Hogwarts Wasteland: The Witch from the Borderlands

"It's Aragog! Yes, it must be him!"

As soon as he got to the lounge and took off his invisibility cloak, Ron couldn't wait to speak.

"Yes, we should have known! Hagrid always mentions Aragog, but we've never seen it. Obviously, it's been sent to guard something important!" Harry said confidently, pacing around in the dark common room.

"What do you think it's guarding? Something Voldemort would covet must be some kind of treasure, right?" Harry asked.

"Maybe it's the Philosopher's Stone? I've read about it in books. It can grant immortality and turn stones into gold!" Ron speculated, letting his imagination run wild.

"Impossible! The last Philosopher's Stone in the world perished in the Great Fire of Paris along with its creator, Nicolas Flamel!" Harry retorted. "Besides, what would Voldemort need the Philosopher's Stone for? He had already conquered death, so gold was useless to him. Two gallons of pure dragon blood would have been far better."

"Then what do you say it is?" Ron retorted.

"Perhaps it's the Book of Admission? Voldemort is no longer satisfied with the unreliable Pen of Admission? Or perhaps it's the secret to why Dumbledore is so powerful—he's the greatest white wizard, yet he's still willing to be the headmaster in a small moving castle," Harry imagined.

"Hermione, what do you think?"

The girl bit her lip and shook her head: "I don't care what's hidden behind that door, it won't hurt us anyway."

"I just have a feeling that Dumbledore might have discovered us."

Her words made the two boys jump up immediately: "No way! This is my family's heirloom invisibility cloak! Legend has it that even Death can't see through it!"

"But your father used to wear it and cause all sorts of trouble at school, and Dumbledore was the headmaster back then," Hermione said casually.

"However, he didn't seem to have any intention of exposing us; in fact, he even tried to persuade us to go and look behind the door on the fourth floor..."

Her intuition was always strong, and this time was no exception. In the phoenix's dark, round eyes, she seemed to see an old man with a white beard, playfully winking at her and saying, "Hey, you little Gryffindor, don't you want to take a risk?"

But this time, it was the two boys who chickened out first: "Hermione, are you serious? You saw it, right? Aragog, it's so big!"

Ron swallowed hard. He was terrified of spiders. The little guys on his way to see Hagrid were already enough to drive him crazy, and now the thought of Aragog's enormous body made his legs go weak.

"If Hagrid were with us, Aragog might be a docile big pet, but if we go in on our own..." Harry shook his head with difficulty: "The Invisibility Cloak can't block out smells, we'd turn into three crème brûlées."

Hermione was indeed very interested. Such a large spider, the so-called large body is weak in doors, such long hair, the so-called hair is weak in fire, and the door that can be sealed from the inside. These elements evoked her memories of the Borderlands, the finger monsters that occupied the city of Caria, and the insectoids that sprayed silk at people from the ground. Wasn't Aragog just a combination of them?

If you come with Hagrid, there's definitely no chance of a fight, but if you sneak off on your own, you might just get a thrilling brawl!

The idea lingered in her mind for a long time, but she eventually dismissed it; she had a good understanding of herself.

These are extraordinary times, and there's a guy from the Green Flame Party hiding in the school; it's really not good to cause trouble.

Moreover, with the Christmas holidays approaching, the professors would be going out to rescue children, and she herself needed to finish her thesis before the holidays so that Professor Flitwick could take it to the magazine. Going out these days was not easy, because Hogwarts was constantly moving, and the Floo Network was not very stable and often could not be connected. At least until they left Romania, the professors would not be able to travel normally to Malfoy Castle or other wizarding communities.

As for Dumbledore's look before he left... let's just pretend we didn't see it, or at least wait until after Christmas? Then we'll have plenty of time for adventure!

"Alright, let's go to sleep first." She interrupted their daydreaming.

"Remember, you know nothing about what happened tonight, and you can't tell anyone—not Percy, and definitely not George or Fred! You can't go to Hagrid either, and you absolutely can't tell anyone you saw Aragog!" she warned them sternly.

"None of this concerns us first graders, understand?"

She only let them go back to sleep after they both nodded seriously.

But when it came to Hermione herself, she couldn't fall asleep after returning to her dorm.

It's a sense of loss that comes from witnessing a dangerous battle firsthand but being unable to participate.

After merging into this body, the most dangerous thing I've encountered in the past few months, besides the pursuit before entering school, has been the Halloween ghost riot. My battle with Lucius can hardly be called a battle; it was just a friendly sparring match with no real threat to my life.

But even for the Finger Witch, who walks the borderlands, this level of skill is so weak that she would complain, "It's too weak!" after years of honing her combat skills.

She hadn't truly brushed with death in months, been blasted against a wall by a sharp sword strike, or been chased by a raging rune bear or a decaying wild dog.

Her soul yearned for battle, for the space between thunder and fire, but to say it yearned wasn't quite accurate. She herself loved peace, but her heart, tempered countless times by the borderlands, could no longer adapt to this rare peace in the apocalypse.

Her body was screaming and trembling. As the professors fought the shadowy figures, she almost couldn't resist lifting her cloak and joining them!

"Maybe I really am a Gryffindor!"

"But maybe it's not just a thirst for battle..." She recalled the battles she had witnessed before: Lily, Flitwick, who were mentors during the day and fought against dark wizards at night; and McGonagall, who was not there tonight, who must have gone to a more dangerous place.

Perhaps they are very close to Voldemort's lair, surrounded by traps set by dark magic, with all sorts of evil curses around them. Curses that kill upon contact are hidden in the mechanisms under their feet, and a mentally deranged dark wizard could jump out from the shadows at any time. And the children they are trying to save may just be bait, bait to wipe out the guardians of Hogwarts!

She shook her head vigorously, trying to clear the jumbled thoughts from her mind.

"I guess I've been living in comfort for too long. What's with this inexplicable concern and worry of mine?" She couldn't help but chuckle. Perhaps this concern was the very force that connected her to the Faded Ones?

"Fine, since I can't sleep, I might as well do something meaningful!"

She climbed out of bed and pulled out the materials she had collected earlier from the closet. Although she was not able to participate in the professors' plans, she wanted to provide some help to the professors who had taken care of her.