"What's wrong with Ron?"
Harry hurried into the Great Hall. Seeing Ron's dejected face beside Hermione, he asked her what had happened and why Ron looked so devastated.
"Him? He got eliminated from the Wizard Cards Competition just now."
Hermione managed not to laugh as she briefly told Harry how Ron had entered the Wizard Cards qualifiers, only to be effortlessly defeated by his opponent almost immediately.
Ron was truly terrible at Wizard Cards. His opponent had utterly crushed him, and now he had completely shut down.
"Shut up, thanks."
Ron glared at Hermione irritably. Being easily beaten three times in a row had indeed dealt a considerable blow to his confidence.
"You can count the total number of times you've played Wizard Cards on both hands. What made you think you could beat students who play it all the time?" Ron's thinking amused Hermione. It was simply wishful thinking.
"Wizard Cards and Wizard's Chess are both games that require thinking..." Ron tried to say something else, but Harry cut him off.
"Enough. I need to tell you something."
Harry led the two out of the noisy Great Hall and stopped in an empty corridor, where he told Hermione and Ron about what he had accidentally come across earlier.
When they heard Harry say that Snape had been forcing Quirrell in a classroom to reveal how to get past the defenses protecting the Philosopher's Stone, Hermione and Ron both looked uneasy.
"Are you sure?"
"Did Professor Quirrell really give in?" Hermione asked quietly.
"Apparently not yet, but I don't know how much longer Professor Quirrell can hold out." Harry's face was filled with deep concern. "Maybe we should do something to stop this."
"But... there's nothing we can do." Hermione frowned more deeply, seemingly considering how to handle the matter.