In the bright, sunlit countryside, Hermione looked at the tall figure walking ahead and still could not quite believe that the other woman had appeared before her so openly.
Compared with Professor Fawley, Miss Cynthia had only briefly served as Britain's Minister for Magic.
But after the professor began spending long periods away on work, she had also left the Ministry of Magic and chosen to remain by his side.
In a sense, her existence was even more mysterious than the professor's.
Hermione was still thinking when she suddenly felt someone tug at her sleeve.
She turned back and saw Harry and Malfoy sneaking glances at her, their eyes practically dancing.
"What are you doing?"
"If Professor Fawley can be impersonated, aren't you worried Miss Cynthia might be an impostor too?"
"Exactly. At the very least, we should call in two squads of special forces to come with us!"
After that hopeless, crushing defeat, Malfoy was still badly shaken. Calling him jumpy would not have been an exaggeration.
They had nearly died!
Before, they could still say it had happened too suddenly and that they had had no choice.
But if they walked into another trap now, that would be beyond stupid.
Hermione wrinkled her nose.
"I wouldn't mistake her. Besides, don't you recognize where we are?"
At that, Harry looked around curiously.
"Isn't this just an ordinary village?"
"This is Fawley Village!" Hermione said through gritted teeth. "Professor Fawley was born here and grew up here!"
"I remember now!"
An old, elegant manor appeared before them, and Malfoy immediately clapped his hands in realization.
"This is the Fawley family manor! I've been here several times, but I always went straight to the manor gate, and there was never anyone inside."
"No one?" Harry froze. "Then why are we here?"
The three of them were still puzzled.
Then Cynthia stopped at the manor gate, turned around, and swept her calm, faintly smiling gaze over them.
All three instantly straightened up.
"To be precise, Tver is indeed not here. Nor is he anywhere in this world. He has only temporarily opened the door here."
As she spoke, Cynthia raised her hand.
The manor gate slowly drew open.
It was clearly the same place and the same scenery, yet the light seemed to pierce through space and enter somewhere else, creating a strange sense of distortion.
Even with Hermione and the others' magical strength, they could not see the slightest clue to how it worked.
That feeling of being beyond their control made the three of them, who had long since risen to high positions, feel faintly uneasy.
Seeing that Cynthia was about to walk away, Harry strode forward, his right hand hidden in his pocket.
"Well, if we die, we die!"
Hermione and Malfoy hurried after him.
But the moment they crossed the gate, Hermione quietly glanced back.
It had changed.
The village was still the same village, but it was veiled in a hazy layer, carrying a sense of separation as if it were thousands of miles away.
"What is it?" Malfoy asked quietly.
"We..." Hermione said in a low voice. "We seem to have entered another place."
Malfoy's heart leapt into his throat.
Wasn't this even more terrifying than being underground?
Even Harry could not help falling back a couple of steps to whisper with them.
"Can we Apparate?"
"Even Miss Cynthia could only Apparate to the village entrance. I don't believe there are no countermeasures here."
Hermione shook her head, her brow gradually furrowing.
"I remember that in a joint research project, scientists analyzed particle distortion and jumping phenomena from the veil in the Ministry of Magic that separates life and death. It even led to the creation of a specialized field of study."
"What is that supposed to mean?" Harry asked blankly, having understood none of it.
Malfoy looked just as lost, only he was too embarrassed to ask it as plainly as Harry had.
Seeing them, Hermione rolled her eyes hard.
"Do you two stop reading books after you leave school?"
"Ahem!"
Harry scratched his head and exchanged an awkward look with Malfoy.
Even when they were at school... they had not really read that many books.
Although they had studied many subjects under the professor's arrangements, deep down, they still preferred straightforward, fast-paced combat over pure theory.
All the more so after they started their busy jobs.
Hermione gritted her teeth and explained, "This is an alternate space!"
"To be precise, this is the boundary between light and darkness, the gap between life and death."
Cynthia suddenly spoke to explain.
The three of them jumped, then looked ahead and froze.
The house was still the same house.
The door stood open.
In the hall, a long dining table had been set out. Several people sat around it, sometimes laughing and talking, sometimes enjoying pies and jam served by the house-elves.
Under the sunlight, the scene was so dreamlike that it made them feel like crying.
The young man seated at the center picked up a slice of bread with great interest, carefully spreading cranberry jam over it with a dining knife. He did not stop until not even a spot the size of a fingernail had been missed.
Only then did he look satisfied.
Then...
Chomp. He took a bite.
Harry, Hermione, and Malfoy stared blankly at him. At his completely unchanged appearance, at his elegant movements without a single unnecessary flourish, at a scene so real it almost felt unreal.
The same thought rose in all their hearts.
This had to be the real one!
After taking a bite of bread, Tver's eyes curved into a smile, as if he had only just noticed them.
"Oh, good morning. You're earlier than I expected."
He looked at Cynthia curiously.
Cynthia nodded with a smile.
"They did even better than we imagined. They didn't need my help at all."
"Wow."
Tver's face filled with pleasant surprise. After a brief hesitation, he set down the bread he had taken a bite from and stood to greet them.
"It's been a long time. It looks like all of you have been working hard toward your goals. That's wonderful."
He opened his arms too.
The Tver before them merely stood there, yet he was like a warm current, slowly wrapping around the hearts that had been exhausted and anxious all day.
It was a dependence carved into their bones, something even the longest years could not erase.
Harry and Malfoy grinned, their smiles carrying a hint of bashfulness, as if they were still the children who felt embarrassed whenever the professor praised them.
Hermione sniffed, then suddenly threw herself into his arms.
Hearing her suppressed sobs, Tver froze for a moment. Then his expression softened, and he gently patted her back.
In everyone's eyes, Hermione had always been the strongest, the smartest, and the most capable.
So much so that they had forgotten she could hesitate too, that she could be troubled too, that she could feel powerless before a difficult problem too.
Hermione, who had never been cared for like this, had simply kept growing strong until today.
"I saw it all. All these years, you've done perfectly. So well that there was no better way to do it."
"But... but..."
Hermione's body trembled slightly.
"So many people lost their jobs because of it. They suffered pain in their hearts and bodies, and some even died. I'm clearly the executioner who hurt them..."
"But your efforts created new jobs. Your medical programs healed even more people's suffering. Hermione, thank you for working so hard to protect so many people."
Hermione could no longer hold back her sobs. She cried freely, releasing all the conflict and pain she had accumulated over the years.