Filch was like an insurmountable high wall. An entire week had passed, and even the clever and witty Weasley Twins had failed to break into his office, instead being punished with a week of detention.
Worse still, just last night, Adelaide had a blurry vision in a prophecy.
The Weasley Twins had placed a foul-smelling dungbomb in the school corridor, only to be caught red-handed by the loathsome caretaker Filch, who then escorted them to his grim office.
As soon as they entered the office, the sharp-eyed Weasley Twins immediately noticed a drawer labeled "Confiscated and Highly Dangerous."
The two shared a knowing look, coordinating with perfect unspoken understanding. While Filch was distracted, they used another dungbomb to divert his attention and successfully stole the marauders map from the drawer.
Ordinarily, Adelaide should have been happy, as this prophecy meant the Weasley Twins would successfully achieve their goal.
But what she never expected was that as she continued to watch the vision, she discovered to her horror that Filch was holding a pen and writing a line in his thick logbook: "Gryffindor First Year, George/Fred Weasley, throwing dungbombs in violation of school rules, five days of detention!"
Merlin! How is this possible?
The Weasley Twins are already second-year students now!
Adelaide tried hard to recall the contents of the original books, but after more than ten years, her memories had blurred. Now she only remembered the major turning points in the Wizarding World; small details like when the Weasley Twins obtained the marauders map had long been forgotten.
She could only reason based on the actual situation. If her prophecy was accurate, then the marauders map should have fallen into the Weasley Twins' possession during their first year—but when she had gone to talk to the Weasley Twins back then, they didn't even know the marauders map existed!
Could her prophecy be wrong?
Adelaide was anxious and wished she could break into Filch's office herself—but another unexpected event blocked her path.
Remember those fanatical senior girls who were staring intensely at her during the Sorting?
On a sunny Monday afternoon during the second week of school, as Adelaide was walking alone on a campus path, three figures suddenly flashed out in front of her, blocking her way.
"Hello, Adelaide! I'm Penelope Clearwater, a third-year Ravenclaw, and these two are Jessica Hawke, a second-year, and Natasha Volkova. We are members of the Ravenclaw Human Research Group. We were wondering if you have time for an interview?"
Adelaide's eyes widened. She slowly raised her hand, pointed her index finger at herself with some hesitation, and stammered, "Inter... interview me?"
The senior girls nodded with smiles.
"That's right. To be more precise, we want to learn some information about Gellert Grindelwald from you."
Adelaide suddenly understood. No wonder they had sought her out; they were admirers of her Great-Granduncle.
Although this timing was a bit sensitive, if anything truly unexpected happened, she could immediately teleport to Iceland via her ring... "In that case, let's find a place with fewer people to chat."
Adelaide led them to the edge of the Black Lake, where they sat on the ground.
Dumbledore knew she liked to contemplate life by the Black Lake, so he had specifically instructed the Giant Squid in the lake to pay close attention to Adelaide. With the Giant Squid backing her up, she was relatively safe by the Black Lake.
Once they were seated, the senior girls skillfully produced Quick-Quotes Quills and self-flipping parchment notebooks, adopting professional stances.
Jessica spoke first, asking, "Let's start with the question everyone is most interested in. There have been rumors outside that the Grindelwald Family possesses Veela blood. Is this rumor true?"
What?
This first question completely stumped Adelaide. She wasn't Fleur Delacour; where would she get Veela blood!
She shook her head vigorously and retorted loudly, "No! Absolutely not! This is pure, groundless slander, definitely a rumor intentionally manufactured by those loathsome Wizengamot opposition members!"
In the Wizarding World, many pure-blood Wizards held deep-seated prejudices against part-human hybrids. To some extent, these part-beast hybrids were even less welcome than Muggle-born Wizards.
The three senior girls didn't express an opinion directly but instead pulled thick stacks of parchment from their bags.
Natasha flipped through the parchment and explained methodically, "But according to our observations this past week, your popularity in school is beyond imagination—let the facts speak; these are all real-time data we recorded last week."
"Take dining in the Great Hall, for instance. Within one week, Headmaster Dumbledore cast his gaze toward you as many as 27 times! This number far exceeds his level of attention toward any other student—of course, given that your current guardian is Headmaster Dumbledore himself, we'll temporarily exclude him from the calculation."
Natasha paused, continued flipping through the parchment report in her hand, and then pointed at the dense numbers on it, saying, "Now look at the teachers' side. Professor Rosier stared at you in a daze 41 times this past week; Professor MacFusty also looked at you 32 times, and it's worth mentioning that he only looked at his own sister, Alice, 11 times this week. And Professor McGonagall, she also scanned you a full 26 times..."
Adelaide looked at the strings of numbers on the parchment with a blank expression. Are you guys a human research group or a spy training group? This ability to stalk and gather intelligence is a bit too strong!
Penelope took out another stack of parchment and continued, "As for the students, Charlie Weasley, currently the most popular boy among the girls, looks toward the Ravenclaw table for your figure almost every day upon entering the Great Hall. The line of sight of Alice MacFusty, the rising genius freshman from Slytherin, also follows you from time to time. Senior Cho Chang, ranked third on the Class of '90 Freshman Beauty Rankings, is your inseparable best friend. Even the most lawless Weasley Twins speak of you with full respect—"
"Adelaide Grindelwald, you've only been at Hogwarts for a week, and you've already become a focal point! Moreover, those paying close attention to you are all renowned figures on campus—do you still dare to say you don't have Veela blood?"
Faced with this sudden interrogation, Adelaide didn't know whether to laugh or cry; she was truly being treated unfairly!
The Professors and Charlie Weasley were members of the Order of the Phoenix or the Wizengamot; they watched her to protect her. As for the Weasley Twins, they had a certain degree of business dealings with her, and Cho Chang was a good friend—
Wait!
What was going on with those two from the MacFusty Family?
Adelaide hadn't even spoken to them privately, and they weren't subordinates of Dumbledore or Gellert. Why were they watching her?
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