The Chase in the Castle

Having spent too much time in the Room of Requirement, the group hurried towards the Great Hall after being reminded by Qiu and Kanna.

"I can't believe we missed the Halloween party."

Fred walked briskly ahead, muttering to himself, "Pumpkin Pasty... pork chop... meat patties..."

"Shut up, Fred," George said irritably, following closely behind him. "I wasn't hungry at all before, but now I feel like I could eat a whole cow."

The group quickened their pace and soon arrived at the end of the corridor.

Just turn this corner and walk a short distance ahead to the stairs. Follow the stairs down to reach the Great Hall.

At that moment, Fred, who was walking at the front and was the first to leave the corridor, suddenly stopped and asked, "Wait, is the dinner party over?"

"How could that be..." Kanna said, "The banquet has only been going on for ten minutes, there's still a long way to go, are you out of your mind?"

"Then why have some people already returned?" Fred asked, pointing ahead.

"What?"

The others quickly walked to the corner, then turned around and looked in the direction he was pointing.

Not far away were the stairs, and further ahead, a dark figure was standing in front of a huge portrait.

The lighting was dim, and they couldn't make out the figure's appearance, but they recognized the painting.

The portrait of the Fat Lady also serves as the entrance to the Gryffindor Common Room.

"That's strange, who is this?" George said instinctively, "He's already full in just ten minutes..."

Before he could finish speaking, the Fat Lady in the portrait let out a huge scream that almost pierced eardrums.

"You're Sirius..."

"Sizzle!"

The figure raised its hand and frantically tore at the portrait of the Fat Lady.

"Let me in... he's inside... let me in!"

His voice was strange, hoarse and muffled, as if squeezed out of his throat, sounding more like the growl of some kind of animal.

"What did the Fat Lady just say... he's Sirius Black?"

Fred seemed to only just realize what was happening, but he was quick to react, immediately drawing his wand.

"Obviously." Cedric replied, staring intently at the dark figure ahead, as if facing a formidable enemy.

The other person also noticed the commotion and suddenly turned around.

A beam of light shone on his face...

His dirty, messy hair hung down to his elbows, his eyes were sunken, and his waxy white skin was taut on his cheekbones, making him look like a skeleton covered in skin.

"It really is Black!" Fred exclaimed, even more nervously. "He looks exactly like the portrait in the Daily Prophet."

Upon hearing his words, Black grinned maliciously, like a wild beast about to go berserk.

"Stupefy!"

"Incarcerous!"

"Petrificus Totalus!"

Without the slightest hesitation, Cedric and the others simultaneously unleashed their most powerful spells.

Five beams of light of different colors flew straight toward Black.

But the other party reacted just as quickly.

While the others were chanting incantations, Black had already crawled on all fours and, with a strange and agile movement, dodged all the spells.

He then maintained this hand-and-foot-using posture and quickly escaped from the other side of the corridor.

"We can't let Black get away! He definitely doesn't have his wand yet!" Fred roared, and just as he was about to give chase, he discovered that someone was faster than him.

"I'll go after them, you guys go to the Great Hall and inform the professor!"

Without turning his head, Kyle said, "I dealt with the dark wizard Oren in my first year, I have experience..."

Perhaps because he was in too much of a hurry, Kyle knocked over a suit of armor as he ran out, which happened to block Fred's path.

Because of this delay, by the time Fred looked up again, Kyle had already disappeared on the other side of the corridor.

"Wait, it's too dangerous for you to be alone..." Fred shouted.

But Kyle didn't stop.

After leaving the corridor and passing through several more, he soon spotted Black.

The other person lifted a tapestry painted with Dragon and was about to crawl into the passage behind.

"Stop!"

Kyle unleashed a spell that exploded near Black's ear.

He had intended to use this method to force Black to stop and talk to him, but the other party ignored the spell that was right in front of him. Not only did he not stop, but he also sped up and disappeared into the passage in the blink of an eye.

This is a shortcut to the fourth floor; the exit is located in an empty classroom.

This time, Kyle didn't chase after them; he just peeked into the passageway.

Black was clearly overly nervous and only wanted to leave the castle as soon as possible; he probably wouldn't listen to anything being said at this point.

Explaining would be a waste of time; who knows, before I could even get a word in edgewise, other people would come over.

"Kyle ..."

What you say comes true.

Kyle had barely put the tapestry down when Fred, George, Cedric, and Kanna came running up, panting.

"Why are you all here?" Kyle turned and asked, "Why didn't you go to the Great Hall to inform the professor?"

"What nonsense are you talking about... How could we possibly let you go and deal with Black alone?" George said, displeased.

"Autumn has already gone to the Great Hall," Cedric said.

"You ran too fast just now, we had to ask Peeves to find your location... Where's Black...?"

"Are you alright?" Kanna stepped forward anxiously and asked, "Are you hurt?"

"No," Kyle said, "But Black ran away, and I couldn't catch him."

"Even you couldn't catch up?" Fred asked in surprise.

To be honest, they had only considered whether Kyle would be in danger facing Black alone, but they never thought he would lose him.

Kyle had been creating Hogwarts Map for four years straight, and he knew every path in the castle like the back of his hand.

Is Black really that amazing...? How did he manage to escape?

"There's nothing I can do..." Kyle shrugged. "He seems to know the castle very well and always manages to find the perfect escape route. He disappeared when I got close enough to him."

"Oh, right, Black also graduated from Hogwarts." George suddenly remembered something. "I remember the Daily Prophet said he was also a Gryffindor, so he must be very familiar with the Seventh Floor."

Fred glanced at the tapestry depicting Dragon nearby and said thoughtfully, "Do you think it's possible he might be from...?"

"So you've all been here..."

A familiar voice came from behind, interrupting Fred's words.

Everyone turned around.

Professor Dumbledore was standing not far behind them; no one noticed how he appeared, as if he had always been there.