cycle

"Shouldn't we ask the boss where this passage leads to before we go in?" Ron cleared his throat after climbing into the hole behind Ariana's portrait and walking along the passage with the brass lamp on the wall for a while. , "I'm not saying that he might betray us, but if the exit of this passage happens to be guarded by a dozen Death Eaters... that would be bad, wouldn't it?"

"There is no such passage on the Marauder's Map." Hermione snatched the Marauder's Map from Neville's hand, and read it carefully with the light of the tip of her wand.

"Maybe my dad didn't know about this road back then." Harry chuckled, and he was still in the mood to whistle, "We can consider adding it to the map when we're done."

"It's just right, we can plan what we are going to do after we enter Hogwarts." Hermione's tone made me think that she was going to take out a planner from her pocket in the next second, but she just said thoughtfully. He waved his wand emitting a faint fluorescent light in the air, "Our previous plan didn't cover this."

"Yeah, after all when I rode that dragon at Gringotts I thought my life ended there - I was just - kidding!" muttered Ron. "Okay , get started, do what you love most, and make a plan."

"Of course the best order is to go to the Room of Requirement first to find the crown, and then take the crown and the gold cup to the Slytherin Chamber of Secrets to destroy." Hermione immediately began to speak fluently, probably from a while earlier in her mind. Hovering over the content, "But—"

"Student." Neville continued, "You-Know-Who will definitely come to Hogwarts in the end, and find other My-Know-Who who have destroyed Horcruxes and are full of anger..."

"Evacuating all the students is not something a few of us can do." I felt a little anxious, "We need to find the deans of each college and tell them the current situation—"

"Then it looks like we're going to split up again," Harry said, "in two ways. Neville takes Ron and Hermione to the Slytherin Chamber of Secrets to destroy the gold cup. You take the Marauder's Map and stop by on the way back." Find the deans. Alice and I will go to the Room of Requirement—don’t worry, you can see where we are on the map at any time, and we will go to the secret room after we get the crown, so that even if we have an accident on the way, at least One Horcrux can be guaranteed to be destroyed."

Hermione glanced at me, obviously thinking that getting the diadem and going to the Chamber of Secrets together would be the best course of action, but the boys had already nodded to Harry's riskier proposal.

"Are we there?" After turning a corner, another short stone staircase appeared in our sight. At the end of the staircase was a door, exactly the same as the one behind Ariana's portrait.Hermione double-checked the Marauder's Map and found that we were still not there.

"Are we really at Hogwarts?" Hermione squeezed her wand (as did the rest of us). "Something feels wrong to me."

"If Abufu thought of betraying us, there's no need to save us on the street." Harry motioned all of us to stand on guard against the door, "Are you ready? Three, two, one—Ala Huo Dong opened."

There was no movement at all, maybe the lock on this door needed stronger magic, or it wasn't locked at all-Harry reached out and pushed it, and the door creaked inward immediately, and someone spoke After the sound, I immediately pushed Harry and Ron, who were poking their heads in front, to the ground.

"Merlin!" Just as my mind began to spit out various spells at high speed following the approaching footsteps and human voices, I heard a very familiar voice, "It's okay! It's them! They're back! Harry, Neville ...Merlin! They're all back!"

Several hands stretched out from the door and pulled us in, holding our wands high. The bright tapestries on the walls and the colorful hammocks hanging from the ceiling were dazzling, before we got used to the light in the room. , Many palms were stretched out from all directions to shake our hands, ruffle our hair, and pat our backs—we were surrounded by about 20 people. Could this be the common room of some college?

"Okay, okay! You look like you're slapping 'em!" a girl's voice reprimanded. "They're out of breath!"

Ron looked up following the voice, and there was a momentary unnatural expression on his face, because it was his ex-girlfriend Lavender Brown who was sitting in a hammock and smiling at us.

"Uh, we're not in Gryffindor Tower, are we?" Neville looked around the house, "I didn't see any windows, er, besides lions, there are pictures of eagles and badgers here..."

