To prevent them from returning too late and being caught by Mr. Filch, Weilan packed up the Invisibility Cloak and the Marauder's Map that James had sent him.
“What are you going to do?”
Emerging from the circular hole behind the Fat Lady's portrait, Weilan and Ron encountered Hermione.
“Neville’s toad is lost,” Weilan explained to her. “He paid a deposit of 2 sickles and entrusted us to help him find the toad.”
Hermione was a bit worried:
“It’s too late, can’t you go tomorrow? We can’t get caught breaking school rules on the first day of school, can we?”
Weilan patted his backpack, not thinking he would be caught by Filch:
“We have those two ‘special items’! Besides, if we don’t find that toad tonight, it might run off to other places tomorrow.”
“Alright, but I’m coming with you.”
After Hermione put her backpack back in the common room, she walked with them towards the Great Hall.
There was a corridor in the Great Hall that led directly to the Potion Class classroom. According to Neville, Leffy the toad was last seen disappearing there.
Weilan activated 【Subtle Observation】, and in the recreated scene, he saw Neville walking from the direction of the Great Hall to the Great Hall, patting his full stomach.
Leffy the toad, in Neville’s pocket, struggled and finally broke free, running towards its freedom—the corridor leading to the Potion Class classroom—amidst Neville's panicked shouts.
The subtle traces left by the toad crawling on the ground were infinitely magnified in Weilan’s eyes. He led Hermione and Ron, walking forward along this corridor.
Various oil paintings hung on both sides of the corridor, and the people in the paintings curiously observed them under the torchlight.
At the end of the corridor were two downward staircases; going straight led to Snape's Potion classroom, while turning left midway led to Snape's office.
“That silly toad wouldn’t really run into the Potion classroom by itself and then jump into formaldehyde to deliver Potion ingredients to Snape, would it?”
The downward staircase leading to the Potion classroom was eerie at night, and Ron got goosebumps—if he could, he really didn't want to enter the Potion classroom at this time.
Fortunately, Weilan stopped in time in front of an oil painting in the corridor, pointing to the slightly wide gap where the floor met the wall, and said:
“It’s here, Leffy finally crawled into the gap.”
Hermione squatted down, her palm caressing the wall above the gap, accompanied by rhythmic tapping of her fingers.
Thump thump thump.
Thump thump thump.
The tapping sound was crisp, meaning the wall behind was hollow!
“Oh no, Leffy crawled behind the wall.”
Weilan hastily opened the blank Marauder's Map.
“I solemnly swear that I am up to no good.”
After reciting the spell, the map of the entire Hogwarts appeared on the paper.
Weilan picked up the map and observed it carefully, finally discovering a faintly inked path directly in front of their current position.
This path had a note beside it:
“To open, tap the snake eye of the King Cobra portrait three times with a wand, then recite ‘Salazar Slytherin’.”
“The room this path leads to seems to be the office of one of the Hogwarts founders, Salazar Slytherin? There's no fatal danger here, but please make sure to evacuate before midnight, otherwise, you'd best bring earplugs.”
Weilan then confirmed on the map that Filch’s location was still far from them. He quickly saw the King Cobra portrait directly above the hollow wall.
“Hermione, what time is it?”
Hermione pulled out her pocket watch: “It’s 12 minutes to 10 PM. After 10 PM, we’ll be under curfew.”
“Curfew isn’t a problem, we have the Invisibility Cloak. But it says here ‘make sure to evacuate before midnight, otherwise, you’d best bring earplugs’. I suspect some… unpleasant sounds will appear after midnight.”
Ron hesitated a bit: “Do you really have to help Neville find the toad?”
“Yes.”
Weilan answered him with absolute certainty:
“Neville said that if there was danger, he would be willing to pay at least 2 Galleons—though Neville’s imagined danger was being discovered by Snape or being given detention.”
Weilan needed Galleons very much, extremely much. Besides, James’s group of four had already confirmed there was no fatal danger inside. The worst case scenario was just detention.
“Then I want to be with you too.” Hermione’s answer surprised him. “Didn’t the map say to evacuate before midnight?”
“I have a pocket watch and can help keep track of time. And three people looking for a toad must be faster than one, right? I think if the three of us look together, we’ll definitely find it before midnight.”
“Alright.” Ron thought about the Galleons and made up his mind.
Weilan followed the method marked on the Marauder's Map, tapping the snake eye of the King Cobra portrait three times with his wand and reciting “Salazar Slytherin.”
Creak, creak, creak—
The portrait suddenly transformed into an old wooden door, and the King Cobra portrait became an embossment on the door. There was no handle outside the door, but the wooden door automatically opened inwards.
“There’s a handle inside the door.”
Weilan first confirmed that this door allowed them to open it from the inside.
Then he lit his wand and was the first to enter the passage behind the door.
Hermione and Ron followed him in.
Surprisingly, the air did not smell musty or old, but everything visible was covered in thick dust. However, this reduced the difficulty of the search—
Every trace of Leffy’s jumps was clearly visible in the dust.
