"You... what did you just ask ?"
The senior's voice suddenly changed, and Wade could even hear a slight tremble in it.
Although he found it strange, Wade still repeated his question.
"What I asked just now was: 'Senior, can you tell your na?'"
"My na... my na... Right, I should have a na! But... eh..? where is my na? Forgotten? No! I didn't forget! I... I think I never had a na! But... how is that possible?! Why didn't I ever realize before, that I should have a na? How could this be? How can this happen? Who... who stole my na?!"
Her voice grew increasingly agitated, her volu rising with every word. The black mist around her also began to tremble violently.
The fuck..
Wade frowned, standing in front of her, and felt his dreamscape beginning to collapse.
The cause of the collapse was the senior herself, who seed to be on the verge of a breakdown after realizing she didn't rember her na.
Her mastery of Nightmare Magic was vastly superior to Wade's beginner-level skills, so even the slightest emotional ripple on her part caused massive strain on his constructed dream.
Wade couldn't understand—why would simply asking her na cause such an intense reaction?
"Was it because of the Ancient Magic that you forgot your own na?" Wade couldn't help but ask.
"No... it's not that! This isn't about mory!" The senior raised her head, and her eyes, hidden within the black mist, were blood-red.
"Before you asked that question, I didn't even realize I was supposed to have a na… Even when you asked earlier how to call in a dream, my first instinct was to make up a title to tell you—not to give you my real na. It's like, deep down, I believed I never had a na at all..."
"But who could have done this? And for what purpose…?"
Whoosh!
The black mist–shrouded senior suddenly appeared right in front of Wade, grabbing his arms tightly, her voice urgent. "That professor you ntioned—when he told you my story, did he ever say my na?"
Wade thought back to his conversation with Dumbledore, and suddenly realized sothing shocking: Dumbledore had only ever referred to her as "that senior"—not once had he ntioned her actual na. And during the entire conversation, Wade hadn't thought to press him, either.
"No, he didn't ntion your na," Wade answered.
"He didn't… then did you ask?"
"I... I didn't ask either..."
"He didn't say it, and you never even thought to ask… does that seem reasonable to you?" The senior let go of Wade's arms and staggered back several steps, her tone hollow.
At that mont, Wade realized the issue too.
Logically speaking, when soone is recounting the achievents of an important figure, wouldn't the first thing they ntion be her na?
Even if Dumbledore had forgotten to say it, how could Wade have never thought to ask?
In other words, throughout that entire conversation, neither Dumbledore nor Wade had found it odd in the slightest that the senior's na never ca up...
It hadn't seed strange before—but now that she ntioned it, Wade suddenly realized how completely unnatural it was.
"Wade... can I ask you for a favor?" the senior asked, her voice trembling.
"If it's sothing I can do, of course," Wade replied. He could hear the fear in her voice—sothing deep, chilling, and hard to explain.
"Can you ask that professor... ask him if he rembers what my na is?"
...
When Wade opened his eyes again, it was already past ten in the morning.
The dream from last night remained vivid in Wade's mind.
Originally, he'd only intended to speak with the senior about Ancient Magic.
But unexpectedly, a simple question about her na had unearthed an entirely new mystery.
If the senior had simply forgotten her na, that wouldn't have been too strange—after all, she'd been trapped for so many years.
However… according to her, it wasn't just that she forgot. She felt that her na no longer existed.
That was a far more troubling notion.
There's a big difference between sothing forgotten and sothing erased.
For instance, you might forget a person—but your mory doesn't erase that person from the world. They continue to exist, regardless of whether you rember them.
But if sothing doesn't exist… that ans not only is it absent from your mory, but it's also vanished from reality itself.
Right now, the quickest way to uncover the truth would be to go and ask Dumbledore.
Logically, Dumbledore had enrolled in Hogwarts right after the senior graduated. And he had grown up hearing about her legendary achievents—he ought to know her na.
And if not, then at the very least, there should still be records in Hogwarts about her. Her na should appear in them.
If… Dumbledore couldn't rember her na, and there wasn't even a single record of her in the school…
Wade suddenly felt a creeping chill run down his spine.
"Young Master Wade, you're awake—please wash up first. Toby will bring your breakfast right away."
Toby, who always kept a close eye on Wade's condition, appeared in the room holding toiletries.
"Toby, where's Professor Dumbledore?"
"Professor Dumbledore left last night. He seed to be going on a trip."
Toby placed the toiletries on Wade's bedside table.
Wade paused in thought. He knew Dumbledore had left to deal with Nagini.
With Dumbledore's nature, even if Nagini had lost all reason and beco nothing more than a feral beast, he wouldn't have killed her.
Which ant he likely wouldn't return anyti soon.
Wade picked up a piece of parchnt from his bedside table, grabbed his quill, and began writing a letter.
"Toby, help send this letter to Professor Dumbledore."
Toby took the letter. "Toby will go to the Owl Post right away."
Watching Toby's retreating figure, Wade felt a bit helpless.
Even though he was dying to know the answer, he couldn't afford to act too eager—especially since he hadn't told Dumbledore about his encounter with the senior. He could only rely on owl post, subtly ntioning in the letter that he wanted to look into her history and casually asking for her na.
After last night's conversation with Dumbledore, it made perfect sense for him to show interest in her. Dumbledore probably wouldn't suspect anything.
At that mont, Tom finally woke up on the bed across from him.
Groggily rubbing his head, he sat up with difficulty, his eyes bloodshot.
"Ugh, my head… What?! It's already past ten?! Oww… Why does it feel like I was hit with a Stunning Spell?!"
"..." Wade silently turned his head away, grabbed the towel and washbasin on the table, and pretended not to see Tom at all.
Tom's gaze imdiately locked onto Wade, his face full of suspicion. "Did you hit with a Stunning Spell?"
"How could you even think sothing so strange?" Wade asked innocently.
"I never get up later than eight. And… I never wake up with a headache unless sothing's off! You know when the last ti I had a headache upon waking up was!" Tom stared at him intently.
"Tom, haven't we already faced life and death together multiple tis? Isn't that enough to earn at least a little of your trust? That really hurts, you know…"
"You bloody scoundrel! It was you! I'll make you pay for this!"
_________
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P^treon: Captain69
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