Chapter 117 The Chaotic Night

Not long before Hermione was pissed off by Ron, in the principal's office...

"McLean, what do you think this is?" Dumbledore picked up the candlestick he placed on the table with his wand. At the top of the middle candle among the three candles, there was a translucent black flame that was swaying without wind. .

It was taken from the soul of Celine's mother by Dumbledore using a spell unknown to Maca.

"I don't know, according to what Celine said, this thing should have been provoked in the Manchak Swamp..." Maca sat across from him, hesitantly said, "Maybe it's something related to the reanimated corpse of Voodoo. thing?"

Dumbledore nodded, but shook his head again.

"Maybe there is some connection, but I think it should be more ancient." He said slowly, "...don't get close to the swamp in the United States, at least not for now. This matter must be kept in mind."

This is the second time that Dumbledore has said this sentence. Although Maca is not very clear about the details, it is obviously not easy for Dumbledore to remind him repeatedly.

"As for her soul—"

Dumbledore turned his head and looked at Celine's mother who was floating in the center of the principal's room.

"It is almost impossible to restore her soul to its integrity." Dumbledore said, "Unfortunately, I don't have much to do."

"If you have the ability to go to that swamp in the future, you may be able to find some clues—until then, keep her with me! If you stabilize her nearly collapsed soul, at least there is still hope for her to survive. .”

Maca thought for a while, nodded in agreement and said, "Then trouble the professor, I think Celine thinks the same way."

After bidding farewell to Dumbledore, Maca left the principal's office, planning to go to the "Snow Witch" overnight - Celine must have been anxiously waiting.

But when he went downstairs, he heard a girl sobbing faintly.

It should be just around the corner in the front corridor.

Maca took a few steps forward suspiciously, and suddenly saw a mess of long brown hair protruding from the legs of a certain set of armor.

"Hermione?"

The girl was startled by the sudden sound, and she pushed her elbow to the side, just hitting the leg of the armor. There was only a crash, and the armor was about to fall down.

"Levitate into the air." Maca pulled out his wand from his sleeve, and let it float up before the armor fell to the ground.

He flicked his wand seemingly casually, and the armor assembled itself and stood back in place.

"Don't panic, it's Hermione." Maca said calmly, "What's wrong?"

Hermione stood up abruptly, looked at him with tears in her eyes, then grabbed his robe without saying a word, big teardrops overflowed from her eyes quickly, and slid down her cheeks. down.

"What happened? Can you tell me?" Maca asked strangely, casting a puzzled look at the hand that was holding on to his robe.

He's been so busy lately that he's hardly paying attention to what the cubs are up to—well, except about Ron's mouse.

But Hermione just shook her head vigorously and refused to say anything.

"Forget it, don't say it if you don't want to say it..." Maca said softly, "Or, go to Hogsmeade with me to play for a while? Sometimes, it's good to relax..."

"...that's against school rules." Hermione sniffed, her voice hoarse.

This Xiaoge was still paying attention to these things when he was crying.

"Then you are wandering around so late, isn't it against the school rules?" Maka spread her hands and said.

It was fine if he didn't say that, but now that he mentioned it, Hermione's tears seemed to become more violent. While sobbing, she slammed her head into Maca's chest.

"Hey, hello! Are you a Squirrel!" Maca quickly grabbed Hermione's shoulder, but unexpectedly Hermione raised her head at this moment,

Suddenly their faces were only a few inches apart.

The two looked at each other, and the scene looked very awkward for a while.

Hermione didn't know what was wrong with her, why she suddenly...

"...cough cough."

Both Maca and Hermione heard a sudden cough, and Hermione took a step back, almost hitting the wall.

"Professor Snape? Harry?" Maca turned his head, and immediately saw the two standing around the corner.

The expressions on Harry's and Snape's faces were surprisingly similar, they both had a subtle sense of seeing something they shouldn't have seen.

"...I think you should go to Filch and reflect on yourself!" Snape suddenly grabbed Harry by the collar, turned around decisively and walked downstairs.

He acted as if he didn't see Maca and Hermione, even though Harry still looked puzzled.

"...I think I should go back." Hermione said, and left in a hurry.

Maca pondered for a while, and then said to himself: "It seems that complaining is just an instinct, not a part of emotion and emotion..."

He muttered casually, and went all the way to the castle.

...

