The heat wave of summer had finally reached Versailles. The high temperatures were unbearable for those who disliked the heat, leaving them no choice but to hide indoors or soak themselves in bathtubs.
The brick-red buildings of Rosier Manor were shrouded in a drowsy silence.
Even the usually lively and active little animals had stopped running around and were all sprawled beneath the shade of the trees and among the flowerbeds, looking utterly lethargic.
Eda hid in the cool side room, opening the windows as wide as possible in the hope that even a trace of the nonexistent cool breeze might blow in.
Heat always made people irritable and lazy. But this summer, Eda had no time to be lazy. She had plenty of things to do.
In front of her lay a thick, oversized ancient book, its yellowed pages bearing the marks of age. This made Eda handle every page with extreme care whenever she turned it, afraid that she might accidentally damage the brittle paper.
The Rosier family had an extremely rich collection of books, and this ancient book was one of them. It contained records of many ancient forms of Dark magic.
However, because it was so old, having no idea how many centuries it had been in the collection, the writing in the book was obscure and extremely difficult to understand. There were even some sentences that Eda could not read smoothly.
In order to read it fluently and avoid becoming someone who could only recognize the words but not understand them, Eda had to prepare an additional ancient dictionary so she could consult it whenever necessary.
Eda hoped to find more records concerning Horcruxes among these books. If she wanted to destroy a Horcrux, she first had to understand it. Her knowledge of Tom Riddle's diary alone was far from enough.
Ever since the holiday began, Eda had been conducting research and investigations into Horcruxes and Dark magical transformations.
She hid in her room, holding one or several massive ancient books, never leaving the house, looking just like the sheltered young lady of some prestigious family.
Every time Laura came to call Eda for a meal, she would address her as a "bookworm."
With a heavy sigh, Eda forcefully closed the book in her hands. The pages gave a brittle crack as if they could no longer bear the strain. The sound seemed to make her feel a little better, allowing her to vent some of the resentment that had been building up inside her for so long.
Yet another fruitless attempt. Eda still had not found what she was looking for. She had, however, memorized quite a lot of miscellaneous Dark magic. For nearly a month, Eda had been almost completely wasting her efforts.
Amid the mountains of books and oceans of words, she had found only a few scattered references to Horcruxes, and even those were things Dumbledore had already told her. How could that possibly not make her angry?
At that moment, an owl flew through the open window into the cool suite and landed beside Eda.
Eda waved her hand in annoyance, wanting to disperse the hot air stirred up by the owl's flapping wings, but it had the opposite effect. Her waving palm only brought over more hot air.
The owl stared at Eda with its perfectly round eyes, its beak clicking repeatedly, as if saying, "Do you have any manners?"
To make up for it, Eda cupped her hand and scooped up a little water, intending to give the owl something to drink. There was also a basin of ice beside Eda's feet, which could both cool the room and be used to chill fruits, juice, and the like.
Unfortunately, the owl did not accept Eda's apology. It turned its head at an exaggerated angle and ignored Eda completely.
Eda got nowhere with her attempt and simply gave up on apologizing. She directly took the newspaper and letters the owl had brought. As soon as she removed the items, the haughty owl immediately flapped its wings and flew away.
Putting the letters aside, Eda first picked up the English newspaper and scanned through each section.
The Daily Prophet was still the same as ever. It did not mention Little Hangleton or Voldemort in the slightest, continuing to put on the appearance that everything was peaceful and the world was completely safe.
Moreover, Fudge must have put enormous pressure on the newspaper's staff. Ever since the beginning of the summer holiday, they had been doing their utmost to smear Dumbledore. Their choice of words was even harsher than Rita Skeeter's.
Almost every report concerning Dumbledore contained not a single positive comment. They portrayed Dumbledore as a senile old man who had become confused with age.
In some personal columns, those columnists went even further in their attempts to attract attention, describing Dumbledore as a scheming rebel who was unwilling to relinquish his position and obsessed with power.
They believed that everything Dumbledore had said this summer was intended to create extreme panic so that he could seize supreme power in the wizarding world.
