Daily Life at Hogwarts - Chapter 27

“Halting spell.”

Albert stared at the nearly shattered wooden door, a twitch forming at the corner of his eyes.

“Merlin’s beard, what do we do now?”

The three Weasleys looked at the broken door, simultaneously swallowing hard, taking a step back, still clueless about what had just transpired.

“Should we…” Fred gestured as if suggesting they should make a quick getaway. Getting caught now would be disastrous.

“Don’t be daft. Powerful wizards often use Tracking and Revealing spells. They can know who has been here recently,” Albert said, placing a hand on Fred’s shoulder, implying he shouldn’t even think about sneaking away.

“What should we do?” George asked nervously, looking at Albert.

“I think I can fix it. The spell should be—Repair as Before.” Albert quickly composed himself, raising his wand towards the broken door, and began to recite the repairing spell.

The wooden planks that had been ripped from the hinges flew back, and the cracks began to mend slowly. Soon, it looked almost as good as new.

However, before the door could be fully restored, it suddenly swung open from the inside.

All four of them froze on the spot, for Professor McGonagall stepped out. She looked at the slowly repairing door, then at the four students in front of her. The atmosphere instantly became rather awkward.

“What on earth are you boys up to?” Professor McGonagall’s face tightened as she stared sternly at them. Just moments ago, she had heard a noise coming from her secret office door. To her surprise, she found her door ripped off its hinges.

The sight left her utterly stunned.

“Apologies, Professor. We didn’t know that ‘Open Sesame’ was an actual spell,” Albert promptly apologized, “It was just an… accident.”

“That’s enough, Mr. Anderson. All of you, inside,” said Professor McGonagall, her face expressionless, beckoning them into her office.

“It was just an accident, Professor,” Albert whispered again. The Weasley twins and Lee Jordan held their breaths, too nervous to utter a word.

“An impressive repairing charm,” Professor McGonagall remarked, looking at Albert, “However, Mr. Anderson, I must remind you that ‘Open Sesame’ is a centuries-old unlocking charm. Modern wizards no longer resort to such crude magic. If you had read ‘Standard Spells, Beginner Level’, you’d know most prefer the subtle Alohomora.”

“I know, but Alohomora didn’t work on this door.”

“That’s because the door has an anti-Alohomora spell on it,” she explained, “This is basic spell knowledge. I think Professor Flitwick would be delighted if you consulted him about such queries.”

“I will.”

“Make sure this doesn’t happen again, gentlemen, or it’s detention,” McGonagall seemed not to wish to penalize them further. She picked up a parchment from her desk and handed it to Albert, “This is the first year’s timetable. Put it up on the Gryffindor notice board.”

“It won’t happen again, I promise,” Albert cleared his throat, taking the new student timetable from McGonagall. He nudged the twins and Lee, making a quick exit from McGonagall’s office.

“That was close,” they finally dared to speak once they were far away from McGonagall’s office.

“We actually ripped off Professor McGonagall’s office door?” Lee Jordan was still in disbelief.

“Lucky us. No points taken, no detention,” Albert glanced at the timetable McGonagall had given him. The first class next Monday was Charms.

“But, Albert, that unlocking spell of yours? It actually tore off the door!” Fred’s eyes sparkled with excitement.

“It was an accident. I didn’t know it was a spell,” Albert said, tapping the parchment with his wand. The timetable duplicated, once, twice, and then thrice. He distributed them to the others.

“Why isn’t there a flying lesson on it?” George looked slightly disappointed after reading the timetable. He was looking forward to riding a broomstick.

“Don’t you think the number of classes is a bit few?” After checking the entire week’s schedule, Albert frowned. Hogwarts seemed more lenient than he expected.

“The timetable is a bit thin, have you gone mad?” Lee looked at Albert incredulously, as if he’d been hit by some bizarre spell.

“In Muggle schools, they have at least 50% more classes,” Albert contemplated and guessed the reason.

There are only a handful of professors at the school. If each grade has two classes a week, a single professor would have to teach 24 classes (given that the 6th and 7th years from all four houses have combined classes).

With weekends off, this means their entire week is packed with classes.

Thinking about it, it’s actually understandable.

“What are you thinking about?” George inquired.

“Nothing much, let’s move on and continue our search for the classrooms.” Albert pocketed the timetable and led the way towards the marble staircase.

Currently, the quartet had found the Transfiguration and History of Magic classrooms on the second floor of the castle. They had also discovered the abandoned bathroom. Albert remembered it being the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets, where a dangerous serpent resides.

Since it was a girls’ bathroom, the four just passed by, not wanting to enter and risk any misunderstandings.

Their exploration of the castle was quite fruitful. Near the Charms classroom on the fourth floor, they found another secret passage behind a tapestry. This passage led to the Armored Hallway and Trophy Room.

“I think all the tapestries in Hogwarts hide secret passages,” Lee Jordan joked as they emerged from the passage.

Given that all the secret passages they found that day were behind tapestries, such a misunderstanding wasn’t surprising.

“I bet most of the students can find these passages,” George said, a tad disappointed. He hoped to discover more concealed passages unknown to others.

“We’ll find them. Let’s check out the Trophy Room,” Albert suggested. He was curious to see if the medals and trophies were made of gold and silver.

“George, Fred,” Lee Jordan pointed at a cabinet, “Look at this. Charlie’s your brother, right? He won the Quidditch Cup for the house.”

“That was shortly after Charlie joined the team. He always hoped to win the Quidditch Cup again before graduating,” George said, slightly dejected looking at the array of Slytherin trophies. Gryffindor and Slytherin were always at odds.

“Those Slytherins sometimes play dirty to achieve their goals,” Fred murmured. Adding, “Percy told me.”

“Yeah, the folks in Slytherin are the most annoying,” Fred agreed, “Percy said, the moment Slytherin’s points drop below first place, they’ll play dirty against the leading house. Snape is even more biased, never deducting points from his own students. Many students dislike him, always calling him ‘old bat’.”

Upon hearing the twins, Albert’s face twitched.

It’s all in jest, but let’s not throw every blame onto Percy. He’s your brother, not a scapegoat!