Sitting at the dining table writing her essay, Lynn's quill had long since stopped. When Hermione told the stories of her time at Hogwarts, she would inevitably mention Lynn's name. After all, her involvement in Hermione's school life was too high.
So the moment Hermione mentioned her full name, she had already disengaged from her study state.
Although Hermione had deliberately lowered her voice for fear of disturbing Lynn, she clearly hadn't expected Lynn's hearing to be so good.
Even though she had lowered her voice on purpose, Lynn still heard her.
Listening to the conversation between Hermione and Mr. and Mrs. Granger, Lynn's brain was constantly thinking.
Hermione didn't want her aunt and uncle to worry after learning about what she had encountered at Hogwarts, so she hid some things. Lynn, who already understood what the emotion of worry was, quickly concluded why Hermione hadn't told the whole truth.
It was likely that Hermione hadn't hidden it well enough, so her aunt and uncle still saw that she had faced some dangers at Hogwarts, and thus they were worried about her. Lynn continued her analysis as she heard what Mr. and Mrs. Granger said next.
So why did they worry about each other, and why did they guess each other's psychology like this, thereby deciding to hide things from one another?
There was no emotion of confusion in Lynn's heart; she was simply performing further analytical thinking procedurally.
However, like a computer stuck on a program bug, Lynn's thoughts were stuck at this step and could not advance at all.
Her brain throbbed with pain again because... they are family.
These words emerged intermittently from the depths of Lynn's brain, as if they had once been violently destroyed by something.
Family... Lynn's brain quickly retrieved the definition of family, then continued her thinking.
So, Mr. and Mrs. Granger, because they are Hermione's family—her parents—worry about her safety.
Hermione, because she is Mr. and Mrs. Granger's family—their daughter—doesn't want them to worry about her.
But, why worry? Lynn's thinking reached this step and encountered an error again.
Do family members worry about each other? Do parents worry about their children?
But she hadn't seen the parents she had met before worry about their children being dragged away by Enforcement Agents. Only a few parents would shed a few tears, but through analysis, she couldn't be sure if those tears were for themselves about to be moved to the slums, or for their children.
Just like her own parents. Her memory was not wrong at all; she remembered that when they watched her being taken away by the Enforcement Agents, their faces showed an extremely relaxed expression.
If Lynn could understand all emotions, she would know that the extremely relaxed expression on their faces was called relief and joy.
However, even though Lynn couldn't figure out why Mr. and Mrs. Granger, as parents, would worry about their daughter, or why Hermione, as a daughter, would not want her parents to worry about her,
She understood that the taste of worry was unpleasant; the heart would ache, and the head would become muddled.
The kind and friendly looks Mr. and Mrs. Granger gave her at first sight flashed through her mind, as did the way Mrs. Granger told her to enjoy her dinner slowly.
Then she thought of all the bits and pieces of her time with Hermione. She didn't want Mr. and Mrs. Granger, Hermione's parents, to experience the feeling of worry.
Even more so, she didn't want anything to happen to Hermione that would cause Mr. and Mrs. Granger to feel worried.
Perhaps it was because of that tiny bit of "selfishness" in the deepest part of her brain that Lynn hadn't yet recognized.
Lynn created a most simple, yet most unscientific inequality in her mind.
Hermione's safety plus Mr. and Mrs. Granger's worry for her is greater than Lynn's own safety plus no one worrying.
Choosing the optimal choice, selecting the more worthwhile option—it was already obvious which was better between Hermione's safety and Lynn's own safety.
Hermione's safety should have priority over her own. Lynn, expressionless and with no emotion in her heart, determined the result of the inequality.
Although she had been doing this before, Lynn's thinking completely clarified this idea at this moment.
Although she didn't know why this inequality didn't appear in her brain when facing others, since it had appeared now and yielded a result,
Lynn would seriously follow the optimal solution to ensure Hermione's safety in either the Wizarding World or the Muggle World.
Lowering her head and picking up her quill again to start writing her essay, for some reason, the sounds of Mr. and Mrs. Granger and Hermione breathing as they embraced seemed exceptionally clear in Lynn's ears.
She, who could normally enter a study state quickly no matter how noisy the surroundings were, was now somewhat unable to focus because of these breathing sounds.
Imagining the scene of Hermione embracing Mr. and Mrs. Granger and recalling the words they exchanged, Lynn's nose inexplicably tingled, and her eyes felt slightly hot.
Blinking her vacant eyes, two clear tears fell onto the parchment.
'There is no writing here yet. The essay doesn't need to be rewritten, so it won't delay subsequent study time or slow down study efficiency.'
Lynn made this judgment with no change in her expression. She raised her hand and wiped the corners of her eyes without any emotional fluctuation. Once her vision was clear again, she first used her sleeve to wipe away the two tears on the parchment.
Immediately afterward, she immersed herself in her studies, her pen flowing as she continued to complete her Transfiguration essay.
Once Hermione suppressed the heat in her eyes and felt that her eyes were no longer red, she released her hold on her parents and lifted her head from Mrs. Granger's embrace.
"I'll go see if Lynn has finished her essay." Hermione gave her parents a bright smile, turned, and walked away from the sofa to the dining table to check on Lynn.
Lynn had also just finished her Transfiguration essay and was rolling up the long piece of parchment.
Seeing that Lynn had finished the essay, Hermione hurried forward to help her pack up and spoke to her, preventing her from continuing with essays for other classes after finishing this one.
"Lynn, why did you come down to the dining table to do your homework? The light here isn't good; it'll hurt your eyes. Why didn't you write upstairs?"
She had wanted to ask just now, but as she had told her father, she was afraid of disturbing Lynn's train of thought, so she hadn't. It wasn't until Lynn finished the essay that she finally asked.
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