Harry Potter: This senior is pretty strong

Chapter 114 Acknowledging one's own weakness is the first step to pride.

"I'm not a coward! I'm not!"

Looking at the word made of fallen leaves on the ground, Draco craned his neck and shouted.

His flushed face and angry shouts made this "prodigy" look somewhat ferocious.

The look of humiliation that flashed in his eyes made his ferocity seem somewhat pitiful.

"Who is it? Who is playing a trick on me?!"

Draco said this angrily, pulling the exquisite wand from the inside pocket of his robe and waving it around, unleashing every spell he could think of.

He was convinced that someone was hiding nearby, watching him make a fool of himself!

However, no matter how the wind, fire, thunder, and lightning brought by those spells raged around in the corridor, they couldn't force the person pretending to be a ghost to come out.

Besides leaving the corridor in a mess.

"Why! Why does everyone bully me?!"

Draco waved his wand wildly while loudly accusing Draco.

As he shouted, his voice became hoarse, his nose tingled, his eyes reddened, and tears streamed down his pale, flushed cheeks—he finally broke down and cried.

"Waaah, why! I am Draco Malfoy! I should be the pride of Hogwarts... Waaah, I'm not a coward, they bullied me... They are all bad people... They bullied me..."

No matter how proud he was, he was still just an eleven-year-old child. After the long-term mental pressure from "Great Demon King" Qin and the failure of his scheme yesterday, he was already uneasy and anxious, afraid of being retaliated against, and dared not stay in the auditorium for long.

Now that his inner pretense has been exposed by a mysterious person, he has completely broken down, venting his panic and grievances in a childlike way, just like an ordinary child.

At that moment, Draco Malfoy felt incredibly vulnerable.

It turns out that I really am a useless coward, a mediocre coward, a good-for-nothing who only knows how to cry but can't do anything!

After a long while, Draco, having vented his emotions, put down his wand, no longer casting spells or shouting.

The corridor returned to silence.

He leaned against a pillar, slumped to the ground, his face still bearing traces of wet tears, his silver-gray eyes staring blankly into the empty corridor.

Perhaps, being a useless person isn't so bad.

Draco's lips curled into a bitter smile.

He slumped to the ground, muttering a string of complaints:

“Are you still there? If you want to humiliate me, then humiliate me all you want… I know I can’t beat you, I can’t even find you… I hate this place, I hate Hogwarts, I hate Harry Potter, I hate Qin, I hate everyone… I’m leaving this place, I’m going to another school, I never want to see these people again…”

However, no one responded to him; only the occasional breeze blowing through the corridor and across his forehead, which was covered by his messy blond hair.

"They've probably left... Ha, how could a coward like me deserve anyone's attention..."

Draco gave another self-deprecating laugh, raised his thin chin, looked up at the sky, his gaze blank and empty.

"Sand~sand~sand~"

Just as the dejected Draco thought that the mysterious man had left after humiliating him, a faint scraping sound came from the ground.

He frowned and looked toward the source of the sound, discovering it was coming from a pile of leaves moving on the ground.

The leaves, like nimble fish, quickly formed new letters, which in turn formed new words.

That person hasn't left yet!

Draco looked at the new words on the ground; clearly, the mysterious man had presented him with a new "message."

Have you cried enough?

Draco hastily wiped away the tears on his face, momentarily at a loss for words to respond to such a simple question, for his heart was filled with grievance and embarrassment.

The mysterious figure seemed not to expect Draco's answer, and continued to use the rustling leaves to arrange new words and form a new sentence:

Crying in your youth is not shameful; it's better than regretting it later in life.

Draco looked at the sentence, not understanding its meaning, but feeling that it was profound.

Moreover, he didn't know if it was just his imagination, but he saw a kind of "concern" in that sentence.

"Is this person trying to comfort me?" Draco wondered to himself.

You feel like you've lost all your pride and self-respect, right?

"Do I still have any?" Upon seeing this, Draco subconsciously replied, his eyes dimming once more.

You should ask yourself if you have ever truly possessed pride and self-respect.

"What do you mean? I don't even deserve to have pride?" Draco thought he might have been imagining things, and that this person wasn't there to comfort him.

Your so-called pride comes from the long-standing Malfoy family, from so-called pure blood, but these superficial things are not truly something to be proud of.

Because the sentence had too many words, it was divided into four sections, just like movie subtitles, with one section displayed and the next section immediately replaced.

Therefore, the rustling sound of the leaves moving continued for a long time.

Draco read through the long message amidst the rustling sound, then a blank look appeared in his eyes.

