The Shopkeeper of All Worlds in the British Wizarding World

Chapter 749 Entering Hogwarts
The Hog's Head Inn was completely different from the Three Broomsticks that Ryan had been to. It was just a small, dark, and very dirty room, exuding a strong smell of sheep. There was thick dirt on the bay windows, and almost no light could penetrate. There were some candle stubs on the rough wooden table.

At first Ryan thought the floor was mud, but after a few steps he realized it was centuries of dirt on the stone floor. Apparently Hermione had noticed this too, so she tiptoed like a ballerina when she entered the room. Soon, all the people who were going to reinforce Hogwarts entered the bar. More than 20 people filled the room, making it seem smaller and darker.

"Okay, the person standing at the back, please help close the door, and the rest of you follow me." Aberforth turned his head and said to the people behind him, then led everyone around the counter and through a door, and finally climbed up a shaky wooden staircase to the living room on the second floor.

The living room was much cleaner than the lobby on the first floor. The floor was covered with worn carpet and there was a small fireplace. Above the fireplace hung a large oil painting of a blonde girl looking into the room blankly and tenderly.

"Mr. Dumbledore," Hermione asked quietly after seeing the portrait, "Is this your sister? Ariana?"

"Yes," Aberforth said stiffly, "I think you may have heard news about our family from someone, but now is not the time to discuss this. You need to hurry." After that, he cleared his throat and stood up, walked around the small table, and stood in front of Ariana's portrait. "You know what to do."

The girl smiled and turned away. She did not disappear beside the frame like the people in the usual portraits, but seemed to walk along a long tunnel painted behind her. They watched her slender figure go farther and farther, and finally swallowed by the darkness.

"What an ingenious design," Ryan whispered in admiration, only to be met with a dissatisfied look from Aberforth. After glancing at Ryan, who shut his mouth because he knew he was being rude, the portrait on the wall opened like a small door, revealing the entrance to a real tunnel.

"Good luck to you." Aberforth nodded vigorously, then made way for the fireplace and conjured up a stool for them to stand on. Ryan, as the leader of the team, was the first to step on the stool and climb onto the mantelpiece and pass through the hole behind the portrait of Ariana. After Ryan went in, the others followed suit, and finally only Aberforth was left standing quietly in the living room.

The situation in the tunnel was much better than expected. The entrance of the tunnel was paved with smooth stone steps, and brass lamps hung on the walls emitted warm yellow light. After walking a little further, the stone slabs disappeared and only dirt was left on the ground. However, it was not the kind of rotten road with potholes, stones and tree roots like in other tunnels, but a very flat and hard dirt road.

The slope of the passage was very steep, so everyone would breathe slightly after walking for a while. Although each person's voice was not loud, the breathing of more than 20 people still made a loud sound in the dim tunnel.

Finally, after turning a corner, they arrived at the end of the passage. Here, like the entrance, there was a short flight of stone steps leading to a door, exactly the same as the one behind the portrait of Ariana.

After gently pushing open the door, they saw an empty room in front of them. It looked only as big as a small classroom. There was nothing in the room except five or six torches on the wall and a door on the opposite wall.

"Why have I never been here before?" "What is this place?" "I don't remember this room in Hogwarts." "Yeah, there's no way I haven't heard of such a unique room." After everyone came in, several guerrillas muttered. After all, they all graduated from here before, so they were naturally curious about encountering a room that basically no one had ever seen.

"This is the Room of Requirement, a secret room in Hogwarts Castle." Ryan, who had used the Room of Requirement many times, quickly determined where it was based on the path and the magical reaction in the room. "Its door is on the eighth floor, opposite the tapestry where the troll beat Barnabas to death, but it is usually hidden."

"So that's how it is." Several guerrillas nodded, and one of them walked to the door and tried to open it. But suddenly a transparent wall of air appeared in front of him, blocking his right hand that was reaching for the door handle. "Since someone tried to attack Howarts through here at the end of last semester, I have set traps all around the Room of Requirement. If you go out like this, all the traps will be triggered." Ryan squeezed over to explain to the guerrilla, then pulled out his wand and knocked on the door handle.

Everyone in the room felt as if a strong static electricity was scanning through them, and their hair stood up. At the same time, they saw a pink light covering the entire room, and a large number of complex or simple magic symbols emerged from the wall after being illuminated by the light, and then dimmed.

"We can go out now," after the last symbol dimmed and disappeared into the wall, the door opened outwards. So everyone saw the tapestry on the wall opposite the door showing the giant beating Barnabas with a club. After the door opened, Ryan turned around and said to everyone in the room. "Everyone better hurry up, because the traps will be reactivated in two minutes. Of course, if we all go out and close the door, the traps will also be activated."

After hearing Ryan's words, everyone quickly lined up in two teams and filed out of the door. The last person closed the door when he came out of the room. When the two doors closed together, a large number of runes of various colors emerged from the doors.

"Next we should notify the people in the castle--" Lupin said as he stood beside Ryan, but before he could finish his words he heard the sound of a wooden stick hitting the floor at the stairs.

"Armor protection." "Fainted." A red light shot from the direction of the stairs and was then blocked by a barrier. After blocking a Stunning Spell, Ryan shouted in the direction of the stairs: "We are reinforcements from Hogsmeade through the secret passage, not Death Eaters."

"Prove your identities." Moody's voice came from the bottom of the stairs. "Only one person can come to the stairs to communicate with me, otherwise I will attack directly."

"I'll go, you wait here." Ryan said, and then he spread his wings and slowly floated up a foot. Then he flew all the way to the stairs. When he looked down, he saw Moody below, using the handrail as a cover, holding his wand and pointing it at him.

"It's you, Ryan." Moody lowered his wand after seeing Ryan floating out. "Let the reinforcements come down. I believe no one can threaten you to bring people in."

After everyone came, they followed Moody down the stairs to meet up with the others. On the way, Ryan and Lupin began to ask about the current situation at Hogwarts.

"Hogwarts is not in a good situation right now," Moody said seriously. "Voldemort and the Death Eaters are attacking the outer shield like crazy. Even if we try our best to resist, the shield can only last for another ten minutes at most. That's because your magic sculptures have been poking the Death Eaters in the back, preventing them from attacking with all their strength."

At this time, they just walked around a corner of the stairs, and Ryan saw that the statues and armor in the castle were now standing in neat rows in the courtyard. At the same time, there was some wind whistling on the playground caused by some spells.

(End of this chapter)