Chapter 32

One: The gear prank on the Quidditch Pitch

The sweet aroma of baking Rock Cakes drifted across the Hogwarts Quidditch Pitch in September. Hailey Leicester crouched on the grass, counting the seconds on her stopwatch. As the second hand passed the seventeenth mark, Harry Potter's Nimbus 2000 completed its tenth dive, and the rush of air from the broom's tail sent her turmeric-yellow hair clip flying.

"Harry! You're diving fast enough to blow my hair clip all the way to the Shrieking Shack!" Hailey laughed and waved at him in the air. Eileen Ronier had already shrieked and lunged after the clip. "I've glued it together with agave syrup three times! If it flies away again, you'll owe me a butterfly hair clip!"

Harry came to an abrupt stop and landed on the grass, the handle of his Nimbus 2000 still trembling slightly. He scratched his head, the lightning scar on his forehead glowing faintly red in the sunlight. "Was I really that fast? I felt like I'd only just taken off-"

"Fast as one of the Weasley Twins' prank projectiles!" Hailey strode over, her boot soles rustling against the grass. "But look at the tail. On your seventh turn, it was shaking like a house-elf who'd seen a Forbidden Forest spider." She shook her wrist, and her copper gear bracelet gave a crisp click. "My dad says this thing works on the same principle as a Muggle car alarm. It makes a racket whenever something's wrong."

Harry leaned closer to examine the vibranium instrument in her hand. As soon as its gear-shaped probe approached the broom handle, it began clicking rapidly. "What's this? It looks like a miniature Ollivander wand box." He curiously poked its surface, and blue light rippled beneath his fingertip.

"This is a Cross-Dimensional Tuner!" Hailey deliberately lowered her voice, imitating Professor Flitwick's high-pitched tones. "Muggle cars need their tire pressure adjusted, and our brooms need their magic axles tuned. Look at this reading—the tail's magic conduction frequency is four hertz above the standard. Keep flying like that, and it'll go off like fireworks, just like Ron's wand."

Eileen nodded vigorously beside her, her panda hair clip turning bright green with excitement. "I can vouch for that! Last time Ron used his broken wand for a Levitation Charm, he blasted a cauldron full of holes!"

Harry couldn't help laughing, showing his pointed teeth. "Then what do we do? Professor McGonagall said the Nimbus 2000 was the fastest-"

"Even the fastest broom needs a wizard who knows how to maintain it." Hailey pulled a walnut-sized metal ring from her canvas bag, its surface engraved with fine gear patterns. "Watch closely. My dad made this Vibranium Balance Ring out of pocket-watch parts. Weld it on here-" She lifted the ring with her wand, emerald magic winding around it like fine thread. "And it's like fitting the broom with a shock absorber. Even a Muggle mechanic would say we know our stuff!"

Harry crouched beside her, watching intently as his fingers absently rubbed the broom handle. "Hailey, how do you know so much?"

"Because my dad's a Muggle machinery fan! You can trust Leicester family products!" Hailey winked, deliberately deepening her dimples. "When I was little, I secretly took his radio apart and ended up putting together a magic music box that sang 'Christmas Carols.' But don't let Professor Snape hear about it. He'd make me copy 'Magic and Muggle machinery must not be used together' a hundred times in the Restricted Section."

Eileen suddenly pointed at the sky and cried, "Look! Harry, fly again! The broom's tail is drawing circles!"

When the Nimbus 2000 shot skyward again, Harry deliberately performed a 360-degree flip. The blue light from its tail resonated with the vibrations of Hailey's bracelet, tracing circles of gear-shaped light beneath the clouds. "Doesn't it look like the baking molds in your kitchen?" Harry's shoulders shook with laughter as he landed, the balance ring on the broom handle still hot. "It feels like the broom's part of me. When I turn, it moves before I've even tilted my head!"

"That's because the vibranium ring can read minds!" Hailey put her business card away with a pretense of seriousness. "But remember to come see me before your next match. I'll wrap some turmeric powder around your broom handle to fine-tune it. Eileen says the stuff works better than an anti-slip charm, and it can smoke away Slytherin's bad luck too."

Two: The fluorescent puzzle at the edge of the Forbidden Forest

At dusk, the Forbidden Forest looked like a piece of velvet soaked in ink. Hailey knelt on one knee amid the rotting leaves, her nose almost touching a clump of mushrooms glowing an eerie green. The vibranium magnifying glass grew hot in her palm, and the fluorescence wavelength reading in its lens held steady at 527 nm.

