New Task

Of course, they found nothing.

The old headmaster refused to give up and even went to knock on the door of McGonagall's rooms, giving her quite a fright. The headmaster had personally brought a Gryffindor student to see her, their head of house, in the middle of the night. What on earth had the girl done?

But Dumbledore only wanted McGonagall, as a fellow woman, to search Aya for him. After all, he had made Aya stand in a clear space and used the Summoning Charm, but he still hadn't found her bag.

"There really wasn't anything else, Albus. What exactly are you looking for?" McGonagall asked in some confusion, bringing Aya out after she had changed back into her pajamas.

"Nothing at all?" Dumbledore still refused to give up.

"Of course," McGonagall said firmly.

Aya lifted her chin. "So it's mine!"

"What exactly is it?" McGonagall was still wearing her dressing gown. She had been woken in the middle of the night, and even if it was the headmaster and a student with a tragic past, she couldn't help being grumpy about it.

"The Philosophy Stone, Minerva. She went to the forbidden area on the fourth floor alone tonight and took it away." Dumbledore rubbed his temple and sighed. He had certainly gotten enough exercise tonight.

"...The Philosophy Stone?!" McGonagall's eyes widened. She looked down at the young witch, who stared back at her expressionlessly. "Merlin! Hawthorne, you can't-"

"No, I can!" Sensing where this was going, Aya immediately moved away from McGonagall. "You can't catch me!"

"Yes, we can't," Dumbledore sighed. "If I get any more exercise tonight, I'll sue you for elder abuse and have you sent to Azkaban, child."

"I didn't do anything," Aya flatly denied it. "I want to go back to bed. I've gotten enough exercise tonight."

"...You're not going to do anything about it, Albus?"

"Can I?" Dumbledore replied. Then he nodded to Aya. "Go on back. Sweet dreams, miss."

Aya's eyes shifted. She immediately pulled Xiaohua over, had the cat grow larger, and rode off. Those two still hadn't remembered to deduct points from her, so she had to hurry back.

A perfect night.

The next day was Saturday, and Aya enjoyed a proper lie-in. When she arrived at the Great Hall for breakfast, the Weasley brothers hauled her over to a seat in the corner.

"Oh, Aya, tell us!" Fred said excitedly. "You were out wandering last night, weren't you?"

Aya nodded indifferently and reached for a piece of fish.

"You ran into Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall too, didn't you?" George rubbed his hands together.

Aya nodded again, then clamped a rock-hard piece of bread between her teeth and tore at it with all her might.

"Please tell us, Miss Cat, how did you convince the headmaster and the head of house not to deduct your points?" the twins asked in unison.

"Uh," Aya said, struggling to chew the bread, "because I run fast?"

"What kind of explanation is that?" Fred complained, snatching the choking hazard of a bread roll from Aya's hand. "Stop eating and tell us the secret!"

"We saw you yesterday. You spent quite a while with Dumbledore and McGonagall," George said. He lowered his voice and leaned closer to add, "You even went to the forbidden area on the fourth floor!"

The two of them had planned to enjoy a relaxing nighttime wander because it was Friday. They had just found a secret passage they didn't know the destination of, and while checking the Marauder's Map to see whether it was marked, they had witnessed Aya's entire nighttime excursion.

Forgive them. They hadn't expected a first-year to head straight for the forbidden area on the fourth floor, much less get inside!

The two had shelved their own plans, hidden on a bed with the curtains drawn, and watched the Marauder's Map for two hours, only stopping when Aya left Professor McGonagall's rooms. Lee had even teased them about how much closer they were getting, sleeping in the same bed.

"..." Aya blinked. "The place I went yesterday was the forbidden area on the fourth floor?"

"You didn't know?" Fred was stunned.

"Then why did you go? You headed straight there yesterday!" George asked.

"Because Hermione and the others dragged me there the night before," Aya said. "Last night I just had Xiaohua look for the door from the night before."

"...Merlin, someone like Granger goes wandering at night?" George could hardly believe it. She was a little stickler who even dared to boss around older students!

"She was forced into it," Aya explained. "But so was I. I didn't want to go with them in the first place, but Hermione insisted on dragging me along."

