Chapter 45: Secret Base

Following Xiaohei and Big Orange, John came to the second floor of the wooden house.

Xiaohei was the name he gave this dog.

After entering the second floor room, he found that someone seemed to have lived here once.

On the left side of the room was a large bed covered with dust and spider webs.

In the middle was a piano that had already been scrapped.

On the right was a broken sofa with a collapsed leg.

The floor covered with dust was full of footprints of Xiaohei and Big Orange.

?

Why are there a few human footprints?

Looking like they were recent, could it be that there were other people who knew about this secret passage?

There was also a newspaper on the ground that caught John's attention.

That was the Ministry of Magic's Daily Prophet.

Looking at it, it was an old newspaper from two months ago.

The front page of the newspaper was a moving Egyptian family photo.

Eh no, it said something about the Weasley family winning the Gold Galleon prize, and the whole family went to Egypt for a trip.

Weasley, isn't that Senior Ron's surname?

John carefully distinguished that black and white photo.

Finally, he really found Ron holding a rat in the photo.

Why would there be a newspaper here?

John felt a burst of confusion.

But didn't think about it in detail.

His current acceptance ability was outrageously large.

Even if Xiaohei suddenly opened its mouth to speak human language, he estimated he wouldn't be too surprised.

Xiaohei lay on that broken sofa, drooping its head, and Big Orange also lay beside it.

It seems their relationship is really good.

But.

"Big Orange, it's not that I dislike Xiaohei, but it is indeed too dirty, you move aside first, I'll wash Xiaohei."

John walked over, picked up Big Orange, and threw it aside.

"Xiaohei, I'll give you a bath, don't resist."

John raised his wand at Xiaohei; he could clearly see Xiaohei baring its teeth; clearly, it had strong defensive heart against the wand.

"Don't be nervous, Xiaohei, this is just a cleaning spell."

John raised his hand, comforting Xiaohei, and said slowly.

Seeming to notice John didn't have any malice, Xiaohei then calmed down.

"Do you want to come down first."

John pointed to the floor.

Xiaohei understood, hesitated for two seconds, and still climbed down from the sofa.

John also waved his wand slowly, and a stream of water appeared out of thin air, covering Xiaohei's body.

The water passed, taking away the dirty things in Xiaohei's hair together.

Not long after, Xiaohei was wet all over, but at least those dirty things were gone.

Code triggered, Xiaohei shook the water on its body vigorously, splashing John all over.

John waved his wand again, and a burst of warm wind blew, drying Xiaohei's hair.

John learned quite a few of these life spells from Flitwick.

He didn't hide anything, John wanted to learn whatever he taught.

Xiaohei, who had taken a bath, felt refreshed all over, happily jumped up and rubbed its head against John's belly.

John also successfully rubbed the dog's head happily.

"Tsk tsk tsk, so obedient so obedient

John rubbed the dog's head and also laughed happily.

Next, John directly washed the entire second floor; although he didn't repair those drafty walls, at least it was much cleaner.

He didn't dare to repair them either, for fear of causing any commotion.

This place was clearly a special secret base.

John wanted to claim it for himself and make this place his secret base.

Although there was a footprint from who knows where, indicating that others might have been here before.

But it didn't matter.

He would deal with it if he ran into them.

Xiaohei was originally quite willing to let John pet it.

But when John curiously played with its lychee, it immediately refused.

It wouldn't let John touch it no matter what.

"Tsk, we're both males, why be so stingy."

John said to himself helplessly.

"Hmm... but if I want to adopt you, I'll probably have to take you to get neutered..."

Xiaohei:!!!

Looking at Xiaohei's terrified expression.

Crap, he forgot this dog could understand human speech.

"Oh, I'm just kidding, Xiaohei. Come with me, I'll introduce you to a few female dogs."

John immediately put on a smile, wrapped his arms around Xiaohei's body, and said with a chuckle.

But Xiaohei only felt a chill down below.

It refused to follow John no matter what and dove straight under the broken bed.

John was also helpless.

This dog is even smarter than Big Orange; it's not easy to trick.

Should he bring a sedative next time to knock it out?

That won't work either; if Xiaohei wakes up later and finds the lychee missing, it will hate him to death.

Forget it, let's not worry about it for now.

John didn't really intend to adopt Xiaohei; he still didn't know what the situation was with this dog.

Being able to understand human speech, it probably wasn't just any ordinary dog.

He wondered if it was some wizard's pet that had gotten lost from its owner.

"Let's go, Big Orange, time to head back."

"Xiaohei, you just keep staying in this place. I'll come see you next time, and I'll bring you more food then."

The afternoon class would start in an hour.

This broken secret passage took half an hour to walk through, so he had to leave a bit early.

John picked up Big Orange and held it in his arms.

Xiaohei also poked its dog head out from under the bed.

John smiled and waved at it: "Bye-bye."

Xiaohei just watched John leave like that.

After the sound of John's footsteps entering the secret passage grew more and more distant.

Xiaohei's face finally returned to a cold, sharp look; in temperament, it changed from a simple and honest dog into a mighty and domineering wolfhound.

It walked slowly to the newspaper that had fallen on the ground and looked at the photo in the newspaper.

Looking at the rat in Ron's hand.

What John didn't know was that in the castle, Ryan and his group had clashed with Malfoy again.

The direct cause of the conflict was that John had gone missing.

When their group ran over to find John, they hadn't found him yet before being caught up by Hermione, Harry, and Ron.

Hermione heard that Malfoy wanted to retaliate against John, and now John was missing.

She immediately joined them in looking for John.

Although she knew Malfoy wouldn't dare to bully people too excessively, she was still worried.

Even Harry and Ron, who didn't know John at all, took the initiative to join the search.

Then they searched everywhere in the castle, but they just couldn't find John.

In the end, they didn't find John, but instead found Malfoy and his two lackeys.

They went to question Malfoy about where John had been taken.

How would Malfoy know where John was? But seeing their anxious expressions.

He immediately put on a gloating look, saying that if they wanted to know, they should kneel down and beg him.

Then, the conflict broke out.

When John emerged from the secret passage, he looked left and right, confirmed no one was around, and then jogged all the way back to the castle.

As soon as he entered the castle, he heard the sound of arguing near a garden.

The voices were very familiar; it was his little friends.

When John approached, he discovered they were in a standoff with Malfoy and his group, and Neville, Hermione, and the not-so-familiar Harry and Ron were also there.

The atmosphere was tense, as if they would start fighting if they disagreed on a single word.

"What's going on?"

John's abrupt voice interrupted their argument, and both sides looked at John, who seemed like nothing had happened.

Everyone: "?"