The Return to Hogwarts

Professor Snape sighed softly at the mention of Draco Malfoy.

“I learned from Flint that he’s been missing a lot of practice lately, and he spends most of his rest time in the dorm with Crabbe and Gore, except for meals. Also, he probably goes to the Owls’ Hut every day, I guess he’s trying to ask Lucius how to get back into everyone’s arms.”

Because he had a Ravenclaw Potions class in the afternoon, Snape gave the wolfsbane potion that Lupin needed to take to Amostella and left not long after. Before leaving, he also told Amostella that Dumbledore would probably come back for Christmas.

"How dare you call me an ill-mannered beast? What is he then? A slave who only knows how to wag his tail and beg for mercy in front of Voldemort?!"

The office door closed quietly. In the instant he regained his strength, Sirius's face turned ashen, and he roared at Amostella across the coffee table.

"Give me a wand, Blaine. I have to let this snotty-nosed brat know that even after twelve years in Azkaban, I still have the ability to pull down his pants in public, just like James did back then!"

Boom!

The sudden flash of lightning in Amostella's eyes, like a real thunderbolt, shook the entire office. In that instant, Sirius seemed to see a colossal, monstrous serpent, its body rising to the ground, looking down at him with icy eyes.

"Oh, you guys have done this kind of 'fun' thing before?"

"If you knew what Snotty Guy looked like back then—"

Sirius Black was never one to tolerate bullying the weak and fearing the strong. Amosta's intimidation only fueled his pride and temper, making him temporarily forget that he was under someone else's control. He withstood the immense pressure emanating from Amosta, his face filled with an arrogant expression.

"You'll then see just how obnoxious he really is!"

Meow--

Like a meow suddenly breaking the stillness of the office before a storm, Amosta looked down and saw that Crookshank, who had been sleeping soundly on his lap, had woken up. Crookshank had one paw pressing down on Amosta's right hand, its amber eyes filled with gloom.

call.

Amosta, with his left hand supporting his forehead, straightened his upper body and then slumped back onto the sofa.

Frankly speaking, among all the Slytherin wizards, Amos Tower is one of the least prejudiced. He doesn't have the sense of superiority that is most criticized in most Slytherins. He treats wizards from the other three houses equally, and he can even see the strengths of a slow-witted child like Neville Longbottom.

But Sirius Black—this guy reminded Amosta of Prien, who had overturned the brazier he used to offer sacrifices to his grandmother Ferrena.

Amosta was already having a headache. If he let Peter stay in his office until he caught him, he would eventually get annoyed or angry to death.

Sirius was somewhat surprised to see Blaine rubbing his temples. He thought he would definitely be humiliated, but Blaine fell silent and didn't say anything more.

Suddenly, Sirius remembered the conversation between Blaine and McGonagall.

Amostrath Blaine appears to be an orphan, and he attended Slytherin. Sirius knows Slytherin's 'disdainful' style, and a wizard of his background probably wouldn't have a good situation in Slytherin. So, Snotn must have given him some help.

"Okay, I can apologize--"

Sirius said sullenly,

"Perhaps I shouldn't have been so sarcastic towards Severus Snape in front of you."

snort--

Amosta let out a meaningless hum, too lazy to pay attention to him, and simply got up and walked to the surveillance wall, staring at the flashing monitor screen in deep thought.

Through Sirius Black and Professor Snape's descriptions, Amostella roughly figured out what kind of guy Peter Pettigrew really was. To be honest, unless that rat deliberately revealed his true colors, it wouldn't be an easy task to find him out.

"You made this thing?"

Before long, Sirius couldn't contain himself any longer. After all, Blaine was the only wizard he could talk to in the castle right now, and besides, these surveillance videos were indeed interesting.

"A brilliant idea, Blaine. Your expertise in alchemy and transmutation is astonishing. Honestly, I'm so glad I didn't try to break into the castle after Halloween, otherwise I definitely wouldn't have been able to avoid this!"

Sirius Black came up behind Amos Tower, watching with great interest as Harry, his friends, and his companions trotted off, and saw them disappear into the Charms classroom.

"Back when James, Remus, Peter, and I were in school here, we made something similar. It was a map that recorded every secret passage in the castle we discovered. Oh, and it had a special ability: no wizard who appeared on the Hogwarts campus could escape its tracking. Their names would appear on the map in real time, along with their locations. We called it the Marauder's Map. Oh, what's wrong, Blaine?"

At some point, Amosta's gaze had shifted, and he wore a thoughtful expression.

Where is the map you mentioned now?

Sirius Black was no fool; he immediately realized what was happening.

“You want to use a map to find Peter’s location? That’s hard to say, Blaine. Before we graduated, Filch confiscated that map. We did plan to steal it back, but the sudden deterioration of the situation outside the school caught our attention. That was over a decade ago. If it weren’t for this wall, I would have almost forgotten it existed. I think Filch has most likely destroyed it!”

Chapter 246 A Hair's Breadth Away (Part 1)

"Okay, wait for me here--"

After Sirius briefly described how the Marauder's Map was confiscated and what it looked like, Amosta left those words behind, immediately went to the fireplace, grabbed a handful of Floo Powder from the shelf, and threw it into the fireplace. With a roar, the leaping flames turned emerald green, and Amosta stepped into the fireplace, disappearing from Sirius's sight.

