Hermione's Tears

Having drunk the Magic-Boosting Potion, Skylar felt his magic power had greatly increased. Since the end of the Christmas holidays, he had spent a lot of time every day hiding in Newt's Suitcase Space, practicing profound, complex, and powerful spells.

Over the past two months, he has mastered the "Wind-Spinning Vortex Curse" and the "Protego Diabolica Curse," and has practiced these two spells to the point that he can skillfully control the wind force and direction of the former and the demon flame form and consciousness of the latter.

The Wind-Spinning Vortex Curse is a very practical spell. In the Fantastic Beasts movies, Newt uses it as Knockback Jinx to blow enemies away, which is just one of its uses. Once you master it and can subtly control the wind force and direction, you can create a tornado to lift your opponent into the air and enjoy a dizzying experience.

Demonfire is another very useful spell. In the Fantastic Beasts movies, Grindelwald, surrounded by a group of people, used the ability of Demonfire to distinguish friend from foe to create a circular wall of fire around himself. Only those completely loyal to him could cross the wall, somewhat reminiscent of Sun Wukong's Demon-Subduing Ring in Journey to the West. For Skylar, who wanted to recruit followers, this ability to distinguish true loyalty was extremely important.

After learning these two spells, Skylar finally began to explore the extremely difficult and dangerous "Fiendfyre Curse and its corresponding counterspell.

It must be said that the Fiendfyre Curse is far more difficult than any spell I had learned before. It not only requires extremely high magical power, but also a great deal of control over one's mental focus. Otherwise, it is easy to suffer the backlash of Dark Arts. There are many dark wizards in history who burned themselves to death while practicing the Fiendfyre Curse.

(Note: The counter-curse of the Fiendfyre Curse is not "Finite Incantatem," but rather a spell used by the caster to control and extinguish Fiendfyre. In the original book, Ron mocks Crabbe for "not paying attention to how they put out the fire," which shows that the caster can extinguish Fiendfyre. Although Ron knew nothing about Fiendfyre, Hermione, who clearly knew something about Fiendfyre, did not object to this.)

That evening, Skylar had just finished practicing the Fiendfyre Curse. He rubbed his sore shoulders and planned to pause his spell practice and wander into the library's Restricted Section to browse some Dark Arts books.

Unexpectedly, because Skylar was invisible and somewhat tired, he didn't pay much attention to his surroundings and ended up bumping into Hermione as she ran around the corner of the corridor.

For Skylar, with his physical abilities, such a collision was a minor matter, but it was a different story for the physically delicate Hermione.

Hermione's book, along with her body, was knocked backward by the impact.

Without a second thought, Skylar swiftly grabbed Hermione's wrist with one hand to pull her back from the ground; with his other hand, he made a claw-like motion and reached out to grab the large book, which flew lightly into Skylar hand.

(This isn't Qiao Feng's Dragon-Capturing Skill, haha, it's just a silent, staff-less Summoning Charm!)

The next second, the two suddenly heard the annoying voice of the administrator Filch, coming from not far away, "Who's there! You damn student, always out at night, if I catch you you'll be sorry!"

Skylar grabbed Hermione's hand, and the two of them sprinted off in perfect unison, while Filch's footsteps trailed behind, indicating the warden's relentless pursuit. They ran all the way to the abandoned girls' restroom on the third floor, hid inside, and Skylar gestured for Hermione to be quiet. He then tapped their wands on them, and they instantly became invisible.

Filch and his cat, who had barged into the girls' restroom, stood right in front of the two women but ignored them, and could only leave dejectedly. After leaving, they coincidentally ran into Harry, who was looking for Hermione, in a corridor. Poor Harry turned and ran away, while Filch chased after Harry, cursing all the while.

Having survived the ordeal, Skylar and Hermione locked eyes. Skylar then realized his left hand was still tightly gripping the girl's. Skylar gave an awkward laugh, released her hand, and, intending to change the subject, asked, "Alright, Miss Granger, can you tell me what happened?"

After all the running and commotion, Hermione found herself seemingly having left the unpleasantness of the common room behind. She shook her head and said, "Thank you, Malfoy, I'm all right now."

Looking at her still red and swollen eyes, Skylar deduced the whole story from the plot he knew. He smiled slightly and said, "If you won't tell me, let me guess. There are probably only a few things that could make such an excellent and rule-abiding Miss Granger break the school rules and go out at night, right? Did you have a fight with a friend? Was it Potter or Weasley?"

Hermione stared at the boy in surprise. Although his face was handsome, it still looked quite young, but his tone of voice was so calm and confident, and his judgment of things was very accurate.

