Hogwarts starts with stealing power.

After venturing into the deep corridor and acquiring a non-threatening artifact, I thought the matter was over.

However, just as they were about to leave, suddenly, the white fairy on her shoulder stood on end, opened her eyes, and looked ahead warily.

The white fairy was originally lying lazily, but her sudden posture immediately alerted everyone.

Everyone looked up and were astonished.

Wait, the corridor was originally empty except for them.

Suddenly, a strange little wizard appeared in front of us. He looked like a patrolman as well.

Suddenly, a bloodcurdling scream erupted from the front of the corridor.

"Don't come any closer! Don't come any closer!"

The young wizard looked ahead with a look of horror, clutching his wand and nervously pointing it forward.

Whether intentionally or unintentionally, the direction he pointed his wand was the direction where Lin Xia and the others were.

Lin Xia and the others frowned.

This little wizard is clearly mentally deranged. Could it be that there is more than one strange object in this dark corridor? What exactly did the little wizard see?
Just as I was about to walk over, I saw that the little wizard's wand had already gathered a wisp of light.

Just as Lin Xia thought of the wand, Professor McGonagall's voice rang in her ears: "Protect yourself."

The next instant, the little wizard's voice followed: "Crush to pieces!"

He was clearly in a state of extreme panic, unleashing not just one attack spell, but three in succession, each one capable of "shattering to pieces," demonstrating its powerful aggression.

The dark blue "shattered body" pierced through the air ahead and flew straight towards Lin Xia and the others, but it was stopped when it made contact with a certain place, causing ripples to appear in the air.

The view ahead swayed slightly with the ripples, like a distorted mirror of a lake.

The young wizard's magic was not very strong, and Professor McGonagall was able to withstand his three consecutive attacks with just a suit of armor.

The young wizard in front unleashed three powerful Shattering Bone spells in succession, his magic power was completely drained, his face was pale, and his lips were extremely white.

But his eyes were wide open, and he was still screaming in terror.

"Don't come any closer! Don't come any closer! I told you not to come any closer!!"

He raised his wand, about to unleash another spell, draining his last bit of power.

Suddenly, another little wizard appeared behind him.

Lin Xia raised an eyebrow slightly; it was actually Nawei.

She remembered Neville's Gryffindor patrol route today was on the other side, and how he got to this dark corridor, which was the Hufflepuff patrol route.

She also remembered that the Hufflepuff patrol captain had told her that this dark corridor was in a rather remote location, with no other way out except for the entrance, and that the depths were a dead end.

How did Neville and his friends end up in that dead corner of the corridor again?
With a loud bang, Neville raised his hand and shoved his terrified companion to the ground.

He had originally raised his wand to cast a spell, but because the situation was so sudden, his mind went blank and he didn't know which spell to use, so he used the simplest method.

As if some delicate balance had been disrupted, the terrified little wizard's eyes rolled back and he fainted as soon as his body hit the ground.

Lin Xia noticed that Nawei was also looking ahead, his eyes filled with fear.

But he behaved very well and did not scream.

Lin Xia decisively said, "Professor, they must have encountered a strange object that can bewitch people. We can't see it from here, but they can. Let's try using the Guardian Charm to see if we can exorcise it."

Professor McGonagall had the same idea. She raised her wand slightly and said with a serious expression, "Patriot!"

The next second, a lively and agile silver-white raccoon appeared from the tip of her wand and then leaped out.

The raccoon, with its nimble steps, leaped to where Neville and the others were in no time.

As it approached, the silver-white guardian beast suddenly stopped and collided with the invisible barrier, causing ripples to spread through the air.

The stalemate did not last long.

Just a few seconds later, Lin Xia heard a very faint "crack" sound. The barrier was broken, and everyone finally saw the strange phenomenon in front of them.

"hiss--"

The young wizard who had come with Professor McGonagall next to Lin Xia couldn't help but gasp.

He tried to take a few steps back, but found himself stiff and unable to move.

He muttered, "What a terrifying and bloody bizarre phenomenon. No wonder he was so scared."

