A ruined Hogwarts

After having lunch in the auditorium, Owen waved to the little wizards and left the table alone.

"Aren't you going back to the common room?" Blaise asked.

"Well, I think I'd love to have a date with the castle this afternoon." Owen smiled and winked with his left eye.

There are no classes in the afternoon, so this time is perfect for exploring the castle.

The afternoon sunlight shines through the windows into the corridors of the castle. There are many students walking through the corridors scatteredly, some walking in a hurry, some talking and laughing. In the portraits hanging on the walls, the characters were minding their own business. Occasionally, one of the portraits would suddenly scream, trying to scare the little wizard who was passing by the portrait alone.

The atmosphere in the castle is very peaceful. Owen doesn't know what changes his ability has brought here, but I hope it is a good change.

Of course, there are also ominous places. For example, chalk has been mysteriously missing from every classroom in the castle this week. It is said that Hogwarts's expenditure on chalk suddenly increased several times.

The administrator, Mr. Filch, suffered from a nervous breakdown. Students would often see him standing suspiciously outside a certain classroom, pulling the sleeves of students who wanted to enter the classroom and questioning them carefully, or hiding in a certain classroom secretly. Behind the desk, the little wizards who went to class were so frightened that they screamed.

Owen wandered around the corridors of the castle, exploring the real or fake doors with great interest. He held a piece of parchment in one hand and drew every section of the road he walked on with straight lines. . This is an interesting process, maybe he can also make a Marauder's Map by himself.

In the shadow of a flight of stairs on the third floor, Owen saw Mrs. Norris again. Normally, Mr. Filch would be nearby.

This unfriendly gray long-haired cat was sitting in the shadows, its yellow eyes staring at the corner of the stairs like two searchlights, its back arched as if ready to pounce at any time, and its skinny body made Owen very nervous. Can't stand it.

After seeing Owen, Mrs. Norris's particularly protruding cat eyes narrowed, and her triangular head was raised high, showing an arrogant and provocative look. Apparently, it was still feeling proud of having caused some trouble for Irving last time.

"Hey, Mrs. Loris, would you like some grilled fish?" Owen didn't want to vent his anger on the kitten. He dug out the food he had packed early and spread it out in front of the gray cat. It seemed to be a Maine Coon cat, but it didn't look majestic at all, and its gray hair was all tangled.

Mrs. Norris lazily sniffed the food on the ground and plucked it gently with her paws.

Perhaps because he understood that teasing Owen would only result in being played with, he didn't pretend this time, and casually opened up a small piece of sausage, steak and half a chicken leg with his paws. After holding down a small piece of grilled fish, it took a small bite like the pickiest lady, then raised its eyes maliciously at Owen, and slapped the grilled fish back to him with a wave of its paw.

Then, it focused its attention on the only food left in front of it, which were two small dried fishes that Owen picked from some kind of dark dish at noon today.

Mrs. Norris put her nose close to the dried fish and smelled it, showing a barely satisfied look. She ate the dried fish in a few mouthfuls, then licked her paws and stared lazily at Owen.

"Do you like eating this kind of fishy and salty dried fish?" Owen tilted his head and squatted down to stare at it. Being so picky, no wonder this guy was so thin in Hogwarts where there was no shortage of food. He thought Mr. Filch was starving him.

"Come on, touch me." Owen stretched out his right hand. The hair on Mrs. Norris's body exploded, and she jumped away lightly, leaping past Owen at high speed.

Owen turned his head and saw that Mr. Filch had been standing behind him at some point, staring at him with his bulging eyes.

There is another creature that walks silently in this world.

"Hi, Mr. Filch." Owen picked up the food on the floor with a paper bag, stood up and said hello, "I didn't break the school rules."

"Don't come near my cat." Filch said roughly, as if he saw Owen feeding Mrs. Norris, and his attitude was quite friendly. Yes, it was no longer easy for Filch to show this attitude.

"Ah, I just like it very much." Owen said, "I have always wanted to raise a cat, but I have never been able to do so due to various reasons. Maybe we can exchange ideas on raising cats? For example, as a cat, eating Too much salt is not good for your health and can easily make you sick.”

"It likes to eat that, as long as it likes it." Filch picked up Mrs. Norris, and the bad-tempered cat squinted its eyes and shrank in his arms very tamely. Owen seemed to see a look of endearment in Filch's dry eyes.

