Chapter 229: Dumbledore Returns
The challenge behind the trapdoor was not difficult for Sean.
Before Fluffy could even react, Sean Transfigured a plank of wood into a flute. Within moments, the three-headed dog was lulled into a deep slumber.
Behind Fluffy lay a pitch-black hole. Just as Sean was about to descend, he heard noises coming from behind him.
"Sean..."
He heard a faint cry. It was Hermione and Harry. They must have seen the signal on the Planning Map and followed him.
At this moment, they were still shaken.
"What are you doing here?" Hermione asked, trembling.
"What else could he be doing? Hermione, think about what's behind the trapdoor! The three-headed dog is down. Do you really think Sean did this?" Harry always reacted quickly in a panic, but sometimes his reactions were almost too quick.
"Headmaster Dumbledore isn't here... Professor Quirrell has gone to steal the Philosopher's Stone..." Hermione murmured to herself.
Fluffy had been awake just moments ago, which meant Professor Quirrell had already gone down some time ago. Sean had no idea how far he had gotten.
He had to be fast—as fast as possible.
"See you later."
Sean didn't pay much attention to the two of them. He turned and stepped into the bottomless hole.
Cold, damp air rushed past his ears. He fell, down, down, down, and then—
Thump. With a strange, muffled impact, Sean landed on something soft.
He lit his wand, and the Devil's Snare covering the floor instantly recoiled from the light and warmth.
Just as he extinguished the flame and moved off the Devil's Snare, two more thumps echoed as two people landed behind him.
The Devil's Snare extended its snake-like tendrils, wrapping around them instantly.
"Don't move!" Hermione shouted. "I know what this is—it's Devil's Snare!"
"Glad we have a name for it, Hermione!" Harry yelled, struggling.
"We need fire, but there's no wood..." Hermione cried.
"Are you mad? Are you a witch or not?!" Harry bellowed.
"Oh, right!" Hermione exclaimed. She whipped out her wand, waved it, and muttered an incantation, sending a stream of bluebell flames shooting from the tip.
Only then did the relieved pair see Sean's calm eyes, watching them from a short distance away.
"Well done," they heard him say, before he turned and hurried on.
At the end of the corridor was a brightly lit chamber with a high, arched ceiling. At the far end stood a heavy wooden door. Countless brilliant, jewel-like birds were flying around the room. Upon closer inspection, they were keys that had been Transfigured into birds, each glittering in a different color.
Harry and Hermione followed Sean to the door. Before they could react, Sean waved his wand instantly:
"Impedimenta!"
"Accio Key!"
With two simple spells, Sean had the key in hand. He opened the door under Harry and Hermione's bewildered gaze.
"Oh, Hermione, do you know how Sean found the right key?" Harry whispered as they walked.
"The handle is silver... perhaps we had to find a silver key. But no one could find it that fast..." Hermione whispered back, explaining her theory.
Passing through the door, they were confronted with a massive chessboard. The chessmen were taller than they were, seemingly carved from black stone. At the other end of the room, facing them, stood the white chessmen. Harry and Hermione shivered—the towering white pieces had no features on their faces.
"What do we do now?" Harry whispered to Sean.
Having come this far without incident, and seeing Sean there, Harry's fear of the towering chess pieces vanished. He looked them over with mild curiosity.
"We have to play chess..." Hermione said, her face a mask of nervous panic. "But Ron isn't here; he's the best chess player among us."
The chessboard, dozens of meters wide, looked like a game for giants. Sean stood there, looking tiny by comparison.
Professor McGonagall's chessboard was originally intended as a test of chess skill, but Sean didn't have time to play a game.
His Transfiguration skills were obviously insufficient to fight so many chess pieces at once, but he had learned more than just Transfiguration...
"Reducto!"
A blinding flash of light streaked across the board, and the White King exploded on the spot.
[You have practiced the Reductor Curse to the Expert standard. Proficiency +50]
He had learned more in the dungeons than just how to stir a cauldron.
He opened his panel:
[Sectumsempra: Expert (2000/9000)]
[Reductor Curse: Expert (100/9000)]
[Impediment Jinx: Expert (1000/9000)]
Expert level meant silent casting and instant casting.
Seeing their King destroyed, the white chess pieces bowed and retreated, clearing a path straight to the next door.
Sean didn't hesitate; he walked through the door.
"We... were supposed to play chess, right?" Hermione asked.
"Maybe," Harry said, quickly following behind.
On the floor of the next room lay a troll. It appeared to be merely unconscious, emitting a sound like snoring.
Sean stepped around it and came face to face with seven potion bottles. This was Professor Snape's logic puzzle. Sean had forgotten the exact answer, but he could solve it on the spot.
The only problem was that there was only enough potion for one person to pass through.
Behind the final door...
Professor Quirrell was in a state unknown to anyone.
With a professor not yet fully fallen, would Harry's special protection still work against him?
There was no way to know.
Sean heard the sound of owls returning outside the castle, indicating that dawn was not far off.
Professor McGonagall or Professor Terra would arrive soon, and Headmaster Dumbledore's return couldn't be far behind.
Just a little more time... if he could stall for just a little more time, perhaps everything would be different.
While Sean was thinking, Hermione had solved the riddle.
She read the paper again and again. She walked back and forth in front of the line of bottles, muttering to herself and pointing at this one or that one. Finally, she clapped her hands happily.
"Got it. This smallest bottle will get us through the black fire—toward the Stone. But there's only enough there for one of us," Hermione said, frowning. "That's hardly one swallow."
