Hogwarts: This professor is too Muggle.

Chapter 278 Black's Night Raid

"Black is at Hogwarts!?"

Snape looked directly at Melvin, his eyes filled with inquiry.

“I don’t know the specifics either.” Melvin watched the Phoenix Patronus leave. “That’s what Dumbledore’s message said. I came to Remus with you, so I don’t know more than you do.”

"The most important thing now is to get there and assemble as soon as possible..." Lu Ping reminded him from the side.

"By Merlin..." Snape's voice was squeezed out, the rest of his words were indistinct, but his eyes flashed with an unprecedented coldness, filled with anger and resentment.

Harry, however, did not find it repulsive; in fact, the hatred welling up inside him was even greater.

As the two professors hurried out of the room, Harry turned back just as the door was about to close. He remembered something: the Patronus of the Phoenix had only informed Professor Levent and Professor Snape, but not Professor Lupin, who also showed no intention of attending the gathering.

If he didn't know this news, that would be fine. Now that he does, why is he still sitting calmly behind his desk?

Harry couldn't understand it, and he didn't have time to dwell on it. Wearing his invisibility cloak, he stepped into the shadows, carefully and quietly following closely behind the two professors.

"squeak--"

"boom!"

The door to the Defense Against the Dark Arts office was locked, completely isolating the room from the hallway.

The candlelight and torches were all extinguished, leaving only a beam of moonlight shining obliquely through the window, landing on the chair behind the office. The slender wolf hair brush shimmered in the moonlight, like an expensive velvet dress.

A silver wolf sat on a chair, its body thin and bony, its eyes gleaming with a dark, eerie light. Its bushy tail drooped limply until it touched the ground with the chair leg. Its sharp claws clutched its chest, suppressing the throbbing pain in its heart as it transformed.

He stared intently at the doorway, his gaze deep and unfathomable.

……

Located in the southwest of the castle, the Gryffindor Tower is a warm and comfortable antique-style building. The first floor has a public lounge with a ceiling height of nearly 20 feet. It is decorated in red and gold as the main colors, and it is spacious but does not feel empty. The outer walls are furnished with armchairs and round tables, while the inner walls are furnished with long sofas. The exterior walls have mosaic windows that allow you to see the starry sky, and the main hall is covered with soft velvet carpets.

Marble pillars support simple staircases, each leading to the male or female dormitories.

Girls are allowed to enter the boys' dormitory, but the reverse is not allowed. The moment a violator steps onto the stairs, the slide mechanism will be triggered, causing them to fall down in a sorry state.

At the entrance to the portrait cave on the eighth floor, a portrait of the fat lady guards the entrance. To enter the tower, you need to say the correct password.

Footsteps sounded, and Melvin and Snape approached side by side. They saw Dumbledore, with his white hair and beard, standing at the half-open cave entrance, his brows furrowed. He wore a sky-blue nightgown adorned with star and moon patterns.

“Severus, Melvin, you’ve come.” Dumbledore looked up.

“We happened to be having a late-night chat when we received your message.” Melvin raised his hand in greeting. “I came over immediately after receiving the message.”

The torches on the wall flickered suddenly, as if an invisible night wind was blowing. Harry, wearing the Invisibility Cloak, cautiously passed through several professors and arrived at the oppressive entrance to the Portrait Cave, where several students had been awakened.

Led by Percy, the group included students from all grades, all from Gryffindor. Their expressions betrayed a hint of fear, while their eyes held an incredulous rage.

“It’s a pity Ron is sleeping too soundly, and Hermione isn’t here either.” Harry looked up and met Dumbledore’s deep blue eyes.

The headmaster could see through the invisibility cloak. He pursed his lips, knowing he couldn't show himself in front of Snape now; he would have to explain things to the headmaster after everything was over.

"hey-hey……"

Peeves hung upside down from the ceiling, watching them and chuckling softly. He sniffed the air, seemingly catching Harry's scent, but covered his mouth and didn't expose him. Perhaps because the headmaster was right there, he didn't dare to cause trouble or make any threatening jokes.

Dumbledore appeared to be the first to receive the news. He told the students not to panic and instructed Percy not to wake more people. He quickly brought the situation under control, and things did not seem too bad.

"No worries, no one was injured. We'll discuss the details when Minerva and the others arrive."

As more footsteps sounded, the other deans arrived one after another, most of them wearing pajamas. Only Professor McGonagall, who had been working on school affairs all night, was still wearing a black robe. Her lips were tightly pressed into a straight line, and her breathing trembled slightly with anger.

