Annoyance

Dumbledore raised his head from the Pensieve, his expression strange.

He had remembered that argument between Cyberlina and Sebas for many years—from not understanding it at first, to comprehending it later after forming a different impression of Cyberlina.

So today, after Neophyt had said only a few words, he immediately thought of that day. This should also have been the only time he had heard anything related to it. Thus, he had decided to use his usual method to look over that day's memory again. It worked very well. Reviewing one's own memories from a third-person perspective always revealed things one had failed to notice at the time.

But he had never expected to learn something surprising as well...

The facts proved that this little accident had not affected Cyberlina and Ominis's love life in the slightest. They had remained deeply devoted to each other for many years afterward.

Dumbledore was unsure whether Ominis had told Cyberlina about it, but he guessed he had not.

After becoming colleagues with Cyberlina, he had once asked her why she had not established some kind of blood pact or magical vow with Mr. Ominis.

Her answer at the time had been—

"I can guarantee that I'll be absolutely loyal to him, and I can also guarantee that I'll do everything I can to make him keep loving me. But no matter how cleanly something is dealt with, it will still leave traces. I can't guarantee that after learning his feelings for me were the result of manipulation, he'll still be able to love me without any resentment.

"I can accept him raising his wand against me, but I can't accept him suffering pain because of it. This is my greed and my mistake, not his. So I can't establish that kind of thing with him, Albus."

After hearing this answer, Dumbledore had remained silent for a long time. In the end, he had blurted out, "Professor, you truly are a Slytherin," making Cyberlina laugh so hard.

The contrast was truly brutal.

No wonder Cyberlina had such a happy relationship.

Even now, Dumbledore still thought so.

Only, he had gained another thought: had Cyberlina modified that guardian's vow and placed it on Mr. Ominis? Was that why she had not used another vow to bind him to herself?

But as soon as this thought arose, he himself rejected the latter half of it, retaining only the first.

Because Cyberlina would never restrict Ominis. If anything, she would bind herself to Ominis—

"!"

Dumbledore suddenly straightened, his pupils trembling slightly as countless thoughts raced through his mind. After a long while, he finally sighed slowly—

"Merlin..."

More than sixty years later, Dumbledore had finally realized it. Mr. Ominis had been dead for a long time. Why else would the professor who wanted to resurrect him follow the Wiccan Party in studying the souls of the living and the newly dead?

"Neophyt!" Dumbledore looked up in search of Neophyt's portrait, only to find that she had been watching him the entire time. "Where is Cyberlina's trial located?"

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

It was her former home, not the house in the Muggle world that later became her laboratory. So her soul experiments had nothing to do with the Ancient Magic pact.

But this also meant that after returning to the age of fifteen, she had gone back to her former home.

Dumbledore closed his eyes.

He really wanted to accuse Cyberlina of deceiving him, but after thinking it over carefully, he realized that she had only said she woke up in that house in the Muggle world. At first, she had merely said she needed to return to her former home to retrieve her wand. She had never said whether she had gone back there before!

Slytherin cunning.

Dumbledore sighed, once again marveling at how he had never been able to see through Cyberlina. She was always like this—she forever displayed sincerity, yet never revealed the truth. Every word she said was true, but every sentence contained a trap that lured people into stepping in of their own accord.

By the time they realized they had fallen into her trap, they would discover that they had no idea when they had entered it.

He had once thought he could see through Cyberlina, who had gradually gone mad in her later years. Now he realized that had merely been an illusion she had given him. He did not think he was imagining things. After learning that those dark magics could not affect her, he truly felt that side of her had been deliberately shown to him by Cyberlina. But he still needed to think carefully about her purpose. After all, he had spent those years following her and watching her, yet he did not know which of the things he had done were what she had hoped for. Moreover, her answer when he had tentatively asked about what happened in '24 had indeed been extremely ambiguous...

...Perhaps he should just ask her outright.

But if she did not want to tell him, she would simply fool him again!

Dumbledore began to feel irritated again.

He had discovered that ever since Cyberlina returned, he had not enjoyed a single day of peace! He had even lost a huge amount of his beard!

What was even more infuriating was that the last time Professor McGonagall had brought him some documents for confirmation, he had complained to her a couple of times. Instead of comforting him, McGonagall had smiled and said, "Albus, you look much younger."

Even Minerva had been won over by her!

He knew it. Cyberlina could win everyone's affection!

