Dating in Progress

After the Clock Tower struck eleven at night, the few torches that were still lit on the walls of the castle corridor began to go out, and the quiet corridor was plunged back into darkness.

Suddenly, a faint sound came from somewhere, as if someone was talking in the corridor.

No, I should say that there were indeed people talking in the hallway.

A pale light suddenly appeared in the darkness, drawing dissatisfaction and accusations from the wizards in the surrounding portraits who were preparing to sleep.

"It looks like it's going to be lively tonight." Isobel stopped and listened to the whispers coming from afar. She turned to her boyfriend and said, "It's okay to go on a date another day."

"It's alright, we won't run into any other professors with this." Albert waved the Marauder's Map in his hand. It's natural to bring important things with you on a night date, otherwise it would be such a spoilsport to have your date disturbed by others.

"That map has a high level of magic," Isobel said as he continued walking. "It uses very sophisticated Tracking Charm, Traces Charm, and Disguise Charm."

"I know," Albert countered. "By the way, can you make one yourself?"

"You can't do it yourself?" Isobel was a little surprised. In her eyes, Albert was practically omnipotent.

There's no way around it, this guy basically knows everything, and he knows everything too.

"My Tracking Charm isn't very good, and I don't know the Traces Charm either," Albert shrugged. He was surprised to find that Isobel knew him so well; sometimes it felt a little unbelievable.

However, a natural Legilimens is truly amazing! "I've been under a lot of pressure lately." Albert reached out and took Isobel's hand, leading her forward.

"Why do you say that?" Isobel countered. Her frequent use of the Time-Turner had indeed accumulated a lot of pressure, and as the O. W. Ls exam approached, the pressure grew increasingly intense.

"It's just a vague feeling, and you're too concerned about grades." Albert casually changed the subject. "Shall we go chat in the Ravenclaw Common Room? I haven't been to the Common Room of the other houses yet?"

"You've already been there last time, and it's best not to go at this time; some Ravenclaw students are still studying," Isobel suggested. "How about we go to the Gryffindor Common Room? I'm also very curious about what your Common Room is like."

"Percy Weasley is probably still studying," Albert said without hesitation.

"Are you trying to say I haven't studied hard enough?" Isobel smirked and dragged Albert straight to the Ravenclaw Common Room.

On their way to the Ravenclaw Common Room, they encountered many students returning to their respective Common Room, grumbling and cursing. Students from all four houses were present, and Filch's curses could be heard from further away.

"Does the hunter at that Hunting Grounds really keep a dragon?" Isobel asked her boyfriend curiously after everyone else had walked away.

"Yes, it's true. I secretly kept a Norwegian Ridgeback as a pet."

Since the dragon would be sent away tonight, Albert didn't bother to hide it.

"So, the rumors that were circulating the other day were true?" Isobel suddenly realized, looking at Albert with a strange expression. "The Ministry of Magic's surprise inspection didn't find the dragon because you hid it?"

"Hmm, congratulations, you got it right. You truly are my girlfriend. Here, this is your reward." Albert reached out and pulled Isobel around the waist, kissing her cheek.

"Actually, I even suspect that you were involved in this whole thing from beginning to end." Isobel felt that her boyfriend was always mysterious and knew a lot of things.

"If he helped hide the dragon, then this matter is most likely directly related to him."

"You can think of it as me helping Hagrid get the dragon egg, fulfilling his desire to raise a dragon, helping him hide the dragon from the Ministry of Magic's surprise inspections, and finally helping him send the baby dragon away." Albert readily admitted to this.

"It's hard to imagine you would do this."

"In my Prophecy, Hagrid was destined to get his hands on that dragon egg." Albert sighed rather helplessly. "Raising dragons is Hagrid's dream, his obsession. Even I couldn't stop him from raising dragons, so I just gave him a hand. After all, we're friends."

Of course, there were some things Albert didn't say. He used the dragon egg incident to get himself a lot of tasks and rewards, which was the most important thing. If he couldn't squeeze out any experience, Albert basically wouldn't interfere and would let things take their course.

"I understand what you mean." Isobel nodded. She had her own obsession back then. Isobel had paid a lot to kill Rowena Smith, and in the end, she couldn't easily give up or abandon him, even if it meant making some irrational decisions.

As they spoke, the two had already arrived at the entrance to the Ravenclaw Common Room.

