Chapter 24 - 22. Birthday; Another world

Hermione sat alone in the common room, waiting for a long time for Adam to come. She did not stay that long with Adam for the past few days as she was finding it really hard to hold her emotions inside her. She had paid more attention to Parvati and Lavender after that day's conversation, which made her realize how much everybody disliked her for who she was. The only reason why she tried to perfect herself was to get more friends, but now, all people around her hated for this very reason.

Hermione would normally go and complain about these things to Adam, but after hearing all those things, she was afraid of Adam leaving her alone just because she was being noisy and complaining about everything to him. She didn't want Adam to get tired of her because of her complaints that would only appear as some silly things to others. She wanted to face these problems by herself, which was really a good thing for her, but she couldn't realize that there was some mysterious power that was compelling her to embrace these negative feelings.

"Why did he ask me to meet at this time? Everyone is already sleeping. Does he want to tell me something important? Is he angry because I tried to ignore him these days? Did he also get tired of me? No, no... He is not like that. There must be something important if he wants to talk to me so late at night. But what if..." All these different thoughts were making Hermione more and more nervous. Adam was deliberately being late to their meeting as he wanted to wait till 12AM to celebrate her birthday. But Hermione didn't know about these things. She had even forgotten about her birthday with all the anxiety that was making her unable to think about the current situation.

Hermione teetered on the brink of tears, her emotions swirling as she reminisced about the events of the past two weeks; at this moment Adam walked down the stairs that led to boys dormitory. Hermione anxiously stood up from the sofa when she saw Adam approaching her with a rather serious face. This made her even more nervous, but before she could say anything, Adam just turned around and walked towards the exit of the common room. He uttered just two words, his tone monotonous, "Follow me." Hermione was startled Adam's tone, which only made her situation even worse. She already had tears in her eyes as she followed behind Adam. Adam didn't notice this as he quickly marched towards the room of requirement. He had guided Hermione to the Room of Requirement on multiple occasions, yet she remained unaware of the method to access it independently, adding an air of mystery to the magical space. Adam walked back and forth three times past the place where room of requirement was located while thinking about the celebration room he had just decorated.

Hermione stood behind Adam as the door to the Room of requirement appeared in front of them. Adam, just glanced at Hermione and gestured her to enter the room first. Hermione, just silently followed Adam's gesture and entered the room.

It was the dark room that welcomed Hermione; she felt confused, unable to see anything in the darkness. But before Hermione could turn around and ask Adam about it, she noticed that little bit of light that was coming from behind her from the open door also vanished. She froze at the place but within a second, she saw an orange flash seemingly in a shape of small candle flame appear on the tip of Adam's wand. She couldn't see him but she could still his wand, which had shining patterns on it.
Small orange candle flame from the tip of Adam's wand moved slowly as it approached something. Hermione could faintly see that it was a unlit candle that this flame was trying to approach, seemingly going to light it up. As soon as that candle was lit, its fire spread in a horizontal line on the wall and continued to light up the next candle, then the next one, and so on. It created a very magical sight, even in the magical world that they lived in. Within a half minute, entire room was lit up by the candles. There were hundreds of candles on each wall of the room.
Hermione was mesmerized by this scene which just unfolded in front of her, but it was not the end of the surprise for her as her eyes finally landed on the balloons sticking up on the ceilings, then on the big tasty looking cake in the middle of the room. It wasn't just any cake but a birthday cake, with Hermione's name written on it. The moment her eyes landed on the cake, tears started to flow from her eyes. At this moment, she realised, 'Yes… today, is my birthday…' It wasn't something she would normally forget every year but this year was different for her as this was also her first time being away from her parents who loved her very much, while also having to go through the emotional distress multiple time within this past month during her journey in this new magical world that she got the chance to be in.
Hermione stood in stunned silence, her gaze fixated on the cake. As she stood there, memories of the past week flooded her mind, each one a poignant reminder of the emotional journey she had been through. Her expression kept changing from sad to happy then back to sad, but when Adam saw how her expression turned sad, he softly whispered, "Happy Birthday to You, Hermione."
Hermione finally woke up from her memories and she looked at Adam. There was just a pause for a moment in her eyes but in the next instant, her eyes along with her lips bloomed into a beautiful cute smile which momentarily mesmerized Adam and made him feel that everything he had done today was worth it.
In the next hour, Adam and Hermione both enjoyed the celebration of the birthday. They ate delicious chocolate cake, later they also enjoyed some good food that Adam had already got from the house elves for this special occasion. It was already very late so Adam made Hermione leave earlier. He walked Hermione to the dormitory door, and waited till she disappeared behind it.

