activa-t Chapter 144 The Escaped Car
Chapter 144 The Escaped Car
Chapter 144 The Escaped Car
Harry and Ron followed Madam Pomfrey dejectedly, like two prisoners walking to their execution.
The stone steps at the castle entrance seemed exceptionally long to them at that moment.
After taking only a few steps, Harry suddenly remembered something extremely important, abruptly stopped, and turned around.
"Professor McGonagall!" he called out, his voice sounding somewhat out of place in the empty space. "We—our luggage! And all our things, are still in that car!"
Before Professor McGonagall, whose face was still ashen, could respond, Lynch calmly spoke up: "Don't worry about that, Mr. Potter. If all goes well, your luggage should already be in your dormitory in the Gryffindor Tower."
Harry and Ron were both stunned, their faces filled with confusion. It turned out that the busiest people at the Hogwarts welcome dinner were undoubtedly the house-elves who were constantly moving around in the kitchen.
But Torts, as Lynch's personal house-elf assigned by Dumbledore, did not need to undertake this task and was quite idle, so he stayed by Lynch's side waiting for orders.
Just now, after Lynch's true form urgently notified Professor McGonagall and the others at the teachers' table, he silently summoned Thortz and instructed him to move Harry and Ron's luggage out of the car that caused the accident as quickly as possible and deliver it directly to their respective dormitory beds.
"Thank you—thank you, Professor Lynch." Harry and Ron quickly expressed their gratitude, which was probably the only small consolation in this terrible night. At least they no longer had to think about how to dig their textbooks and robes out from a pile of junk and the branches of the Whomping Willow.
They turned around, ready to continue following Mrs. Pomfrey.
"Wait!" Professor McGonagall's stern voice came from behind again. "I need to add something. In addition to solitary confinement and the ban on Quidditch, both of you must each write a letter of self-criticism! It must be at least seven pages long!"
Harry and Ron's shoulders slumped even further.
"I want you to explain to me in detail, without reservation, the entire ins and outs of this matter! And, most importantly, make sure you both deeply and truly understand how serious your mistakes are and the potentially disastrous consequences! Submit it to my office before you go into solitary confinement tomorrow night!"
"Yes, Professor McGonagall." The two nodded listlessly, their last shred of hope vanishing.
The castle's heavy gates slowly closed, swallowing the figures of the two boys and Lady Pomfrey.
Outside the door, Professor McGonagall gazed in the direction they had disappeared, sighed heavily, and then turned to Lynch and Snape: "We'd better go to the scene immediately and check on the car and the Whomping Willow."
"I'll lead the way." Lin Qi nodded slightly.
Snape let out a very soft, disgusted nasal sound: "I have absolutely no interest in that pile of Muggle scrap metal or that mad willow."
He flicked his black robe, turned and walked away, disappearing into the shadows of the castle like a giant bat.
On the way to the lake, Lynch and Professor McGonagall remained silent, and the atmosphere was somewhat somber.
The evening breeze swept across the grassland, carrying with it the mist from the distant Black Lake and the faint, mournful sound of branches rubbing together, as if they were whimpering, coming from the direction of the Darenliu.
Professor McGonagall pursed her lips and walked for a while, seemingly deliberating over her words.
Finally, after much hesitation, she spoke, her voice much softer than before.
“Professor Lynch,” she said, her gaze fixed on the dark lake ahead, not on Lynch, “I must thank you. Thank you for your timely intervention that saved Potter and Weasley. If it weren’t for you, the consequences tonight—I can’t even imagine.”
"You're too kind, Professor McGonagall," Lynch replied calmly, his tone as steady as ever. "Protecting students is the duty of every Hogwarts faculty member. I was just doing what I was supposed to do."
Professor McGonagall pursed her lips and gave Lynch a quick, wary look.
She still considers Lynch to be an absolute dangerous man.
But she also had to admit that, despite some of Lynch’s outrageous behavior that she couldn’t understand, he had not allowed any student to be harmed under his care since he took office.
Given an unexpected event like tonight, it's likely that, apart from Dumbledore, there wouldn't be another wizard in the entire Hogwarts who could react as quickly and handle problems as Lynch.
Perhaps Dumbledore agreed to let him take a position at the school for reasons he himself overlooked.
Professor McGonagall's opinion of Lynch has changed slightly in a positive direction.
They arrived at the scene quickly.
The Whomping Willow seemed to have calmed down considerably under Professor Sprout's wand, its broken branches enveloped in magical aura and slowly healing. But Lynch and Professor McGonagall frowned almost simultaneously—the dilapidated car that should have been parked by the lake was gone.
All that remained was a patch of grass trampled into a mess and two crystal-clear tire tracks that led straight into the depths of the dark, forbidden forest.
"Pomona!" Professor McGonagall immediately turned to Professor Sprout, who was intently treating the Whomping Willow. "Where's the car? Where did the car that caused the accident go?"
Professor Sprout looked up, her face still showing concern for the willow tree, her expression blank. "A car? What car? I didn't see any cars here when I arrived, Minerva. All I saw was my poor old friend beaten up like this."
As she spoke, she couldn't help but touch a huge, broken branch.
Just then, a soft "pop" was heard, and the house-elf Tots appeared out of thin air beside Lynch and Professor McGonagall by the lake.
His sudden appearance caused Professor Sprout, who was describing the injuries of the Whomping Willow, to stop talking.
"Good evening, Professor McGonagall, Professor Sprout."
His large eyes quickly scanned the scene before he swiftly bowed to the other two professors in the room.
Lynch looked at Totz: "Have the two students' luggage been delivered?"
"Mr. Potter and Mr. Weasley's luggage has been safely delivered to their dormitory! Mr. Potter, come back and clean the lawn!" Thortz replied in a loud voice.
Lynch gave a soft "hmm" and continued, "Tortz, when you were moving your luggage, did anything unusual happen with that car? Do you know where it is now?"
"Tortz knows, sir!" the elf answered in a shrill voice.
"Toltz went to retrieve the luggage as you instructed. But while Thortz was carrying the luggage, that big guy suddenly started moving on its own!"
A look of lingering fear crossed Torts's face: "It suddenly made a loud noise, and the light in front came on! It spat Torts and the things we hadn't had time to take out out of the door! Then, with a 'bang,' the door slammed shut by itself!"
It galloped into the woods like a whipped colt! Totz couldn't stop it!
He pointed to the two clear tire tracks on the ground, which disappeared into the boundless darkness of the Forbidden Forest.
The flying car that caused such a disaster actually escaped on its own.