176: Chapter 176 Tongnat eavesdropping

"They've gone in."

Nott pressed the note onto the table, his fingertips still stained with wax from the portrait.

Half the students in the Slytherin Common Room were frozen by his words. Draco crumpled the candy wrapper in his hand, Pansy closed her book, and Zabini pushed the candy box to the edge of the table. No one spoke first.

Allen sat by the fireplace, his blackthorn wand pinning down a corner of the old map.

He glanced at the note, which read: Harry Potter and Hermione Granger have chased into the Hogsmeade secret passage; Ron Weasley has been dragged away by a Black dog; there are spell reactions in the direction of the Shrieking Shack.

Draco lowered his voice, "Are you still going to wait? Weasley's leg is about to be bitten off by that dog."

"Black wants the rat." Allen pushed a knut to the edge of the map. "The leg is just a tether."

"That's a horrible way to put it." Pansy crossed her arms. "But I admit, it sounds like something Black would do."

Nott opened his notebook. "The second batch of news from the fourth-floor portraits: Snape has entered the passage, Lupin's office is empty, and Professor McGonagall is organizing the Gryffindor students to return to their tower. Dumbledore has yet to appear."

Zabini tapped the candy box. "Professors chasing each other, students being dragged away, Dementors wandering outside. Hogwarts tonight is truly like a pot of rotten soup."

Draco glared at him. "Can you not use metaphors at a time like this?"

"No." Zabini pulled the candy box back. "I tend to speak more truth when I'm nervous."

Allen ignored them. He pressed his finger pad against the knut, his magic tightening in concentric circles along the coin's edge.

Inside the Portable Space, the tip of the Void's tail rested beside the ebony box, its silver vertical pupils fixed on Peter inside the cage.

Peter was already kneeling on the ground, his hands gripping the thin walls. His mouth was sealed by the space, leaving only dry, raspy wheezing squeezing from his throat.

"Shut up," Allen said in his mind. "It's not your turn yet."

Peter shook his head, the whites of his eyes bloodshot. After hearing the words "Shrieking Shack," he had been like a man shoved into a hot pan, and he was even causing the edges of the cage to tremble slightly from his collisions.

Draco saw a Black shadow flicker at Allen's cuff and his expression worsened. "Is he going mad again?"

"Black is too close to him." Allen pressed the knut onto the old map. "It's a normal reaction."

"Normal?" Draco almost laughed out loud. "A dead man popping up to find another dead man, and there are Dementors in the school. You call this normal?"

Nott raised his pen. "The wording isn't important. The point is that Allen wants to listen in on the Shrieking Shack."

Pansy immediately looked toward the door. "Are you going to open the entrance to the space?"

"No." Allen took a second knut from his sleeve and placed it on the table. "I'm only using it as a relay. There's an old crack in the wall outside the entrance to the Shrieking Shack; I left a knut there around Christmas."

Draco froze for a moment. "When did you leave it there?"

"When confirming the Hogsmeade map."

"You buried coins in advance even in that haunted house?"

Allen looked up. "Any place Black might go should have one."

Zabini scooted his chair back half an inch. "That sounds more like something a wanted criminal would say than Black."

Nott looked down to write. "Shrieking Shack entrance, knut anchor point, listening relay, long distance, information blurry."

Allen touched the tip of his wand to the knut, and a circle of fine spatial patterns on the table lit up and then dimmed.

The sound of the fireplace in the Common Room seemed to draw away, and the motion of the lake water hitting the walls grew thin.

From the other end came the creaking of wood, gasping, screaming, and the cracking voice of Ron cursing.

"Let go of me! Are you crazy?"

Draco reflexively looked at Allen. "Weasley?"

"Yes."

"He's still alive," Pansy said, loosening her grip on the book's spine. "At least he can still curse."

The sound in the relay was intermittent, as if separated by thick walls and rotten wood.

Harry's roar pierced through, Black's voice was hoarse, and Lupin's voice appeared shortly after, suppressing the chaos.

"Remus?" Draco sat up straight immediately. "Lupin has arrived?"

Nott's pen paused. "Sequence confirmed. Black controlled Ron first, Harry and Hermione arrived, and Lupin entered afterwards."

Zabini said in a low voice, "Snape hasn't arrived yet."

Allen pressed his fingertips tightly against the knut, stretching the blurred flow of sound into several lines.

The golden patterns inside the Portable Space clung to the outer wall of the Shrieking Shack, inching around collapsed wooden beams and stopping near the entrance. He couldn't go deeper. Going deeper would mean running into the detection spells left by Lupin or Snape.

Inside the shack, Harry's voice was filled with hatred. "You killed my parents."

Black replied, but it was too hoarse to hear clearly.

