"He… he looked dreadful!" the Fat Lady was still trembling in her portrait as she described it. "Like… like a skeleton wrapped in rags! His hair was long and filthy, all matted together! And his eyes… Merlin, those eyes!"
She shuddered. "Like a madman! He forced me to tell him the password! I… I refused, of course! I am the guardian of Gryffindor! And then… then he…"
The Fat Lady burst into sobs, pointing to where her portrait had once hung. "He went mad! He tore at my painting like a beast! I tried my best to escape… and finally managed to hide here… waah… waah…"
"You did very well, Fat Lady. You were very brave," Dumbledore said soothingly.
He turned to the doorway behind the ruined portrait, where Snape, Lupin, and Sagres had already reappeared.
"I take it he's no longer there?"
Sagres nodded silently.
"Hmph, he ran off again…" Snape put away his wand and said coldly. "A gutter rat slipping back into his filthy nest. He's certainly quick."
Dumbledore paused, looking around at the frightened students and the professors, each wearing a different expression.
"All students," Dumbledore said loudly and clearly, "return to the Great Hall at once. No one is to leave without permission."
He turned to Professor McGonagall and spoke rapidly. "Minerva, inform all the portraits and ghosts to keep a close watch for Black. Severus—"
Then he looked at Snape. "I want you to check every known entrance to the castle and any possible hidden passages. Mr Filch will assist you."
Snape nodded sharply, like a hound that had caught the scent of blood, and vanished swiftly into the shadows of the corridor.
"Remus," Dumbledore finally turned to the pale Lupin, "I need you to help ensure the students' safety and remain on standby."
The orders were given swiftly.
The prefects did their best to stay calm and began calling out, organising the students of their respective houses.
Under Percy's direction, the frightened Gryffindors were ushered toward the Great Hall. For the moment, they had nowhere else to go.
The corridors filled with hurried footsteps and the anxious voices of the prefects.
Harry, Ron, and Hermione were swept along by the crowd, their faces pale. Harry felt a cold chill run from his feet all the way to the top of his head.
Sirius Black… the murderer who had betrayed his parents… had actually broken into Hogwarts.
The gaping hole where the portrait had been was like a giant eye, coldly watching their frantic retreat.
The laughter and joy of the feast now felt like a distant illusion, shattered by the cruel reality before them.
Ten minutes later, the Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin students had all gathered in the Great Hall, every face filled with confusion.
Professor McGonagall and Professor Flitwick, both looking grim, raised their wands and sealed all the doors of the Great Hall.
Dumbledore stood on the raised platform before the staff table, his silver hair and beard gleaming in the candlelight. His deep voice silenced the murmurs in the hall.
"Students, I apologise for disturbing your rest. Someone has entered the school illegally. For everyone's safety, the professors and I must conduct a thorough search of the castle. Therefore, I'm afraid you will have to spend the night here."
He then turned to Percy. "Mr Weasley, send a reliable ghost to deliver messages to the portraits in each house common room. You must also ensure the students remain here and keep the doors locked."
With that, Dumbledore, accompanied by McGonagall and Flitwick, hurried out of the Great Hall to begin a thorough search of the castle.
Sagres was the last to leave.
Before going, he paused and looked back at the vast hall.
Hundreds of students were huddled together, their faces a mixture of panic and unease, their low murmurs blending into an anxious hum.
As he passed the area where the Gryffindors were gathered, his gaze settled on Ron Weasley, and his steps slowed.
"Mr Weasley, where is your pet rat?" he asked casually, his voice quiet.
"Scabbers?"
Ron was startled by the sudden question and instinctively patted his pocket before answering, "He… he's sleeping in the dormitory, Professor. Is something wrong?"
His expression showed both confusion and a hint of nervousness.
Sagres gave a slight shake of his head but offered no explanation.
Then, with a casual flick of his wand, the four house tables rose smoothly into the air and drifted silently to the edges of the Great Hall, lining up neatly against the walls.
Clusters of soft, fluffy, cloud-like cushions appeared out of thin air, hovering steadily about a foot above the floor and densely filling the empty space in the centre of the Great Hall.
