"Who's going in first?"
They had finished breakfast and were standing in front of the entrance to the secret passage behind a mirror on the fifth floor.
"No need to ask, of course it's one of you three!" Albert said rightfully, "You guys already went in once, so you naturally have experience."
"Alright, I'll go in first." Fred carefully walked down the stairs, the other three immediately followed, and the mirror repositioned itself after the four entered the secret passage.
The passage was a bit cramped, with a steep incline and darkness all around1, and the four of them slowly made their way down the stairs.
Albert raised his wand and mumbled, "Lumos!"
"I hate these cramped and dark places." Lee Jordan grumbled in a small voice.
"Stop complaining and keep up." Fred was concentrating on maintaining his own illumination charm as he slowly made his way down the stairs.
The passageway here was so narrow that it was hard to even get the two of them walking next to each other, and with darkness all around them, they made their way down the stairs for a long distance. Halfway down, Fred's wand went out several times.
"I think you have to practise the Illumination Charm more, it's the most basic of spells." Albert poked his own wand forward and voiced a reminder.
"I hate this feeling." Fred muttered under his breath, trying to get his wand to glow again.
"After this flight of stairs, the front will be wider, Albert go ahead and lead the way!" George suggested, having had enough of stopping every few minutes.
"Okay!"
After walking down the stairs, they came into the gloomy passageway, the ground was a bit damp, made up of hardened dirt, water occasionally dripped down from overhead, one drop fell right on Albert's face, making him shiver, and he hurriedly reached up to wipe the water off his face, and continued to walk forward.
Along the way, Albert walked slowly to avoid accidentally falling. None of the others spoke, focusing their full attention on dealing with the uneven floor of the passageway.
The four of them stumbled along, the passageway curved and twisted, and they wondered who had actually dug it.
Then again, it was kind of strange that they weren't suffocating.
Albert raised his wand above his head to check out the top of the passage.
"What are you looking at?" Fred asked.
"Erm, there's a vent above our heads?"
"Where?" All three of them simultaneously looked overhead and didn't find the vent hole Albert had mentioned.
"Right where we just walked."
It was a full hour and 20 minutes of walking before the passage began to stretch upwards, which meant that the exit was close, and the somewhat breathless four began to pick up their pace.
Five minutes later, they could all feel the cold wind blowing outside.
The entrance to the secret passage was under a very hidden boulder, and the exit was so narrow that someone overweight might get stuck.
It was still raining outside, but the rain was not very heavy.
After Albert stepped out of the passageway, he took out his umbrella and held it open to block the rain on top of his head.
The three Weasleys hurriedly squeezed over.
"You guys didn't bring an umbrella.?" Albert had a moment of doubt.
"No." The three shook their heads simultaneously.
Albert used the Doubling Charm to conjure up three rainbows for them.
"You're so reliable." The trio praised cheekily.
"This umbrella is so strange." Lee Jordan curiously surveyed the umbrella in his hand, it actually retracted?
"It's a new German invention from a few years ago, convenient and easy to carry." Albert used the Impervius Charm on himself to ensure that he wouldn't get his clothes and boots wet when he crossed the thick grassy field.
"Careful!" He turned his head when he heard George's exclamation of surprise and saw Lee Jordan fall to the ground, soaked to the bone.
"Are you okay?" Fred hastily reached down and pulled the other boy to his feet.
"What bad luck, my clothes are soaking wet." Lee Jordan complained in a small voice.
The twins, on the other hand, looked at Albert simultaneously.
"What are you guys looking at me like that for, it's not like I caused him to fall." Albert was a bit puzzled.
"Have you mastered the drying spell?"
"What makes you think I can do this Household Magic?" Albert asked back seriously.
"Cough, we were just casually asking, it felt like you could do any kind of magic." Fred gave a dry cough to ease the awkwardness.
"Can we get out of here first?" Drenched, Lee Jordan was in a terrible mood, "I hate rain the most."
They walked through the grass towards the Hogsmeade Village ahead of them.
Presumably because the rainy the streets of Hogsmeade were cold, with teeth chattering Lee Jordan suggested the Three Broomsticks first, he wanted to warm up with a Butterbeer first.
The other three had no problem with that.
They headed down a road and a few minutes later easily found the pub.
What made Albert want to curse was the fact that the triangular roof over the door was actually crooked... should we say that it was really worthy of a house built by Wizards?
A complete disregard for the rules of physics and universal visual aesthetics.
Of course, there was a sign in front of the pub that read: Three Broomsticks Pub.
There were very few people in the pub today, and when Albert entered, he only saw a male wizard sitting on the counter chatting with the owner's wife.
Incendio was burning in the fireplace and Lee Jordan rushed over and took off his robes and placed them by the fireplace to dry.
"I'll go order a drink." Albert said heading towards the counter while the twins looked at each other before sitting in the chairs across from Lee Jordan.
"Four Butterbeers, warm." Albert said to the barmaid.
The male wizard seemed upset that his chat had been interrupted and turned his head to glare at Albert.
Albert, on the other hand, gave him an expressionless look, then ignored the other party again and sat down directly next to him.
"Where did the brat come from?" The wizard muttered in a small voice, and after getting a hard glare from the owner of the Three Broomsticks, he obediently shut up.
"You're Hogwarts students?" Lady Rosmerta looked at the four Young Wizards who entered the shop in considerable surprise, unable to comprehend how on earth these four youngsters had slipped out of Hogwarts.
"How much?" Albert asked expressionlessly.
"Eight sickles." Mrs Rosmerta went into the inner room to warm up the Butterbeer.
Albert surveyed the pub in his spare time.
Honestly, it was much better than the Leaky Cauldron.
The pub's lobby was bright, a few tables were neatly set up and cleaned up, and there was no strong smell of beer in there, it was just set up a bit like the medieval taverns from games he remembered.
After waiting for about five minutes, four glasses of Butterbeer were placed in front of Albert, who hurriedly called out for someone to come over and help him get it.
"Eight sickles." Albert pulled out eight sickles and placed them on the table, picking up a glass and walking over to the table by the fireplace.
There was a strong aroma of butter on the Butterbeer and Albert took a sip, it felt a little like a less sticky butterscotch hard candy, it went down smooth, there was nothing alcoholic about it, it was more of a soft drink.
"How is it?"' All three looked at Albert in unison.
"Pretty average, just a drink." Albert looked at the three and winked, "It's like muggle fizzy drinks for you, not unpleasant, but something you're not used to."
The three looked at each other and couldn't help but laugh, a look of surprise that they would hear such a comment from your side.