HP North Star's Radiance

Praris chuckled twice: "Oh right, as long as you're happy, that's all that matters."

Chapter 35 Ambitious 2

Malfoy's mouth opened and closed, seemingly very busy, but in the end, he didn't utter a single word of rebuttal.

"Say whatever you want! I'm just trying to give you a friendly heads-up! There are rumors circulating among the upperclassmen that you're having an affair with Marcus and that you're trying to curry favor with Professor Snape. You're so ambitious!" Malfoy said angrily.

Praris was stunned and almost wanted to take back what he had said.

From first grade onwards, she and Draco never met without exchanging barbs. Most of the time, Draco would say things without thinking, and she would retort with sharp tongues, leaving him speechless.

Today, as soon as Draco opened his mouth, she instinctively choked back. She never expected him to bring out his almost moldy kindness to bask in the sun.

“Marcus and I have no relationship. If I had to say, we just tutored each other. If Stella’s relationship had been stable last year, she might have been the one tutoring me.”

Praris did offer an explanation, saying that when Myrtle said those things before, she only thought it was absurd, but she never expected that such rumors would become more and more widespread.

"Just like you said, it's ability that makes people afraid, and ambition isn't necessarily a bad thing. As for the professor, if washing bottles could earn them the tutoring of a potions master in his spare time, I think many people would be tempted. The premise is that they aren't afraid to face him."

Praris smiled slightly, then turned and left.

Heavy snow covered the roof of Hogwarts Castle, turning the distant mountains and forests into a white expanse.

Praris stood in the corridor, looking at the desolate snow scene, and once again thought of Christmases from her childhood. Back then, she was still in the convent, and the church windows were stained-glass windows, obscuring the view of the snow outside.

The nuns kept the fireplace burning brightly, but she didn't feel warm. She stood in the crowd, wearing her heavy nun's habit, singing hymns with the other orphans and receiving "blessings."

“Plares,” Sister Maine said meaningfully, “your present day is a gift from the Lord, who has given you a place to live.”

Oh, grace, how lofty it is.

She said that God loves the world, so why did He give her the fate of being abandoned?

Praris didn't see being taken in as a blessing, nor did she see being abandoned as one. She loathed gifts she was forced to accept, good or bad; she would rather have gotten them herself, asked for them, and fought for them.

When Millison suspected she was going to "abandon" their friendship, Prarese surprisingly volunteered to stay. She thought she hated being abandoned, but she reached out and held onto this fragile relationship.

“This is the friendship I’ve chosen,” Praris thought. “I won’t allow anyone to leave before me.”

She had no choice when she was five, but the moment she chose to leave the convent, she resolved to follow her heart's choice in everything, rather than being chosen or decided by others.

The ambitious content is a rumor, but the ambition itself is not a rumor.

Praris breathed on the glass window and drew an inverted cross with her finger: becoming a witch was her rebellion against the destiny she had been given.

Now, go and see Myrtle; she's not the only lonely one in this school.

Hogwarts was very quiet on Christmas Eve, with only the flickering shadows of candlelight in the corridors.

Praris stopped in front of the restroom.

This is strange, isn't it? The crying coming from the washroom sounded unfamiliar, unlike Myrtle's soft sobs.

"Myrtle, it's me."

The crying stopped abruptly.

"Are you alright? I picked a sprig of mistletoe for you; I think you can use it to decorate your toilet. Uh, if you need it."

Myrtle floated out of her toilet stall, looking happier than ever before: "Oh, thank you, Praris, you're always so thoughtful."

Praris hesitated for a moment: "Just now, I think I heard crying, wasn't it you?"

“Of course not, it’s that girl from Gryffindor!” said Myrtle. “That’s terrible!”

horrible?

Praris walked toward the closed door and said softly, "Are you alright? Do you need my help? You may not believe me, but there's anything I can do to talk to the professors for you."

Prarese didn't consider herself a particularly enthusiastic person, but the sight of a Gryffindor girl crying made it hard for her not to think of Ginny.

Before her hand even touched the door lock, she heard a familiar voice say, "No! I don't need it!"

Praris's hand froze in mid-air, his right eyebrow raised: "Granger?"

Her remarkable memory came in handy at this moment, allowing her to easily match Granger's voice in her memory.

“I…I…” Granger probably didn’t expect Praris to guess it was her so quickly. “My potion experiment failed, and I can’t be seen by anyone now.”

"Uh, do you need me to ask the professor for you? I mean, Professor Snape. How could you possibly think of using yourself as an experiment!"

Granger actually experimented on himself! His astonishing research spirit truly put her to shame. It seems she hasn't dedicated enough to potions; she should really learn from Granger.

Of course, this does not include making yourself into a shameful situation.

“Thank you, but I don’t want anyone to see me right now,” Granger said, sobbing. “I’ll go to Mrs. Pomfrey myself.”

“Okay, okay,” Praris said. “What do you think of me?”

Granger seemed to find her question strange: "What?"

“I don’t think I’ve ever offended any Gryffindors. Maybe I helped you guys out with Nicolas Flamel’s matter,” Praris said.

That's right.

Praris nodded. "Well, a word of advice: Weasley should pay more attention to his little sister; she doesn't look too well."

"What does this mean! What happened to Ginny?!"

