Annoyance

Dumbledore lifted his head from the Pensieve, his expression peculiar.

He had kept the memory of Cyberlina and Sebastian's argument for many years—from initial incomprehension to later understanding after forming a different impression of Cyberlina.

So today, after Neophyt had barely said a few words, he was reminded of that day. It was likely the only time he had heard anything related to it, so he decided to revisit the memory using his usual habit—it was very useful, reviewing one's memories from a third-person perspective always revealed things one hadn't noticed at the time.

He hadn't expected... to also learn something surprising.

As it turned out, this minor surprise had absolutely no impact on Cyberlina and Ominis's romantic life; they were deeply in love for many years to come.

Dumbledore wasn't sure if Ominis had told Cyberlina about this, but he guessed he hadn't.

Because after becoming colleagues with Cyberlina, he had asked her why she hadn't established a blood oath or some other magical bond with Mr. Ominis.

Cyberlina's answer at the time was—

"I can guarantee my absolute loyalty to him, and I can also guarantee that I will do everything in my power to make him love me forever. But even if something is handled cleanly, there will still be traces. I cannot guarantee that after knowing his feelings for me were the result of manipulation, he could still love me without any reservations.

I can accept him pointing his wand at me, but I cannot accept him suffering because of it. This is my greed and my mistake, not his. Therefore, I cannot establish that kind of thing with him, Albus."

After hearing this answer, Dumbledore remained silent for a long time, finally muttering something that made Cyberlina laugh heartily: "Professor, you truly are a Slytherin."

What a stark contrast.

No wonder Cyberlina could have such a happy relationship.

—To this day, Dumbledore still thought so.

He just had an additional thought: Had Cyberlina modified that Guardian's Oath contract and placed it upon Mr. Ominis, which was why she hadn't used any other oath to bind him to her?

But as soon as this thought arose, he negated the latter half himself, keeping only the first.

Because Cyberlina would never restrict Ominis; rather, she would bind herself to Ominis—

"!"

Dumbledore suddenly straightened up, his pupils trembling slightly, his mind racing. After a long while, he slowly sighed—

"Merlin..."

More than sixty years later, Dumbledore finally realized—Mr. Ominis had passed away long ago. Why would the professor who wanted to resurrect him follow the Wiccan Party to research the souls of the living and the recently deceased?

"Neophyt!" Dumbledore looked up to find Neophyt's portrait, only to discover she had been watching him the entire time. "Where did Cyberlina set the trial location?"

"The entrance is in her residence," Neophyt explained. "We all chose places we were familiar with."

—It was her old home, not the house in the Muggle world that later became her laboratory. Therefore, her soul experiments had nothing to do with Ancient Magic contracts.

But this also indicated that after she returned to being fifteen, she had visited her old home.

Dumbledore closed his eyes.

He really wanted to condemn Cyberlina for deceiving him, but after careful consideration, he realized she had only said she woke up in the house in the Muggle world. At first, she had only mentioned going back to her old home to get her wand—she had never said whether she had been back before!

Cunning Slytherin.

Dumbledore sighed, lamenting once again that he could never truly understand Cyberlina. She was like this—always appearing sincere, yet never revealing the truth; every word she spoke was true, but every word contained a trap, luring people to step into it willingly.

By the time they realized they had fallen into her trap, they found they didn't even know when they had entered it.

He had thought he could see through Cyberlina's later years of madness, but now he realized that was just an illusion she had created for him—he didn't think he was being overly suspicious. Now that he knew dark magic had no effect on her, he truly believed that side was deliberately shown to him by Cyberlina. But he still needed to think carefully about the purpose, as he had followed her closely for several years and didn't know which of his actions was what she expected. Moreover, her answer when he had ambiguously inquired about events from '24 had indeed been very vague...

...Why not just confront her directly and ask?

But if she didn't want to say, she would still trick him back!

Dumbledore began to feel annoyed again.

He found that ever since Cyberlina returned, he hadn't had a single peaceful day! He had lost a large chunk of his beard!

What was even more infuriating was that the last time he complained to McGonagall while she was getting documents for him to confirm, McGonagall hadn't comforted him at all. Instead, she had smiled and said, "Albus, you look much younger."

—Even Minerva had been turned!

He knew it; Cyberlina was destined to receive everyone's favor!

Dumbledore stood rigidly before his desk, his face tense and serious.

