Moody's eyes stopped at the stairs for only a few seconds and then moved back to Snape.

"Filch is patrolling in the middle of the night. What about you? Snape..." he hesitated. "How did you hear that?"

"That doesn't matter," snape said coldly.

"On the contrary," roared moody. "It's very important!"

"Hum - I'm just going to my office. What's the problem?" snape snorted coldly, turned and left.

"Wait!" cried moody. "Let me see your shoes!"

Snape paused without even looking back, and went on.

"Stop!"

Moody took a few steps forward, stretched out his crutch and impolitely stopped Snape.

"What on earth do you want to do?" Snape turned around angrily, raised his trouser legs and revealed his shoes. "Want to see my shoes? What's good? Can my shoes be black magic props?"

Under Snape's trousers, a pair of clean boots showed up, but the little soil just now had disappeared.

"I just didn't find my slippers when I got out of bed. Is that a problem?" snape asked.

Moody stared at his boots for a while, looked up and said, "isn't there anything else hidden in your office?"

By this time, Snape's earthy gray face had turned into an ugly brick red, and the blood vessel on his temple jumped faster.

"Are you endless? You know I didn't hide anything, moody," he said in a low voice. "Didn't you personally search my office?"

Moody's face twisted and squeezed out a smile.

"It's Auror's privilege, Snape Dumbledore told me to keep a close watch -"

"Dumbledore happens to trust me," snape said gnashing his teeth. "I don't believe he told you to search my office!"

"Of course Dumbledore believes you," roared moody. "He's a credulous man, isn't he? He always thinks people should be given a second chance. But I -- I think some stains can't be washed away, Snape. Some stains can't be washed away forever, you know what I mean?"

Snape suddenly did a very strange thing. He grabbed his left arm with his right hand as if it were suddenly painful.

Moody laughed.

"Go back to bed, Snape."

"You have no right to order me to go anywhere!" snape hissed, releasing his arm as if annoyed at himself. "I have the same right as you to inspect this school at night!"

"Then you can patrol," said moody, but his voice was threatening. "I knew I would meet you in the dark corridor one day... By the way, you lost your things..."

Snape and filch subconsciously looked down and found a piece of parchment.

Snape reached for it, and a terrible, enlightened expression slowly appeared on his face——

"Parchment flying!"

The map swished into the air, slipped between Snape's open fingers, flew down the stairs and landed in Moody's hand.

"I made a mistake," moody said quietly. "It's mine - I think I must have lost it earlier --"

But Snape's black eyes looked at the box in Filch's arms and at the parchment in Moody's hand - he connected the two things.

"Potter," he whispered.

He can still remember clearly - no way, it's hard to remember! Because the time he found out that the parchment belonged to Harry was the night he saw Marca and Hermione face to face.

"What do you mean?" moody asked calmly, folding the map and putting it in his pocket.

"Potter!" snape said angrily. He suddenly turned his head and looked straight at the position where moody had just stopped. "That box is Potter's and that parchment is also Potter's. I've seen it before and I recognize it! Potter is here! Potter, wearing his invisibility cloak!"

Snape opened his hands like a blind man and walked up the stairs.

"There's nothing there, Snape!" roared moody. "But I'd like to tell the headmaster how you always doubt Harry Potter!"

"What do you mean?" Snape turned to look at Moody again. His hands were still open, but his movement slowed down.

"I mean, Dumbledore is interested in knowing who has bad intentions for the boy!" moody limped a few steps towards the stairs. "And, Snape, I'm... Interested..."

The light of the torch flashed across his twisted and broken face, making the scars and the big holes in his nose deeper and more terrible than ever.

Snape looked down at Moody with a tight frown.

For a moment, no one moved or spoke... Then Snape slowly put down his hands.

"I just think," Snape seems to be trying to calm his voice, "if Potter wanders in the middle of the night again... It's a regrettable bad habit of him... He should be stopped. For -- for his own safety."

"Oh, I see," moody whispered. "You have Porter's interests at heart, don't you?"

A moment of silence.

Snape and moody were still staring at each other. Mrs. Loris meowed and still looked around Filch's legs as if she were sniffing something.

"I should go to my office... And potions are waiting for me to prepare," snape said suddenly.

"That's the only reasonable idea you have tonight," said moody. "Well, filch, can you give me that box --"

"No!" said filch, holding the box firmly as if he were his own son. "Professor moody, this is evidence that Pippi stole!"

"He stole it from a warrior. It's the warrior's stuff," moody said. "Take it."

Snape hurried downstairs without saying a word, passed moody and went to the basement. Filch smacked Mrs. loris, and the cat stared blankly for a few seconds before turning and following its owner down.

Filch handed the box to moody, then left and whispered to Mrs. loris, "it's okay, honey... We'll go to Dumbledore early in the morning... Tell him what Pippi did..."

Before long, a door "banged" and seemed to be closed.

Until then, moody put his crutch on the bottom of the stairs, climbed up the stairs and walked towards the edge of the seemingly empty stairs. Every step he took, he made an empty voice: Deng... Deng... Deng.

"It's dangerous, Potter," he whispered.

……

On the other side, Snape's office.

"Bang!"

The door of the office was roughly pushed open and slammed shut, and the oil lamp in the room was lit.

"Is anyone here today?" snape was not surprised that Marca sitting behind his desk didn't arrive at all. He just asked with an irritable face.

"Come, it's tonight." Marca straightened her back and leaned back on the chair.

"That's all right -" snape didn't ask for details about little buddy. He just said impatiently and sat down on the single sofa next to him. "You can go back to bed."

"I'm afraid not," Marca shrugged. "There's still magic medicine in it. I'm afraid I can't go until it's stable..."

"I'm going to be your private medicine refining room..." although Snape said, he obviously didn't mean to drive Marca away.

Since Marca came back from Voldemort's turn, his relationship with Snape has obviously been much closer. Now, if Marca wants to prepare some potions or do some research, she often comes to Snape to interrupt.

But Maka vaguely understood that the biggest reason why Snape had a recognition attitude towards him was not this relationship.

As for why... To tell the truth, he hasn't figured it out yet!

"McLean..."

"What?"

Snape called out to Maka abruptly, but before he could get to the point, he shook his head slightly.

"... no, nothing."

Although Marca was a little confused, she didn't continue to ask questions - if Snape didn't want to say, he didn't ask for anything. It's better to save some energy. When the other party thinks it's time to say it, it will naturally say it.

At least, Snape has no conflict of interest with himself. He doesn't have to worry about what other people will think of him.

After that, Maka talked with Snape about potions at random. It was not until dawn that he closed the lid of the crucible and went out of Snape's office.

For Maka, staying up late is almost a common thing. He usually takes a nap the next morning and then goes on to do something else.

But today, he didn't.

As the start date of the second project approached day by day, he had to seize all his time to deal with all kinds of things.

The plan has been carried out slowly, and the progress in all aspects is very stable. At such a critical moment, he doesn't want to lose his chain because he didn't pay attention to some places.

"When things are solved, you must have a good rest for a period of time..."

As he spoke, he took out a bottle of magic medicine and poured it on his back.

"Whoa!" he shook his head, and his sleepy face glowed again, and his eyes were bright again.

"The effect of this recipe is really good. You can try to push it to the market..." Maka thought about the empty bottle and nodded, "since there is a bicornate gallbladder in the recipe, it's called 'Rainbow cow medicine'... Anyway, the bicornate ① is not much different from the bull..."