Chapter 348: The Marauder's Map Completed
At first, Professor Luke's expression was vacant. Then memory returned, and terror followed. His voice shook. "Gandalf, Professor Gandalf, I saw the one hiding in the shadows. He is not human at all. He is a powerful, evil ghost.
"I was on patrol in the castle as usual, and when I reached the second floor, I found two students unconscious. While I was checking them, one of the boys attacked me from behind. He hit me with a Body‑Bind Curse and froze me where I stood. Then… then a white phantom crawled out of the student's body. It went straight into mine and took control of me.
"I was no match for him. He crushed me in an instant. All I could do was watch as he moved my body like a puppet, spoke in my voice, and walked away with the two students and with you. When we reached the hospital wing, he waited until Madam Amanda was off her guard, then used my hands to strike her down. After that, he left my body and slipped inside hers and fled."
Gandalf's face grew darker with every word.
What exactly was Saruman playing at?
He had ridden in Luke's body, then in Amanda's, circling and circling them like a hunter toying with a pack of hounds.
Yet Saruman would not take such risks without a goal.
Moments later, a rush of footsteps sounded outside the infirmary.
Gandalf turned. Professor Edward entered, levitating a limp figure beside him.
It was Amanda.
Her face was chalk‑pale, and she lay wholly unconscious.
"Edward, where did you find her?" Gandalf asked.
Edward's expression was grim. "In an empty classroom. When we came upon her, she was already out cold. According to the portraits, she had been searching frantically for something, and she even forced her way into the Headmaster's private tower and tried to leave through the fireplace there.
"But the Floo has been shut off on every hearth in the castle for some time, so she failed and left the tower again. We finally found her unconscious in a room on the fifth floor.
"Lady Galadriel says the ghost is no longer in her body. But from what the portraits told us, Amanda had already come into contact with many students after leaving the infirmary, and those students have since gone back to their dormitories and mingled with others.
"At this point, any student could be carrying him, and even the professors may not be safe."
Gandalf's eyes narrowed. "He was looking for a fireplace. Then he must have sensed the danger and hoped to escape through the Floo Network."
Outside the castle, Galadriel's barrier, raised with the power of the Ring of Water, sealed Hogwarts in. Even in ghost‑form, Saruman could not slip past it.
If they managed to catch him now, there would be no escape. This time, his fate would be sealed. His death would be final, with no road back.
Three bearers of the Elven Rings were gathered within the same stronghold, and Kael, his bitter enemy, was here as well.
If Saruman could not find a way out, there was only one end waiting for him.
Since the founding of the school, Kael had closed all the public fireplaces to the Floo Network. Only the hearth in his private tower could still be used.
Saruman's aim on this latest foray was plain enough: he had hoped to reach Kael's private fireplace and flee the castle that way.
What he had not known was that after Galadriel raised her barrier, Kael had shut down even that hearth. He meant to shut the doors and trap the beast, giving Saruman no second chance to escape.
Gandalf's thoughts leapt suddenly to another route out of Hogwarts: the Vanishing Cabinets.
He turned sharply to Edward. "Any Vanishing Cabinet that connects to another outside the castle must be secured at once. We cannot allow the enemy any path of escape."
Edward nodded. "Do not worry, Professor Gandalf. The Headmaster foresaw that. All of the Vanishing Cabinets have already been moved to the underground vault and placed under Smaug's guard. They are completely safe."
"Good," Gandalf said. "Then this time we will catch our hidden foe. We cannot give him any way to slip the net."
He and Galadriel, together with the other professors, tracked every step Amanda had taken. Every student she had spoken to was brought in and examined in turn.
More than a few bore clear signs of having been possessed. Each had also been struck by a Memory Charm so thorough that they could recall nothing of it.
Those students came from all four houses. That meant anyone in any house could now be Saruman's current host.
The fallen Maiar's cunning left them all at a loss.
While Gandalf and the others continued the hunt, the headmaster's office remained undisturbed.
There, after three days and nights of unbroken work, Kael and Elrond finally finished the Marauder's Map.
The Map was made from an entire sheet of dragonhide. It showed not only Hogwarts, but Hogsmeade and Bree as well, and stretched east to the Last Bridge, south to the South Downs, west to the Barrow‑downs, and north to the North Downs, covering almost all the central lands of Eriador.
The detail was painstaking. Outside Hogwarts, Hogsmeade, and Bree, much of the mapping was Elrond's work, his knowledge filling in every hill and road.
Had there been more time, Elrond's wisdom and lore could easily have produced an even wider map.
Within the area it covered, the Map showed the name of every person present, each name gliding across the parchment with its owner's steps.
Through the combined craft of Kael and Elrond, the Map had become a thing of remarkable magic.
It could expand and contract at a touch. It could shift into a three‑dimensional view of any chosen region. A tap of the wand on a name would cause it to swell into a tiny moving figure, letting the watcher follow every action of the person it marked.
It was as if a miniature of central Eriador had been set upon the dragonhide, alive and in motion.
The Map could also mark ill intent. The names of those without malice shone in a clear, gem‑bright green. Any who bore evil in their hearts appeared in red.
Compared to the Marauder's Map of Kael's memories, this Map was in quite another league.
The moment it was done, he bent over it to seek Saruman's trail.
He spread the Map on the desk and touched his wand to the place marked Hogwarts.
The drawing of the castle swelled at once, growing larger and sharper until every passage and chamber was plain to see.
"Saruman," Kael murmured, eyes scanning swiftly. "Where are you hiding?"
There were over two hundred names within the castle, and to search them all would normally have taken time.
But Kael and Elrond spotted Saruman's name at a glance.
In the sea of green, only that name burned a raw, bloody red, as if written in fresh gore.
Another name overlapped it.
When Kael saw whose name it was, his pupils shrank, and his face went cold and taut.
"How can it be him?"