Hearing Hagrid's gasp of surprise, Hermione's heart instantly sank, and a bad premonition flooded her mind.
Sure enough, when she took the binoculars from Hagrid and looked at the sky, Harry was struggling to stay on his rampaging, frenzied flying broomstick.
Lynn, naturally, did not miss this thrilling scene high in the air. Watching Harry's "struggle for survival" in the sky, an obvious conclusion quickly formed in her mind.
Someone was trying to harm him. Despite reaching this conclusion, Lynn still felt no worry or anxiety.
Compared to Hermione, who anxiously turned her binoculars toward where the Professors were sitting while muttering something, Lynn calmly and composedly cast her gaze toward the Professors' section.
She had reached the same conclusion as Hermione: to influence a flying broomstick with magic, unless direct violent means were used, only a Professor could do it.
Sure enough, she saw Professor Snape and Professor Quirrell both staring intently at Harry high in the air, their mouths constantly muttering something.
"It's Snape!" Hermione was so anxious she didn't even call him "Professor" anymore. "He's casting a curse on Harry! He has to keep his eyes fixed on him; I read about it in a book!"
With that, she tossed the binoculars to Ron and hurriedly stood up, preparing to go to the Professors' section to do something to stop Professor Snape.
Lynn saw Hermione passing in front of her and quickly reached out to grab Hermione's arm.
"Lynn? What is it? Tell me when I get back, Snape is harming—"
"Professor Snape is protecting Harry." Lynn looked at Hermione expressionlessly.
"What?" Hermione was stunned.
"He and Professor Quirrell are both chanting. Professor Quirrell is chanting a curse, while he is chanting a counter-curse. I can read their lips."
Lynn finished these few sentences at a rapid pace, without any emotional fluctuation.
After hearing Lynn's analysis, Hermione gritted her teeth. "Alright, I understand!"
Lynn nodded and let go, watching calmly as Hermione ran quickly toward the Professors' section.
Turning her gaze back to Harry in the sky, Lynn analyzed that, given Hermione's personality, she would most likely sabotage both Professors just to be safe.
Lynn thought with a completely calm heart as she stared fixedly at Harry, who was now hanging onto the flying broomstick with only one hand.
"Hurry, Hermione!" Beside her, Ron was stomping his feet in anxiety, forming a sharp contrast to her.
The facts were exactly as Lynn had analyzed. After running up to the Professors' stand, Hermione quietly set fire to both Professor Quirrell's and Professor Snape's robes.
Even though Lynn said it was Professor Quirrell harming Harry and Professor Snape was saving him, what if she was wrong? If she was wrong, Harry would lose his life.
So Hermione decided to target both Professors. That way, neither the good nor the bad spells could be chanted, and Harry's flying broomstick would return to normal.
Of course, if it could be proven later that Professor Snape really did want to save Harry... Hermione would buy him a new robe and apologize, but for now, desperate times called for desperate measures!
Blue flames rose simultaneously from the hems of Professor Quirrell's and Professor Snape's robes. Both of them stopped chanting at the same time and stood up to pat out the fire on their robes.
High in the air, Harry also climbed back onto his flying broomstick. When Hermione returned to her seat, she immediately turned to look at Lynn, her face full of curiosity.
"You can read lips?"
Lynn nodded calmly. "Yes."
"Why did you learn that?" Hermione was even more curious. Lynn's range of knowledge and skill set seemed quite broad.
Lynn watched Harry repeatedly making retching motions on his flying broomstick with a blank expression, while answering Hermione's question. "My previous school had a very large population and the classrooms were huge. If you sat in the back row, you couldn't hear the teacher, so you couldn't attend class without knowing lip reading."
Hermione's expression turned odd for a moment. Sitting in the back row and not being able to hear the teacher? Just how big was that classroom?!
But then, thinking about the population of the country Lynn was from... ah, she understood.
"Alright..." Hermione nodded and turned back to look at the sky, just in time to see Harry spit out the Golden Snitch.
"Did Harry eat it?" Hermione was dumbfounded.
Lynn shook her head emotionlessly. "He probably accidentally swallowed it and it got stuck in his throat. However, your house won."
It took Hermione a moment to react. Seeing the Gryffindor students around her jumping and cheering, she also started jumping.
