Chapter 117: Ahei

"Do you know her?" Professor DouDou turned sharply to Cui Ge, "Why do you call her Kasan? Does that mean her full name is Cassandra?"

"She's my mother," Cui Ge said in English. "I don't know why she's here, and until today I didn't even know she could do Animagus transformation."

"It's fine. Let's wake up Mrs. Cassandra and ask her," Dumbledore said gently, then waved his wand to lift the petrification.

"Cough, cough." The woman on the ground coughed a few times, looked around, and explained in accented English: "I'm sorry, I'm not a bad person."

Under the children's stares, she slowly rose to her feet. Harry thought she looked remarkably young—she could easily pass for a seventh-year prefect, and it was impossible to imagine she already had a child nearly his own age.

"This… Mr. Gandalf," she bowed to Dumbledore, "I'm Cui Ge's mother. I came specifically because I remembered I hadn't signed his Hogsmeade permission form."

Dumbledore chuckled. "No problem, Mrs. Cassandra. That signature won't be valid until next year."

"I still have my doubts," Professor DouDou scrutinized her. "You look nothing like the mother of a twelve-year-old. And how did you even get in?"

"Perhaps we should move somewhere else to discuss this. By the way, I'm Dumbledore," Dumbledore gestured politely.

"Oh oh, sorry—but my English name isn't Cassandra. You can call me Daisy," Daisy said as they walked.

"Kasan is a private term—it means 'mother' in Yingzhou dialect," Cui Ge added belatedly.

"What a mix-up," Harry couldn't help but laugh.

"I'd better stay here," Professor DouDou opened the wardrobe door in the infirmary. "Ahei won't abandon his attack plan just because we found Cassandra."

After Dumbledore and the professors left, Harry lay back on his bed, staring at the ceiling. Suddenly he remembered—last year at this time, it had been just like this: he'd been injured in his first Quidditch match and had to spend a night in the infirmary.

That day, Zhang Qiu had warned of intruders. Now, a year later, the prophecy had come true. He wondered whether Ahei might strike again—and whether Professor DouDou was suffering in that cramped wardrobe.

Amid these scattered thoughts, Harry drifted into a drowsy sleep, awakened by the warm morning sun of Sunday. Whether the Halloween curse and the Saturday after it held any truth, they were over now. Harry rallied himself: as soon as he left the infirmary, he went straight to Lupin's office and insisted he teach the Patronus Charm.

Under Harry's persistent requests, Lupin finally gave a definite answer: "By next term at the latest—possibly even earlier—I'll cover the Patronus Charm in Defense Against the Dark Arts. I need to systematically organize the spell and its related knowledge, and frankly, I'm not fully practiced myself—I need time to recall."

"I promise you, I'll finish preparing as soon as possible. After all, Dementors are currently lurking around the school—children need this spell," he said.

With Lupin saying this, Harry couldn't press further. He turned to the library and slowly wrote the four-thousand-word essay on werewolves that Snape had assigned.

That evening, at Torchwood gathering, everyone's eyes fixed on Cui Ge, eager to ask about his mother—making him extremely awkward.

"Alright, I'll explain one thing at a time," he said. "My mother is from Yingzhou. Her English name is Daisy Fontroy. Since I can remember, we've lived in Yingzhou, and she secretly taught me magic at home. Last year, Uncle Donald took me to America, but I didn't stay long—he brought me to Hogwarts soon after."

"I find it strange—why does your mother look so young?" Ivy asked.

"And she's beautiful, and dressed so oddly—I mean, she looks like a naive young girl," Ginny added.

Harry recalled Daisy's outfit: a white sailor blouse, a rose-pink pleated skirt, and white thigh-high socks. It certainly wasn't the attire of a dignified mother.

"Since I can remember, she's always dressed like this," Cui Ge said. "She does own a white wizard's robe, but she almost never wears it. I think she finds wizard robes unattractive—my mother is very fond of beauty."

"White wizard's robe? I remember that's called Hanfu. Zhang Qiu wore one—it looked quite nice," Harry said.

