After sending off Minister Fudge and the ever-troublesome Lucius Malfoy, Hogwarts turned into a sea of joy — because Headmaster Dumbledore had called for a celebration.
Groups of students left their common rooms together, each face glowing with smiles. Although Colin Creevey and Justin Finch-Fletchley had not yet awakened, the school was now safe — there would be no more victims.
And with that insufferable Gilderoy Lockhart finally gone from the school to face justice and the punishment he deserved — weren't these two things alone enough to celebrate?
In the Great Hall, Ernie Macmillan walked up to Harry, apologizing endlessly — for his own foolishness, and for his misunderstanding. Hagrid also appeared beside Harry, giving him a huge bear hug.
When Eda, smelling deliciously fragrant, appeared at the feast, the celebration reached its peak. Not because of Eda's arrival, but because Professor McGonagall had just announced that — to treat everyone — the school had decided to cancel the end-of-year exams!
The students' cheers grew even louder, almost lifting the ceiling of the Great Hall. Of course, there were still a few discordant voices among the crowd — Hermione, who had narrowly escaped danger, clutched her head and cried out, "Oh no!" Clearly, unlike the quiet Eda, Miss Know-It-All the Second genuinely loved exams.
Dumbledore also announced that both Eda and Harry would receive two hundred points each, and that the school would award them the Special Services to the School medal. This meant that Gryffindor had successfully defended the House Cup — and Eda's wish had finally come true.
The celebration lasted the entire night. Even after curfew, students could still be seen wandering the corridors with excitement written all over their faces. Even the ever-dutiful Filch had, for once, skipped work — staying in his room, holding Mrs. Norris's toy, and shedding tears of joy.
The Gryffindor common room was even more lively — the little lions had thrown a pajama party. Professor McGonagall even "joined in the fun"; she shed her usual strict demeanor, appearing in the common room wearing a hairnet and pajamas.
Tonight, no one at Hogwarts slept!
After a whole night of revelry, the result was a sluggish morning — very few people showed up in the Great Hall for breakfast. Even Eda slept until noon before getting up, not to mention the other students.
Fresh out of bed, Eda had no idea that her life was about to change completely. She was about to experience the kind of trouble Harry had faced — and she had no clue what awaited her later that day.
And all of it started because of Cornelius Fudge. The Minister for Magic's trip hadn't been for nothing — he not only took away the deceitful Gilderoy Lockhart, but also obtained firsthand information about the Chamber of Secrets. During his term, the mystery that had lasted for a thousand years was finally solved — that alone could be listed as one of his achievements.
So, the esteemed Minister ordered his people to work through the night, publishing the full story of the Chamber in that day's Daily Prophet. The front-page headline — a chance most people could never dream of — was easily secured by the legend of Slytherin's Chamber. All the more since the story involved Dumbledore and Harry Potter.
Every witch and wizard who bought the Daily Prophet that morning saw the article, learning how Dumbledore and Harry Potter had worked together to resolve the mystery of the Chamber.
But strangely, the public's attention didn't stay on Harry — instead, it shifted toward a name they'd never heard before: Esmeralda Twist.
Dumbledore needed no explanation — the greatest wizard of the age, and nothing he accomplished could ever truly surprise anyone.
Harry Potter needed no introduction either — the boy who defeated the Dark Lord at one year old, the savior of Britain's wizarding world. According to the masses, venturing into the Chamber of Secrets was just another routine feat for him, barely worth remarking on.
But Eda was different from Dumbledore and Harry — she was a complete unknown. This was the first time her name appeared in the Daily Prophet, the first time she stepped into the public eye, letting the wider wizarding world learn that Hogwarts had someone like her.
Although Eda's name had appeared several times before in Transfiguration Weekly, that was an academic journal — few people ever read it. And since she had always been listed as Professor McGonagall's assistant, almost no one had really paid attention to her.
But this time was different.
The Daily Prophet was the best-selling newspaper in the wizarding world — and Eda had appeared right on the front page. It was impossible not to notice her.
And in that article, Eda wasn't just a passing background character, nor a pitiful victim, nor a violent culprit — she was the key figure who first discovered the clues to the Chamber of Secrets.
