Hearing Hagrid's exclamation ringing in her ears, Hermione's heart sank for a moment, and a bad premonition surged in her mind. Sure enough, when she took the telescope from Hagrid's hands and looked up at the sky, she saw Harry struggling on his wildly careening broomstick.
Lin Yue naturally did not miss this thrilling scene in the sky. Watching Harry "struggle to survive" up there, a clear conclusion quickly emerged in her mind. Someone wanted to harm him. Although she reached this conclusion, Lin Yue still felt no worry or anxiety in her heart. Compared to Hermione, who anxiously turned the telescope towards where the professors were sitting and muttered something, she calmly and composedly directed her gaze towards the professors' location.
Her conclusion was the same as Hermione's: to influence a flying broomstick with magic, unless through direct violence, only a professor could do it. Sure enough, she saw Professor Snape and Professor Quirrell both staring intently at Harry in the sky, muttering something under their breath.
"It's Snape!" Hermione exclaimed, so anxious that she didn't even call him 'Professor' anymore. "He's casting a curse on Harry; he needs to keep his eyes on him! I read about it in a book!"
After saying that, she threw the telescope to Ron, hurriedly getting up to prepare to go to where the professors were to do something to stop Professor Snape. Lin Yue watched as Hermione passed right in front of her and quickly reached out to grab Hermione's arm.
"Lin Yue? What's wrong? If there's something, let's talk about it when I get back. Snape is harming..."
"Professor Snape is protecting Harry," Lin Yue said expressionlessly as she looked at Hermione.
"What?" Hermione was taken aback.
"He and Professor Quirrell were both casting spells at the same time. Professor Quirrell was casting a curse, and he was casting a counter-curse. I can read their lips."
Lin Yue spoke rapidly, delivering her words without any emotional fluctuations. After listening to Lin Yue's analysis, Hermione gritted her teeth and said,
"Alright, I understand!"
Lin Yue nodded, released her grip, and calmly watched Hermione quickly run towards the professors. She then redirected her gaze to Harry, who was high up in the air. Based on her analysis of Hermione's character, it was highly likely that, to be cautious, she would try to tamper with both professors. Lin Yue thought to herself, feeling no inner turmoil, while steadily watching Harry, who was now hanging on to the flying broom with just one hand.
"Hurry up, Hermione!" Ron, who was anxiously stamping his feet beside her, was a stark contrast to her calm demeanor.
As Lin Yue had analyzed, after Hermione ran up to the professor’s stands, she quietly set fire to the robes of both Professor Quirrell and Professor Snape. Although Lin Yue said that it was Professor Quirrell who was harming Harry and that Professor Snape was trying to save him, what if she got it wrong? What if she made a mistake and Harry ended up in danger? So, Hermione decided to target both professors together; that way, whether they were good or bad, it wouldn't matter, and Harry's broomstick would be back to normal.
Of course, if it can be proven in the future that Professor Snape really wanted to save Harry... Hermione would buy him a new robe as an apology. But for now, sorry, it's an emergency! Flames simultaneously erupted from the corners of Professor Quirrell's and Professor Snape's robes. The two of them instinctively stopped their incantations, stood up, and extinguished the flames on their robes.
High up in the sky, Harry climbed back onto his flying broomstick, while Hermione returned to her seat and immediately turned to Lin Yue, her face full of curiosity.
"Can you read lips?"
Lin Yue calmly nodded, "Yes."
"Why did you learn that?" Hermione was even more curious; it seemed like Lin Yue had quite a broad range of knowledge and skills.
Lin Yue looked at Harry, who was continuously making gestures of wanting to vomit on the broomstick, and continued to answer Hermione's question, "In my previous school, there were a lot of people, and the classroom was very big. If you sat in the back, you couldn't hear the teacher speaking. If you didn't know how to read lips, you couldn't attend class."
Hermione's expression momentarily turned strange. Not able to hear the teacher from the back row? How big must that classroom be?!
But then she thought about the population of the country where Lin Yue was from... Ah, she understood.
"Alright..." Hermione nodded and turned to look up high, and then she saw Harry spit out the Golden Snitch.
"Did Harry swallow it?" Hermione asked, dumbfounded.
