In This Hogwarts Without a Savior

Hermione never closed the Marauder's Map.

Even when she was copying the runes on the ground, she spread the map beside her and checked the names on the map every two seconds.

Voldemort's name is also on it, but his name is "Tom Riddle".

When she got the Marauder's Map, Dumbledore had already told her about Voldemort's real name and helped her conduct tests to confirm that even Voldemort himself had no way to avoid or detect the magic on this map.

He warned Hermione that as long as Voldemort's name appeared on the Marauder's Map, no matter what she was doing, she must leave the castle as soon as possible without any hesitation.

Hermione listened to Dumbledore's warning. She knew very well that if she sneaked into the castle and what she did was exposed, the consequences would not only be as simple as her personal safety, but it would also put the current witches on the line. Gwartz's carriage, Dumbledore, and Jon himself cause big trouble.

So when she saw the name "Tom Riddle" appearing on the Astronomy Tower, she planned to let Fawkes take her out of the Slytherin Chamber of Secrets.

But perhaps because of the runes on the ground, this secret room is inscribed with anti-Apparition magic that is completely different from that in the castle.

There is no difference in strength between the two, but the structure of the magic is very different, requiring Fox to re-decrypt it. Such a thing they did not expect after entering the secret room.

Therefore, after Voldemort had solved the dragon plague and Hermione watched him fly towards the Room of Requirement with clear purpose through the Marauder's Map, she decisively interrupted Fox's preparations for disembodiment.

There is absolutely not enough time.

Hermione needed to rely on human power to climb, so it would take at least half an hour to walk into the secret room from the entrance to the secret room, but this was not a problem at all for Voldemort. He mastered extremely profound magic and could not phantom even in the castle. Displacement can cross this distance through the form of black mist, and it only takes less than three minutes.

In desperation, Hermione had no choice but to hide with Fox.

There is almost no place to hide in this secret room, and even if she is covered with an invisibility cloak, for a wizard with keen senses and intuition, the invisibility cloak does not mean a certain degree of safety.

And Hermione herself didn't know whether it was due to fear of Voldemort or other factors. She could feel that even if she wore an invisibility cloak, she couldn't hide it from the Dark Lord's eyes.

Fortunately, the portrait of the creator of this secret room hangs on the wall of Principal Dumbledore's office.

After confirming that Hermione was chosen to perform this task, Salazar handed Hermione all the layout of the secret room he created as well as some activation secret words in detail.

So Hermione hid in the mouth of the Slytherin statue, which was where the basilisk killed by Jon in the Headmaster's Office was hiding.

Voldemort must also know this place, otherwise he would not be able to find the basilisk hiding here and let it guard the principal's office. Therefore, Hermione is actually making a bet. Now she can only bet that Voldemort will not check so carefully, because Now it was time for the game to end. He finally returned to the castle and had to find energy to deal with Dumbledore.

The fact was exactly what she thought. Voldemort did not inspect the secret room in detail. After crushing the illusory dwarf, he immediately left here and headed to the edge of the Forbidden Forest.

So, Hermione watched his movements on the Marauder's Map and crawled out of the statue's mouth again. While Fox continued to prepare for the Apparition, she took this time to seize the runes on the ground. Copy as much of the text as possible.

Hermione had also read some books about runes outside of class. The knowledge was relatively simple. She didn't recognize any of the runes on the ground, let alone understand their functions. She could only record them and take them back. Leave it to Dumbledore to study.

But before she could finish copying one-tenth of the runes on the ground, she suddenly saw the name "Tom Riddle" on the map and returned to Hogwarts Castle again!

She immediately put away everything on her body, and Fox standing on her shoulder shone with a golden-red light, and the light kept getting stronger.

"Quick! We have to be quick, Fox! He may come back at any time!"

As if to fulfill Hermione's bad premonition, the name representing Voldemort on the Marauder's Map suddenly started moving from the foyer towards the eighth floor at an extremely fast speed!

Hermione hurriedly put on the invisibility cloak for herself and Fawkes. She recited the snake language to the statue of Slytherin again, and then climbed in quickly!

She knew that no place was guaranteed to exist, and it was obvious that Voldemort was much more menacing this time than the last time. He must have discovered something, otherwise he would not have been so targeted towards the Room of Requirement for the second time. Come over to the room.

The mouth of the Slytherin statue closed again, and in the dark and claustrophobic environment, only Fawkes' body shone with a golden-red light.

Hermione was far more mature and calm than her peers, but her body was still trembling involuntarily at this time. She was holding Fawkes, who was heating up, in her arms, and her eyes were fixed on the name that was moving rapidly.

"Come on, Fox, you can come on, we can't let Jon and the professor down."

Her voice was also trembling, but she had no way to help Fox at this time. She could only watch with her own eyes that the name that represented darkness and death was getting closer and closer to her.

He was so close that he walked out of the passage of the secret room, flew over the winding road, and came to two stone doors carved with poisonous snakes!

Hermione's body was feeling cold, and even though Fawkes in her arms brought her complete warmth, she still couldn't suppress the coldness.

"Hiss (open)."

Just as the stone door slowly slid toward both sides, Fox suddenly pecked the back of Hermione's hand with his sharp beak, and then the light from it completely enveloped Hermione!

The dazzling light penetrated Slytherin's closed mouth, and then disappeared suddenly. Voldemort, who walked in the next second, did not see this scene.

