Quidditch Match, Part 2

Hearing Hagrid's gasp beside her, Hermione's heart skipped a beat as a wave of foreboding washed over her.

Sure enough, when she took Hagrid's telescope and looked up at the sky, Harry was struggling on his rampaging, bucking broomstick.

Lin Yue naturally didn't miss this perilous scene high above. Watching Harry "fighting for survival" in the air, a clear conclusion quickly surfaced in her mind.

Someone was trying to harm him. Even after reaching this conclusion, Lin Yue felt no worry or anxiety.

Compared to Hermione, who frantically turned her telescope toward the professors' seats while muttering under her breath, Lin Yue calmly and composedly directed her gaze to where the professors sat.

Her conclusion matched Hermione's: to magically influence a broomstick, unless using brute force, only a professor could manage it.

Sure enough, she saw Professor Snape and Professor Quirrell both staring intently at Harry in the sky, their lips moving continuously.

"It's Snape!" Hermione was so frantic she dropped the title "Professor." "He's casting a curse on Harry—he has to keep his eyes on him for it, I've read about this!"

With that, she tossed the telescope to Ron and hurriedly stood up, ready to rush to the professors' area to stop Snape.

Lin Yue watched Hermione pass by her, quickly reaching out to grab her arm.

"Lin Yue? What's wrong? Tell me later—Snape is harming—"

"Professor Snape is protecting Harry." Lin Yue's face was expressionless as she looked at Hermione.

"What?" Hermione froze.

"He and Professor Quirrell are both chanting spells. Quirrell is casting a curse; Snape is casting a counter-curse. I can read their lips."

Lin Yue spoke rapidly, her voice flat and devoid of emotion.

Hermione bit her lip after hearing Lin Yue's analysis. "Alright, I understand!"

Lin Yue nodded, released her grip, and watched calmly as Hermione dashed toward the professors' area.

Turning her gaze back to Harry in the sky, Lin Yue analyzed based on Hermione's personality: to be safe, she'd most likely tamper with both professors.

Lin Yue thought this without a ripple of emotion, staring fixedly at Harry, who was now hanging onto his broomstick with only one hand.

"Hurry up, Hermione!" Ron stomped his feet anxiously beside her, a stark contrast to her composure.

Just as Lin Yue had analyzed, after running up to the professors' viewing stand, Hermione quietly set fire to both Quirrell's and Snape's robes.

Even though Lin Yue said Quirrell was the one harming Harry and Snape was saving him, what if she was wrong? If she was wrong, Harry could die.

So Hermione decided to target both professors—stop the good and the bad alike, and Harry's broomstick would return to normal.

Of course, if it later turned out Snape really was trying to save Harry... Hermione would buy him a new robe as an apology, but for now, sorry, desperate times called for desperate measures!

Blue flames simultaneously licked up the hems of Quirrell's and Snape's robes. Both men stopped chanting in unison and stood up to extinguish the fire on their clothes.

Up in the sky, Harry climbed back onto his broomstick. Hermione returned to her seat and immediately turned to Lin Yue, her face full of curiosity.

"You can read lips?"

Lin Yue nodded calmly. "Yes."

"Why did you learn that?" Hermione grew even more curious. Lin Yue's range of knowledge and skills seemed awfully broad.

Lin Yue's expression was indifferent as she watched Harry repeatedly making retching motions on his broomstick, while continuing to answer Hermione's question. "At my old school, there were a lot of students and the classrooms were huge. Sitting in the back, I couldn't hear the teacher. Without lip-reading, I couldn't keep up with class."

Hermione's expression twisted oddly for a moment. Sitting in the back and not hearing the teacher? How big were those classrooms?!

But then she thought about the population of Lin Yue's country... Ah, she understood.

"Alright..." Hermione nodded and turned her gaze back to the sky, just in time to see Harry spit out the Golden Snitch.

"Did he swallow it?" Hermione was dumbfounded.

Lin Yue shook her head, her tone flat. "Probably got it stuck in his throat by accident. But either way, your house won."

Hermione was a beat slow to react. Looking around at the Gryffindors standing up, jumping, and cheering, she joined in.

"That's right! We won!"

