Chapter 366: The Starry Sky
Chapter 366: The Starry Sky
Ron and Draco stared at each other, an eerie silence settling between them.
"You’re actually out at night, Malfoy!" Ron was the first to accuse him.
"Are you talking about yourself, Weasley?" Draco said nonchalantly.
Another brief silence followed before Draco spoke again, his eyes sparkling. "Don’t pretend, Weasley. We’re both here for the same reason. Let’s not point fingers. You don’t want to get into trouble, do you?"
Ron touched the potion vial in his pocket and fell silent.
"Meow~"
A cat appeared out of nowhere, perched on the windowsill, basking in the moonlight, and stared at them with yellow eyes.
"Go away—go away, you stupid cat!" Ron immediately panicked, his voice low as he waved his hands at it.
Mrs. Norris gave him a haughty glance, her smooth gray fur gleaming silver in the moonlight. Her gaze then shifted past Ron, landing on Draco Malfoy behind him.
A wand emerged, its tip glowing red.
Ron shoved Draco, deflecting the wand. The spell hit the wall instead—
"What are you doing?" Ron said angrily.
"I just wanted to make it sleep. Do you want it to bring Filch?" Draco said calmly. "And you—stupid Weasley, you let it get away."
"You’re the one who’s stupid!" Ron muttered under his breath, turning to look at the window. It was empty, and he glanced down the corridor, barely making out a silver-gray shadow disappearing around the corner.
Ron felt a surge of panic. The half bottle of potion in his pocket jiggled, and sweat immediately broke out on his forehead.
"What should we do?" he groaned, secretly regretting not bringing Harry’s invisibility cloak. He could have pretended to be a ghost to scare Malfoy, or the Marauder's Map would have been useful too, but both items were at the bottom of Harry’s trunk.
It was too late for regrets now.
"What else can we do!" Draco shot Ron a cold look. "Run, of course. Do you want to get caught? And if you are, don’t rat me out—"
"Go on, then!" Ron said.
"What?"
"Go on", Ron repeated in a low voice, waving Draco away as if he were shooing Mrs. Norris. He clutched the vial in his pocket tightly. "Hurry up, what are you waiting for?"
Draco had already taken a few steps but stopped, looking at Ron with a curious expression. His gray eyes darted around, and a strange idea crossed his mind.
"You want to stay", he said, glancing at the door of the Seventh Classroom behind them, then turned back, seemingly weighing something in his mind. "You want to stay and hide in the Seventh Classroom. Filch that old fool can’t open the door."
"You’re imagining things. I’m leaving", Ron said, but his feet didn’t move an inch.
Draco sneered and walked a few steps closer, leaning against the windowsill where Mrs. Norris had been. He said slowly, "So we wait here. For Filch to come, how about that?"
Ron glared at him in frustration.
"What are you staring at, Weasley? Do you want me to cast a curse on you?" Draco said.
"You wouldn’t dare, Malfoy", Ron said, nervously glancing down the dark corridor. It was quiet, but he knew Filch would appear in three minutes at most, maybe already awakened, huffing and puffing with a kerosene lamp, his face twisted in anger.
How much time had passed? Ten seconds or thirty?
He had to make a decision—
"Damn ferret!" he snarled, turning and striding toward the door of the Seventh Classroom. Draco laughed triumphantly, his voice drawn out and commanding, "Hurry up, Weasley! Don’t tell me you think you’re in Potions class?"
Ron trembled with anger, wishing he could cast a curse at Malfoy’s face without a second thought, but he held back. His wand traced the air, trying to form a Runic Script, but his mind was too agitated, and he failed twice.
After a while, Draco grew impatient and moved closer to urge him on. "What’s your trick? Waiting for Filch or a patrolling professor to catch us?"
"Leave me alone, you’re distracting me!" Ron frowned, failing again to complete the Runic Script, which flickered and disappeared.
Draco stood by, growing increasingly restless, glancing around and straining his ears to listen.
After about two minutes, the sound of footsteps climbing the stairs could be heard, accompanied by an excited, trembling voice: "Are we almost there, my dear? They won’t have time to run, I promise you—"
Draco’s expression turned fearful, and he took a couple of steps back, hiding in the shadows. The voices grew louder, and he glanced at the corridor, then at Ron, who was intensely focused on drawing the Runic Script, pondering whether to make a run for it—
"Weas—"
"Got it!" Ron exclaimed, imprinting a glowing Runic Script on the door, which opened silently, a sliver of light spilling out. He turned around, his face livid. "Malfoy, if you speak to me in that commanding tone again, I’ll—"
Draco kicked Ron in the butt, sending him through the door, then squeezed in himself and quickly shut the door.
The bright light inside the Seventh Classroom momentarily blinded him. He pressed his ear against the cold door, listening intently. For some reason, he couldn’t hear a thing.
On the other side, Ron carefully placed the potion vial on the ground and lunged at Draco.
