Ron appeared from their private room at the sound of Hermione’s voice.
“Wow, you’re making it.”
Leonor went to look at the pot on the fire in the private room where they were.
“It’s been a while.”
“What about Malfoy?”
“Nothing special. I heard that Harry was the one who got sent to the infirmary?”
The two boys, who have not seen each other for a long time, and Leonor get into a lively conversation.
“That’s right. It was a mistake to let Lockhart touch it.”
“Harry.”
Harry was again complaining about Professor Lockhart, and Hermione puffed out her cheeks in frustration.
“I wanted to see your boner arm.”
“It was hard. The bone-growing potion tasted awful and my arm hurt.”
“Leonore, have you heard about the new victim? It’s Colin Creevey.”
“Yeah. I was surprised. I thought Harry was amazing.”
“Leonor!”
“Enough already! Shut up!”
Harry’s loud voice was met with an even louder gurgle from the toilet next door.
“Oh my goodness, it’s Myrtle.”
Before Hermione could finish her sentence, Myrtle appeared in the private room door.
“You guys, be quiet!”
Myrtle, wearing thick round glasses and a Hogwarts uniform, glared at Hermione and the others, who were frowning.
“Oh, it’s you.”
The ghost emerged from the bathroom to complain about the people who repeatedly entered his residence, but when he saw Leonor, he suddenly stopped moving and looked at her face with a suspicious look on his face for a while.
“You look just like someone I met when I was alive.”
“Are you a Hogwarts student?”
Leonor looks up in confusion at the ghost floating above the floor.
“Of course.”
“How long ago?”
Leonor asks bluntly.
Although it was an inappropriate question, Myrtle surprisingly didn’t seem too opposed to it.
“About fifty years ago.”
“Fifty years would be Judith.”
Leonor tilted her head.
“I don’t even know her name. I’ve only seen her before. She was an upperclassman from Hufflepuff.”
“Then it’s Judith.”
The ghost slid right in front of Leonor, bringing his face so close that their noses were almost touching.
“It’s exactly the same. It’s creepy.”
“It’s genetic.”
Leonor muttered as Myrtle, frowning, walked back into the bathroom.
Hermione and the others were stunned that Myrtle disappeared without even crying once.
“Who’s Judith?”
Harry asks.
“That’s my grandmother.”
After Leonor left, Hermione took turns mixing the potion with Harry and Ron, and she suddenly wondered how Leonor, who was supposed to have been at the orphanage, could know about her grandmother.
As promised, Leonor woke me up during the next Potions class .vinegar N stomach P destination raw of air but Ichi R R child and
I have no idea how he did it, but he caused the cauldron belonging to Zabini, a Slytherin student who was sitting quite a distance from Hermione and the others, to explode.
Moreover, the explosion happened just as Professor Snape was complaining about Harry’s Tumbling Potion, so he couldn’t suspect Harry and the others, and by the time Hermione snuck back into the classroom, he was still angry and administering Flattening Potion to a bunch of Slytherin students whose bodies were bloated from the Tumbling Potion. Harry and Ron were struggling to contain their laughter at the sight of Malfoy, whose nose had swelled up to the size of a small melon.
The ingredients for Polyjuice Potion are almost ready.
The medicine will be ready in a few weeks.
Carrying out a spy operation would involve breaking roughly fifty school rules.
but.
“Because he’s Muggle-born.”
That label would follow Hermione wherever she went.
I could stand Malfoy’s insults, but I couldn’t stand being persecuted and having my education taken away just because I’m a Muggle-born.
Hermione ran through the steps of making Polyjuice Potion in her head.
In the common room, Leonor was reflecting on today’s Potions lesson, pleased with the quality of the fireworks she had used to explode Zabini’s cauldron.
Following Leonor’s suggestion that they not want to leave any physical evidence behind, together with George and Fred, they made some improvements to the filibuster’s long-lasting fireworks.Although the fire doesn’t last as long as the original, it leaves no embers behind, making it the perfect device for destroying evidence.
He’d tossed it into Zabini’s Cauldron while Professor Snape was tampering with Harry’s potion, and he’d done it with wandless magic so that the throwing motion would not be detected, in the same way he’d broken the legs of Quirrell’s chair during the Quidditch match last year.
The only thing I regret is that I can’t tell the twins about the fireworks. I’ve met Harry and his friends several times in the library and the Great Hall, but I haven’t had a proper conversation with them since the attack by the monster from the Chamber of Secrets began.
In fact, he hadn’t been to Gryffindor House since Halloween. He had accidentally decided to keep to the word he’d given to Draco.
Leonor went to bed, longing for the Gryffindor common room.
A corner of the library.
There he was, in that corner. That guy.
His brows were slightly furrowed as he sat at his desk, his face as perfect as a stone statue, and his nape was pale as he peered down at the notebook spread out on the desk.
“You’re making some interesting stuff.”
Red eyes stare back at me.
“…Vivi re?”
He just glanced my way.
“You’re not doing any research today, are you?”
“How do you know?”
“Everyone says you’re obsessed with researching something.”
“I’ve been searching for ages and still no clues.”
He said after a while.
“Tom M. Riddle”
I slowly read the name written in the diary.
What he was obsessed with was writing in a blank diary.
07: Snake andWaltzWaltz
An announcement for the dueling club meeting was posted on the bulletin board in the entrance hall.
Leonor tilts her head in confusion, wondering if holding the event at a time like this is intended as a measure against the successor to the Chamber of Secrets or monsters.
He didn’t think dueling would work against an heir or a monster, but the idea of ??the dueling club itself piqued his interest.
Curious about the club’s activities, Leonor shows up to the Great Hall at night with the other students, but the moment Lockhart appears on the stage wearing a deep purple cloak, she retreats.
As soon as I left the Great Hall, I headed straight for the library.
As she was walking down the hallway, thinking that Professor Snape, who was sitting next to Lockhart, seemed to be in a bad mood, Leonor noticed something floating on the floor.
“Feathers…?”
The fluffy thing was actually a feather. Not the kind of feathers you’d find on a pen’s wing tip, but more like chest hair.
It wasn’t just one piece, but several scattered all the way to the end of the corridor.
I headed to the library, wondering if the owls had been in a fight or something.
“what happened?”
The voice brought Ginny back to her senses.
He was crouching at the end of a corridor somewhere.
I don’t remember… here we go again…
Before I knew it, I had arrived at an unknown place.
My memory has been patchy lately, and I often find myself in places where I have no business being.
Where are we?
Ginny looked around.
I was near the library. I looked up and saw Leonor.
“Are you okay?”
“Y-yes, it’s okay.”
Ginny stood up, staggering a little, unable to use her body strength properly.
Something that had been on his lap fell to the floor with a thud.
“!”
Ginny quickly picked it up.
“Oh, that.”
He quickly picked it up but it caught Leonor’s eye.
No! Don’t notice!
Ginny hid it as best she could in the sleeve of her robe without looking unnatural.
“Is that Ginny’s diary?”
“Y-yes.”
Why do you ask that? Surely…
“Hmm…”
Leonor frowned a little and tilted her head.
“Diary, diary…I feel like I’ve seen it somewhere recently…”
“Huh…!”
“Well, maybe it’s a dream.”
“Oh well,” Leonor shrugged.
Leonor stopped talking about the diary so easily that Ginny, who had been on guard, relaxed a little.
If you think about it, you can’t understand the contents of a diary just by looking at it from the outside.
Maybe there was no need to be so on guard.
“Your lips are really blue. Should I go to the infirmary?”
He wasn’t sure how long he’d been in the hallway, but his body was cold and stiff, and he couldn’t use his strength properly.
Ginny nodded at Leonor’s words.
Ginny took Leonor’s hand and walked down the hallway together. Her cold hands felt the warmth of Leonor’s hand.
Leonor expresses her concern for Ginny in this way.
Ginny began to think that maybe she was just being weirdly on guard and that he wasn’t such a bad person after all.
I see him with Malfoy in Slytherin, but if they were in the same house, it wouldn’t be strange, and on the other hand, the fact that Hermione and the others get along despite being in Slytherin might just mean that he’s a really good person.
At one time she often came to Gryffindor and would talk to me and look at me, which made me feel a bit uncomfortable, but maybe it’s not so strange because I resemble my sister.
And the other day, they even delivered it to my dorm.
Thinking about it, Ginny realized that she hadn’t properly thanked Leonor the other day, so she hurriedly conveyed her gratitude to her.
“It’s okay, it’s okay, it’s not that big of a deal.”
Saying this, Leonor laughed heartily. She looked so normal it was hard to believe her brothers had said that she hardly laughed at all last year.
“How’s school?”
“Not bad.”
“What about Professor Snape’s class?”
“I think it can be harsh and unreasonable at times, but I don’t think it’s as harsh as what Harry is being treated like.”
“Haha, Professor Snape really doesn’t like Harry.”
Leonor yawns loudly.
“Sorry. I just didn’t get enough sleep.”
“Are the classes so hard that they take place until late at night?”
“No, as long as you do your homework every day, you’ll be fine. I’m sleepy because I often have dreams.”
“dream?”
Ginny dreams too, but they rarely keep her up at night.
“That’s right. You see memories in your dreams.”
“Do you see memories in your dreams?”
“Yeah. I seem to be from that family. It’s a secret though. I’m not used to it yet so even when I see it I don’t remember much. Plus there’s too much information and it confuses my head.”
“Why do you keep dreaming when it messes with your mind?”
Ginny’s memory has been bleak lately and her head is a mess, and she’d like to get out of this mess if she could, and she has no intention of making her head a mess of her own volition.
Leonor thought for a moment.
“Maybe it’s because I feel like it’s something I need. Also, I’ve always lived in an orphanage, so maybe it’s like I’m connecting with my family, or maybe it’s like I’m finding my place in the world.”
I want a place to belong.
That goes for Ginny as well.
Being surrounded by hand-me-downs from my older brothers, I feel crushed by the pressure to become as good as them.
but.
Ginny held the diary tighter in her sleeve.
Now she has Tom, Ginny’s secret friend.
Although they can’t take classes together, Tom is definitely a place where Ginny has a place to be.
I have to tell Tom about my chat with Leonor.
As they left Ginny in Madame Pomfrey’s care and left the infirmary, Leonor gently opened her hand.
In his palm was the feather that had been in Ginny’s hair.
Ginny seemed so distracted by dropping her diary that she didn’t seem to notice, but there were lots of feathers lying around where she was crouching.
I wondered if Ginny had been attacked by an owl, but she didn’t appear to have any injuries of that nature.
And on closer inspection, it wasn’t an owl’s feather, as owl feathers have a fluffier surface to reduce the sound of their flight.
What feather is that?
I was also curious about Ginny’s diary.
I think I saw someone writing a diary recently.
Leonor scratches her head.
I guess it was just a dream after all.
I think the resolution of my dreams has improved. But when I wake up, my memories still fade away.
Just like a normal dream, I remember a little bit right after I wake up, but after a day has passed, I’ve almost forgotten what I dreamed about. I remember only fragmentary scenes, but I can’t figure out what they mean.
It’s a long road.
In fact, I don’t even know where the goal is.
I continue doing it because it somehow feels important.
He yawns again and covers his mouth with his hand.
I decided not to go back to the library and to sleep in the dorm instead.
Even though he’d managed to stop the snake from attacking Justin in the nick of time, Harry was met with looks of fear and disbelief.
“That’s bad, Harry.”
Ron’s voice sounded as anxious as when he’d missed the Hogwarts Express at Kings Cross Station.
“I had no idea you could speak Parseltongue! And speaking it in front of so many people…”
Hermione looked gloomy as well.
“Salazar Slytherin was famous for being able to speak to snakes. He lived so long ago that it wouldn’t be surprising if he and Harry were related by blood. This will make it even more likely that people will claim that you are the heir to the Chamber of Secrets.”
Up until now, even when there had been casualties, the two hadn’t worried, believing that Harry couldn’t be the culprit. Now, however, they were frowning.
That’s it.
I thought it was normal for a wizard to be able to talk to snakes.
And I didn’t send the snake at Justin, I stopped it when it was about to attack!
I’m not supposed to be a descendant of Slytherin…
No matter how much you argue that it is not true, it will be refuted with plausible reasons.
If even those two have abandoned me…
Harry was overcome with frustration and his shoulders slumped.
This is devil’s proof.
No matter how much Harry insists he didn’t do it, to those around him it will just look like he did.
And bad things keep happening.
Justin was turned to stone.
What’s more, Harry was the first to discover it.
He was found by Peeves in front of Justin, who was lying on the floor, and Headless Nick, who was blackened and covered in sooty paint.
“We’re being attacked! We’re being attacked! Whether you’re dead or alive, you’re all in danger! Run for your life! We’re being attacked!”
Peeves’s voice caused the students to come running out of the classroom.
Ernie MacMillan from Hufflepuff rushed in and pointed at Harry, shouting “He’s caught red-handed!”
Professor McGonagall scolded Ernie, but even she was cold towards Harry.
After the teachers had finished their investigation of the scene, Harry was taken to the principal’s office.
After delivering Harry, Professor McGonagall left, leaving Harry alone in the empty Headmaster’s office.
It was the kind of room you’d expect to find in a general store in the wizarding world: a large circular room, with a stylish desk and many small magical items lined up on it, some of which were animated and emitting smoke.
Harry thought to himself that he wanted to come as if it were a field trip, not with the fear that he might be mistaken for the culprit behind all the murders and get kicked out of school.
On a shelf behind the claw-legged desk sits a tattered, shabby hat.
Harry’s heart skipped a beat.
It’s the Sorting Hat.
Although he doesn’t tell Ron or Hermione, Harry himself is hesitant to say with certainty that he is not a Slytherin descendant because he is still bothered by something the Sorting Hat said to him when he first enrolled.
Harry gently took the hat down from the shelf and placed it on his head.
The hat was too big and slipped down over Harry’s eyes, so he closed his eyes inside the pitch black hat.
“Harry Potter. It seems that something is bothering you.”
A low voice whispered in Harry’s ear.
“Yes, well, there’s something I’d like to ask you.”
“You’re worried that I sorted you into the wrong house.”
Harry nodded, even though it wasn’t like he could see the hat.
“Yes. My words remain the same. You have the potential to do well in Slytherin.”
Harry’s stomach sank, as if he had swallowed lead.
Grabbing the top of the hat, he removed it and shoved it back on the shelf where it had been.
After his talk with Dumbledore, Harry trudged along the corridor.
Dumbledore believed that Harry was not the culprit, but when asked if there was anything he wanted to tell him, Harry couldn’t say anything about Dobby or the unknown voice.
“Hi.”
A lively voice came from behind him and Harry turned around.
“Leonor”
“Going back to the dorm?”
Harry nodded.
“Maybe I should show my face to Gryffindor for the first time in a while.”
With that, Leonor walked off alongside Harry.
“You seem a bit gloomy. Is there something bothering you?”
Leonor still had the same carefree look on her face.
“no,”
Harry thought for a moment, before deciding to say it was nothing.
He can’t bring himself to tell Ron and Hermione that the Sorting Hat recommended he join Slytherin, but he might be willing to tell Leonor.
“Leonore, how much do you believe what the Sorting Hat says?”
“Yeah?”
Leonor tilted her head.
Harry explained that the Sorting Hat had recommended Slytherin to him at last year’s entrance ceremony, and that he had just asked the hat again in the headmaster’s office, only to be told the same thing as before.
“Eh, that old hat. I thought the sorting was pretty random in the first place.”
“Eh! Really?”
“I don’t know about other people, but when I was asked if I preferred red or green, I said green and I ended up in Slytherin.”
Harry was taken aback by the shocking confession.
“So, Leonor chose Slytherin over Gryffindor of her own volition?”
“I didn’t mean to choose Slytherin. I wasn’t even thinking about the house colours at the time. I just thought green would suit the colour of my eyes.”
Harry was taken aback by Leonor’s nonchalant response.
“Hey, by the way, I hear you caused trouble at the Dueling Club again?”
“I didn’t mean to wake you up.”
Harry sighed.
Come to think of it, it’s likely that Leonor knew that Harry was a Parselmouth and that Justin had been turned to stone, but she continued to speak to Harry as usual.
Harry spoke tentatively.
“…Leonor, will you believe that I didn’t do it?”
“If I were the culprit, I wouldn’t be stupid enough to be seen at the scene.”
The answer was immediate.
When Leonor met Harry’s eyes she burst out laughing.
I felt like my heavy stomach had suddenly become lighter.
“It would be a total loss of face for Harry to be spending so much time with Hermione and having her help him with his assignments, but then discover he’s a staunch supporter of pure-blood ideals and wants to eliminate Muggle-borns.”
It was a ruthless thing to say, but Harry was grateful for it at the time.
“Now that you mention it, you’re right. If I was a descendant of Slytherin and heir to the Chamber of Secrets, I wouldn’t be friends with Hermione.”
“Yeah. Well, it’s possible that he deliberately chose to be with Hermione so that she wouldn’t suspect him of being the culprit.”
“Leonor!”
Harry cried out without thinking, but the heavy feeling he had had from before had completely disappeared. Leonor had spoken words that made it seem as if she suspected Harry of being the culprit, but Harry knew very well that she had said such things so casually precisely because she didn’t suspect him.
“Haha, sorry sorry. Harry is quite a nice guy, I don’t think you can do that.”
The two of them then walked towards the Gryffindor common room.
“How’s Polyjuice doing?”
“It’s going well. Hermione says it’s close to being finished.”
“In that case, I guess we’ll do it around Christmas. I’ll give you some Slytherin hair next time.”
“How did you make the Potions Swelling Potion explode?”
“Ah, that’s it. It’s the improved fireworks that the twins and I made. Oh yeah, I need to tell the twins the results of our clinical experiment.”
As they entered the common room, all eyes were on Harry and Leonor.
Even among the Gryffindors there are those who think Harry is the culprit, and it’s not easy for them to look upon him kindly.
Harry flinched under the piercing gaze.
Leonor was attracting the same sort of stares, but she didn’t seem the least bit concerned as she crossed the lounge.
Although not as common as the theory that Harry was the heir, there were also quite a few whispers that Leonore was the heir.
“Oh my, oh my!”
“The two successors have arrived together!”
Fred and George noticed them and gave them an exaggerated, courtly bow.
“When did the number of successors increase?”
Leonor joined the twins, laughing out loud.
Of course, neither Fred nor George thought that Leonor, let alone Harry, was the heir. Leonor even said, “I didn’t know the camera boy was a Muggle-born.” Anyone else would be skeptical, but for Leonor, it was entirely plausible.
Harry and the others spent some time in the common room, just like they had before the petrification incident.
Leonor decided to open the present Ginny had given her on her bed.
He gave it to me as I was leaving the lounge, saying it was a thank you for helping me when I was feeling unwell.
Inside the wrapper was a black diary.
