The atmosphere in the Slytherin common room was exceptionally tense.
Quite a few students were trying to push aside the people standing in front of them, while others already had their wands in hand, eager to teach the intruder in their common room a lesson.
Cody Avery and several of the older students were doing their best to maintain order and keep the common room from descending into chaos.
If a fight broke out, there would only be two possible outcomes. Either the intruder and the Slytherin students would all be carried out together, or the Slytherin students would be carried out while the intruder was expelled from school.
No matter how you looked at it, it was a losing proposition.
And what if, just what if, they pushed her too far and she snapped? If she went on a rampage before the professors arrived, how many promising Slytherins would be lost?
Rushing her all at once might feel satisfying, but the consequences were unacceptable.
At that moment, Cody Avery wished he could drag Draco Malfoy out and beat him senseless.
Why did you have to go looking for trouble?
If Malfoy had at least gotten the better of the situation, that would have been one thing. But he had gained absolutely nothing. Instead, he had completely humiliated himself by being turned into a ferret by Moody in front of so many students.
Embarrassing himself would have been bad enough, but he had dragged the entire House down with him.
The other three Houses were already saying things like:
"Slytherin? Oh, I know Slytherin. That's the House with the student who got turned into a ferret, right?"
He had disgraced himself. He had disgraced the House. And now the Head Girl had come knocking.
Was Esmeralda Twist someone easy to deal with?
Even when she had no grounds to stand on, she could still stir up trouble. Now she had made her position clear beforehand and she was entirely in the right. There was no way this matter was simply going to blow over.
People always said that an incompetent commander exhausted his entire army.
Draco Malfoy was not even Slytherin's leader, yet he was already exhausting the entire House.
"Making an enemy of an entire House at once won't do you any good, Twist."
Someone in the crowd said it, and it sounded fairly reasonable.
Compared to all of Slytherin, one Malfoy was insignificant. Was she really willing to offend the entire House just to punish him?
"An entire House?" Eda asked. "Are you all planning to use the whole of Slytherin to pressure me?"
She remained seated in the armchair, ignoring the restless crowd.
Someone else in the crowd spoke up.
"Malfoy has already received the punishment he deserved. What exactly are you doing here? Taking the law into your own hands?"
"Taking the law into my own hands?"
Eda suddenly laughed.
She laughed loudly.
"I've been sitting here speaking to you politely, hoping you'd hand over the person who made the mistake. And what have you done? One after another, you've either shouted at me, threatened to kill me, or waved your wands around. Do you really have the conscience to say that?"
Eda suddenly rose to her feet and walked toward one of the loudest troublemakers.
The Slytherin boy was tall enough that she had to tilt her head back to look up at him.
She grabbed his hand and raised it. He was still holding his wand, and when she lifted his arm, the wand tip ended up pressed directly against her forehead.
"My life is in your hands right now," Eda said with a smile. "Moody should have taught you this already, right? You don't know? That's fine, I'll tell you myself. Remember it. The incantation is 'Avada Kedavra.'"
The boy who had just been shouting about killing Eda was instantly terrified.
He did not dare speak.
He did not dare move.
He had never seen anything like this before.
Then again, neither had the other Slytherins in the common room. At the end of the day, they were all just a bunch of sheltered kids.
And the spell Eda had named was the Killing Curse.
People died from that curse.
Even if the caster lacked the magical power to actually kill Eda, anyone who used that curse would spend the rest of their life in Azkaban.
"Why aren't you doing it?" Eda asked, the smile still on her face. "Weren't you just shouting about killing me a moment ago?"
"I know. It must be an awkward angle."
"I'm a very considerate person, you know."
"How about this?"
As she spoke, Eda actually lowered herself down, as though she had truly been defeated by the boy and her life was genuinely in his hands.
"I'll count to three," she continued. "Just three numbers."
"This is your chance to kill Esmeralda Twist."
"Isn't that what you've always wanted?"
"You should seize the opportunity."
"One!"
The boy's hand trembled uncontrollably.
If Eda had not been holding his wrist, he probably would have fled already.
