The next night.
After suppressing his impatience and adjusting himself to peak condition, Voldemort draped the Deathly Hallow Invisibility Cloak over himself.
His figure vanished from the world.
Under the cloak, Voldemort waved his wand several more times, layering multiple concealment spells on top of it.
Now even the sounds and scent beneath the cloak would be hidden by magic.
With the cloak's unbelievable invisibility effect added on, Voldemort was certain that no being in the world could discover him.
"Just in case, I've also arranged for Dumbledore to receive a Ministry letter and temporarily leave Hogwarts for a meeting."
"Now everything is perfect. There will be no more accidents."
"Today, the Philosopher's Stone will belong to me. My era will return!"
Full of confidence, Voldemort left the office, passed through the corridor, and headed for the trapdoor at the end of the fourth-floor corridor.
Along the way, every statue, portrait, and ghost ignored him completely.
Even Snape, who was patrolling in secret, passed right by him without any reaction.
The last trace of unease in Voldemort's heart finally vanished.
It was not that he lacked confidence in his magic. There had simply been too many inexplicable incidents recently, leaving him suspicious of everything.
Fortunately, nothing happened on the way. Voldemort could finally relax.
After taking a deep breath, he gently pushed open the trapdoor. The moment it revealed a narrow gap, he slipped through like a snake.
The instant he entered the room on the other side, Voldemort's entire body tensed. Under the cloak, his hand clenched his wand tightly, ready to respond to Fluffy's attack.
In his eyes, the so-called three-headed dog should now be called a five-headed dog.
The aura it radiated was enough to press an ordinary three-headed dog into the ground and grind it flat.
Voldemort's cheek twitched.
He had not come here for some time, and this three-headed dog had grown stronger again?
Was Dumbledore insane?
What exactly had he been feeding this thing every day?
At that moment, perhaps because the trapdoor had opened a crack, Fluffy woke and raised its heads, looking in Voldemort's direction.
For an instant, Voldemort had the illusion that his position had already been seen through.
But a moment later, Fluffy seemed to decide the trapdoor had only been blown open by the wind. Its raised heads lazily drooped again.
Voldemort breathed a sigh of relief, a confident smile appearing on his face.
"I knew it. How could a mere three-headed dog see through an Invisibility Cloak of this level?"
"I'm safe. Absolutely safe."
His gaze fell on the door behind Fluffy, burning with desire.
The obstacle that had blocked him for so long had finally been solved.
After this, surely there would be no obstacle more troublesome than the three-headed dog, right?
Philosopher's Stone, here I come!
Voldemort controlled Quirrell's body and stepped toward the door.
But just as he passed by the apparently dozing Fluffy, Fluffy suddenly shifted position.
Its thick, powerful tail swept out with a bang, tearing through the air as it lashed toward Voldemort.
Voldemort's scalp went numb. He dodged instinctively.
But at such close range, even with his reaction speed, he could not fully avoid it.
Fluffy's tail clipped Quirrell's body hard.
Crack!
Voldemort immediately felt two of Quirrell's ribs snap.
Quirrell's consciousness let out a wail.
"What happened?"
"Master, didn't the three-headed dog fail to notice us?"
Voldemort frowned, suspicion flashing across his face as his grip on the wand tightened.
But after a moment, when he saw that the dog had no intention of continuing to attack, he relaxed slightly. A guess surfaced in his mind.
"Coincidence?"
"Maybe the three-headed dog just happened to change its sleeping posture and its tail swept over. Its tail is so long that hitting us is normal."
"Enough, Quirrell. It's only two broken ribs. Do you need to scream so loudly? Think about the curse on you. Only the Philosopher's Stone can give you a new body. Do you still want to live?"
"Shut up. Don't affect my performance!"
Quirrell gritted his teeth hard.
To break the curse and survive, what were a few broken ribs?
Endure. He would endure!
Voldemort steadied himself and continued trying to bypass Fluffy and pass through the door.
But then Fluffy seemed uncomfortable with its new posture and shifted again.
That tail swept over once more.
This time, Voldemort was prepared. He immediately ducked and dodged Fluffy's tail.
But just as he breathed a sigh of relief, Fluffy rolled over, and the tail that had just swung past suddenly came back.
Voldemort's eyes widened.
"Fuck!"
He barely had time to curse before rolling again.
But this time, the pain from his broken ribs made his movement pause.
Crack!
Another rib broke!
Voldemort sucked in a sharp breath, glaring at Fluffy as if fire would burst from his eyes.
