She turned her head to look at Bellatrix, who was still gently rubbing her temples and had yet to recover her wits.
Her tone was breezy, carrying a full measure of self-satisfaction and showmanship:
“Of course, of course, I am a genius.”
In just a short sentence, she spoke with absolute righteous confidence and utter frankness.
Looking across the entire Hogwarts, which first-year student could independently complete Apparition?
Let alone that she could also master almost all the spells that could be learned within the school; this kind of talent was enough to amaze everyone.
Isolde felt immensely pleased inside, considering herself the one and only magical prodigy of this cohort.
Hearing this, Bellatrix not far away saw her eyelashes flutter violently.
The fingers hanging by her sides quietly curled up, deep within her eyes surged thick helplessness, and she suppressed the rolling eye-roll in her heart with extreme restraint.
A half-blood, arrogant to a hopeless degree in front of her.
Bellatrix tightly maintained her noble and aloof expression, almost failing to steady her consistently elegant and icy expression management.
Isolde completely did not notice her inner activities, and on her own turned her head with high spirit, curiously looking toward the deep and dim depths of the Forbidden Forest.
The overlapping trees blocked the moonlight, the shadows in the woods were mottled, and faint, broken sounds of insects drifted over, arousing her full desire for exploration.
She lifted her foot and walked leisurely two steps deeper, her fingertips gently brushing past the low bushes beside her.
But before taking a few steps, her footsteps suddenly halted, instantly freezing in place.
The complacency and jubilation that had filled her eyes a moment ago suddenly vanished completely.
Tsk.
Bellatrix had all along been following half a step behind her, quietly and perplexedly staring at Isolde’s furry back of the head.
Seeing the other party suddenly stop and not move, her heart tightened slightly, and she subconsciously frowned and asked: “What is it again?”
With her back to her, Isolde’s shoulders instantly drooped.
The spirited aura from just now completely disappeared, and her entire face crumpled into a thoroughly miserable expression.
Her tone was heavy, filled with the depression of someone for whom life had lost its meaning:
“I thought of an important matter…”
Hearing this, Bellatrix’s heart tightened, instantly putting away the casualness in her heart.
The Forbidden Forest was fraught with danger, and after nightfall it was even more perilous.
Could it be that she sensed some lurking magical creature?
Or was there a magical anomaly around?
Or had she been discovered by a professor or patrolling prefect?
She instantly tensed her nerves, subconsciously gripping her wand a bit tighter, her expression turning somewhat solemn, and she slightly frowned to press further: “What?”
Isolde spoke at a slow pace, her tone as heavy as if she had run into a colossal disaster:
“A matter… that will drive us frantic…”
These words completely hooked Bellatrix’s heartstrings, instantly maximizing the tension, and various dangerous guesses emerged endlessly in her heart.
Her brows were tightly furrowed, and she could no longer maintain her unhurried demeanor, urging with a somewhat eager tone: “Winnier, speak quickly!”
What kind of behavior was it to speak only half-way? Follow the newest chapters on g.com.
The wind in the forest rustled, making this moment appear exceptionally quiet.
Isolde finally turned around slowly, looking at the tension-filled Bellatrix with a tragic and regretful expression, word by word, frankness catching one completely off guard:
“I forgot to do my homework.”
The moment her voice fell, the wind in the forest seemed to have frozen.
The air instantly plunged into a dead silence.
All the tension, solemnity, and vigilance on Bellatrix’s face froze on her face entirely, completely solidifying.
She was completely dumbfounded, her brain experiencing a complete blank for a full two or three seconds.
Night wandering in the Forbidden Forest, violating rules late at night, trespassing into the Forbidden Forest…
She had prepared herself to deal with all the serious consequences, never expecting that the major event in the other party’s mouth that would drive them both frantic was actually forgetting to do homework.
What was even more fatal—
Swiftly recalling today’s coursework arrangements in her mind, Bellatrix instantly felt a surge of extreme shame and panic deep in her heart.
She, well, really hadn’t done it…
Today, as soon as all classes ended, she went to duel, and right after the duel she went to the hospital wing.
