"My name was Snape. I was born into the richest family in American Gotham City. When I was young, I witnessed Dark Wizards murder my parents. After I grew up, I put on the Bat-suit and fought against Dark Wizards.
But my childhood sweetheart, Lily Evans, the woman I had loved all my life, could not understand my great cause. She was reborn into the arms of James Potter, the shampoo tycoon. When I received their wedding invitation, I went mad. I attacked every dark wizard in a frenzy.
But Sheriff Dumbledigo awakened me and had me hide in the darkness, silently protecting this city.
Then one day, terrible news arrived. Tom, the terrifying Scarecrow, broke into the Potter family home and killed the Potters.
The person I loved became a cold tombstone. I frantically demanded to know why Dumbledigo had failed to protect them.
Dumbledigo fell silent, then carried out a little girl named Harley Potter. He said they had done their best, and she was the only one left at the scene.
Looking at her eyes and face, so much like Lily's, I swore that I would protect her for the rest of my life.
But the good times did not last. Just as Harley entered school, a mad clown named Horatio Quibble suddenly appeared. He used bombs to destroy the city in a frenzy, and most importantly, he wanted Harley for his experiment.
I fought him again and again, but one day, he said he could revive Lily. The price was sacrificing Harry, and he forced me to choose.
I was in agony, but powerless. So I decided..."
Horatio brought the sleeping Snape to the fourth floor of Hogwarts, where he found Dumbledore, who had been waiting for a long time.
Seeing Snape floating in midair with a pained expression, Dumbledore asked, "What did you do to him?"
"Nothing much. I simply gave him a beautiful dream about a knight in the darkness. Now he faces two choices, though neither ending is good." Horatio smiled darkly. Shrimp and pork heart really were the tastiest combination.
Dumbledore looked at Horatio's smiling face and broke out in goosebumps. He hurriedly said, "A little revenge is enough. Don't go too far."
Horatio said he would not take Snape's life, but whether Snape would hang himself after waking up was another matter.
The scene shifted, and Harry and Ron reunited with Hermione.
Harry said to Hermione, "Sorry, we couldn't find Dumbledore or Professor McGonagall. It seemed neither of them was at Hogwarts."
Hermione played along. "It's fine. Things have stabilized on Horatio's side. The urgent question is, what should we do now?"
"I think we should stop Snape. If Snape gets the Sorcerer's Stone, Voldemort will return! He'll turn it into a school dedicated to teaching the Dark Arts!" Harry said.
"Fine. I'd like to know what your plan is." Hermione agreed cooperatively.
The three of them made a plan and prepared to return to the dormitory for the Invisibility Cloak.
In the end, they draped themselves in the Invisibility Cloak and crossed the corridor to that classroom. Harry used the flute Hagrid had given him to put Three-Headed Dog Fluffy to sleep, while Ron and Hermione took the chance to open the trapdoor it guarded.
Looking at the pitch-black hole, Ron said to Hermione, "Hermione, would you like to go down first?"
Hermione rolled her eyes at Ron. She knew Dumbledore and Horatio were guarding them from the shadows, so she nodded and leapt into the hole.
Cold, damp air whistled past her ears. At last, she landed on something soft.
"It's fine, you can come down now," Hermione called upward.
Hearing her, Ron and Harry jumped down after her.
"This is Devil's Snare." Harry touched the plant that had caught him, feeling its tentacle-like vines. He had seen plenty of this stuff in Horatio's greenhouse. He said to Hermione, "This thing fears fire most. Is there any way to burn it?"
At that, Hermione used her magic wand to produce a flame like a bluebell. Devil's Snare immediately retreated, revealing a stone corridor.
They reached the end of the corridor. Before them was a brightly lit room with a high vaulted ceiling. Countless winged keys fluttered through the air, and a heavy wooden door stood on the opposite side of the room.
"This is your specialty." Ron saw a row of Flying Broomsticks piled in the corner.