"It's got everything here except Slytherin," Seamus Finnigan replied, and I didn't recognize him until he spoke, because his face was swollen badly, and there were several shocking scars on it, " Thanks to the DA back then, we knew that there was such a hiding place in the school—well, after you left the school, it was Luna and Ginny who led us to fight against Malfoy and the group of Death Eaters, but at Christmas They took Luna, and Ginny never came back after Easter, and we realized they were determined to make us all disappear.

"

"Senior Cedric thought of the Room of Requirement, and he asked us to hide here temporarily." Parvati Patil giggled and said, "He used Ginny's gold coins to contact us, and of course, told us The news that our Luna was rescued! This place started out small, we sneaked out at night to paint signs on the walls, telling those old DA members that we were waiting for everyone at the old place, and then more and more people came here, and it became It slowly became what it is now, and a nice washroom popped out."

"Ginny?" said Ron gruffly. "Wait, when did the two of them—could he be at Aunt Muriel's too? Why didn't anyone tell me—"

"I think it's because everyone knows you can't receive the mail, so I didn't have time to tell you this extremely important thing." Hermione rolled her eyes (probably because Lavender was smiling brightly at Ron ).

I looked around carefully. Almost all the school members who participated in DA back then were here. They smiled and looked at Harry and Neville's Patil twin sisters. Ernie McMillan shaking hands with Wayne, Anthony Goldstein sitting on a cushion, and Michael Kerner, who looked uncomfortable when he heard Ginny's name.

I haven't been in such a noisy environment for a long time, and it's so warm that I wonder if this is another too real dream.Ernie kept pestering Harry and Neville to find out which of the rumors heard on the radio were true. Everyone cheered every time Harry and Neville answered, as if we had just triumphantly returned from the Quidditch final. Returning players.

Parvati came over and took Hermione and me's arms affectionately. She was obviously taken aback when she saw the scar on my face, but immediately turned her head to look at Hermione. I am grateful that she didn't ask me in a high-pitched voice. what happened.

"Isn't Tallus with you?" she asked. "I thought he must have been with you."

The expression on Hermione's face was stiff, and she raised her head and looked at me with some panic.It seems that Luna didn't tell them these things with gold coins, I was thinking about how to interrupt this question, but saw Neville who was surrounded by the crowd suddenly turned around and faced the wall, Beads of sweat appeared on his forehead.

We didn't have any more time to chat, and Neville's expression broke the illusion that had hung over our heads from the very beginning when we entered the Room of Requirement: outside this door were wandering Death Eaters who were watching the night, and Voldemort was one by one. Check the Horcruxes that have been destroyed by Harry and the others. If he chooses Hogwarts as his next location, we may miss a precious opportunity.

"Listen, listen to everyone." Harry raised a hand, and the chattering crowd finally returned to calm. Everyone sat on the cushions as if they were participating in a DA activity in fifth grade, and looked up at him with eager eyes. with him. "We came to Hogwarts with very important things to do—"

"What's the matter!" Seamus interrupted him excitedly, "Can we help!"

Several people stood up because of excitement, and even took out their wands. It seemed too cold and cruel to answer "No, this matter has nothing to do with you" in this atmosphere.

Harry looked around at the people in the room, then turned and exchanged glances with Neville, "Yeah, yes, I think you guys can help—"

"—Harry!" cried Hermione.

"—we need to evacuate all the students from Hogwarts." Harry continued, and Hermione sat back beside me with a sigh of relief. Death Eaters on the night watch, but—”

"Wait," Lavender asked. "Evacuate? Why evacuate?"

"Because there is danger!" Ron hurriedly replied, "It is very dangerous, you need to leave as soon as possible!"

"And keep you?" Her eyes widened. "Leave just a few of you...to fight those Death Eaters? No, that's not okay, we have to stay with you!"

"It's not a joke," Hermione said calmly. "Ron's right, Hogwarts is in great danger, not just Death Eaters—"

The tunnel door swung open behind us, Luna and Dean appeared in the doorway, and Seamus yelled ecstatically and rushed to hug his best friend.

