Snakes at Hogwarts

On Sunday night, Andros quietly slipped out of the Slytherin common room.

Outside the damp stone door, there is darkness that cannot be seen.

It's almost ten o'clock in the evening, and Hogwarts' curfew will be in just over ten minutes.

In Hogwarts, in order to prevent those energetic little wizards from sleeping well at night, the school, which has been operating for nearly a thousand years, still implements a curfew system.

For the little wizards in the lower grades, their curfew starts at ten o'clock in the evening, because generally speaking, the latest class these little wizards can take is an astronomy class once a week.

Every Wednesday night, they and the students from the other three houses would take their telescopes to the astronomy tower on the west side of the castle to take Professor Aurora Sinister's astronomy class, which is very close to Ravenclaw Tower. .

This is a required course at Hogwarts. I don’t know why wizards pay so much attention to the stars in the sky just like the centaurs living in the Forbidden Forest.

In this course, students learn the names of stars, constellations, and planets, learn their locations and movements, and learn about the environment on these planets or moons.

You even need to have the ability to draw a star chart independently in order to get a good score in the ordinary wizard examination.

The course ends at nine o'clock in the evening, which means that students have an hour after class to return to their respective lounges.

If you don't get lost, you still have plenty of time.

Of course, students in different grades have different curfew times. Some senior students may take other classes in the evening, and their curfew time is at [-] p.m.

As long as curfew time is reached, failure to return to or come out of the lounge can be considered a night out.

If discovered by Filch or the professor on night watch, he would be severely punished.

As for how long you want to stay in the lounge, that's your own business. As long as you don't leave the lounge, no one will care about you even if you stay up all night.

As long as you're not too disturbing.

........

"Fluorescence"

Accompanied by a loud spell, the tip of Andros's wand emitted a bright, cold-toned silver light.

This is the Magic Lighting Charm, one of the simplest and most common spells that students learn in first grade.

However, simplicity does not mean that it can be cast casually. The user needs to be very attentive when releasing the spell, because if you are not careful, this light source will ignite the user's wand.

That can cause permanent damage to the wand.

In fact, at the beginning of this semester, a few unlucky people had already set their wands on fire due to negligence when learning this spell, and one of them even blew up his own wand.

Yes, I'm talking about that Gryffindor blaster Seamus Finnegan.

I really don't know what's wrong with him, but a simple fluorescent flash on his hand can turn into an effect comparable to the detonation spell.

He is indeed a man with explosive attributes.

I admire you.

...

Generally speaking, Slytherin students who choose to travel at night will not use magic in this dark underground corridor.

Because further ahead here is the Potions classroom and the lounge of their dean, Severus Snape. He sleeps very lightly, and the slightest noise may disturb the old bat living inside.

But it doesn't matter to Andros now. He was originally going to receive the punishment of being locked up. He had a legitimate reason, and he didn't care whether he would be caught by Snape.

Anyway, barefoot people are not afraid of wearing shoes. He has already been punished. What else can Snape do to him?

Under the illumination of the fluorescent spell, Andros quickly found the right path. His sense of direction has always been very good.

He didn't stop at all when passing the Potions classroom and Snape's office. Andros even deliberately made his footsteps louder when passing Snape's office.

He stamped his feet outside the office.

Thumb~thump~thump!

You have locked yourself up and still want to sleep?

dream!

Thumb~thump~thump!

The revenge of snake animals is so strong.

After venting his anger, Andros quickly left the scene of the crime and followed the spiraling stairs to the foyer on the first floor of the castle. The burning torch illuminated the place warmly and brightly, completely different from the dark underground corridor. extreme.

Most of these torches are enchanted and can burn for a long time like the candles in the Great Hall.

"Knox."

After the light at the tip of the wand went out, Andros put away his wand and began to search for Filch's office in the hall. He had never been there before.

Just kidding, who serious person would go to a place like this often?

Next to several notice boards filled with lists of items prohibited from use in the castle, Andros quickly found a small room. A moldy wooden sign hung outside the room, which read: Hogwart Administrator's Office.

This should be it.

Taking out his pocket watch and checking the time, Andros knocked on the closed door.

"Come in!" Filch's voice came from behind the door.

He opened the door and looked at the office in front of him for the first time. It was a very small, airtight room, with miscellaneous things filling almost every corner of the room.

In addition, there are many wooden filing cabinets lined up on the surrounding walls. A large desk stretches across the room, occupying almost half of the entire room. An oil lamp hangs from the ceiling, which is the only one in the room. light source.

There was also an oil lamp that gave off a faint light on the table. It looked like an antique from the last century.

Since there were no windows, there was a faint smell of fried fish lingering in the air of the room. That smell should come from the food of Filch's domestic cat, Mrs. Norris.

Fortunately, she is not here now, wandering somewhere in the castle, otherwise she might have recognized herself as one of the people wandering around that night.

"Don't just stand there! Come in and close the door!" Looking at Andros standing at the door, Filch growled in a low voice. He never had a good look on these students who violated laws and disciplines.

"Go up over there and stand there, I'm warning you, don't touch anything here."

Under the dim light, Filch looked even more terrifying than in the daytime. On his criss-crossed old face, a pair of bulging light-colored eyes stared at Andros fiercely.

Don’t you know how to speak well?

You must be sick.

Without arguing with Filch, Andros stood aside obediently, perhaps because the Gryffindor lounge was far away from here, and Harry and Ron hadn't come over yet. In the dim office, only Andros and Filch were there. Strange two people.

Seeing Filch sitting behind the table, cursing incessantly while leaning over to write on a piece of parchment with a quill, Andros was too sensible to choose to talk to him.

Anyway, this old guy probably won't pay attention to him.

His eyes moved around, and he soon discovered a different cabinet. On one of the drawers was a small wooden sign written in black ink: "Confiscated items, highly dangerous."

The famous map was probably derived from here by the Weasley brothers!

However, at this time, this map should have been taken away by the twin brothers.

What a shame.

Andros thought rather regretfully.

But there may be another chance to steal that map in the future.

Let’s talk about it then.

Ah~ It’s really boring!

Why haven't those two guys come yet?