Praris heard the rustling of Granger's clothes, as if he had stood up.

“Well, I don’t think you’ll believe a Slytherin. If something really happened, it’s better if you check it yourselves.” Praris didn’t want to get into trouble. “I think with your abilities, it shouldn’t be difficult. The difficulty is finding the first clue, and I’ve already shown you the way.”

“That sounds really complicated,” Myrtle said.

Praris smiled gently at her: "It's not complicated at all, it just takes some time."

Because Granger was there, Praris didn't want to hurt her, so he said goodbye to Myrtle early and went back to the common room.

"You—what use are you to me! You can be easily knocked out and impersonated by others!" Draco's voice was filled with suppressed anger.

"Pretend?" Praris said softly, "What do you mean?"

Draco angrily said, "Someone drugged them with food, impersonated them, and got into the common room!"

“Slytherins don’t need to sneak in. How could anyone who isn’t a Slytherin get in?” Praris said bluntly. “So angry, did you bring them in?”

Draco, like a rooster with its neck caught in its throat, was so angry that his face turned red.

Praris shook his head and walked toward Crabbe: "Let me see, did you just eat something bad? Are you feeling unwell anywhere?"

"Does a headache at the back of the head count?" Gao asked.

Praris looked at it and almost burst out laughing: "That's where you hit your head when you fell, right? You landed on the back of your head, didn't you?"

“You’re gloating,” Draco said.

Praris retorted skillfully, "It's not like I let them in. Do you expect me to shed a single tear for you?"

After saying that, she added, "I'm extremely healthy, except that I ate a little too much for dinner. I'll take a walk to help with digestion."

Praris turned around and saw Draco's unpleasant expression, so he took two steps toward him: "You saw them, didn't you suspect anything?"

“They look exactly like Crabbe Gor!” Draco said angrily. “Would you doubt that I’m an imposter if I were here?”

Praris suddenly moved closer to him, startling him so much that he fell onto the sofa.

Praris gave a smug look: "Looks like it's true."

It's so funny how you get such a big reaction whether you're teasing Draco or just trying to scare him!

"You, you, you—", Draco stammered incoherently.

Prarese sat down on the sofa with a relaxed air. She already knew who was impersonating Crabbe and Goyle—Porter and Weasley.

Anyone with a brain could figure it out, provided that Granger had been found in the bathroom.

If that's the case, then the potion that caused the problem was Polyjuice Potion, right? A unicorn's horn, an African tree snake's skin, isn't it?

Everything connected: one of the three Potters caused trouble in class, had his companion steal herbs, the professor retaliated against Potter at the club, and the three stole the herbs with the aim of brewing Polyjuice Potion to enter Slytherin and talk to Draco.

Why? Do they think Draco is the heir?

"What did they get out of you?" Praris asked.

Malfoy looked at him with a bewildered expression, as if to say, "How did you know I'd been tricked?" He replied, "They asked about the Chamber of Secrets—so what? Everyone knows the Chamber of Secrets was opened fifty years ago, and a Mudblood died there. Every Slytherin knows that!"

"But they are not Slytherin."

Malfoy turned his head away and remained silent, seemingly knowing he couldn't win an argument with Praris.

“Anything else?” Praris asked.

Malfoy opened his mouth, then closed it again, seemingly unable to say what he couldn't bring himself to say.

Praris didn't think he knew everything: "If you said you didn't want or couldn't let outsiders know, you should know what to do, right? Don't be so sure that no one else will know; others have no obligation to keep your secrets."

Meanwhile, Hermione and Ron started arguing.

“Prince is definitely not that kind of person!” Hermione said angrily.

Ron, sticking his neck out, said, "Oh? You know her well? A Slytherin?"

“She’s different! She stops when she wins, and when I say I don’t want to see anyone, she won’t open the door. She even cares about Myrtle! She, she even told us about Nicola Flamel!” Hermione said earnestly, “She’s different from the other Slytherins!”

Ron spoke very quickly: "But she's a Slytherin! Almost all Death Eaters come from Slytherin, so her parents might be Voldemort's henchmen! Ginny isn't your sister, of course you're not worried. How would she know Ginny hasn't been doing well lately if she hadn't done something?"

Harry looked left at Ron and right at Hermione, unsure of what to do.

He managed to squeeze in a sentence amidst the hail of bullets between the two: "How about we let Hermione rest for a bit? I mean, her face."

During the duel, Hermione found a "hair" in Prince's sleeve and assumed it belonged to him.

They all thought it would be dangerous to use Prince's hair, since she had kept it for Christmas too. But they had no better option, since they couldn't get any other Slytherin hair.

Unfortunately, the hair on Prince's sleeve wasn't her own; it was a cat hair!

Hermione thus acquired a furry face, which Prince discovered in the bathroom.

Praders, unaware that she was the culprit behind Hermione's hairy face, was feeding Nina! Millison had repeatedly told her to take good care of Nina before leaving school.

Christmas passed just like that, and Pralis sometimes had strange thoughts, as if something always happened at Hogwarts during Halloween and Christmas. What about last year's Christmas? What excitement was there that she didn't know about?

However, it's more accurate to say that a major event happens at Hogwarts every year, such as the Philosopher's Stone last year and the Chamber of Secrets heir this year.

I wonder what new excitement will come next year.