The Silent Bookstore Manager at Hogwarts

Harry shuddered. Fighting inhuman beings was something Harry had indeed considered before, since the Forbidden Forest was bound to harbor many potentially dangerous creatures. But was it really necessary for a first-year student to be doing something like this? Wasn't it a bit too hasty?

"Don't worry, I'm not asking you to go straight in and fight them head-on. If Dumbledore knew about this, he would kick us all out."

Red stretched, and the two began packing their things to leave. Harry hadn't really been in the mood to read today; he was more interested in figuring out what his dream meant. But just then, Hermione finally seemed to have mustered up her courage and walked up to them.

"Hello......."

"Ah, Hermione, if there's anything you need to talk about, let's go outside later." Reid nodded. He didn't want to be kicked out, so he pointed to the library door. It seemed that Mrs. Pince had already sensed that something was wrong, so the three of them quickly left the library.

"So, Hermione, is there something you need?"

"Ah no... that..." Hermione paused for a moment. She didn't even know why she had called out to Red and Harry. It was influenced by some kind of restlessness within her. Perhaps it was because she really wanted to find a friend at Hogwarts?

Even Hermione herself couldn't quite understand her own thoughts, but to her surprise, Red and Harry actually sat down next to her without saying a word, waiting for her to speak.

As Red was pondering what to do with the third tower, Hermione finally spoke up.

"I have a few questions I'd like to ask..."

Hermione's question wasn't more difficult than Red and Harry had expected. The latter was already considering whether he could go to Professor Flitwick to learn more spells, so he answered the question almost without thinking. However, Hermione clearly didn't want to end the conversation just like that.

Although nothing seemed to have happened on the surface, she had noticed that all the first-year students in Gryffindor seemed to be subtly rejecting her, especially after that flight lesson, when she seemed to be treated as an outsider because of her words and actions.

Just as the three were chatting, a dark figure walked past them. Harry instinctively looked up and was glared at fiercely by Snape, who was passing by. Harry was already somewhat used to this. Although he didn't know where Snape's malice and hostility came from, at most Snape would make things difficult for Harry in class, and as for deducting points...

Harry learned a little about it. Although he was particularly harsh on Gryffindor, Snape had never been lenient with Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw. He was just a little lighter on Slytherin as the Head of the House.

"It's Snape... What's he doing here?"

Without a doubt, Hermione looked at Snape's retreating figure with lingering fear and a touch of disgust. That professor who arbitrarily abused his power to deduct points without any reason, thus benefiting Slytherin, was, in Hermione's eyes, undoubtedly on par with, or even below, Professor Quirrell. At least Professor Quirrell diligently completed his teaching duties and did not show much favoritism, but Snape's targeting, in Hermione's view, truly represented a complete loss of professional ethics as a teacher.

"Looking for a book, isn't that obvious?"

However, to Hermione's surprise, Red and Harry didn't seem to have any opinion about Snape, their teacher who was clearly biased.

"Don't you guys think Professor Snape is a bit... too biased? Especially you, Harry, he's clearly targeting you."

Harry just smiled at this.

"It's alright. Professor Snape's lectures were indeed very useful, but I sometimes couldn't keep up. As for what he was targeting..."

Harry paused for a moment. Snape's targeting of him was probably not simply because he disliked him, but no one told him the specific reason. Everyone just assumed that Snape disliked Harry.

"Let him be, I'm not missing anything anyway."

"But House Points..." Hermione hesitated, her words trailing off. The House Points they had worked so hard to earn had vanished under Snape's unfair hand, a situation no one could accept.

"Hermione... House grades are something you can earn, not something you have to earn. Headmaster Dumbledore has never said anything about what punishment there will be for houses with low House grades. What we should be thinking about more is our studies or exams."

Reid reminded Hermione that she clearly still didn't understand that House Points weren't really necessary. Rather, they were more of a consumable resource. After all, during their time at Hogwarts, Harry and Reid would inevitably do things that weren't in accordance with the school rules, and having their House Points deducted here to offset the punishment was just right.

Hermione stared blankly at Reed. For a good student like her, what Reed had just said could even be described as somewhat rebellious.

What surprised her even more was that Harry actually nodded slightly in agreement, saying that he would make up for the points Snape had deducted from him in other classes.

"So what are you going to do now...?" Hermione could only ask this question at the end. She really couldn't understand why the two people in front of her, who were clearly first-year students like herself, thought and did things that were completely unlike those of first-year students.

"We'll wander around Hogwarts. I'm planning to take Red to visit Hagrid. Last time the three of us went, Red had something to do and couldn't make it."

Harry explained that it was a bit of a shame that Red didn't have time to go with him when he last visited Hagrid. Of course, more importantly, Red said that he might be going into the Forbidden Forest, even without the school's knowledge. So, meeting with Hagrid and getting more information clearly became a necessary choice.

"Can I come with them?" Hermione finally decided to go with them. Deep down, she felt it would be better to go back to the dorm with her roommates who were no longer paying much attention to her.

Red and Harry didn't have any objections to this; it was just a chat, and they were also scouting the route to prepare for future actions.

"Speaking of which, where's Ron? Have you seen him?" Harry asked, as Ron was no longer there when he woke up.

"He probably went to play chess. I saw him playing Wizard Chess in the common room when I went to the library."