Night Out

Rules could never restrain a feline spirit who yearned for freedom.

And so, that night, four little lions unexpectedly ran into one another in the Gryffindor Common Room.

"I can't believe you're really planning to go-Aya! What are you doing here too?" Hermione's voice was full of disbelief. She had turned on the lights and found her roommate, who should have been lying in bed.

"Ah, can't I be here?" Aya scratched her head. "I want to see what the castle looks like at night."

"Mind your own business, Harry, let's go." Ron impatiently pushed Harry forward. Aya wasn't going with them.

"I should have told your brother Percy. He's a Prefect, and he'd have stopped you!" Hermione followed Harry and Ron out of the common room, still trying to persuade them to go back. "Don't you ever care about Gryffindor's points? I don't want Slytherin to win the House Cup again, and I don't want you to lose all the points I worked so hard to earn."

"Go away!" Ron and Harry had already climbed out of the common room, with Hermione close behind and Aya bringing up the rear.

"Fine, but I'm warning you, when you're on the train home tomorrow, don't forget what I said. You're simply too-" She turned around and fell silent. The Fat Lady had gone visiting late at night and wasn't in her frame.

"You'll have to wait here, Hermione," Aya said.

"Why did you come out too?" Hermione held her face in her hands. She had been so focused on the two annoying boys that she hadn't noticed Aya right behind her.

"Because I wanted to come out." Aya gave her a puzzled look. "I have to go, Xiaohua!"

The cat crouching at Aya's feet grew larger. Aya was about to climb on when Hermione grabbed her nightgown. "No, you have to come with me. I still have to follow those two boys, so we're going together."

"No, I have somewhere I want to go." Aya refused. She had planned to take advantage of the night to visit the forbidden area on the fourth floor, where they weren't allowed to go. She had avoided it while collecting the glowing spots before.

"No, you have to come. They're already getting away!" Hermione said sternly, dragging Aya as she hurried after them.

"You can't come!" Ron called back.

Hermione pulled Aya along, struggling to catch up. Aya frowned. She hadn't intended to get into a conflict with Hermione, mainly because Hermione usually took decent care of her, especially when it came to studying.

Fine, she wouldn't go to the fourth floor. She could go tomorrow after Hermione fell asleep!

In a corner of the corridor, they came across Neville, who was asleep. The noise woke him as they approached, and since he couldn't get back into the common room for the moment, he joined the group.

"I never expected to put together a full party on my first night out," Aya remarked, hugging Xiaohua's warm body.

"This is simply the worst thing ever!" Hermione kept her voice down, her tone nothing like the sweetness of her pink nightgown.

"Why haven't you gone back to the common room?" Harry asked Neville from the front.

"After Flying Class, Madam Hooch suggested I get a bottle of Draught of Peace from the Hospital Wing, but I forgot," Neville said miserably. "I remembered an hour before curfew, but on my way back with the potion, I was unlucky enough to run into the changing stairs. I had to take a really long way around, and when I got to the entrance, I realized I'd forgotten the password."

"...You really are unlucky, but please shut up anyway. If you get the two of us caught, I'm going to learn that Bogey Hex Quirrell mentioned and use it on you!" Ron glared at the three following behind.

Aya followed along at her ease, even collecting a few glowing spots in the corridor as she went. Hermione clearly didn't know what she was doing as she furtively rummaged through piles of things in the corridor, though, and kept pulling her along to catch up with the group.

Their luck held. They reached the Trophy Room on the third floor without getting caught, but they didn't see Draco or Crabbe either.

"He's late. Maybe he got scared and didn't dare come," Ron whispered.

Before Harry could answer, the voice of Filch, the school caretaker, rang out. He was talking to his cat, Mrs. Norris. "Sniff around, my dear. They'll be hiding in some corner."

Everyone except Aya was terrified. They carefully slipped out through the door on the other side and made their way down a corridor lined with suits of armor. Hearing Filch's voice drawing closer and closer, Neville couldn't help letting out a scream and bolting.

Neville's scream had barely stopped ringing in Aya's ears when she heard him trip, take Ron down with him, and knock over a pile of armor as they fell. She thought they might as well stop running.

"Run!" Harry shouted, and Aya was forced to run with them.

They took turn after turn. Since Xiaohua could lead the way, Aya had hardly ever learned the routes herself. All she knew was that she was running beside Harry, passing through one corridor after another. After a long while, they stopped outside a vaguely familiar classroom.

