Harry hadn't meant to leave her out this time. It was just that Voldemort had made the whole scene look like a zombie outbreak, and Harry genuinely worried that after seeing it, Hermione would have nightmares for nights on end.
After all, speaking of doting on his wife... No, he hadn't said anything~
The heat in June and July was enough to make anyone irritable. Add the disaster known as exams, and Hogwarts was practically awash with wailing and misery.
Of course, that certainly didn't include Harry and Hermione. After all, everyone knew that for top students, every exam was a celebration~
There was just one thing Harry had to complain about.
Watching an owl carrying a letter flap through the window and into the Headmaster's Office, Harry could only manage a dry, incredulous smile...
What on earth was Voldemort thinking?
If he was so "awesome" that he could trick Dumbledore into leaving Hogwarts with just a letter, why wait until after exams to make his move?
If he really wanted to get the Sorcerer's Stone without a hitch, why not strike during the day, while everyone was taking their exams?
With Dumbledore gone and all the Heads of House who'd set up the obstacles busy invigilating, no one would be around to interfere with him. Wouldn't that give him a better chance of success?
All these questions were finally answered when Harry "happened" to run into Quirrell in the corridor, his front teeth conspicuously missing.
"Harley Potter... How's the scar on your forehead been lately?"
He grinned maliciously, making no attempt to hide the gap where Harry's brick had knocked out his front teeth.
At that very moment, Harry could practically see four big words on Quirrell's forehead: I'M ABOUT TO TURN!
So... Voldemort was going to stop pretending and go all out?!
"Thanks to you, my scar's been hurting a little, but it won't affect how I do on my exams. And it certainly won't get in the way of a fight!"
Tch. Showing off, mouthing off... As if Harry couldn't do that too~
"Good... Then let me leave you with one last warning, Harley Potter." Quirrell leaned in, and the stench of decay rushed straight into Harry's nose. "Snape may not be trustworthy. The potions he makes could be antidotes... or they could just as easily be deadly poison!"
After leaving him with that cryptic remark, Quirrell carefully straightened his turban, turned, and strode off.
But Harry caught sight of the wand pressed against his arm, seemingly exposed for Harry to see on purpose!
In that instant, Harry understood a great many things.
"Harry..." Hermione stepped forward and grabbed his hand, her voice trembling. "Quirrell... No, I mean Voldemort... Why would he reveal his identity?"
"He's going to kill me. And take everyone else down with me." Harry answered calmly, as though he were describing some trivial matter that had nothing to do with him.
Hermione's grip tightened at once.
Harry was now almost certain that Voldemort, like him, had figured out that the Sorcerer's Stone wasn't at Hogwarts.
And the reason Voldemort had still chosen to follow the original story's course of events was entirely because of Harry.
The wand Quirrell had deliberately exposed had made his murderous intent perfectly clear!
After all... whether a wizard had a wand in hand could sometimes make the difference between night and day!
Now that Quirrell-Voldemort had brought out his wand, he might very well fire an Avada Kedavra at Harry, just as he had on that night eleven years ago!
If he couldn't get the Sorcerer's Stone, he'd simply kill the Boy Who Lived instead... A very scientific villain plot~
The reason he'd chosen to confront Harry as soon as Dumbledore left was to force him into a direct, decisive battle, while also preventing him from asking any of the professors for help!
Because at that moment, everyone on the entire school grounds had effectively become his hostage.
Ron, Neville, McGonagall, Filch, Flitwick, Hagrid, Snape...
And Hermione!
If Harry dared reveal his presence, then before the professors—or Dumbledore, returning in a surprise attack—could beat him into oblivion, Voldemort would launch a massacre, taking a whole lot of people with him!
By then, all of Hogwarts would be turned into a living hell!!
"Come on, Hermione. Let's get ready in the Room of Requirement. Tonight... we're going through the Trapdoor!!"
Harry didn't try to comfort Hermione, who was trembling all over. Instead, he kept hold of her cold hand as they made their way up to the seventh floor.
The Room of Requirement held everything Harry had acquired since arriving at Hogwarts. It also held some of his and Hermione's happiest memories from the second half of their first year.
Harry carefully sorted through everything and sealed all the things they needed inside the Space Ring.
