When the clock's hour hand pointed to twelve, marking the beginning of a new day and the deepest part of night, Morris donned his dark robes and left the warmth and safety of his dormitory.
The common room was still in front of him in eerie emptiness, and the corridors beyond were completely deserted and silent. Only the echo of his own footsteps suspended in the still air, bouncing off stone walls and creating a lonely rhythm.
He had already deliberately lightened his steps, walking almost on his toes and placing each foot with care, but in this kind of oppressive silence, every single footstep still sounded especially clear and distinct.
Arriving at the first floor landing of the grand marble staircase, Morris stopped himself against the cold wall, settling in to wait quietly.
He and the Weasley twins had agreed earlier to meet at this location, chosen for its central position and multiple escape routes should they need to scatter.
Nearly three minutes passed. The surroundings remained completely still and undisturbed, showing no sign of movement or approaching footsteps.
Morris frowned slightly with growing concern, wondering if perhaps the twins had been caught or changed their minds. He called out cautiously to the seemingly empty air before him, "Fred? Are you there?"
As his words fell and dissipated into the darkness, ripples gradually emerged in the air before him like disturbed water.
The figures of Fred and George slowly emerged from invisibility.
"You spotted us?" Fred couldn't help but ask with surprise and a hint of disappointment, clearly having hoped to startle Morris with a sudden appearance. "How? We were perfectly still and silent."
"Just a guess based on the meeting time," Morris shook his head modestly. "Speaking of which, your Disillusionment Charm execution is much better than mine."
He had completely failed to notice when the brothers had walked up to him, hadn't detected even the slightest shimmer or distortion that might have given away their presence. They must have been standing mere feet away, watching him and waiting for the right moment to reveal themselves.
Hearing Morris's praise and recognition of their skill, Fred raised his eyebrows with pride, his chest were puffed out slightly. "How do you think we manage to never get caught by professors during our frequent night wanderings? Pure luck? Coincidence?"
"But you were just punished the other day," Morris reminded him, unable to resist deflating that pride just a bit. "Spent two whole days scrubbing toilets until your hands were raw, if I recall correctly."
"That was all because Fred didn't keep a good eye on the Marau—" George began explaining before being sharply elbowed in the ribs by his twin.
His words cut off abruptly mid-sentence as he winced and sheepishly touched his waist where Fred's elbow had connected with force.
"The what?" Morris asked with keen interest.
"Never mind that," Fred glossed over the slip vaguely, waving one hand dismissively. "That was just an accident, a one-time thing. Won't happen again."
Morris sensitively didn't press further into what was clearly a sensitive topic, respecting their desire to keep this particular secret. That was probably a little private matter between the twins.
He waved at the two of them and took the first confident step forward. "Let's go. We'll take this route through the east corridor. At this hour, based on his usual patterns, Filch should still be patrolling around the Astronomy Tower on the opposite side of the castle."
Watching Morris swagger ahead as their apparent guide, moving with ease through the darkened castle, Fred and George exchanged somewhat odd glances behind his back, their expressions were mixing surprise with curiosity.
Why did Morris seem even more adept and comfortable at this nighttime wandering than they were?
The three conspirators successfully made their way down to the underground level without incident, their journey was smooth. They stopped at the door of the Potions classroom.
The entrance to Hogwarts's potion ingredients storeroom was located inside the classroom proper, adjacent to Snape's private office through a connecting door.
And at this late hour, past midnight, Snape might very well still be lingering in his office.
They had to be extremely careful and quiet, making no sound that might alert him to their presence.
"We'll go in first to observe the situation and scout the layout," Fred instructed Morris in a low whisper. "Don't worry about us if something goes wrong. If someone comes to patrol this area, if you hear footsteps or voices, you just save yourself. Run. Don't try to warn us or wait."
Morris nodded in understanding.
Fred and George casted the Disillusionment Charm again, their figures were gradually fading from view until they became nothing more than barely perceptible distortions in the air.
