The night excursion to the forbidden corridor had been an unqualified success, despite the heart-stopping encounter with both a three-headed monster and the Headmaster himself.
Morris had successfully completed his reconnaissance mission, gathering crucial information about the layout and timing. Meanwhile, the twins had thoroughly satisfied their insatiable curiosity by finally learning the secret of the fourth floor.
Beyond those accomplishments, the twins had formally and enthusiastically invited Morris to join their informal night exploration group as a permanent member, even suggesting they could make it official with some kind of oath.
However, Morris had politely declined their 'generous' offer. He genuinely preferred to act alone during his night wanderings.
Moreover, his nighttime excursions weren't primarily for entertainment or thrills like the twins sought, but rather for serious study, specifically for accessing the forbidden knowledge contained in the Restricted Section of the library.
The twins, unsurprisingly, were clearly completely uninterested in the dusty academic appeal of the Restricted Section and its ancient books.
They much preferred the excitement of tormenting that angry caretaker named Argus Filch, leading him on wild chases through the castle and leaving creative surprises in his path.
Different priorities, different pleasures.
Soon, time arrived at October thirty-first: Halloween Eve, one of the magical world's most celebrated holidays.
Today was the day of their official operation, the real heist they'd been planning.
Hogwarts would host a rather lavish banquet on this special day.
When Morris arrived at the Great Hall during the designated dinner time, walking through the massive doors, the place had already been completely transformed and decorated for the holiday with impressive attention to detail.
Live bats swooped and fluttered over their head in coordinated patterns; their wings were creating shifting shadows across the enchanted ceiling that displayed a stormy October sky. Enormous carved pumpkins floated in mid-air at various heights, their flickering candle-lit faces were grinning down at the students below with expressions ranging from menacing to funny.
The four house tables were filled with foods like golden-roasted pumpkin pies still steaming from the ovens. Enormous heaps of candy pudding in various colors. The air was filled with the rich, mingling aromas of warm cinnamon, sweet caramel, and savory roasted meat that made mouths water.
The castle's resident ghosts were particularly active tonight as well, clearly energized by the holiday that celebrated their very existence. They floated back and forth high with unusual enthusiasm, occasionally diving through tables to the delighted shrieks of younger students, performing loops and aerial displays.
Morris found his usual spot and sat down at the Ravenclaw table, immediately reaching for the dishes before him. He began enthusiastically tasting the sweet sticky caramel pudding that seemed to be the evening's specialty.
Truthfully, Morris had always privately thought it was somewhat ironic that wizards celebrated Halloween with such fervor and tradition.
After all, in this magical world, things like skeletons and ghosts were simply part of everyday reality.
The holiday that Muggles used specifically to frighten themselves and play at being scared, dressing up as monsters and telling ghost stories, seemed to completely lack novelty or shock value for actual wizards who lived alongside the reals.
Or perhaps, Morris thought, it was simply a convenient cultural excuse to feast without restraint and indulge in sweets? An inherited tradition maintained more for the food than the original meaning?
But regardless of the philosophical reasons, Morris was totally satisfied with the outcome.
The caramel pudding before him was astonishingly sweet, coating his tongue with rich flavor. It suited his particular taste preferences perfectly.
After eating generous portions of cookies that crumbled perfectly and several helpings of the addictive pudding, Morris casually glanced toward the Gryffindor table across the hall. The Weasley twins, who had been sitting there enthusiastically eating just three minutes ago, had already disappeared from their seats without fanfare.
They were in position, and ready.
Meanwhile, Professor Snape remained at the staff table at the hall's far end, slowly eating a steak, his attention looked focused on his plate.
Excellent. Everything was proceeding according to plan.
It was time to depart and execute their plan.
Morris deliberately popped the last sweet bite of pudding into his mouth, savoring the flavor, then wiped the corners of his mouth with a cloth napkin to remove any stickiness.
He stood up from the bench naturally and casually, as if simply heading to the bathroom or getting more food, and walked with confidence toward the side door of the Great Hall.
The students around him were all still busy enthusiastically stuffing food into their mouths, laughing and talking, and had no time or reason to pay attention to one boy leaving the feast early.
Once he reached the relatively empty corridor outside the hall, Morris paused. Just to be absolutely safe and minimize any risk of detection, he raised his wand and cast a Disillusionment Charm on himself. The spell would prevent anyone passing by from easily spotting him, making him blend into the background.
On the stone stairs leading down into the dungeons, a sudden foul smell inexplicably assaulted his nostrils with intensity.
If Morris had to describe the offensive odor accurately, it was precisely like damp, unwashed socks that had been left to ferment in a closed container for ages, developing their own ecosystem of bacteria.
"Who threw a Dungbomb here?" Morris muttered to himself with disgust.
Which inconsiderate person had done this, and why? This was a heavily trafficked area!
He nearly vomited up the generous amount of desserts he'd just consumed, his stomach was lurching at the smell.
Fortunately, as he continued down and approached the Potions classroom area, the horrible stench finally dissipated into more normal dungeon mustiness.
At the classroom door, Morris canceled his Disillusionment Charm with a wand movement, allowing himself to become visible again. At precisely the same moment, as if they'd been waiting for that exact signal, two familiar red-haired figures appeared from behind a nearby suit of armor.
"You kept us waiting quite a while," Fred said with a hint of dissatisfaction in his tone, though his eyes were amused.
"Sorry about that," Morris apologized with a smile. "The caramel pudding was tempting me with its sweetness. I simply couldn't refuse its siren song. It would have been rude."
"That's a pretty lame excuse for being late," George said, somewhat speechless at Morris's unapologetic food-based reasoning.
The light joking ended there, their expressions were becoming more serious.
