Harry Potter: The Rise Of Malfoy

Chapter 53.

After returning from Hogsmeade Village, the three refreshed themselves, changed clothes, and headed to the Great Hall for the Halloween feast.

The Great Hall was adorned with thousands of pumpkin lanterns, a flurry of fluttering bats, and many orange streamers spitting flames, lazily drifting beneath the ceiling like brilliant water snakes. The food at the feast was exquisite, and everyone appeared to be in high spirits.

The feast concluded with entertainment provided by the ghosts, who suddenly appeared from the walls and tables to glide in a line; Nearly Headless Nick from Gryffindor successfully recreated the situation of his beheading.

Everyone felt they had experienced a pleasant evening, but within ten minutes after the feast ended, everything turned upside down. The slight joy accumulated during the Halloween feast vanished, and a sense of panic spread throughout the castle once again.

After the feast, Soren followed the other Slytherin students back to the common room. However, the savior trio discovered that in front of the Gryffindor common room—specifically, in front of the Fat Lady's portrait—many people were jostling together, while Peeves danced atop their heads, looking pleased.

Before they could push into the crowd to get the news, Professor Dumbledore arrived hurriedly. He rushed towards the Fat Lady's portrait, where the Gryffindor students piled together to let him pass. Harry and the others moved closer, hoping to see what trouble had arisen.

Before them, the Fat Lady's portrait had been maliciously vandalized; pieces of the painted canvas lay strewn on the floor, and large sections of the canvas had been completely torn from the frame.

"Professor McGonagall, please go to Filch immediately and tell him to search for the Fat Lady in every portrait throughout the castle..." Dumbledore said rapidly.

"Good luck!" a voice cackled. It was Peeves the Poltergeist, who loved to cause mischief, bouncing around above everyone's heads, delighting in the unfortunate and troubled scene below as usual.

"What did you say, Peeves?" Dumbledore asked calmly, and Peeves's smile faded a little. He wouldn't dare mock Dumbledore. He adopted a more flattering tone, but it was still no more pleasant than his earlier cackling laughter.

Peeves laughed uproariously, "Sorry, Headmaster! She didn't want to be seen; she was in a complete mess. I saw her run past that landscape painting on the fifth floor, hiding among the trees, crying about something terrible."

"Did she say who did it?" Dumbledore asked quietly.

"Oh, she did, Head Professor!" Peeves replied, as excited as if holding a large bomb in his arms, "She wouldn't let him in; he was very angry, you see. He has quite the temper, that little Sirius Black!"

At Peeves's words, everyone gasped. Sirius Black had actually broken into the castle and even tried to enter the Gryffindor common room. It was terrifying; fortunately, it was Halloween Eve, and everyone was out of the tower. Dumbledore ordered all students to return to the Great Hall immediately, and to ensure safety, the faculty would conduct a thorough search of the castle.

...

After the feast, the excited Slytherin students gathered in the common room, with Soren and the third-year students occupying a corner sharing their experiences from Hogwarts village that day, like Nott and Blaze boasting about Madam Rosmerta's beauty to the envious Soren, and Pansy and her girlfriends showing off the spoils from their battles that day.

At that moment, the prefect, Gemma, suddenly burst into the common room, "Everyone, listen up! Everyone to the Great Hall!" Her tone was somewhat urgent, indicating that something significant had happened.

"What's going on, Gemma?" Soren stood up to ask. She and Gemma had exchanged a lot of letters over the summer, and they had grown familiar enough to call each other by their names.

"I don't know either. It's something Professor Dumbledore instructed; it must be serious," Gemma's tone revealed her anxiousness, "Students from other houses are being called too. We can't be late!"

So the little snakes once again filed out of the common room towards the Great Hall. Whether it was a psychological effect or not, the shadows from the torches projected on the walls made the usually heavy and solid walls seem like a stage for a dance of demons.

"Some things have happened, and the faculty and I will conduct a thorough search of the castle," Professor Dumbledore said to the students. His tone was not as cheerful as usual but rather tinged with seriousness and concern. At this moment, the four house heads united and locked all the doors to the Great Hall.

"For your own safety, I think you might need to spend the night here. I am asking the prefects to stand guard at the entrance of the Great Hall, and the head boy and girl will stay in the Great Hall to manage things. Report anything immediately to me," Dumbledore instructed Percy and Penelope, and Percy's face was filled with the pride of an important person, "Just send a ghost to relay a message to me."