"We should, should have lost him," Harry panted, leaning against the wall and wiping the sweat from his forehead. The others were no better off.

"Mer, Merlin's beard, how, how come you're not out of breath at all-" Ron was already sitting on the floor, staring in shock at Aya, whose breathing was calm.

Aya tilted her head. "Be, because I'm not very, very tired."

"I told you not to copy how we talk!" Ron said, beside himself. "We have to go back!"

"Malfoy tricked you," Hermione said, fanning herself with her collar. "He never meant to meet you at all. He might even have tipped Filch off!"

"Let's go." Harry looked a little unconvinced, but he still agreed that they should return.

They hadn't gone far, however, when Peeves suddenly darted out of a classroom. Nothing pleased him more than making a huge racket to draw Filch over when he came across students wandering at night.

They could only run again, and in the end they came to a dead end. There was only one locked door. Ron was so frightened he was about to cry, but Hermione shoved him aside and snatched Harry's wand. "Let me! Alohomora!" With a click, the lock opened, and they all rushed inside.

While the others stared at the door, listening for any sounds outside, Aya's keen sense of smell alerted her to the enormous dog behind them.

A three-headed dog. It looked a little like the products of biological experiments she had seen before.

"Wow-" Aya exclaimed, drawing Ron's attention. "I told you, don't-"

"Aah-!!!" Neville's scream drowned out everyone else's cries of terror. Harry opened the door with trembling hands, and the group stumbled back outside.

Aya hadn't wanted to leave. It was clearly a little boss, and she hadn't encountered a monster she could fight since coming here. She really wanted to give it a try, but Hermione rudely dragged her away.

More long, drawn-out running followed.

Aya thought the children of this world had excellent stamina. If a cultivator like her didn't already have a body-strengthening step in her cultivation, she wouldn't have been able to run back and forth like this in a single night.

They ran all the way to the Seventh Floor without stopping, and the few genuine local children were almost ready to collapse. Fortunately, the Fat Lady had returned from her visit.

"Where have you all been?" the Fat Lady asked curiously, looking at the bedraggled little lions who had been wandering at night.

"We went for a night run, ma'am," Aya answered eagerly.

"Stop talking. 'Pig snout, pig snout'!" Harry gasped out the password. They practically crawled into the common room, trembling all over as they collapsed on the sofas.

"Today was a really fulfilling day, even if things didn't go according to my plan." Aya was the only one still able to stand upright. The others were practically speechless, and Neville even looked as though he had been gone for a while. "I can go to sleep now. Good night, everyone." Seeing that Hermione couldn't get up, Aya wanted to help carry her upstairs, but Hermione refused, so Aya had to leave on her own.

After a perfect night's sleep, Aya woke up to find it was Friday. She planned to take the money bag she hadn't managed to hand over last time and repay Snape.

But Hermione was angry from the moment she got up. Aya wouldn't have noticed if she hadn't asked Hermione to pass her the sugar bowl that morning, only for Hermione to hand it over without a word.

The two periods of Potions Class were as painful as ever for Gryffindor, though not for Aya. As usual, she stirred the bubbling potion in the cauldron like a mere tool, while Hermione silently prepared the ingredients beside her, as if she were sulking.

Class soon ended. Aya waited until everyone had left, then stood before Snape with the money bag again. This time, it held another hundred Galleons. Ever since coming to Hogwarts and discovering that all the food was free, she had been saving money much faster.

"I'm paying you back!" Aya planted her hands on her hips and raised her chin. "Money from legitimate sources!"

Snape took a deep breath, rolled his eyes, and accepted the bag, putting it away without even counting the money. "Anything else, Miss?"

"Yes. I wanted to ask if I can sell materials here," Aya said. She hadn't found anything like a little shop at school, and so she hadn't found a store where she could sell her junk. Now she had no choice but to ask the one professor who might buy the materials in her backpack.

"..." Although Snape badly wanted to curse at her-did she think that, as a Potions professor, he would take any old junk?-he thought of the Unicorn Horn and Fawkes's feather. "What materials?"

"The one I tried to give you last time!" Hearing that she could, Aya went back to addressing him respectfully—she had always been polite—and took the Unicorn Horn out of her backpack.

Snape examined it.

