The curiosity could be seen basically oozing out of Lia, but even Habol got visibly more intrigued after Julius opened, what was supposed to be a secret passage leading into the pipe system of the school, by commanding so, using Parseltongue.
But while Julius knew Habol had understood him, Lia probably didn't even know what he just said, so he decided to tell her at least that much:
„If you're curious Lisa, I just said ‚open', this is just a test if the person trying to enter has the gift of Parseltongue, so there's no password or anything. Also Habol, after we go in there I will lead you to a door. We will NOT open that door, okay? We would be in big trouble if we did."
After receiving Habol's confirmation Julius lead the two of them to the final barrier, separating an ancient basilisk from the sewer system of the only magical school in the country and while at first the three of them were very careful not to touch anything they didn't have to, after a while they got tired of it and decided to trust into Julius' charm.
A few minutes later they arrived at a heavy looking, round door with ornate snakes on it, but since Julius wouldn't tell them what was inside and Habol had promised not to open it, they only stayed there for a moment before leaving again to finally start exploring the restricted section in the library.
…
Completely unknown to the three, at one point they passed Filch and his cat Mrs. Norris which were on their usual patrol through the castle.
When Mrs. Norris suddenly raised her head and seemed to be intently observing the surrounding corridors Filch immediately knew what was happening; a few of those annoying brats were still around and now was his opportunity to finally get to see one of them cry again, it had become rarer since Dumbledore had limited his arsenal of „fitting" punishments to just the boring ones.
But sometimes when he found some kids running through the hallways at night Dumbledore would allow a punishment like making them help with something in the forbidden forest or making them take care of some of the more dangerous magical creatures on castle grounds, in Filch's opinion the only thing the half giant's monsters were good for.
Filch and Mrs. Norris were a long-time team, so he knew in a moment Mrs. Norris would run into the direction she sensed the students in and he would just need to follow her, after all these years there was no way he would loose her and there was currently only one student that could escape Mrs. Norris after she first noticed them.
But to his surprise this didn't happen.
Filch waited a few seconds and then he waited a few seconds more and there was still no movement from the cat.
Only after a considerable amount of time had passed did she finally move from her place, only to claw a the wall while growling.
For a moment Filch just wrinkled his brow, but then he remembered that he had already seen this once, back then it turned out to be a group of students with a strange enchanted parchment hiding in a secret passage.
So he pressed his ear to the wall and held his breath, waiting for the faintest sound and he got what he waited for; the sounds of quiet steps and, for some reason, the splashing of water.
And now came a part of his job Filch enjoyed nearly as much as punishing students: Searching for new secrets in the castle.
This had always been his passion and originally it was also the reason he decided to work here despite the bad memories linked to it, as a squib his family did not permit him to go to Hogwarts, lest he put shame on them too, but he had always wanted to go there and read much about its magical nature and how there were secrets to be found everywhere, there was even a point when he was sure all of the changes in the castle's layout were one big secret that could be decoded if someone just tried instead of just dismissing it as random while chalking it up to the incomprehensibility of magic.
Maybe if his start at this job had not been this bad he would still be the cheerful and curious person he once was.
Back in the present Filch was trying everything, from knocking against various pieces of the wall as well as searching every nook and cranny around the place.
He searched through every suit of armour in the hallway and even put a helmet on his head in case there was something at the inside of the visor.
In the morning when the sun had still not risen and the castle was mainly lit up by candles and torches a group of Ravenclaws came through a certain corridor on their way to their first class of the morning.
They had already gone through this corridor many times, but this day they found a Filch with a helmet on his head, looking behind tapestries all the while muttering:
"They're in the walls, THEY'RE IN THE WALLS!"
Needless to say a recording of this would spread like wildfire and when Lia saw it and showed it to her friends, it would lead to Habol no longer being able to contain his laughter for a while, resulting in a few hours worth of detention with Snape.
…
But that was in the future, this night the three went through many of the books in the restricted section after Julius made sure no sounds would leak out.
For now they decided to only take one book each though, since they didn't want anyone to find out and couldn't just completely abstain from sleeping.
For Habol it was a book about rituals since he wanted to at least try and learn a bit more about it and he hadn't found any worth wile books about the dark arts for now, for Lia it had been a book about human transfiguration due to a kindling interest since she had done research into and then completed her ritual to become an animagus, even though strongly shortened due to Habol's help.
And finally Julius took something he had been conflicted about for quite a while: A book about the mind arts.
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Hello again! I haven't uploaded a chapter for quite a while now since something would always come in between; be it school or me wanting to keep playing the Finals or finally get the Mig-23 in War Thunder, but I also used part of this time to revise many of the earlier chapters for example retconning the secret group of Theia Corporation which Julius used to get rid of his father, their role was now taken by a group of mercenaries with close ties to the corporation.
Anyways, thank you for reading and may this new year be better than the last.