[Soccer+HP] Mario and the Vanishing King

Hogwarts has a dizzying 140 staircases, and most of them are not very well-behaved - such as the one where Mario and the others are now.

Mario, Marco and Andre have just come out of the hallway of the basement and want to go upstairs to see if there is any food left in the auditorium. Nick's dinner party is really not suitable for human beings, they are starving .However, no one has ever told them that the stairs leading to the first floor also move.Just when they had just stepped on the first few steps, the entire staircase suddenly left its original position and began to rise rapidly, like a small elevator.

"Why didn't I find out before that this staircase also moves!" said Mario over the rumbling of the stairs.

"Neither have I!" Marko had to shout so they could hear each other, "And this staircase looks so solid!"

"Or it only changes at certain times!" Andre said, looking less confident this time. "Hopefully it stops!"

However the staircase didn't live up to their expectations, it seemed determined to be different.It sang along, surpassed all the stairs, rose higher than anyone else, and when it came to a stop rumbling in front of a dark corridor, they had no idea how many floors they had climbed.Found that the three people were still standing there without moving, the stairs threw them on the ground impatiently, and then descended without looking back.

"I wish I could write a letter to Principal McGonagall to complain about these stairs!" Marco stood up rubbing his sore arm, "It's fine that we often make us late for class, but we are actually transported to... God knows it's where!"

Andre also stood up and was patting the ashes on his robe. "It's useless. The stairs in the castle are always moving. They are part of the castle."

Mario got up from the ground in pain, feeling that his ribs were about to break. "This staircase has a bad temper..." He was choking on the dust and coughing, "It actually threw us out. Who stipulated that we must get off when the stairs stop? Can't we go back the same way!"

Now they stood alone on a dusty square platform that was empty on three sides, and the corridor behind them was the only access. "Maybe the eighth floor." Andre ventured to the edge of the platform to have a look, guessing.It didn't seem to help though, none of them had been to the eighth floor.

"Why don't we... let's go for a walk?" Mario tried to propose, turning his head towards the dark corridor.

"I agree!" Marco immediately agreed.

Andre also nodded: "Waiting here doesn't seem to help."

Just to be on the safe side, the three drew out their wands and lit them, then groped cautiously towards the corridor.The corridor looked the same as the outside, it was all dark, except for the small part illuminated by the light from their wands, the others were hidden in the darkness.What made them feel even more creepy was that besides the sound of their light footsteps, there was a looming snoring sound, and the sound became more obvious as they walked forward.

"I don't like the sound," Marko said honestly.

"Hush—" Andre immediately reminded him to keep quiet.

The three of them looked at each other, and they all became nervous involuntarily.

There are people in the corridor.

They took their steps more lightly, and walked towards the direction of the purring sound like cats.The noise got louder, they got closer, and then—

There is no one here.

But the purring statement is right in the ear.

"That's impossible," Marco whispered, "unless he's on the ceiling!"

Mario pointed his wand up in the air, and saw them standing in front of a huge tapestry.On the tapestry, there is a giant monster like a hill, lying on the ground and sleeping soundly, and there is a man in the corner of the picture, who seems to be asleep too.That huge grunting sound came from the monster's mouth.

"Hey boy!" said the man sleeping next to the monster annoyed when the light woke him up. "It's bed time! You woke me up! Turn off the lights, turn off the lights!"

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry..." Mario apologized quickly, lowering his wand.

"Students nowadays are really not polite!" The man muttered and turned over, turning his face to the inside of the picture, and now they could only see his back.

"Well, luckily it was a false alarm..." Marco breathed out as they left the tapestry, "I thought it was some invisible man. How did this tapestry hang here? That troll looks weird frightening."

"How do you know it's a troll?" Mario asked curiously in a low voice. Usually, Andre acts as an encyclopedia at such times.

"Trolls all look like that, with a body like a hill and a pitifully small head. They look stupid." Marco rolled his eyes. "It's written like that in storybooks."

"You forgot an 'intimidatingly strong,'" Andre added.

"Well, they're insanely strong. But that doesn't stop them from being stupid," Marko said.

