Cho Chang took a deep breath to calm her surprised emotions, then got up and sat down by Lin Yue's bed. She reached out and gently rubbed Lin Yue's head.

"Don't always talk about studying," Cho Chang said gently, "Why not go out and have some fun with your family during the summer vacation? It would be nice to relax a bit."

Lin Yue turned her head, her eyes as deep and unfathomable as a bottomless pool, unchanged for years. "My parents are not in this world."

She spoke the harsh truth without any emotion, leaving Cho Chang and Marietta momentarily stunned.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know... I didn't mean to upset you," Cho Chang said, a bit flustered.

Lin Yue shook her head expressionlessly. "It's okay, I'm not sad. I don't feel these things."

Cho Chang bit her lip, looking at Lin Yue with concern. "So, are you going to stay at your relatives' house during the holiday?"

After a quick mental calculation, Lin Yue shook her head. "No, I'm staying in a hotel."

"A hotel?! The Leaky Cauldron?" Marietta also came over, sitting on the other side of Lin Yue and looking at her with concern.

"The Leaky Cauldron? Where is that?" Lin Yue asked Marietta without any emotion.

"Didn't you notice it when you went to Diagon Alley before?" Marietta paused for a moment, then quickly convinced herself.

"Well, that's true. You don't really care about anything other than studying. The Leaky Cauldron is the name of the pub at the entrance of Diagon Alley. It's the most famous pub in the wizarding world of Y country, and they offer lodging services on the second floor."

Lin Yue nodded and was about to ask where Diagon Alley was when the time reached twelve o'clock. Realizing it was time for bed, she closed her mouth and quietly curled up on the bed.

Cho Chang and Marietta exchanged a comforting glance. No matter what, at least Lin Yue could go to bed earlier now, which was progress. The two of them leaned down and gave Lin Yue a polite kiss on the forehead, wishing her goodnight before returning to their own beds to rest.

Lying in bed, Lin Yue fell into a deep sleep the moment she closed her eyes, even though she had been ensuring six hours of sleep each day lately. However, her body—or rather, her subconscious—still believed she was sleep-deprived, so the instant she closed her eyes, she would enter deep sleep, waking up again an hour later.

This cycle continued throughout the night.

By the next day, all the little wizards at Hogwarts had completely packed their bags, waiting to eat breakfast before lining up to take the Hogwarts Express home. After not going home for a semester since Christmas, almost all the little wizards were happy and welcoming the arrival of summer vacation.

However, there were a few little wizards who felt indifferent or simply did not welcome the arrival of summer vacation. Lin Yue was one of those who felt completely indifferent; she calmly observed the joyful atmosphere in the Great Hall, with not a single ripple of emotion in her heart.

Summer vacation was just a change of place for learning, and she had a clear understanding of that in her mind. As for the ones who did not welcome summer vacation at all, that was naturally Harry. The moment he thought about going back to the Dursleys, he couldn't help but frown.

But looking at the smiles of his close friends Hermione and Ron, as well as the cheerful atmosphere among the classmates around him, he was unwilling to break the mood, so he could only force a smile and joke with his classmates, treating it as… enjoying the last moments of this school year at Hogwarts.

Only Lin Yue noticed Harry's strange expression as she quickly finished her breakfast and scanned the Great Hall; she almost instantly concluded that something was off with Harry's expression.

Harry's smile was clearly different from those of the others around him; the muscles they used and the extent to which they moved were vastly different.

So, Harry didn't want to smile, but he was smiling anyway; her brain automatically produced this result. Lin Yue then withdrew her gaze, feeling no confusion about why Harry was forcing himself to smile. Instead, she began to silently memorize the textbook on Transfiguration.

After breakfast, the young wizards were set to board the Hogwarts Express, but before that, the heads of houses distributed their report cards.

The young wizards looked at their report cards with mixed feelings of joy and worry, but it was only for a moment; the next second, they tossed those grades aside.

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Grades, well, if they were acceptable—within their own expectations, the young wizards found it easy to accept their results, even if they were slightly lower than hoped. At most, they would hear a few words from their parents about working harder when they got home, and the professors at Hogwarts didn’t say much to the young wizards who didn’t perform well either.

Everyone has their strengths; it’s not just this one report card that can define whether a young wizard is excellent or not. If they can figure out what they want to do in the future and work towards that without going astray, that’s enough.

At the Ravenclaw table, the Ravenclaws were more curious about Lin Yue's results than their own.

Lin Yue worked so hard… her grades should be excellent, right?

With this thought in mind, many Ravenclaws couldn’t wait to rush to the seat behind Lin Yue after checking their own report cards.

When they saw Lin Yue's report card, they couldn’t help but gasp; as expected… she excelled in all subjects, with no mistakes in any of them.

The Ravenclaws who had seen Lin Yue's report card didn’t celebrate loudly; they simply returned to their seats quietly.

Based on their understanding of Lin Yue, she would likely remain calm about this result. Since she was like that, they decided not to disturb her. Putting away her report card, Lin Yue felt no fluctuations in her heart. Full marks in all subjects, meeting the passing standard.

Lin Yue passed the end-of-year exams for this academic year. She summarized in her mind while mechanically turning her head towards the entrance of the great hall. The results had already been released, and soon fully armed individuals would come in to take away the last third of the students for destruction.

Thinking of this, Lin Yue suddenly felt her heart tighten, pounding wildly, and her mind became a blur. This was the concern that Senior Marietta had told her about... concern, but what was she worried about?

Lin Yue turned her head in a daze and then saw her classmates at the Ravenclaw long table chatting and laughing, saw Hermione and her friends at the Gryffindor table talking to each other, and saw Hannah, her potions partner for the entire year, sitting at the Hufflepuff table.

