Chapter 300 Cynthia's Merciless Mouth
After the organ played the last trill of the first dance, the twirling dancers in the auditorium stopped their movements, the students applauded the wonderful performance of the Weird Sisters, the skilled musicians briefly enjoyed the cheers from the crowd, and then started another, more cheerful dance.
"Do you still want to dance?" Harry glanced at the other warriors who still chose to dance with their partners. His hand was still on Cynthia, and he said embarrassedly, "I had a lot of fun dancing with you just now, but I want to go and see how Ron is doing..."
It was a lie. Harry wanted to find a place with few people around and try to talk to Cynthia, just in case he could get something out of her.
Moreover, Sirius always mentioned Cynthia in his recent letters to him, and Harry felt that he could no longer give any other answer except a perfunctory one, or Sirius would take the risk and rush over.
"Let's go," Cynthia noticed Maggie's silver mask with her sharp eyes, her green eyes sank, and she immediately agreed to Harry's proposal, "One dance is enough, let's go find your friend for a drink."
Seeing Maggie, despite Della's promise, Cynthia knew that she couldn't be so comfortable tonight, at least she couldn't be alone.
"Okay, okay!" Harry was surprised at Cynthia's cooperation. A surge of joy surged in his heart. He suddenly felt that things might go smoothly tonight.
They left the dance floor and walked towards the circle of tables at the edge of the dance floor with a clear goal. Even though the lights in the hall were dim to create atmosphere, it was not difficult to find Ron because there were not many people sitting there without dance partners.
There was one Ron, and at a table to Ron's left sat a thin boy with pale skin. Harry remembered that the boy's name seemed to be Theodore Nott. Two tables away to Ron's right sat two women and a man who were chatting. Harry thought the brown-haired man looked familiar, but he couldn't remember where he had seen him before.
But the two unfamiliar black-haired girls were pretty, and Harry was a little surprised that they didn't have dance partners.
"How is it?" Harry asked Ron as he sat down at the table where Ron had ordered butterbeer. He opened a bottle and put the menu in front of Cynthia. "Want some juice?"
"Butterbeer will be fine. Open one for me, too." Cynthia pushed the menu toward the center of the table.
Ron didn't respond to Harry, nor did he pay any attention to Cynthia who had amazed him in the hall. He just looked angrily at Hermione who was dancing with Krum nearby. Cynthia followed his gaze and tilted her head.
"Would you like to dance with me, pretty lady?"
Before the three of them started talking, a tall Beauxbatons boy came over and invited Cynthia to dance. Cynthia looked at the hand stretched out in front of her with drooping eyes. Before she could reply, another hand was stretched out in front of her, and another Durmstrang boy also came over to join in the fun.
The two foreign men stared at each other competitively, two men competing for one woman, and a romantic and passionate atmosphere of struggle instantly enveloped the table, but Cynthia cut off this atmosphere with just one sentence.
"You can stare at each other or fight as much as you want, there will be no spoils. I don't feel like dancing right now, so find someone else."
Yes, who says that if you start a fight on your own, you will definitely get the spoils you want?
Harry looked at the backs of the two boys who were leaving in a daze, and then looked at Cynthia who was sipping butterbeer with an indifferent look on her face. At this moment, he could completely ignore the impact of his mother's face on him. The Cynthia in front of him was such a strong personality.
"Cynthia, how have you been at school recently--" Seeing Ron staring at Hermione in a daze, Harry could only bring up the topic with difficulty, trying to find a chance to talk to Cynthia about the night in the Shrieking Shack.
"Miss Iron Knight!" A short, low shout from either Fred or George interrupted the words Harry had just managed to say. He watched Cynthia's attention being attracted by the commotion, and her eyes followed the movement of one of the twins to the table with two women and one man.
"Miss Iron Knight?" Leah frowned as she looked at the red-haired young man in front of her. She still remembered Maggie saying that the newspaper used her pseudonym 'Leah Smith'. "Didn't you read the newspaper? My name was written at the bottom of the newspaper."
"I saw it," Fred smiled and sat next to Leah in a familiar manner, "but didn't I tell you last time that you must tell me your name next time? I would rather you tell me in person."
