Smoothly

"Ow!" Harry had barely gotten hold of the diary when a thick staff struck the back of his hand. He instinctively let go from the pain, and the diary fell back to the floor. "Aya, why did you hit me—and what's that stick?"

"A staff!" Aya held it against the floor as the headmasters' portraits covering the wall behind her gathered in the nearest frame to examine the brand-new staff. "You can't touch that thing. Apart from when I first got it, I've only taken it out to look at it three times, and I was controlled the last two!"

As Aya spoke, Xiaohua picked up the diary in her mouth and seemed about to leave.

"Where's she going?" Harry asked.

"The bathroom on the third floor, I think? That's where she went last time." Aya stared at Harry strangely as she spoke. "Harry, what do you think... you and that book have in common?"

"...We're both black?" Harry scratched his head in confusion.

"Ahem." Dumbledore coughed, drawing the children's attention. When they turned around, he waved his hand, and the diary flew from Xiaohua's mouth into his. He looked down at it, and his expression stiffened slightly.

"...Perhaps I'll have to go back on my word, Miss Hawthorne." Dumbledore looked uncharacteristically embarrassed.

"?" It took Aya a moment to understand what he meant. Then she screamed, her tail puffing up into a thick plume. "I knew you were up to no good, you old man!!" She waved her staff to free Xiaohua from the control and moved to rush forward and snatch the diary back.

That was one of only two red items she had!!

It could be dangerous, and it could be useless, but it couldn't be anywhere except in her bag!

Harry's jaw nearly hit the floor as Xiaohua grew bigger, knocking over the sofa and coffee table. She immediately attacked Dumbledore, her claws gleaming coldly as she hissed viciously. He was already imagining himself being sent home tomorrow.

The former headmasters on the portrait wall screamed one after another. Harry even heard the word "Azkaban." Fawkes quickly swooped over from his perch, grabbed Dumbledore by the sleeve, and flashed him to the other side of the room.

"Give it back!" Aya shrieked. "You lied!!"

Xiaohua knocked over the office chair, and the jar of sweets on the desk fell and shattered, scattering sweets across the floor. Cockroach Clusters crawled among the books and clutter, but Xiaohua paid them no mind. She quickly and nimbly changed direction and lunged at Dumbledore.

"Wait, wait-Aya, calm down and listen to what Headmaster Dumbledore has to say-" Harry hurried over, trying to stop her.

"He took my stuff!" Aya said fiercely. Dumbledore kept teleporting around the office, but he didn't leave. "If he doesn't give it back, I'm going to loot this place!"

"That thing is too dangerous, Miss Hawthorne. It shouldn't be in the hands of a young witch like you," Dumbledore said, appearing behind Aya.

Aya swapped places with Xiaohua at once, appearing on the other side of the room while Xiaohua kept lunging at him. "It's never managed to attack me! It's always been fine in my backpack! It's mine!"

"It's very dangerous. There are traces of Dark Magic on it, and if you stay near it for too long, you'll be hurt..." Dumbledore continued, dodging Xiaohua's claws again.

Aya's face darkened, and she stopped relying solely on Xiaohua. She began using skills against Dumbledore. Though they did limited damage, they could interfere with his movements.

"Vines!" Thick thorny vines appeared out of thin air. Ten meters long and thicker than the rim of a bowl, they crossed over one another as they advanced. Dumbledore curiously touched one as he jumped away.

"Chestnut Ball!" Green shells the size of balls, covered in coldly gleaming spikes, fell from the sky and carpeted the floor. Harry jumped onto the desk in fright.

"Morning Glory!" A purple-and-white morning glory larger than a gramophone horn appeared at the tip of Aya's staff. The other end appeared behind Dumbledore, floating at the back of his neck like a phantom. He seemed to sense something, and Fawkes carried him to the railing, where he stopped.

"You're draining my life force," he said calmly.

"Of course!" Aya gripped her staff tightly and stared at Dumbledore. As long as he dared show a health bar, she dared solo him. She couldn't die anyway, and if she wore him down enough times, she would get her things back eventually.

"That's very evil magic," Dumbledore said.

"It's life steal. It can keep me from dying." Aya glared at him. With a few nimble movements, Xiaohua jumped onto the railing and crouched low, fixing her sights on him.

"You can have it back, but you must let me remove the Dark Magic on it." Dumbledore sighed. What could he do? A war orphan used every means available to stay alive. Was he going to condemn her way of protecting her life? In a place where the strong preyed on the weak, even Dark Magic was good magic if it kept you safe.

