The older something was, the more danger it might be hiding.
Even a plain wooden door with no magical fluctuations at all could still have a magical trap set on it.
So, faced with an unknown like this, Draco remained highly vigilant. He did not recklessly push open the door in front of him.
He lightly tapped the door with the wand in his hand. "It's probably nothing, but given the situation, it's better to be careful."
Draco had not received professional Auror training.
When it came to anti-magic, anti-detection, and anti-trap knowledge, he naturally could not compare to those battle-hardened wizards who had lived through the First Wizarding War.
But when it came to a few practical little tricks, Draco, whose hunger for knowledge bordered on abnormal, had still mastered a spell or two.
Then.
A faint red light flashed from the tip of Draco's wand and vanished into the air, as if it had never appeared at all.
It was so brief that anyone watching might have thought Draco had done nothing.
"Looks safe. Next, I need to confirm whether he's inside."
Even as he let out a breath of relief, Draco did not immediately reach out to push open the door before him. Instead, he pulled a piece of parchment from his robes and spoke that magical incantation.
A light tap.
A low whisper.
"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."
Just like every other time, as Draco's words fell, a small ink dot appeared at the center of the parchment. With that dot as its center, ink lines began spreading toward the four corners.
At last, they magically drew out a complete and detailed map of Hogwarts.
On this map, the location of every person was recorded in detail, along with instructions on how to open the secret passages.
In other words.
At this moment, the Marauder's Map was also showing everything behind the door.
Draco's name.
The room behind the door.
And, unexpectedly, instead of revealing the other party's true name, it was labeled in elegant script as "Bloody Baron"!
...
Draco was indeed a little curious.
Did the Marauder's Map in his hand label people according to conceptual recognition?
Or was Bloody Baron truly his real name? Or perhaps ghosts were the only exception?
As if something had just occurred to him, Draco suddenly rubbed his chin. "Then what about Voldemort? Tom?"
Draco suddenly grew curious.
If this Marauder's Map fell into Voldemort's hands, and he saw the word "Tom" on it, would he blast it apart with the Killing Curse on the spot?
He shook his head.
After tossing aside that sudden thought, Draco finally turned his attention back to the door in front of him.
He was not sure whether knocking would get any response.
But Draco did not rudely blast the door open with magic. Instead, only after knocking did he reach out and push it open.
Creak, creak, creak.
A sharp, unpleasant sound rang out.
The grinding from the hinges made his skin crawl.
Clearly, the door had gone unused for far too long, which was why it made such an awful, hair-raising noise.
"Cough, cough, cough!"
The instant he pushed the door open, Draco was forced back a step by the foul smell.
And contrary to what he had imagined.
The inside was not completely dark. Burning candles provided a dim but visible light.
At first glance, there was nothing unacceptable about the furnishings in the room.
There were no human bones, no gravestones, none of the eerie, terrifying things one might expect.
It seemed that even after becoming a ghost, Bloody Baron still retained certain habits from when he had been alive.
In any case.
After slowly walking into the room in front of him, Draco finally understood where that unbearable stench of decay was coming from.
Draco covered his nose with one hand and frowned deeply. "There are signs that a House-elf has cleaned this place, but what is that smell?"
Although it was obvious that no guests ever came here, the diligent House-elves had not overlooked this place.
At the very least, there was no thick layer of dust when he walked in.
It even looked somewhat clean, precisely because no one had used it.
But that stench?
Following his line of sight, Draco quickly understood what was going on.
The source of the smell was the food sitting on the table, food that had been there for who knew how long.
Calling it food was not quite accurate, because it was not something any normal person could possibly stomach.
White worms.
The smell of rot.
And chunks of meat so far gone that it was impossible to tell what animal they had once belonged to.
Even Draco, who could usually remain calm no matter what he encountered, felt a wave of nausea rise in him.
Was that Bloody Baron's food?
...
Come to think of it.
Perhaps after becoming ghosts, their emotions and sense of taste had both diminished drastically.
That was why they needed food with such a strong flavor.
Although Draco felt that these ghosts probably did not have anything resembling an appetite in the first place.
Taking a deep. Cough. Struggling to tear his gaze away from those things that could no longer be called food, Draco frowned and began searching for where Bloody Baron might appear.
Unlike Peeves, who took pleasure in teasing young wizards, this Slytherin ghost rarely appeared before others, and spent most of his time invisible.
It was worth mentioning.
Among all the ghosts Draco knew, it seemed that only Bloody Baron could remain invisible for long periods of time.
Who knew whether this was Bloody Baron's natural talent?
In any case.
It was not easy to run into Bloody Baron at Hogwarts.
Even if you were "lucky" enough to encounter him in the castle, all you would see was him staring blankly at one spot, as if he had lost consciousness.
There was no denying it.
Bloody Baron in that state was genuinely frightening.
Perhaps it was precisely because of that vacant expression that Peeves held Bloody Baron in such awe.
Even so, he did have moments of lucidity.
After all, at the Ghost Council, Bloody Baron would issue orders to all the ghosts, and he did not allow Peeves to attend such gatherings.
Therefore.
When Draco saw the empty. Ghost's room, no disappointment appeared on his face.
"Invisible, is he... Without the Marauder's Map, I probably wouldn't even have known that the Slytherin ghost was here."
The room was clearly empty.
Yet on the Marauder's Map, there was someone's name.
To be precise, it was the name of a certain ghost.
Baron!