"Sleep well, and do not leave this place."
Sagres addressed the students, his voice not loud, yet clearly reaching every ear.
After speaking, he did not linger. He turned and strode out of the Great Hall.
The moment the doors closed behind him, he waved his wand again.
A translucent magical barrier instantly spread across the entrance, then faded from sight.
The professors disappeared beyond the doors, and the heavy thud as they shut made the atmosphere inside the hall feel even more oppressive.
The prefects tried to maintain order, telling students to find a "cloud bed" and rest, but the panicked whispers surged like a tide and could not be calmed.
Harry, Ron, and Hermione gathered near a cloud close to the doors, none of them intending to lie down.
"Why did he ask about Scabbers?" Ron frowned, utterly baffled. "What does Black breaking in have to do with my rat?"
"I don't know," Hermione bit her lip, worry filling her eyes. "But Professor Greengrass wouldn't ask without a reason… And why would Black break into Gryffindor Tower? Everyone was at the Halloween feast tonight. No one was even in the dormitories."
"He's probably been on the run for so long that he's lost track of the days," Ron said, his voice trembling. "Otherwise, he would've come straight here."
"Then he'd be asking for death!" Harry said firmly, as if trying to convince himself. "The professors would never let him get away!"
Around them, the shaken students whispered anxiously, again and again asking the same question. "How did he get in?"
"Maybe he knows how to Apparate," a Hufflepuff a few steps away suggested gravely. "Just like Cedric on the duelling stage—whoosh—appearing out of nowhere!"
"More likely he used something like Polyjuice Potion to disguise himself," a fifth-year Ravenclaw beside him analysed with a frown.
"Maybe he flew in!" Dean Thomas offered an even more alarming idea.
"Please! Am I the only one here who's actually read Hogwarts: A History?" Hermione turned to Harry and Ron in exasperation, her voice sharp with irritation.
"Probably," Ron said. "What's your point?"
"How many times have I told you? Apparition is absolutely forbidden within the grounds of Hogwarts!" Hermione snapped.
"Then how can Professor Greengrass do it? We saw it with our own eyes."
"That's different!" Hermione said. "Professor Greengrass can create his own spells, and I'm sure that's something most people simply can't do."
Meanwhile, in the shadows of the castle, a tense search was underway.
Dumbledore personally led McGonagall, beginning at Gryffindor Tower and checking floor by floor.
The light from their wand tips swept across dark corridors and empty classrooms. The portraits nervously reported any suspicious movement, yet nothing was found.
Professor Flitwick and Professor Sprout went to check the Astronomy Tower and the Owlery, and even Professor Trelawney's attic was not overlooked.
Snape and Filch, like two hounds on the trail, focused on hidden corners and the entrances to legendary secret passages.
Snape's face was so grim it seemed ready to drip water, and every sweep of his wand across a wall or floor carried a fierce intensity.
Sagres did not join any of the groups.
He alone returned silently to Gryffindor Tower.
Fragments of the Fat Lady's portrait still lay scattered across the floor, and the forcibly opened doorway looked like a mouth frozen in silent mockery.
He ignored it all, walked straight through the opening, and entered the Gryffindor common room.
The fire was still burning warmly in the hearth. Sagres did not linger there, but headed directly for the spiral staircase leading to the boys' dormitories.
The door to Harry and Ron's dormitory was ajar.
Sagres pushed it open.
The scene before him confirmed some of his suspicions. The room was in chaos.
Suitcases had been roughly opened, clothes strewn everywhere, and Ron's bed was the worst affected. The pillow had been ripped open, feathers scattered across the floor. The mattress was overturned, and the bedside drawer had been pulled out and dumped upside down, its contents spilled about.
This had clearly not been a simple search, and certainly not one aimed at finding Harry.
Sagres's gaze swept calmly over the mess before finally settling on the floor in the corner beside Ron's bed. A few blood-stained grey rat hairs were stuck to a torn piece of pillowcase fabric.
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