Several people appeared in a remote corridor on the seventh floor of the castle, and came to check the location of the secret passage that Fred mentioned last time.
"The entrance is right here."
The four of them stopped in front of a portrait of a middle-aged wizard. After Albert checked the map to make sure there was no one around, Fred immediately stepped forward and gave the portrait a command: "Sneak."
The wizard in the portrait raised his thumb to his lips, made a hushing gesture to the few people, and then rotated the frame to reveal a secret passage hidden inside.
The entrance is very secret, hidden behind a portrait of Edgar Straughe, and requires a special password to open the secret passage, which fully meets Albert's requirements.
"That's more like what we're doing now," Lee Jordan joked.
"You're the only one who talks too much."
The three of them looked at Albert, waiting for his further action.
Albert put a heavy book from his backpack on the ground, took out his wand from his pocket, and tapped the front of the book three times.
The book suddenly opened, and a door slowly rose in front of everyone, just embedded in the passage, as if there was really a secret room here.
"How cool! When did you make this thing?" Lee Jordan reached out and knocked on the door in front of him. No one could guess that it was a book.
"This is just a test piece, similar to a wizard's tent." Albert said simply, "I call this thing a fairy tale house."
Several people pushed the door open impatiently, and what came into view was... darkness.
"Close your eyes. I'm going to light the lights." After Albert reminded, he raised his wand and released several balls of light. The whole room lit up instantly. The space inside the door was much larger than the classroom.
"The Traceless Extension Charm always brings us unexpected surprises." George said with emotion. When they were at home, they also used the Traceless Extension Charm to expand the space for the development of joke props.
"It's just empty," Fred said, looking around. "We need to move some stuff in there."
"It's been prepared a long time ago. Everything is here."
Lee Jordan smiled and put down the box in his hand, which contained the items they had transferred from the Room of Requirement a while ago.
"when?"
"During your Quidditch practice."
Albert took out his pocket watch, glanced at the time, turned to George and said, "Please wait outside for the others, in case they don't know how to get in."
"No problem, leave it to me!" George took the map handed over by Albert and asked doubtfully, "Why don't you make the map more detailed?"
"It's good enough to be usable. If we want to make it like a marauder's map, it will take a lot of time." Albert motioned for Fred and Lee Jordan to come over and help set up the scene.
The room was soon filled with a large number of cushions, a blackboard and many armchairs, plus several magic puppets for the students to practice magic.
"I think everyone will be surprised." Fred arranged the armchairs in an arc around the blackboard.
"This place is really nice. George said this is your secret base?"
After Shanna walked into the room, she immediately looked around and complained to Albert, "You should have told me earlier. I was worried that I wouldn't be able to find a suitable place for the party."
"After all, this is our secret base." Lee Jordan said with a smile, "We didn't want anyone else to know about this place at first, but later we decided to use it as a gathering place."
"I didn't expect there would be a place like this in school." Angelina sighed softly.
"There are many secrets hidden in Hogwarts School. As long as you dig, you will always find some unexpected surprises." Fred blinked and said, "This secret room actually has other secrets."
"What secret?" Angelina was also curious.
"This secret room will only appear at certain times."
“It’s a lie.”
"You will know later."
"A specific time?"
"What kind of magic are you going to teach us today?" Alia walked to the magic puppet, fiddling with the fake magic wand in the puppet's hand, and turned to ask Albert who was setting up the scene, "By the way, where did you get this thing?"
"These are teaching tools of a Defense Against the Dark Arts professor." Albert paused and continued, "After the professor left, his things were thrown into the storage room of Hogwarts. When we first found the storage room, we discovered these magic dolls, which can be used to practice magic."
"Storage room? Do you mean the dungeon?" The girls were all surprised. They had never heard of such a place in Hogwarts Castle.
"no."
"Actually, I think it's more appropriate to call it a garbage dump. Most of the things that Hogwarts doesn't need are thrown there," said Lee Jordan. "There are mountains of things there, and a lot of them are unusable."
"Actually, I'm more curious about what that is?"
After Cedric greeted Albert, he looked up at the glowing object hanging in the air. There were several similar things in the room, providing sufficient light for the entire room.
"A magic prop that can be used to provide lighting. You can call it a magic lamp." Albert introduced.
Cedric seemed to have guessed something. He looked at Albert in shock and said admiringly, "I think this is a great invention."
George closed the door of the room at the back and said to Albert, "Everyone is almost here, we can start."
Albert counted the number of students and found that there were about a dozen students. In addition to the fifth-year students from Gryffindor, there were also some fifth-year students from Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff, but their number was very small and most of them were acquaintances that Albert knew.
"Okay, take your seats!" Albert motioned for everyone to sit down.