"Sleep, sleep, sleep! All day long, all you know how to do is sleep!"
"You can't even sleep properly? You have to keep changing positions?"
"How did I never know three-headed dogs were this annoying?"
Quirrell's expression turned doubtful.
"Master, why do I suddenly feel something is wrong?"
"How can it be such a coincidence?"
"Is there a possibility, just a possibility, that the three-headed dog actually discovered us and is deliberately acting to mess with us?"
Voldemort rejected the idea outright.
"Discovered us? Impossible. Absolutely impossible!"
"You saw it yourself. This Invisibility Cloak is ridiculously high-level. Even at my peak, I might not have been able to detect someone beneath it."
"And I've added so many concealment spells. Not even the slightest mental fluctuation can leak out. Even Dementors couldn't find me. No matter how sharp a three-headed dog's nose is, how could it locate me?"
Quirrell thought about it and found it reasonable. Still, after being injured twice and having three or four ribs broken, his face kept twitching.
"Then Master, should we wait until the dog settles down before moving?"
Voldemort considered it and nodded.
Soon, they saw Fluffy finally quiet down. It no longer kept changing positions, and the eyes on its heads looked drowsy again.
Only then did Voldemort tense his nerves and quickly move toward the door.
One step. Two steps.
As he got closer and closer to the door, while Fluffy, especially its tail, remained motionless, Voldemort finally relaxed slightly.
But in the next instant, Fluffy seemed to dream of something unpleasant. Its hind leg suddenly kicked out.
A foul gust of wind rushed toward Voldemort.
Voldemort's mind filled with one word: fuck.
Instinctively, he cast a Shield Charm.
The invisible barrier blocked Fluffy's kick for a brief moment, but Fluffy, now on the path of atavism as a five-headed dog, possessed strength incomparable to before.
Even a fire dragon would probably see stars after taking that kick.
Even Voldemort's hastily cast defense through Quirrell's body was kicked apart by Fluffy.
Then Voldemort's vision went black.
By the time he reacted, he realized he had been kicked onto the wall.
Intense pain spread through his entire body. Who knew how many bones now had cracks?
Quirrell finally could not hold back anymore. His consciousness screamed endlessly.
"It found us!"
"This beast definitely found us! Otherwise, how could it be such a coincidence every time?"
"Are we really this unlucky every single time?"
"Master, this beast is playing with us!"
At first, Voldemort also thought so.
But after hearing Quirrell's words, his expression shifted slightly.
"Quirrell, what did you just say? Say it again."
Quirrell gritted his teeth.
"This beast is playing with us!"
Voldemort shook his head.
"No. The sentence before that."
Quirrell froze, then hesitantly said,
"Are we really this unlucky every single time?"
Voldemort took a deep breath, nodded, and said with righteous indignation,
"Aren't we always particularly unlucky?"
"How many times have we been struck by lightning alone?"
"A three-headed dog rolling over in its sleep and accidentally kicking us while we're invisible is far more likely than being struck by lightning several times, isn't it?"
Quirrell froze.
"That... seems to make sense."
Voldemort's expression became firm.
"We should not doubt the Invisibility Cloak. All of this is simply because our luck is too poor."
"But remember, luck has always been something controlled by the strong."
"We have already verified the cloak's magic. It cannot possibly be countered. Are we now supposed to doubt our own professional judgment?"
"Quirrell, once a wizard begins doubting his own judgment of magic, that is when his strength starts regressing."
"I, Voldemort, dare say that no one in this world understands magic better than I do. Since I say the cloak cannot be countered, I will put that belief into action."
"If I doubt my own judgment because of a few unlucky coincidences in a short span of time, what kind of weak-willed wizard would I be?"
Quirrell's eyes gradually filled with admiration.
As expected of the Dark Lord. No matter how brutal his methods or vicious his heart, someone capable of great things truly had extraordinary will.
Just as Quirrell had begun to waver, his master still persisted in his judgment and did not doubt himself because of temporary setbacks.
Greatness spoke for itself.
He had chosen the right master!
Quirrell rallied and asked,
"Then Master, what do we do next?"
Voldemort said quietly,
"Luck. Fate..."
"Heh. They are nothing but things trampled beneath the feet of the strong."
"I refuse to believe that the Invisibility Cloak plus my concealment spells will lose to coincidence tonight."
Then Voldemort charged toward the door again.
Fluffy's eyes revealed surprise.
Still coming?
