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"Snape taking the Philosopher's Stone could be used to help Voldemort resurrect! What he needs is the elixir made from the Philosopher's Stone to bring Voldemort back to life." The next morning, Harry found Ron, Hermione, and Neville.
"Harry, could you please stop saying that name?" Ron visibly shuddered when he heard Voldemort's name. Although he hadn't lived through Voldemort's dark reign, in fact, he had no memory of that time, he could still feel the terror Voldemort had instilled in his parents, otherwise, they wouldn't have been so reserved about it.
Moreover, both his older brothers, Bill and Charlie, had memories of that dark time, and like their parents, they were very secretive about it.
Harry, however, didn't share such a sentiment: "The centaurs can predict the future through the stars, probably that's what it is. The centaur named Firenze must have seen it. Snape wanted to steal the Philosopher's Stone. He's a master of potions, isn't he? He'll make the immortality potion, and then, Voldemort can be resurrected and come kill me, just like he originally intended."
At this point, Harry grew more and more upset: "And I can't do anything."
Harry's words made the others panic.
Hermione was relatively calm. Having grown up in a Muggle family, she wasn't affected by Voldemort's reign, so she was calmer. She tried to comfort him: "Harry, don't be so pessimistic. Everyone says that You-Know-Who... I mean, that person..." Seeing that Ron and Neville looked uncomfortable, Hermione quickly corrected herself.
"That person has always been afraid of Professor Dumbledore, right? With Professor Dumbledore here, that person can't hurt you. Besides, the centaurs' predictions may not be accurate. I read about astrology in a book. Although astrology isn't wrong, it's always vague. People always find it difficult to understand its true meaning. In most cases, they only realize it after the fact. The centaurs could be the same..."
"Dumbledore..." Harry felt a bit relieved hearing that name: "I hope so…"
…
In the following days, Harry remained in a state of fear and daze.
He constantly worried that Voldemort would suddenly come out of a door or window and kill him. It made him seem somewhat neurotic.
But several days passed, and nothing happened.
He and Ron occasionally passed by the fourth floor and went to the Forbidden Corridor.
Although the three-headed dog inside didn't growl, its heavy breathing could still be clearly heard. This made Harry feel somewhat reassured. At least, for now, Snape hadn't succeeded.
What he had feared didn't happen, which made Harry feel a little more relaxed in the following days. But then, another bad thing occurred.
Final exams!
Originally, Hermione had customized a very detailed revision plan for all of them, but Harry had been in a bad state in the last few days. Not just him, Neville, who had also been in the Forbidden Forest that night, wasn't feeling well either.
Their conditions affected Ron too.
As a result, except for Hermione, none of the other three had followed the revision plan. This left them all very nervous about the upcoming exams.
"We're definitely going to fail," Ron said.
Harry and Neville thought that was quite likely.
The final exams wouldn't be delayed by even half a day just because Harry and the others were worried. However, when the exams actually began, Harry found the questions weren't as difficult as he had imagined.
Blame Hermione!
The revision plan Hermione gave them was so extensive and complicated that Harry and the others had guessed the exam content based on her plan, and naturally, they thought the exam would be very difficult.
Turns out, it wasn't quite like that.
In fact, besides the two exams on Potions and History of Magic, Harry even felt that the other subjects were a bit easy!
Especially the practical exam.
Even during the Potions exam, Snape was still around, but that didn't affect Harry's performance.
With each additional exam, Harry gained more confidence. By the time the last exam ended, Harry began to feel good.
He thought that even with the worst results, he would still pass all of them.
Harry felt that he had been arrogant enough, but after seeing Ron's performance, he realized he was still quite restrained.
"Is this it? Is this the legendary final exam?" As soon as the exam was over, Ron walked out of the castle with his head held high, looking very proud, as if he had made no effort.
"Ah, for the History of Magic exam, I think I forgot to capitalize one of the names. I guess I won't get full marks in that subject. Oh well," Hermione said with some disappointment, flipping through the book.
Harry: "..."
Neville: "..."
Ron: "..."
Harry and the other two looked at each other in confusion.
Hermione, only strives for perfect scores and speaks without considering her friends' feelings. Granger's words made Harry and Ron instantly realize they were still very, very far from achieving their goal!
The exams were over, and what he had feared never happened, but Harry wasn't happy.
Because in the past few days, his forehead, or more specifically, the scar on his forehead, had been hurting. The pain would lessen a bit if he practiced Occlumency.
