A broken Hogwarts

Chapter 18 Exploring the Castle
After having lunch in the auditorium, Owen waved to the little wizards and left the table alone.

"Aren't you going back to the common room?" Blaise asked.

"Well, I think I'd be happy to have a date with Castle this afternoon." Owen smiled and blinked his left eye.

There are no classes in the afternoon, and this time is perfect for exploring the castle.

The afternoon sun shone through the windows into the corridors of the castle. There were many students walking past scattered in the corridors, some in a hurry, some talking and laughing.In the portraits hanging on the wall, the characters are doing their own things. Occasionally, a portrait suddenly shouts, trying to scare the little wizard who passes the portrait alone.

The atmosphere in the castle is very peaceful. Owen doesn't know what changes his ability has brought to this place, but I hope it will be a good change.

Of course, there are also ominous places. For example, the chalk in every classroom in the castle has been inexplicably lost this week. It is said that Hogwarts spent several times more on chalk all of a sudden.

The administrator, Mr. Filch, has suffered from a nervous breakdown. Students often see him guarding outside a certain classroom suspiciously, pulling the sleeves of students who want to enter the classroom to question carefully, or hiding in the shadow of which classroom. Behind the desk, the little wizards who went to class were scared and screamed.

Owen wandered around in the corridors of the castle, exploring the real or fake doors with great interest, holding a piece of parchment in one hand, and drawing every section of the road he walked on with straight lines .This is an interesting process, maybe he can also make a Marauder's map himself.

In the shadow of a flight of stairs on the third floor, Owen saw Mrs. Norris again.Generally speaking, Mr. Filch should be not far away.

This unfriendly gray long-haired cat was sitting in the shadows. Its yellow eyes were staring at the corner of the stairs like two searchlights. Its back was arched as if it was ready to pounce at any moment. Owen was very embarrassed by his bony body. I can't see it.

After seeing Owen, Mrs. Norris's particularly protruding cat eyes narrowed, her triangular head raised high, showing a proud and provocative look.It seemed that it was still proud of the fact that it caused Owen a little trouble last time.

"Hey, Mrs. Norris, would you like some grilled fish?" Owen didn't get angry with the kitten. He dug out the food he had packed early and spread it out in front of the gray cat.It appeared to be a Maine Coon, but it was anything but imposing, with matted gray hair.

Mrs. Norris lazily sniffed the food on the ground and gently pulled it with her paws.

Perhaps it understood that the result of playing with Owen would be to be played. This time, it didn't put on a show, and its paws randomly opened up a small piece of grilled sausage, steak and half a chicken leg.After holding down a small piece of grilled fish, it took a small bite like the pickiest lady, then looked up at Owen maliciously, and slapped the grilled fish back to him with a wave of its claws.

Then, it focused its attention on the only remaining food in front of it, which were two dried small fish, which Owen picked from some dark dish at noon today.

Mrs. Norris put her nose close to the dried fish and sniffed it, showing a reluctantly satisfied expression. She ate the dried fish in two or three bites, then licked her paws and stared lazily at Owen.

"Do you like this fishy and salty dried fish?" Owen tilted his head, squatted down and stared at it.Being so picky, it's no wonder this guy was so thin in Hogwarts where there was no shortage of food. He thought Mr. Filch was starving it.

"Come on, let me touch it." Owen stretched out his right hand.The hair on Mrs. Norris' whole body exploded, she jumped away lightly, and quickly jumped past Owen.

Owen turned his head and found that Mr. Filch had been standing behind him at some point, staring at him with those bulging eyes.

There is another creature that walks silently in this world.

"Hi, Mr. Filch." Owen picked up the food on the ground with a paper bag, stood up and said hello, "I didn't violate the school rules."

"Stay away from my cat," Filch said gruffly, as if seeing Owen feeding Mrs. Norris, and his attitude was still friendly.Yes, it was not easy for Filch to show this attitude.

"Ah, I just like it very much." Owen said, "I've always wanted to get a cat, but I couldn't get one for various reasons. Maybe we can exchange ideas about raising a cat? For example, as a cat, eat Too much salt is bad for your health and you can easily get sick."

"It just likes to eat that, as long as it likes it." Filch hugged Mrs. Norris, and the stinky cat squinted and curled up in his arms very docilely.Owen seemed to see a hint of doting in Filch's dry eyes.

