Entering the Forbidden Corridor (1)

Hogwarts' final exams weren't difficult, at least not for Lin Yue.

The professors tested only what had been taught, without throwing in any extracurricular or advanced material like her previous exams had.

So Lin Yue breezed through every subject's test. Every piece of knowledge, every answer to every question, was stored inside her brain.

Staring blankly at the paper, Lin Yue ran through each question five times in her head, double-checking every single word before putting pen to paper, ensuring she wouldn't need to make corrections afterward.

Corrections meant point deductions. Lin Yue kept reminding herself of that. In one of her earlier exams, a single altered answer had cost her five points from the grading teacher.

Those five points earned her ten minutes standing in the snow—the first time she'd ever experienced the itching, stinging cold on her feet.

Finishing the paper with neat handwriting, Lin Yue stared fixedly at it, mentally redoing the entire exam over and over until the bell rang.

Expressionless, she stood up, slung her backpack on, and walked out of the exam hall. This was her last test, and also the last one for all Hogwarts students.

After this exam, every student at Hogwarts had finished their final exams for the year.

Students cheered as they burst out of the exam halls, charging toward the castle grounds.

They wanted to run wild on the grass, soak up the sun, go see the Giant Squid by the Black Lake—anything but stay cooped up in the castle.

After two weeks of being "tortured" by finals, they needed a good break.

Amid the cheers and jubilation, Lin Yue stood out as she silently walked against the flow of students.

She headed straight for the Moving Staircase with clear purpose, her feet moving quickly toward the Hogwarts Library.

A final exam was just one test. There would be more exams ahead, so studying couldn't stop—shouldn't stop. She needed to keep learning.

Along the way, students emerging from various exam halls spotted Lin Yue and instinctively cleared a path for her.

This Ravenclaw was famous as a study maniac, a tireless monster. No doubt she was heading to the library.

Entering the library, Lin Yue set down her backpack under Madam Pince's knowing gaze and sigh, grabbed a stack of books from the shelves she'd been reading, returned to her seat, and dove into study mode, reading at a rapid pace.

Page after page of content streamed into Lin Yue's brain. Meanwhile, Harry and Ron, having finished their exams, were being dragged toward the library by Hermione.

"Hermione..." Harry swallowed hard as he watched their direction. "I don't think you're planning to go to the library to check if your answers were right, are you?"

Give him a break. He'd just finished finals and wanted his brain to relax for a bit.

"Of course not," Hermione said, turning back to look at Harry with a "what nonsense are you talking about" expression. "I'll do that in a couple of days."

"Merlin..." Ron groaned, covering his face with his hand. Well, at least she wasn't planning to do it today.

"Then what are we doing?" Harry asked, puzzled, before suddenly realizing.

"Are we going to the library to find Lin Yue?"

"Exactly," Hermione nodded, turning back to continue up the stairs. "Even though finals are over, knowing her, she's definitely still studying in the library. We'll find her and take her out to relax."

"True," Ron agreed, following behind Hermione. "She really pushed herself hard during these exams."

Remembering how Lin Yue had been frantically memorizing textbooks and spells, and the thick stack of parchment always crammed into her bag, Harry nodded silently in agreement.

The three arrived at the library and, unsurprisingly, found Lin Yue sitting at her usual spot, reading.

Deep in her study trance, Lin Yue didn't notice their arrival at all. Madam Pince, however, looked relieved to see them.

Hermione smiled and greeted Madam Pince, then walked over and stood beside Lin Yue.

As always, she waited until Lin Yue finished a page before speaking.

"Lin Yue, good afternoon."

Hearing her full name, Lin Yue snapped out of her study state, turned to look at Hermione, and replied mechanically.

"Good afternoon, Hermione. Is there something you need?"

Hermione gave Lin Yue a warm smile, her voice so gentle that the two boys behind her found it unbelievable.

"Since finals just ended today, how about coming out with us to relax a bit?"

Harry and Ron chimed in, "Yeah, come relax with us!"

"Right, give yourself a half-day off. You've already worked hard enough."

Lin Yue stared blankly at Hermione. Deep in her mind, a thought surfaced—she wanted to agree.

Nodding without emotion, she closed her book and stood up. "Okay, let's go."

Hermione cheered happily, reached out to help pack Lin Yue's books into her bag, but before Lin Yue could shoulder it, Ron grabbed it and slung it on himself.

