At Hogwarts, the story begins with deconstructing Avada Kedavra.

Chapter 62 New Visitors to the Forbidden Forest

At midnight, Hogwarts Castle seems to breathe its own life, with an ancient magical atmosphere permeating the corridors.

The torches on the wall flickered and flared with the draft that seeped in through the cracks in the stone.

Padma was half-pulled forward by Parvati, the hem of her robe dragging on the stone pavement with a rustling sound.

"Slow down, Parvati!" Padma whispered, almost in a breath. "There's a tapestry in front, watch out for that mischievous step behind you that will make your legs sink!"

"I know, I know." Parvati didn't turn her head, her steps as light as a harbinger bird.

She was wearing a Gryffindor red and gold nightgown, with a thick cloak casually wrapped around her, and her left hand was tightly clutching the glass ball that Lucian had given her.

The red nebula emitted a faint yet warm glow, illuminating her excited, slightly flushed face.

Padma wanted to slap herself; how could she have been so stupid as to follow this crazy older sister out?

She tried to analyze her current tragic situation using Ravenclaw thinking:

First, leaving the safe tower corridor was a disastrous decision she made while exhausted;

Secondly, she is now following a Gryffindor whose mind is filled with "adventure," and may encounter Filch at any moment...

Mrs. Lorris, or worse, wandered the corridors.

"Are the unseen ghosts still wandering?" The Eagle Ring question still echoed in her mind.

Padma closed her eyes in despair.

She was absolutely certain that once she was being watched, she would be worse off than a dead ghost.

Ravenclaw's gems will be taken away, Professor Flitwick will look at her with utter disappointment, and she hasn't even solved that damn metaphysical riddle yet!

"Pavati, where are we going?" Padma grabbed her sister's arm, forcing her to stop behind a hideous one-eyed witch statue on the fourth floor. "If you just want to take me out to freeze, I've had enough. My toes are freezing, and my sanity is screaming at me to turn back immediately."

"Shh—" Parvati turned around, his dark eyes shining brightly in the shadows. "Listen!"

Padma held her breath. At the end of the corridor, a muffled, suppressed thud seemed to echo, like something heavy hitting a stone wall, followed by several gasps.

"It's those sixth-graders!" Parvati exclaimed excitedly, standing on tiptoe.

The potions-after-class brawl this evening is far from over! I heard from Fred that Flint from Slytherin and a few Gryffindor boys have arranged to settle their personal scores near the Prize Room tonight. They're definitely fighting again!

"So what?" Padma found it incomprehensible. "Are you planning to go and cheer them on?"

“We’re gathering intelligence, Padma!” Parvati retorted confidently. “Just imagine, if we get to witness this duel, the entire common room will be swarming around us when we’re having smoked meat in the auditorium tomorrow morning! Even Lavender will be insanely jealous.”

Padma looked at her sister's face, which was exactly the same as her own, and sighed deeply.

She finally understood why the Sorting Hat had only paused on Parvati's head for less than a second before shouting "Gryffindor."

"I'm not going," Padma said, hugging her arms tightly. "I'm going back. Even freezing to death in the hallway is better than being caught red-handed."

"It's too late, my dear sister." Parvati smiled slyly. "What if you run into Blood Man Barrow or Peeves if you go back alone now? Come with me, Lucian's thing can—"

Pavati's words came to an abrupt halt.

Her expression suddenly froze on her face.

Padma's heart sank to the bottom, because she felt it too.

A voice came from the shadows around the corner of the corridor.

It wasn't the slow, heavy footsteps of Filch, nor the footsteps of Mrs. Lorris.

That was the rustling sound of the hem of a long robe sweeping across the stone pavement, accompanied by steady footsteps.

A distinctive scent wafted through the air—a mixture of wormwood, white cinnamon, preservatives, and the musty smell of a cellar that had been soaking in cold, damp places for years.

Severus Snape.

"Merlin's beard—" Parvati's lips began to tremble. She stuffed the glowing glass ball in her hand into her pajama pocket and shoved Padma behind the one-eyed witch statue.

The two sisters huddled together, their breaths caught in their throats. Padma could even feel Parvati's heart pounding.

The footsteps grew closer. The dark figure stretched elongated against the wall.

Snape's mood tonight was so bad it could burn the entire fourth-floor corridor to ashes.

The farce that had unfolded outside Potions class a few hours earlier was a blatant provocation of his patience. A few Slytherin idiots had brazenly started shouting in the hallway, while the Gryffindor trolls, especially the two Weasleys, with their heads stuffed with twigs, had retaliated with an extremely pungent slime.

The viscous substance was also highly corrosive and volatile, forcing him to prepare a neutralizing agent to clean up the traces that smelled of dead rats.

