Chapter 116, Section 114: This is Motherly Love.
This year's Christmas Eve at Hogwarts was as grand as ever.
Early on, the professors decorated the Great Hall with a festive atmosphere.
Many people stayed to celebrate this year, including Lynn and his two friends, the Weasley brothers, Harry, and others.
A group of students who hadn't gone home, plus several professors who were still elderly and living alone, almost filled a long table.
Harry and Ron, while munching on turkey, looked enviously at Lynn chatting with Cedric and the others.
They were looking at the beautiful scarf around Lynn's neck.
Two weeks before Christmas, they had discovered that Hermione was secretly knitting this scarf.
Harry and Ron had even argued about who she should give it to, eventually agreeing that it was for her father.
This morning, when they were opening their presents, Hermione gave Harry a large chocolate bar and Ron a box of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, and they were quite pleased, thinking they had guessed correctly.
However, after seeing Lynn in the Great Hall, they realized they were terribly wrong.
"I remember a few days before the holidays, I overheard Hermione secretly calling Lynn a jerk," Harry muttered, chewing his chicken listlessly.
Ron's mouth was also greasy from eating.
"I heard Fred and George say that girls seem to like jerk boys."
"You mean Hermione likes Lynn!"
"It's obvious, isn't it? They just haven't realized it themselves."
"But Hermione is usually really nice to us. She helps us with our homework, and she encourages us to eat more so we can grow taller. Last time, she even noticed I'd grown a little taller than when school started and told me to buy clothes a size bigger so they'd last longer. This Christmas, she even gave us candy. How is that any different from how she treats Lynn?"
Ron looked at Harry with a serious expression, though the grease on his face made the scene somewhat comical.
"Harry, I didn't mean to bring up your painful memories, but you've never lived with your parents, so you can't understand what Hermione's behavior towards us is like."
Harry looked blank.
"Like what?"
"Like Mom."
…
After Christmas, Lynn didn't relax during the holidays.
Instead, he became increasingly busy.
The day after Christmas, he summoned Cedric and Ian to their usual empty classroom for practice.
"You've basically mastered the Imperius Charm, so we can move on to the next step."
Lynn placed a large stack of parchment on the desk; these were all research papers for improving the Imperius Charm.
Cedric and Ian exchanged glances; they still didn't understand Lynn's intentions.
Lynn then seemed to suddenly remember something, his face brightening with excitement.
"Before we officially begin completing this spell, you must choose a loud, powerful slogan for yourselves!"
Cedric couldn't help but ask.
"How do we pronounce the incantation?"
Lynn asked, waving his hand.
"Once you've mastered the Soul Sealing Spell, the guidance of the incantation will fall to me. You just need to remember the emotion you feel when using the Soul Sealing Spell, and then maximize that emotion. So a powerful slogan is very important,"
Ian retorted.
"I think saying nothing is powerful enough,"
Lynn flatly refused.
"How can that be? I've carefully selected some awesome slogans for you. Come on, let's get ready for our first try."
As he spoke, Lynn put on the title "Slytherin's Best Kid."
The double learning efficiency from this title was quite useful, especially during the first experiment with the modified Soul Seal Charm, allowing him to quickly identify and improve its problems.
As for the negative effects of the title…
there were only the three of them in the classroom, and it was the Christmas holidays; Hogwarts didn't have many young wizards, so there was definitely no chance of an accident like Raphael's happening again.
Lynn looked at Ian and Cedric, rubbing his hands together, and asked,
"Which do you like: millet, roasted yam, steamed buns, or spinach?"
…
Harry and Ron had just finished lunch and were strolling around the castle.
"I'm getting angrier and angrier! You actually abandoned me last night and went on a night stroll through Hogwarts alone!" Ron said angrily.
Harry had received an invisibility cloak from an unknown person at Christmas, and just yesterday, the night after the Christmas dinner, he discovered its amazing uses.
With it, Hogwarts Castle was practically completely open to him.
So last night he took a nighttime stroll, though it was a bit thrilling and alerted Filch, who didn't catch him, and Harry even found a magical mirror.
In that mirror he could see his family!
Harry stared at the mirror all night, still thinking about it until the next day, and tonight he decided to go find it again.
"You were asleep last night, I didn't think it would be good to wake you. I originally just wanted to look for clues about Nicolas Flamel in the forbidden section, finding that mirror was a complete accident."
They chatted, unknowingly walking to the corridor on the fifth floor of the castle.
Suddenly, a familiar voice from an empty classroom next door caught their attention.
"No, Ian, you have to add a 'hehe' to that sentence, it'll sound more imposing!"
Harry and Ron immediately exchanged a glance.
They recognized it as Lynn's voice.
Then, they both silently lowered their footsteps and peeked through the crack in the door of the empty classroom.
Lynn was standing in front of a cool-looking, white-haired boy, seemingly instructing him on a spell.
Harry and the others only vaguely knew the boy was from Ravenclaw, and that he was close to Lynn; his name sounded like Ian from their earlier address.
He seemed reluctant to accept Lynn's request.
"I think this voice is eerie, it doesn't have any power,"
Lynn earnestly advised.
"That's because you didn't pronounce the whole sentence. Pronounce it completely and you'll see its power,"
Ian still felt embarrassed.
"Can I switch with Cedric?"
"It's the same, you don't understand the meaning anyway. Come on, say it once, and you'll know its charm."
Lynn's voice was like a devilish whisper of temptation.
Ian couldn't resist him and could only expressionlessly recite the incantation Lynn had just taught him.
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(End of Chapter)