Days at Hogwarts

Chapter 108 Prologue: Voldemort Appears

"What letter?" A sinister voice rang out, and Snape, dressed in all black, appeared beside him.

Hermione quickly covered her mouth to prevent herself from screaming.

Snape wore a strange smile. "Just a heads-up," he said, "if any of you dare to wander around after lights out, I'll personally expel you!"

Harry felt that Snape must have wanted to do this, because they were the only ones in the school who knew about Snape's plot.

"Now!" Snape raised his voice. "All of you, get back to your dorms!"

Under Snape's threatening gaze, the group hurriedly returned to the Gryffindor common room.

Snape watched the four young wizards walk away until they disappeared from sight.

He could sense that Quirrell had been acting strangely lately; he had become smellier and weaker, and would dodge him like a rat at the mere sight of him. But there was a restless excitement in his eyes, and an almost overflowing malice.

Whatever Dumbledore's plans, Quirrell was clearly impatient with the holidays approaching. These foolish, reckless little things could easily put him in danger.

Loren glanced back at Snape one last time; he was standing in the dim candlelight of the foyer, looking at them with a deep gaze.

He realized that Snape's series of actions were to protect them. So, it must be that Dumbledore, the Riddler, hadn't spoken to Snape?

The four returned to the Gryffindor common room and found a chair in a secluded corner to sit down.

"He'll definitely do it after lights out," Harry said confidently, his suspicions confirmed by Snape's earlier words.

Hermione looked at Loren; they had always tried to avoid talking about Snape with Loren in mind.

"Why are you looking at me?" Loren shrugged. "I'm not going to snitch, but I still maintain that Snape isn't a bad guy."

Harry stared intently at Loren, full of hope. "Loren, you don't need to come with us to deal with him. If you can, please keep an eye on Snape for us. If he comes out of his office, follow him."

"Yes, sir, I guarantee I'll complete the mission." Loren smiled; he was naturally happy to take it easy.

He wasn't worried about the three's safety. Unlike the trolls, Dumbledore had been planning this battle between the trio against Quirrell for a whole year, so there was no chance of anything going wrong.

Quirrell's only options are to use the dragon egg to trap Hagrid, and Professor McGonagall's stiff dropping of her book—these are all safeguards.

It would be best to stay out of trouble; if he gets involved, he might end up in the school clinic for a few days.

Harry then made arrangements, "After the lights are turned off, we'll go to the fourth floor and try to retrieve the Philosopher's Stone before Snape."

The three began planning their operation for the night. They intended to use invisibility cloaks to infiltrate the fourth floor and play a short piece of music for Louie...

They discussed over and over again what might happen, such as what to do if they ran into Nick on the road, or how to avoid Mrs. Lorris.

Loren sat on the stool, like an unwanted person.

Contrary to his expectations of ease, this feeling of being alone and detached was not pleasant.

Why would he want to get involved? Damn it, it must be Dumbledore who influenced him.

The three continued their discussion until the lights outside the corridor quietly went out, and the young wizards in the lounge returned to their dormitories, leaving the lounge empty.

Harry was the first to stand up and go back to his dormitory to retrieve the Invisibility Cloak.

As the invisibility cloak enveloped them, the three disappeared from Loren's sight. Then, the sound of the fat lady opening the door rang out, and the lounge fell completely silent.

Loren also got up and slowly walked toward Snape's office.

Harry and the others made it to the fourth floor, to Fulve's room. Harry used the piccolo Hagrid had given him for Christmas to put Fulve to sleep.

Hermione and Harry jumped into the hole under the trapdoor one after the other. Ron landed alone on top, looking down into the pitch-black, bottomless hole, and wondered if jumping in was too impulsive.

But since they both jumped, Ron had no choice but to grit his teeth and jump in after them.

Below was a black net woven from intertwined plant vines, which caught the three people who had fallen.

"Ha, thank goodness for these plants." Ron touched this and that, and soon his eyes widened.

The dark vines crawled along their hands and feet, binding and tightening around them.

Harry and Ron struggled in terror.

"Relax, this is the Devil's Web. The more we struggle, the faster we'll die." Hermione lay flat on the vines, her voice relaxed, even sounding somewhat leisurely.

"The faster they die! Then we should really relax!" Ron was straining like a fish that had just been pulled ashore.

Hermione looked helpless as her body slowly sank down, as if she were being swallowed by an unknown monster.

"Hermione! Hermione!" Harry panicked and called out urgently.

"Relax! Don't struggle, trust me," Hermione's voice came from below.