It’s very similar to Ginny’s diary.
So they’re matching?
It seems strange to give your diary as a gift to someone, especially since it’s a diary that you were so averse to others seeing, so that’s probably how it is.
The years written in the diary indicate that it is fifty years old.
Matching is fine, but why would you bother using a diary from fifty years ago?
Is this what’s popular these days?
Leonor ran her hand over the black cover of the diary.
It was a very old diary with a black leather cover.
I feel like it’s very important for some reason.
I flipped the cover open and my name was written on the first page.
“…TM Riddle…”
nostalgic.
Leonor tilts her head at the emotion welling up within her.
TM I’ve never met anyone named Riddle before.
I tried turning the pages some more, but no matter how many times I turned the diary remained blank.
After thinking for a moment, Leonor dropped some ink onto the blank page of her diary.
“!”
The ink glowed brightly on the paper for a moment, then was absorbed and disappeared.
Where the ink had been absorbed, beautifully written letters appeared instead.
“Hello”
Leonor traced the letters with her finger. As they appeared, they faded and disappeared.
“Thank you”
Leonor writes a reply.
“who are you?”
“This is Tom M. Riddle.”
“…Tom…”
Leonor muttered the name softly.
Yes, it’s Tom.
Strangely, Leonor agrees.
What is your name?
Leonor thinks for a moment and then writes back.
“I’m Leonor. What about you?”
“Nice to meet you, Leonor. I was once a student at Hogwarts, and this diary contains my memories from that time.”
Are you introducing yourself from memory?
This seems to be quite different from the memories that Leonor knows. The memories that Leonor knows are more like something that we are privy to.
Judging from the age of the diary, it seems that this Tom was at Hogwarts about fifty years ago.
Where are you now?
“I don’t know. As I told you, I’m just a memory from the past. Why do you care?”
“I was thinking of returning this diary.”
I felt bad for Ginny, but if it was her rightful owner, I should probably return it.
“If you keep this diary, you will eventually find your way back to the present day. Until then, please keep it. If you’d like, I’ll be happy to talk to you.”
What should I tell my diary lover?
Having never even written a normal diary, Leonor is unsure.
“Okay. It’s getting late so I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“That’s right. Good night, Leonor.”
It feels strange to have my diary say goodnight. But strangely, I don’t feel bad about it.
On the contrary, I was somehow happy.
I stroke the cover of my closed diary once more.
Leonor placed the diary next to her pillow, drank the contents of a small bottle she had taken from her suitcase, and then lay down in bed.
A corner of the library.
A deserted corner lined with thick Muggle books.
There he was, in that corner. That guy.
He sat at his desk in earnest, his brow slightly furrowed, his face as shapely as a stone statue. A strand of his slightly long black hair was tousled. His nape was pale as he peered at the notebook spread out on the desk.
“You’re making some interesting stuff.”
Red eyes stare back at me.
He looked skeptical.
“…Vivi re?”
He just glanced my way.
The fact that he remembered my name was a surprise and a delight.
“You’re not doing any research today, are you?”
“How do you know?”
“Everyone says you’re obsessed with researching something.”
I spoke slowly so as not to reveal how excited I was.
“I’ve been searching for ages and still no clues.”
He said after a while.
He said sounding a little disappointed, his brow furrowing slightly.
“Tom M. Riddle”
I slowly read the name written in the diary.
What he was obsessed with was writing in a blank diary.
Oh, Tom.
Just once more
I want to see you
08: A friend in your pocket
After that, my correspondence with Tom continued on a bit by bit basis.
Leonor tells Tom that she was in an orphanage and that she had an adopted sister.
To my surprise, Tom also grew up in an orphanage, and the two of them got excited talking about things that happen in orphanages.
Although Tom said he was an only child, he was able to empathize with Leonor’s feelings of missing her sister-in-law.
It’s hard to believe that at first I was unsure what to say to my diary reader, but now I’m eagerly awaiting Tom’s reply.
Tom is a good conversationalist.
Not just in a physical sense, but it also gives you back exactly the words you want.
More than anything, Leonor was attracted to Tom.
I don’t know why, but I feel like I have to chase after it.
Even though Tom always responds when Leonor talks to him, for some reason she always feels like he is just a little out of reach.
The Christmas holidays were fast approaching.
Since the Hufflepuffs and Nick were turned to stone, the Heir seems to have gone quiet and no new incidents have occurred.
Before the holidays, Leonor gave Hermione the hair of a Slytherin student that she had requested.
“Crabbe, Goyle, Theodore, and Pansy and Daphne.”
Each test tube contains a piece of paper with the hair’s name written on it to prevent them from getting mixed up.
“Wow, so many!”
“Maybe we shouldn’t use Pansy’s. Unless she’s going to transform and stick to Draco.”
Since the Quidditch match, Pansy has been sticking out to Draco more often. In inverse proportion to that, Leonor has been spending less time with Draco.
“I’d rather not do that… I have Millicent’s too.”
“Millicent said she’d be home for Christmas.”
“That would be perfect. Will Leonor stay at Hogwarts?”
“I’m undecided, but I think I’ll stay.”
Although I would like to see inside the mansion, I don’t have any urgent business that would warrant me going back there during the cold season, and I brought lots of vials with me so I still have some left.
“I may ask you to lure Crabbe and Goyle out on the day.”
“Okay, but I wonder if you can hold a conversation with those two for an hour. Even if I’m not there, I think if you put some sweets laced with sleeping pills in front of them, it will be a hit.”
“Are they really that simple?”
“I have no interest in food.”
They then discussed when to use Polyjuice Potion. It was decided that Leonor would not be present on the day, as it would be best if Draco were to find out about their espionage and not know that she had been involved.
Christmas day.
The school, which had been empty since the start of the holidays, felt even more desolate when covered in snow, due to the silence that comes with it.
Normally, there are very few people from Slytherin every holiday, but this was the first time since she had entered Hogwarts that there were so few other students there. For Leonor, it was a comfortable holiday, as she didn’t have to face any suggestive looks.
As Leonor was about to hang the ribbon on a present from Professor Snape’s study handle, she suddenly ran into the professor as he emerged from inside.
Leonor is invited inside and presents the present to her teacher in person.
The contents are mince pies with plenty of ginger, which are more elaborate than last year’s. By the way, Professor Snape’s Christmas present was a hat. After the scarf, it was a simple choice of a hat.
“How are things going lately?”
Unlike last year, they have only met in Professor Snape’s study a few times this year.
“It’s normal.”
“Has anything changed?”
“Hmm, nothing in particular?”
“I see.”
Just because we met doesn’t mean we had anything special to talk about.
I thought for a moment that they might say something about causing the explosion of Zabini’s cauldron, but since they didn’t say anything, it seemed they didn’t realize that Leonor was the culprit.
They both sipped in silence the tea Professor Snape had made.
“Did you find the secret room?”
“Not yet.”
Professor Snape let out a heavy sigh.
“Do you know anything?”
Professor Snape says:
What’s the point of a teacher asking me something like that?
“There’s nothing I know beyond the teachers.”
Professor Snape looked at Leonor’s face for a while with a resigned look on his face.
Leonor really doesn’t know anything.
I wonder if the successor is already eyeing new victims as we speak.
Even though only a few students remained at school, the Great Hall was magnificent at Christmas.
There are many Christmas trees lined up and tables piled high with delicious food.
As she finished her second plate of Christmas pudding, Leonor caught Hermione’s eye and returned to the dormitory before Draco and the others. She was going to stay in the girls’ dormitory to avoid running into Draco and the others.
Leonor falls onto the bed and opens the black diary.
“What do you think the monster in the chamber of secrets is?”
“I never thought I’d hear that story again. What’s going on?”
“A successor has appeared, and several people have already been sacrificed.”
“That would cause a big panic at school.”
Not that he could say this to Leonor, but Tom’s reaction to the Chamber of Secrets was very standoffish.
“Isn’t Tom afraid of the monster in the Chamber of Secrets?”
“I wonder. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t scared. It must be a monster with extraordinary powers.”
Even though he says that, he doesn’t sound like he’s particularly afraid.
It’s no wonder Tom, who grew up in a Muggle orphanage, was frightened.
But, I see.
Tom isn’t a Muggleborn.
“…?”
Leonor tilted her head, feeling a slight discomfort as if a small fish bone was stuck in her throat, but she quickly forgot about it.
How was Christmas dinner?
“It was delicious. Did you get any Christmas presents when you were at the orphanage?”
“Of course not. At most we all had a slightly more luxurious dinner than usual.”
Leonor couldn’t help but smile at the familiarity.
“Me too.”
While talking with Tom, Leonor fell asleep.
When I first saw it, it was a bleak room.
Leonor was sitting on an iron cot.
“We finally met”
I looked up and saw Tom sitting next to me.
He has shiny black hair and a handsome face that doesn’t fit in with the shabby room.
Leonor was inwardly embarrassed by how close they were.
“Finally?”
“I’ve been wanting to meet you like this for ages. It just took longer than I thought.”
“Where are we?”
“In a dream.”
Leonor looks around the room.
The room was clean but old, shabby and small.
It’s a room where you can almost feel the coldness of the falling snow even through the walls.
“Is this Tom’s memory?”
“You could say that.”
“What brings me here?”
“I’d like you to get to know me a little better. And you can tell me a little about yourself.”
“You’ve already talked a lot.”
“That’s not enough. Seriously, you’re too difficult.”
Tom had a very beautiful face as he laughed awkwardly.
In conclusion, Malfoy was not the culprit.
Harry sprinted down the corridor, his large trousers falling down his legs and his hands pulling them up.
If he wasn’t Malfoy then who was he?
All those worries disappeared when I reached the ladies’ restroom on the third floor.
“Oh, you see, it was cat hair! Millicent has a cat!”
Hermione was crying, her face covered in black fur, her eyes had turned yellow, and her long, triangular ears were sticking out from under her long hair.
“And besides, you know what, potions aren’t supposed to be used to transform into animals!”
Myrtle looked more lively than she had ever looked as she goaded Hermione.
Getting a reluctant Hermione to the infirmary was a struggle, but Madam Pomfrey’s non-intrusive nature helped.
While normal Polyjuice Potion wears off after an hour, it seems it will take several weeks for Hermione to recover from being transformed into a cat.
Since the new term began, Harry and Ron have visited Hermione every day with the day’s homework.
“Any new clues?”
“Nothing.”
“I thought for sure it was Malfoy.”
Ron was right. That guess was wrong and we’re back to square one.
Hermione also received gifts from people other than Harry and his friends. Apparently, Leonor sometimes brings her class notes. She says that Harry and Ron’s notes aren’t enough.
Ron complained, but Harry thought that was understandable – they were already struggling a lot with their assignments without Hermione’s help.
Come to think of it, I haven’t seen Leonor recently.
When I see Leonor while we’re traveling, she’s as carefree as ever, but somehow she seems to be having more fun than usual.
“I think it could have been anyone you liked.”
“Leonor?”
Harry couldn’t help but ask again.
“That’s why.”
“Not possible,” Ron laughed.
“Boys are just kids.”
Hermione sulked and hit the pillow with her tail.
Harry spotted a golden get well card peeking out from under the pillow.
Hermione tries to hide it, but Ron jumps in, pulls it out, and reads it out loud.
Dear Miss Granger, I hope you get better soon.
Professor Gilderoy Lockhart, with deep concern for you
Ron stopped reading there, but even Harry, who hadn’t seen the text, could easily imagine that it then went on to list all sorts of awards the writer had received.
Hermione quickly snatched the card back.
“Sleeping with that thing under your pillow?”
On the way back from the infirmary Ron exclaimed in an exasperated voice.
Even Harry found it hard to believe.
If she’s as good as Hermione, it’s about time she realized just how incompetent Lockhart is.
I wonder if Leonor is also crazy about someone like that.
Harry tried to picture Leonor putting the card Malfoy had given him under her pillow, but quickly shook his head to stop.
That’s not the case.
I can’t imagine Leonor like that.
I’m sure something good happened.
“If you miss your sister-in-law so much, why don’t you go and see her?”
Tom’s question was sudden.
Did he really talk about Abby that often? Maybe. Or rather, Tom often brought up the topic of Abby.
“That’s impossible.”
Why?
Tom presses on.
Even though it’s Tom, I don’t like this story.
“I’ll never see Abby again.”
After writing a short reply, Leonor closed her diary.
I close my eyes and sigh.
I placed the diary next to my pillow and drank the contents of the vial.
Fear was in his blood.
The library after summer vacation.
Here he comes.
“Did you have a good summer vacation?”
“Not really.”
Luckily my voice wasn’t trembling.
“Am I looking for something again?”
“Why do you think I’m looking for something?”
“I was just asking.”
He grinned.
“It’s true that there is something I want to find right now. But this time, I’ll find it on my own.”
“Yes. I hope you can find it.”
He’s looking for something new, and I know what it is.
With a red light flickering in his eyes, his handsome face betrays wildness and desire.
Still, I admire him.
“Hi”
A refreshing voice came.
Leonor blinks at the sudden change of scene.
When I realized where I was, my mood inevitably sank.
It’s a tired looking room.
The wallpaper had a tiny arabesque pattern that was scratched in places, the window only showed the brick wall opposite, and an old closet with shelves full of books.
“This isn’t an orphanage.”
A handsome young man turns around from the barred window and says this.
“Yes, Tom.”
Tom sat down on the uncomfortable cot.
Black hair and handsome features.
But he looks like a different person than usual.
The desire on his face made Leonor feel a little uneasy.
“Tom?”
When Tom sat down the small bed seemed even smaller.
“You’re really a handful”
Tom says, looking around the room.
Though his voice remains gentle, Tom suddenly looks frightening.
“I don’t have time to kill time here. Can you help me? I’m having trouble getting out of this room.”
“…Just walk out the door.”
“You’ve never been out, have you?”
Leonor was silent.
“What’s behind that shelf?”
Tom sees a large bookshelf.
“…Nothing.”
“I wonder?”
Tom raises his hand.
“Stop it!”
Leonor exclaimed.
Tom made a gesture as if to brush it away, and the heavy bookshelf floated up and slid to the side, revealing the damaged wall behind it.
“You wanted to hide this?”
Leonor couldn’t look directly at the wall, which was riddled with countless scratches.
“I didn’t do it. What didn’t you do?”
Leonor didn’t answer.
“It’s really hard deciphering your memories. Can you tell me?”
scared.
A young man smiled gently in front of me.
“Get out! Get out of this room!”
Tom grinned, and the room started to distort and was sucked into the darkness.
09: Chasing the Red-Haired Rabbit
I don’t remember the dream that day, but I woke up in a terrible state. I just remember that it was a bad dream. Leonor sat up in bed and rubbed her face.
As I entered the great hall, I instinctively rubbed my eyes again.
The great hall is bright pink, and heart-shaped confetti is falling from the pale blue ceiling.
Leonor stopped dead in her tracks, dumbfounded.
“…Ah, Valentine.”
After a moment it dawned on me: there is only one person who could have done something like this: Lockhart.
Although the ceiling was a refreshing blue color, Leonor’s heart became even cloudier.
Then suddenly an idea occurred to me.
Let’s go to the library this afternoon.
I don’t know why, but I really feel like going to the library.
Wanting to leave the gaudy hall as quickly as possible, Leonor hurriedly gobbled down her breakfast, picking at the confetti in her stew.
That day, chaos was occurring all over the school due to the Cupid (a disguised dwarf) arranged by Lockhart. The library, which Madame Pince’s security is tight and the dwarfs cannot enter, has become a sort of refuge, and it is more crowded than usual.
Leonor sits down in a chair and suddenly takes out a black diary.
After flipping through the blank pages for a while, I put the diary back in my bag, wondering why I had taken it out when I had nothing to write in it.
As I listened intently to Lockhart’s boring afternoon lecture, another thought suddenly occurred to me.
That’s right, let’s go to the Gryffindor common room after school today.
For some reason, I feel like I have to go to Gryffindor.
Leonor spent the afternoon trying to avoid getting caught up in the gnomes’ confetti attacks as much as possible. After the day’s lessons were over, she retreated to the Gryffindor common room. Although she tried to avoid them as much as possible, the surly gnomes scattered confetti everywhere, and some even ended up in her bag.
Leonor emptied her bag of all its contents and shook it upside down.
Confetti flies all over the floor.
There was a lot more confetti in it than I expected.
Hermione giggles as she watches Leonor struggle with the confetti. Hermione is in a good mood today, even though Leonor, Harry, and Ron are all bored with Lockhart’s Valentine’s surprise.
“Whose luggage is this…?”
Ginny said as she returned to the common room and saw the items stacked on the desk.
“my”
Leonor replies, looking in her bag to see if there is any confetti left.
“Sorry, I’ll clean it up right away.”
After checking that the bag was clean, Leonor put her belongings back.
Unusually, Harry had already gone up to the boys’ dormitory, so he went and played with Fred and George, who were humming a strange song.
It’s been a while since I stayed up late in the chat room.
next morning.
When I woke up and reached for my pillow, I noticed that something was missing.
What about the diary?
I panicked and jumped out of bed.
I had completely forgotten.
I rummage through my bag but can’t find it.
Where is it!
Yesterday, I went to a lot of different places. And they were all crowded places.
Where did you leave it!
Leonor desperately tries to remember, but she is in a hurry and can’t remember well. Her thoughts are spinning like gears that have not meshed.
Calm down.
I remember putting my diary in my bag and heading out that morning.
And then, and then…
What happened all day yesterday?
I went to the library. That’s right, I took out my diary there but put it away without writing anything.
I also showed up at the Gryffindor table, but what happened there…
After school, I went to the Gryffindor common room. My bag was covered in confetti, I put my things on my desk, and then
“a “
“Whose luggage is this…?”
Thinking back, my voice was trembling at that time.
“…Ginny.”
They’re not matching.
J D – of day Note That’s what it was.
Ginny also spoke to Tom.
Why did you give me Tom’s diary?
There was no way that Ginny would give the diary to Leonor herself, since she was so reluctant for anyone to see it.
Someone had made Ginny give him the diary.
Who?
Tom
Was Tom manipulating Ginny?
But what’s the point in manipulating Ginny?
No way…
Ginny was first found unwell on Halloween night, on the steps just below where Filch’s cat had been petrified.
The Heirs are close enough to the victims that they know where they were born. I don’t know about the Hufflepuff students, but the camera boy was apparently paired with Ginny in class.
That’s too much of a leap…
But if Tom really was manipulating Ginny…
Leonor runs out of the girls’ dormitory.
There was a commotion in the common room. My bad feeling grew stronger.
Leonor asked Theodore, who happened to be there.
“Is something wrong?”
“We’ve got a new victim, a Ravenclaw prefect.”
That’s…
Really Ginny?
Leonor ran out. The Slytherin students in the common room turned to see what was going on, but Leonor didn’t even look at them.
