Lin Yue looked at Ron with a calm gaze and said in a flat voice, "This is the Mirror of Erised, which can show a person's deepest desires."
"Deepest desires..." As Harry listened to Lin Yue's words and looked at the Mirror of Erised in front of him, his eyes were filled with longing and obsession.
Isn't that right... his deepest desire is to have his family, the family that can be by his side.
Upon hearing this, Ron couldn't help but turn to look at the Mirror of Erised, wondering if what he truly desired was to become more outstanding than Charlie, Bill, and the others... Watching Harry and Ron, who were still gazing at the Mirror of Erised, Lin Yue spoke in a voice devoid of emotion.
"This kind of mirror, created as an alchemical product, can clarify the future direction for those with a strong will. However, it can also cause those with a weak will to become obsessed, wasting their lives in front of the mirror and ultimately turning into mere skeletons."
Lin Yue's indifferent voice rang in his ears, sending a chill down Harry and Ron's spines. Even Harry, who was immersed in the image of his parents embracing him in the mirror, was pulled out of it by her words. He tightly closed his eyes, trying hard to control himself as he turned his back to the Mirror of Erised. When he opened his eyes, Harry was gasping for breath, using all his willpower to restrain himself, and his forehead was already covered in a fine layer of sweat.
"Thank you for the reminder... Lin Yue." Harry forced a smile, almost losing himself in the moment.
Lin Yue looked at Harry with a blank expression, "I'm just speaking the truth; that last statement was a description of its effect in the book."
Harry felt a bit choked up, realizing he had been overly sentimental... Lin Yue wasn't trying to hint at anything about him.
"What would you see in the mirror?" Ron asked curiously, looking at Lin Yue. He really wanted to know what the deepest desire of Lin Yue was, who always had no expression or tone and was solely focused on studying.
Harry couldn't help but curiously look at Lin Yue, wondering about her deepest desires... he wanted to know too! However, this mirror seemed a bit dangerous; should he let Lin Yue look into it?
But clearly, Lin Yue herself wasn't thinking that much. She had only heard Harry and Ron asking her what she would see in the mirror, what would be her innermost desire. To answer that question, she needed to look into the mirror. After her brain reached this conclusion, Lin Yue stepped up to the mirror and gazed blankly at the image within.
As Lin Yue approached the mirror, the image began to change rapidly. A soft-looking bed bathed in sunlight flashed by, and the Lin Yue in the mirror was curled up on it, her sleeping face serene and peaceful.
The next image that appeared was a dining table filled with various delicious foods, where Lin Yue was leisurely enjoying her meal.
Finally, there was a fleeting image of her walking in the mountains with Hermione, and then the mirror was completely shrouded in thick fog, as if even the Mirror of Erised could not detect Lin Yue's deepest desire.
"What did you see?" Harry blinked and looked at Lin Yue with anticipation. Was it a perfect score on an exam? Or was it her winning the House Cup for Ravenclaw?
Lin Yue turned back to face Harry and Ron, her expression unchanged. "First, I saw myself sleeping on a sunlit bed, then I was eating, and after that, there was a scene of me walking with Hermione. All of these flashed by, and in the end, there was just a fog, and nothing else."
Harry and Ron exchanged a glance, and Ron looked at Lin Yue with a puzzled expression.
"Is this your deepest desire? Sleeping, eating, and walking?"
"What about the final mist?"
Lin Yue shook her head calmly, "I don't know, the book doesn't mention this situation."
"Alright," Ron said, scratching his head.
After taking one last lingering look at the Mirror of Erised, Harry left the classroom with Ron and Lin Yue without looking back.
He would never come here again, nor would he ever look at the Mirror of Erised again; he was quietly certain of that.
Because he knew very well that his parents had protected him from Voldemort to ensure that he could live well, not to become a skeleton lost in fantasies in front of a magical mirror.