Harry's throat moved; he was about to volunteer.
But then, a paper airplane flew out of the wall and landed in Sean's hand. He unfolded it to see just a few words:
[I will be back soon, my boy.]
Harry and Hermione had no idea who it was from, but Sean let out a complete sigh of relief.
"I'll stall for a while."
Sean drank the potion and turned to walk through the fire.
To Harry and Hermione, those words meant only one thing.
Before the professors arrived, to stop Professor Quirrell from getting the Stone, Sean had to face the Dark Lord's servant alone.
In the final chamber, there were only low, murmuring voices.
"Master, please forgive your incompetent servant! I failed to kill the Unicorn... my magic was too weak... my will was not firm enough... Please... please give me another chance. I won't disappoint you again..."
Sean saw Professor Quirrell pacing in circles around the Mirror of Erised, constantly demeaning himself and begging.
"Give me another chance..."
Professor Quirrell kept repeating this phrase. Suddenly sensing something, he turned his head.
His bloodshot eyes widened to their limit, his pupils contracting and trembling violently. His lips, bitten white by his own teeth, opened slightly but made no sound. Only his Adam's apple bobbed futilely.
Before anyone could react, Professor Quirrell quickly shoved a biscuit into his mouth. His robed figure instantly transformed into a trembling squirrel.
The squirrel ran to Sean and then froze in place.
Only when a notebook and quill floated out from Sean did it react.
[Y-you... how did you get here... You shouldn't have come... The Dark Lord will kill you... Run, run quickly...]
Sean looked at the words on the notebook, and many thoughts flooded his mind.
The Animal Party series allowed for sustained transformation. The moment Professor Quirrell chose to become a squirrel, Sean seamlessly chose to extend the squirrel transformation for at least half an hour.
Sean had plenty of Squirrel Biscuits in his bag, all made during his practice sessions.
"What about you, Professor?"
Sean lowered his gaze.
[Oh, oh... he will torture me... just like when I failed to steal the Stone from Gringotts... he was very displeased. He punished me... but this has nothing to do with you... Run, Mr. Green, I beg you, run...]
The squirrel chattered frantically in its panic.
Suddenly, Sean heard the faint sound of footsteps behind him. He trembled slightly; he knew who had arrived.
"Did you get the Philosopher's Stone?" Sean asked again.
[The Stone... I didn't want to use it, but it wanted to come to me... I saw myself in the mirror trying to grab the Stone... I made up an excuse... I didn't dare look in the mirror...]
The room fell into silence for a dozen seconds.
[The Stone will be taken out sooner or later... He will return... of course he will return. He will leave me, and this empty shell of a body, this soul riddled with holes... Mr. Green, I don't want to lie to you, nor do I want to lie to myself anymore... I am already a dead man...]
Sean looked silently at the squirrel that was Professor Quirrell.
[You gave me a choice, and only then did I know... hope... what a wonderful thing it is... Now, I still have a choice... Everyone ultimately has one last choice...]
Sean knew what the professor meant. The equality of life lies in the fact that, no matter when, death is always an option.
"You've done well enough... Headmaster Dumbledore..."
Sean turned his head and saw, sure enough, an old wizard with a long white beard. Behind him were several young wizards.
Justin, Hermione, Harry, Ron...
It was over. The moment Voldemort saw Dumbledore after the transformation was complete, he abandoned Professor Quirrell and fled.
He passed through Harry's body, knocking him unconscious instantly.
Dumbledore cast a mysterious spell on Professor Quirrell, muttering to himself as he did so:
"A soul not completely tainted... his soul is still whole... he hasn't killed an innocent life... truly rare..."
Headmaster Dumbledore looked at Professor Quirrell, then at Sean and the others.
"It seems you all did quite well while I was away?"
This made Hermione and Justin, who still harbored grudges about Dumbledore's inaction, feel slightly embarrassed. Ron, supporting the unconscious Harry and sweating profusely, puffed out his chest upon hearing this.
The weakened Professor Quirrell confessed everything. His words nearly made the young wizards' jaws drop.
Voldemort had been on the back of the Professor's head the whole time?!
And the news that Professor Quirrell had chosen death, dying as someone who had defied the Dark Lord just like Harry, filled everyone with newfound respect for this seemingly cowardly professor.
Before long.
Harry and Professor Quirrell were sent to the Hospital Wing together.
In the corridor, the young wizards, who had slept only ten hours in two days, said nothing. They walked silently back to the Room of Hope.
Just then, Justin suddenly started clapping his hands. He was celebrating for everyone.
Yes, it was Headmaster Dumbledore who drove Voldemort away, but in the Headmaster's absence, they had guarded the Forbidden Forest, broken through the trapdoor, and stopped Voldemort's resurrection plan.
Just as the Headmaster said, they had done well.
"Mates, we did it!" he said.
Ron, Hermione, and Neville looked at him, then at Sean, with expressions of immense joy and satisfaction.
Now, they were going to get some serious sleep, and then go visit Harry.
As for Sean... he had one more brave professor to visit.
Before falling unconscious, Professor Quirrell had declined Headmaster Dumbledore's offer to continue teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts.
He felt too ashamed to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts... and his body was extremely weak. Due to the curse and the damage Voldemort had inflicted on his life and soul, it would take years for him to recover to his former standard.
Unless there was a special potion... but Professor Quirrell had spent every last Galleon under Voldemort's orders.
So, who could offer a position to this frail professor?
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