A day at Hogwarts.

Chapter 689 The Strange Points
Night fell completely over Hogwarts, a cold drizzle began to fall, and the temperature dropped even further.

On the covered bridge, Charles threw a glowing bottle of Happy Water into the deep valley. The tiny glimmer of light fell rapidly, like a shooting star, and quickly disappeared into the endless darkness.

In a pitch-black valley, it's hard to judge your position; if you fly down, you might crash into a rock. Having a light source would be better.

A huge owl flew across the covered bridge, slightly folding its wings, and swooped down toward where the light had landed.

"We're going down."

Harry's voice rang out, but no one could be seen. He and Hermione were huddled on the Firebolt, just covered by the Invisibility Cloak.

Charles pushed up his glasses, which were already in thermal imaging mode, allowing him to see the two of them clearly.

He took out his notebook, sent a message to Simo, made sure no one was watching, and then jumped off the bridge.

After freefalling two or three meters, Charles turned around in mid-air and cast a spell at the bottom of the covered bridge, whereupon a soft white light appeared.

With the two locations, one above and one below, you're no longer afraid of getting lost.

At the bottom of the deep valley, the slippery ground was covered with moss, and the light emitted by the Happy Water Bottle illuminated an area of ​​two or three meters around it.

Ron arrived first, and the owl almost slipped when its talons landed.

Next came Harry and Hermione, who jumped off the firebolt and felt a chill run down their spines.

“This air conditioning feels alive,” Harry suddenly shrank his neck. “It’s like Charles putting his hand behind my neck in winter.”

Hermione tightened her collar, raised her wand, looked around, and asked, "Where's Charles? Hasn't he come down?"

Ron looked up and said, "There are his markers under the bridge; he should have come down by now."

Since Ron transformed into an owl, Harry and Hermione, both under the Invisibility Cloak, were unable to cast spells, so Charles took over the task.

Hermione asked worriedly, "What if he gets lost?"

Harry replied nonchalantly, "Don't worry about him. If he hits the cliff, it'll make a loud noise."

Hermione thought it made a lot of sense.

Just then, a strange sound rang out above them.

Looking up, in the dim light, a dark shadow, resembling a giant snake the size of a serpent monster, lunged at the three of them.

"Lumos!"

Harry immediately cast a spell, and a bright light appeared at the tip of his wand, dispelling the surrounding darkness and illuminating the shadowy figure.

Hermione and Ron, who were preparing to launch their attack as planned, were stunned.

The dark shape wasn't a giant snake, but a staircase. As Charles continued to descend, new steps appeared.

Harry asked incredulously, "Charles, you found the door?"

After Charles reached the soft, damp ground, he said, "I saw a door halfway down, so I tried it out and managed to wake it up."

Hermione stepped firmly onto the stairs, and asked, "How did you wake it up?"

In her mind, waking up the door required breaking a spell or something similar.

Charles shrugged and said, "I just pulled the door knocker and knocked."

Hermione's face twitched a few times upon hearing this.

She had made all sorts of preparations to break any possible curses, but now it seemed like they were all useless.

Charles told her, "Opening the door is easy; the real test is behind it."

"Ok?"

He suddenly frowned and looked around.

Harry immediately asked, "What's the problem?"

The other two became nervous.

Charles pondered for a moment and said, "The cold air here is a kind of detection magic. We've arrived, and there should be something prepared behind that door." "Hmm, perhaps the ease with which I opened the door earlier is related to the fact that you arrived here first."

"The idea behind this magic is quite clever. It uses cold to interfere with the wizard's senses and conceal their own magic power. If it weren't for the fact that there is a similar magic in Farbatton Castle, I really wouldn't have noticed it."

"Let's go, let's go there."

After he finished speaking, he turned around and walked back.

Harry, Harry, and his friends cautiously followed them up the stone steps, wands in hand, keeping a watchful eye on their surroundings, afraid that something might suddenly appear.

Soon, they reached the end of the stone steps, where the vines on the stone gate were pushed aside, revealing a gate about 3 meters wide and 4 meters high.

The door is very simple, giving the impression of insufficient funding.

"Be careful."

Charles turned back to Harry and the others, finished speaking, placed his hands on the door, and pushed it hard...

The stone gate remained completely still.

He pulled it back again, and the door opened.

Just as the stone gate was fully opened, Charles suddenly made a move, and a wall of wind appeared in front of him.

“Be careful!” he said. “The air behind the door probably hasn’t circulated for a long time; it smells bad, and I’m worried there might be more harmful gases.”

No sooner had he finished speaking than Harry suddenly pointed to the passageway behind the door and exclaimed, "Look!"

In the originally dark corridor, countless torches were stuck in the walls. Suddenly, a pair of torches closest to the door burst into white flames with a "bang".

As the sound gradually subsided, torches lit up the passageway, illuminating it as if it were daytime.

“This fire looks like Nick and the others’ colors,” Hermione suddenly said.

The others then realized that it did indeed look very similar.

Harry asked, "Could this be what's blocking Myrtle's way?"

“It shouldn’t be,” Charles shook his head. “It’s just colored flame magic for lighting, a very ancient spell, but it’s rarely used now.”

After he finished speaking, he continued casting the spell, and a breath of fresh air rushed in.

After a moment, he said, "Let's go, the air inside should be breathable enough for us."

The four men entered through the stone gate. Charles threw something that looked like an iron cage behind him. The thing grew bigger and bigger until it blocked the doorway, so that the door wouldn't close by itself and they could squeeze through the gaps and run out.

“You’re very well prepared,” Harry said.

Charles replied matter-of-factly, "That's natural."

Soon, Ron made another new discovery.

"There are murals on the wall!"

The murals on the wall have very shallow engravings, and the style is like a casual doodle by someone with painting skills. Although the lines are simple, you can still see the meaning the artist wanted to express.

"Fairies, house-elves, werewolves, centaurs, Veela, giants, and is that vampire holding the goblet?"

Hermione tried to make out the characters in the mural and found that they all lived together happily, which felt somewhat unreal.

“It’s a vampire,” Charles said with certainty. “Strange, who would have drawn such graffiti here?”

Hermione, recalling the history of Hogwarts, said with a puzzled look, "I've never heard of Hogwarts ever admitting students who weren't human."

Harry said, "Could it be like Charles's company?"

Everyone agreed that what he said made sense.

However, Charles had a vague feeling that something was wrong.

If this place is really like the murals, where everyone lives happily together, then why is there a barrier to prevent ghosts from getting close?
He couldn't figure this out, so he decided to put it aside for now, cheered himself up, and continued walking forward.

(End of this chapter)