"Should you do it or should I?"

"You do it, since I'm just an invited guest," Albert said with a smile, gesturing for me to go first. Then he leaned close to Isobel's ear and whispered, "What's it like to sneak your boyfriend into your college's Common Room?"

"What does it feel like?" Isobel repeated, "Nothing much, you can get in by yourself anyway."

"How about you take me to your dorm?" Albert suggested with a smile.

"Are you sure?" Isobel's expression turned strange as he reminded him. "Do you know that Hogwarts has a strict rule?"

"I know. It's mentioned in ' Hogwarts: Hogwarts, A History ' that the school's Founders believed boys weren't as reliable as girls. So, they put magic on the stairs to the Girls' Dormitory ' dormitories. But the Four Founders didn't consider one thing: we can get into the Girls' Dormitory without using the stairs." Albert winked mischievously and reminded him, "I have a Flying Broom here!"

"Fine, you win." Isobel said dejectedly, "You'd better not go to the Girls' Dormitory. The noise you make will disturb the girls who haven't fallen asleep yet. If the other girls find out that you're planning to sneak into the Girls' Dormitory late at night... you don't want to know what happens!"

"I thought the girls would be very welcoming and treat me to afternoon tea!" Albert joked with a laugh.

"If you didn't come at night, maybe that's possible."

"Good evening, the Grey Lady." Albert greeted the Ravenclaw ghost with a smile, showing no embarrassment at being caught on a date.

"Good evening. If I were you, I wouldn't be wandering around at night." The Grey Lady looked the two Hogwarts Genius Wizard up and down. "Although many people think that dating after curfew is a romantic thing."

After saying that, the Grey Lady floated away.

"It seems you know this lady quite well."

Isobel began to introduce Ravenclaw House to Albert, still insisting that if Albert had come to Ravenclaw in the first place, he wouldn't be as adventurous as he is now.

Albert simply smiled without saying a word.

During their casual conversation, the two talked about some trivial matters at home and introduced their families to each other.

Isobel also learned from Albert why he was chosen as Wildsmith's successor.

"Squib?"

Isobel nodded almost imperceptibly and said, "I guessed from the beginning that you might be a descendant of a wizard or Squib. I just didn't expect you to be a direct descendant of Smith."

"Those things are no longer important."

Albert downplayed the matter.

"Yes, it doesn't matter anymore!" Isobel suddenly said. "However, your sister might be in a little trouble. She now idolizes and is attached to you. To her, you are someone she owns exclusively, someone very special. In her heart, I'm probably just a bad woman who stole her brother, and there's no way she could like me!"

"Don't overthink it. When Nia grows up and becomes more sensible, she won't act like that anymore." Albert realized that Isobel's words might be right, but he felt that time could help resolve everything. People change, especially a young girl.

"Let's go check out the Astronomy Tower. If we're lucky, you might see Norwegian Ridgeback," Albert suggested with a smile. "You must be curious about what the little dragon looks like!"

After Isobel agreed, the two left Ravenclaw's Common Room together and headed towards the Astronomy Tower. On the way, they encountered Filch, the Mr. Filch patrolled near the Astronomy Tower.

After Filch disappeared at the end of the corridor, Albert whispered to Isobel, "Perhaps you've noticed as well, Filch is Squib. As long as the Disillusionment Charm isn't too bad, it can easily fool him."

"You know quite a lot." Isobel gave Albert a deep look.

"If you look closely, it's not hard to see his identity. Filch never used magic from beginning to end, not even once, and Muggle cannot be housekeepers at Hogwarts, so he can only be Squib."

Isobel watched Filch's departing figure and shook his head almost imperceptibly.

They arrived at the corridor on the lower level of the Astronomy Tower and found Malfoy acting suspiciously, wondering how he had managed to evade Filch's patrols.

"Malfoy will definitely get caught, lose points, and be put in solitary confinement," Albert said to Isobel as they began to ascend the spiral staircase.

"I heard you made a Prophecy for Mr. Malfoy," Isobel asked with interest.

"Yes, I did make a Prophecy, and that Prophecy is starting to come true now." As they spoke, the two walked down the steep spiral staircase and opened the wooden door to the top floor of the Astronomy Tower.