Under Hermione's gaze, Ron shrugged. "Harry and I are here too. Lin Yue's bag is pretty heavy—we'll take turns carrying it."

Hermione raised an eyebrow at him. "Wow, Ron. Since when did you become such a gentleman?"

Ron's face flushed red. He lowered his head and mumbled, "Well... you guys helped us study. We owe you."

"Fine," Hermione nodded, linked her arm through Lin Yue's, and led her out of the library.

Harry patted Ron's shoulder approvingly as they followed. "Nice one, mate. Keep it up."

Ron nodded, still red-faced, and caught up with the two girls ahead.

He'd said he and Harry would take turns carrying the bag, and that turned out to be necessary.

Lin Yue's bag was really too heavy. She always borrowed the maximum number of books allowed from the library, and many of them were those thick tomes that looked like they could knock someone out.

After stuffing a full backpack, just as he descended the stairs to the first floor of Hogwarts and hadn't even left the castle yet, Ron was already out of breath and felt his shoulders aching.

"Merlin's backpack... I feel like this bag's got the whole Hogwarts Library stuffed in it."

Harry shook his head with a smile, reached out, and grabbed the backpack off Ron's back. "Let me take it, Ron."

Ron didn't try to be tough; he nodded and let the backpack down.

As Ron set the bag down, Harry's expression shifted instantly the moment he took hold of it, his eyes widening as he stared at the backpack.

This bag... was this heavy!

Swallowing hard, Harry hoisted the backpack onto his shoulders. Just as he was about to call Ron to keep moving, he saw Ron staring blankly at his own shoulder.

"Ron, what are you spacing out for?"

Harry asked in confusion and stepped closer, only to see that under Ron's pulled-back collar, there was a large patch of red marks rubbed raw by the backpack straps, with some spots starting to swell—looked pretty alarming.

"No way..." Ron muttered in disbelief as he looked down at his shoulder, then lifted his head to gaze at Lin Yue, who had already walked a bit ahead.

He'd only carried her backpack for this short while, and his shoulder was already like this—what must Lin Yue's shoulders look like?

Harry followed Ron's gaze, clearly thinking the same thing. He patted Ron on the back, said nothing, and just tugged Ron along to catch up with Hermione and Lin Yue.

He'd tell Hermione about this later; he was sure she'd figure something out.

Unfortunately, when they sat down on the grass, before he could even bring up the small issue of Lin Yue's backpack weight, they were hit with a wave of headaches.

"Harry, are you okay?" Hermione asked with concern, watching Harry clutch his head with a pained expression.

"I'm fine," Harry quickly waved it off. "It's just my scar... it hurts a bit."

"Your scar hurts?" Hermione frowned.

"Yeah." Harry pressed his forehead and replied.

"Has it hurt before?"

"It has. At the start of term, when Professor Snape looked at me, my scar hurt for a moment. And that night in the Forbidden Forest, it hurt too."

"What does that mean? A magical scar hurting—could it have some special significance?" Hermione guessed, then looked to Lin Yue as if seeking confirmation.

Lin Yue felt Hermione's gaze, turned her head with a calm expression, and spoke flatly. "What is it?"

"Well," Hermione bit her lip, "Lin Yue, do you know if a magical scar hurting has any special meaning?"

Lin Yue's mind rapidly scanned through all the various books she'd read. "A magical scar hurting could be because the spell that caused it carried some kind of curse, or because the magic couldn't be fully healed."

As she spoke, her gaze shifted to Harry, her tone mechanical. "Harry is the only case of a scar caused by the Killing Curse. I can't make a guess."

"But personally, I think his situation doesn't fit either of those."

"Alright..." Harry nodded, still holding his forehead, indicating he understood. "Thanks, Lin Yue."

"I actually think... maybe this scar hurting is a warning that something bad is about to happen."

Harry spread his hands. "Think about it—Professor Snape looked at me, my scar hurt, and sure enough, he's docked points from me almost every class since."

"In the Forbidden Forest, when I saw that figure in the black robe, my scar hurt, and he really did try to harm us."

Ron frowned beside him, thinking it over. "That makes sense... but your scar hurting now—what does that mean?"

Harry lowered his eyes. "I'm not sure, but something bad is definitely happening. Definitely..."