After recuperating from the hospital wing, her mood had constantly been affected by Isolde’s various outrageous actions.
Afterwards, she was fully entangled with the matter of night wandering; as the dignified The Handmaiden of the House of Black, the proud and noble Slytherin honor student, had actually for the first time ever, lazily left all her after-school homework blank.
Merlin above!
Bellatrix only felt the blood throughout her body instantly flow in reverse, burning all the way from the tips of her toes to the roots of her ears, as a burning sense of shame swept over her entire body.
Proud as she was, her coursework was always top-notch, and she was perfect in everything.
There had never been any stain of missing homework or defaulting on coursework; this was her most disheveled and most absurd mistake from childhood to adulthood.
But what caused her to break down the most was that such an embarrassing, such an unseemly private matter!
Happened to be stumbled upon and known by the half-blood girl right before her, whose bloodline she had always looked down upon and regarded as the bottom tier.
The Handmaiden Black’s perfect filter. shattered in front of Isolde.
This unspeakable awkwardness and loss of face made her feel even more ashamed than being caught wandering at night by a professor and having points deducted for her house.
Bellatrix’s cheeks burned, her delicate face stained with a layer of unnatural crimson.
Her heart was both ashamed and annoyed, and even her voice carried a trace of hard-to-detect stiffness and panic, speaking almost immediately: “Let’s go back.”
She didn’t want to stay another second in this place that caused her social death.
Watching her instantly shed all her arrogance and look somewhat constrained, a trace of surprise flashed through Isolde’s eyes.
She hadn’t done her homework, yet Bella cared about her so much as to let her go back quickly?
No, why did something feel wrong?
Filtering through a layer of faint moonlight, Isolde carefully looked at Bellatrix’s fair face, which seemed to have a faint blush on it.
What was Bellatrix blushing for?
Could it be…
Isolde suddenly understood!
Tentatively taking half a step forward, she softly pressed on, her tone full of disbelief:
“Bella, you really didn’t write it?”
Bellatrix’s whole body stiffened, even her raised chin retracted a bit, and she was completely struck speechless by these words.
She froze in place, her fair cheeks instantly stained with a layer of even more embarrassing crimson, burning all the way from the tips of her ears to her neck.
The dignified The Handmaiden Black probably had never had such an absurd moment in her life—
Sneaking out of the hospital wing late at night to follow a half-blood in night-wandering the Forbidden Forest.
In the end, the biggest crisis for both of them was not the unknown beasts of the Forbidden Forest, nor the patrolling Hogwarts professors, but rather…
Not doing homework.
Simply absurd to the extreme!
Indeed, she shouldn’t have come out with this damned half-blood!
Bellatrix bit her back teeth, word by word, her tone tightly strung, carrying a near-explosive shame and annoyance:
“Shut up, Winnier.” The words were squeezed out almost from between her teeth.
Yet Isolde had not an ounce of tact, stepping half a step closer.
Her eyes were sparkling in the dim moonlight of the forest, carrying a bit of mischievous glee at watching the show, and she deliberately drew out her tone to press on:
“So Miss Bella, the supremely noble Pure-blood Black, really was lazy and failed to finish the professor’s homework?”
“No wonder you were in such a hurry to go back just now; it turns out you weren’t afraid of the Forbidden Forest being dangerous, but rather afraid of being publicly deducted points and criticized by the professor tomorrow?”
The crisp voices of the youths fell upon the quiet edge of the Forbidden Forest, exceptionally clear.
Bellatrix was poked in her soft spot by her, the awkwardness and shame throughout her body instantly surged up, and her proud self-esteem was fiercely punctured.
She took an exaggerated deep breath, clearly quite angered.
“It was merely a momentary oversight.”
Bellatrix’s tone was rigid, stubborn as a dead duck to the very end.
“Mere notes, I originally planned to wake up early and write them.”
Definitely not forgetting to write them.
Absolutely.
People of the Black Family would not slack off on coursework.
Watching her awkward appearance of saying one thing while meaning another with earlobes glowing red, Isolde couldn’t help letting out a low laugh.
“Alright… very good.”
“In order to ensure The Handmaiden Black has enough sleeping time, let’s hurry back.”