Ep. 22

Like so, time passed relatively peacefully until June. I was mainly training after school, while sending a golem-puppet connected to a secondary thought process to class. I had reached an important part of my training, so I wanted to gain access to all eight gates before the end of the school year. Ah, I should probably mention that the technique was modified to work with magic, not chakra. It would be useless otherwise. With my insane Regeneration and Temperature Resistance, along with Conceptual Damage Nullification, I could easily shrug off any sort of drawback from the technique, and I could probably gain some sort of resistance to its damage when I get Doomsday's adaptability.

Anyway, I was practicing when I saw through my puppet that Harry and Daphne were sneaking out of the Common Room to follow Quirrell. It is time to get the Philosopher's Stone. I don't need it, but I surely don't want snake-face to get it. Not because I don't want him back, but because I need him to come out to the public for me to defeat him and be hailed as a hero. I will get some nice benefits from it. I still need to decide whether I want to live in this universe for a while or not, after all.

I decided to stop training, as I could finally access all eight gates. Unfortunately, I haven't tested the Eighth Gate Opening, but I can live with that. I will need to check on my interface whether I die or not while using the technique… I casted a cleaning and disinfecting spell on myself and strolled towards the third floor. I sent a puppet-familiar to McGonagall with a letter saying: 'Quirrell is trying to get the Philosopher's Stone. Voldemort parasitized him. Potter, Greengrass, and Granger are following him. Inform Dumbledore while I check on them.' Short and to the point. Obviously, I don't need any help and could just vanquish Voldemort's soul, but I already mentioned that I want fame.

I arrived at Fluffy's room soon enough, and I found it standing above Harry, Daphne, and Hermione while dripping saliva on the bushy-haired girl.

"Are you guys going to jump down, or do you want to become chew toys for Fluffy here?"

"Please tell me that the damn dog isn't above me." said Daphne

"The damn dog isn't above you." Daphne took a deep breath and jumped down, immediately followed by the other two students, who narrowly escaped the dog's bite. The fluffy boi turned around to face me, but it soon cowered and let me pass. He has good instincts. I gently floated down the well-like thing and landed on the Devil's Snare.

"You have to stay absolutely sti-" started saying Hermione. I blasted through with a simple explosion spell.

"Sorry, you were saying?"

"Nothing. Let's go."

"Wait. Why are you here, Az? It's dangerous! No, wait… You told us of Quirrell, so why didn't you stop him before?" asked Harry

"Simple. The last line of defense is the Mirror of Erised. Quirrell, or rather Voldemort, desires the stone, so he will never be able to take it out from the mirror. And do you seriously think that I'd be in any danger? It's suicidal for you firsties to venture down here without even a proper magical education. Come on, follow me."

I led the three kids through the tunnels, until we got to the 'Enchanted Key' area. I decided to hold a little impromptu lesson for them, since I kinda enjoyed dispensing knowledge to the ignorant masses.

"Gather around, kids! Let me teach you something. You see that door there? Why don't you try using Alahomora on it?" I said, pointing to the door to the next area.

Hermione went and tried the Alahomora spell a couple of times, but it didn't work. "It doesn't work, there must be another way."

"Of course there is. But, before that, let me tell you why it doesn't work. The door is enchanted with a common enchantment to repel the unlocking spell and other such 'thief'-oriented spells. However, the door is usually vulnerable to Muggle lockpicking, so you could try learning that over the Summer. Now, the majority of the enchanted doors also have something to make them sturdier, either the materials or another enchantment of some sorts. This one doesn't, so it's quite fragile." I said. I moved towards the door and kicked it open, unhinging it in the process. I ignored the stares from the kids and continued leading them through the tunnels.

The next area was the 'Wizard Chess' area. "Now, anyone recognize this?"

"Wizard chess." said Daphne

"Excellent, Ms. Greengrass. Now, wizard logic would tell you to play a game of chess, but what is the final goal of every wizard chess game?" I received silence as a response. "Nothing? Okay then. The goal is destroying the other party's pieces. In this case, Muggle logic leads you to destroy the pieces physically without playing the game. Basically, the lesson is: if you can cheat, do it." I said and destroyed the giant chess pieces with a series of explosions.

"Okay, why are you doing this? At the beginning you also said that Voldemort wants the stone. Why is that?" asked Daphne

I answered while moving. "Excellent question. The world is not all sunshine and roses. Voldemort has never been dead for real: his spell was reflected on him, but he had fail safes in place. He created Horcruxes, objects with literal pieces of his soul stuffed inside. Those basically make it impossible to kill him, unless they are all destroyed. Voldemort survived the encounter with Harry, but he was reduced to a wraith, or something akin to it. He has parasitized Quirrell and is currently seeking the stone to revive himself. Believe it or not, you three are going to be in a whole lot of unlikeable situations in the next few years, so I am trying to give you some lessons. Take them or ignore them, the choice is yours."