The portraits of the sleeping and awake headmasters exchanged glances, all of them puzzled, completely unaware of what serious matter Dumbledore was contemplating now. The Sorting Hat initially thought the same, but seeing Fawkes lazily sleeping on the sofa—it felt that Dumbledore's mood probably wasn't as serious as he appeared.

After standing for a while, Dumbledore slowly walked to his desk and sat down.

Alright, at least there was one piece of news that made him less agitated.

At the very least, it was confirmed that Cyberlina had indeed solved the substance that had troubled the Guardians for hundreds of years and the magic to extract it—she could even demonstrate it in front of Ominis, so it definitely had nothing to do with darkness.

Although, Dumbledore did question the feasibility of that magic.

And according to Cyberlina's words, Dumbledore also confirmed Snape's suspicion was correct—since she could identify emotions and feelings within things extracted from the human body, it was highly likely she could sense some of them while they were still inside the body.

Thinking this, Dumbledore picked up his wand and summoned his phoenix Patronus, explained the matter in detail, and then waved his hand to send the message, completely unaware that the window of the Headmaster's office was already beginning to lighten.

Thus, after staying up for several consecutive nights and experiencing a night full of explosive information—first organizing memories for future use to cope with Voldemort's inspections—then realizing it was late and deciding to sleep in on Sunday—Snape, who had just fallen asleep, was awakened.

After listening to the long message Dumbledore had sent via Patronus, Snape, with a blank expression, put on his clothes, grabbed his wand, and stepped into the fireplace.

Something blindingly bright flashed before his eyes, babbling incoherently; he didn't understand. He had never heard of drawing out illness from the body. Did the healers at St. Mungo's know such a clever method? It was his own ignorance; he simply didn't understand, and needed a certain Old Bee, who had eaten more sweets than he had read books, to babble incoherently for him.

Ha! Sleep? Nonexistent. Was his sleep as a former Death Eater important? No, not important at all. It was less important than the mysterious Sekerei's affairs. Therefore, a certain Headmaster shouldn't expect any rest either; he needed to explain things clearly first!

Harry, who had endured the late nights and information overload with him, rested exceptionally well that night.

Exhausted both physically and mentally, and under the combined effect of Dumbledore's sleeping spell, Harry slept until the evening of the next day before slowly waking up. He was once again met with Ron's resentful gaze. Under Ron's constant stares of disbelief and exclamations, the little saviour meticulously recounted the night's experiences. By the end, both of them were thirsty and hungry. Turning their heads, they found the sky outside already filled with stars and the moon.

"How about... we go to the kitchens to find something to eat?" Harry suggested, touching his stomach and thinking of the kitchens Cyberlina had once mentioned.

"Sure!" Ron's eyes lit up. "Fred and George have mentioned it many times, but I've never been."

"Do you know how to get there?"

"Hmm... we can go ask those two." Ron glanced at the time and immediately jumped up. "Let's hurry, or we'll be too late!"

Harry also knew that the Weasley twins often disappeared at night, so he immediately grabbed his outer robe and started to leave. However, after putting it on smoothly, he paused and then stiffly and slowly opened his pocket.

"What's wrong, Harry?" Ron asked, opening the dormitory door and looking back at Harry, who was still standing there, confused.

"Last night, how did I get back, and how did my outer robe come off?"

"Professor McGonagall floated you back with a Levitation Charm, and she also used magic to take off your school robe, saying it was uncomfortable to sleep in," Ron replied truthfully. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing, nothing..." Harry quickly closed his pocket, pulled Ron along, and walked out. "I'm starving, let's hurry."

Fortunately, the two young wizards intercepted the Weasley twins at the common room entrance as they were preparing to leave.

"Oh, so you mean you didn't have dinner."

"Want to know how to get to the kitchens?"

Fred and George exchanged a glance, then each put an arm around a young wizard.

"Then let's go together."

It was not yet curfew, so the four of them walked openly down from the eighth floor. After following the marble staircase to the entrance hall, they turned left into a stone corridor.

The two older wizards pushed the two younger wizards in front of a painting and pointed to the fruit in the silver bowl in the painting. They said in unison, "Scratch the green pear."

Harry and Ron exchanged a glance, then simultaneously reached out and scratched it. Then—the pear turned into a green handle.

"Wow!" the two young wizards exclaimed.

Fred held the handle and opened the door, while George pointed to a wine barrel not far away and explained, "That's where the Hufflepuff dormitory is."

Harry's eyes widened: so "close" meant just a few steps away?