Dumbledore stood ramrod straight in front of his desk, his face tense and solemn.

The headmasters in the portraits, whether pretending to sleep or genuinely awake, looked at one another in confusion. None of them had any idea what serious matter Dumbledore was thinking about this time. The Sorting Hat had initially thought the same, but after seeing Fawkes lounging and sleeping leisurely on the sofa, it felt that Dumbledore's mood was probably not as solemn as he made it seem.

After standing there for quite a while, Dumbledore finally crossed to the desk and sat down with slow steps.

All right, there was at least one piece of news that was not so irritating.

At the very least, it could be confirmed that Cyberlina had indeed resolved the substance that had troubled the guardians for centuries, along with the magic used to extract it. Since she had even demonstrated it in front of Ominis, it definitely had nothing to do with darkness.

Although Dumbledore was highly skeptical that the magic could actually be carried out.

Moreover, based on Cyberlina's words, Dumbledore also confirmed that Snape's suspicions had been correct. Since she could identify emotions and feelings among the things she extracted from a human body, it was very likely that she could sense some of them while they were still inside the body.

As he thought this, Dumbledore raised his wand and summoned his phoenix Patronus. He explained the matter in detail, then waved it away to deliver the message, completely unaware that light had already begun to appear outside the windows of the headmaster's office.

Thus, after staying up late for several consecutive days and then enduring a night overloaded with information—first organizing his memories so he could manufacture memories in the future to deal with Voldemort's inspections, then realizing it was late and deciding to sleep well and get up later on Sunday—Snape, who had only just fallen asleep, was woken up.

After listening to Dumbledore deliver a long speech through the Patronus, Snape got dressed with a wooden expression, took his wand, and stepped into the fireplace.

Something bright enough to hurt his eyes flickered in front of him and babbled on. He did not understand it. He could not understand it. He had never heard of extracting pain from inside the body. Did the healers at St. Mungo's know such a brilliant method? Was his own knowledge too shallow for him to understand it? Apparently, some Old Bee who had eaten more sweets than he had read books needed to babble through it in person.

Ha! Sleep? That did not exist. Was the sleep of a former Death Eater important? No, it was not. It was completely unimportant. The mysterious matter of Sekerei was far more important, so some headmaster could forget about resting too. He could explain everything clearly first!

Meanwhile, Harry, who had endured the late night and the information overload alongside him, slept exceptionally well that night.

Exhausted in both body and mind, and under the combined effects of Dumbledore's sleeping spell, Harry slept until late afternoon the next day before slowly waking up. Once again, he met the resentful gaze of his roommate, Ron. Thus, the young savior carefully recounted the entire night's experience while Ron repeatedly stared at him in stunned disbelief and cried out in surprise. By the end, both of them were thirsty and hungry. When they turned their heads, they discovered that the stars and moon were already shining brightly outside.

"Why don't we... go to the kitchen and find something to eat?" Harry touched his stomach and suggested, remembering the kitchen Cyberlina had mentioned.

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

"Do you know how to get there?"

"Um... we can ask them." Ron glanced at the time, then immediately jumped up. "Come on, or we'll be too late!"

Harry knew that the Weasley twins often disappeared at night, so he immediately grabbed his cloak and left. But after putting it on smoothly, he paused, then stiffly and slowly opened his pocket.

"What is it, Harry?" Ron opened the dormitory door and looked back in confusion at Harry, who was standing motionless.

"How did I get back last night? And how did I take off my cloak?"

"Professor McGonagall floated you back with a Levitation Charm. She also used magic to take off your school robes. She said sleeping in them was uncomfortable." Ron answered honestly. "Why?"

"No, nothing..." Harry swiftly closed his pocket, grabbed Ron, and pulled him outside. "I'm starving. Let's hurry."

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

"Oh, you mean you two didn't eat dinner."

"You want to know how to get to the kitchen?"

Fred and George exchanged a glance, then each put an arm around one of the younger boys.

"Then we'll go together."

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

The two older wizards pushed the younger ones toward a painting. Pointing at the fruit held in a silver bowl, they said in unison, "Tickle that green pear."

Harry and Ron exchanged a glance, then reached out at the same time and tickled it. The pear then transformed into a green handle.

"Whoa!" the two younger wizards exclaimed.

Fred opened the door with the handle. George pointed toward a nearby wine barrel and explained, "That is the entrance to the Hufflepuff dormitories."

