Edith's hunch that something was about to happen had proven correct.
Lately, the atmosphere at Hogwarts had been... off.
Twice now—twice—there had been attempted murders at Hogwarts, supposedly the safest place in the entire wizarding world.
The first victim was Katie Bell from Gryffindor.
She'd touched a cursed necklace in Hogsmeade and nearly died on the spot.
Touching it through her gloves saved her life, but she still ended up hospitalized at St. Mungo's for an extended stay—an incident that sent shockwaves through the entire school.
The second was Ronald Weasley, also from Gryffindor.
In Professor Slughorn's classroom, he drank some mead the professor offered him—only to discover it was poisoned.
Fortunately, Harry gave him a bezoar that happened to be nearby, which saved his life. Without it, Ron would've ended up in the hospital—or worse.
Naturally, suspicion fell on Slughorn after the incident, but he clearly hadn't known about the poison. What's more, the mead had originally been intended as a gift for Dumbledore.
Was Slughorn the target? Or was it Dumbledore?
No one knew who the culprit was.
But one thing was clear: in both cases, the killer had failed to reach their intended target.
After these incidents, Harry and Edith immediately suspected Malfoy.
He was definitely up to something this year—that much was certain.
He'd been skipping Quidditch matches, skulking around suspiciously.
And Harry had evidence.
His Marauder's Map showed Malfoy's name disappearing frequently, and Harry had witnessed him talking to Snape.
The conversation itself practically screamed that Malfoy was guilty.
From that exchange, Harry concluded that Snape was also working for Voldemort.
Malfoy and Snape seemed to be quarreling about something—Malfoy had said things like "You never made the Unbreakable Vow with Mother!" and Snape had replied with "That would restrict my actions. I explained this to Narcissa, didn't I?" All of it suggested they were on the same side—the Dark side.
"Malfoy's up to something. That much is certain."
"I agree. Lately Malfoy's been looking worse and worse... Something's definitely wrong."
"This is annoying. Let's just beat it out of him."
"Ron, be quiet! Harry, leave this to Edith. You need to focus on getting Slughorn's memory!"
The group gathered in the library, as usual: Harry and Edith, along with Ron and Hermione.
With Gryffindor and Slytherin students, places where they could talk freely were limited.
The library was one of those rare neutral zones.
"Yeah, I know. But he keeps avoiding being alone with me. So until I come up with a better plan, is it really so bad to keep an eye on Malfoy?"
"That's not the point, Harry. The whole idea of a 'better plan' is wrong. If you could extract it with magic or potions, Dumbledore would've done it ages ago. The fact that he's leaving it to you means he wants you to persuade him."
Harry flinched under Hermione's intensity and looked to Edith for support.
But Edith just shrugged helplessly.
Besides, Hermione was basically right.
This year, Harry had been attending special lessons with Dumbledore under the guise of exploring Voldemort's past. Slughorn's memory was the most crucial piece of that puzzle.
If they could unlock it, they'd finally discover the secret to Voldemort's immortality.
That made obtaining his memory the top priority—above everything else.
"I'll investigate Malfoy, so you should focus on Professor Slughorn, Harry."
Edith said it gently, ensuring Harry could concentrate on what he needed to do.
The truth was, as a Slytherin, Edith was in a better position to investigate Malfoy than Harry, a Gryffindor.
Harry reluctantly nodded, accepting her offer.
"Alright... fine. I'll leave Malfoy to you. I'll figure out how to convince Professor Slughorn."
Several days after taking on the Malfoy investigation, Edith found herself standing in front of a wall on the seventh floor.
This was the location of the Room of Requirement that Harry had told her about.
Edith herself had never used it, but according to Harry, if you concentrated on what you needed, the room would appear.
Harry's investigation had already confirmed that Malfoy was using this place.
So all she had to do was recreate the room he was using, and she'd uncover his purpose.
Edith thought carefully.
Simply thinking "the room Draco Malfoy is using" probably wouldn't work.
According to Hermione, you had to properly envision the type of room you needed.
In other words, Edith had to read Malfoy's intentions—figure out what kind of room he required.
So what kind of room would he need?
The key clues were what Harry had told her.
Malfoy had visited Borgin and Burkes and coerced the shopkeeper into something.
Also, the cursed necklace that nearly killed Katie Bell had come from that shop.
But that wasn't the real issue.
He was trying to do something here.
And if the two murder attempts were planned by Malfoy—as both Harry and Snape's words suggested—then he was trying to kill someone.
But who?
Katie Bell? No, there was no reason to kill her.
