Seeing the two suits of armor that Lin Yue had controlled to restrain Filch, Hermione's eyes widened in astonishment.
As she raced after Harry and the others, she couldn't help glancing at Lin Yue again and again.
No matter how powerful Lin Yue's magic was, she was still only a first-year at Hogwarts.
Her Levitation Charm wouldn't last long without her control, so after struggling for a minute, Filch managed to break free of the two suits of armor holding him.
By then, Hermione was pointing her wand at the locked wooden door in front of them and reciting a spell. As soon as the door opened, she grabbed Lin Yue and ran inside. Harry, Ron, and Neville followed close behind, and the door slammed shut.
Filch came rushing after them, but after glancing in their direction and seeing no one, he chased off another way.
Perhaps Headmaster Dumbledore's warning at the start of term had made him reluctant to come this way.
Looking at the enormous dog with three heads, Lin Yue finally understood why Headmaster Dumbledore had called this place the Forbidden Corridor.
She felt no fear at all as she calmly watched the three heads drool over the five of them.
Once Hermione realized they had finally shaken off Filch, she let out a sigh of relief. But before she could finish exhaling, she turned around, and her breath caught again.
"Merlin..." Hermione murmured, feeling certain she was having a terrible nightmare.
At the sound of her voice, Harry, Ron, and Neville all turned around in unison. Seeing the three-headed dog before them, they all froze.
Screams of terror rang out. Everyone except Lin Yue let out a piercing shriek, making Lin Yue seem completely out of place.
Lin Yue stared expressionlessly at the Three-headed Dog, instinctively tightening her grip on her wand.
The next moment, the Three-headed Dog began to roar, and Hermione grabbed Lin Yue and ran for it. Harry and the others hurried after them.
Clearly, when faced with Filch or death, they'd still rather deal with Filch!
Lin Yue followed Hermione at a sprint, and they made it back to the Gryffindor Common Room without encountering any obstacles.
Hermione would have been surprised by how smoothly everything had gone if she hadn't been in the grip of sheer terror.
Once they finally reached the Gryffindor Common Room, the Gryffindors there—everyone except Hermione—came to their senses and noticed that a Ravenclaw had joined their group.
"You're that Ravenclaw study freak!" Ron blurted out, pointing at Lin Yue.
"Ron Weasley!" Hermione snapped as soon as she heard him.
"Where are your manners?!" she scolded him without holding back.
Ron was abruptly silenced. He realized he'd spoken without thinking and admitted to himself that it had been rude.
Still, he muttered, a little defiantly, "It's not like I was wrong."
Hermione rolled her eyes at him, then turned to Lin Yue.
"So when you asked me in the Library about the time and place of Harry and the others' Duel, it was because you were going too? Why?"
Lin Yue looked at Hermione without a flicker of emotion and replied in a flat voice.
"I don't know. I just went."
Hermione sighed helplessly. "Well, anyway, thank you. Otherwise, Filch might have caught us."
"You're welcome." Lin Yue shook her head and turned toward the entrance to the Gryffindor Common Room.
"Where are you going?" Hermione asked, watching Lin Yue leave.
Lin Yue turned back and answered as if it were obvious. "Back to Ravenclaw."
"Oh, right. You... you do have to go back to Ravenclaw." Hermione lifted a hand to smooth her hair, her cheeks turning a little red with embarrassment.
Lin Yue nodded and walked out of the Gryffindor Common Room.
As she walked back to Ravenclaw Tower, Lin Yue reconsidered what she had just done.
She had broken curfew by sneaking out at night, used magic in the corridor, attacked a member of the school staff, and entered the Forbidden Corridor: four separate violations.
She had already punished herself for the first one. She should pay the price for the other three, too.
Glancing at her left arm, Lin Yue estimated she wouldn't be able to use it for a day or two.
When she returned to the Dormitory, Qiuzhang and Marietta were still fast asleep. Neither had noticed that their roommate had gone out.