It wasn't until late at night that Harry returned to the dormitory from Filch's office, and everyone was already asleep.

He didn't think much about meeting Maca and Hermione just now. He just felt that Snape was really nice to Maca, and he even let Hermione go.

Pity him for copying the school rules most of the night in Filch's office, and he almost broke his hands before letting him go.

After a while, Harry, who was deeply tired, felt as if he fell asleep immediately...

He had a strange dream. He was walking in the woods, Firebolt slung over his shoulder, and he was following something silver and white. The thing snaked its way through the woods, and he could only catch glimpses of it between the leaves.

Desperate to catch up with it, he quickened his pace, but the faster he went, the faster his target was, and Harry couldn't resist running.

He heard the sound of hooves ahead and picked up the speed.

It was like a race between them, and he could hear the running ahead. Then he turned a corner into an open field, and—

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"

Harry woke up suddenly, as if he had been shot in the face. Completely disoriented in the darkness, he groped for the curtains around the bed—

Then he heard movement around him, Seamus Finnigan's voice from across the room.

"What's the matter?" Harry thought he heard the dormitory door shut.

At last he found the opening of the curtain and drew it aside, while Dean Thomas lit the lamp.

Ron sat up on the bed, the curtains pulled aside, a look of extreme terror on his face.

"Black! Sirius Black! He has a knife!"

"what?"

"Right here! What happened just now! He cut the curtain of the bed! Woke me up!"

"Sure you're not dreaming, Ron?" Dean asked.

"Look at that curtain! Let me tell you, he was here just now!" Ron said in horror.

They all climbed out of bed, Harry being the first to reach the dormitory door, and they ran down the stairs at full speed. Behind them, dormitory doors opened one after another, and many sleepy voices asked them questions.

"Who was yelling just now?" "What are you doing?"

Embers in the fireplace lit the common room, which was littered with a lot of litter from the party, and the room was empty.

"Sure you're not dreaming, Ron?"

"I tell you, I saw him!"

At this time, several girls came down the stairs, yawning in their pajamas.

"Why are there so many voices?" "Professor McGonagall told us to go to bed!"

Then, the boys also appeared one after another.

"Great, can the party go on?" Fred Weasley, who also appeared, said cheerfully.

"Everyone go back upstairs!" cried Percy.

He hurried to the common room, pinning his Head Boy badge to his pajamas as he spoke.

"Percy - Sirius Black!" said Ron feebly. "In our dormitory! With a knife! Woke me up!"

There was a sudden silence in the common room.

"Nonsense!" Percy looked startled, too. "You eat too much, Ron—you're having nightmares—"

"I tell you--"

"Okay, that's enough, stop talking!" Professor McGonagall came back again.

Once she entered the common room, she slammed the hole in the portrait behind her and looked around furiously.

"Gryffindor won the game, I am very happy, but you are so ridiculous now! Percy, I expected you to perform better!"

"I'm sure I didn't tell them to do that, Professor!" Percy tried to look more serious, although he looked a little funny in his pajamas and the Head Boy badge.

"I'm telling them all to go back to bed! My brother Ron had a nightmare—"

"It's not a nightmare!" Ron yelled, "Professor, I woke up and Sirius Black was standing in front of me, holding a knife!"

Professor McGonagall stared at him.

"Don't be a joke, Weasley. How could he fit through the hole in the portrait?"

"Ask him!" Ron pointed with a trembling hand to the back of Sir Cadogan's portrait. "Ask him if he saw—"

Professor McGonagall gave Ron a suspicious look, pushed the painting away again, and walked out by himself.

The entire common room held its breath.

"Sir Cadogan, did you let a man into Gryffindor Tower just now?"

"Of course, ma'am!" cried Sir Cadogan.

Everyone was speechless in astonishment, both in and out of the common room.

"You—did you do that?" Professor McGonagall asked in surprise, "but—but the password!"

"He has a password!" said Sir Cadogan proudly. "A whole week's password, ma'am! Read it from a little piece of paper!"

Professor McGonagall came back from the portrait hole, her face as chalky in the face of the stunned silent students.

"Which one," she said tremblingly, looking a little in disbelief, "what utterly ignorant fool wrote down all this week's passwords and left them lying around?"

There was silence, and then a tiny, frightened voice broke the silence.

Neville Longbottom, trembling from his down-slippered feet to the tip of his hair, slowly raised his hand.