Hogwarts.
The common room of Gryffindor Tower.
There was still a month until school started, so the room decorated in scarlet and gold was abnormally quiet.
"Mmm..."
The dreamy mumblings of a little girl, like the mewing of a newborn kitten, came from within the room.
A small figure sat up from a bed near the door and stretched. A waterfall of silver hair draped down from her head as she rubbed her eyes, and sleepily took in her surroundings.
"Haaa...this place is?"
Alina yawned, unconsciously hugging the soft down pillow as she looked around in confusion.
Beneath her was a warm and comfortable bed, and the bed had four posts, one on each corner. There were four or five other identical beds. This seemed like those legendary dormitories usually found in the schools of nobility.
As she stared in a daze at the deep red flannel curtains hanging down from the end of her bed, Alina slowly began to focus. She began to recall what had happened. She had been roasting a fish by the lake, and then she ran into Professor McGonagall, and then they had a conversation...
Hogwarts?!
"This place can't be..."
Alina jumped from her bed, her bare feet treading on the carpet as she rushed to the door.
What greeted her eyes was a seemingly familiar round lounge, soft armchairs scattered around. Across from the extinguished fireplace were two spiraling staircases that led to two other rooms. At this time, she was standing at the entrance to one of these rooms.
Various paintings were hung upon the walls of the lounge. When Alina appeared, the people in the paintings turned as one to her and then began to whisper among each other.
"...the Gryffindor Common Room?" Alina gripped the railing of the spiral staircase and gave a complicated and powerless groan.
Moving magic portraits, the large beds in the dormitories, the color pair of scarlet and gold...and the common room that she had dreamed about countless times in her previous world. When all of this information was brought together, she had enough information to determine where she was.
Pop!
There was a soft explosion from the air next to Alina.
A strange creature appeared at her side. It had delicate features, long drooping ears, bulging green eyes the size of tennis balls, and a rather long nose.
"Miss Kaslana, welcome to Hogwarts."
It placed a hand on its chest and gracefully bowed to Alina like it was a butler.
House-elves were a species that wizards had subjugated in an ancient war. From birth, they underwent slavish training and would have to serve their masters as slaves for generation after generation.
Each house-elf belonged to its own family. Normally, house-elves knew domestic magic that they used for cleaning or cooking.
But house-elves knew far more magic than that. Many families used house-elves not for their domestic skills, but their extraordinary magic. In reality, the majority of house-elves were far more capable of magic than their masters.
"You can just call me Alina. Who are you? Can I ask if there's any special reason why I'm here?"
Alina curiously looked at the house-elf's large ears. There were more than one hundred house-elves in Hogwarts, and they were tasked with all the domestic affairs of the school, such as cooking and cleaning. But students normally wouldn't realize their existence.
"Boli, Miss. I am Boli, a house-elf of Hogwarts." The house-elf answered, "Professor Dumbledore had me wait here for you to wake up and tasked me with being your temporary guide through the school."
"Temporary guide?"
Alina harrumphed, raising an eyebrow as she repeated the term.
Her lake-blue eyes inspected Boli, and she suddenly asked, "But what if I don't want to take a tour?"
"Professor Dumbledore said that you are free to leave at any time. He's currently in the Headmaster's office. Does Miss Alina want to leave?" the elf swiftly replied.
"Hm..."
Alina pensively glanced at the house-elf, somewhat unable to predict what Dumbledore was thinking. Was it really as Professor McGonagall had said, and that she was just being invited to take a tour of Hogwarts?
"...Of course not."
Her lips curved into a smile as she lightly tapped the wooden railing, her eyes brightening.
"This might be the only time I can get into Hogwarts. I at least have to take a stroll around first."
She turned around, placing her hands behind her back, and skipped back into her dorm, where she began to put on her shoes.
This Hogwarts, a place bursting with mystery, a place where dreams began. In her previous life, when she had been obsessed with the Harry Potter series, she had spent almost every night traveling through every corner of this castle in her dreams.
...
The Gryffindor Common Room was located on the eighth floor of the main tower of Hogwarts, connecting the main tower to Gryffindor Tower.
Alina had been sleeping in the female dormitory, located within Gryffindor Tower. From her window, she could see the gleaming waters of the lake and a corner of the Forbidden Forest.
Guided by Boli, Alina exited the Gryffindor Common Room through the Fat Lady's portrait. Regretfully, the Fat Lady had run off to another portrait, so Alina was not able to meet with the portrait that most frequently appeared in the novels.
Not far from the Gryffindor Common Room was the Headmaster's office.
"Miss Alina, this is Headmaster Dumbledore's office. He's waiting for you inside."
Boli extended a skeletal arm and pointed at a spiral staircase up ahead.
Normally, a massive and ugly stone monster would be standing guard at the door to the Headmaster's office. One would need to recite the right password before the stone beast would jump aside and allow one to access the automatic stairwell behind it.
At the end of the stairs was a shining oak door with a bronze knocker in the shape of an eagle-headed lion. In her last life, many people had speculated that the Headmaster's office had been the room used by one of the four founders of Hogwarts, Godric Gryffindor.
But at this time, the stone beast in front of the stairs had already shifted to the side, yielding the path to the stairwell.
"Oh, I know."
Glancing in the direction Boli had pointed, Alina courteously nodded and then turned around and began walking in the exact opposite direction. She certainly didn't want to get into a fight with the most enigmatic wizard in the Magic World right after waking up. How depressing would that be?
As for Dumbledore? He could just keep waiting. Once she finished walking around, she would go and find him again.
Standing in the center of the corridor, she looked at the staircase in front of her that would occasionally move and the portraits were hanging from the walls where the people inside moved around like they were in a GIF, a dazed look in her eyes. Alina suddenly realized that her resolve was not as firm as she had imagined.
Now that the authentic Magic World was so close that she could touch it, she even began to dream about life while learning in this castle.
Closing her eyes, the silver-haired girl took in a deep breath and began to mutter to herself.
"I'm just taking a stroll! Just once! I'm just fulfilling the dream that I couldn't in my last life. After today, I won't get involved with the Magic World ever again!"
Opening her eyes, Alina cautiously stroked the wall of the corridor and whispered, "Nice to meet you, Hogwarts."