Chapter 372 370. Asia Conrad
Seeing the shoe floating on the lake, Hermione subconsciously stopped.
She looked in the direction of Asia, and found that the girl who was obviously older than her was also looking at her timidly.
Just the moment the eyes of the two met in mid-air, Asia lowered her eyes in a panic, as if she didn't dare to look at Hermione.
Hermione stayed in place for three or four seconds, but in the end she didn't turn a blind eye to this matter.
She waved her wand lightly, and the black leather shoe floating on the water like a boat flew out of the lake, and she held it in her hand.
Hermione walked towards Asia while using the Drying Charm on the wet shoe.
She could tell that this girl with long pale blond hair was very beautiful, with soft facial features that made people feel protective when looking at her, and with a slender figure, she was a good seedling who was very suitable for ballet dancing.
Having such appearance conditions, and being bullied by female students who are more noble than himself, the reasons needless to say, can be seen by normal people.
Campus bullying often has very simple reasons. It is nothing more than the vanity and jealousy of students. There are very few conflicts that are fundamentally conflicts of interest like adults.
Hermione didn't walk in front of Asia, but just put the shoe on the ground after getting close.
"Why not try to resist?"
She looked at the girl and asked calmly.
The school robes of the two different styles of Hogwarts made it easy for Asia to distinguish Hermione's identity. She was pale and did not dare to look up at Hermione's face. , instead of talking to Hermione.
Hermione actually didn't intend to hear any answers. She just saw what happened to Asia now, and thought of the days when she was enslaved in this castle, so she just asked casually.
In fact, with the current Hermione, she still has no way to understand, why are oppressed and enslaved such miserable assholes, in the environment of Hogwarts Castle, there are still people who want to resist and maintain independent thinking. However, these half-blood wizards who were also bullied and discriminated against only wanted to be content with the status quo, and never had any intention of changing the current situation.
I learned from Jon that people like Cedric among the mixed-race students are just an outlier, and Hermione asked him this question.
Jon also answered some of his insights to her.
He said that human nature is always moderate, and when the **** are enslaved at the bottom of society, they will try their best to resist, because they may die if they don’t resist, and they may die if they resist. If it succeeds, there may still be a glimmer of hope to survive.
But for half-blood wizards, although they also suffered discrimination from pure blood, it was far from life-threatening, and if they dared to resist, there was a high probability of death.
In addition, there is an even worse class of hemp seed as psychological comfort and exchange of benefits, so they also suffer from unequal treatment. Almost no half-blood wizards want to try to overthrow Voldemort's blood rule.
Hermione could understand part of Jon's explanation. She switched herself to the position of a half-blood wizard, and thought about it. However, even if they make resistance, they will definitely not focus on overthrowing Voldemort's rule, but try their best to correct reforms in the system and improve the status of half-blood wizards, so as to strive for equality.
After thinking about this, Hermione actually didn't have much contempt for these mixed-race students, but was full of pity.
Compared to the hemp breeds who seem to be oppressed to death, these half-blood wizards will never turn over under the slavery of this bloodline rule.
After putting the shoes on the ground, Hermione didn't expect any decent answer from Asia, so she turned around and prepared to go back in the direction of the Hogwarts carriage.
It was only after she took two steps forward that she vaguely heard a weak voice coming from behind.
"Thank you, thank you."
Hermione's footsteps did not stop, she still walked forward with her back to the girl.
After going through this incident, Hermione didn't take it seriously.
In addition to attending classes, she usually has a lot of energy to be restrained by the tasks in the castle. In addition to reading books in her spare time, she basically stares at the Marauder's Map all the time, observing the movements of the characters in the castle.
After the first project, even if Voldemort didn't find anything in the castle, he seemed to have noticed something, and raised enough vigilance, not only increased the guard work on the entire school, but also transferred from the Ministry of Magic More Aurors enforced a strict curfew policy, patrolling the castle at night.
This made it more difficult for Hermione to infiltrate the castle again. It was necessary to figure out the usual patrol habits of these Aurors before thinking about the next infiltration.
On the third day after meeting Asia that day, one morning, when Hermione got off the carriage and tried to find some herbs that might have some effect along the edge of the Forbidden Forest to enrich the greenhouse on the carriage, she Saw the girl who looked perfect for ballet for the second time.
Acia obviously came to find her on her own initiative, otherwise there would be no students in the castle who would come to the place where the carriage was.
Even if Barty Jr. and Snape didn't expressly stipulate it, this area has spontaneously become a taboo in the hearts of the students. Let alone coming to the carriage, even approaching in a certain direction is cautious.
And Asia found a good opportunity, now it was class time, she didn't seem to have class, and saw Hermione walking on the edge of the Forbidden Forest from a distance in the tower of the castle, and then, like a frightened deer, she avoided Averting the guards around the castle, the Auror looked for him with a nervous blushing face.
"What do you want to do?"
After seeing her, Hermione raised her vigilance.
She was not fooled by the girl's appearance. Ever since she was taken away from her parents at the age of eleven, Hermione had the most basic suspicion of any stranger no matter what she used.
Even when she first confirmed Jon's identity, it took her three full months, and finally she made a huge gamble to establish initial trust between the two.
The girl in front of her is obviously far from this level.
"Assia"
Acia stopped at a distance of about five meters from Hermione. Her voice was still weak, but it sounded like a bully.