"How do they plan to get into Hogwarts?" Isobel asked Albert, looking at the cloudy night sky. "I remember reading in ' Hogwarts: Hogwarts, A History ' that outsiders cannot enter the school by flying because of the ancient magic protecting it."

"So how do you think they got in?" Albert's lips curled into a faint smile as he looked up at a certain spot in the school, Headmaster's Office window was still lit.

"You mean, the headmaster let them in?" Isobel immediately realized what was going on. "The headmaster knew about this?"

"Congratulations, you got it right!" Albert said happily. "Actually, I wrote to the principal and briefly explained the situation with Hagrid. Since the principal is not prepared to get involved, it means that he actually approves of what Potter and the others are doing."

"Are you trying to say that all of this was actually within your expectations?" Isobel said, raising an eyebrow slightly.

"That's one way to put it."

"I like your confidence." Isobel kissed Albert's cheek and reminded him, "But you should know that not everything will go as you expect."

She didn't want Albert to get too carried away, because sooner or later he would make a mistake and suffer misfortune.

"To be honest, finding you as my girlfriend was completely unexpected." Albert leaned close to Isobel's ear and whispered, "I really didn't expect that Hogwarts would have such a wonderful girl as you."

"So, you started looking for a girlfriend when you were in first grade?" Isobel chuckled, covering her mouth, but she still liked Albert's words.

"As for being in the same year, I don't really feel anything. Your sister is actually quite beautiful, but I guess our personalities wouldn't be very compatible. Gryffindor's Shanna, on the other hand, has a decent personality, and since we're both Muggle- born, we get along quite well." Albert said recklessly, while secretly observing the changes in Isobel's expression. "I think Shanna might like me a little."

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Isobel couldn't help but burst out laughing.

"Are you jealous?" Albert said seriously.

"Jealous? Why should I be jealous? What's there to be jealous of? Those girls you're talking about are just pathetic losers," Isobel said with pity.

That makes so much sense that Albert was completely speechless.

He suddenly understood why Fred, George, and Lee Jordan were usually rendered speechless by his words.

Just as the two were talking, footsteps came from outside the spiral staircase.

It's Potter and Hermione.

They were whispering about Malfoy being captured and put in solitary confinement.

Just as the two were about to open the wooden door and enter the top floor, Albert suddenly felt his cheeks being cupped and his mouth being covered.

Then the door was opened, but no one else was seen entering the Astronomy Tower.

Albert didn't quite understand why Isobel was doing this.

Suddenly, the sound of the box hitting the ground echoed from the Astronomy Tower.

The two immediately separated and looked in the direction from which the sound came.

"Who's there?"

An eerie atmosphere suddenly descended upon the scene.

At this moment, Harry, who was hiding under the Invisibility Cloak, was a little flustered. They had no idea that there would be other people at the Astronomy Tower.

"Potter, the Invisibility Cloak is impressive. I couldn't even tell where you were hiding." Albert lit his wand and, using the light from the tip, looked at the doorway and broke the silence.

"What are you doing here?" Harry asked Albert as he emerged from the Invisibility Cloak.

"Sorry to interrupt your date!" Hermione wasn't as stupid as Harry; she had seen them kissing when they came in.

The students at the school all knew that Albert had a girlfriend, but no one had ever seen the two of them on a date.

Unexpectedly, the two of them actually ran into each other here.

"Isobel is interested in dragons, so I brought her here to try my luck. Besides, don't you think this is a good date spot?" Albert winked at Harry and reminded him, "Potter, when you have a girlfriend in the future, you can bring her here for dates."

Harry was a little embarrassed, and even forgot about Malfoy being penalized and put in solitary confinement.

"Is this the dragon?" Isobel looked at the little dragon in the crate with great interest; this was the first time she had ever seen a living dragon.

"This guy's teeth are poisonous." Albert took a pair of Dragonhide Gloves out of the Transfiguration Lizard Skin Bag and handed them to Isobel, reminding him, "If you're going to touch it, remember to wear gloves. I don't want you ending up in the School Hospital because of it."

Hermione's expression immediately became complicated as she watched Albert take the gloves out of his pocket.

"It's really aggressive!" Isobel was bitten while petting the dragon.

Norbert was moving violently inside the box.

"Norwegian Ridgeback are all quite aggressive!" Albert drew his wand, and after the spell struck the little dragon, it stopped struggling.

"What did you do?" Hermione asked, puzzled.