"Aren't you going to teach us magic?" A Hufflepuff boy next to Cedric found that Albert seemed to be planning to give them a lecture, and couldn't help but ask.
"Alger, we come here to gather more so that we can get better grades in the Defense Against the Dark Arts exam." Cedric gave his friend a look, signaling him not to interrupt and waste other people's precious time.
"What I'm going to talk about tonight is the key points of the exam." Albert looked around at everyone and suddenly had the illusion that he had become a professor. He continued, "Of course, Professor Lupin may talk about what he thinks is the key points in class, but this does not affect you to listen to me first, just as a way to strengthen your memory."
"Why not just practice?" a Ravenclaw girl raised her hand and asked.
"The Defense Against the Dark Arts exam involves not only practicals, but also written tests. Okay, stop interrupting me, we'd better hurry up." Albert ignored her and continued, "According to the test papers I collected, the content of the Ordinary Wizarding Level exams of previous generations has basically not changed much..."
Albert shared with everyone his understanding of the Ordinary Wizarding Level Examination and the content that he thought would be tested after reading the examination paper.
The so-called exam key points were not boring at all. After Albert finished his lecture, he would always bring out the corresponding test questions. Everyone could not help but put aside their distractions and concentrate on listening to him explain the key points.
"… The five characteristics of a werewolf. Every Defense Against the Dark Arts written exam in history will test students' understanding of werewolves. I think the reason for this question is that the Ministry of Magic is not sure whether werewolves are lurking around us. They hope that we can distinguish and stay away from these dangerous dark creatures."
"I'm curious, where did you get the test questions from?" the Ravenclaw girl asked again.
"As long as you are willing to spend Galleons, it is not difficult to get the OWLs test papers of recent years." Albert took out three pieces of parchment from his backpack and said to everyone, "Okay, today's party is over. I guess most of you don't know how to write these things down, so I have sorted them out for you. The content is on the parchment. You can pass it around when you go back!"
As he spoke, Albert handed the parchment to Cedric from Hufflepuff and Katrina from Ravenclaw.
“Why only questions?”
"All the content I just talked about is in the book 'Dark Power: Self-Defense Guide'. You can just draw it out and memorize it." Albert said calmly, "In fact, the scope of the OWLs exam is 'Dark Power: Self-Defense Guide'. So far, there has not been a single question that exceeds the scope of this book, so you don't have to worry about the exam being too difficult. As long as you review in the right direction, you can definitely get a high score in the Defense Against the Dark Arts exam."
"Next time we get together, we will practice defensive spells and spell removal to ensure that everyone can pass the practical test. Before that, I suggest that you remember everything I said today. Anyway, you should start reviewing!" Albert said, "I will let someone notify you of the time for the next gathering."
"Albert, are you teaching other classes?" Shanna asked expectantly.
"There's only the Defense Against the Dark Arts class. Okay, everyone, leave the room in an orderly manner. Lee Jordan, you arrange for them to leave in an orderly manner." Albert said to Lee Jordan.
"That's very detailed, very good." Katrina deliberately stayed behind to talk to Albert, "Have you ever considered becoming a professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts at school in the future?"
"I haven't thought about it. This course is very weird. I never thought I could resist the curse." Albert rejected it straightforwardly.
"If we charge them for intensive tutoring, I think many students would be willing to pay for it." Katrina knew the value of the parchment in her hand. She spent so much time looking through the test paper, but Albert easily summarized the key points of the test.
"Forget it. I never do anything that is thankless." Albert shook his head. "Besides, I am not short of money now."
"It's really strange to hear you say that." Katrina rolled up the parchment and put it in her pocket. She smiled at the crowd that was gradually leaving and said, "I think many people must regret not coming today."
"At least, the Slytherins won't be coming."
After everyone left, Albert raised his wand and extinguished the light above his head. After closing the door, he turned it back into a book and stuffed it back into his backpack.
In the corridor outside, everyone was still waiting to say goodbye to Albert.
"The next party better be quick, I can't wait." Cedric asked with a smile, "By the way, you don't mind if I bring more people next time, do you?"
"I don't mind, as long as you don't come to cause trouble," said Albert.
"Goodbye, Mr. Albert."
No one knew who spoke first, but everyone started to make a fuss, saying goodbye to Albert in a slightly teasing tone and giving him the title of teacher.
"Teacher Albert?" Fred teased.
"I'm not old at all," said Albert.
"But you are one year older than us," George reminded maliciously, "so you are indeed older than us."
"You will soon be envious, why aren't you one year older than me?" Albert said mysteriously.
"Oh, come on, stop keeping me in suspense!" Lee Jordan put his arm around Albert's neck and said, "Have you predicted something again? Tell me the truth."
"Hehe, you will know next semester, just wait and see!"