Chapter 32: Hidden Room
Considerations about Professor Snape's whereabouts were placed in the most important position by Shawn. Although Professor Snape hadn't explicitly told him he was no longer allowed to come to the dungeons to brew potions, he still decided to avoid Professor Snape.
The operational space for this wasn't too small either. After all, Professor Snape could be said to be Hogwarts busiest person. First, as a professor, he had to grade student assignments, record the learning progress of at least twelve classes, and prepare lessons. Second, as Head of House, he had to mediate student conflicts, catch students dating, and handle student problems. Finally, there were the special tasks Headmaster Dumbledore assigned him.
Looking at it this way, Professor Snape's irritability was completely understandable. Not only because classes were busy and continuous, but he also had to deal with difficult students every day. Shawn could roughly guess what Professor Snape often had to face—Merlin's beard! Professor Snape, please come quickly! Those Gryffindor students are causing trouble again!
Completely overloaded workload and no teaching assistant. If Shawn remembered correctly, Professor Snape's office was even at the other end of the underground... Lots of operational space.
Thinking this way, even the fireplace in the Great Hall seemed warmer. On the stone wall, the fireplace swayed with firelight until two shadows hazily flickered past.
"Oh, I must say, I've never found Charms essays so easy to write." Justin's lips carried a slight smile. His left hand held a magical lantern. His right hand placed a five-inch-long Charms essay paper and a light blue notebook in his bag.
"Well, Justin, I don't know who was complaining two days ago that magical essays were harder than equestrian." Hermione lifted her chin, squinted her eyes, and glanced at Justin with a "you're being ridiculous" attitude, then walked into the Great Hall holding a large stack of books.
They had obviously just returned from the library, still carrying a faint scent of ink. Completing an excellent class assignment was difficult. For example, the Charms homework, in summary, was: This is waving a wand, and this is reciting an incantation. All right, now write me a five-inch essay on the Levitation Charm.
The young wizards' expressions were probably: Huh? Me?
Don't think it's just written work, but completing it required too much independent exploration and thinking from the young wizards. So not spending time in the library made it almost impossible to write the homework. And learning to look up appropriate materials was an important first lesson.
As a result, Hermione and Justin often spent time in the library. Compared to Hermione, who had memorized all first-year textbooks and could quickly find what she needed, Justin, who wasn't as familiar with the textbooks, progressed very slowly. Combined with Professor Binns's confusing essay assignment, the young wizards—at least those who wanted to do their homework well—were struggling.
But today Justin had not only finished the one-foot-long History of Magic essay but had even written the Levitation Charm essay in three hours. Because it was extra homework assigned by Professor Flitwick, even Hermione couldn't work this quick.
"You wrote a decent Charms essay, yet your Levitation Charm didn't improve at all during afternoon practice..." Hermione lifted her face and glanced at Justin. "I'm guessing you used someone else's homework as a reference. That person must be Shawn."
"Oh, all right, you're half right. Shawn told me his method." Justin showed no embarrassment at being found out. Instead, he smiled sincerely and said, "Although I'm sure Shawn would agree to me telling you this method, I still should ask him first... Look, he's right there."
Hermione made an "oh" sound, not thinking any student's method could be that valuable, even if that person was Shawn. However, she still automatically searched for a certain young wizard's figure. The Great Hall was full of students in the same uniforms walking around. Hermione wondered if Justin had been mistaken.
Just then, Shawn suddenly sat down at their table. "Shawn." Justin greeted enthusiastically.
"Yeah." Even while wrestling with his roast chicken, Shawn managed to respond.
"Would you mind if I shared your essay method with Hermione?" Justin said in a low voice.
"Not at all." The answer came before he finished speaking, muffled by roast chicken.
"Oh good." Justin's smile became even brighter. He passed the parchment to Hermione. "You have to look at this, Hermione."
"All right, but I must say, I don't think..." Hermione brushed back her hair and took the parchment from Justin.
Ten minutes later, Shawn sipped pumpkin juice. The sweet taste always made him feel happy.
"I must say, this is brilliant structure. Oh... if only I'd seen it earlier..." Just then, Hermione beside him suddenly let out a frustrated sigh. Shawn's hand jerked, and the pumpkin juice swayed.
He looked over and discovered Hermione's face was gradually reddening, the tips of her ears turning light pink.
"Shawn, ah, I mean..." Hermione stammered. She wasn't used to receiving compliments in front of the person she was praising.
Fortunately, Shawn was focused on his meal and hadn't heard anything. Justin quickly stepped in. "She means—Hermione said that essay method is fantastic! And your Charms notes—if only I could apply theory to practice..." He smoothly changed the subject, deflecting the awkward moment while redirecting the topic to Charms.
"Yes, practice is important." Shawn nodded. He was still thinking about whether the dungeons would be safe tonight. Obviously not. Professor Snape would be down there brewing potions, and brewing potions always took considerable time. So he'd spend tonight on the other six subjects instead. The most useful right now was Charms, which meant finding somewhere to practice.
"We're going to practice Charms. Shawn, want to come?" Justin suddenly spoke. As he said this, his light gray eyes brightened noticeably.
Shawn was slightly stunned.
A few minutes later, three figures slowly passed through the corridor and walked up the moving staircases. Hogwarts had a total of one hundred and forty-two staircases. Some were wide and grand; some were narrow, small, and rickety; some led to different places every Friday; some had steps that would suddenly disappear halfway up—you had to remember where to jump over.
There were also many doors here. If you didn't ask them politely to open, or poke exactly the right spot, they wouldn't open for you. Some doors weren't real doors at all, just solid walls that looked like doors. It was difficult to remember where things were, because everything seemed to be constantly moving. People in portraits also constantly visited each other. Justin swore that even suits of armor could walk.
In such a changing castle, a hidden room didn't seem so strange.