The bizarre sight ahead was a ghost bride dressed in a pure white wedding gown, but splattered with blood all over her body. Her eyes had moved to her arms, and half of her hair had been shaved off, leaving only the other half.

The other arm was clearly flipped over and twisted, making it look less like a human and more like a grotesque doll that had been randomly pieced together.

The barrier was broken, and Professor McGonagall's guardian beast jumped onto Neville's shoulder, gently brushing his shoulder with its tail, as if to tell him: Well done.

Then the silver-white tabby cat leaped forward again and swung its paw. The eerie ghost bride was actually locked in a stalemate with the power of the guardian spell for more than ten seconds before it was finally dispelled.

"Bang!"

A crisp sound rang out, and Lin Xia looked down at the ground to see a black bracelet fall to the ground.

The tabby cat circled the bracelet once, as if observing something, then picked it up and quickly jumped to Professor McGonagall's side.

McGonagall took out a specially made storage box from her seamless telescopic ring, placed the bracelet inside, and then walked over to Neville to talk to him about what had just happened.

Lin Xia walked over as well, and heard Neville say with a blank look, "Is this Hufflepuff's route? No, this is clearly Gryffindor's route. We've been following the route."

After listening for a while, it turned out that even Neville didn't know how they got in here.

According to him, they had been following the planned route without making any changes.

But Gryffindor's patrols are in a completely different direction from here, so even if they deliberately wandered around or went the wrong way, they couldn't possibly end up here.

Professor McGonagall pondered for a moment and said, "During your patrol, you must have triggered something that caused your route to change. One second you were in one space, and the next second you appeared in another."

Furthermore, the corridors at Hogwarts are all quite similar, so you wouldn't realize you'd taken the wrong turn and ended up in a completely different place.

Lin Xia glanced at Neville, noticing his wizard robes were a bit dirty. She then saw the various records and tests around the corner ahead, and remembering that Neville wasn't there when the unfamiliar young wizard screamed, she asked:

"Navie, did you complete the inspection and recording work all by yourself? Didn't your colleagues help you?"

Neville glanced at his unconscious companion, hesitated for a moment, and finally nodded.

“He saw me making test records but didn’t come up to help. He even said I was making a fuss over nothing.”

Lin Xia disagreed, saying, "Since the school has set up such a set of rules and procedures, there must be a reason for it. If your companion is willing to check with you, he won't panic so much when he encounters strange phenomena."

She turned to Professor McGonagall and said, "Professor, Neville knocked out the young wizard at a crucial moment, preventing the panic from spreading further, and he also strictly adhered to the testing procedures. Could we give Neville some reward?"

McGonagall raised an eyebrow, a faint smile playing on her lips. "There's no reward. Resources that can help the patrol are limited, and once they're gone, they're gone. But because Neville's bravery and resourcefulness prevented the strange phenomenon from spreading further and harming other students, he's hereby awarded +20 points to Gryffindor!"

Neville's face flushed red, and he was too excited to speak.

This bonus was exactly what he wanted!

Lin Xia thought to herself that Professor McGonagall probably intended to promote Neville.

Whenever Professor McGonagall has a high opinion of a student, the first thing she does is give them extra points.

Once the professor thinks it's very good, he will apply for other resources for him.

Ron, Harry, and Hermione went through the same thing.
-
The evening patrol has temporarily come to an end.

Lin Xia returned to the golden wooden house, activated the restrictions she had set up, and took out the quill pen that Salazar had used when he was young.

The quill pen was very ordinary; it didn't seem like something that a refined nobleman would use.

In her mind, the aristocracy used the finest things in everything they ate, wore, and used, and even the smallest items had to be the most exquisite.

For some high-ranking nobles, things had to be made to order, unlike those of other nobles. They didn't buy things from outside.

There are many long-established artisan families that specialize in serving these noble families and do not accept other orders.

The orders from nobles alone would be enough to ensure that the family would live a life of comfort and ease.

Lin Xia first waved the quill pen, but nothing seemed amiss.

She placed the quill on the table and waited for a while, soon feeling the quill absorbing the energy gathered in the golden wooden house.

It absorbs not only dark magic, but also magic of other attributes.

