As the "Maze Interrogation" came to an end, the girls finally began to face another problem.
Just as Eileen had said, if they didn't hurry, they might actually be late on the first day of school!
"Wait, wait for me... you two—"
Hermione gasped for breath, following behind Eileen and Hannah, running up the rapidly spiraling stairs towards the corridor of the Gryffindor common room. In terms of physical strength, she couldn't compare to the other two little witches.
Even though Hermione Granger had deliberately strengthened some physical training during the summer vacation, she was still far behind.
Compared to Hannah and Eileen, those humanoid monsters who wouldn't even have their breathing disturbed by a short sprint, Hermione's physique was still a bit weaker. After running several hundred meters in one breath, she began to feel a little dizzy.
Fortunately, they finally arrived at the corridor on the seventh floor of the castle.
Amidst the increasingly clear voices, the three of Eileen skillfully walked down the moving staircase (this time, Eileen finally didn't get stuck in the Gryffindor groove), and finally arrived at a somewhat unfamiliar sixth-floor platform.
There are a total of one hundred and forty-two staircases in Hogwarts, a number recorded in earlier editions of "Hogwarts, A History," but no wizard has ever truly walked all of them—in this magical castle where everything is constantly moving, many staircases only actively move when they are truly needed.
At least in Hermione Granger's memory, they had never been to this corridor on the sixth floor in the past year.
On the platform, most of the second-year students had already gathered here, which was a relatively rare occurrence in Hogwarts because, under normal circumstances, everyone should have found a seat in the classroom by now.
"What's going on? Why are you all blocking the door..."
Eileen frowned and cleared her throat.
Eleven or twelve years old is when most children's bodies begin to develop.
Compared to the little quails from last year, most of the students in her grade had grown at least a head taller. When the students from the four houses gathered together, her vision was immediately blocked, and she couldn't see anything.
As for tiptoeing or jumping to see what was happening behind, that was simply impossible for her!
"Big Sister, you're here? Look, something seems a bit strange here—"
Hearing Eileen's voice, the young wizards stopped discussing and turned their heads to look over.
Among the crowd, Ron Weasley scratched his hair in distress, pointing to a place on the side of the wall. There was an ancient-style carved stone door with a brand-new brass plaque embedded in it - "Mathematics Classroom".
"Sorry, I don't see anything strange."
Eileen raised her eyebrows, walked through the crowd, and carefully examined the closed stone door in front of her.
Unlike other schools in the non-magical world, many doors in Hogwarts have a certain magic. If you don't use the correct method, or politely ask them to open, or accurately poke the right spot, they won't open; and some doors aren't even real doors, just like the curtain door they had just passed through...
The door to the temple of mathematics that now appeared before them was clearly such a special door.
"Knowledge has no threshold, please enter," Eileen read softly, "Isn't that already obvious?"
"But—" Ron Weasley scratched his cheek, glanced at the hard stone door.
"Platform Nine and Three-Quarters, remember?"
As if to answer the question in his heart, Eileen said softly with a smile.
As she spoke, Eileen glanced at the stone door that emitted familiar magical fluctuations, a look of curiosity flashing in her eyes. She didn't expect Hogwarts to have this magic as well—it wasn't just a simple illusion, but a profound space magic.
Or rather, when you think about it carefully, it doesn't seem like anything surprising.
If nothing else, the British Ministry of Magic must have drawn on this magic that already existed in Hogwarts Castle when building the magical platform at King's Cross Station.
The only slight difference is that the screening criterion for this door is not wizards, but...
"Don't worry, just walk through with determination..."
Eileen said with a light smile, and took the lead, quickly walking towards the seemingly hard stone wall.
Hesitation in the face of the unknown is the biggest barrier, which is why Dumbledore suggested using this as a classroom.
If a young wizard approaches this stone door at an extremely slow speed, it will become incredibly hard, with no difference in texture or hardness from the castle walls; but if they choose to ignore the existence of this door and overcome their fear to stride forward, then this door will lead to another space like Platform 9¾.
