Schiller lowered his eyes and beckoned to Harley. Harley stared at him as if entranced, then slowly stepped forward until she stood before him.
Schiller crouched down and wiped the dust from Harley's face. She looked at him blankly. Since her father's death, no one had ever touched her face like that.
"Professor?" Harley repeated.
"That's right. I'm the professor you were looking for." Schiller nodded gently. His movements always seemed careful and restrained. After withdrawing his hand, he glanced down at the ground, then looked back at Harley and said,
"You're very clever. You cracked the code in the newspaper and caught a glimpse of another world. In that world, everyone has a codename—the thing they take the greatest pride in. Have you decided on yours?"
At the question, Harley grew excited. She nodded vigorously and said, "If I ever get to publish an article someday, maybe I'll call myself Lucky Girl, or Genius Kid. Nobody's using those codenames yet, right?"
Schiller smiled, neither approving nor disapproving of the two names Harley had chosen. Then he asked, "Do you know why my codename is Professor?"
Harley stared straight at Schiller. After standing there in a daze for quite some time, she finally said, "Because you're a professor at Gotham University?"
Schiller nodded at first, but then shook his head. Looking into Harley's blue-green, gemlike eyes, he said, "I am indeed a professor at Gotham University, but I'm also a professor at Hogwarts. Do you know where Hogwarts is?"
Harley's eyes widened. Drawn in by Schiller's story-like tone, she seemed to know what he was about to say. In an excited voice, she asked, "Where is it?"
"It's a school of magic—ancient, mysterious, and powerful. Compared with the students who graduate from that school, the mages you saw today are