Harry's eyes widened. So "nearby" means only a few steps away?

The kitchen was much larger than Harry had imagined. It was practically another Great Hall! Quite a few Hufflepuff students were sitting there, and there were even several Ravenclaws eating while reading books!?

Fred shrugged, entirely accustomed to the sight. "They're regulars in the dining hall too. They often get so absorbed in their books that they forget to eat dinner."

Harry and Ron expressed their shock with their faces, but Ron quickly recovered. Pursing his lips, he said, "I feel like Hermione could do something like that too."

"But she rarely sneaks out at night." Harry curiously studied the busy house-elves. He felt that they were different from Dobby, the house-elf he had seen before. They seemed very happy, but Dobby had not.

As soon as the four of them sat down, a smiling house-elf suddenly appeared beside Harry, startling him.

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

"Anything is fine."

"They're both starving."

Fred and George pointed at Ron and Harry respectively, working together perfectly.

"All right." Diko snapped his fingers. The next second, a serving of fried fish, chicken legs, bread, and mushroom soup appeared in front of both Harry and Ron.

Ron immediately began to eat heartily, but Harry picked up a piece of bread and asked the house-elf beside him, "Diko is your name?"

"Yes. Diko's name is Diko." Diko bobbed his head at Harry. "But Diko's father was also named Diko."

Ron had heard that house-elves almost always served the same family for generations. While gnawing on a chicken leg, he asked, "Was your father also a house-elf belonging to Hogwarts?"

"Diko's father was a house-elf belonging to Hogwarts," Diko replied cheerfully.

Harry felt that answer sounded a little strange. After taking a bite of bread, he asked, "Are you one too?"

Ron shot him a speechless glance. "He works in Hogwarts's kitchen. How could he not be a Hogwarts house-elf?"

"Right." Harry nodded, unable to understand why the answer had seemed strange to him. He began wolfing down his bread.

"Call Diko's name anytime you need anything." Diko watched them with a beaming smile, then snapped his fingers and vanished.

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

Ron asked, "Didn't you come here to eat?"

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

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

"Then where are you going?" Harry looked at them curiously.

"We're not taking you with us." George raised his head and smiled at Harry.

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

George was about to say something when Fred suddenly whispered excitedly beside him, "It's appeared."

George lowered his head and glanced at the Marauder's Map. He and Fred then rose at the same time and walked out of the kitchen.

Ron watched their departing backs, neither twin looking back even once. He angrily bit into the chicken leg in his hand. "Hmph! Even if they asked me to go, I wouldn't."

"It would have been nice if we'd brought an invisibility cloak." Harry murmured from the side, thinking that he should first learn the Disillusionment Charm Cyberlina had used. Having to carry an invisibility cloak around all the time was rather troublesome.

When Fred and George returned to the entrance hall, it was exactly curfew. The two immediately divided the work with practiced ease. Fred kept a close eye on the Marauder's Map, while George watched for obstacles and stayed alert for professors making their rounds.

"Yes, it's that route today." The light at the tip of Fred's wand illuminated the Marauder's Map in his hands as he whispered excitedly.

"Then we have to find that place today." George whispered with a smile. "There isn't a corner of Hogwarts we can't find."

"Of course not!"

Then, after walking down a long, winding stone staircase leading underground and crossing another stone corridor, they lost their target. But they showed no disappointment. Instead, they looked somewhat excitedly at the unfamiliar hall before them—or what could, for the moment, be called a hall.

At the very center of the hall stood a stone disk slightly raised above the ground, surrounded by six moss-covered pillars. Though the place was underground, with no windows or candles anywhere around them, a faint light still illuminated the weed-covered disk in the center.

It was eerie, yet somehow made them feel that it was sacred.

The twins exchanged a glance, extinguished the lights at the tips of their wands simultaneously, and walked forward to examine the disk—and the spiral staircase descending on its right.

"Go?" Fred raised his chin toward George.

"Of course, brother."

The two exchanged a smile and lifted their feet to descend the stairs, but just then—

"You'll have to return by the same route even if you go down."

The suddenly appearing female voice made both of them freeze. They quickly turned and drew their wands toward the rear, only to find no one there.

"Good evening, Weasleys." Cyberlina smiled as she dispelled the Disillusionment Charm and appeared where the two had just stopped. "Your reactions are decent, but you could be a little more vigilant."