Chapter 215 The Long-lived Rat
Professor McGonagall's chest heaved violently, and she turned to face the students who were so stunned that they couldn't say a word.
Her face became paler than the ashes in the fireplace.
"Which one," said Professor McGonagall, her voice trembling, "which careless fool wrote down all the passwords for this week and left them lying around?"
Silence fell in the common room.
A moment later, in the heavy air, a weak, frightened voice broke the silence.
Neville Longbottom's whole body, from his head to his slippered feet, was trembling, and he slowly raised his hands.
"Longbottom, why did you write down the password on the note?" Professor McGonagall was furious and asked with her lips pursed, "Don't you know that it would be easy for someone with ill intentions to find Gryffindor?" Common room loophole?”
"I, I know, but I can't remember..." Neville was so anxious that he almost cried. "My memory has been bad since I was a child...Sir Cadogan has to change several passwords a day, and I can't remember them at all."
Professor McGonagall turned her attention to the portrait at the door.
"Don't look at me like this, madam." Sir Cadogan tapped his chest with his knight's sword and gave a strange salute. "As a knight, of course I must do my best to protect the safety of my territory! I feel like changing it at any time Passwords can better protect this territory!"
"But, why would you let someone in who is obviously not a student?" Professor McGonagall asked in confusion.
"Ah, as a knight, principles are very important." Sir Cadogan said matter-of-factly. "Since he can answer my password, not letting him in would violate the principles of being a knight."
"What's more, how can I tell whether he is a new professor?"
After listening to Sir Cadogan's argument, Professor McGonagall and the little wizards fell silent.
What he said seemed to make sense, but they couldn't refute it...
…
Soon, Dumbledore also arrived at the Gryffindor common room, which was under attack.
Dracula didn't have the habit of sleeping at night, so he soon heard the noise and flew up to join in the fun.
He slipped into the lounge through the window where the owl delivered messages, startling the little wizards present.
"You are here, Professor Dracula." Seeing Dracula's arrival, Dumbledore, wearing purple cotton pajamas, walked over and asked solemnly, "Have you found any trace of Sirius Black? ?”
Dracula cooperated and took out the land deed from his pocket and searched the entire castle, but did not find any suspicious figure.
"Nothing was found." He shook his head.
Dumbledore also used the Patronus and the Tracking Spell to patrol around the castle, and then shook his head.
"I've searched for several miles around the castle, and there's no sign of Black anywhere, including around the Black Lake and the Quidditch pitch," he said.
"Strange..." Dracula frowned and said doubtfully, "It shouldn't have been long since Black left here. Since there is no way to use Apparition within the scope of Hogwarts, he shouldn't be able to do anything. Out of our sight in such a short period of time.”
"Yes, so I think he must have some way to block our perception." Dumbledore nodded, "In other words, he has a way to escape from Hogwarts in a short period of time."
"How about asking Professor Lupin?" Dracula asked tentatively, "He was friends with Sirius Black when he was in school. Maybe we can tell something."
Dumbledore's expression changed slightly, and before he could speak, another greasy voice came from the door of the lounge.
"I'm afraid you won't be able to see him today!"
A greasy voice and long greasy hair appeared next to Dracula, and Snape walked unceremoniously into the Gryffindor common room, smiling disdainfully.
The entry of Dean Slytherin made the little wizards of Gryffindor very dissatisfied. However, the principal and vice-principal had no objections. These students could only show some dissatisfaction on their faces. I dare not express my objection directly.
Snape glanced arrogantly at the dissatisfied young wizards, sneered, and then said:
"Principal, I remember I told you that this newly recruited colleague is not very reliable. The wanted criminal still sneaked into the castle, and he might be close to succeeding!"
"This was an oversight on my part. I ignored the fact that Black knew Professor Lupin's weakness." Dumbledore said, then looked at Professor McGonagall, "Minerva, please take the other professors with you. Let’s inspect the entire castle carefully.”
Professor McGonagall nodded and left the group of people in a hurry.
Dracula looked at Dumbledore and Snape in confusion, not quite understanding what riddles these two were playing, why he couldn't go to Professor Lupin to ask about things today, and what exactly Professor Lupin's weakness was.
At this moment, he suddenly caught a glimpse of the sky outside the window.
In the darkness of the night, a complete full moon emerged from a pile of clouds, casting a bright moonlight.
Today is much more than just Halloween...
Full moon night.
Dracula suddenly remembered who Lupine was when he first met him.
He was a werewolf who was brought to the conference room of Dracula's castle by several high-level vampires after the war with werewolves and inferi in Romania.
On a full moon night, a werewolf will transform into a wolf and lose his mind. Only the wolfsbane potion can make the werewolf spend this cruel night rationally.
And Snape is probably the only wizard in the entire castle who can refine wolfsbane potion. In addition, he seems to have some issues with Lupine back then, so it is not surprising that the potions professor knows Lupine's true identity. .
Sirius Black also knew that tonight was the night of the full moon, so he took advantage of this opportunity where Lupine would not be able to detect him and sneaked into the Gryffindor common room.
But the question now is, after Sirius Black tried so hard to sneak into the Gryffindor common room, why was it Ron Weiss who attacked and not Harry Potter?
Dracula looked at Ron.
"Wait a minute, Wes is here."
He stopped Ron, who was still in shock and wanted to go back to the dormitory to have a good sleep.
"What's wrong, Professor?"
"I'm here, Professor!"
"What's the matter, Professor?"
"professor……"
Fred, George, Percy, Ron and even Ginny Weiss, the five flaming-haired students turned back at the same time and looked at Dracula.
