Chapter 81: The Mysterious Broom Closet
Chapter 81: The Mysterious Broom Closet
As Filch rushed towards the Fat Lady's portrait, holding an oil lamp, a smile suddenly appeared on his face. The guardian of the Gryffindor common room entrance was gone.
Being unable to enter the Gryffindor common room meant that the students out for a nighttime stroll would have to continue loitering outside.
No one could slip away from him.
Absolutely no one! "Achoo!" George sneezed again.
Fred, who was ahead, stopped in his tracks and looked at George in exasperation.
"Where are we going?" George asked as he rubbed his nose and moved closer.
Fred moved his wand over the Marauder's Map to check Snape and Filch's locations, then unconsciously quickened his pace. He planned to circle around the eighth floor, shaking off Filch's pursuit while also avoiding Snape and Filch's cat.
However, Filch didn't chase after the sound; instead, he turned back and blocked the corner of a corridor, waiting for Snape to arrive so that he could stop them from leaving through a nearby secret passage.
"When did that guy get so smart?" Fred immediately stopped and started walking back. When he saw that Filch was planning to block the corridor, his heart sank.
Snape was almost at the eighth floor. Once he arrived, they would be trapped here.
"Professor, they should still be on the eighth floor. I just heard noises from there," Filch said excitedly, unable to hide his excitement. "You go from this side, and I'll go around from the other side. They won't be able to escape."
"We're done for, we're blocked!" Fred exclaimed in despair. At this point, there wasn't enough room for the two of them to evade Filch's pursuit.
However, as Fred and George anxiously passed the tapestry of the troll clubbing Barnaby the Barmy for the third time, they accidentally discovered a door on the wall opposite the tapestry.
"How did this door get here?" George asked in surprise, staring at the door on the wall.
They didn't know there was a door here, and it wasn't marked on the Marauder's Map either.
Fred gritted his teeth and said, "Never mind, let's hide inside first!"
The two of them opened the door and hid inside, only to find that it was just a dusty broom closet with a few old brooms inside.
By the time Filch and Snape surrounded them from both sides, the entrance to the Room of Requirement had already disappeared.
They had completely missed their target.
"Where are they?" Filch's face showed momentary bewilderment. He had just heard noises from this side, so why wasn't anyone here?
Were they hiding?
Or... had they escaped?
"No, they can't have gone far. I just heard someone sneezing," Filch said, his face contorting with anger.
He had thought he could finally catch those Gryffindor students who had been giving him the slip and teach them a good lesson. But they had still slipped through his fingers.
This huge gap between his expectations and reality made Filch feel incredibly frustrated.
Inside the broom closet, Fred and George covered each other's mouths with their hands, afraid to make even the slightest sound that might attract the attention of the two men outside.
There was no other choice. Filch and Snape were standing right outside the broom closet they were hiding in. If they opened the door, something extremely terrible would happen.
As if someone was watching over this lucky pair, Snape and Filch eventually left, heading to other parts of the eighth floor to search for the twins.
Of course, their efforts were still fruitless.
"If anyone is wandering around at night in the future, come and report it to me immediately," Snape said to Filch before leaving.
Hearing the footsteps gradually fading away, Fred and George breathed a sigh of relief, but they didn't have any intention of leaving immediately.
They didn't know how long they stayed in the broom closet, but eventually, they carefully pushed open the door and left, afraid to make any loud noises that might attract Filch's attention again.
"That was close, we almost got caught by Filch. But what's the deal with that broom closet?" George raised his wand, preparing to examine the broom closet they had just hidden in, only to find that the door on the wall had disappeared.
"What's going on?" Fred was equally confused. He even knocked on the wall a couple of times and looked at the Marauder's Map in his hand.
There were no hints about this on the map.
"Hogwarts Castle still holds many secrets. Even Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs don't know all of them!" George sighed, looking at his twin brother and asking, "By the way, how did that door appear earlier?"
"I have no idea!" Fred gave up after his fruitless investigation. "Forget it, let's go back first. I hope the Fat Lady has returned."
Upon returning to the Fat Lady's portrait, Fred and George heaved a sigh of relief.
The Fat Lady, dressed in her nightgown, sized them up and asked, "Where have you two been?"
"For a walk," George replied immediately, followed by the password, "She sang wonderfully."
The portrait opened, and they quickly climbed into the common room, plopping into armchairs and bursting into laughter as they looked at each other.
"Tonight was really thrilling," George said, still excited.
"I bet Filch is furious," Fred said with delight. To be honest, he really didn't like that caretaker.
When they returned to their dormitory, it was already close to five in the morning. Although they felt tired, neither of them could fall asleep. It wasn't until the morning, when they were half-asleep, that someone woke them up.
"Ah..." Fred yawned widely, too lazy to even open his eyes.
"When did you two get back?" Albert asked as he put on his running shoes and opened the window to let the cool morning breeze into the room.
"Around... five in the morning, I guess," Fred mumbled, covering another yawn with his hand. "What time is it now?"
"Half past seven in the morning."
Shaking his head at the sleepy twin brothers, Albert said, "I told you not to go wandering around at this time. There are two Herbology classes in the morning, held in the greenhouses. Don't be late."
"Let me tell you..." George picked up his pillow and threw it at Fred, who dodged and fell back onto the bed, looking exhausted.
"You said that last night, the Fat Lady wasn't there, and you almost got caught by Filch, but then you hid in a broom closet on the eighth floor and barely escaped?" Lee Jordan listened to George's story, feeling incredulous. He was curious about how Fred and George had managed to escape Snape and Filch's pursuit.
Or was George lying?
"Then, when you looked later, the broom closet was gone?" Albert listened to George describe the location of the closet and immediately knew which one he was talking about.
The Room of Requirement.
These two guys had hidden in the Room of Requirement and barely escaped.
After Fred and George left the broom closet, they discovered that it had disappeared without a trace.
That day, Fred and George skipped the Herbology class in the morning and slept until the afternoon before waking up naturally.
(End of Chapter)
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