The Secret of the Sorcerer's Stone

That evening, in the Gryffindor common room.

Harry sat beside a candlestick, staring at it and letting out a silly chuckle from time to time. He looked so foolish that no one wanted to sit with him.

Loren was playing Wizard's Chess against Ron using Seamus's pieces. He glanced at Harry. "How long has he been like this?"

Ron sighed and said helplessly, "Ever since he said goodbye to his Godfather, he's been like this."

"I have a Godfather, hehehe!" Harry muttered foolishly.

He came out with a line like that every so often. The other two had already grown used to it.

"He didn't even attend training this afternoon, but Wood and the others were pretty happy. The team will have two Nimbus 2000s."

Ron pushed one of his Castle Chess Pieces forward and added, "The broom Professor McGonagall bought is still on its way. The Nimbus 2000 he got today was from his Godfather. He paid extra to have it delivered early."

At that, Ron suddenly sighed enviously. "Sirius Black is the heir to a Pure-blood Family."

"Aren't you from a Pure-blood Family too?" Loren said with a smile.

Ron felt that Loren was mocking him, so he did not continue the topic. He advanced his Knight Chess Piece and snarled, "Checkmate!"

Loren wanted to sacrifice his Queen Chess Piece, but it refused to follow his orders. "Don't send me over there! Can't you see the Knight Chess Piece beside me? Send him to his death. It doesn't matter if he gets sacrificed!"

Then the two pieces started fighting. Scenes like this were nothing unusual. Loren was terrible at chess, and these were not even his pieces, so they always ended up arguing.

Loren stopped paying attention to the board and looked at Harry. "Now that he has a Godfather, at least we won't have to worry about him staring stupidly at the mirror all day."

Ron sighed. "This isn't much better, is it?"

Harry suddenly stood up and said excitedly, "I have to tell Mum and Dad!" Then he slipped out of the common room.

Loren and Ron immediately grew worried.

"He'll get better after a while, right?" Loren was not entirely sure himself.

"He'd better!"

Watching Harry leave, Loren remembered that tomorrow was September 19. He still had something to do.

"I'm heading out for a bit!" With that, he dashed out.

He made his way to the Hufflepuff basement and went down the Staircase. Even though the feast had long ended, the stone underground corridor remained brightly lit.

Loren stopped before a painting of a bowl of fruit and reached out to lightly tickle a Pear in the picture. The Pear revealed a crudely drawn face and giggled before turning into a Green Door Handle.

Pushing open the door, he found himself in an enormous Kitchen. It had been cleaned, and all kinds of plates and cookware were neatly arranged.

Loren did not see anyone, so he continued forward. The fire in the fireplace still burned brightly, and the logs crackled from time to time.

"Honored young wizard, is there anything I can help you with?"

A high-pitched, somewhat shrill voice sounded behind Loren.

It was even smaller than Loren, barely over two feet tall. Its thin arms and feet were attached to a frail body, while its head was enormous, with a pair of Bat-like ears.

No wonder Hermione wanted to establish the Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare. It looked so pitiful.

But the House-elf did not seem aware of that. Its eyes stared straight at Loren with anticipation, waiting for some kind of answer from him.

Loren composed himself. "I'd like to order a cake for tomorrow. An Avalanche Strawberry Cake."

The House-elf cried out in delight, "An Avalanche Strawberry Cake! Of course! We'll make it immediately and deliver it to you as soon as it's ready!"

Before Loren could reply, the House-elf shouted shrilly at the surroundings, "Did you hear that? An Avalanche Strawberry Cake!"

More than a dozen elves rustled out from nearby. The scene was too strange, and Loren hurriedly stopped them. "Not now. Tomorrow. I'll come pick it up after dinner tomorrow."

With that, Loren quickly fled. He did not want to stay in that scene for even one second longer.

Only once he was in the corridor did Loren realize that he had not asked the House-elf's name or told it his own. Still, he was not too worried. He could just ask around in the Kitchen when he came tomorrow.

When he returned to the common room, Ron and Seamus were playing chess. Although the pieces obeyed Seamus's commands, Ron was still crushing him, gradually swallowing up his forces.