The other students in the common room grew tense as well. They kept swallowing nervously.
A madwoman.
She was completely insane.
"Two!"
Cold sweat dripped down the boy's forehead. He could barely hold onto his wand anymore. It looked as though he would drop it before Eda even reached three.
The rest of the common room did not dare breathe too loudly either, afraid that the slightest noise might provoke him. Some students had even closed their eyes, unable to bear watching any further.
"Three!"
The boy's eyes were red, but he still did nothing.
He could barely remain standing.
He dared to boast about killing Eda, but where would he find the courage to actually do it?
There was a threshold to cross. If you crossed it, you crossed it. If you could not, then you would spend your whole life standing outside the door.
As soon as the word left her mouth, Eda snatched the wand from his hand and slapped him across the face.
The boy had already been unsteady on his feet. The slap sent him sprawling to the floor.
Collapsed on the ground, he looked as though all his strength had drained away.
"She's crazy..."
"She's gone crazy..."
Several people hurried over and helped him back to his feet.
He finally managed to stand, but the instant his eyes met Eda's, he nearly collapsed again.
"Such a waste of that height," Eda said. "As for me, I grew up in an orphanage. Ever since I was little, I've always felt my life wasn't worth much. I used to think I might freeze to death or starve to death any day..."
She paused.
"Forget it. That's all in the past."
Eda returned to her armchair and casually tossed the boy's wand onto the table in front of her.
It was not that she insisted on sitting down to show off her status.
The truth was that her own legs felt a little weak as well.
Although she had kept a firm grip on his hand the entire time, controlled his movements, carefully watched his facial expressions, stayed alert for every reaction, and had her magic running at full force, it would be a lie to say she had not been afraid.
Fortunately, she had gambled correctly.
He had not dared act.
Just as she herself did not dare start slaughtering people at Hogwarts.
"Anyone else want to give it a try? I'm sitting right here!"
As she spoke, Eda swept her gaze around the common room.
Wherever her eyes landed, Slytherin students retreated.
Very quickly, a large empty space appeared in front of her.
"No one?"
"Then next time, don't go around shouting about killing me."
"I'm not very good at taking jokes."
"I might actually believe you."
Eda said it with an almost embarrassed expression, as though she were the one who had done something wrong.
She glanced around the crowd a few more times before asking,
"Where's Draco Malfoy? Has he been hiding this whole time and still won't come out?"
Only then did the Slytherins realize something.
Eda had been causing an uproar in their common room for quite a while now, yet the person at the center of it all had never shown up.
What kind of nonsense was that?
While grumbling about Malfoy, the students also hoped he would not actually appear.
Twist clearly hadn't come with good intentions.
If Malfoy really showed up, who knew what would happen to him?
Twist was a lunatic who didn't care about her own life.
With no other choice, Cody Avery stepped forward once again.
"Twist," he said, "for the next month, Draco Malfoy will be responsible for cleaning the castle. I'll personally supervise him. Is that acceptable?"
This was the solution Avery and several influential Slytherins had discussed among themselves.
They did not dare hand Malfoy over.
Nor did they dare let the situation escalate further.
From beginning to end, Malfoy had been the one at fault.
He had been the one to provoke Potter and Weasley.
He had been the first to draw his wand.
If Moody had not intervened, Potter would have been the one who suffered.
And if Malfoy had actually injured Harry Potter, what do you think Dumbledore would have thought?
Some things did not need to be said aloud.
Everyone understood.
The disturbance at the Quidditch World Cup campsite had happened only days ago.
Now Draco Malfoy had nearly attacked Harry Potter.
What exactly were the pure-blood families trying to do?
As for Eda, who sat there calmly as though nothing could shake her, they did not want to offend her either.
Never mind what Eda herself might do.
The old lady standing behind her was enough.
They simply could not afford to provoke her.
That was someone who truly regarded human lives as worthless.
Compared to angering Dumbledore, Rosier, and Eda...
Who the hell was Lucius Malfoy?
(～￣▽￣)～Read 12 Chapters ahead:
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