Under Hermione's supervision and Mrs. Granger's persuasion, Amanda slowed down and calmly finished her first dinner after arriving at the Granger Residence.
As soon as dinner was finished and Mr. and Mrs. Granger and Hermione set down their cutlery, Amanda stood up quickly from her seat, skillfully gathered the plates and silverware, and walked toward the kitchen.
Seeing this, Hermione also quickly stood up and gave her mother a well-behaved smile. "The two of us can just wash the dishes."
With that, she hurried into the kitchen to take over the task of drying the dishes and putting them in the cupboard.
Mr. and Mrs. Granger looked at each other and couldn't help but smile with gratification; both girls were such sensible and good children.
The two of them walked silently to the kitchen door and looked inside. In the kitchen, Amanda was washing the bowls under the faucet at an incredibly fast speed.
Each plate became as clean as new in her hands in less than twenty seconds. Beside her, Hermione, holding a dry cloth, was having trouble keeping up as she dried the plates Amanda handed over.
The dishwashing was exceptionally fast this time. In less than five minutes, Amanda and Hermione had coordinated to wash all the dishes and return them to the cupboard.
After cleaning the dishes, Amanda didn't stop for a moment. Constantly reciting Herbology Class knowledge in her mind, she quickly walked up to Hermione's room on the second floor.
She opened her trunk, pulled out parchment, a quill, and ink, and looked at Hermione's desk.
'This is Hermione's desk, and she needs it for her studies. I cannot affect others just because of my presence.'
These words subconsciously popped into Amanda's mind. Not affecting others because of one's own existence was a basic virtue that needed to be observed.
Turning around with the parchment, quill, and ink, Amanda once again walked quickly down the stairs.
Hermione and Mr. and Mrs. Granger, who were standing at the foot of the stairs looking up in confusion, had various expressions when they saw Amanda coming down with those items.
Hermione's face showed a sigh of 'as expected' and heartache, while Mr. and Mrs. Granger's faces were full of disbelief and pity.
Sitting down at the dining table with her things, Amanda spread the parchment out and began writing the required essay for Transfiguration.
As she wrote, her mind continuously conceived the subsequent content without any pause. Like a perfectly smooth typewriter, word after word, line after line, knowledge was constantly retrieved from Amanda's mind and written onto the paper.
Mr. Granger couldn't help but want to say something, but Hermione tugged at the corner of his clothes and shook her head.
"What's wrong?" Mr. Granger looked down at Hermione, stunned for a moment. In his view, how could a child start doing homework on the first day of vacation?
The purpose of a vacation was to relax and let the children be happy. Homework should just be something you take a little time out of your play to do, just to ensure you don't completely forget what you've learned.
So he wanted to persuade Amanda to at least rest for tonight. It certainly wasn't too much to ask for a little rest on the first night of returning home for summer break.
Hermione sighed helplessly. "Amanda has already started writing. Let her finish this essay before trying to persuade her to rest."
"Otherwise, if you interrupt her train of thought now, it might be even harder for her to write later."
Mr. Granger fell silent for a moment, thinking his daughter was right. He shook his head and sat down on the sofa with Mrs. Granger and Hermione.
Since Amanda was writing her essay, the three of them couldn't very well watch TV. Since they hadn't seen their daughter/parents for an entire semester, they had many things to say to each other, so the family of three sat together and began to chat.
Mrs. Granger sat in the middle, with Hermione on her right and Mr. Granger on her left. Hermione began to vividly describe various interesting things she had experienced during the semester to her parents.
Of course, it was an edited version. For instance, when mentioning seeing a Dragon hatch, she only spoke of the wonderful scene, never mentioning how they were nearly caught by the Professor afterward, let alone the incident where Harry encountered Quirrell possessed by Voldemort while serving detention in the Forbidden Forest.
Listening to their daughter's descriptions, Mr. and Mrs. Granger truly felt the existence of a wondrous and magical Wizarding school.
However, a mother knows her daughter best. From the lines of her speech, Mrs. Granger could still sense that she was hiding things.
