A night tour of Hogwarts Castle is a regular evening program for the trio of little lions. With a Marauder's Map that clearly marked everyone's names and movement paths, it wasn't actually that difficult to avoid the professor or Filch who was patrolling at night.
Even though one of them is still lying in the ward, the other two are still not slacking off. That night, Harry and Hermione set off from the Gryffindor common room again.
They first secretly went to the school hospital, and after visiting Ron and Helen who had not yet woken up, they went to the ancient magic text professor's office where Maka was.
On the way, they carefully chose a different route from Filch, and they avoided Peeves who was playing pranks at night in a timely manner. The journey was smooth.
When they both arrived at the door of the office, Maka, who had buried herself behind a large pile of documents, suddenly raised her head and waved towards the door, opening it before Harry raised his hand to knock on the door.
"oh-"
Harry, who wanted to knock on the door gently, let out a small breath and subconsciously looked into the office, but did not find Maka's whereabouts at the first moment.
"I knew it was you..." Maka's voice sounded from behind the mountains of books and materials on the desk, "Come in quickly!"
This office is still a typical "Maka style". At first glance, except for the books, there are only parchments, some tied into bundles, and some just piled in a pile. Apart from the increase in number, there hasn't been much change here since the beginning.
However, there is still a path for people to walk in the space from the door to the desk. Otherwise, if you don't have the skills, you won't be able to get to Maka properly.
"...Um, is it okay to light the fireplace?"
Walking through the path between the mountain of books and the sea of paper, Harry saw a burning fireplace on one side, and the flames inside were almost licking the pile of parchment placed beside the fireplace.
"No problem," Maka said casually, "Of course I have taken good fire prevention measures - come here! Go to the desk and turn right!"
Harry and Hermione walked around inside, and finally after passing a back chair, they saw Maka sitting on an office chair, holding a thick notebook in her hand.
"Huh?" It felt like they weren't moving. Maka turned her head and looked at it, then said, "Ah, I'm sorry-"
He picked up the staff leaning on the edge of the table and nodded at the two piles of parchment next to him. In just an instant, the two piles of paper immediately twisted and transformed into two upholstered chairs.
"I don't think you need the back of the chair -" he smiled, "you can lean against the stack of books in the back... Well, you look very cold, would you like a cup of hot cocoa?"
"No, no need..." Hermione, who had just sat down with Harry, immediately declined, "It seems you are still very busy, we won't delay you for too long."
"It doesn't matter. I don't think I have much free time, so it doesn't matter!"
Maka raised and waved her staff in the direction of the distant fireplace, and the tea kettle standing next to the fire suddenly jumped up and floated in front of him together with two ordinary cups.
After pouring the coffee-colored liquid in the pot into the cups, the tea kettle flew back to the iron stand in front of the fireplace.
"Tell me! What's the matter with coming to my place so late?" Maka asked softly while letting the two steaming cups float in front of Harry and Hermione, "There's nothing in the corridors of the castle. Light the fireplace, it’s quite cold walking outside.”
"It's because of Professor McGonagall..."
Hermione picked up the cup of hot cocoa in front of her and took a small sip. Suddenly, a warmth spread in her mouth along with the mellow fragrance, and went straight down her throat to her belly.
"Oh - it tastes really good! Well, I was just saying... Professor McGonagall wouldn't let us visit Ron, so we had to go at night."
"Maka, what did you put in the hot cocoa? Why is it different from what I've had before?" Harry asked curiously.
"Are you sure you want to know?" Maka looked at him and smiled, which made Harry's back goosebumps. "Have you been there? I mean the ward of the school hospital."
"Yes," Hermione replied in her mouth while looking at the hot drink in the cup, "I really hope Ron and Helen can get better soon..."
"Maka, I have another question to ask you..." Harry seemed to have quickly given up on asking for the secret formula of what was in the cup, "How is Sirius? You seem to be in a good mood, you must have been Did you find him?"
"Yes, that's right." Maka casually turned over a page of the book and said while reading, "He is still in the American magic world. This time he was injured and needs a period of rest. recover."
"Then... there's no danger, right?" Harry asked quickly.