"To deal with three first-year students, you don't need their IQ at all." Andre said, "Just wave the stick in your hand, and we will become a pool of meat."

Mario couldn't help shivering. "Fortunately, what we saw just now were hanging paintings."

They walked forward for a while, and there was still no sign of the stairs going down in the entire corridor, and the corridor was at the end of it.

"It would be great if there is something to eat somewhere." Mario's stomach growled with hunger, "I haven't eaten for hours..."

"Me too... I'm going to starve to death..." Marco also wailed.

Then they suddenly remembered something, and looked at Andre suspiciously together.

"Don't look at me, I didn't bring anything to eat." Andre said, only to find that the eyes of the two friends became more suspicious.

"You used chocolate frogs to comfort Julian before!" Marco looked disbelieving.

"Andre, you really didn't come out with candy?" Mario asked hopefully.

"It's the first day of school to comfort Julian, and it's because I just won a few chocolate frogs the day before and stuffed them in my robe."

"Then is it possible for you to..."

"Please, today is Halloween! There are so many delicious foods in the auditorium, why should I bring my own snacks?" Andre said as he turned out his pocket to show them, "If you don't believe me, you can see for yourself."

"Okay..." Mario said disappointedly, and turned to Marco again, "Marco, did you bring it?"

"I don't have either." Marco looked through his pockets with a sad face, "I only brought a few dung eggs." After speaking, he took out a few round things.They look about the size of a quail egg, with all kinds of patterns painted on them, a bit like Easter eggs, but obviously not for eating.

"Why are you carrying these things?" Mario stared at Marco suspiciously.

"To add to the fun of Halloween, it turned out to be useless." Marco shrugged, "I bought it at the Weasley Brothers' Magic Wheezes before school started, and there are a lot of weird gadgets there. There are also quick-acting skipping classes." sugar……"

"Don't tell me you bought that." Andre also stared at him.

"Of course I...why are you all staring at me? I didn't say I would use it!"

"Then why did you buy them?" Mario insisted.

"I just... well, I just wanted to use it to skip class." Under the increasingly severe eyes of the two friends, Marco had to admit, "But don't you want to skip History of Magic? Listen to Binns The professor is doing hypnosis there, why not practice a few more spells! Or go to the lake to bask in the sun, is it better than wasting time there?"

Mario and Andre didn't speak for a long time, because the history of magic was really, really annoying.

Marco sees hope. "So, as long as these things are used in the right place, they're actually not that bad, right?"

"Okay..." Mario made a compromise, "but only the history of magic!"

"Of course! I won't miss other classes!" Marco said happily.

Andre still seemed to disapprove of the use of quick-acting skipping sugar to skip classes, but he didn't say anything more.

"Mario, what's in your pockets?" Marco became curious, only Mario's pockets remained intact.

"Mine?" Mario reached out and touched his pocket, "In addition to the wand, it's the chocolate frog card that David just gave me two days ago. I remember it belonged to Godric Gryffindor... and... Hey, What is this?" He took out a square object.Opening the layer of velvet wrapped outside, Mario immediately knew what was in his hand - it was the double-sided mirror he received.

"Why are you still carrying this thing?" Andre asked with a frown.

"I probably just wore this robe after taking a shower today." Mario said uncertainly, "When I received the mirror that day, I just stuffed it into the robe."

Mario brought the mirror close to his eyes and saw something strange.Most of the mirror was completely dark, but in a small corner something was shining and twinkling.The light was faint, and it looked like it was the result of the Lumos spell, but would the spell make the wand tip glow on and off?Mario looked down at his wand again and saw that it was dutifully shining a steady light.

He turned his head to look, and the corridor behind him was illuminated by their wands, but the rest was still dark.

Could the light be coming from the other end of the corridor?Mario didn't have time to think about it, he turned around and walked towards the corridor he came from just now.

"Mario?" Marco was frightened by this sudden move, and he quickly dragged Andre to follow Mario's footsteps, "What's wrong?"

"There seems to be someone there..." Mario said as he walked hurriedly, ignoring the echoes of his footsteps in the corridor.

"But we didn't find anyone when we came here just now," Marco said, "We didn't find it before, it was a false alarm."

