Draco looked behind him, his heart giving a sudden jolt.
Pansy!
How could she have come here?
"My Dark Lord, you have misunderstood. She is also a pure-blood; she is from the Parkinson family, absolutely pure-blood. She is also my girlfriend, absolutely loyal," Draco said hurriedly.
He shot a glance at Pansy, seemingly wanting her to come over and pledge her allegiance.
Pansy just looked at them numbly.
"Oh, Little Draco, you are a bit naive," Riddle laughed. "Compared to the nose of my Basilisk, your eyes are not quite as sharp."
"She is definitely a mudblood." Riddle raised his hand and cast a spell. Draco was furious and distraught, but he could not stop it. What gave him some relief was that the spell was not green. He could only pray that his training would be effective.
"That performance just now was not bad; do it again!" He thought of Pansy's performance in the common room earlier.
"Protego!" Hermione instinctively blocked, but it was completely ineffective. The spell merely paused briefly before piercing through the invisible barrier.
"See that?" Riddle laughed. "Polyjuice Potion? I must say, even if you are a mudblood, being able to brew such a potion in your second year is indeed quite good."
"So, after receiving my praise, you can go die. You are the first mudblood I have ever complimented." Riddle raised his wand again; this time, it might have been the Killing Curse.
Draco, standing to the side, seemed to have been hit by Petrificus Totalus and could not speak. He saw Pansy's face gradually turn into Hermione's. She stood there, pale, her face full of anger and despair.
All of Pansy's abnormal behaviour earlier now made sense.
"What happened to the promised butterfly effect?" Draco roared internally, frantically thinking of a countermeasure. He never imagined the story would progress like this.
"My Dark Lord!"...
Hermione, hiding behind a pillar, was so frightened by this title that she nearly jumped.
"Dragon's blood"...
Hermione thought of the dragon's blood that Draco had threatened them with in their first year.
"My father refused to believe the fact that you had died. He firmly believed that the Dark Lord could not possibly die. You are the omnipotent god, and a physical body would not hinder your progress."
"So he chose to temporarily return to wizarding society to lay the foundation for your comeback. I think you already know from Lockhart's mind that our family is very wealthy and can absolutely serve you loyally."
"So please forgive his seemingly treacherous actions from before."
"So he has always been loyal to You-Know-Who. The father and son actually resurrected You-Know-Who." Hermione felt that her previous thoughts were somewhat ridiculous. She had actually wanted to protect a little Death Eater, even developed some strange feelings for him, and even felt guilty.
"But why does my heart hurt so much?" Hermione felt as if her heart was being cut over and over by a blunt knife, blood flowing out in torrents, yet not immediately fatal.
"Was that day in Hogsmeade all fake? Was the warning on that note all fake?" She asked herself loudly in her heart.
"Yes," she said to herself. "He must have just wanted to toy with the feelings of a Muggle-born, which is why he treated me like that."
"As for the warning, it must be that he wanted us to go to our deaths personally, to be killed by You-Know-Who at the final step." Do not underestimate anyone's ability to overthink; Hermione was now a bit obsessed, but it had to be said that her reasoning actually made quite a bit of sense if you thought about it carefully.
She forced herself to calm down. She had heard so many secrets; she had to leave here alive and then tell Headmaster Dumbledore. As for Draco, she did not want to think about him anymore; the school could deal with him however it wanted.
Poor Hermione's flower of love had barely had its seeds planted and sprouted a little, only to be unintentionally and ruthlessly uprooted by someone.
"You seem to have brought in a tail, and a dirty mudblood at that."...
But now she had been discovered and would likely die in the next second.
"Oh," Riddle laughed again, saying to Draco, "Look at this mudblood. What is she preparing to do?"
Hermione gripped the few howler letters in her arms and scattered them into the air.
Ineffective.
"I just complimented you on being smart, so why are you being stupid now?" Riddle said mockingly. "Magical items are ineffective. The anti-cheating spell invented by these teachers is indeed quite effective." He praised the spell, which made Hermione feel even colder inside.
"Oh, it looks like with that movement you are trying to turn into a rooster?" Riddle laughed even more happily. He crossed his arms and watched Hermione wave her wand like he was watching a clown, not intending to stop her at all.
Ineffective.
Hermione felt as if her whole body had fallen into an ice cave; the bone-chilling cold permeated every corner of her body.
She was going to die.
"Looking at you, you seem to think that getting rid of the Basilisk means everything is fine?" A faint mockery hung on the corners of Riddle's mouth.
"If my loyal servant hadn't offered me dragon's blood before, perhaps I wouldn't have been much of a threat, but now it's different." Riddle looked at his hands with intoxication. "Now my body is approaching perfection."
"Dealing with a mudblood like you is more than enough." He raised his wand again, like a cat that had grown tired of playing with a mouse. Feeling that the mouse had reached the peak of fear, he found it boring and prepared to eat it in one bite.
"My Dark Lord, wait." Draco still spoke up to stop him.
"Hm?" Riddle restrained his smile, frowned, and looked at Draco suspiciously. "You want to plead for this dirty mudblood?"
"No, no, no, my Dark Lord." Draco shook his head hurriedly.
"I am very sorry, my Lord." He continued, "I actually forgot about it just now." Draco pulled a bottle from his robes, filled with a silvery liquid.
"The first battle of your resurrection, my Lord, should not have a single flaw," Draco said. "This is unicorn blood. With it, you should be flawless. I was too excited just now and actually forgot; I deserve to die."
"Hm." Riddle nodded. "Considering it from the perspective of life force, this stuff is even more powerful than dragon's blood." His mood was even better; a small mistake by a subordinate was worth forgiving, wasn't it? Besides, this mistake had given him an even bigger surprise.