Today was once again the day for Dumbledore's Army to gather, and Neville had been waiting at this spot since early on.
He could confirm that this was exactly the place he had been looking for.
He saw Harry walk past the wall three times, and then the door would appear.
Once Dumbledore's Army dispersed and the last person exited the room, the door began to vanish.
Neville stood in front of the blank wall and mimicked Harry's movements, walking back and forth three times.
But no door appeared. He tried again, and the result was the same.
"Why is this happening?"
Neville was puzzled. "I want to enter that room from earlier."
He walked again with that thought in mind. This time, after he stopped, the door appeared.
He froze slightly, then realized he must have triggered some kind of condition.
Not wanting to overthink it, he stepped forward and opened the door.
The gem on Marvolo's Sword glowed briefly, then dimmed again.
Neville was full of confusion. He walked out of the room again, and just as he exited, the gem glowed once more.
"It lights up every time I go through."
With questions in mind, he walked in and out again.
He tried several times—it was still the same.
He entered the room. It was a training room.
He saw ten humanoid dummies, all showing signs of repeated practice.
He felt like a thief—Neville couldn't help but feel a little guilty.
He searched the room thoroughly, even checking the bookshelves.
But the Sword of Marvolo did not light up again.
Neville carefully recalled everything that had happened when he first entered the room.
"Could it be because I was thinking of something specific?"
He stepped out to test again. This time, he waited for the room to disappear.
Then he walked past the hallway three times, silently thinking of the room he had just seen.
After the third pass, the door reappeared.
He understood now: the door only appeared when you walked back and forth three times while thinking about the specific room.
"If that's the case…"
Neville furrowed his brows, wondering how he could find the place where something had been hidden.
With that thought, he waited for the door to disappear, then walked back and forth again.
"I need a place where I can find things."
This time, the door that appeared was different from the previous one. When he walked in, he found many Secrecy Sensors placed inside.
The Sword lit up briefly again before dimming. Neville knew he had found the wrong room.
He quickly walked out and waited for the door to close.
Just as he was preparing to try again, he heard the startled cries of some younger students.
"Oh no, Filch!"
"He's found us—run!"
"Kekekeke, where do you think you can run to?"
Two unlucky Gryffindors had been caught—judging by the sound, they were on the 6th floor.
Neville couldn't afford to keep testing. He lowered his footsteps and hurried toward the Gryffindor tower.
Just before the Fat Lady's portrait closed, Neville saw Filch, who had originally been on the 6th floor, now appear on the 7th floor—
And get blocked in front of a door.
Neville broke out in a cold sweat.
"John really shouldn't have given him those shoes…"
He muttered this to himself and returned to the dormitory to rest.
When Harry saw Neville come back, he asked, "Neville, where did you go?"
"I just went for a walk," Neville replied.
Ron said, "Hope you didn't run into Filch."
"I did. I nearly got caught," Neville said with a lingering look of fear.
That line seemed to trigger something, and Dean chimed in, saying that last time he just peeked his head out and Filch still caught him.
Seamus said he once saw the Weasley twins throw dungbombs into Filch's office, but they hadn't even made it halfway down the stairs before getting caught.
"Isn't Filch a Squib? How can he be so fast?" Harry joined in on the discussion about Filch.
The answer was: no one knew. Ron speculated that maybe Filch had suddenly learned magic.
Seamus refuted that, saying there's never been a Squib who suddenly could use magic again.
Neville occasionally threw in a word or two but never once mentioned that it was John who had given Filch those shoes.
When it came to John's connections with people, Neville himself found them hard to believe.
He seemed to be able to get along with anyone — even people like Filch and Madam Pince, who were notoriously difficult, could somehow get along well with him. Not to mention how Mrs. Norris adored him.
...
The next day, Neville returned once again to the 7th floor and paced back and forth three times in that spot.
This time, he changed his intention.
"I need a place to hide something."
He walked three times, and the door appeared.
Neville gripped the sword of Marvolo tightly and opened the door.
This time, the gem on the Sword of Marvolo burst into a red glow.
He had found the right place.
…
"Why hasn't Neville been around lately?"
