"Master Dark Lord, you misunderstood. She's pureblood too, from the Parkinson family. She's my girlfriend and absolutely loyal," Draco said hurriedly, trying to signal to Pansy to swear allegiance.
Pansy just looked at them numbly.
"Oh, little Draco, you are a little naive," Riddle laughed. "Your eyes are not better than the nose of my basilisk."
"She is definitely a mudblood," Riddle said, raising his hand to cast a spell. Draco's eyes widened in fear, but he was powerless to stop it. The only thing that gave him a small sense of relief was that the spell was not green. He could only pray that his training had prepared him for this moment.
"Your performance just now was good. Do it again!" he thought, recalling Pansy's performance in the lounge earlier.
Hermione's defensive spell, "Protego," proved to be completely ineffective. The spell only slowed briefly before breaking through the invisible barrier.
"Did you see that?" Riddle laughed. "Potion? I have to admit, even for a mudblood, being able to brew this Potion in the second year is impressive."
"So, you can die knowing that you've been praised by me. You are the first mudblood that I have praised," Riddle said, raising his wand again, ready to cast the killing curse.
Draco was speechless, as if in a trance. He saw Pansy's face gradually morph into Hermione's, standing there pale and full of anger and despair.
Everything about Pansy's strange behavior suddenly made sense.
"What about the butterfly effect?" Draco thought frantically, trying to come up with a plan. He couldn't even predict how the story would progress.
Earlier ~~~
"Master Dark Lord!" Hermione, who was hiding behind the pillar, was almost startled by the title.
"Dragon Blood"... Hermione thought of the dragon blood that Draco had threatened them with during their first year.
"My father doesn't want to believe that you're dead. He's convinced that the Dark Lord is impossible to kill. You're an omnipotent god, and a mere body can't stop you."
"So he decided to return to the wizarding society temporarily to lay the foundations for your comeback. I think you already know from Lockhart's mind that our family is very rich and can definitely work for you."
"So please forgive him for his betrayal before."
"It turns out he's always been loyal to the mysterious man. Their father and son actually resurrected the mysterious man." Hermione realized how ridiculous her previous thoughts had been. She had actually wanted to protect a little Death Eater and had even had feelings for him. Now she felt guilty.
"But why does my heart hurt so much?" Hermione felt like her heart had been cut with a blunt knife and was bleeding, but it wasn't immediately fatal.
"Is Hogsmold's day all fake? Are the reminders on that note all fake?" she asked herself.
"Yes," she told herself. "He probably just wanted to play with the emotions of a Muggle-born wizard, so he did this to me."
"As for the reminder, it must be that he wanted us to die personally and be killed by the mysterious man in the final level." Don't underestimate anyone's ability to come up with rationalizations. Hermione was a bit stunned, but her thoughts made sense.
She forced herself to calm down. She had heard so many secrets; she had to leave here alive and tell Dumbledore. As for Draco, she didn't want to think about him anymore.
It was up to the school to decide what to do with him.
Poor Hermione's flower of love had been planted, sprouted, and then uprooted by someone's unintentional cruelty.
"You seem to have brought a tail with you, and it's still a dirty mudblood."... But now she had been found and was likely to die in the next second.
"Oh," Riddle laughed again and said to Malfoy: "Look at this mudblood, what is she going to do?"
Hermione grabbed a handful of roaring letters and scattered them into the air.
"I just praised you for being smart, why are you being stupid again now?" Riddle mocked.
"The Magic Artefacts are invalid. The anti-cheat charm invented by these teachers is really good." He applauded the curse, which made Hermione's heart colder.
"Oh, it looks like you think you can defeat the Basilisk?" Riddle smiled more happily, his arms crossed as he watched Hermione wave her wand like a clown, not prepared to stop at all.
Hermione felt like her body had fallen into an ice cave. The cold permeated every corner of her body.
She's dying.
"Looking at you, it seems you think it's okay to get rid of the Basilisk?" Riddle's mouth was slightly ridiculed.
"If my faithful servant hadn't given me dragon blood before, maybe I wouldn't have any threats, but now it's different." Riddle looked at his hands, intoxicated. "Now my body is getting closer to perfection."
"It's more than enough to deal with a mudblood like you." He raised his wand again, like a cat with a tired mouse. When he felt that the mouse was terrified to the extreme, he got bored and was about to eat it.
"Master Dark Lord, wait." Draco stopped talking.
"Yes?" Riddle condensed his smile, frowning as he looked at Draco suspiciously. "Are you going to plead for this dirty mudblood?"
"No, no, Master Dark Lord." Draco shook his head quickly.
"I'm sorry, sir." He went on. "I just forgot it." Malfoy pulled out a bottle from his arms, filled with silver liquid.
"The first battle of the Lord's resurrection should not be flawed," Draco said. "This is the blood of a unicorn, and with it, your body should be perfect. I was so excited just now that I forgot, I should be damned."
"En." Riddle nodded. "In terms of vitality, this thing is more powerful than dragon blood." His mood improved, and a little mistake by his servant was worthy of forgiveness, wasn't it? Moreover, this mistake made him even more pleasantly surprised.