great-warnovel Chapter 35 Night Sneak Peek
Chapter 35 Night Sneak Peek
For Harry and Ron, today was exceptionally long and difficult.
Even though Professor Flitwick's Transfiguration class was quite entertaining, their minds were already on the invisibility cloak.
They finally made it to evening, and the two boys ate their dinner absentmindedly, remembering to bring a few more pies so they wouldn't go hungry later.
Hermione, meanwhile, continued to work on her assignments in the common room at a leisurely pace.
Her life has been very busy lately. In addition to the homework assigned by the professors, she also has to study the second-year textbooks on her own, as well as the most important paper on the magic of the Radiant Stone. Fortunately, she has almost finished reading the textbooks and is basically in the final stages of writing the paper.
Only then did I have time to think about other things, and play a big adventure game with the two little lions at night.
At this moment, the two were pacing back and forth in front of her table. They had originally planned to play Wizard Chess together to pass the time until late at night, but the chess pieces couldn't stand the two's absent-minded and chaotic behavior, so they all went on strike.
They could only huddle together and whisper to each other, or be annoying in front of Hermione, drawing frequent stares from other upperclassmen.
They waited until lights out. The three of them pretended to go back to their rooms to sleep, then sneaked out to meet in the lounge. Thanks to the scarcity of students these days, they didn't have to worry about waking their roommates.
"Now, shall we tell you where we're going?" Harry asked expectantly.
"Are you really not going to the fourth floor? I feel like that's the only place worth going in the whole school," Ron asked, unwilling to give up.
Hermione didn't actually know where she was going.
The fourth floor is the key location that Dumbledore mentioned, and everyone seems to assume that the Lurkers' target is there. However, the Lurkers have never really shown their purpose. At least during the last Ghost Riot, it was not clear what they wanted to do. It seemed that they were just trying to create chaos.
Hermione, along with the two others, slipped out of the lounge wearing an invisibility cloak and hurried downstairs amidst the fat lady's disgruntled grumbling.
But Hermione stopped at the corner of the stairs on the fifth floor.
"?"
"?"
Two question marks were written on the boys' faces.
"Wait," Hermione said calmly.
This location isn't far, whether going upstairs or downstairs, so they'll hear any noise immediately.
"So, we risked being locked up in the middle of the night just to stand here as punishment?" Ron asked, puzzled.
Harry seemed to understand Hermione's intention and asked, "Do you think the murderer will take action while Professor McGonagall is away?"
Hermione gave him a relieved look: "Keep your voice down, the invisibility cloak doesn't block out sound."
"We can't be sure if the mastermind's goal is the fourth-floor restricted area, but from this position, we can hear the noise quickly enough, and it will be much easier to escape," she explained in a low voice.
"But what if the killer doesn't make a move tonight? Wouldn't we just be standing here like idiots all night?" Ron complained.
"Hunters don't succeed every time," Hermione said matter-of-factly. It's normal for many wild beasts to lie in wait motionless for a week to catch nothing, whether in the borderlands or in the wilderness of this world.
"However, the professors' elaborate smokescreen was essentially a psychological game with the killer. I was just guessing that the other party was most likely to make a move tonight."
She smiled slightly: "Because they're also betting on which day Professor McGonagall will truly be gone."
In the quiet night, through the castle windows, one could see the raging snow outside. Large snowflakes reflected the scattered lights shining from inside the castle, like ghostly shadows. The three of them waited quietly at the top of the stairs, like hunters waiting for their prey.
"Ron, stuff the pie in properly, I can smell the odor wafting out of the cloak."
Harry was whispering to Ron when suddenly Ron nudged him with his elbow and pointed down the stairs.
The two immediately looked over and saw a vaguely visible dark shadow moving slowly at the bottom of the dark staircase.
Hermione could clearly feel Harry and Ron trembling slightly beside her, whether from fear or excitement, she couldn't tell.
Hermione silently cast the Levitation Charm on the three of them; she was already capable of casting this simple spell silently.
Not much magic was used; this level of levitation charm simply reduced their weight significantly, decreasing the likelihood of them making noise when moving, especially Harry's wand, which rattled easily with the slightest movement if not specially treated.
"It seems their target really is the fourth-floor restricted area!" Hermione watched as the dark figure silently turned into the fourth-floor corridor, but she wasn't discouraged by her overly cautious judgment.
She pulled two boys whose arms and legs were somewhat unresponsive, and slowly moved them downstairs.
Although such an action was somewhat dangerous, she believed that the professors had made arrangements in advance.
Perhaps the Potter family's invisibility cloak really is different from the regular version. This heirloom seems to be able to block even one's aura. The three of them kept their distance from the dark figure as much as possible, and the other party did not realize that they were being followed by a first-grader.
However, Hermione wasn't so reckless as to follow the shadowy figure into the door at the end of the corridor. They saw the shadowy figure silently cast a spell on the door lock and then quietly slip inside.
"What do we do now? Go find the professor?"
"Should we make some noise and scare them away?!"
Harry looked worried: "Even though Dumbledore said it's a forbidden area, he's definitely going there to do something bad! We can't let him succeed."
"Let's wait and see. I don't believe the professors didn't make arrangements." Hermione pulled the two of them closer to the door, about 20 meters away, and then stopped.
Sure enough, within a few breaths, a series of loud banging sounds came from behind the door.
The next moment, a terrifying roar came from behind the door.
"Hiss!"
The piercing roar was like fingernails scratching a blackboard, making one's head ache.
"What was that sound?!" Ron asked in horror.
This roar seemed to have sounded the battle horn, and the sounds of the spells clashing behind the door suddenly intensified, accompanied by explosions and the sounds of the floor and walls shattering.
"Back off!" Hermione made a quick decision, pulling the two of them back to the edge of the stairwell, ready to escape at any moment.
The next second, the door at the end of the corridor was blown to pieces, and a dark figure flew out from behind the door in a disheveled state, crashing heavily to the ground.
He forced himself not to make a sound, and struggled to grope something in his clothes.
In an instant, Hermione's third eye seemed to be triggered, and a strange, commanding feeling of death came from the other person's arms.
"It's that bell sound! He's trying to incite another ghost riot!" Hermione immediately realized what the other was holding.
However, before she could make a move, a series of spells shot out from inside the door, forcing the shadowy figure to focus all her energy on defense.
Seeing that he couldn't remove the bell and cause chaos, the shadowy figure had no choice but to activate another spell. In an instant, a strong wind howled, and the shadowy figure was swept up by the hurricane, rushing out of the corridor and rushing down the stairs into the darkness.
The strong wind it created blew the fabric of the cloak up, but thankfully Hermione reacted quickly and stepped on it, preventing her from being exposed.
Ron was about to say something when Harry covered his mouth.
It turned out that two figures emerged from behind the broken door; they were Flitwick and Lily.
"He possessed a powerful alchemical artifact that shielded him from the fatal blow."
"There are also those alchemical bombs that blow open sealed doors; I've never seen a model specifically designed to break sealing magic."
The two professors exchanged a question: "Shouldn't we pursue it?"
They didn't seem to be asking each other, but rather asking someone else.
Sure enough, a large bird flew out listlessly from behind the door.
"It's Dumbledore!" The three people under the invisibility cloak exchanged glances. Sure enough, all of this was planned by Dumbledore. But why didn't he come in person?