Chapter 37: I Am Your Cousin

"You all... how are you here?" Link took the initiative, asking in confusion.

At this moment, standing in front of him were three people. Besides Hermione, the other two guys, one had a head of bright red hair and freckles all over both sides of his nose, and the other had black hair and wore a pair of obviously oversized black-framed glasses.

Such distinctive guys, aside from Harry Potter and Ron Weasley, there wouldn't be anyone else.

And the question Link asked was clearly also exactly what Hermione's group wanted to ask.

It's just that Hermione was obviously not planning to have such a friendly conversation with Link right now. She stumbled as she grabbed Link's hand, pulling him into the bathroom while saying, "Don't talk about that now! Filch is chasing us, we need to hide quickly!"

As soon as she said this, Harry and Ron, who had been stunned at the door, also reacted. They quickly followed Hermione and Link into the bathroom, looking for a place to hide.

What places in the bathroom can hide people? That would undoubtedly be the toilet stalls. But unfortunately, in this boys' bathroom, all the stall doors were locked. On each doorknob hung a "Under Maintenance" sign.

The four who rushed into the bathroom all paused in surprise.

"I remember now! It was George and Fred!" Ron, who was at the end of the group, suddenly covered his face and shouted, "They were just bragging to me a couple of days ago, saying they stole all the toilets from a boys' bathroom to make prank items! Maybe this is the one they took apart!"

As soon as he said this, the other three looked at Ron in shock. They truly couldn't imagine that Ron's two brothers would go as far as to steal toilets.

And they didn't just steal one, they took an entire bathroom's worth.

But now there wasn't much time left for them. Outside in the hallway, they could already hear Filch's uneven footsteps, as well as his voice encouraging Mrs. Norris to catch people.

This made the three of them panic. There was only one exit from the bathroom, and now they had reached a dead end.

At that moment, Link stepped forward.

"Leave it to me."

As Link spoke, he lightly patted Hermione on the shoulder. Then, under the puzzled gazes of the three behind him, he walked toward the bathroom door.

"Wait..."

Hermione instinctively tried to stop him, but it was too late, because ahead, the sound of a cat meowing had already been heard.

No need to guess, it had to be that old cat Filch raised as a scout.

This made Hermione and the others freeze in their tracks. But after hesitating for a moment, Hermione and Harry still took the lead and walked out.

In their eyes, what Link was about to do was probably sacrifice himself to distract Filch.

Although they didn't know why Link would do such a thing, a brave Gryffindor would never be a coward.

But when the two of them, along with Ron who was hesitantly trailing behind, reached the sinks, they discovered something surprising. The cat named Mrs. Norris wasn't shrieking like she had when she first saw them. Instead, she was lying comfortably in Link's arms, enjoying his petting, even purring contentedly.

"Aha! Mrs. Norris! You caught—"

The next moment, Filch stormed into view, shouting. But he stopped mid-sentence, freezing in place and staring blankly at Link, who was holding the cat.

"Good evening, Mr. Filch."

Link said with a smiling squint, and while speaking, he also stroked Mrs. Norris' tail, making her purr again with pleasure.

"It's you!" Filch looked at Link, then at Hermione and the others behind him. His expression instantly darkened. "You're all together!"

Link chuckled and didn't answer his question. Instead, he said with a cheerful smile, "We're just out for a stroll and were about to head back to sleep. I think, Mr. Filch, you wouldn't make things difficult for us, would you? Hmm?"

As Link finished speaking, Filch looked like he was about to explode. But it seemed he remembered something, and a deep wariness rose on his face.

"Mrs. Norris! Let's go!"

Finally, Filch growled unwillingly and left the bathroom with a reluctant Mrs. Norris.

At that moment, Hermione and the others came back to their senses. Harry was the first to rush out, grabbing Link's arm excitedly and asking, "Filch actually listened to you! How did you do that?"

"Ah, maybe because Mr. Filch and I are more familiar with each other, so he gave me some face. But what about you, Mr. Potter? Why were you and your little partners here at this time?"

As soon as he said this, the expression on Harry's face stiffened slightly.

It wasn't that he was surprised Link knew his name. As the Boy Who Lived who defeated Voldemort ten years ago, even though he personally didn't know how it happened, he was already used to being famous.

In fact, what surprised him more was that Link didn't excitedly ask for his autograph.

At this moment, he was just considering whether to tell Link about what happened today, after all, they had only met for the first time today, and he didn't even know Link's name.

But thinking about how they had just escaped thanks to Link's help, Harry's wariness vanished in an instant. Harry said, "It's like this. In flying class today, Draco Malfoy stole Neville's Remembrall, and then I argued with him. In the end, Malfoy challenged me to a duel tonight."

"And then he stood you up, right?"

Link, who remembered a bit of the plot, asked instinctively. Harry was startled and quickly asked, "How did you know?"

"Not strange at all, after all, he's a Slytherin." Link quickly made up an excuse on the spot. "Especially since this Slytherin's name is Draco Malfoy."

"Yes! You're absolutely right." Harry was so excited he almost jumped. He felt like the blond boy in front of him had said exactly what was in his heart.

But Hermione didn't quite think so. She looked at Link warily and asked quietly, "How do you know Draco Malfoy? He's only a first-year, right?"

"That's because you all don't know who I am yet." Link pressed his right hand to his chest and introduced himself, "My name is Link Flamel, a pure-blood wizard. I think you should know, pure-blood wizard circles are quite small, especially the old pure-blood families. Most of them are related. So from a bloodline perspective, Draco Malfoy is my cousin."

Upon hearing this, Harry had a look of sudden realization. But before they could speak, Link continued, "Not only Draco Malfoy, Harry, you, the Neville Longbottom you mentioned earlier, and Mr. Weasley here, you're all my cousins."

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