"No, that's the same as our British-style wizard robes," Cui Ge said. "She also often wears white Hanfu or kimono."

"By the way, how old is your mother?" Crabbe asked.

"I don't know," Cui Ge shook his head.

"Actually, what I'm more curious about is how your mother got in," Malfoy frowned.

"Oh, because of this charm," Cui Ge pulled out a small square cloth bag from inside his robe. "It has a spell that lets her sense my location."

"No, I don't think Malfoy meant this," Pansy said. "We're wondering how she got in while the school is on high alert for Ahei—every entrance guarded by Dementors—and she likely knows nothing of Hogwarts' secret passages."

"Isn't it obvious? She can turn into a pigeon," Crabbe scratched his head. "She just flew in."

"Exactly! Such a simple conclusion—we all thought of it. Did Draco not?" Goyle put down his cake, unusually mocking Malfoy.

"Precisely because it's so simple, I find it unbelievable," Malfoy sighed. "Who could imagine Britain's finest magical defenses being so easily breached by a pigeon?"

"Dumbledore will surely say it's the power of maternal love," Luna said dreamily.

"But this makes me think of something—if Dementors have no vigilance toward animals," Harry said, "could Ahei have escaped Azkaban and infiltrated Hogwarts using Animagus form?"

"Impossible. Absolutely impossible," Malfoy dramatically flung his hand outward. "Every Animagus in Britain must register with the Ministry. If he were one, they'd find it in the records."

"But Ahei doesn't care about that," Harry thought of Pei Xu—he was clearly a living example of an illegal Animagus. "He's an outlaw. He could've practiced Animagus in secret without registering—and maybe even learned it in prison."

"Exactly," Pansy tugged Malfoy's sleeve, whispering. "Illegal Animagi get sent to Azkaban—but Ahei was going there anyway. He doesn't care."

"Can we please stop talking about this terrifying man?" Ginny whispered.

"Yeah, Cui Ge—how about telling us about your father?" Ivy tried to shift the topic.

"There's not much to say. I only know his name is Dak," Cui Ge said. "Mom met him during a cultural exchange. They fell in love for a while, then he disappeared."

"Did Donald tell you anything else?" Ivy pressed.

"He said my father never returned home after the exchange. Teachers said he went missing in Africa," Cui Ge sighed. "Donald thinks he might still be alive, but after all these years, even if we wanted to find him, it's impossible."

Amid scattered, meandering chatter, the children mentioned their parents to varying degrees. Harry, seeking common ground, only spoke of his father's Quidditch achievements; Malfoy merely restrainedly boasted of his father's noble demeanor.

Only Luna kept talking about her father's magazine, The Quibbler—and only Cui Ge listened with bright enthusiasm.

Eventually, Crabbe and Goyle finished every last pastry on the table, and the salon ended. As Harry left, he reflected: the only noteworthy point tonight was "Ahei might be an illegal Animagus." The rest were just gossip to laugh off.

When Harry returned to his dorm, Neville had just come back—he looked exhausted.

"By the way, Neville, what was that interesting discovery you mentioned?" Harry remembered he'd said in the infirmary he'd uncovered a long-standing secret.

"Later. I'm dead tired," Neville tossed his robe carelessly on the floor and collapsed into bed.

"Everyone's a bit off," Ron shrugged, reading a thick book.

"What do you mean?" Harry asked.

"Hermione—no matter when you see her, she's always in a panic, like she'll miss the train in the next second. Neville? Since he talked to Hermione last time, he comes back to the dorm every night and just passes out, like he's running nonstop."

"You're right—Zhang Qiu too. She's always worried, like if her divinations don't come true, someone will die," Harry sighed. "Ron, besides Malfoy, it feels like only you and I are normal."

"Your state isn't great either," Ron objectively remarked. "I think the Dementors are affecting you too much."

"That's fine. After Christmas, when Lupin starts teaching the Patronus Charm, everything will get better," Harry said optimistically.

"Want to look at this?" Ron held up the book. "I borrowed it from Professor Binns. Hard to imagine an old ghost like him hiding something this good."