They followed the toad tracks on the dusty surface, walking deeper inside. At the end of this walkway was a circular room.
The furnishings in the room looked very much like an office. There were bookshelves against the walls, a table piled with papers, and several chairs.
These furnishings had not been used for a long time. Dust covered their surfaces, and through the dust, one could vaguely discern that these furnishings had once been very luxurious.
“No… no spiders?” Ron, who feared spiders, quickly noticed something strange.
Logically, such a neglected, dusty, dirty place would easily breed a large number of spiders. But strangely, there were no cobwebs here.
“Yes, and no living creatures at all.” Hermione concluded after observing the environment, “This room is very strange; you can faintly feel a breeze, but there are no living creatures.”
“Not only are there no living insects, there isn’t even mold here… These wood and papers are all too well preserved.”
Weilan did not participate in Ron and Hermione’s discussion; he stopped in front of the huge wall-mounted bookshelf, his eyelids twitching:
“We’re in trouble.”
He turned to his companions and explained, “Leffy’s tracks disappear here; that little thing crawled into the stacks of books!”
Ron stared up dumbfounded at the bookshelf that almost touched the ceiling:
“So many books, and we only have two hours.”
“Let’s look, and besides, there’s a lot of dust in the bookshelves too. The traces of that toad moving through here are quite obvious. Hermione, keep a close eye on the time. Just in case, let’s leave this place fifteen minutes early.”
As he spoke, Weilan had already reached out to touch the book closest to him on the bookshelf.
Weilan and Ron began searching row by row along the bookshelves.
Fortunately, with the help of 【Subtle Observation】, Weilan quickly saw Leffy the toad scurrying away in a panic after picking up a book.
Leffy was still desperately wiggling its body, trying to squeeze into the gap between the books.
“Petrificus Totalus!”
Weilan used Petrificus Totalus to immobilize Leffy, reached out, grabbed it, and put it in his pocket.
“Done for the day!”
Weilan suddenly felt incredibly light all over, and called Hermione to prepare to leave.
“Wait, Weilan.” Hermione didn’t move her feet; she was holding a book, engrossed in reading.
“What are you looking at? What time is it?”
Weilan leaned over, feeling a bit uneasy.
He had not failed to notice the abnormality of this room, and he feared that Hermione might find something strange…
“It’s 11:32 PM, we still have time.” Hermione glanced at her pocket watch and gave the answer, while handing the book in her hand to Weilan.
“Look at this, the research notes of Salazar Slytherin, one of the founders of Hogwarts. This really is Slytherin’s office!”
Slytherin’s research notes? Weilan, with his keen sense for value, immediately took it and examined the leather-bound notebook.
He remembered that any item connected to the four founders of Hogwarts was basically an antique of immense value.
“What’s written in it?”
Weilan asked Hermione.
“Some of Slytherin’s research from when he was alive.”
“Related to Dark Arts?”
“Not entirely, there’s some magic knowledge that seems very ‘magical.’ I think we might never come across it in our lives.”
Hermione turned to a certain page for him and pointed out a sentence with her wand.
With the help of the glow from Hermione’s wand tip, Weilan clearly saw the Latin content recorded in the notes:
“To facilitate the study and manipulation of time, we divide time into three independent and distinct parts: Past, Present, and Future.”
As he finished reading this sentence, a line of white text floated across Weilan’s vision.
【Absorbed important knowledge, experience + 3】
Huh?
Weilan rubbed his eyes, reconfirming that the panel in his right eye had indeed changed.
【Experience Level: 1 (9 / 20)】
His experience points actually increased? Why?
Hermione thought Weilan was stunned by the content of the notes, so she explained her view to him:
“It’s amazing, isn’t it? Time magic, only the Department of Mysteries knows about it, and today we can even glimpse a bit.”
“You two go look around, see if there’s any other valuable information in this room, and let’s collect and take it all.”
Weilan’s heart was filled with joy.
The desire to explore the experience point growth mechanism prompted Weilan to continue reading the notes:
“Through studying the blood left by Merlin, I have gained some understanding of the mechanism behind time magic. From it, I have deciphered a very basic spell that can construct a temporal structure belonging to the past based on one's memory—”
“Tempora Retexere (Time Reversal)!”
【Absorbed important knowledge, experience + 5】
【Experience Level: 1 (14 / 20)】
The things recorded in the notes brought far more experience points than investigating cases!
Weilan was very excited, but he dared not practice the spells from the notes in this room. He looked at his two companions who were flipping through books on the shelf:
“Have you found anything else?”
“Nothing, Weilan, let’s go quickly.” Ron’s face was pale. “Look at what’s recorded in these books! Flaying spells, cannibalism, human sacrifice… Merlin’s beard!”
“Yes,” Hermione also said to Weilan, “They are all books recording evil Dark Arts, of no reference value. We should go.”
Weilan took the notebook. When they covered themselves with the Invisibility Cloak in the secret passage, the time was 11:48 PM.
Weilan took out the Marauder's Map, but his expression suddenly darkened, and he grabbed Ron’s right hand, which was about to turn the doorknob.
“Wait, Filch is outside now.”