Hogwarts: This holy light is righteously evil

Chapter 156 Banban

When the twins broke into the room and startled the beast, Luwei had already awakened and sensed the intruders. His three heads were ready to get up and stand guard at any moment.

Upon sensing Puni's presence, it relaxed its guard, not even lifting its eyelids, and continued to lie dormant and rest.

Louie knew that Penny was a close friend whom Hagrid recognized, so he immediately classified him as a non-threatening person and took the initiative to put aside his hostility.

Puni secretly judged that such a human-like ability to distinguish friend from foe was actually unsuitable for being a guardian beast.

A qualified guardian beast should be extremely vigilant whenever an outsider intrudes, regardless of kinship or companionship, rather than relaxing its vigilance based on scent.

"You knew perfectly well that three giant beasts were locked up here, yet you deliberately brought us here to explore?" George raised his voice several decibels, his face full of indignation. "I was frightened, Puni, you have to compensate us!"

"Yes, yes, my heart is still racing."

Fred then clutched his chest, feigning heartache and emotional distress, and, in coordination with his partner, demanded compensation.

Puni rolled his eyes in exasperation, too lazy to play along with their act: "You were the ones who insisted on unlocking the door and going in to investigate, okay? I was the one who kept stopping you. Don't forget in the hallway, it was I who distracted Snape and helped you avoid punishment."

"Helping someone out of a predicament is helping them out of a predicament, and being frightened is being frightened; the two things don't cancel each other out!" The twins exchanged a glance and immediately agreed on their story. "Then we'll compromise; you can give us half the compensation!"

"Don't even think about it." Puni decisively refused, ignoring the two's entanglement, and turned to walk towards the corridor exit.

George and Fred were about to chase after them to continue arguing and demanding more benefits when suddenly, from inside the sealed stone chamber behind them, came the heavy, deep breathing of the three-headed dog, which spread through the cracks in the wooden door, exuding a powerful and intimidating aura.

The two of them froze instantly, abandoning their playful thoughts and hurriedly getting up to catch up with Puni.

"Wait for us, don't walk too fast!"

"If that giant beast breaks through the wooden door and chases after us, we won't be able to outrun it!"

Puni's journey didn't require him to break through the guards of the three-headed dog, Fluffy, nor did he need to venture deep underground to challenge subsequent magical levels. He only needed to confirm one thing—a square trapdoor was embedded in the center of Fluffy's four paws.

After a brief observation, Puni understood that the defensive layout around the magic stone had not deviated from its original trajectory, and the butterfly effect he had caused had not altered the core structure of the first level.

He never intended to venture deep underground; the subsequent layers of magical traps were meaningless to him.

By putting himself in Dumbledore's shoes and reviewing the entire defensive system, Puni's understanding deepened with each thought. These interconnected elements...

The progressively more difficult magic levels are just a smokescreen for outsiders from beginning to end.

Venturing underground is never difficult. In the original story, Harry and his two first-year students, who had no high-level spellcasting abilities and no dungeon exploration experience, were able to travel together through the mechanisms to reach the lowest secret room.

It's easy to break through, but trying to return to the castle grounds by the same route is almost a dead end.

The so-called restricted area on the right side of the fourth floor is itself an elaborate hunting trap.

The entrance is located on the fourth floor, but once the trapdoor is opened and you fall, the depth of the fall is far beyond what ordinary people can predict. With each obstacle you overcome, your location will sink deeper into the depths of Hogwarts.

The final secret chamber where the magic stone is stored has long been separated from the main castle building and is located in an isolated underground space, leaving intruders with no way to escape.

Furthermore, Hogwarts has deployed high-level anti-apparition restrictions throughout the entire campus, prohibiting autonomous flight within the school. Wizards who venture underground are effectively cut off from their return journey.

Aside from expending a massive amount of magic to dig a tunnel by hand and emerge from the ground, there is no other way to leave.

Unable to return on their own, they were essentially trapped underground, and could only wait for school personnel to arrive and arrest them, which was no different from surrendering without resistance.

Following this line of reasoning, Puni suddenly felt a pang of regret. In the original story, Harry, Harry, and their companions insisted on trying to overcome the obstacles and explore the mystery, but in the end, they inadvertently helped the mastermind behind the scheme. It was truly a case of good intentions gone wrong.

After figuring out the logic of all the checkpoints, Penny once again avoided the professors and caretakers patrolling the flower corridor, and successfully separated from the Weasley twins by relying on his familiar hiding routes.

Just now, the twins were playing around and chased after him too fast, making too much noise and almost attracting Snape's patrol, and they were almost all arrested.

