Chapter 67: Quick Guide to the Philosopher's Stone Level (Edited)

First he struck in the center, causing the third stone to shift, and at that point the number of petals became 1, 3, 1, 1, 3, 1, then he struck once on the far left and once on the far right, causing both the left and right to shift, finally becoming a pattern of 2, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 2, and at that point anyone with a little common sense could see that striking the center stone, would cause all the stones to light up with two petals.

Tom solved the puzzle, the cage door creaked open and hundreds of keys came tumbling out, and Tom could clearly see that a large silver key had its wings dangling as if it had been grabbed roughly once.

Tom was about to make his move when he saw a shocking sight: Professor McGonagall leapt onto a flying broom in the corner of the room with a vigorous stance unbecoming of her age and status, and rose from the floor. Tom felt a flash of light before his eyes and the key was in Professor McGonagall's hands.

Tom: "!!!!"

Professor McGonagall looked at Tom, who was dumbfounded, and smiled, "I was a Chaser on the Gryffindor team when I was young."

Tom looked deeply at the teacher, who refreshed his knowledge, and opened the door.

Tom had made up his mind: this day, together with Professor McGonagall, they would defeat Quirrell!

Behind the door there was still a corridor, and after a few dozen steps Tom stepped forward, a circular room appeared before them, and he and Professor McGonagall were standing in the middle of it. In front of them was a statue of a strange-looking frog.

Professor McGonagall looked at it curiously.

The statue had a blue bead on its back and a red bead in its mouth. In front of the statue were circle-shaped grooves, like a mosquito spiral.

At the ends of the grooves a hole suddenly opened up, and from one of the grooves came beads of various colors. As far as Professor McGonagall could see, there were only four colors: red, yellow, blue, and green. The balls rolled slowly down the track.

She turned her attention to the source of the sound, which was Tom manipulating the frog. He directed the frog's mouth toward the slowly rolling balls, then tapped him on the buttocks and the frog spit the balls out of his mouth and put them in the ball queue.

If there are more than three balls of the same color, they will break and dissipate. The balls on the frog's back is the next ball he spits out, and with each shot, a new ball appears out of nowhere in the hollow of his back.

It took Tom less than a minute to clear the field of balls, throwing one after another.

Professor McGonagall: 'Σ(⊙▽⊙)!'

Now she suddenly understood why Dumbledore had asked her to make that frog: She and Dumbledore had set up the level together, she was responsible for Transforming the frog and the beads, and Dumbledore set the rules of the game.

But Professor McGonagall reflected for a moment, remembered the spell she had cast, and pulled out her wand: "(Bombarda)!"

"Boom!" there was an explosion, and the three beads left on the field were shattered by it. The whistle went out, and the small hole through which the ball had come out grew larger and larger until it took the shape of a door.

Tom: "..."

Why do these levels always leave some strange way to beat them?

Not only can you skip the actual levels that Tom suggested, but also the levels that Dumbledore originally designed! For example, the key level at the beginning, where Tom suspected the wooden door could be opened with a swipe, the chess level, which you could probably get through if you were fast enough, and Snape's fire, which Tom probably also had a way past.

So the most reliable, and toughest, is actually the troll left by Quirrell....

By the way, one of the three happens to be good at logical analysis, one good at chess, one talented at flying, and they all know how to deal with trolls, what a coincidence, right? And Sprout's Devil's Snare,

Wasn't it really meant to be a buffer? So that some three little wizards wouldn't be thrown to their deaths.

You can see from these levels that Dumbledore started the plan with the intention of exercising Harry with the Philosopher's Stone, and it's fair to say he probably had it in mind until today's intrusion by Quirrell. But plans don't change as quickly as they should, and with a maneuver by Quirrell, he was forced to abandon Potter's training program and send Professor McGonagall to solve the problem.

And what was Harry doing at the time?

"Neville, Ron, I think we need to keep Snape under surveillance all day... Yes, I know it's difficult, but we have to do what we can, preferably find crucial evidence, AND then expose him to Professor Dumbledore!"

Neville and Ron: "..."

In short, it's Snape! Spying on Snape!

And now, Tom and Professor McGonagall had reached the last level: beyond was the level designed by Dumbledore himself.

Professor McGonagall was a little uneasy: the intruder was moving too fast! She regretted not having increased the difficulty in the previous levels....

But then Tom said, "Professor Dumbledore's level is not that easy to beat, we can always rely on Professor Dumbledore."

The words cheered Professor McGonagall: Yes, when had Dumbledore ever let anyone down?

She concentrated, watching Snape's level. He had more or less learned the other professors' levels; after all, professors talked to each other. But he knew nothing about Snape's levels; he didn't talk to him more than three times a week, so how was he supposed to share his ideas about level design?

As he entered Snape's level, two flames rose from the entrance and exit of the room, blocking the way in and out. In Snape's room there was nothing but a table and five bottles, with a roll of parchment written next to it.

Professor McGonagall picked up the parchment and read what was written on it.

Danger lies before you, while safety lies behind.

Two of us want to help you, whichever one I find, one among us seven will let you go ahead.

Another will carry the one who drinks it back.

Two contain only nettle wine, three are deadly, Waiting hidden in line.

Take your pick, unless you'd rather stay forever, to help you in your choice, we give you four keys:

- First, no matter how clever the poison is at hiding you will always find some on the left side of the nettle wine;

- Second, the ones at the extremes are different, but if you want to move forward, none of them is your friend;

- Third, as you clearly see, we all have different sizes: neither the dwarf nor the giant keeps death inside;

- Fourth, the second on the left and the second on the right are twins, once you try them even though at first glance they are different.

"Logic puzzles..." whispered Professor McGonagall, then looked at Tom.

However, Tom didn't know either.