I headed towards the nearest great hall where I thought Ginny might be.
Ginny was there.
He looks just as unwell as he did on Halloween.
When Ginny notices Leonor, she leaves through the door on the opposite side of the great hall.
Leonor ran after him.
Ginny climbed the stairs smoothly and without any sign of wobbling.
Ginny reached the third floor and made her way down the hallway.
Ginny stopped in front of a stone wall with red lettering.
Leonor caught up with him and stood behind him, breathing heavily.
“…Tom”
“So you noticed after all.”
It was Tom’s voice that answered.
“Is that Tom? The one attacking everyone?”
“That’s right. To think you even noticed that. That’s impressive.”
Ginny, facing the wall, was speaking in Tom’s voice.
“What did you do to me yesterday?”
Leonor has never revealed Tom’s diary in public before, much less will.people of Many stomach figure calligraphy room in day Note of Open stomach hand fruit Ta the law of nature story story room in desk of above To day Note of Out death S Pa N death To death Ta the law of nature N yeah hand
“It’s hard to tamper with your memories.”
Ginny was looking up at the writing on the wall.
“What did you do to Ginny?”
“Just like what I tried to do to you.”
Ginny turned around and a red light flickered in her eyes.
I know those eyes.
“But it didn’t work out with you. I’ll have to spend more time on it. Unfortunately, I’m busy. That’s why I wanted to get back to this little redhead. I can use her as I please.”
Ginny took out her wand and pointed it at Leonor.
“I knew you’d come after me.”
Ginny laughed, baring her canines.
The way he laughed was just like Tom.
Leonor has disappeared.
He really is nowhere to be found.
He’s not lazing around in the Slytherin girls’ dormitory, nor is he engrossed in a book in the library.
Given the timing, the only thing that could be thought of was that it was related to the Chamber of Secrets.
There have been two main speculations about Leonor’s disappearance.
One theory is that Leonor was a poor victim.
Leonor is not a Muggle-born. The Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff students who are not involved may know this, but most of the Slytherin and Gryffindor students know it. So why was Leonor kidnapped? Was she mistaken for a Muggle-born, or was she kidnapped to silence the Heir after learning something inconvenient about her? This theory caused anxiety among the pure-blood and half-blood students who had been tolerant of the series of events, thinking it was something that did not concern them. Students who wanted to escape from anxiety jumped to the second theory: that Leonor was the Heir.
A pure or half-blood, and a Slytherin. Those two things alone were evidence enough. And what’s more, Pevensie had reportedly been treated pretty badly by his Muggle adoptive family. The evidence and motive seemed plentiful enough that many students began whispering to each other that he was the Pevensie Heir.
“Leonor is not the heir…!”
Harry was outraged by the atmosphere throughout the school.
Anyone who knew that Leonor was not a Muggle-born would also know that she had no inkling of Slytherin-like blood purity.
There’s no way Leonor would do something like that.
Leonor is not the heir. Right?
I can still picture Leonor’s face as she smiled and told me she didn’t suspect Harry of being the culprit.
“Why Leonor…”
Harry held his head in his hands.
Ginny had looked pale since Leonor’s disappearance, the twins were dejected as usual, and Percy was also depressed and not his usual nagging.
A heavy mood hung over Gryffindor.
“Why Leonor…”
Draco held his head.
It is unlikely that Leonor is behind these events, as she was either mistaken for a Muggle-born or kidnapped to silence him.
Why did the heir take Leonor away instead of turning her to stone?
Is Leonor okay?
No way
No, he should be alive! Right?
At first glance, the Slytherin common room looks exactly the same as it did when Leonor ran away from home. However, Draco is not left out, and whispers can be heard here and there discussing the possibility of Leonor being the heir.
I wonder if one day he’ll just wander back to the dorm as if nothing had happened.
Draco’s vain fantasies never came true, and news of Dumbledore’s resignation broke.
Who could possibly find the Chamber of Secrets if not even Dumbledore could find it?
Time passed mercilessly, with Leonor still not being found.
A thick, fluffy carpet on a shiny, polished floor.
I often spend time with Abby in front of the fireplace in this room reading picture books and playing house.
But that’s not the case now.
Abby took Leonor’s stuffed toy without permission.
Abby is a good girl.
But she can also be assertive and selfish.
Once you start talking, they won’t listen.
“Abby, that’s mine. Give it back.”
“It’s Abby’s.”
It’s the same today.
“Hey Abby, just don’t do that. Give it back!”
“Yaa! It’s Abby’s!”
Abby shook her head in no accord and hugged the stuffed rabbit even tighter.
No, that’s mine.
This was mine given to me by Marriott.
That’s the one thing I can’t give up.
Leonor held out her hand.
“That’s mine! Give it back!”
“Yaa!”
Abby twisted her body to prevent the stuffed toy from being taken away.
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There was a bang! There was a sound, and broken glass fell on Abby and me…
“different!!”
Leonor’s loud voice distorted the scenery.
When I came to, I was crouching in a room with old wallpaper, holding my head.
I found Tom sitting on the old bed.
Still shaking from the shock, Leonor stood up and glared at the beautiful young man.
“Did Tom do it?”
“What do you mean?”
“I just had a dream. Did you mess with my memories?”
“Don’t mess with me. I told you, your memory is tricky.”
Tom says this without looking at Leonor, just looking at his hands.
“Don’t lie to me. You were messing around, weren’t you? I didn’t break the window!”
Leonor stood directly in front of Tom, who was sitting on the bed.
“How can you be so sure?”
Tom looks up at Leonor’s face with eyes that are enchantingly gentle, yet spine-chilling.
“Being locked in this room must have been a shock to you. Do you really remember exactly what happened at that time?”
“Of course! There’s no way I’d forget!”
Leonor trembles with anger and raises her voice.
There’s no way I could forget.
I didn’t hurt Abby.
This was his only source of support during his long period of imprisonment.
I wrote it down over and over again so I wouldn’t forget.
“Really?”
Tom whispers.
“Are you sure you didn’t break the window? Did you ever have the slightest thought of wanting to hurt your sister? Did you write the writing on the wall to make yourself believe that you weren’t deliberately trying to hurt her?”
Tom makes a gesture as if sweeping his hand towards the wall.
When I turned around, the writing had disappeared from the wall behind the shifted bookshelf.
“No! I didn’t do that!”
“You can tell me the truth.”
Tom’s voice whispers in my ear.
I turned around and found myself in a carpeted room.
Abby was standing in front of a large window holding a stuffed toy.
“Look,”
From behind, Tom makes Leonor take his hand.
Glass breaks and rains down on Abby.
“Huh…”
Leonor woke up and groaned in pain.
I shook my head, trying to drive away the nightmare I had just had.
I raised my heavy body.
It’s dark. Where am I?
It was a very damp place. I stretched out my hand and touched the cold stone wall. It was slimy and covered with moss or something. Feeling my way around, and with my eyes gradually getting used to the darkness, I realized that there was a stone tunnel nearby. It twisted and turned and led upwards.
Was it dropped from above?
Considering the bruise-like pain all over his body, that was probably about it.
My eyes had gotten used to the darkness, and I looked down at my body. My whole body was sticky, and my trousers and robe were frayed in places.
There were several small bottles in the inside pocket of my robe. I had instinctively put them in there when I came out of the dormitory. Maybe somewhere in my head I had expected this to happen.
The wand was gone. Ginny had taken it, probably Tom.
Ginny.
I wonder if it’s okay.
To what extent is Ginny aware of the way she is being manipulated? Does she remember nothing, or is she fully aware of it but unable to resist?
Anyway, I hope nothing happened to Ginny.
Leonor thought so nonchalantly.
Leonor opens the stuffed cloth bag lying next to her.
The smell of bread wafted through the humid tunnel.
Inside the cloth bag were bread, cheese, and other foods that would last for a long time, all wrapped in paper. There was also a water bag.
It doesn’t seem like he was dropped here with the intention of killing someone.
I took a sip from the water bag. It was just regular water.
Considering Tom had glared at me, this was surprisingly good treatment.
They say that if you get lost, it’s best not to move around, but I don’t think it’s good to have no idea where I am. Besides, I don’t think help is coming anytime soon, and it seems stupid to just keep waiting here.
Leonor slung the sack over her shoulder and followed one of the walls deeper into the tunnel, so that when she wanted to go back she could simply follow the wall in the opposite direction.
It wasn’t completely dark, but all I could see was the dull glow of water droplets on the damp wall close to me.
The wall curves and continues on and on.
After counting one hundred steps, Leonor stopped.
Nothing has happened up to this point.
It was only a hundred steps, but it felt like an endless distance.
Leonor sat down with her back against the wall and sighed.
I’m tired. My body hurts all over.
A world where you can’t see anything and only have to rely on the feel of the walls.
He wondered how long it had been since Ginny had attacked him. Hours? Days?
What will become of me here?
First of all, where am I?
All I can think of are questions.
I thought about it over and over, but I couldn’t get any thoughts together because of the anxiety and strange tension. In the first place, it wasn’t like I would find the answer even if I thought about it.
Eventually, Leonor grew tired from thinking, so she leaned her back against the damp wall and closed her eyes.
10:It takes all the runningKeep Running
“Is Mom happy?”
I knew it without even asking.
“I’m happy. I couldn’t be happier.”
My mother, sitting comfortably in an armchair, smiled and put her hand on my cheek.
“I’m blessed with such a cute daughter”
My mother and I were very different.
He’s researching his origins.
When I said that, my mother’s face clouded over for the first time.
“Abby! Give it back!”
“Yaaaah!”
Abby twists her body to prevent her stuffed toy from being taken away.
I clench my hands tightly.
There was a crash and glass broke and rained down on Abby and me.
There’s still no one in the great hall.
After casting the blinding spell, he proceeded to poison every drink on the Slytherin breakfast table.I reach
So that he won’t worry about Judith any more.
So that he loses interest in Judith.
I reach Once he has finished poisoning everything, he leaves the great hall without removing the blinding spell.
While eating breakfast with the other students, he sneaks a peek at the Slytherin table.I reach
“Abby!”
“Yaa!”
I clench my hands tightly.
There was a crash and glass broke and rained down on Abby and me.
“What do you want? I don’t have much. You know I’m an orphan.”
“I’m not interested in wealth or fortune.”
“Then what would be good?”
I looked up at his face.
His black eyes met my own.
“I want your blood”
“My blood?”
He says in surprise.
“Abby! Give it back!”
“Yaa!”
Abby hugs a stuffed toy.
I clench my hands tightly.
There was a “Crash!!” sound.
Large pieces of debris fall on Abby and me…
“Huh…!”
Leonor wakes up and lets out a groan.
I held my throbbing head in my hands.
How many days have passed?
I hardly slept at all.
When she sleeps, Abby has nightmares about Tom.
I was barely able to sleep while I was seeing Judith’s memories. However, the moment my memories ended, Abby’s dreams started to flow in, so I could only sleep in fragments.
But I can’t drink too much blood at once. I don’t know when I’ll be able to get out of here, so I want to leave some behind.
We still have plenty of food and water, so I never thought I’d be so overwhelmed by lack of sleep.
My dirty, sticky hair clings to me. It’s disgusting.
“You’re pretty stubborn.”
Tom was there.
It looks like a mist.
Why is Tom there?
Am I dreaming again?
“Not long now. Please keep me company to kill time. There’s something I want to confirm.”
Tom seems happy for some reason. It pisses me off.
But closing my eyes would only bring me to another nightmare.
Tom walks toward the end of the tunnel, more like gliding than walking, looking like a ghost.
“Where are you going?”
“This way.”
Leonor put both hands on the wall to support her unsteady body and followed Tom.
I wonder how far I walked.
Tom stopped in front of a wall and looked at it lovingly.
“what?”
Leonor called out with a fuzzy head.
“Here.”
Leonor stood next to Tom.
As my eyes adjusted, a truly gorgeous sculpture came into view. Snakes, each scale carefully carved, were entwined together. Their large eyes were shining an emerald green.
“This?”
“Go inside here.”
“So?”
“You are certainly difficult to manipulate. Your memories are hard to read, and tampering with them would be extremely difficult. But you are very familiar with me.”
Tom runs his hand over the sculpture with a dreamy look on his face.
“Isn’t there a contradiction?”
“But it’s true. In fact, even when you’re away from the diary, I can still appear to you like this. So I was thinking.”
“…What?”
“The reason why I’m so familiar with your soul.”
“So…you came up with it?”
“Yeah, but I want to be sure.”
” So what are we going to do?”
I don’t care, I just want to lie down.
“I need you to open the door.”
” how?”
“You understand, right?”
“…What?”
I’m at my limit. I’m sleepy. I haven’t slept enough and my head hurts.
“Just say open.”
“That’s something Tom should say.”
Please spare me.
“You tell me what you think.”
Tom continues to press on.
Leonor sighed and spoke.
?Open.?
The tangled snakes parted and the heavy door creaked open.
Ignoring Tom, who was gazing at her with a flickering red light in his eyes and looking somehow happy, Leonor staggered through the door.
It was a spacious room.
Many thick, carved stone pillars stood facing the ceiling, high up and out of sight.
Leonor sat down with her back against one of the pillars.
I can’t keep my eyes open anymore.
I saw Tom crouching nearby, peering at me.
“See, it’s just as I thought.”
“…What is it?”
“Don’t you realize what you just did?”
“…What?”
Tom has the look of excitement on his face, like a child who has found a treasure on a treasure hunt.
What did I just do?
I only opened the door because Tom told me to.
“I was surprised. That father and son were able to meet by chance.”
I’m having a hard time understanding what Tom is saying.
What is Tom saying?
Unable to resist the pull of sleep, Leonor lost consciousness.
How many days has it been since Leonor disappeared?
Hermione was probably still counting, but Harry couldn’t bear it any longer and stopped counting, because every time the number went up, the probability that Leonor was alive decreased.
Everything he does reminds him of Leonor. Even though he’s a Slytherin, he’s always hanging out in Gryffindor, so even when he’s in the common room, he can’t help but remember that Leonor isn’t there.
Hermione had stopped raising her hand in class, instead attending class in silence and hanging out in the library after class, Harry knew she was searching for any clues that might lead to the Chamber of Secrets.
Harry looked out the window at the drizzling rain.
Leonor must be alive.
Harry believed it, but as he saw the teachers’ faces becoming more and more impatient with each passing day, he felt a sense of helplessness.
Filch’s curses were coming out loud and clear.
It’s really damp and cold.
Water seems to be seeping into the room.
When I looked closely, I saw that the hallway was really wet.
Harry and Ron looked at each other and decided to sneak off to check on them, while Hermione remained in the library again.
The third-floor hallway was flooded, and water was still trickling out from under Myrtle’s bathroom door as they watched.
With a quick glance, while Filch left to get some cleaning supplies, the two of them slipped into Myrtle’s bathroom, which was flooded to the point that it looked completely different from the toilet that had been filled with it for a month to make polyjuice.
There was a loud noise coming from the toilet in the back.
“What’s the matter, Myrtle?”
Harry called out.
“Who is it? Did you come to throw something at me again?”
Myrtle makes a plaintive noise from inside the bathroom.
“Why would we throw something at you?”
Ron asks.
“I don’t know anything about that.”
The water gurgled and overflowed in time with Myrtle’s voice.
Harry’s eye was caught by a small book that had fallen on the floor in front of the toilet.
Did someone throw this at Myrtle?
Harry picked it up, soaking wet. It was a black leather-bound diary. The date, fifty years ago, was just barely visible. Harry read out the name on the first page.
“T.M. Riddle”
“T.M. Riddle?”
Ron, who had been a few steps away from the mysterious diary, crept over and peered over Harry’s shoulder.
“I know that guy. He was the one who received a special achievement award from our school fifty years ago.”
“How do you know?”
“I spent the whole night polishing the commemorative plaque with slug gunk as an abrasive, so you’ll remember it whether you like it or not.”
Come to think of it, it was Leonor who said that slug mucus is an abrasive. Again, they were reminded of Leonor and their faces clouded over.
“What are you going to do about that?”
Ron gave him a creepy look.
“I’m just curious.”
Maybe it had something to do with the Room of Secrets. I had no reason to think that, but I wanted any clue that would lead me to Leonor.
Harry picked up the diary and put it back into his robes.
They left Myrtle’s bathroom before Filch returned.
After class in the common room, Harry shows the diary to Hermione.
“It’s a fifty-year-old diary, so maybe it contains something that leads to the Chamber of Secrets.”
Hermione seemed to be thinking the same thing as Harry, as she pulled a bright red eraser from her bag.
“It’s rubber, I bought it in Diagon Alley.”
Hermione scrubbed the diary page with her eraser but nothing happened.
The three of them were silent as they looked down at the diary, which hadn’t changed.
Hermione sighs.
“…I wonder why that is. Leonor is at least half-blood. And to have been taken away…”
“Maybe she found out something that would be bad for the Heir to know. Even last year she kept quiet about Quirrell chasing her in the middle of the night.”
The three of them were silent again. They had been through this exchange many times before.
“There’s no point in staying like this. I’m going to go up to the dorm and read a book.”
Hermione went up to the girls’ dormitory and the two of them went up to the boys’ dormitory.
Under the canopy, Harry opens his blank diary.
Tom Riddle.
It may be his imagination that they seem like old friends, because Harry had no friends before he came to this school.
As Harry leafed through the pages, a sudden idea occurred to him: he dropped some ink onto a blank page.
The ink glowed brightly on the paper for a moment, then disappeared.
Harry suppressed his excitement and began writing with his quill again.
“I’m Harry Potter”
The words Harry wrote glowed, then faded, and finally the words appeared.
“Hello, Harry Potter. I’m Tom Riddle. How did you find this diary?”
Harry pumped his fist in his bed.
“Someone was trying to flush it down the toilet.”
“I see. I’m glad I recorded my memories in a way that will last much longer than ink.”
Were you a student at Hogwarts?
“that’s right”
Harry scribbled excitedly.
Do you know anything about the secret room?
“Of course I know about the Chamber of Secrets. It was opened when I was in the fifth year. A monster attacked several students, and eventually killed one of them. I caught the person who opened it, and he was expelled.”
“It’s happening again now. Four people were attacked and one of my friends was taken. Can you tell me who was responsible last time?”
I wrote it carefully, but in reality I was screaming inside.
“I can show you if you want. You can choose to believe me or not. I can take you back to the night I caught the culprit.”
Harry didn’t hesitate.
“please”
The pages of the diary were turned over as if by the wind, and stopped on a certain date. The date looked like a television screen. Harry put his face close to it, but was pulled in and fell into the small screen.
He walked over here.
“I’ve heard you’re knowledgeable.”
This is the first time I’ve heard from him.
Looking up directly at him, he has a very handsome face.
“I know what you want to know.”
He sat down next to me on the bench and put his arm around my shoulders.
