Seeing the tension between Cho Chang and Alice MacFusty escalating, Adelaide quickly spoke up to explain to MacFusty, fearing the two might start arguing:
"Miss MacFusty, I apologize, but my schedule is quite full today. If you want to arrange a meeting, it will have to be after three o'clock this afternoon. Only then will I have free time."
Alice MacFusty had no objection to this and followed Adelaide's suggestion: "Fine, let's make it half past three this afternoon, by the Black Lake—and remember, come alone!"
With that, she turned and strode out of the Great Hall.
Watching MacFusty's retreating figure, Cho Chang couldn't help but look worried and anxiously asked Adelaide, "Are you really going to meet her alone? But... but she's not someone to mess with!"
This is a Blood-Cursed Beastmen who can turn into a Dragon at any moment!
Adelaide patted Cho Chang's shoulder, gave her a reassuring smile, and comforted her, "Don't worry, my dear Cho, I know what I'm doing."
Just like that, the two quickly finished breakfast, jogged back to their dormitory to grab their wands, and then rushed non-stop to the classroom for their lessons.
Throughout the entire day, the two were constantly spinning and rushing around like tops, without a moment's rest.
Finally, as the clock pointed to three o'clock in the afternoon, the hectic Monday schedule for the Ravenclaw first-year students finally came to an end.
Adelaide and Cho Chang waved goodbye at the Library entrance, and she walked toward the Black Lake alone.
The four magic beans she and Cho Chang had planted had withered and died the day after Halloween. Now, only a patch of soft, damp earth remained, silently recounting the brief yet brilliant life journey of those magic beans.
Alice MacFusty stood quietly on that soft ground, gazing straight at the icy surface of the Black Lake in the distance, seemingly lost in thought.
"You were almost late."
The speaker was Alice MacFusty, who had her back to Adelaide, and her tone sounded slightly displeased.
Hearing this, Adelaide slowly yawned and then lazily replied, "We agreed on half past three. It's only 3:28 right now. I don't consider that late; you're just too early."
Stretching, she walked up beside Alice MacFusty and asked curiously, "Hurry up and tell me, why did you call me here?"
Alice MacFusty slowly turned around, her beautiful purple eyes fixed on Adelaide's, seemingly trying to peer through her gaze into her innermost thoughts.
She spoke slowly, word by word, with utmost seriousness: "That night in the Forbidden Forest, who else did you see besides me?"
Adelaide raised an eyebrow slightly, secretly breathing a sigh of relief.
It seemed the other party wasn't trying to pursue the matter of her secretly following her, but rather wanted to find out who the Death Eater was who attacked her brother that night.
Thinking this, Adelaide cleared her throat, then answered with feigned composure: "To be honest, my attention was completely focused on watching your transformation—ahem, what I mean is, that person most likely used magic like the Disillusionment Charm to hide their appearance, so I didn't see anyone."
Alice slightly narrowed her eyes, staring intently at Adelaide as if trying to see through her gaze to determine if she was hiding any lies deep inside.
After a moment, she slowly relaxed her tightly furrowed brow, as if finally confirming that Adelaide was telling the truth, and a faint look of disappointment crossed her face.
Alice gently shook her head, then slowly withdrew her gaze, saying in a calm yet cold tone, "Since even you couldn't clearly see what they looked like, then this matter can only end here."
After saying this, Alice turned around without hesitation and started to walk away.
However, just then, Adelaide suddenly shouted, "Wait, please don't leave yet!"
Hearing the shout, Alice stopped walking but did not immediately turn back.
Adelaide took a deep breath to steady herself, then asked, "You just mentioned the word 'they.' Don't tell me... there was more than one Death Eater that night?"
As she spoke, Adelaide's eyes widened, and her deep sapphire-blue pupils contracted sharply.
At this moment, a terrifying thought flashed through her mind—there might be more than one enemy inside Hogwarts!
Thinking of this, Adelaide's heart tightened.
She already knew that the Death Eaters lurking in Hogwarts were not disguising themselves by taking Polyjuice Potion as previously speculated, but were being manipulated by the awakened cockroach diadem.
Considering the bonus provided by the Cockroach's soul power, the Ravenclaw diadem likely wouldn't only manipulate one student, unlike Riddle's diary.
This worry intensified, especially when she realized that the strength of a single ordinary student, even with the aid of the cockroach diadem, would likely be insufficient to kill three highly capable Centaurs, severely wound Professor MacFusty, and even slightly injure the robust Professor Hagrid in a short period.
Adelaide couldn't help but bite her lip in annoyance, silently cursing herself for being so stupid—why hadn't she thought of this before!
Those two guys who made it to the Final Round—Terence Higgs and Stephens—were highly likely Death Eater moles manipulated by the cockroach diadem!
Adelaide immediately frowned again. If she continued thinking along this line, even if they were genuinely Death Eater moles, trying to simultaneously fight five powerful opponents and successfully escape with the strength of just two people seemed a bit too difficult... Could it be that there were still some undetected flaws in their previous investigation process?
After a moment of hesitation, Alice MacFusty still answered Adelaide's question: "Dumbledore once told me that when he and Hagrid went to inspect the scene, they unexpectedly discovered a severely damaged vanishing cabinet."
Hearing the words "vanishing cabinet," Adelaide suddenly felt as if she had woken from a dream, slapping her head forcefully—a careless mistake; how could she have forgotten about that!
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