"What's going on?" I didn't expect anyone to come back from school, "At this time, it shouldn't be—"

"We promised Ginny and the others that we will notify them as soon as you come back, and we will overthrow Malfoy and the Carlo brothers and sisters together." Seamus happily looked at his friends who hadn't heard from him for more than half a year, "We will work together to drive them out of Honolulu." Gwartz!"

"No, we didn't come back for this, at least not today." I feel that the situation is becoming more and more chaotic and beyond our control, "Today's situation is very dangerous, more than anything you can imagine- "

"Will the mysterious man come?" Luna happily answered, "I'm just trying to put harassment into his head!"

The room was quiet for two seconds, but it was only two seconds, and the others immediately said to us that they were ready to confront the mysterious man, with the expression on their faces that they were the first one in the third grade. The excitement of lining up for Hogsmeade for the first time.

There was another movement behind him, and Cedric Diggory climbed in through the hole in the wall, arousing warm welcome from the girls, followed by Ginny, Fred, George and Lee Jordan. It seemed more crowded and noisier.

"Aberforth is getting a little angry." Fred raised his hand in response to the loud greetings from several people. He looked at us with a smile and said, "He said that we used his bar as a train station, which is a pretty vivid analogy. .”

"It's much more lively than the train station now." George lazily echoed, and smiled at Qiu Zhang who appeared behind him, "Long time no see!"

"I also received the news." Qiu Zhang raised her fake Galleon, glanced at Cedric and Ginny next to him, and calmly smiled at the other people in the room who were looking at her, sitting down. To Michael Corner, "Want to come and help a little bit—anything."

"You shouldn't have brought her here!" Ron glanced at Cedric angrily, and decided to get angry at his two brothers, "Mom won't let you go!"

"Yeah, Mum might put us in a cupboard and not feed us for a month, but if she's not brought, she'll put a bat-spell spell on each of our faces and make us all Miss the good show tonight." Fred shrugged his shoulders and raised his chin at Ginny, "You don't know, no one dares to provoke her except Digory."

"There is no good show tonight." Their contemptuous attitude made me more and more flustered, and I couldn't help raising my voice, "You are too naive, this is not some Defense Against the Dark Arts practice—"

"Don't talk like Professor Snape." George patted me on the shoulder, and just as I was about to explode, Harry took my hand and let me lean against him in a reassuring way.

"Everyone." He has been talking to Neville just now, and it seems that they have already discussed a result, "We are very grateful to everyone for your help, very grateful, but we must also remind everyone that we are likely to face a mysterious person tonight , or in other words, we came back here to destroy him completely, and this is not a joke, this is what Hogwarts will face in an hour or two - or even a few minutes later: He may be Just rush in with Death Eaters, of course, their target is not you, but it doesn't affect them shooting death curses at every innocent person and torturing every student they see."

Harry and Neville's stern expressions finally made most of the smiles disappear, and everyone began to sit upright to listen to what they had to say next.

"This is a safe hiding place, but we need everyone to leave temporarily and look for something inside." Harry continued, "Now we hope that everyone will do the following: Attract the attention of the Night Watch Death Eaters ——This is very dangerous, people under the seventh grade should not participate; use various secret passages to go to the respective dean's office to wake up the dean, I think it is also necessary to inform Professor Slughorn of Slytherin; the last and most important Yes, find a way to transfer a large number of Hogwarts students to the outside of the campus."

"This should be the only way." Seamus replied, "The other passages are either blocked by spells or are stationed by dementors."

"Yes, and we have received news that tonight the mysterious man asked to surround Hogwarts airtightly. He seems to know that you will come, and he is going to catch you all when you come in." Fred added.

"How do you—"

As soon as I asked, George made a gesture: "Of course the news comes from your all-knowing father, Miss Snape, and the source of the news is still 'someone you don't need to know'. But it seems that this is true news, Dementors are freezing the windows of Hogsmeade over."

"In other words, do we need to wait until all the students have evacuated before using the Room of Requirement?" I turned to look at Harry and Neville, "Is there enough time?"

"If it's too late, we can only make it too late." Neville stood up with a pale face. Voldemort should have discovered that a Horcrux was destroyed. When he spoke, his teeth were grinding hard to resist Voldemort's emotions. Tortured, "If the price of killing him is that the students here suffer too...then it's pointless, Dumbledore will understand."