Moreover, it is extremely selective, absorbing only the purest magic power and refusing any that is even slightly of poor quality.

Lin Xia waited silently, wondering if the quill pen would reappear after absorbing all the magic power, whether it would be a past image or a completely new one.

She could never stop thinking about the young Salazar, the smile that appeared on his face when he lowered his head.

Even though Salazar was someone from long ago, Lin Xia always felt as if he was watching her.

At the same time, Neville returned to his dormitory.

He returned relatively late, and after finishing his patrol, Professor McGonagall and the patrol captain stayed behind for a chat.

Ron, Harry, and Mikel didn't wait for him and returned to their dormitory first.

They were third-year students, and another group of students from different grades would be starting their patrol after they finished, so it was not advisable for them to linger.

As soon as he got back to the dorm, Neville excitedly walked up to Ron and stammered, "I got a bonus!"

"Bonus points?" Ron was taken aback.

They weren't in the same squad, so they didn't know what had happened tonight.

He hadn't heard of anything unusual happening tonight.

Nave: "I discovered something strange, no, my companion discovered something strange. He was terrified and wanted to scream and run away, but I stopped him in time to prevent the fear from spreading further."

"It just so happened that Professor McGonagall and the Hufflepuff patrol were there at that time, and Lin Xia was there too. They all thought I handled it well and followed the testing procedures the whole time. My companions didn't follow the testing procedures and only let me do it, so Professor McGonagall gave me extra points!"

Mikel couldn't help but ask, "Wait a minute, I remember that Hufflepuff's patrol route is different from Gryffindor's patrol route, right? You saw Lin Xia and the others, did they run into your patrol route?"

Neville said embarrassedly, "No, my companion and I ran into their patrol route. I don't know how we got in there. Professor McGonagall said we might have accidentally triggered something, so we immediately switched places."

Mikel muttered, "You're really lucky."

Even Ron had to agree, saying, "Neville, you encountered strange phenomena again today. Counting today, you've become the student in Gryffindor who has encountered the most strange phenomena. Do you have some special constitution that always attracts them to you?"

Neville blinked and said softly, "Now that you mention it, I feel so unlucky."

Compared to Neville, Ron, and Mikey, who were having an enthusiastic discussion, Harry was a little restless.

He'd been wondering for the past few days if Lin Xia had discovered something.

But if she really discovered something, why didn't she come to find me?

Harry was in a state of both relief and trepidation.

After thinking about it for a long time without figuring it out, Harry simply instructed Ron to draw the tracking rune array.

It was already 11:30 p.m., and Ron was very sleepy, his eyelids drooping.

Hearing Harry's reminder, he tossed and turned in bed several times, as if fighting against his sleepiness.

After searching for a while, he finally got out of bed, walked to the petrified desk, and picked up the mithril pen with his eyes half-closed and half-open, drawing a tracking magic rune array.

He didn't even know where he had chosen. After drawing the picture using the muscle memory he had developed over the past few days, he threw the mithril pen on the table, didn't check whether it was successful, climbed back into bed, and fell asleep immediately.

the other side.

Lin Xia waited for a while until the quill pen had absorbed enough magic power.

But the imagined image didn't appear; it seems something extra is needed to trigger it.

Lin Xia thought for a moment, picked up a quill pen, dipped it in ink, and wrote a line of text.

【Hello】

There was no response to the paper with the writing on it.

Who are you? Can I talk to you?

There was still no response to the words I wrote.

My name is Lin Xia. What's your name? What do you like?

After waiting for several minutes, there was still no response.

Lin Xia felt a little disappointed. It seemed that this quill pen, unlike Tom's diary, did not contain any hidden meaning.

She glanced at the time; it was past midnight. She casually jotted down a few words.

I hope the weather is nice today, not too cold, but not too hot either.

After finishing writing, Lin Xia heard a soft clanging sound. Turning her head, she saw that the sound was coming from the layers of sealed magic script boxes.

Inside the box were Tom's diary and a portrait of Voldemort.

Out of caution, Lin Xia decided not to open it.

If it's turned on and energy leaks out, it will attract the school's attention. If they come to inspect, you'll have no way to explain yourself. (End of Chapter)