The afternoon sunlight streamed through the windows and spilled onto the corridor where Harry, Hermione, and Ron stood in front of Professor Westeros's office.
Harry and Ron were furtively pushing the door open just a crack, squinting to peek inside.
"Why are you two being so sneaky?" Hermione asked puzzledly from beside them. "It's daytime, you know."
Only then did Harry realize that they weren't breaking curfew this time, so there wasn't much to worry about. So Harry simply knocked on the door.
"Knock knock."
After waiting for a moment, there was no response from inside the office. Harry tentatively pushed the door open, which let out a faint creaking sound.
"It's really impolite to enter a professor's office without permission," Hermione murmured, but she still honestly followed Harry and Ron into the office.
As soon as the three stepped inside, the sight before them left them stunned.
On the left side of the desk, an entire wall was covered by a sea of green—it was Devil's Snare.
But what surprised them even more was that one tendril of the Devil's Snare was flipping through a book on the desk, while another tendril was wrapped around a wand that kept shooting sparks.
Harry recognized it—that wand was Professor Westeros's spare one.
"What is..." Ron said dumbly. "What is that thing?"
Harry was familiar with Devil's Snare, so he strode directly to the desk and discovered that the book the plant was reading was "Standard Book of Spells, Grade 1."
This confused him greatly. The Devil's Snare seemed to be learning how to cast spells, which was absurd.
Just then, the Devil's Snare, immersed in the book, noticed the extra figures in the office. It hurriedly stuffed the wand into a desk drawer and quickly put "Standard Book of Spells, Grade 1" back on the table.
"We saw that," Harry said, stroking one of the Devil's Snare's tendrils. "No need to hide."
The tendril instantly jerked away.
"Don't worry," Harry couldn't help but laugh at the sight. "I won't tell the teacher."
Seeing Harry chatting and interacting with a tendril, Hermione and Ron exchanged glances.
"Has he gone mad?" Ron whispered to Hermione.
Before Hermione could answer, Harry called out to them, "Come over here! It won't hurt you. This is Professor Westeros's Devil's Snare. It's very friendly—it's my friend."
Hermione and Ron nervously walked over to Harry's side.
They shuffled forward with unease as the Devil's Snare's tendrils curiously brushed against their robes.
"It really won't attack us?" Hermione asked shakily. "I've read in books that Devil's Snare is a terrifying creature that entangles anyone who comes near it until they die."
Ron had been feeling fine until he heard Hermione's explanation, which made him pause mid-step.
"Professor Westeros's Devil's Snare is different," Harry said, turning to the plant. "Could you make three cups of tea for us?"
While Ron and Hermione watched with confused expressions, the Devil's Snare quickly prepared three cups of red tea, serving them in delicate saucers and cups on the table in front of them.
"See?" Harry pointed at the tea proudly.
"But we've broken into Professor Westeros's office without permission. Won't he be angry?" Hermione started worrying about other matters. "This seems a bit inappropriate."
"Don't worry," Harry said as he walked over to the bookshelf. "I've never seen Professor Westeros get angry."
"But that doesn't mean—"
Hermione was interrupted as Ron patted her shoulder and casually said, "Professor Westeros really likes Harry. It'll be fine."
"Hermione, is this the one?"
Harry's voice came from the bookshelf. Hermione and Ron turned to see Harry holding up a book.
The two quickly ran over.
Hermione took the book from Harry's hands and said to the others, "This is it."
Then Hermione briefly skimmed through "The Untold Stories of Nicolas Flamel."
"Here it is!" she suddenly exclaimed. "It's the Philosopher's Stone. It says Nicolas Flamel once created a Philosopher's Stone that can turn any metal into pure gold and produce the Elixir of Life, making whoever drinks it immortal."
"It can turn any metal into pure gold?" Ron said blankly. "So, if we get the Stone, we'll be rich?"
Hermione rolled her eyes and closed the book. "It's just a guess. It might not be the Philosopher's Stone."
As for Harry, he was deep in thought. Was the fourth floor really hiding the Philosopher's Stone?
Hermione closed the book and put it back on the bookshelf, then beckoned to the other two: "We should go. We still have a class later!"
Soon, the three left Adrian's office. Seeing this, the Devil's Snare locked the door. Then it took out the textbook and began waving the wand again.
The sparks shooting from the wand's tip were particularly bright in the dim office.
After discovering that the fourth floor was most likely hiding the Philosopher's Stone, Harry's interest in that room actually diminished.
Gold?
He had a vault full of Galleons left by his parents, and he didn't need that much money for now.
Immortality?
That was too far away for him—he was only eleven, and had a long life ahead of him.
Ron, on the other hand, kept muttering words like "Philosopher's Stone," "Galleons," and "pure gold" in his ear, looking very excited.
As for Hermione, she seemed somewhat interested as well. As soon as class ended in the afternoon, she rushed off to the library, saying she wanted to find more information about the Philosopher's Stone.
In the evening, Adrian walked back to his office.
Just now, he had gone to observe Quirrell again.
Quirrell had changed dramatically. He had even heard from some students that although Quirrell still read from the textbook during class, he no longer stuttered.
This made Adrian feel even more puzzled. Adrian was deep in thought as he pushed open the door to his office.
As soon as he opened it, he froze. Someone had been in his office!
Look at that—those bold intruders had even left three cups of tea on his desk.
And they hadn't taken a single sip!
At that moment, the Devil's Snare emerged from the briefcase and sketched Harry's face in the air with its tendrils.
"Oh, it was Harry and his friends."
No wonder the Devil's Snare hadn't stopped the intruders. Adrian relaxed and sat back down in his seat.
He needed to grade the fifth-year students' holiday assignments. The assignment was very simple—a test paper based on previous O.W.L. exam content.
"Miss Donovan, Mr. Flint..."
The quill scratched across the parchment.
"Hmm... Mr. Cartwright, let me see... the function of Hag eggs... can be used to stew beef? Would provide an incomparable delicacy? Brilliant!"
Adrian gave him a failing grade and planned to find time to try the recipe.
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Author's Note: Many readers have said they prefer double chapters, So I will be doing so.