The temperature rose higher day by day, and before anyone noticed, summer had quietly arrived.
Under Professor Sprout's careful care, the mandrakes had finally matured. With no more danger from the Chamber of Secrets or the basilisk, Eda was pulled in by Snape to help prepare the Mandrake Restorative Draught.
One evening, the potion was completed. Colin Creevey and Justin Finch-Fletchley, who had been petrified, were revived after using it and returned to their fellow students. Even Filch, the caretaker, could once again dance around with his cat in his arms.
Hogwarts had completely returned to normal.
Tom Riddle and his basilisk's efforts had all been in vain — not only had he failed to resurrect himself, but he also hadn't succeeded in purging those he deemed "unworthy" to study magic. The basilisk had lost its life, and the diary had been burned through by venom — a total loss on all fronts.
Amid the bright sunlight, many things at the school began to change. First, the remaining Defense Against the Dark Arts classes were canceled. Although Snape expressed great enthusiasm to take over the lessons, Dumbledore did not grant him that small request.
Then came a rather dreadful period for the Gryffindor students — Snape redirected all his dissatisfaction toward Dumbledore onto the little lions instead. During Potions lessons, Gryffindor's house points dropped at a terrifying rate.
Even so, Gryffindor still couldn't be stopped from retaining the House Cup. The two hundred points added by Eda and Harry had been absolutely decisive.
The judgment on Gilderoy Lockhart was also announced. The Ministry of Magic publicly revealed all his crimes, and part of his illegal earnings was redistributed to the people he had harmed.
As for Lockhart himself, he was sentenced to serve time in Azkaban.
Many people couldn't last even three months in Azkaban — even Hagrid shivered at the thought of that place. Lockhart's sentence basically meant there was little chance he would leave there alive.
Lucius Malfoy was also punished. He was expelled from the school board — those who dared to provoke power had to be ready to suffer the consequences. Moreover, Mr. Malfoy's methods had been far from honorable; he had used threats against other board members to force Dumbledore out of the school.
Now that peace had returned, all of Mr. Malfoy's underhanded actions were exposed to the public. The board of governors no longer wanted to work with him — after all, no one liked a colleague who cursed others behind their backs. Mr. Malfoy left in disgrace, gaining no benefit whatsoever and leaving behind only a trail of trouble.
The happy news was that Ginny had finally regained her cheerful and lively personality.
The little girl no longer looked constantly worried or tearful. She had made many friends and would sometimes take Garlon for walks around the campus.
Everything was moving in a good direction, and everyone was happy — except Percy.
The straightforward Ginny had stabbed her brother in the back by revealing that Percy was dating Penelope Clearwater. That, it turned out, was why Percy had locked himself in his room all last summer and refused to lend Ron his owl.
The twins swore they wouldn't make fun of Percy, but secretly they ordered a wig and borrowed a set of Ravenclaw robes.
From time to time, the brothers would put on the robes and wig, show up in front of Percy, and speak to him in syrupy, feminine voices — even pretending to act coy. The onlookers were so disgusted they nearly gagged, and the Gryffindor students seemed to be losing weight by the day just from secondhand embarrassment.
Still, Fred and George knew where the line was. They never played pranks on Penelope, nor did they ever interfere with Percy's dates with her — they at least had that much sense of boundaries.
Unlike her housemates, who were all slimming down from the constant chaos, Eda — perhaps because of her easygoing nature — hadn't lost any weight at all. In fact, she had gained quite a bit. Her weight had climbed to 108 pounds (about 49 kilograms), and her chest was getting fat while her height had barely increased, just a tiny bit more than last year.
As her mischievous friends, Fred and George naturally had nothing nice to say. They claimed Eda had gained weight because she was lazy and gluttonous, always lounging around doing nothing. Of course, Eda would never admit that her weight gain was due to laziness — that she had grown heavier but not taller.
Still, she couldn't help feeling a little pessimistic. She thought her height had probably reached its limit, with little room for improvement.
In truth, Eda's height was already perfectly normal for a girl her age — she was just being a bit greedy. But with everyone around her shooting up like beanstalks, she couldn't help feeling a sense of crisis.
