The preparations for the Halloween feast began in the afternoon.
Hogwarts house-elves closed the doors of the Great Hall and were rapidly arranging various decorations inside.
After finishing her classes, Kate walked out of the classroom, wandered around the edge of the Great Hall for a bit, and then arrived at the Trophy Room on the fourth floor.
This was a good spot. At this time on Halloween, absolutely no one would come here. Coincidentally, it was also very close to the room on the fourth floor guarded by the three-headed dog.
Yes, Kate only needed to poke her head out slightly to see that forbidden corridor clearly.
However, that wasn't the only thing she cared about.
After taking a cursory tour of the various trophies and medals in the Trophy Room, she finally stopped and fished her wand out from her robes.
"Phantom Clone." She recited softly.
Immediately, a soft, dense gas was released from the tip of her wand, resembling glowing satin.
Soon, the colorless gas rapidly condensed into a human shape, developing a faint outline.
"No need for specific facial features; no one needs to see your face anyway."
Kate murmured. With a lift of her wand, she attached it to a suit of armor in the corridor right next to the Trophy Room.
And this suit of armor was directly facing that forbidden room.
After releasing a clone, Kate's face became visibly pale.
This was not her first time casting this spell, but in previous practices, releasing just one light-and-shadow clone was enough to make the mana in her body plummet by one-third. Such a spell was really not suitable for her to practice often.
And now, to maintain the clone's mobility, she had used more than half of her mana. If it were an excellent Auror, their entire mana reserve would likely be drained dry by this spell.
So, after practicing it twice, Kate knew that the biggest defect of this spell was that it had to be prepared in advance.
If she were to use it directly on a battlefield, it would instead cut off her own chance of survival.
This point was indeed quite a pitfall; the System hadn't explained it to her in detail before she chose it. However, since it was a spell that consumed more than half of her mana, it must have its extraordinary aspects.
Taking a few deep breaths, Kate's complexion improved slightly.
Looking at the armor before her, which appeared completely normal, the corners of her lips hooked up slightly. She was just thinking of leaving this place as soon as possible when, unexpectedly, a rush of footsteps came from not far away.
Kate's expression changed slightly. She immediately cast a Disillusionment Charm and hid inside the Trophy Room.
Not long after, an intoxicating smell of garlic drifted from afar.
This was simply Quirrell's signature smell.
Only, at this time, he shouldn't have found a way to deal with the three-headed dog in the room yet. What was this guy doing here now?
Right now, the Mirror of Erised hadn't been moved out of the Room of Requirement yet, so the checkpoints set by the other professors to protect the Philosopher's Stone shouldn't have been set up either. Even if he wanted to release the troll, he couldn't get through here.
Kate held her breath, trying hard to lower her own mana fluctuations to the minimum, making herself as devoid of presence as a medal in this room.
She watched as Quirrell, wrapped in his large turban, walked toward that door. He pressed his ear against the door, listening to the low growls of the three-headed dog inside.
Quirrell's pale face turned even more green and black after hearing the growls inside.
He left the door with a twitching expression, muttering to himself in a low voice: "Still no way... No... release the troll? I don't understand... Alright!"
As he spoke, he stopped in place somewhat excitedly. The position where he stood happened to be right next to the Trophy Room.
Kate could even clearly see a slight vibration coming from the back of his head, which was wrapped in the turban.
It must be Voldemort giving him instructions.
She tried hard to make her breathing less noticeable and maintained the Disillusionment Charm.
Fortunately, the current Quirrell was still thinking about how to complete the task assigned by his master. And Voldemort himself, on top of his head, was so weak at this moment that speaking was difficult. Being unintentional, they did not discover her existence.
After Quirrell left, Kate waited patiently in place for another fifteen minutes.
Even when she had completely confirmed that they had gone far away, she didn't drop the maintenance of the Disillusionment Charm. She walked down the stairs in the opposite direction alone.
Quirrell was already prepared to release the troll located in the underground room under Voldemort's instructions.
Coincidentally, that place was not far from the Slytherin Common Room and Snape's Potions classroom.
It was just that those rooms and the Common Room were in opposite directions, so no little snake had ever gone to explore there out of curiosity.
If it were Gryffindor, the facilities of the entire dungeon would probably have been explored thoroughly.
Thinking about Snape's office being explored by Gryffindors every day...
The scene was too beautiful; she really didn't dare to imagine it.
Finding a place with no people or portraits, Kate quietly lifted the Disillusionment Charm and returned to the Great Hall with a look of nonchalance.
At this moment, the Great Hall was already open. Colorful Halloween decorations adorned the ceiling and walls.
Students entered one after another, and the atmosphere was exceptionally enthusiastic.
Hermione arrived following behind Harry and Ron. As soon as she saw Kate waiting at the door, she excitedly pounced on her.
The two boys beside them watched with helplessness.
This morning, Hermione had explained to them that between girls, clingy hugging and cuddling were common occurrences. Even so, seeing the overly sticky scene between these two, the pair still turned their heads away speechlessly.
"Aren't I waiting for you right now?" Kate chuckled softly, supporting her waist. "Otherwise, you'd blame me for going in without waiting for you again."
Hermione's eyes lit up, and she held out her hand to her: "Halloween, trick or treat!"
In previous years on Halloween, her parents would dress her up in new clothes, and she would run happily to Kate's house to ask for candy. Every time, Kate would bring out a large bag of prepared sweets, and they were all for her.
Kate raised an eyebrow: "Wait until after the meal, go back and check your bedside."
"You put the candy by my bed?" Hermione was simply shocked. "How did you manage that?"
Just going to the kitchen and asking the house-elves would do. Of course, one needed a bit of special status for that.
However, Kate didn't intend to tell her this. She blinked and said, "Secret."
"You two ladies, please don't block the doorway anymore." Ron waited for them to chat for a while and finally couldn't help but speak up.
Hermione blushed. She had no choice but to lower her head and obediently go with them to sit at the Gryffindor long table, still looking back from time to time.
Seeing her appearance of being unable to leave Kate for even a moment, the two brothers opposite her shook their heads straight away.
Hopeless. The girl with the best grades in their Gryffindor had already been abducted by the little snake next door.
No, she wouldn't even need to be abducted; Hermione would probably take the initiative to follow her home, trotting along happily.
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