Eda gasped as she looked at the puppet before her. Long golden hair, fair skin, and emerald-like eyes—wasn't this just her? Couldn't the system model things properly? Why did it have to pull this "true and false Eda" trick?

  The puppet wearing her face even spoke with the distinct, synthesized tone of a mae, making Eda feel even more annoyed. Couldn't it have jured Snape instead? At least that way, she could vent her frustrations.

  But fighting "herself"? What was the point of that?

  Eda was lost in thought and didn't move immediately. The puppet, however, wasted no time and fired a spell directly at her, a red light fshing as it shot toward her.

  "Fuc—!"

  Eda was startled by the sneak attad quickly dodged, barely avoiding the spell. As she dodged, she cast a Stunning Spell at the puppet. However, the puppet raised its wand and blocked her attack with ease.

  Ihe giant underground room, the real Eda and "puppet Eda" kept waving their wands, casting spells that flew across the space. The ground trembled as rubble scattered from the impact of their magical exges, rolling around with each collision.

  After several rounds of bad-forth, Eda made some judgments about this ordinary puppet.

  Its abilities seemed parable to st year's challenges, but the puppet's bat style was more varied. U year's oppo, it didn't uimate her, making it even harder for Eda to handle.

  pared to st year, Eda had also made signifit progress. She could keep pace with the puppet, her gaining the upper hand nor beiirely suppressed.

  After blog one of the puppet's attacks, Eda cast a Disarming Charm. The spell flew toward the puppet, glowing bright red. But the puppet was faster—before her spell could nd, it fired a Stunning Spell of its own.

  When Eda's Disarming Charm reached it, the puppet had already jured a Shield Charm to block it.

  Eda sat up slowly from the cold ground, rubbing the back of her head.

  She had been hit squarely by the puppet's Stunning Spell, and the back of her head had met the floor with painful force, leaving her feeling sore from the impact.

  Although the puppet's Stunning Spell hit Eda squarely in the chest, she didn't lose sciousness. Apart from hitting the back of her head when she fell, she suffered no other injuries—not even the spot where the spell struck hurt.

  Although there was magical collision during the fight, the moment the spell hit Eda, its magic lost effect, doing no more than knog her down without causing further harm.

  After all, the puppet's purpose was to train Eda, not to kill her.

  The system allowed Eda and the puppet to use any bat methods irial—there were no rules. This meant Eda could cast spells to distract the puppet and then punch it directly, or even snatch its wand from it.

  As long as the puppet was knocked down or rendered uo fight, Eda would be sidered victorious.

  Eda stood up, brushing the dust off her robes. Both she and the puppet raised their wands again, beginning a new round of training.

  "Shit!"

  About ten mier, Eda found herself on the ground again, this time even faster than before—and it was entirely her own fault. She had tried to leave an opening, hoping to bait the puppet into falling for the trap so she could terattad bring it down.

  The pn was solid in theory, but in practice, it went wrong. The puppet did "fall for" her trick, but while the puppet had the strength to take the bait, Eda cked the ability to follow through with a proper terattack.

  And so, she ended up ba the floor.

  "Aw, My bum... Aw my back.."

  By the time Eda left the secret passage, her entire body ached.

  She had lost t of how many times the "ruthless" puppet had knocked her down that night.

  Each time Eda was knocked down, she ended up hitting the ground. The whole night felt like a pition of her falls, enough to edit into a film over an hour long.

  With every fall, pain naturally followed. It seemed clear to Eda that she o take proper protective measures the ime she trained with the puppet. Otherwise, things could get dangerous—if she didn't end up seriously injured, stant falls like this would still take a toll on her body.

  Supp her ag waist, Eda made her way back to the on room. The twins were o be seen, and she had no idea where they had gone off to. She could only hope that she wouldn't hear news of Gryffindor losing points because of them the m.

  Having failed to return the Marauder's Map, Eda headed back to her dormitory. Her three roommates weren't there—Angelina and Alicia were in the on room chatting with some older students, and little Katie had goo another dorm to hang out with her friends.

  In the five-person dormitory, Eda was alone. She stood in front of the full-length mirror and took off her robes. The once fair, fwless skin was now covered with bruises, shades of blue and purple spread across her body, making her look as though she had been tortured.

  "Tch"

  After ging into her pajamas, Eda took out a book from her bag: Practical Magical bat Theory and Teiques.

  She leaned against the headboard and began reading it carefully. She had found the book among a mountain of tomes in the library. In addition to discussing theories and teiques, it also analyzed several major dueling tours.

  Just as the title suggested, the book was indeed practical—its tent was detailed and thh, though Eda also thought it could serve well as a doorstop.

  After drinking two cups of water, her roommates begaurning one by one.

  Angelina and Alicia were particurly excited, still chattering non-stop even after ing back to the dormitory.

  The sign-ups for the Quidditch teams from each house had opened, and once Charlie finished gathering the names, he would submit them to Madam Hooch for approval.

  Those approved would participate in Gryffindor's tryouts on the sed Friday afternoon!

  Both Angelina and Alicia had already submitted their o Charlie. fident in their abilities, they firmly believed they would pass both the approval and the tryouts, ultimately being members of the Gryffindor Quidditch team.

  This year, first-year Katie was also very enthusiastic about Quidditch. She was just like Angelina and Alicia st year, pining about why she wasn't allowed to participate iryouts.

  Eda had experiehe se of all four of them pining together st year, but with only Katie this time, it felt like a much smaller fuss—hardly worth mentioning.

  "When we py, you cheer for us, Katie!" Alicia said. "Just like Eda does."

  Talk about rubbing salt in the wound.

  Eda, quietly reading her book, couldn't help but feel a bit attacked. "I guess this ts as my small tribution to the quest for the Quidditch Cup," she replied.

  But that was the st thing Katie wanted. What she enjoyed was the thrill of flying on a broomstiot standing on the sidelines cheering. Eda uood this feeling pletely—how could someone capable of pyile for just watg from the stands?

  "Where are Fred and Gee, by the way?" Angelina asked. "They're not in the on room or the dorm. The tryouts are just around the er, and they're still running all over the pce."

  "I'm not sure where they are, but I'll do my best to stop them from getting into trouble," Eda said. "On tryout day, I'll take Katie to watch, so you two better not embarrass yourselves!"

  With the Quidditch tryouts approag, Eda didn't want the twins to miss out. If they did, they'd have to wait another whole year—definitely not worth it.

  Eda snuck a look at the Marauder's Map and saw that the twins were heading tryffindor Tower. She decided to wait for them in the on room to have a quick word.

  Bundled in her robe, Eda sat in an armchair for a bit before the twins finally appeared, sneaking into the on room.

  Fred was holding a square package in his hands, looking as suspicious as ever.

  "Fred, Gee!"

  "Ah—Eda?"

  The twins heard Eda's void walked over, sitting down across from her.

  "What's that?" Eda asked, pointing to the package o Fred.

  "Oh, nothing—just something new we got," Gee said casually. "Some magic tricks we just bought."

  "Let me see." Eda reached out, trying to grab the package. The fact that they hadn't told her ht meant something was fishy.

  Usually, Eda wasn't particurly ied in the magical pranks the twins bought, which was why Geave such a vague answer. But, for some reason, Eda was oddly curious this time and insisted on seeing what was inside.

  Fred quickly grabbed the package, keeping it out of her reach. "Alright, I'll be ho—it's a book..."

  _________

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