Malfoy handed his mother's reply to John. He glanced at the Gryffindor table and didn't see Neville.
"Neville has things to do." John opened the letter and read its contents.
"Mr. K is currently busy and unable to leave."
John's gaze darkened slightly. Truly troublesome.
"Who is this Mr. K?" Malfoy finally asked the question he'd been holding back.
John casually said, "You can think about any friend whose name starts with a 'K'."
"A 'K' name?" Malfoy thought of Crabbe, but then reconsidered—Crabbe was still in school, would he need to be in contact with his mother?
He couldn't come up with an answer and sat there racking his brain.
In the end, he gave up. His mind went blank.
Anyway, John wouldn't do anything to harm his family, so who cared who he was contacting?
"Crabbe, Goyle, let's go."
He called over the two big guys and headed toward the Gryffindor table to begin his usual routine of lovebant—ehm—taunting and provoking.
John didn't bother interfering with Malfoy's behavior.
After all, Malfoy had his boundaries—he provoked but didn't cross the line, he insulted but never cursed someone's mother, he was nasty but didn't cast unforgivable curses.
With standards like that, what grounds did John have to stop him from pursuing true love?
He opened the Daily Prophet and saw follow-up coverage of the recent explosion.
Ministry Holds Gringotts Accountable for Secretly Keeping Dragons!
The cover showed a Gringotts goblin looking thoroughly disgusted at having his picture taken.
"Heh~ Old Barty really pulled this one off."
John couldn't help but chuckle. Originally, Gringotts had wanted to demand compensation from the Ministry of Magic, but in the end, they got completely played.
Now, not only did the Ministry not have to pay anything, but Gringotts had to face penalties for breaking the law.
Even Daphne was quite surprised. "My father mentioned Crouch before—I didn't expect him to be capable of something like this."
"The goblins did break the law. If they hadn't been so unreasonable, Crouch wouldn't have done it this way," John said as he flipped the newspaper over. On the back was the name of the latest Galleon Prize winner.
The Galleon Prize was still ongoing.
Probability games like this, whether in the Muggle world or the magical one, were dangerously addictive.
There were always people dreaming of pie falling from the sky.
Because of this, even wizards who normally never read the paper started subscribing to it.
And since all the Galleon Prize proceeds went into the Young Wizards' Fund, people could console themselves by saying it was for a good cause.
Just like now—he could hear groans of frustration coming from the Gryffindor table.
Lee Jordan's voice rang out regretfully, "I was just one number off!"
The Weasley twins burst out laughing. Their family had actually won the Galleon Prize once before.
Unfortunately, the prize that time was only seven hundred Galleons, whereas the current jackpot had rolled over repeatedly and now reached a whopping three thousand Galleons.
Everyone wanted to get rich overnight. Some even tried to cheat by forging winning numbers—only to end up being shipped off to Azkaban.
Daphne was in the middle of chatting with John when she suddenly heard Pansy's frustrated and disappointed voice from the side.
"I didn't win."
Daphne asked in surprise, "When did you start buying those too?"
Pansy didn't dare meet Daphne's gaze and muttered softly, "Just these past few days."
"What are you buying them for?" Daphne was even more confused. Pansy wasn't lacking in money.
But Pansy became even more guilty at that question. Astoria seemed to have figured something out and exclaimed angrily, "She's been spending all her money on that boyfriend of hers!"
"What?" Daphne was shocked. "Just how much stuff have you bought him?"
"You don't understand, he's a very serious student," Pansy defended him.
Daphne snapped, "Don't let yourself be fooled by him."
Pansy wasn't having it. "He wouldn't lie to me."
Daphne was furious. She wanted to go teach that guy a lesson but was stopped by Pansy.
Which made it even more frustrating.
"Pansy's completely blinded by that guy," Daphne complained to John.
John replied casually, "Pansy has her own judgment. If she's going to see someone for who they truly are, she'll need to do it with her own eyes."
Daphne thought about it and realized that made sense.
_________
o(*￣▽￣*)ブSupport and Read 12 Chapters ahead: Patreon/Dragonel