Chapter 23: Night Patrol
Over the next two days, Douglas was anything but idle.
Several professors had already begun wondering whether their own subjects could be taught in a similar way. After all, there was no denying that memorizing fundamental knowledge had real value.
Douglas, meanwhile, was busy preparing for something else entirely.
The seventh-years were originally scheduled to have Defense Against the Dark Arts on Friday, but he summoned them earlier.
Under his instructions, they began modifying several unused classrooms according to his design.
All details of the project were kept strictly confidential from students below seventh year.
Professor McGonagall came once to inspect the progress.
After confirming that everything Douglas had arranged remained within safe limits, she simply left the matter in his hands.
On Wednesday evening, after classes had finished, Douglas picked up a gift he had prepared earlier and headed toward a small office behind the marble staircase in the entrance hall.
The moment he stepped inside, a damp, slightly rotten smell greeted him.
Argus Filch, the caretaker of Hogwarts, lived and worked here.
In most students' eyes, Filch was nothing more than a foul-tempered nuisance.
Yet as a caretaker, he was extremely dedicated.
His only real companion was his cat, Mrs. Norris, who was almost his entire emotional world.
During Douglas's time as a student, he had been one of the very few people Filch could tolerate.
Of course, that situation had not come about by accident.
Douglas had managed it carefully.
Having grown up in the modern world, he understood something many people overlooked: building relationships with the people at the bottom of a system could have remarkable advantages.
While most students avoided Mrs. Norris's patrols at all costs, Douglas had done the opposite.
Relying on his experience raising cats—and the convenient access to the Hogwarts kitchens—he had slowly befriended the watchful feline.
In the end, he became the only student in Hogwarts who could expect a slightly more comfortable detention from Filch.
On more than one occasion, when he had become lost inside the castle, Mrs. Norris had even guided him—provided he paid the proper tribute of dried fish.
Filch opened the door and let Douglas in.
He snorted but said nothing.
Douglas, however, seemed completely unfazed.
He opened the gift he had brought.
Inside was a small tin of catnip cream.
Holding it out toward Mrs. Norris, who was resting in Filch's arms, Douglas said warmly,
"Mrs. Norris, it's been a few years. Do you still remember me?"
The cat sniffed the cream and immediately began licking it with clear enthusiasm.
Filch's expression softened slightly.
"I thought the famous Mr. Holmes had forgotten an insignificant caretaker like me."
Douglas gently lifted Mrs. Norris into his arms.
"How could I forget?" he said with an embarrassed smile.
"It's just that I've been busy these past couple of days settling back into Hogwarts."
He tapped the tin lightly.
"I prepared these gifts while I was still in the Muggle world."
Filch gave a crooked smile. It always looked slightly unsettling on his face.
"Professor McGonagall already told me," he said.
"Tonight is Professor Holmes's first turn inspecting the castle."
He stood up and adjusted his coat.
"So I'll take you around the patrol route first."
"And I'll point out a few little brats worth keeping an eye on."
Two hours later, Douglas had walked the entire patrol route through the castle while Filch talked almost nonstop.
He had also pointed out several secret passages hidden within the walls.
Eventually, Filch picked up Mrs. Norris again and continued on his own patrol.
Douglas watched him leave with a helpless smile.
In truth, everything Filch had told him was already familiar.
As someone who knew far more than he should about Hogwarts' secrets, Douglas had long ago obtained the famous Marauder's Map.
He had discovered it in Filch's office during his second year.
The map had remained in his possession until shortly before graduation, when he quietly returned it to its hiding place.
It was an extraordinary magical artifact.
Only during his sixth year had Douglas finally begun to understand some of its deeper principles.
At that point, he had taken the opportunity to remove his own name from the map.
That had not been easy.
Around ten o'clock that night, two familiar figures slipped out of the Gryffindor common room.
George and Fred Weasley carefully avoided Percy, who was still buried in his books.
Representing the will of the entire fourth-year Gryffindor class, the twins crept past the Fat Lady and made their way to a quiet corner of the eighth floor—far from the Headmaster's office.
George pulled a folded piece of parchment from inside his robes.
"That was close," he whispered. "I almost showed this earlier."
Fred pointed his wand at the parchment.
"Lumos."
Then he muttered irritably,
"This is all Professor Holmes's fault. Our nighttime expedition nearly got ruined."
George tapped the parchment with his wand.
"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."
Ink lines immediately spread across the blank parchment.
Within seconds, a detailed map of Hogwarts appeared—along with tiny moving names marking every person in the castle.
The twins bent over the map.
"Dumbledore's in the Headmaster's office."
"Mrs. Norris is on the third floor, and Filch is on the first."
"Peeves is in the abandoned girls' bathroom on the second floor. Merlin, Peeves is brave. I'd never dare go into the girls' bathroom."
"My mum would kill me."
Suddenly George leaned closer to the map.
"Fred… who's patrolling tonight?"
Fred frowned.
"There's no professor listed anywhere on the patrol routes."
He shook his head slowly.
"Brother… we've been so busy lately we forgot to check."
He sighed dramatically.
"Merlin's beard. We're losing our edge."
George looked equally regretful—at least for a moment.
Then he grinned again and kept scanning the map.
"Well, we're already out."
"Let's see where our clever Professor Holmes is."
"As long as he's not in those classrooms, we're free to act."
What the twins didn't know was that only a few feet away, hidden in the shadows of the same corridor, someone stood in awkward silence.
Douglas swore later that he had never deliberately used a Disillusionment Charm to spy on students.
He had simply come to the eighth floor to revisit a certain location.
But the moment he heard two suspicious sets of footsteps approaching the empty corridor, his instincts had reacted automatically.
In less than a second, he had cast the Disillusionment Charm and slipped into the nearest shadow.
Only afterward did he realize something rather unfortunate.
He was no longer a student sneaking around at night.
He was a professor on patrol.
Unfortunately, the twins had already arrived.
Douglas wasn't surprised to see them produce the Marauder's Map.
Just as its creators had once done, he too had chosen to leave the map behind as a gift for future generations.
What did catch his attention, however, was their interest in the classrooms he had arranged for the seventh-years.
"Oh look—Professor Holmes isn't even on the map!"
"Maybe he's left the castle!"
"Which means…"
George and Fred high-fived excitedly.
"A blessing from Merlin!"
"I bet those classrooms are connected to our practical exams!"
"If we accidentally wander into the wrong one, that doesn't count as cheating, does it?"
"Oh Fred," George replied solemnly, "we're not cheating."
"We're merely lost lambs."
Douglas felt that, as a professor, it might be appropriate to offer a gentle reminder.
Just as the twins turned to leave, a calm voice spoke from the darkness beside them.
"I believe you should explain to me why you're still wandering the castle corridors at this hour."
George and Fred froze.
They immediately recognized the voice.
The twins exchanged a glance filled with equal parts shock and terror.
But instead of admitting defeat, two small metal spheres rolled from their sleeves.
The moment the spheres hit the ground, the twins dashed in opposite directions down the corridor.
Douglas reacted instantly.
In less than a hundredth of a second, a silent Repairing Charm restored the small devices before they could activate.
Watching the twins flee in opposite directions, Douglas smiled coldly.
"Trying tricks like that in front of an expert?"
He flicked his wand.
Then he added several small enchantments to the restored spheres.
The next moment, the two balls lifted smoothly into the air and shot off down the corridor—each following one of the fleeing Weasleys.
Hogwarts Castle was enormous.
George and Fred were experienced enough to know better than to run straight back to the Gryffindor common room.
That would have made them far too easy to catch.
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