Dracula: "..."
"I'm calling Ronald Weiss. The other Weisses can go back." The corner of his mouth twitched a little, and he waved to the other Weisses except Ron, "Ron Weiss, come and stay." , I have some questions to ask you."
Ron pointed at himself in surprise, and after receiving Dracula's affirmative reply, he walked over from the stairs.
"Professor, are you looking for me?" He asked with a hoarse voice, his face still a little pale.
"Yes, Potter, please stay with us." Dracula pointed at Harry, who was not far away.
Ron and Harry came to Dracula together. Seeing this, Hermione quietly followed the two friends and stood in front of the fireplace.
"Wes, come here, think carefully about what happened." Looking at the three little wizards in pajamas with dazed expressions, Dracula asked Ron, "Did you see Sirius Boo when you woke up?" What does Laike look like and what is he doing?"
Hearing Dracula's question, the other little wizards were no longer sleepy and pricked up their ears. They were either sitting on the sofa in the common room pretending to study, or standing on the steps in front of the dormitory door and eavesdropping.
They all wanted to know the details of this shocking event.
Ron also seemed to enjoy the feeling of being watched. His fearful face was washed away a lot, and he happily recounted:
"I was still sleeping at the time, and then I vaguely heard the sound of tearing something. I thought I was dreaming, so I ignored him. But then another gust of draft hit me, and then I woke up and saw One side of the curtain beside the bed was torn down..."
"Then I rolled over and saw him standing in front of me...like a skeleton with a big mass of dirty hair and holding a long knife in his hand, I must have guessed it was twelve inches long. ... He looked at me, I looked at him, and then I screamed and he ran away."
"Escaped?" Dracula raised his eyebrows, "He is a dangerous Death Eater. Why did he escape because of your scream?"
"Yes, Blake went to the wrong bed. Why not kill Ron and continue looking for me?" Harry was also very confused about this matter. "What Blake did twelve years ago showed that he He doesn't care about killing innocent people, this time there are only five unarmed little wizards in front of him, four of them are still sleeping!"
"Yeah, he can obviously kill all five of us, so Harry won't be missed, right?" Ron also agreed.
Dracula fell silent, thinking silently.
Harry was still racking his brains to reason.
"Black must know that if you wake up everyone, it will be difficult for him to get out of the castle." He thought carefully for a while, and then said, "To get back through the hole in the portrait, he must kill Everyone in the college, and then you may also meet the professors..."
"Wait a minute, before Wes came here, he said... your bed was turned over and there were several holes in the mattress?" Dracula suddenly interrupted Harry and asked.
"Yeah, what's the problem?" Ron was stunned for a moment.
"I'm wondering if what Black is looking for is not Potter, but something on Weslai?" Dracula guessed, "Wesslai, do you have anything valuable or special? Something?"
"No... no." Ron was full of doubts. "My family never lets me bring anything valuable. I even have to wait for my dad to win the lottery to change my wand."
Then, he suddenly shouted, "By the way, my Scabbers is gone. He must be frightened... By the way, Hermione, watch your cat, don't let it sneak into the men's dormitory and take Scabbers away." It happened again!"
"Ron, it's the nature of a cat to catch mice. You can't be so selfish as to stifle Crookshanks' freedom!" Hermione retorted unconvinced.
"You don't have to buy a cat from the pet store!" Ron shouted, "I've had Scabbers for three years, and it's only this semester that you've had a cat that he seems so sluggish!"
"..."
Dracula subconsciously looked at the ginger mixed-breed cat in Hermione's arms, and suddenly noticed something inconsistent in the conversation between the two -
"Wes, come on, are you saying...you have had mice for three years?" he asked with a frown.
The lifespan of a rat usually ranges from 1 to 3 years, while the lifespan of a pet rat is mostly two years.
A pet rat that lives for three years is considered to have lived a long life.
"Yes, Scabbers was Percy's pet before, but then when I came to Hogwarts to go to school, Percy became a prefect, and my mother bought him a new owl..." Ron's tone was somewhat Jealousy, "Then Percy gave Scabbers to me."
"Wait, you said that mouse was Percy's pet before?" Dracula's frown deepened.
"Yeah, I can only use my brothers' things, whether it's clothes, wands, textbooks or pets..." Ron said resentfully.
At this time, Dumbledore next to him was also keenly aware of the problem and came to Dracula.
"Professor Dracula, what do you mean..." Dumbledore asked softly.
"Whether I'm overreacting or not, it shouldn't be too difficult to find a mouse." Dracula shook his head slightly.
He raised his wand, nodded at Ron, and then said:
"Avensegium."
A pale yellow line appeared on the ground, one end connected to Ron's body, and the other end extended to the door of the common room.
Ron looked at the pale yellow line for no apparent reason, thinking that Professor Dracula, who had never been very talkative, would personally help him find his pet, with a rather excited look on his face.
As everyone knows, Dracula really wants to find his pet, but has no intention of returning it to him...
Burgundy light flowed in his eyes, Dracula's gaze moved along this line infinitely, and then he saw the end of its connection——
It was the path leading to the northeast of Hogwarts Castle, and a gray mouse was trying its best to crawl towards the Forbidden Forest.
It was not like a normal pet rat running away aimlessly, but as if it had a clear goal, crawling straight to the densest bush and the most suitable place for hiding.
"interesting."
Dracula withdrew his gaze and slowly raised the corners of his mouth.
He and Dumbledore looked at each other and nodded to each other.
Immediately, the two disappeared from the Gryffindor common room at the same time, and instantly reappeared on the path of the gray mouse.
…
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