"You just want to use this task to find the real culprit behind your father's murder, don't you?"
When Hoffa asked this question, Osivia fell into a prolonged silence.
In the empty classroom, she stared at the old newspaper for a long time. Finally, she reached out, grabbed it, folded it neatly, and tucked it back into her bag.
"You don't know what happened."
"Do I?"
"You do." Osivia replied calmly, showing no trace of shame.
"That's your business," Hoffa shrugged. "Your family died, and you're seeking revenge. That's only natural, but it has nothing to do with me."
"I need an assistant. Dumbledore recommended you to me," Osivia said, her gaze fixed on Hoffa's shoulder. "I also think trusting you is simpler than trusting anyone else."
"I don't trust you, Professor Romanov," Hoffa said icily.
"I think you're like an unstable ticking bomb who doesn't truly care about anyone's life or death. And you've never told me the truth."
With that, Hoffa turned to leave.
Osivia raised her voice, "I promise, I won't ask you to do anything dangerous. I just don't want any other students to become my assistant and learn the secrets of my work."
This made Hoffa laugh bitterly. He turned sharply and pointed a finger at her.
"Have you ever asked me what I think? Even once? Since the day we met during the summer?"
"Go ahead," Osivia stepped back.
"You know what? I won't help you find some Forbidden Spell Library or cover up any unspeakable secrets. I don't care.
I don't care about supreme treasures or ultimate power. I hate death. That's all there is to it."
With that, Hoffa turned and strode toward the door.
This time, Osivia Romanov didn't stop him.
She stood still, motionless.
Bang!
Hoffa pushed the door open forcefully.
Two figures huddled against the wall jumped back in fright.
An enraged Hoffa was startled to see Aglaia and Miranda eavesdropping with their ears pressed against the door!
After the shock, Hoffa was even angrier.
"Are you two nuts?!"
He gritted his teeth and cursed under his breath, then stormed off.
Miranda and Aglaia exchanged amused glances and quickly followed him.
Miranda teased, "I thought the beautiful teacher had some secret mission for you. But it seems like you two have some unresolved history, huh?"
Aglaia, however, was full of excitement, circling around Hoffa like a spinning top, darting from front to back and back to front, much like a dog chasing its tail.
"Wow, is there some big school secret? What's this Forbidden Spell Library? Miranda, have you heard of it?"
Miranda shook her head. "I know Hogwarts has a library, and the library has a Restricted Section, but I've never heard of a Forbidden Spell Library."
"Come on, spill it, Hoffa," Aglaia begged, now walking backward in front of him.
"Move aside," Hoffa said, pushing her out of the way and quickening his pace.
Despite being shoved, Aglaia wasn't upset. Her face was full of curiosity, barely able to contain her excitement.
"Wow, secret missions, unspeakable truths, supreme treasures, endless power..."
Hoffa turned a corner and climbed the stairs, trying to shake off the annoying spinning top.
But Aglaia darted ahead of him, climbing the stairs backward as though she had eyes on the back of her head, weaving through the crowd effortlessly. She practically pleaded, "Come on, I've never asked you for anything. Just this once, humor me—what's this Forbidden Spell Library all about?"
Hoffa, exasperated, grabbed her by the collar and pressed her against the stairs. "Stop hovering around me! I don't know!
And this has nothing to do with you—or any of us. Don't get involved. It's extremely dangerous!"
"How dangerous?"
Instead of backing down, Aglaia's curiosity only grew stronger.
"Can't you understand plain language?" Hoffa glared at her fiercely, let go of her, and continued up to the sixth floor.
Aglaia was about to follow him again, but Miranda pulled her back. She shook her head, signaling Aglaia to let it go.
Aglaia stomped her foot in frustration, crossing her arms and sulking for a while.
When they reached the vicinity of the common room, she raised her fist angrily behind Hoffa's back and muttered, "If you don't tell me, I'll find out on my own, you jerk!"
Time passed day by day, and the first month of Hoffa's second year quickly came to an end.
