A day at Hogwarts

cold,

wind chill,

The raindrops are cold,

Snape's face on the tree branch became even colder.

The first check-in point for Charles' team was located on the top of an oak tree dozens of meters high. Each student had to find a way to climb to the top of the tree and have Snape sign his or her score sheet.

The check-in point that each professor is responsible for is determined by everyone drawing lots together. If you are not lucky, you cannot blame others.

Under the oak tree, Charles and others studied how to climb this wet and slippery tree.

The best way is of course to ride a broomstick, but where can I find it now? If you have the ability, just try it out by yourself.

Percy said helplessly: "I can't take people with me because of my apparation skills."

He put it mildly. Rumor has it that he had the same hairstyle as Voldemort during his Apparition class last week.

Charles can also disapparate, but he just doesn't want to be exposed, maybe it can be used to save his life.

It wouldn't work as a portkey either. His portkey was too weird and the user might knock Snape down.

"Let's go up the stairs," Cedric said. "Collect some branches, use the transformation spell to turn them into stairs attached to the trunk, and walk up around the trunk."

This morning, Charles' operation of turning a stone into a sofa by the creek inspired him. If you are missing something, just use transfiguration to change it.

Percy thought he could give it a try.

It failed.

The ladder Cedric conjured cannot be fixedly connected to the tree trunk in the vertical direction. If it is higher, it will slide down or crush the stairs below.

Qiu Zhang said: "It seems that we have to let them cling to the trunk of the tree like vines."

Charles looked up at the thick tree branches and said thoughtfully: "I think we can fix the two ends of the stairs on the strong tree branches. I will then cast a floating spell on you to reduce the weight and climb up as quickly as possible."

Percy nodded and said, "You can try."

They began to change the structure of the stairs, and after a few attempts they succeeded. Everyone kept walking up section by section, and finally there was still enough energy left to add handrails to the stairs.

A few minutes later, the group came to Snape.

There is a shed set up here to protect from the rain, small chairs and tables on the tree branches, and a stove that is heating hot water for tea.

Everyone handed over the score sheets, and Snape waved his wand expressionlessly, and the quill placed on the table flew over to sign it.

After the group got off the tree, they looked at the time. It was now past four o'clock. Percy looked at the map and said, "There are still two hours until dark. Let's walk another hour and camp in a nearby cave."

Everyone looked at Charles.

Charles curled his lips and continued to cast levitating spells on them. Their bodies were light and convenient, and they could even run effortlessly.

After everyone ran for more than ten minutes, Charles suddenly shouted: "Stop!"

After the team stopped, Percy asked him a little nervously: "What's wrong?"

"I think that's an extra point there," Charles said, pointing to the left.

Everyone looked over and saw a faint pink color among the trees.

After getting closer, Rolf Scamander shouted excitedly, "It's Horklap. Isn't it only found in Northern Europe? How come it's also found here!"

Luna tilted her head and asked him: "What is Horklap?"

Rolf replied: "Hokkrapu is a pink mushroom-like animal with black thorns and tentacles. It likes to eat earthworms."

"My grandpa thought it was useless, but it could actually be used to make potions and weed killers."

Percy and the others were a little surprised. They didn't expect that the famous Newt Scamander would also make mistakes.

Charles had only seen Hoklap's color picture when he was looking for weeds in a book. Now that he saw the real thing, the corner of his mouth twitched. Except for the stinging hairs, this thing was pink and fleshy, a bit like some kind of "ganoderma".

Qiu Zhang said: "Maybe someone planted these in the Forbidden Forest. I heard that they can be used as feed for some magical animals."

Charles later tried to feed Ruby this and was scratched.

Since you can make potions, you can collect them, but the little tentacles of Hawklap still hurt a little when they hit people, so they have to be killed with magic spells.

Of course, Charles didn't know how to use the killing curse, so he imitated Percy and froze them.

Everyone was talking and laughing as they each picked a few hoklap. When walking nearby, they found deadwood with edible mushrooms growing on them. After picking the mushrooms, they caught several bugs.

Charles was in a trance, feeling that this was not a class but a spring outing.

It would be nice if it didn't rain.

After such a delay on the way, it was already dark when everyone arrived at the cave, and the cave was occupied by another group of Slytherin students.

Marcus Flint, who was a grade above Percy, stood at the entrance of the cave with his hands on his hips and said proudly: "I'm sorry, there's no room for you here anymore."

Percy said: "This cave is very deep, we can go further inside."

Flint's face suddenly sank, he took out his wand and pointed it at Percy and said word by word: "I said there is no room here. If you understand, leave quickly."