"That's bright enough to light up the whole Hogwarts Great Hall." Harry's voice came from behind her as he and Ron pushed through the ferns, his green eyes startlingly bright in the dusk. "Hagrid said there were glowing plants in the Forbidden Forest, but he didn't say they were this bright-"

"They're more dazzling than the magic desk lamp in my kitchen!" Hailey thrust the magnifying glass at Harry. "Look at that wavelength. Fireflies in the Muggle world only reach 510 nm at most. These mushrooms must have been sneaking fluorescent dye."

Ron suddenly pointed at the mushroom patch and screamed, "It moved! The glow's moving!"

The four leaned closer and saw the eerie green light gathering into a thin stream, winding through gaps in the rotting leaves toward the depths of the Forbidden Forest. Hailey's copper gear bracelet suddenly jolted, and she instinctively grabbed Harry's sleeve. "Something's wrong. How can the glow flow on its own?"

"It's like someone drew a river of light with a wand." Harry crouched down, and the moment his fingertip touched the fluorescent stream, the light flared, casting a snake-shaped pattern on his palm. "Wait... This pattern looks a bit like the mark on the wine barrel in Hagrid's cellar!"

"Hagrid said there was something good buried under the giant sequoia's roots!" Ron suddenly lowered his voice, his eyes wide as saucers. "Could it be... the Philosopher's Stone?"

Harry's shoulders went rigid. Moonlight fell through the canopy onto his face, revealing his struggle. He clenched his fists, his nails almost digging into his palms, glanced at Hailey's worried eyes, then quickly looked away. The night wind in the Forbidden Forest swept up fallen leaves with a rustle, as though urging him to speak.

"Actually..." Harry's voice was as hoarse as if it had been rubbed with sandpaper. "Last week I was drinking with Hagrid, and he drank too much and let something slip..." He paused and took a deep breath, as though finally setting down an enormous burden. "He said there's a Philosopher's Stone hidden beneath Hogwarts. It can turn stone into gold and let people live forever."

Hailey's heart skipped half a beat as memories from before her transmigration flooded back, but she forced herself to remain calm and gently patted the back of Harry's hand. "So you've been keeping it from us all this time?"

"I was afraid you'd worry!" Harry looked up sharply, guilt burning in his green eyes. "And Hagrid told me to keep it secret. He said it was dangerous, and a big three-headed dog was guarding it-"

"His name's Fluffy!" Ron suddenly cut in. "I saw one in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them—a vicious dog with three heads!"

Three: The symbolic cipher in the Restricted Section

Harry's confession was like a pebble wrapped in flames, tossed onto the velvet carpet where the four sat in a circle, making even the air sizzle with heat. Hailey pulled a small vibranium jar from her canvas bag. The frosted metal surface was engraved with the gear pattern of the Leicester family crest, and the pungent scent of turmeric powder mingled with the cloying sweetness of agave syrup, forming an amber mist in the dusk.

"Quick, put some on. This is Sonic Interference Powder, made with a Muggle pepper grinder my dad modified." She picked up a half-finger-wide dab of powder on the tip of her wand and smeared a crooked cross behind Harry's ear. "Last time I helped Eileen's family move Potions ingredients in Diagon Alley, some of this powder got into a barrel of Dragon Blood, and every owl on the street started sneezing!"

Harry leaned over to smell the jar. When his nose brushed the powder, he suddenly laughed, showing front teeth stained yellow with turmeric. "Smells like Hagrid's pumpkin soup." Before he had finished speaking, Eileen had slapped a whole clump of powder onto the back of his neck, the gems on her panda hair clip flashing red with excitement. "A little more, and if we run into Snape later, he'll think we're trading spices!"

When the four ducked into the Forbidden Forest, rotting leaves crunched beneath their boots like breaking biscuits. Harry suddenly crouched and picked up a strand of silvery-white mane. As moonlight pierced the gaps in the leaves, dark purple markings on the hair writhed like living things. "Unicorns never shed hair unless..." His voice trembled as the mane turned to stardust in his palm. "Hagrid said only Dark wizards hurt them."

