The Changed Plan

At 5 o'clock, Harry, and his two companions stood in front of the corridor, looking at each other from under the Invisibility Cloak.

The door was already ajar.

"That shouldn't be the case; this isn't the time in my dream."

"Could it be that Quirrell failed, that he was outmaneuvered, and then Voldemort's collaborator—that mysterious silver-eyed wizard—came to steal the Philosopher's Stone that night?"

"Quirrell's failure is most likely because Voldemort wasn't on Quirrell to avoid a surprise attack from Dumbledore!" Harry whispered to Ron and Draco.

Seeing the half-open door, the three realized that someone had already passed through Fluffy.

Harry, hidden under the Invisibility Cloak, said to Draco and Ron, "Draco, go find Hagrid and have him write to Dumbledore. Ron, if you want to leave, I won't blame you. You can go to Professor Snape and tell him I'm in danger."

"Well, maybe Dumbledore is just pretending to leave, waiting for us to come to him," Draco joked, trying to ease the tension.

Ron, panting heavily, said, "Don't even think about abandoning us."

"The three of us must be together!" Draco emphasized.

"Don't you understand? If Quirrell gets his hands on the Philosopher's Stone, Voldemort will return! Haven't you heard what this place was like when he tried to rule the world? If he succeeded, Hogwarts would cease to exist!"

"I don't want to abandon you. I want you to find help. Hagrid, Snape, or Dumbledore will all do!"

"If it's just the three of us, and we fail, not only will we lose our lives, but our families will also lose their lives because of our failure!"

"After that, he'll either raze the school to the ground or turn it into a school that teaches Dark Magic! Can't you see why I want you to leave?" Harry glared at them angrily.

"We don't need to go ourselves to deliver the message. Do you think I spent so much time just now checking if Quirrell was still there?"

"I also wrote a letter and made three copies. I've already told Goyle and Crabbe that if I'm not back within an hour, they should go find Hagrid and give Hagrid one of the letters I wrote beforehand, and the other two to the owl to deliver to our Dean and Dumbledore respectively!" Draco said shrewdly.

"Draco, you're something else." Ron couldn't help but call him by his name. Draco was clearly not used to it and shivered. "Just call me Malfoy, Weasley."

Harry no longer had an excuse to let them leave.

As Harry pushed open the door, Fluffy, who had been listening to the conversation between Harry, his friend, and his companion, suddenly started barking wildly.

Although it couldn't see them, all three of its noses were frantically twitching and sniffing in their direction.

However, Harry had already prepared everything. He took out the flute he had enchanted, and the flute kept automatically playing something that could barely be called music.

The big dog's eyes began to droop.

Slowly, the big dog stopped barking—it swayed a few times, its knees buckled and it knelt down, then collapsed onto the floor and fell into a deep sleep.

"Look, there's a harp over there. It must be Quirrell or someone else."

"If it were Hagrid or Dumbledore, they wouldn't need it." Ron's expression turned serious.

"Did you guys notice? We were talking so loudly outside just now, Fluffy didn't react at all."

"Besides, Fluffy has been calling for so long, how come no one outside has been attracted? He's always been quiet when I pass by the fourth floor on weekdays."

"There must be some kind of soundproofing magic here," Draco guessed as he followed Harry and Ron toward the Trapdoor.

"It stinks. Why doesn't Fluffy wash up?" Ron covered his nose and opened the Trapdoor. They had already taken off their Invisibility Cloak.

"You can't see anything inside—it's pitch black—and there's no ladder to go down."

"Looks like we'll have to jump," Harry said, looking at the dark tunnel. "I'll go first. I'll be Obstacle Curse; it's really effective for jumping from high places."

"I'll use the Levitation Charm down here." Harry figured out a way to break the deadlock in a split second.

He had considered turning the ground below into haystacks, but that would involve applying magic to the outside world, and if the object being applied wasn't ordinary ground, it would be a waste of effort.

This led Harry to reject the idea and instead use the Curse of Obstacle Curse. After learning that Ryan could fly, he had considered related spells and finally saw a different use of this curse in Atlantis.

Ron and Draco nodded, their faces showing admiration.

"Obstacle Curse!" This spell primarily slows down the object being cast; both the spell and the object can be used.

Harry then imagined the air below as the enemy.

It went smoothly; Harry descended slowly, as if in a fluid, and soon touched the ground.

Even though it was summer, the air around him was still very cold and damp, and the ground was very soft, as if he were standing on some kind of plant.

This is Professor Sprout's defense line!

It needs to grow in a damp and cold environment, in the dark, and it has a vine-like structure— the Devil's Snare!

No, it shouldn't be that simple. Could this plant have been modified?

In such a dark environment, a wizard would use spells like Lumos, and the plant would then wrap around the light, strangling or trapping the wizard who had entered without permission.

"You jump first, it'll be a soft landing." As soon as Harry finished speaking, Draco and Ron jumped down as well.

"Oh no, the Devil's Snare is really stealthy. I didn't feel a thing before my legs were wrapped up." Harry with a bitter face.

"Devil's Snare? Even I know it's afraid of sunlight, fire is better." Ron's ankles were now also wrapped up.

"Weasley, you idiot, it can't be that simple, it can't be—" Draco stopped mid-sentence.

The scene before them stunned both him and Harry: Ron conjured up the blue bellflower-like flame that Harry used to roast his hands.

Within seconds, the vines loosened their grip on them.

It retreated, avoiding the light and warmth; the plant twisted, twitched, and shrank back into the corner.

"Are you sure about what?" Ron kept the flame burning.

"It's nothing, maybe Quirrell has already broken the modification." Harry comforted himself, he didn't believe it was really that simple.

If it's true, then his dilemma just now was exactly the same as Ron's (the fool's) dilemma.

"I never imagined that Professor Sprout's defenses were based on what we learned in our first-year classes." Draco wiped away a cold sweat.

"Yeah, luckily I paid attention in class," Ron said smugly, oblivious to the implied meaning.

Harry and Draco exchanged a glance and decided to let Ron be happy for now, as this mood would be more beneficial for the later levels.