Harry nodded. Mounting a Flying Broomstick, he searched through hundreds of flying keys and found the most unusual one. Its wings drooped from a large silver key, as though it had once been caught and roughly shoved into a keyhole.
Harry truly was the youngest Seeker in Hogwarts history. He successfully caught it.
As the wooden door opened, they entered the second room, which held a massive chessboard.
"It looks like we have to win this game of Wizard's Chess to continue," Ron said as he looked at the pieces standing ready for battle.
Ron, Harry, and Hermione took the places of a knight, bishop, and rook respectively. In the end, under Ron's command and with his sacrifice, Harry and Hermione successfully checkmated the opposing white pieces.
"He's fine. He was just knocked unconscious." Hermione checked Ron, who had been taken by the White Queen.
Harry and Hermione then entered the next room. This was originally where Quirrell's troll had been placed, but since Horatio had already dealt with Quirrell, it had been replaced with Horatio's Alchemical Knight.
Harry successfully used the Disarming Charm to knock the greatsword from the Alchemical Knight's hand, and then they entered the next room.
The moment they crossed the threshold, purple flames burst up behind them and blocked the entrance. At the same time, black flames sprang up at the doorway ahead. They were trapped in the middle.
They found a table in the center of the room with seven bottles on it. Hermione grabbed a piece of parchment beside it and read, "Danger lies ahead, safety behind. Among us are two that can help you. Drink them, and one will lead you forward, while the other will send you back where you came from. Two contain nettle wine, three are killers waiting in line. Choose, unless you wish to remain here forever. We also provide four clues to help you choose: ..."
"Wonderful. It's a logic puzzle. Of the seven bottles, three contain poison, two contain wine, and two can help us pass through the flames." After a brief moment of thought, Hermione selected the potions that could help them cross the flames.
Holding the potion that would let him move forward, Harry said to Hermione, "Hermione, go back first. Listen to me, when you get back, first—"
Before he could finish, Hermione grabbed the potion that would let her retreat and drank it. Then she waved at Harry and passed through the purple flames.
"..."
Harry drank the potion that would let him move forward, passed through the black flames, and arrived at the next classroom.
The moment he reached the classroom door, he was blinded unconscious by a dazzling white light. He woke up shortly afterward.
Harry found himself trapped in a sealed, dark, cramped space. He was holding something in his hand. Struggling with all his strength, he finally pushed open the lid above him.
Harry stood up and discovered that he was lying inside a coffin. For some reason, his school uniform had been replaced by a Chinese-style red groom's outfit, and he was holding an embroidered shoe.
He looked around and found that he seemed to be inside an ancestral hall. A huge red "Double Happiness" character was written on the innermost wall. Beneath it stood a table laden with all kinds of offerings, with an incense burner in the center holding burning incense.
The room was filled with eerie paper effigies. They sat around several round tables, as though they were guests attending a banquet.
Beside him was another identical coffin. A pair of paper boy and girl attendants stood beside it, serving it.
Suppressing the fear in his heart, Harry walked over to the coffin and gently pushed open its lid. Inside lay a woman in red bridal clothes and a red veil. One of the embroidered shoes on her feet appeared to be missing.
Harry lowered his head and looked at the embroidered shoe in his hand. When he raised his head again, he saw a scene that made his scalp prickle. For some reason, the woman in the coffin had sat up. Her veiled head slowly turned toward him, and the paper effigies around them also slowly turned their heads with her movement.
The sight before Harry terrified him so badly that his face went pale. His vision went black, and he fainted from fright.
"What kind of challenge did you set up for Harry? Why did he suddenly faint?" Dumbledore looked speechlessly at the unconscious Harry.
"Nothing much, just a little shock from Chinese horror." Horatio also looked speechlessly at Harry. All he had to do was put that embroidered shoe on the Ghost Bride, and he could have cleared the challenge. Instead, he fainted from fright. It looked like he needed more training.
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