Seeing the guilt dim the light in Harri's eyes, Vera let out a silent sigh and lightly patted the back of her hand, steering the conversation elsewhere.
"By the way, where did Nox go?"
Hermione was immediately distracted. "You're right—we haven't seen her since the feast started."
Harri quickly looked around. "Ah, there she is!"
She pointed toward a cat tower tucked into the corner of the room, thoughtfully prepared by the house-elves.
Nox was curled elegantly atop the highest cushion, amber eyes half-lidded, the tip of her tail swaying lazily.
"She really knows how to enjoy herself," Harri said with a laugh, walking over to stroke Nox's head.
The cat rubbed languidly against her fingers and let out a deeply satisfied purr.
Watching the scene, Vera found the corners of her mouth lifting of their own accord.
She wheeled herself over to the window. Through the glass she could see the pitch-black night sky outside, and the dark outline of the Forbidden Forest in the distance.
"Vera," Harri's voice came softly from behind her, tinged with hesitation. "Do you… really not mind ending up in Gryffindor?"
Vera turned and saw Harri standing there with Nox in her arms, green eyes shimmering with concern in the lamplight.
"You said the Blacks have been in Slytherin for generations… it sounds like that should matter a lot to your family."
Vera looked steadily into those eyes full of worry and gently wheeled closer.
"The Sorting Hat gave me the right to choose," she said softly. "And I chose this place."
Harri blinked. "So… you chose Gryffindor yourself?"
"Yes." Vera nodded, her gaze drifting to the lightning-shaped scar on Harri's forehead. "I wanted to try a different road."
At once, Harri broke into a radiant smile and rushed forward to throw her arms tightly around Vera.
"That's wonderful! I'm really so happy you're here with us!"
The sudden hug caught Vera completely off guard. Her hands hovered awkwardly in midair, with nowhere to go.
Hermione coughed lightly from the side. "Harri, Vera may not be used to that…"
Only then did Harri seem to realize what she had done. She let go in a hurry, cheeks going scarlet.
"Sorry! I got too excited!"
Vera smoothed the folds of her robe with quiet care. Her fingers brushed the wand concealed at her sleeve, and the cold touch steadied her a little.
"It's already very late," she said calmly. "We have classes tomorrow. We should sleep."
From atop the pillow, Nox raised her head and let out a lazy meow, as if mocking her mistress's fluster.
Hermione nodded at once. "Exactly. We need to keep our energy up."
The three girls changed into their nightclothes one by one. When the lights were extinguished, the dormitory sank into darkness, lit only by moonlight spilling in through the window.
Harri tossed and turned in bed for a while before finally whispering, "Vera, are you asleep?"
"No," Vera's calm voice answered from the darkness.
"I'm too excited to sleep," Harri admitted, unable to hide the delight in her voice. "So much happened today… I made friends, I ate all that amazing food, and we all ended up in the same house!"
Hermione's voice floated over from the other bed. "Me too. My head is still full of everything we saw today… the floating candles, the moving staircases, and that talking hat!"
Listening to the two girls buzz with excitement, Vera decided that if she didn't intervene soon, they were absolutely going to oversleep in the morning.
"Time to sleep," she said, cutting cleanly through their growing chatter. "And if you really can't fall asleep, try thinking about a few potion facts. That should work quickly enough."
"Potion facts?" Harri asked in confusion.
"For example," Vera said, "powdered root of asphodel and wormwood make a very powerful sleeping potion; a bezoar is a stone taken from a cow's stomach; and monkshood and wolfsbane are actually the same plant…"
Her voice was soft and even, almost like a lullaby.
Before long, both Harri's and Hermione's breathing grew slow and steady.
A smile touched Vera's lips. Giving answers in advance might count as cheating, but she truly wanted to see what kind of reaction Snape would have when faced with a girl who had Lily's eyes—and Lily's gift for potions.
Moonlight lay softly across the three girls.
And so Hogwarts' first night passed quietly…
Or did it?
Listening to their breathing, Vera slowly sat up, glanced at the two girls sleeping peacefully beside her, then closed her eyes and felt the flow of the Magic Circuit inside her body.
Golden lines glimmered faintly beneath her skin. The crystal at her heart trembled softly, returning the surrounding magical fluctuations to her with crystal clarity.
She had sensed it ever since coming close to Hogwarts.
The ancient magic flowing through the castle itself seemed to be calling out to her.
As far as she knew, Hogwarts had been built upon a foundation of Ancient Magic.
Which meant the castle itself was one enormous artifact of Ancient Magic.
Vera opened her eyes. A pale golden light moved through her pupils.
Silently, she wheeled herself to the window. Outside, the trees of the Forbidden Forest swayed under the moonlight, the surface of the Black Lake gleamed silver in the distance, and the moon poured over her silver-gray hair like water.
Vera could clearly feel a powerful tide of magic pulsing from deep within the castle, resonating subtly with the Magic Circuit inside her.
As the Circuit flowed through her body, she could vaguely sense the pulse of ancient power in Hogwarts itself—the runes sleeping inside the stone walls, the spectral energy drifting along the corridors, even the power source surging far below the earth…
Every part of it set her nerves alight with excitement.
Vera placed a hand lightly against the window frame. Her fingertips touched the old stone, and a faint magical tremor passed into her through it.
She closed her eyes and tried to use the Magic Circuit to perceive those ripples—
In an instant, her vision was swallowed by golden light.
Countless ancient runes shimmered across every stone of the castle. They flowed like living things, weaving themselves into a vast magical network that covered the whole of Hogwarts.
The runes were not spread evenly. In some places they clustered thick as stars; in others they were sparse and dim.
The strongest magical pulses came from eight different directions.
She concentrated carefully.
Four of them should be the common rooms of the four houses. One was the Headmaster's office. One was the Chamber of Secrets deep below, where the basilisk lay hidden. One was the room on the right side of the fourth floor that housed the Philosopher's Stone.
And then there was…
Vera frowned.
Far beneath Hogwarts, deep underground, she could feel yet another exceptionally powerful source of magic radiating a silent, ominous presence.
Another hidden chamber below ground?
Just as she was about to probe deeper, a sharp stab of pain suddenly lanced through her temples.
Vera let out a muffled groan and was forced to break off the connection, breathing hard until the pain subsided.
It seemed that, at her current Magic Circuit level, she still couldn't maintain such large-scale magical perception for very long.
....
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