Chapter 99 97. Keen Granger
On Christmas night, it snowed at Hogwarts.
Dolokhov didn't stay with them for long. He suddenly returned to the castle early as if there was no purpose at all. He gathered the Mudblood students and rewarded each of them with a small cake. At 9 o'clock, the students After returning to the dormitory, he locked the door to the basement.
After Hermione returned to the dormitory, her heartbeat still hadn't stabilized.
She is very aware of how bold her actions are today. Once she fails to find Jon in the place she guessed, she doesn't know whether Jon can escape in the end, but she is definitely going to be finished.
Dolokhov will definitely ask someone to change her memory again, turning her into a robot like Taylor who only knows obedience and has no other emotions.
But she still made up her mind to do it, because Hermione knew clearly that with these children in the castle alone, they would not be able to resist the oppression and rule of pure blood in their entire lives, and they needed to rely on external forces.
And Jon is this outside force!
The night gradually deepened, and she lay quietly on the bed, without the slightest feeling of drowsiness, nor did she have the slightest intention of falling asleep like this.
This wait lasted until midnight, when suddenly there were three slight knocks on the door outside her room.
The voice was so subtle, if Hermione hadn't been so tense, she might not have even noticed it.
After the knock on the door, she immediately sat up from the bed, got out of bed wearing a thin and worn-out nightgown, and opened the door.
Jon walked in very quickly the moment the door was opened, and then turned around and closed the bedroom door again.
The dormitory is located underground, with no windows, and no way for moonlight to come in. Only one candle was lit, and the light dimly illuminated the narrow space.
Jon saw that Hermione didn't speak first, but took out the opened Marauder's Map and placed it in the most conspicuous position in front of him, so that he could always observe the movements around the dormitory and prevent Dolojo from The husband made some surprise inspections at night.
After completing the protective work, he looked at the girl who was sitting in front of the wooden bed, wearing a gray worn nightgown, with a thin figure, and her body was trembling slightly with her arms frozen.
"I suggest that you better put on a thicker dress first, because I may have to ask you a lot of things next."
Although Hermione's face was a little pale from the cold, her eyes were unusually bright when she looked at Jon.
Seeing her obediently covering her slender body with a quilt, Jon took a deep breath, looked serious, and said in a volume that only the two of them could hear.
"First of all, I would like to thank you for helping me tonight, Miss Granger, if it weren't for you, I might have been exposed by now. But after all, I still have tasks on me, so I have to ask some questions Clearly, you must answer me truthfully."
He stared into Hermione's eyes and asked without blinking.
"When did you find out I have a problem?"
Jon couldn't help frowning.
"First night?"
"You received Dolokhov's reward for your excellent practical results in the summer vacation. When I looked at him to reward you with a sandwich, you took the initiative to push it to me." Hermione explained softly, "I know Randy is very timid, he would never initiate such behavior, the most he would do is not touch the sandwich and let me take it myself."
Jon's face became weird. He has actually been careful about his performance and tried his best to imitate Randy's habits, but who would have thought that a 12-year-old girl would notice this?
"Just because of this?"
"And your performance in the first spell-casting class. Randy actually doesn't have much talent in gesture-casting. When he was learning various gestures last semester, in order not to be punished, he asked me to do it in private. Helped him to teach him, but you only learned the first cleansing spell in one class. And I have carefully observed that your waving habits are completely different from his. Although the movements are standard, they seem very unfamiliar , like a beginner, which is very unreasonable."
Hermione spoke seriously about the various problems she found from Jon.
The two points before were just her noticing something was wrong, but what really made her sure that the current Randy is no longer the former Randy was actually the day when they were going to clean the public restroom together for the second time.
"Before I went, I specially reminded you not to eat too much for lunch. I said that you were smoked and cried when you went to clean the bathroom for the first time in the first grade. Later, you forced yourself to get used to it, and you can accept it slowly. It’s actually a lie. What Randy hates the most is cleaning public bathrooms. For most of the semester, as long as he had a job in the bathroom, he would cry and do it. It wasn’t until the end of the semester that things got better some."
Jon listened to the girl's story and recalled that day, and the expression on his face became even weirder.
So what sounds like a casual question is actually a temptation?
Hermione stared at Jon's face, but there was no complacency on her face, but she continued cautiously.
"After I said that lie, your reaction was very flat, as if you fully agreed with my words. It was at this time that I was really sure that you were not the previous Randy."
It sounds like Hermione was able to discover Jon's identity purely because of his own carelessness and poor preparation.
But no one can completely play another person, and Dumbledore didn't use Dementia on Randy. After all, those high-ranking professors in the castle usually don't pay much attention to a cowardly Mudblood. The students around me are all 12-year-old children, and they have known each other for less than a year. No one would have thought that such young children would have such keen observation skills.
And Hermione just went against common sense. Even if Jon knew that she was actually the most careful of the trio after reading the original book, he never expected her to be so careful.
It can only be said that being in such a harsh and difficult environment catalyzed her growth, making her more cautious, paying close attention to her surroundings all the time.
For example, now, when she is answering questions, she has been paying attention to Jon's face and emotions, as if she is afraid that if her tone has a little bit of showing off and publicity, it will cause his displeasure.
Jon rubbed the corners of his brows, temporarily letting go of the sigh in his heart, he looked at Hermione, and continued with his own question.
"It's understandable that you can judge that I'm not the real Randy through these, but why are you helping me? Don't you worry that I'm actually helping those pure-blood wizards?"
Two more chapters
(end of this chapter)