She unconsciously felt a sense of trust towards the boy before her, and couldn't help but confide, "It's Ron... He thinks Crookshanks —I mean, my pet cat—ate his pet mouse, Scabbers, and he's been really angry with me... Actually, I don't know if Scabbers was eaten or not, but Ron just won't listen to my explanation... I don't know why, but I've been feeling really bad and sad lately..."

Skylar chuckled and said, "Actually, I know where your problem lies."

Hermione couldn't help but exclaim "Ah!" and her eyes immediately lit up with anticipation.

Skylar smiled and said, "You're too rational. Harry and Ron are just 13-year-old boys. Teenage boys are always prone to tantrums. Ron thought his pet had been eaten, but he'd rather fall out with his best friend than try to find out the truth. This shows—actually, he doesn't care whether Scabbers is alive or dead. What he cares about is your attitude. He thinks you don't value his pet or his feelings, which is why he erupted in anger. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

Hermione listened, stunned. Although her knowledge of gender psychology was limited, as a top student, she could tell that what Skylar said made a lot of sense.

Seeing that Hermione had taken his words to heart, Skylar continued, "As for your own emotional problems, it's because you've been carrying too much on your own shoulders, completely disregarding your own mental and physical capacity to cope."

"Don't rush to refute," Skylar interrupted Hermione when she hesitated, "I heard you took 12 courses this year. While that's an excellent achievement, such a heavy workload would be overwhelming for anyone. And you, knowing your studies are already overloaded, still have to worry about Harry, Ron, and Hagrid all the time..."

Hearing this, Hermione couldn't help but feel a pang of resentment. Yes, she had been meddling, telling Professor McGonagall about Harry receiving the Firebolt, all for his own good...

"By the way, I've heard about Hagrid's situation too. I heard you've been working very hard to find information and write Hagrid defense, and of the three good friends who originally agreed to help, you're the only one still fighting for this... Besides, I think what you're doing is completely meaningless, and you probably know it yourself— Buckbeak has no chance of winning, and he's doomed in this hearing!"

Hermione's face turned bright red upon hearing this, and her hands clenched into fists. She wanted to retort loudly, to tell the boy in front of her that he was wrong, but she couldn't utter a word.

Seeing Hermione's expression, Skylar waved his hand and said, "Alright, stop looking at me like that. You should know that the so-called hearing is just a formality. Behind it is actually a political game between the Ministry of Magic and Professor Dumbledore. You know, quite a few people in the Ministry of Magic dislike Dumbledore because he advocates for friendly treatment of Muggle-born wizard. Therefore, many wealthy and powerful Pure-blood families want to use this incident to damage Professor Dumbledore's prestige. In order to avoid offending either side, the most likely scenario for the Ministry of Magic is to use Buckbeak as a scapegoat. So no matter what testimony you give, he's doomed."

Hermione suddenly remembered that the boy in front of her was from the House of Malfoy. Wasn't the House of Malfoy the so-called Pure-blood families he had just mentioned? He was also the son of the despicable Mr. Malfoy, the brother of the annoying Draco, and her and Harry's mortal enemies. For some reason, she suddenly felt a faint sense of loss and sadness, and a sudden surge of anger.

She closed her eyes and roared, "So what? You're saying all this just to demoralize me and make me give up? Are you showing off the power of your Pure-blood families? You're just as detestable as Draco!"

Skylar remained unperturbed, saying indifferently, "You've misunderstood something—although I was born into the House of Malfoy, I've never believed that Muggle-born wizard are inferior—what I just said was merely the harsh reality, whether you listen or not is up to you. Alright, let's end our conversation here. I want to go back to my dorm to rest, and so do you. While your invisibility is still active and Filch can't see you, hurry back!"

Skylar's words came from the heart— Pure-blood is certainly honorable, but not because of that foolish bloodline, but because of the various inheritances left by the ancestors of the family. Skylar's ability to grow in strength so quickly is due to the advantage of being Pure-blood; however, this does not mean that Muggle-born wizard are destined to achieve nothing.

One's birth certainly determines one's Qidian, but Skylar clearly understood that in a person's long life, countless factors can determine their future destiny, such as character, talent, willpower, and choices...

Skylar valued a person's character and abilities more than their bloodline.

Unfortunately, he grew up in the infamous (in the eyes of Muggle-born wizard) House of Malfoy, which meant his words were not very convincing, and he was therefore too lazy to waste his breath on Hermione —if that's what you want to think, then so be it!

Having said that, Skylar turned and left cleanly and decisively.

Hermione opened her mouth as if to say something, but no matter what she did, no sound came out, and a sense of regret arose in her heart.