Black-Robed Man

He cast another Disillusionment Charm on himself.

The system panel quietly appeared before his eyes, then quickly vanished again, but it was enough for him to notice the change revealed in its information.

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[Disillusionment Charm proficiency increased]

[Disillusionment Charm LV1 (1/4)]

In the two months since starting school, Vaughn had never once slackened in practicing spells.

Of course, most of his energy still went toward Potions.

So over those two months, he had focused on mastering only a limited number of spells.

Among them, the basic Shield Charm had risen to LV4 (0/16), the Disarming Charm to LV3 (2/8), while for the advanced spells he had learned from Snape a month ago, he had concentrated on the Reductor Curse, the Disillusionment Charm, and Sectumsempra.

About a week ago, all three had reached LV1 in succession. He had successfully gotten the hang of them and could use them fairly smoothly.

After that, Vaughn had not practiced them excessively.

He merely maintained a certain amount of training every day, because improving his proficiency any further would require a great deal of time.

Sectumsempra in particular.

Though it was dark magic developed by Snape during his school years, it was an exceptionally complex and profound spell.

Vaughn suspected that Snape had drawn upon some inherited family knowledge of dark magic back then.

By comparison, the Disillusionment Charm was much simpler. After all, it was a conventional spell, and Vaughn's talent for charms was more than enough to allow him to master it quickly.

As he sensed the subtle changes caused by casting the Disillusionment Charm, Vaughn softened his footsteps as much as possible and moved through the staircases and corridors.

Hogwarts was empty and desolate at this hour. Any sound, however slight, would be amplified by the crisscrossing, shadowy corridors.

Vaughn lightly tapped his wand against his ear, allowing his ears to pick up more sounds.

This was something he had gained from spending so much time in the library over the past two months—who knew which book might contain some obscure little spell.

They were usually not very powerful, and some were more like pranks.

For example, the Voice Transmission Charm he had previously cast on himself and Ron, as well as the Ear-Enhancing Charm he was using now, had been recorded on a yellowed piece of parchment. At the top of the parchment were the words:

10 Spells for Cheating on Exams.

Below that was a line of cursive commentary: Thank you, Mr. McLaggen, for your diligent compilation. I will instruct Professor McGonagall to add them to the list of anti-cheating spells. Yours sincerely, Transfiguration Professor Albus Dumbledore.

Poor Mr. McLaggen. Mourning the predecessor from decades ago while finding a new use for his legacy, Vaughn listened carefully and soon caught a series of hurried footsteps.

They passed overhead, heading straight up to the third floor, then the fourth.

Vaughn quickened his pace, but when he reached the third floor, he suddenly stopped in astonishment—

He heard new sounds: two faint voices, their teeth chattering, lowered to the absolute minimum. They were hiding in the fourth-floor Charms classroom, and Quirrell's hurried footsteps had nearly passed right by them.

"Harry... what's wrong with you...?"

"It hurts... my head hurts so much..."

It was Harry and Hermione!

Five minutes earlier, Harry and Hermione had been preparing to find Vaughn and Ron, who did not know about the troll.

At first, things had gone smoothly. They had successfully slipped past Percy without drawing anyone's attention and left the group.

But the two soon became lost. No one knew where Vaughn had taken Ron. They wandered aimlessly from the second floor to the third, and once their initial impulse had been exhausted, Hermione regained her senses and began trying to persuade Harry to go back.

"Let's tell Percy and have him ask the professors for help. At least that would be better than wandering around like this," she said quietly to Harry, crouching at the staircase entrance on the fourth floor.

Harry hesitated. Of course he knew Hermione was right.

But for some reason, his mind was in chaos. His thoughts kept uncontrollably urging him: one more floor up!

One more floor up!

Go take a look at the fourth floor!

Those thoughts were strange, appearing out of nowhere.

It was as though some thought deep within his consciousness was telling him that he would definitely find something on the fourth floor.

He even felt excitement, anticipation, and the joy of being on the verge of achieving his goal.

The emotion was so intense that he could barely resist it!

"Let's go up one more floor!" Harry urged. "We'll check the fourth floor, and if they're not there, we'll go find the professors."

Hermione had no choice but to agree.

To Harry's disappointment, after reaching the fourth floor, they searched for a while and still found nothing. Just as he was forcing himself to resist the increasingly powerful thoughts in his head and preparing to leave with Hermione—

A series of footsteps approached from the stairs!

In the dimness, the two exchanged a glance. Whether it was Percy or a professor, they could not let themselves be seen, or Gryffindor would lose points again.

Hermione spotted the Charms classroom and immediately pulled Harry inside.

The two huddled behind the door, peering through the slightly opened crack.

In the dim corridor, a blurry figure with a robe pulled over its head hurried past.

Who was that?

The faint light and their limited view made it difficult to tell.

But with all the students already back in their house dormitories, and the professors searching the basement for the troll...

Who would come to the fourth floor? And for what?

Harry thought of the room at the end of the fourth-floor corridor, guarded by Fluffy and a trapdoor, where the Philosopher's Stone was likely hidden.

He glanced at Hermione. She seemed to have thought of it too, covering her mouth in shock.

Harry wanted to see who that person was.

Ignoring Hermione's repeated shakes of her head, he gently pushed open the door and poked his head out.

The black-robed figure had already reached the middle of the corridor. Harry could see only its back.

But the instant that back entered his sight, Harry felt an indescribable agony erupt from the scar on his forehead and spread rapidly through his entire head.

The pain was so intense, so scorching, so sharp, as though someone had split his skull open with a red-hot axe.

Harry convulsed and collapsed.

Everything in his vision blurred into halos of light from the pain. He heard Hermione cry out anxiously:

"Harry, Harry, what's wrong?"

"Pain... my head hurts so much..."

Barely suppressing the urge to scream, Harry groaned. He felt Hermione tugging and dragging him, apparently afraid that the shadowy figure would notice them.

But it was too late. Through his hazy vision, he saw the blurry black-robed figure stop.

Perhaps tears brought on by the pain were distorting his sight, but everything twisted and stretched before Harry's eyes. It looked like something from a horror film—all light and darkness writhing and dancing wildly around the black-robed figure's back.

Hiss—

Hiss—

Harry heard the black-robed figure make a harsh, unpleasant sound, like a venomous snake.

Then the black-robed figure turned around, and the warped light and shadows vanished in an instant.

Harry panted violently. He did not know what had happened; he only knew that his head no longer hurt. But the danger was far from over. He saw the black-robed figure hurriedly flick its wand.

"Stupe..."

But one second before it could finish casting, Harry saw someone appear beside him and heard a clear, youthful voice shout:

"Expelliarmus!"

It was Vaughn!

A dazzling red beam burst through the air.

It slammed fiercely into the black-robed figure, forcing it to withdraw its wand and sweep it before itself.

"Protego!"

The red light struck the black-robed figure and was blocked by a translucent shield. But the force contained within the spell had clearly exceeded the figure's expectations—the shield shuddered violently, flickering bright and dim!