Late at night, in the empty corridor, there were a few figures walking slowly, holding a magic lantern in one hand and a wand in the other.
Although they were all wearing Gryffindor House robes, their appearances were obviously much more weathered than ordinary students.
Especially the one leading them, his thick beard and deep dark circles under his eyes made him look like a weak, middle-aged addict.
Perhaps due to being too sleepy, the person at the back of the group suddenly yawned.
Then, as if contagious, the rest of the group began yawning one after another. Even the "middle-aged addict" at the front was no exception.
"Ha~ah?"
However, he had only half-finished his yawn when he suddenly stopped, looking around suspiciously.
Just now, he had seemed to see a blurry shadow pass in front of him.
Unfortunately, after searching for a long time, he still found nothing. In the end, he could only blame it on a hallucination from his long-term sleep deprivation, wearing a face full of bitterness and continued walking forward.
Having a yawn interrupted halfway really sucks.
And only after they had disappeared around the far-off corner did Link's blurry silhouette finally emerge from the darkness.
"Phew~ That was close."
Link let out a long breath and muttered to himself, then once again turned into a blurry phantom, rushing toward his destination for this trip, the Owlery.
Because at night, all the owls had gone out to deliver mail, the Owlery was also completely empty at this moment.
Link was not surprised by this at all. Instead, he skilfully flipped open the owl post record, which was covered by a wooden board, and began quickly copying it with a self-writing quill.
This was a very necessary task, because according to Draco's description, the place where he fainted back then was near here.
Which meant he very likely used owl post to send out the diary.
Although senders weren't required to register by name, if the number was low, Link still had confidence that he could investigate their destinations one by one.
And the reason why Link looked so skilled was because this was actually already the seventh time he had come here.
No helping it, the group of people he had run into earlier were exactly the inspectors that Professor Snape had spoken of. Professor McGonagall had even given them a name, The Prefect Patrol Team.
This patrol team's work was very hard, they not only had to frequently rush into student dormitories to search, but were also responsible for night patrols, and carpet-style searches for contraband.
And the patrol team members were all made up of seventh-year students who had passed the initial selection for Auror recruitment by the Ministry of Magic.
Although most of them would fail the coming training and tests, losing their chance to become part of the elite Auror forces, but even passing the preliminary selection already proved they were the best batch in Hogwarts.
Moreover, since Professor McGonagall had promised that their performance in this patrol work would be directly counted in their future "Auror exams,", these patrol team members, even with heavy academic burdens during the day, still remained extremely vigilant to carry out the job.
Take the group Link had run into earlier, for example. They would pass through here once every ten minutes, conducting full inspections of the Owlery.
This had caused Link's work efficiency to be dragged down to a hair-pulling degree.
Still, no matter how low the efficiency, the job would eventually be done. Link estimated that by tonight, he could finish a complete analysis of the record.
However, reality is cruel.
When Link finally finished copying all the information, he was disappointed to find he still could not figure out to whom Draco had mailed the diary.
Because the day Draco fainted just happened to be the day before Valentine's Day. And that night alone, over a hundred letters had been sent out via the Owlery.
With such a large number, there was no way Link could investigate anything useful in the short term by himself.
As for telling Dumbledore and letting him handle the investigation, unless absolutely necessary, Link would never do that.
The reason was simple. Link had already heard from Snape that, thanks to Dumbledore's effort, the Aurors would be entering Hogwarts ahead of schedule.
This news made Link completely give up hope on Dumbledore. Because it was clear he only wanted to deal with Tom Riddle. As for the basilisk Arkam, he didn't care at all.
Yep, that's Dumbledore for you.
Gritting his teeth, Link finally stuffed the copied post record into his clothes. Then, he pressed forcefully with his foot, and his entire body once again turned into an almost invisible afterimage, floating back into the corner where he had been hiding before.
That spot was a blind corner in the patrol team's routine. Based on previous experience, he only needed to quietly wait for the patrol team to return and check the Owlery again, and then he could leave safely.
However, a full twenty minutes passed, and those patrol members still didn't appear.
'Those guys... don't tell me they were attacked by the Heir?' This thought instinctively surfaced in Link's mind, and it made him feel uneasy.
After hesitating for a moment, he still rushed out of his hiding place.
Even though those guys had forced him to come here multiple times just to finish copying the owl post data, they were still living human beings.
Most importantly, if they really had been attacked by the Heir, then Link would very likely be able to catch the person in the act.
In the darkness, Link's figure moved like a ghost through the winding corridors.
Thanks to the night vision potion and the Super Sensory spell, his perception at this moment was heightened.
In front of him, strips of pale blue light floated in the air. These were residual magic traces left behind by the handheld magical lamps.
With these traces, Link didn't even need to analyze the direction of the patrol's movements, he just had to follow the trails.
At the same time, the Super Sensory spell's enhanced hearing let him catch a very strange sound.
It was a series of subtle, eerie noises, at first it sounded like wind, but when listened to more closely, it resembled something being rubbed against sandpaper.
And as Link moved closer, the sound grew louder and louder, until it finally became a sound Link couldn't be more familiar with, the basilisk Arkam's distinctive shuffling of scales while crawling.
"Found you!"
Link's lips curled upward unconsciously, and then he suddenly exploded into motion, dashing forward like a bullet from a gun.
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