Professor McGonagall's chest heaved violently as she turned to face the students who were too stunned to say a word.
She turned paler than the ashes in the fireplace.
"Which one," said Professor McGonagall, her voice trembling, "which absent-minded idiot has written down this week's passwords and left them lying around?"
A silence fell in the common room.
After a moment, in the heavy air, a very weak, frightened voice broke the silence.
Neville Longbottom, his whole body shaking from head to slippered feet, slowly raised his hand.
"Longbottom, why did you write the password down on a piece of paper?" Professor McGonagall asked angrily, pursing her lips. "Don't you know that this will easily allow someone with bad intentions to find a loophole in the Gryffindor common room?"
"I, I know, but I can't remember..." Neville was so anxious that he was about to cry, "I have always had a bad memory... Sir Cadogan has to change several passwords a day, and I can't remember them at all."
Professor McGonagall turned her gaze back to the portrait at the door.
"Don't look at me like that, ma'am." Sir Cadogan tapped his chest with his knight's sword and saluted in a weird way. "As a knight, of course I must do my best to protect the safety of the territory! I think changing the password at any time can better protect this territory!"
"But, but why did you let in someone who is obviously not a student?" Professor McGonagall asked puzzledly.
"Ah, as a knight, principles are very important." Sir Cadogan said as a matter of course, "Since he can answer my password, it would be against the principles of being a knight not to let him in."
"Besides, how can I tell if he is a new professor?"
After listening to Sir Cadogan's argument, Professor McGonagall and the young wizards fell silent.
What he said seemed to make sense, and they couldn't refute it...
…
Soon, Dumbledore also rushed to the Gryffindor common room which was attacked.
Dracula had no habit of sleeping at night, so he soon heard the noise and flew up to join in the fun.
He sneaked into the common room through the owl window, scaring the little wizards present.
"You're here, Professor Dracula." Seeing Dracula coming, Dumbledore, who was wearing purple cotton pajamas, walked over and asked solemnly, "Have you found any trace of Sirius Black?"
Dracula cooperated and took out the title deed from his pocket. He searched the entire castle inside and out, but did not find any suspicious figures.
"Nothing." He shook his head.
Dumbledore also patrolled around the castle using the Patronus and the Tracking Charm, then shook his head.
"I've searched the area within miles of the castle, including the Black Lake and the area around the Quidditch pitch, and there's no sign of Blake," he said.
"Strange..." Dracula frowned and asked in confusion, "It shouldn't have been long since Blake left here. Since he can't use Apparition within the range of Hogwarts, he shouldn't be able to escape from our sight in such a short time."
"Yes, so I think he must have some way to block our perception." Dumbledore nodded, "In other words, he has a way to leave the range of Hogwarts in a short time."
"How about asking Professor Lupin?" Dracula asked tentatively, "He was friends with Sirius Black when he was in school. Maybe he can tell something."
Dumbledore's expression changed slightly, but before he could speak, another greasy voice came from the door of the common room.
"I'm afraid you won't be able to see him today!"
The greasy voice and greasy long hair appeared beside Dracula, and Snape walked into the Gryffindor common room unceremoniously with a disdainful smile.
The entry of the Slytherin Dean made the young wizards of Gryffindor very dissatisfied, but seeing that the principal and vice-principal had no objections, these students could only show some resentment on their faces and did not dare to express their opposition directly.
Snape looked at the indignant little wizards with a haughty look, sneered, and then said:
"Principal, I remember I told you that this new colleague is not very reliable. The wanted criminal still sneaked into the castle, and he might have almost succeeded!"
"It was my negligence to overlook the fact that Blake knew Professor Lupin's weakness." Dumbledore said, then turned to Professor McGonagall, "Minerva, please take the other professors and carefully inspect the entire castle."
Professor McGonagall nodded and left the group in a hurry.
Dracula looked at Dumbledore and Snape in confusion. He didn't quite understand what the two were talking about. Why couldn't he go to Professor Lupin to ask about the matter today? And what exactly was Professor Lupin's weakness.
Just then, he suddenly caught a glimpse of the sky outside the window.
In the night, a full moon is peeking out from a group of clouds, casting a bright moonlight.
Today is much more than just Halloween...
A full moon night.
Dracula suddenly remembered who Lupin was when he first met him.
He was a werewolf who was brought to the conference room of Dracula's Castle by several high-ranking vampires after the war with werewolves and inferi in Romania ended.
On the night of the full moon, werewolves will transform into wolves and lose their sanity. Only wolfsbane potion can allow werewolves to survive this cruel night in a rational manner.
Snape was probably the only wizard in the entire castle who could concoct wolfsbane potion. Plus, he seemed to have some grudge against Lupin back then, so it was not surprising that the Potions Professor knew Lupin's true identity.
Sirius Black also knew that tonight was a full moon night, so he took the opportunity that Lupin would definitely not be able to find him and sneaked into the Gryffindor common room.
But the question now is, after Sirius Black went to great lengths to sneak into the Gryffindor common room, why did he attack Ron Weiss instead of Harry Potter
Dracula turned his gaze to Ron.
"Wait a minute, Weiss is here."
He called out to Ron, who was still in shock and wanted to go back to the dormitory to have a good sleep.
"What's wrong, Professor?"
"I'm here, Professor!"
"What's up, Professor?"
"professor… "
Fred, George, Percy, Ron and even Ginny Weiss, five students with fiery red hair turned around at the same time and looked at Dracula.
