"Actually, it was nothing much. You know, the things I'd been busy with all last school year—refining the Philosopher's Stone and so on," Hermione said. "The Philosopher's Stone Tierra used for his Godhood Ascension Ritual was stolen from Nicolas Flamel. He felt terribly guilty about it, so he decided to return a Philosopher's Stone to Mr. Flamel."
"Wait, the Philosopher's Stone? What do you mean Tierra stole it?" Hermione's words immediately made Harry realize something was wrong.
"Um... it means exactly what it says," Hermione said awkwardly.
After all, theft was an unforgivable mistake no matter who committed it.
But considering Tierra's complicated identity, Hermione found it difficult to say much.
"So the Philosopher's Stone we fought tooth and nail to protect in our first year was actually fake?" Harry asked again. "And Tierra never even told me!"
"That's way too much!" Ron chimed in from the side.
"So now that Tierra had the ability, he wanted to make up for his mistake by refining another Philosopher's Stone and returning it to Nicolas Flamel," Hermione said.
"Ahem, back to the point, back to the point," Hermione said. "This is the hidden mission of our trip around Europe: delivering the Philosopher's Stone back to Nicolas Flamel."
"Why didn't Tierra go himself?" Harry asked in confusion. "The distance from Hogwarts to Paris isn't any farther to him than going downstairs."
"Well..." Hermione said with a troubled expression. "There are a few reasons. First, as you know, ever since last summer vacation, when Tierra forced the European countries to sign the Unequal Treaty, Nicolas Flamel hasn't been too willing to deal with Tierra."
"Tierra asked us to return the Philosopher's Stone to Nicolas Flamel because he hoped we could act as intermediaries, or a buffer, and ease the tension between them," Hermione explained