“You said that lady…” The Witch pondered for a moment, “I did see her, but she hasn’t appeared these past few days.”
“Do you remember the exact day she disappeared?”
“Let me think.”
The Witch’s delicate eyebrows furrowed into a knot: “Uh, I don’t remember exactly, after all, my main job is to collect money at the candy store. I don’t really care about what happens outside the door… Oh, right!”
“She left early after finishing business with a girl, and then she never appeared again.”
“The reason I remember this so clearly is because that girl complained loudly about it to her friend when she bought candy here that day.”
“It was still very early then, and I specifically tilted my head to look outside, and saw that the Witch really packed up and left, and I haven’t seen her since.”
“Was that girl Daphne?”
Ron vaguely grasped a clue. He quickly went on to describe Daphne’s appearance:
“Was that girl pale, tall, thin, beautiful, and wearing a dark green Slytherin school robe…”
“No.”
The Witch unexpectedly denied this outcome:
“She was a healthy-looking, dark-skinned, tall, and strong girl. She was pretty but wore school robes with gold and red colors—just like the robes you are wearing.”
Ron was stunned: “She’s a Gryffindor? Who is it—”
Since she was from Gryffindor, Weilan and Ron would most likely know this girl.
“Do you remember roughly how old she was?” Weilan asked for a very important piece of information.
“About sixteen or seventeen? She was definitely older than you.”
The Witch replied to him.
“That’s enough, I know who that girl is.”
They walked out of Honeydukes, holding candy jars. Weilan told Ron:
“It’s Angelina, I bet that girl is definitely Angelina—”
“Dark-skinned, tall, strong, older than us, and most importantly, she’s also a Gryffindor.”
Ron couldn’t understand: “Why would it be related to Angelina? She’s very nice, and she doesn’t really associate with Slytherin.”
“I have a vague guess, but it’s not good to say it out loud now. I need more information to confirm this idea.”
Weilan said this as he and Ron set off on the path back to Hogwarts Castle.
Walking along the path, Ron was very happy. He felt that the light of victory was already visible in their quest to uncover the truth:
“Let’s go back and ask Angelina. She has a great personality and will tell us everything truthfully if she knows.”
“I think the last piece of the puzzle of the truth is hidden in Angelina’s experience…”
Ron spoke, and Weilan nodded in agreement, but did not say anything.
It was already late autumn, and withered yellow grass stretched to the horizon, painting the mountains in gold and red. Weilan felt a bit cold even in his sweater, but fortunately, the path wasn’t far, and they quickly returned to the warm Hogwarts Castle.
That night, they were both deciphering the Ancient Runes on the coin and waiting for Angelina to return to the Gryffindor common room.
Ever since they had deciphered two words in one go last time, their next step of deciphering had become exceptionally difficult.
Hermione found that the word “I” appeared three times in the sentence on the side edge of the coin, forming a sentence structure of “I…, I…, I…”.
So Weilan guessed that a verb should follow “I”.
They wrote down verbs from the Ancient Runes dictionary, one by one, filling sheet after sheet of parchment, making themselves dizzy, but not a single verb matched.
There were tens of thousands of verbs in Ancient Runes, and accurately pinpointing three from them was like searching for a needle in a haystack.
“Hey! Angelina’s here!” Seamus squeezed his head through two stacks of books to alert them.
“Angelina, wait, we have something very important to ask you.”
Weilan emerged from behind a large pile of Ancient Runes dictionaries and hurriedly ran to her side.
Angelina, one of Gryffindor’s best Chasers, a dark-skinned, tall, strong girl, was almost a head taller than Weilan.
Weilan had to look up at this girl, who was three years his senior, to speak to her eyes.
“Why don’t we sit down and talk.”
Ron brought over four chairs and arranged them around a wooden round table.
After the four of them sat down, Angelina looked at the three of them curiously:
“Seamus said you’ve been waiting for me in the common room, and you have something very important to ask me…”
“Yes, it’s related to the Goblet of Fire choosing Daphne as a champion—Dumbledore has entrusted us to investigate this matter thoroughly.”
After Weilan concisely explained their purpose, he got to the point: “We want to ask, have you ever bought a lucky star bottle in Hogsmeade?”
“Yes!”
Angelina’s speaking style was just like her performance on the Quidditch Pitch: swift and without any hesitation.
Weilan liked her style.
“I heard that the Witch packed up and left early after selling you the lucky star bottle. Is that true?”
“Yes.”
“Can you tell us in detail the whole story of you buying the lucky star bottle at that Witch’s stall?”
“I had three days until my 17th birthday,” Angelina recalled, “so that day, I wanted to go to Honeydukes to buy some candy to treat my friends for my birthday.”
“Outside the candy store, I saw a Witch selling lucky star bottles. Since my birthday was coming up, I also wanted something like a birthday good luck charm…”
“So I let my friend go into the candy store first to pick out candies, and I went alone to the Witch, wanting to buy a star bottle with a good luck blessing.”
“I told the Witch that I was about to turn 17. She smiled and asked me what my birthday wish was.”
“I didn’t say at the time, I just changed the subject to the upcoming Goblet of Fire champion selection. I said that if I turned 17, I could also participate in the champion selection.”
“The Witch then asked me if my birthday wish was to become the champion representing Hogwarts.”
“Frankly, the Witch guessed correctly.”
A hint of longing appeared on Angelina’s face.
“I really did think that, and then the Witch told me that the lucky star bottle would help me achieve that wish.”
“I was really a bit carried away at the time, and I fell for her trick just like that—alas, people always believe what they want to believe—”
Angelina pounded her chest in annoyance.
“I spent 20 sickles and bought the most expensive bottle.”
“According to the Witch’s instructions, I wrote my name and school on a piece of parchment, then put it into the bottle, and the Witch cast a good luck magic on it.”