Hermione's strength flowed from her arm, carrying a familiar warmth and steadiness, pulling Lia back to reality from that cold phantom and leading her steadily onto the train.
The train door slammed shut behind them with a "clank," cutting off the clamor of the platform but failing to sever that crimson gaze branded deep within her soul.
Lia stepped onto the train following Hermione's lead, as if that cross-temporal eye contact from just moments ago had never happened.
But her senses felt like steel cast into lava, undergoing a violent reforging.
"Let's find a compartment," Hermione's voice carried a hint of tension as she tightly held Lia's slightly cool little hand, navigating carefully through the crowded corridor.
Her gaze fell on Lia's pale profile from time to time; that excessive calmness only made the worry in her heart grow stronger.
Harry and Ron followed behind. Harry was still immersed in his resentment over being isolated by the Order of the Phoenix, radiating a low-pressure aura that made him difficult to approach, indifferent to everything around him.
Ron seemed somewhat at a loss. He wanted to say something to break the oppressive silence, but looking at Hermione's tense back, he wisely kept his mouth shut.
They soon found a temporarily empty compartment.
Lia went in first and chose the innermost seat, her "fixed coordinate" in the carriage.
Hermione sat down right next to her. Almost instantly, Lia leaned her head against Hermione's shoulder, seeking that unique sense of warmth and security.
"You saw him, didn't you?" Hermione whispered, low enough that only the two of them could hear.
Hermione had guessed it after all; Lia looked at her in surprise.
"Yes," Lia nodded, her azure eyes calm and rippleless, simply stating a fact. "He came in person. He was right there on the platform."
Hermione's heart skipped a beat.
She looked at Lia's overly calm profile, and a deeper sense of unease seized her.
fear still has an outlet for release, but this kind of calm that suppresses all storms beneath a surface of ice is even more heart-wrenching.
The compartment door slid open, and Neville Longbottom and Luna Lovegood joined them one after another.
Harry stared out the window, Ron flipped through a Quidditch magazine, Neville fiddled with his Mimbulus mimbletonia, and Luna held a copy of The Quibbler upside down.
Lia closed her eyes, seemingly napping, but in reality, her Eye of Truth had already clearly parsed the magical ley lines of the entire carriage.
Neville's plant green, Luna's silver-blue, Ron's orange-red, and the irritable red on Harry, which was entangled with strands of ominous black thread.
"Potter, how was your summer? I heard you're about to be expelled by the Ministry of Magic?"
Draco Malfoy, accompanied by his two dim-witted lackeys, roughly pulled open the door and spoke in his usual nauseating tone.
A customary sneer hung on his face, but a hint of irrepressible smugness peeked through his eyes.
Harry stood up abruptly, magic wand already in hand. "Get out, Malfoy!"
"Don't be so excited, the savior," Malfoy raised his hands insincerely, his lips curling into a loathsome arc. "I'm just here to deliver a friendly reminder. Some people should probably stop keeping *that name* on the tip of their tongues all day."
He emphasized "some people" and "that name," his eyes sweeping contemptuously over Harry before flickering briefly toward Hermione and Lia.
Lia's eyelids moved, her eyelashes trembling slightly before she slowly opened her eyes.
She smelled it.
On Malfoy, besides that annoying arrogance and the perfume characteristic of pure-blood families, there was an indescribable, heart-palpitating fear.
"Is your father doing well?"
Lia's voice was very soft, yet it accurately sliced through Malfoy's facade.
Malfoy's body stiffened, and the sneer on his face froze instantly.
He turned toward her sharply, his gaze fierce. "What did you say? You filthy... mudblood's hanger-on!"
"I smell it," Lia looked at him calmly, no sympathy in those sky-blue eyes. "The scent of Crucio. It's very strong. It seems your master is very dissatisfied with him."
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