On the last day of term, the end-of-year banquet was held as usual. The four houses had been suppressed by Umbridge for an entire school year, and now they were all letting themselves go wild.
In the afternoon, Kingsley led a team of Aurors to Hogwarts, preparing to arrest their most wanted criminal—Umbridge.
Peeves faithfully kept his promise to the twins, continuously hammering her with a makeshift meteor hammer fashioned from a walking stick.
The nearby Aurors turned a blind eye. So did the Hogwarts staff.
Professor McGonagall was especially sarcastic, which was rare for her. "Oh my, how can you treat a prisoner like this? Let me loosen the restraints on our former headmistress, hmm?" She patted her robes absently. "Now where's my walking stick gone? Has anyone seen my walking stick?"
From Umbridge's miserable state, it seemed she wasn't any more popular at the Ministry than she'd been here.
"Pure evil, huh." Aiden leaned against the window, watching as they carried Umbridge away on a stretcher.
He raised his hand. A silver thread drifted out and attached to Umbridge without anyone noticing.
After the last strand of dream-weaving was completed, Aiden felt something shift inside him. The dreams that composed his body became lighter. More... closer to the collective unconscious sea.
He understood. His potion acting was complete.
"System!" Aiden called out to his old friend after ages of silence.
"Here." The system appeared.
"Sequence 2".
"Collecting data, integrating, analysing..." The system's voice turned mechanical for a moment, then returned to normal. "Sequence 2, Insightful Observer. Ritual: Perceive the full picture of the world while collecting no fewer than ten thousand secrets from the depths of extraordinary beings' minds."
"Wait, extraordinary beings? Where am I supposed to find extraordinary beings?" Aiden found the flaw in this plan.
"In this world, what's most abundant are extraordinary beings, aren't they?" the system asked back.
"Oh. That's true." Understanding dawned on him, and Aiden nodded.
"By the way, the system has already collected the Discerner characteristics for the host. If you need to prepare the potion, you can directly use the system's brewing function." The system quietly dropped this bombshell.
"Heh, won't brewing damage it?"
"Wait." Aiden paused. "When did you get the Sequence 2 characteristics?"
"When the host was sleeping at Hogwarts, the system extracted Discerner characteristics from itself through the castle's ritual for obtaining secrets."
"Nice! Well done!" Aiden gave the system a thumbs up.
Walking down from the tower, Aiden spotted Luna walking alongside Harry again.
"Why don't you go join their celebration?" Harry was asking her.
"I want to try recruiting some people to help me search for Crumple-Horned Snorkacks." Luna handed him a handwritten notice. "The Ravenclaws all seem to be avoiding me."
Under Aiden's influence, the outright bullying behaviour in Ravenclaw had diminished considerably. But cold violence? Even a Dream Weaver was powerless against that.
After all, humans were creatures full of problems.
"Listen, Harry..." Luna took his hand. "I'm sorry about your godfather."
For the first time, Harry truly felt Luna's pain. His own relative was just unconscious, and it already broke his heart. What about someone like Luna, who'd permanently lost family?
"Is there anything I can help with?" Harry asked after a moment of silence.
"How about trying to drive away the Wrackspurts around you?" A gentle voice appeared behind them.
"Ah!" Both jumped.
"Aiden!" Harry spun around, irritated. "Can you stop appearing and disappearing like some ghost?"
"Yes, so amazing! Why do you have so few Wrackspurts? Don't you have any worries?" Luna asked, genuinely curious.
"I do, but I've thrown them all away." A certain Dream Weaver entered child-teasing mode.
"Indeed. Worries should be thrown away." Luna nodded seriously.
The Dream Weaver who'd failed at teasing children: "...."
After chatting for a while, Luna skipped away, and Harry and Aiden each went to pack their luggage.
The next day, at Hogwarts station. Another year's end. This dark train would once again carry the young wizards on their journey home.
Aiden didn't sit with his two roommates, instead turning to look for Ron. For this year's holiday, he was planning a solo journey.
Of course, it absolutely wasn't because he was afraid of facing his aunt's roar when he returned.
"Heh, you're in for it." Ron smiled sideways at him. "Mum's been holding back a term's worth of anger."
"It's fine. George and Fred'll share the fire with me." Aiden shrugged.
"How are they going to share the fire with you?" Hermione was curious.
"Aunt's wish was for them to get good N.E.W.T. scores and then work at the Ministry. But now they've directly dropped out and run off to open a shop." Aiden analysed the situation. "Do you think Aunt will be furious with them?"
Harry imagined the scene of Mrs Weasley grabbing all three by the ears and couldn't help but smile.
Since Sirius fell, Harry felt the whole world had changed. He didn't even care much about Cho's new romance that he'd overheard on the train.
At that moment, three sleazy figures crept up from behind the compartment. They stood outside and raised their wands, pointing them at Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Aiden.
Aiden had already sensed the three little troublemakers. He'd originally wanted to teach them a lesson, but someone was faster.
Malfoy's trio's actions were clearly seen by the DA members sitting in the compartment next to theirs.
Neville yanked open the compartment door. More than ten spells shot out from inside.
Hexes and curses intertwined, turning Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle into pig-headed messes covered in pus.
Finally, Neville lifted them up—one in each hand—and stuffed them into the luggage rack like oversized suitcases.
The train arrived at the station. King's Cross Station was still bustling with its usual chaos.
The Weasley family was already waiting early, and behind them a fat figure seemed to be moving around nervously.
Moody, Tonks, and Lupin were cheerfully threatening Vernon Dursley not to bully Harry during the summer holidays.
Mrs Weasley gave Harry a tight hug and promised to bring him to the Burrow as soon as possible.
In the car on the way back, the atmosphere was terrifyingly tense.
"Now." Mrs Weasley's voice cut through the silence like a blade. "Shouldn't we have a good talk about our family matters?"
She swept her death glare over Aiden, George, and Fred in turn.
"First, Aiden. Can you explain to me what that wanted notice from some time ago was about?" Mrs Weasley began her roll call of doom.
"Please listen to me, Aunt. I..." Aiden launched into a lengthy explanation.
"So you see, I've already passed my O.W.L.s, and my grades are all Outstanding!" He hurriedly pulled out his report card like it was a shield.
Sure enough, after seeing this, Mrs Weasley's mood improved somewhat. After giving Aiden one more look, she turned to scold George and Fred.