Hailey's copper gear bracelet suddenly buzzed, its vibranium gears striking sparks against one another on her wrist. The counterclockwise spiral traced by her wand tip had barely taken shape when blue-green fluorescence exploded from the brambles. The light flickered like a serpent's tongue, dragging a will-o'-the-wisp trail across the ground. "Run!" She grabbed Harry's wrist and raced back, the icy touch of her vibranium bracelet creeping through her skin to her heart. "That's a Dark Magic mark!"

The moment darkness swallowed the Forbidden Forest, Harry's fingers clamped tightly around Hailey's sleeve. She raised her wrist, and the gears' blue light cut a winding path through the ink-black night. Words from her father's letter suddenly echoed in her mind: "Vibranium can remember the path magic takes, like reflective road signs on a Muggle highway." Eileen's scream came from behind them, the glow of her panda hair clip flickering among the shadows of the trees like windblown firelight.

The library the next morning carried the sweet scent of old ink and beeswax. As Hailey stood on tiptoe arranging the History of Magic shelves, a silver bookmark fell like a butterfly with broken wings, its snake-shaped pattern flashing coldly in the sunlight. Harry suddenly caught her wrist and pressed a fingertip into the bookmark's indentation. "This lock-cylinder pattern is exactly the same as the one on the old chest in Hagrid's Hut! I saw it when I helped him move pumpkins last time."

Hermione's fingertips darted across the symbols, and she didn't even notice her round glasses slipping down her nose. A star chart of Orion gradually took shape on the parchment, lines connecting the symbols like silver thread stringing beads, until an arrow pointed straight at the underground passage in the lower left corner of the map. "Look!" She suddenly slapped the table, and ink splashed from her quill, spreading over the words "giant sequoia." "The Philosopher's Stone might be hidden in a chamber beneath the giant sequoia's roots!"

Ron slammed his fist on the oak table, making the ink bottle jump. "Last week, when Hagrid was drunk, he said, 'The giant sequoia's roots go deeper than dragon claws.' He must have been speaking in riddles!" Before he had finished, Hailey had pulled out four vibranium stickers, the adhesive surfaces of the Muggle bandages shimmering faintly with magic. "Silencing Stickers, improved by my dad using leftovers from a Disillusionment Charm. With these on, walking feels like stepping on memory foam. Last time I used them to sneak out of the kitchen, the house-elves thought it was dust floating by."

The air in the Restricted Section was thick as honey, the musty smell mingling with the rank odor of dried bat wings. Sparks suddenly burst from Harry's wand tip as he pointed at a black leather book whose pages were turning by themselves. "Look! It stopped on page seventeen!" The moment Hermione lunged over, the parchment made a sound like human skin tearing. Dark red liquid seeped from an illustration of Unicorn Blood in the candlelight, and the words twisted like maggots: "With the blood of a pure creature as the catalyst, the Philosopher's Stone can grant immortality—but the drinker of the blood shall be forever trapped with a soul in two halves."

Hailey's bracelet suddenly grew hot enough to burn, its gear pattern casting a snake-shaped shadow beneath her skin. Harry's palm was slick with cold sweat when he laid it over hers, and dampness from the Forbidden Forest's rotting leaves still lingered between his fingers. "I shouldn't have kept it from you... Last week Hagrid cried and said, 'Nicolas Flamel is dying.' I only understand now-"

"We're a Hufflepuff and Gryffindor team!" Eileen suddenly pulled open her schoolbag, spilling Mandrake powder all over the table. "My dad says grinding this plant into powder can interfere with Dementors, and if you sprinkle it on an Invisibility Cloak, even Filch's cat can't smell you!" Before she had finished, the library's iron door suddenly creaked loudly. As the four lunged toward the shelves, Hailey glimpsed words slowly being written in blood-colored ink on the blank space of the black leather book's last page: Fluffy is awake.

Moonlight slanted through the stained-glass windows into the corridor. Harry's Nimbus 2000 leaned in a corner, its Vibranium Balance Ring still holding the warmth of Hailey's palm. "Tomorrow night at eleven," he said, stroking the gear pattern on the broom handle, his green eyes bright as cold stars in the shadows. "Even if Fluffy chews me into broom bristles, I'm going to see what that stone actually looks like."

