Hogwarts: Undercover Death Eater Replaces the Dark Lord

"The Dementors around Hogwarts have begun to move on a large scale..." Lycos stared at the shadows that occasionally passed through the sky, his brows furrowed. "I'm afraid the Ministry of Magic has discovered Sirius Black's whereabouts."

"Then... do we still have to wait for Dumbledore to come back?" Harry stamped his feet anxiously, looking a little confused.

"Although I don't know how they discovered it, I'm afraid we can't just sit there and wait for death." Lycos shook his head. "If Sirius is really caught by the Aurors, we will be completely passive..."

"Peter Pettigrew has been sent to the Ministry of Magic. If Sirius is caught again, it will be up to them to decide how to explain it."

As he spoke, he suddenly looked down at Harry.

"Harry, go find Fred and George and ask them if they know the secret passage to Hogsmeade," Lycos said quickly. "By the way, remember to bring your invisibility cloak... We'll meet at the second-floor staircase!"

"How do you know I have..." Harry's eyes widened in surprise.

"I don't have time to explain it to you now. Just go get it."

After Lycos finished speaking, without waiting for Harry to reply, he quickly ran towards the marble steps in front of the hall.

He really couldn't remember all the contents of the book right now. He couldn't be sure where the secret passages leading to Hogsmeade were, let alone which secret passage led to which place...

So at this time, Lecos could only turn to the Weasley twins who were holding the Marauder's Map.

……

When it came to his godfather's safety, Harry acted very efficiently.

Lycos waited at the marble staircase on the second floor for a short while before Harry came running towards him from the direction of Gryffindor Tower, holding a transparent object in his hand that looked like a fluid and was almost invisible unless you looked closely.

"I got it..." Harry ran to Lex and said breathlessly, "Fred and George saw that I was very anxious, so they gave me a map... They said that here are all the secret passages of Hogwarts."

Under Lekos's surprised eyes, Harry took out a large, square, very old parchment from his pocket with nothing written on it.

"I don't know if Fred and George are joking again, but they told me not to worry. They said this is the secret of their success - if you want to activate it, you have to say a password..."

Of course Lycos knew what it was.

The Marauder's Map! It's the magical tool that allows Harry to break school rules and take night trips to the castle as a daily routine.

But Lecos didn't expect that Harry had obtained the map so early... Of course, it was definitely a good thing to get the Marauder's Map early. Now that he had this artifact, the rest of the things would be much easier.

"Then let's do as Fred and George said and activate it quickly." Lycos said impatiently.

He had long wanted to see this legendary map.

Harry hesitated for a moment, looking a little embarrassed, but for the sake of his godfather who might be caught by the Ministry of Magic at any time, he gritted his teeth and took out his wand.

As Lycos watched, Harry touched the tip of his wand to the old parchment.

Then, he glanced at Lycos somewhat embarrassedly and read out dryly:

"I solemnly swear that I have done nothing wrong."

The next moment, before Harry could even react, countless ink lines as thin as spider webs began to emerge from the place where his wand had just touched.

These lines merged and crossed each other, extending to every corner of the parchment; then words began to appear above the parchment, some large curved green characters -

"Purveyors of magical mischief, Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs, proudly present the Marauder's Map!"

Although he was prepared, Lycos's eyes couldn't help but widen, and Harry's mouth could hold a whole apple.

This map meticulously depicted every detail of Hogwarts Castle and the surrounding areas! It was countless times more stunning and clearer than any movie Lex had ever seen.

The entire map does not look like a flat surface, but rather like the entire Hogwarts Castle is built on this parchment. The user can easily see each floor and zoom in and out at will according to his wishes.

What’s even more amazing on the map are the tiny dots of ink moving along the map. Each dot of ink is like a footprint, constantly moving across the map. Next to each footprint is a tiny letter, marking a name...

Both of them couldn't help but lean over and watch carefully——

They saw a small ink footprint in the upper left corner, showing Dumbledore pacing in the study of the headmaster's office, and the familiar little wizards hurried to the classroom...

Even "inhuman" things are marked on the Marauder's Map.

Filch's cat, Mrs. Norris, was currently wandering around the third floor, her ink-spotted footprints transformed into a collection of cat paw prints. Meanwhile, Peeves, the mischievous ghost, was hopping around in the trophy room, his footprints even lighter than those of a living person...

After admiring these shocking scenes, Lycos tried to turn his gaze away and move his eyes to passages that he had never entered before.

"There are quite a few passages leading to Hogsmeade on this map," Lycos said. "Did Fred and George show them to you?"

It took Harry a long time to pull his eyes away from the Marauder's Map and look at Lycos blankly.

Lycos had no choice but to ask again.

"Oh, they seem to have said... there are seven passages leading to Hogsmeade," said Harry. "But Filch knows four of them, so these four can be ruled out directly..."

"And they say that two of the remaining three are unusable—the one behind the mirror on the fifth floor collapsed last winter; and the other one is under the Whomping Willow, and no one can walk through it intact..."

"So they say there's only one secret passage left to Honeydukes' cellar—well, let me look... The entrance is right about halfway up the fourth-floor corridor, past the hunchbacked statue of a one-eyed old woman."

Harry recalled what Fred and George had said while introducing it to Lecos by referring to the map.

"How about we go to the one on the fourth floor?" After Harry finished the introduction, he looked at Lecos and asked.

But Lycos shook his head.