His face is so close I can feel his breath.
“Why didn’t you say anything until now?”
“Abby! Give it back!”
“Yaa!”
Abby holding my stuffed animal.
I clench my hands tightly.
The window broke. Large shards fell on Abby and me.
“It was Hagrid…!”
Harry yelled, his voice cracking.
“Surely Hagrid has no reason to do this?”
Ron tilted his head.
Hermione grimaced as well.
“But I remember from Tom’s memory that Hagrid had a hairy monster in the school.”
Harry once again detailed to them the memory he had seen in Tom’s diary.
However, Hermione still looked troubled.
“I don’t think so, Hagrid. I can’t deny that he likes dangerous creatures, but he wouldn’t willingly try to hurt anyone.”
“Dumbledore trusts Hagrid a lot, doesn’t he? I wonder if he would do something like this.”
Harry thought the same, and he didn’t want to believe that Hagrid was the culprit.
“This series of events was clearly perpetrated by someone with malicious intent.”
“But then what do I remember seeing?”
“Harry, we barely know anything about this Tom Riddle guy, do we? Maybe you shouldn’t trust him so much.”
Harry groaned.
I thought I had a clue to the secret room, but it’s like I’ve made no progress.
“But Tom knew about the incident fifty years ago. He might know some other clues.”
“Yeah, I’ll ask Tom again.”
That’s what he thought, but when he got back to the common room he found a panicked Neville waiting for him. Harry’s belongings around his bed had been ransacked. The inside of his suitcase was in a mess, and the contents of the drawers in the side cupboard had been spilled all over the bed.
Who would do something like this?
As Harry is packing his things and realizes that his diary is missing, he swears so Neville can’t hear.
“Damn! I might have found out about the Chamber of Secrets, but now I have no leads.”
Hermione was stunned when she told him the diary was missing.
“Well, only Gryffindors are allowed in. I’m sure they didn’t want Harry to talk to Tom’s diary.”
“But that means you knew I had the diary. How did you know I had it?”
“I don’t know. Maybe we were talking louder than we thought… Yes, voices!”
Suddenly Hermione looked startled.
“what happened?”
“I have to go to the library! And you guys too!”
Hermione runs off, with Harry and Ron chasing after her.
“What’s wrong?”
Ron asked, out of breath.
“I found the monster in the Chamber of Secrets!!”
“Really?!”
The three of them hurriedly ran into the library, but Madame Pince was not there.
Hermione ran to a bookshelf at the back and brought out a thick, dusty illustrated book.
“This is it!”
They both looked at the page Hermione had opened to.
“Basilisk?”
“Hey, come on, they say that anyone who makes eye contact with you dies, so everyone has been turned to stone, right?”
“I’ll explain in order!”
“Hermione said angrily at Ron’s interruption.
“Firstly, if the Basilisk has a lifespan of hundreds of years, it wouldn’t be strange if it had been living in the Chamber since the last time it was opened, or even since Salazar Slytherin left Hogwarts. The symbol of Slytherin is a snake, and it makes sense that only Harry heard the eerie voice, considering he’s a Parselmouth. Also, Leonor once said that the corridor was full of feathers. They weren’t owl feathers, but some other bird feathers. I’m sure they were rooster feathers.
Anyone who looks into the Basilisk’s eyes will die instantly, but everyone saw them through something. Colin saw them through a camera, Justin saw them through Nick, Nick can’t die twice because he’s a ghost, and I overheard that Penelope from Ravenclaw had a hand mirror.”
“And Mrs. Norris?”
“In the reflection of the water overflowing from Myrtle’s toilet.”
“But I didn’t see any creature like that when I heard the voice.”
If I had seen it, I probably wouldn’t be alive today.
“Plumbing.”
Hermione replied immediately.
“Hogwarts has been remodeled many times, and it seems there are no blueprints left, so there’s no way to be sure.”
“That’s it! I heard voices from inside the walls!”
Plus, Hermione added.
“Do you remember the conversation between Leonor and Myrtle?”
“Leonor and Myrtle talking?”
“When did you say Myrtle was a student at Hogwarts?”
“…Fifty years ago! Does that mean Myrtle was the victim of the Chamber of Secrets fifty years ago?”
“I think there’s a good chance. Maybe the girls’ bathroom is the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets. Maybe if we talk to Myrtle we can find out.”
“Before that, someone should tell the professor. We’re pretty sure the monster in the Chamber of Secrets is a basilisk, right?”
For once, Ron gives a calm opinion.
“Yes, that would be better.”
Hermione, who was about to head to the ladies’ bathroom on the third floor, frowned as if surprised at what she had done.
The three of them hurried to the staff room.
Here he comes.
“Hello,” he said, sitting across from me. His pale hands were adorned with gold and black rings.
He adjusts the ring caringly.
“Did you have a good summer vacation?”
“Not really.”
Luckily my voice wasn’t trembling.
“Am I looking for something again?”
“Why do you think I’m looking for something?”
“I was just asking.”
Abby won’t let go of her stuffed toy.
I clench my hands tightly.
There was a crash and glass broke and rained down on Abby and me.
Harry and the others headed to Lockhart’s room, who had been assigned to rescue Leonor.
It was clearly a deployment to get rid of a nuisance, but Lockhart was better than nothing.
As the three of them hid in a closet in the staff room, McGonagall announced that Ginny had been turned to stone and that the Heir had left a new message, which meant that the school would be closed.
All teachers except Lockhart are preparing for the school’s closure.
Ron’s face was white as a rock as his sister had been turned to stone.
“Ron, I know this is a bit rude of me to say, but Ginny was only turned to stone. Mandrake Potion will bring her back to normal.”
“I know… but being turned to stone was just a coincidence, right? Ginny was lucky. If she had looked the Basilisk directly in the eye…”
Ron shivered.
Harry and Hermione also felt a chill run down their spines.
Really, we’ve all been lucky so far.
Leonor is…
“teacher?”
Hermione knocked on Lockhart’s door.
The thuds and hurried footsteps coming from inside stopped for a moment.
The door was opened just a crack and Lockhart’s eyes peeked in.
“Yes, Miss Granger and Mr. Potter and you “
His usual confident expression was gone, and for some reason his face was pale and covered in cold sweat.
“I’m busy right now… please leave your business for another time…”
“Sir, there’s something I want to tell you! About the Chamber of Secrets!”
“Oh, uh, no, that’s…”
It seems a bit unclear.
“What were you doing, sir?”
Thinking this was suspicious, Harry ignored Hermione’s cry of “Hey! Harry!” and pushed hard against the door Lockhart was holding.
The room was in disarray.
The portraits hanging on the walls had been hastily removed, and two trunks had been placed in the middle of the room; one contained a jumble of colorful robes, the other a jumble of books.
“Professor Lockhart? What’s this?”
Hermione is stunned.
“No matter how you look at it, you’re preparing to run away.”
Ron said quietly.
“Um, well, I was called away urgently.”
Harry pressed Lockhart mercilessly as he stammered.
“You’re a Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher and you’re running away?”
“This wasn’t written in the job description!”
“But it says in the book that you’ve achieved so many brilliant feats up until now?”
“Mr. Potter, books can be misleading. I simply played the part that people wanted me to play, doing the things that people wanted me to do.”
“So that’s all just a hoax?”
“No, no, it’s not that simple. First, I need to find the people who have actually achieved those feats. I need to find out how they accomplished their tasks. Then I can use the forgetting spell. The only magic I’m proud of is forgetting. You’re going to have to experience it for yourself now.”
“Expelliarmus!”
Lockhart’s arm was raised high, but it did not come down; his wand flew into the air.
Ron catches it.
“So you’re saying the teacher is a fraud?”
Hermione said after casting the spell, pointing her wand at Lockhart.
The voice was quietly spoken, but there was undoubtedly anger in it, and to Harry it seemed even more frightening than an angry McGonagall.
“Come with me, sir. I’ll let you be the canary in the coal mine. You can do that even if you can’t do spells, right?”
Lockhart cringed at Hermione’s quiet anger.
Letting Lockhart walk ahead of them, the three of them headed to the ladies’ bathroom on the third floor.
First, everyone went to look for the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets. If there really was an entrance, they would go and inform the teachers. At the request of the two, they decided to have Hermione go and inform the teachers. Of the three, Hermione, who was a Muggle-born, was the most dangerous, and Harry wanted to go and rescue Leonor as soon as possible if there really was an entrance.
On the stone wall in the hallway in front of the toilets, red letters were shining dully. New words had been added underneath the original letters.
The time has come. Bow before us, our successors.headKobe
The four of them glanced at the writing on the wall and stepped into the toilet, which had a sign saying it was out of order.
Returning to the lounge, I looked up at the contents of the syringe from behind the curtains of my bed.
…the damp toilet, the hissing of a boy’s voice, the sound of something being dragged, two big yellow eyes, and suddenly my body relaxed…
When I opened my eyes, I found myself on the bed.
His voice was unmistakable.
I cover my face with my hands.
It’s so scary.
Disgusting.
“Give it back!”
“Yaa!”
“Abby!!”
Abby hugged the stuffed animal even tighter.
I clench my hands tightly.
The window glass breaks with a loud noise.
Abby’s eyes widen in fear. Large pieces of debris fall on Abby and me…
“Huh…”
I’m too lazy to even move my hands anymore.
My head hurts like it’s splitting.
“Dammit…”
I knew it without even looking up.
There is Tom there.
“I was in the middle of telling you a story because you fell asleep.”
Who do you think is keeping you up?
“…What is it?”
“You know, we’re father and daughter.”
” that’s why?”
“How cold.”
“…I’ve never had a father. Even if you, a random guy like me, say you’re my father, I don’t care.”
“Are you serious? You are a descendant of the great Salazar Slytherin?”
“…I’m a descendant of Slytherin?”
“You opened the door with Parseltongue.”
…Did I do that?
Leonor looked up at Tom.
“…It seems a bit darker than before.”
“That’s what I’m aiming for.”
Tom is smiling gently, his face so beautiful that I would be overjoyed if I hadn’t been subjected to such a sight.
“At first, I approached you because I wanted to know more about Viviere. Ginny told me about you. A family that can see memories of the past. How could I not be intrigued? There was a Viviere in my class too. I wonder why I wasn’t interested in you guys back then. Anyway, that’s why I approached you, but unfortunately, I couldn’t get any information out of you in my current state. I didn’t have the time, and above all, you yourself don’t know enough about the family. Even if I was able to see your own memories, I couldn’t get at your past memories.
So I decided to change my plan. It seems that you are my daughter. I wasn’t able to extract any information from you, but our souls are familiar with each other. After weakening you, I decided to use your body. What’s more, I can extract the information later.”
Tom looks down at Leonor with a big smile on his face, like a predator that has found its prey.
Leonor felt something touch her hand and lowered her gaze.
It’s like a black leather-covered notebook – a diary.
“Why is the diary here…?”
Ginny has Tom’s diary.
Leonor’s eyes widened in shock.
Ginny!!
A chill runs down my spine.
Leonor glared at Tom.
“What did you do to Ginny?!”
“I didn’t kill her. She’s a pureblood. Pureblood blood should be valued.”
“You say that, even though you’re a half-blood.”
Tom’s handsome face contorts dramatically.
“…?”
I feel uncomfortable with the words I said.
…I see.
It’s not that Tom is half-blood , it’s because Tom is half-blood.Thoughts S Ta knowledge S hand stomach R
This slight discomfort, like a small bone stuck in my throat. I feel like I’ve had this feeling before.
That was… when I was talking to Tom in my diary.
Even then, I thought it was weird that Tom wasn’t a Muggleborn .knowledge S hand stomach Ta
How do I know Tom is half-blood when I’ve never heard anything about him other than that he came from an orphanage?
“You’re so carefree. Shouldn’t you be worrying about yourself instead of worrying about the little one?”
My body feels heavy and I can’t move.
I finally realised that it wasn’t just due to lack of sleep.
“Are you trying to take over my body?”
“that’s right”
Tom looks down at Leonor gracefully.
The outline seemed much clearer than before.
Ah, so it ends here.
An icy cold rises up through my legs.
Just before losing consciousness, Leonor mustered her remaining strength and gulped down the vial of blood in a final act of resistance.
11: Off your head
“Tom Riddle?”
“Hi”
Harry went ahead, leaving Ron and Lockhart behind as they were blocked by falling rubble, and found Tom in the Chamber of Secrets, looking exactly as he had in his memory.
Harry puts his hand on Leonor’s cheek as she lies on the floor. It’s cold. How…
“She’s not dead.”
Said a young man, whose features were darker than a ghost’s, but definitely not those of an ordinary living human.
A black diary was lying next to Leonor. It was the diary that had been stolen from Harry’s luggage.
“Why is the diary here?”
“Little Weasley brought it to me.”
“Ginny? Why Ginny?”
Harry looks up at Tom in confusion.
Tom was leaning against the wall with his arms folded, looking down at me – he looked handsome even here, so he must have been very popular at school.
“Did you expect that? It was Ginny Weasley who opened the Chamber of Secrets. It was the little one who wrote the threatening message on the stone wall, and who sent the Basilisk to attack the three Mudbloods.”
Harry couldn’t believe his ears.
“No way.”
“For months Ginny wrote her worries and concerns in the diary. I can get bored of listening to the nonsense of an eleven-year-old’s troubles, but I’m good at magnetic people, so the little one confided in me; she poured her soul out to me. I gained power by preying on her deepest fears and darkest secrets, and in return I gave a little of my power to Ginny, who opened the Chamber of Secrets. Ginny never knew what she was doing, and those early diaries were quite entertaining.”
Tom laughs and shakes his head, thinking back to Ginny’s diary.
Harry had unknowingly been holding Leonor’s hand, which was loose and relaxed, absorbing the heat from Harry’s hand.
“It took me a long time to stop trusting the diary. After I dropped Leonor here, the stupid little guy finally realised it was suspicious and threw it down the toilet. But then someone picked it up – you, Harry. I wanted to talk to you.”
Tom’s greedy gaze licked Harry’s forehead, his face betraying desire and looking even more distorted than it already was.
Harry managed a voice through his parched throat.
“Why me?”
“The Boy-Who-Lived, who supposedly defeated the greatest wizard of all time. How did you do it, you were just a baby with no powers? How did you escape Lord Voldemort with only a single scar?”
Tom continued talking, more as if he was asking himself than questioning Harry.
“Voldemort is after you. Why do you care?”
“Voldemort is my past, present and future.”
It took a moment for Tom’s whisper to reach Harry’s head.
Harry stared in amazement as Tom took a wand from his pocket and wrote shiny silver letters in the sky.
TOM MARVOLO RIDDLE
With a wave of the wand the letters rearrange.
I AM LORD VOLDEMORT
“you !?”
“Yes,” Harry finally managed.
“You think I’d want to keep my filthy Muggle father’s surname forever?”
Tom snorted.
“My joy at meeting you was short-lived when the silly little guy took the diary back from you. When Ginny saw you had it she thought her secret would be revealed so she rummaged through your belongings. I was really disappointed when it was the little guy who wrote in the diary again. He goes out of his way to get better. But it was just the right time. I was just about to finish this baby.”
Tom chins up at Leonor as if she were his property.
“So I left a message on the wall, and turned the little guy to stone, since he was no longer needed.”
“Why did you take only Leonor?”
“Don’t you know what a special family this child comes from?”
Tom wanders off, fiddling with his wand, and Harry realizes that the wand he is holding belongs to Leonore.
“I knew about Leonor because she often came up in Ginny’s daily stories. She was a Slytherin girl who was good friends with the Boy Who Lived, whom I had a crush on. At first, that was all. But then one day, Ginny told me something interesting about Leonor. That’s when I first realized that she was a descendant of Vivi re.”
Tom nods at Leonor again.
“Her grandmother helped me a little. I wanted to talk to the girl, so I got Ginny to give her the diary. This girl is full of information, but she’s tricky to handle. She’s friendly with spirits, but difficult to interfere with. I wanted time to weaken her, so I got Leonor to return the diary to Ginny, and had Ginny drop the girl here.”
Leonor was also talking about Tom’s diary.
Familiarity with the soul? Interference?
There are so many words I don’t understand.
Rather than that, weaken Leonor?
“What have you done to Leonor?”
Harry yelled as anger surged through his body.
“It’s nothing special.”
Tom shrugged.
“She was just having a dream from a little while ago, a dream that I had tweaked just a little. As I said, I feed off people’s deepest fears and dark secrets. I had her dream and expanded that darkness just a little. Harry, you don’t know why Leonor ended up in foster care, do you?”
The reason why Leonor was imprisoned by her foster parents for four years.
Harry had never heard of it.
But whenever Leonor talks about the past, her face becomes as blank as a Noh mask.
That alone is enough to show how painful those four years of confinement must have been for Leonor.
“What the hell!”
Harry yelled in anger.
“Say whatever you want. She’s mine now.”
Tom ignored Harry’s words and stopped in front of the wall, looking up.
Harry looked at Leonor’s face, which was pale and her eyes were tightly closed.
Suddenly a question arose in my mind.
“Why are you telling me so much detail?”
I don’t know what Tom is like normally, but he’s been very talkative since they met here. He has no obligation to tell Harry why he took Leonor away.
“I thought of it as a souvenir for the underworld.”
Tom’s words sent a chill down Harry’s spine.
“The secret to how you escaped from my future self. I don’t need to ask you directly, as long as Leonor is there, anything can be done. As long as your blood is still there, that is. I’d like you to leave now.”
Tom was looking up at the wall, which was a statue of Salazar Slytherin.
A hiss escapes Tom’s mouth.
Far above, I saw the face of the Slytherin statue move.
“Now, let’s see what the Boy Who Lived can do.”
A wicked smile appeared on Tom’s handsome face.
” !”R D R , to M
The boy steps forward.
Is there such a coincidence?
The hat cried out “Slytherin!” as soon as it touched his head, and my cousin was greeted by the people at the end table.
I followed him with my eyes.
“Mom”
When he called out to her, her mother turned around from where she had been looking at the garden.
“I talked to my cousin at school.”
“The child of Merope and that boy from Riddle Mansion.”
“Yes. He’s researching his origins.”
When I said that, my mother’s face clouded over for the first time.
“It’s okay. No one will ever know you’re here.”
A corner of the library.
A deserted corner lined with thick Muggle books.
There he was, in that corner. That guy.
His brow was slightly furrowed and he was sitting seriously at his desk, his face as perfect as a stone statue.
“You’re making some interesting stuff.”
Red eyes stare back at me.
“…Vivi re?”
“I’ve always wondered, what does the M in Tom M. Riddle stand for?”
“Marvolo.”
“Marvolo, right?”
As I thought, it was just as I expected.
It’s been a while since I’ve heard that name. I don’t miss it one bit, though.
“Why do you care?”
