Chapter 199: with translation of chapter title

Harry Potter felt that this afternoon had been extremely thrilling.

First, he caught Neville's Memory Orb while riding a flying broom in flight class; then he was caught by Professor McGonagall; just as he thought he was going to be sent home packing, Professor McGonagall actually let him become the Seeker for the house team!

If it weren't for Malfoy coming over at dinner saying he wanted to have a wizard duel, this day would have been perfect.

At eleven o'clock at night, Ron woke him up, and the two quietly left the Gryffindor tower, preparing to go to the trophy room—that was the agreed dueling spot with Malfoy.

On the way they ran into Neville, whose arm had been healed but who couldn't enter the common room because he'd forgotten the password.

This guy had actually fallen asleep in the corner.

Harry told him the password, but Neville refused to be left behind, saying, "I don't want to be alone here; the ghost of Xue Ren Ba Luo has already passed through here twice."

Thus the pair became a trio, and they felt their way toward the trophy room.

They were careful, afraid to make a commotion, and after going down several floors they arrived at the fourth floor.

Suddenly they saw a shadow, and the three of them hastily hid, but the figure didn't seem to be Filch; judging by appearance, it seemed to be a young wizard.

"Malfoy!" Ron said, "Follow him!"

The three young wizards followed that shadow at a distance of about twenty meters, tiptoeing along, when Harry suddenly felt something was off: "This doesn't seem to be the way to the trophy room."

That seemed to be the case, but compared to obediently going to the trophy room and waiting, sneaking after Malfoy to see what he was up to was obviously more tempting.

So they continued to follow.

They wound through several corridors, feeling as if they'd walked several miles, and finally they came to the end of a corridor.

The young wizard stopped.

He was blocked by a door.

Harry and Ron glanced at each other, Harry drew his wand and stepped out from the corner, "Malfoy, where's your lackey?"

The young wizard startled, turned around, and with a puzzled voice said, "Harry?"

The voice sounded a bit familiar, and Harry, using the moonlight, took a close look at the person: "Tom? What are you doing here so late?"

Tom was naturally there to complete the main task in his notebook.

Increasing Magic Power and the Flight Spell were both appealing, and he was also interested in the secret of the fourth-floor corridor.

But he couldn't say that to the young wizards in front of him, and he frowned, asking, "Why are you guys out again?"

"Malfoy challenged us to a duel, and we're looking for him," Ron said, "What do you have in your hand?"

Tom hid the notebook behind his back and said, "Um, nothing, it's just a book; I was planning to do some reading."

"In the middle of the night? Here? Reading?" Ron said suspiciously.

But just then, footsteps suddenly came from afar, "Sniffing around, my dear, they might be hiding in some corner."

"That's Filch's voice!" Ron's face turned pale, "We're going to get caught!"

As the light from the corner began to shine, the young wizards instinctively fled away from the light, gathering with Tom, but this was the end of the corridor, with no way out.

"Damn, this door is locked!" Ron looked at the door at the end and pulled hard on the lock, but it didn't budge at all.

"Let me do it!" Tom drew his wand and said, "Alohomora!"

The lock clicked open, and the young wizards hurriedly piled in; after waiting a while, Filch seemed to have found nothing and left.

"He thought this door was locked," Harry whispered, "I think we'll be fine—move aside, Neville!" Neville had been tugging at Harry's robe sleeve. "What's up?"

As Harry turned around, he saw a three-headed large dog staring at them with six eyes the size of soccer balls.

"Harry, open the door quickly..." Tom said in a low voice, not daring to take his eyes off the three-headed dog.

Harry fumbled with the doorknob, pulled the door open, the four of them slowly backed away, then suddenly rushed out, slammed the door shut, and ran for their lives.

They ran desperately, not watching where they were going, and before long they had actually run into the trophy room; the four young wizards collapsed on the ground in a heap, Tom also drenched in sweat leaned against a display cabinet, gasping heavily.

"What on earth is that monster?"

The three-headed dog was as tall as the ceiling, terrifying.

"It's outrageous that they'd actually put something like that in the school; what on earth are they trying to do!" Ron said.

"It must be guarding something," Tom suddenly said.

"What?"

Tom recalled the scene just now—the three-headed dog had its paws on a trapdoor; it was clearly a sentinel, guarding something.

"Tom, why were you there?" Harry asked, glancing at the black notebook in Tom's hand.

During today's flight class, after he caught the Memory Orb, everyone cheered for him—only Tom turned around, and at that moment he seemed to be holding that very notebook.

But Tom didn't answer; he was just staring blankly at a plaque in front of him.

The large plaque set in the glass display case had two lines engraved on it.

"For Special Contribution to the School."

"Tom Li De Er."

……

The next day, the members of the Hero Team gathered together.

Hermione was shocked to hear Harry and Ron discussing what had happened to them yesterday, "I can't believe you actually stayed up all night and went wandering outside! If you get caught, how many points will you lose for Gryffindor!"

"You shouldn't have gone out; Malfoy obviously tricked you, that was a trap, and you still foolishly walked right into it."

"Oh goodness, is that the point? Didn't you hear what we were saying? That huge dog, three heads, six eyes, as tall as a mountain! They actually put that thing in the school."

"That's a Hell three-headed dog," Hermione said, noting that it was mentioned in *Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them*. You lot not getting eaten is really lucky.

"It's chained up, I dare say; if it had been even a little later, all you'd see today would be our bones."

"At least now we know why that corridor is off-limits."

"Tom said it was guarding something," Harry said.

"Its paws are on a trapdoor; it's a sentry," Tom said.

He absentmindedly munched on something while his mind kept drifting back to that plaque.

Tom Li De Er.

Why does this name make me feel so familiar? Could it be because I'm also called Tom?

"What does the Special Contribution Award reward?" he suddenly asked.

"I've never heard of this award." Ron said, "Usually they reward things like the best player."

"You say, what is that big dog guarding?" Harry asked.

"I don't know," Hermione said, "but I guess Hagrid definitely knows."

The group name has been changed, I also changed it before.

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(End of chapter)