In the Harry Potter Without Harry Potter

Chapter 381: Early Christmas Present (2 in 1)

Assia left the Castle in a daze.

She was like a shell that had lost its soul, not knowing what she was supposed to do or what she could do.

The look that Floyd had given her yesterday had shown Assia a clear picture of her future fate, and she was sure that Floyd had heard what Flint had said to her.

No woman, let alone the jealous Floyd, could tolerate the idea that her fianc making such remarks to another woman.

She made her way to the Black Lake; it was still school time and there weren't many students skating in the lake for leisure, so Assia's arrival drew little to no attention.

Walking along the lawn and around the Quidditch pitch, she made her way to the spot where she and Hermione often met.

It was here that Assia sat with her knees in her arms, staring blankly at the ground that was clearly different from the rest of the land, with a patch of fresh dirt.

It had been filled in yesterday while Hermione had been digging out the herbs, and she had even told her to fill it in firmly so that it wouldn't leave another hole behind when the snow melted and water seeped in.

Yesterday's experience was still fresh in her mind, but for Assia now it was as if a century had elapsed.

She had no intention of asking Hermione to protect her; even if they might indeed become owners of the castle again in the future, for now, the order in the Castle continued to function according to the rules set by the Headmaster.

Hermione could protect her outside the Castle where no one else would notice, but inside the Castle, there was little she could do.

If she asked for help, she was sure that eventually, Hermione would find a way to help her, but in the end, even if she did, it would be at great risk.

Assia didn't want to see that happen, and she would rather sacrifice herself to get this thing straightened out than have it involve any more people, whether it was her own parents or Hermione, who right now is her only friend.

She just sat there from morning until noon, just after lunchtime, Hermione's voice sounded behind her.

"Assia?"

Assia didn't turn around at first, she briefly straightened up her facial expression and put back on the same soft smile that she had worn every time she had come to meet Hermione before.

"Good afternoon, Hermione."

The sun shone down on her, her pale blonde hair reflecting a faint halo of light that made the girl look as gorgeous as she was.

"What brings you here so early today?"

Hermione looked as if she had been tricked by Assia's disguised faade and didn't notice anything wrong with her, sitting down next to Assia with the small basket in her hand that she had used to temporarily store herbs.

"I have nothing to do in the Castle, so I am just sitting here casually."

"We can meet at the Castle on Christmas Day." Hermione propped her hands on the grass and raised her head to look up at the azure sky, an involuntary smile tugging at the corners of her mouth, "We were talking about it yesterday before we parted ways, and he ended up asking me at the same night."

Assia's expression staggered.

"You've found a dance partner? Who was it?"

"The same one I told you about yesterday, who else could it be, last night he called me into the driver's seat at the front of the wagon to talk about it and finally managed to find a somewhat romantic excuse to extend an invitation, I was expecting him to say something like, 'Hey Hermione, you must have nothing to do on Christmas night too, right? Why don't we go and dance together in the great hall?' Turns out he was a lot better than I thought he would be."

Assia froze, her fingers tugging at her robes, and for some reason, when she saw the look on Hermione's face as she said this, a wave of envy or arguably some small jealousy rose up in her heart for no apparent reason.

But soon she shook this strange feeling out of her mind and blessed her from the bottom of her heart.

"That's lovely, congratulations, Hermione."

"And you? Assia must be very popular at the Castle, right? Have you promised anyone that you will dance at the Ball then? We'll have to pretend then, just as if we were meeting for the first time."

Assia's nose couldn't help but tingle a little at the question, and she forced a smile as she kept her head down, not letting Hermione see her face.

"I've been asked by many people, but I haven't accepted, you know, I'm rather scared of dealing with strangers and I can't dance."

"So when the time comes, if I invite Assia to a dance, will you accept it?"

Hermione's eyes curved into a crescent, and she smiled as she looked into Assia's eyes.

Assia had been acting a little dumb today, and she was even more lost in thought for a moment when she heard Hermione's words.

"You, don't you have a date for the dance?"

"Jon, he will most certainly only do one opening lead dance at most, the rest of the time I can certainly do as I please."

Assia felt tears welling up in her eyes, but eventually, she managed to hold them back and shook her head in refusal.

"Well, forget it, I might not even be able to go to the great hall on the day of the ball."

Hermione looked at her and blinked, not bothering to ask why, but instead after two seconds of silence like she was giving Assia time to think before she spoke up and asked.

"Don't you have anything you want to say to me today?"

Assia's eyes subconsciously averted in panic as she was held in such a gaze, she replied without half a moment's hesitation.

"No. Why would you ask that?"

"Because it feels like you're acting a little weird today."

"I was just thinking about what to get you for an early Christmas present."

As Assia said this, as if she had made up her mind about something, she took off the string she always wore on her wrist with a solemn look on her face and handed it to Hermione.

"As I told you, it was a birthday present from my mother to me when I was little, and it's the most precious thing I've always had. I can tell you like it very much Hermione, so I'm giving it to you as a Christmas present, you must take care of it."

Hermione didn't show much surprise at this sudden gift from Assia as she slowly accepted the string.

"It's still two weeks before Christmas, even if you're going to give me a Christmas present why do you have to give it so many days in advance?"

Assia had a smile on her face in return.

