"Is that because you are taking the good side and I am taking the evil side?" Jamie asked with a faint smile. Then his brows drew together, and the amusement faded into something more serious.
"The problem is that once you walk that path, you may not be able to use certain spells anymore," he said. "The Killing Curse, the Cruciatus Curse, the Imperius Curse, Fiendfyre—all of them lean heavily toward darkness."
"That is not a serious loss," Tyler said. "If I cannot use them, then I cannot use them. Dumbledore rarely uses dark magic, yet no one can deny that he is powerful."
He tapped the Sacred Codex lightly, his expression thoughtful. "Besides, the light-aspected magic recorded here is far from weak. If anything, some of it may be more powerful than ordinary dark magic. I actually tried cultivating it before, but no matter what I did, I could never succeed."
Jamie looked at him sharply. Tyler met his gaze and continued, "But after separating you, I can finally refine the light-aspected methods inside this book. That is the strange part."
The room fell quiet for a moment. The two of them both understood the implication, even if neither truly liked it.
"Does that mean you had to separate your darker side before you could walk the path of light?" Jamie asked. His voice was calm, but his frown deepened.
"Maybe," Tyler said. "Or maybe the method was always waiting for a condition we did not understand."
"Do you not think this feels designed?" Jamie asked. "The origin of the Sacred Codex is unknown. It appeared too conveniently, and now it pushes you toward light magic only after I exist separately. This could be a trap, or part of a larger conspiracy."
"So what if it is?" Tyler asked quietly. "Even if everything was designed, even if someone planned all of this from the start, we still have to keep moving forward. If we want to resist anything behind it, we need enough strength first."
Jamie said nothing. That argument was difficult to refute, because suspicion without power was only another form of helplessness.
"Besides," Tyler added with a smile, "this is still only a guess. It might really be the System given to me by the being who sent me into this world."
"You have a point," Jamie said at last. "Conspiracy or not, power comes first. As long as we become strong enough, we will eventually have the right to choose."
"Then it is settled," Tyler said. "I will focus on light-aspected magic, and you will focus on dark-aspected magic."
Jamie nodded. "That division suits us. It also gives us more range than forcing both sides down the same road."
"There is no need to rush too much," Tyler said, closing the Sacred Codex. "At this stage, the most important thing is increasing our knowledge. There are still many parts of the wizarding world we do not understand, and Hogwarts' library is one of the best places for us to fill those gaps."
By the time Tyler and Jamie left the Room of Requirement, it was already around two in the morning. The castle was quiet, its corridors silvered by moonlight and wandlight, and the two separated quickly before returning to their own house common rooms.
When Tyler slipped back into the Gryffindor dormitory, his roommates were still deeply asleep. Harry, Ron, Neville, and Seamus had no idea he had ever left the tower, and none of them stirred as he crossed the room.
"Sleep," Tyler murmured to himself. "That is the next task."
He changed out of his clothes, climbed into bed, drew the covers over himself, and closed his eyes. After the long day and the even longer night, sleep came quickly.
Jamie's return to the Slytherin dormitory was just as quiet. Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle were still asleep, worn out by the Sorting, the feast, and Jamie's earlier intimidation.
Even if they had known Jamie had left the dormitory, they would not have dared say much. Their fear of him had already sunk deep, and for the moment, fear made them obedient.
Early the next morning, Tyler opened his eyes under the steady reminder of his internal clock. The hour was still early, and the dormitory remained dim, with the curtains around the other beds drawn and no sign that anyone else was ready to wake.
The beds at Hogwarts were surprisingly comfortable. Soft, warm, and thickly blanketed, they seemed made to swallow tired first-years whole, and Tyler could understand why Harry and the others showed no sign of wanting to move.
He did not wake them. Instead, he dressed, washed, and left the dormitory quietly before heading down to the Gryffindor common room.
The fire had burned low, but the room was not empty. Hermione was already sitting on one of the sofas with a book open in her lap, her back straight and her expression serious, as if she had decided the first proper morning at Hogwarts was far too important to waste.
"Good morning, Hermione," Tyler said as he walked over.
Hermione looked up, surprise flickering across her face before she smiled. "Oh, good morning, Tyler."
"You are up early," Tyler said, sitting across from her. "And already studying. I may have to learn from your example."
Hermione's expression grew earnest at once. "You are already very advanced, though. You know so many spells, and you can actually use them properly. I think I need to read more if I want to catch up."
Before coming to Hogwarts, Hermione had always been the top student wherever she went. She was used to succeeding through reading, discipline, and effort, but meeting Tyler and Jamie had shaken that confidence more than she wanted to admit.
In her mind, there was only one solution. She had to read more books, practise more magic, and close the gap through sheer effort, because losing before she had even begun was not something she could accept.
"Books do give us knowledge," Tyler said. "I plan to spend plenty of time in the library myself."
Hermione's eyes lit up at that, as if she had discovered a fellow believer. "Exactly. Hogwarts has one of the best magical libraries in Britain, and it would be such a waste not to use it properly."
"Especially when we know so little compared to what is hidden in this world," Tyler said. "Class lessons are only the beginning."
Hermione nodded quickly, clearly approving of that answer. Whatever doubts she had about Tyler's mysterious knowledge, she at least agreed completely when it came to the value of study.
"We have Professor McGonagall's Transfiguration class this morning," Tyler said, glancing toward the noticeboard. The first-year timetable had already been posted in the Gryffindor common room. "It is not too early now, so I am going to the Great Hall for breakfast before heading to the classroom. Do you want to come?"
"Oh, yes," Hermione said at once. She closed her book carefully and stood, already looking more alert than most students did after a full night's sleep.
Compared with a Muggle secondary school schedule, Hogwarts' timetable felt closer to a university arrangement. There were fewer classes each day, though each subject demanded concentration, and the limited number of professors made that inevitable.
After all, Hogwarts had only a handful of teachers, yet they had to teach seven years of students across every house. The workload was enormous, so the actual number of lessons each week had to be arranged carefully.
Tyler and Hermione collected their Transfiguration books and left the Gryffindor common room together. The Fat Lady was already awake in her portrait, and she watched them go with sleepy indifference.
Navigating Hogwarts in daylight was not much easier than doing it at night. The castle had one hundred and forty-two staircases, some broad and grand, others narrow, creaking, or worryingly unstable, and some of them changed direction depending on the day.
A few staircases led somewhere different on Fridays. Others had trick steps that vanished beneath your foot, forcing students to remember where to jump unless they wanted to get stuck halfway through.
The doors were not much better. Some refused to open unless asked politely, some required the correct place to be tapped, and some were not doors at all but solid walls disguised just well enough to embarrass anyone who tried using them.
Portraits lined the corridors too, and many of the painted figures watched the passing students with shameless interest. Some whispered behind their hands, others offered advice no one had requested, and a few pointed dramatically as if first-years getting lost were the morning's entertainment.
"Oh, this castle is like a maze," Hermione complained as they stepped off a moving staircase that had carried them farther sideways than either of them expected. "Finding the right place is going to be a nightmare."
"The moving staircases are said to have been created by Rowena Ravenclaw," Tyler said. "One of the four founders of Hogwarts."
"That is impressive," Hermione admitted. "But it is not very helpful when we are trying to get to breakfast."
"No," Tyler said with a smile. "It is not friendly to first-years at all. A proper map of Hogwarts Castle would make life much easier."
"You are absolutely right," Hermione said, tightening her grip on her book as she looked down another confusing corridor. "Hogwarts really deserves a map."