Harry Potter and the Candy Factory

The night was still and quiet, with thin clouds obscuring the moon, making it appear and disappear intermittently. Outside the castle, a breeze seemed to rustle the leaves on the branches of the Whomping Willow, creating a faint, whispering sound.

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Harry and Draco sat in the aisle between the bookshelves in the restricted section, leaning back to back in the faint, warm yellow light of a lantern, each quickly reading the books in their hands.

The pages of the books flipped constantly, and as time passed, various books with different covers and sizes gradually piled up around them. In no time at all, the originally spacious aisle was completely blocked.

Finally, with a "thump," Draco forcefully closed the last book in his hand.

He then twisted his stiff neck and turned his head, looking at Harry behind him with a tired expression, and asked,

"How's it going? Did you find any clues on your end?"

However, Harry's answer was discouraging.

Harry also put down his book, sighed, and silently shook his head, his meaning self-evident.

Then, Harry raised his head, looked out the window at the dark night outside the library, rubbed his sore eyes, and couldn't help but ask,

"What time is it, Draco?"

"I don't know."

Draco supported himself on the ground, barely managing to stand up. He stretched his stiff body and completely numb legs, then pondered for a moment and estimated,

"Probably past twelve already."

After speaking, Draco reached out and pulled Harry, who was also sitting in the aisle, to his feet, and then bent down to pick up the lantern.

"We've been searching for so long, but we haven't found anything…"

Harry said as he put the books on the ground back on the nearby bookshelf. His small face was filled with undisguised frustration.

However, compared to Harry's frustration, Draco was more optimistic.

He smiled, casually placed the lantern aside, and continued to bend down to help Harry tidy up the books on the ground, while slowly comforting Harry,

"Actually, I expected this wouldn't be an easy thing to accomplish. Otherwise, with my uncle's intelligence, he wouldn't have failed to complete this spell even after graduating, right?"

Hearing Draco's words, Harry's mood did improve slightly, and the frustration on his face eased a little.

He looked at Draco, gave a slight smile, and nodded.

Then, he suddenly thought of something and suggested,

"Maybe we can ask Ron to come with us next time. Having one more person will definitely speed things up a lot!"

However, faced with Harry's suggestion, Draco couldn't help but curl his lip and continued to tidy up the books at hand, casually scoffing,

"With his brain, don't even mention improving efficiency. I'll be thanking my lucky stars if he doesn't hold me back."

They were used to their mutual teasing. He knew that other than their words, there wouldn't be any other conflicts between them. Therefore, he just smiled at Draco's words and continued,

"Ron just doesn't like to think, that's all. Honestly, from a friend's perspective, Ron is a very reliable guy."

Draco remained noncommittal and shrugged, but didn't say anything more.

The two spoke as they quickly tidied up everything around them.

Then, carrying the lantern that had already begun to flicker dimly, they walked back towards the Slytherin common room along the path they had come from.

Walking on the road, watching the lantern flicker faster and faster, Draco knew that the little kerosene he had prepared was probably used up.

Fortunately, he directly took out his wand and used "Lumos" to light the way…

After long and persistent study and exercise, Draco's magic, although not yet at the level of a qualified wizard, was already more than enough compared to a third-year student.

He could use small spells like Lumos with ease.

"Harry…"

Suddenly, Draco turned his head and glanced at Harry, who was helping him carry the extinguished lantern, and asked,

"Did you see any interesting books in the restricted section?"

"Hmm…" Harry paused for a moment, then raised his head and pondered for a moment before replying,

"I remember there was a book about a famous black wizard from the fifteenth century…"

"Anything else?"

"There was also a book about vampires, with a lot of semi-anatomical pictures, but because it was densely packed with words, I only glanced at it and put it back."

"Cool… I like vampires." Draco affirmed. He nodded and shared his gains as well,

"I found a book that would release a human face when opened, and that face would smile at me… There was also a sixteenth-century alchemy scroll called… The Human Skin Alchemy Scroll."

"Real human skin?" Harry widened his eyes, feeling a chill run down his spine, making him shrink his neck involuntarily.

"Probably… It felt weird to the touch."

Draco didn't seem to care. Perhaps it was because he often secretly touched his father's prohibited items attached to dark magic at home, so he didn't feel fear because it was called a "human skin scroll," but was instead very interested.

… … … … … … … … … … … …

Soon, the two passed through a winding, maze-like corridor and arrived at the corner leading to the staircase.

As long as they went down the stairs, they could return to the Slytherin dormitory in no time. At that time, they would still have plenty of time to rest, so as to cope with tomorrow's many courses and homework.

Harry thought so, and seemed to feel a little sleepy, and couldn't help but yawn, and his pace also became a little lighter.

However, just as the two arrived at the corner of this corridor, and only needed to turn a corner to reach the stairs, a sudden voice stopped them in their tracks.

"Alright… I understand."

The voice was deep and had a hoarse, eerie quality, and in a trance, Harry felt a bit of familiarity.

The drowsiness that had just arisen was instantly dispelled by the voice.

His raised foot then floated in mid-air, as if frozen, without any further movement.

Subconsciously, he turned his head and looked at Draco beside him.

At this moment, the wand in Draco's hand had been extinguished. The light that had enveloped the two of them quietly disappeared.

"Who is it?"

