Peeves floated up to an ordinary-looking stone wall and tapped out a strange rhythm with his fingernails. The stones slowly shifted aside, revealing a narrow spiral staircase leading underground.
"This is a back entrance left by the guardians," Peeves said, unusually serious. "But only someone of the Black bloodline can enter the final door. Hurry, little Black—that Quirrell has already gone in."
The three of them filed inside. The staircase was dark and damp, filled with the musty smell of age and an indefinable sense of oppression. Yulian led the way, a faint silver glow shining from the tip of his wand to light the path.
They didn't notice the small figure sneaking along behind them, not far away.
Susan Bones.
A first-year Hufflepuff, she clutched a small, glowing toy toad—the gift Uncle Cassian had given her last time.
Her uncle had told her that if she saw anything "interesting," she should record it with the toad. She could trade the recordings for more toys.
She just wanted to see where Lyria was going at night. The Forbidden Forest incident had made her very worried, and Uncle Cassian had also told her to "look out for her classmates' safety."
This didn't count as breaking school rules, right? She was just... concerned about a classmate.
What she didn't know was that another concerned classmate, Neville, had already been knocked to the ground by Petrificus Totalus.
The way was far from easy. They stumbled over obstacles everywhere, and most of the passages were blocked, probably because nobody had used them for years.
Luckily, there were three of them, and they kept clearing away rocks and dirt. If he'd been alone, he'd have worked himself to death, Yulian thought.
Especially the tree roots that had appeared from who-knew-where. If not for Lyria's