“I was just curious. But you really make some unusual things. Are you planning on making something small?”RiddlesRiddle
What he was obsessed with was writing in a blank diary.
Oh, I see.
I thought that was strange.
How did he know that Tom was half-blood?
It was a matter of course.
Because I knew it all from the beginning.
Suddenly, as if the radio frequency had been tuned in, I heard a shout.
This was followed by the sound of something being dragged.
The air is humid.
Another scream.
This voice is probably Harry’s.
My eyes are blurred. My vision is blurred, like after crying, and my eyelids feel heavy.
My left shoulder blade and hip bone hurt as if they had been bruised.
An otherworldly cry echoed.
“It’s a smell! Follow the smell! Kill the boy!”
A yell came from nearby. It was Parseltongue.
There was a roar, the sound of hard stone shattering and hitting the floor, and then a shout of abuse. There was a threatening whoosh, and more sound of stone shattering. And then the sound of a boy screaming.
Stand up, Leonor.
This is a secret room.
There’s Tom Riddle.
Dumbledore is not nearby.
I can’t die in a place like this.
I reach So we have to do something about him.
We can’t let the blood bond we’ve had together end here.
My whole body feels as heavy as lead, and even more so, it feels like I have a pile of gold bars embedded in my spine.
Shift your center of gravity to one side and try to raise your body from a supine position.
There was a beautiful bird and the Sorting Hat was lying around.
“Why can you get up?”
The familiar voice somehow sounded high-pitched.
I laughed at the slight agitation in his voice.
“Marvolo. What a nostalgic name.”
Leonor looked up at Riddle and smiled.
“Why can you move? It’s only because I absorbed your magical power that I have gained a physical form.”
Tom looked quizzically at Leonor as she slowly stood up, hands on her knees.
Tom’s attention was diverted and Harry took a step further from the Basilisk than before.
“You wouldn’t know. You’re writing a diary.”
Leonor nodded to herself.
Tom’s face contorts.
“No wonder you don’t know. You’re forever sixteen. A soul separated from its body.”I reach
Leonor leaned forward slightly and looked at Tom’s face, like an adult paying attention to a relative’s child.
“Tom, you really aren’t like your mother. You look nothing like her. You look just like your father.”
Leonor smiled seductively and looked at Tom with her blue eyes.
“What do you mean? How do you know my parents?”
Tom moved his wand uneasily.
Harry looked towards Tom and the others between attacks from the Basilisk.
After Leonor regained consciousness, Tom didn’t pay any attention to us at all.
Something seems strange.
It’s strange that Tom is irritated, and it’s strange for Leonor too.
Of all times, she was smiling at a time like this.
And what he’s saying doesn’t make any sense.
“Well, I remember my sister’s face. And the boy who lived in Riddle House. I never thought she’d end up with that Muggle boy.”
Tom’s face contorts even more.
He seemed to be offended by the term Muggle boy.
The Basilisk, whose eyes had been blinded by the phoenix and which had been following Harry by sound and scent, looked back at Tom.
“Keep chasing the kid! Kill him!”
yells an annoyed Tom.
“You say that being able to speak Parseltongue is the best evidence that we’re related, and that may be true. But that doesn’t determine whether Leonor is your daughter or not. Because we are related before that. I’m—, Leonor is your cousin’s granddaughter.”
Harry couldn’t believe his ears.
Leonor is speaking in Parseltongue.
Suddenly, the phoenix begins to cry.
Harry was startled by the voice and realized that he had been distracted by Tom and Leonor’s conversation and had been cornered against the wall.
He frantically dodged the basilisk’s fangs, but lost his balance and fell onto the hat.
Something hard that wasn’t the floor hit my leg and cracked my kneecap.
I couldn’t help but let out a groan in pain.
The Basilisk attacks Harry as he falls to the ground.
There’s no avoiding it now. It’s done!
“Leave me alone Harry! Come here!”
The basilisk raised its head slightly at the sound of Leonor’s voice.
Harry spent that brief moment frantically fiddling around inside the hat.
“Don’t listen to me! Kill me!”
Tom becomes enraged and punches Leonor, knocking her down.
“You’re doing something unnecessary.”
Something hard inside the hat touches my fingertips, and without hesitation I grab it and pull it out.
It’s a sword.
The basilisk reacted to the sound of the sword tip scraping the floor and attacked.
Harry quickly took a stance and pointed his sword vertically at the roof of the Basilisk’s mouth.
A pain runs down my upper arm and gradually spreads.
The basilisk, impaled by the sword, fell to the floor with a death thud.
Tom stepped on Leonor and looked at the dead monster.
“So that Judith Vivere was my cousin? I’d never thought of it. But it doesn’t matter now. The boy who lived dies. I guess that doesn’t seem proportionate to the death of the monster in the Chamber of Secrets.”
Harry removed the broken fang from his arm, but knew it was too late, the poison would have already spread throughout his body.
I think I did pretty well for myself.
But what about Leonor? Is there no way to save at least Leonor?
Harry saw Leonor lying powerless, having been trampled by Tom.
A crimson shadow swiftly crossed the room, and a phoenix landed next to Harry.
Already my vision was blurring. In the dark swirl, the red of Fawkes’ feathers and my own blood formed swirling patterns.
“Fawkes, you were amazing.”
Harry muttered through lisp.
Fawkes’ tears trickled onto the wound, their coolness penetrating deep into his bones.
“How does it feel to be dying, Harry? You’ll be joining your filthy mother soon. I’ll just stay here and witness your passing, and then I can sort out my relations.”
My blurry vision gradually became clearer. My wounds no longer hurt. When I looked, the spot where the basilisk’s fangs had pierced me was completely healed, as if there had never been a wound in the first place.
“Phoenix tears, the power of healing…!”
“what?”
Distracted by Harry’s mutterings, Tom didn’t notice the phoenix’s whereabouts as it soared into the sky.
Leonor’s eyes fixed on what the Phoenix had picked up from the floor of the secret room.
“Tom”
Suddenly hearing his name called, Tom looked down at his feet.
Meanwhile the phoenix makes its way towards Harry.
“Tom… you’re not Tom Riddle… you’re small , right?”a of RiddlesRiddle
A black diary was dropped in front of Harry.
” Harry, break it.”
Tom panics and tries to run over.
But Harry was faster.
Harry took a basilisk fang that was lying nearby and plunged it into the diary.
An ear-splitting scream echoed through the Chamber of Secrets. A torrent of black ink spurted out of Tom Riddle’s diary, soaking Harry’s robes.
Riddle twisted, writhed, thrashed, and then disappeared.
In the silence, Leonor’s wand that Riddle was holding fell to the floor with a clattering sound.
Harry picked up the wand and dragged his broken leg over to where Leonor was lying on the floor. When he blinked, her eyes, which had been bright blue, suddenly turned a shade of green.
“It’s finished.”
“Finally.”
“I’m sorry I couldn’t help you earlier.”
“That’s not true. If it weren’t for you, I would have been destroyed.”
“I feel weird… I have a lot of questions to ask you.”
Leonor had a tired look on her face as she laughed weakly and mischievously.
“Yes, a lot. But now Leonor! Blood!”
When I looked at myself after Harry told me, I saw that the area around my waist was stained with blood.
I wondered if I had this kind of injury, but it didn’t seem to hurt, so I put my hand in my pants pocket and then I realized what the cause was.
The lid of the bottle had opened and the contents were leaking out. When Harry saw the bottle, he asked curiously, “What’s that?” but he evaded the question by saying, “Just a little.”
This is the last bottle we bring from the mansion, and the first of my mother’s bottles.
What would have happened if this hadn’t happened?
The contents had been reduced to about a quarter, but it should still be fine. Leonor drank the rest of the bottle and closed her eyes.
My Leo.
Babies have a unique smell.
Sweet and warm.
The baby in my arms looks just like the baby in my memory.
I no longer know whose baby it is. They are all identical, from when I was a baby, when my mother was a baby, to my great-aunt’s, and even before that.
Leo.
Leonor.
His child. His keepsake.
That’s why I don’t want people to think that way.
I deliberately went to the trouble of doing something elaborate, so that this child, or I , could have even the slightest advantage.I reach
I’m the only one who knows it’s his child.
That’s enough.
What if Tom finds a kid who is more deserving of the position than himself? He might eliminate him as soon as he finds out.
That’s the one thing I want to avoid.
Because then I won’t be able to be by her side.
That’s why I want Tom to at least believe that the Slytherin-derived abilities he had gained were acquired through me.
I don’t know if that will make things better.
I just hope so.
You are in Leo.
My ancestors would surely be shocked if I told them I would avenge you.
This is because these feelings may be due to the thinness of my blood.
That’s fine.
Tom isn’t going to leave the kid alone anyway.
If that’s the case , then we can say that defeating Tom would be the path to continuing the bloodline .I reach large stomach N R meaning Will
I entrust everything from now on to this child.
If this child doesn’t choose the path of revenge, then that’s fine.
I just do the best I can.
“…Ale? Leonor?”
Hearing his name he opened his eyes to find Harry looking at him with a worried look on his face.
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah”
“Let’s get out of here for now. I’ll go get the Sorting Hat, do you think you can move?”
Harry limped over to get his hat.
Leonor slowly stood up and readjusted her grip on her staff inside her robe.
“Harry.”
Harry picked up the hat and turned to face me.
” “eye mirror but Break R hand R
“And with that, he pointed his wand at Harry’s face. Harry looked dazed for a moment, but then he recovered.
“Fixed it?”
“Yeah”
“Thanks. Leonor, you’re good at spells.”
“I guess so.”
Harry took off his glasses and put them back on.
“Let’s go. If we don’t hurry, Ron might kill Lockhart.”
Harry held the Sorting Hat and sword in both hands, and Leonore held the diary in the other, lending him her shoulder, and the two of them supported each other as they left the Chamber of Secrets.
12: Pandora’s Box
I lift my heavy eyelids.
Looking at the white ceiling, I confirm once again that this is not underground.
It smelled of disinfectant.
Is this St. Mungo’s?
Leaning out of the Chamber of Secrets, Leonor was rushed to St. Mungo’s. She vaguely recalled the past week, during which she had woken intermittently, pumped nutrients and magical sleeping pills into her stomach, and gone back to sleep.
I no longer had the splitting pain in my head, but I was still dead tired.
Leonor collapsed into the pure white sheets and closed her eyes once more.
The events that had happened since he was thrown underground flashed through his mind as if they had just happened: Judith’s memories, his conversation with Tom, his mother’s memories, and Harry’s.
The long hair hanging over my face still feels sticky and clinging to my face.
I wanted to drop everything and go back to sleep.
But Leonor has something she needs to do.
Professor Snape, who had received a message from the Healer informing him that Leonor had woken up, appeared in the hospital room shortly thereafter.
Leonor sat up, leaning her back against the pillows, facing Professor Snape, who was looking at her with a worried expression.
“How is school?”
“Everything is back to normal. As I’m sure you know, the culprit who opened the Chamber of Secrets – the diary – has been destroyed. The Chamber of Secrets has been sealed. You were taken to the Chamber of Secrets and turned to stone, where you were found by Potter.”
Professor Snape explained to Leonor, who was leaning back against the pillows. Leonor continued to stare at his face even after he finished speaking.
After a while, Leonor asked a direct question.
“Did the teacher know?”
“What?”
“My mother’s relationship with Tom.”
“it is “
Professor Snape was visibly shaken by Leonor’s words.
I thought so.
Leonor watched the whole thing in silence.
After hesitating for a while, Professor Snape finally spoke, his eyes lowered. He clasped his hands together in a penitential manner and began to speak in small spurts.
“I don’t know what kind of exchange took place between your mother and the Dark Lord. I was under the Dark Lord’s command at the time… One day, I was suddenly asked to watch over your mother, so I went to the mansion… and found your pregnant mother there… Your mother, Kaira, never said anything about the father of her child. So I didn’t ask her anything either…”
It’s not that she didn’t listen, but that she couldn’t. If she had listened, the gray that was so close to black might have turned black. Leonor was just like Schrodinger’s cat.
“Even Headmaster Dumbledore knows.”
“…”
Leonor took Professor Snape’s silence as an affirmation.
When Dumbledore found out where she was on her eleventh birthday, he rushed to her side, not because he was worried about her safety, but because he wanted to keep an eye on Tom’s daughter. Leonor doesn’t know Dumbledore well enough to guess the real reason.
“What are you going to do with me, teacher?”
“…Kyra asked me to look after you. I will keep my promise to her.”
I couldn’t help but smile a little at his naive answer.
“You can abandon that.”
But Professor Snape would never do such a thing. His mother probably chose him with that in mind.
“So?”
Professor Snape looked like he wanted to say something.
” I need to find out the facts about what happened with you and Ginny Weasley.”
Leonor explained the situation honestly and step by step.
Taking care of Ginny when she was sick. Ginny giving her the diary as a gift. Talking to the diary and meeting Tom in a dream. Being manipulated by Tom to return the diary to Ginny and being dropped into the basement. Opening the door with Parseltongue as instructed and being told by Tom that she was his daughter. Harry appearing. Defeating Tom by destroying the diary, which was his real body.
However, he did not reveal that Leonor’s grandmother was Tom’s cousin.
“Potter reported that you were shown a dream while you were underground. What did you see?”
“…It’s just a nightmare.”
Thanks to the magical sleeping potion the healer prescribed, I haven’t had a dream about Abby since leaving the Chamber of Secrets.
My eyes awkwardly met with Professor Snape’s, but he said nothing more.
“Why did the diary approach you? Didn’t you realize from the beginning that she was your daughter?”
“Ginny told Tom that I have memories in my dreams.”
Although she kept it a secret from everyone else, Leonor ended up telling Ginny, who was being controlled by Tom.
” Did you drink it?”
Professor Snape gasped in shock and struggled to speak.
“My grandmother’s.”
“…Since when? Since when have you been drinking blood?”
Professor Snape seemed more upset than when he had asked about his mother’s relationship with Tom.
“Little by little since the summer holidays. I wasn’t used to it so I can’t see it very clearly though.”
Leonor was puzzled by Professor Snape’s response.
Leonor’s family drinks blood, and I thought Professor Snape, who was close to her mother, would know that.
“Thanks to that, she helped me. My grandmother was in the same class as Tom. That’s how I realised that I should destroy the diary. I wish I’d realised that sooner.”
I summarized the relationship between my grandmother and Tom in an overly concise way. I was thinking about how I would explain it if he asked me about it, but Professor Snape didn’t seem to have time for that. The teacher held his head and thought for a while.
“…Please don’t let your memory consume you.”
“No,” Professor Snape muttered.
Suddenly Professor Snape looked young.
Leonor replied with a little laugh.
“I’m right here.”
Leonor continued to recuperate at St. Mungo’s, but decided to return to Hogwarts just as the people who had been turned to stone were being resurrected, in order to fit the premise that she was also turned to stone, and because she would be there to hear the story from the resurrected Ginny.
On the day she returned to Hogwarts after a month’s absence, Leonor went to the headmaster’s office at the appointed time.
When you say the name of the candy, the gargoyle comes to life and jumps aside, revealing a spiral staircase.
As I climbed the rotating elevator-like stairs, I heard voices coming from inside. It seemed that people were already gathering.
Before Leonor had time to knock or hesitate, the door opened on its own.
Ginny was crying loudly while a middle-aged red-haired man was rubbing her back, while Harry was being held tightly by a portly woman, while Dumbledore looked on with a smile. Professor McGonagall was next to them, wiping the corners of her eyes.
The sound of the door opening made everyone in the room turn around at once.
Ah, I want to run away.
I want to turn around right now and run away from this place.
“Come in, Leonor.”
However, before she could do so, Dumbledore called out to her, and with a feeling of her insides tightening, Leonor slowly headed towards Harry and the others.
“You’re Leonor! Seriously, what can I say…!”
The portly lady who had been hugging Harry a moment ago came running up to him with tears in her eyes.
Leonor recoiled in fear.
A hand gently rests on his shoulder from behind.
“Molly, please be considerate.”
A voice comes from above and it’s the first time I realize that Professor Snape is there too.
“Oh! I’m so sorry!”
The lady bent down to meet Leonor’s eye level and withdrew her outstretched hand.
“This is Mr and Mrs Weasley, Ron and Ginny’s parents.”
I don’t need Professor McGonagall to explain it to me.
The lady in front of her and the man in the back stare at her as if they are about to take Leonor and eat her at any moment.
Ginny’s parents.
I have to explain it properly this time!
This time I have to convince Ginny that I’ve done nothing wrong!
What to say…!
“I, I–“
“I’m so sorry!!”
“Huh?!”
“Even though she was being controlled by the diary, what our daughter did to you! You cared about Ginny! I wonder what other horrible things she might have done if you hadn’t noticed!”
“Uh, uh, huh…?”
Mrs. Weasley, still crouching low, slowly approached Leonor and before she knew it, she was in her arms.
I didn’t understand the translation.
“…Um, uh, you’re not angry?”
“Don’t be angry! We have nothing to be angry at you for! Oh, seriously! I’m so sorry, and thank you! Thank you so much!”
Mrs. and Mr. Weasley apologized and thanked her profusely, but Leonor was so stunned that she didn’t understand what they were thanking her for or apologizing for. She only understood that Mr. and Mrs. Weasley weren’t angry with her.
That was all I needed.
Harry left the principal’s office and walked down the corridor alongside Leonor.
When I saw Leonor for the first time in a while, she looked much plumper and in perfect health.
But Harry’s imagination was naive.
Harry had thought that when they met again after such a long time, Leonor would smile and talk to him like before. She would smile and say, “Sorry for worrying you,” and tell Harry what had happened in the Chamber of Secrets and what she had talked about with Tom back then.
Leonor didn’t say anything when they were alone.
It’s as if she’s half reverted back to the Leonor of last year.
Tom said he gave Leonor nightmares.
Harry could not forget the look of horror that had appeared on Leonor’s face as Mrs. Weasley approached him moments earlier.
Mrs. and Mrs. Weasley were without a doubt the nicest people Harry had ever met, so it was surprising to see him being so scared in front of them.
What on earth has happened to Leonor?
“Um, how are you?”
“Hmm, I’m fine.”
I had thought hard about what to say to her, but Leonor’s reply was so normal that it took me by surprise.
“How about Harry?”
“It’s become a lot more comfortable.”
No more walking down a hallway with people pointing fingers at me and whispering that I’m the heir to the Chamber of Secrets.
“Did anything happen while I was away?”
Harry told him about his meeting with Draco’s father, Lucius Malfoy, who had come to complain to Dumbledore, who had returned as Headmaster. He told him that Mr. Malfoy had brought along his house-elf, Dobby. He told him that Dobby’s gestures made him realize that Mr. Malfoy had given the diary to Ginny. Harry told him that he had freed Dobby thanks to his quick thinking. He also told him that Mr. Malfoy had apparently been forced to resign from his position as Headmaster after that. He also told him that Defense Against the Dark Arts class had been suspended for a while because Lockhart had fallen victim to his Oblivion Charm.
