Time slipped through their fingers without anyone noticing, and in the blink of an eye, Halloween arrived.
This day also happened to be the long-awaited Hogsmeade weekend for the students of Hogwarts.
As early as the previous weekend, notices about the Hogsmeade weekend had been posted in the common rooms of every house.
Every student in their third year and above was incredibly excited about it.
However, there were a few exceptions.
For instance, Kyle.
He had already been to Hogsmeade many times, so the so-called Hogsmeade weekend held no sense of novelty for him.
Even before starting school, he had already mastered eighteen different ways to sneak out of Hogwarts and head to Hogsmeade.
His methods of entering and leaving the school had evolved from initially using secret passages left behind by predecessors, to climbing over the walls later on, and finally escalating to digging his own tunnels.
Right now, there was a tunnel in Kyle's dormitory that led straight to Hogsmeade Village, as well as another leading deep into the Forbidden Forest to the Acromantula territory.
However, a large section of the latter had been blasted and collapsed by a Tailed Beast Bomb from the Hydra during the Hydra chaos.
The Acromantulas had also gone extinct within the Forbidden Forest.
Without the fragrant, roasted crab legs of the "Scottish terrestrial soft-shell crab," Kyle no longer had a reason to visit the Acromantula habitat anyway.
Therefore, that tunnel had remained unrepaired to this day, and Kyle had even sealed it off with magic.
After all, it led straight to his dormitory.
He didn't want a situation where, while sleeping one night, he pulled back his blanket only to lock eyes with an unknown Forbidden Forest creature—like a surviving Acromantula, perhaps—that had stealthily sneaked in through the secret passage.
Aside from him, the only others who felt indifferent or even depressed about the Hogsmeade weekend were the few who couldn't get their guardians to sign the permission form.
Uh, actually, it seemed our poor Savior was the only one in all of Hogwarts who couldn't get a signature.
Originally, he had a chance to get Vernon to sign his form. At the very beginning of the summer holidays, he had brought the matter up with Vernon.
The Dursleys treated Harry like he was invisible these days, but since Harry had taken the initiative to ask, Vernon reluctantly agreed to give him a signature after dinner, viewing it as a way to get rid of a nuisance.
As it turned out, halfway through the meal... well, the whole Aunt Marge blowing-up incident happened, and Harry was completely done for.
In truth, Sirius could have signed for Harry, since he was Harry's godfather. But that was under the condition that Sirius's name had been cleared.
Right now, very few people in Hogwarts knew the truth about Sirius. It was limited to those involved in the murder of the Potters back then—Lupin and Snape—along with a few of Kyle's close friends.
The other Heads of Houses didn't know that Sirius wasn't a traitor.
Or perhaps they did know. Because they were Heads of Houses, Dumbledore surely had to inform them of such matters.
After all, Sirius was currently living inside the castle. If the Heads of Houses ran into him by accident while patrolling at night, there would be hell to pay.
Professor McGonagall, Professor Sprout, Professor Flitwick—none of them were pushovers.
Don't let their academic positions fool you; even though Professor Flitwick, a Dueling Master, hadn't fought in years, if it really came to blows, Sirius would absolutely get thoroughly thrashed by the three of them.
Not to mention, Sirius hadn't been out of Azkaban for long. Although he had acquired a brand-new wand and had been fattened up nicely by the house-elves in the castle kitchens, he still hadn't fully recovered his strength.
As for keeping the other three masters of night-strolling—namely the Dad-Tormentors—in the dark, it was for much the same reason: they were afraid Sirius would get beaten to death.
Especially with the two helmsmen of Weasley Industries; one blast from their "Ex-Wife" and Sirius would be turned to ash.
Poor Harry was very depressed right now because he had no idea if Dumbledore had informed their Head of House, Professor McGonagall, about the situation.
If he hadn't, and Harry happily went over to talk to Professor McGonagall, it would be over. The secret would be out, and Dumbledore would be utterly cooked.
As the Headmaster, keeping such a massive secret from the Deputy Headmistress?
What on earth was Dumbledore thinking?
Thus, Harry didn't dare go to Professor McGonagall, nor did he dare find Sirius to get him to sign his permission form.
If Professor McGonagall looked at the form later and saw "Sirius Black," boy, she would immediately summon the Dementors from outside the castle.
By then, the Dementor population would probably be cut in half again.
Professor McGonagall's Transfiguration class was the final lesson before the Halloween holidays.
When the distracted students finally endured until the bell rang, Professor McGonagall took the initiative to bring up the Hogsmeade weekend.
"Gryffindor students, wait a moment," Professor McGonagall called out before the students could leave the classroom. "Hand in your permission forms to me. If you don't turn them in, you won't be able to go to Hogsmeade!"
Only after all the other students had handed in their forms and left did Harry, urged on by Ron, walk up to Professor McGonagall to ask if she could cut him some slack and let him go wild in Hogsmeade.
Professor McGonagall gave a firm refusal.
Harry left, filled with regret and disappointment.
