"Is this the place?" Hermione leaned against the stair railing, panting heavily, a trace of exhaustion in her voice. Turning back time twice in a row and shuttling between different classrooms for lessons had clearly taken a toll on her.
The two of them climbed one steep, sharply turning staircase after another up the Tower, growing increasingly dizzy.
"This should be it!" Jerry pulled Hermione, who was already unsteady on her feet, up the last few steps onto a narrow landing. Most of their classmates had already gathered there, but apart from the students, the landing was empty.
"Jerry, Hermione, where did you go? You both disappeared as soon as we left the Great Hall!" When Harry saw Jerry arrive with Hermione in tow, he noticed how tired she looked and asked curiously.
"We went to the Library. How about... we invite you along next time?"
"No need!" Harry rejected Jerry's invitation without hesitation. Unless they were preparing for their final exams, they certainly did not have the bad habit of going to the Library after meals!
"Is this the Divination Classroom?" Hermione glanced around, looking puzzled. "Did we come to the wrong place?"
Jerry gently patted Hermione's shoulder and pointed at the ceiling, where a round trapdoor was fitted with a brass plaque bearing a line of text.
"Sybill Trelawney, Divination professor," Hermione read softly, her brow slightly furrowed. "But how do we get up there?"
Just then, as though answering Hermione's question, the trapdoor slowly swung open. A gleaming silver ladder extended through it and landed firmly at their feet.
The landing, which had been bustling with students chatting among themselves, fell silent in an instant. Every eye turned toward the silver ladder that had suddenly appeared.
They climbed the silver ladder one by one and finally reached