Guidance

Will Quirrell try to create Philosopher's Stone? It would be really interesting if Quirrell actually did.

The recipe for the Philosopher's Stone had been circulating in the Wizarding World for a long time. Most wizards who had studied alchemy knew of its existence, but whether the recipe was real or fake, no one knew.

Albert believed the recipe for the Philosopher's Stone was fake.

After all, there is no second Philosopher's Stone in this world.

Quirrell has no experience with alchemy, so he probably won't be able to figure out the authenticity of the Philosopher's Stone recipe right away. It's unclear when he'll fully realize it.

Was it after his failed attempt to forge the Philosopher's Stone? Or was it after Voldemort learned of it and gave him a profound reminder? Or was Quirrell simply at a loss, not knowing where to begin?

Albert thought the third possibility was more likely: Quirrell had no experience with alchemy and was probably completely clueless.

Although Albert hoped Quirrell would spend time creating the Philosopher's Stone, he suddenly realized that he had spent a lot of time and money and ended up with a useless stone.

However, how this matter will turn out is beyond his control.

Next, Albert will approach Hermione and give her another translated copy of the Philosopher's Stone formula, guiding them to find information on Nicolas Flamel. Since Harry Potter will eventually find out about Nicolas Flamel anyway, it's better to use it to do him a favor.

"You're saying what's written on this parchment is fake?" Hermione asked doubtfully.

"If you look up what the Philosopher's Stone is, you'll understand why I said it's fake," Albert said mysteriously.

At this moment, Ron came to Hermione with the Wizard's Chess. Hermione herself had hardly ever played a game of Wizard's Chess, so she suggested that they switch to Wizard Card instead.

Unfortunately, Ron himself wasn't very good at playing Wizard Card and didn't have his own deck, so he naturally didn't want to Wizard Card. Seeing Hermione looking at the contents of the parchment, he gave up on his plan to play chess with her and instead invited Albert to play Wizard's Chess.

Albert, who was scooping up his own cat, thought about it and agreed. It would help pass the time after dinner and also be a good opportunity to test Ron's Wizard's Chess skills.

After all, he planned to try out Professor McGonagall's chessboard another day.

The two had only gone halfway down when they saw Harry hurriedly return to the Common Room.

"You don't look too good. Did you catch a cold from being in the rain?" Hermione was watching the two play chess, looked up at Harry as he approached and asked with concern.

"He probably wants to tell you that Snape is going to be a referee!" Albert directed the Queen to eat Ron's knight, beating Harry to the punch, and told Ron and Hermione the bad news.

Harry felt a tightness in his chest when someone else said it first.

"Oh my god, this is not fair. How could Snape be qualified to be a referee? Everyone knows he hates Gryffindor students." Ron looked at Harry incredulously, wanting to hear the truth from Harry himself.

"It's true, Wood just told me," Harry said dejectedly. "Snape will be off the field as referee for the Hufflepuff Team game."

"Don't participate in the competition," Hermione said immediately.

"Just say you're sick," Ron said. "If that doesn't work, break your leg."

"Don't be nervous, Snape isn't as scary as you think." Albert looked at the two who were giving him bad advice with a speechless expression. It sounded like Potter was facing a terrible monster. "And Ron, if you don't take the game seriously, you're going to lose."

Ron's Wizard's Chess skills are quite good, at least better than most people Albert knows, which explains why he was able to beat Professor McGonagall's game.

"Oh no, we've already lost!"

Ron stared at the chessboard for a long time, and was frustrated to find that after his knight was eliminated, the whole game was completely at a disadvantage, and the last chance to turn the tide was completely gone.

Just then, a chubby-faced boy stumbled into the Common Room. His legs were stuck together tightly, clearly under Leg-Locker Curse.

Everyone laughed when they saw the boy's disheveled appearance, Hermione immediately stepped forward to break the curse on him.

"What happened, Neville?" Harry asked.

"Malfoy," Neville's voice trembled slightly, "I ran into him outside the library. He was looking for people to practice the Leg-Locker Curse on."

"Go find Professor McGonagall!" Hermione suggested. "Tell him about it!"

"I don't want to cause any more trouble," Neville shook his head and mumbled indistinctly.

"If you show cowardice, others will only bully you more." Albert frowned slightly. This wasn't the first time he had encountered school bullying. Weakness would only lead to being bullied.

"What should I do?" Neville asked, his voice choked with emotion.

"You should practice your Charms properly. If Malfoy dares to cast a spell on you next time, you can use that as an excuse to teach him a lesson," Albert suggested, squinting his eyes. "If that doesn't work, just punch him unexpectedly. Once you knock his wand out of his hand, he'll be no different from Muggle."

"Yes, that's a great idea!" Harry agreed with Albert.

"I can't do it," Neville said sadly. "I don't like fighting."

"But others will bully you." Ron disliked Neville's personality. "You're too cowardly."

"Isn't there any way to help him?" Hermione asked Albert.

"That requires courage from him," Albert said, stroking Tom's fur.

"I know I'm a coward," Neville said, choking back tears. "Malfoy said I didn't deserve to be in Gryffindor."

"Alright, don't be sad. At least the Sorting Hat assigned you to Gryffindor, which means you're not lacking in courage." Albert pulled out a candy and handed it to Neville.

"Thank you." Neville unwrapped the candy and put it in his mouth.

"If you don't want to be bullied, you should muster up your courage," Albert told Neville. "Helping up your courage isn't as difficult as you think. If someone wants to bully the person most important to you, would you just stand by and watch?"

Neville's face turned ashen, and he clenched his fists as he silently walked toward the Boys' Dormitory.

"Neville is too cowardly," Ron said, shaking his head.

"He just lacks the courage to take the first step." Albert left with his cat.

"What's that in your hand?" Ron asked curiously, looking at the parchment Hermione was holding.

"This is Albert just gave me. Do you remember the parchment we found at the treasure last time?" Hermione explained.

"Oh, it's that really bad Treasure Map!" Ron couldn't help but complain. "What's written on it?"

"This is the recipe for the Philosopher's Stone," Hermione said after a moment's hesitation. "Albert said the recipe is fake."

"Fake?"

Harry lost most of his interest in the parchment as soon as he heard that the recipe was fake.

"How could he know it was fake?" Ron raised an eyebrow.

"He didn't say, he told me to look up what the Philosopher's Stone is myself, and then I'd know why this parchment is fake." Hermione planned to find out what the Philosopher's Stone actually was when she had some free time.