The classroom door slid open slowly, creating just the smallest crack, barely wide enough for a person to slip through sideways. Then it closed again almost immediately with a soft click that seemed deafening in the silence.
Only Morris remained visible in the dim corridor, left alone to keep watch and wait.
Time passed slowly in the silence, each minute was feeling like an hour. Morris found himself counting his own heartbeats to maintain focus.
Five minutes later, Morris let out a small yawn, covering his mouth. He was getting genuinely sleepy despite the adrenaline and tension of their mission.
What on earth were those twins doing in there for so long? It was taking such an unexpectedly long amount of time.
"Click."
The door finally opened again, and two nearly transparent silhouettes emerged from inside with cautious movements.
Fred and George reappeared fully, canceling their charms and solidifying back into visible forms.
"Snape's still in his office," Fred spoke first, delivering the disappointing news. "And it seems he's not planning to leave early tonight. We listened at the door crack for a while. He should be grading assignments based on the sound of his quill scratching and the occasional muttered comment about student incompetence."
George added his own assessment with a resigned shrug, "If we want to actually enter the storeroom and take what we need, we'll still have to wait until the Halloween feast when we know for certain he'll be occupied elsewhere. Tonight was a bust for the actual operation."
Morris nodded calmly, not feeling particularly disappointed by this setback.
Today was just a reconnaissance mission anyway, meant for gathering information rather than accomplishing the actual theft. They'd confirmed the layout and Snape's unpredictable schedule which was valuable intelligence in itself.
"I'll head back to the dormitory then," he indicated to the two with a gesture toward the stairs. "See you tomorrow morning at breakfast."
Perhaps if he hurried, he could still make it to the Restricted Section for a quick visit and reading session before exhaustion overtook him completely.
However, Fred's hand shot out and grabbed hold of his sleeve, preventing his departure. "Don't rush off just yet, Morris. Since we're already down here and wide awake, keep us company a bit longer. The night is still young."
Morris immediately had a bad feeling about this sudden request.
"Where exactly are we going?" he asked with suspicion.
"Don't ask so many questions," Fred smiled with that particular mischievous expression that meant nothing good. "Just come with us and trust us. It'll be fun."
And so, despite his better judgment and growing sense of impending disaster, Morris was forcibly dragged back up from the dungeons to the staircase by the insistent twins who wouldn't accept refusal.
They climbed steadily up, passing the second floor, then the third, ascending higher into the castle's upper reaches.
They finally stopped in a certain isolated corridor on the fourth floor, the one mentioned at the feast.
Bathed in cold moonlight coming through tall windows, the place seemed especially quiet and somehow ominous. The very air felt several degrees colder than other areas, carrying an unnatural chill that had nothing to do with the season.
Morris recognized the place and was startled. "Isn't this the place Headmaster Dumbledore said was absolutely forbidden? The corridor he warned would lead to a 'most painful death'?"
"Exactly!" Fred snapped his fingers with enthusiasm, saying excitedly as if this was the best possible destination, "Last time George and I came here, we didn't manage to find the secret hidden in this corridor, but this time is different. This time we're prepared! We'll succeed!"
George added with matching spirited energy from his position beside his twin, bouncing slightly on his toes, "Ready for a proper adventure, Morris? Ready to discover what Dumbledore is hiding?"
"I'm going back to bed," Morris announced flatly.
He turned to leave without the slightest hesitation or doubt, his decision was instant.
He wasn't so idle or foolish as to waste time and risk painful death here with the twins on what seemed like a extremely stupid venture.
He wouldn't force himself to participate in dangerous activities that didn't interest him and offered no benefit.
The library would be infinitely better and safer.
The twins clearly hadn't expected Morris to refuse so decisively and immediately without even symbolic consideration.
Fred was quick-thinking and quicker moving, his hand darted out to grab the trailing tail of Morris's robes before he could get more than two steps away. "Wait! Don't jump to conclusions so quickly. Hear us out!"
