Chapter 54: Your Problem Is Serious, Harry
In fact, before Tom Riddle, Hogwarts did not prohibit the study of Dark Arts, nor did it oppose soul research.
The Purple tip of Dark Arts revealed, which recorded the method of making Horcruxes, was always kept in the Restricted Section, and anyone could borrow it with the professor’s permission.
It wasn’t until Tom became Socket Man that, in order to find his secret to immortality, Dumbledore took away all the books Tom had ever borrowed, especially those related to Dark Arts and souls.
Vaughn pinched his brow, speechless.
Damn Tom!
Vaughn had gone to Dumbledore’s office before and hadn’t seen any similar books. They must have been hidden by that old man.
With Tom’s lesson learned, Vaughn felt it would be difficult to borrow books from Dumbledore.
In fact, his relationship with Dumbledore was currently delicate. In order to get more deeply involved in Harry and Tom’s destiny, he had revealed some intelligence he had to Dumbledore.
For example, Horcruxes and Harry’s abnormal condition.
This intelligence from the original work, although it could be packaged with other excuses, was enough to make Old Dumbledore vigilant just knowing about the Horcruxes.
Vaughn and Dumbledore were now in a process of mutual vigilance and probing.
They were willing to trust each other on some matters, yet guarded against each other in others. Vaughn didn’t want Dumbledore to treat him as a tool against Voldemort, and Dumbledore also feared cultivating another Voldemort.
“I need to find a way to slowly get Old Dumbledore to soften up.”
Vaughn pondered, Harry seemed like a good shield. As long as Old Dumbledore was sure that he wouldn’t become the next Voldemort…
Huh?
Vaughn suddenly realized the main point: it was all Tom’s fault, no matter how you looked at it!
The wicked Tom!
“Achoo!”
Hermione and Harry, who had just come out of Gryffindor Tower, met Professor Quirrell. After greeting the professor, they saw him sneeze violently, snot flying out.
Harry endured the nausea and asked, “Professor, are you alright?”
Professor Quirrell’s face was pale, and he wrapped himself in a fur cloak.
Steam was still coming out of his ears, a side effect of the Stamina Potion.
The steam made the garlic smell from his large headscarf even more pungent and unpleasant.
“I’m fine, fine, Mr. Potter…” He forced a smile and stammered, “Madam Pomfrey said I have a cold… Ah! I’m going to rest, goodbye, goodbye!”
The two watched as he suddenly groaned in pain for some reason, then hastily scuttled away, hugging the wall.
Hermione said softly with pity, “He must have been frozen yesterday. He fainted in the Great Hall, and the Headmaster only remembered him at the very end.”
As they were speaking, a passing Young Wizard saw Quirrell and immediately shouted at him, “Professor Quirrell, look, there’s a Troll!”
The other Young Wizards around them burst into laughter.
Ever since Quirrell was scared unconscious by a Troll yesterday, and Vaughn killed the Troll, no student had shown any respect for this professor.
Looking at all this, Harry sighed, “If I were him, I would stay far away from Hogwarts and never come back.”
“Do you think the person who wanted to steal the Philosopher’s Stone might be him?”
“Impossible,” Harry said firmly. “You might as well suspect Goyle and Crabbe. Quirrell… what could he do?”
This statement was extremely insulting. In the eyes of the trio, Goyle and Crabbe were basically the bottom limit of humanoid creatures; in principle, they couldn’t get any lower.
Hermione couldn’t help but glare at Harry.
The two sneaked into the Slytherin Common Room, located underground, and soon saw the famous words above an old door.
Seaside Room!
“How do we get in? We don’t have the password!”
Harry was a little nervous. This was the territory of the evil Slytherins. He wondered what the scene inside would be like.
Hermione, clutching her bag, said calmly, “We’ll wait for someone.”
After waiting for a while, a girl wearing a Serpent Shield Badge finally arrived.
Hermione bravely stopped her, “We are friends of Vaughn Weasley and want to visit him in his dormitory. Can you help us open the door?”
The girl was tall and strong, with arms thicker than Harry’s legs.
Her fierce, sharp eyes sized them up for a moment. She seemed to recognize Harry and grinned at him, “Follow me.”
The girl spoke the password and opened the door.
Hermione and Harry then saw outside the huge bay window of the common room, sunlight penetrating the ice, refracting and rippling underwater. Water plants swayed in the shimmering waves, schools of fish swam leisurely, creating a dreamlike scene.
The two were momentarily stunned…
No wonder Vaughn called it the Seaside Room…
There were quite a few people in the common room, and Malfoy was there too. Upon seeing Harry enter, he immediately jumped up from the sofa, “Potter, you…”
As soon as he spoke, he heard the girl point to the stairs nearby, “Mr. Weasley’s dormitory is that way, two floors up, the second room from the exit.”
Malfoy quickly sat back down on the sofa as if nothing had happened.
Harry pretended not to see him either. It wasn’t until he followed Hermione upstairs that he patted his chest forcefully, “That scared me to death, Malfoy with so many Slytherins…”
Hermione rolled her eyes at him, “What are you afraid of? Didn’t you notice? When that senior mentioned Vaughn’s name, they all dared not move.”
Harry had indeed noticed and was very envious.
Who wouldn’t want to be so imposing?
Following the directions of the kind senior, the two smoothly found Vaughn’s dormitory. As soon as Hermione knocked, the door opened, and a cute big cat was hanging on the doorknob, meowing at Hermione.
Hermione’s face lit up with joy, and she quickly hugged it, “Oh, Guo Guo Cha can open the door, so smart!”
Guo Guo Cha nuzzled her affectionately and swished its tail at Harry, a grudging greeting.
Harry, however, paid no attention to the cat’s preferential treatment. As soon as he entered, he saw Vaughn sitting at a desk by the window, pointing his wand at a pebble. As he softly chanted a spell, the pebble was slowly disappearing.
It was as if an invisible eraser was erasing it from the world before their eyes.
Soon, the pebble had completely vanished. Vaughn then looked up and asked Hermione and Harry, “Why did you come here?”
“Oh, we wanted to see you.”
Hermione said, then gazed wistfully at the spot where the pebble had disappeared, asking, “Did you make it invisible? What kind of Magic is it?”
Making an object invisible in the Wizarding World wasn’t too rare. Although First Years hadn’t learned it yet, Professor Flitwick had given examples of the Disillusionment Charm and Vanishing Spell when explaining spells before.
Vaughn did not answer.
He just looked at a thoughtful Harry and suddenly asked, “Harry, what do you think?”
Harry was taken aback and hesitated.
Based on his poor academic knowledge, he should have unconditionally believed Hermione’s words.
But he inexplicably felt that the spell Vaughn had just used was actually terrifying!
The pebble hadn’t become invisible; it had truly disappeared.
He hesitantly expressed his opinion, and Hermione’s eyes widened. She had already read all the first-year books and consulted some reference books with professors, and had never heard of such a Magic. One could only learn the Vanishing Spell in their fifth year.
However, before she could press further, Vaughn sighed:
“Your problem is very serious, Harry.”
Harry: “?”