Several professors simultaneously began to examine the tower entrance.

The canvas was vandalized; small pieces of canvas were torn to shreds and scattered all over the ground, while large pieces of canvas were completely ripped from their frames. Some inconspicuous marks remained on the stone wall, resembling sharp fingernails or claws.

The plump lady squeezed into the picture frame next to the corridor, covering her face and sobbing, while Sir Cadogan whispered words of comfort beside her.

Dumbledore's face darkened: "On my way back to my office from the kitchen, I ran into Peeves, who told me that there were naughty children running around in the castle. At first, I thought they were students out for a night stroll, but then I received a plea for help from Sir Cadogan, saying that the Fat Lady had been attacked."

"Is that Sirius Black?" Sprout asked in surprise.

Dumbledore nodded slightly: "Peeves saw it."

The wizards present raised their heads, their gazes fixed on the spirit in the corner above, with a hint of inquiry in their eyes.

Peeves still had a smile on his face. His mischievous philosophy was different from the twins'. He didn't want to bring joy to others, he just wanted to hear screams. When he saw sad and lost wizards, he couldn't suppress his instinct to laugh.

"Yes, Professor, I saw it all."

Peeves noticed that Dumbledore's expression wasn't good, so he toned down his teasing and joking face a little, but his hoarse voice still had a strange tone. "It was like this, Sirius Black wanted to go in and tried several passwords, like Dragon Head, Honeybee, Goblin, and Stink Dog Shit, oh, the last one wasn't a password, it was his angry cursing."

Knowing the truth beforehand, Melvin didn't seem so nervous. He didn't care about Blake's intrusion or the students' safety, but he was quite interested in this Peeves.

The four giants did not exist when the school was founded. They were born later by drawing on the emotions of teachers and students from all over the world. They have no formal academic name, are like ghosts but have a physical entity, are indestructible, and are immune to all kinds of magical attacks.

Gradually, he became a mischievous ghost at Hogwarts.

Peeves is part of Hogwarts, but he is not under the headmaster's jurisdiction. Not every headmaster is respected by Peeves. Dumbledore's prestige comes from himself, not from the authority of the headmaster.

Countless teachers and students tried to drive Peeves out of the castle, working together to make many preparations, but each time they failed.

This kind of confrontation has continued for centuries. The last time was in 1876, the last and most intense one, when Pee Pee completely defeated the teachers and students of that year, forcing the school to close for three days. Then, he got the then-principal, Euprasia Moore, to sign an agreement establishing Pee Pee's privileges. "He scolded the fat lady for being rigid, for being blind, for putting things in that shouldn't have been, and for blocking things that should have been."

No one paid any attention to his witty joke; they just stared intently at it. The mischievous imp feigned fear and shrank back. "Of course, the fat lady wouldn't let him in. The bad-tempered fellow immediately became angry, and then..."

It spread its hands: "Then you'll find out."

Harry stood behind Percy, pondering the deeper meaning of that sentence. Black thought he should go in, but who shouldn't? It couldn't be a classmate, could it?

The wizards present shared similar thoughts, and Professor McGonagall continued to scrutinize Peeves, suspecting that it was concealing some of the truth.

Under Professor McGonagall's stern and cold gaze, Peeves shrank back, hugged the ceiling, took two steps back, and muttered as he hid in the shadows where the torches couldn't reach.

The next headmaster is a wizard you can't mess with, and he seems even scarier than Dumbledore.

"Sir Cadogan was tending his horses nearby when he saw him launch the attack. He immediately came to me to inform me of the situation," Dumbledore said solemnly. "By the time I arrived, he had already left, and then I notified you to come here."

“We can’t just sit here and wait to die…” Professor McGonagall said anxiously, “What if he attacks students from other houses?”

Flitwick and Sprout were also somewhat anxious upon hearing this, but Snape remained relatively calm, approaching the portrait hole and carefully examining the inconspicuous marks.

"He used to be a Gryffindor student and couldn't break into other houses' dormitories."

Dumbledore looked up at the group of students. Since the children's safety was at stake, he couldn't make a decision alone. "Minerva, Felius, Pomona, and Severus, return to your respective dormitories immediately and inform your prefects to keep watch. Ensure the students' safety. I will organize a thorough search with the other professors..."

The orders were laid out methodically, and one could vaguely glimpse the demeanor of a leader of the Order of the Phoenix in this old wizard: "Student council presidents, organize the prefects, and if any problems arise, immediately contact the professor by finding a ghost or a portrait."

