There were bright candles burning inside Hogwarts, but most of the students had gone home, and the castle was very deserted.

The Astronomy Tower is on the west side of the castle, and Hoffa has some impressions of that place, because the Ravenclaw Tower and the Astronomy Tower are both high towers in Hogwarts, and there are several high-altitude corridors connecting them together.

With the help of the magic stairs in Ravenclaw Tower, Hoffa quickly raised his position step by step.

After approaching the astronomical tower, the scene here began to change. The oil paintings on the walls disappeared and were replaced by rows of looking glasses and planetariums.

These planetariums slowly rotated between the passages, making regular soft ticking sounds, and everything was operating in an orderly manner.

Hoffa slowed down his pace and carefully searched for the possible location of the teleportation array.

After searching for a while, Hoffa couldn't find the teleportation array, but at the end of the corridor, he saw an oil painting, the only oil painting in the corridor.

This is a strange portrait. In other portraits, there is one person or a group of people chatting.

In this portrait, there are two people, a male and a female, two adult wizards.

This man and woman should be lovers or a couple. The man has gray hair, a high nose, and a gentle smile on his face.

The witch has chestnut hair and a soft appearance. She leans lazily in the wizard's arms. She seems to have seen through Hoffa's stealth state at a glance.

"Merry Christmas, kid," she whispered.

Then the surroundings returned to silence, leaving only the sound of the ticking planetarium rotating.

Hoffa frowned, canceled his stealth, and stared at the man and woman in the portrait.

He saw an inexplicable familiarity in the man in the painting. He had seen this man before somewhere.

Finally, a small detail made the hairs on the back of his head stand up.

He wore a pair of silver earrings, the same as himself.

Indra's casual words many, many days ago flashed through his mind like lightning.

'My last friend also wore earrings, his name was Nimon...'

Nimon.

I had also seen this man when I was searching the club in the club classroom. So, the woman next to me was his wife.

There is no doubt that there must be something behind this portrait.

It might be a secret passage leading to the top of the observatory, or a prison where dark wizards are imprisoned.

But passing this portrait requires a password.

Among the portraits in Hogwarts, only the Ravenclaw lounge requires solving puzzles to pass. But other portraits require passwords to pass, and the passwords will be changed regularly.

Hoffa rubbed his head. He was not afraid of solving puzzles.

But for a completely unknown password, he didn't know what to do.

However, at this moment, soft footsteps came from the passage behind him.

Hoffa quickly turned his head, and his whole person immediately disappeared into the air, entering a stealth state.

A figure in gray robe slowly emerged from the darkness, slender and thin, wearing a strange pale mask.

It was the target that Hoffa had been tracking for a long time.

What's even weirder is that when it walked through the looking glass, its shadow was not reflected in the looking glass.

Hoffa pressed against the wall, his fingers clenching the wand, his heart beating rapidly, and his palms covered with sweat.

The reality was right in front of him, so close, but there was a strong sense of unreality about the other person. Hoffa even felt that what he was seeing was not the same person.

"Order." The masked man stood in front of the portrait and spoke the command without hesitation.

The man in the portrait smiles.

"Merry Christmas."

After saying that, he slowly slid away, revealing the corridor hidden behind the portrait.

The masked man got into the portrait, and the portrait closed again.

Nimon, order?

Hoffa shook his head to calm his racing heart.

He had a vague feeling in his heart, but he wasn't sure.

Hoffa gritted his teeth and released the phantom state.

"Order." He also said to the portrait.

The portrait slowly opened.

Hoffa got into the tunnel without saying a word. He must find out the reason.

In front of him was a stone spiral staircase, and Hoffa walked up the stairs.

Despite his inner doubts, anxiety, and confusion, Hoffa was still surprised when he walked into the room.

He originally thought that this place led directly to the top of the astronomical tower, or was a prison cell, but he never thought that this place was actually an office.

Compared to the magnificent Slughorn's office just now, this office can only be described as simple.

This is a donut-shaped room. There are no decorations in the room, only an ordinary wooden table, a bookshelf, a spiral escalator, some books on the bookshelf, and rows of oil paintings on the wall.

Apart from these things, there is nothing else in the office.

If it weren't for the neatly stacked documents on his desk, Hoffa would have almost thought the office had been robbed by thieves.

He slowly looked along the oil paintings on the wall.

These oil paintings are arranged by time, and the time is marked under each oil painting.

The first oil painting showed a boy riding a broomstick. He looked about 70% like Adebe Gorshak.

He has more than a dozen oil paintings, from school to graduation to marriage.

The boy turned into a young man, and the oil painting turned into an old-fashioned black and white photo that moved.

Further down the row, there is another person next to the young man in the photo. It is the woman on the oil painting entering the door.

Hoffa stopped in front of the last photo of the missing man and woman.

Nimon Gorshak

(1901---198)

Alice Gorshak

(190---198)

Hoffa raised his head palely.

The identity of the owner of this office is very clear, it is the headmaster of Ravenclaw House, Adebe Gorshak, and the goblin's last partner turned out to be the son of the headmaster.

The school placed the teleportation array in the dean's office.

So the mask man......

At this time, there was a crisp ding-dong sound from the top of the spiral staircase, like an iron chain breaking.

Hoffa responded.

Not good, Miranda!

He rushed up the spiral staircase in three steps and found that the iron door leading to the outside of the house had been broken by the magic spell, and two steel chains were scattered on the ground.

Hoffa slammed the door open and rushed out.

In front of you is a huge open-air platform with more than a dozen thick stone pillars for observing stars.

Under the cold night sky, countless blue runes shine dimly in the moonlight.

And the guy with the mask was standing in the center of the platform at the moment.

In the sky, black and green vortexes were densely covered, with strange lights flashing from time to time.

The masked man raised his wand high, and the top of the wand shone with a dazzling green light.

The flow of magic in the air almost suffocated Hoffa. He had only experienced this feeling once, and that was outside Ollivander's wand shop, when he felt similar magic on Tom Riddle. But this time it was more

This time it was even scarier.

Hoffa ended his stealth, suddenly raised his wand and shouted: "Miranda, stop!"

Hearing the call, the light on the masked man's wand gradually extinguished, and he slowly turned around, the strange pale mask on his face looking as sarcastic as ever.

"Who are you looking for?"

The other party asked calmly.

"I'm looking for you!"

Hoffa shouted, "Miranda, do you know what you're doing?"

"You got the wrong person."

The masked man tilted his head and interrupted Hoffa.
To be continued...