Hogwarts Study Panel

Chapter 32: The Hidden Room

Sheehan placed the consideration of Professor Snape's whereabouts in the most important position.
Although Professor Snape did not explicitly tell him that he was no longer allowed to brew potions in the cellar,

But he still decided to avoid Professor Snape.

There is still quite a bit of room for maneuver in this regard.

After all, Professor Snape was arguably the busiest person at Hogwarts.

First, as a professor, he needs to grade student assignments, keep track of the learning progress of at least twelve classes, and prepare lessons.
Secondly, as the dean, he is responsible for mediating student conflicts, dealing with students who are in early romantic relationships, and handling other student issues.

Finally, there was the special task assigned to him by Headmaster Dumbledore.

In this light, Professor Snape's irritability is entirely predictable.
Not only is the course schedule incredibly demanding, but I also have to deal with unfortunate students every day.
Sheehan could roughly guess what Professor Snape often faced—

Merlin! You must go and see, Professor Snape! Those Gryffindor fellows are causing trouble again!
The workload is completely excessive, and they are not even qualified to be teaching assistants.

If Sheehan remembers correctly, Professor Snape's office was even on the other side of the underground...

There is a lot of room for maneuver.

Thinking this, the fireplace in the auditorium seemed even warmer.

On the stone wall, the fireplace flickered with fire until two blurry shadows passed by.

"Oh, I must say, I've never found Charms essays so easy to write."

Justin wore a slight smile, holding a magic lantern in his left hand.
With his right hand, he placed a five-inch-long spellbook and a light blue notebook in his bag.

"Well, Justin, I wonder who was complaining the other day that magic papers were harder than horseback riding."

Hermione raised her chin, squinted, and gave Justin a look that said, "You're not normal."
Then he carried a large stack of books into the auditorium.

They had clearly just returned from the library, still carrying a faint scent of ink.

Completing a good class assignment is difficult, such as the Charms class assignment.

In summary:

This is waving a magic wand, this is chanting a spell.
Okay, now write me a five-inch paper on the Levitation Charm.

The little wizards' expressions were probably something like: Huh? Me?
Although it may seem like just something written down, there's a lot that young wizards need to explore and think about on their own to complete it.

Therefore, it's almost impossible to do homework without spending time in the library.
Learning how to find suitable information is an important first lesson.
Therefore, Hermione and Justin often spent time in the library.

Compared to Hermione, who memorized all the first-grade textbooks and could quickly find the information she needed,

Justin, who wasn't very familiar with the textbook, progressed slowly, compounded by Professor Binns's muddled papers.
The young wizards—at least those who wanted to do their homework properly—were in a lot of pain.

But today, Justin not only completed a foot-long paper on the history of magic, but also wrote a paper on the levitation charm in three hours.

Because it was an extra task assigned by Professor Flitwick, even Hermione didn't react this quickly.

"You wrote a decent paper on spells, but you didn't improve your Levitation Charm even a little bit during this afternoon's practice..."

Hermione tilted her head and glanced at Justin.
"I bet you copied someone else's work, that person was Sheen."

"Oh, okay, you're half right. Sheen told me the method."

Justin showed no embarrassment at being caught off guard; instead, he smiled sincerely and said...
"Although I think Sheen would agree to let me tell you this method, I still need to get his permission first..."

Look, there he is.

Hermione simply said "Oh," not finding anything particularly valuable about a mere junior wizard's method.

Even though that person was Sheen.

However, she still subconsciously searched for the figure of a certain little wizard.

The Great Hall was filled with wizards dressed in the same school uniforms walking around, and Hermione wondered if Justin was seeing things.

Just then, Justin suddenly sat down:

“Sheen.”

Justin greeted him warmly.

"Ah."

Even while fiercely battling the roast chicken, Sheen still managed to find time to respond.

"You'll mind..."

Justin said in a low voice,
"No, it won't." Before he could finish speaking, a voice came from inside the roast chicken.

"Oh well,"

Justin's smile widened as he passed the parchment to Hermione.

“You have to take a look at this, Hermione.”

"Okay, but I have to say, I don't think so..."

Hermione tossed her hair and took the parchment from Justin.

ten minutes later.

Sheen sipped the pumpkin juice; the sweet taste always put him in a good mood.

“I must say, this is a truly ingenious structure, oh… if only I had seen it sooner…”

Just then, Hermione suddenly let out a distressed sigh, and Sheehan's hand trembled, causing the pumpkin juice to shake.

He looked over and saw that Hermione's face was gradually turning red, and the tips of her ears were also turning a light pink.

“Sheen, ah, I mean…”

Hermione stammered, she was not used to being praised to her face.

Fortunately, Sheen was always focused on his own things and didn't hear anything.
Justin always reacts very quickly:

"I mean, no, Hermione said, that paper's methodology is amazing!"

And your notes on Charms class, I wish I could put the theory into practice..."

He was always timely, not only answering the previous questions but also smoothly steer the conversation toward the curse.

"Yes, practice is the most important thing."

Sheen nodded.

He was still wondering if the cellar would welcome him today.

The results are obvious.

The cellar is dangerous today.

Professor Snape entered the cellar to brew a potion, and brewing a potion never takes too short a time.

Therefore, Sheehan decided to allocate his evenings to the other six subjects.

The most practical of them all is, of course, magic spells.

So, he found a place to practice his spells.
That became his target for tonight.

"Let's go practice spells, Sheen, want to come along?"

Justin suddenly spoke, and when he said this, his light gray eyes visibly brightened.

Sheen was slightly taken aback.

A few minutes later,

Three figures slowly walked through the corridor and up the spiral staircase.

There are a total of 142 staircases in Hogwarts.

Some of them are wide and large;

Some were narrow and small, and wobbly.

Some routes go to different places every Friday;
Sometimes, halfway up, a step will suddenly disappear, and you have to remember where you should jump over it.

In addition, there are many doors here that will not open for you if you ask them to open them rudely or if you poke the wrong spot.

Some doors aren't real doors at all; they're just sturdy walls that look like doors.

It's not easy to remember where things are because everything seems to be constantly moving.

The people in the portraits kept visiting each other, and Justin was absolutely certain that even the armor could walk.

In such a transformed castle, a hidden room doesn't seem so strange.

(End of this chapter)