"Please let me pass." It was Percy's voice, and he walked out of the crowd with a sense of relief.

"Why are you stuck here? You don't necessarily forget your passwords, do you...... I'm sorry, I'm the president of the boys' student council, please let me go. ”

The crowd quieted down, starting from the front, so it spread out in the corridor like a cold snap.

Immediately after, they heard Percy's voice suddenly sharpen: "Who's going to ask Professor Dumbledore!" Fast! ”

People all turned around, and the last man stood on tiptoe.

"What's wrong?" Ginny had probably stayed in the Great Hall a little longer, just by this time.

After a while, Professor Dumbledore arrived, and he hurried towards the portrait of the fat lady.

The Gryffindor students huddled together to let him pass, and Harry, Ron, and Hermione leaned closer together to see what was going on.

"Oh my God—" Hermione screamed, as she seemed to see clearly, pinching her sleeve.

The Fat Lady had disappeared from the portrait, which had been vandalized, with shards of canvas falling everywhere on the ground and chunks of canvas completely torn off the frame.

Dumbledore gave a quick glance at the damaged painting.

"Professor McGonagall, please go to Filch at once, and tell him to look for the Fat Lady on every painting in the castle—"

"You're going to be lucky!" A hoarse voice said suddenly.

It was Peeves, a pester, who was jumping over the heads of the crowd with a happy look—as he always had when he saw the sights of destruction and sorrow.

"What do you mean by that, Peeves?" Dumbledore asked calmly.

Peeves' mocking grin faded a little—he didn't dare mock Dumbledore.

So he switched to a slick tone, which sounded better than the hoarse.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Headmaster...... She didn't want to be seen, she was made a mess. I saw the landscape of her running over the fifth floor, sir, she hid in the middle of the trees and cried and said something 'horrible thing'. Peeves said in a happy tone.

“…… Poor thing. At last he added, but there was no pity for others.

"Did she tell who did it?" Dumbledore asked calmly.

"Oh, that's it, Professor." Peeves said, "She wouldn't let him in—he was annoyed, you know." Peeves somersaulted in the air, grinning at Dumbledore from between his own legs.

"He's got a bad temper, Sirius Black."

Soon, Professor Dumbledore called all the Gryffindor students back to the Great Hall. Ten minutes later, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin students arrived, all of whom looked confused.

"The faculty and I are going to conduct a thorough search of the castle," Professor Dumbledore said aloud.

At this point, Professors McGonagall and Flitwick closed all the doors to the Great Hall.

"For your own safety, I think you might be spending the night here tonight. I asked the prefects to stand guard at the entrance to the auditorium, and the boys and girls student council presidents remained in the auditorium to take charge of the administration. ”

"Report anything to me right away." Dumbledore added this to Percy.

When Percy heard this, he immediately changed his face to the pride of "I am an important person".

"Find a ghost to bring me a message." Dumbledore added.

And when Dumbledore passed by Maca, he whispered, "Maca, please come out with me." ”

He was about to leave the auditorium with Maca, but he paused again as if he had thought of something.

"Oh, yes, I think you'll need—" Dumbledore waved his wand at will, and the long tables flew to the edge of the Great Hall and were lined up neatly; With one more wave, the ground was covered with hundreds of purple sleeping bags.

"Sleep well." Professor Dumbledore opened the door and walked out, and Maca followed closely behind him, closing the door with his hand.

Outside the door, Dumbledore was standing on the sidelines waiting for him.

"Professor, what's the matter?" Maca asked.

"Someone broke into the school this time and destroyed the portrait of the fat lady, which is dangerous for the students—" Dumbledore said, "I suppose you are familiar with the eight-eyed spiders in the woods, can you help me search the woods?" ”

Maca was stunned for a moment, and then he collected his thoughts before replying, "Professor, you really know everything...... And of course, why not? ”

"I don't know everything," Dumbledore winked at him, "I only know what I know...... Professor Hagrid will go with you. ”

Not to mention how surprised Hagrid was when he found out about Maca and Aragog's friendship, it was only natural that all the searches tonight had been in vain.

In Black's decisive style, he left through the secret passage under the beating willow long after Maca and Luna returned.