"No, we're not going to Honeydukes." He stared at the secret passage that the twins said no one had ever walked through, and said slowly, "We should take this one... I know where Sirius is laid to rest."

As Harry looked on in shock, Lycos pointed his finger at the moving willow tree icon on the map.

"Are you mad?" Harry asked anxiously. "How are we ever going to get through the Whomping Willow? We'll be ripped to pieces by those branches!"

"Don't worry, I have a way to deal with the Whomping Willow." Lycos shook his head and walked quickly down the marble steps without waiting for Harry to object.

It was because he saw the secret passage behind the Whomping Willow on the Marauder's Map that he finally remembered something that was clearly mentioned in the original novel -

The reason why Hogwarts planted such a dangerous Whomping Willow was to cover the secret passage from the castle to Hogsmeade village, so that Remus Lupin, who was still a student at the time, would have a place to spend the full moon night safely.

At the end of the secret passage is the Screaming Shack.

Lecos reasonably suspected that Sirius Black was now placed in the Shrieking Shack just like Lupin was back then... This place was hidden enough, and there were legends of it being haunted in the village, so it was unlikely to attract prying eyes.

Walking down the marble steps and crossing the stone bridge connecting the entrance courtyard and the teaching area, Lycos and the others soon passed by Greenhouse No. 2... Professor Sprout was teaching in the greenhouse at this time.

Next to the greenhouse, Lycos couldn't help but quicken his pace - because he should have elective classes at this moment and shouldn't have time to wander around the castle.

It would not be good if Professor Sprout, the head of Hufflepuff, found out that I was absent from class and reported it to Professor McGonagall...

So, with their quick steps, Lycos and Harry arrived at the open space on the east side of the castle in a very short time.

There is a willow tree here with very thick branches. Its branches extend in all directions and dance constantly, like long and tough whips that can whip anything that invades the surrounding area at any time.

"What a pity that Cassandra saved you once, otherwise you and Ronald Weasley would have a good relationship with the Whomping Willow." Looking at the willow tree in front of him, Lycos looked at Harry and teased.

"Huh? What are you talking about?" Harry had never experienced the scene of a flying car crashing into a tree, so he naturally didn't understand what Lecos meant. He said anxiously, "Lex, didn't you say there was a way to deal with the Whomping Willow? Hurry up!"

Lycos also felt bored and shrugged.

He picked up a small stone from the ground and threw it at the Whomping Willow.

……

Chapter 214 The Screaming Shack

The Whomping Willow's reaction was faster than expected. The moment the stone flew into the area covered by the branches, a willow branch suddenly swung out.

"Snapped!"

With a sound like a spinning top, the stone was directly broken into two pieces and instantly fell far away from the Whomping Willow.

Watching this scene, Harry couldn't help swallowing.

"Lexus, I...are we really going to go through this secret passage?" he asked tremblingly, his voice a little stuttering.

"Now that you're here, do you still want to go back?" Lycos glanced at Harry nonchalantly, then turned his gaze back to the Whomping Willow. "Don't be impatient, let me observe first."

The stone he just threw was not only to test the attack power of the Whomping Willow, but also to make the branches of the willow move.

Lycos vaguely remembered that there was a knot near the root of the Whomping Willow. As long as the knot was pressed down, the Whomping Willow would become quiet and unable to move for a short time.

However, when no one approached, the willow branches drooped down, covering the trunk, making it impossible for him to find the knots under the tree.

Now, the branches of the Whomping Willow were swaying, naturally exposing its trunk. This allowed Lycos to stand calmly out of reach of the branches and observe where the knot was.

"found it!"

Lycos suddenly saw an obvious bulge under the tree trunk, and his eyes immediately fixed.

He immediately raised his wand and pointed it at the bulge -

"Flipendo!"

Although the Whomping Willow could remove stones with extremely fast reaction speed, it was ultimately not fast enough to remove a spell.

Lycos's repelling spell hit the knot of the Whomping Willow squarely, pushing the knot down directly and crashing it into the trunk -

In an instant, the entire Whomping Willow seemed to have been paused, and all the branches suddenly stopped in the air.

Only the dust slightly raised by the swaying willow branches and a few stones that had not completely stopped rolling proved that this willow tree had indeed danced vigorously...

Seeing this, Lycos took the lead and walked towards the motionless willow tree.

After walking a few steps, he suddenly realized that someone was missing, so he turned around and waved:

"Come on, we don't have much time."

Harry nodded quickly, took the Marauder's Map, and quickly followed Lycos's pace.

Several of the willow tree's roots were floating on the ground. Just below the tangled roots was a very small hole, barely wide enough for one person to squeeze in. Fat guys like Crabbe and Goyle couldn't fit in.

Fortunately, Lecos and Harry are still young and quite thin.

Standing in front of the tree trunk, Lycos looked at the narrow hole and couldn't help but sigh.

I'm afraid my clothes will get dirty.

Time was running out, so he didn't hesitate too much and jumped into the cave first, then slid down a slope, with Harry following closely behind.

Soon, the two slid to the bottom of the slope.

"Lumos." Lycos chanted the spell.

Under the illumination of the wand lighting spell, they could see that they were in a very short tunnel.

"The map isn't big enough, so the road disappears at the edge of the parchment, but it does look like it ends at Hogsmeade..." Harry squatted on the ground, studying the map carefully. "The Marauder's Map says it's this way."

He pointed forward.

"You don't have to tell me that." Lycos's mouth twitched, "This is the only way forward for us..."