When the clock struck eleven in the evening, the few torches that were still lit on the walls on both sides of the castle corridor began to gradually go out, and the corridor of silence fell into darkness again.
Suddenly, a faint sound came from somewhere, as if someone was talking in the corridor.
No, it should be said that there were indeed people talking in the corridor.
A ball of pale light suddenly appeared in the darkness, causing dissatisfaction and accusations from the wizards in the surrounding portraits who were preparing to go to sleep.
"It seems to be very lively tonight." Isobel stopped and listened to the whispers coming from afar. She turned her head and said to her boyfriend, "It's okay to date another day."
"It doesn't matter. With this thing, we won't run into other professors." Albert shook the Marauder's Map in his hand. On a night date, one must bring important things with him. Otherwise, it would be such a disappointment to be disturbed by others.
"That map has a high level of magic content," Isobel said as she continued to move forward. "It uses very sophisticated tracking spells, human trace spells, and camouflage spells."
"I know." Albert asked back, "By the way, can you make one yourself?"
"You can't do it yourself?" Isobel was a little surprised. In her eyes, Albert was no different from being omnipotent.
There's nothing you can do. This guy basically knows everything and he knows everything.
"My tracking spell is not very good, and I don't know the human trace spell." Albert shrugged. He was surprised to find that Isobel knew him so well. Sometimes it seemed a little unbelievable to think about it.
However, natural mind-controllers are truly amazing!
"A lot of pressure has accumulated recently." Albert reached out and took Isobel's hand, leading her to continue walking forward.
"Why do you say that?" Isobel asked back. She had indeed accumulated a lot of pressure from using the time-turner frequently, and as the O.W.Ls exams approached, the pressure was getting greater and greater.
"It's just a vague feeling, and you care too much about grades." Albert changed the subject casually, "Let's go to the Ravenclaw common room to chat. I haven't been to the common rooms of other colleges yet?"
"You've been there last time. It's better not to go at this time. Some Ravenclaw students are still reviewing their lessons." Isobel suggested, "How about we go to the Gryffindor common room? I'm also curious about what your common room looks like."
"Percy Weasley is probably still reviewing his lessons." Albert said without hesitation.
"Are you trying to say that I'm not studying hard enough?" Isobel curled her lips and pulled Albert directly to the Ravenclaw common room.
On the way to the Ravenclaw common room, they encountered many students who were returning to their respective common rooms, including students from all four houses, and Filch's curses could be heard in the distance.
"Did the game-keeper really raise a dragon?" Isobel asked her boyfriend curiously after everyone else had gone far away.
"Yeah, it's true. I secretly raised a Norwegian Ridgeback."
Because the dragon would be sent away tonight, Albert did not hide it.
"So, the rumors that were circulating a while ago are also true?" Isobel suddenly realized and looked at Albert with a strange expression. "The Ministry of Magic didn't find the dragon during the surprise inspection. Is it because you hid it?"
"Well, congratulations, you got it right. You really are worthy of being my girlfriend. Here, here's your reward." Albert reached out and lifted Isobel's waist and kissed her cheek.
"In fact, I even suspect that this matter has something to do with you from beginning to end." Isobel felt that her boyfriend was always mysterious and knew a lot of things.
"If he helped hide the dragon, then this incident is most likely directly related to him."
"You can think of it as me helping Hagrid get the dragon eggs, helping him fulfill his wish to raise a dragon, helping him hide the dragon to avoid surprise inspections by the Ministry of Magic, and finally helping him send the little dragon away." Albert admitted it very straightforwardly.
“It’s hard to imagine you doing that.”
"According to my prophecy, Hagrid is destined to get the dragon egg." Albert sighed helplessly, "Raising a dragon is Hagrid's dream and his obsession. Even I can't stop him from raising a dragon, so I helped him. After all, we are friends."
Of course, there are some things Albert didn't say. He used the dragon egg incident to get himself a lot of tasks and rewards, which is the most important thing. If he couldn't get any experience out of it, Albert would basically not intervene and let it go.
"I understand what you mean." Isobel nodded. She also had her own persistence at the beginning. In order to kill Rowena Smith, Isobel also paid a lot. In the end, it was impossible for her to let go easily, and she would not give up, even if it would make some irrational decisions.
