Everyone who stayed in the library was not in the mood to read or study at the moment, so they simply gathered together and chatted.
The speaker of Gryffindor is Percy Weasley. Compared to his brothers, Percy has a dull personality and is not very popular in Gryffindor House, which is known for its liveliness.
At the moment, he was pulling Joel to talk about the history of crucible development, from the original copper crucible to the current semi-automatic stirring crucible.
If we talk about other topics, Joel can handle it, but he really knows nothing about the crucible, and he can only pretend to deal with it twice during the whole process.
Ten minutes later, Percy finally came to his senses. He originally thought that strong men like Joel like the crucible.
He shifted the focus of his fire and aimed it at Cedric.
Unexpectedly, the hot boy at Hogwarts was not just a rumor. Cedric actually had some knowledge of the crucible, and the two of them had a great time talking to each other.
"Mr. Taylor," Beatrice found the opportunity, wiped away her tears, and moved closer to Joel, "When do you think we can leave?"
"We will be safe when Mrs. Pince gets the professors." Joel responded rather coldly.
Beatrice secretly curled her lips and was very unhappy with Joel's attitude.
Dozens of people were waiting anxiously in the library, but when the closing bell rang, Mrs. Pince had not returned yet.
Half an hour has passed since she left.
The cold wind outside the window was non-stop, blowing the candlelight in the library through the cracks in the window and swaying. The shadows of everyone on the floor sometimes lengthened and sometimes shortened, and many lower-grade students huddled in the corner, a little scared.
Suddenly, all the candles in the library were extinguished, and the vast space suddenly became dark. Only the bright moonlight from the sky outside the window poured down to provide them with illumination.
Several timid lower-grade students hugged each other for warmth. Their faces were pale and their whole bodies were trembling.
"Did the monster in the secret room come in? Woohoo..." Beatrice is really scared now. Her family loves her very much. Beatrice, who lives a prosperous life, just wants to play in Hogwarts for a few years. Then she would find a suitable partner to get married and live a worry-free life. She never imagined that death would be so close to her.
"Don't make any noise," Joel frowned impatiently. "The candles in the library are originally provided until the library closes at eight o'clock in the evening. It has nothing to do with the monster in the secret room."
"There's no way we can just wait here," Cedric lit his wand and suggested with a frown on his face. "If we continue to wait, we won't find out until Mr. Filch patrols after ten o'clock. The library is not closed."
There are very few people in the main building of the castle. The common rooms of Hufflepuff and Slytherin are on the underground floor, while Ravenclaw and Gryffindor are in the towering towers. On weekend nights, everyone likes He stayed in the common room or played on the Quidditch pitch outside the castle - a place where the library just couldn't be seen.
It's not impossible to make some noise to attract others - it's just that I don't know which one will come first, the monster in the secret room or the professor, and Joel doesn't want to expose his trump card - Animagus to everyone now. After all, the current situation is not bad. control.
"How about we go out and take a look," said Percy, who was now very supportive of Cedric. After all, he was a close friend of the Crucible. "Mrs. Pince won't be in any trouble, right?"
This sentence directly brought out the worries in everyone's hearts. Logically speaking, the professors should be in their offices at this moment, and Mrs. Pince should be able to find them easily.
Far away from the area where students from the three houses gathered, Slytherin's speaker did not raise any objections. It was obvious that no one wanted to waste time here anymore.
"In this case, Percy and Donna, you two can stay and take care of the new students," Cedric said. Donna is the prefect of Slytherin House with a beautiful appearance and voluptuous figure. "Joel and I can just go outside.
."
"No," Donna objected, "Weasley and I are older, so the two of us should go."
Although Gryffindor has always been at odds with Slytherins, Percy Weasley and Donna reached a consensus on this issue, "Yes, we are both prefects and should shoulder our responsibilities."
, no matter what, it’s not your turn to go.”
The three of them were arguing there for two minutes. Joel couldn't help but frowned and said, "Stop pushing and pushing, just me and Cedric. Although you two are prefects, when it comes to dueling,
The level is not as good as the two of us."