Hermione had thought that Adam would also go back to sleep but today, Adam had different plans. He walked outside the Gryffindor common room and headed towards the exit.

Hermione's heart swelled with emotion as she thought of the moment she stood in the room filled with hundreds of lit candles, balloons, and a birthday cake with her name on it. She couldn't believe that Adam had gone through so much trouble to make her feel special on her birthday. Despite the challenges and emotional distress that she had experienced in the past month, Adam's surprise had lifted her spirits and made her feel loved and appreciated.

At the time, they enjoyed the celebration together, Hermione couldn't help but feel grateful for the new friend that she had found in Adam. He had been a steady source of support and encouragement during her journey in the magical world, and this birthday surprise was just another example of his kindness and thoughtfulness. Hermione realized that she was lucky to have found such a kind and caring friend in Adam, and she felt a deep sense of gratitude towards him.

As the birthday celebration came to a close, Adam walked Hermione back to her dormitory. In the aftermath of the joyous evening, she couldn't shake the mix of emotions that swirled within her. She was sad to see the evening come to an end, but at the same time, she felt content and happy knowing that she had such a wonderful friend in her life. She wanted to spend more time with Adam and talk with him about all these things ,and magic ,and books ,and all but she knew that it was already quite late and Adam also needs to have rest for tomorrow's classes. Little did she know that Adam had something else in store for the night. His next target was the secret space that he had seen on the map of the forbidden forest.

As Hermione entered the dormitory, she clutched onto what resembled a large notebook, muttering to herself in a low voice as she made her way to her room, " I'll cherish it and store every part of my magical journey — the journey that began with your help, Adam."

~~~~~
Adam's heart was pounding as he walked towards the Forbidden Forest, his wand held tightly in his hand. The dark, tangled trees loomed over him, casting eerie shadows across the forest floor. He knew that the forest was dangerous, filled with all manner of magical creatures and forbidden secrets, but he had to take the risk. He had to find the hidden entrance to the secret space.

As Adam ventured deeper into the Forbidden Forest, the towering, ancient trees cast eerie shadows on the forest floor. His senses were heightened, catching the rustling of leaves and the distinct snap of twigs beneath his feet. Each shadow seemed to conceal a hidden threat, amplifying the mysterious atmosphere that surrounded him.

Adam arrived at what looked like an ancient tree, it wasn't eerie but it still made his heart pound as he looked at this gigantic tree in front of him. He soon discovered that system map showed that the entrance to the secret space was at the bottom of the trunk of this gigantic tree. Just like that previous one time, this entrance was also not visible to naked eyes but Adam knew that system's map was not going to be wrong. Last time as well, he walked forward into the secret space entrance with the help of this map as the entrance to it was always invisible.
"That's probably the reason why people went missing whenever secret spaces appeared somewhere. They probably didn't even know how they reached that space."
Adam looked at the location where system map was showing the entrance and thought to himself, " I guess it's time to explore another world."
The secret space that Adam went last time was completely different from the earth that he lived on. The structures and environment there was very different so Adam looked forward to this trip that he was going to go on. He wasn't the least bit of afraid of what was to come at him in this space as he knew that this secret space's level was very low, which wouldn't be able to harm him, now that he had learned new magic. But still he once again checked his inventory for food and weapon that he might need if he ran out of magic before walking into the entrance.