At least that's how Albus Dumbledore explained it last night.
Undoubtedly, choosing to have another student try it out beforehand might be a safer approach.
But as the head of Hogwarts and Moonlight, Eileen couldn't bring herself to do something like some villains. Moreover, in another sense, that's also why the students behind her trust her.
Whether it was the "Moonlight Ceremony" at the beginning of school, the journey of the Quidditch freshman competition, the daily study and training in the castle, or the resistance to bullying from older students... Eileen has always been the arrow and source of light at the forefront of the crowd.
Of course, if she accidentally bumps into the wall, it doesn't matter—at worst, she'll tear down this broken door!
Eileen calmly looked at the approaching stone door, and her steps became lighter and faster.
This stone door looks quite sturdy, and I wonder how many times it can withstand the Queen's justice? If that spicy old radish intends to trick her in such details, then she will naturally be happy to open a new worldline.
But nothing happened... She didn't feel any obstruction...
This is a very, very large classroom that looks vaguely familiar.
In fact, this doesn't look like the common rooms in Hogwarts Castle, but more like a lecture hall in a university in Eileen's memory, which makes her feel like she has traveled back to her original world.
The huge space is neatly arranged with nearly eighty desks. On each desk are a brand-new workbook, a box of pencils, a stack of scratch paper, and two textbooks. At the front of the classroom are four giant blackboards that can move up and down. Several boxes of chalk are placed on the podium in the center of the classroom. The sunlight shines through the windows, spilling into the classroom, and the air is filled with the brightness of summer.
And next to the podium, Mr. Alexei, who is a bit balding, is looking down, carefully checking the lesson plans.
"Hmm? You're here. Find a place to sit down quickly, we're going to start class."
Hearing the movement next to the classroom, the middle-aged man raised his head with a warm smile on his face.
With Eileen's appearance, one after another young wizards appeared in the classroom, most of them with a hint of excitement and curiosity on their faces, looking around—this ingenious way of entering the classroom gave many young wizards a sense of ritual, as if they were stepping into a new world.
Looking at these children gathered on one side of the classroom, Alexei took a deep breath.
He couldn't help but recall the good old days when he gave mathematics lectures at the university. However, this time, the students were younger and had greater potential than the previous children—at the same time, they were also more troublesome.
"All the seats are the same, with a copy of the materials on each one."
Alexei cleared his throat and pointed to the empty tables in the classroom.
Since he had just taken over this job from his teacher a few days ago, he hadn't had time to study how to use the textbooks purchased by the students. In a hurry, he could only deal with it by following the way he used to teach his daughter.
After all, according to Ms. Theresa Apocalypse, most young wizards have almost zero mathematics foundation.
Oh, right, that Destiny young lady, should she be called Eileen Kaslana now?
While Alexei was waiting for the students to awkwardly take their seats, he thoughtfully looked at the three little witches in front of the podium. If he guessed correctly, this should be the group of students outside the norm.
Of course, Hannah, Eileen, and Hermione were sitting at the same row of tables.
"First of all, welcome to the Mathematics Classroom," Alexei stood up and walked to the podium. "You can call me Mr. Alexei. That's right, just as Professor Dumbledore said, I am not a wizard, so this class will not involve anything directly related to magic. Here, we will mainly explore philosophical questions about nature."
With the middle-aged man's opening remarks, there was a small commotion in the classroom.
Even though they had learned of this decision from Professor Dumbledore before, when they were actually in this classroom, most of the young wizards still had a bit of absurd resistance in their hearts.
As if not noticing the commotion in the classroom, Alexei paused for a moment and continued.
"In this world, whether we are wizards or Muggles, we cannot see the whole picture of the world, we cannot hear the correct voice, and even past experiences are not so reliable... But we still have ways to recognize and explore the truth of this world, which is one of the very few trustworthy things in human civilization when facing the unknown—mathematics."
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Today's update~ (There should be another chapter tomorrow)