Students

Perhaps it was a habit formed during those years of teaching. Ever since students had gradually begun filling the Great Hall, she had switched from reading that storybook to observing the students as a way to pass the time.

No matter how many years passed, students had always been the purest creatures she had ever seen, always the easiest to understand—especially at Hogwarts, where they had been sorted by the Sorting Hat. Yet unexpectedly, the conflicts between the houses now were far more serious than she remembered. In this short span of time alone, she had seen quite a few Slytherins and Gryffindors glaring at and snapping at each other.

How strange. In only a few decades, the hostility between the two houses had increased more than it had in the previous centuries. That Voldemort truly was capable.

During her time back, Cyberlina had also learned quite a bit about Voldemort, so she was very interested in the "boy who lived." She wanted to know what exactly the boy possessed that had allowed him, as an infant, to withstand the Killing Curse—a curse that still had no countercurse.

As a result, she looked toward the Gryffindor table especially often. Unfortunately, even after the first-years entered the Great Hall, she still did not see the bespectacled boy with the scar on his forehead. Instead, she noticed two red-haired boys looking at a piece of parchment while glancing toward her seat, as though they had spotted her but failed to actually see her.

Cyberlina grew interested. With a highly targeted Confundus Charm in place, she slowly walked behind the two boys under the watchful eyes of the professors.

The students had no idea what was happening. They only knew that the Sorting Hat, which was in the middle of sorting, had unusually gone silent, while all the professors turned to look in the same direction—the Weasley twins.

Naturally, they curiously looked over as well.

The twins sensed the change in the atmosphere around them. When they looked up, they were startled by the attention of nearly the entire school. They hurriedly put away the parchment in their hands and said with feigned composure:

"Oh, we didn't do anything."

"Just looking over our notes."

"You can tell from our grades—"

"—we love learning."

Cyberlina smiled and said in a voice only the professors could hear, "Indeed. They really do love learning, and they really love the school."

They loved it so much that they were studying a map of the school even while eating.

The map truly was exquisitely made, but after seeing through the enchantments upon it, Cyberlina lost interest. She slowly returned to where she had been sitting.

The Sorting Hat resumed normal operation, and the students became lively again, while Snape quietly left the Great Hall.

Yet less than a minute later, the Sorting Hat froze again. It had heard Cyberlina, not far behind it, let out a soft "Hm?" Then it saw her suddenly walk into the line of first-years, circle around the obviously Weasley red-haired little girl once, and reveal a smile that made its scalp crawl.

"G-Gryffindor!" the Sorting Hat shouted one second before Cyberlina's gaze shifted onto it, assigning the little gray-haired wizard beneath it to a house.

Cyberlina shot the Sorting Hat an amused glance, then looked up toward the windows of the Great Hall. Outside, two boys were clinging to the windows and peering in.

Snape suddenly appeared behind them with a dark expression. The two boys looked terrified, then lowered their heads and followed Snape away dejectedly.

Cyberlina turned to Dumbledore, and Dumbledore nodded—that was Harry Potter.

Near the end of the sorting ceremony, Professor McGonagall left the staff table.

After the Sorting Hat had assigned every first-year, Dumbledore suddenly apologized to the students and said he needed to step away for a moment. Everything that was supposed to follow at the start-of-term feast came to a halt, and Lockhart's smile, which he had deliberately put on in preparation for a speech, froze outright.

Dumbledore left the Great Hall behind Snape, who had come to fetch him, and Cyberlina followed as well.

"That 'Savior' has another extremely complicated and powerful spell on him—it was hard to find."

"Yes." Dumbledore sighed softly. "His mother cast it for him."

"What a gifted child!" Cyberlina exclaimed sincerely.

Snape pressed his lips tightly together and did not say a word. As his gaze instinctively turned vacant, he failed to notice Cyberlina looking at him.

While Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall were retrieving the boys, Cyberlina stood in front of Harry Potter, examining him back and forth. The two little wizards who had made a mistake could not see Cyberlina, so neither reacted. As for the three professors... the three professors pretended not to see her either.

"Your sister is in Gryffindor too."

"Oh, that's great."

Professor McGonagall's conversation with the red-haired boy drew Cyberlina's attention away from Harry Potter. She looked at the boy a few times and realized that he and the red-haired students at the Gryffindor table were likely family with Ginny Weasley.

The Weasley family...

Cyberlina's thoughtful gaze settled on Ronald Weasley.

After the three professors left, Ron let out a long breath. He grabbed the sandwich their Head of House had left behind and said as he ate, "That scared me to death. You know, Harry, I felt like Snape kept staring at me at the end. That was even scarier than getting expelled!"

"Was he?" Harry also picked up a sandwich, rubbing his scar with his other hand as he sighed in frustration. "It's been itching the whole time, but I couldn't exactly scratch it openly, so I didn't really listen to what they were saying..."

"Huh? It itches? Could it be healing?"

"Healing—Ron! It's been like this for more than ten years!"

"Ah... right..."

The two little wizards remained in the office, whispering among themselves, while the three great wizards also began chatting on their way to the Great Hall.

"How was it?"

Dumbledore suddenly asked this, but Cyberlina understood and replied without difficulty, "Very stable. That unfortunate child really is remarkable—say, do you need me to extend it for a few more years?"

"Can you?" Dumbledore looked at Cyberlina.

"Do you need it?" Cyberlina looked back at him.

Dumbledore chuckled twice. "I hope that, when the time comes, there will be no need to trouble you with extending that magic."

Cyberlina's words gave all three professors some reassurance, but her next sentence made them stop in their tracks at the same time.

"However, the thing inside that boy's body may be a little difficult to remove." Noticing their movements and the expressions with which they looked at her, Cyberlina paused. "You didn't know?"

"Oh, there were some signs. The Dark Lord left something in his scar. But—"

"But you don't know what it is."

Dumbledore cast Cyberlina a somewhat helpless, almost pitiful look. Cyberlina's smile deepened. "Don't worry, Albus. It isn't serious."

Dumbledore said nothing, merely kept that expression as he stared straight at Cyberlina.

"Really, don't worry, Albus." Cyberlina took the lead and continued toward the Great Hall. "What you should be worried about now isn't what's on him—that thing still looks quiet enough."

"..." Professor McGonagall and Snape both turned to Dumbledore, their questioning expressions obvious: What other dangerous thing is there now?

Dumbledore looked away, cleared his throat, and followed Cyberlina. "Then is something not quiet now—inside Hogwarts?"

For some reason, Cyberlina did not answer Dumbledore directly. Instead, she suddenly turned to Professor McGonagall. After watching her for several seconds, she abruptly asked a completely unrelated question. "Professor McGonagall, are there still cats in the school?"

"...What?" Professor McGonagall looked at Dumbledore in surprise.

Dumbledore paused, then seemed to recall something and said in realization, "When Cyberlina was still at the school, Hogwarts kept many cats—all kinds of them."

"Yes." Cyberlina nodded. Looking at Professor McGonagall as she caught up, her eyes brimmed with amusement. "Professor, a Hogwarts full of cats really makes one happy."

Professor McGonagall's scalp prickled under that gaze. She gave two awkward but polite dry laughs.

Snape watched Cyberlina, wondering whether she was truly changing the subject so stiffly and deliberately, or whether she was intentionally making it appear that way.

Dumbledore walked in silence, his eyes narrowing slightly as he looked at Cyberlina's back. If he remembered correctly, there had once been a Gryffindor Head of House named Weasley—a Transfiguration professor like Professor McGonagall, who rather liked cats. And just now, Cyberlina seemed to have discovered something on Ginny Weasley.

So Ginny Weasley was the problem?

But... why had Cyberlina told him about it in such an indirect manner?