Archaeologists at Hogwarts

"I'm not lying to you. Professor Highmore and Professor Snape are in the corridor. This is obviously Malfoy's trap. He will not go to the trophy room!"

"Stop joking, do you think we will believe it? They fought last time. If they were really together, would the corridor be so quiet?"

Hermione finally met Harry and Ron who were going to duel. She lowered her voice and yelled at them, but the two men couldn't listen at all.

As a result, when all three of them walked out of the common room, they found that the Fat Lady had gone somewhere, and Hermione couldn't go back.

"What should we do?" she asked in a loud voice.

In the end, she had to follow Harry and Ron, so that even if she was discovered, she could have these two people testify for her.

Not long after walking, they came across Neville sleeping on the floor. His arm had healed, but he had forgotten the password, so he fell asleep on the floor.

The first two people turned into four people. Ron was very angry, and Harry quickly stopped him from continuing to get angry.

As they walked along the corridor, moonlight poured in from the high windows, streaks across the ground. Every time they turned, Harry thought he would bump into Filch or Mrs. Norris, but luckily, they were lucky.

Yes. They hurriedly climbed the stairs to the fourth floor and tiptoed towards the prize display room.

But their luck finally ended here.

Even without Ron's reminder, Harry could still hear two sets of rapid footsteps. The most terrifying part was that they also heard Snape's voice.

"Run!"

Harry said in a low voice.

On the other side, after Filch said that, Snape no longer cared about Toby. He and Filch ran away in a hurry. Toby was not curious at all, and he continued to seize the time to check other walls on the fourth floor.

He opened each portrait gently, and then looked back carefully.

This kind of thing couldn't be done during the day, it would be too conspicuous, and could only be done at night when the portraits were asleep.

After a while, Toby suddenly heard the sound of armor falling. The sound was clear and spread throughout the entire corridor.

"Well...it's so noisy, what are you doing?" The portrait was woken up.

Toby's movements suddenly froze, but in the next second, he naturally turned out a rag and wiped it on the frame: "Your portrait is dirty, these house elves are really unreliable in their work -

—”

He criticized the house elf for a while, and the portrait finally fell asleep again.

Immediately afterwards, Toby, who was ashen-faced, met four people who were running away in the corridor - they had just entered the forbidden room and found the three-headed dog Luwei. Now they were busy running for their lives, but they didn't run far.

Then I met Professor Heimer, who was blocking the middle of the corridor like a god of death.

"ah--"

Ron screamed and fell directly on his back, tripping over Harry, Neville, and Hermione who were behind him one after another, and his body was pressed at the bottom. Under the dual blessing of panic and breathlessness, Ron almost died.

Passed out all of a sudden.

"This time, you were also tired from sleeping, so you went out for a run in the middle of the night?"

No one dared to speak out. Even Neville and even Hermione, who had just contacted him, were frightened by Professor Heimer's tone.

"You four, follow me."

The four people got up quickly, and Ron held his chest in pain. He regretted it so much now. He didn't expect that what Hermione said was true - Snape and Professor Highmore were both in the corridor of the castle.

Harry regretted it even more than Ron. He had long felt that something was wrong, but he was inexplicably unwilling to listen to Hermione's words, purely out of anger.

Neville's tears were streaming down his face, while Hermione had a look of despair on her face. She didn't even know how she got to the Ancient Magic Office.

Toby did not turn on all the lights, leaving only a dull layer of light, making both the coffin and the headless skeleton look even more weird and terrifying.

The four people stood across the desk in fear. They only felt that there were countless pairs of eyes staring at them secretly. In terms of the degree of terror, Professor Heimer's office was more terrifying than Lu Wei's room. Maybe there were only unknown forbidden things.

Only Lin can compare.

Toby sat on the sofa behind his desk with a gloomy face. He hadn't completed even one-tenth of his plan tonight, and he didn't know when he would have a chance to look at those portraits again.

"Tell me about it."

Toby said coldly, acting as if he didn't know Hermione and Neville at all, and was even harsher than he was in class.

"You only have one chance to explain."

Harry and Ron were both frightened, and Neville was still crying. He even thought of the crystal ball that healed his parents. What if Professor Hemmer took the crystal ball away because of him?

Neville couldn't help but burst into tears, but Toby was too indifferent and didn't say a word of comfort. His gloomy eyes were even scarier than Snape, which brought them endless pressure.

But at this moment, it seemed like a miracle happened.

"Professor, it's...it's me."

Hermione stammered, tears streaming down from the corners of her eyes.

She actually cried too, and she cried even more sadly than Neville.

"I can't stand it anymore. I have no friends and no one likes me..." She cried and said, releasing all her grievances in an instant: "So I thought about going out to relax, even to the library.

Well, the three of them decided to accompany me..."

Hermione really couldn't stand it anymore. She didn't have any friends in school, so it was difficult for her to continue to persevere. As a result, she was caught sneaking out in the middle of the night by Professor Heimer himself.

It wouldn't matter if it were other professors, but it was Professor Heimer who had great hopes for her. She could tell how disappointed he was with her as soon as she saw the expression on the professor's face, which shattered Hermione's last thoughts.

The string of reason and persistence were completely broken.

She couldn't stay at Hogwarts any longer. Even if she wanted to, she probably wouldn't be able to stay. The school's punishment for students who make serious mistakes would definitely be extremely severe, and they would definitely be expelled.

As for testifying, those were just Hermione's angry words. Otherwise, she would have reported Harry and Ron in advance, and she would not have waited alone in the common room until midnight.

Ron and Harry were both stunned. They watched Hermione lie to the professor. In an instant, both of them felt extremely guilty and regretful at the same time.

"No...that's not the case, Professor." Harry mustered up the courage to say.

"Shut up, Mr. Potter."

Toby interrupted with a sullen face: "The one opportunity to explain has passed. Each of you will bear the price of thirty points, as well as confinement. The specific subsequent punishment will depend on your performance in confinement.

.If you dissatisfy me——"

"You will regret dissatisfying me."

Then the four people were kicked out of the office. After they all left, Toby's expression slowly changed and he sighed deeply.

"It's so stupid. Everyone is so stupid."

There was undisguised disappointment in his tone.

After a while, the office door opened again, and in came Snape who had learned nothing.

He glanced at Toby who was sighing, and inexplicably put away his thoughts of accountability. Instead, he carefully looked at the collection in the office, and finally stood in front of the piece of ice that would never melt.

"What's in here?" he asked.

Toby said quietly: "Maybe it's a wizard from ancient Greece, or maybe it's a dementor. Maybe it's a separated memory. You can only see it with your own eyes when the ice melts."

"Want a drink?"

Snape didn't answer, but he had already sat on the chair opposite Toby.

A bottle of gin flew up from the drawer and was slowly poured into two wine glasses.

The two of them rarely had any more bickering, quarreling or blaming each other.

Toby picked up the wine glass and shook it gently in his hand.

"Tell me, why are they so stupid? Why were we so stupid in the first place? Even Lily, such a kind-hearted Lily, was angry with us. James had been annoying her for so long but he really got her.

"

"To be honest, I originally thought you were the most promising one. I occasionally thought about being the godfather of your future children. What a pity, Severus. What a pity."

Snape couldn't help but clutch the wine glass tightly, and he didn't know if he heard Toby's last words.

"Unfortunately, magic cannot bring people back to life."