Chapter 16: Suspicious Quirrell

"It worked," Hermione said with lingering fears, the tear stains on her face not yet wiped clean. "I heard you talking about the Levitation Charm, and then I happened to see that pipe hit Harry's head. I was thinking, maybe I could use the troll's club."

"Thank you, Hermione, you almost saved our lives," Luo En sat on the ground, panting, he himself was frightened by his own actions just now.

"I should be the one saying thank you," Hermione said. "If you hadn't come, I might have been eaten by it."

"Oh right, I brought you something to eat," Harry heard the word "eat" and reached into his robe to dig for the paper package. But when he handed the potato pancake to Hermione, he felt something was wrong. After his hand left his head, some warm liquid slid down his forehead.

"Professor?" Hermione was the only one facing the other end of the corridor. When she said this, the three couldn't help but look back.

McGonagall, Snape, and Quirrell, three professors appeared at the end of the corridor. Seeing the situation here, Quirrell ran over directly.

It wasn't long before he came to Harry's side, took out his handkerchief to cover the wound on his head, and couldn't stop apologizing, saying it was his fault for letting the troll in.

Harry stared blankly at the scarlet liquid on his left hand; he was a bit scared.

"You really, why didn't you stay in the dormitory properly?" McGonagall said angrily. "If it weren't for good luck, you would have been killed long ago!"

"Not entirely luck, they were clearly prepared," Snape was checking the fallen troll. He said, "There are traces of various spells on the troll, of course, the one who gave it the final blow should be..."

Snape looked around at the people present, and he said softly, "Luo En Wei Silai."

"What did you say?" McGonagall was a bit surprised; in her impression, Luo En was not an excellent student.

"I believe they wanted to come and rescue Miss Granger, who was trapped in the girls' bathroom," Snape said, explaining his reasoning. "Mr. Potter cleverly used the Spark Charm to hit the troll's eyes, which made it unable to find the three people's positions. Miss Qiu used the Lightning Charm to paralyze the troll's movements, and then, Mr. Wei Silai bravely jumped onto it, used this metal pipe to strike the troll's head, successfully making it dizzy."

When he said this, none of the few people present raised any objections. Harry felt that if the professors knew that the three of them had been in a panic and hadn't succeeded, and that it was Hermione who had knocked down the troll, they would definitely be scolded by Professor McGonagall.

"It's hard to believe that a few lower-year students would challenge a troll in such a dangerous way," Snape said in a low voice. "I suggest giving them detention."

"No, I think this is the quality Gryffindor should have," McGonagall said with a smile. "I want to add three points to each of you three. But Professor Snape is right, this is really too dangerous. In the future, when encountering such a situation, remember not to rush up yourself, just shout the headmaster's name, understand?"

"And, Miss Granger," McGonagall carefully noticed the tear stains on her face. "No matter what you are sad about, at least you have three friends who are willing to confront a troll for you. I hope you can remember this."

"Look at me, silly," Quirrell took away his handkerchief stained with Harry's blood and said: "Episkey."

His wand emitted a burst of green light, and Harry immediately felt that his wound didn't hurt anymore, and the blood had stopped.

"Scourgify," he cast another spell, and now those sticky feelings were gone too.

Quirrell stuffed the handkerchief back into his robe while laughing at himself: "I even forgot I was a wizard; Harry's small injury didn't need to be so nervous."

Snape snorted, and McGonagall said to the four: "Since that's the case, you can go back, the feast is moved to the common room to continue."

"By the way, Quirrell said it was his fault for letting the troll in, what does that mean?" Hermione asked curiously.

"I don't know either," Harry touched his head from time to time; the wound disappeared too quickly, and he felt strange. "I only know that it was Quirrell who rushed in halfway through the feast and said the troll was in the dungeon."

"He looked exhausted at the time, and fainted after saying this sentence," Luo En added.

"Did divination mention Quirrell?" After the troll was knocked down by the Levitation Charm, Harry felt he believed Zhang Qiu's divination more and more.

"No," Zhang Qiu flipped through the small notebook in her hand, which was filled with square characters. "Divination only mentioned that we should be careful of a certain 'two-faced person,' and all of this is his conspiracy."

When they returned to the common room, Harry found that Neville was neither at the feast nor in the dormitory, and he felt a bit puzzled. Correspondingly, Hermione looked a bit lost; she had no mood to eat anything and went straight back to her room.

