That night passed with many people going to sleep full of questions, and Eda was no exception.
However, Eda wasn't thinking about who had put Harry's name into the Goblet of Fire, nor was she thinking about their motives.
Instead, she was wondering whether she would ever get to enjoy a peaceful, incident-free Halloween before graduating.
Perhaps, she thought, she ought to suggest that the school simply cancel next year's Halloween.
That way, no matter who wanted to stir up trouble, they wouldn't have Halloween as the perfect occasion.
Something always happened on Halloween.
She was honestly getting tired of it.
Next year would be Eda's last Halloween at Hogwarts.
Couldn't it just be peaceful for once?
Please!
When classes resumed, events unfolded exactly as Eda had expected.
The students began excluding and isolating Harry.
Even Hufflepuff, which had always been on good terms with Gryffindor and was known for its kind-hearted students, behaved the same way.
There was no need to mention Ravenclaw or Slytherin.
Even within Gryffindor itself, a small number of students did the same.
With that being the case, it was hardly surprising what the other three houses were doing.
The only reason things were not even worse was because Eda was a Gryffindor, in the same house as Harry.
If Eda had belonged to any of the other three houses, that entire house, from top to bottom, including its Head of House, would probably have united in boycotting Harry.
The only thing that gave Eda some comfort was that everyone remained fairly restrained.
They excluded him through their looks and their actions, but it had not escalated into personal attacks.
No one cursed at him.
No one laid a hand on him.
Eda merely had a headache because the fragile surface peace she had worked so hard to create had been shattered.
Harry, on the other hand, wasn't just suffering from a headache.
He felt miserable all over.
Harry had believed that, given enough time, everyone would eventually grow accustomed to him being a champion.
At the very least, they would stop looking at him with cold eyes.
But Harry was wrong.
He had overestimated everyone.
The Hufflepuff students believed Harry's selection had been unjust and unfair, which made the young badgers especially indignant.
The Ravenclaw students believed Harry had resorted to trickery in order to gain even more fame for himself, and the young eagles looked down on such behavior.
As for Slytherin...
Did Slytherin really need a reason to dislike Harry?
There was also another undeniable fact.
No matter how one looked at it, Eda seemed far more like a true champion.
The Slytherin students feared Eda's strength. After all, she had put them in their place more than once.
The other three houses, meanwhile, regarded her with a mixture of admiration and respect.
Eda never bullied the weak simply because she was strong, and that naturally earned people's goodwill.
On top of that, she was beautiful and carried herself well.
Just having her represent Hogwarts looked impressive enough.
And she wasn't merely pretty to look at.
She was genuinely formidable.
The thing that hurt Harry the most was Ron.
His best friend's lack of understanding left Harry upset every single day, and his temper became much shorter.
Fred and George noticed Ron's behavior as well.
The twins understood their younger brother's state of mind.
Being close friends with someone who seemed better than you at everything placed an enormous amount of pressure on a person.
Jealousy over Harry becoming a champion, combined with the feeling of betrayal because Harry supposedly knew how to enter but hadn't told him, had clouded Ron's judgment.
He failed to notice that anything was wrong.
The two of them were so close they were practically inseparable, spending every day together.
If Harry had secretly entered his own name, Ron should have been the first to know.
Yet Ron wasn't thinking about any of that.
Nor was he supporting his best friend when Harry needed that support the most.
Fred and George had experienced similar feelings before.
Eda was simply too outstanding.
More than once, the twins had felt they were unworthy of standing beside her.
For a time, they would spend ages thinking about everything Eda said or did.
Even one of her jokes would leave them wondering.
Was she starting to dislike us?
Did she no longer need us?
Didn't she deserve better people by her side?
Fortunately, the twins were naturally optimistic.
They had not been crushed by the insecurity buried deep inside them.
Instead, they found confidence in other aspects of themselves.
That was why they had not become like Ron was now, sulking around like a resentful spouse left home alone.
Fred and George watched everything unfold from the sidelines without saying anything to Ron for the time being.
They felt it would be better if Ron figured things out for himself.
They did not want to interfere carelessly in the friendship between Ron and Harry.
Unless there was truly no other choice.
If Ron absolutely couldn't work it out on his own, then the twins would have a talk with him.
That was their duty as his older brothers.
Day after day passed.
Not only did Ron and Harry fail to make up, but Harry's situation only continued to worsen.