Harry did as instructed, and his body slowly sank down.

Ron was so engrossed in his own world that he couldn't hear anything outside and watched helplessly as Hermione and Harry were "eaten" one after another.

"Ah!!! Harry!" His scream was so loud it cracked.

Below, Harry looked helplessly at the writhing Devil's Web vines above. "He can't hear us, can he?"

"Devil's Web, Devil's Web..." Hermione kept recalling the contents of the book, "That's right! Devil's Web is afraid of light and heat."

"[Blazing Flames]" She used a variant of the fire spell used for keeping warm in winter.

Several blue bellflower-like fireballs shot out from the tip of the wand, slowly floating upwards and loosening the vines wrapped around Ron.

Ron fell straight to the ground, landing on his butt. He got up, rubbed his backside, and laughed, "Ha, luckily I relaxed."

"Luckily, Hermione is good at herbalism." Harry shook his head, feeling that his tense and worried mood about the Philosopher's Stone seemed a bit out of place in the current atmosphere.

"I didn't expect this kind of flame to be useful in the summer." Ron still didn't reply, looking around at his surroundings.

The space below was much larger than they had imagined. It was a one-way stone corridor, with a wall on one side and faint rustling and tinkling sounds coming from the other.

They walked down the corridor until they reached the end, where they came to a brightly lit room.

Four brooms sat in the middle of the room, opposite a tightly closed door. Beneath the high, arched ceiling, countless tiny birds, as jewel-like as gems, fluttered their wings, leaving behind golden afterimages.

These are countless golden, winged keys. Clearly, this room requires them to ride flying broomsticks and grab the correct key that's floating in the air.

Halil deftly mounted his broom, his figure crashing through the air.

Hermione gave up immediately, and Ron, after glancing at the key and witnessing its flying speed, also chose to give up. They walked to the door opposite and waited for Harry to succeed.

"Why are there four brooms?" Ron discovered the blind spot.

Hermione didn't answer. She tried the unlocking charm on the lock, but it didn't work. She thought that if it were Loren, he should be able to open the door.

Harry did not disappoint them, and quickly grabbed the only silver key from among countless gold keys.

As the three entered the second room, the pitch-black room was suddenly illuminated.

They stood beside a huge chessboard, the pieces of which were huge stone sculptures, the soldiers' double swords and the knights' warhorses were all lifelike.

They are on the black side, with a dense array of white pieces blocking their path. To get through, they must win.

"Giant Wizard Chess," Ron murmured, circling the black pieces to examine them before beginning to direct the game.

Under his command, Harry replaced the bishop, Hermione replaced the castle, and Ron mounted the knight's horse. The game progressed quickly, and Ron, understanding his opponent's playing style, swiftly ended the match.

The White King removed his crown and threw it at Harry's feet. The white pieces bowed and retreated, making way for him.

Ron was very pleased with the game. "If it were before Christmas, I might have had to sacrifice the knight, but I'm not the same person I used to be."

Continuing onward, the next room reeked of a foul stench. In the center lay the corpse of a giant, even larger than the one they had fought before, with a bloody lump on its head.

The three were no longer relaxed, as the thief who stole the magic stone was right in front of them.

"At least we don't have to fight a troll," Harry said softly. "Let's go, we need to speed things up."

They cautiously stepped over the giant's corpse, and as soon as they reached the threshold of the next room, purple flames erupted from the door behind them, while black flames surged from the door opposite. They were trapped in the middle.

There were seven bottles of different shapes and a roll of parchment in the room.

The parchment revealed seven bottles in total. Two contained fire-resistant potions, one that allowed passage through purple flames, and one that allowed passage through the black flames in front. Two were nettle wine, which would be harmless to drink, while the other three contained poison that would kill if ingested.

There are four more clues:

First, all the poisons are on the left side of the nettle wine.

Second, the two bottles on the far right are not the same liquid; they do not contain the potion for moving forward.

Third, the largest and smallest bottles do not contain poison.

Fourth, the first and second to last bottles are the same thing.

Harry thought to himself, "Perfect, we can each have a bottle of poison."

Hermione held the parchment and read the clues several times. She first reached for the smallest bottle. "This contains the potion to pass through the black flames and move forward."

Then, pointing to the bottle on the far right, he said, "This is the potion for going back through the purple flames."

Harry examined the two potion bottles carefully. The smaller bottle contained only a few drops of the potion for going forward through the black flames—less than a mouthful. The bottle for going back, however, was full.