If nothing else, the flicker of fear and lingering dread in Hermione's eyes when she mentioned the dragon egg could not escape her mother's gaze.
The child had grown up and wanted to handle things herself so they wouldn't worry. Mrs. Granger pursed her lips and reached out to stroke Hermione's head.
Hermione looked up at her mother, only to see her speak with a face full of maternal love.
"Hermione has grown up," Mrs. Granger said, gently smoothing her hair. "You know how to report only the good news and keep the bad to yourself. But remember, Hermione, we are always a family. We should face difficulties together. Although your father and I don't know much about the Wizarding World and might not be able to help with what happens there, if you are ever unhappy or in danger, just come home. Home will always be safe."
"That's right, your father and I will always be waiting for you at home. If there are any bad people or bad things, I'll help you drive them away!" Mr. Granger chimed in cheerfully, waving his fist as he spoke.
But his smile did not reach his eyes. A deep sense of self-blame and worry occupied the depths of his heart, causing it to ache.
It was all because he was useless... As Hermione's father, he should have been the one to hold up the sky for her, sheltering her from the wind and rain until the day she could spread her wings and soar.
Yet now, he could only stand in place, watching his daughter walk further and further into the unknown, facing various storms he knew nothing about.
Hermione bit her lower lip and reached out to hug her mother and father. It wasn't until she buried her face in Mrs. Granger's embrace that her eyes secretly turned red.
Was she not afraid when facing the Troll? Was she not afraid when facing the Man in Black Robes in the Forbidden Forest? Was she not afraid when facing the various trials and unknown dangers of the forbidden area on the fourth floor?
How could she not be? She was only an eleven-year-old child, no matter how smart she was.
When she encountered those things, she also wanted to call out for her parents and hide her head in their embrace for protection.
But she knew she couldn't. Her parents were ignorant and powerless regarding everything in the Wizarding World.
It wasn't for them to protect her; rather, she had to grow up quickly and become a great tree that could block the storms of the Wizarding World to protect them.
This had been determined from the moment her name appeared in Hogwarts' Book of Admittance.
Recalling the experiences of this past year, she had faced various dangers, but hadn't the real dangers all been blocked by Amanda?
While she was still as tender as a sapling, Amanda had already grown into a towering tree, sheltering the sky above her head.
No... not just her. Harry, Ron, and perhaps even more Young Wizards had likely been gathered under her branches long ago.
Therefore, she had to study even harder to become a towering tree that could stand side-by-side with Amanda as soon as possible. While sheltering her own parents, she could also provide a shoulder for that person to lean on.
So that she wouldn't have to push herself so hard anymore, so that she could also enjoy life properly instead of being chased by it.
Gently stroking Hermione's back, the Granger family fell into a long silence.
Sitting at the dining table writing her essay, Amanda's quill had long since stopped. When Hermione told the stories of her time at Hogwarts, she would inevitably mention Amanda'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 Amanda, she clearly hadn't expected Amanda's hearing to be so good.
Even though she had lowered her voice on purpose, Amanda still heard her.
Listening to the conversation between Hermione and Mr. and Mrs. Granger, Amanda'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. Amanda, 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. Amanda 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 Amanda's heart; she was simply performing further analytical thinking procedurally.
However, like a computer stuck on a program bug, Amanda'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 Amanda's brain, as if they had once been violently destroyed by something.
Family... Amanda'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? Amanda'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 Amanda could understand all emotions, she would know that the extremely relaxed expression on their faces was called relief and joy.
However, even though Amanda 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 Amanda hadn't yet recognized.
Amanda 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 Amanda'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 Amanda's own safety.
Hermione's safety should have priority over her own. Amanda, expressionless and with no emotion in her heart, determined the result of the inequality.
Although she had been doing this before, Amanda'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,
Amanda 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 Amanda'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, Amanda'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.'
Amanda 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 Amanda 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 Amanda.
Amanda had also just finished her Transfiguration essay and was rolling up the long piece of parchment.
Seeing that Amanda 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.
"Amanda, 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 Amanda's train of thought, so she hadn't. It wasn't until Amanda finished the essay that she finally asked.
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