"That's right! We won!"
Watching Hermione jump up and down in joyful celebration beside her, Lynn turned away without feeling anything and quietly gazed at the grass on the Quidditch Pitch.
The Quidditch match was over, and the victorious Gryffindors naturally had to celebrate properly.
Moreover, this was Harry's first Quidditch victory, and Hermione, as Harry's friend, could not be absent.
So, after politely and emotionlessly saying "Congratulations" and "I liked your match" to Harry, Lynn parted ways with Hermione and the others.
Walking quickly to the Library, Lynn flipped open the book in front of her with crisp, efficient movements and began to read.
The group of Ravenclaw Little Eagles who were quietly following her finally breathed a sigh of relief. As soon as the Quidditch match was over, she had seamlessly returned to studying; sure enough, this was the Lynn they were familiar with.
However, this also made these Little Eagles realize that Gryffindor's Miss Granger... probably held an unusual status in Lynn's heart, even if Lynn herself didn't know it yet.
As for the large group of people following her in the shadows, observing her actions, and having exceptionally rich inner monologues, Lynn remained completely unaware.
At this moment, she was like a machine, reading the book in her hands page by page.
In order to make up for the study time taken up by the Quidditch match, she didn't even go to eat lunch.
Hermione, who was celebrating the victory with her Gryffindor classmates and therefore hadn't gone to the Great Hall for lunch, was completely unaware of this.
Otherwise, she would have definitely dragged a certain person whose eyes only saw books to have a proper lunch. Even if it only took three and a half minutes, at least she would be full.
For the entire afternoon and evening, Lynn sat in the Hogwarts Library reading. Lunchtime and dinner time were both used by her to make up for study time.
Even so, she still had nearly an hour of time that she hadn't made up.
Packing her schoolbag and putting the books she intended to read in the Dormitory inside, Lynn walked quickly toward Ravenclaw Tower.
With nearly an hour left to make up, tonight's sleep time would be just about enough to compensate for it, Lynn thought rationally.
Returning to the Dormitory, Lynn sat at her desk and flipped open a book to read. Maranhao and Marietta, who had originally wanted to gossip about her and Miss Granger, immediately shut their mouths in unison upon seeing this.
The two of them went to the washroom one after the other to shower, then sat on their beds and started reading, waiting for sleepiness to wash over them.
Until one o'clock in the morning, Lynn was still flipping through the book in front of her. Although she didn't feel sleepy, her eyes had begun to feel dry and strained, and she even started to feel some pain in the corners of her eyes.
Standing up and walking into the washroom, Lynn dampened a towel with water and wiped the corners of both eyes. Once her vision was clear again, she sat back at her desk and resumed reading.
After finishing another book, Lynn closed it, and the thought of using her study time to watch the Quidditch match today popped into her mind.
Without hesitation, she placed her right hand on her left arm, and in an instant, Lynn added another bruise to her left arm.
She continued reading until Sunday morning. Lynn packed her books into her bag and stood up. However, before she could stand steadily, her feet couldn't help but wobble, and the world started spinning... Reaching out to steady herself against a bedpost, Lynn lowered her head and gasped for a long time before she finally recovered.
Thinking about how she hadn't eaten lunch or dinner yesterday and had studied all night, Lynn instantly determined that she probably had low blood sugar.
Without any feelings of grievance or sadness, Lynn put on her schoolbag and walked quickly to the Great Hall.
Entering the Great Hall, Lynn's face looked even paler than usual under the sunlight, appearing quite weak.
After waiting for five minutes, breakfast finally appeared on the long table, and Lynn began to eat quickly.
As she ate, her pale complexion finally slowly regained a bit of color, and her mind gradually cleared from the dizzying vertigo.
Again, she finished breakfast in three and a half minutes. Lynn shouldered her schoolbag and walked quickly to the Library, sat in her old spot, and began to read. After reading for a little over an hour,
Hermione and the others found her. "Lynn, sorry to interrupt your studying, but... can you come with us to find Hagrid? We need to discuss something, and we need you there too."
Lynn looked up at Hermione with eyes as calm as an ancient well. Although this would take up her study time again, it was fine; she just had to accept her punishment and make up for it another time.
