Hogwarts Emerald

A bubble is made up of many tiny bubbles clustered together, and under the sunlight it reflects beautiful colors.

Yet no matter how beautiful, it is fragile and illusory — even without any external force, it will quickly burst, leaving nothing behind.

These fantasies are like bubbles in water, shadows in a mirror, or dewdrops at dawn. If you become addicted to them — addicted to illusions — they will eventually wear away your fighting spirit, soften your resolve, and stop you from moving forward.

The sweetness of the hot cocoa had long since been diluted by the extra water, but the bond between Eda and Grindelwald deepened through these idle conversations. This was Grindelwald's true charm: he always had a way of making people want to listen to him, of making them take his ideas as gospel.

This was something Eda did not possess — and one of the reasons she lacked influence at school. It was precisely this lack of charisma that kept her from becoming a true leader.

Eda needed to gain this charm, to cultivate this leader's presence. Only then could she truly surpass Dumbledore and Grindelwald; otherwise, she would remain only a brave general charging at the front lines — or a lone wolf.

At Nurmengard, Eda did not learn any impressive spells, nor did she receive any private lessons from the first Dark Lord — but what she did gain was something far more important.

In these days spent with Grindelwald, Eda learned from him that talent alone was not everything; that it needed to be matched with determination and confidence. From him she learned what it meant to be a leader — and where her own shortcomings lay.

From him she gathered countless lessons from failure — for compared to a real person, the power of words on paper would always fall short.

No magic could compare to the teachings and example of the first Dark Lord — and that was Eda's greatest gain.

If Voldemort had properly studied Grindelwald back then, perhaps the impact he caused would have been even greater — and maybe he wouldn't have become so extreme before reaching his goals.

As for inheriting Grindelwald's mantle, raising the banner of "For the Greater Good" once more, rallying people to fight for the right to "breathe under the sunlight" and for a "relatively fair" world — Eda would never do that. There was no point in walking Grindelwald's old path all over again.

If they hadn't succeeded back in 1945, it would be even harder now. And given her own origins, even if Eda did try to replicate Grindelwald's methods, it would only make things even more difficult.

Two generations of Dark Lords, for their own different ideals, had tried to change the world. They used violence and war to achieve their goals — and what they got in return was the same violence and war.

Without exception, they both failed.

Even if she stepped onto a road paved with the bones of her predecessors, the chance of success would still be slim. At least for now, Eda had no better way — instead of pondering how to 'slay the dragon', strengthening her own power was what she needed to focus on most. Otherwise, no matter how perfect the plan to slay the dragon was, it would be useless.

A leader who could be easily defeated was meaningless — and would never win the recognition of others.

Perhaps this was why Dumbledore brought Eda to Nurmengard: to let Grindelwald become the beacon of her life, guiding her through the fog-covered ocean toward the right direction.

Besides all this, the merciful Grindelwald also answered a question that had troubled Eda for a long time — whether every Dark wizard would inevitably fall into corruption. Would they always be dragged into the mire by Dark Magic, becoming violent, extreme, looking like a lunatic?

When Eda asked this question, she immediately regretted it — because she saw Grindelwald looking at her as if she were an idiot.

Maybe it was because the sun was so nice that day, or maybe the sausage reminded him of home, but Grindelwald only asked her calmly in return: "Do I look like I'm mentally unstable?"

Indeed, he didn't.

Grindelwald did not match the descriptions of a Dark wizard in the books at all. He was one of the two people in the world most proficient in Dark Magic, yet Dark Magic hadn't caused him much harm — at least, that's how Eda saw it.

In Grindelwald's explanation, Eda learned that Dark Magic's impact on its user could be divided into active and passive effects.

When casting Dark Magic, in addition to magic power as fuel, one also needed to draw on intense negative emotions — only then would Dark Magic take effect.

Continuously being influenced by these negative emotions over time, the user would gradually be corroded by the inherent evil of Dark Magic itself — this was its passive effect.

For example, Death Eaters and most Dark wizards — they enjoyed the thrill of killing or torturing others. Not strong enough to resist Dark Magic's influence, they naturally became extreme, became insane.

Then there was the other type: those who actively sought it out — users who willingly accepted Dark Magic's impact on themselves, using dangerous forms of Dark Transfiguration to gain greater power.

This irreversible form of transformation would make one increasingly dangerous.

And those who actively pursued such effects were usually very powerful wizards. Take Voldemort, for instance — he gained more power through this method, but lost much in return.

And because of his formidable personal strength, he did not die in the midst of those dangerous transformations.

The counterexample was Eda's former Dark Arts Defense professor, Glover Cecil. He hadn't been strong enough to support his own transformation — if Dumbledore hadn't saved him, he would have died in the summer of 1990 and never had the chance to meet Eda.

As long as one didn't seek active transformation like Voldemort, then a Dark Magic user only needed to resist the passive influence. To resist that influence required not only one's own strength as a foundation, but also a strong mind as support — or some other "external force" to help fight it off, such as love, or the person you love.

The magical world was, in this sense, deeply idealistic. In this world, love was the most powerful emotion — it could create ancient magic capable of blocking the Killing Curse, and it could also serve as inner strength to resist the intrusion of Dark Magic on the mind.

Grindelwald never openly judged Voldemort's active transformations, but judging from his usual demeanor, he clearly held a certain disdain for his counterpart. Grindelwald acknowledged Voldemort's personal power but had plenty of criticism for his methods.

It was no wonder — Grindelwald's followers might kill people, but they'd still prepare a fine coffin for the deceased. Naturally, he looked down on his British counterpart who committed murder and arson and then carelessly set off fireworks afterward.

As for wizards who couldn't resist the passive effects of Dark Magic, Grindelwald had no mercy — he simply called them fools. Eda, who had once been so timid around Dark Magic, naturally fell into that category too.

Nurmengard was now wrapped in an intense atmosphere of study — and so was Hogwarts, as exams drew closer and closer.

Besides the pressure of final exams, Gryffindor House was also being affected by something else.

The in-fighting had started because Harry and his friends had lost one hundred and fifty points, costing Gryffindor their chance at competing for the House Cup. So now, instead of being seen as a hero, Harry was "that person" to the rest of Gryffindor.

The ones directly involved in the infighting incident were dealing with the consequences: one group was enduring a month-long detention as punishment; the other person hadn't shown her face at school since that day.

Although there was no official announcement, every student in the school naturally assumed that Eda had already been expelled.

This left Fred and George, who were worried about Eda, feeling extremely anxious.

These days, aside from pestering Professor McGonagall, Fred and George had sent quite a few letters to the Burrow, but Mr. and Mrs. Weasley just told the twins to calm down and not to worry.

But Eda, stuck in Nurmengard, had no way of contacting the twins, and the twins couldn't get any information out of Professor McGonagall — how could they not be worried?

As for Harry Potter, his punishment was settled as well — not only did he lose points, he also had to go with Hagrid at night into the Forbidden Forest to investigate clues, because someone had been killing the sacred unicorns in the forest.

Whether Harry was lucky or unlucky was anyone's guess — while investigating in the Forbidden Forest, he happened to run right into Quirrell, who was drinking unicorn blood. So Harry, without hesitation, pinned the blame on Snape and mistook the evil figure in the Forbidden Forest for the Potions Master.

Far away in Austria, Eda still didn't know what had happened at Hogwarts.

She was counting on her fingers the days she'd spent here. Although she was getting along well with Grindelwald, her homesickness was growing stronger and stronger — she missed everything about Hogwarts, especially her friends.

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