After dinner, Harry led Ron up to the eighth floor of the castle.
Standing before the famous tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy being clubbed by trolls, Harry silently wished to enter the Common Room of the Order of the Phoenix.
"Hey… this door looks a bit different," Ron suddenly remarked.
Harry looked up. This time, instead of the silver door symbolizing the meeting chamber or the bronze door representing the dueling room, a decorated bronze door appeared on the wall — clearly indicating a Common Room.
"Come on," Harry said, giving Ron a light pat on the back. "You know this room can change according to need. This time, it must be a common room."
Ron followed him into the Room of Requirement.
"Wow…" he murmured, taking in the surroundings. "Each of the four Houses has its own decorations… wait a second, why does Slytherin have more chairs than the other three?"
Harry thought about it. The Order of the Phoenix had only eight members, and four of them were from Slytherin. Naturally, they would need more seats.
Did Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw really need four chairs each?
"Ugh… Gryffindor right next to Slytherin… seriously?" Ron muttered again.
Harry shrugged. It had been Viltia's request; after all, she was the one who had discovered the Room of Requirement in the first place, so it made sense for her to decide the layout.
Because of that, Cassandra had barely looked at Harry for weeks — Viltia's seat was right next to his.
After grumbling a bit more, Ron flopped down into the chair that used to belong to Gareth Weasley.
It made sense. Gareth was his great-grandfather, after all.
"This place is really amazing, Harry," Ron said, stretching lazily in the chair like a cat, his red hair sticking up everywhere. "Honestly, Hermione should see this too… hey, shouldn't we recruit Nassimo and Neville? Hmm… maybe we should move all the Slytherin chairs over here. I mean, we're not planning on letting Slytherins join us, are we?"
The moment Ron finished speaking, three additional sets of chairs materialized in the Gryffindor section.
"That's brilliant!" Ron exclaimed excitedly. "I'm going to check out the view. It's way better than the one from our Gryffindor Tower."
"Yeah," Harry agreed.
Once Ron left, Harry sat down in the seat that once belonged to Viratia.
His thoughts drifted back a hundred years.
"Harry?"
Viratia grabbed his arm.
"Huh? Oh…" he replied instinctively, like someone snapped out of a daze.
"Come look at the view with me," she said with a smile. "The Slytherin common room is underground — we don't usually get a view like this."
She tugged him toward the window.
"A reminder — this is the Room of Requirement, the meeting hall of the Order of the Phoenix," Cassandra's cold voice sounded behind them, dripping with disdain. "It's winter, not spring. Not exactly the season for magical creatures to reproduce, you two—"
Before she could finish, Viratia turned around.
Her beautiful violet eyes curved like crescent moons, and a victorious smile played on her lips.
"The moon is beautiful tonight," Viratia said.
"The moon is beautiful tonight," Harry echoed softly, gazing out the window.
"It really is," Ron replied absentmindedly. "Our dormitory doesn't have a view like this… you can see the entire Black Lake. Look — Percy and Fred are messing around down there, and Lee Jordan just joined them… wait, what?"
"What is it?" Harry asked distractedly.
"There's a notebook here," Ron said, bending down to retrieve it from a nearby cabinet. "And there's a letter inside. It's signed C.C. Malfoy… is that some Malfoy ancestor? Draco's father is Lucius, and his grandfather was Abraxas. None of them have those initials."
C.C. Malfoy?
Harry jumped to his feet.
"Where is it? Let me see!"
"Here." Ron handed over the notebook and the letter, hesitating before adding, "Harry… this notebook and letter don't really belong to anyone here. Is it really right for us to look through them?"
Harry glanced at him, then turned back without answering.
Ron shrugged. He had no interest in Malfoy ancestors — in fact, he avoided the Malfoys like the plague. Instead, he continued watching his three older brothers' antics outside with great interest.
C.C. was an abbreviation for Cassandra Cecilia Malfoy.
Sitting back down, Harry opened the letter.
[Grindelwald,
I'm sorry, but I must refuse your proposal. Even using a Time-Turner to travel a single year into the future carries an enormous cost — let alone traveling a hundred years to meet Potter.
I hope your infatuated mind, filled with pink fantasies, will reflect more carefully. You should face reality instead of abandoning your parents and your brother for a boy, foolishly chasing a vague hypothesis.
Perhaps you are arrogant and presumptuous, just like that Potter… Regardless, I will not accept your offer to meet a boy who has absolutely nothing to do with me.
— Cassandra Cecilia Malfoy]
Even though he had prepared himself, Harry still felt a dull ache in his chest.
Why…?
Cassandra had always been infuriating — proud, sharp-tongued, forever pointing out his flaws and humiliating him at every turn.
He thought he had accepted that reality.
So why did he feel so lost upon reading this letter?
Perhaps Cassandra was right.
She had a family — a father and a brother who loved her deeply. Harry could never forget the proud, animated look on her face whenever she said, "my father."
A child who lacked a father's love would not boast about him so often.
Just like Draco Malfoy. Even though Harry disliked that arrogant, ill-mannered boy, he had to admit it — Draco was loved.
Harry read the letter three times before finally sighing, folding it carefully, and tucking it into the back of the notebook.
Then he opened the notebook itself.
Cassandra's name was signed on the title page.
They were Cassandra's spell notes.
Something about them felt strange, though Harry couldn't quite pinpoint what it was.
He flipped through from the beginning — they appeared to start in first year.
Another application of the Lumos Charm…
The feasibility of using the Levitation Charm to pull objects…
What a shame Potter was sorted into Gryffindor. I thought I might have him as my partner…
His eyes are so green and shy, like a deer's. Cute. I wish I had a younger brother like that.
Exploring casting techniques for the Stunning Spell…
Potter… lazy. Arrogant. Hopeless. How does someone like that even survive in a wizarding world full of Dark wizards…
That Potter… actually asked for my old robes. Honestly…
"I was just saying it casually…" Harry muttered, at a loss for words.
Turning the page, he found more spellwork mixed with Cassandra's personal remarks.
Practical techniques for the Disarming Charm… how to cast Thunderous Blast more quickly…
Today, I encountered a Dark wizard in the Forbidden Forest with that hopelessly stupid Potter.
He's dead weight — clumsy, incompetent, barely able to cast spells properly…
Ha. I hope he realizes his weakness and obediently becomes my assistant.
Being struck by a curse certainly hurts, but a pure-blood's pride will not stand by while a Dark wizard humiliates a Muggle-born.
Yes. Exactly.
Harry felt his throat tighten.
He lifted his head.
Moonlight bathed his face, and the night breeze tousled his hair — just like it had on that night in the Forbidden Forest.
/------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------/
Read more chapters on my Patreon: https://patreon.com/SailorTranslations?utm_medium=unknown&utm_source=join_link&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=copyLink