Chapter 114: Albert's Tricks
Chapter 114: Albert's Tricks
The trio quickly made their way through the secret passage, taking some time to reach the eighth floor.
After hearing Albert's story, Fred, still a little breathless, found it incredible. "So, Professor Broadhem didn't help Filch catch you?"
"Albert is an exemplary student in the eyes of the professors," George teased, and then his eyes widened in surprise as he saw a door appear on the wall opposite the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy, which had been struck by the Bludgeoning Club.
"As expected..." Albert murmured softly.
"What do you mean, 'as expected'?" Fred asked curiously.
"Never mind, let's go in!" Albert pushed open the door and stepped into the Room of Requirement.
"I can't believe it's real," Fred and George said, exchanging glances as they followed Albert inside. Their jaws dropped at the sight of the beautifully decorated room they had never seen before, filled with...
The excited expressions on the Weasley twins' faces froze as they stared in astonishment at the array of exquisite and luxurious chamber pots before them.
Albert, seeing their shocked expressions, winked mischievously. "Surprised?"
"You didn't, by any chance, discover this place because you really needed to pee, did you?" Fred blurted out.
"How could that be? Am I that stupid?" Albert rolled his eyes.
"Is this really the broom closet we found before?" George asked curiously, eyeing the luxurious chamber pots. A thought suddenly occurred to him. "So, you had to pee?"
The three of them burst out laughing and each chose a pot they liked.
"But it does feel a bit odd to hide here," Fred scratched his head. After all, no one would want to hide among a bunch of chamber pots.
"It's fine, we can just go out and choose another room," Albert said casually.
"This place isn't on the map," George said, looking at the Marauder's Map in his hand. "Maybe Peavy, Mooney, Wormy, and Padfoot haven't discovered its secret either."
"Peavy, Mooney, Wormy, and Padfoot?" Albert asked, feigning confusion.
"The makers of the Marauder's Map," Fred explained.
"Oh, them," Albert nodded. "They probably haven't discovered it. After all, not many people know about the secrets of the Room of Requirement."
"No problem, Filch is still on the fifth floor," George confirmed after checking the map.
After leaving the Room of Requirement, Fred asked, "Where should we go now?"
"Somewhere we can rest," Albert suggested.
"I'll do it this time."
"Me too."
The twins put their hands on each other's shoulders and tried again. The door opened, and this time they found themselves in a comfortable room with a roaring fireplace.
"Awesome," Fred said, patting an armchair. "By the way, you still haven't told us how you found this place."
"I want to know too," George chimed in.
"I figured it out from the clues you gave me," Albert said, using the excuse he had prepared beforehand, which was partly true. "You passed by this place multiple times, right? And you wanted to find a hiding place?"
"That's right," the twins agreed.
"So, I took the time to try it out," Albert explained. "I wanted to pass by this place multiple times and find a place to hide."
"And?" George asked.
"Of course, I failed at first," Albert began to exaggerate the difficulty of discovering the room. In reality, he had succeeded on his first attempt. "I tried many times before I finally opened this door, and it was only after categorizing and summarizing my experiences that I figured out the correct method."
"Later, I tested to see if I could turn this place into other rooms," Albert continued, blinking. "I tried many times and eventually discovered the correct way to use it. That's why I call it the Room of Requirement. It transforms into whatever room you need—it truly lives up to its name."
"So, you found this place based on those clues?"
"Yes, I found it using the clues you gave me. Pretty impressive, right?" Albert nodded, fishing for a compliment.
"You..." The twins swallowed the words they were about to say, but they were indeed impressed that Albert had found such a place with so little information.
"We can make the garlic crosses here," George suddenly said. "That way, we won't stink up our dormitory with the smell of garlic."
"You're still not giving up on that?" Albert thought they had forgotten about it, but here they were bringing it up again.
"Why would we give up? We already have enough garlic," Fred nodded. "This will be our first alchemy creation."
Albert wiped nonexistent cold sweat from his forehead. He wasn't sure if he should tell them that it wasn't really an alchemy creation.
But... he just couldn't bring himself to crush their youthful dreams.
After all, these two would go on to become the famous pranksters.
The trio rested in the Room of Requirement for a long time, waiting for Filch and Professor Broadhem to give up their search. While Filch was still searching for them, the twins were playing wizard's chess with Albert by the fireplace.
There were two chessboards on the table, and Albert was playing against both twins at once with ease.
"Fred, keep it up, you still have a chance to turn this around," George encouraged loudly.
"How? By the way, you lost even earlier than I did," Fred said, rolling his eyes at his brother, who was sitting next to him making snide comments. He knew he was about to lose.
"Ahem." George cleared his throat, quickly changing the subject. "Filch seems to have gone to rest. Let's go to the library."
"Good idea, let's go," Fred immediately stood up, ready to abandon the game.
"Er, alright," Albert didn't expose his brother's thoughts either, merely moving his queen to checkmate Fred's king.
"You lost too," George said with a touch of schadenfreude as he patted Fred's shoulder. "You're much better than our hopeless little brother."
"Little brother?" Albert asked, confused. "The unlucky one who got his tongue pierced by a candy?"
"Ahem, that was just an accident," George coughed, quickly walking out of the Room of Requirement.
The trio made their way to the school library.
To their surprise, the library door was unlocked even though it usually closed at eight in the evening.
Albert opened the door and stepped inside first. The library was pitch-black and eerie.
Albert raised his wand, illuminating the surroundings with its light, and then made his way towards the Restricted Section at the back of the library.
