She was worried about her classmates... An agonizing, tearing pain erupted in her skull. Lynn's expression didn't change, but several drops of cold sweat had already slid down her forehead.
She was worried about her classmates being disposed of; she was worried about her classmates becoming that final third.
Previously, she could think about this problem with complete detachment, but when the moment actually arrived, she could no longer remain rational.
'I don't want to...' Lynn gritted her teeth, her right hand stiffly and with difficulty reaching into her robe pocket, where her wand was kept.
'I don't want my classmates to be disposed of...' This thought jumped vividly into Lynn's brain.
But immediately after, another equally clear thought jumped out: 'These are the rules. Rules should be followed. I must follow the rules; I cannot violate the rules.'
The right hand reaching into the robe pocket froze in mid-air, unable to move another inch.
Lynn watched helplessly as the Great Hall's doors were slowly opened a crack.
Fully armed Enforcement Agents, the wails of other students, the sensation of chemicals being pushed into the body—everything jumped out from her memories.
No! I won't! Lynn forced her jaws open and bit down hard on her tongue.
A heavy metallic taste of blood instantly filled her mouth. The intense pain forcibly spurred Lynn into motion again. Her right hand reached into her robe pocket, and her wand was suddenly pulled out.
The next moment, the Great Hall doors were fully opened. However, the one who walked in was not a fully armed Enforcement Agent, but just the Hogwarts Castle Caretaker, Mr. Filch. He had come to notify all the Young Wizards that it was time to board the train.
With her mouth full of blood, Lynn's drawn wand hung at her side. All her actions stopped.
There were no Enforcement Agents, no submachine guns ready to fire. Lynn's chaotic brain returned to a state of calm, and her heartbeat gradually slowed down.
Lowering her head to slide her wand back into her robe pocket, Lynn kept swallowing the blood flowing from her tongue.
'The Enforcement Agents chose to go to the students' homes to seize people...' Lynn easily reached this conclusion.
Looking up at the Young Wizards in the Great Hall, for some reason, Lynn's vision seemed to turn black and white, and her whole body felt a sense of falling downward.
Under the Professors' calls, the Young Wizards filed out carrying their luggage. Lynn stood up, mechanically following behind the student in front of her.
Her vision was exceptionally blurry, seemingly filled with static patterns, like a glitching old black-and-white television.
Now, she no longer possessed any of her usual thinking capacity. She could only stiffly follow the student in front out of the Great Hall, out of Hogwarts, and onto the hogwarts express, eventually stopping inside a compartment and staring blankly at the seat opposite her.
'When we return from summer break... a third of the students will have vanished.' Lynn's vision darkened in waves; her brain seemed to be protesting, and her tongue was both painful and numb.
Leaning back against the headrest, Lynn closed her eyes during study time for the first time.
In the darkness, she saw a little girl. That little girl studied every day, studied every day.
Even so, her scores could only earn her a middle-tier ranking in the end-of-year exam results.
She couldn't move her parents into the villa they yearned for, nor could she bring her parents into the elite class they aspired to.
She knew it was her fault, that she wasn't smart enough... she was a stupid child, not the genius her parents wanted.
So, she would squeeze out some of her already limited sleep time to look at recipes and learn knitting.
She could hold a book in one hand and a spatula in the other. She could send her parents a new pair of gloves before every winter arrived.
She yearned to prove that even without a villa, a family could live happily together... But what happened after that? What happened... A piercing sound echoed crazily in her mind, and a bone-chilling cold was right beside her. Lynn trembled, curling herself into a ball.
She had no strength... She was so tired... When had she felt like this before... "Are you cold?"
A pair of arms with the warmth of the midday sun wrapped around Lynn. The piercing sound stopped abruptly, and a warm whisper sounded in her ear.
Her trembling body slowly relaxed and stretched out, and the darkness in her brain was melted away bit by bit.
A tiny voice, a tiny figure, reached out both hands toward the illusory heights. Save me, please save me!
Opening her eyes again, Lynn's eyes were still as stagnant as dead water, without any ripples.
Turning her head slightly, the one embracing her from behind was Hermione. Harry and Ron were helping her move her luggage onto the rack, while Senior Maranhao and Marietta sat in the opposite seats, looking at her with worried faces.
"Senior Maranhao and Senior Marietta just found me and said you weren't in a good state, so I rushed over. What's wrong?" Hermione lowered her head and lightly rubbed her cheek against Lynn's.
Lynn trembled as she opened her mouth. The voice she produced now was as hoarse and unpleasant as a broken bellows.
"For summer break... I don't want to stay in a hotel. Can I... go stay at your houses?"
Lynn spoke the thoughts in her brain truthfully; her thinking capacity had returned.
Hogwarts had not announced the grade rankings for the entire school, so she couldn't be sure if the trio of Hermione and the others, or Senior Maranhao and Marietta, were in that bottom third.
Even if Hermione, Senior Maranhao, and Marietta had excellent grades, there was still the possibility they had made mistakes, or that other students at Hogwarts had overperformed and surpassed them.
Under the current circumstances, she couldn't save everyone at Hogwarts, so she could only do her best to save Hermione and the others.
And thinking that if the Enforcement Agents went to their homes to seize them for disposal, the only solution she could think of was to go home with them. Only then could she stop the Enforcement Agents.
Even if this would violate the rules, she would accept the punishment after everyone successfully escaped. The Enforcement Agents could dispose of her; she had no objection to such a consequence.
Lynn's restored brain rapidly refreshed its thoughts, determining such a plan without any hesitation.
Even if the final result of this plan involved her own disposal, she had no emotional fluctuations. The success of the plan was her only objective.
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