[Ding! The culprits have compensated you with their lives; the reward has been issued.]
The system's notification sound echoed in his mind.
Lynn blanked for a moment and gave a mental thumbs-up. Fine, paying with their lives is worth it. Praise the system!
Lynn immediately canceled the Bubble-Head Charm he had been maintaining.
There was no feeling of suffocation; his body seemed to have automatically adapted to the underwater environment. He no longer needed to rely on his lungs for gas exchange, as some more efficient method had replaced breathing.
The originally blurry and dim underwater world before his eyes suddenly became clear, to the point where even the textures of the swaying aquatic plants in the distance were visible.
Lynn tried moving his limbs and felt that the water resistance had greatly decreased. His movements were smooth and free, almost no different from moving on land, and even felt a bit lighter.
"This ability... is so convenient!" Lynn was overjoyed and couldn't help but do a somersault underwater, experiencing this unprecedented freedom.
He lingered for a while longer to fully experience the sensation of being a "Merperson" before heading back to shore, satisfied.
On the way back, out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a big, silly-looking fish.
Adhering to the firm belief that "a thief never leaves empty-handed" and "an angler never returns with an empty catch," he picked up the broken half of his fishing rod and used the handle to accurately strike the fish's head, knocking it unconscious before skillfully hooking it.
Mm, now I've caught a fish!
Lynn nodded in satisfaction, carrying the "trophy" fish in one hand and the fishing rod in the other as he set off back to the castle.
Along the way, his peculiar appearance indeed attracted many curious gazes.
Some students whispered to each other as they looked at the broken rod and the big fish in his hands:
"Look! Is that a fishing rod? Why is it broken?"
"Is that even a question? It must have been snapped by a big fish! Look at the one in his hand, it's huge!"
Lynn remained unfazed, calmly accepting their stares, even feeling a bit smug inside.
Lynn planned to go to the kitchen first to hand the fish over to the house-elves to prepare, adding an extra dish for his roommates for dinner.
As he walked down the corridor leading to the kitchen, a first-year Gryffindor girl carrying a tall stack of books and walking hurriedly with her head down came toward him.
Seeing that they were about to collide, Lynn instinctively dodged to the side to make way.
"Oh!" The girl seemed completely caught off guard by Lynn's sudden dodge, or perhaps she hadn't seen the path clearly at all, and was startled by the unexpected movement.
She let out a cry of surprise, and the books in her arms immediately lost their balance, clattering to the floor.
Lynn: "..." A scam?!
The thought flashed through his mind instantly.
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to!" The girl hurriedly crouched down and began clumsily gathering the books on the floor, not even daring to look up, her voice as faint as a mosquito's buzz.
Although Lynn found it a bit strange, he still crouched down to help pick them up.
Most of the books were textbooks like A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration and History of Magic, nothing special.
When he picked up a black soft-leather-covered diary that looked somewhat old and had no title or signature, the girl had also finished cleaning up. She picked up the restacked pile of books and muttered another "thank you" with her head down.
Then, still keeping her head down, she ran off quickly without looking back, her speed surprisingly fast.
"Hey! Your book!"
Lynn raised the black diary in his hand and tried to call out to her.
But the girl seemed not to have heard him at all, vanishing around the corner of the corridor in an instant.
Lynn held the diary, looked in the direction the girl had disappeared, then looked down at the diary and shrugged.
"Well, I don't know who she is, and I can't return the book."
He clicked his tongue and flipped through it casually; it was completely empty, with not a single word.
"Whatever, a free diary. The leather looks alright, just a bit old."
Back at the Hufflepuff dormitory, Edgar's voice immediately rang out:
"Yo! You're back? How was the haul this time? Whoa! That fishing rod died a tragic death... Where's the fish? Don't tell me you only caught a notebook this time?"
Edgar's sharp eyes spotted the black diary in Lynn's hand.
"How is that possible?"
Lynn lied through his teeth without blinking, leaning the broken rod against the corner.
"It was a real big fish this time. I've already sent it to the kitchen; look forward to an extra dish tonight."
"Really?" Edgar was skeptical.
Lynn ignored him and turned to William, who was sitting at the desk writing and drawing on several pieces of parchment.
"William, do you want a notebook?"
William looked up, pushed up his glasses, and took the black diary Lynn handed him, feeling the cover.
"Thanks. But the leather seems a bit old..."
Without thinking much of it, he casually flipped to a blank page, picked up a quill, dipped it in ink, and prepared to record the questions he had just been thinking about.
The moment the tip of the pen touched the paper—
"Why do I suddenly have a bad feeling..." Lynn looked at the diary, feeling a strange chill on the back of his neck, and muttered to himself.
Just then—
"Lynn! What kind of crappy notebook is this?!"
William suddenly jumped up from his chair as if he had been burned, shouting at Lynn with a voice full of shock, his quill falling onto the desk.
Lynn: "???"
Looking completely bewildered, he rushed to William's desk.
Edgar and Ollie, who were originally lying on their beds, were also startled by the commotion and immediately crowded around, their faces full of the excitement of "watching a good show."
On the page William had been about to write on, the small drop of ink he had spilled was wriggling in a bizarre way, and then... it vanished?
What was even more hair-raising was that where the ink had vanished, a line of clear handwriting slowly emerged—and it definitely wasn't William's:
(Hello. It seems you've run into some trouble. I should be able to help you.)
The handwriting appeared on the blank page as if it had a life of its own.
Lord Voldemort: What's going on? A change in person? Where did that young girl who was so full of a desire to pour her heart out go?
Before he could figure out this sudden change, in the real world, the Hufflepuff dormitory had already erupted into chaos.
"What the f—?!" Edgar jumped back half a step, pointing at the diary. "W-what's the situation? Has this notebook become sentient?!"
Ollie also took a sharp breath and muttered, "What on earth is this thing..."
(Hello? Are you still there?)
Lord Voldemort: Why is there no response? Are they stunned? Or have they become suspicious? I'll test them again; I must re-establish contact and understand this new "interlocutor"...
William's face turned pale, and he slammed the diary shut, pushing it further away.
Edgar and Ollie also turned their gazes toward Lynn in unison.
The meaning in their eyes couldn't be clearer: Where did you get this sinister thing?!
Lynn: "..."
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