Hales… You Tricked Me!

Peeves had a bad feeling about this, and when the young wizard in front of him turned around, the bad feeling turned into reality!

"Peeves, hasn't anyone ever told you that talking too much can get you into trouble?" warned Ivan, frowning.

The moment Peeves saw Ivan's face, he was instantly reminded of his miserable appearance the last few times they met. He let out a scream, turned around, and ran.

However, it was too late. Ivan threw a button and pointed his wand.

Under the influence of Transfiguration, the button, under the influence of magic, extended into a long rope. As if it had a life of its own, the rope automatically wrapped around Peeves's body and tied him up…

Peeves was different from the other ghosts that haunted the school, and although he had some ghost-like qualities, he was a special kind of poltergeist ghost, with a physical body that could pick up lighter objects, and naturally could not escape Ivan's transformed ropes.

"Hales… I don't actually know anything. I didn't see anything…" Peeves said frantically as Ivan drew closer.

Ivan did not believe Peeves's words. If he believed Peeves's nonsense now, the news that he had opened the secret passage alone the next day would definitely spread throughout the school!

This did not prove that he had ever been in contact with Sirius, but it could have had an impact on his next move, so Ivan was not going to let this annoying poltergeist go so easily.

Therefore, Ivan aimed his wand at Peeves, intending to blow him away. If his use of the Fear Charm was effective against Peeves, then the Memory-Erasing Charm should work as well.

"No! Don't do this, Hales! I can promise you I won't say anything to anyone…" Peeves said, shaking his head as he watched the magical light dancing on the tip of his wand.

Perhaps Peeves's pleas had worked, because Ivan slowly lowered his wand and rubbed his chin. "How about this?" he asked hesitantly. "If you answer a question, I'll untie you and let you go."

Impressed, Peeves gave a sharp nod.

"You hang around the school every day, do you know where the Boggart is?" Yvonne asked.

"Why are you looking for that thing, Boggart?" Peeves was surprised, and then he thought Ivan might be teasing someone, so he didn't try to hide it and went on.

"I saw one in Filch's filing cabinet earlier. You can look in there…"

Ivan thought for a moment and decided that Peeves was not lying to him. After all, other than a few secret passages that he did not know about, there were only a few professors and Filch's office that had not been searched.

Peeves might as well have tricked himself into believing that Boggart was with Snape if he wanted to get himself into trouble…

"Well, I've answered all your questions, so let me go." Peeves was fidgeting and shouting, worried that Ivan would not keep his word.

"Of course, I'm a man of my word! But I'll check with Filch, and you'd better not be lying to me, or I'm sure you understand the consequences…" Ivan waved his wand to retrieve all the ropes binding Peeves, then turned back into buttons and put them in his pocket.

"If that boggart hasn't been dealt with, it must still be there…" said Peeves, sounding delighted to be free.

However, Peeves was, after all, a poltergeist, and even though he had promised Ivan that he would keep it to himself, he had been thwarted in his previous encounters with Ivan. Now that he had something on Ivan, Peeves was not going to let go of this opportunity to stir up trouble.

Peeves's bright blue eyes rolled, his mind full of all kinds of crooked ideas.

As for Ivan's subsequent revenge, it didn't care. At most, it would find a place to hide for ten to fifteen days. In the future, if it saw Ivan, it would just avoid him…

The more Peeves thought about it, the happier he became, until he heard a familiar voice behind him.

"I forgot everything!"

"HALS, YOU LIE TO ME!" Peeves only had time to let out a high-pitched scream before he was struck by a white light and stunned to the spot…

"That's not a breach of contract… I only agreed to untie you and let you go. I didn't promise anything else." Ivan put his wand away and muttered to himself.

At the same time, the system prompt in his mind rang.

[After some practice, your Memory Charm has been upgraded to Level 5 (2/1600)]

Ivan was surprised that his Memory Charm had been upgraded to Level 5. No wonder he was getting used to it…

After wiping part of Peeves's memory, Ivan used the Marauder's Map to find Filch.

Noticing that Filch was patrolling the other side of the castle and would not be returning to the office for some time, Ivan headed in that direction to make sure Boggart was still there…

As soon as Ivan was out in the corridor, Peeves woke up and looked around in a daze, wondering why he was there.

However, Peeves soon forgot about this and started thinking about which house he should mess with today…

Ivan had sneaked into Filch's office.

It was a bit of a mess, with an oil lamp hanging from the dark ceiling and cabinets lining the walls.

On the right-hand side of the room was an office table made of logs, and a small metal basin nearby. A badly gnawed grilled fish was left in the basin, and there was a faint smell of it.

As time was of the essence, Ivan went straight to the filing cabinets and opened them one by one. Most of the cabinets contained parchments on which students had been misbehaving, as well as strange, confiscated objects.

In one of the cabinets, which read "Confiscate, Highly Dangerous", Ivan saw a number of familiar practical joke items such as Dungbombs, Pop Fireworks, Skiving Snackboxes, and apparently George and Fred Fudge had been caught in the act…

Finally, when Ivan opened the cabinet on the far right, it was no longer a portfolio or a practical joke, but a flat head looking at him with wide eyes…