Part 44

 The stairs leading to the cartography hall seemed endless; Matilda almost lost her footing until she reached the hall. Looking around, she noticed that the situation had changed since her last visit. Burnt paintings, dirt, and garbage were everywhere. A suitcase lay near the entrance to the lower caves, and she immediately recognized it.

 "Professor Weasley, what's going on here?" Professor Sharpe appeared outside the door, looking very worried.

 "Sharpe! We have a problem. Dick said that he felt a strong surge of magic here. We need to check what's the matter," Matilda took out her wand, and they went down together with Sharpe.

 "Are there goblins again?" Sharpe hoped that their surprise attack was the first and last time. He blamed himself for not taking Eleazar's warnings seriously, and now he couldn't even apologize for it. How stupid and careless it was on his part. Another death, and after all, if he had listened then, it might have been possible to avoid all this.

 "Aesop? Are you listening to me?" Matilda stopped and looked in his direction, at which Sharpe cleared his throat.

 "Excuse me, I was thinking. If it's really goblins again, we need to report it to the Ministry immediately." His gaze caught the statues standing near the door.

 "The door was closed last time," said Weasley.

 "And we couldn't open it in any way, nor find out what was behind it," Sharpe cast a worried glance at Matilda.

 "Well, now we'll find out," she resolutely headed for the open door, ready to see a whole army of goblins. Strangely enough, there was a huge cave inside, and a bright light was burning below.

 "We don't know what awaits us there. Be careful," Sharpe warned, and together they began a careful descent.

 They did not know that they were not alone in this gloomy place. When they finally reached the place, they heard an extraneous noise from behind.

 "Who's here?!" Sharpe shouted and waved his wand, using Revelio. Caught red-handed, Garrett came out of the invisibility spell, laughing nervously.

 "Garrett Weasley! What are you doing here?!" Professor Sharp began to scold.

 "Young man, you're in big trouble!" Matilda was beside herself with anger.

 "I wanted to help?" Garrett said uncertainly, pulling Maxim's potion out of his bag. In fact, he was dying to see where the battle between the goblins and the Hogwarts teachers took place. At first, he just decided to eavesdrop on the conversation of his aunt and her sudden guest, but after hearing the words of the housekeeper, he immediately caught fire with the idea of following her, afraid to miss such a chance.

 "Stand behind us and not a step further," Sharpe said resignedly and began to visually study the glowing ball in the middle of the cave.

 "What do you think it is?" Matilda asked, slowly approaching him.

 "Powerful magic that I've never seen in my entire life. I'm afraid to imagine what could have caused it," Sharpe raised his wand and pointed it towards the ball.

 "Is he the reason the goblins attacked Hogwarts?" Garrett asked without second thoughts. Matilda felt no threat from this magic.

 "Maybe," Sharpe replied, and already began to think about sending a letter to the Ministry right now.

 "Let's contact the other teachers first and send a letter to Elena," Matilda decided.

 "It's better to go straight to the Ministry; we don't know if it's something dangerous?" Sharpe protested. Garrett, taking advantage of the fact that they were distracted by each other, came close to the ball and poked his finger at the ball. A clot of white shroud seemed to be blown away by the wind, and what opened their eyes amazed everyone who was there.

 "Noah?!" Garrett hit the ball with his palm, trying to wake up his friend.

 "Get away from him, Garrett!" Matilda grabbed her nephew and led him away from the ball.

 "Send Weasley Junior home, Professor, and we need to contact the Ministry urgently," Sharpe pulled out his pocket watch and checked the time.

 "Garrett, go and call Dick here, then pack your things right away; you're going home!" Matilda said in a commanding tone. Garrett knew that he was in deep trouble now, and it was better not to anger his aunt any further. He quickly turned around and walked to the exit, before casting a glance at Noah inside the glowing ball.

 "What happened to you, friend?" He didn't want to go home, as it seemed to him, he got into a real mess, and not the best one. Yes, and worried about Noah and for Sebastian; where could he have gone? Why didn't you go with him? There were so many questions, but few answers.