Because his family's honor and pure wizard bloodline were originally the source of his pride, but now they were being called something flashy and impractical.

"You, you're talking nonsense..." Draco weakly retorted.

He wanted to tell this person was talking nonsense, that family and bloodline were the real things to be proud of. However, he then thought that Qin and Harry and the others had never cared about those two things of his...

[You probably already figured it out, neither Qin nor Harry Potter took your family or bloodline seriously.]

The mysterious figure seemed to have read Draco's mind and "wrote" a new message, which surprised Draco.

He knew of a spell called "mind-reading," which could read the thoughts in another person's mind. Could this mysterious person also possess a similar spell?

As these thoughts arose, a hint of fear appeared in Draco's eyes.

"Then what is true pride?" he pressed.

True pride should come from yourself, not from anything else.

"Myself?" Draco asked thoughtfully.

That's right.

"I have no idea……"

Draco lowered his head.

He wanted to say that he didn't know what he had to be proud of.

Yes, compared to someone like Qin, he felt utterly insignificant and weak from the bottom of his heart, so what pride did he have to offer?

You feel very weak, right?

The mysterious person seemed to have seen through his thoughts.

“Hmm…” Draco nodded.

Acknowledging your own weakness is the first step to pride, and you have already taken that first step.

It's another sentence that's hard to understand, but it's very profound.

However, Draco's originally gloomy and depressed heart was slightly touched.

He seemed to understand something, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it.

“Acknowledging one’s own weakness is the first step to pride…” Draco murmured, repeating.

Indeed, there's an Eastern proverb—to know one's own shame is a great courage.

"An Eastern proverb..." Draco thought this Eastern proverb was indeed very wise.

The origin of the proverb doesn't matter; what matters is understanding that acknowledging your own weakness isn't a bad thing.

"Thank you... I think I understand a little bit of what you mean..." Draco said sincerely.

Whether the person was mocking him or not, he felt he had gained something today.

For example... the courage to admit one's own weakness.

[Perhaps you will ask, what is the second step to pride?] The leaves formed a new message.

"What is it?" Draco blurted out instinctively.

It's about strength, power, becoming strong yourself! It's about possessing the power to defeat others!

Draco's eyes widened, and his expression became intense.

What does this person mean?

Why did he say those things to me?

Could it be that he...

So, child, do you want the power to make yourself strong?

Draco was overwhelmed with excitement and elation upon reading this.

……

……

"Eat slowly..."

Hermione reminded Qin, who was wolfing down his food, and then watched him eat the ham sandwich she had handed him, licking the crumbs off his fingers.

His subsequent action made the girl slightly embarrassed, but fortunately, no one around seemed to notice it, and this discovery calmed her down considerably.

"I'm so hungry..." Qin said with a hint of satisfaction after swallowing the food, as if he had finally recovered.

"What exactly did you go about? You're so tired after such a short time?" Hermione asked curiously.

Qin was eating lunch when he suddenly said he had to go out for a bit. When he came back after a while, he looked like he was starving.

"Well... um~ I just created a new account, a secondary account. You know, creating a secondary account is very tiring," Qin Yu said seriously after a moment of contemplation.

"What nonsense are you spouting again..." Hermione knew, of course, that this guy often said strange things, but she was used to it.

"I want to eat that..." Qin Yu pointed to a certain food.

Seeing how hungry he was, Hermione stopped asking questions, reached out and picked up the food, handing it to him.

Qin Yu swallowed it in a few bites.

Then, just as it was about to habitually lick the little hand with food residue to avoid wasting food, the little hand suddenly withdrew.

Then, Qin Yu saw the owner of the small hand looking at him with a smug expression.

That probably means: Hmph, you didn't get your way this time.

Qin Yu raised an eyebrow.

Hmm, I'm still a bit hungry. Just now, in order to enlighten (and tease) a certain brat, I not only had to use a high-level illusion spell to become invisible, but I also had to dodge all sorts of spells that kid randomly cast, and I also had to go through the trouble of moving those leaves to send messages. It was really hard on Qin Panghu.

So he ordered another dish, and the girl handed it to him as instructed.

This time, he didn't let the girl get away with it. He quickly swallowed the outstretched finger and even bit it lightly as punishment.

Hermione blushed, glared at him angrily, and snorted.

"We'll see!" the little girl whispered fiercely.

——Dimensional wall——

To maintain coherence, Draco's descriptions are a bit longer. I'm not very good at describing intense emotions, so this is the best I could do.

Without further ado, summer vacation is over. Have a great start to the new school year!