"Whew!" Harley bolted upright in bed and wiped the sweat from her forehead.
It wasn't quite light outside yet. She checked the mechanical watch Aunt Petunia had "given" her. It was only a little past five.
Harley's face still wore a look of shock. After all, the dream she'd just had had felt far too real.
Damn it, she'd dreamed about those days when Amon had hunted her down again. Though the ordeal was over, Harley still occasionally had nightmares like that.
Harley rubbed her face hard, frost clinging to her hand and helping her wake up a little.
Then Harley realized it had only been a dream. Dreams experienced by Beyonders did have some symbolic meaning, but that was because the world of the Sequence Pathway had the Spirit World.
In that world, Astral Bodies wandered through the Spirit World. Under external stimuli, details they'd unconsciously noticed in everyday life would turn into symbolic revelations, which would be conveyed to the person's spirit and appear in the form of dreams.
There was no Spirit World in this world—or at least, there probably wasn't—so maybe... possibly... f**k!
Harley still couldn't calm down, so she finally decided to perform a Divination.
The Demoness Pathway potion couldn't grant Harley the ability to perform Divination or a natural aptitude for learning it. It only gave her a certain degree of resistance to Divination once she reached Sequence 7 Witch.
But that didn't mean Harley couldn't learn Divination rituals on her own. Her success rate was just pretty dismal.
Harley quickly took out various materials and performed Divination several times in a row, trying to determine whether Amon had followed her here.
As expected, every attempt failed. But that was because she had too little information.
By now, Harley had calmed down completely. She closed her eyes and thought through the situation:
"Amon can't have followed me. He's already at that level, and he's probably plotting to become a True Deity beyond Sequence One.
"If he really did come here, he wouldn't come looking for me again. He was only interested in the otherworldly aura around me in the first place.
"Even if I assume the worst—that he followed me here and still wants to capture me for research—he would have acted by now."
Harley thought it over and over, finally concluding that Amon hadn't followed her. And even if he had, he wouldn't hurt her again.
"Relax. Forget all of that completely! I'm safe now."
At that thought, Harley opened her eyes, got dressed, and went to wash up. Since she was already awake, she might as well go to the Great Hall and read.
Thanks to the strong memory and sense of direction the Assassin had given her, Harley found the Great Hall with ease.
It was still early, and the Great Hall was empty. Harley didn't mind. She quietly opened her bag, took out her Potions Class textbook, and started reading.
Time passed slowly, and other people began to arrive in the Great Hall. The rude professor who had stared at Harley the day before came in.
Professor Snape entered through the Great Hall's main doors. As he passed Harley, he sneaked a glance at the textbook she was reading.
When he saw Harley marking up her Potions textbook and highlighting the crucial steps for brewing potions, Professor Snape nodded in satisfaction, then strode back to the High Table.
Harley glanced at Professor Snape curiously, a thought crossing her mind:
Professor Snape's place at the High Table was closer to the Slytherin table. So why had he come around from the Gryffindor side?
But Harley didn't give it much thought. Milk, bread, and sandwiches had appeared on the table in front of her. Breakfast had begun.
More and more people filled the Great Hall. Many kept glancing at Harley as they ate, whispering to one another.
Harley didn't like the attention, so she finished breakfast quickly and headed to class.
Her first day at school happened to be Monday.
Normally, the professors would hand out timetables to each house. But Professor McGonagall was very considerate.
She seemed to have anticipated that the new students would have trouble finding their way to the Great Hall on the first day and might miss out on getting their timetables.
So she had used magic to put each new student's timetable by their bedside a day in advance.
The first class that morning was Herbology, taught by the Hufflepuff head, Professor Pomona Sprout.
Honestly, Harley thought this professor looked like a Planter or a Druid.
Professor Sprout was short and plump, and her wizard's robes were stained with soil. They'd also been modified to make it easier for her to walk along muddy paths.
The professor's hands were covered in calluses, and the shoes on her feet were dirty with mud. She hadn't even put shoe covers on.
Harley was very interested in the class. After all, herbs were the main ingredients used to brew potions.
Professor Sprout was also highly knowledgeable and familiar with many rare materials.
When Harley asked her about some questions she'd come across while reading over the holidays, the professor answered them all with ease and hinted that Harley could join her Herbology club if she had the chance.
There was only one class in the afternoon: A History of Magic. The teacher was Professor Binns, a ghost.
During class, he always spoke in the same monotonous voice, never caring whether the students could follow his train of thought. His voice was hypnotic, on par with a Hypnotist from the Spectator Pathway.
Under his voice, most of the class fell asleep. If Professor Binns followed the Spectator Pathway, he wouldn't even need to act as a Sequence 6 Hypnotist.
Only Harley and Hermione, seated in the front row, stayed awake and listened attentively.
Harley never looked down on history classes. In the world of the Sequence Pathway, history was always full of hidden secrets and ways to grow stronger.
Harley had already read through the hefty book A History of Magic. It seemed to cover only ordinary historical events, but quite a few crucial details were hidden within.
Unfortunately, Professor Binns only read straight from the book and rarely offered his own opinions, which left Harley disappointed.
And the way Professor Binns went straight through the wall the moment class ended made her even more frustrated.
Harley had wanted to use her excellent eloquence to coax more of history's secrets out of Professor Binns!
Tuesday morning's classes were Herbology and Charms. The Charms professor was Filius Flitwick.
The professor was short and had to stand on a pile of books to teach. The Ravenclaw students said he had Goblin blood.
He also seemed rather sensitive. When he called Harley's name, he got so excited that he fell off his stack of books.
But Professor Flitwick was very skilled, able to cast all kinds of spells with ease.
Many of the spells looked quite ordinary and were only useful in everyday life, but Harley thought of all sorts of ingenious applications for them.
For instance, what would happen if someone powerful enough used Alohomora on a door made by a Gatekeeper of the Death Pathway, one where the underworld and the Spirit World overlapped?
Harley guessed it would be fascinating. It might even force the door open and release spirits far beyond the Gatekeeper's level.
Unfortunately, she wouldn't be able to test that theory.
Defense Against the Dark Arts on Wednesday morning was the class Harley looked forward to most. After all, Professor Quirrell was a demigod.
Unfortunately, the professor seemed unwilling to share his knowledge. Aside from stammering through the textbook, he didn't teach anything extra.
And since he always looked at Harley with malice, her Spirituality kept sounding the alarm. She didn't want to go anywhere near him.
The dream about Amon couldn't be removed after all. Otherwise, I'd have to cut a big chunk of the plot, and the chapter would be under a thousand words, so it couldn't be published. Just consider it an ordinary nightmare Harley had.
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