Lin Yue shook her head with an emotionless tone, "He probably accidentally swallowed it and got it stuck in his throat, but your house won."
Hermione took a moment to react, and seeing the Gryffindor classmates around her jumping and cheering, she joined in the celebration.
"Yes! We won!"
Watching Hermione jump up and down in joyful celebration beside her, Lin Yue turned her head back quietly and gazed at the grass on the Quidditch pitch.
The Quidditch match had ended, and the victorious Gryffindors naturally had to celebrate. This was Harry's first Quidditch victory, and Hermione, as Harry's friend, certainly couldn't miss it. So, Lin Yue, in a polite manner, said a soulless "Congratulations and I really enjoyed your match" to Harry before parting ways with Hermione and the others.
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Lin Yue quickly walked into the library, and with swift and decisive movements, she opened the book in front of her and began to read.
The group of Ravenclaws who had been quietly following her finally breathed a sigh of relief. As soon as the Quidditch match ended, they seamlessly returned to studying. Indeed, she was still the familiar Lin Yue they knew. However, this also made the Ravenclaws realize that Miss Granger from Gryffindor... probably held a special place in Lin Yue's heart, even if she herself was still unaware of it.
Otherwise, she would drag someone who only has books in their eyes to have a good lunch, even if it’s just for three and a half minutes, at least it would be enough to fill her up. The entire afternoon until evening, Lin Yue sat in the Hogwarts library reading books, using both lunch and dinner time to make up for her study time. Even so, she still had nearly an hour of study time that she hadn’t made up for. After packing her bag and putting the books she wanted to read in her dormitory inside, Lin Yue quickly walked towards the Ravenclaw tower. With nearly an hour of study time still not made up, she rationally thought that tonight’s sleep time would just about offset it, as Lin Yue pondered in her mind.
Back in the dormitory, Lin Yue sat down at her desk and opened a book to read. Marietta and Cho Chang originally wanted to gossip a bit about her and Miss Granger's autumn outing, but as soon as Marietta saw the situation, she and her friend tacitly fell silent. The two of them took turns going to the bathroom to shower, then sat on their beds to read, preparing to fall asleep once they felt sleepy.
It wasn't until one o'clock in the morning that Lin Yue was still flipping through the book in front of her. Although she didn't feel sleepy, her eyes had started to feel dry and sore, and she even began to feel a bit of pain in the corners of her eyes.
Standing up and walking into the bathroom, Lin Yue dampened a towel with water and wiped the corners of her eyes. Once her vision cleared up, she returned to her desk to continue reading. After finishing another book, Lin Yue closed it and recalled how she had spent her study time watching a Quidditch match today. Without hesitation, her right hand moved to her left arm, and in an instant, she added another bruise to her left arm.
Standing up and walking into the bathroom, Lin Yue dampened a towel with water and wiped the corners of her eyes. Once her vision cleared up, she returned to her desk to continue reading. After finishing another book, Lin Yue closed it and recalled how she had spent her study time watching a Quidditch match today. Without hesitation, her right hand moved to her left arm, and in an instant, she added another bruise to her left arm.
Reading until the early hours of Sunday morning, Lin Yue put the book into her backpack, secured it, and stood up. However, before she could steady herself, her feet wobbled, and the world around her spun for a moment...
Reaching out to hold onto the bedpost, Lin Yue lowered her head and gasped for breath, taking a while to recover.
Remembering that she hadn’t eaten lunch or dinner the day before and had studied all night, Lin Yue quickly concluded that she might be experiencing low blood sugar. Feeling no sense of grievance or sadness, Lin Yue shouldered her backpack and hurried towards the great hall. As she entered the auditorium, Lin Yue's face appeared even paler than usual under the sunlight, looking quite weak.
After waiting for five minutes, breakfast finally appeared on the long table, and Lin Yue began to eat quickly. As she ate, her pale face gradually regained a bit of color, and her mind slowly cleared from the dizzying state. Still taking three and a half minutes to finish her breakfast, Lin Yue slung her backpack over her shoulder and quickly walked to the library. She sat down in her usual spot and started reading. After a little over an hour, Hermione and the others came over.
