Harry Potter: Charlie and the Candy Factory

"Which way should I go?"

"Here... I remember there is a portrait of an old man with a beard. As long as you pass it, turn right, and then pass the classroom where we take the Transfiguration class, you can reach the corridor!"

After going up to the third floor, the two young wizards were obviously very vigilant. The idea of ​​sleeping in their minds was completely washed away by the rising adrenaline at this moment.

Draco picked up the wand. To be on the safe side, he specifically did not use fluorescent flashes for illumination. Instead, he chose to rely directly on the sporadic moonlight outside the window and his own memory, and groped towards the goal.

"What if we meet him...what should we do?"

While touching the cold wall next to him, and carefully following step by step, Harry pursed his lips, and with a bit of worry, he still raised his doubts.

"It doesn't matter, we don't need to confront him head-on, we just need to know what he is going to do... Then we will go back to the dormitory immediately, wait until daytime tomorrow, and tell Dean Snape about this as soon as possible...

Or some other professor."

Obviously, Draco was not a reckless guy. The moment he decided to follow up, he had already made corresponding plans and arrangements.

However, after hearing these words, Harry couldn't help but be stunned... but subconsciously thought of

"So we're still going to get caught, right?"

No, this is no longer about being caught...but directly sending them to the door to tell the professors that the two of us sneaked out yesterday and followed a wave of criminal suspects! Isn't that brave?

It was so weird... Harry couldn't help but complained secretly in his heart.

But Draco in front had no time to pay attention to Harry's thoughts behind him, because at this moment, his hand was holding the wand tightly, fully prepared for battle, paying attention to any disturbance in front of him, as if if anything went wrong, he would

It will be a magic spell to greet him directly.

What has to be commended is that Charlie's education to Draco in just seven days was obviously very effective.

At this moment, even though he was highly concentrated, the posture of holding the stick in his hand did not change. It was still so elegant, just like his uncle.

Suddenly, as if he noticed something, Draco's steps stopped, his ears moved, and then his eyes lit up.

"I thought I heard his footsteps - over here!"

He said in a deep voice, then immediately sped up a bit and strode forward in the direction of the sound.

Harry had no choice but to see Draco speeding up his pace. In order to prevent any accidents, he had no choice but to keep up with him.

Going around and around, as Draco moved forward, the sound from the footsteps became more and more obvious.

In the dim environment, the rustling sound brought out some echoes, rippling in the empty corridor... If it were normally, no one would pay attention here, but now, in this environment

Underneath, it is very annoying.

Therefore, there is no possibility for Draco and Harry to go the wrong way. They only need to follow the trail carefully and there will be no problems.

Sure enough, just as Draco imagined, following the traces of the strange figure, the two people began to get closer and closer to the so-called forbidden area on the third floor.

"We're getting closer to him!"

Fine beads of sweat flowed down from his forehead, and along with it, the two strands of golden hair that had been straightened up quietly slipped down.

Draco paused. At this moment, the movement of the figure seemed to be very close at hand. The other party's footsteps were stepping on the floor, but every time he made a mistake, it was like stepping on his own heart. Even he didn't realize it.

I started to feel a bit nervous.

"Just turn right again...and you'll be in the forbidden corridor that Principal Dumbledore mentioned, right?"

Harry was equally nervous. He tried to calm down his breathing and asked Draco carefully.

Draco nodded and said nothing else... That strange figure had already walked into the corridor. It wouldn't take long for them to know what the other party wanted to do, and the remaining time

Just waiting...waiting for his footsteps to stop, waiting for his next move.

The man didn't let them wait too long. The footsteps that seemed to be stepping on Draco's heart finally stopped, and there was no more sound.

"Coming!"

He immediately became alert, and his heartbeat not only did not relax, but also beat harder.

He even had a vague suspicion that in this dark and quiet corridor, the violent heartbeat would be more obvious than the footsteps of the figure?

But Draco still shook his head and didn't think about anything else.

After concentrating all his energy on his eyes again, he grabbed the hard stone edge at the corner of the corridor and poked his head out bit by bit, holding his breath at the same time, not even daring to take another breath.

At this moment, it is so similar to the scene just at the staircase...

However, just when Draco thought everything would go as smoothly as he imagined, an accident happened.

I looked up and saw that in the corridor, the pale moonlight reflected on the floor, and reflected the light vaguely on the walls on both sides, allowing people to see the locked wooden doors.

It was so empty that it was disturbing. There was not even a shadow of anything, let alone the figure they had just been chasing...

Draco's pupils suddenly shrank to the size of pinholes, and his fiercely beating heart suddenly stagnated. The sweat that was originally just a small drop became dense and covered his forehead almost instantly.

"What's going on!?"

He asked incredulously, as if he was asking Harry, but also as if he was asking himself, and more as if he was directly asking the strange figure.

"Draco what did you see?"

Harry, who was hiding behind Draco, saw the other person's reaction and became anxious for a moment. He stretched out his hand and tugged on the other person's cloak, trying to get some reaction from the other person.

However, after Draco asked this question, there was no other movement. In desperation, Harry had no choice but to stick his head out himself.

For a moment, the two of them fell silent... They looked at each other, and both saw the same expression on the other's face as theirs.

"Where is he... others?"

Harry was so frightened by this scene that he stuttered and asked Draco while gesturing with his hands.