"After all," Fred continued with his most persuasive tone, "we did think of a way to help you get those expensive potion ingredients you need. Fair's fair, Morris. You owe us at least a bit of your time tonight."
Morris sighed inwardly with resignation. "Fine, you two win. But if we die horribly, I'm haunting you both as a ghost."
He wasn't quite clear on why the twins were so intensely keen on bringing him along for their potentially lethal night wanderings and death-defying explorations.
After all, his presence should offer the twins absolutely no benefit or advantage and might even hold them back if danger arose. He was just a first-year with limited spell knowledge.
However, he could vaguely guess their motivation based on what he'd observed of their characters.
The twins were the type to do things according to their own interests and whims rather than practical considerations, and he was apparently on their current list of interests.
Simply put, they found him interesting and wanted his company purely for together fun and curiosity.
He really didn't understand what particular aspect of himself had attracted their attention and friendship so strongly, but he supposed he should be grateful rather than questioning.
"Let's go exploring!" Fred declared with enthusiasm.
He waved his wand in a complex pattern, casting Disillusionment Charms on all three of them. His spell execution was slightly more practiced and refined than George's.
In the pale moonlight coming through dusty windows, three blurred, nearly invisible silhouettes moved cautiously toward the depths of the forbidden corridor.
Twenty long, fruitless minutes later, after they had already walked back and forth along the corridor's length several times examining every visible feature, they had discovered absolutely nothing unusual or interesting.
No secret doors, no hidden passages, no mysterious sounds or signs—nothing whatsoever.
In such repetitive, fruitless searching, even the highest spirits and most infectious enthusiasm would gradually be worn away by boredom and disappointment.
At the start of what would have been the fourth complete round of examination, Morris stopped moving and spoke up with tired frustration. "How about we call it a day? This is clearly going nowhere."
"No," Fred shook his head stubbornly, saying with certainty, "This corridor definitely has something special and secret about it, otherwise Professor Dumbledore wouldn't have said those specific, threatening words at the opening feast. I dare say that wasn't a joke or casual warning. He meant it."
"Next," Fred continued, his determination was unshaken, "we'll thoroughly check every single room and door in this entire corridor! No stone unturned!"
Morris shrugged with resignation, accepting the inevitable.
Fine, he'd keep playing along with them and their obsessive quest. What else could he do?
He'd recently discovered that he only needed about five hours of sleep each day to function at full capacity.
Staying up late like this occasionally, sacrificing sleep for adventure, didn't matter in the grand scheme of things.
"You take that area on the left side, Morris," Fred assigned the task with a pointing gesture, dividing their searching territory. "George and I will cover the right."
Next, the group began a new round of searching, examining doors and checking walls for hidden mechanisms.
In the middle section of the corridor, Morris stopped before a certain ordinary wooden door that looked no different from any other classroom entrance. It seemed perfectly ordinary and innocent.
The door was locked securely.
But naturally, this couldn't stop someone who'd practiced the Unlocking Charm now.
"Alohomora!" Morris said clearly, pointing his wand at the lock mechanism.
With one Unlocking Charm, the lock opened with a satisfying metallic click.
His Unlocking Charm was getting more and more proficient with each use, Morris noted with satisfaction. Practice truly did make perfect.
He pushed open the door with a sense of accomplishment.
In the darkness beyond the threshold, three enormous eyes suddenly opened, each one was glowing with a crimson light.
Immediately after that horrifying sight registered in his brain, a powerful stench mixed with the abundant, overwhelming smell of wild beasts and rotten meat hit him in the face.
Inside the room, barely visible in the crimson glow, was a living, breathing, and clearly very awake three-headed dog of massive size.
"..."
Morris maintained his composure admirably under the circumstances.
He calmly, very calmly, closed the door.
He waved slowly at the twins not far away down the corridor. "Um, I think I've discovered something rather extraordinary behind this door. Do you two want to come take a look? You might find it interesting."