"Then the plan now is this." Hermione stood up, and she stretched out her wand and waved it into the air. The tapestry of the Three Colleges on the wall deftly jumped into the air, and the chandelier above her head passed through them and projected shadows under everyone's feet. Lights of different colors, "I think it's not a good idea to make a lot of noise at the beginning. Once we convince the dean of a college, there must be a more efficient way of communication between them."

"Prefects!" Hermione, who had exchanged her wand from Neville, had obviously regained the feeling of being able to cast magic. She held up a new gold coin that had just been conjured up, "Your respect for the students and the lounge I am the most familiar and know how to organize the lower grade students to act together, I think you can go back to the lounge of your respective colleges and wait for the call of gold coins."

"As for the original plan for the room below, I think it remains the same." She looked back at Neville and Harry, and after they nodded, she turned and continued, "Then Ginny and Luna, you two go back to the pig's head." The bar, tell Aberforth that there will be a large number of students leaving his bar later, and then silently spell, close your ears and listen to the spell—whatever, reinforce the guards in the bar."

"I'm not a kid anymore!" said Ginny, standing up. "Would you please stop trying to keep me out of the center in the first place—"

"So many people here must obey the command of one person, Ginny." Cedric Diggory said, "It is also very important to ensure the safety of the retreat route."

"That's right, you're going too." Hermione nodded at Cedric with satisfaction, "It shouldn't be a difficult task for the student union president to evacuate the whole school."

"The others stay here for the time being, and we can use gold coins to contact you at any time—no, no, as I said, it's a very bad idea to alert the Death Eaters in the first place." Hermione shook her head at Fred and George who were eager to try, " Harry, you and Alice will go to Professor McGonagall first, and we will come up to meet you after finishing the following things."

"How do we get out?" Neville asked Seamus, "Uh, I didn't see the door leading to the eighth floor."

"The door disappeared after we made too many dodging requests, and there is only a passage here." Seamus led us to a corner, and opened the cupboard there to reveal a steep staircase. They all lead to different places, so those people have never been able to find it. The only trouble is that you will never end up somewhere, so be careful."

"No problem." Harry pulled out the Invisibility Cloak and handed it to Neville, "I'll see you later."

"Sixth floor." After walking along the stairs for a long time, he turned a corner and came to a solid wall.Harry looked at the Marauder's Map and handed it to Hermione, "Filch is down a corridor, I think it's best not to bump into him, after all, he never knows the priorities of things."

"See you later," whispered Neville. "Good luck to both of us."

The invisibility cloak couldn't completely cover the three of them, so Harry and the other prefects and I watched the three pairs of feet walk farther and farther in the quiet corridor until they could no longer be heard.After nodding goodbye to us, the prefects also raised their wands and disappeared at the end of the corridor.

"Professor McGonagall's office." Harry grabbed my wrist. "Hmm, honestly, I don't bother to remember any shortcuts to get there at school."

"Then what shall we do?" I've never felt so nervous before, and I always have the illusion that Voldemort will pop out of the shadows in the corner in a second.

"Shh, relax—I was only joking." Harry pulled me away from a ghost, and pulled back a curtain to signal me to follow him in. "You're too nervous, Alice."

Although his tone is relaxed, his palms are actually sweating all the time. I don't intend to pierce his disguise at this time.

After passing through a few more curtains and slipping through a few corridors filled with dozing portraits, I saw a familiar door.

"Alahuo hole probably won't work for the dean's office. I think it's better to knock directly." I said softly, just as I reached out to knock the brass ring on the door, a woman's chuckle suddenly came from behind me .

"Look, there seems to be a really extraordinary person here tonight!"

A flash of fire shot out from the tip of my wand, and I recognized the grinning short woman not far away as Alecto Carrow who broke into Hogwarts the night Professor Dumbledore died. And Harry continued to raise her hand to cast spells, and she had already pressed down the skull and snake branded on her forearm with her stubby index finger first.

