Dudley walked into the secret passage, and the mirror behind him slowly closed, sealing the entrance once again.
"Lumos," Dudley whispered in Hermes.
He did not use his wand—that thing still had to be held in hand, which was not very convenient.
After reciting the spell, a glowing orb appeared before Dudley, illuminating everything around him brightly.
The secret passage initially led downward. Dudley walked slowly toward the lower area, and before long, the passage began extending straight in one direction, while the surrounding space grew larger.
"This seems to be a natural underground cave," Dudley thought to himself as he looked around.
He had come here to examine it before and confirmed this was a secret passage leading to Hogsmeade village. However, what puzzled Dudley was that although the space here was still quite large, it had become smaller compared to when he had come last time.
He examined the ground situation and found that some soil and rocks had collapsed from above.
"This place does not feel very stable anymore. It might collapse," Dudley said with a frown.
Just as he was preparing to continue forward, suddenly some faint footsteps echoed through the passage.
Dudley's expression immediately changed. He quickly extinguished the light and hid behind a large boulder.
"There are actually people in the secret passage? Students, or..." Dudley's eyes narrowed slightly as he looked toward the direction the footsteps were coming from.
This kind of secret passage was not actually very hard to find. If a student happened to stand in front of the mirror and recite the unlocking spell, they could discover the secret here.
Therefore, there should be quite a few people who knew about this passage.
As the footsteps approached, Dudley quickly distinguished that these were not the footsteps of one person, but two.
"I feel like this passage is about to collapse. There are lots of cracks ahead," one voice said.
"What a pity. This passage was quite useful," another voice replied.
"But even if this place collapses, we still have other passages to get to Hogsmeade village. It will not have much impact."
Upon hearing the first voice, the wary expression on Dudley's face immediately relaxed.
"I should have guessed who it was," Dudley thought to himself and directly emerged from behind the boulder.
"Who? Who's there?!" The two looked with terrified expressions toward a dark shadow in the corner. The weak light emanating from their wand tips could barely make out that it seemed to be a person.
But in the dead of night, and in a secret passage no less, how could anyone be here?
"You two really cannot sit still. The castle is so dangerous, yet you still snuck out," Dudley said with some amusement.
"Dudley!"
"My God, you scared me to death. I thought it was Professor McGonagall," the twin brothers cried out in surprise upon seeing Dudley, while also breathing a huge sigh of relief.
At least Dudley would not deduct points from them or put them in detention.
"Wait, how are you here?" Fred looked at Dudley in surprise.
"I am Hogwarts' Interroga... Judge. Is it strange for me to be here?" Dudley said.
"This..." Fred and George exchanged glances—they really could not find fault with that.
Dudley was allowed to violate school rules anyway, while the two of them had genuinely violated school rules.
"We just went to Hogsmeade village to buy some things. We did not do anything bad," George said.
Being caught by his younger brother's good friend was really embarrassing.
"Do not tell Ron," Fred said quickly.
"All right," Dudley nodded.
Just as the two brothers sighed in relief, Dudley continued, "So what is in it for me?"
The brothers looked at each other, and Fred said with a bitter smile, "Do you want some Butterbeer?"
"..." Dudley stared at them.
"Fred, maybe... we should give that thing to Dudley. We cannot use it anymore anyway, and in his hands, it might have better effect," George said after some hesitation.
"What thing?" Dudley asked, puzzled.
He had only been joking and would not really make things difficult for them.
But hearing the brothers say this, he became interested.
"All right, you are right that it would be more valuable in Dudley's hands," Fred said, taking out a folded piece of parchment from his clothing pocket.
"What is this... wait, there are traces of magic, but fortunately it is not dark magic..." Dudley took the parchment and instinctively activated his spirit vision to examine it, immediately discovering there was something wrong with this piece of parchment.
There were many weak lines of light on it, containing many complex magical transformations.
"This is a map," Fred said.
"The Marauder's Map!" George added.
"You use it like this," George continued, taking out his wand and pointing it at the parchment. "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."
The next moment, four names immediately appeared on the parchment: Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs.
Then came densely packed lines, which Dudley quickly recognised as a map of Hogwarts castle.
Not only that, but he also saw many moving dots, each labelled with a name.
"A real-time Hogwarts map!" Dudley was amazed.
This map's abilities were somewhat too powerful. It could actually display everyone's position in real time and label their names, and the map also contained some secret passages even Dudley did not know about.
For example, he noticed a passage leading directly from under the Whomping Willow to the Shrieking Shack in Hogsmeade village.
Because of the Whomping Willow being there, Dudley had not examined that place, so he had missed this passage.
"Not only that, this map can also break through many magical disguises. For instance, we discovered that even when Professor McGonagall transforms into a cat, she still shows up as Professor McGonagall on the Marauder's Map. In other words, Animagus transformations have no disguising effect on this map," Fred explained.
"We do not know about other things, but it should also be able to break through some transfiguration magic or potion effects," George added.
Dudley looked at the map in amazement.
Was not this map really drawn by Hogwarts' founders? A map that could display everyone's location in real time and see through disguises—such abilities were comparable to powerful magical artefacts.
"All right, this map is yours. You will not tell anyone about our business, right? Otherwise Ron will definitely tell Mum," George said.
"Thank you, I will absolutely keep your secret!" Dudley said solemnly.
The value of this map completely exceeded Dudley's imagination.
"Good, then we will head back first. You carry on with what you are doing," Fred said.
"Oh right, I forgot to tell you—the passage ahead is not in very good condition. It might collapse soon, so be careful," George warned.
The brothers finished speaking and headed toward Hogwarts.
Dudley looked at the Marauder's Map while walking toward Hogsmeade village.