"Damn Malfoy! You kicked me, I’ve had it with you!"
Draco turned his head with a sneer, but he received a punch square in the face. "Are you insane!?" he shouted, raising his wand, but Ron was already aiming. A tackle sent Draco to the ground, and the blow made stars dance in Draco’s vision. Ron took the opportunity to land two more punches on Draco’s hateful face. Draco howled in pain and kicked Ron away.
"This is payback, Malfoy!" Ron growled.
Ron lowered his head and charged again, and the two began to grapple. Their wands fell to the ground.
Soon, Ron’s larger build gave him the upper hand. He locked his arms around Draco’s neck, their faces both red, though Draco’s was from lack of air. Ron roared, "Malfoy, I’m telling you, I have a temper too!"
Draco’s eyes rolled back as he struggled desperately, "I didn’t mean to… Filch is coming…"
"Filch?" Ron hesitated, his grip weakening. Draco took the chance to break free and gasped for air.
A few minutes later—
The two stood apart, wands pointed at each other warily, both bruised and battered. Ron chuckled, noting that Malfoy’s eyes were both blackened, his meticulously styled hair was a mess, and his elegant robes were torn in several places, making him look utterly disheveled.
Though Ron looked just as bad, he felt a particular sense of satisfaction.
"According to club rules, you can’t trip each other when we’re working together."
"You’ll regret this, Weasley!"
Draco glared at Ron with hatred, climbed the black steps, took several deep breaths, and touched the Black Floating Door. In the next second, his figure disappeared.
Ron laughed, saying with a cheerful voice, "That robe really suits you, Malfoy."
...
Inside the Black Floating Door.
Ron spat out a green, viscous liquid and flicked a spider’s leg off his shoulder, muttering, "Seventeenth wave... I wonder how many more... Why are there spiders with twelve legs... I bet Professor Hagrid failed Care of Magical Creatures..."
After enduring two more waves of spiders, Ron could accurately judge their positions. He stepped on the raised rocks, choosing the optimal path to leave before the spiders could climb up.
"I wonder if there’s chicken leg for breakfast? I don’t want porridge..."
He thought whimsically as he finally crossed the rocky beach. On a platform, a golden halo shimmered brightly.
Ron gazed at the golden light on the platform with fascination, as if something was inside. He couldn’t resist reaching out, and the moment his hand touched the card, he became dazed and vacant—
His vision expanded infinitely, as if he had turned into a ghost. First, he saw the Black Floating Door, then Malfoy, and finally the entire spacious Seventh Classroom. But that wasn’t the end. He saw the castle’s interconnected corridors, then he passed through layers of ceilings, rising higher and higher. Soon, the entire Hogwarts castle looked like a matchbox in his eyes.
Hogwarts had shrunk to the size of a fingernail, and even the Black Lake seemed tiny, as if he could drink it all in one gulp. The continuous black mountains filled his field of vision.
He saw the shrinking Hogsmeade village, with a few lights scattered here and there, possibly from Professor Hagrid’s magical lamps. Ron thought, but they quickly disappeared as he continued to rise. The world below turned into large patches of color. He tried to distinguish them: the dark green was forest, the deep brown was hills, and the blue... was the ocean!
He actually saw the ocean. Ron’s eyes widened, feeling as if he were dreaming, but the dream was so clear, he couldn’t forget it. He saw brightly lit areas, wondering if they were Muggle cities. Harry had said that large cities like London were still brightly lit even at night...
"Is that Britain?"
Ron furrowed his brow, seeing a small piece of land, or rather, an island, separated by a narrow strait from a vast expanse of land. He felt a certain thought stirring, but he couldn’t quite grasp what it was. He just kept rising—
For a long time, he could only see the ocean and land.
Then, he passed through thick clouds, worried he might freeze to death. Suddenly, a bright golden light illuminated the white clouds, casting a golden glow. Was this a sunrise?
Ron saw the world below for the first time, a standard blue sphere, part of it hidden in shadow, presumably night, and the other half bright, showing land, sea, and wispy clouds, which was daytime. He reached out, wanting to grab something, but he just kept drifting away.
The blue sphere became a dot, and more celestial bodies appeared. "The Moon, Mars, Venus, Jupiter... Merlin’s beard!" Ron’s mouth opened wide as he saw the entire solar system, like the constellation models sold in Diagon Alley. He felt he would never forget their positions.
He also saw constellations. He had never understood their names before, thinking names like "Canis Major" were nonsense, but he really saw a large dog in the deep space, formed by countless stars. He even saw the brightest star in Canis Major—Sirius.
The scenes that followed were beyond his comprehension. He saw bright vortices, a dense web of light points... and then he fell, much faster than he had risen. Everything he had seen before replayed in reverse: vortices, nebulae, constellations, the blue planet, land, and sea, his vision zooming in until he plunged back into the ancient castle of Hogwarts.
"Ah—"
Ron cried out, panting heavily, holding a golden card in his hand.
(End of Chapter)
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