"So what's in the forbidden area on the fourth floor?" Fred asked curiously, hunching his shoulders.

They had tried to get in before, but the three-headed dog had driven them back.

"Lots of things." Aya snatched back her dry bread and counted them off. "A guard dog, a pile of grass, key birds, a Troll, a Potions room, and finally an empty room with a reward in it!"

"Merlin's smelly socks, you got through all of them?!" George looked at Aya in a whole new light. "Tell us the secret, Miss Cat!"

With a slice of bread in her mouth, Aya lifted Xiaohua from her lap. "Accept their worship, Xiaohua!"

Xiaohua's only response was to swish the cat's tail twice.

"Your cat? Is the cat that amazing?" Fred pressed his palms together and bowed reverently. "Lord Xiaohua, please allow the loyal Weasleys to greet you!"

"...Have they finally lost their minds?" Ron asked, gnawing on a whole sausage as he watched his brothers bow to the cat Aya was holding up.

"Maybe they caught it from Aya," Harry said, gulping down pumpkin soup. The Gryffindor first-years usually sat together, so Aya, who had been kidnapped and taken to the other side, stood out.

"But they still have expressions," Ron said.

"...Let's think about that thing on the fourth floor instead. It's more interesting than figuring out whether Aya has expressions," Harry said, changing the subject.

After that day, Dumbledore reset the forbidden area on the fourth floor. His sting operation had gone this far, so he couldn't give up halfway. He also warned Aya not to set foot in it again.

Would Aya listen?

No.

She had to find out whether the dungeon reset daily or weekly, so she went again on Saturday night and found that the three-headed dog was still covered in wounds. It hadn't reset.

She went again the following Friday night. This time was a little better: the three-headed dog's wounds had scabbed over, but it still hadn't reset.

Aya sighed. Apparently, a reward with such a powerful effect really could only be obtained from a one-time dungeon!

Two months into the term, Aya could finally do her homework normally. Her "Integrate into Hogwarts" quest was finally complete too, raising her to level fifteen. Another quest immediately followed: "Find the Person Hidden in the Shadows."

[Find the Person Hidden in the Shadows: School life is very pleasant, and you feel completely at ease. However, there is one thing you have always found very strange. You believe the person connected to it may be abnormal.]

Aya set the quest aside for the time being. She had originally thought she could complete the previous one after a week of classes, but unexpectedly it had taken two months! After so long, her sense of urgency about completing quests had dulled somewhat.

Halloween was approaching, and Harry had received a brand-new flying broomstick some time ago. Aya loved the feeling of speeding on a broom, so she went to the pitch and forcibly commandeered his Nimbus 2000 for a test flight. Harry was probably used to Aya's somewhat self-centered nature by now. Although it pained him to part with his precious broom, he still let go of it when she reached out.

What else could he do? Play tug-of-war with the broom? It would break his heart!

The new broom really did feel different. It flew extremely fast. Aya wrapped her tail tightly around it and spun in 360-degree spirals in the air. Below, Ron stared open-mouthed, while Wood excitedly patted the Weasley brothers and told them to learn from her.

The Weasley brothers refused. If they tried that, they would throw up before they could even swing their bats. Besides, they didn't have tails to use as safety belts.

"Will she have shaken up what little brain she has by the time she comes down?" Ron asked Harry quietly. He considered himself smarter than Aya. After all, he could not only read the room but had also known how to write before starting school.

"Hard to say." Harry kept his eyes fixed on his precious broom. "Maybe there's nothing in there at all." Even Malfoy could be left speechless by her. Harry really thought Aya lived up to being someone with animal ears—she was different from ordinary people like them.

On the morning of Halloween, Aya was practically lured out of bed by the smell of pumpkin drifting everywhere.

Because of their group nighttime excursion, Hermione still wasn't keen on talking to anyone. She was long gone by the time Aya got up, so Aya could only say a lonely good morning to Lavender and Parvati, who still weren't fully awake. Then she got ready to welcome her pumpkin-scented day.

They had a Charms lesson that morning, and Aya was quite interested.

Her last daring trip to the fourth floor had shown her how useful the charms here could be. A door Hermione could deal with using an Unlocking Charm had required Xiaohua to smash it open, which made it far too easy to discover. So she was now very eager in Charms class.

