With This Mental Fortitude, You Still Want to Steal the Philosopher's Stone?

"Hey, sis, it's a shame you weren't here today," Ron said regretfully, grinning and touching the bruises on his face in the Gryffindor common room.

Eliana raised an eyebrow, a hint of smugness in her voice. "What, did you finally realize that without me, you're a lot less lively? Even the intense Quidditch matches feel a bit dull and boring without me, don't they?"

"What?" Ron looked up, confused. "Oh, that's not it. The match was still fun without you, that's not the point—"

Eliana's face fell.

Ron, oblivious, continued to sigh in his own world. "Mainly, I just thought if you were here, you could have helped us knock Malfoy's head off! You have no idea how outrageous Malfoy's mouth is!"

"Do you know what he said to me? 'If my head were made of gold, I'd be poorer than I am now!'"

He said indignantly.

"So, you just needed a bodyguard? Yes, Malfoy is indeed trash. If character were gold, he'd be covered in green copper."

Eliana said coldly. Ron nodded enthusiastically beside her, urging her to say more. Her expression shifted, and her target suddenly changed:

"—But I actually think he's right about that," Eliana said, baring her teeth coldly. "If the water in your head could be converted into gold, Ron, your head would be golden and magnificent."

"Hey, Eliana!" Ron protested, annoyed. "What do you mean by that?"

"If you don't even understand what I mean, then I guess I wasn't wrong at all."

Eliana looked Ron up and down, then turned away with her arms crossed, disdainfully.

Ron was so angry he almost fell over, like a kicked puppy whining and wanting to duel Eliana.

"You come at me, you come at me," Eliana said, hands on her hips, chin held high, looking down on everyone.

"Calm down, be quiet, Ron!" Hermione said, holding the flushed Ron with one hand and pressing down on the whimpering Eliana with the other. "You too, Eliana! Both of you, calm down! Can't you just talk things out properly?"

"We won today, Gryffindor won the Quidditch Cup, it's a great day!"

She cajoled them one by one.

Hermione felt exhausted.

It was like holding a newborn baby for eight hours, finally getting it to sleep, only to turn around and find that Big Brother had already trashed the living room while you weren't looking and then woken up the baby you just put to sleep with his babbling.

Hogwarts professors have it tough.

She thought expressionlessly.

Eliana turned her head away huffily, sitting on the armrest of a chair with her backside hovering. Actually, her backside hadn't fully healed, but she had cried, pleaded, and threatened to leave the Hospital Wing.

—Walls have ears, and Eliana was truly worried. If she stayed in the Hospital Wing too long and the reason for her injury got out...

Just imagine, the whole school knowing that Eliana had been pecked on the backside by the Headmaster's turkey and sent to the Hospital Wing... She couldn't bear to think about it.

Heads may roll, blood may flow, but Lady Eliana's reputation must never be tarnished!

Damn it, was Hogwarts cursed to target her backside? Ever since Christmas, she hadn't had a comfortable day sitting down.

Eliana accidentally bumped herself and winced inwardly.

"You won't believe what I heard!" Harry burst in, panting, through the door behind the Fat Lady. "Let's find an empty classroom to talk!"

Eliana, whose backside was still hurting, paused.

She flicked her wand, and empty chairs in the Gryffindor common room quickly moved, forming a large circle around them.

Some students looked at them curiously, but Eliana glared them back.

Eliana cast another spell, and the small bells tied to her braid floated into the air—growing larger—and then danced around the circle of chairs, jingling. Those outside couldn't hear anything.

"Go ahead, Harry," Eliana said, retracting her wand.

"Okay," Harry lowered his voice instinctively. Hermione—and an angry Ron—leaned in.

"Our guess was right, the idiot dog is guarding the Sorcerer's Stone. I heard Snape say the word."

Yes, under Eliana's leadership, Fluffy the three-headed dog had successfully lost its original name in the mouths of the four of them. "Idiot dog" had become its new codename.

"I knew he knew and wouldn't tell me. Stingy."

Eliana spat.

"I haven't finished—" Harry paused. "Snape seems to be testing Quirrell to see if he knows how to deal with the idiot dog, but Quirrell doesn't seem to know yet. Then Snape told him to be careful, saying he knew all his little tricks."

"What?" Eliana exclaimed indignantly. "How does Quirrell deserve for Professor Snape to remember him so clearly? Does he deserve it?!"

Harry: ...

Hermione: ...

Ron: ...

Ron, still upset, sarcastically chimed in, "If you went to steal the Sorcerer's Stone with Quirrell, Snape would remember you just as clearly."

"Ron, just stop. You can't even beat Eliana, you'll get dealt with again."

Hermione clutched her hair in despair, like a mother of two who saw her children fighting every time they called out.

She spoke too late.

Eliana had already directed her enlarged bells to fly to Ron's ear and vibrated them violently!

Clang!!!

Ron's eyes immediately turned into §§ shapes.

"I've had enough," Hermione said furiously, slamming a thick book onto the table. "A powerful Defense Against the Dark Arts professor is eyeing History of Magic, and two of my three teammates are arguing at the drop of a hat, like three-year-old idiots!"

"Hogwarts, go to hell!"

She huffed and stormed off to the girls' dormitory.

"Ah..."

Ron and Eliana, who had been fighting (or rather, one of them was clearly winning), stopped and looked at Harry, dumbfounded.

"Ah," Harry said, looking at the two pairs of eyes before him, as clear as if untouched by wisdom, and forced a smile. "Look on the bright side, we've confirmed that Quirrell is definitely trying to steal the Sorcerer's Stone, haven't we?"

"We just need to keep an eye on Quirrell!" he said.

But perhaps they didn't need to keep an eye on him, because over the next few weeks, Quirrell became paler and thinner, looking as if a light breeze could blow him over.

"With that kind of mental fortitude, he thinks he can steal the Sorcerer's Stone?" Eliana said disdainfully. "He's like a dog with a sesame seed in its belly, not as good as me."

However, they soon didn't have time to think like this, especially Eliana, who was the first to withdraw from the Quirrell surveillance team—final exams were approaching.

Eliana made a red ribbon and tied it to her head.

--76 days until final exams.

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