Hailey slipped vibranium dog biscuits into his pocket, the clatter of the metal tin especially clear in the silence. "My dad mixed in icing that Trolls love. When Fluffy takes his first bite, we'll rush in. Remember to shout 'Merlin's beard'-that's my dog's training command." Eileen suddenly raised her wand, and her panda hair clip shot out a fluorescent glow that drew a crooked arrow on the wall. "Follow this light. I sprinkled fluorescent turmeric powder in the corridor last night. It's more accurate than Filch's map!"

The three figures' shadows stretched across the flagstones into long gears and butterflies. Harry suddenly laughed, making the dog biscuits rattle in his pocket. When the distant clock tower struck midnight, he saw the bracelet on Hailey's wrist resonating with the balance ring on the Nimbus 2000, blue light pulsing like a heartbeat. Suddenly, he felt that perhaps this race against Dark Magic really could be like a Quidditch match, with the Golden Snitch caught at the very last second.

Four: The silver-blue gaze in the Restricted Section

When the enchanted candelabrum on the Restricted Section's domed ceiling suddenly flickered three times, Albus Dumbledore was chuckling at the Pensieve. Crumbs of icing drifted from his silver hair onto his star-chart cloak, while the silver memories in the basin flowed into the image of Hailey Leicester holding up a vibranium magnifying glass. The gear bracelet at her fingertips resonated with the black leather book, and the shadows the snake-shaped symbols cast on the parchment formed a perfect reverse image of Nicolas Flamel's family crest.

"What an interesting combination of gears." The old headmaster stirred the memories with a bent-handled spoon, and the icing formed a miniature Nimbus 2000 in the basin. "Muggle logic and wizarding magic can actually be welded into a key to breaking the impasse." He recalled deliberately slipping the silver bookmark into Medieval Alchemy three days earlier. The gear pattern of the Leicester family crest had been faintly visible on its back, a guiding symbol forged with vibranium powder and a meditation spell.

When the group of four was driven back by the black leather book's shriek, Dumbledore gently pointed his wand tip at the clock on the wall. Its hands suddenly spun rapidly counterclockwise, and Filch's footsteps repeated eerily three times in the corridor, buying the children ten precious seconds. Before the bloody words "Fluffy is awake" had fully set, he had used Apparition to reach the forbidden area on the third floor. His dragon-claw-like fingertips brushed the magic circle beneath the giant sequoia's roots, where vibranium dog biscuit crumbs were resonating with the lingering vibrations of Hailey's bracelet, forming sonic ripples that could interfere with the three-headed dog's hearing.

"Miss Leicester's cross-dimensional wisdom is rather like Nicolas's alchemical experiments when he was young." Dumbledore took a lemon hard candy from his pocket, and its wrapper reflected a map of the passages beneath Hogwarts in the candlelight. He recalled what he had learned from the old head of the Leicester family, the words on a remnant of a Prophecy book: "A new star that shines too brightly shall ultimately become a sacrifice." The resonance of the gears on Hailey's wrist happened to disrupt the Prophecy's magic wavelength by seventeen percent—a subtle deviation, but enough to introduce a fatal error into Voldemort's calculations.

When Harry rushed out of the Forbidden Forest clutching a bloodstained Unicorn Hair, Dumbledore was standing atop the Astronomy Tower. He watched Hailey reinforce the Invisibility Cloak's magic radar with vibranium stickers and thought of the letter the Leicesters had sent late at night. The couple, merchants who used Muggle economics to analyze the wand market, had enclosed a "Philosopher's Stone energy conservation diagram" drawn in vibranium powder. "A natural at breaking impasses." He tossed the lemon candy into the air, and it traced a silver-blue arc across the night sky, landing on the windowsill Hailey was about to pass. On the back of the wrapper, fluorescent ink read: The third arcade among the giant sequoia's roots must be opened with Parseltongue.

At that moment, Forbidden Knowledge of Blood Magic was turning to a new page in the Restricted Section. Dumbledore's wand tip passed over the parchment, and a new annotation slowly appeared beside the illustration of Unicorn Blood: "With pure blood as the catalyst, and the resonance of vibranium gears as an aid, the curse can be transformed into an energy converter." The line flickered in the candlelight, like the starlight glimmering in the old headmaster's eyes. He had long since calculated that when Hailey's cross-dimensional wisdom met Harry's courage, the gears of the Prophecy would ultimately veer from their predetermined course, and that cursed Philosopher's Stone might become the first light of dawn to illuminate the darkness.