Dracula: “…”
"I called Ronald Weiss. The other Weiss can go back." The corners of his mouth twitched a little, and he waved to the other Weiss except Ron, "Ron Weiss, stay. I have some questions for you."
Ron pointed at himself in surprise, and after getting Dracula's affirmative answer, he walked over from the stairs.
"Professor, are you looking for me?" He asked in a hoarse voice, his face still a little pale.
"Yes, Potter, come and stay with us." Dracula pointed at Harry not far away.
Ron and Harry came to Dracula together. Seeing this, Hermione quietly followed her two friends and stood in front of the fireplace.
"Wes, think carefully about what happened." Looking at the three dazed little wizards in pajamas, Dracula asked Ron, "When you woke up, did you see what Sirius Black looked like and what he was doing?"
Hearing Dracula's question, the other little wizards were no longer sleepy. They all pricked up their ears, and some sat on the sofas in the common room pretending to study, while others stood on the steps in front of the dormitory door and eavesdropped.
They all wanted to know the details of this shocking event.
Ron seemed to enjoy the feeling of being watched by others. His fearful expression faded a lot, and he said cheerfully:
"I was still asleep, and then I vaguely heard the sound of someone tearing something. I thought I was dreaming, so I ignored him. But then there was another gust of wind blowing on me, and then I woke up and saw that one side of the curtain beside the bed was torn off..."
"Then I rolled over and there he was standing in front of me... like a skeleton with a big clump of dirty hair and he had this big long knife in his hand that I must have been twelve inches long... He looked at me and I looked at him and then I started to scream and he ran away."
"Escaped?" Dracula raised his eyebrows. "He is a dangerous Death Eater. Why would he run away because of your screams?"
"Yeah, Blake walked into the wrong bed. Why didn't he kill Ron to silence him and then continue looking for me?" Harry was also very confused about this. "What Blake did twelve years ago showed that he didn't care about killing innocent people. This time there were only five unarmed little wizards in front of him, four of whom were still sleeping!"
"Yeah, he could have killed all five of us, so he wouldn't have missed Harry, right?" Ron agreed.
Dracula fell silent, thinking silently.
Harry was still racking his brains to reason.
"Blake must have known that if you shouted and woke everyone up, it would be difficult for him to leave the castle." He thought carefully for a while, then said, "To go back through the hole in the portrait, he must kill everyone in the school, and then he may meet the professors..."
"Wait, before Wes came, he said... your bed was messed up and there were several holes in the mattress?" Dracula suddenly interrupted Harry and asked.
"Yeah, is there any problem?" Ron was stunned.
"I wonder if Blake is looking for something from Wesley instead of Potter?" Dracula guessed. "Wesley, do you have anything valuable or special?"
"No... I don't think so." Ron was full of doubts. "My family never lets me bring anything valuable. I have to wait for my dad to win the jackpot before I can even change my wand."
Then, he suddenly shouted, "Oh, my Scabbers is gone. It must be scared... Oh, Hermione, keep an eye on your cat. Don't let it sneak into the men's dormitory and take away Scabbers again!"
"Ron, it's the nature of a cat to catch a mouse. You can't be so selfish as to stifle Crookshanks' freedom!" Hermione retorted unconvinced.
"You're the one who insisted on buying a cat from the pet store!" Ron shouted, "I've had Scabbers for three years, and he's only been so listless this semester since you've had him!"
"… "
Dracula subconsciously looked at the ginger mixed-blood catkin in Hermione's arms, and suddenly realized that there was something wrong with the conversation between the two just now -
"Wes, are you saying... you've had your rats for three years?" he asked, frowning.
The lifespan of mice is usually between one and three years, while pet mice mostly live for two years.
A pet mouse that lives for three years is considered quite long-lived.
"Yes, Scabbers was Percy's pet before, but when I came to Hogwarts, Percy became a prefect, and my mother bought him a new owl..." Ron's tone was a little jealous, "Then Percy gave Scabbers to me."
"Wait, you said that mouse was Percy's pet before?" Dracula frowned even more tightly.
"Yeah, I can only use my brothers' things, whether it's clothes, wands, textbooks or pets..." Ron said resentfully.
At this time, Dumbledore next to him also keenly realized the problem and came to Dracula.
"Professor Dracula, what do you mean..." Dumbledore asked softly.
"Whether I'm overreacting or not, it shouldn't be too difficult to find a mouse." Dracula shook his head slightly.
He raised his wand, nodded at Ron, and said:
"Avensegium."
A pale yellow line appeared on the ground, one end connected to Ron's body, and the other end extended to the doorway of the common room.
Ron looked at the pale yellow line in confusion, thinking that Professor Dracula, who had always been difficult to talk to, was willing to help him find his pet personally, and he had a very excited look on his face.
Little did they know that Dracula did want to find his pet, but he had no intention of returning it to him…
With a wine-red light flowing in his eyes, Dracula's gaze moved infinitely along this line, and then he saw the end of its connection -
That was the path leading to the northeast of Hogwarts Castle, and a gray mouse was trying its best to crawl quickly towards the Forbidden Forest.
It did not run away aimlessly like a normal pet mouse, but it crawled with a clear goal in mind, heading straight for the densest and most suitable hiding place in the bushes.
"interesting."
Dracula withdrew his gaze and slowly raised the corners of his mouth.
He and Dumbledore looked at each other and nodded.
Then, the two of them disappeared in the Gryffindor common room at the same time, and instantly appeared on the path where the gray mouse was moving.
…
…