Chapter 337 335. Breaking and entering
Sometimes night is not the best time to covert your whereabouts.
Even if Voldemort wasn't in Hogwarts Castle, he still had a tight defense arrangement here, with Aurors guarding the entrances almost 24 hours a day.
Especially when it was dark and the entire castle was under curfew, at Voldemort's signal, the Aurors and professors stationed in the castle implemented the strictest controls.
As long as any suspicious person is found during the night patrol, you can do it directly, regardless of life or death.
And the secret road leading from the Honeydukes candy store to the one-eyed hunchbacked old witch statue on the third floor of the castle, when Jon led Hanton and the others to escape last year, this road had already been taken by Barty Jr., Snape and others. Discovery, now also completely destroyed.
Of course, apart from this secret passage, there are several other secret passages marked on the Marauder's Map that can still be used. For example, there is a secret passage leading outside the school behind the statue of Gregory the Flatterer.
But no one can be sure that they are safe, so out of safety considerations, Fox came to Hermione's side like this.
And the night is not a good protection for the Phoenix.
Hermione stared at the top of a tower on the easternmost side of the castle on the Marauder's Map, which was one of the three tallest towers in Hogwarts, and the other was the one on the westernmost side of the castle, which used to be the Ravenclaw College lounge the tower of Gryffindor House.
Now the other two towers have been abandoned and used as storage rooms. Only the Astronomy Tower is still in use, but it is still in the afternoon, and no astronomy class will be held at this time, so the Astronomy Tower is very empty. There is no one on it.
Moreover, there are almost no other classrooms in the area where it is located. If the nearest group of students who are in class want to arrive at the Astronomy Tower at the fastest speed, it will take at least five minutes. It was more than enough for Min to deal with troubles.
"Why don't you let me be with you? I am a ghost, and I have been in this castle for thousands of years. No one is more familiar with it than me. I can help you a lot!" Ms. Gray's eyes widened, puzzled Said.
In order to ensure that there were no omissions, Hermione finally checked the names in the entire Hogwarts castle to make sure that the Dark Lord was really gone.
"I don't need these help ladies of yours. If you really want me to help you, you'd better agree to my request. It's good for both of us."
At this time, Ms. Gray finally heard the metaphor in Hermione's words, she said in disbelief.
"You think I'll be your burden!"
Hermione didn't have that hard heart after all, she looked up from the Marauder's Map.
"It's not a burden, Ms. Gray, but if we really all enter this castle, then our goals and standards of action are inconsistent. If there are disagreements or difficult to reach a consensus, it will be difficult to solve the problem, so I propose This request."
Although her tone was much more tactful, her attitude of refusing Ms. Gray to enter the castle with her was still firm.
Hermione is well aware of how important this task is, and she also knows that as long as Ms. Gray follows her, she will definitely instigate her to find the Ravenclaw crown, and even in some extreme cases, she will Maybe forcing myself to make a choice.
So Hermione actually agreed to her request at the beginning, partly because she wanted to hold her back first.
Ms. Gray was not deceived by Hermione's words that sounded a little better than "drag". Even if she had experienced thousands of years in vain, at least she was still an adult before she died.
But she finally hesitated for a few seconds with an ugly face, and agreed to Hermione's request.
"I can agree not to enter the castle, but you must also keep your promise. You intend to help me, not just a perfunctory sentence!"
Hermione looked at her and nodded earnestly. Perhaps she was perfunctory when she agreed at first, but from the moment Ms. Gray was willing to give her this trust, Hermione did correct her attitude .
No matter what changes these two years of experience have brought to her, her essential kindness has never changed.
After receiving such an affirmative answer from Hermione, Ms. Gray did not stay in her dormitory any longer. Hermione, who had completed all the preparations and solved the biggest hidden danger of Ms. Gray, stretched out to Fox. own arm.
"Can you see this, Fox, we're going here."
Facing the Marauder's Map, Hermione pointed out the location of the Astronomy Tower to Fox.
Fawkes just took a glance, and jumped directly on Hermione's shoulder, spreading his golden-red wings.
Golden light emerged and spread on it, and soon enveloped Hermione's whole body, but they were not teleported away at the first time, but with the flashing golden light, their body and that ray bit by bit The rays merged together.
In Hogwarts Castle, on the basis of its own anti-apparition magic, it was strengthened by Voldemort to specifically target the phoenix apparition function.
But even if his magical attainments have reached the pinnacle in the magic world, magical animals themselves, especially advanced magical animals like phoenixes, use magic power and magic that are very different from wizards.
No matter how much he restricts it, he can only restrict Fox's teleportation speed. As for whether he can control it, he cannot control it.
So after a delay of about a minute or so, Hermione and Fox disappeared together in the bedroom of the carriage, and at the same time, a figure of a man and a bird reappeared on the astronomy tower of the castle.
The moment her feet touched the ground, Hermione lifted up the invisibility cloak, covering herself and Fox under the cloak, and then began to observe the surrounding situation vigilantly.
The afternoon sun shone into the tower, so that the movement brought by Fox's Apparation would not be as dazzling as in the dark night, and there was no one on the Astronomy Tower except Hermione.
Then Hermione took out the Marauder's Map, and finally confirmed that this trip had violated the "illegal break-in" agreed between Dumbledore and Voldemort and did not alarm anyone, before she bowed her waist and carefully came to the entrance of the stairs. direction.
"Remember not to make any noise, Fox, and don't come out of the invisibility cloak suddenly. If there is an accident, we will leave the castle immediately. Professor Dumbledore said that as long as they don't directly catch us on the spot, the Dark Lord Heads won’t do anything to us.”
