Chapter 27: The Black Cloak
Twisting open the door to the dormitory, Qiu Zhang had obviously roughly sorted out the things scattered on the floor of the dormitory, and Brandi's books and the exquisitely made low-cut dress seemed to have survived, and they were placed on her bed along with Qiu Zhang's own miscellaneous items, arranged in two neat small piles. But that didn't completely hide the mess in the room—the burn spell had burned a charred mark on the carpet next to Brandy's bed, and the spell book on the table had been blown to pieces by unknown magic, and the floor was littered with fine scraps of paper.
The entire carpet was now crooked, and the sheets had been torn to the floor, crumpled and crumpled. Wendy seemed to have fallen to the ground, clutching whatever she could hold onto, desperately trying to get to her feet.
But why did she struggle to the side of her box without saying a word, shouting for help and crawling out the door, wasn't it all a means of saving herself? After the initial shock, Brandi was puzzled. He carefully dodged the messy scene and stumbled to the suitcase.
His suitcase was placed in the innermost corner of the room, mainly out of sight and out of mind: opening the box every day to figure out what kind of lingerie and socks he was wearing that day was not something to look forward to for Brandy, and Dumbledore's logistics were so thoughtful and meticulous that there was hardly any clothing with a hint of machismo in the entire box except for the socks that Brandy had hidden those valuables.
Pulling open the lid of the box, the things inside were a little messy, this was mainly the relationship between the afternoon etiquette class, and when he hurriedly changed his skirt, he threw all the fine sundries on his body into the suitcase. But that's just the top layer, and Brandi's cleanliness habit requires him to keep everything in order - removing the pocket watch that Lavender had given him, the jug containing the voice-changing potion, and the previous letters from Hogwarts, and putting the necklace of the silver hair ring back on his chest. Beneath were neatly folded robes and shiny clothes, which he counted carefully, then unraveled them, and pulled out the bulging socks from the compartment between the books at the bottom.
Everything works fine.
After everything was confirmed, Brandi breathed a sigh of relief. Nothing was lost, Wendy wasn't hurt, and this was probably the best ending, and if something happened to the carefully selected ladies at Beauxbatons, it was likely to cause the British and French Ministries of Magic to be overwhelmed.
That's the best, a false alarm......
However, he quickly realized that something was wrong, if it was just an intrusion with no serious consequences, why would Madame Maxim ring the school's emergency assembly bell? Moreover, a person who has gone to great lengths to break into the tower can't just run to see the scenery.
His eyes quickly stopped moving, and he fixed his eyes on the box, this thing was really abnormal, too abnormal.
"Qiu, have you helped organize my boxes?" He asked, confused.
The voice that answered him made his heart skip a beat.
“…… So you know why you're being suspected? Britney. Qiu Zhang was next to him, but it was not her who spoke, Katie stood in the doorway, half-convinced, behind her, Ouriana, who had just returned to the tower with a solemn expression. She glanced at Britney with a trembling look and said with a complicated expression. "Of all the rooms that have been broken into, only the contents of your box have not been turned over by the murderer."
………………
Whether or not the killer sensed something unexpected at the time, or if Wendy's spell hurt him, he eventually gave up on searching for Brandy's box and left the tower. The reason why Beauxbatons rang the bell was soon answered, and when the people in the tower arrived in the auditorium accompanied by a professor from the observation deck, the people in the auditorium were panicked - Brandi and the others realized that Wendy was not the only target who had been attacked, and that a young boy in the first grade was crying in horror in the crowd, and that the people around him were all talking French, which they couldn't understand. Thanks to Anna and Audrey being just a short distance away, Brandi barely figured out what was going on.
"The first-grader said his classmate was missing, just a few feet next to him."
"He saw people disappear with his own eyes? Right under your nose? Brandi's expression was like he's seen a ghost.
Anna shook her head: "No, they seemed to be in the bathroom on the first floor at that time, and the two of them were in a compartment not far away...... He vaguely heard the sound of Suo Suo in the bathroom and the muttering of his classmates, and he responded with a few words in his throat, but there was no response. So he thought it was a classmate trying to solve a physiological problem, but he didn't expect it to be attacked - and then he saw someone walking slowly and silently through the gap under the compartment, the movement was small as if he was gliding, and the old man with a black cloak dragged on. By the time he came out to greet his classmates, the door to the cubicle where his friend was was still locked, but the person was gone. Strangely, his friend wasn't wearing a black cloak. ”
!!!
