Chapter 89. Take My Headbutt!
"Belloc."
"Here."
At the door, Lynn stood meekly before Snape and Hermione.
"How dare you tarnish Hogwarts' reputation like this." Snape's voice remained deep, his glare at Lynn revealing his displeasure.
Lynn weakly protested,
"I was just joking with a friend, joking."
He glanced at Hermione out of the corner of his eye; the little girl had been staring at him menacingly ever since she met him, without saying a word.
"And this is before the child has received her Hogwarts acceptance letter. If you hadn't avoided mentioning magic, this would have violated the Ministry of Magic's laws!" Snape's tone was stern, clearly intending to warn Lynn.
"I will deduct ten points from your house for this after school starts."
Lynn stared at him in shock, feeling as if he had taken Professor McGonagall's script.
"Professor, you haven't forgotten, have you? I'm Slytherin!"
Snape: "..."
He coughed awkwardly twice.
"Ahem, the penalty of deducting points was a bit too lenient. I'll change it to you coming to my office every night for the first month after school starts to process potion ingredients!"
"Yes, Professor, I'm willing to accept the punishment." There was nothing to say about it; helping Professor Snape process potion ingredients wasn't a bad thing. He might not praise you if he was in a good mood, but he might give you some rare ingredients.
Snape nodded. After being scolded and berated by the little girl yesterday, he had to come here again today. Now that Lynn knew this new student, he didn't need to worry about what happened next.
Before leaving, he glared at Lynn with a sour face before Apparating away.
After seeing Professor Snape off, Lynn didn't relax at all, because he knew the real trouble was yet to come.
"Hermione, let me explain… ugh! No, I mean, let me explain!"
Hermione still looked at him expressionlessly, not stopping him from continuing.
Lynn immediately stopped arguing; he could tell Hermione was genuinely angry.
"I was wrong, I shouldn't have lied to you."
He stole a glance at her expression, which remained unchanged.
"You know, you're my only friend, and I can't find anyone else to help me take care of the yard."
He glanced at her again; still expressionless, but her eyes seemed to have softened.
"And you really did take good care of the yard for me; I can see you put your heart into it. Thank you, Hermione."
He glanced at her again; she looked a little angry. Angry was good! Better than expressionless!
Lynn pressed on.
"I will try my best to make up for my mistake. This summer, I will take you shopping in Diagon Alley, introduce you to the wizarding world, tell you about life at Hogwarts, and introduce you to my friends at school."
He opened his arms, ready to deliver the final blow.
"So, can you forgive me now, Hermione?"
Hermione finally reacted.
She took a half-step forward with one leg, then used the other leg to push off, suddenly ramming into Lynn, who was wide open.
"Forgive you my foot! You big liar!!!"
Caught off guard, Lynn took a headbutt from Hermione, staggering back a few steps, clutching his chest and wincing.
"Ouch."
Hermione, still furious and about to turn and leave, stopped in her tracks upon hearing Lynn's cry of pain, turning back to look at him with concern.
"Does it really hurt?"
Lynn gasped and nodded repeatedly. "Of course it really hurts!"
Of course it was a lie.
His three points of physical attributes made him comparable to a normal adult; riding a bull was no problem for him, and a little girl's headbutt was nothing.
If you asked Lynn to lift his shirt and look at his chest, the red mark there would definitely be smaller than the red mark on Hermione's forehead.
"Serves you right for lying! You deserve it!"
Hermione was still angry. She was so worried, and she diligently helped him clean the yard every week, but he had lied to her!
Lynn readily went along with her.
"Yes, I deserve it, so calm down. Look how well you take care of my house; I have to repay you. How can I repay you if you're angry like this? It's just letting me off easy, and then you'll be even angrier, won't you?"
"Who wants you to repay me!" Hermione was still a little girl after all; her anger flared up quickly, but Lynn's coaxing made her calm down just as fast.
"Magic is very interesting, you know." Lynn's voice was like a whisper from the devil.
"I'm a top student, ranking first in my grade in exams. I can teach you magic before school even starts, giving you an edge over your classmates. Don't you want that kind of reward?"
Hermione said, her face full of resentment.
"That's because I'm not in your grade. Otherwise, I'd definitely be first."
"Of course! I've always thought you were incredibly smart," Lynn said confidently.
Hermione glanced at him sideways.
"I don't think you're really praising me."
"How could that be? You must be imagining things. Tomorrow I'll take you to Diagon Alley to buy the necessities for Hogwarts, okay? You can actually use mine for your textbooks. Don't worry about them being secondhand. I've taken lots of notes in them. I wouldn't sell them to anyone for twice the price of a new textbook."
The little girl gave him a huff, seemingly forgiving him but not saying it outright, only mentioning it before leaving.
"I'll come find you again tomorrow."
"I'll be waiting for you at home."
Lynn waved to her retreating figure, watching the little girl's steps become lighter and lighter as she got further away from him, and couldn't help but smile knowingly.
Little girls are so easy to fool (scratch that), so cute.
Having resolved this crisis, Lynn finally breathed a sigh of relief and turned back home.
This mishap was purely accidental; if he hadn't been trapped in Abrose for two days and hadn't returned before Snape arrived, he wouldn't have been in this predicament.
He packed the luggage he brought back from Hogwarts, prepared his first-year textbooks, and prepared them for Hermione tomorrow.
At dinner, he told Umaru and Kira that he was going out tomorrow and asked them to stay home and look after the house.
Lynn had been excitedly preparing to take the little girl to Diagon Alley tomorrow to broaden her horizons.
Unfortunately, when the next day arrived, he was stood up.
"Dad suddenly said last night that he's taking us to Paris this week," Hermione explained.
"He and his mother just can't accept the magic thing; they need to go out and clear their heads."
"Alright." Lynn, having suffered his
just desserts, could only wave his hand magnanimously. "We can go to Diagon Alley anytime; a few more days won't make a difference." Indeed, a few more days wouldn't matter. This week was perfect for Lynn to go to Professor Fox's house in England and retrieve his dark magic research materials.
Lynn had been envious of large-scale dark magic releases for a long time.
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