Leonor listened to Harry, nodding occasionally.
As he spoke, Harry kept an eye on Leonor.
Harry had something he really wanted to ask.
Something that has been bothering him ever since that day. Something that he can’t talk to Ron or Hermione about, something that he can only ask Leonor directly.
Out of nowhere, the two of them stopped.
“Hey, what were you and Tom saying in the secret room? “B J R vinegar nine mosquito and others escape Ge R of To spirit one cup in Yo Ku Listen child picture N mosquito S Ta yeah is
“ah,”
Leonor turned away from Harry and looked out the window, her long black hair completely covering her back and hiding her face from Harry.
“If my parents killed your parents, would we no longer be friends?”
“…Why would you do that?”
“Harry, you already know, right?”
Leonor turned and looked straight into Harry’s face.
In the secret room, Leonor was speaking with Tom in parsley.
At that time, Harry used the words parent and child and daughter.Yui one Listen tree and R Ta
Tom said that he and Leonor had a good spiritual connection.
Leonor was right, Harry already knew.
I just didn’t want to accept the fact that I had no choice but to arrive at this conclusion based on what I had seen and heard.
A pair of green and blue eyes. A strangely mature face.
There’s not even the slightest bit of resemblance to Tom Riddle.
“you don’t say?”
“Then a lot of things make sense.”
Leonor had already accepted it.
A sudden gust of wind ruffled Leonor’s long hair. Leonor lowered her eyes and remained silent.
Harry put into words what he had been thinking for a long time.
“Even if you were Voldemort’s daughter, I’d still be your friend.”
Harry had been troubled many times.
What if Leonor was Voldemort’s daughter?
Once I started thinking like that, I couldn’t stop, and even though it was hard to accept, that was the only way I could think of it. Even now, after hearing it directly from Leonor, it’s still hard to accept.
But, if you ask me if I hate Leonor because her father is Voldemort, that’s not true.
It was Voldemort who killed Harry’s parents, and Leonor is not responsible for that.
“I think Voldemort will target me next.”
Leonor said, lowering her gaze.
“That goes for me too.”
“That’s what I can say.”
Leonor couldn’t help but laugh a little at Harry’s self-deprecating remark.
“Nothing’s changed.”
“Yeah”
That evening, a party was held to celebrate the resurrection of the students who had been turned to stone.
Afternoon classes were cancelled, and in the great hall, the usual tables lined up vertically by dormitory had been removed. Instead, food was lined up on tables arranged horizontally, crammed into the space.
Just today, everyone was talking and hanging out with whoever they wanted, without any thought for the dorm rivalry. Just a month ago, everyone was frightened of the monster in the Chamber of Secrets, but now they were laughing, eating, and making merry as if they had nothing to worry about.
Justin from Hufflepuff, who had been resurrected from the stone, came to Harry and repeatedly apologized for doubting him, and Hagrid, who had apparently been taken into custody as a suspect in opening the Chamber of Secrets without Leonor’s knowledge, returned from Azkaban and, in a fit of rage, pushed Harry and his friends into the food on the table.
As for Leonor, she was chatting with a refreshed Ginny and getting excited about the twins, but after a while she returned to where the Slytherin students were gathered.
“What’s wrong?”
Draco, finding Leonor acting like that unusual, called out to her.
“Nothing. Just tired.”
Indeed, since her return, Leonor has looked the same as before, but she has always looked tired. This is understandable, as she had been imprisoned underground for over a week, all by herself.
Normally at banquets, Leonor would be eating a plate full of food in silence like a starving orphan, but right now she was sitting on one of the chairs lined up against the wall, sipping juice from a goblet.
Leonor was completely unaware that the looks the Slytherin students were giving her, who were still standing at a distance, now held a different meaning than before.
“Leonor, I have something to give you.”
As the banquet came to an end and the people remaining in the Great Hall began to thin out, Hermione called out to him.
Leonor retired to the Slytherin students about halfway through the banquet, so I didn’t have a chance to talk to Hermione.
Hermione handed me a note.
Leonor looks over the note.
“this is?”
“It’s the second message written on the wall after Leonor was abducted.”
Hermione said, rubbing her hands nervously in front of her.
Leonor looked down at the note once more, at the words written in Hermione’s neat handwriting.
The time has come. Bow before us, our successors.headKobe
Ah, maybe.
“It must be you, the heir.”
Hermione sounded almost certain when she said this.
Leonor made no reply.
” Heirs. Tom from the diary, and at least one other. Ginny, a pure-blood, was turned to stone, and Harry, a half-blood, hadn’t been to the Chamber of Secrets yet. Everyone else was turned to stone, but at least you, a half-blood, were kidnapped.”I and others
Hermione explained quickly.
There was silence between them.
As expected of the most brilliant student in her grade, Hermione was trying to arrive at an answer that could be derived from the single word written on the wall.
It is true that Leonor is the heir to the Chamber of Secrets and the descendants of Salazar Slytherin, and when we arrive at that fact, another question inevitably arises.
So, Leonor just needs to give him a little push.
All Leonor had to do was not to deny it. That was all. Without ruining the awkward atmosphere, she just had to get Hermione to accept her suspicions as fact.
“Hermione, I “
“It’s okay.”
Hermione interrupted, and that was all Leonor had to say.
Hermione held Leonor’s hand and looked straight into her eyes, without any sign of disgust or fear.
“Don’t force it. Even if that’s the case, it won’t change anything about our relationship.”
Hermione said the same as Harry.
Leonor watched Hermione’s back as she walked back to the dormitory.
The ceiling of the nearly deserted great hall was covered by clouds that had suddenly appeared, threatening to obscure the starry sky.
Leonor did not correct Hermione’s assumption.
” Is this okay, mother?”
Leonor blurted out.
Even though I had finally learned about my mother’s feelings, I felt more alone than I had ever felt before. I felt like I was left alone in the pitch black house.
“Is this a good thing, mother?”
You’re going to deceive everyone.
Not just Tom, but the whole world.
Right, Mom?
Is this correct?
I wanted answers to my questions.
For the first time, I missed my mother.
13: When the Cherries Ripen
Now that I was alone, I sniffled.
I threw a tantrum and begged her to follow me to the platform, but she just gave me a troubled look and didn’t grant my wish until the very end.
I quickly parted ways with Ione, who had come with me instead, and boarded the express train alone.
I couldn’t help but worry about whether the small bottles I had crammed into my bag would make any noise. I also didn’t like the fact that my suitcase was obviously bigger than the others’ and would attract attention.
There were two or three children sitting in every compartment.
Some people were whispering about my appearance.
I found a compartment with only one other person in it and looked inside through the glass door.
A black-haired boy who appeared to be a freshman was looking out the window.
He has a handsome face with a straight nose, and you can’t help but stare at him.
The boy suddenly turned towards me, and I hurriedly left the front of the compartment.
He was a beautiful and handsome boy.
I thought it would be nice to live in the same dorm as that girl.
I entered an empty compartment, changed into my uniform, and took out a small bottle from my bag.
I opened the bottle and looked out the window as the train started to move.
I dozed off but didn’t dream until the train came to a halt again.
It didn’t work again.
Feeling disappointed, I get off the train with the other children.
As we were being lined up to be sorted, the boy from before was standing right next to me.
She certainly had a beautiful face.
“Riddle, Tom!”
The boy steps forward.
Is there such a coincidence?
The hat cried out “Slytherin!” as soon as it touched his head, and my cousin was greeted by the people at the end table.
I followed him with my eyes.
“Vivi re, Judith!”
Hats
“Yellow or blue?”
he asked.
I’m disappointed that green wasn’t on the list.
He wasn’t confident enough to make it in Ravenclaw.
“Hufflepuff!”
I was called out and sat down at the table next to my cousin.
Even though I’ve been drinking blood since I was little, I have never had a dream, so perhaps I am suited to a gathering where I will be ridiculed as an inferior student.
I didn’t eat much of my dinner that day.
I woke up in the canopy.
I excitedly tried desperately to remember.
I had a dream.
A dream in which I am sorted by the Sorting Hat.
I realized it was a dream because my hat
“Green or yellow?”
Because I heard that.
I
“Yellow or blue?”
Because I was asked.
This is a memory of my grandmother.
I remember seeing my grandmother for the first time.
Finally.
I feel incredibly happy and relieved at the same time.
Now I can finally become a full-fledged adult.
Now I can finally be in my place.
The face of that handsome boy with black hair suddenly came to mind.
A corner of the library.
A deserted corner lined with thick Muggle books.
There he was, in that corner. That guy.
He sat at his desk in earnest, his brow slightly furrowed, his face as shapely as a stone statue. A strand of his slightly long black hair was tousled. His nape was pale as he peered at the notebook spread out on the desk.
“You’re making some interesting stuff.”
Red eyes stare back at me.
He looked skeptical.
This is not surprising, as few Slytherins would willingly associate with Hufflepuff, a house often derided as the inferior house.
“…Vivi re?”
He just glanced my way.
I followed my grandmothers’ instructions and usually hardly spoke to him.
The fact that he remembered my name was a surprise and a delight.
“You’re not doing any research today, are you?”
“How do you know?”
“Everyone says you’re obsessed with researching something.”
I spoke slowly so as not to reveal how excited I was.
I knew what he was looking for.
“I’ve been searching for ages and still no clues.”
He said after a while.
He said sounding a little disappointed, his brow furrowing slightly.
His face was exactly like the Tom Riddle of Little Hangleton that my mother remembered.
His grandmother said he was dangerous.
The person before me is just a good young man who is troubled by his origins.
I wanted to teach him, who he was, who we were.
But my grandmother’s orders were absolute.
“Tom M. Riddle”
I slowly read the name written in the diary.
“M for what?”
“Marvolo.”
I knew that.
It’s been a while since I last heard that name. I don’t miss it one bit, though.
“Why do you care?”
“I was just curious. But you’re making some really unusual things. Are you planning on making something small?”RiddlesRiddle
What he was obsessed with was writing in a blank diary.
I thought all family members looked the same.
So when I was little, I was always puzzled by the fact that my mother was the only one with a different face from others.I reach
“Mom”
When he called out to her, her mother turned around from where she had been looking at the garden.
“what happened?”
“Is Mom happy?”
I knew it without even asking.
My mother was not what you would call beautiful, with shallow features, thick facial features, and severe strabismus, but her expression always expressed that she was certain that her current life was the best it could be.
“I’m happy. I couldn’t be happier.”
My mother, sitting comfortably in an armchair, smiled and put her hand on my cheek.
“I’m blessed with such a cute daughter”
My mother and I were very different.
He looked nothing like his mother, and the only thing he inherited was his grey hair.
Officially, my mother is now Aunt Ione, and my real mother never appears in public.
In fact, he never leaves the grounds of the mansion.
“Even if you can’t go out as you like, you’re surrounded by the same faces, having your blood taken and being forced to drink it every day?”
“This is the first place I’ve ever been given in my life. It’s not a problem.”
I asked my mother the same question many times.
And my mother’s answer was already clear.
“I talked to my cousin at school.”
“The child of Merope and that boy from Riddle Mansion.”
“Yes. He’s researching his origins.”
When I said that, my mother’s face clouded over for the first time.
“It’s okay. No one will ever know you’re here.”
“Therese”
My mother looked up and cast a dreamy gaze at the man who called her name and put his arm around her shoulder.
My father, a man with blue eyes and a handsome but unremarkable face, cared wholeheartedly for my mother.
Because that’s what his grandmother instructed him to do.I reach
“How are you feeling?”
“It’s fine.”
My mother, who lost a lot of blood every day, was perpetually anemic.
“If you feel unwell, tell me straight away.”
My mother nodded happily.
I looked at my parents huddled together.
From the outside it may have been the embodiment of a happy family, but to me it looked distorted.
“Therese”
My aunt Ione, with a face identical to mine, comes into the room.
I pour blood from the tube still in my mother’s arm into the mug I’m holding.
As she drank it, Ione sat across from her mother and held her pale hand.
“It’s okay. I’ll protect you. I promised.”I reach
“I’m not worried. I believe in you.”
Then he takes his time to drink from the other mug that Ione has brought.
My mother was truly in a state of happiness, free from all suffering.
But, mother, even that love is fake.
My fiance was decided in a flash.
Finding a husband for me was long a top concern of my grandmother and aunts.
It is said that in the past , she did not even have a fixed husband.I reach
“Ollivander’s son. Hector’s grandson.”
Even though there was no need for her to say it aloud, my grandmother made the effort to state it in front of the entire family.
This was a warning to me that I would not accept any objections.
The man in question is the grandson of her grandmother’s younger brother, who married into a family of wand-makers.
The second cousin I occasionally see at school is just normal, for better or worse.
Safe. That’s all there is to it.
Why can’t he be the one?
He would surely bring more fine blood than a run-of-the-mill second cousin.
Why don’t they take my feelings into account?
I know, it’s too dangerous.
But, but.
A bench in the schoolyard in the afternoon.
He walked over here.
“I’ve heard you’re knowledgeable.”
This is the first time I’ve heard from him.
A slender back and a body with just the right amount of muscle.
Looking up directly at him, he has a very handsome face.
“I know what you want to know.”
Yes, I know this without drinking blood.
Who are you?
He sat down next to me on the bench and put his arm around my shoulders.
His face is so close I can feel his breath.
“Why didn’t you say anything until now?”
“Because I wasn’t asked. I don’t like to meddle.”
I closed the book I had open and turned to face him.
Without the slightest sign of hesitation, he leaned towards me as if I were his lover.
For that moment, I was grateful for the pale face I had inherited from my ancestors, one that rarely ever turns red.
“More importantly, who asked you that?”
How knowledgeable.
“Several seventh-year students said so.”
“What are they?”
“If there’s something you want to know even if it costs money, ask Vivier.”
“yes”
Talkative people.
But now I want to be grateful.
Because it gave me a chance to talk to him.
“So, what will you give me in return?”
“What do you want? I don’t have much. You know I’m an orphan.”
He asks himself what he wants.
What I want.
“I’m not interested in wealth or fortune.”
“Then what would be good?”
What do you think I want?
What I want is.
I looked up at his face.
His black eyes met my own.
“I want your blood”
“My blood?”
He says in surprise.
“Yes. A small vial would be fine.”
“What are you going to do with the blood?”
I reach Haven’t you heard the rumors?
What would he say if he knew his power?I reach
“I wonder what I should do.”
Fear was in his blood.
It all oozed cruelty and domination.
I understood what my grandmother meant when she said he was dangerous.
It was precisely because I could understand it that I didn’t want to accept it.
But it reverberated in my memory as an undeniable fact.
The library after summer vacation.
Here he comes.
“Hello,” he said, sitting across from me. His pale hands were adorned with gold and black rings.
I know who the ring belonged to.
He adjusts the ring caringly.
“Did you have a good summer vacation?”
“Not really.”
Luckily my voice wasn’t trembling.
“Am I looking for something again?”
“Why do you think I’m looking for something?”
“I was just asking.”
He grinned.
“It’s true that there is something I want to find right now. But this time, I’ll find it on my own.”
“Yes. I hope you can find it.”
Son of Merope Gaunt.
A descendant of Slytherin.
But now he’s looking for something new. I know what it is.
And what he might do when he finds the room.
With a red light flickering in his eyes, his handsome face betrays wildness and desire.
Watching him speak passionately, I finally begin to truly understand what my grandmother was saying.
Still, I admire him.
I cast a blinding spell and sneak into the room where the bodies of the dead Ravenclaw students lie.
Blood begins to decay the moment the body dies.
The memories carried by the blood begin to crumble along with it.
It had been quite some time since a Ravenclaw had died, but it was still worth it.
A needle is inserted into the carotid artery of the corpse and blood is withdrawn until the syringe is full.
Returning to the lounge, I looked up at the contents of the syringe from behind the curtains of my bed.
…the damp toilet, the hissing of a boy’s voice, the sound of something being dragged, two big yellow eyes, and suddenly my body relaxed…
When I opened my eyes, I found myself on the bed.
His voice was unmistakable.
The words my mother and I use when we talk.
His hissing voice rings in my ears over and over again.
I cover my face with my hands.
It’s so scary.
Disgusting.
The Ravenclaw’s arms hung limp and limp.
Because I kept quiet about him.
Because I didn’t follow my grandmother’s instructions properly.
I have tickled a snake that should never have been awakened.
Then the snake opens its red eyes and tries to look towards us.
There’s still no one in the great hall.
After casting the blinding spell, he proceeded to poison every drink on the Slytherin breakfast table.I reach
Ever since he was expelled from the school after opening the Chamber of Secrets , he had repeatedly given Slytherin students poison that was so diluted it was impossible to taste .crime people I reach
So that he won’t worry about Judith any more.
So that he loses interest in Judith.
I reach Once he has finished poisoning everything, he leaves the great hall without removing the blinding spell.
While eating breakfast with the other students, he sneaks a peek at the Slytherin table.I reach
He is drinking poisoned drinks today without even realizing it.
Since then, he has never spoken to me on campus.I reach
The baby stretches out its tiny hands as far as it can, seeking its mother.
Theodoric, standing next to her, had vacant eyes but still looked at the baby with a happy expression.
A happy person.
I didn’t feel much emotion when I saw the newborn baby.
I don’t even feel like it’s my child.
I reach I’ve already held many babies in my arms like this.
This baby too will be swallowed someday.large stomach N R meaning Will
Poor kid.
But that’s the way it is.I reach
IJudithWhen I think back on those memories, I suddenly think.
If even a tiny bit of self remains in me,IJudith
I want to see you one more time, just one last time.
Tom.
Oh, why didn’t I do anything?IJudith
IJudithI should have put a curse on you, just like your mother did.
IJudithThen I could cast a curse on you that was much stronger than your mother’s.I reach
That way you would be happy too.
IJudithLike my mother.
Oh, Tom.
Just once more
I want to see you.
Prisoner of Azkaban
01: The Bystander and the Continuation of the Nightmare
Add lines to the wall with a blunted pencil.
Is there really any point in continuing this?
I can hear the sound of rain.
The smell of rain too.
When was the last time you felt rain?
On rainy days, Abby and I would often put on our raincoats and play in puddles.
After that, we would always end up soaking wet that our raincoats were no longer necessary, and we would both end up getting scolded by Camilla.
The image of Abby holding a stuffed toy suddenly comes to mind.
” I didn’t do it.”
My hands tightened as I traced the letters on the wall.
Are you okay.
I didn’t do it.
I wasn’t the one who broke the window.
I didn’t hurt Abby.
How many times have I chanted these words?
This thought is my only anchor.
When will I be able to leave this room?
Hilda was the manager of a small flat in the countryside, far from the city. Her husband was working away from home, so she managed the flat, which belonged to her husband’s family. While running the business, she raised her son almost single-handedly, but he has now become independent and lives alone in the city.