"Mario, what did you find?" Andre asked in a low voice.

"I saw the light in the mirror, so I thought it was over here ... because my back was facing the corridor."

"But it doesn't make sense." Andre frowned and said, then fell into thought.

Mario raised his wand high, trying to let the light illuminate a larger area in front of him, and Marco followed behind in a daze, also raised his wand to help him shine.If anyone was there, they'd be sure to see him right away.

"Wait a minute," said Andre suddenly.

Mario and Marco were taken aback, almost poking each other with the tip of their wands when they turned around.

"What... what's wrong, Andrea?" Marco asked.

"Did you see the light in the mirror?" Andrea asked Mario.

Mario nodded, quite sure. "It's in a corner of the mirror." He took out the mirror and pointed it out to them, there was no light at all now, "It's right here, it was flickering just now, especially like the light from a magic wand, but it's not... So I thought, could someone be here..."

"There's no one here, I'm sure." Andre said very confidently.

"Why? But I clearly saw—"

"It's a two-way mirror, Mario. I should have explained it to you."

"But it... oh, well... you mean..." Mario looked at Andre questioningly, and Andre nodded.

"What are you talking about? What's wrong?" Marco was still at a loss.

"It shouldn't be able to see my side, should it?" Mario asked.

"Yes, the double-sided mirror is only used for communication." Andre said, "It can and can only see the environment in which the other mirror is located."

"You mean..." Marco suddenly realized, "The bright light that Mario saw just now was actually emitted from another mirror? It just happened to be seen by us?"

"I think so," Andre replied.

"But, where is that mirror?" Marco asked, "Who would want to give you this thing? Or, who is the owner of the other mirror?"

It's a pity that no one can answer his questions, because Mario himself is also at a loss, let alone Andre and Marco.

"Let's go back, I don't think there is anything here." After a while of silence, Marco said.

"It should be very late now, I don't even expect to have food..." Mario sighed and said, "I just want to go back to the dormitory and have a good sleep."

"Let's go back and have a look, maybe I didn't look carefully when I came here just now, and dropped the door leading to the stairwell." Andre said.

"It makes sense, the stairs of the North Tower are hidden behind the door, let's look for it!"

Once more they returned with wands raised, and as they passed the great tapestry the man next to the troll muttered something in his sleep.Not daring to disturb him again, they lowered their wands and slipped past the tapestry cats.However, when they raised their wands again, they discovered an unusual thing——

A door actually appeared on the wall opposite the tapestry!

"Is there this door here just now?" Marco asked in shock.

Both Mario and Andre shook their heads.

"I don't know, I've been staring at the tapestry before, and I didn't pay attention to the back at all." Mario said.

"I'm sure not," Andre said. "I took a look when Mario raised his wand."

"Could this be the door in the stairwell? It's really hidden..." Mario said as he stepped forward and pushed it.

The door opened.

They went in and took a look, and were astonished by what they saw inside.

On the left side of the room is a beautifully carved round dining table, which is filled with all kinds of snacks and delicacies. They are all placed in delicate silver plates, and a silver kettle next to it is filled with sweet and thirst-quenching water. pumpkin juice, and a whole roasted chicken lying on a tall tray in the center of the dining table, the yellow color makes people drool.Next to the dining table are three matching fine suede armchairs, and to the right of the chairs are three four-poster beds with velvet hangings, one is deep red, one is ginger yellow, and the other is dark green.

"This bed is exactly the same as the one I had in the dormitory." Mario approached the four-poster bed with crimson curtains. "Except for no name tag and my suitcase, the rest is exactly the same!"

"Mine too!" Marko pointed to the ginger one.

"So that's your bed?" Mario looked at Andre, who was still standing there watching cautiously.

"I'm not sure..." Andre's tone hesitated, "And why did beds and food just appear in this room? When we just finished discussing?"

"Maybe someone is helping us secretly?" Mario guessed, "We found that we were trapped in the corridor on the eighth floor, and we were starving... so you want to help us?"

