Daphne tugged on the cabinet door, but it did not budge in the slightest. It looked like Professor White had sealed it with a spell.
"Hey, you—" Seeing that Daphne was ignoring his warning, Cedric immediately stood up, trying to stop the overly curious young witch.
"Aren't you curious about what's inside the cabinet?" Daphne shot back. "It might even be related to the secret Professor White went to discuss!"
Cedric fell silent at once, because he really was quite curious about what was inside the cabinet. The flame of curiosity had already been burning in him for several days.
His patience had long since reached its limit. Now that Daphne had stirred him up, he was finding it hard to hold back.
Astoria had intended to stop her sister, but after glancing at Rhys and seeing that he too looked thoroughly interested, she gave up the idea.
It seemed Rhys, like her, was also very curious about Professor White's "secret."
Since everyone wanted to see what was inside the cabinet, why stop her sister? Even if Professor White came back later, it would be Daphne alone who got punished. Astoria thought this rather darkly.
It was clear that there was more than one "clever person" in the room. The young witches and wizards who had developed a strong interest in the cabinet's contents were all hoping Daphne would be the one to reveal the answer.
Only Hermione still retained a trace of rationality.
"Isn't this a bad idea…" she said hesitantly.
"Is there any school rule that forbids it?" Rhys asked her, instantly leaving the young girl speechless.
After Rhys voiced his stance, Daphne had even fewer reservations. At the very moment he spoke, she had a sudden realization: Professor White had said those words, yet had not left behind any instruction absolutely forbidding them from opening the cabinet. That meant she was hinting that they definitely should open it!
Daphne felt as though she had seen through everything.
'A thoughtful little witch like me really deserves a proper reward!' Daphne praised herself smugly in her heart.
Not only did she think this, she even said her reasoning out loud.
Cedric, Hermione, and Astoria all fell into silence at the same time, while Rhys was wrapped in shock.
'Legilimency? Or did someone use Polyjuice Potion? Where is the real Daphne?' A string of thoughts flashed through his mind.
But remembering that the Daphne before him had not drunk anything for several hours, Rhys could only accept reality. Daphne had really guessed Helga's intentions.
No matter how winding the path, the destination was the same.
After a deathly silence, the young witches and wizards present gradually began to be swayed. After thinking seriously for a moment, they realized Daphne's reasoning actually sounded fairly convincing.
Seeing that everyone had tacitly approved her actions, Daphne no longer hesitated and directly drew her wand.
"Alohomora!" With a crisp click, the cabinet door sprang open.
Cedric had originally been only half-convinced by Daphne's words, but when he saw the cabinet open with such a simple spell, he suddenly felt that Daphne might actually be right.
Everyone present, including Rhys, craned their necks to peer into the cabinet.
Then they saw a puppet clad in chainmail.
Seeing that Daphne had finally opened the cabinet as guided, Rhys secretly let out a sigh of relief. Excellent. Without this girl, he would have had to think of other methods. Daphne had truly done him a big favor.
Daphne, who stood closest to the puppet, saw the clearest. That suit of chainmail was far too familiar to her. The moment she saw it, her abdomen began to ache faintly.
Just then, the puppet exposed to the air suddenly opened its tightly shut eyes.
In an instant, the originally ordinary glass eyeballs were shrouded in a layer of blood-red light, looking incomparably eerie. A single glance was enough to stir an inexplicable agitation deep in one's heart.
Rhys shot to his feet.
He lunged forward in a single stride, grabbed Daphne by the collar, and flung her backward. Before the other young witches and wizards in the office could react, he roared, "Down!"
What followed was the explosive whistle of something heavy tearing through the air, a thunderous boom that made the castle tremble, and the shattering crash of glass. The office instantly descended into chaos.
When the others came back to their senses, they discovered that a gigantic sphere of sand, nearly reaching the ceiling, had abruptly appeared inside Professor White's office.
The sand sphere radiated extremely powerful magical fluctuations, and Rhys was nowhere to be seen.
"Rhys? Where are you?" Daphne shouted loudly.
"Here." Rhys's somewhat muffled voice came from inside the sand sphere.
"Great, I'll—" Daphne immediately drew her wand, a faint red glow already gathering in her other palm. She was about to rescue Rhys from the sand sphere.
"Don't worry about me. You all go after that puppet immediately. It must not be allowed to escape Hogwarts. That is extremely important! Use whatever methods you have, at any cost! I'll be fine here!"
"But—" Daphne still wanted to say something, but Rhys inside the sand sphere ordered her to act at once.
Astoria was the first to react. In a few quick strides, she rushed to the window that had been smashed open by the puppet.
She saw that the puppet had already landed lightly on the ground like a large bird and was now sprinting toward the Forbidden Forest.
"Go, quickly! Once I deal with this spell, I'll come meet up with you!" Rhys's repeated urging rang in her ears. Astoria no longer hesitated and jumped straight out through the broken window.
Hermione followed right behind her. She ran to the window, took a deep breath, and leapt down.
Seeing both Hermione and her sister move, Daphne could only suppress her worry for Rhys and jump out through the broken window after them.
Cedric: ???
He hurried to the window and discovered that they were gliding through the air, rapidly closing in on the fleeing puppet. Seeing this, Cedric sucked in a sharp breath.
Since when did all three of them know flying magic?!
An awkward expression flashed across Cedric's face, because he seemed to be the only one present who could not use flying magic.
It seemed to be a side effect of his domain. In any case, he felt as if he were "stuck" to the earth itself, completely unable to lift off. Even though his control over magic was already as smooth as flowing water, he still could not take to the sky using flight magic.
"Sigh…" After letting out a breath, Cedric jumped straight out of the window.
However, the moment he touched the ground, the earth seemed to turn into liquid, allowing Cedric to "sink" into it.
With more than half his body submerged in the soil, Cedric shot toward the Forbidden Forest at high speed like a swordfish.
Once all the young witches and wizards present had gone off in pursuit of the puppet, Rhys stopped pretending.
His domain spun up at full speed, causing the moisture in the air to cling to the sand's surface.
Very quickly, the sand was completely eroded away, and he freed himself from the sand sphere.
____
12 Chaps ahead at Patreon.com/HornyFBI