Lin Yue checked the time on her watch, then sat down at her desk and began reading attentively.
Her study time wasn't over yet. She should make the most of it and keep studying.
Lin Yue didn't close the book in front of her until her study time was over.
She took off her shoes and sat on the bed, then slowly unfastened her robes and the shirt beneath them.
Her left arm gradually came into view. It should have been pale and smooth.
Now, though, her upper and lower arm looked starkly different. Her forearm still looked normal.
Her upper arm was covered in bluish-purple finger marks. Some spots were so dark they were already starting to look black.
After considering how much an unusable left arm would interfere with her studies, Lin Yue decisively changed her mind and turned to her forearm instead.
Studying came first. She couldn't let this get in the way.
Her right hand gripped her left forearm and twisted it hard. A stabbing pain surged through her again, but Lin Yue didn't even furrow her brow. She went straight on to the second twist, then the third.
Only after making up the three she had missed did Lin Yue release her right hand, breathing heavily.
Because of the pain, beads of sweat covered her forehead. Even so, her expression hadn't changed in the slightest.
Looking at the three bluish-purple marks now on her left forearm, Lin Yue reached for her shirt to put it back on, but couldn't stop herself from collapsing onto the pillow.
Her usual study habits had already been pushing her body past its limits. After a whole night of rushing around, she was exhausted, and then she had forced herself to study for several more hours. At last, her body shut down completely.
Unfortunately, less than an hour after Lin Yue's body shut down, her own will forced it back online.
She opened her unusually heavy eyelids and instinctively checked her watch. Once she had confirmed she hadn't overslept, she sat up, grabbed a change of clothes, and went into the washroom.
After taking a shower, her mind gradually cleared. She casually rubbed her wet hair a couple of times, then sat at her desk and continued reading, leaving it damp.
At half past seven, Lin Yue went to the Great Hall for breakfast, then returned to the Dormitory to continue studying.
Meanwhile, Hermione, Harry, Ron, and Neville were all still sleeping in their respective dormitories. They'd had a rough night, so they really needed to catch up on sleep that morning.
Like the others, Qiuzhang and Marietta slept in. They finally got up one after the other at ten.
When Qiuzhang drew back her bed curtains, she saw Lin Yue sitting at her desk, her back to her.
She covered her face with one hand. She really had to hand it to her junior now. It was the weekend, and Lin Yue still wasn't taking a break.
Qiuzhang shook her head to herself, got up, stretched, and went into the washroom to get ready.
Marietta came to her senses while sitting on her bed. When she drew back her curtains and saw Lin Yue at her desk, she froze too.
Looking utterly disbelieving—almost horrified—she turned to Qiuzhang.
She frantically gestured with her eyes. No! Is she really not taking a break even on the weekend?! That's too much!
Qiuzhang silently shook her head, signaling that Marietta's movements were too big or her stare too obvious and might distract Lin Yue.
Marietta quietly looked away and went to the washroom to get ready as well.
After washing up, Qiuzhang and Marietta had intended to take the day off. In the end, though, they couldn't withstand the self-reproach nagging at them, and each took out a book and started studying.
When someone is studying hard right beside you while you're planning to relax, most people can't help feeling guilty and blaming themselves.
Qiuzhang and Marietta felt exactly that way now, turning the pages of their books with a mixture of misery and satisfaction.
They comforted themselves with the thought that at least their end-of-year results would definitely be better than before!
At lunchtime in the Great Hall, Lin Yue ate quickly and casually glanced at the Gryffindor dining table.
Whether by chance or instinct, her gaze happened to land on Hermione.
Hermione was eating lunch at a spot well away from Harry and Ron. It was clear she didn't want to talk to them.
Lin Yue calmly looked away. She didn't feel anything in particular. After quickly finishing lunch, she headed to the Library. She had finished the books she'd borrowed and needed to borrow more.
As the weeks passed, the Hogwarts students gradually grew used to Lin Yue's speed at meals and her habit of reading at any time.