After crossing the rope that cordoned off the Restricted Section, the atmosphere became even more eerie.
Albert raised his wand, illuminating the pale book titles with its light.
"Help me find the 'Book of Spells'. Also, don't randomly flip through these books or take them off the shelves. We don't know if they're cursed or not." Albert warned. "Remember, don't open any of the books. That could bring us a whole lot of trouble."
"Got it." The twins looked at each other, but nodded in agreement.
Searching for a specific book in this vast sea of literature was undoubtedly a tedious task. Albert spent a considerable amount of time before he could even find what he was looking for.
The books in the Restricted Section looked old and worn, prompting Albert to wonder if they were rare or unique copies.
"Albert!" Fred's voice was barely audible. "I hear faint whispers coming from some of the books over there."
"Whispers?" Albert furrowed his brows. Listening to the twins, one might think that a Horcrux of Voldemort was hidden in the Restricted Section.
The three of them huddled closer, pointing their wands at the faded, flaking golden letters. They could all feel the hairs on the back of their necks standing on end as they heard the whispers emanating from the books.
"It's not unusual to find such books in the Restricted Section. Just don't open it." Albert warned, "It's definitely a book that records dark magic."
"Do you think it contains powerful dark magic?" The twins gazed at the book with a mix of awe and trepidation.
"Maybe, I don't know." Albert cautioned them. "But I can assure you, if you open it now, you'll be in for some bad luck."
"You're right." Fred abandoned his reckless idea, worried about the dark magic within. After all, some books could have unpleasant effects on the reader.
For instance, 'Fungus Fables' would make one nauseous and vomit, while 'A Wizard's Sonnet' would curse the reader to only speak in awkward pentameter for the rest of their life.
"Help me find the 'Book of Spells'. The spells in there are more suitable for us to learn at this stage." Albert reminded them.
Fred and George nodded their agreement, as they too wanted to learn some hexes. The powerful hexes in the 'Book of Spells' would be perfect for their practice.
"We'll find them faster if we split up. Just be careful not to touch the books, and we should be fine." Albert reminded them before continuing his own search.
The Restricted Section held a substantial number of books, and as Albert passed through one area, he faintly heard voices conversing quietly.
Albert immediately held his breath and listened intently. The voices seemed to be coming from a bookshelf nearby, but not from the books in front of him. It was coming from somewhere else.
Something was hidden here with magic, and Albert was curious.
"How bizarre..." Albert muttered, but he didn't try to uncover the secret. Instead, he continued his search for the books he needed, which was his primary purpose for coming here.
After what felt like an hour or more, the trio had circled the Restricted Section, finally finding the books they needed.
"I knew these books wouldn't be easy to take." Fred pointed at the chains on the book. "What do we do now? Alohomora doesn't work, and these chains are definitely enchanted."
"You're not thinking of breaking the chains by force, are you?" George and Fred both hoped Albert wouldn't do anything rash, as it could bring about undesirable consequences.
"Of course not. I expected these books to be protected by anti-Alohomora charms." Albert took out a small knife from his pocket.
He had purchased this knife during Christmas, but his interest wasn't in the knife itself. Rather, he wanted the versatile attachments that came with it. One of these attachments was a lock-picking tool, which he had practiced with at home. Opening old locks like these shouldn't be too difficult.
"What are you planning to do?" Neither of them understood why Albert had suddenly taken out a knife.
"I'm going to use a Muggle trick."
"A Muggle trick?" They were both curious about what Albert was planning.
"You two, watch closely." Albert started fiddling with the lock on the book.
Soon, there was a soft click, and the lock on the book popped open.
"How did you do that?" The twins stared at Albert in amazement.
"I told you, it's a Muggle lock-picking trick." Albert brandished the small knife. "Most wizards tend to overlook Muggle tricks like these. While it may not be as fast or effective as an unlocking spell, they often ignore this weakness, giving me an opportunity to exploit."
Although Hogwarts had enchanted these locks, and breaking the chains by force might trigger an alarm, he believed that using a key to open the lock would have no adverse effects, as it was the correct method.
While Albert didn't have a key, employing a Muggle lock-picking trick seemed to work just fine.
"Next time, you have to teach us this technique." The twins' eyes sparkled with excitement, finding Albert's method very useful.
Most wizards tended to underestimate Muggles due to their lack of magic, and this gave Albert an advantage. Even Hogwarts seemed to have overlooked this fact.
"This lock-picking trick is easy to learn. If you want, I can teach you sometime." Albert said casually. Whether the twins could master it was another matter.
By the time they left the library, it was already four in the morning. The trio held their night's spoils in their hands—the original 'Book of Spells', 'Book of Potions', and 'Powerful Potions'.
After making sure no one was around, they quietly left the scene of their mischief and returned to the Gryffindor common room, narrowly avoiding a ghostly wizard with a walking stick along the way.
When they got back to their dormitory, Lee Jordan was already awake, glaring at the three night owls.
"You should've woken me up." Lee Jordan complained.
"Who told you to sleep like a pig." Fred held up their spoils from the night's adventure. "We got these from the library."
"Let me see what books you got." Lee Jordan asked curiously.
"Take a look, but be careful not to damage them. We're going to get some sleep now." Fred yawned and started taking off his clothes, ready to catch up on his sleep. Unlike Albert, he hadn't slept earlier, and now the excitement of their night's adventure had worn off, leaving him tired.
"Goodnight."
"Goodnight."
"You three are real jerks." Lee Jordan muttered under his breath as he watched them get back into bed, his gaze shifting to the three thick books they had brought back.
(End of Chapter)
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