He quickly pulled the stopper from the smallest bottle and poured a few drops of the icy potion into his mouth. The potion, like ice, instantly seeped into his entire body, calming both his body and mind.

Before Ron and Hermione could react, Harry threw the empty bottle on the ground.

"Go back and ask the professor for help. The trolls are all dead; they'll believe us," Harry said calmly. "I might be able to hold him off."

Hermione's voice trembled. "What if Voldemort is in there too?"

Harry forced a smile, pointing to the lightning bolt-shaped scar on his forehead. "I'm the boy who survived the Great Calamity. If I can take on Voldemort once, I can take on him a second time."

Harry and Hermione grew up in Muggle society and could call Voldemort by his name without any reservations.

But Ron couldn't. He opened his mouth, wanting to say something to ease the tension, to make a joke, and then pulled Harry along with them.

But he couldn't say anything.

"You should go find the professor." Harry turned and resolutely stepped into the surging black flames.

Hermione and Ron, suppressing their grief and forcing themselves to stay alert, were about to drink the potion when Harley Quinn suddenly flew out of the potion with even greater speed, crashing into the table and shattering it and the potion on it.

The two quickly helped Harry up.

"Cough cough." Harry clutched his chest, gasping for breath in pain.

Why is Hagrid completely unaffected after taking a hit, while Hagrid feels like his bones are about to fall apart?

Before Hermione and Ron could ask what had happened, thick black mist billowed from the door in front of them. The burning black flames melted away like snow when they touched the mist.

The black mist spread to the door of the purple flames, and the purple flames were quickly melted away.

From the direction of the source of the black mist, a strange person slowly emerged. His face was as white as plaster, his scarlet eyes shone brightly, and his nostrils were as long and thin as snakes.

"Let's go!" Harry said, gritting his teeth against the excruciating pain in his chest and forehead scars.

Without time to look closely, Hermione and Ron grabbed Harry and ran in the direction they had come from. But Harry was badly injured, and they couldn't run fast.

Voldemort didn't give chase. He took a deep breath, savoring a sensation he hadn't felt in ten years: the human body.

"Master, they're about to escape." A fawning, timid voice came from behind.

Voldemort felt a surge of disgust; the voice was a constant reminder that this was not his body.

Without answering the servant, he walked slowly but irresistibly forward.

On the way, Harry was helped up and he recounted what had happened, "...It was Quirrell...I got the Philosopher's Stone...he couldn't touch me, so he knocked me away."

The Mirror of Eris was placed at the entrance to the room in the black flames. As soon as he entered, he saw Quirrell looking for the Philosopher's Stone in the mirror.

Then his reflection in the mirror put the Philosopher's Stone into his pocket, and Harry actually felt the Philosopher's Stone in his pocket.

Harry turned to run with the Philosopher's Stone, but Quirrell pounced on him from behind, grabbing his neck with both hands. But the moment Quirrell touched him, it felt like he was on fire, and he cried out in pain and struggled to get away.

Then his scarf came off, revealing the back of his head, and Quirrell called him master.

Harry realized his body could harm Quirrell and lunged at him with a scream. The two faces switched places, and the devilish face unleashed a spell that sent Harry flying.

"Now, if we just get out of here, we'll have succeeded tonight," Ron said, fighting back tears.

Harry and Hermione remained silent. They both knew who had stolen the Philosopher's Stone, Quirrell's master.

They escaped all the way to the room where the chessboard was located, and this time they could get through without playing any chess pieces. The chess pieces on the board were scattered sparsely and couldn't block their path at all.

The three staggered across the chessboard.

At the door, Ron released Harry's hand and stopped.

Harry and Hermione looked at him in confusion, wondering why he had stopped.

"You guys go first, I'll cover the rear." Ron turned to look at the chess pieces.

Hermione didn't speak, and stopped Harry from speaking as well, helping him escape.

Ron walked back to the center of the chessboard, picked up the White King's crown, and slung it diagonally across his body.

He then mounted another black knight's horse and proclaimed loudly, "Reset!"

The childish voice was serious and earnest, echoing through the empty chessboard room.

The stone statue's base made a rough, grating sound on the chessboard, and the black and white chess pieces fell back into their original positions, solemnly awaiting their turn.

Thank you to the Guardian Knight of the Sky and Earth, Book Friend 20181230172621290, and I Like Xiao Ai for their donations.

Thank you kopcn, Lucifer's Little Teacher, zxfbai, and the monthly pass like a rose.

I'll add an extra chapter tomorrow, and try to finish defeating Voldemort by then.

(End of this chapter)