This thought automatically popped into her head, forming a closed logical loop. Lynn nodded, stood up, and followed the three of them out of the Library.
Arriving outside Hagrid's hut, Harry, acting as the representative, stepped forward and knocked on the door. "Hagrid, it's us."
A moment later, the door opened, revealing Hagrid's face smiling brightly under his thick beard. "Oh, welcome, welcome, come on in."
Stepping aside to let the four children in, Hagrid poured each of them a cup of tea and thoughtfully added a bit more milk and white sugar to Hermione's and Lynn's tea.
"It was Snape who was trying to harm you yesterday, Harry!" Ron took a sip of black tea and looked at Harry, quickly recounting yesterday's situation.
"It's Professor Snape, Ron," Hermione corrected him in a serious tone. After learning that Professor Snape likely hadn't harmed Harry but had actually helped him, she chose to maintain her respect for him.
She also felt some shame for having been too rash yesterday and calling Professor Snape by his name.
"Fine, Professor Snape..." Ron sighed and said with difficulty.
"And," Hermione took a sip of tea and found the taste surprisingly good, "maybe it wasn't Professor Snape who was trying to harm Harry, right?"
Saying this, she turned her head to look at Lynn, hoping she would explain.
Feeling Hermione's gaze, Lynn began to explain mechanically.
"At the time, Professor Quirrell and Professor Snape were both staring intently at Harry's flying broomstick while chanting."
"According to their lip movements, Professor Quirrell was chanting a curse, and Professor Snape was chanting a counter-curse."
As soon as Lynn finished speaking, Ron looked at Harry in disbelief.
"Merlin's Quaffle... so that Old Bat—" Feeling Hermione's gaze, Ron abruptly stopped himself. "Professor Snape was protecting you?"
Harry also had a puzzled and conflicted expression as he nodded. "Since Lynn said so... then it must be. This is truly... unbelievable."
"But why would Professor Quirrell want to harm you?" Hermione pursed her lips and looked at Harry.
Before Harry could speak, Hagrid chimed in; he had only just realized what the four children were talking about.
"How could that be? With Professor Quirrell's courage, he'd try to harm Harry?"
"Could it be an act?" Hermione shook her head, expressing a different view.
Harry sighed and spread his hands. "I don't know why he'd want to harm me either."
"But..." Ron frowned, "Professor Snape wants the thing on the fourth floor guarded by the Cerberus, doesn't he?"
He was now a bit confused about who was good and who was bad between Professor Quirrell and Professor Snape. On one hand, Lynn's consistently reliable image made him instinctively believe her; on the other hand, Professor Snape also had suspicious points. This was truly... too conflicting.
Hearing this, Hermione also fell silent. She had heard Harry and Ron say that on the day of the Halloween Troll incident, they had seen Professor Snape heading toward the fourth floor.
And the next day, Professor Snape had a bite wound on his leg... "Nonsense! Why would Professor Snape want to steal the thing there!" Hagrid immediately retorted after hearing Ron's words.
"He was also involved in protecting that thing; he couldn't possibly steal it."
Hearing this, Hermione's eyes instantly narrowed. Hagrid's reaction... he knew some inside information. she subtly gave Harry a look, signaling him to fish for more information.
Harry immediately understood and began trying to provoke Hagrid into saying what he knew.
"But Professor Snape did try to get past the Cerberus and even got bitten!"
"Wait, how do you know about Fluffy?" Hagrid finally caught the keyword "Cerberus" on the second mention.
"Yes, Professor Snape just wanted to get past Fluffy to get the thing it's guarding!" Harry continued to try.
"Impossible! You don't need to worry about this anymore. This is between Headmaster Dumbledore and Nicolas Flamel..."
Hagrid stopped mid-sentence, while Harry wore a triumphant smile.
Hagrid slapped his own mouth twice, angry at himself for accidentally leaking the secret, and at the same time ushered the four children out of the hut.
"Alright, now we just need to find out who Nicolas Flamel is, and we'll know what's in the forbidden area on the fourth floor."
Hermione spoke with a smile, while Lynn listened quietly. Actually, as soon as she heard the name Nicolas Flamel, she had already searched her mind and found information about him.
However, no one had asked her yet, had they? So she automatically concluded that they didn't need her to inform them.