"I don't know!" Draco frowned and shook his head vigorously. Even if his hair fell down, he no longer paid attention to them, letting them vaguely block his sight.

"We have obviously been following him and listening to his footsteps coming this way! How could it be possible..."

He lowered his head and murmured to himself in a voice that only he could hear. At the same time, his brain was spinning rapidly, thinking about where the problem was.

However... just when the two of them lost their sense of proportion and just checked the empty corridor over and over again, behind them, the figure followed closely by Harry and Draco quietly disappeared. emerge.

"Hey...you, what are you doing...what are you doing?"

The sudden and cold sound scared Harry and Draco so much that they shivered, and goosebumps spread all over their bodies.

Dragging his partner beside him, he staggered forward and rolled forward. With almost no time to think, Draco relied on his own instinct and raised his wand in the direction of the figure.

"serpen——(Oolong out of the hole)"

Just as he was halfway through the spell in Draco's mouth, a ray of red light instantly turned into a chain and hit his wrist. There was almost no reaction at all before a strong pulling force came. Next In a second, the wand fell out of hand and flew into the opponent's hand...

"Cool...calm down, two, two Sly...Slytherin gentlemen."

After taking the wand, the man did not do anything again. He just said that he was not in danger, raised both hands holding the wand, and continued with his particularly stuttering words.

"It's...it's me, your Dark Arts Defense and Defense teacher, Quirrell."

It was only then that the two people recovered from their shock and noticed that under the iconic purple turban, it was Quirrell's harmless face.

He was currently wearing a pair of loose blue and white striped pajamas, and his face looked a little confused in addition to the feeling of having just woken up.

"teacher!?"

Harry's eyes widened, he covered his heart with one hand, and pointed at the other party with a trembling hand. It looked like he was really frightened.

"Why are you here?!"

Quirrell looked at him with a strange look in his eyes.

He threw the wand he had just seized back to Draco, and then asked

"This...this is what I should ask you. If I guess correctly, it should be time to go to bed now, right?"

"Why are you here?!"

The wand returned to his hand, and Draco could not help but calm down.

He secretly exhaled a breath, and his tense shoulders became relaxed, hanging on both sides without strength.

But after Harry recovered, he immediately remembered the most important purpose of him and Draco going to the third floor.

So he hurriedly spoke again, excitedly wanting to report what happened to him to the professor.

"Just now Draco and I, we-"

However, he was just halfway through his words, and before he could finish, Draco's foot suddenly stepped on his shoe, causing the words he was about to blurt out to stop abruptly.

Draco continued to take a step forward, naturally blocking in front of him, calmly took over the conversation, and continued.

"We couldn't sleep at night, so we wanted to buy some candy to eat... but the candy vending machine in the Slytherin lounge was empty. We had no choice but to sneak out and want to see - I Remember, there is a candy vending machine on the third floor, right, Professor."

Draco showed a somewhat harmless smile, shrugged at the same time, and spread his hands to show his helplessness.

And Harry is not a stupid kid... After hearing what Draco said, his face changed, and then he nodded naturally, looked at Quirrell with a smile, and never mentioned the original story just now.

What I was about to say.

"indeed……"

Rocky nodded without thinking much, then turned sideways, the wand in his hand bloomed with warm yellow light, illuminating the direction of another corridor.

"There is indeed... a candy vending machine on the third floor. But, it's just that, it's only for the professor's dormitory."

Quirrell said, lowering his head to himself, thinking for a while, then raised his head and looked at the two of them again.

After a while, he continued to speak

"But... if you really, really want to eat, I can take you to buy some, how about that?"

As he spoke, he also laughed. It was as if he was still the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor who was loved by all the students just like he was during the day.

………………………………

After a while, Harry and Draco staggered down the stairs with another bag full of candies.

Quirrell, on the other hand, stood at the top of the stairs with a gentle look, waved his hands to them, and reminded them thoughtfully.

"Go back and have a good sleep...I won't, won't tell Mr. Filch."

"Thank you, Professor Quirrell!"

After hearing what the other party said, Harry, who was almost halfway down the stairs, couldn't help but turn his head and raised his head to thank Professor Quirrell above.

But the next moment, when he had just finished speaking, he suddenly noticed... When the vague darkness covered Quirrell's kind and gentle face, leaving only the simplest outline, no matter in height or body shape, it turned out that

They were all the same as the figure they vaguely saw...

"Gudong..." Harry's Adam's apple trembled violently for a few times, as if he had formed a conditioned reflex, and he looked at Draco beside him.

Draco also smiled and waved goodbye to Quirrell, but Harry could clearly hear him squeeze out a few words through his teeth.

"Don't say anything, just go back."

…………………………

Although Harry was shocked and held back ten thousand words in his heart that he wanted to talk to the other party, he still held back.

Draco took out his favorite licorice stick from the candy, stuffed it into his mouth, and started chewing it.

Just as he said, the two of them didn't say anything along the way. They just walked straight back to the Slytherin lounge and climbed straight into their own beds.

But lying in bed, Harry couldn't sleep anymore...

He tossed and turned on the bed, constantly turning his body. His mind was filled with thoughts about Professor Quirrell and the figure they saw.

He began to unconsciously recall what Quirrell looked like in his impression.

Cowardice, cowardice, stammering, low self-esteem... Would such a person really be associated with that kind of scary guy?

Harry asked himself, but was unable to give his so-called answer.

Some were just two unsociable sighs in the calm breathing of my roommates.