The magical scene was bewildering to Sirius and I, who had never experienced something as perplexing as that. The curtains, or rather Escren, showed the visuals happening inside the Gate at that very moment. Many students, prospective or otherwise, were sitting around the hall while watching the battle among the students. We also went to find some seats to enjoy the enigmatic experience. From the corner of my eyes, I noticed someone waving their hand at us. I turned around to look at the girl, wearing a red frock that came down to her knees and a white lily in her hair. She fixed her hair behind her ear with one hand as she waved at us with the other.

“She looks familiar..” Sirius whispered from the side while scrutinizing the girl closely.

The girl hopped down the elevated seats rapidly and was soon standing in front of us.

“Hello Mr. Sirius and Mr. Mehr!” She greeted us cheerfully.

“Hello Miss….” Sirius looked at me for the answer.

“Miss Nora Forde, I see that you’re still wearing that flower.” I greeted her back.

“Haha. Yes, and Mr. Sirius seems as lost as always.” Nora spoke while grinning heartily.

I remembered meeting this girl who seemed shy but carried a book that was bigger than her head, in a celebration several years ago. It was impressive that she remembered us even after all these years.

“Nora Forde.” A sharp tone interfered from the side. Hope Woodrow had stepped forward and was glaring daggers at Nora. They both looked at each other, and after a moment that felt like several, Nora greeted back.

“Miss Hope Woodrow. I feel wonderful to meet you here.” Nora replied in the tone with similar sharpness. “Let’s go to the seats. Their battle is going to end soon.”

“How did you know we were here, though?” I asked.

“The entire academy knows that Mr. Sirius Frye is here. You’re lucky that not many people are here at this moment, otherwise Mr. Sirius and Mr. Mehr would be bogged down by leeches. Ah, sorry. I mean people.” Nora giggled while looking at Hope Woodrow and her followers.

“Haha. Just Mehr is fine. You seem quite familiar with the leeches.”

“Of course, me being the only daughter of Anna Forde is taken as an invitation by those sorts of people.”

While having this conversation, all of us went along with Nora to the section with empty seats in the front row. Nora sat in an empty seat first, followed by Sirius who sat beside her. Just before I could sit down, Hope had lunged, figuratively of course, at the seat beside Sirius, and I was left standing while looking at this bizarre scene. So I, like any civilised person, just went and sat down on one of the other empty seats.

“Mehr, come here!” Sirius called me while pointing to the seat Hope was sitting on. I felt bad while looking at the face of that little girl, so I simply refused. However, Sirius just directly asked Hope to get up and give me the seat.

“It’s fine, Sirius.” I said, vexed by the situation.

“It feels weird sitting so far away….” Sirius mumbled.

Sirius looked at me with a face that I couldn’t say no to. After standing up, and while walking up to Sirius’ seat, I looked at Hope’s face. She seemed downtrodden, believing that she would have to stand up from her seat.

I can’t do this to a little child.

I reached the seat on which Sirius was sitting, and then sat on the ground in front of it.

“Why are you sitting on the ground?” Sirius asked.

“It’s fine, Sirius. You should not push other people aside just to make space for me. You will meet many people from now on, who will occupy a part of your life distinct from mine. Anyway, sitting on the ground is not really a big deal. We used to be in far worse situations during our training, weren’t we?”

While I was talking with Sirius, Nora stood up from her seat and sat down beside me.

“Miss Nora, you shouldn’t sit on the ground with a commoner. You are a High Noble.” I said.

“Just Nora is fine. And I thought your name was Mehr, not commoner.” She replied while fixing her hair behind her ear.

Mumbles of the people following Hope Woodrow were heard. It was understandable that such a behaviour wasn’t very pleasant for the image of a High Noble. Disapproval was clear in their eyes.

“How shameful of a High Nob-” Hope Woodrow’s comment stopped in the middle when she saw Sirius following suit. He sat in the middle of Nora and I, and exclaimed, “This takes me back!”

A commoner and two High Nobles were sitting on the ground while watching the students fight on Escren, while some people were sitting on chairs behind them uncomfortably. Even if they wanted to accompany us on this venture of sitting on the ground, it was too late. The time has passed, as the old adage goes. We decided not to bother with people behind us and focused solely on the scenes in front of us. It looked like the battles of the students would soon come to an end.

Only three were remaining, while the others had been sent out of the Gate. People who were clearly injured in the scenes shown on Escren would be completely healed when they got out of the Gate. The entire process seemed too magical for my understanding.

“Why are they healed after they leave the Gate?” Sirius asked the question that was swirling in my mind as well. It was Nora who spoke the answer.

“This is a modified Gate. There are not many Gates like this in the Mainland. But you should know that already. After all, such Gates were modified by Lady Maria.”

“My mother…?” Sirius looked confused. Thinking about it, there was not much that we knew about Lord and Lady Frye. Even their son had only met them almost as many times as I had. We were basically brought up by the shitty old man.

The shitty old man was basically our nanny. It is funny, now that I think about it.

“Yes.” Nora said, “She modified this one when she was a professor here.”

“My mother was a professor here?” Sirius exclaimed.

“Yes, Sirius…. All of this is mentioned in her biography. Haven’t you read it yet?” She said.

“My mother has a biography?” “She has a what?”

Sirius and I spoke up unwittingly. It was a perplexing situation for both of us. People around us knew more about our House than we did.

“Are you sure you’re her child?” Nora spoke weakly, in response to our baffled expressions.

Sirius looked at Nora and helplessly smiled, “Should I know that as well?”