Magical Studies at Hogwarts...

Chapter 125 Crack

Harry couldn't remember how long Ron had been complaining last night, only that it was very late when he finally got into bed, and he could barely keep his eyes open.

He didn't sleep well. In his hazy state, Ron's complaints seemed to keep echoing in his ears, along with images that kept flashing through his mind while learning the Patronus Charm: Voldemort's sneer, his parents' pleas, and that bright green light.

"Get out! You damn cat!"

A roar suddenly exploded in his ears, and Harry sat up in a daze, immediately seeing Ron frantically throwing things off the bed at a cat. His left hand was pressed against his chest, clutching a mouse tightly.

"Stop! That's enough, Ron!"

Harry immediately snapped out of his daze, jumped off the bed, and stood between Crookshanks and Ron, getting hit on the head by a sock in the process.

It didn't hurt, but it tasted terrible.

"It's tormenting poor Scabbers again!" Ron's left hand still gripped Scabbers tightly, his eyes bloodshot, as he roared, "It just got back, and it's already here today!"

"I'm going to kill it! I'm going to kill it!"

"Calm down, Ron! Calm down!" Harry shielded Crookshanks behind him, repeatedly trying to soothe Ron. But clearly, Ron wasn't listening to anyone at the moment.

"Harry! Get out of the way!" Ron pulled out his wand and gripped it tightly; Harry could even clearly see the veins on Ron's right hand.

It's a deep green, much like the dazzling green of that night.

"Don't do that, Ron..." Harry said. "It's just a cat, it won't hurt Scabbers..."

"Get out of the way, Harry!"

Ron remained unmoved, straining with all his might; Harry even saw Scabbers, who was clutching his left hand, roll his eyes.

"Wait, Ron! Scabbers! Scabbers!" Harry was almost incoherent; he had never seen Ron like this before. "Let go! You're choking Scabbers to death!"

"what!"

With a scream, Ron relaxed all his strength and slumped onto the bed, cradling the panting Banban in his hands.

"It's okay, it's okay, Blemish..."

Seeing Ron's reaction, Harry finally breathed a sigh of relief. He glanced back at Crookshanks behind him, sighed softly, nudged them lightly with his foot, and whispered, "Hurry, hurry, back to Hermione..."

Crookshanks glanced up at Harry, then at Ron sitting on the bed with the strange mouse in his hand, before turning and slipping away.

After a while, Ron finally calmed down. Harry wisely didn't mention what had just happened, but simply told him to hurry up and wash up so they could have breakfast together.

As soon as the two stepped out of the dormitory, they saw Hermione standing in the common room with Crookshanks in her pajamas, her face cold, while Neville stood by, looking flustered and at a loss.

"I...I'm sorry, Hermione heard everything. I...I wanted to warn you, but..." Neville glanced furtively at Hermione, his voice trailing off, "but I was stopped..."

"I heard you're going to kill my cat?" Hermione said slowly and expressionlessly, cradling Crookshank in her left hand and stroking him rhythmically with her right.

"Hermione, listen to me. Crookshanks sneaked into the dormitory just now, and Ron got a little excited..." Harry was only halfway through his sentence when Hermione raised her right hand, signaling him to stop.

"Tell me, Ron, was it you who wanted to kill Crookshanks?" Hermione stared directly at Ron, and at that moment Harry suddenly felt like he was facing Professor McGonagall.

"That's right!" Ron suddenly became assertive, perhaps thinking of what the cat had done to Spot.

"I'm asking you, has Scabbers ever been hurt because of Crookshanks?" Hermione asked coldly.

"Of course!" Ron shouted, "At the Leaky Cauldron..."

"That's the spot you kicked when you were chasing Crookshank."

"Last semester..."

"Krok Hill never caught up with it."

"This morning..."

"Take a look for yourself..." Hermione glanced at the faint handprints still visible on Scabbers' body. "You made those."

"I..." Ron was momentarily speechless. He suddenly realized that this was indeed the case. Although Crookshanks had been searching for Scabbers, it had never actually caught up with it. On the contrary, he was the one who often ended up hurting Scabbers.

"Ron Weasley, I've never been more disappointed." Hermione's tone was calm, but she didn't say anything more. She looked at Ron calmly, then turned to Harry and said, "Harry, you'd better hurry, or you'll have to go to class hungry."

The three men, as if petrified, watched Hermione return to her dormitory before shivering in unison.

"How...how scary!" Neville said.

"Yeah, I've never seen her like this before." Harry sighed, patted Ron on the shoulder, and said, "Ron, go apologize. We were wrong..."

Upon hearing this, Ron's face suddenly flushed red, and he hugged Scabbers without saying a word. Harry pushed him again, but he remained unmoved.

"Okay, let's go eat first, otherwise we'll really go hungry."

He nudged him again, and this time Ron didn't resist and followed Harry outside.

But Harry, who had been keeping his head down, didn't see it. Before leaving, Harry winked at Neville and gestured towards the girls' dormitory.

Neville stood alone in the common room for a while before finally letting out a sigh of relief and sitting quietly on the sofa to wait.

A short while later, Hermione emerged in her school uniform, and Neville quickly called out, "Hermione, I..."

Hermione smiled and replied, "I know, Neville, it's none of your business."

"Let's go eat."

"Oh...ah?"

"All right."

Upon arriving at the Great Hall, Hermione and Neville sat down at the long table as usual, eating and chatting as if nothing had happened. But Harry still felt something was off; something seemed different.

"...So you need to hurry, Buckbeak's case is about to go to trial, and we promised Hagrid we'd gather information for him." As they chatted, Hermione brought up Buckbeak's case, her subconscious commanding tone exactly the same as before.

"I know, but I haven't found many precedents. There's so little information about this in the library." Harry scratched his head, looking a bit worried.

"Harry, you haven't been looking carefully enough. Maybe you could try checking out the Magical Beasts section. Sometimes they use case studies to illustrate the dangers of magical creatures," Hermione said.

"Okay, I'll go," Harry replied.

Hermione nodded, finished her milk, and then stood up, saying, "Then you need to hurry. The trial date is approaching, and I can't finish everything."

After saying that, he left with his textbooks.

The three watched Hermione leave again, and only after she walked out of the Great Hall did Harry say, "I feel like there's something different about Hermione today, but I just can't figure it out."

"Me too," Neville chimed in.

"I don't think there's much difference. She's always like this." Ron was clearly sulking, his words laced with sarcasm. "Let's go. The first lesson is Transfiguration. If she gets it again, Professor McGonagall will become terrifying."

All morning, even in the Transfiguration classroom, Harry was thinking about what was wrong with Hermione. He even observed her again at lunchtime, but still couldn't find anything amiss.

He was only jolted awake by the sudden sound of his falling asleep in bed that evening.

"I understand!" Harry shouted.

"Quiet, Harry, go to sleep..." Ron mumbled, turned over, and soon fell silent.

Looking at Ron's bed, Harry's expression inexplicably turned somewhat forlorn.

Hermione didn't say a single word to Ron all day.

Not a single word was spoken.

(End of this chapter)