No matter how many sensitive little emotions Hermione had, Harry and Luo En were very happy. They had experienced a wonderful adventure tonight, and the ending was also very good; not only did they defeat the troll, but they also added six points to the house.

The first class the next day was Potions. Snape asked everyone to pair up to prepare potions, and Harry naturally teamed up with Luo En. Harry knew in his heart that if Luo En were to prepare potions by himself, he would definitely be deducted points by Snape.

"Well done, Potter, one point to Gryffindor," Snape floated past Harry like a bat, silent and soundless, and then he said with some displeasure: "Miss Granger, why are you alone?"

"I think I can prepare the potion alone, Professor Snape," Hermione said confidently.

"Let me see... very good, another point to Gryffindor," Snape was rarely generous for once.

Harry remembered that Hermione used to team up with Neville, but where did Neville go? Only then did he notice that Neville hadn't come to class.

After class, Harry stayed behind with some worry. He walked into Snape's office and said softly: "Professor, I don't know if you noticed..."

"Mr. Longbottom has some private matters, I allowed him to be absent once," Snape said without raising his head. "If you have to manage every student who goes missing, I'll call you 'Potterer' in the future."

Harry understood the joke, and he took the opportunity to ask: "Professor Snape, actually I hope to know more about my background, you seem to know quite a lot..."

Snape raised his head, his face very ugly.

"Go ask Professor Binsi, I'm not in charge of History class."

Harry retreated from Snape's office timidly. He felt Snape knew a lot, whether it was knowledge in class or secrets outside of class, but unfortunately, he didn't seem to intend to tell him anything.

When he returned to the dormitory, Neville happened to come back carrying a heavy package. Harry curiously asked him what it was.

Neville hugged Harry's neck and whispered to him that if he saw what was inside, he would give him half.

Harry's curiosity grew stronger, urging Neville to open the backpack quickly.

Inside was a big bag full of rock cakes.

"So, you were at Hagrid's this morning?" Harry tapped the surface of the cake lightly with a teaspoon, making a rhythmic banging sound.

"Strictly speaking, I am investigating some things," Neville said in a low voice. "I'm not sure if you are interested in knowing, because it concerns the 'painful death' on the third floor."

"I don't want you to explore that," Harry said eagerly. "Dumbledore wanted to hide it, which is why he set up very dangerous..."

"Relax, Harry, I don't want to go through life-and-death trials either," he said. "But someone is planning to."

"My god, are you saying?" Harry looked at him in surprise.

"Professor Quirrell," Neville looked very serious. "Last night, on the way back, I saw Quirrell. He wanted to enter that door at the end of the third-floor corridor, but Snape stopped him."

"If you were going back with the main group, wouldn't that be in full view of everyone?" Harry had some vague guesses in his heart.

"Ahem, actually I sent Hannah to the entrance of the Hufflepuff common room first, then walked back," Neville's explanation didn't exceed Harry's expectations at all. "I saw it on the stairs. Quirrell was standing in front of that door, Snape asked him what he was doing, he stammered that he was just checking, and then the two left."

"They should have gone to the dungeon next," Harry said. "The troll blocked Hermione in the girls' bathroom, fortunately she cleverly used a Levitation Charm to stun it. Then Quirrell and Snape came, oh and McGonagall. Quirrell kept apologizing, saying it was his fault."

"Actually, I entered that door again after they left last night," Neville said. "I didn't notice the first time, Luo En was right, the three-headed dog was indeed standing on a trapdoor. And it was very vigilant, I just took a look and came out."

Harry thought to himself, if he just took a look and came out, he shouldn't have come back so late; Neville must have tried various methods, wanting to pass through it.

"In order to figure out the habits of the three-headed dog, I went to find Hagrid this morning. He was very vigilant and told me that he would never talk to anyone about this dog," Neville said with feigned ease. "So nothing happened, we can definitely rest assured."

Harry nodded suspiciously, then packed his things and went to the library.

"Nicolas Flamel?" That night, Harry heard this strange name from Hermione.

"Yes, Neville said this has to do with an important secret, and I really want to help him," Hermione's face showed a struggle. "Harry, Qiu, I beg you, if you know anything about Nicolas Flamel, please be sure to tell me."

"Is that so... I'll keep an eye out," Harry's gaze focused on her big front teeth, while what he thought in his heart was, it seems Neville didn't come back empty-handed from Hagrid's. ===== CHAPTER 17 =====