Lynn's voice remained unchanged, as deep and flat as a quiet underground cave.
Professor McGonagall pursed her lips and looked at Lynn seriously. "Because you pointed out beforehand that the monster in the Chamber of Secrets was a Basilisk, which made Miss Granger aware enough to use a mirror to look around corners."
"Because of that, she was only Petrified instead of losing her life. I think for that alone, you certainly deserve to be thanked."
Lynn was silent for a moment, saying nothing. Was it really okay for their requirements of her to be so low?
She should hold herself to high standards and strict requirements.
While Lynn was still thinking silently, Professor McGonagall smiled and bid the four students goodnight.
"Alright, everyone go back and get some rest. Miss Lynn, I will come to get you tomorrow morning."
"Alright. Thank you, Professor McGonagall. Sorry for the trouble, Professor."
Lynn replied with mechanical politeness. After Maranhao and the others also said goodbye to Professor McGonagall, they headed back to Ravenclaw Tower together.
Back at Ravenclaw Tower, almost all the Little Eagles were gathered in the common room. Their eyes lit up when they saw Lynn and the others return, and they swarmed forward.
"Lynn, how was it? What animal did you turn into?"
"It must be very elegant!"
"It must be beautiful!"
The Little Eagles chattered away. They had all known for a long time that Lynn was practicing the Animagus transformation.
After all, keeping a Mandrake leaf in one's mouth was far too obvious in daily life.
And they all took it for granted that Lynn would succeed.
Come on, this was Lynn.
She was recognized by the Ravenclaw students as the most Ravenclaw of all Ravenclaws.
Her excellence was known throughout the school. In the eyes of the Little Eagles, Lynn failing or making a mistake? Impossible.
"The animal I turn into is a Deinonychus."
Lynn answered calmly. "Elegant and beautiful—perhaps those adjectives shouldn't be used to describe me."
Those two adjectives had never had anything to do with her. Stupid, a dumb child—those were the descriptions she was familiar with.
As for elegant and beautiful... regarding those two words with clear definitions in the dictionary, she didn't think she fit them.
Or rather, someone had explicitly told her she didn't fit them.
A long time ago, when she first started losing her baby teeth, little Lynn stood in front of the mirror, looking at the gap in her gums.
When her mother saw this, she casually raised the television remote in her hand and "smack"—hit her on the arm.
She even cursed, "What are you looking at? What's so good about losing a tooth? You really are a dumb child."
"You'd be better off spending this time studying more. You've loved looking in the mirror since you were little; you'll be vain to death when you grow up."
"Look at yourself—do you even have the capital to be beautiful? Not pretty at all, no grace either. Go back to your room and study."
Little Lynn raised her hand to rub her eyes, her chubby little hand covering her arm as she edged along the wall back to her room.
As she passed her mother, her mother had just finished applying a face mask and was happily putting on another one with different effects... Lynn indifferently pushed the emerging memory to the back of her mind and continued answering her classmates' curious questions.
They were all Ravenclaws; after their initial gossip-mongering, their thirst for knowledge took over.
The Little Eagles who were good at Transfiguration asked Lynn about the details of her Animagus transformation, precautions to take, how it felt, and so on.
Lynn answered everything in detail; there wasn't a single question she couldn't answer.
Relying on her memory, Lynn remembered every detail from the start of her Animagus practice to today's success clearly.
Once everyone's curiosity was satisfied, the Little Eagles went back to their own business.
Some Little Eagles pestered Maranhao and the other two, wanting them to tell the detailed story of Lynn's transformation tonight.
Seeing that Lynn didn't intend to stop them, Maranhao and the others complied with the Little Eagles' curiosity and began telling the "story."
Lynn, no longer surrounded by Little Eagles, blinked and turned to return to her Dormitory.
"Senior Lynn."
An ethereal, distant voice sounded behind her. Lynn turned around and saw Luna standing there with a faint smile.
"Luna, good evening."
"The thing you're dragging behind you... it's much smaller."
Luna reached out as if in a daze, pointing behind Lynn.
Lynn looked back and shook her head, just as she had at the start of the school year. "I'm not dragging anything."
Her misty eyes fixed on Lynn, Luna gave a light chuckle. "Thank you."
"Why are you thanking me?"
Lynn didn't think Luna had anything to thank her for. She had asked her some academic questions before...
...but she had thanked her on the spot. There was no need to express gratitude again now.
"A Thestral among a herd of Unicorns should have been rejected, but now it isn't. So, I want to say thank you to Senior Lynn."
Luna's words were still hard to understand, but Lynn could judge from the context that she was using a metaphor.
The Unicorns referred to everyone in Ravenclaw or Hogwarts, and the Thestral referred to Luna herself; this was the most logical and likely explanation.
Lynn quickly reached a conclusion, but why a Thestral being comfortable among a herd of Unicorns required thanking her—she couldn't find an answer to that.
Luna smiled gently and stepped forward to give her a hug. "Maybe Senior Lynn could try letting go of the things you're dragging. Senior Granger, Senior Maranhao, everyone in Ravenclaw, including me, would be willing to help you."
"I really hope you can get rid of them soon."
Releasing Lynn, Luna walked away in a daze, just as she had come.
Lynn watched her back with a flat gaze, her brain once again concluding that she wasn't dragging anything.
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