"But these foods are also unreasonable," Andre said. "We can't conjure food out of thin air. It doesn't comply with Gump's law of transformation. Wait, don't lie down!" He wanted to stop Marco, but he was a step too late, Marco Coe was already lying backward on the Hufflepuff four-poster bed.

"Ah, so comfortable!" Marco said contentedly, "It really feels the same as my own bed!"

"Andre, I think someone sent these just when we needed them." Mario pointed to the three beds and the table. "If he was malicious, why didn't he kill us in the hallway?"

"I still find it a little weird," Andre said, though he looked shaken.

"Shall we eat something?" Mario looked at him pitifully. "I'm really hungry!"

"Don't be suspicious, Andre! It's too cruel to be unable to eat a table of delicious food..." Marco sat up from the bed, "And look, I'm fine lying on the bed!"

"Why do you ask me if you want to eat?" Andre glared at him, "I'm not your guardian."

"If you don't eat, I will!" Marco snorted, walked over immediately, sat at the table and started to move.

"Andre, I really think it's nothing." Mario persuaded Andre, "If there was danger, we couldn't escape just now, how could we still find this house? What's more, we almost saved our lives here, if If we continue to wander around in the corridor, we may not be able to get out until tomorrow morning. At least we can have something to eat here, take a rest, and then think about how to leave this corridor!"

"Okay." Andre finally compromised, and sat down with Mario, "But don't eat too much."

The food was as delicious as it looked, and after drinking and eating, they lay down on their respective beds.The mattress of the four-poster bed is so soft that people sink in slightly when lying down, and the quilt is thick enough, which is simply the best partner for brewing sleepiness.Mario wanted to ask Marco and Andre if they had tried the chocolate donut, but fell asleep before he could ask.

The next day they were woken by a cuckoo alarm clock.

Mario rubbed his sleepy eyes and sat up, and found that there was a tall clock in the corner neglected yesterday, and a mechanical cuckoo drilled out of the small passage on the top of the dial, dutifully carrying out the morning call.

"Marco, Andre, wake up..." Mario climbed out of bed, put on his robe, and pushed the sleeping two one by one.

"What? Where is the bird singing?" Marco got out of the quilt with his messy hair.

Andre, on the other hand, sat on his bed with a dark face and put on his clothes quietly. It seemed that his annoyance in getting up was not as serious as usual.

"What time is it?" Marco asked with a big yawn.

"Seven o'clock." Mario helped him throw the robe over. "If you hurry up, you can catch up with breakfast. I hope I can have a ham sandwich this morning."

After Andre threatened to cast the Hairy Curse on him for the third time, Marko finally got himself ready for breakfast, but still forgot to correct the wrong buttons.They consciously made the bed, walked past the beautiful round dining table (the tabletop was clean after last night's delicacies had disappeared at some point), opened the door and went out.The door was quickly closed behind them, but when they turned around to take another look at the room where they were entertained yesterday, the door on the wall disappeared out of thin air!

"This... this is impossible!" Marco was shocked, "It was still there just now!"

"Did you see how it disappeared, Andrea?" Mario asked in horror.

"No." Andre shook his head with a regretful expression.

"Could it be that I lost my memory?" Marco said.

"Then it's impossible for the three of us to collectively lose our memory." Mario turned around and pointed to the opposite side, "This tapestry is still here!" The troll has woken up and is chasing and beating the man yesterday with a giant club.

Andre stared at the tapestry for a long time, and then he suddenly remembered something. "I know what's going on!" he said suddenly, dragging Mario and Marco along the corridor, "but I have to check first! I need to borrow your Grank, Mari profound!"

"No problem! But who do you want to send the letter to?" Mario asked while running along with Andre.

"An old friend."

"Old friend?" Marco looked disbelieving, "But you are only 11 years old!"

"Go this way." Andre didn't go back sarcastically, which shows that the matter is really urgent. "You go straight there in a while. I'll go to the owl shack first, and then meet you in the cafeteria, okay?"

Mario nodded.Andre led them to the end of the corridor, pushed open the wooden door on the right, and the stairs downstairs were displayed in front of him.