In one word, Percy and Donna were very embarrassed. In the previous arena match, as opponents, Percy and Donna did not show outstanding strength. Their theoretical research on magic spells was much better than actual combat.
Joel and Cedric quietly opened the library door and stepped into the corridor on the second floor.
The corridor was dark and deep, and the originally lit candles on both sides had been extinguished. The darkness in front looked like a huge nightmare beast, opening its mouth and waiting for two ignorant people to enter.
Joel and Cedric looked at each other with a tacit understanding. Neither of them lit their wands to avoid disturbing the situation. Just in case, Joel used a summoning spell to conjure a mirror and prepared to leave it at the entrance of the stairs for use.
The two men's progress slowed down. In the darkness, Joel and Cedric could even hear each other's breathing.
Suddenly Joel's foot hit the soft flesh. He stopped immediately and patted Cedric on the shoulder.
His body trembled with fright, and then at Joel's signal, he stood there and watched.
Joel knelt down and groped around. He could feel the badge on the college robe. He thought it was the student who was attacked before.
He couldn't see the student's face clearly and couldn't identify him.
Joel was worried that the basilisk would return to attack the students, so he tapped the man on the head with his wand and cast a disembodiment spell, which would last for about an hour, enough to last until the professor arrived.
Standing up again, he took Cedric and the two of them and continued walking forward.
When they came to a fork in the road, two sets of stairs connected the upper and lower floors. There were also two winding corridors, one leading to the medical wing and the other leading to Professor McGonagall's office.
"What should I do?" Cedric tried his best to lower his voice and whispered in Joel's ear.
"Go straight, let's go find Professor McGonagall." Joel responded, this is the professor's office closest to them.
Cedric nodded, he thought so too.
The two walked straight and then turned. This time it was Cedric's turn to kick something. Different from Joel's soft touch, he felt as if he had kicked something hard, and the toes on his feet hurt.
"Damn..." Cedric cursed in a low voice and imitated Joel's approach, reaching down and groping. The more he groped, the more he felt something was wrong.
"What's wrong?"
"It's Mrs. Pince," Cedric said, his voice trembling. "I touched the feather duster."
"Is she still alive?"
"I, I can't feel my breath," Cedric said with a cry, "Blood, it's all blood..."
He removed his palm from Mrs. Pince's lower back, and it was covered in sticky blood, but he couldn't see the wound at all in the darkness.
"Don't panic," Joel bit his lip, trying to suppress the panic in his heart, "Let's go find the professor quickly, otherwise the consequences will be more serious soon."
Cedric took two deep breaths and stood up shakily.
Two minutes later, they came to the last fork in the road, turned around and walked straight for twenty meters until they could see Professor McGonagall's office.
Suddenly, Joel vaguely felt a vibration coming from the soles of his feet, as if something was crawling there, rustling, and the sound of scales scratching on the floor made Joel feel scared.
It's a basilisk! It's climbing up the stairs.
Joel's heart almost stopped beating. Cedric was still immersed in witnessing the misery of Mrs. Pince and couldn't extricate himself. He didn't hear the sound of the basilisk moving. Upon seeing this, Joel quickly pulled Cedric and ran towards the end of the corridor.
.
"What's wrong?" Joel's sudden action startled Cedric, and he didn't bother to lower his voice.
"It's too late to explain!" Joel replied, "Follow me!"
He ran towards the end of the corridor and opened the mirror in his pocket.
Never run into a basilisk, never run into a basilisk...Joel prayed silently in his heart.
He looked at the office door that was just around the corner, stepped forward and slapped it hard, "Professor McGonagall, Professor McGonagall..."
Cedric clenched his wand with trembling hands and turned to stare at the stairs.
In the silent night, in addition to the heavy breathing of him and Joel, Cedric could also hear the sound of the wooden handrails of the stairs creaking due to stress. Something was crawling quickly. It obviously heard Joel's hammering.
There was a sound at the door, and I wanted to climb up to find out.
Joel was almost dying of anxiety. He didn't hear any sound coming from the office. Professor McGonagall was not inside. At this time, it was a dead end with walls on three sides. The only exit was the staircase that the basilisk was about to climb.