"I don't believe you," Aya said. "You were just about to break your word. No, you already broke it!"

"You must forgive an old man's muddleheadedness from time to time. That's how it is when you get old." Dumbledore patted Fawkes, who was gripping his shoulder. "I can give you another of Fawkes's feathers as an apology."

"I already have one!" Aya dismissed the offer. A Phoenix Feather was an orange item, a whole tier below red!

"Then how should I apologize?" Dumbledore asked gently, looking at the bristling black tail still swishing behind Aya.

Harry carefully climbed down from the desk and stood where the floor was clear of thorns and chestnut shells. "Yeah, Aya, that diary controls you as soon as you touch it. That's definitely very dangerous Dark Magic. If you let Headmaster Dumbledore clear it away, it'll be safe for you to carry too."

He was scared of his friend now. She usually looked so absentminded, and he'd thought the most daring thing she'd done was attack Snape-before the start of term, supposedly. He hadn't expected her to dare attack Dumbledore too. What was this? A newborn calf wasn't afraid of a tiger?

"As long as I don't take it out, it won't affect anything! And when I took it out to study it shortly after term started, nothing happened!" Aya swore. "He's a robber!"

Harry had no comment on Aya, the genuine robber who had snatched Dumbledore's Mirror of Erised. "Then why did you take it out to look at it twice more?"

"It's a red item. Shouldn't I play around with it more?" Aya put one hand on her hip and jabbed her staff hard against the floor with the other. "Harry, whose side are you on?!"

"..." Harry shot Dumbledore a sidelong glance. Seeing that he didn't look angry, Harry muttered, "Do I dare take a side...?"

Dumbledore finally placated Aya by offering to let her go to the Forbidden Forest. The fur on her tail finally lay flat.

"You can't keep it too long, I have to see it once a week, and you can't damage it. Even though there's nothing inside it, there's definitely something about it! And another thing-" Aya stood with her hands on her hips in front of the tidied desk. The thorny vines and the like that had sprung up out of the floor had also been cleared away. Behind her, Harry floundered through a series of gestures to show he had no objections, like someone too inarticulate to explain himself and with no way to plead his unruly friend's case.

"All right, I can agree to all that, but you must promise me one thing too." Dumbledore took a sip of tea. For once, it was only mildly sweet—the sugar jar had vanished in the chaos just now. What kind of robber was he? What robber negotiated with the owner? He continued, "You mustn't use those methods of yours on your classmates, understood?"

"They don't have red names, so why would I hit them?" Aya curled her lip. In her world, she couldn't just attack green-name NPCs whenever she liked. Even some achievements for killing ten thousand people required her to change into the corresponding faction's clothes before they could be triggered.

"Then do I have a red name?" Dumbledore asked with a smile.

"You look like you do!" Aya said fiercely. Behind her, Harry couldn't help closing his eyes and bowing his head.

"I'll tell Hagrid to be a little more lenient with you. I think your power is growing quickly, and you should be able to handle the things at the edge of the Forbidden Forest. But I still hope you won't go too deep. There are other things in its depths," Dumbledore said. "However, I have a few more questions. Perhaps you could answer them for me, Miss Hawthorne?"

"I don't answer robbers' questions." Aya turned to leave in a huff.

"Oh, that's a shame. I had planned to prepare some more gifts to make amends, such as the new gift box from Honeydukes on Wednesday. I ordered the most deluxe one, but now it seems this muddleheaded old man will have to enjoy it alone." As Dumbledore spoke, he pulled out a large pink-and-green box and set it on the desk, looking quite regretful.

"But it seems you're not a robber now." Aya turned smoothly back around.

Dumbledore smiled. "Where did you get this book?"

"Diagon Alley."

"When?"

"The day Harry and the Weasley family came to Diagon Alley to buy textbooks."

"More specifically?"

"Hmm... after we came out of Flourish and Blotts?" Aya looked at Harry. "Ginny said it wasn't hers, so I put it away."

"Malfoy Senior threw it to you?" Harry remembered how Malfoy Senior and Mr. Weasley had fought that day. Xiaohua had even gone over to help, making Malfoy Senior look foolish.

"I think so? Ginny's textbooks were scattered all over the floor, and he threw it to me with them." Aya nodded.

Dumbledore thought for a while, looking down, before he continued, "Then... what did you mean when you asked Harry what he and the diary had in common?"