As they were talking, the two had already arrived at the entrance of the Ravenclaw common room.
"You come or I come."
"You should come, since I am just an invited guest." Albert smiled and made a gesture of invitation, then put his head close to Isobel's ear and asked softly, "How does it feel to secretly bring your boyfriend into the common room of your own college?"
"What does it feel like?" Isobel repeated, "Nothing. You can get in by yourself anyway."
"How about taking me to visit your dormitory?" Albert suggested with a smile.
"Are you sure?" Isobel's expression became strange and reminded. "Do you know that there is an old-fashioned rule in Hogwarts?"
"I know. It's said in 'Hogwarts, A History' that the founders of the school believed that boys were not as reliable as girls. So, they enchanted the stairs of the girls' dormitory, but the Big Four didn't think of it at all. We can enter the girls' dormitory without taking the stairs." Albert winked mischievously and reminded, "I have a flying broom here!"
"Okay, you win." Isobel said dejectedly, "You'd better not go to the girls' dormitory. The noise you make will disturb the girls who haven't fallen asleep yet. If the other girls find out that you are going to sneak into the girls' dormitory late at night... You don't want to know the result!"
"I thought the girls would warmly treat me to afternoon tea!" Albert joked with a smile.
"If you hadn't come at night, it might have been possible."
"Good evening, Ms. Grey." Albert greeted the Ravenclaw ghost with a smile, not at all embarrassed about being discovered on a date.
"Good evening. If I were you, I wouldn't run around at night." Ms. Grey looked up and down at the two talented wizards from Hogwarts in front of her, "Although many people think that dating after curfew is a romantic thing."
With that, Ms. Grey floated away.
"It seems that you are very familiar with this lady."
Isobel began to introduce Ravenclaw House to Albert. She still insisted that if Albert had come to Ravenclaw, he would not be as adventurous as he is now.
Albert just smiled and said nothing.
During the conversation, the two talked about some trivial matters at home and introduced their families to each other.
Isobel also learned from Albert why he would become Wildsmith's heir.
"A squib?"
Isobel nodded imperceptibly and said, "At the beginning, I guessed that you might be the descendant of a wizard or a Squib. However, I didn't expect that you were actually a direct descendant of Smith."
"That doesn't matter anymore."
Albert downplayed the incident.
Yes, it doesn’t matter anymore!
"However, your sister might be in a bit of trouble!" Isobel suddenly said, "She now has admiration and attachment to you. To her, you are a very special person who belongs to her alone. In her mind, I am probably just a bad woman who took her brother away. There is no way she would like me!"
"Don't think too much. When Nia grows up and becomes more sensible, she won't be like that anymore." Albert found that Isobel might be right, but he felt that time could help solve all of this. People will change, let alone a young girl.
"Let's go to the observatory. If you're lucky, you might be able to see a Norwegian Ridgeback." Albert suggested with a smile, "You should also be curious about what the little dragon looks like!"
After Isobel agreed, the two left the Ravenclaw common room and headed towards the observatory. On the way, they met Filch, the administrator who was patrolling near the astronomy tower.
After Filch disappeared at the end of the corridor, Albert whispered to Isobel, "Perhaps you have also noticed that Filch is a Squib. As long as the Disillusionment Charm is not too bad, it can be easily deceived by him."
"You know a lot." Isobel looked at Albert deeply.
"If you look closely, it's not difficult to find out his identity. Filch never used magic from beginning to end, not even once, and it's impossible for a Muggle to serve as an administrator at Hogwarts, so he can only be a Squib."
Isobel looked at Filch's departing back and shook her head imperceptibly.
They came to the corridor on the lower floor of the Astronomy Tower and found Malfoy sneaking around. They didn't know how he managed to avoid Filch who was patrolling everywhere.
"Malfoy will definitely be caught, have points taken off him, and be put in detention," Albert said to Isobel as he began to walk up the spiral staircase.
"I heard that you seemed to have made a prophecy for Mr. Malfoy." Isobel asked with interest.
"Well, a prophecy was indeed made, and that prophecy is now beginning to come true." As they spoke, the two walked up the steep spiral staircase and opened the wooden door on the top floor of the astronomy tower.