Maybe the twins were right — maybe she really should exercise more.
No sooner thought than done. Eda immediately decided to increase her physical activity. However, instead of running laps around the castle or lifting weights, she made her way — for the first time in a long while — to the secret passage behind the mirror on the 4th floor.
(So now I've really forgotten on which floor this passage was, but I think it was originally on the 4th).
Because of the Chamber of Secrets incident and the basilisk, she had rarely come here this school year, and her sparring practice with the training dummy had greatly decreased. But from then on, except when she had early morning duties, Eda spent nearly every night there, engaging in live-combat practice with the trial dummy.
The dummy on the "hard" setting possessed a strength comparable to Professor McGonagall or Professor Snape. It might not wield the same personal, specialized spells as they did, but it was still formidable.
Though humanoid in shape, the dummy wasn't human. It had no emotions, no mentality. It couldn't be rattled, careless, or thrown off by impatience — in fact, it was even more troublesome than a real human opponent.
Still, all of Eda's training and growth over the past year hadn't been in vain. She had improved tremendously, able to hold her own against the dummy most of the time — and occasionally even win a few bouts.
However, even when she defeated the trial dummy, Eda could never earn a three-star rating from the system. Without reaching that rating, she couldn't claim the completion reward — nor unlock the next difficulty level.
The next difficulty level was said to be equivalent to facing Dumbledore himself — just thinking about it was enough to make Eda's head ache.
By the time June arrived, Eda still hadn't managed to earn a three-star rating, but she had no choice except to stop her combat training.
The old secret passage, weakened from years of neglect, could no longer withstand her constant assaults. It finally gave out with a thunderous collapse, rendering it completely unusable.
If Eda hadn't reacted quickly and escaped before the tunnel caved in completely, she would've been buried underground for good.
June — the month without final exams — came bathed in warm, brilliant sunlight.
Students could be seen everywhere across the campus, laughing and playing.
Filch had gone back to being his usual annoying self, skulking around and looking for trouble to cause. Mrs. Norris, now de-petrified, had also resumed her role as his feline accomplice, helping him make everyone's lives miserable.
In the blink of an eye, the 1992–1993 school year had come to an end, and Eda completed her year-end summary.
This year had been another fruitful one — several of her most frequently used spells had been upgraded.
Setting aside differences in raw strength, Eda was probably the last person anyone would ever want to duel. Her magic was unpredictable and varied, her spell effects unlike anything anyone had ever seen before. Anyone unlucky enough to face her would either end up defeated — or at the very least, badly battered.
All the system's tasks for the year had been completed as well. With the help of her gold-framed glasses, Eda had managed to locate the hidden diary. She had never realized that the glasses she'd long overlooked actually had a tracking function.
It was like wearing a Niffler on her nose — except one far better than an ordinary Niffler that only chased after shiny things.
The system's rewards were quite generous — Eda gained a new skill called [Pierce the Heart]. When making direct eye contact with someone, she could see into the deepest desires hidden within their heart.
However, the conditions for using this ability were strict. Not only did Eda have to have some sort of relationship with the person — whether as a friend or an enemy — but the skill also had a limited number of uses per week (though this limit could be increased).
And most importantly, Eda had to rely on her own judgment. What if the "desires" she saw weren't actually the person's true desires, but a cleverly crafted illusion — another layer of deception entirely?
The year-end feast was still going on, and Eda's end-of-year summary had been quite pleasant — until she noticed her newly unlocked talent.
The moment she saw it, her expression instantly soured.
She wanted to demand an explanation from the system: what on earth was [Lies Become Truth] supposed to mean?
One mission reward was [Try Lying to Me], and now her new talent was [Lies Become Truth] — was the system trying to tell her that this entire year was destined to revolve around lies?
One skill helped her detect others' lies and avoid being deceived, while the other helped her tell lies more effectively, turning her into a master deceiver herself. And all of it — all of it — was that damn Lockhart's fault!
Maybe she should just give up being a wizard and start a new career — busting frauds, or better yet, following in Lockhart's footsteps and becoming a con artist herself.
After all, it's not like just being a lovely witch made anyone rich!
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