The flute Hagrid had given him at Christmas; it could be used against Fluffy.
Snape had given him all sorts of potions and ingredients earlier, and they might come in handy too.
Then there was the Invisibility Cloak. Since Harry himself had no regard for the rule against wandering around at night, it had unexpectedly seen little use. It had only helped him pull off one ambush in the Forbidden Forest...
After gathering his thoughts, Harry turned to Norbert, the Norwegian Ridgeback, who was now more than four meters long from head to tail.
"Reducio!!"
Dragons had powerful resistance to magic, but Norbert was still young, and he wasn't actively resisting Harry's magic. Under the full force of the spell, his body quickly shrank to the size of a palm, like a finely crafted baby-dragon figurine.
"Sleep in my pocket for now. I'll wake you if I need you."
Harry gently rubbed Norbert's back, and the little dragon obediently curled into a ball before nestling into Harry's robe pocket and falling asleep.
"Hermione, let me fix your hair."
Harry changed the Room of Requirement's appearance and gave Hermione what was likely to be her last hair treatment of the school year. Then he took her with him to stand before the Mirror of Erised.
They stood side by side, looking at the reflection in the mirror.
"Harry, what do you see in the mirror right now?" Hermione asked softly.
Harry thought highly of this mirror. Hermione had never asked him why, but at that moment, she wanted to know what he saw in it.
And... whether it was the same thing she saw.
"Us." Harry turned and gazed seriously into Hermione's eyes. "What about you?"
"Us." Hermione smiled faintly. To Harry, her smile was like a glimmer of light illuminating the darkness.
Hand in hand, they draped the Invisibility Cloak over themselves. The door to the Room of Requirement... slowly opened.
Outside, Snape stood motionless like a statue, his dull eyes fixed on the empty space before him.
"..." The two who'd been about to leave froze in shock.
"Be careful."
But Snape only left them with a remark that sounded almost emotionless, then swept away.
"We will!" came a firm whisper from beneath the Invisibility Cloak!
(P.S. A little personal analysis to add at the end of the chapter: Why didn't the protagonist go ask Dumbledore for help after Voldemort threatened to turn on him? Because Dumbledore really wasn't there. In Sanmiao's version, the Dark Lord isn't an idiot, and Dumbledore knows that too. So Dumbledore really had to leave before Voldemort would act. But in this story, the time it would take to go there and back would be enough for Voldemort to go on a killing spree. To keep everyone else at the school safe, the protagonist didn't dare make a move and could only face him.
Also, from the original story's perspective, when did Dumbledore return? Sanmiao personally thinks it was after Harry and Hermione passed Snape's obstacle, with Snape sending Dumbledore a message to come back and save the day. After all, Snape "just happened" to pass by when the original trio were discussing their nighttime adventure. And when it came to Voldemort, the only person Dumbledore could trust was Snape, his double agent.
One last little complaint: the original Sorcerer's Stone story really was a fairy tale. How could they let a ticking time bomb like Quirrell-Voldemort wander around the school? Weren't they worried he'd give up looking for the Sorcerer's Stone and instead take advantage of his immortal soul to trade his life for Harry's?
Just imagine it: During a Defense Against the Dark Arts Class, Quirrell pulls out his wand and goes on a killing spree, killing Harry and slaughtering a bunch of students along the way. Before he dies, he uses Snape's Death Eater Mark to cast Morsmordre. Then...
Hogwarts is shut down, Dumbledore is put on trial, the Boy Who Lived is dead, and the Dark Lord reigns supreme. The Death Eaters roar their approval... and HP comes to a happy ending with fireworks!
That's all~)
You Always Think of Someone When Facing the Obstacles
Fourth floor of Hogwarts Castle, outside the secret room.
Harry and Hermione took off the Invisibility Cloak. Since they'd made it here, there was no need to hide anymore.
"I'll open the door first..."
"Wait!"
Seeing that the door was firmly locked, Hermione immediately drew her wand to unlock it, but Harry stopped her.
He approached the door and kicked it hard twice. A furious barking erupted from inside.
As expected, Fluffy was awake.
Unlike in the original story, which looked tense but was really just child's play, Voldemort was now dead set on killing Harry. He wasn't going to kindly help him get past any of the obstacles!