At the corner, Ron said goodbye to Harry, and Lin Yue quickly returned to the dormitory, seamlessly entering a state of study. She had just spent an hour with Harry and Ron looking at the Mirror of Erised, so now she needed to make up for eight hours of study time. Eight days of sleep would be just enough to catch up, Lin Yue quickly calculated in her mind.
The morning study session had completely ended. Lin Yue closed her book and, before heading to the Great Hall for lunch, raised her hand to add another mark on her left arm as a punishment for having used her study time to sneak a look at the Erised Mirror.
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As she opened the dormitory door, Lin Yue quickly walked out of the Ravenclaw common room and headed straight for the Great Hall.
When she entered the Great Hall, lunch was just being served on the tables by the house-elves, and the professors and other students who stayed at school had not yet arrived.
Without any professors to stop her, Lin Yue finished her lunch in three and a half minutes and quickly returned to her dormitory to continue studying. It wasn't until she was back in her dormitory and had already started studying that the professors and students began to trickle into the Great Hall.
Seeing the dishes on the Christmas holiday round table that had clearly been disturbed, the professors who could guess the situation, along with Harry and Ron, all sighed in unison.
For the next four days, Harry and Ron were unable to catch Lin Yue at all. She would go to the library at seven every morning to return books and borrow enough for the day, then have breakfast, and return to her dormitory to study. She wouldn’t leave her dormitory until lunchtime and dinnertime, and even then, she only took three and a half minutes to eat, totalling just seven minutes for each meal including travel time.
Not to mention Harry and Ron, even the professors couldn’t catch her; it was as if the staircases at Hogwarts had taken a liking to her. No matter where she wanted to go, they would assist her, making it impossible for the professors to encounter her on the way.
The only person who had contact with Lin Yue during these four days was Madam Pince. She watched the girl, noticing that her complexion visibly grew paler over the four days, and her mental state seemed to deteriorate as well. Finally, on the morning of the fifth day, when Lin Yue came to borrow books from her again, Madam Pince could no longer hold back.
"Miss Lin Yue... Have you been feeling unwell these past few days? Your complexion looks bad," Madam Pince said with concern as she looked at Lin Yue, whose face was indeed very pale, and the dark circles under her eyes were quite pronounced.
"Thank you for your concern, Madam Pince I'm not unwell," Lin Yue replied expressionlessly, but her voice was unusually hoarse and dazed.
This was the fifth day; she hadn't slept a wink for four consecutive nights, but she had only managed to make up half of the study time she had missed, with the other half still needing to be caught up.
Mrs. Pins pressed her lips together as she looked at Lin Yue. "If you're not feeling well, go to the medical wing. Don't make us worry, okay?"
Lin Yue nodded with a deadpan expression, "Okay, thank you, Madam Pince "
After taking the books Mrs. Pins handed her, Lin Yue quickly put them in her backpack, rushed to the great hall to grab a bite to eat, and then returned to her dormitory to continue studying.
Harry and Ron couldn't find Lin Yue, and it wasn't practical for them to go to Ravenclaw Tower every day to look for her, especially since they had their own homework to do.
So, they temporarily set aside the idea of helping her relax.
Finally, on the morning of the ninth day after Christmas, Lin Yue used the eight nights of sleep she had missed to completely make up for her lost study time. After putting the finished books into her backpack, Lin Yue leaned on the table, trying to stand up. However, at that moment, her breathing became heavy, her mind felt particularly foggy, and the world around her seemed to start spinning in her eyes.
As darkness descended in her line of sight, Lin Yue's body fell heavily to the ground with a thud. Fortunately, there was a carpet in the Hogwarts dormitory; otherwise, this fall would have been quite painful for her.
Her black hair fell across her face, accentuating her pale complexion, resembling a lifeless vampire. The dark circles under her eyes indicated her exhaustion. The sun slowly climbed above the horizon, and the sunlight gradually crept up from her ankles.
Even when the sun rose high and the light shone on her face, Lin Yue showed no reaction. As day turned to night, it was only with the appearance of the moonlight that Lin Yue struggled to open her eyes.
