Sorcerer's Stone

On the way to the room in the Third Floor Corridor, Damon cast several spells in succession.

"Protego Maxima."

"Defodio."

"Odorem Abdo."

He used the strongest possible Protego to shield his entire body, then used Defodio to further enhance his concealment, and finally Odorem Abdo to erase his scent and tracks before arriving outside the room where Fluffy, the Three-Headed Dog, was kept.

"Alohomora."

Damon had no intention of concealing himself. Even if he cast it silently, could the Three-Headed Dog really fail to hear the sound of the lock opening?

Moreover, judging from the drain on his magic, the lock here had clearly been reinforced with magic. With his current mastery of Charms, he could not break through that restriction while casting silently.

"Click."

As the door opened, the stone tiles in the corridor suddenly rose and transformed into a flute, which began playing notes on its own.

Damon opened the door, quickly shut it behind him, and found Fluffy sprawled before him, asleep with its eyes closed.

The Three-Headed Dog was rated 5X in danger level. As a powerful Magical Creature, it possessed extremely strong resistance to magical spells and was very difficult to deal with, but it also had two fatal weaknesses.

1. It loved sugar—sweets could be used to draw its attention.

2. It fell asleep whenever it heard music.

As long as one grasped the second weakness, dealing with it became exceedingly easy. Otherwise, it became incredibly difficult.

Generally speaking, the larger a Magical Creature was, the stronger its resistance. That was likely why Snape had suffered at its hands.

Legend had it that a Manticore's hide could even reflect every known spell.

Looking at the sleeping mythical beast, which resembled a small mountain, Damon clicked his tongue in wonder. He was actually curious whether, if he went all out, he could defeat such a creature.

"Snort!"

Just then, the sleeping Fluffy snorted, releasing a revolting stench.

Damon waved a hand and looked at the Trapdoor pinned beneath the dog's paw, curiosity appearing on his face.

There were still three months before the trio entered the Trapdoor. The Mirror of Erised, originally meant to conceal the Sorcerer's Stone, had already fallen into his hands. How would Dumbledore arrange the Sorcerer's Stone's storage now?

He waved his wand, and the floor tiles transformed themselves into six little stone men, who "strenuously" lifted Fluffy's paw and revealed the Trapdoor in full.

Damon stepped through the Trapdoor. The stones below shifted with his footsteps into a staircase, carrying him downward step by step.

"So it had already been set up?"

Looking at the familiar Devil's Snare, Damon smiled faintly and said casually,

"Lumos."

Seeing the Devil's Snare retreat from the intense light, Damon quickly passed through and immediately withdrew his magic. This Devil's Snare was still meant to test the trio, so he could not damage it.

The view ahead was narrow, with only a single stone corridor through which one could pass.

Damon continued onward, listening to water droplets slowly trickle down the walls. A smile naturally curled across his face, until faint rustling and clinking sounds came from ahead.

At the end of the corridor was a brightly lit room with a high vaulted ceiling. Countless tiny birds, glittering like gems, flapped their wings as they flew about the room, while a heavy wooden door stood opposite them.

This was the second trial.

Those birds were actually transformed keys, and only one of them could open the heavy wooden door ahead. But Damon had other methods.

He calmly passed through the flock of key-birds without causing the slightest disturbance. When he reached the heavy wooden door, it began transforming on its own, collapsing and melting like liquid into a hollow round opening. He stepped through it.

Once Damon had passed through, the wooden door returned to its original state, as though nothing had happened.

The third trial was a giant chessboard. One had to treat oneself as a chess piece and defeat the opponent in a game of wizard's chess to pass, but for Damon—

He merely walked calmly through the chess pieces to the end of the room without alerting a single one.

Damon pushed open the door, revealing the fourth trial: a logic puzzle. From the clues written on a note atop a stone platform, one had to deduce the potion that could break through the wall of flames and the potion that would allow one to leave safely.

To avoid alerting the mechanism of the fourth trial, he swung his wand and drove it fiercely into the ground. A great deal of magic surged from within him and spread underground as he carefully probed the area.

"Finite Incantatem."

Then he crossed the threshold. The ward that should have raised flames to surround him temporarily ceased functioning.

Damon walked forward, descended the steps, and entered the final room.

There was only a stone platform in the room. As Damon approached, he saw a line of inscription carved upon it:

Not stone, not gold, only the one who crosses sees its true form.

Yet there was not the slightest trace of the Sorcerer's Stone.

The entire room contained only that solitary stone platform. Aside from that line of text, there was nothing on it.

"The fourth trial was already an intelligence game, and now this one brought out another riddle? Could Harry really solve it?"

Damon smiled. Sensing that something in the air seemed unusual, he raised his wand and said,

"Microcosmic Incantation."

A faint glow lit up his eyes, and the scene before him quietly changed. Countless red particles filled the air, unaffected or controlled by anyone.

"So it was hidden here?"

Damon looked at the irregular depression in the stone platform and realized that to obtain the Sorcerer's Stone, he likely had to gather all the particles in that spot.

Next, he made countless attempts.

The Levitation Charm, Binding Charm, Moving Charm, Cleaning Charm, Surgito—everything returned to normal.

One simple spell after another, unimaginably powerful in Damon's hands, was unleashed, yet all proved fruitless. Throughout the process, he felt as though he were competing with Dumbledore from afar.

After roughly ten minutes of trying, Damon stopped waving his wand and began to think.

Before long, he smiled freely.

Of course. Even Professor Quirrell, aided by The Dark Lord and capable of breaking into Gringotts to steal, had been unable to find the Sorcerer's Stone. With Damon's current magical attainment, he might still have a chance of winning in a duel, but in other areas, he remained somewhat behind those T1-level wizards.

Forget it.

He had originally wanted to obtain the Sorcerer's Stone early, eliminate the last sliver of uncertainty, and study whether it truly was as miraculous as the legends claimed. Since he could not get it, so be it. He would just wait for the story to end and for Dumbledore to destroy it. There was nothing to regret.

That was what Damon thought, and that was what he did. Without the slightest hesitation, he turned around and stepped onto the stairs to leave.

But at that moment, the uncontrollable red dust filling the sky suddenly trembled. Like scarlet flowing sand, it gathered in the air before rushing all at once into the irregular hole at the center of the stone platform, transforming into an exquisitely beautiful red gemstone.

Sensing the movement, Damon turned around. Looking at the breathtaking gem radiating from within the hole, he chuckled. It seemed Dumbledore was still using the same line of thought.

Only someone who wished to find the Sorcerer's Stone—to find it, but not use it—could obtain it.