Chapter 668
Administrator
Chapter 668 Administrator
Heavy footsteps came from behind the door, followed by the clanging of metal.
"Who?"
With the creaking sound of the door opening, a rough voice rang out.
Hagrid's enormous figure appeared in the doorway. He was wearing a large pink apron, his unkempt beard was covered in flour, and he held a wooden spoon in one hand.
The fire in the stove was blazing, making the hybrid giant sweat and his cheeks flushed.
"Oh, Wade!" Hagrid looked down and saw the figure, a warm smile spreading across his face. "You've come at the perfect time! I'm just getting ready to bake a cake!"
"Thank you, Hagrid, but I have something to ask you now."
Wade quickly said, "I remember you used to be the one to pick me up and drop me off at the gate when I entered and left school, right? Is it still the same now?"
"of course!"
Hagrid proudly patted the bunch of keys at his waist, making a "clattering" sound.
He chuckled and said, "I've always been the key keeper at Hogwarts. Even after I became a professor, Dumbledore never relieved me of this job. He believed I could do it well!"
Wade stared intently into his eyes and asked again, "Always? If anyone from outside the school wants to enter, they all have to be led in by you, is that right?"
"Ah, this..."
Hagrid reached out and scratched his face, feeling that he had spoken too confidently, and his face was a little hot.
"That's the rule, but you know... sometimes I have to teach classes! And there are a lot of people coming and going from outside the school these days..."
With his face covered in flour, he bent down and said, "The professors at the school can also bring people from outside the school in, but they rarely do so. Usually, Professor McGonagall is responsible for receiving those troublesome guests; Filch is the school's gatekeeper, so he can naturally help guide them."
Hagrid curled his lip and said disdainfully, "That old guy wanders around all day like a vulture, hoping to catch a few students and lock them up!"
“Thanks for the news, Hagrid!” Wade nodded and said hastily, “I have other things to attend to, I’ll head back now!”
The boy waved his hand, and his figure swept across the vegetable garden like a gust of wind.
Hagrid paused for a moment, then shouted, "Hey kid, don't you want to try my cake?"
"Maybe next time—"
By the time the shouts were carried by the wind, Wade had already run nearly a hundred meters.
"Hey, what a pity, I wonder what's the rush."
Hagrid turned and went back into the house, looking at the cake base and muttering to himself, "Should I add some more fried conch shell powder? The texture should be even better..."
He was preoccupied with his cake and almost completely forgot about Wade coming to find him earlier.
……
Wade ran incredibly fast, his robes fluttering in the wind, with Sirius's footsteps always following beside him.
"What's wrong?" the man asked with concern. "What did you mean by asking Hagrid?"
"I just suddenly realized something."
As he ran, Wade said haltingly, "Someone who can make you lower your guard and be caught off guard by a sneak attack isn't necessarily someone you trust... They could also be... someone who doesn't respect anyone and thinks they pose absolutely no threat..."
"What?" Sirius paused for a second before saying, "--Filch? How could he be? That guy's a Squib! I figured that out back in school!"
—Yeah, how could that be? Just like in the original story, Sirius and Harry both hated Kreacher, but they never expected that he would betray them.
In the story, Kreacher, who is disliked by his master, is like Filch, an "invisible person"—the wizards don't take them seriously, nor do they think they pose any threat, just like a clown... an eyesore.
However, "ornaments" also have their own thoughts and preferences. They occupy key positions, and even the slightest movement can have a huge impact.
“I’m not sure yet.” Wade took a few steps up the stairs, stopped to catch his breath, and said, “I need to… verify it again.”
Those grey eyes were fixed on the lights in the castle, their gaze as sharp as a knife.
Sirius, who was invisible, silently drew his wand.
“Be careful,” the adult cautioned calmly. “If that guy is the dark wizard who created the skeletons, then he’s much more dangerous than Filch.”
"I know."
Wade, however, appeared relaxed as he walked through the porch, his footsteps echoing with a peculiar rhythm in the corridor.
It was dinnertime, and there weren't many people in the corridor. Most of the students who passed by were carrying several books, and they all cast envious glances at Wade.
Final exams are just two days away, and the students who are usually relaxed are finally facing their annual nightmare. Seeing Wade, who doesn't have to take exams, fills me with immense envy.
But only Sirius knew that Wade, who seemed to be strolling leisurely, was actually tense all over.
As we turned the corner, a sharp reprimand shattered the silence.
"...I'll fly down the corridor on a broomstick and hang you all up..."
Filch, his back hunched, roared at two trembling first-year students. The rest of the students walked around that area, afraid of being caught doing something wrong by the gloomy and mean-spirited administrator and being punished with several days of detention.
Wade squinted slightly and glanced at the administrator from head to toe. His heart, which had been pounding, finally calmed down.
Perhaps sensing the particularly strong presence of a gaze here, Filch suddenly turned around, and when he met Wade's gaze, a flash of fury appeared in his cloudy eyes.
"You—it's you—you actually walked in through the mud outside!"
Filch charged over like a skinny cat whose tail had been stepped on, his nostrils twitching as if searching for evidence of some crime.
"Mud! The whole corridor is covered in mud! Even if you're the school's bravest, don't you know how to follow the school rules?"
Wade was stunned by his shout, looked down and saw that he had indeed left a trail of muddy footprints behind him.
It rained in the evening, and the damp mud outside the castle stuck to the soles of his shoes, which he then brought inside.
Normally, before stepping onto the steps, Vader would consciously cast a cleansing spell on himself to avoid adding to poor Filch's workload. But today, he had indeed forgotten to do so.
Of course, there were actually many muddy footprints in the corridor, so his own series didn't stand out much.
“I’ve had enough! Nobody respects my job!” Filch grabbed Wade’s arm and dragged him toward his office, muttering angrily, “Come with me, I’m going to put you in solitary confinement! For defiling the castle…”
The two first-year students who had been scolded looked at the administrator in a panic, wondering if they should follow him.
At this moment, Wade, who was being dragged away, turned back and waved, signaling them to leave. The two glanced cautiously at the administrator, then quickly ran into the auditorium, turning back to look at Wade with grateful expressions just before entering.
Filch seemed to have completely forgotten about the two people from before, and was only concerned with making an example of Wade, the brave warrior, and was determined to punish him.
Beside him, Wade's lips curled into a slight smile.
(End of this chapter)