Heart-to-Heart in the Bathroom, Bernard's Doubts

As Uther acted, Eugene and Klon also looked at Bernard, clearly not the only ones who noticed the key point amidst the chaos.

"Bernard, you just now..."

"That's right, it was the Cruciatus Curse."

Bernard readily admitted it, looking at his roommates:

"Are you going to report me to the Ministry of Magic?"

From the previous explanations, he already knew that using an Unforgivable Curse would land him in Azkaban, the wizarding prison.

"..."

Everyone fell silent.

"Unforgivable for those who cast Unforgivable Curses..."

Adam, who had already put away the Tree Card, suddenly spoke, "But Bernard cast the Cruciatus Curse to protect us."

Wizarding law doesn't have clauses like emergency avoidance, but such laws exist because people need them, and from a general moral standpoint, such behavior shouldn't be punished.

Clearly, no one could bring themselves to report Bernard for using an Unforgivable Curse to protect everyone.

In the silence, Adam spoke first:

"How about we go back first? Even though this is deep in the Forbidden Forest, we've made quite a commotion."

"Agreed."

"Seconded."

"Can I ask why you chose to cast an Unforgivable Curse in front of us?"

That evening, Adam deliberately delayed his shower, and Bernard tacitly did the same. At this moment, only the two of them were in the bathroom.

Of course, because the topic of discussion was somewhat sensitive, Adam also used the Silence Card to block their voices, preventing these words from reaching a third person's ears, not even portraits, ghosts, or Peeves.

"It was a matter of life and death at the time, of course, I'd use whatever I knew."

Bernard faced away from Adam, lathering himself.

"Eugene and Uther both said they had ways to deal with it, the situation wasn't as dangerous as you made it out to be."

Adam wasn't fooled:

"Even though you know Unforgivable Curses, if you were careful and practiced them secretly, you could still hide it. Why did you actively expose yourself?"

"...Then why did you cover for me before?"

Bernard turned his head, his eyes meeting Adam's:

"Unforgivable for those who cast Unforgivable Curses, you said it yourself... This isn't the first time you've seen me cast an Unforgivable Curse, is it?"

"The last time I cast the Cruciatus Curse, it wasn't for self-preservation, so why did you turn a blind eye to that incident... Adam?"

Adam closed his eyes.

The last time he saw Bernard cast the Cruciatus Curse... it was in an abandoned classroom. Adam was growing a few Mandrakes in an abandoned classroom at the end of the hallway, the sunlight was good there.

But when he passed by a certain classroom, he sensed a fluctuation of magic, and before he even opened the door, he heard the words "Crucio."

It was a familiar voice.

Without opening the door, Adam stood at the door for a while and then continued walking. He didn't expect Bernard to know, so...

"You did it on purpose."

"I did it on purpose, your movements aren't hard to guess if you observe carefully."

Bernard shrugged, tilting his head back to let the hot water flow down, over his eyes, nose, and mouth.

"What do you want to do? Don't you know it's dangerous?"

"Where's the danger?"

Bernard opened his mouth, and the hot water rushed in, making his words somewhat unclear.

Adam finished lathering up and put the soap aside, facing Bernard directly:

"Whether it's me, or Eugene and the others, if any of us report you to the Ministry of Magic, just a Flashback Charm and you'll be spending the rest of your life in Azkaban with Dementors as neighbors. Do you expect your parents to fight lawsuits with the Wizengamot and the Ministry of Magic?"

"Dementors, Wizengamot, I've learned new terms again."

"Bernard!"

"..."

Wiping his face from his chin upwards, Bernard looked at Adam:

"Look, I'm fine, aren't I?"

"...Do you think this is fun?"

Adam looked completely bewildered.

"No, I just wanted to test whether the friendship between us is really that strong."

Now Adam looked at Bernard with even more concern mixed with his incomprehension.

Maybe you should go see someone at a mental hospital.

"Do you know what it's like to be a lawyer, and the child of two lawyers?"

Bernard's eyes glazed over, as if he were lost in memories:

"Marriage, debt, finance… my parents didn't really allow me to look at their files, but you know how kids are… the more you're told not to do something, the more interesting it seems."

"So, while other kids were listening to fairy tales, I was exposed to much more realistic stories. Other kids saw princesses and princes living happily ever after, while I was seeing a woman whose love had been betrayed dismembering a scumbag and storing him in the freezer…"

Adam swallowed.

"So I've always wondered, are human emotions really that strong? Is there really such a thing as sincere, pure, and beautiful emotion between people? Or is everyone wearing a standard mask of hypocrisy and beauty, using words like love and friendship to gloss over entanglements of interests? This curiosity has always been with me. I'm actually quite grateful that Hogwarts gave me this opportunity, otherwise I think I might do something not so good in the future."

Adam couldn't help but ask:

"Are your parents not on good terms?"

"I haven't actually noticed anything wrong with their relationship. Although there are frictions, they're just minor disagreements in normal life, but maybe I just haven't noticed the problem—I can't exactly test their feelings for each other, and there's no way to try."

"So you're using your own future to test the feelings between us?"

Adam opened his mouth:

"We've only been roommates for a year!"

"But you have to admit, our personalities are very different, but we get along surprisingly well, don't we?"

Bernard spread his hands:

"There are so many dormitories around, and none of them have five people who get along as well as we do. Although we've had some friction, it's all been resolved very well—this roommate relationship is almost as perfect as my parents' marriage."

"…I still can't understand."

"It doesn't matter. It's impossible for one person to completely understand another person's thoughts. It's good to seek common ground while reserving differences, just like we have this past year."

In terms of living habits, personality, and various other aspects, they could be said to be vastly different, but they could live together very well, respecting and accepting each other's differences.

"So, back to the question…"

Bernard looked at Adam again:

"The first time you found out I was casting an Unforgivable Curse, why didn't you report me?"

"…Because I saw it."

"What?"

"I saw the target you were casting the Unforgivable Curse on…"

Bernard's eyes widened slightly:

"How did you do it… Clow Cards?"

"The Return Card's magic can rewind past scenes. After that, I went back to your classroom at the time."

Adam looked at Bernard and said:

"I saw… you were casting the Cruciatus Curse on a stone."