Chapter 270

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

Tom had recovered and been discharged from the hospital. His relationship with Harry was still a bit strange, but for some reason, Harry didn't exclude him from the Sorcerer's Stone matter.

"The exam is coming soon, can't we think about this after the exam?" Hermione asked.

She had been dreaming of Snape announcing that she had failed the exam recently. The shock brought by this dream was even more terrifying than Voldemort's resurrection.

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

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

Tom frowned.

Why ask me?

"I think... the person who wants to steal the Sorcerer's Stone must be more anxious than us," he said.

He didn't lie. He hadn't been able to sleep for days recently.

Once the holiday started, he would have to leave Hogwarts, and he wouldn't be able to get the Sorcerer's Stone at all.

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

Rather than continuing to memorize History of Magic here, Ron felt he would rather face a three-headed dog.

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

"Seriously, we can't just rely on Fluffy. Hagrid is very loyal to Dumbledore, but Hagrid..." Ron curled his lips. "He'll say anything when he's happy..."

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

Ron was startled. "Cough, cough, I didn't mean Hagrid wouldn't keep secrets, I meant he's quite easy to be tricked into talking, isn't he..."

They had tricked Nicolas Flamel out of Hagrid before.

"How could I not think of it! Yes, how could it be such a coincidence!" Harry didn't even care about eating and ran out in a hurry.

Several little wizards followed him. "What's wrong? What did you think of?"

"Norbert! Hagrid has always wanted a dragon! But it just so happened that someone brought a dragon egg, and he happened to run into it! How could it be such a coincidence! Raising dragons is illegal! Who would carry that thing around?!"

They swarmed into Hagrid's hut and asked directly, "Hagrid, who gave you Norbert?"

"A foreign wizard, wh-what's wrong?" Hagrid was a little nervous because of Harry's aggressive manner. "He was wearing a cloak, I don't know who he is? What's wrong? This isn't strange, in the Hog's Head, there are all kinds of people..."

"Did you mention Fluffy?"

"Ah, because he wanted to know if I could raise a dragon, wanted to know my skills, so I told him I raised a hellhound, this thing isn't common, but I told him I could even manage Fluffy, as long as you play some music for it, it can fall asleep immediately..."

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

"We must tell Dumbledore about this, only Dumbledore can stop him..." Hermione said. "They say the only person he fears is Dumbledore..."

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

"An educational hearing," Professor McGonagall sighed. "The Board of Governors thinks Dumbledore's teaching policy is too willful... He has already gone to London and won't be back until at least tomorrow."

Then they ran into Snape.

The latter glared at each of them scrutinizingly. "What are you doing again? Let me remind you, Potter—if you wander around in the middle of the night again, I will expel you myself."

After Snape left, several little wizards looked at each other.

"There's no other way."

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

Tom had never felt the few hours of the night to be so long.

He lay on the bed, his brain constantly calculating various possibilities, but in the end, he found that he still had no choice. He needed to live, needed the Sorcerer's Stone, needed the Elixir of Life, needed the resurrection potion.

He might be able to steal the Sorcerer's Stone before Voldemort, and he already knew the recipe for the Elixir of Life, but the resurrection potion was only available to Voldemort.

And only Voldemort could help him retrieve his past memories and become a complete self.

It's time to make up his mind.

At 10:30 at night, the others in the dormitory were asleep. Tom used an illusion spell on himself, left the Slytherin common room, and waited in the fourth-floor corridor for a while.

Suddenly, a head appeared in mid-air. It was Harry.

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

Tom hesitated, but in the end, he didn't lift the illusion spell.

Two more small heads drilled out of thin air. Hermione and Ron were looking around. "Tom, Tom..."

However, Tom still didn't appear.

"What's wrong with Tom, why hasn't he come yet?" Ron asked anxiously.

"We can't wait here, Voldemort will kill us all if he comes later," Hermione said. The little girl was nervous and shaking all over.

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

"Oh, maybe he's scared, coward!" Ron was very dissatisfied.

"Maybe, he was held up by someone..." Hermione said.

Harry hesitated and finally made up his mind. "Don't wait, let's go first."

They opened the door at the end of the corridor, then used a flute to hypnotize Fluffy, lifted the trapdoor, and revealed the bottomless hole below.

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

"If something happens to me, don't go down, just use an owl to send a letter to Dumbledore," Harry said. "If I'm fine, remember to put the flute here. If Tom comes late, he can also use it to pass Fluffy."

After speaking, Harry jumped down the hole with the determination to die, but found that it was very soft below, so Ron and Hermione also jumped down.

The music stopped, and Fluffy roared again. It smelled the scent of humans. Someone had slipped past it, and one was hiding in front of it, but it couldn't see.

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

The Devil's Snare on the ground had been driven away by Harry and the others, but before falling, Tom used a cushioning spell on himself and landed without injury.

He added an illusion spell to himself again, and then saw the three little wizards come to a corridor with eight crow statues on both sides.

There seemed to be a puzzle on the wall. Hermione stayed in front of the puzzle for a while, then pressed a few buttons on those buttons. The wall suddenly protruded, and Hermione took something out of it. It was too far away, and Tom couldn't see what it was.

Just as they were discussing what the thing in their hands was for, the crow sculptures on both sides of the corridor flew away one after another, turning into real crows.

The three walked into the next room.

And Tom followed closely behind them with an illusion spell.

Together they passed the room with keys, and after Ron's self-sacrifice, they passed the wizard chess room, then Hermione and Harry passed the troll room with an invisibility cloak, and finally they came to a room where the exit was sealed by fire.

Hermione handed the thing obtained from Professor Murphy's trap to Harry, then drank the potion to exit and left. Harry took a sip of the potion to move forward and entered the next room.

Tom had been following Harry, so he knew they were indeed one step ahead of others—none of the previous traps had been triggered by anyone.

There was still a small half of the potion to move forward left. Tom hesitated for a moment, drank the rest of the potion in one gulp, and walked into the fire.

In the empty underground hall, only a huge mirror was placed.

Harry was standing in front of the mirror. Suddenly he seemed to hear a sound and turned his head. "Tom, you're here."

Tom was stunned. Only then did he discover that his illusion spell seemed to have been destroyed by that strange black fire.

"I'm here."

"Sorry, Harry."

(End of chapter)