Hermione's voice was filled with tears, and she collapsed as if she had suffered from "exhaustion of strength and breath", as if all the bones in her body had been pulled out.
"You scared me to death!"
"Sorry, Hermione. Did you find any clues?" Cyrus said with a smile.
His white hair looked very dazzling, and after absorbing Malfoy's vitality over this period of time, Malfoy's face looked as pale as if it was covered with a layer of flour, especially when he was standing in the dark like now, he looked like a dead body.
But Hermione didn't notice this. After experiencing that moment of fear, she saw Cyrus as if she had seen a life-saving straw, and she started talking incessantly: "I found out, the monster is a basilisk, you wronged Hagrid, it's moving in the pipe, we'd better get a mirror..."
Hermione desperately grasped Cyrus' arms and spoke incoherently.
"Don't be impatient, Hermione. You can take your time." Cyrus patted Hermione on the back to calm her down.
Hermione then told Cyrus everything she had discovered.
"You are really smart, Hermione." Cyrus praised sincerely. It was obvious that Hermione was very pleased with his praise. The little witch sniffed proudly, and her tail was about to rise to the sky.
but,
"But you are wrong about one thing." Cyrus let go of Hermione and took a half step back to distance himself from her.
He seemed to be back in darkness all of a sudden. Although the two of them were only a few steps apart, the light from Hermione's wand separated her from Cyrus.
"Mr. Riddle?"
"I'm not wronging Hagrid, Hermione, you're mistaken."
"But Hagrid he's really not--"
"Of course he's not!" Cyrus interrupted Hermione. The expression on his face began to make Hermione feel unfamiliar. "I said, I didn't wrongly accuse him. To be precise, it was a frame-up."
"But why?"
"To put it simply - I am the heir of Slytherin." Cyrus smiled and explained generously, "I was the one who planned all the attacks in the past two semesters."
"How is this possible?" Hermione wavered, her eyes sparkling with tears.
What Hermione felt at this moment was pain, deception and betrayal!
How could she be willing to believe that "Mr. Riddle", who had been with her for so long, who had stolen Snape's potion materials together and tutored her, was actually the murderer they had been looking for? He even -
Even take a bath with yourself!
"But why? You are also from the Muggle world. Do you think of us as Mudbloods just like Malfoy?" Hermione asked painfully. This time she felt the pain of this word more than before when she was insulted by Malfoy.
"No, I never thought so, but in order to resurrect, there must always be some sacrifice. This is a lesson. I think next time, you should know not to easily believe in a thinking thing." Cyrus said calmly.
"Well, you should go get some sleep Hermione. But don't worry, I won't kill you."
He was like someone trying to coax a child to sleep.
Hermione seemed to realize something. She heard the sound of steel scraping across the ground behind her. The sound was so harsh that she wondered why she hadn't heard it just now. But now, she could only close her eyes desperately and rammed into Cyrus.
Cyrus did not block her way, and let Hermione struggle. She sometimes opened her eyes to confirm her position with the basilisk, but more often she closed her eyes to avoid the basilisk's dim sight like sunset.
The angry basilisk saw its prey moving, and it also sped up, its steel-like scales quickly slashing across the ground, bursting out bright sparks. Its body twisted left and right, knocking down rows of bookshelves, chasing the direction Hermione fled.
Filled with fear, Hermione kept casting spells like a madman. She knew a lot of spells, some of which were taught to her by Cyrus! Thinking of this, Hermione was filled with grief and irony.
But now, I have to protect myself first.
She held the note tightly in one hand and threw spells behind her as she ran.
"Flocks of birds!"
"Snake expulsion!"
"Freezing spell!"
The spells flew from Hermione's wand with a flaming glow, like bright fireworks flashing across a summer night.
However, these spells had almost no effect on the basilisk. The colorful green scales blocked the spells like armor, and could not even slow down the basilisk's advance.
Even the freezing spell, which was powerful enough to cool down the salamander, was no obstacle to the basilisk.
The basilisk was much faster than Hermione, but Hermione was like a nimble little mouse, darting between the densely packed bookshelves. In the narrow space, the basilisk's huge size became an inconvenience.
But Cyrus was patient.
He watched the basilisk force Hermione into a dead end step by step, saw Hermione panic and crawl into the gap between the collapsed bookshelves, and watched the basilisk violently use its tail to smash the obstacles in front of it into pieces...
Now, Hermione finally rushed to the door of the library. As long as she pushed the door open, she could escape from here.
Maybe there was someone else in the corridor, maybe those people could help her, even if they couldn't, at least they could expose Malfoy, no, expose Riddle's ambition. However, when she tried to push the door open with both hands, she found that the door of the library was as if it was welded shut and didn't move at all.
"Alaho hole open!"
"Alaho hole open!"
She was so anxious that she jumped up and down, her voice was distorted, and she desperately poked the door lock with her wand, but the door remained motionless.
"It's useless. I have already cast a counter spell." Cyrus approached her slowly. At this time, Hermione could feel the huge monster approaching from behind. It slowed down, and its body, which was thicker than her waist, blocked the last way of retreat.
Hermione could only turn her head, her back pressed against the wall, her eyelids seemed to be glued together.
She even forgot how to breathe.
The basilisk's smelly and cold breath slapped her cheek.
"Nothing can be done?" Cyrus said jokingly. He picked up the wand and gently tapped it with two fingers.
Hermione felt that her body was out of control, as if many arms had grabbed her, forcefully twisting her joints, and lifting her eyelids...
In the sight, the shadow of the basilisk looked like undulating mountains.
"You disappoint me a little, Hermione." Cyrus couldn't help but remind her, "Remember what I taught you to block the basilisk's sight?"
Hermione did her best and cast a Bubblehead Charm on herself at the last minute.
Then her eyelids were completely opened by Cyrus' magic, and the snake's eyes in the darkness pierced Hermione's soul.
“Bang!”
The bubble burst!
Hermione fell down like a block of iron.
The basilisk wanted to continue attacking, it wanted to tear the man in front of it into pieces, but Cyrus stopped it. The huge monster had no choice but to obey under the magic of the snake language.
The evil expression on Cyrus's face disappeared. He now looked stiff, and walked to Hermione's side without saying a word, and changed her position to a relatively comfortable one. Of course, she couldn't actually feel it.
Then he raised his wand and sent a spark in the direction of the Restricted Section.
The library's alarm was triggered.
Thank you for your 1000 reward to Mingyue Mujixu. Thank you Bao (ω)
(End of this chapter)