Eda gasped as she looked at the puppet before her. Long golden hair, fair skin, and emerald-like eyes—wasn't this just her? Couldn't the system model things properly? Why did it have to pull this "true and false Eda" trick?
The puppet wearing her face even spoke with the distinct, synthesized tone of a machine, making Eda feel even more annoyed. Couldn't it have conjured Snape instead? At least that way, she could vent her frustrations.
But fighting "herself"? What was the point of that?
Eda was lost in thought and didn't move immediately. The puppet, however, wasted no time and fired a spell directly at her, a red light flashing as it shot toward her.
"Fuc—!"
Eda was startled by the sneak attack and quickly dodged, barely avoiding the spell. As she dodged, she cast a Stunning Spell at the puppet. However, the puppet raised its wand and blocked her attack with ease.
Inside the giant underground room, the real Eda and "puppet Eda" kept waving their wands, casting spells that flew across the space. The ground trembled as rubble scattered from the impact of their magical exchanges, rolling around with each collision.
After several rounds of back-and-forth, Eda made some judgments about this ordinary puppet.
Its abilities seemed comparable to last year's challenges, but the puppet's combat style was more varied. Unlike last year's opponent, it didn't underestimate her, making it even harder for Eda to handle.
Compared to last year, Eda had also made significant progress. She could keep pace with the puppet, neither gaining the upper hand nor being entirely suppressed.
After blocking one of the puppet's attacks, Eda cast a Disarming Charm. The spell flew toward the puppet, glowing bright red. But the puppet was faster—before her spell could land, it fired a Stunning Spell of its own.
When Eda's Disarming Charm reached it, the puppet had already conjured a Shield Charm to block it.
Eda sat up slowly from the cold ground, rubbing the back of her head.
She had been hit squarely by the puppet's Stunning Spell, and the back of her head had met the floor with painful force, leaving her feeling sore from the impact.
Although the puppet's Stunning Spell hit Eda squarely in the chest, she didn't lose consciousness. Apart from hitting the back of her head when she fell, she suffered no other injuries—not even the spot where the spell struck hurt.
Although there was magical collision during the fight, the moment the spell hit Eda, its magic lost effect, doing no more than knocking her down without causing further harm.
After all, the puppet's purpose was to train Eda, not to kill her.
The system allowed Eda and the puppet to use any combat methods in the trial—there were no rules. This meant Eda could cast spells to distract the puppet and then punch it directly, or even snatch its wand from it.
As long as the puppet was knocked down or rendered unable to fight, Eda would be considered victorious.
Eda stood up, brushing the dust off her robes. Both she and the puppet raised their wands again, beginning a new round of training.
"Shit!"
About ten minutes later, Eda found herself on the ground again, this time even faster than before—and it was entirely her own fault. She had tried to leave an opening, hoping to bait the puppet into falling for the trap so she could counterattack and bring it down.
The plan was solid in theory, but in practice, it went wrong. The puppet did "fall for" her trick, but while the puppet had the strength to take the bait, Eda lacked the ability to follow through with a proper counterattack.
And so, she ended up back on the floor.
"Aw, My bum... Aw my back.."
By the time Eda left the secret passage, her entire body ached.
She had lost count of how many times the "ruthless" puppet had knocked her down that night.
Each time Eda was knocked down, she ended up hitting the ground. The whole night felt like a compilation of her falls, enough to edit into a film over an hour long.
With every fall, pain naturally followed. It seemed clear to Eda that she needed to take proper protective measures the next time she trained with the puppet. Otherwise, things could get dangerous—if she didn't end up seriously injured, constant falls like this would still take a toll on her body.
Supporting her aching waist, Eda made her way back to the common room. The twins were nowhere to be seen, and she had no idea where they had gone off to. She could only hope that she wouldn't hear news of Gryffindor losing points because of them the next morning.
Having failed to return the Marauder's Map, Eda headed back to her dormitory. Her three roommates weren't there—Angelina and Alicia were in the common room chatting with some older students, and little Katie had gone to another dorm to hang out with her friends.
In the five-person dormitory, Eda was alone. She stood in front of the full-length mirror and took off her robes. The once fair, flawless skin was now covered with bruises, shades of blue and purple spread across her body, making her look as though she had been tortured.
"Tch"
After changing into her pajamas, Eda took out a book from her bag: Practical Magical Combat Theory and Techniques.
She leaned against the headboard and began reading it carefully. She had found the book among a mountain of tomes in the library. In addition to discussing theories and techniques, it also analyzed several major dueling tournaments.
Just as the title suggested, the book was indeed practical—its content was detailed and thorough, though Eda also thought it could serve well as a doorstop.
After drinking two cups of water, her roommates began returning one by one.
Angelina and Alicia were particularly excited, still chattering non-stop even after coming back to the dormitory.
The sign-ups for the Quidditch teams from each house had opened, and once Charlie finished gathering the names, he would submit them to Madam Hooch for approval.
Those approved would participate in Gryffindor's tryouts on the second Friday afternoon!
Both Angelina and Alicia had already submitted their names to Charlie. Confident in their abilities, they firmly believed they would pass both the approval and the tryouts, ultimately becoming members of the Gryffindor Quidditch team.
This year, first-year Katie was also very enthusiastic about Quidditch. She was just like Angelina and Alicia last year, complaining about why she wasn't allowed to participate in the tryouts.
Eda had experienced the scene of all four of them complaining together last year, but with only Katie this time, it felt like a much smaller fuss—hardly worth mentioning.
"When we play, you can cheer for us, Katie!" Alicia said. "Just like Eda does."
Talk about rubbing salt in the wound.
Eda, quietly reading her book, couldn't help but feel a bit attacked. "I guess this counts as my small contribution to the quest for the Quidditch Cup," she replied.
But that was the last thing Katie wanted. What she enjoyed was the thrill of flying on a broomstick, not standing on the sidelines cheering. Eda understood this feeling completely—how could someone capable of playing settle for just watching from the stands?
"Where are Fred and George, by the way?" Angelina asked. "They're not in the common room or the dorm. The tryouts are just around the corner, and they're still running all over the place."
"I'm not sure where they are, but I'll do my best to stop them from getting into trouble," Eda said. "On tryout day, I'll take Katie to watch, so you two better not embarrass yourselves!"
With the Quidditch tryouts approaching, Eda didn't want the twins to miss out. If they did, they'd have to wait another whole year—definitely not worth it.
Eda snuck a look at the Marauder's Map and saw that the twins were heading toward Gryffindor Tower. She decided to wait for them in the common room to have a quick word.
Bundled in her robe, Eda sat in an armchair for a bit before the twins finally appeared, sneaking into the common room.
Fred was holding a square package in his hands, looking as suspicious as ever.
"Fred, George!"
"Ah—Eda?"
The twins heard Eda's voice and walked over, sitting down across from her.
"What's that?" Eda asked, pointing to the package next to Fred.
"Oh, nothing—just something new we got," George said casually. "Some magic tricks we just bought."
"Let me see." Eda reached out, trying to grab the package. The fact that they hadn't told her outright meant something was fishy.
Usually, Eda wasn't particularly interested in the magical pranks the twins bought, which was why George gave such a vague answer. But, for some reason, Eda was oddly curious this time and insisted on seeing what was inside.
Fred quickly grabbed the package, keeping it out of her reach. "Alright, I'll be honest—it's a book..."
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