"I, my name is Asia Conrad."
Hermione still looked at her with a distant look in her eyes.
"Then what?"
"Thank you, you helped me pick up my shoes that day."
"Easy to do."
Asia seemed to muster up the courage to say such a sentence.
Hermione didn't answer right away, she just looked at the girl, the dark green Hogwarts Castle school robe with the silver trim that symbolizes the Half-Blood College was well-dressed on her body, and her long pale golden hair was well-styled. Meticulous, with a pearl white bracelet on his wrist.
When Hermione saw the bracelet, Hermione's eyes paused for a second. The style of the thing was a bit special, and it was obviously not a creation in the wizarding world where most of the accessories were still in the medieval style.
"Hermione Granger, if you only want to know my name, then your goal has been achieved."
There was a cheerful smile on Asia's face, but she didn't seem satisfied with just leaving after knowing Hermione's name, but continued to ask.
"What are you looking for?"
Hermione didn't look at her anymore, but lowered her head to check the surrounding bushes.
"Herbs, or plants with magical powers."
"There are very few such things on the edge of the Forbidden Forest. Professor Graplan told us that only in the depths of the Forbidden Forest will there be precious resources."
"If I can enter the Forbidden Forest, of course I will go to the depths to find it, but obviously I can't do it now."
Hermione said casually, she didn't have much **** talk with Asia, instead she showed a distant attitude.
"Don't you like me too?"
Acia obviously felt Hermione's alienation, she asked timidly, with a little grievance in her voice.
Hermione said without raising her head.
"There is no like or dislike, it's just that the camp we get along with is not suitable for us to have more exchanges. If you just want to get to know me and thank me, then this is enough for today. If you are If you want to make friends with me, then I suggest we wait until we liberate Hogwarts Castle before we formally get to know each other."
Acia pursed her lips.
"Mr. Principal, he is very good"
"Of course, no one will deny this, but he is not invincible, right?"
Hermione seemed to have discovered her target. She fixed her eyes on a plant with some yellow leaves among the bushes, and then took out a small shovel from her robe pocket.
"In the past, he could only carry out some underground terrorist activities in the UK. Even if he won Professor Dumbledore later, didn't he only lose once not long ago?"
"But if you fail, you will definitely die."
“If there is no freedom and dignity, then life is better than death.”
After Hermione finished speaking, she seemed to have completely lost the desire to talk to Asia. Instead, she squatted next to the plant she identified, and began to carefully dig it out of the soil skillfully.
Acia looked a little lost. Instead of staying here to pester Hermione, she turned around and trotted away towards the castle with red eye circles.
It wasn't until the sound of her footsteps completely disappeared that Hermione, who had successfully transplanted the herb into the transformed flowerpot, turned her head and glanced at the back of Asia, who was gradually approaching the edge of the black lake, and then she did not continue to stay in the forbidden area. Lin stayed on the periphery, but returned to the carriage with the herb in his arms.
She sent the herbs into the greenhouse, then returned to her dormitory, stayed there for about three minutes, then left the dormitory and walked straight towards the principal's office.
After this, Hermione never met this girl named Asia.
The conversation between them seemed to make that weak girl completely give up, and she no longer wanted to get to know Hermione and become friends.
The time came to the end of October.
Jon would squat by the Black Lake almost whenever he had time during this period, but more than a month has passed, and he still hasn't found anything in it.
During this period, he also learned something about this mirror-like lake from Cedric. He learned that after Cedric entered Hogwarts Castle to study, he had never heard of any big things. rumors of squid
The huge monster seemed to have disappeared from the bottom of the lake after the castle changed hands, and never appeared in front of the students again.
Hermione would sometimes come to the lake with Jon, but Jon was fishing, and she was reading a book while observing the movements on the Marauder's Map.
"Today looks like another unproductive day."
Jon raised his fishing rod, sighed, and threw the big fish weighing almost four pounds that had bitten the hook back into the lake.
Hermione, who was also sitting on the grass, raised her head. She habitually glanced at the Marauder's Map first, and then comforted her.
"There is still some time before the second project starts, so don't worry too much."
"How is the matter assigned to you by Professor Dumbledore going?"
"Still waiting for the opportunity, I can't make any moves yet, I need to watch the movement in the castle."
"You still have to be cautious. If you encounter a situation where you need to make a choice, you must choose the one that can guarantee your safety. Follow me, your own survival is the most important thing."
Hearing Jon's last proud words, Hermione rolled her eyes calmly.
She could feel that Jon seemed to really think that he was a life-saving person, but in fact, whether it was in her or other students' hearts, Jon was the most reassuring every time he went out to do something, It is also the most worrying.
What is reassuring is that he can always solve all the difficulties satisfactorily, but what is not reassuring is that when encountering sacrifices, he will always give priority to himself.
It was like when he was in exile on the sea, every time he got off the boat, he assured everyone that he would give priority to protecting his own life, but every time he basically put himself in the most dangerous situation and let other students go first.
It's just that Hermione can't hate Jon's "no self-knowledge".
Because in this regard, they are actually the same person, just like Hermione once thought about giving up on herself and letting Jon rescue all the other low-grade hemp students.
Just as they finished their relaxing time by the lake today and were walking towards the carriage, Hermione suddenly stopped in her tracks as if she had noticed something while looking in the direction of the castle.
(end of this chapter)