"All right, practice in pairs. Remember that subtle wrist movement we just practiced!" Professor Flitwick stood smiling on his pile of books. "Swish and flick, and then say the incantation correctly. The wizard mentioned in your book who said an incantation wrong and ended up with a buffalo standing on his chest really did exist, and it really did happen."

Aya didn't care about some buffalo standing on someone's chest. Xiaohua sometimes liked to sleep on her too. She just thought this Levitation Charm was really hard.

She was paired with Neville, who was even worse. He nearly poked Seamus in the eye with his wand as he swung it. The feather only stirred twice in the breeze from his waving arm, yet even so, he thought he had improved. With red eyes, he said the Levitation Charm was the friendliest spell to him.

Aya made no comment. As long as she ignored the automatic fan beside her, the feather was all hers.

"If you're so clever, you try it!" Ron's angry voice rang out.

"Wingardium Leviosa!" Hermione's voice was firm and proud. She had been paired with Ron, and the feather slowly rose under her control. Professor Flitwick exclaimed in admiration from the front of the classroom, praising her as the first young witch to succeed.

Aya looked at the back of Ron's furious head and thought he was rather strange. He was the most easily angered of the Weasleys, and sometimes he would yell at people for no apparent reason.

She looked away and went back to fanning the feather.

By the end of class, Aya still hadn't succeeded. As usual, she headed out alone with her cat in her arms, complaining to Xiaohua about how hard today's charm was. Then she saw Hermione ahead of her, bumping hard into Harry before hurrying away.

"Are they about to make up?" Aya stroked Xiaohua's fur and whispered to the cat, "Hermione ignored those two for a while, but today she even bumped into him. Is this what it means to say one thing and mean another?"

"...Does Hermione know you're speculating about her like that?" Parvati, walking beside her, wondered if she had misheard. They all knew Aya sometimes thought differently from other people, but surely she didn't go so far as to turn things upside down!

"They had a fight." Lavender looked affectionately at Aya's blank cat head. "They were so loud in class. Didn't you hear them?"

"No. Neville was fanning me, and my ears were listening to him say the spell that makes the wind."

"...You were fanning each other."

After bumping into Harry and leaving, Hermione disappeared. She didn't even attend the afternoon class.

"What should we do? We have to find her!" Lavender said anxiously. "She usually gets to the classroom early, but today she didn't even come to the afternoon class!"

"Aya, can Xiaohua find out where Hermione is?" Parvati was worried too. Although she and Lavender usually liked to play together, they still cared about their roommate.

"Sure." Aya put Xiaohua on the floor. Class had only just ended, so there were quite a few people in the corridor. "Are we going now? I still want to see what pumpkin dishes they're serving for dinner."

"Of course we're going now!" Lavender said hurriedly. "The feast is tonight, and there's still time. It won't keep you from eating."

"All right." Aya agreed somewhat reluctantly.

The three girls followed Xiaohua to the entrance of the girls' bathroom. Afternoon classes had ended, and there weren't many people around. Standing outside, the girls could just make out the sound of crying from a stall inside.

"Hermione, are you all right?" Parvati asked softly from the doorway. The sobbing stopped.

"Class is over. You missed the last lesson, but we took notes. Would you like to look at them now?" Lavender had obviously come prepared, but Hermione still didn't answer.

"That's right, you missed a whole lesson. Don't be sad. Those boys are just that immature," Parvati continued, trying to comfort her. "There's a Halloween feast tonight too. It's our first feast..."

"I'm fine." Hermione's voice was thick with tears, but fairly steady. "Go on. I want to be alone for a while."

"But Hermione," Aya said, poking her head inside, "there's no rule against eating in the bathroom, but I think it's best not to in a place like this, don't you?"

"...Go away!" Hermione's voice grew louder and a little shrill. "I'm fine! I want some peace and quiet!"

"All right, all right. We'll bring you some pumpkin pie back to the dormitory. Come back and eat it when you've rested." Hermione didn't answer again, so Parvati pulled the other two away.

She had long known Aya wasn't good with words, so she wasn't surprised. She only regretted not covering Aya's mouth before speaking to Hermione.