On a misty, rainy morning in July, Adelaide, who should have been enjoying her summer break, was rudely roused from her slumber by a pungent smell of boiled cabbage.
Out of instinct, Adelaide subconsciously glanced to her right—normally, her close friend Cho Chang, the girl who always had a sweet smile, would be lying there.
However, at this moment, all that met her eyes was a cold, white wall.
Adelaide realized with a start that she had left the familiar Hogwarts and was now living in this strange house at No. 7 Wisteria Walk, Little Whinging.
Counting today, she had spent exactly five days here.
The owner of No. 7 Wisteria Walk, Mrs. Figg, was a kind and gentle Squib. Although the house was frequently filled with the unbearable smell of cabbage, Mrs. Figg always found ways to alleviate Adelaide's boredom.
She would hand Adelaide a large tub of chocolate ice cream to enjoy while watching cartoons, and would enthusiastically pull out photos of the cats she used to keep, sharing those cute and funny memories with her.
It had to be said that if one could ignore the annoying cabbage smell, Adelaide's life over the past few days had been fairly tolerable.
For eleven-year-old underage Wizards in the British Wizarding World, the end of July is always an important time.
This is when acceptance letters sent to various wizarding households begin to arrive in succession.
Professors usually arrange to visit Muggle-born families in early August to explain the situation, hand-deliver their acceptance letters, and take them shopping in Diagon Alley.
Currently, there was still more than a week left before the end of July for Adelaide to pass the time.
During these seemingly ample days, Dumbledore had set a special task for Adelaide: to observe from the shadows and gain as deep an understanding as possible of the savior Harry Potter's personality and daily habits.
Because of her memories from her previous life, Adelaide likely understood the savior better than Harry Potter knew himself, so she didn't spend much effort observing him—for Adelaide, the more pressing matter was how to handle Hermione when delivering the acceptance letter to the Granger family in early August.
After all, some unpleasantness between her and Hermione had left their relationship in a delicate state, so Adelaide had racked her brains to devise several plans, hoping to smoothly resolve the conflict between them.
After much deliberation, she decided not only to prepare an exquisite gift for Hermione but also to think of a bunch of sweet words in advance to soften the atmosphere between them, ensuring she could survive this long summer break safely and unscathed.
In the midst of these utterly boring days, a letter from the Weasley Twins arrived in Adelaide's hands.
Opening the envelope, the contents of the letter made Adelaide raise her eyebrows in surprise.
Perhaps the crushing defeat in his final Quidditch match at Hogwarts had left Charlie Weasley with a psychological shadow; after graduation, he actually turned down the tempting olive branch extended by the British and Irish Quidditch League and resolutely chose to head to Romania to devote himself to the study of Dragons.
Although she had previously suggested that Alice ask Dumbledore for help in sending a reliable adult Wizard to accompany her to care for the Hebridean Black Dragon, she hadn't expected Dumbledore to send Charlie Weasley to accompany her!
Normally, shouldn't it be Hagrid, who was obsessed with Dragons and possessed extensive experience in caring for magical creatures?
Even if not Hagrid, the Care of Magical Creatures Professor, Mr. Kettleburn, had expressed interest in the Hebridean Black Dragon to Alice several times. Hadn't that been considered?
The always steady Dumbledore had actually chosen to send a seventeen-year-old who had just graduated to accompany Alice to Romania to look after a Dragon; this was somewhat unreasonable.
Could it be that Dumbledore intended to further play matchmaker for the two of them?
Given Alice's near-manic obsession with Adelaide over the past few months, she secretly thought that if Dumbledore really harbored such thoughts, they would likely only end in smoke.
Adelaide narrowed her eyes slightly, her slender fingers gently stroking the soft parchment as her thoughts drifted away.
Although she and Dumbledore shared the ultimate goal of eliminating Lord Voldemort, they actually had major differences in their specific ways of doing things.
Dumbledore was a bit too righteous; his heart held only 'the greater good.' He could sacrifice his own love and life for the Wizarding World, and would also treat those around him as 'chess pieces' and 'tools' for the future of the Wizarding World.
Everything he did was for the overall future of the 'Wizard' race—frankly speaking, Adelaide's ideological awareness was not yet high enough to make her sacrifice her own interests or even her life for the collective; she couldn't do it.
As a Ravenclaw, Adelaide would not be like the Gryffindor Harry Potter, who, upon learning that everything was a setup by Dumbledore, was still willing to go to a gallant death to complete his plan—she would only find a way to kill Lord Voldemort and the Protagonist Cockroach while ensuring her own safety to complete the task Merlin had assigned.
At the same time, she didn't want those close to her to be sacrificed, and this circle of close people included Dumbledore himself.
To prevent events from unfolding as they did in the original timeline, she would use any means necessary to save the lives of Dumbledore, Sirius, Cedric, Dobby, Snape, and others.
To this end, she didn't hesitate to bring her conflict with Dumbledore into the open, clearly telling him that she was uncontrollable and would not unconditionally execute his plans.
Adelaide planned to write a letter to Armandina, who was still in Austria, to have her persuade Vinda Rosier to write an ambiguously toned letter of greeting to her Great-Granduncle; timing it right, she would apply to visit her Great-Granduncle at St Mungos, and considering safety issues, she would naturally need Dumbledore to accompany her.
Then, what Adelaide needed to do was skillfully provide an 'assist,' stirring Dumbledore's emotions so he would be too distracted to meddle, focusing more on his own emotional state instead of playing matchmaker or pulling strings around her.
After carefully calculating and sorting through the plan in her mind over and over again, Adelaide finally let out a long sigh of relief and turned her gaze back to the parchment with messy handwriting in her hand.
At the end of the letter, the Weasley Twins sincerely invited her to visit The Burrow on August 11th to attend the tenth birthday celebration of the Weasleys' youngest daughter, Ginny.
Of course, this was just a small excuse; in reality, the Weasley Twins hoped to take this opportunity to test their latest inventions with Adelaide and take the chance to get the wealthy Adelaide to sponsor some of their experimental funds.
Befriending the Weasley Twins would be of great help to Adelaide's future, so she wrote a reply to them, accepting their invitation.
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