He has put all those idiots who participated in the fight in solitary confinement and ruthlessly deducted points from their respective colleges.

But this still couldn't quell the anger in his heart. He paced anxiously in the castle, hoping to catch a few more reckless students so he could unleash his fury.

Snape stopped in the middle of the fourth-floor corridor.

Padma closed her eyes in despair behind the statue.

It's all over.

Although the one-eyed witch statue could block the view, in front of a professor who was an expert in Occlumency, their heavy and fearful breathing sounded like a broken gong.

Snape slowly turned his head and stared at the stone statue. He spoke in a terrifying tone, "It seems Hogwarts will be quite a spectacle tonight."

"come out."

There was no room for them to take any chances.

Parvati's legs went weak, and if Padma hadn't caught her from behind, she might have collapsed to the ground.

The two sisters trembled as they slowly and desperately emerged from behind the statue.

When Snape saw that there were two identical, terrified faces standing in front of him, the corner of his mouth turned to one side, but there was no smile at all.

"Am I under a Confusion Charm, or is my vision blurring due to extreme fatigue?" Snape's dark eyes swept over the two women. "Two Miss Petit. One in Gryffindor's prized red and gold, the other—"

His gaze lingered on Padma's deep blue robes for a moment, his tone becoming more mocking, "—surprising, a Ravenclaw."

Padma's face flushed instantly. She opened her mouth as if to explain something: "Professor Snape, I—"

'

"Shut up, Miss Petit," Snape interrupted her. "I don't want to hear your excuses for your foolishness."

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He stepped forward, his black robes seeming to engulf them completely.

"Let me guess," Snape said, glancing at their faces, "tsk, the recklessness of Gryffindor. It's not just turned your house into a stinking gladiatorial arena, but now it's crossed the house and infected a Ravenclaw who should be thinking straight?"

Parvati bit her lower lip; her Gryffindor temper became even more irrational in her fear.

She tried to defend her sister: "Professor, it has nothing to do with Padma, I was the one who pulled her—"

"Twenty points deducted from Gryffindor!" Snape said without hesitation, his voice still not loud, "for your extraordinary courage to talk back to the professor, Miss Petit. And for your ridiculous attempt to play the tragic hero in a serious disciplinary incident."

Parvati flinched in fright, tears welling up in her eyes.

Snape took a deep breath and devised a more vicious punishment plan that better suited his current mood.

He was already having a headache over those fighting idiots. To thoroughly punish those students who treated Hogwarts like Diagon Alley or the Leaky Cauldron, he had already discussed with Professor McGonagall the idea of ​​making them clean the toilets.

Now, looking at the two twins in front of him, sneaking around in the corridor in the middle of the night, Snape thought of those fools who had been punished to go to the Forbidden Forest.

He felt that only such punishment could relieve his hatred.

"Since the two young ladies of the Petit family possess such abundant energy," Snape said slowly, "that even the castle corridors at night are not enough to exhaust your boundless curiosity—then I think you would be more than happy to devote that energy to more valuable work."

Padma's heart pounded, and an ominous premonition enveloped her.

“You should feel honored,” Snape said, approaching them. “Originally, this honor belonged only to the Saviors who had displayed extraordinary talent. But now, I have decided to generously add you two to the list as well.”

"A list?" Parvati asked, trembling.

"Tomorrow night at eight o'clock," Snape said, looking down at them, "go to the edge of the Forbidden Forest and find Hagrid. He's been having trouble getting enough help to squeeze the juice out of those plants covered in thorns and pustules."

"The Forbidden Forest?!" Padma's mind flashed back to the terrifying descriptions of the Forbidden Forest from "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them": giant spiders, werewolves, mad centaurs—

"But Professor! I was locked out just because I couldn't solve the riddle about the door knocker!" Padma tried to make a last-ditch effort, her voice trembling with tears. "I just acted on impulse—"

"A moment of impulse?" Snape sneered dismissively.

He suddenly waved his wand, turned around, and strode away.

"Then let the cold winds of the Forbidden Forest awaken your pathetic reason, assimilated by Gryffindor, Miss Petit."

Snape's voice echoed in the empty corridor.

"Ravenclaw, twenty points deducted. Now, get back to your tower immediately. If I see you again on the way here—your confinement will be extended by a full month."

As the rustling footsteps faded into the distance and disappeared completely into the darkness at the end of the corridor, Padma and Parvati remained frozen in place.

A biting cold wind seeped in through the cracks in the window.

Padma looked down at herself, then at her sister beside her, whose face was ashen and whose tears were finally falling in a steady stream.

For Padma now, the cobblestone streets outside the Ravenclaw Tower are like a warm paradise bestowed by Merlin.

And she foolishly pushed open the gates of heaven with her own hands, stepping into the hell that Snape had carefully prepared for them.