Hogwarts: From Squibs to Greatness

Chapter 144 Christmas Approach and the Marauder's Map

After John threatened Fudge last time, the other party really settled down again, without any small gestures.

But John knew that the other party was not such an honest person, so he had already built a surveillance network in the Ministry of Magic to monitor the situation in the Ministry of Magic.

As long as there is any change, the loyal house elf will notify him immediately.

The time quickly came to the point where there were still two weeks before the end of the semester.

The sky that was originally cloudy suddenly cleared and turned into a bright and dazzling egg white color, and the muddy ground was covered with a layer of crystal clear hoarfrost.

In the castle, as in previous years, there was a busy atmosphere of Christmas.

Professor Flitwick, who teaches Charms, has decorated his classroom with colorful lights that turn into real fairies, flapping their wings.

The students are happily discussing their plans for the holidays. For Harry, the good news this Christmas is that Ron and Hermione have decided to stay at Hogwarts.

Although Ron said it was because he couldn't bear to spend two weeks with Percy, and Hermione insisted that she needed to go to the library, it couldn't be hidden from Harry, who was very grateful that they stayed to be with him.

We went to Hogsmeade again on the last weekend, and everyone was in high spirits, except Harry.

"We can get all of our Christmas shopping there!" said Hermione. "Mum and Dad love those Honeydukes fudge mints!"

Harry, the only third year left behind again, resignedly borrowed a copy of The Complete Broomstick from Wood, and decided to take a closer look at the different brands that day.

He rode a school broomstick at team practice, the antique "Shooting Star," which was slow and a little sloppy.

He definitely needs a new broomstick of his own.

On the Saturday morning when they all left for Hogsmeade, Harry said goodbye to Ron and Hermione, who were wrapped in cloaks and scarves, and walked up the marble stairs alone to Gryffindor Tower.Snowflakes floated outside the window, and the castle was quiet.

At this moment, he saw two black figures walking in the snow below. Seeing the hair burning like flames, Harry knew that it was John, and the figure beside him... was Lu Professor Ping?

Harry watched curiously as the two walked towards the door leaving Hogwarts, and then under Harry's surprised gaze, Wick came out from nowhere and followed the two.

Harry was very curious about this scene, so he hurried downstairs to see what they were going to do,
But when he walked halfway down the corridor on the fourth floor, he heard a familiar voice.

"Harry!"

He turned to see Fred and George peering at him from behind a statue of a hunched one-eyed witch.

"What are you doing?" Harry asked curiously, "Why didn't you go to Hogsmeade?
"Before we go we'll get you a little festive," said Fred, blinking mysteriously. "Go in..."

He shook his head toward an empty classroom to the left of the one-eyed statue.

Harry followed Fred and George inside.George closed the door softly and turned to look at Harry with a grin.

"An early Christmas present to you, Harry," he said.

Fred dramatically pulled something out of his cloak and placed it on the desk.

It was a large square of parchment, badly worn, with nothing on it.Harry stared at it, suspecting Fred and George had played another prank.

"What is this?" Harry asked curiously, temporarily suppressing what he had just seen on the tower in his mind.

"This, Harry, is the secret of our success," said George, patting the parchment dearly.

"It's a shame to give it to you," Fred said, "but we decided last night that you need it more than we do."

"Anyway, we've already learned it by heart," said George. "Now I'm solemnly passing it on to you. We don't need it."

"What do I want an old parchment for?" Harry asked.

"An old piece of parchment!" Fred closed his eyes and grimaced, as if Harry had hurt him deeply. "Explain, George."

George thought about it, and said as if telling a legendary story: "It's like this... When we were in the first grade, we were young, carefree, innocent..."

Harry chuckled, wondering if Fred and George were ever innocent.

"Aha, more innocent than now! We had a bit of trouble with Filch at that time." George also knew that this description was a bit too much, so he smiled and continued,

"We put a big dung bomb in the hallway and for some reason it pissed him off so he pulled us into his office and started threatening us the usual way"

"Confinement!" Fred imitated Filch's appearance and said, "Disembowel!"

"And we couldn't resist looking at one of his filing cabinet drawers, which was marked 'Confiscated Items, Highly Dangerous'."

"Don't tell me..." Harry grinned.

"Hey, what would you do instead?" Fred said. "George threw another big dung bomb to distract him, and I immediately opened the drawer and caught... this!"

"Not as bad as it sounds, you know," said George. "We reckon Filch never figured out how to use it, but he probably guessed what it was, or wouldn't have confiscated it."