Dumbledore wasn't disappointed in that - he was good enough to make sure that the intruders didn't stay in the school, and to eliminate the dangers that lurked in the school - that was the most important thing at the moment.

For the next few days, everyone at school talked about the rumors about Blake.

Rumors of how he got into the castle grew - a student at Hufflepuff Abbey named Hannah Abbott had heard that Blake was able to transform into a flowering bush!

In their next Potions class, she spent a lot of time telling everyone who would listen to her.

The ruined portrait of the Fat Lady had been removed from the wall, and in its place was a portrait of Sir Cadogan and his fat grey pony.

In fact, no one was happy about it.

Sir Cadogan spends half of his day challenging people or asking them to duel him; The other half of the time was spent figuring out ridiculously complicated passwords, and he had to change them at least twice a day.

"He's crazy," Seamus Finigan said angrily to Percy, "can't we change someone?" ”

"None of the other painters were willing to do this errand," Percy said, "and they were all frightened by what had happened to the fat lady...... And Sir Cadogan was the only one who stepped forward. ”

However, Harry wasn't worried about Sir Cadogan.

Now he was under close surveillance—the instructors found all sorts of excuses to walk with him in the hallways, and Percy Weasley followed him everywhere like a very lively guard dog, which Mrs. Weasley probably had told him to do.

Worst of all, Professor McGonagall called Harry into her office, and the uneasy look on her face made Harry think that someone must have lost her life.

"There's no need to hide it from you, Potter," she said solemnly, "I know it's going to come as a shock to you, but Blake—"

"I know he's chasing me," Harry said tiredly, "and I heard Ron's dad tell his mom. Mr. Weasley works for the Ministry of Magic. ”

McGonagall seemed surprised, she glared at Harry before she said, "I see! All right! So, Potter...... You can understand why I don't think it's a good idea for you to practice Quidditch in the evening, right? On the pitch, with only your teammates around, you're very exposed, Potter—"

"We're going to have our first game on Saturday!" Harry was furious, but he had to keep his composure, "I have to train, Professor!" ”

Professor McGonagall looked at him steadily.

Harry knew that she was extremely concerned about the future of the Gryffindor team, after all, she had suggested that Harry be the Seeker in the first place.

He waited, holding his breath nervously.

"Uh......-huh," Professor McGonagall stood up, staring out the window at the Quidditch pitch, which was faintly visible in the rain.

"Okay...... God knows, I'd love to see our team win the trophy at the end...... But anyway, Potter, I'd be glad to have a teacher present—I'd have Mrs. Hooch supervise your training. ”

The first Quidditch match was approaching, but the weather was getting worse.

Under Mrs. Hodge's supervision, the Gryffindors trained bravely, and they worked harder than ever.

Then, during his last training session before Saturday's game, captain Wood brought not so much good news to his team.

"We're not competing with Slytherin!" He angrily told them, "Flint just came to see me — we're going to compete with the Hufflepuffs." ”

"Why?" The other team members asked in unison.

"Flint's excuse is that their Seeker's injured arm isn't healed yet!" Wood said, gritting his teeth in anger, "but they did it for the obvious reason that they didn't want to play in this kind of weather, and they thought it would ruin their chances—"

It was a stormy day, and even as Wood spoke, they heard thunder rumbling in the distance.

"Malfoy's arm is fine!" Harry was furious and said, "He's pretending! ”

"I understand, but we can't prove it." "We've been practising with Slytherin, and now we're playing against the Hufflepuffs, and they're quite different," Wood said bitterly. They have a new captain and Seeker Cedric Diggory—"

Angelina, Alya, and Katie suddenly giggled.

"What's wrong?" Wood asked—annoyed by the carefree behavior.

"He's the tall, pretty-looking boy, right?" Angelina said.

"The one who is strong and doesn't talk much!" Katie followed.

With that, they began to giggle again.

"Laugh, laugh!" Wood suddenly shouted, "There's worse news here, do you want to hear it?" ”

"What else could make this worse?" Harry groaned.

"Absolutely!" Wood had just finished yelling when he showed a frustrated expression again, "McLean is going to play, do you think it's bad?" ”

Suddenly, the three girls put away the smirk that was still hanging on their faces, and changed their expressions to disbelief.

"Oh, no—" they said almost in unison.