Chapter 414: Smoke Bomb

"So, what's the story with that extra girl in your house?" Snape suddenly spoke up, interrupting Harry's silent mourning.

"Ah? Do you mean Cassie?" Harry replied. "She's an exchange student for this year."

"Yes, I am aware of this program, but I originally—" Snape frowned. "Is there something wrong with her?"

"There is indeed something off," Harry said tactfully. "She's a bit too open."

"The Magical Congress promised that the exchange student program would have no impact on you, and they would not break their oath in front of me." Snape tapped his fingers slowly on the table. "So, this transfer student is likely not the work of the Magical Congress... who could it be?"

Harry almost immediately thought of Donald, but he still felt that it made no sense for Donald to do this. The exchange student's actions seemed astonishing, but she couldn't cause any real impact, which was very puzzling.

Under Harry's silent gaze, Snape said faintly, "I will find out."

After this matter was finished, they seemed to have nothing else to talk about. Donna, the girl who had always been determined to follow in the Doctor's footsteps, was currently as concerned about Harry's peculiarities as the Doctor was. She didn't dare to say much to him, only staring at the open box, avoiding eye contact.

Finally, Harry saw the two visitors out. With his hands in his pockets, he walked back to the manor, looking indifferent. A mix of chaotic thoughts and inexplicable sadness lingered in his heart. Snape had always been like this, and Kruse's story was just a tragedy that had basically nothing to do with him. But—at this moment, having just been schemed against and stripped of his Knight power, and now caught in another conspiracy, his heart was as turbulent as the sea. For a few moments, Harry regretted not agreeing to Cassie; a reckless and crazy night would have been a good remedy for this melancholy... No, reason told him that it was just an anesthetic tablet, of no benefit to him at all.

If it were his usual self, he would probably have started thinking about the schemes behind this by now, but Harry happened to be using all his strength during this period to fight his own negative emotions, and he had no other train of thought.

Three days after Christmas, Snape brought Mia and Nikola to visit Downton again.

"I hope you can host them here for a while," Snape said. "It's mainly because Gregoriou and the Department of Mysteries have had some disagreements, and I need to protect Mia and Nikola."

"Disagreements?" Harry was stunned for a moment. When he first heard that these two were moving into Downton, he subconsciously assumed that Snape had arranged for them to keep an eye on Cassie.

"Gregoriou is almost impatient to start the second experiment, and this time he wants to choose Mia as the subject. Although the blood's plasticity is worse, as Mia is a skilled spellcaster, Gregoriou believes the possibility of her losing control is very small," Snape explained seriously. "But this idea of his is entirely based on wishful thinking, without any theoretical or factual basis. The Department of Mysteries cannot take risks for a hypothesis, and we haven't even reached a conclusion on whether the previous Queen is completely dead."

"Mr. Hilbert is too impatient, to the point of appearing somewhat rash," Mia said softly. "I'm worried that Nikola will have no one to take care of him."

"Then I'll have Carson arrange guest rooms for you two," Harry scratched his head. "I need to clean them up; those guest rooms haven't been used for a long time."

Obviously, Gregoriou couldn't force the experiment against the Ministry of Magic's opinion, nor could he force someone who was unwilling to be a subject. So this was just a high-sounding excuse; the real situation was likely that Snape had asked Mia to help monitor Cassie. Harry thought with some amusement, but it didn't matter; he also quite liked the child Nikola.

The days after the Christmas holiday passed uneventfully. Mia and Nikola's stay didn't bring much news. Perhaps vampires and wizards naturally lacked a common language; they rarely interacted with others. Mia always sat alone drinking tea and watching the scenery, while Nikola stayed in his room doing homework—even when Snape came to pick them up before the start of the term, he was still writing, which made Harry wonder if he would be able to hand in all his homework after school started.

The second half of the school year began with the noisy sorting of transfer students. This time, McGonagall didn't use the Ilvermorny sorting files again, insisting that they wear the hat properly. But since the fifth-year students already had their own mature thinking, the hat didn't play much of a role. The exchange students confidently negotiated with the hat, choosing the houses they wanted to go to at will, which many Hogwarts students present found very interesting.

Harry paid a little attention to the students entering Gryffindor House. Apart from two enthusiastic and beautiful girls, there was only a plain-looking freckled girl and an optimistic black guy; it didn't seem like anything special.

