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"Loony Luna?"
The moment Ron saw the girl, he blurted it out.
Hermione frowned slightly when she heard what he called her.
"I don't think giving people nicknames is funny."
"No, it wasn't me. That's what everyone in Ravenclaw calls her."
Ron hurried to explain.
He did not want to leave Dudley with the bad impression that he liked giving people nicknames.
"Hello, little Ravenclaw witch."
Dudley stepped forward and greeted her.
The girl seemed somewhat distracted, as if her mind was somewhere else.
Only when she heard Dudley's voice did she wake as if from a dream.
"Hello, Mr. Dursley."
The little witch responded politely in a soft voice.
Her voice sounded like a dreamy murmur, as if she were sleepwalking.
Dudley's fame at Hogwarts was no less than Dumbledore's.
You might not know who a certain professor was, but you definitely could not fail to know the head of the disciplinary group.
Dudley noticed that she was wearing a pair of radish-shaped earrings and a necklace made from butterbeer corks.
Combined with the aura she gave off, it made her look rather eccentric.
"What's your name?"
"Luna. Luna Lovegood."
Lovegood.
The editor of that shady little newspaper that did not pay for manuscripts also had that surname.
"It's already quite late. What are you doing here instead of sleeping in your dormitory?"
Dudley asked.
Luna answered without even thinking.
"I'm looking for Crumple-Horned Snorkacks. I heard their voices. Have you seen any?"
"What are those?"
Neville was stunned.
He was also quite good at Care of Magical Creatures, but he had never heard that name before.
Could it be some new kind of magical creature?
"A creature not yet recognized by the wizarding world... supposedly, they live in Sweden."
Hermione, the walking encyclopedia, explained.
Her gaze toward Luna became somewhat complicated.
"Most wizards don't believe they exist."
"They exist."
Luna spoke in an extremely firm tone, as if she had seen one before.
"An unverified creature. I can't judge whether they exist or not."
Hermione shook her head and did not intend to get too involved in that issue.
Whether they existed or not did not have much to do with her.
She was not some fanatic for magical creatures.
"And your shoes?"
Dudley pointed at Luna's feet and asked.
The floors of Hogwarts did not have built-in heating, much less adjust their temperature automatically.
Recently, the weather had gradually been getting colder, and the floors had also grown colder and colder with the drop in temperature.
Especially at night, it was like stepping on "eternal frozen ground."
As a result, Luna's already pale feet were so cold they had turned purplish. Without realizing it, she kept them overlapped and curled up.
"They often disappear for no reason. I think they must have been hidden by some pixies living secretly in Hogwarts."
Even with her feet trembling from the cold, Luna's voice still sounded optimistic.
"I don't think it was some pixies."
Hearing that, Hermione closed her book.
Her expression also became serious.
Luna's words reminded Hermione of what she herself had suffered the previous year.
After such a short time, the students were already doing these things again?
Hiding someone else's shoes.
Did they really think doing that was fun?
"Going barefoot on the floor for too long can have some bad effects on the body. Even potions might not be able to fully heal the damage."
As she spoke, Hermione took off her own shoes and handed them to Luna.
"Your feet seem to be about the same size as mine. Wear these shoes for now. When you find yours, you can return them to me."
Harry, standing beside them, widened his eyes.
That pair was Hermione's favorite.
A gift Dudley had given her.
"Thank you."
Luna thanked her sincerely.
But she refused politely.
"But if you give me your shoes, your own feet will get cold."
"It's fine."
Hermione shook her head.
Then she patted Dudley.
"I don't think I'll be cold."
Luna looked at Dudley thoughtfully.
This time, however, she did not refuse.
After putting on the shoes, Luna was persuaded by everyone to return to her dormitory.
Dudley crossed his arms and leaned against the wall.
This time, he did not intend to offer any ideas.
He wanted to see how Hermione and the others would handle it.
First, Malfoy turned his head to everyone and said,
"Obviously, this is another case of harassment."
"We should go with her, catch those tormentors, and make sure they get the punishment they deserve."
Ron said excitedly.
There was even a trace of... enthusiasm in his tone?
Malfoy replied with heavy sarcasm.
"Not to mention that it's already past curfew. You want to break into the Ravenclaw girls' dormitory in the middle of the night? Brilliant. That really is a genius idea."
"I don't want to become famous tomorrow as the Wolf of Hogwarts, like you."
His tone and posture had clearly absorbed Snape's essence.
As expected of Snape's second-favorite student.
Ron's face turned red with anger.
With that red hair of his, it looked like his head was on fire.
He started shouting that he wanted to duel Malfoy.
After trying to hold him back for a while, Harry simply let him go.
He even pulled over a small stool and sat down to watch the duel between the two of them.
Of course, that duel definitely would not happen.
Hermione spoke at that moment.
"If you want to catch a thief, you need proof. If they say Luna lost the shoes herself, how are you going to explain it?"
As long as they were not caught in the act, there was plenty of room to maneuver.
If they insisted to the end that Luna had lost the shoes on her own, even if everyone knew they were tormenting her, what good would that do?
What could you do?
"If we want to punish them, we need proof. Otherwise, why would anyone accept it?"
"Then what do we do?"
Ron was a little dumbfounded.
It seemed he had been too naive.
"Proof... we'll probably have it in a day or two."
Hermione laughed softly as she said this, full of confidence.
...
Ravenclaw common room.
Luna, who had returned from her nighttime wandering, went back to her bed wearing the shoes.
Since that pair was not hers, she could not take them off.
If they disappeared again, she would have no way to return them.
In truth, Luna merely seemed distracted and eccentric.
In reality, she was smarter than most students.
It was just that her natural personality was like that.
She was not someone who liked arguing too much with others.
But some things do not stop happening just because you do not argue.
That did not mean others would leave you alone.
Sometimes, they might even think you were weak and easy to push around, pushing further and becoming worse each time.
When someone was being oppressed, they needed to learn to resist.
Feeling the subtle warmth coming from inside the shoes, Luna's heart warmed.
What Luna did not know was that after she fell into a peaceful sleep, the other girls in the same dormitory woke up.
They gathered together and began whispering about something.
In a girls' dormitory with four people, it was perfectly normal for five or six little groups to appear.
This was another form of exclusion.
"Look at that. That crazy girl got another pair of shoes from who knows where. And they're really pretty."
For a pair to have been chosen by Dudley as a gift for Hermione, the style was naturally top-tier.
"They look a little familiar..."
One of the little witches spoke with some hesitation.
But her voice was too low and did not attract the others' attention.
"What makes her deserve those?"
Another girl said, full of envy.
Soon after, the others agreed.
"Let's hide them again. I want to see how many pairs of shoes she has."
How could something like the disappearance of her shoes have been done by people from another dormitory?
Who would keep visiting someone else's dormitory just to check whether their shoes were there or not?
It could only be someone from the same dormitory.
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