The Gryffindor common room was a bit more restless than usual that morning. The fireplace was still burning. Red and gold tapestries swayed. But what was different from yesterday was that everyone in the common room still hadn't gotten used to their own bodies. Graves Hermione sat on a leather sofa, reviewing her notes from last night's ancient texts. A passage reading "acceptance of emotion is the key" wouldn't leave her head. The connection to the lunar cycle. The burned pages. Who burned them, and why. (I'll go to the library again today. I need to read through the remaining pages carefully one more time.) She'd decided that. Thud. "[scared]Ow...!" She turned around. Near the entrance, a girl with long red hair had stepped on her skirt hem and fallen spectacularly. ——It was Wilkes Ronalda. Until yesterday, he'd been a 175-centimeter tall red-haired boy. Now he was still 175 centimeters, but a red-haired girl. Because of the height, the skirt hem was easy to step on. And the girls' uniform skirt was too delicate for Ronalda's large hands to keep neat. Just as she stood up, she stepped on the hem again. Thud. Second time. "[scared]..." No one laughed. Everyone was too busy wrestling with their own clothes and bodies. Ronalda wobbled to her feet and tried to fix her messy red ponytail——and undid it instead. The long red hair fell loose and forward, covering her eyes. "[surprised]Whoa!" "[laughing]...Do you do this every morning?" "[scared]N-No. Just today... probably." Ronalda came over to Graves Hermione's side, parting the red hair. The small mole on her right cheek was slightly flushed. Her large green eyes darted around restlessly. "[whispers]Um... Hermione, are you going to the library today too?" Graves Hermione nodded. "[serious]Yes, I am." "[gentle]...I'll go too." An immediate answer. No reason given. Just her ears, turned toward Graves Hermione, gradually turning red. She didn't seem to notice at all. Graves Hermione looked away slightly. (…It's fine, I guess.) --- Breakfast in the Great Hall was a bit calmer than yesterday. The ceiling opened to the morning sky——a magically projected sky, not real, yet somehow beautiful today as well. About a thousand students sat at the four tables of Gryffindor, Slytherin, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff. Their bodies still swapped by the curse, they ate breakfast anyway. The house-elves in the kitchens had prepared the food, which was transferred directly to the tables, so no one needed to go cook. Graves Hermione nibbled her toast while noticing all through breakfast that Wilkes Ronalda was following her diagonally from behind. Beside her, Harriet——black-haired with round green eyes, Graves Hermione's roommate——looked at Ronalda with exasperation. "[sarcastic]Why are you following diagonally? You're like a stalker." "[scared]N-No...! I just thought it'd be better to stay close..." Her ears turned even redder. --- First period. Transfiguration class. The location was the Transfiguration classroom on the third floor. A stone room with a view of Scotland's cloudy sky through the windows. On each desk sat the day's transfiguration object——today's task was "transform a small bottle into a silver cup"——placed and ready. Professor McGonagall stood before the podium. Her expression was a bit more composed than yesterday. She'd grown somewhat accustomed to her changed appearance in a single night. Her eyes behind her glasses remained as sharp as ever. "[serious]Today's task is transforming bottles into cups. The principles of magic don't change just because your body has. Concentrate." The problem was that when your body changed, your center of gravity changed. The Gender Swap Curse that had activated had transformed everyone in Hogwarts Castle in a single night. Former male students remained tall but their body shape changed; former female students became lighter or heavier. Everyone's center of gravity when waving their wand was different. The way everyone moved their arms was different. "[whispers]Something's off, it's going in a weird direction..." Pop. A male student next to her waved his wand, and the bottle got sucked into the ceiling. "[surprised]Huh!?" Thud. It hit the ceiling and fell back down. At another desk, a student waved their wand and it slipped from their hand, rolling across the desk and bonking the head of the student in front. "[angry]Ow!" Unexpected transformations were happening all over the classroom. Bottles crushed vertically, becoming plates instead of cups, or nothing happening at all. Graves Hermione checked her own center of gravity and waved her wand carefully. Since her body had become lighter, she needed to adjust how much force she put in. (A bit more force here...) Snap. The bottle transformed into a beautiful silver cup. "[serious]Well done, Graves." Next to her, Wilkes Ronalda was concentrating hard on the incantation. "Um... Mobiliarcana..." Wrong spell. And she stumbled over it. Her wand slipped from her hand. It rolled from one end of the classroom to the other and slipped through the gap in the door toward the hallway. "[scared]Oh, my wand——!" "[serious]Wilkes!" "[scared]I'll get it!!" Ronalda bolted into the hallway. The problem was that Hogwarts Castle's staircases were temperamental. Of the 142 staircases, at least 12 changed their destination. The curse had made them especially unstable this week. The lesson continued. Ronalda didn't come back. Professor McGonagall checked the hallway once, then sighed quietly. "[serious]...Retrieve it yourself after class." Graves Hermione was trying to concentrate on deciphering the ancient texts. Between lessons, she checked last night's notes. "Those who suppress emotion——" (Ronalda still hasn't come back.) She glanced at the door. (...It doesn't matter. I need to focus.) She was annoyed with herself. She couldn't concentrate