Puni, unwilling to continue with two rash night owls and risk exposing himself, decisively slipped away alone.

After separating from the group, the current time is stable and there are plenty of gaps in the floor patrols, making it the perfect time to head to the secret room.

Now, Penny is so skilled at traveling to and from the Chamber of Secrets in Slytherin that he knows every secret passage switch and blind spot well, without having to spend extra energy figuring out the way.

But as soon as they stepped into the entrance corridor of the secret chamber, the serpentine stone sculpture at the end of the corridor immediately began to speak, its noisy words coming one after another, constantly talking to Puni.

This stone sculpture is naturally talkative and clingy. When alone, it can restrain its urge to confide, but once Puni visits, it can't help but express itself.

This time, Puni had not visited for a month. The stone sculpture had been holding back for a whole month without anyone to talk to, and his emotions had reached their limit. He spoke rapidly and incessantly, refusing to stop for a moment.

A playful thought suddenly popped into Puni's mind: if he didn't come to the secret room for a long time, would this talkative stone sculpture really be trapped by loneliness?

He raised his hand to interrupt the stone sculpture's endless chatter: "I have important business to attend to today and cannot engage in idle talk. Let me enter the inner part of the secret chamber first, and we can finish our conversation after I return."

Upon hearing this, the serpentine stone sculpture, far from being disappointed, became even more excited and cheerful, full of confidence: "No problem! I'll wait for you to come back. You always keep your word, so I'll wait patiently!"

Over time, the little stone carving had figured out Puni's style of doing things. As long as Puni promised to chat afterward, he would never go back on his word, so there was no need for it to get entangled in the matter immediately.

The next second, the gears on the stone wall meshed with a rumbling sound, and the heavy stone wall slowly slid sideways, revealing the spiral stone steps leading to the underground chamber.

Looking at the long, winding stone steps that stretched as far as the eye could see, Puni felt a sense of powerlessness. Each time he walked up and down the stone steps, it took a long time and was extremely inefficient.

He even secretly hoped that it would be better to remove the stone steps that blocked the way, open up a vertical passage leading directly to the ground, and jump down directly, which would save time and effort.

After quickly walking up the spiral staircase to the bottom of the secret room, Puni took out the two baby dragons he had raised.

"Come on, let's train you right here."

The Gryffindor common room was noisy all night long, as students spontaneously held a party to welcome the new students, and the noise and laughter lingered for a long time.

Ultimately, the freshman orientation is just an excuse; these returning students actually want to relax, have fun, and indulge in their leisure on the first night of school.

The flickering fireplace, the sounds of clamor, board games, and idle chatter mingled together, the volume steadily rising until it finally disturbed Professor McGonagall, who was patrolling the tower.

The Headmaster of Gryffindor, dressed in a dark green robe, strode into the common room. His expression was stern, and his eyes exuded an air of authority. He glanced at the entire room, and the noise in the room instantly ceased.

The younger couples, who were secretly cuddling and enjoying each other's company in the shadows, were startled and immediately scattered, lowering their heads and quickly hiding back in their respective dormitories.

Harry also truly felt Professor McGonagall's intimidating aura as the Head of the House, and dared not linger outside. He followed the crowd and quickly returned to the boys' dormitory.

After a long night of revelry outside, everyone was exhausted. The boys in the dormitory took off their outer robes, lay down on their beds, and quickly fell asleep without much conversation. The only sound in the dormitory was their even and gentle breathing.

Just moments after everyone had fallen asleep, a sharp, piercing scream suddenly broke the silence of the dormitory. The sound was so shrill and ear-piercing that it went straight into the eardrums.

Harry woke up instantly, his heart skipped a beat, and a light sweat broke out on his back.

The wail was extremely mournful, with a strange and chilling tone. If Harry hadn't already witnessed the school ghosts roaming the castle at the entrance banquet, he would have been terrified.

He propped himself up on the edge of the bed, fumbled for his round-framed glasses by the pillow, put them on, and raised his hand to light the magic candle lamp by the bedside, its warm white light filling the corner of the dormitory.

Looking up, Ron, Neville, Seamus, and Dean also got out of bed, looking around the dormitory with alert expressions, all trying to locate the source of the sound.

The screams just now were definitely not made by any of the five people; there were other living creatures inside the bedroom.

The five people were clear-headed and not stupid; they quickly sorted through all the living creatures in the dormitory.

Aside from the five human teenagers, the dormitory housed several pets, including Neville's pet toad and Ron's old rat, Scabbers.

The gentle toad produces a weak, flat sound; it could never utter such a sharp and mournful cry.

After the investigation, all the suspicions fell on Ron's rat, Scabbers.