The weather turned cooler, and the deep autumn of Scotland arrived on schedule. The castle was enveloped in endless rain, and the edge of the Forbidden Forest became a muddy mess. From afar, Hoffa could see numerous Aurors patrolling around the forest, undeterred by the wind and rain.
Inside the school, assistants for each teacher were gradually being selected.
Yet Tom Riddle remained the center of attention. Among all the second-years, no one could match him. He was riding a wave of unprecedented popularity.
Initially, Hoffa thought Miranda might become the second second-year student to be chosen as an assistant. But that wasn't the case.
Dumbledore didn't pick Miranda as his assistant, even though she stood confidently under the flames spewing from that iron suit of armor, holding a Shield Charm for a full minute.
Instead, Dumbledore chose a seventh-year Hufflepuff as his assistant.
Aglaya did not become a teaching assistant, or rather, her interest had completely shifted away from that position. Her focus was now entirely on the so-called Forbidden Library. In her words, a wizard who doesn't want to learn magic isn't a good wizard.
Hoffa didn't care what she was up to. Over the past month, most of his time had been dedicated to studying, particularly focusing on spells.
For some reason, while other students could cast the Shield Charm with ease, Hoffa simply couldn't get it to work.
Aglaya teased him, saying he wasn't concentrating enough—that he'd let his mind wander too much during the summer and had now fallen to the level of a third-rate student, no longer her equal.
Miranda, on the other hand, believed Hoffa wasn't under enough pressure and lacked a clear goal, which was why he couldn't master the spell.
October 15th, evening.
Hoffa was sitting in the common room, working on his Charms homework, still focused on the Shield Charm.
Miranda was lying nearby, flipping through a 1938 Superman comic—who knew where she'd found such an antique—and chuckling to herself as she read.
Suddenly, the door to the common room swung open. Two second-year boys walked in, struggling under the weight of a massive book that was at least half a meter long.
"Where should we put this?" one of them asked, panting.
"Over there, on that table. See it? Yes, right there."
Aglaya followed behind them, directing them with a wave of her hand.
Bang!
The two boys dropped the enormous book onto Hoffa's table, causing the desk to shudder. The ink bottle on his desk nearly toppled over from the impact.
"Anything else we can help with?" one of the boys asked.
"Nope, that's all. You guys are the best!" Aglaya said dismissively with a wave.
"Ha ha..."
The two boys rubbed their hands together, grinning happily as they walked out, chatting and laughing.
"What is this?" Hoffa asked, stunned, staring at the enormous tome in front of him.
Aglaya plopped down in a chair, crossing her arms proudly.
"Hmph. Hogwarts: A Historical Chronicle—the oldest, most complete, and rarest edition. And it's handwritten!"
Miranda sat up straight, exclaiming, "Oh my God, where did you even find such a relic?"
"I had to promise Slughorn an autograph to borrow it from the Restricted Section!" Aglaya replied smugly.
"All this... just to find out about the library?" Hoffa asked incredulously. He had indeed seen very little of Aglaya over the past month.
"Exactly! None of the other history books even mention the Forbidden Library. But guess what—I found something in this one!"
With barely contained excitement, she flipped through the pages. The book's pages were so old and fragile they were practically falling apart. As she flipped further, the pages grew increasingly damaged. By the final pages, Aglaya had to piece together fragments with her fingers to form a coherent sheet.
"Listen up," she said, running her finger across the page.
"When Hogwarts was founded, which was just over a century ago—(this book says a century ago, but keep in mind it was written over a thousand years ago)," Aglaya explained,
"it was a time of great chaos in the European wizarding world. To win the Wizarding Wars, countless brilliant wizards emerged, as well as dangerous, terrifying, and evil spells.
After the wars ended, the three great wizarding schools were established.
To preserve peace in the wizarding world, the founders of the three schools convened during the first Triwizard Tournament. Their aim was to destroy all the extremely dangerous ancient dark spells used during the wars.
