He already knew?

In the Gryffindor common room, only the crackling of the furnace fire could be heard.

Then, this silence was broken by Ron's dreamlike exclamation.

"Immortality... and the ability to create gold..."

"So," Hermione's voice was a little sharp with excitement, and she spoke rapidly like a lawyer delivering a closing argument, "that three-headed dog Fluffy on the fourth floor isn't guarding some ordinary secret! It's guarding the Magic Stone!"

"Snape!" Harry's head shot up, a glint in his eyes. "He tried to sneak in during the Quidditch match, that's why Fluffy bit his leg! He's trying to steal the Magic Stone!"

"Exactly!" Ron slapped his thigh. "He must want to steal the Stone for himself! Or sell it to someone else! Good heavens, how many Gold Galleons would that be worth!"

"It's not just about money, Ron!" Hermione corrected him sternly. "It's about immortality! Think about it, if a Dark Wizard like Voldemort got hold of the Magic Stone, what a terrible disaster that would be! He would never be defeated!"

On the faces of the trio, there was a simultaneous expression of fear, excitement, and a sense of mission, as if they had uncovered a monumental secret. In their eleven-year-old minds, the logical chain of the entire event was now perfectly clear and unshakeable:

Evil Professor Snape → Attempting to steal the Magic Stone → Becoming immensely wealthy or an immortal demon king → Harry Potter and his friends must stop him!

This was a perfect deduction, fitting every hero story template.

"No wonder Snape wants it so badly!" Ron exclaimed in realization. "With it, he could become richer than Dumbledore and live forever!"

"We have to go to the library! Find out everything about the Magic Stone!" Hermione immediately entered her "bookworm mode," her face full of fighting spirit.

Like three secret agents who had discovered an earth-shattering secret, they immediately set off, rushing towards the sanctuary of knowledge.

When Hermione, relying on her astonishing eidetic memory, precisely located books related to "Alchemy," "Nicolas Flamel," and "Magic Stone" within the vast sea of the library's collection.

She discovered an extremely bizarre coincidence.

The book she was currently flipping through, the Directory of Important Alchemists of the 20th Century, had a very faint, almost invisible crease on its cover.

And she clearly remembered that on a Wednesday in the week before Halloween, over a month ago, she had personally seen Lin Yuan sitting in this very spot, flipping through this book with his characteristic, impossibly fast speed.

And then there was the Theory of Equivalent Exchange, with a small ink-stained mark on the corner of its pages.

She also remembered that Lin Yuan had piled that book on his desk for an entire afternoon.

And... and Hermes' Secret, that rare, almost forgotten copy hidden in the deepest part of the Ancient Runes section...

Hermione's footsteps halted.

Her breathing became rapid.

A bold, even absurd, guess struck her mind like a bolt of black lightning.

She slowly, almost stiffly, turned her head to look at the quiet corner not far away.

Lin Yuan was sitting there.

Sunlight streamed through the stained-glass windows, casting colorful shadows upon him. In his hands, he held a forbidden book about the "Essence of the Soul," far more ancient and profound than any book she was currently examining.

He seemed isolated from the world around him, immersed in his own universe.

Harry and Ron were still excitedly discussing the fragments they had found.

But Hermione felt as if all the blood in her body had frozen instantly.

He wasn't... reading randomly, without purpose.

He wasn't... passively following clues like herself.

He...

Hermione's lips trembled slightly.

A thought, which filled her with immense fear yet absolute certainty, surfaced in her mind.

"He... already knew all of this a month ago. He knew about Nicolas Flamel, about the Magic Stone, about the secrets hidden in the castle... He knew everything."

"We're like three fools, ecstatic about finding a few clues. And he... he was already at the finish line, calmly watching us, as if watching a play... whose script had already been written."

"Who... is he?"

Hermione Granger, the smartest lioness of Gryffindor, proud of her intelligence and erudition, stood frozen in place, clutching the book that held the "truth."

She looked at the quiet figure in the distance, and in those intelligent, confident eyes, for the first time, there was a deep reverence and confusion born of facing the unknown.

Spring had arrived at Hogwarts without a sound. The snow at the edge of the Forbidden Forest began to melt, revealing damp black earth, and the air was filled with the scent of grass and young buds. The atmosphere in the castle also became lighter with the warming weather.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione's surveillance of Snape had not gone smoothly. Snape was as slippery as a viper, his movements secretive, and they could hardly find any useful clues.

This afternoon, they decided to visit Hagrid's hut to change their mood. Perhaps they could also coax some methods for dealing with Fluffy from Hagrid.

Hermione, with a mixture of excitement and nervousness, found Lin Yuan in the library, who was analyzing the spatial folding model in the Advanced Transfiguration Guide.

"Ryan," she lowered her voice, her brown eyes sparkling with a secret light, "we're planning to visit Hagrid's hut, would you like to... come along?"

Lin Yuan's gaze shifted from the Advanced Transfiguration Guide before him. He glanced at the slightly hesitant Hermione and nodded.

However, when they arrived at the hut, they found it unusually strange today.

Despite the warm weather, Hagrid had drawn all the curtains tightly shut, and thick smoke billowed from the chimney, as if a grand barbecue party was underway inside.

"Hagrid?" Harry knocked on the door.

After a long moment, the door opened a crack.

Hagrid poked his shaggy head out, looked around cautiously, then quickly ushered them inside before slamming the door shut with a "bang."

The cabin was as hot as a sauna. The fire in the fireplace burned fiercely, with a large kettle hanging over it.

"What brings you two here?" Hagrid seemed a little nervous, constantly wiping sweat with his large handkerchief.

"We just came to see you," Hermione said, looking around curiously. "Hagrid, why are you making such a big fire when it's so hot?"

"Uh... it's nothing... I just... feel a bit cold." Hagrid stammered, his eyes avoiding theirs.

Harry keenly noticed that Hagrid's gaze kept drifting involuntarily towards the fireplace.

He followed Hagrid's gaze. In the center of the fireplace flames, there seemed to be something. It wasn't firewood, nor was it the kettle. It was a huge, entirely black object, its surface as smooth as a river stone.

"Hagrid, what is that?" Harry asked, pointing at the fireplace.

Hagrid's face turned bright red. He stammered for a long time, and finally, under the intense gaze of the three of them, he gave up resisting.

"Alright... alright... I'll tell you," he lowered his voice, as if announcing a huge secret. "But you absolutely cannot tell anyone!"

He carefully used a piece of fireproof cloth to take the black object out of the flames and placed it on the table.

It was an egg. A huge egg, as beautiful as obsidian.

The eggshell was covered in fine, web-like cracks. Deep within each crack, magma seemed to flow, emitting a dim red light that flickered on and off.