The path wound on.
The setting sun filtered through the treetops, casting dappled light across the flagstones and draping the path to Hogwarts in a veil of gold and crimson.
At the end of the path.
The towering castle seemed to rise into the sky.
"You conniving brat. How dare you order that girl around like a servant? Do you even know who she is?" Snape seemed to have been watching what was happening behind him the whole time.
Seeing Ian jog up beside him, Snape—who had intended to ignore him for the entire journey—couldn't help but warn him.
"What servant? She's just helping me of her own free will, as a good friend!" Ian corrected him, raising his voice slightly at the end.
"You're asking for trouble!"
Snape couldn't bear to watch any longer. He turned and walked toward Aurora, who was seven or eight meters behind them, intending to take the suitcase that belonged to Ian from her.
"What are you doing?"
To Snape's surprise, Aurora hid the suitcase behind her back, dodging the hand he reached out to her. She even looked at him warily.
"..."
Snape was utterly speechless.
His wrinkled face twitched twice.
As if in frustration, he gave his empty hand a sharp flick, then strode back, passed Ian without a word, and headed into the depths of the forest.
"I'll treat you to a special meal made by the house-elves when we get back."
Ian waited where he was. As soon as Aurora caught up, he immediately made the promise with great confidence.
Aurora didn't reply.
She walked beside Ian.
Each of them dragged a suitcase along the uneven path.
"I wonder if this thing's edible."
Ian spotted a vine by the roadside, heavy with large fruits. After hesitating for a moment, he ran over, picked one, and cautiously took a bite.
The soul of someone from the East seemed to always be curious about food.
"It's really sweet. Want to try some?"
Ian offered Aurora the side he hadn't bitten.
"..."
Aurora remained silent.
"It really is sweet."
Ian kept trying to sell it to her.
Looking at Ian's contorted face, Aurora—usually so good at keeping her emotions in check—finally couldn't hold back. She sighed and replied helplessly,
"That's a Sour-Crisp Berry. It's one of the main ingredients in Acid-Enhancing Potion."
Clearly.
The German Girl knew quite a lot about Herbology.
"Even a dog wouldn't eat it." Seeing that his little trick hadn't worked, Ian tossed the fruit away in disappointment and obvious disgust.
"But you ate it, and then tried to trick me into eating it too."
Aurora's tone was as calm as ever.
"I wanted to share the hardship with you. How can you call that tricking you..."
This time, it was Ian who fell silent.
The atmosphere turned awkward.
Fortunately, the strange silence didn't last long. As they followed Snape through the forest, the narrow path suddenly opened up.
A vast lake lay before them.
Ripples stirred across its black surface. The evening light couldn't penetrate the water, making it impossible to see what might be hidden beneath.
The Black Lake.
One of Hogwarts' famous landmarks.
Beyond it.
The ancient castle stood majestically in the mountains, its roof crowded with countless turrets and towers.
"It's beautiful."
Ian gazed ahead, his heart pounding with excitement.
"It's much grander than the illustrations in the book."
Aurora, too, stared at the castle, her gaze lingering on it.
"Hogwarts: A History?"
Ian took his suitcase from the girl. He noticed her arm trembling slightly and wondered if she was simply tired from carrying it all that way.
"The Rise and Fall of Hogwarts."
Aurora moved her free hand behind her back.
Just then.
"Wait here. The students from the school carriage will be along shortly. You two can take the boat to the school with them." Snape gave Aurora a long look.
Then he glared at Ian in warning.
"Can't you just take us in directly?"
Ian felt the temperature dropping. It might even rain.
"It's the rules."
Snape replied coldly. Then he transformed into a plume of gray smoke and shot toward Hogwarts Castle. To Ian, he looked like a skyrocketing firework.
"Honestly, what are all these ridiculous rules for?"
Ian crouched by the lake, dipped his hand into the icy water, and stirred it listlessly.
"The four Founders of Hogwarts crossed the lake by boat to establish Hogwarts on the other side." Aurora had come to stand beside the Black Lake. Her mismatched eyes searched the water for something.
Ian pondered this, then suddenly looked enlightened. "Maybe Slytherin made the rule because he got seasick and wanted everyone else to suffer too."
At that, Aurora tilted her head and looked at the boy, who was still stirring the water.
"I don't think a wizard that powerful would have such childish spite." She kept hold of her suitcase; who knew how many forbidden books were inside?
"You don't understand. Some men stay petty until the day they die."
Ian suddenly felt something tighten around the fingers he had dipped into the lake. He quickly pulled his hand out and saw a tiny squid wrapped around one of his fingers.
"A Giant Squid Cub."
Aurora sounded surprised.
"Not a baby mermaid. One star." Ian flicked his finger, sending the little squid back into the lake, then took out a tissue to wipe the slime from his hand.
"Only Scottish Lake Monsters live in this lake. Young or grown, they're all hideous. I'm sure you wouldn't want to run into one."
Aurora reached out as well, hoping to fish a Giant Squid Cub out of the lake. But even after holding her hand in the water for a long time, she still didn't get a single bite.
Perhaps out of boredom, she began stirring the water just like Ian.
"The day we killed that Dark Wizard together, Dumbledore approved my application to enroll." Aurora suddenly spoke without warning.
"Yikes—"
Ian sucked in a sharp breath. "Wasn't it you who killed him?"
Aurora turned to look at him.
"It amounts to the same thing."
After a brief hesitation, Aurora unusually elaborated on her concise remark. "I just acted before you did."
She had clearly noticed what Ian had done that day, too.
"Let's talk about enrollment instead. Why bring that up all of a sudden?" Ian watched the forest behind them, but the new students still hadn't arrived.
"Kraft said that giving you hope at the very last moment is one of Dumbledore's usual tricks." Aurora kept her eyes on the ripples in the lake.
"You need to be careful. He's even better at manipulating people than my grandfather..." Her mismatched eyes shifted, betraying the turmoil within her.
"That's a bit too conspiratorial, don't you think?"
"Of course, there's nothing wrong with being careful."
Ian didn't deny that Dumbledore was dangerous to students of Dark Magic, but after meeting him several times, he still had a fairly positive impression of the headmaster.
Honestly.
If their positions were reversed—
If he were the most powerful wizard of the twentieth century, yet constantly harassed and targeted by every faction, Ian thought he might be tempted to stop eating beef.
Self-restraint.
That, more than anything, was what made Dumbledore great.
"Perhaps."
Aurora neither agreed nor disagreed.
"They're here."
The girl spoke without warning beneath the glow of the setting sun.
"Who's here?"
Ian had barely finished speaking when—
Behind them.
A clamor rose up.
The Half-blood Giant emerged from the forest with a crowd of curious, nervous young wizards.