"Because the most valuable thing I have on me is this string, and I wanted to give it to you, but I was afraid that I would regret it by Christmas, so I simply gave it away now, before I could regret it."

With that, as if she had completely let go of a matter of the heart, she instantly got up from the grass and prepared to return to the castle.

"I'm going back; because there are no additional holidays for Christmas, the professors have added a lot of after-school work these days, so I probably won't have much time to come and see you later, so don't worry too much if you don't see me for many days, I'll be in the library catching up on my assignments."

Her smile was soft and sunny, telling Hermione about the bright life she had on campus so that this only friend of hers wouldn't worry over the fact that she would most likely never be seen again afterwards.

Hermione stood up from the grass as well, she didn't say anything as she looked at Assia's smile for a moment, she just called out to the girl as she was about to leave.

"Wait here for me, just for five minutes, and then you can go when I come back."

She bade Assia, then turned her head and trotted in the direction of the wagon, her long chestnut hair skipping along through the snow-covered trees like an elf in the world.

Assia didn't take this time to leave, she knew in her heart that this was probably the last time she would see Hermione, and even though she had made up her mind, she was still bound to be sad to part with her life.

And Hermione really didn't keep her waiting for long, not even five minutes before she was back running again.

"Now that you've given me your Christmas present early, I won't hold it off until Christmas Day. Take this, just like the string you gave me, which I will carry with me all the time, you must also keep it on you at all times and then don't let anyone else see it, it is considered a forbidden item in the castle, so you must treasure it."

Assia looked at the crimson feather that was handed to her by Hermione and didn't recognise what it really was.

But she didn't care what kind of value the feather had, as long as it was given to her by Hermione, she would always carry it with her.

Just as Hermione had not hesitated to accept her string, neither did Assia hesitate to accept the feather, placing it in the inner pocket of her robe with a serious look on her face.

"I will always carry it with me, always!"

After making her promise, she didn't stay any longer and waved at Hermione before trotting off in the direction of Hogwarts Castle.

"Bye, Hermione."

Hermione waved back at the girl's back, the white string already on her hand, her voice soft as if she were blessing the wind that was wafting away.

"Goodbye, Assia."

For two whole days, Assia was at peace with herself.

It was as if the look Floyd had left her with earlier was actually an illusion, that the so-called revenge was all in her head, and that even the greatest hatred between students could not possibly involve human life.

However, on the evening of the same day that Assia's mind started believing such a stroke of luck, she was about to go to get lunch in the great hall when she was knocked unconscious from behind with a stunning spell.

She had been very careful these days, even though she had no friends at school, but whenever she left her dormitory she would stay close to her classmates.

But even so, that evening Assia was attacked and dragged away by Floyd's group in front of two female students around her.

Before leaving, Floyd's face was grim and she left only one comment.

"If anyone asks, you'd better tell them you didn't see her at all this afternoon, or you'll know the consequences."

The two pureblood girls just looked at her in dread, not knowing whether to nod or shake their heads.

Floyd, however, looked like she didn't care how they would actually react, and after saying her threatening words, she left with her two goons who were holding Assia's arms.

When Assia woke up, she realised that she had been taken to an abandoned Potions classroom.

The place was cluttered with tables, chairs and benches, but there were obvious signs that it had been tidied up before; Floyd had been premeditating this for a long time, and the calmness of these days was just her doing some preparatory work.

"I've given you plenty of chances, Konrad."

Floyd's face was frighteningly calm, she held a vial of blood-red potion in her hand and was pouring the blood-like liquid from the vial onto the floor as she spoke to Assia.

Assia, her body restrained by an Incarcerous Spell, and positioned right in the middle of the classroom, with a number of bizarre runes and symbols surrounding her.

"You're a slippery one, you've escaped from me many times before, but that's what gave me time to prepare, without these preparations the chances of success in casting the curse directly on you would have been too small and too slim, now there's at least a thirty percent increased chance of success, which is great, isn't it, a fate you chose to suffer. "

Even though she had been prepared, Assia's face still showed a deathly pallor when she actually had to face such a situation.

"You heard me the other day, Miss Floyd, I have refused, I didn't ask for anything of that nature, I didn't-"

"I never said it was your fault, Konrad. I said it, you're not at fault, I'm not at fault, Flint he's even less at fault, no one's at fault, but now it's gone horribly wrong, so there's no point in finding out whose fault it is, we can just get rid of the problem itself."

The red liquid soaked through the magic runes and symbols that had been carved out of the ground and Floyd looked down calmly at Assia.

"We all want to solve this problem, so you should be happy to do me this favour, just get rid of this problem you have so that Flint will never be obsessed with you again, that would be good for all of us, wouldn't it? And all you have to pay for is simply becoming a blood-cursed Maledictus."

At the sound of the term blood-cursed Maledictus, the pupils in Assia's eyes visibly contracted for a moment.

After hearing this curse for the first time from Floyd's mouth, she looked up a lot of information in the library and knew what kind of effect this vicious curse had.

It could be said that if she had to bear such a thing, then she would rather die!

"Bang!"

Floyd dropped the already empty potion vial in her hand and raised the wand in her hand as she aimed the tip of it at Assia's forehead.

"Without you having to give your life, once you become that kind of freak, then surely Flint won't have his mind set on you anymore, he'll love me with all his heart, what a perfect solution, isn't it, Miss Konrad!"

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