This time, Pansy decided not to yield to Malfoy. She had put in a lot of effort this semester and taken her studies seriously.
"As long as I review a little before the end of the term, I won't come begging you," Pansy thought to herself, then went alone to the fourth floor of the castle. Hogwarts Library was located there, and she planned to find a quiet place to study. She intended to impress Malfoy after her end-of-term grades came out.
With a "thud," Pansy felt like she had suddenly been hit by something, and her body tilted forward, on the verge of falling to the ground.
She had been lingering in front of an old, dilapidated bookshelf, tilting her head and carefully examining it. Only a few old books were placed on it, and the covers were almost all dog-eared. The parchment that had been turned up was turning a brownish-yellow color, symbolizing the passage of time.
Just as she reached out to take one of them, she felt her body being suddenly bumped. Losing her balance unexpectedly, she could only grab one of the shelves to steady herself. But something even more unexpected happened. Perhaps due to years of disrepair and lack of maintenance, coupled with the fact that there weren't many books on this shelf, Pansy's plan to use it to steady herself failed. Instead, she knocked the entire bookshelf over.
With a "crash," the entire bookshelf fell to the ground, kicking up clouds of dust, causing Pansy to hurriedly cover her mouth and nose. She was now very depressed, looking at the mess in front of her. She knew she definitely couldn't escape now.
Because she had already heard the librarian's footsteps. Madam Pince, who was in charge of managing the library, was rushing towards here.
"Clean this up and put it back the way it was," Madam Pince said sternly, her wrinkled face full of anger, the wrinkles all squeezed together. In her opinion, even the slightest sound in the library was a desecration of this place, let alone causing such a commotion.
But her authority was limited to this, otherwise she would definitely punish this student properly.
"What bad luck," Pansy muttered softly, reluctantly bending down and laboriously setting the fallen bookshelf upright, then picking up the scattered books and returning them to their original positions.
She did want to use magic to automatically arrange these books, but most of the books in the library had been protected by spells. Daily cleaning was fine, but once it involved moving or transforming magic, it would generate extremely strong resistance.
So she could only use the most primitive method to sort it out.
She was too lazy to argue with this old woman.
Pansy guessed that this was probably Peeves' prank, but without evidence, she could only take the blame.
"Respect the old and cherish the young, respect the old and cherish the young," Pansy repeatedly said to herself in her heart. This was what Malfoy used to tell her often. He said that true nobility did not come from blood, but one's own words and deeds were the best way to prove it, not being bound by certain complicated etiquette, nor immersing oneself in the glory of one's ancestors.
For some vulnerable groups, one should treat them with a tolerant attitude.
In Pansy's heart, this old woman who managed the library had already been classified as a vulnerable group.
Okay, maybe Pansy still couldn't completely agree with and understand this statement from the bottom of her heart, but on the surface, she had already made great progress.
Despite comforting herself like this, Pansy was still very depressed.
However, there was someone even more depressed than Pansy right now, who was secretly observing her from a corner.
That was Hermione.
Hermione was now filled with regret.
Regretting that she had been walking with her head down.
The matter of Sirius Black had finally come to an end, and the truth had come out. The only slight imperfection was that Peter Pettigrew had escaped.
So, taking advantage of a rare free moment, Hermione decided to secretly sneak back into the restricted area wearing the Invisibility Cloak to return "Moste Potente Potions" before she was discovered.
As a frequent visitor to the library, she was already very familiar with the terrain here. Hermione could even say with her eyes closed what type of books were placed on which row of shelves.
Which seat would get more light when the weather was good.
If it were usual, Hermione could easily reach her destination without even looking at the road, but today was extremely unlucky. She bumped into someone and even caused that innocent student to be scolded.
The only thing Hermione was somewhat grateful for was that neither Pansy nor Madam Pince had discovered her, and the Invisibility Cloak was still covering her well.
She could only curl up in a corner and watch quietly. Even though her heart was burning with anxiety, she could only wait for Pansy to sort out all the books before she could come out.
Because Hermione realized that the "Moste Potente Potions" she wanted to return had disappeared without a trace. Without a doubt, it had been mixed into the pile of scattered books on the ground during the collision just now.
Hermione was now constantly praying in her heart, hoping that Pansy could quickly sort out everything, and then she could find the book and return it to the restricted area.
But perhaps the more you fear something, the more likely it is to happen.
Madam Pince saw that this female student was still able to correct her mistakes, so she went to patrol other places, while Pansy continued to do the restoration work, sighing from time to time.
As the books gradually returned to their original places, Pansy almost instantly noticed this thick, seemingly moldy book.
"Huh, I remember there wasn't this book on the shelf just now," Pansy muttered to herself, gently picking up the book, flipping through it with some doubt.
After only looking at a few pages, Pansy felt a churning in her stomach.
The watermark-covered pages were filled with uncomfortable illustrations: a person seemed to be turned inside out, and a witch had many arms sprouting from her head.
Pansy almost immediately closed the book, covering her heaving chest, looking at the cover of the book with suspicion and uncertainty.
Hermione was observing Pansy from a distance, and when she saw her close the book, she couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. She was really afraid that if Pansy became interested in it and took the book away, she wouldn't know how to deal with it. But it seemed that she was frightened by the illustrations in the book.
When Hermione, Harry, and Ron were researching Polyjuice Potion, they were also affected by these terrifying illustrations and felt nauseous for a while.
"'Moste Potente Potions'?" Pansy stared at the cover and whispered the name of the book.
Just when Hermione thought that Pansy had been frightened and lost interest in the book, something unexpected happened again.
"He bullies me, but now even a broken book dares to bully me?" Pansy said angrily, muttering to herself in a low voice, then put her hand on the pages again and started flipping through them.
For more chapters
patreon.com/Jackssparrow