9 Chapter 009 - The Bronze Knocker and the Piano Song

 As the house-elf Boli was accompanying her, Alina had to suppress her immense curiosity to visit the legendary Room of Requirement across from the tapestry depicting Barnabas the Barmy being struck by a troll club and resentfully follow the normal touring path.

She might have been able to fool others about her understanding of the Magic World using the memories from her last life, but a little girl who had never been to Hogwarts before finding a place that most students wouldn't know about even after they graduated was probably a little too much.

The same could be said for the Prefects' Bathroom, located on the sixth floor of the castle, through the fourth door to the left of the statue of Boris the Bewildered.

A luxurious candle-lit chandelier cast a warm and gentle light over the room, and everything inside was made of snow-white marble. In the center of the room was a sunken bathtub that looked like a rectangular swimming pool. Around the bathtub were around one hundred golden dragon heads, and each dragon head had a different-colored jewel on its tap. Besides that, there was also a diving board. The windows were covered in curtains of white flax, and a pile of soft white towels had been placed in a corner.

As a girl, Alina had dreamed and longed for such a luxurious bathroom.

One had to realize that in her past life, when she went to college, the demented school authorities required one to swipe a card to use the water. Each swipe only got one fifteen minutes of water. Imagine how miserable it was to reach a trembling and bubble-covered hand out of the door in the middle of winter so that one could use their student card to extend the time?

It was at this point that Alina realized a dispiriting problem. If she wasn't a student of Hogwarts, many secret rooms were bursting with wondrous magic that she would never be able to visit.

Whether it was the offices of the various teachers, Filch's office, or the library that stored thirteen thousand books on magic, they were all locked with magic and could not be entered without permission. This made it impossible for Alina to borrow a few snacks from a certain half-blood prince or experience the forbidden toys of the unruly children of the Magic World.

Ah, wait, the office of Professor McGonagall on the second floor up the marble staircases from the entrance hall was unlocked. But Alina wisely did not knock. Who knew if the dangerous Professor McGonagall might suddenly use this chance to get her revenge?

As for the empty classrooms, there was no point in touring those. After all, besides the Potions Classroom, Alina didn't think there was much a difference between them. They all had wooden lecterns and around ten rows of empty desks and chairs.

Of course, Alina was already quite satisfied with what she had seen.

Because even though none of the ghosts had appeared, Hogwarts Castle was still bursting with wondrous magic. Everything was constantly moving, the people in the portraits constantly visiting each other. Even the stairs moved.

The happiest part of the tour was the Ravenclaw Common Room located on the western side of the castle, in Ravenclaw Tower. To be more precise, it was the cute bronze eagle knocker.

Precisely in line with the ideology of the founder of the House, Rowena Ravenclaw, the door to the Ravenclaw Common Room didn't require a password like the other Houses. Instead, anyone who could answer a question would be permitted entry.

Alina stood in front of the glossy wooden door and knocked. The mouth of the eagle knocker opened and spoke in a gentle tone, "Which came first, the phoenix or the flame?"

It didn't seem to have many questions in its bank, and Alina had luckily gotten one of the questions asked in the original work. "A circle has no beginning."

"Correct." With these words, the door opened on its own with a creak.

But Alina was in no hurry to go inside.

"Dear door knocker, can I ask, how can you be sure that a question like this has only one correct answer?"

Alina squinted at the door knocker and shrugged her shoulders. "You have to realize that languages and words are most liable to create many different meanings. Common proverbs might be assigned new meanings at any time."

"..."

The eagle head's mouth opened, but no sound came out. But she could sense that some magic power was coming out from the door knocker and examining her. Like the Sorting Hat, the door knocker also seemed to possess consciousness.

Since she was at Hogwarts, she had to leave behind some trace of her presence. It would be rude not to.

The silver-haired girl naughtily smiled, continuing in a tempting tone, "Based on what I know, many mathematical questions fundamentally have a single objective answer."

"Mathematical questions? Simple calculations cannot test a student's intelligence." The eagle knocker's voice sounded rather confused.

"What about this?"

Alina searched through her memories and began to slowly and excitedly speak. "There are chickens and rabbits in a single cage. From above, there are thirty-five heads, and from below, there are ninety-four legs. How many chickens and rabbits are in the cage?"

After a brief pause, the silver-haired girl added, "Moreover, you only need to change the numbers a little to produce endless questions like this. You should have more interesting questions like this."

"..."

The eagle knocker fell silent for a few seconds and then nodded. "What you say is very reasonable. I will think it over. Thank you."

After saying this, the door knocker fell silent and returned to being an inanimate object.

She had succeeded!

Alina waved her little fist around and cheerfully turned to leave.

"Boli, I think I've seen enough. Let's go back."

She prayed that God would protect this year's Ravenclaw students. However, if they were patient enough, they could get the correct answer just by counting one by one.

...

With her own little happiness that no one else knew about, Alina followed the house-elf Boli to the eighth floor.

"Now, it's time to meet Dumbledore."

Alina took in a deep breath as she looked at the staircase next to the stone gargoyle and prepared to go in.

Suddenly, she realized that there was a classroom at the end of the corridor that she seemingly hadn't been in. It seemed like she had accidentally missed it when she was turning around to leave.

