As night deepened, the number of people in the Gryffindor common room gradually decreased, with most of the remaining students busy with their homework.
"Finally finished." Li Qiaodan got up from the sofa, stretched lazily, and put away the parchment with the summary of Gamp's basic transformation laws written on it. Having learned from their previous experience, the three of them no longer borrowed Albert's homework to compare, lest they suffer the pain of looking at it.
"How's your Transfiguration practice going?"
"No, this is all I can do for now." Fred sighed and showed his practice to the other person. The needle was really... well, very thick. It was just a matter of turning the shape of a matchstick into the shape of a needle.
If you can't turn the match into a needle, you definitely won't pass Professor McGonagall's challenge.
"Come on, it's already pretty good. If you could easily learn Transfiguration, what would other people's efforts matter?" Albert said irritably. He was reading a book, "Selected Nineteenth-Century Spells," with only a few pages left.
"At least let me see it before you give your opinion!" Fred said irritably, waving the "needle" in front of Albert.
"By the way, you haven't finished reading that book yet!"
"Only a few pages left." Albert looked up and glanced at Fred's work from the night before; that "needle" was indeed unusually thick.
"How do we solve this situation?" Fred handed the "needle" to Albert.
"With a few more days of practice, you'll definitely succeed," Albert said without hesitation.
"Isn't that obvious?" George couldn't help but roll his eyes. His needle was thinner than Fred's; at least it could be considered a needle rather than a small, pointed iron rod.
It wouldn't be an exaggeration to call the thing Fred conjured from matches a nail.
"I've been in your situation before." Albert picked up his wand and conjured a pin. "First, you need to conjure the pin, and then you can think about how to make more subtle changes on it."
"Why are you giving us this?" George asked, puzzled, after taking the pin.
"Of course, it's just for reference. You need to conjure up a needle, but it doesn't have to be the same as the original; it just has to be an ordinary needle," Albert said, looking at the three of them. "Try it again."
"A needle," George muttered, raising his wand to light a match. After reciting the spell, a rather unattractive pin appeared in front of them.
"It worked?" Fred picked up the pin and looked at it, feeling incredulous.
"You've failed too many times and lack confidence," Albert explained. "You need to have some confidence in yourself and believe that you can succeed."
"Then why did you give me this needle?" George was even more puzzled.
"To distract you from thinking about your failures, and to give you a point of comparison," Albert said casually.
"By the way, how's your Disillusionment Charm coming along?" George asked abruptly.
"It should be ready around next week." Albert unwrapped the chocolate, put it in his mouth, and asked, "Why are you asking this? You don't mean to..." He made a swishing motion with his fingers.
"Yeah, tonight, wanna go?" Fred revealed. "I heard Filch has a cold, this is a good opportunity."
"Don't get caught." Albert closed the book, glanced at the task list, and sure enough, the reading maniac's progress had reached 1/100.
"Aren't you going?" George asked.
"I'm not going."
"We misjudged you." Fred and George looked at Albert with expressions that said, "We never expected you to be like this, Albert." They turned to look at Lee Jordan, but before they could even speak, he had already figured them out.
"Don't look at me." Li Qiaodan shrugged, clearly not wanting to go either.
"You guys… alright." The Weasley twins exchanged glances, shrugged helplessly, and said, "Looks like it's just the two of us going for a night stroll."
"If you want to go out at night, choose Friday. After all, you don't have to go to class the next day," Albert kindly reminded him. If you don't get any rest at night, how will you go to class the next day?
Sleeping in class? They're asking for trouble!
"That makes sense, let's choose Friday," Fred nodded.
"What are you doing on Friday?" A voice suddenly rang out. Fred felt a dark shadow in front of him, and when he looked up, he found Percy standing in front of him.
"What are you planning to do on Friday?" Percy asked sharply.
"Practice Transfiguration!" George said without hesitation.
"Don't think I didn't hear you." Percy glared at the twin brothers with displeasure and said coldly, "Night stalking, do you know how many points you get deducted if you get caught night stalking?"
George winked innocently at Percy and said, "I heard Gryffindor hasn't won the House Cup in years."
"I've been keeping an eye on you two, don't cause me any trouble." Percy was furious, and he naturally understood George's unspoken meaning.
See, nobody cares about grades, right? Otherwise, why wouldn't they work hard to earn points and win the House Cup for Gryffindor?
Gryffindor students don't care about honor
No, of course I care.
However, in reality, no one cares about earning points for the academy, so they naturally miss out on the Academy Cup.
After all, scores don't appear out of thin air.
Moreover, his repeated defeats in Quidditch matches only compounded his woes.
"Percy is so annoying."
"I think so too!"
"I'm telling you, next time you discuss important matters, find a secluded place to talk!" Albert shook his head and reminded you, "If you talk here, everyone will hear you talking about going on a night out."
"I think I heard someone's planning a night stroll?" Mark walked over, put his hand on Fred's shoulder, and said meaningfully, "That's a good habit. How can you call yourself a Gryffindor student if you haven't been out at night?"
As Mark recounted his glorious exploits, Albert's lips twitched slightly, and he couldn't help but interject, "He got caught by Filch." "No, no."
"I've heard that Filch knows most of the secret passages, and he has a clever cat helping him keep watch," Albert stated a harsh truth. "Unless you know the castle's secret passages better than Filch, it's difficult to escape him. Or, have you cast a spell on Filch?"
"Okay, the Confusion Charm works." Mark said casually.
"Don't listen to Mark's nonsense." Eileen came over and pulled Mark away, telling them before leaving, "There's Quidditch practice on Wednesday afternoon."
"I bet Mark went out on a date last night and got caught by Filch." Back in the dorm, Li Jordan brought up the matter again.
"You really aren't coming with us?" Fred asked again.
"Even if we're going to go for a night stroll, now's not the time," Lee Jordan said irritably. They hadn't been at Hogwarts long enough to know much about the castle, and they really didn't understand Fred and George's reckless behavior.