A certain Hogwarts professor of runes

Harry found solitary confinement awful because Malfoy kept whispering and provoking him. This caused his efficiency to plummet; by noon, he had only copied ten sheets of parchment.

It's not even as thick as a little finger.

During lunch, Harry complained to Hermione and Ron about it. He said, somewhat exasperated, "I never expected him to talk so much, just buzzing around and around."

Ron suggested, "You could also bother him."

Harry was speechless; he and Malfoy didn't have much to say to each other.

Hermione seemed thoughtful. "Perhaps you could provoke him and take the opportunity to ask him if he is the heir to Slytherin."

"Don't be ridiculous, how could he say that unless it's someone close to him?" Ron retorted.

Harry also thought the idea was unreliable and might easily alert the enemy. "By the way, Hermione, what about the autograph?"

"Why don't you go see Professor Hyp?" Ron suggested.

"That's not a good idea," Hermione sighed. "He's not like Professor Lockhart, he's not like that..."

"—Like an idiot," Ron chimed in, earning a glare from Hermione.

"However, I can try tonight, but I can only say I'll try." Hermione did not give a definite answer.

After lunch, they returned to the ancient script office to continue their copying tasks.

Harry also had to endure Malfoy's provocative gaze. Several times he wanted to draw his wand and cast a curse on him, one wasn't enough, he'd rather cast three spells at once like Professor Hyp, leaving him defenseless...

In the afternoon, Felix looked at their work and nodded in satisfaction. "Not bad. The three of you should be able to finish the task by tomorrow afternoon. Mr. Malfoy, you're progressing even faster; you're only seven or eight pages away."

Draco Malfoy almost burst into tears, realizing how much he had paid for his momentary lapse in judgment—two entire tomes, completely handwritten.

It took almost two months in total, although he skipped a lot of confinement to attend Quidditch training...

Malfoy then wrote furiously, ignoring Harry, and finally finished copying all the contents before dinner.

Felix couldn't help but praise him, "Very good. Well then, Mr. Malfoy, your confinement is over."

"Yes, Professor," Malfoy said in a low voice.

Seeing him tidy up his stationery, Harry and the others were very envious; they still had a whole day of detention tomorrow.

"Oh, right, Mr. Malfoy," Felix called out to him, startling Malfoy.

Will you assign him a few more books?

Fortunately, Felix wasn't thinking about that. He waved his wand, and a thick stack of parchment flew out from the corner—covered with dense writing. Under his magic, the parchment split in two and quickly bound together in mid-air.

Two book covers flew out of the suitcase, wrapping the parchment, with gold-embossed lettering slowly emerging on the cover, making it look like two books.

"Mr. Malfoy, this is the fruit of your labor. Here it is as a gift for you."

Two books landed in front of him, startling Malfoy.

Felix said, "Although you are of noble pureblood descent and exceptionally talented, Muggles are not without their merits, and I think you already know that." He pointed to the two handwritten books in front of Malfoy.

"Through this confinement, I hope you can remember one thing: weakness or strength is not an obstacle to survival; arrogance is."

Malfoy held the two books, his lips moved, but he said nothing.

After he left, Felix said to the other three who were watching the show, "Alright, your mission for today is over. We'll continue tomorrow."

Hermione asked Felix in a low voice, "Professor, can I continue studying runes with you tonight?"

Felix was somewhat surprised. He thought for a moment and said, "In principle, I don't object, but your homework..."

Hermione said happily, "It's okay, I've finished all my homework." She looked as if she had won the lottery.

As the three of them left the office and headed to the cafeteria, Ron looked at Hermione with disbelief: "You really finished your homework?"

"certainly!"

"When did you write this?" Ron seriously doubted that his time was different from Hermione's. Did Hermione have a few more hours every day than him?

Hermione was in a very good mood. She said with a touch of arrogance, "Now that we know we'll be in detention on the weekend, of course we should finish our homework in advance. Isn't that common sense?"

Ron was speechless, while Harry looked ashamed.

……

Malfoy returned to the Slytherin common room and put down his bag.

He sat in the chair with a gloomy expression, his gaze passing through the green light of the lounge to the black lake outside the window, where one or two fish occasionally swam past the window.

Two henchmen approached, "Draco, want to have dinner?"

"Crawb, Goyle..." Malfoy gave them a serious look. "Never mind, you can go."

Crabbe and Goyle shrugged and left quickly.

Malfoy huddled in his chair, his pale blond hair and slightly pale face half-hidden in shadow.

He was still thinking about Professor Hyp's words.

Despite his attempts to refute this absurd view, the two months of copying punishment had already ingrained a portion of the book's contents into his mind.

This reminded him of a time when his mother took him to visit a pure-blood wizard and they happened to meet his aunt.

That aunt was my mother's second sister, but she was expelled from the family because she married a stupid mud... Muggle wizard.

The two had a fierce argument, and her mother advised her to go back and apologize, but she refused without hesitation.

He had little recollection of it; the only thing he remembered was his aunt yelling at them, "Besides magic, what else do you have that makes you superior?"

He still remembers that distorted expression.

For some reason, he suddenly picked up his schoolbag, took out the two books, and stared at the covers.

One book is "The Muggle's Struggle: Starting from a Million Year Ago," and the other is "How Muggles Think."

He was very familiar with the cover, having spent two months copying it, but there were slight differences—

Below the author, a few new words have been added—transcriber: Draco Malfoy.

Malfoy picked up the book "How Muggles Think" and opened it to the first page. Looking at the familiar handwriting, for the first time, he set aside his preconceived notions and began to read seriously.