A Little Accident

After her first class, Aya discovered that she seemed to have become famous-because of Xiaohua, and because she had said in class that she couldn't write.

Everyone seemed curious about what obscure corner of the world she had come from, but since she had done fairly well in Transfiguration, curiosity was still the main thing her classmates felt. They kept staring at Xiaohua, apparently hoping to see how his tiny body could grow large enough to carry a student down the stairwell, as the rumors said he had.

After a few days of classes, however, everyone discovered that if the stairs moved while Aya was going down, there was a good chance they would get to see a cat show.

The Weasley brothers also told everyone that Xiaohua was especially clever and could help people put away their luggage. He had helped the Chosen One with his luggage on the train.

Having become the subject of two hot topics at once, Xiaohua was soon stealing all the attention.

Not long afterward, Professor McGonagall summoned Aya to her office. She gave Aya several handwriting practice books, as well as an enormously thick wizarding dictionary that contained everything in a Muggle dictionary along with terms commonly used by wizards.

As Aya carried the thick dictionary out of the office, she thought that if she dropped it from the corridor, she could kill some random student.

Astronomy was for watching stars, Herbology was for playing with dirt, Dark Magic Defence Class was for holding her nose, and History of Magic was for dozing off. Of the classes Aya had attended so far, only Charms and Transfiguration counted as fun.

Professor Flitwick, who taught Charms Class, was much like Aya's spirit race in height. He was short and small, and had to stand on a stack of books to reach the top of his desk. But she had heard that his dueling skills were formidable, so Aya paid close attention to his lessons—this was instruction from the number one player on the PVP rankings! Of course she had to take it seriously.

It wasn't until Friday that Aya finally had two classes with Snape.

She sorted through the gold coins in her backpack, counted out an even hundred Galleons, and put them in a money pouch, planning to pay back part of what she owed after class.

"Today's class is with the Slytherins. Snape is the head of Slytherin, and everyone says he favors his own students," Ron said, stirring his bowl of cereal and pouring in some more milk. "We'll get to see for ourselves today."

"I wish Professor McGonagall would favor us too." Harry put down the sugar bowl and passed it to Aya.

"Professor McGonagall is nice," Aya said, pouring a huge pile of sugar into her milk and stirring it contentedly.

"You're the only one who thinks so," Ron said, eating his softened cereal with a spoon. "She gave us another huge pile of homework yesterday. Why didn't I think of it? I could've said I couldn't write too!"

"Cough, cough-" Harry choked on his porridge. "What are you talking about? Aya, he didn't mean it like that-" Harry hadn't told anyone that Aya, like him, had lost both her parents. He was afraid Aya would be upset to hear it, but Ron sometimes spoke without thinking, and some of the things he said struck Harry as hurtful.

"It's all right," Aya said, a white mustache of milk on her upper lip. "You can chop off your hands now and say you can't write either. Of course, to be safe, you'd have to chop off your feet too. I've heard some people can write with their feet!"

"...Isn't that a bit much?" Ron swallowed. "Did I say something wrong?"

Harry covered his face, not daring to look at Aya.

"Did you?" Aya was a little surprised that he thought so. "I was only making a suggestion. I think it's very feasible."

"Th-thanks, but no thanks." Ron fell silent.

Harry leaned over to Aya and quietly explained on Ron's behalf, "He didn't mean anything by it. I'm sorry."

Aya didn't understand, but she accepted the apology and took another sip of her sickly sweet milk. She saw Harry's beautiful owl flying over, apparently bringing him a letter.

After breakfast, Hermione finally seemed to lift her head from her Potions Class textbook. She was preparing for the first lesson, though she had actually already memorized the entire book.

Potions Class was held in an underground classroom, which was colder and damper than the Great Hall. Aya left Xiaohua in the Entrance Hall and told him to go outside the castle and get familiar with the surroundings before following her classmates down to the dungeon.

The classroom was dimly lit, and many glass jars stood along the walls, holding Potions ingredients and animal specimens. Aya wandered around curiously and picked up a Unicorn Horn from a sparkle in one of the jars. She didn't know how precious the material was, but she understood the colors that represented quality-from lowest to highest, they were white, green, blue, purple, orange, and red. This was a purple material!