"How are they going to get into Hogwarts?" Isobel looked at the cloudy night sky and suddenly turned her head to ask Albert, "I remember that "Hogwarts: A History" mentioned that because the school is protected by ancient magic, outsiders cannot directly fly into the school."
"Then how do you think they got in?" Albert's lips curled up into a faint smile and he looked up at a certain direction of the school. The light was still on in the window of the principal's office.
"You mean, the principal let them in?" Isobel immediately realized what was going on. "Does the principal know about this?"
"Congratulations, you got it right!" Albert said happily. "In fact, I wrote a letter to the headmaster and briefly explained to him the situation on Hagrid's side. Since the headmaster is not prepared to get involved, it means that he actually acquiesces to what Potter and the others are doing."
"Are you trying to say that all this was actually within your expectations?" Isobel said with a slightly raised eyebrow.
"You could say that."
"I like your confidence." Isobel kissed Albert's cheek and reminded him, "But you should know that not everything can go as you expect."
She didn't want Albert to get too carried away, because that would lead to his failure sooner or later.
"To be honest, finding you as my girlfriend was beyond my expectations." Albert put his head close to Isobel's ear and whispered softly, "I really didn't think that there would be such an outstanding girl like you in Hogwarts."
"So, you started looking for a girlfriend when you were in the first grade?" Isobel covered her mouth and chuckled, but she still liked what Albert said.
"As for our classmates, I don't have any feelings for them. Your sister is actually very pretty, but her personality might not match mine. Sana from Gryffindor has an okay personality, and she is also born a Muggle, so she gets along well with me." Albert secretly observed the changes in Isobel's facial expressions and said, "I think Sana might like me a little."
"What are you looking at me for?" Isobel couldn't help but burst out laughing.
"See if you are jealous?" Albert said seriously.
"Jealous? Why should I be jealous? What is there to be jealous of? Those girls you mentioned are just poor losers." Isobel said with pity.
This made so much sense that Albert didn't know what to say.
He suddenly understood why Fred, George and Lee Jordan were usually left speechless by his words.
Just as the two were talking, footsteps were heard outside the spiral staircase.
It was Potter and Hermione.
They were whispering about Malfoy being caught and put in detention.
Just as the two were about to open the wooden door and enter the top floor, Albert suddenly felt someone holding his cheeks and blocking his mouth.
Then, the door was opened, but no one else was seen entering the observatory.
Albert didn't quite understand why Isobel did this.
Suddenly, the sound of a box falling to the ground was heard in the observatory.
The two separated immediately and looked in the direction where the sound came from.
"Who's there?"
The scene was suddenly filled with a strange atmosphere.
At this moment, Harry, who was hiding under the invisibility cloak, was a little panicked. They never thought that there would be other people in the observatory.
"Potter, the invisibility cloak is great. I can't even tell where you are hiding?" Albert lit his wand, looked at the location of the door with the help of the light from the tip of the wand, and spoke first to break the silence.
"Why are you here?" Harry came out of the invisibility cloak and asked Albert.
"Sorry to interrupt your date!" Hermione was not as stupid as Harry. When they came in just now, she saw them kissing.
The students in the school all knew that Albert had a girlfriend, but no one had ever seen them dating.
Unexpectedly, they would meet here.
"Isobel is interested in Xiaolong, so I brought her here to try her luck. Besides, don't you think this is a good place for a date?" Albert winked at Harry and reminded him, "Potter, when you have a girlfriend in the future, you can bring her here for a date."
Harry was a little embarrassed and even forgot that Malfoy had been deducted points and given detention.
"Is this the dragon?" Isobel looked at the little dragon in the crate with interest. This was the first time she saw what a living dragon looked like.
"This guy's teeth are poisonous." Albert took out a pair of dragon leather gloves from the deformed lizard skin bag and handed them to Isobel, reminding her: "If you want to touch it, remember to wear gloves. I don't want you to go to the school hospital because of this."
Seeing Albert taking gloves out of his pocket, Hermione's expression suddenly became complicated.
"It's so aggressive!" Isobel was bitten while petting the dragon.
Norbert was moving violently in the box.
"Norwegian Ridgebacks are quite aggressive!" Albert drew out his magic wand, and after the spell hit the little dragon, it stopped struggling.
