Wednesday

For fifth-year students, the foremost concern was next year's O.W.L. examinations. Considering the unusual nature of Cyberlina's educational environment since childhood, Headmaster Dumbledore decided that Miss Sekerei did not need to follow the timetable and could attend fifth-year classes at any time according to her own pace.

Yet Cyberlina still attended classes according to the Slytherin fifth-years' schedule. Far from keeping a low profile, she won the admiration of most fifth-years within two days. Cyberlina merely smiled and accepted it. The portraits could only click their tongues and shake their heads—she had at least pretended to be modest the last time she was a student!

At noon on Wednesday, Cyberlina received an invitation from Malfoy Manor to a Christmas banquet nearly four months early. Under Draco's somewhat nervous gaze, she smiled and gave a verbal acceptance. Draco immediately breathed a sigh of relief. He had received a letter from his grandfather, whom he had not seen in two years, ordering him to do everything possible to secure Cyberlina's attendance. He had thought he would have to argue back and forth with her for ages.

In the middle of Wednesday night, Cyberlina, who had been taking a walk in the Forbidden Forest, was brought to the headmaster's office by Fawkes.

"Oh, Cyber, I'm glad we didn't disturb your sleep." Dumbledore, dressed in pajamas, stood before his desk. "But wandering the Forbidden Forest at night—"

"Don't worry, I won't let the students see me." Ignoring Dumbledore's faintly aggrieved look, Cyberlina smiled at the other professor in the office. "It seems Professor McGonagall has discovered something."

Following Dumbledore's instructions, McGonagall explained the entire matter to Cyberlina without withholding anything.

Ever since Dumbledore had told her to keep a close eye on Ginny at the opening feast, she had barely slept for the past few nights. She had remained hidden in Gryffindor Tower in her Animagus form. During the first two days, Ginny had shown nothing unusual aside from being somewhat listless, but tonight—

"I saw Miss Weasley leave the common room and go to the second-floor bathroom. She seemed more perceptive than ordinary young wizards, so I did not go inside. I merely watched her from the doorway, and then... I heard her making a sound similar to that of a snake—"

Cyberlina narrowed her eyes.

"Then Miss Weasley vanished." McGonagall paused. "Albus had previously told me not to interfere no matter what happened, so I simply watched and waited—though it was not long before she appeared again. Once I saw that she had safely returned to her dormitory, I came to report to Albus."

"Don't worry, Minerva." Dumbledore patted McGonagall's shoulder. "Miss Weasley will be safe. Cyber is here, after all."

Cyberlina: "..."

Cyberlina glanced at Dumbledore, who gave her an innocent smile.

"Yes, Professor McGonagall, Albus is right. Nothing will happen while I'm here." Cyberlina smiled and accepted Dumbledore's words without false modesty. Yet McGonagall instinctively sensed a trace of danger. "But Albus, you must answer one question honestly."

Watching the smile fade from Cyberlina's face, Dumbledore knew she had already figured it out. He nodded. "I'll do my best."

"...All right, then tell me: during the more than sixty years I was away—plus the ten years since I left school—has Salazar Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets been opened at any point during those seventy years?"

McGonagall froze. Her pupils slowly widened, and then she abruptly turned to look at Dumbledore.

Dumbledore did not answer, but Cyberlina had already learned the answer from his suddenly grave expression. She folded her hands over her abdomen, rubbing her fingertips together. "Was it that Voldemort who opened it?"

"...As for that matter..." Dumbledore thought for a moment, bracing his hands against the desk behind him. "Fifty years ago, the Chamber of Secrets was opened once. At the time, the suspected culprit was a second-year named Rubeus—oh, you should already know him. Rubeus Hagrid."

"Yes, the groundskeeper." Cyberlina, having just returned from the Forbidden Forest, nodded.

"As a second-year, he was accused of using a monster to kill a Muggle student."

"The monster from the Chamber of Secrets?"

"Yes."

"Impossible." Cyberlina gave a soft laugh.

Dumbledore raised his eyes to her. "Impossible to open the Chamber of Secrets, or impossible for it to have been that monster?"

"Both are impossible."

"Do you know much about the Chamber of Secrets?"

"..." Cyberlina looked at Dumbledore helplessly. "Albus, don't test me. You know perfectly well about my connection to the Gaunt Family."

"So it truly is only those with Slytherin blood who can open the Chamber of Secrets." Dumbledore ignored Cyberlina's words. "It has nothing to do with whether one belongs to Slytherin House."

Cyberlina clasped her hands tightly and tilted her head, giving McGonagall a helpless smile. From that young, elegant face, the still-shocked McGonagall read a single sentence: See? He's simply being unreasonable.

"No, wait, Albus." McGonagall interrupted the two of them. "So the school is now threatened by some unknown monster in the Chamber of Secrets?"

"Don't be anxious, Minerva." Dumbledore put an arm around McGonagall's shoulders. "And don't worry. Trust that we will protect the students, all right?"

"Of course I trust you, but—"

"Don't worry." Dumbledore reassuringly patted McGonagall's shoulder. "Go back. You should rest, Minerva."

McGonagall fell silent for several seconds, then sighed. "You must promise the children will be safe."

"Of course I will."

"All right, then. I understand."

McGonagall patted the hand Dumbledore had used to comfort her, then turned and walked out of the headmaster's office. Before closing the door, she looked back and saw Dumbledore leaning against his desk with his arms folded, staring expressionlessly at Cyberlina—while both of them remained silent.

McGonagall walked back toward her room, reviewing Dumbledore's behavior over the past few days. She then confirmed another startling thing she had noticed in the office—Albus seemed to lose some of his composure in front of Miss Sekerei. Sometimes, he even acted like a child throwing a tantrum.

But after thinking it over carefully, she was no longer quite so surprised.

To her, Albus was a professor, a colleague, and even more, a friend. He was the eternally strong and dependable elder in her heart. But to Albus, Cyberlina was that elder—despite her current teenage appearance.

So it was not entirely incomprehensible for Albus to be a little childish around her.

Professor McGonagall halted and turned to look through the castle's tall windows at the sky, which was about to brighten with dawn. She did not think she would be able to sleep. Though she had not rested all night, she did not seem particularly exhausted, nor was she overly worried about the Chamber of Secrets—perhaps because the name "Sekerei" carried too much weight.

The truth buried beneath deliberately concealed history had been uncovered by an even older presence after she had lived in this castle for so long.

The portraits and ghosts who traveled throughout the castle had, both mysteriously and without hesitation, told her of a fifth-year student who had never feared any evil; told her how that student in school robes had freely taken lives alone in dark wizard strongholds; told her that no poachers remained wherever that warmhearted girl went; told her that seemingly harmless child could effortlessly suppress rebellious goblins with a wave of her hand...

McGonagall was a rigorous person, but she could not help trusting someone praised by every portrait in the castle, though she had never understood why that person's past had been deliberately erased.

A sliver of light appeared on the eastern horizon. McGonagall turned a corner and headed back toward Gryffindor Tower.

Since Albus would not allow her to take part in this matter, she could pretend to see and hear nothing. But as Head of Gryffindor and a professor at Hogwarts, she had to ensure that Miss Weasley remained safe until this matter was over.