Delighted by this unexpected find, Aya waited for class to begin. She sat next to Hermione, who had been quieter these past two days-Lavender and Parvati got along very well, while Aya was someone who didn't concern herself with others. Hermione loved studying, and her routine was out of sync with her other roommates', so she had ended up on her own, though Aya didn't think it was a problem. Still, Hermione was always enthusiastic in class and would greet Aya.

It was roll call again, and Aya was already used to every professor pausing over Harry's name, though Snape's pause was clearly ill-intentioned.

"Oh, yes. Harry Potter, our new celebrity-" His voice was low and drawn out, his tone cutting and sarcastic.

Fortunately, Aya couldn't tell.

Her eyes shining, she listened as the black-clad Snape delivered a lengthy opening speech with impressive fluency. All Aya remembered was "foolish dunderheads."

Those words struck a sensitive nerve in Hermione. She leaned forward, her eyes even brighter than Aya's.

Unfortunately, all of Snape's attention was on Harry. He stared at Harry and asked several questions, but Harry couldn't answer a single one. Hermione held her hand high, but Snape acted as though he hadn't seen it. Gryffindor then successfully lost a point because Harry said, "Why don't you let Hermione answer?"

Potions Class continued, and they began the practical work. Aya took out her cauldron, which was covered in cat hair, compared it with Hermione's, and quietly put it away again.

"Mine is cleaner. Potions is a very precise subject, and we need to eliminate anything that might cause interference. I only cleaned my cauldron last night, so it's very clean." Hermione hadn't been discouraged by Snape ignoring her earlier. Instead, she was more determined than ever.

Aya simply nodded.

After several days of classes, she could already "draw" her notes. She could read English thanks to the system's help, and she could speak it because she had a language plugin, but she couldn't write an unfamiliar word herself. She had to memorize most of them from scratch. Fortunately, with the system's help, she was making rapid progress.

In this class, they were making Cure for Boils. Aya watched Hermione carefully weigh out dried nettles, crush snake fangs, stew horned slugs, and prepare Porcupine Quills. Aya only stirred the liquid in the cauldron under Hermione's direction; the rest of the time, she watched Hermione work.

Unlike the harmonious brewing at their station, the tearful Neville made a mistake and was sent to the Hospital Wing. Snape took more points from Gryffindor on the grounds that Harry hadn't warned his classmate.

Before class ended, Aya and Hermione finished brewing their potion too. Since they were from Gryffindor, Snape marked them down severely.

Hermione still had to go to the library, so she didn't wait for Aya. Aya managed to stay behind until last and only approached Snape after everyone else had left.

"Professor!" She took the money pouch out of her backpack. "I'm here to pay you back. There are a hundred gold coins here!"

Snape was tidying his desk, his expression still dark. He was not in a good mood, and he sneered, "Very nice. Where did you get so much money? Planning to live on air after this?" When he had left, Aya had only a few dozen gold coins remaining. Although he had later heard that Dumbledore had sent a House-elf to her, she should still have spent quite a bit.

"I found it~" Aya said happily. "I kept a few dozen gold coins for myself, and I have some silver and copper coins too. It's enough!"

"You didn't break into someone's home, did you?" Snape frowned, questioning Aya's character. He really couldn't imagine where an eleven-year-old witch could get so much money.

"I got it through legitimate means!" Aya patted her chest. "I just got one of these too!" She held up the Unicorn Horn.

"...Ha, very nice. I think I can take twenty points from Gryffindor because you trespassed in the Forbidden Forest, Miss." Snape was so angry he laughed. Did this cat-eared student have the brain of a beast too?

"No, Professor!" Aya waved her hand in denial. "I found it in your classroom. It came from the same source as my gold coins!"

"...Do you take your old professor for a fool?" Hearing Aya's explanation, Snape's face darkened further. He grabbed her by the back of her collar and moved to take her to Dumbledore's office for a talk—so this was the poor student Dumbledore wanted him to look after! A little liar!

Aya was dragged along for two steps before she realized Snape wasn't listening to her at all, and she grew displeased. Apart from being killed off by the plot, she had never suffered such treatment before!

