As soon as Quirrell fainted, the Great Hall instantly descended into chaos.
Celestina Warbeck stood up from the Gryffindor table, looked at the panic-stricken looks of her juniors, and shook her head.
'Children these days have no grit at all. If it were my era, hearing about a troll, Gryffindors would have swarmed it en masse!'
Purple fireworks erupted from the tip of Dumbledore's wand, drawing the little wizards' eyes to him, upon which they calmed down.
Right, they had the greatest white wizard, Dumbledore. What was there to be afraid of?
"Prefects," Dumbledore began, his voice deep. "Lead the students back to the dormitories immediately!"
The prefects sprang into action, and the students of the four houses began to evacuate the Great Hall in an orderly fashion.
Audrey spotted two little fellows mixed into the Hufflepuff line, sporting a "tomato and scrambled eggs" color scheme; one of them even had a head of red hair.
She smiled. After today, Hermione would be thoroughly integrated into that small team. However, she had no interest in following them to watch, because she saw Glenda Chittock blending into the Slytherin line, heading towards the dungeons.
Out of everyone present, Glenda was the only one Audrey didn't want to lose track of.
Because Glenda still hadn't paid her the fee of three thousand Galleons!
As the group arrived in front of the Slytherin common room, Glenda quietly left the line, heading deeper into the castle.
Audrey switched to her Demiguise constitution and followed all the way.
'What exactly does Glenda want to do?'
She turned east and wound west, passing through two concealed secret doors, and finally stopped in front of a wall.
Audrey didn't dare get too close, only catching Glenda's intermittent voice.
"...Professor, ...look at you..."
"...unstable, ...persist..., must... strengthen..."
Audrey saw it clearly now; Glenda was currently speaking to a portrait on the wall.
"Audrey, come out. You've been following me the whole way."
Glenda suddenly raised her voice and called out.
Audrey's heart tightened. 'How did Glenda see through my Demiguise invisibility?'
Since she was discovered, there was no need to hide. The woman had called her by name, clearly confident in her assessment.
Leaving quietly now would cost her both face and substance.
Revealing her form, Audrey smiled. "Senior Chittock, what did you run off here for?"
Glenda beckoned, signaling Audrey to come closer. "I should be the one asking you that. Why are you following me?"
Audrey stood more than three meters away from Glenda, refusing to take another step forward.
"Because you haven't given me my three thousand Galleons yet!"
Glenda had thought of a hundred reasons for Audrey tracking her, but she never expected it would be for debt collection!
"So that's it." Glenda tossed out a letter of commission. The paper drifted lightly into Audrey's hand. "Here, take it. With this letter, you can withdraw three thousand Galleons from my vault at Gringotts."
Audrey blinked. "You aren't giving cash?"
Glenda shook her head. "What era is this? Cash! Three thousand Galleons would take several money bags to hold. Who does something so classless? It's too inelegant, like a nouveau riche."
Audrey: ...
'Although I have no evidence, I suspect you are insinuating something about me.'
"Alright, take the commission letter and leave quickly. Don't hinder me from reminiscing about my student days here."
'Reminiscing about student days?'
If she hadn't overheard those fragmented words just now, Audrey would have truly suspected Senior Chittock was meeting a lover here!
'Forget it, everyone has their own secrets. I only planned to coast for three years and run away, so why care about so much?'
However, before leaving, Audrey got a clear look at the sole portrait on that wall.
In the portrait was an elderly wizard with silver-gray hair.
He looked super similar to Uncle from Jackie Chan Adventures, except the hairstyle wasn't quite as exaggerated.
However, Audrey recognized him.
Professor Fig... a Hogwarts professor from a hundred years ago, the guide for the protagonist of Hogwarts Legacy.
This professor, who sacrificed himself to seal the power of ancient magic, was a respectable man.
Glenda Chittock actually knew Professor Fig?
Logically speaking, by the time Glenda was born, Professor Fig had already been dead for nearly eighty years!
Could it be that Glenda was autistic during her school days and ran here to receive psychological counseling from Professor Fig?
Judging by her cheerful appearance hosting the show, it didn't seem like it at all!
"Audrey, what are you still waiting for?"
