"It was a success..."
Lyla wiped the cold sweat from her forehead and let out a soft breath. She pursed her lips as she looked at the glowing blue Magic Array that covered the leather wristband like a complex spider web.
"It worked, didn't it?" Luna said, looking closely at the wristband. "It's like a star in the sky."
"Shall we give it a try?"
"Hmm... hmm." Lyla nodded and then carefully put on one of the wristbands.
Embedded on the jet-black wristband was a small, mirror-like crystal. Lyla tapped it lightly with her elegant ebony wand and casually sketched a few words into the air above it.
Then, faint glowing characters slowly appeared on the paired wristband on Luna's hand.
"Hello."
These were the exact words that Lyla had just written.
"Success... it's a success!" Lyla exclaimed happily, temporarily forgetting her severe social anxiety.
Luna nodded and pulled her own wand from behind her ear. She gently swiped it a few times across her wristband's crystal.
"Huh?" Lyla looked at her wristband, which was now glowing slightly. Then, a small figure drawn in simple, bright strokes appeared on the crystal's surface.
"This is Lyla," Luna explained softly. "Look... here's your beautiful silver hair... and here are your pointed ears..."
'Miss Lovegood's drawing is so good...' Lyla thought, subconsciously reaching out to touch the image. Although it was just a few simple strokes, Lyla could clearly recognize that it was her Half-Veela self.
Then Luna drew another picture of herself. The two little glowing figures were holding hands and sitting together under a starry sky.
"This is something from the book, do you remember it?" Luna blinked her large, silvery eyes. "I've always missed that day."
"Lying on the grass and looking at the stars."
Her ethereal words immediately reminded Lyla of that day... Ah... she did miss it, but she missed the location even more... the replica of the grasslands outside Nurmengard.
With the successful completion of the communication wristband, Lyla resolved a major academic issue that had been brewing for the past few days.
As she meticulously wrote down the core runes and auxiliary support spells used, along with some problems encountered during its creation, a whole day had already passed.
As night fell, a tiny gray postal owl named Nova flew in through the open window. He dropped a heavy letter onto the desk with a soft tug.
Startled, Lyla waited for the owl to settle before carefully picking up the envelope.
It was a letter from Mr. Lupin. Lyla knew that he had gone to see Dumbledore that morning, but she didn't know the exact details of his new mission.
'This is Mr. Lupin's first letter to me!'
Lyla excitedly smoothed the somewhat crumpled letter. She planned to put it in a special box and store it away safely, just like she did with Miss Lovegood's first invitation.
'However, Miss Lovegood probably won't write traditional letters to me anymore.'
Lyla glanced subconsciously at the newly crafted wristband on the table, where her drawn chat history with Luna was still perfectly preserved.
'Miss Lovegood seems to be quite busy dealing with the harassment of Nargles and investigating Minister Fudge's secret army of Heliopaths...'
Shaking her head, Lyla carefully opened the letter in her hand. As the envelope was opened, more than a dozen heavy gold Galleons scattered out across the table.
'What does this mean?'
Lyla paused for a moment of catastrophic overthinking. 'Had Mr. Lupin accidentally dropped his entire savings in there?'
After carefully reading Mr. Lupin's handwriting, Lyla finally understood the reason.
Mr. Lupin had to take care of something urgent for the Order... and it seemed he wouldn't be back anytime soon. So, he had thoughtfully sent over his entire month's Galleons to ensure Lyla wouldn't starve in his absence.
'Mr. Lupin, you are truly great...' But the sudden thought that this must be yet another advance on her Ministry consultant salary made Lyla feel a little apprehensive.
How much of her future salary had already been advanced? Especially since she was planning to go see Dumbledore to ask for more. After all, the magical ingredients for the complex Wolfsbane Potion she promised to brew cost a lot of money.
Lyla sighed softly, turning her worried thoughts back to the letter. She had only just become closer to Mr. Lupin, and now he was suddenly leaving for a dangerous mission in Albania.
Lyla felt a sharp pang of reluctance. She also sensed from the cryptic letter that Lupin's mission investigating Voldemort's trail might be incredibly unsafe. She deeply hoped that Merlin would bless him with safety.
She pursed her lips, lightly patted her pale cheeks, and put the letter away safely. Then, she picked up a quill to write a swift reply to Mr. Lupin.
