Meanwhile, the thing he feared most also happened.
"Ha, caught you!"
A dim oil lamp moved swiftly from the other side of the corridor, quickly arriving near the stairs.
Harry only had to look up to see Filch's gloating face behind the lamp.
"It's me, Filch."
Just as Harry hesitated about what to do, he suddenly heard Kael's calm voice, like he was simply greeting Filch, without a hint of panic from being caught wandering at night.
Of course, Kael wasn't panicked; he had special privileges.
"You?"
Upon seeing Kael clearly, Filch's face quickly turned disappointed, "What are you doing here."
"Just like you, I'm here to see if there are any suspicious individuals." Kael said calmly, "This is a task assigned to us by Professor Umbridge, and the sooner it's completed, the better."
Filch immediately went silent, because in this matter, he had to follow Kael's lead.
This made Filch uncomfortable, so recently, he had been avoiding any direct contact with Kael.
Now that Kael mentioned it again, Filch immediately wanted to leave.
Mrs. Norris felt the same way.
Since seeing Kael, she had fluffed up, body tense, ears bent back, as if facing a great enemy.
Very soon, Filch also noticed this.
"Mrs. Norris, what's wrong?"
He was answered by a sharp yowl and the sound of claws scraping the floor.
Kael roughly guessed why Mrs. Norris was like this; it should have something to do with the Basilisk.
Just an hour ago, when he released the Basilisk from the box, its scent had inevitably clung to him.
This scent was difficult for wizards to detect but very sensitive to animals, so Mrs. Norris probably smelled it.
Of course, even knowing what was going on, Kael couldn't tell Filch.
"I think Mrs. Norris probably found something; you could take her to check the tower direction. I'll take care of things here."
"I don't need you to tell me what to do." Filch's face turned even uglier, and he glared at Kael for a minute before turning away with a cold face.
"Let's go, Mrs. Norris."
The dim oil lamp gradually moved away, Kael waved behind him and continued upward.
And at the stairway corner, Harry was already stunned by what happened, standing there dumbfounded.
He never expected a crisis to be so effortlessly resolved by Kael.
For a moment, he even thought it was daytime, but the bright moonlight in the corridor constantly reminded him that it was indeed curfew time.
It wasn't until the footsteps grew farther away that he suddenly came to his senses and chased after Kael.
They walked all the way to the eighth floor, in front of the Fat Lady's portrait, and Filch never appeared again.
"How on earth did you do that?" Harry couldn't help but ask, "Filch didn't punish you."
"Because I have special privileges. To catch you D.A., I can freely enter and exit the castle at any time, including during curfew." Kael turned back and asked, "You know the password, right?"
"Ah, yes." Harry said, "Aniseed oat."
"The Fat Lady's taste is really... uh, unique." Kael couldn't help but mutter.
"Thanks for the compliment, but I prefer marmalade oat." The Fat Lady's voice came from the portrait.
Harry wanted to say something else, but at that moment, having received the password, the Fat Lady's portrait had already swung open, revealing the passage behind it.
"Harry, is that you coming back?" Hermione's and Ron's voices came from the passage.
"It's me." Harry said.
"Alright, you should go back." Kael gave him a look, "If you have another dream like the one you had today, remember to tell Dumbledore or Professor McGonagall immediately.
"Also, if Umbridge asks tomorrow, just say the headmaster told you Sirius was taken to St Mungo's, nothing more, especially nothing about your dream."
"I know." Harry said.
...