"Fred, right? The little brat is just persistent," Leah sneered. She looked at Annika, who had become serious because of Fred's arrival, and said that she could handle it. "Just call me Leah. If you want to be more respectful, you can call me Sister Leah. Why did you come to see me?"
"Looking for you to dance, Leah." Fred said with a smile, looking at the most beautiful woman he had ever seen in front of him with great interest.
"I'm not interested. Besides," Leah tugged at her men's robe, "I can't dance to normal music. I can't be the type to lean on someone else's arms."
"Then let's talk about it. Maybe you'll be willing to dance with me later." Fred was not discouraged. He opened a bottle of beer on the table and acted like a rogue who had been waiting for a long time.
"I can't get rid of you?" Leah looked at Annika and Maria who were politely silent. She tilted her head and asked Fred, then looked at the bright and beautiful dance floor which was boring to her. Finally, she shrugged and stood up. "Okay, take me to a place where I can get some fresh air. Let's go out and talk."
She just happened to want to smoke a cigarette.
"Okay!" Fred's eyes lit up and he stood up immediately.
"Don't go too far, so that Mr. Riddle can't find you when he needs you." Annika hinted to Leah about the meeting that had just been prepared tonight to introduce Leah to everyone.
"No problem." Leah made a quick gesture of approval and followed Fred out, intending to soothe the teenage boy's fluttering heart while touring the magic school.
Because she has seen so much, Leah can understand the shock of encountering a rebellious person during adolescence, when one is just between being obedient and rebellious and feels that one has unlimited possibilities. But precisely because she understands this, she has to give him a good blow.
After all, the group of rebellious young people under her command, although they are all good subordinates, are also out-and-out hooligans, the kind of hooligans who will drag normal children into the water if they have too much contact with them.
This group of people struggling in the darkness have their own true feelings and good intentions. Leah, who has an unfortunate family, a difficult past and an overly competitive spirit, completely integrates into these people who have so much in common with her. However, she is also one of the few who can control her own darkness and unconsciously harm others.
"Oh...it's the person next to Della..." Harry finally recognized Leah with short hair from Fred's attitude. He murmured hesitantly, and Ron next to him shouted as if waking up from a dream.
"That's not right! Fred has a partner! He invited Angelina in front of me!"
Angelina Johnson, a Chaser on the Gryffindor team, a tall, attractive girl whom Harry knew and whom Ron was aware of.
"The girl dancing with the other twin?" Cynthia pointed to the left.
Harry and Ron both looked in the direction of Cynthia's finger, and saw that it was Angelina who was dancing with George. The two danced very wildly, and the people around them avoided them to avoid being hurt.
"Are you sure that wasn't George in front of you?" Harry hissed.
"But it must have been Fred who was so shameless in chatting up the tomboy last time, right?" Ron said uncertainly. What a joke! If he could really tell Fred and George apart, he wouldn't still be being pranked. "Well, who cares what they do? They've been covering up for each other for a long time."
"Yes..." Harry responded, glancing at Cynthia again, intending to continue talking to her. Unfortunately, Hermione sat over again, panting.
"How are you guys? Oh, it's hot, isn't it?" Hermione's cheeks were red from jumping, and she fanned herself with her palms. "Viktor has gone to get the drinks."
"Viktor?" Ron said sourly, referring to the name he had been chanting adoringly during the Quidditch World Cup. "Didn't he ask you to call him 'Wiggy'?"
"What's wrong with you?" Hermione asked in surprise.
"If you don't know, I don't want to tell you." Ron's face now showed the most vivid expression he had all evening - mean.
"Ah?" Hermione didn't understand and looked at Harry in confusion, but Harry just shrugged helplessly. She could only ask, "Ron, what are you doing—"
"He's from Durmstrang!"
Ron began to rack his brains to fabricate Hermione's crimes, and soon his groundless accusations against Hermione of "revealing Harry's information" and "helping Krum crack the golden egg" made Hermione blush as if she was insulted.
"I guess you met in a warm and comfortable library, with your heads close together--" Ron continued sarcastically.
