Volume 5: The Burning Golden Flame Chapter 380: An Early Christmas Gift
Asia left the castle in a daze.
She was like a body that had lost its soul. She didn't know what she should do or what she could do.
The look that Floyd gave her yesterday made Asia clearly see her future destiny. She was sure that Floyd heard what Flint said to her.
No woman could tolerate her fiancé making such remarks about other women, let alone a jealous Freud.
She came to the Black Lake. It was still class time and there were not many students skating in the lake. Asia's arrival did not attract anyone's attention.
She walked along the lawn, around the Quidditch pitch, and arrived at the place where she and Hermione often met.
Asia sat there hugging her knees, staring blankly at the place on the ground that was obviously different from the rest of the land, with brand new soil.
That was yesterday when Hermione was digging out the herbs, and she helped to fill it up again. Hermione also reminded her to bury it firmly to prevent the snow from melting and water from seeping in and leaving another hole here.
Yesterday's experience is still vivid in her mind, but to Asia now it seems as if a century has passed.
She had no intention of asking Hermione to protect her. Even if they could become the masters of the castle again in the future, the order in the castle still continued to operate according to the rules set by the headmaster.
Hermione could protect her outside the castle where no one else could notice her, but she was out of reach inside the castle.
If she kept praying, she believed that Hermione would eventually find a solution for her. However, even if there was a solution, it would inevitably involve great risks.
Axia didn't want to see that kind of result. She would rather sacrifice herself to find out about this matter than let it involve more people, whether it was her parents or Hermione, who was now her only friend.
She sat here from morning until noon, and just after lunch, Hermione's voice sounded behind her.
"Asia?"
Asia didn't look back immediately. She simply adjusted the expression on her face and showed the same gentle smile that she used every time she came to meet Hermione.
"Good afternoon, Hermione."
The sunlight shone on her, and her light golden hair reflected a faint halo, making the girl look so beautiful.
"Why did you come so early today?"
Hermione seemed to be deceived by Asia 's disguise and did not notice anything wrong with her. She sat next to Asia with a small basket used to temporarily store herbs in her hand.
"I don't have anything to do in the castle, so I'll just sit here."
"We can meet in the castle on Christmas." Hermione leaned on the grass with both hands, raised her head and looked at the blue sky, and a smile appeared unconsciously on the corner of her mouth. "We were still talking about this yesterday before we separated, but he asked me in the evening."
Asiya's face froze.
"Have you found a partner? Who is it?"
"Just as I told you yesterday, who else could it be? Last night he called me to the driver's seat in front of the carriage and talked a lot. In the end, he managed to find a somewhat romantic excuse to invite me. I thought he would say, 'Hey, Hermione, you must be free on Christmas night, right? Why don't we team up and go to the hall to dance together?' It turned out that he was much better than I thought."
Asia was dazed and picking at her robe with her fingers. For some reason, when she saw the expression on Hermione's face when she said this , she felt a surge of envy or even jealousy in her heart.
But she quickly shook this strange feeling out of her mind and gave her blessings from the bottom of her heart.
"Congratulations, Hermione."
"What about you? Asia must be very popular in the castle, right? Have you promised to dance at the ball? Then we have to pretend that we are meeting for the first time."
Hearing this question, Asia's nose couldn't help but feel a little sour. She lowered her head, not letting Hermione see her face, and forced a smile.
"Many people invited me, but I didn't accept any of them. You know, I'm afraid of dealing with strangers and I can't dance."
"Then if I invite Asia to dance, will you accept?"
Hermione's eyes curved into crescent shapes and she looked into Asia's eyes with a smile.
Asia had been acting a little dazed today, and when she heard Hermione's words she was a little absent-minded for a moment.
"You, don't you have a dance partner?"
"Jon will definitely only dance the opening lead dance at most, and the rest of the time can of course be at my own disposal."
Asia felt tears welling up in her eyes, but she finally held them back and shook her head in rejection.
"Forget it. I might not even go to the auditorium on the day of the dance."
Hermione looked at her and blinked. She didn't ask why. Instead, she remained silent for two seconds, as if giving Asia time to think, before she asked.
"Don't you have anything you want to tell me today?"
Asia was stared at by her and subconsciously avoided her eyes in panic. She answered without any hesitation.
"No. Why do you ask?"
"Because you seem a little weird today."
"I was just thinking of an early Christmas present for you."
When Asia said this, she seemed to have made up her mind. She solemnly took off the bracelet that she had always worn on her wrist and handed it to Hermione.
"I told you that this was my birthday present from my mother, and it is the most precious thing I have ever had. I can see that you like it very much, Hermione, so I gave it to you as a Christmas present. You must keep it well."
Hermione didn't show any strange expression towards Asia's sudden gift. She slowly took the bracelet.
"Christmas is still two weeks away. Even if you want to give me a Christmas present, why do you have to do it so early?"
A smile also appeared on Asia's face.
"Because this bracelet is the most precious thing in my possession. I want to give it to you, but I'm afraid I'll regret it by Christmas. So I'd rather give it to you now, before I regret it."