After the three conspirators had gathered and confirmed they were ready, they moved quickly but quietly into the classroom through the unlocked door, heading straight for the location of Snape's private office.
Snape's office was exactly as Morris had imagined it would be based on the man's personality: rigid, austere, and cold in both temperature and atmosphere.
There was a large, neat desk of dark wood, several straight-backed chairs that looked uncomfortable by design, and multiple tall bookshelves that reached all the way to the stone ceiling. The shelves were densely packed with books and various mysterious bottles and jars of different sizes, each containing substances in various states and colors.
On the desk's surface sat a pile of students' uncorrected assignments, stacked with precision. Red ink and a sharp quill waited nearby.
"Hey, Fred," George suddenly pointed at the pile of parchment assignments with mischievous interest and exclaimed in a whisper, "I can see your Potions homework in that stack! You got a 'D' grade. Want me to change it to something better while we have the chance?"
"Don't do anything stupid that will get us caught," Fred hissed urgently.
He lowered his voice and said with uncharacteristic seriousness, "Hurry up and get what we came for. I don't want to stay in this oppressive place a second longer than absolutely necessary. It feels like being trapped in a bat's nest, all dark and musty."
Morris, meanwhile, had walked with interest toward the bookshelves and their display jars.
Of course, he was only looking and observing, not touching.
If he moved or displaced anything, even slightly, Snape might discover it.
The specimen jars were all labeled in Snape's handwriting, each one recording a specific date along with various potion ingredients and their states of preservation or preparation.
Their professor was clearly conducting some kind of complex, long-term potion experiment that required careful monitoring.
Unfortunately, with Morris's current relatively basic knowledge of potions theory, he couldn't fully understand or deduce the ultimate purpose or goal of these particular experiments. The work was beyond his current level.
Just as Morris was becoming completely absorbed in his fascinating observations of Snape's private research, losing track of time...
"We should go now, Morris," Fred's voice cut through his concentration.
Morris turned around to see that Fred had already successfully obtained the small key to the potions storage room. It hung on a small, somewhat rusty iron ring, dangling from his fingers.
The three moved quietly out of the office, and Fred handed the key directly to Morris with a solemn expression.
"Remember the plan," he instructed seriously, setting all jokes set aside.
"Move quickly but carefully. After you collect the potion ingredients you need, restore everything to exactly its original state and position so it won't be noticed. If something unexpected happens, like Snape suddenly returning early from the feast, George and I will make some kind of loud noise or distraction outside to draw his attention away, and you should act according to the developing situation and escape if possible."
Morris accepted the key, and said with complete earnestness, "Alright, I understand. Thank you both for doing this."
He meant it sincerely.
Honestly, the Weasley twins were taking very considerable risk for his benefit this time, risking detention or worse.
This gesture of friendship moved him genuinely.
Good people, truly decent people...
After all, if they were caught in the act, all three of them would face severe punishment.
Of course, Morris had already privately resolved that if it really came to discovery and consequences, he would try to take the primary blame upon himself as much as possible.
"Click."
The storage room lock opened smoothly.
Morris gently pushed the door open with careful pressure, and immediately a rich, complex smell surged out from the dark interior, nearly making his breath catch in his throat.
However, this particular smell wasn't unpleasant at all, quite the opposite. It was the concentrated scent of hundreds of different ingredients mingling together, earthy and sharp and sweet all at once. It was even somewhat addictive and intoxicating.
"Lumos," Morris whispered, pointing his wand ahead.
A steady, bright white light appeared at the tip of his wand, illuminating the space.
By this light, he began to carefully survey his surroundings and locate what he needed.
The storage room was surprisingly spacious and impressively organized. There were several neat rows of wooden cabinets here, each one labeled with clear, readable writing that identified contents and locations.
The staff member maintaining this place, obviously Snape himself was keeping everything in perfect order.
"Asphodel root powder, valerian root, sopophorous beans..." Morris murmured to himself, reading labels.
Because the organization and cataloging system was so clear and logical, Morris quickly found exactly what he wanted without long searching.
The raw materials stored here were very abundant, clearly meant to supply an entire school's worth of students for years. He was only taking two modest portions of each ingredient.
Therefore, unless someone observed the containers very carefully and knew their previous levels precisely, one wouldn't notice any significant change in the containers holding these particular materials.
After sorting and carefully packing everything he needed into small vials from his pocket, Morris backed out of the room and closed the door quietly.
Good. Everything had gone smoothly without complications.
He gently pulled the classroom's main door open just enough to slip through, moving sideways through the narrow gap, then closed it silently behind him.
At the corner of the corridor, hidden in shadows, Fred and George were waiting there as planned, keeping watch.
After Morris returned the key to its original position in Snape's desk drawer, lifting the drawer's rail carefully just as George had instructed, the three quickly withdrew from the area.
Back in the first-floor corridor, safely away from the dungeons, Fred leaned casually against a cold marble column and asked in a low, curious voice, "Did you get everything? Was it all there?"
Morris nodded with satisfaction, feeling the reassuring heavy weight of the two small glass bottles now secured in his inner robe pocket.
He was already eager, almost impatient, to try brewing the challenging Draught of Living Death.
"We did have some unexpected excitement up here while you were in the storage room," George continued. "Shortly after you went inside, maybe five minutes later, there was a huge noise from upstairs! Sounded like a wall had collapsed or something massive had crashed. And something was roaring... I think it might have been a troll, actually."
In fact, Morris had also vaguely heard the distant commotion, though he'd been too focused on his task to investigate.
But this disturbance should have nothing to do with them or their activities.
He waved his hand dismissively, looking unconcerned. "It has nothing to do with us or our business. Let's go back to the Great Hall now and rejoin the feast. I need to eat something more to celebrate our success, and we should be seen there."
"Agreed completely." The twins nodded simultaneously.