Her eyes remained lifeless and silent. Lin Yue used her hands to push against the ground, trying to get herself up. With a detached gaze, she looked out the window, and the bright night made her muddled mind realize something. Stumbling back, she sat down on her bed and raised her right hand to look at the watch on her wrist.
Eight o'clock in the evening... So I fainted, and I fainted for a whole day. Lin Yue's brain struggled to think, while at the same time, thoughts that didn't even require much consideration came to mind. So I wasted nearly fifteen hours of study time from five o'clock in the morning to eight o'clock in the evening. Slowly lifting her head, Lin Yue wanted to get up to grab her backpack from the desk, and then, while it was still before curfew, go to the library to return books and borrow new ones.
Unfortunately, before she could get up, her muddled brain, unable to maintain balance, caused her to fall back onto the bed.
"Mm..." Lin Yue let out a sound without any expression on her face. Since she couldn't walk, she simply leaned over and lay down on the floor. Bit by bit, she used her arms to pull herself toward the bathroom; she no longer had the mental capacity to control her legs.
Her brain was so foggy that she could barely control her own body, but the idea of using cold water popped into her mind effortlessly. In the past, whenever she felt similarly dazed at home or couldn't get out of bed, her mom or dad would splash a basin of cold water on her, and her foggy brain would reboot. Although her head would hurt afterward, it was exceptionally effective.
Struggling to pull herself to the bathroom with her arms, Lin Yue lay on the floor and managed to turn on the water with difficulty. She chose not to use hot water; instead, the extremely cold water in winter poured directly over her.
Her head and body were soon completely soaked with cold water, and while she couldn't help but shiver, Lin Yue's brain slowly began to shake off the fog. However, her complexion became even paler, and her lips turned dark purple. Supporting herself on the ground, she got up and turned off the water.
With her right hand on her head, she leaned weakly against the wall and rested for a while. After feeling that she had regained a bit of strength, she turned around and walked out of the bathroom without hesitation. She grabbed a towel and dried her hair a bit, not caring that her body was still wet, and directly took off her soaked clothes to change into dry ones.
Raising her right hand to check her watch, she realized that all this fuss had wasted an hour, and it was already nine o'clock in the evening. She needed to make up for sixteen hours of study time, and her throbbing brain provided the answer. Reaching for her backpack, Lin Yue staggered to the dormitory door, opened it, and stepped outside.
As she approached the small library in the Ravenclaw common room, her footsteps suddenly halted. She raised her hand to touch her cheek, which felt as cold as ice, and recalled her reflection in the bathroom mirror after she had gotten up from the floor.
Her face was pale, her lips dark, and her entire expression conveyed a sickly appearance. Her brain began to connect this with memories. She remembered similar situations when she was with her parents, which were due to illness.
At that time, she had taken some medicine and, as her mom said, continued to go to school, so being sick also meant studying; that was a rule set by her mom. Neither her teachers nor classmates reacted to it, and they didn't make her stop studying.
But... what about Professor Flitwick, Professor McGonagall, and Headmaster Dumbledore? Lin Yue thought to herself without any emotional fluctuation. Considering that they allowed her to take a break on Christmas Day, they would let her rest in this situation as well.
However, learning cannot be delayed; even when sick, one should still study. Moreover, she wasn't sick; she just felt drowsy and wanted to sleep. So, she couldn't go out now; she couldn't let anyone see her like this. She should be in the Ravenclaw tower, studying in her dormitory.
Giving up on the idea of going to the Hogwarts library to borrow new books, Lin Yue reached for four books from the small library inside Ravenclaw and hurriedly made her way back to her dormitory. She pulled out a chair, sat back down at her desk, and began to study again, carefully reading the contents of the books. Lin Yue once again entered a state of learning. As night deepened, the pure white moonlight shone on Lin Yue's pale face, adding a touch of melancholy to her study scene.