One humid summer day, Hilda was cleaning an empty room. A new tenant was scheduled to live there this coming fall. A few years ago, a girl had lived in the room, but it had been vacant for the past few years.
Approaching the room for the first time in a long time brings back memories that I had intentionally pushed into a corner.
She was still just a small child. A girl with a mature face and black hair.
A skinny body and long black hair.
Although I usually try not to think about it, the truth is that I still vividly remember the figure of that girl I saw through the door slot.
The foster father and mother who came to imprison the child were terrified of the girl, but she was such a quiet and obedient child that it was hard to understand what she was scared of. There was nothing particularly unusual happening around the girl.
…No, that’s not it.
There is one thing I have noticed. Something I have noticed only recently.
The warehouse window is opposite the window in this room.
Before, the windows there were often broken.
There were no kids in the neighborhood who would throw stones at the window, and nothing inside was stolen. But the window was broken so frequently that I started to think it must have been a crow. But after the girl left accompanied by the white-haired old man, the window stopped breaking completely. Thinking about it, the window had never been broken before the girl came here.
I thought it was too much of a coincidence, but I hoped that it was.
I don’t want to get involved in anything creepy now.
That child has already left here. It’s no longer my concern.
The wallpaper in the room had a detailed arabesque pattern that was faded in places, but it was still beautiful enough that it didn’t need replacing. The floor creaked a little when I walked on it, but it was nothing to worry about.
After dusting the ceiling, I started cleaning the walls and floors, and then I started working on the bookshelf. There were still books left behind by the previous tenants inside. I had to get rid of those too, I told myself, as I tried to move the bookshelf to clean behind it. It was quite heavy. It would be a little easier if I had taken the books out of it first, but my lazy nature showed.
“I wish Mac had helped me when he was home. I wouldn’t have had to do it all by myself.”
Even if she complained, her son had already returned to his home in the city after his vacation. Muttering to herself, Hilda dragged the bookshelf by herself.
As I wiped the sweat from my forehead and looked up, I saw the wall where the bookshelf used to be. That part of the wall was covered in graffiti.
“This is disgusting.”
The wallpaper is torn where the text is written in the middle.
I’m going to have to redo the whole room. I really liked this wallpaper.
“Who would do something like this…”
Hilda was about to complain when she suddenly stopped, reaching her hand out towards the wall.
A chill suddenly rises up from the ground.
“Who?”
Of course it’s that girl…!
No way. That shelf is too heavy for a child to move…
But that girl…she’s the only one!!
Even though it’s midsummer, I can’t help but feel cold.
I instinctively pulled away in fear, which only made the entire wound more visible.
“I didn’t do it.”
The letters were traced over and over until they were carved into the wallboard.
I feel like I can hear the crying of that child whose voice I’ve never heard before.
There are multiple layers of scratches surrounding the letters.
The wounds, grouped together in groups of five, get smaller and smaller as they go down, as if they are losing hope.
” a,”
Hilda Swan collapsed on the spot and clenched her hands tightly in front of her chest.
“Oh my god…!!”
Oh my, what have I done…!!
Leonor wakes up suddenly in her bed in a dimly lit room and puts her hands to her head in a panic.
She touched her hand to her neatly cut hair under her chin and exhaled deeply with relief.
It’s okay. It was a dream.
Leonor rubbed her face with both hands, trying to wipe away the image of her sister-in-law.
After a while, he slowly takes a match from the bedside table and lights the candle.
He covered his face with his hands again in front of the candle.
…Abby was standing in front of the glass window, smiling maliciously.
It was just a dream.
The hair that I thought I had cut off feels sticky and clinging to my skin.
Exhausted, Leonor didn’t have the energy to go back to sleep, so she leaned against the headboard of her bed and stared blankly at the light growing outside the window.
After leaving the secret room in the basement, Leonor went through a series of tests at St. Mungo’s. The results were all clean. There was nothing wrong with her. She just had nightmares every now and then.
The nightmare that Tom had instilled in Leonor was eating away at her in ways that perhaps even he could not have anticipated.
Birds begin to sing in the lush forest of the garden.
Leonor got out of bed and picked up the mail that had fallen on the floor.
It was a letter from the school about signing permission to leave Hogsmeade.
I forgot to ask Professor Snape for an autograph. When will he come next? Well, I guess I can get Professor Snape’s autograph after school starts…
Professor Snape is a busy man by default, but this summer seems to be especially busy. The last time I met him, he was complaining about an escapee from Azkaban. I only see him once a week, if that. But even Leonor can make a simple soup (just throw in the ingredients), and we don’t go hungry.
Speaking of Hogsmeade, Hermione’s letter mentioned Harry.
Apparently he’s trying hard to curry favor with his uncle in order to get an autograph from him.
I can’t believe I have to go back to that house every year.
“Harry, that’s tough.”
Reminds me of Harry from last year.
In the Chamber of Secrets, Leonor pointed her wand at Harry.
Later, when Leonor is troubled by the fact that she was born, Harry’s kind words to her saying “Nothing will change” only make Leonor feel even more guilty.
She hadn’t received a letter from Harry yet this year.
He said “Nothing will change,” but some things do change.
On the other hand, I received a letter from Hermione just like before, but knowing her, I could tell that she was being careful not to change.
“…I wonder if everyone is doing well.”
I want to meet him. But what kind of face should I make when I meet him?
That day, Harry had infuriated Aunt Marge and stormed out of Number 4 Privet Drive in a fit of desperation.
02: Reunion
After inflating Aunt Marge and taking a bus to the Leaky Cauldron, Harry finds himself spending the best summer holiday of his life in Diagon Alley.KnightKnight of the Night
I can do my homework while eating ice cream in the sun!
Ron would probably say that it sounded like Hermione had possessed him if he said this, but at Privet Drive he had spent every night pulling a blanket over his head and doing his homework, fearful that Uncle Vernon would wake up, so Harry was just happy to be able to sit at his desk and study magic.
Harry’s daily routine these days is to go to a Quidditch store to look at brooms. The new Firebolt broom is so cool that it makes him sigh. Harry has his favorite Nimbus 2000, so he doesn’t need to buy a new broom, but he still goes to look at it every day. He looks at the Firebolt to his heart’s content, and then goes shopping. There are so many attractive things in the Wizarding World town that he was worried he would go bankrupt before the new semester started.
One day, having gotten used to this lifestyle, Harry was strolling around, thinking that it was about time for Ron and Hermione to come to Diagon Alley, when, as expected, he spotted them coming out of Madame Malkin’s shop.
“Harry! Dad told me! Did you inflate your aunt?”
“Ron! This is no laughing matter!”
“I didn’t mean to do that. I just lost my cool.”
Harry gave them an excuse that made Ron burst out laughing and Hermione look dumbfounded.
They had both been abroad during the holidays and were nicely tanned, and Ron had grown even heavier, but neither of them had changed much.
“I’m really glad you weren’t expelled, Harry.”
“It’s true. When I got to the Leaky Cauldron and the Minister was waiting for me I really thought it was all over. I wonder why Fudge decided to let me go.”
“Well, that’s because you’re Harry Potter.”
Harry decided to accompany them on their shopping trip. Since he had already done all the shopping he needed last week, he didn’t need to buy anything in particular, so he just carried the bags.
They bought some more Potions ingredients from the Potions Wholesaler, and bought some new textbooks (Hermione especially had a bunch) from Flourish and Blotts. It turned out that Ron and Hermione were also staying at the Leaky Cauldron, so the three of them had plenty of time to browse the shops.
After buying other necessary items, the three take a break on the terrace of Florian Fortescue Ice Cream Parlour.
“By the way, how is Leonor doing?”
“Well,” Harry said, trying to sound as natural as possible and making it sound like he’d just thought of it.
Last year, I was unable to exchange letters with anyone because the house-elf Dobby interfered, and this year I’ve felt awkward and haven’t contacted Leonor at all.
The last time I spoke to Leonor was at the end of last year, in the hallway.
At that time, he talked about Leonor’s father. Leonor said that her father might be Voldemort. Moreover, it was not just a guess, but almost certain. After much deliberation, Harry told Leonor that “nothing has changed since then.” But nothing has changed, and even during the summer vacation, Harry occasionally thinks about Leonor.
“It seems the same as always. He wrote me that he cleans the garden every day.”
Hermione’s tone seemed a little cold as she answered, putting the ice cream to her mouth.
“I see.”
“Why?”
“No, I just happened to be curious.”
“Is the garden at your mother’s family home? I bet it’s surprisingly large.”
Ron said, stuffing his face with his sundae.
“I ended up spending a few weeks underground at the end of last year, so I hope I can get some sun this holiday.”
“I agree”
Harry and Hermione nodded thoughtfully.
“Oh, I almost forgot. Mommy and Daddy gave me some money to buy myself a birthday present, and I wanted to buy an owl.”
The three then went to the Magical Creatures Pet Shop, where Hermione bought a new owl and Ron bought an energy drink for his pet mouse, Scabbers.
Instead of an owl, Hermione bought an orange cat with a flat face, and the atmosphere from then on was tense, with Ron worried about Scabbers and Hermione protecting the cat, and Harry completely forgot about Leonor.
The next day, Harry, Hermione, and the large Weasley family traveled to King’s Cross Station in a Ministry car. They were a larger group than usual, so it was a bit nerve-wracking to get through the barrier between Platforms 9 and 10. There was no way a dozen people with a cart full of suitcases and owls and cats could disappear through the barrier at once without being noticed by the Muggles.
Harry walks through the fence with Ron.
“Crash!” I heard the sound of something crashing behind me.
“Ouch!”
Harry turned around to see a girl running towards him, just as she came out from behind the railing and crashed into Hermione and Ginny’s cart.
“Whoa! Are you okay?”
“It’s okay! I’m sorry!”
“Ouch!” the light brown haired girl said, rubbing her injured foot and running away.
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah, we’re fine. Maybe they’re just looking for a friend.”
“It seems so.”
The girl from before was looking around restlessly in the crowd.
“Noraaaa! Where are you? Hey, Noraaa!”
She had her hands over her mouth and was speaking loudly to make sure it didn’t drown in the noise of the train. She seemed like a lively girl. Two adults who seemed to be the girl’s parents were watching her from a short distance away. Judging from their clothing and the way they were huddled together uncomfortably, Harry thought they were probably Muggles.
As they were about to board the train, Harry and his friends came across a familiar platinum blonde.
“Potter! I thought we might miss the train again this year.”
“Malfoy.”
“Oh, there’s Weasley. I thought he was still in Egypt. I didn’t know he had money for a return trip.”
While calming down Ron, who looked as if he was going to lunge at Malfoy, Harry’s eyes fell on a girl half a step behind Malfoy. She was a girl he’d never seen before. She was small, with mature features and odd-coloured eyes…
“Leonor?!”
I couldn’t help but shout out loud.
“Hi.”
Leonor, feeling shy, spoke hesitantly.
Harry and the others gasped at the change in Leonor.
Her once pure white skin was slightly tanned, and her black hair that had reached her knees had been cut short just below her chin.
Leonor seems a little awkward and unsure of what to say.
As for Harry, he is so shocked by Leonor’s change that he is speechless.
Both Harry and Leonor remained silent, and an awkward atmosphere hung over them.
“Let’s go Draco. See you at school, Harry.”
“Ah…yeah, that’s right.”
In the end, unable to find the words to say, Leonor and Malfoy boarded the train first.
“What happened to your hair?”
Hermione said once they entered the compartment.
After parting ways with Ginny, the three of them went into the only empty compartment at the very back of the train. There was a man sleeping by the window.
“A makeover, maybe?”
Ron said, peering gently into the face of the fast asleep man.
“Really? Do you think Leonor would do it?”
I feel like Leonor would probably say, “It’s too much hassle,” and cut her hair.
“But I don’t think that’s the case. I mean, cutting your hair off like that.”
Harry thought the same thing. He wasn’t entirely sure why hair was important to girls, but he thought maybe it had something to do with what had happened at the end of last year.
“Maybe I should have asked earlier.”
“I mean… well, maybe I should have asked.”
Hermione was unusually quiet, and for some reason it seemed Harry wasn’t the only one who felt awkward around Leonor.
Just as the Potters were confused by Leonor’s change, Draco was also worried by her transformation.
He looks a little haggard, probably because he had a haircut. It’s understandable considering what happened at the end of last year, but I’m concerned that he looks more tired than he did last year.
“How was your holiday?”
“Nothing in particular. I’ve been tidying up the garden.”
“Tidying up the garden?”
“Yeah. It was completely wild. It was the first time I’d ever been outside like that.”
Apparently he got sunburned because he was tidying up the courtyard during the break.
Leonor didn’t seem to have changed much from before, especially when it came to the way she talked.
There was a knock on the door, and without a moment’s hesitation the compartment door was opened.
A lively looking girl makes an energetic appearance.
He didn’t even look at Draco, just staring at Leonor’s face.
“Nora? It’s Nora, right?”
“Abby…”
Leonor dropped everything she was holding.
“I finally found it! I’ve been looking for it!”
The next moment, the girl with light brown hair in a ponytail was jumping up and down and hugging Leonor.
“Why…! Why is Abby here…!?”
Leonor is clearly upset.
“I got the letter, so of course it is! I’m a witch just like Nora!”
The girl looked at Leonor in confusion, her hazel eyes sparkling.
“Professor Dumbledore personally convinced my mom and dad! What a wonderful professor!”
Draco had a bad feeling and rose from his seat.
“Who is it?”
The girl who had been jumping on Leonor turned around and gave Draco a carefree smile.
“Nice to meet you, Abigail Pevensie. Are you Nora’s friend?”
“Pevensie?”
Draco grimaced blatantly.
Pevensie is the surname of the Muggle foster parents who held Leonor captive for four years.
“So you are…”
Draco looked at Leonor.
Leonor was flustered and couldn’t take her eyes off the girl in front of her.
“…the biological daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Pevensie.”
“Come on, Nora, you don’t need to talk about Mom and Dad so distantly, even though you haven’t seen them in years.”
The girl, Abby, is hugging Leonor again.
Draco wondered whether he should pull the girl away from Leonor.
“Where have you been since you suddenly disappeared? I’ve been wanting to see you for a long time.”
Abby puffed out her cheeks in dissatisfaction.
As Abby squeezes Leonor, her eyes slowly open wide.
“…You haven’t heard anything?”
Leonor’s voice, which she had barely managed to squeeze out, was hoarse.
“But, Mom and Dad never tell me, no matter how many times I ask them!”
“You can’t tell that to your own daughter.”
Draco stepped in between the two of them, pulling Abby away from Leonor.
“What do you mean?”
Abby looked up pointedly at Draco, who was trying to pull her away from her sister-in-law.
“Do you know anything?”
The spirited girl clung to Draco, ready to pounce on him at any moment.
“Abby.”
Leonor called out to him in a strong tone.
“Abby, you can’t stay here right now. Go make some friends with the new students while you can.”
Leonor suddenly began speaking clearly, as if a switch had been flicked, and ironically, her voice was the most emotional one Draco had ever heard.
“Well, I mean, I had a great time meeting you.”
Abby resisted, but Leonor forced her out into the aisle.
“If you don’t make friends now, you’ll have a hard time once classes start. There’ll be plenty of time to talk later.”
“If Nora says so, I’ll go, but… look, isn’t Nora happy to see me? I’m so happy, but you’re not smiling at all!”
Abby sulked in dissatisfaction.
“Of course I’m happy. I thought I’d never see you again.”
Leonor’s face seemed a little stiff as she smiled at Abby.
“One piece of advice. I’d recommend Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, or Hufflepuff. Any of those three will do.”
“Where’s Nora?”
“It’s a secret. Come on, go away.”
Abby skipped down the hallway, saying, “I’ll definitely talk to you later!” Leonor’s hands were trembling as she watched her leave.
Leonor closed the compartment door and staggered into the seat, clutching her head. Draco stood there, unable to find the words to say, and watched.
“…Good thing I wasn’t in my uniform.”
Leonor muttered as she clutched the hair that was cut neatly under her chin.
Although the voice was the usual Leonor’s again, for some reason Draco felt scared, as if he was looking at a Leonor he didn’t know.
“…Why didn’t you tell me you were in Slytherin?”
“If Abby knew I was in Slytherin, she’d be determined to get in. You can see what would happen if a Muggle Abby got in.”
“I see.”
Draco was amazed at how clearly Leonor remembered the personality of her stepsister after not seeing her for years, and even how to appease her.
Leonor looks out the window and frowns.
His tanned, slightly thin cheeks made him look even more flustered.
” I thought that would never happen again.”Association circle N stomach
Leonor said in a subdued voice.
Draco didn’t know what to say.
Outside the car window the clouds were hanging thickly and rain had begun to fall.
03: Innocence
Apparently Leonor was attacked by a Dementor and lost consciousness.
Word quickly spread to Gryffindor. After all, Harry, who had also fainted, regained consciousness on the train, but Leonor did not show up for the sorting that followed. But maybe it was a good thing that she wasn’t there. Even Hermione was shocked when her name was called at sorting.
“Pevensie, Abigail!”
Hermione was startled when she saw a vivacious girl with light brown hair tied in a ponytail stride forward with gusto.
P B hmm S –
It’s not an unusual surname. But I remembered what the girl was shouting on the train platform. I immediately thought, “Nora” must be Leonor’s nickname.
“Harry, Ron!”
After Dumbledore’s brief greeting had finished and plates piled high with food had appeared, Hermione called out to the two of them in a low voice.
“Hmm? What?”
Harry replied tentatively, but he continued to pile huge amounts of food onto his plate, and Ron, already chomping down on his meat, didn’t seem to hear him.
“Hey! This is important!”
Hermione leaned close to them and whispered urgently.
“I believe that Abigail Pevensie, the girl who was just sorted into Gryffindor, is Leonor’s step-sister.”
“Huh!?”
Ron shouted so loudly that several people around him turned to look.
“Which one?”
Harry looked around the table.
“The girl with brown hair who bumped into us on the train platform.”
“…Oh, that girl who was yelling ‘Nora!’?”
Harry seemed to remember too.
“Yeah. Nora could be a nickname for Leonor, right? And they have the same last name, Pevensie.”
Harry and Ron had shocked looks on their faces too.
Abigail Pevensie was sitting at a distance from the three of them, giving us only a brief glimpse of her profile.
“But isn’t your sister-in-law supposed to be a Muggle?”
“That’s to be expected.”
What a twist of fate if Abigail Pevensie really was Leonor’s sister-in-law! Leonor was imprisoned by her stepparents for being a witch, but who would have thought that their own daughter was also a witch?
“Does Leonor know that her sister has enrolled?”
“I doubt he knows. I haven’t seen him since I heard he collapsed on the train, and I think he’s in the infirmary.”
