After returning to the castle, Ron did indeed pass on their suspicions about Snape to Eda—but not in person. Instead, he relayed the message through his older brothers.
The next day, the twins passed the message on to Eda, and the three of them were all trying hard to suppress their laughter during the process—they knew the truth of the matter, after all.
Fred and George had already been holding back laughter yesterday. Seeing how confident the young trio had been, they couldn't bear to tell them the real story. They were even more curious to see what expressions the trio would have once they uncovered the truth for themselves.
After learning about Ron's concern for her, Eda decided to go and thank the three of them. Even though their concern wasn't particularly useful.. ehm.. it was still a kind gesture.
As for Snape's warning, Eda didn't take it too seriously. She already knew she had drawn Dumbledore's attention. If Dumbledore really had included her in his plans, then with her current abilities, she couldn't escape that arrangement anyway.
She might as well go with the flow and see what happened.
However, Eda had no intention of following Dumbledore's plan to the letter. She wasn't a chess piece on a board to be moved around at will.
Self-interest came first—Eda wasn't someone who believed in self-sacrifice.
To express her thanks and, at the same time, figure out how they ended up pinning everything on Snape, Eda first went to Hermione's dormitory—but she wasn't there.
So Eda asked the twins to help her find Ron and Harry. They weren't around either.
Eda's intended thank-you ended up going nowhere. She wandered around the common room several times but didn't see any of the three.
Left with no other option, she decided to head to the library to take care of her own matters. As for the thank-you, she'd just say it whenever she happened to run into them.
Upon arriving at the library, Eda first returned the books she had borrowed to Madam Pince.
The slender Madam Pince looked like a malnourished vulture. She meticulously inspected the books just returned, not allowing anyone to defile the volumes she treasured most.
Eda had always thought that Madam Pince and Filch were truly a match made in heaven. Both disliked students and couldn't tolerate any rule-breaking. They must have had a lot in common to talk about.
Walking through row after row of bookshelves, Eda searched for the books she wanted. She didn't find what she was looking for, but she unexpectedly ran into the people she had been looking for—and learned the very information she wanted.
Before seeing them, she heard them. While flipping through books between the shelves, Eda heard Ron's voice. He was talking with Harry and Hermione about someone—a man named Nicolas Flamel.
"Who do you think this Nicolas Flamel guy really is? We've been searching all morning and still haven't found him! Haven't even seen a similar name!" Ron complained, followed by a loud "thud"—probably him slamming a book onto the table.
"We've only looked through a few books. It's normal not to have found anything yet. There are so many books here. If we keep searching, we'll definitely find something, Ronald." This voice belonged to a girl—probably Hermione.
Since Halloween, after going through the troll incident together, Hermione had become good friends with Harry and Ron.
"I've definitely seen that name before, I just can't remember where!" Harry added, desperate enough to want to crack open his own head to see if he could dig out any information about Nicolas Flamel.
Harry and the others were flipping through piles of books, trying to find information on Nicolas Flamel, completely unaware that their conversation had already been overheard—nor did they know they didn't actually need to put in all this effort.
Standing on the other side of the bookshelf, Eda happened to know exactly who Nicolas Flamel was. If the trio had simply told her directly about what they suspected of Snape, they'd already have known the origins of the person they were looking for.
Over her two years at Hogwarts, Eda could be considered the student who had visited the library the most—also making her Madam Pince's least favorite person.
Aside from books that helped improve her magical abilities, Eda had also read many biographies of famous witches and wizards, as well as ancient legends. Nicolas Flamel's biography was among those she'd read.
Nicolas Flamel, also known as Nicolas de Flamel, was a great wizard born in 14th-century France. He was also a legendary alchemist.
Outside the wizarding world, Flamel was equally famous in the Muggle world, where he was revered as the founding father of European alchemy.
To this day, there are still streets in Paris named after him, and the mystery of whether he and his wife are truly dead continues to puzzle Muggles—it remains an unsolved mystery in the Muggle world.
That said, Eda had never been to Paris herself, so she couldn't confirm whether a street named after Flamel actually existed.
"What if we can't find anything?" Ron said. "There are so many books—how long are we supposed to keep searching?"
"We'll find it!" Harry said firmly. "Even if we don't find out who he is, we still can't let Snape succeed!"
Wonderful—Snape was shouldering this black pot of blame sturdily. When it came to taking the fall, Eda would gladly call Snape the best in the business.
But what Eda didn't understand was—if they were talking about something so secretive, why couldn't they keep their voices down?
They'd gone through the trouble of picking a secluded corner—couldn't they at least try to lower their volume?
Who taught them to conspire loudly? Was it Gryffindor himself? Were they not afraid Godric Gryffindor would be so enraged he'd rise from the grave and knock on their door in the dead of night?
With a whole string of these little exasperated thoughts, Eda couldn't hold it in anymore. She walked up to the trio and tapped the bookshelf, signaling that they weren't alone.
Ron, lifting his head from a pile of books, yelped in surprise, "Eda! What are you doing here? Did Fred and George tell you—"
"They already told me. Thanks for the concern," Eda replied, realizing her efforts had been in vain—clearly, none of the three had caught on to what she meant by tapping the shelf.
"That's good, that's good—we were just a bit worried about you," Harry said. "You have to be careful around Snape. He's not a good person."
As expected, utterly useless—talking bad about a professor that loudly, were they really not afraid of being overheard?
Eda figured it was better to be blunt, so she said, "When you're discussing something secret, could you at least lower your voices a bit? Ever heard of the phrase 'walls have ears'? And here, there aren't even walls—just bookshelves that don't block sound."
The still-young trio looked at each other—clearly, they hadn't noticed how loud they were being earlier, nor considered the possibility of someone eavesdropping.
"You heard everything?" Hermione asked. When Eda nodded, she continued in a lowered voice, finally starting to sound like someone actually plotting something, "Then… Eda, do you know who he is?"
Hermione had deliberately avoided saying the name—that was her little test, to see if Eda really had heard them.
"Nicolas Flamel, a great alchemist, and the only known creator of the Philosopher's Stone. The Stone can turn any metal into pure gold and can produce the Elixir of Life, which makes the drinker immortal."
Eda had carefully chosen the key points—short, but practical. As for Hermione's little test, well, it wasn't going to bother her.
"Right, he was born in France in the 14th century," Eda continued, glancing at the stack of books on their table. "So wasting time on A Study of Recent Wizarding Developments and Modern Magical History is completely pointless."
"Nicolas Flamel… the Philosopher's Stone… Nicolas Flamel… the Philosopher's Stone…" Harry murmured to himself.
Then he suddenly exclaimed loudly, "Snape must be trying to steal the Philosopher's Stone! We have to stop him!"
Eda rolled her eyes helplessly. If she hadn't cast an anti-eavesdropping charm on her way over, the whole library would know by now that Snape was trying to steal the Philosopher's Stone.
Regardless of everything, Snape had treated her decently. Eda decided to defend him a bit. She said, "Professor Snape isn't trying to steal the Stone—someone else is…"
"But during the Quidditch match, Snape tried to kill Harry!" Hermione interrupted. "I saw it with my own eyes!"
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