After Orion took Daphne back to the castle and left her in her room, he remembered where it was, as it was the same as Rose's, who had literally taken Hermione's place in there.
He couldn't help but blush a little after thinking about what he did back then. Putting the thought of dreaming wet dreams about him inside Daphne's mind was... hmm, was immature of him, and he shouldn't have done that. But what can he say? He was a lot more childish back then.
After making sure that Daphne was safe, he went back only to see that Rose and the others had returned to the shore and were drying themselves.
Upon seeing Orion back, everyone was finally ready to complete the round. Orion found that Dumbledore had done his magic, and certainly, while others were looking at him like he was some sort of magic, they weren't making any fuss about him blowing up the sea and a centuries-old Kraken like it was some sort of watermelon-popping game on the beach.
But nothing, Orion had to say that Dumbledore was really good at influencing people. That old man's talk-no-jutsu is S-grade.
Soon, the scores were given, and of course, under the presumption of foul play on Orion's side, he didn't get the best marks. Dumbledore couldn't do anything about that. And honestly, Orion didn't care enough to make a fuss about something like that.
Then, soon enough, the tournament came to an end, and while Orion wanted to go back to Daphne right away, he first talked a little bit with Rose as well. She also seemed a little restless after seeing what happened in the lake. Those outside only saw what happened, but the champions felt the pressure and the blast happening inside the water.
While he talked a little with Rose, mostly getting a one-sided nagging from the redhead about what he did and how scared she and the others were when that blast happened, Orion just muttered under his breath, "That was just a normal Expelliarmus," with a helpless expression on his face.
He just listened to all that nagging, not only from Rose but also from McGonagall and some other teachers who were looking at him with irritated faces and had a lot to say.
After getting an earful, he finally got time to go back and visit Daphne again. But before going back to the castle, he turned to check on both Morgan and Hermione. He had been keeping an eye on both girls for some time now, trying to gather as much information as possible about them. But due to him working almost 24/7 nowadays, he couldn't do much in this regard.
Finally, he had this feeling that he couldn't do everything alone; having limited time was a big problem, honestly.
Anyway, before going back to the castle, he checked on both Morgan and Hermione. Though he couldn't find Hermione there for some reason, pondering whether she hadn't attended the second round of the tournament, he found Morgan there, and she was looking bomb.
cough cough
'Maybe I really need some rest...' He blushed a little but then returned to his normal state, now checking out those curves in her shadow.
What! He had to check out the shadow anyway; it's not like he could help it.
Anyway, the result was the same: the shadow was still not real but an imitation created by some sort of magic.
His eyes took on a steely gaze as he remembered what Eric told him about the shadow and about those who had lost their shadows.
Originally, he didn't believe what Eric had to say, but upon seeing that two people in the castle were similar to what Eric had described, he couldn't help but frown.
This by no means was good. He had a bad feeling that something was coming, something big, and more than that... something that even made him shiver at the thought.
"I can now distinguish a fake shadow from a real one only because I am much stronger. I can't tell how strong I am right now, but definitely way beyond level 5 or 6."
So the real question was, whether this happened just recently or if there were always people around him with no shadows.
'I'm surrounded by enemies and didn't even know it. Forget about Morgan; she just came this year. But what about Hermione? How could this happen to her? Even Nick has his shadow, so the real question is...
Is she even Hermione? And if not, then when did this happen?'
A shiver went through his body. The implications of this were making him a little scared. He wasn't scared of facing powerful enemies; he had readily done so many times. What worried and scared him a little was fighting an enemy he couldn't even see.
The kind he couldn't see, the kind he couldn't tell apart from friends and foes. The kind who act like friends and backstab you when the time comes.
Sigh.
This was the time when he really felt like he needed someone like Merlin on his side. Powerful as he may be, when it comes to wisdom, he was nothing compared to Merlin.
He just shook his head and then vanished from his place after making sure others couldn't see him, then went back to Daphne.
Upon getting there, he saw Daphne was already up by now and was looking at him with curious eyes.
"Orion, what happened? How come you are here?" Daphne asked, to which Orion just sighed. Of course, the girl didn't know that she was captured and trapped underwater.
So, after a long description of what had just happened, tactfully not mentioning that she was acting like a baby demanding attention in front of everyone, Orion explained everything to her.
But apparently, she seemed to figure things out as her beautiful white face turned into a tomato, and she wasn't even able to look into Orion's eyes anymore.
"Ahmm, thank you for saving me." That was the only thing the girl said to him before she rushed out of her own room with embarrassment, leaving him dumbfounded.
xxx
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