Harry Potter, the savior of Night City

Around midnight, Harry, who hadn't been able to go to the library to look up information because of various things that happened in the morning, opened his eyes from his bed.

"Alright, let's get to work."

Harry got dressed and quietly slipped out of the dormitory. Just as he expected, there was no one on the way from the dormitory to the hallway outside.

Hogwarts was especially quiet at night; even the slightest sound of Harry's footsteps echoed.

"I remember, the library is on the second floor." Harry held the Yinglong sword in his hand. Although he couldn't fire it, he could fire a burst at anyone who found him. As for why he didn't use magic, none of the spells Harry knew could directly knock someone unconscious.

Harry made it to the second floor without any trouble. The library was right in front of him, but it was locked. Just as Harry was taking off his earring and preparing to give the wizarding world a shock, a hand patted Harry on the shoulder.

The Sinwiss started, and Harry picked up the Yinglong and slammed it behind him with the butt. He turned around and saw the person's face clearly. He then stopped the butt of the gun that was being slammed behind him right next to the person's temple. The Sinwiss ended, and the strong wind messed up the person's hair.

"Ron? Hermione? What are you doing here?" Harry silently put away the Yinglong and asked, pretending nothing had happened.

Ron was startled by the gun butt that nearly hit his head and was now somewhat dazed, so Hermione had to answer for him.

"We saw you come out of Professor Quirrell's office today, and he suddenly went crazy, talking to himself. He even mentioned something called the Philosopher's Stone. Ron wants to investigate what connection the Philosopher's Stone has with you, because he's afraid Quirrell might harm you, so..."

"And who are you?"

"He pulled it out." Hermione said, and then slapped Ron on the back of the head, which restarted him.

"Oh, yes, yes, Harry, what about you?"

"Same," Harry replied, then continued picking the lock.

"No need for that." Hermione gestured for Harry to step aside, then raised her wand. "Alohomora!" The locked door unlocked instantly.

Harry's eyes widened. This was useful! He wouldn't need to go through the hassle of using black-hat sleight of hand for assassinations anymore. He immediately asked, "Can you teach me this?"

"Of course, no problem. But our current task is to find that thing called the Philosopher's Stone. We can talk about it later when we have time." Hermione readily agreed, while Ron stood by like a mascot.

Gently hanging the lock on the door, the three of them crept into the library. Looking at the mountain of books, Ron began to worry, "With so many books, we won't be able to finish looking for them even by tomorrow morning."

"Quirok said that the Philosopher's Stone can bring endless wealth and life, and it was crafted by an alchemist, so..."

"So it must be in the Alchemy Quarter." Hermione answered quickly. "I know where the Alchemy Quarter is. Follow me."

The two followed Hermione, turning left and right until they arrived at a huge bookshelf, where the three of them began to search through it.

"This is not the book 'The Origins of Alchemy'. I've read this one, and it doesn't contain the Philosopher's Stone."

"An Introduction to Alchemy? Oh, how could something so profound be an introduction? Ron, can't you use your brain?"

"The Love-Hate Relationship Between the Strongest Alchemist and the Strongest Wizard? Why would there be a book like that?"

"The Modern Alchemist? I haven't read that one yet, you can look it up."

......

"Ah, not a single one, not even a single book mentions the Philosopher's Stone." Hermione lay on the table, her hair standing on end.

"I'm sorry, Harry, we couldn't find it," Hermione said apologetically.

"It's okay, I should have thought of that earlier. If it were something that important, how could it be just casually placed in the library?" Harry tapped his head, feeling helpless about his lack of foresight.

"Um, actually there's one more place we haven't searched yet," the mascot Ron said.

"You mean the restricted area? No, absolutely not. Going there is a definite violation of school rules," Hermione said firmly.

"...Guess what we're doing right now." Ron paused for a moment, then delivered a devastating blow to Hermione.

The three of them eventually decided to go to the restricted section. They crept up to a large iron gate. Harry looked at the place with the sign for the restricted section, then at the simple padlock on the gate, and fell into deep thought.

"You two are telling me this shoddy stuff is a forbidden book section?"

"If there's only one place that's a restricted area, it must be this one," Hermione said confidently.