Finally, he sighed and said, "Try not to wake the children who are still sleeping. Let them sleep well."

……

The torches in the corridors were relit, illuminating the castle brightly. The deans stayed at the academy, while the elective course professors were dragged away to inspect the main castle building, the Owl Hut, the North Tower, the Astronomical Tower, and various hidden corners again and again.

Tonight is a full moon, and the moonlight shining through the clouds is very bright. Holding an oil lamp in hand, walking through the corridor, it's like fireflies flitting through the treetops. If the night watchman slowed his pace a little more, the night would be even more peaceful.

“Melvin…”

Dumbledore took a step, his movements seemingly slow, yet quite swift.

“Don’t worry, nothing will happen.” Melvin was touring the Astronomy Tower with the principal, going through the motions but not putting in any real effort, appearing somewhat nonchalant. “When we received your message, we happened to be in Remus’s office, discussing that incident from back then, and discovered many suspicious points in the whole process…”

Melvin relayed some of the doubts.

Peter Pettigrew may not be dead, Sirius Black may not have betrayed us. Everything happened too hastily, and the truth is hidden behind a fog. They weren't there firsthand, so they can't see it clearly.

"Back on that night in Godric's Hollow, Black had seen Hagrid holding baby Harry. He had the opportunity to attack; Hagrid was no match for him, but he didn't..."

"Black has been out of prison for six months. From Privet Drive to Diagon Alley, from the Express to Hogsmeade, he has had many opportunities to attack Harry, but Harry is fine. Perhaps the godfather's intention was not to harm his godson."

Walking to the open-air platform of the tower, where students stargaze, the starlight and moonlight illuminate the outer walls of the castle. From here, one can overlook the Black Lake and the Forbidden Forest. The Beating Willow on the ground sways its branches slightly, its leaves sparse.

"..."

Dumbledore looked at Melvin, a glint in his deep blue eyes, and asked thoughtfully, "Can I trust you, Melvin?"

“Of course,” Melvin nodded slightly.

……

The next morning.

The Gryffindor students, who had slept soundly all night, left their dormitories only to be shocked to learn that the password for the night was "son of a bitch." They froze in place, and when they looked up, they found that the portrait of the Fat Lady had been replaced by that of Sir Cadogan and his short, fat pony.

Arriving at the auditorium in a daze, the students surrounded Percy, who had dark circles under his eyes, and only then did they learn what had happened the night before.

The news spread rapidly, reaching all four long tables in a very short time, and giving rise to all sorts of speculations. Each house had a different version of how Sirius Black entered the castle, each more bizarre than the last.

Hannah of Hufflepuff said Black could transform into a flowering bush, Luna of Ravenclaw thought he came in by moonlight, and there was also the Black Lake pipe theory, the broomstick-riding-through-the-window theory...

"If you had read 'Hogwarts: A History' carefully, you wouldn't have spread these rumors."

Hermione listened to her two friends' discussion and glanced at them sideways. "The castle is under heavy protective magic. Whether it's Disillusionment Charm, flying broomsticks, Transfiguration or anything else, as long as you don't step directly into the hall, you can't get in."

"Could it be an invisibility cloak? I wore an invisibility cloak last night to eavesdrop on the professor's conversation."

"Not even an invisibility cloak..." Hermione suddenly raised her voice, "You were out at night wearing an invisibility cloak and you even eavesdropped on the professor's conversation!"

Harry quickly looked around and, finding no one had noticed their loud conspiracy, began to recount the events of the previous night in detail: the three professors' doubts about the truth, Black's sudden attack, and Professor Lupin's absence from the night patrol.

"Luckily, I wasn't in my dorm at the time. I was eavesdropping in my office and didn't run into Black..." Harry said with some relief.

Hermione, unusually, didn't scold him for breaking school rules, and even nodded in agreement: "Hogsmeade was very lucky that time. We were all chasing Crookshanks, otherwise that black dog might have attacked you instead."

Ron suddenly lost his appetite, put down his knife and fork, and held the trembling baby in his arms.

"Blake's target isn't you, so what are you afraid of?"

“But I was the one who was attacked at Hogsmeade that time,” Ron stammered weakly. “This time, during the Black raid, Harry wasn’t in the dormitory, but I was, and I was sleeping soundly. I have a feeling that the ominous sign might be a prophecy about me. Harry is always so lucky; it’s always me who’s in danger.”

"..."

Hermione and Harry fell into deep thought.

(End of this chapter)