"Do you know how to use it?

"Oh, yes." Fred smiled smugly. "This little baby has taught us more than all the teachers in this school."

"You're whetting my appetite," said Harry, staring at the worn parchment.

"Oh, is it?" said George.

He drew his wand, tapped the parchment lightly, and said, "I solemnly swear that I will do no good."

In an instant, thin lines of ink spread like spider webs from where the tip of George's wand touched, connecting each other, criss-crossing, extending to every corner of the parchment, and then the words appeared on the top, which were green. Large font:

"Moonface, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs

gentlemen who help magical mischief makers
Introducing!Marauder's Map! 』

The map shows all the details of Hogwarts castle and grounds, but most unusually, there are many small black dots moving across the map, each with a name in extremely small letters.

Harry leaned over in amazement, a marked black dot in the upper left corner showed that Professor Dumbledore was pacing in the study; the administrator Filch's cat, Mrs. Norris, was patrolling on the third floor; The ghost is bouncing around in the prize room right now.

Harry glanced up and down those familiar corridors, and suddenly found something new. There were still some passages on the map that he had never walked through, and many of them seemed to lead to...

"Hogsmeade," said Fred, tracing the route of a passage with his finger. "There are seven of them. Filch knows four!"

He pointed out one by one, and continued: "We believe that these three are only known to the two of us, never mind the one behind the mirror on the fifth floor. We used it before last winter, but now it has caved in and is completely blocked."

"We probably haven't used this one, because the Whomping Willow is planted right at its entrance, and the remaining one leads directly to Honeydukes' cellar. We have used it many times. You probably noticed that the entrance Just outside this classroom, through the hunchback of the one-eyed old crone."

"Moonface, Wormtail, Padfoot, Prongs." George patted the title of the map and sighed, "Thanks to them."

"Noble man, working tirelessly to help a new generation of offending students," said Fred solemnly.

"That's right," George agreed briskly, "Don't forget to erase it after you use it up,"

"Otherwise everyone will see it," Fred warned.

"Just tap it again, say: 'The prank is over!' and it's a blank sheet of paper again," said George, demonstrating it in front of Harry.

"Okay, little Harry," said Fred, imitating Percy grotesquely, "you do it yourself!"

"See you, Honey Dukes." George blinked.

They both walked out of the classroom, both smiling contentedly.

Harry stood there, gazing at the marvelous map.He saw Mrs. Norris' little black spot turn to the left, stop and sniff something on the ground.

If Filch really didn't know, then he wouldn't be able to enter and leave Hogsmeade without permission...

But as he stood there full of excitement, something he had heard Mr. Weasley say before came back to his memory.

Never trust anything that can think for itself unless you see where it hides its mind.

This map was one of those dangerous magical items that Mr. Weasley had warned about, to the aid of mischief-makers.

But Harry thought: 'He just wants to use it to get into Hogsmeade, not to steal or attack anyone, and Fred and George have used it for years and nothing terrible has happened...'

Harry traced the secret passage to Honeydukes.

Suddenly, as if he had heard some order, he rolled up the map, stuffed it into his robe, and hurried to the door of the classroom.

He opened the door a crack. No one was outside, and Harry slipped cautiously out of the classroom, hiding behind the one-eyed witch statue.

how should I do it?He took out the map again, and was surprised to see a new black spot marked Harry Potter.

The black dot was standing exactly where Harry was actually standing, half way down the fourth-floor corridor.

Harry looked closely, the little black spot Harry seemed to be hitting the witch with a small wand.Harry quickly drew his real wand and tapped the statue, to no avail.

He looked at the map again, and a very small bubble appeared next to his black dot, which said left and right separation.

"Separate left and right!" Harry whispered, tapping the stone statue again.

Immediately, the hunched back of the statue opened, allowing a thinner person to slip in. Harry quickly scanned both sides of the corridor, then put the map back in place, headed forward into the hole, and walked forward.

He seemed to slide a long way down a stone slide, and then fell to the cold, wet dirt.

Harry stood up and looked around, it was pitch black.He raised his wand and said, "Lumos!" and realized that he was in a narrow, low dirt passage.

He raised the map, tapped it with the tip of his stick, and whispered, "The prank is over!"

The map immediately became blank.He folded it carefully and tucked it into his robe, his heart beating violently, excited and scared at the same time.

He walks forward...

　The grievances for Sirius will soon be cleared up, the calm before the storm.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)