The last time his scar hurt was because of the black-robed figure in the Forbidden Forest. Going to the Forbidden Forest for detention was because he'd gone to send off the baby dragon Norbert...

Harry's thoughts drifted aimlessly, then a flash of insight hit him. Wait—baby dragon Norbert! The dragon egg!

Smuggling a dragon egg is illegal. Who would carry a dragon egg around and use it as a bet?

Having connected the dots, Harry got excited immediately and shared his sudden realization with the other three.

After hearing Harry's idea, Hermione and Ron both gasped sharply. If that was really the case, then the other party...

Harry sprang up, grabbed Lin Yue's backpack, and ran straight for Hagrid's Hut, with Ron right behind him. Hermione took Lin Yue's hand and pulled her along as they ran at the back.

Lin Yue's face remained expressionless, but her mind had already started deducing.

Using a dragon egg to bet with Hagrid—it couldn't be for money. That meant... information?

But what information could Hagrid have that the other party might need? Lin Yue's mind reached the conclusion that the other party wanted information, and then her analysis stalled there.

It wasn't until Harry knocked on the door of Hagrid's Hut and got the answer out of him—that the person who bet with him had asked how to get past the Three-headed Dog—that the analysis in Lin Yue's mind instantly clicked together.

Various scattered details flashed rapidly through her mind and were automatically sorted.

Just then, Harry also mentioned what the centaur Firenze had said when he carried him out of the Forbidden Forest, and guessed that the black-robed figure in the forest might be Voldemort.

Ron's face went pale in an instant, and Hermione beside him shuddered violently.

"But... the Dark Lord is dead, right?" Ron's face was ashen, looking at Harry in terror.

"Hagrid said... Headmaster Dumbledore thinks the Dark Lord might not be dead." Harry forced the words out.

"Most likely, Voldemort isn't dead." Lin Yue spoke in a flat tone while her mind finished organizing and analyzing.

"According to the books in the Hogwarts Library, no one has ever found Voldemort's body. At the same time, his cause of death is speculated to be that Harry reflected the Killing Curse back at him."

"The Killing Curse doesn't have the effect of reducing someone to ashes. It acts on the soul. Therefore, I believe the most likely scenario is that Voldemort escaped through unknown means, entered a weakened state, and disappeared without a trace."

Hearing "Voldemort" repeated several times, Ron and Hermione's faces turned even paler, though Harry remained relatively calm.

"So... it really could be him."

"Furthermore," Lin Yue said, her gaze calmly sweeping over the other three present, "it's known that the item in the fourth-floor Forbidden Corridor is the Philosopher's Stone, the Three-headed Dog guards the Philosopher's Stone, and the Black robe who extracted information from Hagrid on how to get past the Three-headed Dog must be after the Philosopher's Stone."

"The Philosopher's Stone can brew the Elixir of Life, with effects similar to Unicorn blood. Therefore, it can be inferred that the Black robe in the Forbidden Forest and the Black robe who questioned Hagrid are the same person."

Watching Lin Yue's relentless analysis, meticulous and utterly expressionless, Ron and Harry felt their hairs stand on end, while Hermione bit her lower lip, her heart aching in sharp, stabbing pains.

"Needing Unicorn blood and the Philosopher's Stone to prolong life, and harboring extreme hostility toward Harry—it's inferred that the target is a weakened Voldemort or someone connected to Voldemort."

Lin Yue continued, rapidly selecting related associations in her mind. "During the first Quidditch Match, Professor Quirrell had the highest likelihood of harming Harry. The Black robe can be deduced to be Professor Quirrell."

"His relationship with Voldemort is unknown, his method of contacting Voldemort is unknown. I can only analyze this far."

Lin Yue fell silent after speaking. Harry and Ron stood frozen in place. Hermione took a deep breath, rushed forward, and hugged Lin Yue, her right hand gently stroking her back.

"Thank you. Your analysis is already very good."

But she really didn't like hearing Lin Yue's analysis—she truly didn't, just like when she'd heard Lin Yue explain those emotions before.

It really hurt, a sharp, wrenching ache in her chest...

Held in Hermione's embrace, Lin Yue imitated her expressionlessly, raising her arms to hug her back.

She didn't understand what was wrong with Hermione, nor did she feel the slightest confusion—she simply couldn't analyze it.