Chapter 152: Snape (Edited)

"¡S... Snape!"

Hermione looked at Snape, who suddenly appeared in front of her, and her whole head buzzed.

Her suspicions were indeed true - Snape had been following them!

And the familiar invisibility cloak in Snape's hand made Hermione feel even sadder.

It seemed that Ron's fate was in jeopardy....

So Hermione broke Snape's grip and gritted her teeth, drawing her wand, intending to fight him to the death.

Snape narrowed his eyes, his mouth formed a cold smile, and with a flick of his wrist, a wand shot out of his sleeve and into his palm.

"Don't always frighten my students!"

Professor McGonagall lifted the illusion spell from her body and approached with Fish in hand.

She gave Snape a disgruntled look and then lowered the hand she was holding her wand in.

"Professor McGonagall? Fish?"

Hermione blinked, as confused as Ron had been before her.

Things were changing so fast that even Miss Know-it-all couldn't understand what was happening right now.

"Hmph," Snape growled, putting his wand away, "Ten points off for Gryffindor, reason, setting fire to the professor's robes."

Professor McGonagall gave him an indifferent look, her House's points had been at the bottom of the table since the first day of school anyway, thanks to Fish's efforts, and it didn't matter how Snape discounted them.

Like the rest of the Gryffindor students, Professor McGonagall, the Dean, had opted to stand still in the face of the huge point difference.

"Don't worry, Professor Snape is not a bad person," Professor McGonagall said, patting Hermione's shoulder reassuringly, "I've warned Potter not to be blinded by prejudice, and he doesn't seem to have listened ... However, they did well, especially you, Hermione, with your Levitation Charm and your logical reasoning skills."

"The only thing I have to correct you on is...," Dumbledore also lifted the illusion spell and appeared with Ron in front of Hermione, "That great wizards are usually quite good at logical reasoning, I personally love puzzles, for example."

Dumbledore said to Hermione with a smirk, causing her to gasp.

"Wait, I'm sorry, Professor Dumbledore, I'm not.... I'm not..."

Hermione, who was in a panic, didn't know how to explain for a while.

Luckily, Dumbledore gave her a quick wave of his hand, "It's okay, it's okay, I don't mean to blame you, I'm just reminding you not to underestimate any wizard. Besides, this level of magical fire is easy enough for a wizard of great power to get through without the need for a magic potion."

"I, I understand, Professor Dumbledore."

Hermione nodded her head.

Then Dumbledore waved his wand and conjured a round table with a teapot and cups and five magnificent blue-backed chairs and cushions around it, he gestured to Hermione and Ron, "I'm sure you all have many questions, don't you? Come, if you have any questions, let's sit down and talk."

So the three of them, plus Professor McGonagall and Fish, sat in a circle at the round table.

"Professor, Professor Snape... Won't you sit down?" Ron turned his head and looked at Snape, who was not seated, and asked suspiciously.

"Oh... Since everyone agreed that Severus wanted to snatch the Philosopher's Stone, wouldn't Harry be disappointed if he didn't show up in the end?"

Dumbledore winked at Ron, flashing a smile he was all too familiar with, the same expressions his twin brothers had whenever they succeeded in a prank.

"Hmph..."

Snape scoffed, covering himself with the invisibility cloak again, before Ron and Hermione saw the black flames waver for a moment and a faintly visible shadow rush past.

Silently praying for Harry's luck, Ron and Hermione looked at Dumbledore and asked the biggest question on their minds.

"What the hell is going on here, Professor?"

"It started when Nicolas Flamel gave me the Philosopher's Stone..."

Dumbledore offered everyone a cup of tea, before telling the story.

While Hermione and Ron listened intently to the truth, Harry searched anxiously in the last room.

But no matter how hard he searched, there was nothing in the last room but the Erised mirror, which he had seen long ago, and nothing else.

However, Harry had searched the entire mirror, front and back, top to bottom, and could find no place where a stone could be hidden.

The thought of Snape arriving at any moment made Harry so anxious that he didn't even have time to look at his family in the mirror.

"Don't panic, don't panic, calm down, Harry..."

Harry forced himself to calm down, analyzing the mirror as Hermione did.

"Obviously, this mirror is the magic prepared by Dumbledore, and he said at the beginning that he would put the mirror somewhere else... Then the Philosopher's Stone must be hidden in this mirror!"

He turned to the Erised Mirror, staring at the image in the mirror.

The way wizards preserve things certainly isn't that simple, and there's definitely no point in poking around in the mirror anymore, so Harry tries to see if the mirror itself can give him a clue.

Then he saw in the mirror the same anxious expression on his own face, and this time there was no trace of his family.

After a moment, Harry in the mirror suddenly smiled, reached into his pocket, pulled out a bright red stone, winked mischievously at Harry in the mirror, and put the stone back in place....

Harry just felt his pocket sag, something heavy had really fallen into his pocket.

"This is amazing..."

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a bright red stone from his pocket, just as he had done earlier in the mirror.

Just as Harry marveled at how easy it was to get hold of the stone, several ropes suddenly appeared out of nowhere, tying him to the ground and dropping the stone in his hand, rolling it to the side.

Harry, unable to move, watched in horror as Snape lifted the invisibility cloak from his body, then slowly walked over to the Philosopher's Stone, bent down and picked it up.

"That's... a lot of work, Potter."

Snape gently tossed the Philosopher's Stone into his hand, the corners of his mouth twisted slightly and he sneered at Harry, who fell to the ground and rarely praised, "You did a good job, saving me a lot of work."

But Harry was not pleased, Snape's compliment was more hurtful than any of his previous taunts.

Harry was regretful, he didn't believe Hermione's earlier analysis was really true, Snape just wanted them to get him the Philosopher's Stone!

But why?

As Hermione had said, there was no need for Snape to go to so much trouble.

And then Snape quickly gave his answer, "I must say that Dumbledore's magic is wonderful, only someone who wants the stone, but has no intention of using it, can get it out of the Erised Mirror, which forced me to lure you here on purpose..."

Snape looked at Harry with a smug look, detailing his plan.

"Thankfully you are arrogant enough, otherwise I would have to work harder to obtain the Philosopher's Stone."

With that, he ignored Harry, who was lying on the floor staring at him, and turned his head in the direction of the Erised Mirror, which was on the other side of the room.

Snape walked slowly to the front of the Mirror Erised, and silently looked at himself in the mirror.

Harry, lying on the floor, could only see Snape's back and the mirror, which was blocked by it, but from the angle he could not see, Snape's face, looking into the mirror, showed a complex expression of melancholy, pain, tenderness, remorse, love and hatred.