"My bathroom is more secretive than this place," Harry said, covering his face. Was this method of secrecy meant to make sure everyone knew there was something extraordinary inside?

"The Arahu Cave Opens."

Hermione chanted the spell, and the lock opened with a click. The three entered the forbidden book section, which was basically the same as the outside. However, the difference was that the names on each book were either illegible or bound with chains. In short, each book had its own eerie aspects.

The three searched through the alchemy section marked as forbidden in the library. Hermione pulled out a large black book, "Introduction to Soul Alchemy," Ron pulled down a book with chains binding it and the title illegible, and Harry took out "The Sealed History of Alchemy."

"The ancient alchemists believed that alchemy could be used to create all things. They refined gold from clay and forests from fire... Gradually, they became dissatisfied and began to explore deeper things. The soul was peeled away from the body and constantly..." Hermione began to read the book, seemingly entering a state of complete absorption. Blue light began to appear around her, her eyes became bloodshot, and the words she read became unclear. If you had a panel to scan her, you would definitely see the words "Sanity -1, Sanity -1" constantly appearing above her head.

"Aa ...

A heart-wrenching scream came from the book in Ron's hands, but he couldn't close it no matter what he did. Harry was startled, and Hermione snapped out of her daze. The two of them were stunned for a moment before they went over to help Ron close the book.

"Sorry, I messed up." Ron looked a little dejected.

"It's not your fault. Who knew the books in the forbidden section were like this?" Harry patted Ron on the shoulder. "Hermione, are you alright?" Harry saw Hermione looking dazed and waved in front of him.

"Ah, oh, it's nothing," Hermione shook her head, realizing what she meant. "Let's hurry up and go, or Filch will be here soon."

"Where was that sound just now?" a voice came from afar. "Good boy/girl, go check it out for me, go."

Meow~

"Hurry up!" The three ignored the books on the ground, scrambled to their feet, and ran outside. However, Hermione was still holding the book "Soul Alchemy" in her hand.

The three of them ran wildly, and just as they ran out of the library, everything went black before their eyes, but then they instantly recovered. In front of them was a corridor that looked much like the outside of the library, with an ordinary wooden door at the end. They quickly ran into the door and blocked it.

"Phew, almost safe." Hermione breathed a sigh of relief. Harry was still thinking about what had happened when everything went black. Logically speaking, his Crossroads shouldn't have made such a basic mistake.

"I... I don't think we're that safe," Ron said, his legs trembling and his voice shaking.

"What happened... Ahhh!!" Hermione looked up and screamed in fright.

Harry turned around and saw three huge dog heads in front of him. He was startled and pulled out Yinglong and fired a burst at the dog heads. The bullets, carrying high voltage current, hit one of the dog heads. The dog immediately let out a painful howl and curled up on the ground in the corner, covering its head. Unfortunately, it only had two front paws, so it could only cover two heads.

"Such tough skin!" Harry thought as he saw that the bullets had only nearly killed one of the heads, and the electric current had only knocked the dog to the ground.

As Harry took a box of bullets from his miniature bullet maker at his waist, loaded it, and prepared to fire another burst, Hermione stopped him, while Ron pointed to a trapdoor on the ground, which had been hidden from view because of the giant three-headed dog lying there, but was now revealed.

"There's probably something under that trapdoor. Should we go check it out?"

"Forget it, Ron. Who knows what strange things might happen down there? Besides, it's really too late today," Hermione said to Ron, tucking the book into her coat and putting one hand on her hip.

"I agree." Harry also felt it was time to go back. It was best not to explore completely unknown places for now. Although the information gained from the Philosopher's Stone was not much, at least they had a direction.

Seeing that both of them said so, Ron had no choice but to agree. The three of them walked out of the room, and then everything went black again before they were back to normal. Hermione and Ron did not notice anything unusual, but Harry felt even stranger. He felt that something dirty was pushing them to go somewhere they did not want to go.

In the Headmaster's office at the very top of Hogwarts Tower, Dumbledore gazed at the three figures reflected in the glass sphere before him, one hand stuffing candy into his mouth, the other having just finished casting a spell...