"In this case... I know that there is a kind of salted grass. This plant has a strong salty taste, but it does not come from salt, and it is not harmful to human and animal bodies." Owen said thoughtfully, "It can be used as A substitute for salt, used to pickle salted fish. I can find you some seeds..."

Filch squinted at him, always seeming to have a look of disgust and hatred in his eyes.He made no secret of his doubts about Owen. After all, as a squib, he had never felt much kindness in the magic world.

"What do you want?" he said viciously.

"Nothing, it's just a trivial matter." Owen pondered for a moment, then smiled, "If I have to say it, I would like to ask you about one more thing. I know that no one knows more about the castle than you. What happened. How about just using this in exchange?"

"You said, I'll think about it." Filch's suspicious and wary expression relaxed a little after hearing Owen say that there were trading conditions.

"Mr. Filch, since the first day of this school year, have any strange things happened in the castle that have never happened before?" Owen looked at him with burning eyes.

"Why are you asking about this?" Filch's expression became extremely alert, and he stared at Owen, as if he was watching a criminal who was about to commit murder at any time.

"Because it's interesting." Owen said casually, "Don't worry, I won't violate the school rules. If you don't believe me, you can test me. I have memorized all the Hogwarts rules by heart."

Filch narrowed his eyes, and after thinking for a long time, he said slowly in a hoarse voice: "Recently every classroom is losing chalk..."

Owen sweated a little, but kept smiling.

"The corridor on the right side of the fourth floor, the place where no one is allowed to enter, there will always be weird roars." Speaking of this, Filch looked malicious, and then muttered in a faint voice, "They Some kind of monster must have been brought in, it would be even better if it could take away a few bastards who violated the rules..."

The corner of Owen's mouth twitched. In fact, the Sorcerer's Stone is quite interesting, but it's impossible to get it, so forget it.

"Also, the number of students wandering around in the middle of the night in the past two days has increased several times, and they are all Hufflepuffs." Filch turned his upper lip and said through gritted teeth, "That's all."

"Huh? Do you know why?" Owen's eyes lit up.Hufflepuff students have always been the most disciplined in Hogwarts, and it must be unusual for them to do things that violate school rules.

"I don't know, I caught a few, and they don't tell me, and I'm not interested," Filch said.All he was interested in was his crash course on Squib spells, punishing unruly students, and finding a way to get schools to pass his long-held proposal to bring back corporal punishment.

"Okay, thank you very much." Owen nodded politely to him, then turned and walked away, "I can find the seeds of salted grass for you this Sunday, so goodbye, sir."

He walked away pensively, with Filch behind him and the cat in his arms staring closely at his back.

"Hufflepuff students go out in the middle of the night?" Owen thought, "Unfortunately, I don't have any friendship with the Hufflepuffs. Why don't you come out in the middle of the night to see? Well, I'm just not sure if it's..."

At this time, a snickering sound interrupted his thoughts.A wide grinning face suddenly appeared from behind the wall, with a big grin, and its evil black eyes were fixed on Owen: "Hehehe, the smart Peeves won the game, he is waiting for the kid to have a headache and cry." runny nose..."

"Peeves, you just appeared in front of me? You lost." Owen looked at him with regret, his expression extremely disappointed.

Peeves froze for a moment, screamed and kicked the overturned stone statue, and shouted, "Peves can't lose! The kid couldn't find him for the first week!"

"It's only a week. As a spirit body that has existed for a long time, don't you have the patience of a human being like me?" Owen looked at him seriously, "Or, do you think that I, a weak and pitiful little wizard, will go to you? A ghost that can turn invisible and pass through walls, is the game fair?"

"That's what the kid told Peeves!" Peeves jumped up and down, with his mouth bared, tore off a painting on the wall and aimed at Owen's head.

"You didn't think about the deep meaning of this test at all, and you didn't realize that this is essentially a game that tests patience!" Owen looked at him sadly, "I will only pass on such a precious secret to an existence with both wisdom and courage , Unfortunately, I thought you were the most suitable..."

"Peves is the most suitable! There is no one in the castle who is smarter and braver than him!" The painting in Peeves' hand fell to the ground with a "clack", and he covered his head and rolled in mid-air.

"Peves is willing to play another game with you, Peeves has never lost before!"

"There is only one test, I'm sorry." Owen shook his head.

The truth is, I don't know that so-called magic spell either.Owen added in his heart.

After speaking, Owen passed the shameless Peeves on his own and continued to explore the castle.

(End of this chapter)