The Death Knell

In the days after the Sorting Ceremony, Hermione felt like she was possessed.

No matter where she goes, Luna follows her openly, as if she is recording something in her mind. Whether she is eating or going to the toilet, Luna follows her, and even uses a watch to tell time.

During the process of 'turning on the stove', which Hermione regarded as relaxation time, Luna would also poke her head around the door of the shooting range.

"stare......"

Luna hid behind the cover by the door with an expressionless face.

Miss Granger thought it was weird, but the physical education professor said it was good. It allowed her to feel the feeling of being chased by someone, and it was also a way to get used to it in advance.

"Is this considered a stalker? I'm going crazy..."

This was one day about two weeks later. Hermione was complaining to the physical education professor in distress. Luna was very fond of magical animals and had studied them very much. She was even familiar with Hannah and Susan.

It's just that her favorite one is still pestering Hermione.

"You still don't understand why she is following you?" Su Ming was teaching Hermione to peel a pumpkin with a machete to simulate the process of shaving someone else's head: "It disappoints me so much. Calm down and think carefully. Think about it, what is it about you that she values?"

"I gave her a lot of the gifts you gave me, but she just accepted them calmly, not as happy as others at all. I really don't know what she wants from me."

Hermione felt very aggrieved. It wasn't that she didn't like Luna, but she just felt that she should keep some distance.

"Little fool, she has her own goals from beginning to end." Su Ming rubbed Hermione's head and motioned for her to take a break and drink a soda: "Think about it, she is following you and observing you, and it's nothing more than watching you. It depends on your choice of walking path in the castle. If you leave her sight, she will time it, which is to guess the location of the secret room."

Putting down the machete, which was like a giant sword to her, Hermione, who was fighting with the soda bottle, was stunned for a moment, and then she felt incredible:

"If the entrance to the secret room is not in the women's bathroom on the second floor, and everyone generally avoids there, and nothing seems unusual, do you mean to say that she can guess the location of the secret room from my expression and other reactions?"

"To be precise, it's based on feeling. Her feeling is very keen. It's a talent similar to the sixth sense." Su Ming waved towards the door of the shooting range, gesturing to Luna, who was peeking, to come and drink soda: "If I That's right, she has deduced that the entrance to the secret room is in the bathroom where Myrtle died, but she doesn't know Parseltongue and can't open the passage."

"Hello, Professor."

Luna's eyes were unfocused. She was facing Su Ming, but her eyes seemed to be looking at something behind him, and she looked a little scared.

"Don't worry, it doesn't bite." Su Ming unscrewed the drink and handed it to her with a gentle expression: "You have been following Hermione because you want to know the location of the secret room?"

"Yes." Luna looked at the professor's shoulder. She couldn't explain why, but she always felt that there was something there.

Hermione rolled her eyes, and her hand to open the bottle cap was weak. She pinched Luna's little face: "Then just ask me!"

"I'm exercising my thinking skills, and I've guessed that the entrance to the secret room is in the women's bathroom on the second floor. I've also talked to Myrtle. You and the professor went there last year." Luna let her little face look at Hermione. His hand was pulled, and he lowered his head to drink the soda: "But I only know that the password is a snake language, but I don't know how to say it specifically... Besides, I am a little scared and want you to accompany me."

Luna didn't tell the whole story.

In fact, Myrtle was no match for her. When the ghost of the tragic death saw someone coming to ask her questions, he cried to the girl as always about his tragic death experience and the coldness and loneliness in the afterlife.

But Luna just listened with a blank expression all night long, her expression unchanged no matter how much Myrtle cried, and she even took out carrots to carve earrings, just like women taking time to knit sweaters while chatting.

Finally, the ghost's tears dried up, and Myrtle fled back to her toilet to replenish her water. Only after Luna's persistence did she reveal what happened in the bathroom last year.

Hermione gave the soda to the professor and asked him to help open it. She pulled Luna to sit on a chair aside: "Why are you so curious about the Chamber of Secrets?"

