Hermione was at a loss for words after hearing Harry. She didn't know how to refute his claims. But deep down, she didn't believe what Harry and Ron were saying. The idea that Victor had a connection to Voldemort was preposterous to her, and she immediately dismissed it.
To prove Victor was innocent, Hermione thought for a moment and asked, "Harry, do you remember what the diadem looked like?"
"I can't remember the exact details, but I remember it was very shiny and had a very large jewel in it, with many small jewels around it," Harry said, recalling the image. "Oh, that's right! I also remember there was a line of words engraved on it, but I was sent back to the Great Hall by Dreyar after I only saw two of the words!"
"Which two words?" Hermione asked.
"Wisdom and treasure…" Harry replied.
"Wisdom and treasure… diadem…" Hermione wrote the words down in her notebook. For some reason, the combination of words looked very familiar, but she couldn't place where she had seen them before.
After a while, Hermione couldn't find any more useful information in her mind, so she slammed her notebook shut, looked up at Harry and Ron, and said, "I'm going to go ask Victor directly!"
With that, she stood up and walked toward the common room door. Harry and Ron looked at each other, shrugging their shoulders and scratching their heads in resignation. They felt they had said all they could. If Hermione insisted on believing Victor Dreyar, there was nothing they could do.
Leaving the Gryffindor common room, Hermione headed toward the staircase. It was dinner time, and she was fairly certain Victor would be at the Great Hall, wolfing down his food. However, Hermione was mistaken this time. She had only walked a few steps when she saw a familiar figure standing in the corridor, admiring the view outside.
"Victor?!" Hermione called out, a little unsure.
Victor, who was enjoying the sunset, heard someone call his name and turned around. When he saw it was the little witch he often teased, he grinned. "Oh, Hermione!"
"It really is you! What are you doing here?" Hermione said, trotting toward him.
"I just came out of Professor Dumbledore's office. I was about to go to dinner, but I saw this beautiful sunset, so I stopped to enjoy it!" Victor said with a smile. "What about you? Where are you off to?"
"I was just…" Hermione was about to say she was looking for him, but for some reason, the words got stuck in her throat. "I… I was going to the Great Hall for dinner, too," Hermione stammered, coming up with the most plausible excuse.
Victor looked at Hermione's hesitant expression, and his heart was filled with a little bit of confusion. It was obvious she had something to say to him, but for some reason, she was reluctant to speak.
With a flash of blue light in his eyes, Victor instantly understood everything. These two kids were smart, but they were also arrogant! They were so convinced by their own theories that they had created what they believed to be the truth about something without any evidence.
It was a flaw in human nature; people automatically resist things that go against their beliefs, regardless of the actual truth.
However, Victor wasn't going to take their suspicions personally. A wizard from Fairy Tail always put his beliefs into practice, rather than getting caught up in a war of words. To know and to act as one; that was how to unleash the full power of magic.
Victor didn't plan to expose Hermione's lie, but seeing her awkwardness, he couldn't help but remember a long time ago, when Lisanna was also like this, approaching him like a stray cat, timidly asking for advice on practicing magic in a voice so quiet he could barely hear her.
Recalling the past, Victor decided he wasn't in such a hurry to find the person who knew all of Hogwarts's history. He still had plenty of time. He reached out and stroked Hermione's hair, then said, "Come with me!" Before Hermione could react, Victor had already apparated with her to the sky above Hogwarts Castle.
Hermione felt her vision blur, and the sudden feeling of weightlessness made her heart fill with terror as she saw there was nothing beneath her feet. She immediately grabbed onto Victor and let out a piercing scream.
"Ahhhh!"
"Crikey!" Victor quickly covered one ear with one hand and covered Hermione's mouth with the other. "Stop! Stop screaming!"
With her mouth covered, Hermione immediately stopped screaming, but she was visibly terrified. Her face was full of hurt, and there were even tears in her eyes.
Seeing her pitiful expression, Victor felt like he had gone too far. He let out a nervous laugh and awkwardly pulled a chocolate bar from his pocket, broke off a piece, and put it in Hermione's mouth. "Haha… I made this chocolate myself. Try it, it's really good!" Victor laughed awkwardly.
Hermione was furious and upset, but the rich sweetness and smooth texture of the chocolate instantly made her bad mood disappear.
Seeing that the little witch had calmed down, Victor slowly landed on the top of the castle tower. This was the highest point of Hogwarts Castle; below them was the Astronomy Tower classroom, where Professor Sinistra taught students to observe the movements of stars and planets through telescopes.
Finally calm, Hermione looked at Victor with resentment, then grabbed his hand and bit down on it.
"Ow!" Victor yelled out in surprise, the sharp pain in his arm catching him off guard. He quickly used his other hand to hold Hermione's head, asking, "Hermione, are you a dog?!"
Hermione shook Victor's arm away, wiped her mouth, and said triumphantly, "That's what you get for teasing me!"