Besides calling her a "study freak," they gave this "terrifying person" another nickname: "the tireless monster," because she never let the book out of her hands and didn't even put it down on weekends.
Compared with students from the other Houses, the Little Eagles who often studied in the Library were even more shocked.
Anyone who had paid even a little attention to Lin Yue could tell that she read the books in the Library in the order they were arranged on the shelves.
She went through them one by one, no matter what they were about, without skipping a single one. She read them so thoroughly that in just two months, she had already finished the books on more than ten shelves.
Of course, the students weren't the only ones who had been shaken over the past two months.
The professors had been deeply affected by Lin Yue, too. The main ones were Professor McGonagall, Professor Flitwick, and most of the other professors.
When they encountered an outstanding student like Lin Yue, they couldn't help assigning her more advanced and more extensive reading than they gave the others.
But this habit of assigning her extra books had started to cause problems.
Lin Yue always arrived early for class, so Professor McGonagall and Professor Flitwick couldn't help asking her about the extra reading they had assigned.
Every time, she answered every question. They couldn't stump her.
At first, the professors were delighted. They thought she was a genius, a truly promising student.
So they all recommended extra reading to Lin Yue once a week.
But one evening at dinner, they were chatting among themselves when they finally realized something alarming.
They had assumed Lin Yue wasn't doing extra work for her other classes, or that she was putting less effort into it.
That was the only way, they thought, she could study several extra books a week for their respective subjects so efficiently.
But when they chatted about it, they discovered that Lin Yue hadn't neglected a single subject.
She was studying every subject ahead of schedule and doing extra reading for all of them.
Then Madam Pince, who was sitting nearby, quietly added something.
"Not just those. She's reading the other books in the Library, too. She borrows and returns them very frequently."
As the librarian in charge of tracking the books borrowed from the Hogwarts Library, she had long been astonished by Lin Yue's dedication and reading speed.
Seeing the other professors wear the same stunned expression she had worn at the time made her feel instantly reassured.
After hearing all this, Lin Yue's Head of House, Professor Flitwick, almost squealed in alarm.
With a workload like that, he was starting to wonder if Lin Yue ever had time to rest!
He looked over at the Ravenclaw table. Lin Yue had already finished dinner and left.
The professors exchanged glances and decided they would stop recommending extra reading to Lin Yue.
They were worried not only that she wasn't getting enough rest, but also that she was already studying far beyond what was necessary. If she pushed further, her magic—which had yet to fully develop—might not be able to cope, and she could end up harming herself.
Madam Pince opened her mouth, but she honestly didn't think it would make much difference.
After observing Lin Yue's study habits for the past two months, she could say that Lin Yue really was studying as if her life depended on it.
Even if the professors stopped recommending extra books, Lin Yue would probably fill the time she had set aside for that work with other kinds of study.
And as the librarian at Hogwarts... all she could do was watch.
As long as a young witch or wizard hadn't broken any rules, she certainly couldn't stop them from entering the Library to read. That wasn't even something she could decide on her own.
Hogwarts itself would never allow such a thing!
The conversation between the professors and Madam Pince hadn't escaped Headmaster Dumbledore and Professor Snape, who were sitting at the same table.
As he listened to what Lin Yue had been doing over the past two months, Professor Snape's mouth twitched.
He was glad he hadn't continued keeping an eye on Lin Yue, but he also started to wonder if he'd been too suspicious.
With the way Lin Yue was, she had no time for anything other than reading, attending class, doing homework, and taking care of basic bodily needs.
He turned to look at Dumbledore. Sure enough, Headmaster Dumbledore also wore a dazed expression.
Clearly, he hadn't expected to hear that a student spent her free time this way.
It was... far too shocking for an old professor and longtime headmaster like him.
Behind his glasses, his bright eyes lowered. Rather than feeling suspicious, he was now more worried about this Ravenclaw student.
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