"What did you do?" Hermione asked puzzled.
"Stunning spell, you probably don't want to be in trouble with Filch, do you?" Albert explained casually, and then changed the subject. "By the way, what were you talking about just now? You seemed very happy."
"When we came here, we saw Malfoy being caught by Professor McGonagall." Hermione said excitedly, "It was that guy who almost caused Hagrid to be expelled from school. He finally got his comeuppance."
"I really want to know what Snape's expression will be when he sees Professor McGonagall bring Malfoy to see him." Harry's face was also full of gloating.
"Well, it's really interesting. I want to know too." Albert turned his head to look at Isobel who was rubbing her fingers: "Are you okay?"
"It's still very small!" Isobel said with emotion, "It should be less than a month old. Dragons are really very dangerous creatures."
While they were chatting, several black spots appeared on the horizon. They should be Hagrid's friends. They soon landed on the observatory.
"What's wrong with it? It looks listless?" A wizard asked with a raised eyebrow as he checked the little dragon in the crate.
"I used a stunning spell on it to calm it down," Albert said.
"This is not easy. Dragon skin is very resistant to magic." Several other wizards showed surprised expressions. They had also dealt with dragons before, so they naturally understood how difficult these creatures were to deal with.
"Maybe it's because this dragon is still too young and its resistance to magic is not that strong." Albert said casually, "Say hello to Charlie for me!"
"Yes, Mr. Anderson."
The four of them were very happy, and after a brief self-introduction, they began to tie the box tightly with the ropes they brought. They didn't dare to stay in Hogwarts at all, and hurriedly flew away on their brooms with the little dragon.
There was no other way. If the Ministry of Magic knew that they were illegally carrying a dragon, they would probably end up in jail.
"Then we'll go first!"
Harry and Hermione both breathed a sigh of relief, waved at the receding figures, and turned to say goodbye to Albert and Isobel.
Then they went downstairs without even bringing their invisibility cloaks.
"Why don't you remind them?" Isobel looked at Albert puzzledly.
"Let them suffer a little, then they will learn their lesson and stop running around after curfew." Albert had an expression that said, "I'm doing this for their own good," which left Isobel speechless.
She always felt that Albert simply wanted to see those two guys get into trouble. They didn't know how to Disillusion, and they would most likely be caught by Filch when they went down.
A lot of points will be deducted and the person will be put in solitary confinement.
It is not difficult to imagine what would happen if everyone woke up and found that Gryffindor's scores had dropped significantly.
"You have such a bad taste!"
Isobel looked at Albert who was checking the invisibility cloak and asked, "Is there anything wrong?"
"It's worthy of being the Deathly Hallows!"
Albert couldn't help but sigh in his heart that this invisible cloak felt strange to the touch, as if it was woven with water.
"It's very special. You can't tell what it's made of." Albert handed the invisibility cloak to Isobel and looked at the new task that appeared on the task panel: Collect the three Deathly Hallows.
After seeing this task, Albert was speechless for a moment.
However, he was quickly drawn back to his attention by Isobel.
"What are you going to do with this thing?"
"Well, I'll return it to Potter later!" Albert said without hesitation.
As they were about to leave the observatory, they heard footsteps coming from the bottom of the spiral staircase.
"Maybe Potter told others about our night outing." Isobel teased.
"Who do you think it is?" Albert looked at the newcomer and greeted him, "Good evening, Headmaster Dumbledore."
"Good evening, Mr. Anderson." Dumbledore looked at Albert and Isobel. He was not angry, nor did he blame them for being here in the middle of the night.
"The little dragon was sent away?"
"It has been sent away!" Albert handed the invisibility cloak to Dumbledore very straightforwardly: "Potter forgot to take the invisibility cloak with him. I think he must be regretting why he forgot it on the roof now!"
"Yes, they are in a little trouble." Dumbledore took the Invisibility Cloak and said gently to Albert and Isobel, "I suggest you move your date to the daytime. It is always bad to break school rules, and it is not good for your health to stay awake at night."
With that, Dumbledore left with the invisibility cloak.
"Let's go back too!" Albert said to Isobel with a smile, "Don't be surprised. After all, he is Dumbledore. He is open-minded and easy to deal with."