"Heh…" Victor's face twitched, but he was a little helpless. He thought about it for a moment. Never mind! I'm not going to argue with this little girl!
Hermione looked around, realizing she was standing on the highest point of Hogwarts, bathed in golden sunlight. She asked curiously, "Where are we, and why did you bring me here?"
"The top of the Astronomy Tower. It's a rare and beautiful view, so I thought we'd have dinner here!" With that, Victor produced two chicken leg sandwiches and two slices of black forest chocolate cake, giving half of each to Hermione.
But Hermione didn't dare to take them. She was now starting to come back to her senses, and her physiological fear of heights made her cling to the tip of the tower to stop her body from trembling.
Seeing her like this, Victor rolled his eyes. He stomped his foot, and an earthen magic circle flashed and disappeared. A stone platform immediately extended out from under their feet.
"What kind of magic is that?!" Hermione asked, astonished.
"Just eat, you talk too much!" Victor handed Hermione the sandwich and cake, then complained, "I'm starting to regret bringing you up here. I thought it would be nice to have someone to chat with while I ate, so it wouldn't be so boring. But all you've done is scream your head off and almost deafen me!"
"That's your fault! You didn't even warn me, and you scared me half to death!" Hermione retorted, glaring at Victor. But as soon as Hermione took a bite of the sandwich, the perfect combination of bread, chicken, mayonnaise, and cheese made her eyes light up.
The sun slowly began to set, the fiery clouds gradually faded, and the sky donned a deep blue garment, beginning to reveal its mysterious side. After putting the last bite of cake into her mouth, Hermione licked her lips, still wanting more. She looked up and saw countless stars peeking through the clouds in the night sky. She felt a pang of regret.
"It's a shame. If there weren't so many clouds, we'd be able to see the Milky Way," Hermione said, her eyes filled with a distant memory. "A long time ago, I went to my grandparents' house. They had a big farm. I remember my mum holding me up on a haystack, and it was the first time I realized the sky could be so beautiful, not just blue. But for some reason, when I went back home to London, I could never see that same beautiful night sky again."
Victor was lying half on the stone platform, feeling the cool stone beneath him and the fresh breeze that still carried the smell of rain and grass. He listened to Hermione's words, which sounded like a wish, and watched as the last sliver of the sun disappeared behind the distant mountains. Victor suddenly asked, "Do you want to see it?"
"See what?" Hermione turned to Victor, confused.
"I said, do you want to see the starry sky above us?" Victor repeated.
"Of course, but they're hidden!"
"You should've just said so. Why all the mushy talk?" Victor slowly stood up from the stone platform and pulled his wand from his waist, pointing it at the sky.
Hermione looked at him, a look of disbelief on her face. "Victor, don't be ridiculous. No matter how powerful a spell is…"
But before Hermione could finish her sentence, she witnessed a sight she would never forget. In front of Victor's milky white wand, a sky-blue magic circle rapidly expanded from a small point. The intricate and beautiful runes within it glowed with a brilliant light. Pulled by the power of the magic circle, the air around it was rapidly compressed toward its center. A piercing whirring sound filled the air, accompanied by a powerful gust of wind. Hermione could barely keep her eyes open.
"Sky Dragon Slayer Magic: Sky Dragon's Roar!"
As Victor's words fell, the power of the magic circle was unleashed. A blast of super-compressed air shot toward the sky and tore through the atmosphere.
A moment later, Hermione saw a massive force scatter the clouds above them. The starry sky revealed its full glory. Using the starlight, Hermione could even vaguely see a shockwave spreading across the sky, followed by a muffled explosion.
BOOM!
The Hogwarts students all thought it was thunder.
"There you go. Now you can see it!" Victor said, as if nothing had happened, putting away his wand and pulling out another slice of cake to eat.
Hermione stared at everything in front of her, completely dumbfounded. It was beyond her comprehension. She couldn't even begin to imagine how much power it would take to blast all the clouds out of the sky. She just stared at Victor, unable to say a word.
Victor saw the bewildered look on Hermione's face and laughed inwardly. But he pretended to be confused. "What are you looking at me for? Look at the stars!"
"How… how did you do that?" Hermione asked dumbly.
"I just blasted the clouds away. How else could I have done it?"
"Don't be ridiculous!" Hermione said, pointing to the sparkling sky and shouting like she was mad. "Magic like that can't possibly exist!"
"Then what did you just see?" Victor asked with a smile.
"I…" Hermione was speechless.
"Alright, I'm just messing with you!" Victor reached out and stroked Hermione's hair like he was petting a cat. "I just heard you wanted to see the stars, so I wanted to help you fulfill that little wish. So you have to promise to keep it a secret!"
This time, Hermione didn't slap Victor's hand away. Instead, she took the hand that was ruffling her hair and pulled it toward her. "Can you teach me?" she asked.
"No!" Victor flatly refused.
"A-oow!"
"Ah!" Victor felt a familiar sharp pain from his hand. He had been bitten again.