Malfoy stared blankly at the faded English words on the yellowed star chart, his brow furrowed in concentration, yet understanding remained stubbornly out of reach.
"What is all this about 'Guide,' 'Guardian,' and... 'time scale'?"
He scratched his head, his face flushed with the effort. Defeated, he turned to Harry. "Harry, did you make any sense of this?"
"Nope."
Harry shook his head honestly, then grinned mischievously. "But I figured something else out."
Malfoy's expression turned sour. "And what's that?"
"That you and Ravenclaw were never meant to be together."
Damn it! Was Harry implying that Malfoy wasn't smart enough to solve it?!
Luna, observing the exchange with detached curiosity, wondered why they always bickered, despite their obvious friendship.
Had Hermione not been preoccupied with their antics, she might have been able to answer Luna's silent question, but the bookish witch was entirely focused on the star chart.
"Wait... if that's the case..."
Suddenly, Hermione straightened up, her eyes shining with understanding.
"What is it?"
"Did you figure it out?"
Harry and Malfoy exchanged a look of disbelief. Could she really decipher something this abstract?
"Look closer... the word 'Guide,' coupled with the astronomical context of the star chart... the most obvious association is a Guiding Star."
Hermione traced a pattern on the chart with her index finger. "Combined with the very idea of 'guidance'... and thinking of the polar star, used for navigation, it must be Polaris!"
Is she even a girl?
Malfoy stared blankly, a vague sense of comprehension warring with utter bewilderment.
Harry, however, was slightly better off, having encountered Polaris in Muggle navigation.
"Now look at this... the Guardian."
Hermione pressed on, oblivious to their reactions. "In the starry sky, the ultimate symbol of 'guardian' is Orion!"
Hermione circled Polaris and Orion on the star chart. "Then, if we connect the 'Guide' and 'Guardian' with a line..."
Drawing a line between Polaris and Orion, a sudden flash of insight lit her face. The line, when extended, intersected a celestial clock face, the hands pointing to "12" — corresponding to the constellation Horologium.
"The time markings... that's it!"
Hermione, utterly absorbed in her intellectual triumph, seemed unaware of the dumbfounded expressions of Harry and Malfoy behind her.
Luna, however, seemed to understand, her usual dreamy gaze sharpened with comprehension. She might not have been as knowledgeable about constellations, but she followed Hermione's logic.
"But now that I know the answer is Horologium... what am I supposed to do with it?"
Hermione paused, frowning in thought. Then realization dawned... this was the Astronomy Tower!
Her eyes lit up again, and she spun around to head toward the array of sophisticated astronomical telescopes.
But she stopped halfway there, her expression clouding with sudden doubt.
The star chart... wasn't Rowena Ravenclaw's. It belonged to Tom Riddle.
But if that was the case, why was the star chart so old?
Why would Tom Riddle go to such lengths?
As she pondered these questions, Hermione carefully scrutinized everything in the Astronomy Tower.
Because the Astronomy Tower had been renovated, almost all the original telescopes and other equipment were new, except for that "old" brass telescope, which seemed entirely out of place.
Because this telescope was too "old" and not as good as the other new telescopes, it was placed in a very remote corner and ignored.
"Not bad."
Cassandra Volle closed her book, watching Hermione with faint amusement.
She had seen Tom's star chart before, but she had taken longer to decipher it than Hermione.
Tom Riddle, however, seemed to have expected this and didn't react.
He was watching Harry and Malfoy, teasing, "It seems Hermione Granger is proving to be rather more useful."
They had been outshone… or rather, "judged as such by Tom Riddle"!
Spurred by wounded pride, Harry and Malfoy resolved to spend the entire night honing their fighting abilities.
As for spells... those were merely supplementary; a dash would suffice.
She went to the "old" brass telescope and began observing the night sky, searching for the Horologium constellation.
"Let me see... it should be..."
When the constellation finally swam into view through the telescope's lens...
Hermione experienced a bizarre sensation, as if her consciousness had been abruptly dislodged from her body.
When she came to her senses... she looked around and was shocked to find that she was no longer in the Astronomy Tower.
It was like a black and white world; the night sky above was also black and white, a black curtain adorned with dazzling white stars.
"Where is this..."
Hermione was both curious and unafraid, reassured by the knowledge that Tom Riddle was there, as he always was.
"The Spirit World."
A familiar voice echoed from behind her.
Hermione turned around to see Tom Riddle in his black-and-white attire.
"Tom Riddle?"
She stared at him in disbelief. "This place... you created it?"
Tom Riddle didn't answer her question directly, but neither did he deny it.
"Ordinarily, Rowena Ravenclaw's spirit form should have manifested by now... but no matter."
Tom Riddle chuckled softly, then switched to a tone of formal gravity. "Hermione Granger... your wisdom has been most thoroughly recognized, and so... I shall now reward the wise."
As he spoke, the Spirit World began to dissolve, its monochrome starkness replaced by shimmering silver patterns that flashed momentarily across Hermione's eyes in the real world.
When Hermione returned to herself, she found herself "back" in the Astronomy Tower, surrounded by Harry, Luna, and Malfoy, all of whom stared at her with puzzled curiosity, as if nothing had happened.
"Tom Riddle, what was that?"
Cassandra Volle had also noticed the mysterious patterns in Hermione's eyes.
"Well... I will tell you later."
After all, it couldn't be explained easily.
The patterns in Hermione's eyes were indeed "Ancient Magic Runes," but Tom Riddle had created them based on his understanding of ancient magic, referencing "Thanatos's Gaze."
Although they both originated from ancient magic, their effects were not as direct and miraculous as "Thanatos's Gaze," since Tom Riddle himself didn't yet possess divine power and couldn't create ancient magic runes of that magnitude.
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There are readers who walk ahead of the story — who know what the night holds before it arrives. They found their way to Patreon. Perhaps you will too.