She entrusted Fox with the words that had been repeated countless times in the carriage, and Fox touched Hermione's face with his beak in dissatisfaction, as if he was upset why she thought he was a fool who couldn't understand human words. like a bird.
Received Fox's response, Hermione grabbed the cloak tightly with one hand and held the Marauder's Map in the other. After confirming that there was no one else under the tower, she began to go down the steep stairs.
Hermione didn't delay for a second, she kept observing the Marauder's map, and kept choosing those empty stairs to start going down, and she also found some strange things, that is, the man who helped her in the castle a year ago The movable stairs that quickly found Jon have all become ordinary now.
It will no longer play tricks on people, and there is no way to provide any help to Hermione, just like it is dead.
This made Hermione feel a little uneasy, but she pursed her lips to suppress some speculations rising from her heart, and instead focused on the task Dumbledore gave her.
It took about ten minutes, and she finally came to the first floor cautiously.
And when she walked down the stairs, a voice sounded, which made her subconsciously retract into the invisibility cloak and hide in the corner.
"If you want me to say, the master should really find a way to directly tear up the so-called contract, and take advantage of this opportunity to wipe out Dumbledore's gang. This is in our own territory. What else can they cause?"
An ugly witch with a figure like a fat pig said in a low voice with a fierce expression.
Following her was a wizard who looked similar to her but was as thin as a stick. They walked side by side and passed Hermione.
"Don't doubt the master's decision, just say this in front of me, don't let others hear it, especially Snape, he likes to report these news to the master the most."
Hermione looked coldly at their backs going up the stairs. Of course, she didn't forget the Carrow brothers and sisters.
In the past, the "slaves who made the worst mistakes" were taken away by them and used as classroom props in Muggle studies classes.
The fear they brought to the hemp students in the past was even somewhat worse than that of Dolohov, because if they were to fall into Dolohov's hands, there would be a high probability that they would only suffer a lot of torture and leave a However, almost none of the students who were taken away by the Carlo brothers and sisters came back alive.
Hermione watched their figures disappear before her eyes. Immediately, she continued to start her own actions. She stuck to the wall of the corridor on the first floor of the castle, and began to conduct a careful investigation of every room on the first floor.
There are very few classrooms on the first floor, and most of them are functional rooms like auditoriums, storage rooms, and bathrooms, and Hermione's goals are in these rooms.
It seems that the first floor of the castle is very large, and it is basically the place where the students have the most activities during the three meal times, so her movement is very restricted, but fortunately, a portrait of Dumbledore's principal's office helped her circle a piece The approximate location of the target.
This made Hermione's task perhaps not as difficult as imagined.
…
Jon's lunch is a treat for these unicorns.
After he rode the leading unicorn and found fresh white meat in the Forbidden Forest, the little unicorn's life was not in danger at all.
The whole herd of unicorns became much closer to Jon because of this, and even the few that were obviously hostile to his appearance at the beginning became less repulsive.
The unicorns found a place with water nearby, and at the same time found a lot of wild fruits to share with Jon.
Even with Jon's picky taste, he thinks that these fruits that he can't recognize are good, but he didn't lie down by the river with those unicorns to drink water, but summoned some by himself with magic. clean water.
It was time to talk about business while eating. Jon held up the wooden sign in his hand while nibbling wild fruits, and asked the unicorn who first recognized the leader of the wooden sign.
"Do you know if there are any other animals in the Forbidden Forest that recognize this wooden sign? If so, can you take me to meet them in the afternoon?"
This unicorn can obviously understand human speech. After listening to Jon's words, it immediately nodded its head, which instantly made Jon feel much better.
This trip to the Forbidden Forest originally thought that he might encounter a lot of troubles, but now it seems that it is going smoothly.
Of course, he didn't forget the biggest hero—the Bowtruckle that led him to find the group of unicorns. Jon helped it cut some wild fruit with a knife, but this little guy didn't look like anything interest.
Instead, after seeing that the little unicorn was out of danger, he bounced away.
Sometimes Jon can actually understand why Hagrid likes these magical animals so much, because compared with people, sometimes animals' feelings are really pure.
While helping Hagrid solve his troubles, Jon certainly hasn't forgotten about the game, he continued to ask the unicorn.
"How far is the fire dragon that attacked you from our current location? According to the speed you took me to run in the morning, can you make it from the sun's rise to the zenith to its setting?"
Even if this unicorn can understand human language, it is impossible to understand every noun in human language, so Jon did not talk for a few hours, but directly used the time when the sun is in the sky as an example .
Even so, the unicorn seemed a little hard to understand his words. The action of lowering its head to eat the fruit was obviously paused for a moment, and those bright eyes seemed to be thinking.
Then it seemed to finally understand Jon's words, and then nodded.
Jon blinked and began to narrow the time frame again.
"Then if it is the time until the sun sets halfway, is it still enough?"
This time the unicorn didn't think much longer, but just nodded.
"Which direction is that, just use your horn to point it out for me."
Soon, it turned its head and pointed the horn on its head to the southwest.
Jon didn't ask any more questions. He lowered his head in thought, estimating the speed and time. Because of the lack of accurate parameters, he couldn't get specific values.
But what is certain is that the fire dragon that fought with the entire unicorn clan is very close to him.
Started to enter the second stage of low-grade fever, constant coughing, nasal congestion, and throat slashing with a knife, but to be honest, I feel much better than when I had a high fever
(end of this chapter)