Hogwarts: From Selling White Peppers to Becoming a God

Chapter 269 Passing Through the Trapdoor

"We can't wait any longer," Harry said at lunch on the last day before the exams.

Tom has recovered and been discharged from the hospital. His relationship with Harry is still somewhat strange, but for some reason, Harry has not excluded him from the matter of the Philosopher's Stone.

"The exams are coming up soon, can't we wait until after the exams to think about this?" Hermione asked.

Lately, she's been having nightmares every night about Snape announcing that she failed her exams. The terror of these dreams is even more frightening than Voldemort's resurrection.

"We still don't know how to get past Fluffy, and that person—whether it's Snape or some other dark wizard—definitely doesn't know either. The Philosopher's Stone is still safe," Hermione said.

"What do you think, Tom?" Harry asked.

Tom frowned.

Why are you asking me?

"I think... the people who want to steal the Philosopher's Stone are even more eager than we are," he said.

He wasn't lying; he'd been having trouble sleeping lately.

Once the holidays begin, he will have to leave Hogwarts, making it impossible for him to obtain the Philosopher's Stone.

"I agree, we can go explore again..." Ron said.

Rather than continuing to memorize some history of magic here, Ron felt he'd rather face the three-headed dog.

"You just don't want to read!" Hermione bluntly exposed.

"Honestly, we can't rely on Fluffy alone. Hagrid is very loyal to Dumbledore, that's true, but Hagrid..." Ron pursed his lips, "He'll say anything when he's in a good mood..."

"Bang!" Harry suddenly stood up. "What did you say?"

Ron was startled. "Ahem, I didn't mean Hagrid can't keep secrets, I meant he's quite easy to trick into telling you things, isn't he..."

They had already gotten information about Nicolas Flamel from Hagrid.

"How could I not have thought of that! Yeah, what a coincidence!" Harry didn't even bother to finish his meal and rushed out.

Several young wizards followed him, asking, "What's wrong? What's on your mind?"

"Nober! Hagrid has always wanted a dragon! But by sheer coincidence, someone was carrying a dragon egg, and he just happened to run into it! What a coincidence! Keeping dragons is illegal! Who would carry something like that around like that?!"

They swarmed into Hagrid's hut, immediately asking, "Hagrid, who gave you Norbert?"

"A foreign wizard, w-what's wrong?" Hagrid was a little nervous at Harry's trembling appearance. "He's wearing a cloak, I don't know who he is? What's wrong? It's not surprising, there are all sorts of people in the Hog's Head..."

Did you mention Lou Williams?

"Ah, because he wanted to know if I could raise a dragon, to know my abilities, so I told him I had raised a Cerberus, which is not common, but I told him I could even keep Luwei under control, as long as I played some music for him, he would fall asleep immediately..."

The young wizards rushed out of Hagrid's hut again.

"We have to tell Dumbledore about this. Only Dumbledore can stop him..." Hermione said. "They say the only person he's afraid of is Dumbledore..."

However, Professor McGonagall soon told them that Dumbledore had been summoned by a letter from the Ministry of Magic.

“An education hearing,” Professor McGonagall sighed. “The Board of Trustees believes Dumbledore’s teaching methods are too arbitrary… He has gone to London and won’t be back until at least tomorrow.”

Then they encountered Snape.

The latter scrutinized each of them, giving them a sharp look. "What are you up to now? Let me remind you, Potter—if you're out wandering around in the middle of the night again, I'm firing you myself."

After Snape left, the young wizards exchanged glances.

"There's no other way to go."

"Tonight, we must get the Philosopher's Stone before anyone else."

……

Tom had never felt that the hours at night could be so long.

He lay in bed, his mind racing with all sorts of possibilities, but in the end, he realized he had no choice. He wanted to live, and he needed the Philosopher's Stone, the Elixir of Immortality, and the Resurrection Potion.

He might be able to steal the Philosopher's Stone before Voldemort, and he already knew the recipe for the Elixir of Immortality, but only Voldemort possessed the Potion of Resurrection.

Moreover, only Voldemort can help him regain his past memories and become his complete self.

It's time to make a decision.

At 10 p.m., when everyone else in the dormitory was asleep, Tom cast an illusion spell on himself, left the Slytherin common room, and waited for a while in the fourth-floor corridor.

Suddenly a head appeared in mid-air; it was Harry.

"Tom, we're here, where are you?" he called softly.

Tom hesitated for a moment, but ultimately did not lift the illusion spell.

Two more little heads popped out of nowhere. Hermione and Ron looked around, calling out, "Tom, Tom..."

However, Tom still did not appear.

"What's wrong with Tom? Why isn't he here yet?" Ron asked anxiously.

"We can't wait here. Voldemort will come and kill us all," Hermione said, the little girl trembling with nervousness.

"Tom, Tom..." Harry called out twice more, but there was still no response.

"Oh, he's scared, isn't he? Coward!" Ron said, quite displeased.

"Perhaps he's been tripped up..." Hermione said.

Harry hesitated for a moment, then finally made up his mind, "Let's not wait any longer, let's go first."

They opened the door at the end of the corridor, then hypnotized Louie with a flute, lifted the trapdoor, and revealed a bottomless hole below.

"Hermione," Harry handed the flute to Hermione, "I'll jump down first, you hold the flute and keep playing."

"If anything happens to me, don't go down. Use the owl to send a message to Dumbledore," Harry said. "If I'm alright, remember to leave the flute here. If Tom is late, he can use it to get through to Fluffy."

After saying that, Harry jumped down into the hole with the determination to die, only to find that it was soft below. So Ron and Hermione also jumped down.

The music stopped, and Louie roared again. It smelled human scent; someone had slipped away from it, and another was hiding right in front of it, but it couldn't see it.

Tom used the Summoning Charm to grab the flute, hypnotized Fluffy again, waited a while until the noise below stopped, and then jumped down.

The devil's net on the ground had been driven away by Harry and the others, but before falling, Tom used shock absorbers to slow himself down and landed unharmed.

He cast another Disillusionment Charm on himself, and then he saw three young wizards arrive at a corridor lined with eight raven statues on either side.

There seemed to be a puzzle on the wall. Hermione paused in front of it for a moment, then pressed a few buttons. Suddenly, a piece bulged out of the wall, and Hermione took something out of it. It was too far away for Tom to see what it was.

As they were discussing the purpose of the object in their hands, the crow sculptures on both sides of the corridor came to life, turned into real crows, and flew away.

The three of them went into the next room.

Tom followed closely behind them using the Disillusionment Charm.

Together they passed through the room of the key, and after Ron's self-sacrifice, they passed through the wizard's chess room. Hermione and Harry then used the invisibility cloak to pass through the troll's room, and finally they arrived at a room whose exit was blocked by fire.

Hermione gave Harry what she had obtained from Professor Murphy's trap, then drank the potion to retreat and left. Harry drank a potion to advance and entered the next room.

Tom had been following closely behind Harry, so he knew they were indeed a step ahead of the others—no one had triggered the previous traps.

There was still a little more than half of the potion left in the potion. Tom hesitated for a moment, then drank the rest in one gulp and stepped into the fire.

In the empty underground hall, there was only one huge mirror.

Harry was standing in front of the mirror when he suddenly seemed to hear a voice, turned around, and said, "Tom, you're here."

Tom was taken aback, only then realizing that his Disillusionment Charm seemed to have been destroyed by the strange black flames.

"I am coming."

"Sorry, Harry."

(End of this chapter)