Percy looked very unhappy and said: "This place is very close to the mountainous area. Mountain monsters are likely to appear. We have first-year students here."

He made it clear, but Flint mocked: "Weasley, if you are scared, you can go back to the castle now, get into a warm bed and sleep comfortably."

Percy wanted to say something else, but Charles patted him on the shoulder and said, "Okay, then we won't interrupt."

Flint sneered and watched quietly as Charles returned to the cave after beckoning the others to leave.

There was a bonfire burning in the cave, and several Slytherin students were talking and laughing around it. Draco Malfoy helped them clean their cloaks and shoes out of the light of the fire.

Flint sat back down where he had been, took a sip of butterbeer, and happily told his companions how unwilling and angry he was when Percy left just now.

After about half an hour, the flame suddenly turned white, just like it did when Charles and the others arrived at the entrance of the cave.

Flint put down the butterbeer he had just opened, cursed and walked out of the cave with his wand.

The other Slytherins paid no attention and continued talking and laughing.

After a while, someone noticed something was wrong.

"Why hasn't Flint come back yet?" A student asked doubtfully.

Another person next to him said: "Maybe a cat or something was passing by. He might have gone to the toilet."

Everyone didn't pay much attention to what he said. If something happened, they would definitely make some noise.

After a while, Flint still didn't come back.

"There's something wrong! He should be back even if he's constipated."

Several other people asked Malfoy to bring over the clean shoes, put them on, stood up and walked towards the entrance of the cave.

Malfoy waited until they all left before carefully sitting next to the fire, greedily enjoying the warmth of the flames.

"Ah~"

A scream stopped suddenly, making Malfoy tremble.

He picked up the wand and pointed in the direction of the hole. He swallowed nervously and called out the names of several other people.

But the cave was quiet except for the crackling sound from the fire.

"Could they be scaring themselves?" Malfoy comforted himself in his mind.

Time passed little by little, and no one else came back.

Malfoy decided not to wait any longer, tremblingly took out paper and pen, wrote a letter asking for help, folded a paper crane and let it fly to Dumbledore.

Time passed so slowly while waiting. Half an hour seemed like a year to Malfoy.

"Malfoy, are you in there?"

Dumbledore's voice sounded outside the cave.

Malfoy's hanging heart suddenly relaxed, and he immediately shouted excitedly: "I'm here! I'm here!"

After he finished shouting, he immediately ran towards the entrance of the cave.

Dumbledore, Snape and others were relieved after hearing the sound. The sudden disappearance of several students was a huge event. Not to mention extracurricular teaching, Hogwarts might also have to suspend classes.

There were Slytherin students inside, so Snape went to bring Malfoy out.

Bell used the tip of his wand to emit light, looking for suspicious traces everywhere.

After searching, he said to Dumbledore: "There are only footprints here of a group of students who stayed outside the cave and then went to other places, and the footprints are very shallow. Maybe someone came here and left after finding someone."

Dumbledore nodded and said, "Severus will bring Malfoy out later and ask who it is. Maybe those students have gone to their place."

He thought it was possible that other students had banded together to prank the younger students.

At this time, they realized that something was wrong. Snape had not come out after entering for so long.

Dumbledore immediately shouted: "Severus! Malfoy! What's going on?!"

The cave was quiet, without any response, as if there was no one inside just now.

Everyone became nervous. It was not an easy task to kill Snape silently.

Dumbledore raised the Elder Wand and said to the other professors: "I will go in first, and you will follow."

With him in front, if there is an ambush inside, he can hold out for a long time and buy time for the professor behind.

Dumbledore was more cautious than ever before, taking every step with difficulty and carefully observing the situation in the cave.

It's just normal in the cave, it's just a little damp, a few stones occasionally fall on the ground, the air is filled with smoke and smoke, and there is no trace of a fight.

Professors McGonagall, Professor Flitwick and Professor Sprout followed not far behind Dumbledore, with Bell at the rear.

There was a turn in front of the cave, and Dumbledore motioned for them to stop and whispered: "I'll go there first."

He used stones on the ground to conjure two stone men to walk ahead, and then followed them himself.

Half a minute passed...

One minute passed...

Three minutes passed...

It was quiet inside the cave, without any sound.

Professor McGonagall called out: "Albus?"

no respond.

"Albus!"

Professor McGonagall called twice more, but still no one responded, as if Dumbledore had never been there.

"Retreat!" Professor McGonagall made a prompt decision. Even Dumbledore was in trouble. The situation was serious and he had to ask the Ministry of Magic for help.