The Return to Hogwarts

The twins crouched low and slipped into the room. The office's simple furnishings were immediately apparent and unremarkable. Fred and George stood before the black curtain, exchanging excited glances.

"Let's count down from three and unveil this mystery together!"

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Chapter 35 Catch him

“Please tell me this isn’t a dream, George.”

When the black curtain was drawn back, a dazzling display of light and shadow appeared before the twin brothers, who froze instantly, feeling smug about their successful intrusion into the office of a mysterious investigator!

They stared blankly at the wall, rubbing their eyes in disbelief, like a Muggle who scoffed at magic seeing real spells for the first time, their expressions both absurd and laughable.

“Sorry, brother—” George Weasley’s mouth moved weakly as he murmured, blinking frantically as he tried to comprehend the incredible invention he was witnessing. “I can’t give you any guarantees, but I think we’ve figured out exactly how Mr. Blaine managed to monitor the entire Hogwarts from his office. I can only say, it’s insane!”

"Yeah, that's insane—"

Fred's voice sounded as if he were in a daze. He looked down at the parchment in his hand, where many words were moving about, then focused his gaze on the square images. His breathing grew heavier.

"Our maps are nothing compared to this thing. Oh, but I still don't understand how he managed all of this!"

It took the twins about ten minutes to barely pull themselves out of their endless shock, and the first thing they did after regaining their senses was to throw themselves against the wall, wishing they could embed their eyes into it.

Overwhelmed with excitement, George's nose, which had stopped bleeding, started bleeding again. But he paid no attention to his increasingly pale face and dizzy head, focusing instead on discussing with Fred how Mr. Blaine had created this groundbreaking invention!

"--I bet you Percy's prefecture badge, Fred, there's some incredibly advanced Transfiguration magic in there!"

George's eyes gleamed with reverence as he poked at the wall with his finger, his gaze sweeping across its surface.

"There should be an alchemical tool that can transfer images from various parts of the castle to this transmuted wall, and then restore them to understandable pictures."

"That's not all!"

Fred added loudly, “Look at the angle of these images, George! He’s installed at least several hundred alchemical devices in the castle for surveillance. Damn, what could possibly be so powerful!”

The twins stood in front of the wall, discussing and analyzing the technical means that the system might use. In the end, they reached a consensus that the monitoring equipment used magical knowledge from multiple disciplines, and that the knowledge was so profound that it was beyond their current understanding!

"Do you think it's possible for him to pass on this skill to us if we sincerely ask him for advice?" Fred asked hopefully, staring at the screen. Suddenly, the map he had always treasured no longer seemed so appealing.

"I have a question, bro—"

George covered his nose, his face grim. "If Mr. Blaine is constantly in his office monitoring everyone's movements, does that mean..."

The twins exchanged a glance and realized that Mr. Blaine had probably seen them sneaking out of the lounge and wandering around the castle several nights last week.

“He didn’t report it to Professor McGonagall. Maybe he just happened to be asleep when we went out for a walk.” Fred’s expression was also not good; he couldn’t believe the possibility he was conjecturing.

Regardless of why Mr. Blaine hadn't exposed them, now wasn't the time to delve into the matter. They hadn't forgotten that in about ten minutes, Amosta Blaine would finish washing up and return to the monitoring room. After drawing the curtains, Fred, rubbing his head and feeling dizzy, walked to the door with George. As his hand touched the doorknob and turned it, his expression turned sorrowful.

"I have some very interesting information, George, and I can't wait to share it with you!"

“I’m also very eager to hear that interesting information you’ve mentioned, Fred,” George said, rubbing his forehead and squinting, “but I’d prefer you to share it with me when I’m lying in Mrs. Pomfrey’s sickbed, Fred!”

"I'm afraid we won't be able to wait until then—"

Fred twisted the handle again with all his might, but as he expected, the bronze-colored handle didn't budge. "I think we've fallen into an ambush."

A silent stillness descended, and Fred and George exchanged an awkward glance, each seeing a strange kind of stupidity gleaming in the other's eyes.

Entrusted with this important task by the Board of Trustees, the person who opened the dangerous secret room must be a very experienced wizard. How could such a wizard be so careless as to leave this extremely important monitoring room undefended?

Ten seconds later, the self-rescue operation began!

George broke free from Fred's support, and the two, three feet apart, simultaneously drew their wands, aimed them at the doorknob, locked eyes, and simultaneously growled.

"Shattered to pieces!"

A faint, shimmering light, like ripples on water, flashed across the rounded doorknob before fading away without any further change.

"Damn it, that cunning fellow!" Fred cursed through gritted teeth. "He planned all along to catch the little wizard who barged into his office, didn't he!"

Undeterred, Fred and George tried several more times, but to no avail. All the spells were blocked by the powerful defensive spells cast on the door. Fred glanced anxiously at the parchment in his hand and resorted to the most primitive method—trying to pry it open with all his might, hoping to close the door tightly.

"Don't do anything stupid, Fred!" George's eyes darted around, quickly fixing on a window in the wall closest to the Forbidden Forest. "Come help, brother, maybe we can escape from here!"

“Are you crazy, George?” Fred said, his eyes wide with surprise. “This is the third floor! I’d rather be caught by the investigator and handed over to Professor McGonagall than jump down and break my neck!”

Despite saying that, Fred still jogged after George and followed him to the window.

However, after another flurry of frantic activity, the two collapsed to the ground, completely giving up.

“Can you believe it, George?” Fred frantically scratched his head, looking utterly devastated. “Who in their right mind would put a protective charm on a window?!”

Amosta emerged from the prefectural bathroom with his hair still wet. He seemed to be in a good mood, and even hummed an off-key tune as he passed the statue of Foolish Polis.

