HP: Azkaban's Outstanding Graduate

Hermione nodded silently, her fingers unconsciously twisting together.

“Everyone has weaknesses, Miss Granger, just as everyone has strengths.”

Sagres's voice softened, "Especially when strength is still insufficient, weaknesses are more easily magnified by instinct."

He looked at the three young wizards who had survived the ordeal and earnestly advised them: "Developing your strengths requires honing them, and overcoming your instincts also comes at a price—it will be a long process, and no one is born strong."

The three young wizards seemed to be deep in thought.

“Besides, your performance this time wasn’t terrible,” Sagreston paused, with a hint of understanding. “After all, not many people have experienced being chased by a basilisk. Looking back? That’s just human nature, perfectly normal.”

Hermione nodded silently without saying a word.

“Professor,” Harry couldn’t help but ask, “you must have been much better than us in your second year, right? We heard you got perfect scores in all your subjects back then.”

“Hmm, that’s a question…” Sagres paused for a moment, “'Amazing' is relative. As for results? Certainly.”

He smiled slightly, "Even if some professors don't appreciate me that much, as long as I make sure they don't find any mistakes, my grades won't be deducted."

"Oh..." the young wizards responded, their faces betraying their disappointment.

“Of course,” Sagres said, changing the subject, “if you always feel like you don’t have enough time, I can share a trick with you.”

"What's the trick?" Hermione asked immediately, her eyes lighting up instantly.

"Two spells. Mastering them will give you almost twice as much time as others."

As he spoke, he took out a piece of parchment and tapped the surface with his knuckles—dense writing instantly appeared on it.

He tapped it again, and the parchment split into three pieces.

"Awake and soothe, sleepiness vanishes." Three sheets of paper floated lightly into the three people's hands. "Learn these, and you can sleep only once every ten days. Of course,"

He added with a casual smile, "Whether or not to learn is entirely up to you."

The three looked somewhat surprised, especially at the claim of "sleeping only once every ten days," which they seemed to find hard to accept.

Sagles observed this and said with a smile, "This isn't mandatory; I'm just offering you a choice..."

"After all, it doesn't matter if you don't pass the OWLs exam, because it's quite easy to make a living in the wizarding world. Of course, it's always good to learn more."

He then nodded slightly to the three of them, ending the conversation.

……

He still needs to go find Myrtle.

Sagres had originally planned to ask her for clues about the secret chamber, but the sudden basilisk incident delayed him.

Finding the entrance to the secret room might be very helpful in catching the real culprit.

However, when he stepped into Myrtle's bathroom with the bottle containing Peeves, he saw a scene he had never expected.

The ghost myrtle has been petrified!

She was no longer a milky white, transparent ghost, but was now completely black, like charcoal, surrounded by semi-solidified smoke, hovering motionless a few inches above the ground, her face showing more surprise than fear.

Sagres had never seen anything like it before, and even with his extensive knowledge, he had never heard of it.

It's hard to say whether Myrtle was lucky or unlucky—to have the "honor" of facing the basilisk's gaze twice in a row is probably a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

He informed Dumbledore of this strange situation, but Dumbledore was too busy to attend to anything else. The castle was in complete chaos, and panic was spreading like a plague.

But this gave Sagres a sudden inspiration: Could the entrance to the secret room be in this bathroom?

Thinking of this, he immediately took action, repeatedly telling each toilet in the washroom, in his snake-like accent, "Open!"

But all he received in response was cold silence. The toilet remained a toilet, unresponsive, and without any sign of a way to pass through.

Sagles frowned.

Did I guess wrong?

He paced restlessly, his fingers unconsciously tapping the glass bottle containing Pippi the Ghost.

Chapter 92 Entering the Secret Chamber

Inside the bottle, Peeves seemed disturbed by the earlier Parseltongue, and was pacing restlessly against the bottle wall while cursing Sagres in foul language.

He's never been treated like this before!

He was locked in a cursed glass bottle for two whole days—even the Blood Man Barrow had never done that!

“Sagres! You slug from the gutter! You rotten, moldy raven! Let me out! I’ll braid your hair into goblin foot bindings! I’ll smear your most expensive robes with dung balls…”

boom! boom! boom!

Immediately following was a violent impact.

Sagres remained expressionless, as if he were merely carrying a noisy package. He lowered his head slightly, his cold gaze falling on Peeves through the bottle.

"Quiet. Or would you like to try something different?"

Pipi Ghost's movements suddenly froze.

He seemed to remember that the professor before him was not someone Filch who could be easily fooled. So he hovered in the center of the bottle, his distorted features squeezing out an extremely obsequious yet extremely bizarre smile.

“Oh, the greatest and most benevolent Professor Greengrass! Handsome sir! The embodiment of wisdom! You must be mistaken! Peeves, your most loyal and harmless little elf, was just… uh… having a beneficial morning exercise! Let me go! I promise, I swear to all the ghosts of Hogwarts, I will never put itching powder in students' drinks again! I will never draw little figures on Professor Binns's desk again…”

When he got to the exciting part, he couldn't help but bump the bottle, then immediately stopped and rubbed his illusory hand in a fawning manner.

"Your guarantee is cheaper than a troll's snot."

Sagres's voice was low and calm, without a trace of emotion.

