Chapter 36

I continued forward along the pitiful and weak traps that the teachers had placed and went past them easily. Instead of picking up the correct flying key and opening the door, I instead ripped the door off it's hinges and after passing through conjured a stronger door to replace it. Just for laughs, I changed the lock of the door and cast a strong locking charm on it (Colloportus). I could have of course made it impossible for the door to be opened by anyone but me but where was the fun in that?

In McGonagall's chess room, I decided to continue the theme of using my overwhelming physical prowess. As an insurance, I made my wand levitate in the air and connect to it with a strand of magic that I could use to fire spells from it, not unlike a remote controlled long distance cannon.

I jumped onto the chessboard and proceeded to revel in the joy of smashing apart the chess pieces, both black and white. But I took great care in being cautious and frequently ordered my wand to fire all manners of spells including exploding hexes or just plain telekinesis to prevent myself from being surrounded. I probably wouldn't have been injured even if all of the transfigured and animated chess pieces were to jump on me and probably could have made it out unscathed while demolishing them, but I wasn't willing to risk it. And besides, this way I could get some feel for using my third mind as well, which I was using to control my wand.

Speaking of minds, my first mind, or the one I felt was my original, was just like a normal human's mind. All manner of inane thoughts, contradictory ideas and stupid conclusions resounded in that mind. The other two on the other hand, were entirely mechanical in nature. They were fully focused on the tasks I 'assigned' them, and thus I called them my sub-minds.

My second Mind had almost finished understanding the magic textbooks I had ordered it to, and soon I would put it to work on solely focusing on managing my detection radar/map, and extend it's range as much as possible. I would also need to find a way to make a minimap of sorts in a way that didn't involve wards or just throwing around magic around me because I wasn't going to stay in Hogwarts forever. My plan was always to travel the wide world, and I needed to prepare for it so that I could leave after that farce of a tournament.

Anyways, I had finished demolishing the chess pieces. Looking at the remains of the magical chess pieces, I decided to restore them like they were. I did leave a little surprise present for whoever was going to come investigate after I finished snatching up the Philosopher's Stone. I wonder how they would feel if they came face to face with a giant robot-type creature made by the combination of all those pieces...

Walking forward, I came face to face with the hideous creature that had the honour of being the first magical beast to die under my Integrator. This time, since there was no Quirrell to beat the troll, I could experiment with the Integrator on the dumb beast.

I fired the Integrator at the troll, and expectantly waited for the results. Through this one cast, I could kill two birds with one stone. First, I could find out if the Integrator could be used on a creature of the same species that had been previously hit by it and secondly, I could also find out if I could only use another Integrator after finishing the integration process from my previous cast. The latter, if true, could certainly hinder my plans.

This time, the beam didn't bounce off the troll and proceeded to disintegrate it like it did to the previous troll. So, this certainly provided validation to both of my hypotheses, but the latter one was more tentative as it could just be a matter of "cooldown", like within two Integrators there should be a gap of 15 seconds or something.

This time, the integration process ended a lot faster than I expected it to. Perhaps, because I had already used the spell on a member of the same species, the process didn't take much time? Could be. Well, that was another half-proven hypothesis.

Soon, I reached Snape's puzzle room and proceeded to examine the purple flame that had started to blaze after I had stepped into the room, blocking the entrance from which I had entered. After a few seconds of perusal, I found out it wasn't all that impressive. It was just a cool looking flame that prohibited anyone who didn't have a 'key' from bypassing it, and I was guessing both Snape and Dumbledore had this key. One of the potions could temporarily bypass the locking mechanism, but I was sure it would also trigger an alarm that would bring the old Headmaster and his pet Death Eater come running. So, although a bit good, it still made me feel a bit disappointed because it was basically a harmless locked door, but it still made me admire Snape a little because even though I could cast more or less the same spell, making a potion react like that to a spell was beyond me...at least, for now.

Turning around, I let my gaze rove over the different vials and after finding out they didn't have any sort of trackers on them, proceeded to sweep them inside my pockets, which were, of course, enchanted with expansion charms.

Speaking of enchanting, I still hadn't found a way to make my enchantments permanent. Sure, now that my magic had increased in both quality and quantity the enchantments lasted longer but they still weren't permanent. I had refined my crude ways of enchanting from my orphanage days, but it still was lacking... something that could make it even better.

Putting my questions to the back of my head, I proceeded to examine the black flame that blocked the exit and found out that it was basically the same as the purple one, but with a slight difference in characteristics, which was that this one could actually harm a normal wizard. But, unfortunately for the flame, at this point I was the last person who could be called normal in any shape or form. Walking through the black fire, I barely felt a tickle and silently chuckled to myself after I saw my clothes had almost started to burn. But thankfully the enchantments held and I sped up the repairing process by actively channeling magic through the fabric of the clothes.

And finally, I came face to face with something I had been meaning to find for a while now.

The Philosopher's Stone was all well and good, but the more pressing issue was what would I see in the Mirror of Erised, and more importantly...

What would I gain after using the Integrator on it?