Even the one thing that had comforted Eda disappeared.
Over the past two days, a new badge had suddenly become popular around the school.
An insulting badge.
The badge was large enough to be easily noticed and even glowed in the dark.
It read:
Support Esmeralda Twist, Hogwarts' True Champion.
If that had been all, there would have been nothing wrong with it.
Eda might even have thanked them for their support, and for actually spelling her name correctly.
But supporting Eda was never the badge's real purpose.
When someone pressed the badge firmly, the words supporting Eda disappeared.
In their place appeared:
Potter Stinks.
The words glowed with a sickly green light, making them especially glaring.
At first, the badges were only popular among a small group of students. The prefects confiscated quite a few of them as well.
But the prefects failed to stop their spread.
Before long, the badges had become popular throughout the entire school, and no matter how hard they tried to ban them, they kept reappearing.
Left with no other choice, the prefects came to Eda, asking her to come up with a plan.
What should they do?
Should they continue cracking down on the badges, forbidding provocations and troublemaking?
Or should they simply let things run their course?
Although Eda had expected this, actually seeing the students' hostility and those badges still made her head buzz.
She was certain her blood pressure had reached two hundred.
Dumbledore had announced that Harry was the fourth champion, then dusted off his hands and walked away.
He never considered what the students thought or how dissatisfied they were.
Dumbledore had stepped away from the problem, leaving the entire mess for Eda to clean up.
Wasn't this like a kid asking its Mum to clean its bum after doing the deed?
What was she supposed to do?
Eda had no idea.
At that moment, she desperately wanted to grab Dumbledore by his beard and ask the headmaster exactly how he expected her to deal with this.
She couldn't very well throw every student wearing one of those badges into detention.
That was nearly a third of Hogwarts' student body.
Water can carry a boat, but it can also overturn it.
If Eda really dared to do that, the vast sea of students would surely drown her.
But she couldn't simply ignore the situation either.
The Slytherins were all waiting to laugh at her.
They were waiting for the perfect opportunity to overthrow Eda's "tyrannical rule."
When everyone was guilty, no one could realistically be punished.
So Eda could only punish the ringleaders while letting everyone else off.
She instructed the prefects to investigate the badges' origins and see if they could identify whoever was making and distributing them.
Before Eda's investigation could produce any results, another incident broke out.
Harry and Malfoy got into a fight.
Naturally, it all started because Malfoy was smugly showing off his "Potter Stinks" badge.
That single act ignited all the anger Harry had been bottling up.
The two of them immediately drew their wands and engaged in what could only be described as two amateurs flailing at each other.
It was impossible to tell who cast a spell first or whose reaction had been faster.
But one thing was certain.
Malfoy had provoked Harry first.
Harry, however, had been the first to draw his wand.
Calling it two amateurs flailing at each other was entirely accurate.
They both cast spells.
Neither of them was hit.
Instead, Hermione and Goyle, who happened to be standing nearby, were the ones who suffered.
Huge boils erupted all over Goyle's face.
Hermione's front teeth kept growing longer and longer until she truly became a beaver girl in every sense of the word.
Since the duel had taken place outside the Potions classroom, Harry was caught red-handed by Snape.
Even though it had clearly been a mutual fight, Snape somehow turned it into Harry assaulting Malfoy all by himself.
Gryffindor lost a full fifty points.
Harry was given detention.
Ron, who had done absolutely nothing, was also given detention.
Meanwhile, Malfoy continued proudly displaying his "Potter Stinks" badge.
Harry trembled with rage, wishing he could fire the Cruciatus Curse straight at Snape.
Eda had a splitting headache.
It felt as though needles were stabbing into her skull.
She went to the Astronomy Tower by herself, hoping to find a little peace and quiet.
Astronomy classes were held at night, so almost no one came there during the day.
Professor Sinistra was rarely there either.
From the Astronomy Tower, one could overlook almost the entire castle.
Students moved across the grounds like tiny ants.
Beyond them lay the Forbidden Forest, the calm surface of the Black Lake, and the great ship anchored upon its waters.
Resting her hands on the battlements, Eda cautiously leaned over to look down.
Her legs immediately felt weak.
It was simply too high.
Just then, familiar footsteps sounded behind her.
"I never expected you'd hide up here," Dumbledore said teasingly.
"What is it? Thinking of jumping?"
...
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