Chapter 200: Who's Stirring Up Trouble?
Chapter 200: Who's Stirring Up Trouble?
Boom! The sound of a bookshelf tumbling was loud enough to wake everyone in the castle.
At that moment, Fred, along with his companions, who had been playing a game of cat and mouse with Filch on the third floor, were startled by the loud noise. They paused in their tracks, pricking up their ears to listen to the commotion.
Filch, who had been in pursuit of the trio, also came to a halt, staring in astonishment at the direction from which the sound had come.
"The sound seems to be coming from the fifth floor," Filch muttered to himself. He immediately turned and hurried toward the library.
"What was that noise just now?" George was the first to voice his curiosity.
"Not sure, could've been Albert. Let's head back to the common room," Fred decided promptly. "We need to get back before that draws the attention of the other professors."
"Hurry!" George urged, and the three of them broke into a sprint down the corridor, needing to get back to the Gryffindor common room before any professors appeared. After all, Albert had warned them that the professors at Hogwarts could see through their Disguise Spells.
They sprinted through corridor after corridor, taking a secret passageway beside one of the corridors to reach the seventh floor. Along the way, Lee Jordan spoke up again. "Should we go to the meeting point? What about Albert?"
"That guy probably ran off before us," one of them replied.
"Let's just head straight to the common room," Fred said.
In fact, their actions were quite prudent. Shortly after that loud noise, several professors in the castle had been awakened and were now making their way to investigate.
The portraits in the corridors were also stirring, curious about the commotion.
By the time Filch inspected the fifth floor, Albert had already fled the scene, and he had done so even faster than Fred and his friends.
Before leaving, Albert had even taken the precaution of closing the entrance to the library.
And because of this, Filch couldn't immediately locate the source of the disturbance. He had a general idea of where the sound had come from, but when he went to check, he found nothing amiss.
The culprit behind all this was now hurrying toward the Gryffindor common room.
Albert tried to move as quietly as possible, but the people in the portraits had been awakened by the previous noise, and they turned curiously toward the corridor at the sound of his light footsteps, seeing nothing but an empty hallway.
After climbing the stairs, Albert walked halfway down the corridor, then lifted a tapestry on the wall and climbed a narrower staircase hidden behind it—a shortcut to the eighth floor.
As for Fred and his friends, they had the Marauder's Map, so they should be fine. Albert wasn't worried about their safety.
Upon reaching the entrance to the common room, Albert didn't dispel the magic on himself but instead waited there for Fred and the others.
A few minutes later, they arrived, looking puzzled to see Albert still waiting outside. "Why didn't you go inside?"
"Fat Lady won't let us in when we're invisible," Albert reminded them. "Follow me, let's go rest in the Room of Requirement first. Just in case, we shouldn't be seen."
Fred and the others looked confused, but they followed Albert to the Room of Requirement. In this situation, they trusted Albert's judgment; after all, he was much smarter than they were, and he surely had a good reason for doing this.
Meanwhile, Filch was inspecting the library. The noise had indeed sounded like a bookshelf collapsing in the library. But when he entered, he found no evidence of any fallen bookshelves, not even in the restricted section.
Yes, there was nothing. It was as if the noise had never happened.
At that moment, Filch realized he had been tricked. Those damn kids! The stuck helmet on the fourth floor, the Dungbomb in the corridor, and now this noise—it was all a game to them! Yes, it was those brats he had been chasing. Filch had a pretty good idea who they were.
That pair of Gryffindor twins; although there was no evidence, Filch had a hunch that they were the culprits.
"Filch? What's going on?"
Snape entered the library, his face grim as he wore a gray, shirt-like pajama set.
"I just heard a loud noise and came to investigate. I believe some students may have caused it on purpose," Filch turned to Snape and said in a low voice, "I was just chasing after them. There are several students wandering around the castle at this late hour, Professor."
"Students, excellent. We'll catch them." Snape scanned the library and stepped into the restricted section, but found no signs of a collapsed bookshelf.
"What's going on here?" Professor McGonagall hurried in, her hair in a hairnet and wearing a plaid morning robe, her expression stern as she surveyed the library. She, too, seemed to think the noise resembled that of a falling bookshelf.
"Someone was just here in the library, in the restricted section," Filch said immediately. "I was chasing a few students who were wandering around the school in the middle of the night. They're probably working together, and they're most likely... Gryffindor students."
"Do you have any evidence?" Professor McGonagall asked, frowning.
"What's happening here?" Smith appeared in the doorway, clad in a bronze-colored pajama set. "Are we having a pajama party?"
"There was a loud noise here, Professor, and we suspect it was caused by students. Several students were wandering around the school tonight," Filch said in a lowered voice, rarely speaking loudly in front of the professors.
"Are you saying it was likely done by Gryffindor students, Filch?" Professor McGonagall pressed. "Do you have any evidence?"
"We can ask the Fat Lady, the entrance guardian of Gryffindor," Snape suddenly suggested, always eager to see Hogwarts students in trouble and docked points.
"Yes, that's a good idea," Filch nodded.
Professor McGonagall frowned but ultimately did not object.
The professors made their way to the eighth floor and found the Fat Lady, the guardian of the Gryffindor entrance.
"Ma'am, did anyone enter the common room just now?" Professor McGonagall asked.
"No," replied the Fat Lady.
"Have any students left?" Snape asked.
"Yes," the Fat Lady confirmed.
"Who were they?" Filch asked eagerly.
"I don't know, they were invisible," the Fat Lady replied.
"Just check who's not in their dormitory, and we'll know who was wandering the castle," Snape suggested maliciously.
"That would wake up the sleeping students," Professor McGonagall objected.
"Only students in higher grades would be able to use the Disillusionment Charm," Professor Smith suddenly reminded them. "I think if they didn't enter the common room, they're probably still somewhere in the castle. We'll find those mischievous students."
Smith clearly didn't agree with waking up the other students either, but in reality, a large number of them had already been awakened by the earlier noise.
"I'll find them," Filch said through gritted teeth.
However, Filch and the other professors searched the castle multiple times, even checking the secret passages, but found nothing.
Well, that was that! In truth, there were a couple of scapegoats.
A Ravenclaw girl and a Hufflepuff boy became the fall guys; this couple had actually been on a secret date in a hidden passage when they were unexpectedly caught red-handed by Filch.
They were each docked fifty points.
But after questioning, it was clear they weren't the students Filch had been after.
As for the Gryffindor students Filch was seeking?
After the professors had practically turned the castle upside down, they still found no trace of the Gryffindor students.
There was no choice; none of them knew about the hidden room on the eighth floor of the castle, a place called the Room of Requirement.
(End of Chapter)
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