Chapter 216: How Did Cedric Start Talking to Professor Trelawney?
After a whole night of searching, the final result was exactly what Dylan had expected.
Not a single professor found where Sirius Black was hiding in the school.
Dylan accepted this outcome with a shrug. After all, he couldn't exactly roll his eyes into the back of his head. What else could he do?
If the professors really wanted to find someone, Dylan simply didn't believe that so many highly skilled wizards, including Dumbledore—the most powerful wizard on Earth—could search all night and not find a single hair of Sirius Black.
Does that even make sense? If they couldn't find him, couldn't they cast a Trace spell? To go through all that trouble and rely purely on manpower to find Sirius's location was a stretch. The "water" they were letting out was so vast it could make the Black Lake overflow and flood all of Hogwarts.
Even with Sirius Black now a lurking presence in the school, everyone went about their daily lives as usual. However, in the evenings that followed, Dumbledore no longer had the students gather in the Great Hall. Instead, he and the other professors cast multiple Protective Charms on the common rooms of all four Hogwarts houses.
Furthermore, since the Fat Lady had not fully recovered from Sirius Black's attack, another person had to be assigned to guard the Gryffindor common room door. Dumbledore asked many people, but he couldn't get a single definite answer. Everyone was unwilling to take on the duty.
In the end, it was Sir Cadogan who stepped forward and offered to take on the responsibility. Old Dumbledore praised his bravery, and a new portrait frame was installed at the entrance of the Gryffindor common room. Sir Cadogan moved in.
He often greeted Dylan, and Dylan always responded, with a few special exceptions. For example, Sir Cadogan would ask Dylan to find Dumbledore because he wanted to duel the portraits in the Headmaster's office. Dylan had no idea how he knew that Dylan was on such good terms with Dumbledore that he could freely enter the office.
The first time Dylan heard the request, he almost thought he had misheard. You're a short figure with only a fat horse for company, and though you're fully armed, what makes you think you can challenge the portraits in the Headmaster's office?
To this, Dylan could only comment: Old Dumbledore really knows how to pick them! This guy is truly brave! He said he wanted to do something even I wouldn't dare, and he wanted my help!
Of course, Dylan refused. After being rejected, Sir Cadogan tried to duel Dylan. Dylan just smiled. In fact, to some extent, Dylan's current strength was equal to, if not greater than, that of the portraits in the Headmaster's office.
He treated the combative knight's attitude like a headmaster patiently indulging a slightly dimwitted child. No matter what sharp or harsh words the knight said, Dylan would just laugh it off.
After being ignored several times by Dylan, Sir Cadogan still greeted him every day. However, the passwords he set became more and more complex—even ridiculous. Sir Cadogan would often try to duel other young wizards, but no one ever paid him any mind.
So, in the absence of duels, it seemed his brain had been stimulated. He desperately tried to come up with complicated and hard-to-remember entrance passwords, and he didn't even change them at a set time. You could get two, three, or even four or five different passwords in a single day!
Dylan's logical conclusion was that Sir Cadogan volunteered to guard the Gryffindor common room because he wanted to control the students' entry and exit. However, Dylan himself didn't go in and out of the common room often. Sometimes he'd spend the entire day in the library or his own room. Even if he didn't know the password, he could just ask someone, and he'd usually find out. This constantly frustrated Sir Cadogan, who never managed to stop Dylan. He even started to get annoyed with his own fat horse.
While Sir Cadogan's presence had no impact on Dylan, Neville, the little chubby boy with a poor memory, became the biggest victim. Sometimes he just wanted to water some plants in the greenhouses, but he'd get stuck outside the door for a while.
Sometimes he would even have to wait until dinner, go eat, come back, and get stuck again before someone else helped him get back in. In the end, as far as Dylan knew, after Neville asked him for the password a few times, he was too embarrassed and prepared a piece of parchment. Every time Sir Cadogan changed the password, Neville would write it down, word for word. A poor memory is better than a good pen.
During the day, Dumbledore would still lead the teaching staff on occasional patrols. The results were disappointing; no one found a single hair of Sirius Black.
It was also as if a pessimistic and tense plot was unfolding; it began to rain at Hogwarts, and the rain grew heavier and heavier. This made it inconvenient for Dylan to go to the Forbidden Forest at night. Luna, since the rain began, hadn't gone to the Forbidden Forest either, and naturally, her contact with Dylan decreased. They also hadn't been to the Hufflepuff kitchens these days because the professors wouldn't allow it.
In the afternoon, Dylan was reading in the library. In fact, most students were not allowed to be in the library alone, especially those in the lower years. Dylan was the only exception. No professor restricted his movements. Other students either rested, attended class, or stayed in their dorms. Dylan, however, could still move freely.
Outside the library, leaden-gray clouds churned above Hogwarts. The weather felt very oppressive. Raindrops the size of beans hit the castle spires, then streamed down the gargoyles' horns and the griffins' fangs, forming silver threads that splashed coin-sized puddles on the flagstones. Though it was afternoon, the light outside was heavy, like dusk. Even the surface of the Black Lake was beaten into countless whirlpools by the dense raindrops.
