Generally speaking, if a villain in a movie were to be pinned down by five thousand creepy White-browed Huntsman Spiders while simultaneously facing the pursuit of dozens of powerful elite Wizards, the audience would hear the melodious ending theme song playing within ten minutes at most.
However, more than twenty minutes have quietly passed, and the Wizards inside the Castle have still not managed to successfully subdue that loathsome cockroach diadem.
This Dark Arts item seemed to have activated a "cheat mode," weaving and crashing through the dense swarms of spiders with reckless abandon.
Every move it made was so precise and ingenious that it always managed to break through the Wizards' carefully planned encirclements at the critical moment, turning their pursuits into nothing but shadows.
Even worse, the number of spiders was simply too great, like an endless sea of grey fur filling the entire space.
Coupled with the cockroach diadem's excessive speed—appearing to the human eye as a blur constantly flickering and changing positions—the Wizards, despite their anxiety, were unable to see what the culprit behind this disaster actually looked like.
They could only run around like headless chickens, led by the sharp, piercing screeches, exhausted from rushing back and forth through this sea of spiders.
Outside the Castle, poor Adelaide was still smothered in Amandine's warm embrace. Due to her nose and mouth being in such an almost completely enclosed space for a long time, Adelaide felt like she was about to suffocate.
In desperation, she had to use all her strength, first carefully nudging a little to the left, then moving a bit to the right. After a period of arduous effort, she finally succeeded in slowly moving her little head from Amandine's bosom to her long, fair neck.
A rush of fresh air with a faint scent surged into her nostrils, finally allowing her to breathe deeply and freely.
"Hiss~ Little Ancestor, don't blow air like that!"
Amandine felt a sudden wave of heat strike her long, fair neck. Caught off guard, her arms that were tightly holding Adelaide couldn't help but loosen slightly.
The quick-witted Adelaide immediately seized this fleeting opportunity, twisting her body and successfully breaking free from Amandine's restraint.
While vigorously shaking her little head, which was slightly dizzy from tension and lack of oxygen, Adelaide eagerly proposed, "It's been almost half an hour, and they still haven't successfully dealt with the intended target. Something must have gone wrong... Let's hurry to the Great Hall to find Dumbledore and discuss a strategy."
Hearing this, a look of hesitation clearly appeared on Amandine's face.
But after only a brief hesitation, she shook her head firmly and said, "No, Mr. Dumbledore specifically instructed me that until this matter is completely over, you are absolutely not allowed to set foot in the Castle—we cannot just rush in like this."
After hearing Amandine's words, Adelaide couldn't help but frown deeply.
She really couldn't understand what Dumbledore was thinking. It would clearly be safer and more reliable to have her in the Great Hall under his strict supervision, so why insist on having her wait outside the Castle?
Could it be that he was worried another mole, controlled by someone else, would emerge from among the many students or adult Wizards? Or perhaps someone within their own ranks?
But with him there to hold down the fort, what was there to fear from a mole—
"A cat, it's a cat!"
The shouting from inside the Castle pierced the quiet night sky, instantly catching the attention of Adelaide, Amandine, and Alice, who was yawning lazily nearby.
The three of them looked up in unison, their gazes fixed on the third-floor window illuminated by the moonlight.
Under the moonlight, a dark shadow sped across the windowsill like a bolt of lightning.
Because of the distance and the dim light, they could only vaguely see that the shadow seemed to be carrying something in its mouth, but it was difficult to distinguish what it was exactly.
Behind this dark shadow, spiders surged like a tide, frantically chasing the shadow ahead while constantly emitting sharp and piercing screeches.
Adelaide slightly narrowed her eyes, which were as deep as lake water, and stared intently at the window where the shadow had flashed, falling into thought.
This thing was quite a bit different from the ravenclaw diadem she had seen in her previous life; at the very least, the Diadem didn't have four legs, nor would it jump around so flexibly.
A series of noisy shouts followed from inside the window, among which the words "Madam Norris" were vaguely caught by Adelaide below.
A flash of inspiration hit Adelaide. They had been so focused on investigating the students that they had forgotten the other living creatures in the Castle—it seemed the cockroach diadem had corrupted another victim: the caretaker Argus Filch's pet cat, Madam Norris!
Just as she was thinking, that dark shadow once again sped out of the window like lightning.
It leaped nimbly from the third-floor windowsill and landed accurately on the second-floor windowsill.
The dense swarm of spiders following behind used their innate climbing abilities to quickly chase down the wall; the Wizards present reacted quickly, splitting into several groups and occupying advantageous positions to form small encirclements, attempting to gradually shrink the shadow's movement space to prevent it from escaping.
By the faint but clear light of the second-floor corridor, Adelaide widened her eyes and finally saw Madam Norris being chased. At this moment, Madam Norris was acting very strangely; her figure was shrouded in a thin layer of black mist that seemed to have a life of its own, flowing around her and making her already agile cat body even more flexible.
Even more striking was an extremely exquisite and magnificent Diadem tightly fitted around her neck, looking like a glittering collar.
In her mouth, she also held a piece of yellowed parchment. The parchment looked quite old, but it was well-preserved—that looked like the marauders map!
Adelaide's pupils shrank suddenly, and everything clicked in an instant. The thief who broke into Filch's Office last year was likely Madam Norris controlled by the Diadem!
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