A completely unknown girl, suddenly becoming such an important figure — Dumbledore's indispensable helper — naturally sparked public curiosity. People wanted to know: how did she do it?
The editor-in-chief of The Daily Prophet truly lived up to his title — he knew exactly how to grab readers' attention. Responding to the readers' enthusiasm, he quickly satisfied their curiosity by publishing an even more detailed follow-up story about Eda in that evening's edition.
Through that report, the wizarding community learned not only that Eda was an excellent student with outstanding magical ability, but also that she had thwarted the Dark Lord's followers twice.
In her first year, she stopped Benedict Foley; in her third year, she fought alongside Harry Potter to defeat Quirinus Quirrell and protect the Philosopher's Stone.
And that wasn't all — the article included a photo of Eda wearing her glasses.
In the picture, she was gazing thoughtfully into the distance, before suddenly breaking into a bright smile — a smile that made countless young readers exclaim, "Mum, I believe in love again!"
If she weren't still so young, Eda would probably have been flooded with love letters by now — far more than she had received on Valentine's Day — enough to make even Lockhart, now sitting in the Ministry's custody, green with envy.
When the Weasley twins came running to show her the paper, Eda's first reaction was, "My dead Mum, I've made it!" But she quickly realized there had to be some kind of trick behind this.
After all, The Daily Prophet had reported on Benedict Foley's incident before — and although Eda was mentioned back then, it was just in passing. They didn't even use her name — just referred to her vaguely as "a student of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."
And now, not only had her name been printed clearly in the paper, but it even mentioned both the Benedict Foley incident and the Philosopher's Stone. Aside from her being an orphan and anything related to Little Whinging, they had included nearly everything there was to mention.
If Dumbledore hadn't approved this article, would Fudge and The Daily Prophet really have dared to publish it? Eda didn't believe that for a second.
She just couldn't figure out what Dumbledore was up to this time — what kind of scheme he was brewing in that old gourd of his, and when he planned to throw her under the bus again.
But Eda's private suspicions were unknown to Dumbledore, who was, at that moment, reading the newspaper himself. He only thought that Eda had grown up — become more mature.
And after seeing Lockhart's very public example this year, Dumbledore was certain Eda wouldn't let such empty fame go to her head or turn her vain.
After all, what bad intentions could Albus Dumbledore possibly have?
In short — Eda was famous now!
Among all the current students at Hogwarts, her fame ranked just below that of the Boy Who Lived, Harry Potter.
=== ✦ ✦ ✦ ===
Evening fell, and the streets filled with people beneath the glow of streetlamps.
On both sides of the road, passersby greeted one another warmly, exchanging a few polite words.
A single owl flew through the dusky sky and swooped down toward an ordinary — yet somehow peculiar — house.
It was "ordinary" because it wasn't crooked like the Burrow, nor bizarrely shaped like most wizarding homes. Yet it was "peculiar" because, though it clearly stood there with owls flying in and out, no one passing by seemed to see it — even the neighbors on either side ignored its existence completely.
Inside, the décor was in a style popular across Europe several decades ago, unchanged after all these years — as though the house's owner were someone deeply sentimental and unwilling to let go of the past.
The living room was elegantly arranged, yet warm and cozy. A house-elf was sitting there, flipping through a photo album.
Inside were pictures of a man growing up from childhood to adulthood — and if one looked closely, one could see that the man bore a faint resemblance to ...Eda...?
The owl that had flown in through the open window was now perched on the house-elf's head, pecking at its long ears again and again, as if scolding it for making it fly such a long distance.
The house-elf didn't seem to mind at all. It carefully untied the letter the owl had brought back. Inside the envelope, besides a written reply, there was also a neatly folded newspaper clipping.
The elf unfolded the clipping and began to read the article intently. When it finished, it gently ran a hand over the printed photograph, its tennis-ball-sized eyes brimming with joy and pride.
Clutching the letter and clipping in its hands, the house-elf turned and quietly entered another room.
In a soft voice, it said,
"Master, a letter has arrived from Britain — and there's also a newspaper clipping, about the young mistress."
_____
So the plot thickens, eh?😎
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