He returned to this quiet, claustrophobic secret room full of magic texts.

It was still the same as usual here, no different from when he left twenty minutes ago. The shimmering runes were happily welcoming their owner, but the ones that had lost control of their target and fell to the ground I don't know when the shackles were suspended again, vaguely controlling some illusory existence.

Voldemort's eyes were full of coldness. He didn't stop this time and walked directly to the Slytherin statue.

"Sssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss (Talk to me, Slytherin - the greatest of the Hogwarts Four.)"

The statue's mouth opened, revealing a circular passage.

Looking inside from the outside, it was pitch black inside, and it didn't look like there was any sign of someone hiding there, but Voldemort didn't stop at all. He continued to turn into a black mist and flew into the passage.

This passage is very deep, and it connects the sewer pipes of the entire Hogwarts Castle, so that the basilisk can find rats and other small animals in it for thousands of years to survive.

Voldemort used extremely fast speed to search the entire area along this pipeline.

However, he found nothing.

Returning to the Slytherin chamber, he stared at the statue representing his ancestors and frowned.

"Why do you want to help them? No matter what my purpose is, the glory of pure blood is carried forward in my hands. Isn't this the ideal you originally founded this school? So, why don't you agree with me?"

His voice echoed in this closed room, but no one could answer him.

Voldemort raised his head and looked at the old monkey-like face. The coldness in his eyes was as if he was looking at an enemy.

"It doesn't matter if you don't want to give it to me, it's the same if I get it myself!"

Dumbledore and Jon returned to the principal's office on the carriage. He immediately went to ask someone if Hermione was back. After receiving a negative answer, the look on his face became extremely solemn.

"Hermione and I made an agreement that as long as Riddle's name appears within the Marauder's Map, no matter what she is doing, Fox must bring her back immediately."

Jon also frowned.

"Hermione is not that kind of person. As long as she promises, she will definitely do it. Now that she has not come back, she can only be in trouble."

He looked at Dumbledore, his eyes serious.

"We need to help her!"

"Of course we have to help her." Dumbledore responded to Jon's request without any hesitation. He had already grasped the wand. "You can't leave any student behind. This is what I emphasized to everyone when you entered school. Commitment, even now.”

Jon was not surprised at all by Dumbledore's response. He knew very well that the old man was actually an idealist, but sometimes reality would force him to face reality.

"But we also need to anticipate the Dark Lord's reaction in advance, and if he has caught Hermione now, what should we do?"

Dumbledore looked calm and put on his robe again.

"He attaches great importance to this castle. In fact, it turns out that I also attach great importance to it."

Jon didn't react for a moment.

"What?"

"The dragons don't have the ability to destroy this castle. This bad old man like me is more useful than those dragons, right?" Dumbledore actually laughed at this time, "Riddle doesn't care about his attributes. I don’t care about his students, but he definitely cares about this castle. Although I haven’t found the reason why he cares so much about it, it doesn’t prevent us from using this as a handle.”

Jon looked at Dumbledore blankly.

"But, you don't care about this castle anymore? Professor."

"Of course I care about it too, Jon." Dumbledore said softly, "I have lived here for more than fifty years and taught for more than fifty years. People used to call me the greatest Hawkeye. Headmaster Gwarts, even though this name has become a joke now, I still love this place very much. It is not only a school, but also the history of the entire British wizarding world."

"But the reason why Hogwarts is Hogwarts is not just based on a castle. The purpose of the castle itself is to teach and educate people. But if it can no longer carry out this mission, it will even It has become a tool to oppress students, so even if it is destroyed, I don’t think the four great wizards who created it will say anything, right? Salazar.”

On the wall, a portrait of Slytherin spread his hands.

"I don't know about other people, but I definitely don't care. A thousand years ago, we decided to establish the school to protect wizards, not to build a school to protect wizards."

Jon looked at this scene blankly, and Dumbledore actually said to him as a joke.

"Did you hear that? I have obtained the approval of the original owner of this castle."

After saying that, he had already buttoned the buttons on his robe and led Jon to the front.

"Come on, let's go get Hermione back."

Jon rubbed his nose to relieve the inexplicable sore feeling. He followed Dumbledore and suddenly laughed.

"Yes, how can that castle be called Hogwarts? Hogwarts is obviously our carriage!"

"Ha, I like that."

Just when they were about to walk out of the principal's office, a golden-red light suddenly lit up behind them!

Jon and Dumbledore paused at the same time. They looked back and saw that the burst of light had outlined the lines of a phoenix and a little girl.

Seeing this, Jon's already tense nerves finally relaxed completely. He breathed a long sigh of relief. Dumbledore still had such a gentle smile on his face, but Jon could also see it in his eyes. Rejoicing, no matter what, as long as Hermione was safe, that was more important than anything else.

He said to Jon jokingly.

"We have done so much mental preparation in vain."

Jon slapped his face.

"I'm actually already thinking about how I'm going to scold the Dark Lord when you blow up the castle, Professor."

"It doesn't matter. You can keep the words you've thought of for now. You'll definitely be able to use them later."

"Shouldn't you teach me not to use bad words?"

"How can I teach students something I can't do myself?"

While they were talking, Hermione had appeared in the principal's office. She looked with surprise at Dumbledore and Jon, who were getting ready to go out.

"What are you going to do?"

Jon and Dumbledore looked at each other, then shrugged.

"Go blow up Hogwarts Castle, if you show up a few seconds later."