at all because she was worried about Ronalda. --- Lunch break. Ronalda came back from the third floor looking awkward. "[sad]...I got stuck on a moving staircase." "[sarcastic]You were on the third floor for an hour?" "[sad]...But I did find my wand." "[gentle]...Did you eat?" "[sad]Not yet..." "[gentle]Let's go to the dining hall." Ronalda's face softened. Her ears turned faintly red again. --- Afternoon. The library was quiet. The east wing of the second floor. Among shelves holding about 30,000 volumes, Madam Pince the librarian was there——a strict woman who hated fingerprints on books more than anything. She was organizing books with a clatter at another shelf. Graves Hermione had spread out the remaining pages of "Permutatio Corporis," which she'd taken from the restricted section. An old leather cover, scorched edges. The page with the counterspell was burned away. Only fragments remained. 'Those who suppress emotion——the curse takes deep root——' (I need to read this carefully again.) The chair beside her was quietly pulled out. Ronalda sat down. Without saying anything, just there. In her hand, a Chocolate Frog wrapper——a standard confection in the magical world, a chocolate frog worth about 12 Sickles. There was silence for a while. "[whispers]Um... this..." She held out the wrapper to Graves Hermione. Her fingers were trembling slightly. Her attempt at composure was completely transparent. "[gentle]...A gift?" "[whispers]...Yeah. You've been researching so hard..." Graves Hermione accepted it. She opened the wrapper. Hop. It jumped. Chocolate Frogs were designed to jump once. This one landed directly on Graves Hermione's head. "[surprised]...Huh?" A brown chocolate frog was stuck in her brown hair. "[scared]Oh, sorry, let me get it!" Ronalda reached out. Her hand touched Graves Hermione's hair. Their faces drew close. A few centimeters. They stopped. Both of them froze. Ronalda's large green eyes looked straight at Graves Hermione's face. Graves Hermione couldn't look away. Ronalda's ears visibly turned red. The small mole on her right cheek seemed to tremble in her reddening face. Only the sound of Madam Pince organizing books beyond the shelves could be heard. Ronalda forced out the words. "[whispers]I... I think you're cute like this too... is that weird...?" Her voice cracked at the end. A ridiculous falsetto. Both of them slumped onto the desk at the same time. "[crying]..." Graves Hermione couldn't move with her face buried in the desk. Her chest was warm. A warmth she couldn't quite call happiness or embarrassment, a warmth she didn't understand, settled in the center of her chest. All the ancient text characters from before had blown away. (...Why. Why like this...) The Chocolate Frog alone wandered peacefully into the shadows of the shelves. --- A little later, both of them somehow returned to their original positions. Ronalda was looking out the window. Graves Hermione turned her gaze back to the ancient text. (I have to suppress my emotions.) Thinking that, she turned the page. A sentence caught her eye, and her hand stopped. 'Those who suppress emotion——the curse takes deep root——Yet the key to weakening the curse lies in not deceiving one's own heart.' The passage she'd read before now looked different. (...If you suppress emotion, the curse gets stronger?) That would be it. But even so—— (I can't admit it.) I can't admit what this feeling for Ronalda is. Breaking the curse comes first. Emotion is secondary to knowledge. That's how it's decided. But the more she tried to control this feeling with knowledge, the more the warmth in her chest refused to fade. Graves Hermione quietly covered her forehead with her hand. "[sarcastic]...I found the worst passage at the worst possible time." "[surprised]Huh? Did you figure something out?" "[serious]...It's nothing." --- A little after that, Graves Hermione noticed. At a table by the window, there were unfamiliar students. A group of four. Ravenclaw students in blue ties. They had old books and parchment spread on their desk, taking notes on something. The problem was that one of them had looked at this table three times already. Graves Hermione tried closing her research notebook. The other student quickly flipped their notes over. (...They were spying.) Graves Hermione stood up. "[serious]Wait a moment." She headed toward the group of four. The student who'd been looking at her——a girl with neatly cut bangs, an intelligent-looking face——noticed Graves Hermione and raised an eyebrow. That student spoke first. "[cold]Ravenclaw will find the counterspell first." That was all she said. The four of them quickly packed up and left. Graves Hermione watched their backs disappear. (...There was a rival.) That tightened her resolve a little. She couldn't afford to stay emotionally scattered. She would be the one to find the counterspell first. --- On the way back. At a corner in the hallway leading from the library to the common room, it happened as they passed. Long silver hair. Gray eyes looked at Graves Hermione from top to bottom in an instant. ——A measuring gaze. Quiet and cold. There was no conversation. No introduction. That student turned the corner and walked toward Slytherin. The silver hair disappeared into the shadows of the stone hallway. "[whispers]...Who was that?" "[serious]I don't know." She didn't know, but that gaze bothered her. It didn't feel like a simple passing. Something had been measured. That was the sensation. Graves Hermione gripped her notebook tighter. There had already been more than enough in a single day. A passage in the ancient text. The moment Ronalda's voice cracked. The information competition with Ravenclaw. And now, that silver-haired gaze from someone whose name she didn't even know. Even sitting before the fireplace in the common room, the warmth in her chest remained.