Ronald Weasley? Sure, they hated each other, but not enough for murder.
Then... Horace Slughorn, or perhaps Albus Dumbledore?
Those were the only remaining candidates. Unfortunately, Edith wasn't clever enough to deduce which one was the real target.
But that didn't matter. Either way, neither was someone Malfoy could kill through conventional means—that was what mattered most.
Malfoy couldn't kill either of them directly.
That's why he relied on tools. That would explain the cursed necklace and poisoned mead.
In other words... assassination.
But he must've learned by now that such crude methods wouldn't work. So what would he do next?
To ensure success, he'd need more powerful magical objects.
But he didn't have any—and if he did, they'd be detected by security.
Even if he hid them, the teachers would quickly find anything stashed anywhere obvious inside the castle.
He needed a place to hide things. Somewhere no one would ever find.
"Wait, that's too simple... If it were that obvious, Harry would've tried this already."
Laughing awkwardly to herself, Edith paced back and forth three times in front of the wall.
According to Harry's instructions, she needed to walk past this spot three times while thinking about the room she needed.
Even though she thought it was too straightforward, she figured she should at least try what came to mind.
Concentrating on "a place to hide things," Edith successfully made the room appear.
"Oh, it actually worked. Well, there's no way he'd be in such an obvious room..."
Muttering to herself, she turned the doorknob and opened the door.
Inside was a space as vast as a cathedral, with walls rising like a city skyline.
Centuries' worth of hidden objects and towering piles of books, accumulated by countless predecessors.
And Draco Malfoy, staring at her with a pale face.
"..."
"...Uh."
It was Draco Malfoy.
Unmistakably, genuinely, the real Draco Malfoy.
Not a lookalike, not Lucius Malfoy, not Dodge Landon.
"Uh, um... hello? How... how are you, Malfoy?"
"..."
His already pale face had gone completely white, eyes wide with shock.
Clearly, he really hadn't wanted anyone to find him here.
He quickly drew his wand and pointed it at Edith.
Simultaneously, Edith leapt out of the way, dodging the line of fire.
A curse flew past a split second later, hitting the wall and scorching it slightly.
"What are you doing?!"
"Shut up! Now that you've seen me, I have no choice!"
Malfoy fired spell after spell, but none of them worked against Edith, who'd been trained for a full year by Mary.
She silently conjured a Shield Charm, deflecting every attack.
Then Edith mentally cast a spell, firing lightning from her wand.
An unavoidable, unblockable strike—but only if it hit.
Still inexperienced, Edith's lightning spell missed its mark, striking a cabinet near Malfoy instead and setting it ablaze.
"Ah... AAAAHHHH!? Wh-what have you done?!"
Malfoy went even paler and, forgetting they were mid-duel, rushed toward the cabinet.
He frantically tried to extinguish it with water spells, but the flames refused to die down.
Watching his back, Edith thought:
Wait, isn't this a perfect opportunity?
"Gotcha!"
"!?"
She silently cast a Stunning Spell, freezing Malfoy in place.
Then she conjured ropes to bind him and confiscated his wand.
After that, she doused the cabinet with water. But it was too late.
The cabinet had completely lost its original form, transformed into an unrecognizable lump of charcoal.
"—"
Seeing the ruined state of the cabinet, Malfoy's eyes rolled back, his expression completely blank.
Apparently, this cabinet had been incredibly important to him.
Malfoy crumpled like a puppet with its strings cut and began sobbing pathetically.
This caught Edith completely off guard.
"It's... it's over... Everything..."
Seeing him so utterly defeated, Edith broke into a cold sweat.
Did I... did I just mess up big time?
✦
"Heh, heheh... You'll really pay me two thousand Galleons for this, miss?"
"Yes, don't worry. I keep my promises."
In Knockturn Alley, where only the shadiest characters gathered, there was a back alley even more deserted than the rest—and in it, a man and woman met in secret.
One was Mundungus Fletcher, a member of the Order of the Phoenix.
The other was a beautiful young woman who seemed completely out of place in such a location: Mirabelle Beresford.
Mundungus was so corrupt it was a mystery why he was even in the Order—he'd betray his comrades for gold, steal their belongings, and sell them for profit.
And now, once again, he'd stolen a locket from Sirius Black's estate and brought it here (though Sirius himself saw the Black family heirlooms as little more than junk and didn't care).
"Hmm, this sinister aura... This is undoubtedly the real thing."
Examining the golden locket embedded with a serpentine green gem, Mirabelle confirmed it was indeed a genuine Horcrux.
After acquiring the fake locket, Mirabelle had returned to Britain and captured a random Death Eater who'd been prowling around attacking children.
