"I heard the noise and waited right here. I've been waiting a long time."
"Mr. Potter, you are in big trouble! Cackle cackle..."
Filch led them to Snape's office. It was truly jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire.
Snape looked at the three troublemakers with a face that screamed, "Gotcha at last."
"Even putting aside the irreversible damage Mr. Weasley caused to the Whomping Willow, your actions are grounds for expulsion ten times over."
He picked up a copy of the Daily Prophet and tapped the headline with his wand: FLYING FORD ANGLIA MYSTIFIES MUGGLES.
"You were seen."
"Although I do not have the authority to expel you—only Professor McGonagall can make that decision—if I were Headmaster, you'd be packing your bags right now! But I am pleased to inform you to prepare for your detention! And, given your disregard for school rules, I have reason to suspect..."
"Suspect we were acting on Sauron's orders?"
"Or because we didn't swear allegiance to Saruman?"
Snape's mouth twitched, as if he were fighting the urge to cast Legilimency on this nonsense-spouting student.
Fortunately, just then, the office door opened. Professor McGonagall arrived in the nick of time with Headmaster Dumbledore.
[Reinforcements Arrived!]
[Unit: Albus Dumbledore (Gandalf the White Mode)]
[Unit: Minerva McGonagall (Galadriel of the Golden Wood Mode)]
[Aura Effect: Dispels Fear, Sanity Recovery Speed +50%]
After a one-sided scolding, they were forcibly taken out of Snape's office. Although they avoided expulsion, detention was inevitable.
When they were finally released from the dungeons, it was already late at night.
The Sorting Ceremony in the Great Hall had just ended, and students were enjoying the feast.
"I think we'd better get something to eat." Ron clutched his stomach, which let out a loud growl. "I'm starving. My stomach felt like it was cramping back there with Snape."
"Me too." Harry sighed in relief; as long as he wasn't expelled, anything would taste good.
They slipped into the Great Hall and sat at the Gryffindor table. Hermione was already there, looking at them with concern, obviously having heard about the flying car incident.
Rove stuffed a chicken leg into his mouth while observing his surroundings.
Suddenly, his gaze stopped at the other end of the long table.
Sitting there were the newly sorted first-years. Among them was a red-headed girl, none other than Ron's sister, Ginny. But unlike the other excited first-years, she looked somewhat dazed and pale.
Rove narrowed his eyes.
[Target Locked: Ginny Weasley]
[Status: Weakened / Dazed / Willpower Check Failed]
[Possessing Item: Unknown High-Level Dark Artifact]
[Corruption Level: 5% (Initial Contact)]
[Warning: Anomalous Soul Resonance Detected!]
Ginny did look a bit off; her eyes occasionally went blank.
"She's been tainted." Rove frowned and put down his chicken leg.
He recalled the scene at Flourish and Blotts. Although it was chaotic and he had been busy saving Harry, he had seen Lucius leave with his son upon returning. But looking at Ginny's state now, combined with the faint System warning from earlier, a terrifying hypothesis formed in his mind.
Lucius Malfoy had used the scuffle as a cover to slip that black object into Ginny's cauldron.
"That is a shard of the One Ring... or a similar evil Horcrux." Rove muttered under his breath.
"Ron, Harry." Rove swallowed the chicken and leaned closer to the two, lowering his voice. "Watch that direction."
"Who? Ginny?" Ron, mouth full of mashed potatoes, turned his head vaguely. "What's wrong with her? Probably just tired; the Sorting is stressful. I nearly threw up in the Sorting Hat my first time."
"No." Rove shook his head, looking grave. "Her light has dimmed. Like a wound from a Morgul-blade, it is slowly festering. You must watch her constantly. If she starts talking to thin air, or treating a black book like a treasure, or even experiencing memory loss..."
"Rove, stop trying to scare us." Harry interrupted helplessly, pouring Rove a glass of pumpkin juice. "Ginny's just shy. And she's in Gryffindor; we'll look after her."
"You don't understand." Rove sighed. "Some darkness is invisible. It infiltrates your soul through words, whispers, and dreams."
Clearly, they didn't take Rove's warning to heart. In their eyes, this was just another one of Rove's daily "crazy talk" performances.
Rove could only look helplessly at Ginny. He was a Hufflepuff, and she was in Gryffindor; it wasn't easy to intervene. He couldn't exactly charge into the Gryffindor girls' dorms to rummage through Ginny's luggage, could he? Professor McGonagall would turn him into a teapot before he even found the diary.
"I can only rely on Ron, that silly brother, to pay more attention," Rove thought. "Hope that 'Ring-bearer' can be strong."