"Exactly what I said?" Aya was a little puzzled. The quest log had said she had encountered two of them the moment the diary came into contact with Harry, so apart from the diary, the other one was Harry.

Dumbledore tapped the desk, once after another, and Harry grew a little uneasy.

"Harry, you... can understand Parseltongue, can't you?" Dumbledore asked.

"Yes, sir."

After another pause, Dumbledore said, "No more questions for now. But as for the Basilisk..."

"What! You want my Basilisk too!" Aya bristled again. Harry grimaced as her tail gave him a hard lash across the calf.

"For Hagrid's sake, calm down-" Harry quickly held Aya by the shoulders.

"Yes, for Hagrid's sake. But I can just take some photographs. Someone will be able to tell whether they're genuine." Dumbledore backed down. If Aya kept getting the impression that he coveted her treasures, the next time he saw her, she'd be a hedgehog rather than a feline beastperson.

Aya gave a very loud huff and put away the gift box of sweets on the desk before agreeing to come out that night and let Dumbledore photograph the Basilisk.

As Dumbledore watched Aya and Harry leave, he couldn't help letting out a long sigh.

With such an extreme tendency to guard what was hers, it was hard to imagine how harsh Aya's former living conditions had been.

After the door to the Headmaster's Office closed behind them, Harry's legs nearly gave way beneath him. "...Aya, I'm begging you, could you let me know before you do something big next time? You scared my legs weak, and I was almost pierced by those chestnut shells of yours."

"How could that happen?" Aya shook her head. "Didn't you climb onto the desk? It's all Dumbledore's fault I acted like that!"

"I really can't believe it..." Harry took several deep breaths. It was already dinnertime. "I keep thinking you really might end up in Azkaban someday."

"It's fine. As long as Xiaohua's outside the prison, breaking out would be a breeze~" Aya swished her tail, already planning when to go to the Forbidden Forest. It concerned whether she would pass Potions Class and whether her quest could progress smoothly.

Most of Aya's anger over Dumbledore forcibly taking the diary had already faded. Her emotions had always come and gone quickly. She was now planning to head to the Great Hall with Harry; Ron and Hermione should also be going to eat around this time.

"That's not the point! You should be seriously denying that you'll ever go to Azkaban!" Harry felt helpless. As he walked down the spiral staircase, he felt dizzy, as though he might fall.

"But I've never been to Azkaban. It wouldn't be bad to unlock that part of the map."

"Do you think it's some kind of tourist attraction?!"

Aya's return to normal had clearly brought out Harry's urge to retort. She had never thought him a chatterbox before, but on the way from the Headmaster's Office to the Great Hall, she had already cleaned out her cat ears twice.

"I feel so tired today," Harry said when they reached the Entrance Hall. He abruptly dropped the subject of bringing a gift to thank Hagrid's rooster and turned to her. "Yesterday, I fell off my broom during the match, Lockhart took the bones out of my arm, I ran into Dobby during the night, and then today we went straight into researching without a break..."

"You didn't do the research. Hermione did," Aya corrected him.

"...Then I made two trips to the library, and finally I had to witness a terrorist attack in the Headmaster's Office. I think that should be about it for this term, right? What could be worse than this?" Harry went on, ignoring Aya.

"Lockhart's touring performances?" Aya recalled Harry playing the Werewolf last time. "I have to say, he might actually know a thing or two about acting. Your howling sounded better after he gave you pointers."

"...Shut up."

Aya entered the Great Hall with Xiaohua in her arms and a scowling Harry behind her. Hermione and Ron were already sitting in their usual spots.

"Did it go smoothly?" Hermione asked eagerly as Aya sat down.

"Smoothly~" Aya answered with ease.

"Not smoothly," Harry answered wearily.

As soon as they spoke, Harry turned to stare at Aya in disbelief.

"Huh?" Ron made a puzzled sound. Seeing Harry's expression, he asked with concern, "Harry, what's wrong? Did it go smoothly or not?"

"It went very smoothly, didn't it?" Aya rubbed her chin in thought.

Although Dumbledore had tried to take her things halfway through, the safety of her red item was now guaranteed. Surely Dumbledore wouldn't lie to a child like her in front of Harry, the Chosen One? And although the Chamber of Secrets was gone, she could go to the Forbidden Forest openly now. Besides, she'd gotten a large box of the newest sweets. How could that not count as smooth?

Wasn't fighting a boss along the way how most quests worked?

Under Harry's gaze, his expression as though he'd eaten a slug, she said firmly, "Very smoothly."