Watching Hermione bouncing up and down in joyful celebration beside her, Lin Yue turned her head back expressionlessly and quietly stared at the grass on the Quidditch Pitch.

The Quidditch match ended, and the victorious Gryffindors naturally had to celebrate properly.

Besides, this was Harry's first Quidditch victory, and as Harry's friend, Hermione couldn't miss it.

So after politely offering Harry a flat "congratulations" and "I really liked your match," Lin Yue parted ways with Hermione and the others.

She strode quickly to the library, flipping open a book in front of her with crisp, efficient movements and began reading.

The group of Ravenclaw Little Eagles secretly following her finally breathed a sigh of relief. As soon as the Quidditch match ended, she was back to nonstop studying—yep, that was the Lin Yue they knew.

But it also made these Little Eagles realize that Miss Granger of Gryffindor... probably held a special place in Lin Yue's heart, even if Lin Yue herself didn't know it yet.

As for the large crowd lurking in the shadows, watching her every move and having an unusually rich inner monologue, Lin Yue was completely oblivious.

Right now, she was mechanically flipping through the pages of the book in her hands, page after page.

To make up for the study time lost to the Quidditch match, she hadn't even eaten lunch.

Hermione, who was celebrating the victory with her Gryffindor classmates and thus hadn't gone to the Great Hall for lunch, had no idea about this.

Otherwise, she would have absolutely dragged that book-obsessed girl to have a proper lunch—even if it was just three and a half minutes, at least she'd be full.

From the entire afternoon into the evening, Lin Yue sat in the Hogwarts library reading. Both lunch and dinner times were sacrificed to catch up on her study hours.

Even so, she still had nearly an hour of time left to make up.

Packing her bag, stuffing the books she wanted to bring back to the dormitory into it, Lin Yue quickly walked toward Ravenclaw Tower.

Nearly an hour of time not made up, tonight's sleep time would just about offset it—Lin Yue's mind reasoned rationally.

Returning to the dormitory, Lin Yue sat down at her desk and opened a book to read. Qiuzhang and Marietta, who had originally wanted to gossip about her and Miss Granger, saw this and tacitly shut their mouths.

One after another, the two went to the bathroom to shower, then sat on their beds and started reading, preparing to fall asleep once drowsiness set in.

Until one in the morning, Lin Yue was still flipping through the book beneath her hands. Although she didn't feel sleepy, her eyes had started to feel dry and scratchy, and even the corners of her eyes were beginning to ache.

Standing up, she walked into the bathroom, wet a towel with water, and wiped the corners of both eyes. Once her vision cleared again, she sat back down at the desk to continue reading.

Finishing another book, Lin Yue closed it, and the thought of using her study time today to watch the Quidditch Match popped into her mind.

Without hesitation, she placed her right hand on her left arm, and in an instant, she added another bruise to her left arm.

She read all the way until Sunday morning. Lin Yue packed her books into her bag, picked it up, and stood. But before she could steady herself, her feet wobbled involuntarily, and her vision spun dizzily...

Reaching out to grab the bedpost beside her, Lin Yue lowered her head, panting heavily for a long while before recovering.

Realizing she hadn't eaten lunch or dinner yesterday and had studied all night, Lin Yue instantly judged that she might be experiencing low blood sugar.

Without any sense of grievance or sadness in her heart, Lin Yue shouldered her bag and quickly walked toward the Great Hall.

Entering the Great Hall, Lin Yue's face, under the sunlight, was even paler than usual, making her look genuinely somewhat frail.

After waiting five minutes, breakfast finally appeared on the long table, and Lin Yue began eating quickly.

As she ate, her pale face slowly regained a little color, and her mind gradually cleared from the dizzying vertigo.

Still finishing breakfast in three and a half minutes, Lin Yue picked up her bag and hurried to the Library, sitting in her usual spot to read. After a little over an hour...

Hermione and the others came looking for her. "Lin Yue, sorry to interrupt your studying, but... could you come with us to see Hagrid? We need to discuss something, and we need you too."

Lin Yue looked up, her eyes as calm as an ancient well as she gazed at Hermione. Even though it meant taking up more of her study time, it was fine—she just had to accept the punishment and make it up with other time.

This thought automatically popped into her mind, a logical loop closed. Lin Yue nodded, stood up, and followed Hermione and the other two out of the Library.

