Hogwarts Emerald

The Gryffindor common room was quiet, and the twins were eager to ask Eda how her detention had gone, if Snape had given her a hard time. But an exhausted Eda barely said a word, giving them a brief response before heading straight to her dormitory.

Fred and George watched her weary figure leave, feeling both concerned and angry.

They had planned to deal with Towler slowly, but seeing Eda like this, they couldn't hold back any longer. However, despite turning the Gryffindor common room upside down with Lee Jordan's help, Towler was nowhere to be found. He hadn't returned.

Earlier in the Great Hall, Professor McGonagall had called Towler out in front of all the Gryffindors. She had looked calm and her tone was as normal as ever, but everyone knew Towler was in big trouble.

Since being called out, Towler hadn't come back. It was obvious he had been given detention by Professor McGonagall. The only question was how long it would last—one week, two weeks, or even a month?

Curfew had come, and most students had already returned to their dorms. Fred and George stayed glued to the entrance of the common room, waiting for Towler.

After a while, the twins' patience paid off. Towler finally returned, but he wasn't alone—Professor McGonagall was with him.

Towler had his fists tightly clenched and stood behind McGonagall, his eyes red, looking like a frightened rabbit.

"Fred, George, come with me for a moment," Professor McGonagall said, gesturing for the twins to follow her. The brothers had no choice but to let Towler go for now and follow McGonagall out of the common room, leaving Towler alone to trudge toward the dormitory with his head down.

Some students wanted to ask Towler what had happened, and others were curious about what punishment he'd received. However, no matter what was said or asked, Towler remained silent, keeping his head down as he walked straight ahead.

Lee Jordan, Angelina, and Alicia blocked his path on the way to his dormitory. Lee shouted sternly, "Don't think acting like a victim is going to make us go easy on you!"

Towler still didn't respond. He lowered his head and kept walking, pushing past Lee Jordan and squeezing through the gap between Lee and Alicia, seemingly unaffected by the threat.

By the time Towler collapsed onto his bed, the twins had finally returned to the dormitory, where their three friends rushed over to greet them. Since Eda hadn't said anything before going to rest, their friends needed the twins to make a decision.

"What did Professor McGonagall say?" Alicia asked. "Did she tell you how Towler was punished?"

Fred shook his head and said, "You should all just get some rest. We still have classes tomorrow."

Hearing the words "rest" and "classes" from Fred's mouth was surprising for the group left in the common room.

It didn't sound like the Fred they knew. Angelina glanced at George and noticed that his expression mirrored Fred's, both of them struggling to control their emotions.

"And Towler..." Angelina began, but George cut her off.

"Take good care of Eda. She looked really worn out," he said.

The two girls nodded and returned to their dormitory, while the twins and Lee Jordan went back to their own room to rest.

When Angelina and Alicia entered their dorm, they saw Eda lying on her bed, clearly exhausted. She hadn't even bothered to take off her robes—one shoe was on the floor, and the other was still hanging off her foot.

Angelina gently pulled Eda up from the bed, helping her change into her pajamas before letting her go back to sleep. Alicia poured two glasses of water, placing one on the nightstand and handing the other to Eda to drink.

That night, Eda was tormented by a piercing headache that made it impossible for her to rest properly.

She tossed and turned until the sky outside gradually began to lighten, and only then did she finally fall into a fitful sleep.

When Eda woke up, she felt slightly better, and the headache had subsided, though she still looked weary. She dragged herself through the morning classes in a daze, unable to remember anything the professors had taught.

This state of fogginess lasted until the afternoon, when Eda finally felt fully recovered. That's when she remembered to check the reward the system had given her.

"Art of Duplication" At first glance, Eda thought the system was about to reward her with some sort of magic for creating clones of herself. If she could really split into multiple versions of herself, wouldn't that mean she could outnumber her opponents in duels?

If she could create many clones, she could cover all angles with spellfire. While others would be casting one spell at a time, Eda could fire off multiple at once. Victory would be guaranteed.

However, the system's reward turned out to be misleading. The "Duplication" part was real, but there was no "Art or Technique" involved. Instead, what the system had given her was a puppet—a training puppet.

The puppet could be used for real combat practice, simulating a variety of fighting styles to help Eda gain more experience in wizard duels. It was essentially a private combat instructor.

The training puppet came with three difficulty levels: Normal, Difficult, and Dumbledore. For now, only the Normal mode was unlocked. To access the next stages, Eda had to clear Normal mode and achieve a three-star or higher rating.

This trial puppet was exactly what Eda had been longing for. She wanted to convert her knowledge of magic into real, practical power rather than just theoretical understanding.

Last year in the Forbidden Forest, she had been overpowered by Fowley because of the gap in both their skill and experience. Eda had to exert great effort to counter Fowley's spells, while Fowley could easily neutralize Eda's attacks.

Fowley's fluency in casting and linking spells made his offensive maneuvers faster, more calculated, and nearly impossible to defend against. Being thoroughly outclassed in that confrontation made Eda realize the vast gap between herself and more experienced wizards.

The only downside to the trial puppet was that it couldn't be thrown into real battles for assistance, nor could anyone else use it—only Eda. She also didn't have to rack her brain inventing a plausible origin for the puppet, as there were no alchemical products on the market that could match its capabilities.

In class, the sound of incantations filled the air, but Eda's mind was elsewhere. She was eagerly waiting for class to end, so she could go test out her new puppet.

After dinner, Eda borrowed the Marauder's Map from the twins. The brothers didn't ask what she was planning, but just reminded her to return early and not to come back too late.

Their behavior was a bit unusual, but Eda didn't give it much thought. She assumed they had gotten into trouble and were laying low.

On the fourth floor of the castle, Eda stood in front of a large mirror. She had already checked the Marauder's Map to ensure no one was nearby. Looking at her reflection, she whispered, "Show me the world within the mirror."

The mirror slowly disappeared, revealing the hidden entrance behind it. Eda, familiar with the path, entered and descended down the long tunnel leading beneath the castle.

The giant underground room remained the same, except that there was more rubble on the ground and there was one more collapsed giant statue. The underground room was more dangerous than when it was discovered last year.

Eda took out a small ball from her pocket and threw it hard. A ray of light flashed, and the trial doll appeared in front of Eda. A familiar machine-synthesized voice came out of the mouth of the trial doll, saying: "The trial is about to begin, please be ready!"

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