Dylan listened to the pattering of the wind and rain against the windowpanes. He wasn't bothered by the noise and just continued to turn the pages of his book. The weather was usually similar at this time of year. Last year, Dylan had used the stormy weather to successfully practice the Animagus transformation. He didn't mind this kind of weather. However, the heavy rain meant the library was filled with damp, cold moisture, which made him a bit uncomfortable. So he would cast a Warming Charm on himself, along with a spell to remove moisture. So, in essence, there was no real impact.
It must be said again: magic is truly too useful.
Dylan was curled up in an armchair by the fireplace. With the warming charm he had cast, the air was warm and cozy.
Suddenly, a wave of warmth, mixed with the scent of pine, swept past him. When Dylan looked up, Cedric was standing in the flickering light of the fireplace. The Hufflepuff Prefect was tall and slender, his dark blue robes speckled with raindrops, and the silver-threaded House crest shimmered softly in the firelight. His golden hair, wet from the rain, looked even more radiant, with a few strands hanging over his clean forehead, making his gentle eyes even more charming.
Dylan raised an eyebrow. If a young girl were standing there now, she'd probably be utterly smitten.
"Prefect, is there something I can help you with?"
This wasn't their first meeting. The last time this guy came to find him was also in the library, and here he was again.
Cedric smiled gently, his voice mellow. "Dylan, I'm surprised. Everyone else is restricted to their dorms, but you're able to read leisurely in the library."
Dylan chuckled softly and shrugged. "I think the rumor that I'm the professors' most talented student, and that even Professor Snape humbles himself before my genius to diligently teach me magic—I think that rumor has probably spread through the upper years by now."
Cedric's lips curved upward. "I have heard from many people that Professor Snape, the Head of Slytherin, is pleasant to a first-year student."
Dylan put down his book. "Let me correct you on one point—'pleasant' is false. Have you ever seen Professor Snape give anyone a pleasant look?"
Cedric nodded. "At least I haven't."
Dylan looked around and saw there were no empty chairs for Cedric to sit in. So he didn't invite him to sit down and chat face to face.
"I imagine you becoming Hufflepuff's Quidditch Captain and Seeker will put a lot of pressure on Gryffindor."
Cedric was taken aback. He had indeed become Hufflepuff's Quidditch Captain and Seeker. However, after the last captain graduated, the position of Hufflepuff Quidditch Captain had been vacant. This was a tactic to confuse the Quidditch teams of the other houses, allowing them to adjust their team without opponents knowing their new strategies.
To accomplish this, they had waited until the last minute before the deadline to submit their roster and his application to be captain. The other three Quidditch teams shouldn't have known about this yet. So why did Dylan know? How did he know?
In an instant, Cedric thought back to the image Dylan's Boggart had taken a while ago—his own corpse. He also recalled the various nicknames people had for this mysterious Gryffindor wizard. The most common one was, of course, "the professors' favorite student." Besides that, there were a lot of strange nicknames, like "Ravenclaw in Gryffindor" or "Slytherin in Gryffindor." After all, only Slytherin students would get a little bit of patience and fondness from Professor Snape. Dylan was an obvious exception.
And besides all of these, there was one more nickname: a diviner who could divine better than the Divination professor.
Cedric focused. "I actually came today to ask more specifically about what happened last time."
Cedric looked at Dylan. "I recently ran into the Divination professor. At first, I wanted to ask her some other questions, but then the conversation turned to her thoughts on your Boggart, the one that looked like my corpse."
"Professor Trelawney gave a very dramatic explanation for it—she claimed you have a great talent for divination and that your ability might be even stronger than a professor's."
"Even though I'm not sure if the professor has any genuine divination talent, I chose to trust her, so I wanted to come and ask you specifically. Did you, during some divination process, see a scene involving me? For example—did you witness my death, which is why your Boggart took my form?"
"Am I really going to end up like that?"
Legilimency allowed Dylan to easily capture Cedric's emotions and thoughts as he spoke. Although this excellent and strong student was recognized by many for both his magical talent and his character, when it came to his own safety, he was somewhat panicked.
Dylan could understand. After all, what intelligent creature doesn't fear death? Cedric was, at the end of the day, still a student, not yet fully an adult. He could even be called a child. When faced with the terrible danger he might encounter in the future, he would naturally want to understand it clearly.
"Dylan, do you know something you didn't tell me last time?"
Dylan pursed his lips. He was very confused about how Professor Trelawney had managed to shift the conversation to him with Cedric. At the same time, he was a little surprised by Cedric's premonition. Of course, it was also possible that Professor Trelawney, with her usual antics, had simply scared Cedric, causing him to think back to the time his Boggart had become a treeman who looked a lot like him.
Originally, Dylan had planned to wait for the right time to save Cedric, and then, after he entered the Ministry of Magic, help him gain some advantages. But now, since he had asked...
....
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