That evening in the Great Hall, no matter what his friends said, nothing could lift Harry's spirits.
At the thought of everyone else in third year and above going to Hogsmeade Village while he was left behind, Harry honestly felt like carrying the Hogwarts Express back to Privet Drive overnight just to hit his uncle with an Avada...
No, wait, an Imperius Curse.
That way, he could go to the Hogsmeade he had been dreaming about.
But obviously, he wasn't a certain lawless little Dark Lord; he couldn't actually do that, and besides, he didn't even know how to cast the Imperius Curse.
Harry began to imagine what it would be like to visit Hogsmeade. He had heard there were many fascinating shops there.
Take Honeydukes, for example. The twins often brought back huge piles of assorted sweet candies from outside the school and generously shared them with their friends.
Or Zonko's Joke Shop. Harry heard it was the Hogwarts students' favorite place to visit, where all sorts of amusing jokes and prank materials could be found.
Most important of all, however, was Madam Puddifoot's Tea Shop.
He heard it was the perfect spot for couples to go on dates. If only he could go there with Cho Chang—
Cho Chang!
The name flashed through Harry's mind like a bolt of lightning. He whipped his head toward the Ravenclaw table, only to see the person he hated most—Cedric.
At that moment, Cedric was sitting right next to the beautiful and gentle Cho Chang, speaking softly to the goddess of Harry's dreams.
Seeing how happy Cho and Cedric looked, the sheer jealousy radiating off Harry was so potent that even Kyle, sitting over at the neighboring Hufflepuff table, could practically smell it.
On the surface, since Cedric and Harry were both Seekers for their respective house teams, they were on good terms.
But deep down, Harry absolutely loathed Cedric.
Even though he knew it wasn't right, every time he saw Cedric and Cho acting all lovey-dovey and walking together as a couple around the castle, Harry would practically grind his teeth to dust.
Tomorrow was the Hogsmeade weekend. Cedric and Cho would probably head to Hogsmeade Village together, and maybe even run off to Madam Puddifoot's Tea Shop, right?
They would hug there, kiss...
Maybe they would even go a step further.
At that thought, Harry turned completely ash-gray with despair.
Beside him, the twins noticed Harry's gloomy mood.
"What's wrong, mate?" George patted him on the shoulder.
Fred sat down on his other side. "Is something bothering you?"
"Why don't you tell us so we can..." George was only halfway through his sentence when Fred clapped a hand over his mouth.
Fortunately, Fred was quick, so Harry didn't notice anything unusual.
He poured out all the troubles in his heart to the twins.
After listening to Harry explain how he couldn't go to Hogsmeade Village to have fun, George and Fred exchanged a look, mysterious smiles appearing on their faces.
Although Harry concealed the part of his thoughts regarding Cho Chang, how could his little secret escape the notice of the devilishly clever twins?
Good friends were meant to be thrown under the bus. At the thought of unleashing Harry as a third wheel to annoy Cedric—who constantly fed them "dog food" every single day—the twins instantly felt a burst of energy.
"Why did you never think of asking us for help?"
George put his hand on one of Harry's shoulders. "You have to remember, we are the all-powerful Weasley twins."
The twins' words instantly made Harry's eyes light up.
If he could go to Hogsmeade too, maybe he could stop those things from happening.
"When it comes to going to Hogsmeade," Fred pointed toward Kyle at the Hufflepuff table across from them, "that guy had already learned how to sneak out to Hogsmeade Village with us before he even started school."
"Sneak out?!" Ron's mouth flew open in shock, but Fred clapped a hand over it the very next second.
After glancing warily around to ensure no one had overheard them, Fred finally let go.
"You never told me about this!" Ron was still agitated, but this time he lowered his voice. "Otherwise, I could have gone to Hogsmeade to see it for myself back in my first year."
George rolled his eyes at Ron. "What's so great about Hogsmeade? We're already sick of it."
Just listen to this humblebragging tone. If he weren't completely outmatched in a fight, Ron would have really wanted to stand up and give each of them a punch.
Harry stared intently at George and Fred. "Is there a way for me to go to Hogsmeade with Ron tomorrow?"
"Of course there is! And more than one!" the twins said in unison.
As far as the Dad-Tormentors knew, there were originally seven secret passages in Hogwarts leading to Hogsmeade.
Not to mention that when the four Dad-Tormentors converted Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets into an arsenal, they had also dug out numerous underground secret passages like moles.
If they wanted to, Hogwarts' underground space could be expanded into an underground nuclear bunker capable of holding tens of thousands of people in a matter of minutes.
Hearing the twins' words, Harry's eyes lit up.
"What's the way?" His tone shifted from his original dejection to one filled with excitement and impatience.
Mysterious, knowing smiles appeared on George and Fred's faces. For some reason, Harry felt their smiles send a slight shiver down his spine.
"After breakfast tomorrow, we'll wait for you at the Astronomy Tower. Remember to bring your Invisibility Cloak; you'll need it when you come back from Hogsmeade."
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