As soon as the Occlumency was lifted, the pain in his forehead would return.
This made him very frustrated.
The exams were over, but the semester wasn't over yet.
There were still two things left to conclude that semester. One of them was the House Cup points, which would be decided at the end-of-year feast. The other was the Quidditch Cup, which still had one final match remaining.
Judging by the current points situation, Gryffindor had no hope of winning the House Cup. The 150 points Lost by Harry and his two teammates put them behind ahead of the other houses.
But they could still fight for the Quidditch Cup. In fact, Gryffindor was currently in the lead in the Quidditch Cup.
If Gryffindor won the final match, they would undoubtedly win the Quidditch Cup. Even if they lost, as long as the opponent was less than one hundred points ahead, they could still win the Quidditch Cup with the points advantage.
This was due to Harry's excellent performance in the previous match. He had caught the Golden Snitch in all five matches, which had given Gryffindor a significant points lead over their competitors.
As a result, the other members of the team had a much better attitude toward him. Furthermore, it was the most crucial time, and it had been some time since the 150 points, so harmony had basically been restored in the team.
There were still two days before the competition. After that afternoon's practice, Harry and Ron lay on the grass of the Quidditch pitch outside the castle. Wood's high-intensity training had drained the last of their physical strength, and now they didn't want to think about anything.
"Wood is just a demon," Ron said weakly.
"Hmm..." Harry simply responded, not wanting to say more.
The weather was very warm. Although it was cooler inside the castle, the lack of wind made it feel stuffy. In comparison, the grass near the Black Lake would be more comfortable.
The wind blew from the vast Black Lake, which felt very refreshing to their bodies. It also helped relieve some of Harry's exhaustion.
After recovering a bit, the two started talking casually.
Harry was still somewhat worried about the Philosopher's Stone, but Ron didn't care too much, as nothing had happened for a long time.
Hearing Harry's continued concern, Ron advised, "Relax, Harry! What Hermione said makes sense. With Dumbledore here, nothing will happen to the Philosopher's Stone."
Ron, having recovered from the fatigue, lay back on a blade of grass, squinting his eyes and letting the sun shine on his face. He wasn't at all concerned about getting a tan and said:
"At least it seems like Snape still has no way to get past Fluffy, right? He got bitten last time. Only Hagrid and Dumbledore know how to get past Fluffy. I don't believe Hagrid would betray Dumbledore. He might even give up Norbert for Dumbledore, haha. You see how much Hagrid loves that dragon."
"Of course, Hagrid wouldn't betray Dumbledore. He wouldn't even tell us..." Harry was speaking casually, but suddenly he seemed to understand something. After thinking for a moment, Harry sat up abruptly, and his face grew extremely pale.
His actions caught the attention of Neville and Hermione, who were sunbathing nearby.
"What's wrong?" Hermione, who had been studying a third-year charm, looked up in surprise when she saw Harry's actions.
Hermione's excessive preparation was seen as overkill by Harry and the others.
As Ron put it, this behavior made him feel uncomfortable. So Ron got hit on the head by Hermione with a book bigger than his head, and he didn't dare say anything after that.
Harry shook his head and organized his thoughts. As his mind cleared, his eyes started to shine. "Hagrid definitely wouldn't betray Dumbledore. But he's not good at keeping secrets."
Harry's eyes grew brighter, but his face became grim. "He's not good at watching his mouth. Do you remember how we found out about Nicolas Flamel's name? And it's such a coincidence that Hagrid has always wanted a dragon. He mentioned it the very first day we met him."
Hermione, Neville, and Ron were stunned for a moment, and then Hermione was the first to react, followed by Ron and Neville, who also figured it out, and their faces suddenly turned pale.
Harry rolled and got up, then quickly ran toward Hagrid's cabin.
…
The results were disastrous.
Hagrid had told the secret about Fluffy to a wizard whose identity he didn't know, and that wizard had lost the dragon egg to Hagrid.
This was simply terrible.
But it could have been worse.
When Harry and his friends went to find Professor McGonagall, they discovered that Dumbledore had gone to the Ministry of Magic in London at that time and wasn't at the school.
Professor McGonagall, on the other hand, didn't believe what they said about Snape trying to steal the Philosopher's Stone.
"Oh no..." Harry looked extremely pale when he left Professor McGonagall's office.
His forehead seemed to hurt even more at that moment.
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