Corridor

Because Tierra had intervened, Harry did not sneak into the room guarded by the Three-Headed Dog late at night. He obediently went to bed that evening and slept.

But Tierra had still underestimated Harry's knack for trouble—or Ron's terrible sense of direction.

Two weeks later, Harry and Ron, for once, followed Tierra and Hermione to the library for a study session.

Tierra continued reading Introduction to Alchemy, while Hermione borrowed a copy of Famous Transfiguration Masters in History.

Harry and Ron went to revise Potions, though after only a few minutes, the two of them started playing Wizarding Playing Cards.

Ever since Harry had answered Snape's three questions in the first lesson, he had received Snape's special attention.

Every class, Snape asked Harry questions far beyond the knowledge of a first-year wizard. Fortunately, Harry had Tierra as an external brain, and Tierra could help him answer most of them.

Naturally, he could not say the answers aloud. Snape was not deaf.

With his extraordinary understanding of the nature of magic, Tierra's command of certain everyday spells now far surpassed that of ordinary young wizards.

And after understanding the principles of alchemy, Tierra had also begun crafting some simple, temporary Magical Items.

For instance, before every lesson, he gave Harry a sheet of parchment.

That parchment was actually Tierra's Potions notebook, transfigured into a thin sheet of parchment by Tierra.

This sort of parchment could not last very long—at most an hour.

But that was enough to deal with Snape's questions.

Whenever Snape asked something, as long as it was recorded in the notebook, Harry only needed to tap the parchment for the answer to appear.

Of course, Tierra was not a Potions master. He was far inferior to Snape, who had immersed himself in Potions for decades.

So even with Tierra's notes, Harry's answers to Snape's questions were sometimes improper or incomplete, and Snape often seized on them to mock him mercilessly.

Each time, Tierra could read a trace of both affection and frustration at his lack of progress in Snape's eyes.

After Snape discovered the little help Tierra had been giving Harry, those feelings smoothly turned into the fury of being deceived.

It was the first time Tierra had seen Snape angry. He did not roar or hurl insults. Instead, he simply wore a dark, expressionless face, his sharp black eyes fixed on Tierra and Harry.

Like a cold, venomous snake, as if he could freeze Tierra's very soul.

Tierra finally understood how Neville felt.

That lesson, Snape deducted thirty points from Tierra and Harry over the matter and confiscated Tierra's Potions notes.

But Tierra was not worried during dinner that evening.

The notes he could hand to Harry Potter in class were certainly nothing important. They only contained basic Potions knowledge and some chemical procedures from Tierra's past-life experiments that he thought could be applied to brewing potions.

Even in Snape's eyes, it would only be the study notes of an ordinary, diligent, precocious student.

Tierra's real notes—his alchemical calculations and analyses of Dark Magic—were all kept in that library tens of thousands of light-years away.

Wizards their age were all at that troublesome stage of life. Tierra had no desire for some melodramatic situation where Harry, Hermione, Ron, or some other young wizard accidentally discovered that he was studying Dark Magic.

Tierra soon got back the notebook that had been taken from him. During dinner that day, he went to find Professor McGonagall and explained what had happened.

McGonagall liked Tierra, a well-behaved and sensible young wizard, immensely—especially in this matter. Tierra had also displayed extraordinary talent in Transfiguration and magic, so Professor McGonagall was naturally willing to help.

When Tierra encountered Professor McGonagall again at breakfast the next day, his Potions notebook was resting at the seat where he usually ate. With the Transfiguration having worn off, it had changed back from paper into a thick notebook.

"Very ingenious magic," McGonagall said kindly when Tierra went to thank her. "As far as I can remember, no... almost no young wizard your age has been able to use such delicate Transfiguration."

"And your notes are clearly organized and neatly structured." McGonagall smiled. "For the sake of this notebook, Gryffindor receives five points!"

As soon as McGonagall finished speaking, the Gryffindor score counter automatically rose by five points.

Although the matter had been resolved perfectly, Snape forbade Harry and Tierra from sitting together in subsequent Potions classes. Instead, he switched Tierra and Ron around.

Ron was paired with Harry, while Tierra was paired with Hermione.

That immediately exposed Harry for what he really was.

Harry had been busy with Quidditch training, and with Tierra serving as his external brain, he had become less diligent with his schoolwork. He had even started avoiding Tierra to keep from being dragged off to do homework.

Thus, Harry, who had never seriously studied Potions because he had always relied on Tierra, and Ron, who had always relied on Hermione while obsessing over Wizarding Playing Cards, became the greatest wreckers in Potions class after Neville.

Once, after Harry and Ron caused the potion in their cauldron to erupt for the second time in a single lesson, Tierra swore that for one brief moment, he saw Snape point his wand at Harry, his lips moving slightly. But in the end, Snape silently redirected it at the spilled potion remains.

Because of Snape's attitude, Harry's opinion of Snape plummeted off a cliff.

At the same time, he had no choice but to sacrifice some of his Quidditch time and follow Tierra and Hermione to the library to study.

As they walked up the stairs, Harry and Ron were passionately discussing Wizarding Playing Cards and Quidditch. Hermione was chattering endlessly to Tierra about what she had gained from studying, while Tierra silently pondered a technical problem in alchemy.

When he came back to himself, he discovered that Harry and Ron had led them to a deep, dark corridor on the fourth floor.

The corridor walls had no decorations whatsoever, only dull gray stone and cobwebs thick with dust.

Everything proclaimed the corridor's desolation, as if even the spiders did not wish to linger there.

The instant the four young wizards stepped into the corridor, clusters of flames flared up atop the stone pedestals lining both sides, illuminating an old wooden door at the far end.

"Damn it! We need to leave!" Tierra instantly realized where they were. "This is the Forbidden Corridor on the fourth floor, where we're not allowed to enter! Hurry, before Mr. Filch finds us!"

Tierra grabbed Harry and turned to head back.

But a translucent, short, fat, ugly ghost suddenly appeared before him.

"Hehehehe! Come quickly, Mr. Filch! Come quickly! More young wizards have broken into the Forbidden Corridor!"

As Peeves shouted, he casually shut the door leading out of the corridor.

"Alohomora!" Hermione immediately drew her wand and pointed it at the doorway.

But whatever magic Peeves had cast on the door, the wooden door did not budge.

"Bombarda!" Tierra also drew his wand at the same time. Unlike Hermione, he was not so refined; he directly used the most powerful spell he had mastered so far.

Unfortunately, the wooden door merely shook and developed a thin crack. Just as Tierra was about to put more force into it, the door suddenly swung open.

An old cat with blood-red eyes and mottled fur appeared elegantly in the doorway.