Chapter 108: Attack

Incredulous, Harry stuttered out, "P-Professor, you really mean..."

But his question was cut short as Sherlock Forester interjected curtly, "Just do as I say, Harry. If I don't reply promptly, use the Stupefy spell without delay. I trust you remember how to cast it? I just taught it to you again during our recent trip."

Picking up the urgency from the professor's tone, Harry nodded and hurried back to the car.

Sherlock watched Harry's hasty departure with a pondering look, then swiftly cast a Disillusionment Charm upon himself.

As the spell took effect, Sherlock gradually faded into the surrounding air until he was all but invisible. Despite his near transparency, Sherlock's movements caused slight distortions in the air as he moved, a subtle but possible telltale sign of his presence.

The Disillusionment Charm, while rendering one invisible, is not as efficient as the Invisibility Cloak. It's best used under the cover of night, for in broad daylight, perceptive eyes could spot the odd shimmer in the otherwise normal surroundings.

However, Sherlock wasn't seeking perfection in his concealment. After casting the spell, he quickly made his way to the last known location of Nicolas Flamel.

However despite his thorough search of the Flamel's backyard, Sherlock found no trace of Nicolas.

The door of the house remained sealed, its lock hinting that it hadn't been opened in a long time. This lack of recent activity only deepened Sherlock's suspicions.

So where was this "Nicolas Flamel"?

As Sherlock pondered, a girl, her face sprinkled generously with freckles, appeared from behind a flowering bush on the backyard, clutching a wooden box.

A smirk of intrigue stole over Sherlock's face as he watched this girl, who yesterday had introduced herself as "Marlene McKinnon" and had a run-in with Fleur at the pub.

Ah, there "he" was.

...

Safely within the car, Harry's thoughts returned to Sherlock's stern directives. Wrestling with the gravity of the situation, he gave further thought to the Professor's unfamiliar severity.

His intuition was ablaze. Something unusual was unfolding that called for this urgency from the usually composed professor. With every passing minute, Harry's anxiety mounted, evidenced by his constant scanning of his surroundings.

The fifth time he squinted over to see if Sherlock had returned, a familiar figure rounded the corner.

"Harry, what are you doing? Why are you in the car and where on earth is Sherlock?" The approaching figure, Fleur, questioned in confusion.

Harry's hand trembled slightly on the wand he'd been gripping tightly, and he stared intently at Fleur before abruptly demanding a response, "What's your sister's name?"

Taken aback by the unexpected question, Fleur froze confusedly, "What? I'd gone off looking for pieces of the Philosopher's Stone. Look, I found three fragments. We can each have one..."

Ignoring her answer, Harry pressed on urgently, "tell me your sister's name! Now!"

Fleur faltered, stammering, "I-I..."

In response, Harry promptly raised the hand that had been obscured in the car, and sharply cried out, "Stupefy!"

A bright red light erupted from his wand, striking "Fleur", who was standing only mere feet away with no chance to evade.

Instead of losing consciousness as expected, "Fleur" shrieked and transformed into a misshapen creature with sharp ears and a face as gnarled as a rotten orange.

A goblin!

As the illusion of 'Fleur' dissipated, revealing the goblin, there sounded a crack like a whip, and in the blink of an eye, the creature had vanished.

Lowering his wand, Harry allowed himself a moment of relief once he had confirmed the immediate threat had passed.

He had guessed right about the enemy not disguising itself as Sherlock but as Fleur!

He still remained worried about Sherlock's safety, mulling over the possibility of Nicolas Flamel being the culprit, and Sherlock having difficulty combating a six-hundred-year-old.

...

Sherlock, however, was unperturbed by the situation. He was inconspicuously tailing "Marlene McKinnon" alias Fleur's "schoolmate".

Observing the disguised enemy vanishing into the woods rumored to house fragments of the Philosopher's Stone, he quietly followed.

Despite the forest not being as immense as the Forbidden Forest of Hogwarts, it was considerably larger than an average grove. Several youthful wizards had been hunting through the forest for about twenty minutes, with only a few succeeding in finding fragments.