Alina curiously examined it. She didn't recall anything special on this floor besides the Room of Requirement.

Wait, could it be the Room of Requirement?! The silver-haired girl's eyes lit up, and she excitedly asked a question.

"Boli, what place is that? Is it..."

"That one, hm..."

Boli, who was walking behind Alina, raised his head and followed the girl's arm. He replied, in a rather flat tone, "It seems to be a classroom that's no longer in use."

"No, no, I don't remember seeing it before."

Alina seriously shook her head. Talking to herself, she ran over to the classroom.

"Ah? Haaa..."

The silver-haired girl hopefully opened the door, but when she saw what was inside, her joyous face collapsed, and she sighed.

Just as Boli had said, this was an abandoned classroom.

The desks and chairs were piled up at the back. Based on the dusty and empty bottles and bookshelves, it had probably been used for Potions or Herbology.

"Mm, what's that?"

Glancing through the room one last time before leaving, Alina spotted something.

In front of the classroom, by the window, was a strange pitch-black grand piano.

Unlike the rest of the disorderly classroom, the piano cover was bright and shiny. Someone probably came by at set intervals to play or care for this considerably expensive piano.

"Does Hogwarts have a professor that likes to play the piano? This wasn't in the original work." Alina searched her memories, but she wasn't able to recall a Hogwarts professor with this kind of interest.

From the door, Alina was just able to see the logo on the piano's side: Steinway and Sons. This one of the very best brands of pianos, and in this era, they should have only been found in Germany or America.

And for the majority of piano enthusiasts, each handmade Steinway was like drugs to a drug addict. From Tokyo to New York, all the major concert halls of the world used Steinway grand pianos.

Alina's fingers couldn't help but play the keys in midair. As someone who had worked in the finance industry in her last life, she had often played the piano to alleviate the pressure, but those Steinway pianos that could easily go for a million were things she had only greedily eyed at concert halls.

After a few moments of silence, Alina suddenly realized that if she was soon about to leave Hogwarts forever, there was one memorable thing that she had yet to do.

"Can I play a song on this piano? And then you can take me to see Dumbledore."

The girl turned her head and asked Boli.

"I don't think there's a problem with that, Miss." Boli elegantly bowed as he answered, raising an arm to point at the piano. "Professor Dumbledore has said that Miss is free to tour all the common areas of the school, and that includes touching and using."

"Is that how it is...thank you."

Alina nodded. She didn't directly go up to the piano, instead of walking up to the open window. Through the window, she could see the glistening lake, the lofty towers of the castle, and the promenades along the lakeshore overgrown with vines...a smile of angelic innocence and satisfaction appeared on her face. In the face of this enchanting smile, even Boli was entranced for a few seconds.

Opening the piano lid and placing her butt on the front third of the leather stool, Alina straightened her back and put her feet near the pedals. After taking in a deep breath, she slid her slender white fingers across the black and white keys, and a clear and cold sound like metal balls spilled onto ice resounded through the classroom.

She was finally at Hogwarts, and if she didn't play the classic 'Hedwig's Theme,' she would always feel like something was missing.

After all, this had been the main theme for the entire seventeen-year-run of the Harry Potter movies. There was no better way to end her tour of Hogwarts.

Hedwig's Theme was not an easy song, and Alina, who hadn't touched a piano ever since she had come to this world, was unable to completely play this difficult song.

But as her fingers leaped across the keyboard, the castle seemed to produce mystical magic that supported her as she continued to play. For the latter half, she was able to close her eyes and allow her fingers to smoothly and rhythmically dance across the black and white keys.

An entire half of the song was played to perfection, and she felt like she had transformed into a bird, gliding across the calm surface of the lake and over the ivy-covered stone walls to circle above the towers, fields, and squares of Hogwarts.

As the last note of the song faded away, Alina breathed out. This was the perfect song she had performed in her entire life.

Before she could appreciate the melody that was still swirling around her ears, there was a soft sound of applause.

"An extremely imaginative piece of music. I felt like I could see the sparks coming out of the potion jar."

A startled Alina shot to her feet as if she had just awakened from a dream, and the feet of the stool scraped across the wooden floor.

Behind her, a tall and slender elder wearing a blue wizard robe, bearing a long silver beard and azure eyes, had appeared at the door to the classroom, an admiring look on his face as he clapped.

"What is this song called?"

Dumbledore curiously asked. For some reason, when he heard this song, he suddenly had a strange feeling...a feeling like this girl was born to be in Hogwarts.

"'Hedwig's Theme,' a song on the beginning of dreams and miracles. Thank you for the piano, Professor Dumbledore."

"Oh, to be more exact, I'm not good at the piano. I'm just holding it for a friend." Dumbledore energetically blinked, a naughty look appearing behind his half-moon spectacles. "If you like, you can come and play at any time. It will be a secret between the two of us."

Alina stood up and saw that there was an image on the back of the piano lid, which seemed to be a triangular eye, a vertical line running through the center of the pupil. The moment she saw this image, she knew who the true owner of this piano was.

After taking one last reluctant glance at her surroundings, Alina gave a relieved smile. It was time to say goodbye.

Her gaze calmly meant that of the greatest White Wizard in the world as she shook her head and softly answered, "I'm very sorry."