The Shopkeeper of All Worlds in the British Wizarding World

Chapter 33: Life Back at Hogwarts

After Christmas, Ryan devoted most of his time to the Defense Against the Dark Arts notebook.

In the last few days before the Christmas holiday, he finally mastered the Stunning Spell, which was closely related to his constant practice in the Wanjie Grocery Store. The only regret was that his spell level was limited to being able to release it, but the strength was probably not enough to knock someone out.

Ryan now desperately wants a way to quickly increase his magic power. Otherwise, even if he has gained enough knowledge, he will not be able to turn it into power.

On the last day of the holiday, Ryan said goodbye to his reluctant parents and returned to school with Hermione on the Hogwarts Express.

As soon as he arrived at school, Ryan learned from Ron that Harry had been looking at a magic mirror that could cause hallucinations for three consecutive nights.

After Hermione complained about Harry's reckless behavior ("What if Filch catches you?"), Ryan told Harry: "Actually, being caught by the night watchman is a small problem. The most important thing is that those hallucinations can make you gradually unable to distinguish between reality and fantasy, which will definitely drive you crazy in the end." Ron and Hermione nodded in agreement, and Harry had to swear again that he would not look for the mirror again.

The days that followed passed slowly with normal studies, but the "Elementary Handbook of Traditional Chinese Medicine, DeFeng Edition" that Ryan had previously thought might not be useful turned out to be unexpectedly useful.

In the potion class, he found that he had made great progress in processing raw materials, controlling the temperature, and brewing potions, because Snape actually gave his potion an E.

Later, Ryan realized that the process of making Chinese medicine and magic potions had a lot in common. Since Defu's medical skills were mediocre, he was often asked by Xilaile to pick and boil medicine. This skill, which was acquired through long-term practice, was also acquired by Ryan in this inheritance.

This has to be said to be a good thing. After all, Gryffindor students have always had a decline in performance in Snape's class, and Ryan has been worried that Professor Snape will deduct points from him in his final exam.

This period was good for Ryan, but it was bad for Harry. Because the Quidditch game was about to start again, Wood was stricter than ever before. Even in the continuous rainy days after the heavy snow, training was not stopped. When Ryan was reading in the common room after dinner every day, he often met exhausted Quidditch players, sometimes even wet all over, with mud dripping from the corners of their robes.

One day, when Ron and his friends were doing their Potions homework in the common room, Harry suddenly rushed in and sat next to Ron.

"Wait, I'm almost done with my homework. Then I can have some fun." Ron said, then he turned his head to see Harry's face, "What's wrong with you? You look so terrible, will Snape be the Seeker for the Lytling team in the next game, hahahaha."

Harry's face turned even uglier, and Ron's smile froze for a moment: "Could it be that Snape is really going to be a seeker?"

"Almost." Harry made a sad face: "Snape will be the referee for the next game."

"Why? Madam Hooch is a professional," Ryan said.

"Please ask for leave," Hermione said immediately.

"Just say you're sick and can't play," Ron added.

"It's okay even if my legs are broken," Hermione said.

"Why not just break your leg? Madam Pomfrey can reattach it in one night anyway." Ron followed up with a bad idea.

"I don't think there's any need to be so nervous." Ryan said, "The game will be watched by the entire school. Even if Snape wanted to kill him, he wouldn't choose this occasion to do it. Otherwise, he would have killed Harry in Potions class long ago." Harry also said that he would definitely go to the game, because there was no substitute for the seeker, and he would not be able to compete if he did not play on the Gryffindor team.

While they were discussing, Neville fell headfirst into the common room. No one could guess how he got out of the portrait hole because his legs were stuck together. Harry and the others could tell at a glance that he was under a leg-locking spell. He must have hopped up the stairs like a rabbit and entered Gryffindor Castle.

Everyone laughed, only Ryan and Hermione didn't laugh. Hermione walked forward and removed the curse for Neville, and Neville's legs suddenly spread apart. Ryan helped him stand up and found that he was shaking all over.

"What's going on?" Hermione asked as she led him over and sat with Harry.

"Malfoy," Neville said in a trembling voice, "I ran into him outside the library. He said he had been looking for someone to practice the spell on. But thanks to Ryan's reminder that Slytherins have a habit of attacking Gryffindor students, I took advantage of him leaning over to taunt me and subconsciously sprayed Malfoy in the face with the pepper spray he gave me, and then ran back while he was washing himself."

Hermione said to Neville, "You can go and sue him!"

Neville shook his head.

"I don't want to get into trouble again." He muttered vaguely, "After all, I didn't suffer any loss this time."

"But Malfoy might give you a second try," said Ron. "You need to have the courage to tell Professor McGonagall that."

"I know I don't have the courage, Malfoy said so." Neville said with a sob.

Finally, with everyone's comfort, Neville finally gave a weak smile and left.

In the days that followed, everyone continued to train and study. However, one day, Hermione took out an ancient book and told the other three people that she had found the wizard's record of Nicolas Flamel.

The three men gathered around and saw the page that was opened and it said: Nicolas Flamel, the only known maker of the Philosopher's Stone. Ancient alchemy involved the creation of the Philosopher's Stone, a magical substance with amazing powers. The Philosopher's Stone could turn any metal into pure gold and could also create an elixir of life that would make anyone who drank it immortal.

There have been many reports of the Philosopher's Stone over the centuries, but the only known piece of it belongs to the famous alchemist and opera lover Nicolas Flamel, who celebrated his 665th birthday last year and now lives in seclusion in Devon with his wife Perenelle (658).

"It's not much different from what we found ourselves, it just basically confirmed our guess. Now we can be completely sure that the Philosopher's Stone is hidden in the school." Ryan said to Hermione after reading it.

Harry also interrupted, "No wonder Snape wanted to steal it. A stone can turn into gold and make you immortal! Anyone would want it!"

"You can't just doubt Snape because he is prejudiced against you. Maybe Quirrell wants to use this to make a potion to cure his stuttering." Ryan said. "But now Snape poses a more realistic threat to us, Harry, think about your game this week."

Harry suddenly became depressed. It was really difficult to handle a match with Snape as the referee. He even felt that it might be difficult for him to walk off the field alive.

(End of this chapter)