Stay Away from Conspiracy Theories!

The path wound onward.

The setting sun filtered through the treetops, casting dappled light across the bluestone slabs and draping this trail to Hogwarts in a veil of gold and crimson.

At the end of the path.

The towering castle seemed to rise against the horizon.

"You sly little brat, you actually dared to order that girl around like a servant. Do you know who she is?" Snape seemed to have been watching what was happening behind him all along.

Seeing Ian jog up beside him, Snape, who had intended to ignore him for the entire journey, could not help but warn him.

"What servant? This was clearly voluntary help from a good friend!" Ian corrected Snape, raising his voice slightly on the last part.

"I think you're courting death!"

Snape truly could not stand it any longer. He turned and walked toward Aurora, who was seven or eight meters behind them, intending to take Ian's suitcase from her.

"What are you doing?"

To his surprise, Aurora hid the suitcase behind her, evading Snape's outstretched hand. She even looked at him with wary eyes.

"..."

Snape was utterly speechless.

His wrinkled face convulsed twice.

The hand hanging in midair abruptly flicked its sleeve as though offended. He swiftly turned back, strode past Ian without looking back, and headed straight into the depths of the Dense Forest.

"I'll treat you to a Secret Recipe Meal made by House-elves later."

Ian stood where he was. Once Aurora caught up, he immediately made the promise with great sincerity.

Aurora did not respond.

She walked beside Ian.

One hand dragging a suitcase over the uneven path.

"I wonder if this thing is edible."

Ian spotted a vine by the roadside laden with huge fruit. After hesitating for a moment, he still ran over, picked one, and cautiously took a bite.

A soul from the East always seemed to possess an innate curiosity about food.

"It's so sweet. Want a taste?"

Ian offered Aurora the untouched side.

"..."

Aurora remained silent.

"It really is sweet."

Ian continued his sales pitch.

Looking at Ian's face, already twisted out of shape, Aurora, who was usually quite good at managing her emotions, finally could not hold it in. With a sigh, she responded helplessly.

"They're called Sour Berries. They're the primary Ingredients for making souring agents."

Clearly.

The German Girl had also studied Herbology quite extensively.

"Even dogs wouldn't eat this." Seeing that his little trick had failed, Ian tossed away the fruit in his hand with disappointment and disgust.

"But you ate it, and you tried to trick me into eating it too."

Aurora's tone was as calm as ever.

"I wanted us to share sweetness and bitterness together. How could that be called deception...?"

This time, Ian fell silent.

The atmosphere became somewhat awkward.

Fortunately, the strange silence did not last long. Following Snape along the path through the Dense Forest, they suddenly emerged from the narrow trail into an open expanse.

A vast lake appeared before them.

The black surface rippled faintly. The fading sunlight could not penetrate its waters, making it impossible to see what might be hidden beneath.

The Black Lake.

One of Hogwarts' famous sights.

Beyond it.

The Ancient Castle stood majestically among the mountains, its countless turrets and towers rising high.

"It's truly beautiful."

Ian gazed at the scene before him, his heart surging with emotion.

"It really is far grander than the illustrations in the books."

Aurora's eyes remained fixed on the castle in the distance for a long while.

"Hogwarts: A History?"

Ian took his suitcase from the girl. He noticed that her arm was trembling slightly, perhaps from overexerting herself along the way.

"It's The Rise and Fall of Hogwarts."

Aurora tucked her now-free hand behind her Back of the Hand.

Just then.

"Wait here. The students from the school bus will be arriving soon. You two will take the boats into the school with them." Snape gave Aurora a deep look.

Then he shot Ian a warning glare.

"Can't you just take us in directly?"

Ian felt the temperature dropping. It even seemed as though it might rain.

"These are the rules."

Snape answered coldly. Then his entire body turned into a wisp of gray smoke and, in Ian's eyes, shot toward Hogwarts Castle like a skyrocketing firework.

"Honestly, what kind of ridiculous rules are these?"

Ian crouched by the lake, plunged his hand into the icy water, and stirred it Boredly.

"Hogwarts' four Founders took boats across the lake to build Hogwarts." Aurora also walked to the Black Lake's edge, her Heterochromatic Eyes seemingly searching the water for something.

Ian fell into thought. A moment later, realization dawned on his face. "Maybe Slytherin made the rule. He got seasick himself, so he wanted everyone else to get seasick too."

At that.

Aurora tilted her head to look at the boy still stirring the water.

"I don't think a wizard that powerful would have childish, malicious tastes like yours." She kept dragging her own suitcase, and who knew how much forbidden knowledge it contained.

"You don't understand. Some men stay petty until the day they die."

Ian suddenly felt something tighten around the fingers he had submerged in the lake. He quickly pulled them out and saw a tiny squid wrapped around one of them.

"A giant squid hatchling."

Aurora sounded somewhat surprised.

"Not a mermaid hatchling. One-star review." Ian shook his finger, flinging the little squid back into the lake, then pulled out a tissue and wiped the slime from his hand.

"There are only Scottish Lake Monsters in this lake. Whether hatchlings or adults, they all have rather ugly appearances. I'm sure you wouldn't want to encounter one."

Aurora also extended her hand, hoping to fish up a giant squid hatchling. Yet after keeping her hand in the lake for quite some time, not a single hatchling took the bait.

Perhaps out of Boredom, she began swishing the lake water like Ian.

"The day we killed that Dark Wizard together, Dumbledore approved my application for admission." Aurora suddenly spoke without warning.

"Gasp—"

Ian sucked in a sharp breath. "Didn't you kill him?"

Aurora turned to look at him.

"It's all the same."

After a brief hesitation, Aurora unexpectedly added an explanation to her usually concise words. "I simply acted before you did."

She had clearly noticed what Ian had done that day as well.

"Let's talk about enrollment instead. Why did you suddenly bring that up?" Ian watched the Dense Forest behind them, but the new students still had not arrived.

"Kraft said that giving someone hope only at the very last moment was one of Dumbledore's usual tricks." Aurora kept her eyes on the splashes in the lake.

"You need to remain cautious. He's better than my Grandfather at manipulating people's hearts..." Her Heterochromatic Eyes trembled, revealing the turmoil in her heart.

"Isn't that a little too conspiracy-minded?"

"Of course, there's nothing wrong with being cautious."

Ian did not deny Dumbledore's danger to those who studied Dark Magic, but after several encounters, he still held a fairly positive opinion of his headmaster.

Honestly speaking.

If their positions were reversed.

As the most powerful wizard of the 20th Century, constantly being disgusted and targeted by every faction, Ian felt that if it were him, he might not be able to resist deciding not to eat beef.

Self-control.

That was the true reason Dumbledore was great.

"Perhaps."

Aurora neither agreed nor disagreed.

"They're here."

The girl, bathed in the setting sun's glow, suddenly spoke.

"What's here?"

The words had barely left Ian's mouth.

Behind them.

A burst of noisy commotion followed.

The Half-blood Giant led a group of curious yet anxious Young Wizards through the Dense Forest.