The Shopkeeper of All Worlds in the British Wizarding World

Chapter 42 The final exam begins

Ryan asked Harry as he ran: "What happened? Why did you suddenly jump up and scare us?"

"I suddenly remembered something," Harry said. His face turned pale. "We must find Hagrid immediately."

"Why?" Hermione gasped, trying to catch up with him.

"Don't you think it's a little odd?" said Harry, as he hurried down the grassy slope. "What Hagrid wanted most of all was a dragon, and a stranger happened to have a dragon egg in his pocket? How many people walk around with dragon eggs? It's against wizarding law! Don't you think they were lucky to find Hagrid? Why didn't I think of that before?"

"What on earth do you want to do?" panted Ron, who was the last one to come in, but Harry didn't answer as he sprinted across the grounds towards the forest.

They met Hagrid who was doing housework at the door of Hagrid's hut. After some inquiries, Harry learned that Hagrid had won a dragon egg by playing cards with a suspicious person. Even under Harry's questioning, they learned that the three-headed Fluffy's biggest weakness was that he would fall asleep when listening to music. Hagrid was induced to tell this weakness to the suspicious guy when he was drunk.

Harry then headed for the castle, and Ryan and the others had no choice but to follow. When they reached the cold hallway, Harry stopped.

"We need to tell Professor Dumbledore that a suspicious person has obtained a way to subdue Fluffy," he said. But it was obvious that no one knew where Professor Dumbledore's office was.

At this time, Professor McGonagall appeared, and Harry went up to tell her his worries and warnings. However, Professor McGonagall did not believe him. She told Harry that although Professor Dumbledore was not in school, the Philosopher's Stone was well protected and he did not need to worry.

After Professor McGonagall left, they met Professor Snape and were warned again.

Afterwards, Harry tried to monitor the room where Fluffy was imprisoned and Professor Snape, but was stopped by Ryan. After all, as a first-year student, monitoring professors and forbidden areas, even if he really found something wrong, he would not be able to stop it. Instead, it might cause unnecessary harm or alert the enemy. Not to mention that as a professor, he has countless excuses and spells to distract or avoid students, and simple monitoring is useless.

After listening to Ryan's reasons, Harry had to give up his immature plan.

Finally, Harry decided to take out the Philosopher's Stone before it was stolen so that the person who wanted to steal it would be left empty-handed.

Ryan expressed great admiration for Harry's Sima Guang-smashing-the-jar-style empathy. He thought it was a good way to get the most out of the least cost and it was worth a try.

However, Hermione and Ron objected because the idea was too dangerous and might lead to the expulsion of all employees.

Ryan then persuaded Ron and Hermione: "This is not a question of expulsion or not. This is related to the peace of the entire wizarding world (Ryan was so excited by this speech that he got goosebumps all over his body, but he continued calmly), and the life of our friend Harry, which is definitely more important than going to school. And we are here to protect school property, and professors will not expel students for this reason."

"We?" Harry asked in surprise.

"Of course." Ryan shrugged. "How can we watch you take risks alone? You should also give us some of the credit for saving the world."

Hermione and Ron nodded in agreement. "Thank you, thank you everyone. But I think my invisibility cloak may not be able to fit four people." Harry said excitedly.

"Don't worry about that." Ryan said, "I just learned the Disillusionment Charm a while ago, so it should be able to be used. So your invisibility cloak only needs to be able to accommodate three people."

Now that they had made up their minds, it was time to prepare. After dinner, they avoided others and began to make various preparations in a corner of the common room. In fact, no one in the college had paid much attention to Harry recently, which made it easier for them to prepare.

After that, their corner became quiet. No one was interested in talking. All they could hear was Hermione reciting some spells.

Finally, it was past nine o'clock. As everyone was very tired after the exam, they all went back to the dormitory to sleep. In the end, only Harry and the other four were left in the common room.

"Now you can get the invisibility cloak," Ron said. Harry ran upstairs to get the invisibility cloak. Ryan took out a crudely made canvas belt from his bag and tied it around himself. On the belt were two small canvas bags stuffed full of stuff and a row of small glass bottles.

"When I first received the admission letter from Hogwarts, I thought that training wizards in a magic school was just like the actual combat and adventure in the Dungeons & Dragons card game, so I did this. I didn't expect that the wizarding world is no different from the world of ordinary people."

Ryan adjusted his belt while speaking to Ron and Hermione who were watching in amazement.

At this time, Harry also came down from the stairs. He was stunned for a moment when he saw Ryan's outfit, and then he took out the invisibility cloak.

"We'd better put on the Invisibility Cloak right here and see if it covers all three of us - if Filch sees a pair of feet walking on the ground by themselves -"

After Ryan confirmed that there was no problem, Harry and the other three walked in front wearing invisibility cloaks, while Ryan cast an Disillusionment Spell on himself and followed them five or six meters behind.

After going out, everyone was very nervous because they were going to do something big today. They felt that every statue and every shadow might be a professor or Filch on night watch.

On the way, they met Mrs. Norris, who seemed to have seen Ryan. However, perhaps because of the effect of the Disillusionment Charm, Mrs. Norris did not notice anyone there. She just turned her head to look, and then lay down again.

Later, at the staircase of the corridor on the fourth floor, the biggest threat, Peeves, appeared. Thanks to Harry's sudden inspiration, he imitated the voice of the Bloody Baron and scared Peeves away.

But Ryan felt that as an elf of Hogwarts, he had been with the Bloody Baron for more than hundreds of years. It was impossible for Harry Potter's disguised voice to fool him. It was probably because of Professor Dumbledore's instructions. After all, in this school, the only one who could command Peeves was the headmaster.

After getting rid of Peeves, they arrived at the corridor outside the fourth floor in a few seconds - the door was already opened a crack.

It seems that even though they had decided to take the Philosopher's Stone in advance, they were still a step too late. After all, it was much more convenient for the professors to walk around the castle after curfew than for them to sneak in.

(End of this chapter)