The Shopkeeper of All Worlds in the British Wizarding World

Chapter 34 The Tournament and Harry's Discovery
As the match approaches, Harry is getting more and more nervous, even though he doesn't care about what his companions say. The other team members are also not calm. Everyone is excited at the thought of defeating Slytherin in the House Cup. No one has been able to beat them in nearly seven years. However, with such a biased referee, can they succeed?
On the second day of the match, Ryan, Ron and Hermione found a place in the stands. Neville, who was sitting next to them, was a little surprised why they held their wands as if they were facing a powerful enemy.

Hermione kept rambling on about some possible spells they might have to use, and the tension kept building.

When the game was about to start, Ryan decisively interrupted Hermione who was mumbling.

"Look at the staff seats." Ryan pointed to where the teachers were sitting. "Principal Dumbledore is also out to watch the game, so there won't be any safety issues today."

Hermione and Ron also saw Professor Dumbledore's iconic silver-white beard, and then they breathed a sigh of relief at the same time.

The game started, and just as they were relaxing and preparing to watch the game, someone poked Ron in the back of the head. It was Malfoy.

"Oh, sorry, Weasley, didn't see you there."

Malfoy grinned at Crabbe and Goyle.

"Wonder how long Potter will be able to stay on his broomstick this time? Anyone want to take a bet? How about you, Weasley?"

Everyone ignored Malfoy because they were all concerned about Harry's condition. But Malfoy became more and more aggressive, and Ron, who could no longer bear it, rushed over and knocked Malfoy down. Ryan also hit Goyle with an immature Stunning Spell.

After that, there was a melee. Fortunately, even the immature Stunning Spell successfully made Goyle temporarily lose his fighting ability. Then Ryan, Ron and Neville fought with Malfoy and Crabbe together.

At this time, in the air, Snape had just started his broom, and saw a golden object "whoosh" flying past his ear, just a few inches away from him - then, Harry stopped diving. He raised his arms in victory, and the thief was tightly held in his hand.

The stands were boiling with excitement. This would be a new record. No one could remember any other game in which the Snitch was caught so quickly.

"Ryan, Ron! Where are you? The game is over! Harry won! We won! Gryffindor is leading!" Hermione screamed, jumping on her chair and hugging Patil in the front row tightly.

Ryan and Ron laughed at each other's bloody noses and black eyes, then joined the celebrating crowd.

Nearly an hour later, when everyone had finished celebrating and were preparing to return to the castle, Harry slowly approached from a distance.

"Harry, where have you been?" shrieked Hermione.

"We won! You won!" Ron patted Harry on the back and shouted, "The three Malfoys are all unconscious. Ryan used magic to knock Goyle unconscious at the beginning, and then we beat them three to two, and everyone only suffered minor injuries. Now everyone is waiting for you in the common room. They are having a celebration party. Fred and George stole some cakes and so on from the kitchen."

"Never mind that for now," Harry panted. "Let's find an empty room and listen to me."

After Harry was sure that Peeves was not in the room, he turned around and closed the door, then told them about the interaction between Snape and Quirrell that he had just seen and heard on the broom. "So, our judgment should be completely correct. That thing is the Philosopher's Stone, and Snape wants to force Quirrell to help him get the stone. He asked Quirrell if he knew how to subdue Fluffy - and mentioned Quirrell's 'secret trick' - I guess, in addition to Fluffy, there are probably other mechanisms guarding the stone, and there may be a lot of magic and witchcraft. Maybe Quirrell cast some anti-dark magic spells, and Snape needs to remove them -"

"You mean to say that the Philosopher's Stone is safe only if Quirrell can resist Snape?" Hermione asked in panic.

Ryan put an ice pack on his swollen eye sockets and said with his head tilted back, "No, you can't be so arbitrary. What Harry heard was not clearly indicated at all. It sounded like Professor Snape discovered that Quirrell was playing tricks, so he was warning him to behave himself."

"Forget it," said Ron. "You can't think Snape is a good person just because he gave you a high grade for your homework recently. I think the potions brewed by the Slytherins are not as good as yours, but Snape gave them an O out of favor."

Harry stood up: "Now that you put it that way, I feel a little confused. But I still think it was Nep who wanted to steal the Philosopher's Stone."

In the end, everyone voted unanimously to no-confidence in Snape, but Ryan still had reservations.

Of course, it was just a reservation, so when Harry and the others firmly believed that Snape wanted to steal the stone and Quirrell was the guardian, and did something they thought would help stop Snape's conspiracy, Ryan was just a silent spectator.

It started when Harry considered Quirrell the last line of defense. Every time he met Quirrell on the road, he would give him an encouraging smile. Ron also began to persuade people not to laugh at Quirrell's stuttering. Ryan was completely speechless about this. He felt that Harry would regret it very much when he really met Voldemort, who was indistinguishable from Quirrell, at the end of the term.

For Ryan, apart from the issues related to the Philosopher's Stone, the most important thing during this period is to prepare for the final exams. After all, as a student, exams are still very important. Especially for Hogwarts, this is directly related to employment issues.

Hermione also began to review for the final exams. When Ryan reviewed with her, he found that her notebook was densely packed with different contents marked with different colors, and she even made a strict review plan.

Under Hermione's nagging, Ryan kept revising his review plan. To be honest, he even felt that this study plan was more rigorous than the time arrangement before the college entrance examination in his previous life. However, when he thought that an 11-year-old girl could do this, Ryan had to bite the bullet and keep up for the sake of face.

But Harry and Ron didn't care about this. Once when Hermione was nagging, an irritated Harry made his rebuttal:

"Hermione, the exams are still hundreds of years away."

"Ten weeks," Hermione retorted, "not hundreds of years, but the blink of an eye to Nicolas Flamel."

"But we are not six hundred years old," Ron reminded her, "and, anyway, why do you need to review, you already know everything."

"Why should I review? Are you crazy? Do you know that we have to pass these exams to move on to the second grade? They are very important. I should have started reviewing a month ago. I don't know what happened to me.
Ryan watched them quarreling, and shrank into his chair, pretending to be invisible. As expected, a true academic master is not only good at studying, but also tries to make the poor students study well, although the poor students often do not appreciate it.

(End of this chapter)