Everyday Life of a Top Student at Hogwarts

Chapter 15 continues the exploration of the castle.

The chill of the Potions classroom still lingered in her bones. Karen stepped out of the basement stairs and took a deep breath of the relatively fresh air. Her grey-blue eyes gleamed thoughtfully in the torchlight of the corridor. Snape's classes, though oppressive, were indeed, as described in the original books, capable of teaching genuine knowledge if one could endure his harshness.

"God! I can finally breathe!" Wesley stretched out his arms dramatically, his reddish-brown curly hair bouncing with the movement. "Snape's basement was like a dungeon!"

“While you’re absolutely right, I have to correct you, Wesley.” Fabian pushed up his glasses, a teasing smile playing on his bronze face. “This is the magical world; nobody believes in God. You should say ‘Merlin’s Beard!’”

"Indeed, I've wanted to correct his statement for a while now." Ernesto raised his chin, his gray eyes still holding his usual arrogance, but his tone was much gentler than when school started. "However, Snape is also right about some things; potions do require precision."

Karen straightened her robe sleeves and interrupted the conversation: "There's no homework today. How about we continue our castle exploration from yesterday? Let's start from the fourth floor."

"That's amazing!" Wesley almost jumped up. "I saw a singing portrait on the corner outside the Charms classroom on the fourth floor earlier, and I almost jumped up to the tune, but Filch glared at me for a long time."

Fabian shook his head with a smile: "That's because you almost knocked over the suit of armor next to you."

"Let's go to the kitchen and get some food to take with us," Karen suggested. "Exploration requires stamina."

The four boys turned into the hallway leading to the kitchen and opened the kitchen door using the same method as before.

The kitchen scene remained the same, with hundreds of house-elves bustling about, the air filled with the aroma of baking bread, stew, and desserts. Several elves immediately gathered around, their big eyes brimming with enthusiasm.

"What do you gentlemen need? Poppy can serve you!" a little elf wearing a tea towel shrieked.

Karen simply said gently, "Thank you. We've been here before, remember? This time we'd like some easy-to-carry snacks in preparation for exploring the castle."

"Oh, Bobby is such a damn idiot, he forgot about the gentlemen. We'll be ready in a minute!" Bobby replied immediately, banging his head repeatedly.

In the blink of an eye, the elves had prepared baskets full of pies, cookies, and fruit for them, and even several bottles of pumpkin juice.

Karen and the others then declined the elves' enthusiastic feeding, as their hands were already overflowing. After thanking them, they hurriedly left the kitchen.

"They were so incredibly hospitable," Wesley said, chewing on a biscuit.

Karen didn't respond, but instead steered the conversation back to exploration: "There are Charms classrooms and Defense Against the Dark Arts classrooms on the fourth floor. We'll have Defense Against the Dark Arts class tomorrow."

"Hopefully it won't be as scary as Potions class," Wesley grimaced, "but that Professor Victor doesn't seem like a simple character either."

"I heard that the professors for this course change frequently," Fabian replied. "Next year, our professor might not be him anymore."

Karen silently added in her mind: But next year we'll be welcoming a big thug with Voldemort's face on the back of his head. But he simply said, "We'll be experiencing it firsthand soon enough."

The fourth-floor corridor was even more secluded than the lower floors, with torchlight flickering on the ancient stone walls. Suddenly, they came to a corridor lined with full suits of armor on both sides. These medieval-style armored figures, wielding various weapons, appeared particularly imposing in the dim light.

"Wow..." Wesley reached out in awe to touch a longsword on a suit of armor, but Fabian stopped him in time.

"It's best not to," Fabian warned. "Who knows if they've been protected by a protective charm."

Cullen's grey-blue eyes narrowed slightly. The power of his True Sight allowed him to see things imperceptible to ordinary people: each suit of armor had a subtle magical connection to the castle, like invisible threads linking them to the stone walls and floors of Hogwarts. This connection was not strong, but extremely subtle, clearly the work of a master.

“Don’t worry, they don’t have any protective charms, but these armors are definitely not just for decoration,” Cullen said softly, her fingers lightly brushing over the arm guards of one of the armors. “They’re part of Hogwarts’ defense system.”

"How did you know?" Ernesto asked curiously, his gray eyes sparkling with interest.

Cullen explained, "I read about it in an old book about Hogwarts. The four founders used magic to weave many parts of the castle, including this armor, into a single unit. In an emergency, they can be activated to protect the school."

In fact, he was recalling the scene from the original story where Professor McGonagall awakened these suits of armor before the Battle of Hogwarts. Under his True Sight, those magical connections appeared remarkably clear.

"It's hard to believe this is something from the Middle Ages," Fabian exclaimed. "Could a modern wizard create such magic?"

