Ever since the "flying broom incident," Eda had almost never brought up Harry Potter on her own, and the twins rarely mentioned anything about Harry's training in front of her.
Time was supposed to heal everything, and the twins figured that after a while Eda would naturally let the matter go. But that "while" turned into over a month. It wasn't until today that Fred and George finally heard Harry's name from Eda's mouth again.
"I haven't mentioned him since then?" Eda tilted her head and asked. "That can't be right…"
George said, "The last time you mentioned Harry was mid-September. You haven't brought him up once since then."
"We're in third year, he's in first. Different classes, different life—it's normal not to mention him!" Eda retorted stubbornly. She could admit to herself that she was being a little petty, but she wasn't about to let someone else say it out loud.
The twins didn't believe a single word of that—down to the punctuation.
Out of all the students at Hogwarts, Eda had been the first to meet Harry Potter.
Still, she hadn't taken any revenge on Harry, nor did she go out of her way to cause trouble like that first-year Draco Malfoy. She just sulked a bit, and that was understandable—after all, she was upset and holding a grudge.
George went on, "The moment you said Harry might've gone after the troll, Snape rushed off. Is there something going on between those two?" Then he quickly contradicted himself, "No, that doesn't make sense."
Ever since Harry Potter had enrolled, Snape had found himself a new target. Harry had become the least favored student in Potions class—even the often-clumsy Neville Longbottom or their formerly top-of-the-class senior Eda were treated better than him.
Harry Potter's most hated professor was also Snape—their relationship was downright awful. So under those circumstances, why would Snape care whether Harry was going after the troll or not? Could it be that he really wanted Harry Potter expelled?
"I'm not sure either, it just doesn't feel right," Eda said. "Snape always targets students, yeah, but that's Harry Potter we're talking about."
In Eda's view, even if Snape disliked Harry, he shouldn't be so blatantly obvious about it. Wasn't that a problem? Eda began to think about her own situation—was this like what she had experienced? Had Dumbledore once again asked Snape to work overtime?
It was because of those two reasons that Eda had brought up Harry going after the troll—to test Snape's reaction. And that little test? It really did reveal something.
Sometimes, a woman's intuition really could be spot on.
Snape, who had already gone after Harry, probably hadn't expected he'd be exposed so easily—just because Eda had a feeling. Ridiculous!
But he had only himself to blame for underestimating Eda. If he had regarded her like Dumbledore did, rather than merely as a student, maybe things wouldn't have gone this way.
They hadn't caught Quirrell, only witnessed Snape being bitten by a dog—what a hollow night.
The three of them, empty-handed, returned to the lively common room.
The little Gryffindors were still enjoying the rest of their Halloween feast inside the common room, and Dumbledore's savior-training plan was moving forward as scheduled, about which no one knew.
After November arrived, the weather grew colder. Eda switched to thicker clothes. She didn't like the chilly Scottish air—she preferred the feeling of warm sunshine on her skin.
Although the temperature was dropping, the students at Hogwarts were in high spirits—the Quidditch season was about to begin. As the most popular sport in the wizarding world, Quidditch matches always drew a lot of attention. Professor McGonagall even allowed team members to skip homework so they could train properly.
Even someone like Professor McGonagall, who placed great importance on academics, was making exceptions—so one could imagine how excited everyone else was for the start of the season. This year, Gryffindor had Harry Potter. The Savior's debut match was the center of attention—everyone wanted to see how well he could fly.
Eda stood alone in the stands.
Everyone she was familiar with was down on the field playing. The people around her were complete strangers. Ron and Hermione stood not far from her.
Eda could've chosen to stand with them, but she didn't want to go over and bother the two—it would make her feel like a third wheel.
Just after eleven o'clock, the match began, accompanied by Lee Jordan's notoriously biased commentary. Any time Gryffindor or Slytherin was playing, Lee Jordan's announcing became far from fair—and he never seemed to learn his lesson.
Slytherin's matches were always full of fouls, especially when playing against Gryffindor. The fouls were even rougher in those cases. That was also why Angelina had been so happy when she thought Eda might show up on the pitch.
Slytherins didn't care about respecting their elders or going easy on first-years.
In his debut match, Harry was nearly knocked off his broom by Flint. Though Madam Hooch did call a penalty, the Gryffindor stands erupted in protest—Harry had been just about to catch the Golden Snitch.
Harry's performance just now had given the Gryffindor students a sense of reassurance, and they began to have higher hopes for winning the match. But the good times didn't last long—Harry, who had been flying just fine a moment ago, now looked like he had suddenly forgotten how to fly. His uncontrollable broomstick seemed ready to throw him off at any moment.
Eda was all too familiar with the way Harry looked in the air—this was caused by a broomstick losing control. It wasn't that Harry had forgotten how to fly.
The Nimbus 2000 was the best broomstick on the market, and it had been gifted to him by Professor McGonagall. There was no way there were problems with its quality or safety. Since it wasn't an issue with Harry or the broom itself, it naturally meant someone was tampering with it.
Usually, broomsticks were equipped with anti-hex charms, making them hard to curse—especially when they were flying through the air. Eda didn't mean to look down on anyone, but none of the students present were capable of pulling something like that off.
Students couldn't do it—but professors could.
Eda snatched a pair of binoculars from someone next to her and began scanning the stands for Quirrell. The student whose binoculars had just been taken opened his mouth, ready to curse, but his friend quickly pulled him back. When he saw that it was Eda who had taken them, he immediately shut his mouth—angry but silent.
Eda had been suspicious all along—she just hadn't caught him slipping yet. And now, her chance had arrived. After searching several stands, Eda finally spotted Quirrell. He was staring intently at Harry Potter's broomstick, muttering to himself—with none of his usual stutter in sight. Just below Quirrell sat Snape, also staring fixedly and muttering under his breath.
Though their actions looked the same, the two people had entirely different intentions—one wanted to harm Harry Potter, and the other was protecting him.
If not for that protection, Harry would have already fallen from the sky and become a bloody mess.
"So you said you don't harbor any ill intentions, huh? Finally caught you red-handed!" Eda muttered quietly while holding the binoculars. Quirrell's urgency had betrayed him, and Eda saw it all.
Through the binoculars, Eda also saw Hermione Granger appear in Quirrell's section of the stands. As fellow "know-it-alls," Eda had assumed the two of them would think alike—but then she witnessed something that left her utterly speechless: Hermione completely ignored the true culprit, Quirrell, and directly set Snape's robes on fire!
Snape really was having a terrible time—first bitten by the three-headed dog and now limping around, and now someone had set his robes on fire.
Eda didn't even know what to say to comfort him. Watching Snape's miserable state, she almost felt like he really was the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. He was taking the fall so hard it was both hilarious and pitiful.
Eda had always thought Hermione was a smart girl, but it turned out her actions could be just as unreliable. If chaos hadn't broken out in the stands and disrupted Quirrell's spellcasting, they'd already be holding a funeral for Harry Potter by now.
Diversion tactics, misdirection—while everyone else, including Eda, was stuck at level one, Miss Hermione Granger was already operating in the stratosphere.
She not only saved Harry but also avoided alerting the true culprit. That was the only explanation Eda could come up with, and she hoped it would bring some comfort to Snape's wounded pride.
Hermione Granger's maneuver had been truly painful to watch—there was no easy way to clear her name from this mess!
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