"Lin Yue, sorry to interrupt your studying, but... could you come with us to find Hagrid? We need to discuss something, and we need you with us."
Lin Yue raised her head and looked at Hermione with eyes as deep as an ancient well. Although it meant taking up her study time again, it was fine; if she accepted the punishment and made up for it with other time, it would be okay. This thought automatically popped into her mind, forming a logical loop. Lin Yue nodded, stood up, and followed Hermione and the other two out of the library.
Outside Hagrid's hut, Harry knocked on the door as a representative, saying, "Hagrid, it's us."
After a short while, the door opened, revealing Hagrid's cheerful face beneath his thick beard. "Oh, welcome, welcome! Come in!"
He stepped aside to let the four children in, and poured each of them a cup of tea, thoughtfully adding extra milk and sugar to Hermione's and Lin Yue's cups.
"Snape was trying to hurt you yesterday, Harry!" Ron said, taking a sip of his black tea and quickly recounting what had happened the day before.
"It was Professor Snape, Ron," Hermione corrected him with a serious tone. Knowing that Professor Snape likely did not intend to harm Harry, but rather helped him, she chose to maintain her respect for Professor Snape.
Lin Yue felt Hermione's gaze and mechanically began to explain.
“At that time, Professor Quirrell and Professor Snape were both staring at Harry's flying broomstick while simultaneously casting spells.”
“According to their lip movements, Professor Quirrell was casting a curse, and Professor Snape was casting a counter-curse.”
As soon as Lin Yue finished speaking, Ron stared at Harry in shock.
“Merlin's ghost… So, you're saying Snape.” feeling Hermione's gaze, Ron abruptly stopped his sentence, “Professor Snape was protecting you?”
Harry was also puzzled, with a conflicted expression, and nodded, "Since Lin Yue said so... then it must be true. This is just too unbelievable."
"But why would Professor Quirrell want to harm you?" Hermione pressed her lips together and looked at Harry.
Before Harry could respond, Hagrid interjected, having just realized what the four kids were talking about.
"How could that be? With Quirrell's cowardice, he would harm Harry?"
"It could very well be an act," Hermione shook her head, expressing a different opinion.
Harry sighed and shrugged, "I don't know why he would want to harm me either."
"But..." Ron frowned, "Professor Snape wants that thing on the third floor that's guarded by the three-headed dog, right?"
He was now a bit confused about the good and bad sides of Professor Quirrell and Professor Snape. On one hand, Lin Yue's consistently reliable image made him unconsciously trust her; on the other hand, there were also suspicious aspects about Professor Snape, which was really... too conflicting.
Upon hearing this, Hermione fell silent. She had heard Harry and Ron mention that on the day of the Halloween troll incident, they saw Professor Snape heading towards the fourth floor.
And the next day, Professor Snape had bite marks on his leg...
"Nonsense! How could Professor Snape want to steal something from there!" Hagrid immediately rebutted Ron's words. "He was also involved in protecting that thing; he couldn't possibly steal it."
Upon hearing this, Hermione instantly narrowed her eyes. Hagrid seemed to know some inside information. She subtly gave Harry a look, signaling him to probe for more information.
Harry immediately understood and began to try to provoke Hagrid into revealing what he knew.
"But Professor Snape did try to get past the three-headed dog, and he got bitten!"
"Wait, how do you know about Fluffy?" Hagrid finally caught on to the keyword "three-headed dog" on the second go.
"Right, Professor Snape wanted to get past Fluffy to get to whatever it was guarding!" Harry continued to press.
"Impossible! You kids don’t need to worry about this anymore; it’s between Professor Dumbledore and Nicolas Flamel..."
Hagrid stopped mid-sentence, and Harry revealed a triumphant smile.
Hagrid slapped his own mouth twice, angry at himself for the accidental slip, and ushered the four children out of the hut.
"Okay, now we just need to find out who Nicolas Flamel is, and we’ll know what’s really on the third floor."
Hermione said with a smile, while Lin Yue quietly listened. In fact, as soon as she heard the name Nicolas Flamel, she had already retrieved information about him in her mind.
However, no one had asked her yet, had they? So, she automatically concluded that they didn’t need her to inform them.