Quirrell is also awake

After entering November, the weather became very cold.

The mountains surrounding Hogwarts were shrouded in a gray haze, covered in ice and snow, and the lake was as cold and hard as quenched steel.

The twelve-foot-tall troll didn't bother the students much; they were all focused on the upcoming Quidditch match.

Unsurprisingly, Harry Potter once again became the focus of the school. Wherever he went, people would talk about him: Gryffindor's Seeker and the Cat Professor's secret weapon.

Some say Harry will do a great job; others say they'll have to hold up their mattresses and run alongside him to prevent him from falling off his flying broomstick and breaking his neck.

If the boy who miraculously survived were to die in an accident on the Quidditch pitch, it would surely cause a sensation throughout the wizarding world, with the Death Eaters rejoicing and the Dark Lord chuckling!

However, Belvina Black was clearly not enthusiastic about Quidditch; she cared neither whether Harry could catch the Golden Snitch nor whether Slytherin could get off to a good start.

That's somewhat similar to Sirius Black, that bastard; neither of them plays Quidditch.

Regulus is quite skilled at Quidditch and was once Slytherin's Seeker.

Belvina preferred to spend her time in bed rather than discussing Quidditch matches; she had been severely sleep-deprived lately.

Hogwarts arranges for professors to patrol the castle at night in order to safeguard the school and protect the students.

However, not many people dare to cause trouble at Hogwarts. The professors on night patrol usually only catch students who refuse to sleep properly, such as the Weasley twins.

But after that night, for some reason, Headmaster Dumbledore made a bold move, increasing the number of professors patrolling at night. All the professors were mobilized to ensure that no trolls could be allowed to appear in the castle again and threaten the safety of the students.

Perhaps, maybe, or possibly because he thought Belvina was too idle, Dumbledore assigned Belvina a lot of tasks. At least three nights a week, she couldn't get a good night's sleep, either being in charge of the first half of the night's patrol or the second half.

Stunned, Belvina had a very urgent idea: she now wanted to hang the wicked Dumbledore from a lamppost.

The twelve-foot-tall behemoth failed to affect the students, but it did affect Belvina, who cruelly abused it. Isn't that another form of revenge?

That evening, Belvina reluctantly left the lounge, carrying a lamp and wandering aimlessly down the dark corridor. Her only companions were the howling night wind outside the window and the sound of her own footsteps.

Oh, and there's also the portrait of someone whose sweet dreams were disturbed by her.

"Young man, turn off the lights, it's very late."

The portrait hanging in the castle said impatiently that he might have been awakened by Belvina's footsteps or by the light.

With a leader emerging, the other portraits also came to life, condemning Belvina's immoral behavior and criticizing her for disturbing everyone's sleep.

"Turn off the lights!"

"I told you to turn off the lights!"

Belvina stopped in front of the portrait where the loudest cries were coming from. Instead of turning off the lantern, she raised it and aimed the light at the eyes of the person in the painting.

"Turn off the lights?" Belvina said irritably. "Do you think I want to stay up all night, wandering around the castle with a lamp, listening to your endless complaints? If you have any complaints, go find Professor Dumbledore, understand?"

Upon hearing the name of the current principal, the noisy portraits all fell silent.

The position of Headmaster of Hogwarts seems to possess a magical power, not only commanding the portraits of past headmasters in the castle, but also ensuring that the headmaster's office is only open to the actual headmaster.

"If you can persuade Professor Dumbledore to reduce the frequency of his night patrols, you can sleep peacefully, and so can I," Belvina continued. "If not, then just shut up and bear with it."

His words gave off a strong impression of someone who was bullying others.

With the collective clamor of the portraits gone, Belvina resumed her night patrol. Carrying a lantern, she walked slowly and heavily, making her rounds of the third, fourth, and fifth floors, which were her assigned areas.

Just as Belvina was about to walk back to the lounge, she suddenly stopped and stood still.

Belvina remained motionless, and the footsteps in the corridor disappeared as well, but Belvina knew that the disappearing footsteps were not just hers.

That's right, Belvina discovered that someone was secretly following her.

Not only tonight, but she has discovered that she is being followed every night she goes on patrol recently.

When it comes to being followed, Belvina is quite experienced. Given her inhumane work style at the Public Information Office, it's almost impossible for her not to be followed and retaliated against.

Practice makes perfect. After being followed so many times, Belvina naturally gained experience in dealing with being followed. Besides, this was Hogwarts, a Hogwarts with ever-changing staircases, so shaking off the follower was not too difficult.

But Belvina didn't do that; she remained standing in the same spot, seemingly waiting for her pursuer to come forward and find her.

After an unknown amount of time, footsteps sounded again, getting closer and closer to Belvina.

"Professor Bu-Bu-Black, are you on night duty tonight? I can't sleep, so I came out for a walk."

With such an obvious stutter, Belvina didn't even need to turn around to know who was behind her.

"Professor Quirrell, as you can see, I'm on night duty tonight," Belvina said softly. "If I'd known you couldn't sleep, we could have switched shifts."

As she spoke, Belvina showed a regretful expression, as if she really thought Quirrell was just out for a stroll because he couldn't sleep, and had no idea that Quirrell had been following her for several nights.

"Ah, it's-my fault," Quirrell stammered. "If I had known earlier, I would have switched places with Professor Black."

Haha, only a fool would believe you.

At first, Quirrell's footsteps were so light that they were mistaken for an illusion. If Belvina hadn't been so experienced, she would have been fooled.

In the following nights, Quirrell's footsteps gradually became heavier, as if deliberately reminding Belvina that she was being followed.

Both of them, shrouded in the darkness outside the window, knew the truth perfectly well, but neither of them dared to bring it up; they both kept it a secret.

"If you don't mind, Professor Quirrell, would you like to walk with me?" Belvina invited. "Having someone to talk to will keep me from getting sleepy."

With that, Belvina continued her night patrol, abandoning the idea of ​​slacking off in the break room, knowing that Quirrell would definitely follow her.

Although Quirrell had no idea how badly the last person who rejected Belvina was beaten, he still followed her, which was precisely Quirrell's purpose in deliberately revealing himself.

"I—I've heard—the students talking about you—your classes," Quirrell said. "Very—very interesting, much better than mine."

A compliment from a former professor of Muggle Studies.

Belvina would be a fool to believe that. She would rather believe that Snape's first thing to do every morning was to wash his hair than believe that Quirrell was following her just to give her a perfunctory compliment.

"Professor Beau-Black, you—you seem—you seem very close to Muggles. I thought—I thought pure-blood wizards wouldn't like Muggles!" Quirrell's tone was full of joy, showing no sign of frustration at Belvina's indifference.

Belvina, who was walking ahead, stopped again. She stopped in a quiet corner of the corridor, where there were no portraits around and no one would pass by in the middle of the night.

"Professor Quirrell, just get to the point," Belvina said listlessly. "I don't think you've been following me just to spout this nonsense. Yes, I've always known you've been following me; I didn't need you to remind me."

At first, Belvina didn't suspect Quirrell, assuming Snape was secretly observing her. Perhaps it was Snape's own selfish motives, wanting to find fault with Belvina, or perhaps it was Dumbledore's doing.

As Paul Bernard said, if anything happens at Hogwarts, the awkwardly positioned Belvina is the prime suspect.

But after thinking about it carefully, Belvina realized that the person following her couldn't be Snape. How could the old Batman alert her with footsteps? The old Batman would probably be hoping that Belvina would be expelled from school.

"Quirinas Quirrell, you were the one who put the troll in the castle on Halloween Eve, weren't you?"