Once within the forest, "Marlene McKinnon" began soliciting other wizards for Fleur's whereabouts.

"The pretty girl with the silver hair?" A young male wizard thought for a while and pointed in one direction, "I saw her go that way just now."

"Thank you." "Marlene McKinnon" thanked him politely and then walked towards the direction the wizard had pointed out. She had gone about a few hundred meters deeper into the forest when she saw from afar that Fleur seemed to be in an argument with another witch.

"This is mine, why should I give it to you?" Fleur looked disgustedly at the witch standing before her. The witch was sullen, constantly looking at Fleur's right hand, which held a blood-red fragment.

She had spotted it at the fork of a tree, but before she could claim it, the shard flew up on its own and landed in Fleur's hand.

"Because I saw it first!" said the witch, coldly.

"If everything you see first belongs to you, then no one else should enter this forest because everything here would belong exclusively to the one who first laid eyes on it," Fleur retorted unabashedly.

Never one to shy away from a confrontation, Fleur had never been afraid of anyone. The reception she received at Beauxbatons was not always warm. While most boys were blinded by her natural beauty and deliberately tried to curry favor, most girls were not too fond of her.

After all, she was the most popular girl amongst the male student population at the academy and that had incurred the envy of a lot of girls who felt overshadowed.

"No matter whether it is in school or outside, I have never lost an argument," she said.

Rehashing the words of Flamel, "Anyone who finds a piece can take it." Fleur accused the girl, "Your inability to collect the fragment isn't my problem!"

The witch could no longer bear the relentless taunts of Fleur. Just as she was about to lunge at her and snatch away the pieces, a third voice resonated from the side.

"Sister Delacour!"

The seething witch froze, her eyes moving from Fleur to "Marlene McKinnon", her expression wavering. Fleur was visibly relieved to see her "junior sister" arrive.

Although never one to back down from a skirmish, having someone at her back undoubtedly provided reassurance. Aligning herself with Fleur, "Marlene McKinnon" presented a united front causing the discontent witch to back down, departing with a grudging, "You win this time".

Expressing her gratitude to the timely rescuer, Fleur thanked "Marlene McKinnon."

"No problem, sister. As long as you promise me a fragment of the Philosopher's Stone as a reward," she replied jovially.

"No way! I promised to bring them to someone else, I can't give them to you."

"McKinnon" quickly motioned, "I was just kidding, sister! Don't be so tense."

"Let's take a stroll deeper, the place inside hasn't been explored by anyone yet, we might find something."

After sensing Marlene McKinnon's genuine insistence of not wanting her pieces, Fleur agreed to venture further into the forest with "Marlene McKinnon" in hopes of finding more fragments.

While walking, Fleur asked with curiosity, "Why did you come so late? We were supposed to meet up at nine, I thought something had happened to you."

"McKinnon" giggled softly.

"There were a few things that held me back for a while. But I don't think I'm too late to join, right?"

"We're not too late indeed. To my knowledge, five fragments have been found, add in the two pieces in my possession, that's seven fragments out of 23. We have a high chance of finding at least one more piece; we might even find two," Fleur stated enthusiastically.

Presently, she was entertaining the idea that she could take back three pieces of the Philosopher's Stone and each person, her, Sherlock and Harry, could get one shard. "Marlene McKinnon" studied the hopeful Fleur as she furiously scanned the underbrush for more fragments of the Philosopher's Stone. A cold smile spread across her face.

Unbeknownst to Fleur, "Marlene" purposely led her to a place where there were two pieces hidden in a bird's nest on a tree.

"Look there, Sister!" "Marlene McKinnon" excitedly pointed out her discovery to Fleur. Fleur surged with excitement; her fantasy of collecting three pieces of the Philosopher's stone was becoming a reality. Now that they had discovered two more pieces, Fleur and "McKinnon" each had one.

As she trotted towards the pieces, planning to use her magic to attract the pieces instead of a wand, a dazzling red light sprang at her.

"Stupefy!"