With that in mind, Harry took out the flute Hagrid had given him and began playing through the crack beneath the door.
Before long, his superhuman hearing picked up Fluffy's snores.
"Alohomora!"
Hermione unlocked the door with a spell. Inside, they found the sleeping three-headed dog and a harp that had stopped playing.
The two of them began moving Fluffy's enormous paws. After enduring a good while of its "bad-breath blasts," they finally lifted the Trapdoor and cleared the way forward.
"Harry, your left hand..."
Hermione looked curiously at Harry, who was playing the flute with his right hand while holding up one of Fluffy's paws with his left. Ever since his trip to the Forbidden Forest, the strength in that hand seemed a little off.
Could a three-headed dog's paw really be that easy to lift?
But they were in the middle of getting through the obstacles, so she didn't think any more of it for now.
"Hermione, keep playing the flute. I'll go down and check things out." Harry handed her the flute, then leaped down through the Trapdoor.
"Harry..." It was pitch-black below the Trapdoor, and Hermione couldn't see a thing. But if the flute stopped, Fluffy would wake up at once, so she had no choice but to keep playing while anxiously waiting for Harry to answer.
"Jump down, and use Lumos Solem at full power as you fall!"
A moment later, Hermione heard Harry call out. Without a second thought, she jumped into the dark pit.
"Lumos Solem!!"
As she plummeted through the air, a dazzling light burst from the tip of Hermione's wand, illuminating the entire dark underground chamber!
In the light, Hermione spotted a mass of terrifying, tentacle-like vines. They had been wrapped tightly around Harry, but recoiled like a tide when the light hit them. Not only did they release Harry, they also cleared the way forward.
Before she could adjust her position in midair, she found herself in a warm embrace.
"Nice teamwork~" Harry said with a grin, holding Hermione in his arms.
His left hand was pretty strong too. Otherwise, with his body's original strength, catching Hermione as she fell from that height in a bridal carry would've been quite a stretch.
"Devil's Snare... So this was Professor Sprout's obstacle~" Hermione jumped down from Harry's arms. Only after looking around did she realize that the plant that had caught him was one they'd studied in Herbology.
But Harry was reminded of what had happened in the Forbidden Forest. The vines Quirrell had summoned to restrain him had seemed to be Devil's Snare too.
So... was that a coincidence?
The two continued down the corridor and soon reached the next brightly lit room.
The ceiling was high, and countless colorful birds flew cheerfully around the room, much like the pigeons at Trafalgar Square after they'd had their fill.
But when Harry and Hermione took a closer look, they realized these weren't birds at all. They were winged keys!
"The lock won't open. Professor Flitwick must have done this!" Hermione pointed to the Flying Broomsticks in one corner of the room. "Looks like we'll have to find the one right key among all those flying around, just like a Seeker in a Quidditch Match~"
The corners of her mouth lifted slightly. Her eyelashes fluttered gently along with her eyes, sending the light of her amusement toward Harry.
Hey, you little brat. Let's see how you hide your talent from your big sister this time~
Hermione wasn't particularly interested in Quidditch, since she wasn't good at riding a Flying Broomstick. But after discovering someone's "family tradition" in the Trophy Room, she'd really wanted to see him play in a Quidditch Match.
Mmm, preferably darting and weaving around, then catching the Golden Snitch in his mouth. That would be so cool~
Too bad that certain clueless someone had never noticed this small hope of hers.
"How long would it take to find it that way? Watch this. There's no need to make things so complicated~"
Harry spotted the silver key with its wings broken off right away... but he had no intention of getting through this obstacle like a Seeker.
He'd solved things on the Quidditch pitch one way before, so he'd do the same thing now.
Wait... Why did this seem to involve Quirrell again?
As his mental power gathered, Harry suddenly thought of Quirrell, who'd sent a Bludger after him.
"Haah!!"
Hermione was eagerly waiting for him to transform into a Seeker and stylishly solve the problem. But then Harry unexpectedly let out a sudden, explosive roar, and a dark gale swept wildly around him, tearing every key to pieces in an instant!
Crack!!
A faint snap was followed by a series of cries as everything shattered. Hermione turned around mechanically and saw that the door that supposedly couldn't be opened without a key was now nothing but a battered doorframe...
Before you continue