It was past nine o’clock when Sherlock and Filch walked past the entrance to the Gryffindor common room together. Filch looked at the pocket watch in his hand, raised a lamp, and illuminated the castle corridor that had begun to dim.
“They must be planning some tricks this year.”
After staying near the Gryffindor common room for a long time, Filch couldn’t catch the student he wanted, so he could not help but murmur something. The confrontation between the Weasley twins can be seen, and he is something else.
“Well, Professor Forrest. Since we haven’t caught any students we want to catch here, we’ll go to the Slytherin common room to take a look, and those students are always up to no good.” He muttered, walking ahead with the lamp to show Sherlock the way.
Just as Filch walked to the corner of the corridor and stairs, a voice could be heard. The voice was strange as if someone had used something with it. The sound was small, but Sherlock was immediately alerted by it.
He took a few steps back, but Filch wasn’t so lucky. The magic was triggered, and five small firecrackers suddenly rolled out from somewhere on the walls on both sides of the corridor.
They rolled on the ground at an extremely fast speed, circling around Filch. The moment Filch saw this, his expression changed. At this time, he could already predict his own fate.
“Oh bugger!” The five firecrackers gathered around Filch and exploded.
The sound of five small firecrackers exploding was not loud, and the area affected was small, but an unbearable stench instantly filled the entire corridor. A burst of yellow-brown smoke completely enveloped Filch’s vision.
Sherlock had already taken a few steps back, now covered his nose with his hand, frowned, and couldn’t help but take a few steps back.
“Are you okay, Filch?”
Filch didn’t respond to him, but given the expression he has right now, he didn’t seem to be in a good state at all.
“Bugger! Bugger! Bugger! Those two bastards! I have to catch them! I’m going to whip them! Punish them with chains for a year and get them expelled!”
The stench was like a cesspool. The smoke gradually dispersed, and Filch can be seen again. His body was covered with feces and yellow dirt, his expression was furious, and he seemed a little helpless. He was standing in the middle of the corridor with two hands full of sticky substance.
Such a nauseating stench makes it hard not to wonder what that yellow-sticky substance is.
Filch seemed to be about to explode with anger, but his experience dealing with this kind of thing left him with some sanity.
“Professor Forrest, tonight’s tour ends here. I have to go back and clean up these things on me.” After he finished speaking, without waiting for Sherlock to answer, he strode away, carrying the lamp in a hurry.
Sherlock was helpless, watching him disappear. He underestimated what the twins could do.
Filch is no longer at a disadvantage but is bullied. Of course, the plan to let Filch guide him throughout Hogwarts tonight was in vain. Until now, he only knew where Gryffindor’s common room was and still didn’t know anything about the rest of the castle.
Sherlock walked in front of the Gryffindor common room, waiting for the stench in the corridor to disappear. He was whether to walk around the castle by himself or at least find someone to accompany him.
But he was worried about meeting Professor McGonagall or Dumbledore on the way. He couldn’t explain why he didn’t sleep and wandered around the castle in the middle of the night. Just as Sherlock struggled with the current situation, the entrance to the Gryffindor common suddenly opened, and a small chatter came from inside.
“He must have left. Many dung bombs exploded together. That would at least take him a whole night to clean it off.”
“I guessed he was here to watch over us tonight. Did he really think we were going to trick him like last year? It’s ridiculous. We never treat the same people with the same pranks!”
“Okay, we’re done here. We should use the Marauder’s map so that the others won’t see anywhere.”
George and Fred cautiously walked out from the entrance, and Sherlock stood silently under the candlestick at the entrance. Comically enough, they didn’t notice him.
“I solemnly swear that I am up to no good.” George pulled out his wand, chanted the incantation, and tapped the worn and disfigured parchment in his hand.
Suddenly, a change appeared on the parchment. From Sherlock’s perspective, he couldn’t see the change in the parchment.
“Alright, The King of Night Walkers at Hogwarts is back! We haven’t been in the castle for two months. Where should we go next?”
“I think we should go to the statue of the hunchbacked witch first. There are not enough materials for making big dung bombs, and we hid some there last year, remember?”
“Oh yeah, in order to deal with Filch tonight, we used up our last stock. Time to get more.”
“Fred, wait!” George was looking at the parchment and suddenly stopped Fred.
He pointed to a certain place on the parchment with his finger and said in a trembling voice, “Look at this.”
Fred shifted his gaze to George’s finger. That was the corridor in front of the entrance to the Gryffindor common where they were now, and their names were displayed on it.
But beside them was a name close to them and even overlapped with them.
“Sherlock Forrest…” Fred gulped and read out the name on the Marauder’s map.
At the same time, he turned his neck mechanically with George and looked toward the direction on the map where Sherlock’s name was marked. In the shadow below the candlestick, Sherlock had been silently watching them use the Marauder’s map, quietly looking at the eyes of the two.
He asked calmly, “Looking for me?”