A certain broken Hogwarts

Chapter 77 A Chaotic Study Group

In the dead of night, the corridors of Hogwarts were dimly lit, and even all sounds seemed to be swallowed up by the darkness in the corners.

After chatting happily with his three ghost pen pals for a while, as night deepened, Irving had to say goodbye to the interesting ghosts and head back to his dorm with his friends.

The ghosts' revelry continued, a spectacle that would likely last all night, for ghosts never tire. But Owen and his friends had to return to rest, as Professor Snape had caught them red-handed. Enraged by Dumbledore's antics, Snape ruthlessly placed everyone in detention, even Owen, who had requested leave in advance, receiving an extra day of detention for leading the violation of school rules.

Well, it's great that no points were deducted.

On the way back to the common room, Owen remained silent, pondering his own problems. There was no doubt that his plan to kill Voldemort before Halloween needed to be revised. If he couldn't resolve his own issues, he'd better pray that Quirrell remained alive and kicking, lest Voldemort revert to his ghostly form and possess him.

"I guarantee that all the ghosts in the country have come! I saw several characters from books!"

"At least Professor Binns of the History of Magic probably didn't come. I guess he doesn't yet realize he's dead..."

Along the way, the young wizards chatted excitedly about their experiences at the gathering. Although it wasn't a particularly enjoyable experience for them, it was still something to brag about. Only Blaise seemed reluctant to leave, turning back to look on with lingering affection.

Draco was shivering from the cold, his pale face tinged with blue, even his lips were deathly white. Goyle was also shivering and listless, stuffing candy into his mouth to replenish his energy.

During the party, Draco, dressed in very thin clothes, stubbornly refused to leave. He politely declined the robe that Pansy offered him, blushing, and instead crawled into Goyle's cloak. As a result, both of them were half-frozen.

"Achoo—" He sneezed, then wiped his nose and asked, "Harry, what did Dumbledore say to you alone tonight?"

"Oh? Mr. Dumbledore wants me to come to his office next Saturday night," Harry said nervously. He had no idea what the headmaster wanted to see him about. He started to think about whether he had done anything too outrageous lately and was afraid that he would receive a notice of expulsion.

"Wow, a private meeting with Dumbledore? That's Dumbledore!" Blaise exclaimed dramatically.

"Maybe he thinks highly of you and wants to give you private lessons," Daphne said wistfully.

"Hmph, you'd better watch out. My dad says Dumbledore's gotten so old he's starting to go crazy," Draco said, drawing out his words and haughtily raising his chin.

Owen glanced at Harry in surprise. Why did he feel that Dumbledore was about to make his final arrangements? But Harry was too young. Was he really going to have to shoulder the burdens of life so early?

The group chatted and laughed as they returned to the lounge, and then went to sleep.

As the sun slowly rose below the horizon, casting its brilliant golden light upon the earth, the night that belonged to the ghosts quietly passed.

……

The next few days passed uneventfully. The students continued to sigh and lament about the rare occurrence of Transfiguration, their minds wandering during the History of Magic class. Professor Snape remained sharp-tongued, persistently tormenting the Gryffindor students, especially Neville. Peeves was still trying to uncover Quirrell's secret, making Quirrell feel like a rat constantly on the run.

Owen pressed on with his plan, calmly waiting for Halloween to draw near as he searched for any potentially helpful information in Ravenclaw's secret chamber.

Three days before Halloween, Owen sat by the window of a classroom, speechless as he looked at the new invitation he had received from Quirrell.

"Whose letter is this?" Draco asked curiously, leaning closer. Owen snatched the letter from his hand with a "whoosh" and crumpled it into a ball without any expression.

"What can't I see... could it be a love letter?" Draco's eyes instantly lit up.

Irving gently blew on the crumpled paper in his hand, then opened his palm; the letter had vanished. He said with a smile, "Why don't you think it was just your imagination?"

"Spellcasting without a spell or wand?" Hermione stood silently behind him like a ghost, watching the scene intently, a sense of urgency and crisis rising within her like never before.

"You're overthinking it..." Irving said, his fingers interlaced.

"Tch—" Draco said disdainfully as he went to find Harry.

The members of the top study group are exchanging study questions in this classroom, and the atmosphere is "harmonious and pleasant".

First, Neville burned off half of his eyebrow while practicing the Levitation Charm, and continued chanting the spell while secretly wiping away tears with red eyes. Then, Pansy Parkinson, who had been pulled into Daphne's study group, absentmindedly waved her wand, accidentally cutting a desk into more than a dozen pieces and also slicing open Daphne's textbook, scaring everyone away from her.

Draco continued his confrontation with Hermione, but Hermione completely ignored his provocations, focusing solely on helping Neville and arguing with Owen about academic matters, infuriating Draco. Harry, exhausted from trying to stop Draco's underhanded antics, looked dejected, but Draco, under Harry's watchful eye, seemed to have won a victory.

In Irving's view, Draco was just like a concubine vying for the emperor's favor, practically saying, "A bitch is just being pretentious..."

Crabbe and Gore, who were probably just there to make up the numbers, were enjoying the peace and quiet. The two of them hid in a corner and secretly stuffed snacks into their mouths. Soon, the whole classroom was filled with the smell of desserts and meat.

Later, Pippi came in for a stroll, and after quibbling away and getting a bunch of more tricks out of Owen, he excitedly tugged at Gore's nose and twisted it twice. Before leaving, he didn't forget to throw a swarm of hornets into the classroom, and then politely locked the door behind him.

The young wizards wandered aimlessly through the swarm of wasps, until Owen finally used the "Trap" spell to catch them all.

In the end, the group left the classroom looking somewhat dejected, exchanging helpless glances. Although they had gained a lot, they were also quite frightened.

After dinner, Owen went to Quirrell's office and was somewhat surprised to see him wearing a hooded, black cloak. The huge hood covered most of his face, revealing only his pale chin.

"You've arrived. Let's go somewhere tonight." A lazy, husky voice came from under the hood. He flicked his fingers, and a small cloak flew into Owen's arms.

"Put it on," he said in a commanding tone.

Owen silently put on his cloak, thinking to himself that Voldemort was coming out quite frequently, and he wondered how long Quirrell could hold out... Poor guy.

Voldemort looked down at a jewel-encrusted silver knife on the table, then tapped it with his wand and said in a low voice, "Mentos."

The knife hummed and vibrated for a moment, emitting a faint blue light, before returning to normal.

"Port keys?" Owen raised an eyebrow, thinking they were going to the Forbidden Forest. "Does Hogwarts allow wizards to use Port keys to enter and exit?"

"It's permissible in peacetime. But when Hogwarts goes on full alert, only the headmaster has the authority to do so," Voldemort said with a hint of smugness. "In the past thousand years, this has only happened a handful of times, and I've had the privilege of keeping Hogwarts on full alert for quite some time."

"Hehe, that's awesome!" Irving thought cheerfully.

"Professor, where are we going?" he asked, looking curious.

"An interesting place." Voldemort didn't answer, but instead asked, "How's your practice of those three spells from last time going?"

"No problem, Professor," Owen said with a smile. Well, he practiced it once in the walled space; it should be fine, probably.

Voldemort toyed with his wand, waiting silently and ignoring him.

(End of this chapter)