The kitchens were much larger than Harry had imagined; it was almost another Great Hall! Many Hufflepuff students were sitting there, and even a few Ravenclaws were—eating and reading!?

Fred shrugged as if it were commonplace: "They're regulars at the dining hall too, because they often get so engrossed in their books that they forget about dinner time."

Harry and Ron expressed their shock through their expressions, but Ron quickly recovered and pouted, saying, "I feel like Hermione could do something like this too."

"But she rarely patrols at night," Harry said, curiously observing the busy house-elves. He felt they were different from Dobby, the house-elf he had met before—they seemed happy, but Dobby wasn't.

As soon as the four sat down, a house-elf with a big smile suddenly appeared beside Harry, startling him.

"What can Diko do for the noble young wizards?"

"Anything will do, I guess."

"These two are starving."

Fred and George chimed in, pointing to Ron and Harry respectively.

"Okay." Diko snapped his fingers, and the next second, a portion of fried fish, chicken legs, bread, and mushroom soup appeared before Harry and Ron.

Ron immediately began to devour his food, but Harry picked up a piece of bread and asked the house-elf beside him, "Is Diko your name?"

"Yes. Diko's name is Diko." Diko shook his head at Harry. "But Diko's father is also called Diko."

Ron had heard that house-elves served the same family for generations, so while gnawing on a chicken leg, he asked, "Was your father also a Hogwarts house-elf?"

"Diko's father was a Hogwarts house-elf," Diko replied lively.

Harry felt the answer was a bit awkward. After taking a bite of bread, he asked, "Are you one too?"

Then he received a speechless glance from Ron: "He works in the Hogwarts kitchens, how could he not be a Hogwarts house-elf?"

"Right." Harry nodded, not understanding why he had felt awkward just now, and began to eat his bread heartily.

"Please call Diko's name anytime you need anything," Diko said with a smile, then snapped his fingers and disappeared.

Meanwhile, Fred and George were leaning their heads together, looking at a piece of parchment, completely ignoring the conversation between the two younger wizards and the house-elf.

Ron asked, "Aren't you guys here to eat?"

"No," Fred replied without looking up. "It's just that this place is very close to our destination."

"That's why we brought you here," George added.

"Then where are you going?" Harry asked curiously.

"We're not telling you," George said, looking up and smiling at Harry.

"Tch, we didn't want to go anyway," Ron said, turning his head away.

George was about to say something when he heard Fred beside him exclaim excitedly in a low voice, "It's here."

George looked down at the Marauder's Map, then he and Fred stood up simultaneously and walked out of the kitchens.

Ron watched the backs of the two as they left without looking back, and angrily took a bite of the chicken leg in his hand. "Hmph, I wouldn't go even if you asked me to."

"If only I had brought my Invisibility Cloak," Harry muttered beside him, thinking he should really learn that Disillusionment Charm Cyberlina had used. Constantly relying on the Invisibility Cloak was quite troublesome.

When Fred and George returned to the entrance hall, they arrived just as curfew was about to begin. They immediately started their usual routine: Fred kept a close eye on the Marauder's Map, while George watched out for obstacles and any professors on patrol.

"Yes, it's that path today," Fred whispered, a hint of excitement in his voice as the light from his wand tip illuminated the Marauder's Map in his hand.

"Then we absolutely have to find that place today," George said with a low chuckle. "There isn't a corner of Hogwarts we can't find."

"Of course not!"

Then—after walking down a long, winding stone staircase that led underground, and then along a stone corridor—they lost their target. But instead of showing disappointment, they looked at the unfamiliar hall before them with a sense of excitement. It was a hall, for lack of a better word.

In the center of the hall was a stone disc, slightly raised from the ground, surrounded by six moss-covered stone pillars. Although they were underground, with no windows or torches, a faint light illuminated the weed-covered disc in the middle.

It was eerie, yet undeniably sacred.

The twins exchanged a look, simultaneously extinguished the lights on their wand tips, and walked forward to examine the disc—and the descending spiral staircase to its right.

"Shall we?" Fred tilted his chin towards George.

"Of course, brother."

They grinned at each other and were about to step onto the stairs when suddenly—

"You'll just have to come back the way you came if you go down."

The sudden female voice made them both freeze. They quickly turned, wands drawn, but found themselves surrounded by empty air.

"Good evening, Weasleys," Cyberlina said with a smile, dropping her Disillusionment Charm and appearing from the spot where they had just been standing. "Your reflexes are decent, but you could be a bit more alert."