Hogwarts: From Selling White Peppers to Becoming a God

Chapter 279 My Teacher Nicolas Flamel

Harry felt like he was having a dream.

In his dream, he seemed to be captured by a terrifying bat that wanted to suck his blood. He struggled desperately, but soon the bat turned into Snape, who glared at him fiercely. However, in that gaze, besides hatred, there was also an expression that made him extremely uncomfortable.

No, get out of here!

Get out!

Harry...

Suddenly, a voice came from afar.

He seemed to see a boy reaching out his hand, saying, "Thank you for believing in me. I'm happy to be your friend."

He reached out his hand, and the other person suddenly pulled him away.

Suddenly, I woke up from the dream.

Ron's face appeared before him. "Harry, how are you? Harry, are you alright? Are you hurt?"

"Where am I?"

Harry asked, confused.

"Harry, listen to me," Ron said, but instead of answering him, "don't be too sad later..."

"What?"

He looked around in a daze and realized that he seemed to be in a private room in a tavern.

Ah, here are three brooms.

He came here.

He tried to stand up, bewildered. "How did I get here? I remember getting the Philosopher's Stone, and then Snape..."

Hermione helped him up. "Harry, let's go outside."

They helped Harry out to the main hall, where he stared in shock at the crowd of people, each with a terrifying expression on their face.

Something incredibly serious must have happened.

Oh no, Snape… He must have told the other professors about me stealing the Philosopher's Stone… I’m going to be expelled…

What should I do? No, I can't drag Hermione and Ron into this; that's what I asked them to do.

Oh, and Tom too...

He turned and looked around. "Where's Tom?"

"The deceased has been identified as Lucas Tom Brettson." A voice suddenly came from the center of the crowd outside.

Harry paused, thinking he had misheard.

"What? He just said..."

"Harry..." Hermione couldn't help but cry again, "Harry, Tom, Tom he..."

"The preliminary assessment of the cause of death is severe blood loss from injuries, and... a curse. There are traces of magic remaining in the wound on his abdomen; he was struck by some kind of spell..."

"You said he suddenly appeared in your private room?"

"Yes, I was drinking at the time, and Tom... oh, he kept telling us to call him by his middle name, and then Tom and Harry suddenly appeared..."

Harry recognized Murphy's voice. He walked over, pushed through the crowd, and saw the body lying on the two tables.

Tom.

It's him.

For a moment, Harry was startled by Tom's miserable appearance. Then, he reached out and touched the other intact arm of the body.

One of the Aurors seemed to want to stop him, but was stopped by others.

Harry felt as if he had touched a piece of ice. In fact, the body was still at a temperature of about 20 degrees Celsius, but Harry felt that the arm was extremely cold.

It was still soft, but it had undoubtedly lost all traces of life.

When he raised that arm, he felt an immense weight, and in an instant, Harry understood: Tom was dead.

But how could that be?

Why?

Is it Snape?

No, is it Voldemort?

Everyone stared at him. Barty Crouch glared at him sternly. "Porter, Mr. Murphy said you arrived at the same time as this Lucas. Do you remember what happened?"

Harry glanced at him blankly and shook his head in confusion.

"Gentlemen," Murphy stood up, shielding Harry behind him, "I imagine Harry has had a very complicated night. He lost a friend. Gentlemen, please give him some time."

Someone tried to pull Harry out of the crowd, but he pushed them aside, shouting, "No!"

Harry's eyes widened. "I need to know how he died. Who, who killed Tom? The professor?"

Murphy looked at him for a long while, then sighed, "I'm afraid it's Voldemort, or... Quirrell."

"What...what happened, Professor?" Harry stared at him, still unable to believe what was happening. "What happened while I was unconscious?"

Murphy gazed at him sadly for a long while before saying, "Let me tell you what I know again."

"Earlier tonight, I finished my magical communication experiment and wanted to relax, so I'm having three brooms and a few meads."

"I'd only had two drinks when Tom and you suddenly showed up."

"You were still unconscious then, and Tom looked much the same as he does now. His injuries looked terrible, but he wasn't dead yet. He was extremely weak, but he still held my hand tightly and placed a red stone in my hand."

"Is that a magic stone?" someone asked.

Murphy didn't answer. "Tom said it was the Philosopher's Stone, and he wants me to read his memories."

"He was already very weak at the time. I originally wanted to save him first, but his will was very strong. I knew he must have important information to tell me, so I used Legilimency on him."

"His mind was already confused, but from those scattered memories, I gleaned a few key pieces of information."

"First, he and Harry got the Philosopher's Stone."

"Secondly, Voldemort kidnapped him and both of them, attempting to resurrect them."

"Third, he brought the Philosopher's Stone and Harry back to me and thwarted Voldemort's plans."

"Upon reading this, his will died, and he perished."

"I immediately realized that they had encountered something extremely terrible. I wanted to notify the school immediately, but unfortunately, Professor Dumbledore was being questioned by the Board of Governors and was not at the school. More importantly, I realized an even more pressing problem: now that Tom and Harry had taken back the Philosopher's Stone from Voldemort, what would Voldemort do without it?"

"The next moment, I thought of my teacher."

"Your teacher?" an Auror asked. "Do you mean Professor Flitwick?"

"No, I meant another teacher I met after graduation. Mr. Nicolas Flamel."

"Nico Flamel? He's your teacher?!" Everyone was astonished.

"Yes, I used to be very interested in alchemy, so I exchanged a lot of alchemical knowledge with Mr. Nicolas Flamel. I learned a lot from him, and he took me as his disciple."

"However, that's not the point. The point is, after reading Tom's memories, I immediately understood that the only thing Voldemort could rely on to be resurrected was the elixir of immortality in the master's possession."

"So I immediately rushed to the teacher's house."

"As soon as I arrived, I discovered that Madame Perenaar had already been murdered."

"There is one Auror who can attest to this; he appears to be acting on orders from the Auror Command to monitor the teacher."

“That’s right,” Rahim spoke up at the right moment. “During the Gringotts robbery, we discovered that the owner of Vault 713 was Mr. Nicolas Flamel. In order to obtain clues, we secretly monitored and protected Mr. Flamel.”

"Unfortunately, we did not expect the enemy to suddenly attack Mr. Lemaître."

No one paid attention to Rahim's words; they simply asked, "And then? What happened?"

"I learned from my teacher that someone stole the elixir of immortality," Murphy said.

"And I knew that person was Voldemort."

"He must be hiding somewhere, preparing to be resurrected, and I must stop him."

(End of this chapter)