"Xiaohua!" Aya shouted. Snape instinctively drew his wand and cast Protego on himself. He sensed a surge of magic in the classroom and looked back to see the gray-and-white cat suddenly appear at the other end of the room. Before he could even be surprised, the weight in his hand vanished: the living person he had been holding had turned into the cat that had suddenly appeared. Then he heard Aya shout "Come back!" from the other end of the room, and the cat in his hand vanished too.

He looked up. In the corner, Aya glared at him, holding a large wooden wand slightly taller than herself. The cat had returned to his original form and was crouched behind her, looking as though he might charge over and give Snape a couple of scratches at any moment.

Snape raised an eyebrow. Curiosity overtook his irritation. Such a large... wand? Perhaps. And there was also the movement magic this first-year student had used. A young witch couldn't possibly learn a spell like that; some witches and wizards who were too young couldn't even be taken along by an adult using Apparition.

"What kind of technique is that?" Snape held his wand, maintaining the protective magic around himself.

"I told you, I got this in your classroom!" Aya said angrily. "I haven't even left the castle!" Just drawing all that homework had taken her quite a bit of time these past few days—she had worked so hard to complete the system tasks. Where would she have found the time to run around?

"All right, I can let that go, but this magic of yours..." Snape said. Without saying whether he believed her, he raised his wand and cast Expelliarmus at Aya.

Aya saw the tip of his wand point at her and release a skill, and instinctively used Pollen. The second stage of Pollen was ignition, but the first stage was only a basic defensive skill. It not only gave her buffs, but, most importantly, it could make her immune to ranged attacks. Aya remembered that the spirit swordsman had a similar skill.

The red light struck the white mist and was blocked by an invisible barrier. Aya was unharmed and continued to watch Snape warily, while Snape was genuinely surprised.

He considered himself to have some ability, even if he was a Potions professor. A first-year student's spell had blocked his attack. Although he hadn't used his full strength, it was still astonishing. He recalled the conjecture Dumbledore had shared with him—that Aya was a war orphan.

As for war orphans, Aya was not the only one at the school. The most famous was Harry Potter. His parents had died fighting Voldemort more than ten years ago. Although everyone called him the Chosen One, the adults all knew it was his parents who had protected him.

But Snape had seen Harry's performance for himself. Like many ordinary students, he had no particular talents and possessed much of the clumsiness of an eleven-year-old, along with a measure of Gryffindor recklessness.

But the student before him, who appeared to be a mixed-blood beastman, was clearly different. Her body had combat memory. The movement spells she had just used to escape him, and the cloud of... pollen? that had swiftly reacted to block his spell, all showed that she was no ordinary girl.

"Come with me to see Dumbledore, Miss Hawthorne. I think he'll be happy to have a talk with you. Then you can tell me where you got all these things." Snape raised his chin and spoke calmly to Aya.

Aya gave him several suspicious looks before putting away her staff. Xiaohua didn't turn back into a kitten, instead following them in his large form without a care.

There weren't many students in the corridors. Apart from the first years, most grades didn't finish classes until after five in the afternoon. Aya and Snape's class had ended at three, and after wasting all that time, the third class of the afternoon had already begun, so the two of them and the cat didn't attract much attention.

The Headmaster's Office was on the Seventh Floor of the castle, and a stone gargoyle guarded the entrance. Snape stood before it and spoke the password. "Fizzing Whizbees."

Aya didn't realize he was giving a password. She felt in her robe pocket and found the last three Fizzing Whizbees she had left. She pulled them out and held one out to Snape. When he looked down at her, the gargoyle moved aside, and Aya realized what had happened and quickly withdrew her hand.

Snape gave a derisive chuckle and stepped onto the spiral staircase behind the entrance. Aya followed, and Xiaohua shrank and jumped onto her shoulder.

"Oh, welcome to the Headmaster's Office. What can I do for you, Severus? And... Miss Hawthorne?" Dumbledore sat behind his large desk, smiling as he asked.

There were many ornaments on the desk that Aya had never seen before. The office was lavishly decorated, and portraits of past headmasters covered the walls. Some were absent, some were dozing, and a few looked at Aya curiously after she entered.

"This remarkable young lady of yours has done something quite extraordinary today-" Snape began sarcastically, watching Aya look around in every direction after entering the room.