Struggling to survive at Hogwarts

"Thea! You're back!"

As soon as Thea stepped into the lounge, Draco, with his sharp eyes, immediately greeted her warmly and naturally pushed the candy box in front of her.

"Hmm, this was made by Aunt Sissy?" Thea unwrapped the candy and popped it into her mouth, commenting, "There's a third less honey than usual. Aunt Sissy really knows me best!"

"Yes, Mom loves you the most! She even prepares double the candy for you..." Draco was a little jealous; that was clearly his mother!

Thea, as was her habit, soothed the young master and immediately handed him the potion notes she had been holding. "These are my notes on Baffy's Mind-Awakening Potion and Hemostatic Potion that I compiled today. Weren't you researching those two potions?"

Upon seeing the notebook, Draco immediately forgot his earlier jealousy. Jealousy was one thing, but it was nothing compared to the notebook!

"Gore? Crabbe? What are you two still doing here? Shouldn't you be in the kitchen by now?"

Seeing that Draco had calmed down, Thea slowly shifted her gaze to the two who were rather restless.

“…I…I’m not hungry tonight!” Gore stammered.

"Aren't you hungry?" Thea asked Crabbe.

"Yes, it is."

"Alright then!" Thea stared at the two of them for a while, trying hard to suppress the smile on her lips.

These two actors are such terrible!

Seeing that Thea turned her head away, the two looked at each other and saw a sense of relief in each other's eyes.

But the next second, "Draco, what were you guys talking about just now?"

Draco, who was engrossed in flipping through his notebook, replied without looking up, "Oh, we were just talking about the Slytherin successor, so we chatted for a while longer."

"Really? What are your thoughts on the Slytherin successor?" Thea asked again.

At this moment, even Draco, engrossed in his notes, sensed something was amiss. Hadn't they discussed this topic before? Thea wasn't usually so verbose, unless…

There were only four people in the lounge, could it be...?

Draco's gaze toward the two large men gradually turned strange.

Thea leaned back on the sofa, picked up a cup of hot coffee from the table, and slowly sipped it, watching the slightly panicked expressions on the faces of the two people in front of her.

"...What's wrong with you?" Draco stared at Crabbe with a dangerous look in his eyes.

The other person immediately groaned, "My stomach hurts..."

Draco was about to say something when Thea grabbed his forearm.

“If you’re not feeling well, go see Mrs. Pomfrey, or, do you need me to take you?” The girl’s voice was low and sounded particularly dangerous.

The two people opposite them immediately felt as if they had been granted a pardon, stood up and hurriedly ran outside.

Just as they were about to step out the door, a voice came from behind them again, "You don't trust me, so even at the risk of getting points deducted, you won't ask me to my face."

Every word the girl spoke seemed to be an accusation against Harry's injustice, causing the other person to pause in his steps.

He seemed to want to turn back, but was pulled out of the lounge by the person next to him.

The vast space was now empty except for Thea, who was pulling Draco along, whose expression was particularly unpleasant.

Draco wasn't stupid; he sensed something was wrong when Thea told the two to leave, but he didn't understand why Thea was stopping him.

Those two stupid lions should be penalized! They should be put in solitary confinement!

Draco's anger was instantly suppressed when he saw Thea's exhausted face. He restrained himself and said, "Why did you let them go? They don't trust you at all! Why are you still protecting them?"

As he finished speaking, Draco's confusion deepened.

"Because he is the savior!"

"No matter what mistakes he makes, there will always be someone to protect him!"

"The savior needs a whetstone, and I am unwilling to be a stepping stone on his road to success, Draco, do you understand?"

Draco remained silent for a long time, his eyes slightly red, reflecting a faint light. He pursed his lips and said with difficulty, "Why? Just because we are Slytherins, are we destined to become clowns on the stage?"

Thea lowered her head almost in a panic, and after a long while said, "...because we are too weak, so weak that we don't even have the ability to overturn the table, so we can only lie low and wait for the right opportunity."

Watching Draco flip through his notes with red eyes, Thea thought to herself: I have been trying to break down your protective shield, hoping that you can have the ability to face the storms on your own, so that you won't be knocked down by the waves.

Fortunately, you can still be saved.

Draco, we don't have much time left.

----------

“Hermione, we now know that it wasn’t Malfoy who opened the Chamber of Secrets, and he doesn’t know what the monster in the Chamber is.”

"Also... Hermione... Thea seems angry... She recognized Ron and me..." Harry carefully relayed the news to the person inside through a curtain.

"What? Thea recognized you? She just let you come back like that?" Hermione was surprised, but her first concern was for her friends.

“…Yes, she was holding Draco back, preventing him from going to the professor,” Harry said, his guilt growing stronger.

He was the one who said he wanted to be friends with Thea, and she had saved him before, more than once!

Harry felt increasingly guilty, and Hermione remained silent for a long time. "I'm sorry, I didn't think things through at the time and forgot that Thea was also our friend."

When Ron heard the word "friend," his face twisted for a moment, but he still said hesitantly, "Why don't we go apologize to her? After all, we were the ones who barged into the lounge first."

Seeing his two friends' dumbfounded expressions, Ron became furious and embarrassed. "What? Are you worried that I'm still unhappy with her?"

"While I don't like that she's a Slytherin, I admit she's different from other Slytherins, at least... much better than Malfoy!"

Harry was initially pleased that Ron had overcome his prejudice against Thea, but he was amused by Ron's last remark.

For a moment, all three people inside and outside the curtain burst into laughter. Even though they couldn't see each other's faces, they all knew that they were very happy.

“When shall we go to Josiah? I can use Hedwig to send her a message!” Harry suggested first.

The guilt in his heart made him restless, and he wished he could apologize to Thea on the spot.

"How about tonight? Let's finish this quickly!" Ron suggested.

“…No, I might not be able to. Madam Pomfrey said I might have to stay in the medical wing until February!” Hermione said, sounding a little dejected.

Ron and Harry exchanged a glance, then said, "Then we'll apologize to Thea after you're discharged from the hospital!"

"Hopefully, it will still be in time."

Harry and his two companions sincerely hoped so.