"Oh, leaving now." Audrey turned and left without a shred of hesitation. 'The fewer secrets you know, the longer you live.' She understood this principle well.
After all, she was a Slytherin, not a Gryffindor!
"Goodbye, Senior!"
Without waiting for Glenda to say goodbye, Audrey quickly departed the area.
"Professor Fig," Glenda smiled. "What do you think of that girl?"
"She is much smarter than you were back then," Professor Fig's portrait said. "Miophe."
...
...
Audrey Apparated back to her dormitory.
Glenda Chittock was truly no ordinary person.
But what did that have to do with Audrey?
She tossed out gold coins, scattering them all over the bed, buried herself comfortably in the pile of gold, picked up a novel, and began to kill time.
Feeling something was missing, Audrey snapped her fingers. Momo immediately appeared beside her, promptly handing over fresh squeezed fruit juice.
This was the life she wanted to live!
Being able to have clothes handed to her and food fed to her—who would want to go on some adventure!
Eating hot pot and singing songs—wasn't that comfortable?
...
...
Inside a certain secret passage at Hogwarts.
Bode Gray was furious.
"Didn't they say Hogwarts is the safest place? Why has a troll invaded?"
"Audrey Astley has already returned to the common room! How are we supposed to catch her now?"
Bode Gray and the group of Greys and Water Snake's Fang minions behind him were all draped in white bedsheets, looking exactly like Gryffindors goofing around for Halloween.
They planned to use this as cover to find an opportunity to abduct Audrey.
But this sudden turn of events caught them off guard.
If they missed Halloween, they would lose their cover. A group of strange adult wizards barging into the school would be far too conspicuous.
Alan Ash spoke up from the side. "How about waiting until midnight and going directly to the dormitory to grab her?"
A member of the Gray clan immediately agreed. "That's right! Alan knows the password to the Slytherin common room!"
"It's just that the only problem now is the girls' dormitory has restrictions; boys can't enter."
Bode Gray's expression improved significantly. He spoke up, "A mere restriction can't stop me. Alan, do you know which room is Audrey's?"
Alan Ash froze. He had been at Hogwarts all these years, yet he didn't even know what the inside of the girls' dormitory looked like, so how would he know Audrey's residence?
Useless, all useless.
Bode sighed. It seemed the infiltration operation was going to turn into a raid operation.
'Kill all witnesses, and it counts as a perfect infiltration!'
...
...
Snape grimaced as he applied potion to his wound, but injuries bitten by a three-headed dog were not so easily resolved.
A troll appearing in the school—clearly, someone wanted to create a diversion. The only thing worth doing this for was the Sorcerer's Stone!
The Sorcerer's Stone hidden in the third-floor corridor, behind the trapdoor guarded by the three-headed dog, Fluffy.
But what was unlucky was that the three-headed dog Hagrid raised didn't buy his status as a Hogwarts professor at all, attacking him indiscriminately.
It had three heads!
With one careless moment, he actually got injured. Truly bad luck!
Even more unlucky was that little rascal Harry Potter. He gave no peace of mind at all, actually going to face the troll!
If he died, how could Snape have the face to see Lily when he eventually went to the afterlife!
Gryffindor!
The three-headed dog was raised by Gryffindor's Hagrid; the ones who bullied him in childhood were Gryffindor bad boys; and the one making him tear his hair out with worry now was Gryffindor's Harry Potter!
So starting tomorrow, he must increase the suppression of Gryffindor.
Snape secretly swore an oath to turn Gryffindor into Gryffin-less!
What he hadn't expected, however, was that the most suspicious one, Audrey Astley, was actually very quiet. She hadn't appeared in the third-floor corridor or the underground classrooms. Could it be she really had no ulterior motives?
Meanwhile, Audrey, whom Snape was muttering about, had long since entered dreamland. In her dream, she bought a small island, built a castle, and slept a big sleep inside a big vault.
Dreaming of something happy, she excitedly turned over, and a few Galleons rolled from the bed to the floor, making a sound.
The noise woke Jinhu.
He used his single good eye to glance at Audrey, who was giggling foolishly in her sleep, then shook his head.
Just as he wanted to go back to sleep, he seemed to hear unusual sounds coming from outside the room.
It was twelve-thirty at night. This late, were there still little wizards night wandering?
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