"It really is here." Andre stopped and gasped, "I was thinking just now, we walked almost the entire corridor yesterday, but we didn't find the stairs, only here we didn't go to the end. The mirror was tricked back to the tapestry, remember?"

"No wonder I can't find it!" Marco said, "I thought I had to go back to the platform and wait for the stairs to come up."

So without further delay, they went straight downstairs along the spiral staircase, and then split into two groups at the entrance of the hall. Mario and Marco first went to the auditorium to find food, while Andre went to the owl shack to post letters.

There are no ham sandwiches for breakfast, but thankfully there is a variety of pies to choose from.Mario chose a slice with whipped cream and little strawberries on top, while Marco simply chose peach pie.They left a piece of blueberry pie that Andre would like to eat and waited, but Andre was never seen.In fact, Andrei still didn't come back until the bell almost rang for the first period.

"Why is Andre so slow?" Marco tapped his fingers on the table a little irritably, "Isn't Grank in the shed?"

"Then he can just borrow a school owl, the kind that everyone can use." Mario frowned and said, "It won't be so long without seeing anyone. Do you think he will encounter any troubles?" gone?"

"What trouble can there be in the school? This is the safest place in the entire British wizarding world. The castle is protected by magic, remember? It was mentioned in the school history that Andre showed us."

"That's right... Maybe he didn't have enough time, so he went directly to class? The owl shack is quite far away..."

"That makes sense, or let's bring him the blueberry pie. That way he can eat some between classes," Marco suggested.

Mario felt that what he said made sense, so he secretly pulled out a piece of paper from the tray to wrap the blueberry pie.Then he and Marco ran separately to the classroom where they were going to class.

It was Gryffindor and Slytherin's Potions class that morning, but Andre didn't show up until the end of get out of class.

Mario and Marco met at the long Hufflepuff table at lunch and told him this fact.

"I'm not feeling well," Mario said, pulling out the blueberry pie he had hidden in the morning and putting it on the table. "Andre hasn't been seen all morning."

"I take back that point of view in the morning." Marco's face was not relaxed, "Is something really wrong with him?"

"Did you see Andre?" They looked up and found that Julian was coming, still holding a letter in his hand. "Did you see Andre?" Julian asked again, gesturing to them with the letter, "He sent him a letter at home, but he wasn't here this morning, so I put it away for him. "

"No, he said he was going to the owl shack this morning, and he never came back." Mario said, shaking his head.

"Then you should forward this letter to him, after all, you are together every day!" Julian said with a smile, and handed over the letter, "By the way, are you going home for Christmas?"

"Two months until Christmas!" Marco said. "Isn't it too early to make a decision?"

"It's not early at all!" Julian said, "Kevin said that Professor Love will count the number of people who don't go home every year, and then the club will hold activities! So it's better to make a decision early, and the owl will send a letter home. It will take a long time, won't it?"

"Thank you, Julian, we'll think about it." Mario nodded.

"I hope you can stay for Christmas!" Julian said happily, "You and Andre are both! It's interesting to have a lot of people!" After saying that, he waved to them and went back to the Slytherin table.

Mario and Marco still couldn't be happy, they were still thinking about Andre.

That's when Mario spotted Grank flying in through the gate, so hard to ignore, in fact.Owls usually delivered letters at breakfast, and rarely flew into the auditorium at lunch, so Grank attracted the attention of the entire auditorium as soon as he appeared.After flying around Mario twice, Grank landed, handed him the little note in his mouth, and flew away in a hurry.

Mario opened the note and saw Andre's handwriting on it: It is the Room of Requirement.

"The Room of Requirement?" Marco leaned his head over to look, and was puzzled after seeing what Andre wrote, "What is that?"

"I don't know," Mario shook his head, and Marco looked at each other in blank dismay, "so the most critical question now is - where did Andre go?"

The author has something to say: *In the original book, the House of Requirement was destroyed by Crabbe's "Fiendfire", but we have reason to believe that the ancient magic of the castle itself is much stronger than the spells cast by the students, so I prefer that the house was not destroyed Destroyed, but it can no longer become the room where Harry and the others hid their textbooks and the disappearing cabinet, and the things that were hidden in that room at that time were also destroyed.