"We can't wait any longer," Harry said on the last day before the exams, during lunch.
Tom, having recovered from his injuries, still had a somewhat strange relationship with Harry. However, for some reason, Harry didn't exclude him from the matter of the Philosopher's Stone.
"Exams are about to start; can't we think about this after the exams?" Hermione asked.
Lately, she had been dreaming of Snape announcing her failure in exams, a fright seemingly more terrifying than Voldemort's resurrection.
"We still don't know how to get past Fluffy, and the person – whether it's Snape or some other dark wizard – probably doesn't know either. The Stone is still safe," Hermione said.
"Tom, what do you think?" Harry asked.
Tom furrowed his brow.
Why ask me?
"I think... the person who wants to steal the Stone is probably more desperate than we are," he said.
He wasn't lying; these days, he could hardly sleep.
Once the holidays started, he would have to leave Hogwarts and would lose any chance of getting the Stone.
"I agree, we can try exploring again..." Ron said.
Rather than continuing to memorize Magical History, Ron preferred facing a three-headed dog.
"You just don't want to study!" Hermione unmercifully pointed out.
"Seriously, we can't just rely on Fluffy. Hagrid is very loyal to Dumbledore, but Hagrid..." Ron pursed his lips, "He tends to spill things when he's happy..."
"Clang!" Harry suddenly stood up, "What did you say?"
Ron jumped in fright, "Cough, I didn't mean Hagrid can't keep secrets, I meant he's easily coaxed into talking, right?"
They had previously extracted information about Nicolas Flamel from Hagrid.
"How did I not think of it! Yes, how could it be such a coincidence!" Harry didn't even finish his meal and hurried out.
The young wizards followed him, "What's up? What did you think of?"
"Norbert! Hagrid always wanted a dragon! But it just so happened that someone brought a dragon egg and he ran into it! How could it be such a coincidence! Keeping dragons is illegal! Who would walk around with that thing?!"
They rushed into Hagrid's hut and directly asked, "Hagrid, who gave you Norbert?"
"A foreign wizard, why, what's wrong?" Hagrid, intimidated by Harry's aggressive manner, nervously responded, "He was wearing a cloak, I don't know who he was. What's wrong? It's not strange, there are all sorts of people in the Leaky Cauldron..."
"Did you mention Fluffy?"
"Ah, because he wanted to know if I could keep a dragon, so I told him I've kept a Cerberus. It's rare, but I told him I can handle Fluffy just fine, just play some music, and he falls asleep immediately..."
The young wizards rushed out of Hagrid's hut.
"We must tell Dumbledore; only Dumbledore can stop him..." Hermione said, "They say, the only person he fears is Dumbledore..."
However, they soon learned from Professor McGonagall that Dumbledore had been called away to London by a letter from the Ministry of Magic.
"An educational hearing," Professor McGonagall sighed, "The Board of Governors thinks Dumbledore's educational policies are too whimsical... He won't be back until tomorrow at the earliest."
Then they encountered Snape.
He scrutinized each of them, "What are you up to now? Just a reminder, Potter—if you wander around in the middle of the night again, I will personally expel you."
After Snape left, the young wizards looked at each other.
"There's no other way."
"Tonight, we must get the Stone before anyone else."
...
Tom never felt the hours of nightfall so long.
Lying in bed, his mind was constantly calculating possibilities, but in the end, he realized he had no choice. He wanted to live, needed the Stone, the Elixir of Life, the resurrection potion.
He might steal the Stone before Voldemort, knew the formula for the Elixir of Life, but only Voldemort had the resurrection potion.
And only Voldemort could help him regain his past memories and become his complete self.
It was time to make up his mind.
At ten o'clock at night, when everyone else in the dormitory was asleep, Tom cast a Disillusionment Charm on himself and left the Slytherin common room. He waited in the fourth-floor corridor.
Suddenly, a head appeared in mid-air; it was Harry.
"Tom, we're here, where are you?" he called softly.
Tom hesitated, but in the end, he didn't dispel the charm.
Two more heads appeared out of thin air, Hermione and Ron both looking around, "Tom, Tom..."
Still, Tom didn't show himself.
"What's the matter with Tom, why hasn't he come?" Ron asked impatiently.
"Maybe he got caught by someone..." Hermione suggested.
Harry hesitated for a moment, then made up his mind, "We can't wait any longer, let's go."
They opened the door at the end of the corridor, used a flute to lull Fluffy, opened the trapdoor, revealing a seemingly bottomless hole.
"Hermione," Harry handed the flute to Hermione, "I'll jump down first, you keep playing."
"If something happens to me, don't come down, just send a message to Dumbledore with an owl," Harry said. "If I'm alright, remember to leave the flute here. If Tom is late, he can also use it to get past Fluffy."
Saying this, Harry jumped into the hole with a resolve to face death, only to find it surprisingly soft. Ron and Hermione also jumped down.
The music stopped, and Fluffy roared again. It smelled humans, someone had slipped past, and one was hiding right in front of it, invisible.
Tom used the Summoning Charm to grab the flute, lulled Fluffy again, and after the noise below stopped, he too jumped down.
The Devil's Snare had already been dealt with by Harry and the others, but before falling, Tom used a charm to slow his descent, landing unharmed.
He cast the Disillusionment Charm again and followed the three young wizards into a corridor with eight raven statues on both sides.
There seemed to be a riddle on the wall. Hermione paused in front of it for a while, then pressed a few buttons. A piece protruded from the wall, and she took something out. Tom couldn't see what it was from a distance.
As they discussed the object's function, the raven statues animated and flew away.
The three moved into the next room.
Tom, still under the charm, followed closely.
They passed the key room together, and after Ron's sacrifice in the wizard chess room, Hermione and Harry used the Invisibility Cloak to get past the troll room. Finally, they reached a room sealed with fire.
Hermione handed Harry the object obtained from Professor Murphy's trap, then drank a potion to leave. Harry drank some of the forward potion and entered the next room.
Tom, having followed Harry, knew they were indeed ahead of others—the previous traps had not been triggered before.
There was still half of the forward potion left. Tom hesitated for a moment, then
drank the rest and walked into the flames.
In the empty underground chamber, there was only a large mirror.
Harry stood in front of it. Suddenly, he seemed to hear something and turned around, "Tom, you're here."
Tom was startled, realizing that the strange black fire seemed to have destroyed his Disillusionment Charm.
"I'm here."
"Sorry, Harry."
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