Generally speaking, the sale of unicorn horns was strictly regulated. Those available for purchase outside could only be horns that unicorns had shed naturally. Harming a sacred magical creature like a unicorn brought a curse, so most fresh horns were contraband.

But the one in his hand was very fresh, and its aura was pure, with no trace of a curse.

"Remarkable," Snape couldn't help remarking. "Very well. Do you want to put it toward your debt?"

"No, I want to sell it and ask an older student to buy candy for me. They said they're going to Hogsmeade in two weeks, and they can buy candy from Honeydukes then," Aya said.

"...Isn't there a House-elf assigned specifically to look after you?"

"Duoduo stopped appearing in front of people after coming to the school. I can only see her if I go to the kitchens!" Aya was a little unhappy with that school rule. "Besides, she usually has a lot of work to do, so never mind."

"How very difficult it must be for someone like you to be so considerate." Snape raised an eyebrow. "I can pay you fifty Galleons for this Unicorn Horn. Is that acceptable?"

Aya didn't know the going price, so she simply nodded.

"All right." Now that Snape had obtained a perfect ingredient, he could no longer hold back the ideas racing through his mind. "Hurry up and leave. I have things to do."

"Okay, then I still owe you three hundred Galleons," Aya stressed.

"I know." Snape turned around and paid her no more attention.

Aya happily left the Potions Classroom with the Galleons she had obtained through a complicated process. It was still early, so she planned to go play by the Black Lake. Lavender had told her it was a nice place for a walk.

She scooped up Xiaohua, her little accessory, and headed straight for the Black Lake.

Hmm, it was very-big.

Aya looked at the Black Lake, which surrounded almost three sides of the castle, with some excitement. Such a vast expanse of water reminded her of the joy of catching fish before. She still hadn't forgotten the simplest taste of grilled fish!

She found a spot near the water's edge and gathered some dry branches into a pile. Xiaohua had already grown larger and jumped into the lake. All the other years except the first-years were in class, making it the perfect time to grill fish!

"Xiaohua, pick a big one, all right?" Aya called to the big cat dog-paddling in the water. "The fish in such a big lake must be huge too!"

Xiaohua answered Aya by diving underwater with a splash.

After two weeks of study, Aya could start a fire without pollen. She had learned Incendio, an extremely convenient spell for cooking outdoors.

After successfully lighting the fire, Aya diligently made a wide circuit of the area and gathered more firewood while she waited for a big fish.

Xiaohua soon tossed the first fish onto the shore. It was a little smaller than Aya had imagined, but it would be good for taking the edge off her hunger.

She took out her dagger and, somewhat awkwardly, copied the way she had seen Duoduo prepare fish before school started. After roughly cleaning it, she used Aguamenti to wash it, then skewered it on a branch and began slowly roasting it over the fire. She had even brought salt!

She carefully sprinkled on a little salt and happily waited for the fish to cook.

Splash! There was another sound of water. Aya looked over to see a bigger fish tossed onto the shore, and hurried over to gut it. She could finish it! If she couldn't, she would cook it and put it in her backpack!

By the time she finished preparing it, the smaller fish roasting over the fire was almost done.

She carefully cut into it with her knife, then took out the cutlery she had swiped from the Great Hall. She carefully speared a piece of fish, blew on it, and waited for it to cool before putting it in her mouth.

Ah! The fish from the Black Lake tasted a little better than the ones from the forest!

Did magic nourish ingredients too?

How wonderful!

Aya was so happy her tail stood up. She happily and carefully poked pieces off the fish and put them on a plate to cool. As she looked at the fragrant fish, her mouth watering, a splash louder than the last came from the water. Aya looked up in delight-

What was that thing?

Her eyes widened. It was ugly and gray, with an upper body that looked human and a fish tail for its lower half?

Aya wanted to take a closer look, but the ugly thing suddenly began to shriek. The piercing sound was almost too much for Aya's cat ears.

"Xiaohua! Hold her down!" Aya shouted. Summoners had a stun skill, and she thought that as long as she stunned the ugly thing, she could follow the same process as before.

Xiaohua sprang out of the water and used a meow attack, knocking the ugly thing unconscious, then pinned it to the ground with one paw in an imposing manner.

Aya approached with her dagger and measured it against the ugly thing's waist. She only liked eating fish, not humanoid things.

"Miss Hawthorne, I think you had better not do that." Just as she was about to cut, Dumbledore's voice rang out, seemingly tinged with shock.