To be honest, he regretted not asking Professor Snape to let him become a prefect when he was in school. Being a prefect does indeed grant him privileges that ordinary junior wizards cannot enjoy. Not to mention anything else, the bathroom he had been using all this time, with its entire floor paved with luxurious white marble and as big as a swimming pool, was enough to make anyone envious!

The only downside was that the sleeping mermaid portrait on the wall always liked to sneak up and stare at his eight-pack abs when he was resting with his eyes closed, which made Amosta feel a little embarrassed.

With two minutes to go before the young wizards' class was about to end, Amostella strolled leisurely down from the sixth floor to the third. Finally, he flicked his wand from his sleeve, stood smiling at the door of his office, and spoke in an incredibly cheerful voice.

"Then let me unveil the mystery of the person who committed the crime!"

Why haven't we even had a test launch yet? I'm so unhappy!

Chapter 36 Let go

In Amosta's office, Fred was honestly explaining why they had broken in, while George lay on Amosta's bed, groaning softly in a daze. However, after taking the recovery potion Amosta had concocted with poisonous tentacle seeds, his nosebleed finally stopped.

"Professor McGonagall did warn me to be wary of you—"

Amosta sat in his office chair, a wry smile on his face as he listened to Fred's explanation.

"But she only told me not to be too shocked if I found you two wandering around the castle late at night during surveillance, but she didn't mention the possibility that you might break into my office."

I must say, you two are very lucky. Because the one who opens the secret room is very likely to be an underage wizard, the magic I left in this house is mainly for confinement. If I followed my usual practice when working outside…”

Amosta looked intently at the Weasley brothers, who had sly expressions on their faces, and warned them in a very stern tone,

"Perhaps it's time for Headmaster Dumbledore to write a letter to your parents announcing their passing!"

Even without Amosta's warning, Fred and George realized that their actions this time were indeed too reckless. After all, Amosta Blaine was not a professor at the university, and they should not have barged into his office without understanding his temperament.

Because he had lost so much blood, George looked so haggard he seemed about to die at any moment, but after hearing Amosta's warning, he forced himself to sit up in bed, looking utterly pathetic.

“Teacher, no, Mr. Blaine, since we’ve already learned our lesson, could you please not mention this to Professor McGonagall? We assure you, this is absolutely the last time!”

Fred nodded in agreement without hesitation.

"Please, Mr. Blaine, while we were trapped here, George and I discussed it and decided to retire from this life and become studious and law-abiding little wizards. Could you please let us go?"

Amosta rolled his eyes, almost laughing at the two clowns. Did he really look that stupid?

"Well, anyway..."

Amosta didn't immediately give them a definite answer. He leaned back in his chair, interlaced his fingers on his knees, and looked at them with a half-smile.

"You two have already figured out my secret, haven't you?"

Upon hearing this, George's life-or-death expression vanished, and Fred stopped pretending to have reformed. His eyes gleamed with admiration as he eagerly offered Amosta his compliments.

“You are the most brilliant wizard I have ever seen, Mr. Blaine. Even Headmaster Dumbledore cannot compare to you,” Fred, one of the twins, exclaimed, praising Amostella’s wisdom. “The way you monitor the school is something we could never even dream of!”

"In order to understand your greatness more deeply!"

The two brothers reached an agreement the instant their eyes met, and George respectfully requested, "Could you explain to us in detail how that thing works?"

"Don't even think about it!"

Amosta rolled his eyes even more. Thinking of the academically excellent Bill and Charlie, who had outstanding Quidditch talent, he couldn't understand how the Weasley family could produce these two. Well, Amosta had to admit that Fred and George were actually quite interesting.

The moment Amosta rejected him, George slumped back onto the bed, looking deeply hurt. He weakly reached out to his brother, his voice utterly feeble.

"It seems my last wish will not be fulfilled, Fred. If you ever figure this out, remember to come to my grave and tell me."

In the end, Amosta didn't tell the twins the principles behind the surveillance system. It wasn't that he was being cowardly, but rather that it was something that couldn't be explained in a few words. It involved many profound principles of transformation magic and alchemy, and even if he had explained it, the twins wouldn't have understood, let alone been able to build it themselves.

However, he still very generously decided not to pursue the matter of Fred and George breaking into his office, since the two of them had nothing to do with the secret room.

"Remember to keep what you saw a secret, you two!"

Before kicking the Weasley brothers out of the office, Amosta narrowed his eyes, and the chill in his voice sent shivers down Fred and George's spines.

"If I find out that you have leaked the secret, or if I discover that you have sabotaged the surveillance ports I have set up in the castle, then the two Weasleys, if I decide to deal with someone, even Headmaster Dumbledore probably can't stop me!"

“We can swear on Percy’s prefecture badge, sir, that we will not utter a word to anyone else!” the twins assured each other in unison.

Hopefully they will keep their promise.

Before closing his eyes to rest, this thought flashed through Amosta's mind.

Amosta knew in his heart that it was unlikely that the Weasley brothers would keep the secret completely. At the very least, they would tell Harry, and Harry would certainly not forget to share it with his two good friends. But other than that, they were unlikely to spread the word about their surveillance of all the young wizards.

The main trio couldn't possibly be the problem, and the Weasleys were trustworthy—it was Amosta's preconceived notions that caused him to spend much more time and effort when he could have made a quick discovery.

That evening, as soon as Harry and Ron returned from the school hospital and entered the common room, Fred and George pulled them over. The two of them dragged Harry to a spot near the girls' dormitory stairs, where there were few people, making it easier for them to talk.

As they spoke, Harry's expression grew increasingly solemn, while Ron's mouth gaped wider and wider, his face filled with disbelief and shock.

No one noticed that at the entrance to the girls' dormitory stairwell, a pale-faced figure stood silently for a long time before quietly retreating back into the dark shadows.