Those words fully ignited the defiance in everyone's hearts.
Their earlier despair vanished, replaced by the excitement of pulling off something big together. They were more united than ever.
They were no longer candidates passively awaiting judgment, but directors and actors taking the initiative to raise the curtain.
They would fight a prank with a prank, answer one grand performance with another.
Krum listened to the entire plan and remained silent for a long while. Then, in his heavily accented English, he earnestly delivered his longest sentence of the night:
"This plan... is crazier than fighting a Hungarian Horntail... I like it."
Pheobe also gave her first genuine smile since the planning began. She lightly brushed back her long silver hair, a dangerous yet enchanting light gleaming in her blue eyes.
"Have all of Hogwarts put on a show with us? Heh, that sounds... very interesting."
Finally, Hermione returned to the blackboard.
She erased all the previous analyses and records of failure, then wrote the name of their operation in the very center of the board in a completely new, forceful hand.
It was not "The Emperor's New Clothes."
Instead, it was-
"The Phantom of the Theatre"
The debriefing ended, and the members of the Think Tank dispersed, each carrying a strange excitement at the prospect of "pulling off something big."
They were like a group of children about to stage an earth-shattering prank, their eyes sparkling with an interwoven gleam of destruction and creation.
Only Hermione, Pheobe, and Krum remained in the classroom.
The other students had gone back early because of curfew.
Hermione... no longer cared.
Still, the Academic Affairs Office knew their circumstances and had made an exception.
It was late, and the candlelight cast long, swaying shadows through the empty classroom.
Hermione carefully spread the rubbing