The day after school started, Harry walked into the library when he had no class, sat in his usual spot, and then felt like something was missing.

"Where's Zhang Qiu?" Harry blinked, looking at the empty seat beside him. "Did you see her yesterday?"

"Doesn't seem like it," Ron said somewhat uncertainly. "Did you see her on the train?"

A bad premonition rose in Harry's heart. He hurried toward the tower. There was no Charms class this period, and Professor Flitwick happened to be in his office.

"Ah, you mean Zhang Qiu?" he said in a high-pitched voice. "She's on sick leave, Master Master Xuanjun wrote the letter himself."

Harry's eyes widened.

"Yes, you find it incredible too, right? Wizards rarely get sick enough to need leave. I think it might be some private matter that's inconvenient to talk about," Flitwick nodded. "—And he didn't say exactly when she would be back, so I'm quite helpless too."

"Alright, I understand." Harry felt his hands and feet go numb. He dragged his body out, which was undoubtedly another blow to him.

"What's wrong, mate?" Ron was waiting for him in the corridor. "You look like you've heard bad news."

"Zhang Qiu is on sick leave, and I don't know when she'll be back," Harry said, looking lost. "I really don't know what's going on."

"That makes no sense," Ron also felt something was wrong. "There must be some other reason for this."

"I don't know, I feel very confused right now, and a bit tired," Harry sighed. "Things are a bit complicated, but I can't quite figure it out..."

"Does the Old Bat have any say?" Ron suggested. "He should have some arrangements, right?"

"I don't want to go to him," Harry shook his head. "If we talk about these situations and such, he always wants to test whether I can make judgments. But if we don't talk about these, I really have nothing to talk to him about."

The two walked in silence for a while, aimlessly, when Ron suddenly had an idea.

"Eh? Why don't we go find Hermione?" he said. "Hermione is very smart, she just doesn't know as much. If she's willing to help analyze it, you might be able to straighten out your thoughts."

Although Ron definitely had his own little agenda, Harry had to admit that this was a good idea.

They came to the spot where Hermione usually sat. She was still buried in a pile of books, just like in the first half of the school year, looking so busy that she didn't want to talk.

"Hermione, can I ask you for a favor?" Ron said very confidently. "Harry is troubled by some things."

"If you're busy, never mind," Harry added cautiously.

"I'm free," Hermione looked up at Harry. "I'd be happy to help you."

"That's great," Ron smiled and patted Harry on the shoulder.

Harry didn't smile. He felt that Hermione's situation wasn't right. He weighed his tone and asked softly, "Did you run into something?"

"Pretty much. I finally know how important the Knight system is," Hermione twirled the pencil in her hand and sighed. "Maybe you can end all this."

"What do you mean?"

"I finally know where Alina went," Hermione said with a hint of disappointment. "Donald told me that the Magical Congress proposed a concept to counter Kamen Riders. They want to engrave ancient runes onto the human body through tattoos, thereby enhancing a wizard's muscle and bone strength... This is very dangerous."

"Alina participated in that experiment?" Harry frowned.

"Yes, she thinks Donald's project has no future at all, and I felt the same after visiting," Hermione's tone was a bit irritable. "Donald's understanding of magic is a bit too rational."

"He always thinks we can explain magic in a scientific way. I feel like he's hit a dead end," Hermione shook her head again. "The so-called Iron Man suit is completely unfeasible. I don't know why he's been stuck there."

"So, the Magical Congress is also studying ways to deal with Kamen Riders," Harry summarized. "They chose to start with their most proficient ancient runes and planned a human experiment?"

"Right, Alina signed up voluntarily," Hermione said. "Although Donald didn't support it, he couldn't stop her. He could only pin his hopes on the Iron Man suit making a breakthrough, so he could announce that he had other ways to deal with it, to stop that experiment."

"But you think the Iron Man suit project is hard to succeed?"

"Yeah, isn't that obvious?" Hermione said irritably. "He wants to use a materialistic way to invoke idealistic magic, and in the end, he'll be stuck on energy balance forever. I've been emphasizing to him that direct spellcasting by wizards is the only way we can bypass the conservation of energy. A purely scientific suit can't possibly beat the Knight system."

Harry swallowed. He realized that Hermione's progress was far greater than he had imagined. She was becoming a person like Donna... and might soon surpass Donna, because Donna didn't seem to understand physics very well. ===== CHAPTER 415 =====