"In this case... I know that there is a kind of saltgrass. This plant has a strong salty taste, but it does not come from salt and is harmless to humans and animals." Owen said thoughtfully, "It can be used as A substitute for salt, used to pickle salted fish. I can find you some seeds..."

Filch looked at him with narrowed eyes, always seeming to have a look of disgust and hatred in his eyes. He made no secret of his suspicion of Owen. After all, as a squib, he had never experienced much kindness in the magical world.

"What do you want to do?" he said viciously.

"Nothing, it's just a trivial matter." Owen pondered for a moment, then smiled, "If I have to say something, I would like to ask you something more. I know that no one knows what's going on inside the castle better than you. What happened. How about using this in exchange?"

"You tell me, I'll think about it." After hearing Owen say there were transaction conditions, Filch's suspicious and vigilant expression became slightly more relaxed.

"Mr. Filch, since the first day of this school year, has anything strange happened in the castle that has never happened before?" Owen looked at him with burning eyes.

"Why are you asking about this?" Filch's expression became extremely alert. He stared at Owen eagerly, as if he was looking at a criminal who was about to commit murder at any time.

"Because it's fun." Owen said casually, "Don't worry, I won't violate the school rules. If you don't believe me, you can test me. I have memorized all the Hogwarts school rules by heart."

Filch's eyes narrowed into thin slits, and after thinking for a long time, he said slowly in a hoarse voice: "Every classroom is losing chalk recently..."

Owen sweated and kept smiling.

"The corridor on the right side of the fourth floor, that place where no one is allowed to enter, always hears strange roars." At this point, Filch looked malicious, and then muttered in an undetectable voice, "They It must have brought some kind of monster in. It would be better if it could take away a few bastards who violated the rules..."

Owen's mouth twitched. In fact, the Philosopher's Stone is quite interesting, but it's impossible to get it, so forget it.

"Also, there have been several times more students wandering around in the middle of the night in the past two days, and they are all Hufflepuffs." Filch's upper lip turned up and he gritted his teeth and said, "That's all."

"Huh? Do you know why?" Owen's eyes lit up. Hufflepuff students have always been the most well-behaved students at Hogwarts, and if they are allowed to do things even if they violate school rules, that must be extraordinary.

"I don't know, I caught a few, but they didn't say anything and I wasn't interested either," Filch said. All he was interested in was his Squib crash course in spells, punishing unruly students, and finding a way to get the school to pass his long-advocated reinstatement of corporal punishment for students.

"Okay, thank you." Owen nodded politely to him, then turned and walked away, "I can find you the saltgrass seeds this Sunday. Goodbye, sir."

He walked away with a thoughtful look on his face, Filch behind him and the cat in his arms staring closely at his back.

"Hufflepuff students go out in the middle of the night?" Owen thought, "It's a pity that I don't have any friendship with the Hufflepuff people. How about going out in the middle of the night to have a look? Well, I'm just not sure yet..."

At this time, a burst of snickering interrupted his thoughts. A broad, evil-smiling face suddenly appeared from behind the wall, with a wide grin and evil black eyes fixed on Owen: "Hehehehe, the clever Peeves won the game, and he was waiting for the little devil to cry. Runny nose..."

"Peeves, you appear in front of me now? You lost." Owen looked at him with regret, his expression extremely disappointed.

Peeves was stunned for a moment, screamed and kicked over the stone statue on one side, shouting: "Peeves can't lose! The kid couldn't find him for the first week!"

"It's just a week. As a spirit that has existed for a long time, don't you have more patience than a human like me?" Owen looked at him seriously, "Or do you think you should let me, a weak and pitiful little wizard, go to you? A ghost that can turn invisible and walk through walls, is this a fair game?”

"That's what the kid told Peeves!" Peeves jumped up and down, pouting, pulling off a painting from the wall and aiming at Owen's head.

"You didn't think seriously about the meaning of this test, and you didn't realize that this is essentially a game that tests your patience!" Owen looked at him sadly, "I will only pass on such a precious secret to a being who has both wisdom and courage. , It's a pity, I thought you were the most suitable..."

"Peeves is the perfect one! No one in the castle is smarter or braver than him!" The painting in Peeves' hand fell to the ground with a clatter, and he covered his head and started rolling in the air.

"Peeves is willing to play another game with you. Peeves has never lost!"

"There's only one test, I'm sorry." Owen shook his head.

The truth is, I don’t know that so-called curse either. Owen added in his mind.

After finishing speaking, Owen went past the naughty Peeves and continued to explore the castle.