A certain broken Hogwarts

Chapter 57 Owen's Toolbox

The howling of Pippi the Ghost still seemed to linger in their ears. Chaotic footsteps and the professors' roars echoed throughout the castle. Even the portraits hanging on both sides of the corridor were awakened, rubbing their eyes and curiously crowding together to watch the drama unfold.

Owen, carrying his suitcase, ran to a painting hanging in the middle of the stairs, ripped aside a long strip of silk beside it, and crouched down to slip through a narrow, hidden door at the back. This secret passage led directly to the fourth floor, making it a decent shortcut.

"Can we really trust Peeves? That's the forbidden corridor on the fourth floor!" Harry whispered, following closely behind Owen. He felt like they were doing something crazy, but he was also a little excited about it.

"Huh? You're still following me?" Owen pushed open the partition at the end of the secret passage and joked with a surprised expression.

Harry: ...

"It's alright, a school life without experiencing solitary confinement is incomplete." Owen climbed out of the secret passage, calmly raising his wand and elegantly waving it. The dust on his body instantly vanished, and even his hair and clothes were once again perfectly styled.

Harry glanced at his dusty robes, now stained from the secret passage, and smeared them on his face, turning himself into a giant cat. For the first time, he felt that following Owen was a mistake: "I don't want to spend another night cleaning toilets!"

"Shh—someone's coming." Owen strode across the corridor, opening the briefcase he'd been carrying. With a flick of his wand, several prop boxes flew out gracefully, wobbling as they followed behind him.

Standing at the corner at the end of the corridor, Owen listened intently and heard excited conversations that were being deliberately kept quiet, along with hurried, chaotic footsteps approaching.

"Sure enough, kids this age are just relentless in their pursuit of self-destruction. Even knowing they might get caught by the professor if they come here, their curiosity will still make them come over like silly deer..." Owen shook his head speechlessly and tossed a prop box into the middle of the corridor.

Then, he cast the Disillusionment Charm on himself and Harry, no longer caring whether Harry would get lost, and headed straight for the location Peeves had indicated.

"What's that?" Harry asked quietly. He was referring to Owen's toolbox.

"Oh, I think Hogwarts needs a bit of fun," Owen said cheerfully. Thick white mist began to billow from the prop box he had left behind.

"I bet we'll see that treasure tonight!" Justin Finley of Hufflepuff excitedly walked down the hallway with his friends, who had been eyeing the fax machine for ages.

"Wait, what's that up ahead?" Hannah Abbott suddenly asked, pointing to the thick white fog in front of her.

"Damn it, it's a smokescreen! Someone's gone ahead!" Justin yelled. "Let's chase them!"

"I think I understand what you mean, but what's a smoke bomb?" Hannah muttered, then quickened her pace. They came to the middle of a forking corridor.

"Whoosh—" A dark figure sped through the thick fog, making a sound like some kind of irritable magical creature, causing them to stop in their tracks.

A white box popped out of the thick fog and landed on the ground in front of them with a "thud".

"What is that?" Justin drew his wand, racking his brains for a spell, but couldn't think of one. He simply scratched his head with the tip of the wand and said, "Never mind it, just get through the white mist!"

Just as he finished speaking, the white box exploded with a "bang," and colorful flowers floated out, along with a large flock of white doves flapping their wings.

A sea of ​​flowers and pigeons instantly surrounded the young wizards, spinning rapidly around them, and everything around them seemed to have turned into a colorful kaleidoscope.

"Wow, that's amazing!" The two little witches exclaimed softly, their eyes wide.

Justin waved his wand, trying to escape the vortex of flowers and birds, but a pigeon swooped down and smacked him in the face, covering him in feathers. The white pigeon flapped its wings and fell to the ground, turning into a white plastic flower.

"It's Transfiguration!"

This beautiful spectacle lasted only a short while. Soon, the white doves transformed into plastic flowers and drifted to the ground, scattering along with the colorful blossoms. The white mist in the corridor remained, and apart from the extra flowers scattered on the ground, nothing else changed.

Justin was completely baffled. He glanced at the surprised expressions on the two little witches' faces, and without thinking too much, he called his friends to pass through the white mist and hurry along the dark and long corridor.

They ran for a long time, through the long corridor, and only stopped in a daze when they finally saw the Charms classroom in front of them.

"This road... isn't right? This isn't the way to the restricted area corridor!"

"I know! Damn it, when the flock of pigeons and flowers surrounded us, the white mist changed position!"

They were so focused on getting through the white mist that they didn't even think to carefully observe the layout of the dimly lit corridor or the direction they were heading.

The young wizards exchanged bewildered glances, and just as they were about to turn back, they heard Filch's shout from below the stairs: "You little rascals who love to roam, stop right there!"

The group was startled and scattered like birds and beasts.

In another corridor, the Weasley twins approached with their companions, their identical faces bearing the same wicked grins.

"You'll really see the world tonight, Lee, Angelina. With us leading the way, you don't have to worry about getting caught by the professor again, we promise," Fred said with a grin.

"I hope so, though I don't think Peeves is up to anything good," the dashing witch said, arms crossed.

George chuckled as he unfolded the yellowed parchment map in his hand. Just as he was about to examine his surroundings more closely, he heard a muffled thud ahead.

The group looked up and saw a box glowing with a green light lying on the ground, its twisted, grotesque face looking terrifying.

"Hehehe..." A terrifying and evil shrill laugh came from the box, accompanied by the ear-piercing sound of claws frantically scratching at the steel plate and the rattling sound of a frantic struggle, as if a terrifying behemoth was trying to break free of the iron chains binding it.

The eerie green box throbbed and deformed with a sickening struggle, its edges cracking with jet-black fissures from which thick, black smoke billowed. A cold, malevolent, red vertical pupil flashed through the crack, filled with savage hatred and a predatory hunger…

Several people stopped in their tracks and pointed their wands at the box on the ground.

"Don't tell me Hagrid accidentally left his precious little sweetheart here?" Angelina hugged her shoulders with a look of disgust, noticing that the black mist had lowered the air temperature considerably.

"Hey, don't think of things so badly. Maybe it's just a dark magic creature? A Boggart or a vampire or something." Fred shrugged.

"Oh, that's great, at least we won't be left with nothing but a few fingernails." Lee Jordan rolled his eyes.

As they talked, the cracks on the box became more and more numerous.

The group exchanged glances, all willing to believe it was just a prank, but... what if? Although they didn't think anything that dangerous would appear at Hogwarts, the castle could have a three-headed dog, so why couldn't there be something else?

"Let's attack together!" George said, his expression slightly serious.

Several spells struck the cracked box simultaneously, sending it flying high into the air. In mid-air, the box exploded with a loud bang, the burst of black energy causing the group to stumble back a few steps.

Then... a slightly smaller box fell in front of them.

"Smack!"

Accompanied by a crisp, comical sound, a smiling face with its tongue sticking out pops out from the top of the box, bouncing up and down with the spring connected to the bottom, making the expression look full of mockery.

"..." The twins exchanged a glance, then burst into laughter, clutching their stomachs. "Hahaha... hilarious! I think we've got even more inspiration for our magic tricks!"

"Wake up, you're broke." Angelina ran her fingers through her hair, both amused and exasperated. "And besides, we're going to be late."

(End of this chapter)