The room was dark and dirty, with no windows, only a lone oil lamp hanging from the low ceiling.

A faint smell of fried fish filled the air. Wooden filing cabinets lined the walls, and judging from the labels, they likely contained detailed information about every student Filch had punished.

On the wall behind the desk hung a set of shiny hinges and handcuffs, things that had been hanging there since Amosta was a student there. Filch had been hoping they would work, but sadly, they remained just decorations all these years.

Clang!

"Oh, damn it, what is it—"

A phantom suddenly flashed out from the cramped fireplace, and Amosta, misjudging the mess in the room, kicked Mrs. Lorris's rice bowl away.

Filch, who was scolding the little wizard, unconsciously cursed out loud, but when he saw who the visitor was, his goldfish eyes immediately bulged out of their sockets, and his red and droopy cheeks turned pale.

“I didn’t know it was you, Mr. Blaine!”

Filch glared fiercely at the Weasley brothers, who were standing casually by the table but instinctively straightened up after recognizing the newcomer, and then said in a frightened tone,

"I was interrogating these two troublemakers and didn't realize it was you, sir!"

“It’s alright, Argus. I apologize for the intrusion and for disturbing your work.”

Amosta waved his hand and smiled, then turned his gaze to Fred and George, who seemed a little uncomfortable.

"What's wrong, you two? What trouble have you gotten yourselves into this time?"

"Oh, it wasn't our professor who caused the trouble!"

Fred closed his eyes and made a face, as if Professor Blaine's words had deeply hurt him. "Explain yourself, George."

"Well, Professor, you know we have the OWL level exams next year, and all my classmates are very anxious. We can't just slack off either—"

"so what?"

Amosta gestured to Filch to let him be patient, then crossed his arms and listened with interest to Weasley's ramblings.

"We were determined to study hard and make up for the youth we wasted in our ignorance," Fred said innocently, blinking his eyes. "We found a quiet classroom and were concentrating on our magical research when Mr. Filch barged in with his cat and started accusing us of all sorts of things—"

"Nonsense!"

Filch's droopy face twitched wildly as he angrily spat in Amostella's face.

“Mr. Blaine, don’t listen to the nonsense these two little bastards are spouting,”

Before Amosta could speak, Filch excitedly opened his hand, revealing a thin, flesh-colored rope in his palm.

“Look, Professor Blaine, this is what I snatched from them. It can shorten and lengthen. I haven’t figured out what it can do yet, but at least I bet it has nothing to do with studying. It’s just one of those stupid pranks!”

“You just don’t understand,” Fred retorted, “so you’re framing us.”

“Let me see, Filch.”

Amosta beckoned with his finger, and the flesh-colored string flew into his hand automatically. He picked up a small section with his thumb and forefinger and held it in front of him, his purple eyes flashing with a sharp light like shooting stars.

Fred gave George a look: What should we do, brother? We can't expect Professor Blaine to be as stupid as Filch.

George: Cheer up, bro. Maybe he's just confused today!

Time ticked by, and after about a minute, Amostella finished her observation, looked at the Weasley brothers standing imposingly, tossed the item over, and her eyes were full of admiration.

"This rope is really unnecessary. Didn't Professor Flitwick teach you the 'Symphony Spell'?"

Fred and George exchanged a glance, both seeing the excitement in each other's eyes.

"Could you give us some pointers, Professor Blaine?"

Amosta didn't hold back in imparting knowledge just because he wasn't a substitute professor. He asked the bewildered Filch for a quill pen, scribbled the names of several books on a form for registering 'crime' information, and then handed the paper to the excited twins.

"Your talent is undeniable, but talent alone cannot support your imaginative minds; a strong knowledge base is very important."

“You’re absolutely right, Professor Blaine!” Fred nodded solemnly. “We’ll go and loot the library right now!”

Filch watched this scene with a look of disappointment, but when he heard his boss's words, he immediately became happy again.

"In any case, Argus didn't wrong either of you. Now I have some things to consult with Argus. You two should take some time this week to come here again and accept your punishment."

Fred and George walked into the room dejectedly and closed the door behind them.

"How can I help you, Mr. Blaine?"

Filch said gleefully, his wish fulfilled.

"That's right, Argus—"

Amos Tower wouldn't dare say he was a law-abiding young wizard when he was in school, but he was certainly low-key, humble, and extremely cautious. Apart from being put in solitary confinement in Professor Snape's office, Filch never caught him red-handed. Therefore, he had only heard about this infamous office from conversations among the young wizards in his house and had never experienced it himself.

Amosta's gaze swept around the room, landing on the cabinets covered in labels.

"I came here to find something; it's a blank piece of parchment that looks quite old, and when unfolded, it would be about this size—"

Amosta gestured to Filch to indicate the size and said...

"This thing was probably confiscated from some students about ten years ago. It's been a long time, so I don't know if you remember it."

What followed was a thorough rummaging through drawers. Filch opened almost every drawer in the room that could hold anything, some of which were even confiscated from the time of his highly respected predecessor, Pollion Pringle, and had been lying in some unknown corner waiting to rot into dust.