Just as Professor Dumbledore paused, preparing to leave the Great Hall, he added, "Oh, and maybe you'll need this!" With a flick of his wand, long tables flew to the side of the Great Hall, standing automatically against the wall; another flick saw several hundred soft sleeping bags appear on the floor.

As the professors left, the Great Hall was immediately filled with chattering voices as Gryffindor students recounted what had just happened to the other houses.

"Lie down and rest right away! Lights out in ten minutes!" Percy shouted with an indescribable enthusiasm and pride.

Soren grabbed four sleeping bags and led Daphne, Meredith, and Astoria to a corner. They climbed into the sleeping bags, with Daphne on Soren's left and Meredith on his right. Astoria, with a disgruntled huff, reluctantly lay down on Daphne's left, sandwiched between Soren and her own sister.

Astoria worriedly asked, "Do you think Black is still in the castle?"

Soren replied nonchalantly, "I bet he's already left. Dumbledore is still in the castle; if he hadn't left yet, he wouldn't have the chance. Tonight, the professors' search is bound to be futile."

Meredith thought for a moment and couldn't help but ask a question: How did Black get into Hogwarts?

A shrewd look flashed in Soren's eyes as he replied, "Apparition is not allowed within the grounds of Hogwarts, and the Floo Network and Portkeys are monitored. All important passages, including the airspace, are guarded by Dementors, so Invisibility Charms are useless as well. Animagus transformations or Polyjuice Potion might allow for infiltration into Hogwarts, but Black, being a fugitive wanted by the law, would unlikely be able to do this without support. Excluding these impossibilities, the only possibility left is that Black has mastered a secret passage that nobody else knows about!"

The three girls watched as he made such a grounded deduction in such a short time, both surprised and impressed.

Then, a shrewd look crossed Soren's eyes again, and he said, "Instead of discussing this, we should consider what Black's intentions are for infiltrating Hogwarts."

"Isn't it to kill Harry?" Meredith questioned, puzzled.

Soren smirked slightly, "If it were to kill Harry, why would he choose today? Doesn't he know that all the students are in the Great Hall? Even if he was misinformed, after realizing he couldn't get into the dormitory, why would he tear down the portrait?"

"Indeed, apart from alerting others, tearing the portrait was of no benefit," Meredith quickly reacted.

"Could it be that he escaped from Azkaban and is a bit mentally unstable?" Daphne hesitantly suggested.

Soren slowly shook his head, "Do you think a mentally unstable person could escape Azkaban, cross thousands of miles across the North Sea, and get into Hogwarts? You should know that Black's wanted notice was issued simultaneously in the wizarding and Muggle worlds; to evade such a massive search without being caught proves that he still has his wits about him. He wouldn't do something so harmful with no gain—"

Soren explained, "If he hadn't torn the portrait, we would never have known that Black had invaded. It was only when the Fat Lady spoke up that we learned the intruder was Black, not someone else, and he couldn't have been unaware that tearing it down wouldn't silence the Fat Lady."

"What you mean is..." Meredith felt a bit frustrated, as if she couldn't quite keep up with Soren's line of thinking.

"What you mean is that Black's target isn't Harry; tearing the portrait was to create a facade, divert attention, and in reality, he wanted to get something from the Gryffindor common room?" This time, Daphne quickly pieced together the logic; though she was not particularly skilled in reasoning, she was adept at understanding people.

"Exactly!" Soren leaned over and kissed Daphne on the cheek, making her blush, while Meredith wore an envious expression. "If we are to find a reason for Black's actions, it's clear that he chose this moment when everyone was away from the common room to break in, obviously looking for something. As for tearing down the portrait, it was purely to create the appearance of an attempt to assassinate Harry! I dare say he will definitely return when the professors are all distracted by guarding Harry, focusing all their attention on him—that will be his opportunity to strike again."

Daphne and Meredith had long since become somewhat numb to Soren's brilliance, but it was the first time for Astoria, who was listening in, to see her idol unravel the situation thread by thread and clarify the whole matter through a few small details, something that even the professors couldn't grasp. Her bright eyes sparkled with admiration and adoration, and she envied how close Daphne and Meredith could be to Soren.

The four fell into silence. Along with the silence, they began to feel drowsy and soon drifted off to sleep.

*****

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