Before the summer break last term, Dumbledore had personally sealed every secret passage leading into Hogwarts.
For an outsider to enter the school now, they either had to come through official channels—or risk being detected by the castle's magical surveillance network.
"Outsiders?" Hagrid scratched his beard. "Well, there were a few parents here last Saturday for the Quidditch match. Why?"
Sean thought for a moment.
That was true.
Several parents had attended the game, including Lucius Malfoy.
But Lucius had left the school around noon that same day.
"Did they all leave on Saturday?" Sean asked.
"Course they did," Hagrid replied. "They came to watch their kids play. Once the match was over, they all headed home."
That ruled them out.
The Wizard's Heart had been stolen sometime between ten and eleven the previous night.
Whoever took it had acted with precision and knew exactly where it was hidden in Sean's room.
Sean stood silently beside Hagrid as he fed Buckbeak.
Hagrid chatted casually while tossing strips of meat to the hippogriff.
"Sean, now that you're Discipline Inspector, you can keep an eye on all the students. Harry's a lot like his dad—not exactly the rule-following type."
Sean replied absently, "I'll make sure to keep him in line."
"Yeah, you wouldn't believe it. Last night at midnight, he and Ron were wandering around the castle."
Sean responded automatically.
"I won't report them."
Then the meaning of Hagrid's words finally hit him.
"What?"
His voice rose sharply.
"Harry and Ron were out at midnight?"
Without waiting for an answer, Sean spun around and sprinted toward the castle.
Behind him, Hagrid shouted, "Don't tell Snape I told you!"
Sean waved over his shoulder.
"Don't worry! I'm not a snitch!"
Harry had the Invisibility Cloak.
If anyone could sneak into Sean's room unnoticed, it was him.
Whether Harry had the skill to break Sean's enchanted lock was another matter entirely.
Sean intended to ask him directly.
Second period still had fifteen minutes remaining.
Harry and Draco were both in fourth-floor Charms class.
Sean stood at the back door of the classroom, staring at Harry.
Harry felt the prickling sensation of being watched and glanced over his shoulder.
When he saw Sean staring straight at him, he assumed it was because he and Ron had been whispering during class.
He nudged Ron with his elbow.
"Pay attention," Harry whispered. "Sean's watching us."
Ron didn't dare turn around.
Using only the corner of his eye, he muttered, "You've got to be kidding. He really is targeting Gryffindor. Abuse of power! Draco's over there chatting with Pansy and Sean doesn't care."
Sean waited patiently for class to end.
As he stood by the door, his eyes drifted between Harry and Draco.
He couldn't help but think that seeing two pseudo-Horcruxes sitting in the same classroom was strangely heartwarming.
A Horcrux, by its nature, was meant to preserve the creator's soul.
Creating one required murder.
A fragment of soul was bound to an object, which was why inanimate items were usually chosen—they could survive for centuries.
Harry wasn't a true Horcrux because he was still a living human being, subject to aging and death.
Nagini was a special case, a beloved pet transformed into a Horcrux.
Harry had become one purely by accident.
Draco's current situation was similar.
If either boy died, the fragment of Voldemort's soul inside them would die as well.
Fifteen minutes later, Filius Flitwick ended the lesson with his usual efficiency.
Students gathered their books and filed out.
Harry and Ron spotted Sean still standing by the rear door.
They exchanged a glance and deliberately tried to slip out through the front.
"You two avoiding me?"
Sean had somehow appeared at the front door before they reached it.
Harry forced a smile.
"No. The front door is just closer to the Great Hall."
"Really?"
Sean tilted his head.
"Then do you know which door is closer to the Slytherin common room?"
Harry blinked, completely missing the implication.
"The back door?"
At that moment, Hermione Granger approached.
Seeing Harry and Ron still talking to Sean, she asked, "Have they broken any rules?"
"Excellent question, Miss Granger."
Sean slowly turned his head toward Harry.
"You may not know this, but these two were strolling through the castle at midnight last night, enjoying the scenery."
Hermione's eyes widened.
"What? You really went to see Fred and George?"
Harry immediately looked nervous.
He pushed up his glasses.
"I don't know what you're talking about. We went to bed early."
"Yes," Ron chimed in eagerly. "Very early."
Sean waved dismissively.
"I already know you were out. I just have a few questions. Answer honestly, and I won't tell the professors."
After a moment of hesitation, Harry nodded.
"Why were you out after curfew?"
Hermione answered before they could.
"Like I said, they wanted to see Fred and George."
Harry nodded.
"Right. But on the way, we saw you, Professor McGonagall, and Professor Snape searching for something in a mysterious room on the eighth floor."
He narrowed his eyes.
"What were you looking for?"
Sean shrugged.
"That's none of your concern. We already found it."
The diadem was still safely hidden in Merlin's Chamber.
Whether and when Sean would "discover" it was entirely up to him.
Harry frowned.
"But after you left, Ron and I saw it again on the first floor."
Sean's heart skipped a beat.
Impossible.
Unless—
No, Harry couldn't possibly know they were searching for the diadem.
"What exactly did you see?" Sean asked calmly.
"A floating crystal sphere."
Sean froze.
To everyone else, the Wizard's Heart looked exactly like a crystal sphere.
He grabbed Harry by the shoulders, unable to contain his excitement.
"Did you see who was carrying it?"
Harry shook his head.
"No one was carrying it. It was floating by itself."
"And then?"
"We followed it to the southern corridor on the first floor. Then it vanished."
Harry looked at him curiously.
"What is it?"
Sean's expression turned grave.
"A very dangerous magical object."
Without another word, he spun around and hurried downstairs.
Students poured through the corridors on their way to lunch.
Sean weaved through the crowds at top speed.
When he reached the southern corridor, he immediately noticed that it faced directly toward the castle entrance.
"A floating Wizard's Heart…"
He thought rapidly.
"Either someone used a levitation charm…"
"Or Harry couldn't see the person carrying it."
Neither possibility was reassuring.
For once, Sean was the one left in the dark, while his enemy seemed to know everything about him.
He activated his Magic vision and began inspecting the corridor inch by inch.
From one end to the other, he examined the walls, ceiling, and floor.
One possibility lingered in his mind:
There might be another hidden room here, similar to the Room of Requirement.
Whether by luck or by his own brilliance, Sean found something unusual on his fourth pass.
The corridor was lined with five stone pillars.
Until now, he had only examined the inner side.
This time, he walked outside along the adjacent lawn, viewing the pillars from the exterior side.
At the third pillar, roughly one meter above the ground, he spotted a faint magical glow.
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