Like a revolving lantern, memories flashed rapidly in Lin Yue's mind: the celebration party thrown for her by everyone in Ravenclaw, the adventures she experienced with Hermione and the others, and the countless potions she made with Hannah.

What was she worried about... In the chaos of her mind, Lin Yue forcibly squeezed out a thought. She was worried about her classmates... A tearing pain shot through her head, but Lin Yue's expression remained unchanged, though several drops of cold sweat had already trickled down her forehead.

She was worried that her classmates would be destroyed; she was worried that her classmates would become part of that last third. Clearly, she had been able to think about this issue calmly before, but at this moment, she could no longer remain rational.

I don’t want to... Lin Yue gritted her teeth, her right hand stiffly and laboriously reaching for her robe pocket, where her wand was kept. I don’t want my classmates to be destroyed... A bright thought suddenly popped into her mind.

But immediately after, another equally clear thought sprang up in her mind: this is the rule, the rule should be followed, I must follow the rule, I cannot violate the rule.

Her right hand, reaching for the robe pocket, froze in mid-air, unable to move an inch.

Lin Yue watched in horror as the door to the great hall slowly opened a crack.

The fully armed enforcers, the cries of other students, the sensation of the drugs being pushed into her body—all of it surged back into her memory.

No! I don’t want this! Lin Yue forced her jaw open and bit down hard on her own tongue.

The strong metallic taste of blood instantly filled her mouth, and the intense pain jolted her back to reality. Her right hand reached into the pocket of her robe, and she pulled out her wand with a swift motion.

In the next moment, the great hall door swung wide open, but it was not the fully armed enforcers who entered; it was Mr. Filch, the caretaker of Hogwarts, here to inform all the young witches and wizards that it was time to board the train.

With her mouth full of blood, Lin Yue let her wand drop to her side, and all her actions came to a halt.

No enforcers, no ready-to-fire submachine guns—Lin Yue's chaotic mind began to settle, and her heartbeat gradually slowed.

She lowered her head and put her wand back into the pocket of her robe, continuously swallowing the blood that flowed from her tongue.

The enforcers chose to go to the students' homes to capture them... Lin Yue easily reached this conclusion.

Looking up at the young witches and wizards in the great hall, Lin Yue felt as if her vision had turned black and white for some reason, and she experienced a sense of falling downward.

At the professors' call, the little wizards filed out with their luggage, and Lin Yue stood up, mechanically following the classmates in front of her.

Her vision was unusually blurry, almost with a hint of patterns, like an old black-and-white television that was glitching. At that moment, she had lost all her previous ability to think and could only stiffly follow her classmates out of the great hall, out of Hogwarts, and onto the Hogwarts Express, where she soon found herself in one of the compartments, staring blankly at the seat across from her.

When she returned for the summer vacation... a third of her classmates would be missing. A wave of darkness washed over Lin Yue, as if her brain was protesting; her tongue felt both painful and numb.

Leaning against the backrest, Lin Yue closed her eyes for the first time during study time. In the darkness, she saw a little girl, who studied every day, who learned every day. Even so, her grades could only place her in the middle of the rankings at the end of the school year.

She couldn't bring her parents to the villa they longed for, nor could she elevate them into the elite class they dreamed of. She knew it was her fault, that she wasn't smart enough... she was a foolish child, not the genius her parents wanted.

So, she would squeeze out some of her already limited sleep time to look at recipes and learn to knit. She could hold a book in one hand and a spatula in the other; she could prepare a new pair of gloves for her parents before each winter came. She longed to prove that even without a villa, the family could still live happily together...

But what happened after that, what happened...

A harsh sound echoed wildly in her mind, and a bone-chilling sensation surrounded her. Lin Yue trembled as she curled up into a ball.

She felt so weak... she was so tired... when had she felt this way before...

"Are you cold?"

A pair of arms, warm as the sun, wrapped around Lin Yue, and the harsh sound abruptly stopped, replaced by a warm whisper in her ear. Her trembling body slowly relaxed, and the darkness in her mind began to dissipate bit by bit.

A small voice, a small figure reached out its hands towards the illusory sky, help me, please save me!

When she opened her eyes again, Lin Yue's gaze was still as calm as dead water.

Slightly turning her head, she saw that it was Hermione who was hugging her from behind, while Harry and Ron were helping her put her luggage on the rack. Cho Chang and Marietta sat across from her, looking at her with concern.

"Senior Cho Chang and Senior Marietta just found me and said you weren't in a good state, so I hurried over. What happened?" Hermione lowered her head and gently rubbed Lin Yue's cheek.

Lin Yue trembled as she opened her mouth, her voice coming out hoarse and unpleasant, like a broken bellows.

"I don't want to stay in a hotel during the summer... can I stay at your house?"

Lin Yue spoke her thoughts honestly; her ability to think had returned. Hogwarts had not announced the rankings of all students, so she couldn't be sure if Hermione, Harry, Ron, Cho Chang, and Marietta were among that third who would be missing.

Even if Hermione, Cho Chang, and Marietta had excellent grades, they could still make mistakes, or other students at Hogwarts could perform exceptionally and surpass them.

In the current situation, she couldn't save everyone at Hogwarts; she could only try to save Hermione and the others. And considering the possibility of enforcers coming to their homes to take people away, the only solution she could think of was to go home with them; only then could she stop the enforcers.

Even if this would violate the rules, she would accept the punishment after everyone successfully escaped. The enforcers could destroy her, and she had no objections to such consequences.

Lin Yue's mind, now capable of thought, quickly refreshed her ideas, and she determined this plan without hesitation. Even if the outcome of this plan involved her own destruction, she felt no emotional turmoil; the success of the plan was her only goal.