In the miscellaneous corners of the newspaper, Eda's and Harry's names would occasionally appear as well. One was described as Dumbledore's accomplice, while the other was portrayed as a puppet Dumbledore intended to promote.
Harry was described as an extremely self-centered patient suffering from severe delusions, irritable, short-tempered, nervous, and highly aggressive. The former "Boy Who Lived" had, over the course of this summer, become a rat everyone wanted to beat.
Eda was even worse. All kinds of dirt had been dug up about her. Things like being the closed-door disciple of the Dark wizard Glover Cecil, or killing three people in a fit of rage... All of them were half-true smears.
In every article that mentioned Eda, she was portrayed as an extremely dangerous person, the kind of mad woman who would hack down anyone she came across. The fact that a lunatic like Eda had not been expelled from Hogwarts and had even become Head Girl had also become one of the weapons used to attack Dumbledore.
Eda admitted that her temper was indeed a tiny bit bad, but she was not exactly antisocial like the newspapers claimed, was she? If she were really that irritable, she would have burned down the Ministry of Magic and the headquarters of the Daily Prophet long ago.
After flipping through the newspaper some more, Eda came across an article about the International Confederation of Wizards. Dumbledore had lost his position as its president.
According to the newspaper, Dumbledore was old and no longer capable of handling the position. In reality, however, it was because he had just delivered a speech about "Voldemort has returned."
Dumbledore was no longer the Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot, and they were even discussing revoking his First Class Order of Merlin.
Ridiculous!
Eda was practically laughing her teeth out. S
he had seen stupid people before, but never anyone this stupid! Fudge's brain must have been kicked by a donkey when he was young, and recently it just happened to get caught in a door!
She casually threw the newspaper full of lies onto the floor, conveniently revealing Fudge on the front page. The Minister was standing in front of the "Magic Is Might" monument, using his utterly idiotic smile to reassure the public.
Eda leaned back in her chair and stared blankly at the ceiling. She did not care about these rumors and criticisms. She had been prepared for them, and Dumbledore had already given her some warning.
What truly concerned Eda was Voldemort, Voldemort who was biding his time.
Unlike the Ministry of Magic's clownish behavior, there had been no news of Voldemort at all during this past month. The second Dark Lord seemed to have vanished into thin air.
No wanton destruction, no assassinations or poisoning, no terrorist attacks. These were all methods Voldemort excelled at, yet he had done nothing, as if he had truly been reborn that night.
Putting down the butcher's knife and immediately becoming enlightened? How could such a thing possibly happen to Voldemort? No matter which part of his body you used to think about it, it was simply impossible.
The enemy was hidden while she was out in the open. That was the most dangerous situation. You could never know from where or by what method your enemy would attack you.
Eda also did not know whether Voldemort, hiding in the shadows, read newspapers. If he did read the Daily Prophet, his back teeth were probably about to laugh off too, and he was probably secretly enjoying himself immensely.
When everyone adds firewood, the flames rise high. A month of smearing and slander had caused Dumbledore's and Harry's standing in the public's eyes to plummet, leaving them without the support of most people.
This situation could not have been better for Voldemort. Fudge and the Ministry of Magic really were his excellent teammates! Perhaps Voldemort and the Death Eaters were even secretly helping to fuel these attacks against Dumbledore and Harry.
After spacing out for a while, Eda's irritated mood eased somewhat. She picked up the letter. It was a letter from the twins.
Fred and George had originally planned to come to France during the holiday, but some personal matters had kept the brothers from making the trip.
They had to take their Apparition tests, and they also needed to prepare more products to deal with their ever-increasing orders.
There was nothing they could do. Fred and George had no choice but to put their plans for a trip to France on hold.
The letter was very short, containing only a few lines of words. The brothers briefly mentioned two amusing things from their daily lives, a pitch-black house and a portrait that never repeated the same insult twice.
At the end of the letter, there was one line written in very large letters. To emphasize its importance, the twins had even made the line bold.
"Dumbledore hopes you will return to London as soon as possible."
...
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