---
The next morning, Great Hall.
Sunlight spilled onto the long tables through the windows, but it didn't dispel the gloom in Rove's heart.
"We need to monitor her." Rove whispered to Harry while cutting his bacon into neat little squares.
"What?" Harry didn't hear clearly because just then, hundreds of owls flew into the hall, the sound of beating wings deafening.
[Enemy Raid Alert! Aerial Units Approaching!]
[Type: Messenger / Bio-Bomber]
[High-Risk Target Detected!]
An exhausted-looking old owl wobbled over, a bright red envelope in its beak. Clearly unhappy with the long flight, it nose-dived into Hermione's milk jug, splashing milk all over Ron.
"Oh, no..." Ron looked at the unconscious owl, then at the red envelope, his face instantly turning pale. "It's a Howler!"
At this moment, the red envelope was already smoking.
In Rove's vision, this was more than just a letter.
[High-Energy Reaction Detected!]
[Item: Scroll of Black Speech / Dragon Shout Seal]
[Attributes: Sonic Weapon / Mental Attack]
[Countdown: 3... 2...]
"Get down!" Rove shouted, reacting with astonishing speed.
Moving faster than normal, he grabbed two soft bread rolls from the table and jammed them viciously into his ears. Then, he quickly crouched down, simultaneously pushing Harry's head under the table before he could react.
"Rove, what are you do..." Harry started to protest.
"RONALD WEASLEY!!!"
The envelope exploded.
The massive voice echoed through the entire hall, shaking dust from the ceiling and making the sausages jump on the plates.
"...ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTED... YOUR FATHER'S FACING AN INQUIRY... IF YOU PUT ANOTHER TOE OUT OF LINE, WE'LL BRING YOU STRAIGHT HOME!"
Molly Weasley's voice was amplified hundreds of times, becoming a tangible sonic attack.
Students covered their ears in terror; Neville even fell off his bench in fright.
Rove crouched under the table, bread rolls in his ears, wearing a calm "I knew this would happen" expression. He even had the leisure to observe the burning letter, trying to analyze its magical structure.
"This sonic compression technology is interesting..." Rove analyzed mentally. "If applied to the battlefield, like sealing Gandalf's roar inside and unleashing it on an Orc army, the effect would be spectacular. Maybe I can develop a 'Tactical Screaming Grenade'?"
[Sonic Attack Suffered.]
[Damage Reduction: 80% (Physical Soundproofing: Bread Rolls)]
[Sanity: Stable.]
[Ally Status: Ron Weasley (Stunned / Social Death Lv. Max)]
When the letter finally screamed its last sentence and burned to ash, a deathly silence fell over the hall. Only Ron's face, red as a tomato, was still smoking.
Rove slowly crawled out from under the table, pulled the bread rolls from his ears, took a casual bite, and patted the shell-shocked Ron on the shoulder.
"This is why I don't like magical communication." Rove shook his head with a look of disdain. "Too noisy, zero stealth. In Middle-earth, we prefer moths or ravens. Quiet, eco-friendly, and they don't make your ears bleed at the breakfast table."
Ron was pale, his eyes empty, unable to say a word. He felt like he had been stomped on and dragged across the floor by a troll a hundred times over.
"Hey, look on the bright side." Rove comforted. "At least it didn't explode and singe your eyebrows off. I heard some Dwarven Howlers contain gunpowder."
Hermione closed her copy of Voyages with Vampires and looked at them sternly. "I hope this teaches you a lesson. No more breaking school rules."
"Speaking of lessons..." Rove seized the chance to bring up the earlier topic, gesturing with his chin toward the other end of the Gryffindor table. Ginny was trembling, terrified by the Howler.
"Mordor has extended its tentacles into Rivendell, Ron." Rove's voice was low and serious. "If not stopped, the darkness will swallow us all."
Harry followed Rove's gaze, but apart from a frightened little girl, he saw nothing.
"Rove, stop scaring her." Hermione interjected. "It's her first time away from home; she's just nervous. Plus Ron's Howler just now... I think any first-year would be scared."
"Ignorance is bliss." Rove shook his head, arguing no further.
He pulled a parchment notebook from his robes—his homemade "Ranger's Journal"—and began to write:
[Watchman's Log - Autumn, 3019th Age]
Target: Ginny Weasley (Codename: Ring-bearer Two)
Threat Level: Orange (Rising)
Observation: Target exhibits classic signs of mental impairment.
Countermeasures:
1. Maintain distance and observe Sanity fluctuations.
2. Attempt to find an opportunity to identify the book's attributes.
3. Perform physical exorcism if necessary (i.e., snatch the diary and throw it into a fire).