This invisible intruder seemed a little stupid.
Or had its acting skills improved rapidly under Theodore's guidance?
Whatever the case, Fluffy, bored and lacking toys, brightened all five pairs of eyes.
Now this was fun!
...
At the same time, Theodore silently took a pink letter from the arms of a sleeping Slytherin student.
According to his divination, the news that Harry owned a precious Invisibility Cloak had been passed to Voldemort by this student.
As for how the message had been passed...
"This letter?"
Theodore casually swept his gaze over it. There seemed to be no words on the paper, as if they had been hidden by magic.
But how could that escape his Insightful Heavenly Eye?
In the next moment, every conversation that had taken place on the letter appeared before Theodore's eyes.
Then Theodore's expression gradually changed.
When he realized what he was seeing, his face turned iron-blue.
What the hell...
Several dozen pages' worth of cringe love lines?
Worse, Theodore seemed to see some mottled stains on the letter paper.
For once, genuine horror appeared on his face. His fear of this letter surpassed his fear of any Old One.
Terrifying. This was fucking terrifying.
Voldemort had been playing this game all this time?
No wonder he had not gone after unicorns again and could still restore his condition. So he had become a "succubus"?
And recently, Slytherin students had often been criticized by professors for being sleepy and listless in class.
Now Theodore finally knew why. They had been busy flirting with their dream lover on paper.
This Slytherin student had accidentally learned that Harry had received a special Invisibility Cloak and immediately wrote it down as gossip on the letter.
For a moment, Theodore felt as if ten thousand alpacas were stampeding through his heart.
This was blinding. Absolutely blinding.
With a flick of his hand, the letter returned silently to its original place.
At that moment, the Slytherin student mumbled in his sleep, as if calling out to his beloved.
"My moon, my stars..."
"I miss you so much. When can we meet...?"
Theodore grimaced, but his footsteps suddenly stopped.
Since he now knew that Voldemort was relying on this method to absorb vitality and restore his condition, Theodore naturally could not let him succeed so easily.
Thinking of this, a strange look appeared in Theodore's eyes.
His Insightful Heavenly Eye flashed. In an instant, he understood the magic Voldemort had placed on the letter.
Then Theodore casually traced lines in the air, and ink marks appeared on the letter, forming words.
"My dear, I think we have communicated through letters for a long time. Tonight, I finally gathered the courage to meet you in person and tell you something very important..."
"Please follow the arrow on the letter to find me."
Theodore's lips curved into a wicked smile. Only then did he leave the Slytherin dormitory.
Not long after he left, every Slytherin student who possessed a pink letter and had been bewitched by Voldemort suddenly felt the paper in their arms turn hot, waking them from their dreams.
Then they saw the words that had appeared on the letter.
These students, who had long been enchanted beyond reason, immediately became overjoyed.
"What?"
"We can finally meet?"
"My beloved, wait for me!"
One Slytherin student after another did not even have time to dress properly. Clutching their wands and pink letters, they hurried out of their dormitories.
...
"Fuck!"
At this moment, Voldemort was panting, feeling close to breaking down.
More than ten of his bones were broken, and his entire body was covered in injuries. He looked miserable beyond words.
All of this was the result of his repeated attempts to bypass Fluffy, only to be "accidentally injured" again and again.
He could not understand it at all. He was clearly wrapped in the Invisibility Cloak, and had added such powerful concealment magic on top of it. There was no way the three-headed dog could sense him.
So why was it so coincidental every time, making it impossible for him to cross even half a step?
Was his luck really that bad?
"No. I refuse!"
"Fate is merely something I play with. How dare it stand above me?"
Voldemort's eyes turned red.
But the next moment, Fluffy slapped him with one paw, catching him off guard and sending him flying. Blood spurted from his mouth.
"You!?"
Voldemort glared at Fluffy.
No, wait. He had not moved.
Wasn't the three-headed dog asleep? How had it slapped him?
Fluffy scratched its head, and its heart skipped.
Bad. It got too excited and could not hold back.
Could it still pretend?
Sleepwalking. Just pretend it was sleepwalking.
Fluffy swayed as if preparing to lie back down. But Voldemort noticed the sinan artifact installed on one of its heads.
He did not know what the artifact was, but he could clearly see its needle pointing straight at his position.
In a flash, Voldemort understood everything.
From the very beginning, this three-headed dog had known he was sneaking in invisibly?
It had known everything and was deliberately acting to mess with him?
He had been played by a dog?