After saying this, she seemed to have completely let go of a worry, and immediately stood up from the grass and prepared to return to the castle.
"I have to go back. Since there is no Christmas holiday, the professors have added a lot of homework these days. I probably won't have time to visit you later, so don't worry if you don't see me for a few days. I'll be working on my homework in the library."
Her smile was gentle and sunny. She was telling Hermione about the beauty of her campus life, so that her only friend would not have to worry about her, as she would most likely never show up again.
Hermione also stood up from the grass. She didn't say anything at first when she saw Asia's smile, but when the girl was about to leave, she called her.
"Wait for me here first. It will only take five minutes. You can leave when I come back."
She gave instructions to Asia, then turned around and trotted towards the direction of the carriage. Her long chestnut hair danced among the snow-covered woods, like an elf active in the world.
Asia did not take advantage of this time to leave. She knew very well that this would probably be the last time she would meet Hermione. Even though she had made up her mind, she was still reluctant to leave.
Hermione didn't make her wait long, not even five minutes, before she ran back.
"Since you've already given me your Christmas present in advance, I won't wait until Christmas Day to give it to you. Take this, just like the bracelet you gave me, I will always wear it, and you should also always carry it with you, and don't let anyone else see it. This thing is considered contraband in the castle, so you must keep it well."
Asia looked at the scarlet feather that Hermione handed to her, and didn't recognize what it was.
But she didn't care how valuable the feather was. As long as it was given to her by Hermione, she would keep it with her forever.
Just like Hermione did with her bracelet without hesitation, Asia did not hesitate at all when accepting the feather. She put the feather into the inner pocket of her robe and said seriously.
"I will always carry it with me, always!"
After making the promise, she did not stay any longer. She waved to Hermione and trotted away in the direction of Hogwarts Castle.
"Goodbye, Hermione."
Hermione also waved at the girl's back. She was already wearing the white bracelet on her hand. The sound was very soft, as if she was blessing the wind that was drifting away.
"Goodbye, Asia."
…
For two whole days, Asia was at peace.
Just like the expression that Floyd left on her before was actually an illusion, the so-called revenge was just her overthinking. No matter how great the hatred between students was, it would never involve human lives.
However, in the evening of the same day when Asia had such a lucky thought in her mind, when she was about to go to the auditorium for lunch, she was knocked unconscious by someone behind her with a stun spell.
She has been very careful these days. Even though she doesn't have many friends at school, she will always stay close to her classmates whenever she leaves the dormitory to go out.
But even so, that evening Asia was attacked and dragged away by Floyd and his gang in front of two female classmates around her.
Before leaving, Floyd left only one sentence with a gloomy face.
"If anyone asks, you'd better say that you didn't see her this afternoon. Otherwise, you should know the consequences."
The two pure-blood girls just looked at her in fear, not knowing whether to nod or shake their heads.
Floyd seemed not to care about their reactions at all. After making the threats, she left with her two men who were holding Asia's arms.
When Asia woke up, she found herself being taken to an abandoned Potions classroom.
Although the tables, chairs and benches were scattered here in a disorderly manner, there were obvious signs that they had been tidied up before. Freud had planned it long ago, and the calmness of the past few days was just her preparation.
"I've given you plenty of chances, Conrad."
Floyd's face was frighteningly calm. She was holding a bottle of blood-red potion in her hand, and was pouring the blood-like liquid in the bottle onto the ground while talking to Asia.
Asia's body was controlled by a binding spell and was placed in the middle of the classroom. There were many strange magic runes around her.
"You are so slippery. You have escaped from my hands many times before. But this also gave me time to prepare. Without these preparations, the chance of success of directly cursing you would be too small. Now the chance of success has increased by at least 30%. This is great, right? It is the fate you choose to bear."
Even though he was mentally prepared, when he actually had to face such a scene, Asia's face still turned pale and ashen.
"You heard it that day, Miss Floyd, I said no, I didn't want to do it, I didn't..."
"I never said it was your fault, Conrad. I said you were not wrong, I was not wrong, Flint was not wrong, no one was wrong, but now something went wrong, so there's no point in looking for someone's fault. We can just deal with the problem itself."
The red liquid soaked the magic runes carved on the ground. Floyd looked up at Asia calmly.
"We all want to solve this problem, so you should be happy to help me. As long as you solve your problem and Flint will no longer be fascinated by you, it will benefit all of us, right? And all you have to pay is to become a blood-cursed orc."
Hearing the term "blood-cursed orcs", Asia's pupils shrank noticeably.
After hearing about this curse for the first time from Freud, she searched for a lot of information in the library and learned what effect this vicious curse had.
It can be said that if she were to bear this kind of thing, she would rather die!
"Bang!"
Floyd threw away the empty potion bottle in her hand, raised the wand in her hand, and pointed the tip of the wand at Asia's forehead.
"You don't have to sacrifice your life. As long as you become that kind of monster, Flint will definitely not spend his time on you anymore. He will love me wholeheartedly. This is such a perfect solution, right, Miss Conrad!"