When I met Leonor before boarding the train, she looked visibly haggard. Perhaps she hadn’t fully recovered from what had happened last year.
The three of them were a little worried about whether to tell Leonor about her sister, but decided not to for now. It seems that Leonor herself is still in the infirmary, and they are not even sure if Abby is really her sister-in-law. …Besides, it might not be a very happy reunion for Leonor. They decided to wait and see how things go.
The feast came to an end after we had as many refills as we wanted of the food that kept appearing on our plates.
First, the prefects guide the first-year students back to their respective dormitories.
A cheery voice rang out as the three of them entered the Gryffindor common room.
“You’ve got to be kidding me!? Nora’s in Slytherin!”
It was Abigail Pevensie.
“what happened?”
When Hermione and the others approached, they saw Neville looking flustered in front of Abigail, who was yelling loudly.
Abigail, her brown hair pulled back in a ponytail, began to speak to Hermione.
“He said Nora was a Slytherin!”
After all, Abigail Pevensie is Leonor’s sister…!
” So what?”
Hermione questioned, a little surprised at her cheerfulness.
“Nora told me I should be in Gryffindor, Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff, so I thought maybe we’d end up in the same house, and now she’s in Slytherin! That’s too much!”
“Have we met yet?”
Hermione was surprised, she had thought for sure that the two had not yet met.
“Of course! On the train. I tried really hard to find you! It had been a long time since we last met, but I knew it was Nora right away!”
“Who’s Nora?”
At that moment, Seamus Finnegan’s voice came from behind me. Boys really can’t read the mood!
“My sister. Leonor Pevensie.”
“Wait, Leonor has a little sister?”
Before Seamus could finish his sentence, Harry hastily stepped on his foot.
“You’re Leonor’s sister, aren’t you?”
Abigail looked up at Hermione in confusion for a moment, then burst out laughing innocently.
“Yes, she is, Abigail Pevensie, but everyone calls her Abby. Even Nora calls her Abby.”
“Abby, right?”
Hermione hesitated for a moment before repeating, feeling a little uneasy about saying the name.
“Yeah, that’s fine!”
Abby smiled again.
“Sorry I haven’t introduced myself yet. I’m Hermione Granger, a third year. Harry and Ron are in the same year as me.”
“Oh, a third year! So you’re in the same class as Nora? Nora is two years older than me. I’m doing everything for the first time, so I was a little worried about coming to this school. But, I thought it would be okay because Nora was there…”
“You call Leonor Nora, huh?”
Hermione crouched down so that her eyes were on Abby’s.
“Yeah. Ever since I was little.”
A weight sank in Hermione’s heart as she heard Abby talk about Leonor with that innocent smile.
Hermione had only heard Leonor talk about her step-sister once before. She rarely spoke about her parents-in-law, and whenever she did, her face was always blank and expressionless.
“I’m going to see Nora!”
Abby said, and started to run towards the exit of the common room.
“Wait, Abby.”
Hermione quickly reached out and gently grabbed Abby’s arm.
“What? I’ll be right back!”
“Abby.”
Hermione gently pulled Abby back.
“It’s a rule at Hogwarts not to go out at night, and you don’t even know where the Slytherin house is, do you? And… and she might not want to talk to people right now, after everything that’s happened recently.”
“Why? I’m Nora’s little sister, you know? And yet we haven’t spoken a word in years. I finally got to meet her today!”
Abby pursed her lips in dissatisfaction.
Hermione was momentarily at a loss for words, and Harry and Ron exchanged awkward glances.
“…I know that must have been hard for you. But you know, Leonor, you’ve been through a lot too. It’s not your fault, but for Leonor, meeting you right now might be a little… hard for her.”
“But I was really looking forward to meeting you…”
Abby frowned sadly and looked down.
“Anyway, you should rest at the dorms for today.”
Harry called out from beside me.
“That would be good. You’ll be tired after learning new things all day, and classes start tomorrow.”
“There’s a lot to remember. First I need to remember the way to the classroom.”
Ron joked.
“At first, we didn’t know the way and were always almost late.”
“You guys, you know. I arrived at the classroom five minutes before class.”
The nearby freshmen were also curious about the magic lessons that were about to begin tomorrow.
Abby seemed noticeably calmer than before.
“…Even if we’re in different dorms, will I be able to meet Nora somewhere?”
“Of course. We get along well with people from different dorms too.”
“I see.”
Abby, who had been looking down in thought, nodded, then looked up at Hermione and burst out laughing.
“thank you for teaching me!”
“you’re welcome”
Abby went up to the girls’ dormitory with the other freshmen.
“…You’re not a bad kid.”
Harry muttered as he watched her back.
“Yes. In fact, she might be a really nice girl.”
Hermione nodded quietly.
But that’s why I was worried about meeting Leonor again.
During the sorting process, Draco was anxious about Leonor, who had collapsed on the train.
A short time after the train suddenly stopped, a Dementor appeared in the compartment Draco and his friends were in. The Dementor was chased by something shiny silver and quickly retreated, but when he turned around, he saw Leonor lying on the floor. Professor Lupin, who was passing by the compartment, administered first aid, and when the train arrived at Hogwarts, the professor picked up Leonor and took her to the infirmary.
It was late at night, after the sorting had finished, when Leonor returned to the common room.
The students remaining in the room all turned to look at Leonor as she entered.
“Leonor! Are you okay now?”
Worried and anxious, Draco called out to Leonor as she staggered toward the girls’ dormitory.
“yeah,”
Leonor turned around blankly in response to the call, her complexion still looking terrible.
Draco could feel that everyone was paying attention to his conversation with Leonor. It was late at night, and there were more students than usual still in the common room.
“Is it okay now?”
Draco grabbed Leonor’s arm and faced her.
“Mmm… I got some chocolate.”
A mixed response came back.
“…Which dorm is Abby in?”
Leonor said without making eye contact.
” Gryffindor.”
” I see.”
Draco couldn’t tell if that made him happy or not.
Leonor was silent for a moment.
“…I’m going to bed now.”
“Oh, yeah. Good night.”
Waving her hand, Leonor entered the girls’ dormitory.
Seeing this, whispers began to break out again in the lounge.
Since the beginning of this year, or rather since Leonor returned from the Chamber of Secrets last year, the Slytherin students’ attitude towards her had changed unnaturally. Draco knew that there was some speculation going around among the Slytherin students.
“Isn’t Leonor the daughter of that person?”
Where did this story come from?
First, there is the uncertainty of Leonor’s parentage. It is already common knowledge in Slytherin that she is a descendant of the mysterious Vivi re family, but nothing about her father is known.
Then, last year, during the Chamber of Secrets incident, Leonor was implicated, despite not being a Muggle-born. Dumbledore explained that she had been turned to stone like the other victims, but while the other victims had been found turned to stone on school grounds, Leonor had been taken to the Chamber of Secrets and had been missing for a long time.
Was she really abducted? Even though her mother was magical?
It is rumored that the man who marries a woman from the Vivi re family is the one with the strongest magical powers, even among pure-bloods. Leonore’s father must have been someone with strong magical powers as well.
Speaking of powerful wizards, there’s that person.
Could it be that that man is Leonor’s father?
If that’s the case, it would also explain why only Leonor disappeared during the Chamber of Secrets incident. Leonor was the heir to the Chamber of Secrets.
The speculation spread quickly throughout the dormitory, and everyone who had previously treated Leonor as an outcast began to check her mood.
The next morning, at breakfast, Pansy asked Leonor, “Are you feeling okay?” It was the first time that Pansy had ever shown concern for Leonor.
Millicent also asks, “Want to pair up for Herbology today?” Millicent has never been paired with Leonor in class.
Draco watched the change in attitude around him with an indescribable feeling.
Draco found it hard to believe that Leonor’s father was that man.
The person himself doesn’t seem to notice any of the changes in his surroundings.
Leonor is naturally insensitive to other people’s feelings, but she seems especially distracted lately.
The cause is self-evident.
It’s Abby Pevensie.
The sister-in-law that Draco had met on the train.
Since being sorted into Gryffindor, Draco had often seen Abby searching for Leonor among the Slytherin students. Leonor may not have noticed, as she thoroughly avoided Gryffindors, including Abby, when moving between classes.
Draco knew almost nothing about Abby. All he had heard from Leonor was that she had been held captive by her parents-in-law. He had assumed that she had a bad relationship with her sister-in-law, but seeing them talking on the train, it didn’t seem like there was any bad between them, and Abby had apparently talked to Leonor. Also, if Draco remembered correctly, Leonor had missed Abby last year.
Draco was on his way to lunch when he heard Abby Pevensie’s voice from inside the Great Hall and stopped dead in his tracks behind a door.
“Why am I not suited for Slytherin?”
Abby’s words caused the Gryffindor students eating lunch to murmur.
“What happened all of a sudden?”
The voice was Granger. She had been walking behind him just a moment ago, but before he knew it she had entered the Great Hall.
“I went and asked my teacher to move me to Slytherin house! But she said no! I can’t be moved!”
Abby was a little tearful.
“You want to move to Slytherin?”
This is the voice of Seamus Finnegan.
“Nobody wants to go to Slytherin. Most of them are guys like Malfoy.”
Draco took a deep breath and resisted the urge to dash out the door.
Finnegan was being scolded by Granger or someone.
“I’m sorry Abby, but it’s true. The Sorting Hat’s decision cannot be changed, no matter how unhappy you are with it.”
“Plus, they said that even if I could move houses I might not be suited for Slytherin! But Nora’s in Slytherin too! So I should be there too!”
Draco peeked around the doorway to see Granger rubbing Abby’s shoulder soothingly.
“Slytherin is… a bit unique. It has a lot of ambitious students, a strong sense of unity, and a strong sense of pride in magic. But it can also be a bit closed-minded. In particular, there are still many people who hold prejudices against Muggle-borns. Because of this, it’s rare for a Muggle-born to become a Slytherin student, and even if there are, I think they probably feel out of place in the house.”
“I don’t care about that! I think it’s okay to just ignore people who are prejudiced. If Nora is okay with it, then so am I!”
Draco looked at Granger, who was holding her head, and felt a rare sympathy for her.
Abby Pevensie knows nothing about Leonor being held captive by Abby’s parents, and that her mother is probably a witch.
Draco felt like he could understand Leonor’s feelings when she instinctively hid the fact that she was a Slytherin student.
After lunch and returning to the common room, Draco calls out to Leonor who has just returned from the library.
However, Leonor said “later” and walked into the girls’ dormitory without even making eye contact.
I was thinking of telling you about it in the Great Hall.
I know you’re stressed out over your sister-in-law, but isn’t this a bit cold?
No, it’s a family matter, and I’m sure Leonor is having a hard time too.
Leonor has been restless this year. One moment she’s in the common room, the next she’s coming back from the library with a book in her arms, the next moment she starts reading, she’s running off somewhere again.
I’m sure Leonor is having a hard time too.
Feeling a little lonely, Draco headed towards the boys’ dormitory too.
04:Memory gameNervous breakdown
“I’ve wanted to see you for so long.”
Abby hugged Leonor on the train and puffed out her cheeks in dissatisfaction, just like she used to do long ago.
Her hair has grown longer and her freckles have grown, but she’s the same Abby she was four years ago: selfish, playful, hardworking, and the one who wanted my stuffed animals even though she already had plenty of her own.
Abby doesn’t know anything.
A dark, cloaked figure appeared on the Hogwarts Express, and Leonor’s vision went dark. A chill slid easily into her chest, into her heart, and like cold water flowing into her, Leonor drowned in the darkness.
Leonor’s feet remain submerged in cold water, like a tidal flat where the tide never goes out. Even if she struggles to get out, she gets buried deeper in the mud.
I was in the garden with my father in the afternoon sun.
It smells like earth.
Time simply passes by.
If you don’t constantly have your mind full of something, you can’t help but think.
“Are you feeling well these days?”
“…What is it?”
Fear is clearly visible in his eyes.
“…Why, why would you do that…”
Who broke the window?
No, it wasn’t me.
“Do you know my mother?”
There was a hint of expectation in the voice.
“Nothing. Just something I remember.”
I dream every night.
I rub my face, trying to wipe away the image of Abby appearing and laughing at me in my dream.
It’s okay, this is just a dream. Really? Is it really just a dream?
“Blue or green?”
Only the people’s faces are different.
Did you break the window?
I shouldn’t have broken the glass.
“It looks like Slughorn has already memorized your name. I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before he asks you to join the Slug Club.”
“I’m not joining the Slug Club. I don’t like trouble.”
I can’t read books or textbooks. The words don’t enter my head. I find myself just skimming over the words.
Who broke it?
“That was a foolish thing to do, Severus.”
“…Am I an idiot?”
“I don’t mean to say that. But you knew better than anyone that that’s the kind of person they were.”
Severus looked down and said nothing.
I didn’t do that.
In the library, Hermione called out to me, “Are you okay?” She looked very worried. I wonder if I look that bad from the outside. Of course.
When I’m alone, I unconsciously think about it. But I can’t be in a space with other people because I don’t know when I’ll burst into tears. If someone asks me why I’m crying, I can only say I don’t know. If someone talked to me there, I would probably break down.
I would slip in to class just before it started, sit at the back, and rush out of the classroom as soon as it ended.
Was it me who broke it?
It can’t be different.
“Was it a full moon today?”
The color drained from the boy’s face and his eyes widened.
“…Who did you hear that from?”
“I don’t think anyone has heard from me.”
“So then why…?”
I even brush off Draco who calls out to me in concern and go find something else to do to fill my head. I feel bad for Draco, but right now even his words and concern for me are bothersome.
Leave me alone.
Don’t leave me alone.
Or Abby? No way, no way.
But Abby was also a witch.
Don’t think nonsense.
“That’s none of your business…”
I started to push him away, but then the dog’s eyes narrowed, looking at me as if searching for something.
“…You don’t know?”
“Well, I wonder what it is about.”
I’m afraid to sleep.
When I fell asleep, I dreamed that Abby was looking over Camilla’s shoulder, a clearly malicious smile on her face.
different!
It’s a dream, right?
“…How do you know everything?”
“Not for nothing.”
“But you know.”
“You’ve been making a lot of noise. I guess she finally had enough.”
The glass just broke on its own? How could that possibly be a coincidence?
It was a coincidence, right? Coincidences happen.
Outdoor classes are depressing. Even going to class means being with the other dorm students, and there’s no way I’m going to be able to avoid Draco at this point.
So who broke it? Was it me after all?
“Hey Lucius. What’s wrong?”
“To bring you back.”
“That must be hard work.”
I walked back through the schoolyard alongside Lucius.
He never looked back toward the forest.
Did I do that? I always believed that I didn’t. I didn’t do that, did I?
No, no, no.
So who is it?
“That’s a pity. You’re still young.”
“A centaur would pity me.”
I don’t understand. I can’t believe it.
Leonor’s condition had not improved at all, in fact it had gotten worse.
Draco was watching Leonor’s back from a few steps behind as she walked, embracing her textbook. With a grim expression on her face, she paid no attention to her surroundings, and simply stared at the ground beneath her feet. Even someone who met her for the first time could tell that she was abnormal.
Since then, Leonor hasn’t said anything to me.
All Draco knows is that something happened between Abby and Leonor in the past, and that Leonor is still suffering from it.
“Well,” Draco spoke with determination as they walked across the school lawn to their Magical Biology lesson.
“Hey, what happened? Tell me a little bit already. It’s been like this since the beginning of the year. Try to understand my situation.”
“If you don’t like it, leave me alone.”
“How can you do that? I’m one of the few friends you have in the dorm, right? If you keep quiet like this, I won’t understand anything.”
“…I can’t say.”
“Why?”
“Because I can’t say it. Because I don’t want to say it.”
Leonor spoke in an angry, rapid voice, revealing just how cornered she was.
But Draco’s patience was wearing thin.
It’s nothing. I can’t say it. I don’t want to say it. No matter how many times I ask, that’s the only answer I get.
“Oh really? If you don’t want to say it that much, then do it on your own!”
I couldn’t help but speak out loud.
Leonor said nothing in response. She grimaced and swallowed a sob, and before Draco noticed the tears in her eyes, he was already regretting his actions.
Oh no.
But it’s too late now. Once words are out of your mouth, they can’t be taken back.
Leonor quietly muttered “I’m sorry” and was quiet after that. It was the first time I’d ever seen Leonor so cowered.
There was an uneasy atmosphere surrounding the two of them; it was more than just awkward.
No matter how much he regretted it, it was too late.
Draco’s mood was at its worst when he met up with the Gryffindor students for Care of Magical Creatures class. The Potters glared at Leonor, who had red eyes from tears, as if to say, “You made me cry.”
That’s true, but it’s also not true.
The things that have been tormenting Leonor for some time now are ultimately tormenting Draco as well.
Why don’t you talk to me?
All this time, even when Leonor was isolated in her dorm, I never abandoned her.
And yet, is there something you can’t even tell me?
Draco reached out his hand to the Hippogriff that Potter had been riding on earlier.
Frustrating. That was the perfect word to describe it.
Potter was still glaring at me.
What about you? You haven’t even been able to help Leonor when she’s in trouble.
Despite Hagrid’s warnings, the Hippogriff was easy to touch, its feathers surprisingly soft.
The current Leonor is much more difficult to handle.
“Compared to that, this is nothing. Right, you big, ugly beast?”
In an instant, the silver claw was raised.
The next moment, my body was blown to the side as if I had been hit by something with force.
At the same time, a sharp pain runs through my right arm.
The female students scream.
Draco, who had been thrown to the ground, raised his head while holding his right arm. As Pansy ran up to him, his eyes met with Leonor’s over her shoulder.
For some reason, Leonor was stunned.
His blue and green eyes were wide with shock.
While Hagrid carried Draco to the infirmary, Leonor just stood there frozen, as if terrified by something.
Why,
Why is Leonor making that face?
Something very bad has just happened to Leonor.
That much was clear to Draco.
Before I knew it, I had blown Draco away.
It was me who did that.
After all, there was no one holding a walking stick.
And most importantly, I remember.
Before I knew it, I had blown it away.
Without realizing it.
Who broke the glass?
Is my memory of not breaking it wrong after all?
Did he break the glass without realising it like he did with Draco?
Was it me that rained glass on Abby’s head?
Because Abby tried to steal his stuffed animal?
So that’s why I broke that glass?
I don’t know. I don’t remember. Even if I did remember, I wouldn’t believe it.
—Who broke the glass?
Professor Lupin called the students in one by one.
The cabinet was opened.
Right in front of her was the large window pane that Matthew had given to Camilla as a present.
Standing before him was Abby from that day.
Holding a stuffed rabbit made of terry cloth.
Abby looks up.
Abby looks my way – with a malicious smile –
Stop it!
No! No no no no no no no!
I don’t know! I don’t know!
I can’t believe it!