Karen shook his head. "I don't know. Many techniques of ancient magic and alchemy have been lost." He recalled what Dumbledore had once said and added, "Not because we are less intelligent than our predecessors, but because magic is like a river, always changing its course."

They continued on, and at a corner they came across a statue of a one-eyed witch. Karen's heart skipped a beat; he remembered this was the entrance to a secret passage leading to the Honey Duke, but he couldn't recall exactly how to open it.

"This statue is really strange," Wesley commented. "Why does it only have one eye?"

"Could it symbolize wisdom?" Fabian speculated. "In some cultures, a single eye represents the ability to see through appearances."

Ernesto scoffed. "Or maybe the sculptor was just being lazy."

Cullen remained silent, not wanting to prematurely reveal that he knew it was a secret passage, because he couldn't explain how he knew and couldn't always fob it off with something he'd read in a book. Therefore, he simply said, "Perhaps it represents or hides something; Hogwarts is full of such mysteries. Maybe one day we'll discover its secret."

After leaving the one-eyed witch statue, they arrived at the trophy room. Sunlight streamed in through the high windows, illuminating countless trophies, shields, and medals, making them shimmer with a golden light.

"Look at this!" Wesley exclaimed excitedly, pointing to a Quidditch trophy. "It says 'Minerva McGonagall, 1951' on it!"

Karen leaned closer and, sure enough, found the trophy Professor McGonagall had won for Gryffindor as Quidditch captain in her youth. In his memory, Professor McGonagall had rarely flown since being injured in a seventh-year match. This trophy bore witness to a McGonagall that many students knew nothing about.

"There's even more here," Fabian called out from another display case, "Special Contribution Awards from various colleges... Oh!"

Karen knew immediately what Fabian had discovered. He walked over and saw the familiar name engraved on a gleaming gold medal: "Tom Marvolo Riddell, Special Contribution Award, 1943."

"This name sounds familiar..." Ernesto frowned in thought.

"Tom is a fairly common name. Could it be Tom, the owner of the Leaky Cauldron? I didn't realize he even received a special contribution award," Wesley guessed.

Karen's fingers almost touched the name—Voldemort's real name, the Dark Lord's disguise during his school days. He suppressed the urge to tell his roommates the truth, only saying, "He seemed like a very good student. I wonder what happened to him later."

He noticed another gleaming gold badge next to the medal: "President of the Student Council." It seemed Voldemort had indeed been a model student at Hogwarts—handsome and talented—but Dumbledore had noticed his problems early on.

After leaving the prize display room, they went up to the fifth floor. It was quieter here than the lower floors, and at the end of the corridor was a door that looked like it hadn't been touched in a long time.

"It won't open," Wesley tried the doorknob. "It's locked."

Seeing the locked door, Karen considered trying the old "Door Open" lock-picking spell, but then thought better of it.

Karen immediately drew her wand: "Step aside, let me try. Alaho Cavern!"

The lock clicked open, revealing a dusty classroom. Desks and chairs were piled haphazardly in the corner, and the windows were covered in a thick layer of dust, making the light streaming in from outside appear hazy and mysterious.

"Wow, when did you learn the lock-picking spell?" Fabian asked in surprise.

"I previewed some useful spells during the summer vacation," Karen replied casually as she walked into the classroom. "I also know an older lock-picking spell, but that one will directly destroy the lock."

Wesley sneezed. "There's too much dust! Why doesn't the school clean this place up?"

"Perhaps there's a special reason," Karen looked around, subconsciously searching for the possible location of the Magic Mirror—the Mirror of Erised. Dumbledore had hidden it in an abandoned classroom on the fifth floor; this should be it.

But there was nothing here except dust and old furniture. It seems it wasn't placed here yet; well, that must have been prepared by Dumbledore for Harry Potter.

Ernesto used his wand to lift a tattered cloth: "It looks like it used to cover some kind of large object... maybe a cabinet or something?"

Karen looked around. The place had been abandoned for so long that there were no traces of magic left. He then shook his head. "It's probably just ordinary furniture covers. Hogwarts has many such abandoned spaces, some of which are even enchanted and can move on their own."

"Like the Room of Requirement?" Fabian asked.

Karen feigned ignorance, looking at him with surprise: "What's the Room of Requirement?"

“My mother mentioned it,” Fabian pushed up her glasses, “She said there’s a magical room in the Hogwarts legend that can transform into whatever you need. But she’s never found it, though she said some of her classmates have.”

Karen nodded: "That must be a very mysterious magic room. We can look for it when we have time."

They quickly checked the classrooms and, finding nothing unusual, continued exploring the higher floors. The sixth and seventh floors were mostly empty classrooms and teachers' offices. The only noteworthy room was the prefect's washroom; Wesley tried to peek inside but was nearly tumbled down the stairs by a ghost that suddenly appeared.