Near the entrance hall on the first floor of the castle, there is a door leading to the Hufflepuff common room and kitchen.
Albert took a moment to walk around the foyer, eventually finding two doors by the marble staircase and Filch's office. Filch's cat was staring at him with wide eyes.
"What's its name?" Albert asked.
Filch didn't answer, picked up his cat, and went into his office.
"It must be jealousy!" Albert muttered. If he remembered correctly, Filch was a Squib. He thought that since Filch was a Squib, he should abandon the wizarding world and obediently integrate into the Muggle world. Why stay and invite trouble and unhappiness?
Alright, that annoying guy is gone. Which door should we choose?
"Where would the kitchen be?" Albert took a coin out of his pocket, tossed it on the ground, and it landed heads, so he chose to walk to the left side of the stairs.
Behind the door was another set of stone steps, leading to a wide stone corridor. As Albert walked through, torches on the walls lit up automatically, illuminating the surroundings. Albert noticed that the walls were decorated with pictures of various foods.
"Good luck." Albert found a large portrait of a huge silver bowl filled with fruit, and it was said that the kitchen was hidden behind the painting.
The secret to entering the kitchen lies in the pear.
Albert gently touched the large, bright green pear, and the pear actually wriggled and chuckled, suddenly transforming into a huge green doorknob.
"It's here after all. Looks like my luck is pretty good." Albert was in a good mood. After finding the Room of Requirement, he also found the kitchen without any problems.
Reaching out and pulling the door open, the kitchen was the same size as the auditorium above, with many tableware items displayed on the cabinets around it. The auditorium also had four long wooden tables, arranged in the same way as the tables in the four colleges in the auditorium above.
Some food has already been placed on the table, presumably for the students' breakfast. When it's mealtime, the house-elves will use magic to teleport the food to the corresponding table above.
"Sir, is there something you need?" A little elf spotted Albert and trotted over to him.
"The restaurant isn't open yet, so I came to check on the kitchen," Albert said with a polite smile.
"Please come with me, sir." The house-elf grabbed Albert's hand and pulled him to sit at the table. Six house-elves rushed up, carrying a large silver tray with a jug of milk, ham, fried eggs, toast, salad, and pumpkin porridge.
"Thank you, little one." Albert poured himself half a glass of milk. Although he didn't have the habit of drinking milk in his previous life, he had developed this habit over the years. Thanks to this, he had become much stronger than in his previous life.
"This is our honored gentleman." Apparently, someone had thanked him, and the house-elves beamed with smiles and bowed to him.
Albert ate a serving of ham, a fried egg, and two slices of toast, and drank a small bowl of pumpkin porridge, filling his stomach quickly.
As he finished the last small portion of fruit salad, he looked at the house-elves, who were all dressed—or rather, wrapped in tea towels with Hogwarts crests.
"I think I should go now, thank you for breakfast." Albert noticed that the exploration progress had reached 7.3%.
"It is our duty, sir," the house-elf said in a shrill voice. Before Albert left, many elves gathered around him, offering him many snacks to take back with him.
"That's enough. Goodbye, little ones." Albert put four pies into a brown paper bag and tucked it into his robe. These were for George and the other two.
The house-elves crowded to the door, watching Albert leave. They loved the "thank you," which made them feel Albert's respect and appreciation.
Following the same route he had taken yesterday, Albert returned to the lounge in a few minutes.
However, there was still no one inside; the ghostly lady had already left.
When Albert returned to the room, the twins were still asleep, but Lee Jordan was already awake. He looked at Albert, who appeared outside the door, with a surprised expression and couldn't help but ask, "Where have you been?"
"A walk, and breakfast on the way!" Albert grinned. "Did I bring you some gifts?"
"What gift?" Weasley on the right got out of bed, scratched his head with his right hand, and looked like he was still half asleep.
"I thought you guys were sleeping." Li Qiaodan got out of bed, stretched lazily, and asked, "What gift?"
"Pies." Albert took a brown paper bag from his pocket, took out a pie, took a bite, and handed the bag to Lee Jordan, saying, "One for each of us."
"Where did you get this?" Fred asked curiously.
"kitchen."
"Wow, you actually found the kitchen."
"Speaking of which, you sneaked out on your own without even telling us." Fred had also woken up. If it weren't for the beds, Albert wouldn't have been able to tell the twins apart.
"Don't brush your teeth first."
"Oh, I almost forgot about that." George put down the pie he was holding and asked curiously, "How did you find the kitchen?"
"I was just wandering around and happened to find him." Albert then recounted his encounter with Filch. "His cat is very smart and will notify its owner. However, I think Filch probably came to cause me trouble."
"I bet he was really frustrated!" Fred couldn't help but laugh too, getting up to go out for a stroll; Hogwarts Castle was really interesting.
The three of them got dressed, washed up, and went to the Gryffindor common room. There was no one there yet. Albert lit the fireplace and sat on the sofa next to it. The rain outside had stopped.
"Bill and Charlie said there are many secret passages in the castle," Fred said to the others while eating a pie.
"But none of them will tell us where the secret passage is," George complained a little to his brothers.
"Perhaps they want you to explore the castle's secrets yourselves; that would be more interesting," Albert said casually, remembering Nick's words.
"I think so too," Lee Jordan agreed.
"Oh right, I almost forgot about that." Albert walked to the entrance and, taking advantage of the fact that no one was in the lounge, took a few photos, including one of the plump lady.
"Are you taking pictures again?"
"I'm going to send a letter home. Everything in the magical world is very strange to Muggles." Albert looked at the photos; he had previously discovered that he had gained another skill related to photography.
"I heard from Charlie that Filch likes to cause trouble for students, and he's always thinking about hanging up students who make mistakes and whipping them," George continued after finishing his pie. "Filch also knows a lot of secret passages in the school, and they always pop up silently."
"Most students who go out at night get caught by Filch," Fred added, "and then get heavily penalized and put in solitary confinement."