However, as wizards, the idea of burning knowledge was unbearably painful. After destroying most of the dangerous spells, fierce disputes broke out among the wizarding leaders.
Some insisted on destroying everything, while others believed that not all knowledge should be lost, arguing that wizards who desecrate knowledge meet bad ends.
Finally, the first Headmaster of Hogwarts proposed building the safest library in Europe to seal away the ancient forbidden spells.
It would be placed in an eternally secure location where no wizard could ever find it. His proposal was agreed upon.
After the library was built, one of the four founders of Hogwarts, Rowena Ravenclaw, created a key to the library."
And then, the key was divided into three parts and entrusted to the first headmasters of the three schools:
The Headmaster of Hogwarts
The Headmaster of Beauxbatons
The Headmaster of Durmstrang
The three headmasters collectively safeguarded the secret of the library and took an unbreakable vow to never reveal it to anyone.
From that point on, the world returned to peace."
After finishing her story, Aglaya looked at Hoffa and Miranda with excitement.
"Well? Well? This Forbidden Library really exists!"
Miranda raised an eyebrow.
"Uh, what a happy ending. Sounds more like a bedtime story for children—not convincing at all."
Hoffa simply stared at her.
"And then?"
"And then...?"
Aglaya leaned in closer, lowering her voice as if sharing a great secret.
"There's a hidden library in Europe, filled with endless knowledge. Oh my gosh, we have to find it!"
"Even if it exists, why would we need to find it?" Miranda asked, visibly uneasy.
"Are you even a wizard? Do you know what endless knowledge means?"
Aglaya's eyes sparkled with an almost fanatical light.
Hoffa had seen that look before—back when she first discovered Centaur runes in the Forbidden Forest.
"Endless knowledge, endless power. We could do whatever we wanted," Aglaya said.
"Do whatever you want? What do you want to do?" Hoffa asked coldly.
"Listen, if we find this library, we'll definitely learn countless powerful spells. Maybe we'll only need to master one, and we could make that Malfoy boy kneel before us and call us 'Dad'! We could even crush that Tom Riddle with his curse spells without breaking a sweat!"
Her face was flushed with excitement, as though she could see it all happening right before her eyes.
When she finished, Miranda gave her a worried look.
"That's your reason for wanting to find the library?"
"Uh?"
Aglaya, sensing the disapproval, quickly reined in her excitement. She closed the book with a slight frown and asked, "Then what other reason would there be?"
She turned to Hoffa and gave him a nudge.
"What do you think, Hoffa? Should we go find this library?"
Hoffa didn't seem bothered by Aglaya's straightforward yet slightly wicked motives.
He thought for a moment.
"How would we even find it? The account clearly states the library requires three keys to open. We have no keys and no idea where the library is. All your talk is just fantasy."
Aglaya paused for a moment, then a sudden idea lit up her face.
"We could ask that new professor—the beautiful one! Didn't she tell you a lot about the library? She even invited you to be her assistant. Just say yes to her and, you know, sacrifice a little for the greater good—"
"Enough!"
Hoffa pushed the heavy book away from her with a sudden burst of irritation.
"You're only 12! You don't know what you're doing. Stop stirring up trouble, will you?"
"Hey! Why are you such a coward?"
Aglaya angrily pulled Hoffa's hand away from the book and stood up, fuming.
"Where's your passion from last year? Do you know how long it took me to find this book?"
Hoffa glared at her.
"What passion from last year!?"
Miranda quickly stepped in.
"Aglaya—"
"You too!"
Aglaya cut her off fiercely, then clutched her hair in frustration and stomped her foot.
"You've all changed! You've all changed! You've lost all your sense of adventure!"
With that, she grabbed the massive book, stormed off into the dormitory, and didn't look back.
The fire crackled in the fireplace as Aglaya's figure disappeared. Hoffa shook his head and let out a long sigh. This girl couldn't seem to go a single day without finding some kind of trouble for herself.
Miranda suddenly turned to Hoffa and asked,
"Why wasn't she sorted into Gryffindor?"
(End of Chapter)
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