This horror event like a ghost story made the listeners creepy, so much so that they hugged each other in twos and threes. Two hands quickly grabbed Brandi's arm, and it hurt him to grasp it with all his strength. Katie and Qiu Zhang leaned over nervously, their soft bodies trembling slightly, as if the larger Britney Spears could bring them a sense of security.
Because of Anna's testimony with Audrey, although Britney still has a lot of suspicions, Katie still chooses to believe her - after all, Britney has not acted alone all night, and it is impossible for her to have the opportunity to run to the cantilevered tower to rummage things, not to mention that she will wear a black cloak or cloak and other old-fashioned clothing to run to the men's bathroom and attack the little boy. The bold and revealing skirt and pink lingerie in the box already illustrate this point - judging by Britney's aesthetic, Katie trusts her instincts as a girl 100%.
The disappearance of a first-year student, supposedly the child of a French Ministry of Magic official, was a considerable disaster for Beauxbatons. So for the first time, Brandi and the others had the good fortune to see Madame Maxim's furious face—her chest was as violently bullying as a bellows that were desperately blowing, and the thick tendons on her head bulged high, and she did not hide her anger in a hoarse and deep growl.
Anna stuck out her tongue and whispered to Brandy.
"Madame Maxim looks like she's going to get serious, and she's asking the prefects to count all the students who couldn't provide alibi tonight and ask them one by one! After a while, everyone will have to go back to their dorms to rest, and the professors will search the entire castle...... We're going to find that junior, right? ”
Brandi nodded insincerely, he was really willing to agree with Anna's statement and think things more simply. It can be seen that after seeing the Hogwarts Chamber of Secrets, he has always had a faint suspicion and fear of a dark and damp place like the bathroom. Since the noble Slytherin gentlemen had the leisure to place the entrance to the chamber on the sink in the women's restroom, God knows if Beauxbatons's headmasters could have been so whimsical - the flush toilet in that compartment might lead to some dark wizard assembly house.
But...... How the hell did he get out of the locked compartment, Brandi couldn't figure it out - the witnesses didn't see the glow of the spell, they didn't hear the door open, could a wizard wearing such a long cloak still be able to jump out of the compartment? And the man in the cloak had heard the voice of the little wizard he was witnessing, so why didn't he just clean him up......
After all the precautions were announced, the students in the auditorium quickly disbanded under the leadership of the prefect. After receiving Madame Maxim's solemn promise and assurance, the Hogwarts girls followed the crowd after the end of the show, and slowly walked upstairs under the watchful eye of the professors. As guests, of course, they are most closely protected, and they don't have too much panic. While everyone was chatting enthusiastically, Brandi slowly moved from the front of the team to the back of the team without a trace, and Sister Orianna was talking to Qiu Zhang, and he felt that he needed to listen to what they were saying.
After all, when he entered the castle, Oriana's sneaky expression as if he was looking for something really made him suspicious.
"Sister Orianna, if this kind of thing happens in Beauxbatons now, will our exchange activities end early? I remember you said you were going to the owl shack to deliver a letter to Professor Dumbledore......"
It's no wonder that the senior sister can still run around in the school when she is nervous, it turns out that she is under the banner of contacting the principal in time. Brandi pretended to be casual and walked forward with his head down, pricking up his ears to listen carefully to the voices behind him...... She had already shown her horse's feet, and Brandy didn't remember the direction of the owl shack to the club room.
He didn't believe that Oriana would be the one who attacked Wendy and Beauxbatons, it didn't make sense, Orianna didn't need to make a sound to cast magic, and she could easily knock Wendy unconscious...... But she couldn't do that, she didn't go to class all afternoon, she could just toss around in the empty tower without leaving a trace. Where is the use of doing it at that awkward time.
"Yes, I've already sent an urgent letter." Ou Liana said, her eyes wandered at the classmates in front of her, and then fixed on Britney's body, Qiu Zhang unexpectedly found that her eyes were very confused, usually the big sister grows up and the sister is short, and she doesn't call at this time. "It will probably be a few days before we get a reply, but if nothing else, our exchange will end early—Miss Dracul has just informed me that some of the less important lessons in the exchange will be cut down, and the whole schedule will be reduced to one or two weeks—only the alchemy course will not be cut, and Madame Maxim says that is important. She and Dumbledore had a rare success in inviting a well-known alchemist in the alchemy world, who usually didn't appear in public, and he didn't know why he was willing to come out this time. It seems to be called ...... Nicol or something. ”