Harry had already returned. He was still staring at the candlestick, looking lost and forlorn.

Loren walked over and sat down, nodding toward Harry as he asked the two of them, "What's wrong with him now?"

"Checkmate!" Ron moved a piece. "We don't know either. He only got back a little while ago."

When the match ended, Ron and Seamus began gathering the pieces and setting up the board again.

Loren walked over to Harry and waved his hand back and forth in front of his eyes. "Hey! Professor Snape is calling for you!"

Harry visibly shuddered all over, then realized that he was in the Gryffindor common room and looked at Loren reproachfully.

"What happened?"

Harry let out a long sigh. "I saw Headmaster Dumbledore in front of the mirror."

"And then?" Loren had thought Dumbledore was going to leave him alone, but it seemed he had still come personally to offer some comforting words.

"Then Dumbledore said he was going to put the mirror away." Harry sounded regretful.

Loren knew that, aside from worrying about Harry's mental health, Dumbledore also needed the Mirror of Erised for the final stage of the Sorcerer's Stone trial.

Loren changed the subject. "Did your Godfather tell you what happened to your parents back then?"

Harry's shoulders slumped. "He told me, but I still don't know how I'm supposed to deal with it."

"I'm angry at Peter Pettigrew's betrayal. I hate him, but he's already in Azkaban."

"This was all Voldemort's fault, and Voldemort is already dead too."

"I miss my parents, and I'm also happy that I have a Godfather who cares about me."

Harry slowly voiced those thoughts. He had just said them to Dumbledore, and saying them again was for Loren, but also for himself.

Loren did not say anything more. Harry had always been preoccupied with his parents. In the original story, Sirius Black had not been able to stay by his side for long either. Harry grew up while losing people. Everyone saw him as a hero, but no one saw that he was still only a child.

"Don't overthink it. Look forward to this instead—you won't have to go back to the Dursley house during the holidays."

At those words, Harry's face lit up.

In the Library of the Fantasy Book.

"Flamel, I want to ask you something about the Sorcerer's Stone." Loren did not begin that day's lesson immediately.

"Of course. That is my duty!" Flamel drifted over.

"Can the Sorcerer's Stone cure a Werewolf?" Dumbledore wanted to write to Nicol to ask, but there was a Nicol right here. Why not be more direct?

"The answer is, I'm not sure." Flamel began explaining the reasons to Loren.

The Sorcerer's Stone was also known as the Philosopher's Stone and contained immense Magic Power. If that power could be fully utilized, any magic could be achieved. There were even legends in the Muggle world that the Sorcerer's Stone could grant wishes. Those legends were not entirely without basis.

But no one could completely control that power. Most of the time, the effects of a Sorcerer's Stone depended on the thoughts of its creator.

The mainstream belief was that the Sorcerer's Stone could turn stone into gold and brew the Elixir to Induce Euphoria. Nicol had also been influenced by that belief, so his Sorcerer's Stone had those two functions. Only after countless years of exploration did Nicol understand his original mistake, but by then it could no longer be undone.

Helping Loren avoid some detours was precisely why Flamel existed.

As for what Loren had wondered about—Voldemort using the Sorcerer's Stone to restore his body.

Flamel believed that Voldemort had also been unable to control the Sorcerer's Stone's immense Magic Power. He had merely treated it as a powerful source of magic and used its power in a magical ritual to reshape his body.

Any powerful source of magic would do; it did not necessarily have to be the Sorcerer's Stone. But in the modern wizarding world, there was no source of Magic Power stronger than the Sorcerer's Stone.

If Loren could find magic capable of reversing lycanthropy, using the Sorcerer's Stone as a source of Magic Power would work as well. But according to Flamel, Nicol had not heard of such magic for at least several centuries.

Loren felt somewhat disappointed and asked whether there was any other way.

Flamel gave him an answer. "You can first obtain the identity of a Sorcerer's Stone creator. Use Nicol's Sorcerer's Stone with conviction, and perhaps you can achieve your goal."

"How do I obtain it?"

"Redeem a despairing soul."