"The Stunning Spell, you probably don't want Filch to cause you trouble, right?" Albert casually explained before changing the subject. "By the way, what were you talking about just now? You seemed quite happy."

"When we got here, we saw Malfoy being captured by Professor McGonagall," Hermione said excitedly. "It was all that guy's fault that Hagrid almost got expelled from school. He finally got his comeuppance."

"I really want to know what Snape's expression will be when he sees Professor McGonagall bring Malfoy to see him." Harry's face was also full of schadenfreude.

"Yeah, that's really interesting. I'd love to know too." Albert turned to look at Isobel, who was rubbing his fingers. "Are you alright?"

"It's still very small!" Isobel exclaimed. "It must not even be a month old. Dragons are truly very dangerous creatures."

As they chatted, several black dots appeared on the horizon, which must have been the friends Charlie had mentioned in his letter. They soon landed at the Astronomy Tower.

"What's wrong with it? It looks so listless?" a wizard asked, raising an eyebrow as he examined the little dragon in the crate.

"I used Stunning Spell on it to calm it down," Albert said.

"This is no easy feat; Dragon Hide are highly resistant to magic." The other wizards all looked surprised. They had also dealt with dragons before and naturally understood how difficult these creatures were to deal with.

"It's probably because this dragon is still too young and its resistance to magic isn't very strong," Albert said casually. "Give my regards to Charlie!"

"Yes, Mr. Anderson."

Charlie's friends were all cheerful people. After a brief introduction, they began to tightly bind the box with the ropes they had brought. They didn't dare to linger at Hogwarts and hurriedly rode away on broomsticks with the little dragon.

There's no other way; if the Ministry of Magic finds out they're illegally carrying a dragon, they'll probably be in jail.

"We'll be going now!"

Harry and Hermione breathed a sigh of relief, waved to the receding figures, and turned to say goodbye to Albert and Isobel.

Then, they forgot to bring their Invisibility Cloak and went downstairs like that.

"Why didn't you remind them?" Isobel asked Albert, puzzled.

"Let them suffer a bit, that'll teach them a real lesson, so they won't like to run around after curfew again." Albert gave him a look that said, "I'm doing this for their own good," leaving Isobel speechless.

She always felt that Albert simply wanted to see those two guys suffer; they didn't know the Disillusionment Charm, and they'd probably be caught by Filch when they went down.

Numerous points deducted, solitary confinement.

It's not hard to imagine what would happen when everyone woke up and was shocked to find that Gryffindor's grades had plummeted.

"You have such a twisted sense of humor!"

Isobel looked at Albert, who was examining the Invisibility Cloak, and asked, "Is something wrong?"

"Truly worthy of being Deathly Hallows!"

Albert couldn't help but think to himself that the Invisibility Cloak felt strange to the touch, as if it were woven from water.

"It's very special; you can't tell what it's made of at all." Albert handed the Invisibility Cloak to Isobel, then looked at the new quest that appeared on the Task Panel: collect three Deathly Hallows.

Upon seeing this task, Albert was speechless for a moment.

However, he was quickly drawn back to Isobel's attention.

"What are you planning to do with this?"

"Hmm, I'll take it back to Potter later!" Albert said without hesitation.

As they were about to leave the Astronomy Tower, they heard footsteps coming from below the spiral staircase.

"Perhaps Potter has told others about our nighttime outing," Isobel joked.

"Who do you think it could be?" Albert looked at the newcomer and greeted him in a self-answered manner, "Good evening, Dumbledore."

"Good evening, Mr. Anderson." Dumbledore looked at Albert and Isobel, not angry, nor did he blame them for being here in the middle of the night.

"Was that little dragon sent away?"

"It's already been sent!" Albert handed the Invisibility Cloak to Dumbledore without hesitation. "The Invisibility Cloak that Potter forgot to take with him, I think he's probably regretting leaving it on the roof now!"

"Yes, they've run into a little trouble." Dumbledore didn't reach for the Invisibility Cloak Albert offered, but said gently to Albert and Isobel, "I suggest you move your date to the daytime. It's never good to break School Rules, and staying up all night isn't good for your health."

With that, Dumbledore turned and left.

"Let's go back too!" Albert said to Isobel with a smile. "Don't be surprised, he's Dumbledore after all, he's quite open-minded and easy to get along with."