"Of course, I have already treated him, and I will give you a healthy godfather before Christmas." Maka smiled and said, "Well, but the premise is that - he will not be impulsive and run out for a walk. That’s it.”
"I'm afraid this will be difficult..." Harry said with some worry, "Sirius never stops moving forward."
"Well..." Maka shrugged, "It was indeed like this before, but this time I really can't tell for sure."
When he said this, the two sisters immediately flashed through his mind involuntarily, and he then smiled secretly and shook his head.
Sirius and Harry's father, James Potter, are friends of the same age, but now that Harry is so old, Sirius still has both hands as companions, which is not a good thing to be praised.
"Look at Dumbledore and Grindelwald again! Could it be that as a wizard, the stronger the magic power, the easier it is..."
The more you think about this question, the greater the amount of information you will find. Maka immediately strangled this idea in his heart to prevent himself from being misfortune.
"... Maka, what are you talking about?" Seeing him muttering secretly, Hermione couldn't help but asked a little strangely.
"Huh? No, it's nothing-" Maka shook her head repeatedly, "Ahem, by the way, we will go to Hagrid's place tomorrow evening. We have to attend a rather special funeral."
"Funeral?" Harry was shocked. "Who died? Someone we all know?"
"Well... to be precise, it's not a 'person'." Maka said with some emotion, "You will know when the time comes."
"Can't you say it now?" Harry felt a little uneasy when he heard that there was another death.
"It's not that I can't say it, it's just..." Maka thought for a while and said, "I remember you haven't seen it, but it must be... you have passed by it!"
"What do you mean?" Hermione asked.
Maka looked back and forth between the two of them, and couldn't help but feel a little regretful for the confusing past events.
During the secret room incident that year, Maka placed herself in the shadows and single-handedly guided the incident. In order to be safe, to avoid risks, and to get the deviated path back on track, he skipped some unstable processes in the middle.
Therefore, the trio of lion cubs who were supposed to know Aragog have never seen him until now.
But although Maka is sorry now, she doesn't regret it. Nothing good will happen to Harry and the others just because they meet Aragog. What has passed can be left to drift away in the wind.
"Anyway," Maka raised her head and said seriously, "its name is 'Aragog', and it is an Acromantula raised by Hagrid. Some time ago, it and its children were tempted by Voldemort. , only then did a spider attack like this happen today.”
"Is it a big spider?" Hermione said in disbelief, "I thought it was dangerous enough for Hagrid to raise a fire dragon, but he actually raised a big spider? And he also gave birth to such a large number of descendants? "
"Aragog..." Maka sighed, "Actually, he's a pretty good guy."
As he spoke, he looked down at the book in his hand, and then turned the page again.
"... Maka, you have been reading this book since just now," Hermione looked over and asked, "What is it about?"
"This is an ancient language that is not very common, and it is different from today's language," Maka explained casually. "In order to strengthen the defense strength of Hogwarts, I am making some preparations."
"Is it another ancient magic text?" Hermione immediately put on a look of joy upon hearing this.
"No, it's not magic text, it's just a simple language." Maka said quietly, "Facts have proved that learning another foreign language is very important!"
"Foreign language?" Harry asked in surprise, "What does this have to do with increasing the defensive strength? Are you going to invite any foreign wizards to help us defend Hogwarts?"
"Almost!" Maka replied with a smile.
After that, the three chatted for a while. Finally, under Hermione's reminder, Harry proposed to Maka a plan to start a Defense Against the Dark Arts study group, and Maka agreed on the spot.
Therefore, the time tomorrow evening after attending the funeral from Hagrid was also booked by them.
After Maka watched Harry and Hermione leave his office, he sat back on the chair again, but once again thought about a certain chat topic just now.
"...Helen Schon." Maca chewed the name gently and speculated secretly.
Judging from the way Hermione mentioned this girl when she was a child just now, she had quite a crush on this girl. Judging from the various behaviors and behaviors she described, she was indeed a cute little girl who knew how to measure herself.
For example, when Hermione expressed embarrassment about whether to let her join the defense study group, she immediately "sensiblely" took a step back.
From Maka's point of view, this kind of overly cautious behavior smacks of deliberateness.
"Anyway, she is still lying on the hospital bed unconscious, so let's just observe her for now!" Maka thought.