A monstrous rage erupted in his heart.
"Beast!"
The furious Voldemort clenched his wand and immediately cast a Killing Curse at Fluffy.
Dazzling green light exploded through the room.
But three-headed dogs already possessed extremely high magic resistance. Due to their ancestral bloodline, they were one of the few magical creatures in the wizarding world with resistance to the Killing Curse.
Even before, Voldemort's Killing Curse would have struggled to do much to Fluffy.
Now, Fluffy had transformed completely and far surpassed ordinary three-headed dogs.
Even when struck by Voldemort's furious Killing Curse, Fluffy merely stumbled two steps, shook its heads, and stood firm again.
This time, Fluffy narrowed its eyes and slowly bared its teeth.
So the act had been exposed?
Perfect. They could play a new game.
The game was called:
You run, I chase, and you won't escape even with wings.
In the next instant, the entire floor seemed to tremble, and foul winds surged.
All the space before Voldemort seemed to be occupied by Fluffy.
Five enormous dog heads bit toward Voldemort at the same time.
Even though Voldemort wore the Invisibility Cloak, the compass needle continued tracking his position with perfect accuracy.
Before this invisibility-breaking artifact from the Primordial World, even the Deathly Hallow Invisibility Cloak was useless.
No matter how furious Voldemort was, he could only flee desperately around the room.
As he fled, Voldemort cursed inwardly.
Damn it. An alchemical item capable of breaking this level of Invisibility Cloak, no matter who made it, would probably earn a Merlin medal and shock the entire wizarding world.
And you put this achievement on a dog's head?
Are you even letting people play?!
As for defeating Fluffy head-on?
Voldemort was not even sure whether his recovered power was enough to do it.
Even if he could, he would have to empty all his accumulated strength. Then what about the later obstacles?
This was the power he had saved up by writing those nauseating love lines during "paper romance" every night!
At this moment, even though he hated it with gnashing teeth, Voldemort could only throw out a spell with all his might, briefly blocking Fluffy for an instant.
Then, without looking back, he dragged his battered body out through the trapdoor and left Fluffy's room.
Only after returning to the fourth-floor corridor did Voldemort finally breathe a sigh of relief.
But before he could recover, he suddenly felt something was wrong.
Why were there suddenly so many people in the fourth-floor corridor?
What were all these Slytherins doing here?
One by one, their clothes were disheveled, and they were clutching letters, as if searching for something.
An ominous premonition gradually rose in his heart.
Something terrible seemed about to happen.
In the next moment, the Slytherins who had followed the arrows on their letters to this place lit up with joy.
When Voldemort came out from the trapdoor, the arrows that had gone quiet after leading them here finally reacted again, pointing directly at Voldemort's invisible position.
The Slytherin students cried out in delight.
"My beloved!"
"My moonlight, my starlight, have you finally come to see me?"
"Such brilliant invisibility magic. As expected of my love!"
"Come, don't be shy anymore. Fall into my arms!"
Immediately, one Slytherin student could not hold back and rushed toward Voldemort's invisible position with open arms.
Voldemort's scalp went numb.
He could accept using vulgar love lines on paper to draw vitality from these students, but his dignity had not fallen so low that he could flirt with so many students face to face.
Besides, judging by the state of these students...
Voldemort felt he might be filled like a cream puff.
He quickly dodged aside, cursing furiously in his heart.
"What the hell happened?"
"Are they insane?!"
The Slytherin student who missed looked confused. Seeing the arrow on the letter change direction again, he seemed to understand something and smiled strangely.
"Playing coy?"
"You want to play games with me, little darling?"
"Hehe, if I catch you, will you let me punish you however I want?"
"Then I'm coming!"
The other Slytherin students also rushed over.
"Baby!"
"Where's my baby?"
"You're playing hide-and-seek with me too?"
"Hehe, fine. If I catch you, I'll do everything you wrote to me in your letters!"
At that moment, Voldemort shuddered and returned control of the body to Quirrell.
"Quirrell, you're a professor. You're better at dealing with young wizards."
"I'll leave this scene to you!"
After a brief daze, Quirrell looked at the smirking students chasing after him to punish him, his face lifeless.
"Voldemort?"
◇ BONUS & SUPPORT ◇
◇ 1 bonus chapter for every 10 reviews — drop a comment!
◇ 1 bonus chapter for every 100 Power Stones.
◇ Read 60 chapters ahead on P@treon → patreon.com/StrawHatStudios