"I never helped him!" Hermione's face turned even redder. "How could you say such a thing -"
"Puchi." Cynthia looked at the two people quarreling and suddenly laughed out loud, interrupting Hermione's speech. The three people at the table looked at her for a moment. Harry intuitively felt that Cynthia was going to say something shocking again.
"You're so boring, Ron." Cynthia looked at Ron, still laughing. "It's just a simple sentence, but you have to beat around the bush."
"W-what?" Ron asked dully, having yet to experience Cynthia's frank destructiveness firsthand.
"I told you there must be something wrong with Ron," Hermione said angrily. She looked at Cynthia, waiting for her to reveal Ron's secret that she didn't know about.
"Ron likes you, and he's jealous."
Cynthia's crisp voice fell, and the table of four in the bustling hall fell into silence. Harry unconsciously arched his back to reduce his presence. Ron froze, and a blush covered his face almost instantly. Hermione's body also froze, and she looked at Ron in a pause.
"You-you-you-what nonsense are you talking about!" Ron stood up suddenly, not daring to look at Hermione's eyes.
"But I think Viktor Krum would be better, Hermione." Cynthia ignored Ron and said to Hermione. Harry, who had been afraid to say anything, said "Merlin" in his heart and almost wanted to cover Cynthia's mouth.
"Ah-ah?" Hermione, still in shock, responded blankly.
"Ron is such a bad person who refuses to speak directly when it's clearly his own problem and instead makes random accusations against others," Cynthia said objectively and sincerely, "He worries about this and imagines that, but he just won't tell the truth. It must be a lot of psychological burden to get along with him, right?"
If Harry didn't care about his relationship with his good brother, he would almost applaud Cynthia's words after being ignored by Ron for a month because of the competition registration.
"..." Hermione listened without replying. She subconsciously turned her head to look at Ron, which made Ron extremely ashamed and angry, and then something even worse happened.
"Hermione." Viktor walked over with his toes turned outward, holding two bottles of butterbeer in his hands.
"Hmph!" Ron snorted coldly, not sure if he was embarrassed or angry, and fled across the dance floor.
"Ron!" Hermione reached forward and called out briefly, but did nothing to stop Ron.
"What's wrong?" Krum asked Hermione with concern.
"My friend..." Hermione said, meeting Cynthia's green eyes looking at her. She thought about what Cynthia said, and Ron's accusations against her rang in her ears. She felt angry and decided to wait for Ron to apologize to her. So she changed the subject and said, "It's okay. Let's have some drinks and then go dancing." As she spoke, she took the wine from Krum's hand and followed him to the other side.
Harry stared in amazement as every development in front of him was different from what he had expected because of Cynthia. He admired Cynthia's ruthless words in his heart.
"Finally they left. I'm so tired of talking all this time." Cynthia muttered and took a sip of the butterbeer.
"Were you annoyed with Ron just now?" Harry said cautiously, fearing that he would become the target of Cynthia's attack if he said something wrong.
"Aren't you annoying? He looks like a fool who finds fault with others and waits for others to coax him," Cynthia said, and raised the corners of her lips proudly. "Fortunately, I know how to make such people go away."
"What's the reason?" Harry asked curiously.
"Tell the truth and express your feelings truthfully," said Cynthia, who has no normal social life and lives as she pleases, as a matter of course. "That way you will feel good and the annoying guy will go away on his own."
"..." Harry felt that what Cynthia said was right, but he always felt that something was wrong. He took Cynthia's logic into consideration and immersed himself in thinking, almost forgetting his purpose of testing Cynthia's background.
Della and Draco, who had danced three songs in a row, finally left the dance floor. They also walked towards the table by the wall. Annika immediately raised the drink in her hand and waved to the two people who were approaching.
"Annika Rochier, Maria Holt, my friends in Country F," Della saw Annika's beckoning and briefly introduced them to Draco, "Come on, let's go have some drinks and take a break."
"Okay." Draco held Della's hand affectionately and walked over there, not noticing that Maggie, who had been following them, also walked over with Lytia.
Harry happened to notice Theodore, who was swaying as Della moved outside a table. This was actually normal, as he knew who in Slytherin was looking forward to Della's favor, but he felt strangely that something was wrong.
Cynthia looked this way and that, feeling like she could watch the fun again, she covered her mouth and laughed.