'Perhaps I should make another Magic Array wristband for Mr. Lupin to use for communication?'
'But writing physical letters seems nice too... It's something only genuine friends do!'
Thinking this, Lyla pursed her lips happily. The quill she was using to write the letter swayed even faster across the parchment.
'Oh, right. I also need to write a formal letter to Dumbledore... to ask him about the advance on my Professor wages...'
'Ah... this absolutely doesn't mean I'm friends with Dumbledore. I'll take down that manipulative old man sooner or later...'
Lyla frowned instinctively and looked nervously towards the pub door. Thankfully, there was no sudden knocking or that terrifying Headmaster's voice.
...
"Bang, bang, bang."
A soft knock came at the door, and Albus Dumbledore slightly raised his head to look at the heavy oak entrance of the Headmaster's office.
Then he smiled warmly and said, "Please come in."
"Clatter."
The Headmaster's office door creaked open. A small house-elf walked in first, closely followed by Lyla Hamilton. She looked utterly timid and deeply shy, her silver hair and pointed ears completely hidden under her thick hood.
'Is this... the Headmaster's office at Hogwarts...?' Lyla carefully surveyed her surroundings. But when she looked up and saw the countless moving portraits that almost entirely covered the circular walls, she shuddered in pure fright.
'Why are there so many people staring at me?!'
"Good morning, Miss Hamilton." Dumbledore smiled gently. "Bibi, could you spare some time for Miss Hamilton and me?"
"As you wish, Headmaster." The house-elf named Bibi snapped her long fingers and slowly vanished from the office with a loud crack.
"Ah..." Lyla subconsciously took a few terrified steps back as she watched the house-elf disappear.
"That is Bibi, one of the many loyal house-elves from Hogwarts," Dumbledore introduced casually.
'Of course I know that... otherwise why would I have followed her... but...' Lyla looked at Dumbledore and pursed her lips.
She desperately wanted to tell Dumbledore not to let Bibi Apparate into her private room so casually. She had woken up that morning to find a strange house-elf standing silently at the foot of her bed.
'It's exactly like a scene from a Muggle horror movie!'
Seeing Lyla silently bowing her head in panic, Dumbledore slowly asked, "Miss Hamilton, are Hogwarts and Durmstrang very different?"
"Yes..." Lyla tapped her finger nervously against her robes. "Hogwarts is better than Durmstrang... it is warmer..."
"And... Durmstrang doesn't have... house-elves..."
Durmstrang certainly didn't rely on house-elves for cleaning. Over there, cleaning the dark corridors was a harsh punishment given to ostracized, bullied wizards like Lyla.
But rather than being startled by these teleporting little sprites every day, Lyla honestly preferred to just clean up after herself.
"I see." Dumbledore pondered for a few seconds before smoothly changing the subject. "Please have a seat, Miss Hamilton."
"We are going to have a lot to talk about today regarding your curriculum."
"Enough, Albus! Didn't you see the girl clearly doesn't want to talk to you?" Suddenly, a portrait near the ceiling spoke loudly, making Lyla shudder violently.
"That is Phineas Nigellus Black," Dumbledore said with a dismissive shrug. "The most unpopular Headmaster Hogwarts has ever had."
"What? Albus, how dare you! These students today are all Mud—"
Before he could finish spewing his pure-blood supremacy, the highly annoying Headmaster Black was loudly interrupted by boos and hisses from the respectable people in the other portraits.
Looking at the chaotic scene that resembled a noisy wizard's market, Lyla bit her lip and slowly, nervously sat down in the plush chair. She would rather hide in a corner doing complex array math than deal with all these strangers.
"The Headmaster's office at Hogwarts is always this lively," Dumbledore said with a twinkling smile. "Would you like some honey tarts?"
"No... no need." Lyla quickly shook her head, desperate to finish her business conversation with Dumbledore and leave immediately.
Hogwarts was an absolutely terrifying place. There were transparent ghosts that walked right through solid walls, various loud people in portraits who kept muttering at her, and strange house-elves that could teleport into her bedroom.
There was nothing here that Lyla could easily accept, or rather... nothing she wasn't deeply afraid of.
'If only they couldn't speak aloud...'
As a Wordless Witch who hated verbal communication, this was probably one of Lyla's biggest, most desperate wishes right now.