"Spotty!" Ron's expression changed, and he rushed to the iron rat cage placed against the wall, bending down to stare intently at the movement inside.

Inside the cage, Banban huddled in a corner of the wood shavings, its fur taut and trembling, its body trembling with fear and timidity, looking extremely frightened.

Ron breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing this, thinking the rat was just startled and unharmed. But when he looked down and saw the scene inside the cage, his breath caught in his throat and he suddenly stopped breathing.

The bottom of the rat cage was stained with large patches of dark red blood from the wood chips, and in the corner of the cage lay half a withered, yellowed rat tail tip.

Looking at Banban's tail, the once complete long tail was broken off in half, with the wound at the end fresh and red, and the blood not yet congealed.

"Its tail is broken off!" Ron exclaimed in a trembling voice.

Upon hearing the sound, the other four immediately gathered around the rat cage, staring at the bloodstains and severed tail inside, their expressions varying.

Ximo frowned and leaned closer to examine it, his eyes full of confusion: "What on earth bit off the rat's tail? There's no ferocious beast in the dormitory."

Everyone present looked puzzled. All the live animals in the dormitory had been checked, and the toad was not aggressive. The five teenagers had gone to bed separately, and no one would go and gnaw on an old rat in the middle of the night.

Dean pondered for a moment, and considering Spotty's aged physique, offered a conjecture: "Ron, is it possible that Spotty, in a daze, bit off its own tail?"

Ron immediately looked annoyed and retorted, "Spotty is gentle by nature, how could it hurt and bite itself? It's not crazy."

"I'm just speculating reasonably."

Dean calmly began to analyze, "Spotted is extremely old, equivalent to a very old person among rats. Just as humans become confused with age, an aging rat may also lose its self-control."

This statement sounded baseless and far-fetched, but Ron looked down at the old, withered, and bleeding Spotted in the cage, his heart sank, and after a moment of silence, he sadly admitted in his heart that this conjecture might actually be true.

Ron felt increasingly depressed, his thoughts churning.

Scabbers has been living with the Weasley family for over ten years, and his lifespan even exceeds that of Ron himself.

Putting aside any magical enhancements, ordinary house mice have extremely short lifespans and it's impossible for them to live for more than ten years.

Even if Banban is considered a rare long-lived individual among rats, the probability of it suddenly losing its mind and mutilating its tail in the middle of the night without warning is far more reasonable than its tail being bitten off by external force.

The more Ron pondered this line of thought, the more certain he became of the answer, and a wave of dejection washed over him.

Today is only the first day of their studies at Hogwarts, and the joy of the welcome dinner has not yet faded. Their pets, who have been with them since childhood, have been diagnosed with precocious dementia by everyone. Such a change is enough to make any teenager feel overwhelmed.

If school had started a day later, he could have gotten a healthy pet at home, but now that he's in a closed castle, everything is set in stone.

Seeing Ron's low spirits, Seamus, Dean, and Neville took turns offering words of comfort. After several rounds of reassurance, the three of them felt tired again and went back to their respective beds to rest and fall asleep.

Harry walked over to Ron's side and gently reassured his companion: "Ron, settle Scabbers down first, don't be too anxious."

"After tomorrow's classes, we'll have a professor examine the injury; that should help us find the real cause."

Ron nodded wearily in agreement. He had no other choice but to hope that the professor would treat him.

Inside the iron rat cage, Banban, who was universally considered to be old and senile, had thoughts completely opposite to what the outside world had guessed. He was filled with extreme fear and rage.

What on earth was that attacked and bit off my tail?

This seemingly old, timid, and sickly house mouse was never an ordinary rodent.

It is a licensed Animagus, whose true form is the wizard Peter Pettigrew, and whose code name in the community is Bug Tail.

In his early years, he voluntarily joined Voldemort's side and sided with the dark forces. He took on the role of the secret agent for Harry's family and personally revealed the Potters' hiding place, directly leading to their murder.

However, things didn't go as expected. Voldemort, following an ancient prophecy, was defeated by a counter-spell from young Harry, his power dissipated, and he disappeared without a trace.

After his traitorous identity was exposed, Sirius Black was determined to hunt him down and settle his score, even at the cost of his reputation.

Wormtail, having nowhere else to turn, staged a self-mutilation and death scene in the street to fake his own death at the hands of Sirius Black. He then transformed into a rat and lay low in the Weasley family for eleven years.

The pain of having his tail severed in the middle of the night was excruciating. He had been curled up deep in the wood shavings in the cage, fast asleep, when the sudden, intense pain tore through his consciousness, and the exposed half of his rat tail was bitten off.