Adrian nodded indifferently, he hadn't planned to intervene anyway.
Upon returning to Hogwarts castle, Dumbledore suddenly stopped and patted Harry's shoulder.
"You should return to your dormitory. What follows isn't appropriate for student participation."
Fudge nodded agreement. He was here regardless, so he wasn't concerned about Adrian and the others rushing off to spread warnings.
After the groups separated, Adrian walked through the corridors toward Gryffindor Tower with Harry, Hermione, and Ron, all of whom looked deeply worried.
"What if Minister Fudge discovers the three-headed dog on the fourth floor? Will Professor Dumbledore be removed from his position?" Harry asked anxiously.
"Don't worry. The professor can handle himself," Adrian said confidently. He didn't think Dumbledore was so easily defeated.
Perhaps during the earlier confrontation with Fudge, Dumbledore had already devised a solution, otherwise he wouldn't have remained so calm throughout.
"But I think the professor might not be able to solve this alone..." Hermione stopped abruptly, staring at Harry's shoulder.
"What's wrong? Is something on my face?" Harry asked, confused.
"On your shoulder, there appears to be writing," Ron said blankly.
Adrian saw the words composed of golden light spots and his mouth twitched slightly. He wanted to pretend ignorance, but unfortunately he wasn't alone.
"This must be something Professor Dumbledore left behind. It says 'secret path...fourth floor!' Professor Dumbledore wants us to take a shortcut to the fourth floor through a secret passage," Hermione said excitedly.
Harry and Ron shared her excitement, thinking they could contribute meaningfully again.
But where was this secret path?
The three looked confused before turning to Adrian. Since this was Dumbledore's message, someone must understand the hidden meaning.
Adrian wanted to ignore the obvious setup by the scheming old guy, but considering he'd need to study at Hogwarts for years to come, antagonizing Dumbledore seemed unwise. He decided to resolve this problem.
"You'd better prepare yourselves. This secret path isn't easy to navigate," Adrian sighed. He couldn't understand how Dumbledore had guessed he knew these hidden routes.
Adrian led them at a run, stopping at a first-floor passage containing a statue of a sword-wielding soldier.
Adrian extended his wand and tapped the wall beside the statue. The soldier's statue suddenly raised its sword, startling Ron, while stone bricks in the back wall shifted to reveal a narrow passage.
Inside lay a bizarre space with brick walls extending in all directions, up, down, left, right. These walls moved and shifted constantly as if alive.
The moment everyone paused, the left-side space was completely swallowed and sealed by an avalanche of bricks. Seeing their standing area about to be consumed, Adrian quickly pulled Hermione and the others to safety.
They ran rightward as the terrain climbed higher, their retreat squeezed shut by new bricks. Adrian suddenly crashed into a gray wall. Harry briefly thought he'd gone mad, but Adrian's body passed straight through.
"Hurry! This secret door is changing!"
Adrian's voice came from the other side, and Harry and the others realized this resembled Platform Nine and Three-Quarters. They stopped hesitating and ran directly through.
Entering felt like passing through a water wall. When Hermione, running last, passed through, she clearly felt increasing pressure around her, slowly solidifying, about to become a real wall again.
Fortunately, Hermione emerged at the final moment. Touching her back, she found solid stone.
"What if I hadn't made it out in time?" Hermione asked curiously.
"Then we wouldn't see you," Adrian said gravely.
Hermione paled while Harry and Ron looked terrified. Just as they vowed never to enter such dangerous secret passages again, they heard Adrian chuckle.
"I mean we wouldn't see you temporarily. You'd be teleported somewhere else in the castle."
This was Hogwarts, of course these mechanisms and secret doors were non-lethal. Otherwise, with so many student deaths over the years, the school would have closed long ago.
Hermione glared at Adrian angrily. If not for the emergency, they would have ganged up on him.
"Where are we?" Harry looked around.
"The fourth floor, naturally." Adrian and the others quickly located the forbidden corridor.
The wooden door remained closed, though they all knew a ferocious three-headed dog waited inside.
"Harry, do you still have the music box I gave you?" Adrian turned back.
"Of course, it's a wonderful gift..." Harry didn't understand Adrian's purpose but retrieved it from his pocket.
"Right! Hagrid mentioned that Fluffy loves music and falls asleep upon hearing it!" Hermione remembered suddenly. Harry and Ron grew excited, they wouldn't need to confront the three-headed dog directly.
Adrian nodded. With the music box, he wouldn't need to use Transfiguration to create a temporary instrument.
Pushing open the corridor's wooden door, Adrian signaled Harry to prepare the music box. Upon entering, however, they discovered the three-headed Norwegian Ridgeback already asleep with closed eyes.
But their entry noise still affected him, Fluffy's eyelids twitched slightly, clearly about to wake.
Without prompting, Harry opened the music box as Fluffy stirred again. Cheerful Christmas melodies echoed through the hallway, and upon hearing the music, Fluffy fell back asleep.
Everyone relaxed, though facing such an enormous three-headed dog, they weren't sure what to do next.
"Maybe we should forget this? How could we possibly get such a huge three-headed dog outside?" Ron stared at Fluffy's three massive, fang-filled mouths and swallowed hard. He truly couldn't conceive of hiding it.
"There's a trapdoor here," Adrian ignored Ron, going directly to the trapdoor, opening it, then using an Extension Charm to double its size.
If Adrian's magical power and spellcasting level hadn't improved dramatically after completing the fusion ritual, this would have been impossible.
"Are you planning to just drop him down there?" Hermione worried whether Fluffy would be killed by the fall or cause commotion below.
"Some additional work needs to be done first..." Adrian said.