Harry carefully leaned against the wall, just like when he first encountered Filch, and then, keeping his voice as low as possible, he asked Draco.

Draco frowned slightly. He shook his head and didn't speak. Instead, he carefully took a step, bent his body, and poked half of his head out, casting his gaze towards the stairwell.

What he saw was a blurry figure.

The person appeared to be wearing a large robe and had their back to them, making it impossible to discern any other details.

They weren't carrying any lighting devices, nor were they using a Lumos charm like Draco.

It was as if they were naturally adapted to such darkness, able to see everything with just the faint moonlight filtering in from the stained-glass windows.

The person just stood there, without any movement, only occasionally muttering to themselves. Although their voice was soft, Draco could vaguely hear replies such as "Yes," and "As you wish," as if they were having some kind of conversation with someone.

However, he couldn't see anyone else. The stairwell was empty, with only that person standing there... In addition, there wasn't even a ghost.

Midnight, a dark and shrouded castle… a gloomy corridor, a figure standing there, muttering to themselves in a low, terrifying voice.

All of this combined, without the need for any additional embellishment, was practically a qualified horror scene.

Even Draco, who had just been able to joke with Harry about the book bound in human skin, couldn't help but feel goosebumps rising all over his body, causing his already furrowed brow to involuntarily scrunch up into a knot.

Harry also followed Draco's example, trying his best to bend his body and peek his head out from behind the wall, casting his gaze towards the strange figure.

He held his breath, widened his eyes, and peered carefully through the thick lenses of his glasses… for a moment, he even forgot to breathe.

Then, not long after, the figure moved.

They bent down and knelt before the empty stairwell, offering a deep bow. Then, they stood up again and walked along the stairs towards the third floor.

Only after the figure completely disappeared from their sight, accompanied by the unpleasant creaking sound of the old stairs, did Harry regain his senses, take a deep breath, and turn his head to look at Draco.

"Who is that guy?!"

The slight tremor in Harry's voice revealed the complexity and fear of his feelings.

He originally thought that accompanying Draco to the restricted section of the library was no big deal. At most, they would get caught by Filch and receive a punishment together, which wasn't a big deal.

Anyway, according to Ron, his twin brothers were sent to Filch's office almost every day for such disciplinary violations, but they were still alive and kicking, and even able to find opportunities to retaliate against Filch with pranks.

What he didn't expect was that, just as the two of them had completed their task and were about to return to the Slytherin common room, they encountered this sudden event that he couldn't have guessed even if he had racked his brains.

Who was that cloaked figure?! Was he a professor they knew? Or a student, or perhaps someone who had sneaked in from outside…

In an instant, countless guesses flooded Harry's mind, throwing him into confusion. But, no matter what, the only thing that could be confirmed was that—no matter how you looked at it, this guy was definitely not a good person… And what was he going to do at this hour?

Just as the utterly bewildered Harry couldn't help but look again at the only reliable person beside him, Draco narrowed his eyes and stared at the direction of the stairwell, lost in thought…

After a while, he finally opened his mouth to answer Harry's question.

"I don't know who he is, but…"

As he spoke, he straightened up and pulled Harry along, walking to the spot where that figure had just stood.

Facing the stairwell, if they went down, they could directly return to the Slytherin common room, have a good night's sleep, and pretend that none of this had happened. Then, the next night, they could continue to go to the library and search for their original goal, the so-called 'spell'…

But if they went up, no one would know what would happen… or rather, no one would know what they would face.

Draco's eyes were as bright as ever. Even in the absence of light, Harry still felt like he could see the confident gleam in his eyes.

He used his fingers to smooth back his hair… Although without the support of hair gel, Draco still managed to keep it styled back like an oily hairstyle as it had been during the day.

He spoke slowly and calmly, continuing:

"But I know where he's going."

As he spoke, he raised his head and looked at the stairs gradually disappearing into the darkness of the third floor, and asked:

"Harry… do you remember what's on the third floor?"

Harry's mind was very chaotic at the moment. Hearing Draco's words, he bit his lip and was about to subconsciously shake his head, but suddenly—he seemed to have thought of something, and abruptly stopped.

In an instant, he recalled what Dumbledore had said when he stood at the center of the highest platform in the Great Hall at the beginning of the semester, after looking around at all the young wizards.

【The corridor on the right side of the third floor—is forbidden… If you don't want to die a horrible death, you'd better not go there!】

"Are you saying he's going to that corridor that Headmaster Dumbledore doesn't allow us to go to?!"

He raised his head and looked at Draco in disbelief, almost shouting the words out loud.

Draco smiled and nodded, not at all surprised.

"Most likely."

The hand originally holding the wand tightened. At this moment, the stairs leading to the third floor seemed to have turned into the tongue of a monster, and the darkness had transformed into a gaping maw, capable of swallowing anything that approached…

But the more it was like this, the more obvious the smile on Draco's lips became.

"What do you say, Harry?"

He took a step forward, stood on the stairs leading to the third floor, raised his chin at Harry, and extended the hand that wasn't holding the wand.

His choice was now self-evident.

Harry looked at Draco, a hint of hesitation appearing in his eyes… But very quickly, that hint of hesitation completely dissipated, and courage rekindled in his chest. He nodded, then immediately took a step forward and firmly grasped Draco's hand.

"Let's go!!"