The fawning expression on Pippi's face vanished instantly, replaced by extreme rage. He swelled up, almost filling the entire bottle, his features contorted beyond recognition.

“You damned, cold-blooded reptile! You despicable thief! You stole my precious freedom! Who do you think you are? Even Dumbledore wouldn't dare treat me like this! Just you wait! When I get out, I'll make the whole castle resound with…”

Sagres's eyes sharpened, and he gently raised his right hand, which was holding the wand. A faint red light flashed inside the bottle, and the temperature suddenly rose.

The mischievous ghost immediately let out an extremely realistic and piercing cry of pain, "Ouch!! It's hot! It's burning me! Stop! Stop it now!"

He rolled and dodged frantically in the cramped space, his previous arrogance completely gone. "Please! Merciful master! Forgiving professor! I was wrong! I was really wrong! I'll shut up! I'll be as quiet as a dead bat! Don't roast me! I promise! I swear on my dignity as a pikachu!"

Sagres twitched his finger slightly, the red light disappeared, and the temperature inside the bottle returned to normal.

Pipi Ghost lay sprawled at the bottom of the bottle, like a crumpled, wet rag, panting heavily, his eyes filled with the terror of surviving a catastrophe.

He glanced furtively at Sagres, not daring to make a sound for the time being, only occasionally twitching to prove that he was still "alive".

Sagres looked at the Peeves in the bottle, who had temporarily "behaved," and said in a still icy voice, "Very good, keep it up!"

Then he turned around and walked to the sink, casually saying in his snake accent, "Open it."

Immediately afterwards—

Click-clack-clack-clack...

A loud, teeth-grinding, grinding sound, like rusty gears being forced to turn, suddenly erupted.

To Sagres’ astonishment, the filthy and cracked faucet, along with the entire stone trough on which it sat, began to rotate in an extremely unnatural way!

The edge of the sink cracked into several pieces amidst a scraping sound, revealing a bottomless, dark hole below that exuded a gloomy aura.

The rocks at the edge of the cave entrance were eerily smooth, clearly not formed naturally.

Sagles's heart skipped a beat.

Perhaps it's because he's been spending too much time with these old fogies, but his thinking has started to become rigid and inflexible.

Yes, who says the entrance to a secret room connecting to underground pipes has to be a toilet pipe?

It's unlikely that the haughty Salazar Slytherin would have set up such an entrance.

Although the entrance itself isn't exactly high-end anymore...

But at least, it won't be something as outrageous as the Ministry of Magic crawling into a toilet! After all, he once thought that was just an abstract work that only time travelers could create.

The pitch-black entrance resembled the open throat of a giant beast. Sagres gripped his wand tightly, a faint smile playing on his lips.

He glanced at the huddled Pippi in the bottle, then at the black ghost floating in the air, its expression frozen in surprise.

"Do you want to come with me... or is this the end of the story?"

Peeves instantly forced a fawning, almost twisted smile, his words flying like a machine gun: "Ah! Great and wise master! Your loyal Peeves certainly... certainly longs to follow you on this epic adventure! But, with my meager abilities, going down there would only cause you trouble and hold you back. So... so let's stop here! I wish you a safe journey and a resounding victory!"

“Very well,” Sagres nodded calmly, “then you will come with me.”

"Okay, thank you, great teacher... um? Wait! What did you say?"

Sagress ignored the Peeves inside the bottle, which had suddenly bristled and was frantically pounding on the sides in protest. Instead, he summoned Lochteus, who was nearby, and gave it a cold command:

"The entrance to the secret room is located in the washroom where Myrtle is."

Without hesitation, he leaped into the air, his figure instantly disappearing into the bottomless darkness.

His body plummeted rapidly through the narrow, slippery vertical pipe, the terrifying whimpers of Peeves echoing in his ears from inside the bottle.

The fall lasted for several seconds. Finally, the ground beneath my feet was no longer empty air, but solid rock.

Sagres landed lightly, his boots making a slight scraping sound on the wet, slippery ground.

"Ugh—! What...what kind of place is this? It's all sticky! Let me out! The great Pikachu is suffocating!"

The little devil inside the bottle made muffled gagging sounds and frantically banged against the glass wall.

Sagles ignored him, because he was faking it.

He raised his wand on his own, and a ball of cold white light shone from its tip, dispelling the thick darkness around him.

What comes into view is an underground space that is far larger than imagined.

Stone pillars carved with coiled serpents support the cave, and the towering dome is hidden in darkness beyond the reach of the magic wand's light.

Huge snake molts were scattered on the ground, and the scales shimmered with a ghostly green phosphorescence under the light.

The air was icy cold and filled with a stale, fishy smell. The surroundings were eerily quiet, save for the soft "drip-drip" of water droplets falling from the dome and hitting the rocks or puddles.

The orb of light at the tip of Sagres' wand shifted shape, eventually transforming into a bird made of luminous feathers, which silently flew into the depths of the cave. He himself followed closely behind.

"Wait... Don't go any further in, this place feels awful! Even Peeves feels cold... Let me out, Professor, I promise I'll disappear right away and never bother you again! I swear... Waaah."

The voice of the mischievous ghost, tinged with sobs, sounded exceptionally clear in the silence.