"I need money." Luna gave a super mature answer. She also stretched out two fingers to compare the size of a gold galleon: "I want to go to Sweden with my father to find the Scimitar-Horned Snorlax, but our travel expenses The difference is a lot of money. If I can prove and see the secret room with my own eyes and take some photos there, I can sell the information to the Daily Prophet and get a lot of money."

"...This is too realistic."

Hermione covered her head. She never thought that Luna was pestering her because of this, let alone to sell the information for money.

As a child of a family with two dentists, she was taken care of by professors after she entered school. She had never worried about money, because there was no need for money.

The professor bought her everything that was delicious, fun, and useful. She even brought a lot of good things back when she went home during the summer vacation, taking them back to her parents like a hamster moving.

Luna's answer made Hermione think. She felt as if she was being compared. She couldn't explain why, but she suddenly felt a little ignorant.

Su Ming laughed dumbly and handed Hermione the soda with the cap unscrewed, asking her to take a few sips to calm down her shock. This was indeed something Luna could do, and there was nothing to make a fuss about.

There are not many readers of "The Quibbler". Her father also provides monthly royalties to contributors. He can do the magic printing himself, but buying paper and ink, plus maintaining his life, requires money.

Income and expenses almost equaled each other. Apart from a strange-looking house, Luna's family had nothing of value.

In a sense, Luna is much more mature than Hermione. She has understood the power of trading since she was a child, but her brain circuit is slightly different from ordinary people.

But genius never needs to explain to others, and that's fine with Luna.

"How much money do you still need for your trip?" He sat farther away from the two girls, took out a cigarette and started smoking: "If it's not far off, I can help you, but you just don't follow Hermione all the time, she's suspicious. It’s going to be a nervous breakdown.”

"Isn't it because of harassment?" Luna asked cutely.

There is no such thing in the wizarding world, not even the magical animals in The Quibbler, and not even Newt has seen them.

Those were all made up by Luna's father to coax his daughter.

He knew what it meant for his wife's experiment to accidentally explode into a bloody mist in front of her father and daughter. This would definitely have a greater psychological impact on his daughter than it would on him.

Might this lead to a daughter who is afraid of magic and rejects it and her own gifts?

This is not possible. If she really keeps suppressing her magical abilities, she may become an Obscurus, causing her to not live past the age of ten.

But as a Ravenclaw graduate, he had his own methods.

From then on, he began to make up stories, fabricating some strange things in the magical world and magical animals that did not exist, so as to revive his daughter's interest in the magical world and erase the shadow of her mother's death due to magic.

In order to give his daughter the feeling that 'all this is true' and that 'everyone can recognize it', he also started a magazine, and was ridiculed by countless people but still persisted.

Maybe I persisted for too long and told too many lies that turned out to be true.

He became a little crazy and even began to believe that the animals he had made up before actually existed.

The best lie is to lie to yourself first. He lived up to his reputation as a Ravenclaw genius. As expected, his daughter was deceived by him and grew up healthy.

Luna was indeed raised as a very good child. She was not afraid of death at all, and was extremely intelligent. At the same time, she felt sorry for her father. She wanted to prove to the magical world that her father was right by finding that kind of curved-horned snore beast. That's right.

But this verification is destined to have no answer...

Su Ming won't expose these lies, at least not now: "Maybe it's because of the harassment, how about it? In fact, if you ask Hermione to borrow money, she will lend it to you. You can pay it back slowly after you graduate and work. .”

Luna thought for a moment and shook her head: "I prefer to get paid for doing things."

"That's it. Labor in exchange for remuneration suits my taste." Su Ming nodded. He took out a few boxes of chocolate frogs and gave them to Luna as a deposit: "There is really one thing you can do, but Hermione and Something that is inconvenient for me.”

"Please tell me, if you think this is worth 400 gold galleons." Luna raised her head, holding the soda bottle in her arms.

"I heard that you met a friend named Ginny on the train. She has a notebook that answers questions automatically. Can you lend it out and show it to me, Hermione, and Professor McGonagall?"

The physical education teacher proposed a task, a task that Luna could easily accomplish by using her interpersonal relationships.