Chapter 208: Something Big Has Happened!
The next day after classes, the Weasley twins spotted Duncan and Neville in the Great Hall, immediately crowded over, and asked in hushed voices, "Duncan, how are things? What did Professor Dumbledore say? Is there anything we can help with?"
"Let's talk outside." Duncan signaled with his eyes towards the doors, led Fred and the others out through the entrance, and sat down on an empty stretch of lawn where no one was around.
"When I went to the Headmaster's office last night, Professor Dumbledore happened to be awake. He seemed to be writing back to a friend of his. I told him in detail what we'd run into last night. At first, he was a bit surprised, but as he listened, he calmed down."
Duncan pinched his chin with his fingers and said, "It was as if he had already expected it—as if he'd long guessed that someone would come to steal the Philosopher's Stone on the fourth floor."
"Ah? No way," Fred said, puzzled. "Then why didn't Dumbledore catch him, and instead let him run away?"
"You'll have to ask Professor Dumbledore that," Duncan shrugged in reply.
At first, he had been certain the person last night was an intruder who had slipped in, but after seeing Dumbledore's behavior, another thought came to his mind: Could that person have been an actor Dumbledore invited? Otherwise, how could he take on Snape's appearance? And since Quirrell had disappeared, Dumbledore must need a new "villain" to push forward his training program.
Only, these words could not be told to Fred and the rest right now. Otherwise, if the information leaked out, Dumbledore would certainly be curious enough to open up his head and have a look.
"Did Professor Dumbledore tell you how we ought to act?" George asked.
Duncan nodded. "Of course. When I was about to leave, he specially reminded me of one thing."
"What did he say?" Fred blinked curiously, and George and Neville both leaned their bodies a little towards where Duncan sat.
Duncan coughed twice, cleared his throat, raised a gentle smile, and, imitating Dumbledore's tone, said:
"Duncan, I must remind you of one thing. Wandering around the castle during curfew violates the school rules. If another professor catches you, he certainly won't be as easy-going as I am. And do pass a message to the Weasley brothers for me: if the two of them are caught by Professor McGonagall again, Mrs. Weasley will certainly receive a letter from Professor McGonagall, and they will also receive a Howler bearing Mrs. Weasley's anger."
"What does Professor Dumbledore mean by that?" Fred said, unconvinced. "We weren't making trouble. We were helping him."
"Exactly." George nodded hard in agreement. "Not rewarding us is one thing, but actually threatening us with Professor McGonagall?"
"Who knows," Duncan said. "Perhaps he thinks your strength is too weak and that you're only getting in the way."
"He'd only be looking down on you, all right," Fred shot back without courtesy. "A first-year."
"All right, all right, we're discussing serious business here." George pressed the two of them down with his hand, by force. "What do we do now? Do we just listen to Professor Dumbledore and obediently stay in our dorm and not come out?"
"Absolutely not," Duncan and Fred said in unison.
Duncan said, "Not only can we not stay in the dormitory, we have to come out often and walk the corridors and catch that sneaky thief with our own hands."
He didn't know if the system had fixed the bug. In Newt's letter some time ago, there was information about that mysterious organization, saying those people were active in the western region of Romania, but he hadn't received a reward. It seemed that now he had accepted the task and had to take part personally for it to count as truly completed.
"Exactly." Fred agreed, slinging an arm over Duncan's shoulder. "We'll let Professor Dumbledore see how formidable the few of us are."
"I think what you're saying makes perfect sense." George likewise did not take Dumbledore's warning to heart. Breaking school rules had just about become part of the blood flowing through their bodies. If there came a day when they didn't break a rule, that would be the real oddity.
Once they'd made up their minds, Fred turned his gaze to the last person present and said with a smile, "Well, Neville, are you in?"
Neville scratched his head hesitantly. "I want to... but I know very few spells. I'll definitely slow you down when the time comes..."
"It's fine. You can just help us keep watch and don't let the professors launch a sudden raid on us," George said with a grin. "Leave the fighting to us."
While Duncan and the others were muttering over their plan to guard the Philosopher's Stone, Harry, Ron, and Hermione ran up, panting.
"Something big has happened." Harry stood in front of Duncan, hands on his knees, his chest heaving violently, sweat streaming down his face like a brook.
"Oh, Harry, catch your breath first before you speak; otherwise, I'm afraid you'll run out of breath and collapse right on the ground," Fred said.
Harry gulped two deep breaths, then wiped his face with his hand at random. "Snape—he—he's finally lost patience and made his move."
George flicked a glance at Duncan and the others, signaled with his eyes, and then asked, "Made his move to do what?"
"I'll tell you about that in a bit." Harry looked to Duncan. "Do you still remember the fourth-floor corridor Headmaster Dumbledore forbade us to go to at the start of term? Dumbledore put a treasure there. I brought it out of Gringotts together with Hagrid. That thing has to do with Nicolas Flamel. We suspect it's the Philosopher's Stone. You were the one who told Hermione this on the train."
"A few months ago, Ron and I snuck out at night once. We saw a man in black whose movements looked very suspicious. So the two of us quietly tailed him for a long way, but then Filch came, and we didn't dare keep following. But we can be sure that man definitely wanted to go to the fourth floor and steal the treasure Dumbledore put there."
"So we've been investigating matters related to the fourth-floor restricted area, always keeping an eye out for abnormal movements in the castle. Until last night. Ron and I went out patrolling under the Invisibility Cloak, and as soon as we reached the second floor, we saw Snape go to the fourth floor again. But he still didn't seem to succeed. Just as we were about to follow him up, we saw Snape hurrying back down from upstairs again."
After listening, Fred nodded in ponderous, detective-like fashion. "Have you considered that the man wasn't Snape?"
"Not Snape? How is that possible?" Ron's voice pitched high. "We saw him clearly last night. It was definitely him. The man in black last time was certainly Snape, too. He discovered us then, which is why he was desperate to kill Harry, for fear we'd reveal his secret," Ron added with conviction, and Harry nodded in agreement.
"Sometimes what your eyes see isn't necessarily the truth, Ron." George patted Ron's shoulder in a world-weary way and spoke.
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