Arriving outside Hagrid's hut, Harry stepped forward as the representative and knocked on the door. "Hagrid, it's us."

After a moment, the door opened, revealing Hagrid's beaming face beneath his thick beard. "Oh, welcome, welcome! Come on in."

Stepping aside to let the four children inside, Hagrid poured each of them a cup of tea, thoughtfully adding extra milk and sugar to Hermione's and Lin Yue's.

"Yesterday, Snape was trying to harm you, Harry!" Ron took a sip of his black tea, then looked at Harry and spoke rapidly about the previous day's events.

"It's Professor Snape, Ron," Hermione corrected sternly. After realizing that Professor Snape likely hadn't tried to harm Harry but had instead helped him, she chose to maintain her respect for Professor Snape.

And she felt a bit of shame for being too hasty yesterday and calling Professor Snape by his name directly.

"Fine, Professor Snape..." Ron sighed, forcing the words out with difficulty.

"Besides," Hermione took a sip of her tea, finding the taste unexpectedly pleasant, "maybe it wasn't Professor Snape trying to harm Harry, right?"

With that, she turned to look at Lin Yue, hoping she would explain.

Feeling Hermione's gaze, Lin Yue began to explain mechanically.

"At the time, both Professor Quirrell and Professor Snape were staring intently at Harry's Broomstick, both chanting spells at the same time."

"Based on their lip movements, Professor Quirrell was reciting a curse, and Professor Snape was reciting a counter-curse."

As soon as Lin Yue finished speaking, Ron stared at Harry with his mouth agape.

"Merlin's Quaffle... so Old Bat—" Feeling Hermione's glare, Ron forcibly stopped himself, "Professor Snape was protecting you?"

Harry also looked baffled, his expression conflicted as he nodded. "Since Lin Yue said so... then it must be. This is just, unbelievable."

"But why would Professor Quirrell want to harm you?" Hermione pursed her lips and looked at Harry.

Before Harry could speak, Hagrid cut in, having just processed what the four children were saying.

"How could that be? With Professor Quirrell's nerve, he'd try to harm Harry?"

"It's very possible he's faking it," Hermione shook her head, offering a different view.

Harry sighed and spread his hands. "I don't know why he'd want to harm me either."

"But..." Ron furrowed his brows, "Professor Snape wants that thing on the fourth floor guarded by the Three-headed Dog, right?"

He was now confused about who was good or bad between Professor Quirrell and Professor Snape. On one hand, Lin Yue's consistently reliable image made him instinctively trust her; on the other, Professor Snape had suspicious points too—it was just... too conflicting.

Hearing this, Hermione fell silent. She had heard Harry and Ron mention before that on the day of the Halloween Troll incident, they had seen Professor Snape heading toward the fourth floor.

And the next day, Professor Snape's leg had a bite wound...

"Nonsense! Why would Professor Snape want to steal something from there!" Hagrid immediately retorted upon hearing Ron's words.

"He was part of protecting that thing; he wouldn't steal it."

At this, Hermione's eyes narrowed instantly. Hagrid's reaction... meant he knew some inside information. She subtly gave Harry a look, signaling him to pry.

Harry immediately caught on and began trying to provoke Hagrid into revealing what he knew.

"But Professor Snape did try to get past the Three-headed Dog and got bitten!"

"Wait, how do you know about Fluffy?" Hagrid finally caught the keyword "Three-headed Dog" on the second time.

"Yes, Professor Snape wants to get past Fluffy to take whatever it's guarding!" Harry pressed on.

"Impossible! You lot need to drop this—this is between Headmaster Dumbledore and Nicolas Flamel..."

Hagrid cut himself off, and Harry broke into a triumphant grin.

Hagrid slapped his own mouth twice, furious at his careless slip, and ushered the four children out of the hut.

"Alright, now we just need to find out who Nicolas Flamel is, and we'll know what's on the third floor of the Forbidden Corridor."

Hermione said with a smile, while Lin Yue listened quietly beside her. In truth, the moment she heard the name Nicolas Flamel, she had already searched her memory and found the information on him.

But no one had asked her yet, had they? So she automatically judged that they didn't need her to tell them.