The basilisk was getting closer and closer, and Joel could smell the disgusting damp and putrid smell emitted by living underground all year round.
"What to do, what to do?" Cedric was also panicking.
"Don't worry, don't worry..." Joel said this, but his trembling voice had revealed his nervousness.
The Illusion Charm doesn't work, and facing the basilisk's eyes is a dead end. Using the Hammer of Penance to fight the basilisk in close combat? That's even more unrealistic.
He now has one last way, to change into Animagus form, transform into a raven, use high mobility to avoid the basilisk's pursuit, and take the opportunity to escape from the stairs.
But this is undoubtedly abandoning Cedric. The ferocious basilisk may do something. If Cedric is killed, Joel will definitely have uneasy conscience.
With a swipe from his arms, he took out the Hammer of Penance from the system.
Cedric was on guard against the "monster" in the secret room, but he didn't expect to hear Joel banging on the door and was dumbfounded.
"Is Li in Gansen?" In desperation, he couldn't even speak clearly.
"Smash the door!" Joel swung the hammer hard. His arm muscles were bulging and the lines were smooth, but it didn't look exaggerated. Mainly due to Joel's daily exercise in the past two years, his strength has become much stronger.
Next, he smashed a hole in Professor McGonagall's magic resistance door.
Joel reached in, flipped the lock, opened the door, pulled Cedric and quickly got in.
Joel has been to Professor McGonagall's office many times. At this time, it was empty. The surrounding bookshelves were filled with books, and the desk was piled with papers submitted by students.
Joel turned his attention to the floor-to-ceiling windows of the office.
"Follow me!" Joel shouted at Cedric. The basilisk had already climbed up to the second floor and was rushing towards McGonagall's office. There seemed to be not much time left for them.
Cedric didn't have time to think too much, his body's instinct told him to listen to Joel's words and follow him towards the window.
Joel picked up a hammer and smashed the window glass to pieces, then jumped from the second floor.
The landing point was a lawn. Joel added a floating spell to himself in the air, but when he fell from a height of five meters, time passed quickly and did not offset much of the impact. When he landed, he was a little hasty and did not adjust the angle properly. Joel felt
There was a heartbreaking pain in my right ankle.
Not only that, the broken glass also scratched blood marks on Joel's body, making him look miserable.
Cedric's body was fine, but his face was a little pale.
"Don't stop, run!" Joel was not sure whether the basilisk would continue to pursue it frantically.
The location where they landed was very close to the entrance to the Forbidden Forest, and Joel planned to find Hagrid. At least this hybrid giant felt safe in his size.
Fortunately, the lights in Hagrid's cabin were still on. Joel and Cedric ran for a while and found that the basilisk was not chasing them. The crisis was temporarily resolved, and Joel finally felt a little relieved.
As soon as he ran to the door of Hagrid's hut, a yellow-black figure rushed towards Joel as fast as lightning.
Cedric was startled, and if Joel hadn't stopped him, he would have hit him with a stun spell.
It was a tiger with heterochromatic eyes. It was blinking at Joel with two eyes that were still bright in the dark night. After throwing him to the ground, he used his tongue to massage Joel's face one after another.
"Don't..." The barbs on the tiger's tongue were not for nothing. Although it tried its best to control its power, Joel still felt pain and itching on his cheek, and he quickly pushed the tiger away.
Hagrid suddenly opened the door of the hunting lodge. He was holding the hound Fang in one hand and a pink umbrella in the other. He also carried a stone bow and quiver behind his back.
"Children, what happened to the castle?" The sturdy hybrid giant asked quickly when he saw the scarred Joel. He selectively ignored the tiger and the hammer in Joel's hand.
"There is a monster in the castle, a student was petrified, and Mrs. Pince was seriously injured..." Joel stood up from the lawn, and the tiger beside him actually stood upright and started licking Joel's hair, which caught Cedric's eye.
There was a convulsion.
"You two go into the house and rest quickly," Hagrid said, his face serious as water after listening to Joel's words, "I'm going to the castle to have a look, strange... where are the professors?"
After that, Hagrid staggered towards the castle carrying the pink umbrella.