Lupin spoke for a while, but the names were half-swallowed by the wooden walls. James, Sirius, Peter, Secret-Keeper, betrayal. Each word was like a nail driven into Peter inside the cage.

Peter began to slam against the thin walls.

The first time, the cage's runic lines lit up.

The second time, the Void raised its tail to press down on the top of the cage.

The third time, Allen curled his finger, and the five-square-meter cage shrank inward by three inches.

Peter was squeezed until he was pinned to the ground, his shoulder hitting the transparent boundary, a stifled, high-pitched sound forcing its way from his throat.

The Black snake of the Void slithered around the outside of the cage, its silver pupils fixed on his fingers to prevent him from transforming.

Allen said in his mind, "Stay still."

Draco looked at the veins on the back of his hand. "What are you doing?"

"Shrinking the cage."

The color drained from Pansy's face. "Will he die?"

"No," Allen released one notch. "Just a reminder."

Zabini rubbed the edge of the candy box with his finger pad. "The way you remind people is very fitting for Azkaban."

Nott didn't look up. "Peter's strong reaction indicates that the core of the old case is being mentioned inside the shack. If he were present, Black and Lupin would immediately complete the loop of testimony."

"He isn't there," Draco grasped the point. "So they can only talk."

Allen nodded. "Only when they've said enough will they get desperate."

Ron's voice came through the relay again, filled with pain. "Scabbers? Are you talking about Scabbers?"

Hermione's voice was lower, almost inaudible. Harry was pressing for answers, and Lupin was explaining. Black suddenly raised his voice, interspersed with "Animagus" and "right front paw."

Draco slammed his hand onto the table. "They've brought up the rat."

Pansy looked toward other parts of the Common Room, confirming no one was approaching. Flint and the other older students were suppressed by Draco and huddled on the other side, but their ears were still pricked up.

Zabini stood up directly, walked between two tables, and knocked the candy box onto the tabletop.

"Whoever gets any closer, Malfoy will take down your name," Zabini said.

Draco turned his head. "Why me?"

"Your father's surname is useful."

"Shut up."

These two sentences scared the younger students back to their places, and Pansy took the opportunity to stand up and pretend to check the door.

Nott continued to transcribe the relay content into shorthand, replacing all sensitive names with code names.

Allen, however, kept listening to the shack.

Black's voice became hurried, and Lupin's voice also began to lose its composure. Ron retorted, Hermione questioned, and Harry was silent for a few seconds, then burst out, "Then where is he?"

Inside the Portable Space, Peter jerked his head up.

The four thin walls inside the cage tightened simultaneously; Allen didn't give him a chance to slam against them. The tip of the Void's tail slid from the top of the cage to the door, like a lock.

"Did you hear that?" Allen said in his mind. "They've finally remembered you."

Peter nodded frantically, then shook his head, his lips sealed by the space, unable to say anything.

Draco leaned toward Allen, his voice very low. "Are they looking for Scabbers?"

"Yes."

"But there's only a fake in Ron's pocket."

"So the most useful news of the night is about to come," Allen circled the Shrieking Shack on the map. "Black and Lupin will confirm it themselves: the original line is broken."

Nott looked up. "Original line?"

Allen paused for a moment. "The person who could have proven the old case has appeared in the place where they should have been."

Zabini chimed in, "Now the witness is in your cage."

Pansy glanced at Allen's sleeve. "That's even scarier than Black breaking into the Castle."

From the relay came the sound of floorboards cracking underfoot; Ron screamed, and Hermione shouted, "Don't hurt it!" Then there was a chaotic scuffling sound, as if someone were rummaging through pockets, or like a small animal darting into a wall crevice.

Black's voice suddenly cut off.

Then came his irrepressible roar.

"He's not here!"

In the Common Room, several people looked at Allen simultaneously. The candy wrapper in Draco's hand fell to the floor, Nott's pen tore through the parchment, Pansy pressed her hand to her chest, and Zabini clamped the candy box shut tightly.

Allen retracted his wand, and the fine lines on the knut dimmed.

"Step one is finished."

Draco stared at him. "You call this finished?"

"The confrontation in the shack is finished," Allen folded the map. "What comes next is chaos."

Nott quickly recorded, "Black confirms Scabbers is absent. Lupin is present. Harry, Ron, and Hermione have heard the version of the old case. The chain of evidence is broken, and emotions will rise."

Pansy asked, "What about Snape?"

As if in response to her, a deeper voice came through the remote relay. Every word carried the familiar poison of Slytherin.

"Lupin."

Draco took a breath. "The Dean has arrived."

Allen tucked the knut into his sleeve, his fingertips icy cold. He glanced at the Portable Space; Peter was lying in the shrunken cage, his eyes still fixed in the direction of the Shrieking Shack.

"No one will be able to sleep peacefully tonight."