While I was explaining my motivation, we arrived at the 'Troll' area. "There isn't a lesson to learn for enemies. Just kill them. Never aim to disarm or stun, but to kill. The world is dog-eat-dog, so you have no room for compassion in battle."

I used my Black Lightning Manipulation to fry everything in the room except for me and the three kids. The second to last line of defense was Snape's potion riddle.

"Tell me, what does this riddle tell you?"

"Absolutely nothing. I can't make out a single sensed answer." said Daphne

"It's a Muggle riddle, not that I have seen it before, but it's like one. Wizards would be stuck here forever since they have not an ounce of logic, no offence, Daphne." said Hermione

"Excellent, those two answers are satisfactory. Now, since a riddle would be uselessly difficult to solve, you can simply test the potions: you have three poisons, two wines, and two useful potions."

"Isn't it only one potion? The one to go forward?" asked Harry.

"We are surrounded by fire. Whether we wanted to go forward or backwards, we need to cross it. The potions to go forwards and backwards are the same. Now, to test for poisons, you can often just put a drop of it on your skin. If it itches, it's a bad sign. For the alcohol, you first identify the poisons, then taste test the remaining potions. Easy, right?" they nodded, because it was a practical solution. Of course it was, it's something I said, after all!

"But, we don't need to do that at all." I said and used magic to extinguish the fire. "Now, I already sent a letter to McGonagall about the situation, so Daphne and Hermione will be staying here to wait for reinforcements while me and Harry deal with the guy who can't stay dead."

"Wha- No!"

"It wasn't up for discussion, Daphne. Consider this a military operation and I am taking command. That or whatever suits your tastes. Thing is, I'm the boss right now." I dragged Harry towards the last area where we found Quirrell monologuing. I quickly casted an Avada Kedavra curse on him.

"There. Harry, the most important lesson of all is that, if a bad guy is monologuing or explaining his nefarious plans, you should never listen to what he says and actually kill him. Okay? The only good villain is a dead villain, remember this. Now, look into the mirror, then into your pockets. You should find the Philosopher's Stone." I was interrupted by a very loud and rude wraith, so I banished it from the castle for the next two years through Holy magic.

Harry snapped out of his reverie and vomited a little.

"Oh, right. This must be the first time you have seen a human die. Sorry, that was insensitive of me. Take your time." I went to Quirrell's corpse and started extracting his memories into a vial, so that Dumbledore could review them in his pensieve. That thing is bloody useful, I need to get one.

"You killed him!" shouted Harry.

"Hm? Yes, I thought that was pretty obvious. Oh, are you worried because he was a teacher and all that? Don't worry. He was a Dark wizard anyway, so the Ministry would have probably put him in Azkaban to rot. Trust me, death is better than Azkaban."

"Th-tha- this… This isn't what I thought being a wizard would be like…"

"I know how you feel, Harry, I really do. But that doesn't change the fact that you will have to face Voldemort and many other dangers in these coming years. I will be dealing with most things here in Hogwarts until I graduate, but I can't always be here. There is a prophecy on you and Voldemort: only you can kill him. I can make sure he stays dead even if I kill him myself, but you will still clash because of it. You are young, probably you don't get why you should be fighting a Dark Lord, but the world, Voldemort, they won't care about what you think."

I told him something he should have been told at the beginning of the year. No, even before that. When I think back on it, it's really sad that a teen had to face basically magic Satan on his own. Sure, there was Dumbledore's Army and the Order of the Phoenix, but he had to shoulder most of the weight… Oh well, I did my part now. I hope this makes him grow and start training or at least take lessons more seriously.

I pierced Quirrell's corpse around the neck, faking a wound, then floated him behind me as I went back to the potions room where I left Daphne and Hermione. I found McG and Snape there reprimanding the two girls.

"Hello there, Professor Snape, Professor McGonagall. The stone is safe, so are the kids. However we have a little 'dead weight' to take care of." I said, pointing at the body floating behind me.

McG covered her mouth with a hand and had wide eyes.

"Mr. Maleficarum… Azagareth, did you kill him?" asked Snape.

"Unfortunately, I had to. He was about to attack me and Harry, so I responded in kind. I got a good hit at his neck and, well, he's just human, so…" A human can't survive a lacerated neck, not at the level shown by the corpse. *Sigh* how hard it is to fake being sad…

McGonagall covered the body with a cloak, so that the students wouldn't see, then proceeded to scold me about how 'irresponsible, impulsive, overconfident, and rebellious' I was. Damn, feels like Mother's scoldings… Snape instead was very curious, or rather worried, about what I meant by Voldemort parasitizing Quirrell, so I had to explain the part about the guy not staying dead and the Horcruxes. They didn't question how I knew, but I already had Ravenclaw's Diadem as a scapegoat. Having the good teachers know about the ROR can help them stage a better defensive once the Death Eaters invade the school, so I am willing to show it to them.

Soon enough, Harry came back with the stone in hand, then Dumbledore joined us. In the end, we all got 50 points for our bravery in protecting the stone, while I had 20 points deducted for killing a person and acting on my own. A person's life is worth 10 points, good to know.