Hogwarts: Don't call me the Staff Maker

Chapter 709 The Instigator

Chapter 709 The Instigator

With a deafening roar, the explosion from the underground classroom was heard throughout almost the entire castle. After the intense heat subsided, Siron heard a familiar voice coming from the end of the stairs.

"Disarm you!"

"Stop! Don't run!"

"Stop chasing, Harry! Go check on Siren!"

"Damn it—"

The figures at the end of the stairs multiplied into three, and the next second, Harry, who was running in the lead, had already arrived near Siron.

After seeing the three of them clearly, Celen breathed a slight sigh of relief, but he did not put down his wand, and the diary was still floating up and down three inches above his shoulder.

Having just experienced what happened, Siron had to consider whether the three people in front of him were the real Harry, Ron, and Hermione, or someone else disguised using Polyjuice Potion.

At the same time, the three of them also saw Xilun.

"Thank God—" Harry hurried to Siren's side. "We just heard an explosion. Are you alright?"

.

"Luckily, we escaped unscathed," Siren said. "What are you doing here?"

"Because I saw from the Marauder's Map that Snape wasn't in the underground classroom at all." Harry pulled out a tattered piece of parchment.

"We'll talk about that later," Ron said, running up from behind. "We'd better hurry and catch up with Crabbe and Goyle; we can't let them get away!"

"Oh right!"

Harry suddenly realized something, turned around quickly, and ran back towards the foyer.

Without hesitation, Xilun ran up the stairs immediately.

After seeing the Marauder's Map, he could confirm that the Harry in front of him was real, so he naturally didn't need to be wary of anything anymore.

The explosion was very loud; almost the entire castle heard it. When Xilun emerged from the underground classroom, the hall was already crowded. Everyone huddled together, whispering amongst themselves, eager to know what had happened.

Soon, Professor McGonagall arrived as well.

"Oh my God—" she pursed her lips tightly, "What on earth happened here!"

"It's Crabbe and Goyle!" Harry shouted immediately. "They've set a trap to kill Siron!"

"What—" Professor McGonagall looked at Siron, "Is this true?"

"It's true." Siren nodded calmly. "And they almost succeeded."

Professor McGonagall glanced instinctively at the staircase leading to the underground classroom and immediately felt the unusual heat lingering in the air.

Those were not normal magical traces; even though they had been extinguished, one could still sense the violent and uncontrollable aura of dark magic.

"Fierce Fire————"

Professor McGonagall swayed and nearly lost her balance, but Hermione grabbed her arm just in time.

"Thank you, Miss Granger." Professor McGonagall's face turned pale. She never imagined that she would one day find traces of the Fiendfyre curse at Hogwarts.

"I'll tell the headmaster about this," Professor McGonagall said. "Until the headmaster returns—Siron, and Potter, Weasley, Granger, you all come with me."

"Wait a minute, Professor," Siron said. "There should be another Dark Magic item in the underground classroom, on the door of Professor Snape's office."

"There are also dark magic items?" Professor McGonagall said incredulously, her lips pressed even tighter.

She didn't answer Xilun's question, but went to the underground classroom by herself.

About ten minutes later, Professor McGonagall returned. She walked slowly, holding a wand in one hand, with a black skull wrapped in a Bubble Head Charm floating in front of her.

The skull was only the size of a Siegfried and was black, making it almost invisible in the dark underground classroom. No wonder Siren didn't see it immediately.

Several bolder students tried to get closer to get a better look, but were immediately reprimanded sternly by Professor McGonagall.

"Hufflepuff deducts twenty points. Mr. McMillan, everyone step back five feet and stand still. Don't come near me if you don't want to lose your lives—"

Everyone immediately scattered and stood still, while Siron and the others followed Professor McGonagall up the stairs.

Professor McGonagall walked slowly, and it took her about fifteen minutes to reach the principal's office on the eighth floor.

"You all wait here, and you're not allowed to go anywhere." With that, she left.

Siren had lost count of how many times she had been to the headmaster's office; Harry was also a frequent visitor.

But Ron and Hermione rarely had the chance to come; everything here deeply attracted them.

"Look, Hermione! What's that silverware on the table spraying?"

"I don't know, but it's definitely not water," Hermione said without turning her head.

Her attention was focused on the huge bookshelf behind the table. It was clear that Hermione wanted to go up and browse through the books Dumbledore was reading, but she had to restrain herself and maintain basic politeness.

"Now can you tell me?" Sirius asked Harry, "Why did you come to the underground classroom?"

"Because of this." Harry took out the Marauder's Map again.

"Even though you said that, I was still worried, so after you left the common room, I found the Marauder's Map."

"I originally planned to wait and see, in case Snape really did take you away from Hogwarts, and then we would immediately go to Headmaster Dumbledore."

"But I didn't expect that Snape wasn't in the underground classroom at all; it was Crabbe and Goyle who were there."

“That’s right,” Ron continued. “And we also saw them linger near Snape’s office for a long time, only leaving when you were almost there, and then hiding behind a statue in the foyer—the one on the left side of the foyer, right across from the stairs.”

"We felt something was off, so we wanted to come and check it out," Hermione said.

"When we got to the foyer, we heard an explosion coming from the underground classroom—and Crabbe and Goyle were running frantically out of the castle."

"You'll see later." Harry waved his arm in frustration. "Damn it, if we'd known you were alright, we should have grabbed Crabbe and Goyle immediately."

"It's alright," Xilun said, gently shaking his head.

By this point, he basically knew what was going on.

Crabbe and Goyle meticulously set a trap, then pretended that Snape wanted him to go to the underground classroom—as for the third-year student who delivered the message, he was probably also fooled.

They don't need any Polyjuice Potion; all they need to do is find a Gryffindor under Snape's name.

Professors at Hogwarts, including Dumbledore, often did this, having one student relay a message to another.

Moreover, the place they led Siren to was indeed Snape's office. Even Siren was fooled, let alone an ordinary third-year student.