After the Slytherin prefect's shouts outside the door, Draco sat up from his bed with a face as ghastly as a specter, lips twisted in displeasure.
You could see his eyes were barely half-open, his forehead straining upward with effort, and the bloodshot eyes peeking out from beneath his eyelids were filled with red veins.
Draco Malfoy—The People Also Cannot Sleep.jpg
Less than ten minutes—he'd only been asleep for less than ten bloody minutes.
Already exhausted, and now immediately awakened after just falling asleep, the young dragon felt like taking revenge on society.
But there was no choice—this was their Head of House's demand, and given the current situation, something rather unpleasant must have happened.
Draco silently rose, got out of bed, slipped on his slippers, grabbed his wand, and wordlessly pushed open the dormitory door and walked out.
"This version of Draco is much more likable."
Glenn thought to himself, also rising and heading toward the dormitory exit, locking the door behind him.
In the corridor, young wizards emerged from their respective dormitories one after another—some in their daily clothes, others in pajamas—all looking bewildered and confused, unclear about what was happening.
With so many people, the corridor became crowded, but fortunately the little snakes consciously formed several lines and advanced in an orderly fashion, so everyone quickly exited the boys' dormitory and successfully met up with the girls in the common room.
Snape was already waiting there. After briefly scanning the Slytherin students to confirm all the little snakes were present, Snape spoke in his characteristic low tone.
"I've just received word that something dangerous has occurred within the castle. The Headmaster has decided that students must now be gathered together for protection. So, we must immediately depart for the Great Hall."
Having conveyed the information Dumbledore had asked him to relay to the young wizards, Snape had no intention of saying anything further. He turned around decisively and led the way out of the Slytherin common room.
Seeing this, the little snakes hurried to follow their Head of House's pace.
Although they were quite curious about the dangerous incident Professor Snape had mentioned, the Slytherin students chose not to whisper among themselves during the march. So in the underground corridor flickering with candlelight, the Slytherin group led by Snape made no sound other than dense, rapid footsteps.
Their efficient and swift progress meant that all Slytherin wizards arrived at Hogwarts'Great Hall almost simultaneously with the Gryffindor students.
Compared to the Slytherins, the Gryffindors across from them appeared much more noisy and excited.
This was understandable—after all, nearly every little lion had witnessed the reason why everyone was being called to the Great Hall tonight.
Glenn slightly amplified his attention and soon spotted Hermione. The girl was turning her head, searching for Glenn's figure. As soon as she sensed something watching her, Hermione immediately turned her gaze toward the source and saw Glenn.
Glenn nodded at her, then took out a headset from his black ring and put it on, pointing to his ear.
Hermione understood, nodded as well, took out her own headset and inserted it into her ear, activated it with magic, then covered her mouth and spoke softly.
"Testing, can you hear me?"
"Mm, yes."
Hermione's voice was clearly transmitted through Glenn's headset, and Glenn continued asking:
"From the situation, your side should know something about the reason for tonight's events. So what happened?"
"Sirius Black has infiltrated Hogwarts."
Hermione whispered the most crucial information, then continued describing what she had witnessed.
"When we returned to the Gryffindor common room, we found that the Fat Lady's portrait—which serves as the gatekeeper outside the Gryffindor common room—had been vandalized, and the Fat Lady herself had fled somewhere to take refuge."
"Nearly half the canvas in the frame was torn away, with fragments scattered on the floor."
"Then Peeves apparently saw the fleeing Fat Lady and learned from her mouth who had damaged the Fat Lady's portrait."
"It was Sirius Black, right?"
As Hermione began relaying the events to Glenn, he had already cast a Presence-Concealing Charm and Disillusionment Charm on himself, disappearing from the crowd and moving to a corner where he could avoid everyone's sight. He took out his surveillance terminal and began reviewing the corresponding surveillance footage recorded in the device.
Location... eighth floor corridor, in front of the Gryffindor common room. Time... rewind. Playback speed... 100x.
The surveillance terminal's footage began rapidly rewinding along the timeline. Before long, Glenn caught sight of something suddenly appearing in the empty corridor with his excellent dynamic vision and reaction speed, and paused the surveillance playback.
In the frame, the escaped Azkaban prisoner Sirius Black stood facing the Gryffindor common room, his gaunt, haggard face showing a somewhat twisted, angry expression.
"Set the surveillance footage stored in the terminal for the front of the Gryffindor common room to 10:27:43 PM."
Glenn informed Hermione of the exact coordinates of the relevant surveillance footage through the headset, then set the surveillance to 4x speed and began watching from when Sirius Black first appeared at the Gryffindor common room entrance.
Entering the surveillance range, Sirius Black seemed to say something to the Fat Lady's portrait hanging in front of the Gryffindor common room door. His expression grew somewhat angry, then he stepped forward, swept his hand, grabbed the portrait's canvas, and tore it apart. However, this obviously wouldn't cause the Gryffindor common room door to open easily. Sirius Black probably understood this, or perhaps guessed that Hogwarts' mechanisms couldn't be so easily bypassed, so he turned and ran without hesitation.
"So he tore apart the Fat Lady's portrait to conceal information about his visit to the Gryffindor common room. What he didn't expect was that not only did Peeves accidentally encounter the Fat Lady who had fled to another painting and learn this news from her, but Hogwarts castle now also has a surveillance network that surpasses this era."
Hermione's voice came through Glenn's headset—she had also finished watching that segment of footage and was now using the surveillance footage to track Sirius Black's escape route.
This wave was truly a cross-temporal strike of justice.
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