There was a loud bang, and Harry and I couldn't react in time and fell forward, and then felt someone on the waist pull back and barely stood still.Professor McGonagall, wearing an old tartan dressing gown, appeared at the door, and Carlo, who had been baring his teeth and claws just now, seemed to have been knocked out, and now he collapsed on the ground.

"What's going on here?" McGonagall's eyes had never widened before, "Wee hours—no, the time doesn't matter, you two shouldn't be in Hogwarts at all right now!"

"Uh, in fact, we're not the only ones coming back." Harry seized the time and said quickly, "Professor, we need to evacuate all the students from Hogwarts. The specific reason will be told to you in detail later, but I hope you can notify us immediately Deans of other colleges."

She looked me and Harry in the eyes sharply, but before she could say a word, there was a rude yell from across the corridor: "Alecto! What the hell are you doing? !"

"Come into my office, hurry up!" Mag grabbed us by the scruff of the neck like an eagle catching a chick, and threw us through the door.

"What's going on!" The man should be Amycus Carrow, and Harry and I didn't need to stick to the door to hear him yell, "You attacked her! How dare you attack me Sister, let her touch the Dark Mark by mistake, Minerva McGonagall!"

"I can't understand what you're saying," said Professor McGonagall dryly. "I won't let myself touch that dirty thing."

"I don't care! If the Dark Lord comes and finds that we haven't captured Potter and Longbottom, we will be in big trouble!" he yelled excitedly. "Now that we're in power here, you'd better be a little self-aware—"

There was another sound of heavy objects falling to the ground, and the door of the office opened, and Professor McGonagall strode in, followed by the unconscious Carlo brothers and sisters.She glanced at the two of them with disgust, conjured up a shining silver rope out of thin air, tied them obediently, and then hung them in the air with a strong net. Harry walked over to pick them up. Walk away the wands that fell from them.

"You need to escape immediately." Professor McGonagall put on his glasses, "The sooner the better!"

"No, Professor, everything that is happening now is still within our expectations." Harry said firmly, "Please trust us, we are following Professor Dumbledore's orders, and we have reached the last few steps. Time is running out, he already knows we're here, Professor, must—"

"Then how much time do you need?" Professor McGonagall was taking a deep breath, and she put on the dark robe that floated towards her. "We can defend the safety of the school against the person who can't even mention his name."

"Is it possible?" I asked anxiously.

"I think so, Miss Snape." Professor McGonagall said flatly, "Our teachers are all good at magic. If we put our best efforts, we will definitely be able to hold him back for a while. Of course, some dross must be cleared out first."

"Students still need to be removed." Harry said immediately, and he explained to McGonagall the way to the Pig's Head Bar in detail, "as long as Voldemort and the Death Eaters—now that he knows we're here, it's okay to call him by our first names." No big deal. They're focusing on the school, no one cares who Apparates from the Hog's Head, we've got prefects and people at the bar ready."

"Good job." Professor McGonagall nodded in agreement, "Let's go, let's wake up the other deans."

From the tip of her staff sprang three silver cats with spectacle-shaped spots around their eyes, and the three Patronuses ran swiftly forward, shedding gentle light along the way.We followed the Patronus down the corridors, and after going down two flights of stairs Harry suddenly grabbed me and pulled me hard behind him.

"Good evening, Professor McGonagall." The voice that hadn't been heard for a long time dragged the end of the sentence and said in a slow tone.

"It's late, even the head of the Boys should go back to the common room to sleep-oh, long time no see, I thought you'd never be let out, Mr. Malfoy." Harry and I hid in the In the shadows around the corner of the stairs, listen to Professor McGonagall speaking to Draco and Lucius Malfoy.

"I sensed that Carlo had caught an intruder, so I had to come over and see what happened." Draco raised his voice slightly, "Professor - I'm sure I heard more than one footstep just now."

"Really?" Professor McGonagall replied, "I didn't hear it. It's very quiet around."

"Since it's so quiet around here, why are you here?" Lucius Malfoy sneered, "I remember you weren't supposed to be patrolling the corridors tonight, or—are you kidding yourself?" ?”