A werewolf Death Eater named Fenrir Greyback, if she recalled correctly.
The foolish werewolf had been lured in by her appearance, seeing her as easy prey—only to have his limbs severed, be tortured for information, and ultimately killed.
Using intel extracted from him, Mirabelle confirmed that R.A.B. was Regulus Black and immediately tried to break into the Black estate.
But his home—the headquarters of the Order—was protected by enchantments.
Mirabelle couldn't enter or even locate it.
But fortune smiled on her.
She discovered Mundungus Fletcher, the Order's greatest fool, made contact with him, and had him steal this locket.
"You've done well. Here's your two thousand Galleons."
"Hehehe... Thank you, thank you kindly."
Handing over the bag of gold coins, Mirabelle tossed the locket into the air.
The next instant, she unleashed Fiendfyre, obliterating the locket completely.
Confirming that the fragment of Voldemort's soul trapped in the Horcrux screamed its death throes before vanishing from this world, Mirabelle smiled cruelly.
"Wh-what are you doing?! You just destroyed the locket I gave you...!"
"Hmm? What I do with something I bought is my own business, isn't it?"
"W-well, yes, but... Don't expect me to give the money back! Once it's sold, this gold is mine!"
"Yes, don't worry—that gold is yours. Besides..."
Mirabelle turned toward Mundungus with a vicious smile.
"You'll need that much for the ferryman to the underworld, won't you?"
"Huh? Wh-what do you mean...?"
Mundungus Fletcher was the type of man who dragged his allies down—the kind of person Mirabelle despised most.
Truthfully, there was a way to use this man without killing him.
If she paid him enough, he'd gladly work in her favor.
But a man who betrays for gold will betray again for more gold. He was useless as a pawn.
Therefore... Mirabelle had no reason left to let him live.
"I have no more use for you."
A flash of green light burst through the deserted alley.
***
Quidditch Tryouts Scene
Harry: "I don't understand why this became such a popular sport all of a sudden."
Hermione: "Don't you get it, Harry? Quidditch isn't what's popular—you are."
Harry: "Huh?"
Hermione: "Honestly, you've never been more attractive. You spent an entire year being called a liar while standing by the truth. You still have the scars Umbridge left on your hand."
Romando: "I have scars from fighting the Predator and the T-1000."
Hermione: "A-and you grew a lot taller over the summer break."
Romando: "I'm 188 centimeters now."
Hermione: "..."
Harry: "...Maybe I'm not that impressive after all?"
Hermione: "Don't compare yourself to that!"
***
Poisoning Incident Scene
Slughorn: "Care for some mead?"
Romando: "I'll take some." Gulp, gulp.
Harry: "Then I'll have some too..."
Romando: "...Mm...! Wait, Harry. This is poisoned."
Harry: "What?"
Romando: "I'm starting to feel sick. Could you prepare an antidote?"
Harry: "Uh? Um... Is a bezoar okay?" (Wait, didn't he just chug the whole thing...?)
Romando: "That would help."
***
┌(┌^o^)┐ Good evening, everyone.
This time, Edith accepted Harry's request, entered the Room of Requirement, and encountered Malfoy.
She defeated him and even destroyed the cabinet.
For those who haven't read the original: Malfoy was trying to kill Dumbledore, and this cabinet is a magical item with teleportation properties.
Malfoy was supposed to repair this cabinet to let Death Eaters in from outside—but Edith has now destroyed it beyond repair.
Malfoy's entire plan is ruined.
What's going to happen to the canon plot now...?
Meanwhile, outside the main story, our (ostensibly) protagonist Mirabelle continues her genocide of original characters regardless of allegiance.
This time, Fenrir and Mundungus were obliterated without putting up a fight.
This completely shatters Mad-Eye's death flag.
Bill Weasley's facial scarring flag has also been eliminated. Is this good or bad...?
Also, Mirabelle previously killed Bellatrix (who was supposed to kill Tonks and Fred) and Antonin (who was supposed to kill Lupin), so those death flags are broken too.
Granting survival flags to canon ally characters... This is the work of a true protagonist.
***
Current Horcrux Status:
Tom Riddle's Diary = Destroyed by Mirabelle
Gaunt's Ring = Destroyed by Dumbledore
Ravenclaw's Diadem = Destroyed by Mirabelle
Slytherin's Locket = Destroyed by Mirabelle. It couldn't escape.
Hufflepuff's Cup = Mirabelle has begun searching. Run, Cup, run!
Nagini = Still alive
Harry Potter = Still alive