Harry Potter: Reunion with the Enemy

Hogwarts. Eighth floor corridor.

Hermione and Draco stopped in front of the stone monster.

"The headmaster's office is in front. I think I can only take you here. Principal McGonagall said she will wait for you inside." Hermione stopped and pointed at the stone monster. "The latest password for the headmaster's office is to fly close to the ground."

After hearing the command, the stone monster jumped to the side, and the wall behind it split into two. A spiral staircase meandered upwards. Draco stepped onto the stairs and looked up at the headmaster's office with a brass ring at the end of the stairs.

"There's a portrait of Salazar Slytherin in the headmaster's office at Hogwarts." Hermione looked at Draco's back and the snake wrapped around him. "Disappearing at night is definitely something Harry would do. In the lower grades, I would stand up to stop him from acting rashly, but then -"

"Becoming the think tank of the three-person group? The backbone?" It can be heard that Draco seems to want to make a joke, but at this moment his voice is very dry and hollow, without any of the arrogance when he provoked Harry before.

"He'll be fine." Hermione sighed.

"Oh, what if it's Ron who's missing now?" Draco strode up the stairs without looking back.

"Of course I don't mean that. You have to believe that Harry can..." Hermione imagined in her mind that in the relative peace after the war, Ron's hands on the magical clock in the Burrow would suddenly jump to the "life-threatening" option one day.

"If there's anything else or anything I can help with, Ron and I are always here."

Draco's tone softened, "Thank you. I shouldn't have spoken to you like that. After all, you are my friends who have been together for so many years. I haven't been able to control my emotions these past few days."

During the seven years on campus, Draco did not go through life and death with Harry. At most, only the tip of the iceberg of his adventure stories could be pieced together through delayed news reports and word of mouth on campus.

Whenever he read these contents aloud in a sarcastic tone at the long table in Slytherin, he felt a little envious. The life of the savior must be wonderful, right?

And now he could finally become a piece of the puzzle in the story of the savior, but just imagining the danger Harry might be facing at this moment, Draco felt a suffocating feeling surrounding him.

It was exciting to know that every meeting with Harry could be the last.

I knocked gently on the door of the principal's office, and Principal McGonagall's voice soon came out: "Come in."

The moment Draco stepped into the office, the eyes of the portraits hanging on the wall were focused on him. These sleepy old wizards gradually became energetic. Of course, among the row of portraits, Draco also saw Dumbledore and Snape. He greeted the two former headmasters with respect.

These portraits seemed to have been rearranged after the war. There were obvious marks of frames on the backs of some of the portraits, as if they were suddenly moved after being placed for a long time and could not be cleaned.

Dumbledore's blue eyes narrowed with a smile behind the shining half-moon lenses, and he seemed to be very pleased. Snape was writing something on the table in the portrait, with his black hair hanging down to cover half of his cheeks. When he saw Draco, he just nodded slightly without saying anything more.

"Child, you don't look very well." Dumbledore looked at Draco with eyes that seemed to see through everything.

"Sad young man, why are you here?" Phineas Nigellus Black said in a drawling tone, "You are a kid from the Malfoy family. Humph. There is no one left in our Black family now-"

"Perhaps I should ask Salazar Slytherin to help translate the snake's words." Draco looked up at the portrait. "Harry is missing. The snake may know something."

Phineas laughed shrilly, "The Big Four don't often stay in the paintings in the headmaster's office. Slytherin also has a painting in the secret passage near the front hall of the basement. He is probably still angry that no one has completed his will. He can't help but lose his temper with ugly words when he is in front of many people."

Phineas's sneering expression then turned lonely. If Sirius was still alive at this moment, he would be much older than Draco.

The portraits of the Big Four are now empty.

"Secret passage—" Draco felt the snake wriggling anxiously on his shoulder.

"I can understand, but I can't have a conversation. I regret not spending more time studying this language when I was young." Dumbledore said gently. "Perhaps Salazar himself would be more suitable for more information. I think he should be on the painting in the secret passage."

"What's wrong with Harry?" Snape, who had been silent all the time, put down the parchment and asked Draco while staring at him.

"We were on a mission, and he suddenly disappeared one night." Draco saw the former dean staring at him and questioning him. Under the gaze of the familiar black eyes, something in his heart suddenly exploded.

"Where? Did he leave anything behind? Why did he disappear? When did this snake appear?" Snape stood up from his chair and asked a series of questions one after another.

Draco's nose felt sore and his eyes turned red. "I'll go and find out now - maybe there's hope."

Tears suddenly blocked her vision, and the figure of the black-haired dean, who was the youngest in the row of picture frames, became blurred.

"Go ahead." Snape had already walked to the front of the picture frame and stretched out his hand as if to wipe away Draco's tears. "The secret passage is near the Slytherin basement. Use your wand to tap the discolored wall and then step back three steps."

How rude. Draco covered his eyes with his hands, thanked him hastily, and ran out.

Before running out of the office, Snape's voice sounded behind him, "If Salazar Slytherin is unwilling, go to the Ministry of Magic for help immediately. There are professionals there, as well as the Missing Persons Registry."

"Okay." Draco's choked voice and his tall and thin figure disappeared behind the slowly closing door.

"How touching." Dumbledore muttered to himself as he stared at the door of the headmaster's office.

Phineas said to Snape somewhat sarcastically: "It seems that all of you Slytherins are of the same ilk, huh? Beautiful green eyes. And Muggle blood in your body."

After Snape glared at him through the frame, Phineas finally chose to shut up.

"The goblins are becoming more and more rampant." Mag said with a frown.

"I'll keep an eye on it. I'll go check out the portrait on the other side." Dumbledore nodded, shook his robes and disappeared into the frame.